Comcast To Suck Less
Last week the FCC reiterated that Comcast needs to "unlock" it's DVRs and set-top boxes. And, to make life even better, "The foot-dragging, tech-testing wing of the cable industry, Cable Labs, has finally standardized a two-way interactive CableCARD." A CableCARD is a device that will allow a CableCARD ready TV to operate digital cable without a set-top box.
Between the FCC ruling and the standardization, this opens the door for "a broad assortment of feature-rich, CableCard-ready video products they can buy at retail stores or online. They'll no longer be stuck with the cable provider's limited selection of rental equipment."
Problems with rental DVRs and set-top boxes are some of the most common complaints we get here at Consumerist. Here's hoping this helps. —MEGHANN MARCO
The stuff we saw at CES that you'll really want [Philly Daily News via Philly Will Do]
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"Up to 8Mbps speed!"
Japan has over 1Gbps and Sweden has over 100Mbps, and that's upload rates.
I'm still doubting it's any good. Give it a week and we'll see a b unch of stories on how Comcast (still) sucks.
Suck less? I hope so. I have no cable outages for 5 years with Adelphia. Comcast takes over, we have had 2 in the past 2 months, both of which lasted more than 6 hours. Coincidence? I doubt it. Related to this post? Probably not. Am I an angry consumer that just wants to rant? YES!
"Comcast To Suck Less" could be interpreted as a voluntary commitment to reduce suckiness. It should read "Comcast Ordered To Such Less."
Consumerist really dropped the ball on this one...
I look forward to CableCard devices for PCs so that I can finally build my own DVR that'll be like my Time Warner box only without the suck.
Yeah, but you'll still have to rent CableCARDs, which keeps the cable companies in their fiefdoms of forcing you to rent equipment to access their network. This is all a paper tiger that makes people think they have choice that they really don't.
That is why I love my Tivo.
this "unlock"ing sounds like nothing of the sort. This article in no way explains how allowing outside hardware access to cablecards for using their On Demand or guide is in any way unlocking anything. All the FCC did was enforce "laws" they already require Comcast to abide by (which is the use of cablecards or similar to access their system.
It's still a closed system and you still are not properly given fair use rights to the content your paying for.
So basically Comcast will still suck. You still won't be able to Tivo On-Demand content (oh joy you can watch it once! what then is the point of the Tivo?) and you will have access to the incredibly bad content information system they provide (when zap2it's information is free and more complete, and Tivo's is even better than that!).
Awesome! This means that I can finally get that Series 3 TiVo that I want (which supports CableCard 2.0) and will still be able to use all of the two-way services that my current Comcast digital cable box enables. Sweet. I know what is going on my birthday list this year.