[mythtv-users] Comcast Digital transition Denver

[Matt W]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 6:07 PM, Joel Donahue <joel.donahueis at gmail.com> wrote:
> FYI, I just got a letter today from Comcast. Analog TV service is ending
> 3/22/2010 in my area (Denver, CO). They are giving two free converter boxes
> to each user. I guess it's time to upgrade my PVR-150's or sharpen up my
> lirc skills.


I too am a survivor of Comcast Digilog service (SF Bay Area) and I've
been very impressed with the HD-5500 card.  I was rocking the PVR-350
in the days of analog and that card did well.  If you do consider a
new card, you might also need to consider a new motherboard, cpu, etc,
since you'll have to play back via your cpu and/or new video card (or
embedded video).  I bit the bullet and did the big upgrade of the
whole system.  I guess you could still use the X11 framebuffer and
play from the PVR, but you'd need to transcode it first, wouldn't you?
 I gave up chasing that idea and have forgotten the particulars.

In the end it was worth it for me, the new system is much more
powerful and yet more energy efficient.  You'd have to start thinking
about LIRC and how you want to do your IR remote control, etc,
assuming you remove the Hauppauge cards.  I spent some $$ and got the
integrated IR in the form of an OrigenAE case.

I'm not sure what Comcast is throwing around in Denver, but the free
STB I got from Comcast had three outputs:  composite video, left and
right audio.  The ol' yelow/white/red cable :-)  ...just awful.

If Comcast goes ahead with their love letter from the FCC (encryption
of QAM) then I plan to ditch it and go OTA and Internet-source.  All
legal, of course.