AfterDawn is incorrect, as are many others, to report “the end of analog TV”. In fact, only terrestrial (wireless) signals in the US are required to go digital. Cable TV delivery is unaffected by the new requirements, and providers such as Comcast show no intention of stopping analog cable transmission, until they gently force customers to more expensive digital plans and extra fees.
However, if you have recorded episodes of cable transmissions from a year ago, compare them to current transmissions of the same content and you’ll discover that cable companies are degrading (downsampling) the digital and HD signals provided to them as default by the content producers. Artifacts indicative of poor conversion are meant to induce customers to switch to more expensive digital cable plans. And in the case of HD, at least with Comcast (and just like phone companies like AT&T stripping default telephone ID components (Caller ID)), the HD content is blocked (downgraded) (even with digital cable) unless the customer chooses to fork over an additional monthly fee for the HD which the content producers provided in the first place.
Most poeple don’t realize that companies, like AT&T for instance, strip/block features like Caller ID that are already part the completely computerized phone service. They then resell this feature to the customer as though they created it out of extra effort, which they did not. This is what Comcast and others are doing with cable transmission, and for an extra fee, you may have what the content producers are already supplying at no extra charge.
