Being enrolled in auto-pay, I rarely see a cable bill. However, now that Dexter and Californication have come to an end for the year, I took a look at my latest statement before canceling Showtime ($16/mo) earlier this week. When I moved over the summer, from a Comcast region to Cox, I gave up several HD channels. Which the Cox PDF indicates I should now be reclaiming:
Cox Communications is excited to provide 13 new HD channels between December 16-31, 2009. The new channels are: msnbc HD on ch. 777, BET HD on 736, ABC Family HD on 774, Disney HD on 775, HBO2 HD on 787, More Max HD on 788, TMC HD on 789, Encore HD on 790, Tennis Channel HD on 784, Investigation Discovery HD on 792, BBC America HD on 778, Starz Edge HD on 791 and Disney XD HD on 776.
I’ll gladly take MSNBC and BBC America in HD (again). Although, this probably means more switched digital video. Accompanied by more periodic CableCARD/SDV Tuning Adapter switched station blackouts. And I’m stuck with Cox for better or for worse… as I get zero OTA ATSC reception at my current location. (Satellite and FiOS TV aren’t available to me either.) However, also in my statement is the first mainstream consumer cable-co discussion, that I can recall, of clear QAM. Which gives me hope. Although, at this point, it seems unlikely TiVo will ever provide manual clear QAM mapping capabilities.
We will also be moving ShopNBC from analog to digital service and it will remain on digital ch. 29. A digital receiver or Clear QAM tuner will be required to view ShopNBC.
Lastly, Cox reinforces the limitations of retail CableCARD devices that haven’t been retrofitted for use with SDV tuning adapters (think CableCARD televisions). But I’d probably choose to forgo the extra programming in lieu of that horrid SARA DVR experience.
Consumer-owner devices equipped with a CableCARD may require a digital set top receiver in order to receive all programming options offered by Cox digital cable.