Why is our new Tv picking up these stations?

Question

We have cable (NOT digital just normal extended cable) we get about 80 channels normally. But we got a new LCD tv yesterday and it picks up about 5 new stations. Like our local news but in HD. It picks up HD channels that our old TVs dont. Is there like a special tuner in it or something? Will we have to pay for it?

Answer 1

Nah, it's just that your new tuner includes an ATSC tuner as well as the older NTSC type. This lets you recieve digital cable transmissions, which are now sometimes included with even basic cable packages. My guess is that your older TV was analog, and thus these five channels were invisible to it. Expect the cable network to put more and more basic cable programming digital with time, perhaps culminating with digital-only basic within five or so years. Afterall, it saves them cash and offers you the consumer a better picture.

Answer 2

The earlier response is incorrect. In most cable systems, everyone's cable has the same channels on it. what differentiastes a digital customer from an analog customer is the digital or analog cable box you rent. Digital TV (both SD and HD) on cable systems is in a modulation format called QAM. Most new TVs are including QAM tuners these days.

Cable systems carry the locally available OTA HDTV without encryption. Therefore, if you have a TV with a QAM tuner, you will receive these local OTA stations. You will not receive the rest of the QAM digital TV that is on the cable, because itv is encrypted.

No, they can't charge you for receiving these unencrypted signals.