Comcast going digital, how does this affect BTV users?

[rmart]

My understanding is that Comcast will be ceasing all analog broadcasting by the end of the year. This means to me that my ability to use my PC to watch and record TV will be seriously hindered. Apparently I will need to use Comcast's digital tuner in order to even receive a signal. If I wish to record I will have to set the tuner to the station and time I wish to record. I'm not sure how this is going to work, but if I have to set a tuner and BTV in order to record this is going to be more of a hassle than it's worth.

The main attraction to cable over the other providers such as satellite was its ease of use. Hook up any cable-ready TV to any cable jack in the house and watch TV. Now I'll need a tuner box for every TV in the house? Oh, and the tuners have a rental fee as well... hey, what do you know? The digital service is also more expensive than the analog service for the same thing.

What a scam.

Anyone have any pre-plans in mind to prevent this additional hassle?

[btvfreak]

Not sure when this will really happen for sure, but when it does, then you'll definitely need a box. If you don't want to incur the extra costs, then just ditch Comcast and go with Satellite if you can. Either way you'll need a box.

You don't need to manually change the station on your box for each recording. You can use a serial cable if your box has an active serial port. This is a reliable solution since it's hardwired. If not, then you'll need to use an IR blaster. Either way, when BTV needs to change the channel to record something it will send a signal to your box via either method (serial cable or IR blaster) to change the channel. Similarly when you're watching LiveTV and change the channel BTV will send the signal over the serial cable or IR blaster.

[softnerd]

This is happening eventually, but I seriously doubt it will happen by the end of the year. Comcast is going to have to change their pricing model in order to go 100% digital. I know a TON of people who subscribe to the Basic and Standard cable packages who will not spring for any extra charges. Most of them will go to satellite or simply live with broadcast. I can't see Comcast making up that much revenue loss in box rental, but I could be wrong (it happened.....once).

[EnochLight]

Originally Posted by rmart

My understanding is that Comcast will be ceasing all analog broadcasting by the end of the year...Anyone have any pre-plans in mind to prevent this additional hassle?

Heh - by the end of the year? I wish I had made it that far; they cancelled analog and went *ONLY* digital (w/box) a couple of months ago in the Detroit area. Sucks but - there's nothing - absolutely *NOTHING* you can do to skirt around it.

The nice thing is that Comcast in my area was offering a promotion for a second digital box for free for a year (I already had one), so cost-wise it doesn't affect me until then.

As far as using a digital box with Beyond TV is concerned, the USB-based UIRT works like a charm - rock solid. There's a slight lag when changing channels, but bearable taking into consideration picture quality jumped up exponentially compared to when I was splitting off an analog signal from my cable modem.

Times are a change'n, 'tis true. This whole thing miffed me at first, but as far as I am concerned it's just a short-term inconvenience while I wait for HDTV support in Beyond TV.

Cheers,

EnochLight

[nanook105]

But it kills those of us with a family and TVs in many rooms. When my cable company changes to digital, I will need 6 boxes, one for each BR (4) one for the Family room and one for the basement.

[bdedi]

Brother I feel your pain, I will need 7 boxes total not counting the one I already have. I have 2 BR TVs, 1 TV in the kitchen, 1 (will use a DVR in the family room), and will need 4 for my BTV system. Currently extra boxes here cost $5 a month.

PIA, but with SAT, it wouldn't be much different. My problem is the cost. I pay, with cablemodem access, over $100 a month, with no premium movie channels.

I don't know what I will do.
bill

[segadc]

We just got Comcast (analog) cable too. It's expensive enough....

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by bdedi

Brother I feel your pain, I will need 7 boxes total not counting the one I already have. I have 2 BR TVs, 1 TV in the kitchen, 1 (will use a DVR in the family room), and will need 4 for my BTV system. Currently extra boxes here cost $5 a month.

PIA, but with SAT, it wouldn't be much different. My problem is the cost. I pay, with cablemodem access, over $100 a month, with no premium movie channels.

I don't know what I will do.
bill

I am still working it out/thinking about it, but a lot of my recordings come from channels available OTA, so I will probably migrate most of my BTV tuners to OTA. I already have two cable boxes, so I'm going to try and figure out a way to keep it at two (three tops).

[HomeyFour]

Originally Posted by EnochLight

Heh - by the end of the year? I wish I had made it that far; they cancelled analog and went *ONLY* digital (w/box) a couple of months ago in the Detroit area. Sucks but - there's nothing - absolutely *NOTHING* you can do to skirt around it.

Where at?? I live in Utica, and we still have basic analog cable!!!

[mapleleaf]

I' m about to build my new multituner system, what scares me is that I will need separate digital box for each of my tuners once my cable company will switch to digital only. What a hasle and cost for each extra box! It would be nice if I could purchase new PCI digital tuner instead of analog and skip digital box altogether. Except, digital broadcast is encoded...

[BankZ]

Originally Posted by HomeyFour

Where at?? I live in Utica, and we still have basic analog cable!!!

I am in West Bloomfield and the only change they made was you need a digital box to get HBO now.

[bdedi]

I don't have a problem recording off of the MOTOROLA DCT2500 Digital Cable tuner that I have. My problem is it doesn't have an S-Video out on the back of it. Strictly Composite. So, even with a 500 dual tuner card, I would have to stack 4 STB on my desk and have them set to seperate 'remote discretes', and the USB-UIRT blaster would tune them as needed. I would have to purchase the dongle for the 500 cards but thats nothing in comparision to what I have invested in this project.

[mofro]

Originally Posted by softnerd

This is happening eventually, but I seriously doubt it will happen by the end of the year. Comcast is going to have to change their pricing model in order to go 100% digital. I know a TON of people who subscribe to the Basic and Standard cable packages who will not spring for any extra charges. Most of them will go to satellite or simply live with broadcast. I can't see Comcast making up that much revenue loss in box rental, but I could be wrong (it happened.....once).

Consider it "happened" in Philly... Just had a rude awakening to scrambled (read: moved to digital) programming in my area. Seems they have done it already here. Their excuse is that it's a subscriber audit, and that the changes are to defeat piracy from subscribers and non subscribers alike... yeah right.

Of course they didn't say anything at all, you had to call them and ask "WTF?", and this is only one rep's "answer". Another rep tried to offer me the DCT700 (essentially for free) and to let me continue on as an extended basic customer... Of course, as nice as that is, it doesn't solve my tuning problems wrt BTV programming.

So now I have to find some way (cabled or UIRT) to change channels on a box I don't WANT to have to upgrade, simply to continue to record the shows I want to watch.

...Of course, I could always go back to the VCR...

[tbil99]

How do the digital PVRs that the cable companies sell get around this problem?