Re: Which QAM tuner to buy for COX Cable?

Wes Newell wrote:
On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:18:31 -0400, wbertram wrote:


Wes Newell wrote:
On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:37:08 -0400, John Smith wrote:

My rent includes extended COX Cable (no cable box) and I have a LCD HD
(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?

I guess that would depend on whether the cable was analog or digital and
if you want a PCI tuner or standalone. Maybe you should just rent the box
from the cable company until you find out what you really want/need. Might
also consult with management and neighbors.

Wes,

What do you think is the difference between "digital cable" and "analog cable"?

Well, no difference in the actual cable, but many diferences in the
modulation used.
The cable company (99% of them anyway) sends both analog and digital
signals down the same piece of wire, some are scrambled, some are not.

Well, this is the first time I've heard they send everything down the same
cable. I wonder why some people have 2 coaxs run into their house then.
All this time I though it was because there wasn't enough bandwidth with
just one.

If you have an analog tuner you can get the analog signals, if you have
a digital tuner you can get the digital signals. If you have a cable
company provided box, or a cable card, you can get the scrambled
signals. Otherwise you only get the unscrambled channels.

And around here I'm pretty sure they don't use the same cable for both
analog and digital.

Go back to watching OTA :-)

I never left it.


Terminology and equipment MAY be different in Northern Virginia

In Hampton Roads Virginia the least expensive Cox analog tier is "Limited". Add the analog "Extended" package and you have the "Standard" tier. There is no mention that any of the local digital channels are, or are not encrypted. The analog tiers are in separated blocks that would probably be compatible with frequency filtering. The "guide" channel for subscribers with cable ready TVs appears to be well into the "extended" channel block though.

One of my relatives has digital telephone, broadband Internet, analog and digital (with high definition) ALL coming to the house through a single coaxial cable, although the telephone service is split off at the exterior wall of the house. The relative uses an NTSC cable ready TV/VCR in one room and a HD digital STB in the other. The STB has digital mirrors of the "Limited" tier activated as well as digital SD and HD programming tiers and several digital HBO feeds. The STB refuses to display the "Extended" channels.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: DVR questions
    ... VCRs and old analog TV can deal with for some time to come. ... When my cable company finally upgrades the cable in my area to digital, ... Standard definition, dual tuner with DVR ... they are also supplying analog signals on a handful of channels. ...
    (rec.arts.tv)
  • Re: cant view HD (ATSC) Channels in XP Media Center
    ... MC does not support QAM so the question in MC center setup is not relevant ... which you were then feeding to your analog tuner. ... order to receive the QAM channels. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Problem with manual TV recording
    ... or so channels available directly through the tuner card is not an MCE ... a "Media Center only tuner", it's a technology issue (digital signals vs. ... The PC's analog tv tuner must ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: cant view HD (ATSC) Channels in XP Media Center
    ... Since beyond TV works fine it shows that your tuner card and its drivers appear to be working fine. ... If you can play a previously recorded HD program it shows that you decoder and graphics card are working fine. ... Now I had all of my OTA local channels installed. ... Is the ATI AVStream Analog Capture the same as the ATI Unified AVStream ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: record digital TV without "digital cable ready" PC?
    ... The issue is that for some reason Dell is suddenly claiming ... AFAIK systems with Vista MC TV pack can configure a cable card tuner without ... When you say you can get SD channels are your referring to SD analog ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
Loading