how does digital/HD cable work?

[wingerzzz]

I have tried to educate myself from reading the threads but I am getting loss/confused on some things. First, I have lost touch with modern cable as I have had a satellite big and Directv for the last fifteen years. Second, I live in a small backward city and do not know anyone remotely into things described or even has digital cable let alone HD and I am guessing that there is a 75% chance my limited knowledge of this and Series 3 will be still superior with anyone I come into contact with at my local cable company (NPG Cable).

Questions and assumptions:

1) Directv now requires a two year commitment and either a large one time charge or a small “lease” fee for new or replacement receivers (previously owned by me) in addition to the extra charge per receiver and when the MPG4 comes out my current custom and expensive Direct Tivo will work but not if I want the new HD channels, which I am sure I will want.

2) Two cable cards are required to be able to record two programs at a time and these cards depending on your cable company and there will be either a one time or monthly charge for these or both.

3) How does HD work with cable? From a previous discussion with my cable company you can get normal cable without a special box for any TV but for the ones that you want digital you will need a box and an extra charge, naturally. Is this true as well with HD even if you have a TV with an HD tuner?

OTA is not an option as all I get is a non HD ABC station. I am not looking to do this the cheapest way but Directv has miffed me for hopefully the last time.

[MsUnderstood]

I have tried to educate myself from reading the threads but I am getting loss/confused on some things. First, I have lost touch with modern cable as I have had a satellite big and Directv for the last fifteen years. Second, I live in a small backward city and do not know anyone remotely into things described or even has digital cable let alone HD and I am guessing that there is a 75% chance my limited knowledge of this and Series 3 will be still superior with anyone I come into contact with at my local cable company (NPG Cable).

Questions and assumptions:

1) Directv now requires a two year commitment and either a large one time charge or a small “lease” fee for new or replacement receivers (previously owned by me) in addition to the extra charge per receiver and when the MPG4 comes out my current custom and expensive Direct Tivo will work but not if I want the new HD channels, which I am sure I will want.

The "new" TIVO also requires a commitment to get the nicer pricing and I think it DOES not work with satellite.

2) Two cable cards are required to be able to record two programs at a time and these cards depending on your cable company and there will be either a one time or monthly charge for these or both.

Actually a card is required to get digital channels (not just HD). If you don't have a card you only get the analog channels from your cable company (0-99).

If you have 2 cards you get the added bonus of recording 2 programs at a time.

Prices vary widely between cable companies.

3) How does HD work with cable? From a previous discussion with my cable company you can get normal cable without a special box for any TV but for the ones that you want digital you will need a box and an extra charge, naturally. Is this true as well with HD even if you have a TV with an HD tuner?

OTA is not an option as all I get is a non HD ABC station. I am not looking to do this the cheapest way but Directv has miffed me for hopefully the last time.

You need the cable CARD to get HD channels. The cable card replaces the box.
getting HD channels might be an extra fee in addition to teh cable card charge.

[Teeps]

As I understand "it" the cable companies have to offer HD feeds through what is referred to as "clear QAM." The problem with clear QAM is TiVo does not support guide data for it... What that means is, no season passes, etc which in my book would moot the major reason to have TiVo in the first place.

Hope that helps.

[Shawn95GT]

2. - Probably both. Check with your cable company. My cableco charges a 1-time fee for the 'install' and then a monthly fee for each card.

3. - The S3 'is' the cable box. The cablecards allow it to get the encrypted digital channels. It's kind of like the how the VCRS module in your big-dish system works for the analog pay channels.

As far as the HD Tuner in your TV goes, it 'should' be a QAM tuner but if not it's only good for off-air. If it does do QAM it will let you tune in QAM clear digital / HD channels. Your Locals should be QAM clear. These QAM clear channels are usually on a very odd channel number and your cable company probably won't be much help trying to tune them. Your best bet is to check AVS and see if someone in your area has found them / posted the channel numbers for the QAM clear stuff.

[demon]

As I understand "it" the cable companies have to offer HD feeds through what is referred to as "clear QAM."

Some cable operators will provide over-the-air HD programming in unencrypted (aka "in the clear") QAM format; the CableCard is used to decrypt encrypted QAM content (most HD content, premium SD digital, etc.).

The problem with clear QAM is TiVo does not support guide data for it... What that means is, no season passes, etc which in my book would moot the major reason to have TiVo in the first place.

Well, the CableCard also provides information to the host device about the mappings between carrier frequencies and the channel numbers you see in the guide and elsewhere. There has been discussion about providing the ability to map QAM channels to the "real" channel numbers manually, so you don't need a CableCard if you're not getting premium content (and your cable provider transports HD locals in unencrypted QAM), but TiVo hasn't committed one way or another. If you're already paying for digital cable though, in most places, the CableCards are a small additional fee per month (I pay $1.75/month/card - $3.50 a month isn't going to buy me a day's lunch), so you might as well get them.

[classicsat]

Questions and assumptions:

1) when the MPG4 comes out my current custom and expensive Direct Tivo will work but not if I want the new HD channels, which I am sure I will want.

Yes, you will have to give up any DirecTV TiVo to DVR the MPEG4 HD locals in HD from satellite.

2) Two cable cards are required to be able to record two programs at a time and these cards depending on your cable company and there will be either a one time or monthly charge for these or both.

Worse than that, zero or two cablecards are needed for the Series 3 to work in dual tuner mode, regardless of the source.
The rare cabpe provider sells the cards, but most provide them on a rnetal basis, with an install fee. Some might also charge" Additional Outlet Fees" for more than one card.


3) How does HD work with cable? From a previous discussion with my cable company you can get normal cable without a special box for any TV but for the ones that you want digital you will need a box and an extra charge, naturally. Is this true as well with HD even if you have a TV with an HD tuner?


HD is, as far as receiving HD channnels goes, the same as SD digital channels. The series 3 itself will tune digital channels with its built in tuners and cablecards.

[Austin_Martin]

The problem with clear QAM is TiVo does not support guide data for it

I think it depends on the cable company. When I didn't have cablecards in my tivo in Austin, I did a channel scan, and the hd locals showed up with guide data.

[demon]

I think it depends on the cable company. When I didn't have cablecards in my tivo in Austin, I did a channel scan, and the hd locals showed up with guide data.

Maybe they just decided against doing some of the crazy ass mapping tricks that some cable providers do, so the QAM channels and the mapped channels were the same. Sounds handy. :)