HDTV tuners: OTA, Dish & Cable
 

We are planning to buy an HDTV tuner for OTA use.

Would the typical HDTV tuners (Motorola HDT100 or Panasonic tu-dst52) be
compatible with DirecTv or cable (Cox in our area) or would they insist on
selling us their HDTV box?

I have seen the word "DirecTv" associated with the Panasonic unit. Is it
capable of operating with the signal from a rooftop antenna?

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Remove "not" for return address.

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 15:51:39 GMT, Bob M wrote:
We are planning to buy an HDTV tuner for OTA use.

Would the typical HDTV tuners (Motorola HDT100 or Panasonic tu-dst52) be
compatible with DirecTv or cable (Cox in our area) or would they insist on
selling us their HDTV box?

Those are only for getting HDTV over the air. They're older generation
equipment, so they might not pick up signals as well as newer ones. You
can use these in conjunction with cable or DirecTV, using separate inputs
on your TV.

DirecTV doesn't have their "own" HDTV boxes, like Dish Network. There are
several DirecTV units made by various companies that also do HDTV; they
will receiver HDTV channels from DirecTV (if you have the right dish
setup), and they will receive HDTV channels from an antenna. A synopsis is
he

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=179095

I have seen the word "DirecTv" associated with the Panasonic unit. Is it
capable of operating with the signal from a rooftop antenna?

Thats ALL its capable of.

--
-BB-
To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)
"It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars" - Garrison Keillor

"Bob M" wrote in message
...
We are planning to buy an HDTV tuner for OTA use.

Would the typical HDTV tuners (Motorola HDT100 or Panasonic tu-dst52) be
compatible with DirecTv or cable (Cox in our area) or would they insist on
selling us their HDTV box?

Check with your cable company. Some places will sell a box, most will rent,
some don't offer HD at all.

I have seen the word "DirecTv" associated with the Panasonic unit. Is it
capable of operating with the signal from a rooftop antenna?

All DirecTV HD boxes will do OTA. Most places that sell D* boxes have sale
prices subsidized by D* and require activation or a $150 penalty. If you
don't want D*, look at other boxes.

A synopsis of available boxes is available at
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=179095

Pat

One thing for su cable boxes NEVER decode OTA!!


"Bob M" wrote in message
...
We are planning to buy an HDTV tuner for OTA use.

Would the typical HDTV tuners (Motorola HDT100 or Panasonic tu-dst52) be
compatible with DirecTv or cable (Cox in our area) or would they insist on
selling us their HDTV box?

I have seen the word "DirecTv" associated with the Panasonic unit. Is it
capable of operating with the signal from a rooftop antenna?

-----------

Remove "not" for return address.

Curmudgeon wrote:
One thing for su cable boxes NEVER decode OTA!!


The cable companies are very happy that they will not have to supply
many STBs once the plug-n-play tuners go mainstream.

Matthew

--
http://www.mlmartin.com/bbq/

Thermodynamics For Dummies: You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't get out of the game.

I too am trying to figure out what the best direction to go with is?
I had no ideas when I bought my HDTV that the decoder boxes were so
high.


(Bob M) wrote in message .. .
We are planning to buy an HDTV tuner for OTA use.

Would the typical HDTV tuners (Motorola HDT100 or Panasonic tu-dst52) be
compatible with DirecTv or cable (Cox in our area) or would they insist on
selling us their HDTV box?

I have seen the word "DirecTv" associated with the Panasonic unit. Is it
capable of operating with the signal from a rooftop antenna?

-----------

Remove "not" for return address.

I contacted the local cable company (overpriced at 52 bucks for
analog+HDTV compared to Direct TV's 42) about what Iwould need to get HDTV
from them. They told me I could not choose my own box. I asked them why
then, does Samsung and others have a QAM cable input. They didn't know. I
asked what model they used... they said Scientific Atlanta... So I looked it
up. I found out some of them had firewire, but none of them could dual
output HDTV/S-Video (in fact, they all specificly said that the 480i was
disabled when you used 1080i etc.) so I just decided that Direct TV was a
better option because I could choose whatever box I wanted and get OTA, none
of the channels would be analog, and all of them would look better than
digital cable.