On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them. It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

Two questions - how's the HD service between the two in terms of
number of channels and where can I get one of those protable satellite
deals? :)

Oh, third - 500 channels?!?!?

Dude....

On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:31:06 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:




I guess the real question is, "How much longer will the cable companies
continue to provide the analog signal on their cable lines?" I suspect
that eventually (if not starting this February) that they will phase out the
analog signal and do everything in digital. It only makes sense because
analog consumes much of the bandwidth capacity of cable and they want it for
other things (like digital voice for telephone). If my assumption is
correct, then anyone with an analog only TV will eventually require either a
cable box from the cable company, a digital to analog converter box or a
digital TV.

On the bandwidth point, they're not having a problem - here, anyway -
currently sending digital, analog, HD, broadband, and digital phone on
the same cable. I think the digital mandate was to free up the air
waves.
Then, I suspect, as gfretwell does - that requiring boxes on every
analog TV will push customers to satellite. It would push me there.
I don't need much excuse to leave Comcast behind.
Only the fact I'd have to pay for the extra sat boxes has kept me
from going to sat.
Thirdly, Comcast has been harping in ads for months now that their
customers don't have to get a converter box. Be pretty dumb to go
back on that any time soon.
I figure they have a 5-10 year time frame for dropping analog.
Probably have statisticians working on analog TV obsolescence and
psychologists analysing public response.
They have plenty of money to pay them.
I've been in meetings with these types. If they're any good they'll
keep as many customers as they can.
But its always possible they'll go for cost-cutting bonus money and
screw the pooch.

Meanwhile, this is funny. I made a copy and sent it to my mother.

http://www.eisboch.com/digitalconversion.wmv

Funny. We'll all get there soon enough. If we're lucky.

--Vic

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use
on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have
the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them.
It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

Two questions - how's the HD service between the two in terms of
number of channels and where can I get one of those protable satellite
deals? :)

Oh, third - 500 channels?!?!?

Dude....

1. I don't know how the HD service compares. I don't have HD Direct TV.
Not sure I'd bother
either because for the amount of time I actually watch TV, it wouldn't
be worth it.
As I mentioned, the digital quality of the Direct TV (non-Hd) is
excellent.

2. I bought the portable dish at an RV place down near Kingman. It was
less than 200 bucks.
You can also find them on-line. I bought (rented, I guess) the
Direct TV receiver at
Best Buy. Not expensive. Then, you have to set up an account with
Direct TV. They want you
to connect the box to a telephone line, but I explained I was using it
on a boat and they gave
me a waiver for the telephone line requirement. There's some
limitation regarding reception
of local (Boston and Providence) channels if I happened to be
travelling long distance on the
boat, but that really doesn't bother me. I usually watch the History
Channel, Discovery, TBS
CNN, MSNBC, etc. anyway. However, the basic Direct TV service has
many, many more
channels included in it. I still haven't seen all of them.

3. I just checked. Direct TV offers a total of 584 channels. With the
basic service, I get 398
of them.

Eisboch

On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 06:53:47 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use
on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have
the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them.
It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

Two questions - how's the HD service between the two in terms of
number of channels and where can I get one of those protable satellite
deals? :)

Oh, third - 500 channels?!?!?

Dude....

1. I don't know how the HD service compares. I don't have HD Direct TV.
Not sure I'd bother
either because for the amount of time I actually watch TV, it wouldn't
be worth it.
As I mentioned, the digital quality of the Direct TV (non-Hd) is
excellent.

2. I bought the portable dish at an RV place down near Kingman. It was
less than 200 bucks.
You can also find them on-line. I bought (rented, I guess) the
Direct TV receiver at
Best Buy. Not expensive. Then, you have to set up an account with
Direct TV. They want you
to connect the box to a telephone line, but I explained I was using it
on a boat and they gave
me a waiver for the telephone line requirement. There's some
limitation regarding reception
of local (Boston and Providence) channels if I happened to be
travelling long distance on the
boat, but that really doesn't bother me. I usually watch the History
Channel, Discovery, TBS
CNN, MSNBC, etc. anyway. However, the basic Direct TV service has
many, many more
channels included in it. I still haven't seen all of them.

3. I just checked. Direct TV offers a total of 584 channels. With the
basic service, I get 398
of them.

Cool - thanks.

Must think this over. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I'm like you -
mostly History, Discovery and the occasional movie that I'm interested
in.

Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:02:58 -0800, "Mike" wrote:

You're good there too. The cable co. already does the conversion for you,
and broadcasts it thru the cable to whatever channel you're watching. Kind
of a digital/analog hybrid.

Really, it only affects over the air reception.

Nope - the current system is dual carrier. If you connect directly to
the cable without the benefit of a box, it's an analog signal.

The analog signal is set to switch off on Feb. 9, 2009.
In this area the cable company is currently offering both digital and
analog signals. If you have an older TV that is analog and connected
directly to the cable you will need a converter box. Per their
advertisements the cable company should provide it.

If you have an newer TV with a digital and analog tuners, you will see
no difference, it you go to the digital tuner side on your TV. My TV
has both digital and analog tuners. Currently I can receive both
digital and analog signal through the direct connect cable. In February
the analog tuner will become a worthless attachment.

On Jan 6, 11:53*pm, "Eisboch" wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message

...







"John H" wrote in message
.. .
Holy crap.

Anyone bought one yet? Suggestions?

Do you need one? If you have digital cable or Sat, you're all set. If you
are still using rabbit ears on an analog TV, then you do need one. I only
have one analog TV left, and it's hooked up to Sat, so no probs here.

If you do need one, they're only about 40 bucks, but if you act quickly,
you can get a $40 coupon from the Feds to cover it. I read recently, that
the coupon program is rapidly running out of cash.

--Mike

What about people that have basic cable service without benefit of a cable
co. supplied box?
In other words, their cable connects directly from the wall to the back of
their analog TV?

Eisboch- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It'll work. The only thing that the going digital thing will affect is
if you use an antenna. What I'm ****ed about is that now the History
Channel has went to digital format, the only way you can get it is
with the Comcast box. Only have one on the main TV, all the other TV's
are just wired directly to cable.

wrote in message
...

It'll work. The only thing that the going digital thing will affect is
if you use an antenna. What I'm ****ed about is that now the History
Channel has went to digital format, the only way you can get it is
with the Comcast box. Only have one on the main TV, all the other TV's
are just wired directly to cable.

-----------------------------------

Yeah. A few months ago they moved MSNBC to a digital channel also and it
now requires one of their boxes to continue to receive it ... even on a
digital TV. This is a different issue than the analog to digital
transition. MSNBC used to be part of the "Basic" service plan, included in
the analog, straight out of the wall (no box) capabilities. Now it's part
of a package for which a box *is* required, regardless of TV (analog or
digital) type. Around here it used to be on channel 59. They moved it to
a digital channel (114). If I select channel 114 on a digital TV connected
directly to the wall (no box), I get C-Span. If I select 114 using
Comcast's box, I get MSNBC. Starting to get confusing.

Eisboch

"Vic Smith" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:31:06 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:




I guess the real question is, "How much longer will the cable companies
continue to provide the analog signal on their cable lines?" I suspect
that eventually (if not starting this February) that they will phase out
the
analog signal and do everything in digital. It only makes sense because
analog consumes much of the bandwidth capacity of cable and they want it
for
other things (like digital voice for telephone). If my assumption is
correct, then anyone with an analog only TV will eventually require either
a
cable box from the cable company, a digital to analog converter box or a
digital TV.

On the bandwidth point, they're not having a problem - here, anyway -
currently sending digital, analog, HD, broadband, and digital phone on
the same cable. I think the digital mandate was to free up the air
waves.
Then, I suspect, as gfretwell does - that requiring boxes on every
analog TV will push customers to satellite. It would push me there.
I don't need much excuse to leave Comcast behind.
Only the fact I'd have to pay for the extra sat boxes has kept me
from going to sat.
Thirdly, Comcast has been harping in ads for months now that their
customers don't have to get a converter box. Be pretty dumb to go
back on that any time soon.
I figure they have a 5-10 year time frame for dropping analog.
Probably have statisticians working on analog TV obsolescence and
psychologists analysing public response.
They have plenty of money to pay them.
I've been in meetings with these types. If they're any good they'll
keep as many customers as they can.
But its always possible they'll go for cost-cutting bonus money and
screw the pooch.

Meanwhile, this is funny. I made a copy and sent it to my mother.

http://www.eisboch.com/digitalconversion.wmv

Funny. We'll all get there soon enough. If we're lucky.

--Vic

You have to weigh the total cost of cable vs satellite. The satellite box
charge may not be a deal breaker. With DishNetwork each receiver will
satisfy two TVs. And the new ones even have a turner for OFT reception.

Eisboch wrote:

wrote in message
...

It'll work. The only thing that the going digital thing will affect is
if you use an antenna. What I'm ****ed about is that now the History
Channel has went to digital format, the only way you can get it is
with the Comcast box. Only have one on the main TV, all the other TV's
are just wired directly to cable.

-----------------------------------

Yeah. A few months ago they moved MSNBC to a digital channel also and
it now requires one of their boxes to continue to receive it ... even on
a digital TV. This is a different issue than the analog to digital
transition. MSNBC used to be part of the "Basic" service plan, included
in the analog, straight out of the wall (no box) capabilities. Now it's
part of a package for which a box *is* required, regardless of TV
(analog or digital) type. Around here it used to be on channel 59.
They moved it to a digital channel (114). If I select channel 114 on a
digital TV connected directly to the wall (no box), I get C-Span. If
I select 114 using Comcast's box, I get MSNBC. Starting to get confusing.

Eisboch



This is the "special" box I asked comcast to prepare for you. I control
your vertical and your horizontal.

:)

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...


The cable company will probably be migrating everything to digital
eventually but they know that will make satellite more attractive for
anyone without a QAM tuner equipped TV (not the same as the OTA
"digital" the FCC requires). If you need a box for every TV anyway,
satellite really starts looking good.

We have four Comcast provided HD Cable boxes in the house hooked up to
either plasma or LCD large screen TVs. We rarely watch any programming
on them and I am thinking of getting rid of 2 or 3 of the boxes. The
digital flat screens will display several channels in HD anyway without
the box (connected directly to the cable feed).

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use
on the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and
have the dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is
digital obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that
provided by Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some
in analog (without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get
over 500 channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of
them. It's not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very
good. When people see it they think it's HD until I show them the
difference.

If it weren't for Internet service, I think I could easily dump Comcast
and go to Direct TV.
I know they offer Internet as well, but I don't think it's as fast as
cable. I don't know for sure.

Eisboch

Direct and/or Dish do not provide the Internet service. In the case of Dish
here in my area they partner with Embarq and they provide DSL service.

I found for me it was better not to bundle the DishNetwork and Embarq
Internet service. When you get the Embarq DSL and landline phone service
they force a bundle of phone "services" that would make my phone bill part
of the service go up about 20 bux per month.

Embarq offers different Internet speeds for different monthly prices. I
have the 3MB service and it is just fine. I have never seen Comcast in
action but I've heard they have higher d/l speeds that 3MB.