Comcast moving most analog to digital

[sansri88]

I can tell you guys the following things:

SDV and DOCSIS 3.0 are en route, at least in my area. By the end of this year, in fact (DOCSIS 3.0 probably end 08/early 09, SDV late summer 08).

MPEG-4...those new STB's from Moto are coming out this summer....but I wouldn't expect a mass conversion until most boxes in a system are MPEG-4 compatible.

20% of Comcast areas will see their expanded basic lineup go digital only, leaving ~30 analog channels left on the lineup by the end of this year. I believe my area is included in the 20 or so %.

By the way, the best Comcast can do right now is 3:1 compression. As in 3 HD channels on 1 QAM. That's how CMC sends out the channel from Denver, according to the readings on AMC-18.

[jakejm79]

With QAM 256: 1 analog = ~20 SD digitals or ~3-4 HD channels

It would be an easy bandwidth fix for Comcast to go almost completely digital, but I think they're worried about losing a lot of the grannies and luddites out there who think that all Comcast wants to do is charge them more by giving them a box (that's just a nice side-benefit for Comcast ;-)).

In my area there are roughly 60-something analog channels still. That's a LOT of bandwidth.

Well couldnt they switch to all digital, which would give them enough bandwidth to increase their HD lineup, then charge more for the HD lineup with the money they get from that, offer free Digital boxes with their standard cable package, therefor the people just paying for standard cable dont pay extra a month (comcast finds a use for all its surplus SD boxes I'm sure they have with everyone going to HD/DVR boxes) and they make the extra revenue from charging more for HD when people get more not just cos they feel like charging more.

[philhu]

The Analog tier was to directly compete with people without antennas or boxes using the standard NTSC tuners in their TV.

In Feb 2009, with all analog going away, they do not need to compete. All people will need antennas or new televisions or a 'atsc box', so atsc or cable box, the person chooses.

If they remove most analog, then they have tons of hd bandwidth.