<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Greg Woods <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:greg@gregandeva.net" target="_blank">greg@gregandeva.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>On Mon, 2010-03-15 at 10:29 -0700, Kirk Bocek wrote:<br>
<br>
> Although the extended basic channels are being broadcast by Comcast in<br>
> ClearQAM in many areas,<br>
<br>
</div>So does this mean the cheap DTA's *can* handle decryption (in that case<br>
I don't see why they didn't just go to encryption immediately), or that<br>
they will issue different (more expensive) DTA's? I can't wait to see<br>
how their marketing droids try to spin this as "good for the consumer"<br>
as they have done with the recent analog->digital switchover ("your VCR<br>
is now a brick, but hey, it's GOOD for you!" )-: Or if the DTAs really<br>
do decryption, they may not even bother to tell us when they are going<br>
to do this?<br>
<br></blockquote><div><br>The cheap DTA's can do decryption, although from what I have heard, it is a less complicated version of encryption. I think that originally, the FCC wasn't allowing them to deploy this encryption, but later gave in. I was happily getting the expanded basic channels in clear QAM until last Thursday. The DTA's can still get those channels, but my HDHomerun shows them as encrypted. I have had several e-mail exchanges with a few of Comcast's personas, Jerico (good cop) and John (bad cop). <br>
<br>They claim they made it clear that after the transition I would need some of their equipment hooked up to each TV, although their initial letter, sent before the FCC lifted the ban on encrypting basic service, indicated that I could use my Digital TV. Later, reading the policy on their web site, it is pretty clear that they will be requiring a box for every TV. They never told me when they were going to turn on the encryption, though.<br>
<br>I'm currently examining my options. If I could just convince the rest of the family, I would go strictly over the air, at least for a while. Examining the alternatives has made me aware of just how much I pay for cable (or would pay for satellite) and since 80% of what I watch is OTA, it gets really hard to justify paying so much for the extra 20%<br>
<br>Bill<br>
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