recording Comcast digital channels with MythTV

Drew Van Zandt drew.vanzandt at gmail.com
Sun Nov 15 22:12:56 EST 2009


I believe the only digital solutions which currently support encrypted
channels are:
* Patch that does decryption of certain channels in violation of DMCA
* Set-top box from cable company with FireWire interface.  Some of these
allow passing decrypted output to Myth, but some channels forbid this (and
thus the hardware honors it.)

--DT Van Zandt (Hi Jim!)

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 9:59 PM, James R. Van Zandt <jrvz at comcast.net>wrote:

>
> For several years, I've been running MythTV with a Hauppauge PVR-500
> dual analog tuner.  However, Comcast has been moving channels from
> analog to digital, and they've just sent a letter announcing more will
> be moving next March.  So I'm in the market for a digital tuner.
>
> I ran across the Hauppauge HVR-2250 at New Egg:
>  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116037
>  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116036
>  http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html
>  http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HVR-2250
>
> Looks great: a dual tuner with only one cable input, handles analog or
> digital signals.  As it happens, it was also mentioned in today's
> Boston Globe (page G2).
>
> There's a Linux driver: http://www.kernellabs.com/blog/?page_id=17
>
> Unfortunately, it only handles digital so far.  So I guess I'd need
> to keep the PVR-500 after all, and another splitter.
>
> However, I think this will only handle the clear QAM signals.  How
> many channels does Comcast encrypt?
>
> For our regular TV (separate from the MythTV setup), we have a cable
> box (Motorola model DCT700/US) which I assume decrypts and converts
> from digital to analog.  To record encrypted channels, I guess I could
> connect my current analog tuner downstream of the cable box.
>
> But I think that would only give me one channel at a time, and
> necessitates double conversion (digital->analog->digital->analog).
>
> What's a better solution?  E.g. another kind of set-top box that just
> decrypts?  More than one channel?
>
> Are there DRM issues with the HVR-2250?
>
> Can anyone point to a technical description of the Comcast channel
> lineup (analog, digital, HD, clear QAM, encrypted, ...) for the Nashua
> area?
>
> For example: for each analog channel, does Comcast transmit a digital
> version too?
>
>         - Jim Van Zandt
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>
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