The problem with getting rid of cable tv comes from the desire to continue to receive local off-air broadcasts.  When the government mandated switch to digital broadcasts occurred, cable users ignored it because the cable companies would handle the situation for us.  As long as we were plugged into the wire, we were good to go. So we ignored the rush to purchase the digital converter boxes so our old analog TVs would continue to work. We even went out and bought digital ready TVs so we'd be up to date for the next 10 years. 

That was last year.  Now jump forward to today.

Comcast now switches their analog signal to digital making our analog TVs useless unless we get their set top boxes (aks STBs).  Even worse, those digital TVs we bought don't work either without a set top box, effectively making my $1600 sony bravia a boat anchor.  They graciously offer up to three STBs for their customers.  The free STBs don't provide HD and effectively provide a picture quality circa 1974.  What Comcast is gambling on is that cable customers choice to use cable because they didn't have to use set top boxes wouldn't disuade them from switching to having these boxes since their only other choice is satellite TV (Dish and directtv) force you to use boxes too.  Or the choice of no cable at all.

But it turns out that isn't much of a choice.  Since off-air broadcasts of local stations are digital we still need digital converters for all those analog TVs.  So let's say we decide that Comcast can bite the big one and we'll shell out for the boxes anyway, just not shelling out to Comcast.  We'll shell out to the digital converter box makers instead.  That'll show Comcast, right?

Except the program where the government offers a $40 rebate for the digital converter boxes is long over.  So we missed that option and will have to pay full price for these boxes.  Okay, we're still okay with that since these boxes are only around $40-$80 anyway and it still frees us from Comcast.  So we go searching for the boxes. 

We find the Consumer Reports list of converters.  That gives us models to google for.  Only after we check with the local Target, Best Buy, radio shack and high-end home theater store we discover that almost none of these are available anymore.  Seems they stopped making them.  Sure, Best Buy and radio Shack still carry one model each (and Best Buy is out of stock),  but these are not the best models from the Consumer Reports list.  

After much searching we find refurbished models and some models still available for new from amazon.  The prices are roughly the same, maybe a little cheaper.  But we can't find the best models anymore.  So we settle for the best we can get.

Which is exactly what Comcast is betting on.  They believe that after all that work we'll give up and just pay for their crappy set top boxes and pump out the extra cost for the "good" models that actually allow high definition signals on those high end TVs we bought last year that we thought would just work with cable but now don't.

Well, it's their gamble.  But with me, they lost the bet.  I found some converters.  I've ordered them.  I bought an antenna from Radio Shack and 100ft external cable and already have a junction box outside the house that the antenna can connect to to feed the whole house.  I'll install the antenna sometime in the next week or so, then install the STBs when they get here. Then I can cancel my cable TV subscription. And once again that high end TV will do what it was supposed to do:  give me a nice picture.  Despite Comcast's best effort to prevent that.

Of course, after upgrading the MythTV client computer (that sits behind that big new TV I bought last year) with a higher end video card I'll be able to watch most of what I was watching previously – in High Def – on the Internet anyway.  So who needs cable TV?  Like CNN reports, it's going to get harder to sell land lines and cable TV.

And if Comcast throttles my Internet connection (yes, it's a cable modem) I have two options: Qwest and Wi-Max.  I'm tempted by the latter but the coverage map has my location on the edge of a dead zone.  For now, I won't worry about it.  Until Comcast does something stupid with my Internet connection.

Historically speaking, that shouldn't take long.