GradVT06

I think I need a QAM tuner. I searched thread titles but couldn't find anyting with QAM in the title.

I just cancelled digital cable with HD/DVR with my cable company and dropped to the plan with locals/shopping/govt/TBS/WGN/ION.

I had just visited my mother who has standard cable and when I changed the channels on her new TV it went from standard def stretched channel to HD (or HD similar) 3-1, and the same from 10 and 10-1. I thought this was very neat and asked someone else that only got the local package if their new HDTV did the same thing and they confirmed it.

However my HDTV from 08/09 doesn't have a QAM tuner anywhere in the manual.

I'm not sure where to look or what kind of tuner I need. Don't need ATSC or computer cable, although I've seen on amazon little dongles that would be very nice to me if they have those since we just got a wall mount and don't want any other box except for blu-ray player. Just a dongle the cable would screw into and then connect right into the TV.

Any idea where to start? There's a ton listed on amazon, some that seem to have more features than I need, some for computers, etc. I just want one I screw the cable from the wall into, and then screw a cable from it to the TV without anything else.

Can someone suggest something that might fit the bill?

Thank you!

X

I thought most HDTVs had a QAM tuner built in. Just hook it up to the cable (without the cable box) and run it through its channel discovery and see what turns up.

GradVT06

Thanks, already ran the channel scan and have the cabel directly hooked up to the TV, nothing different. The TV manual mentions ATSC scanner but nothing in its features/technical specs mention QAM tuner.

X

If you didn't get anything it's either because your TV doesn't support QAM or your cable company doesn't provide any QAM programming. I don't know that a TV manual would necessarily talk about QAM. I've seen plenty of computer tuners that you really have to search out that info.

I don't know of any standalone QAM tuners.

GradVT06

Hmm, I know my provider supports it because both my mother and wife's friend who confirmed she gets the HD channels with no cable box both live in the same county and both have Cox Communications like I do.

I see ATSC/QAM and other tuners on Amazon for like $60-$80 like this, but not sure if I will have to switch inputs on my TV when I want to watch the SD cable channels vs. HD channels from the tuner box. http://www.amazon.com/Kworld-HDmi-External-Digital-Tuner/dp/B002RL8I2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311628665&sr=8-1

Not sure if this is the type of things i"m looking for.

X

You would have to switch inputs. The external box would do the tuning, your TV would just display its output.