Burn Notice

[susandennis]

I'm wondering if I might have given up my digital cable with too little thought.  But done is done.  I figure if I cross the cable company's palm with some $$, I can have it back.  Not yet.

Meanwhile I did find a very promising new series on the USA Network. Burn Notice is clever and fun.  The pilot episode has several more airings this week.

Comments

[jimcarson.livejournal.com]

I heard rumors that Comcast (my provider) is trying to coax (pun intended) people to migrating from analog to digital cable because the government is forcing the change as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. (Basically: the government wants to sell the frequency bands allocated to analog.) My coworker claims there's some kind of deal for $1/month to upgrade.

not exactly true

[henare.livejournal.com]

deficit reduction act of 2005 analysis (pdf document) (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7028/s1932conf.pdf)

title iii lets the fcc auction off rights to use certain rf spectrum that is to be vacated after the transition to digital television ... proceeds for those auctions to be allocated to all kinds of pork (one important bit of this which is, arguably, not pork: subsidized digital tv tuner boxes for consumers).

that spectrum doesn't become available for ... maybe five years ... and i'm not sure there is any measurable effect on cable tv companies.

[susandennis]

You and your co worker are right. The Comcast lady told me that it is expected by the end of 2009, Comcast will require digital boxs for everyone.

AND she said I could keep the box for $1 a month. Extra channels would cost more but the box would be $1.

My coax comes out of the wall and is then is split 8 ways to Sunday to accommodate the three TiVo's plus one line goes right into the TV. The Digital Box gave me a level of complexity that was a problem plus another split.

Comcast and TiVo just inked a deal that could end up with Comcast DVR (which also act as a digital box) using TiVo software so that could be the long term answer...