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Comcast CT - Soon will require cable box

A

ansky212

My uncle in Farmington called me this week and said he got a letter in the mail from Comcast saying that by August everyone will need a digital converter box to receive all channels above channel 25. The letter said Comcast will be providing 1 digital cable box and 2 digital adapters free of charge. What exactly is a "digital adapter"? He has 3 TV's that he needs to connect, so he doesn't know if these items will be sufficient.
 
Do any of his TVs have what's called a QAM tuner? (Most, if not all, digital TVs have them.) If so, you should still be able to receive many of those stations. I received the same letter here in New Britain. The two TVs on my floor have them, so I should be good.
 
No, his TV's are over 10 years old so they don't have QAM tuners. That's why we were wondering what the difference is between a cable box and a digital adapter.
 
I dont remember recieving a letter from the Branford francise on this change.Again,
we get hosed with this corrupt company.anyway I will drop the expanded cable anyway.no loss. tv sucks now,more time on here online for me.
 
My uncle called me back over the weekend. Basically a digital adapter is like a cable box but without the additional functionality like the program guide or access to On Demand or PPV. Basically it can only be used to tune digital channels. When he showed up at the Comcast office in Plainville last week there were over 40 people in line in front of him waiting to pick up their boxes.
 
ansky212 said:
My uncle called me back over the weekend. Basically a digital adapter is like a cable box but without the additional functionality like the program guide or access to On Demand or PPV. Basically it can only be used to tune digital channels. When he showed up at the Comcast office in Plainville last week there were over 40 people in line in front of him waiting to pick up their boxes.
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Good lord. And they're in Big Y Plaza across the street from The Connecticut Commons (called The Plainville Commons and Lowes Plaza by Plainville residents) and that parking lot is pretty small as it is.
 
I did a rescan on my TV last night to check its QAM tuner. I could see Hallmark, NECN, ESPN 2 and a couple of other stations. I did not see USA Network however. That stinks, because I'd like to see a better picture than the one I get now with Comcast cable channel 36 (and get a better DVD+RW recording at the same time).

To note, I've owned a Sanyo 26" LCD HDTV, model DP26746, for 3 years now. The only HD I get presently is QVC-HD, TBS-HD and when HD is running off of channels 3, 8, 20, 24, 30, 59 and 61.

To MarcB: As Ken said, is COX Communications going to follow suit and do this, too?
 
My cable company RCN gave out digital boxes last June for televisions that are not equipped for the digital era .This device is for televisions that just had cable going into them without a converter box. One was free and the other runs about $2.78 a month. Televisions that already had converter boxes do not need this device or modification for RCN.
RCN boxes have all the bells and whistles.
This is probably whats going on with Comcast. Its a good thing analog stayed around a few months for your uncles sake.
 
Garrett said:
Great, so now they get to charge for something that was free before.

Isn't digital TV wonderful?
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That's what I'm saying. Comcast is going to lose even more customers to AT&T now. Most people that I know want to switch to U-Verse but don't want to have to add a box to every TV in their house. Now with Comcast forcing digital boxes and converters on people, it will be the last straw for many.
 
You do get a couple of extra channels with digital as well. For instance, when MASN started using C-SPAN 2, thus shutting down any hearings, etc., you were pretty well SOL if you wanted to see the hearing, unless the House adjourned and the hearing ran on C-SPAN. With the digital box you can still get C-SPAN 2 when MASN takes over the regular channel. That isn't the only channel you can get with vs without the digital box.

The box thing seems to me to be very antiquated before it gets off the ground, however.
 
KML-224 said:
MASN? Massachusetts or the Mid-Atlantic sports channel?
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The sports network. The box is still rather antiquated, although you can get all kinds of movies and record them and stuff.
 
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