Why would a blog dedicated to "conquering the digital divide," have a post about a digital dilemma? We love digital. Gone are the ghostly images of days gone by. Digital TV offers beautiful pictures, crisp sounds and a host of options. That's great for those of us who already have HDTVs and cable television.
That's not my mom's situation. She's old school. No fancy frills for this woman. But whether Fay likes it or not, Digital TV is arriving nationwide February 17th.
It's going to be the new broadcast standard. So analog watch out, you're soon to be history. If you, like my mom, Fay, receive a TV signal on an analog television via rooftop antenna or "rabbit ears," you will be affected by the digital television transition.
You have three options:
1. Buy digital-to-analog converters to use with their current TV(s)
2. Buy a new digital TV (DTV)
3. Buy cable or satellite service
If you opt for the digital to analog converters, you can apply for a Federal voucher of $40 to offset the cost of purchasing a converter box. Anyone who’s interested or has other questions can visit the Federal Website for the TV Converter Box Coupon Program. There are also links to help find where to buy the converter boxes.
My mom hates change. Not unusual for a woman in her 9th decade of life. But millions of Americans share Fay's boat. Faced with the advent of DTV on February 17th her reaction was "I don't want to throw away my TV and I want to keep my cabinet."
For the record, Fay lives in a condo in Queens, NY, one of several low-rise buildings. The complex uses a master antenna to provide broadcast service to the buildings. In addition, residents tune to channel 6 to view the lobby security camera. Mom has a 25" SONY from 2002. Her 30" Ethan Allan cabinet is about 50 years old and is in impeccable condition.
Faced with the mom mandate, my brother, Mark and I, set out to set her up. First we offered cable. "No, I don't need it, and "$39.95 a month is allot of money."
Time Warner Cable of Queens is the sole choice for cable service in my mom's neighborhood $39.95 is the lowest price on promotion, she saw. Actually the one I saw was $49.95 per month with free installation and free DVR for 12 months.
Curious to see what was really available brother Mark after much persistence came up with a rate less than half the price. His secret? He's both smart and knowledgeable. While mom has mandates, so does the FCC and the City Council. Some local franchising authority that regulates how monitors providers much your cable company charges for local stations and for any educational or government stations.
While the name may vary by provider, all cable companies have some variation of either "reception" cable or "basic" cable. How a company labels its packages or tiers and what they charge after that is strictly marketing. They've got to offer the bare bones by regulation. However, you may feel like an archeologist when trying to dig up those basic rates.
At the risk of digression, I'm going to report actual events that occurred during the course of this post. First, I typed in "Reception Cable on Time Warner Cable of Queens. There I picked a phone number from several choices. In this case, 1-866-849-1945.
I gave an address and zip code in Bayside, Queens to the gentleman who answered. His response when I asked for the lowest priced service was $29.95. I repeated I wanted basic or reception cable. He couldn't help me and gave me another number, 1-888-892-2253.
That turned out to be Time Warner Cable of Los Angeles, which through automation gave me my next number, which was out of service. When I persevered and next received a person, his name was John. John's been in the cable business 4 months. He told me he never heard of reception cable and I must mean, "limited basic." I responded that I didn't care what it was called, how much did it cost? He promised he'd find someone to help me if I held on 5 minutes.
I now got Barbara, who wasn't a third party marketer and assured me she was an employee of Time Warner Cable in Flushing Queens. I was apprised that the range of cable services began at $21.95. I was insistent that there was a lower price. She finally offered that there's "reception" cable (Hello John!) without a box for $13.85 (before taxes), "but that'll be inadvisable as of February 17th." I responded that I didn't understand why mom would fail to get basic broadcast channels if she had both the cable and a TV with a digital tuner. Barbara didn't argue.
I don't know about you, but my mom would have switched exclusively to listening to radio, if she'd gone through the aforementioned run around. Fortunately, my brother had done his own legwork last month. I return you the original quest.
FIRST
We tried reception cable. Only one problem. When the cable installer installed the cable there was no reception. He claimed that Fay's TV was "too old." I don't know we weren't there. I wish I knew if he'd tried the cable/antenna toggle on her cable ready set.
SECOND
Mark bought her a Toshiba. 32" LCD. However, when the cable didn't work, mom told the installer she didn't want the service. So the service was cut before Mark had a chance to test the TV. He didn't want to risk a return fee on an opened box, before we isolated the issue at Fay's.
THIRD
Mark brought the government authorized analog/digital converter and hooked that up to the Sony. No luck. It might have worked with he Toshiba. The condo board sent out a letter about the digital transition. My mom threw her hands up and sent it directly to Mark. Mark and think that the master antenna isn't set up for UHF. We're speculating.
We've now decided that mom's got to have a new TV and the reception cable to be really safe. She doesn't watch much, but she enjoys what she views regularly. She needs a reliable set-up. AND we want to make sure she sees the lobby security camera.
In my next post I'll report on our progress. By then, she'll have a new TV and reception cable. It wasn't her original mandate. But she's decided it's OK if she becomes up to date.
Don't forget that Valentine's Day is February 14th, while the Digital transition's official February 17th. Skip the chocolate and buy someone you love a new television. Fewer calories, and good for the economy too. And if you haven't seen it already, check out this hilarious video on YouTube which is Oh So Close to the story I have just related:
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