Comcast Encrypting More QAM Channels 8
I have a TiVo connected to a digital box from the company and a Windows7 Media Center PC with a Hauppauge ClearQAM tuner. Today I planned on catching up on a little TV that should have been recorded last night, but wasn’t.
See, now that my VCRs are worthless since Comcast went 95% digital and requires a tuner box to get all but 5 network channels (ok, they also give 15 shopping channels and 8 community access channels too – great huh?), I use the 7MC PC to record programs when there’s a conflict with another or when I really don’t want to miss a specific show due to a screw up with the channel changing on TiVo or QAM tuner.
Be certain to check the comments for updates as I learn them.
Windows7 Installation
32-bit DVD – ouch.
So I opened the Windows7 Ultimate DVD and uncovered that it only contains the 32-bit version. After swapping the old/Vista drive with the new/Empty drive in the laptop, I elected to install Win7 even though I’d end up unable to use about 0.5GB of RAM. I wanted to give the new OS a fair chance and gain some experience. The setup was fairly easy, but dumbed down too much for my liking. I actually installed the OS to the wrong partition (280GB), wiped it and reinstalled to the other partition (30GB), that was planned for OS and Apps. Then I proceeded to setup WMC – Media Center.
Windows Media Center – ClearQAM Supported!
I’d heard that ClearQAM was supported and looked forward to using it. My cable system switched almost all channels to QAM 2 months ago. I’d hoped there was an automatic translation between QAM channels and normal cable channels so guide data can be used. I haven’t found that, if it exists. I AM recording a movie as I write this. There’s no noticeable performance hit. Nice.
Data Migration
Overnight, I copied the data and virtual machines from the older drive to the new drive, about 150GB. I split the disk into 2 partitions – C: and D: . C is for the OS and programs. D is for data and virtual machines. This config should make data backup much easier.
I dislike the whole Library BullShite that this new OS forces. I also dislike the new Explorer look and feel. Is there a way to default all Explorer views to Detailed?
VirtualBox Migration
So, after getting the new OS installed, the very first program installed was Sun’s VirtualBox. Initial attempts to migrate all the settings and virtual disks didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. However, I did get 1 VM up and running with a small amount of effort. I’ll write up the actual steps and things that didn’t work in another post. There may be another way to migrate the settings, I did retain both XML files for Vbox and for each VM, so seeing the specific differences should be easy.
The next trick is to migrate a vbox image that includes a snapshot image. I’m cautiously hopeful for a good outcome with that.
Comcast Gone Digital Overnight 2
August 10, 2009
So this morning, I flipped on the TV to catch CNN and it was gone. In place is a nice note from Comcast saying I needed to get a digital device from them. This was announced multiple times and multiple ways, so I believe that I’m prepared. The only problem is that Comcast isn’t publishing a ClearQAM channel list (yet?). And all the channels have been relocated and are no longer in order. Anyway, as of yesterday, below are the channels for the North Cobb header with both analog and ClearQAM. Only the analog below 23 still work.
The Channel Lineup:
