Local HD through Basic Cable

[Tivoman44]

I remember asking this once but cannot recall the term.  If someone upgraded to an HDTV but only had basic cable (no box, no cable card) (simple coax connected to back of TV), what is it called where you get 4-1, 6-1, etc in HD, but it is not over the air, it is from the cable company?

Is there anything after buying the TV that they need to do to receive this, just run a channel scan?

[LoadStar]

I remember asking this once but cannot recall the term.  If someone upgraded to an HDTV but only had basic cable (no box, no cable card) (simple coax connected to back of TV), what is it called where you get 4-1, 6-1, etc in HD, but it is not over the air, it is from the cable company?

Clear QAM. (QAM is the encoding method that cable uses to multiplex the cable channels onto the coaxial line. Clear just refers to the fact that they're sent "in the clear.")

Is there anything after buying the TV that they need to do to receive this, just run a channel scan?

Assuming they have a TV that can tune QAM channels, which I would imagine many should, then yeah, just a rescan should pick up on them.

[ArgMeMatey]

Yes, that will work.  I had basic until about 18 months ago.  

Things may be better now, but here are some notes from my experience:

1.  They sometimes shuffle channels.  You will get no notification about Clear QAM changes.  The channel simply disappears until you re-scan.  This often happened when they were dropping stuff from the analog packages, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on the legal notices at http://www.timewarnercable.com/Midwest/support/policies/channelchange.html

2.  Field techs are often aware of the availability of these channels but I only rarely found a call center person who seemed to recognize the term "Clear QAM".  So if something gets screwed up and you need help, you're on your own.

[brewtownska]

And don't forget, TWC typically leaves those frequencies open even if you have ONLY Roadrunner.  For us, if we're recording 2 channels on Dish and want to watch something else live on the local channels, we'll flip over to the TWC QAM channel.

[ArgMeMatey]

TWC typically leaves those frequencies open even if you have ONLY Roadrunner.  

Not here.  I have only internet, no TV.  I get WGN on analog 3 and a couple of locals on analog or digital, as well as a couple of other garbage channels, but nothing good in HD.