Communication Today

Digital television

Q – I’ve heard that Orbitel TV has been converted to 100 percent digital. If so, why would I need a digital cable box?

A – Orbitel recently completed a project to bring crystal-clear digital quality video and audio signals to all of our customers. Prior to our digital conversion, customers who received video service without one of our digital converter boxes receive the video and audio signals in an analog format. Analog is a legacy technology that is not able to provide the better quality video and sound that a digital signal can deliver.

Unlike DirecTV, Dish Network, Century Link and the other large cable providers, Orbitel does not require a digital converter to receive 85 of our most popular networks providing your TV has a digital – also called QAM – tuner. Most TV sets manufactured after 2005 have compatible digital tuners. We at Orbitel pride ourselves on making our TV service available to the widest variety of television sets available on the market. We support both industry accepted standards for digital television tuners.

So why do many customers still opt to use a digital cable box? There are many advanced features available via a digital box that you can’t get by simply using the tuner in your TV set. Some of these include:

Access to more cable channels – go from 85 up to 380 available channels!

Video On Demand services – With On Demand, every time you sit down to watch TV, you have thousands of programming choices right at your fingertips, from free popular TV shows, to a wide variety of new movie release titles and your favorite classic movies in standard and high definition. Many titles are available the same day as DVD, before Netflix or Redbox, so you don’t have to wait to see the movies of your choice! You can select your choice from an on screen menu by pressing a button on your remote control. Your selection then plays instantly right on your TV.

Access to premium movie channels like HBO, Showtime, Starz and more.

50 plus commercial-free digital music channels. It’s like having 50 radio stations available all with different styles of music.

Some special digital boxes also have Digital Video Recorders built in. Using an on screen menu, you can select any TV program available and set it to record automatically. You can even record every program of your favorite TV series automatically so you never miss your favorite show again!

More HD channels are available with an HD digital box – 100 plus in all depending on the programming packages to which you subscribe. All the HD channels are arranged in a genre-based line-up, so similar channels are grouped together, like sports, family, premium, etc. to enhance your viewing pleasure.

Interactive program guide with searchable listings for every channel – you can set reminders, scan the listings without changing the channel, set parental controls and more! Many customers who get it wonder how they ever got along without it!

To find out more about the advanced features of a digital box, contact an Orbitel representative today to learn more; call 480-895-8084.