[Earl Bonovich]

There a few other threads on the topic... but..

There are still a lot of HD-OTA's that DirecTV doesn't carry, then there are the subchannels... there is more to OTA then just more "HD" content.

Also... the MPEG-4 HD versions are not "down rezed"... they maybe "compressed" more, but they are not down rezed in the same sense as "HD-Lite"

 

[Earl Bonovich]

What are sub channels? Also for someone in the Chicago area, what sub channels are available to us?

ATSC Digital broadcasts, provide the broadcaster the ability to basically broadcast more then one channel at a time.

In Chicago:

During NCAA Tourney time (At least the past years), 2-2 was activated to show an extra game... or the Analog Channel 2 would show one game, where the 2-1 (HD) would show another.

5-2 ; Is NBC Weather Plus (Basically the weather channel, but specifically for chicago)

7-2 ; Is a weather/traffic channel
7-3 ; Is additional local programming

9-2 ; IIRC is an entirely different station, that they are broadcastiong there.

11-2; 11-3; are additional PBS Feeds from WTTW

And so on...... Those are the one's I know without looking

 

[Earl Bonovich]

To clarrify...

The HR20 will ONLY be able to record a NET of 2 things at once.
When OTA is activated.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Cool. Ok, so then why wouldn't everybody use an OTA antenna instead of the D*s OTA tuner? Tks.

I think you mean, why wouldn't everyone use OTA instead of DirecTV supplied signal.

1- The recordings via OTA will take up about 30% more space (you only get ~30 hours of OTA recording, vs 50 hours of MPEG-4 or 200 hours of MPEG-2 SD)

2- Not everyone can receive an OTA signal

3- Some people simply don't want an antenna on their house. I got VERY lucky that I was able to get a quality signal with an attic mounted antenna... as I would be the only house probably in a 10 mile radius with an "antenna" on his roof.