Comcast Encrypting More QAM Channels 8
I have a TiVo connected to a digital box from the company and a Windows7 Media Center PC with a Hauppauge ClearQAM tuner. Today I planned on catching up on a little TV that should have been recorded last night, but wasn’t.
See, now that my VCRs are worthless since Comcast went 95% digital and requires a tuner box to get all but 5 network channels (ok, they also give 15 shopping channels and 8 community access channels too – great huh?), I use the 7MC PC to record programs when there’s a conflict with another or when I really don’t want to miss a specific show due to a screw up with the channel changing on TiVo or QAM tuner.
Be certain to check the comments for updates as I learn them.
Anyway, today I checked the “Recorded TV” and didn’t see the main show I wanted. It is a SyFy channel show, so I used the guide to tune to that channel and was greeted with a Service is scrambled message. I checked a few other Extended Basic channels and most were encrypted, but a few were not. Last week, I had a little over 100 ClearQAM channels. Good enough. I don’t know how many I have now and will be forcing a rescan to seek new and moved channels. Regardless, I’ll probably be dropping cable TV to the minimal level possible and upping my Netflix. I was probably watching too many movies on Lifetime anyway. ;)
I’m unhappy with cable change control practices
They shouldn’t be allowed to change these things without written, public notification 60 days in advance. I’ll be contacting my utility commission about this.
Ok, so I have a few things that I need to do before going crazy. I need to:
- reboot the PC; why is that the solution for soooooo many MS-Windows problems?
- force a QAM channel rescan and look for relocated channels
- check my QAM tuner for updated drivers
Only then should I contact Comcast to see if they’ve done something. Most of the time, the customer service folks are clueless about QAM and channel mapping. Last time I asked them, we never got passed the unplug your cable box part of the troubleshooting. I’m not using a cable box and they aren’t trained to deal with anything about that or to provide any information about it. With all the HDTVs that have QAM tuners, you’d think supporting it at a basic level would be required by law.
I’ve also noticed that my phone service breaks about every 2-6 weeks on Thursday evening. I guess that’s when network maintenance is performed in my area. I have to manually reset the ETA (VoIP device that Comcast provides) to get phone service dialtone working again.
Just to be clear, while I’m unhappy with any change to the channels available under ClearQAM, I’m not suggesting that Comcast can’t encrypt them – I’m just suggesting that it should be published and part of their customer notification policies. I am a capitalist after all. They can change their services just like I can elect to take my business elsewhere.
Ok, I feel a little better now. Thanks for reading.
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It is about a week later and those channels are still encrypted.
I’ve found a $24/month cable plan, if I’m required to keep TV to get phone and/or internet. I’d like to drop TV completely and switch to OTA, Hulu and Netflix. That switch should save me $50/month.
Finding that cheap cable plan wasn’t easy. It isn’t listed on the bundles or any of the TV plans. I only found it via google.
John wrote: “I’ve found a $24/month cable plan[…]I only found it via google.”
What did you find and how did you find it?
To find the cheapest no frills cable TV, search for “limited basic” on Comcast’s site. It has nothing to do with “digitial” anything.
A few of you are wondering if there is a solution that will let you use your Media Center PC as a PVR/DVR? There is and in a month or 2 of 6 (you know how device releases get delayed), you’ll be able to buy a card to place inside your PC (or on your network), pay Comcast $3/month for a CableCARD and receive the encrypted channels. BTW, On-Demand programming doesn’t work with CableCARD, so if you want that stuff, you’ll need to keep the digital box (mine is a motorola 6200 HD) and connected to a TiVo S2.
Here are a few ideas for the CableCARD tuners:
The FCC calls CableCARD a failure .
VERY Tired of Comcast changing/encrypting the signals that comes through the QAM tuner in my television. Then they say it’s the TV making the changes…whatever! I purchased televisions with a QAM tuner for a reason. I put up with the channels always being rearranged, but this sudden switch of turning them completely off is unbelievable. I went from having 100+ channels to basically local and maybe 15 channels consisting of shopping channels and local public crap.
How they can get by without giving written notice to the changes is very surprising to me. As a paying customer; they work for me and should be obligated to notify me of changes to how their signal is going to change how I use their product.
They are the worst at providing knowledge on their services, horrible at even keeping the same story straight between two workers and they are very very very overpriced for the crappy service they offer. RUN from Comcast…do not walk.
Hi Carl,
I understand your frustration. I’ve learned a few things since my original post. None of them are helpful. Sorry.
Comcast call center workers are not trained on ClearQAM. They are only trained on which buttons to press to keep the signals going to the boxes they make us have. The QAM technology has auto-channel-switching built in from the STB and the cable boxes are notified when the QAM channel is switched to a different data channel. The translation happens so quickly that consumers don’t notice it. Part of this data channel switching technology allows for higher speed internet service capacity. The DOCSIS 3 standard supports bonded QAM channels so even fewer channels are used for video. There is a finite total number of data channels available and which are used for voice, video, and pure data are always being slightly modified in areas with active users. Comcast also has to support old equipment that they provided – DOCSIS 1.1, and 2 data modems. These devices can’t perform the bonding or switching in the same way that newer modems and digital tuners can, so Comcast has to limit some changes.
Last August Comcast in my area gave out DTV-2-Analog converter boxes. I got one, but never registered it or have used it since it would require an IR blaster to change the channels.
I think CableCARD is a mistake for my desired purposes too. I’ll continue to use the analog hole as they call it for as many years as possible.
Our only option where I live is Comcast and AT&T. I don’t understand why nobody is pouncing on the opportunity to give them some competition and get some alternatives here. It’s SO frustrating.
You could get Dish or the other satellite TV provider instead if you are in the USA.
The reason nobody else competes is cost. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to build the infrastructure, get the government approvals, and pay off the local politicians and utility commissioners for each community.