HD over the air with Cable

[TennesseeDave]

Hey all, I hope this is the right area to post in,
I am looking at getting a HDTV with a built in tuner to get hd over the air. I also have basic cable to get espn ect. I'm not interested in getting digital calbe yet. my question is this, Ive seen that some tv;s have multiple inputs for antennas and cable. can I hook up both the Cable and an anntenna, and easily change channels getting the hd over the air channels and the cable channels at the same time?

currently I'm looking at this Samsung TV

http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=TXP3076WHX/XAA

Dave

 

[krzywica]

As far as dual input screen options I don't see any PIP, but you will need an hdtv antenna for reception of over the air broadcasts. I would recomend getting digital hdtv cable service instead.

 

[Duffinator]

You should be able to. I could not find the info I was looking for on the link you gave but most newer sets with HD tuners built in have a seperate antenna input for "digital". So there may be two antenna inputs for cable or OTA analog (NTSC) antenna and then another for digital OTA HD (ATSC). Regardless your cable box most likely has a composite or s-video output that you can connect to your TV which is what I'd recommend anyway. You may need to switch inputs on your TV to view all the channels but other than that it should be pretty seamless watching OTA HD and your cable. PIP has nothing to do with receiving OTA HD. You need a UHF antenna to receive HD OTA and there's plenty of info on the web discussing antenna types and what's available in the area where you live. The picture quality from your OTA HD signal should be as good as or better than what you will receive from either cable or sat.

 

[TennesseeDave]

thanks

Thanks for the info,
I 'm not too worried about PIP, I just want to be able to view all the cable channels and the ota hd without having to get up and switch connections or anything like that.
Obviously, I'm very new to newer tv's, I still have an old magnavox from the early 80's

 

[krzywica]

He does'nt have digital cable, ie no set top box.

I know pip has nothing to do with tuning, but it sounds like he wants to view two sources (local broadcasts and Cable) at the same time.

I'm not sure if he's asking about pip capability, or inputs?

 

[krzywica]

Ahhhh now I hear ya.

 

[TennesseeDave]

He does'nt have digital cable, ie no set top box.

I know pip has nothing to do with tuning, but it sounds like he wants to view two sources (local broadcasts and Cable) at the same time.

I'm not sure if he's asking about pip capability, or inputs?

Not "at the same time" but, I want to be able to flip channels getting all the locals thru the anntenna, and then as I flip have the tv automatically pick up the cable for the other channels. so yes, inputs.

I don't have any kind of set top box, so I would be feeding the anntenna and the cable leads both to the tv directly. this unit seems to have two rf inputs.

I was talking to the luminaries at best buy, and they said that this would be possible, and all I would have to do is config in the tv's menus how to recieve any given channel (cable or anntenna). anyone know if its true or not?

reading the manual for that samsung online, it looks like for each channel I can pick an input type, ant or cable, but it wasn't totally clear to me, and also, what do you do in the situation were say the local abc channel brodcasts on channel 25 and my cable espn is also channel 25. if I choose the antenna as input for 25,

anyone of you doing something like this?

 

[Duffinator]

I was talking to the luminaries at best buy, and they said that this would be possible, and all I would have to do is config in the tv's menus how to recieve any given channel (cable or anntenna). anyone know if its true or not?

Most likely that is correct. Each manufacturer does it a bit differently. Once you have the TV setup properly you should be able to go directly to the channel you want, regardless of whether it's cable or OTA. Worse case scenario is you would have to change inputs from your remote. Let us know how it works out.

 

[zipper]

If the TV has at least 2 coax connections on it (I'm assuming both of your sources will be connected via coax) you should be able to switch back & forth by using the "input" selector on the remote. I.E. the cable would be hooked to "input 1" & the antenna would be "input 2". In that case it wouldn't matter if two channels from different sources were shared since the sources wouldn't be colliding with one another.

 

[BMXTRIX]

This is quite easy to answer after going to the link you provided, click the follow up link that takes you to the OWNERS MANUAL! It goes much further into details about the set, such as exactly what you are asking.

The remote for the TV has a button called 'ANT' which switches between antenna A and antenna B inputs. So, cable can be on antenna A and OTA can be on antenna B.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200406/20040615214538812_AA68-03388A-00Eng_BOOK.pdf

Look at page 12

 

[Red]

I also have basic cable to get espn ect. I'm not interested in getting digital calbe yet.
Dave

ESPNHD is pretty sweet. You should take a look and consider the digital cable