Cable co. is forcing me to rent or buy what they call a


digital converter box. All i’ve seen are ones to receive over the air broadcast. i couldn’t give a rats ass abouut installing  an outdoor antenna to my house’. So, what is needed to descramble channels. Well i think that’s what is needed. All i’ve seen are for terrestrial tv. thanks 
harley52

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Before the ‘analog sunset’ your cable company provided a single that was capable of being decoded or tuned by a ‘regular’ tuner built in to your TV’s. Resolutions got higher, internet speeds got faster and channels became more plentiful but the coax ‘pipe’ essentially had to same the same size.  To accommodate all this many providers started using SDV or Switched Digital Video to make it all fit.  This means there are multiple channels and bits of information on the same frequencies formally used for only one.  The tuning adapter or converter box is needed to negotiate that communication.  This is not the same as the OTA converter boxes needed a while back that would allow the reception of OTA broadcast channels and convert them to analog for compatibility with tuners in older sets.  With many providers you can no longer just screw the coax in to your TV and receive anything at all without a box in between.  It’s the same deal with the TiVo folk who think that they can finally stick it to the ‘man’ only to find out that in many cases they still have to rent a cable card and tuning adapter from said ‘man’ to make their stuff work.

That being said the orange antennas are definitely just slightly higher res and definitely would benefit from being mounted to a maple slab with springs.   :)