[mythtv-users] QAM vs. Firewire

[Jerry Rubinow]

On 3/16/07, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
>
> jmk wrote:
>
> >
> > This may be a dumb question... I'm wondering what level of cable service
> > I need in order to access QAM. Do I need the HD tier, if I decide that
> > all I want is the OTA HD via QAM?
>
> You are confusing a number of things here.
>
> Analog and digital are types of delivery streams.
> Sd and HD are quality standards for the stream delivered, with HD of
> course being much better.
> Cable can deliver analog or digital streams. The digital streams can be
> encrypted or unencrypted, bnut if unencrypted are usually QAM256 encoded
> in order to provide more/better signals.
> The encrypted strems need a set top box.
> Entirely separate and distinct, is Over The Air (OTA) digital broadcast.
> OTA broadcasts can be HD or SD and at present lots of the -DT stations
> are broadcasting at SD levels. OTA does not use QAM256.
>
> So your last phrase makes no sense.


Except in as much that it's common/convenient to refer to the local stations
that are available over-the-air, which the cable company (or phone company
or satellite company) carries unencrypted, as OTA.  Seems like a good
question - if you don't subscribe to the digital tier or HD tier, will the
HD versions of the local over-the-air stations which the cable company
carries still be available as a QAM-encoded stream.

-Jerry
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