Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Followup on the Giants blackout on CT cable, tips

The Giants-Vikings game, in case you missed it, came down to Eli Manning not being very sharp, the Giants defense playing well, and a few long runs by Bradshaw and Jacobs. Oh, and not much effort from the Vikings.
We wrote about the various angles in the TV blackout (ESPN, NFL, cable, U-Verse), but we thought we'd share another tip uncovered by our friend Jackie B, the world's biggest Giants fan.
New TVs have something called a QAM filter, which allows you to get what I call the "hyphenated" digital channels if you plug the cable wire directly into the newer sets (Vizio or Samsung, for instance). For channels such as WFSB-3, that's no big deal since you already get it in digital and/or high-def on your cable. But on more than one cable system, you'll also notice a few channels that come in (hyphenated or with a decimal point, such as 24.3) that maybe you don't get through your cable box.
In Comcast New Haven's case, you're likely to pick up New York channels that they have since ditched but somehow still lurk in the digital background. We heard of at least one guy on Comcast Branford's system who found WNYW this way and watched the Giants game. So keep it in mind for the future, and it's an excellent reason to have side TVs in your house that don't rely on the cable TV box.

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