Digital Converter Boxes
 

Holy crap.

Anyone bought one yet? Suggestions?

Digital Converter Boxes
 

"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

Digital Converter Boxes
 

On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 18:48:26 -0800, "Mike" wrote:


"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


Yeah, my wife's got a tv in the basement she uses while crafting. I bought
the box a couple minutes ago, using the coupons. Mine expired in a couple
weeks, so I had to do something.

We ended up with the Zinwell ZAT-970A, which was rated well and had a
couple extra features on it.

Thanks for the reply though!

Digital Converter Boxes
 

"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

Digital Converter Boxes
 

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

"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

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.

--Mike

Digital Converter Boxes
 

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 -

As long as the tv is digital ready you are ok.. it's only older tv's
that will be effected. If the tv works now with cable from the wall,
it is digital and you will not have a problem if I understand
correctly..

Digital Converter Boxes
 

On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 23:53:05 -0500, "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?

That's what I have here with Comcast cable, and there's no issue.
Apparently they still send the analog signal.
They did move 4-5 channels away recently, to the "digital package."
I would need a box on each of my analog TV's for the "digital
package." That's why I haven't purchased it.
$18 bucks extra monthly becomes $33 bucks extra with box fees.
A million here and a million there..........

--Vic

Digital Converter Boxes
 

wrote in message
...

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


As long as the tv is digital ready you are ok.. it's only older tv's
that will be effected. If the tv works now with cable from the wall,
it is digital and you will not have a problem if I understand
correctly..

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

I don't think that is true. The older analog TVs work now connected
directly to the cable (no box) because the cable company also provides an
analog signal in addition to digital.

The reason I asked is because the people living in the assisted living place
that my mother is in are all concerned that their older analog TVs won't
work. Most of them are on fixed incomes and have basic cable service that
does not require a cable box. I've tried to decipher the Comcast
advertisements on the subject and they are not very clear. They say, "if
you are a cable subscriber" you don't need to do anything, and the ads show
a TV connected to one of their boxes.

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.

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

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

Eisboch

Digital Converter Boxes
 

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

Digital Converter Boxes
 

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.