[mythtv-users] Comcast and the DTA

[Paul Fine]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:56 PM, David Brodbeck <gull at gull.us> wrote:

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