HDTV

I'm afraid a seperate Broadcast ATSC/HDTV tuner will be required to pull an HD signal off the air. Your digital cable box is good for nothing but its own flavor of digital cable, which, IMHO isn't good for much in and of itself. On the bright side, nothing really special in the way of an antenna is called for; depending on the distance between you and the transmitter tower, you might even be able to get by with a cheap, simple set-top model, but in general with antennas, bigger is better, outdoors and high up is best, and a rotator is quite handy. On the downside, a dedicted over-the-air HD tuner is gonna set you back several hundred bucks. If I were in your situation, I'd seriously think about ditching cable and going to satellite HDTV, the equipment for which isn't all that much more than a plain HDTV broadcast tuner by itself, and several available models include an off-the-air HDTV tuner along with the satellite tuner, so you can take advantage of both, but even then, local blackout rules might be a problem. Good luck.

HDTV
Thanks for getting back to me. You mentioned an "off the air tuner" is available on some satellite systems. What exactly is that and do I need it along with the satellite tuner.

Thanks again,
jrgsmnn

Your TV has a tuner in it - it's what takes the radio waves out in free space and converts them into intelligible pictures and sounds.

Think of the HDTV this way - Your current TV's tuner is probably capable of tuning in channels 2-188 or so. Think of the HDTV signals as being channel 400 through 450. Your current tuner doesn't go up that high. So you'd need an add-on tuner that can convert those channels into something your TV can display. You're HD Cable box can do that but only for channels on the cable system - not the off-air channels.

You can check out the types of HDTV Tuners at someplace like Circuit City ( http://www.circuitcity.com/searchresults.jsp?c=1&b=g&catoid=-11081&department=Televisions&qp=0411537684112&dupDept=null ) but you'll see they're pretty pricey. As Timber mentioned, there are SatTV boxes with this capability built in and with the deals lately you can basically get the SatTV hardware for free with an annual subscription.