Comcast encrypts extended basic channels

[Bill Bogstad]

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 4:08 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro-blu-5a1Jt6qxUNc at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> It appears that a the Newton/Needham head-end for Comcast has started
> encrypting extended basic channels in the past day or two.

They just did this in Cambridge as of yesterday (May 11th).   I had
thought they were going to do it in April, but either they delayed it
for a month or I had misremembered the flyer they had sent me.

At this point, the only unencrypted digital channels are basically
local OTA rebroadcasts, cable access channels, and some shopping
channels.   That leaves me with about 50 unencrypted digital channels
some of which are SD versions of the OTA rebroadcasts.   This compares
with the 440 encrypted digital channels that my HDHR sees during a
channel scan.

Some channels are still being sent in NTSC (analog) format:
2-22,58,98,99; but everything else is digital only.

My May Comcast bill talks about more changes coming in June.  Five
more OTA HD rebroadcoasts will be added along with around 6 non-OTA HD
channel changes/additions.  The most interesting thing is that they
explicitly say that the OTA HD rebroadcasts will be viewable with a
"HD QAM tuner TV".  At least they aren't going to encrypt the OTA
channels.

Bill Bogstad