Built in HD Tuner question...?

Question

So I have an HD TV in my living room with a digital cable box and the HD package from Comcast. I want to get a small HD tv for my bedroom. Since Comcast is already sending me HD programming, do I need another cable box or will a TV with a built in HD tuner decipher the HD signal without the box?

Answer 1

The HD tuner will not work for that purpose - it is designed to pick up "over the air" HD signals with an antenna.  Comcast will want you to have one TV per box.  There are ways with a very long HDMI cable that you could get HD on the other set but then you would be on the same channel as the box downstairs.  If you really want HD on the set upstairs then the best thing to do is "bite the bullet" and get a second Comcast box - sorry.

Answer 2

Generally, when TVs claim to have a digital tuner, they are referring to an ATSC tuner which receives over the air DTV only.

Lately, most TVs with tuners have been furnished with QAM tuners also. A QAM tuner will display cable digital TV. Most cable systems carry unscrambled DTV in addition to their other offerings. This may be limited to the locally available over the air DTV, including HDTV. In other cases, additional DTV may be included.

So, if your second TV has a QAM tuner, and you connect it directly to the cable, you may receive DTV/HDTV without a box-but only for part of your cable supplier's offerings.

Otherwise, you need an HD STB for your second TV.

Answer 3

I believe that if you had the old cable box you can still hook that up to your bedroom tv (if still activated).

You could have two televisions hooked up to the same box using a splitter but you would have to have someway to send the remote signal to that box if you are in another room (though rf tv remotes work from other rooms and ir tv remotes work only in line of sight.)

If your regular TV network's signal has good rabbit ears or an outside tv antenna that may give you good reception. A true tv hd tuner has to be allowed to scan and register the programs and will tell you how many analogue and digital stations you can receive.