Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!lll-winken!telecom-request From: zellich@stl-07sima.army.mil (Rich Zellich) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cable TV vs Telco Connectivity Laws Message-ID: Date: 28 Mar 91 16:11:37 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 53 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 252, Message 1 of 11 Here in the St. Louis and St. Louis County areas, I have no idea what the various local laws or franchise agreements allow the cable companies to do, but they only charge for the basic entry F-connector (or for the box, if one is connected); they charge for each _box_, not for each internally-connected TV or VCR, and also for each remote control unit (and they're optional, but at least the old city company would give it to you free for the balance of the first year, to get you used to having/using it). I'm not positive, but I think they will also install a second input jack for no extra installation or monthly charge; the only charge is for the converters (city anyway, have no idea about the various StL County cable companies). I've recently had a new house built in the county, and had it prewired for both video and phone. I had a separate jack installed for the future cable input, and it terminates on the other end in a four-foot piece of cable without an F-connector on it; according to the Communications Prewires, Inc. installer, the cable company will drill a hole into my basement and connect to my pre-wired cable on request. They've finally laid the feeder cables up and down our street over the last week, and we're now waiting for them to recontact us to see if we want our house connected to the two-house jack sticking out of a cylinder in my front yard. When they do connect, I will have to buy a few more short video cables and three more Y-adapters to hook up both the raw cable and the output of their converter box to a pair of amplified Radio Schlock switch boxes. These boxes each take four TV and one computer/game inputs, and feed two TV's and a VCR; since I have two of them, and have (or will have) the attic antenna, one of the VCR's, and both cable outputs Y-ed into both of them, I can feed four TV jacks and two VCRs (I currently have two TV sets and two VCRs connected to the switches, with two pre-installed jacks unused in the living room and spare bedroom). The back of my TV/stereo cabinet is an unholy mess of wires and cables, of course, since not only is all the video cable connected every way imaginable, but the TV stereo output (a separate box, more cabling) also feeds into the stereo system, which itself is fed every which way it can possibly be. If I had a cable company that insisted on making me pay for each TV connected, I'd just let them put in their one jack and converter box, and then just cheat and after-wire everything the same way, anyway. The RS boxes are about $40 for the un-amplified one with only one TV and one VCR output, and about $70 or $80 for the amplified version with two TV and one VCR output capability. If you want both raw cable input and premium-channel converter-box input, then all you need do is add a couple of extra short cables and a $3 Y-splitter. Cheers, Rich