Things to make you go hmmm, Cable TV Providers

[Mongo53]

The 1996 Telecommunications Act made it illegal for Cable TV Providers to use "Integrated Security" on Set Top Boxes (STB). Basically, the Cable Providers could NOT make their systems proprietary and force you to use their STB to access cable TV.

So 14 years later, the Cable Companies applied for waivers to the law, they just could NOT innovate enough to find a solution to this requirement. They got their waivers, and there is about one product on the market that can access the cable systems without using their proprietary STB, the law has been defacto overturned.

Now I get back from looking at new TV's, and notice most of them have features to work with Netflix, CinemaNow, Pandora, that have security to prevent pirating, Youtube and Facebook as well, just plug the back of the TV into the Internet.

Hmmm, in less than 2 years TV and Internet Providers have accomplished what the Cable Providers said was impossible, even though they've had 14 years.

I can't help to suspect there may be some ulterior motive, when I consider that COMCAST is charging $14 a STB if you want HD, and $8 a STB for crappy SD, and since the STB won't work with Open Market/3rd Party DVR's or any other unattended equipment, you have to rent a lesser DVR for $17 a month if you want to record TV, all creating all sorts of new revenue streams for COMCAST. As well as their exclusive deals with Motorola that now has a virtual monopoly on the STB market because of these deals and proprietary systems the cable providers are setting up.

Perhaps COMCAST and the other cable providers are the most technically inept companies in the Fortune 100, are they are just gouging the consumer, you decide.

The only thing I can think to do, is write the County Commissioners, if they open the Franchising, and allow more companies in, without putting ridiculous rules on them, we would start to get more competition. Once the competition gets more widespread, and NOT small remote areas, like it is now, one of the companies will see the competitive advantage making their cable system non-proprietary.

Think about, who is NOT going to switch from a provider that forces the consumer to spend extra for their crappy reconditioned proprietary equipment, when they can switch to a provider that you can plug your own equipment right into the wall for one price.

 

[glhs837]

My moto dual DVR just went bonkers last week. Was replaced with a equivalent box made by a company called Pace. Codes for Harmony are lacking, but workable.

 

[Mongo53]

I read about Moto having a "virtual" monopoly, its like 97% of the STB business, according to the article I read, take that with a grain of salt.

I have also noticed that COMCAST and other have some equipment from Pace and Scientific Atlantic. I've also noticed that often the really cheap stuff, like the DTA's are from Pace and the old stuff is from Scientific Atlantic. But I'm sure there are exceptions, your Dual DVR is NOT exactly a cheapo DTA.

Before I cancelled COMCAST TV, I was really frustrated by just how god awful their STB's were, the software, guide and channel handling, was just horrible. As well, they rendered my recorders near useless, but I could rent recorders from them to replace them, at a rate I considered was outrageous.

Even more frustrating was that it was obvious to me, that just a little bit of innovating, this stuff would work so much better with my TV, to see that you can get TV's now that work with over the internet security to watch Netflix and similiar Services, for watching movies realtime over the internet, just proves to me that the Cable Co's refused to innovate, my guess for the reasons above, create new revenue streams by renting more STB, with increasing scale of rental fees for additional features.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

yeah we got hosed when they went all digital a couple months back



3 Replay TV 4500 Series are now door stops

 

[Mongo53]

Think about it, how hard is a "Remote Control" link, a simple wire connected between the device to be controlled and the device to control it.

An Engineer could design it in a day, it would take a 1 day conference to produce and agree upon the spec.

Plug the "Remote" cable into your Replay TV and into the STB and it will channel and control it just fine.

Do the same for your TV and the STB, your TV remote works like it should, NO having to change TV input all the time, setting up a remote for both TV and STB, etc.

14 years ago when the Industries made their plans, laws were passed to prevent what they are doing now, they could have developed this solution in days, over 14 those 14 years, this solution would be in just about all the equipment people own today.

But of course, if they had done that simple solution that would make their customers so much happier, it would have meant that the Cable providers would rent less refurbished out of date PVR's for a monthly cost that equals the price of a brand new up to date PVR every 18 months.

 

[glhs837]

Harmony makes it almost that simple. To program, of course. Use is that simple. "Watch TV" button powers approriate stuff on, selects inputs on reciever and TV, and sets needed controls to the right gear. "Watch a Movie", "Play Xbox", whatever. So when I watch TV, the FF and RW buttons command the DVR, and when I watch a movie, those same buttons command the DVD player. The Wii, which is the only item to not use the receiver, volume is set so that those commands are sent to the TV, not the receiver. And programing is done through a GUI on your computer, using model numbers, not pressing a billion buttons.

 

[Larry Gude]

And these are the things monopolies produce, good and bad.

Everyone wanted cable a generation ago. The only practical solution was to allow companies territories to get the infrastructure set up. Do you pull that from them after they've built everything?

We did with phones both land lines and cell.

We need to do it with health care.

 

[desertrat]

And these are the things monopolies produce, good and bad.

Everyone wanted cable a generation ago. The only practical solution was to allow companies territories to get the infrastructure set up. Do you pull that from them after they've built everything?

We did with phones both land lines and cell.

We need to do it with health care.

I'm getting close to deciding T.V. isn't worth it. News and weather I get all off the net. There are some good shows, but wait a season and buy them if you must. Football, just visit a buddy and bring good snacks and beers, so he will always be happy to see you. Land line phone is gone already.

 

[Mongo53]

Harmony makes it almost that simple. To program, of course. Use is that simple. "Watch TV" button powers approriate stuff on, selects inputs on reciever and TV, and sets needed controls to the right gear. "Watch a Movie", "Play Xbox", whatever. So when I watch TV, the FF and RW buttons command the DVR, and when I watch a movie, those same buttons command the DVD player. The Wii, which is the only item to not use the receiver, volume is set so that those commands are sent to the TV, not the receiver. And programing is done through a GUI on your computer, using model numbers, not pressing a billion buttons.

Yes, but the problem is "unattended tuning" i.e. I go away for the week and want all my programs to be recorded and NO is there to change channels on the Receiver.

The IR blasters often don't work and when they do, they work unreliably, a lot of equipment has absolutely no provisions for using an IR blaster at all.

When I cancelled COMCAST TV, the girl kept telling me how I could get Universal Remotes that would solve all my problems. She just didn't understand I meant I wanted my recorders to be able to record any channel without me being there to change channels for it. When she finally got that, she couldn't understand why I didn't want a DVR, its only $17, I had to add, "PER MONTH" which means I get a refurbished DVR to replace my brand new one, that I will Pay COMCAST more for it in 18month than I paid for my brand new DVR, and continue paying that outrageous price every 18 months.

Then she tells me, the Content Providers force them to have the STB's, its NOT their fault.

PHONE: I got Ooma, one time cost for the equipment and you have VOIP for the life of the equipment for free.

Monopolies: I agree, government help it along by making it easier to get the infastructure in, then they would if it did it privately and kept the government out of it. As well, local and state governments stiffle the competition by making "Franchise" laws were the companies, and competition, have to negotiate a Franchise deal to get access to the infrastructure to compete. That results in government putting rules and stipulations that reduce the profit and make it less attractive, if even practical to try to compete. Things like, you have to service a certain number of areas that we choose, NOT of your choosing, to get access, which totally eleminates the return on investment the company needs and they have to go elsewhere.

 

[sleuth]

I'm getting close to deciding T.V. isn't worth it. News and weather I get all off the net. There are some good shows, but wait a season and buy them if you must. Football, just visit a buddy and bring good snacks and beers, so he will always be happy to see you. Land line phone is gone already.

I recently sliced my cable plan down to the most basic, upgraded the internet speed by one tier, and got Netflix for $9 a month.

So now I get local channels, 80% of my favorite shows through my Wii/Netflix subscription, hundreds of movies on demand, hundreds of kids television shows on demand, and unlimited dvd rental for about $50 a month less than what I was paying. The only downside is that I have to wait until the cable television series come out on DVD to watch them and less access to sports, which I don't watch anyway.

 

[glhs837]

Yes, but the problem is "unattended tuning" i.e. I go away for the week and want all my programs to be recorded and NO is there to change channels on the Receiver.

The IR blasters often don't work and when they do, they work unreliably, a lot of equipment has absolutely no provisions for using an IR blaster at all.

When I cancelled COMCAST TV, the girl kept telling me how I could get Universal Remotes that would solve all my problems. She just didn't understand I meant I wanted my recorders to be able to record any channel without me being there to change channels for it. When she finally got that, she couldn't understand why I didn't want a DVR, its only $17, I had to add, "PER MONTH" which means I get a refurbished DVR to replace my brand new one, that I will Pay COMCAST more for it in 18month than I paid for my brand new DVR, and continue paying that outrageous price every 18 months.

Then she tells me, the Content Providers force them to have the STB's, its NOT their fault.

PHONE: I got Ooma, one time cost for the equipment and you have VOIP for the life of the equipment for free.

.

Wait, I'm trying to get this. You wanted to record things on your own DVR, correct? Only using the cable companies STB to change channels? Is that it? So, what was your solution?

 

[Mongo53]

Wait, I'm trying to get this. You wanted to record things on your own DVR, correct? Only using the cable companies STB to change channels? Is that it? So, what was your solution?

I want to be able to record TV using my own DVR (or HTPC in my case). Now that all the providers all use STB's with integrated security, the only way to do this is to record the output of the STB, which the only way to change the channels for the STB is with an IR remote control. So, if I'm NOT there to turn on the STB and channel it to the proper channel, it can only record a single channel and only if it stays on doesn't turn itself off or have a problem with a daily update that has to be corrected with a direct remote input.

The DVR (HTPC) has to be able to control the cable/satellite companies STB, if you want more than one channel tuning, unless your there to change channels for the recorder.

For PC, only Hauppauge makes an expensive device that will record HD content from the output of a STB, all the other tuner cards will only record SD or only HD from ClearQAM/ATSC which none of the STB will output HD in that format.

My solution was to Cancel COMCAST to let them know what I thought of their Companies innovation stiffling solutions they cornered me into.

My DVR is a HTPC, which is far more flexible than a plain DVR. I got Dish Network and Hauppauge HD-PVR as the HD recording device, that is ported to WMC using DVBLink for HDPVR, which has a very flexible IR blaster program included in it.

Problem is, finding a recent IR blaster device to hook up to my computer, no one makes a good one anymore, I've used an 5 year old no longer made one I got off ebay, it doesn't let me do the ability to learn IR codes, i have to use pre-made codes. This limits my ability to add an extra code for turning the STB on, which I have to leave it on all the time and then it often fails after the STB does its updates every evening and I have it channel to a specific channel to wait for the HTPC to channel it again.

The solutions are actually really really easy for a company to come up with them, like an universal link to transport universal remote commands. But none of the Company's want to do it, they rather you rent a DVR for them, for more money for themselves and to have full control over the content being recorded, because it would just be a itsy bitsy easier to hac the content recorded on WMC and put it on the internet. Yet, if that is the reason, why do I find most of the content I record on Hula and other Internet Services the next day?