Considering 921 for mostly OTA?

[plumbstar]

I am considering the 921 for mostly OTA recording. I live in the Los Angeles area. I am nervous to make the jump after reading this board. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Does Dish carry the local & network HD feeds.

[Mark Lamutt]

Moving to Dish DVR forum.

Dish only carries the CBS-HD feed if you are in an O&O city (which LA is). And there are a couple of stations in Los Angeles that are currently causing the 921 some problems. But, the next software version may fix that. I'd hold off until then if I were you.

[Capmeister]

Moving to Dish DVR forum.

Dish only carries the CBS-HD feed if you are in an O&O city (which LA is). And there are a couple of stations in Los Angeles that are currently causing the 921 some problems. But, the next software version may fix that. I'd hold off until then if I were you.
What problems, and how could a station cause a problem?

[SimpleSimon]

Cap: That's WAY too long a story for a single post - or even a single thread. Do some reading. :)

[Mike123abc]

What problems, and how could a station cause a problem?

Stations have lots of options when they broadcast digitally. They can choose from 18 formats and they can have multiple channels at the same time in different formats (like HD on one and STD on another). This all combines with "PSIP" or a local data stream that describes the channel to the receiver and can carry guide data. Some stations do not even transmit PSIP other transmit incorrect info.

The 921 has problems with some combinations. Sometimes it cannot tune in the channel, other times it cannot reliably record the channel, and other times it can record it but things like skipping forward/back while watching can cause the 921 to crash. Hopefully they will work out most of these problems in the next software release which is specifically stated to target OTA problems.

[plumbstar]

Didn't the FCC set up common standards when broadcasting so there wouldn't be these problems?

[StevenZ]

Didn't the FCC set up common standards when broadcasting so there wouldn't be these problems?
The FCC didn't set the ATSC standard, the Advanced Television Systems Committee did. And they set a standard that can be used in the variety of ways Mike123abc described. In part, the "standard" is a bunch of standards because the ATSC participants had multiple, different objectives, so the ATSC proposed an uber-standard that allows for all of these.

The FCC kind of said "if you've all aligned to this, we'll back it." But the standard was defined long before it could be thoroughly implemented and before all of the possible interactions could be anticipated or dealt with.

But there's enough flexibility for improvement in the standard, and opportunity for new software to reach lots of devices (like the 921) so that these growing pains can be managed. Mostly.

[Foxbat]

Way-Off-Subject: Gee, StevenZ, I didn't know Humpty Dumpty was Canadian...

"The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to chose from..."

[StevenZ]

Way-Off-Subject: Gee, StevenZ, I didn't know Humpty Dumpty was Canadian...
Neither did I.

FYI #1, I'm from Central MAssachusetts.
FYI #2, my avatar is Weebl: http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm

[Skates]

If you decide to go the 921 route, these will be your two biggest problems IMO:

1 - You can't record or use any PVR functions on KCET 28, but at least you can watch it.

2 - The unit detects KCOP 13 but won't show it - all you get is a blank screen. So, if you're a huge Dodger fan, you're gonna miss some baseball.

Both of these bugs have been reported ad nauseum to E*.

There are other L.A. users who can add to this on a few other minor issues, but I would say generally that the unit works very well for OTA reception and recording in L.A.

[jerry downing]

What problems, and how could a station cause a problem?
Standards or the lack there of.