cable box for every tv in home?

[MiaaZ]

Just wondering how many other cable tv network providers require every tv to have a box in order to get basic cable? Even with a brand new lcd tv?

I'm havin' flash backs to the 80's when every tv had to have a box with the slider channel changer..............

At some point maybe if cox looses enough customers over this, they will just sell the box out right. But I thought the point of getting a new tv with digital tuner was the ability to receive a digital signal. I am not stealing it, I pay for it already for my dvr I already rent with my service.

Or am I just over reacting and most people already pay to rent a box for every tv?

Thanks

[SteveNielsen]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

With a new TV you shouldn't need a converter box at all.

[MiaaZ]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

With a new TV you shouldn't need a converter box at all.

that's what I thought too.

http://www.cox.com/all-digital/cox-all-digital.cox

http://www.courant.com/consumer/bott...15-column.html


http://www.omaha.com/money/all-digit...22e8d22a8.html

I think I see now, they are encrypting it and I have to rent the box to unencrypt their digital signal. They just are really not telling you that in their ad. Otherwise customers would probably not feel all warm and fuzzy about it.

Well OTA for those two tvs then. Already pay them 140.00 for tv already. Already lost a few channels, they are doing it in blocks of channels at a time from what customer service said.

[eccerr0r]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

Oddly enough, I cancelled my cable TV on the exact day when Concast switched to digital and now require a decoder box.

[ratdude747]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

So they're killing Clear QAM?

I wasn't planning on getting cable anyway (when I get a real job and move out)... but now it's for sure. I don't feel as bad swapping the TV tuner in my one rig for a sound card now...

[Mad_Professor]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

This idea is not new.
TV's can receive channels with unencrypted qam or atsc channels. But Cable companies are trying to combat people stealing cable or receiving free cable when they move into a new place when they shouldn't. Plus it's become a lucrative renewable income stream by charging for rent on the equipment themselves. Not only that, they want to provide more services to customers like on-demand, pay-per-view and premium content and the naughty stuff.

Now I've been lucky that brighthouse has set the cci byte to copy freely and I'm using a hdhomerun prime with a cablecard and sdv tuning adapter, mythtv handles tv and recordings, and it's been pretty fucking sweet.

If you want cable, you play by their rules.

[eccerr0r]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

Main reason why I cancelled it is because my "PVR" (more like, PC with tuner card, though I was on the verge of installing something like MythTV) was analog only, as well as all my TVs are analog, which was the main reason why I kept it. I did not want to use their "service rental PVR" nor wanted to use set top boxes, and I didn't watch enough TV anyway, so I cancelled.

I was a perfectly legitimate subscriber of their services and they basically wanted complete control - able to shut down and possibly even start up someone's cable without a remote service call. Alas since the service no longer fits my needs I'm saving money.

[MiaaZ]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

This idea is not new.
TV's can receive channels with unencrypted qam or atsc channels. But Cable companies are trying to combat people stealing cable or receiving free cable when they move into a new place when they shouldn't. Plus it's become a lucrative renewable income stream by charging for rent on the equipment themselves. Not only that, they want to provide more services to customers like on-demand, pay-per-view and premium content and the naughty stuff.

If you want cable, you play by their rules.

So sell it outright like cable modems, activate it to those who already pay for premium service and/or have been a customer certain amount of years at no fee per month, because I am already paying BASIC SERVICE fee. They still make the money out right, it has to be activated digitally(no stealing). BUT it would have to be whole home, this per tv is just SOOO early 80's BS.


If it was truly about stopping those from stealing, that could be an alternitive option. BUT it is NOT. Those that steal will always find a way to steal.

Alot of people may not want it that bad(me), and in the long run may back fire. I already pay for their basic tier, dvr(rental) and hd service.

Wonder when we can expect even more rate increase because their rental income fees are not what they have expected.

[budm]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

So they're killing Clear QAM?

I wasn't planning on getting cable anyway (when I get a real job and move out)... but now it's for sure. I don't feel as bad swapping the TV tuner in my one rig for a sound card now...

They sure did that in Bay area. I used to be able to get the HD channel with my TVs that have clear QAM tuners, and many channels without using the COMCAST box for each TV (I have basic service). They told me that they took away the clear QAM because they do want people to STEAL the signal without renting the HD cable box! They also charging me now for rental for each box now, it is used to be free for the first 3 boxes. COMCAST SUCK! I am sure other cable companies are doing the same thing.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

So sell it outright like cable modems, activate it to those who already pay for premium service and/or have been a customer certain amount of years at no fee per month, because I am already paying BASIC SERVICE fee. They still make the money out right, it has to be activated digitally(no stealing). BUT it would have to be whole home, this per tv is just SOOO early 80's BS.


If it was truly about stopping those from stealing, that could be an alternitive option. BUT it is NOT. Those that steal will always find a way to steal.

Alot of people may not want it that bad(me), and in the long run may back fire. I already pay for their basic tier, dvr(rental) and hd service.

Wonder when we can expect even more rate increase because their rental income fees are not what they have expected.

It happens a lot more than you think. I had a friend ask me one time about how hard it would be to remove the inline scrambler on his service feed. The service feed was about 30' in the air and you can see the round cylinder device on the drip loop.
I'm pretty sure you could remove it and gotten the basic and standard teir service just like analog, but I told him it wasn't worth the effort because they encrypt their channels and even if you did manage to decrypt their channels, you would have to deal with the CCI byte being set to copy once.

The other reason why they want control is to maintain the cable SNR and dBmv. If you allow clear QAM channels and everyone started splitting and connect more televisions or devices, it causes the dBmv to drop and SNR goes to shit, and it causes problems for other paying customers because cable is a shared resource.

Then you got people that don't watch tv religiously or don't know shit about technology, they want a no-frill/no-problem setup and would be happy to pay for a dvr and a few DTA for the house.

[stj]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

If you allow clear QAM channels and everyone started splitting and connect more televisions or devices, it causes the dBmv to drop and SNR goes to shit,

it shouldnt, the head-end that converts the fibre to coax should contain individual buffered amplifiers.
in some european country's they are even digitally controlled and they can adjust individul customer gain levels.
the head unit also handles the multiplexing of all the customer "talkback" channels.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: cable box for every tv in home?

it shouldnt, the head-end that converts the fibre to coax should contain individual buffered amplifiers.
in some european country's they are even digitally controlled and they can adjust individul customer gain levels.
the head unit also handles the multiplexing of all the customer "talkback" channels.

Yeah we're not that advance, our infrastructure is shit.