Sidestepping A-to-D Convertors For Town Government's Cable TV? 539
jake-itguy writes "I am the IT guy for a small town municipality. Comcast called me the other day and told me I had to have a digital-to-analog converter for each TV in the municipality, as Comcast is turning off analog cable in September. I did a quick count, and we have 32 TVs across 6 buildings (22 being in the police and fire departments). Most of the TVs are hung on the walls. I told Comcast having a box for each TV was not acceptable and wanted a different solution. Comcast told me there was no other solution." Read on for more details of the situation, and to see if you can offer Jake any advice for distributing cable service within his Indiana town.
jake-itguy continues: "They told me they have been putting these boxes on every TV in each classroom in each school. I laughed when I heard that. I said, 'Do you know how much electricity is going to be needed for each box?' They didn't know the answer. I was bumped up to the next guy in the Comcast hierarchy, who said there was no other solution and I had to pay $3 per month for each box. Being a municipality, we are entitled to free expanded basic cable as a part of the franchise agreement back in 1982.I know there is a solution, as hospitals and hotels don't have little boxes next their TVs. Unfortunately I haven't found a specific answer to this problem so I am asking Slashdot. Is there a box that can be put in the basement of the town hall that will convert the Comcast signal into a regular digital signal? Most of the TVs in the town have digital tuners per last years a2d conversion of the airwaves. I would be willing to replace the few analog sets with new ones if there is a good solution for this. Each building's cable feed is fed from the town hall. We have a nice big 1-inch cable coming into the building with some splitters coming off the line. Each building gets a 1/2 inch cable. Is there a box that will convert the Comcast signal to analog for the schools? I am sure the schools don't have TVs with digital tuners."
A little box that doesn't use electricity... (Score:4, Funny)
and provides an alternative to Comcast digital cable?
Hmm, sounds like a book to me.
Re:Why haven't we heard about this? (Score:5, Funny)
way to confuse the government mandated OTA switch from analog to digital with Comcast's decision to turn off analog cable. You even managed to sound like a pompous, condescending ass while being completely wrong.
Re:Why haven't we heard about this? (Score:1, Funny)
You are using the terms "Comcast" and "donate". I understand those two terms on their own, especially where "donate" refers to giving some entity some product or service without immediate compensation, but I cannot in any way comprehend the context presented. Why are you putting the term "Comcast" anywhere near a not-negated form of the term "donate"? You are talking nonsense.
Re:Outlaw digital encryption (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Being ridiculous (Score:2, Funny)
Last year, to support CableCard / mCard / Tru2Way [the technology has been renamed several times] deployment, we tried to get a Panasonic Tru2Way television for our development lab.
The distributor refused, as the local Cable company [that would be us] did not support Tru2Way
Re:Outlaw digital encryption (Score:4, Funny)
Nice office youse have here. It'd be a real shame if something happened and all the police and firemen were too busy trying to get a signal on their TV to do anything about it...
More seriously, yes, it sounds like this at the least violates the spirit of the franchise agreement (and perhaps the letter as well). Might be time to reconsider.
Re:advice: (Score:5, Funny)
"There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now."
Comcast: That'll be $12 per month please.
Re:Why haven't we heard about this? (Score:3, Funny)
I read a funny post recently from a New Comcast subscriber.
Well it would have been funny if it had not been so sad.
Quoting from memory:
"They said they would take care of us when the Analog switched off. Just pay $10 a month and you'll get all your local stations with your old set. So I signed up. Great deal. Now less than a year later they are telling us we need to rent boxes for $5 per set, per month, if we want to keep getting our local stations. Thanks a lot Comsucks. Had I known that we would have bought the $40 converter boxes with those $40 coupons instead. Now it's too late."
My mom's retirement community... (Score:3, Funny)
They've tried hiding the old TV remotes in drawers but then the residents get mad and want to know who stole them.
Re:Haft inch (Score:1, Funny)
Eh, it's the typical "engineer inflation". I'm a software developer, but my official job title is "software engineer".
And janitors are "sanitation engineers".
Just deal with it, it isn't going away.