HDTV newbie - one question

[TJN23]

I am subscribing to COX Cable in CT and my question is about basic cable vs. digital cable:

I have an HDTV monitor and want to watch HDTV and just subscribe to basic cable. Is digital cable a pre-requisite for getting the cable company's HD signal? All's I want to do is view over-the-air HD transmissions...

 

[purbeast0]

with comcast you don't need digital cable to get the HD channels. however the HD cable box you get is the same one (i believe) for digital cable. with comcast, all the digital channels are in the 100's. the HD channels are in the 200's. So all the channels that come in for me are the ones between 0-99, and 200+. the 100-199 channels just say "you are not authorized to view these" or something of that nature.

but the HD cable box is like an extra $5/mo ... not much at all, and definitely worth it for HD content.

i would assume cox is similar to this, but no guarantees.

 

[arod]

I have cox and what I can do is pay $5 bucks for a "digital gateway" that lets me have access to all of the HD channels in my area. You will be required to purchase/rent a digital cable box though to be able to tune the channels (COX rents me a dual tuner HD-DVR for 10 bucks a month). you best bet will be to call cox and ask about the cheapest way to only get HD channels in your area.