I just got a call from Time Warner saying that they have a HDTV cable box avaliable for me to use. Of course I said be able to use it because I have a HD TV.

Does anyone have any info on what this is all about and if its just another "scam" (as I always here everyone calling digital cable)

I have TWC digital cable with HDTV, your first 60 channels, are still the analog ones, like you'd get on analog cable, but all the rest are digital. It's kind of a toss up between Satellite and Digital Cable, sort of up to you to do your research to find out what you'd rather have....but it really is the real deal. They do carry the HDTV channels, and you will get them in HDTV, here in MN I get all my locals in HDTV plus HBO HD, and Showtime HD. I had AT&T, but I hated them, and couldn't get Satellite because I had nowhere to put a dish that could look south, so I went with TWC. They just rolled out Video On Demand too, it kicks ass.

Yes, HDTV requires an HD capable TV set.

I have Charter Cable here in CA, and they just rolled out HD here. For an extra couple of bucks a month, they replaced my Digital Scientific Atlanta cable box with an HDTV-capable box. The HD is great -- looks awesome and sounds awesome with the 5.1, but the programming selection leaves much to be desired.

Currently they're only offering HBO HD and Showtime HD -- all of the local stations that broadcast HD at different frequencies are not carried by the cable company. To add insult to injury, the cable box has no antenna input (other than the RF needed to connect Charter's signal) so I can't even hook up an outdoor antenna to capture the other HD programming that's being broadcast in my market.

All in all, I'm glad that I get to use the full capacity of my HDTV without investing in the expensive DirecTV or DishNetwork equipment I'd need to access it from Sat, but I wish I could get more programming choices...hopefully Charter will offer them soon. At the end of the day, it's definitely worth an extra $3 a month though to get the incedible pictures and sound that I get from what programming I can!

k2times,
where are you in the L.A. area? Glendalish? They have Charter out there, and maybe it would be worth experimenting with your box to see if it would actually receive off-air channels.

You might end up with one of those ugly 1985 A - B switches on the side of your cable box, but with OTA HDTV!

Let me know here if you are interested in experimenting with this. Maybe your name will go down in hobbyist lore as the one who figured out how to get the cable company box to do something that it could already do, that the cable company would never even admit is possible.

Ernie
Glendale

I'm betting it's impossible...but I have no proof. But since the box is decoding our HD channels from a digital signal...doesn't this suggest that it's not exactly a tuner, but more of a decoder...decoding the signal that was encoded by it's parent at the cable company's head end? I'm interested in seeing if it DOES work, cause that'd just plain, be cool. But I'm skeptical...

The Cable company (Time Warner) is coming out Wen.9/4
to put in the HD reciever, I'll let you know the results then....

The Cable company (Time Warner) is coming out Wen.9/4
to put in the HD reciever, I'll let you know the results then....

Jinx!!!!!!!!! Sorry bout that

The cable co will not carry any HD chan that they cant get a contract for to in some way guarente chan
availability.That way the stations cant be droped
by hbo ect,they have to provide a guarente of service.
The next chans to be added to HD will be the PPV chans.

Hey Ernie,

Yeah, I'm here in good ol' Glendale. I suppose it's worth a shot to use an A/B switch just to see if I could get the signal. I'm not extremely well versed on cable technology, so I'm not sure if the box is even going to work without getting the 'active' signal from the Charter...but I think I might have an old switch around here somewhere to hook it up.

Given what I know about the cable service now though, I have a feeling that the cable box will be 'paralyzed' without a signal from them. If you've ever been late on your cable television bill payment, you know what I mean -- the remote doesn't work, you get a 'no service' message, etc.

Like I said though, it's worth proving out...I'll post for all to see afterward. If it doesn't work (as I anticipate it won't) my days with Charter may be numbered. The ads I've seen for DiscoveryHD and all of the OTA broadcasts I'm missing are getting far too compelling to ignore! Cable may just be losing yet another subscriber to the 'evil dish'!

-- Kevin

You guys are lucky.

Here in Dallas, AT&T Broadband still only refers to HDTV on their web site as "a new television format that requires an expensive new television set that can easily cost $2000 or more." I got news for you, AT&T: my TV costs nearly five times that much. Now where's my figgin HDTV?

Grumbling,
Dale

LOL Dale -- I guess yet another reason to move to the dish!

A digital HD STB has 3 decoders. At least.
1) Decode digital signal from supplier. This is MPEG2 from Dish Network, similar from DTV and cable companies.
2) Decode HDTV signal if available. Splits it into analog video component out (or VGA) and DD audio.
3) Decode DD audio, send it out the digital output. Or downconvert it to stereo for the analog output.

BTW, there's a tuner in between 1 and 2.

Well, I got the HD box from TW, it the Scientific Atlanta 3100HD box. The channels I can get in HD are mainly the Premimum channels, HBO and Showtime each have a few and one PBS channel. the other local channels will only be in HD if that show is broadcasted in HD, according to TW. its only been one day so I cant really say if that is correct.

I am using a Hitachi 53" Wide Screen TV and one thing I was warned about was the possible screen burn-in. When in the HD mode and the channel is not HD you will get black lines on the side edges of the screen which can cause problems, while in the HD mode you cant adjust the screen (stretch,full and fill)
as you can when in regular signal inputs. So when watching a show thats not HD I just change it to regular input..

Is there any Projection TV experts that might know if this can cause problems???????

It a good thing that this new box was free of charge!!!!!

In closing about the only way to take advantage of this new box (now anyway), is to upgrade the Dig Cable package to add the premimum channels..

(shit,,, I'm signed up with netflix and get DVDs all the time anyway)