[jlab13]

What will be the main beneifits of OTA being enabled? Will we be able to do more with the HR20?

Thanks for any detail, I'm very curious to what all the perks will be.

 

[btmoore]

What will be the main beneifits of OTA being enabled? Will we be able to do more with the HR20?

Thanks for any detail, I'm very curious to what all the perks will be.

Assuming good reception, higher quality video source.
Not all OTA in your area is being provided by D* common example PBS is missing.
Sub channels are not provided by D*, broadcasters provide a second or more channel to carry something like local weather.
If you have good OTA you may not want to pay D* for locals (~$60 a year) for something you get OTA for free.

Downside

You need an antenna this could be a big or small thing depending on your situation.
MPEG2 recording from OTA will likely be larger than D* mpeg4 streams, more disk space required for MPEG2 streams.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

You wil be able to receive any digital off-the air broadcasts in your area.

DirecTV currently does not offer all the available HD networks in each local region. For example, here in Chicago... I can only get CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX and my RSN via DirecTV SAT signal in HD.

What I will also get via OTA, is the CW (WGN), WCIU, WPWR, and PBS (WTTW)...which all offer HD content.

In addition there are all the sub-channels... such as Weather Plus, 2nd channels, ect...

So basically... it means more channels.

 

[jlab13]

Will you be able to record 3 programs at a time? Using OTA as a third tuner?

 

[Earl Bonovich]

No... a total of 2 recordings at once.

 

[hjplano]

I really like the sub-channels.

 

[PoitNarf]

I really like the sub-channels.

Yes, NBC Weather Plus is a nice bonus since D* only carries the national feed of The Weather Channel.

 

[Bajanjack]

What will be the main beneifits of OTA being enabled? Will we be able to do more with the HR20?

Thanks for any detail, I'm very curious to what all the perks will be.

.....last, but not least, the ability to receive stations if the sat goes down due to weather conditions etc........

 

[monetnj]

Sometimes the quality of the OTA channel is better than the SAT one, although this is not as great with MPEG4 from what I understand. Also, the delay of the OTA channel is not as great as the one from the satellite. Makes it easier to listen to the radio broadcast and the TV broadcast of sporting events.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Sometimes the quality of the OTA channel is better than the SAT one, although this is not as great with MPEG4 from what I understand. Also, the delay of the OTA channel is not as great as the one from the satellite. Makes it easier to listen to the radio broadcast and the TV broadcast of sporting events.

I can agree partially with your first point.. but the second...

Unless you have a way to delay your radio broadcast at all... you are still going to be way out of sync. It will still be shorter then the MPEG-4 version, but it is still lags "radio" by a good 5-6 seconds if not more.

 

[hasan]

What will be the main beneifits of OTA being enabled? Will we be able to do more with the HR20?

Thanks for any detail, I'm very curious to what all the perks will be.

You will also experience fewer signal outages OTA than you do with satellite, unless your OTA signal is quite weak to begin with. If you have a good OTA signal, you will keep it during bad snow and thunderstorm events, where you are likely to lose satellite service for several minutes under the same conditions.

As others have stated:

Picture Quality
Sub channels
PBS
Some sports programs are available only OTA locally (blackout rules)

 

[Dave_S]

Since we can't diplex OTA through the multiswitch any longer, I assume we are going to have to split the signal and run coax to each receiver individually? Is there any better way to do this?

 

[PoitNarf]

Since we can't diplex OTA through the multiswitch any longer, I assume we are going to have to split the signal and run coax to each receiver individually? Is there any better way to do this?

Yeah, pretty much. I've seen other theoretical talk of positioning the b-band converters in certain places and stuff like that to try to diplex OTA, but I have not seen in any thread where someone has been able to get this to work and retain MPEG4 channels.

 

[Meklos]

Yeah, pretty much. I've seen other theoretical talk of positioning the b-band converters in certain places and stuff like that to try to diplex OTA, but I have not seen in any thread where someone has been able to get this to work and retain MPEG4 channels.

Unless there's an isolation problem, or the actual mapping of the frequencies is way off of where the specs "say" it is, it should work. From the basic way I understand it, the signal coming out of the Ka LNB actually gets block downconverted to the same range as OTA. The BBC does another block conversion and moves it somewhere else (where I'm not sure), thus freeing the OTA frequency space after it in the line.

My HR20 gets installed on Friday, and I'm planning to get an outdoor HDTV OTA antenna. My plan is to bring the OTA in on a single coax and split it out to at least two outputs, to go into either two standalone diplexers or a 4 port diplexer.

If it works like I think it does, I'll have the following:

4 lines coming in from the 5LNB dish, directly into a WB68 multiswitch. Each output which goes to a Ka-capable receiver will have the BBC directly connected to the multiswitch (so that the 'offending' frequencies are only used on the run between the dish and the BBC, short run - I haven't seen anything that says I have to have the BBC directly attached to the receiver). The output from the BBC will go either directly to the receiver (if the line doesn't need OTA) or through a diplexer to add the OTA signal. Through the house RG6 to the receiver, where the other diplexer is placed (if it's an OTA line), where I split out the OTA.

By sending OTA down one of my two lines to my receiver, I'm sure I'll have a small signal drop on one of the lines (due to insertion loss in the diplexer scenario). I also don't know if my OTA run will be long enough where I will want either a pole-mounted OTA amplifier or an OTA antenna with an amplifier built in.

Other things I'm not sure of:

1) I don't think I need anything different on the diplexers, since the BBC will already be converting the signal out of the way of OTA, but do I need a wider signal? Is a 2GHz diplexer on the DBS side enough?

2) I see some diplexers pass power, some don't. This will be important if my OTA antenna needs power injected somewhere.

Will try to update. I might even create a thread to record the series of events.

 

[carl6]

2) I see some diplexers pass power, some don't. This will be important if my OTA antenna needs power injected somewhere.

The satellite feed definately passes dc power, so there is no way you can diplex an OTA feed that also carries power. You will have to somehow insert any power needed for your OTA antenna upstream of the initial diplexing.

Carl

 

[Meklos]

The satellite feed definately passes dc power, so there is no way you can diplex an OTA feed that also carries power. You will have to somehow insert any power needed for your OTA antenna upstream of the initial diplexing.

Carl

Good to know, thanks! Was planning to do this anyway, but I might have gotten lazy and figured that I could inject power anywhere on the OTA side of things, not just on the upstream side.