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Why won't my converter box work?

Why doesn't my digital tv converter box work with cable?

  • I have basic time warner cable, and in one room I have a pre-digital HD TV (tube type), another room has an HD flat screen with a digital tuner. Both are Panasonic products. The first room is picking up the analogue channels as well as local digital stations. I want to view those digital stations in the second room. Before I got cable, I tried using those "government coupon eligible" digital converter boxes (one made by a company called Insignia) with my non-digital TV. It picked up over-the-air about five channels that I watch a lot, mostly PBS sub-stations (e.g., 49-2, 49-3). The picture was clear, but they would "blue screen" in and out enough that the programing was unwatchable over the air. When I got basic, non-digital cable, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the digital HD channels were automatically detected by the built in digital tuner in my flat screen, and are 100%. The picture is great. In the room that now only has analogue, I recently tried running my cable feed into the digital Insignia cable box first, then out to the video-in feeds on the back of my older TV. When the Insignia box did a channel search, it could not find any channels, even though the digital tuner on my other TV is definitely picking them up through the cable. Can someone explain what is going on with this? Is there some fundamental difference in capability between "DTV transition" digital converter boxes and the more current built-in digital tuner's?

  • Answer:

    OTA is modulated differently. You cant pump cable into a converter box and expect a picture/sound. NTSC is old standards, Quam is the new. The converter box allows conversion from new standards to older sets.

Gene D at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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The Insignia converter has an ATSC digital tuner, which *only* works with over-the-air (antenna) channels. The signal from your cable system is quite different. For that you need an NTSC (basic analog) tuner--the same one that was used over-the-air before the digital transition. Your flatscreen set also has an optional QAM tuner, which enables you to receive a number of HD channels without a cable box, as you have seen. Bottom line: the inexpensive converter is only for use with an antenna. On cable, you can use your flatscreen's tuners as you are now, or for more expanded channel selections, get a cable box from the cable company.

kg7or

ATSC tuner != Qam tuner - 17R3W

17R3W

Your digital converter box will not decode or pass through cable signals. As has been previously mentioned, it is for receiving ATSC (HD/digital) signals broadcast over the air and converting them for TVs that do not include an ATSC tuner e.g., most tube TVs and some older flat-panel models. The digital converter box is intended solely for use with an antenna for receiving over-the-air broadcasts. For clarification, a QAM or Clear-QAM tuner allows a TV to decode some cable programming without the need of a set top box from the service provider and has no bearing on over-the-air broadcast TV programming.

John

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