[mythtv-users] What dual/triple-tuner setup is recommended for the switch to digital?

[Kevin J. Cummings]

John Drescher wrote:
>> However, that said, many cable companies are taking advantage of this
>> to drop analog channels and switch to digital themselves. The
>> advantages of this are numerous:
>> 1. They can fit six SD or two HD channels in the space that one analog
>> channel previously occupied.
>> 2. They can use SDV (Switched Digital Video) to only stream out what
>> people are watching.  (Nobody is watching CSPAN?  Don't send it down
>> the wire.)
>> 3. They can get more money in cable box rentals.
>>
> 4. Cable theft is a lot more difficult since you need to decrypt the
> signal. Not just climb a pole and wire your house yourself...

"Cable"'s problem with theft hasn't been people climbing poles and 
wiring themselves up, its been that the cable companies have been too 
cheap to actually send someone out to the house (or apartment or 
whatever) to unhook them anytime a customer leaves (usually by moving) 
and the new owner/tenant finds that the analog cable is still "working".
I'm sure the cable company was banking on the new owner/tenant signing 
up for the same service....

To a lesser extent, some folks have bought illegal de-crypters in order 
to view "scrambled" content they aren't paying for.  I find this as 
egregious as climbing the pole.

I was quite surprised when my mother moved and upgraded her service to 
digital that Comcast told her to "just plug TVs directly into the cable 
outlet if all you want is analog service on the lower channels".  They 
used to consider that "theft" since you weren't using a cable box.  B^)

The "coupon" ads I'm seeing on TV (USA) come right out and say that the 
cable companies will still be providing analog signals to their current 
customers after February 2009.  Is this true?  If a cable company 
decides to go "all digital", then they'd have to invest in digital to 
analog converters to continue to provide the analog signal for channels 
they are receiving in digital.  I'd think that would cost them more 
money and they would not want to spend that money on something that will 
ultimately go away.  Then again, if their analog source of signal is 
disappearing from the airways, they have no choice, yes?  Unless they 
are assuming that your STB is the D2A converter and you will be required 
to use their STB to view on your analog TV....

This is so confusing.  I'm getting sick of trying to explain this to 
people who don't understand the technical problems.

> John

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)