OTA HDTV- How does it look?

[HIPAR]

I cannot receive any over the air DTV here in the Pocono Mountains of PA. I stopped by a store in Philadelphia and asked if any of the display sets were connected to an antenna so I could see how DTV broadcasts look. The salesperson looked at me sort of funny and told me I will need cable because there is no such thing as over the air DTV. So I didn't get to see it.

The question is how does it look? Is there fine detail in the image? Are there edge artifacts? Do parts of the image spontaneously pixelize? Is the motion fluid?

--- CHAS

[KKlare]

All OTA is digital (DTV) but some channels are not HDTV. Multicasting 2 to 5 or more subchannels will degrade the individual signals, sometimes to worse than analog. Our PBS station broadcasts the PBS HD signal on a wide subchannel and the normal/local broadcast on a smaller subchannel. The quality of that local signal is about the same as the Dish uplink of the analog -- in fact, they may use the OTA DTV signal to be uplinked. They also run 4 equal subchannels on a second channel for other PBS programs.

Other stations use 720p (ABC and Fox) instead of 1080i. Some allocate so much bandwidth to US Digital aka "OTA cable" that they are no better than the analog signal. Some are great. For a good comparison in New Mexico the bandwidths are at <http://www.nmia.com/~roberts/albuquerque-hdtv.html> out of date.

So there is a lot of variation.
-Ken

[boylehome]

I have three networks that do HDTV. It looks most excellent! Even the SD is much superior as compared to the over compress signal for LIL from E*.

[Slordak]

In general, the answer is... It looks good!

When stations are just broadcasting standard definition content, it looks crisper than it does via satellite (since it has far less compression). When they're broadcasting high definition content, it looks quite good, comparable with HD channels from satellite (e.g. CBS-HD from Dish Network looks about the same as CBS-HD directly off an antenna). The image is *not* overcompressed, so the edges are quite good. Things generally don't break up and pixelize, although it depends on how steady the signal is; if the signal strength is borderline, then it can certainly do so (just as it would via satellite during a thunderstorm).

[Cholly]

I cannot receive any over the air DTV here in the Pocono Mountains of PA.

The question is how does it look? Is there fine detail in the image? Are there edge artifacts? Do parts of the image spontaneously pixelize? Is the motion fluid?

--- CHAS
In a word: awesome! With DTV, there's no ghosting or grainy picture. You either get a great picture, or none at all. However, DTV, like analog, is vulnerable to multipath. You may get pixellation, freezeup or loss of signal. If there are tall buildings or trees that interfere with the path between the transmitting antenna and your antenna, multipath becomes an issue.
Being that you are in the Pocono Mt. area, OTA digital TV reception can be iffy. I'd suggest you go to www.antennaweb.org to see if you can receive any digital stations.

[rickc]

The question is how does it look? Is there fine detail in the image? Are there edge artifacts? Do parts of the image spontaneously pixelize? Is the motion fluid?

--- CHAS

Yes, It really is that much better than SD broadcast. In my estimation, There is no comparison between SD and HDTV. Even the straight digital (non HDTV) signal is far superior to Standard NTSC broadcasts.

Here in Boise, we have 5 channels which broadcast in HDTV (mostly prime time programs) ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and PBS. Our Independent UPN broadcasts digital, but not HDTV as yet. CBS and PBS are broadcasting in 1080i, while the rest are presently in 720p. We are hoping all will soon advance to 1080i, as it is definately a more detailed picture than 720p.

If you can get OTA (over the air) HDTV stations by putting up an outside antenna I think you will be impressed. To check and see whether this is a possability for you or not, go to:

http://www.antennaweb.org

Enter your location information and they will show you what stations are available to your location OTA and what type of anntenna you will need to receive them.

rich..

[Michael P]

All but 2 of my locals have a digital OTA signal today. I have a 921 and a SD Sony 27" Trinitron. The HD PQ is awesome even downconverted to a letterboxed 480i. I can tell the difference between true HD and upconverted SD broadcasts on my SD set, however even the upconverted SD picture is superior to the satellite delivered LIL's. The SD subchannels vary from about the same as satellite quality to pixillated mush

NBC Weather Plus looks good, like a SD satellite channel (better than satellite LIL's - it's on par with any basic network on satellite). The Tube, an all music video channel carried as a subchannel on Raycom-owned stations looks like streaming video over the internet using a dial-up connection - at least it does on WUAB 43.2 in Cleveland YMMV in other markets. BTW if you get OTA ASTC signals today and one of the stations has The Tube, please let me know how bad (or good) the PQ is. Here it looks like the WUAB engineering staff is only allowing 1% of the bandwidth to the tube. There is not much true HD on the main channel WUAB 43.1 except for some UPN prime time programs. Our NBC runs Weather Plus and the full NBC HD lineup without any noticable artifacts.

[luvdtv04]

I get The Tube OTA from WTVR 6.3 in Richmond, VA and I agree with your assessment that it looks like streaming video over the internet using dial-up. Their 24-hour weather subchannel, WTVR 6.2, has better picture quality!

[Nick]

All OTA is digital (DTV)...
-KenExcept for those obsolete old OTA channels (2-69) which are still analog.

[gbranch]

The Tube on KSLA 12.2 Shreveport is almost unwatchable. Lots of artifacts, plus the audio, which seems to be mono, is often a second or more behind the video. The video quality is much worse than VH1 Classic on D* and E*.

On the plus side, they show videos that I haven't seen in years. But, still a waste of perfectly good bandwidth, IMHO.

[Bill R]

The Tube on KSLA 12.2 Shreveport is almost unwatchable. Lots of artifacts, plus the audio, which seems to be mono, is often a second or more behind the video.

Same problem here on WXIX, 19.2, Cincinnati. I spoke to a person in operations at the station and he blamed the provider of THE TUBE and also noted that a lot of the source material for the video is 20 (or more) years old.

[bumpy]

No complaints here in Tucson, AZ about The Tube on KOLD-DT 13.3. Im rather new to DTV, though, so I may be a bad example.

[JM Anthony]

In Seattle, we're lucky to have a pretty rich OTA environment and I'm with the others who say it's great, particularly when you get 5.1 audio to go along with it.