Comcast: would I still get analog signal with digital cable?

[boristhespider]

I have Comcast analog (Philly suburbs) and I am considering getting Comcast digital. I would also get DVR if they have the dual-tuner STB available. However, I am wondering whether the analog signal would still come into my house. I would still like to use it to tape on the VCR, since then I would not rely on the channel tuning of the STB. I figure that with DVR I could spit a DVR recorded program over to a VCR, but this extra step is more than my wife would be willing to deal with, and we need tapes for mobility to various sets around the house and/or to friends and relatives houses. The Comcast pricing descriptions make it sound like analog would still be available, and I am not sure why they would want to prevent it from coming to us, but I want to be sure what will really happen, and I do not trust the phone reps to give me an informed answer.

TIA.

 

[Uplink]

Yes. The only thing new will be digital boxes. Anything under 100 will be analog with a program guide. You could still hook a cable ready tv into the cable signal and get most channels.

You should get satellite and make sure to get a receiver with VCR Blaster (you can turn the vcr off and the satellite receiver will be like a universal remote in telling it when to turn on).

you are missing a lot without satellite. with satellite you will have digital locals, with digital cable anything below 100 is analog crap.

 

[boristhespider]

Yes. The only thing new will be digital boxes. Anything under 100 will be analog with a program guide.

Are you sure? That seriously sucks. I would expect all my channels to be transmitted to me digitally, so that my picture on all of them would be as good as it was when Comcast received it.

 

[Uplink]

Im sure. Get satellite.

 

[korsjs]

yep, he is correct, however, some cable companies are considering going all digital to increase bandwith.

 

[boristhespider]

Get satellite.

Unfortunately for me (and my wife), but fortunately for Comcast, the channel I spend the most time watching is Comcast SportsNet, which has the local sports teams. Somehow, I don't think I am going to see that on satellite any time soon, assuming Comcast does not buy a satellite provider.

 

[lzjr]

Same position i'm in philly also, and realy need my comcast sports net but could not stant pq on analog channels so just decided to suck it up on do comcast and directv beacuse comcast ended up giving me a really good deal plus a get sixers in hd and two new hd channels inhd 1 and 2

 

[ScottChez]

ONLY THE NEW YORK market does Simulcast of the Analogs in both digital and analog in some parts of the city.

Call them to be sure.

No other cities do it yet as there is not enough bandwidth.

There DVRs also look bad on the analogs 1-99 as they convert the analog channels to digital when they records, they then loose pic quality.

 

[Bruce]

ONLY THE NEW YORK market does Simulcast of the Analogs in both digital and analog in some parts of the city.

Call them to be sure.

No other cities do it yet as there is not enough bandwidth.

There DVRs also look bad on the analogs 1-99 as they convert the analog channels to digital when they records, they then loose pic quality.

Wrong, metro Detroit area just got done doing it,they re-mapped all the channels and finished on March 3, a lot of other areas are doing it also, there is a big cable forum like this one but for cable customers, I just can't remember the address right now, but there is a big thread there with all the cities that are doing it. How it is working now is if you have a digital box and hit say channel 2, instead of going to the analog verison of that channel, your box is doing the re-mapping for you, in this area, if you hit 802 you will still get to the digital verison of that channel.

 

[cableman265]

Here in St Louis, Charter will be offering a 100% digital lineup to anybody that has a digital box, starting around May sometime. Like somebody said earlier, its to save bandwidth, which enables more channels. The biggest reason it has taken so long, is they wanted to keep a level of service for those people that want to stay in the stone age and not have a digital box of some sort.

 

[Uplink]

you can get a used voom box with used card (must be used) and a good indoor antenna and you can get the hdtv locals. the voom receivers can output hdtv, rf sd, and rca jack sd.

thats the most i can think of for locals.