[mythtv-users] Comcast CableCard Info

[Don Lewis]

On 20 Jul, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Don Lewis <dl-mythtv at catspoiler.org> wrote:
>> BTW, I'll be running three of the tuners in clear QAM mode to take
>> advantage of multirec.  I've found that on certain nights I record
>> enough network programming to keep my existing three clear QAM tuners
>> (one HDHR and one KWorld) busy.  Those will also get retired, which will
>> greatly simplify the RF cabling of my system.
> 
> That seems like a lot of money to spend just to simplify some RF cabling.
> 
> (Given the rat's nest of cables behind my MythTv, that would mean
> going from something like 327 cables to 324 cables, so my perspective
> might be a bit warped.)

My system is currently a cable nightmare.  It's currently spread between
the TV stand, a equipment rack, and the floor in between.  I've got two
cascaded 4-port amplified splitters to drive the TV, my current HDHR,
the KWorld card and a PVR-500 in the FE/BE system, and two of the little
Pace STBs, one of which is used for firewire recording and the other of
which feeds an HD-PVR.  There are also a ton of wall warts powering all
of this stuff including an ethernet switch.  I've been planning on
consolidating all of this in a single rack, but none of this stuff is
rack friendly.  I was seriously considering velcroing all of it to a
large piece of plywood and stashing it behind the rack ...

It wasn't an easy decision to go with the six tuner version of the
Prime, but the fact that it is rack-friendly and it eliminates three RF
connections, allowing me to retire one of the splitters, were what
caused me to go that way.  The only remaining non-rack friendly bits
will be the STB/HD-PVR combo, one splitter, and the ethernet switch,
which should fit comfortably one one rack shelf.

I'm very much looking forward to eliminating the direct RF connections
(and one firewire connection) to my FE/BE as this will make it somewhat
less of a pain to remove from it's shelf for maintenance.  That's the
reason that I haven't yet yanked out the the now mostly-useless analog
card.  I'll actually be removing three cards once I have it out.

Five less RF cables, one less splitter, two less wall warts, one less
firewire cable, one more ethernet cable.  Sounds like a winner :-)