MythTV/Comcast going all digital TV in Cambridge [OT]

[crschmidt-cTEUcjrfgDqB+jHODAdFcQ at public.gmane.org (Christopher Schmidt)]

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 12:55:16PM -0400, Bill Bogstad wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Richard Pieri<richard.pieri-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > Comcrap has already done this conversion in most of MA.
> 
> I knew they had done this in other states, but wasn't aware this was
> the case in MA yet.  Do you know of any site that lists where this has
> happened?
> 
> > Last I knew, if you could get the channel over the air then federal
> > regulations require that cable providers must provide the same channel
> > unencrypted. ?Digital means QAM so ClearQAM has to be in there
> > somewhere. ?You may need to ask Comcast to disable encryption. ?If you
> > do, don't ask for basic channels. ?Try to get it disabled on your
> > whole package, and failing that all of the non-premium channels.
> 
> I get something like 70 channels via Comcast as NTSC analog at the
> moment.   Most of those channels are not currently sent as clear
> (unencrypted QAM).   The few  that are consist of either
> over the air or shopping channels.  If the number of clear QAM
> channels doesn't change, I'll lose the ability to view/record ESPN,
> SciFi, and similar cable channels without a Comcast box.

When I was playing with a hand-me-down TiVo back in August, I flipped
through about 2 dozen channels on my Cambridgeport cable box with the
cable hooked directly into the TiVo (skipping the cable box). ALl of
them said "As of July, Comcast is no longer providing these channels in
analog in your neighborhood. Hook up to you cable box. Call 1-800
COMCAST for a cable box." 

Others in Cambridgeport have confirmed similar situations: that is, that
they no longer got any/many channels in analog form. 

Perhaps this is a neighborhood by neighborhood thing, or there were
channels that I missed that are different. I scrolled from about 30 to
about 50 and didn't find anything that was broadcasting anything other
than the Comcast message in analog. 

I assume that the major channels like Fox, ABC, NBC, etc. were still in
analog until the February deadline, but didn't bother to check.

Note that this is digital vs. non-digital, ont encypted vs.
non-encrypted; I don't know anything about encryption, just whether
plugging the cable line into my non-digital TV got me TV channels.
("No.", as of July 2k8, according to the Comcast message.)

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta