I currently have Cox internet and analog cable TV service (basic and expanded lineup) and when I purchased a digital TV at the beginning of the year and installed it, I was able to watch the HD version of the local broadcast stations as well as the regular signal fed through with the analog lineup. For example, DC's channel 4 is 34 on the Cox analog channel lineup, but I was also able to view channels 4-1 and 4-2 after I set up my digital television. It was great to watch the Super Bowl in higher definition.
A few months ago, I experienced some internet service drops and a tech came out for service call. He changed out a splitter in the house and got everything working again. But after that visit, the digital versions of local broadcasts appeared very infrequently, most of the time they didn't have a signal. I called Cox back again a couple weeks ago and asked them about the local digital channels that were missing and they sent out a tech. The tech looked everything over and told me that since I had analog cable, I wasn't supposed to receive the digital versions of the broadcast stations. He didn't explain anything very clearly, but what I took away from the exchange was that I wouldn't get the local digital broadcasts unless I upgraded to digital cable. Somewhere in the conversation he said that someone at Cox, or the earlier tech had probably done something to squelch the digital versions of the local broadcasts in my channel lineup. I told him that I could also just put in an antenna and a switch and get the channels OTA. I'll add my two cents to the discussion by saying that the analog lineup has been slowly shrinking. I sometimes get the feeling that Cox is going to pull the plug on it someday. Scott ----- Original Message ---- From: Richard P. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 3:45:24 PM Subject: Re: [CGUYS] video compression >From what I've seen, Cox is constantly dropping analog channel programming and moving that programming over to digital. At some point I figure the only thing they'll have left on analog will be 3 or 4 network channels. Richard P. > Drop channels? When have they ever really dropped a significant > portion of channels. The cable is already crowded. They need to shoe > horn more material into that limited bandwidth. Media General used to > use two lines to get all the channels out to Fairfax county prior to > the last rebuild and takeover by COX. > > Look at the satellite groups lots of people complain about the quality > of HDTV compared with the OTA signal. FIOS is the only one with > bandwidth to spare right now. > >> >> And cable/fios companies don't re-compress source material - why would >> they when they have no trouble sending hundreds of channels? They just >> drop a channel to make room. >> >> > ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
