Ack! Congress proposing to damage the CableCard

[Sparhawk6]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...-cutting-bill/

One of the reasons why we can do what we can with our HD HomeRun Primes and other Cablecard devices is because cable operators are required to use Cablecards to give access to their own boxes. The effect is that Cablecards are not treated as second class citizens. A bill being introduced soon, probably drafted by the cable industry, proposes to eliminate that requirement.



First the FCC allows the cable industry to encrypt all QAM. Now this. Eventually the FCC's requirement that the cable industry give access to 3rd party devices will be eliminated, in my opinion.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

First the FCC allows the cable industry to encrypt all QAM. Now this. Eventually the FCC's requirement that the cable industry give access to 3rd party devices will be eliminated, in my opinion.

Cables cards and clear QAM kill jobs. Didn't you know that

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Cables cards and clear QAM kill jobs. Didn't you know that

..... and the elimination of those will kill jobs, except for the people stacking returned equipment at the local offices.

[tvmaster2]

why don't they just allow cable-co's to create their own banks and print their own money....that would be so much more fair to correcting their massive losses and abuse from customers. those poor, poor cable-co's

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

why don't they just allow cable-co's to create their own banks and print their own money....that would be so much more fair to correcting their massive losses and abuse from customers. those poor, poor cable-co's

You mean they aren't doing that already?

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

First the FCC allows the cable industry to encrypt all QAM. Now this. Eventually the FCC's requirement that the cable industry give access to 3rd party devices will be eliminated, in my opinion.

It sounds like you guys are getting to the state that we have always had in Canada (no CAbleCards, no clear QAM for locals) - including no requirement to have working firewire on cable boxes.

[tvmaster2]

at least in Canada you can own the receiver from cable or satellite, so you can eliminate a monthly bill....

[Skirge01]

This is the kind of crap I didn't want to worry about and why I stuck with no DRM at all using HD-PVR's. If the analog hole goes away, I'm covered there, too, by adding those "other" devices to the output chain on the STB.

[wayner]

Assuming the HD-PVR is still available for the indefinite future.

[Skirge01]

That's why I have spares and a pair of Colossus cards at the ready. Worst case, I need to start rebooting my XP VM every so often due to the Colossus. Alternatively, I can switch to the HDPVR2; while not ideal, it would still keep things going. There always seem to be options out there.

[wayner]

Ever since the Sage buyout I have also been proactive about keeping spare hardware. What happens if for some reason Hauppauge goes under or stops making video cards, we will all be scrambling.

I worry about Hauppauge's future as I have to think that the market for video cards isn't that strong since PC sales in general are weak, HTPCs are falling out of favour (SageTV, BTV are both dead and MCE is on life support) and there are more streaming options than there used to be so you don't need capture devices as much as you used to.

I just noticed that Hauppauge is publicly traded. The stock is around $0.68 near its low for the past few years. Revenue growth is -12% YoY as of Mar 31. EBITDA has been negative every year since 2007. The Market Capitalization of the company is $6.9 M. Not very rosy: http://www.google.ca/finance?q=haup

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by wayner

Ever since the Sage buyout I have also been proactive about keeping spare hardware. What happens if for some reason Hauppauge goes under or stops making video cards, we will all be scrambling.

I worry about Hauppauge's future as I have to think that the market for video cards isn't that strong since PC sales in general are weak, HTPCs are falling out of favour (SageTV, BTV are both dead and MCE is on life support) and there are more streaming options than there used to be so you don't need capture devices as much as you used to.

I just noticed that Hauppauge is publicly traded. The stock is around $0.68 near its low for the past few years. Revenue growth is -12% YoY as of Mar 31. EBITDA has been negative every year since 2007. The Market Capitalization of the company is $6.9 M. Not very rosy: http://www.google.ca/finance?q=haup

I think that Hauppauge's target audience is for gamers to record their play, not really for us; we just happen to benefit from their designs. But, your concerns are still certainly warranted, especially with the recording feature you previously posted in another thread.