[jranaudo]

I think I know the answer but I just gotta ask.


Are you all building HTPC's to receive just broadcast basic television?


I have Cablevision and an HDHomeRun (gift) and it only receives basic cable. 25 channels. What's the use. Seriously bummed. Maybe you guys/gals have a more lenient cable provider.

 

[Mrkazador]

I would think most people would buy a tuner that supports a cable card so channels are not restricted.

 

[gtgray]

QAM is dead in many if not most markets.. HD Homeruns are for OTA, go cable card Ceton or HD Prime if you want lots of cable channels.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by gtgray /forum/post/20827095


QAM is dead in many if not most markets.. HD Homeruns are for OTA, go cable card Ceton or HD Prime if you want lots of cable channels.

This, unfortunately. On the upside, since most of what we watch is either on OTA, Netflix or the local file server (ripped from bought physical media), it's been really nice not having to pay $100+ monthly for cable TV (STB rentals add up quickly).

 

[ajiva]

Yup, I use my HDHomeRun to get OTA channels and save a bundle on not having to pay for cable. Plus OTA channels are less compressed and look much better than cable.

 

[StardogChampion]

I get about 30 channels unencrypted QAM which is just the broadcast networks, HSN, local access and the local cable news channel. Since I live too far from anything to get OTA I am quite happy with it for the extra $6/mo to add basic cable to cable internet.

 

[gtgray]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovejedd /forum/post/20827119


This, unfortunately. On the upside, since most of what we watch is either on OTA, Netflix or the local file server (ripped from bought physical media), it's been really nice not having to pay $100+ monthly for cable TV (STB rentals add up quickly).

When you use a cable tuner you don't rent any STBs. If four tuners is enough a Ceton is around $269. In my market, high speed cable internet is about $50. I have Comcast Digital starter. Iternet and digitla cable together is$89. So basically digital cable with tons of channels is $30 a month. I have been using OOMA for a year. It is 3.50 a month. So yes I have a $100 a month cable internet/tv/phone bill but saying my cable bil is a $100 a month might be a bit misleading if one is thinking about TV.


I also have OTA and a pari of HD Homeruns to complement the Ceton. A lot depends on how much you want to argue with your cable company. My brother is one tier higher on digital cable than what I have, he argued with them and has what Comcst calls Digital Preferred. His internet/cable TV is around $83.00. He also uses OOMA at $3.50. Point is the high speed internet component is the majority of the cost and there is some room to negotiate. After our cable market had its digital conversion in May, you either have digital cable or you might as well not bother.


People don't think anything about paying $200 a month to equip the wife and kids with smartphones..


20 useless channels is all you get in our market with basic cable. They have a tier above that requires these little mini-STBs either scenario is all SD.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by gtgray /forum/post/20828073


When you use a cable tuner you don't rent any STBs. If four tuners is enough a Ceton is around $269. In my market, high speed cable internet is about $50. I have Comcast Digital starter. Iternet and digitla cable together is $89. So basically digital cable with tons of channels is $30 a month. I have been using OOMA for a year. It is 3.50 a month. So yes I have a $100 a month cable internet/tv/phone bill but saying my cable bil is a $100 a month might be a bit misleading if one is thinking about TV.

On Charter and the cable TV portion with the Digital View + HD tier was going to be $100+ per month since the 6 month promotional period has run out (internet is an extra $60 on top of that). Without promo, breakdown was $68 for Digital HD service and first HD box, and an extra $10 for each additional HD box. Add another $20 or so in taxes and total comes up to more than $100. The customer rep wouldn't negotiate with me and give me promotional pricing so I cancelled cable TV altogether. Without TV, internet would only be $15 more expensive, anyway. I had been considering getting the HDHomeRun Prime when it's released and re-subscribing to cable. However, after living without it for more than a year, I'm finding that we're not really missing the channels we used to have (well, aside from basketball season).


Wouldn't give a kid a smartphone unless they're paying their own cellphone bill.

 

[lovemyram4x4]

I can tune 98 channels from FiOS (a big chunk of that is all the music channels) w/ my HDhomerun w/ about 6 of them being channels we actually watch(local networks), my Ceton gets about 1,000 channels w/ about 25 including the previous 6 of them being channels we normally watch and probably no more than 100 channels we actually tune intermittently. Since most house holds local networks makes up a good portion if not most of what they watch it can be useful for even people that use cablecard tuners to use a HDhomerun or other clearQAM tuners to keep the cablecard tuners free for channels that actually need it.

 

[hceuterpe]

Where Comcast would demand I assume the position for my monthly raping when the bill comes?


I think I'm going to pass on that one.

 

[TornadoTJ]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ajiva /forum/post/20827879


Yup, I use my HDHomeRun to get OTA channels and save a bundle on not having to pay for cable. Plus OTA channels are less compressed and look much better than cable.

X2. When I had basic analog cable, I also had a ATI tuner card for analog. I still use my HDHR for OTA recording, and I see nothing wrong with that. It's great for recording local channels. Anything else I just use Hulu, Netflix, or other means to watch. No cable bills here!

 

[gtgray]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hceuterpe /forum/post/20828647


Where Comcast would demand I assume the position for my monthly raping when the bill comes?


I think I'm going to pass on that one.

You would have to look far and wide to find somebody who depsises Comcast more than I do. But for $30 a month, the incremental cost of Digtal Starter over the can't live without Perfrormance internet Digital Cable is a good value. I don't pay a rentals. First cablecard is free, have only . I don't pay a modem rental I bought mine a long time ago. And at least at my service location the internet up time is nearly 100 percent. I use OOMA, so if 30 bucks a month is assuming the position... well we won't go there!