Posted: 1/16/2011 10:53:22 AM EDT
Got a letter from Comcast yesterday that I need to acquire digital cable boxes as they are I guess switching to an all digital cable format. I am able to get one digital set top box and two digital adapters for free. I have 4 tv's though. Are there cheap adapters out there that I can buy or should I just pay the $2/month for a 4th box. Also, you would not need an adapter it you have a CableCard device such as a TiVo or similar. I have a Bose surround sound system on my one TV. Is that considered a CableCard device or not? Thanks for the help. With this Xfinity shit taking over, I'm just waiting for ANOTHER hike in my cable bill
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CableCard device is something that can accept a cable card from your cable provider. The little digital adapters won't do you much good if you buy your own without renting a cable card from the company... they tend to encrypt their digital signals according to legal agreement with non-Basic programmers. I think some TiVo devices can accept a CableCard, as can some TVs.
Without a cablecard provided by the company in a compatible video device or one of their pieces of equipment (something that will hold a channel map and get authorized to receive a signal on their system), you're stuck with getting only the unencrypted broadcaster/local basic channels using a newer TV with a built-in digital tuner... and re-scanning every time they move things around. Some cable systems are unencrypting more than basic despite programmer concerns, but I am pretty sure Comcast is not one of them. Only so much bandwidth can be sent over coax, so to keep competitive in HD channels and broadband, all the cable providers have to ditch the bandwidth heavy analog at some point... you can carry 2-3 digital HD channels per analog channel dropped (or 12+ sd digital channels per analog channel dropped). |
