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Comcast Disables VCR Scheduling In New Guide
An anonymous reader writes "Comcast has quietly launched a new on-screen guide for its cable boxes. What they're not advertising is that they've removed the ability to schedule VCR-compatible channel flipping any time more than a few hours in advance for people who don't buy the $20/month DVR service. What this means is that VCR owners are now forced to pay for Comcast's $20/month DVR service or else start their recordings manually. For us techies there might be a way around this, but ordinary VCR enthusiasts and owners of other recorders are left in the dust. Anyone know a good antitrust lawyer?" Raise your hand if you regularly use a VCR these days, too.
Nothing happened to them when they imposed a 250 GB download per month cap totally violating the original contract agreements of millions. Want to bet it's in the fine print that they reserve the right to fuck you any time they want?
Some nerds have to provide tech support for relatives that have VCRs and do not have DVRs. Try explaining that their VCRs are now useless and they now have to shell out $120-$240 a year.
Some nerds also own DVRs instead of renting from Comcast. The "VCR" programming feature is required to use with a non-Comcast DVR.
You've been unfairly marked troll. (Not that I agree with you, but everyone should have a right to express an opinion without having their karma stabbed.)
Anyway, a free market WOULD fix in this case, because when Comcast pulls this shit, you would then be able to switch to Cox cable or Time-Warner cable or AppleTV or Verizon TV or anybody else you desired. Comcast's poor decisions would drive it into bankruptcy as customers would flee in droves. (As happened to Circuit City not too long ago.) BUT because Comcast operates a virtual monopoly, they know they can force customers into upgrading to Comcast DVRs, simply by turning off standard features...... like a VCR Timer.
Also it's not just VCRs, but also DVRs this affects.
I have a Panasonic ReplayTV that can switch the old analog channels just fine, but ever since the analog-to-digital transition, it's lost that capability. I now rely on an external box with a "VCR/DVR Timer" to switch the digital stations. If Comcast removes that capability from their set-top box, than DVRs like mine will no longer be able to record anything but a single channel when I'm away from home.
IMHO.
Please don't mod me "troll" just cause you disagree (like you did to Lekh).
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Firewire must be available, but it does not mean that the content is accessible.
Many providers choose to use the 5C DRM scheme to block your ability to record via Firewire.
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Firewire_Cablebox_Compatability
Take a look at Myth's compatibility list for examples.
Betamax and VHS were consumer analog video recording formats that predated DVD recorders by about two decades. Back before Sony was in the MAFIAA, Universal Studios sued Sony to keep Betamax decks out of the United States, but Sony's win established the legality of home off-air video recording.
Or you could, of course, opt out of the anonymous stats reporting.
Not if you want to schedule recordings via their barely capable but better than nothing website.
Plus, I think you'll find that "opting out" doesn't stop your tivo from reporting your viewing habits, it just stops tivocorp from doing anything that would alert you to the fact that they have that information. As in, they won't send you tailored commercials but they still have all the information it would take to do so. That's almost universally the way these "opt out" things work.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
That's funny. Even Galbraith later admitted that he was wrong on this point.
link
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
f you blink, you might miss it.. But I think this backs up my original assertion..
Section 76.640:
(iii) Ensure that these cable operator-provided high definition set-top boxes shall comply with ANSI/SCTE 26 2001 (formerly DVS 194): ? Home Digital Network Interface Specification with Copy Protection? (incorporated by reference, see 76.602), with transmission of bit-mapped graphics optional, and shall support the CEA? 931? A:
?Remote Control Command Pass-through Standard for Home Networking? (incorporated by reference, see 76.602), pass through control commands: tune function , mute function, and restore volume function. In addition these boxes shall support the power control commands (power on, power off, and status inquiry) defined in A/VC Digital Interface Command Set General Specification Version 4.0 (as referenced in ANSI/SCTE 26 2001 (formerly DVS 194): ? Home Digital Network Interface Specification with Copy Protection? (incorporated by reference, see 76.602)).
Older cable boxes and and some of the new ATSC tuners have a feature where you can program the box to change channels at a specific time. It is kind of a pain because you have to program both the cable box and the VCR for each show you want to record, but it is the only way possible to use existing VCRs with these boxes.
This is especially important for the ATSC boxes because they are mandated by law* to ship with a feature that shuts them off after a certain amount of inactive time, so even if you switch the box to the correct channel before you leave the house, your VCR will still end up recording garbage if you didn't have the box programed to wakeup and change channels at the correct time. I don't know if Comcast's boxes have this problem.
I use a Tivo which uses an IR blaster to change the set-top box.
That is nice for Tivo but 99% of VCR's out there don't have this feature. Besides an even bigger problem is the fact that Comcast updated people's cable boxes remotely, removing this feature. People had a perfectly functional setup and now without any warning their VCR is worthless thanks to Comcast's actions.
* or was it just required to be eligible for the government rebate? I don't remember.
This isn't a malicious attempt to get you to upgrade to DVR service. It has to do with the fact that the digital cable box you have (Motorola DCT2000 series) has 2MB of flash memory.
The VCR recording feature requires an IR database (that stores the correct power/record codes for each VCR), code to operate the IR blaster, and of course UI and other features. All of this takes space. It may only be a few KB, but Comcast keeps adding features to the DCT2000 boxes and eventually something has to go. The VCR feature is one that isn't particularly popular (it's hard to configure and most people don't even have a VCR anymore), and it takes up more space than many other features, so it gets the axe.
Comcast's guide software (i-guide) is not particularly great, but it's a hell of a lot better than what used to run on the DCT2000. Those boxes are very old at this point, but the i-guide software has given them a reasonable level of functionality for people who don't want HD or a DVR.
If you don't like the change, you are free to do any of the following:
- Return the Comcast box and use a video recording device (TiVo, Moxi, Media Center, etc.) that uses a CableCard. Comcast charges $1.50/mo for a CableCard.
- Use a recording device or software (Media Center, MythTV, TiVO series 1/2) that supports your cable box with an IR blaster.
- Switch to Comcast's DVR.
FYI, Comcast's DVR is $15.99/mo if it's the first box on the account in most areas ($20 if it's an additional box). Conventional boxes are free (first box) or $6 (additional boxes). Some of these rates vary by area, but they're increasingly standardized.
Sorry, but the days when consumers could change corporate behavior by changing their buying preferences is long gone.
You act like it's possible to punish Comcast by going to their competitors, but those shifts have long been absorbed by those corporations so that they no longer have an effect.
Today, your spending "habits" are locked-in, tied-down, under contract and so many times removed from your "choices" that it's just not an issue any more. Cable television, like all telecommunications are no longer anything like a "free market", and that's got nothing to do with government regulation, except for the fact that it's the telecoms that are writing the regulations now.
And that's not even taking into consideration the effect that marketing and advertising has on every single one of us. It's a lot more powerful than we are, and we're no longer capable of making informed choices. I get a kick out of people who say "I just ignore advertising" because they're just in denial.
We work for the corporations now, so stop deluding yourself into thinking that "your wallet" has any power whatsoever.
You are welcome on my lawn.
A free market depends on competition for self-regulation. Without competition, there is no pressure to compete, and suddenly money no longer has the power it should because there is no competitor your money can go to to increase competitive edge. Cable service in many areas is essentially a monopoly (or at best, an oligopoly, but even then, your choices are usually between bad and worse), and when you have no proper competitor, your choice is between paying for bad service or abstaining and suffering in silence, as what company actually listens to complaints from someone who isn't a client? If this were a technical issue, I would understand, but as they are essentially holding VCR scheduling for ransom, this seems more like a strongarm tactic to get customers to ditch their VCR (which they've already paid for and only costs additional VHS tapes to add new recordings) and replace it with a monthly fee-based DVR. It's times like these that I wish I had the capital to compete with Comcast; even if I went under, it would be worth it to see what kind of changes could be brought about purely from the introduction of another predator in the pond.
Hmmm. You make sense - but, can you give an example of free market in the United States, any time within the past 100 years or so?
Seriously, we have never seen it in our lifetimes. Every single commodity or good that you can possibly purchase has been regulated at multiple points. Nothing you can possibly buy today is actually produced by a "free market". Absolutely nothing.
If you can find something that isn't actually regulated directly, you will find that it is affected by peripheral regulations, such as minimum wage laws. In the case of textiles, cotton remains King. Imagine that. I can't think of any specific laws that regulate cotton - but cotton is protected by seemingly unrelated regulations that outlaw hemp products in this country. You might say "Big deal!" But, hemp products outlast similar cotton products, usually by 7 times. Hemp products actually make the soil they are grown from more fertile, as opposed to cotton, which depletes the nutrients in the soil rapidly.
Go ahead - look around, and find ANYTHING on the US market which is truly subject to "free trade".
We can't possibly prove or disprove the idea that the free market is self regulating, because we've never put it to the test.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
The FCC has ruled that condo/homeowner associations cannot restrict the installation of (small) satellite dishes or antennas for receiving television or Internet services. There are certain exemptions for historical preservation and such but other than that they must make reasonable accommodations. http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html
$1200/month after tax when you have 2 room mates in a $1000/month apartment in college is like, $900/mo for YOUR food and car insurance. Plus you have medical benefits. With 2 working people in a $1000/mo apartment, that's $2400/mo combined, leaving $1400/mo to cover expenses.
I work with a fellow who supported another non-working person in their own apartment covering all expenses in a $23,000/year job. That's scarcely $1500 after taxes, covering two people.
It's horrible, but livable.
As for cutthroat pricing, Wal-Mart is the reason everything else is so cheap. It's hard to compete, as I said, even with the same shit on a different quality tier. The value just isn't there for $60 pants, which instead have to be priced at $40 and constantly rotating through sales at 25%-50% off to actually sell; but that's okay because those pants only cost $10 to make anyway, so a sale price of $30 leaves enough margin for everyone.
It's not an isolated system, as you've noticed (Wal-Mart displacing other retailers); but that goes both ways. On one hand, Wal-Mart gets a huge market share offering lower quality standard products at lower prices that cost less to manufacture than other retailers; on the other, this means that the better and slightly-more-expensive-to-manufacture shit has to be priced only slightly more expensive, rather than price gouging consumers on a demonstrable quality increase. Removing one evil lets another one in...
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