robertc
Premium Member
join:2009-05-11
Pasadena, CA |
robertc
Premium Member
2014-Mar-23 8:09 pm
[CATV] All digital, Monterey Park, Calif. - and boxesMy friend lives in Monterey Park and she's been getting Charter letters saying they're going 100% digital on Mar. 25 and she should add a set-top box. She has a digital TV and no box now. The letter implied that if you don't add a box, you will receive no channels at all, is that right? Or will she get a small handful of channels? If they're saying that every single Charter TV has to have a box, I think it's ridiculous. It's just a pain to add those things. This is their help page: » www.charter.com/browse/c ··· ip=91101 |
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ARRIS SB6121
Netgear WNDR3800
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That's what they are saying. All channels will be encrypted, so she needs something to identify her as a paying customer.  If her TV has a cable card connection, a cable card would be cheaper than the STB or DVR boxes, although some features would be missing I understand. |
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robertc
Premium Member
join:2009-05-11
Pasadena, CA |
robertc
Premium Member
2014-Mar-23 8:15 pm
PS: She only has the most basic channels. No pay channels. |
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ARRIS SB6121
Netgear WNDR3800
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That doesn't matter about basic channels... because they are ALL being encrypted. She only has a choice in the method that she wants to receive those same channels now. One of Charter's boxes, or one of the many cable card devices, if her TV doesn't have a cable card connection. Unless of course, she can get reception OTA, and drop cable service. |
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robertc
Premium Member
join:2009-05-11
Pasadena, CA |
robertc
Premium Member
2014-Mar-23 8:22 pm
Why does Charter insist on encrypting all channels for all customers?
It's ridiculous if every customer has to use a box or will receive nothing. |
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Stated purpose to stop cable theft which I understand, plus to improve customer service. |
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Mr Guy to robertc
Anon
2014-Mar-23 9:34 pm
to robertc
said by robertc:Why does Charter insist on encrypting all channels for all customers?
It's ridiculous if every customer has to use a box or will receive nothing. It's not ridiculous. They are going all digital( which is necessary ) so yes the channels need to be encrypted. Every other pay TV service that is 100% digital you need a box. DirecTV, DishNetwork, U-Verse, FiOS. Cable does it they are "evil". This reduces theft, reduce the number of truck rolls, gets service up faster if there are issues, makes it easier for people to change service among other things |
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 nunyaLXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO ·Charter
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to robertc
said by robertc:Why does Charter insist on encrypting all channels for all customers?
It's ridiculous if every customer has to use a box or will receive nothing. Charter employees will claim this is to deter theft (which is an actual side effect of *all* encrypted). They also claim it's to provide better service. Thus far I've been presented with no valid evidence whatsoever to lend credence to this theory of better service. The truth: this is nothing but a money grab for Charter. Each box is an additional $7 / month. Most people have 3 TV's; that's an additional $21 / month, per sub. It doesn't take Charter long to "recover" the cost of the cable box and reap pure profit on top of an already overpriced service. Charter could have *easily* still gone all digital basic and *not* encrypted the channels (ITU-J.8b). This would allow anyone with a newer TV the ability to view basic cable channels without an expensive box. I do not subscribe to their overpriced TV service, but if I did I would be paying and additional $56 / month just for the pleasure of actually being able to see $70+ basic cable. |
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 CoolMan
join:2008-01-07
Maryville, TN
Netgear R7000
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said by nunya:The truth: this is nothing but a money grab for Charter. Each box is an additional $7 / month. Most people have 3 TV's; that's an additional $21 / month, per sub. It doesn't take Charter long to "recover" the cost of the cable box and reap pure profit on top of an already overpriced service.
Charter could have *easily* still gone all digital basic and *not* encrypted the channels (ITU-J.8b). This would allow anyone with a newer TV the ability to view basic cable channels without an expensive box. They absolutely could, in fact another cable company I know did exactly that. Suddenlink went all digital in markets but they actually left limited basic and expanded basic unencrypted in Clear QAM (encrypting everything else) informing customers to re-scan their TVs (in the transition period prior to the analog removals) and if they had a TV with only a NTSC tuner they could get DTAs for free, with no monthly fees and you could get as many as you needed (no limit). I should also add that Suddenlink is a private company unlike Charter so they do not have to focus on bottom-line results to appease analysts and shareholders. |
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 oneoone
join:2010-01-20
North Hollywood, CA |
to nunya
Providing better service is answered simply, encrypting channels and making them digital from analog free's up enough bandwidth to add nearly 100 additional HD channels, so people who DO pay for their "overpriced" TV service as you say see a great advantage to going all digital. Encrypting them makes it easier for them to upgrade/edit a package someone gets without having to put a trap on the line thus preventing a lot of unnecessary truck rolls. |
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nunyaLXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO ·Charter
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nunya
MVM
2014-Mar-24 11:41 am
It's Charters cable system, and they can do with it what they like.
However, they could also free up that same bandwidth without encrypting the channels and requiring expensive converter boxes. So, not only is Charter saving money on truck rolls, they are charging the subscriber more than ever. ~ Like I said - no valid argument has yet been presented for better service.
This is simply a gold mine for Charter. A rate increase in disguise. |
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mdavej
join:2004-06-09
united state |
mdavej
Member
2014-Mar-24 11:51 am
This has been debated many times in many other threads. I agree the box requirement sucks. They could keep clear QAM going if they wanted, but they don't. Unfortunately, if you don't have a cable card device, you have to get a box, like it or not. I don't like it, so I use cable card myself and avoid all box fees and DVR fees. At least we still have that option. But doesn't Charter give you boxes for free for the first year or two? That gives you plenty of time to switch to satellite or whomever else is cheaper over all (but they make pay for boxes on every TV too). |
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nunyaLXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO |
nunya
MVM
2014-Mar-24 12:00 pm
I think they give 1 SD box for 1 year and that's it. |
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robertc
Premium Member
join:2009-05-11
Pasadena, CA |
robertc
Premium Member
2014-Mar-24 1:43 pm
I see the advantages to Charter for doing this, but consider somebody who has 4 or more TVs in his house. He's going to have to have 4 boxes.
I had bad experiences with boxes in SF. In 2009 they made channels above 34 digital-only and they gave everybody 1-3 free boxes. (For people who had analog TVs like me.) But Charter is apparently charging people.
My box in SF was unresponsive so after a week I exchanged it. It was still kind of slow in responding sometimes but I was able to use it for a while. Cable boxes in general break down more than TVs or DVD players. Charter shouldn't look at it just in their point of view. |
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Mr Guy
Anon
2014-Mar-24 2:01 pm
said by robertc:I see the advantages to Charter for doing this, but consider somebody who has 4 or more TVs in his house. He's going to have to have 4 boxes. and if they went with DirecTV or Dishnetwork or Fios or U-Verse they would have to have 4 boxes. But Charter should have to only require one box regardless of how many TV actually have service? I like that logic explained. I've NEVER heard anyone EVER say "DirecTv shouldn't require boxes, that's unfair I have 4 TVs". |
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robertc
Premium Member
join:2009-05-11
Pasadena, CA |
robertc
Premium Member
2014-Mar-24 2:34 pm
People liked it when they had 4 TVs with no boxes. That might be a reason they liked Charter more than dishes or Uverse. Now they HAVE to have 4 boxes. |
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 mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA |
to robertc
There's many reasons why they are doing what they're doing, and some of them are related, and some of them are not. And, some of them affect certain aspects, and some don't matter.
They're going all digital to free up bandwidth. All digital has nothing to do with truck rolls or piracy or anything else.
They're going all encrypted for all the other reasons. Encryption gives them reduced truck rolls (no need to physically pull the cable from your house). It also gives them a set top on every single TV, meaning increased chances to sell PPV, VOD, premiums, etc. This is why they're putting full-featured STBs on every TV and not doing DTAs like other cable companies are doing. Going all encrypted requires going all digital, but going all digital doesn't require going all encrypted. It's just a "hey, while we're here" kind of thing.
It sucks if you've been on analog only for a while, but it has to happen eventually. As was mentioned above, all non-cable video providers already require their set tops on every TV. This simply brings cable to parity with satellite and telco companies. At some point the dead weight of the past has to be jettisoned to improve service for the majority of higher paying customers. |
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CoolMan
join:2008-01-07
Maryville, TN ARRIS BGW210-700
Netgear R7000
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to robertc
So I am curious, what does Charter arrange for hotels, nursing homes, hospitals etc. that are analog only? Are they really going to put STB in each room?
There is a large hospital here I know that has a proprietary system set up and I can not see them having digital set tops in each room. This hospital has the same analog lineup that is equivalent to expanded basic with the same channel numbers so I do not think they use a master head end. Coax drops in each room with amplifiers I believe every floor etc. Now I do believe the hospital has all LCD flat screens with digital tuners built in, does Charter provide them a device that un-encrypts the digital channels or something that converts it back to analog once it comes in the premises possibly? |
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nunyaLXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO |
nunya
MVM
2014-Mar-24 5:26 pm
They have a mini-headend. Channel numbers can be assigned however they please. They probably assigned them familiar numbers for the locals.
Most of those places actually use satellite because it's cheaper and has more options available. |
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CoolMan
join:2008-01-07
Maryville, TN ARRIS BGW210-700
Netgear R7000
3 edits |
to robertc
Well this hospital most definitely has Charter because there are local ads (including Charter's own ads) inserted on national channels such as ESPN, A&E, CNN etc. Not to mention I have flipped though the lineup and have seen the Charter leased access channels & public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable TV channels.
From what I could tell they get the entire analog lineup that residential customers would get if they didn't have a box, I just wonder what changes they will have to make when they do the full digital encryption here, I can't see the hospital spending a lot of $$ on new equipment unless Charter is going to provide it for little or no cost.
I have DirecTV and know they do not insert local ads on national channels, they only store local ads in a few select markets to DVRs and are only seen if you're not skipping the commercials, you do not see them on the HD non DVR receivers. |
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to robertc
Every hospital I've visited has had cable, and the channel numbers have been the same as the local cable system.
So much of the complaining over the death of ClearQAM comes from people who are stealing service now, and hate the fact that people finally caught up with them.
Lock it all down. It works for every other provider, why shouldn't it for cable? |
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mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA |
to robertc
hospitals and hotels have specialized hardware in most cases. If they're operating off simply splitting the analog signal, they'll have to do something else. I'm sure the number of those locations is very, very small. |
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techie01 to CoolMan
Anon
2014-Mar-25 12:18 pm
to CoolMan
Most of those businesses will be using DTAs. |
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robertc
Premium Member
join:2009-05-11
Pasadena, CA |
robertc
Premium Member
2014-Mar-25 4:15 pm
My friend's channels all went off today. She had an old Cisco Explorer box sitting around from a year ago. I installed it and activated it over the phone. Thank God I was only on hold for a minute. It seems to be okay.
I live in Pasadena and I don't know when it'll happen to me. |
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 wingspar
Premium Member
join:2002-11-09
Oregon |
to robertc
OK, this totally sucks that I have to visit a forum to find out what this bs is all about. Nothing about it on the Charter site at all. I fail to understand the need for this. I don’t even have a place near the TV to put this stupid box. Also, I have a DVR, not a charter box. Will it still work? |
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Mr Guy
Anon
2014-Mar-28 3:33 pm
said by wingspar:OK, this totally sucks that I have to visit a forum to find out what this bs is all about. Nothing about it on the Charter site at all. I fail to understand the need for this. I don’t even have a place near the TV to put this stupid box. Also, I have a DVR, not a charter box. Will it still work? If you already have a DVR that's not Charters then it should have a cable card slot in it. You'll need to get one from Charter. They are $2 a month. If you didn't have a Charter box how did you even record any of the HD channels? Those have been encrypted for years except locals. Also the digital transition is announced WELL in advance in each area were it is being done. Not to mention Charter announced YEARS ago it was moving to an all digital system. And no it's not stupid. |
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mdavej
join:2004-06-09
united state |
to wingspar
said by wingspar:OK, this totally sucks that I have to visit a forum to find out what this bs is all about. Nothing about it on the Charter site at all. I fail to understand the need for this. I don’t even have a place near the TV to put this stupid box. Also, I have a DVR, not a charter box. Will it still work? What make and model DVR do you have? |
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wingspar
Premium Member
join:2002-11-09
Oregon |
to Mr Guy
said by Mr Guy :If you already have a DVR that's not Charters then it should have a cable card slot in it. You'll need to get one from Charter. They are $2 a month. If you didn't have a Charter box how did you even record any of the HD channels? Those have been encrypted for years except locals.
Also the digital transition is announced WELL in advance in each area were it is being done. Not to mention Charter announced YEARS ago it was moving to an all digital system. And no it's not stupid. I do not have a cable card slot. As far as I know, I've never signed up for HD. I've never had any problems recording stuff. I just have the basic and expanded basic, and have half the channels programmed out cause I have no interest in viewing them. I'm not really interested in having more channels I just have to program out. I never heard anything about this until a couple of weeks ago. I'm not a technical person, and most of this is above my head for understanding. |
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| wingspar |
to mdavej
said by mdavej:What make and model DVR do you have? It's a Magnavox MDR537H 1TB HDD & DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner. Neatest piece of equipment for the TV I have. To not be able to use it would force me to cancel Charter. |
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mdavej
join:2004-06-09
united state |
mdavej
Member
2014-Mar-28 4:53 pm
If you want to keep using that, you'll have to get a cable box. If I were you, I'd sell the Magnavox and get a Tivo. Whatever service you get if you cancel Charter would also require a box (satellite, U-verse, etc.). |
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