HD without STB

[TheMightyGeckoe]

I did a search for this question but couldn't find exactly the answer I was looking for on Google.

I am currently a customer of Time Warner Cable. I have the basic cable package (channels 2-20) but due to a hardware error on their end the guy that came to look at cable removed the trap(??) so I get all of the non-digital TV package channels. I was watching the other night and noticed that Comedy Central is cut off on the sides like it's actually an HD feed. I also noticed that the picture is not as grainy as I remember from the SD streams before. Can you get HD streams without an HD package or cable card or OTA straight from the regular cable?

[richard1980]

I know the answer, but since I feel it would be immoral to help you steal cable, I am not going to post the answer.

[TheMightyGeckoe]

I"m not stealing it...They had to take the trap off because of interference issues. I had nothing to do with it.

[TheReaper]

If you have an HDTV purchased within the last 5 years, connect the cable directly to your HDTV and see what you get.

[kingwr]

The answer is likely to be no. Yes, the cable company may be putting the HD signals for your locals on the cable in ATSC, but I seriously doubt it. Even if they were, the filter should not have blocked those. The filter may have been blocking unecrypted (clear) QAM signals, and a modern "cable-ready" TV may be able to tune those (or a QAM tuner in an MCE computer). Howver, most likely all premium and HD channels are sent through encrypted-QAM or proprietary digital channels that require a company authorized STB to decode (e.g. via CableCard).

[dmagerl]

You should always be able to get the OTA channels, exactly as broadcast, whether you have an HD package or not, unencrypted over cable. The FCC mandates this. But having said that, the cable industry has successfully paid off enough politicians, errr I mean lobbied, to get exemptions from this in some parts of the country. As someone said, hook your TV to it and see what you get.

[STC]

I was surprised to find a ball game in unencrypted HD showing from my cable co when I was auto tuning a new flat screen TV recently.

[TheMightyGeckoe]

okay, let me change the question a bit. The NBC channel is obviously not HD but espn has the HD letter box (the word/letters HD on the sides) and comedy central doesn't fit the screen. It is a 42" Samsung HDTV. When I plug in my MCE computer It shows the HD channels for the regular channels (nbc, abc, etc.) but I cannot tune them. Would an HD feed be on a regular channel or are they always xxx.xx?

How would you know if a channel is in HD with just a TV?

[makryger]

It could just be that's how comedy central and espn broadcast their non-HD channels: they may simply cut off the sides and reduce the resolution. If there is no sub-channel associated with them, then they would probably just be analog channels. Unless your TV hides the subchannel part. Having a cable guy remove a filter will certainly open up frequencies that you may not have been able to access otherwise, but it doesn't change the fact that those frequencies are usually encrypted on the distribution end.

Should you be getting the local channels (ABC,NBC,CBS, etc.) in HD via clearQAM (ie unencrypted digital channels)? Yes.
Is it possible that a cable company broadcasts a few other channels in HD via clearQAM that you wouldn't think should be? Yes. My parents get TBS HD in the clear, for example. They are on comcast.
Is it possible that Time Warner Cable is broadcasting HD channels in clearQAM that aren't the locals? Very unlikely. They are notorious for their encryption, copy protection, and Tuning Adapter requirements.

With the digital push, a lot of cable co's have put what used to be their regular basic analog package onto digital subchannels, to free up the analog space. The basic package is still Standard def, but it is sent digitally. Sometimes, these SD digital feeds are kept unecrypted. So its possible the better quality you are noticing is just digital versions of standard def feeds.

[barnabas1969]

I'm on Brighthouse Networks (Time Warner), and I can tell you that they send lots of channels in ClearQAM. Their latest advertising gimick is "More. Free. HD." I get all the local channels in ClearQAM, plus several others like TBSHD, PBS, and a few obscure channels and foreign language channels, all in ClearQAM. Most of them are HD, some are digital SD. If you have a tuner card capable of tuning ClearQAM, then try re-scanning for new channels. Otherwise, try connecting your TV directly to the cable... if the TV was recently manufactured. All of the ClearQAM channels come in with sub-channels (e.g. "123.1").