When TV Is Cable-Ready, Area’s Signal Isn’t

Cable television is supposed to be a simple thing. A wire comes into your home carrying the signal, it plugs into either your cable-ready television, or even better, your cable-ready videocassette recorder, and you’re off and running. There are dozens of channels from which to choose, shows can be watched on one channel while being taped on another and one remote-control clicker from the VCR controls it all--it’s couch potato heaven.

This is the image of cable television pitched by TV set sales people to hundreds of buyers daily, an image of electronic simplicity and convenience. The glitch is, depending on where you live in the San Fernando Valley, your cable TV company might not be ready for your cable-ready TV.

“All I know is when I lived on the Westside I had a cable-ready TV, the cable went into it directly and I was a happy camper,” said Laurel Whitcomb of North Hollywood. “When I moved out here they gave me a converter box that turns out to render half my VCR features useless. It’s silly because it’s all very simple equipment. There shouldn’t be a problem, it should all be very simple.”

What many consumers learn is that the simplicity is in buying the equipment. The complications come when they try to use it.

“Salesmen make it sound like the TVs can do everything except diaper the baby,” said Susan Herman, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Telecommunications. “They don’t tell you there are built-in incompatibilities. Consumers are being stuck between sides in a technological revolution.”

The Valley’s battle line in the cable TV revolution is the San Diego Freeway. East of the 405 is the area serviced by United Artists Cable, which scrambles its entire signal from the moment it leaves the office.

To de-scramble the signal, a viewer must have a converter box. The signal passes through the converter box before entering the TV/VCR. This procedure protects the cable company from theft of its signal and gives the company the power to control which channels are available to the subscriber. For example, a customer could decide to order a premium channel like HBO, or a pay-per-view sports event and the company could flip a switch in its office to make that available.

West of the freeway, West Valley Cablevision uses a different system. Here only the signals for the premium channels, like HBO and Showtime, are scrambled.

The big difference is, if the Cablevision customer decides to forgo the premium channels, he can do without the converter box and plug the cable line directly into the TV/VCR. The converter box makes a big difference in how a cable-ready TV/VCR works.

“When we moved here and the guy was installing the cable I asked him how do I tape one channel while watching another and he said I couldn’t without more converter boxes and switches,” said Susanne Malles of Van Nuys. “I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think it’s fair that I paid all this money for all this TV equipment and it doesn’t work the way I want it to.”

There are three major inconveniences for consumers who use a converter box:

The remote-control device that comes with most VCRs and is commonly used to control both the TV and VCR is rendered useless for controlling the TV. To control the TV with a remote control, you need a special one from the cable company. This adds $2.95 per month for each remote-control device to United Artists’ basic cable charge of $15.45 per month.

Setting the VCR timer to record more than one channel while you’re away becomes twice as bewildering since now there are two timers to be set--one on the VCR, the other on the converter box.

To tape on one channel while watching another, either an extra converter box, costing $3.55 per month, or an “A/B” switch, for a one-time cost of $5, is needed. With an extra converter box, the viewer can tape from one channel while watching another. The less costly “A/B” switch can be used to watch an over-the-air channel while taping a cable-only channel. With the switch, the customer is receiving one channel through the converter box, the other through his own TV antenna.

“Scrambling takes a complicated system and makes it even more complicated,” said Rick Holmes, UCLA’s chief media systems engineer. “You have to remember, you’re dealing with people who’ve barely mastered their VCRs.”

A cable company’s intention in scrambling isn’t to make anyone’s life more complicated, it’s to cut down on the customers who tap into the company’s lines illegally. United Artists feels it has a severe problem because 70% of the residences in its area are apartments and condos. In these, there’s usually a lockbox that the customer can gain access to and hook himself up to the system without paying. With single-family homes this could only be done by climbing a pole and tapping into the line, a much more intimidating prospect.

“Theft of service with a cable company is a lot like shoplifting in a store,” said Bill Cullen, United Artists Cable senior vice president. “People who pay for goods are paying something extra for those who steal.”

Under federal law, unauthorized reception of cable service is punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, but prosecution is infrequent.

“I would love to unscramble our system,” said Cullen, “but if I did I’d have everybody in the apartments breaking into our lockboxes trying to get ESPN without paying. It’s human nature, we can’t leave the door unlocked. It’s very hard for people to get used to paying for television.”

It’s equally hard for a consumer to find out he has paid extra for features on his TV/VCR he can’t use. Especially since it’s almost impossible to buy a high-quality TV without the cable-ready features scrambling renders useless.

“The consumer is the one who’s losing,” said Herb Bronsten, of ABC Premiums, an appliance discounter in Los Angeles. “They should make a non-cable-ready, non-remote, stereo TV. They could get away without a tuner because the converter box is already doing the tuning and they could cut costs considerably.”

The customer’s only protection is to know what TV/VCR features are going to work with his cable company before making a purchase.

“Why spend the extra 50 bucks for a spectacular remote control if it isn’t going to work,” said Paul Radefeld, general manager of Falcon Cablevision. “These TVs come with all sorts of bells and whistles, but the bottom line is if you’re going to spend a bunch of money, call the cable company first, find out which ones are going to work and save yourself some money.”

There are few signs that the situation will improve any time soon. The main problem is that cable companies use different methods to scramble their signals and TV manufacturers would need to develop technologies for each method. And, any TV that could unscramble a signal would negate the very reason scrambling was introduced--to keep viewers from stealing the signal.

Technology that would unscramble the signal before it reaches the consumer is being tested. If successful, this would make the converter box unnecessary for cable-ready TVs.

Herman, of the city’s Department of Telecommunications, suggested that consumers “strongly express with their purchasing power that they want compatibility. That and writing to their congressmen, saying they want these TVs to work with our interests and our wallets in mind.”