Digital cable TV converter?

wgriswold wrote:
Is anyone aware of a DVR that accepts the card that Charter provides to make their signal useable?

Try TiVo. They're a bit pricy because of their directory service subscription, but they accept all multi-channel CableCards -- which is what Charter is required by FCC regulation to supply. The Charter service line to discuss it with them is 1-888-438-2427.

MrWizard wrote:

is anyone aware of a DVR that accepts the card that Charter provides to make their signal useable?

as far as the internet side , sounds like you want an apple tv, roku, sony media player
these use their own remote .. no mouse

for mouse use ... sounds like you need a 'Home Theater PC'
your TV is the PC monitor..and you can use a wireless mouse
something like Windows Media Center

Thanks for your advice.

is anyone aware of a DVR that accepts the card that Charter provides to make their signal useable?

as far as the internet side , sounds like you want an apple tv, roku, sony media player
these use their own remote .. no mouse

for mouse use ... sounds like you need a 'Home Theater PC'
your TV is the PC monitor..and you can use a wireless mouse
something like Windows Media Center

MrWizard wrote:
maybe this will do what you want

http://www.moxi.com/us/moxi_dvr.html

That might do part of what I want but it is no longer sold to the public and must come from the cable company and Charter no longer offers it. Why would they? It competes with their $20/month rental DVR.

What I want is essentially a stripped down laptop: no monitor, no keyboard, controlled through the TV screen with a wireless mouse, nothing not necessary to connect the TV to the Internet, and connected wirelessly to the Internet router. It's only function would be to feed Internet data to the TV.

George, you could say I accidentally tested the PVR function. :) I was recording an HD program and accidentally hit the Play button on the remote. The program I was recording went back to the beginning and went into play mode while still recording where it left of. I've actually never used PVR before, and will also likely use it rarely if at all in the future.

maybe this will do what you want

http://www.moxi.com/us/moxi_dvr.html

This week my cable company (Charter)converted to all digital and encrypted everything. My DVR is now a door stop and I am forced to rent a replacement as well as a second box to make the second TV functional. My bill has gone up 60% which I am sure is the intent of encryption.

Is anyone aware of a DVR that accepts the card that Charter provides to make their signal useable?

Also, I have been experimenting with using my laptop to stream shows to the TV. It is a little cumbersome. Are there any wireless boxes that would attach to the HDMI input of the TV and allow streaming over the Internet. I want one that allows anything and is not limited like the ones built in to the TV.

I think the cable TV industry is in big trouble. There will be a revolution in using the Internet to provide programming much like what happened when Apple invented iTunes. When that happens cable companies, which are the most despised companies in America, will become Internet providers only.

As you can tell, I am really annoyed at what Charter has done to me.

the drive i'm currently using is a 2TB that is about 70% or more full
NTFS format
it might be the number of files on the drive slows down the time it takes the PVR to initialize
I'm going to use another drive 'new or repurposed'


Bob .. by pvr function
do you mean 'time shift' function ? pausing live video
i have tested that, But for me thats not a primary function
not saying iI'll never use it, i probably will at some point
if i have to take a phone call or something
but the Hi-Def recording of live TV is my main reason for getting this unit

I've not tested the MediaWorx either for clear QAM. Just going by what their factory technical support says that it does support clear QAM in firmware.

MrWizard wrote:
Chris have you tested for QAM ?

i only have OTA broadcast and cannot test for QAM compatibility

thats why i posted iview which is speced as receiving QAM

No- just going by the specs, which do list QAM16 and QAM64, but that really doesn't mean it will work on a cable system
Our cable has apparently stopped using clear QAM.