I purchased a Panasonic LCD ~ TC - 32LX50 TV a few months ago. It does not have a built-in HDTV Tuner....
I did want to bother with the additional expense of a higher tier cable package, so, when I was searching for a new TV, I did not search for a LCD TV that had the built-in tuner.
My son recently told me that a friend of his recently purchased a TV (Sony Wega LCD) with a built-in tuner, and this friend of his uses the same basic cable package that I do. Upon hooking up his cable to the TV, he found that he was getting many HD stations.
He thought that our cable company had mistakenly upgraded his service which he did not want to order, and so he called the cable company to inquire about it. The cable company sent a technician to check it out. After checking it out, the technician said that he was still getting the basic cable programming package, but the built-in HD Tuner in his TV was pulling in the new channels through the Cable companies' line, which without the filtering of their set-top box, the cable would be unfiltered (with his and my cable package, we don't have their set-top box). The cable company told him to just enjoy the new programming at no additional charge.
I am thinking of purchasing an HDTV Tuner to try to do the same... I just don't know what to look for... it is all Greek to me... I read in one description of an HDTV Tuner that it was... QAM - capable.... I have no idea what that is. Do I need a HD Tuner that has that capability?
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing as pulling HD programming off a cable companies' line without a cable HD package upgrade?
