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New Detail on Google Fiber Set Tops Unearthed

About a month ago, news leaked out that Google was working on an updated version of the set top box units used for their Google Fiber deployments. Now Dave Zatz has a little more detail on the device(s), which will retain the sleek, black styling of the current units. Beta testers are getting invited to test the units, which will now feature 802.11ac Wi-Fi support. Google also appears to be integrating their previously separate network storage and network router boxes into one unit. There's still no word on when these new devices will see full commercial deployment.

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Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678

Member

google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

google lets you buy added box without outlet or mirroring fees.

Why can't other systems do the same?
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

1 recommendation

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

You can buy TiVos on any QAM-based system, including FIOS.

Frank
Premium Member
join:2000-11-03
somewhere

1 edit

Frank

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

said by BiggA:

You can buy TiVos on any QAM-based system, including FIOS.

With clear-qam being removed from most systems a tivo is mostly useless without the rental of a cablecard which the cable company can arbitrarily raise the rental rate of cablecards at any given time.

SteveLV702
Premium Member
join:2004-04-22
Las Vegas, NV

SteveLV702

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

said by Frank:

said by BiggA:

You can buy TiVos on any QAM-based system, including FIOS.

With clear-qam being removed from most systems a tivo is mostly useless without the rental of a cablecard which the cable company can arbitrarily raise the rental rate of cablecards at any given time.

I love is the Tuner Adaptor have to have next to your TiVo box.
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn

Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

On Fios ? I have 2 tivos on fios and no tuner adapter to be seen.

SteveLV702
Premium Member
join:2004-04-22
Las Vegas, NV

SteveLV702

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

no Cable

ieolus
Support The Clecs
join:2001-06-19
Danbury, CT

ieolus

Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

Tuner adaptors are only needed in areas where SDV is implemented. Sadly I am in such an area... but since having a Tivo outweighs having a native cable box by an infinite amount, I deal.
ieolus

ieolus to Frank

Member

to Frank
How is that any different than a cable company's native boxes?

Anyway, the big cable companies either give the cablecards for free, or charge a few bucks each. So what is your point?
grantje
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Kokomo, IN

grantje

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

Comcast now charges a ridiculous Digital Outlet Fee (at least $9) that applies regardless of whether you use your own equipment or not. Apparently Comcast will credit back $2.50 of that if you can prove to Comcast's satisfaction that you own the equipment. That's still awful. Cablecards should be something like 99c/month/each, max $1.99/month/each, and no other fee should apply related to that outlet.

ieolus
Support The Clecs
join:2001-06-19
Danbury, CT
Netgear R6400

ieolus

Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

said by grantje:

Comcast now charges a ridiculous Digital Outlet Fee (at least $9) that applies regardless of whether you use your own equipment or not. Apparently Comcast will credit back $2.50 of that if you can prove to Comcast's satisfaction that you own the equipment. That's still awful. Cablecards should be something like 99c/month/each, max $1.99/month/each, and no other fee should apply related to that outlet.

If that is true, that is sick. That isn't indicative of most cable companies.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA to Frank

Premium Member

to Frank
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. TiVos basically don't even work with Clear QAM. They are a CableCard-based system. They work well with CableCards. Unfortunately, they don't work well with TWC, due to their improper use of the copy flags, and their horrible SDV system.

Comcast is fully encrypted, but no SDV, so it works great with my TiVos...

You also don't have to pay any outlet or CableCard fees with a Premiere/Mini or Roamio/Mini system, as one is included, and with a 4- or 6-tuner DVR and Minis for the rest of the house, you only need one CableCard to have a fully functioning, fully integrated system. I have a Premiere XL4 and 3 Mini's, and my equipment charges from Comcast are something like NEGATIVE $2.50/mo because of the owned equipment credit.

Frank
Premium Member
join:2000-11-03
somewhere

4 edits

Frank

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

said by BiggA:

You clearly don't know what you're talking about. TiVos basically don't even work with Clear QAM. They are a CableCard-based system. They work well with CableCards. Unfortunately, they don't work well with TWC, due to their improper use of the copy flags, and their horrible SDV system.

Comcast is fully encrypted, but no SDV, so it works great with my TiVos...

You also don't have to pay any outlet or CableCard fees with a Premiere/Mini or Roamio/Mini system, as one is included, and with a 4- or 6-tuner DVR and Minis for the rest of the house, you only need one CableCard to have a fully functioning, fully integrated system. I have a Premiere XL4 and 3 Mini's, and my equipment charges from Comcast are something like NEGATIVE $2.50/mo because of the owned equipment credit.

My tivo premiere worked perfectly fine using using clear qam channels for the few days I had it before I was able to get a cablecard on two separate cable systems. Nowadays, most cable systems have either phased out clear qam or are in the process of doing so this is no longer the case.

I have also used that tivo on two separate cable companies and was always charged for a cablecard.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

Federal law required the cable company to give you a CableCard and an equipment credit if it's your only device. They skirt around it by making most of the fee for programing mirroring or something (the $7.50 of the $10), and only $2.50 of the $10 for equipment, that way it's technically legal and they only have to give you back a little. Still, it's a good deal.
iknow_t
join:2012-05-03

iknow_t to BiggA

Member

to BiggA
said by BiggA:

You can buy TiVos on any QAM-based system, including FIOS.

you can, somewhat. you still have to pay $14.99 a month or $499 for a lifetime subscription for it to work, also, you have to rent a cable card.. it's cheaper to just rent the cable co's box..
»support.tivo.com/app/ans ··· a_id/573
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

Well actually, the individual TiVo boxes (including Lifetime) pay for themselves at around 48 months, and depending on the system, a Roamio/Mini system will pay for itself around 30-40 months, based on Comcast's rental fees (which are similar to the rest of the industry).

So you need to learn how to do math!

fiosultimate
join:2014-06-09
San Antonio, TX

fiosultimate to Joe12345678

Member

to Joe12345678
Because more money is always a good thing, whether u are a business or a person
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks to Joe12345678

Member

to Joe12345678
Give Google time. They're not different than any other company. They have shareholders that are going to start wanting money.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536 to Joe12345678

Premium Member

to Joe12345678
corporate greed!
rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT

rahvin112 to Joe12345678

Member

to Joe12345678
It was my understanding that the per outlet fee is typically imposed by the content providers as a measure to prevent/identify sharing/commercial use. But I've never seen an authoritative source for that claim.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25

Member

Re: google lets you buy added box without outet or mirroing fees

Because there isnt one.

It is an arbitrary fee imposed by the cable/sat/iptv company.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

One might wonder....

....if this is intended for Google fiber systems only (KC and iProvo so far)
or if they might also add cable tuners and DSL modem/Ethernet jacks too?
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: One might wonder....

It would be interesting to see them come out with a TV box that has Android-based Google TV, a cable card slot to work as a Tivo type box for any CableCo as well as for Google Fiber TV. And throw in Chromecast receiver to boot. It also may as well be a gaming console like Ouya.

Dexter0
Premium Member
join:2003-08-07
Beverly, MA

1 recommendation

Dexter0

Premium Member

Great news..

..for the .0001% of the country that can get Google Fiber

karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
Moscow, ID

1 recommendation

karlmarx

Member

Re: Great news..

Actually, considering there are 132 Million homes in america, and google fiber can connect to appx 45,000 of them, it's closer to .03%, which is 3000 times what you stated. Please get your facts right before speaking out your ass.

reality
@24.243.21.x

reality

Anon

Re: Great news..

45000? Most people make more then that per year
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: Great news..

75K-100K estimated registered so far in KC, before going to the burbs. And Google opened up registration again in initial deployed areas.

Near bottom of page...
»kcrag.com/viewtopic.php? ··· art=1660

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA

aaronwt to reality

Premium Member

to reality
said by reality :

45000? Most people make more then that per year

Actually just the opposite. Most people(as in individuals), make less than that in the US. Over 50% make less than $45K.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
·PenTeleData
ARRIS SB8200

cypherstream to Dexter0

MVM

to Dexter0
It's IP based, and anyone with an Internet connection can access Google and Youtube. So why not open this up to anyone with a high speed internet connection? Sure if your ISP has caps you may have to curb your viewing habits... but its a way to branch out to the entire US population that has lets say more than 6mbps.

Google could charge less for it too since they are not providing the last mile.
raytaylor
join:2009-07-28

raytaylor

Member

Re: Great news..

Google place their CDN nodes very close to the end points within their own network. So its super cheap for them to deliver the data to the end user if they own the network. Once that data has to traverse other isp networks, it gets expensive for google.
So in each city at their central offices they have a number of caching servers where on-demand content can be served from - the settop box can just load the programme file from the nearest CDN caching node.

For streaming tv, they can also make use of multicast where one stream is sent down a backhaul fibre, and then the ethernet switches / gpon units will split that single stream and duplicate it down each fibre or sub-connection that is watching that channel.
They cannot guarantee equipment within other isp networks have multicast bandwidth saving capability.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72

Member

Re: Great news..

Well good and bad. Transit costs have never been lower and continue to plummet. It can be done affordably, but government limits the competition. We are seeing however that Netflix is having to sign intercon deals directly w/ operators just to get reasonable performance, so until the US regulates bulk access this will continue.

To me, equipment costs and technology are in the dark ages. If they opened up the STB to competition, they would look like cutting edge Androids in two years, with energy savings to boot.

Streaming is a relatively easy proposition because the time and spatial parameters are fix, along with the bandwidth needs. Yes they burst, but that is because defined netflows don't really exist across networks, but that is coming w/ ACI and NSX. Stay tuned..

gower2352
join:2012-11-26
Laurel, MD

gower2352

Member

Clock

Where's the clock?

lhvetinari
yaW gnorW
join:2008-09-26
Kenosha/Chgo

lhvetinari

Member

Re: Clock

To save money, they just slapped a small sticker that says 12:00 on the front.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Re: Clock

said by gower2352:

Where's the clock?

said by lhvetinari:

To save money, they just slapped a small sticker that says 12:00 on the front.

AM or PM?

And can they make it flash like on the old VCRs? (Maybe use a hologram to do that.)