I have 4 TV's in the house...To say that is perhaps akin to saying "I own 4 vehicles but don't have the money to buy gas" It is of course your decision whether you want digital or not and perhaps some of those TVs can operate in analogue mode as many people do.

I believe Al58's point is if SHAW goes all-digital (leaving no Analog or removing tiers of Analog channels he currently has) he feels it is unfair to make him pay $2 per box per month, instead of the digital fee being per household.

Sorry, the digital fee on Rogers is $2.99 per month total, not per TV. Nevertheless, if one has 4 TVs one should not gripe about a few $ per year to keep them in operation. Analogue will be around for a few years anyway, so the topic is pretty moot, unless you want digital on all your TVs.

So how does this work with the boxes? Will the analog tuner in the boxes actually be disabled to force digital or does the box work by looking for a digital signal for the channel first and only if there is no digital signal it then picks up the analog signal?

The "better technology" has been discussed in other threads. The way it works is that the infrastructure is upgraded to fibre everywhere but "the last mile". This provodes a huge amount of bandwidth to the "Node" in your area.

This Node then becomes a "smart node" sensing what digital channels are being used by the houses on the node. Those channels not being used are not sent, thereby reducing the bandwidth requirement going out from the node, effectively doubling the bandwidth available, or more.


57, where has this been discussed? I am interested in more info for this change to Cable.

So how does this work with the boxes? Will the analog tuner in the boxes actually be disabled to force digital or does the box work by looking for a digital signal for the channel first and only if there is no digital signal it then picks up the analog signal?

The analog tuner is not "Disabled" but will no longer be in use. The channel numbers you see on a DCT can be mapped to any analog frequency or QAM frequency. When the change takes place, Shaw will send a new channel map to your DCT and the new maps will map to QAM frequencies rather then the traditional analog frequencies you have now.

Glad to see all this discussion and follow up on this topic.Actually when the tech was at my house and had his test equipment on my line he showed me the graph that shows the bandwidth ,channel signals within that bandwidth and the gaps in the bandwidth that will proably be used on the addition of digital SD channels.It was interesting to me as I have some experiance in simuliar equipment with my job.
I guess there is no gaurentee that digital will improve SD picture quality,but I sure hope so.Knowing that Starchoice,thier sister company is all digital and the quality of thier SD picture,there should be some improvment.We will have to wait and see.

So is this change happening Nov. 28th? Will it be simutaneous for all Shaw areas?

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Shaw is always been be on the soft release of new items and making no promises.
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Mike24, you may want to read / spell/ grammar check your e-mails to Shaw and postings on this board. It lessens the effectiveness of your questions and comments.
:eek: :rolleyes: :D

:o

I think idearat has proven my point!!

BURNED by spell check!
Google needs to add grammar check.

However, I do use MS Word to compose my e-mails to Shaw, etc.

Replace "is always been be" with "has always been big" -- 4 characters short of making a good point :mad:

LOL well said.

Sorry, the digital fee on Rogers is $2.99 per month total, not per TV. Nevertheless, if one has 4 TVs one should not gripe about a few $ per year to keep them in operation. Analogue will be around for a few years anyway, so the topic is pretty moot, unless you want digital on all your TVs.

The fact that I have 4 TV's is irrelevant. Its not like I drive a H2 and complain about gas prices. 3 of the 4 TV's were given as sales incentives over the years and the house I moved into is actually wired for 6. I have 4 sets, so I plug them in.

My point is that if Shaw wants to promote digital TV and the purchase of digital boxes for services and to free up bandwith for the eventual ending of analog service or adding of more HD channels, they should not penalize me to the tune of $72 a year more for plugging the TV's into a STB rather than just plugging them into a coax outlet on the wall like they are now.

I'll stay analog as long as its around and as long as there is a surcharge for every STB.

As a paying consumer, you can influence the companies with your pocketbook. Thus, if you disagree with digtal fees and choose to use the analog service, that is great. If one wants the digital services, and Shaw charges for them, then one must pay to get them. In the future, if Shaw does phase analog TV out of their service lineup (likely a few years away from this), you may see either the digital fee dropped, or just rolled into the cost of providing services. I get the idea that you disagree with the digital fee because analog consumers do not have to pay them, and being a "premium" digital customer, it's unfair that you do. I don't think its correct to think of the STB fee as a "penalty" but it's an additional service that they are providing digital customers that they are not providing to analog customers. If everyone started using the digital services, everyone would be "penalized" for using them also. Customers using Starchoice and Bell Expressvu basically pay these fees as well, but they are rolled into their monthly bill.

If you still disagree with the digital services fee, you should probably call in to customer service and complain. If they get enough complaints, it might filter up to marketing people and get looked at, especially since the digital TV push is coming.

I believe the cost is associated with the guide data, which is only available on the STB, so that's why we're charged the fee. I have one STB that isn't being used, so I don't have it on Shaw's system, which saves me the extra charge each month.

Gord

What is the exact date that shaw will begin simulcasting their analog channels with the digital equivalents? I'm in Calgary BTW.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=456310&postcount=42

Sweet, Tomorrow (nov 21), should clear up a lot of problems...

Question ...... Did SHAW upgrade their cable to full digital yesterday since my Motorola PVR box turned off automaticly last night (Nov 19th) at ~9:05PM for no reason and my analog channels seem to be much clearer now???

BTW .... I live in westend in Vancouver

I think they upgraded me to digital last night (Nov 19th) at ~ 9:05PM. My picture seems much clearer and my tv says I'm in digital mode. BTW .... I live in the westend in Vancouver.

I still get noisy analogue channels in Winnipeg :(