Anyone Have Comcast Cable?

Comcast usually doesn't scramble the basic cable channels, only the ones you have to pay extra for.. At least that is the way it works here.

Reply to
gfretwell
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Exactly, if you need to get a bunch of boxes might as well get them from a satellite provider and pay less. Remember it wasn't that long ago that the cable companies touted that you didn't need a box like those satellite companies make you use?

Reply to
George

Main issue about using a DVR is that Comcast is quite variable about what they encrypt. In some markets only a handful of channels are unencrypted which would render the built-in tuner almost useless.

Reply to
George

Unfortunately you can't get a straight answer form Comcast about which channels are not encrypted. In some markets those may only be the locals.

Reply to
George

When Comcast did that here, it was the tipping point for me. I figured if I was going to have to have a box, they had eliminated the last minor advantage they had over direcTV. The picture quality on DirecTV is vastly superior, and I get a lot more channels fror less money.

Reply to
salty

I'm pretty sure you can use any digital converter box. You don't have to use theirs. You have one already iirc, and you can use the one you have and a second one in parallel.

Pal Plus by Dish Network sold and may still sell a digital conversion box that could be programmed like a VCR to change stations at scheduled times, so you can match up the stations on that with the times your vcr goes on, and tape either off the air, or off the digital cable signal (which as far as I know are the same format). The input on your VCR would be channel 3 or 4, whichever you set as the output for the digital conversion box.

This was a rather expensive box, selling for 30 dollars above the 40 dollar coupon, but maybe prices have gone down, now that the rush to buy the boxes was over shortly after the over the air digital conversion last June.

OTOH, I thought I would be seeing people giving away DCBoxes as more people bought digital tv's since last June, like on the freecycle list I read, or selling them cheap at hamfests, and I haven't seen any. They're probably cheaper but I don't think they are free yet.

They probably can't explain things very well, maybe don't even understand your question. You can't use them in sequence, but you can use them in parallel, I'm sure. I'm confused what you have now, but in additoin, You can get a splitter and split the signal out of your cable box, sending one signal to the tv and one to the vcr. Then you can choose with the A/B switch, the output of the VCR or the cable to decide which goes into the tv, like you're doing now.

BTW, there are remote controlled A/B switches, though I only found two models. One was from Radio Shack, and it has a non-remote switch also, useful when you are standing at the tv. I found something strange about Radio Shack, which usually has one of the best webpages out there. Online it said they were out of stock on the Remote A/B Swtich and they offered to email me when they had mroe. They did, and I went to the store and in the course of conversation found out they had never been out of them. That's really strange because in other cases, they would let me pick a store and find out how many each store had of something, including zero.

There is a philips 3576H DVDR that has good thigns and bad things. I think I paid 200 dollars (no rental) but that was on a big discount of

50 or 80 dollars. OTOH, they might have such sales often. Other than mail order, I coudl only find it at Sam's Club and they had an offer in the paper, free membership for one day. Although won't most of those places let you belong free for one day if they don't remember you doing that over and over? The H means it has a hard drive that holds at low def (which is fine unless you have a really big tv) 200 or 300 hours of tv. And you can also record to DVD, or copy from either to the other. I've made two dvd's but basically I only use the harddrive.

It does a lot of other things like allowing editing of the show, to remove commercials for example, but I don't do any of those things. And it has a digital tuner (and analog, but that won't work anymore)

But it has logic weaknesses. At the end of recording somehing, it turns off unless you stop it, even if it was on before it started recordign. It doesn't allow you to play one recording after another autmoatically, which is no big deal if your in the same room or the same floor, but I'd like to be in the basement and have the thing play one after anohter. They could update the firmware but it's been 3 years and htey haven't.

And on the recorded version, it gives the channel and the time, but not the name of the program, which I think they could have done if they'd tried.

These are not big things, but it would be nice if they woudl fix them.

Reply to
mm

We have to pay for a third box, here in Northern Delaware. Guess it depends where you live. Comcast can be frustrating to work with but I just read the post of someones FIOS problems.

Reply to
Frank

BTW, even though this was sold by Dish Network, it works fine with OTA, over the air, and afaict that was the major or only reason for making it.

But otoh, isn't the digital signal that comes out of digital cable electonically the same as what comes OTA? (The difference is that cable is often compressed to save bandwidth, but OTA is the the entire signal, never compressed.)

Reply to
mm

I have the expanded basic. Bad enough they pulled channels off expanded basic willy nilly and moved them to digital, but this nonsense is the final straw for me too. The website basically says if you do nothing, you will only have basic, which isn't a lot when you consider several of those channels are Spanish speaking. I am going back to DirectTV which I had years ago, but at that time no local channels, that is no longer an issue with satellite, so good-bye Comcast! Overpriced and underserved.

Cheri

Reply to
Cheri

I forgot to deal with the issue of scrambling. But if they say you can watch it with just a set-top box, then scramblign is probably not an issue.

BTW, I odn't have cable, but I know there are ways around most of this stuff.

Reply to
mm

The conversion to digital influences consumers to put more money into Comcasts hands. In order to easily record and watch two different channels like you have been doing you must now rent one of Comscasts DVR's.

Reply to
tnom

That is the way works here (Minneapolis) now. I have a wide screen high def TV. I have Comcast 2nd level of Basic (don't know if that makes any sense in a different market). I can receive analog cable channels which includes many of the cable networks. There are some digital high def channels I could receive with my package, but I have to have a converter or cable card (which my TV will use). Far as I know none are "open QAM". Many, but not all of the digital channels, are high def duplicates of the analog channels. Some are high def versions of local broadcast stations.

From what I have read, Comcast is getting hammered by dish sources because Comcast does not have enough high def channels. Presumably Comcast is at the bandwidth limit of the cable itself. Their fix is to eliminate all but the bottom analog channels and use the bandwidth for digital. One analog slot can provide more than one digital slot. And the analog - digital duplication will end. As far as I know the whole Comcast system is being changed in a staged installation. It is currently being staged in my large metro area, but not Minneapolis yet. It looks like, at least immediately, cable will not cost more. The addition of digital channels is likely to take a little time.

The BEFORE and AFTER are a lot different. I believe the OP is heading into the digital changeover.

Multiple sources say that after the changeover maybe 20 bottom end channels will be analog and receivable by everyone. These will be mostly local broadcast stations that can be received over the air. This service may be mandated by the FCC. The rest of the offerings will be digital. Digital will *all* be scrambled. You will need a converter or cable card to watch. DVRs like Tivo have cable card built in or you can insert a cable card. The cable cards in most areas _must_ be installed by a Comcast service person ($16 here at present), and after the installation there has to be an activation by Comcast. (The cable cards are the same as a computer PCMCIA card.)

FAQs at the Comcast site include:

  1. Will I need equipment if I have a digital TV with a QAM tuner? At the completion of the digital upgrade, customers will need equipment on all TVs to receive any channels above the Limited Basic level of service?of course, this is now the case with most video providers, including our satellite and phone competitors. We?re encouraging all customers to avoid any service interruptions by installing and using the equipment provided by Comcast or purchased from their electronics retailer, like a TiVo or CableCardTM enabled device. And:
  2. What is digital encryption? Digital encryption is a technology used to protect television programming content from unauthorized viewing. Think of it as ?scrambling? the TV signal so that only customers that are authorized to receive a channel can view it. To receive digitally encrypted signals, customers need a digital device available through their service provider, such as a digital transport adapter, Digital cable set top box, or CableCardTM. All pay TV providers?cable, satellite and telco?are contractually required by programmers to protect the content they distribute from unauthorized reception.

Comcast for my system now (BEFORE) has 3 converters Digital set top box - programmed channel changes, on-demand, ... Digital adapter - simple version of the above HD receiver

From this thread, the first two are likely to only feed an *analog* signal out - not digital and not HD. Not obvious what happens after the digital changeover

- 16:9 digital picture shows up as letterboxed 4:3 picture out of the converter?

- Only 4:3 center of the 16:9 digital picture shows up out of the converter?

- These converters replaced by something else? Comcast will probably provide 1 or more of these converters free after the changeover.

As far as I know only the HD receiver or cable card will get me widescreen and HD NOW. That will certainly be true after the changeover.

I have read that a cable card type technology was required by the FCC and cable companies don't want it. Also read that the FCC sets a max fee of $2 per month for a cable card (single card free here now).

IMHO information from Comcast sucks. I got the above from looking at a lot of different sources.

Is anyone in an area that has had the digital changeover?

Reply to
bud--

And NO channels available without one of their receivers. That's like cable, but worse.

Reply to
Sam E

I used to have DirecTV. I changed to cable over a year ago. One reason being the poor quality of DirecTV customer service.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Sure there are. Use an antenna, and a converter box if needed. More locals and better quality on those channels, than cable OR dish.

Reply to
aemeijers

DISH was a excellent choice up till feb 1st:(

They increased extra receiver fees dramatically, from 5 bucks to 17 bucks for some dual tuner DVR boxes, and added a 6 buck a month DVR fee per account. Which was previously FREE, with americas everyting pack.

my bill went up about 30 bucks per month.

I dropped packages and shut down a extra receiver.

On the principal of the thing I am shopping for a new provider.....

DISH USED THE GOUGE TOOL ON THEIR BEST SUBSCRIBERS, I have had them for 13 years.

On a brite note I am looking to buy DVDs of some of my favorite shows from the higher tier packages.

We are spending way too much on tv

Reply to
hallerb

Rueful chuckle- amen brother to that. Remember when TV was free? Sure, it was only 8-10 channels, but there are only 8-10 on Dish that are of any use to me anyway. If History and Discovery and a few others were available OTA, I'd drop Dish in a heartbeat. I guess the ~2 bucks a day I spend on Dish are cheaper than a lot of my other bad habits. (Like usenet...)

Reply to
aemeijers

Have you seen a TV Guide for the 1970's or 80's? There was more to watch on those 8-10 channels than on a typical "basic cable" lineup of 60-80 channels. In fact most nights we wind up watching classic episodes of Hawaii Five-O, Mission Impossible etc. on DVD, cable is reserved for MLB games and little else.

Reply to
nospam

aemeijers wrote in news:58KdnZ1ESvxvTTPWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I currently have TWC, the basic channels. All of a sudden they say they are providing me "better" service. For the O Network channel they will require me to get a set top box. For one year they say that they won't charge me for the box. Big deal, I never watch the O channel, anyway. I'm grandfathered into my cable TV w/o having the set top box. The day they say I need it for all cable YV, is the day I close my account. TWC already tried this same thing with HBO and I dropped HBO.

Reply to
Lisa BB.

-snip-

8-10? We had 2-3. Now I have a few hundred-- and watch 2-3 for the most part.

-snip-

On both TV & Usenet- aside from the entertainment value, every once & a while a gem comes along and makes it all worthwhile.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

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