[mythtv-users] State of blu-ray support?

[Stephen P. Villano]

On 11/18/13 9:13 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 11/17/2013 02:58 PM, Bert Haskins wrote:
>> The same little dance is now going on over phone unlocking.
>> I'll bet we get screwed on that one also.
>
> Not at all.  The government is standing up for the consumer saying
> that the cell phone companies need to give customers unlock codes (so
> they can take the phone off network***) when the consumer has paid off
> their phone's "lease to own" plan.
>
> The cell phone companies say that they will do so, but they can't
> inform customers when they are eligible to receive a free unlock code
> without additional cost, so those customers should keep track of their
> own eligibility.
>
Strange, as cellular phone service providers track quite well the
duration of their contract with each individual customer and begin
"suggesting" that the customer upgrade and get a new contract the moment
they're coming to the end of their contract.
Of course, that contract happens to last for the "lease" of the phone.
So, what cost is an already present process? The cost of a programmer
making a list merge to give the customer the unlock code?

> The government/rights groups say that the program is essentially
> useless if the customer isn't notified immediately upon eligibility.
>
> Therefore, you will eventually see a new fee on your cell phone bill
> allowing the cell phone companies to recoup costs to track eligibility
> for unlock codes and automatically inform consumers when they attain
> eligibility.
>
> So, it's a win/win/win/win scenario.
>
It's always fascinating to hear how one is winning when one pays for
that which is alleged to be free.
> The consumer wins because they get the unlock code for the hardware
> they finally purchased through the 22-month payment plan.
>
> The government wins because they stood up for the consumer and forced
> the mean cell phone companies to give unlock codes to the rightful
> owners of the cell phones (once they finally pay them off).
>
> The rights groups win because they convinced the cell phone companies
> that customers wouldn't be aware of their right without a message
> (buried in a bill that the customer doesn't even read) telling them
> when they're eligible to get a free unlock code.
>
> The cell phone companies win because they get to charge a fee to give
> out free unlock codes.
>
> (And, of course, the 99% of consumers--the vast majority of whom won't
> understand the technical details of unlocking, let alone
> cross-spectrum compatibility issues, manual baseband updates,
> ...--wins because they get a free unlock code that most will never
> use/know how to use.  And the 1% of consumers who actually want to
> unlock their phones and are willing to put up with
> spectrum/compatibility issues win because they can finally buy a phone
> on a 22-month payment plan and unlock it at the end instead of buying
> an unlocked phone outright (and at lower cost, if you know how to
> choose the right plan), and they don't even have to remember to mark
> their calendars.)
>
> Oh, and the consumer wins because they get to use that cell phone on a
> different network from the one they rented to own it to check MythWeb
> to set a recording rule for the show they see advertised on a
> billboard in the city.  (Had to bring this back to MythTV topic,
> somehow.)
>
> Mike
>
> *** Of course, even though "4G" will be LTE for all US carriers (at
> least TTBOMK), the huge number of different bands in use by the
> different carriers mean that the vast majority of phones will be
> severely limited in functionality/performance if taken to other networks.
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