http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/ Engadget HD Comments for Comcast begins digital transition in Chicago http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/
With digital delivery (256QAM modulation), every SD channel takes the equivalent of 0.6MHz bandwidth -- one-tenth as much. A cable system with 60 digital channels is using less than 5% of its capacity.

With digital delivery (256QAM modulation), a 1920x1080i HD channel supplied with full ATSC bandwidth (i.e. maximum quality) will consume the equivalent of 3MHz, while a 720p60 HD channel will consume the equivalent of 2MHz. Full 1080p60 channels -- which don't exist yet outside of the lab -- consume up to 6MHz. At DirecTV's "HDTV Lite" quality levels, you can reduce that by 30-50%.

That's right, the 860MHz cable system in Chicago could offer 430+ 720p60 HDTV channels, 285+ 1080i HDTV channels, 143 1080p60 HDTV channels, or some mix of the three, at full quality...if they were to get rid of all other services. I believe Comcast Chicago is keeping ~20 local channels in analog on their system, so those numbers are reduced by about 15%.

In addition to providing superior efficiency, digital delivery also eliminates picture defects associated with analog transmission, such as excess picture noise, ghosting, and snow. Alll that extra bandwidth can be used for virtually an unlimited number of new SD channels, dozens of new full HDTV channels (none of that "HDTV Lite" crap), as well as HDTV VOD and faster Internet. Said a different way, digital delivery provides the consumer with improved service and more choice.

All this comes at the expense of a set-top box, which many cable companies now include (no extra cost) with a cable subscription. The rub is that some cable providers want you to pay for extra boxes for other TVs. I don't know if that is the case with Comcast Chicago. Ideally, a cable provider would include STBs to support a reasonable numbers of TVs in a household at no extra cost, and if they can't do that, at least decrypt the cable channels in the "digital basic" tier so they are receivable with the built-in digital cable (QAM) tuners found on virtually all new TVs.

In a year or two, this will be a moot point with new TVs. CableCard provides displays with the means to decrypt all cable channels, but most manufacturers don't incorporate it because of cost and usability concerns. Current CableCard implementations -- which use unidirectional OpenCable receivers -- cannot access guide information, interactive services, VOD, or channels delivered using Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology. That will all change next year.

Beginning in mid-2008, you will see televisions start to implement bidirectional digital tuners with OCAP in their TVs. With these TVs, you will simply plug the access card (CableCard) into the back of your display, and it will provide you full access to every channel and service you get with a set-top box. You will get the program guide with the same interface you get on the set-top box. By 2010, they probably won't even sell >$1000 TVs without this functionality.]]>Apr 7th 2007 10:04AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/Apr 7th 2007 11:48AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/>> All this comes at the expense of a set-top box ]]>Apr 7th 2007 12:05PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/
Looks like I'll be calling Comcast to get more info.]]>Apr 7th 2007 12:42PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/
As a chicagoan, the first question that comes to mind is "But it is good for MythTV?" I just got a PCHDTV-3000 PCI card in the mail and connected it with a $20 internal antenna from radioshack to see if I can get all of the HD channels that I am currently receiving from firewire. (It basically works, but I don't have the processing power/HD space to really test the HD feeds.)

Specifically, I wonder how I will record Comedy Central and Food Network? If I have to setup an IR transmitter to change the channel on my STB and encode from S-video, is it worthwhile even keeping cable at all; instead, watching The Daily Show/Colbert Report online for free and buying DVDs of Good Eats. I'm sure there's other things on cable I might want to watch, but if I cancel I won't know what I'm missing (unless its something like This American Life on Showtime which I wouldn't plan on recording on MythTV anyhow.)

In my part of Chicago there is no competition for Comcast, thus they have a $25 service which provides jack shit and a minimum of $51 to provide what I would consider to be basic cable. You have to spend something like $73 plus $7 for a HD cable box to get any HD programming that's not available over the air. At this point I'm just sick of comcast and its monopolistic power. Notice in the original article (which seems to have disappeared from chicagotribune.com) that Comcast didn't justify the transition by bringing up the terrestrial digital transition. Thus, the forecast for MythTV looks dim, despite what some lawmakers tried to do with their stipulation that cable providers provide firewire outputs. What we need is to stipulate that cable providers must offer all non-premium content over ATSC, without requiring a cablecard.]]>Apr 7th 2007 2:09PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/
But the FCC only requires the broadcast channels be unecrypted and in most areas, all the rest of the digital channels are encrypted, even though the analog equivalents are not. While this might make sense when the cable co charges extra for "digital" cable, when basic becomes digital we all hope this will change.

The only way to know what QAM channels are in the clear for sure is to do a channel scan and see what shows up, in some forums users share their results, so it may be worth looking into before you buy a QAM tuner, especially if you already have a ATSC tuner and can't get any channels in addition to what you already get OTA.]]>Apr 7th 2007 3:05PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/Apr 7th 2007 3:11PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/
http://www.suntimes.com/business/330445,CST-FIN-cable06.article

Schaefer said setting up the new cable boxes is simple, just switching three to six wires.

"It can be done in a couple minutes," he said. "They don't even have to set up the clock. The satellite will do that for them."

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So Comcast is trying to make the transition understandable by telling people that your time will be set by a satellite? Is this even true? Don't they have time servers at their distribution points? As someone who isn't intimately acquainted with the cable distribution system this is just confusing.]]>Apr 7th 2007 3:22PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/Apr 7th 2007 3:18PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/Apr 7th 2007 3:52PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/
I'm surprised that there isn't more objection to this. In addition to 2 HD capable recievers, I have 5 analog TVs (4 and a PC based card) which happily receive 'basic' cable (locals + CNN etc.). I would like to replace all of them with QAM capable equivalents.

However, since they are in locations where I can't or don't want to use a cable box, if I replace them - they are all restricted to 'limited' cable - even though I am a 'premium' account and pay for 'digital' and all the movie channels.

So, my options are now:

1. Pay more money & use a cable box - which I don't want.
2. Wait several years for Cable Card or OCAP capable sets to reach current price points.

Well, if a set top box is required, Comcast has now provided other alternatives. Fios is in my area and there are satellites overhead....]]>Apr 7th 2007 10:10PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/Feb 7th 2008 11:35AM