i can't get local HD channels with my QAM tuner but I can pick up stations like HBO and NBA TV with it....considering my tv only has one antenna input, will the OTA antenna work with the QAM tuner simutaneously? or will the antenna only pick up the HDTV channels, because my QAM tuner picks up HBO and other channels that I don't want to lose.

Point of clarification, that may or may not be the key to this puzzle.

Digital Cable uses "QAM"
Digital Antenna uses "ATSC"

Either one cannot tune to the other's channels. If your TV doesn't have an ATSC tuner, you won't be able to pick up the channels with an antenna.

And if it does, it probably won't let you do it simultaneously. Even though they're different technologies, there's some overlap in the frequencies; you can't join the signals together into one input

my TV has both ATSC and QAM tuner,

i was getting channels such as HBO off of the QAM tuner just by using basic analog cable. my question is if I buy an OTA antenna, will it just pick up local HDTV channels, meaning I can't watch HBO unless i plug the original coaxial cable in? hope this makes sense.

I think the answer depends on the specific brand/model of TV. You should first search in the TV forums and if the answer isn't there already then ask there - giving your brand/model. The fact that it only has 1 RF input is not a good sign though.

Ed

You can't watch OTA and cable with just one RF input on the TV (it's one or the other). It is very strange that you could get HBO but not the locals. One way to watch both is to get an STB for cable - then connect that to the TV via component/HDMI. Then use an antenna on the RF input. Again, I would look into (via the local threads) why you can't get the locals via QAM.

Sets that have only one RF input jack will need to be manually switched (in the menu screen) whenever they go from a Cable QAM channel to an 8VSB OTA channel. (The numbering schemes are different and the modulation, QAM vs 8VSB/ATSC are also different. They are also locked to each other.....OTA channels and 8VSB, Cable channelization and QAM modulation).

If your ATSC+QAM set has two RF input jacks, you can usually scan them independently, and then they will either intermix freely, or you can switch them via the remote's "antenna" selector button.