# I'm going to ask a stupid question... QAM Tuner!



## ls7dude

Hi All,

I have a QAM tuner in my new Philips 50" plasma. Do I need an antenna hooked up to get the channels through the QAM tuner? I thought the QAM tuner was supposed to eliminate the need for the antenna. I am a bit confused.

Thanks, Gene.


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## Chandu

QAM tuners are meant for receiving digital channels (including HD) left unscrambled by a cable company with a digital cable hookup. No antenna is required.

QAM tuner does not tune OTA ATSC channels.

If you wish to receive OTA digital channels (including HD), you must have an ATSC tuner and an antenna.

Many times, embedded digital tuners in TVs sold have both QAM + ATSC capability. So, it is quite likely you will be able to receive OTA digital channels by connecting antenna to your setup.


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## Stewart Vernon

ls7dude said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I have a QAM tuner in my new Philips 50" plasma. Do I need an antenna hooked up to get the channels through the QAM tuner? I thought the QAM tuner was supposed to eliminate the need for the antenna. I am a bit confused.
> 
> Thanks, Gene.


You need to connect something to your TV in order to get signals. QAM is typically used by cable companies, so you would need to connect a cable coax from your local cable service to your TV in order to see what they have available via QAM.

In many cases they will have digital locals via QAM, and perhaps a handful of other digital channels in the clear.

But this really has nothing to do with Dish Network since Dish doesn't use QAM for anything nor do their receivers have support for QAM... so I think this post is probably in the wrong forum.


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## Tower Guy

ls7dude said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I have a QAM tuner in my new Philips 50" plasma. Do I need an antenna hooked up to get the channels through the QAM tuner? I thought the QAM tuner was supposed to eliminate the need for the antenna. I am a bit confused.
> 
> Thanks, Gene.


You may connect the TV to an antenna and receive local channels using the internal 8VSB tuner. The QAM tuner is used to decode HD signals from a cable connection. Some sets have two F connectors, one for an antenna and one for cable, others have a single F connection that can be used either way.


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## Bill R

Tower Guy said:


> The QAM tuner is used to decode HD signals from a cable connection.


That should read DIGITAL instead of HD. And a QAM tuner does not decode any signals unless you add a cablecard. In TVs without a cablecard slot a QAM tuner can only receive unencrypted digital signals (HD or SD). To decode encncrypted digital signals you need a cable company STB or a TV (or STB) with a cablecard slot. The cablecard costs about $2 a month to rent from the cable company. Of course, you still need to pay additional for the encrypted cable channels but you do save the cost of a cable company STB.


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## ls7dude

Sorry guys. I had no idea what a QAM tuner was. I obviously have Dish so I won't be able to use it unless I get an antenna I suppose. Thanks for the help.


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## Tower Guy

Bill R said:


> That should read DIGITAL instead of HD. And a QAM tuner does not decode any signals unless you add a cablecard. In TVs without a cablecard slot a QAM tuner can only receive unencrypted digital signals (HD or SD). To decode encncrypted digital signals you need a cable company STB or a TV (or STB) with a cablecard slot. The cablecard costs about $2 a month to rent from the cable company. Of course, you still need to pay additional for the encrypted cable channels but you do save the cost of a cable company STB.


My Sharp Aquos has a QAM tuner and no cable card. Right now my wife is watching Grey's Anatomy in HD via cable.


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## Chandu

Tower Guy said:


> My Sharp Aquos has a QAM tuner and no cable card. Right now my wife is watching Grey's Anatomy in HD via cable.


Right.

Because it is aired on ABC-HD. And I know of no cable company which encrypts local digitals (HD or SD), as they're required by FCC law to leave locals unencrypted.

So how does that contradict anything in the "Bill R" post you quoted?


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## Tower Guy

Chandu said:


> Right.
> 
> So how does that contradict anything in the "Bill R" post you quoted?


I don't have a cable card.


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## TNGTony

Tower Guy... you DO NOT need a cablecard to get unencrypted digital channels from a cably system. You only need a cablecard to get encrypted channels. Local digital/HD channels are generally (not always) available unencrypted. So you can get them on your TV.

BillR's statement starts off with two sentences:
1)And a QAM tuner does not *decode* any signals unless you add a cablecard.

and 2
2)In TVs *without a cablecard slot* a QAM tuner can only receive unencrypted digital signals (HD or SD)

I guess he should have just said "In TVs without a cable card a QAM tuner can only receive unencrypeted digital signals (HD or SD)" to avoid the confusion.

See ya
Tony


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## Chandu

TNGTony said:


> I guess he should have just said "In TVs without a cable card a QAM tuner can only receive unencrypeted digital signals (HD or SD)" to avoid the confusion.


Yeah, he might not have said that in those exact words. But my first post in this thread pretty much said the same thing.

Also, "Bill R" statement is factually correct, as the word "decode" you highlighted implies something to unencrypt. For digital channels which cable companies are required to leave in the clear per FCC regulations, there is nothing to "decode". If it's in the clear, no encryption, meaning no "decode".


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## DaveTheWave

ls7dude,

I recently purchased an HDTV with a QAM tuner. I am a standard def DirectTV customer and a local cable high speed internet customer. I have not plunked down the cash for the HD D* service as yet but my "local cable high speed" coax cable provides me with a number of local HD channels as well as a few "Premium" cable channels in HD.


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## Richard King

Being a basic cable and internet customer I have one question..... where can one procure a stand alone box with a QAM tuner built in at a reasonable price?


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## koji68

I haven't seen any standalone QAM tuners. My DVD Recorder has one, I don't use the QAM tuner because I don't have cable so I can't talk about that particular feature. It was around $200.00. LG DR787T


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## Chandu

Richard King said:


> Being a basic cable and internet customer I have one question..... where can one procure a stand alone box with a QAM tuner built in at a reasonable price?


I bought a refurbished LG LST 3510A more than a year ago. But it also comes with an up-converting DVD player you may not be interested in.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=887688&postcount=4

Last year, there was a period of time when I had just the bare-bones basic cable, and I used to get HD locals with the QAM tuner with fantastic picture quality. Of course, it could get them with an OTA antenna and the ATSC tuner without any cable connection as well.

I had made a detailed post about some idiosyncrasies of this tuner last year on avsforum. Let me know if you're interested and I can dig it up.


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## Richard King

Thanks, I think the AVS Thread will help, when the time comes.


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## TimL

I mentioned a while back about a JVC 30" HDTV I bought. I had a spare cable wire in my bedroom. (Have Roadrunner and Digital Phone from Time Warner) Just on a lark, I Hooked it up to the back of the JVC and I was getting the major Cleveland Local and digital subchannels, Channel 9 in Steubenville, 13 in Toledo, LP-52 in Canton and LP-17/62 Youngstown(Fox)..As well as some basic cable channels. That was my introduction to the QAM Tuner. The Odd thing is, 9, 13, and 17/62 arent available in any regular Time Warner Package.


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## Chandu

Richard King said:


> Thanks, I think the AVS Thread will help, when the time comes.


OK, here you go:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8152662&&#post8152662

The entire thread about the hardware is here, but as you can imagine it is very long. It started back in late 2003!!!!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=331339


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## Steve Mehs

> The Odd thing is, 9, 13, and 17/62 arent available in any regular Time Warner Package.


It's been a few years since I was in your area and I don't remember the geography of the area too well, but I would assume Cleveland, Canton, Toledo and Youngstown are all a part of the TW NEO franchise and the franchise has slightly different line ups depending on your area. My guess would be those stations are available somewhere on the NEO system, but just not on the specific line up for your area. I did a quick lookup and the TW NEO line up for the Youngstown area lists the Fox affiliate on channel 12 on cable.

Just like here, my franchise covers Rochester and parts of the Buffalo and Syracuse markets, so I get HD locals from all three via unencrypted QAM.


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## TimL

Steve Mehs said:


> It's been a few years since I was in your area and I don't remember the geography of the area too well, but I would assume Cleveland, Canton, Toledo and Youngstown are all a part of the TW NEO franchise and the franchise has slightly different line ups depending on your area. My guess would be those stations are available somewhere on the NEO system, but just not on the specific line up for your area. I did a quick lookup and the TW NEO line up for the Youngstown area lists the Fox affiliate on channel 12 on cable.
> 
> Just like here, my franchise covers Rochester and parts of the Buffalo and Syracuse markets, so I get HD locals from all three via unencrypted QAM.


Cleveland just recently switched over from Adelphia to Time-Warner. Akron, Canton and Youngstown has been TWC since the old Warner Amex days..Other outlying (from Canton) areas just became TWC as well. While Toledo City is Buckeye Cablevision some outlying areas may be TWC by now. That may explain the extra channels..


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