FCC to allow encryption of basic cable

[drewg]

I hope the FCC requires that the cable companies drop stand-alone internet prices when they encrypt the locals...

I've used 2 different cable companies (I've moved, both have been monopolies). With both companies, the price of stand-alone internet has been almost exactly the same as the price of "basic" cable (locals + cspan + shopping / religious channels nobody wants) bundled with the same tier of internet speed. The assumption that I've always made is that the cable company thinks that since you don't have a filter on your line, then you're stealing the basic channels and charges you for it. Now that this assumption is no longer true, it would be nice if they charged you for just internet.

Drew

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by Tiki

No, actually I was thinking about QAM channels. Comcast got rid of the few remaining analog channels about a year ago by me, but they kept the locals available via unencrypted QAM.

Yes, if we're talking about clear QAM locals (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, etc) then we're talking about the same thing.

However TNT, USA, AMC, History, etc which you mentioned in your post are not local channels and I didn't realize that any Comcast market put those out via clear QAM. I assumed they were still analog if folks were getting them directly without a DTA or set-top box.

[skiingwiz]

Originally Posted by drewg

I hope the FCC requires that the cable companies drop stand-alone internet prices when they encrypt the locals...

I've used 2 different cable companies (I've moved, both have been monopolies). With both companies, the price of stand-alone internet has been almost exactly the same as the price of "basic" cable (locals + cspan + shopping / religious channels nobody wants) bundled with the same tier of internet speed. The assumption that I've always made is that the cable company thinks that since you don't have a filter on your line, then you're stealing the basic channels and charges you for it. Now that this assumption is no longer true, it would be nice if they charged you for just internet.

I've always assumed they do that to up their cable subscriber counts.

[nyplayer]

Comcast in my area has started charging 1.99 for DTAs that were free a year ago.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Comcast in my area has started charging 1.99 for DTAs that were free a year ago.

They changed the pricing on the DTA's (CT) here a while back also. I had 2 DTA's that I got when I had NON-HD TV's and had just kept them after I got HDTV's because they were free and truthfully I never, ever watched them. All my watching was through SageTV.

Then suddenly I noticed I was getting charged for them on my bill. Not any old charge, they were charging the same price at the HD STB's!!!
I called to check if that was correct and was told they changed the pricing and it was indeed correct. So I went down to the local service center the next day and traded those crappy DTA's for HD STB's.

Comcast also did a wholesale change to the lineup here just the other day. All HD channels moved to channels at 1000+, they added and moved some other channels too. Now I'm just waiting for the EPG to reflect those changes. 2 days now of forcing an EPG update every 12 hours or so in hopes of the new data. <sigh>

[bcjenkins]

You should open a ticket on the EPG. They will notify Zap2It and ask them to speed it up.

B

[nyplayer]

I was real lucky. I went to my neighborhood RadioShack and purchased an Indoor amplified Omnidirectional antenna and was able to drive my 2 Dual tuners with no signal loss with a digital 4 way splitter... I was able to get additional Ion channels that did not come in clear QAM.

I took a flier on the Antenna because RadioShack has a good 30 day refund policy so if it didn't work I could get my money back.

So I am officially off QAM on my SageTV just cable card and OTA.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

You should open a ticket on the EPG. They will notify Zap2It and ask them to speed it up.

B

I have done that directly with Zap2it when Comcast changed their lineup in the past , and may have to again. The lineup came in yesterday afternoon, but there are a few that didn't make it and are still pointing to the old channel designation.
I figured I'd give it another day or two for those to come in. If it hasn't made the change by then I'll have to drop Zap2it a line.

[WellThen]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I was real lucky. I went to my neighborhood RadioShack and purchased an Indoor amplified Omnidirectional antenna and was able to drive my 2 Dual tuners with no signal loss with a digital 4 way splitter... I was able to get additional Ion channels that did not come in clear QAM.

I took a flier on the Antenna because RadioShack has a good 30 day refund policy so if it didn't work I could get my money back.

So I am officially off QAM on my SageTV just cable card and OTA.

Hey nyplayer,

Thanks for providing a link to the antenna. Got a link to the splitter you used? It looks like I'm going to have to do the same thing.

Thanks.

[wbarber69]

Just get some hdpvrs and DirecTV. Problem solved.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by wbarber69

Just get some hdpvrs and DirecTV. Problem solved.

This is my last Investment on SageTV I have a HdHomerun Prime 3 cable tuner and and 2 HD Homeruns for OTA and 1 HD Stb firewire capture.. PVR HTPC the way I see it are a dying breed.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by WellThen

Hey nyplayer,

Thanks for providing a link to the antenna. Got a link to the splitter you used? It looks like I'm going to have to do the same thing.

Thanks.

I got the gold plated 4 way digital splitter by radioshack.

[wbarber69]

whenever the very first cablecard tuner came out I figured something like this would happen. My system will function for as long as I intend to keep it up with directv. I left cable because of the service, but after leaving and setting up directv instead I finally noticed something I never noticed before. it works without any problems. my cable boxes used to freeze up my hdpvrs. the qam signal from cable would freeze up my server from time to time. and i would constantly get corrupted recordings. all a thing of the past with directv. My hdpvrs are no longer on daily timers. I no longer have to schedule a daily reboot. and all my shows get recorded without issue. And since everything is now in h.264 I dont have to transcode everything to save space.

Plus, once you have experienced tuning over http, youll never want anything else.

[nyplayer]

This is why I cannot switch to Directv I love my sports...

Q: I currently have Satellite coverage only. I do not subscribe to Comcast; will I be able to see the Trail Blazers play?

A: As a Satellite subscriber, you will receive the 23 KGW games, as well as any other nationally televised game on ESPN, TNT and NBA TV. The 53 games broadcast by Comcast SportsNet are currently not carried by satellite providers. Comcast SportsNet is negotiating as we speak with Dish Network, DirecTV and the other cable television providers in the Oregon/SW Washington. We are hopeful that a deal will be worked out soon to provide Dish and Direct customers with access to the 53 Comcast SportsNet games.

Also Oregon Ducks
Oregon beavers
I lose all that not worth it to me.

If and when I cannot record in Sage I guess I will convert my HD boxes to DVR boxes.

[Fuzzy]

I'm pretty sure I just saw a sage 'new channel added' message with Comcast sportsnet on dish network. There were also a lot of other notifications regional foxsports channels.

[MattHelm]

Well, other than a royal (normal) screw-up by Comcast, my dad's CableCard is working fine. First they tried to put it on my account instead of dad's, then when we got that fixed, they never activated the card. Second call got it running.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I have done that directly with Zap2it when Comcast changed their lineup in the past , and may have to again. The lineup came in yesterday afternoon, but there are a few that didn't make it and are still pointing to the old channel designation.
I figured I'd give it another day or two for those to come in. If it hasn't made the change by then I'll have to drop Zap2it a line.

You can also open a ticket with SageTV. They have been really good about responding to issues.

B

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

You can also open a ticket with SageTV. They have been really good about responding to issues.

B

Some of them have straggled in over the last week or so via the regular EPG downloads. All the important ones (i.e. those channels I record regularly) that hadn't automatically updated I manually edited in setup video sources lineups.

Comcast was nice enough to send me several lineup cards over the last couple months of statements so I could check them out on the STB and massage the SageTV/Zap2It lineups so they were tuning the proper channels.

[mkanet]

I'm curious if anyone knows if we will be able to still tune into our regular HDHomeRun's if we have Comcast (based on the article below). I think my HDHomeRuns are network/IP based; but not sure if its at all related to what's mentioned in the below URL. Maybe the update would need to come from SiliconDust, not SageTV? Maybe, it would as simple as a firmware update for my HDHomerun tuners?

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/14/f...-strings-that/

* merged *

[gilded07]

I remember hearing / reading about this a while back...I didn't think a cablco could legally encrypt a rebroadcasted network channel anyways...

But not surprised they're wanting to encrypt analog - they really want everyone on digital service anyway. To me, this seems like a masked attempt at phasing out analog by raising analog prices and to slowly convert everyone over to digital. Digital cable, where they can bundle phone and other digital svcs, is more profitable for them and takes less bandwith.

Although cableco's will spin the loss of analog as somehow a benefit to their customers, changes like this are never about the consumer.