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Does anyone know if an analog/digital ant. converter can be used as cable QAM tuner?

F

fordranger797

I have an analog TV which I would like to hook up to a cable system. Please note that this is a university residence where cable is provided, but converter boxes are not (as they state: "you can buy a new TV or purchase a digital-to-analog converter box."). It seems that a QAM tuner must be utilized in order to receive these channels. Before I purchase a QAM tuner I would like to know whether or not an old DTV converter box (intended for OTA signals) could be used/adapted to serve this function. If not (which I assume is the case), is it worth it to bother with one of these boxes, or should I just purchase a different television?
 
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Most modern TV's have QAM (for cable) and ATSC (for Over The Air) built in. They detect the signal information during the scan/setup process. The ATSC converter boxes for use to get DTV signals into your older analog TV's don't typically have QAM tuners. If I were you, I'd just buy a new TV.
 
Many cable companies have abandoned QAM. They require that you rent one of their converter boxes.
To answer your original question. Probably not. The converter boxes were designed to convert over-the-air digital signals to analog.
 
Kelly A said:
Most modern TV's have QAM (for cable) and ATSC (for Over The Air) built in. They detect the signal information during the scan/setup process. The ATSC converter boxes for use to get DTV signals into your older analog TV's don't typically have QAM tuners. If I were you, I'd just buy a new TV.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Kelly. There is no point in buying a 30 dollar piece of additional equipment in this case.
 
frankberry said:
Many cable companies have abandoned QAM.
Click to expand...

I think it's rather annoying that cable companies have ventured away from QAM. It was a lot more convenient to just plug your tv directly into the wall jack and be up and running without a bunch of additional equipment. Not to mention, you could scan through channels rapidly with analog cable instead of having an annoying delay.

I suppose thats enough cable television talk for a radio forum. My apologies!
 
Fordranger797,
No apologies necessary. This is a Radio and TV site.

The change from QAM is simply a matter of more profit for the cable companies (in the short term). They can cram more channels into their usable spectrum by using more aggressive digital compression (and losing the analog channels).
 
frankberry said:
Fordranger797,
No apologies necessary. This is a Radio and TV site.

The change from QAM is simply a matter of more profit for the cable companies (in the short term). They can cram more channels into their usable spectrum by using more aggressive digital compression (and losing the analog channels).
Click to expand...

I always loved to "flick" when I had analog cable, but you really can't do that anymore. The electronic program guide is handy but that service only works upgraded cable boxes. From what I can tell, OTA reception of a DTV signal with a high quality receiver will always look better than what you get with cable.
 
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