digital converter box question

[woot_joe]

why hello everyone, here is my story: here at my apartment we pay for internet, but not cable tv. One day I decided to try splitting the cable running one to the TV and one to our router and both worked, so we got basic cable for free for a bit. Now they changed over to digital and when I turn on my tv the only analog channel I get is one telling me to call the company and get a digital converter box. Then i did a search of the channels and found that I can get some random digital channels, but not too many or anything worthwhile. We got a digital converter box from best buy to see if that would pick up more channels and it turned out not to pick up any channels at all. Did the cable companies finally get smart ,or is there something wrong with my converter box or am I just messing something up? Thanks everyone.

[gadgetguy]

Your converter box is for over-the-air digital transmission, (ATSC).

[Supreme2k]

You're basically not a smart criminal and don't know how to steal cable.

You can at least learn, then get busted for actually stealing it, rather than just trying to steal.

[usually_quiet]

You can't use a coupon elegible converter box to tune cable channels. Converter boxes capable of tuning any cable channels either analog or digital do not qualify for the coupons. The ones that do qualify only tune ATSC digital over-the-air channels.

The majority of digital cable channels are either encrypted or operate via a switched digital system. Converter boxes capable of tuning them can only be obtained from your cable company.

The cableco has opted not to block the few channels that are being received, although they have the means to do so if they wish. You need to be satified with those, or have cable service installed.

[edDV]

This sounds like a private rather than typical cable service. They have all the control if they are smart enough to use it. I'm surprised that you can tune anything. What was the tuner?

Put your address into this URL and see what you should be able to get over the air.
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

If you are in a high rise, you may get far more.

[tmw]

Here's my limited understanding.

Broadcast stations are moving from analog (NTSC) to digital (ATSC), which is picked up by converter boxes.

Cable companies are moving from analog (NTSC) to digital QAM, while also encrypting many of the digital channels.

TV's often have NTSC (analog), ATSC (digital broadcast) and QAM (digital cable) tuners. However, as cable companies encrypt QAM channels, the TV's tuner is of limited value and often cable set-top boxes are required for anything beyond standard channels. The digital converter box from Best-Buy likely has an ATSC tuner (for connecting to an antenna), and not a QAM tuner. If your TV found some digital channels, that's likely the best you'll get.

Hopefully that is fairly accurate....

[woot_joe]

were getting this from RCN, I tried the rabbit ears, didn't work out so well haha

[kimco52]

Just because it says digital doesn't mean it is all the same. Digital cable is different than OTA digital. OTA Digital converters are for OTA digital signals only.

That is it in a nutshell for non-techies.

[edDV]

were getting this from RCN, I tried the rabbit ears, didn't work out so well haha

Are you in some kind of bunker? I'd bet you could get some kind of OTA if you work at it.

RCN offers these packages. Unfortunately, unlike Comcast, they don't have a locals only subscription.
http://www.rcn.com/new-york/digital-cable-tv/services-and-pricing