cablecard no longer supported

[richlaf]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to for this question, but here is my problem. Starting October 1st, my Service Provider will no longer support cablecards. Can I use my hdhomerun Prime without the cablecard just to get whatever content they broadcast as Clear QAM? If so, would I remove the cablecard and rescan or just leave in the cablecard? Thanks

[signcarver]

If they have any clear qam that will work however you may need 3rd party software to properly support it for guide and dvr as often the providers don't provide the proper psip data with channel name and virtual channel number and both of those are needed for the guide data SD provides... third party software typically allows you to manually map such to use with other guide sources while SD is 100% dependent on the scan results.

[EddieP]

I thought only the ATSC tuners did clear QAM ? ... not the Primes.

[richlaf]

Thanks for the information on the cablecard and the need for software to handle psip data. If you have any software recommendations that woud be great.

[jasonl]

I'm assuming this is Optimum/Altice? They were the first ones to kill off clear QAM. You're just completely SOL.

[signcarver]

I thought only the ATSC tuners did clear QAM ? ... not the Primes.

The prime is a qam (cable) only tuner... doesn't matter if it is cablecard or clear qam as far as the tuner goes... however cablecard's main benefit other than decryption is that it gets a channel map that has virtual channel number and name. Clear qam can also have such information in the channel's stream but most cable companies don't properly provide this. For example in my area at one time locals were clear qam and physical 4.1, 4.2, and 4 3 were cable channels 10, 12, and 15 which corresponded to local 10.1, 12 1, and 15 1 however they did not provide either virtual channel number (either the 10 or 10.1) so the prime (or ota hdhomerun) added them to its lineup as 5001, 5002, and 5003. SD's software can only tune by that info (when such works with lack of guide data not certain of current ui state for the 5000's). Those channels will not get guide so won't work with SD's dvr.

Most of the other ota hdhomeruns also handle clear qam in addition to ota methods for their intended market such as 8vsb (atsc) but the prime will not work with those methods.

[wilme2]

I would wait and see what happens. So many times Spectrum has sent notices about cablecard support, but it still works - their customer service support just went from very bad to impossibly worse. Now in 2024 I had to ask to change to a high-split converter instead of Tuning Adapter, but they provided them without any trouble.

[gtb]

I'm assuming this is Optimum/Altice?

I think, technically, Optimum/Altice only indicated CableCARDs would stop working in October, and was vague about the exact date (although the wording of the email/letter suggested earlier rather than later), and the underlying PowerKEY Time Warp bug does not actually hit until November. Optimum/Altice is probably just trying to get everyone migrated to something else before they get a thousand calls all at once when the PowerKEY cards fail to function (they still will get a lot of calls from those who, even though they were repeatedly warned, ignored the contacts). They will be able to claim they tried to help.