As a supplement to the main off-the-air HDTV Channel Map I've created this unencrypted channel listing for Canadian users who receive Rogers cable and would like to make the most of their equipment.

Increasingly, modern television devices are including QAM-enabled tuners, which basically means that they can receive digital cable channels alongside traditional analog ones. Yes, these are the same stations that you’d be getting when you rent a digital cable box from Rogers. In the US, there’s a small credit card sized device called a “Cable Card” that plugs into the back of almost all recent QAM-enabled televisions or set-top-boxes that allows them to tune encrypted pay TV channels, directly from within the device, without needing to rent a full fledged cable box from the cable company (most cable operators do charge a nominal fee to rent the Cable Card, along with appropriate fees for actual programming). Up in Canada, Rogers does not yet support Cable Cards – even though their network is compatible and an ever-larger number of Canadian televisions are including a Cable Card slot.

Rogers used to offer a modicum of free unencrypted channels that could be received by any QAM-enabled tuner even without a Cable Card installed, including numerous CBC, CTV, Global, CityTV and CH channels from across the country. However, in July of 2007 the company switched to encrypting these channels, meaning that they can no longer be received by anything except the official Rogers cable box. Apparently, Rogers found the popularity of QAM-enabled televisions an annoyance and decided that even that meager selection of free Canadian content could not be tolerated.

So, for now, here’s a list of everything that’s left, primarily made up of music and radio channels. This should be accurate for Rogers Cable in the Greater Toronto Area but may not reflect Rogers digital offerings in other areas. When doing your own scans, you can tell when you’ve hit a QAM channel by its number – basically it will be in the format of ##.#, such as 83.45 or 102.346. Note that some QAM tuners renumber the subchannels, for example 82.7 and 82.8 may show as 82.1 and 82.2.

When will the CRTC finally force Rogers to support open QAM for basic cable and Cable Cards for premium channels? It can’t be soon enough...

Rogers Unencryped QAM Channel List (as of January 13th, 2008)

Number Genre Channel Name 84.13 Music Max Trax Masterworks 84.14 Music Max Trax The Light 84.16 Music Max Trax The Spa 84.18 Music Max Trax FrancoEnergie 84.19 Music Max Trax Le Top Détente 84.21 Music Max Trax Memories 84.22 Music Max Trax Jazz Café 84.23 Music Max Trax Swingin' Standards 84.24 Music Max Trax Treehouse 84.25 Music Max Trax CMT 84.26 Music Max Trax FrancoRelax 84.28 Music Max Trax Jammin' 84.29 Music Max Trax Blues Street 84.33 Music Max Trax The Beat 84.34 Music Max Trax Hit List 84.36 Music Max Trax Flashback 70's 84.38 Music Max Trax Rock 84.39 Music Max Trax The Edge 84.41 Music Max Trax Musique Bout'choux 84.42 Music Max Trax Party! 84.49 Music Galaxie GoldRock 84.51 Music Galaxie AdultAlternatve 84.52 Music Galaxie PopAdult 84.53 Music Galaxie Ambient 84.54 Music Galaxie Dance 84.57 Music Galaxie CountryClassics 84.58 Music Galaxie FrancoCountry 84.60 Music Galaxie Souvenirs 84.62 Music Galaxie Nostalgie 84.64 Music Galaxie JazzMasters 84.65 Music Galaxie JazzNow 84.67 Music Galaxie FolkRoots 84.68 Music Galaxie World 84.69 Music Galaxie RockandRoll 84.71 Music Galaxie Nature 84.72 Music Galaxie Pop Classics 84.73 Music Galaxie Baroque 84.75 Music Galaxie Chamber Music 84.76 Music Galaxie the 80s 84.78 Music Galaxie MoussesMusique 88.### 90.### 92.### 93.### Interesting! Active Rogers On Demand sessions can be found in these channel blocks. Watch what others are watching! Total number of encrypted & unencrypted digital channels at time of scan: 519.

If you'd like to comment on this list, please see its official post in our forum.

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