hd on regular cable line??

[jason0522]

I live in the chicago land area and i was wondering if hd is supported on basic cable. So if buy a hd reciever, will it be able to show hd programs from comcast basic cable?
thanks

 

[Bobby]

If you buy an HDTV or an HD receiver with a QAM tuner, yes, it will receive your local channels in HD with basic cable.

 

[jason0522]

I have an HD ready tv and i looked on ebay for some hd receivers here are some of the results:
samsung sir-t150
samsung ts360
MOTOROLA DCT6412
TOSHIBA DST3100

any suggestions?? if it is a dvr slash hd receiver, will the dvr work with basic cable??

Thanks alot

Jason

 

[TNGTony]

If it has a QAM tuner, yes. Otherwise no. The unit MUST say it has a QAM decoder otherwise it doesn't. Don't let sales people say "they all have it." They don't. ATSC is for over the air digital, QAM is for cable digital unencrypted (usually just local channels).

Good luck.

Tony

 

[Rob O]

I have an HD ready tv and i looked on ebay for some hd receivers here are some of the results:
samsung sir-t150
samsung ts360
MOTOROLA DCT6412
TOSHIBA DST3100

any suggestions?? if it is a dvr slash hd receiver, will the dvr work with basic cable??

Thanks alot

Jason

Be careful if you are looking for a box to buy on ebay. As i understand it, Comcast boxes can not be purchased, only leased through them. So if you are buying one, it might be stolen.

 

[RandallA]

This new Samsung HD tuner has a QAM/ATSC tuner:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sams...64855/catOid/-15607/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

They're pretty hard to find though. A couple of things though, the menus don't display on composite only on HDMI and component. The QAM tuner doesn't map the channels to the specific sub-channel number. For example, your HD locals may show up under 110-45 not on 2-1.

I believe that's a function of what you get in your cable system not the HD tuner.

 

[SatinKzo]

I use an two different LG boxes to QAM and ATSC stuff. Both I believe are discontinued now, but on ebay you can probably find them

LG
LST-4200a (does NTSC, ATSC, QAM)
LST-3510a (ATSC, QAM, Upconverting DVD player)

Both get my charter cable QAM signals that are in the clear. Which are locals in HD among other things. Each system is different, so who knows what you'll pick up.

Also note that the QAM channels will not normally match what the provider lists the channel number as. Most of the QAM capably boxes scan up to channel 135, but your cable stb remaps the channels to the ones you see on the channel list.

I tried using a Samsung T-451 originally. It sucked, would not do QAM256, only QAM64. Of course this kind of spec is not on the box. Just my experience, maybe the new samsung stuff does more.

 

[kb7oeb]

They're pretty hard to find though. A couple of things though, the menus don't display on composite only on HDMI and component.

Does it have that limitation if you set it to 480i? I have the sir-t451 and it can show the menu on composite if the output is set to 480i.

 

[RandallA]

Does it have that limitation if you set it to 480i? I have the sir-t451 and it can show the menu on composite if the output is set to 480i.

I'll have to try it tonight but it even states on the manual that you can't see the menu through composite. I'll report back.

BTW, I really like this tuner. It's very small and it does a good job. The picture quality is excellent.

 

[mdonnelly]

I tried using the 811 in QAM mode to scan my local OKC Cox cable, but it didn't find any transponders. Wonder if I did something wrong?

 

[dishrich]

I tried using the 811 in QAM mode to scan my local OKC Cox cable, but it didn't find any transponders. Wonder if I did something wrong?

No, that "QAM" you're talking is NOT for CATV QAM - it is a variation that is used only typically in MDU/apartment building complexes. The DBS signals from the dishes are reformatted to QAM, then sent throughout the complex.

 

[dishrich]

This new Samsung HD tuner has a QAM/ATSC tuner:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sams...64855/catOid/-15607/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Thx for the tip - I've been trying to find something like this, just so I can use a plain box to listen to Music Choice on our cable. Not only that, our cable ALSO has many more unscrambled music channels that are NOT the MC service, that are NOT available via their digital boxes, but ARE available in clear QAM. (I think they are the old DMX channels & that Insight has never bothered to remove them from the data stream) I could use my new Sony HD set to do this, but really don't want to shorten the bulb life just for listening to music for hours at a time.

 

[RandallA]

Does it have that limitation if you set it to 480i? I have the sir-t451 and it can show the menu on composite if the output is set to 480i.

Negative, I just set the box to 480i and no menu is displayed through composite.