[frantishak]

This is likely stupid question ... Does anyone know if a device that converts in-the-clear QAM into ATSC exists? Quick search on internet does not come back with anything useful.

Just thought that if it exists, it could be an easy solution to absence of guide data for in-the-clear QAM channels on TiVo.

 

[Dan203]

Even if such a device existed, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't, you'd still need one for ever QAM channel you wanted to convert to ATSC. Either that or the device would need multiple internal tuners to tune all the QAM channels and convert them to ATSC. Sounds like a pretty expensive solution when TiVo could offer a simple remapping interface and take care of the whole thing their selves.

Dan

 

[frantishak]

You are right, didn't think that it would need to know the channel to convert

Yeah, why Tivo can't support that is still beyond me.

 

[Slime]

So the TivoS3 does not support QAM at the moment?

I recently purchased a new Vizio TV from Costco, and discovered that Comcast are pumping out local HD over cable via QAM. The Vizio interleaves the QAM channels with the regular cable channels, so my TV has channel 4, 4.1, 5, 5.1, 5.2 etc -- I can then dissable the duplicate SD channels and easily surf the QAM HD channels and regular SD channels with CH+/CH-.

With QAM confirmed, I split my cable connection into the OTA input of the S3, and repeated quided setup to add OTA to the input. When I channel scan, I get nothing of any use -- so am I right in thinking the S3 doesnt support QAM??

 

[MScottC]

The TiVo absolutely supports QAM. What it doesn't do, and this has been the topic of many discussion, is allow you to map the raw QAM channel allocations to the cablesystems channel numbering in any manual method. You need the cablecards in order to do that. Without the QAM mapping, you can't take advantage of TiVo's guide data, and without that, really all the usefulness of TiVo is pretty much gone. To effectively use digital TV with cable you need cablecards. Once you have them, all works wonderfully (in most cases).

 

[jrm01]

If you do not have cablecards installed on the Tivo you can tune the QAM channels (just input the number along with the subchannel). However, Tivo does not supply any guide info for these channels, so you can only do manual recordings of them.

 

[atmuscarella]

With QAM confirmed, I split my cable connection into the OTA input of the S3,

I think this is your problem you need to use the cable input not the OTA input.

Good Luck,

 

[Slime]

I'll try disconnecting the OTA input and re-scanning (after Tivo is done recording shows tonight)...

 

[Slime]

Ok, unplugged the cable from the antenna input, and as I suspected, the S3 found no channels when scanning...

Reconnected it, and it found 12 channels when scanning, but i cant find those 12 channels anywhere...

I have an old S1 that is on its last legs, my plan was to buy a new TIVOHD and use it without any CCards, just grabbing local HD from the QAM... but it looks like that wont work...

Its a pity, the TV does it wonderfully; the HD channels are interleaved with regular cable... if only Tivo could do the same.

 

[jrm01]

I can't tell from your plugging and unplugging exactly what connections you are using.

The S3 has two RF input connectors. One is for the antenna feed of OTA broadcasts. The other is for coax feed from the cable company.

If you connect the cable coax into the RF input for cable and run guided setup (basic cable only) you should get all the basic cable channels plus the clear-QAM digital channels.

There will be no guide data for the QAM channels, but you should be able to tune to them by directly inputting the channel numbers (including the sub-channel number) and to manually record them.

If you want to use only basic cable, but still get HD channels, your best bet would be to use an antenna for the OTA HD. Have you tried that? Very possible that an indoor antenna could bring in your local HD stations.