Will Cable, Dish Providers Continue To Charge For DTV?

One of the things that I've been waiting on will finally become reality early next year, full digital broadcasting. With all TV broadcasters forced to transmit only in digital by the February 17, 2009 date, an interesting thought came to me. Once this becomes the standard, will cable companies like Comcast stop charging people for digital service?

Digital service will be the standard and will no longer be a premium that should be charged for. All the HD channel premium monthly service that Comcast, Dish Network, or DirectTV charge for will cease right? Not likely.

Now I'm not sure how they will justify charging you for service that will be the standard across the board. And perhaps they will stop, but get the feeling that they won't without a phone call. Considering that this will cut into the revenue of the cable and satellite providers, I'm sure that they have a contingency plan on how to make that money back. It certainly might be worth your time to find out what they have in store for you, before the February 17, 2009 deadline.

Or you can sit back and see what happens. I'm sure the cable company has your best interests in mind.

Joy Of Tech Shows Us Why Monster Cables Are Better

I’ve always felt that when it comes to A/V cables, for the most part, they’re all the same. So when Monster Cable came around stating that ‘not all cables are the same’, I had to call BS.

Obviously I’m not alone.

Does it really mater if you spend an extra $80 + dollars for the more expensive cable? Does it give you the sound and picture quality that the others don’t? Well the comic at ‘Joy of Tech’ puts it all together, and shows us truly why expensive cables are better.

How could I have been so wrong about this entire issue?

[Joy of Tech via Gizmodo]

Comcast Hires Drones To Cheer For Them At Net Neutrality Hearing

If you didn’t think that Comcast wasn’t a bunch of sneaky low bastards, take a look at their latest installment. Boingboing has collected a bunch of links that prove Comcast paid people to attend a net neutrality hearing, and cheer for them. The report identifies these people by the yellow highlighters that they wore.

So you would think that Comcast would deny such wrong doings right?

Uh…. No!

Comcast states that the people were hired to “hold” seats for other employees who wanted to attend the meeting. I have to call BS on this, mainly because Comcast has lost the right to the benefit of the doubt. I know that this has been a common practice in congressional hearings (quite a dirty tactic), but it goes to show how far Comcast will go to have their special interests pushed through.

Comcast is holding a firm lead for ‘Dirty Bastard of the Year Award’.

[Boingboing via Gizmodo]

Does cable, satellite, or fiber provide more HD?

Particularly of late, cable television providers have been bullying each other on the air and proudly proclaiming superiority in the high-definition department. One would immediately assume that there's some black and white somewhere in this equation, but honestly, things are pretty gray. Hard though it may be to believe, there actually isn't a clear cut answer to this week's Ask Engadget HD question, which comes to us from the bewildered mind of Brian:"I want an unbiased opinion, and more importantly, the facts. DISH Network is looking more and more like the leading HD provider with its weekly HD additions this past fall. However, now my local cable provider, Comcast, is running ads stating that it has More, More, More HD. My question is simple: who has more HD channels including and not including HD VOD?"The inability to find a clear cut answer hasn't stopped us from forging ahead in the past, and it won't be slowing us down today, either. Ready to plunge deep into the increasingly murky waters of HD offerings?

Read the full story here!

NFL rant

OK, here's my situation. I work weekends. I work until 8 pm almost every night during the week. Now that I'm on the west coast, that means I miss almost every freakin' NFL game except for the first quarter of the early games on Sunday and the 2nd half of the Sunday night game. I get to watch about 5 minutes of Monday or Thursday night football. I know I'm probably in the minority on this issue, but I want to know how Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL for god's sake offer a way to watch games with your broadband access and the freakin' NFL can't?

Isnt' the NFL supposed to be the big dogs of all the leagues? I can subscribe to MLB and watch 6 games at once from my laptop, but I am restricted to radio broadcasts with the NFL? Now I am thankful that now NFL Network is actually broadcasting the Thursday night games, albeit only with lookins half of the time, but the only reason they are doing it is to get more people to start liking NFL Network and pressure their cable company to stop being douchebags and include it in their general sports package. See this article on CrunchGear.

Now tell me, am I asking for too much? I would gladly pay probably up to $40 bucks a month just for the priveledge to watch my beloved Bears each and every Sunday. You know what, maybe I'll just buy a Slingbox and say "Screw you NFL, I don't need your broadband package anyway."

Just for the record, I have been paying $10 a month for the past 2 years just to listen to Bears games while I'm on the road.

HBO going HD on all 26 channels

Right now only two of HBO's channels are available in HD: HBO. But today HBO's CEO Bill Nelson announced that HBO will upgrade all 26 of their channels to HD. They would also like to upgrade their video-on-demand service, but cite "copy-protection concerns relating to older HDTV sets."

The question is who will carry all of these channels? With Comcast stepping up to the plate with there announcement of 400 HD channels by the end of this year, they will be a player in the HBO-HD love.

The new channels will start to roll out later this year, and all 26 are due by the end of Q2 2008.

Read the entire article after the leap. [Broadcasting&Cable]

Whole Lotta HD Channels For Comcast

If you own an HDTV you know how frustrating it can be to only have a hand full of channels to choose from that have full HD. I was hoping someone would add some more channels to its HD lineup and apparently my wish is coming true!

The Comcast is promising up to a total of 400 HD channels by the end of this year, with more to come. By 2008, Comcast says it will offer over 800 channels of HD programming, which is absolutely nuts and awesome.

Looks like companies such as DirecTV, CableVision, and Time-Warner will have to come up with something to one up Comcast. I mean if you own a HDTV, you know damn well that non-HD programming looks like crap. I fully welcome this decision by Comcast and would even pay a premium to ensure I could access all 800 channels of HD.

Nice work, Comast. You’ve done well.

Read the entire article after the jump. [BRG]