HD Tuner TV

[kpierce]

I am thinking about purchasing an HD TV with a built in Tuner. My question is will a TV with this feature simply take in a single coax? Currently I have a HD ready TV with a converter box, but I would like to get rid of the box and hang this new TV on the wall.

thanks

 

[agarwalro]

My question is will a TV with this feature simply take in a single coax? Currently I have a HD ready TV with a converter box, but I would like to get rid of the box and hang this new TV on the wall.

It will require an OTA antenna and they use Coax.

As far as getting rid of the converter box, it depends on the TV you buy. Some might still have it, but there are TV's in which all the processing circuits are built into the main unit. Panasonic's commercial grade plasma's have all the processing built in and I am sure other brands will have similar models.

The drawback is that without a pre/pro or receiver, you will have to run as many video cables to the TV as you have sources.

 

[jcPanny]

HD Cables

As suggested, an ATSC tuner built into the TV can pick up local stations in HD via an antenna. I am using this on my set with good results. The built in ATSC tuner is only an advantage for the OTA signal and will not provide any benefit if you are using cable or satellite TV.

Also, I expect that you have several other souces connected to the display such as a DVD player, cable box, etc. You will need HDMI or component video cables from these components to the wall mounted TV. A receiver with video switching can help reduce the number of video cables you have from the source components to the display.

 

[kpierce]

Thanks for the quick responses. So it sounds like I can't have just a coax cable running from my TimeWarner Connection to an HDTuner TV.

It is an Olevia

http://www.olevia.com/products/detail.aspx?pid=432V

I don't fully understand how the HD stuff works. I thought having an HDTuner would take the place of an HD converter box from TimeWarner.

Right now I have a Coax cable running into my PC and a cheap PC TV Tuner card. If I just replaced my PC card and it is an HD compatible 'card' what else would I need?

My setup has everything running into my office so I would like to either wall mount a TV on the wall (I have a coax connection where needed) , or utilize my current 19" DVI monitor to receive a clearer picture.

I am still at a look...

Basically I want a better picture than a fuzzy cheap fuzzy PC card.

Thoughts are much appreciated.
thanks

 

[jcPanny]

HD TV tuner

The Olevia you linked has an ATSC tuner built in. Hook up an old rabbit ears antenna and you might be able to pick up a couple of the local stations in HD (720p or 1080i). For other source components (DVD, cable box, etc.) you will need a component video (3 Red/Blue/Green RCA connections) or HDMI to get an HD video signal. Composite video and S-video are limited to 480i.

Read a couple of the articles on this site about cables and HD.

Monoprice is a good source for inexpensive A/V cables:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10235&cs_id=1023502&p_id=2769&seq=1&format=2

 

[markw]

There are three types of TV tuners.

1) NTSC - Receives analog OTA signals or, possibly analog signals from a cable provider. Forget digital and HDTV. These are the same tuners you watched "I love Lucy" on when it was not in reruns. You can get by with a yellow composite cable to a TV's composite input.

2) ATSC, or a "digital" OTA tuner. - These receive OTA digital signals. If they are built into a HDTV, you can be assured that it will deliver digital AND HDTV signals to your set. You connect this directly to a TV antenna, not a cable box output.

If you purchase a stand-alone OTA ATSC tuner, be aware that not all ATSC tuners will pass a HD signal to your TV. Caveat Emptor - read carefully before you buy. All spiders are bugs but not all bugs are spiders.

If you have a HD tuner you'll want to use either the RGB component or HDMI output if you have 'em, depending on what the box offers but I don't believe there's any reason the RGB input won't bring out the best it has to offer. There's no OTA 1080p signals being transmitted.

Don't expect OTA to deliver the quantity of channels that cable offers, though.

3) QAM - These are made for digital cable and how well they work with your local provider is anyone's guess but out here they are virtually useless. Some cables companies won't initialize/activate any tuners/cableboxes except their own. Not much Ican addto this except that if it works and yourer cable company allows it, ist should replave your cable box, albiet perhaps a few interactive features suchas menus, on- demand and whatever else they don't do.

Personally, I have my OTA antenna hooked up to my TV's HD tuner input for local programming and my cable box to a component input for, duh, cable programming. They get along great.

Oh, odds are that if you connect the cable boxes's 75 ohm "F" connector to anything, it'll be spitting out a low rez modulated analog RF signal on channel 3 or 4, just like cable boxes did in the 70's.

 

[kpierce]

What I am taking away from this, is that you still need a Converter box of some sort to recieve an HD signal from your cable provider. Basically you can't just grab an HD signal from the coax out of the wall.

It that correct?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[markw]

The analog cable world is dead. Welcome to the digital age.

These new "digital" cable boxes (and most likely any other similar hardware) need to be "turned on" by having the cable company send a signal to get them to work. Without that, they are just black boxes that collect dust.

What I am taking away from this, is that you still need a Converter box of some sort to recieve an HD signal from your cable provider.

Unless your cable company provides it for free with your service package, what you say is true.

Mine (Comcast in NJ) has another price tier for this and proprietary hardware. If you're lucky, perhaps your provider will be able to activate your third party hardware, most likely for an additional monthly charge. You need to check with your cable provider for the definitive answer on this.

Basically you can't just grab an HD signal from the coax out of the wall.

Same question same answer.

 

[AVRat]

That is correct. The TV's tuner is incapable of decoding the cable company's encoded HD signal, therefore you still need the box.

 

[Hi Ho]

You should be able to get your local networks in HD without a cable box at no extra charge. That's how it is around here. You would need the box for any other HD channels (ESPN, Discovery, etc). Eliminating the box also eliminates the program guide.

If the goal is to get the TV on the wall you don't necessarily have to eliminate the cable box. You could simply run HDMI or component video cables through the wall and put the cable box wherever you want. If you wanted it out of site you could get an IR repeater system.