Campground Cable digital or analog

Another thing to consider,, Do not know if it has been covered.

There is Analog
Digital
and... Digital

What I am watching just now (Over the air Digital using the ATSC standard) IS NOT what I'd be watching if I paid of cable.. Cable uses a different system (QAM or QALM, not sure) which many older, even CRT type, televisions can decode just fine. Both of my TV's (NEW and OLD) do Digital CABLE.. Only the new one does over the air.

How old are your TV's. that is the real question. .Most anything made in the 21st Century will decode QAM just fine Got to be a bit newer for Over the air (ATSC) digital.

Dutch_12078 wrote:
Comcast and Time Warner Cable are both converting to all encoded digital on a regional basis.

That statement is partially correct. Comcast and Time Warner, along with Cablevision, Charter etc. already maintain almost all of their channels in digital form so they can send the same high quality signal out to all of their region's headends. At the regional headend, they use a digital to analog converter for their analog signals. There is still such high demand for analog signals on cable that most MSOs are having a hard time eliminating those analog signals...something they would prefer to do to reclaim a good amount of bandwidth on their cable plant.

The difference in bandwidth usage between analog and digital is, for every true analog signal, the MSO can provide 10 - 12 digital SD channels or 3-4 HD channels. You can see how that can quickly add up for increased cable offerings when you start removing analog channels. It's a direction most cable MSOs want to move but their customers are dictating otherwise.

This very much depends on each campground. We have been to some campgrounds that only have analog signals coming through their cable connection and we have been to some where it is a mix of analog and digital. At the last campground we were at all of the digital channels were duplicated with analog versions.

Now I know this because with a digital TV when you connect it you scan to lock in the channels and I see on the scan what is being locked in and if it is analog or digital. With an old CRT TV you may not have a setting to scan - though it should still work.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable are both converting to all encoded digital on a regional basis. Those campgrounds that get their service from either one will at some point have to address the digital conversion issue either by supplying campers with loaner boxes or building a per channel converter analog combiner front end that can feed their existing site wiring. I expect the other cable suppliers will also go all digital at some point.

Gene&Ginny wrote:

mrbhamilton wrote:
.... Can I just plug in an old analog tv into the campground system,...

Yes you can.

Some campground cable systems will also have some digital channels. A standard converter box will NOT receive those digital signals. Your old analog TV will work just fine.

As long as the campground is not broadcasting digital only programming in which case you will receive nothing. This is not usually the case but it is becoming more common as cable users are demanding digital from their providers.

mrbhamilton wrote:
.... Can I just plug in an old analog tv into the campground system,...

Yes you can.

Some campground cable systems will also have some digital channels. A standard converter box will NOT receive those digital signals. Your old analog TV will work just fine.

SD and Bill ...good info and good advice....couldn't have said it better.

Really, you have a Class C motorhome without a roof mounted TV antenna? Such a beast would be extremely rare. If you do want to receive OTA TV then you are going to be required to get a digital to analog converter but they are cheap. I recommend the one from Radio Shack for about $50 as it also has an analog pass-through for the rest of your equipment including park cable.
Most campgrounds either have analog or analog and digital programming so you should be fine when connected to park cable but you need to ask before you waste any time trying to scan for programming your TV cannot receive.
Now, for a couple of hundred bucks you can have a new digital TV which will fit in the same hole (or close) and can be mounted in almost no time. Considering $50 for a converter that will only work with one TV or replacing TV's with digital is something that should likely be your first consideration to ensure a pleasurable viewing experience where ever you go. Remember that a digital TV can also receive analog but an analog TV cannot receive digital.

Camps providing cable through a satellite provider ( like ours from Dish) are most likely analog. The equipment to provide HD cable from a satellite is prohibitivly expensive and prone to failure.
Camps with a cable provider might be either, if the provider has the bandwidth, if the camp has the cable infrastructure, and the budget to pay for HD.
Our subscription to Dish for 25 channels ala carte for 84 sites & cabins costs $484/ mo. We own and maintain the recievers, modulators, boosters, cable- everything. Even the climate controlled building to house the recievers.
Cost to put it in topped 20k and almost daily we are asked to come to a site with a tv to prove it works. Sorry sir, the problem is in your RV. Did you turn off your antenna booster? Have you configured your tv to cable standard? Is your selector switch set for cable tv 1?
We do not charge extra for cable or raise rates for it, but did factor in that it could fill sites, and set us apart from nearby camps with no cable. We are in an area with no air channels. That assumption is working, but is it worth the hassle & expense?
It will take a long long time to recoup the investment.
If our IP provider could provide enough bandwidth to allow video streaming we would not have put in catv.

The analog/digital changeover that effected how TV signals are received referred to over the air broadcasting. If you have an older, purely analog television, you will need a converter box to receive and process the signal from your rig's antenna. Cable TV is different and the signals can be received and processed by all current televisions, whether that signal is an analog or a digital signal. What you won't find a lot of in RV park cable systems are HD signals, so your television will be receiving and displaying in SD. Many major cable companies are now changing over to scrambled digital signals, so converter boxes from the cable company may become necessary at some parks. Our parks use a private cable TV system, we buy the feeds from Directv and have our own combiner, amplifier and headend units. We are only able to broadcast SD, but we will not need to provide individual converter boxes to each rig. Just set your television mode to cable, be sure you are connected to the cable feed and run channel search, it will find the channels and you will be good to go.