Cinemax on Analog TV?

I just upgraded my Comcast cable subscription by adding CINEMAX as my
premium channel. I thought that in addition to being able to watch
CINEMAX on my living room digital HDTV set, I could also watch CINEMAX
in 4 other rooms in the house which still have the old analog TV sets
whose channel numbers only go from 1 to 125. I don't want to rent
another box from Comcast for those other rooms since I only use them
occasionally.

Is there a third-party cable box that I can buy that can pick up the
additional COMCAST channels above 125 so I can watch CINEMAX on my
analog TV sets?

shawn...

Not legally. Even if you could obtain a settop box you would have to
register it with Comcast and they aren't likely to let you do it. What
you can do is use the CableCard solution if your TV supports that.

Alternatively, is there a CINEMAX channel between 1 and 125 that I
simply haven't found yet? Notice I'm not looking for a descrambler
since this is a legitimately paid for premium service. And I don't need

the full plate of CINEMAX channels - just 1 single basic CINEMAX.

shawn...

Probably not. At this point I think most (maybe all) of the Comcast
head ends have moved the premiums up into the digital range so they
can free up the bandwidth. Plus an encrypted digital signal tends to
be more secure than an encrypted analog signal.

I remember years ago Channel 38 was on CINEMAX, while HBO and Showtime
were on 36 and 37, respectively. Now CINEMAX is gone, but HBO and
Showtime are still there.

shawn...

Well, if they still have some premiums being sent in analog form then
you might try giving your local Comcast office a call. If they don't
provide Skinemax in analog then register a request for them to do so.
It may not make a difference but if enough people complain they tend
to respond.

Thanks for any suggestions.

pkj0891...

Unfortunately, I think you're out of luck. My Comcast system got rid
of the last two premium channels (HBO and SHO) on analog a while back.
And I just discovered that I can no longer tape HBO OnDemand, either.
Supposedly, per Comcast, I shouldn't be able to tape any shows from
any channel on OnDemand, but HBO is the only one with the block - so
far. I'm not pleased.

Mike S....

It sounds like you live in the same area as my cousin. He's got Comcast
analog with the Expanded Package/Basic Plus with HBO and Showtime.
Comcast just redid the channel lineup only a couple hours ago.
Apparently, Comcast got rid of the premium channels because my cousin
says he can't find them. According to the new lineup, they should still
get those channels. Unfortunately, the employees at the local offices
don't even know what channels their customers are supposed to get so no
one knows if they're still available or not. The Comcast website says
that HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and TMC are available for analog customers
and yet Cinemax and TMC haven't been available for two years (or so the
office employees say). Sad, ain't it?

I don't know why Comcast can't provide simple information for their
customers. It seems like they're always sneaking around and trying to
deceive their customers. They wait until the last minute to announce
these changes and then they take away channels without telling people.
That's just messed up.