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TiVo's AN0100 802.11n WiFi adapter hits the FCC, stirs up imaginations

by Darren Murph posted Nov 6th 2009 at 10:51AM

TiVo's Wireless G USB network adapter has been out and about since late 2005, so to say an 802.11n version is past due would be understating things dramatically. At long last, it seems as if high-speed network access is coming to the heralded DVR, with an AN0100 802.11n AP recently splashing down at the FCC. There's no instruction manual or indication of whether this is the device we've been waiting for in order to stream networked media to the TV through one's TiVo, but why else would the outfit bother with tossing out a new dongle with support for higher throughput? We know, we're letting ourselves get a bit too optimistic here -- but c'mon, can you really blame us?

Nielsen reports the effects of the digital transition

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 1:20PM

Nielsen DTV chart
This is a really interesting report of the affects of the digital transition on ratings. Like the fact that "TV stations that transitioned to digital only experienced an 8 percent share decline immediately following the analog shut-off." But even more interesting is this that same number goes up to 13 percent if the broadcaster switched from UHF to VHF because of reception problems -- no wonder some broadcasters are going back to UHF. The other thing that piqued our interest was that cable companies seemed to be the real winners here as 18.2 percent of those facing the decision to buy a converter box, just ordered cable instead -- little do they know that they are just putting off getting a box.

[Via TVB]

FCC keen on commandeering TV spectrum for wireless broadband

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 28th 2009 at 7:12AM

We'll come right out and say it, we like Julius Genachowski. Whether you agree with the dude's policies or not, you can't deny he's pursuing them with gusto. Having already noted the insufficient carrying capacity of current mobile broadband airways to deal with incoming 4G connections, the FCC chairman is now reported to be moving ahead with plans to provide greater spectrum allocation for those purposes. Currently in the draft stage, the latest Commission proposals include a plan to reclaim airwaves from digital broadcasters (and pay them appropriately for it), which are to then be sold off to the highest bidder from among the wireless service providers. Executing the most extreme version of this plan could generate around $62 billion in auction revenues, though it would require transitioning digital TV viewers over to cable or subscription services and is therefore unlikely. Jules and his crew are still "looking at everything" and ruling out nothing, but we can probably expect to see a moderate shift of TV spectrum rights over to wireless carriers in the final plans when they're revealed in February.

[Via Phone Scoop]

It'll probably take an act of congress to ban loud commercials

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Oct 9th 2009 at 4:16PM

Loud Commercials
Unfortunately with the dynamic sound of Dolby Digital sound in HD programming also comes crazy loud commercials. In addition to a few technical reasons, the main way advertisers get around the FCCs commercial volume regulations is by making the entire commercial just as loud as the explosion that killed off your favorite character. Obviously this is ridiculous and Rep. Anna Eshoo of California intends to do something about it by introducing CALM (Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation Act) to the House of Representatives. At the same time the folks at ATSC are looking for ways to let broadcasters get it under control, and of course there is Dolby Volume and SRS TruVolume if you want to take matters into your own hands. Personally we wish there was just a hack that would automatically hit the mute button during commercials, and just for the record, we DVR everything and skip commercials for everything except sports.

Flip Video remote control shows up at FCC -- bigger things to come?

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 5:52AM

A brand spanking new filing with the FCC shows a Flip Video-branded RF remote control, produced by Foxconn, which frankly raises more questions than it answers. Looking at its robust size, which is comparable to that of the Flip Ultra Video HD, we can be pretty sure this isn't meant to remotely control anything that's out at the moment. Head honcho Jonathan Kaplan has already expressed a definite interest in expanding the brand, and Cisco's acquisition of Pure Digital was said to be "key" to its strategy of expanding its presence in the "media-enabled home." So, given the parent company's somewhat unsuccessful history of building media hubs, and the simplified control scheme that just screams for an on-screen menu, this may well be the prelude to a new Flip-branded whole-home DVR setup, an idea that Cisco discussed over the summer. Or it could be something entirely different -- we just know it's something. See more pictures after the break.

Continue reading Flip Video remote control shows up at FCC -- bigger things to come?

Only 443,000 CableCARDs deployed into consumer's equipment

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Sep 30th 2009 at 6:11PM

CableCARD
Here we are about five years after CableCARDs became available and only 443,000 of 'em have been deployed into 3rd party hardware -- you know, like a TiVo HD or a Windows Media Center Digital Cable Tuner. If you think that's a lot, think again, as that is barely 1 percent of the 41.5 million digital cable subscribers in the US. This was according to a report delivered to the FCC by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and really gives credibility to the CEA's claim that the technology is ineffective at its intended purpose. As consumers we know all too well why the currently implementation of the technology is worthless to the other 99 percent of cable subscribers, which is a combination of the fact that 3rd party CableCARD host devices are not privy to all the same features of the cable company's set-top -- like VOD and PPV -- but also because the cable operators do just about everything possible to talk you out of using them. Regardless of the reasons one thing is for sure, CableCARDs have not fulfilled the requirements set by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the FCC needs to stop wasting time and get back to the drawing board.

Cablevision asks FCC for a waiver to encrypt all Clear QAM channels

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Sep 24th 2009 at 7:25AM

CablevisionFlying in the face of those who think that cable operators are allowed to encrypt every channel, Cablevision has petitioned the FCC for a waiver to do just that. Evidently it is argued that even the basic tier should encrypted to save money on truck rolls that are currently required to disconnect service. As usual, the FCC is requesting the comment of opposing views, so it's not to late to be heard. But it seems to us that Cablevision is going to have a hard time arguing to protect these channels in the clear, when it's the every same channels you can get for free with an antenna. Add in all the customers who brought home a new TV and just plugged it into the cable and did a channel scan, and you have yourselves a waiver we'd like to see denied.

[Thanks, Mike]

The CEA asks the FCC if CableCARD is helping to spur competition

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 1:04PM

CableCARD in a box
It's about time someone said something and it's no surprise that it was the Consumer Electronics Association who finally did. You see CableCARDs are the solution that the cable industry came up with to comply with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which stated that consumers should be able to bring their own equipment to the cable party. We of course know that outside of TiVo and a few other CableCARD DVRs like Media Center, no one uses it. Well actually the entire cable industry uses it because the FCC mandated that after July of 2007, that every single newly deployed digital set-top had use a CableCARD instead of the integrated security. This mandate was supposed to encourage the cable industry to support 3rd party CableCARD host devices better, which obviously didn't happen. And so the CEA is doing whatever it can and nudging the FCC with a, "this isn't working, what's next?" What is supposed to be next is tru2way, but we all know how that it is going nowhere, and fast. The CEA says enough is enough, lets bring on downloadable conditional access (DAC) which would replace the whole card thing with a simple download. Of course this alone isn't enough to solve the problem, and until the cable industry agrees to give up complete control of the infrastructure and adopts a two-way standardized protocol like DCR+, no matter what the cable industry does, this entire cycle is just going to start all over again. But hey, it's a start, maybe in another 16 years we'll actually be able to watch HDTV without a set-top-box.

FCC to propose new net neutrality rules disallowing data discrimination

by Darren Murph posted Sep 18th 2009 at 4:42PM


Based on what we're hearing, a slate of soon-to-be-proposed FCC rules may stop the likes of Comcast from discriminating against P2P applications on their networks, and AT&T sure will have a tougher time justifying why it won't let the iPhone's version of SlingPlayer run on 3G while giving WinMo and BlackBerry users all the bandwidth they can handle. Julius Genachowski, the new chairman of the entity, is slated to discuss the new rules on Monday, though he isn't expected to dig too deep into the minutiae. Essentially, the guidelines will "prevent wireless companies from blocking internet applications and prevent them from discriminating (or acting as gatekeepers) [against] web content and services." We know what you're thinking: "Huzzah!" And in general, that's probably the right reaction to have as a consumer, but one has to wonder how network quality for all will be affected if everyone is cut loose to, well, cut loose. Oh, and if this forces telecoms to deploy more cell sites to handle the influx in traffic, you can rest assured that the bill will be passed on to you. Ain't nuthin' free, kids.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

MPAA still trying to close the analog hole: Now with new, more inane arguments

by Richard Lawler posted Sep 4th 2009 at 4:04PM

The MPAA can't stop, won't stop trying to cut out that pesky analog loophole, and it has returned to the FCC's gates once again requesting permission for selective output control: the ability to disable consumers unprotected (read: HDCP-less) video outputs at its discretion. According to Ars Technica the new argument is that the Consumer Electronics Association and everyone else who hates this idea are simply holding back technology, which the studios would love to use to provide a glorious utopia of early release films available via video on-demand. The request has been smacked down more than once before, but this is the first time it's come up with the new administration so it's anyone's guess what will happen, but we'd keep those petition signing fingers at the ready, just in case. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via Ars Technica]

Massillon Cable TV, the only consumer friendly cable company?

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Aug 29th 2009 at 10:17AM

Cisco Sara UI
It seems to us that if you live in Ohio are provided service by Massillon Cable TV, you have yourself a pretty good cable company. We don't say that because we just visited or have read great things about the HD offerings though. We say that because the aforementioned operator has called out Moto and Cisco for its apparent duopoly which the claim goes on to say is used to forced cable operators in the US to use overpriced DRM. That all sounds good to us -- although we don't really understand most of it -- but the interesting part is this is the first time we've seen anyone cast any blame on Motorola and Cisco. And to think all this time we've blamed the cable company for trying to provide us with POS, overpriced DVRs.

Clear QAM HD isn't going anywhere!

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Aug 28th 2009 at 5:48PM

Clear QAM tuner
Oh we just love the echo chamber that is the internet these days -- some genius reads about something as harmless as a integrated security waver for cheap digital SD set-top-boxes and automatically predicts the end of clear QAM as we know it. Now we hate all the feet dragging by cable operators in the US as much as the next, and wish the FCC would enforce the Telecommunications Act of 1996 already, but that doesn't mean that everything big cable does is evil, or that the FCC is useless.

The bottom line is that local broadcast channels are available in HD to any cable subscriber with a clear QAM tuner, whether you have a set-top-box or not. The recent news changes nothing, except maybe a very select few who were lucky enough to receive more than locals via clear QAM. We dropped the FCC a line to make sure we had our facts straight -- wouldn't want to call people out without checking our own first -- and the very prompt answer we received was that this statutory requirement goes all the way back to the to the Communications Act of 1934 (Section 614(b)(4)(B).

More recently, the FCC addressed the issue when laying down the digital transition rules which "states that broadcast signals that are subject to mandatory carriage must be "viewable via cable on all television receivers of a subscriber which are connected to a cable system by a cable operator or for which a cable operator provides a connection." Now obviously we're not lawyers, but it seems pretty clear that local cable operators are not allowed to encrypt any locally broadcast HD stations. Now we've heard reports that some cable companies do indeed encrypt these signals, but while you might be willing to complain on some forum about it, have you taken the time to file a proper complaint with the FCC? If not, then you really don't have anything to complain about.

Read (doc) - The 2007 Report to set the transition rules (paragraph 15)

**UPDATE** As you can see from the comments, with anything legal it isn't exactly cut and dry. In fact the only thing we've managed to accomplish is to be confused. So while some level of broadcast TV has to be free, we're not sure if it's free as in beer or what. Stay tuned for a follow up just as soon as we figure it out.

AT&T also has a grudge against Cablevision

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 14th 2009 at 3:11PM

Looks like Verizon's not the only one to have beef with Cablevision's treatment of its MSG HD channels, now that AT&T has also petitioned the FCC to compel the cabler to sell the high definition feeds to its competitors. AT&T cites stats showing high definition is a big deal for consumers, with 45% saying they'd switch providers for a superior sports package, claiming it can't compete in Connecticut without the networks. Just as before, Cablevision claims it can do as it likes, that it already sells them every single game (in SD format) and that AT&T is a bigger company that doesn't need a bailout. We've had plenty of summertimes squabbles about who was and wasn't playing by the rules that ended with one side claiming they'd take their ball and go home, but we usually didn't bring the FCC in to settle it. The FCC is still on a five month clock to consider the complaints and the "terrestrial loophole," 'til it responds we can't guess how this one will end.

DTV converter coupon deadline is July 31, anyone still need one?

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 28th 2009 at 1:49PM


In case you still needed a digital TV heads up, the end of this month is your last opportunity to nab a $40 coupon for a converter box. Seeing as how they're actually available, and the DTV switch has been in effect for a few weeks you'd think anyone in need would have long looked into this already, but just in case you're waiting until the last moment, the L.A. Times mentions July 31 is the cutoff. Anyone know someone that went from OTA bliss to a blank TV June 12 and still hasn't upgraded yet?

[Via L.A. Times]

Verizon / Cablevision MSG HD channel squabble goes to the FCC

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 9th 2009 at 3:02PM

NYC Metro FiOS subs will look on with interest as Verizon has petitioned the FCC to rule on whether or not Cablevision can continue to refuse offering its MSG channels in high definition to FiOS customers. Naturally Cablevision has responded calling the idea of a regulatory bailout for a phone company ten times its size "absurd," and claiming that it doesn't have to license its local HD programming to anyone. As Multichannel News explains, at issue is the "terrestrial loophole" which requires satellite delivered programming to be made available to competitors, but since the MSG channels aren't that rule does not apply. Still, it could be a while before we know if local Rangers, Knicks, Islanders, Devils and Sabers games are coming to FiOS as Verizon has asked for a decisions within five months, which, while not in time for the basketball season, should still be made well ahead of the Knicks ever being any good again.

Read - Verizon Petitions FCC to Rule on Cablevision's Refusal to Make MSG Channels Available in HD
Read - Verizon Files Program Access Complaint Against Cablevision




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