[mythtv-users] W.O.W. commits to unencrypted QAM digital basic

William Powers wepprop at gmail.com
Thu Apr 7 12:54:27 UTC 2011


On Apr 6, 2011, at 11:04 PM, Ronald Frazier <ron at ronfrazier.net> wrote:

> I haven't seen this mentioned in the forum, so I thought I would post
> it, since it would potentially be of interest to a lot of users here
> (at least ones in Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio). As many of us know, a
> while back Comcast started the switch to all digital systems and DTAs.
> They then petitioned the FCC to allow them to do encryption on the DTA
> devices, and shortly thereafter, QAM capture for unencrypted digital
> basic gradually began to disappear for those customers .
> 
> A few months back, WOW (WideOpenWest) announced that they were going
> to be doing the same thing....killing analog, providing DTAs, and
> requiring customers without a cable box or cablecard to use the DTAs
> to convert the encrypted feed to analog. Well, since then, lots of
> people started to complain to WOW. As a result, last week WOW decided
> to do what Comcast wouldn't...they have reversed their decision and
> said "no encryption".  This means that anybody with a digital QAM
> tuner will be able to capture the entire basic cable lineup...the
> channels from 2 to 99 that you used to be able to get in analog basic.
> This is only for the SD content (480i). This does not apply to their
> HD version of any of the channels (other than the local broadcast
> channels), nor does it extend to the extra channels that are part of
> the "digital basic" package (channels over 100). Still, this is great
> news, and means HDHomerun devices will now be more useful for some of
> us.
> 
> -- 
> Ron Frazier

Yes, if Comcast had done this I would still be a Comcast customer! (But I'm not)


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