HD decoding

dcorrea

Ok,
Im pretty confused by the HD receivers. My DLP television has a built in HD decoder. The manual states that it receive OTA broadcasts with a compatible antenna( which I use) and it also states that it can decode cable HD broadcasts. My question is how do I do this? I have tuned to cable broadcasts of many primetime HD shows and not able to pick it up in HD. Instead I have to use my antenna. I dont recieve TNT or ESPN over the antenna so it would be nice to get it through my cable connection.
Does anyone have any experience with this?

johnny_utah

the built in tuner in your HD set is for OTA channels. You will not be able to pick up any sat or cable channels with out an HD cable / sat receiver.

Basically a built in tuner in your TV (if you are going to get sat or cable) is a waste of additional money.

An HD receiver from a cable or sat company will allow you to get OTA stations and decoded them with their box. This is the same thing your TV does. Only thing is that if you want cable stations in HD, you have to get a box that receives and decodes them. In most cases you have to pay additional for this receiver.

Check out voom.com. I have been with them for some time now. The most HD anywhere, albeit, some of it repedative, but still a ton more. Sign up by the end of July for no cost to you. you can rent the equipment for 9.50 a month, and pay 39.95 for programming. This includes an OTA antenna, installation, and STB.

Hope this helps and that I didn't throw to many things at you.

dcorrea

Thanks for the reply but according to the manual for my HDTV:
"You HDTV"S tuner is ready for digital cable(no need for a cable box to view unscrambled, digital cable programming.) The tuner is able to decode all 16 formats of digital television broadcasts and it can interpret digital cable signals because it includes the ability to decode QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) encoded programming.

As a note it says that a cable box may be needed to view scrambled and/or premium cable content.

So either this should allow me to view HD signals through cable without the need for another box or its a big scam.

Can anyone explain this?

Frank Z

You are going to have to subscribe to the a cable service that provides a digital signal and one that is actually carrying HD content. If you aren't paying for it, you ain't gonna get it. call your provider and tell them you want to upgrade your service to receive their digital service.

dcorrea

So I can subscribe to HD programming from my cable provider and use the built in tuner instead of the cable providers own box? That makes sense.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I got it figured out now.

TheGrayGhost

Originally posted by dcorrea
So I can subscribe to HD programming from my cable provider and use the built in tuner instead of the cable providers own box? That makes sense.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I got it figured out now.

You can if the TV HD tuner and your cable provider supports "CableCard".

If the TV tuner is OTA (over the air) 8VSB and unencrypted QAM you will only be able to tune local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc.) that are being retransmitted over the cable system. Some cable systems even encrypt locals.

fireshoes

It's basically one of the situations where in theory you could use the HD tuner in your tv for cable, but in reality it's pretty unlikely.

PhantomOG

wow... it seems everyone's response here is completely against what i had thought. i was under the impression that in many places now, local stations were broadcasting in HD and that if you had an HD decoder (be it internal or external to the TV), all you needed was a simple UHF antenna to receive the local HD programming.

AntennaWeb


Crutchfield FAQ

johnny_utah

Originally posted by PhantomOG
wow... it seems everyone's response here is completely against what i had thought. i was under the impression that in many places now, local stations were broadcasting in HD and that if you had an HD decoder (be it internal or external to the TV), all you needed was a simple UHF antenna to receive the local HD programming.

What you thought is totally true.

You only need an external box with HD decoder from a sat or cable company for sat or cable HD channels like ESPN HD, TNTHD, HBO HD, DisocoverHD, etc.

dcorrea

The ability to pick up local channels in HD with my built in tuner has been phenominal. My cable service does not currently offer HD and I havent decided to go for satellite yet. So instead I watch local channels in HD completely free, which to me is worth having a built in decoder.

johnny_utah

Originally posted by dcorrea
The ability to pick up local channels in HD with my built in tuner has been phenominal. My cable service does not currently offer HD and I havent decided to go for satellite yet. So instead I watch local channels in HD completely free, which to me is worth having a built in decoder.

it is until you want more HD. when you pay for the STB from your cable company you will have wasted the money you spent for the built in tuner. But at least you get HD now, and thats the good thing.

you should look into Voom.

www.voom.com

dcorrea

when you pay for the STB from your cable company you will have wasted the money you spent for the built in tuner.

My dlp tv with the built in tuner was almost a grand less than the Samsung 42" inch without the tuner built-in (huge circuit city fathers day sale), so I dont think I wasted my money at all either way:)