[mythtv-users] SF Bay Comcast Analog Armageddon Has Begun

[JEDIDIAH]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 05:41:36PM -0500, Devin Heitmueller wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 5:35 PM, Ross Campbell <ross.campbell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > <rant>
> > I find it particularly insulting that Comcast is slowly crippling
> > their devices and services one zipcode at a time so that at any given
> > time only a handful of customers are screaming.
> >
> > From my perspective, the logical outcome of the
> > DTV/HD/cablecard/encryption fiasco is that it will effectively kill
> > off cable TV (how would this impact broadcast TV?) due to unnecessary
> > complexity and accelerate everyone's move to streaming video sites --
> 
> This would be *your* desired outcome.  In reality, the few people who
> drop their cable service in response to this behavior will likely be
> greatly outweighed by the revenue generated by all the nontechnical
> users who went from renting zero cable boxes to renting three cable
> boxes for each of the televisions in their household.
> 
> Sad, but probably the reality of it.

   I dunno. Digital opens up new possibilities. It makes something like
going strictly OTA seem a lot more feasable. I figure the customers that
are willing to put up with cable boxes all around the house have already
been renting them from cable company. I suspect that the digital switch
won't change anything in that regard.

[deletia]

   Stagnation of devices caused by the lock-in of cable cards and the fact
that Tivo was pretty much handed a monopoly for 3rd party appliances might
induce some people to dump cable. 

   ...someone is already building an OTA++ appliance. It basically sounds
like a cross between boxee and an OTA only PVR.