KTIV NewsChannel 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and SportsCable One drops HD channels for customers without card or box

Cable One drops HD channels for customers without card or box

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) - If you're a customer of Cable One and own an HDTV, you might have noticed a change.

You can no longer get HD channels with basic cable without a cable card or an HD/DVR.

The cable card rents for $2.95 a month, while the DVR tops out at $23 a month.

That's because, according the Cable One officials, cable programmers like Discovery HD, Nat Geo HD, and ESPN HD have requested their signals to be scrambled.

Cable One officials say they did notify their customers of the change on Cable Channel nine and 33, but did not send out a notice in the mail.

"Who would we send the letter to?  That would be the other question.  That would be the other reason that the networks are concerned because we have no idea who has a high definition TV and is getting those channels, " said Cheryl Goettsche General Manager of Cable One.

Vance Pflanz with Pflanz Electronics says many of his customers have called concerned about the "cable cards."

He says nearly all HD televisions are no longer made with cable cards because of format issues.

But the folks at Satellite Central are pleased with the change at Cable One.

"Anybody that would want to come in and look at our HD lineup is going to be very surprised by the channels we offer so the people that are disappointed with the outcome of cable one scrambling their HD lineup could come in here and we'd offer them a very good package," said Jesse Brosnam, owner of Satellite Central.

If you get the cable card or an HD/DVR from Cable One, you'll get 24 HD channels.

With Dish's smallest package, you'll get 40 HD channels.   

If you have basic cable now and would like those HD channels back, you'll have to get an HD/DVR box for each television you want to receive the HD signal.

HD channels are not the same as "digital."