Will D* HD locals ever rival OTA local's PQ?

[Gmaxx]

Will we ever see the day when Directv's HD or any sat/cable provider's locals will be as clean and uncompressed as OTA locals?

[newcs]

Will we ever see the day when Directv's HD or any sat/cable provider's locals will be as clean and uncompressed as OTA locals?

Well one would guess that it's the latest technology, so it should be better. Time will tell.

[Earl Bonovich]

Yes... When comparing OTA and MPEG-4 here in Chicago (via the H20)...

There is only a marginal difference.
As the MPEG-4 Codec improve, and the encoding equipment improves.

And hopefully one day, the MPEG-4 encoders have direct feeds from the un-compressed source (instead of using the already compressed once MPEG-2 feeds), you will see even more improvement.

[tzphotos.com]

And hopefully one day, the MPEG-4 encoders have direct feeds from the un-compressed source (instead of using the already compressed once MPEG-2 feeds), you will see even more improvement.

This is the exact thing I look forward to seeing. I would love to also see it happen with the National HD Channels.

[BattleScott]

Will we ever see the day when Directv's HD or any sat/cable provider's locals will be as clean and uncompressed as OTA locals?

In my humble opinion, it is not really a fair comparison. The OTA broadcasters have the luxury of only providing a single data stream through a sufficient pipe to carry it.
The sat and cable providers have to battle the demand for more 'HD Programming' and the desire for better HD Quality with limited existing bandwidth and huge price tags of adding more.
Keep an eye on FiOS. The fibre optic providers are the ones that will have the clear advantage as uncompressed, true HD quality on all channels becomes the market demand.