Internal Tuners and digital cable?

K

KevInCinci

Junior Audioholic
We're looking at a new TV for our bedroom, but to increase the WAF, I promised to minimize the number of boxes we need to use. To do so, I want to use the internal TV tuner for whatever we get. My question is: will the internal tuners get all of our digital cable/HD channels? I'm looking at the Sammmy LCDs in the 30-40" range, for the price+looks/WAF, but could be swayed. We're using Time Warner digital cable, which puts the HD stuff in channels 1000+. I've received conflicting advice from supposed professionals (from "Sure it will!" to "Of course it won't!") and the Sammy website provides nothing specific.

My follow-on question is: if the Sammy tuners can't do it all, which brands do?

Cheers,

Kevin
 
AVRat

AVRat

Audioholic Ninja
If you're paying for the HD level package then you need the box to authenticate and process your service. Otherwise you'll only receive what's available in the standard digital package.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Theoretically it should work, as long as you met all the requirements:
1) Your TV accept CableCard
2) Your Cable provider is able and willing to give you one (typical cost is $5 rent)
3) You are lucky and it all works together..

Best source of info about cablecards I found here: http://digitalmediaphile.com/
Barbara, the owner of this site works for Cablevision and she's very knowledgeable ....


However you can forget about On Demand and PayPerView stuff :) would not work from your remote, infact you might able to get ppv stuff, by calling the provider.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
You could always wire for a cable box and then hide the box in a closet and use a decent RF remote control to control things.

But, as said: A digital tuner without a CableCard can only tune channels which are not scrambled. The tuner must be a QAM tuner for the US digital cable system, and the channels you will get are called Clear QAM channels because they are cleared for your viewing by the tuner built into any QAM digital tuner.

The analog TV channels, which your cable company likely still has availalbe, should still be tunable by your TV using its NTSC tuner. Cable companies are moving more and more standard channels off the analog side and into the encrypted digital side, so in 5 years or so you may be out of analog channels completely.
 
K

KevInCinci

Junior Audioholic
Thanks, everyone. I hadn't thought of the cable card route. That would be better than using the cable box, but I'm loathe to add another $x/month to our already stupid cable bill. That said, we're just paying for the basic level of digital cable, which includes a certain number of "free" HD channels, which I presume are unscrambled and would therefore work with the QAM tuner? I suppose I can always try it and pick up a box or cable card if it doesn't get what I want. I don't see us doing PPV in the bedroom, since we really use our HT for the real movie watching.

Cheers,

Kevin
 
just-some-guy

just-some-guy

Audioholic Field Marshall
COMCAST is doing away with the TV turner completely. i just got a free, from them, digital box, free. it has to be used to get any channel.
 

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