I really hope they do away with analog cable and have digital simulcasts of the analog channels. Ive seen devices that hook into the cable on the outside of the house and converts to digital before it ever enters the house and then you can still use all the old tv's to tune analog channels but they would then be digital. That would free up room for alot of channels. I dont remember the specifics but I want to say a hdtv station takes as much space as 2 or 3 analog channels (and my local cable co has 70 analog channels.... so thats 15-20 HD channels after putting up the digital versions).
My cable co already has 12 HD channels online now and said they have room for ~20 more right now. So I really dont think they are in that much trouble atm. Granted if/when sat companies get to 50+ HD NATIONAL channels there will be a problem.
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I really hope they do away with analog cable and have digital simulcasts of the analog channels. Ive seen devices that hook into the cable on the outside of the house and converts to digital before it ever enters the house and then you can still use all the old tv's to tune analog channels but they would then be digital. That would free up room for alot of channels. I dont remember the specifics but I want to say a hdtv station takes as much space as 2 or 3 analog channels (and my local cable co has 70 analog channels.... so thats 15-20 HD channels after putting up the digital versions).
My cable co already has 12 HD channels online now and said they have room for ~20 more right now. So I really dont think they are in that much trouble atm. Granted if/when sat companies get to 50+ HD NATIONAL channels there will be a problem.