Comcast Brings Cable TV Back From the Brink
Back when satellite TV first came out, the cable TV industry was faced with a real challenge coming from the fact that its subscribers who had been content with the eighty or so channels that most cable TV companies at the time could provide suddenly had the opportunity to switch over to satellite TV and get about three times as many channels. Since then, the cable TV industry has been struggling to catch up, but apparently Comcast took the emergence of satellite TV as a challenge to rise to. Now, after lots of hard work and technological innovations, Comcast has risen to the point where it can serve as a realistic alternative to satellite TV. In fact, Comcast is superior to satellite TV in many ways.
There are a number of improvements that Comcast made on the older cable TV technology and business model that it used to rely on. The first improvement that it made was the conversion of all of its programming to digital TV format. With digital TV, the TV programming is essentially converted into computer data before its transmitted over the cable to the homes of cable TV subscribers. Once all of that data makes it to those homes, it’s reassembled into a TV picture and sound by sophisticated digital receiver equipment.
This technology offers a number of advantages. The most obvious advantage of digital TV is that the digital signal is very easy to cleanse of any interference that creeps into the signal during transmission. Interference like this of course is minimal when data is transmitted over a cable, but there’s still enough to give a slightly fuzzy appearance to TV programming transmitted using the old fashioned analog signal. The ability to clean out interference results in a crystal clear picture that’s very apparent in digital TV. Another advantage of digital TV is that it allows a variety of information about each program to be transmitted along with that program. This meta-information typically includes a description of the program and content ratings. An on screen program guide can then present this information to the viewer so that he or she what the program is about, and it can be used by parental control software to grant or deny access to the program to children who are watching TV without adult supervision. Comcast is able to offer both of those features thanks to digital TV technology.
Although digital TV technology forms the basis for Comcast’s service, it doesn’t stop there. For example, another type of technology that Comcast is heavily invested in is HDTV. HDTV is kind of like the next step in digital TV, with a much more detailed and higher resolution picture, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and the same wide screen format of a commercial movie theater’s screen. Comcast offers an ever expanding line up of HDTV channels and programming.
Video on demand is another type of technology that Comcast is committed to. With video on demand, the viewer has access to a variety of different video clips that he or she can choose to access at will. Comcast uses this technology in its pay per view service and in extra features that can be added to a subscription.
Perhaps most importantly, Comcast has addressed the most prominent of those initial differences between cable TV and satellite TV: selection of channels. Comcast now offers over two hundred and seventy five channels, which officially makes it the rival of anything that satellite TV services can dish out.
With all of these features, Comcast has proven that cable TV will be a viable TV technology in the years and decades to come.
Watch the video related to cable tv companies
Everybody’s got to start somewhere! In the early 1980s, “Public Access” television was new. Cable TV companies were required to have at least one channel open to the public where they could present their views – or whatever they wanted – to the public. (”Wayne’s World” & Saturday Night Live used to spoof this.) By this time, I wanted to do a weekly video program. To get my foot in the door, I had to produce one of their existing live shows before I could do one of my own. I was assigned …
Help answer the question about cable tv companies
Are cable TV companies legally required to provide basic local channels at no charge?I just want to get ABC, FOX etc, but my local cable company is telling me it's $18 per month.
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I guess if it’s on the web it’s true? Someone on the web said they had dinner with Elvis yesterday!
bmanhour
Did NBC do a story on you as well? Vanderbilt University has a television news archive (w/ Abc, Cbs, & Nbc clips going back to ‘68). I was watching old news clips on there (a few months back)about cable tv. I swear that you were on there too. I remember seeing the multiple tvs and the story about the satellites. It won’t let me post the web address, but if you google “Vanderbilt University television news archive,” you’ll be able to see them.
That’s nothing. When I was 5, there was only 25-26 channels to choose from on my dial in ‘82.
The only reason they want your SSN is to do a credit check. I say don't give it out. You may then need to give a deposit or prepay in advance. But this is a better solution than letting them have this highly personal information. Really the only people who must know your SSN are your employer and SS administration, no one else has the right to bar service from you for not providing this information.
They could easily do it. The problem is that many of the channels charge the cable company per subscriber. By offering them in packages like that, the cable company can spread out the cost.
COX or QWEST
If you want extra channels and features then yes you need a digital box, if you just want regular TV then you can have just the coax wire from the wall to your TV.
The box will get you HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc….but it will also give you a better picture in most cases. With the box you can also enjoy on demand movies and free previews.
They have no obligation to provide any free service. From my experience you can use the existing cable as an antenna without paying anything. If not you have to get an external antenna, or pay the $18 per month to get good signal.
What I find really unusual about this video is that it features a clip of an ID for The Weather Channel (at 1:31), which didn’t launch until 1982, while even Walter announces himself that the newscast is from 10/31/78. Strange.
However, it was around the late 70s when weatherman John Coleman pitched the idea of the channel to Landmark Communications (TWCs parent), so maybe the ID here might of been an early one, maybe as part of a promo reel for cable companies before TWC officially launched?
This video came direct from the CBS evening news and was recorded by a very poor vhs recorder. Nothing was edited or added to this video.
36 channels.
You don't want to watch TV, it's just crap teen drama shows now
There are two types of signals traveling down most cables system lines. Analog and Digital.
Digital is then split further into Internet and digital TV. Both of these need a digital converter.
Cable modem for Internet and a digital cable box for Digital Cable TV. These two can be turned off by the cable company at will.
Now if you put an illegal cable TV converter box on your line, the cable company can trace it right up to your house / apartment.
If you have Internet, you may be able to connect the cable to your TV and get the basic analog signals (channels 2 – 75) without the cable company knowing it. That is if the cable company did not put a filter block in the line.
This block is a mechanical piece about an inch or two in length and is usually on at the pole. Although some times it is put in lower to the ground. Remove it, reconnect the cable and the analog signal will pass.
Note: Not all cable companies use the analog signal. some are 100% digital. Also a port block may require a special tool to remove it.
But since the analog signal is not traceable, try it.
Give it time. At a minimum, if you cannot already, you will soon be able to at least choose between your cable company and your telephone company for all of your access: TV, Internet and Telephone. Depending on where you live, this might be Comcast versus Verizon for example to carry these services. These can be or might be at least 2 choices for you, perhaps more with time.
I don't understand it…but I still don't like it.
I live in a small, SE Wisconsin area and the only cable I have access to is Charter. Is it right? I don't believe so. I don't know how all of that works…Ma Bell? Sounds like a monopoly on cable, to me…so there is no competion because the townships/ towns/villages/cities only let one company in?