[mythtv-users] DTV upgrade questions: two-way compatible equipment

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 1:13 AM, James Miller <gajs-f0el at dea.spamcon.org> wrote:
...
> Thank you for that helpful explanation, Gary. What you say is backed up by a
> remark a cable tech, who came here to do some work about a year ago, made to
> me at that time: he said TW was moving toward all-digital broadcasting.

Pretty much all providers are moving to all digital.  It gets them
additional bandwidth to offer more content (because everyone
needs 100 shopping channels), and more content makes one
more likely to subscribe.  Each provider has their own schedules.
TWC implemented PAR (partial analog reclamation) across
their franchises some time ago, but had left analog for the "basic
basic basic" tier.  But, to encrypt basic, they are required to
go all digital, and they aggressively moved to complete their
reclamation in the greater NYC area over the last few months,
and are rolling out basic encryption there too.

OTA can often result in better quality (as the providers take
the content, and then transcode it to fit in their idea of
acceptable bandwidth).