The box stores the program schedules for a week ahead. The program itself is digitally transmitted. It has in its memory about half a million tiny tiles - tiny little pieces of a picture. When it receives the digital signal, that signal actually is an instruction telling the box to play a specific tile at a certain location on the screen. That's why digital cable gives a sharper picture.
Regular TV transmits the picture line by line.
It's a local call, usually done late at night, but the call is interrupted if you need to use the phone. The system remembers where it was in the transmission, then completes the exchange within another three days. And you can program a reminder to come onto the screen up to 15 minutes before a show you want to watch, just in case you forgot. Monthly cost depends on the number of stations. Fox Sports World, ESPN News, Classic Sports, Outdoor Life, Much Music, Turner Classic Movies, Romance Classics and the Independent Film Channel.