Question about analog vs digital cable

[tracks]

Hi everyone,
I'm in a small situation. I currently have basic analog cable with rogers ($29 per month for channels 2-28), but I want to get more hockey games so I'd like to get the next package up. Now, my parents have analog cable as well, and they get a whole bunch of channels (maybe 2-70ish) for around $55 per month.

I called rogers and asked for this, but they said that they won't give my the analog service and that if I wanted to upgrade, that I'll need to switch to digital. Also, if I cancelled, I might not be able to get my current $29 analog package again, and would be forced to get their $34 basic digital package.

My question is, should I be worried about making the jump to digital cable? I've been quite happy with just plain analog, and I have no interest in paying $5 more for the basic service if I want to cancel the extended package later on.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

[westernartic]

Your going to have to make the switch to digital soon any ways.There is alot of ups to digital.

1)Ondemand.
2)Picture pq is better.
3)You will go from 70 channels to 130 channels.

Rogers will be not offering analog as of 2010.

[brunes]

Your going to have to make the switch to digital soon any ways.There is alot of ups to digital.

1)Ondemand.
2)Picture pq is better.
3)You will go from 70 channels to 130 channels.

Rogers will be not offering analog as of 2010.

Sorry - do you have more info on this "no analog as of 2010" situation? Curious on it because I know people who actually can't get digital cable because they're too far away from a repeater or something so they can only get analog cable.

[aimfox]

im using Rogers VIP package so it goes up to 999 channels for $35/month

[westernartic]

Sorry - do you have more info on this "no analog as of 2010" situation? Curious on it because I know people who actually can't get digital cable because they're too far away from a repeater or something so they can only get analog cable.

Rogers is upgrading all areas that have limited repeaters.

[tracks]

Your going to have to make the switch to digital soon any ways.There is alot of ups to digital.

1)Ondemand.
2)Picture pq is better.
3)You will go from 70 channels to 130 channels.

Rogers will be not offering analog as of 2010.

It still kind of bothers me that basic digital cable will offer no more than basic analog cable in terms of channel selection, and yet it costs more. And the fact that they might not allow a customer to select analog cable after 'upgrading' to digital is annoying.

I mean, right now I'm paying $31 after taxes for basic analog cable, and lets say that after the hockey season is over i don't want to pay for the extra channels, so then i'm going to be stuck at $36.50 a month for basic DIGITAL cable. I'm the type of person that wants to give rogers, bell, or any other monolithic content provider as little of my money as possible, and this extra $5 per month is just plain annoying.

[westernartic]

It still kind of bothers me that basic digital cable will offer no more than basic analog cable in terms of channel selection, and yet it costs more. And the fact that they might not allow a customer to select analog cable after 'upgrading' to digital is annoying.

I mean, right now I'm paying $31 after taxes for basic analog cable, and lets say that after the hockey season is over i don't want to pay for the extra channels, so then i'm going to be stuck at $36.50 a month for basic DIGITAL cable. I'm the type of person that wants to give rogers, bell, or any other monolithic content provider as little of my money as possible, and this extra $5 per month is just plain annoying.

Your getting about 40 more channels with digital.I aslo know rogers is planning on making the digital basic pack cheaper then the analog.

$25.00
Includes
Channels 1-130
4 free ondemand channels.

[tracks]

Your getting about 40 more channels with digital.I aslo know rogers is planning on making the digital basic pack cheaper then the analog.

$25.00
Includes
Channels 1-130
4 free ondemand channels.

are you speaking about actual tv broadcast channels or are you including the music channels? i see on the page for basic digital cable you get some music channels, but thats not really a deal breaker for me :)

Do you mind if I ask about where you got your info posted above about getting 130 channels? thats a crazy deal if thats true.

[westernartic]

are you speaking about actual tv broadcast channels or are you including the music channels? i see on the page for basic digital cable you get some music channels, but thats not really a deal breaker for me :)

Do you mind if I ask about where you got your info posted above about getting 130 channels? thats a crazy deal if thats true.

I was told this by a rogers csr a while ago.Its a new package that was cheduled to come out months ago got delayed.No its no the music channels its the time shiftin g.

[tracks]

just a random question...is rogers trying to push digital onto people to keep them from splitting 1 signal into multiple tvs (as you can do on analog)?

[theurbancanadian]

just a random question...is rogers trying to push digital onto people to keep them from splitting 1 signal into multiple tvs (as you can do on analog)?

A friend of a friend told me you can split digital too ;)

[BD006]

just a random question...is rogers trying to push digital onto people to keep them from splitting 1 signal into multiple tvs (as you can do on analog)?

I believe you can send more digital information through the cable line than you can analog. Also, I believe analog is more costly to maintain for them (just like cell phone providers a few years ago, when they completely stopped providing analog service).

[catnip2377]

Everything is going to change to digital anyways... as mentioned above.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it is setting August 31, 2011 as the deadline for over-the-air (OTA) television transmissions to go digital.

[tracks]

Does anyone know if its true that the analog signal still resides in the cable even after you upgrade to digital?

So for example, lets say I currently have analog channels 0-28 and upgrade to a package with digital channels 0-100. If the digital box were to die and I just plugged the cable directly into the tv, would I get analog channels 0-100?

[theurbancanadian]

Does anyone know if its true that the analog signal still resides in the cable even after you upgrade to digital?

So for example, lets say I currently have analog channels 0-28 and upgrade to a package with digital channels 0-100. If the digital box were to die and I just plugged the cable directly into the tv, would I get analog channels 0-100?

I know you can do that with VideoTron, here in Quebec. Actually, my mom, in Brampton, has digital cable from Rogers and she has the cable directly to the wall outlet in my sister's room so I'm pretty sure it can be done.

[woof]

The cable companies are trying to switch everything over to digital because it's costly maintaining the dual analog/digital system and digital has so many advantages over analog. It's a gradual phaseout as they upgrade their equipment and encourage customers to switch over.

It's kind of like what the telephone companies went through switching over from rotary dial to touch tone service which was more expensive. My mother refused to switch because she wouldn't pay the extra buck a month or whatever so they just waited her out. When she moved last year they upgraded the service to her house to digital for the new people - they didn't have a choice. You can move or you can die, but they'll get you in the end!

[tracks]

I guess digital is advantageous for the cable companies as well, with more remote manipulation possible through the digital box and the ability to gather more consumer data with digital being a 2 way street and analog being only 1 (or so i've heard).

[mit006]

in the US:
Congress mandated that February 17, 2009 would be the last day for full-power television stations to broadcast in analog.

I'm not sure why (but not really surprised) that Canada is taking another two years to do the same thing! 2011?

Anyway, I had heard that all television providers in Canada are trying for that 2009 date... not sure how accurate that may be given the 2011 statement posted earlier. :confused:

[plymouthhater]

It's kind of like what the telephone companies went through switching over from rotary dial to touch tone service which was more expensive. My mother refused to switch because she wouldn't pay the extra buck a month or whatever so they just waited her out. When she moved last year they upgraded the service to her house to digital for the new people - they didn't have a choice. You can move or you can die, but they'll get you in the end!

There is no such thing as an "upgrade to digital" telephone service. It's the same telephone switching equipment for both pulse and tone service. They simply add an option in software against the profile of the line that tells the telephone switch to "listen" to DTMF tones. For pulse subscribers the equipment ignores the tones.

[Angela V]

Yes you can still get analog with a split. Our LCD HD tv is hooked up with the digital and our old tube tv is getting the analog. Just don't ask me how hubby did it. :)

You get way more with basic digital cable than basic analog anyway. Picture is clearer. I take advantage of the time shifting channels a lot. My have a 3 year old and she watches the Free Treehouse On Demand channel. They currently have Care Bear shows from when I was a kid and my daughter loves watching them. There's a bunch of free stuff to watch on the regular On Demand channel 100. If you like to rent movies from Rogers, instead you can order your movie right through your box and you get it for 24 hours. Also there are HD movies available which is great for us because we only have a normal DVD player. One thing I've always hated is getting really DVDs that skip. You don't have that problem with movies on demand.

We went with digital because Rogers called and offered us the box rental for free for a year. That was for the normal SD digital box when we still had the tube tv. When we bought our LCD HD tv we got the HD digital box we were able to switch to an HD box and start a new 12 months rental for free. There's 16 free HD channels and I'm so loving watching shows like LOST in HD.