A couple of days ago I dove into digital television for the first time. I got the Pioneer PDP-6070HD that's currently available for an excellent price at Sam's Club. We just moved into this house and I don't even subscribe to cable yet. However, when I hooked up the TV I went ahead and connected the TV to the cable outlet and sure enough I'm getting cable. Obviously, the cable company never bothered to disconnect the cable when the previous owners were kicked out (it was a foreclosure.)

Here is the odd part. I was expecting that in order to receive HD channels through the cable I would need to subsribe to Comcast's digital package and have cable box or card. However, I'm receiving a lot of HD channels including some cable channels (such as Discovery HD) and some on demand channel/pay-per-view channels. I'll turn on a channel and nothing will be on it and later be flipping through and a movie that should be a pay-per-view will be playing on that same channel. I even get all the digital music channels and HBO HD. I would've assumed something like the pay-per-view channels and HBO would have been scrambled. The channel numbers do not correspond to what they should be if I actually subscribed. A channel that should be like 323 if I subscribed will come in on 93.014 (being new to DTV I wasn't even aware channels could have decimal points.)

My brother, sister and parents all live within a few miles of me and all have HDTV's as well and none of them can get these channels. Any idea as to what's up? I certainly hope this is a long-term thing.

Right. I've heard others say this. You have a built-in digital cable tuner. They don't particularly scramble them anymore. They just address the box or TV and tel it which channels are authorized. Apparently it doesn't always work 100%.
I also know this, as I was out of digital cable once for 5 days and they said it was my equipment. Turned out it just started working by itself, 3 days after I had changed the coax and their box and it would still be intermittent.

Your EXTRA programming will probably not last long. By the way, you get local HD,too, right?

By the way, you get local HD,too, right?

So far, I've been able to find the local CBS, FOX and CW channels in HD. I can't find ABC, NBC, PBS or any of the local independent stations. Normally, you must subscribe to digital cable to get any of the local stations in HD through cable.

I don't have an antennae connected to get any of these over the air.

Glad to see this thread as I'm considering the 6070 too (prices are getting too good to pass for much longer). Since none of the 6070 brochures mention a QAM tuner, I was assuming 'cable' HD could only be had if you got the cable-card.

So you're able to see the unscrambled HD signals through the RF input with no cable-card? (I wouldn't count on the unscrambled scrambled ones being around forever, for free. Did that make sense?? :-))

As someone who pays the cable company over 100 a month i say.....enjoy your free channels as long as you have them.......

Many cable systems broadcast the local HD channels they carry unencrypted and its free in many cases even with basic analog cable too. You just need a clear-QAM capable HD tuner that many newer HDTVs support. Its not really "magic" :D

So you're able to see the unscrambled HD signals through the RF input with no cable-card? (I wouldn't count on the unscrambled scrambled ones being around forever, for free. Did that make sense?? :-))

Correct, I do not need a cable-card. I just have my cable connected via the RF input. I found a thread here about Comcast in Houston and apparently anyone with a QAM tuner should be able get these stations. This is unadvertised by Comcast as they lead you to believe you have to have a digital cable box to get these channels. So far I've found 44 digital channels I get free including two channels with pay-per-view movies and luckily I have now located all of my local HD channels. In the thread about Comcast others claim to get stations I haven't been able to find.

Correct, I do not need a cable-card. I just have my cable connected via the RF input. I found a thread here about Comcast in Houston and apparently anyone with a QAM tuner should be able get these stations. This is unadvertised by Comcast as they lead you to believe you have to have a digital cable box to get these channels. So far I've found 44 digital channels I get free including two channels with pay-per-view movies and luckily I have now located all of my local HD channels. In the thread about Comcast others claim to get stations I haven't been able to find.

Thanks for that! I find it weird that QAM is not mentioned in any 6070 literature or even in the manual.

Any buyer's remorse? Are you enjoying the TV? How's the heat and noise? Any issues or dislikes?

Any buyer's remorse? Are you enjoying the TV? How's the heat and noise? Any issues or dislikes?

I love the TV. The picture is absolutely gorgeous. I haven't noticed any noise or excessive heat. I can't imagine finding a better 60" TV at that price point (got it at Sam's).

The only negatives I've found so far are (and none of them are a big enough reason not to buy it in my opinion):

1) The mounting holes on the back must be spread further apart than most 60" TV's. The mount I used to hang mine over my fireplace is supposedly for TV's up to 65" and it just barely fit. I read a couple of user reviews at some websites where owners claimed to buy mounts and they would not fit at all.

2) As you know they changed when daylight savings time begins and ends this year. It could not handle that change (it treated it as though it began and ended like last year) and if you have set up the TV Guide system then you cannot manually set the clock. So my clock was off an hour for a week.

3) Probably the most annoying thing for me is that the only way to add digital channels is going into setup and running the auto channel setup routine. You cannot manually add a digital channel. You can't even manually enter the channel number and simply view a digital channel that was not automatically programmed. So, for example, when I find out about a digital channel I think I should be able to receive via Comcast I cannot go in and program that channel or even just try to view the channel (you can manually delete channels it auto programmed that you do not want.) If I run the auto set up program again it will find a channel or two that I did not have before but it also may not pick up a channel I already had so I may also lose a channel or two. My parents have a Panasonic and they can directly key in and view and program any digital channel. This shouldn't be an issue if you have satelite, a digital cable box or card.

My cable comes into my attic and splits six ways so I may have some signal issues which may explain the inconsistencies in which digital channels it detects when I run auto setup. I purchased a Channel Plus amp/splitter I'm going to install (hopefully tonight) to see if it increases the number of digital channels I can get.