For some reason, Time Warner Cable in NYC has decided it would be better to “personalize” the cable boxes they offer and remove access to both Firewire and DVI ports. I don’t have a DVI enabled HDTV, but if I did I’d be pissed I could not use it… I do have a few Firewire enabled computers and I’d like to put them to good use recording programming for my growing Mac media center.
By law / mandate of the FCC consumers are supposed to be able to get a Firewire enabled set top box if requested and that would be great and simple if Time Warner actually offered them. How does one go about requesting something that is not being cleared by the carrier? It’s not exactly like cellular where you can at least bring an unlocked phone to your account.
The thing that gets me is that Firewire is capable of obeying the Broadcast Flag, so in theory the content I might be recording would be protected with the same rights management as other digital systems. I say in theory as I have no way to test things. I know it’s quite possible and relatively simple to build a collection of HD movies and TV programs with the appropriate storage. I can’t be the only one here… At the moment I am limited to converting through S-Video to MPEG-2 or 4. A nice digital stream all the way home would be just perfect.