Cable Companies Want Ability to Downconvert DTV

With the Feburary 2009 shutdown of analog TV broadcasting less than two years away, industry types are starting to get a little antsy when it comes to planning for the transition to all-digital television. Loyal readers of this blog know all about the federal government's subsidy program consisting of $40 coupons towards the purchase of digital-to-analog converters, but most of the general public does not. Hence the need for an industry push for consumer education. Feb. '09 will be here sooner than anyone realizes.

But millions of consumers will be at the mercy of how their cable provider handles the DTV transition. There are essentially two options: [1] you are forced to get a digital cable box for every TV in your house, so that the picture still works on Feb. 17, 2009; or [2] the cable companies are allowed to downconvert the digital broadcast signals to analog at the cable headend and then transmit those analog signals to your analog TVs without the need for a special set-top box.

(Note that neither of these options results in a digital signal appearing on your analog TV. That ain't gonna happen. So if you want the all-digital signals, better upgrade your TVs by then.)

The cable industry really, really wants the ability to downconvert the signals at their headends. This way they don't have to try to force millions of digital set-top boxes on customers who may not want them. In the meantime, they'll push cable TV packages that give you analog service with a digital box (sometimes known as Enhanced Cable or Digital Starter) which only cost a buck or two more than regular analog cable TV.

Cable providers that have high digital cable penetration probably won't even bother with the downconversion and will instead force their last straggler customers without digital boxes to add them (or maybe they'll just give them away at that point).

You can read comments on the subject by the CEO of Time Warner Cable here.