• bassman21
    • 1 year 10 months ago
    • Posts: 4553
    		 When we first got cable in Houston in 1981 in was called Qube Cable (aka Warner Cable). There were several small cable companies in other parts of the city that would later be bought by Warner. We had a converter box that you had to get up and change the channels on. When you added or removed a movie channel they had to come out and add or remove a notch filter on the line for the channel. The filters filtered out white noise (to prevent unauthorized viewing) so you could see the channel (before scrambling).

    They offered a service called "Qube" which started out in Columbus, OH and then later expanded to other cities including Houston. We never had the Qube service, but I remember the Cube name. The service was phased out in 1984 after Warner Cable lost almost a billion dollars. They merged with American Express and changed their name to Warner-Amex. They would later became known as Time Warner Cable in 1990. Here is a demo video of the Qube service from when it launched in 1978. It was way before its time no doubt.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Vnqyn0Hno
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    • vkimo
      • 1 year 10 months ago
      • Posts: 2325
      • Forum Mod
      • Editor
      		 I think sometimes technology need to catch up with the people's expectations, and in some cases it needs to wait for people to catch up to it's capabilities.
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      • stake n sheak
        • 1 year 10 months ago
        • Posts: 1774
        		 Did that predate Teletext? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsQ_dgjViio
        tangspot2 wrote:
        Mrs. stake you say some nasty on my threads. Dirty bitch
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        • Ghost of Vapor
          • 1 year 10 months ago
          • Posts: 360
          		 Whoa. I had never heard of such a thing. Very neat.
          signature The fun doesn't end here. www.retro-daze.com
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          • bassman21
            • 1 year 10 months ago
            • Posts: 4553
            stake n sheak wrote:
            Did that predate Teletext? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsQ_dgjViio

            I think Teletext came out a couple of years before Qube in the UK. The two were very different. The biggest was with Teletext it is one way where as with Qube you could send and receive. There were some other flavors of these services offered through a few other companies.
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            • eddstarr88
              • 1 year 10 months ago
              • Posts: 6887
              		 This is very interesting to me.

              Columbus, Ohio became the hub of speculation by the end of the 70's regarding the future of cable and interactive TV. TV Guide magazine was a great source of info for unique cable service in smaller markets spread around the USA.

              Ted Turner had his eye on the Columbus system because he knew that the television landscape was going to change in the 1980's. By the time I'd moved to Washington State, many broadcast markets across the western United States had become a wild west shoot-off for competing cable companies to capture market share.

              The late 70's and early 80's was a fascinating time in television history. Only now when I look back do I realize just how quickly the industry was being shaken up.
              The Eldorado is dead. Long live the Eldorado.
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              • bassman21
                • 1 year 10 months ago
                • Posts: 4553
                eddstarr88 wrote:
                This is very interesting to me.

                Columbus, Ohio became the hub of speculation by the end of the 70's regarding the future of cable and interactive TV. TV Guide magazine was a great source of info for unique cable service in smaller markets spread around the USA.

                Ted Turner had his eye on the Columbus system because he knew that the television landscape was going to change in the 1980's. By the time I'd moved to Washington State, many broadcast markets across the western United States had become a wild west shoot-off for competing cable companies to capture market share.

                The late 70's and early 80's was a fascinating time in television history. Only now when I look back do I realize just how quickly the industry was being shaken up.


                Yea Columbus, Ohio has been used as a test market for a lot of things over the years. It is especially know for being a test market for many new food items at fast food restaurants.

                I do wonder how much cable would have evolved if DSS satellite never came to be. When I got Direct TV in 1998 our cable system was still analog with only 80 or so channels. By 2005 it was a mix of analog and digital with the digital channels being heavy compressed. When I was finally able to get satellite again I was very happy. Cable, satellite and fiber continue to compete giving us a better service. Unfortunately TV rates continue to rise. I've seen Dish's pricing jump up $20 a month in the last 8 years with cable jumping even higher.

                With all of this being said I kind of miss the simple days of "cable-ready" TV with a few dozen channels.
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                • Dyzfunk7ional
                  • 1 year 10 months ago
                  • Posts: 3942
                  		 Oh yah I had cable tv back in '78... oh sure it was a matter of moving the tv a bit to the side.
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