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Topic:
What's so great about a digital cable box
This thread has 43 replies. Displaying posts 1 through 15.
Post 1 made on Saturday July 7, 2001 at 01:36
Larry
Historic Forum Post
My local cable provider is offering digital cable. their sales pitch is it's all digital just like a digital satellite receiver box. After doing a lot of research on the matter. I learned that the only thing digital about it is the 40 Mono Music channels and the 40 PPV channels None of which support DD/AC3. When asked whith of the new Digital set top boxes will have coax or toslink digital outs they said no plans in the future to offer Digital Bitstream or Digital PCM. I asked what about HDTV through the Cable. No plans in the future for that either. We do not have the extra bandwith needed for HDTV. We feel more people will want to use our new cable TV phone service. I don't even have Cable TV in my house. I want to know, "do other people feel that DIGITAL CABLE TV is a SCAM?" Why would I want Digital into my Cable box only to be converted back to analoge? They tell me that the digital channels work in the 600MHZ freq. Does that not seem a little slow for digital transmissions? Next the cable people stress that you shoud not amp the Cable feed coming into your house due to over amping the Digital Channels. So all my Analoge channels look like CRAP so my Digital can look OK. IS THIS NOT A SCAM also?
OP | Post 2 made on Saturday July 7, 2001 at 17:26
mark
Historic Forum Post
Larry,
To answer your topic question..... NOTHING!!..... If you want good pict. and sound out of every channel, go w/a dish. My buddies looks great. Blows "digital cable" away. ;p
OP | Post 3 made on Thursday August 2, 2001 at 19:09
Dan
Historic Forum Post
"They tell me that the digital channels work in the 600MHZ freq. Does that not seem a little slow for digital transmissions? "

I take it you're pretty clueless about television standards, or anything else to do with electronics. You do seem to whine a lot though...
OP | Post 4 made on Friday August 3, 2001 at 00:33
Aaron Lowery
Historic Forum Post
I don't know where you are, but the difference in picture when I hooked up the s-video out of the digital cable box makes it worth it for me. I don't know about the DSS. I have cable internet so I stick with the cable TV.

The 600 MHz has nothing to do with speed of data as it does in clock freq of computers. It has to do with the center freq of the band that the data is xmited on.

infomation not conflagration,
aaron
OP | Post 5 made on Friday August 3, 2001 at 12:43
mason hatcher
Historic Forum Post
Dan,

Thanks so much for your valuable input. Now go take a nap little boy.

OP | Post 6 made on Sunday August 5, 2001 at 21:17
David
Historic Forum Post
Dan, why are you in here any way???
OP | Post 7 made on Wednesday August 8, 2001 at 12:03
Jeff B.
Historic Forum Post
Larry,
I have digatal cable from Time Warrner. Some of the HBO movies are in 5.1 Now don't get your hopes up. Not all of them are. Just some of the new ones. Most are in 2.0DD It is nice, just make sure you don't run your coax thru a surge protector. I did, and I didn't get some of the channels.
They also just started with the HBOHD and CINXHD hi-def channeles. I don't know how they are, since I don't have a hi-def TV yet.
OP | Post 8 made on Wednesday August 8, 2001 at 12:04
Jeff B.
Historic Forum Post
One thing I forgot to add. The box I have only has AC-3 out. I am hopeing that one comes with opti out soon, since I don't have enough coax in's on my reciever.
OP | Post 9 made on Wednesday August 8, 2001 at 15:40
Bryan Acevedo
Historic Forum Post
Yes - Digital cable is a SCAM!

I first got Cox Digital Cable here in Chandler, Arizona a year or so ago.

They were touting - all digital quality, blah, blah, blah.

So I say great, come set me up.

They come hook it up, and every channel under 100 looks like it did before on my big screen TV - grainy, ghosting, etc. So I call them and say - what's up - I thought it was all digital. Oh sir, that's not true, only channels above 100 are digital - that is your 6 Discovery channels, and your classic movies - as well as any premium channels you have.

So I say, my ESPN is not digital? None of my other frequently watched channels are digital? Nope!

They had an AC3 output (Coax Dolby Digital), and it dropped out all of the time - they tried to blame it on my reciever. I said but it works totally fine with DVD's. Eventually THEY fixed on their end somehow, becuase it stopped dropping out.

I finally got tired of paying something like $50 a month for crappy picture quality and lies. So I went out and got myself a basic DirecTV system for $80 at Circuit City, paid $50 to have them install it and haven't looked back. The picture is far, far superior to cable on my TV. I have a Mitsubishi 60" RPTV that shows all of the flaws in cable TV. I could barely watch it! This is on ALL channels, including my local channels. No more ghosting, graininess - just crisp digital pictures and sound!

So now Cox is playing all these commercials about having to pay extra for local channels, and extra receivers if you want satellite as compared to their digital cable. They finally stopped advertising all digital - probably because they got in trouble for it!

What is funny, is that I pay less for my satellite now, and I have two receivers, local channels, and I get more channels than on cable - and it is ALL digital. When I was with Cox, I only had ONE digital cable box, and the other was analog! Also, they will tell you that you have to buy your sat equipment - but prices are cheap, and they don't tell you that you have to lease the equipment for them for like $3.00 a month for the cable box and $.20 a month for the remote - yes you have to rent the freaking remote! What a scam!

I also have Cox@Home high speed internet access and Cox digital phone - I love both of those services - which is funny becuase they were originally a cable company with a monopoly - but they had to be competitive on their new services so they are much better with them than they are in their core business of cable tv!

Thanks for letting me vent!

Bryan

P.S. Dan - you're an ass - was there something intelligent that you could add to the conversation?
OP | Post 10 made on Friday August 10, 2001 at 13:21
Mikeyb
Historic Forum Post
I don't know how much of a scam Digital Cable is, but it is definitely not worth the cost to most people. I tried it out on a trial basis while getting all the movie channels (7HBO's, 6 Showtimes, etc.) for a month. If you like ALL those channels and are willing to pay for them, then Digital Cable may be a reasonable option. But if you don't subscribe to the premium channels, then you would be extremely foolish to buy into the hype.

As for the quality, the movie channels (most of them) produced very nice pictures on my 36" direct view TV. You could actually see a difference even when connected through the cable company's coax cable. The digital receiver didn't have an s-video option (only a composite or coax/cable). And there was only composite connections for audio as well.

I cancelled the service.
OP | Post 11 made on Saturday August 11, 2001 at 10:17
Russ
Historic Forum Post
I have digital cable for the extra PPV and more HBO channels. The other main thing I use all the time is the digital music channels and here if you want music it's the same price to add basic digital as it is for just music channels. The original box didn't have S Video jacks so after reading some stuff on this board I called up to complain. They said no problem, we can give you a new box with S video jacks. It's like a secret that you have to know about, you can get one if you complain.(This is COX.) Anyway, I have high speed cable also and save $10 on the whole thing, I figure that's about what I would pay with a dish. They have the pricing figured out around here. Also, I bought (own) the cable modem and it went out, they just gave me another new one, no cost to me.
OP | Post 12 made on Sunday August 12, 2001 at 15:58
Dave Hull
Historic Forum Post
You should be able to easily determine what is digital and what is not on your CATV system by hitching up a "Cable Ready" TV set to the drop. Tune the TV through its channels and note which ones are present without the converter box. These are analog, composite video and that is what you get for these channels, even if you have a "Digital" box and are subscribing to "Digital" services.

OP | Post 13 made on Monday August 13, 2001 at 15:00
david hull
Historic Forum Post
Here is a bit of an update:

Looks like I was wrong in my previous post. I spoke with a very cable savvy friend at Motorola who said that the trend now days if to duplicate the signals in the digital domain. So for example with HBO, the original legacy HBO is still there for the analog customers but the digital customers get this (re-sent as a digital signal) plus several other HBO's. The same is true for the other premiums such as Showtime. This is why these guys have re-named their channel line-up to HBO (family, signature etc.) from HBO (east1, east2, west1 west2 etc.) – the new names make more sense in this new context.

He did not know if they replicate the whole analog section (Locals, HGTV etc.) but definitely that the biggies are replicated on most newer systems. The biggies are PPV, Movies, Sports and yes--Porn. It turns out that the Porn is done for security reasons, Basically, the analog scrambling is not good enough to satisfy some people who don't want the stuff on their TV. Damn -- Looks like I can't listen to the sound anymore on CH-99 :-).

His suggestion was to contact your local cable company and get them to tell you what their line up was and what was digital and what is not if you are going to sign up for the digital service. It differs somewhat from provider to provider. Also, apparently there is a discussion of in the latest issue of Consumer Reports – I haven’t looked at it yet.
OP | Post 14 made on Tuesday August 14, 2001 at 04:53
Local Cable Tech
Historic Forum Post
I worked in the DSS field for 5yrs and
Having recently upgraded a "Digital Cable System" of a competitor whose territory was recently aquired, I will say that all Cable systems are not equal, but neither are all DSS systems.

The digital cable I work with runs @ 1Ghz not 600mhz, and the mhz has to do with the amount of DATA able to be xfered not a clock speed as Dan has so wonderfully pointed out.

As for your Dolby Digital, Coax-Digital would seem to be the only option at this point unless Pioneer/Scientific Atlanta, Jerrold, and General Instrument are not telling us something. But curiosly were would your optic-TOS feed come from? Certainly you would not want Fiber-optic run into your home Currently that would be the only way to give you an optical-TOS output. Does any one know of a DSS that provides a opt-TOS output?

On most decent digital services you will find digital re-transmissions of those channels that are avilible to the Cable provider in digital on your Digital service and analog on those that are not avilible via digital transmissions or on your cable ready sets.



While having all channels in "Digital Format" on my DSS is nice. Analog scanned up to digital still looks like analog and shows off the limitations of the service that provided it. Try this, Record a tape to your Hard drive and then make a CD of it. Compare it to a real CD of the same thing. does it sound as good ? No, alas this is the same thing you get on Cable or DSS channels that are provided in Analog to and then "up-scaned" into digital.

All of the "real" digital boxes that I have worked with and owned have had an S-Video and an AC-3 Coax out.

IF your cable company wants to hook you box up to a phone line though, don't bother,This is called HITS digital and is garbage call on you local DSS providers and work with them instead. The lastest in Digital Cable and the latest in DSS have MANY things to offer us. Compare and contrast what is in your area and go with what is the best for you.

Most important.Don't buy the HYPE, buy the PRODUCT that suits you BEST, with the options YOU desire. Don't quibble about the money either. Pay for what you want. Then and only will you be satisfied. What DSS can do today your Cable provider maybe able to do tommorow, and visa-versa, so shop well and shop often.

OP | Post 15 made on Tuesday August 14, 2001 at 05:00
Local Cable Tech
Historic Forum Post
I stand corrected btw 2 cable box producers and 2 DSS box producers provide Opt-TOS outs. Sorry for the mis-information
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