ok, i work at Circuit city, and it all started when one of my coworkers told me that Cox cable digital service makes you pay extra to watch thier HD channels. Well, i disagreed with him, but eventually i just took his word for it. Well, yesterday, i was watching this show on tv called "CoxVision"(its a show that Coxcable makes and runs on one of thier channels explaining the benefits of cox digital cable service), Well, anyway, i was about to change the channel until the topic of HD came up. I watched it, and they said on thier that Digital Cable subscribers had access to thier HD channels free of charge. Well, i hurried up and recorded the show using my DVR box that i rent from cox. I was going to and think i still am, going to transfer the show onto vhs tape and show it to my coworkers to prove them a point. Well, anyway, i called cox cable and wanted to make sure that the HD channels were free, just to confirm it. The lady said "yes, it is free, i see on your account your paying $9.99 a month for the DVR service with HD Tuner. So yes the HD channels are free, your not paying anything." Then i said, so in addition to my digital cable fee, im paying 9.99 a month for the dvr hd tuner box. she said yes. Well, i asked her, what if i just payed the regular digital cable fee, and got the regular box without the Hd tuner in it, would i still be able to watch the Hd channels if my tv already has a built in tuner. She said she didnt know and that she would transfer me to tech. So i asked technical support, and the lady said i am paying 9.99 for the dvr, once again i said, look, if my tv has a built in HD tuner, and i canceled the DVR box, and got the regular box with no HD tuner, would i still be able to watch the HD channels yall provide in the 700+ range, she said no. So, i replied ,"so in essence, if i want to watch the HD channels that yall provide i need to pay 9.99 a month because i dont care about the Dvr box", and she got mad and said yes. So basically, they are saying they provide the HD channels free, but actually, you only get them "free" if you pay for them by renting the hd box. otherwise if you stick with the regular box, then you wont be able to watch thier hd channels even if your tv has a built in tuner. What im hoping yall can help me anwser is: 1.) if i have regular basic cable(not any form on digital), straight from the wall coax line, going in the back of my tv(which has a built in hd tuner), will i be able to watch Fox or Tnt in high definition? Because right now, you can watch fox in HD only if you buy an HD antenna and recieve it OTA. Cox Digital cable doesnt have a fox HD channel. But they have one for tnt. 2.) if i cancel the DVR service and get the regular box(without the HDtuner), but have an hd tuner built in my tv, will i be able to watch TNT or any other channel that comes in HD, on thier regular broadcast channels? e.g. Tnt comes in on ch.25 over here, so with cox digital cable you can watch tnt on ch.25 regular , or you can go to ch.725 and watch thier TNTHD channel. And, just to let you know, you might laugh, but i dont even have a tv with a built in HD tuner, these questions are just strictly out of very determined curiousity. BEcause once i find out the anwsers to these questions, it will help me determine whether or not to buy a tv with a built in HD tuner and to figure out if Built in tuners are a joke or not.
The only way to find out is bypassing your dvr box, then using your hdtv remote start the setup program to search for channels... It may take a while to find the channels, but let me tell you, you will find most of the HD channels available OTA. And Digital channels too. I used to have a projector HDTV and in order to get HD channels I had to subscribe to the DVR/HD box. This is becuase my HDTV did not have an hd tunner build in. I bought a new srdx hdtv that has a built in tunner and I ran the setup utility and search for channels and I was surprised how many channels it found just using the coax cable. I am trying to figure out what channels are, but I am sure that all the local channels are included and some digital channels as well. But I am not sure if TNT is, since it is not an OTA. I have printed my local service provider ch line up, then I will go one by one to have an idea what channel is what. Also the ch number is not the same as in the channel line up from your local provider. But for what I have experienced the anser is yet, you will get most of the HD channels available by just using the coax cable. Of course premium channels will not be available... I will check my tv once again today and probably scan for channels once again and I will update this post if any new HD and Digital channels show up. Oh! By the way, I am able to get Digital music channels as well... So it is a money saving by just getting an HDTV with a built in tunner.
I have a friend that works for the cable company so I can tell you what your choices are with HD.our cable company charges 9.95 to rent a dual-tuner HD/DVR reciever the actual reciever cost $1200 from the company that's why they rent them because most people can't shell a grand for a reciever.They don't charge for local HD channels because you can use a off air antenna.The FCC pass a law for people who don't want a reciever to have a built-in HD tuner that require a cable card to get the cable channels.The problem with using a cable card is you don't get all the channels and you don't have a DVR in the TV you get the menu from the TV and the lacking features of the reciever.So with dual-tuner reciever you can record two channels on a hard drive or what one channel while recording another.The tv is limited regardless if it has it's own HD tuner.So you can watch your HD channels on your tv with a cable card and not get the same menu as the DVR box and not be able to record.It would be better to pay 10.00 a month for a box if know what I'm talking about Circuit City dude.
$1200 for a HD/DVR receiver? WOW! I'm in the wrong business ... It would be cheaper to buy a $500 PC, get a HD TV capture card that has a TV output and create your own media center ...
Definatley the way to go with the tv capture card that does HD.I want to check out the norwood at compUSA that does HD for 99 dollars wondering if it is any good.Let's see I can rent the cheaper HD reciever without the hard drive and and run a cable from the pre-out to the capture card and make my computer hard drive it's own DVR.
Lots of ?????? First of all let me explain about Hi Def. A regular movie will fit on a 5 GB DVD. A Hi-Def movie needs to go on the NEW Blu-Ray 25 GB disc. That improved picture takes up 5 times as much space or band width. That is why the roll out of Hi Def channels has been so slow!!A cable that can handle 300 digital channels can only handle 60 Hi-Def channels unless somthing is done. That something is compression which has the same effect as scrambling, it`s unwatchable. So the cable companies either have to rip out and replace their cable to each and every home ie; BIG BUCKS or compress. To unscramble/decompress the signal you need a Cablecard which most cable companies provide FREE or if your TV does not have a Cablecard slot [ it looks like a PCMCIA card } you will need to rent a box to convert the signal. NO . The Hi-Def channels are not on the BASIC cable tier. Cox Digital cable doesnt have a fox HD channel, that does not mean that the FOX station in your area is broadcasting in HD either. You need to check first.
I have an HDTV (with out a built in HD Tuner) and I'm getting my cable using just the coax cable (No Cable Box). Naturally, I only get up to 70 or so channels. I live in a house that has Digital Cable, Digital Phone and High Speed internet. If I want to view HD channels on my HDTV will I need to rent only the Cox HD Digital box or do I need the normal digital box and the HD digial box?
