US Copyright Office sides with cable companies against FCC’s set-top rules | Hacker News Reader

US Copyright Office sides with cable companies against FCC’s set-top rules

arstechnica.com

18 pointshvo11 comments

Cable television is a worse experience than watching video on the internet in every way. I really don't understand why people are still doing it.

I do--don't watch it myself, but my wife does It's simply more convenient when she just wants to watch what's on, and not have to navigate some crappy UI. It's "ON" + channel number and you're done. As opposed to "ON" + wait + menu + wait + down + left + select + wait + select + scroll scroll scroll + select. If you ever want to quick switch away to something else, it's back to menu navigation. And forget it if you ever need to type anything in....

It's the price and access to many channels. Some channels are not available unless you get cable. A few college football games are not accessible with out cable.

For example with Uverse for $129 I get 18mbps internet, sufficient for my wife and me, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz and about 50+ other local/network channels we watch from time to time.

If we cut the cable and got a $40-50 Internet package plus the 3 out of 4 of the premium movie channels, sling tv, an antennae with DVR from Amazon, Netflix, maybe Hulu or something else. Spread the antennae cost over 2 years. Our costs would be way more than what we are paying.

We rarely watch our favorite shows live. If we have something coming up we usually wait 10 minutes into the program and fast forward the commercials.

I've seen this argument before, and it still seems odd to me. I get the argument of paying more for convenience, but comparing to buying every possible other service at once annoys me. Most cable cutters I know are smart about it. They pay for one or two services, for less than a quarter the cost of cable. For variety, you can stop one subscription and start another, say when you finish binge watching a show available on Netflix and want to watch something on Hulu. Do you really watch so much TV that you need "3 out of 4 of the premium movie channels, sling tv, an antennae with DVR from Amazon, Netflix, maybe Hulu or something else" all at once?

You are right and I have heard of the buy, watch, cancel and repeat. It's similar to what I do when my promotional pricing runs out with cable. My comparison was for what I currently have to what it would cost to get the same experience from cord cutting. It was an apples to apples comparison.

All that said, once google fiber gets to my street I am going to give cord cutting a try. Hell I'll probably read more anyway.

Channel surfing. I don't get it either, but my I know lots of people who do. Streaming services are great if you want to pick something and watch it start to end. Not so great if you want background noise and the ability to quickly flick between many sources.

How does this differ from surfing shows on the internet?

If you want background noise and many sources, what's wrong with radio?

Cable companies: "OMG we need to be able to keep fucking over our paying customers with overpriced equipment rentals so we'll insist competing devices might be used for piracy."

Customers: "Excellent point. This pirate box means I don't have to keep paying you dickbags at all. See ya!"

Meh. Would've been nice, but to be honest, there are more important hills to die on than set-top boxes. Net neutrality, oligarchies, and Comcast's "pay up for privacy" are all far more concerning. And let's be honest, there's a finite number of consumer-friendly actions the FCC can reasonably enact before someone from the cable companies puts a bullet through Wheeler's head. Cross one of the other ones off the list, first.

3rd party set-top boxes will enable piracy. That's why we want them.

It's 2016... Can we stop accepting the name "piracy" to describe "sharing"?

I mean, can we get a god-fearing, red-blooded USAmerican family man to say "How DARE you call me a pirate!?" on prime-time television?

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