Suggestions on combining the Cable HD channels with HD antenna HD OTH Signals

[FTABman0]

My cable company has about 7 distant HD channels coming through the cable line minus the cable box. My plasma HDTV has got just the cable line going straight to the antenna input of the TV. There are 4 local channels that are OTH and I would like to combine those with the cable’s HD channels.

One problem, the plasma HDTV only saves one scan at a time! In short, if I scan looking for new channels it finds all the TV regular channels and the 7 HD distant channels they offer then saves. If I unhook the cable and go HD OTH Scan, it starts all over and saves only the HD OTH 4 local channels it sees just on the antenna outside! Basically one or the other!

Is there any way to split the two, cable and outside antenna signals together so it will scan the cable distant channels plus my OTH local signals on the antenna and save all HD plus the standard channels it sees? There are 110 regular channels also it scans before it scans digital channels on cable. I would love to include my OTH antenna with the cable scans if it possible!


The question is if it can be split will the TV scan the outside antenna for local OTA channels as well when it scans the HD channels in the cable line?

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[boba]

You'll have to settle for one or the other. Cable uses a different tuner built into the TV for cable channels. Over The Air (OTA) uses a different tuner to pick up different frequencies and both OTA and CABLE can't be tuned at the same time.

 

[digiblur]

You could do it but it would require a lot of custom notch filters, but the results might not be pretty.

 

[FTABman0]

Thanks guys! I was afraid it was going to be something like that but did not hurt to ask since us Satellite Guys find ways around things all the time. I still have a DTV box I guess I could hook that up to the OTA antenna for just local channels!

After going HD it will be a picture downgrade since the DTV only has video RCA out!

Guess I can hook up from time to time just the outside antenna and watch then go back and rescan the cable and watch that, too much to watch anyway from Satellite, cable and OTA HD!

Our cable company charges for those cable channels in HD and a card is needed to get them, funny thing is if you bypass the box and go straight cable 7 of the 14 come in for free and they charge others for it and they are unaware they can get some of them free!

Now the funny part, I called them when I got the TV and asked them about getting the HD package and hooking the cable up bypassing the cable box was a suggestion of theirs at the office! I was told to try that and see if the channels I can receive that way is the ones I would want and to just save my money and watch that way!

The sad thing is how many people are paying for the ones that you can pick up free? The cable company here is a crock for you see that they make their money anyway! They offer phone, cable TV and internet service on one robbing package! Now they have a new thing they are introducing into the service bundle, “Caller ID on your TV” just like my E* boxes does for free and yes they charge for it five dollars a month!

Anyway, thanks for the information on that, figured it would be such but I thought I would ask anyway! Sorry for the cable company vent!

K E V I N

 

[digiblur]

Most cable companies you'll find several "local" channels and subchannels in the clear on a TV with a QAM tuner. If you are lucky you'll find some that forget to encrypt the other pay channels.

Funny thing is their local office will argue you up and down with you that you can not get those channels without their box or cable card. LOL. I talked to them and wanted to see if I could get the HD channels without the SD's. Even though it was technically possible they didn't have anything in their system for it. Told them...see ya...and said hello to DishNetwork HD Absolute.

 

[Jim5506]

Use a seperate HDTV tuner (external box) feeding your OTA to the HDTV through HDMI or component input and just switch inputs to go from one to another.