[mythtv-users] Time Warner encrypting everything. HDHR Prime with CableCard unable to record anything.

[Michael T. Dean]

On 01/15/2015 02:04 PM, Mike Perkins wrote:
> On 15/01/15 18:42, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
>> On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 6:29 PM, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>> ....
>>> IIRC, buried in the Consolidated Federal Regulations Title 47, Part 
>>> 76(???)
>>> is a requirement that cableco's CANNOT encrypt the 'must-carry' 
>>> stations
>>
>> Note that almost no channel is using "must-carry"
>> (with the exception of local shopping channels that
>> use "must-carry" to get on the cable), most use
>> "consent" which gets them money (I suspect
>> PBS may also use "must carry").
>>
>> Secondly, when I read the regs a number of years
>> ago I noted that the requirement was only if the
>> content was sent in the clear (i.e. analogue or
>> clear QAM) then the cable providers could not
>> add in macrovision/CGMS/etc.  If the content was
>> fully encrypted in transmission (which is what TWC
>> has moved to), the rules did not apply (although
>> if you want to provide the actual updated regulation
>> ref that overrides that, please do so; not the entire
>> CFR 47 ref).
>>
>> That all said, TWC has, in the past, mis-marked
>> OTA channel copy protections in some markets
>> as part of their encryption roll-out.  It is worth opening
>> a ticket.
>>
> Aren't they supposed to offer you some kind of Terminal Adapter when 
> they do that? What about folks who can't or won't upgrade their TVs?

Yep, for $2/mo/adapter (at least that's what Brighthouse, aka Baby TWC, 
charges as of this month--before this month the first 2 were free to 
"ease" subscribers into the all-encrypted service they started last 
year).  And the adapter has an HDMI connection--and maybe component, 
S-Video and/or composite, but those would only allow analog recording, 
the same as from an STB.  And in the case of Brighthouse, the digital 
adapter doesn't get all the channels in your subscription--just some of 
them (the "most popular" channels in your package).  So, if you want all 
the channels you pay for, you have to lease the $10/mo STB (and if you 
want, pay another $10/mo to make it a DVR).

Hmmm, so Sling TV has ESPN and ESPN2, now--starting the same month my 
cable bill went up $4/mo to pay for the partially-functional digital 
adapters (like I said, you don't get all the channels)...

Mike