[mythtv-users] Comcast and the DTA

[David Brodbeck]

On Wed, September 23, 2009 7:31 am, Paul Fine wrote:
> Comcast has provided Digital Transport Adapters to support TV's that don't
> have a full up STB.  Does anyone know if these DTA's decrypt as well as
> decode the QAM signal?  If they do not decrypt, that would imply that the
> extended cable Comcast is supporting with the DTA will be in clear QAM.

Here's the story right now.

The DTAs do not support the same kind of encryption that normal STBs do. 
At first FCC rules appeared to prohibit use of this alternative kind of
encryption, so Comcast has been supplying all the DTA feeds as clear QAM.

However, they recently got a ruling that will allow them to switch on the
encryption capabilities.  There was a recent article in the Seattle Times
where they announced they plan to gradually phase out clear QAM in
Washington state starting next month, to stop people who only subscribe to
basic cable from getting the extended basic channels on their QAM tuners.

At this point I personally would not spend money on a clear QAM tuner with
the assumption that it will continue to work on Comcast's system.  I think
pretty soon Comcast subscribers will be in the same boat as Dish
subscribers -- an STB plus an HD-PVR will be the only way to capture HD
signals.  You could also use a DTA with an IR blaster but this will only
get you standard-definition, since the DTAs only output RF on channel 3.