Posted on 01/31/2016 6:25:16 AM PST by Enlightened1
Commentary: A proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler calls for cable companies like Comcast to "unlock the set-top box." Unlocking isn't enough. The box should die, once and for all, and be replaced by apps.
There's no technological reason that Comcast, or Time Warner Cable, or Charter or any other cable TV provider needs to provide physical hardware at all. There's no need for warehouses full of cable boxes or arduous "service windows" where the technician supposedly shows up "sometime between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m."-- or not--to fix (or more likely just replace) your device.
Full-fledged pay TV service should just be an app, like Sling TV, that runs on your phone, your Roku or even the TV itself
Of course, cable companies already have apps. The best example I know about is available to Time Warner Cable subscribers. The TWC TV app can be downloaded to Roku, Xbox and older Samsung TVs, for example, as well as iOS and Android phones and tablets. It offers pretty much every live channel you get from TWC's box, all of its on-demand content, and the ability to start over on certain live channels that offer that function. You don't even need a cable box in the house; just a TWC modem.
It's still not enough, though. DVR functionality is limited to scheduling only, not playback. Most live TV channels are only available to watch inside your home, not on the road. And the app isn't available on every TV device -- notable exceptions include Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Thanks for posting this. I have been considering dumping the box for sometime. Here is my issue. I have some viewers in the house that are not “tech savvy”. Switching the big screen over to Roku isn’t done out of - well I actually am not sure why and can’t get a straight answer. So, I need basically a one stop option that doesn’t require more than one remote to used. I am open to ideas, suggestions.
Ouch!
And that will crush cable companies as it will run over the cellular network.
There is a very good alternative to provide the proper channels for each customer without a box, a cable card.
They are just raising broadband rates as people cut cable. I cut mine in 2010 when my internet was $46. Now it is $73 a month.
You got that right. That is why I am keeping cable. You can’t beat the cable company no matter what you do. It started with hard line phones. I decided not to get one in my new home. Did I save a penny on the bill? Heck no. In fact very soon having cable will be the same as having a hard line. It will be an addition but not cost anything because Broadband will cost 220 bucks a month to have. It’s coming. The cable company will win this “war on cable”.
“Full-fledged pay TV service should just be an app, like Sling TV, that runs on your phone, your Roku or even the TV itself”
Why, so cnet can host it and put tracking, data mining malware
and load it up with packaged software no one wants.
The issue isn't so much the technology, it's the pricing.I have family getting their internet via wireless now, and while it's only 4g it's adequate for their needs. The problem is it costs $100/month for 10gb of data, and AT&T & Verizon have almost identical pricing.
Compare that to the unlimited, higher speed data available to me via cable for $49/mo.
I enjoy these discussions from people who live in Cable Land. Many of us do not. We generally have two choices: wireless point to point or satellite. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
The biggest issue with wireless is the distance and line of sight to the nearest tower. Look at any map of coverage and you find lots of little circles with many gaps in between. For those in fringe areas, download speeds are seriously degraded. It’s like cell phones in the early days, lot’s of dead spots once out of population centers.
Satellite service has greatly improved, especially those that us Ka Band satellites (ViaSat/Excede), but all services limit total bandwidth which makes many of the streaming services problematic. Latency is bad news for gamers. Storms remain a problem, just like satellite TV.
Living with these limitations is part of the package when you choose to be in the country. I’m not planning on leaving.
A-friggin-men
Our Roku in the Atlanta area just added WSB local news. Whenever they are broadcasting the news, it’s on live and after that replays.
And it is FREE! $
The bonus is that it makes Momma happy.
My 6 at a time DVR is also the box can record 6 at a time, gives full access to anything I paid for and can have a few hundred things programmed (with set to record a series counting as one thing), and can share between multiple boxes if you have them, and costs $8.50 a month, and I can expand the drive though at 1TB there’s no need to. And since I also get my internet and phone from them, I get $13.70 off the whole bill, so functionally the DVR is free. For netflix and Amazon and the like I’ve got a smart TV and a smart bluray, which can be handy because the UIs are different (the netflix UI on the TV is really nice, on the bluray it’s OK, but the Amazon UI on the TV blows and is pretty good on the bluray).
So I think what we’ve here is your cable company sucks.
Need some Freeper advice: I just cancelled my Netflix due to the poor selection of movies. Anyone have a streaming service they use that has decent quality movies that are affordable?
The Bolt should handle anything thing that Comcast has to offer. Not sure about other cable companies. I have an older Tivo Series 3(2007) box with a lifetime subscription that I just reenabled. Comcast did an an mpeg4 upgrade last fall and my Tivo 3 started dropping HD channels. I traded in my cable card for a HD box back in December. Just got an email from Tivo that they found a software solution. Got the Tivo 3 working again and took the HD box back.
It took me a couple trips to the service center to get a cable card that works with the Tivo. If you can't get the paring screen, the card is bad or it is the wrong card.
I agree with you on Netflix.
What we have been doing is switching between different choices. So far we tried Showtime ( so we could watch Homeland) and Hulu (which I find myself watching the most.
You could try other selections since most give you a free month to try it. I am looking forward to the baseball season starting and watching the MLB channel.
Find what works for you!
I cut my cable because 1) they kept raising rates every year, and 2) while giving me nothing but crap programming. One of my favorite channels had always been History, but when they started running all weekend Sasquatch and Ancient Aliens marathons, I found I was watching more and more free PBS historical documentaries. (”free” as in already paid for by my tax dollars.) I got tired of paying for programming I never watched and which I sometimes find outright offensive (MTV, Bravo 24/7 Queer Programming, Al Jazeera, CNN, MSNBC, 150 Spanish channels, ‘All My Bastard Children’ on TLC, etc). Fox News was hard to quit at first, but after the first week away became very, very easy to live without. So why should I pay for all that? I cut the cable in protest. I bought a $39 antennae and Apple TV, I get at least 15 good local channels, including 3 PBS channels (buh-bye Food Network and History!), and MeTV and COSI, which gives me vintage programming. I’ll take Antiques Roadshow over American Pickers any day, and most anything else will eventually show up on Netflix. (Although I am really starting to get annoyed because they still have not uploaded the end of the last MadMen season, or the 2nd season of Turn, one of my favorites.) And, I can usually watch my alma mater’s games on Apple TV through ESPN3, where with cable I couldn’t afford the extra tier that included sports programming, and even if I had, I couldn’t choose the option of watching the games I wanted rather than what they were broadcasting. So even though the recent rate raise sucks, I’m still getting more for my $ than with cable.
Misleading. My internet is provided by TWC and I have a Roku device and I can download the TWC app to the Roku. However, the app only works to get TV if you are already a TWC "Standard TV" customer.
They are just raising broadband rates as people cut cable. I cut mine in 2010 when my internet was $46. Now it is $73 a month.
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The cable companies will eventually be killed off by the cellular companies 4G can go MUCH faster and a 4G data box will be standard in homes for running internet/Roku etc.
buh-bye cable TV! YouTube and various sites cover most of my news/sports/entertainment needs.
Ditched the land-line phone as well. Bill got cut in HALF!!!
The moment 5g comes on line, will give it a serious look.
I have a ROKU3 box and have Sling TV. I also added PLEX.
I noticed later it is now on my LG smart tv as an app to setup.
I installed MediaPortal this weekend but cannot figure out how to view the contents of my pc on my tv as I can with PLEX. It is too nerdy.
If those that create these apps want people to use them then they have to make it easy to setup.
PLEX https://plex.tv
MediaPortal http://www.team-mediaportal.com
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