No mention of QAM on the entire site?

[nycdesigner]

I think a lot of people would want to know about QAM Clear Channels in light of most cable companies starting to require set-top boxes or CableCards to view scrambled digital content.

FCC mandates that at least the four broadcast channels be available "free and clear" on all cable systems, and you can tune them in if your TV has a digital QAM tuner. They usually appear as hyphenated or "dot" channels, like 27-3 or 12.2. Some cablecos even have free HD channels riding alongside their scrambled digital signals! But you don't need an extra HDTV tuner at a monthly rental if you already have an HDTV.

What does all this mean? Let's let the Technocoligists fill us in.

[burkhartmj]

Most HDTV's have a built-in hybrid tuner that can accept analog [standard cable] and unencrypted digital signals, the clearQAM you were speaking of. The unencrypted channels lie in between the regular channels, so as not to interfere with the analog frequencies. Just hook an HDTV with a hybrid tuner up to cable, and do a channel search. it will usually mention that it's searching for analog AND digital channels, and if it doesn't mention that, your TV probably doesn't support QAM through it's built-in tuner. This is only if you get analog cable if I recall correctly, so if you subscribe to digital as it is, you don't get any extra channels on the side.

There are also a lot of TV Tuner cards for the PC that support clearQAM, but as of yet, the released version of Vista media center doesn't, so you have to use third party software. The Media Center TV Pack [codenamed Fiji] is supposed to include QAM support, but isn't going to be released as an update to existing Vista systems, only through new purchase of OEM computers [like Dell and HP]. Some variant of it has hit the internet already and is relatively easy to find, but through recent [and unbelievably frustrating] experience with a Hauppage HVR-1800, it doesn't have very good support for the individual card chips that run QAM [I was actually just about to open a new thread asking about just that].

[bjkrautk]

The QAM tuner in my Sony XBR970 was great for the first year I had the thing, before Charter started encrypting video on demand services (although it did get annoying when the person actually watching the show decided to pause or rewind).

Now I just use it for the local HD channels that haven't started broadcasting OTA just yet.

TiVo HD (and, I assume, the Series 3) units also have a QAM tuner in them. You don't get the programming guides for the QAM channels, though, so you'll have to manually program anything you want to record. Also, the performance on the TiVo QAM tuner isn't quite as good as the one in my Sony HDTV (I have a channel that drops out on both tuners, but it happens less often while using the Sony tuner.)

[mier]

Is there a site with a list of QAM channels for the various cable providers? I did it once and I was getting alot of repeats down through the channels.

[tokenuser]

Is there a site with a list of QAM channels for the various cable providers? I did it once and I was getting alot of repeats down through the channels.Each time I hit a new location, I just let my tuner rescan (Pinnacle USB HDTVPro Stick). Yes, it does Clear QAM with a firmware upgrade.

I use it in hotel rooms to act as a DVR while I go grab something to eat :)

[burkhartmj]

Each time I hit a new location, I just let my tuner rescan (Pinnacle USB HDTVPro Stick). Yes, it does Clear QAM with a firmware upgrade.

I use it in hotel rooms to act as a DVR while I go grab something to eat :)

You're lucky. With an HVR 1800, I'm up a creek right now. the media center TV pack can do QAM, but Hauppage has yet to release even a beta driver for the 1800 [they have for the 2250 though, so there is hope for the future]. By Windows 7's release [has all the updates in the TV pack and possibly more] there should be drivers though, so I'll survive for now on digital OTA and analog cable.

[tokenuser]

You're lucky. With an HVR 1800, I'm up a creek right now. the media center TV pack can do QAM, but Hauppage has yet to release even a beta driver for the 1800 [they have for the 2250 though, so there is hope for the future]. By Windows 7's release [has all the updates in the TV pack and possibly more] there should be drivers though, so I'll survive for now on digital OTA and analog cable.The Clear QAM firmware update was the deal winner for me over the Hauppage equivalents. The OTA reception is OK (I was watching TV in Atlanta while on a layover - beats listening to the drone of CNN on all the airport TVs).

[burkhartmj]

The Clear QAM firmware update was the deal winner for me over the Hauppage equivalents. The OTA reception is OK (I was watching TV in Atlanta while on a layover - beats listening to the drone of CNN on all the airport TVs).

Yea, when I got it QAM wasn't supported in VMC so I wasn't worried about it, or else I would've gotten an AverTV or ATI TV Wonder. Safe to say I'm very disappointed now, through OTA reception here is OK for some channels, though some are messed up by the many many brick multi-story buildings surrounding my townhome.

[nycdesigner]

TiVo HD (and, I assume, the Series 3) units also have a QAM tuner in them.

This is only accessible when not using the cable cards. TiVo (with a little help from the CableCos) confuses consumers by marketing the TiVoHD as requiring Cable Cards, available only from YourCableCo.

Actually, the built-in QAM tuner can receive all unencrypted "in the clear" QAM channels riding on your cable, and has an ATSC tuner for OTA digital.

Again, the QAM tuner is inaccessible when using a cable card (required for encrypted or premium content). I think the OTA signals will still be allowed, but I have yet to test it because I haven't bought a decent antenna.

I've been "riding" TiVo and RCN about QAM and getting pretty close to nowhere!

[tdmeskimo]

I think a lot of people would want to know about QAM Clear Channels in light of most cable companies starting to require set-top boxes or CableCards to view scrambled digital content.

FCC mandates that at least the four broadcast channels be available "free and clear" on all cable systems, and you can tune them in if your TV has a digital QAM tuner. They usually appear as hyphenated or "dot" channels, like 27-3 or 12.2. Some cablecos even have free HD channels riding alongside their scrambled digital signals! But you don't need an extra HDTV tuner at a monthly rental if you already have an HDTV.

What does all this mean? Let's let the Technocoligists fill us in.

if you google and look at the Wikipedia it basicly the second generation of digital tv tuning, with a twist. ATSC is over the air and QAM is for cable, so no matter if you have cable or over the air you will still get the free local network station like ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and FOX network, i must point out no mandate of four channels!! Here is the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner

[burkhartmj]

The Clear QAM firmware update was the deal winner for me over the Hauppage equivalents. The OTA reception is OK (I was watching TV in Atlanta while on a layover - beats listening to the drone of CNN on all the airport TVs).

Sooooo, I finally got the QAM working in VMC, and it's freakin' sweet. Took HOURS to set up, but now I get all my major channels in HD, plus a few extra channels I originally didn't get at all, like the History channel. Only issue I have is NBC is completely screwed up, but it's on their end not mine, so I can't do anything about it [all other channels work fine].