All-digital TV: An excuse to soak cable customers with a new fee?

Here's what you need to know about Time Warner Cable’s transition to digital cable service and the fees charged for converter boxes.

TWC’s move frees up more bandwidth for faster Internet and more high-definition channels, the company says. Anyone with a digital TV and a digital set-top box was unaffected by the changeover. On the other hand, anyone whose cable line was connected directly to their TV -- that is, without a set-top box -- had an issue. Time Warner Cable is now scrambling its digital signal to deter piracy. That's why you need either a set-top box or a digital adapter to unscramble all channels. The company says it's providing digital adapters to customers who need them free of charge through the end of next year. Beginning in 2016, it says, customers will have to pay $1.50 a month for the device. Is that a ripoff? Yeah, a bit. Time Warner Cable has found a way to make all customers use its equipment and thus pay an extra monthly fee.