Do you guys forsee OTA as dead

[chefwong]

so days like this where I'm searching for 771....with no AM21...

I am thinking about installing a anteanna on the roof for OTA when I get snowed/rained out.

Whaddya guys think. Is ota dead at some point in time .....
I recall reading such a blurb on another thread

[davring]

I have always had, and use as needed, OTA. I don't think broadcast TV is going anywhere soon.

[ffemtreed]

I hope not. There are a lot of people who still rely on OTA.

RV'ers are a big time user of OTA.

[longrider]

There has been a discussion of shutting down OTA and using the bandwidth for wireless broadband. I really dont think it will happen as too many people do use OTA

[gfrang]

It is well worth it not only for bad weather outages but for sub channels.You wont be sorry but gut a good quality antenna and it will last 20 years or more.

I really don't think ota will ever die there is too many people that rely on it and needed in emergencies.

[carl6]

OTA is far from dead. Your investment in an AM21 and antenna will outlive any investment you make in receivers or DVRs.

[Nicholsen]

You can get a used HR10-250 for $75 on craislist or ebay, and add it to your account for $6 a month. It works great as an HD OTA DVR (2 tuners!), and you get 2 tuners for SD when not using the OTA, plus another 20+ hours of storage in HD (200 in SD!).

It gets all the locals and is probably faster than the AM21.

There is still a lot of life in OTA.

[boba]

You can get a used HR10-250 for $75 on craislist or ebay, and add it to your account for $6 a month. It works great as an HD OTA DVR (2 tuners!), and you get 2 tuners for SD when not using the OTA, plus another 20+ hours of storage in HD (200 in SD!).

It gets all the locals and is probably faster than the AM21.

There is still a lot of life in OTA.I'll second that suggestion OTA has a long future life and in my market has a lot to be watched on sub channels with more still possible.:)

[PCampbell]

Its the only thing to work for sure in a storm, cable can and dose go out in a storm and sometimes can take days to come back up.

[David MacLeod]

use ota often here, well worth investment in good antenna.

[Nick]

Perhaps best of all, OTA is FREE! Always has been, always will b... Hmmm :scratch:

[Garyunc]

Actually not only is OTA not dead, it is better than ever now that most OTA signals are digital. I never used OTA prior to digital. And sub channels rock. I will be watching all of the NCAA tournament 1st and 2nd rd games free on WRAL-TV's sub channels in the Raleigh-Durham market.

[miketorse]

Actually not only is OTA not dead, it is better than ever now that most OTA signals are digital. I never used OTA prior to digital. And sub channels rock. I will be watching all of the NCAA tournament 1st and 2nd rd games free on WRAL-TV's sub channels in the Raleigh-Durham market.

Not all. Only two games at a time. HD on the HD 5.1 feed and SD on 5.2. There isn't enough OTA bandwidth for them to show all 4 possible games at one time OTA. That's reserved exclusively for Time Warner customers in this area.

[bidger]

And sub channels rock.

I've yet to find that to be the case. Main channel when it's in HD, fine. SD on sub-channels, useless as far as I'm concerned. Just because there's more of something doesn't mean it's better.

[Garyunc]

Not all. Only two games at a time. HD on the HD 5.1 feed and SD on 5.2. There isn't enough OTA bandwidth for them to show all 4 possible games at one time OTA. That's reserved exclusively for Time Warner customers in this area.

I watched ALL of the games OTA last year. WRAL has 4 channels and they use them all during the tournament.

[Jeremy W]

Is ota dead at some point in time
Yep. 10-20 years.

[Garyunc]

I've yet to find that to be the case. Main channel when it's in HD, fine. SD on sub-channels, useless as far as I'm concerned. Just because there's more of something doesn't mean it's better.

I guess it does depend on the local stations.

Here the NBC station sub channel shows some Universal programming and the CBS affiliate will show the national game sometimes on the sub channels if they are showing a local game on the main channel. And they show NCAA tournament games on the sub channels here (see my post above). Plus Durham Bulls baseball is shown on another sub channel in the area. I find them very useful here but as always YMMV.

PS Time Warner sucks...

[bakers12]

Here in Chicagoland, OTA is live and kicking. We don't have enough bandwidth for all the channels that broadcasters - and potential broadcasters - want.

[Avder]

Subchannels are a good thing to have for basic public service stations. My area ABC affiliate has a subchannel with the video quality turned way down dedicated to weather in my area. Other subchannels are okay. SD is bleh, but reruns of married with children still have a place in society. As long as the inclusion of subchannels doesnt make the main HDTV channel look like crap, its all good.

[David MacLeod]

my fox (HD) is a sub of local abd carrier.
abc is 720 and fox is 720.

[hasan]

Without a massive change in infra-structure, and a dramatic drop in costs, OTA has no competitor for those who currently use it. (which is no small number). In a small Wal-Mart in Boone, Iowa (another small community), they sold over 3000 digital converter boxes for the digital switch. This doesn't even count the number of people using HDTVs with built in tuners, but I will say that a lot more digital boxes were sold (with a unique OTA use), than HDTVs (which are used for satellite, cable, dvd and OTA combined, during the same switch-over period. (at least in this area)

Follow the money (inversely, in this case), and you can only conclude that OTA is going to be here for a very long time. Put that together with the fact that the OTA signal (where it can be received) is unrivaled in quality. MPEG-4 can approach it, when not bit-starved, but the difference is still apparent to the discerning eye, especially during sporting events.

As far as projecting 10 to 20 years in the area of consumer technology, I wouldn't even venture a guess. Virtually everyone who has done so in the past has been wrong....very wrong. (and usually underestimating the impact). In this case, however, we have a contracted economy with a highly questionable recovery in sight.

Viewer choice is getting really expensive in relative terms. (the impact of disposable income on recurrent non-essential purchases). Suffice it to say, for most of us, OTA is here to stay, alive and well with all its advantages.

[rbpeirce]

Its the only thing to work for sure in a storm, cable can and dose go out in a storm and sometimes can take days to come back up.

I had a problem with that on my HD DVR. It couldn't download the guide data and eventually it rebooted. At that point I could still watch recordings but I couldn't get OTA.

[Stuart Sweet]

Dead... no. Relevant... also no in many cases. The percentage of folks who rely on OTA seems to keep shrinking, and it's also hard to pin down because what you're really saying is how many people don't have cable, fiber, or satellite. Of the remaining people, we don't know what percent just don't watch TV.

[trainman]

Perhaps best of all, OTA is FREE! Always has been, always will b...

Not 100% "always" -- there have been pay over-the-air channels in the past, such as On TV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ON_TV) and SelecTV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SelecTV_%28US_TV_channel%29).

[mx6bfast]

Use it all local channels instead of the D* channels. Better quality, can watch it during storms, even though it does take up more space on the dvr. It might be dead a long time from now, but not anytime soon.

[jdspencer]

my fox (HD) is a sub of local abd carrier.
abc is 1080 and fox is 720.I thought that all ABC stations broadcast in 720p?!?!?
Anyway, our local ABC affiliate (WIVT) just added our NBC low power (WBGH) as a subchannel. Both are 720p. The PQ looks quite good.

[mx6bfast]

I thought that all ABC stations broadcast in 720p?!?!?
Anyway, our local ABC affiliate (WIVT) just added our NBC low power (WBGH) as a subchannel. Both are 720p. The PQ looks quite good.
They are, but I have read over the years a few ABC stations side convert to 1080i. I'm guessing his is one of them.

[David MacLeod]

I thought that all ABC stations broadcast in 720p?!?!?
Anyway, our local ABC affiliate (WIVT) just added our NBC low power (WBGH) as a subchannel. Both are 720p. The PQ looks quite good.

yeah I got my cbs and abc mixed up there, will correct it.
iirc this 720 is only reason they (here) were able t carry the sub at 720 also.

[n3ntj]

Whaddya guys think. Is ota dead at some point in time .....

One word answer. "No."

[Jeremy W]

One word answer. "No."
So there will always be OTA TV? That's kind of a ridiculous thing to say.

[GregLee]

One word answer. "No."
The correct answer is "Yes." Dead. For me, personally, because I can get nothing OTA. More generally, because there are around 10 times as many channels available by cable or satellite as OTA.

[islesfan]

Dead? No, but on life support. I've lived in four places in the past two decades. First, on eastern Long Island, where on a good day, with a really good antenna, we could get one or two channels from Connecticut. Then I lived in Boston, where my apartment was on the side facing away from downtown, so no TV signals. After that, NYC, where I had a much larger building right next to me. As a result, I could get channel 8 from New Haven only. Finally, I moved to Nevada, where I get nothing, as I am 60 miles from Reno.

I'm sure OTA works for some, but I've never been able to make use of it, and I can't be that unique.

[mx6bfast]

Dead? No, but on life support.
How can OTA be on life support when there was so much hoopla around the big switch? If it was that far gone why would they take years to plan for it only to push it back even further?

:confused:

[leww37334]

Given all the money the government shoveled into the transition, that in itself is a good sign it's obsolete. :lol::lol::lol:

[CorpITGuy]

Given all the money the government shoveled into the transition, that in itself is a good sign it's obsolete. :lol::lol::lol:

Ain't that the truth! :)

I don't see it going anywhere for right now, as it is used for life-safety on so many levels. The government will subsidize it.

On the other hand, I expect the networks to start going elsewhere, which means there won't be any GOOD content on them before long. That's just one observer's opinion...

[cartrivision]

Yep. 10-20 years.

No way in that time frame. Look at the hard time that they had with all of the delays and missed milestones when they all they wanted to do was to shut down the analog portion of OTA TV while still providing the same free OTA programming in digital format.

That task was nothing compared to completely shutting down OTA TV, and it took them more than 20 years to do it. Some of the early planning by the FCC for the analog to digital stitch-over started taking place in the late 80's, and 13 years ago (in early 1997), the FCC's initial timetable declared Dec. 31, 2006 as the final day for analog TV broadcasts.

[newsposter]

so days like this where I'm searching for 771....with no AM21...

I am thinking about installing a anteanna on the roof for OTA when I get snowed/rained out.

Whaddya guys think. Is ota dead at some point in time .....
I recall reading such a blurb on another thread

my experience is a year old but when i lost signal back then the hr20 locked me out and wouldnt even let me watch my recorded shows. If this has changed, great. If it hasnt, then OTA is 'useless' with these directv units. Or is my understanding incorrect?

I do love that i still have my HDtivo and that picked up the OTA even in the blizzard with 26 inches. :)

I think ota will be around a very long time. With stations boosting power and changing frequencies just recently, i doubt they would do that if they thought they wouldnt be around.

[Jeremy W]

No way in that time frame. Look at the hard time that they had with all of the delays and missed milestones when they all they wanted to do was to shut down the analog portion of OTA TV while still providing the same free OTA programming in digital format.
NTSC to ATSC cost a lot of money. ATSC to [whatever] will make a lot of money. Very different situation.

[cartrivision]

NTSC to ATSC cost a lot of money. ATSC to [whatever] will make a lot of money. Very different situation.

Not really. Ultimately, the analog shutdown happened because of the money that could be made off of it, and if you think that there aren't substantial costs, both real and "opportunity costs" involved in completely shutting down OTA, you're not looking.

[houskamp]

Shut down OTA and we all can pay for free cable for everybody..