QAM Support

[Einselen]

Doing some research for a "friend" to see if S3 is right for them but the whole QAM/HD is above my knowledge level. This is what they asked:

Anybody know if you can use this without an actual cable box? Basically I just run the cable line straight into my HDTV and I pickup channels using the QAM tuner in the tv itself.

thanks for any info.

and then a follow up of:

I don't receive any encrypted channels.. Just basic cable and it also happens to deliver HDTV national channels too, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS etc... I just plug my catv line straight into the tv set. My HDTV has a QAM tuner, but still confused as to whether or not I can use this Tivo.

Sorry if this has been asked/discussed before but reading other post about QAM and S3 just confused the heck ou tof me.

[aaronwt]

You need to have the cable cards to have the channels mapped correctly with the lineup and to get the proper guide info for recording.

[classicsat]

The series 3 can tune and record unenrypted QAM channels, but only manually.

TiVo's guide and related recording and program search features require cablecards to map the cable channel numbers to their QAM channels, for now anyway (TiVo could possibly include a way to manually map channel numbers to QAM channels).

[mattack]

You currently need two CableCards. That *could* change. I am not saying it will, there are many other things that at least some users have wanted that Tivo hasn't added. (Don't take that the wrong way, I'm a big fan of Tivo.)

But it would be great if your friend contacted Tivo and said that they would buy it if it had direct QAM support without cable cards.

However, also, the price of cablecards is less than a cable box for most people.. though sometimes people have to pull shenanigans to get cable cards without "upgrading" to digital cable.

[Einselen]

Thanks, makes more sense now. I was just getting confused with all the other posts I read.

[ashu]

Would your friend happen to be overweight? Or at least his wallet?

:p

[Einselen]

Would your friend happen to be overweight? Or at least his wallet?

:p

Don't know what you are talking about ;) I do give proper credit where credit is due.

[ashu]

Oh, I'm not implying anything about credit/attribution etc ... just mentioning in passing that I noticed your contributions elsewhere to aid and abet the growth of the TiVo empire, in the face of completely illogical FUD and blind 'cheap is good' beliefs.

I've given up on posting any useful technical info there - too many 'not cheap enough' idio^H^H^Hvultures ruin it anyway. Then along comes someone else who asks the same question I answered 3 posts ago. Aaargh! Completely pointless discussion forum, unless you only discuss price differences. In pennies.

[Einselen]

Oh, I'm not implying anything about credit/attribution etc ... just mentioning in passing that I noticed your contributions elsewhere to aid and abet the growth of the TiVo empire, in the face of completely illogical FUD and blind 'cheap is good' beliefs.

I've given up on posting any useful technical info there - too many 'not cheap enough' idio^H^H^Hvultures ruin it anyway. Then along comes someone else who asks the same question I answered 3 posts ago. Aaargh! Completely pointless discussion forum, unless you only discuss price differences. In pennies.

I could not agree with you more. As OP (at least over there in that land) I felt the need to follow up and help those. Even in that thread you can see how moronic people are. Sometimes I just let them go other times I truly have to correct them.