Re: Which QAM tuner to buy for COX Cable?
- From: Alan F <afiggatt1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:44:49 GMT
No, the Samsung DTB-H260F has an ATSC OTA tuner only which can also
tune to unscrambled digital QAM cable channels. It has no NTSC tuner. It
is a fine ATSC over the air tuner, but the QAM part (like it's SIR-T451
predecessor) is more of a throw-in rather than a fully supported
feature. It's list price is $180, so it is a rather pricey way to go
just to get unscrambled QAM cable channels.
On top of this, Cox Cable in Fairfax county recently announced they
will be implementing Switched Digital Video (SDV) very soon which will
put a number of digital SD & HD channels out of reach of those with a
QAM tuner & cable card setup. In fact, some one posted to the
Washington, DC - Baltimore local thread at www.avsforum.com that they
were told that Cox in Fairfax county will no longer be supporting any
new requests for cable cards. So Cox in Fairfax is in the middle of a
big change that may mess up reception of some unscrambled QAM channels.
They will presumably leave the local HD broadcast on the always
available channels, but no guarantee of that.
Quite frankly, if you want HD from cable, especially on a SDV cable
system, you will need to lease a STB from the cable company. Until two
way cable cards & STBs & HD-DVRs that support two way communications and
SDV are available (and the cable companies will do drag their feet in
every possible way to delay this), you will need to get a STB or DVR
from the cable company.
I live in Sterling, VA so I am familiar with the DC and Baltimore
stations. The digital stations for the 7 broadcast networks that have HD
programming (ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, PBS, CW, MNT) are all at full power in
DC and 6 of them are at full power in Baltimore. If you want just the
local broadcast stations in HD, I suggest you put up a antenna and get
the Samsung DTB-H260F. No monthly fees after the initial investment.
Depending on where you live, you may be able to get the Baltimore
stations OTA as well.
All the digital stations are currently on UHF, although this will
change with four stations swapping their digital signal to upper VHF 7,
9, 11, 13 in February, 2009 after the analog shutdown. If you want help
with antenna selection, post your zip & whether you are in a house or
condo/apartment and I can make recommendations.
Alan F
PS. If you don't know what SDV is, there is a wiki page on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_Digital_Video.
John Smith wrote:
Thanks, does it also support NTSC? I just want to connect COX cable to the tuner and to the monitor (no switching inputs).
"Abe" <noone@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:18n0d3hao6fr75hi61ql31l6qa8pk6si71@xxxxxxxxxxRight now, the only game in town for a set-top ATSC/QAM tuner withoutMy rent includes extended COX Cable (no cable box) and I have a LCD HDHowever, something that you want to lookout for is that MANY of the new
(1080P) monitor with DVI & HDMI input ports (no built-in tuner). Which
tuner should I buy that would work with COX Cable in Northern VA, in order
to view the unscrambled HDTV local channels?
boxes on the market are just converter boxes. They do not output a HD
signal (most output a 480i signal). Be sure that you read the complete
specs before you buy a QAM tuner.
a DVR and/or that doesn't require a subscription of some sort (like
tivo) is the Samsung DTB-H260F terrestrial receiver.
.
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