Any Cable TV experts out there

[AeroEngy]

Ok, I am new to the Digital HD TV world and just bought my first HD-TV a Vizio. The Vizio has both a NTSC and ATSC RF Tuner( apparently through the same coax/RF connector).

I have not upgraded to digital cable yet and just have regular old standard cable from Adelphia, no cable box or OTA antenna. I connected the TV via Coax to the wall and did a channel scan. It found all my regular SD channels ... and several digital channels that I didn't expect to be there since I have regular super cheap cable. The funny thing is that these digital channels are not there all the time. There numbers are something like 83-1, 83-2, 83-3, 108-1, 108-2, 108-3, ect. The numbers in the 83-x range are the major networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and sometimes PBS/Discovery HD. They are broadcast in HD 1080i or 720p and are there most of the time. The upper channels seem to be movie channels and I saw Howard Stern one time (uncensored by the way). However, these channels sometimes just go away, and the TV will just skip over them like they were never there. It seems completely random when one of these channels will just show up.

Does anyone know why this is? Should digital HD channels just be on my regular cable line? Is it possible I am picking something up off my neighbors? Maybe it is just me being a n00b about digital TV but it seems odd.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: AeroEngy
Does anyone know why this is? Should digital HD channels just be on my regular cable line? Is it possible I am picking something up off my neighbors? Maybe it is just me being a n00b about digital TV but it seems odd.

Your TV must have a QAM tuner; that's how you're able to pick up unencrypted digital/HD cable channels without a cable box. Usually the frequencies for those channels are not filtered even if you just have basic/analog cable, but usually only the locals are unencrypted anyway (that may be an FCC requirement, I can't remember for sure). Sometimes you'll get lucky and pick up more than the local channels, as you've seen (meaning others might be unencrypted as well).

Basically it's normal; I used to have an HDTV tuner for my PC and that was how I picked up the local HD channels.

 

[AeroEngy]

I think you are correct. I do have a QAM tuner and I just got a similar answer on the AVS forum. Depending on the cable provider the networks are broadcast unencrypted.

Also, on the AVS forum I was told that the channels that appear randomly are probably OnDemand channels that people in my neighborhood are viewing. Because OnDemand is (in some markets) broadcast unencrypted so my QAM tuner could pick them up. This also explains why one time I saw a channel that was in 1080i but only had a tiny image in the upper right hand corner. This most likely was someone's picture in picture in a preview window on their OnDemand.

Kind of funny.