Comcast moves SyFy, AMC, CN out of the standard cable service package.

[TroyG]

Houston area viewers MUST pick up a digital cable box in order to continue to watch these channels.

 

[fredcantu]

I believe the goal is for all cable viewing to be digital someday. It's a more efficient use of their cable bandwidth.

 

[TroyG]

Well, by the end of the year, All cable channels will be broadcasting in digital. So there, analog TV will now become so obsolete.

 

[fredcantu]

This means your trusty analog cable-ready TV will need a cable box.

 

[azumanga]

It also means that if you stay at a hotel in an area served by Comcast, you'll get your programming from Dish Network and Lodge Net. Ask anyone who stayed in the Chicagoland area the last couple of years.

 

[Mediafrog+]

All this is part of Comcast's so-called "Project Cavalry", which will eliminate the analog feeds of non-broadcast services.

I do recall reading that a limited analog service consisting of broadcast channels and public access would remain as a lifeline service. That would, here in Houston for example, leave about 20-25 channels in analog, freeing up 40 or so channels that are currently analog. That's approximately 240 MHz of bandwidth to play with for new HD offerings.

 

[TroyG]

And it won't be long for The Comcast name to fade away as it'll becomes Xfinity, which is taken over several markets served by Comcast.

 

[raccoonradio]

I noticed this at my father's house on Cape Cod a few months back (he is now moving back to Boston's North Shore) where a lot of channels turned up "missing". I realized he should have gotten one of those boxes. We contacted Comcast who said that back in Dec. they should have sent them 2 of the boxes but we said my Dad (and my stepmother) never got them. They finally did come through.

The setup my Dad had was in the living room a digital set but no special box (thus many channels were gone)
while my stepmother's room had a digital box on a digital set (so she DID have all the channels already). So the box was necessary for all sets (guest
room upstairs, too).

In my own place, I had one of the boxes from a couple yrs back because I needed it for my DVD recorder to
work. I have an analog set but digital box, etc.

 

[KTN Corp]

Anyone know of the date when the "Digital Migration" will take place? I was hoping that they will hold out until February 17/June 12, 2012. (The sooner they do this, the sooner I can to upgrade my internet to 6 Mbps.)

BTW you can still watch the broadcast channels in analog until 2012 unless Comcast decides not to since it has complied with FCC regs.

 

[mikerichardson]

I've always wondered, why don't they just broadcast the current analog channels in such a way that regular ATSC boxes and non-QAM digital TVs can pick them up?

For example, channels 2-13 on cable correspond to the same frequencies for OTA. That gives them 12 frequencies or 60 SD subchannels - enough to offer basic cable.

I know it's a less efficient use of spectrum, but wouldn't it save them the expense of millions of additional "DTA" boxes, while allowing people to use existing cheap ATSC boxes or digital TVs?

 

[fredcantu]

You realize the cable company makes money out of cable box rentals.
And I hope you never have one stolen or destroyed in a storm.
There's another real revenue stream for them.
And you still have to ask why they make their cable service almost useless without their box?

 

[mikerichardson]

You realize the cable company makes money out of cable box rentals.
And I hope you never have one stolen or destroyed in a storm.
There's another real revenue stream for them.
And you still have to ask why they make their cable service almost useless without their box?

Actually, it was my understanding that the DTAs are given out for free, with no monthly fee. They are extremely basic - no two way features at all, no guide, not even a composite output.

Using ATSC would have saved them millions of dollars on boxes, and they could have provided a 24 hour guide as well.