232-ATSC HDTV Tuner

Discontinued. See 232-ATSC+

Overview | Specifications | Installation

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Installation

Tuning Digital Cable Channels

Scrambled and Unscrambled Programming
Cable providers typically provide a mix of analog channels, scrambled and unscrambled digital channels. When the cable provider has switched to all-digital service, Basic cable programs will be available as unscrambled channels. The unscrambled channels can be tuned by the 232-ATSC, as well as HDTV tuners in flat-panel displays. The 232-ATSC+ will automatically screen out scrambled programs during scanning.

Guide and Channel Numbers
A cable box lists all channels in a Cable Guide format, a list of channels from 002 to 900+, with digital channels often in the high numbers. However, the channels are actually broadcast with major-minor numbers, not Guide numbers. For example, Guide 800 might be listed in the 232-ATSC as 55-12.

What Channels can be Tuned?
The best way to predict and plan for avialable channels is to call the cable providers Engineering department, not the consumer support team. The engineers can provide a list of Clear QAM (unscrambled) channels, complete with the actual major-minor channel IDs. What channels are on the list depend on if the provider is all digital, and consumer and commercial service. See the product manual for strategies for digital tuning.

Based on that information, you can talk with your client on whether the 232-ATSC or a cable box would serve their needs.

Tip: To skip analog channels, press Select once the scan begins.

RS-232/Closure Wiring

All drawings show pin numbers relative to a PC COM port or typical control system RS-232 ports. Pins 4 and 9 are momentary closures to GND (5). A fully-wired null modem cable can be used for RS-232 control, a DTR signal on Pin 4 will not trigger a Channel Up commmand.

Up to nine tuners can be daisy-chained from one RS-232 control port. Remember that you will need to use the Unit# address in your programming when you control more than one tuner from the same control port.

Set the first unit in the RS-232 chain to the highest Unit#, then wire in sequence to the last tuner in the chain. The reason for this is that CR tuners use an intelligent data bus - the highest number tuner receives all commands, and then passes on commands addressed to tuners with lower unit numbers. The next tuner in the chain does the same, and so on until the last unit.

IR Control

The 232-ATSC IR codes are avialable in AMX, Crestron, and Prono formats, and include discrete power on, off commands. To review command options, open the Pronto list in the HTML file. Download from Resources menu on the right.