<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:56 PM, David Brodbeck <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gull@gull.us">gull@gull.us</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im">On Wed, September 23, 2009 7:31 am, Paul Fine wrote:<br>
> Comcast has provided Digital Transport Adapters to support TV's that don't<br>
> have a full up STB. Does anyone know if these DTA's decrypt as well as<br>
> decode the QAM signal? If they do not decrypt, that would imply that the<br>
> extended cable Comcast is supporting with the DTA will be in clear QAM.<br>
<br>
</div>Here's the story right now.<br>
<br>
The DTAs do not support the same kind of encryption that normal STBs do.<br>
At first FCC rules appeared to prohibit use of this alternative kind of<br>
encryption, so Comcast has been supplying all the DTA feeds as clear QAM.<br>
<br>
However, they recently got a ruling that will allow them to switch on the<br>
encryption capabilities. There was a recent article in the Seattle Times<br>
where they announced they plan to gradually phase out clear QAM in<br>
Washington state starting next month, to stop people who only subscribe to<br>
basic cable from getting the extended basic channels on their QAM tuners.<br>
<br>
At this point I personally would not spend money on a clear QAM tuner with<br>
the assumption that it will continue to work on Comcast's system. I think<br>
pretty soon Comcast subscribers will be in the same boat as Dish<br>
subscribers -- an STB plus an HD-PVR will be the only way to capture HD<br>
signals. You could also use a DTA with an IR blaster but this will only<br>
get you standard-definition, since the DTAs only output RF on channel 3.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br></div></div></blockquote><div>Thanks, David. That clears things up nicely. <br></div></div>