[mythtv-users] What does the future hold for the CableCARD?

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 10:18 PM, Tom Bongiorno <tbjr at bongohut.com> wrote:
> I can't help but feel that we are nearing the end of the CableCARD. I have
> felt this for a couple years. This was reinforced by a conversation I had
> with a Comcast CSR this morning. She basically told me that they will no
> longer be supporting CableCARDs in the "near" future. Does anyone on this
> list have any inside information about this?

Standard caveat:  Every Comcast region is special, and
each will have differing rates/bundles/options.  One can
only answer in general terms.  Your market WILL vary.

Second caveat: I have no inside information.

Comcast CSRs are notoriously bad at understanding the
technical details.  If they were engineers, they would not
be working the front sales desk.  They often say you cannot
have an X1 box and a CableCARD, but that is just wrong
(although there are some cases where the provisioning
system deletes the CableCARDs when you order X1
packages; it requires one to perform some other steps to
get things back to working).  And note that almost all future
Comcast bundles (in major markets) will now include an
X1 box(*) as part of the bundle(**).

CableCARDs are (currently) mandated to continue to be viable
for (around) 6 more years for linear QAM programming.

However, the current regulations can always be changed.

And the words "linear QAM programming" are important.
The future is (on/by-demand) IPTV delivery, and the (cable)
MSOs rollout of CCAP and DOCSIS 3.1 is a step towards
that future.  Some will get there quicker than others, but there
is currently no requirement that IPTV delivered services
support CableCARDs (proof by example: AT&T U-Verse
IPTV (what is left of it)).  And while most might not be aware
of it, Comcast, for this past summers Olympics, offered two
of the "extra" channels only via their X1 platform using
streaming (IPTV) delivery (those channels were offered
to competing MSOs, most of which, if they made them
available, placed them on linear QAM channels because
they had no such alternative (streaming, ala X1) option).

The guess is that those channels that are part of the
basic tiers will remain linear QAM for quite some time
to support those customers using the (much cheaper)
DTA type boxes, which is a large cost savings to
the MSOs today.

There was a request by the FCC to "normalize" STB
functions to a future standard (one type of technology
could work with cable, satellite, iptv, etc.), but the two
competing interests were strongly opposed to the
other sides proposals, so it went no where.

Given the large number of TiVo users (and TiVo is
the 25,000 Kg elephant in the room), elimination
of CableCARDs quickly is not going to happen, but
in the long run everything changes.  In the long run
will TV (as you experience it today) even exist?




(*) Some time ago you had to pay extra for an X1
box, now it will be included instead of a (legacy)
STB.  Even longer ago you needed a tech visit
to get an X1 box.  Again (even longer ago) no
longer the case.

(**) It appears it will still be possible to return the X1
box for a "customer owned device" discount (if I am
reading the bundle options correctly), but that may
just confuse most CSRs (and as the "customer
owned device" discount appears to be getting
smaller, there is less and less advantage to not just
accepting the X1 (I am guessing this makes the
X1 more attractive vs the TiVo)).