AT&T, which bought out TCI Cable and now runs the local cable in Concord, recently upgraded the cable system, adding more digital channels and moving some channels around to make people get digital cable to view those channels. And even though they changed the name to AT&T cable, it's still probably 90% TCI people still working there. But as with any cable upgrade, some things break. I've lost some channels I should be getting, strangely enough, I don't get any extra channels that I shouldn't be getting.

It's not a huge deal. I've lost some of the redundant channels. Who needs Cinemax West and East? It's the exact same thing, and usually at the same time too so it doesn't matter. There are other channels like that, totally useless since they're exactly the same as another channel. I'm only getting one of the VH1 music stations. MTV/VH1 finally decided to recreate pure music video channels so now I don't have to look at the uninteresting fare on those two channels. I want to watch music videos, not a bunch Gen X'ers living together or yet another documentary on a band that disbanded before I was born.

Unfortunately, I'm only getting one of the four or five music video channels, luckily the one is the country channel so that's the one I wanted anyway. I don't want to call AT&T Cable to get it fixed, since chances are they'll only make it worse. I'm happy and I can live with what I have now. Fixing it would only improve it by a few percent whereas there's a good chance I could lose channels that I really want to see. Strange that I can't trust the cable company to do something simple like fix my box.

Digital cable itself kind of sucks. And I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but the signal frequently pixelates or cuts out every day for a few seconds as I'm watching. It's probably the converter box. It's really big and hot and early generation (although new) so the technology was pushed out six months too early. But now I get the Sci Fi channel and some other channels that are occassionally useful. It's not like the tv guide covers all these channels anyway, or the cable guide that they send me for that matter. If I really want to see what's on I can look up the whole gamut on clickTV. There's a point when there are just too many channels to keep track of. I could probably live quite comfortable with my twelve most used channels, probably half of which I only watch for one tv show.

Gee, what channels do I watch? The major networks make up more than half. The local NBC, CBS, and ABC channels. The local FOX station for Stargate, UPN for Voyager, local WB for Xena, TNT for Tour of Duty, Scifi for Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek, Bravo for Moonlighting, CNN for Larry King Live, USA for some JAG reruns. Occassionally AMC, Romance, TCM, Western for military, John Wayne, or Audrey Hepburn movies. VH1 Country. So that's 12 regularly plus another four (although probably more like another 12) occassionally. Out of what, some 100+ channels that I get?

So I'm watching VH1 Country, and it's getting scary what I can sit through and listen as I use my computer. But they show a good variety of artists that I do like. I can usually catch one or two videos I really like, and a few others that I can listen to without feeling sick. Something like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Dixie Chicks, SheDAISY, Deana Carter, Chely Wright, Jodie Messina and many more. I haven't seen any Sherrie Austin videos and only one Mindy McCready video. They've even played Sheryl Crow doing "It Don't Hurt", I think, and the Counting Crows. The definition of country gets stretched a little bit. But I'm quite happy with the selection. And I don't have to listen to an annoying video jockey like on CMC.