The end of the HTPC?

[johnsonx42]

What I am hoping, is that with the sudden availability of extra OTA channels (ie nbc2, nbc3) instead of weather which is a complete waste of time , the broadcasters will add some of the most widely watched cable channels to OTA (ie USA, probably not BBCA and SciFi :o( then I can watch the few programs I want and netflix the rest and ditch the STB and cable entirely. One can only hope :0)

I keep hoping the same thing. NBC of course did it very early with Universal Sports, and ThisTV has been picked up as a sub-channel in many markets (in mine it's a sub of KTLADT). In my market in particular Fox owns two transmitters (KTTVDT and KCOPDT), and both currently broadcast only 1 720P channel each, leaving a LOT of bandwidth for more channels between the two transmitters. Fox has quite a few cable channels to chose from. CBS also has two (KCBSDT and KCALDT), which both carry 1 1080i channel, so there's at least some room for SD sub-channels.

However I suspect that there are agreements in place with the cable companies and satellite operators that will prevent this from happening in the near term. Most networks charge a per-subscriber fee to the cable/satellite company, so there's probably a contract clause that says that the network won't turn around and broadcast the same channel for free. Such clauses were probably throw-aways when no one even considered the possibility.

If enough people go OTA around here, the broadcasters will have incentives to re-negotiate those contracts when they come up. If they weren't getting much in fees anyway, the additional viewing audience might make it worthwhile to just broadcast and enforce must-carry.

Having gone OTA almost a year ago, I can say I *mostly* don't miss the extra channels. Lots of good stuff on broadcast, and I catch my few cable-only favorites on hulu. With football season starting soon though, the lack of ESPN and NFL Network is becoming a minor sore spot.

[donschjr]

OTA is useless to me, I live in an area that requires a large aerial and rotor to point it at the stations. I only watch a few shows that are on OTA, most of my tv watching is on extended basic cable.

[markbb1]

It already is the best choice!

OTA HDTV is the main reason I put my HTPC together. Most cable companies, you can rent a DVR for as low as a couple bucks, maybe even free. My brother pays $5 a month for his.

Meanwhile, if I wanted to record OTA HD, Tivo is $10+ a month, and there haven't been a whole lot of alternatives. My HTPC will have paid for itself within three years, (parts are also now faster And cheaper from when I put mine together), and that's while also being able to do A LOT more, which includes being an actual computer when needed.

OTA is rarely the best choice. The History Channel and HGTV do not broadcast OTA, and that is the type of programming a lot of us watch (OTA has almost nothing of interest to those of us that subscribe to cable and sat services). Also, a fairly large segment of us live in areas that require large external antennae, which are still subject to HOA restrictions in some cases (not where I live, fortunately for me). So far, as someone still lagging in the world of analog, I am not affected, but some day the wife will want to upgrade to a digital receiver so she can actually use that feature of the 46" LCD TV she bought last year. And I don't want to have to subscribe to yet another service just to be able to record in HD.

[tuckster]

OTA HDTV is the main reason I put my HTPC together.

Same here. I am content with the programming on local broadcast channels. They all broadcast in HD for prime time programs and GBPVR's multi-record capability is going to enable me to record/watch three or four college football games at one time with a single ATSC/QAM tuner. That's awesome. I'm going to need more hard drive space!

SEC on CBS, PAC10, Big10 or Big12 on ABC, Notre Dame on NBC and a Boise State game on the local NBC. Beautiful.

My wife's favorite programs are on broadcast channels - we had cable for a while and we rarely watched anything other than CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.

[johnsonx42]

Same here. I am content with the programming on local broadcast channels. They all broadcast in HD for prime time programs and GBPVR's multi-record capability is going to enable me to record/watch three or four college football games at one time with a single ATSC/QAM tuner. That's awesome. I'm going to need more hard drive space!

SEC on CBS, PAC10, Big10 or Big12 on ABC, Notre Dame on NBC and a Boise State game on the local NBC. Beautiful.

My wife's favorite programs are on broadcast channels - we had cable for a while and we rarely watched anything other than CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.

I don't think Multi-record is going to let you do that. Those channels are all on different broadcast frequencies - Multi-record lets you record multiple channels on the SAME frequency. For *most* people in the US, Multi-record is of limited or no use on ATSC (which is not to say it doesn't work, it works fine).
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, and what you actually mean is that you have basic broadcast cable service... in that case yes, many different channels are on the same frequency. But what you wrote certainly implies you have an antenna.

[jksmurf]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/281551...VR-for-you

How come gbpvr doesn't get a mention in NZ . . .

k.

[Ranger One]

There is an article "Clear QAM HD isn't going anywhere" on the Engadethd website. No the sky isn't falling for (yet anyhow) us HTPC users.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/08/28/cle...-anywhere/

Time to download the latest version of GBPVR & get to work!

Keep up the good work sub!

[johnsonx42]

The engadget article does not contradict anything already said, including the AnandTech blog posted above. No one said that broadcast channels were going to be encrypted. (no doubt someone somewhere did, but not here)

The sequence of events that will ruin the game for many is:

A) As cable companies transition to all-digital, those who received all their 'Expanded Basic' channels via analog will lose their analog signal.
B) The cable companies have been using DTA's without encryption enabled to switch all the channels to digital. The channels could therefore still be received by digital QAM tuners, so the users affected by A had only to switch/upgrade to a QAM tuner.

So, until now if you paid for Expanded Basic cable (or higher), you could receive those channels unencrypted, either via analog or digital.

C) The new developement is that the FCC has now decided to allow cable companies to encrypt all but the Broadcast channels. This renders QAM tuners in HTPC's and TV's largely useless for those who were used to receiving their Expanded Basic cable channels in unencrypted form.

Now perhaps declaring the 'end of the HTPC' is a bit much, since many of us don't bother with cable at all (or are content with the basic broadcast cable service), while many more already have elaborate setups with ir blasters controlling full-fledged cable or satellite STB's.

But those who already directly tune analog or digital "Expanded Basic" cable channels with their HTPC's are certainly going to feel a bit screwed over by the cable companies and the FCC.

That all said, I suspect it won't be long before methods (both legal and illegal) are found to decrypt 'Privacy mode'.

[dennit]

It's worth pointing out that the "Privacy Mode" of the DTA is a relatively simple single one-way 56 bit DES encryption using a fixed key. In contrast, the cableco's STB uses a triple DES 2-way system where the key is constantly changing. The DTA "Privacy Mode" one way system is much less sophisticated than the one-way encryption systems used in satellite broadcasts, many of which are already broken.

It's quite possible that tools will be released to find and use DTA keys. If this happens, the QAM tuner will be usable with the multidec already built into GBPVR.

Edit: (I see Whurlston also pointed this out when he gave it 2 months to be broken.)

[soccerdad]

My Time Warner feed has never had anything but the big 4 networks and PBS in clear digital. We have several "tiers" with expanded and super expanded that you must have a STB for, analog or digital. I actually hope they convert to privacy mode since that would give me chance of recording what I pay for,(once it is broken). I doubt it will ever happen since they already seem to have the technology in place to force me to use a STB.