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Jim

wrote:
On Jan 7, 6:05 pm, Vic Smith wrote:
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 16:48:39 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

That's what I thought. I was mistaken thinking all cable output was
digital, Harry was too busy forcing a laugh to really read the thread
Not so fast. It probably is "digitized," even the "analog stuff.
And you might be right on some other scores too.
Here's a few "factoids."
I have Comcast cable TV north of Chicago. Standard cable TV package..
All older analog TV's
No cable boxes.
Now, I get pic and sound breakups, frozen pics and sound, etc.
It's obviously digital farting, as this stuff NEVER happened prior to
2 years ago. Looks like typical processor or hard drive bound
interruption of digital data flow. Not the fuzziness or loss of
picture you get with a bad analog signal.
Now, Eisboch lost Comcast MSNBC to "digital"
I still have Comcast MSNBC - remember, I'm all "analog."
Loogy lost Comcast History Channel to "digital."
I still have History Channel.
I lost 4-6 other channels to the "digital" package, including
C-Span-2, and Hallmark and Oxygen. Losing Hallmark and some other
"chick" channel has my wife hating Comcast with a passion and pushing
me change to sat whenever she thinks about.
Eisboch says he needs a box to see Comcast digital TV programming even
with a digital TV.
When I talked to Comcast last week to step up to the digital package
I was told that if I had digital TV's I wouldn't need the Comcast
boxes. Just plug the cable right into the TV.
It's fishy.
But we'll clear the air eventually.
In the meantime, got a size 7 1/4 tin-foil hat I can borrow?
Vic, I am very confident that the digitized "breakup" that you see on your
analog TV is happening somewhere else in the system, probably one of the
Satellite links. The video image of the breakup is simply modulated on the
analog cable carrier.
Your analog TV (by itself) cannot process a digital signal. Period..
Right, and somehow I screwed my reply up, dropping down in the thread.
I was intending to address the dismissal of justwait's comment:

""Digital" is a misnomer really. Before congress sold out to China to
force everyone to buy new TV's (Y2K hoax all over again), cable
companies used the word "digital" to make pay channels sound better..
In fact, all cable signals are "Digital". But to the cable companies
"digital" was a way of sorting out the good channels so they could
make them "premium" which is what they really should have called
them.. Of course that would have come off just as phony as their claim
that "Sattelite" providers are resold, have you ever gone by a "cable"
office and seen all the sattelite dishes in front"

Though I'm using analog signals, it's my impression they are
digitized and reconverted before they get to me.
That's where I think justwait is right in saying "all cable signals
are digital." But it's be more accurate to say "all cable signals
were at one time digital."
But as usual, I may be wrong.
My comments about your MSNBC and mine, and Loogy's History channel
and mine may point to that, or may have something to do with regional
processing of data.
Anyway, what's most interesting to me is you saying that you must have
a Comcast box with a digital TV to pick up the "digital" package, when
I was told by Comcast that I could plug directly into a digital TV.

--Vic- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That is what I was reffering to before.. The cable companies using the
term "Digital Service" to sell high priced packages when in fact, most
of the "basic" cable channels are delivered to the TV in digital form
anyway...

I thought the cable companies were pimping High Definition which is
digital. They also supply analog signals and convert some digital to
analog. Some programing is created in high definition and down converted
to analog and digital. satellite is all digital and partial High
Definition. After February cable and satellite will still service analog
TVs. Will the conversion be done in the set top boxes or transmitted
analog on cable. You can watch Hi Def programming on non Hi def sets but
it won't be as good. 1080I is high def and everything else is not. Right
now broadcasters are using 480, 720 and 1080 formats intermixed. That is
why the picture size keeps changing. This whole thing is a convoluted
mess at the moment. OTA digital looks spectacular compared to analog. We
don't watch enough TV to justify satellite so I canceled and saved about
$70 per month.