Re: Sci-Fi Channel observations

>>Derek wrote:
> It was open stage night in rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, when
> David Williams stepped up to the microphone and muttered: 
>
>
> > > You can if you get analog cable with cable ready TV and VCR.
> > > But if you've got a digital box, you're pretty much stuck
> > > watching one thing at a time. Same thing, I hear, for dish
> > > systems. 
> >
> > Uh huh.  OK, this sounds a lot like what Aisling and Mac said. 
> > The key is the "cable ready" tv.  Does that mean that you split
> > the signal before running the main cable into the box?
> > i.e. Main Cable comes into the house and through a splitter, one
> > cable then going to the box and another straight into the tv?
>
>
> Actually, no.
>
> We have one cable coming from the wall to the VCR and then from the 
> VCR to the TV. Both are cable ready, so the VCR can record one 
> program while passing the signal through to the TV so we can watch 
> a different program.
>
> If you have a cable box, you run the cable from the wall, to the 
> box and then to the VCR and then to the TV. The problem is that the 
> signal from the cable box to the VCR/TV will consist of only 
> whichever channel you've selected with the box.
>
>  
>
> > And again, you can't do that with a digital cable box because..?
> > Is it because the cable company has you subscribed for EITHER
> > analog or digital signal - analog can be split, digital can not?
> > I'm cornfused. 
>
>
> The issue about "splitting" the signal is hardware dependent. If 
> you have a cable ready TV and VCR, neither device needs a cable box 
> to decode the signal. But there are no "digital cable ready" TVs or 
> VCRs.
>
> Supposedly, "digital cable ready" devices will be available in a 
> few years where you will simply get a standardized decoder card 
> from the cable company to insert in your TV or VCR. This will 
> unlock the signal and let you watch and record independently again.
>
> But in the mean time - if you've only got one cable box, you're 
> only going to get one channel at a time.<<

What people are failing to account for here is that if you have a 
digital cable box, you are still getting analog cable sent to your house 
via the main cable that comes inside.  The only channels you're getting 
on the box itself, the only channels that are dependent upon the box, 
are the _digital_ stations.  Usually that's only the ones from 99 and up.

So in my case, I split the main cable coming into the house; one goes 
into the digital box, the digital box goes into VCR#2, VCR#2 goes into 
the tv.  That's where I record my digital channels.  The other side of 
the split signal goes into VCR#1, and VCR#1 also goes into the tv.  Two 
inputs.  You can watch either side of things by using the "antenna" 
button on the remote.  To switch to the DVD player, or if I want to 
watch what the VCR is recording rather than what I'm watching on tv, I 
use the "input" button on the remote.

Of course, multi-VCR/multi-cable-line systems are infinite in the ways 
they can be set up.  You have to do the best you can within the 
limitations of your equipment (and probably also a quick trip to Radio 
Shack for a splitter, and possibly a signal enhancer).

Aisling