
FCC Chairman Scraps Plan to Promote Set-Top Box Competition - beautifulfreak
http://deadline.com/2017/01/fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-scraps-plan-promote-set-top-box-competition-1201898265/
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smhenderson
_But opponents, including Pai, said that Wheeler’s proposal would interfere
with arrangements that networks make with distributors about advertising,
security, and channel placement, among other things._

Well as long as everyone but consumers are covered. I know he was
controversial when he joined the FCC but given his track record I think we're
going to really miss Tom Wheeler.

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ironchief
Good. There isn't a clear and immediate consumer benefit for this regulation
on a dying technology.

Quote from Ajit Pai - “the Commission should focus on ways to ditch the set-
top box and embrace the video marketplace of the future.”

reductio ad absurdum - We might as well regulate music too and have the FCC
tell Apple and Spotify how to build their apps and for which platforms

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jeffdubin
Take a look at my cable bill and you'll see the clear and immediate consumer
benefit from having a TiVo with CableCard. Take a look at the superior
interface, which, even after stagnating for 10+ years, blows away the
usability of any cable box offer by the major providers. Or look at how
incredibly terrible (crashing, buffering issues) and restrictive (no DVR,
forced ads) the cable companies' own apps are, e.g. on Xbox, Roku, etc. By the
way, how likely is it that we'd even have DVRs if the cable companies had not
been forced to play nice with TiVo in the first place? Or if the broadcast
flag went forward?

If there's one positive thing that Pai's FCC might accomplish with policies
like these, it's that maybe we'll finally stop watching.

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Keverw
I am for free market and competition. One thing about the cable and satellite
industry that annoys me is everyone keeps merging.

But I totally feel like the cable is way behind satellite technology. I have
Time Warner(Well now Spectrum). We kept cable for phone + internet but
switched to Dish for television. So the jack with the modem gets cable signal,
while the rest of the house is wired to satellite.

Setup took a bit to download, about a half hour but it did a software update
over the satellite. While the guy was explaining the features and everything.

But once he had it all setup, so much superior. The box was more responsive
than the cable box felt, even though we just replaced it a year ago after
complaining to the cable co. Then another cool thing is the remotes are paired
to each receiver like a game controller would be to a console. So you can
still use it without aiming right at the box. It still uses IR for volume and
power on the TV itself, but when using the Dish box itself it's nice.

I remember with cable I'd fast forward and the stupid thing wouldn't play when
I hit play even if I aimed right at it. The boxes were super laggy. Cable
seems to have very outdated tech...

We have the whole home Hopper, we had the whole home with cable too. One big
box in the living room, and then the other rooms have a box that can watch
recordings(but not store them). With cable you had to go in the living room to
record shows, with Dish you can record from any room but it's still stored on
the main box. And the smaller boxes, The Joey's are like a quarter of the size
of the cable companies equivalent box.

Plus Dish already support 4K, unlike cable. I've asked, they don't even
support it. But even though Dish supports it, not all channels broadcast in it
anyways. But I remember seeing ads that Dish had HD even before cable had it.
Oddly though they install two dishes now. One for local, and a separate for
the rest. But it doesn't go out so far in the rain in about the month we've
had it.

We'd had Dish in about 2003 when I was a little kid, and I remember it always
went out, but newer systems don't seem to have that issue. It seems like Dish
has improved a lot in over a decade. Cable seems like it's always playing
catch up. I seems Dish puts the user experience first.

I think the cable company uses a third party vendor for their boxes and
software too. From what I can read, it seems like Dish is closely affiliated
with EchoStar, that makes their hardware. I don't know if the cable company
executives try out competitors products, but I'd recommend their CEO signup
for Dish for their own home. Then once they see how much better it is then
take all their R&D in house to step up their game. I think companies should
try to control the whole experience as much as possible. So everything is all
integrated and works as smoothly as possible. Apple is a good example of a
company doing this.

