[geeks] TV tuner Questions

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 02:48:09PM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>Anyone found a way around this? The free cable boxes have to be 
>activated, so I'm guessing even non-subscriber channels are 
>'protected'...

I'm confused. Is this free as in you pay the cable company nothing, or is
it just that they are included in the basic package? 

Here we have one cable company, which is the amalgam of three systems that
were on the verge of bankruptcy, each covering a different part of the 
country. Now we have one company, still on the verge of bankruptcy. 

One of the networks was older than the others and had analog channels
(still in use here) in the VHF, VHF mid band, VHF high band and UHF 
channels. You could pick them up with a "cable ready" TV or a mid-band
to UHF block converter. 

Originally there were no premium channels, when they were added they were
analog scrambled.

The other two networks were always 100% digital, you needed a digital 
decoder box to watch anything.

Since the merger, all of the premium channels, and many of the included
ones have moved to be digital only. I expect that in a year or two when
analog broadcasts stop so will the analog channels over cable.

Either way, you still have to pay the cable company a monthly fee to
watch them.

In comparison, the free channels on the UK SKY TV's terrestrial digital
network can be watched by buying a decoder from them (or a used one from
someone else) and paying a nominal one time fee for a decoder card.

In this case after a hardware purchase, the channels are free.

The same channels are available free by satellite and many were available
over the air too.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.