Xfinity moving away from QAM/CableCard? - need new equipment for international channel

[nikleb]

Just received a letter that my international (TV5) channel will no longer be available with my "current equipment". I am using a Ceton tuner with CableCard.
They ask me to upgrade to an Xfinity box. Does this mean that Xfinity is slowly moving away from QAM/CableCard support? I am assuming Tivo customers would run into the same issue?

I wonder if this is related:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-thea ... finity-x1/

[adam1991]

All sorts of things are happening at Comcast:

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast ... -packages/

[nikleb]

TV5 is a premium channel. I think I pay about $10/month.

[Space]

As far as I know major cable operators are still required to "ensure access to all linear channels" for a CableCard device. I am not aware of anything changing in this regard, but I may be wrong.

One thing that has changed is that cable operators are no longer required to have their own devices (the ones they rent to customers) use a CableCard, but the rule to support third party CableCard devices is still in place.

[nikleb]

Seems like they are no longer required for all channels. I believe what happens here is that international channel are moved to IP channels.

[Space]

Yeah, I'm not sure. I guess using IP channels is a way to get around the "all linear channels" aspect, although I'm not sure what, exactly, a linear channel is. I assume they are just the channels sent via QAM.

[lurch66]

I am hoping ip could be a long needed replacement for cable card. As mso's move to an all ip platform things could move to a tv anywhere platform where ALL channels are available and or a app based solution with cloud based dvr support. I have been using cable cards on my media center PC for over 10 years with a tuning adapter for much of that time and I grew tired of the constant tinkering needed to keep it all working and moved to streaming/off air last year. If ip took the place of cable cards it may entice me to resubscribe to cable.

[nikleb]

I agree, IP seems the way to go. But I have not bought into the Xfinity boxes...
Would be nice to have a Xfinity app on Roku that works