[mythtv-users] OT: FCC investigates cable companies' analog-to-digital migrations

[Kevin J. Cummings]

John Drescher wrote:
> 
> Comcast forced us to move to a different tier and to get a cable card.
> That they claimed would be $2.50 / month but this ended up costing $15
> / month for the cable card. I did not demand that they fix this yet.
> Wow Comcastic!

RCN in in the process of moving all of their Massachusetts systems to 
all digital and eliminating analog entirely.  It happened in my town 
last month.  No more "free" basic cable service by just plugging the 
cable into an analog TV antenna input, they now require a cable box for 
every TV (or so they say).  They have not said publicly whether or not 
the extra boxes will be rented or given out.  I suspect they want the 
extra rental fees for full service.  The information they gave out 
before the switchover was spotty on the TVs (ads), but was accompanied 
by a couple of snail mailings.  Each town has a different cut-over date.

I don't own any digital-capable TVs here, so cable cards and the like 
aren't useful to me.  Just the one cable box in the living room.  This 
has obsoleted my PVR-350 setup and forced me into working on my 
pcHDTV-5000 to get it working with just the cable input (previously it 
was antenna only).

> John

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)