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anon anon
@charter.com

anon anon to jhllne

Anon

to jhllne

Re: Charter Channels Down Middleton WI

said by jhllne:

Moving BTN to digital only is a real popular move here in Madison, I'm sure. On the plus side, Charter will get a couple more bucks/month from folks for the cable box. Another genius move.

So Charter should keep channelsw on analog for people that don't want to upgrade their old SD CRT TVs? You do realize analog uses up a ton of bandwidth. Moving those 16 channels to digital frees up enough bandwidth to add nearly 30 HD channels.
MrFixit1
join:1999-11-26
Madison, WI

MrFixit1

Member

No the problem is moving everything but the shopping channels to ENCRYPTED digital . In other words forcing those of us with digital TVs to get one or several boxes that we do not want !
In my case I will need 5 boxes to duplicate what my setup can do now .

anon anon
@charter.com

anon anon

Anon

said by MrFixit1:

No the problem is moving everything but the shopping channels to ENCRYPTED digital . In other words forcing those of us with digital TVs to get one or several boxes that we do not want !

No the shopping channels are not encrypted they are on basic thus unencrypted. Also even if they were QVC, HSN and Jewerly have live streams on their websites.
anon anon

anon anon to MrFixit1

Anon

to MrFixit1
ignore the last post I though you were talking about NOT having shopping channels.

At any rate eventually ALL channels will be digital and yes to get in anything other than basic you will need a box. This is not any different than what DirecTv, DishNetwork, FiOS or U-verse requires.

Fed UPx64
@charter.com

Fed UPx64

Anon

Why don't we start a class action against charter? I have had charter for over 40 years. I don't want a box! Do the math. How much more would it cost me? Sending an email to my congressman tomorrow morning. I am just too dang mad to do it right now!
sittin_tech
join:2004-04-13
Rochester, MN

sittin_tech to anon anon

Member

to anon anon
Anon anon is correct, you need a box for any tv service, including OTA if you don't have a qam tuner.
jhllne
join:2006-04-26
Madison, WI

jhllne to anon anon

Member

to anon anon
said by anon anon :

So Charter should keep channelsw on analog for people that don't want to upgrade their old SD CRT TVs? You do realize analog uses up a ton of bandwidth. Moving those 16 channels to digital frees up enough bandwidth to add nearly 30 HD channels.

Charter has rolled out SDV here in Madison, so they do not need to retire analog channels to roll out further HD channels. Charter and Time Warner have shown that with SDV, you can have large HD channel lineups without having to eliminate analog service.

I understand the legitimate arguments for killing the analog lineup -- it eliminates cable theft and frees up bandwidth for Internet service. But I don't need Charter to spin me a yarn about how this has to be done to add new HD channels. Let's call a spade a spade.

This is all about money. And that's fine, they're a business. Charter has historically not, however, been the most well-run business. Forgive me if I am skeptical that Charter will soon offer faster than 100 Mbps service or that the little money they recover from the folks currently stealing cable who would pay for it if they can no longer freeload will offset the loss of other customers. Customers who, now forced to pay for a box for the 2nd/3rd/etc TV they hooked up (or businesses like gyms & hotels that relied on the analog lineup) will look into satellite service, which offer more value for the money than Charter's TV offerings.

My family's living room TV has a Tivo with CableCard and tuning adapter, so we still get all the channels there. But I also have a TV tuner card on my desktop computer and an old CRT in the basement in front of my exercise bike. Being able to watch Charter's analog lineup on those TVs was a nice perk that I will miss. I doubt that I'm alone.