CableCard in danger?

[jagabo]

The CableCard—that small slab that lets a TiVo tune into cable by authenticating its connection—would lose a regulatory safeguard under a bill nearing introduction in Congress. The "‘Consumer Video Device Cost Savings Act" proposes to squelch the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make cable operators use CableCards in their own boxes—a rule enacted in 2007 that discourages second-class treatment of third-party devices like TiVo DVRs.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/tivo-media-center-pc-makers-alarmed-by-cabl...-cutting-bill/

This is an issue for me since I use Windows Media Center on an HTPC instead of paying the cable company $20 a month for a PVR and "PVR service".

[budwzr]

The whole cable industry is dying, so they're grabbing back every nickel they can.

You can't use the Hauppage with remote blaster?

[jagabo]

You can't use the Hauppage with remote blaster?

Not really. I use an SiliconDust HD Homerun Prime with three tuners and can record 3 shows simultaneously. I'd have to rent three cable boxes, and have three Hauppauge HD PVRs with three IR blasters to have the same ability. But of course, the HD PVR doesn't support three IR blasters.

[usually_quiet]

The CableCard—that small slab that lets a TiVo tune into cable by authenticating its connection—would lose a regulatory safeguard under a bill nearing introduction in Congress. The "‘Consumer Video Device Cost Savings Act" proposes to squelch the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make cable operators use CableCards in their own boxes—a rule enacted in 2007 that discourages second-class treatment of third-party devices like TiVo DVRs.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/tivo-media-center-pc-makers-alarmed-by-cabl...-cutting-bill/

This is an issue for me since I use Windows Media Center on an HTPC instead of paying the cable company $20 a month for a PVR and "PVR service".

The cable industry has always seen itself as being over-regulated since the FCC allowed cable-ready TVs to be introduced against their wishes and fights every pro-consumer policy tooth and nail until they get rid of it. Of late, the FCC has been favoring the cable industry's point of view, but I guess that still wasn't enough for the cable industry.

Even if the FCC keeps its ability to enforce the use of CableCARDs, Comcast as well as Time Warner Cable are starting to move towards IPTV, which AT&T Uverse already uses. An IP-based system doesn't use cable boxes or allow the use of CableCARDs at all, and the FCC will have even less power to regulate it. FWIW, Cisco has stopped making cable boxes to concentrate its efforts on new boxes using different technology for the new delivery system. The cable industry isn't dying. It is evolving and getting even stronger.

[budwzr]

Mark my words, there's gonna be an antitrust action eventually and they're gonna get their a$$eS exploded. These guys are the JP Morgans of the present.

There's a revolution stirring in banking now. The Occupy LA people are opening a bank soon.

We The People are gonna take back this country from the robber barons.

[jagabo]

We The People are gonna take back this country from the robber barons.

Not until the next violent revolution. Big business has aligned its power with government by paying for candidates' campaigns. Candidates pay them back with favorable laws. They (politicians and CEOs) have become the monarchs and nobles of our time.

[budwzr]

Exactly. And government has aligned it's power with business. So now it costs a dollar to use the ATM card to get a $2 hamburger. Something's whacked out about that.

[yoda313]

The whole cable industry is dying, so they're grabbing back every nickel they can.

Since we've gone offtopic already I'll bite.

I'm not tied to my particular cable company other than the fact that I'd hate to return equipment and setup an installation time for a new company.

BUT the whole idea that everyone is jumping to streaming or just watching online whether it be a little black box or your laptop/tablet/pc doesn't make sense to me.

I understand the person who doesn't watch a whole lot of tv in the first place. Paying 8.00 a month or whatever for netflix or hulu would make sense to be able to watch any show and catch up on the latest shows.

But to me its the sports fan who will keep the current cable/sat/fios system in its current format.

Sure there are portals for each of the major sports but you have to pay a ton for each.

If you could stream your local fox sports network or espn for free than you might be able to gravitate away from cable. Yes espn is on the xbox but I haven't used it enough to tell if its exactly whats on regular espn.

As I said its the sports fan that will stick with cable/sat/fios until you can watch every sporting event online for a single flat fee. That will never happen in my opinion so some cable company is the more economical approach.

[budwzr]

It just doesn't make sense to pay $100+ a month for boobtube, and another hundred for a cellphone/tablet.

Plus, the lifestyle of plopping on the couch in front of the tv scooping doritos with cream cheese is unhealthy. But if you don't do that, you don't get your money's worth.

And then there's this:

[usually_quiet]

It just doesn't make sense to pay $100+ a month for boobtube, and another hundred for a cellphone/tablet.

Plus, the lifestyle of plopping on the couch in front of the tv scooping doritos with cream cheese is unhealthy. But if you don't do that, you don't get your money's worth.

And then there's this:

Very funny... Internet service that is fast enough to stream HD video costs as much as a mid-level cable package, and guess who provides it in nearly every case? The same companies offering cable TV service. That's assuming that level of Internet service is even available. For tens of millions in the US, it isn't available because there is no cable service or community-owned fiber Internet service operating in the area, only satellite service.

[orsetto]

This discussion of "cable/satellite vs NetFix/Hulu/youTube/yoMama" has been recirculating for years, with the same inevitable answer: cable/satellite isn't going anywhere, at least not tomorrow. They will steadily lose younger subscribers, but it will take another 15 years for the complacent cash-cow "TV Generation" to die off completely.

Then there's the Catch-22 of "screw 'em, I'm gonna move all my viewing online": cable/satellite owns the internet delivery system in most of the country. One way or the other, they have us by the short hairs. Here on the East Coast, Verizon is deliberately letting their land lines corrode so they can accelerate migration to cheap (for them), crappy "Voice Link" wireless home phone / DSL service (and profitable FiOS bundles) instead. There is apparently no regulation in place to prevent them ditching the copper wire at whim, and they've got a big whim to kill off affordable reliable copper DSL.

The success of services like NetFlix depends almost entirely on cannibalizing the product of the very studios and cable services we love to hate. The recent NetFlix "originals" like "House Of Cards" and the reanimated "Arrested Development" were relatively cheap stunts to pull off. Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Jason Bateman and Jessica Walter weren't paid anywhere near what HBO or Showtime pays for Dexter, Homeland, True Blood or Game Of Thrones (and the budget for one season of a period piece like "The Tudors" would give Reed Hastings a stroke). $8/mo is a great bargain, but it can't possibly cover the current production costs of all the shows on FX, AMC, HBO, Showtime, etc. And this doesn't even include yoda313's oft-repeated reminder about the live sports industry.

Tell cable to "eff off," and you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs for NetFlix and all the other web services vying to "replace cable." For cable to go away and a "cheap" web utopia to take over, Hollywood TV economics would need to be completely reset. Could it happen? Sure: HBO and Showtime were established initially as movie services, yet today almost nobody subscribes to them to watch movies, and HBO license fees barely factor in the financing for a typical movie anymore. VHS, DVD and NetFlix chipped away at that business model and wrested control of it. Will the same revolution happen for TV series? Probably, but not in a time frame remotely relevant to our wallets today, tomorrow or three years from now.

Its more complicated for TV series: people will happily wait several months to catch up with a movie on NetFlix, but they still prefer to stay current with "Walking Dead" or "Game Of Thrones" and chat about it on social media. This inclination to watch week to week is being slowly eroded by the "virtual dvd season box sets" offered by NetFlix, but again begs the question of exactly how these series can be financed in the first place if the audience refuses to sit thru commercials or pay an a la carte fee. Reinventing the TV business model to keep pace with the technology driving new audience behaviors is the toughest challenge the entertainment industry has ever faced. They've been stalling for such a long time, they dropped the ball, so we may find ourselves with much more consumer control by the end of the decade. But it won't happen overnight, and we're always gonna have some monopoly's hand in our pocket for the raw data carrier.

[yoda313]

And this doesn't even include yoda313's oft-repeated reminder about the live sports industry.

I guess I have mentioned that more than once eh?

Lets not forget either about all the drm hassles involved in all this too.

Wait until you are forced to have a separate paid account for every device that you want to watch netflix et. al. and see how quickly people will start to rethink that alternative.

[theewizard]

the reason i do not have cable or satellite is bundling
i can't get the ones i want unless i buy the big bundle
syfy nature nova discovery history channel etc..

i don't want espn and all the rest

i have verizon wireless internet and i have netflix and Amazon prime
along with the occasional viewing of Hulu

[cryostat99]

100% agree with theewizard