TV GUIDE NETWORK moves from Analog Cable to Digital Cable.

[sandiegoinexile]

Thanks for the suggestion, Pat Cook, but Mom is on a fixed income. She can't afford to get digital cable. She has paid for a 12 month promotional price of $10 a month. God knows how much it will be by the time the promotion ends. Unlike PGE and ATT, there is no Lifeline/Senior discount on Cable TV. Probably because Cable is considered a luxury rather than a neccesity. The cheapest digital pakage here is for the digital starter package (around $58 plus tax).

Getting back to the "no listings" dilemma. Since every cable system is different, you might want to call Comcast and see if they lease the set-top digital box WITHOUT upgrading to digital channel tiers.

As I noted earlier, we had basic cable AND the box. The only channels that "worked" on the digital spectrum (channels 101-1999) were the "public access" channels that TimeWarner had migrated from analog, Music Choice, duplicate channels from the analog 2-75, on-demand channels, a few of the local subchannel all-weather channels, and the on-screen guide via remote control. The box was just 4.95 a month. And even if Comcast charges $10 a month, that's still substantially less than $58+tax.

You may hit a wall at customer service, but I'll bet other folks have complained about this as well. Every city licenses the cable company and has a designated contact in city government. You can always contact that office and file a complaint against Comcast. The cable companies absolutely HATE that.

Worse comes to worse, use TitanTV and print out the daily listings for Grandma and mail them to her. There is a feature on their listings that will give you an entire 24-hour listing by channel. Since she only watches a few channels, you are looking at 4-5 pages per day. The schedule is loaded 2 weeks in advance, so you can make your own TV Guide.

 

[Madmansam]

Thanks San Diego. Actually it's Mom, not Grandma! Comcast, here won't rent out the digital receiver unless you have the digital service. But a great suggestion is the one on printing the program schedule from Titan TV. Now I need to get a printer to do it. Still that's a great suggestion! Thanks!

 

[azumanga]

Comcast, here won't rent out the digital receiver unless you have the digital service.

Isn't that against FCC regulations?

 

[JeeperOne]

Comcast, here won't rent out the digital receiver unless you have the digital service.

Isn't that against FCC regulations?

Nope.

Cheers

 

[nathannah]

You may hit a wall at customer service, but I'll bet other folks have complained about this as well. Every city licenses the cable company and has a designated contact in city government. You can always contact that office and file a complaint against Comcast. The cable companies absolutely HATE that.

This sadly depends on market these days as the telecoms and cable companies talk the state legislatures into allowing state authorities to blanket-license them across their service areas and cutting the cities out of everything except basic right-of-way fees. That's the way it is in Wisconsin after AT&T convinced the state to pass a law allowing deregulation under the cover of 'lower fees' (says someone who gets lucky enough to pay $10 more starting next month for Charter...hooray for me!).

 

[vchimpanzee]

I find it strange that the Sacramento Bee removed their TV listings, The Fresno Bee ( Sacramento's sister paper) just expanded their Sunday TV guide ,but you must request it to be added to the Sunday Paper for 29 cents extra a week.

With the trend towards online and on-screen listings, the listing booklets are no longer cost-effective for newspapers. Personally, I've never cared for them; back in the day, the old-school TV Guide was more in-depth and easier to navigate.

One paper where I live asked subscribers to say they wanted it and they got it. That includes libraries, which I'm gratful for because this book has some interesting stuff in it my local paper used to have.

My local paper discontinued it but asked people to subscribe for about $25 a year to this book that gets delivered. I did, but I haven't used it yet. I'm glad I've got it as a record of what was on and for the articles, although I was hoping for more of those. With TiVo and another paper at the local library that puts its listings in a weekly entertainment section, I haven't really needed it, but if that library ever misses getting that day's paper ...

 

[vchimpanzee]

Worse comes to worse, use TitanTV and print out the daily listings for Grandma and mail them to her. There is a feature on their listings that will give you an entire 24-hour listing by channel. Since she only watches a few channels, you are looking at 4-5 pages per day. The schedule is loaded 2 weeks in advance, so you can make your own TV Guide.

That sounds like what TiVo does. I'm getting to the point where I can figure out how to access this. Really detailed, too.

 

[vchimpanzee]

One problem that hasn't been addressed. What if you're in a motel room and you were expecting a listings channel? Not every motel has Internet access. Not everyone would want to carry around a computer.

It was pointed out to me that I could have brought my newspaper TV section from home. And the channel list is on top of the TV. Still, I didn't.

 

[MarcB]

OnWhat if you're in a motel room and you were expecting a listings channel?
And the channel list is on top of the TV.

EPIC FAIL. Half the time those charts aren't accurate. Anyway when I was younger my family and I liked vacationing in Brattleboro, Vermont. We usually stayed at the Super 8 Motel. They had the local Adelphia Cable Channel line-up that everyone in Brattleboro who had cable had, which included The TV Guide Channel. Only one or 2 channels were different from the line-up. I haven't been up there in a few years so I don't know if The Super 8 still has the in-town cable now that it's COMCAST.

 

[imhomerjay]

Flip through the channels?

Seriously, does everything need to be gift-wrapped for you? Sometimes you need to do a little work on your own...or read a book.

 

[azumanga]

It was pointed out to me that I could have brought my newspaper TV section from home.

Would be okay for cable channels, but not for local stations, considering the variance in the schedules.

 

[vchimpanzee]

It was pointed out to me that I could have brought my newspaper TV section from home.

Would be okay for cable channels, but not for local stations, considering the variance in the schedules.

I wouldn't have any reason to watch local channels other than for the network programs, which would likely be on at their normal times.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Flip through the channels?

Seriously, does everything need to be gift-wrapped for you? Sometimes you need to do a little work on your own...or read a book.

Now with the over-the-air channels on digital TV, that might work. But this is cable in a motel. How am I supposed to know what I am seeing? How am I supposed to know what will be on? I've seen some really good movies while in a motel just because of this.

And you want to deprive me of that just because I didn't bring along my newspaper's TV section?

Wich has Heather Locklear on the cover this week. Yum.

 

[Bill_W]

In my Comcast system in Chester County, PA, we only have 3 cable channels left on analog cable, EWTN, QVC, and C-SPAN(1). All the rest are broadcast channels, but only 1 PBS channel, the rest on digital. The TV Guide channel now has the channels that are included on basic digital cable (the channels those tiny Comcast DTA boxes get)

 

[imhomerjay]

Now with the over-the-air channels on digital TV, that might work. But this is cable in a motel. How am I supposed to know what I am seeing? How am I supposed to know what will be on? I've seen some really good movies while in a motel just because of this.

And you want to deprive me of that just because I didn't bring along my newspaper's TV section?

Wich has Heather Locklear on the cover this week. Yum.

No one is depriving you of a single thing. If you're unwilling to do anything for yourself, that's your choice. It ain't rocket science--if something catches your attention, watch it; if not, don't. Being too lazy or spoiled doesn't mean someone needs to expend money and bandwidth for such isolated incidents.

 

[WPPCProductions]

I had that happen ages ago in my area.I never bothered using it at the time i had it in the basic tier. I was a pain in a but waiting for the darn thing to go around a lap to find what was on my favorite channels.also i drop the magazine too.now I use Yahoo TV guide.

 

[crainbebo]

Same in my area. When the Weather Channel says "The Weather Channel is borught you by this cable or satellite provider", it says both Ch. 29 and Ch. 78. Ch. 78 is the "real" channel, Ch. 29 has been KUNS-Univision and before that, KWOG-ShopNBC, now on Ch. 14 (KBCB) for about 6 or 7 years.

-crainbebo

 

[jal41]

In Atlanta, Comcast moved TV Guide Network to digital, both using the old Channel 27, as well as adding a Channel 177. Why they do this I don't know. Comcast Atlanta is now all-digital in most areas (with the remaining areas going all-digital by year's end). Currently, the DTA box picks up TV Guide Network, which only has channels 1-79 on the scroll.

This will all be moot soon...TV Guide Network will eventually be ditching the listings.

 

[ShawnHill1]

By year's end here in the L.A. area, Time Warner Cable will be in an all-digital format, except they're leaving six channels in analog/digital form: KWHY (NBCU's Spanish indie), Oxygen, AMC, ABC Family, truTV, and ShopNBC. They're adding more than 20 new HD channels by December 11th (some of which are already available via a free preview), and plus several local digital subchannels (most of them are foreign language, and still no This TV from KTLA). As it currently stands over here, the only current channels still available in analog form are the local stations, WGN America, TV Guide, C-SPAN, and the community access channels. The basic networks had already migrated to a digital-only form just over a year ago.

 

[4dude]

Everything becomes stupider and stupider......

Unreal!