HDHomerun Prime Owners Thread - Page 35

It wasn't a flame - FCC complaints have been filed about their card billing practices to no effect and the LFA's either don't care or generally don't get someone at local/corporate that can fix their billing, so the bottom line is that Comcast can and will charge whatever they want for cards. It is up to the customer to complain to local/corporate and get them to adjust the bill, sometimes over and over again.

There are tons of posts about this here and over at the Tivo community forums, there is nothing new or different about the Prime. Comcast card billing is YMMV in every area and entirely dependent on local billing practices, which CSR does it and whether you complain. The rate sheet has little or nothing to do with it.
Edited by slowbiscuit - 2/6/13 at 7:22am

Guess Charter is better at sticking to the rate sheet and crediting my bill when they screw up or when I loose service. Last month my CC lost CCV a couple times for no explainable reason and they issued at $20 credit in addition to giving me credit for the days of lost service and they have not charged me random charges that are not on their rate sheet. I suppose I am lucky not to have Comcast.. There's not even bullet proof glass at the CS counter in the local office.

Until they start marking channels copy-once, I'm going to feel lucky that I'm in a Comcast area

However, I didn't realize how YMMV a local Comcast brick and mortar customer center would be, and I feel some remorse for recommending it. My experience was opposite. They took back the box, initiated a monthly credit for replacing it with a cablecard, gave me the right cablecard the first time, and offered me an upgraded internet tier along with my tv subscription at a 6 month discounted rate that was 50% of the rated price. Tier 2 tech successfully activated my card on my first call to them, and I've never had to call them since.

UPDATE

It is working

Went to Cartersville to get the CableCards. No line. No bullet proof glass. The CSR knew I needed the Scientific Atlanta cards.
My bill will go up $9.95 for each card.
HUH ? ? ?
But my price sheet says first card $0.00 second card $1.50. She says that those prices are not valid because those cards are not your first or second device. You already have a HD-DVR STB and a SD-STB. No use arguing with the "machine" (i.e.CSR) sitting in front of the computer. Then she says there will be another fee of $2.99 for "Change of Service". WTH ? ? ?

Anyway, Called the 2298 # and got them activated. After last week and this week, I thought I would have understood their accent by now. NOT.

Started to get things loaded up and viewing. What a learning curve I got. And trying to get my Supervisor broke in as well. She says the picture looks like crap. Which it does. So, I have issues to work out.

Gonna have to migrate to the other forum on WMC for that. First question is how to get the on-screen guide to list the channels in numerical order as compared to something that sorta is alphabetical.

Gotta work on the signal. One is 85% or so and the other is 100%. Can't remember now which is which.

Thanks for the help you guys.

As related to some of the comments that may have referred to "install-fee" the CSR may have used those words instead of "Digital Additional Outlet Service" which if prorated could be the $16 I had referred to that the CSR in Cartersville informed me about.

Once I get the WMC shook out the HD-DVR STB goes back.

Still not sure what I want to do with the bedroom TV that has the SD-STB. I'd like to get my bill down to the $0.00 and $1.50.

Trying to get a feel for the new life of Prime and WMC.

Want to get rid of the channels we don't/never watch.
I know it is un-American to not watch sports but we rarely watch them.
Want to delete them and other things like HBO and XXX and Spanish and Korean and Japanese and etc from the WMC line-up.
I'm guessing that I can go into the Prime Config and find the tuners and un-check the channels we don't want.
Again, guessing that I have to go into EACH of my 6 tunes to do the un-check process.

Then what?
Do I have to do anything in WMC after the Prime un-checking process?

Thanks............

Well, I always left the prime alone

If you go to WMC -> Settings -> TV -> Guide then you should see a menu like this



Select Edit Channels and the following menu should show up



I used Auto-Scan which checked to see whether or not I was subscribed to each channel and removed the ones I wasn't

This takes a looooooong time, but I ran it over night. If you are pressed for time, or the boss is getting impatient you can go to a channel listings site (like TV Guide or Schedules Direct) and find out which channels you have available. Then manually untick each checkbox

I like to have only the channels I subscribe to show up in the guide. I'd suggest this Comcast lineup site LINK but they don't have any channel numbers associated with their listings

I don't know of any faster / better way of doing things in WMC

^This is what I was about to post but not with the fancy graphics. However you do it in WMC (or the Prime config menu) it takes a while to complete but you should leave it alone in the Prime config.

WaterBoyz...

 

Scanning and/or checking/unchecking channels in the Prime Setup has no affect on WMC listings... it only affects QuickTV.

 

Guide Tool can make the process of deleting unsubscribed channels super fast (you can select whole ranges of channels and uncheck in one shot).  Some parts of Guide Tool can be a little intimidating, but just for checking and unchecking channels it's super easy.

 

While it certainly makes sense to disable unsubscribed channels, rather than disabling rarely used channels you might want to just create a favorites lineup that excludes them.  That way they will still be available in the All Channels guide for that rare occasion that you do want to watch one of them. You can make as many customized/personalized favorites lineups as you want... No Sports, His Favorites, Her Favorites, Kids Stuff, Movies, News... whatever works for you.

 

Finally, if you come across a single channel you want to quickly disable, rather than going into WMC setup or using Guide Tool, you can also just right click on the channel number in the guide and select "disable".

WaterBoyz...

I use the method suggested above to create a manageable Favorites List under EDIT FAVORITE LINEUPS and only include those channels you want to see. Name and save it. Then when back on the Guide page just move your mouse all the way to the to the left and you'll see the available lists. Select the one you paired down and your done. Easy Peasey.

Guy

Right Click?

Mouse?

Yes... even though WMC generally works just fine (probably better) via a remote, there are a few things that mouse and keyboard are handy for... like this:

 

Edited by jcalabria - 2/8/13 at 10:35am

Just joshing! I have a mini keyboard on the coffee table that gets a little use now and then.

BTW, I think the right arrow keys on a MCE remote will take you to the guide lists too. I'm just saying that I cannot imagine using a keyboard and a mouse all the time with WMC when it can be controlled quite well with a remote.

I use it both ways... usually with Harmony remotes in Family Room and Basement Media PCs... but always via mouse/keyboard for the "mobile TVs" (laptops).  Remote is certainly easier but I do keep a Lenovo Multimedia Remote handy for the media PCs.

It's a shame that Shift+F10 (context menu) will not work within WMC. Works fine in explorer and most other stuff, and if it worked in WMC you could easily map a right click to any remote

I've achieved that menu before with my remote. I will have to repeat it and report back what I did.

IIRC, press the "i" button with a channel (not a program) selected. Been a while since I used Media Center though.

When watching a program the letter "i" brings up a mini info display (less than the Info button does).  It has no apparent effect anywhere in the guide.  However, I started playing around and discovered that pressing the "Info" key on the remote will bring up the same context menu as right-clicking on the channel number.

 

So... circling back to the original topic, an individual channel can also be disabled on the fly via the remote by highlighting the channel number, hitting "Info", then selecting "Disable Channel".

Since we are talking about the remote control here, I have a question. I just bought Rosewill brand WMC remote. I am trying it on Windows 8. The problem is when I use the remote to open MC then TV..it wont work..it's saying no tuner available or busy (something like this)....or I press "live tv" button to open TV, I get same message......but if I open MC and then TV by the mouse or keyboard..the TV works fine as normal and then I can use the remote to change channels or view the guide...I did not install any sw for that came with the remote yet...dont after installed the sw, it will solve this problem or not.

WOW
What a treasure chest of help.

Thanks.

My supervisor used WMC to un-check the channels. Didn't take her very long, 1-2 minutes.
She had gotten used to the Comcast box so she knew channels numbers very well.

Will have to try the multiple "favorites" style of listings.
This is the remote she is using.



Maybe, as she gets more experience we might upgrade to a fancier remote.

Haven't installed Guide Tool yet.

Got to spend some time over at the WMC thread. But HolyKow there are 4535 postings. Lots of reading.

I've been going thru Assassinn's setup and have made some of the changes. Still lots of his "features" to add.
The focus has been just getting basic TV functions to work smoothly.

So, for now I'm laying low on this Prime Thread unless something comes up Prime related.

But, before I go.....
2 questions:
A) The volume (TV speakers) needs constant changing between channels. One channel is OK then switch channel and the sound is too much. Switch to another channel and it may be even higher or lower or the same. Haven't analyzed it yet at to certain channels. Any ideas? I didn't happen with the Comcast STB.

B) The picture quality is sharp as a tack when the Guide is showing. But the actual TV picture is not sharp. Kinda like not enough pixels. During the initial setup I used the Intel Graphics i3-3225 to set the margins since there was lots of overscan. Any thoughts?

MS no longer certifies WMC remotes under Win8. I haven't heard others reporting problems but that does not mean they don't exist.

I'm old school.
I wait 1+ years for a new program to shake out before I even consider it.
I'm on W7.

Unless you are talking to Huy30 ... I apologize for interrupting your thought process.

LOL. I was and your post came in while I was posting.

Not going to touch the Win7/Win8 debate now.

Hello all! I just got myself a cable card and figured I'd jump in and try to get some help and help some people as well if at all possible. I'm a technician at Comcast. I installed my Cablecard on my HTPC. It works fine but I dont' know how to watch live tv on one channel while recording on another in WMC. I did assign two of the tuners on my HD Homerun Prime to it. I figured that it'd automatically choose which tuner to use for recording and watch, but I'm guessing it doesn't. Can anyone help me with this?

Why didn't you assign all of them? They are in a pool that can be used by multiple machines.

It's been along time since I ever set up WMC, but I didn't even realize it asks you for the number you want assigned

Like Sammy said, just use all 3. The prime doesn't "bind" tuners to one HTPC. The homerun software "locks" them as requested by however many HTPCs you have running in the house. Once all three are "locked" WMC will say "No tuner available to satisfy request"

They unlock as soon as the recording is finished or you hit "Stop" on live tv playback

If you are watching something you want to save, then hitting "record" should start saving the recording in WMC (and stop it based on Guide data's finish time). At this point if you want to watch another station, just press Backspace (back or previous on remotes) and tune a different channel from the guide

Thx. I'll try that.

On my remote, the "i" is the Info button.

Mine, too... I was referring to the letter "i" on a keyboard.  It brings up a different info display than the i/Info button does.

If you press the "info" button on your remote when you are in the guide this menu shows up.

My audio device (ATI 5450) has a setting called "loudness equalization", might see if yours does also. For my card it's in the device properties, enhancements tab.