Comcast encrypts extended basic channels

[bogstad-e+AXbWqSrlAAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Bill Bogstad)]

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 4:28 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro-blu-5a1Jt6qxUNc at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I wrote:
>> So looks like my options are:
>> 1. Get an active combiner to feed the PVR500 + 2 IR blasters.
>> 2. Buy a couple of PVR150s on eBay ($25 ~ $50 ea) + 2 IR blasters.

Some versions of the PVR150s come with IR blasters built into them.
But I have (through personal experience) learned that
they aren't general purpose IR blasters.  They are preprogrammed
knowing about certain kinds of remotes in the firmware.   I found no
way to get them to change channels on a DTA.  I think they might work
with some of the Comcast STBs, but I haven't tried it as my STB is
nowhere near my BE.

> ...
>> 4. Return the DTAs and pay $4/month (or whatever it is) to rent a couple
>> of full STBs (probably Motorola w/serial control).
>
> I called today to get pricing on renting two STBs. Turns out they run
> $8/month each, so that would be an additional $16/month, or about a 50%
> increase on my bill. (At that rate it wouldn't take long to hit the
> break even point on additional purchased hardware to make the DTAs work.)

In my case, I subscribe to more then what DTAs decode and doing this
would allow me to record
things like BBC America which I have never been able to do in the past.

> A typical consumer who has 3 TVs in their house that they've upgraded to
> ATSC/QAM in the last few years would be in the same boat, requiring the
> full STBs, as the DTAs won't work with a TV that lacks an analog NTSC
> tuner. So why isn't there more outrage from "joe subscriber" at this
> forced upgrade?

I've yet to see a TV that has an ATSC and QAM tuner that doesn't do
NTSC as well.  So the "free" DTAs work to watch Expanded Basic
channels and gives people the "same" resolution as they had a year ago
when all of the Expanded Basic channels were being sent as NTSC from
the cable head end anyway.   Having to use the Comcast DTA remote
to change channels is somewhat annoying, but I suspect that most
people either stop using their TV's remote,
have 3 or 4  remotes anyway due to all their devices (TV, DVD, VCR,
stereo, DTA/STB), or  buy a multi-fuction/learning remote.

Bill Bogstad

P.S. I still don't have my DTAs recording to my MythTV box as I can't
get my USB IR blaster to work on that machine.
They work fine on other machines, but just not on that machine.  I
even went out and purchased a PCI USB card in case there was something
wrong with the USB ports on that machine and still no luck.