My time spent in front of the TV continues to dwindle, so I am finally looking to rid myself of my monthly cable bill (or at least reduce it). I would be perfectly happy just getting my local channels in HD via clear QAM. I do love having DVR so I probably will purchase a TiVo. My plan is to buy a TiVo, get a very basic cable plan through Comcast and use a cableCARD with the TiVo. (My first preference would be just to get an OTA HD antenna. Unfortunately, my market does not not have an OTA ABC broadcast - the cable company just streams the ABC feed from San Fran as the "local" affilliate.) However, I have a HDTV that does NOT have built-in QAM tuner.

So my question is, does the TiVo itself function as a QAM tuner? I.e. can the TiVo map all the QAM subchannels so I can view them if my TV does not have its own QAM tuner? I would hate to buy the thing only to find that I can't get to the QAM channels. I am not worried about which channels might be clear QAM and which are scrambled, as my cableCARD should take care of those issues. Thanks.

8/7/2009 4:05:20 PM

Quote :

"Unfortunately, my market does not not have an OTA ABC broadcast "

where do you live???

8/7/2009 4:19:26 PM

Monterey Bay, CA. I looked into it, apparently the station that USED to be ABC for my market was bought out by a Bay Area company and they switched it to something else. And apparently no one is in any hurry to replace it

8/7/2009 4:23:38 PM

wow, i had no idea it was even possible for the broadcast networks to exist on cable but not OTA

8/7/2009 4:32:41 PM

Quote :

"So my question is, does the TiVo itself function as a QAM tuner? I.e. can the TiVo map all the QAM subchannels so I can view them if my TV does not have its own QAM tuner? I would hate to buy the thing only to find that I can't get to the QAM channels. I am not worried about which channels might be clear QAM and which are scrambled, as my cableCARD should take care of those issues. Thanks."

yep. i used to do this.

if comcast is anything like TWC, you shouldn't even need the cablecard - if you subscribe to broadcast cable, you have access to the local HDs in clear QAM.

(it wouldn't have cablecard slots if it couldn't tune QAM )

8/9/2009 1:13:12 AM

cool, thanks. hopefully then i will not need a cablecard, but i think i read somewhere that comcast has scrambled a lot more of their QAM channels recently (probably since the switch to all-digital), so i will probably need one if i get a package that includes anything but local channels

8/9/2009 2:55:41 AM

Quote :

"wow, i had no idea it was even possible for the broadcast networks to exist on cable but not OTA"

I get two CBS, two NBC, one Fox, one ABC, and a few other "network" stations on cable and I can't get ANY of them OTA. In fact, the only OTA station I can get if I wanted to would be PBS. It's not about the stations not sending the signal, it's about being 60+ miles from their towers. One of the downsides of being on the Outer Banks.

8/9/2009 8:44:01 AM

^ I thought they fixed that a few years ago...

8/9/2009 12:02:04 PM

at least for HD, nope. If you get one of the biggest amplified antenna setups and stick it up on your roof and you live on a bill then you can pick up a couple of stations, sometimes.

I guess if you lived north of Duck you may pick up some of the stations, but down where people actually live we don't have much of a chance at getting reliable OTA channels.

8/9/2009 2:13:09 PM