FCC Lets Cable Companies Encrypt Signals To Foil Theft

[BMR]

No it isn't. I think there are about 10,000 households in the UK which can't get either OTA or Satellite. Most of those can get TV via broadband so at least have something.

Sorry.....I wasn't answering the question with regard to UK viewers but rather those of us in the continental USA.

Just for my information, where are the majority of those 10,000 households? The only mountains of note I recall are in Scotland.

Scotland, parts of Yorkshire, The Lake District, Wales.....there are quite a few holes in OTA coverage. But it's only a small proportion of those people who have the double misfortune of not being able to get satellite either.

I was merely pointing out that whether you are in the UK, the USA or Timbuktu, no one method gives 100% coverage, and even a combination of two leaves holes. But a regulator can reduce those holes to a minimum- the UK has circa 25 million households and so 99.96% of UK homes can get free to air telly either via satellite or terrestrial. If those homes choose to subscribe to cable or subscription satellite, that is their choice. But at least they have the choice.

 

[radiojomo]

My parents bought our house when I was 5 years old (sometime in the early 90's) and when we hooked up our TVs for the first time, there was already an illegal setup all throughout the house. Free cable- the entire basic lineup- all unscrambled, all ready to watch. Thinking back, we had that setup for quite some time, maybe 10 years! Now, my parents weren't generally interested in having cable installed, because only watched Spanish programming and all the Spanish networks they watched were strictly OTA so there was no reason to subscribe, but I remember growing up to classic Nickelodeon cartoons and shows. Then when I got a little older, MTV was my thing. But then Comcast took over our area and eventually cut us off.

Good times, but now as a cable/satellite subscriber for more than 15 years, I definitely don't want to be paying an arm and a leg each month when the guy next to me is getting his stuff for free! Maybe my neighbors thought that when I was younger...hahaha ;D

 

[Markxxx]

I only live 25 miles northeast of downtown LA, and I can not get a single OTA channel.

I live in Chicago THREE MILES northwest of Willis (Sears) Tower and cannot get one station. That's really awful, but not one politician in Chicago seems to care how many thousands in Chicago lost TV.

I will admit though, I don't miss having it. Now if I want to watch TV, I got to the gym or bring my computer laptop to the library.

This is the real mistake of TV. If take it away, people may not care.

 

[radiotower40]

I only live 25 miles northeast of downtown LA, and I can not get a single OTA channel.

I live in Chicago THREE MILES northwest of Willis (Sears) Tower and cannot get one station. That's really awful, but not one politician in Chicago seems to care how many thousands in Chicago lost TV.

I will admit though, I don't miss having it. Now if I want to watch TV, I got to the gym or bring my computer laptop to the library.

This is the real mistake of TV. If take it away, people may not care.

This is fascinating. I did note know this was happening. Is this throughout the whole neighborhood or just a block by block thing? Did you have a lot of problems pre DTV?

I knew that ABC 7 was supposed to be running the WLS STA on virtual 7 for this reason. I was not aware that this was happening on other channels.

Are you able to pick up any LP's that are still in analog such as WWME 23?

I used to live a few miles southwest of downtown and ch.2 was hard to get, it always has been, I was able to get most channels well after DTV.

This is a problem that deserves attention! I know Chicago pols all too well, so you probably would get nowhere with them. How about emailing all the stations and letting them know, this is going to cost them ad money.

You should get Pam Zechman riled up, she would probably go to Rahms house and demand some action :]

 

[BlueWanderer]

I only live 25 miles northeast of downtown LA, and I can not get a single OTA channel.

This is the real mistake of TV. If take it away, people may not care.

Considering with the way technology and social media are these days, people without great OTA coverage like myself can still keep up with local events without the need for traditional media newscasts. Maybe better in some cases.

I'll miss seeing live college football games, live political debates on C-SPAN, and various other non-internet streaming live events. But if I'm forced to get one or multiple boxes with ongoing rental fees just to watch tv, then to me it isn't worth it anymore.

 

[w9wi]

I only live 25 miles northeast of downtown LA, and I can not get a single OTA channel.

I live in Chicago THREE MILES northwest of Willis (Sears) Tower and cannot get one station. That's really awful, but not one politician in Chicago seems to care how many thousands in Chicago lost TV.

I will admit though, I don't miss having it. Now if I want to watch TV, I got to the gym or bring my computer laptop to the library.

This is the real mistake of TV. If take it away, people may not care.

This is a long shot question, but do you have a "boosted" antenna? Digital signals can be *too strong*; using a "boosted" antenna anywhere in the Chicago city limits (especially that close to the Loop) is going to be a problem. Try a set of old-fashioned "rabbit ears"; they're still the best indoor antenna you can get.

Is the TV possibly in "cable mode"? (in the setup menus. Cable systems use different frequencies & transmission standards, a TV expecting cable signals won't receive anything OTA.)

Another thing to look out for is antenna placement. One place I lived in the *analog* era, I couldn't receive any viewable signals despite being only three miles from the towers. You could tell there were TV stations there, but there were so many "ghosts" you couldn't watch. In digital you wouldn't have received anything at all. Turns out the problem was I'd put my TV on the other side of the wall from the refrigerator. Had to move the TV.

We also have a lot of surprisingly "noisy" electronic devices we didn't have in the analog era. While driving to work the other day, I had to unplug the car charger for my smartphone -- it was clobbering the local NPR station -- 80,000 watts 25 miles away...

=================================

IMHO the biggest problem with the digital transition has been the widespread sale of absolutely HORRIBLE "digital" antennas. I've seen shelves stocked full of "rabbit ears" in neighborhoods where one could never receive anything with rabbit ears in analog; I've seen "flat panel" antennas for sale that are almost completely deaf at VHF -- in cities where the two most popular stations broadcast on that band. I've seen "boosted" antennas sold right under the towers. Worse, I've see people with perfectly good analog antennas (which would have worked fine for digital reception) told they needed to replace them with one of these useless "digital" units.

And yes, it probably is in part the stations' fault for not being more proactive about educating viewers about available antennas.

 

[dhett]

IMHO the biggest problem with the digital transition has been the widespread sale of absolutely HORRIBLE "digital" antennas. I've seen shelves stocked full of "rabbit ears" in neighborhoods where one could never receive anything with rabbit ears in analog; I've seen "flat panel" antennas for sale that are almost completely deaf at VHF -- in cities where the two most popular stations broadcast on that band. I've seen "boosted" antennas sold right under the towers. Worse, I've see people with perfectly good analog antennas (which would have worked fine for digital reception) told they needed to replace them with one of these useless "digital" units.

Hear, hear.

I recently needed to replace a very good RadioShack antenna because I had accidentally snapped off a sizable portion of a VHF dipole. RS no longer manufactures that model antenna, so I asked the manager about another non-amplified antenna on display. The manager, a fellow in his 30s or 40s, recommended instead that I try an amplified antenna, saying it’s what he recommends to everybody. I live barely 5 miles from the Phoenix antenna farm, so I immediately nixed the idea and told him that I would never buy an amplified antenna so close to the signals, and of course, he wanted to know why. I explained to him the problems with amplification, which by the way, were also present in the analog universe. It was the first time he had heard of such a thing, and then he confessed to not knowing a whole lot about antennae. I recommended this site and another to him to read up on indoor antennae, especially in the digital world.

Unfortunately, those viewed as “experts” by the common masses are often clueless themselves. The store was within 10 miles of South Mtn., and most of its sales come from the immediate neighborhood.

 

[Darth_vader]

Hear hear!

"I explained to him the problems with amplification, which by the way, are also present with analogue technology. It was the first time he had heard of such a thing, and then he confessed to not knowing a whole lot about antennae. I recommended this site and another to him to read up on indoor antennae, especially with regard to data broadcasting. Unfortunately, those viewed as 'experts' by the common masses are often clueless themselves."

I'm not surprised your experience was what it was. I mean, I've had to explain to them what 470K-ohm resistors and 6.5536 MHz quartz crystals are. The kids who work there these days aren't the kind of knowledgeable folks they used to hire years ago (probably the exception being the independent licencees, who carry R$ products but otherwise have no other connection to the company--the guy who runs the one in Camas seems to know his stuff.) Any more, the philosophy is "make a sale; learn the fundamentals of the merchandise at your convenience if at all. If the customer is right or knows what he's talking about, remind yourself that you're the salesman and you know what's best for him and for his needs".

Basically, they're a step above Wor$t Buy.

[size=8pt]If your old R$ aerial is the kind I'm thinking of (with the telescoping "whip" kind), I'd just get a $3 pair of rabbit ears from Walgreen's, then take one of the aerials off it and replace the broken one with it. Then you'd also have a spare in case the other one breaks. I know the R$ by me also has stocks replacement telescoping whips, if you don't mind paying $7 for something you can get way cheaper elsewhere.

 

[mjlarochelle]

In terms of the original thread, there are virtually no cable companies in Canada that offer un-encrypted digital cable; everything including local stations requires a set-top box, even if you don't get HD.

The "free" satellite service mentioned is a special offer from Shaw Direct. There are some eligibility requirements involved, and the service must be started by a certain date. I don't feel like looking up all the details right now but my understanding is that only some parts of Canada have this option.

 

[mjlarochelle]

"I explained to him the problems with amplification, which by the way, are also present with analogue technology. It was the first time he had heard of such a thing, and then he confessed to not knowing a whole lot about antennae. I recommended this site and another to him to read up on indoor antennae, especially with regard to data broadcasting. Unfortunately, those viewed as 'experts' by the common masses are often clueless themselves."

I'm not surprised your experience was what it was. I mean, I've had to explain to them what 470K-ohm resistors and 6.5536 MHz quartz crystals are. The kids who work there these days aren't the kind of knowledgeable folks they used to hire years ago (probably the exception being the independent licencees, who carry R$ products but otherwise have no other connection to the company--the guy who runs the one in Camas seems to know his stuff.) Any more, the philosophy is "make a sale; learn the fundamentals of the merchandise at your convenience if at all. If the customer is right or knows what he's talking about, remind yourself that you're the salesman and you know what's best for him and for his needs".

Basically, they're a step above Wor$t Buy.

I'm still amazed at how clueless the average TV viewer is about cable and OTA television. Many people still seem to think that the digital transition means that analog cable is no longer offered. My former boss at the cable company I used to work for was telling customers that they had to switch to digital cable because "everything's going digital" on a certain date. Head office did tell him to stop; he truly did not realize the digital transition didn't apply to cable.

Then there's the guy I live with who thought that a digital OTA converter box will allow you to get digital cable simply by hooking up the cable, even if you're not a cable subscriber. I pleaded with the guy I live with to not waste money on one of those boxes, as he insisted that digital cable and OTA use the same frequencies. He spent his money, found out the hard way it didn't work, and fortunately the return policy let him get his money back.

It seems as though that he thinks OTA no longer exists, and that digital boxes were made available to OTA users in order to get digital cable for free.

 

[Darth_vader]

Re: FCC Lets Cable Companies Scramble Free Signals To Further Screw The Public

"Then there's the guy I live with who thought an ATSC receiver will allow one to get digital cable programming simply by hooking up the cable, even if you're not throwing money away on the local cable monopoly."

He's partially correct. Some of the voucher programme ATSC receivers do work with in the clear QAM, and most of the fancier ones* do as well. My little Digitalstream receiver is one. In fact, I can confirm the Digitalstream does it because it's on right now, receiving KOPB via ¢om¢a$t because channel 10 seems to be going on and off like a firefly. (Damned squirrels have been out chewing on the coax going to the roof aerial again...)

Granted this doesn't mean one will get all the hundreds of other junk channels the cable company wants to shove down your throat for money, so one's limited to mostly the locals and PEGs, but that's really all one needs in the long run, isn't it?

[size=8pt]________________________________________
* IRDs known to support QAM: Panasonic DMR-EZ27K, Pansat 9200HD, Samsung SIR-T165 (both of which even go as far as to have seperate 75-ohm connectors for cable and aerial!)

 

[RadioMan203]

I'm still amazed at how clueless the average TV viewer is about cable and OTA television. Many people still seem to think that the digital transition means that analog cable is no longer offered. My former boss at the cable company I used to work for was telling customers that they had to switch to digital cable because "everything's going digital" on a certain date. Head office did tell him to stop; he truly did not realize the digital transition didn't apply to cable.

It does seem that some cable companies took advantage of the analog sunsetting to migrate their cable systems to digital transmission though. I maintain cable system backbones in 19 buildings - all analog! When the cable provider, Cablevision, pulled the plug on analog it made these systems unusable. Except for one system that runs several channels in-house, the rest are sitting dormant. There's no way I can justify renting boxes to provide multiple channels on each building's system. A single box per system is all they'll get.

Again, let's inconvenience the law abiding customer working within the rules to foil the small fraction of those who "borrow" basic cable.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Re: FCC Lets Cable Companies Scramble Free Signals To Further Screw The Public

"Then there's the guy I live with who thought an ATSC receiver will allow one to get digital cable programming simply by hooking up the cable, even if you're not throwing money away on the local cable monopoly."

He's partially correct. Some of the voucher programme ATSC receivers do work with in the clear QAM, and most of the fancier ones* do as well. My little Digitalstream receiver is one. In fact, I can confirm the Digitalstream does it because it's on right now, receiving KOPB via ¢om¢a$t because channel 10 seems to be going on and off like a firefly. (Damned squirrels have been out chewing on the coax going to the roof aerial again...)

Clear QAM is almost nonexistent in Canada. Unlike the United States, there are no laws forcing cable providers to provide it.

 

[willdav713]

They have had a big problem with signal theft for years.
I actually knew an old welder back in the 80's who, for a one-time fee,
would climb your pole, remove the little filter that stopped HBO from getting
to you, hook it to the arc welder on his truck, fry the bejeesus out of it and
put it back up there so when the cable company drove by to look they were
none the wiser. For all I knew he probably did complete illegal hook-ups too.

Can't really blame them for wanting to encrypt.

They set themselves up for not encrypting HBO.

In San Antonio you used to be able to get HBO and Showtime like that along with TBS and WGN.
Channels 14, 16, 12, and 18.

They should have replaced HBO, and Showtime with Disney for a set up like that, but you know how greedy Disney is.

What they need to do is have the only channels on basic basic your locals, C-SPAN I and II, Public Access, and Government Access, CNN, and Weather channel.

Reminds me of the 80's when Warner Cable had MTV on the lower channel tier.
Move the channels that cable thieves desire to higher encrypted tiers, not encrypt the whole system.

Remember if this bothers you, sign up for citizens communication at your city council meetings and speak out against this practice, by law they have to have a permit known as a franchise to provide services. If enough people do this, you could stop them from doing this at the local level, of course the cable cos could take the city to court, or the city would be without a cable system.

It's worth the fight.

 

[Darth_vader]

"QAM in the clear is almost nonexistent in Canada. Unlike the United States, there are no laws forcing cable companies to provide it."

Well, you didn't say he was in Canada in your earlier post.