Is February 2009 the end of GBPVR for me?

[Pilot]

It's a pain that your analog cable is going away, even though it has nothing to do with the Feb 2009 date). Comcast can fit 6 digital channels in place of 1 analog, so it make sense for them. So sooner or later you'll need STBs.

I do understand that it's better for them, but I've always despised cable companies who require STBs for their basic cable. There's absolutely no reason why they can't just QAM it instead. I did get one of their HD STBs for my main TV -- just can't stand watching a football game that's not in HD anymore (got spoiled!), but I really didn't want to have to get a STB for my 17-year-old's TV in their bedroom or for my master bedroom TV which I only seldom watch.

That said, I would go ahead and get the Comcast STBs, connect them to your PVR cards using S-video and RCA audio, and use IR blasters. I've recently made the same change. My recording quality has improved because the digital channel output via s-video was better than the slightly static-ey analog feed. Yes, channel change is slower, but only 1-2 seconds more.

The IR blaster situation may be complicated with 3 STBs. Do you have the Hauppauge remote/blasters or the MCE remote/blasters?

I have no blasters of any kind because I really never wanted to go this route and until I recently moved (for the last time!) I didn't have to. At my new house, Comcast is the only cable offering (at the moment), and they've told me that they will be going almost entirely STB for the majority of "basic" cable channels very soon (probably before 2/09). I'm currently using a wireless radio HTPC keyboard for my HTPC and controlling GBPVR.

Still, I don't know how well having three STBs on the shelf is going to go over with the wife, not to mention that it will be at least $5 per month per box, when I can just get a two-tuner HD DVR from Comcast for $13 per month. I'm seeing my justification for GBPVR dwindling....rapidly....sigh....

[capone]

Still, I don't know how well having three STBs on the shelf is going to go over with the wife, not to mention that it will be at least $5 per month per box, when I can just get a two-tuner HD DVR from Comcast for $13 per month. I'm seeing my justification for GBPVR dwindling....rapidly....sigh....

I have to admit, I consider going that route for TV, too, when I finally decide to make the HD leap. The only difference would be considering an HD Tivo instead, only so I can still rip & encode stuff for the kids to save. I read all the QAM tuning stuff, and I stress w/o having had to do anything yet.

I would be keeping my basic GB rig, only for all the local media I have stored.

[Pilot]

Yeah, that's killing me, too. I have two MediaMVPs and a three-tuner GBPVR system. I've really gotten used to GBPVR, and it's performed wonderfully for me. The MVPs are nice for allowing me to watch recordings in the bedroom or allowing the kids to watch recordings on the family room TV.

I don't know what to do. I'll just hold on to GBPVR as long as I feasibly can. Hopefully, Comcast won't convert the channels to digital as fast as they're claiming. Just FYI, the reason they're saying they can do it so soon is that I'm supposedly a rarity in that I'm not using a STB (well, only one), whereas they claim that almost 99% of their customers use a STB. This is likely because their customers don't realize that you don't need one -- I know all of my neighbors were surprised to find out that most of my TVs are on STBs. They had no idea that you could just plug your TV directly into the cable jack on the wall! So far, the only "problem channel" is Cartoon Network (Total Drama Island and Star Wars Clone Wars series), and again that's both for the kids. Since I have a HD STB in the same cabinet as my HTPC, I might dedicate my PVR150 to the occasional Cartoon Network recording.

Can anyone tell me if I can configure to the PVR150 to go to the STB (by way of SVideo) for just that one recording, but otherwise be available in the tuner rotation for recording over the analog connection? I know I'm probably asking a lot of a cheap, basic card, but GBPVR has surprised me with its capabilities before, so I figure it couldn't hurt to ask.

[zehd]

Yeah, that's killing me, too. I have two MediaMVPs and a three-tuner GBPVR system. I've really gotten used to GBPVR, and it's performed wonderfully for me. The MVPs are nice for allowing me to watch recordings in the bedroom or allowing the kids to watch recordings on the family room TV.

I don't know what to do. I'll just hold on to GBPVR as long as I feasibly can. Hopefully, Comcast won't convert the channels to digital as fast as they're claiming. Just FYI, the reason they're saying they can do it so soon is that I'm supposedly a rarity in that I'm not using a STB (well, only one), whereas they claim that almost 99% of their customers use a STB. This is likely because their customers don't realize that you don't need one -- I know all of my neighbors were surprised to find out that most of my TVs are on STBs. They had no idea that you could just plug your TV directly into the cable jack on the wall! So far, the only "problem channel" is Cartoon Network (Total Drama Island and Star Wars Clone Wars series), and again that's both for the kids. Since I have a HD STB in the same cabinet as my HTPC, I might dedicate my PVR150 to the occasional Cartoon Network recording.

Can anyone tell me if I can configure to the PVR150 to go to the STB (by way of SVideo) for just that one recording, but otherwise be available in the tuner rotation for recording over the analog connection? I know I'm probably asking a lot of a cheap, basic card, but GBPVR has surprised me with its capabilities before, so I figure it couldn't hurt to ask.

You add another capture source for one of your PVR150, but use S-Viideo for connection. You will probably still have to configure a blaster if you want to haVE gb-pvr change the channel for you.

Only select the Cartoon Network in the channel list, and you will only see it in the Listings...

[Anthony]

Chris,

I have two HVR-1600 tuners and Comcast cable (in Washington State).

Despite months of tweaking, experimenting with cables and amps, and calling out Comcast techs to check signals, I never could get QAM to work properly with the HVR-1600 tuners. For that matter, I tried the HDHomeRun and OnAirGT tuners also, and they couldn't lock on to the QAM signals reliably either. Ironically, my plasma TV has no problem at all.

In any case, the only "free" stations I can currently get with Comcast (analog or QAM digital) are the local broadcast stations, Discovery, WGN, KCTS, and a bunch of community, spanish, and religeous channels I have no interest in anyway.

So, I installed an outdoor antenna to get all the major networks in digital HD using the digital tuners of the HVR-1600. Then I use the analog tuners to pick up the few remaining channels on cable (Discovery, WGN, and KCTS). While I wish I could go all digital, my current setup works rather well.

The only reason I even subscribe to Comcast is for the broadband internet connection (DSL, Satellite, and Wireless are not available here). They charged a $10 fee to go internet only, or I could get the most basic TV feed for $12. So, it made more sense to get something for $12 than to get nothing for $10.

Comcast has already moved channels like Hallmark to a different tier, and I suspect they'll be eliminating more from the basic service in the future. Discovery is the only station I'll really miss if they move it from the basic feed. The vast majority of shows we record are on the over-the-air stations anyway, with much better quality and fewer problems than dealing with the QAM cable stuff.

As for the Tivo or Comcast DVR option, I prefer my PC because I can strip commercials before viewing, make backups when needed, burn a show to a DVD if I wish, etc.

Before I would invest $15 a month on set top boxes (which I don't believe offer digital outputs do they?), I would consider whether it would be cheaper to just rent shows on DVD, watch them online, etc. I may also look at other options like satellite.

Anthony

[Pilot]

You add another capture source for one of your PVR150, but use S-Viideo for connection. You will probably still have to configure a blaster if you want to haVE gb-pvr change the channel for you.

Only select the Cartoon Network in the channel list, and you will only see it in the Listings...

Thanks, Frank! GBPVR is pretty darn amazing that can keep up with all that stuff in the tuner priority/conflict thing.

Question: I have a total of three tuners in my system, so would I want to only select Cartoon Network in the channel list? Wouldn't that make it so my EPG only showed Cartoon Network for the other three tuners? Or when I download the EPG for the Svideo capture source, should I then remove all other channels other than Cartoon Network, which would leave the EPGs for the other capture sources intact?

Now I have to go out to SchedulesDirect and find out if they actually have a digital EPG listing for my area. It was difficult enough to get the analog one....

Thanks again. This might just be possible to keep GBPVR "limping" along for a while longer for me.

[Pilot]

As for the Tivo or Comcast DVR option, I prefer my PC because I can strip commercials before viewing, make backups when needed, burn a show to a DVD if I wish, etc.

Before I would invest $15 a month on set top boxes (which I don't believe offer digital outputs do they?), I would consider whether it would be cheaper to just rent shows on DVD, watch them online, etc. I may also look at other options like satellite.

Anthony

I encountered the same problems with QAM with my HD TV's. I moved from a neighborhood that offered a ton of QAM programming, including HBO and Cinemax. This neighborhood only has Comcast (for everything -- phone, internet, and TV with no other alternative allowed), and the lack of QAM was a big disappointment for me. Comcasts sends absolutely no QAM here. Four out of my five TVs have multiple tuners in them that picked up everything in my last neighborhood. Here, I get nothing. This is why I'm VERY hesitant to invest in a digital tuner card, because I don't think it would get me anything, especially since the STB's from Comcast don't offer digital connections (other than HDMI, which I don't think any of the reasonably priced tuner cards offer, correct?). I would just be right back to an analog connection with at least one STB, and I don't need a digital tuner for that.

I warned my wife (who is rapidly warming up to the idea of a HD DVR from Comcast) that we'd be back to fast-forwarding through commercials instead of the slick, automatic method via ComSkip. I also warned her about the problems we'll have on some nights where we're using all three tuners. I'm not giving up any of my shows, so whenever she's ready to sacrifice hers, we'll get the DVR (haha). It would be far easier to record HD shows, but so far the regular resolution shows (frequently broadcast in widescreen mode) are acceptable to us.

Some of the shows we regularly watch can easily be found in HD quality in fast torrent downloads. For example, with the kids' addiction to the Star Wars Clone Wars series, within 3 hours of it first airing, a HD version is always available in AVI on torrents, and plays nicely on the HTPC or even over the MVPs. Some of them also are available from the network websites, which is a possibility since my HTPC is hooked up to my living room plasma, but that doesn't allow us to watch it in the bedroom (like we can with the MediaMVP), or allow the kids to watch it in the family room. I really don't want to get into attempting to capture streaming video, which all the networks are working diligently on preventing (so my methods would be always changing).

I'll just get the one STB I currently have going on the PVR150 in the HTPC. This should allow me to record the couple of shows I'm currently missing, and may allow me to continue with GBPVR quite a bit longer even as they continue to move basic cable channels up to the next digital tier.

[Pilot]

The only difference would be considering an HD Tivo instead, only so I can still rip & encode stuff for the kids to save.

Comcast is using the Motorola DVR in my area, and it has multiple firewire and USB connections to it. Of course, the documentation doesn't mention these, but it does make me wonder what I could find out about transferring video from the DVR.

[zehd]

Comcast is using the Motorola DVR in my area, and it has multiple firewire and USB connections to it. Of course, the documentation doesn't mention these, but it does make me wonder what I could find out about transferring video from the DVR.

Or connecting to the Firewire and recording directly into GB-PVR...

[Pilot]

Or connecting to the Firewire and recording directly into GB-PVR...

hmmmmm..... Do you think Comcast Customer Support would help me with that? Haha.