[OT] DTV switch-over

Ben Scott dragonhawk at gmail.com
Sat May 30 19:58:52 EDT 2009


On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 12:22 AM, Joshua Judson Rosen
<rozzin at geekspace.com> wrote:
> ... [Comcast] flat-out *lied*.

  For it to be a lie would require them to have planned all along to
cease analog transmission at the same time as OTA, but still claim
that they would not.    It's also possible they just decided to change
their schedule.  That would simply mean they're not very good at
delivering what they promise in their sales pitches, and we already
know that to be the case.

> ... ignoring things like the /prospective/ damage that may come in the
> form of vendor-locking encrypted signals ...

  Oh, that isn't prospective.  When I switched to digital cable
reception when I got my Tivo Series 3, I lost the ability to download
many of the recordings from my TiVo.  Local broadcasts are
unrestricted, per FCC rule, but many other recordings appear as
"Protected".  TiVo's CableCARD certification requires them to honor
restrictions indicated by the cable operator.

  Interestingly, the restrictions don't appear to be applied the way I
expected.  I've got several high-def recordings from Discovery and
History which I can retrieve via HTTP, but everything from Comedy
Central -- which doesn't even *have* a high-def capable feed -- is
restricted.

> ... new customers who signed extended-commitment-for-a-teaser-rate
>  contracts ...

  As far as I know, all of Comcast's currently advertised offerings
don't have a term requirement.  Comcast's Standard ToS allow for the
possibility, but none of the actual purchase plans appear to exercise
it.  You can cancel anytime.

  This, more than anything, suggests to me they have real monopoly
power -- a company as evil as Comcast would surely be looking to
lock-in customers contractually if they thought there was any real
competition.

-- Ben


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