This is a "work in progress." I plan to add to it periodically, if people find it of interest. If you do, please drop me a note so I will know it has some value. If you have suggestions, please send those also.

Introduction

I just bought my second HDTV and I wanted to share some thoughts to help others that had the same problems that I had. Since I majored in electronics in school and have decades of experience with this field, I understand the technical issues. As a recent consumer, I also understand some of the frustrations.

One of the most important, but most commonly overlooked issues is terminology. Many buyers think that either 1. they already know enough, 2. the salesperson knows enough, 3. they can't understand it anyway so why try. My experience is that most people do not know enough about this subject, most sales people know way, way too little, and that most people can understand if it is presented properly.

The reason many people don't understand is that too often the person they are talking to doesn't understand enough about the subject to explain it properly. That, or they are just not that good at informing others about technical issues. We all have seen that too many time. This goes for printed information also, like in a magazine or newspaper.

Because it is so important, I'm going to start with the terminology. Please don't skip over this, it is too important. Note that this refers to the US. There are subtle, but important differences in the other parts of the world so many of the statement in this do not apply outside the US.

Terminology

The "tuner" and "monitor" vs "television"

There is a GREAT deal of confusion over the issue of "the tuner" in a HDTV. The tuner is the part that allows you to receive signals from an antenna, cable TV, or satellite dish. When you change channels, you are changing the settings of the tuner. Having the right type of tuner is important now, but is even more important for the future.

Monitor

You can purchase a "television set" that does not contain a tuner. The words are in quote marks because that unit is technically not a television, it is actually called a monitor. Most people think of the screen for their computer as a monitor, and a television without a tuner is closely related to that. Some people have asked what value a "television" has if it cannot tune in stations because it has no tuner. The answer is that it can still be used as a "television" by hooking it up to an external tuner. More about that later.

Monitors are also usefull for hooking up to games, e.g. Xbox, PS2, Wii, or to DVD players, VCRs, or computers. Those things usually do not need a tuner to connect to. Instead, they connect to other "jacks" on the monitor. A jack is the socket or connector that you can plug the wires into. Jack is probably the best term to use.

All cable companies have a "box" that you can rent from them to hook up "the cable" to your television. That box is actually an external tuner that allows you to select the channel you want to watch. It is connected to the television via special wires. Satelite TV companies have a box that serves the same purpose.

The term "wire" and the term "cable" are essentially interchangable. I will use the term "cable TV" to refer to the service that you subscribe to and the term "cable" to refer to a wire." The type of cable (wire) is best determined by someone who can look at your television and the box and see what they need to connect. More on the subject of cables/wires later.

Tuners

A real television contains one or more tuners inside the set, that is what defines it as a television. For many decades, we in the US had what is called a NTSC tuner. You may have never heard the name because until recently, it didn't matter except to "techies." Now, it does matter to you. Because it does matter now, and it is important, I'll do a little technical explaining, but will try to keep it to a minimum.

This NTSC tuner uses a technology called analog. Analog is scheduled to stop being broadcast in early 2009. That may be delayed, but it will happen some time soon. The newer technology is called digital. The technical differences are not important to you, only the compatability and the usefullness are important to owners. You can compare this to AM radio vs FM. You cannot listen to an AM station on a FM radio and visa versa. Most radios have both kinds of tuners and you flip a switch to go between them.

The newer, digital technology, is called ATSC. All, or almost all, television stations that broadcast "over the air" are now using ATSC. Over the air means that you receive them on an antenna. An antenna is typically either outside, on the roof or in the attic or "rabbit ears." Here is where it starts to get sticky. If you are going to use ONLY cable TV or a satelite dish, or both, you do not need an antenna. Since you don't need an antenna, ATSC means nothing practical to you.

If you are not going to use an antenna do you even need a tuner or can you just use a monitor? Since monitors are cheaper, why not just get one of those? This is a bit confusing.

If you will use only satelite TV and will never use an antenna and will never use cable TV, there is no need to have a tuner in the television. One reason that you might WANT to use an antenna is that some satelite TV companies do not include local stations. They require you to have an antenna. Others offer it at an additional cost. Still others include it free. The availability and fees vary by your location, not just the company. Be careful that your choice in tuners isn't going to cause you a problem with the local station issue.

Now, lets say that you are getting local channels without an antenna. You would never want an antenna, right? Not necessarily. An antenna would allow you to get those local channels in High Definition at no cost. Personally, I get my local channels through my cable TV company, but I bought an antenna so I can get those local channels in HD. That way I don't have to buy the HD package from the cable TV company. Because they "bundle" services, getting HD would double my cable TV costs and I don't want to pay that much to them.

The quality of the HD signal of those local stations through the antenna is even better than it would be from cable TV or from satelite. If you are within 30 miles of the TV stations, it is typical to see the antenna's signal being better. The further away you are, the better of an antenna you will need, obviously.

The above discussion of local HD channels from an antenna also applies to cable TV subscribers. Only you can weigh the quality and cost differences and make your own decision about an antenna.

If you buy a monitor, OR if you subscribe to digital cable TV you will be required to rent a "box" from the cable TV people. If you buy a television with a built in tuner and you are only subscribing to the more basic (analog) cable TV package, you should have an option with the cable TV company. Insead of renting "the box" you can simply hook up the cable TV line into the tuner of your television. That should work just fine and it is cheaper.

If you do use an antenna along with cable TV, you will need a simple switch to switch between the antenna and the cable TV going into the tuner on your television. Expect to pay around $10 for that. Buy a good one, not the cheapest you can find.

In the interests of full technical honesty, I have to say that I left out a detail in the above discussion of tuners and antennas and cable TV. That detail is too technical to dwell on so I'll just give you a brief overview. The real truth is that the tuner that works with cable TV is actually the old style NTSC analog tuner. I glossed over that because I have not seen a television with an ATSC tuner that doesn't also have a NTSC tuner. Because of that, the details are too technical to say more about.

We have talked about the old standard tuner, the NTSC. We have also talked about the newer digital tuner, the ATSC. Remember, the ATSC tuner is really a replacement for the NTSC because they both are designed to receive signals broadcast via antenna.

The signals that come from the cable tv company on their cable are kind of like a group of many little television stations. The difference is that a traditional television station broadcasts their signal in the air and for cable television, the broadcast is through the cable tv wires. Because the technology is different between over the air and through the cable tv wires, a different type of tuner is needed to get the stations from the cable tv. Again, it is kind of like the difference between AM and FM, except we now have a third type of signal.

That third type of tuner is called a QAM tuner. It is like the other tuners in that it's job is to allow you to select which station you want to watch. It is just a different technology, is all. I find it interesting that many cable television employees have never heard this term before. You don't have to know the terminology to use technology, but it does all you to make better decisions on what is best for you.

Do you need a QAM tuner? Another way of stating that question is What is the value, to me, of a QAM tuner? If you are never going to use a cable tv company, there is absolutly no value to you in having a QAM tuner and you can skip this discussion. It only works with cable tv and whether or not it has value to you is not that simple of a decision.

If you have, or are going to have cable tv, you will never be required to have a QAM tuner. Instead, the cable tv box supplied by the cable tv company will do the job of selecting stations. There is an advantage to the QAM tuner for some situations, however. As discussed briefly above, if your cable company charges a monthly fee for that cable television box, you might be able to save money by having your own QAM tuner.

Some television signals are scrambled, or encrypted. That is a very fancy term that says the signal have been modified in a way that does not allow it to be received in a normal way. You have to have some kind of technology that restores the signal to normal. This is done to try to prevent people from "stealing" the signal without paying. It serves the same purpose as a password.

If your cable tv company scrambles the signal in the cable, a QAM tuner will not help you. The only way to receive a scrambled signal is with the set top box that the cable tv company rents. Technically, there is also a "card" that can be put in some television sets. We are going to ignore that for now, mostly because it is so terribly seldom used.

Some cable tv companies scramble all their stations, others only scramble some stations. Technology allows for the company to choose which stations are scrambled and which are not. Personally, I think it is important to keep in mind that scrambling is not a requirement of technology, it is a marketing issue.

The technical term for a channel that is not scrambled is "in the clear." When asking your cable tv company which channels are scrambled and which are not, you SHOULD be able to use that term because it is an industry standard term. Unfortunately, many employees of my cable tv provider have never heard that term. Note that they may also tell you a particular channel is scramble when it really is not. In the clear channels should be available for you, at no cost, on your cable tv wire if you have a QAM tuner.

When I asked, some of my cable tv provider's staff told me what channels are broadcast on the cable tv wire in the clear.  Other staff members had lied to me about what was available. A little research, actually quite a little, allowed me to discover that they intentionally lied to try to keep me from "stealing" channels that they had not scrambled. Note: a mistake is when you think what you are saying is correct, but it is not; a lie is when you know it is not correct, or it is your job to know that it is not correct, but you say it anyway in order to get something of value to you.

In my experience, there is only one way to find out what channels are scrambled and which ones are not. First, you ask others who have the same cable tv package that you have. That usually means either basic cable with around one to two dozen channels or basic plus expanded with around 60 to 120 channels, or digital which is usually far more than 120 channels.

Those who have a QAM tuner and have tried, may have found some of those "secret" in the clear channels. A vast majority of friends will know nothing of those channels because they can only see them if they have a QAM tuner and they recognize the channels as HD. Most sets don't have the QAM tuner. Some that do have it require a slightly different wiring connection and/or a different procedure to find those stations.

Are you getting lost about the discussion of the in the clear stations? I am, just writing it. It is very confusing because everything has to be just right to find them and there is a tremendous amount of misinformation about the subject, even by professionals.

More soon......