[Jeffhs]

I received a notice in my mail today from Time Warner Cable (my cable provider) to the effect that several channels are being moved from expanded basic to one of the digital tiers of service. This is the beginning of an effort by TW to move most programming, except broadcast channels, to digital. Before long, most if not all programming now seen on analog channels will be encrypted (QAM) and, therefore, will no longer be available on standard TVs without a cable box. Some cable operators, such as Comcast (which is in the process of merging with Time Warner), have already moved all of their programming to digital tiers of service, requiring every Comcast cable subscriber to use a box ahead of their set if they are to receive anything on cable.

The timetable for the start of the realignment process is as follows (info is from the letter I received):


May 6, 2014 or earlier: EWTN, WGN America (15), CSPAN (16), Golf Channel(29), VH1 Classic (70)

On or before May 28, 2014: WRLM (2), WDLI (17), WGGN (21), and WVPX (23) (ION)


Note that these channels will still be available if you have a flat screen TV with a QAM tuner. Note also that public, educational and government (PEG) channels, the availability of which varies by area, will still be viewable on flat TVs with QAM tuners.

QAM channels may be distinguished from standard TV channels by the channel number which appears on your TV's info box, on most sets appearing in the upper right corner of the screen; e. g., on TW's systems in the northeastern Ohio area, channel 12 will appear as channel 96.12, channel 20 will appear as 96.20, and so on.

I believe Time Warner is already providing cable boxes for new installations, regardless of whether the subscriber has a standard (CRT) television or a flat screen one. These boxes will, I also believe, have only HDMI outputs, which means they can be connected only to flat screens with one or more HDMI ports (most FS TVs have at least two). If this is indeed the case, I cannot help wondering how owners of older sets with only coax or 300-ohm antenna connectors will be connected to the service, as there are no other types of RF input connections on the newer boxes. The only thing I can come up with is that an adaptor (HDMI to coaxial) will be used in these cases, but since most viewers have flat screens these days I don't think there will be much, if any, need for such adaptors.