RCN Cable

[evilcrayon.livejournal.com]

I pay for basic cable, no cable box. But I don't use rabbit ears and now I have no channels whatsoever. Does anyone know what is going on? I thought that the only people affected by the switch to digital in February were people who did not get their tv signal through a cable already.

Comments

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

according to the ads for comcast, nothing is supposed to happen. However, somebody posted earlier that RCN has gone all digital, so you may now be SOL.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

RCN has decided that they no longer care to service customers who want basic cable with no cable box. They sent out a postcard about it a couple weeks ago.

[ron_newman]

Someone else posted on the same subject earlier today.

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

There was a post about this earlier: http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1567458.html

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

Damn, you beat me while I was looking for the post!

[ron_newman]

Also, if somerville311 is correct in this statement, RCN is violating its agreement with the city by encrypting non-premium HD and digital channels.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Call them. They'll ship you a new box free. It's small. Then you call and activate it. Not a huge deal. There's no extra fee.

[evilcrayon.livejournal.com]

I did, but I don't have rabbit ears, so they all made them see like I was set. Even the website for getting the coupons only differentiates between cable and rabbit ears, not cable with a box vs cable with a cord vs rabbit ears.

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

I've seen a lot of ads that say something to the effect of "if you get cable already you don't need to worry." Which I guess was a bit misleading!

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

I do not use RCN, but chances are they are using Clear QAM. This is a non-encrypted digital standard. Television sets are not required to have a QAM tuner by law, but most have it anyway.

It allows for, among other things, HD broadcast of local channels. It is annoying if you have an older television without a QAM tuner, but does mean you can get nice HD reception without a cable box if you have a QAM HD television.

Looking at the thread you reference, I would not be surprised if RCN is violating its franchise with Somerville if they are encrypting local (non-premium) HD broadcasts.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, no, RCN is *NOT* using Clear QAM. They were, but back in May they started encrypting all their QAM, including all the local (non-premium) HD channels. I posted about this here (http://warlord-mit.livejournal.com/13759.html) back in June.

So if the franchise agreement is correct, yes, RCN *IS* violating it and has been since May.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

It's not an HD box. And it's only one per household, not one per TV.

[ron_newman]

Is there still going to be non-HD local TV after February 17?

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

HD is not the same thing as digital.

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

HD is not the same thing as digital. All stations have to switch to digital, but that isn't necessarily HD.

[ron_newman]

But after digital becomes mandatory, is there any reason for a station to bother continuing to send out a 4:3 signal as opposed to 16:9 ?

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

Standard digital can be done in 16:9 as well.

[ron_newman]

OK, now I'm thoroughly confused, as I thought "16:9" and "HD" were the same thing.

[ionicaq.livejournal.com]

Not according to what I've read, no. Standard digital can be either 4:3 or 16:9, HD only comes in 16:9. Again, this is just from what I've read.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

As the other post says, cable providers are free to switch to all-digital at whatever time is most convenient to them.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

HD by definition is 720 or 1080 and 16:9, but you can have digital SD (640x480i).

However my point was that RCN used to have clear QAM where all my HDTVs could get all the local HD stations using their QAM tuners. Then RCN encrypted most of their QAM (including all HD content) and is offering me less service at a higher cost. That's my beef.

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

16:9 is just the aspect ratio of the tv (ie the dimensions of the picture). HD vs. Standard actually refers to how many lines the tv draws across your screen to create the image. To be HD, it has to draw at least 720 lines per image (1080 is the other common HD standard), while "normal" American, non-HD televisions only 480 lines per image. In theory, you could make an HD television that's in 4:3, or a non-HD tv that was 16:9, but for some reason they don't. I don't know enough about the history of HD to know why the aspect ratio standard changed with increasing the definition.

[ron_newman]

I think 16:9 was chosen because it approximately matches the most common current movie format. (And 4:3 was chosen back in the 1940s because it matched the movie aspect ratio of that time.)

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did figure that, but I wasn't quite sure why the two changes happened simultaneously. I honestly wouldn't have expected the industry to be together enough to say, "hey, we're changing this one standard, so we might as well change this other one too while we're at it, that way people won't have to change their equipment twice." Which is what seems to be what actually happened.

[pzykotic.livejournal.com]

The FCC (and possibly franchise agreement) require that cable companies dropping analog channels continue to broadcast locals (over the air) channels in at least Standard Definition, which RCN is doing. There's no requirement for High Def from the FCC, you'd have to read Somerville's franchise agreement to see the language in it. ClearQAM is not automatically High Def (I'm sure you know it, but others might not)

[pzykotic.livejournal.com]

Why would you want to pay for basic cable and not even get all of the channels Basic offers? Plus you get the guide and on-demand with a free (tiny) cable box RCN is offering for people in Somerville. If you're savvy you can get two for free too (Go to the VFW near Davis during the day and get a free box from the RCN folks that set up camp there)

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I phoned RCN to ask, and they told me very clearly that the cable boxes are not free. Maybe the person I spoke with was wrong, but that's what they told me.

I have a dual tuner Tivo and if I get a box, it becomes a single tuner tivo. So I don't want a box if I don't have to.

Incidentally, I still seem to have the same service I had before; my channels have not gone away. Maybe they haven't gotten to my neighborhood yet?

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

Cable is not "broadcast".

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I phoned RCN and asked: "Does this mean that all customers are required to have a cable box from RCN?" and they replied "Yes."

Again, I don't know if this corresponds to reality, but this is what they claimed to me.

[pzykotic.livejournal.com]

It's apparently a two-day event, so your service will probably change tomorrow.

RCN's phone service *blows* - they told me the SD boxes would cost $5.99 each and none were free. I went to the Arlington office and they were very friendly and helpful. The official line is that if you don't have a box and have basic service, the first SD box is free. Every box after that isn't, but it's not $5.99. I think it's $2 or $3. Non-DVR HD Boxes are $9.99 and DVRs are $14.99 I believe (RIP OFFFF).

[mrboboto.livejournal.com]

There has been a LOT of misinformation in all of these posts. I'd recommend calling RCN directly, or speaking with someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

[avacon.livejournal.com]

Sadly, you may be better off switching to a TiVo HD as it has the QAM tuners that can pick up the digital channels (possibly requiring a cable card).
I also have two TiVos that are now not terribly useful.

[mcary219.livejournal.com]

I think that is a sign when the company isn't doing their part in informing us clearly.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

"16:9" is just the ratio of pixels. 16:9 is the default aspect ratio for shooting HD content (you'll notice it's the square of 4 and 3), but the two are really independent of each other.