[mythtv-users] Comcast rendering my HDHR useless

[Brian Wood]

Anthony Messina wrote:
> On Monday 10 November 2008 02:42:38 am Jon Bishop wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> What I'd like to see is how much wasted electrical energy (kWh) is spent on 
> the required use of cable STBs throughout the US for a year.  That might be 
> an interesting way to fight the long-term battle.

Most people do not realize how much power a CATV system consumes, not
just to run the trunk amplifiers, bridgers, line extenders etc., but the
head-end gear as well.

The move to push-pull amplifiers, to handle more channels, doubled the
power requirements. In fact, systems used to use 30 VAC to power their
gear, this was changed to 60 VAC when things moved to PP.

Many years ago, when set-top "converters" just started to come on the
scene, it was proposed that a little bit of power from each STB could be
fed out to the system to help run the amplifiers etc, thus saving many
thousands of dollars in operating expenses for the cable company, on the
backs of the subscribers of course.

The low-voltage power running through drop cables etc. would also act as
a discouragement to "unauthorized" hookups.

I don't think this was ever implemented, but it was an interesting idea :-)

beww