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Sidestepping A-to-D Convertors For Town Government's Cable TV?
jake-itguy writes "I am the IT guy for a small town municipality. Comcast called me the other day and told me I had to have a digital-to-analog converter for each TV in the municipality, as Comcast is turning off analog cable in September. I did a quick count, and we have 32 TVs across 6 buildings (22 being in the police and fire departments). Most of the TVs are hung on the walls. I told Comcast having a box for each TV was not acceptable and wanted a different solution. Comcast told me there was no other solution." Read on for more details of the situation, and to see if you can offer Jake any advice for distributing cable service within his Indiana town.
jake-itguy continues: "They told me they have been putting these boxes on every TV in each classroom in each school. I laughed when I heard that. I said, 'Do you know how much electricity is going to be needed for each box?' They didn't know the answer. I was bumped up to the next guy in the Comcast hierarchy, who said there was no other solution and I had to pay $3 per month for each box. Being a municipality, we are entitled to free expanded basic cable as a part of the franchise agreement back in 1982.
I know there is a solution, as hospitals and hotels don't have little boxes next their TVs. Unfortunately I haven't found a specific answer to this problem so I am asking Slashdot. Is there a box that can be put in the basement of the town hall that will convert the Comcast signal into a regular digital signal? Most of the TVs in the town have digital tuners per last years a2d conversion of the airwaves. I would be willing to replace the few analog sets with new ones if there is a good solution for this. Each building's cable feed is fed from the town hall. We have a nice big 1-inch cable coming into the building with some splitters coming off the line. Each building gets a 1/2 inch cable. Is there a box that will convert the Comcast signal to analog for the schools? I am sure the schools don't have TVs with digital tuners."
I know there is a solution, as hospitals and hotels don't have little boxes next their TVs. Unfortunately I haven't found a specific answer to this problem so I am asking Slashdot. Is there a box that can be put in the basement of the town hall that will convert the Comcast signal into a regular digital signal? Most of the TVs in the town have digital tuners per last years a2d conversion of the airwaves. I would be willing to replace the few analog sets with new ones if there is a good solution for this. Each building's cable feed is fed from the town hall. We have a nice big 1-inch cable coming into the building with some splitters coming off the line. Each building gets a 1/2 inch cable. Is there a box that will convert the Comcast signal to analog for the schools? I am sure the schools don't have TVs with digital tuners."
If you don't mind them all being tuned to the same channel, you only need 1 converter box per building. Might also need an RF amplifier to help with distribution since by definition splitting the signal attenuates it.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Get antennas and cheap converter boxes. Or get a Channel Plus 3025 and only buy one cable box per building and pay $3 a month per box forever.
If several TVs are tuned into the same channel in a building, you could use one box at the point-of-ingest into the building.
You may want to check the exact wording of the franchise agreement. Depending on how it's worded, if they are required to provide you free access to basic cable and they no longer offer that option, you may have some leverage with them. If nothing else, you may persuade them to give you the hardware at no cost.
Get all of the police and firemen to go to the city council and demand they end the Comcast monopoly and while they are at it, have the city council ban encryption of the digital signal.
Without a doubt, Comcast will find a solution for you!!!
Reasons for TV in a City:
City/Police/Fire - Weather Disasters
Fire - 24 hr shifts.
Never trust a man wearing a coat and tie!
Being a municipality, we are entitled to free expanded basic cable as a part of the franchise agreement back in 1982.
Sounds like you may need to have a quick chat with your city's lawyer about whether Comcast is trying to do an end-run around that agreement. That section may make your problem their problem instead.
I am officially gone from
Enough of this shit. I want my cops & fire department on break to feel like they're well-trained and compensated, trusted professionals, not slave-wagers in the "all your base are belong to the company man" plan. (Also, I want tough and transparent oversight.) Otherwise you get the TSA.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
It is spending taxpayer money. In fact, it's making Comcast into a private tax collection agency. Comcast gets an exclusive deal, allowing them to price their service above the rate that a free market would define and the government gets services provided.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
The problem isn't with his employer, hence no point resigning. Me I'd rather have people in government who in the interest of reducing government expense would actually care enough to doubt what some kid at Comcast says and look for advice elsewhere, despite the hordes of idiots who would surely be jerks when given the opportunity.
Time to whip out the old "do not hire" list...
Name : Larry Bagina.
Reason: Quitter, can't read, anti-social dispenser of useless advice.
Not necessarily. The boxes are 24/7 vampires unless they're breakered every night at a strip or wall. My gym had to get a box from comcast last week for EVERY cardio machine that had an integrated TV. This meant 35 boxes. Each one runs warm, and also requires a remote control (no controls on the box). So in addition to 10-20 watts per box times 35, there's also 2X AA's times 35 once a year or so. If you're conservative with the numbers, that's 8.4 KWh a day of power draw that didn't exist before, regardless of a TV being on or not.
Wasn't part of the statement of problem that they are wall-mounted analog-only TVs, and therefore can't have boxes at the site of the TV? "Free boxes or my lawyers will eat you" doesn't help solve the problem, and city lawyers have better things to do than this. In any event, from the description of the situation Comcast is certainly not trying to "get around" anything; they are still providing basic cable for free. It's just not analog; the city has to go digital like everybody else. FCC mandate. The question is how to do so without converter boxes at the TV itself, not who to sue.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
Really? People need this explained?
Police and firemen are two kinds of jobs which can have different definitions of "work". Jobs in which you are waiting for a call (something to happen) often allow for personal time and even sleep such as in the case of firemen. Same deal for soldiers- you're always "at work", but not always on patrol.
Hell, I was a third-shift NOC guy for a while and there was very little actual work to do during a routine shift.
Then use four boxes to convert to analog and then amplify the signal into your own analog network.
The alternative is to just flip them the bird and forget about having TV at all on the premises and stick to using radio channels. NPR would do fine.
Life still goes on without TV.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
More like Fire and Ambulance guys that live in the fire house. You work 12 hours on, only a small fraction of that will typically be active duty so filling the rest or the time with entertainment is fine. It's the price you pay for faster response times than a volunteer department that has to rush to the fire house before heading out to the fire.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
As someone noted upthread, this is probably going to see the most use in fire/EMS stations, where you have to pay guys to stand around and wait 24/7 even if nothing's going on. I'm pretty hard on government waste, but a thousand dollars a month so the firemen can have cable... it's a benefit that costs very little but provides them a great value.
There was a local newspaper column about Comcast's switch to digital encoding for everything and the requirement that everyone have a cable box (shades of pre-cable ready TV again). As with all things local newspaper + technology, it was shockingly short of facts.
What I don't understand is why Comcast doesn't use in the clear ATSC digital encoding for their "analog to digital" conversion? I finally got a TV with an ATSC tuner and was surprised to see ATSC digital channels on the cable coming out of the wall without a box.
Of course I know the conspiracy angle is Comcast just wants to nickel and dime everyone as much as possible, but the ability to just connect a TV to cable without a box has been a strength of cable vs. satellite (along with a simpler wiring scheme). When the box becomes a requirement to get ANY TV, I think they lose a competitive advantage over satellite.
The article I read said they would be supplying 1-2 boxes for free to all subscribers. Given the relative stupidity of most people and the inherent added complexity this adds to cable, wouldn't it be more profitable in the long run to just encode via ATSC and not deal with all the nuisance of boxes and box support and box replacement, ad nauseum?
Neat stuff, but how does it eliminate the need for set-top boxes?
Kid-proof tablet..
Comcast hierarchy, who said there was no other solution and I had to pay $3 per month for each box. Being a municipality, we are entitled to free expanded basic cable as a part of the franchise agreement back in 1982.
It looks to me, like Mr. Government employee has a point, and that Comcast is contractually obligated to provide those "$3 per month" boxes for free - part of the cost of getting the franchise.
Maybe then you guys will learn to count and balance your budgets.
While the IT guy generally isn't responsible for balancing the budget, as you seem to think, he actually is doing a good job of it here by trying to get rid of unnecessary costs.
What would you have him do? Roll over and take the added costs lying down?