Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!mark From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) Newsgroups: net.consumers Subject: Re: Buying a 19 inch color television--naming brands and prices Message-ID: <609@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Thu, 27-Dec-84 01:03:30 EST Article-I.D.: cbosgd.609 Posted: Thu Dec 27 01:03:30 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Dec-84 03:38:20 EST References: <293@mhuxm.UUCP> Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus Lines: 91 In article <293@mhuxm.UUCP> abeles@mhuxm.UUCP (abeles) writes: >But, WHAT DOES CABLE READY really mean? If I were to subscribe to >cable TV, would I pay less each month if my TV were "cable-ready?" >Or does the cable company just charge the same amount for installing >and renting their unit whether or not it has to convert to channel >3? And what is all this talk about the number of cable channels? I have only a partial understanding of this, if someone really has a complete list of the cable channels, please correct me. There are 3 primary bands of TV channels: VHF (e.g. channels 2-13), UHF (14-72), and cable. (This is an over simplification, I think there are really 4 or 5 different cable bands, and any given cable company uses some random combination of them.) The convention I've seen numbers the cable channels 14 and up, but these are different from UHF. "cable ready" means that your TV can directly receive the cable channels without a converter box. (When you subscribe to cable TV, they install a converter box on your TV which is basically a switch on which you select a channel from the cable input, and it outputs that channel on channel 2 or 3 to your TV.) Some TV sets and VCR's have a coax connector on the back that you can plug your TV directly into - this is called a 75 ohm connector (as opposed to the traditional 300 ohm two-screw connector.) A TV set with a 75 ohm input IS NOT NECESSARILY CABLE READY, although some salesmen will claim it is! All this jack does for you is avoid the need to buy a 29 cent 75-to-300 adapter, and make a small improvement in your picture quality from not having to go through a 300 ohm bottleneck. Most people do not have cable ready TV's, and use the switch box. If your TV has a remote control but is not cable ready, you may have to forego the use of your remote control and use the switch box instead. (Some hybrid boxes put the first 12 channels on VHF, so you can use your remote for channels 2-13 but must use the switch box for the more obscure channels.) If your TV is cable ready, you can use your own remote without messing with their box. (Unless the channel you are watching is scrambled, in which case you can't avoid using yet another descrambler box.) If you have a cable-ready TV, will your cable company charge you less? Probably not. In fact, they may charge you MORE! The reason is that, if you use their box, you can be restricted by what the box can get. If your company offers some channels for extra charge, but does not scramble these channels, and your cable company knows you have a cable ready TV, they may charge you for the extra channels because they know you can get them if you want them. (Our company will, if you insist, charge you the lower rate, and send someone out to install a filter on your line to take out the channels you claim you don't watch.) The prices of TV's and VCR's really jumps if you want remote control and/or cable ready, doesn't it? The cheapos can be found for $200-$300 (for example, in Columbus, today's paper's SUN-TV ad quotes $159 for a 13" Spectricon, $224 for a 19" RCA, $218 for a 19" Spectricon, $349 for a 25" GE Console, and $224 for a Sanyo VCR) but if you want these features, you could easily pay $500 and up. It isn't widely known, but there are two devices you can buy, on the open market, that will turn your TV into a cable-ready TV, possibly with remote control. The first is a "block converter". It takes the cable channels, as a block, and converts them into the UHF frequencies. Chances are your TV and VCR can pick up UHF with no help. A typical block convert costs $30-$40. The second is a remote control cable switch. It acts just like the one the cable company rents you, but has a remote control built in. I bought one in Canada (a Jerrold 770) for about $140 (that's a little over $100 in US money) and it works fine on my Ohio cable TV (the channels are numbered the same.) I recently saw a similar box at the local Mr. How Warehouse (that's a hardware store owned by Service Merchandise) for $77. Some cautions are in order. If you buy one of these boxes, make sure you can take it back if it doesn't work. Cable companies aren't really very standardized yet, and lots of things can go wrong. You may get a box that numbers channels differently than your cable, or that gets a different subset of the universe of channels. You may not be able to use your descrambler boxes with it. (We made the mistake of getting the Jerrold box that outputs on channel 3 [we had the choice of 2 or 3] and our descramblers take input from channel 2 and output to 2, so the descrambler didn't work. We didn't really want the Movie Channel anyway.) If your cable company uses over-the-air, two-way, or addressable technology, there is even less standardization in this area, plus you have to have registered address with your cable company, so these may not work. If your TV already has a remote control, and you get one of these remote control boxes, the two remotes may confuse each other and overlap in function, resulting in an unusable combination. Finally, your cable company may not appreciate you hooking up such a box (and they may not understand what it means) and may decide you aren't allowed to do so. (I suppose local laws may apply, too.) I treat my switch+TV as a cable ready TV, for purposes of telling them what I have, and they seem happy. Mark