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HD compatibility with cable company?

post #1 of 9
3/6/07 at 9:40am
Thread Starter 
my 5070HD comes with Dual NTSC and ATSC Tuners. but i heard unless my cable company's HD signal is compatible with the specific HD tuner i have in my tv i still need to buy some external HD decoder box. is this true? i'm using Charter cable company btw.
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post #2 of 9
3/6/07 at 10:39am
Thread Starter 
i think the better way to ask this question is: i have a cable box from charter communication, in order to receive all the HD channels do i need an extra cable box or my built-in HD tuner in my plasma will pick up the HD channels automatically. thanks.
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post #3 of 9
3/6/07 at 11:10am
Thread Starter 
just called my cable company, they told me all i gotta do is replacing my old cable box with the HD version one and i won't need a cable card.
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post #4 of 9
3/6/07 at 11:23am
Just to flesh out your understanding a bit:

The cable box is a tuner. With a cable box you don't use the tuner built into the tv. The tuner built into the tv is used only for over-the-air HD signals from an antenna or with a cable card (if your tv has a cable card slot).

-Eric
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post #5 of 9
3/6/07 at 11:54am
Cable companies are now employing QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) on the digital channels. If your tuner is QAM capable then you can receive all the non-encrypted digital channels (HD & SD) . You will have to do some searching to find them. Cable Cards will give you access to the encrypted channels as well, but not pay-per-view. The cable company, however has to provide, program and rent you the card. This is not something you go out and buy. A Cable Box will give you access to everything your cable company has to offer.
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post #6 of 9
3/6/07 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by EJRothman View Post

Just to flesh out your understanding a bit:

The cable box is a tuner. With a cable box you don't use the tuner built into the tv. The tuner built into the tv is used only for over-the-air HD signals from an antenna or with a cable card (if your tv has a cable card slot).

-Eric

thanks, i honestly did not know that. so by switching to the HD version of my exsiting cable box and if i just wanna see the channels i was getting and the HD version of them if available then i don't have to rent the cable card correct?
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post #7 of 9
3/7/07 at 7:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by John F. Palacio View Post

Cable companies are now employing QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) on the digital channels. If your tuner is QAM capable then you can receive all the non-encrypted digital channels (HD & SD) . You will have to do some searching to find them. Cable Cards will give you access to the encrypted channels as well, but not pay-per-view. The cable company, however has to provide, program and rent you the card. This is not something you go out and buy. A Cable Box will give you access to everything your cable company has to offer.

so just to clarify this, if i upgrade to the HD cable box then i'll be getting the same channels i'm getting right now plus their HD versions if available and i don't need a cable card, right?
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post #8 of 9
3/7/07 at 9:38am
Yes that is correct.
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post #9 of 9
3/7/07 at 10:29am
Quote:
so just to clarify this, if i upgrade to the HD cable box then i'll be getting the same channels i'm getting right now plus their HD versions if available and i don't need a cable card, right?

Many channels are encrypted, so you won't get all the same channels you get with the cable box / DVR.

You will get all the channels that you could get before with the cable connected directly to your TV, plus DTV/HDTV versions of your locals.
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