Digital TV experts, quick question

[yy4me]

A former co-worker who has analog TV and an antenna said he gets better reception and more channels with the converter box.

My question. I have an Analog TV, basic cable, miserable channel offerings to the point that I rarely turn the TV on.

If I use my coupon for a converter box, even though I have cable, will that addition somehow broaden the channels to which I have access?

Comcast, in its wisdom has given our area 5 religious channels, 3 shopping, 3 PBS(many offer duplicate coverage), 3 Spanish channels, 1 local (NECN) plus ABC, CBS, NBC. Thats it.
They have taken away some of the basic channels too. I don't know if they plan to give some back or leave us with the terrible choices we have. Our town(North of Boston) has very limited home shopping audience, no spanish speaking community, and really, how much PBS to we need? Even that is now a pain because it seems every week at least one of them is having a pledge week and the repeats are ridiculous.

I cannot afford to give Comcast any more money. Would I be better off dropping cable altogether? I live at the base of a hill and the neighbors house looms over us. I don't know what kind of reception I would get with an antenna.

Even though I know this change is necessary, it is a pain in the neck. I have more urgent things to worry about. I am paying for TV I don't watch and only keep Comcast for broadband Internet service.
I'd rather keep broadband. Just need to know about the cable/box/channel selection thing.

Thanks

[TheWraith]

1. No, it won't give you more channels.

You might get additional channels if you also hooked up an antenna and converter box to your current setup. But all the box does is convert digital OTA (over-the-air) TV signals to work with older analog TVs. It won't do anything for cable.

[itsrobert]

4. Actually depending on where the OP lives he might get more channels

Many of the over the air stations are multi-casting on their digital frequency. Since the broadcast is digital they can squeeze in more channels on their alloted frequency. Some NBC stations are squeezing in a weather channel, some have local 24 hours news, Public affair channels. ABC affliates have a channel for ABC news, Some PBS stations are multi-casting a wide variety of educational channels. But in the future, I suspect a lot of these stations will be multi-casting shopping channels, info commercials, and religious channels much the same way as AM radio and cable/satellite companies do with their extra channels.

[TheWraith]

7. Not if you're just hooking it up to cable it won't, which is what the OP seems to be saying.

As I noted, if the OP added an antenna and converter to their existing system, they might get some stuff over the air that they don't get now. But just adding the converter box will do absolutely nothing for them.

[RC]

2. Use the coupons and get a converter box.

The cost will be $10/$20 or so. My box has RF and RCA Video/R-L audio output jacks.
For $20 for two converters and a computer monitor with matching RCA jacks you have a second tv/remote.

[POAS]

3. Ignore response number 1

While you won't get "more" channels you will get additional programming aired on what might be called sub channels.

For example a local religious station was originally on Channel 17. Now they offer separate programming on 17.1, 17.2, 17.3 and 17.4.

The networks are doing the same thing. NBC locally offer three separate channels, one devoted to weather only 24/7.

[TheWraith]

8. Re-read the OP and my response.

They're not talking about getting more channels over-the-air.

[Kokonoe]

5. You will get better reception.

The antenna may be a factor. I believe the new channels are all UHF.

[DCKit]

6. My two local PBS stations broadcast four channels each.

And except for the one channel dedicated to childrens programming, that alone made the investment worth it for me.

HOWEVER: You may need to buy a new antenna to receive the HD signals. For a total investment of $80 (one month of DirecTV), I've got close to twenty channels of programming, three 24/7 weather channels and a dedicated sports channel - all local.