Spiderman865
join:2005-12-27
Joliet, IL
 ·Comcast
2 edits | Comcast Chicago Suburbs Going All Digitail 9/29/09
Just got this in the mail yesterday. Looks like more HD this fall. 
--
Who?...Me? |
|
runnoft
Premium
join:2003-10-14
Deerfield, IL
·Comcast
| I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to my community being transformed into the World of More!
Especially if it does eventually mean more HD, or better quality HD on the current HD channels, after they free up the bandwidth by dumping analog channels. Who knows what they'll really do with it though?
It doesn't say for sure here, though, that this is being applied to the entire Chicago suburban region by September 29th. It may not be.
For anybody who's already been through this, what's a "digital converter", and how is it different from a digital set-top box? I do know what the digital set-top boxes are; that's what all digital cable customers had to use with analog TVs. |
|
Spiderman865
join:2005-12-27
Joliet, IL
·Comcast
1 edit | The DTA thread in this forum explains how they work. As fas as more HD, the Seattleregion went through analog reclimation and after it was complete, they added a bunch of HD channels. Hopefully, the same holds true for us.
--
Who?...Me? |
|
djdanska
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Glen Ellyn, IL
clubs: | reply to Spiderman865
Sweet! Can't wait... |
|
runnoft
Premium
join:2003-10-14
Deerfield, IL
·Comcast
| reply to Spiderman865
OK, it looks like the digital adapters (if those are the "DTAs") are for analog TVs and are like the digital settop boxes, except that the digital adapters can't get OnDemand, the HD channels, or premium channels like HBO.
We still have one analog TV in the house that's on the direct coaxial feed from Comcast and tunes the analog cable channels itself, so it would be useful to have one or the other of those boxes when they do this here... if (or as long as) it truly is free. When they start charging a monthly fee for them (and they probably will eventually), they can have it back and we'll figure out another way to get TV in that room. |
|
johnjefferson3
@comcast.net
| reply to Spiderman865
Sorry to burst your bubble, Spiderman865 but Seattle is not done yet!!
here a copy form me responding from the Seattle thread
Unfortunately that comcast person who you talked to was correct, in fact Seattle will be completely Last!! in fact here is a link to an article that was posted if you do not believe it!
»blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/b···ate.html
looks like you may not get it to the End of the year, but it not surprising since the Washington State area started about 2 months later than the Oregon area and has about 2 more zones than Oregon does, in fact i think Oregon only has 1 zone left, from the information that i read from their(Oregon) thread, and then comcast will focus more on California, so that the West coast be done by 2009, with comcast focusing on east coast in 2010!!
Ironically the last Zone left in Oregon is Portland, which (was announced today)will get their HD on September 1, 2009 fishing off Oregon State, but Washington Sate won't be completed done until the End of This year!!
Then ALL near-by Chicago areas should be done, then All of Michigan, and the Starting of the New Jersey Area (Which all have their individual threads too)!! Eventually where going to have a master thread so that all the information is shared to everyone equally!!
p.s if you noticed the Portland HD channels ,yes MSNBC HD was listed, and so was ESPN U HD which is being added only in select markets!! |
|
theloop
@rcn.com | reply to Spiderman865
its about time. rcn has been all digital in chicago for a year! |
|
bshelly
Premium
join:2002-02-17
Schaumburg, IL
clubs: | reply to Spiderman865
Wonderful, now my Analog Tivo's are no longer going to do me any good. Crap! At $199 for a refurbished Tivo, that's going to cost me $400+ tax plus the additional cable card fees to continue my grandfathered Tivo pricing. Grrr! |
|
mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV
 ·DIRECTV
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
·Comcast
| reply to Spiderman865
heh, my uncle finally bought cable three weeks ago after not having it for 25 years. Now they are going to tell him he needs to get a box to watch cable. I wonder if his $60 rate for internet and cable will go up now as well. I did warn him before I left that most of chicago will be all digital soon. |
|
djdanska
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Glen Ellyn, IL
clubs:
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·T-Mobile US
·A + Net
·Mediacom
·RCN CABLE
| reply to theloop
said by theloop :
its about time. rcn has been all digital in chicago for a year!
Comcast is fully digital in areas where rcn serves. The entire city of chicago is digital. Just the suburbs and outlying areas are not.
--
The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. The day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Alden Nowlan |
|
andyross
join:2003-05-04
Schaumburg, IL
| reply to Spiderman865
I haven't received that letter yet, but they did stop offering 'standard cable' to new subscribers a month or two ago.
The way it's worded, it does sound like they may support DTA's. I hope that means they will move many of the channels to clear-QAM (unless they authorization to use 'privacy mode'.)
Here in Schaumburg, they have starting using PSIP to 'correct' the channel numbers of several clear-QAM broadcast channels. Channels that have clear-QAM HD (2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 20, 26, 32, 38, 50) show up as 202-1, 205-1, etc.. so they do not conflict with the HD, which is 2-1, 5-1, etc... SD only's show up as 44-1, 60-1, 62-1, and 66-1. (62-1 has an issue as there is a REAL 62-1, so my TV tries to tune to the encrypted on the REAL 62-1 if I type it in. I can only view it if I add it to my channel list and channel up or down to it.) The analogs are still there and are just 2, 5, etc... (although many TV's let you use 2-0, 5-0 to force analog.)
They also moved the frequency of several channels around a bit. |
|
Spiderman865
join:2005-12-27
Joliet, IL | reply to johnjefferson3
Maybe I should have worded it different about Seattle. Either way it's a sign of progress.
--
Who?...Me? |
|
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL | reply to Spiderman865
why can't they move scfi to starer like it is in other comcast areas. |
|
andyross
join:2003-05-04
Schaumburg, IL
| said by Joe12345678  :why can't they move scfi to starer like it is in other comcast areas. Probably because it was one of the first analogs moved several years ago, and there was no such thing as Digital Starter. Digital Classic (which wasn't much more than today's Starter) was the entry-level package at the time. |
|
ak3883
join:2005-08-20
Bensalem, PA
| reply to Spiderman865
When did they start deploying DTA boxes in your area?
I really hope to get this letter someday soon in the Philly suburbs, I would think they would tackle the burbs before they tackle the mess that is the city's cable system... which is quite a mess of different equipment from what I understand. We were able to get DTAs starting in Jan/Feb.. and have only lost a small handful of channels to digital only.
Also of note is which channels are being downgraded to digital starter. We already have a couple of these that have been moved down to digital starter, that list shows which ones are likely coming soon. At least digital starter channels can be viewed on any TV with a ClearQAM tuner, so those channels can now be viewed on digital TV's without a box or DTA. |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
| reply to johnjefferson3
said by johnjefferson3 :
Sorry to burst your bubble, Spiderman865 but Seattle is not done yet!!
here a copy form me responding from the Seattle thread
Unfortunately that comcast person who you talked to was correct, in fact Seattle will be completely Last!! in fact here is a link to an article that was posted if you do not believe it!
»blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/b···ate.html
looks like you may not get it to the End of the year, but it not surprising since the Washington State area started about 2 months later than the Oregon area and has about 2 more zones than Oregon does, in fact i think Oregon only has 1 zone left, from the information that i read from their(Oregon) thread, and then comcast will focus more on California, so that the West coast be done by 2009, with comcast focusing on east coast in 2010!!
Ironically the last Zone left in Oregon is Portland, which (was announced today)will get their HD on September 1, 2009 fishing off Oregon State, but Washington Sate won't be completed done until the End of This year!!
Then ALL near-by Chicago areas should be done, then All of Michigan, and the Starting of the New Jersey Area (Which all have their individual threads too)!! Eventually where going to have a master thread so that all the information is shared to everyone equally!!
p.s if you noticed the Portland HD channels ,yes MSNBC HD was listed, and so was ESPN U HD which is being added only in select markets!!
Portland was finished last month. That post about more HD channels was in addition to the 32 that were added with the transition. Comcast started in the Albany and Eugene area the first of the year and moved north with the west side of Portland being transitioned in May and the east side in June. The only analog channels left is the Limited Basic package (local broadcast, several public access channels, WGN, and Discovery) |
|
schja01
I need to get a life.
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL
clubs: | reply to Spiderman865
I have the "el cheapo" basic (analog) cable for $9.95/mo. Will Comcast give me 2 DTA's ? Or will they force me into some "digital" offering? |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
| reply to ak3883
said by ak3883 :When did they start deploying DTA boxes in your area? I really hope to get this letter someday soon in the Philly suburbs, I would think they would tackle the burbs before they tackle the mess that is the city's cable system... which is quite a mess of different equipment from what I understand. We were able to get DTAs starting in Jan/Feb.. and have only lost a small handful of channels to digital only. Also of note is which channels are being downgraded to digital starter. We already have a couple of these that have been moved down to digital starter, that list shows which ones are likely coming soon. At least digital starter channels can be viewed on any TV with a ClearQAM tuner, so those channels can now be viewed on digital TV's without a box or DTA. Here in Portland they started sending out notices about needing DTA's the begining of December last year, the DTA's actually became available January 5th this year.
During the transition the channels in the Digital Starter package did become available using a QAM tuner, they often changed channels assignments requiring frequent rescans. After the transition, all the channels except for those in the Limited Basic package were moved to bands that can be filtered out so that those with only a Limited Basic package could no longer view them.
If Comcast gets a waiver to use the encryption features in the DTA's then most likely they will start encrypting them, and then a QAM tuner will only be able to receive the Limited Basic channels in an area. Which is the way it was before the transition began. |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
| reply to schja01
said by schja01 :I have the "el cheapo" basic (analog) cable for $9.95/mo. Will Comcast give me 2 DTA's ? Or will they force me into some "digital" offering? If they do things the same way, you wouldn't need DTA's as nothing would change for you.
For Enhanced/Expanded analog and higher they give out two DTA's free and charge $1.99 each for any others |
|
schja01
I need to get a life.
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL
clubs:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T Midwest
| said by earletp :said by schja01 :I have the "el cheapo" basic (analog) cable for $9.95/mo. Will Comcast give me 2 DTA's ? Or will they force me into some "digital" offering? If they do things the same way, you wouldn't need DTA's as nothing would change for you. For Enhanced/Expanded analog and higher they give out two DTA's free and charge $1.99 each for any others So Comcast is maintaining some minimal analog service through the digital conversion? |
|
