FCC Delays Vote on Proposal to Make Subscription TV Available on Any Set-Top Box via Apps

[tech3475]

I'm not one, and most likely will never be one, but how does this help cord cutters? I see no real advantage to this scenario. Still have a subscription. Just apps instead of channels. How is that better? @Cuban Missles you're a cord cutter. Does this make you any happier?

One potential use is that it can be more flexible, for example, I have to have my sky boxes in a specific place due to the coax cable but a set top box would allow me to move it around.

Or may just be a better box, cheaper, open up the market more, etc.

 

[AppleMark]

Let the bidding....ahem.. I mean lobbying begin [resume]!!!!

Really, if it was ever going to happen, it will be now with Apple pushing against the status quo. Also, this would only really suit Apple, as they cannot get the ATV to be more than an occasional AV accessory right now.

I can see it from the other point of view though, in the same way I see it from software Dev's and Music Artists respectively, when it comes to Apple. These companies have invested in creating / buying content, creating hardware and software to attract you to their Eco system in the way Apple always do. Would Apple allow iOS on the latest and greatest Samsung..? Or Mac OS on a Lenovo...?

Double standards IMO.

 

[CaneCollegeboy]

Step 1: Call your cable company and order a cable card. Mine costs me $2.95/month.
Step 2: Insert cable card into SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 3: Call cable company and have them pair with your cable card once it's online in the HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 4: When the cable company pairing is complete, do a channel scan in the HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 5: Set up a Plex server. I run it on my mac mini.
Step 6: Install HDHRViewer plugin in Plex server, point it at the IP address of the HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 7: Install Plex app on Apple TV.
Step 8: Tune to the plug-in's Plex channel, pick a cable channel you want to watch, and watch live tv on Apple TV.

Doesn't only work in your house. I can watch my cable tv from the Plex app on my iPhone from anywhere. I've even watched it on a plane.

This sound great. Is there a web page to find out more. Basically each card can represent another room the cable would be in? Can more than two different channels be watched at the same time? i am interested in finding out more if its not to much trouble

 

[Dmunjal]

Most people are still going to want a stb, as streaming through an ATV or Roku may not be that good, if you have slow internet speed. Even with a fast speed, the quality will not be as good.

Netflix and YouTube stream 4K today. Not that good? Cable and Sat can't to that.

 

[Dmunjal]

Sports is the key feature really. If you're a sports fan, then cord cutting is likely a bad idea. If you're not, then it's a good idea. It's not quite as simple as that, but it does describe a fair amount of what's happening.

Sony Playstation VUE has all the sports channels. All the ESPN, CSN Sports, NFL Network and even Redzone. Today.

 

[Dmunjal]

Comcast is probably gonna rip people apart by increasing internet price....

Comcast just lowered prices in my area. 250 Mbps for $89. I just used Internet. Cut the cord long time ago.

 

[dennysanders]

Just wait until everyone is streaming their cable channels in your neighborhood. Hopefully your isp has the infrastructure to handle the increased load, or your speeds will slow to a snail's pace.

even if it slowed to a third of the speed, i'd still be sitting at 100mbps...i was doing fine with 40mbps for a while until i switched and upgraded

 

[nspindel]

This sound great. Is there a web page to find out more. Basically each card can represent another room the cable would be in? Can more than two different channels be watched at the same time? i am interested in finding out more if its not to much trouble

Each card authorize a single HDHomeRun Prime to decode encrypted cable. Each HDHomeRun is capable of tuning 3 channels and once, so can feed three Plex clients simultaneously. So you can watch three different channels in three different rooms on three different Apple TV's. So a single $2.95/month card replaces three cable boxes.

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

Do you not have high-speed cellular internet? That should force Comcast to be more competitive, and if not, ditch them and use cellular exclusively instead. Not paying Comcast anymore will free you up to have a bigger cellular data plan.

... Really?! That's the answer you came up with? The carriers are still raping us. Until we can get costs per GB down it's just not feasible.

(I like many of your other posts though. I see you quite a bit here in the forums.)

 

[malexandria]

I'm all for Gubment regulations especially when it comes to News/Media control, but this is overreach. The FCC is overreaching here.

 

[toddzrx]

'Newspeak' Translation: "...the proposal is delayed while lobbyists work overtime to ensure 'political representatives' are afforded ample time and luxury to make a decision to kill this measure..."

I applaud the FCC for attempting to make progress where capitalism has created a stronghold in order to milk every penny out of millions on antiquated systems, especially after quietly "approving" the Charter and Time Warner Cable merger not soon after the very public rejection of the Comcast and Time Warner merger. Interesting times ahead Stateside as 75%+ of communications services are provided by one company with a history of scrambling working coaxial connections for $1.99/mo boxes while working against "Net Neutrality" and much more. Good times, good times.

You might want to re-educate yourself on what capitalism is.

 

[wxman2003]

even if it slowed to a third of the speed, i'd still be sitting at 100mbps...i was doing fine with 40mbps for a while until i switched and upgraded

I can see the racket cable will play if the FCC makes the ruling against them. They will tell people they will need to upgrade to a faster speed in order to receive those channels with HD quality. It's a game. And we don't make the rules.

 

[jasnw]

Step 1: Call your cable company and order a cable card. Mine costs me $2.95/month.
Step 2: Insert cable card into SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 3: Call cable company and have them pair with your cable card once it's online in the HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 4: When the cable company pairing is complete, do a channel scan in the HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 5: Set up a Plex server. I run it on my mac mini.
Step 6: Install HDHRViewer plugin in Plex server, point it at the IP address of the HDHomeRun Prime.
Step 7: Install Plex app on Apple TV.
Step 8: Tune to the plug-in's Plex channel, pick a cable channel you want to watch, and watch live tv on Apple TV.

So in this setup the cable signal is converted by the card to digital, which is then handled as a streaming digital video signal in the HDHomeRun box. This is then passed through Plex over the Ethernet to the ATV which sends the stream to the TV over HDMI. If you have a Comcast DVR, the signal is converted to digital in the DVR box and sent directly to the TV over HDMI. I'm just barely beyond "noob" in the digital video world, but it seems like there's going to be some additional format conversions in the cable card approach. Is this correct, and how does the picture quality (static and dynamic) compare between the two approaches?

 

[MacAddict1978]

Cable TV and "packages of channels" is a dinosaur that needs to die.
[doublepost=1475171729][/doublepost]

Because you can subscribe to *only* those apps that you want/need, not a bundle of "channels" that may never watch. The industry is corrupt is that sense... you need to subscribe to a bundle to get that one channel that you want. Serving the industry, not the customer.

That isn't what this is about, and seems most people on the thread are misunderstanding.

This has NOTHING to do with cord cutting or "ala carte" apps.

Instead of paying to rent a crappy cable box, the cable company would provide an app for various platforms that allows you to access all the content you pay for, sort of like what ATT UVerse already does with it's Xbox app, letting an Xbox act as an extra cable box.

The missing detail is none of this states an app to "stream" the content, but to "emulate the cable box." So if you have X1 on Comcast, you'd launch the X1 app on a device and it would work like your current cable box.
This is backwards, as by the time anyone gets this together, we probably will already have ala carte apps and have moved beyond this need.

 

[CaneCollegeboy]

Each card authorize a single HDHomeRun Prime to decode encrypted cable. Each HDHomeRun is capable of tuning 3 channels and once, so can feed three Plex clients simultaneously. So you can watch three different channels in three different rooms on three different Apple TV's. So a single $2.95/month card replaces three cable boxes.

Thank you for the link. I was a cord cutter but with the comcast internet prices going up it makes more sense to do the triple play for me and this option you are showing me will let me set up multiple rooms.

 

[deyerseve69]

Most people are still going to want a stb, as streaming through an ATV or Roku may not be that good, if you have slow internet speed. Even with a fast speed, the quality will not be as good.

If we can watch our subscription services through an app lets not forget about the data caps our providers are putting on our home internet connections.
[doublepost=1475287717][/doublepost]

This is just a horrible precedent. I want content providers to be doing this, but I do not want the government FORCING them to develop Apps for specific platforms. That is just insane.

You can't have it both ways. Providers will NEVER do this on their own because they make millions on the leasing of stb.

 

[CartoonCat]

The vote that counts is the one made with our wallets. Drop cable, get an antenna, and pay Netflix, etc. for streaming.[/QUOTE

Already done here.

 

[32828870]

You might want to re-educate yourself on [the definition of] capitalism.

I'm very clear on definitions/economic systems. Perhaps I could assist you?

PS You might want to re-educate yourself on proper grammar and not end sentences with "is".

 

[kgtenacious]

The cable company execs that are now serving in the FCC know that it is only a matter of time - they are a dying industry and the up and coming demographic groups are simply not going to pay for the crap they dole out anymore.

 

[nspindel]

So in this setup the cable signal is converted by the card to digital, which is then handled as a streaming digital video signal in the HDHomeRun box. This is then passed through Plex over the Ethernet to the ATV which sends the stream to the TV over HDMI. If you have a Comcast DVR, the signal is converted to digital in the DVR box and sent directly to the TV over HDMI. I'm just barely beyond "noob" in the digital video world, but it seems like there's going to be some additional format conversions in the cable card approach. Is this correct, and how does the picture quality (static and dynamic) compare between the two approaches?

No format change in the HDHomeRun Prime. Picture quality is spot on perfect. You can, of course, compress bit rates in Plex if bandwidth requires.
[doublepost=1475336673][/doublepost]

Thank you for the link. I was a cord cutter but with the comcast internet prices going up it makes more sense to do the triple play for me and this option you are showing me will let me set up multiple rooms.

Agreed. For me to just get internet from my provider (Bright House) would be about $83/month. I should be able to get my cable bill down to about $140 for triple play if I can get DVR working to the point where my wife gives it a thumbs up. The incremental cost for the TV service doesn't seem outrageous to me. I'm not focusing on cutting cords. Just cable boxes.

 

[Veihl]

Most people are still going to want a stb, as streaming through an ATV or Roku may not be that good, if you have slow internet speed. Even with a fast speed, the quality will not be as good.

As someone that recently got Gigabit Internet with Sling TV, I can confirm this is the wildest statement I've seen all day lol

 

[djdrah]

It's almost like the TV is coming full circle again, with a few caveats. Back in the day, if you didn't have cable, you limped along on rabbit ears. In the late nineties to two thousands, everyone and the homeless had cable or dish hanging off their house/cardboard box. Cable/dish providers kept jacking prices up (legitimately/illegitimately, you decide), not to mention high speed internet prices. Now we're back to rabbit ears, except they're shaped like paper-flat squares and the results are in HD. You can only squeeze so much money out of your subscribers before something gives.
The future is a la carte tv, deal with it Comcast et all.

 

[wxman2003]

As someone that recently got Gigabit Internet with Sling TV, I can confirm this is the wildest statement I've seen all day lol

I have 120 Mbps DL speeds, and Sling TV looked like garbage. Dumped after the 7 day trial.

 

[Dmunjal]

I have 120 Mbps DL speeds, and Sling TV looked like garbage. Dumped after the 7 day trial.

Try Playstation VUE. Great quality.

 

[Veihl]

I have 120 Mbps DL speeds, and Sling TV looked like garbage. Dumped after the 7-day trial.

A few things about Sling TV. It does matter which device you use it on. I've had mores success with it on the Apple TV (4th Gen) as opposed to the Xbox One version.

I've had both Playstation Vue and Sling. If I had to choose one, I'd pick PlayStation Vue. It's simply a better value as opposed to Sling TV. The only benefit with Sling TV is that it's on more devices. (Which isn't currently a benefit since the app runs poorly on most devices) The only reason I'm using Sling for right now is because Playstation hasn't confirmed to be making an app for the Apple TV. (I could theoretically Chromecast PS Vue once I upgrade my TV) (And yes I know I could just buy the Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra)

TL;DR - Go with PlayStation Vue, if you can. I've had wonderful results with both but it may just solely depend on the device you're using and where you are geographically.