[mythtv-users] [Slightly OT] comcast moving to settop on Bay Area - goodbye analog

Josh Mastronarde jmastron at gmail.com
Mon Mar 9 22:09:33 UTC 2009


On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:53 PM, Robert Kulagowski <rkulagow at gmail.com> wrote:
> <SNIP>
>>> * In the Portland area, these replacement digital channels are already
>>> active! I am able to tune into them with my HDTV. My MythBox's digital tuner
>>> can also see them, but I had to use a technique in the Wiki to get the
>>> correct channel numbers. The mythtvsetup scanner wasn't up to the task.
>>>
>>>  * Myth doesn't like it when your have a digital and an analog channel with
>>> the same name and/or XMLid. While I added all of the new digital channels I
>>> was interested in, the analog versions overshadow them on the program grid
>>> (and in the channel editor!).
>>>
>>> * It is possible that the channel mappings may change in the future. I'm
>>> expecting to have to rescan after the 4/15 transition.
>>
>> <SchedulesDirect Hat>
>>
>> I received a number of tickets on this issue and sent them to Tribune.
>>  Here's the response:
>>
>> "We spoke to Lisa at Comcast and reconfirmed that these channels are
>> available to customers with digital boxes only.  If customers are seeing
>> these channels with out a box,  they will not be by the end of the
>> week."
>>
>> </SchedulesDirect Hat>

What's not clear is whether the Comcast rep truly meant "digital box"
as in "STB that can get encrypted QAM", or just that the analog feed
would go away soon, leaving unencrypted QAM.  As I understood it, some
of those cheap "digital box" units Comcast is deploying can't decrypt,
so the standard channels (locals + what we usually call "extended
basic", ESPN/SciFi/TLC/History/etc) would have to remain unencrypted
for the foreseeable future.  Am I wrong about that?

Robert, any way to confirm this?  Sacramento Comcast hasn't yet
announced an analog shutoff, but I'm starting to prepare.  If they're
going to encrypt everything anyway, I'll just go OTA for HD locals and
get Satellite->analog PVR150 for the other channels.

Josh


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list