[mythtv-users] OT: CableCard, MythTV, and the Future. Is there a Future?

[Joe Votour]

It's really hard to say if there will be any CableCard
PCI cards or not.  Unfortunately, it's up to the cable
operators.

Speaking as somebody who has worked in the cable
industry (I worked for two DOCSIS cable modem
manufacturers for a combined 3.5 years) - no offence
meant to anybody in the cable industry who may be
reading this e-mail, but the U.S. cable industry is
the most stagnant industry, hell-bent on protecting
their monopoly, while spending the least amount of
money to do so.  DSL is starting to eat their lunch
(telcos are spending a lot of money to improve the
infrastructure), and the cable operators are
legitimately frightened.  Despite that, I honestly
think that if the FCC had not mandated CableCard, then
CableCard would never have happened.

Ideally the end user would be able to insert their own
CableCard into the PCI card, but at the moment, it
seems that the cable companies are sending out
technicians to do the installation, to make sure that
everything is working.  At this point, I seriously
doubt that they'd allow you to install the card in
some device other than a TV.

Perhaps CableCard 2.0 will fix things, but knowing how
the cable operators and CableLabs work (and seeing how
the FCC is constantly shuffling around the issue), I'm
not too optimistic.  Also a factor is that the cable
operators don't seem to be advertising it too much
(could be because the technology is not mature), and
also, it would cut into their PVR rental business
(those PVR boxes cost the cable company at least $300
each, and just like DOCSIS cable modems in the
beginning, and even now, the cable operators want to
milk them for all they're worth).  Additionally, cable
operators want only approved devices using CableCards,
so that their precious digital content isn't being
recorded and swapped around.

I'd certainly love for a hardware vendor to prove me
wrong, and produce PCI cards which will accept
CableCards (but the PCI card must output unencrypted
MPEG-2, not some proprietary crap that MythTV can't
handle).  Even if it was the one-way 1.0 CableCard,
that would convince me to move to digital cable, as I
can continue to use MythTV's EPG (from Zap2It), and I
don't do PPV.  But it won't really happen in the U.S.
without the cable operators' blessing.  (Europe, on
the other hand seems to be much more progressive on
this, they realize that they need to make their
customers happy, and are searching for solutions to
the DSL problam).

-- Joe

--- Jason Gabriele <jason.gabriele at gmail.com> wrote:

> The cable card pci cards will probably be sold at
> the store. They will 
> just come with windows software thats all. You wont
> have to go 
> underground to buy the hardware. And as far as
> illegal drivers, well 
> just look at other linux software with
> less-than-legal status. Some 
> distros refuse to ship either NTFS drivers or mp3
> playback because they 
> were both reverse-engineered. IIRC the gatos project
> has also reverse 
> engineered drivers for ati cards. It depends on how
> the card works. If 
> the drivers only let you do things the cards were
> made for it shouldnt 
> be a problem. As long as you cant steal PPV or
> encrypted digital 
> channels you dont subscribe to I cant see anyone
> getting too mad about it.
> 
>  >Problem is, in doing so you are likely to break
> some law somewhere.
>  >
>  >Which scares real companies from doing the work to
> sell such hardware
>  >to us at a good price.
>  >
>  >Now of course, when it comes to bootleg satellite,
> there is an industry
>  >with companies willing to take the legal risks,
> because the amounts of
>  >money are serious; people bootleg satellite
> packages that cost $100
>  >pre month and PPV costing much more, so they are
> willing to hunt for
>  >under the table stuff.
>  >
>  >But when it's just, "I can buy a Tivo with a
> cablecard for $X and I can
>  >build a Myth box for a similar amount of money but
> you have to go
>  >underground to get the cable card" it's not an
> easy battle to win.
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