ComCast stopping analog delivery
 

I received notice this week that ComCast will stop all analog service later this year. The first set top convertor will be free, for each one after that is $6.85 per month. Right now I have 5 analog sets in use. I will replace my rear projection analog CRT when it needs a big repair with an HD digital set. Spending twenty bucks a month for the other analogs rubs me the wrong way. I wonder if direct satt. with multiple receivers might be better? HURUMPH!:no:
Anybody else get similar notices?
Richard.

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ComCastic!
 

I guess they have to pay for those cute turtle commercials some how!

And to think market hype said cable and sat viewers would not be affected by the switch. Why am I not surprised?

I'm calling The Slowskys!!!

It won't, it's a completely independent action by the (unprintable) (unprintable) (unprintable) (unprintable) cable companies, THEY too want to squeeze more $$ and bandwith out of the wire....

I hate THEM as much as used car salesmen, the phone company and Quentin Tarantino, with the electric company jockeying for place in the pack...

cable and the cbs color system
 

I don't know about cable in your areas but mentioning cable and digital to is like reviving the cbs color system to receive HDTV. The picture quality on a digital set with cable makes many question whether the set is working properly with the smeary pictures and noise.

Didn't you forget the oil companies there too?

Cable "service" providers
 

After I received the "exciting" news from Comcast I called to verify the greed, no, I mean the service and after confirming it was true I suggested that before Comcast tries the "new & exciting" change to all digital that they should spend less money begging for my data service and attempt to provide 31 days of high quality, no herringbone or grainy picture basic cable without service interuptions. I received a nice email thanking me for my "helpfull" suggestions.
Richard.:thumbsdn:

This change will happen everywhere some sooner then others. If there are no over the air analog signals after the cut off why should a cable company use all the space so cable ready sets can still be used without a box. Analog NTSC is on it's death bed. Customers want more HD channels so the space has to come from somewhere. The larger systems already have all the channels digital so most customers won't notice the change. It is possible to hook more then one set up to a box the only problem is if you watch more then one channel at the same time.

The day that Comcast:thumbsdn: switches basic analog cable service off is the day that I switch them off and go with satellite based TV. If I have to have a set-top box for every television in the house it may as well be a satellite box.:finger: I am sure that I won't be alone.

Why wait? Do it now, you won't be disappointed. :D

Greed
 

Why should a cable company provide analog? Customer convience so they don't have to have the pia set top converter boxes. How much of their customer base know or care about the difference in the delivery system, I think most customers will not see a difference on any but their main HD TV. Where is the bandwidth going to come from? Lose some of the pay per view and or movie on demand space, or some of Comcast preview channels. It is possible to have more than one set hooked to a converter box as long as they watch the same channel, How useful is that, Not at all. When the time comes I will install direct broadcast satt. systems for all TV's and hope to never have to deal with Comcast again. They can not provide decent basic service in the South Florida area. Having said all that I admit that I would have preffered an HD system that is backward compatible like NTSC was. Not only for the above reasons but my collection of portable B&W and color sets will become old paperweights. I also realize that collectors make up about one tenth of one percent of the population. Excuse the rant.

I have cable service (Time Warner) at my main residence, and satellite (DirecTV) at my second home, and I would take cable over satelite any time. With cable I get video on demand, real impulse pay per view, high speed internet that is really fast and reliable (unlike DSL), and a set top box with a channel lineup that makes sense, unlike the satelite lineup that has dozens of blank and promotional channels interspersed with the real channels. If cable was available at my second home, I'd switch in a minute.

quality service
 

Here in the Pinecrest area of Miami the DSL service is far better as far as outages than the high speed data service offered by cable. Neighbors who have cable data service have several outages a month. I guess it depends on the luck of the draw and where you live as to service quality.