I'm feeling a little lost - OTA, Cable, Tuners, etc.

If you have an HDTV without a tuner (and the fact it does not have a coax connection confirms that), you have a few options.

For over-the-air Digital TV reception, you'll need a DTV tuner that is HDTV compatible and antenna for the stations in your area.

If you currently have cable, in most areas you can use a DTV tuner with HD capability that also has a QAM tuner. QAM is the way cableco's distribute their digital signals, and they usually do not encrypt local HD channels, along with a very few others.

Here is a list of current DTV tuners, most of which also have QAM tuners:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=179095

Some of these units may not be available at this time. For details on why you might want one over another, see the individual topic links next to the units.

'Clear QAM' is the term typically used to describe digital cable channels not encrypted. Although local HD is usually in the clear, pay channels like ESPN, CNN, FNC, TNT, USA, Discovery, etc. are not in the clear, and you'd need to rent a cable box or buy CableCARD device like a TiVo or PC with CableCARD tuner to get those channels. If you're in Canada, you can also buy a cable box for personal use.

EDIT: I just figured out you're in Canada, and I'll have to check about clear QAM. Who is your cable provider?

For what you can get with an antenna, go to TV Fool, and post a link or the page here.

That will not show anything in HD if that's what you are looking for. Also it is not as expensive as cable as it it a ONE TIME investment where as cable you are paying every month forever.

Also converter boxes with HD output are very hard to find and yes they will be expensive. You can;t expect a converter box with HD output and QAm to be the same price as a $50 converter box that only outputs in SD analog with no QAM.

And no you can't get in TV over you cable modem you use for internet.



It doesn't seem you should have a hard time getting in your OTA stations.

Well then that box you posted a link to will be fine to hooking up to a TV with only Red/White/Yellow.

The Zinwell tuner looks to be a bit cheaper from amazon.ca.

(Don't know what you paid, but the Terk HDTVi is only CDN$ 40 there, too.)

Yep - any European "HD Ready" (the EICTA European licensing standard) TV should have no problems displaying 1080i, 720p and 480i/p at 60Hz (even though Europe runs at 50Hz for OTA). It should work fine with cable boxes, OTA converters, DVD players with component or HDMI outputs.

Most European TVs will also accept NTSC analogue composite inputs (as well as PAL/SECAM) either through the Yellow/White/Red RCA Phono inputs, or through SCART sockets (The 21 pin large connector standardised in Europe for SD analogue composite and RGB - though not component - video input)

This means that North American VCRs, Games Consoles etc. with analogue composite outputs should also work.

This ISN'T a licensing requirement (unlike 60Hz HDMI/Component support) - but it is pretty much a given these days.

As you have realised, what ISN'T common in Europe, is ATSC/QAM digital tuner support or NTSC-M analogue tuner support. In Europe you'd expect to have DVB-T (and now T2) digital tuner support (sometimes with DVB-S/S2 satellite as an addition increasingly) and PAL/SECAM B/G/I/L analogue tuner support. This means no direct cable or aerial (antenna) connection is possible - you have to use an external tuner box with an HDMI or Compoent output instead.

Unlike Europe - where OTA tuner boxes with HDMI outputs for SD and HD are plentiful and can be cheap (I've seen a couple of HDTV tuners with HDMI outputs on sale for £20ish recently), the market for them in the US is smaller (as TVs are mandated to have internal digital TV tuners and have been for quite a while) so they are more expensive. The same is true for OTA PVRs.

I am assuming that your TV carries the "HD Ready" "HD Full 1080p" or "HDTV" logos - I've seen almost no sets on sale in the UK in the last 5 years that aren't EICTA HD licensed.

I'm not sure you understand. Since you've already spent the big cash for an HDTV, going cheap for a converter box makes llittle sense.

The difference between SD & HD is about a 5 times factor in terms of picture quality. For roughly $75 over the cost of a converter box you can get a new box and full HDTV. It seems penny wise & pound foolish not to get an HD box now.

Maybe consider a used box off ebay; at times they can be found for as little as $20.