[ale] OT: DeKalb Sets Public Meeting On Comcast

[Byron Jeff]

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 06:40:33AM -0500, Geoffrey wrote:
> krwatson at cc.gatech.edu wrote:
> > DeKalb Sets Public Meeting On Comcast
> > 
> > DECATUR - DeKalb County will hold a public meeting on Friday, Feb. 19
> > at 6:00 p.m. at the Manuel J. Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive,
> > to discuss Comcast Cable Communication's desire to renew its
> > franchise with the County.
> 
> Comcast is by far the worst company I've ever dealt with when it comes 
> to 'no customer service.'

While the script monkeys are difficult to deal with, at least they do
answer the phone quickly. I can still remember the 45+ hold times when
Media One was running the shop.

My biggest frustration is a technical one. After touting during the OTA
digital transision that you needed to change nothing if you were a Comcast
customer, they went Ninja Assassin on their analog offerings and started
converting large portions of the their basic cable tier to digital.
Considering the 6 for 1 channel swap between digital and analog, that is
understandable.

What is not is their insistance on then encrypting those channels and
forcing the use of a box in order to decode them. They can spout all the
crap they want about it being best for the customer. It's not. It's a
blatant naked control/money grab to force folks into a box for every TV,
though all modern TVs have digital clear QAM tuners that are perfectly
capable of tuning in digital channels if they are not encrypted.

As a MythTV user with 3 analog tuners, I am incensed. Not only are my
current tuners going to be obsoleted eventually, there is no alternative
for grabbing the encrypted digital content as their boxes have no reliable
mechanism for obtaining it. Couple that with the monthly fees that CC wants
for their crappy boxes, and you can see why I'm not happy.

Being able to get analog content without a box was the one clear advantage
that cable has/had over the alternatives. I don't want anyone else's DVR
system. No flexibility. No expandability.

I'm shopping for an alternative. It really would be no problem if I were
not a sports junkie because pretty much everything is available online in
one format or another. But content like ESPN or NFL Network is much more
difficult to get online reliably.

Any suggestions. The best I've come up with so far is OTA digital/HD for
broadcast content coupled with a satellite box and HD/digital grabber for
the rest.

BAJ