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FCC Opens Market for Cable Boxes
fistfullast33l writes "The FCC rendered a decision today against a Comcast appeal that centers on integrated security features in set-top cable boxes. The decision comes at the end of a long standing feud between the FCC and cable companies over the matter. The result is that starting July 1st, cable boxes distributed by cable companies must not be tied directly to a cable provider via internal security features. This rule is viewed as the first step in creating a market for set-top cable boxes. Comcast does have the right to appeal and has said they will do so. From the article: 'Several major consumer electronics manufacturers have argued that if set-top boxes weren't directly linked to the provision of cable service, they could enter the set-top market. Consumers could get a cable card from their service provider that they could insert into a set-top box purchased at a consumer electronics store. The cards would ensure that consumers could only access channels that they paid for.'"
Cable companies are right now huge monstrosities, leaving no space for creativity because of their market shares. If other companies could produce boxes that could have new features, like maybe a TiVo in the box, consumers would have better options. And, with every company advertising the pluses to their services, you could have a firmer grip on deciding what to chose, and they could have fairer competition from external companies. I hate monopolies.
From what I have seen, people in the middle east and north africa have had this for ages. And, on a related note: mobile service providers like Vodafone have nothing to do with the actual handsets people buy from various vendors. You simply insert standard SIM cards and can swap them between phones.
These people can never understand restrictions like the one that has just been removed, and for a good reason: they don't make sense. Is there some sort of survey of the countries that have a standard de-linking between service provision and hardware? It would be interesting to know.
When we had Digeo's MOXI HD DVR through Charter, my biggest beef was that its feature set was completely dictated by the cable company. One example is the "skip" button on the remote. Many DVR's have a 30 or so second skip button. MOXI has the capability of having a 30-second skip button on the remote (actually, the box could be configured to pretty much any skip value) but the value is specified by the cable company, not the consumer. The bottom line was that Charter felt that it was in their best interest to make it a 15 minute (yes, minute) skip instead of a 30-second skip.
By opening this up, it could provide consumers with more choice on features.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
I think that Virgin is going after them.
I'm old enough to remember when cable came out in Omaha, Nebraska. You had to lease a special cable box with pushbuttons on it that tuned the channels. Eventually everyone got standardized and the various CECs (Consumer Electronics Companies) started building support for the 70 odd "standard" cable channels right into the Televisions and VCRs of the day allowing you to tune pretty much anything without leasing a box from the cable company.
With digital cable the cable companies recreated the same situation they had in the late seventies and early eighties. You have to have the digital box in order to get the digital channels. Which not coincidentally is where they hide most of the "good" channels. Why did they do this? Well, a lot of reasons but trust me when I tell you that the charge for leasing the cable box you need to tune your channels isn't making them feel bad.
With this decision the CECs of the world can get busy putting standardized digital receivers back into Televisions and the DVR. It's about damned time too.
Oddly enough, it will be titled "The Protection of Children from Video Terrorism Act" or "Cable Television Deregulation and Child Protection Act" or "Homeland Security Budget for Fiscal 2008".
This is what you get for paying $100/mo for 157 channels of "nothing's on."
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Oddly enough, none of your described symptoms have much to do with the code. The current approved code is 1.4.2 for Sara (SciAtl) boxes. The idea of the box crashing every single wednesday, due to a recording, really can't have much to do with it. I assume you've swapped your cable box out? The one real advantage you have here is the ability to get a new one for free, so if you haven't yet, do so. The Tivo can't really cause the SA box to crash, since its just going to communicate via an IR transmitter, which the box will just view as the remote control. Honestly this sounds like bad hardware, but it could be a bug. But i've had to deal with the SA boxes a lot lately, and I haven't heard anything like this at all.
i heart you.
i worked for nokia for nearly 10 years in r&d for cell phones (cdma) and grew to loathe operators. in the u.s. they completely control the distribution because of subsidies and refusal to activate other phones claiming, "they don't work on our network." they ignore usability and force handset makers to jump through hoops designing phones essential on spec (if you put in these features, remove your name from the device, and pretend we invented all the technology maybe, just maybe, we'll put some in our stores.) ugh i hate them! it's all coming back! damn you operators!!
p.s. i also blame the fcc, because hell they do everything wrong. i love those billion $ license fees which guarantee that only big monopoly companies can enter the market place.
Does this ruling apply to FIOS as well? Verizon is digging my neighborhood right now... But I'd like hte same possibility of box choice if I get FIOS TV as this would allow with Comcast.
Will this allow TV tuner cards for computers that take cable cards? Which are usable with Linux and MythTV?
I've got a MythTV box with two of the pcHDTV 3000 cards. Is there any way to make use of this with FIOS to record HD programming? Will there be such a thing as a FIOS "tuner card" for computers?