OFF-AIR BROADCAST CHANNELS
Bardstown Cable currently carries available
off-air digital broadcasts from the Louisville television
market* in an unscrambled digital format know as QAM. The
following are the requirements for customers acquiring our
available off-air (Louisville) HD channels for free:
If your set has a QAM tuner but no CableCARD
slot, then you'll be able to receive the Louisville digital
broadcast digital channels but will need an external receiver
to receive the remainder of our scrambled (encrypted) non-broadcast
HD programming.
If your HD television does not have a QAM tuner, you will
need an external receiver of some sort to receive any HD programming.
* - WHAS-DT is currently not available.
NOTE: We highly
recommend a CableCARD slot for encrypted non-broadcast HD
programming (see "Non-Broadcast Channels" below).
However, the consumer electronics industry has significantly
reduced manufacture of the first-generation CableCARD televisions
so you have to ask specifically for one or stand-alone tuners
like the Sony
VAIO® Digital TV Tuner. Be advised that sales staff
at several area electronics stores have been telling customers
that "CableCARDs have been done away with" which
is not entirely true. CableLabs has revamped the OpenCable
(from which CableCARDs were developed) platform as tru2way.
This next generation of consumer-owned, cable-compatible equipment
is anticipated to be available at the retail level later in
2008.
Also see Panasonic's
Press Release regarding Tru2way technology.
Panasonic dedicated a portion of its booth
at CES
2008 to promote "tru2way," the new brand for
a common, interactive system that used to be called the OpenCable
Platform.
NON-BROADCAST CHANNELS
Select non-broadcast HD programming is currently
available in our "HD Value Pack" (ESPN, ESPN2, A&E,
History, TNT, Outdoor Channel, Food Network and HGTV). This
package is free to Expanded Basic subscribers. However, where
we are required to scramble these channels, rental of equipment
from Bardstown Cable will be necessary to decrypt the HD Value
Pack. Customers currently have three options for acquiring
our available HD channels through Bardstown Cable TV Equipment:
1. HD-DVR Set-Top Rental
