US Cable Support > Comcast Cable TV > Say goodbye to ClearQAM

reply to GTFan

Re: Say goodbye to ClearQAM

It's deja vu all over again for Tom Rutledge, Charter Communications Inc.'s new CEO. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is opposing the operator's request for a two-year waiver on set-tops with integrated security so the MSO can move ahead on a plan to go all-digital and introduce a downloadable security system that relies on a security chip. The CEA opposed a similar request by Cablevision Systems Corp. (Rutledge's former company) in 2009, but the MSO ended up getting the waiver, which has since expired.

The CEA hasn't altered its argument much. In its Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing Friday, the CEA argues that the FCC needs to instead "identify a new, secure, open, and national standard interface between MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] services and retail device." The CEA and its cohorts have been urging the FCC to move ahead on AllVid, a possible successor to the CableCARD that would be applied to all U.S. pay-TV providers. The CEA fears that the security chip in Charter's plan will support just one conditional access system, removing any notion of device portability with other service providers. Replies are due to the FCC by Dec. 10, but Charter has already stressed that it intends to continue to support retail devices that rely on the CableCARD. (Cable Lobby Gripes About Google, AllVid: »www.lightreading.com/document.as···lr_cable)

reply to GTFan

If you read the FCC waiver I linked, you'll see that they want a standard. They're just waiting for cable to come up with one (likely based on DLNA), which essentially means nothing is going to happen.

reply to andyross
Why do you say goodbye? Clear QAM is still here.

I see. Uncle Sam is clearly not on our side. :-(

I guess its time to buy one of those big arses fish bone antenna!

reply to andyross
Clear QAM is gone in Somerset NJ.

reply to Bobster
Do a rescan of your tuner Comcast just did some remapping in your area as they also recently did in mine.

»Channel Mapping in 08844

Rescan fixed it, thanks.

When Comcast of Central New Jersey remapped it on the 27th here on the Middlesex County I was surprised a to find WCAU 10.2 NBC Philadelphia Nonstop. WPHL's Tango Traffic 17.4 as well at WPHL feeds of 17.2 Antenna TV and 17.3 This TV that were already carried through WPIX and WPVI's Live Well Channels 6.2 HD & 6.3 SD that were already carried through WABC. None of them are mapped into the Comcast boxes or DTA's only their New York counterparts are mapped.

reply to telcodad
Starting tomorrow (Dec. 10th), cable operators can begin encrypting their digital basic service tiers (after providing customers 30 days advance notice):

Cable subscribers are about to get a sneaky fee
By Herb Weisbaum, NBC News - December 9, 2012
»www.nbcnews.com/business/cable-s···C7476067

From the article:

If you have cable service, you probably have at least one set-top box. On Monday, a federal rule change takes effect that could eventually force you to rent more cable boxes.
:
The Federal Communications Commission had prohibited the encryption of basic cable since 1994. But in October, the commission voted to allow it, starting on Dec. 10.
:
None of the six major cable companies in the country has announced a date to encrypt basic channels.
:
When asked what it planned to do, Comcast, the country’s largest cable service provider, said in a statement:

“Currently, we do not have any announcements to make. Should we plan any changes in the future, we will notify any impacted customers well ahead of time.”
:
Before a cable company can encrypt basic service, it must give customers 30 days advance notice. The FCC rule requires them to give two free converter boxes to customers with only basic service for two years and one free box to everyone else for one year. After that, the cable companies could sell or rent the boxes.

The FCC’s decision does not require those free converter boxes to deliver high-definition signals. For basic service in HD, customers would have to rent an HD box which could cost as much as $10 a month.

Consumer advocates say these box rentals will become a new revenue stream for cable companies.

reply to telcodad
A threat to OTA TV is the FCC's desire to free-up spectrum for wireless communications, at the expense of what little is allotted now for TV transmissions:

California Congress Members to FCC: Preserve Free TV
Point to large and growing contingent of over-the-air only viewers, including diverse populations
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable - December 12, 2012
»www.broadcastingcable.com/articl···e_TV.php

reply to GTFan
Charter's response (»apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?···22078929) to the CEA's objections to their set-top security integration ban waiver request, from today's Light Reading Cable news round-up article:

Charter Strikes Back at the CEA
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 14, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/document.as···lr_cable

Charter Communications Inc. rejected assertions from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and others that a chip the cable operator wants to use for a new downloadable security system in digital set-top boxes is proprietary and will support only Charter's service and conditional access system. Charter is seeking a two-year waiver from the July 2007 set-top security integration ban so it can deploy dual security boxes containing silicon that would support the future downloadable security system alongside the traditional integrated conditional access system. Once Charter activates the downloadable system, it intends to use a "simulcrypt" system that will also allow it to support televisions and TiVo Inc. boxes purchased at retail that use CableCARD security.

In its reply comments at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) , Charter said the downloadable chip would rely on the same "commodity chips" that Cablevision Systems Corp. now uses for its downloadable system, and that the silicon can support security systems other than the one Charter wants to deploy. Cablevision's system, like the one being proposed by Charter, relies on the NDS (now Cisco Systems Inc.) key ladder as the "hardware root of trust," which will be offered on an open, royalty-free basis for use by other retail "host" (i.e. set-tops, televisions, and other connected devices), the MSO added. Charter intends to use its downloadable system as a key component of its all-digital video migration. The CEA wants the FCC to reject the request for temporary waiver and instead pursue a CableCARD successor called AllVid that would be applied to all pay-TV providers.

If it's a chip used by Charter STBs for their own downloadable security it's not an open cable standard, period. They're just trying to confuse the issue.

... that a chip the cable operator wants to use for a new downloadable security system in digital set-top boxes ...
:
Charter said the downloadable chip would rely on the same "commodity chips" that Cablevision Systems Corp. now uses for its downloadable system, and that the silicon can support security systems other than the one Charter wants to deploy.

That is irrelevant to the point, which is that any new chip is by definition not a standard until CableLabs or the FCC says it is.