[GTALUG] ot: sort of, is it really impossible to get real cable anymore?

[Karen Lewellen]

Hi,
If I could get the digital box, without having to use a modem, I would 
likely  be fine, because the digital box would tap into the existing 
blanket internet  wireless wise would it not?
In fact that was my landlord's idea adding an extra receiver to his 
account, for which I would pay the rental, as it is just on another floor.
I am curious how the antenna idea works, I am above ground for the area 
where   my television sits, so perhaps?  what do I need?
Oh  boy does my television have optical outs..in spades
The DVD player  has an HDMI port, I imagined connecting the cable box to 
this, and since the set is connected to the  player it would be enough.
I still have my old Roger's  digital cable box, the one they provided for 
older televisions as well.
wish I had fewer trees, not only is satellite less complex, from bell there 
are   channels automatically provided with audio description for the blind 
enabled..they do not provide this for Fibe.
Kare



On Wed, 29 Nov 2023, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 08:09:47PM -0500, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>> before simply saying you avoid television, Part of what I do professionally
>> means accessing  a great deal, news channels and other things for example.
>> And for me, the, I will just watch it on my computer is a nailed shut door.
>> This entire property is Bell fibe saturated which  while it might translate
>> to one of their fibe TV boxes working for me, its almost December and I am
>> no closer to my land line solution..even with photographs of the existing
>> jacks.
>> So,I am wondering if at all, it is still possible from anyone to simply find
>> old fashioned cable box cable.
>> I have all the rest of the equipment, and it all works..even my VCR.
>> I am even wondering if, since the place is so saturated for wireless, if I
>> got an older apple TV, third gen still had optical connectors, or a rocku, I
>> could come up with something. not as good as regular cable, but I am
>> grasping for ideas.
>> thoughts?
>
> Bell's Fibe service has only ever worked with their boxes.  Rogers cable
> has been moving to all digital over the last quite a few years, and
> analog cable (that a VCR could directly tune) has been gone for a while,
> with everything going digital.  They even gave people free little boxes
> for a while to connect to older TVs that could tune the basic digital
> channels but I don't think they even do that anymore.  I think everything
> now involves a digital cable box.  On top of that they have been moving
> to IP based systems (Rogers Ignite) for a number of years and I doubt
> they would install the legacy digital cable anymore for new accounts.
> Definitely no analog cable left anymore.
>
> Of course you can in theory receive over the air channels using an
> attenna and an ATSC tuner, but if you are in a basement that seems
> unlikely to work.
>
> So unfortunately as far as I can see, the only things you can get these
> days is Bell Fibe or Rogers Ignite, both of which require using a box
> from the respective company and only outputs HDMI.  VCRs won't do anything
> with that, and older TVs won't either.
>
> The streaming method might work, although if you were looking to get
> access to local TV stations, I have no idea if any of the streaming
> services offer that.
>
> As far as I can find, some of the Bell Fibe boxes have optical audio out.
> The Rogers Ignite boxes do not appear to have it.  Of course some TVs
> also have optical audio out, so it might not have to be optical out on
> the box you are receiving with, if the TV has that.
>
> -- 
> Len Sorensen
>