Here comes Digital Cable ... what to do

[divinehammer]

I have been using GBPVR for many years now with a Hauppauge PVR150 Card. My cable company is starting to switch their channels over to all digital and so now for my older tvs I have to get digital tuner boxes. I also want to keep using my GBPVR box, how can I go about doing that?

I think that I know I will have to get a new tuner card to pick up the digital channels but I am not for sure. Honestly I havent followed much in this tech space because everything just works... until now.
I am using GBPVR1.2.13 currently I think that I am looking to get a new hauppuage card like the 1600 but I am open to suggestions it has to be a PCI card though I dont think the old mobo I am using has pci express.

If all I need is a card change I would assume that I could just pop in the new card transfer over some settings in the GBPVR config and possibly remap the channels to new digital spots. This should allow me to keep all of my recordings that are currently on the box.
Anyways looking for a bit of guidance here from the community hope you can help. Thanks.

[pcostanza]

I'm worried what the cable companies in the US are trying to do to digital channels. They've been asking for permission to scramble even the local HD channels and from what I've seen, they might get what they want. They make a good argument but I've already written my representatives about it and was told they are fighting it.
If the cable companies get their way, only a cable card tuner will get any channels (besides OTA of course).

[divinehammer]

Does anyone have any infor on what possible directions I could take? Thanks.

[carpeVideo]

colossus or hd-pvr with firewire to control channel changing is about the only way to go as long as the analog hole remains

[mikeh49]

If you plan to stay on cable, you will probably be able to receive your local channels (and their sub-channels) with a digital tuner card (clear QAM). Most/all cable channels will be encrypted and you will need a STB to decode them. You could record from the analog out (S-video) using your PVR150. You would need to set up the PVR150 blaster to change channels on the STB. You can share the STB with a TV, depending on connections, but you won't be able to watch one channel while recording another. I get the 4 network channels, PBS, Weather Channel, ION and a couple of Spanish channels in clear QAM. Each of these has sub-channels, e.g., PBS has a Spanish sub-channel and Create.

The local channels you could tune with a digital tuner card would be HD or SD, depending on the channel. The analog out of the STB would be only SD.

I don't know if Hauppauge has a PCI digital tuner card other than the 1600. From what I understand, there are better cards now than the 1600. If you wanted to go cheap for a test, you could get a ATI 650 from e-bay for about $30, I have two and they are fine. They have both analog and digital tuners, but I don't think both can be used at the same time. Or, you could look at the Hauppauge USB tuners. If you go to HD, you might need more CPU and especially video card power. If you post your specs, we can advise. Also, I'd recommend Windows 7 as it is just better for video, again especially HD. Others will disagree, but that's my experience.

The 650 would work on GBPVR, though you may need the last version, 1.4.7.

The world of GBPVR has pretty much moved on to the new version, NPVR. You can import your recordings from GBPVR, so that's not a problem. Setting up analog is a little more involved with NPVR. An advantage of NPVR is that it natively can record all programs on a frequency. In my case, PBS and NBC are on the same physical channel, as are ABC and CBS. With two tuners, I can simultaneously record all four programs.

Hope this helps. If not, ask again.

[fering]

I just went through the same thing at the end of 2011. All my "upper" tier cable channels were switched to digital only. I survived a while on a HVR1600 and QAM but then my cable company scrambled all their QAM equivalents.

So I purchased a STB specifically for my NPVR setup and feed it in through S-video to my PVR-150 and use a blaster to change the channels on the STB. Really the only configuration difference in NPVR is setting up the blaster everything else works like it did before my cable company went crazy.

If you do want to go QAM I would stay away from an HVR-1600, mine gave me nothing but trouble. I eventually switched to some Hauppauge USB tuners I got cheap as part of a TiVo package. I think they are HVR-950Qs. Right now I use them to record OTA and they work well with the latest version of NPVR.

[pcostanza]

So far, in the US, cable companies are not allowed to scramble local QAM. This is what I think will be changing soon.

[roy]

Same thing happened to me recently with Comcast. All of my old analog tuners are now useless. I had an HVR 2250 which is still good with two digital tuners for clear QAM. I got the Hauppauge DCR2650 when it first came out, and a cablecard ($8/month) which provides two tuners for all channels you subscribe to. After some initial growing pains, it works very well now. I'm lucky that Comcast provides their channels without copy protection, and they are fairly good at responding when there is an issue with that, which happens occasionally as they mess with the channel line ups. I think other cable companies copy protect many channels, which is a problem for the 2650. You should look into that before buying one.

[pcostanza]

I can't believe just how much some companies are charging for cablecards. It seems Comcast is the most. I pay (and have been since 2006) only $1.98 a month. I keep waiting for that to increase along with everything else

You can read about the cable companies asking for permission to scramble local channels..
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/v...7021738292.

[divinehammer]

Thanks all,
I do have a STB that the cable company hands out. Sounds like I heard that I can use the IRblaster and and run a coax cable from the STB to my PVR 150 and keep recording. Let me know if I mis read that. Other than that I have no problems installing NPVR if that will make life easier I just havent needed to because everything just works.