The TV antenna is making a comeback • Hacker News Board

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#11

Post by joezydeco » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #4

My understanding is that OTA HDTV is actaully uncompressed, which means you get the best HDTV picture quality when receiving over the air. Cable, uVerse, DirecTV etc all compress their HDTV signals resulting in far more artifacts and pixelization. It is far more noticable when you have a 120 inch projector displaying a football game with lots of moving images etc.

OTA uses the 8VSB modulation standard, which provides about 19 mbit/sec of payload.

If your station is not broadcasting any subchannels it's a VERY nice signal. (It's still compressed with MPEG-2, the raw bitrate of a 1080p video is over 1Gbit/sec)

Unfortunately most channels in my market are sending 3-4 subchannels which knocks down the quality of the primary. AFAIK only Fox broadcasts a single stream (and football looks pretty freaking great there).

Yes, the cable and dish operators recompress the MPEG-2 stream into whatever they are broadcasting and they do it at a lower quality to cram more channels into their pipe.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#12

Post by joezydeco » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:15 PM UTC

edward wrote: post #6

In 2010 when I lived in the San Francisco I ordered my broadband from Comcast, but I didn't pay for the TV package. I added a splitter to the Comcast coax cable, then plugged one wire into the cable modem and the other into the back of my TV. Network TV channels for no extra cost.

In 2012 there was an FCC vote to allow cable operators to encrypt the local channels as well. Your clear QAM signals are pretty much gone now, especially after the analog channels were allowed to go dark.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#13

Post by ThinkingGuy » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:17 PM UTC

I just recently installed an antenna in our attic after we cancelled our cable TV, and I've been very pleased with the results. Here in the Atlanta area, we're getting almost 60 TV channels, plus about 10 audio-only simulcase of several local radio stations. There's even a channel that displays a program guide, like the ones you find on the cable or satellite services.

People's lack of awareness of over-the-air television has been surprising to me. We had houseguests last week, a retired couple in their 60's. This is in the age range that I would expect to be familiar with broadcast TV, having grown up with it as the predominant, "default" option. And yet, I was still asked, "so you don't get CNN?"

[Edit: text formatting]

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#14

Post by AdmiralAsshat » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

Cordcutter here as well. My experience with HD antennae hasn't been great, although it seems to be more due to my basement location than anything else. I still get enough channels to keep it, but they periodically cut in and out, which is a bit annoying.

I've spent a good bit of time experimenting with Kodi add-ons and Chromecast-compatible apps. Those have worked pretty well for supplementing my substantial amount of local media.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#15

Post by baldfat » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

gbarnes wrote: post #9

edward wrote: post #6

In 2010 when I lived in the San Francisco I ordered my broadband from Comcast, but I didn't pay for the TV package. I added a splitter to the Comcast coax cable, then plugged one wire into the cable modem and the other into the back of my TV. Network TV channels for no extra cost.

I cut the cord 6 years ago, and just found out last month that this was an option. TWC literally has an option to add network channels to an internet only package for $10/mo. I wonder how many people they're ripping off with that.

I pay LESS than $10 for all the basic cable channels on Fios (I HATE Verizon and DON'T recommend them due to dishonesty in every area I ever had to deal with them (Hidden also means dishonest, but I delt with absolute lies)) same thing with my other carrier. For $4 more I even get ESPN.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#16

Post by wil421 » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

kome wrote: post #10

I am always stunned of how USA are both forerunners of new technologies, and very backward as well... for credit cards with chip, digital television, gsm diffusion, etc etc... Also, in most of United States you can not get an european level ADSL.

I dont think ADSL can compare to what you can get in most metro areas in the US. I have basic internet and get 18mbps but most of the time its more than 20. Google fiber will be coming to my area soon so I can expect this to go way up even if I dont switch.

As far as CC chips almost all of my cards have a chip in them with the exception of a credit union debit card. Larger retailers that had security breaches are now using this tech such as Home Depot and Target. It will take a very long time to get smaller retailers or even gas pumps to update their card swipers.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#17

Post by greg5green » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

edward wrote: post #6

In 2010 when I lived in the San Francisco I ordered my broadband from Comcast, but I didn't pay for the TV package. I added a splitter to the Comcast coax cable, then plugged one wire into the cable modem and the other into the back of my TV. Network TV channels for no extra cost.

This was technically stealing.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#18

Post by douche » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

kome wrote: post #10

I am always stunned of how USA are both forerunners of new technologies, and very backward as well... for credit cards with chip, digital television, gsm diffusion, etc etc... Also, in most of United States you can not get an european level ADSL.

The US is very, very big, and very, very empty compared to Europe. Outside of the I-95 corridor on the East Coast, some islands of density in the midwest, and the coastal zone of California, Oregon, Washington, it's overwhelmingly rural or uninhabited.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#19

Post by ghaff » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

ThinkingGuy wrote: post #13

I just recently installed an antenna in our attic after we cancelled our cable TV, and I've been very pleased with the results. Here in the Atlanta area, we're getting almost 60 TV channels, plus about 10 audio-only simulcase of several local radio stations. There's even a channel that displays a program guide, like the ones you find on the cable or satellite services. People's lack of awareness of over-the-air telev…

I suspect that, for many people, getting cable (or satellite) has just become sort of the default. Of course, many do watch sports which often (though not always) run on non-network channels.

Also, not everyone is able to get TV OTA or is in a position to install an attic/rooftop antenna. I personally can't get anything OTA. I regularly toy with cutting back to a very basic bundle but haven't seriously pursued yet.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#20

Post by maresca » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

I didn't have cable tv in college back in 2005. We used rabbit ears. I went without cable tv for 8 or 9 years and subscribed a year or two ago. I look back and I'm glad at the money I saved. I was blown away when HD antenna was introduced. The antenna is really underrated nowadays. I'd love to see it make a comeback.