Charter called me up last month and offered me a free upgrade to a higher tier internet (10MB/1MB) and free Basic cable if I agree to a year contract for $30/mo. I said sure, sounds great as I have Dish but locals are not available in HD, but the cable company has them in HD.

They cam and set everything up for me to get the basic cable, but it wouldn’t work. None of my TV’s have an analog tuner – I would have to PAY $10/month for an HD box to watch my free Basic cable, which only comes in analog.

There are 4 local networks plus PBS I WAS able to get over rabbit ear antennas on my old analog TV’s. Unfortunately I can only get ONE of them in HD over the air – there is a hill between me and the towers for the other 4 channels, so I am S.O.L. and have no choice but to pay for local channels now. In fact there is a huge swath of my town that is unable to get those 4 channels because of a hill between us and the towers 35 miles away.

The FCC may have mandated the switch, but they did not force the stations to provide a signal to everyone that got one before. Digital does not have the range and does not do well with natural obstacles like hills. So starting next year 1/3rd of my town of 15,000 people will only be able to watch one over the air television channel, unless they pay Charter $10/month for a ‘box’ as they intend to keep their analog signal for their wired customers.

I received a letter from Cablevision telling me I need to start renting a box from them or lose several channels. I called them asking wtf, and why the box in my TV would not work (it would not work if they were encrypting the steam). All they would say was “FEB/JAN ’09, FCC!”. The guy obviously had no clue what he was talking about. I never did get an answer to my question, but I think it is past time to call Verizon.

does anyone have a link to information on the costs?

cablevision said i had to have IO ($10/mo) to have HD channels, and i had to get a special cable box from them to decode the channels that is $15/mo, (12-box, 2-remote 1-decoder card)

so i’m having to pay $25/mo extra for hd channels

does anyone know how to get this $7/mo box? that’d save me $18/mo
(the cablevision customer support told me they never heard of it)

i’d really appreciate it if someone was able to get me info on how to save the money

I was told this same lie about federal requirement to change cable transmission from analog to digital. Today, next day, I am on the web investigating. I use the only tool I have, paying them as late as possible. If and when Verizon Fios comes, I am gone from Cablevision. They are not reliable, constant internet failures and no monitoring. I would love the Feds to fine them for lying but never will happen.

This scam is a rate increase, pure and simple. The lie they’re telling everyone is laughable.

BlowURmindBowel, you are the most arrogant, obnoxious sonofabitch I’ve encountered in quite some time. What’s with the snotty condescension and all the faggy bitchiness and sarcasm with which all of your posts are dripping???
You need to get yourself a hobby or a job, pal, along with a halfway decent personality with which you start relating to people with some semblance of respect, patience and kindness… Otherwise, you’ll more than likely have your head handed to you, one of these days…

No matter what cable provider you have, the days of directly connecting analog devices to the cable will soon be over.

Many who have cable have had a single cable box used ONLY for watching pay, premium and digital content. In our home, most of the time it is tuned to digital music that is distributed around the house while TVs, computer TV cards, DVRs, and old VCRs are connected directly to the cable and receive about 80 analog channels. This allows watching and/or recording multiple channels simultaneously.

Because the cable companies are converting the 80 or so analog channels to digital, this will no longer be the case. In my home, to get the same service we have now, we would require seven additional cable boxes and the added complication of additional remote controls, assuming we could get additional cable boxes each with different remote control codes. It is a going backward having to deal with this.

My blood boils every time I read the hundreds of articles that say, “if you have cable or satellite TV, nothing will change”. Liars!!!!!

Finally the real story is coming out, such as this quote from an AP article today

“Dooner also said Comcast expects to move the majority of its analog television channels to digital in most markets by early 2010. The Philadelphia-based company had set a goal of reclaiming analog bandwidth in 20 percent of its markets this year.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080605/ap_on_hi_te/comcast_internet_speeds_4

That means there will no longer be any analog signals in the cable and every analog device will need a cable box to get content. What a pain.

Cablevision has not been able to deliver HD channels for few weeks now and also fails to acknowledge this as a widespread and an old problem. Indeed the technicians are fed up with their mgmt. They know the problem exists and the mgmt does not care. The ONLY people who think the system is great are the Cablevision Customer Support folks on Phone and the Cablevision Management. Don’t blame Digital conversion, own up and tell the customers and do something about it.

I think the point being made here is that Cablevision on long island is overpriced and always has been and they are always looking for new ways to rip customers off. They make the customer feel like they aren’t worthy of the service they provide. They are definitely looking to con their customers out of extra money and the commercials prove it. they tell you 29.95 a month for all three services and if you can retrieve a magnifying glass fast enough to catch it, you will see in MICROFINE print that it’s for the first year only. They’ve been conning people into spending more money for decades now and anyone that doesn’t see that is either working for them or is so financially comfortable that they don’t care how much they are spending. The rest of their customers get fees and rental charges shoved down their throats till they can’t afford to keep up. And god forbid anyone is late paying the bill they threaten to shut it all off. For a person confined to their home that can lead to their demise if they rely on cablevision for their phone service. Contrary to what some people might think, not everybody is capable of using a cell phone either. Some people can’t use a cell phone cause it might set off their defibrillator and/or pacemaker. For some people on a fixed budget, cablevision is all they have to keep in touch with the outside world. It’s disgusting how some people see nothing wrong with taking more money from people who can’t afford to give any more than what their budget allows. Anybody who sees nothing wrong with this picture should have their heads examined!!

I have subscribed to Cablevision for almost forever. Once I paid $9 a month under some package for ‘people under disability’. This was when they were still under state regulation.

Now it’s almost $60 a month for the Family Package and it has not been that many years. I myself watch little TV but pay for it for other family members.

(I live in hilly location. Nothing TV comes in without cable, etc.)

I keep getting less and less channels. Once HBO was part of the package.

I am now just using analog tv’s and their built in tuners.

ok–less and less channels ?? I actually have to pay $6.50 more a month for THEIR box to see what I used to ??

If I bought a HDTV capable TV today would it allow me to see anything I lost ?? Also those HDTV boxes sold with that $40 rebate ??

It just seems a sneaky way at a rate hike. I end up seeing no channels unless I pay $6.50 more for THEIR box.(Cablevision)

I am aware of the HDTV conversion nationwide.–but Cablevision is giving you NO CHANNELS unless you rent THEIR BOX ??

I think all new TV’s are HDTV capable (even though resolution might be the same in say a 13in TV)

Buy one and still have to rent a Cablevision box ??

Family Package reduced to _____________________

Is cable really a necessity? No. If cablevision is so bad, boycott. It shouldn’t be that hard to live without tv for a while…

Cablevision told my elderly mother that she needs to have their cable boxes hooked up to her TVs, for a monthly fee, to receive tv reception after the switch, even though one of her sets is a new, flat-screen, lcd, digital tv! Why would she need cable boxes if people with cable tv service are not supposed to need converter boxes? I have Comcast service, which is already digital, and have no problem receiving reception on even my oldest television sets! Is Cablevision ripping her off or what???????

Dumb question can we own our own digital box with cablevision

This an edit to my first comment . It sais 230 channels in the advertisement and the io upgrade offered to new customers is around 140-160 .