I’m sure most people are familiar with the ubiquitous set top box lounging around or near their television eating around 19 volts and putting off quite a bit of heat. Most people probably figure these are just part of the package with having cable service. A necessity that we’ve all come to terms with. Well not me. I stood up and challenged the system. I wanted something better for my house. Will no one rid me of these turbulent devices?
I ordered the HDHomeRun Prime from Silicon Dust because I’m a sucker. The website promised “3 Digital Tuners Anywhere on your network”, and yes I was able to to accomplish that – after several trips to the cable office and finally adding another device to make it work. The Tuning Adapter (another box) required by my cable provider gave off just as much heat as an entire cable box and needed yet another power adapter plugged into my array of cords. I perform all of this work to find out that I cannot access my HDHR Prime unless my home theater PC uses Windows 7 (which mine doesn’t). Even if I do switch to Windows 7, if I wanted to watch that content in more than one room I basically have to buy an Xbox for every other room in my house. Guess who doesn’t want to pay for an Xbox. This guy!
Time Warner Cable broadcasts a protective flag on every single channel so that I can’t access those channels unless I jump a bunch of hoops intended to stop me from pirating content.
This is all about DRM or Digital Rights Management, which is nothing new. I’ve been ranting about this to anyone that will listen since I was old enough to get invited to parties. So much so, that I don’t get invited to many parties. I joke! I get invited to lots of parties. Really, I do.
In short, DRM is an idea that if protections are added to media content, it will safeguard the sale of that content and ensure profits for the hard working people network executives (and possibly shareholders) that voted we should be protecting that content. In actuality what usually happens is that only the honest users have their experience hampered by these protections and the more tech savvy users circumvent these protections entirely and may not have even noticed them.
Have you ever had Windows on your PC ask you to run some “Genuine Advantage Tool?” Like you’re still going to to call Microsoft and ask them to support this kludgy nightmare of an operating system. Have you had Windows ask you to validate your copy of Windows? Yes, Windows is feeling a bit insecure about it’s weight today and it needs some validation.
Even iTunes will ask you to authorize files for the computer you’re using. Sometimes it’s the same computer you’ve always been using. What a joy to do this on every single track. This is how I wanted to spend my Saturday. It’s no wonder I can never get to the gym. My iPod has little tiny fascists in it that slow me down.
These are examples of DRM causing annoyances for valid users. Funny that Microsoft and Apple’s global profits are through the roof, and TWC isn’t really hurting for profits. Why then do they feel the need to protect themselves from piracy? Maybe that’s how a company reaches “through the roof” profits. I thought it was ingenuity and innovation, but what do I know? I’m just some slob in Texas that still pays for cable.
Well maybe not for much longer. There are plenty of ways to cut the cord from the cable company. A quick search on the internet will turn up life hacker articles, and other internet coverage galore. I’m going to call the cable company later tonight and start canceling all those fancy movie channels and make arrangements to get that content elsewhere.
