Popularizing OTA DTV In Canada

[roger1818]

But there's nothing in it for CTV/bellglobemedia by drawing potential satellite customers towards OTA.

The unfortunate reality is most broadcast stations don't think there is any financial benifit for having HD programming (or at least that is what they are saying to the CRTC). Unless they start to see a real loss of viewers to other stations that are providing HD programming, this probably won't change any time soon.

[99gecko]

How's this for a reason...
Usually if I'm watching the 6:00 PM News it is my kitchen via BEV, and usually it's CBC or CTV. Tonight, I happened to be in the basement with the HDTV, and purposely chose CITY news because it was in HD. So tonight, at least, I was exposed to CITY TV's advertising. BTW I think the news is awesome in HD.

[ASA]

using any of your gear for anything other than actually windsurfing is considered an abomination by the wind gods. This is an offence punishable by a full season of sucker wind

lol


A little bit of info on what happened yesterday at The Source (Rad Shack). They had a plasma on display that had a built in HD tuner. I asked the sales guys there if they knew anythging about HD channels, and they all had the same answer... Rogers. I just looked at them and told them that was not 100% true. I asked them what they would say if I told them that they can recive HD channels for free over the air with a regular UHF/VHF antenna? At that point the store owner entered the discussion. He basically looked at me as if I was smoking something. He then went on to say something along the lines of "listen, we don't deal with illeagl decoder boxes". I just laughed and shook my head at him. He then wanted me to prove it. I asked him to get that antenna that everyone keeps mentioning about on here, and asked him to get the remote for the TV. I hooked up the antenna to the the back of the tv, and then he said, "you are going to get HD channels with that?". I said yep, but I told him that it might be hard beacuse of all the metal in the roof and walls. I then went into the TV's menu and proceeded to scan for channels. At first I got worried because it was scanning for analog ones, but then 1/2 way through it switched over to scanning for digital ones. Well it found only one HD/DT channel...

CBC 5.1

I was hoping for more, but I didn't expect it to find too many considering the roof and walls in the building (and the antenna was also facing north during the scan, opps... so I guess there might of been one or two more that could of been found if it was at least pointing south. )

He then got all interested in how I was able to get that channel without Rogers. After explaing to him the basics (and showing him and his sales guys this website), he said he was going to go get the big ole UHF mesh antenna they had gathering dust in the back warehouse. He said he was going to try and scan for some more channels after the store closed.

My job was done there. lol


The price of the plasma tv.......................................................... .. $2400
The coax cable....................................................... .................... $5
The Rad Shack UHF/VHF antenna................................................... $50

The looks on everyone's faces when they saw that free HD channels pop up.... Priceless.


One more thing. I'm still surprised that CBC came in so easily even wit the antenna pointing in the wrong direction. The tuner in that plasma must also be pretty good. With only a 30% + signal, the channel came in without any drop outs. I can just imagine what I will be able to get with a real antenna up on the roof. (I can't wait for my 260 to arrive).

[stampeder]

Terrific anecdote ASA, so I've put it into this thread to give everyone a great example of how seeing is believing!

[blakew]

Thatta boy ASA! That's the kind of thing I live for! Those are priceless moments. To be more effective, I'm planning on scouting out a store where I know I could pull in a digital signal with my sharpshooter, and blow the socks off of the immenently converted. LOL

[roger1818]

ASA, Great job! Did you go back to get an update to see if they tried the other antenna?

[ASA]

I'll probably drop by there tonight to see what they were able to catch. The sales guys were actually more eager than the manager. They both said they thought they had an HDTV tuner ready tv's at home. One problem though, I took their last 15-1880 (?). lol One of them said he was going to leave work early just so he could go by another RS to pick that antenna up.

Remember that shampoo commercial....

You telll two friends, and then they tell two freinds... and so on, and so on, and so on...

(I just hope this board doesn't crash with all these new converts). lol

On another positive note.... I got my Sammy 260 yesterday. Plugged in the RS antenna and I eventually found 5 channels. Read up on it in the Brampton thread a bit later on. : )

(time to loook for an afordable 4228 now)

[kneedfreetv]

ASA, which Source did you go to? Good job. Sometimes I go there and I think to myself, what the heck am I doing here? I ask them (Bovaird and Hwy. 10) one time if they can special order an OTA HD receiver from their US store and they pointed me to a Rogers and Bell. They didn't even know that there is such a thing.

[ASA]

I think it was the Queen location. (there's one at B & 10? Where? Trinity plaza?) ?

[kneedfreetv]

Wal-mart Plaza at Bovaird.

[blakew]

I biked to Jerico Park for the Earth Day celebration, and I ended up talking to a staff member of Global. I asked him about when Global will broadcast in HD over-the-air. He seemed to think it wouldn't be long, but wasn't sure. He said their station has gone digital, but not yet HD. He went to ask his co-worker when they'd go live in HD over-the-air, and I kid you not, his partner first laughed, then said with contempt "sometime in 2009". This shocked the guy I was talking to, who thought Global was being proactive.

After CTV reporter Sindjin Alexander finished interviewing Green Party MP Adriane Carr, I spoke with Sindjin about CTV's studio going HD. He didn't know too much about the details, but the cameraman chimed in and said they're waiting for a new Sony HD camera to come out before going HD in studio. He also said that it'd require some 25-30 HD cameras (studio and field cameras). I digress, I told him how I get CTV HD over-the-air. He was impressed, and didn't know one could get HD over-the-air with an antenna. He told me he has a LG HDTV (bought this past december) and is going to try to see what he can get from his Collingwood home.

So folks, if we can make a convert out of an on-air personality, you never know, you might just find a piece on digital OTA on Olsen on your side

[ASA]

I'm telling you guys, someone should go down to Speaker's Corner in Toronto and give the world some info. (CityTV would probbaly air it since they arealdy have OTA HD. It would be to thier benifit if they did)

Or... call the station and see if they would be willing to do a interview/spot about the growing HDTV market (and then slip in the fact that OTA HD exists).

[krabbit]

Since I have recently been in the market for an HDTV I found it interesting that the Sony Store openly advertised the use of the ATSC tuner built into their TVs.

The salesmen at the store emphasized how OTA HD signals are available in my area (Mississauga) and advised me not to purchase an HDTV without a built-in tuner.

Unfortunately for him I did end up buying my TV from Futureshop but the difference between the two stores (FS and Sony) is clearly the kickback from the cable providers.

[roger1818]

I just updated the CBC HD section on Wikipedia to include information on how you can receive it OTA (it only mentioned satellite and cable before that). I am surprised how little information there is on OTA in Wikipedia (they seem to refer to it as Digital Terrestrial Television). I will try to do more updates and encourage others to do the same.

[blakew]

okay, it's a DVD recorder w/an ATSC tuner, but it's a step in the right direction.