How does a QAM tuner work?

[lamb110]

I hope this is the right place to be posting this question. I recently bought a Samsung LN40A550 40inch LCD. I just called the Cable people to have them come out and install my new HD package and expanded digital channel package. I'm not sure but I thought that I wont need the cable companies box to get the digital/HD channels since I have this "QAM-Clear" tuner in my TV. Is this true? or will I have to pay them an extra $6 a month for the stupid box?

Heres the link to the TV I bought:
http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/...type=lcdtv&model_cd=LN40A550P3FXZA&fullspec=F

 

[bunyip]

QAM gives your TV the ability to pick up a handful of HD channels (usually the local channels plus 3 or 4 extras) when connected to regular cable TV.

If you want digital cable with all of your channels in HD, QAM doesn't do that, and you need the box.

 

[Nanan]

Na you will get some HD channels but not all, I get about 11 HD channels without the box, I would get 30ish with a box due to encryption/compression.

It all depends on your cable carrier, Comcast kinda sucks but I have no other options here.

 

[Proneax]

As posted above, Clear QAM tuner lets you see the channels that are not Encrypted by your cable provider. It seems that by law, they cannot encrypt the local HD channels and you can get these, and usually some analog channels, music channels and whatever else your cable provider doesn't encrypt.

I had a QAM pci tuner for a while and It worked well watching local HD.

Search for CableCard (here, google or avsforums) if you want to know more about encryption stuff.