MythTV/Comcast going all digital TV in Cambridge [OT]

[shankar.viswan-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Shankar Viswanathan)]

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Bill Bogstad<bogstad-e+AXbWqSrlAAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> Got it now. ?They do provide the over the air as clear QAM to me now. ? They
> currently provide me about 45 channels as analog
> that are not over the air. ?Reading between the lines, these channels will
> probably go encrypted QAM for me in October.

This is exactly what RCN did -- they switched to all digital (called
the "analog crush") and encrypted all the non-broadcast channels. I
requested them to provide the "basic cable" channels as ClearQAM but
the guy on the phone did not know (or pretended not to know) the
difference between "digital" and "encrypted digital" and kept saying
that the FCC mandated this. Arguing with him was futile and a later
call to a different support person didn't go any better.

As a result, both my NTSC analog capture card and the QAM tuner in my
TV are useless. The basic converter box that they provided for free
doesn't have anything except an IR receiver (no serial, no USB, no
IEEE1394), and I haven't found the time to setup an IR blaster for my
mythtv yet.

-Shankar

PS: As a side note, those cable converter boxes run ridiculously hot.
My neighbour measured the power using his kill-a-watt meter and found
no difference whether it was on or off! Apparently, it only kills the
output audio & video if it's switched off using the remote (but still
left plugged in to the wall).