[mythtv-users] Comcast bricked my HDHR above 33 - Los Gatos - 95032

[Jason]

On 4/21/2010 3:54 PM, Brad Fuller wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 15:26, Mark Knecht<markknecht at gmail.com>  wrote:
>    
>> Just reporting in.
>>
>> Looks like Comcast converted everything in Los Gatos (SF Bay Area)
>> above channel 33 last night to encrypted. So far as I can tell only my
>> low channels got recorded last night, everything above channel 33
>> didn't record. I've reset everything by hand today but none of it
>> works recording above 33. Myth Live TV only works up to channel 33.
>> Nothing else seems to play. Live TV says 96% signal strendth on
>> Channel 63 (Comedy Central here) and lists the program but nothing
>> starts playing. The channels af course work on the STB.
>>      
> I just checked and I can confirm that. I'm not in Los Gatos, but right
> on the line between LG and San Jose.
> I also get signal strength of 96% on channels like 36 (FX) but no lock.
>
> Are you sure that they are now encrypted and not a particular problem?
>
> That just sucks. Just when I got all my BE back up and running, they
> had to do this.
>
> (I'm glad I got Damages finale recorded!)
>
>    

I'm in San Mateo, and have seen the same thing.  They announced that 
they were going to encrypt on April 1, but the change didn't seem to hit 
until around the 5th or 6th.

I used to have my HDHR tuners as the preferred recorders, but since the 
change, I've switched to having my STB (via HDPVR) be the preferred 
recorder, with the HDHR tuners behind it.  Most everything records from 
the STB now, and conflicts get resolved to the HDHR tuners.  When there 
are conflicts, the programs that get recorded from HDHR are HD broadcast 
shows (channels 702 - 712), which aren't encrypted.

The change for recorder preferences was easy to make (about 2 min), and 
seems to have worked around the encryption.  I'm not happy about the 
encryption of channels, but given that I seem to have resolved the issue 
by making the STB the preferred recorder, I'm not going to lose much 
sleep over it.

I think it's a stretch to say that HDHRs have been bricked by this 
change.  I realize that there's not much in the way of content between 
channels 12 and 33, but the fact that the HD broadcast channels appear 
to be untouched, the HDHR is still useful (for me).  If you don't have 
another tuner, I can understand the effect this has, though.  HDHR+STB 
gets you everything in HD, too, if you want.

(I'm using firewire for channel changing of the STB, which has been 
working very well for some months now.)

Jason