Pros and Cons of Going OTA

[tricky]

Got to aggree about the possible unreliability.
I have more remotes on the coffee table than radio shack...oops.. the source has on their shelves, at least it seems like
Last night I was watching WNED-HD about 10:15pm and for some reason it disappeared.....weather....station...? I don't know, but I swung the antenna to erie and finished the program there.
This morning the WNED signal was coming in at 100% on my tuner
But was I impressed by the quality, oh my, I thought it was fantasic.
I guess you can compare it to when I was starting out my computering with an Apple II and IIplus
But even on the satellite we get lots of weather related outages.

[987654321]

Originally Posted by Tom.F.1

I didn't expect to have to play engineer to run my new tv set.

You live in an area of low powered ATSC transmitters. If you lived in the Windsor/Detroit area - where the full powered million watters are transmitting; you would certainly have a different viewing experience.

[Yaamon]

Tom I agree dont know if you saw this link but displays where the stations are located and how far.

Shows the station power etc.

The problem it look like is that you have to point west to cn tower and buffalo is south so the gain of the antenna is not so good for both if you are pointing the antenna in between.

Hmmm as you posted wonder if you can install say a smaller antenna like the DB 2 or DB 4 for cn tower and cm4228 for Buffalo.

http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/index.html

[stampeder]

I've merged a thread about one person's OTA experiences into this one about the Pros and Cons of Going OTA since it has some valuable object lessons for us. At this point lets please return this thread back to points of argument rather than anecdotal posts.

cheers,
stampeder

[Crispy]

Well,

After fine tuning my Square Shooter I ask myself why I pay $70 a month for satellite.

Comparing analog channels to some SD channels I find my antenna versions to be superior by far. I also find it annoying that I get perfect 5.1 OTA when the same identical channel on satellite is not giving me the same.

I will see what the MCE 2005 update in August or fall brings to the table as far as new features. I hear alot of grumbling about a lack of PSIP data so a dedicated STB may still be the way to go.

Crispy

[azmodien]

I just got my DCT6412 up and running on Shaw cable and I am really impressed with the quality. The picture looks great on my Toshiba 26HF84 and the PVR works awesome.

I have heard that OTA signals are a big improvement over sat and cable signals because of they are uncompressed. I am just wondering how big the difference would be in picture quality compared to Shaw. On my relatively small TV (26"), do you think it would be worth the hassle of hooking up an antenna?

The pros of switching over would be the PQ increase and the channel selection. I would get channels that I cant get with Shaw like FOX, UPN, the WB, CBC, CTV etc.

The negative side is that my 6412 will not be compatible and I will have to buy a new PVR/tuner.

Right now I am satisfied with the signal quality I am recieving (Smart Travels blows me away) but I cant help thinking that I am missing out on something better.

[Twilight Cowboy]

If you are wanting OTA, you bought the wrong product. You should have waited for the Expressvu 9200 to be launched.

[57]

Several comments.

1. HD cable channels are not always compressed. It depends on the service provider. For example, with Rogers all the channels from 501-531 are uncompressed, meaning that the OTA signal (up to 19.4 Mbps) is "passed". I'm not sure if Shaw compresses their HD or not.

2. Please put your location in your profile, it'll help us comment.

3. Are you close enough to those stations to receive them?

4. Some of the HD stations on Cable are not available OTA.

5. On a 26" TV, I doubt you'd notice a difference.

[stampeder]

azmodien, I thought I recognized your name so I found this OTA post of yours from the past:

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/for...0&postcount=12

in this thread:

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/for...ad.php?t=23569

My question is: why not have both Shaw and OTA?

[azmodien]

Originally Posted by stampeder

My question is: why not have both Shaw and OTA?

Because its a pain to set up an antenna if I wouldnt really benefit from one. Plus I need to buy a new tuner.

My location is Abbotsford, B.C.

Thanks.

[Wayne]

No offense intended, but if you're not within range of US HD stations then is it worth it to buy an HD OTA receiver? I guess if it comes built in to your TV then that is no skin off your back, but otherwise why spend the money - you will likely be getting your HD form cable/sat?

I know I live in Toronto and we have an HD station but the fact that it is a Toronto station is irrelevant to me. All I care about is getting CBC network content in HD through my cable/sat provider.

Once HNIC starts up then this may change, but it is unlikley that there will be more than one HNIC game per night in HD for the forseeable future. And we all know which team will be in HD most of the time. ;-)

[Tom.F.1]

Wayne, you say you live in toronto, so you should be able to get all the US Network feeds from buffalo.
It's a better signal, better picture off-air, and you get the US feeds without all the mistakes switching to Canadian commercials.

[57]

Rogers doesn't do simsubs on the HD channels (Yet).

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by Tom.F.1

Wayne, you say you live in toronto, so you should be able to get all the US Network feeds from buffalo.
It's a better signal, better picture off-air, and you get the US feeds without all the mistakes switching to Canadian commercials.

Yes, but my response was about CBC-HD possibly beginning to broadcast in Winnipeg - since you would only be able to get Canadian channels then is it worth buying an OTA receiver if you live in Winnipeg?

I know I could go OTA but why would I when I can get Rogers HD? If I went OTA then I would lose the west coast networks (not a big deal except for football season) plus TSN-HD, RSN-HD and TMN-HD. I spent several thousand $$$ for an HDTV and home theater setup, why should I cheap out over content?

If I decided to go completely OTA then I would lose the channels mentioned above plus all of the other channels available over digital cable (I get basically all non-ethnic channels) and I am not willing to do that. My wife would miss her movie channels and my daughter wouldn't be happy without Treehouse. I couldn't live without my sports channels.

As far as simsubbing mistakes - we have yet to see much simsubbing on HD channels. And, other than the Superbowl, I prefer Canadian commercials - I grew up watching news briefs with Irv Weinstein and 3 alarm blazes in Cheektowaga and I don't need to see that anymore.

[tricky]

It really boils down to this:
how much tv you watch.
what you want to watch.
where you live.
If like me, you don't watch sports, don't watch a lot of tv (dvd's mostly) Live in close proximaty to many US and Canadian stations. And finally only subscribed to basic TV on satellite when I had it. It seemed any time I looked at the tv it was tuned to cbc anyway so why pay bills if I can get it for free?
Now I dont have monthly satellite bills, will get the US stations when they finally pull the plug on analog and follow suit on the canadian stations if they ever get their act together and shut down analog too.
If living in a region with very sparce OTA then of course if you watch a lot of tv then satellite is the way to go.