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Received: ID <C300EG60@CMU-CS-A>; 29 Mar 84 19:50:48 EST
Date: 29 Mar 84 1949 EST (Thursday)
From: Ed.Gehringer@CMU-CS-A (C300EG60)
To: Harry.Bovik@CMU-CS-A
Subject: VCR's and Warner Cable
Message-Id: <29Mar84.194940.EG60@CMU-CS-A>

Now this looks apropos to recent discussions Harry has had--

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Date: 9 Mar 1984 00:19-EST
From: Ed.Gehringer@CMU-CS-G.ARPA
Subject: Re: Warner Qube & VCR's
To: Lynne.Reder at CMU-CS-A      
Message-Id: <447657576/efg@CMU-CS-G>
In-Reply-To: Lynne.Reder at CMU-CS-A's bboard message of 08-Mar-84 22:25    

If you get a cable-ready TV, you use your TV, not the Warner box to
tune cable channels.  Therefore you can also use programmable VCR's
with it.  However, you do forfeit the talk-back ability of Qube.  (I've
never heard of a TV that has the "Qube feature".  What's that?)
Warner gives a discount of $1.50 or $2.00 a month to people who do
not need a Warner box.

I inquired about this problem too last summer when I was thinking of
buying a cable-ready TV.  I had *great* trouble getting the info from
the Warner salespeople.  I had to insist to one of them that she didn't
know what she was talking about--politely of course.  Eventually she
contacted a higher-up and got the information.

Recently some cable converters have come on the retail market.
Apparently you can connect one in place of your cable company's box,
thus attaining some of the advantages of electronic tuning as well as
true remote-control ability.  Presumably you could get Warner to let
you use such a device, although they probably would hassle you.  You
would then connect the cable directly to your video recorder, and hook
up the converter between the recorder and the TV set.  It might help to
hide the recorder when Warner picked up the box.  On the other hand,
Warner has been advertising a discount for people who return their boxes
directly to them, so you might be able to talk them out of paying you a
visit.

I received a Fordham Radio catalog containing a few such converters
earlier this week.  If you're interested, I can bring it in.

If you're just interested in a quick hack rather than full
programmability, you might do what I did--leave your box on
all day tuned to the proper channel.  You certainly don't want to leave
your TV on too, but you don't need to.  The box requires a load of
about 15 watts to stay on--two night lights work fine.  There are a few
disadvantages to this method.  You have continuous power consumption of
15 watts plus whatever the box draws.  You can't have your VCR change
channels.  And sometimes the box spontaneously resets itself to Channel
34--about once every six weeks or so, under daily use.

				-Ed
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