Comcast plans a change in offerings

Comcast Cable, which now offers two versions of hundreds of channels so it can serve both digital and standard customers, is preparing to go all-digital this year.

The move will free up transmission space for more high-definition stations, more On Demand programming, and faster Internet connections. But to make the leap, many of the cable company’s 83,300 Clark County television customers will have to get new boxes to feed signals to their TVs.

On March 18, Comcast will start switching off its nondigital transmissions for all but channels 2 through 31. Those stations will still be available to limited basic subscribers, the 16 percent of Comcast’s TV customers in the region who pay $12.58 per month. They don’t have to do anything to continue receiving a signal.

Comcast customers with standard service — channels 2 through 70 and no digital perks — have to get new cable boxes by March 18 if they want to keep getting a signal above channel 31. And many digital cable customers who get signals on more than one television will need to pick up digital adapters for those extra sets.

“Comcast will give customers one set-top box and up to two adapters at no cost,” said Theressa Davis, vice president of communications.

Customers can pick up the boxes at Comcast’s Vancouver office, 6919 NE 40th St., or call 877-634-4434 to request delivery by mail.

Letters have started going out to tell Clark County customers how they will be affected, Davis said.

This digital transition comes just a month after another — unrelated — digital switch is scheduled. On Feb. 17, traditional TV networks plan to cease using the broadcast standard they have used for decades, and will send only digital signals through the airwaves. Many viewers who get television through rabbit-ear antennas, rather than satellite or cable transmission, will need converter boxes and new antennas to keep getting free signals through the air. Most newer sets can receive digital broadcasts signals without help, but older TVs cannot. Information about this over-the-air digital switch is available at www.dtv.gov or 888-225-5322.

Because of confusion about the over-the-airwaves digital transition, there is a possibility that it will be postponed. But cable and satellite TV customers will still get signals after Feb. 17, no matter how old their televisions or what happens to the airwaves.

But to have two digital changes scheduled one after the other is bound to confuse some viewers, said Jim Demmon, cable television manager for Clark Vancouver Television and staffer for the Clark County and Vancouver telecommunication commission. “The timing could have been better.”

But despite concerns, Demmon said, he is hopeful that the switch to digital will go smoothly.

“Comcast has already started to do this work in Eugene, Corvallis and Salem, and we haven’t started hearing an upwelling of concern from those areas,” he said. “Customers will ultimately see a benefit from this.”

MSNBC, which was removed from some cable tiers in 2007, will again be available to all but limited basic subscribers. Among the other 18 channels that all digital customers will receive: Hallmark, Oxygen, Sprout and Discovery Kids. And some subscription tiers will receive even more new channels.

Digital cable also includes an interactive channel menu, so viewers can instantly see what’s showing at any given time, and On Demand video, which includes free and pay-per-view shows and movies that start as soon as they are requested.