analog tv in the future?

[bhageman]

Originally Posted by Crazedz

They wanna give us this great deal $79 a month for 20 months for 3meg cable charter digital and the premium channels. a saving over regular price of $112 a month as they put it.

There are no "great deals" when it comes to cable companies. The only question is how far they have you bent over. After 20 months, they will have raised their rates at least twice and $112 will be their "special" price that they are offering to new customers...

You aren't a pessimist if you expect the worst in a specific situation and you are always right...

[jptaz]

I am just happy that I live in a community with 2 cable providers. One is always offering me a special offer. I can usually save money off of my current year.

I just hope neither of them decide to ditch analog.

[kny3twalker]

ThAnd then from what i have read on their digital service the box converts the digital signal to analog anyway. WTF!!! converting to analog whats the point????
Is anybody elses digital cable being converted to analog from the box to the set like this? Whats the point to that?

Why not just stay with analog cable if thats the case it would be cheaper thats for sure.

yeah unless you have DVI or HDMI output on your cable box then it will be analogue
your computer outputs analogue unless you are using DVI
VGA is analogue
it is all about the transmission
with digital you get the exact image they send out
with analogue you get a lot of noise and garbage they do not
I can tell you first hand that digital looks better than analogue for regular TV
and the captures are way better with digital cable/satellite as well

what kind of TV do you have?
it is a digital display device like DLP, LCD or Plasma?
if it is a CRT or CRT projection then your TV is analogue too

wow, you hate the idea of it and have not even tried it

if you want digital straight to your TV
you need a box with DVI or HDMI output on it
like some HDTV boxes have
and a TV that is a digital display listed above

then you can have pure digital

my HDTV gets HDTV and DTV from OTA but still the TV converts it to analogue since it is a CRT
but still it is probably the best PQ, I have ever seen

[mike_15]

Now if all the cable companies adopted a unencrypted QAM policy for all non pay channels I would ok with that, because I could then start replacing my PVR 250s with what ever the best QAM tuner is at the time. And lets be real most of those channels will still just be 480i not HD so they could easily be used by my MediaMVPs.

QAM is new to me. but I take it that QAM is what the cable companies use to transmit the digital signals. but being encripted we cant have hauppauge make a digital tuner for our systems.

[Crazedz]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

Component, s-video, composite, and coax are all analog video outputs.

Here's a blurb from Charter about the different kinds of set top boxes http://support2.charter.com/support/...ntredirect.asp

Ok sorry guess i kinda forgot about the analog to digital to analog conversion or in this case digital to analog to digital to analog conversion. Boy that just throws in one more conversion step dont it. BTW that link doesn't work.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Probably because they can cram 5-6 digital channels in the bandwidth of 1 analog one.

Ahh yes sorta like OTA HD hadn't thought of that but

Ya know what would be nice is if they would actually throw in a bunch of digital channels i mean real digital channels along with it. Not just a couple and the locals which i already get and a few HD channels if i pay for the HDTV box along with the digital box. Their getting to need to many boxes on the set!

Originally Posted by bhageman

There are no "great deals" when it comes to cable companies. The only question is how far they have you bent over. After 20 months, they will have raised their rates at least twice and $112 will be their "special" price that they are offering to new customers...

Yeah i kinda guessed that one as well but after thinking about it i started wondering what if like they did down in owatonna they decide to convert over to pure digital and say well either go digital or loose the cable service. I have put a lot into the current setup not only does my internet go through the cable but we use the vonage service which if im forced to go OTA and DSL i'd loose and be forced back to telco for phone service. Either way it would result in higher costs. Satalites just not an option either so i may find myself forced into the digital service and if thats the case it might be better to get in at a lower rate for now and save some money in the short run.

This would be so much simpler if i could just hook up digital tuners right to the cable and get the channels without needing all the boxes and crap. If they wouldn't encrypt the channels so i could use my own tuners i wouldn't care as much.

New tech can be a headache sometimes when companies like this get to messing around with it.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Crazedz

This would be so much simpler if i could just hook up digital tuners right to the cable and get the channels without needing all the boxes and crap. If they wouldn't encrypt the channels so i could use my own tuners i wouldn't care as much.

It's called CableCard.

[jptaz]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It's called CableCard.

Yes, but if I am not mistaken no one is going to be able to create a PC based cablecard implementation because of the legal issues.

My CableCo only has the music choice channels in QAM which is annoying...Or least a year ago when I tried to tune it with my HD Set that is all I was able to get. I think if cablecos go pure digital all non pay channels should be in unencrypted QAM so that I can just plug in my coax to my TV and tune all those channels and in the case of PVR get a whole bunch of QAM capable HD cards. I also think that when that day comes that a cheap QAM/OTA HD Tuner Converter should be available to allow people to connect to Analog sets the same way you can get a cheap Cable Converters for non Cable Ready TVs today. I would think they should cap these at $100 a piece for a model that only supports old Standard Defition output.

Of course that is a dream because the cable companies love the revenue from monthly cable box rentals. So far in the last year for the 3 additional Digital cable boxes my cable company has received $270 from me. The only reason I went this route was that my PVR 250s Tuners died.

I thought about buying them, but the reality is that each unit would have to cost me under $90 since most products like this only have a 1 year warranty. And of course there is the chance that they chose to change models part way through the year. and then I am stuff with only analog tuning.

Yeah my combined Cable TV / Cable Modem bill is $107 a month, but to get the same services from Satelite providers is still more when it is all added together.

Cable Modem $44.99
Lease Modem $ 2.50
Phone Line $13.00 - Just for Satelite since I use VOIP phone.
VOIP $14.99
DirectTV service $42.99
Protection Plan $ 5.99
3 Additional Rcvrs $14.97
Starz $12.00
==================
Monthly Total $151.43 ( Without tax and fees etc.)

Start up cost $80.

This assumes that my cable company does block the analog TV channels and my PVR 500 can still use that. If I have to get 2 more boxes for directv I need which will cost $100 up front and another $9.98 a month.

Current Fees with Cable TV

Digital Cable + internet $77.99 (Includes Starz)
Lease Modem $ 2.50
Digtal Boxes $22.50
VOIP $14.99
==================
Monthly Total $117.98( Without tax and fees etc.)

That works out to $34 a month and I can still watch Analog TV in several locations in the house. Now if they ditch Analog that means I need 2 more Digital Boxes at $15.00 a month. Still nearly $30 a month savings for Similar service levels. Yeah if I ditched Starz and didn't need the Phone line things would be pretty close, but at this point Cable just makes sense for me and I do not feel the quality difference justifies the cost.

John

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jptaz

Yes, but if I am not mistaken no one is going to be able to create a PC based cablecard implementation because of the legal issues.

I had assumed/figured that a PC would never become a CableCard certified device, but it's looking like I'm wrong, at least partly:
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/lapto...mce-029429.php