The end of the road for CableCard

[shspvr]

FCC drops rule requiring cable companies to provide CableCARD

[jcole998]

Well...Looks like IPTV and streaming services will be expanding.

Any thoughts on the subject, sub, mvallevand?

[pcostanza]

This sucks!  I've been a happy user of a HDHR Prime since it came out.  It saves me the cable box costs which are ridiculous and has worked very well.  However, I have been thinking about 'cutting the cord' as I really can't watch all the tv I'm paying for.  I'll hang on likely until the end and everything changes often if you live long enough.

[mvallevand]

Any thoughts on the subject, sub, mvallevand?

We don't have cablecard in Canada so I can stop being jealous.   One of the upsides to cutting the cord is I was able to get 3 olders STB's for $60 total and HDPVR's are around $30 on kijiji so it isn't the end of the world and turned out cheaper than cable card.  I don't expect the cableco's are going to stop taking your money they are greedy enough you probably just won't get state of the art receivers.

With ATSC on top of that 6 tuners is probably overkill for most users, it never helped Ceton much.

Martin

[BrettB]

Well...Looks like IPTV and streaming services will be expanding.

Any thoughts on the subject, sub, mvallevand?

The FCC commissioners said cable companies are still required to “provide separable security,” but they said that condition could be met by providing streaming applications that allow cable customers to access programming on streaming devices like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or Android TV devices. Most cable companies have offered these apps for years without government regulation or intervention, the FCC noted, and as long as they continue to do so, they’ll meet the separate security requirement.

So they still have to provide some ability for 3rd parties to access that content. If it is something IPTV based, then maybe it will be better for us and NextPVR will be able to use it without sub having to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get Cable Card certified (which was never going to happen). Of course, I'm not holding my breath on this one.

[jcole998]

I just worry that network-based content will not be as organized as cable, by that I mean content scheduling. If everything goes On-demand and no schedule, how will people know what's on and where and when? Right now it's really simple to set up a recurring recording and schedule the on-offs. What will the net offer?

[sub]

Ugh...annoying. I could certainly see this coming though. I'm guessing SiliconDust will never get around to releasing that 6 tuner cablecard device now. (it was already way late, and looking like it might never happen)

There is definitely other options, but this was certainly a nice way to get content for US users.

[pcostanza]

Ugh...annoying. I could certainly see this coming though. I'm guessing SiliconDust will never get around to releasing that 6 tuner cablecard device now. (it was already way late, and looking like it might never happen)

There is definitely other options, but this was certainly a nice way to get content for US users.

I never felt that they've been totally honest with us on the status of the 6 tuner card.  Not that I would I buy one but I think they've known all along how this would turn out.

[HarryH3]

Indeed, the 6-tuner HD HomeRunPrime has been vaporware for years now.

At least when Comcast notifies me that they will no longer support cable cards then I will have NO problem discontinuing TV service from them.

[pkscout]

I think the cable companies should be required to go back to unencrypted QAM for local networks if they drop cable card. Honestly in my area everything but the locals is marked as COPYONCE, so NextPVR can only record locals anyway. I have a cable box and encoder for the other channels. I'd put an antenna up, but in my area I ca only get like 1 or two of the stations OTA.

Either than or "open" authenticated IPTV streams (NOT an app) for getting content. That would actually be better because then NextPVR could record as many streams as I would be allowed to have. But being the US, I'm sure they'll saying having closed apps on closed platforms is fine.