Help Setting up NextPVR with XBMC and Comcast Cable Box

[johnsills1]

I'm still a complete newbie to PVR's so I apologize in advance. I have comcast cable and would like to incorporate NextPVR into XBMC and use XBMC's Live TV abilities to watch and record TV Show's. Is this possible, or am I out of my mind?

If it is possible, I do not know what hardware I need to get the signal from the Cable Top Box to my computer. I have an Acer Aspire Revo 3700 which I use as my XBMC device which is part of my network. I have a Synology DS410 NAS that I use as a server for all of my media to my 2 separate XBMC identical systems.

Thanks in advance for the help

[sub]

Yes, this is possible.

Picking the tuner for this type of setup might be a bit tricky. You'd typically use an analog tuner to record from a cable set top box. You've got a slow CPU, so you'd really need hardware MPEG2 encoding, but there isn't a lot of options in a small computer like this where you cant add a PCI or PCIe capture card.

Unfortunately most of the cheap USB tuner sticks are ATSC/QAM only, so cant record the analog video output of your set top box. Those that do have analog capabilities typically use software based encoding and require a much faster CPU.

For external USB options you're probably limited to either the Hauppauge HVR-1950 or maybe a Hauppauge HDPVR. Both of these do hardware encoding.

[johnsills1]

Will the HVR-1950 work with my Comcast Cable Box no problem? In addition, will XBMC utilize the HVR-1950 with the help of Next PVR?

If it does work, can you explain in detail how it all fits together and what I have to do to get it to work?

[johnsills1]

I've read up a bit on the Hauppage website and noticed them speaking of analog Cable TV Reception

"analog cable TV reception, you need an analog cable TV connection. If you have a digital cable set-top box or a satellite box, the WinTV-HVR-1950 can connect via either Composite or S-Video inputs. Channel changing will be done using the IR Blaster".

I have HD service from Comcast. I use, at the moment, an HD-DVR, but would like to get rid of that and use NextPVR

[sub]

It should work fine with the Comcast box. I don't have either an HVR-1950 or Comcast, so can't give you any iron clad guarantee.

XBMC will be able to use the HVR-1950 via NextPVR.

[johnsills1]

So I guess I just need to dive in and go get the HVR-1950 and get this crap working hahaha

[BrainStormer]

If you don't have a tuner yet, you may want to consider a cable card tuner. Like the SiliconDust Prime (3 tuners Ethernet connected) or the Hauppauge DCR-2650 (2 tuners USB connected)

Right now the Prime is almost half list price on amazon for ~$130

At this point on comcast only has copy-once set on premium channels like HBO/MAX/SHOW/Starz/Encore. All other channels are copy-Freely so NPVR can record them.
I don't have a monthly fee on my comcast cablecard , but that depends on what your comcast region you're in. Some people report $1.50/mo. so not to bad.

[sub]

Yep, depending on your cable network, the DCR-2650 or HDHR Prime is a good option.

It'll only be able to do "copy-freely" channels. On some cable systems that is virtually all channels (other than channels like HBO). Some other networks are more restrictive.

[johnsills1]

I am in Washington, DC, with Comcasts 2nd tier HD Channel Service.