Cable TV in Campgrounds

[Kiami2001]

This weekend I camped at a site in Key Largo Florida. It offers free cable for campers. However, it seems that Comcast now requires a converter box to watch cable. A problem arises. First, I need to give a $30 cash refundable deposit, pain in the butt. Secondly, I can only hook up to one tv, I have 3 in my unit. Had I done this, I have been watching one TV with wires hanging everywhere. I think this is a problem, since free cable will not be accessible to everyone anymore. Has anyone encountered this problem?

[kalynzoo]

I recently read an article about this problem. It is being created by the cable companies, not the campground. They want to be able to count and charge for every screen using their business cable service.

[vsheetz]

Has been a long time since converter box usage was common. Hard to believe any service provider would want to go back to hassling with them.

[Scarab0088]

Found this in Sedona. It was the cable company switching to an all digital cable channel line-up.

Our upgraded (2012 vintage) TV's could read the signal, but our travel partners with regular cable ready TV's had to rent their little box.

This is not the same as pay services on regular cable, like the movie channels. This is all the regular channels, including the ones that used to be on the lower number channels on other cable line-ups.

I believe this will get more common as the cable companies squeeze more and more data on the cable (TV, Phone and Internet).

Safe travels

[Luv2go]

Originally Posted by vsheetz

Has been a long time since converter box usage was common. Hard to believe any service provider would want to go back to hassling with them.

They're switching to encrypted digital cable for every channel including local broadcast. One of the reasons they say they are doing it so they don't have to roll a truck to turn on and off your cable any more.

In our metro Boston area they started doing this a year ago, we switched to an antenna for TV and only use cable for internet.

[sirpurrcival]

It isn't so much that they are switching to a digital signal, it is that cable companies are phasing out the old analog signal which used to be carried at the same time as digital content. They are doing this locally in my province of BC right now. We have a digital box but I found I got many more channels if I just did away with it. They can't filter out Analog channels in the same way as digital signals. However, they are beginning to phase out the analog signals altogether. Essentially forcing all of us to get decoder boxes (at great cost of course). Really puts a cramp in one's viewing pleasure especially when one has multiple TV's.

[Triker56]

Has anyone encountered this problem?

Since I put DirecTV in my MH back in the 90's. I have never needed to hook into campground cable. Most don't have HD channels anyway.

Maybe that can solve your problem. DirecTV or Dish Network

[dengraham]

Kami2001,
This is just the old convert box. If you have digital TV's you don't need the box. Just "scan" for the channels on your digital TV's and it will pick up the digital stations. This is only needed if you are trying to hook up an analog TV to their new digital cable signal.
This help?

[novi2some]

Last year, while staying in Naples, Florida, I went to Comcast and they gave me three converter boxes for the three TV's I have. I wasn't charged anything for them. My campground site had an address. May be this is why there wasn't a charge. At Comcast, I gave them the address and I got the converter boxes. It is a little hassle to install and set them up but not hard. With the box, you get more channels on my hdtv's.

[lx22]

I just ran into the same problem. Older analog tv and digital cable. I tried to find a converter locally but no luck nobody keeps them anymore. I just bought new tv's and problem solved.
Good luck

[docj]

Originally Posted by dengraham

Kami2001,
This is just the old convert box. If you have digital TV's you don't need the box. Just "scan" for the channels on your digital TV's and it will pick up the digital stations. This is only needed if you are trying to hook up an analog TV to their new digital cable signal.
This help?

This is not entirely true. We were recently at a CG with a Comcast digital system. Normally we use our DirecTV but trees prevented us from seeing the satellite. So we connected to the cable without a cable box. Our TV is a 2012 model with digital capability. It could tune 38 of the ~75 channels that were on the cable system. According to the CG office, this was typical. None of the channels were scrambled, our TV simply couldn't receive them.

I'm not sure what cable companies are doing that prevents modern TVs from being able to tune channels without having a cable box. I didn't expect this to be the case.

[RickO]

I never use cable but this is news to me and it sounds like it really stinks.

I sure hope the satellite providers see this as an opportunity to move in and take some market share by providing a better solution.

Rick

[jzick]

According to this article Comcast to scramble basic cable signal | www.clarkhoward.com
Comcast is starting to scramble even their basic channels and locals. They then require cable boxes to unscramble and expect to charge rental for the boxes.

Won't affect us - we have satellite and always park as far away from trees as we can get. What a PIA for campgrounds, though. I cannot imagine all the complaints the cg workers are hearing.

[CLIFFTALL]

Comcast had done this at my S&B house. Those tv's that don't have a DVR or the other large cable box , require this small unscrambler box to get more than the local 8 or 10 channels.