mcs328

I'm going to have to verify this when I come home.

My uncle tried this on his HDTV where he connects the coax directly to the antenna input. He gets all the channels 1-100 plus he gets the digital versions of some those channels beyond 100 using channel like 135.1 or 135.2 without using the digital adapter Comcast sends you or the digital box you rent monthly. Has anyone tried this or is this something everyone knows and I'm just inept.

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attgig

if your tv has a QAM tuner, a lot of areas will get most channels (including digital - but not necessarily HD) for free. For example, I can get G4 - even though that's not a channel avial in analog via comcast in my town. it's only digital. same for others.

I also get all local HD channels - again, not avail analog.


great resource to find out what channels your cable provider puts out vial clearQAM (meaning unencrypted):
http://www.hdhomerun.com/hdhomerun/channels_us

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DarkFury

When I was a Comcast customer, I was able to get several HD channels through the tuner on my Mitsubishi DLP HDTV.

Pretty much, that's why I didn't buy their "digital box package"... since my tuner already picked up most of that programming up to channel 120.. (of course they put most of the good stuff above channel 120).

But alas, in moving to AT&T ... I just don't have to worry about it anymore.

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Yossarian

DF, how do you life AT&T's HD service? Comshaft is really starting to piss me off

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Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. The Christians say 'you are a sinner', and you better just zip up your trousers and give the money to the pope and we'll give you a room up in the hotel in the sky.
~Timothy Leary

DarkFury

Uverse's HD service is really good. They have at least 40+ HD channels now and growing.

Although, some channels are kinda pointless in HD... (most those that are showing standard definition shows/movies but then putting up the black bars as if they were in "HD".) But that's not Uverse's fault....

Sports in HD is just... amazing.

mojo

basically what he said. if you have a QAM tuner TV, you can just plug in the coax and get whatever isn't encrypted. some TVs will even do lighter encryption for you, which can be an added bonus in some areas.

if you want to do VOD or IPPV tho, you will need a box. and if you want HBO or anything like that you should need one.

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mcs328

Well I did the same thing to my parents HDTV and I realize how ****ty my Sony is. My parents have an older Dynex HDTV. On theirs it looks like you can add as many channels you want on a Favorites list and hide shows you don't want while surfing without the Favorites list. You can also add a caption to the TV Number. My 1 year old Sony has a Favorites list carousel that takes up a third of the bottom. Tops out at like 50 favorites. I can't hide shows while regular surfing. I can't caption the TV shows so I have to know that 102.112323 is Syfy and 102.112324 is Disney, etc for every channel that's not free over the air.

Still I'm going to get rid of the comcast box and remote. I don't need it. Although why I have 6 channels of the same Ice Hockey station one is in HD (Wow) I dunno.

attgig

oh, and btw, you'll also be getting some random stations depending on which of your neighbors are ordering on demand... but it'll be random and unpredictable...

mcs328

? How does that work?

attgig

at least for comcast in my hood, I've gone to the 72-78 channels (these are channels that are reserved for in demand) and every now and then, a recent movie will be playing, or some ... other content... will be going and after a few minutes, it'll be gone. the content comes through unencrypted, but the set top box syncs the channel with that particular set top box - so it's random as to what channel is playing what, but because it's unencrypted, it's still visible.

attgig

sorry about the sony user interface annoyances... time for a new tv? :-)

and yeah, what's unencrypted, and how it comes through is very random and odd.

mojo

if you have a qam tuner tv and you do a search for channels while your neighbor is watching VOD content, you can pick it up if your cable company has not encrypted that layer of content.

*this does not work in all areas*

i'd say more specifically how it works, but there's a good explanation here

as far as the decimal place after the number, that depends on the TV you have. sometimes it's a dash, sometimes it's expressed as the actual channel. when the number is a simple number like 1-300 or whatever is where the cable company (or fios or dish or whatever) puts in a channel map to simplify it for you.

JennyWells

Comfort is something that we all look for. When purchasing home theater chairs take care of this first. Make sure there is enough padding to sit comfortably for more than two hours. Parts like armrests and footrests can help with this.

mcs328

I have leather recliner. My wife notices the Homer size butt cheek indents. They really have fluffed back up. I blame COD:MW2 for that.

attgig

heh. just going through these random jennywells posts... it looks like I suggested you try just plugging the coax directly into your sony back when you first got it!:
http://www.gotapex.com/home-theater-...w4100-lcd.html (Sony 40" w4100 LCD)

glad you finally tried it! =)

mcs328

I completely forgot about that thread. *face palm*