What comcast digital adapter can I buy?

[rpritchie]

As many of you know late last year Comcast went all digital. I kept the 15-30 Comcast Basic Cable channels, (local broadcast TV stations, plus local government, education and public access channels) but I lost all Expanded Basic channels, like Disney, CNN, Lifetime and 30 to 50 others.

My question is, is there a cable box I can buy, say on ebay, that will get me these channels again?

Thanks.

 

[CoreyR]

I have NO "digital cable boxes" so I just lose channels if i choose not to pay them extra rent every month.

 

[jssbbb]

Yes they are giving a limited amount free. If you need more, they whack you a monthly fee. I have 7 connections now. They will give me 3 connections "free" , I have to rent the rest, that means they are raising my cable bill without it looking like a price increase. They just had a big increase. Now they want more.

Well that does not work if you have a large family and more than 3 TV's and is this offer for new customers only or for your upgrade? How much will it be after ther "promotional period"; they used to run promo's for a year now there all 90 days or six months!

 

[jssbbb]

A cc rep told me u could use motorola, PACE, or Thomson DTA's that are compatible ;but couldn't wouldn't tell me where to buy same? Does anybody know where ?

 

[jssbbb]

I have NO "digital cable boxes" so I just lose channels if i choose not to pay them extra rent every month.

So are you paying for a cc subscription? or using converter box hooked to antenna?

 

[melinda168]

There's another surprise too. Once you install these free adapters (aka DTAs), you won't be able to receive any channels in HD unless you rent a digital box. So the adapter will give you the expanded basic channels back, but it will degrade your experience of local channels that broadcast in HD. Essentially, the DTA converts your HD TV to a conventional picture TV unless you pay Comcast for a box.

Not to mention that the DTA has its own remote control, so you also lose any of the features you get from the manufacturer-provided remote.

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can i buy? and will comcast activate a cable box? a digital cable box with on demand, not those free dta's ? I can buy a cable modem...but can i buy a cable box in the same manner? thank u

 

[karthal]

I only pay for internet, not cable or phone. After the switch I was pissed when my "free channels" vanished. But after rescanning available channels, my TV picked up a ton of new channels I didn't have before. I actually got a wider selection via comcast, with just the built in digital tuner in my TV.

Basically from 62.2 to 106.1, with a few coming before 62, I am getting about 25 unique channels(several repeat with no quality difference)

I am now getting free channels I didn't get before the switch, and some channels I couldn't pick up locally due to bad signals. So for me the comcast change was not all bad. It just took me playing around for the last few hours to realize they were there.

 

[davethecaveman]

Actually Comcast has NO competition, the government did not force Comcast to have to share their infrastructure with other companys like they did with the phone companies. Satallite is a different technology and not direct competition.

Comcast tells you they are giving you "AN Enhancement" when actually all they are doing is getting extra money for boxes that are not needed on the newer digital TV's that have ATSC and QAM tuners. They scramble the signal so only their boxes can decode the programming. To sum it up:

Digital Enhancement

Customer gets: Nothing, has to remove wall tv's to install boxes, looses the full functionality of the TV's remote. Looses ease of hookup, cable distribution systems are now useless.

Comcast gets: 1. Free extra bandwith by removing analog programming, 2. Increased revenue for the rental of all those cable boxes. 3. Since these boxes are IP addressable they now know what you watch, how long you watch and can sell this info back to the networks. 4. The only game in town, you MUST get your equipment from Comcast and you will pay for every hookup.

Bottom line: Comcast wins on all counts and the customer gets screwed.

 

[davethecaveman]

Actually Comcast has NO competition, the government did not force Comcast to have to share their infrastructure with other companys like they did with the phone companies. Satallite is a different technology and not direct competition.

Comcast tells you they are giving you "AN Enhancement" when actually all they are doing is getting extra money for boxes that are not needed on the newer digital TV's that have ATSC and QAM tuners. They scramble the signal so only their boxes can decode the programming. To sum it up:

Digital Enhancement

Customer gets: Nothing, has to remove wall tv's to install boxes, looses the full functionality of the TV's remote. Looses ease of hookup, cable distribution systems are now useless.

Comcast gets: 1. Free extra bandwith by removing analog programming, 2. Increased revenue for the rental of all those cable boxes. 3. Since these boxes are IP addressable they now know what you watch, how long you watch and can sell this info back to the networks. 4. The only game in town, you MUST get your equipment from Comcast and you will pay for every hookup.

Bottom line: Comcast wins on all counts and the customer gets screwed.

I was tired of getting screwed, so I ditched Comcast and ATT went to Best Buy and bought me a $100 outdoor HD antenna. Hooked up my Sony HD tv and we get 26 FREE stations plus netflix. Miss ESPN but what the heck. My CLEAR wireless internet works real well. I can live with this.