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Tip: Why you need a box for basic cable

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Customers who use QAM tuners may have to choose new options.(Photo: Thinkstock)

Story Highlights

  • Customers who use QAM tuners may have to choose new options
  • RCN and others are making the change
  • Tip: Look for a Wi-Fi hotspot from your cable provider

Question. My cable provider has suddenly denied me the basic cable I've been paying for, insisting I need a box to receive these channels. Do I have any options besides paying for that device?

Answer. E-mails like this are a result of a decision by the Federal Communications Commission last October[1] to allow cable operators to encrypt all of their signals, including the basic-tier local, public, educational and government channels that usually flow unscrambled to TVs with the right tuning hardware.

The cable industry made a decent case for this[2] at the time: Almost nobody gets TV that way, as opposed to plugging in a box or a DVR, and encrypting the signal lets you turn service on and off remotely instead of sending somebody out on a truck that hopefully arrives within the predicted four-hour window[3]. It would also stop some subscribers to limited service packages from watching channels they didn't pay for.

But for a tiny minority of viewers who had connected cable to HDTVs with QAM ("quadrature amplititude modulation"[4]) tuners, things may get a lot worse. They not only lose their simple, one-remote-control access to local stations, they may have to choose between downgrading to standard-definition reception — if the free digital adapters cable operators hand out only provide standard-def output — or paying for an HD tuner.

For example, since RCN shut off "clear QAM"[5] in almost all of its markets on Wednesday, this small subset of HDTV owners is looking at paying an extra $9.95 per month, per set, for RCN's newly-mandatory boxes[6].

RCN is making this change more abruptly than other providers. Comcast, for instance, is moving to scramble all of its channels too, but it says it will provide a high-definition adapter for free for the first year[7] and won't require customers to get a full-fledged tuner box.

(Disclosures:[8] I wrote about this issue[9] for the Consumer Electronics Association last year — when I failed to foresee the problem with HD box-rental costs, then repeated that oversight in a later column here[10]. Another one of my other freelance clients, Discovery Communications[11], owns a few cable channels.)

This might not be such a hang-up if you could buy a box yourself instead of renting one from the cable company. But outside of TiVo's digital video recorders, almost nobody does this — other companies making hardware that worked with the "CableCard" standard[12] gave up after weak sales and poor support for it from cable operators.

The FCC's ruling last October did allow one way out for owners of digital-video receivers that also included QAM tuners, such as Boxee's Internet-media boxes[13]: Cable operators must provide basic channels to those gadgets as an encrypted Internet feed, something that Comcast has begun to do[14].

The absence of cable-compatible video gear in the U.S.[15] can become more annoying when you realize that in other parts of the world, there are such things: I was irritated to see multiple Blu-ray recorders supporting Europe's DVB-C standard[16] at the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin[17] last summer.

Your best hope for ditching the cable box may lie in your TV service someday letting you watch most or all of its channels over the Internet — with a sufficiently fast connection, and most likely with hardware you don't own yet. Time Warner Cable subscribers can now tune into "up to 300" channels online through a Roku box[18], and Verizon recently expanded the number of Fios channels available on Microsoft's Xbox 360[19] video-game console to 75.

I also saw Cablevision demonstrate Internet reception of its channel lineup[20] at the cable industry's annual convention last May, but that has yet to result in something subscribers can use.

Tip: Your cable company might have free Wi-Fi waiting outside.

Last May, five large cable operators announced a plan to provide free Wi-Fi to each other's customers[21] in and around major cities. This CableWiFi[22] initiative now lets subscribers to Bright House Networks[23], Cablevision's Optimum[24], Comcast Xfinity[25], and Time Warner Cable[26] get online wirelessly; Cox[27] customers, however, can't yet log into that wider wireless universe.

To use this if you're within range of one of these tens of thousands of hot spots, look for a wireless network named after your cable provider ("Bright House Networks," "optimimumwifi," "xfinitywifi," "CoxWiFi," "TWCWiFi") or just "CableWiFi," then enter your cable account's username and password. Comcast[28] and TWC[29] also offer limited free access to non-subscribers.

—

Rob Pegoraro[30] is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." title="http://mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./" style="color: inherit; text-decoration: none;" name="readabilityLink-31" id="readabilityLink-31" target="_blank">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.[31]. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro[32].

References

  1. ^ a decision by the Federal Communications Commission last October (www.engadget.com)
  2. ^ a decent case for this (www.cabletechtalk.com)
  3. ^ hopefully arrives within the predicted four-hour window (usatoday30.usatoday.com)
  4. ^ "quadrature amplititude modulation" (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. ^ shut off "clear QAM" (sulia.com)
  6. ^ newly-mandatory boxes (www.rcn.com)
  7. ^ says it will provide a high-definition adapter for free for the first year (customer.comcast.com)
  8. ^ Disclosures: (robpegoraro.com)
  9. ^ wrote about this issue (robpegoraro.com)
  10. ^ a later column here (usatoday30.usatoday.com)
  11. ^ Discovery Communications (content.usatoday.com)
  12. ^ "CableCard" standard (en.wikipedia.org)
  13. ^ Boxee's Internet-media boxes (boxee.tv)
  14. ^ something that Comcast has begun to do (www.multichannel.com)
  15. ^ absence of cable-compatible video gear in the U.S. (www.project-disco.org)
  16. ^ Europe's DVB-C standard (en.wikipedia.org)
  17. ^ the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin (robpegoraro.com)
  18. ^ can now tune into "up to 300" channels online through a Roku box (rssfeeds.usatoday.com)
  19. ^ Fios channels available on Microsoft's Xbox 360 (www.xbox.com)
  20. ^ demonstrate Internet reception of its channel lineup (boingboing.net)
  21. ^ http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2012/05/five-cable-giants-partner-on-wifi/1 (content.usatoday.com)
  22. ^ CableWiFi (cablewifi.com)
  23. ^ Bright House Networks (brighthouse.com)
  24. ^ Cablevision's Optimum (www.optimum.net)
  25. ^ Comcast Xfinity (www.comcast.com)
  26. ^ Time Warner Cable (www.timewarnercable.com)
  27. ^ Cox (ww2.cox.com)
  28. ^ Comcast (www.comcast.com)
  29. ^ TWC (www.twcwifi.com)
  30. ^ Rob Pegoraro (robpegoraro.com)
  31. ^ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." title="http://mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./" name="readabilityFootnoteLink-31" id="readabilityFootnoteLink-31" target="_blank">http://mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./ (robpegoraro.com)
  32. ^ twitter.com/robpegoraro (twitter.com)
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