If your cableco has gone all-digital, what are the free STBs like?

[usually_quiet]

For a while now, I have been reading a few posts from members who are dealing with one problem or another caused by their cable provider switching to an all-digital system, or all-digital except for locals. It is beginning to look like soon the only analog cable option available in more places will be basic cable (local primary channels plus maybe a handful of others).

Last night my sister, who lives in New Jersey and has an "extended basic" or "standard" analog package from Comcast, called to ask me why Comcast was telling her she needs to install STBs, or be limited to watching 22 channels instead of close to 60. (They provide 3 STBs at no additional charge, if more are needed, they are $1.99/month each.) It probably won't be long before all Comcast customers, including me, are in the same boat.

For those who have already gone through this, and your cableco is providing you with free STBs, do they have timers and dual tuners so you can continue to use your recording devices, or are you being forced to rent additional STBs to record TV with your own equipment?

[Edit] The only information I could find regarding Comcast's SD STBs indicates they have a single tuner and a timer, so I will assume that is what my sister will have until she tells me otherwise. Only their DVRs have 2 tuners.

Looking at pricing, it's easy to see why people who want to time-shift their TV viewing overwhelmingly choose a cableco DVR over equipment they already own. Unless a customer needs to put down a deposit because he/she is considered a poor risk for some reason, a DVR is certainly a less expensive option than 2 STBs. Where I live, the normal fee for one Comcast SD STB is about $7/month and their SD DVR costs $11.00/month.

[Krispy Kritter]

They are manual. Same as anyone currently trying to use their standalone DVD Recorder. You have to set your recorder and then ensure you have the STB set to the correct channel.

[usually_quiet]

They are manual. Same as anyone currently trying to use their standalone DVD Recorder. You have to set your recorder and then ensure you have the STB set to the correct channel.

OK, so the timer is just a sleep timer. If we want to record more than one channel unattended with our own equimpment it has to have an IR blaster.

If they've already moved you, any word about how long the STBs will be rented at the reduced rate? I know that they won't be free or $1.99/month forever.

Comcast's advertising regarding the digital broadcast transition is going to backfire on them. For some time all the members of my immediate family have been looking at alternatives, but stuck with Comcast to avoid the additional expense and inconvenience of having STBs and rental DVRs. Now there's a pretty good chance that they will loose all of us as customers.

[Edit] I couldn't access Comcast's website earlier this evening to find the information that led me to believe that there were timers of some sort available for the STBs that would permit unattended recording via devices that we already own via a line input. Now I can access the site and I found this http://www.comcast.com/Customers/FAQ/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=2689&fss=vcr which seems to indicate timers can be set using the program guide. Unless the STBs and program guide provided to former analog customers are different from the others, I expect it will work the same way for us.