Digital tuner for “digital ready” TV? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

A coworker has a bedroom TV from 2005 that’s “digital ready”, but doesn’t have a tuner. To save the $6/month he returned the Fios box. But his tv can’t tune any channels from straight cable coax input. He’d like to get a cheap $25 box that would let his tv work with the digital cable input.

The tv isn’t HD, doesn’t have HDMI.

Any suggestions or help on this? Thanks.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

This looks like it will work. I’m sure you can find others by searching something like “tv tuner box” or “digital tv tuner.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...MIse76-YvN2wIVC0BpCh21IwvzEAQYBSABEgJS2PD_BwE

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

He basically needs a Motorola Digital Adapter DCT700, but FiOS won't activate ones not provided by Verizon.

If he wants more than just the local channels and home shopping networks, he'll need a CableCARD. And at $5/month, it's not saving much money over the box.

 

[Todd Erwin]

This looks like it will work. I’m sure you can find others by searching something like “tv tuner box” or “digital tv tuner.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...MIse76-YvN2wIVC0BpCh21IwvzEAQYBSABEgJS2PD_BwE

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

I believe that is for Over The Air transmissions only.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I believe that is for Over The Air transmissions only.

Correct - didn't pay close enough attention to the post...

Regards,
Wayne Pflughaupt

 

[Todd Erwin]

A coworker has a bedroom TV from 2005 that’s “digital ready”, but doesn’t have a tuner. To save the $6/month he returned the Fios box. But his tv can’t tune any channels from straight cable coax input. He’d like to get a cheap $25 box that would let his tv work with the digital cable input.

The tv isn’t HD, doesn’t have HDMI.

Any suggestions or help on this? Thanks.

Unfortunately, nearly every TV provider now requires a decoder box or cable card, even for local channels. That's just the way things are nowadays.

 

[John Dirk]

A coworker has a bedroom TV from 2005 that’s “digital ready”, but doesn’t have a tuner. To save the $6/month he returned the Fios box. But his tv can’t tune any channels from straight cable coax input. He’d like to get a cheap $25 box that would let his tv work with the digital cable input.

The tv isn’t HD, doesn’t have HDMI.

Any suggestions or help on this? Thanks.

If it doesn't have a tuner then it's not a TV, it's a monitor. Did you mean it doesn't have a digital tuner? In that case there are options for OTA. I found this with a quick search however [with today's prices] it is probably a better idea to just upgrade the TV in my opinion. If you're talking about QAM then the FIOS box was probably the best option, assuming FIOS is still present in the house.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-External-TV-Tuners/zgbs/electronics/3015428011

 

[DaveF]

Unfortunately, nearly every TV provider now requires a decoder box or cable card, even for local channels. That's just the way things are nowadays.

Not even clear QAM channels anymore?

If it doesn't have a tuner then it's not a TV, it's a monitor. Did you mean it doesn't have a digital tuner? In that case there are options for OTA. I found this with a quick search however [with today's prices] it is probably a better idea to just upgrade the TV in my opinion. If you're talking about QAM then the FIOS box was probably the best option, assuming FIOS is still present in the house.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-External-TV-Tuners/zgbs/electronics/3015428011

Right. No digital tuner. OTA doesn't matter, he's not putting up an antenna and wants to use it with his FIOS subscription. But he doesn't want to pay $6/mo for a Fios box that gets used every six months or so.

He's not buying a new TV unless it's literally the same price as buying a digital tuner. And then he'd probably just instead buy a cheap cheap Roku for Netflix for the occasional use.

 

[DaveF]

I'm wondering if this would work:
IVIEW-3200STB Multimedia Converter Box. Digital to Analog, QAM tuner, with Recording function

 

[John Dirk]

I'm wondering if this would work:
IVIEW-3200STB Multimedia Converter Box. Digital to Analog, QAM tuner, with Recording function

The reviews are not so great. I would probably avoid this product.

 

[DaveF]

Well, that sort of QAM tuner, if not that one specifically.

 

[David Norman]

Does he need an independent Bedroom TV or will he be OK watching the same program as the Main set?

Depending on how the house is wired -- it's possible he could just run an output from the other STB directly to the Bedoom and either
use an RF remote to change channels from the other room or a Remote Extender. If the BR set is an old SD set and has an old fashioned RF input, using and RF Modulator to run a Ch 3 or 4 signal b;w rooms would probably work.

If he wants the Main STB and BR to be independent that's going to be harder with FIOS and I'm not aware of a cheap way to do it. I wanted to buy my own Digital Tuner for my spare sets in the Kitchen and Workroom when the DT starting costing $4+ ea per month, but there was no way just to buy a Tuner (Spectrum), Since the wires were already there, I just ran the Composites from my Family Room TIVO with (cable card) to an RF Mod, then the RF Coax to a splitter when feeds the other two small SD sets, The TIVO RF remotes work great so she can walk b/w the 3 rooms and only needs to able to watch a single channel on any of the sets at one time. $20 Modulator saves me nearly $10 per month and works great. She can even use the TIVO function -- rewind, watch recorded shows, etc.

 

[DaveF]

Independent TV