On May 29, 2009, at 4:21 PM, Ben Scott wrote: > On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Greg Rundlett (freephile) > <g...@freephile.com> wrote: >> ... Comcast is distributing little Digital to Analog converters >> (along >> with their switchover to DTV broadcasts) ... > > I thought the DTV switchover was mainly a problem for people > receiving TV via OTA broadcast (over-the-air, i.e., antennas). I > thought the CATV companies could basically keep sending analog signals > forever. Or are they jumping on the digital-only bandwagon, too?
Bandwagon jumping for self-serving purposes. If I recall correctly, the digital version of a standard-def program actually consumes less bandwidth to transmit than the analog variant of the same, so they can cram more digital channels into a multiplexed QAM channel than they can analog channels. On top of that, they can encrypt the digital channels, making it harder for 3rd-party tuners to be useful (be they tuners in a mythtv box or the built-in tuner in an HDTV), thereby requiring subscribers to rent more cable boxes... My own Verizon FiOS TV service has been purely digital for quite a while now. But at least they provided digital->analog adapter thingies for free, so I can still record all my SDTV channels if I really want to (usually, I don't anyway though). -- Jarod Wilson ja...@wilsonet.com _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
