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

[Brian Wood]

Brian J. Murrell wrote:
> 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.

A lot of it is the infamous "Hollywood Types". They want everything
digital, with proprietary STBs, so they can "control" their precious
"content", which they have a hard time doing with analog signals.

> 
> 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?

Good Point. It's like the shows where a diver or a mountain climber is
in "mortal peril". I always wonder why the photographer doesn't drop the
camera and help him.