End of QAM tuners ?

[stanger89]

Oh completely understood, but people aren't going to just accept a removed feature of the service just because it's "digital", being digital doesn't just magically make it better. IMO that is what we're talking about, lots of people relied on being able to view/record the "basic" (2-99) tier without an STB, and many are going to be quite annoyed when that functionality is lost, and they're completely justified in it IMO. This is all happening sort of at once for a lot of people, they're losing their analog (which could be viewed/recorded without a box) to encrypted digital. What makes it potentially more annoying is that they may have had a tease of clear QAM for a short time in between.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by stanger89

IMO that is what we're talking about, lots of people relied on being able to view/record the "basic" (2-99) tier without an STB, and many are going to be quite annoyed when that functionality is lost, and they're completely justified in it IMO.

This is sort of a tangent, since I think we're on the same page on this topic, but channels 2-99 do not make up the basic tier. According to the FCC's terminology, the basic tier consists of the local broadcast networks, as well as public access, government and educational programming that the cable provider has agreed to provide.

Channels 2-99 are generally called the "expanded basic" tier.

The only reason I bring it up is that I think the misunderstanding about what is the basic tier creates confusion in these threads when we're talking about cable companies encrypting the basic tier. It seems like there's always someone that comes along thinking that is channels 2-99.

[Clift]

The other problem here also is that we don't know for how long these DTA's will be free. And I don't see Comcast lining up to provide 7 DAT's free of charge. Whereas, with the "old" system, I could have 2 digital cable boxes and scatter TV's across the house for access to the analog channels. So, definitely there will be some inconvenience. And the other one I never hear mentioned is that now you will need to use a CableCO remote. Well, I happen to like my TV remote just fine. I'd like to continue using that one

[KarylFStein]

Yesterday, there was a brief outage of analog. Clear QAM and the Internet worked fine. When it was over, I had a bunch of new Clear QAM (extended basic) stations and lost a few analog, so spent an hour or so mapping the tuners from OTA to not lose channels. I also received a letter from Comcast saying I had a month to "upgrade" to the digital STB and those with TVs with QAM tuners also needed the STB, (which to me means those "clear QAM" signals won't be clear for long). Guess they really mean it .

[Greg]

I got a voice mail from Comcast today informing me to get the DTA's because the conversion away from analog will be March 3rd. This is in the surban Chicago area.

Greg

[Ryokurin]

Comcast is supposed to be finished with the conversion in all areas by the end of the year I believe. The big if is when they will start locking down channels in your area. Some they have done it at the same time and others they converted and have left alone for months. I'm just hoping that some of the cablecard solutions can be ported seamlessly as otherwise the writing is on the wall.