Look ma, no cable box. David Carnoy/CNET With all the talk of 3D, plasma vs. LCD, LED TV backlighting schemes, 240Hz vs. 120Hz, and all other sorts highfalutin technical specs, there's one small but potentially important TV feature that doesn't get a whole lot of play: The QAM tuner. Keygen Native Instruments Traktor Pro 2 Keygen.

Comcast pulls 1080i Free QAM channels. Previously QAM Clear channels have now. I have been trying to 'auto program' my HD TV but it gets stuck sometime at 10. Learn about QAM TV, tuners, cable tv, and how a recent FCC decision can require you to pay more to your cable TV provider. Find alternatives and save.

Just what is a QAM tuner? Proline M760s Wireless Drivers For Windows 7. Well, according to, QAM stands for 'quadrature amplitude modulation, the format by which digital cable channels are encoded and transmitted via cable television providers.' More specifically, it allows you to pull in certain digital cable channels without the use of a set-top box. Or, as the Wikipedia entry puts it, 'an integrated QAM tuner allows the free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent 'in the clear' by cable providers, usually local broadcast stations, cable radio channels, or in the case of providers which have transitioned to do so, public access channels.' Now that we have the definitions out the way, let's move on to the real world.

I wanted to mount a small LCD TV on the wall in my kitchen--but I didn't want to deal with a set-top box. First off, the place where I wanted to put it (above a table that was attached to the wall), there was simply no place to put a set-top box and I couldn't build a shelf for it inside the wall. To get that nice, clean, wall-mounted TV look, I simply couldn't have a box. I also didn't feel like paying $6 a month to rent a box if I didn't have to.

I did a little research on QAM and started looking for a cheap 1080p LCD TV that looked decent aesthetically. It actually wasn't so easy to find an inexpensive set that fit my criteria and had an integrated QAM tuner.

But I ended up with a refurbished 24-inch Viewsonic VT2430 that cost $180, which seemed to fit the bill (the set has received mixed reviews from users but so far has worked fine for me). At the time I bought the TV, I had Time Warner Cable. Indeed, when I hooked the set up, I was able to pull in several stations and was content to receive all the locals and a few other random stations, most of which I assume you could get with an OTA (over-the-air) antenna. Some of the channels came in with a pretty sharp wide-screen picture. While it seemed to fall a bit short of true HD, it was close enough and for the type of stuff I had running (kids programs, a lot of PBS, some sports, and a sitcom or two), it was fine. The situation changed dramatically when I switched to Verizon Fios a couple of weeks ago. Ironically, when I asked the installation technician about QAM, he said it wouldn't work and that I needed a box (he even made a call to ask).

I said no, I'd read on the Internet that it did work. And indeed, when he finally got everything set up and I plugged the coaxial cable into the back of the TV, hit scan on the tuner, I immediately started pulling in stations, many in pristine HD. Again, most of the stuff was local, but there were a few nice bonuses like WGN from Chicago. The technician seemed moderately surprised by my box-free demonstration. 'OK, then,' he said.

'Well, now I know QAM works with our system. How To Use Wine Windows Program Loader here. ' Somehow this guy had done hundreds of installs and never bothered to tell anybody about it. Which made me realize that there were probably thousands of cable subscribers out there who had unneeded set-top boxes attached to lightly used TVs. Magical as this all sounds--and not in an Apple iPad way--some people will have some qualms with QAM, which is why I thought it would be a good idea to provide a few tips on the subject. You need basic cable.

For starters, for the QAM scenario to work, you do need to have basic cable running in your home--and cable outlets around your house to tap into (you just run a coax cable to the back of your TV; no HDMI or component required--this is a direct feed). To get basic cable, you usually have to pay something, which is why I put 'free' in quotation marks in the headline.