Hi,

I'm looking for advice (even locating) an external tuner for an older CRT RPTV that has a old and dated internal tuner. I have no plans of using it for OTA, but for CATV. I'm not sure of the tech being used by the local mom and pop cable co, but I know recent HDTV purchases pick up many digital stations that my old RPTV won't. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Charlie

Most cable companies encrypt all digital channels (SD or HD) except the local broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CW, MyNetworkTV and local independents), public service channels and maybe a few others like shopping channels. You can get those channels with a tuner that has "Clear QAM" capability. See the first category in the sticky post:

Official AVS HDTV STB Synopsis (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=179095)

Any other digital channels (CNN, ESPN, etc.) will probably require you to rent a box from your cable company. This is true even if you are currently able to get the analog versions without a box.

Since you have an older CRT TV with only a SD NTSC analog tuner there is no advantage to you of getting an external digital tuner which can convert digital channels to analog for use on your TV. You will not get any more channels from your cable company then your are getting now since the ones that the cable company is not providing over analog are encrypted.

I already get all of the analog signals via the old tuner. I'm looking to grab the handful of digital ones that the old tuner can't receive.

What I was trying to point out is that any digital cable channels you can get unencrypted are allready available as analog channels from your cable company for your SD analog TV.

Is the Rear Projection TV HD or SD?

1080i - Component input

1080i - Component input

Get one of the HD STB's found in the link above with a QAM tuner, and you'll get all local HD that you're cableco carries. Be sure to use component video from the STB to the projector, otherwise you won't be watching HDTV.