| reply to Boredness
Re: Paying to watch commercials... Spend a weekend mounting an antenna and you still have tv, in HD no less. 
OTA really needs to get their marketing going. Their new found ability to multicast and provide clear digital picture and sound is nothing short of revolutionary. I've been one happy camper since I hooked my antenna back up. |
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| Multicasting sucks and needs to go, ASAP. All sub channels do is take away bandwidth from the main channel resulting in poorer picture quality on HD networks. Most of these digital subchannels have nothing worth watching to begin with. I was all excited to see NBC shutting down Weather Plus, but disappointed to see that they are starting up Universal Sports Network or something like that to replace it. Subchannels suck, I bet if you saw an instance where all 4 digital subchannels were in use hogging bandwidth you recant that 'clear digital picture and sound is nothing short of revolutionary' BS line you're trying to spew.
OTA is dead and needs to go. Well actually what needs to happen is make the networks national, leave this affiliate crap in the past and let all OTA stations go independent and see how long they last. What's the point of having 210 different ABCs, NBCs, CBSs and Foxs in the country? Just have two of each made only available to cable and satellite subscribers and be done with it.
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Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain
Welcome to The SSA, The Socialist States of Amerika, Lead By Your Dictator, Hussein Obama |
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| Weather Plus is available depending on your market. |
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| NBC has officially shut down Weather Plus as of 12/1. There are a few affiliates running dumbed down computerized loops of weather info still but they should be gone on 1/1/09.
»www.tvweek.com/news/2008/10/nbc_···plus.php
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Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain
Welcome to The SSA, The Socialist States of Amerika, Lead By Your Dictator, Hussein Obama |
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| here its still planned to stay. The NBC station here does what they want. |
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| reply to Steve Mehs
Too bad you have had such a poor experience. I went from every channel having at least some snow and/or interference, some with a lot, to every station crystal clear. Every station now broadcasts HD content as well. Colors and contrast are excellent.
My local PBS station is broadcasting its analog and three digital stations. All three digital stations are crystal clear. No apparent multicasting problems here.
Many more stations. No snow and interference. Higher resolution. Better color and contrast. Better sound. I'll stick with revolutionary, because it is nothing less. |
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Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to Millenniumle
Christmas brought a 42" 1080p HD TV into our home. Hooked up the OTA antennae and marveled at the quality of the picture and sound! I am a satellite customer and I've been pondering upgrading to HD dishes, but the cost is not very enticing.
I agree, OTA broadcasters should really use this to their advantage! The competition, non-OTA providers are probably hoping that no one notices... |
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| reply to Millenniumle
Every station is NOT HD, only the main feed is HD. If you're talking about our PBS affiliate, channel 17 is WNED-TV Analog, 17.1 is WNED-DT in HD, 17.2 is WNED-DT in SD and 17.3 is PBS Think Bright and that is SD. I would cringe to see what two HD channels sharing the same space would look like, hell I wouldn't even call that HD, they'd be bit starved so bad. I'd call it pure garbage.
1 ATSC channel is 19.4 Mbps, that is adequate space for one and only one HD channel with zero subchannels. But the stupid notion that more is better has plagued OTA broadcasters and they reduce the bit rate so they can fit more subchannels into that 19.4Mb space. The PBS affiliate in Rochester, WXXI is using all four subchannels, but they send a direct uncompressed feed to Time Warner, and while I have never seen it OTA, a lot of people say that PBS HD on Time Warner blows away PBS OTA in Rochester. I have seen WXXI in HD on cable using my TVs QAM tuner and there is no comparison, WXXI HD kills WNED HD six way to Sunday. Not that it matters to me as I'd rather watch paint dry then watch PBS, but still.
WNED-DT in HD used to broadcast in 1080i, it is now 720p, I can't imagine that it's broadcasting at much over 9 or 10Mbps. Nothing like bit starving you HD content by half thanks to stupid sub channels. I am so glad channel 4 doesn't do multicasting, CBS is by far my most watched network and it looks great.
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Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain
Welcome to The SSA, The Socialist States of Amerika, Lead By Your Dictator, Hussein Obama
Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, B. Hussein Obama
Obama = Terrorist |
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