Cox → [CATV] cox going all digital

»www.cox.com/all-digital/ ··· ital.cox

looks like a money grab to me $2 per box.

Can anyone explain what the bottom of the page means?

"Not Interested?

If all your TVs are currently connected to an Advanced TV receiver or CableCARD, no action is required and you can opt out. If you have TVs that connect to Cox services directly from a cable wall outlet, you can still choose to opt out of the Go All Digital program. Please be aware that TVs without a video equipment connection will lose their signal after we flip the switch to all-digital channels. "

Seems like classic corporate double-speak. They are saying that you don't HAVE to get a small digital box, you can stay with a direct from the wall connection, you'll just lose all your channels. lol

»www.cox.com/all-digital/ ··· Id=32611

this reminds of of late 80's where we had to have one of those boxes for tv service on all TV's. you know one where it had rotary dial from 2-36 lol.....

so this means the 125 channel cable ready tv I have is useless now...

Not a money thing. Analog takes up too much bandwith. Cox needs it freed up for Internet.

I thought the same thing and lol'd at the absurdity of it.

will cox be replacing 3.0 hardware with 3.1 hardware and using the same cable lines. And reserving FTTP for new construstion and leave every one else on 3.1.

looks like grandma is going to have to dig a l'il deeper to keep her golden girls eps coming.

death knell to those with illegal cable hookups.

A mix of both. There are some places in AZ where Cox is putting in FTTP to existing customers.

Cox is doindG it to add he channels and increase internet speeds. That was the problem with Cox is analog.

Here's what it looks like to me:

- free up enough bandwidth for some combination of hundreds of megabits/s of data and/or a couple hundred HD channels. And with SDV, almost all of this can go towards internet. (I'm sure this is an essential part of Cox's Gigablast plans.)

- eliminates expensive digital-to-analog equipment at the node that few people even use anymore, charging a negligible fee of $2/mo for those few who do. (a fee everyone is already paying, in effect, in the form of costs to maintain the current node equipment, whether they're using it or not)

- eliminates cable theft, which will help with maintenance costs (which again, are ultimately paid by paying customers) as people no longer try to tap into the line and screw up signals.

It's a win-win.

In the most simple terms it frees up spectrum to be used more efficiently.

That means more QAMs for HD, VOD and DOCSIS.

Added bonus is full encryption to nuke pretty much all old school/analog theft.

The nodes don't really have any DA/AD equipment, they are "simple" optical to electrical converters. They don't really care if all the channels are analog, or all the channels are digital. The nodes just have specs for the amount of " RF/optical power" they can handle.

This just sucks for us with Analog DVR systems. I use MythTV and from what I read since all of the channels here in Tucson are marked with Copy Once that are QAM it won't record them even with a digital capture card. (unless that has been fixed) I would love to upgrade my MythTV to Digital just this has kept me from doing it.

I can't imagine how you can even deal with watching SD programs, let alone analog SD!

On a more serious note, the copy protection thing is a bit of a roadblock. There are solutions like Centon cards, HD homeruns, and WMC. But thats not Myth and requires a somewhat large redesign of your current solution.

That's actually EXACTLY why I cancelled Cox's video service a year and a half ago.

What do you use now? regardless of what provider you use, they should still have copy protection enabled.

Wait, are you referring to copy protection or conditional access controls?

With as bad as Comcast is, they don't do the former in any of their markets. Neither does Verizon with their FIOS service. Or Charter. Or Cable One. At least, there's no policy of putting a CCI flag on EVERY CHANNEL on these providers, which Cox does where I live, for who knows what reason.

I think its bad enough for Cox to use CCI flags, but then not to document which markets have it and which don't is poor service. How hard is it to make a list?

That's one of the most annoying parts. When you ask ANY of them about it, they have NO IDEA what the fuck you're talking about, and then proceed to act as if it has no relevance.

When I used to work as tier 2 tech support, I would ALWAYS acknowledge where my knowledge had its limits, but for whatever reason Cox's first line tech people like to pretend that if they've never heard of it, then it's obviously not a thing at all and you're just imagining it, because they could never not understand any one element of their own system.

Their internet tech support people even behave that way when they don't understand basic internetworking (which IMO is sad for somebody in that position.)

they want that $18.50/mo!

Though I can understand encryption to prevent theft, I would love for cox to strongly consider marking at least the SD versions of channels that have traditionally been available as analog as copy freely. Comcast and verizon only protect the premiums like HBO... almost every area of Charter on their digital conversion also switched to copy freely on all but premiums... there is a good chance that TWC if the merger goes through will also then be copy freely on most which would then leave Cox as the "only" major provider that protects everything but locals in most markets but New England (though I suspect it would take a long while for TWC to switch and the FCC paused review again).

Edit:
Also in the cisco markets, protection shouldn't matter (to cox) as all now should be on 1.5.3 and if the channel wanted protection, they can use CGMS on a program by program basis to protect it (cisco on 1.5.3 does not pass a CCI of copy freely that would override any other form of protection) then we can vent our "anger" at the channel where it belongs rather than at cox who is just doing things to annoy the customer.

OK so I'm curious here about how this is going to affect people like me. I have 1 TV (main) that has an HD STB and 1 in a guest room that just has the direct cable connection with no box. Right now that guest TV pulls in all SD channels and a few HD channels that, I guess, are local broadcast.

So does this mean that:
1. The guest TV will now get nothing unless I get a $2 mini-box
OR
2. The guest TV is still going to get the same channels as before only all will be HD?

I'm guessing that there are still quite a few people like me that have only 1 TV with a STB and quite a few TVs in other rooms that just plug directly in to the cable with no STB.

will this put a end to traps on cable drops?

You might get locals in hd but nothing beyond that.

As odog said, "Added bonus is full encryption to nuke pretty much all old school/analog theft." basically means that those markets when switched to require the DTAs will be entirely encrypted... no more clear qam...even locals. This would allow them to not have to worry about filters anymore at all and will "force" those with internet only to pony up and add starter if they wish TV (I can't blame them for this as locals have been too greedy for retransmission consent fees... OTA should be "free" even to the cable company)... more than likely though it will be "years" before they might remove a no longer needed filter as for most they won't notice if it is there or not as they won't be trying to get anything on the blocked frequencies. Some traps are designed to eliminate interference so it probably won't put an end to all traps (though most won't need them)

My understanding is that if you have "any" tvs hooked up direct to the coax, and they begin encryption of the locals you are entitled to up to 2 DTAs or cablecards free for 2 years (if you had any box or cablecard and/or subscribe to anything higher than "basic" you might only get one free... if you are on medicaid and only subscribe to basic the 2 free is supposed to be for 5 years)... if you sign up for TV after the start of encryption, you aren't entitled to any for free. »www.fcc.gov/guides/cable ··· cryption

When attempting to register, I was greeted with:

quote:

---

Unfortunately, the Go All Digital program is not yet available in your area.

---

Not sure if this is "unfortunate" or not, but it appears that AZ is not yet receiving this "upgrade".

Bright House Networks also just announced it will no longer force CCI=0x02 Copy Once on anything except the Premiums, leaving Cox and TWC as the only cable providers that force such unnecessary restrictions.
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When is this going to start happening?

Glad they are. I'm tired of my wife recording the analog channels

Now could they remove it from everyone and offer a "analog" only package to those that really can't go didgital, that would reduce traffic still significantly. I'm thinking of those on fixed incomes and the such.