[ale] Cable modem recommendation

[Brian Mathis]

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Michael H. Warfield <mhw at wittsend.com> wrote:
[...]
> The cable companies have to walk a fine line or run a foul of the FCC
> regulations in this area.  At one point the FCC was even requiring cable
> companies support "cable cards" for consumer purchased equipment but
> that turned into an abject failure as nobody bought them.  The biggest
> stick in the mud with cable companies is encrypted content such as
> premium TV channels, movies, and view on demand.  DTV channels sort of
> complicated that a bit but there were cable TV tuner / capture cards
> that worked really well with the Comcast channels if they weren't
> encrypted.  That's what the cable cards were SUPPOSE to address by
> allowing consumers to provide their own STBs while still allowing the
> cable companies control over their premium content.  While cable cards
> are still a failure, there's still teeth in some of those FCC regs
> mandating some level of support for consumer purchased equipment, which
> is really where the standardized DOCSIS modems and devices have come in,
> which Comcast does support.
>
> Mike


The cablecard requirement has not gone away, and in fact all cable TV
devices must include them.  Every cable box has a cable card built-in,
and you can usually find a small access door on the rear of the box
for it.  This applies only to full cable boxes, not digital tuning
adapters.

CableCard's only problem is On Demand, and that's something I think
the cable companies intentionally blow out of proportion when you call
to ask for a cablecard.  It's in their best interest to try to upsell
you to buy another thing after you already pay them $100+/month for
"basic" service.  Premium channels work with no problem -- HBO works
just fine on my TiVo with a multi-stream card.

The next problem coming down the line is switched video, where the
receiver needs to send a signal upstream to get the TV channel sent to
the box.  CableCard doesn't support this, but Tru2Way does, though
we'll probably see Internet streaming takeover before tru2way gets any
traction.


❧ Brian Mathis