Here's the background. I'm in BCS area and we have Suddenlink.

About 3 years ago I purchased an HDHomeRun (https://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/hdhomerun-connect-na/) so I could watch TV on my Mac. Got the device hooked up and purchased EyeTV (https://www.elgato.com/en/eyetv/eyetv-3).

I was able to get a few of the "local" channels in HD (CBS etc). All the other normal channels (ESPN, TNT, yada yada yada) I could get but they were not in HD. I figured this was because I didn't have a cable card and it wasn't a deal breaker.

So fast forward to this week. We haven't had cable for about a year, I finally got it back and activated for football season. Opened up EyeTV and the channels were all wrong as they moved around since the last time we had cable service.

Do a re-scan and it only finds one channel. http://cl.ly/image/1W2o0A3T2L2d. My only scan options are digital cable or antenna (http://cl.ly/image/1J0o0l203V26) - in the past digital cable worked fine. I've done the scan a few times, even with the exhaust search but still nothing.

So at this point I was thinking Suddenlink is pulling a fast one on me. We just have the basic package (SL-200), maybe they gave us that but omitted adding basic cable to our package which would allow viewing without a cable box?

http://help.suddenlink.com/television/Pages/DTAFAQs.aspx?product=DigitaLink

quote:

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If your TV sets have built-in QAM digital tuners and you subscribe to both Suddenlink Basic and Expanded Basic TV, you can view all of those channels-plus HD Broadcast channels-without SL DigitaLinks.

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I have the QAM tuner in the HDHomeRun (which has always worked previously) and I have SL-200... so I'm thinking SL is blocking something.

Before I spend time calling and yelling at SL I wanted to double check and see if my understandings are correct here....

Bump for the morning crew!

I am not familiar with SL, but most cable companies will put an in line filter on the cable feed that runs to your modem, but leave other runs unfiltered (cable boxes, tvs, etc.). Not saying this is the case, but I would just check to make sure you're not trying to tie into the filtered line if applicable.

Suddenlink recently went "all digital" for their channels and they are blocking all qam. They did this to open up more channels for their new 1gig internet.

To get them you MUST purchase a HDHomerun prime and then get a cablecard from suddenlink but you will get the added advantage of having all channels in HD not just the local channels.

QAM is digital; what Suddenlink did was both remove any and all Analog channel (which is what freed up the bandwidth for Internet services) and encrypted all digital channels. Encrypting the channels saves zero bandwidth over not-encrypting them, and I did have e-mail confirmation from Suddenlink's support that the text on their website is incorrect; you need more than a ClearQAM capable tuner. You would either need their adapter boxes (DigitaLink as they're called; crappy Pace tuner boxes) or a TiVO, DVR or CableCARD to access any channels.

I've got both a HDHomeRun connect and an HDHomeRun Prime, as I'd cancelled DirecTV with their prices that seemed to go up just about every other month, and had started service with Suddenlink. I ordered a CableCARD to put into the HDHRPrime and it never damned worked. Worked with their technical support for a month, but they were too inept to be able to send the right activation signals to it. They assumed every time, and started their technical support script, for a subscriber owned TiVO. After two weeks, I got them to finally send the proper signal to activate the card, but they then couldn't figure out how to get the channel guide to work properly, and it never adapted and worked. I never got a single channel decoded, aside from their PPV preview channel, which my HDHR Connect could see as well. I worked through the SiliconDust software and Windows Media Center (which I'd built up for the specific purpose of activating and working with)

An HDHR Prime + CableCARD technologically should be all you need (plus a Windows Media Center DVR system to record and access certain channels such as premiums) but good bloody luck getting Suddenlink to get it working right.

Two callouts, two replaced M cards, zero working channels. Thanks Suddenlink!

Edit: However, if anyone would like to try; I've got a brand-new, hardly used HDHR Prime for sale!

Thanks for the info and the replies, extremely helpful and is basically what I was looking for.

So in a nut shell SL is full of sht and, despite what their website says, their QAM is encrypted and can't be viewed without a box.

Also getting a cable card setup and working sounds like an act of congress, so more or less I'm likely going to be ****ed....

Really was hoping to get to watch some ESPN on my computer while I worked.

Pisses me off that at this time last year I could get all the channels (non-HD) no problem on any device, without a box.

Arrrgh.