Cable Company Tightens It's Grip

[koØm]

My cable television is cutting back on the number of analog channels it is pumping through the lines. Shortly, you will need a TV with OTA Digital or Clear QAM channel capability for basic service or, you can rent a "decoder" for $1.50 per TV per month for televisions not connected to a digital cable box.

I have three analog cable TV tuners running in one computer.

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[WØTKX]

Not surprised. I have one Hauppauge analog tuner, and it only works with a converter box now. My USB dongle tuner does analog or digital, as does my PCI-E tuner.

Funny thing is, I've been using my Roku 3 box the most lately. Streaming TV rocks.

[PA5COR]

Just upgraded my satellite stuff to new LNBF, new motor, actuator for the 1.1 meter dish and new Linux VU+ solo HD reciever.
Good for 5000 channels over 45 east to 45 west, and a gazillion radio channels.

[n2ize]

I don't have any TV here. All my viewing for entertainment comes straight off the Internet these days. Much of it is old movies and TV shows from the 1930's all the way up to the early 1960's that I dig up on YouTube or similar online video sources.. For the newer stuff I use Hulu or Netflix.

[K7SGJ]

I don't have any TV here. All my viewing for entertainment comes straight off the Internet these days. Much of it is old movies and TV shows from the 1930's all the way up to the early 1960's that I dig up on YouTube or similar online video sources.. For the newer stuff I use Hulu or Netflix.

We used to do that, too. But we changed because one morning we were watching the news, and the headline was Pearl Harbor was being attacked.

[KC9SQR]

Comcast has done beyond that around here in Rockford, IL... There are NO analog channels, if you want to watch ANYTHING AT ALL, you have to have a converter box now...

They FINALLY got their way to pay per tv the way they wanted... Unless you want to watch the same thing on more than one tv at the same time lol....

[KG4CGC]

Comcast has done beyond that around here in Rockford, IL... There are NO analog channels, if you want to watch ANYTHING AT ALL, you have to have a converter box now...

They FINALLY got their way to pay per tv the way they wanted... Unless you want to watch the same thing on more than one tv at the same time lol....

Charter did the same thing here.

[koØm]

My cable television is cutting back on the number of analog channels it is pumping through the lines. Shortly, you will need a TV with OTA Digital or Clear QAM channel capability for basic service or, you can rent a "decoder" for $1.50 per TV per month for televisions not connected to a digital cable box.

I have three analog cable TV tuners running in one computer.

.

The cable company must have stocked up on KY Jelly, they decided to drop only some of the Analog channels starting next this month. They are offering a free converter box to customers from 11/1/13 to 11/1/14 (one year) after that, all of the Analog channels will be gone and then, the monthly rental for the boxes are $1.50 per Television.

I have three Hauppauge 1600 OTA-QAM/Analog tuners in my TV server so, it will just be a matter of changing the channel lineup when the time comes.

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[W3WN]

Oh, how quickly they forget...

Dontcha remember? When Cable started expanding beyond the 'normal' 82 V/UHF channels, you had to have a cable box to get these channels. For a long time, the only way to get one of these was to rent it from the cable company.

A lot of that got alleviated when TV's & VCR's started being sold as "cable ready". But there were still many people who rented those boxes for a long, long time.

The digital boxes are just a reversion to what was done 20 - 30 years ago. Eventually, TV's (or whatever they morph into) will be sold digital cable/FiOS ready, and you won't need the boxes. Just not for a few years yet.

[kb2vxa]

It started with broadcast when Elvis Presley shot his TV, it's on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then came Bruce Springsteen, 57 Channels (And Nothin' On). Look again at digital cable, 57,000 Channels and Still Nothin' On. Digital box rocks? Dumb as a digital box of rocks.

[K0RGR]

I dropped DirectTV and now all of our TV is streaming video over the Internet or direct broadcast. With a small flying saucer on thee roof, I get stations from three states - all the broadcast networks including the CW, and a whole bunch of PBS stations. Since I watch a lot of PBS anyway, this is a good deal for me! I have a digital TV, and I can use it to watch stuff off the antenna directly, but mostly, I use it as a display for the PC, which is equipped with a USB HD dongle, so I can record programs. I wonder if I could get multiple tuners to work in my setup - using Windows Media Center. I'm not sure it's smart enough to manage more than one tuner. It would be very nice to be able to record multiple things at the same time - some of our favorites got shifted to time slots opposite other favorites.

Meanwhile HULU+ and Netflix are cheap and make up the difference.

[K7SGJ]

I wish we could get OTA reception, but being surrounded by mountains, it just doesn't make the trip. When it was analog, I could catch some reflected signal which was okay, if you don't mind ghosting 6 deep. Although a little snowy, I used to get Tucson better than Phoenix, but now it's either Sat or online streaming.

[KG4NEL]

I most likely won't bring my TV with me when I move. I don't miss it...anything I want to see is available online anyway.

[N7YA]

We have one flat screen for DVD's only. And thats when we arent watching them on the puter. We stayed overnight at a nice little hotel last weekend in Boulder City and watched some tv...absolutely NOTHING on but garbage "reality" programming....ALL channels! We dumped cable about a year and a half ago and never looked back. I am not even curious what might be on, i seriously have no desire or use for it. I believe it to be some sort of mind rotting sedative for the masses. We saved about $140 on our cable bill by dumping what we had and just going internet. Its going up too!