4 ms·

I always wondered why cable networks couldn't have a Channel 1, even though it wasn't allowed on broadcast. After all, there's no other radio traffic in a coax

by tjohns 11y ago

I always wondered why cable networks couldn't have a Channel 1, even though it wasn't allowed on broadcast. After all, there's no other radio traffic in a coax cable to compete with. I suppose it could have posed a problem if there was any RF leakage from the cable network.

bhousel 11y ago
Probably because by time cable came out, TVs were not manufactured that could tune to channel 1.
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  You didn't select cable channels with the tuner, though. My recollection is that you attached the cable box to the TV, tuned the TV to whatever channel was used to display hardline input, then selected channels on the cable box. Eventually cable-ready TVs came out with the cable selector built-in, but they still weren't using the radio tuning mechanism to select hardline cable channels.
  - pwg 11y ago
    > You didn't select cable channels with the tuner, That heavily depended upon what the CATV provider did in your area. In many areas, TV channels 2-13 were transmitted verbatim on the coax, and could be tuned by a NTSC TV just by hooking up the coax (usually via an impedance matching transformer) to the antenna inputs of the TV. This, of course, did create a 'leakage' problem. If the coax leaked somewhere, people without cable got ghosting. But worse, if the TV picked up some of the over the air signal (quite common actually) that was on the identical frequency, you got ghosting even with CATV.
    - joezydeco 11y ago
      CATV started as a long-distance antenna for communities where signal was bad or impossible to receive (hilly areas, etc). The addition of premium channels, etc came much later.
amyjess 11y ago
They sometimes did. It just wasn't super-common because people expected the single digits to be populated by broadcast channels (in fact, they often moved UHF channels to single digits so they'd all be in a continuous block). When I was little, the local cable company in Dallas used Channel 1 as a tutorial channel where they looped videos showing how to operate the cable box and its remote. They eventually killed that, though, and just left Channel 1 empty. In other localities, they have actual programming on Channel 1. For example, NYC had the news channel NY1 on Channel 1 until 2010.
drblast 11y ago
When I was growing up channel 1 (on the cable box) was used for pay-per-view.

by tjohns 11y ago

bhousel 11y ago

Probably because by time cable came out, TVs were not manufactured that could tune to channel 1.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
You didn't select cable channels with the tuner, though. My recollection is that you attached the cable box to the TV, tuned the TV to whatever channel was used to display hardline input, then selected channels on the cable box. Eventually cable-ready TVs came out with the cable selector built-in, but they still weren't using the radio tuning mechanism to select hardline cable channels.
- pwg 11y ago
  > You didn't select cable channels with the tuner, That heavily depended upon what the CATV provider did in your area. In many areas, TV channels 2-13 were transmitted verbatim on the coax, and could be tuned by a NTSC TV just by hooking up the coax (usually via an impedance matching transformer) to the antenna inputs of the TV. This, of course, did create a 'leakage' problem. If the coax leaked somewhere, people without cable got ghosting. But worse, if the TV picked up some of the over the air signal (quite common actually) that was on the identical frequency, you got ghosting even with CATV.
  - joezydeco 11y ago
    CATV started as a long-distance antenna for communities where signal was bad or impossible to receive (hilly areas, etc). The addition of premium channels, etc came much later.

amyjess 11y ago

They sometimes did. It just wasn't super-common because people expected the single digits to be populated by broadcast channels (in fact, they often moved UHF channels to single digits so they'd all be in a continuous block). When I was little, the local cable company in Dallas used Channel 1 as a tutorial channel where they looped videos showing how to operate the cable box and its remote. They eventually killed that, though, and just left Channel 1 empty. In other localities, they have actual programming on Channel 1. For example, NYC had the news channel NY1 on Channel 1 until 2010.

drblast 11y ago

When I was growing up channel 1 (on the cable box) was used for pay-per-view.