[mythtv-users] Seattle Times: Comcast to encrypt basic cable QAM channels

[Brian Wood]

On Tuesday 15 September 2009 07:51:38 Brian Wood wrote:

> I wonder if contacting the companies who are selling TV sets with clear QAM
> tuners and telling them you were planning to purchase one of their units,
> but since clear QAM is going away you have decided to purchase a cheaper
> set, or just stay with what you have, might help.
>
> Outfits like Sony and HP probably have more pull with the media companies
> than individual subscribers, and anything that appears to be costing them
> sales will be noticed.
>
> Clear QAM tuners are advertised as "features", publicizing the fact that
> this "feature" might be useless might cause some action on the
> manufacturer's part.

(Don't you hate people who reply to their own posts?)

The issue might also be attacked as "anti-green". By eliminating clear QAM the 
cable companies are forcing customers to have another power-consuming box 
that will have to be re-cycled eventually. There are environmental costs to 
making the boxes in the first place, and getting rid of them, to say nothing 
of the amout of coal (or whatever) burned to power them. Several hundred K of 
these boxes probably have a large energy footprint.

Plus the fact that you will need *another* remote control (which also has to 
be made and re-cycled and supplied with batteries).

We might ask if the cable company is planning to help offset the environmental 
problems their decision is going to cause. They are essentially lining their 
pockets and making all of us and the planet pay for it.

The devices are almost certainly being made in China, adding to our balance of 
payments problems, and encouraging child/prisoner labor. Certainly not 
helping the employment situation here.

This is a bad move for a lot of reasons, and shedding some light on the matter 
can only make it more difficult for the cable companies to implement it.

Add to the above the ecological and energy costs of making the equipment to 
encrypt the signals in the first place (though existing gear probably already 
has that capability), and we have an issue that might resonate with a lot of 
people, especially in California where such things matter more to people than 
many other places.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org