I'm going to explain my situation, and hopefully somebody will be able to come up with a solution. I currently have a Westinghouse HDTV that does not have a built in tuner. I guess technically this makes it more of a monitor than a TV, but you get my drift. Up until this point I've always had cable with a DVR box so never worried about the lack of a tuner on the set. Well recently my wife an I moved into a new apartment, and included in our rent is basic cable. By basic cable I mean all the basic channels, but no more HDTV box. We don't want to rent the DVR box from the cable company anymore as we're trying to save some money, so we're trying to figure out the easiest way to get HD channels on our TV.

I originally thought about getting something like Samsung's DTB-H260F and an indoor antenna, but I think due to us living in an old warehouse building downtown, we may find the reception is not so good.

I know that if my TV had a built in HD tuner that it could pick up the network HD channels from the basic cable we're getting, so I'm wondering if there is some external box I could buy that would basically take the place of the cable company's box. All I care about is getting my network HD channels, I don't need the rest of the basic cable channels. Does anyone know if this is possible or am I going to have to rent a box or buy a new TV in order to get my HD fix?

The DTB-H260F will work as a QAM tuner also and pick up any unencrypted HD channels your cable company offers.

Thanks for the quick reply. I went out and bought the dtb-h260f and it does indeed work. I do have one question though. On my standard tv in the bedroom I seem to get all the basic cable channels plus the expanded basic (stuff like foodtv, hgtv, etc...) On my HD set with the h260f however I only seem to get the network stations. I get a few others like TNT but no audio is coming through. Is there a reason for this, and is there anyway I can get all the same channels I get in the bedroom on my HD set?

Thanks for the quick reply. I went out and bought the dtb-h260f and it does indeed work. I do have one question though. On my standard tv in the bedroom I seem to get all the basic cable channels plus the expanded basic (stuff like foodtv, hgtv, etc...) On my HD set with the h260f however I only seem to get the network stations. I get a few others like TNT but no audio is coming through. Is there a reason for this, and is there anyway I can get all the same channels I get in the bedroom on my HD set?The Samsung does not have an analog cable tuner. Use the analog cable tuner in the Westinghouse, which means you will have to switch back and forth between the Samsung (for HD) and Westinghouse (for the rest).

The OP stated that he had a Westinghouse Monitor and that it did not contain any tuner.
The Westinghous monitors can accept either ATSC Video via comnponent or HDMI or they can accept PC desktop resouutions via VGA. They are not sold as HDTVs they are sold as HDTV ready.

Got an old VCR laying around? It would work as an analog cable tuner.

Would the decoder boxes that are available using the government coupon decode the rest of the channels, or would it not work either because those are digital boxes?

Would the decoder boxes that are available using the government coupon decode the rest of the channels, or would it not work either because those are digital boxes?

Those decoder boxes (CECB) are only for hooking up to an antenna, they will not work on cable.

I would recommend getting an HD tuner and an antenna. That way you could get the over-the-air HD signals.

The basic digital STB(non PVR) from my cable company is not a PVR, however, it will receive the local HD channels since they are broadcast unencrypted. So you don't get the "subscription required" notice if you select one of them.