Hi John -I think you mis-read or mis-remembered something I posted since this is the second crack about my cable. I've posted numerous times here on the list that I have cable broadband (now on Cox/Gainesville) and take advantage of the minimal (sometimes negative) marginal premium to keep the lifeline basic cable package. I think it currently costs me about $3 / month and, with my own QAM tuners, allows access to most broadcast unencrypted digital & HD channels over cable.
Until a year or two ago I was actually a happy premium HD/PVR cable user. But then Comcast/Jacksonville had someone contact me with the notion I could not keep my PVR unless I upgraded to some large and more expensive package. So I dropped back to the Comcast basic package, which costs about a NEGATIVE $6-7 / month give a broadband subscription and the broadband discount you get for bundling even the basic cable.
My repeated questions about QAM result from the observation that, if you are going to use cable broadband anyway, basic QAM service with your own digital tuner (say, a MyHD like yours) is a deal that can't be beaten.
I've found the QAM HD network channels come in with fewer dropouts over cable than OTA, better for automatic time shifting without having to rotate my antenna.
So for the record, no, I am not stealing any cable, nor am I for some reason hiding the fact I subscribe to it. I just have only the amazingly cheap basic tier which happens to also include unencrypted QAM HD access, like most USA cable companies now. On Cox the premium digital channels are encrypted and I cannot receive them. I have never owned my own cable decrypter box or any of those programmable cards folks use to get pirated cable or satellite access.
I believe my own cable use is completely legal and the low cost of the package is somewhat because of the difficulty for the cable companies to offer broadband without the basic cable package being too easily available anyway. So they offered it legally bundled at a low price as part of the package. But I admit this last is only speculation on my part.
- Tom johnwillkie wrote:
For a guy who says he doesn't have cable, you sure are interested in QAM tuners. :-) Every device I've seen with 8-VSB tuners advertises QAM reception. I've seen one (RCA or Memorex) DVD recorder that advertised DTV input. It didn't look to be the best choice at that store. John Willkie -----Mensaje original----- De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En nombre de Tom Barry Enviado el: Thursday, July 12, 2007 6:04 PM Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Asunto: [opendtv] Re: Bob, where are the tunerless monitors?Haven't been there for awhile. Is Best Buy also labeling which have QAM tuners? And do they?- Tom----------------------------------------------------------------------You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
-- Tom Barry trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
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