[mythtv-users] Comcast rendering my HDHR useless

[Jon Bishop]

On Nov 8, 2008, at 11:00 AM, Larry K wrote:

> The weird thing is that about a month ago, they put almost  
> EVERYTHING on
> QAM.  I just happened to rescan and my HDHR was picking up all the  
> stuff
> that's available over analog, plus all the cool HD stuff like TLC,  
> and even
> some digital tier stuff like TruTV.
>
> I thought they were gonna open all this up as an alternative to  
> analog, but
> now it doesn't look good.
>
> On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
>> Larry K wrote:
>>> Anyone else in VA have Comcast and use an HDHR (or a QAM tuner)?
>>> Recently, they took away a whole bunch of must-have QAM channels,  
>>> like
>>> TLCHD, DSCD, HGTVHD, HSTRYHD, and on and on.  It's a pretty lengthy
>>> list.  Now all that's left is the networks and a few miscellaneous
>> channels.
>>>
>>> I wonder if this is somehow related to the removal of analog  
>>> channels in
>>> February?
>>
>> That's what they want you to believe, they screw you and you blame  
>> the
>> government.
>>
>> Sounds like you are now in the same boat as most of the rest of us,  
>> the
>> only unencrypted QAM channels are the local OTAs and things like  
>> CSPAN
>> and the various home shopping things.
>>
>>

This makes me ponder. Now, for years and years, you've been able to  
hook your TV up to the cable line and tune all the channels you've  
subscribed to. Now, with QAM, you could *theoretically* hook up most  
new HDTV sets to the same cable and get all the digital channels that  
you are subscribed to, except that commie-cast has encrypted all those  
stations, forcing people to pay for a set top box.

It seems to me that this is extortion, and would like to know why the  
FCC doesn't require the cable co's to broadcast in such a way that  
people aren't forced to lease hardware, or provide as many STBs as  
requested at no expense to subscriber. There's no reason for them to  
broadcast encrypted signals except to screw their customers. When  
you're not a subscriber, they disconnect your cable, physically. If  
they don't, that's not the fault of the consumer.

~Jon