wsume99 Wrote:TWC are also jerks enough to broadcast only the SD versions of stations via QAM - making it next to worthless. You only get about 4 stations due to the DRM flag, and those are low bitrate SD versions. Thanks FCC for leaving enough loopholes that the cable companies can still leverage you away from any alternatives.
exit151 Wrote:If you want your cablecard enabled unit to do things your cable company doesn't want you to, your best best will be to find a modding scene of some type for your product, if one even exists. Furthermore, you should know and understand that cablecards are highly volatile and unreliable, even in TV's, much less PC's. They are a great idea that has been implemented so poorly it isn't even funny.
I have a Tivo Premiere, a HD HomeRun Prime and a bitty box HTPC (AMD E-450, HD Radeon 6320) running Windows 8/Windows Media Center 8 over a wired gigabit network.
My Cable provider is Time Warner Cable. TWC is switched cable video so a channel adapter is also required.
TWC doen NOT allow "CableCard self install". You have to make an appointment and wait around during your 6 to 8 hour window for the tech to arrive. All 5 appointments I had, the techs arrived within 15 minutes of the END of the window. The Tivo required 3 appointments. The HD HomeRun Prime required 2 appointments. The techs spent many hours on the phone with their main office counterparts scratching their heads, wondering why the cards would not activate. None of them showed any knowledge beyond rote following of a how to guide. After may tries, the cards activate with neither the techs nor TWC main office knowing why the did not at first or why they finally did.
The Tivo has been mostly stable but the channel adapter and Tivo need occasional re-boots.
The Windows Media Center/HD HomeRun Prime combo is slow and NOT stable. Maybe it's because my HTPC is under powered but the feedback from folks over at the WMC community do not think so.
In my conversation with one of the TWC techs, he stated that CableCards were a "nightmare".
sd-jafa said:
sa-jafa Wrote:We are not seeing any hostility from the cable industry.
Then why is CableCard such a mess and
Tru2way dead?
I want to cut my cord and LEGALY get my tv content via on-demand internet. But the Cable Companies, TV networks and Studios no not want to lose their current business model and Cable companies do not want to be
"Common Carriers". I characterize this as "hostile" to your companies product.