sch911 wrote:
Any television with a QAM digital tuner should be able to resolve all the non encrypted channels on the cable system. Mostly this will be the local channels along with the basic cable tier of channels. Every new LCD television should have a QAM tuner standard....
all of our TVs in the house have QAM tuners but they will *not* decode *encrypted* digital cable signals. unencrypted, yes.
digital cable has been around for years...it actually preceded the broadcast conversion. digital cable simply enables the cable provider to pack more channels or content into the same bandwidth.
understand that the same law that *required* the broadcast companies to switch to digital from analog also *permitted* the cable companies to encrypt their digital cable signals requiring a set-top box for all TV receivers, analog or digital. our local Comcast system made the switch to encrypted cable several years ago. I was forced to get set-top decoder boxes for all of our analog and digital receivers that did not have one. I needed three...Comcast gave us two at no cost. the third runs $3 p/m.
we've already encountered a few campgrounds/parks whose cable providers have elected to encrypt the cable signal thus requiring a set-top decoder box. which cable channels are encrypted varies from system to system. our local Comcast system encrypts everything but the over-the-air networks, PBS and C-Span. the cable provider at a park in Lancaster county, PA kept most of the basic cable channels in the clear (USA, TNT, etc) but encrypted others such as SyFy. the Lancaster County park had initially received about a dozen or so set-top boxes from their cable provider at no charge but had none when we checked in. most had been issued to their seasonal customers and the remainder had been given to transient customers but not returned. the park manager said the owner was reluctant to spend $ to acquire more boxes or to charge a deposit for the boxes.
knowing that digital cable has been around for a long time when I read the OP's initial post I made an assumption that what he really encountering and was referring to was *encrypted* digital cable and my initial reply was based on that assumption.
