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 ...
I’ve givin up on cable. I have Apple TV with Netflix and Hulu. If I want to watch the debates or something, I can use my computer, phone or iPad and shoot it directly to the tv I HD. No need for $220.00 a month anymore.
TWC is, in only a few locations, letting people use a Roku instead of cable boxes. But they did say it was a beta test and not mobile or OTT. Thus one still couldn’t log into account out of residence.
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.
Even the only thing stopping all movies for rent being online “legally” is Hollywood that does not want to lose their CD sales. Hence, Netflix and Amazon are only allocated a block of movies or a certain number they can stream at a time. This is why they rotate movies and TV programs too.
I picked up the Fox App and you can watch all the TV programs, with commercials the day after it shows. If you hate commercials, then you can purchase it on Apple, Amazon and Google.
Mrs p6 and I enjoy our Xfinity triple play, HD and SD TV with On Demand, DVR that can record 6 programs at once, remote with voice search and more. Phone and internet Blast service is included. Blast on Ethernet is around 100mbps, on WiFi around half that.
Total cost is $180/month.
As far as the box goes I don’t recall the monthly charge if any but for what we are getting we are happy.
This from a couple who have cut the cable for many reasons and even now don’t have cable TV in the bedrooms. Of course we do have OTA TV but we are in a terrible reception location. If there is something on cable we do want to watch in a bedroom we can use a tablet, phone or laptop and cast it using the Xfinity apps.
I should add recording methods needs to improve online for steaming content and apps. And it be good if video was stored on some cloud based service hat was easy to use and not cost hundreds extra to upload large video content. I find space can be an issue recording HD content or trying to save video to CD/DVDs.
You can get a lot more data minutes today than 5 years ago.
Plus I know companies are now upgrading from 4g to 5g which will be everywhere in 5 years.
For the record 5g runs between 1 to 1000gb of data. The current 4g runs between 1 to 1000mb. Most people who have high speed data at their homes, run between 10mb up to 100mb. So the 5g at the lowest level is about 1000 times faster than your current high speed internet at the house.
Probably twenty percent of Americans, at a minimum, simply don't have access to the broadband connections (and no, wireless capped at 20meg per month will NOT work) to do this.
Of course the set top box is now also a DVR and isn’t going away any time soon.
That will change soon. The internet will come though the wireless towers. If you have a weak wireless signal, then all you will need is a repeater in the house.
There are also digital antennas. It’s just a USB you plug into your TV. Some of them can pull a digital signal from 100 miles. The beautiful thing about digital antennas is that you either have a great picture or no picture at all.
If you can do it from your Phone, Tablet or computer, then it will be.
The boxes are very different than they were years ago. The typically have a HD of 1TB or more built in. They also are used to provide the channels being paid for without the box there isn’t a good mechanism to have the proper channels for each consumer.
Xfinity will also be providing apps lke net flix.
The cost per MB of data services are far lower than in the past.
Some of those ‘apps’ require one to sign in through their cable/satellite provider.
It does seem that some networks are now bypassing that and going direct to the customer. Several networks have ROKU apps now. Some of those do no require the user to sign in through a cable/satellite provider. The offerings also seem to have fewer commercials than regular TV, which about 20 minutes per hour of non-program commercials and PSAs.
One problem with the ‘direct’ approach is that many customers will not want to sign up for a dozen or more networks with their individual websites and queues and costs.
Cable/satellite companies make it easy to get multiple networks. If the networks were smart, they would come up with a more singular method, while bypassing cable/satellite.
Of course, the cable/satellite companies will squeal.
My cable is currently in a fees-feud with a couple of broadcast channels. Those channels are being blocked by the cable company. The channels are encouraging people to drop cable and to satellite. [These cost feuds happen frequently when cable-network contracts are up for renewal. Ironically, just this month, the cable company just upped their fees to consumers for many of their services.]
Not necessarily. Between storage limitation (my DVR has a TB hardrive, no phone or tablet has that) and UI considerations (hooking a computer to a TV is kind of a pain) the set top box still has a clear market. Add to that the fact that many of the boxes can be controlled and accessed from the web (really dependent on your cable company, they all could be accessed from the web, the question is does your cable company choose to do it), and there’s simply no reason for it to go away. It’s a much more useful and dynamic device than this article wants to pretend.
R O K U...olla!!! Shout it from the hilltops!
Sorry but it is so way past time that there are a plethora of free streaming sites. Some of these are even operated by the content providers.
Like the RIAA, the cable/dss industries have no one to blame but themselves. The genie is out of the bottle and they will need an extreme paradigm shift in order to survive.
Personally we dumped the cable / satellite seen over ten years ago and haven’t looked back. Anything I wish to view or listen to is readily available across the internet.
That is what I like about Hulu. You get all the tv shows commercial free the day after it airs. Hulu has all of the major networks and the subsidiary as well.
“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”
Of course. That’s how they screw us. They are falling behind financially as their subs keep dropping off. They aren’t going to be able to screw the common people forever.
I have a TiVo Bolt on order (arrival Tuesday). It advertises that is can replace the cable box. It also records 4 programs at the same time. And, it includes 1 year of TiVo service. Cost $300. Renewal service is $150 per year.
Cable box-DVR rental is $8.50 for the box and $12 for the recorder service per month, and that box records on 2 programs at a time.
The TiVo will require a cable company cablecard/m-card.
The cable just recently went all digital and requires a set-top or [crappy] mini box for every cable outlet. The [crappy] mini box does not give access to upper tiers or premium channels. It also does not allow program scheduling. It is $2/month, after a 1-year free. The [crappy] mini box also will not allow work with existing 3rd-party DVRs.
I don’t know whether the cablecard for the TiVo will access those upper/premium tiers.
The TiVo Bolt also does the apps — Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.