Anyone have Digital Cable Television? need advice

[wdisneelvr]

I am getting closer to my move to Orlando and would like to know about digital cable for my tv.

What exactly is digital cable and how does it work?

Is it better than regular cable?

Do you like it?

I have called the cable company and they offered me a deal (combo pkg with roadrunner) for my new place. I must be living in the stone age because I still have the extended basic cable in my home, although I do have roadrunner which I love!



Thanks bunches for any help

 

[Towncrier]

Digital cable requires you to have a cable box in order to receive programs. On Adelphia, the bottom 100 channels are still analog, but can be received by the digital cable tuner box.

It's sort of like the early days of cable television when you had to have an external tuner in order to receive more than the standard 12 broadcast stations.

Something to keep in mind. Even though you signup for digital cable, the analog cable signals are in all likelyhood still present so that if you have any cable ready televisions, you can simply hook them up and get the lower 100 stations.

Of course everything may change when high definition television becomes the new standard.

 

[goodstarr]

Digital cable is awesome! Here in Southern NJ, we have Comcast Digital. So many stations, and On Demand is the best thing since sliced bread. Plus, the music stations are great. Recording is a breeze! I don't know what I'd do without it. I work night shift, so I watch a lot of daytime tv. I hate soaps and talks shows so cable is the only way. And with over 10 HBOs,10 SHO's and I don't know how many STARZ's, I can't lose. Digital Cable all the way

 

[wdisneelvr]

Well that is good to hear.

The cable guy offered me a deal to upgrade to a pkg from the basic-expanded to digital cable for $7 bucks more. He said that would give me 220 channels instead of the 72.

I'm glad you liked it, I was wondering if it was worth the extra $$$.

Now I just need to get a new tv, mine is pretty old.

 

[floridafam]

Digital cable is nice.

Towncrier pretty much explained everything.

It's nice if you can get a package of some sort.

Some of the cable companies in Florida are even offering telephony now and you can have all 3 in one bill.

What company are you going through?

 

[wdisneelvr]

I guess it used to be TimeWarner in Florida, but they have now changed their name to Brighthouse.

I wanted to get a few opinions on the digital cable because I had no idea what it was. I think it's crazy the amount of $$$ they charge for cable these days. But we love having tv in our house, so we pay it.

 

[Jasminesmommy]

I want to add a question to this post. Which is better Comcast or Dish network? I have comcast and am not to crazy about it.

 

[jete]

I have never had the Dish, but my comcast is great. We have some pretty rainy and windy storms here and I've heard stories about bad things happening to the Dish under those circumstances. Plus, if I lose my cable reception, I'll actually have to get a life

 

[ToyStory Fan]

I switched to digital mainly to get the HDTV broadcasts. I have about 10 HD channels now and it is great. The other thing that is cool is the on-demand videos, we can get Disney channel on demand, HBO (SHO/MAX and TMC)on demand as premium channels, but we get PBS on demnad for Barney and the like which is free.

I also think the picture quality on the non-HD channels is better than with the original analog signal. One thing I miss though is the loss of Picture-in-Picture capability, especially during overlapping sports season. The digital input does not allow a cable ready tv to "split" the line to direct to tv and to cable box, the line must go directly from the "wall" to the cable box first.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

We have Bright House digital cable (and HD) along with Roadrunner. We never had any problem and we love all the choices. Our TV has about a zillion inputs so we can still do the picture-in-picture as we have a cable box input, HD input and regular cable input (lol, don't ask me I didn't set it up, Time Warner which is now Bright House did) along with the DVD input, VCR input and PS2 input. Lots of picture-in-picture combos availiable to us. rofl.

 

[floridafam]

Just an FYI.

A lot of the cable companies are going to start offering DVR now-Digital Video Recorder-kind of like TIVO.

I think Comcast is already offering it in Panama City Beach and DH said that they will have it in Michigan in January.

In Michigan-he said the DVR and the DCT (converter) will be in the same box so you don't have to have a bunch of different cable boxes.

 

[floridafam]

ToyStory Fan,

DH said that you should still be able to get picture in picture as long as one is analog and one is digital. Were you talking about not being able to get 2 digital channels at the same time in picture and picture?

 

[Pebblszzz]

Digital over analog:

Digital good, analog "iffy". (long story short)

If you live near a CompUSA, go there TOMORROW morning at 10am or 2pm and take their FREE Home Theater Workshop.

It's a promo that's being offered this weekend and next weekend (SAT only), as well as next Tuesday night (7-9pm).

You'll also learn about getting (and recording/watching) multiple digital channels simultaneously (with or without picture in picture).

OH!!! And just for showing up, you get $10 off any purchase (no minimum).

 

[ToyStory Fan]

Originally posted by floridafam
ToyStory Fan,

DH said that you should still be able to get picture in picture as long as one is analog and one is digital. Were you talking about not being able to get 2 digital channels at the same time in picture and picture?

Normally yes, but my HD cable box runs an analog output and a HD output on component video. My TV doesn't allow PIP between HD signals and analog signals. I should've qualified my remark...I can get PIP, but not with anything that's worth watching ( I can do with analaog/analog, analog/vcr, and analog/PS2) My DVD and cable box run thru component vid, those would likely be the two I'd want to PIP.

If I am watching a game it is usually in HD, that is after all the main reason I got the HDTV. I don't think that any HD tv can do PIP, at least not in HD mode, the signal is too big.