Set top boxes w/ cable card

[CorCentral]

First my question........ I use a cablecard in my tv and don't like stb's. There is a deal going on with my cable company Charter Communications where if you have both the High speed internet and Digital Cable package you save money.

Well guess what? They say I don't qualify because I have a cablecard, and if I had a STB I would get the deal. What BS! Now with this new law, do you think this will change at all? Of course I'm going to call tomorrow and ask, but checking here first to see what you guys think.


Set-top shakeup is in the cards


Snippet......
A new Federal Communications Commission rule that requires cable operators to change the hardware in their set-top boxes has finally gone into effect, but few industry experts believe it will do much good for consumers or jump-start competition.

As of Sunday, cable operators must provide new TV subscribers with set-top boxes that have a slot for a special PC card known as a CableCard. This card contains decryption mechanisms that determine if a user is allowed to view the video content coming from the cable operator.

 

[ViRGE]

Ahh, so it finally went in to effect? The next couple of months are going to be amusing.

 

[Modelworks]

typical charter , you can use the cable card, but it will cost you more than there "special" packages for stb.

Charter supplied me with an old general instrument box for premium channels, otherwise I just use the tivo.

 

[yukichigai]

This'll do something, though it'll depend on how each cable company implements the change. Theoretically what it's going to do is force every cable provider's service to be CableCard compliant, seeing as they can no longer sell or distribute (barring loopholes) set top boxes or what have you that don't use the CableCard system for authentication. In the long run that'll mean that so long as a product developer can pay the appropriate fee to get CableCard support into their product, it will be able to work with any Digital Cable package in the country. No proprietary lockouts on viewing certain channels, no having to hook your damn TiVO up through your painfully slow charter STB and hope IR Blaster can actually get it to respond in under 15 seconds. Now that CableCard is effectively a mandatory standard for Digital Cable you'll get more products that can take full advantage of digital cable. Personally, I'm waiting on a MythTV or GBPVR build that supports CableCard. (Though I have a feeling that would get dangerously close to piracy) At the very least, a TiVO you can export files from that supports CableCard.

Oh yes, I'm on ambien right now. Wheeeeee.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
This'll do something, though it'll depend on how each cable company implements the change. Theoretically what it's going to do is force every cable provider's service to be CableCard compliant, seeing as they can no longer sell or distribute (barring loopholes) set top boxes or what have you that don't use the CableCard system for authentication. In the long run that'll mean that so long as a product developer can pay the appropriate fee to get CableCard support into their product, it will be able to work with any Digital Cable package in the country. No proprietary lockouts on viewing certain channels, no having to hook your damn TiVO up through your painfully slow charter STB and hope IR Blaster can actually get it to respond in under 15 seconds. Now that CableCard is effectively a mandatory standard for Digital Cable you'll get more products that can take full advantage of digital cable. Personally, I'm waiting on a MythTV or GBPVR build that supports CableCard. (Though I have a feeling that would get dangerously close to piracy) At the very least, a TiVO you can export files from that supports CableCard.

Oh yes, I'm on ambien right now. Wheeeeee.

Cable Labs is under no obligation to license MythTV, GBPVR, etc. I don't have any reason to believe they'll get cable card support at this time.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Cable Labs is under no obligation to license MythTV, GBPVR, etc. I don't have any reason to believe they'll get cable card support at this time.

I never said they'd get official licensed support. I was more figuring on some manufacturer like Hauppage requesting support for some of their tuners and the compatiblity coming from there, somehow. CableCARDs do only use PCMCIA interface, after all.