FCC says cable must support analog through 2012

A fallacy??

Try living in a rural area like I do, where you only get one choice for cable.

On the local cable company's website, basic cable is $43.90, without taxes and fees.

I work for Cox cable here in Las Vegas, and the 2012 thing is definitely news to me. Lets straighten out a few other things though: DirecTV: 100% digital... sort of. They take analog signals, compress and convert them, then ship them out digitally. Do side by side comparisons in a high end electronic store, and you'll see that some channels look better on cable, and some look better on satellite. Its preference, particularly if YOUR favorite channel looks better on one or the other.
Secondly: What the FCC has done to make the switch to digital easier for people with 5 TV's, is that you will not HAVE to rent cable boxes from us. You will be able to go purchase boxes for the TV's at a nominal rate from your local electronics house, and rent a "cablecard" from us. These rent for about $1.50 a month, same charge as a remote control. And the new TV's coming out have a cablecard slot in them, so you don't need a box at all. For those of you that hate having a box in your house, there you go.
One last thought. We offer basic cable in vegas for $9.99 a month, and that's not a introductory charge. So as far as it being $50, that's a fallacy. You don't GET much for $10, but you get all the channels you get with an antenna, plus a few more, with better picture quality (usually).

DirecTV: 100% digital since 1994.

The key word here is LOCAL broadcasts. I've been assuming for a while now that Comca$t would push all of us who are still getting their regular analog cable packages to digital the minute February 2009 arrives, claiming (lying) that the government "forced" them to turn off the analog spigot. They'll still be able to do that, if you want anything other than the local broadcast affiliates. That's all that's required by this new FCC statement. If you want the basic or enhanced cable packages with CNN, USA, FX, Food Network, TNT, whatever, my guess is that they'll still force everyone to switch to their digital feed. I'm perfectly happy with what I have now--a nice Sony 35" CRT, an analog cable feed with every channel I could want other than BBC America, and Radio Shack equipment to split it into 2 TiVos and a VCR. With digital, I'll have to pay for 3 separate boxes to pull that off, with no benefit whatsoever. Comca$t has been sending me stuff in the mail practically weekly telling me why I should go to digital, and listing all these great intro rates, without any fine print telling me how absurd their regular digital rates will be once the intro period is over. I wish I had another choice, but Comcast is a monopoly here, and my condo faces the wrong way for me to get a dish. So I don't think the FCC statement helps many people. Who gets cable just to get the basic local channels, anyway, unless you live in a valley surrounded by mountains?

hey jaymez.... you are an idiot. its a fact.

I'll just get rid of my TV at that point. HDtv sucks. My 17 year old CRT has much better picture quality than any HDtv that I've seen.

i have a friend who receives every local channel as clearly over antenna as i do over cable. she doesn't watch much tv so why would she pay for cable? hell, if not for sports i'd cancel cable as well (thats a big 'if not' though). everyone should get an hd tv though, especially if you can get all the ota signals. its awesome.

Uh, yeah. I still use an antenna.

Plenty of people do, especially when you have to pay over fifty dollars a month just for basic cable.

There are still people who receive analog signals with an antenna? I know that most people don't have HD or HD over the air, but I just assumed that those people would have cable or satellite service.

So basically:
All digital over the air - 2009
All digital cable - 2012