[jacktechie]

A week ago, something changed with a few of the San Francisco South Bay Area Comcast broadcast channels. When 709 (KQED Channel 9 HD) or 710 is recorded, a TS download via kmttg and Tivo Desktop works. But when 1009 or 1054 is recorded, the same download only gets you the audio track - no video. There may be others, but I have thoroughly checked.

Since I have OnePass enabled for all channels, it seems to pick anything it wants. I do not know when 717 vs 1060 or 710 vs 1054 are chosen. So I just went into channel setup and deleted all the 1xxx broadcast channels.

Another thing - Comcast lowered 709 bandwidth to about 4.2Mbps about a week ago. It's now the same as 710. OTA broadcast is ~10Mbps and ~7.8Mpbs respectively. It looks like the other broadcast channels still are close to OTA bandwidth.

 

[jacktechie]

Comcast just started encoding 704 KRON as TS so max bandwidth of 4.2Mbps. Downloading as TS works. 709, 710 works when it works, so Comcast is really messing with the TS on those 2 channels. Great Performances - King and I is fine on 709. Revolutionaries is fine on 710. 5 other programs has only audio. If I truly want to save something, it will need to be recorded with the Tivo HD.

 

[HerronScott]

Comcast just started encoding 704 KRON as TS so max bandwidth of 4.2Mbps. Downloading as TS works. 709, 710 works when it works, so Comcast is really messing with the TS on those 2 channels. Great Performances - King and I is fine on 709. Revolutionaries is fine on 710. 5 other programs has only audio. If I truly want to save something, it will need to be recorded with the Tivo HD.

You mean they've moved these broadcast channels to MPEG4 (TS is the format you have to download MPEG4 shows in). If they are MPEG4, the HD can record them but won't be able to download them as they did not update it to support TS downloads when they added MPEG4 support for recording.

Scott

 

[jacktechie]

Yes, everything you stated is correct. When I had MPEG4 programs on the Tivo HD, I would browse from the Bolt, transfer over, and then use kmttg to get them down to the PC.

As noted in my signature, I have a Tivo HD with OTA only (no cable card fee to Comcast), so I can record 9-1 (709 PBS), 9-2 (710 PBS), 4-1 (704 MyNetwork) directly via antenna. Yes, Comcast has encoded 709, 710, 704 (700's are hi def) as MPEG4 channels which I must download with kmttg TS. If downloaded with MPEG2 (TS downloads unchecked in kmttg), no video or audio stream will be found.

I keep the Tivo HD as 722 (22-1 PBS) is available in San Francisco, but only SD channel 200 here. My Channel Master 8 bay bowtie can get a signal almost all the time with occasional loss of signal from its transmitter about 73 miles away.

The bad news looks to be Comcast shrinking bandwidth to 4.2Mbps and MPEG4 for the broadcast channels.

 

[jacktechie]

This is getting very random on Comcast local channels that are encoded to MPEG4. There is also a single episode of The David Rubenstein from Bloomberg channel that is encrypted, which is unusual since all non-locals are already MPEG4.

On a rerun of Country Music on Jan. 4 on 709, it can be downloaded via kmttg and plays. Several hours earlier, that downloaded version does not play and has no video or audio. mediainfo.exe shows both video and audio tracks are encrypted on the nonplayable and unencrypted video on the playable version.

Anything can be transferred to the other Bolt and HD3 and is playable. You just cannot get a playable copied out from the Tivo. Somebody or something is setting an incorrect flag for these broadcasts?

 

[jacktechie]

It's actually getting worse on 709, 710, 717. There are different shows that are not encoded correctly at ~10 or ~34 minute mark. If I skip that 30 sec - 2 minute and use Videoredo 5, I can get everything else. Videoredo 6 sometimes has problems with these. Worst case - only audio and scrambled video.

 

[leiff]

Yes for years my recordings on PBS channel 709 are very unreliable when transferring to Pc .SF north bay