Converters have played an important role in the cable industry for years. As system bandwidth requirements have grown, so have the tuning capability in converters. During the 1980's, the introduction of "cable-ready" 1V's and VCR's raised serious questions as to the benefits of converters. Unfortunately, however, most cable-ready tuners selected by consumer electronics companies are not acceptable in a direct cable environment. This paper presents an analysis of TV versus CATV tuners and the measureable benefit of converters in ensuring high quality, distortion minimized pictures are delivered to the viewing screen. It also touches upon the future challenges in tuner designs to achieve extended bandwidths beyond 550 MHz.