Skybolt wrote:barnabas1969 wrote:If the Senate passes this (which is less likely than its passage in the House), and the President signs it into law, then (for the short-term) it only means that the cable companies can build/buy/distribute cable boxes with the CableCARD hardware integrated into the box.
My cable box never had a Cable Card in the slot, and I have there gold package. They only charge me $2/month for each card. I have two primes, and the cable co only tried to tell me I would be missing out on the on demand stuff. Which is why I still have two cable boxes as well as the cards. You can see right into the box and there is clearly no card anywhere, only the support for it (Slot). It's a Samsung SMT 5320, and have had them for the past four years.
Your post is confusing?
If you have a box that can receive your provider's
encrypted programming without a CableCARD, then it seems that your provider is violating the integration ban (unless the ban excludes your provider?). The "encrypted" part of my last sentence is important. If they don't encrypt the channel, then the CableCARD is not needed.
Skybolt wrote:While the "gateway" accomplishes the goal of removing the STB from your living room (if you have a compatible smart TV), it still forces you to rent an overpriced box from the cable company forever.
I really hope we don't lose the ability to have an HTPC stream IPTV like we can now, going back to IR and STB's would kill me.
Media Center does not "stream IPTV", unless you consider the discontinued "Internet TV" or "Netflix" add-ins to be "IPTV". The "gateway" devices which are currently being pushed by the cable companies are simply a multi-tuner DVR which can be accessed by smart TV's, smartphones, tablets, and other devices on the LAN. All recordings are contained within the "gateway" device. It has its own hard drive, and you probably can't make that drive larger except by using some "approved" external device (which has proven difficult and unreliable with other cable-company-supplied DVR's). It has its own recording schedule. All of the devices in your home are simply clients of the "gateway". The protocol for connecting to the "gateway" is dictated by your cable company. If your device cannot connect using their "approved" protocol, then you cannot use that device.
The "gateway" device is a misnomer. It only provides a "gateway" to the cable company's jail-cell of content. You won't be able to break out of their contract (which means you're going to pay them every month for the "privilege" of having their equipment in your house), their limit on the number of tuners, their limit on the amount of recordings you can store, their limit on the types and sizes of external hard drive you can connect, etc, etc, etc.