Goodbye Clear QAM ...

[Knavish]

Did you guys read this last week:
FCC says Big Cable can now encrypt TV...

I guess this means my 6 month old HD Homerun's usefulness is at the discretion of Comcast. Oh well, I still refuse to get "real" cable again. (I've lived in the Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast of the US and I've never been in a place where AntennaWeb claims I can tune in stations -- unless I buy a huge antenna on a 100' tower with nuclear-powered amplifier, or something like that...)

 

[sswingle]

I guess that explains why when we recently dropped cable TV that we only got 2 channels in QAM.

Service theft? If its available OTA I don't see what I'm stealing.

And saying it reduces the number of technician visits? What idiot cable companies were sending techs to fix a customer's TV service who didn't subscribe to TV service?

 

[hoorah]

My guess is that people either were catching on (or comcast was afraid that they would) to the fact that you could 'cut the cord' and still get a significant amount of service for free.

If you dropped pay cable TV, but kept internet, you could tune whatever basic channels they had not yet moved to digital plus all the clear QAM channels. If you live in an area where tuning those channels via antenna is a challenge, this could be a significant benefit.

When you consider that most people 'cutting the cord' are going to OTA + Netflix + Hulu, replacing OTA with free ClearQAM is a pretty big convenience. Same goes for people who cut the cord completely (including internet). If Comcast doesn't roll a truck to disconnect the line, you still get free local channels (yes, I do realize that this should be comcast's responsibility).

One common reaction I've heard to all of this cord cutting has been 'wow, you can get all of these shows with an anteanna? The Simpsons, Modern Family, CSI, The Office, Parks and Rec, Big Bang Theory....all that?" They are simply just amazed. Most people think you have to pay for cable, or you get NOTHING. If people found out you could get all of those channels just as a byproduct of paying for cable internet, or possibly without paying for anything if the cableco doesn't physically disconnect your service, I'm sure theres a non-trivial number of people that would do it.

 

[Knavish]

I'm frustrated the potential loss of ClearQAM b/c I do pay for basic cable. ClearQAM lets me tune in the major networks with my TV and HDhomerun without some POS cable box.

With Comcast I either get internet+basic cable for $59.95 or I get just internet for $59.99 due to their "multi-service discount".

 

[SithSolo1]

Nobody searches anymore, its not even off the 1st page: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2276732

 

[Kuschelweich]

Used to have bright house(Time Warner) here, have been meaning to see if I could get local OTA QAM channels still from their line or if they totally blocked everything. May just have to build an antenna :hmm:

 

[techpun]

I wonder if this will increase the popularity of FTA.

 

[lamedude]

And after we get our BUDs set up they will start encrypting those feeds too.

 

[hoorah]

I wonder if this will increase the popularity of FTA.

Its tough to say. Almost everyone I know thinks that you get no TV without cable, that the only thing you can pick up with an antenna is PBS and a preacher. I'm sure thats true in some areas, but almost everyone I know thinks that.

Every once in awhile though, someone I'd never expect to cut cable does and realizes what is available OTA. I was at my sister's house a few weeks ago and noticed rabbit ears connected to the TV. They didn't feel like paying for cable anymore, so they stopped. No cost in connecting the rabbit ears, they weren't planning on watching TV anyway, and it came as a surprise that they could pick up a few HD channels.

She's now rocking a winegard mounted outside on a pole attached to the fencepost and gets much better signal than when she started.

 

[lokiju]

I dropped my cable TV for about 2 years but still had internet through them. I realized that I could hook up and tune basic cable still though but really had no desire as I was using Dish Network for my TV service at the time. Just simply hooking the coax to the old tube TV I had in my guest room at the time and running the channel scan for a few minutes was all it took for Charter to call me and ask why I was using TV service I wasn't paying for. Really shocked me they called so fast and saw the change in usage.

They then sent out a tech to put a blocker on my signal on the outside of the house so I couldn't do that anymore but that led to high latency issues with my internet and they had to not only come back out to remove the blocker but it ended up costing them a lot more work as they discovered some issues with the external distribution box having a rotted wire and had to do a bunch of work to sort everything out.

I've since dropped Dish Network and went back to Charter for both TV and internet and can at least freely tune the basic channels in my guest room that doesn't have a digital box and also get a decent amount of QAM stations as well since it's a LCD TV that can tune it.

 

[MikeL DISH]

lokiju,

I saw your post and found it interesting! We hated to have seen you go and I'd like to have a look at the setup you had if you could please private message your phone number to me. It'll be a pleasure to learn some of the details and discuss this a bit further!

 

[Dari]

I lost Fox HD on my TWC direct connect line.

 

[evident]

we recently just had to make a decision either to re-sign up for verizon's triple play or just get internet/phone (wife needs phone for work at home). the cost for the basic HD package ends up being only $10 more due to bundling discounts. comcast/vz have really tried hard to make it so that it's not worth cutting cable tv if you want to subscribe to internet through them.

we decided to get a cable card instead of renting a set top box/dvr from verizon.