Cable Co. claims this was my fault:

[andy]

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[radiotvnut]

Our HBO was on channel 4 and used the system you described up until around 2003-04. I remember the other higher numbered premium channels having the picture scrambled; but, you could still hear the audio. It was sometime around '04 when they took all premium channels off of analog and moved them to digital, making it necessary to have a digital cable box to view them. Our VHF channels are mostly local with a few special interest channels. 2 is mynetworkTV, 3 is WGN America, 4 is home shopping, 5 is CBS, 6 is ABC, 7 is NBC, 8 is CW, 9 is PBS, 10 is FOX, 11 is QVC, 12 is a local access channel, and 13 is ESPN. Our cable company still offers a package where you can get channels 2-12 for around $9/month.

When the kids in the neighborhood wanted to watch HBO or whatever channel that our parents wouldn't pay extra for, we'd simply go next door. The old lady who lived there had a son who was high up in the cable company; so, she got everything that was available through comcast at the time. I remember that Jerrold descrambler and her Zenith CCII console TV quite well.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jstout66

I remember when my small town got cable. It would have been 1979-1981 ish. You got channels 2-13 and if you had a premium channel they supplied you with a small box. If you slid the switch to the left, HBO. If you slid it to the right, Cinamax.
Not long after, the went to Jerrold boxes which had a rotary knob (as they added more channels).
Speaking of cable and the "issues" of today, the cable guy is scheduled to come out today. I have 2 digital boxes. A DVR in my "office" room and a standard digital box in the bedroom. The box in the bedroom will now only display 5:00 and won't load. You can only get a few channels on it, and I fully expect a hassle from Cox as they always blame it on me (the homeowner). Let's hope this service call will go okay. Speaking of bills... I remember when I first got cable, it was under 30.00 a month. Now, since I have phone, internet, premium channels and 2 boxes, my bill is more than the rent I paid on my house in the late 80's. Rent was $175.00 a month. Cable bill now, is around $200.00.

I grew up in a small suburb of Cleveland that did not get cable until 1982. The analog cable boxes at that time were made, IIRC, by Jerrold and had 12 buttons, one for each channel. There was also a three-position switch on the far left-hand side of the box that selected one of three banks of cable channels these buttons could bring in; the fine tuning control was a large thumbwheel affair at the other end of the box. IIRC, position #1 of that switch set the buttons to select channels 2 through 13, #2 selected 14-27, #3 selected 27-40. I don't remember anymore what stations went with what buttons on that box, although I do know that channel 43 (an independent UHF station in Cleveland at that time, a couple of decades before MyTV) came in on channel 4, channel 25 (PBS) came in on channel 10, etc. The only stations that came in on the same channels as were marked on the buttons on the box were the Cleveland network stations, channels 3, 5, and 8.

Some of the buttons on our boxes were undoubtedly for premium services such as HBO, Cinemax, et al. I think HBO on our cable at that time was on channel 2; I don't know about Cinemax or Showtime. I only had HBO for a month. I had it disconnected when I found that the service was showing only a limited number of motion pictures, and those they did show were repeated over and over a week at a time. One month of that was about 30 days too many, which was why I got rid of the service when I did.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I downgraded my cable from expanded basic to what I call "bare bones" basic (local channels only) a few years ago, when the price of the former went up to over $55 a month. X-basic was nice to have, but I can get the same programming on DVDs and VHS videos, and it doesn't cost me a dime above what I paid for the DVDs and tapes in the first place. Another advantage is that my DVD and VHS collection contains programs and movies I like, not the networks' current picks that, far more often than not, do not match my tastes, even remotely. I did not care for NBC having preempted its prime-time programming for the Olympics and I'm not crazy about the basketball tournament now showing on CBS, but no matter. It's at times like this that I pop a tape in my VCR or a DVD in my DVD player if I want to watch TV, other than the news. Having a library of programs like mine is like having my own private TV channel, that shows only the programs I enjoy. Call my "station" WJHS-TV, channel 4 (JHS being my initials). VK member jshorva65 has an avatar that shows a color bar test pattern; overlaying that is "WJSH-TV Channel 1 Warren, Ohio." I don't know if he made this especially for his avatar or if he had a closed-circuit video "channel" similar to mine.

[radiotvnut]

That mechanical Jerrold box sounds just like the ones I remember. I still have one somewhere and it worked the last time I used it. Of course, if/when cable delivery goes all digital, it will be nothing but a giant paperweight.

[Bill R]

When cable tv was new in Memphis, they blocked HBO by using a tool to pierce the cable. They would use this every few inches and then make a loop of the cable. You could tell which homes had HBO and which ones didn't by looking at where the cable from the house connected on the pole. If there was a loop of cable no HBO, no loop HBO. As the service techs were doing calls they would look at the poles with no loop and check to see if that address had HBO, if not and there was no loop they were busted. I knew people that would climb the poles and remove the loop of wire. When Cinamax came along they added an extra trap at the pole. Same problem with cable theft though. People would just climb the pole and remove the trap and the cable loop then they had all the channels. Then came scrambling and a lot of bootleg cable descramblers came on the market. Some worked fairly well. You just didn't want the cable guy to find one on your set. They frowned on it.
I think cable systems are required to be all digital sometime in 2012. Then I guess we will all have to have boxes.

[radiotvnut]

I think I read somewhere where the cable companies could go digital at will; but, they had to make the local channels available in an analog format until at least 2012.

I suspect that bootlegging, with everything going digital and the STB's being addressable, will be much harder now.

When I was a kid, back around '89 or so, we visited someone's house and he was bragging about how he climbed the pole during the middle of the night to connect his own cable and then he managed to get a descrambler from someone. He was very proud of the fact that he stole the cable and was getting everything they offered for free. I told him that he wouldn't be laughing when he got caught, which I think eventually happened. He's now no longer on this Earth to be bootlegging anything.

I remember some comcast commercials a few years ago that went something like, "service technicians are checking service levels in your area; so, if you are using cable without paying for it - you will be cut off with the possibility of stiff fines". They then went on to say that if you "came clean", you would not be terminated and they would sign you up for paid service, no questions asked.

[Jeffhs]

Time Warner Cable converted to all-digital well in advance of the DTV transition, as I was told by a customer service representative over the telephone some time ago. TW's lowest tier of service is basic, what I call "bare-bones" basic cable, which is local channels only plus a few special interest channels, including WGN America and, in my area, a local sports channel known as Sportstime Ohio or STO. The monthly rate for basic cable here is around $13, while X-basic (expanded basic) is well over $50.

Time-Warner has no plans that I am aware of to do away with basic service or convert it to digital (requiring a box); they don't need to because, as I mentioned, the entire cable system is already 100 percent digital. For subscribers such as myself with basic service and an analog television, the local channels are converted from ATSC to NTSC before the signals ever get to the subscribers' televisions. To receive the digital service, which goes to channel 1000 and beyond (TW recently put the local TV channels' HD feeds, at least in my area, on cable positions above 1000), a digital cable box is required between the cable coming from the wall and your TV. The box receives the TV stations' digital signals and converts them to NTSC so they are watchable on standard televisions. However, I am not at all sure how this works if you have a flat-panel HDTV (I don't). My best guess is that, in this case, the software controlling the box can be modified such that the box will send unconverted ATSC signals to the television (the latter will then treat the signal as if it were OTA ATSC), but again, this is only a guess, and probably not a very good one at that since I am not that familiar with how digital television works. As a matter of fact, the more I read the posts in these forums here at VK, the more I realize how much I did not know about NTSC analog TV, despite the fact that I collected old TVs over forty years ago in my hometown (my basement was full of old cast-off sets in various conditions at the time). I realize now I was little more than a "tube switcher" in those days, and I know next to nothing about solid-state analog sets or today's flat-panel HD digital ones. I hope to learn more about FPs, HDTV and other new TV technologies as long as I am a member here at VK; many of you are darn near television experts, and my hat is off to each and every one of you.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

That mechanical Jerrold box sounds just like the ones I remember. I still have one somewhere and it worked the last time I used it. Of course, if/when cable delivery goes all digital, it will be nothing but a giant paperweight.

I thought cable TV was already 100 percent digital everywhere in this country. (Time Warner Cable converted all its systems, including the one serving my area near Cleveland, to full digital perhaps two years ago, well in advance of the DTV transition.) I doubt that your Jerrold cable box would work on today's digital cable systems. When did you last use it? Has the cable system in Meridian been converted yet to full digital, or is it still analog in some parts of your area?

[andy]

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[radiotvnut]

I can screw my cable directly into the TV and receive channels 02-60'ish. If I had a digital cable box and subscribed to the service, I could connect that box between the cable line and my TV and receive the same 60 channels, plus the digital channels over 100. I have several analog cable boxes and at present, they all work as intended. Comcast has moved several channels from it's analog package to digital. How long will the remaining analog channels be around? Who knows; but, I'm sure a time is coming where a box will be needed to use cable.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by jstout66

I remember when my small town got cable. It would have been 1979-1981 ish. You got channels 2-13 and if you had a premium channel they supplied you with a small box. If you slid the switch to the left, HBO. If you slid it to the right, Cinamax.
Not long after, the went to Jerrold boxes which had a rotary knob (as they added more channels).
Speaking of cable and the "issues" of today, the cable guy is scheduled to come out today. I have 2 digital boxes. A DVR in my "office" room and a standard digital box in the bedroom. The box in the bedroom will now only display 5:00 and won't load. You can only get a few channels on it, and I fully expect a hassle from Cox as they always blame it on me (the homeowner). Let's hope this service call will go okay. Speaking of bills... I remember when I first got cable, it was under 30.00 a month. Now, since I have phone, internet, premium channels and 2 boxes, my bill is more than the rent I paid on my house in the late 80's. Rent was $175.00 a month. Cable bill now, is around $200.00.

I remember when we first got HBO in 1978, we had a small box on the set, you tune it to channel 6 and turned the box on by sliding the switch to the right. I think I still have that box somewhere. We got our 1982 Zenith in early 1983 (still in use everyday) it was cable ready so we got some channels free. The company when to Jerrold boxes and never bothered to ask for the old HBO box back.

[Greg B.]

Living in Canada, we had cable early on, around 1970 or so. For the first 10 years or so it was just channels 2-13; that was a big improvement over the 2 english-language and one french-language channels we got OTA. With cable you got (in our town) your local channels, plus ABC, NBC and PBS (no CBS until the mid-80s), plus a community channel, a weather forecast and stats channel (unmanned, just scrolling text), and a newswire channel that was quite popular.

Around 1980 or so our cableco started playing around with what was becoming available by satellite. A rumor was that you could get some US channels if you had a converter, even though those channels were not allowed to be shown here. We picked up a block converter (by Philips, IIRC) which was a silver box about 3"x6"x1" that had cable in and out connectors and a AC adapter for power. It output on the UHF scale, and sure enough, if you cruised that dial there was HBO and a couple of other forbidden channels free for the taking.

Later on those disappeared as Canada's first specialty channels were authorized. Again you needed a converter to receive them, and the cableco installed traps on your line depending on what you were paying for. We stepped up and bought another Philips converter box, this time one with a LED channel display and remote control.

Digital came around several years ago and although there was no reason to get it at first, soon more specialty channels came along that were digital-only. The cableco here used Motorola boxes exclusively. I have been through several as they seem to be finicky. A couple of months ago they showed up at my door unannounced with a DVR box and installed it for a free trial. It probably is worth the $5 a month extra that it costs and I'll probably keep it after the trial.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I thought cable TV was already 100 percent digital everywhere in this country. (Time Warner Cable converted all its systems, including the one serving my area near Cleveland, to full digital perhaps two years ago, well in advance of the DTV transition.) I doubt that your Jerrold cable box would work on today's digital cable systems. When did you last use it? Has the cable system in Meridian been converted yet to full digital, or is it still analog in some parts of your area?

I doubt any place still has all-analog cable service. Nor does any place likely have "full digital" cable, because there are still plenty of people who want to tune in their basic local channels on older TVs, without a cable box. So, there is a mixture of digital and analog signals in the system. Digital signals can also be either "scrambled" (encrypted) or clear (non-encrypted), but most cable systems seem to encrypt far more of their digital channels than they ever did analog ones. Most if not all current TV sets can tune in the non-encrypted digital cable channels (as well as analog channels) with the cable connected directly to the TV set just as with CRT TVs in the past.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

I'm surprised no one has made a radio that picks up digital TV audio like we had when we had radios that had AM/FM and channels 2 thru 13.

It might not be feasible to build digital-TV sound radios. Digital signals cannot be manually tuned with a knob as on the analog radios, and most stations have more than one channel, so you would need some kind of LCD display on the radio for channel setup. The tuner for TV sound would be no simpler or cheaper than one in a TV. At that point, it is just more sensible to go ahead and build a whole TV set. There are a number of portable digital TV sets available now for less than US$100 with 4-to-7 inch screens. None have AM or FM tuners, though.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

I remember when we first got HBO in 1978, we had a small box on the set, you tune it to channel 6 and turned the box on by sliding the switch to the right. I think I still have that box somewhere. We got our 1982 Zenith in early 1983 (still in use everyday) it was cable ready so we got some channels free. The company when to Jerrold boxes and never bothered to ask for the old HBO box back.

It was 1975 when Home Box Office was first available. I remember when it was announced, and my thought was "How can they put movies on your TV set? The screen is not the right shape, not like a movie-theater screen." It did not even occur to me that they would just chop up the movies to fill the TV screen the way broadcast stations had always done. I guess I was looking for letterboxing even when it didn't exist yet.