Am I crazy to want more on analog?

[smallmj]

I know that this is a digital cable forum, and that all you folks get excited when some cable company moves to an all digital lineup, but I really wish that I had more stuff on analog.

In my wacky little town (served by Eastlink), there is exactly one tier of analog cable. It has thirty channels, and costs thirty dollars. The next tier up requires digital cable, and has the rest of the channels that everyone else has on analog, the 4 sportsnets, and the standard 40 channel Galaxy/MaxTrax mix. This is what I subscribe to.

After that are movie bundles, digitnet bundles, and Eastlink's sorry selection of timeshifts. The higher level stuff is all pretty standard across Eastlink's cable systems.

My gripe is that I'd really like to have more available on the analog side of things, so I could watch stations like Space and Comedy on my other outlets. I don't want to buy the extra set top boxes.

This didn't really bother me until I installed Mythtv on my computer. This is really changing my viewing habits, and I'd like to be able to record more channels with it. Maybe I'll eventually shell out for another STB, and tune it with an IR blaster, but those things are still pretty pricey, along with the cost of getting good RG-6 to my study. Installs and boxes are really cheap for new subs to DC, but I'm not new.

Mark

[hugh]

Mark, you're not crazy!

Frankly I think most people if they saw a side by side comparision of Analog done right vs. digital would agree with you. The problem is that analog is often not done right!

Lets hope with the new cable card initiatives that all tv's in the future will be able to view all channels without any add-on boxes.

[57]

Due to bandwidth concerns though, the direction is toward digital and when digital is done right, as it is on a number of Rogers channels like TMN, it beats analogue.

So whether you have CableCard, or a STB, it'll all soon be digital and I won't be moaning the loss of analogue if the picture quality of all the digital channels improves when the bandwidth is available.

[smallmj]

Ahh, picture quality. For me, digital causes more picture quality problems than it fixes. I see far too many digital artifacts on analog channels. I was watching Teletubbies with my little ones an hour ago, and saw two broken frames with pixellation. Perhaps Eastlink has some bad equipment wherever the conversion from digital to analog occurs. Now that I think of it, most of my PQ problems occur on PBS, so there very well may be a piece of junk at the headend/wherever.

I wouldn't mind an all digital system if specialties where packaged like they are in the sat systems. In this perfect world, I would be able to get the the basic nets + about 3 bundles for a reasonable fee. If I could save $10 a month on my cable bill, it would pay for the extra STBs eventually.

Recent prices increases (especially on the low end) have made Sat lose this advantage. Remember when SC silver was $27? Nowadays the bev bundles start at $37 + multiple receiver fee + system access fee. SC pricing is horrible at the low end.

Satellite has lost its low end pricing advantage. Will an all digital cable system be able to grab advantage?

Mark

[shawguy]

Analog is good, I would like to see Game Show Network added to analog, so I could watch it on all TV's

Shawguy

[itcamrch]

smallmj I wouldn't hold your breath - these old 30 channel areas are perfect for Rogers to market Digital Cable. I'm sure they'd love to reduce analog in Major cities to 30 channels if it wouldn't be such a PR nightmare.

[itcamrch]

..and I guess I meant 'Rogers' as a generic term for 'cable company'. Sorry.

[padlock]

Analog is horribly inneficient. One analog station takes up 6 mhz, which, when using 256 QAM, translates to about 40 mbps.

The reason some digital channels look inferior to analog is because the cable companies are sometimes squeezing 10 or more digital channels into the space taken by 1 analog. If they were a bit more moderate, and only squeezed about 5 or so channels in the space, then digital would almost always look much better then analog.

Eliminating all analog channels would certainly give them the room to be far more generous with the bitrates on all digital channels (whether they would do it or not is another question).

As to the requirment for set-top boxes, that is definately a concern, although prices are droping rapidly. I suspect it won't be long before small, dual-tuner boxes will be rented for free by the cable companies for each TV you have hooked up.

[smallmj]

Originally Posted by itcamrch

smallmj I wouldn't hold your breath - these old 30 channel areas are perfect for Rogers to market Digital Cable. I'm sure they'd love to reduce analog in Major cities to 30 channels if it wouldn't be such a PR nightmare.

I'm quite sure that I will never get more on analog. A mostly digital system makes SO much more sense for the cable companies. They get PPV revenues, lower bandwidth requirements, and don't have to fiddle with traps and filters to deal with the tiers. The only way that I'll get more on analog cable is to move to a bigger town.

Interestingly, Eastlink is migrating some of the other hole-in-the-road towns around here to the same lineup that Oxford has. For example, River Hebert is going from 22 analog to 30 analog + digital. I wonder if Eastlink is using equipment from bigger towns that got upgraded to bring more choices to the little places.

Speculation: The Dartmouth system is going through major upgrades to get phone service and expanded other stuff. If Dartmouth is being upgraded from a 550 MHz system to say 750 MHz, whatever equipment is being replaced could be used to supply full service to a tiny town. A 550 MHz system would do the job nicely with only 30 channels on analog.

Mark

[automator]

Dartmouth wasn't an upgrade in the usual sense, It was deemed easier to build a brand new head end, and rewire the city than to upgrade the existing facilities. That is why they're able to do it on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. My guess is the old gear goes in the garbage

[automator]

Mark,

Have you thought about getting one of the 6208's? The upgrade deal is pretty good, trade in your box(if purchased you'll get the buyback of 49$) there is a 30$ upgrade fee, and then you can rent a 6208 for 14.95 a month, and you can record to your hearts content.)

I know that isn't totally the answer you were looking for but it's a possible solution.

Also you can get pretty good deals on DCT 2000s sometimes, a coworker bought a used 2000 off of ebay and paid roughly 25$ canadian, shipping included.

Myself, I never paid more than 50$ for any of the 4 or 5 boxes that i've had in my possesion from time to time...

Also it never hurts to ask arouind, there are plenty of people with unused boxes lying around...

[smallmj]

Originally Posted by automator

Mark,

Have you thought about getting one of the 6208's? The upgrade deal is pretty good, trade in your box(if purchased you'll get the buyback of 49$) there is a 30$ upgrade fee, and then you can rent a 6208 for 14.95 a month, and you can record to your hearts content.)

I know that isn't totally the answer you were looking for but it's a possible solution.

Also you can get pretty good deals on DCT 2000s sometimes, a coworker bought a used 2000 off of ebay and paid roughly 25$ canadian, shipping included.

Myself, I never paid more than 50$ for any of the 4 or 5 boxes that i've had in my possesion from time to time...

Also it never hurts to ask arouind, there are plenty of people with unused boxes lying around...

$14.95 a month is too rich for my blood. I'm already wishing that I could cut down on my telecommunications expenses.

Since I've already got the computer and TV tuner, paying for an external doesn't make sense for me. I don't need the HDTV capabilities on my 20" piece-o-junk TV.

I've always been wary of buying a used STB. I've been scared off by the small print in Eastlink's literature.

Digital Boxes are covered by a Lifetime Warranty and remain the property of EastLink and must be returned if Digital Cable service is disconnected.

This seems to preclude picking up a local second hand box.

If I could legitimately get a second STB, and string some good RG6 up to my office, then I might consider it doing that. I've already got the IR blaster to control it.

Mark

[automator]

That small print only refers to rental boxes, that's what the vast majority of our installs are, However there are many people who picked up the boxes during the 49$ special from a few years back, or through our Dump the Dish Program(Sat Swap) who own their boxes.

If you find someone willing to sell you a box, get the GI number, we can check to make sure that it's not stolen, or to make sure it's not a rental(this is easiest with eastlink boxes.)

I purchased my first box through EastLink, and since then i've bought 3 others through private sale and never had a problem, as have several of my friends.

The catch is that privately purchased boxes have no warranty that comes with them.

Hope that helps

[shawguy]

Who knows, maybe myslef in Winnipeg might get one more Analog Channel yet!!! I have seen on many sites of the rumoured NOW TV coming in September, and it will be considered a local, so it will be on Basic Cable!!!

Shawguy

[automator]

Personally, I'm all for more channels, digital or analog, I imagine most people are the same. The average person doesn't care about how they get the channels, just that they do.

I'm lucky in that i've managed to get enough boxes to cover all of my tv's and my HTPC(which i barely even use.)

It does suck that you can't get more on analog, I can imagine how frustrating it would be, it's easy to forget how many channels we have when you live in the city versus the country.