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| This week on TechHive: Less competition for cable boxes |
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| Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission finally gave up on trying to mandate more alternatives to clunky and expensive cable boxes.
In a unanimous decision, the agency eliminated rules requiring cable providers to support CableCARD devices, which are used today in third-party DVRs such as TiVo. (That doesn’t mean CableCARD support will disappear overnight, but it does give cable companies more power to push people away from it.) The FCC also officially terminated a four-year-old proposal that would have opened the door to even more cable-box competition.
The FCC’s decision was on some level just a formality. CableCARD has long been a neglected technology among consumers, and the proposal to “unlock” the cable box dates back to the Obama-era FCC, which was much more adversarial toward TV providers than the current commission. But it’s also a sad reminder of how even in the streaming era, cable and satellite TV customers have little choice over what hardware they can use. The FCC has now reiterated that it’s no longer interested in doing anything about it. Read the full column on TechHive. |
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| Weekly rewind |
| The NFL’s mobile streams: Just like last year, the NFL is offering free live streams of local and primetime games on smartphones and tablets. You can use the NFL or NFL Fantasy app, individual team apps, and a variety of Yahoo apps (including, oddly enough, Yahoo Mail). The Yahoo Sports smartphone app will also include a nifty “Watch Together” mode where you can video chat with up to three other friends while watching the game.
The catch, as in previous years, is that you can’t watch for free on TV devices; the mobile apps will even specifically block screen mirroring via Chromecast or AirPlay. But if you’re using an antenna or Locast to watch local games instead of paying for a streaming TV bundle, the mobile apps will at least fill in the gaps for games that are still exclusive to cable channels, such as ESPN’s Monday Night Football coverage.
Also worth noting: NFL Redzone is back as a $35 per year subscription on smartphones only. The option to sign up remains buried in the NFL app under More (bottom-right corner of the screen) > Profile icon (top-right corner of the screen > Subscriptions. Unfortunately, Verizon doesn’t appear to be offering discounts on mobile Redzone for its customers this season, and as with last year, watching Redzone on a television without cable requires a full-blown pay TV bundle through either YouTube TV ($76 per month with “Sports Plus”), FuboTV (also $76 per month with “Sports Plus”), or Vidgo’s Plus package.
AirTV’s new DVR: Dish Network subsidiary AirTV is out with a new over-the-air DVR called AirTV Anywhere. Like the existing AirTV 2 tuner, the new DVR connects to your Wi-Fi network and streams live or recorded TV into the Sling TV app on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, iOS, and Android devices. The AirTV Anywhere, however, has a 1 TB hard drive built in so you don’t have to connect an external drive for DVR, and it has a quad tuner instead of a dual tuner, so you can play or record up to four live channels at once.
The price is right at $200 with no subscription fees—that’s $80 less than Amazon’s comparable Fire TV Recast, and $40 less than the comparable Tablo Quad before subscription fees—and being able to add local channels to the Sling TV app remains a standout feature. But last time I checked, AirTV’s DVR features and video quality were still lackluster. I’ll be reviewing this device soon to see if anything’s changed. |
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| Save more money |
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| Tablo’s Dual Lite DVR is currently on sale for $100 through Amazon or Best Buy. That’s $40 off the regular price and a match with Black Friday pricing. Similar to the AirTV tuner I mentioned above, Tablo connects to your Wi-Fi network, then streams video to the Tablo app, which you can download on pretty much any streaming device. It essentially serves as a whole-home DVR for broadcast channels, though keep in mind you’ll also need to hook up an external hard drive for it to function.
I still say that Tablo Dual and the four-tuner Tablo Quad are the best over-the-air DVRs for most people, because they’re easy to setup and work with a wide range of streaming devices, but those who demand pristine video quality will still want to look elsewhere. |
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| When you want to play some music, it’s all too easy to just open up Spotify or Apple Music and tap on whatever playlists they’ve laid out for you. But lately I’ve realized there’s a whole world of other interesting music options out there, ones that can better help you discover new tunes, put you in a more relaxed mindset, or even stretch out those summer vibes for a bit longer.
I’ve rounded up a bunch of those nifty musical apps and tools in the latest issue of Advisorator, my other newsletter covering tech advice beyond the realm of cord-cutting. Sign up for a free trial, and I’ll gladly send that newsletter your way. |
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| Thanks for reading! |
| Earlier this week, I exchanged emails with a reader on a topic relevant to this week’s newsletter. They were looking to cut the cord with some combination of an over-the-air DVR, a live TV streaming bundle (in this case Philo), and other streaming services such as Amazon Prime, but they were confused on the difference between a TiVo DVR and networked tuner options such as Tablo and Fire TV Recast. (Understandably so; the various product names alone are enough to make anyone woozy.)
Rather than typing out a long email explaining it all, I decided to put my Microsoft Paint skills to the test and illustrate how these different setups work. Against my better instincts, I am going to share the results with you all. Check out the image here, and please don’t judge me too harshly. There’s a reason I’m a writer by trade and not a graphic designer.
Anyway, send me your questions, comments, feedback, and requests for on-demand MS Paint illustrations by replying to this email.
Until next week,
Jared |
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