Tivo HD w/ Cablecard; Extended Basic Cable

[longball07]

I have a series 2 tivo, love it. Need to upgrade to enjoy HD. Want to buy the Tivo HD. Talked with the cable company (bresnan Comm.) and they said it will cost me 1.99 for an m-card and that since they don't charge for HD channels that they will make a change on my account and I will recieve any HD channel of the current channels I get in my extended basic lineup. IE...if I now get tbs, I will then get TBS HD for free since they don't charge for HD. My question is:

If I have a tivo HD with an m-card, will all the channels now be in digital, since tivo HD is a digital box?

[mattack]

It depends. If they do 'digital simulcast', then yes. Apparently for some people, channels under 100 (nowadays actually I guess way under 100) are analog.

I only recently got cablecards for one of my Tivos. All of the channels are digital on that one. On my other Tivos (and non-Tivo recorder), I only record the few remaining analog stations that remain.

[mattack]

In other words, it will "just work" most likely.. (I say 'most likely' due to problems people, including me, have had with cablecards.. mine was due to signal problem, which I "solved" with an amplifier I had to buy.)

[ewilts]

If you an HDTV that supports clear QAM, you can test part of this now. Scan for all channels and see what pops up unencrypted. For me, I see all of the basic channels (not extended basic) in digital. With my Series 3, all of the channels are in digital - none are analog.

Also, go to http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels_us, type in your zip, and select the drop-down for your cable provider. See what they're broadcasting in clear QAM unencrypted. It's a good start. If you see things like local community channels in digital, I suspect that there's a good bet that channels like TBS will be digital too.

[Sy-]

If I have a tivo HD with an m-card, will all the channels now be in digital, since tivo HD is a digital box?

Simple answer to your question... No. If your cable company is still pushing analog channels then you will still be watching analog channels.

[yukit]

Simple answer to your question... No. If your cable company is still pushing analog channels then you will still be watching analog channels.
I don't think this is quite true. As mattack pointed out, TivoHD with a cablecard can pickup 'digital simulcast' instead.

Watching basic cable channel on my TivoHD looks better than analog cable (2-34) channels on the same HDTV.

[longball07]

thank you everyone for your responses. The only channels I get now throught my QAM are Bravo HD and local CBS and NBC. Bresnan has these two locals in HD. I still find it hard to believe that right now I have basic extended, that if I rent a m-card, that my cable company will only charge me an extra 1.99 a month for HD w/ my Tivo HD. I'm still a little worried that I will get sucked in and that I should just suck it up and switch to Dish or Directv. Anyone have any thoughts?

[yukit]

thank you everyone for your responses. The only channels I get now throught my QAM are Bravo HD and local CBS and NBC. Bresnan has these two locals in HD. I still find it hard to believe that right now I have basic extended, that if I rent a m-card, that my cable company will only charge me an extra 1.99 a month for HD w/ my Tivo HD. I'm still a little worried that I will get sucked in and that I should just suck it up and switch to Dish or Directv. Anyone have any thoughts?
There is a difference between digital SD channel & HD channel. I think you understand that already.

I don't know about Bresnan, but Comcast in my area does indeed provides local channels (NBC, CBS, ABC, etc) in HD even with a limited basic service. So a TivoHD with a cablecard would get CBS on channel 5 in digital SD & channel 705 in HD, but an extende basic channel may not be available in HD version. This may depend on the cable provider. Ther may also be a filter (called trap) that the cable provider put in to block out certain frequency range.

So the bottom line is that you will probably get digital SD channels with TivoHD, but only limited HD channels. I am sure someone has written a good FAQ to explain all this. Took me a while to grok this.

[Sy-]

Simple answer to your question... No. If your cable company is still pushing analog channels then you will still be watching analog channels.I don't think this is quite true. As mattack pointed out, TivoHD with a cablecard can pickup 'digital simulcast' instead.

Your right... I meant to say: "If your cable company is still pushing analog channels then you could still be watching analog channels."

But in regards to the op's question: "will all the channels now be in digital, since tivo HD is a digital box?" It is true.