Re: Do I need to pay the cable company for a (non-HD) digital cable box?

In article <qRV6i.3633$D31.1482@trnddc01>, afiggatt1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...

Comcast and the other big cable companies have been to implement
digital simulcast of the analog channels in many areas. When you hook up
a digital STB or DVR in those areas, the box automatically displays the
digital version of the analog channels with better picture quality. The
real reason for digital simulcast is to wean people off of the analog
channels so they start to shut down the analog channels and eventually
go all digital. In the city of Chicago, Comcast recently shut down the
analog version of all the national cable channels and left only around
35 analog local broadcast and local government / public access channels.
Subscribers were forced to switch to digital STBs or have TVs/Tivos with
cable cards if they wanted to continue to watch CNN, USA, TCM, and so on.

I was afraid this would start to occur and the cable cos. might use the
digital transition as an excuse to do so. This requires subscribers to pay
extra for boxes or cable cards, eliminates the use of built in tuners in TVs
and recording devices and is a significant cost if you have several sets in
a house - all will need a box. The reasons for doing this are simply greed
and control; there is no mandate for cable to switch to only digital for
some or all stations they carry.

whosbest54
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