I brought up the issue of ATSC 8VSB OTA reception recently at my local Future Shop (Canada) consumer electronics big box store (owned by Best Buy). If there is a single retailer who demonstrates OTA reception using a gain UHF antenna on a rotator I would be amazed to hear of it. The reason is obvious and has been much discussed on this reflector and need not be resurrected. Six years ago I became an early adopter of an HDTV set that had NTSC but no ATSC tuner. Being aware of the reception problems suffered by early 8VSB STB tuners I delayed purchasing one until last year when Samsung brought out the 260F that seemed to have general approval as to its reception capability. It did perform well but still did not have the ability to reliably capture the weakest received DTV signals (30 ft mast-mounted fixed antenna, 40 db amp and 50 ft of transmission line). Located conveniently between Toronto and Buffalo, (as I am) I have the luxury of receiving all the major network DTV broadcasts. There was an occasion in the early fall when we had a warm spell during which the weakest Buffalo channels were lost for days on end (a Syracuse station 200 miles away came in wonderfully well for all of an evening). I blamed it on a propagation problem related to ducting when signal is captured by a boundary of hot and cold air layers in the atmosphere). In the radar business we attributed it to a 'weather inversion' when cars and trucks in motion could be captured on an interstate 200 miles away while aircraft at a higher altitude were totally invisible to air traffic controllers. This year I bought a 32" 1080p capable Sharp HDTV with an integrated ATSC tuner having a scan rate high enough to serve as a display for my PC and used only occasionally to watch OTA DTV for local news coverage. When directly connected to the same antenna lead as the Samsung STB it was only capable of capturing a little more than half the channels received previously. Disappointing to say the least. I now direct your attention to the December issue of Consumer Reports in which it rates LCD and Plasma DTV on every aspect except their integrated tuner (as if it did not even exist). One wonders if political correctness is a contradiction of a consumer's right to all the facts about any product especially one that offers a connection to an external antenna. (Or is picture quality the only matter of importance). I attempted to send a polite critique to CR editors but apparently the website only accepts one paragraph comments before timing out. If they are as thorough in their testing as they claim it would be a simple matter to compare models with an outdoor antenna on a 30 ft mast with a simple motorized aiming device. I assume that the consumer electronics manufacturers would be none too pleased by the results (that is if anyone out there cared about OTA DTV reception). Broadcast OTA DTV is an 'absurdity' unless one lives in the UK where Freeview is available. It will inevitably die of natural cause and then be reinvented and resurrected by application of Yankee ingenuity (hopefully). Until then we can all immerse ourselves in brewing beer or other worthwhile pursuits. P.S. The Samsung STB is becoming increasingly rare on the shelves of U.S. retailers while none can be had in Canada (to my knowledge). ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen W. Long" <longsw@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 1:41 PM Subject: [opendtv] Re: something There is at least one good thing about the OTA DTV transition - it seems that it really did hasten the rollout of HDTV. I doubt if cable or satellite would have made the investment to switch to HDTV so quickly if OTA was not moving to digital/HDTV. Once most of the desirable channels became HD, SD only shows have less and less visual appeal - once you get use to the clarity of HD, it is almost painful to watch over compressed SD, at least on an HDTV flat panel. This holiday season is seeing my household move to all HD sets - family room (done), MBR, study (done), teenager basement game room - I'm looking for Black Friday deals while on vacation here in Florida. It seems like the real action for sets this year is "true" or "full" HDTV - 1080p. Which I guess means 1080i was only "false" or "Half" HD (smile). I've visited several stores so far - no one displays OTA images - only in-store HD servers (I wonder what the bit rates are - you seldom see macroblock artifacts). It is also amusing to read some of the ads - "HDTV tuner included free." I am looking forward to March 2009. As the full impact of the failure of 8VSB to provide reception similar to NTSC becomes evident, it will be a blast to watch the politicians crank up their rhetoric to find out "who did this to the American people." As said in the movie Happy Feet - its a show, dinner and a show. I can't wait to watch. Stephen Long -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Cliff Benham Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 12:36 PM To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] Re: something Craig Birkmaier wrote: > "HDTV?" > > "THAT'S IT!" > > > Happy Thanksgiving everyone! At least you didn't mention "Turkey" in the same breath with "HDTV". #;^) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.