Question about a cable card

[RTKAT]

Another thread about using a cable card brought up a question or two.
Lets say you purchase a bunch of channels from Charter. Using a random number here, lets say you get 150 channels. Of these, if you are lucky you may find 10-15 that you would watch. The rest are junk.
The bold statement below is where the question comes from. How can you tell of the 10 or 15 channels you may look at, which ones may be copy protected and you can not see them or record them??? Going in this direction would not be very good idea if you could not watch the channels.
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"Pros:
- You'll get 3 tuners (i.e. record/watch 3 shows concurrently)
- Additional options to watch live TV on a number of devices
- Cheaper to rent than a cable box ($2/mo)
Cons:
- Any copy protected channels won't be recordable/viewable, you'll still need a cable box and tuner card for those... This is probably the biggest con."

[pcostanza]

Silicon makes it easier than Ceton (IMO) to see what channels are DRM. But, using my provider, for example, what's not protected now, will likely be so in the future. Cox is about to make all channels copy protected. There's some argument on whether they can legally protect local stations but that's easy to get around.

[sub]

Your best bet is to google "charter copy-freely channels" for an idea of what you're likely to get.

From what I've read, Charter sound like thy're quite good, and only use copy-once/copy-never on premium channels, and a handful of other channels. They majority are copy-freely.

[RTKAT]

With my luck that is what Charter would do soon after I got the tuner, card, and service from them. Sounds like too much of a risk for me.
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UPDATE:
Looks like we were typing at the same time there Sub. I may look more into it.
Thanks.

[BrettB]

How can you tell of the 10 or 15 channels you may look at, which ones may be copy protected and you can not see them or record them???

Do you already have Charter service with a set top box or DVR? If so, most of them have a way to view the copy protection setting on a channel. It typically involves displaying some sort of a diagnostic screen/overlay or something similar. You would need to Google (or whatever your favorite search engine is) the specific model of cable box you have and "Display CCI Flag" or something similar to find the specific steps for your box. Only a value of 0x00 for the CCI flag will allow the HDHR to send useful data to NextPVR.

[RTKAT]

No, I do not have charter TV, just internet. I recently disconnected from Dish and several of my favorite channels were there and I was looking into what may cost less to get those channels back. Charter also has them and the cable card option. Going with a card and not their "box" should cost a little less. But not much good if the channels can not be received.

[RTKAT]

Well, I dropped by the Charter office to discuss a cable card from them. The counter person stated they have them and they only cost about $2.00 per month. The problem that came up was when she stated it needed and included an adapter to make it work. She could not show me one because they have to order one. Almost no one uses a cable card so they do not keep them in stock. She knew nothing about copy protection and what you could record or not record. All techs were on the road "fixing" things. So no help there.
My question for anyone that has a card and Charter service: What is the "adapter?" If you have to have the card in an adapter, how can you use it in a SiliconDust HDHomeRun unit that takes a card???

[sub]

A tuning adapter is a small box, which connects via USB to either your CableCard device or PC. I think only some cable networks need them, and they're usually used for talking back to the cable company to ask for Switced Digital Video. ie channels that aren't always transmitting. ie, tuning adapter will tell cable company that user wants to watch channel X, cable company will check and either say "channel X is already on frequency F", or will start the channel and return ""channel X has just started on on frequency F".

I'd suggest googling "sdv tuning adapter charter"

[RTKAT]

Thanks Sub. Much info about them out there. Interesting reading.

[mvallevand]

My cable co gives away a free DTA that provides a remote and box that provides the basic cable channel package with SD analog out. There is no EPG or advanced option that you get with a rental/purchase STB

Martin