Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are two different situations with some cable companies that might require the use of a converter box:
1. As eggalegga pointed out, many cable companies are moving more and more channels from their analog tier (for which no converter is needed) to their digital tier, usually to make room for more and more HD channels.
2. Some very small regional cable companies are not investing the money for necessary equipment to convert the new digital broadcast signals they receive into analog cable signals - instead they will simply pass thru the digital signal. Customers of those small systems will need to have converter boxes.
Note: These are cable converter boxes, not digital broadcast converters for over-the-air reception.
I called today and that is what someone finally told me is that Cartoon Network has been moved to the digital tier. Why they wouldn't tell me, I don't know. The woman told me over the weekend that I would have to convert to digital in June and have boxes on all the TVs but that is not true.
So they are taking away channels but not decreasing my bill. I pay $55.00 for analog basic cable with nothing extra plus I have their Internet. I refuse to give them anymore money only to get what I have already been receiving .
We have WOW cable. We have one box out in the carriage house. There is a splitter there with one line feeding to the house and one to the carraige house. The line that runs to the house feeds into an 8 pole splitter. The signal then goes to each TV. None of the televisions have their own box. We just use the tuner on the television to get different channels. We have some cable outlets that are not connected to a television, but we can move a tv into that area and connect it at any time.
I cannot be certain that our cable is digital. I think that it is, we pay quiet a lot for a package with high speed internet and cable (no premium channels), but I cannot remember with certainty that it is digital. I am not sure that they offer anything but digital.
I had heard that satellite companys offered satellite internet, but when I looked into it, they only had DSL internet over telephone lines. Since we have no telephone lines, that is not an option, besides we had DSL and it was terrible. WE are stuck with cable until some other practical internet option becomes available.
The only downside to satellite is you'll lose the signal in bad weather, so it's a good idea to have a weather radio for times like that. I live in a hurricane area so cable is even worse IMO, it would be out for weeks after a hurricane rather than a few hours.
The signal with my dish network actually holds up very well during bad weather.
i'm on the ga/fl line; same hurricane area as you.
dish just launched a new satellite too so my signal has been even more reliable in the rain (whereas i used to lose them on one particular bird).
If the bad weather is directly over me, my signal is fine. the only time it may go out for a second is when its off in the distance and thick clouds are blocking that part of the horizon.
i've got one of those weather radios also that is supposed to pick up TV audio broadcasts; which it did perfectly until the digital transition. i guess no one thought of that when deciding to switch over.
i wonder if anyone is making a radio that picks up the digital signals.
The signal with my dish network actually holds up very well during bad weather.
i'm on the ga/fl line; same hurricane area as you.
dish just launched a new satellite too so my signal has been even more reliable in the rain (whereas i used to lose them on one particular bird).
If the bad weather is directly over me, my signal is fine. the only time it may go out for a second is when its off in the distance and thick clouds are blocking that part of the horizon.
i've got one of those weather radios also that is supposed to pick up TV audio broadcasts; which it did perfectly until the digital transition. i guess no one thought of that when deciding to switch over.
i wonder if anyone is making a radio that picks up the digital signals.
Mine works okay in a normal storm, but if it's really bad (like tornado and hail weather) it will freeze up momentarily. I have a Radio Shack police scanner which has a weather function, so that's what I turn on when the satellite signal gets blocked. But yeah, I have noticed when the dark clouds are to the southwest that's when I'm most likely to lose the signal.
Ya know, thinking back to hurricane Ivan I remember my satellite stayed on right up until the power went out, and it was pretty bad at that point. Strange
But using a DVR for cable allows you to record one channel while watching another which you can't do with satellite.
Not true. We have 2 TVs with Direct TV and can record 2 shows at once on each set. We can then choose to watch something that has already been recorded from our "list" or watch one of the two show being recorded.
We've had Direct TV for over 7 years now. We can order on demand movies and shows,and we've never had a complaint about our service at all.
We moved once during this time and even moving with the DirectTV is easy.
I have had Direct Tv for just over 2 years and they are well above the rest espeically Comcast, here in Texas. I am not a fan of Dish, just b/c they don't have as many HD channels. Also with Direct tv, I have a HD DVR and can record 2 shows and watch a 3rd, cannot do that with most others DVR's
I have had Direct Tv for just over 2 years and they are well above the rest espeically Comcast, here in Texas. I am not a fan of Dish, just b/c they don't have as many HD channels. Also with Direct tv, I have a HD DVR and can record 2 shows and watch a 3rd, cannot do that with most others DVR's
I just looked on Directv's website; they have maybe two or three channels in HD that dish does not have (fuel HD, FX HD, I don't think i get MSG HD), but dish has a few that directv does not have.
I know we have travel channel HD, and almost all the HBO's in HD, C&I, WGN America and a couple of more.
dish has better DVR's than directv.
i'll have to count again, but a few weeks ago i checked and counted dish having a few more HD channels than directv because they just added a few more channels for us.
I just looked on Directv's website; they have maybe two or three channels in HD that dish does not have (fuel HD, FX HD, I don't think i get MSG HD), but dish has a few that directv does not have.
I know we have travel channel HD, and almost all the HBO's in HD, C&I, WGN America and a couple of more.
dish has better DVR's than directv.
i'll have to count again, but a few weeks ago i checked and counted dish having a few more HD channels than directv because they just added a few more channels for us.
It has been a few years since I had both dish and direct tv. But in 2006 or so, I had direct and dish within a couple years of each other. NOTHING BEATS A TIVO DVR which is what Direct tv uses. It is THE BEST.
I now have U-verse.. it uses a Motorola box. It is no where as reliable as direct. But it is the cheapest.
cheap-cheap-cheap
If you have to chose between direct and dish, direct gets my vote.
Oh and forget cable. We were unhappy (really my DH husband was unhappy) with U-verse and was going to switch to Comcast who advertise a similiar triple play package... then comes the installation charge and the FCC charges etc. Cable always have hidden charges.
We stuck with U-verse. For an extra $2 per month (that we were paying for ATT landline phone, and sbc global high speed internet) we added digital TV. For only $2 extra. Sorry I don't care how the service is... if I can watch tv 3/7 days... it is only an extra $2 per month for 180 digital channels. DH needs to go somewhere and sit down.
To those posters who questioned why Janipoo said this:
I think she meant she will need digital cable boxes and not converter boxes. Just trying to clarify.
Yeah, if the cable company is only broadcasting those channels in digital (scrambled) then you need a receiver box for each TV to tune/unscramble their signal. If you have a digital HDTV with ATSC/QAM tuner it will tune in the unscrambled signals only (local stations) but the scrambled ones will be blank (usually).
Just signed up for Dish, it will be installed next week. Comcast took another channel away this week. Who knows if anymore since we only notice the ones we watch.
Thanks for every body's input. I really hate change so I have to analyze everything.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
cheap-cheap-cheap 
