The imminent demise of J's Analog Cable ST

[miahjj]

Received a letter from comcrap this week informing me that as of January, basic (analog) cable is going the way of the dodo.

They say that i will need to begin renting a digital set-top box if i want to continue receiving programming. (Of course, if i choose not to get the set-top box, i'm sure they'll continue to charge me for the channels i will no longer be receiving!)

So, at some point in the near future, J's Analog Cable ST will be retired. I do intend to order the cable-box, though, so that I can continue streaming on the new "J's Digital Cable ST"! Once I have the new configuration up and running, I will post the URL here.

[DEAD_MAN_WALKING]

Received a letter from comcrap this week informing me that as of January, basic (analog) cable is going the way of the dodo.

They say that i will need to begin renting a digital set-top box if i want to continue receiving programming. (Of course, if i choose not to get the set-top box, i'm sure they'll continue to charge me for the channels i will no longer be receiving!)

So, at some point in the near future, J's Analog Cable ST will be retired. I do intend to order the cable-box, though, so that I can continue streaming on the new "J's Digital Cable ST"! Once I have the new configuration up and running, I will post the URL here.

Sign of the times mate.

The whole analog signal here in the northeast of England gets turned of for good this month so everyone needs a digital settop box.

Good luck with the new digital channel mate...

[miahjj]

Sign of the times mate.
The whole analog signal here in the northeast of England gets turned of for good this month so everyone needs a digital settop box..

yeah, i know... here in the states, congress outlawed analog TV for over-the-air starting in 2009. however, comcrap ran ads all that summer promising that if you got cable, you wouldn't have to worry about the digital transition... then, two months after the analog OTA went dark, cable started dropping channels from their analog line-up--starting with ESPN. once they dropped all the sports channels, we were basically left with just our local channels, CBC, and a bunch of shopping and christian channels... (not that i'll get back ESPN when i get the digital box: they also took the opportunity to move ESPN and the other sports channels off the "basic" line-up, and bump them up to the second-tier of "premium" service. My cable bill would quadruple just to get ESPN and one other sports channel!)

[Redbullsnation]

kinda sucks yes?? Doesn't comcast give you one or two of those small DTA boxes for free?? You can hook the DTA box with your tv tuner card and stream like that. Don't know if your bill will quadruple if you get it...

[miahjj]

some testing in preparation for the switch to digital cable: i will have this channel up and running all night/day. feed back appreciated.

[tottenham28]

some testing in preparation for the switch to digital cable: i will have this channel up and running all night/day. feed back appreciated.

I had it on for about ten minutes or so, ran smooth throughout and no problems at all.

[TheHurtLocker873]

I had it on for about ten minutes or so, ran smooth throughout and no problems at all.

Same here.

Ran fine and fluent for the 5 mins or so I had it on.

[miahjj]

well, it finally happened: sometime this week, comcrap finally killed the analog cable signal. i STreamed a couple NHL games last saturday on J's Analog Cable, but when i checked it tonight, i see a message that reads: "If you can see this message, then your TV is not ready for comcast's digital enhancements. To receive your new equipment, call 1-800-comcast."

so that's the end--will install the new digital cable box this evening, and should have the new J's Digital Cable ST up and running for NHL tomorrow night. I'll post the new url here first.

[miahjj]

ok, digital cable box now installed: seems to be working tolerably well...

url for new channel: J's Digital Cable ST

stream is up now and will remain so through tomorrow night's NHL double-header. feedback welcome.

[Rokec]

feed back appreciated.

Works fine foe me, buffers from 73-84%, no problem with pic & sound synchronization.

*One more suggestion from my viewpoint (no offense intended): I think that J's STereo Feed settings are better than -J's Digital Cable ST I get better quality from stereo one

[miahjj]

...*One more suggestion from my viewpoint (no offense intended): I think that J's STereo Feed settings are better than -J's Digital Cable ST I get better quality from stereo one

well, this is due to the fact that the STereo Feed is encoded by my main PC with twin dual-cores running @ 3 GHz. Until just a couple days ago, the PC used to encode the Digital Cable ST was an old 1.8 GHz single-core AMD. i've since upped that to a 2005-era 2.5 GHz single-core, so the specs for the stream have been upped marginally.

but since the STereo Feed has so much CPU power at its disposal, i can do higher resolution, etc.