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New HD TiVo and Cable Incompatibilities

Posted by kdawson on from the so-it's-interaction-you-want dept.

Lauren Weinstein writes "The rapid deployment of Switched Digital Video (SDV) by cable companies can cause major problems for buyers of the new HD TiVo, preventing any access to some channels."

10 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. if we had a tough FCC, by jay2003 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    they'd stick to guns on the CableCARD mandate and shut down cable systems that were not compatible with 3rd party devices. With a credible shutdown threat looming, this problem would get fixed in less than a month. I know it will never happen due to the huge campaign contributions politicians get from cable companies.

    I'm not convinced the cable companies are doing themselves an favors. I'm unlikely to upgrade from my old analog cable if can't have an HD Tivo. Cable companies seem to think HD is a form of crack people cann't live without but I'm doing just fine on analog.

    1. Re:if we had a tough FCC, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      We have a "tough FCC", that's what started this entire mess. The FCC is trying to force cable companies to implement a government-mandated technology instead of allowing the free market to come up with standards on its own.

      As anyone who has ever seen government regulation at work expected, the FCC's mandate is creating a huge mess. It's creating more problems for users, requiring cable providers to increase costs and therefore increase prices, while accomplishing nothing.

      The FCC doesn't force cell phone companies to allow just any phone to run on their network, yet it's trying to do the equivalent to the cable companies. Why? What does the customer gain from that?

      A less stable network and a higher cable bill.

      If the FCC would just drop this, there would be no problem.

    2. Re:if we had a tough FCC, by planetralph · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Try over the air HDTV. Antennas still work and work great with HDTV. www.antennanweb.org will tell you what stations you can get. I didn't upgrade cable to HD when I got an HD TV, but I got an antenna and its working out great for network HDTV content. With an HD Tivo box I would have plenty of content at hand, so I wouldn't need cable's 100 stations. My kids don't want me to cancel their Nick and Disney channel, but if Comcast jacks their rates up after my 1 year trial is over cable is gone. Ralph

  2. CableCards by iPaige · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Even when cablecards follow the standard it's a botched job 90% of the time. Here, read this article on OCUR. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ocur Microsofts own lead for the program couldn't assist in getting the cablecards working. Shipped by two of the best PC manufacturers in the business, and due to the backwards ass way it's setup, completely unusable on arrival, or with aide from the cable company / microsoft / whomever wants to try. If that's the future of Media Center PC's, I'd rather just get downloadable content.

  3. cablecards and company-provided STBs by Icculus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Weren't all the cable companies supposed to be using CableCards in their own new set top boxes by now? How are they handling this problem with those units?

    1. Re:cablecards and company-provided STBs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      (Noted that you work for a small cable company, which is probably not Comcast or the like; this is a general response to their implementations -- if yours is somehow better, more power to you. Your cable company should expand and make billions with a better product)

      Because traditionally your on-screen programming guides have been slow, unwieldy, and at least with the ones that I've seen, contain more and more dead space used for invasive advertising. Cable-company provided STB's are also notorious for missing recordings, scheduling problems, etc. The TiVo, in general, has provided a fast, responsive interface that WORKS, and they provide the scheduling guide. Their inserted advertising, that I have seen so far, has consisted of:
      1. An item or two on their main menu you can select for more information.
      2. An indication during a commercial for a TV show allowing you to hit a button and schedule a recording of the next airing.
      3. A pop-up *during a recorded advertisement for a product* that can take you to more information (generally their current menu ad sponsor, with a URL or two) on that product.

      Note that none of this gets in your way of setting up a recording, or even changing channels to what you want to see. Did I mention out the *SLOW* part of the STB's provided by cable companies (SA and Motorola boxes). Then there are the televisions with their own built-in TV Guide implementations that, at least from the ones I've used, are STILL faster and less cumbersome than the cable company's STB interface.

  4. Re:If we had a smart government by coryking · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At least here in Washington State, the city elects a "cable franchise" that is granted access to use the city's cable infrastructure. The city has an oversight board composed of citizens whose task is to make sure the cable company isn't screwing people.

    If you wanna change the system, at least here in Washington, your best bet is to lobby your city government.

  5. Re:You know what works almost as well as Cable? OT by MbM · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Agreed. All you need to recieve over the air HD is a UHF antenna and a digital tuner.

    I bought a device called an HDHomerun just for this purpose. It's an inexpensive dual tuner reciever for unencrypted digital content; streams content over ethernet to any computers on the lan. Now my only concern is harddrive space; storing the shows in their original quality can take 6G per hour -- not that I'm complaining, it's noticably better than the pixelated crap my (analog) tivo produces.

    --
    - MbM
  6. And how do to you propose to get that content? by Alzheimers · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Who's network will be distributing that content? Hint, for a lot of broadband users, it's their cable company.

    With net neutrality in contention and backbone infrastructure reaching capacity, how far is it of a stretch to assume that you won't see some kind of throttling of video content from a provider who's also trying to sell you their video service on the same wire? For ordinary people who just want their video to look good and get delivered when they want it, once their AppleTV or Netflix or whoever's selling downloadable content turns ugly then they'll blame those companies, not their cable company.

    I think the battle between the telcos and VOIP was nothing compared to the bloodbath we're going to witness. The cable companies have the FCC in their pockets. Who do you have?

  7. Who The Devil Wants Them? by Vengance+Daemon · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The whole digital TV, Blu-Ray, HD DVD, TiVO, and cable TV mess just makes me tired all over. I am watching less and less TV these days because the quality of programming just stinks. There is no cable news channel that isn't, as Scott Adams said in another context, "nuttier than squirrel poo" - they all cover the celebrities and the Nancy Grace outrage of the week type of junk; and the broadcast networks have totally been taken over by accountants with seemingly no artistic sense whatsoever.

    Why all of these goofs want to make it MORE difficult to watch TV is beyond me. Dorothy Parker wrote a great poem called "Parable For A Certain Virgin" that really sums up my feelings about DRM and the MAFIAA nonsense very well.