CableCard refugees: What's next?

Let me know how it works. I still prefer the Ospreys but I want a backup plan and given my Fastchannels PR getting merged and proper DTV channel numbers inbound that is a viable solution for me if I needed to go that route.

I haven’t turned the Osprey's off yet but have FC set as a higher priority. My tuning speed is about 1 second less than Channels TVE.
I'm hoping there's a nice easy way to add a tuner. :laughing: :laughing:

I wouldn't know. I could have written perhaps 10000 lines of the code with my robot buddy to maybe probably make a tremendous webui.....

A couple of notes on the ONN 4K Stick (2026):

It's a touch slower than the FireStick 4K Max (Gen2)
It has half of the app storage capacity
It does not have WiFi 6 at all, much less the WiFi 6E of the FireStick (potentially an issue for sticks in a tight pack using WiFi)
Compatibility with OTG Ethernet adapters is unknown at this point

I have two of these sticks in my test setup, and they seem fine generally. I prefer the FireStick 4K Max, but they're my next favorite -- mostly due to their similar form factor.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, they do have the dreaded "wireless pairing" of Android 14. However, you don't need (or want) to use it. Just the usual Developer Options, followed by enabling USB Debugging, and they can be ADB authorized -- including that authorization surviving reboots.

I'll aim for those then, just have to wait for a price drop!

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately the CableCARD website no longer activates cards. The message says to call Xfinity, but so far none of the reps I've talked to knows how to activate a card. I've purchased the hardware to switch to Fire TV Sticks + LinkPi + ah4c. I've got the sticks and ah4c setup, just waiting for the LinkPi to arrive in the next few days. Constructing an m3u for my channel lineup has been more work than I expected. I thought there'd be a Schedules Direct-type site that already had Xfinity streaming deeplinks cataloged, but it looks like that's a manual process. If you have a good Xfinity m3u you're willing to share, please do so in the ah4c post. The m3u on github is fairly small and missing a lot of channels.

1 Like

My m3u is based on the one at github.com and has the premium channels only.

1 Like

I managed to haul 8 like new 4K Max sticks this morning and 2 new ones all on sale at Amazon for about half off.

Gen2, yes?

Yup Gen2. When you get a chance if you could let me know what you use to mount them that would be awesome!! Once actual prime day happens I'm planning on cheap ethernet adapters but these honestly sit right next to my router so they should be fine for FastChannels and hopefully will tune faster than my ospreys.

Rackmount approach here:

Ultra-compact, minimal approach here:

1 Like

is that Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus ?

Great post!!!

I picked up (2) new ones so no need to buy the ONN stick!!

Nothing beats an early deal!!!!

No, he bought the FireStick 4K Max (Gen2).

The new units are limited to two but the like new ones I placed a couple of orders and was able to stock up. I did this at 8 am and so far no cancellation notice.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXLZHDNC

I am not a CableCard refugee ... yet. I have Spectrum and they are still supporting CableCards for the time being.

However, they recently completed their high-split upgrade in my area. They provided a high-split converter to replace my old tuning adapter and I am getting all my channels through my HDHomeRun Prime. The drawback is that the "upgrade" actually downgraded all my formerly 1080i channels to 720p and I'm pretty bummed about that. While I record from several channels, the only channel I truly care about is TCM. I really want to get my 1080i/1080p resolution back for that channel, and hopefully retain the Dolby 5.1 audio as well.

I am intrigued by the various setups by users here, but I'm wondering how these setups handle HDCP. Is there any way for me to achieve 1080i/1080p through either the Watch TCM app or the TCM channel on the Spectrum TV app? Maybe with a LinkPi or URay encoder and a streaming device (e.g., Apple TV, Onn, Firestick)? I could even connect one of my Spectrum STBs to an encoder if the encoder can handle the HDCP handshake.

My searches are bringing up conflicting information about whether any of this can be done due to HDCP restrictions. I'm willing to spend some money on the necessary equipment, but only if I can be fairly certain it will all perform as I want/need.

I would be grateful and appreciative if anyone can offer some advice or guidance. :smiling_face:

My understanding is that HDCP is not an issue as long as you're under 4K, I have both of my provider's Android TV STBs hooked to encoders and there's no handshake problem.

You can get up to 1080p output from your Spectrum boxes but you will only get stereo sound from all encoders and capture devices. There's ways to get your Spectrum channels directly without boxes and that's the route I would take with Channels. Search for Spectrum here, you'll see tons of posts about it.

1 Like

There's ways to get your Spectrum channels directly without boxes and that's the route I would take with Channels.

Thanks so much for replying! Do you mean like through the Spectrum TV app on a streaming device connected to an encoder?

I'm still looking through Spectrum-related posts, but so far most have to do with TVE-related issues/topics. TVE is great to have, but it's only 720p for me.

is this the desired one? best buy and homedepot have them on sale and I figure I should diversify too

Yes.