HDTV question

[bubbadu]

My friend last week bought a phillips 30" widescreen HDTV with a built in QAM tuner. I figured that since he hadn't bought an antenna yet, that he wouldnt recieve a signal channel in HD. Well I was wrong. Running from his ANALOG CABLE, he gets NESN, NBC out of Boston?! and CBS all in hd for free. I know Adelphia charges about 10 bucks a month for these, i just dont know how hes geting them over regular cable. He even gets about 50 music channels that he didnt have before and other random stations not even in english. Can someone explain how this is possible, and if he should even bother with buying an antenna. THANKS.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Yep, the locals in HD are usually sent "in the clear" (unencrypted) over cable. Some cable providers encrypt less things than others, too.

 

[purbeast0]

if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

If the TV has a QAM tuner, then he could indeed be getting channels in HD over cable without having the cable box connected. (Edit: as long as they're unencrypted channels of course)

 

[bubbadu]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

LOL, thats the point, he has no cable box, no digital cable, no nothing. Just ghetto analog cable. The channels in HD look great though

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

If the TV has a QAM tuner, then he could indeed be getting channels in HD over cable without having the cable box connected.

oh i thought he was saying he got his HD picture from the cable box. I've never used an HD antenna so yea, i don't know about those. i get all the HD stuff through my HD box, local channels as well.

 

[LikeLinus]

It's called OTA (Over The Air). It's transmitted the same way that normal analog signals are sent..through the airwaves. You can only pick up the local channels.

EDIT: Well you said he's getting these from Adelphia. Are you sure they aren't coming from the OTA Tuner?

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

LOL, thats the point, he has no cable box, no digital cable, no nothing. Just ghetto analog cable. The channels in HD look great though

heh are you SURE its HD? cause I thought my DVD's "looked great" until I actually saw something in HD

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

If the TV has a QAM tuner, then he could indeed be getting channels in HD over cable without having the cable box connected.

oh i thought he was saying he got his HD picture from the cable box. I've never used an HD antenna so yea, i don't know about those. i get all the HD stuff through my HD box, local channels as well.

Well I'm not even talking about antennas, I'm saying that he could indeed hook up his "ghetto analog cable" and get HD channels from it. They're sent unencrypted (usually - at least the local channels), so any QAM (=HD over cable, basically) tuner can get them. That's exactly what I'm doing on my computer too.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus
It's called OTA (Over The Air). It's transmitted the same way that normal analog signals are sent..through the airwaves. You can only pick up the local channels.

yea he must have a good internal tuner to pick up the signal w/out an antenna. my bro has an antenna cause direct TV doesn't offer those local channels in HD, and he has trouble picking them up sometimes even w/his antenna.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

If the TV has a QAM tuner, then he could indeed be getting channels in HD over cable without having the cable box connected.

oh i thought he was saying he got his HD picture from the cable box. I've never used an HD antenna so yea, i don't know about those. i get all the HD stuff through my HD box, local channels as well.

Well I'm not even talking about antennas, I'm saying that he could indeed hook up his "ghetto analog cable" and get HD channels from it. They're sent unencrypted (usually - at least the local channels), so any QAM (=HD over cable, basically) tuner can get them. That's exactly what I'm doing on my computer too.

gotcha. i was unaware of that.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus
It's called OTA (Over The Air). It's transmitted the same way that normal analog signals are sent..through the airwaves. You can only pick up the local channels.

We're talking about cable here.

As mentioned if the channels are not encrypted then any TV with a QAM tuner will receive the channels just fine. There's nothing special about it. Its just like plugging your cable line into your TV with a regular tuner and getting all the cable channels.

-edit and to make sure it really is HD you could have a PIP window open...one with the HD channel and the other with the regular channel. Difference should be pretty clear.

 

[bubbadu]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

LOL, thats the point, he has no cable box, no digital cable, no nothing. Just ghetto analog cable. The channels in HD look great though

heh are you SURE its HD? cause I thought my DVD's "looked great" until I actually saw something in HD

Its definitly HD, when you go to info on the channels, it says "HDTV" vs "SDTV". Would you guys consider this OTA though, even though they are coming via an analog jack. Really he is geting NO OTA channels because he doesnt even have an antenna.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: purbeast0
if his cable box is not hooked up via component cables (ie. coaxial ANALOG CABLE's standard cable) then he is NOT getting HD picture, regardless of what you think he's getting.

LOL, thats the point, he has no cable box, no digital cable, no nothing. Just ghetto analog cable. The channels in HD look great though

heh are you SURE its HD? cause I thought my DVD's "looked great" until I actually saw something in HD

Its definitly HD, when you go to info on the channels, it says "HDTV" vs "SDTV". Would you guys consider this OTA though, even though they are coming via an analog jack. Really he is geting NO OTA channels because he doesnt even have an antenna.

Refer to my above posts.

Edit: It's not OTA

 

[loup garou]

He's just getting unencrypted QAM channels, as Synth said.

 

[bubbadu]

Originally posted by: werk
He's just getting unencrypted QAM channels, as Synth said.

What does QAM stand for, I am usualy real good with acronyms but cant figure this one out. Also if I ended up geting a different tv with a "regular" hd tuner built in, do you think it would work the same as his? Sorry one more question, if I bought a HD tuner for my PC would the results be the same? THANKS AGAIN.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: werk
He's just getting unencrypted QAM channels, as Synth said.

What does QAM stand for, I am usualy real good with acronyms but cant figure this one out. Also if I ended up geting a different tv with a "regular" hd tuner built in, do you think it would work the same as his? Sorry one more question, if I bought a HD tuner for my PC would the results be the same? THANKS AGAIN.

I actually have no clue what QAM stands for, I just know what it is/does. If you got a TV with a "regular" (OTA?) tuner, then you could hook up an antenna to get OTA HD channels, but you couldn't get them over cable unless you specifically had a QAM tuner. Same thing for the PC - some HD tuners are OTA only, and some (like mine) can do QAM as well.

 

[bubbadu]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: werk
He's just getting unencrypted QAM channels, as Synth said.

What does QAM stand for, I am usualy real good with acronyms but cant figure this one out. Also if I ended up geting a different tv with a "regular" hd tuner built in, do you think it would work the same as his? Sorry one more question, if I bought a HD tuner for my PC would the results be the same? THANKS AGAIN.

I actually have no clue what QAM stands for, I just know what it is/does. If you got a TV with a "regular" (OTA?) tuner, then you could hook up an antenna to get OTA HD channels, but you couldn't get them over cable unless you specifically had a QAM tuner. Same thing for the PC - some HD tuners are OTA only, and some (like mine) can do QAM as well.

THANKS. Exactly what I wanted to here. In Vermont, the only damn channel OTA is PBS. It would suck buying a non QAM tv or tv tuner and geting no channels. Oh BTW What model pc tuner do you have?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: bubbadu

Originally posted by: werk
He's just getting unencrypted QAM channels, as Synth said.

What does QAM stand for, I am usualy real good with acronyms but cant figure this one out. Also if I ended up geting a different tv with a "regular" hd tuner built in, do you think it would work the same as his? Sorry one more question, if I bought a HD tuner for my PC would the results be the same? THANKS AGAIN.

I actually have no clue what QAM stands for, I just know what it is/does. If you got a TV with a "regular" (OTA?) tuner, then you could hook up an antenna to get OTA HD channels, but you couldn't get them over cable unless you specifically had a QAM tuner. Same thing for the PC - some HD tuners are OTA only, and some (like mine) can do QAM as well.

THANKS. Exactly what I wanted to here. In Vermont, the only damn channel OTA is PBS. It would suck buying a non QAM tv or tv tuner and geting no channels. Oh BTW What model pc tuner do you have?

I have this one. A bit expensive, but I :heart: it. If you don't want to spend that much money, there are one or two cheaper cards (no hardware decoder) that do QAM, for around $150 or so.