Comcast Digital

[Ted the Penguin]

Called my favorite relative and they are going to find out what the brand and model is of the box.

I wonder though if I would be able to get enough signal out of the digital box for 2 pvr150's that I have.

Well now, that makes it more interesting, you are going to either have to get two boxes (which will make changing channels fun unless you can use serial :p) or you will have to split the cable before the box, and give one PVR150 the straight cable feed, and have it dedicated to analog, then have the other one be fed by the cable box (I forget which order you will want to set them up in so the analog tuner is checked first for recordings)

[stefan]

*or* you will want to split the signal from the wall outlet into three. One into the cable box, and two into each of the pvr-150's. Then you want the s-video (or composite, whichever is your case) from the digital box fed to one of the pvr-150's. This way you can record *either* two analog channels simultaneously, *or* one analog and one digital channel. This setup is only meaningful if you get som analog channels that you can't get in a digital version, if I can think straight. Hope I make sense...

Furthermore, in my opinion, it's only worth getting a digital STB if you can get digital channels that you don't get analog versions of. But maybe that's always the case?

[Smoker]

Well found out it most likely would be the Motorola DCT-700.

The draw for this would be 1. cheaper ($7.99 vs $50) 2. there are more channels in the digital lineup.

Downside of course is trying to figure out how to hook this mess up.

I'm reading your posts Ted and stefan and trying to understand.

[stefan]

You say you have more channels in the digital lineup. My question then would be: Do you have *all* analog channels in your digital lineup?

[Smoker]

DOH just dawned on me... I could gt the $7.99 digital promotion and simply put the digital box in the closet and continue with analog. Sure I wouldn't get the extra channels but i'd still get the savings of about $42/month.

[stefan]

What's that? "digital promotion"?

[stefan]

The real direction I am going is that I have the opportunity to get Comcast Digital for $7.95/month. Compared to the $50 or so I pay now for enhanced analog thats a nice savings.

Ah, I got it now. Just how much do you Americans spend on tv, really? Hope they don't cancel the analog service if you start subscribing to the digital service

[Smoker]

What's that? "digital promotion"?

oh thats the $7.99 digital service I was talking about.

[Smoker]

Ah, I got it now. Just how much do you Americans spend on tv, really?

Too much I'm sure lol

Hope they don't cancel the analog service if you start subscribing to the digital service

hmmmmm so that would ruin my plans then

[flyswatta]

Hey, I don't understand something. So I looked up the Motorola DCT-700. All it has for outputs are RF and composite. Aren't those the 2 lowest quality ways to get a signal from an STB to the TV. If this is a digital tuner, then you'd think they would have S-Video or Component.

Anyway, I to answer one of your questions, Smoker: I used to be on Comcast (before our area switched to Time/Warner). I had a 4 way splitter BEFORE I got the the cable box and ran one to the digital STB, and 3 to my PVR150's/MAUI.

This allowed me to have 3 capture cards able to tune the analog channels 4-100.

Additionally, I ran (in my case s-video, but you could do this with composite) out of my STB and into one of the PVR150's. I set up a separate capture source, TV Listings, ir blaster, etc - this will allow you to record all of the output from your STB and change channels.

You have have to be careful not to schedule recordings via RF and Composite on the same card at the same time. It might require you to "split" your listings by card. (Not that difficult to do, but a PITA to setup)