Normal people can now install CableCARD

[technohead]

Normal People Can Now Install CableCARD Tuners On Windows 7 PCs - Windows 7 media center - Gizmodo

Cablecard just jumped to the top of my priority list for enhancement of Beyond TV.

[jrandeck]

Just when I had almost convinced myself to drop Comcast a reason comes along to keep paying them... Maybe... Hopefully the waiver for encryption on their cheap converter boxes isn't a harbinger of the end to cable card support...

[technohead]

A bit more info:

CableCARD now a go for homebrew home theater PCs - Ars Technica

[technohead]

Now this is interesting. Any takers?


Ceton's CableCARD Solution Has Six Tuners In One Slot - Ceton cablecard - Gizmodo

[cfaslave]

Hey! Who you callin' normal?

[Octavean]

I’m a little confused on something here though,..

OK, I don’t really want to be the one to say this but since it hasn’t been addressed here I’ll mention it,….

In the history of CableCard when has it ever been used with an application other then Microsoft Media Center? Users have been able to hack CableCard onto non-OEM systems for some time but its my understanding that it was always with Microsoft Media Center, not Beyond TV, not SageTV, not Media Portal, not GB-PVR, not,……

Am I missing something?

If not how would this be relevant to anyone other then the specific sub-group of “Windows 7” Media Center users who use cable within the USA? Microsoft Windows 7 Media Center is a prerequisite right?

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom, its just that I thought I caught a glimpse of an 800 lb gorilla in the room out of my peripheral vision and thought I would point it out.


***edit***


Looks like Hauppauge will be jumping on the CableCard bandwagon:

Hauppauge Will Sell CableCard Tuners

http://www.geektonic.com/2009/09/hau...rd-tuners.html

[technohead]

Yes, I'm hoping that Snapstream media will see this as a new opportunity (or see this as a new deficit in the current match up with WMC) and are already hard at work at supporting this.

I've stuck with BeyondTV for this long because I find it a superior product to WMC. However, with CableCard in the picture, I would have no option but to migrate to WMC if there is no support for it.

[Octavean]

Originally Posted by technohead

Yes, I'm hoping that Snapstream media will see this as a new opportunity (or see this as a new deficit in the current match up with WMC) and are already hard at work at supporting this.

I've stuck with BeyondTV for this long because I find it a superior product to WMC. However, with CableCard in the picture, I would have no option but to migrate to WMC if there is no support for it.

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. I like Beyond TV as it is, without DRM restrictions and I wager I’m not alone here. If you start down that road much of what is good about Beyond TV could be lost.

[Bigbird999]

I'm with Octavean on this.. The content owners and distributors (cablecos) are not going to let go of their precious HD/premium content easily. The only reason that it is even happening is that MS is locking it down, tight, with DRM and honoring copy/don't copy flags. To me, the cablecard is just going to be a mini version of the cableco DVR STBs. People have been looking for a long time for "a way to get recorded content off my cableco DVR onto my PC". So far, the only way is with the HDPVR through the "analog hole". Hollywood keeps trying to close it and, somehow, I don't see them opening up a "digital hole".

My prediction is that the USA is going to "tighten up" rather than loosen the ease of capturing HD and/or premium content. My bet is that you are going to see HD QAM replaced by their SD equivalents like we have in Canada (ie no HD available by QAM, only SD).

BB

[ZetaVu]

My thought is that if SS IS ABLE to incorporate cablecard (aka, m$ and cablelabs lets them) then they will do so probably as an add in (like DVD Burner) or as a new release (BTV 5). I say this because I assume they need to rewrite large portions of BTV to accommodate the DRM requirements. If done correctly, those who want cablecard will be able to buy a module or the upgrade to get it to work. THose of us h=who have no use for cablecard because we would rather stop watching tv then pay for cable again should be relatively unchanged (at the most, we get btv 5 or the next version of 4 that accepts the cablecard module, but we don't pay the upgrade for cablecard.

Now, if cablcecard can be incorporated without massive reqriting or licensing, then I expect SS to incorporate it in the current version and leave the rest of things unchanged.

Likewise, I am hoping Directv restarts their work on a usb tuner, although honestly I prefer the DRM free HD PVR and hope SS focuses short term on working those bugs out. Anyone that is happy with DRM should honestly just rent the cable dvr and not mess with it.

[noodleNT]

This is great news! That Ceton card looks great. My wife would love to see these 4 cable boxes gone. I will be keeping my eye out Q1 2010.

[Octavean]

This is a game changer make no mistake about it. As soon as the hardware is available people are going to want it and wonder why their preferred software doesn’t support it if said software isn’t Microsoft Media Center.

Also note that many subscribers simply don’t have a choice or much of a choice with respect to their TV source especially in dense, highly populated cities where its not uncommon for buildings to have been locked into exclusive contracts (locking out competition) when the buildings were initially wired.

Even if people don’t have cable they may want to make the switch to cable to finally get premium HD onto their HTPC.

The way it looks now it isn’t so much a question of if Snapstream would want to incorporate CableCard support but when and how feasible it would be to do so. I’m not optimistic as to how this would be implemented into Beyond TV. A simple add-on that would appease Cable-Labs doesn’t really seem realistic to me. DRM is deeply ingrained into Microsoft Media Center and can even cause problems with media that shouldn’t be restricted (bugs).

I think its wishfully thinking to think DRM could somehow smoothly makes its way into Beyond TV without effecting those who don’t want it. Once the snake makes its way into paradise, paradise is lost.

[spyboy]

I've been waiting for real CableCARD support for years, but have recently gone in the opposite direction.

Removed my analog tuners and have 2 HDHomeRun's (adding a 3rd tomorrow)

I've dropped my cable down to minimum basic, and only record the 5 QAM stations I receive. (yes, I'll be able to record 6 streams, but only 5 channels, but that allows for padding)

The only stations I still miss are: SciFi (sorry, SyFy), Discovery and TLC), the rest is pretty much junk. And even Discovery doesn't have much in the way of new content.

Our provider doesn't even have SyFy HD, so going back to Digital, and upgrading to the HD package doesn't really get me anything other than +$50/month (if not more) on the cable bill.

I would love to record HD "pay" content (premium channels) but is it really worth it for the +50/month? A Netflix subscription is $15-17/month for 3 movies and most series are released on Bluray right after a season ends.

Until true ala cart exists for cable, I don't feel the additional money is worth it.

ATI cablecard boxes are $250ish (and that's for 1 tuner)

2 tuners = $500
increasing your cable to digital then HD is +50/month
plus 2 cable card rentals @ $5/ea

So your outlay to watch tv is now

$500 to get started
then +$60/month (or more if you want HBO) ontop of your existing cable bill (unless you already have those stations)

Kirk

[Rich A]

I think this is not a big deal for SS. After all, the cablecard does all the DRM and such and is in reality a psudo set-top box that can be implanted into your receiving device. So SS would only have to handle it like it does any other PC based tuner. It may be a PCI-ex or other main board slot card or even an external box, hopefully designed for multiple cablecards.

Will we be able to use multiple cable cards? That is one question.

I just started a new thread about something in this digital area.

Why do cable companies encrypt what was not encrypted in the past?

But now I think I see why they don't offer the expanded cable channels as all in clear QAM. I think by doing that, they would have to include all digital in that tier .. (HD digital as well as SD digital) Frankly I would be happy to pay a few bucks more to simply have all of the current expanded basic analog channels available in clear QAM. Then the only people who would require set top cable company boxes, would be those subscribing to premium services. In which case the most preferred way to do it might be the cablecard.

People needing two-way cable (pay for view etc.) and people wanting premium services (HBO etc.) will still need a cable company box (or cable card). In that case the CableCard would be preferable. I mean, after all, the CableCard is in effect a settop box, miniaturized and available as a card rather than a whole external box. So the only advantage is possibly less cost, and less space taken up by external tuner box(es) as well as less AC power to run them. And I'm pretty sure the actual cable card is STILL going to have to be set up by the cable company. Which probably could be done via the cable connection or as is currently happening, having a technician come to your house to have it's various paid for features enabled.

But I suppose a lot of us could be happy with just keeping our present expanded basic tier as is .. but in clear QAM.

[nurho83]

I'm certainly not going to be an early adopter but going forward this will affect whether or not I continue to use BTV. I certainly hope that they support it as I prefer BTV to WMC but if I could replace my conglomeration of STBs, Tivo, HTPC, and whatever else with a single HTPC running WMC (with a six way cablecard tuner!) and Xbox or small PCs for extenders I'd do it faster than you can blink.

The DRM on cablecard controlled content really isn't that awful on non-protected content. I can pull anything off my Tivo I care to other than HBO and Showtime content and transcode it easily enough to play on any of my snapstream boxes. I was even considering seeing if I could automate it somehow until I got the firewire on my STB working.

My first choice until something changes will always be SS. I've tried the others and I just like BTV better. But the ability to use cablecards on other systems would certainly qualify as "something changing."