ComCast & Cablevision

[nanci2539]

There was a full page ad in yesterday's Daily Sun on Page A21 stating that Comcast customers are not being told the truth about moving over to digital.

Can anyone elaborate in simple terms what this means or is it a bogus ad. As I understand it, it's going to cost an extra $6 per month per TV to switch over to digital.

[Skip]

Simple - Cable companies MUST support analog transmission until 2012. Broadcast stations MUST switch by Feb. 17, 2009. Right now Comcast mixes both analog and digital signals on your cable. You have at least 4 more years to go. Then there will be a transition by each cable company to switch entirely to digital transmission only. By that time you will probably own only digital TVs.

BTW, did you know that you don't need a cable box or pay extra for High Definition programming from Comcast? If you ask Comcast, they will tell you you need to rent a box and pay a monthly fee to get HD. Not true! HD is already on the cable and you can get ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and Discovery in HD if your HDTV has a QAM compliant tuner. And it's not stealing. It's there for your enjoyment, free. They just don't want to tell you that.

So relax, you have a few more years before a "digital decision".

Skip

[nanci2539]

Thanks Skip - this is so confusing to me. I've always had Direct TV but signed up for ComCast here.

I was told that inorder to have DVR (we called it TiVo) and HD, the cost was $13.98 per month (in order ot have DVR, you had to sign up for HD).

For just HD, it's an extra $6 a month per TV.

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the extra $6 a month for HD is not necessary if you have this QAM tuner? Is this something that's already built into your TV with HD?

[Skip]

Most HDTVs have a QAM compliant tuner. You have to check the manual to be sure. If you bought an HDTV from say Walmart and got the very basic cheap model, it may not have a QAM tuner. It may not have any tuner at all (they would call it an HD Monitor then)! QAM is the method all cable companies use to compress HD. (Something like what JPEG is to images for your computer.) That compression is different than what the satellite companies use to compress their signals. So a QAM tuner does nothing for satellite signals.

QAM is NOT scrambling, however. Scrambling is a method of secure transmission where you need a "key" at the receiving end to "unlock" the program. That requires a set-top box. The cable companies are allowed to scramble any channel EXCEPT what is broadcast in your local area.

For $6/month you will receive all the 4 Network HD feeds, plus DiscoveryHD*, plus a few others in HD. It's the "few others" (like A&E-HD, FX-HD, ESPN-HD) that are costing extra to unscramble with a box because the Network and Discovery* HD feeds are already free and don't need to be unscrambled. They come through just compressed (QAM).

*For a while Comcast had The Weather Channel-HD for free, now it's Discovery-HD for free. Next year it might be Food Channel-HD for free. They seem to like to tease us. But you'll always get the major networks in HD for no extra cost.

If you have an HD television, open the manual to the "Specifications Page" and in the area where it specifies the tuner(s) look for the abbreviation "QAM" where it lists "Digital Cable".

Now decide if getting A&E, FX and ESPN etc. (you already get these in analog, remember) in the higher resolution is worth the extra $6/month.

"On-Demand" programming is a whole 'nother ball game. That DOES REQUIRE a SPECIAL set-top-box (that can communicate in both directions).

Hope this helps.

Skip