Comcast extending all digital push in Boston and Atlanta

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 18th 2009 at 1:32AM

Not to be confused with the OTA switch to digital, Comcast is apparently ready to resume shoving customers off the analog coil and making room for more HD, DOCSIS 3.0 high speed Internet and other things we like, starting with Boston and Atlanta. Termed "Project Cavalry" it's not removing every channel from analog, but about 40 of them, and as the FCC directed giving customers two digital terminal adapters (pictured) and one digital box for free as long as they remain with Comcast. According to Cable Digital News, Chattanooga picked up 22 new high definition networks and 50Mb Internet service after the digital migration, so it really can't happen fast enough.

Filed under: Industry, Cable

Tags: all digital, AllDigital, analog crush, AnalogCrush, atlanta, boston, cable, comcast, digital, digital terminal adapters, DigitalTerminalAdapters, docsis 3.0, Docsis3.0, dta

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

Maxx @ Apr 18th 2009 4:29AM

Comcast is in the process of doing this in Western Washington as well. It started on March 31st and is set to be complete April 30th. I went in an got 2 of these digital adapters. I have one analog tv which needs one and 2 HDTV's hooked up to HDDVR's so they dont need one but the question that I cannot get a straight anwser from any of those morons is on my bedroom HDTV with a digital tuner built in do I still need this adapter box. i.e. are the channels going to be in the clear or encypted in some way. Because if they are going to need to be decoded then I would accually loose local HD as the box wont pass any HD at all.

I guess I will have to just wait any see. I havent hooked them up yet because I need to have a way to tell when they accually cut off the analog from 30-70.

Neutral

madgamer @ Apr 18th 2009 4:31PM

I wish they would just send the basic-cable channels in clearQAM instead of encrypting everything. I'm assuming, like you are, that they are, as their regular digital service (where I live anyway) encrypts everything. I understand it for HBO or something, but for discovery for example (not even the HD one), why force people to get a box when their HDTV could tune it without one if they just used clearQAM?

Neutral

Chris @ Apr 19th 2009 8:32AM

Right now in atlanta they have all of the basic cable chanels in both analog and digital. I am able to tune both with my clearQAM tv. not sure if this is how it is going to last though. The other thing is that I hope that they put out a channel guide. It is a mess trying to find all of the channels.

Neutral

Mitch @ Apr 18th 2009 7:48AM

I don't understand what this box is. Is it just a digital converter box for people who don't have digital cable?

Neutral

neilharrison3 @ Apr 19th 2009 9:38AM

It's essentially a slimmed down version of a regular cable-box. It may lack some features of what you get with a regular box such as IPG, clock, and other things.

Neutral

Teh Lup @ Apr 18th 2009 12:03PM

Essentially a qam tuner that streams and decodes comcast's coded qam signal. so yeah, similar to a d-to-a converter box.

I personally think this idea is great. Opens up a boatload of new bandwidth.

Highly Ranked

Jim @ Apr 18th 2009 4:56PM

Project Cavalry seems like a good step for Comcast. (Sort of like RCN's "Analog Crush".)

However, Comcast needs to stop cramming three MPEG-2 HD channels into one 6 MHz QAM channel. Bit stripping practices like this result in more channels of HD-lite, and still not enough channels to compete with the 100+ real HD channels that DirecTV and Fios offer. Worse still, Comcast uses an overly-compressed triplex transmission scheme with their "Headend in the Sky" (HiTS) system to send out overly compressed channels to Comcast and non-Comcast cable systems alike.

As madgamer says, it would be nice if Comcast didn't encrypt the content in the extended basic tier when they convert it to digital. Nonetheless, Comcast at least isn't as bad as TWC about applying copy once flags to channels where the content owners don't actually require the copy once flag.

Neutral

gt1racer47 @ Apr 18th 2009 5:42PM

How About distributing These DTA's across Massachusetts instead of just Boston?

We've been having this bland HD lineup for about 2 yrs now and still no changes!

Neutral

Ethan @ Apr 19th 2009 1:42AM

Folks, this has been going on in Seattle for MONTHS... I think I got my two free about 2-3 months ago now? Boston and Atlanta are not the first cities to get these. And I've had DOCSIS 3.0 Extreme Tier internet (50Mbs Down, 10Mps Up) since Dec 08.

Neutral

Maxx @ Apr 19th 2009 8:58PM

I was expecting to get some more channels a few months ago down here in Algona/Auburn when you guys up north got yours. Did you recently get some of the News channels in HD like CNN HD and FOX News HD etc ? These are the ones that I am hoping will come when they finish with the Network Enhancement. The said that it was starting on March 31st and ending on April 30th but they are still broadcasting analog here on the 19th. I wish they would hurry it up already.

Neutral

SolidSignal @ Apr 23rd 2009 2:04PM

An issue for consumers with regard to the digital transition is the expense. While the U.S. government is offering two $40 coupons per household to subsidize the purchase of the devices, the average retail price of a digital converter box is over $50 and the least expensive new model sells for about $46 so the consumer still has some cost to bear.
Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and similar institutions can obtain free digital TV converter boxes for residents by obtaining a government discount coupon and ordering through SolidSignal.com. The company will also provide free shipping and free support by telephone as part of their community relations program. SolidSignal.com is offering this program to non-profit organizations nationwide through June 12, 2009, the digital broadcast transition date, while inventory is available.
The online application for the government coupon can be filled out at http://www.dtv2009.gov/. Once the coupons are received, the facility director can call SolidSignal.com toll free at 1-866-374-4625 to place the order to receive the converter boxes that will receive digital TV signals after the transition.

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