[somewhat off-topic] Comcast and Verizon

[David Kramer]

Matthew Gillen wrote:
> On 10/26/2009 11:56 AM, R. Luoma wrote:
> My opinion, stay away from Comcast when it comes to internet service.  They
> specialize in abusing customers, "shaping" bandwidth in ways that 'discourage'
> certain uses (Vonage, bittorrent), and various other "the customer is our
> bitch" policies.

I got Comcast Business class, and have no issues.  I can (and do)
contractually run whatever the hell I want, as much as I want.  Static
IP address, too.  The only way to make sure you're not blocked is to be
contractually allowed to.  You can't complain about blocked ports when
your contract says you're not allowed to run servers.

> Myth is hampered by the encrypted channels; you can't connect your tuner
> directly to the wall.  This will be an issue for all of Vz's offerings, and
> soon-to-be all of Comcasts offerings (Comcast definitely already does it for
> any HD channels). You can get it to work using the firewire port on the STB,
> and an infrared transponder that lets MythTV change the channel on the STB.
> However, that isn't great for several reasons:
>  - you can't record two things at once or record and watch something else at
> the same time (at least, not with the same STB).
>  - some shows will still be encrypted when they come off the firewire port,
> making recording them useless.  You have no way of really knowing what shows
> they're going to do that with.

I just hook my MythTV box up to the cable box and change channels with
an IR blaster.  Works flawlessly, and I could care less what channels
are encrypted.