Using cable for locals and VIP622 for E* package

[fredtx]

Rather than use E* locals I am thinking about continuing my basic cable which has the locals. My question is do I treat the cable coax as an OTA antenna to the 622 box or is it hooked up directly to the HDTV set I have which has space for two antennae inputs?

Welcome all thoughts on how best to do this. BTW, E* does not have locals here yet and using an OTA antenna does not pull in all the locals we get on cable because the signals are not in the same direction.

Thanks

 

[topcats69]

622 does not suport cable Analog or Qam the the cable company uses.
I wish it did.

 

[Pepper]

If (and this is a BIG if) the cable company broadcasts the HD locals as ATSC on a standard frequency (probably some of them do), then you could scan for them with the 622.

 

[jimboeau]

If (and this is a BIG if) the cable company broadcasts the HD locals as ATSC on a standard frequency (probably some of them do), then you could scan for them with the 622.

As far as I know cable companies use QAM.

 

[jmcgee_jr]

yeah all cable CO's use qam to send thier signals.

 

[fredtx]

Thanks everybody for your reply to my question. Since no one addressed the connecting of the cable signal or an OTA antenna, directly to the HDTV, does that mean this approach would work?

 

[Pepper]

Not all use QAM, I saw a post somewhere here just 2 days ago where somebody said they get ATSC over cable system, somebody else replied what a waste of bandwidth they should use QAM.

 

[CHUCK24]

hanks everybody for your reply to my question. Since no one addressed the connecting of the cable signal or an OTA antenna, directly to the HDTV, does that mean this approach would work?
Reply With Quote

If you have the availability of the 2nd input on the TV, I would use that, otherwise you should be able to use the input on the dish receiver as well.

 

[Bill R]

Not all use QAM, I saw a post somewhere here just 2 days ago where somebody said they get ATSC over cable system, somebody else replied what a waste of bandwidth they should use QAM.

There are likely a few that still use ATSC but most have changed to QAM (and ALL digital cable systems will change to QAM in the future; it is now the industry standard). QAM is much more "efficient" for cable (allows more digital channels in the "standard" channel bandwidth). QAM does not have the error correction that satellite needs so you will never see it used for DBS (the exception is satellite MDUs that use QAM to distribute the signal).

 

[Hall]

The brochure I had downloaded for the ViP622 has an input labeled "TV Antenna/Cable In". It's not strictly an (OTA) antenna input. Use it... I imagine it will only act as a pass-through though and the cable channels will NOT appear in the guide nor will you be able to record them.

 

[SALvation]

I am a Comcast customer and just did this last night. I had to run the cable to the TV directly as the 622 would not receive any of my cable channels. I'm pretty sure Comcast in my area uses QAM.