[mythtv-users] HDHR suddenly not recording

[Greg Woods]

On Fri, 2010-04-23 at 10:46 -0400, Harry Devine wrote:
> the analog portion of that 
> card, where I get channels 2-99 from Comcast, is still OK so far (as I 
> knock on wood here! ).

I hate to purvey gloom and doom, but I predict you will eventually get
screwed here too.

In my area (80027) Comcast first moved all the digital channels around,
then they eliminated analog, then they encrypted all the digital
channels except OTA and community channels (government access, public
access, etc. are still in the clear). Looks like they have only done the
first step in your area, but the rest is almost certainly coming. 

After phase one, I was able to rescan channels on my HDHR and get back
to where I was, and my PVR-500 analog card still worked as well. After
phase 2, the PVR-500 was pretty much bricked (only OTA and community
were left), and I had to rescan the HDHR channels again, and found that
most of the former-analog channels were now available to the HDHR
instead. But it was only a few days after that when phase 3 came along
and bricked my HDHR as well (except for OTA and community). 

As for competition: there isn't any. The government has created a
mandated cable monopoly, then failed in its obligation to protect the
consumers from the monopoly power. Obviously Comcast has the FCC and
Congress in its pocket, so it is unlikely we will get any regulatory
relief any time soon. Since the MPAA guys have Comcast in their pockets
as well, the complaining or even termination of service of a few hundred
MythTV users isn't going to do squat, so I don't expect things to
improve. The content providers largely see us as nothing more than
pirates (even though the vast majority of us are not), and they've
apparently got the government convinced as well.

Satellite is an option but my understanding with that is that you still
have to use an STB, so HD-PVR is still the only option to get HD into
Myth, and I have no reason to believe that the satellite DVR's are any
better than the crappy Comcast one. Satellite might be cheaper though,
so it may be worth considering for that reason.

Unfortunately for me, my wife likes several of the community channels
and I would lose those if I switch to satellite. Equally bad, most of
the programming we watch is not on OTA channels, so dropping TV service
altogether isn't a good option. Using a service like Hulu might provide
most of the content we'd lose, but switching to that would turn my
MythTV box that I have worked so hard on for so many years into a brick
as well.

All of this totally sucks, and we have the MPAA and the US Government to
thank for it.

--Greg