ie. Colophon is right; you can use this TV with a digital cable box without a problem. You just won’t be able to pick up a (2009 on) terrestrial broadcast.
The cable provider may meet this requirement by giving the consumer a cable box at no charge though. That’s what Verizon did - they sent me 3 DCT-700s, which is a very cheap and low function STB. No interactive guide - it just converts the digital signal and outputs it on RF or composite. The nice thing is it gets me all the digital channels on my old TVs, not just the ones that were available as analog in the past.
I’m guessing this is mostly an aesthetic issue for the OP’s friend - they want to buy this wood case TV for it’s looks, and don’t want to have a silver or black plastic STB next to it. The only way to know for sure is to contact the cable company.
The five or six-county area of southeast North Carolina will be switching to digital on 8 September and the news/psa’s are repeating the advice *ad infinitum * that if you have cable or satellite service you will have to do nothing in order to receive a signal. One concern was how residents of this “hurricane alley” would be able to watch storm advisories if the power was off. The answer was to buy a portable digital tv.
He said he wants a small tv on his desk, no room for cable box.
So are small/inexpensive/portable TVs with ATSC (digital) tuners becoming available now? What about these converter/tuner boxes? Canadian broadcast television is going all-ATSC in 2011 and I’m kinda keeping an eye on the transition south of the border.
That’s a heck of an assumption. If all you want is basic/expanded cable, you don’t need a box. As mentioned above, for as long as your cable company offers an analog signal. He’ll be fine until that stops.
The small, inexpensive “bedroom TV’s” with ATSC tuners are just now becoming available at some stores in my area. They’re priced at about $99 USD – about the same as their NTSC counterparts before those manufacturers started dumping their models. Converter boxes are available, although still in somewhat short supply. The cost for a basic converter box here is $49.95. The $40 federal rebate brings the cost down to $9.95.
What I haven’t seen are ATSC versions of the very small, battery-operated sets with the 5-inch screens or the even smaller handheld models. I’ve been able to rig one of mine to work with the converter box – but that defeats the purpose of having a battery-operated, portable TV that will work during a power outage.
I am intrigued that your statement leaves the door open for extra-terrestrial broadcasts.
So why not that cheaper alternative I suggested, of a similar size, that does have a digital tuner?
Well, of course it does.
They call that satellite TV, ducky.
:: noddle ::
And you generally need a different tuner (satellite box) for that. Have any TVs been made with built-in satellite tuners? Just hook them up to the dish?
Digital cable has nothing to do with digital over the air.
Even if you have an old TV with an NTSC tuner it will work. Cable will just require a converter box.
The FCC has mandated that cable companies provide a card to allow digital TVs to be cable ready and not have to use a converter box but this hasn’t been fully implimented yet. A lot of people feel cable is dragging it’s feet on this.
Cable companies do not have to provide analog signals IF they agree to provide at least one free converter box to their customers. For instance Comcast in Chicago went all digital and gives one digital box to all their customers, charging for extras.
Cable companies like this because it puts a stop to all the theft cause they are able to scramble everything.
HDTV is a whole seperate issue. Even if you get cable or dish the signal is still going to be compressed, though cable companies deny this compression is noticable, it is. Over the air HDTV is better, though you can only really notice if you comapre an OTA HDTV broadcast to a cable or dish HDTV broadcast.