March 2010 Archives
March 26, 2010
So here I sit; it’s been many long months since I’ve posted. The Olympics and the world hae come and gone. And, I have to admit, I actually enjoyed the games on TV. CTV, TSN and Sportsnet did a fantastic job covering the sporting events. You know, I never thought I’d catch myself enjoying curling on TV. It’s a real chess match on the ice. Oh, and I’d love a pair of those pants the Norwegian men’s team wore; I don’t care what you think, they’re awesome!
But, I’m not going to comment on the Olympics or their costs, nor the politics around the games, nor anything relating to them. Today I’m going to talk about TV in general. On June 12, 2009 the FCC in the United States required that ALL television stations broadcasting on analogue channels 2-13, and 14-69 to shut down their analogue transmitters and begin broadcasting on their assigned digital channel. In Canada, that day will come. So far it looks like August 31, 2011. In Vancouver, most of the networks have gone digital; but a few channels are lagging behind.
If you’ve purchased an HDTV, you’ve probably come to the conclusion that you need to have an HD signal to get the full benefit of that investment. That happened with me. The standard satellite receiver just didn’t do justice to that fancy HDTV. So, off to a major retailer to look at HD satellite receivers. Since we switched from Expressvu to Starchoice, we purchased a Starchoice HD PVR receiver for our home theatre setup we had put together a few months earlier.
You might be thinking, where’s he going with this? In the US the cable companies are under FCC Cablecard Mandate; which means that Cable companies cannot use proprietary cable boxes specific to their network. This means that you can buy a third party cable box that could have more features than the cable companies box, and/or be cheaper. The cable company would provide you with a “cablecard” that you insert into the cablecard slot; which is used to decrypt their signal for viewing on your TV. They have control over the service by these cards. Why do I think this is worth discussing? It means if you have a choice of cable providers, or you move house and the cable company is different, you no longer have to buy new hardware to watch TV; or you can choose a third party box that may have different features. It would also stop the cable/satellite companies from arbitrarily pushing down the pipe new firmware for the boxes you’re made to purchase. It happened to me recently, where the satellite company broke some functionality of my receiver all in the name of preventing me from copying the signal. After 13 months of arguing and broken promises, a small claims court filing did the trick; I’m finally getting my money back from them.
So far the cable card mandate isn’t in place for satellite companies, but there are some who are hoping that happens soon. I just wish that we could get at least that much here in Canada. Or even better, not bother encrypting the HD signals that are freely available over the air anyways, or using a standard that already exists; QAM.
My frustrations aren’t limited to just cable TV. In my opinion blu-ray sufferes from some deficiencies that can drive one to the bottle. All in an effort to prevent copying of movies.
I’m tired of farting around with my TV just to get a picture on it. I’m done with buying expensive hardware that the providers still have complete control over. I long for the days of turning your TV on, and just being able to watch. I know it’s not going to happen, but I can hope and wish can’t I?
