HD-Time warner Cable can you receive it with DTC-100 (1 Viewer)

[Harold A]

I live in Rlaiegh and TIme Warner has HD-Cable channels. I noticed on AVS forum that some people can use their DTC-100 to pick up HD-CHannels through their cable line if they set the DTC for "Air" because TW is just broadcasting them over the UHF band through the cable line.
Does anyone know if this is the case for the Raleigh area?
Thanks

 

[MarcS]

Wow, a fury of replies...

---not...
Since you'd have to get digital service to receive the HD channels--I'm pretty sure TW would require you to get their converter box anyway.
The basic digital package is about $8 I think, and includes the converter box and 30 digital music channels--which down here in Wilmington is a god send (all the radio stations suck)... then you add on Showtime/HBO for the HD movie channels. That's all we have here for HD...
I guess you could not use the converter box and just use your DTC100--but I'm pretty sure you'll end up paying for it anyway...
[edit]
I'd be surprised if any cable company with HD material would let "anyone" with a DTC100 or similar box receive the signal without paying--surely it must be scrambled? Maybe not...?

 

[James Peench]

Wow - you should be lucky they offer HD channels there! I live in San Diego, California and have Time Warner digital cable, and we don't have any HD broadcasts. I sent TW an email and asked when I would be able to fully enjoy my new TV w/ HDTV programming.
Their response was fairly non-responsive. The only thing they did say was that HD channels use more bandwith and so they had to decide if they want to carry one HD channel, or 8-10 normal channels, and that they hadn't decided yet.
I also asked if a separate converter box would be necessary or if the digital cable box would be fine and I don't think he responded.
Give it a shot and if it doesn't work, call and ask them if they have proprietary converters you could rent - it shouldn't be that expensive if they only offer a few channels.

 

[Harold A]

I know that in New York people are receiving HD- channels through the cable system with a STB. It is because the cable company is simply broadcasting them on the UHF band they are not digital cable signals. They are also only local stations not HD-HBO or Showtime. In Raleigh TWC through Digital cable offers HD-HBO & Showtime along with a couple of the local stations in HD. That is what made me start to wonder. I tried to talk to TWC once and they had no clue what I was even talking about so I thought I would give it a try here.

 

[MarcS]

That may be the key in NY, that only local network HD programming is available on cable--it's free OTA anyway... But since the movie channels are "premium" channels, they are scrambled--and digital on top of it, so I doubt if a DTC100 would work.
You didn't say if you already have a DTC100, or if you have cable--but since you are asking the question, I'd guess you don't have at least one of those two?
Here in Wilmington we have maybe at most 10-12 people with HD converter boxes (at least that's what I hear)--and of course, no OTA HD (or digital for that matter).
I think the digital cable package is worth the $8/mo just for the music channels--30 channels of uninterrupted Dolby digital music... Getting the HD box is no more expensive, but of course you have to subscribe to either/both Showtime and HBO, which is about $10/mo for one of them (I only get Showtime).
Another nice thing about going with cable is that you can stop the service at any time and return the equipment...
Ahhh, one of these years we'll get digital, and maybe even HD (in Wilmington)...

 

[Scott_G]

I don't think so.
The format of TWC is QAM-256 for the 5 HD channels. Add a cheap pair of rabbit ears and the DTC-100 can convert the off air signal for Fox and WRAL-CBS.

 

[Henry Carmona]

I get HBO and Showtime HD over TW here.
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"Charlie don't surf."

 

[Seth Paxton]

A DTC-100 can only do 2 things...
1) Tune to VHF/UHF analog waves carrying digital signals
2) Tune and decode the digital packets for regular or HDTV from DirecTV.
So you would need the cable company to either send the HiDef on one of the analog bandwidths (which it could do, as people have found out), or the cable company would have to be using the same digital packing/transmitting system as DirecTV, which seems unlikely to me.