said by fAcEtIOUs:said by pandora:I believe cable companies should provide an unencrypted basic tier of HD that any digital set can receive. The FCC shouldn't lightly permit unencrypted cable from disappearing, even if eventually all signals are digital.
That, as a goal sounds, noble. But it flies in the face of the direction technology and the industry is taking and the demand by customers for more channels and more HD channels in particular.
There is a limited amount of bandwidth capacity on cable HFC systems. HD channels(and eventually almost all channels will be HD) take up quite a bit of bandwidth. To get around the limitation(until FTTH is ubiquitous which is a decade away or more), cable is going to use Switched Digital Video (SDV). Current TVs can't support that without some kind of external box(an SDV adapter, or a STB). Eventually, Tru2Way will address that in new sets. But again that will take years before they are ubiquitous.
So your solution is regulation that will squash consumers demand for more channels and more HD channels because there is a group of people that can't afford a Cadillac. My solution is that those people make do with OTA TV and leave the rest of us alone to enjoy the progression of technology.
A solution that slows progress because some will be left behind is not a good solution. But it is a solution supported by socialists. That is, pander to the lowest common denominator, and to heck with progress.
MSOs try and progress newer tech? This made me laugh very, very loudly.
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