FIOS basic service includes high def?

September 10, 2007 5:04 PM

Does FIOS basic TV service with no set-top box provide High Def?

Our basic service (~$15/mo) provides local network affiliates and a few other stations. With a 13 year old SONY, this has been just fine. But the SONY broke, so we are out looking for a good LCD HDTV.

Since it is the basic FIOS service that we now have, there is currently no set top box; just a straight coaxil feed from the FIOS magic box into the RF terminal on the back of the ancient SONY.

Here is the question: with the basic service, what happens if we plug the coax into the RF terminal on the back of the fancy (yet-to-be-purchased) HDTV? I know that if it is an old fashioned analogue feed that there are some aspect ratio issues. But is there any chance that they are feeding the HD signal for those stations that have HD? Or for a good signal will we be forced to upgrade service and get a settop HD box etc.

I have called FIOS tech support, which claims we will need to upgrade the service, or at least rent a HD settopbox. I'm hoping this ain't so since it would force us into another $40/mo * 12 * years in the rest of our lives.

Thanks

posted by Kevin S to Technology (7 answers total)

Nope! Digital HDTV requires HDMI, DVI-D, or DVI-I connectors; analog HDTV requires the triple-RCA connectors.

These days, set-top boxes are little autonomous computers; they talk back to the cable company, telling it what digital signal they would like to receive right now. This is much more efficient than broadcasting all data down the pipe all the time. Even if you are getting an analog HDTV signal out of your cable box into the back of your TV, that is because the cable box is converting the digital into analog for you.
posted by ikkyu2 at 6:16 PM on September 10, 2007

FYI

You'd be surprised at the number of HDTV channels you can pick up with a good antenna and a built in HD tuner. http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/index.php
posted by Gungho at 7:01 PM on September 10, 2007

Response by poster: We will give the antenna a try though I'm not hopeful since on old tv most channels have a lot of noise - horiz lines, snow etc. We are 30 mi nw of boston.

ikkyu2 (or other) - right now there is no cable box; the coax goes straight into the rf antenna connector. So I had assumed that this was equivalent to an amplified version of over-the-air rf and hence hoping it included HD; but I think you are saying that that is not so?
posted by Kevin S at 7:34 PM on September 10, 2007

HDTV does not require Component or HDMI/DVI connections if your TV has an internal HDTV Tuner. This tuner can pick up the Over the Air HD Signals from an antenna (with an ATSC Tuner), or the Over the Wire HD Signals (if provided) from your cable company (with a QAM tuner).

IIRC, Verizon pushes out Channels 1-49 in Clear QAM, meaning that if you get a TV with a QAM tuner, you can pickup your local channels (that have HD feeds) without a Cable Box. In addition, if the TV has a normal NTSC tuner, you will get the SD channels as well without a cable box.
posted by stew560 at 7:51 PM on September 10, 2007

I am certainly saying that it's not so, at least in the places I've lived, Kevin S. The HD was not piggybacked on the regular channels; instead it was a separate set of channels that were transmitted digitally start-to-finish (you could occasionally see digital compression artifacts.)
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:21 PM on September 10, 2007

HDTV is inherently digital, even if you pick it up with an antenna. For that matter, a lot of SD broadcasting starts out as digital -- this is where the jaggies in football fields come from.

As stew notes, if your tv has a QAM tuner and your feed has clear HD QAM, you can pick it up without a set-top box. Most current HDTVs have ATSC and QAM tuners, but it's worth checking the specs to be sure about your final contenders.

This page says that FiOS sends the over-the-air networks' HD feeds in unencrypted QAM, so if it's right, you'd get NBC/ABC/CBS/Fox/PBS.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:21 PM on September 10, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for responding. I think my questions have been answered (with differing opinions noted and appreciated). This has been a real learning curve over the past few days, starting with almost zero knowlege of HD. We will certainly get TV with QAM tuner and thus, with a little luck, have inexpensive HD. Rou_ - thanks for the link and info.
posted by Kevin S at 8:34 AM on September 11, 2007