Some Changes for Cable Subscribers

You may have seen spots on the TV or received notification in the mail about some changes coming if you are a Time Warner Cable subscriber.  The company recently announced that it is dropping the analog cable service and all subscribers will be required to have a special digital adapter if they do not already rent a set top box from the company.  Time Warner is joining with most other cable providers in making this move. 

Ever since the cable companies began providing digital cable, a system that was much superior to the old analog system, cable companies have essentially operated two separate systems. This was expensive and was not the most efficient use the bandwidth available.  Initially this was done so customers with older TVs could easily hook up their sets.  Now that most people have digital wide screen TV sets, the analog system is no longer required.

Many customers have several TV sets connected to the cable.  Some of the sets make use of the set top box but others, up until now, could be connected directly to the cable using the TV set’s internal QAM (cable) tuner.  Beginning in April, the QAM tuner will not be compatible with the cable signal so a special digital adapter will be required for each cable-connected TV set if it does not use a set top box.

The adapter can be ordered from the Time Warner.  The company promises to provide them free for two years.  After that time there will be a charge of about $4 per month each.  Just as it was with the QAM tuners, using the new digital adapters will not allow you to receive many of the special premium services.  These are only available using a full-featured set top box.  Examples of these services are pay-per-view, the on-screen guide, viewing on demand and “start over.”

It is interesting that just this week the FCC announced new rules that will allow cable customers to purchase the set top boxes instead of paying an average of $10 per month rental fee for each box.  This could save customers hundreds of dollars each year.  It is estimated that a set top box will retail less than $100. It is likely that these new digital adapters will also be available for sale instead of monthly rental after the first two years.  The cable companies are not happy about this new FCC ruling since they were able to collect millions of dollars from these monthly recurring charges for set top boxes.

For more information for Time Warner subscribers go to this special web site.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/support/tv/topics/digital-adapters.html