Time Warner out, Charter in.

[KryptoNyte]

So it looks like I won't be a Time Warner customer much longer. Do you think there is any chance that Charter will ditch these darn copy flags on nearly every cable channel when the changeover is made?

http://www.jsonline.com/business/com...257005711.html

[rlvogel322]

I'm on the west side of Wisconsin with Charter and everything except for the premiums is set to copy freely. Prime works great. There is a good chance this may be the case in your area too.

Let's hope the opposite doesn't happen and Charter sets the copy flag like TWC does. That would force my hand away from Sage.

[KeithAbbott]

Looks like Charter has announced plans to acquire Bright House Networks. With a little luck, copy freely may be in my future!!!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/charter-...rks-1427805730

[Fuzzy]

Charter's publicly posted policy on copy flags is that only premiums will be flagged copy restricted, everything else is supposed to be copy freely. In practice, this varies from market to market, as I think those flags are set at each individual head-end. I have some odd variety in flags here in Riverside - it seems like when they move a channel, or realign them, they sometimes set the flag, likely inadvertently - I have yet to find the best method of getting this corrected - my last effort was a snail-mail letter to the local office, so we'll see if that works. In general, it is almost always more useful to deal directly with the local office than with the national call-center, but that still doesn't guarantee success.

CHARTER: Digital Copy Control of TV Programming

[KryptoNyte]

Looks like we'll be waiting another few months to find out. Every time the deadline for a decision comes around the FCC kicks it out another X number of months.

I'm starting to think the FCC is just stalling long enough for Comcast to lose interest in Time Warner.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Looks like we'll be waiting another few months to find out. Every time the deadline for a decision comes around the FCC kicks it out another X number of months.

I'm starting to think the FCC is just stalling long enough for Comcast to lose interest in Time Warner.

Based on your experience, sounds like there's no need to rush out and buy an HDHomerun Prime...

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Looks like we'll be waiting another few months to find out. Every time the deadline for a decision comes around the FCC kicks it out another X number of months.

I'm starting to think the FCC is just stalling long enough for Comcast to lose interest in Time Warner.

I think they keep waiting until the furor against Comcast dies down; not that Comcast is helping themselves in that regard.

[KryptoNyte]

I just want to get Time Warner out of here and Charter in.

[KeithAbbott]

From what I have read, the acquisition of Bright House Networks by Charter was contingent upon the TWC acquisition by Comcast. Now that the Comcast deal has fallen through, it looks like we are back to square one. Anyone have any sort of educated guess where it all goes from here? Could Charter make another attempt at an acquisition of TWC?

[KryptoNyte]

It is possible. Charter should not face the kind of market dominance opposition with the FCC that Comcast did.

[waynedunham]

I have no experience with either Charter, or TWC, but speaking as a longtime Comcast customer I REALLY don't think anyone would be happy with an acquisition of their provider by Comcast.
We've all heard the horror stories about Comcast's customer service. I have my own nightmares that haunt me from trying to get the CC to work in my 2nd HDHR Prime (What, you mean you have to actually point the CC to the CORRECT authorization and lineup nodes?)
That and having to complain incessantly every 6 months or so to get them to come out and adjust the amp on my node. Every time the seasons change the thing goes out of whack and certain bands of channels become flakey with tuning troubles, dropouts, etc.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I have no experience with either Charter, or TWC, but speaking as a longtime Comcast customer I REALLY don't think anyone would be happy with an acquisition of their provider by Comcast.
We've all heard the horror stories about Comcast's customer service. I have my own nightmares that haunt me from trying to get the CC to work in my 2nd HDHR Prime (What, you mean you have to actually point the CC to the CORRECT authorization and lineup nodes?)
That and having to complain incessantly every 6 months or so to get them to come out and adjust the amp on my node. Every time the seasons change the thing goes out of whack and certain bands of channels become flakey with tuning troubles, dropouts, etc.

Be that as it may, I don't think it's a better option to have all but the local HD channels DRM'd to the point that I have to use an HDPVR/Colossus to be able to access them. I guess I'm fortunate to still have standard-definition/analog cable-only channels being broadcast, that I can still access with my Hauppauge 2250. Nothing like watching the Walking Dead in 480i...

Maybe the way that I should read your comment is that of the two cable behemoths, Charter is the lesser of the two evils???

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Be that as it may, I don't think it's a better option to have all but the local HD channels DRM'd to the point that I have to use an HDPVR/Colossus to be able to access them. I guess I'm fortunate to still have standard-definition/analog cable-only channels being broadcast, that I can still access with my Hauppauge 2250. Nothing like watching the Walking Dead in 480i...

Maybe the way that I should read your comment is that of the two cable behemoths, Charter is the lesser of the two evils???

NOTHING comes over unencrypted on Comcast. No locals, either SD or HD, no clear QAM, NOTHING.
It's all HDHR Primes and HD-PVR/STB's on Comcast. There are probably still a few lucky Comcast locales that may not have locked everything up tighter than a drum, but sadly your time in the pain zone is coming.

[KeithAbbott]

Hmmm, maybe there is still hope for a Charter/Bright House Networks deal yet...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoineg...-warner-cable/

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Hmmm, maybe there is still hope for a Charter/Bright House Networks deal yet...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoineg...-warner-cable/

Wow, all that financial background crap to get to this:

Those in fear of a cable monopoly or oligopoly will claim victory now that Comcast’s formally abandoned its Time Warner Cable bid in the face of un-winnable regulatory hurdles. But, they’ll then have to hope service and pricing improves at a time when the finances of the cable industry are becoming far more stretched.

Who thought service and pricing would improve whether or not these two merged? I am hopeful that the new regulations under Title II will improve some things, but not necessarily in service or pricing. That will only happen through competition, which leads me to the writer's conclusion about their finances. If they're finances are that bad, the question is where is all the money going? My guess would be to executives, sports teams or major networks, which are ridiculously overpriced/valued.

Personally, I'd love to see some of these huge companies collapse under their own weight. I'd feel sorry for the employees impacted, but the end result could be that smaller companies would purchase and spin off pieces of their territory and revenue sources. If that were to happen, perhaps there wouldn't be enough lobbying money to prevent government from re-opening the (formerly incumbent) lines to competition. Anyone remember the DSL wars? It was glorious!

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Wow, all that financial background crap to get to this:



Who thought service and pricing would improve whether or not these two merged? I am hopeful that the new regulations under Title II will improve some things, but not necessarily in service or pricing. That will only happen through competition, which leads me to the writer's conclusion about their finances. If they're finances are that bad, the question is where is all the money going? My guess would be to executives, sports teams or major networks, which are ridiculously overpriced/valued.

Personally, I'd love to see some of these huge companies collapse under their own weight. I'd feel sorry for the employees impacted, but the end result could be that smaller companies would purchase and spin off pieces of their territory and revenue sources. If that were to happen, perhaps there wouldn't be enough lobbying money to prevent government from re-opening the (formerly incumbent) lines to competition. Anyone remember the DSL wars? It was glorious!

Time Warner and Comcast just both made the mistake of knee-jerking into buying up a bunch of content providers when they that cable tv was going away. Instead of narrowing their focus on simply providing good service from their head end to the port on your wall, they pulled resources from network maintenance and improvement. This is one of the reasons I still really like Charter. They stayed out of that mess, and just focused on doing good at what they do. Consequently, at least in my area, they offer far better internet and video quality than either time warner or comcast in the neighboring cities, and have for the last 10 years.

Reminds me of US Bank during the real estate boom. They were I think the #12 bank by assets in the early-mid 2000s. They stayed incredibly conservative in lending during it, not getting into a lot of the shady practices, and just focusing on their basic banking business. After the crash, the bail-outs and closures, they came out of it as the #3 bank in the nation, and had the ability to purchase many of the failed institutions, rapidly increasing their footprint.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

NOTHING comes over unencrypted on Comcast. No locals, either SD or HD, no clear QAM, NOTHING.
It's all HDHR Primes and HD-PVR/STB's on Comcast. There are probably still a few lucky Comcast locales that may not have locked everything up tighter than a drum, but sadly your time in the pain zone is coming.

Please understand that what Keith is saying, is that Time Warner customers only get their local stations via cable card on Time Warner (that's between 5 and 20 stations, NBC, ABC). Everything else is flagged as copy once.

With the exception of Premium Pay stations like HBO or Showtime, why would anyone use an HD-PVR to get the majority of their cable access on Comcast? Some service is better than virtually no service at all.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Please understand that what Keith is saying, is that Time Warner customers only get their local stations via cable card on Time Warner (that's between 5 and 20 stations, NBC, ABC). Everything else is flagged as copy once.

With the exception of Premium Pay stations like HBO or Showtime, why would anyone use an HD-PVR to get the majority of their cable access on Comcast? Some service is better than virtually no service at all.

Well said.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Please understand that what Keith is saying, is that Time Warner customers only get their local stations via cable card on Time Warner (that's between 5 and 20 stations, NBC, ABC). Everything else is flagged as copy once.

With the exception of Premium Pay stations like HBO or Showtime, why would anyone use an HD-PVR to get the majority of their cable access on Comcast? Some service is better than virtually no service at all.

Agreed, and sorry I didn't get the extent of what he was saying. That is one of my peeves. I know what the "law" says, but IMHO the exorbitant prices I pay for cable TV should mean that as long as I don't offer to trade, give, or sell the content then as part of my bill I should be able to record anything I want (within my package obviously) and not only keep it for as long as I want, but convert, transfer, save and watch it on any of my other devices. IMHO that "copy once" flag is a bunch of BS!

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Agreed, and sorry I didn't get the extent of what he was saying. That is one of my peeves. I know what the "law" says, but IMHO the exorbitant prices I pay for cable TV should mean that as long as I don't offer to trade, give, or sell the content then as part of my bill I should be able to record anything I want (within my package obviously) and not only keep it for as long as I want, but convert, transfer, save and watch it on any of my other devices. IMHO that "copy once" flag is a bunch of BS!

Seeing as Comcast is one of the content creating entities(studios) as well as one of the CableCo's, I'm not too surprised by their tendency to lock everything down. They don't want you to record it in HD and keep it forever. They want you to go out and buy the Season Compilation DVD/BluRays they release at the end of the year.

This has been ongoing item between the production studios and the cable companies for ages. Remember, if the production studio's had their way with things, the DVR recordings you make wouldn't just be encrypted, they'd have an expiration date so that you'd either need to re-rerecord it(helping their rebroadcast/syndication sales), or go out and buy the episode/season/series on either a disk, or through one of the various online-only sources that now exist(again, netting them more money).

On the bright side, it does look like some of the Cable(like) Company providers are starting to cave to other market forces, and they're starting to manage to leverage the studio's into allowing them to change things up. Verizon's FIOS customers who use them for network television access are starting to get the option to better tailor their programming to their tastes.

So rather than everything being tied up in two or three giant bundles, things have been broken up into smaller chunks, and how the bundles are put together make some more sense. Such as Sports networks largely existing in their own unique bundle package rather than being tied to your ability to tune into The Weather Channel for example.