Why would you only get analog stations and no HD?

Question

I was trying to help my friend out with a problem so here goes. He bought an HD monitor with analog and digital tuners built in. He hooked up the coax cable and ran the setup but he's only getting analog channels out of the monitor and none of them are the 5.1 etc channels that are normally associated with HD. Here is the tv he has.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3481130&CatId=1046

The only thing I can think of is that the ATSC tuner is not working?

Answer 1

I'm no expert in this stuff, but I recently bought a TV that is HD (I didn't buy the HD package because I don't care about HD). However, in talking to my Direct TV rep and to a cousin who installs cable, I learned that it doesn't matter if I had the stuff to make the TV recieve HD.  In my case, I'd have to have an HD satellite receiver installed and in the case of cable (Time Warner), you have to subscribe to their HD service.  Getting HD from satellite and cable cost extra, one way or another. I'd suggest your friend call his cable company.  Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You're absolutely correct in your second comment. You need a Quam Tuner to get those HD local stations. Without it, he won't be able to ge tthose free HD channels over the air. I'm not sure whether you're able to purchase that separately or not though.