[mythtv-users] CATV Going Digital - Was: PVR 150s Cheap

[Brian J. Murrell]

On Sat, 2007-05-19 at 19:25 -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> 
> It's like in the mid to late 1970s, when people would pay extra $$$ for
> "Cable Ready" and a VCR, then be told by the Cable company that in order
> to use them they would have to buy extra STBs, A/B switches, and
> possibly enroll in an electrical engineering program to figure it all
> out :-)

If the cable companies would stop playing the proprietary hardware game
and get with a standard like DVB-T that would give TV manufacturers a
stationary target and TV sets would be made with DVB-T tuners in them
and the STB stupidity would be gone.

Isn't Europe DVB-T standard?  Anyone know if you an buy TVs in Europe
with DVT-T in them?

Of course the STB shenanigans is good for the CableCos.  Not sure if
they make money on the revenue of the STBs but they introduce a nice
large barrier to exit.  It limits the ease of leaving once you have
invested in their hardware, only to have to invest in the "other guy"s.
Many people can't afford to just throw the investment in STBs in the
garbage and re-invest in a whole new set of STBs.

The whole STB shenanigans is why I refuse to go digital.  I will go
digital when I can put a standard card in my Myth box and record
everything I can watch with their STB.  Maybe that will be never.  Maybe
my continually diminishing attention to TV will have me pitching my TV
before I will ever be able to record with the freedom I want.

Bah.  I'm just pissed that they cancelled The Black Donnellys
(apparently) to put on another stupid goddamned reality show.  I was
told it was called "Wedding Crashers".  Just how do you go about
crashing a wedding with a camera crew?

b.

-- 
My other computer is your Microsoft Windows server.

Brian J. Murrell
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