Comcast HDTV Box

You should be able to go to your local ComCast "store" and pick up the box for the rental fee and install it yourself. HDTV is free (AFIK) with the box rental. You will likely have to call customer service to have them activate the box and that can take 15-20 minutes.

Q

Why not let your new TV autotune to discover what's available on the cable. You may find that you don't need the HDTV box.

Technically, you can buy the box, but it's extremely unlikely Comcast will support it or allow it to be used on their system.

Your only real choice is to upgrade to digital cable with HD. If you don't want to spend the money, then you are out of luck. If you had bought a TV with a digital tuner, you might have been able to pick up unscrambled analogs channel, unencrypted digital channels, (which are usually limited to SD and HD broadcast channels, and some public service and music (audio) channels.

Threaten to cancel and go to satellite, and they'll probably waive the fees and maybe even give you a reduced price deal for a few months.

As long as his tuner is also QAM compatible, this will work. Mitsubishi tuners are QAM compatible. Not sure of the others....

This can be a problem. I purchased a DCP 501 for a bedroom, and it took awhile.

this unit has a non-HD DCT 2000 cable box built in.

The 800 service number was not very helpful. First, it was "You cannot use your own box", and "where did you get this from, it may be stolen". Trying to explain that it is a retail available low end HT unit was a useless exercise. They were completely lost as to what to do. "That GI number does not show up in our database"...so I explained that well, it is a database, so you could enter data, or else, how would you get new shipments of boxes in....

I finally called the local service, and they came out, called the warehouse and had them enter the GI number into the database and I finally got it up and running....

He will likely have to call customer service in any event to have the HDTV authorization added to the account before anything HDTV will work.

So do you have the iGuide, OnDemand, etc. with your own box?

Q

I went to the local Comcast Office and picked up the HDTV cable box and it hooked up just fine. I still have an older regular, non HD tv, and it now gets the HD channels on it, not in HD of course. I wanted it so I could tape my son on tv. 3 days later I returned the old regular cable box and everything is fine. If you are cable smart you can hook up an HDTV with no problems. The directions are fairly clear, although not all cables are listed with the same names. Standard stuff.

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A DCP501 will get everything a DCT2000 will get, except for a rental fee.

Or free upgrades when technology changes, or free support from the cable company.

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Yes....

Not needed if the tuner is QAM compatible. The signals are already available on the line. It should be "plug 'n play". Plug it in and do a channel scan......

Y'all didn't read very well, did you.

His first words were that he "just bought an HDTV-ready large screen TV."

He did NOT buy an HDTV. He bought an HD-ready TV. Which means, as we all know, that his TV doesn't have A TUNER IN IT.

He will be forever letting his new TV autotune to discover what's available, because he doesn't have A TUNER.

He could always purchase a QAM compatible tuner, if he so chooses. Comcast is a pain in the ass about consumer purchased digital boxes. It took about 3 weeks for them to finally get my DCP 501 into their system, only after I finally was able to convince them that it was not a pirated box, but a consumer available low end HT receiver/DCT2000/DVD combo.

QAM's only half the story. The channels might be encrypted. Many MSOs encrypt all digital channels to reduce theft of service. If this is the case, then the internal tuner is almost worthless. A Cable Card can solve this problem, if the TV has the slot and if the MSO supports it. Otherwise, a cable box is needed.

-Gary

Comcast, at this time, does not scramble the HD locals. Not sure if this is the case system wide, but many have been successful at getting them without a converter box with QAM compatible tuners (mostly those with Mitsubishi sets with ATSC tuners, as all of theirs are QAM compatible).

Is the Motorola DCT5100 QAM compatible?

Er, yes, that is usually what Comcast offers it's customers. If you plan on buying one, check with them first, as they will need to put the GI number in their database and then activate and program the box from the head end (if you can find someone that will do this).