Comcast Digital Feed: OTA Format?

Philip wrote:
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
I know somebody who has Comcast cable - basic service, no box...
just the wire.

Over the past week or so, they had been losing channels.

Turned out that the lost channels had been converted to digital,
but nobody had told him.

Comcast support fixed him up with a box for each (analog) TV and
now all is well.

Actually they only give you 2 convertors. You have to pay for additional
boxes.


The normal offer is FREE: 2 converters and 1 cable box for "limited
basic" customers. If you already have a box, then you may still be
entitled to the 2 converters (which are black boxes with no remote).

The "cable box" comes with a (fancy) remote control.





The Questions - which probably boil down to one or two actual
issues:

- If he had attached a digital-capable TV to that wire - no box
involved - would he have seen the missing channels?

Yes, if the channel is unencrypted and is in QAM format.


- Would plain OTA-type converter boxes worked just as well?

No


- Is the digital signal coming over Comcast's wire the same
signal as what comes in via a rooftop antenna?

No


- Do digital-capable TVs have tuners that can handle multiple
signal standards...?

They should handle OTA and cable QAM

Rick Merrill wrote:

A small caveat on the above:

They do ATSC OR 256QAM - in other words you have to choose between
"antenna" and "cable".

A small caveat on your caveat: Cable's 256QAM *is* ATSC. It's just 256QAM
modulated ATSC. [Similar to saying "They have grapefruits and pink
grapefruits. Pink grapefruits *are* grapefruits. 256QAM modulated ATSC
*is* ATSC.]

I LIKE pink grapefruits. But they tell me that ATSC is 64QAM for OTA.

No. OTA ATSC is modulated with 8VSB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8VSB

"RickMerrill" wrote in message
...
Actually they only give you 2 convertors. You have to pay for additional
boxes.


The normal offer is FREE: 2 converters and 1 cable box for "limited basic"
customers. If you already have a box, then you may still be entitled to
the 2 converters (which are black boxes with no remote).

The "cable box" comes with a (fancy) remote control.
I got my 2 free converters and they both came with a remote. The quality of
the channel 3 or 4 output is very good.
The bad news is that Comcast just increased my bill from $108 to $122 a
month. Two dollars of that is regular service charge and the rest is
from a special 12 month promotion of -$11 every month that has expired. I
have two HDTV boxes, one with a DVR.
My daughter and son-in-law tried changing to AT&Ts U-Verse and it was
terrible compared to DirectTV, which they were happy with.

Santa Rosa Calif.

On Nov 8, 11:30*am, "Ron Stewart" wrote:
"RickMerrill" wrote in message

... Actually they
only give you 2 convertors. You have to pay for additional
boxes.

The normal offer is FREE: 2 converters and 1 cable box for
"limited basic"
customers. *If you already have a box, then you may still be
entitled to
the 2 converters (which are black boxes with no remote).

The "cable box" comes with a (fancy) remote control.

I got my 2 free converters and they both came with a remote. The
quality of
the channel 3 or 4 output is very good.
The bad news is that Comcast just increased my bill from $108 to
$122 a
month. Two dollars of that is regular service charge and the rest
is
from a special 12 month promotion of -$11 every month that has
expired. I
have two HDTV boxes, one with a DVR.
My daughter and son-in-law tried changing to AT&Ts U-Verse and it
was
terrible compared to DirectTV, which they were happy with.

Santa Rosa Calif.

$122 to watche standard def analog? Is there no way for you to get
OTA? We pay less than that including internet and phone.

G²

Per Ron Stewart:
I got my 2 free converters and they both came with a remote. The quality of
the channel 3 or 4 output is very good.
The bad news is that Comcast just increased my bill from $108 to $122 a
month. Two dollars of that is regular service charge and the rest is
from a special 12 month promotion of -$11 every month that has expired. I
have two HDTV boxes, one with a DVR.

From what I've heard from the person in question, Comcast will
dicker.

He's getting basic service for $15/month, up from $12 in the
latest price hike. But when he originally signed up, he went
around and around with them to get the $12 rate... but he finally
got it.

When the box thing came up he came out of it with four boxes, no
additional fees - one-time or monthly.

Quoting one of his kids: "My dad haggles over *socks*!"
--
PeteCresswell

On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:26:41 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

I know somebody who has Comcast cable - basic service, no box...
just the wire.

Over the past week or so, they had been losing channels.

Turned out that the lost channels had been converted to digital,
but nobody had told him.


Comcast here sent out at least two notices.
Thumper
Comcast support fixed him up with a box for each (analog) TV and
now all is well.

The Questions - which probably boil down to one or two actual
issues:

- If he had attached a digital-capable TV to that wire - no box
involved - would he have seen the missing channels?

- Would plain OTA-type converter boxes worked just as well?

- Is the digital signal coming over Comcast's wire the same
signal as what comes in via a rooftop antenna?

- Do digital-capable TVs have tuners that can handle multiple
signal standards...?

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:59:24 -0500, Thumper
wrote:

On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:26:41 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

I know somebody who has Comcast cable - basic service, no box...
just the wire.

Over the past week or so, they had been losing channels.

Turned out that the lost channels had been converted to digital,
but nobody had told him.


Comcast here sent out at least two notices.
Thumper

I got another by email today. That's 2 by mail and 2 by email.
Thumper
Comcast support fixed him up with a box for each (analog) TV and
now all is well.

The Questions - which probably boil down to one or two actual
issues:

- If he had attached a digital-capable TV to that wire - no box
involved - would he have seen the missing channels?

- Would plain OTA-type converter boxes worked just as well?

- Is the digital signal coming over Comcast's wire the same
signal as what comes in via a rooftop antenna?

- Do digital-capable TVs have tuners that can handle multiple
signal standards...?