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Cogeco Analogue to Digital Migration

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#102 · (Edited by Moderator)
Cogeco Digital to Analog Box(es)?

I've done a quick scan of this forum and I can't find a definitive answer to my problem.

I live in a condo community and part of the condo fees cover cable. Because of this bulk order, Cogeco is giving us 2 of the huawei converter boxes free. The problem is that I need one more and I don't want to pay cogeco $2 a month in perpetuity for a crappy box with no epg or any features. I've got the HD box in the living room and the two huawei boxes in the kitchen and the spare bedroom, but I'd want something a little better for the bedroom tv since I'm in here watching TV more often than anywhere else.

Does anyone know of any third party DTA converter that is Cogeco approved? When I talked to the sales department, the woman gave me a strange sounding answer that sounded like there was, but she wasn't inclined to say.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
#103 ·
why not just buy the regular cogeco STB box outright and add it to your condo? just because they said the price to rent does not mean its not available for purchase seperately, just go into the cogeco store, buy it
 
#104 ·
why not just buy the regular cogeco STB box outright and add it to your condo? just because they said the price to rent does not mean its not available for purchase seperately, just go into the cogeco store, buy it
Click to expand...
I tried that last night and they aren't selling their converter STBs from their store. I don't want a regular digital box in the bedroom since I'd have nowhere to put it and it still be in line of sight.
 
#105 ·
Whatever STB you want, you will need to purchase or rent it from Cogeco or purchase it from an authorized dealer or purchase used from a Cogeco customer in good standing. Cogeco will not activate outside STBs any more and it certainly wouldn't be worth the effort/hassle for an SD STB even if they did (it was never easy to authorize an outside STB - often requiring several calls and several hours with several techs). Here are the appropriate links.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=69031 Cogeco Outside STB

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/05/buying-a-used-cable-set-top-box-in-canada/ Used STB

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741 Useful post for newbies.
 
#106 ·
So I phoned them again today and said I wanted to buy another converter. They said I could only rent them. I said I didn't want to rent them, I wanted to buy the thing. Then they made the mistake of telling me I should just buy a new TV.

I asked to be transferred to customer retention.

I'm getting TWO converters shipped for free.
 
#112 ·
Antenna/OTA newbie here....

I moved to Burlington in June and signed up for Cogeco Cable internet - did not sign up for cable tv. After the cable internet was installed I plugged in TV into the cable and was getting about 30+ channels. Near the end of July/early Aug some channels stopped working and was down to about 20 channels...I think this was when 'everything went digital'.

I cancelled my Cogeco internet within a month and was still getting about 10-15 channels after cancelling (CBC, CFTO, etc.) then sometime in early Nov all channels stopped working.

I have a 2 year old LCD HDTV and when I scan both digital & analog channels, nothing is found. I've tried scanning the antenna & cable (since cable line was still plugged in).

Just curious why months after I cancelled their internet that I was able to get 10-15 channels and all of a sudden that stopped. Should I not be able to get any channels at all with just the built-in antenna on the TV or had Cogeco accidentally left my cable hooked up and in Nov disconnected it or something?
 
#113 ·
There were some QAM channels that were unencrypted and are now encrypted. See post 2 and the last page of the following thread: Others have reported the same thing, as Cogeco does what most other providers do - encrypt all the digital channels (save perhaps the occasional free preview channel)

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=55234
 
#114 ·
thanks for the quick reply. I read through that channel and I'm not sure if it answers my question and/or maybe I don't understand.

To clarify: I have never purchased cable TV from Cogeco. Until Nov I was able to get analogue channels on my TV as I could see channels on an old CRT and on my newer HDTV LCD. Unless I misunderstand, those posts apply to digital and links that I found there refer to rent/buying digital boxes for customers....however channels seemed to be dying out. In Aug it seemed to be when everything went digital as I dropped down from 20-30 channels to just 10-15 and most weren't that good (business news channel, several in French, etc.)

Mainly I am trying to figure out if I am able or supposed to be able to get any analog channels anymore (the 10-15 I was getting until Nov). Or if I'll need to get an OTA or pay for Cogeco.
 
#115 ·
If you are not a paying customer, why on earth are you connecting the coaxial cable to your tv? are you aware that if you want to receive TV stations you must subscribe to a cable tv package from cogeco?

do they provide internet to your residence currently?
 
#116 ·
Of course I realize that! :)

I connected a cable from the TV to the wall outlet to see if I would get any channels and was getting 30+ channels when they were my cable internet provider and I just never unhooked it.

I cancelled them as my internet provider in Aug and was receiving 10-15 channels since then. I would receive these channels when I scanned with my tv for channels via antenna or via cable. Then in Nov all channels disappeared.

So I'm trying to figure out if I was getting these 10-15 channels via antenna and something happened in Nov to disable them. Or if Cogeco had left a line connected to my house accidentally and that's why I was getting those channels (then in Nov they ran an audit at my house/cable box on street and disconnected the cable).
 
#118 ·
In your original post you didn't mention the old CRT for analogue channels. It's probably a combination of two things. Most service providers don't immediately put filters on the lines hoping that the existing or new customer decides to subscribe to TV. Truck rolls cost money. If, after a few months, the customer doesn't subscribe, they send out a truck roll to put in a filter to block the analogue channels. The digital channels are blocked by encryption (and/or perhaps the filter) and that is why they are now all gone and possibly explains why it happened in stages.

Since you're not paying for TV, you shouldn't be receiving channels (although in some instances, some (few) channels may still be viewable). The service provider doesn't care about those few.
 
#119 ·
....and those few channels left usually are local OTA channels anyway that you'll get in analogue SD... For each analogue channel that is removed, an encrypted QAM stream can have many SD channels, or a few HD, depending on various factors.

From my experience, connecting a cable from a TV to a cancelled cable service is a horrendous make-work project. :)

The legality issue has been pounded so much that it's microns in thickness now...

Cameron
 
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#120 ·
CamDAB said:
....and those few channels left usually are local OTA channels anyway that you'll get in analogue SD... For each analogue channel that is removed, an encrypted QAM stream can have many SD channels, or a few HD, depending on various factors.

From my experience, connecting a cable from a TV to a cancelled cable service is a horrendous make-work project. :)

The legality issue has been pounded so much that it's microns in thickness now...

Cameron
Click to expand...
Thanks - not trying to do anything illegal (I won't be opening the box on the house or anything like that). I'm really just trying to figure things out here.

When I was getting channels while Cogeco was my internet provider I figured they made some kind of mistake or something like that. But once I cancelled most of the channels disappeared and I was only getting a handful and most were crappy. It seemed like these were free channels coming in off an antenna. When I scanned for channels on my HDTV with it set to "cable" as the source it seemed to give me most of the same channels as when I set the source to "antenna".

So long story short, am just trying to figure out what's going on here as I would like to get a few channels for free via antenna if possible. I don't watch much TV at all, but it would be nice to have over the holidays when guests come over to put on in the background / after dinner, etc.

My problem is right now with the cable plugged in or unplugged on the HDTV and CRT I can't get any channels at all. So just trying to figure out if I should be able to get a few on the HDTV/CRT without buying equipment (as I was for months but am not getting them anymore) or if I need to buy an OTA antenna and digital box.
 
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