First the good news: I was pleased to see that a couple of TVs I bought since I first published this page have the QAM channel labeling feature I requested.

Now the bad news: It seems that Cox and other cable companies are now trying to make present built-in TV tuners obsolete by switching to all-digital operation and offering "mini boxes" which take the incoming cable signal and change it via the electronics in the box to pure digital--no more analog channels received via the set's built-in tuner.

There are advantages to this--mainly, no more having to remember "108.2" or other QAM channel numbers, as my HD CBS station now turns up as 5, my NBC as 8, TBS on 27 is in HD now, etc. But there is--or will eventually be--a monthly charge for the mini boxes, and it seems a shame for all you TV makers to go to all that trouble to put QAM and cable tuners in all your sets only to have them go completely to waste at the hands of cable companies. Only those who have chosen to "cut the cord" and go back to a (usually) UHF antenna on the roof can benefit from the built-in tuners.

So, set manufacturers, the ball is once again in your court. I would reallly love to see you all come out with newer sets whose tuners use the same technology that these new cable company mini boxes use, so we don't all have to use mini boxes to get basic cable channels or our local stations on basic cable.

Try to do something about this latest problem, okay? Thank you,

--David P. Johnson
July, 2015