Comcast and Westinghouse TV

cthompson

I have a 32 inch Westinghouse (LTV-32w6) and Comcast triple play (basic digital) in Alexandria, VA. The SD picture coming out of the digital box looked horrible, and we were not getting any HD channels through the digital, and we have enough remotes to mess with, so we unplugged the box and just use the expanded basic service that still comes over the line.

There are certain HD channels that come over the wire. Comcast says they will be in the 200's, but my TV picks the channels up in the low 100s, e.g. 108.1 and 109.4.

Also, they recently changed the channel numbers and I no longer get the local Fox channel in HD, while the local PBS station suddenly shows up. I am also supposed to get Discovery HD, but I think I only saw that show up once a long time ago. I think I am supposed to get ESPN HD, too, but I have never seen that. I used to be able to figure out what channels I should see from the Comcast site, but that just lists all the channels as far as I can tell-- I can't pick out my package to see what I should get. I called Comcast, but that person said I should never see any HD channels without the specific HD service, which is obviously wrong.

So my questions are
1. Why don't the channels on the TV match the Comcast listing

2. Why don't I see all the channels I should see?

3. How do I figure out what channels I should get?

ComcastGuy

1. The STB is just a big QAM tuner that decodes channels and puts them in the right place in the lineup. Your TV picks it up where it can and leaves it there.

2. You will never get the full run of digital channels from a QAM tuner alone on a TV. You need to have the box (at least in all of my experiences). Don't forget, you lose OnDemand and the guide by not using the box.

3. No cable company will guarantee you getting any channels off of a TV QAM tuner. It is luck of the draw. Usually you will get locals, a few digital channels, and the music channels.

Bottom line: in order to get all channels in your lineup, you should be using the cable box. The HD through my box is great (Moto 3416)...you may have some settings that need tweaked.

There are board members that can take it from here...I am not as strong with actual TV settings and the like.