[Jeffhs]

It's a good thing I got a digital flat-screen TV when I did. I am not concerned about movie channels or pay-per-view (I can get movies on AMC and TCM on cable and have a subscription to Netflix, as well as a bunch of my own DVDs and videotapes), so I probably won't need a cable box. I had HBO for exactly one month in the mid-1980s, but discontinued it when I found out that they didn't have that many films to begin with; those they did have, they showed over and over again for a week at a time.

jr_tech's response to my last post set me straight on the FCC's position regarding the hard date for the discontinuation of analog cable service; turns out there is none, at least not as far as the FCC is concerned. I read the FCC article myself and found that it is not their decision to end analog cable service; rather, it is a business decision made by individual cable companies. As I have mentioned, Time Warner Cable in my area (northeastern Ohio/western Pennsylvania) has already converted their systems to digital, but for now they are still carrying analog cable channels such as CNN, ESPN, TBS, TNT, et al.

I have not yet read anything online or in mail communications from TW, however, indicating that the company has any plans to drop analog cable any time soon, although they have moved several channels from analog to digital already, so this may just be the tip of the iceberg; we'll just have to wait and see what happens from this point on.