Cablecard: time is ticking

[revengineer 142]

I have been informed by my cable provider Xfinity in the USA that beginning in October 2024 new cablecards will no longer be available to new and existing customer. With that, the time for my HDHomerun Prime is ticking, and with that the ability to access cable TV through emby. I have an HDHomerun Quattro for OTA TV but there are a number of channels I would not be able to access if my cablecard were to die. Looking into the future, what are my legal options to access channels like CNN through emby without cablecard? 

Edited September 25, 2024 by revengineer

[Luke 42077]

Interesting. Haven't heard cable card come up in a while.

[revengineer 142]

It has been working great with emby but it is clear that the days are numbered. Xfinity is switching over to streaming and there is an app for that. Unfortunately it is standalone and does not hook into emby where I can record TV and keep the recordings with the emby media collection. Of course, IPTV solves the issue but I understand that non of the sources are legal. What seems needed are commercial .m3u services, but after years of waiting and looking, I cannot find any vendors for a legal service. 

[Sammy 790]

Spectrum priced me out wheny promo expired. Rather than them cutting a deal to keep money coming in I cut them out and jumped to YTTV and Frndly to get what I needed. I added Channels DVR for TVE with an m3u tuner to Emby but will probably just let that go to as I've found we're just not using it as much as I thought. Then I bumped my internet speed to Gig and still came out ahead on the monthly outlay.

[Sammy 790]

22 minutes ago, revengineer said:

It has been working great with emby but it is clear that the days are numbered. Xfinity is switching over to streaming and there is an app for that. Unfortunately it is standalone and does not hook into emby where I can record TV and keep the recordings with the emby media collection. Of course, IPTV solves the issue but I understand that non of the sources are legal. What seems needed are commercial .m3u services, but after years of waiting and looking, I cannot find any vendors for a legal service. 

See my post above. Charter has streaming but doesn't support GoogleTV devices so they're out!

[Sammy 790]

Check out www.suppose.tv

[revengineer 142]

2 minutes ago, Sammy said:

Spectrum priced me out wheny promo expired. Rather than them cutting a deal to keep money coming in I cut them out and jumped to YTTV and Frndly to get what I needed. I added Channels DVR for TVE with an m3u tuner to Emby but will probably just let that go to as I've found we're just not using it as much as I thought. Then I bumped my internet speed to Gig and still came out ahead on the monthly outlay.

I am only following half of what you write. Do YTTV or Frndly offer m3u tuners? What is Channels DVR for TVE? I guess is need an article or pointer to read up on this.

[Sammy 790]

https://getchannels.com/

https://community.getchannels.com/t/use-channels-dvr-as-a-tuner-for-emby/22486

[revengineer 142]

3 minutes ago, Sammy said:

https://getchannels.com/

https://community.getchannels.com/t/use-channels-dvr-as-a-tuner-for-emby/22486

Thank you. I found the getchannels website but was missing the second post. i will read up on this.

[Sammy 790]

4 minutes ago, revengineer said:

Thank you. I found the getchannels website but was missing the second post. i will read up on this.

One more puzzle piece:

https://getchannels.com/tv-everywhere

[Sammy 790]

Find the best service for you here:

https://www.suppose.tv/tv

[revengineer 142]

8 minutes ago, Sammy said:

https://getchannels.com/

https://community.getchannels.com/t/use-channels-dvr-as-a-tuner-for-emby/22486

Do I understand correctly that I getchannels does not offer any Live TV itself? So I need to keep my TV provider, the getchannels can tap into their lineup and provide me with an m3u file that I can then use in emby. Costwise this would mean an extra $80 per year for getchannels and I need to keep my Xfinity TV services as well. Correct?

[revengineer 142]

3 minutes ago, Sammy said:

One more puzzle piece:

https://getchannels.com/tv-everywhere

Yes I found this. This is not Live TV but provides connectivity to existing Live TV, correct?

1 minute ago, Sammy said:

Find the best service for you here:

https://www.suppose.tv/tv

This is a nice site. I have an old grandfathered in Xfinity plan which seems to be cheaper than any of the offered services.

[Sammy 790]

Basically TVE lets you use your Xfinity credentials to stream LiveTV. Channels DVR uses those same credentials to create a "tuner" to create a lineup in Channels DVR which is also open with an m3u stream useable by Emby.

If the price from Xfinity is good then stick with it using their app but you loose local control of content.

[kleinbergc 1]

I'm in the same boat as you, and I'm slowly migrating away from my cable cards. Channels DVR as stated above has been my go-to, this has allowed me to manage all my sources and then just pull them into Emby. (Pluto, HD Home run Prime, HD Home Run Flex 4K, TVE, and now ADB Tuner)

Check out this project as well. - ADBTuner: A "channel tuning" application for networked Google TV / Android TV devices - Playground - Channels Community (getchannels.com)

I have 5 tuners setup to use the ADBTuner app with both my Xfinity stream account and a trial YouTube TV account, both work amazingly well I haven't run into any real issues yet other than the initial setup cost.

[revengineer 142]

It seems that the channels TV everywhere function could be handled locally. I am not interested in the DVR function. I guess the secret is in the know how and this has not been reproduced by an app running locally on a server as a companion to emby.

Otherwise, where this seems to be going is that the decreasing quality of live TV combined with the increasing cost to make it available is decreasing worth it to pursue.

I am not counting on the cable companies recognizing the universal value of authenticated m3u stream, which solve the issue that cablecard addresses in software.

[Sammy 790]

Not much interest here:

[revengineer 142]

Yup, I figured @Sammy. And not just for emby, it seems to apply in general since there seems to be no alternative to getchannels when it comes to hooking into US cable TV providers. We will see how this develops. We have been slowly weaned off live TV over the past couple of years, and in another two years, I may be ready to cut the cable cord as well. I am already well aware that eh amount of money I spend on live TV vs the benefit and quality I am getting is not exactly the best value. I just need to overcome the last bit of inertia.