"analog" cable switching to digital

[Ted the Penguin]

oh, I never planned on that

the cable companies are the ones obsessed with encrypting every channel they can (and some they cant :p ) but remember cablelabs is run by... cable companies.

I am just saying that the requirement of cablelabs to have the entire system certified to be able to use a cablecard is somewhat absurd, and blacks out alot of the custom PC market, since they wont have the resources to get certified. the fact that cable companies dont really want their cablecards to work also factors in. but seeing that the OCUR cards can tune QAM with no problem at all, it pretty much comes down to the cablecard being the problem.

I am also very sad, because I realize that we will probably never get cablecard stuff inside GB-PVR, becaue even if we had a certified system, sub probably wont, and if he did, he couldnt use a cablecard with it to test anyways :'(

[Smoker]

Interesting read

[sub]

I am also very sad, because I realize that we will probably never get cablecard stuff inside GB-PVR, becaue even if we had a certified system, sub probably wont, and if he did, he couldnt use a cablecard with it to test anyways :'(

I wouldnt be surprised if Microsoft make CableCard recording possible in third party apps, as long as you're using the DVR-MS container, and the new EVR renderer.

[Ted the Penguin]

I wouldnt be surprised if Microsoft make CableCard recording possible in third party apps, as long as you're using the DVR-MS container, and the new EVR renderer.

oh youre just teasing me now :p

[zaphod7501]

Typical tuner hardware will only capture the output of a box in SD, not HD. A card like the DeckLink is required to capture the HD but it is in an uncompressed format and well beyond the means of the typical HTPC.

My personal belief is that we are going to be limited to analog backups of Cable and Satellite programming in the near future. (in the USA)
OTA will be archivable in HD but I doubt that Cable will ever allow direct digital backup of their content. This will leave us with near DVD quality archives.

Clear QAM was obviously in the minds of the TV manufacturers and the Government since it was a simple extension of existing methods. Cablecos have shown that they would rather buy encryption technology instead.

Even if third party app's can use cablecard hardware, I doubt that an archive option will be available and those app's will still have to honor all control flags. The trend is to watch it only once freely. They really want pay-per-view of all content.