Comcast: Filter/Trap?

[Diego Garcia]

My cable provider is Comcast, in San Mateo County (Bay Area, south of San Francisco on the peninsula).

Last week Comcast got around to encrypting almost everything but the OTA channels on my cable feed. At least, I assumed they'd "just" encrypted the signals.

But yesterday when I ordered a bunch of STBs and upgraded my service to HD the Comcast rep told me a tech had to come out to remove a "trap" on my line so I could get my new package of channels.

This has me wondering if maybe "all" that happened last week is that they installed a trap on my line. In other words, maybe those signals I thought were encrypted were simply being blocked.

This isn't a terribly big deal, except that the signals being blocked, rather than encrypted, would be nice because after they remove the trap, maybe it would make my HDHomeRun more useful .

Does anyone have any experience with Comcast and their approach to regulating what signals get to your house? Do they use filters/traps, or encryption, or both?

[sflamm]

Nope - same story here. The trap was indeed preventing you from getting the upper channels. But they really have encrypted them now - so even with it off you cannot receive anything in clearQAM other an 2-32 (sux!)

[Diego Garcia]

Ah, the joys of a monopoly service provider...

Too bad AT&T doesn't have IPTV in my area yet. It looks like an interesting alternative.

BTW, I can confirm that, indeed, having whatever trap there was removed (by Comcast, please note, as part of my service call) didn't affect the availability of the previously clear QAM channels. So my HDHomeRun is now a semi-boat anchor (for a small boat ). Too bad, I liked it.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Nope - same story here. The trap was indeed preventing you from getting the upper channels. But they really have encrypted them now - so even with it off you cannot receive anything in clearQAM other an 2-32 (sux!)

Does the encryption include the locals in HD? Just asking, as that's all I've ever had on my Comcast cable.

[Diego Garcia]

Not for me. Basically, all of the over-the-air channels are unencrypted. It's just that most of the other channels (e.g., USA, A&E, CNN) are encrypted.

[davephan]

If Comcast dropped the analog cable, as they did in my area, you can get up to 2 DTA boxes for free, no monthly rental charge. The DTA boxes are RF in and RF out. The picture quality is worse, so they are not the best source for your SageTV tuners. Although you could use them as extra set top boxes for lessor used TVs in your house.

Dave