[mythtv-users] US cable companies and mandatory OTA channels

Albert James albertinnyc at yahoo.co.uk
Wed Jan 9 19:04:19 UTC 2008


OTA HD signals are not compressed, whereas their Cable equivilants are.

I do not have OTA so I don't know what airplanes or rain do to the signal...  but... I can clearly see compression from the digital cable version, and that's annoying enough for me to want to get an OTA receiver.  I had read at one point that OTA is preferable to Cable for this reason alone, and I believe it.  It is especially aparrent with fast moving screens -- action scenes, music videos, and such.

FYI I use Cablevision iO in the NY area, using firewire to carry the HD signal from a SA4200HD.

--a

On Jan 9, 2008 12:17 PM, Mitch Gore <mitchell.gore at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Jan 9, 2008 12:09 PM, Florin Andrei <florin at andrei.myip.org> wrote:
>
> > Question for the US users:
> >
> > I've heard that cable companies are required (by law? regulation?
> > agreement?) to include in their cable listing all stations that would
> > otherwise be accessible in that area OTA.
> >
> > My question is - does that apply to just the content, or the actual
> > format too? In other words, if a station can be received in HD OTA, does
> > that mean that it will be received in HD via cable too? Or can the cable
> > company just provide that station in SD, even though OTA it's being
> > broadcast HD?
> >
> > I'm asking because I need to decide whether it's worth the trouble to
> > install an antenna on the roof, or whether just using cable is fine.
> >
> > --
> > Florin Andrei
> >
> > http://florin.myip.org/
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
>
>
> I would just go with antenna.  QAM channels seem to be more of a headache
> from what i see.  The channels change and you will mis recordings etc.  Plus
> the quality of OTA HD is better than QAM cable.
>
> If you get good signal on you antenna it will be much more reliable.
>
> Mitchell
>
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> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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>
>

The quality of QAM HD is just as good as OTA for me (Dallas area).  I
also don't get rain fade or "airplane flying overhead" artifacts with
my QAM channels either.
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