I need cable cards to record OTA? What?

[Jedi4141]

Correct me here if I am wrong, but is this true? I was hoping to go with only analog cable/OTA HD for awhile to avoid the issues of cablecards. (most importantly price) Thanks.

[TydalForce]

You do not need CableCARDs to do that.

Mine's set up in exactly that way. I have my "Expanded Basic" analog cable, I have an antenna, and I have no CableCARDs. Works great ;-)

You only need the CableCARDs for proper digital cable functionality.

[Bierboy]

You do not need CableCARDs to do that.

Mine's set up in exactly that way. I have my "Expanded Basic" analog cable, I have an antenna, and I have no CableCARDs. Works great ;-)

You only need the CableCARDs for proper digital cable functionality.What Tydal said....I have the identical setup that he has. It's been working flawlessly for six months now.

[Jedi4141]

Thanks for your help, I must have misread the forum or read a misguided poster. thanks.

[GoHokies!]

Thanks for your help, I must have misread the forum or read a misguided poster. thanks.
There certainly aren't any of those around here! ;)

What made you think that you needed cable cards for that? I'm guessing that someone said that you needed two cable cards to have both tuners work? That seems to be a pretty common misunderstanding (0 cable cards gives you dual tuners just as well).

[pkscout]

You do need cablecards if you're getting the broadcast networks from cable. Not to decode them but to map the QAM frequency to a channel number on the guide. Sometimes folks loosely call this "OTA" as well, but it really isn't. OTA is getting the HD channels with an antenna.

That might be where the confusion came.