Me-TV is coming

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

QAM and clear QAM:
http://support.elgato.com/index.php?...&kbarticleid=8
Ask your cable provider which (if any) channels are clear QAM, for the other QAM channels a set top box or "cable card" will be necessary.
jr

Thanks for the link. I read the article from elgato.com and found out exactly what clear QAM channels are -- but there was no mention in the article of the need for a STB (set top box) to receive QAM cable channels. The flat-panel TV I'll be getting soon supposedly will receive, without a box, anything on the cable except HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or other pay-per-view movie channels; there was no mention made in the instruction manual that any sort of external converters would be necessary to receive normal cable channels.

I'm glad I decided to get a flat-panel TV, as I read in the article at elgato.com that analog cable is eventually going to be phased out; I had been wondering for some time if or when that type of cable service would end. Now I know, and it is also clear to me that the days of being able to simply hook up a cable line to an old TV and get even 12 channels are just about over. I don't know if cable-ready sets like Zenith's System 3 models of the 1980s, which were designed from the start to receive over 100 channels, will continue to operate normally when analog cable eventually ends in this country, of if a cable box will be required if one is to keep watching these aging cable-ready sets. Of course, if everything (including broadcast channels) is eventually converted to 100 percent digital, such TVs will require a cable box to receive any kind of television signals.

I think the day is coming when most unmodified TVs, even "cable ready" sets, will be useless for anything other than watching VHS video tapes or DVDs. Their cable-ready tuners will be of no use since they cannot receive DTV channels; however, I think there will always be people who wonder why their 1980s-vintage TV set won't work any longer unless a cable box is used. There are people who will get very upset when they find out that they can no longer use the original remote to change channels on their Zenith System 3 color set, being required instead to use the small remotes that come with STBs (over-the-air set top boxes) or the larger remotes that are standard equipment with cable company boxes; that's too bad, but time marches on and technology (like everything else) is constantly changing; we either adapt to the changes and accept them or get left behind in the dust. Some people just don't or, for whatever reason, cannot grasp that concept; again, it's too bad, but that's just human nature.