Watching the Superbowl in HD

[ryema22]

I have a Panasonic plasma in my apartment hooked up to an HD cable box with HDMI and all that. Unfortunately, my apartment isn't ideal for hosting the game so I want to bring the set over to my friend's house for the day.

Am I correct in understanding that the QAM tuner in the set will let me pick up the FOX HD signal without an HD box at his place? I know they broadcast in HD OTA, so I'd assume it's unencrypted on the cable line? Maybe I'm wrong?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[MustISO]

That should work fine. As far as I know, the cables companies are not supposed to encrypt local HD signals.

 

[Modelworks]

Should work fine.
You might want to do a quick check to make sure the cable at his house has the HD signals on it. If its the same city it should, but cable companies are weird sometimes.

Would be a shame to wait till sunday and not be able to see the game.
Might ask his neighbors that have hd sets.

I know in my town with charter, one part of town has HD on the cable, I don't just sd locals.
Had to go to satellite to get hd locals, antenna wouldn't work either.

 

[Slick5150]

I wouldn't say its 100% certain, but 99% anyways.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I wouldn't say its 100% certain, but 99% anyways.

I am currently unable to get the HD signal over my basic cable. (Read it and weep for me)

You may want to test things out before Sunday.

MotionMan

 

[MrChad]

Make sure you keep that plasma vertical during the move. The weight of the glass can damage internal components if you transport it on its side.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I wouldn't say its 100% certain, but 99% anyways.

I am currently unable to get the HD signal over my basic cable. (Read it and weep for me)

You may want to test things out before Sunday.

MotionMan

I have Comcast, and I can't get HD over basic either. No need to weep for me though, as I have Directv.

 

[Aztech]

Originally posted by: MrChad
Make sure you keep that plasma vertical during the move. The weight of the glass can damage internal components if you transport it on its side.

What if you lay it face down, on the glass?

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Aztech

Originally posted by: MrChad
Make sure you keep that plasma vertical during the move. The weight of the glass can damage internal components if you transport it on its side.

What if you lay it face down, on the glass?

One good bump, and it could be bye bye tv.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I had TWC (actually, Brighthouse, which is basically the same thing) and couldn't get local HD channels via the QAM tuner in my HDTV either. They were encrypted. I could get local digital channels through QAM but not HD.

I kind of question the claim that cable companies must carry HD channels unencrypted. The actual law (at least until 2009) sems to be that they must carry local digital channels unencrypted, but only if certain caveats apply, such as if there's no local analog channel being carried. However, digital does not imply HD. I'm not sure though because the law seems very confusing and there's a lot of conflicting information out there.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I wouldn't say its 100% certain, but 99% anyways.

but like Motion Man said, test it out.

while I put this out as a lame sales pitch from a BB employee, I was told several months ago that the Superbowl was not broadcast in HD over cable, and could only be received in HD Over The Air (last year). I mean, I was buying an antennae anyway, so I don't know why he would make up something ridiculous like that, but it still sounds sketchy.

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: zinfamous

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I wouldn't say its 100% certain, but 99% anyways.

but like Motion Man said, test it out.

while I put this out as a lame sales pitch from a BB employee, I was told several months ago that the Superbowl was not broadcast in HD over cable, and could only be received in HD Over The Air (last year). I mean, I was buying an antennae anyway, so I don't know why he would make up something ridiculous like that, but it still sounds sketchy.

He's wrong; the cable companies grab the signal from the local OTA stations and pipe it through the cable system; so if your local FOX affiliate has it in HD, the cable company will have it in HD.

 

[ryema22]

I asked my friend to look into it with his neighbors and see if they could pick up the channel without the HD box.

If not, what's the easiest/cheapest way to get the OTA signal? We're pretty close to the broadcast location.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: ryema22
I asked my friend to look into it with his neighbors and see if they could pick up the channel without the HD box.

If not, what's the easiest/cheapest way to get the OTA signal? We're pretty close to the broadcast location.

I bought an HD antenna from Radio Shack. It works reasonably well.

MotionMan