Can I use a digital converter box to get more channels from my cable tv subscription?

Question

I bought a converter box thinking I could plug in my cable tv to the antenna input coax port and then I could get all of the digital channels that you usually need a set top box for. However, when I did the converter box's channel autoscan, it said 0 channels found!

What am I doing wrong? Was I wrong about being able to use the box for this purpose?

Answer 1

There is a gap between channels 6 and 7. Over the air this is FM/Air and Police. Cable companies would put additional channels between channel 6 and 7. On most TV sets Cable channels 14-22 are actually between channels 6 and 7.

About 20 years ago, they used to sell midband converters. The midband converters bumped all the VHF channels into the UHF range to access the midband channels.

Answer 2

Outside of the first 12 channels or so, off-the-air and cable use different frequencies.

Converter boxes are designed for ONLY off-the-air reception.

If you want digital cable, ask your cable company to send you a set-top box or get a digital TV.

Answer 3

digital TV on cable is NOT the same as ATSC used by television stations. if it were, you would get all the HD progamming free instead of having to pay extra (bummer).  When you finally get a DTV set, many have cable ready tuners that work with both Off-air ATSC and cable style digital channels.