Cable TV help

[InstImpres]

ok, only slightly budget (maybe more than I think because I am ready to cut the service).

I know there have been many commercials that I have not paid full attention to that tv is going digital and I may need new tvs in the future. Well, long story short, I get home yesterday and DD turns on her favorite TLC, and is greeted by a blue screen "an iO Digital Cable Box is now required to view this channel" We have lost several that we watch regularly including Travel Channel, TLC, etc. I have a box on 1 tv but at almost $12 a month per tv, I am not ready to get 2 more.

I guess I also haven't been watching closely and the cost for our basic + family has bee going up.

Anyone else going through this and investigated other options, ie satellite etc?

 

[a1tinkfans]

ok, only slightly budget (maybe more than I think because I am ready to cut the service).

I know there have been many commercials that I have not paid full attention to that tv is going digital and I may need new tvs in the future. Well, long story short, I get home yesterday and DD turns on her favorite TLC, and is greeted by a blue screen "an iO Digital Cable Box is now required to view this channel" We have lost several that we watch regularly including Travel Channel, TLC, etc. I have a box on 1 tv but at almost $12 a month per tv, I am not ready to get 2 more.

I guess I also haven't been watching closely and the cost for our basic + family has bee going up.

Anyone else going through this and investigated other options, ie satellite etc?

In the SAME boat, ONE box and 7 tv's in the house, in a word
NIGHTMARE!
DH REFUSES to pay for ANY other boxes (not that I blame him, but it is NUTS not getting stations especially on the 4 most important tvs) we lost History channel QVC Sci Fi so many channels... it is AWFUL and cable is AWFUL and lucky me I have tons of channels that mean NOTHING like all spanish channels when I don't speak the language yet take history channel away, PATHETIC!!
I'd dump cable but we also have internet and phone and a business line so we're STUCK till we figure something out.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We upgraded to digital cable when we moved at the end of December. We had basic cable for the past 5 years. Some time in February or March I noticed that I could no longer watch CMT or the Game Show channel on the two sets without the converter box. Seems they went "digital" but the cable co. left them at the same position instead of with the other digital channels.

 

[holly7347]

In the SAME boat, ONE box and 7 tv's in the house, in a word
NIGHTMARE!
DH REFUSES to pay for ANY other boxes (not that I blame him, but it is NUTS not getting stations especially on the 4 most important tvs) we lost History channel QVC Sci Fi so many channels... it is AWFUL and cable is AWFUL and lucky me I have tons of channels that mean NOTHING like all spanish channels when I don't speak the language yet take history channel away, PATHETIC!!
I'd dump cable but we also have internet and phone and a business line so we're STUCK till we figure something out.

Wow that stinks. Here we can have as many TV's as we want with basic cable service - we have 3 - living room, family room, our bedroom. But when we upgraded to digital cable and DVR we were given one DVR box. The other two TV's still get all the same basic channels we were getting before. But only the one that I hooked up the DVR box to get the few extra digital channels and the radio channels and allow us to tape to our DVR. If we had to pay per TV we would be in trouble. I'm not sure how the movie channels work here though we don't have any of those. I just wanted the DVR because I work evenings and was always forgetting to tape my shows and with the DVR I can set it to record the entire series for me and I never miss anything.

 

[roselark]

This is not related to the DTV conversion. From what I understand, the conversion only applies to broadcast TV and will only affect people with "rabbit ears". What you are experiencing is your cable company changing these channels to their digital tier.

http://www.dtv.gov/


BTW, just curious, what company/companies do you have?

 

[roselark]

Specifically:

Does the DTV transition affect TV sets that are connected to cable services?

No. If you subscribe to cable service, the DTV transition should not affect any TV sets that are connected to your cable services. The DTV transition applies only to full-power broadcast television stations – stations that use the public airwaves to transmit their programming to viewers through a broadcast antenna.


Is the FCC making cable companies switch to digital service?

No. Cable companies are not required to switch to digital service. Cable companies may choose to make their service all or partly digital, but they are not required to change from the analog service they offer today. In fact, the FCC requires cable companies to continue to provide local stations in analog as long as they provide any analog service, even after February 17, 2009.


Can my cable company make me get a box to receive the cable channels I receive today without a box?

Some cable companies have decided to switch to digital service. This is a business decision made by the cable companies and is not required by the federal government. Your cable company may decide to move certain cable channels off of its analog service tier and onto a digital service tier, or it may decide to switch to all-digital service at once, so that there is no analog service tier for any subscribers. If your cable company decides to move some or all of the channels it provides onto a digital service tier, it may notify you that you need to get “digital cable” equipment to continue receiving that cable service. This may include renting or purchasing a digital cable set-top box or purchasing a digital cable ready TV equipped with a “CableCARD” slot. The digital cable equipment is different from the digital-to-analog converter boxes that are used to receive over-the-air broadcast signals.

 

[Ashley Kees]

I had posted about this a few weeks ago. I cut off all cable service 5 years ago, and we have NEVER looked back. We slapped a set of rabbit ears on both T.V.s and get basic broadcast for free. We are MUCH happier not having a reason to watch so much TV, we actually get a lot more done.

And before I get flamed about the digital conversion, we got the government's 2 $40 checks and will hook up our OLD tvs with our OLD rabbit ears to the converter boxes and still won't need or want to pay for cable.

If you're on the fence, so might want to jump to the freedom side. Cable is just going to get more and more expensive.

 

[InstImpres]

BTW, just curious, what company/companies do you have?

I have CableVision.

I wonder if this is "Phase I"....it makes no sense to me that TLC, History Channel, SciFi, Travel Channel and one other would be tiered different than WE, Bravo, Lifetime, Disney, etc.

Something tells me this may be the beginning of the end of me and Cablevision. It is a bit more complicated since I switched my internet and cable to them about 8 months ago.

 

[Mickey's Neighbor]

Just checked our Scifi channel and the other's and we still get them on the basic cable TV's. DH would die if he lost Scifi.... We have HD tv and DVR on one of our tv's and the other's are basic cable so I'm keeping my fingers x that everything remains as it is now. We're with Brighthouse.

 

[3happydancers]

ok, only slightly budget (maybe more than I think because I am ready to cut the service).

I know there have been many commercials that I have not paid full attention to that tv is going digital and I may need new tvs in the future. Well, long story short, I get home yesterday and DD turns on her favorite TLC, and is greeted by a blue screen "an iO Digital Cable Box is now required to view this channel" We have lost several that we watch regularly including Travel Channel, TLC, etc. I have a box on 1 tv but at almost $12 a month per tv, I am not ready to get 2 more.

I guess I also haven't been watching closely and the cost for our basic + family has bee going up.

Anyone else going through this and investigated other options, ie satellite etc?

Just last week we experienced the same thing, turned on tlc and nothing but a blue screen with the same message you got. I called cable and they told me that ALL their customers were notified that they were going to switch these channels to digital channels. I don't know about other people, but we did not receive a notice. I am also not happy because I thought this switch was not happening until 2009, and suddenly cable is beginning the switch now. They said it was not their choice, it was the broadcast channel that decided to change I expressed my dissatisfaction stating that if I am receiving less channels for my package then I should be compensated for this in some way.

Well, long story short, recently we did convert one of our tvs to hd and got IO and the box for only that set which I was being charged extra for. Cable agreed to credit me 1 year of fees for the IO box. (only 6.50 a month but adds up to about 78.00 for the year)

I hope this does not mean that we are going to have to get a box for each tv set in the house. We get absolutely no reception without cable, not even if we use rabbit ears for the basic broadcast channels.

We haven't investigated our option. Around my area I do believe the Dish is our only other option and I know many people who switched to Dish and then went back to cable because of issues.

I can't see paying 78.00 a year plus whatever package (in our case, family basic) for each television in the house to cable just to have television. I don't think we can handle one more increase in anything

 

[starwood]

We are losing those channels next month. Now to complicate matters my 82 year old mother didn't have a cable box (it went right into the set). So they said she needed a box so she could get QVC. She is so confused with how the box works and now she can't use her VCR to tape her soaps on the timer. She called to have the box removed and they told her that she needed the box for next year because even if the cable goes into your set you will lose the signal????? I think they are just trying to get everyone to rent the cable boxes. She has a TV upstairs on rabbit ears which she will need a converter box for and one in the kitchen without the cable box. I'm interested to see come February if she loses reception on the kitchen TV.

Also they told her she can have the cable box free for one year.

My question is - if you have a brand new TV - could you get rid of the cable box? Seems to me new TV's should have digital tuners. DM will be needing a new TV as her set is going.

 

[rflorek]

Just last week we experienced the same thing, turned on tlc and nothing but a blue screen with the same message you got. I called cable and they told me that ALL their customers were notified that they were going to switch these channels to digital channels. I don't know about other people, but we did not receive a notice.

I have Cablevision/IO Digital. When they are changing channels (whether it's location or that they are going "digital"), Cablevision prints the notice on your monthly statement along with all of their other announcements. It doesn't come as a separate notice.