| Remember when cable was "a better antenna"? How much chance do you think I would have to convince Comcrap to feed me my local digital channels over the raw cable so I could just tune them on a regular ATSC tuner like I would from an antenna. Hah! Doesn't quite fit their revenue models now. |
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| Comcast already does feed local digitals over the cable. They feed them in QAM rather than 8VSB, which means you need a clear-QAM-capable set. I used to get my HDTV that way, until I realized I wasn't watching any cable shows. |
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RadioDoc58ef2c0Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11 | Except...here they really don't. They've encoded everything but one useless shopping channel so if you do not have a CableCARD (which they'll gladly charge you for) you can't even use a QAM tuner-equipped TV to watch the broadcast channels.
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Toolmaster of La Grange. |
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plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY | reply to brycarp75
you will never see 8VSB come down your cable line, cable is currently using 256QAM which offers twice the bandwidth. |
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plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY | reply to RadioDoc
said by RadioDoc:Except...here they really don't. They've encoded everything but one useless shopping channel so if you do not have a CableCARD (which they'll gladly charge you for) you can't even use a QAM tuner-equipped TV to watch the broadcast channels. from personal experience or something you heard?
when i had suscom they encrypted all local channels, the second comcast took over they unencrypted all local channels and have recently even started passing PSIP data for proper channel mapping. |
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Time4aNAPPremium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL | reply to plat2on1
Re: Cable Modulation Back when carrying local TV channels was a matter of pointing a single-channel at each station's transmit antenna, it was a simple matter. Even if translating to a different channel was done at the RF level. At least in theory, the same equipment should be able to inject an unaltered ATSC signal alongside regular NTSC channels.
I know that at some point, some TV stations and cable providers struck deals to deliver the local station's baseband signal direct to the cable head end. The details are sketchy, and I don't know how widespread the practice is. Does anybody else have any info on the subject? |
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RadioDoc58ef2c0Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11 | reply to plat2on1
Re: Remember when cable was "a better antenna"? Personal experience. I have a Toshiba 42" LCD with NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner. It comes up encrypted on every single digital cable channel except one. That includes all of the OTA channels. The one which is not encrypted is some 24 hour infomercial channel.
ATSC OTA, however, works just peachy on the second RF input.
Maybe they'll see the light some day but I'm not holding my breath.
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Toolmaster of La Grange. |
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plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY | reply to Time4aNAP
Re: Cable Modulation said by Time4aNAP:Back when carrying local TV channels was a matter of pointing a single-channel at each station's transmit antenna, it was a simple matter. Even if translating to a different channel was done at the RF level. At least in theory, the same equipment should be able to inject an unaltered ATSC signal alongside regular NTSC channels. I know that at some point, some TV stations and cable providers struck deals to deliver the local station's baseband signal direct to the cable head end. The details are sketchy, and I don't know how widespread the practice is. Does anybody else have any info on the subject? its not a matter of can it be done, in fact before digital/hd cable took off cablevision was sending the 8VSB down the cable for people that had TVs with integrated tuners. the issue is that since the inside of a coxial cable is pretty free of noise they can get twice the bandwidth out of that 6mhz by using 256QAM instead. |
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Time4aNAPPremium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL | Yes, I can see why cable companies want to stick with a single modulation scheme, especially their own. Thanks.
I'm new to Comcast. It seems that there's still some debate over whether or not they send the local stations' (decoded ATSC) digital signal in the clear (as 256QAM). Is it worth my time to get a card that supports 256QAM for Comcast in my area? I'm on Comcast - Morton Grove, IL for some reason. I already have a couple of early ATSC/NTSC cards already. So if there's nothing to see on cable here without buying the digital package, I'll put that off. |
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plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY
1 edit | said by Time4aNAP:Yes, I can see why cable companies want to stick with a single modulation scheme, especially their own. Thanks. I'm new to Comcast. It seems that there's still some debate over whether or not they send the local stations' (decoded ATSC) digital signal in the clear (as 256QAM). Is it worth my time to get a card that supports 256QAM for Comcast in my area? I'm on Comcast - Morton Grove, IL for some reason. I already have a couple of early ATSC/NTSC cards already. So if there's nothing to see on cable here without buying the digital package, I'll put that off. i dont know, this is the first time i'v ever heard of anyone on comcast not being able to get the locals with a QAM tuner though,
you might ask here
»www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre···t=255885 |
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| reply to brycarp75
Re: Remember when cable was "a better antenna"? Cable companies are required to pass on the local digitals _unencrypted_. They are permitted to use QAM rather than 8VSB, and they all do (QAM-256 is about twice as efficient in terms of bandwidth). They are also required to pass on the PSIP and VCT (guide and channel) information, but I know from experience that they don't always do so. |
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| Hey, I'm glad I put in my two cents here. Now I'm going to try some things and see what I can get. I was basing my post on a call I made to Comcast where the CustServiceDroid at the other end told me that in order to get anything HD over cable, I had to have their Digital Cable box and pay something in the range of $60 per month. My only ATSC tuner is an RCA DTC100 from about 6 or 7 years ago, so I expect it doesn't tune QAM.
But thanks for the info! |
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