when cable goes digital will the 211 pick it up

[gmitchell]

I have a 211 which is also hooked up to a cable feed for locals. I cannot see them on the 211 because they are analog. When the cable company makes the switch to digital will the 211 then be able to pick up the signal and show the channels?

[garys]

The HD feeds from cable are already digital and will not change from their current form which is QAM. The 211 does not have a QAM tuner and will never decode the cable signal.

[lakebum431]

garys is exactly right. Almost all the time they are in QAM. Sometimes they are in the clear, but this is pretty unusual.

[Tyralak]

I have a 211 which is also hooked up to a cable feed for locals. I cannot see them on the 211 because they are analog. When the cable company makes the switch to digital will the 211 then be able to pick up the signal and show the channels?

You have an unusual cable company if they are going 100% digital. I don't know of any cable company doing that. Kind of a gutsy move. What company is this, and when do they plan on doing it?

[gmitchell]

We have Suddensink er I mean Suddenlink. Not sure if they are going all digital but you can currently upgrade to a digital package so I assumed (I know what assume means) that they would go all digital in 2009.

[Tyralak]

We have Suddensink er I mean Suddenlink. Not sure if they are going all digital but you can currently upgrade to a digital package so I assumed (I know what assume means) that they would go all digital in 2009.

There is no reason for them to go all digital in 2009. That only has to do with over the air broadcasters. Period. Has nothing whatsoever to do with cable or satellite. Cable can continue broadcasting analog until the end of time, and it would make no difference. So, you can rest easy on that count.

[DishSubLA]

You have an unusual cable company if they are going 100% digital. I don't know of any cable company doing that. Kind of a gutsy move. What company is this, and when do they plan on doing it?

Charter Cable in Long Beach California went all digital over a year ago--perhaps 2 years ago. There was going to be one more Charter going all digital. But, you are correct: with the exceptions counted on one hand, there just aren't any cable companies with 100% digital. even with 100% digital, they sometimes still have to use the analog for legacy customers.

[kb7oeb]

Analog wastes bandwidth, they will be all digital eventually.

[Tyralak]

Analog wastes bandwidth, they will be all digital eventually.

Oh, I'm sure they will. Just how long it will take is another matter. As cable is wanting to add more on demand, higher bandwidth internet, and more HD. They're also toying with increasing the spectrum they use to 1000 MHz or even higher. They're also working on switched video systems. All this along with analog reclaimation. Comcast locally has been moving more channels to digital, but they insist tehy won't go all digital anytime soon. We'll see.

[dishrich]

There is no reason for them to go all digital in 2009.

Actually, there IS a reason for ops to do this before 2/17/09 - & that is the fact that the fcc gave waivers on the "integrated security ban" (non cable-card digital boxes) to any cable ops that pledged to go all digital (NO analog whatsoever) before 2/17/09. By doing this, these same ops were able to use the cheaper non-cable-card boxes & save money when they did these all-digital conversions.

Bend Broadband & RCN Broadband of Chicago are 2 ops that come to mind that did this - granted, they are not anywhere near the size of a Comcast, but I'm sure other ops did the same thing. Bend Broadband even has this posted on their website as one of the reasons why they are going all digital by the end of this year.