[AncientOne]

I have Comcast cable in Reston, Virginia, and am using a Scientific Atlanta EXPLORER 3250HD set top box for their digital channels, though I haven't subscribed to any of their digital plans. With this tuner I get all the network digital channels, often in HD, and 9 or 10 public TV digital channels. There are also a lot of music channels farther up the channel ladder, but I don't use them, so I just barely know they're there. Anyway, my point is that with my Comcast provider I can receive all the clear QAM channels without any encryption decoding facilities (there's a cable card slot in the set top box, but it's empty). I expect, when I add a tuner with clear QAM reception, to get all these same channels on my 'extended basic' subscription. Hope this helps...