Richard Schmidt

I understand converter boxes only work on over-the-air signals. Is this because over-the-air uses 8VSB modulation and my cable company uses QAM? My DVR handles the cable signals fine, as well as over the air. Does it have dual modulation capability and the converter box doesn't? Is there a way to get the converter box to show all the digital chanels?

Byte24

In regards to QAM tuners, all cable providers must show rebroadcasts of local tv channels in HD (digital) signals that doesn't require a set top box. This is where the QAM comes in to play which most HD TVs come with.

Funny thing is, your cable operater will never tell you that they do this, so most people with a TV w/ built-in digital tuner are able to receive High Definition without paying extra fees for a set top box.

The rest of the stations that are broadcasted are scrambled.

8VSB is the digital standard for over-the-air signals. All digital-to-analog converter boxes are built to receive 8VSB signals.

bicker

By law, the coupon-eligible converter boxes were prohibited from supporting QAM.

HTNut

I know that the coupon program isn't supposed to help "upgrade" a TV, but I don't understand why adding a $3.00 HDMI port to a converter box would be such a huge deal with manufactures.

bicker

This is not an issue for manufacturers. It is an issue for legislators, who intentionally wanted to limit the CECB program to simply restore viewers to where they were -- applying the legal principle of making parties "whole" -- not fostering unjust enrichment. Their determination was, in the American People's best interest, that anyone who could afford a display that had a high-defintiion input, could therefore afford to pay for their own digital-to-analog converter box with a high-definition output, without using up $40 of CECB program funds.

HTNut

Is a few more lines resolution really "unjust enrichment", and would it really have cost the government any more $ for the coupon program? I'm sure there are those who were sold "HD Ready" TVs that are in need of a converter box, and could have probably benefited from at least a Component connection.

Now that I think about it, if those connections were made available on CECBs, every one would have come out of the woodwork to apply and use up the funds...

bicker

Some of the Members of Congress wanted the coupons to go just to folks who could prove financial need, and specifically that the household didn't have any televisions connected to cable or satellite. So yes, getting six or seven times as much resolution definitely constituted "unjust enrichment" for many of our nation's legislators.

I'm not sure if you've been keeping tabs on the news, but the CECB program actually ran out of money over a month before the original transition date -- millions of households were unable to obtain their coupons as a result -- and that's one reason why the transition was delayed. Even though none of this was taxpayer money, the fact that more money had to be allocated for coupons means less money going into the US Treasury as a result -- hundreds of millions of dollars less. So yes, if the coupons were useful to more people, it would have cost the government a lot more money.

And they can definitely get that. They just can't use the coupons for it.

YES! You've got it!