Converting from Time Warner Channel #s to HD cable

[ArgMeMatey]

I hooked up my neighbor's HDTV to Time Warner BASIC ($14+ a month, no converter, just the wire from the pole), set the the TV to CABLE and did the auto-search.  To my surprise I found that it receives HD on channels such as 116-1 or whatever.  I didn't make a list but there are 20 total.  Seems there's some older threads around here about these findings.  

However I didn't find 10-2 or higher.  Is there a matrix somewhere to convert Time Warner's 5xx channels to whatever the TV will show on-screen thru the ATSC tuner?

This whole virtual channel thing is pretty confusing.  Thanks.

[brewtownska]

The 10-1 thru 10-6 haven't shown up for me recently either.  For months I didn't get them or 116-1 (PBS-HD), then about 2 months ago they just magically appeared without me rescanning.  I think it's due to how the PSIP data comes through on the channels as to whether my Samsung H260F tuner sees the channel or not.  About 3 weeks ago those channels all dissappeared again, also without me rescanning.  I don't know if it's something being changed at TWC when they pass the signal thru, or if it's changes at PBS.  My guess is that when it works on QAM, something goes wrong on the ATSC side, so they make changes to fix that, which breaks the data my tuner needs to QAM.  On this board someone was having issues with it from an ATSC tuner, and when that got fixed for him, it was about the same time I lost the signal via QAM.  The stations are still new to it, so I'm sure eventually everything will get straightened out so we can all see the channels no matter how we receive them.

Mike

[ArgMeMatey]

Thanks.  Do I need two ATSC/QAM tuners to get everything available from basic cable, (analog NTSC and unencrypted QAM) and also get ATSC OTA broadcasts without a lot of rigmarole?  

In other words, if I have one RF input, what happens if I put in an A/B switch where A is Time Warner and B is my OTA antenna?  

Do you see a difference in quality between TW and OTA?  For example 10-1 on TW vs. 10-1 OTA?

[nick3092]

Thanks.  Do I need two ATSC/QAM tuners to get everything available from basic cable, (analog NTSC and unencrypted QAM) and also get ATSC OTA broadcasts without a lot of rigmarole?  

In other words, if I have one RF input, what happens if I put in an A/B switch where A is Time Warner and B is my OTA antenna?  

Do you see a difference in quality between TW and OTA?  For example 10-1 on TW vs. 10-1 OTA?

If your TV only has one tuner, you would most likely have to rescan every time you switched from OTA/TW.  Unless you can force your tv somehow to go to a channel that was not present when you did the scan (ie 36.1 vs 116.1 for OTA and TW PBS HD).  I know on my Westy, if I try and manually put in a channel number that it didn't detect on it's scan, it won't even try to tune it.

With digital signals, there is no difference in picture quality versus OTA and QAM.  With a digital signal either it's there, or its not.  If its not there or the signal is very weak, then you could have times when the picture and/or audio will freeze or pixelate.

[ArgMeMatey]

With digital signals, there is no difference in picture quality versus OTA and QAM.  With a digital signal either it's there, or its not.  

That part I understand; but I've seen other discussions about how TW or DirecTV etc. are using compression or whatever so the OTA signals actually do look better than what shows up from a subscription system.

[kevbeck122]

The difference in quality between TWC and OTA is very little if any.  I don't believe TWC is using any extra compression on their channels.  Services like U-verse compress the video quite a bit, so you may notice the difference (especially if you have a bigger TV).  DirecTV and DISH use the same compression as U-verse, but have a higher bitrate... so they probably have similar quality to OTA.

[ArgMeMatey]

Follow-up:  Since their HTDV only has one RF input, and TW seems to be inconsistent about what they are providing on the cable, I gave them the compromise I read about elsewhere:  

TW cable comes thru the VCR tuner then to a composite input on the HDTV.  So, they do not get whatever TW is putting on BASIC in HD.  

Rabbit ears connect to the RF input on the HDTV.  All of the expected HD OTA channels look fantastic, and getting 10-2 and up etc. works great.  

Thanks for the responses.