[harsh]

I think the west coast first rollout is mostly due to fewer total subscribers - less population density - in the west versus the east.

The population density of New York City is actually substantially less than that of Los Angeles. Y2K statistics show LA at 7009 people/acre versus NYC's 5239 people/acre. That being said, the East's density is collectively greater, but it isn't everything. How television is customarily delivered is also an important consideration.

Now I want to ask my dumb question of the day. What exactly does "Locals in Local" mean? What is the "in local" part? Why not just say HD Locals?

Because HD locals with a fully-working HD receiver can come Over-The-Air. LIL is not limited to HD. NTSC (and some SD ATSC) broadcast channels are offered in local channel packages.

LIL comes from language in government regulations.

 

[harsh]

I'd agree with that. How many folks that already get LIL are going to mess around with an antenna? I know I am not....

Those who want a fighting chance at access to PBS-HD and other majors like CW and MNTV are screaming for OTA. Then there are the digital subchannels that aren't otherwise available. Those dozens of markets that have HD but remain completely unserved by HD LIL are also clamoring. Finally, in markets as large as #14 and #23 who are missing two of the bigs, OTA is imperative.

Not everyone is so one dimensional that their needs can be served by two, three or four bigs.

 

[harsh]

Here in Chicago, on an H20 (non-dvr), you can compare the two... at least on my TV, with my eyes, under normal (and even a little abnormal) viewing patterns... there is no difference.

I visited a CC today in the California Bay Area where there were showing HD LIL from an H20 in the big screen room. Of course they were using a component DA.

The LIL were marginally better than the corresponding HD offerings from Comcast. They were decidedly diminished from the OTA version (also fed through a component DA). High contrast static material showed signs of edge artifacting (this may be related to using component). These were the better 50"+ microdisplay TVs from Samsung, Panasonic and Sony. Interestingly, a low resolution (generation 2?) DLP projector produced an image that had less noticeably artifacting.

The Fox content (720p) was, strangely, the most affected.