date for mini box use

Per this page: http://www.cox.com/aboutus/policies/alldigital.cox?sc_id=cr_dm_camp_z_alldigitaldetails_vanity the Louisiana conversion is scheduled for Dec 26th everywhere except New Orleans, which is scheduled for Feb 13, 2016.  You probably know better as you are receiving communications direct from Cox.

As far as ordering early, no you don't have to.  Conversion in my location was end of March 2015.  We were on vacation most of March so when I got back I went to a Cox store, picked up my minibox and installed.  Never missed a beat and didn't pay Cox for months before I really needed the box.  Only benefit I can see is you will get the Essential channels in HD if that's worth anything to you.

I have to get the mini boxes installed for my mother and my neighbor. In the San Diego area they pushed back the dates the boxes would be available from Sept. 21 to Oct. 19. The final switch to digital is scheduled for Feb. 6 but who really knows at this point.

I read somewhere that they would be switching analog channels to digital on the fly. A couple this week, a couple next week and so on. So I emailed asking if I needed to get the boxes sooner rather than later to avoid losing channels along the way before getting the new minis.

The reply: "While you will start to see some analog channels make the change to digital in the next month, we do not have the dates for when All Digital will be complete."

You can take that with a grain of salt but it's worth considering.

They did switch on the fly here, Jerry, but they gave notice in advance before the channels switched.  As long as you have a Cox store nearby, you can pick up your box(es) and have time to install. Just because Cox notified us in advance of switching, YMMV.  If you don't feel comfortable picking up the box and installing the same day, by all means, do it in advance.  But ... 3-4 months is a little extreme   The installation isn't difficult, I installed 8 boxes, 6 for friends and 2 for myself ... spent maybe 2 hours in total ... that is as long as nothing goes wrong.  That includes spend time explaining to a friend why they didn't get a HD picture on their 2 decade old analog TV just because they now had a minibox.