Comcast confirms: Yes, we’re encrypting basic cable now

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JazJon

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Comcast confirms: Yes, we’re encrypting basic cable now

#1

Post by JazJon » Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:27 am

This won't effect me but I thought I'd share for non CableCard media center users.

http://gigaom.com/2013/04/15/comcast-ba ... ncryption/

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-su ... ncryption/

SUMMARY:
Comcast is getting ready to encrypt its basic cable channels. Consumers affected by the change need to get another box (or cablecard) to keep watching. (Bye Bye QAM?)

"Comcast customers, get ready for yet another TV transition: The cable provider has started to alert its customers in some markets that it is about to encrypt their basic cable signals, forcing them to order a digital adapter if they want to continue to receive basic programming through the service. Comcast is making adapters available for free in select markets, and the company even has a model that works with third-party set-top boxes — but some users could still be left in the dark.

Consumers who already use a Comcast-provided set-top box on all of their TV sets don’t have to worry, their service will continue to work as before. But if you have a TV in your den that’s hooked up to your cable outlet without a set-top box, then you’re going to have to get an adapter to keep it working.

Comcast is contacting consumers ahead of the transition, offering them up to two digital TV adapters for free for two years. These adapters are small boxes that come with their own remote control and are connected to a TV set with a coaxial (antenna) cable. Remember the converter boxes that consumers had to buy to receive over-the-air digital TV on old TV sets? It kind of works like that, except the sole purpose of this device is to descramble Comcast’s cable signals.

Comcast confirmed the move towards encrypted basic cable when contacted by GigaOM, and a spokesperson sent us the following statement via email:

“We are beginning to proactively notify customers in select markets that we will begin to encrypt limited basic channels as now permitted by last year’s FCC B1 Encryption Order. While the vast majority of our customers won’t be impacted because they already have digital equipment connected to their TVs, we understand this will be a change for a small number of customers and will be making it as convenient as possible for them to get the digital equipment they may need to continue watching limited basic channels.”
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The company is also making a help page available online that goes into some of the details of the offering.

Cable companies have long lobbied for the right to encrypt basic cable channels, arguing that this will prevent cable theft and simplify remote management of their equipment. They succeeded last year when the FCC ruled that they could start to encrypt basic cable, as long as they provide consumers with some help during the transition.

The company also struck a separate agreement with Boxee to provide owners of the Boxee Cloud DVR with access to its encrypted basic feeds — and the new Boxee device also happens to be the first one that’s compatible with a new DLNA-based adapter that streams TV signals via an Ethernet connection.

However, Comcast’s adapters won’t work with Boxee’s old live TV dongle, which the company introduced a little over a year ago to bring live TV to the original Boxee Box. Also left in the dark are customers who use any other kind of digital TV adapter for their PC that are based on coaxial inputs, like the Elgato EyeTV. The last resort for many of these consumers may just be to invest in an antenna."

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#2

Post by lithium630 » Wed Apr 17, 2013 10:25 am

All my channels have been encrypted for a while now, making my two clearqam tuners useless. Gotta love Comcrap.

erkotz

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#3

Post by erkotz » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:08 pm

I would expect most, if not all, other cable operators to move in this direction. I personally would not be investing in new ClearQAM tuners in the near future - I expect the market to be flooded with them soon.
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slowbiscuit

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#4

Post by slowbiscuit » Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:17 pm

But on the flip side, they will be giving out E-DTAs which will act as DLNA/DTCP-IP servers for the same channels on your network. Only free for 2 years of course.

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#5

Post by barnabas1969 » Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:24 pm

It would be interesting if someone would create some software that presents a "virtual tuner" to Media Center which could access DLNA/DTCP-IP servers on the network. I realize that for most people, a CableCARD tuner would make more sense (due to the eventual rental fees associated with the DTA), but it could be useful for other devices which may support DLNA over DTCP-IP in the future.

werds

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#6

Post by werds » Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:34 pm

Well, I ended up re-purchasing a second InfinTV4 due to this... so back up to a total of 10 tuners (8 Cable Card and 2 ClearQAM). I ended up getting a decent customer service rep on the phone and haggled my bill down $40 bucks by just losing the phone part of my triple play So I guess the $9.95 second outlet fee is palatable for now... On the bright side there shouldn't be any tuner conflicts now that all my recordings can be set to overlap properly =)

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#7

Post by blueiedgod » Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm

Even though FiOS has not started encrypting basics, yet, I set up an antenna in the attic, and tested it with 2x HomeRun Duals, and it works great! I have to say, picture quality with antenna is better than ever was with FiOS.

I think I spent less than $20 for the antenna, so well worth it, and I don't need to rent a second CableCard if I added another InifniTV4 to get our 8 tuner count back up.

foxwood

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#8

Post by foxwood » Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:38 pm

blueiedgod wrote:I have to say, picture quality with antenna is better than ever was with FiOS.
Verizon are doing a lot more compression than they used to - an hour of recorded TV used to run to 10GB, and it's often down to 6GB now.

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#9

Post by barnabas1969 » Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:27 pm

foxwood wrote:
blueiedgod wrote:I have to say, picture quality with antenna is better than ever was with FiOS.
Verizon are doing a lot more compression than they used to - an hour of recorded TV used to run to 10GB, and it's often down to 6GB now.
That's interesting to know. I don't see any difference in the sizes between my OTA channels and those that come from my CableCARD tuners.

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#10

Post by staknhalo » Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:47 pm

barnabas1969 wrote:
foxwood wrote:
blueiedgod wrote:I have to say, picture quality with antenna is better than ever was with FiOS.
Verizon are doing a lot more compression than they used to - an hour of recorded TV used to run to 10GB, and it's often down to 6GB now.
That's interesting to know. I don't see any difference in the sizes between my OTA channels and those that come from my CableCARD tuners.
It's all dependent on the particular Cable Co.'s/channel's compression. OTA has always been larger file sizes/higher bitrate here in South FL - between Comcast and the provider I'm with now. And one channel no matter what your provider has shitty compression (SFL aka CW) making watching football games on that channel a pita. No matter who's house we are at/whatever their provider, that channel is always crap.

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#11

Post by barnabas1969 » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:03 pm

staknhalo wrote:It's all dependent on the particular Cable Co.'s/channel's compression. OTA has always been larger file sizes/higher bitrate here in South FL - between Comcast and the provider I'm with now. And one channel no matter what your provider has poopy compression (SFL aka CW) making watching football games on that channel a pita. No matter who's house we are at/whatever their provider, that channel is always crap.
I know.

I just checked a bunch of recent recordings. It doesn't seem to make any difference OTA or cable. They vary between 4.5 - 7 GB/hour.

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#12

Post by staknhalo » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:14 pm

barnabas1969 wrote:It doesn't seem to make any difference OTA or cable. They vary between 4.5 - 7 GB/hour.
Yeah that's about where I am on cable now. The same OTA recordings for me were 10GB+ iirc

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#13

Post by richard1980 » Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:04 pm

barnabas1969 wrote:I just checked a bunch of recent recordings. It doesn't seem to make any difference OTA or cable. They vary between 4.5 - 7 GB/hour.
That's 10-16 Mbps...I'd say that's about average.

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#14

Post by gary94080 » Wed Oct 02, 2013 7:57 am

we just lost ClearQAM channels on the San Francisco peninsula. they still worked on October 1, now they are scrambled.

I just rescanned, all that is left is the radio/music channels.

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#15

Post by glugglug » Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:58 pm

foxwood wrote:
blueiedgod wrote:I have to say, picture quality with antenna is better than ever was with FiOS.
Verizon are doing a lot more compression than they used to - an hour of recorded TV used to run to 10GB, and it's often down to 6GB now.
10GB/hour = 23.86Mbps. Which is quite a bit above the 19.2Mbps possible with OTA.

Even 6GB/hour = 14.3Mbps, which is higher than a lot of cable channels (and even a few OTA) are sent at regardless of your provider.

I don't think FIOS is recompressing anything, unless they are receiving it as H.264 and converting to MPEG-2 for better compatibility (which is the case for a lot of the channels received via satellite).

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#16

Post by JTScribe » Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:07 am

The real pisser about this in my area is that I was getting a great picture for my locals with HVR-2250s. When Comcast encrypted QAM I upgraded from an InfiniTV4 to a 6 to replace the QAM tuners . . . . and the picture quality for my locals sucks now - tiling, audio cut outs, etc.. I get a great picture with HBO and all the others, just no go on NBC, Fox, CBS, etc. Comcast guys are coming out Monday, hope the tak ecare of it.

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#17

Post by blueiedgod » Wed Jan 29, 2014 5:34 pm

JTScribe wrote:The real pisser about this in my area is that I was getting a great picture for my locals with HVR-2250s. When Comcast encrypted QAM I upgraded from an InfiniTV4 to a 6 to replace the QAM tuners . . . . and the picture quality for my locals sucks now - tiling, audio cut outs, etc.. I get a great picture with HBO and all the others, just no go on NBC, Fox, CBS, etc. Comcast guys are coming out Monday, hope the tak ecare of it.
You can still set up an antenna and get broadcast stations off the air in higher quality.

That's what I did when we had to buy 2x ATI/DCT's and rent 2x CableCARDs. Kept the set up and expanded it to 6x CableCARD and 6x OTA tuners. The logic was that there was no reason to buy additional expensive ($300+ per tuner) CableCARD tuners, and rent additional CableCARDS for the content that was/is available for FREE off the air.

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#18

Post by richard1980 » Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:40 am

I don't think JTScribe was complaining about the picture quality of the cable signal. I think he was complaining about the performance of the infiniTV6.

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#19

Post by JTScribe » Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:31 am

richard1980 wrote:I don't think JTScribe was complaining about the picture quality of the cable signal. I think he was complaining about the performance of the infiniTV6.
No, unfortunately it's not a Ceton problem. I wish it were because they are far more responsive and helpful than Comcast.
blueiedgod wrote:
JTScribe wrote:The real pisser about this in my area is that I was getting a great picture for my locals with HVR-2250s. When Comcast encrypted QAM I upgraded from an InfiniTV4 to a 6 to replace the QAM tuners . . . . and the picture quality for my locals sucks now - tiling, audio cut outs, etc.. I get a great picture with HBO and all the others, just no go on NBC, Fox, CBS, etc. Comcast guys are coming out Monday, hope the tak ecare of it.
You can still set up an antenna and get broadcast stations off the air in higher quality.

That's what I did when we had to buy 2x ATI/DCT's and rent 2x CableCARDs. Kept the set up and expanded it to 6x CableCARD and 6x OTA tuners. The logic was that there was no reason to buy additional expensive ($300+ per tuner) CableCARD tuners, and rent additional CableCARDS for the content that was/is available for FREE off the air.
I had considered it, but I am about 60-75 miles from the broadcast locations and can't get a signal with indoor antennas or an attic unit. The original antenna that came with my house wasn't properly anchored at the base, so over time it started sinking and leaning, and ended up pulling the fascia board away from the soffits. I took the tower completely down and gave it to my brother-in-law, and when we had our gutters redone they did the soffits and fascia as well, so I'm loath to mess up brand new stuff by putting up another tower.

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#20

Post by werds » Wed Jun 11, 2014 11:15 pm

And sometime between Midnight and 5 in the morning today 6/11/2014 Comcast encrypted ALL of their channels - including the locals that are rebroadcast and all the basics that use to until last night be broadcast in the clear... So my 4 clearQAM tuners are now junk :(

Thanks Comcast for the heads up!... at least I have the 6 tuners on my Ceton... now I'm wishing I had got in on the earlier Ceton savings :( Too bad they don't have any fathers day discount...

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