New (first) HTPC build - a few ignoramus questions. Mainly, HTPC>TV - Page 2

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Nobody you talk to on the phone at Charter has a clue how to activate a cable card for a HomeRun Prime. But UMatter rep CharterAbby will fix you right up. BTW, cable cards are $2/month on Charter, and tuning adapters are free.

Also, unlike the Hauppauge, the HomeRun does not come with a remote. The VRC-1100 is my personal favorite since it's cheap, has all the commands you need and will wake your PC. I don't actually use the remote though, just the dongle and my universal remote.

Great, that's precisely why I asked which kind of TV. I was going to recommend the prime for exactly that reason, and just to clarify it does work with ClearQAM from the cableco's. It does not work with an antenna, so I didn't want to lead you astray if you were looking for OTA.

Personally I think antenna recording is a little silly since nearly all new content that you can get from an antenna is readily accessible to stream from the provider websites. The same is not true for cable content. As far as future proofing, you might run into some problems with Cablecard, but none of us know when. My guess would be that in 5-7 years cablecard will be phased out.

This trade off definitely helps your build out, and you should have 0 problems now that you are using the PCIe slot. Plus your dedicated cards got a lot cheaper, so you recoup the difference in cost automatically plus your getting a lot more bang for your buck. Good luck with the first build

If CableCARD is phase out in 5-7 years I'll be already ahead of it I think but why do you think that?

Even if it is phased out the FCC rules require that the Cable Companies provide a method for customer owned Cable Labs (or other in the future?) approved equipment to be used.

I don't think TiVo would appreciate that all too much.

You must not be a sports fan.

Not a fan of recorded spots. I really only want to see live sports, and I really prefer to see live sports at a sports bar or wing restaurant. The PQ isn't as good as my own TV, but the atmosphere makes up for it.

I guess it's a lot of speculation from me. Cablecard and current cable tech seems like a lot of overhead for Comcast, TWC, etc to deal with and lower profit margins compared to IPTV services like uverse. I'm not sure how long they'll keep their nose to the grindstone.

It would seem like we could rely on the FCC to look out for consumers owning their own equipment for storing TV content, but just give some of the players like Sony Pictures, Paramount, etc. enough time to erode the logic of the US and convince everyone that "Recording your own shows is stealing our valuable IP" and we'll start to see much less freedom in this arena

I like using my hdhomerun prime, I just don't have faith that I'll be protected by federal mandates to use it if enough studios and cablecos begin declaring that it's not profitable for them to do business that way.
Out of curiosity, which pcie card did you go with?

IPTV is crap. I had that with Uverse and the PQ is terrible. Charter got me back as a customer when they rolled out more HD and they have more coming when they phase out analog cable. They have a lot vested in their system with FTN and 0.5 coax to the box where the RG6 drops into my house. This is far superior to the 22ga copper pair that at&t uses for the last mile. The PQ is far superior and their superior infrastructure shows it as they can offer a better picture and faster internet speeds than at&t can ever hope to provide. Why do you think they'll change when they just upgraded to SDV this month? (Charter anyhow)

Even if they do, in 5-7 years there'll be another solution anyhow and I'll go for that. My Prime will be paid for in 6 months or reduced costs so anything beyond that is gravey to go towards whatever I need to procure to use my HTPC as a PVR down the line.