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Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Flagged Channels For XBMC PVR?
AlphaWolf_HK writes "I own an HDHomeRun Prime tuner, and unfortunately I live in an area where the cable provider (Cox) blanket flags all channels to be copy restricted. I'm tired of using Windows Media Center due to bugs and other problems, but since the channels are flagged it is the only option. Satellite is of course not an option at all (no cablecard or similar standard.) I've already begun moving most of my content watching to XBMC in the form of using sickbeard and couchpotato, both of which do an amazing job even with torrents now that Usenet has been getting hit pretty hard. To match this, I've already dropped my cable tier to the lowest possible for some basic digital channels that people in my household still watch and aren't available over torrents. But ideally I'd like to cut the cord completely as the service is otherwise useless. Are there any options for obtaining this content without physically moving to Comcast territory where they don't do this? Or perhaps any workarounds for the CCI flag? Ideally, anything that allows XBMC with digital content and no transcoding."
Write to your congress critter, whine online, nothing will happen. Cancel the service, you can live without cable-TV.
What about using an antenna? I cut cable about 7 years ago - everything comes in on Mythbuntu via an HDHR hooked up to a small roof-mounted antenna. We get about 30 channels OTA with no excess compression and no copy protection. Everything else comes in over the net (Netflix and "other").
You don't say what metro area you are in or whether you are living in an antenna-friendly building but you've already got 90% of the gear you need. Lots of info on the web about how to make the jump. You may have already investigated OTA, but if not you definitely should.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
Thanks for that post. What would we do without you?
Use an HD PVR with the component outputs of your cable box - no cable card so you have to pay the monthly cable box rental fee. This will allow you to record anything that the cable box can see.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
I haven't used XBMC but this works very well with MythTV and Verizon FIOS.
Get a pair of digital rabbit ears - you should be able to pick up many local channels (which is what it sounds like you want). Depending on where you live, a TV antenna either out doors, or in your attic might solve the problem. Then you can pretty much cut the cable completely - and still be legal.
Alternatively, look for other (smaller) providers. I have family that lives in an area where there is one big cable company, and 2 or three much smaller companies that offer very similar & competitive products.
First world problems...
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Budget is something that you should consider as well. You can get what you want, if you have the coin.
For instance, before I cut the "cable", my setup was as follows:
* Sattelite, outputting to component video and optical spdif
* A Hauppage HD-PVR, which takes component video in, and optical spdif in, and records/encodes the video to H.264
* MythTV (though you can choose other options)
* An IR blaster, pointed at the sattelite receiver.
* A $50 recent nVIDIA or ATI graphics card that supports VDPAU (ie. GPU-accelerated H.264 decode).
What happened is MythTV would signal the IR blaster to change the channel on the satellite, and then record the video.
The HD-PVR made excellent quality video, at an acceptable size. There are limitations to the HD-PVR's video (the video it encodes, while H.264, is in a format that requires a single, fast core to decode - something about multi-core decode not working at all...).
The HD-PVR even comes with its own IR blaster; I just never took the time to figure out how to use it, as I already had an exceptionally nice IR blaster. The HD-PVR is also a bit finicky, occasionally crashing and requiring a hard power cycle - I even had a network-commanded power relay that would cycle the power to the HD-PVR @ 3:00 AM daily (when even Satellite stopped broadcasting)
In the end, it was not bullet-proof (as occasionally the channel didn't change quite right, for example), but it worked 99% of the time. Full 1080 video with AC3 surround sound.
I've since discontinued my Satellite service, and record on-air ATSC broadcasts - and switched to steaming services. I don't really miss Sattelite, and save about $100/month in subscription fees...
I'm considering hooking a MythTV recording box up at my brother's house (who has cable), and pay him double the "extra TV" charge per month, and then just swap out external hard drives occasionally...
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
a) Cancel cable service. Retain or sign up for broadband.
b) Erect old fashion antenna. (We get 13 digital channels off the antenna, although many of them are crap.
c) Buy roku box. ($99 Amazon), less than the cost of 1 month of cable.
d) Subscribe to Netflix streaming, and/or Hulu +, Amazon streaming (Any combination still a tiny fraction of the cost of cable/satellite)
e) Whatever you can't get via above, torrent, or maybe read a book, go walk the dog, try to remember what your kids look like.
f) When all else fails, remember, It's Only TV. It's quite a ways down on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
You're right. I taught everyone in the house how to use torrents. Now we only watch what we want when we want. Haven't had TV service in over 5 years, went from xbmc to roku and plex with torrents, Netflix, and basic Hulu. It's not bad at all, everyone does this anyway with DVR, recording everything and watching it later. I am considering a Android PC for a good all-in-one solution.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I'm sure that, every time you go on vacation, it's exactly what you'd wanted to experience.
I'm sure that, every time you go to the store, you're able to buy exactly what you wanted to buy.
I'm sure that, every time you go to a movie or a play, it's exactly what you'd hoped it would be.
And I'm sure that, every time you go to sleep, your dreams are totally awesome because of the hard psychoactive drugs you're on.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
You know what? You're right! I should stop watching Top Gear and start driving million-dollar super cars myself! I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier!
Low expectations are the death of the free market.
They're the death of liberty in general.
You must be one really sad little sheep.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
You keep wanting something that they do not want to give you. Until you realize this, you have taken the losing position. Move your dollars to service providers that provide content on your terms.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Can someone moderate this idiot as off topic flamebait?
If you personally dislike TV, that's your business. Other people like TV. We like shows like "How they make that".
You are like an idiot that hears how the 1997 NY city phone book was the most popular book ever published, reads it, then complains that all books are stupid.
Stop telling other people what to enjoy, and live your own life.
Wrong.
The entire post is can be summurized as:
I was paying for it and they won't let me fucking watch it on my equipment so now I just steal it since apparently pirates can do a better job of getting me what I want to watch FOR FREE than Comcast can manage to pull of while consume copious amounts of my money for the disservice.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
> There are legitimate gripes about access, copy protection, and copyright issues... but this doesn't come close to any of them.
Sure it does and you're a big fat jackass.
This is about some guy wanting to use the service he's paid for in the way he wants to use it. The service provider will let him use Windows but this guy doesn't want to do that because he finds that it sucks. He can't use alternatives and is stuck using one monopoly product to deal with another.
This whole "we need to encrypt everything" is nonsense. As soon as you paid for it, you should be able to use it however you like.
The path between the cable box and the TV should be all in the clear.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I don't think you have to be on drugs to know that there is no reason to watch TV on a network as opposed to IPTV or downloading the shows. If it's broadcast on public TV who even gives a shit if someone has a problem with daring to get it in the format of your choosing without commercials?
it's 2013, not 1990, gost.
When did Cox turn flags on the content? I had a HDHOMRUNPRIME running on CableCARD last year until the Olympics melted the server. (was re-compressing to mp4 from MPEG-2, Q6600 just couldn't process that much video that fast.) I could record pretty much everything but HBO, Showtime etc. Now im just using antenna and the old school HDHomerun ATSC tuners so i havent tried premium cable in a while. Guess ill set it up at my in-laws and see what happens.
Good-bye
I also went ota, built my own antenna and put it inside the garage up in the rafters.see http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna/index.htm for lots of information and plans. I needed a pre-amp for the 90 feet of cable to my tvs. The nearest broadcaster is about 45 miles away. I get the standard stations: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX, and ION along with their sub-channels. That's 13 channels that come in very well nearly all the time. I also get several other channels, but not consistently.
It's a license, or fee, to own a TV.
You have to pay it whether or not you actually watch TV.
Incorrect. You have to pay the TV licence fee if you watch or record TV programs (via any means) at the same time as they are being broadcast on standard over-the-air channels. If you don't do this then you don't need a TV licence, even if you have a TV (conversely, if you watch live content on iplayer and you don't have a TV you still need to pay for a TV licence).
Personally I think it's an extremely good idea, although the way it is collected leaves a lot to be desired.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Been over-the-air for years.
We get pristine 1080i network-supplied digital picture for free, no broadcast flag, a fair number of local channels, and Netflix, Amazon and Sony Playstation Store supply the rest over the internet.
Haven't really done much with Hulu, but it's another opportunity for you to stream fresh content.
I use MythTV and a HD Homerun tuner, running on Debian on a QNAP TS-119 (which draws something like 6 watts spun up). For TV frontends, I use the PS3, or a recent Mac Mini.Very reliable.
Took a fair amount of setup, but all works great. My just-turned-five kid has been working the remote himself for about 18 months, getting lots of great commercial-free kids programming from PBS.
Been forever since I've paid for cable TV.
To get around a similar situation with Comcast, I use an Hauppuage HD-PVR with my MythTV setup. It's basically a $160 USB device that takes the analog component output from your cable box, along with digital audio, and spits out an h264 file stream. It works, but there are some downsides: It's prone to needing bi-monthly to monthly power cycling due to hangs, there is a slight bit of quality loss since you're converting digital to analog back to digital (though the audio is untouched,) and you have to use an irblaster or firewire channel changer to control your cable box.
All that being said, the quality loss is negligible (even on my 59" plasma) and I love the fact that I never again have to worry about my cable company mucking about with their channel encryption flags, frequencies, etc. If your cable box can view it, then you can record it. Period. Because of that, I put up with the HD-PVR's quirks while happily watching all the HD channels I have access to.
What if you don't like or agree with the BBC's state produced content and don't feel like supporting them?
What if you don't like your government's schools/police/hospitals/whatever and don't feel like supporting them through your taxes? I'm sure your government allows you to opt out of funding all of these services...
Do you still have to pay if you don't watch BBC and just use your TV as a PC monitor or for sat/cable?
You are required to pay the TV licence fee if you watch or record any programmes (through whatever means) at the same time as they are being transmitted by traditional broadcast TV channels (i.e. DVB-S, DVB-T, DVB-C). If you don't do this then you don't have to pay. So yes, you can use your TV as a PC monitor or to watch DVDs or whatever without paying for a TV licence - it is a fee to _watch_ TV, not a fee to own any certain equipment.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
You must not watch sports...which is fine. But your whole strategy blows up for half the population that sees the primary purpose of a TV being for sports.
That's funny, but this naturally and frequently arises in casual conversations because most people do watch TV and many TV watchers insist on making this a prime topic of discussion.
"Remember the episode of ______________ where _________ , __________?"
Is it more polite to say "No, I don't own/watch TV" or to say "No, and please don't tell me about it because I don't know the characters and don't want to listen while you explain the entire premise and context of the show before getting to the point you're trying to make."
I've never watched an episode of "Seinfeld" but people have mentioned it to me innumerable times. When I don't "get it" they often seem to have this desire to explain all of the personalities involved so I will possess the requisite knowledge to understand the humor in what they are telling me. I know more about "Kramer"(sp?) than I ever wanted to just from having these chats.
IMO, the reason people get annoyed when you tell them that you don't own or watch TV is that on some level, they also realize that it's wasting their time and polluting their brain.
Well you are half right.
A book? Some exercise?
I'm not big on sports, so I haven't done the research you have - but it makes me curious how much money they are leaving on the table by not making games available as streams. I expect if the cable companies rigged up pay per view streams for all of the games they cover, they could bring in tons of money from folks not interested in huge season costs.
Then again, I stopped letting TV rot my brain long ago! After all, every hour spent watching TV is an hour not spent playing video games...
+1 Disagree
I know this will be unpopular here (and trust me, I hate it as much as you guys do), but just keep using Windows Media Center. I have Time Warner Cable, so pretty much all channels are copy-once, except the broadcast channels. I started off using MythTV + Hauppauge HD-PVR. It was decent, but it wasn't totally reliable. Plus I still had to pay $12/month for the simple cable box (no dvr, only one tuner). So when the CableCard tuners came out, I instantly jumped on it. So for $2/month I can record 4 channels. And sure it sucks to have to run Windows, but WMC is still leaps and bounds better than anything offered by the cable cos even though it hasn't been updated in years. Plus I can use my Xbox 360 to watch tv (both live and recorded) in another room.
If you truly mean *all* channels, even rebroadcasts of OTA channels, are protected, then this is against the FCC's rules, and you should file a FCC complaint.
Also, if *other channels* don't want themselves to be protected and they are being protected, you can help get them unprotected (I have seen people talk on tivocommunity.com of having this work on their cable systems).
hat's funny, but this naturally and frequently arises in casual conversations because most people do watch TV and many TV watchers insist on making this a prime topic of discussion.
Except that's not what happened here. Nobody was talking to him. Nobody asked him anything. Indeed, he could have simply clicked the back button in his browser and read the next slashdot story.
But instead, he had to take the time out to tell someone who had never approached him personally that he didn't have cable.
I've never watched an episode of "Seinfeld" but people have mentioned it to me innumerable times.
Understood. But if you hear two people "having a conversation at the watercooler" about Seinfeld do you sidle up, get their attention, look down your nose and say "I don't watch that show."? Because THAT is what people find annoying.
IMO, the reason people get annoyed when you tell them that you don't own or watch TV is that on some level, they also realize that it's wasting their time and polluting their brain.
For my part, I don't watch reality TV, and refuse to watch it out of principle. If someone engages me in conversation about a reality show I can either deflect it as something I didn't watch, or I can do the whole "I don't watch garbage like that routine." depending on whether I want to simply politely change the subject or whether I want to make the point that I think its stupid and that watching it is stupid. With my mother in law, for example, I tend to be the diplomat; "Oh, no, I haven't seen that." with others I'll take the shot.
In my experience few people are offended unless I take the effort to at least imply that I think the show they are talking about is not worth my time, or anyone else's.
Using MythTV (the Mythbuntu variant) and an OTA antenna with a pair of HDHomerun dual tuners was my own answer to getting rid of a massively bloated cable bill.The most surprising result, six months later, is that those 'cable' shows that were going to be sacrificed, and sorely missed, simply turned out not to be so important after all. Let's face it, most folks have a finite amount of viewing time available, and as it turns out, shows that were scrapped were quickly replaced by other shows, and became replacement 'favorites' instead. Shows that had not been watched previously, due to the amount of available viewing time, turned out to be just as enjoyable as the ones they replaced. Let's face it, none of the stuff aired on ANY network or cable lineup is all that exceptional in the first place, it's not really all that hard to find something that can be an equally mindless diversion.
The biggest surprise in our particular household was how large the percentage of viewing shifted to PBS, for both adult and children's programming, as well as discovering that the OTA antenna could also (in my location) receive a couple of Canadian signals which have excellent programming, that had never been offered through the local Comcast cable feed. Sure, there's always the option of online streaming for some programming now and again, but far, far less that we initially expected.
On the technical side, I now have the ability to actually record up to five signals at once, more if I use the multiplexing feature of HDTV broadcasts. The old DVR could handle two, and no multiplexing capability. Storage is limited to what *I* decide it will be. Instead of being stuck with 60-120 hours of non-HD programming, and no option to expand beyond that because I'm stuck with a DVR that actually supports expandable storage but is locked out of doing so by a cable provider. With 3.5TB of storage online, I can handle 500 hours of HD programming easily, and I can expand that to the limits of what I want to invest in HD space. Last but not least, all of my recorded media is available on every TV in the house, using either dedicated frontend machines, Laptops running XBMC, and in the case of my toddler, a Raspberry Pi based frontend to service his own viewing requirements of his favorite shows, plus ripped versions of his DVD collection, all on demand, (with a little assistance from Mom and Dad).
Not to say that there were no hurdles to overcome, and to set up a fully networked MythTV setp does require an investment in equipment and time, as well as some routine maintenance, but now all five TVs in my house have full access to 30 OTA channels, any and all scheduled recordings, an extensive music collection, online photo viewing, weather reporting, selected online news feeds, as well as an extensive DVD collection. No cable company that I am aware of offers this type of all in one media solution, and based on what I was paying for the paltry level of service I was previously subscribed to, with constant price increases looming in the future, I'm one very happy cable cutter these days!
Differences between how you act when some one is watching, and how you act when no one is watching, define who you are
The dawn of television ushered in programs that were idealistic and meant in large part to inspire Americans to be more like Ward Cleaver. What it did instead was thoroughly demoralizing the family since those ideals were nigh impossible to attain. It now displays some of the worst examples of humanity in an attempt to boost American's self esteem by showing them they are not, in fact, that bad compared to Honey Boo Boo's mom. I watch cooking and home improvement shows.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
There are a *lot* of popular genre titles that don't require or provoke conscious thought, yet are pleasurable or even "addictive." Or at least, most people are competent/literate enough in their native language to not find most popular books mentally taxing; are you implying that doesn't apply to you?
Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)