fantaxp7 190 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 http://www.lightreading.com/cable-video/set-top-boxes/house-votes-to-kill-cablecard-mandate/d/d-id/710079 I would hate to lose my cable card tuner in my HTPC setup if this ends up happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14935 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 It is only a matter of time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantaxp7 190 Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 One thing I find interesting that may or may not be related is Silicon Dust working with Google I/O. I was very excited to hear this. That new Android TV device that Google is working on sounds amazing if it works somehow with live tv. I wonder if it has cable companies worried/pissed where they would want to push away cable cards. “We are extremely honored to have been selected to participate at Google I/O,” said Theodore Head, President and CEO of SiliconDust. “We’ve been working diligently with Google’s Android TV team to develop an elegant and intuitive solution to bring Live TV to Android TV.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14935 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 You have to realize that the only reason cable cards are still supported now is because it was legislatively mandated back when MS was trying to push the vision of WMC in everyone's living room. Once those mandates come off, the cable companies will drop support so fast it will make your head spin. That will probably finally be the real end of WMC as well. The industry has gone another way. Regular people aren't going to build PCs and put cable cards in them and hook them up to their TVs. This is what MS learned with WMC and why they have basically abandoned it. And, yes, I did call you "not real people" . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee 204 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 errr... Europe & FTA unless someone comes up with something spectacular WMC will "live forever" in my house.... Guess i'm not real people either!!! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantaxp7 190 Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 You have to realize that the only reason cable cards are still supported now is because it was legislatively mandated back when MS was trying to push the vision of WMC in everyone's living room. Once those mandates come off, the cable companies will drop support so fast it will make your head spin. That will probably finally be the real end of WMC as well. The industry has gone another way. Regular people aren't going to build PCs and put cable cards in them and hook them up to their TVs. This is what MS learned with WMC and why they have basically abandoned it. And, yes, I did call you "not real people" . Haha, good points. Well perhaps since Google will be pushing Android TV into everyone's living room cable cards may have a fighting chance. This is a very legitimate way for Google to create a all-in-one box that can crush their competition. Apple has been talking about integrating live tv for some time now... Anyways, I like to day dream . If that Android TV comes out with cable card support and mediabrowser 10' GUI looking gorgeous on it (Hey Red ) then bye bye HTPC. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14935 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 None of us out here are "real people" in these terms . I'm talking your mom and dad and everyone else you see at Target (or your country's equivalent). Those folks are gonna buy a box and plug it in and expect what they want to watch to come out. That is the market these guys care about. We will keep doing our thing as long as we possibly can but the industry isn't going to help us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 The other thing I am scared of is that they are talking about dropping the requirement that network channels be unencrypted. Add to that the cable companies trying to fight the mandate that they broadcast OTA and we may end up with no real options. The Aero decision may help at least with OTA but in a few years I am sure clearQAM is going away. And if that happens I am either going to see what streaming options are available legally or say FU to the cable companies and find other means for watching the content. (we pay for streaming services like Hulu and stuff so I have no problem with that option, although some services seem to have quality or reliability issues, HBO, Crunchyroll respectively) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christoph86 12 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 I may be wrong on this, but I think this legislation mainly refers to the requirement for cable companies own hardware, not retail hardware. They will still have to offer a way for retail hardware to have access, whether its cablecard or an entirely new standard. TiVo is still a fairly big player and they won't just let their business and all their consumers become non functional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 There has been a proposal for a while with a replacement to CableCard but I believe that was shelved. I am pretty sure that the cable companies will not be crying if Tivo is unable to work as they are taking a lot of revenue away from cable companies. With the mandate dropped the cable companies would be free to do what they want. They could ask Tivo to give them a cut in exchange for "special" cards that you would put into the Tivo. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iam4uk 26 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 My CinemaPC is the best DVR I have used or seen, by far (as well as the best device for all other audio and video media). The CableCARD in the InfiniTV is required for decrypting, of course, so the potential demise of CableCARD is cause for concern. If the only available solution is a $14/month cable box for each TV, the cable company will lose this customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nydude25 11 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 If the law does change about the mandate, the cable companies aren't going to disable CableCARDs the next day. They've all made an investment in this technology and many of the STBs the cable companies rent to customers use the CableCARD infrastructure themselves. Maybe Tivo will convince the companies to keep using it or even work with them towards the next iteration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 If the law does change about the mandate, the cable companies aren't going to disable CableCARDs the next day. They've all made an investment in this technology and many of the STBs the cable companies rent to customers use the CableCARD infrastructure themselves. Maybe Tivo will convince the companies to keep using it or even work with them towards the next iteration. Maybe... but with no mandate there is no guarantee. Big cable companies that have a CableCARD based infrastructure may continue to use them. But small companies may just drop support completely (obviously nothing would happen right away). Or maybe the small companies keep it as a way to steal customers from larger companies who drop support. But the state of competition in the US cable industry is such a joke that no one knows what would happen. The only thing we do know is that with no mandate the companies will be able to reconsider their position and make the choice that helps their profit margin the best, not the customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 Not sure how a small company will draw customers. People will have to move into their service areas as all cable companies have geographical monopolies. The only cable provider where I live is Time Warner. There is no choice. Satellite (DirecTV and Dish) and Fiber Optic providers (Verizon) are not under the same mandate. If you do happen to live in a place with multiple cable providers, your area is the exception not the rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christoph86 12 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 (edited) Charter cable already has a 2 year waiver to deploy new set top boxes that use integrated downloadable security without Cablecard technology, given about a year ago. http://multichannel.com/news/content/charter-scores-set-top-waiver/358801 There were stipulations in this waiver, one being they provide physical cablecard support indefinitely and may not stop issuing new cablecards to customers until a third party device compatible with the new downloadable security system is available for purchase at retail. This tells me that, yes, cablecard technology is going away eventually (it is old tech), but likely will be supported for some time and that a newer technology will have to be available to customers for purchase at retail before they can stop issuing new cablecards. What these systems will be and how we can incorporate them into HTPCs or our own configurations remains to be seen Edited July 30, 2014 by christoph86 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techywarrior 688 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 Not sure how a small company will draw customers. People will have to move into their service areas as all cable companies have geographical monopolies. Yea, I alluded to the monopoly issue in my post but it's not like that everywhere. I have Cox, Time Warner, and AT&T as options. Although I am in a condo building so I can't actually get all of those options. But someone living in a stand alone house across could. That's not the case in large parts of the country of course. And one of the reasons that I believe there needs to be more oversight on the cable companies. They are abusing their positions and colluding to set policy in their favor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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