Channels Moved From Regular Cable To Digital Only

[radiolives]

I noticed the other day that Speed Channel wasn't on its channel 61 like it has always been just snow. But with a digital cable box you can still pick up Speed on Channel 61 and also on channel 512 where all the sports networks are located. I don't understand how 61 is viewable from a digital cable box but not the regular cable anymore. Not that it bothers me as I never watch Speed.

Also to add about this, I called Time Warner and they said it was the networks choice (News Corps who owns Speed) and not Time Warners to make it avaiable only to digital cable. As this has happend with another network awhile ago, Oxygen was on 74 but can now only be viewed on 74 with a digital box and on 300 something.

 

[Bill_W]

Many cable companies are in the process of or have totally removed analog cable. Here in the Philly area, both Comcast's Xfinity and Verizon's FiOS have taken away analog cable. Xfinity only has the SD feed of most broadcast channels (only 1 PBS channel) plus 3 cable channels on analog cable. FiOS has no analog cable. The bandwith used by analog cable is now being used for more digital HD programming. The switch over started slowly with all the cable channels 2-99 being broadcast in digital to digital boxes and analog to cable ready TVs. Comcast started mapping the digital signals to the digital boxes which left them with the ability to eventually take away say analog cable channel 61 while 61 still shows up on the digital box. The fact you can pick up the same channel on channel 61 and 512 is because they have the ability to map that 1 channel to 2 numbers on your digital cable box. It is only 1 channel taking up 1 channel's bandwith.

 

[JeeperOne]

Here in Denver, Comcast/Xfinity has things in the following order.....

2-20 Broadcast & Very Basic Channels (Required To Get Cable)
21-99 Expanded Basic (FSN, ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, HLN, FNC, etc)
100+ Various Digital Packages

The various digital packages include.....

129 MSNBC (Also seen on Channel 65)
163 TruTV (Also seen on Channel 71)
169 C-SPAN 3
170 C-SPAN 2
171 Oxygen (Also seen on Channel 44)
180 Bravo (Also seen on Channel 61 which is also shared Jewelry TV)

Other channels that are mirrored are.....

168 NFL Network (Also seen on Channel 417 though this might change considering the lockout situation)
439 NBA TV (Also seen on Channel 416)

There's also a Latin/English channel lumped somewhere in the 300s along with the other Latin-only channels (Can't think of it right now & I'm not gonna bother looking it up). It is a mirror of its original channel which is in the 500s.

Cheers

 

[MarcB]

Over the past few years the following channels have gone digital only on COX Cable's Meriden, Connecticut Franchise. Serves the towns of Meriden, Cheshire, and Southington. (My mom lives in Southington)

Speed Channel (Used to be on 70-something)
Jewelery Television (Used to be on analog 67. Now digital 71)
Leased Access (Used to be on Analog 96. Now digital 72 and 74 2 different Leased Access Channels)
CSPAN is on both analog 21 and digital 76
CSPAN 2 (Used to be on Analog 22. Now Digital 77)
WSAH/43 - Infomercials (Used to be on Analog 8. Now digital 75 and 73 (For whatever reason 73 is listed as Leased Access)
Cox Sports Television - Infomercials (Used to be on analog 2 after WFSB moved to 3. Now on digital 128)
CMT (Used to be on analog 57. Now on Digital 196)
TV Guide Network (ever since they went digital only the listings are gone) *Still on 19*
Cox Public Access TV 15 (Still on 15)
Government Access (Still on 14)
Educational Access (Still on 16)
Discover Health (Used to be on analog 56. Now Digital 100-something. Now called OWN)

Except for SNY (Sports-net New York) all new channels are digital only. SNY was added to analog 62 in September 2010 after they picked up the rights to the University of Connecticut Football games and University of Connecticut Men's Basketball games.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Cox removed some channels in the mid-2000s, most notably TCM and Discovery Health (back in the middle of the decade). OLN/Versus also was moved.

Cox's analog numbers used to go up to 74 or 75 (excluding some upper 90s channels). They now go to 63 plus 70, and 18 is missing. 69 is digital only Versus.

 

[WPPCProductions]

I had a talk with a Comcast person on the phone about a week ago about the digital switch. he said by the end of this year.channels above the first 25 will need a box.the locals will be around for a little longer.they will provide two standard cable boxes for free ,the 3rd with a charge the person said.

P.S. Comcast Connecticut. will be jacking up their rates as of May 1st.some of the installation fee's drop as of the same date too.
I guess ESPN needs more cash.

 

[ding12]

Many cable companies are in the process of or have totally removed analog cable. Here in the Philly area, both Comcast's Xfinity and Verizon's FiOS have taken away analog cable.

Fios never had analog cable!

 

[MarcB]

I had a talk with a Comcast person on the phone about a week ago about the digital switch. he said by the end of this year.channels above the first 25 will need a box.the locals will be around for a little longer.they will provide two standard cable boxes for free ,the 3rd with a charge the person said.

P.S. Comcast Connecticut. will be jacking up their rates as of May 1st.some of the installation fee's drop as of the same date too.
I guess ESPN needs more cash.

I wonder if this includes the Waterbury Comcast system they got from Tele-media. This is the provider we have at Illusions in Wolcott. None of our TVs have boxes hooked up to them. If they're gonna give 2 free boxes and charge you for the remainder, Mr. Burby is gonna have a fit. We have in the neighborhood of 10 TVs at Illusions.

 

[WPPCProductions]

I had a talk with a Comcast person on the phone about a week ago about the digital switch. he said by the end of this year.channels above the first 25 will need a box.the locals will be around for a little longer.they will provide two standard cable boxes for free ,the 3rd with a charge the person said.

P.S. Comcast Connecticut. will be jacking up their rates as of May 1st.some of the installation fee's drop as of the same date too.
I guess ESPN needs more cash.

I wonder if this includes the Waterbury Comcast system they got from Tele-media. This is the provider we have at Illusions in Wolcott. None of our TVs have boxes hooked up to them. If they're gonna give 2 free boxes and charge you for the remainder, Mr. Burby is gonna have a fit. We have in the neighborhood of 10 TVs at Illusions.

Wow 20 sets.that will be expensive box fee charge.I'm in Wallingford which is the Branford francise I dont know what will happen with the rest of Connecticut .I have about a bakers dozen hookups including the vcr's.since my tv habbits are in the low of watching .the two freebee's plus the main box will cover the channels I record and view.

 

[Neel]

Charter is moving channels to digital only as well...the latest was KCET (which is odd since it's an over the air channel). I wish they would make the channels in HD as they are moving to digital since more and more people have HDTVs. Cable still has a lot of catching up to do with dish when it comes to HD.

 

[kenrayc]

Comcast/Xfinity in Central Ca and Northern CA switched already to all digital, except the locals are still available analog, in Fresno that also includes WGN America and the national feed of ION.

 

[Bill_W]

Many cable companies are in the process of or have totally removed analog cable. Here in the Philly area, both Comcast's Xfinity and Verizon's FiOS have taken away analog cable.

Fios never had analog cable!

FiOS did have analog cable in the very beginning, channels 2-49. My parents got FiOS in Cherry Hill, NJ right when it rolled out a couple of years ago. They had 2 cable ready TVs plugged into the FiOS cable wire and got 2-49, all the locals plus WeatherScan Local without a box. They got a letter from Verizon that they would need boxes because analog cable was going to be taken away. They have 2 of the small Motorola that don't have IP so, they don't get the onscreen guide, but they do get all the chanels that they get on the big cable boxes for free. This has to be a couple of years now but, FiOS did have a very limited analog lineup in the beginning.

http://www.**********.com/forum/r20323807-Questions-About-Going-Digital-.

 

[radiolives]

I had a talk with a Comcast person on the phone about a week ago about the digital switch. he said by the end of this year.channels above  the first 25 will need a box.the locals will be around for a little longer.they will provide two standard cable boxes for free ,the 3rd with a charge the person said.

P.S. Comcast Connecticut. will be jacking up their  rates as of May 1st.some of the installation fee's drop as of the same date too.
I guess ESPN needs more cash.

Could be for FOX News as News Corp wants more money.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Then there are more radical reclamation projects, like Comcast's "Project Cavalry" in Chicago (no box? no non-basics).

In some markets, like Phoenix (Cox's #2 in phone AND in Internet), these "channels" are precious as data services. The space used for analog channel 66 can be redistributed to be a whole suite of data services and bandwidth. Cox, however, bought into Phoenix. They had to upgrade their network before major HD came, and Phoenix lagged in HD (no On Demand until 2008!) for years until it was completed. In one part of town, only the locals were on analog cable because of the age of the system (Tempe on 550mHz).

The "snow" on channel 72 is probably actually digital, compressible data service replacing the inefficiency of analog television.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Some 90 year will complain that they will now need to a box to view CSPAN or the city government channel on their 20 year old RCA Tube TV when they move channels to digital. A producer of a show on a public access channel that only the same 5 people watch will also complain

 

[WPPCProductions]

I had a talk with a Comcast person on the phone about a week ago about the digital switch. he said by the end of this year.channels above the first 25 will need a box.the locals will be around for a little longer.they will provide two standard cable boxes for free ,the 3rd with a charge the person said.

P.S. Comcast Connecticut. will be jacking up their rates as of May 1st.some of the installation fee's drop as of the same date too.
I guess ESPN needs more cash.

Could be for FOX News as News Corp wants more money.

Oop I forgot to mention Fox sports channel. I have to agree,My Dad likes the channel.I was a CNN fan ,but when everyones brother and sister want to have a hour or two with their own talk shows like all other cable new channels that when I throw in the towel on cable tv news providers.anyway I get most of my news from online and the ole radio.

 

[nathannah]

Charter is moving channels to digital only as well...the latest was KCET (which is odd since it's an over the air channel). I wish they would make the channels in HD as they are moving to digital since more and more people have HDTVs. Cable still has a lot of catching up to do with dish when it comes to HD.

That's probably more because KOCE is now the main PBS station in the LA market and KCET no longer carries programs from that network more than anything. The rule is as long as only ONE major PBS station is carried on the analog lineup, a cable company can air other PBS and public broadcasting signals on their digital tiers.

 

[MarcB]

I had a talk with a Comcast person on the phone about a week ago about the digital switch. he said by the end of this year.channels above the first 25 will need a box.the locals will be around for a little longer.they will provide two standard cable boxes for free ,the 3rd with a charge the person said.

While I was DJing at Illusions in Wolcott tonite I had Food Network on the TV in the DJ booth. Every so often a message that took up half the 13 inch screen would pop up stating something to the effect of "If you see this message you do not have the upgrade equipment to continue viewing once we complete our digital upgrade. Please call Comcast at 1-877-xxx-xxxx for more information to provide uninterrupted service." This would be COMCAST WATERBURY.

 

[wprt949]

you should have ESPN on while you dj at the club almost all djs glance over at espn while doing a gig at the club

 

[MarcB]

I don't watch ESPN. The only sports I'm interested in are The Yankees, Phillies (sometimes), Giants (football), Eagles (sometimes), and NASCAR.

There was no reason for me to watch tonites Yankees game as it was 7-0 by the 7th Inning. We were kicking Oriole's butt.