Com cast Digital Cable Question.?

Question

I am in Cambridge, MA( next to Boston) I don't watch TV very much, My housemate was paying the Sports package with Digital for $80 a month with Digital Box, remote, DVR. I have a cable connection in another room with didn't go through the digital box, and it still come out digital pictures. Now, he is moving out and my girlfriend moved in and she wanted to watch HBO in digital, the digital package start with $50 plus HBO $20 But the basic service only cost $35 a month. Will I go basic and still get digital? I heard December , every thing will go digital?

Answer 1

Your asking a lot of questions, but let me try to simplify.

First, the Digital TV in 2009 has NOTHING to do with cable, although comcast marketing wants you to think it does so they can force higher packages down to the customer.  I think comcast goes beyond fraudulent in some of their statements.

Second, if you hook a cable straight to a tv (that doesn't have a QAM tuner but does have an NTSC tuner, this is almost all tv's older than a year and most newer tv's) you will get all channels below 80 without a problem, you won't get anything above 80.  This is all analog (and again, will continue to work past 2009).

A tv with a QAM tuner may get some of the higher channels, some of these tv's will also have a cablecard slot, and if you get the cablecard from comcast, you will get the extra encrypted channels too (like HBO or your extra sports channels, or any other extra channel packages, assuming your paying for it).  The cablecard replaces the need for the set top box.

If you want PPV or OnDemand you almost certainly have to get a set top box (cable box) from comcast.  This is not currently supported with most cablecard based receivers that are built into TV's or DVR's.

Make sense?