Re: ATSC modulators

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Lewis Gardner" <lgardner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:483eca65$0$4964$d94e5ade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> beaver wrote:
> > Thanks Bob, lots of great info in your post.  Looks like you confirm
> > what I suspected.  It is in the cable providers best interest to
> > terminate analog under the cover of the governments mandate of over-
> > the-air analog termination.
>
> And there would be revolt in the streets.

I didn't say there wouldn't be a revolt, just that it's going to be
mis-directed at the government while cable companies cash in on the panic.
We have already seen - repeatedly - that when cable and phone companies want
to raise rates, the use the "pseudo-tax" ploy and try to imply they aren't
really raising rates, but simply passing along yet another government tax.
They've become quite adept at blaming government for things.  I don't see
that changing soon.

The DTV conversion will be a golden opportunity to close out the bandwidth
hogging analog channels, add more room for on demand services AND rent
converter boxes to lots of people that don't need them.  I don't see cable
operators passing up such a fantastic profit opportunity.  At least not the
ones whose [lack of] ethics and [shoddy] business practices I know about!
Why do they care if people need to buy new TV's to hook in?  They'll just
say "The FCC did this to you, call them."  And then the FCC will install an
inscrutable voice mail system to handle the complaints specially designed to
infuriate callers so much that they hang up.

I might have agreed with you ten months ago, but I've already read posts by
too many folks that say "my cable provider is going all digital."  That's
happening all over the place, well in advance of the conversion and guess
what those providers are telling people?  "We are getting ready for the big
switchover that's being forced on us by Congress!"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=my+cable+provider+is+going+all
+digital

> Right now that reason people are NOT up in arms over the OTA transition
> is that their old TV sets still work on cable (and DBS).

I prefer to think it's merely because so many of them are ignorant of even
the basics about CATV, DTV, OTA and the WWW.  They have no idea what's
coming or how it's going to affect them.  I keep my analog cable bill paid
three months in advance because if you get disconnected, you can only get a
*new* service contract via digital.  I don't know about elsewhere, but here
in Maryland they're working very hard to end analog cable.  It's clear from
all the service contacts I have had (I bitch about each channel they drop
from analog) that Comcast wants analog dead, and the sooner, the better.
They've dropped premium channels from analog to force people to switch
(which is when I returned my analog converter/decoder boxes and got Netflix)
and use every steering ploy imaginable to get people to switch from analog
to digital.

> The chances of a cable company telling all their customers that they can't
use their
> old TVs without some box is about ZERO.

I strongly disagree, simply because they are already doing it in my area and
all over the country.  Here's a message I found in the AVS forum:

"Comcast is currently scheduling the transition of all analog channels to
digital format. We started the transition in late February and will continue
to make the transition over the next several months. I cannot give an exact
date for the transition in your area due to the scheduling is subject to
change. Eventually there will no longer be analog channels at all. This is
set because of the FCC regulations that state all analog signals need to be
digital by the year 2010.That's a response to an e-mail I sent."

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-827022.html

I don't know how true that post is, but I do know that around here, Comcast
has been aggressively weaning people from analog.  I get offers, often more
than one a week, to switch to digital for nearly the same price as analog
(for some tiny print short trial period, of course).  And the conversion
deals get better and better, too.  Worse, still, every so often, they shave
another channel off the lineup.  They do send out a lot of digital
information in the clear, but the number of unscrambled HD channels was
recently dropped to about three from nearly twelve.  So I won't have to rent
a converter box as long as they maintain clear air QAM channels on their
"basic" service.  But I will be stringing a rooftop antenna for the first
time in nearly 30 years just to see what I can see for free.  Cable is no
longer commercial free - it's just fewer commercials so OTA could become
attractive again.