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Originally posted by Blue Rain Is there some kind of restrictions/Law not allowing other manufacturers to build these STB's? |
Originally posted by Ken H Yup. The cableco does not want decoding boxes available from anyone except them, ... |
Yup. The cableco does not want decoding boxes available from anyone except them, so the mgf. only sells them to the cableco. |
Originally posted by jerndl This is the kind of situation that concerns me if the Dish/Directv merger goes through. Currently Dish is the only provider for compatible STBs. Their attitude seems to be, you'll take our STB and like it. At least with Directv you can choose from several brands of STBs. If the only choices we will have left are cable or the "new" Dish then we may not have much choice at all. |
Originally posted by DaleBarrett Isn't that one of the things the "OpenCable" standard is supposed to address - i.e. you should be able to get an off-the-shelf generic box from multiple sources? BTW, why should they need to "own" the box - don't they have the ability to turn on or off the decode remotely? |