Will basic cable be ATSC?

Question

I have time warner basic cable (no cable box, just a coax into the tv). In 2009, will the basic cable channels switch to ATSC, or will they stay NTSC? I have a few old NTSC tvs that work, and I'd like to use them with basic cable for many years to come.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think Ken's answer is unfairly downrated. But anyway, your cable companies may choose to continue providing some signals in analog (but not indefinitely). They would convert the digital TV content to analog for people with analog cable. There is far too much ignorance out there about the DTV switchover, and cable companies will be reluctant to alienate the millions of clueless people who only know that their TV has gone away and will be flooding customer support lines.

Government and industry have done an abysmal job of communicating the extent of the coming DTV changes. Maybe that's why the switchover date is Feb 2009, just after a new administration takes office. Let them take the flak!

Answer 2

The simple answer is no one knows. But everyone thinks NTSC sets will still work with cable. And that is what the warning labels indicate.

At this time the debate is still on the floor at the FCC as to must carry and ATSC (over the air digital) channels. And if the rules regarding NTSC (over the air analog) channels were strictly applied to cable TV for ATSC then the language "must not downgrade the signal" (which I think is what I have heard quoted) might be interpreted as the signal must remain digital.

The question lies in the fact that over a year remains until the Analog switch off (last day of analog over the air TV is February 17, 2009) and that is a lot of time for Congress or the FCC to change their mind.

Not many Congresspeople want to deal with all the TVs on cable TV not working on February 18, 2009. And not many cable companies want to deal with changing all of their equipment to send ATSC signals (because that would mean a change for each NTSC channel they carry and not just the ones that were from off air.

See NTSC analog is the same on air and on cable except in channel frequency assignments over 13. 2 through 13 are the same on air and cable. But 14 on cable is a much lower frequency than on air. 14 on cable if put out on air would interfere with other over the air services.

When it comes to digital over the air (ATSC) there is no comparison with digital on cable boxes (QAM) because the two signals are totally different means of sending the signal digitally.