Unlikely, but you might be able to watch the Astros in HD for free*

[Gizzmonic]

You might be able to watch the Astros in HD for free* .  Seriously geeky instructions follow:

Here's what you will need:

1)Houston area residence with Comcast cable running in to your house.  If you're already paying for digital cable, but not the HD package, you've got this for sure.  If you're paying for analog cable service or just cable modem, they're's about a 50/50 chance it'll work.  If you're unsubscribed, it probably won't work.

2)HDTV (duh)

3)An HD receiver box that can do unencrypted QAM**.  Many newer HDTVs (2004 or later) have this ability built-in. If you have an older HDTV, you can get an HD receiver box here: http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-HD-Tuner-DTB-H260F/sem/rpsm/oid/164855/catOid/-12889/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Here's what you need to do:

1) Connect the cable directly from the tap to the "Antenna in" your HD box or HDTV.  If your HDTV has a separate "DIGITAL ANT IN" connect the cable there.  It's okay if you connect through a splitter, but don't pass the cable through the digital cable box or a VCR before connecting it to your HDTV.

2)Activate the "channel search" function on your HDTV, this varies from HDTV to HDTV.  It can take up to 45 minutes to find all the digital channels. 

3)Flip through your new digital channels-they start at 76 and end at 101 or so.  You can tell which ones are digital because they have a "sub-channel", a second number after the first.  The numbers are separated by either a dot or a dash  For example, 76-5 (or 76.5) is a digital channel.  Each digital channel has a number of sub-channels (76.1, 76.2, 76.3 etc).

4)Tune your HDTV to 76.8 .  This is the FSN HD broadcast.  It is currently not encrypted.  If the Astros or Rangers are not playing, you will see red color bars on this channel.  If they are-and it's on the FSN HD schedule, congratulations, you're watching the Astros in HD!  If the channel is prone to interference, (stutters and breaks up) the signal may be too weak or strong.  You can fix a too-strong signal by adding RF attenuators or splitting the signal multiple times.

*without having to pay Comcast's prices for HD programming
**QAM is the digital cable standard.  Comcast provides a digital cable box that will decode this, but you have to pay extra to get a box that does HD.