Very strange. I can not get any analog programs at all since last year. The VCR is only good for playing tapes, but I can easily record high-def TV programs to the PC hard drive using a Hauppenpauge TV card, then watch it or burn a DVD. If you have a card with more than one tuner, you can watch one program on channel 5 at the same time while recording channel 8.
Comcast may scramble the your signal requiring you to buy their recording service for a monthly fee (possibly there is a hack for descrambling). Any new TV tuner should be digital ready. Cable can be way overpriced, depending on your local competition.
My Comcast (Sw Florida) has the high def channels on the sub carrier of the broadcast channels without using the box. With my TV directly on the cable channel, 2 is regular NBC, 2-2 is NBC HD 2.3 is the all news local NBC etc Using the box those are up at 100 and something. I pay for the HD adder but as far as I can tell that only really affects the cable HD channels (History, HBO etc). They seem to be the only ones that are encrypted.
Have you looked into internet TV outlets like HULU.COM? They have a lot of those old TV shows for free along with a lot of current TV. I really think the biggest change in TV will be internet delivery.
As a TV, a computer makes a pretty good computer. Yeah, I know, you can plumb it all together, and pipe it up to the real television- yada yada yada. I don't wanna buy another X hundred dollars worth of crap and figure out how to wire it and operate it, and figure it out when it stops working correctly- I just wanna lay on the couch and watch TV. They have taken that away from me with the near-demise of OTA television and simple analog cable, and I am still pissed about it. If you can't pull it off a roof antenna, you should at least be able to run 1 damn wire from the wall outlet to the television, no stupid boxes or special tuner cards, and plug it up and watch it that way. The satt or cable system should present a feed to the TV that looks just like an OTA antenna, IMHO.
If you have a fairly new TV it has a VGA port in the back that takes a PC monitor plug directly. I have an old PC connected to my Samsung
40". It doesn't take much PC horsepower to stream internet video. Hook up a wireless mouse and you have armchair convenience. The other OPC I have hooked to a TV has a TV out card in it. They both swap programs with my ReplayTV DVR over my network.
Most modern TVs are really computer monitors in disguise, with a tuner and speakers crammed in there. (Installed enough of them on the office walls for the bigshots at work.)
Nope- all my TVs (and computer monitors) are still glass, and they all still work perfectly. (Damn Sony Trinitron quality). Until they die, or the picture quality goes south, I can't justify replacing them with wide flatscreens. (My eyes aren't HD any more, so not much point in HD televisions....) And it may not take much PC horsepower, but it does take an big internet pipe, for a good signal. Ma Bell doesn't do DSL out here, so all I have is an overpriced 384 from another vendor. A fast connection from this vendor would cost more than the satt dish does.
Old eyes are a perfect excuse for large flat screens. I retired my last tube (I still have one in the attic) four years ago and wasn't yet wearing glasses (went from no glasses to bifocals in about six months).
That was my thought, too until a couple weeks ago. My parents got an HD TV when they replaced their old analog TV with no remote. not a huge one- I think it might be 21"diagonal.
I was at their house when an Olympic hockey game kicked off & I caught a couple minutes of the game.
I have never been impressed with those huge monster sets on display in malls and stores. I don't know if it is the size, the lighting, or if they are all just set up wrong--- but now that I've seen a real one in real-life use, an HD TV is now in my future.
The FCC requires most cable companies to carry local broadcast television stations, and some others like public, educational, and governmental access channels. That is what you get on 2-27. The FCC requirement goes through 2012 (at which point the world ends anyway). The channels have to be analog (which old TVs and VCRs can handle) or the cable company has to provide a free converters. Comcast has said they will be analog in almost all markets.
Since you have a "new digital converter boxes" you have probably gone through "digital conversion", and the old analog channels (other than those above), like Discovery, are only available as digital channels through the converter.
You can connect a splitter on the incoming cable with one branch to the digital converter, one branch to the VCR (and branches to other TVs that just get channels 2-27). The VCR can record 2-27.
For the TV, you then have signals from the VCR and from the digital converter. If your TV does not have 2 inputs that you can switch between, you need an A-B switch.
If there a coax output (which is analog) from the converter, you could also record that - would require a splitter on the converter output with a branch going to the VCR input, and an A-B switch (converter-out or direct-cable) at the VCR. But if you are recording the converter output, you are limited to viewing the converter output unless you have an A-B-C switch at the TV (direct-cable, converter, VCR), which allows you to watch direct-cable (2-27). This paragraph is probably best ignored.
If not clear (but it is all written in English), ask.
Ever since we got the new Comcast digital converter boxes, I have been unable to watch a program while taping another. How do I use a splitter (or whatever i need) so I can do this?
The channels I want to tape are basically between 2 and 27, which supposedly you don't need the converter box for.
What happens when you stick the cable directly into your old style TV? Those will be the analog TV channels that your VCR can record without the box. Your mileage may vary on how many analog channels Comcast sends you. Ours used to be everything from 2-99. On May 1st it will be
2-29. They can legally cut you back to the local "must carry" . The Dish guy is coming today.
As long as you do have the channels you want to record in analog you can put a splitter before the box and take that to your VCR. Take one of the other outputs from the box and connect that to the matching input of your VCR to record scrambled/digital content but you won't be able to watch something else on TV at the same time unless you have another split output going to the TV. Then you could record the box and watch analog.. A lot depends on how many inputs your TV and VCR have and how much complication you are willing to live with.
In my opinion Comcast has shot themselves in the foot. The only real advantage cable had was that you could hook up all your cable ready TVs and other devices without a box. Now that you need a box everywhere anyway, satellite really looks attractive. Dish is going to save me over $50 a month with the bundle I am getting through my phone company, my existing DSL will be faster and I am getting a lot of new features in my phone for that price. It will be very satisfying for me to cut that cable and throw it out in the right of way although I suspect a scrapper will have it before I can walk back into the house..
My neighbors have Dish and they say that after they had the installation tuned up they don't lose the signal in the rain. The dish may not be aimed right or it may be moving around in the wind.
TV is crap in general, what's your problem with Dish that makes it worst than cable? I just got my installation and I am still finding my way around the hardware but it looks pretty interesting (one duo DVR, one duo receiver for 4 outputs). If I understand this right I think I have a lot more flexibility than I had with cable and so far the picture looks as good, more channels and $50 a month cheaper adding a DVR with the Telco bundle. I also get more stuff on my POTS line and my DSL got faster in the bundle deal.
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