Most modern high definition televisions include tuners for both ATSC and QAM modulation types – the former for receiving digital signals from an antenna, and the latter for digital signals from cable. Yes, this does mean you can actually receive digital cable channels without the use of a rental digital cable box. However, Canada is still running behind the USA in regards to allowing consumers to make use of these tuners. While many American cable companies provide local channels in both SD and HD as unencrypted QAM, in Canada there is no such policy and providers are allowed to actively encrypt all channels, where they need to be or not, requiring you to rent or purchase a cable box for reception.

Special thanks to Mike Miles for suppling this list of channels for Cogeco in Hamilton, Ontario. This will likely be accurate for other Cogeco service areas, although the exact primary channel number may differ.

If you'd like to comment on this list, please see our HDTV, Cable & Satellite forum.

Here are a few tips for working with QAM channels:

• QAM channels will scan in ##.## format, such as 83.2 or 119.431. The first number represents the original broadcast channel, and the second is the subchannel.
• QAM channels will not match the channel number assignments as you would see on an official cable box – thus the existence of this list.
• Some QAM tuners will renumber the subchannels, for example if it scans in 82.17 and 82.18, it may display them as 82.1 and 82.2.
• Some regions may use a different broadcast channel, however the subchannel structure typically remains the same. For example, you may find the group of channels shown here on 84.### moved to 93.### in your area – however the order of the channels should remain the same.
• If you do not subscribe to cable TV or if you only subscribe to basic cable and there is a filter on your line, you will most likely not be able to tune any of these channels.
• QAM tuners in HDTVs are fully capable of receiving high definition channels, however there are none available in Canada.
• In the US there is a product called a “Cable Card” that can be installed in compatible devices and enables reception of encrypted pay-TV channels, proper channel number reassignment and so forth. Cable Cards are not supported by any Canadian cable company, although there is no technical reason for this to be the case. However support for 1-way Cable Cards has been almost completely dropped by hardware vendors, in favor of the new (and not yet common) “Tru2Way” standard, which is essentially the same but with 2-way communications to allow for VOD, PPV purchases and so forth. Once again, there has been no announced Canadian support for this standard.