Our cable system just went 100% digital. Except for announcements
regarding the change over on several analog channels there is no more
analog programming. I have a 2008 Samsung flat screen set in here for
repair that is "no problem found" and I decided to see what would
happen if I auto programmed it on cable. Although it picked up and
stored many digital channels, they all seemed to have pixel ation and
sound problems and appeared as though you were trying to watch a bad
DVD. If it wasn't a problem with the set then all these channels were
in fact digitally scrambled in some manner. This surprises me because
I was under the impression that the cable companies were required to
broadcast unscrambled networks, PBS, cable access etc, channels so
that any set with a Quam tuner, (and I'm assuming that this set must
have one), could receive them. Does anyone have any idea as to what
could be going on here? Thanks, Lenny

It's QAM, not Quam.

If there's an image that you can recognize, but it's pixelated, then it's
not scrambled. Either the signal is weak or corrupted, or there's something
wrong with the set.

[This followup was posted to sci.electronics.repair and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

In article e9c74f32-d609-4fcc-bf33-677ea812ebe7
@g7g2000vbd.googlegroups.com, says...

Our cable system just went 100% digital. Except for announcements
regarding the change over on several analog channels there is no more
analog programming. I have a 2008 Samsung flat screen set in here for
repair that is "no problem found" and I decided to see what would
happen if I auto programmed it on cable. Although it picked up and
stored many digital channels, they all seemed to have pixel ation and
sound problems and appeared as though you were trying to watch a bad
DVD. If it wasn't a problem with the set then all these channels were
in fact digitally scrambled in some manner. This surprises me because
I was under the impression that the cable companies were required to
broadcast unscrambled networks, PBS, cable access etc, channels so
that any set with a Quam tuner, (and I'm assuming that this set must
have one), could receive them. Does anyone have any idea as to what
could be going on here? Thanks, Lenny

If it was actually encrypted, you would get nothing. If it's choppy and
pixelated, then it's a weak signal issue, or it's formatted in a way the
TV doesn't quite like.

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