I had problems with the screen freezing for short periods on the local channels. A local Direct TV installer said I needed new receivers. So, I purchased two and, they took care of the problem. But, because of the poor color contrase we can hardly read the banners and movie descriptions. The receiver model is Direct TV D-11, and their customer service rep. said that they hoped to get a new program to download and correct the known problem. Our previous receivers were RCA and could be read easily. I wish I had my older receivers back. Does anyone know what receiver is good for the standard (not HD) channels???

Your mom had previously used a similar cable system setup downstairs with no remote problems? Do the up channel and down channel buttons on the cable box work with her TV? Was the cable box remote able to select channels when it was first installed? Can her old TV remote control still control the TV? Which cable remote control (Scientific Atlanta?) button lights up when she selects a channel by pointing the cable remote at the cable box? It should be CBL. If it isn't CBL lighting up, press CBL and then the channel number. Does CBL light up again? Does the channel change? On some combinations of TVs and cable boxes, when you are trying to transfer TV remote control functions to the cable box remote control (if that is what is being attempted here) it may take several minutes or more for the programming to begin. The directions are sometimes very poorly explained but the thing to remember is that the first blinks you get right away during this particular process mean nothing. The blinks that mean success usually take a lot longer to show up.

Many of the digital converter boxes are made by the same company. I believe the LG, Insignia, and Zenith boxes are the same and would probably have interchangeable remote controls. I haven't seen any of the boxes with built in timer capablility.

The truth is that most cable companies including comcast are moving away from analog and clear QAM signals. So even if your TV has ATSC tuner there are few or no unencrypted channels available. You will need a box to "decode" the encrypted digital signal. In my local area comcast offers a "free" (for 3 tv's) tuner that outputs a wretched analog via channel three signal over coax signal. Think back to VHS quality days. For about $10 - $15 per box per month you can get a HD box that outputs a variety of digital and HD signals. The only other option is called Cable Card, a cable card is a small card that allows the decryption of the cable co's signal. Few if any TV's now have cable card slots (unfortunate!). There are cable card devices out there and your cable co is required by law to support them. Some examples of cable card tuners are Tivo Premiere, Moxi DVR, Computer based cable card tuners (Silicon Dust, Ceton, and ATI). This option allows you to own the tuner and rent for small fee the cable card. The cable co. wants you to have a box on every tv, it gives them control and allows them to up-charge for HDTV. There are a few options for "sharing" boxes between tv's but none that are compelling nor do they work well. Some of the sat companies boxes are designed to be shared to multiple tv's.