TWC going digital question

[adam1991]

exactly. The cablecos are, de facto, required to pass the locals through freely.

And they do.

[kd6icz]

Shouting removed.

Until recently, cable providers were not allowed by the FCC to encrypt basic cable (local broadcast) channels. However, the FCC eased the restrictions and allowed cable providers to file a request for an exemption.

Comcast has filed for this exception and it looks like Time Warner has, but only in LA and NY markets.

https://gigaom.com/2013/04/15/comcast-b ... ncryption/
http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/suppo ... er-tv.html

Ok.... Either way if they want to see something other than broadcast channels at best they will need a CableCARD tuner.

I just feel sorry for the OP because they had a simple question and we confused the hell out of it. The simple answer is if they want to continue to see all of the channels they see today they must upgrade equipment to do so.

[blueiedgod]

There is a great deal of confusion between tuning adapters (TAs) and digital adapters. The digital adapter that TWC is providing free for 1-year where they are transitioning to digital is a stand-alone device to connect your TV to the cable and will only tune their lowest tier of channels in their Basic package. TAs are on TWC only used to connect CableCard equipped tuning devices by Ceton, Silicon Dust, TiVo and some others, to allow them to function on their system.

Once the digital transition is complete, your Hauppauge tuner will be virtually useless connected to TWC. It *may* still be able to tune some locals as "clear QAM" channels, but everything else will be either encrypted, switched video, or both.

Are you saying both of my computers will be screwed then and that the digital adapters they provide will not allow my tuners to function any more? Their website claims the adapters will allow me to view channels on both the basic starter and the standard tiers but I can't get to a list of specific channels for further clarification. Do you know of a product I can get to replace them that will still allow my computers to play and dvr all of my current TWC channels?

Get Ceton InifniTV or SiliconDust HomeRun Prime and rent a CableCARD from TWC. It's $2.50/month and you will get all the channels you are entitled to in full HD glory.

[blueiedgod]

exactly. The cablecos are, de facto, required to pass the locals through freely.

And they do.

No they are not.

[adam1991]

Which ones don't?

Because the ones I know of around the country do.

[Ed]

Comcast, for one. Here in S. FL and other reported markets - you need the small adapter box to receive even local channels. QAM tuners in TVs won't and don't work. A simple Google search would reveal this.

And here's when the FCC allowed for this - it's old news.

http://deadline.com/2012/10/fcc-oks-bas ... on-353164/

[EZEd]

Same here in DFW TWC market. TV and clearqam pc tuners do not work with TWC signal. You have to have either a STB, digital adapter or cable card (for pc and Tivo). Built in tuners are only good for ATSC OTA.

[dejavux2]

Thank you, Ed and EZEd....

[dejavux2]

Wow.... looks like the switch is starting.... I just went down to my basement television. It doesn't have a box, just the cable wire connected. There are 4 channels that now display a message on a white screen: "Get your TV picture back. This channel is only available in digital format. Order your Digital Adapter today." Then it lists the website and phone number for TWC... www.twc.com/digitaladapter 1-855286-1736

[mdavej]

Which ones don't?

Because the ones I know of around the country do.

Clear QAM, even on locals, is extremely rare these days. Per the links above, as soon as the FCC gave the go ahead, most shut it down. If you still have any clear QAM, you're one of the lucky few, for the moment.

[lily1029]

Wading through everything people have said, I feel I'm ready to go ahead and order a HDHomeRun Prime and attempt to get it all networked up and running now so that I don't have to worry when the full transition happens. I can't really tell if you all are saying I have to do this or not but I'd rather be safe than sorry and get the extra perks it will provide anyways.

The question now is what do I need to do to prep the two computers. They sit side-by-side in the same room and are using the same router. Do I just need to get an Ethernet cable to wire them together so they can talk easier than trying to do it over the wifi? Anything I need to know about the cable or can I just go get whatever I see at the store?

[garnuts]

Wading through everything people have said, I feel I'm ready to go ahead and order a HDHomeRun Prime and attempt to get it all networked up and running now so that I don't have to worry when the full transition happens. I can't really tell if you all are saying I have to do this or not but I'd rather be safe than sorry and get the extra perks it will provide anyways.

The question now is what do I need to do to prep the two computers. They sit side-by-side in the same room and are using the same router. Do I just need to get an Ethernet cable to wire them together so they can talk easier than trying to do it over the wifi? Anything I need to know about the cable or can I just go get whatever I see at the store?

You do not need to connect your two computers directly together. They are already connected through your router. A wired Ethernet connection will almost always be better than a wifi connection for TV.

The HDHR Prime is a 'network' tuner, which means it is connected only to your router with an Ethernet cable. The Prime will also be connected with your TWC cable. Both of your computers will have access to the Primes 3 tuners through the Ethernet/router connection.

You will need to get a cable card from TWC, which is inserted into the HDHR Prime. Then you will download the HDHR software from SiliconDust on each computer. You will then need to re-run WMC TV set-up following the onscreen directions, (and directions on SilconDust website are helpful). When prompted call Time Warner Cable • 1-866-606-5889 • CableCARD Activation Line to get your cable card activated/validated.

Once you have finished successfully running the TV setup/cable card activation on your first computer, then run the TV setup on your second computer. You do Not need to do the cable card activation again on the second computer.

You could also keep the tuners you already have installed. When running TV setup on each computer you would see your current tuner on each PC plus the 3 Prime network tuners.

Now with 'Network' tuners, you can also watch TV on many other devices... phones, tablets, laptops etc. See the SiliconDust website for all the ways you can now access your network tuners.

I've had no problems with my HDHR Prime, and it's been extremely stable for the 18 months I've been using it.

Good Luck!

[Space]

I am not sure why you have two separate WMC PCs, but if the plan is to just use the HDhomerun 3-tuner device, then it would be more efficient to just have a single WMC machine doing all your recordings.

The reason is that a single machine can determine availability of all three tuners at any given time (assuming you don't use some of those tuners for things other than WMC) and more efficiently assign them to record the shows you have scheduled (and in the case of conflicts, reschedule to record later airings, or notify you of unresolvable conflicts).

If you were to have two WMC machines each wanting to record 2 shows at the same time, one of those shows is going to lose out (4 shows to record, but only 3 tuners). WMC may be able to reschedule that show to record at another time on-the-fly (if there is another airing available), but you will have no forewarning of this and there is a possibility there will not be another airing available. If you know about this problem ahead of time, you can schedule the show that only has one airing to record and then have another show that has multiple airings to record at another time, and you will not miss anything.

Of course if you don't record enough to have many conflicts, it may not be that important.

[lily1029]

Garnuts - Thank you for your excellently clear information and steps for me to take moving forward!! I've got the HDHR Prime on order and I'll swing by Time Warner to get the cable card and hopefully in a week or so I'll be all up and running with the new setup!

[lily1029]

A little update for those that were kind enough to help me out and a new question to add to things!

I purchased the HDHRPrime and got my cablecard from TWC. After multiple phone calls with them to figure things out and the addition of a tuning adapter I have successfully transitioned to using it exclusively! With the added channels I can now watch/dvr on the pcs I wish I had been brave enough to make this change when I bought the external tuner less than a year ago. 4 days ago was when I finalized the process and things have been running smoothly and taping nicely with my two pcs sharing the tuners as needed.

New question - After being away from my computer for a while this afternoon I came back to a message on both pcs saying that the ip address was already in use for another device. Tuners would not connect any more. Unplugging the HDHRPrime for a 10 count and then plugging it back in resolved the problem. Is this going to be an ongoing issue that will happen randomly? Do I need to plan on unplugging the thing every day to prevent this from happening? One of our computers gets turned off every night but mine stays on almost constantly (but does hibernate) if that makes a difference in what is causing this new issue.

[Space]

I'm not sure why you got that message, but you should set up static DHCP reservations in your router so that the HDHRPrime and the HTPCs always get the same IP addresses.

Here are instructions (instructions will probably be different on your router, but it should be similar):
http://lifehacker.com/5822605/how-to-se ... ress-again

[garnuts]

@lily1029

I've never encountered this in 6 years of using WMC.

Space's advice is a good place to start.

[mdavej]

Just to clarify, by the "same" address, Space means each gets a unique address that stays the same. Obviously the "same" address is your problem and is totally unrelated to WMC itself.