[Discuss] Verizon FIOS TV and HDHR digital tuner

[mark at buttery.org (Shirley Márquez Dúlcey)]

So long as the FCC mandate for CableCards remains in place, Comcast
and Verizon can't completely eliminate support for them or even
restrict them to specific devices. They can only keep doing what they
are doing, which is making life difficult for people who want to use
them. The long term fate of CableCards will be decided in November
2016; if the Democrats hold the Presidency the FCC will probably
continue to favor regulation of telecommunications, but a Republican
President would appoint people who would gut the commission.

I don't expect any alternatives to Comcast to immediately surface in
my neighborhood. Verizon never did bring FIOS to Boston and has
stopped pursuing new markets, and RCN seems to have abandoned any
further expansion in the city despite having a licence to wire all of
it. The longer term hopes are Google Fiber or a municipal network, and
in the unlikely event that the latter happens it would probably be a
data-only network with no TV offerings. (The cable lobby might barely
tolerate a data network but they certainly would never let Boston
build a directly competing network.)

On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 12:27 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro+blu at gmail.com> wrote:
> Shirley M?rquez D?lcey wrote:
>> Comcast doesn't really support the HD HomeRun at all. Their people
>> were pretty much clueless about what it even is;
>
> That fits with what I've read on the MythTV user's last back when I was
> following it. So not surprisingly, no change.
>
>
>> I don't think the company really likes the existence of the HD
>> HomeRun, because it lets you make DVR recordings in unencrypted
>> formats;
> ...
>> Comcast would much rather have you pay them for
>> their X1 system which keeps your recordings captive.
>
> Exactly.
>
> I have a pre-CableCard HDHR (now sitting idle, thanks to Comcast
> encrypting everything) and have not bothered to upgrade to the CableCard
> version, because it has always felt like an investment that may only
> have short term usefulness.
>
> At any moment Comcast could decide to do something to prevent CableCard
> from working. (Especially if they can figure out how to keep the TiVos
> working while fouling the HDHR and other fringe users.)
>
> Or, better alternatives to Comcast will come along, and I can be rid of
> the ridiculous practice of renegotiating my cable TV rates once per year.
>
> We're getting real close to the latter...
>
>  -Tom
>
> --
> Tom Metro
> The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
> "Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting."
> http://www.theperlshop.com/
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