[BC] OTA TV makes a big jump.

[Robert Meuser]

That is a good description of cable in the 70s and maybe part of the 80s 
but things have changed a long time ago. Some programs are redundantly 
delivered as analog NTSC to meet FCC requirement and most of the rest on 
QAM. Elaborate filtering and jamming is long gone as they are too labor 
intensive.

  Cable companies put things in the clear for various reasons while the 
rest is encrypted. I doubt there are any TVs with digital tuners from 
the last 7 years that can not receive clear QAM. That said, all of the 
the above is on the verge of becoming a relic as the Industry is moving 
to VOIP. One half of one 6 MHz channel per IP address can deliver 
anything a TV viewer could need. 2K and 3D will need a full channel. 
With fiber distribution that is about 150 subscribers per node. The 
biggest problem facing the cable industry is the cost of replacing the 
vast number of cable boxes to support new technology. It is a very big 
economic restraint.

On 6/20/12 10:17 PM, Broadcast List USER wrote:
> That is how it was in the analog days too.  You are paying for a
> number of channels, not how they are delivered.
>
> Back in the all analog days, they would put a low-pass filter into
> your drop if you got basic, and a different one for extended-basic.
> Then, there were a few ways of blocking or allowing HBO, etc.  Either
> there was an interfering signal in the HBO... feed, and they notched
> it our, or they would notch out HBO.  Then came the various analog
> scrambling boxes, and the war continued, because as the cable
> companies developed different filtering or scrambling techniques, the
> "let's get free cable" folks came up with the bypass for that "problem."
>
> Very soon all the cable companies will make everything QAM, but the
> basic channels will remain Clear QAM.  Eventually, everyone will need
> at least a DTA to receive anything.  I think the date that this is to
> be allowed just passed, or it is next month.
>