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Comcast will treat Rokus like CableCARDs, not set-top boxes
- wccrawford 10y agoIf I'm reading this correctly, Comcast will charge someone if that have 2 boxes that can watch TV from their account, no matter what kind of boxes they are. Roku just happens to now have an app that can act as a cable box. Seems pretty normal to me.
- tw04 10y agoExcept the whole idea was that they weren't supposed to be charging people bringing their own box. BYOD was one of many things the cable companies agreed to over the years, that was the whole point. You shouldn't be forced to rent a box from the company just to receive service. That was one of many reasons AT&T got smacked down so hard.
- skywhopper 10y agoBut now it's pretty unlikely Trump's FCC will call them out on it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- chimeracoder 10y ago> But now it's pretty unlikely Trump's FCC will call them out on it. Maybe at the federal level, but nothing is stopping the states from intervening. When Comcast and Time Warner Cable were planning on merging, New York State hinted that they would consider blocking the merger (within New York) if it went through. Ultimately the deal fell apart before the FCC had a chance to announce their decision, let alone NYS, but it's definitely possible for that to happen here.
- gm-conspiracy 10y agoThis is not a Trump issue. This is a symptom of lobbying at the federal level, regardless of party. Obama and Wheeler had proposed a universal cablebox rule, but later decided having a device with an "app" was instead acceptable. The FCC had tried to mandate a universal receiver box in the 1970s.
- mmanfrin 10y agoObama and Wheeler were trying to enact positive change given the political capital they had; Trumps new appointee is explicitly against that progress. It is a Trump issue.
- Arizhel 10y agoI think it's safe to assume that a greater percentage of Trump voters are cable TV subscribers than non-Trump voters. So I don't see the problem; the Trump supporters are getting what they voted for.
- gm-conspiracy 10y agoAre you speaking of voters or the electoral college?
- Arizhel 10y agoVoters. Trump was elected (indirectly) by the voters. Nearly half the electorate voted for him. The EC only meant that he didn't need a popular majority nationwide, just majorities in particular states where the EC gives voters more power due to lower populations. As much as many people would have liked it, the EC did not go against the wishes of the voters in their states.
- gm-conspiracy 10y agoIf they were really trying to enact change, they would not have capitulated on the universal cable box. Are you telling me an app on a Roku is the equivalent? If we can buy our own DOCSIS modems, why can't we buy our own cablebox? http://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-cable-box-vote-2016-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-cable-box-vote-2016-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-cable-box-new-proposal-apps-2016-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-cable-box-new-proposal-ap...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- slg 10y agoI think they would argue they are in compliance and actually give you credit for bringing your own box. They are instead charging for an extra endpoint that you can use to watch TV. That would traditionally be an extra $9.99 for an extra box, but will be $7.49 if you are using a Roku.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Arizhel 10y agoIf you don't like the way the company treats you as a (potential) customer, then don't subscribe to their service. This isn't like AT&T. For one thing, cable television is a luxury service, not a necessity for modern life like telecommunications (telephones back in AT&T/Ma Bell's days, cellular + internet these days). Secondly, the regulatory environment back then was rather different. These days, the government doesn't really believe in strong regulation, and we've elected a new administration and Congress who greatly oppose regulation, even more than the previous ones. So again, if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it. And if you're mad that the government isn't reining in a monopoly, you can blame your fellow voters for that.
- mtgx 10y agoIt only "makes sense" from the perspective that users are not allowed to have zero set top boxes from the provider themselves. And that's because the cable companies fought FCC's proposal to allow any set top box to act as the main set top box. My point is, the same people who now use Roku likely don't want the Comcast box. They want to use Roku as the one and only box, but Comcast charges them "for having two", even though they leave these customers no choice but to use two since the first one is mandatory.
- jobu 10y ago> Seems pretty normal to me. It may be normal for a cable company to nickle and dime their subscribers, but it's still frustrating. The "Comcast TV" app for iOS and Android is basically the same thing as the Roku app and doesn't cost extra.
- johnward 10y agoThe comcast app blocks streaming to devices like chromecast. This makes me almost mad enough to just cut the cord.
- mikey_p 10y agoThe worst offender I've found so far is that Comcast blocks HBO GO on Tivo. I can use HBO GO on one of the smart TVs, and if you have another cable provider you can use HBO GO on the Tivo, but for some reason, Comcast won't authorize HBO GO on Tivo. I'm pretty sure this is because Tivo actually supports Comcast on-demand which includes the full catalog of HBO GO, but it's frustrating because the on-demand app is very basic, and uses one of the tuners on the main system. Because it has to re-encode one of the live tuners, it tends to be a little bit more buggy on the Tivo mini boxes that we have spread around the house. Overall, if it wasn't for Comcast on-demand being supported on Tivo, we'd just switch to FiOS and keep the Tivo system, which works marvelously. As it is on-demand is just too convenient for catching up on recent episodes of a show if you forget to Tivo it.
- gm-conspiracy 10y agoI really don't understand how people are okay with tolerating this. I would overdose on blood pressure meds.
- trav4225 10y agoOr, just don't consume their product. ;-)
- vvanders 10y ago
- fred256 10y agoWhy does it matter to Comcast whether I watch on one, two, or fifteen TVs in my house? It doesn't cost them any more money (aside from the initial in-house cabling and splitters)
- chimeracoder 10y ago> Why does it matter to Comcast whether I watch on one, two, or fifteen TVs in my house? It doesn't cost them any more money (aside from the initial in-house cabling and splitters) Because it's something that you value, and they have the ability to charge for it. So they do. It has nothing to do with their own cost function. In an uncompetitive market (which largely describes the residential cable market, at least to a first-order approximation), there is no pressure for the price to converge to the average cost[0] of delivering the service. [0] economic cost - ie, including opportunity costs
- jandrese 10y agoTL;DR: Because they can.
- Anardo 10y agoWho the fuck still watches TV?
- burntwater 10y agoDo you watch Netflix? Then you watch TV.
- praneshp 10y agoAbout a 100M households. I found [0], for example. [0] http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/nielsen-pay-tv-households-dip-below-100m/154922 http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/nielsen-pay-t...
- arthulia 10y ago> ... there were 99.44 million cable plus households, which includes wired cable, telco and satellite subscribers, ... I have a cable subscription that I never use. It's not HD so it doesn't even compete with my digital antenna. Why do I have a cable subscription that I don't use? Comcast continuously provides promotional packages with cable that are cheaper than regular internet-only packages. I think practices like this artificially inflate that number, quite a bit.
- praneshp 10y agoOn the flip side, I have a Netflix subscription I use for less than a movie a month, and about a 20 hour burst when House of Cards is back. I tried looking for better data than I quoted but there's not much :(
- prasadjoglekar 10y agoAnd, a lot of the content that is watched "not on TV" is still produced by the same people that produce "TV". So, it's TV.
- flyinghamster 10y agoFunny thing is, with MythTV and an HDHomerun attached to a broadcast antenna, I'm scooping up more TV than I can keep up with. Why pay for cable? Of course, watching it this way does require some advance planning, periodically checking program listings for interesting things and setting recording schedules, but it's nice to be able to arrange TV to fit my schedule instead of arranging my schedule to fit TV. Granted, I do miss out on some things (in particular, many Blackhawks games are on CSN) but that's their loss - for me, they've priced themselves out of the market.
- vinhboy 10y ago> the fees assessed will be the same as if you chose to bring your own CableCARD-compatible device to the service, like a TiVo. I've looked into this before, and TiVo is the ONLY device that accepts CableCard and output to HDMI. There is no competition. Everything else is a tuner, that outputs to your network, which is not same because it requires a PC to receive the signal. I have a used, non-subscription, TiVo box that allows me to watch Comcast TV through a CableCard. The benefit is that I can watch local channels in HD through the TiVo. If I used a Comcast box, I'd have to pay extra for HD programming and an HD box. I guess this Roku app would now be an alternative to that hack.
- starnixgod 10y agoThere is the HDHomeRun Prime[1] that will accept a CableCARD and output to any connected device on your network. 1. https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-prime/ https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-prime/
- technofiend 10y ago>I've looked into this before, and TiVo is the ONLY device that accepts CableCard Silicondust would like a word, sir: https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-prime/ https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-prime/ >Everything else is a PC-required tuner, which is not same. "HDHomeRun streams to DLNA compatible devices on your network" - HD Homerun Prime website
- bdavisx 10y agoBut if you want to watch something that's DRM'd (like HBO), the HDHomeRun will only work with a few devices when it comes to watching the video.
- gm-conspiracy 10y agoOh, so you are not allowed to receive the channel you are paying for?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- e40 10y agoI won't trust it. Why? I want to watch NBA games and I do so via the NBC Sports Roku app. It is the worst streaming experience I have ever had. Some of the problems: * randomly degrades to unwatchable resolutions at least once during a game (and immediately switching to Netflix or Amazon or doing traceroutes on my network show the problem isn't mine). * it randomly goes back in time, sometimes 5-10 minutes and you can't FF. * it both allows live viewing of games and replays. For replays, FF does not work. It pretends to work, but when you find your spot it randomly skips forward and backward. * when you start it, it automatically plays a commercial (for me, for Honda). Even if you stop streaming and go right back in (to fix problems caused by the above), it plays the commercial. * the commercials clip the game play. Often when live action is rejoined, a minute or two have been missed of the game. Comcast is terrible. I hate them. They have a monopoly on the NBA team I love. I hate them.
- helipad 10y agoSadly this isn't limited to Comcast. Similar behavior for NBC Sports (and other channels) on AT&T.
- e40 10y agoNot surprised, but I want to point out that Comcast owns NBC.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- compsciphd 10y agoI love the NBC sports apps (though mostly use with my chromecast which causes them to be delayed somewhat). It's how I am able to keep up with the wizards/capitals while living in the bay area (where media monopoly actually helps me). I wish fox sports go worked the same way (but it only lets you watch what you can see based on geographic area, not based on what your cable subscription would give you access to) the commercial thing hasn't bit me with the CSN-MA broadcasts though I see the commercials (thy might be better at syncing the commercials correctly), but I have seen it on things like MLB-TV as well. It's a function of how these streaming services sell ad)
- soylentcola 10y agoSo, basically you have to pay an extra fee to use a streaming app. No thanks. The STB rental fees must be a huge part of their income because they are so dead set on keeping them even when you aren't renting anything from them. Even the crappily-implemented CableCARD made some bit of sense to treat as a rental because you were essentially renting an auth dongle from them but a software application? You've got to be kidding me. The main reason I stream torrents on my second TV (even though like 98% of the content is stuff that I could watch on the cable package I pay for) is because I don't want to rent yet another box just to watch something in another room. This is yet another example of how the box isn't just to address a technical need but rather a cash cow that you can't get around paying for.
- ExpendableGuy 10y agoSo Comcast is proposing charging customers $9.95, minus a $2.50 credit, for using a Roku instead of a second set-top box? What is incentive to the consumer for using a Roku instead of a second set-top box then?