New Cable TV converter protocol

[Daytonaman]

Recent travels to CG that have cable tv service, finding it is necessary to use their converter common to the local cable co in order to get any reception. This requires an interconnection in the coach, and a channel scan on all tv's. Any solutions other than:"I have Sat so it doesn't matter" or "we use FTA TV", would be helful as not all areas have encoded cable.

[wa8yxm]

DSDP Don wrote:
"pogoil"......You missed my point.....dump the cable and go to DirecTv or Dish. They were not forced to keep Charter cable, they elected to do so because of costs.

Let's see.. Park cable: Included in site rental
Dish or Direct, 50-150/month

Great plan you got there.. Thank you. but No thanks.

park where I am is still non-encrypted cable (QAM Digital & analog mixed) plus I get most network stations OTA as well. Since my Digital recorders are analog only I get the tier 2 stations OTA, watching a recording as I type,, Night Gallery, in Studio Quality on ME-TV (3-2).

The DVR's are smart enough to choose the OTA digital adapters or direct cable recording,, A very advanced system I put together.

[Pogoil]

kcmoedoe wrote:

DSDP Don wrote:
"pogoil"......You missed my point.....dump the cable and go to DirecTv or Dish. They were not forced to keep Charter cable, they elected to do so because of costs.

To change a park to a cable system fed by either of those two satellite companies will cost multiple thousands of dollars. The park will need to install a head end unit, amplifier and combiner with individual satellite receivers for each channel they intend to distribute. Either provider will charge for both the channels distributed and by the number of sites served. A 30 channel distribution system will probably have an upfront cost in excess of $25,000, if their current cable system will abandon the unground wiring and taps to them. If they have to run new cabling, tens of thousands more.

You my friend are correct!

Pogoil.

[kcmoedoe]

DSDP Don wrote:
"pogoil"......You missed my point.....dump the cable and go to DirecTv or Dish. They were not forced to keep Charter cable, they elected to do so because of costs.

To change a park to a cable system fed by either of those two satellite companies will cost multiple thousands of dollars. The park will need to install a head end unit, amplifier and combiner with individual satellite receivers for each channel they intend to distribute. Either provider will charge for both the channels distributed and by the number of sites served. A 30 channel distribution system will probably have an upfront cost in excess of $25,000, if their current cable system will abandon the unground wiring and taps to them. If they have to run new cabling, tens of thousands more.

[demoon]

I think everyone is right in their own way. It is the cable company's fault for the encryption requirement and the campgrounds for not buying into the fix. Not that I blame them - it is expensive.
As an aside, Charter in our area now requires a box on each TV. The boxes cost $9.95/month each, but they will give you ONE extra, free, for two years. And, we cannot get satellite because of our neighbor's trees. Both Dish and Direct TV came and looked for a signal - no luck.

[bhall]

DSDP Don wrote:
"pogoil"......You missed my point.....dump the cable and go to DirecTv or Dish. They were not forced to keep Charter cable, they elected to do so because of costs.

With all due respect, I think everyone missed that point because it wasn't clear. Comcast in this area has done the same thing. Several campgrounds are unable to use Sat because of the tree canopies. I hate Comcast but I was once a customer with both DTV and Dish and at least now I can watch TV when it storms. Couldn't do that with either system here at my house.

[wa8yxm]

DSDP Don wrote:
"wildtoad"......the boxes are a cheap fix by the campground.....it's not the cable companies fault. They can easily send a digital signal. In this day and age, there are numerous systems that can be installed to provide cable or OTA TV without a box. This KOA probably couldn't afford the upgrade.

Actually the KOAs system basically does not care what the Cable company is feeding the park with, it's all RF falling in the same frequncy range it was and likely shall always be.

IT IS the cable company's fault.. you see they can charge you for each STB (Set Top Box). In the old days you needed a set top box for every TV so you paid perhaps 25/month then a couple bucks more for each STB, But then the TV's came out with QAM demodulators in it and all you needed to do was toss a splicer or two and you could add half a dozen TVs to the single account.. So they Cable companies came up with a new encryption code so they can charge you by the TV again.

Cable TV is. of course, a rip off, on several levels.

But it is the cable company's fault NOT the campgrounds.

[DSDP_Don]

"pogoil"......You missed my point.....dump the cable and go to DirecTv or Dish. They were not forced to keep Charter cable, they elected to do so because of costs.

[bullydogs1]

This is new forced down the campground's throats...here's what Bear Creek did and it works...they put the box in an enclosure at the site and they give you a zapper..you hook up cable as usual and tune tv to channel 3 and the zapper then tunes the proper channel..worked great....I have no idea who did this for them..but that set up is the best I've seen with this..in Florida, you had to hook up box and stick zapper out the window in order for it to work...most of the time we have Sat but for the locals at Bear Creek Asheville, it worked beautifully.....

[Pogoil]

DSDP Don wrote:
"wildtoad"......the boxes are a cheap fix by the campground.....it's not the cable companies fault. They can easily send a digital signal. In this day and age, there are numerous systems that can be installed to provide cable or OTA TV without a box. This KOA probably couldn't afford the upgrade.

I like and use KOA's and in this instance I am blaming the KOA. It was old and in need of repair/upgrades. It will simply go on our list of campgrounds we won't use again.

You are mistaken, The whole Southern Oregon coast area serviced by Charter went encrypted digital cable. A couple days before they changed they offered campgrounds and motels the fix you speak of. Before that the only fix was the mess you explained and no other choice. Charter chose not to work with the campgrounds.
Many parks switched to Dish or Direct. This was not the campgrounds fault. The equipment you described that came in the bag came from Charter Communications. I also stayed at a park that offered the small black box a piece of cable and a remote. The campground owner was sick about what Charter Cable had offered as a solution.

By the way the other fix you spoke of only offered 30 channels at the time instead of what the campground had before 70 plus channels and would cost much more I was told.

Pogoil.

[Gonzo42]

While I was searhing for a way to get cable in my rig, I notices CG's listed 'cable TV provided'. OK, but what channels were available?

My partial solution was to search for cable providers covering that area, then looking at the cable company's channel listings. The cable service to the CG is probably only a few of the actual total channels the cable company provides.

Also since there may be more than one cable company in the area, I check each one I can find to make channel lists.


For the satellite, I use www.dishpointer.com in conjunction with Google Earth to get the most accurate elevation and azimuth for the satellite.

For OTA, I use http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/ which shows the azimuth and signal levels of local OTA transmitters.

[chris3403]

We went back to the same campground that had the same cable company last year as the previous year to spend the winter months.
Last year we had to use the cable box. What had changed is what Dutch_12078 posted.

[powderman426]

DSDP Don wrote:
"wildtoad"......the boxes are a cheap fix by the campground.....it's not the cable companies fault. They can easily send a digital signal. In this day and age, there are numerous systems that can be installed to provide cable or OTA TV without a box.

Could you give an example of these numerous systems that will deal with a digitally encrypted signal???

BTW the park where I winter gives a box with each site and their way of assuring they get it back is to make you provide a credit card. If you want to keep the box, they just cridit your account. As for the need to run wires through the window, It shouldn't be necessary. You just hook up like you normally do and connect the box between the incoming line and the TV. If you have more than one TV, it is required that you go and get one from the cable provider. They don't charge for the box, but like the park they make you provide a cc. Not an ideal situation if just staying a night or two, but not bad if staying a couple months or more. The upside is that ppv is now available.

[Dutch_12078]

Right, the problem is not KOA's. The cable companies are using proprietary encryption protocols to manage their subscribers viewing options. Some cable companies do offer a 'head end' setup where all the decryption is done up front, and an analog signal for the allowed channels is fed to the campsites. It's an expensive setup though, and I don't know what financial arrangements the cable companies that supply head end systems are offering the campgrounds.

[DSDP_Don]

"wildtoad"......the boxes are a cheap fix by the campground.....it's not the cable companies fault. They can easily send a digital signal. In this day and age, there are numerous systems that can be installed to provide cable or OTA TV without a box. This KOA probably couldn't afford the upgrade.

I like and use KOA's and in this instance I am blaming the KOA. It was old and in need of repair/upgrades. It will simply go on our list of campgrounds we won't use again.