What is Digg?111 Comments
- lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+58Well, HDTV broadcasts should look better than cable HD. The HD broadcast is just broadcast at full quality. The cable feed is constantly compressed and decompressed. It's not going to be a big difference, but when you spend thousands of dollars to get the best picture possible, you might as well chose the absolute best. Also it's free.
And best of all, you get to give the finger to the cable company. I hate you Cox. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+45Dugg for the article's use of the word "rejiggered"
- Jdban, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we have had the same cheap antennae on the roof for 15 years. We were shocked to see that we received more channels, and in HD quality when we hooked up our new 42 inch HDTV.
The antenna works beautifully. - andrewmp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22With Sopranos (and possibly Entrouage) ending this season, I might just ditch pay TV altogether
- MeMongo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21"why would cable be constantly compressed and decompressed?"
Because the cable companies suck ass and care more about quantity than quality. - Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18I only have to buy that antenna ONCE though. Not monthly...
- streak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Indeed, ATSC seems to be the biggest, best kept secret in technology. No money in it, I guess, because cable and satellite providers can't match it on price or quality. TV manufacturers should tout it, as an enticement to consumers to upgrade. There's money in that!
- matthewf01, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18those aren't analog signals anymore...
they are digital, ATSC.
What everyone WILL need is an ATSC tuner, and most new HDTVs have them built in...and many non-HD models do too, because by 2009 all tvs will require ATSC tuners.
So not EVERYONE will be forced to use a set-top box. - wwwdot1jesdotus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I've been using rabbit ears for ATSC reception for over a year now. Works better than the lame "HDTV" antenna that came with my PCI tuner. You can't beat free HDTV.
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15BigGeek:
If you truly believe it is the "same quality," you need to go and actually watch it. - mabhatter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14You have to buy a TV too!!! Guess that makes it even more "not free"
- killkingkong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11here's a forum about building your own antenna: http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613
- Gunegune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"The HD broadcast is just broadcast at full quality. The cable feed is constantly compressed and decompressed."
You are mistaken on this part. True, cable fed HDTV is compressed, but, over the air HDTV is also compressed, though, usually not as much. The FCC allots each TV a sufficient air wave spectrum to broadcast a little over 19 megabits per second of data. The ATSC standard includes support for MPEG-2 video encoding however uncompressed MPEG2 video would require 885 mbps for 720p content and 995 mbps for 1080i content.
Here's the source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,122629-page,3-c,hdtv/article.html
Also, I too use an antenna to receive HDTV over the air and find it have slightly higher quality than cable fed HDTV (my uncle has Time Warner Cable). Plus, it's free. Who can argue with that? - YoctoYotta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9No, cable is cable, the only thing dying is over-the-air analog NTSC signals.
The government simply wants to free up that OTA NTSC frequency with it's massive bandwidth so they can resell it for billions of dollars to the telecom industry to use in their 5G networks sometime in the next 10-15 years.
That said, cable WANTS to move everyone to digital set top boxes to free up their own bandwidth for better IPTV and internet services, but that's their own prerogative, not the governments. - lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I can't speak to TV or actual numbers, but there is a reason rural Kansas has excellent cellphone reception while I can't talk in my Chicago apartment.
Reception is function of how flat the land is, how tall your tower is, and what's in between you and the tower. If a broadcaster pumped enough juice into a big enough tower, I see no reason why you can't get reception from over a hundred miles or more. - DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9BigGeek, You are right when the signal is not overcompressed but most cable and dish companies compress too much and it's definitely noticeable. Supposedly, the dish based networks use higher compression ratios than cable.
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Ugh, I can't stand it when people use the term "HD Antenna", as if you need to buy a special antenna if you want to receive HD. An antenna is an antenna, you can use just about anything to get HD over the air, if the signals are strong enough.
- ryansebiz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Free OTA HDTV > Cable
- Enviable27, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Very true if you only watch local channels
- eatrains, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Enviable, for the love of God, use the reply button.
- venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You're confused Enviable. Just because the signal is over the air doesn't make it analog. ATSC is digital.
- psylence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6[reply]
- pegisys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5most of the time anyway, unless the TV stations decides to compress the hell out of the HD broadcast so that they can have 2 24 hour weather sub channels
- Boofster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This is true. I've ditched cable a long time ago and use a small antenna to get perfect HD on my plasma.
Why pay $100/month for just a few extra channels and worse quality? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9The HDTV thats OTA is better quality than what you pay for usually because it's uncompressed
- JohntB, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Until the government subsidy for ATSC tuners (paid for by selling the bandwidth freed up) comes in.
- Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Eighty-year-old technology is being redesigned and rejiggered to deliver the best picture quality,"
Speaking of 80-year old technology... It's kind of ironic that all of these new TV technologies still cannot beat the picture quality of a good CRT. A note to the misinformed: not all CRT is 480i. There are plenty of good CRT-HDTVs that beat the pants off their Plasma and LCD cousins. They only thing that's really holding them back is they max out at about 30". - aywwts4, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6There is going to be a coupon program where each home can request two $40 coupons to purchase a digital to analog converter, So our old TVs can still access the airwaves. This program starts sometime in 2008.
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I didn't miss it. They will still be providing a digital signal, which a cable company can easily downconvert to analog. My local CW station is available on the digital subchannel of my Fox station, and all the local cable companies downconvert it into analog.
Plus all the basic cable channels can remain in analog as they are now regardless, since they aren't over the air at all. - Enviable27, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@frozo
Hd signals are not analog you obviously dont know what ur talking about do u even have an HDTV?? I didnt think so - TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You are following FCC regulations. FCC regulations do not require you to go all digital at any point so far. All they require is for you to continue to provide local signals to your customers. It is up to your company whether or not they supply everyone with a box or downconvert the digital signal into analog.
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Fair enough. I'm just clarifying that the FCC is not requiring cable systems to do so, just that many are choosing to for the reasons you stated (more efficient use of bandwidth).
- Disodium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4exactly, and i'm addicted to Discovery HD Theater :( So i pay out the butt for it and TNT, Universal HD etc
- po43292, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The other thing holding back CRT HDTVs is the owners who refuse to calibrate them.
"Dude, it's HD, the picture's perfect!" *while squinting eyes due to contrast setting maxed out* - benjaminw, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4All you need is a paper clip. I have 2 hdtvs with tuners and that's all you need. Just unfold it and stick it in the ant coax on the back of the tv.
- drgruney, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@psylemon
I get OTA HD with an antenna off a TV from the 70s. Get a frack'n clue. - nurall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ive been thinking about ditching satellite for awhile now as it looks like crap compared to the local hd channels, plus i started watching the locals just because they look great.
- DonCarcharo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I recently purchased a 10 year old home and one of the many artifacts left behind was a huge UHF antenna. It was mounted atop a pole and secured to the rear of the house. Truth be told the thing was an eyesore so when doing some recent renovations I got it in my head to tear the thing down.
Thankfully laziness got the better of me and I never bothered to remove it. I say thankfully because after HBO decided to cancel Rome I decided to cancel DirecTV. This left me needing something to help with my TV reception. Considering I already had the big freaking antenna, I simply rewired all the DirecTV cabeling to it and suddenly I was in free OTA HD glory. I wasn't even aware ATSC was in my area nor that my old antenna could adequately pull the signal.
There's so little information on ATSC. Someone needs to evangelize this stuff. - Anonymous99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3good job for digging the original guy down for asking a perfectly legitimate question...
- uncleboogie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If you have any type of cable service and your cable company carries local HD channels you can receive those channels using your standard cable line. Just hook your cable line to the ATSC jack on your HDTV and scan for digital channels. Use a splitter if you have a cable box.
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Everything there backs up what I said. Nowhere on that page does it say anything about requiring a cable analog shutoff. Nowhere.
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3On DirecTV, the PVRs will tune and record OTA (over the air) digital broadcasts.
The HR10-250 (HDTiVo) which was released 3 years ago does this, and the brand new HR20 (non-TiVo) also does it. The HR20 can also receive HD locals over satellite (the HR10-250 cannot, it can only receive SD locals over satellite).
DirecTV also sends the channel listings for your OTA channels to your PVR so that you can record shows by name and not just by channel/time.
I've been recording HD OTA on my HDTiVo for 3 years. I had an HDTV before that but didn't bother getting an HD tuner for it, as I have no interest in TV that I can't PVR. - TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Good thing I know FCC regs, which say nothing about needing a digital box for cable. As long as local channels are available to subscribers (be it digitally through a box OR downconverted into analog), then it's all good.
- Enviable27, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4the only difference is how powerfull the antenna is if ur local station is within 10 miles then it really doesnt matter what kind of antenna u get but like me its more than 40 miles so your average $5 antenna wouldnt work for me
- drgruney, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As someone above posted, ATSC is the best kept tech secret, but HD antennas are the biggest tech racket right now. People fail to realize that the stations are still broadcasting at the same frequencies... just managing the bandwidth. Someone above complained that the FCC just wants to sell the reallocated bandwidth. Not the case... an digital SD and a digital HD signal both take the same bandwidth as an analog SD broadcast. Although... the FCC is moving channels way at the top of the UHF band so that they can clear up that space that is practically useless for broadcast television.
/rant off - TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Assuming your tuner supports QAM, that is.
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Are you talking to me?
First of all, stating you work at tech support tells me that you work at Cox and can tell me what Cox is doing. It does not tell me that you have knowledge of the FCC regulations and what other cable companies are doing.
I actually work for a computer repair shop, but that doesn't matter. I'm well-known at AVS Forum and other websites for my extensive knowledge of technology and television issues. I have several friends in the industry both at TV stations and cable companies, plus I read the FCC regulations extensively and keep up with the press on it. I run a website dedicated to digital TV (not cable, mind you, as I don't really care about cable since I don't have it) and have received communication regarding it from a number of TV stations in the US. - corsairstw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2We use an outdoor antenna for our Sceptre 37" HDTV and it is awesome. We get all the local stations in HD as well as some ones that aren't even on analog TV (whether or not you want to watch them is another question).
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3But it's not required and not every company is doing it. Just because the company can and it would save them bandwidth, doesn't mean they're being forced to.
- cgruber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@KaserPro: The actual reality from someone who actually deals with RF tranmission is that spectrum space is a premium and limited.
The OTA broadcast is compressed as well. Get a clue or get your head out of your ass. -
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