Set top boxes

768 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Michael P, Dec 4, 2006

HIPAR

Discussion Starter · Dec 1, 2006

The Government will be forcing cable companies to decouple their encryption devices from the user Set Top Box. If I understand the concept correctly, a generic STB will accept a Cable Card type device to customize it to a particular cable system.

http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6395720.html

So why should the same mandate not apply to DBS? A satellite STB consists of a radio receiver, logic processor and interface to the TV. Why can't a system specific logic processor module customize a DBS box to accept E*, D* or whatever?

Cable providers have been providing subscribers with custom STBs for years so I really don't understand the purpose of this crusade. Why are the expense and hardships associated with the conversions being unilaterally levied on the cable industry?

--- CHAS

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FTA Michael

· #2 · Dec 1, 2006

Because once upon a time, the feds decided to force cable systems to play nice with "cable-ready" televisions. Thus, they're effectively required to provide their most basic channels in an analog package that can plugged directly into almost any reasonably modern television. This way, if you've got six TVs, you don't need six cable boxes to get those analog-delivered channels. The decoupled "digital-cable-ready" set is supposed to be a modernization of that approach.

Satellite dishes have always required some form of converter between the dish and the TV, and when they started, they had very little market share. (It's still pretty small relative to cable.) Those are some reasons why you never saw "satellite-ready" sets at the Wal-Mart.

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lee635

· #3 · Dec 4, 2006

Don't forget cable had to be brought kicking and screaming into this. I remember being charged $2.11 every month for a remote for my cable box, in college. When I got a universal remote and returned their remote to the office, they actually rolled a truck to my house to trade out my "remote ready" cable box with a "remote disabled" cable box. Grrrrr. I still bristle at that experience.

FTA Michael said:
Because once upon a time, the feds decided to force cable systems to play nice with "cable-ready" televisions. Thus, they're effectively required to provide their most basic channels in an analog package that can plugged directly into almost any reasonably modern television. This way, if you've got six TVs, you don't need six cable boxes to get those analog-delivered channels. The decoupled "digital-cable-ready" set is supposed to be a modernization of that approach.

Satellite dishes have always required some form of converter between the dish and the TV, and when they started, they had very little market share. (It's still pretty small relative to cable.) Those are some reasons why you never saw "satellite-ready" sets at the Wal-Mart.

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Michael P

· #4 · Dec 4, 2006

A satellite STB consists of a radio receiver, logic processor and interface to the TV.

This is over simplistic. A D* box used a different, proprietory version of MPEG than an E* box (which uses the standard MPEG2). Perhaps when both systems go totally MPEG4 there may be a "generic" satellite receiver, but up until then forgetaboutit.

BTW: I'm still waiting for an XM/Sirius combo radio.

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