The FCC has made noises in the past they expect the broadcast stations will be unencrypted when carried digitally on cable and, for the most part, this is how the cablecos are carrying them. And if QAM ready TV's become more common it will be even harder to this to change.
Of course personally I CAN manage to get decent OTA HD. It's just a bit more work and I would probably set up a second rooftop antenna rather than relying on my rotor. But as long as it is only a very few dollars / month for mostly reliable QAM cable HD to my PC without a digital cable subscription I would still prefer the basic cable route, with fewer drop-outs.
- Tom Craig Birkmaier wrote:
At 8:32 PM -0400 7/27/07, Tom Barry wrote:How do you mean the digital tier? Usually that costs extra money and may include a lot of encrypted channels. OTOH the broadcast stations could also be sent digitally but unencrypted so at least digital QAM ready TV's and equipment could get them without either extra fees or cable cards. (once you get the TV)Sorry Tom, but those days are over. YOU Vill PAY for broadcast stations, just like you pay for everything else!It might be interesting if the cable industry said it would pull the plug on the analog broadcast channels unless the broadcasters rescind their Retrans Consent demands. Then they could justify only paying for the subscribers who pay for the digital tier with the networks...Regards Craig ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
-- Tom Barry trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
