We have had basic cable for about 20 years. Without cable we could only get 1 station (sometimes), and that would be very snowy. We only have basic cable for 2 reasons; we don't watch that much TV, so don't need more channels or any of the movie channels, and I didn't want a "box".
Well, Comcast has decided to all but force us to get a box. They are moving all of their content above Channel 30 to digital. That includes the channels we watch (or have the TV tuned to) the most: ESPN, The Weather Channel, Spike, and NESN. We would be in better shape losing the channels below 30 - of those we only really watch 9 (for the local news) and FOX. Mind you, I don't have the option to pay less and get less channels - it is pay the same price and get less channels. Or, put another way, I need to get cable boxes in order to get everything we are paying for.
Anyway, although most of the changes aren't happening until next April, there are a couple of things happening sooner. So, with their offer to give us 1 free cable box and up to 2 DTA (Digital Transcribing Adapters) I signed up to get the boxes: a cable box for our main TV and a DTA for the TV in the workout room (not that we use that for anything besides watching workout tapes and DVDs, but you never know).
Thursday the items arrived on the doorstep. I won't bore you with the description of the poor packaging, but I took pictures before opening anything so I could prove it wasn't our fault if the devices didn't work.
Friday when I got home from work, I set up the DTA for the TV in the workout room. That was a minimum of fuss since nothing was hooked to the TV anyway. Next I moved the TV and Stereo cabinet so I could back to the nest of wiring and attempt the hook up. For those of you that have forgotten, or never known, here is what I moved:
Stereo cabinet (yes, the bootm shelf is filled with albums) and TV - these stand about 4.5 feet high and the cabinet is solid wood (not oak thank goodness).
So, after studying the wiring for a while (WS had put this all together - and there is another cabinet that holds 3 other pieces of equipment - so it isn't pretty back there), I unhooked everything that had to do with the TV, DVD/VCR combo and the seperate VCR that was on the bottom shelf below the TV (obviously this is an "after" photo).
WS got home during this process and I don't know whether he was more amused or more horrified that I had delved into something of this magnitude and of which he had always been in charge of. After getting the system unhooked, I removed the VCR and placed the CAble box in its place (it was that big). After about 30 minutes, I had the DVD/VCR and TV wooked up to the cable box.
That was the easy part. Next, I had to call Comcast and have them activate the boxes (the direction warn that this can take up to 45 minutes). So, I call them up and after giving my phone number to the automatic system, am directed to an associate who promptly asks for my phone number. Then, I have to give my name and address. After 45 minutes of questions (actually, about 35 minutes I was on hold), the DTA is working but the main cable box is not. Naturally, because I don't care about the DTA working - I care about the living room TV having cable!
So, the associate says she is going to transfer me to a technician. Instead, she transfers me right back to where I started from. I have to give the automated service my phone number, then I got someone asking me if I needed to set up my digital box (hard to tell, I could hardly hear her). Anyway, after literally shouting my phone #, name and address into the phone (she couldn't hear me either), I had to get across that I had already been thru the setup process, it had failed, and I was supposed to have been forwarded to a technical person.
She forwards me and I actually get a live person (still hard to hear) and she asks for my phone number, name, address and social security number. Wait - you guys don't have that. Oh, yeah, we don't have that listed here (WTF would they have SS numbers?). Anyway, after another 30 minutes spent on the phone, she gives up and arranges a visit by a tech.
Saturday, just before 3, the tech arrived. He asked if I was having problems with my DTA. Um, no, the DTA works fine, it is the cable box.
He consults his handheld device and says, "Well, that's the problem, you only have a DTA assigned to your account."
Well, that certainly is funny since the paperwork they sent me had the serial numbers of both the DTA and Cable Bos, and I had given the serial numbers to everyone I had talked to on the phonr.
So then we turn it on, he sees a big orange "0" displayed on the box and says, "Oh, this is easy, we'll have this resolved in no time." Yep, what was so easy, was that big orange 0 indicated that it wasn't registered to Comcast (don't get me started on how many times I told the reps on the phone that there was no green light - just a big orange 0). After discussing the situation on the phone with base camp, he said he was going to replace the unit because they had no idea where that unit had come from. Their system didn't recognize the serial number and it had never been scanned into or out of the warehouse. How they got the number on the paperwork was a mystery to him.
He got me a new box from his van - and this box is about 6" x 8" (it is the small lump on top of the DVD/VCR in the picture). He explained that the big unit was something that was several years old and he couldn't believe that the one I got was in such pristine condition. after hook up, we had a picture immediatly.
After he left, I started experimenting. See everything has to run thru the cablebox and remote, so I was concerned that the VCR wouldn't record correctly. Sure enough, it will only record what is showing on the TV and the TV has to be on. So, I split off the cable before the cable box and have the regular cable coming into the VCR. This means that I can only record shows that are not digital - at this point we have one show on FX that we record. That will still be available until April, then we will basically only be able to record local stations and FOX.
I guess this is their way of trying to force us into a higher cost package - one that gets a DVR or On Demand or something. Huh - good luck to them, there is nothing that I like to watch that much!
I'm sure it wasn't funny to you, but you have me rolling on the floor that you are having as much trouble with your techies as I'm having with mine. BTW: the techie who promised to call me last Wednesday has not yet; so, I still have the plastic part instead of the wiring assembly that was promised. Competence is hard to find, isn't it? Sorry for your travails.
Posted by: Cop Car | October 25, 2009 at 08:52 AM
and so it goes with the still-in-progress digital transition.
The cable companies are required to carry analog signals for the stations covering your local area - meaning the Boston market (that includes WMUR). But they are required to do that for no more than another two or three years. Some, like ComCast, will try to transition earlier because they are in effect carrying the local channels twice - digital AND analog. They want to recover the spectrum being taken up by the analog signals and this is one way of doing that.
Posted by: DCE | October 25, 2009 at 02:42 PM
DCE - I know that everything isn't cable's fault, but I wish I could do painlessly (and for the same relative cost) what I have always done. Since we go to bed so early, we won't see any shows except for CSI (local channel) because I refuse to pay more money for something that is not really useful except for seeing the weather and the news (which I can get of the internet anyway).
Posted by: bogie | October 31, 2009 at 06:42 AM