How much longer will analog cable hang on

[radiotvnut]

I don't see cable boxes going away; rather, I see the NTSC RF output connector going away from future boxes. As long as the cable company is sending out it's signal as "non-clear", there will be a need for some sort of decoder between the cable line and the TV.

And, yes, the current digital cable boxes must be activated. When we got our boxes and connected them, there was a message on the screen with instructions to call a phone number. When the number was called, I was directed to an automated system (no surprise). After entering the serial numbers of the boxes and after the system pulled up my account, a signal was sent down the line to activate the boxes and enable them to receive the level of service that I was paying for. I suspect the new way of doing it will prevent a lot of cable theft. In the old days, a crook could climb the pole, connect his cable, and he was in business (until they caught up with him). Back then, cable boxes could be purchased at many electronics stores and they required no sort of activation.

The way they used to prevent viewing of certain channels was to install a trap in the line. Many times, I've heard of people bypassing the trap and were able to watch the premium channels. Someone told me that they were once able to watch a PPV movie by fine tuning one TV to receive the sound and fine tuning another TV to view the picture. I've also heard of people, back in the early days of cable, wrapping a piece of aluminum foil around the cable and sliding the foil up and down the cable in order to receive HBO. At one point, I remember some of the premium channels could be clearly heard; but, the picture would be scrambled. IIRC, HBO was the only premium channel in my area that had both the picture and sound scrambled.

Back in the late '80's, someone was bragging to me about how he climbed the pole in the middle of the night, connected his cable, managed to get an "under the table" cable descrambler box, and was able to watch everything the cable company offered (for free). I warned him that they'd eventually catch up to him; and, they did. After that, I think he realized that he should have just gone ahead and paid for the service.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I don't see cable boxes going away; rather, I see the NTSC RF output connector going away from future boxes. As long as the cable company is sending out it's signal as "non-clear", there will be a need for some sort of decoder between the cable line and the TV.

What exactly is the difference between clear and non-clear QAM cable TV signals? My flat-screen TV gets 50 digital cable channels and 64 analog ones without a cable box; I guess the 50 digital channels I'm getting must be clear QAM.

BTW, if tomorrow's cable boxes will be made without RF output ports to connect to the antenna input of the television, how on earth would one connect such a box to the set, or would the box be physically connected to the television at all? I'm thinking that if the RF connector is done away with, the box will get its signal input either wirelessly or through a hard-wired Internet connection, but that still leaves the question of how the box would connect to the TV. I am not presently aware of any way to wirelessly connect a television set to today's cable or satellite services, particularly the former.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

What exactly is the difference between clear and non-clear QAM cable TV signals? My flat-screen TV gets 50 digital cable channels and 64 analog ones without a cable box; I guess the 50 digital channels I'm getting must be clear QAM.

YES! the 50 or so digital channels that you are seeing are indeed "clear QAM" ... the hundreds of digital channels that you are not seeing are "scrambled QAM". This Wikipedia quote perhaps explains it better than I can:

In North American digital video, a QAM tuner is a device present in some digital televisions and similar devices which enables direct reception of digital cable channels without the use of a set-top box. An integrated QAM tuner allows the free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent "in the clear" by cable providers, usually local broadcast stations, cable radio channels, or in the case of providers which have transitioned to do so, Public-access television cable TV channels. Which channels are scrambled varies greatly from location to location and can change over time; the majority of digital channels are scrambled because the providers consider them to be extra-cost options and not part of the "basic cable" package.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_%28television%29

BTW, In general QAM is the only modulation scheme used on cable for digital channels (scrambled or not) ... ATSC is used for Over The Air transmission. ATSC is more robust for OTA, while QAM allows more channels in a given bandwidth, which cable providers like.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

BTW, if tomorrow's cable boxes will be made without RF output ports to connect to the antenna input of the television, how on earth would one connect such a box to the set, or would the box be physically connected to the television at all? I'm thinking that if the RF connector is done away with, the box will get its signal input either wirelessly or through a hard-wired Internet connection, but that still leaves the question of how the box would connect to the TV. I am not presently aware of any way to wirelessly connect a television set to today's cable or satellite services, particularly the former.

Most modern sets have a variety of inputs that provide higher quality viewing than the old fashioned ch3/4 NTSC connection. In order of increasing quality; Composite Video, Component Video and HDMI inputs are usually provided . Check the back of your set... should be lots of inputs.

ADD: WIFI TVs do exist for wireless connection to the internet and other hosts, such as this example:

http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-XVT323SV...9861357&sr=8-2

Not affiliated,
jr

[Ed in Tx]

Something here that may shed some light on the subject...

http://broadcastengineering.com/RF/D...-FCC-02162012/