Can Analog Cable Subscribers Get HD For Free?
Sunday May 11, 2008
This is an interesting question because I've heard rumors of this being possible. Legally, this is probably considered theft of services by the cable companies. So, I don't endorse trying it. But, if you must...
Though, I believe you can only be an analog cable subscriber.
Comments
Yes, I pickup local HD channels using a QAM tuner through direct cable (no set top box). This is not unusual nor stealing. These channels are the same free channels that you can get through an antenna. I pay plenty for basic and extended basic analog channels so I don’t see it as stealing at all.
Yes this is true. Up until a few days ago i was getting the local broadcast stations 6,10 and 12 on the digital tier. i lost them (they are coming up on scans anymore) but i’m still getting the neighbors on demand movie , MTV 2, ESPN sports and a few others. The cable company seems to be shifting channels around. i am on cox R.I. and have only bsic analog cable the above channels come in via my TV built in Qam tuner .
We have preferred basic with Comcast. About 70+ channels (half of which we never watch) Our TV’s are standard CRT. But, being curious about this new LCD/Plasma and Digital tuner technology we bought a small LCD TV with a digital tuner. Surprisingly, when I had the TV scan for channels, we ended up with about 100+ channels. Most of the “extra” channels were music but, we got some additional video channels, some of which we liked.
That was about 6 months ago.
Then we noticed that the extra channels were gone on the LCD TV and that the Hallmark Channel (one we like) and one other channel were missing from all of the TVs.
When I asked Comcast about the Hallmark Channel, their reply was that Hallmark had gone digital and was not now available on regular cable and if we wanted that channel we would have to move up and rent a digital cable box which, they say, will be required come Feb. ‘09.
THIS IS WHAT I WAS AFRAID WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!! The cable companies are going to use the publics ignorance of the FCC ruling requiring BROADCAST SIGNALS to be digital, and make them pay for something that is not necessary, if they have a digital tuner.
We were getting digital channels with our digital tuner until Comcast shut it down. And this was not a “temp trial period” None of our other regular TV’s got those extra channels, only our digital tuner TV got them.
The public needs to be aware of this highway robbery!!
I am very confused about what we must do by February 09. We do not have any HD ready tv’s, we do have Dish TV, will that take care of it, or do we need to buy a box of some type, or new tv, or what?
Thanks,
Faye
It’s all a bunch of B.S.
We are supposed to get free TV regardless from the networks or else they need to DROP ALL ADVERTISING! THAT was the deal! No commercials = pay channel. SO NOW WE WILL BE PAYING DOUBLE for comercials! Have to buy the darn “perverter”. What do ya do with the portable TVs on the beach or camping?
By accident I found out my “basic, analog” Cox TV cable service does have ‘free’ HD channels on it. I recently purchased a combo VHS/DVD-RW player. In the set up for the tuner’s channels I first ran analog (since I didn’t subscribe to Cox’s HD service). But some months later I reran the channel scan but this time selected digital. It took ~forever~ to run but afterwards I found I had about 30 local HD channels and upper-tier cable HD channels.
I have a 26 inch Sony HD Model S TV and analog COMCAST cable. Upon setup, it found 180 HD channels, along with all the analog stations. Many (like Hallmark and AMC which Comcast has removed from Analog service are set permanently. Others (Ranging mostly from channels 81.xx to 84.xx) come and go. Occassionally I get HBO John Adams series. Often I get on demand pictures — some porn but oftern nearly first run movies — like new Rocky, Rambo, Harry Potter, National Treasure, etc. Oddly these must be someone’s on-demand shows that they sometimes pause and rewind.Sometimes they drop out and a message “signal cannot be decoded”.
The quality of the picture on analog stations is superb on my Sony.
hi
i was reading your remarks about getting HD tv channels for free. well i am in VT,[ i really don’t want to say where exactly for obvious reasons }and i went and tried it and we get a few channels in HD. thanks
Analog cable customers can receive some HD channels thanks to the FCC. In a ruling adopted on 9/11/07, the FCC required large cable companies to provide local broadcast channels in analog form through at least February 2012. It also affirmed degradation rules including a requirement that HD sources be carried in HD. So if you have an HDTV and analog cable service (often called “basic cable”), you will get the HD programming that is offered by the familiar broadcast channels — ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, etc.
I have a newer HDTV that picks up the free HD and digital channels. However, I have an older rear projection TV that is HD compatible, but does not have a digital tuner. I don’t want buy the HD package from the cable company to get the extra digital/HD channels. Is there a set top box available that has the same digital and QAM tuner as the ones built into the newer sets?
Can the $40 boxes for over the air work with basic cable signal as well?
Thanks all.
There aren’t any boxes for cable unless you consider the digital cable boxes your cable provider has. There are digital external receivers for over-the-air reception but those don’t have a QAM tuner.
I forgot to mention that I haven’t seen a DTV converter box with a QAM tuner either.
I have a Digital/HD QAM tuner usb card for my latpop. I hooked it up to my cable and it detected about 50 or so channels by doing a scan. Almost all of them had a padlock symbol next to them, meaning that they were unwatchable. It was channels 86.1 to 87.5 that had no padlock. I got excited and tried them out. They were just local channels in HD and digital. I can already get them with my antenna, so its kinda useless. If it was like ESPN or something in HD, that would be cool. And Time Warner has free HD if you have digital cable, which i do, so its not theft of services.
After learning this from my Brother-in-law, I Auto programmed my HDTV channels with cable, local DTV (including HD) channels and few more digital channels are now programmed. This is good for us since we do not get good reception from antenna. I talked to my service provider and confirmed it is provided with Basic Analog Cable with no extra chagre!