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

[Radeon962]

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

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

 

[pkscout]

Your HD HomeRun records the digital QAM signals already, and those shouldn't go away. They may move the channels around though, so you might have to keep an eye on it and rescan as necessary. the HVR-2250 analog is going to be an issue though. You'll either have to stop using it or get a cable box and record the analog stream from that (assuming the 2250 can control an external cable box).

 

[lupi]

Can't really say unless we know exactly what they mean by "going digital".

 

[Radeon962]

Can't really say unless we know exactly what they mean by "going digital".

Charter TV is moving to 100% All-Digital format.

No more SD channels.

I'm picking up a HDHR Prime from Microcenter on my way home today and the local Charter office has CableCards so that is my next stop.

 

[WilliamM2]

Charter already went all digital here in March. ALL channels are now encrypted, clear qam is no good anymore. You will need a cable card to get anything on your PC, which is also how I watch most TV.

I decided to get an antenna, and drop Charter TV. Haven't regretted it yet in two months.

 

[WilliamM2]

Charter TV is moving to 100% All-Digital format.

No more SD channels.

I'm picking up a HDHR Prime from Microcenter on my way home today and the local Charter office has CableCards so that is my next stop.

There are still plenty of SD channels, in fact most of them are SD. There is no more analog channels. But don't worry, they added several shopping channels and religious channels in full HD glory! :awe:

 

[Radeon962]

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

 

[BonzaiDuck]

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

It looks as though we have the same hardware setup and the same cable provider with the same deadlines, notices and "spesh-ul dee-uls."

Unless you had the HVR-2250 pulling in broadcasts through a direct-cable-hookup with no box (what we might call "basic" cable), you should be able to keep it and do what I did with it.

Every once in a blue moon, some sort of hardware failure or other trouble at Charter's end will cause a cable outage. I keep my HVR-2250 hooked up to an HDTV OTA antenna and use it to pull in all those channels. so I am never without some adequate TV source.

I can see where I might want to rescan channels through my HomeRun Prime tomorrow, but that's no big burden, really. I'd expect a Media Center channel lineup update as well.

They offered everyone an extra cable-TV "HD" box -- free for one year. After that -- maybe $7 per month for the extra box. I grabbed it. So I have OTA and cable HD with premiums through the HVR-2250 and HomeRun Prime. I can give my PC and my AVR a rest and still get the cable subscription through the extra new box. And of course, with Media Center you couldn't get "On Demand," but now I can with the extra box.