[mythtv-users] [Slightly OT] comcast moving to settop on Bay Area - goodbye analog
R. G. Newbury
newbury at mandamus.org
Mon Feb 2 04:44:31 UTC 2009
Brad Fuller wrote:
> http://tinyurl.com/ant2zz
>
> At least they are giving settop boxes away... for now. Who knows if
> they will add a lease to your bill afterwards.
>
> I'm not happy about this since I depend on analog cable and QAM for my
> feeds. Didn't I read somewhere on this list that it _could_ be
> against the law to do this? Something about local free channels... or
> something...
American's are lucky that the FCC has mandated that cable systems must
provide 'must-carry' channels in the clear on the 'Basic' tier. Must
carry channels are basically those which the customer can receive OTA in
that area. But this does not specifically require the cableco to
provide that signal in HD...they can compress it down and push a lousy
SD analog signal if they want to.
But it appears that lots of cableco's are pushing the idea that the
digital conversion changeover *requires them* to switch to digital
too...and the customer "has to" use an stb. As you say 'who knows....'.
You may want to google for 46 CFR Part 76 and read the legal-ease of the
regulation. Or search the archive: it's been covered before.
Geoff
--
Please let me know if anything I say offends you.
I may wish to offend you again in the future.
Tux says: "Be regular. Eat cron flakes."
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