Cable Co's going all digital using QAM system
Both of our cable companies have or are going all digital and it requires a QAM tuner to decode the signals. There are others that are using the QAM system too. If this is common will we have to buy...
Forum Discussion
n7bsn wrote:
QAM is the default for Cable-co's.
Most modern TVs have QAM decoders built in so they don't need decoders, unless the channel is also encrypted. I am not aware of a single "digital" TV that does not support QAM decoding.
So you only have to worry if you have an "old" analog only TV.
Although there are TVs that can be addresses by the Cable-Co to enable decryption.
Cable-Co's use QAM because it allows more "channels" to be encoded in a "channel" then 8VSB. TV Broadcasters use 8VSB because it's has better signal-to-noise and noise control.
Someone who knows what they speak of. :)
However, one slight correction...QAM is modulation where multiple channels/signals end up on the same 6 Mhz frequency versus with analog, only a single channel per 6 Mhz frequency. You can fit a lot more digital channels in QAM than analog in the same given frequency spectrum.
Also, QAM is the defacto for cable plants but is slowly changing to IP. There are many QAM/IP set top boxes now to where even QAM will start decreasing in numbers as IP takes over.
