Charter Cable going Digital... Do I need to change my PC setup

radeon962

[H]ard|Gawd
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I was informed that Charter will be going all digital in our area.

My TV's are fine as we already have a Charter DVR on one and a set top box on the other but my computer that is used to record TV is connected directly from the wall to a HD Homerun and a HVR-2250. The HD Homerun records Clear QAM and the HVR-2250 splits duty between Clear QAM and Analog.

I guess I'm not sure what change(s) if any I need to make. Do I need to replace the HVR-2250 with a cable card setup (Ceton, HD Homerun Prime, ???) or can I just get a box to place between the wall and splitter to the HVR and HDHR?

I'm assuming the ATSC portion of the HVR-2250 will be obsolete once the switch to digital occurs while the Clear QAM on the HVR and HDHR will still be fine but really the Clear QAM channels here are only NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX. Other channels like TNT, MTV, etc. are currently analog but are going digital.

I plan on calling Charter tomorrow to see what my options are but wondered if anyone has some advice they can send my way.

Thanks, Bill
 
You will need a cable company supplied box or cable card for each TV/Tuner in the home. Not only will this be an all "digital" upgrade, it will also mean all channels are encrypted and require the additional hardware to function.
 
You should be fine for your locals if they're in ClearQAM. For anything else like MTV or CNN you'll need a cable card tuner.
 
Easier than I thought. Picked up the Prime, stopped by Charter (must have been 25 people in front of me, but it went pretty quickly).

Came home uninstalled my HDHR Dual and HVR-2250. Hooked up the HDHR Prime and Tuning Adapter walked through the SiliconDust setup and then WMC setup got to the point where I needed to call Charter, got right through CSR sent a signal or something and I completed running setup.

Edited channels, etc. in WMC and everything's working as planned.

Tomorrow they redo the channel lineup so I was just getting it set up and will rescan channels tomorrow and then I should be done.

Thanks, Bill
 
TWC is doing that here. Just another reason to IMO to charge you ridiculous rental fees for required equipment.

I was paying $60 a month for two DVRs and a cable modem in rental fees. $181 per month total. I told em to shove their equipment where the sun doesn't shine. They countered with "well you'll need these new digital tuners for every TV in the house - oh and here's rental fees for those"

I countered with shove it all then, $34.95 per month for el cheapo internet and I'll netflix/amazon prime it up. $150 bucks per month can buy a lot of season passes...

I don't understand how they think people will continue to pay so much for TV going forward. I don't even need a good internet pipe to get value from netflix. I can just rent the DVDs and watch shows a little behind everyone else - no big deal.
 
All digital isn;t about charging more rental fees. It's about freeing up analog channels to fit more digital tv channels and additional DOCSIS channels for more Cable modem bandwidth.

But yeah, all digital means no clear QAM, so your analog tuner with be no good without a settop or a DTA to decrypt the channels.
 
Ehh, ya I know. I'm just being butthurt. Are those converted analog channels going to significantly affect their ability to deliver more stuff? Specifically, faster internet speeds? (legitimate question - I don't know)

And let's say the answer to that is "you're a dope - it'll triple their ability noob" Think we, as paying customers, will see any of that? I highly doubt all of a sudden we're going to get any noticeable boost in speeds, or more quality programming.
 
Each analog channel takes up 6MHz of bandwidth and can deliver exactly one standard def TV channel at a time.

Digital also uses a 6MHz channel but that "channel" can actually encode multiple streams. 2-3 HD streams or 10 or more SD streams.

Data also uses the same 6MHz channels, and each 6MHz channel adds ~43Mbps downstream bandwidth per channel.

So you and that granny down the street, being the only two people still using the analog signals, can have your 10 analog channels taking up 60MHz or realize it's 2014, throw those 10 analog channels on one SD digital stream, and make room for 8-12 more HD channels and another 200Mbos internet bandwidth for your area.
 
Hey now! Me and granny are tight yo. We play bingo over that AOL. ;)

Thanks for the knowledge. I'll become impressed with any of the cable companies when one of them can deliver more than 10 down / 1 up and 200 channels of pure crap programming for $181 per month. :)

Maybe they'll use that 60MHz for our benefit and I'll eat crow :)
 
TWC is doing that here. Just another reason to IMO to charge you ridiculous rental fees for required equipment.

I was paying $60 a month for two DVRs and a cable modem in rental fees. $181 per month total. I told em to shove their equipment where the sun doesn't shine. They countered with "well you'll need these new digital tuners for every TV in the house - oh and here's rental fees for those"

Err... rental fees? About the only thing you're required to rent from a cable company is the CableCARD. Modems can be purchased outright, same with DVRs (though you're better off going Media Center and a CableCARD tuner)

aka: you could have just as easily gotten one of the 6 tuner cards and set up one central "cable" box and set up extenders everywhere there's a TV.
 
You should be fine for your locals if they're in ClearQAM. For anything else like MTV or CNN you'll need a cable card tuner.
Comcast never followed this and later this requirement from the FCC was waved, officially. It all went encrypted, even local.
 
Err... rental fees? About the only thing you're required to rent from a cable company is the CableCARD. Modems can be purchased outright, same with DVRs (though you're better off going Media Center and a CableCARD tuner)

aka: you could have just as easily gotten one of the 6 tuner cards and set up one central "cable" box and set up extenders everywhere there's a TV.

Absolutely! This I get - but grandma doesn't know this. And for those of us technically inclined - well, it sneaks up on you (those dirty bastages)

When I originally signed up for my package, it was relatively cheap, and I thought there was plenty of value for the price. It was just over $100 per month, and I got 10/1 internet, ~200 digital cable channels, and the HD package with about 45 channels. They gave me a cable modem for free, and they gave me two DVRs for free. Then little by little, the price goes up - you never even notice it because we all have lives that keep us busy. That old cheap ass cable modem you've had for years? Ya, now we're going to start charging you $5.99 a month for it for no reason. Oh, those DVRs, well now there's a "DVR fee" that goes up $1 every month. Oh and don't forget there's a rental fee for those now too - $10 per. Before you know it - your cable bill doubled, and you didn't get anything. Then you wake up and realize they've slowly snuck in $60 worth of BS fees - and they wonder why cable subscriptions are going down.

Now if we could just get some real competition on the ISP front we'd be doing great (eyes the internet bill which is assuredly going to go up $5 per year forever)
 
Comcast never followed this and later this requirement from the FCC was waved, officially. It all went encrypted, even local.

Theres also a clause that they have to provide an unencrypted method as well albeit a third party device or internet. But with the FCC being run by a cable lobbyist they'll just ignore that part.
 
Theres also a clause that they have to provide an unencrypted method as well albeit a third party device or internet. But with the FCC being run by a cable lobbyist they'll just ignore that part.
You mean with the government handing out sector feifdoms to their buddies.
 
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