Is your cable provider doing this?

[gtrz]

I live in IA and use Mediacom.I went to pay my cable bill today and asked how much hbo
or showtime was a-la-carte cause I was thinking of paying a
little more for one of those instead of Starz(sucks).I have extended basic cable(analog),60 some channels.The
clerk said I wouldn't bother cause in a couple months (all)
movie channels would be going digital so I would need a box
anyway.That sucks!I don't want a box,let alone paying $8
more a month for at least 1 additional box.We would have
to have one on the living room tv and my computer.Maybe
you could split on 1 box I don't know,but I just don't want
it.What do you with computer then,set it on channel 3 just
like a tv and use the digital box remote instead?I just don't want the extra hassle and equipment.She said all providers
are eventually doing this.Has yours already?I suppose even
a little further down the line you'll need a digital box for everything,basic and even antenna received signals..(IA is
a fun place to live btw...NOT)

[crazyrunner]

The cable companys want that recurring revenue from a box on every television in your home! It is definitely the trend here with Comcrap (Pennsylvania). They telemarketed me 3x in the past month to try and get me to get digital cable (and since I am a customer, they can bug me all they want and I can't stop them with the new anti-telemarketing laws).

Ever notice on digital cable how everytime you change the channel, when the TV guide pops up, you see a new advertisement? Now you are paying to be bombarded by advertising EVERY TIME YOU SWITCH STATIONS! Ever try to "channel surf" with a digital cable box? It is impossible due to the slow redraw of the freakin ads! Remeber the stories of how they used to run subliminal advertising in movie theaters to get patrons to buy popcorn and soda? It's come to your living room, folks and your paying through the nose for "better quality" service.

Also most people don't realize that 95% of the stations on their "digital" cable box are just analog. And the compression they use on some of the digital only makes the quality look like shite. Remember, digital cable was not created to provide a better quality picture, it was created because cable companies could not cram anymore channels into the existing analog bandwidth. Plus it upped the anti for people who want to try and pirate movie channels.

Comcast has been moving popular cable stations from the analog band to the digital only side to get people to switch. Hell, in my area they even removed the "TV guide channel" when they enable digital on the system. When I called to complain, they said, "Oh sure, digital cable has a great TV guide." Now I've got a laptop in the family room with a window to TitanTV open all the time.

Unfortunately, I think the days of having a TV with built in tuner is beyond use. Look at HDTV ready sets, few if any have a HDTV tuner. You have to purchase a box separately even if you want to put up an antenna and receive on air HDTV broadcasts ($300 - $500 for the freakin tuner!).

Its madness, I tell you, madness!

crazyrunner

[DigitalOv]

most Companies are transitioning to Digital Cable and / or DSS Satillites.

My Company at the moment (Cox Communications) Has Analog and Digital.

And When You Have Digital You Can USe Analog on As Many Tv's as you want (without a Box if your TV Supports Cable)

However alot of channels are getting moved from the analog line up to the Digital Only Line Up.

Ex. MTV is ON Analog and so Is VH1.
VH1 Is Going to Go Up to Digital And VH1 Classic Willb e Added Shortly After.

also I Heard they were Gonna Move ESPN 2 uip to Digital Only.

Just their way of making you pay for another Box and A More Higher Priced Service (cept i Got 1 Box At the Moment and I'll Prolly switch to DishNet for Lack of Channels. (Much Music Toronto, MTV2, Empire Sports etc)

[Swune]

i do that, i have dishTV and same with directTV both digital, and i used the dishnet sat box, and leave my ATI software on #3. I cant use any kinda scedualing, cause ATI cant changed the channel, all i do it leave the dish on the channel i want and setup a timer to record channel 3. I guess if you have been using the buildin tuner for cable, its something new you have to do, but ive been doing it, and its no big deal.

[lukebuz]

Hey! Sounds like you live in Ames, IA? Mediacrap there sucks ass too. Dont even get me started on there cable internet service... ***BAAAAAARF*** Where do you live?

[gtrz]

Waterloo..Ames is at least one of the better towns from
what I hear from just about any college student that's spent any time there..

[Zogg]

It's true that the cable companies get more dollars for the digital service, but remember that there are more and more channels starting up all the time. Using analog you can only push so many channels down the pipe, but with the digital signal it lets them push a lot more. Dish Network and DirecTV are putting more and more channels on so the cable companies have to do what they have to do to stay competitive.

I have DirecTV and I love it, but I still get my local channels on basic cable so that I can pipe it all over the house and for when it rains really hard (DSS signal fades out). Doesn't happen often but I don't want everything to quit on me when it does. I sure don't want to lose the basic cable, but I would understand if it did happen.

Zogg

[NoNoBadDog!]

Here in Hawaii, We have the choice of an analog box or a digital box. I switched from analog to digital. On my digital box, some channels are duplicated, one as analog and one as digital. All I can say is that when I switch from The analog to the digital version of the same channel, the difference in IQ and audio quality is quite dramatic. I do not regret the change over to digital. The interactive programming is awesome! I can catch the local news when I want to watch it, I can order a movier and pause it, rewind and ff it, just like a VCR. It is worth the relatively minor difference in price.

Bobby