HD OTA/Cable on Laptop (Digital Cable Content?)

[Prince James]

First off, let me say hi to everyone as I am new to this board.  Seems like a great place for information and advice.

I live in the Milwaukee area and want to use my HP Pavillion Laptop (XP not MCE with a 17" LCD) to view HD content.  I just purchased an external tuner card (DVICO Fusion5HDTV USB) and was wondering what I will be able to get as far as channels go.  I have TW digital cable on my standard TV and my wife is not so keen on having a big TV in the living room yet (darn!).  Oh well, I couldn't wait any longer so I bought the card to view HD content for the meanwhile on my laptop.

I expect to at least get the OTA broadcasts since this card came with a nice antenna.  My main question has to do with cable.  The tuner mentions QAM which I think allows me to get some of the digital cable only stations.  Does this mean if I hook up my cable to the tuner, will I get all of the digital cable content I currently subscribe to (i.e. Discovery Science, Discovery Times, etc.)?  Does it also mean I might be able to get the standard HD content stations only offered on cable (i.e. Discovery HD or FSN North HD for the Brewers)?

Just the OTA would be fine with me, but I would love to get some of the other stations as well when I hook up to my cable.  Hopefully, with some luch, a little DiscoveryHD could help convince my wife to upgrade our old-school TV, regardless of what it does to the motife of our living room  :mad: .

A little preview of what I can expect would be greatly appreciated.

[kevbeck122]

QAM stations you'll get:
Digital locals (4, 6, 10 and 58)... channels 4, 5, 6, 550-554 on cable
HD locals (4, 6, 12, 36, 58)... channels 504, 505, 506, 510 and 512 on cable
TW channel one
Some on demand preview channels (for hbo, cinemax.. etc.)

[Prince James]

Thanks for the reply.  Seems like I get some good stations.  Does this also include the Discovery stations (HD, Times, etc.)?

[kevbeck122]

Nope.. TWC Milwaukee only lets the stuff out that you can get free elsewhere (OTA).  In other cable markets I know that some people have picked up channels like Dicovery HD, TNT HD and Music Choice... but not around here.

[Joseph S]

If you're Comcastic you should get Discovery, Nickelodeon, Weather Channel and other normal add-ins on the QAM feed as well as all the music channels + all locals (inc Sinclair). There are 80+ channels on my relatives' Comcastic QAM feed. In addition, all channels are digital as opposed to the analog garbage put out on sub 100 TWC and do not require a cable box to get them on newer sets.