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[ajowers]

From my research it does not look like there is a TV tuner card that is comcast compatible.  Are there any other methods like internet streaming that allows me to watch tv on MC?

[Yaobing]

From my research it does not look like there is a TV tuner card that is comcast compatible.  Are there any other methods like internet streaming that allows me to watch tv on MC?

You need to use a Comcast set top box and a video capture device (such as this one - http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html) along with a remote control/IR blaster kit (see Media Center Remote image on upper right corner of this forum page).

[ajowers]

Ok, I have the comcast box.  So place a capture card into my media center pc.  Then I assume what I am doing is sending IR signals to the front IR reciever of the comcast box as generated by something controlled by the computer right ?

What if I want to keep comcast internet and give up comcast TV all together... is there a service like netflix that shows all the tv networks in HD that streams over the internet ?

[DwestSeattle]

I have Comcast in the Seattle area.

If you don't care to watch any premium channels; the basics are just fine for you, then you can get a tuner card (or networked device like silicondust HD Homerun) and plug the cable straight into one of these and it can tune the cable channels directly in MC.  This is what I do.  You can supplement this using netflix (either the windows 8 metro app or the built in JR Media Center interface), hulu, youtube, Amazon VOD, iTunes VOD, etc.

If you DO want to watch premium channels, then yes, you will need to follow Yaobing's advice and control your cable box with an IR blaster.  I have never tried this since it seems a little too much like a Rube Goldberg device to me, and I don't watch all that much TV.  A cable-card tuner would be a better solution, but I don't know if Comcast provides these, and I don't think MC supports them yet.

A "hybrid" solution to this could be using the Xfinity online TV streaming experience.  What I mean by this is that you can open a browser on your tv and login to Xfinity online and view content online.  You can view content from premium channels that are part of your channel subscription package.  Now this isn't a perfect solution because:
-Xfinity does not provide you all of the content for online streaming.  They only provide a subset of available shows and episodes for online streaming
-It is not direction-pad remote friendly.  You'll need a remote device that includes a touchpad or other pointing device.
-It probably does not provide live sports game feeds

[ajowers]

Ok.  I only have Comcast Digital Plus (no premium channels and dont care to have them).  I thought a digital cable box was still required to "decode" even the most basic channels?  In other words I assumed the cable box was a gateway technology and that a raw cable connected to a TV would show only static.

My box is not the HD box but it is the large one like the HD box.

[ajowers]

Can I order a CableCARD from Comcast and insert that into a CetonCorp InfiniTV PCIe card and have it work with MC18 ?

Would a silicon dust HD HomeRun device work any better ?

Also, does MC18 support the copy protection bit? (I am learning as I go along - please forgive my lack of knowledge in this area)

[DwestSeattle]

Ok.  I only have Comcast Digital Plus (no premium channels and dont care to have them).  I thought a digital cable box was still required to "decode" even the most basic channels?  In other words I assumed the cable box was a gateway technology and that a raw cable connected to a TV would show only static.

My box is not the HD box but it is the large one like the HD box.

There is something called Clear QAM, which are a set of unencrypted cable channels.  I have comcast cable plugged directly into two different LCD HDTV's and the built in TV tuners can scan and pull in lots of channels without any cable box.  There are a handful of channels which I am paying for that can only be viewed through a cable box, but I don't really care enough to have that plugged in.

Having said that, the FCC cleared cable companies to encrypt even the basic QAM channels, but I don't know when/if they will actually implement that.

I don't believe Media Center supports the Ceton cable card tuner.  You could call Comcast and see if they will provide you one, but I'm not sure it will work with MC.  See this thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77083.0

The standard SiliconDust HD HR does work, that is what I use, however (as you'll see in the aforementioned thread) there is some difficulty getting MC to see all the channels when you do a channel scan.  The nice thing about these SDHR units is that you don't have to crack open your computer, it is network attached, so any computer on your LAN can be configured to use it, and you can easily add more to your LAN to include more tuners.  The initial configuration is kind of a pain, and no step by step comprehensive manual explaining how to do the setup with MC.  (Hint, you have to do channel scans in the Silicondust program AND in JR Media Center on EACH tuner).

[Yaobing]

Can I order a CableCARD from Comcast and insert that into a CetonCorp InfiniTV PCIe card and have it work with MC18 ?

Ceton devices are not currently supported in MC.  I am working on it.  Unfortunately the progress is slow.

Would a silicon dust HD HomeRun device work any better ?

You may want to take a look at this thread:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77083.msg522094#msg522094

Also, does MC18 support the copy protection bit? (I am learning as I go along - please forgive my lack of knowledge in this area)

The answer is no.  We do not currently support playing protected channels.

[mmain1]

Ceton devices are not currently supported in MC.  I am working on it.  Unfortunately the progress is slow.

Yaobing,
I just wanted to encourage you to continue to work on supporting Ceton devices. 
Windows Media Center is certainly dying a slow death despite being strung along in Windows 8. 

There really are no other viable replacements for WMC except MC.

[JimH]

Yaobing,
I just wanted to encourage you to continue to work on supporting Ceton devices. 
Windows Media Center is certainly dying a slow death despite being strung along in Windows 8. 

There really are no other viable replacements for WMC except MC.

MC 18.0.146 added support for Ceton devices:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=79010.0