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Comcast HD Channels

Any Comcast Digital Tier will require a box. However, you will most likely be able to get the HD locals (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS) using your QAM tuner. All you need to do is put the coax into the TV, let it search and you will get them. If you want ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, TNT HD, TBS HD, Discovery HD, Discovery HD Theatre, A&E HD, Food Network, CNN, The History Channel HD, Versus/Golf HD, Premium HD channels and any regional sports networks you will need one of two things. If you TV is capable of using a cable card you will get all the channels of the digital tier you subscribe to. You will get most channels with the Digital Starter and all but NFL HD and Premiums with Digital Classic or above. If your TV doesn't have a cable card slot, you will need the cable box. With the box however, you will get OnDemand which I think is pretty cool, considering you can get CSI in HD OnDemand the day after is airs and other stuff OnDemand for free. Also, you can plug in the cable box and plug the TV into the cable box if need be so that will reduce your need for the outlets. The bottom line is you need either a cable card or a cable box to get all the HD channels. If you're happy with just the local channels, then you will be able to do it with what you have. Also, the Comcast remote is pretty good and I have it working with my TV, Cable Box and DVD player.

I have it plugged in and I scanned, but I'm not getting any HD. Is there any trick to this?

What city or system are you in? TV make and model?

Gonna need some more information.. not all TVs work the same way and not all cable systems operate the same way.

And, it's not "comcast" that has you bent over... by that term, Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, Cox, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Charter, MediaCom, Brighthouse... all of them have you "bent over"... (unless you have a DCR set.)
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..."

reply to l008com
You have three choices

a) check to see if your HDTV supports CABLE CARD.... if it does, call comcast and get one - then you should be able to get digital cable without the box - no menu/guide and no VOD, but otherwise full access to all your channels

2) stick with basic cable and forget about HD - your tv does not have a QAM tuner, it has the OTA HD tuner, so it will never decode clear QAM channels. Sadly, my guess is since it doesn't have a QAM tuner, it also doesn't have a cable card slot.

or iii) get an extern uhf antenna and get your HD local channels over the air. If you live near your local metro area, this isn't a horrible solution. I did it for a year before I got tired of it and payed comcast for HD.

The comcast intro rates will indeed lower your bill for a few months. After that you'll be paying whatever tier you select, plus $5 or $10/mo for the HD box. While you don't technically need "digital cable" to get HD, getting a rep to give you HD + basic is no easy feat.

Bottom line, you're going to need a box or an antenna to get HD from comcast or Over The Air.
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reply to l008com
What is your television's model number?

reply to l008com
Its a brand new Toshiba Regza 26HL67
It has some form of HD tuner built in. I'm nearly certain it doesn't have any card slots etc.

reply to JohnInSJ
The Toshiba Regza 26HL67 does indeed have a clear QAM tuner. If HD broadcast channels are available, and your television is connected correctly, a channel scan should find them.

reply to l008com
Yep... you should be able to tune in the network HD channels and PBS with a QAM tuner.

After a bit of googling, you may be having trouble getting these after a channel scan if you've got cheap splitters in your cable run. Try directly connecting the cable to the TV and rescanning.
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My place : »www.schettino.us

reply to l008com
So I'm confused, what HD channels are you guys saying I should be getting right now?

reply to l008com
That would be a great start for me. I'd upgrade my service once baseball season starts and until then, i'd get by with those bunch of HD channels.

SooooOOOOoooo how come I'm not getting anything HD, any ideas?

reply to JohnInSJ
Also, my tv is plugged directly into the wall. However I'm not totally sure where it goes from there. I don't think there is that much splitting going on.

reply to l008com
Sooo I scanned again and flipped through again, and I did infact find a few HD channels. CBS, NBC, FOX and I think one or two more. But the channel numbers are crazy. Like, NBC is 7, NBC in HD is 7-1. And CBS is something like 82-7. I don't even know how to type these "numbers" into the remote. I can however tell you that watching the pats win in HD today was pretty sweet. Why do we get some HD channels without "HD Service"? Are we going to get more 'free' hd channels as time goes on? Oh PBS HD was one of the ones I found too. There was also a third channel 7 that was a weather channel, but not THE weather channel. Strange stuff I tell ya!

Comcast has committed to providing broadcast HD channels in-the-clear (and starting in February 2009, they're required to provide them in-the-clear).

You could try to get Comcast to fix the PSIP problem which is causing CBS to appear as 82-7. Note that CBS' assignment to that frequency can change over time, so you may need to rescan periodically to keep things up-to-date. That wouldn't be the case if you could use the PSIP-mapped channel number.

reply to l008com
Will there be a time in the not too distant future when everything is HD? meaning basically that maybe someday i'll be able to get nesn hd on my tv as it is now? As you can tell, I hate cable boxes, and don't want to get one just so I can watch the sox.

I mean I will if I have to but shhhhhh don't tell comcast that.

NESN is encrypted but comes with the Digital Starter package. Therefore all you will need to get NESN HD is the cable box.

What you speak of can happen now, but you would need a cable card to decrypt the channels. This would require a TV with a cable card, the fee for the cable card which is $1.99 and possibly an additional $8 or so for an additional outlet charge. This is about the same price as an HD box, so you might as well get the box and get the OnDemand features.

reply to l008com

reply to l008com
I have a SOny 32XBR4 and until last night I was getting access to local OTA HD channels (i pay for basic analog service) this morning i lost them all...I try to scan for digital channels and cant find a single one...

what happened?

I live in belleville NJ and have comcast basic analog service

I'm in the same boat! I had abc, channel 6-1 in beautiful high def, channel cbs, channel 3-1, etc...now they are gone! rescanned tv and same thing. help!