Last night I hooked up a cable direct to the TV (again). After a quick channel scan here is what I found: I can get every channel in the 2-99 range, although some of them are digital so my PVR 150 is still too unreliable to use. I am able to get HD versions of several channels unencrypted, ie channel 2 is a local network station in SD, 2-1 is the same channel in HD. The scan also found a bunch of channels in odd locations that appear to be HD versions of standard channels, something like 66-864 is the HD version of 25 (fictitious example, I don't remember the actual numbers), more HD to come? The HD channels are broadcasting roughly 24 hours of program scheduling.
Sooooo... All this means I can dump my cable boxes, drop back to their digital starter package (cheaper than standard cable???), pick up a HD Homerun, and after giving up a only a couple channels I typically watch (sci-fi being the biggest downer) have a much better LMCE experience.
Consider this a heads up for other people using cable with a STB. If you haven't looked to see what is available via cable without a STB in a while and you have a HDTV with QAM tuner, do a scan. Recording HDTV just may be an option.
