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ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:40 am
by woodchuck
Anyone out here in the bay trying to pull ClearQAM off of Comcast? What channels are you getting? I have an InfiniTV rig and would love to add more channels via ClearQAM, but I'm not sure if it is worth the effort.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:59 am
by richard1980
If you are in an all-digital market, I wouldn't even bother. Comcast was at the front of the fight to encrypt the basic tier, and the FCC recently approved the encryption of the basic tier for all-digital systems. I expect Comcast to start encrypting the basic tier soon...which means goodbye ClearQAM.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:52 pm
by barnabas1969
Vote with your dollars. If your cable company starts encrypting the basic channels "just because they can", then you should tell them in no uncertain terms how unhappy you are with that. Then, if you have another cable provider in your area, switch cable providers.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 1:21 am
by lithium630
I wouldn't bother either. Comcrap now encrypts all of my channels. My Hauppauge 2250 is now useless.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 1:25 am
by barnabas1969
lithium630 wrote:I wouldn't bother either. Comcrap now encrypts all of my channels. My Hauppauge 2250 is now useless.
Wanna sell it? How much?

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:24 am
by lithium630
barnabas1969 wrote:
lithium630 wrote:I wouldn't bother either. Comcrap now encrypts all of my channels. My Hauppauge 2250 is now useless.
Wanna sell it? How much?
For you my friend. The cost of shipping.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:57 pm
by barnabas1969
lithium630 wrote:
barnabas1969 wrote:
lithium630 wrote:I wouldn't bother either. Comcrap now encrypts all of my channels. My Hauppauge 2250 is now useless.
Wanna sell it? How much?
For you my friend. The cost of shipping.
Cool. I'll send you a PM.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 3:06 am
by gary94080
still getting OTA digital clearQAM here on the SF peninsula, but recently noticed that Comcast has been moving stations around after being stable for a few years.

they moved channel 2.1 to 79.2 and 5.1 to 79.1

I thought they were starting to encrypt stations, but I found them when I rescanned the entire listing.

I have a Hauppauge 1850 and I use digital feed direct to cable and the analog for the cable box. the odd thing is that after rescan I had to manually add about 2/3 of the analog channels and 1/2 of the digital channels. not fun.

I'm hoping that they don't encrypt clearQAM for a while. when they do I may have to get a network tuner like HDHomeRun Prime and pay for a cable card.

anyone know if I pay for just standard digital, will I get OTA stations in HD or will I have to get the lowest price HD package to get any HD?

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 2:10 pm
by TeddyR
gary94080 wrote:still getting OTA digital clearQAM here on the SF peninsula, but recently noticed that Comcast has been moving stations around after being stable for a few years.

they moved channel 2.1 to 79.2 and 5.1 to 79.1

I thought they were starting to encrypt stations, but I found them when I rescanned the entire listing.

I have a Hauppauge 1850 and I use digital feed direct to cable and the analog for the cable box. the odd thing is that after rescan I had to manually add about 2/3 of the analog channels and 1/2 of the digital channels. not fun.

I'm hoping that they don't encrypt clearQAM for a while. when they do I may have to get a network tuner like HDHomeRun Prime and pay for a cable card.

anyone know if I pay for just standard digital, will I get OTA stations in HD or will I have to get the lowest price HD package to get any HD?

Since they still have analog in that area, they do not qualify for the encrypt everything item from the FCC. BUT unfortunately the reorder is one of the first steps to going all digital. They are required to notify you before they can get rid of analog ("upgrade your service to digital"), then once more before they can encrypt everything ... (so don't ignore those pesky little postcards they send... there is fine print in there that may announce the change or if suddenly they offer "free" digital set top box for ~ 1 year)

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:58 pm
by blueiedgod
lithium630 wrote:I wouldn't bother either. Comcrap now encrypts all of my channels. My Hauppauge 2250 is now useless.

Should still work with antenna.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:54 pm
by gary94080
TeddyR wrote:
gary94080 wrote:still getting OTA digital clearQAM here on the SF peninsula, but recently noticed that Comcast has been moving stations around after being stable for a few years.

they moved channel 2.1 to 79.2 and 5.1 to 79.1

I thought they were starting to encrypt stations, but I found them when I rescanned the entire listing.

I have a Hauppauge 1850 and I use digital feed direct to cable and the analog for the cable box. the odd thing is that after rescan I had to manually add about 2/3 of the analog channels and 1/2 of the digital channels. not fun.

I'm hoping that they don't encrypt clearQAM for a while. when they do I may have to get a network tuner like HDHomeRun Prime and pay for a cable card.

anyone know if I pay for just standard digital, will I get OTA stations in HD or will I have to get the lowest price HD package to get any HD?

Since they still have analog in that area, they do not qualify for the encrypt everything item from the FCC. BUT unfortunately the reorder is one of the first steps to going all digital. They are required to notify you before they can get rid of analog ("upgrade your service to digital"), then once more before they can encrypt everything ... (so don't ignore those pesky little postcards they send... there is fine print in there that may announce the change or if suddenly they offer "free" digital set top box for ~ 1 year)
analog has been gone for about 6 months to a year. we have had the analog digital adaptors for several years.

aren't they supposed to have the HD digital adaptors for OTA stations available before they can encrypt clearQAM? I have not seen any notices for that yet.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 1:08 am
by richard1980
gary94080 wrote:aren't they supposed to have the HD digital adaptors for OTA stations available before they can encrypt clearQAM? I have not seen any notices for that yet.
The cable company is required to offer affected subscribers either a set-top box or a CableCARD (and in some cases, up to two STBs or CableCARDs). There is a rule unrelated to encryption that requires the cable company to deliver broadcast channels in HD if the signal is received by the cable company in HD. Simply put, subscribers will be offered either a CableCARD or a regular HD cable box.

As for the notice, the rule requires 30 days advance notice before encrypting.

Re: ClearQAM, Comcast, & the SF Bay Area

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:33 am
by ToddD
barnabas1969 wrote:Vote with your dollars. If your cable company starts encrypting the basic channels "just because they can", then you should tell them in no uncertain terms how unhappy you are with that. Then, if you have another cable provider in your area, switch cable providers.
Get ready! Brighthouse is planning to do this to us soon! As you know we have no other cable provider.