Dear Aunt TUAW: Will Comcast kill my EyeTV?

Over-the-air HD is the way to go. It's free and I don't throw money out the window to the cable company. WIN-WIN.

Comcast can suck it. Is there really any reason to have cable any more?

So in other words this will effect every tv tuner card for macs or pcs that can't unencrypted the signal? If so I am now going to cancel all my comcast services.

Kabletown continues to vex and infuriate me.

I went cable-free about six years ago.

Never looked back. Cable gives you nothing like the content you want to watch. It's a constant game of cat-and-mouse and they look for every opportunity to screw you out of a few more bucks.

Now, am Netflix, podcast, and online video only. There literally are not enough hours in the day for me to watch all of the content I have queued up.

There's another post on TUAW today about software that allows you to edit commercials in EyeTV. I find that I don't even want to bother with that. It's too much of a hassle. I'd much rather wait a year or two and watch an entire season or series streaming or on DVD. I don't have a gripe with an ad-based revenue model per se, but these days the "show" is more commercial than narrative. It's gone too far.

Finally, with my iPad I have unlimited comics, video games, books, Internet, and social media. There's just so much entertainment out there, why bother with an abusive and one-sided relationship with cable?

Yes. FCC requires all must curry content (which is usually all local broadcast channels) to be conveyed clearQAM. Just hook the eyeTV up straight to the coax without the set top box (STB) and auto-tune with the extensive search to see what you get. I say to use the extensive search because some operators, whether by intent or ignorance, like to bury the clearQAM where it can't be found easily.

Some programming providers require their signals to be unencrypted all the way through the chain, which means it would have to be clearQAM at your end. Good luck discovering which programming providers those are and motivating them to put the screws on Comcast if they aren't already so on your distribution. The locals seem to do whatever they want on big systems, even time sharing channels they aren't allowed to time share.

Of course, FCC also requires all clearQAM to be conveyed out of the STB on firewire, and how often do you see boxes that have the firewire1994 port open on back?

If the only programming you want is on must carry, then it is worth it to swap your cabel contract down to the "lifeline" service, which they always act like they don't have. Lifeline is regulated to be broadcast and emergency and public access in most jurisdictions. Cost is usually $15-$20 per month. A fair warning, however, is that you really have to twist arms to get it. They have it, though, and the best way to make them cry uncle is to say you are going to ask the utilities board why they don't have it or won't offer it to you.

Comcast hosed me about 3 weeks ago (Walnut Creek, CA). I immediately dropped my digital starter subscription ($60+/month) and just kept basic cable ($18/month) because they would have raised my Internet and I still need it to watch the local news. The only channels I can receive are channels below 35. Everything else appears to be encrypted. I wasted a couple of hours of my time trying to reconfigure EyeTV. This also made my $200+ investment in a TV tuner for Mac pretty much useless. I called Comcast and the person there told me that I can watch my shows on xfinity. This person obviously doesn't understand why we have our own TV tuners/DVR solution. We don't want to sit through all the commercials they force on us. Not only do they charge us for content, they also waste our time by forcing us to sit and watch their ads. No thanks. My other complaint is Elgato not supporting the cable card.

On the bright side, I watch less TV now since my channel selection is very limited (although I still get a lot of shopping channels). *sigh* In addition, I'm giving Comcast less money per month. The shows I miss are my Discover/History/CNBC/Food. However, some offer their shows on their website or downloadable from iTunes/podcast. For movies, I discovered a RedBox near my home so I walk there to rent movies for $1. Not only is it cheap, but I'm also getting an exercise.

being from philly im well versed in how much crapcast is the worst company in the world. everything their grubby fingers touch turns to crap (aside from my flyers who are on a roll right now) techtv SUCKS now, not worth anything. and of course they have to ruin a great product like eyetv. absolute farce of a company, whenever they finish buying NBC (if they havent already) you can bet your sweet ass that network will suck worse than anything. i hated crapcast when i lived in philly and didnt think i could still hate them being out in phoenix. but they found other ways too, when they bought versus they priced themselves out of directv for most of the hockey season, good thing they made a deal before the playoffs or i'd probably be sending some letter bombs to their offices. CRAPCAST SUCKS!!!!

I have eyetv but only get limited basic from comcast...network stations and clear qam network hd...will I still be okay?

What exactly is on television that is worth $50-100-150/month?