Hello! I have two questions and was looking for some insight! One of them is a little technical. I have no idea how digital signals are sent and what role a digital adapter plays.
First some backgound: I live in Toronto. I have a digital t.v. I am currently getting ripped off by Rogers.
I really only care about the following news channels: BBC, CBC, CNN, and CTV. And I also want to keep the basic channels like family, ytv, discovery, history, and the like.
First and most importantly,
I learned that I am paying $30 per month to rent my "rogers box," which I assume is a digital adapter (please don't ask why I just learned this).
At first, I thought, "Why the HECK do I even need this thing? My t.v. already has a digital tuner inside it?! That makes zero sense."
I did some research and learned that the box actually has a dual purpose of decrypting signals sent by Rogers.
So the question becomes: can I buy any old digital adapter or am I stuck using the one that the company gives? If I can buy my own, what should I be looking for in digital adapters and which do you recommend?
And also, just because I'm so confused, is it that my digital adapter is receiving all channels from every provider (SHAW, BELL, ROGERS) and only decrypts/tunes into the one it CAN decrypt (in this case ROGERS)?
Or is it that Rogers specifically transmitting me the channel I request through the box.
Second, just as an aside, which company do you personally use and consider good?
That most likely is not a digital adapter. Its a decoder. In the US, you can sometimes get a thing called a "cable card" (you have to be very insistent on getting it though, and low level tech support may not know what it it). You can make your own cable box, or purchase one, and put the cable card in it. The cable card is basically just a card that decrypts the signal being sent over the wire to your house. It gives you only the channels that you pay for. This is done because all TV channels are being sent over the network at all times. In the Analog days, they used an actual device on the telephone pole next to your house that blocked higher frequency channels (that you could get around by replacing the device with a straight piece of RG-6).
I still have cable, but it's for broadband internet only. Any TV watching is done via online sources. Honestly, most of what is available on TV is pretty much dreck anyhow, and for the good stuff, you can find it online if you know how and where to look (or just wait and buy it as a DVD set).
I still have cable, but it's for broadband internet only. Any TV watching is done via online sources. Honestly, most of what is available on TV is pretty much dreck anyhow, and for the good stuff, you can find it online if you know how and where to look (or just wait and buy it as a DVD set).
This is what I suggest as well. After doing some research, it seems the CableCard idea is a US thing only. No one outside the US supports it.
You're still getting ripped off though, we pay about $7 per Dish Network DVR, and each DVR feeds 2 TVs. Their new "Hopper" DVR costs $14 a month and feeds 3 TVs with recording functionality, and 8 with replay functionality (you have 3 tuners that can be used by any of the 8 connected TVs). $30 is crazy, unless the exchange rate went off the deep end when I wasn't looking.
I have absolute bare bones 15 bucks a month cable which gets me a whole handful of channels cause DTV didnt work in my apartment (believe me I tried, I think there is still some rabbit ears duct taped to the bricks) and one day we got an email saying we needed the little adapter boxes for digital cable
doesnt cost me anything, saved me from buying a universal remote to a goodwill tv, and for the first 9-11 months had the 200 some odd channel digital starter package cause I did not register the devices as instructed ]
it does suck that they are leeching power 24/7 but they are still free other than that
