Why Can't I Buy A CableCARD Ready Set-Top Box?

Al E Usse writes "Ars Technica does a write up of the problems that were not solved by the July 1, 2007 integration ban on integrated security in your cable box. The goal was to get everyone on the same page by requiring standardized technology. Just the same, the cable companies aren't really playing ball. 'The companies who make the boxes don't seem interested in selling to consumers [and] cable companies still push their own branded devices.' The article covers some deep background on the whole CableCARD mess, and concludes with the current state of the market: 'Based on June 2007 figures from the cable industry, 271,000 CableCARDs have been deployed. That's an astonishingly low number. 58 percent of all US households with a TV subscribe to cable, according to the NCTA, which means that 65 million households have at least basic cable.'"

At least there's Tivo

[amigabill]

The title of the OP makes it sound liek you can't buy anything from anyone. I just bought an HD Tivo that takes cablecards. It's going to replace the Verizon FIOS DVR box that I think is a POS, even after being replaced with another.

Re:Bullhockey

[palladiate]

He had no clue. First, many techs, especially contractors, are clueless. Second, everything Comcast does is braindead.

You can have CCs in any device, no approval necessary. However, there is no guarantee your STB will work with one unless it's been certified. Tivos do work, but only uses them one way. There are only Cisco and Motorola devices that are two-way, and allow on demand or channel guides. One of those bad boys will set you back about a grand, or more for the HDs.

The article mentions that the biggest reason people aren't using CCs is because there are no good STBs. That's totally not true. There are plenty made by Cisco (Scientific Atlanta) and Motorola. They just cost between $800 and $1300 and come with your cable service. There's just no point in buying one, although we will sell them if you want them. As for consumer-grade options, I can't answer that, it just seems that no PC component company wants to make a CC interface, and the only consumer STB is Tivo.

I just wanted to point out there are tons of cable cards out there, and they are part of the digital boxes provided by the cable company.

Re:Analog cable for me....

[daveywest]

You can only pack so many analog channels on one cable line. You have to go digital to get more channels. Cable really is a cooperative entertainment venture. You pay for some of the channels I watch, and I pay for some that you watch. When the group as a whole wants to exceed that analog channel limit, everyone has to go to digital.

Re:Why not TiVo?

[HTH NE1]

Tivo service is $17/month at its most expensive plan and less than $9/month at its cheapest monthly price in the 3year prepaid plan.

Actually, TiVo service can be as low as $6.95 a month with an existing unit with service in the same home, even if that existing service is an old Series1 with Lifetime (no monthly fee) service.

Even better, there's the occasional offer to transfer existing lifetime service to the latest hardware, and a free year of service on the legacy unit, which can then be unsubscribed.

(Of my eight TiVos, two are lifetime, 5 are $6.95/mo, and one is a never-subscribed Series1 20hr unit. Two of the monthlies are also Series1 that I could let lapse and still be able to do manual recordings.)

No one reads the Firehose Related Stories links?

[HTH NE1]

The current offering from Time Warner Cable of their "mystro" software prevents me from using all the features of the TiVo connected to it.

If I dare try to change the channel at precisely the time that guide data is updated on the channel I am leaving, the box may fail to change channels, change to the wrong channel, or even crash. Every recording I make has to be padded by at least one minute start and end to avoid this bug, even back-to-back recordings on the same channel. (Networks shifting start and end times by a minute is exacerbating the problem.)

This requires me to disable the TiVo's Suggestions feature as they cannot be padded.

I can't use TWC's cable box at all with the Series1 units as they lack the ability to trim their recordings in response to a neighboring-in-time padded recording: one or the other recording would not be recorded.

I've been subjected to these boxes for more than a year now (I'm in one of their beta-test cites) and the company has thumbed its nose at local officials demanding a resolution to and restitution for the problems.

The only thing that has alleviated the problem is getting a CableCARD-enabled TiVo, though it too has had difficulty with cards that lose the signal and will not reacquire it without a restart or (disliked by TWC) ejecting and re-inserting the offending card which I've had to do three times so far. And of course it's the card in CableCARD slot 1.

Re:Analog cable for me....

[taustin]

You can only pack so many analog channels on one cable line.

So, instead of having 99 channels full of crap, and one with something interesting once in while, you have 999 channels full of crap, and one with someting interesting once in a while. And you pay more.

Color me a little skeptical.

The reason to go digital is to get the DVR in the msot convenient way (as opposed to rolling your own).

Re:Why not TiVo?

[glindsey]

mythtv likes firewire tuners, comcast's boxes have firewire outputs.

Comcast disables FireWire output for a huge number of digital channels on a whim -- in Illinois, at least. I have friends who say that 75% of their programming at any given time disables the FireWire port on their STB.

Re:hackable?

[oni]

Each card has a public and private key. The cable company's signal is also encrypted, but there's a public band somewhere where the cable company can communicate will any cablecard that happens to be listening. So you plug the cable card into the TV (or tivo or whatever) and then go to the setup menu and read off a string of numbers. That string represents the card's public key.

The cable company takes its encryption key and encrypts it with the card's public key, then transmits that over the public band. Every cable card device sees this, but only the target card (your card) is able to read it, and use the card's private key to decrypt it.

So now the card has been given the cable company's encryption key, and can decrypt the signal and let you watch all the sweet sweet porn.^H^H^H^H^H discovery HD. The cable company periodically changes its key, and it keeps a list of all the cable cards that are authorized and sends the new key to all those cards.

IF you had all of this working in software, then you could copy the cable company's key into as many other devices as you want. That way, you could pay for one TV, but have other TVs authorized. But, you would have to keep copying the key to all the other devices. You absolutely could not get perpetual free cable. The best you can do is pay for one but actually have many. Hardly even seems worth it.

Re:Bullhockey

[palladiate]

that is entirely the problem, and frankly if you wouldnt sell me any box you provide your business is retarted.

the point is that we as consumers shuold have a choice and viable alternatives to paying the outlandish fees that "you" charge while still getting the service we provide.

We don't charge equipment fees. In fact, local law prohibits us from doing this, but none of our divisions do. We charge for DVR service, but so does Tivo. Some of that is licensing, some of it is infrastructure, some of it is profit.

There are no good devices because everytime one was created YOU found a way to make it not work.

No. We have done no such thing. I'm afraid I'm going to need some kind of citation for that accusation. Have we broken any Tivos? No.

then there was the whole lets only scramble some channels thing which was slightly better..

That's because HBO doesn't let you get their channel without paying.

then digital came out, and the whole one-way two-way problem was created.

Are you trying to imply that we could have put 600 channels and on-demand channels down the line without using a compressed, digital signal? Your Cable Card handles the digital signal just fine. There are no technical limitations there, and if you put one in a cablecard slot on your TV, it will work. It's because we need an addressable box on your end to authorize the service you purchased. It's like how you need a power meter for your house. That's necessary equipment too.

Re:Why can't I buy a digital-to-NTSC set-top box?

[mattack2]

Googling ATSC tuner, then going to the cheaper alternative listed from Amazon found this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NW7A2G [amazon.com]

Under $100 standalone ATSC tuner.

Re:Bullhockey

[palladiate]

No, we don't verify your device or anything.

There may be restrictions on what kind of device you call sell, regarding patents and licensing, but we don't check your equipment beyond "it works to your satisfaction." I don't write the software or build the hardware. But I do know we don't check to see if your device is approved. There are far too many CC-ready TV models for us to verify.