Using A Dual Tuner Card With Scrambled Digital Cable

[skycyclepilot]

I have an HVR2250. My cable provider is switching all their customers to digital cable. They require a QAM tuner, and most channels are scrambled.

How am I going to continue using my dual channel tuner? Do I have to use their set top box? Won't I need two boxes? If so, I know I can use the IR blaster that came with my card, but how will I be able to change channels on one box, without affecting the other box.

This sucks...

[Graham]

The good news ..

You don't need to wory about the switch to digital ... the 2250 will receive digital cable according to this ...

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/d...r2250.html

The bad news ...

The forum is full of posts about cable companies encrypting channels when they switch to digital. What is your cable co doing about encrypting channels?

[skycyclepilot]

They are providing set top boxes...

[drbenjamin]

I have the same card and issue. One hurdle you will face is that while the 2250 is capable of tuning 2 analog inputs simultaneously, only one of those can be composite (there's a little add-on backplate in the box that has the jacks, it connects to the card). The other has to be S-video, and my STBs don't have S-video out. I had an old PVR-150 that I use for my second STB.
It was easy to set up the STBs on a shelf with a piece of cardboard between them, this prevents cross-talk of the blasters. Also I'll put in a plug for IR-server-suite, I could not get both of my MCE blasters (same one you probably have) working with HIP, but it was plug and play with IR-server-suite
Good luck!

[Graham]

They are providing set top boxes...

... that you can file in the attic if the channels that you need are not encrypted ... tho' unencrypted channels are on the endangered list.

I note that I am not answering your real question about one 2250 driving two set top boxes so I'll shut up and hope that you get an answer from someone who ain't several hundred miles and one ocean away from the problem.

[skycyclepilot]

Graham, almost all channels are encrypted here.

[luttrell1962]

I called them and asked if they had a pc board, I think they do but the person I was talking to just wanted to upgrade my service. I might send them a email, but probably won't work with gb-pvr.

Over only a few days they changed the QAM mapping, irritating.

It would be cool if someone came out with a usb device to send a remote signal to change the digital box channel. I wonder if someone has patented that.

[sub]

It would be cool if someone came out with a usb device to send a remote signal to change the digital box channel.

There is lots of these devices. The most common ones in use here are the USB-UIRT or the MCE IR receiver/blaster combo.

[philly_phenom]

Encryption & constantly changing channel mappings are why I ditched Comcast & ran up an antenna. That & they decided not to extend my promo period anymore... I'm 60 miles from Philly, so it was a big one, but the picture quality is vastly superior.

The few cable shows I liked (mostly on USA & SyFy), I just buy them from Amazon (love my Roku box) or rent them from Netflix & still come out ahead $ wise over the digital package, HD & two DVR's...

[bholio]

Comcast switched me over to digital over the last 2 months. They provided 3 free boxes. I subscribe to expanded basic cable and have found that everything is available over clearQAM. They are hard to find, still working that part out, but everything is there. As required by FCC, the networks are in HD and SD, the rest are all 480i or 480P.

Basically, the free boxes are super-cheap junk and don't seem to be capable of encryption. No display on the box, just coax out and a remote. Just smart enough to map everything to its proper channel and spit it out over ch 3. One of the 3 boxes is slightly better in that it has a display and composite out.

No complaints on how this went, I think the SD digital channels come in better than they did over analog. I only use one of comcast's boxes on our primary old TV. The other TV has QAM and needs no box. My 2 standalone QAM tuners for the projector also work fine.

If I had movie channels, I suspect my experience would be different, but I use Netflix for movies.

So, maybe see how the switch works before you cancel, it might work out fine.