Re: Analog Cable Going

"Heinrich Galland" <heinrichg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:110520081224469716%heinrichg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <g073af$fr6$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Mark Zenier
> <mzenier@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> In article <482384c0$0$7066$4c368faf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>> Guy <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> >
>> ...
>> >There's no reason in the world that the cable companies must send a 
>> >digital
>> >broadcast over the cable as a digital signal. Just as a converter box
>> >converts a digital signal to analog and then sends it to your set over

>> >the
>> >coax connector, so too can a cable system do the conversion at their
>> >headquarters and send it as an analog signal from there to your house.

>> >That
>> >way there's no need for millions of set-top boxes. Given this 
>> >possibility,
>> >if you were the cable companies, which option would you choose:
millions 
>> >of
>> >set-top boxes , or convert at HQ and send analog signal? The smart 
>> >choice
>> >would be the latter. Do a little investigation and I believe you will 
>> >find
>> >that they WILL be going that route.

Well you are not taking into account the incredibly high bandwidth 
requirements for analog. The cable companies can add up to a dozen SD 
digital channels for every analog channel they remove. Most likely a few
HD 
channels for the same bandwidth although I don't have the actual figures
for 
that.

I can unequivocally state that digital is far more efficient than analog. 
How the cable companies use that efficiency is an entire different
subject. 
They can provide a few more very high quality signals or they can compress

the signals and try to cram as many channels as possible down the pipe. Or

they could ease up a bit on the compression they are using for their
current 
HD offerings. In any regard, the cable companies as rational business 
entities will "rightfully" be dumping analog as soon as they legally can.

The expense of set top boxes is far out weighed by the additional revenues

of more channels and the pay per view options that a box provides.