Due to legal restraints…lol

Comcast Must still broadcast all analog Local Channels in analog, and the local digital channels “due to the ATSC switch” must be broadcast-ed in Digital cable QAM unencrypted …

So if you have a basic QAM tuner you will also get all your local channels Analog and Digital versions. Also Comcast must continue to broadcast all their PBS stations in either analog or unencrypted digital QAM

Some other channels are included in this lineup All CSPAN-1 CSPAN-2 and your local government TV stations will also be unencrypted QAM

Also you will get the Weather Channel and any other channel listed in your area under Comcast “limited Basic” package.

So look it up see what you can get without the comcast box.

Although if you have legit Comcast service you are entitled to one free “Advanced” digital box… im assuming they mean plain jane box with on-demand and pay-per view, and your entitled to up to 2 free DTA “Basic Digital” decoders.

You will never be charged a monthly fee for these boxes because legally they are not aloud to force you to purchase or lease products on cable systems. Now after the “3″ free t.v’s they can charge you because your only suppose to have up to 3 tv’s off one cable tap unless you pay for more…

So if you have a lot of t.v.’s in the house but don’t want to pay for anything beyond “Expanded Basic” cable, then i suggest you find a QAM tuner for the other tv’s. The best bet is find some DVD burners/tuners on the market with QAM built in, these are actually cheaper then purchasing a converter box alone the converter boxes usually run about 75 bucks or more each, where as some of the DVD/tuner’s only cost about 50 bucks for a refurb, you get dvd burning, dvd up-converting capabilities and a QAM tuner for less… its a deal

Granted you will not get all the channels with the QAM tuner, but you will still have a decent list of channels above the plain 2-29 analog channels. in my area you can receive about 50 or so channels off of this…

ON THE UP SIDE… everyone that gets forced into this digital switch you will be pleased to hear you will get many extra channels for “free” beyond just the additional local broadcast channels.
You will unlock many HD versions of your favorite networks, as well as additional channels that were once only on Digitial cable.

In most areas Expanded Basic cable consist of channels 2-99 with some gaps in between of missing channels… The average is normally around 40-70 channels. With the The digital Switch over you should get well into the 80-110 channel range for the same price.

Yes the price could and very well might go up in price, but with all this added competition to cable networks from At&t’s u-verse and Verizons FiOS systems quickly storming the country the nice thing is the cable monopoly’s are going to have to adjust quickly and drop prices to even compete. So the burn shouldn’t last too long if your rates do go up.

My advice Haggle with comcast… haggle like your life depends on it! lol They will get your buisness if you threaten to switch they can lock in prices for almost 2 years over the phone don’t let them tell you otherwise.

Me myself i go back and forth for t.v. service right now between sat and cable getting the best deal. I’m using the phone company for my internet and phone, and the second they offer me FiOS/U-verse in my area I’m switching for good!

I just got rid of comcast not too long ago but i had them lock in the price of $99.99 a month for 2 years for phone, internet,digital cable with HBO and Stars. I still had to pay an extra for my HD DVR and a second Receiver but still a good deal for the price at the time. The second the 2 years was up my price jumped to $280.00 a month!

If your married or have a roommate whatever the second the 6month-1 year deal is up shut it off get it switched into the other persons name go a whole week without and save yourself a thousand or more dollars a year.

I left comcast because it is such a poor company. They are nothing but Profit hungry and they sacrifice anything for a buck. They contract out all the work you get horrible customer service most of the time, and the system is about as reliable as satalite at twice the price and 4 times the hassle…lol

I hope Comcast get’s thier act together soon i might never go back to them once the phone company’s show up with tv, but a good competitor keeps prices down and that’s all that is important to me!

While cable boxes are not currently available for sale at retail outlets, the ones provided by cable companies will also include a CableCARD. However, the new law does not require cable companies to replace their existing inventories with CableCARD-compatible boxes, so it may be some time before cable companies deliver these boxes to consumers. But don’t be surprised if your next cable box includes a CableCARD slot.

the new TV’s on the market or DTV’s have in them an NTSC and an ATSC tuner for over the air analog and digital signals…
Some and i emphasis “Some” of them also offer QAM tuner witch is to support un-encoded digital cable signals aswell.

QAM is not an encoded system

If comcast has not switched basic cable to digital in your area than the QAM tuner in a newer tv will show you some of the new digital channels that are going to be available when the switch happens.

If you have it hook it up and try it out, i receive an additional 50 channels with basic cable in digital form with my QAM tuner. I will lose them all when they switch.

Cable cards on the other hand are QAM ready but also can handle much more.

They are currently in some newer DTV’s as well as newer Tivo’s and DVR’s. You can get them installed in a computer as well via USB or PCI cards.

If you buy a newer tv and don’t want a comcast box make sure it has a Cable Card some are listed as “Digital Cable ready” and not just a QAM tuner.

Cable cards are basically a programmable digital converter. They can un-encode digital cable signal so that you do not need a cable box to recieve your cable channels.

The box Comcast will be giving you is a very basic Cable Card that can un-encode the encoded QAM signal they will be using. It will not enclude the enhanced features of TV guide, PPV, DVR that higher end models will it simply un-encodes it and rebroadcast in analog.

Cable cards will be able to un-encode the signal comcast puts out. If you are using one in a Tivo, DVR, TV, or Computer then COMCAST has to be told so that the cable card can be verified by comcast on their end and added to the network.

So you still have to call them with the info if you are supplying your own equipment.

These cards can be used to simply get all your basic cable digital channels or high end models are even able to give you the entire Comcast digital network including PPV, TV guide ext… and then display much in the same way a comcast motorola digital box would.

It all depends what you want and what you tell comcast to setup on it.

Comcast has said they will support cable cards. QAM tuners will only be good until comcast encodes the system, which is when they do the actual switch. After that the QAM tuner is useless because it can not handle the encoding.

Anyways here is the info on the new DIGITAL SWITCH…

You will be notified in your area when this switch is to take place… Not only by mail but a message displayed on your analog t.v.s while you watch them. Same as they did for antenna t.v if anyone here had it before the switch.
Comcast has been showing it on my t.v. for the last few weeks reminding me to call them to prep my analog t.v. sets.

The Comcast digital switch is again in no way part of the ATSC or National DTV “digital” switch over of antenna TV that everyone could received free boxes for… That was the NTSC to ATSC switch.

You will need a COMCAST or comcast approved digital adapter…
If you bought a newer t.v. with a ATSC/NTSC and QAM “digital cable” tuner it will only work until the switch..

the QAM tuner or “Cable Card” is the trick here… some newer t.v’s included not only the new digital converter for over the air signal but also for cable systems this is known as QAM you can buy these for your t.v. if not included but if you have comcast do not bother.

The Comcast digital switch for basic cable customers will be encoded QAM you will need a Comcast box or comcast approved box for it to work. TIVO ver 3 will work aswell as some QAM computer Cable cards for your personal DVR’s.

To make these cards work you must contact comcast after the switch and give them some information off your QAM approved device.

Im not posative if the ones built into t.v’s will be supported yet in the future, but so far it doesn’t look like it because of the limited capabilities in them. Maybe even newer t.v’s will support the encoded QAM signal in the future.

Anyone with a QAM tuner in a newer tv will have noticed they have many extra comcast “digital” channels instead of the basic 2-99 you get 2-99 plus a lot of digital sub channels that your local broadcast stations are sending out over the air. As well as some extra comcast digital channels including the t.v. guide channel and weather channels.

The reason why comcast is doing this switch is not only because it is unfair for people with QAM “cable cards” to get these new channels for free, but it will make sure people without the QAM tuners are able to acess all the extra channels aswell. So of course more channels = higher price. This is Comcast were talking about not Unicef… lol “Joe Dirt”

You will be aloud up to 3 Digital Adapter boxes for free for every comcast account you have. No matter you already have digital boxes or not. Any extra boxes you need you can either purchase for around 25-35 dollars each or rent from comcast for what i heard was 1.99 a month.

THESE are not digital boxes like the ones comcast already has out. you will not get on demand, you will not get pay-per-view you will not get the t.v. guide menu or DVR service…

These boxes are simply an adapter from digital back to analog basically identical to the ones needed for the new DTV channels but for the comcast network…

And big SHOCKER they are encoded and matched to comcast encoding system. Supposedly although i heard plenty of complaints you should only need a one time verification of the box to make it work.

They are doing this to make sure people arn’t stealing service with just a standard QAM tuner. And because Comcast charges for every channel they give you even if they are broadcast-ed free in the air…lol

“of course someone will decode it and sell cheater boxes just like back in the old days” but that is beyond the point.

Some basic cable channels will stay analog for some time and they are between channels 2-30 some networks will use less but channel 30 is the max for analog channels without a box.

The reason for this isnt just to offer the very basic bottom of the line service, but to ensure you have all your local channels encase of an emergency and the comcast digital network goes down.
“if you have comcast you know that will happen from time to time”

once they can prove the system and gaurantee service of the local channels and emergency network they will eventually drop all analog channels all together…

Cable companies are stuck with more legal issues than satellite companies and have more regulations because of them being ran on your government owned telephone poles… They for the time being have to supply all local network “main channels” not the DTV sub channels on the analog system untill they are given the go ahead to take them to digital from the local government body.

Most comcast “all analog” or the lowest basic packages will consist of only your local channels. ABC, NBC, CBC, CBS, PBS ect. and of course the shopping networks like HSN and QVC “comcast gets paid by them to show them to you by the way lol” The thing is with the wording in the law they do not have to provide you the digital sub channels on analog only the digital main channel in analog.

So this means although your big local networks might have 1-9 sub channels for free OTA on antenna comcast only has to show the main channel un-encoded.

So basically basic is pointless…lol you can most likely get more channels with an antenna and a DTV converter box for a one time cost than you can with the comcast all analog basic 2-30 channel line up.

Sp to sum it up you can only get local channels for the most part after the switch with analog only service .

You can get up to 3 converter boxes for free with a comcast account. anything after that you can purchase yourself, or rent extra boxes at 1.99 each a month from comcast.

This is not Digital Cable in the sense you will not get PPV, On-demand, or the t.v. guide menu. This is only a digital to analog converter.

You will eventually be charged more for basic cable 2-99 service, but you will also be able to recieve many more “digital” channels in better quality without switching to the all out “digital packages” from comcast.

This is a good and a bad thing depends on how you look at it. You will get more options but its taking away from your current setup and you have yet another device to plug into the wall. You will be charged more but you will get probably close to double the channels you have now on basic and knowing Comcast they would have charged you more without even giving you the channels… lol

But i agree this takes away from the appeal of comcast apart from satellite. All the commercials they ran about “your ready already” are a bunch of bull and they are going to lose more customers than they will gain with this switch.

A lot of people are going to switch to digital OTA antenna t.v. and the FTA satellite TV… I recieve over 200 channels most of them offering HD all free of charge and legal… If the premium channels where offered over the internet cable and satellite company’s would become extinct “its coming sooner than you think”

hope that helped clear some stuff up and confuse you up in other areas more…lol

But, I do have two small flatscreens without digital tuners, one wall mounted in the dressing area and one on the kitchen counter, where there is just no room to put a box plus it will look like crap. For those, I am perfectly happy to get the basic analog channels that Comcast offered.

Now, they’re saying I either need to suck it up and jam a box in there somehow, live with local channels only w/o a box, or buy new flatscreens with digital tuners. I don’t like those options.

This got some press in Atlanta this week as parts of the metro are beginning the switchover. A local TV station did a story and had some poor schlep like me on there who had a bunch of TV’s and didn’t want boxes (not to mention the extra cost) for all of them. The story coincided with the DTV switchover (tomorrow 6/12) so it was even more confusing, as they erroneously gave the impression that Comcast customers were “not ready for the digital switchover”. Not true. At least from what I read, it may be next year before this comes to my neighborhood and I have to decide what to do, maybe by that time AT&T U-Verse will be available and I can say so long to Comcast if I have to have a box on every set!

But Comcast has gone WAY beynond digital conversion and most of it is bad.

Now I need a converter box for my state-of-the-art digital HD set. That’s bad. A few more amps trickling down the wire, more clutter on entertainment cabinet, yet another remote and more batteries to replace.

Were there some benefit to the DTA box, I might be more amenable. I already have a digital tuner, so I don’t need a converter box for that. But, I do need one to unscramble the encryption that Comcast has unnecessarily added so that we are all forced to install a DTA. Infuriating.

I’ll barely mention the additional cost, because, at least for now, Comcast is promising 2 for free. But, we all know that’s not going to last–reports are already starting to surface of monthly fees ticking up. Besides, “free” really just means the cost will be recovered elsewhere in the rates. More bad.

Oh yes, somehow Comcast overlooked that little DTA box in their “If you’re connected to Comcast, sit back and do nothing” campaign. Why should they mention it, it only affects about 98% of their customers? Innocent forgetfulness? I think not–more like deception and misrepresentation (I’ll stop just short of claiming “lies”). Again, bad.

By the way, those DTA boxes are insideous two-way communication devices effectively giving Comcast the technology to monitor our TV habits. It’s not only a serious infringement on privacy, it’s a knowledge advantage that empowers Comcast to ruthlessly outmanuever the competition with their pricing strategies. Call me cynical, but I’m a stretch away from thinking that will be good for the consumer.

Already, Comcast is beginning to move some channels into their digital starter package, charging customers more than double to keep the programs they’ve been watching for years. It’s a clever ploy, blaming it on the digital conversion, but even the DTA boxes won’t bring those stations back.

Finally–and baddest of all–Comcast has timed their digital conversion to roughly coincide with the over-the-airways digital conversion mandated by the government. Make no mistake, Comcast is betting they can skirt the outrage when we ignorant, confused consumers mis-direct the blame toward Washington DC.

I told my family to figure out which of the TVs in our house will get boxes because I am unemployed and refuse to let my bill go any higher, even if it is only 2 or 4 bucks a month. Heck I am already being “forced” to go with digital cable because that is really all that Comcast offers, other than their bare bones basic cable service (which works fine for me but not for the other TV addicts in my household).

To me this is just another example of forced consumerism brought to you by our capitalist run-away free market system. I hope our new president can reign in some of the B.S. that goes on.

Thanks all for letting me vent.

I hope they do come up with a better solution than needing a separate set-top box for every tv. The one set-top box we rent from them currently is huge! It’s as big as a VCR or DVD player.

Did anyone notice they brought the hallmark channel back to analog? They probably got every nursing home complaining to them.