Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions HDTV cable card

I have a Samsung DLP HDTV ready TV that has a cable card slot. I currently run the TV off our cable company with not so amazing results. I keep hearing that I can get a cable card from them and it will make a big difference on HDTV broadcasts. I tried the rabbit ears but that didn't really help.

Anyone else have this issue? Has anyone gotten a cable card from their cable company and if so, has it helped?

Is going to one of the sattelite vendors the better answer?

Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as I did and blessings to everyone for 2006!!!

Thanks,
Charlie

What is your distance from TV stations? I am 40-45 miles from 6 stations and had to put a data antenna on the chimney.

Also. My cable co. (Charter) sends crap over the wire. I can't zoom in on it without making it worse. I have a basic cable, no box. The cable card uses your tv tuner so it might be better with the card instead of the box.

I'm various distances from the stations but probably 20-30+ miles away. I didn't try the antenna outside or in the attic.

I guess that the first question is whether you are actually getting HD stations through your cable or are they just SD? I have Comcast cable. The SD channels look good but the HD channels have the WOW factor.

You probably will need an outside antenna for good over the air reception.

Try your cable company to see if they support cable card. It's a cleaner solution if you don't want to deal w/ new cables and a dish. I use Directv and their HD Tivo btw.

Go to antennaweb.org to see what kind of stations you can receive.

Just got a cable card and got rid of our box. What a difference. I cannot believe what I'm finally seeing on this TV. Most of the SD channels are crisp and the HD is more than I can even describe. Finally, I am getting what I paid for in the TV. Wow what a picture!!!! We have just been sitting on the couch all afternoon looking at the picture on different channels!! haha.. Can't do this forever but it sure has been fun today!!!

Recommendation-get a cable card if you can and get rid of the cable box.

Glad that you solved your problem.

However, I am wondering about two things. Who is your cable provider?

And, I am surprised that you noticed a difference with a cable card!!!! With the proper setup and cabling, there isn't supposed to be any difference between a cable card and a cable box. At least, that is what I have been told by several sources and what I have read. I would like to know why you are seeing a difference.

Rat,
Time Warner is my cable company here in Houston. I had a regular box so that was the reason for no HD reception. Having the regular box might have impacted the reception for SD broadcasts also, I don't know. I could have gone with an HD box or a cable card and chose the card because it was $5 a month cheaper.. All I know is that with the card instead of the regular cable box, most, 90%, of the SD channels are at least 10 times crisper. Of course the HD is beyond description!!

Ratpack,

If you use an external HD cable box, it will function as the system's SD and HD Tuner, bypassing the Samsung's internal HD tuner. In fact, there are significant differences in the quality of outboard cable boxes' tuners and scalers/deinterlacers.

Cable-card ready HD sets have internal HD tuners, which may be superior or inferior to an outboard cable box's.
In my own case, my Samsung is an HD-ready set that lacks the internal HD tuner, so I must use an external HD cable box to receive HD channels.

The previous outboard cable box I used, a Pioneer Voyager supplied by Time-Warner had really mediocre quality on SD and non-HD channels. The replacement, a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR with two internal HD tuners, is much superior to the Pioneer HD box. My non-HD and SD channels are mostly quite good. HD performance of the two different outboard cable boxes is similar, although the Scientific Atlanta is more versatile in a number of respects.

So it's likely that in the case of the cable-card ready Samsung, its internal HD tuner/scaler is superior to the outboard box that Time-Warner had previously supplied.

Regards,

Alan,
My Samsung is an '05 model and has an internal HD tuner which apparantly works great based on the picture we're getting. I have not had an external HD box so I can't compare it to the card but I can't imagine the picture on HD channels being any crisper than it is with the tuner. I'm just glad that I went with the card after many conversations and hours with some inept cable customer service folks....