[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by faithfulfrank

We will finally be full time Floridians in less then a month. At our Florida home we currently have Comcast expanded basic....which was fine for me as we were only there a few months a year. I have not been down there since May, so I do not have any of these boxes. I suspect when we do get down there in a few weeks my cable will not work, or not work well I'm sure.

Perhaps this will be a very good time to just get internet from Comcast....THANK YOU Skip for the modem info...!! I think I'll switch to Direct TV, as that is what many of my neighbors have done. I'll finally be rid of a landline and just have our Verizon cellphones.

Comcast has been sending my bill up to my NY home. I have not gotten any mailings from them about this, but of course have followed this news here on TOTV. Thank you all for keeping me informed....!

My other option is to just keep the expanded basic from Comcast and use the internet to get netflix and Hulu......all quite complicated....we'll see.

Call me crazy, but I seem to remember a time when we had an antenna in the attic and we turned on the TV and got about 12 channels....and amazingly we never ever got a bill for that......another time for sure...
Frank

When I was 10, I got a 13 inch black and white TV for Christmas. I was the happiest kid in Iowa. I'm showing my age...

[njbchbum]

Originally Posted by quirky3

Ah, yes, the good old television days - 3 channels, and aluminum foil on the inside antenna

old days? without cable or another resource, with just an outdoor antenna we would only get the 3 major television stations at my home in maine!

[cquick]

Originally Posted by CMANN

Has anyone noticed that previously non scrambled chanels are now scrambled?

I have hade Comcast for many years and have always had a number of unscrambled chanels. I wonder what's up?

yes, we turned on our TV's on Nov. 1 to a big surprise, but the converters help. The main TV with the original converter box stayed the same, but we had to add the extra small boxes to the other TV's and program the remote control that came with them.

On another subject, I think Comcast is really bad. There's no way to block channels or search to see what's on.....I have started using the TV guide site on the computer.....we are renting now, but we are definately changing cable programming companies when we get our house finished!

[CarGuys]

(Think of it this way, TV sets look for stations in fixed increments (like "broadcast over the air" is set up). All the channels are predefined. )

Here in UpState NY our home was at 1700 ft above sea level.

I hooked our 1985 non HD antenna in the attic to our Direct TV cable box antenna connector. Let it run a search and!

We had over 13 free HD signals with clarity better than the Satellite.

I don't understand why but it worked. The old 13 inch color TV in the cellar gym worked with a Zenith HD converter box and got the same free in air stations.

Would this not work in TV also if you had a HD antenna in the attic.

H

[JohnM]

When COMCAST went all digital on 11/1/11, our MEDIA CENTER stopped working ... has anyone figured out how to get their MEDIA CENTER working again?

[getdul981]

What do you mean by Media Center?

[CTgolfer]

We have already installed the 2 free DTA converters on TV's. We have a third TV we would like to convert, but don't want to pay a monthly fee. Has anyone purchased the Comcast DTA converter available through eBay? If we made the purchase, does anyone know if we can just install it and have it work, or will it only work if Comcast initializes it?

[JohnM]

Originally Posted by getdul981

What do you mean by Media Center?

MEDIA CENTER is a software program from Microsoft which is included in Windows 7 ... it connects to cable and to the TV and is basically a fancy DVR and is supposed to bring all your "media" (TV, radio, internet, DVDs, pictures, etc.) together in one place) ... you can akso have a HUGE hard disk so you can record and store LOTS of movies and TV shows ... was working GREAT until COMCAST went all digital ...

[memason]

Originally Posted by JohnM

MEDIA CENTER is a software program from Microsoft which is included in Windows 7 ... it connects to cable and to the TV and is basically a fancy DVR and is supposed to bring all your "media" (TV, radio, internet, DVDs, pictures, etc.) together in one place) ... you can akso have a HUGE hard disk so you can record and store LOTS of movies and TV shows ... was working GREAT until COMCAST went all digital ...

I don't have this setup, but I would expect that you have to put the digital box between the cable wall outlet and your PC Card. You also may need to check your video receiver card (in the PC) to see if it's capable of using digital signals.

Use Google too....there's some info about this situation/setup online.

Good luck!

[Dirigo]

Originally Posted by njbchbum

old days? without cable or another resource, with just an outdoor antenna we would only get the 3 major television stations at my home in maine!

Four if you count MPBN (Channel 10)...and it weren't stormin'...

[njbchbum]

Originally Posted by Dirigo

Four if you count MPBN (Channel 10)...and it weren't stormin'...

rotflmao! thanx for that reminder!

[getdul981]

Originally Posted by JohnM

MEDIA CENTER is a software program from Microsoft which is included in Windows 7 ... it connects to cable and to the TV and is basically a fancy DVR and is supposed to bring all your "media" (TV, radio, internet, DVDs, pictures, etc.) together in one place) ... you can akso have a HUGE hard disk so you can record and store LOTS of movies and TV shows ... was working GREAT until COMCAST went all digital ...

Never heard of that. We have Win.7 on 2 computers, but I have no idea if that's on them or not. I'll have to check that out.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by CarGuys

(Think of it this way, TV sets look for stations in fixed increments (like "broadcast over the air" is set up). All the channels are predefined. )

Here in UpState NY our home was at 1700 ft above sea level.

I hooked our 1985 non HD antenna in the attic to our Direct TV cable box antenna connector. Let it run a search and!

We had over 13 free HD signals with clarity better than the Satellite.

I don't understand why but it worked. The old 13 inch color TV in the cellar gym worked with a Zenith HD converter box and got the same free in air stations.

Would this not work in TV also if you had a HD antenna in the attic.

H

Your antenna (in The Villages) would only bring in one broadcast station, the Fox station in Ocala. All the rest are either in Daytona Beach or the other side of Orlando and way too far for good reception.

Skip

[Skip]

Originally Posted by l2ridehd

Skip, great information. Comcast has a significant business problem. They are losing subscribers and trying to maintain their revenue stream. Remember when AOL was charging $19.95 for e-mail? Comcast is at that point in the business cycle. AOL almost failed and they never did recover from going to free e-mail. Comcast has to make a tough business decision. They can continue current course and speed and will be out of business in less then 10 years, or they can do the necessary market research, provide a product and service that will be perceived as value that will prevent folks moving to alternatives, and perhaps survive long term. It would take giving all HD, plus most sports and movies plus internet at a price point people would believe it was not worth changing. Probably under $50 a month. My guess is based on their model, they will go out of business. They have the worst customer service in the world (validated by multiple surveys) and the only change they make is to run ads stating how good their service really is. That is a company that senior management just doesn't get it. The current leadership will lead them to complete failure. Wish I was on their board of directors.

You said it. This is the only place where they get a net increase in subscribers every year (but it's from new home sales not via competition). However there are many customers, so fed up with their lousy service, they go to Direct TV or Dish after a while.

The county governments (who license these carriers) need to know how bad they really are. Complain to Lake/Sumter/Marion. It's actually possible for them to lose the contract for this area and have BrightHouse (or Cox) take over (not that they're any better).

Skip

[momesu]

Comcast just left and yea!!! I have more channels to choose from than I have time to watch. Funny thing was I never saw an ad for the need to update to all digital until I just got my service back. So I now have Xfinity...Comcast remade.....the picture is clearer than what I had before though and I do have more channels. So I'm happy once again. Oh and I got my DVD player hooked up so I can watch my DVD's but then I learned I also have OnDemand movies...I guess DVD's are so old tech....

Suzanne