HD, Cablecards? looking to upgrade system

[jvcleave]

hello,

Long time user looking to upgrade. I've lurked periodically when I have gotten itches to upgrade but one of my tuners just went under so I may have a reason to bite the bullet. Is this config possible?

• HD
  
• Dual tuner system that uses a cablecard
  
• is able to post process to auto-skip commercials?
  

I have cable service through Cincinnati Bell. According to Bell's site they can provide me a Cablecard.

"We also offer CableCards to our customers to lease just like a set top box. If you have a CableCard enabled device (i.e. Series3 Tivo, Television, Computer), we can provision the card in the device for you to allow service."

Here is a list of the boxes they offer.

any help or pointers is much appreciated

[johnsonx42]

unfortunately cablecards are only fully usable with cablelabs certified software, and the list begins and ends with Windows Media Center (and will always begin and end there). The new HD Homerun Prime (http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/prime/) will allow third-party apps to view and record programs with the copy-freely bit set, but the consensus is that very few programs will actually have that bit set (http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ly-Content).

whurlston was talking about writing a bridge-tuner plugin that would basically have windows media center's recording engine do the recordings requested by NPVR, however I think playback would still be limited to Copy-Freely programs so it's kinda moot at this point

your best bet probably continues to be to exploit the analog hole - use the cable company stb and output component HD to a hauppauge HD-PVR. yes, then you have to deal with IR blasters, and get a second cable box and second HD-PVR if you want to be able to record 2 channels at once.

[jvcleave]

Thanks! very helpful. I think I may just replace the wintv-pvr-usb2 and see how the HD Homerun Prime plays out.

[roy]

I've asked Santa for the Ceton InfinitiTV4. It's $400 and I have been bad this year, so I don't think it will be under the tree. Are you saying this will not work with NPVR?

[sub]

Unfortunately no, it wont work with NPVR. MCE only.

[SickBoy]

So for us not in the know - is there a reason why you wouldn't want to seek for NPVR to become "cablelabs certified software"? (note: I have no idea what that means, but assume it involves approval process and expense of some sort)

[sub]

It'd mean implementing a robust DRM scheme, then going through the certification process, which is said to cost approximately half million dollars, then additional recertification costs with each release. ie, no chance.

[mvallevand]

This get discussed over and over in the SageTV forums, and the answer comes up on why should people who don't want DRM content have to pay for it and that would be the only way to distribute the cost.

My suggestion to NPVR users is to not buy these cards, MCE/7MC is actually not a big Microsoft success story and there is no reason to promote these. I bought a HD cable STB and a HDPVR for just over $400 with full access and I don't even have to pay an additional monthly costs, I already have another STB for non-NPVR use.

Martin

[SickBoy]

It'd mean implementing a robust DRM scheme, then going through the certification process, which is said to cost approximately half million dollars, then additional recertification costs with each release. ie, no chance.

I suspected something along that line. Definitely understand why going that direction would not interest you.

As an aside, I think the hammer is due to come down on the cable companies within the next two to three years. ISP's that don't block online content delivery services (e.g. Netflix) are going to have a massive uptick in business and cable TV is going to start getting cut. They're going to have to rethink this business model entirely and get to a happy place where people pay for the content they want, because it's cheap and easy enough to do so.

[pcostanza]

I have a Ceton and tested the original ATI OCUR external tuners for Microsoft. I love it but I must say, it's overkill. $400 is major dollars as you can almost build a system for that nowadays. Still, I'm glad I have it but I actually use NPVR as much or more than Media Center. We'll have to see how MC evolves in Windows 8 but there's lots who use it and even more who are trying to find ways to use a cablecard without Media Center.