[mythtv-users] Comcast & Firewire STB's without 5C/Firewire equipment

[Robert McNamara]

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 5:28 PM, Brad Fuller <bradallenfuller at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah, I don't know how they would know if there was something on the
> end of the 1394. But they could certainly disable the 1394 output
> remotely.
>

See the response I just sent.  In addition to those reasons enumerated
above, they *cannot* disable your firewire port, it's in violation of
the FCC ruling demanding that it be functional.  The plebes at the
desk are not going to know that, but the headend engineers *must* know
it.  So the ports will stay on if they don't want to get fined heavily
and lose their local franchise.  Moreover, they can't even 5C just for
you.  That's not even set *per channel*, it's set per-program at the
management console.  They couldn't 5C just your box even if they
wanted to and didn't care about the law!

Robert