I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

David Moran wrote:
"Zalek Bloom" wrote in message
...
I wanted to add new cable box for my cable TV - Time Warner wants
$10/month for a box. I bought a cable box on the street the same one
I have - for $30. After connecting to a cable it says "call
operator" - so I called.
They told me that they will not support this box - I have to buy a
box from them for a price of $10/month. The building I am living
does not allow satellite dishes - so I am stuck. Here is the fax I
am sending to my representative - if you are stuck with cable as me,
please to the same:

To representative?

I am a Time Warner Cable subscriber. I want to add cable service for
a new television that I just purchased. Time Warner Cable wants me
to pay $10 per month for another box. I just bought the same box
that Time Warner uses for $30. Time Warner refuses to recognize
this box even though it is in perfect condition.
I live in New York City and there is no competition for Time
Warner. I live in a building where management does not allow us to
have a Satelite Dish. Please pass a law that allows consumers to
purchase equipment from someone other than a company that has a
monopoly on a service. I plan to start a campaign on the internet
about this problem and I will publish your response - or lack of - on
the internet.

An Angry Citizen

I sent it to:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
New York City
780 Third Ave, Suite 2601
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 688-6262
Fax: (212) 688-7444

Senator Charles E. "Chuck" Schumer
New York City
757 Third Avenue, Suite 17-02
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212-486-4430
Fax: 212-486-7693

Representative Gary L. Ackerman (D - 05)
Phone: 202-225-2601 fax: 202-225-1589
http://www.house.gov/ackerman/pages/contact.html
District Office:
218-14 Northern Boulevard
Bayside, NY 11361-3580
Voice: 718-423-2154 FAX: 718-423-5053


Representative Anthony Weiner (D - 09)
Phone: 202-225-6616 fax: 202-226-7253
Email:









I'd think a cable company can choose whether or not to authorize a
box. If they don't allow outside boxes, then you're forced to pay
them for one. Plain and simple.

Dave

I got Comcast in CA to authorize the cable box in my old Motorola
commercially available DCP501 home theater box. It took about three weeks,
but I finally found someone at the local facility that would enter the box
number into their received database as so they could address and authorize
it.

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

MegaZone wrote:
"Jukka Aho" shaped the electrons to say:
2) You carry the device home and plug it to the cable outlet - and
bingo, you'll already see the "must carry" channels.

3) If you want to see more channels, you'll contact your cable operator,
get a smartcard, and stick it into the card reader slot on the front
panel of your set-top box - and hey presto, you'll see whatever channels
or channel packages you have ordered and paid for.

That's how it works here in the US too in most areas. Analog cable is
a standard, any device with a 'Cable Ready' tuner can connect and tune
analog channels. Most TVs, VCRs, DVRs, etc, sold for the past couple
of decades are Cable Ready.

For digital cable until a couple of years ago you were stuck with the
cable company's STB. But now we have CableCARD. There are CableCARD
TVs, CableCARD DVRs (like the TiVo Series3), and generic CableCARD
STBs. These are labeled as Digital Cable Ready.

Digital cable is QAM modulated in the US. Some digital cable channels
can be sent as 'clear QAM', no encryption. Any QAM tuner can tune
those - any DCR device has a QAM tuner, and there are other devices
with QAM (but no CableCARD), including PCI tuner cards.

You only need CableCARD for encrypted digital channels. A CableCARD
is a decryption token, pretty much the same form factor as a PCMCIA
drive.

I have a TiVo Series3 dual-tuner DVR using CableCARD for digital
cable.

-MZ

MegaZone,

Does it means you don't need a cable box if you TiVo Series3 dual-tuner
DVR?

Thanks,

Zalek
--
URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
URL:http://www.megazone.org/ URL:http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Eris

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

"zalek" wrote in message
oups.com...

Does it means you don't need a cable box if you TiVo Series3 dual-tuner
DVR?

You still need to rent a CableCARD (or 2) from the cable company.

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

"Zalek Bloom" wrote in message

The building I am living does not
allow satellite dishes - so I am stuck

Federal law prohibits building owners or homeowner associations from
preventing you from mounting a sat dish where no structural damage will
occur.

Check the FCC website for help. All you have to do is send them the name of
the offending party, their lawyers do the rest.

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

Federal law prohibits building owners or homeowner associations from
preventing you from mounting a sat dish where no structural damage will
occur.

Not strictly true... or, at least, that's not the whole story.

You have the right to install a cable dish in an area which is
exclusively for your own use... indoors (looking out a window), or on
a balcony or porch or in an exterior private yard.

You do not necessarily have the right to install the dish in a
location which projects into any "shared use" area. Such shared-use
areas usually include the roof, the exterior walls, and any area
outside the physical boundaries of the building which are not reserved
for one specific tenant (e.g. common walkways).

A landlord may require a tenant to take reasonable precautions to
ensure that the system is safely installed - i.e. it has to be
up-to-code electrically and be securely mounted.

Check the FCC website for help. All you have to do is send them the name of
the offending party, their lawyers do the rest.

Good advice! http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/consumerdish.html is
probably the place to start reading.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

"zalek" shaped the electrons to say:
Does it means you don't need a cable box if you TiVo Series3 dual-tuner
DVR?

Exactly.

-MZ
--
URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
URL:http://www.megazone.org/ URL:http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Eris

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

"Seth" shaped the electrons to say:
You still need to rent a CableCARD (or 2) from the cable company.

Only if you want encrypted channels - it works as is for analog cable
and clear QAM channels. Of course, more people want access to
encrypted channels and will rent a couple of CableCARDs.

But CableCARDs are cheaper to rent than a box.

-MZ
--
URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
URL:http://www.megazone.org/ URL:http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Eris

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

"MegaZone" wrote in message
...
"Seth" shaped the electrons to say:
You still need to rent a CableCARD (or 2) from the cable company.

Only if you want encrypted channels - it works as is for analog cable
and clear QAM channels. Of course, more people want access to
encrypted channels and will rent a couple of CableCARDs.

But CableCARDs are cheaper to rent than a box.

Yes, but considering his misconception that a box from eBay would get him
the channels he wanted, I wanted to make sure the same mistake wasn't made
2x. That buying some device won't get him around the need to rent something
should he want encrypted channels.

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

zalek wrote:

GG


I am not a lawyer, but it says:
"The rule does not apply to common areas that are owned by a landlord,
a community association, or jointly by condominium or cooperative
owners where the antenna user does not have an exclusive use area. Such
common areas may include the roof or exterior wall of a multiple
dwelling unit. Therefore, restrictions on antennas installed in or on
such common areas are enforceable".
And I don't have balcony :-----------------(((

Zalek


Do you have a window that faces in the right direction?

I got kidnapped by Time Warner :-----(((
 

MegaZone wrote:

[In Finland: Buy any cable box from any consumer electronics
retailer,
watch "must carry" channels (and possible other freebies), get a
smartcard from the cable operator for accessing the rest.]

That's how it works here in the US too in most areas. Analog cable is
a standard, any device with a 'Cable Ready' tuner can connect and tune
analog channels. Most TVs, VCRs, DVRs, etc, sold for the past couple
of decades are Cable Ready.

Sounds similar to the analog cable system here. Back in the 80s some of
the older tv sets couldn't tune all analog cable channels. (This was
because some of the channels used on cable fell in-between the frequency
bands used in terrestrial broadcasts, and the tuners in the older sets
were only designed to handle terrestrial broadcasts.) However, the
capability of tuning the cable channels soon became a standard in the
newer sets. Meanwhile, some people used the built-in tuner of a VCR or
an external STB as a workaround.

For digital cable until a couple of years ago you were stuck with the
cable company's STB. But now we have CableCARD. There are CableCARD
TVs, CableCARD DVRs (like the TiVo Series3), and generic CableCARD
STBs. These are labeled as Digital Cable Ready.

Europe (Finland, too) has standardized on DVB-C as the digital cable
platform. Finland, in particular, has additionally standardized on an
encryption method called "Conax". All locally sold DVB-C set-top boxes
appear to have Conax cardreader slots now.

I'm not sure what direction digital cable is taking in European-wide
perspective. It's clear that the same DVB-C technology is being applied
for digital cable all over Europe, but the encryption standard may vary
from one country to the other. It is also likely that some countries may
still have cable operators with competing encryption standards and
closed systems - even several such systems within one country.
Fortunately, that's not the case in Finland: here all operators have
already agreed on a single encryption standard and an open market for
the cable STBs (or the built-in tuners in the sets) - apparently much
the same way as the CableCARD / Digital Cable Ready system works in the
US.

(I'd expect there to be some EU-wide harmonization attempt for opening
up the cable STB market in countries where it is still closed but I have
no direct knowledge of any efforts like that.)

Digital cable is QAM modulated in the US. Some digital cable channels
can be sent as 'clear QAM', no encryption. Any QAM tuner can tune
those - any DCR device has a QAM tuner, and there are other devices
with QAM (but no CableCARD), including PCI tuner cards.

DVB-C is also based on QAM modulation. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-C

Actually, Wikipedia seems to claim that the QAM modulation, as used in
the US digital cable system, would actually have been borrowed from the
DVB-C standard. I'm not sure if I'm interpreting the text right, though,
or if there's any truth to that claim. See the beginning of the
"Technical Information" section:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cable

You only need CableCARD for encrypted digital channels. A CableCARD
is a decryption token, pretty much the same form factor as a PCMCIA
drive.

The DVB platform has this concept of "CI" (or Common Interface) slots.
The CI slots are identical to PCMCIA slots in their form factor and
physical appearance but they're not electrically or logically
compatible.

If you have a CI slot on your STB or TV set - not all of them have
these - you can plug in a CAM.

CAMs (or Conditional Access Modules!) are things that look just like
PCMCIA cards. See he

http://www.in-shop.sk/images/CAMConax.jpg
http://www.overclockers.se/images?id=64651311&type=web

Their purpose in life is to decrypt encrypted digital broadcasts
(legally.) There's a different type of CAM for each different type of
encryption. (You could buy a Conax CAM, a Nagravision CAM, a ViaAccess
CAM, etc., depending on what encryption method the local broadcasters
use.)

CAMs, in turn, have a tiny slot on them. This is essentially a built-in
smart card reader, for inserting a smart card which allows access to the
channels you have paid for.

Here are a couple of pictures of a Conax CAM with a smart card beside
it:

http://www.pentacard.co.uk/catalog/images/m2conax.jpg
http://www.centurysat.com/images/CAM-CONAX.jpg

This kind of modular approach allows choosing the encryption standards
your STB will support, and upgrading your system to the latest level of
encryption the broadcaster might require. Satellite viewers - those with
DVB-S set-top boxes - benefit from this system the most, as satellite
broadcasters are a pretty diverse bunch, and have not been able to
decide about a common encryption standard. Being able to upgrade the
supported encryption system is surely better than having to buy a
completely new box when things change!

But the same modular system can also be used with DVB-C and DVB-T
set-top boxes. You can plug CAMs into them, too, if they have CI slots.
At least in theory. A more typical approach, however, appears to be that
most DVB-C and DVB-T set-top boxes come with a built-in support for the
encryption method that is favored by the local broadcasters, so you
don't need to buy a separate CAM.

(This is certainly the case with most DVB-C STBs sold in Finland: the
manufacturer has customized them for the local market and included a
built-in support for Conax, plus a mere smartcard reader. Some models
might include a CI, too, but it's usually empty - an option for possible
future needs.)

* * *

It should be noted that the underlying DVB platform - the logical MPEG-2
transport stream, and the data structures and the video and audio
streams within - remains basically the same regardless of whether your
STB or tv has a DVB-C (cable), DVB-T (terrestrial), or a DVB-S
(satellite) tuner. Although it's not too common, there are even some tv
sets and STBs - such as Dreambox DM7025 - that have their tuner modules
on removable cards, making it possible to replace them with a different
tuner. (In other words, you could turn your DVB-S sat box into a DVB-C
cable STB, or a DVB-T terrestrial receiver, etc.):

http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/english/products_dm7025.php

http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/english/products_dm70
25_technical.php

--
znark