[somewhat off-topic] Comcast and Verizon

[me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org (Matthew Gillen)]

On 10/27/2009 07:46 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> Comcast sent me free of charge 2 digital converters.

They'll only do that for existing customers, to keep them from complaining.
If you switch to them after they do the conversion, you have to rent the things.

> These are essentially digital tuners, not the standard set-top boxes.

I'm betting what they sent you isn't /just/ a digital converter.  It decrypts
too.  I got a little black box (not the std STB) from Verzion, I thought it
was just a converter.  But I found out the hard way when I got a new
(digital-capable) TV and couldn't plug it straight into the wall (all I could
get was OTA channels).  Look up the model number on what they sent you.

> The reason that Comcast and other CATV companies are dropping analog is
> bandwidth. They are under pressure from competition to deliver HD for
> most channels. 

You're right about HD being the driver, but there are two things happening at
once, and both Vz and Comcast are doing their best to confuse the issue (they
aren't intrinsically related, the cable companies are using the first as an
excuse to slip the infrastructure required for the second in on unsuspecting
consumers).  First, the conversion to digital saves them some bandwidth and
gives them more flexibility.  If that's all they did, then if you bought a
digital-ready TV you should be able to plug it in the wall.

But the more important issue in the long term has to do with encrypting
content, and especially for HD channels.  The content providers are forcing Vz
and Comcast to implement copy protection / DRM in order to provide the HD
versions of their channels.  But the content providers want the
copy-protection on the standard-def version too (hence my inability to plug my
new TV directly into the wall; it's easy to find reports of say, Fox setting
the copy-once flag on '24', thereby preventing a MythTV setup connected via
firewire from being able to record).   This essentially destroys the old
notion of a 'cable-ready-tv'.

Matt