This may seem off topic in a DVDR forum, but to someone like myself who travels and carries a DVDR, it is relevant. What will hotels and motels do in March 2009 if their cable providers don't send them analog content? I anticipate a hugh cry of complaint from smaller hotels and "Mom and Pop" motels if dozens (or hundreds!) of TVs become non-operational. One major hotel I stay in has already installed a couple of hundred new Phillips TVs with ATSC and QAM tuners as part of a renovation project. But smaller hotels and motels will balk at this kind of expense. What do you expect to happen?

The cost of a digital tuner is supposed to be fairly low (we shall see), and for the smaller hotels this should be an expense that is part of the operating cost. (write off)
The old TV's are still usable.

The cost of a digital tuner is supposed to be fairly low (we shall see), and for the smaller hotels this should be an expense that is part of the operating cost. (write off)
The old TV's are still usable.

You mean the converter boxes? I have heard estimates in the $50 range (apiece).

"You mean the converter boxes? I have heard estimates in the $50 range (apiece). "

Is that before or after the goverment subsidy?

Which I am sure a motel can not use anyway.

-DoNb2

Even if $50 a piece, if you rent that room and add on a small fee (25-50 cents) a night.
More if you want to pay it off faster less to pay it off slower.
It can be paid off rather quickly.

This may seem off topic in a DVDR forum, but to someone like myself who travels and carries a DVDR, it is relevant. What will hotels and motels do in March 2009 if their cable providers don't send them analog content? I anticipate a hugh cry of complaint from smaller hotels and "Mom and Pop" motels if dozens (or hundreds!) of TVs become non-operational. One major hotel I stay in has already installed a couple of hundred new Phillips TVs with ATSC and QAM tuners as part of a renovation project. But smaller hotels and motels will balk at this kind of expense. What do you expect to happen?

Cable providers are not switching off analog. It is OTA mandate. What cable might do is move all cable channels to digital, but they will still provide networks in analog.

but they will still provide networks in analog.
... for a while....but chs like CNN will probably get cut off the analog tier.

Sorry I misread the original question, as stated the 2009 transition from analog to digital has nothing to do with cable, however some cable companies are moving many channels to the digital tier, with this change many small hotels may need to add STB's for every TV to still provide the digital channels.
This should be the only added expense, but again a small fee added to the rental of the room should take care of that.

I might be wrong, but don't most hotels have their own systems? Seems like the available channels are typically limited to about 25 or so channels and they channel assignment is very different than the local cable assignments.

Case in point. I typically stay at a hotel in North Jersey and they have about 25 channels (not including SNY - boo!). One time, I had to stay at a different hotel right next door. Literally, these hotels are next to each other. They share the same parking lot. This hotel had about 60 channels and they were in different channel locations. Plus, they had SNY (which allowed me to catch Oliver Perez implode against the Phils, but that's a different story).

So anyways, I'm thinking that the provider for these hotels send them a dedicated feed for the whole hotel. They can have whatever channels they want (and pay for) and map them to any channel number. So when 2009 comes around they can leave the service as analog, if they choose. And even if they do go digital and the hotel isn't ready, I'm sure they could build a device that will take the digital feed coming into the hotel and covert it to analog before it goes out to each room.

As for small hotels, I've seen a few motels with a few DBS dishes. Maybe D* has a special package for motels and small businesses (like gyms).

ft

I guess it is a matter of what is considered to be a small hotel, most of the ones I stay at have there own system in place.
Those without there own system in place will have to adapt when the cable-co's go all digital. (no timetable for this but many cable-co's are slowly doing this on their own).

Most motels have their own MATV systems (often w/ HBO and a couple of cable channels such as CNN and ESPN thrown in). I once stayed at a place in NW Arkansas where the MATV system used two sets of OTA antennas and the results were a mixed bag. The "cable" stations turned out to be received by a D* receiver and sent to the rooms by a UHF analog modulator.

What I suspect will happen is that the mom 'n pop motels will convert the ATSC OTA with a modulator to analog and pass along like the "cable" channels are done.