Cable Television
and the Digital Transition
If you subscribe to a Cable service provider, you may be affected by the analog to digital transition now, or in the future.
There has been a compromise adopted by the FCC and agreed to by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA). It states that cable television companies are required to continue offering local commercial broadcast signals for a period of at least three years after the
analog to digital transition
on February 17, 2009.
Click here to read the FCC Compromise
Keep reading...
Cable companies can do this in one of two ways:
Carry the local commercial broadcast digital signal in an analog format, so subscribers can continue to use existing analog TV sets.
Carry the signal in digital format only, provided they supply all subscribers with the necessary cable boxes to view the digital programming. If the cable company provides the customer with a set-top box, any costs related to it will be determined by the cable company. Therefore, it is recommended that analog cable customers contact their cable company to ask if a set-top box will be needed, when it will be needed, and if there will be a cost.
The requirements will be in force from the date of the transition through February 2012 subject to review by the Commission during the last year of this period.
ALERT:Sounds like good news, but be aware that local commercial broadcast signals are only the few channels you can receive free over-the-air.
Local commercial broadcast signals do not include the many cable channels such as ESPN, WTBS, Lifetime and the USA Network. These non-local broadcast cable channels can be switched to digital any time at the discretion of the cable company.
We are hearing that many cable companies are switching to all digital right now, or in the very near future.
After February 2012, the cable companies will most likely go to digital only.
When your cable company goes to all digital broadcasting now or in the future, these are your options:
Buy a
Digital TV set
with a digital cable tuner (QAM tuner*)
Obtain a digital converter box directly from your cable company.
Buy a digital converter box with a built-in QAM tuner.
*A QAM tuner allows the reception of unencrypted digital cable signals from your cable company without a converter box.
The coupon-eligible converter boxes do not have a QAM tuner.
These converter boxes have QAM tuners for digital cable reception and ATSC tuners for over-the-air broadcast reception:
PHD-205: ATSC / QAM (HD) / NTSC Tuner Receiver Box
Samsung SIR-T451 High Definition Terrestrial Tuner
Please note: In most cases, if you also want high-definition TV (HDTV) from your cable company, it requires a digital cable box or a CableCard and has an additional fee.
Some
digital recorders
such as TiVo, and new TV sets have digital cable tuners (QAM) and slots for
CableCards
. These cards are plugged into the slots to allow HDTV and other cable features.
Most new digital televisions include an ATSC tuner for digital over-the-air reception and a QAM tuner for the reception of digital cable channels. Please note that without a cable box, you will not be able to access "special programming" features such as On Demand and Pay-Per-View.
If you have TVs in your home that are not hooked up to your cable, and rely on an antenna to receive conventional broadcasts, you will need to buy
converter boxes
to continue watching those TVs after the February 17, 2009 analog broadcasting cutoff.
Even if all TVs in your home are connected to cable, you may be missing some opportunities. You may want to get a better picture by replacing old cable converter boxes with digital boxes.
As more and more programming is provided in high-definition, you may also want to consider upgrading your TV to a Digital TV set to take advantage of the picture improvements made possible by digital television.
EZ Tips for Buying a New Digital TV Set
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