SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-Line Digital CableCard HDTV Tuner w/ Gigabit Ethernet (HDHR3-CC) $130 + Free Shipping

Quote from richmojc : NICE! I just subscribed to Comcast (my digital box comes via UPS today), and was looking for one of these. I currently have an old school HD Homerun for OTA recording with WMC and it works great. So I would like to get the PRIME to record cable with WMC and use the XBOX as a Media Extender upstairs to watch there too. Question, how much is an HD cable card from Comcast these days? Will it work for premium channels like Showtime and HBO? Thanks!

Just installed two of these with my Windows 7 MC and have six extenders (3 Linksys DMA2100, 3 Linksys DMA2200) tied in. In NJ, the first M-Card is free, the second was about $4/month. The biggest issue I had was getting two functioning M-Cards - it took four trips from Comcast installers to get all the channels I'm paying for on both cards. The DMA's have some issues, but I'm working through it. I wired the house with Cat 5e and installed a gigabit switch to make sure there were no issues with networking.

I was paying Directv over $100 a month for service, plus another $62/month for Comcast internet. Now, I'm paying $65/month for tv and internet.

Biggest issue I have right now is converting my DVDs to stream over the network. Nothing but issues with converting to wmv format.

Good luck!

Annoyed at how much I paid for two of these devices in the past 6-months now that I see these prices! Would recommend TunerSalad for anyone with more than one - and it is definitely worth the 'mandatory donation' to get that many channels at once.

For streaming DVDs chipmonger - do you mean they are ripped to a network drive? While there are plenty of software choices, I really like WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. There are occasionally free offers for it, but I paid to get the frequent updates included. I don't use WMV, but just do a direct copy, which is uncompressed to MPEG-2 I believe. I have also ripped to MP4 and other CODECs with it and everything plays great streaming from a NAS to WMC7 systems.

Quote from richmojc : NICE! I just subscribed to Comcast (my digital box comes via UPS today), and was looking for one of these. I currently have an old school HD Homerun for OTA recording with WMC and it works great. So I would like to get the PRIME to record cable with WMC and use the XBOX as a Media Extender upstairs to watch there too. Question, how much is an HD cable card from Comcast these days? Will it work for premium channels like Showtime and HBO? Thanks!

My cable company, Cablevision Optimum, came out several time to make these channels works. Their conculsion was that when the channel is set at "COPY ONCE", the HDHRun is failing to show the channels. Their suggestion was for me to contact HDHRun to fix the problem with a firmware. I never got around to doing that yet. All other channels works fine.

Remember when Ceton gouged as much as they could for basically the same thing ($500)? That was hilarious.

Quote from chipmonger : Just installed two of these with my Windows 7 MC and have six extenders (3 Linksys DMA2100, 3 Linksys DMA2200) tied in. In NJ, the first M-Card is free, the second was about $4/month. The biggest issue I had was getting two functioning M-Cards - it took four trips from Comcast installers to get all the channels I'm paying for on both cards. The DMA's have some issues, but I'm working through it. I wired the house with Cat 5e and installed a gigabit switch to make sure there were no issues with networking. I was paying Directv over $100 a month for service, plus another $62/month for Comcast internet. Now, I'm paying $65/month for tv and internet. Biggest issue I have right now is converting my DVDs to stream over the network. Nothing but issues with converting to wmv format. Good luck!

how much did you pay for those extenders? are they better or worse than using xboxs?

Does anyone happen to know if the tuner still works without the cable card installed? Even just to get standard def?

Love this product. Silicondust user forums are an excellent source of info if you have any questions. I initially got a bad cablecard and spent quite a bit of time here:

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/...m.php?f=44

As a comcast customer, I got my first cablecard for free. Don't forget that you may also be eligible to get a customer-owned equipment credit! Helps you reach that breakeven point even faster (It varies by location) If you don't see it on your bill, call in and demand that you get the credit.

http://www.comcast.com/equipmentp...irect=true

Quote from LxMxFxD : Does anyone happen to know if the tuner still works without the cable card installed? Even just to get standard def?

Has a built-in tuner for clear QAM, so should work for the basic stuff. Can't confirm from experience as I just ordered mine today.

I have one of these and love it. It works well in my setup (2 HTPCs/1 extender Xbox360). I have TWC so they flag everything and recordings can only be viewed on the PC they were recorded on or the extender.

I tried to get a ppv event and called it in. Since there is no 2-way communication with the card I wasn't able to view it so I had my order cancelled.

Quote from richmojc : NICE! I just subscribed to Comcast (my digital box comes via UPS today), and was looking for one of these. I currently have an old school HD Homerun for OTA recording with WMC and it works great. So I would like to get the PRIME to record cable with WMC and use the XBOX as a Media Extender upstairs to watch there too. Question, how much is an HD cable card from Comcast these days? Will it work for premium channels like Showtime and HBO? Thanks!

If you don't have any other boxes, your first CableCARD is free. You'll notice on your bill a charge for $2.50 and a credit for $2.50. Alternatively, if you want multiple cards or if you have a cable box with them, then each additional card is $2.50 in my area and may be +/-$1 or so depending on where you live.

Yes, it works with Showtime and HBO, but you only have 1-way communications, which means no on-demand stuff. If you like that feature, make sure you have a box from Comcast as well.

Does anyone know if this will work without a computer (outside of initial setup and firmware updates if needed)

Proposed setup:
HDHRP plugged into router through ethernet
HDHRP plugged into external USB HDD
Xbox 360 wireless or directly connected by ethernet to router

Or even better just plugging in the HDHRP straight to the Xbox through ethernet?

Quote from amax : Remember when Ceton gouged as much as they could for basically the same thing ($500)? That was hilarious.

I'm curious to see how much the Ceton Q (6 tuners with only 1 cablecard, 2tb hd, windows media center embedded) will cost when that is released. Sounds pretty slick, but I'm guessing it won't be cheap.

Quote from JoeSmith2010 : My cable company, Cablevision Optimum, came out several time to make these channels works. Their conculsion was that when the channel is set at "COPY ONCE", the HDHRun is failing to show the channels. Their suggestion was for me to contact HDHRun to fix the problem with a firmware. I never got around to doing that yet. All other channels works fine.

Did you get the SDV adapter? I have Optimum (in CT) and get all the channels I ordered, though it took a bit of work and multiple service calls. I had to ask about the SDV adapter as they didn't offer it up with the cablecard (may solve your issue may not). They had also supposedly done some 'signal balancing' in my area and the tech (the 3rd one that actually seemed to know what he was doing) said the cablecards are more finiky about the signal level. He ended up reruning my line to the house and with some other messing around got most of my channels I was missing, then a few days later the last couple that were missing appeared. I have also had to call a time or two when I turned the TV on and got 'Display Driver Error' on every channel which turned out to be they had just not pushed out an update.

Quote from Xero258 : Does anyone know if this will work without a computer (outside of initial setup and firmware updates if needed) Proposed setup: HDHRP plugged into router through ethernet HDHRP plugged into external USB HDD Xbox 360 wireless or directly connected by ethernet to router Or even better just plugging in the HDHRP straight to the Xbox through ethernet?

AFAIK, no. I do not believe the xbox has a full version of WMC, it will need some type of host (PC with WMC). If it did work like that, I don't think anyone would be using the xbox as an extender, you'd be able to just pull tuners from the network (like you can with each computer).

Quote from Xero258 : Does anyone know if this will work without a computer (outside of initial setup and firmware updates if needed) Proposed setup: HDHRP plugged into router through ethernet HDHRP plugged into external USB HDD Xbox 360 wireless or directly connected by ethernet to router Or even better just plugging in the HDHRP straight to the Xbox through ethernet?

Nope...you need software to control it. Xbox acts as an extender, but isn't actually running media center. If you don't want to pay for windows, there is support for Linux + mythtv which can be loaded for free.