I found the link the the CityNews part of OTA

http://www.citynews.ca/blogs/jeelicious_19166.aspx

I thought it was funny that the CITY TV reporter talked about adjusting the rabbit ears when the rabbit ears are for VHF and all the HD signals are on UHF.

I'm glad they ran the story even if its inaccurate. The reason why I'm glad is because anyone who heard the story and didn't know this was even possable may now decide to investigate further and find out this is a great option. We know that the antenna she was using wasnt quite right, but people are not going to remember the type of antenna she tried using, just that she was using one. So cheer up everyone this is actually still good news.

kasm was just saying that it was funny. :) Anyways I agree that the exposure is good. As Oscar Wilde said, "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

As Oscar Wilde said, "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
I don't know if Britney Spears would agree with him :eek:

What amazes me is that almost an entire generation (or perhaps two) have no clue about OTA. They grew up with Cable & Satelitte subscribtion services and OTA is foriegn to them. I see people connecting indoor antennas, and have no clue that you have to change the source at the TV from Antenna(TV) from Cable.

There has go to be a way that to get this idea back into the general population. They don't have to pay for TV. Especially now with ATSC transmitions. The picture is great.

A story in todays Toronto edition of Metronews - a free commuter newspaper primarily distributed to GO and TTC riders in the GTA.

I've posted the link for the online version of the story - This story may of also appeared in other cities editions of metro, I think some of the newswire stories are common to all editions, but I dont know for sure.
Switch to digital broadcasting could surprise some TV viewers
Steve Mertl, THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER - For most Canadian TV viewers, Feb. 17, 2009, will pass like any other day.

But for those living near the U.S. border who like to snag their television signals over the air from nearby American stations, it could be the day their TVs go dark at midnight. It's the day U.S. broadcasters officially convert to digital transmission and shut down their old-fashioned analogue transmitters for good. Canadians with satellite TV or cable services won't notice the changeover. Nor will anyone owning one of the newer televisions being sold with digital tuners.http://metronews.ca/storyCP.aspx?pg=./z022007A.xml

CRTC turns down application for nation-wide HD network

The CRTC today denied HDTV Networks’ application for a licence to operate a national, English-language high-definition conventional television service.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=84105

In addition, the CRTC today denied YES TV Inc.’s application for a licence to operate an English-language high-definition conventional television service in the Greater Toronto Area. The Commission was not convinced that the applicant could fulfill its programming commitments, among other things.

I have to think that when word gets out about this Rogers Cable TV announcement many more people in the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario will hear about digital OTA:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/2426/206/

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=84134

If anyone in that part of Ontario complains about Rogers HD compression, send them to this forum! :)

You also forgot to mention that Rogers is not going to compress OTA stations with the exception of PBS Buffalo, so we will still get the full available OTA bandwidth from all the other OTA stations. Also, since PBS has 2 sub channels already, their HD Bandwidth is not the full 19 Mb/s, so Rogers may not have to compress this one very much or at all, and if they are using statistical multiplexing on the ones they do compress, you may not notice much or any degradation at all.

You also forgot to mention that...Nope, I just learned that yesterday but thanks. OTA HD picture quality is better than Rogers HD anyways. :)

It may only be me but I think there seems to be a distinct sense of passive aggression the way some of these Canadian stations and adopting digital broadcasting: weeks of test patterns instead of content, on and off broadcasting, miniscule powered transmitters, repeated requests for extensions, etc.

I think we're seeing the infancy of a similar type of myopic business plan that killed the music industry with their failure to embrace the internet. OTA digital broadcasting is here to stay because the technology is sound and for no other reason than it has been adopted by our large neighbour to the south.

Canadian broadcasters need to re-write their business plans. They're commercial broadcasters after all. The cable and satellite distribution of their signals is going to become less important over the next decade no matter how much they try to fight it. There's a growing portion of Canadian television viewers who realise that paying more than $35 per month for basic local stations is completely unreasonable especially when almost every one of those channels are commercially supported broadcasts.

[End Rant]

The cable and satellite distribution of their signals is going to become less important over the next decade no matter how much they try to fight it. There's a growing portion of Canadian television viewers who realise that paying more than $35 per month for basic local stations is completely unreasonable especially when almost every one of those channels are commercially supported broadcasts. I agree that other distribution, i.e. internet, is going to become more popular as a distribution method but I don't see Canadians moving towards using OTA as their primary method of receiving video content. More and more decent content is moving away from OTA to more proprietary methods and I don't think that trend will change. In fact, I bet that we will see more content move from "regular" cable channels like TSN to more higher end channels where you have to pay substantial fees - like Setanta at $15/month.

Just like has happened to a certain extent with telephone service I think you will see a disintermediation between the company that runs a wire to your home (Bell, Rogers, etc.) and the company that distributes the content. (I have to give myself as an example - for several years my phone service is from Vonage over Rogers Cable.) You may be able to subscribe to internet "channels" or shows directly from the originating TV studio or through a "consolidator" like Apple (via iTunes store), Netflix, Amazon, etc.

This trend away from OTA and towards cable channels has particularly been the case in sports. For several years there were no Toronto Raptors games on OTA - that changed this year when CBC started to show a few games. I believe there are nol onger any CFL games on OTA. When I was young you used to get two Leafs games a week - HNIC on Saturday plus a midweek game on another OTA channel. For many years now all midweek games are only on cable channels. You still have HNIC for a few more years but it may move to a channel like TSN in the future - it already did for French broadcasts as all Canadiens games have been on RDS for several years now.

This trend away from OTA and towards cable channels has particularly been the case in sports. For several years there were no Toronto Raptors games on OTA - that changed this year when CBC started to show a few games. I believe there are nol onger any CFL games on OTA. When I was young you used to get two Leafs games a week - HNIC on Saturday plus a midweek game on another OTA channel. For many years now all midweek games are only on cable channels. You still have HNIC for a few more years but it may move to a channel like TSN in the future - it already did for French broadcasts as all Canadiens games have been on RDS for several years now.

I still think the broadcasters (and people they serve, advertisers and sports enterprises) are going to have to re-think their business plans. They'll be foolish to put all of their eggs into only the paid content delivery basket. Are people hockey fans or CFL fans because they just are or because they had regular access to broadcasts of those sports and became indoctrinated into the sports? The market speaks for itself: if a large enough part of the population rebel against the excessive rates for receiving broadcast signals through a copper wire or encrypted satellite signals, I think they will, the smart broadcaster will start asking why he has hitched his star to something that fails to get into the homes of a large portion of his potential audience.

People can only watch so many channels of content anyways. I've only been a month and half into this OTA thing and after the initial yenning for the occasional program from one of the now gone specialty channels I seldomed watched otherwise, I'm finding more than enough content to watch during the week.

I don't believe I'm not such a unique thinker that there aren't many more people who think like myself on this subject, it's just that they don't know about the options. I didn't know these options 3 months ago after years of misleading information being fed to me.

The cable company had their shackles on me for years. Being what I think as an honest citizen, I never wanted to "steal" any content. Really all I wanted was basic cable of the broadcasted networks with good reliable pictures. But that's not what you get with basic cable. You get sports stations and specialty networks and popular music stations that you may or may not be interested in watching. And if you wanted an additional outlet, you paid an extra fee for the duplication of the same service (yes, I know I'm a sucker). But the quality of the signal wasn't always the best. So then there's a plan to allow free additional outlets plus a digital cable box that ensures a better quality of service plus timeshifting that I did without before. That's useful I guess but now the number of stations are getting ridiculous. There are stations I keep finding up in the upper reaches that I'm paying for and barely know the existence of. The rate of this service keeps going up and up. They add more channels, the occasional one interesting, most I could care less about and they further raise the rate. I research to find that getting an HDTV requires a different box for the ideal signal and extra fees per month. We're now pushing over $80 with taxes from what was only a few years ago a service under $30. I figure I could strip everything back to a basic service but then you still pay for additional outlets.

It’s really amazing when you think about it but over the years Rogers and Bell have managed to brainwash the pubic into believing that the ONLY way to receive TV is to pay them for it. Ironically Southern Ontario has always been a rich source for OTA broadcasts not only from Canada but from the USA too and now one of the best areas to be in for Digital TV however much of the local population still fails to even be aware such free signals exist.

You are correct, they have brainwashed people in believing that the only way to get TV is by subscription. But, one by one, people will realise with the new ATSC broadcasts that this is not true.

I dunno, I'm not so sure. I'm a big fan of OTA myself, I've been sans-bdu for over 4 years now, and have talked a couple other like minded people into going the same way. but then I'm frugal (to put it mildly) and I'm also technical enough to set this stuff up and get reliable reception.

Maybe OTA will grow a little as more people realize it's an option that can now deliver superb HD pictures, but I honestly dont see it becoming more than a niche thing. I certainly dont see BDUs quaking in their boots with this.

As well as knowing the signals exist, Getting reliable reception involves effort, - some investment in a decent antenna and the the know how to correctly mount it, cable it, use a rotor, etc. Us folks on DHC are typically technically inclined. - Now a lot of people dont know to set their TV to "antenna" on the UHF band, let alone the difference betwwen antennas and ATSC/NTSC and so get stuck right there.

It's so easy to call the cable company, and everything is done for you, for 50 bucks a month, or whatever it is, most people seem to accept this as one of those nominal "monthly cost of living expenses" (not me !)

Houses and apartment buildings are typically already pre-wired to encourage this convenience. Apartment buildings and condos could, technically speaking, have a decent shared antenna system on the roofs, but how many actually do ? - If you live in this kind of housing, your options may be limited, particularly if you live on a lower floor, or northern facing unit.

Several years ago, (98/99) I used to live in an older 1960s era apartment building (25 floors), which had (I assume unused) antennas still mounted on the roof, and I still had to have rogers cable, or an indoor antenna in my Northern facing apartment - which wouldnt recieve anything but CBC, and sometimes CTV. - I inquired about hooking into the shared antenna, and nobody was interested in helping me. "Call Rogers" is all they said. I see a lot of those older apt building with antennas on the roof, and wonder if people are able to hook into them.

Add to all that the marketing done by the deep pocketed BDUs and their partners in retail...

I know this is a pessimistic post, particularly from someone who loves Free TV and hates the idea of having to pay for it, I really want OTA to continue, and for the time being I think it will, but the above is refelctive of my own experiences.

I hadn't seen any promotion by any Canadian digital OTA stations that the service actually exists (other than launch press releases), until the last week - and now I've seen two!

1. On SunTV, I saw a promo spot where they promoted their digital transmitters, including their new one in London. (I missed the full spot - I just happened to tune in in the middle of it)

2. At the corner of Royal York and Dundas, there's a billboard for CTS. Along the bottom, there's a transmitter icon and beside it has "35 SD 36 HD" :cool:

I searched but didn't find this mentioned anywhere here.... WNED's (PBS Buffalo) website now has an entire webpage dedicated to helping Canadian viewers get info about receiving their digital signal, linked directly from the main page:
Attention, Canadians: Get a Head Start on Digital Conversion (http://www.wned.org/Features/DigConv_Canada/default.asp)
It even describes how to buy a receiver in Canada and how much one should expect to pay!

Nothing like this from our Canadian oligopoly's. Open market rules! :)

They neglect to mention that using an OTA tuner will allow you to get 3 PBS channels, one of which, Thinkbright, is unavailable to Canadians via cable (and likely satellite).