Cox cable switch to only digital

[analog-or-bust]

Looking for some clarification of what the switch to only digital will mean for my situation.

Right now I have a contract to record the news for several commercial TV stations. I use Cox to get the feed but since the stations are on the lower channels I have no "box" from them. They supplied a powered splitter that gives me up to eight RF feeds for my various computers.

Each computer uses a TV card to take the analog RF and record that as Mpeg2.

When I tried to get some information from Cox the guy was totally lost. Kept asking how many TV's I had. I asked that he just send out a tech to talk to me and he refused to do so. I hung up in disgust.

Questions:

Is there a single converter device I can get that will convert all the lower (2 - 10) channels I now use, as a group, from the digital signal to analog that I could then connect to my existing RF splitter?

There are cards that claim to capture digital TV off the cable. They will not work in my older PC's so I'd need to upgrade tons of hardware and software. Not looking to have to do this if I can avoid it.

What type/format of digital capture card is needed to work with Cox digital?

Thanks for the help.

 

[dkreichen1968]

You have a contract to record the analog news for several commercial TV stations? Who are you recording for and why?

You may need to bite the bullet and buy the new equipment. If I remember right Cox is encrypting the signal as they go from analog to digital, so you will need tuner cards with CableCards if you want to continue to record from Cox. Depending on your location, and the stations you need to record, you may be better off skipping Cox and investing in an antenna and network tuners like the SiliconDust HD Homerun series of tuners. There is no device that would block convert 9 channels to analog, and to do so would require more hardware cost than it would be worth (multiple DTAs, modulators, and a commercial cable head end).