[mythtv-users] Comcast follies

Justin Johnson justin.johnson3 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 9 13:34:48 UTC 2010


On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 7:27 AM, David Williams <mythtv_david at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Comcast cheated on me one last time and I think it might be time for a
> divorce. I haven't seen a report of anything like my recent experience so I
> thought I'd pass along what happened. I've used MythTv for several years and
> while I've lurked for quite a while this is my first post and in the spirit
> of full disclosure I'm a little older, I don't have a technical background,
> and I'm nowhere near as technologically sophisticated as most who traffic
> this forum. I have a home-built linux box using Ubuntu 10.04 and HdHomerun
> and Hauppauge 500 tuners.
>
> In an effort to discover my VCT_ID I finally picked up the boxes. Using the
> wiki methodology (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Scte65scan) neither the DTA nor
> the RNG110 I was issued yielded anything that remotely resembled either the
> numeric or hexdecimal codes that showed up when I ran tables.txt which makes
> me wonder if Comcast intentionally defeated this resource.
>
> I only pay for the basic, analogue service. I took a couple of weeks to get
> around to installing the boxes but when I did I discovered the RNG110
> brought in many of the HD- as well as the analogue channels. What a bonus, I
> thought. It interfaced straightaway with firewire once I changed a setting
> from generic to DCH-3200 and the performance was remarkable. After about a
> week I stopped receiving HD video signal (audio was OK) although the
> analogue channels came in and continued to interface with firewire. I should
> have quit while I was ahead but thinking Comcast is required by law to
> provide HD for the network stations (or so I've read on some posts) I
> contacted the help desk and after unsuccessfully attempting to remedy the
> situation from her end the rep dispatched a technician to my home. He
> diagnosed a weakened signal for which he replaced the line coming into my
> home because of damage from “squirrels” and he removed the line amplifier I
> had installed. He also told me he had to go up the pole and change a setting
> to enable “two-way” communication.
>
> Once he finished I discovered the RNG110 firewire access is defunct. It, the
> RNG110, continues to show up on the back end but no signal comes through via
> firewire.
>
> Although I've lurked for a long time this is my first post and I a couple
> questions. Are there some setting changes I can make to resurrect firewire
> access and, if not, is there a feasible alternative (Dish???)
>
> Thanks, David
>
>

Well, David let me share my experience with the Comcast RNG110. I too
set it up using firewire and was amazed at how easy it was. Then I
started noticing stability problems with the firewire connection, but
only when watching LiveTV. Sometimes I'd be able to tune fine and jump
around channels but other times it just wouldn't work. In order to fix
it I would need to run many copies of the firewire_primer.sh script
(http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/One_Tuner_Firewire_Priming_Script). After
a few weeks of frustration, with perfect scheduled recordings but less
than stellar results in mythtv I decided to take the plunge with the
HD-PVR. I've only been using for a day but so far it seems to work
much better. So I would recommend the HD-PVR, while continuing to use
firewire to control the STB.
--Justin Johnson


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