Digital Service With Tv's Built in Hd Tuner, A joke or what??

berto01 · 09-27-2007, 03:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ercjncpr

Any tv with a QAM tuner can receive LOCAL HD (no TNT, HBO Universal type channels) for free WITHOUT a box per FCC rules. To repeat, I said any LOCAL HD or subchannel signal that the cable company company pipes through will be available on all digital sets with a QAM tuner. Customer service reps are ignorant of this and sometimes so are the techs. Plus they make more money by not informing you of this.

You are correct. You need a QAM tuner. You would be surprised how many people do not know this

paulc · 09-27-2007, 09:18 AM

FWIW, it can be a mini-quagmire to find out if your TV HAS a QAM tuner. Displays from over a year ago tended to only have one IF they also had a cable card slot (you MUST have a QAM tuner to implement a cable card slot). Now-a-days, we do have TVs with QAM tuners that do NOT have cable card slots.

Talent312 · 10-04-2007, 07:58 PM

My Samsung HD-TV (w- HD-tuner) will, if you ask, show you the specs on the channel you are viewing, so you'll know if its HD or not.
Also... you /can/ tune to local HD stations with an analog cable connection, like ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and FOX, by doing a channel-scan.

But I just got a HD-box (not a DVR) primarily for ESPN and other "cable" stations. Unfortunately, the dweebs at CoxCable disabled my /old/ digital-STB at the same time... which I did not want to happen. Arrgh.

lkmiec · 10-05-2007, 01:31 PM

It works the same for me. The plasma in the living room has the cable box hooked up and gets all the Hd channels. The Samsung LCD I have in the bedroom has a QAM tuner and I get NBC, CBS, and Fox in Hd (No ABC Hd in my area) without a cable box, along with the standard definition versions of those channels. I think my CBS is 7 and the HD channel is 7-1, NBC is 9 and the Hd version is 9-1 and the same goes for Fox.

jedi4141 · 10-07-2007, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmilam

it looks like im not the only one whos interested in getting these questions anwsered.

Welcome to the forum. From your first post I think I understand what you are saying. Early in the HD era cable companies specifically charged you an HD access fee to receive any HD channels. What COX is saying is that they do not have such a fee anymore. It use to range from $5-12.

You mentioned having a TV with a an HD tuner. There is no such thing. TV's can have a digital tuner than can access digital channels which would include HD channels. To summarize what others said, a television with a QAM tuner will get your local HD channels with basic cable. If you want any more HD channels you will have to have digital cable and an HD STB (set top box) or their HD-DVR which has the tuner built in.

euskadi · 10-21-2007, 07:12 PM

I'd just like to add my experience to this thread. I had the exact same questions as the OP. I just had the Basic Expanded regular cable subscription.

Last week I bought a used Sony 30xs955 hdtv with QAM. No antennas or hdtv receivers or box.

I only had regular cable, NOT digital cable through TWC. I hooked my cable up straight to my new tv and ran "Auto Program". My tv said it picked up 75 analog and 446 digital channels and "shown" (whatever that means) around 145 (from the digital channels)channels.

Anyways I did pick up a lot of other (non hd)channels I didn't get before, eg. FOX movie channel, Animal Planet and MTV2. Also I picked up a bunch of audio only channels.

I did indeed get local HD channels, plus espn2hd, wtbsHD. I do seem to be missing the CW channel in HD though. They all come on strange(for me) numbered channels like 106.53.

So from my experience IF you have regular cable and an HDTV you can get the HD channels plus some more regular. Without cable I guess you'd have to try using an indoor or outdoor HD antenna?

Well, I'm pretty happy so far! This hd stuff is all pretty new to me. I'm glad this site is around too!

Tulsaboyw · 10-25-2007, 10:23 AM

No matter what anybody says...in at least the cox empire
HD itself has always been free.

Its the dvdr that is a cost item.
u can get the hd tuner free replacing the digitalcable box -- againfree.

Getting a DVR is cool, but if u buy a noncox dvr you lose some guide related benefits...but I dont know what & how much.

Anybody who says that cox makes u pay for HD, is lieing. Period!.

Now, there are subscriber Hd channels (cable & sat) but many of those would be subscriber channels (even if not hd).

Though I hope to see more, I have more than enough HD channels for now, and even have a few deleted from my remote' chancel scan.

In my case Ive removed 150+ channels from my 380+ of channels (hd & not-hd) ...

In my previous satilite setup Had even higher % removed.
Yes sat had more total channels but in the end fewer after 'remove'.

Since I base all cable & sat decisions on a cost per channel basis.... my cable cost is 1/5 of satelite.
And thats even with equipment free (cable always free, sat not always free, but usually).

cle · 01-08-2008, 07:21 PM

I have a hdtv and it has a qam tuner which allows me to get hd from wall cable to tv. Not all hd tv have the qam tuner mine is a toshiba regza. A friend has a sharp but it does not have this tuner, they do not advertise this tuner at all.

10-25-2007, 10:23 AM	#37
Tulsaboyw High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 70	hd & cox No matter what anybody says...in at least the cox empire HD itself has always been free. Its the dvdr that is a cost item. u can get the hd tuner free replacing the digitalcable box -- againfree. Getting a DVR is cool, but if u buy a noncox dvr you lose some guide related benefits...but I dont know what & how much. Anybody who says that cox makes u pay for HD, is lieing. Period!. Now, there are subscriber Hd channels (cable & sat) but many of those would be subscriber channels (even if not hd). Though I hope to see more, I have more than enough HD channels for now, and even have a few deleted from my remote' chancel scan. In my case Ive removed 150+ channels from my 380+ of channels (hd & not-hd) ... In my previous satilite setup Had even higher % removed. Yes sat had more total channels but in the end fewer after 'remove'. Since I base all cable & sat decisions on a cost per channel basis.... my cable cost is 1/5 of satelite. And thats even with equipment free (cable always free, sat not always free, but usually).

01-08-2008, 07:21 PM	#38
cle What is HD? Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1	hd tuner I have a hdtv and it has a qam tuner which allows me to get hd from wall cable to tv. Not all hd tv have the qam tuner mine is a toshiba regza. A friend has a sharp but it does not have this tuner, they do not advertise this tuner at all.

09-27-2007, 09:18 AM	#32
paulc Very Grizzled Vet of 1 yr Join Date: May 2006 Location: New York City Posts: 1,764	FWIW, it can be a mini-quagmire to find out if your TV HAS a QAM tuner. Displays from over a year ago tended to only have one IF they also had a cable card slot (you MUST have a QAM tuner to implement a cable card slot). Now-a-days, we do have TVs with QAM tuners that do NOT have cable card slots.

10-04-2007, 07:58 PM	#33
Talent312 A couch and an HDTV to go please. Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13	My Samsung HD-TV (w- HD-tuner) will, if you ask, show you the specs on the channel you are viewing, so you'll know if its HD or not. Also... you /can/ tune to local HD stations with an analog cable connection, like ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and FOX, by doing a channel-scan. But I just got a HD-box (not a DVR) primarily for ESPN and other "cable" stations. Unfortunately, the dweebs at CoxCable disabled my /old/ digital-STB at the same time... which I did not want to happen. Arrgh.

10-05-2007, 01:31 PM	#34
lkmiec What is HD? Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 4	It works the same for me. The plasma in the living room has the cable box hooked up and gets all the Hd channels. The Samsung LCD I have in the bedroom has a QAM tuner and I get NBC, CBS, and Fox in Hd (No ABC Hd in my area) without a cable box, along with the standard definition versions of those channels. I think my CBS is 7 and the HD channel is 7-1, NBC is 9 and the Hd version is 9-1 and the same goes for Fox.