What kind of signal will we get after Feb 09?

I realize what will happen in Feb 09. But what will the digital signal look like? Will it all be HD 16X9 or 4X3. Will it be HD at all and the same crappy looking type picture except in digital reproduction. Will Cox cable carry all the channels in HD if they are broadcast that way? In other words is anything really going to change in the pictures we already receive. Are we going to wake up that magic morning and have all HD beautiful pictures with no horizontal black boxes??? OR the samo half crap and half good TV pictures?

 

Hi,

here are my "smart"answers

In this deep recession,


No 16x9, but 4x3

No 1080, but 240

and all the static and snow you could ever ask for !


Jo (endo put me up to this )

 

Endo should be shot. And gm's picture of him is too good. You rat. LMAO

And Jo you are NOT being ladylike in your help either!

Now are there any sane people out there, that actually know the answers????

 

No Christmas card for you !


And I'm a baaaaad influence on Jo !

 

Every broadcast will be blu-ray quality......sheeeeesh, I wish
(endo put me up to this also....hehehe)

 

So no one actually knows the answer out there? I don't!

 

All you really need to know: Better than it was...not as good as it could be...same price. I use Dish Network Turbo. All High Def, all the time, $20.00 per month cheaper than Time Warner cable (in my region). Couldn't be more pleased.

 

Master of the great white light, Mercy, Please !

 

@ddp

I realize the stuff about the rabbit ears and over the air problem. But are we going to get improved HD picture digitally or are we going to keep getting some of the same crappy cable pic and some HD cable pic. Why have they gone to all the trouble of doing this-beside stealing bandwith from TV stations and reselling it and making everyone by new TVs, if the pictures are still going to have vertical bars(meant that in original post instead of horizontal. The way I see it., it seems the TV HD sets are lightyears ahead of the TV stations, cable and dish companys' abilities to provide an HD 16X9 image at least in 720p. Why didn't the government mandate that all received cable channels be in 16X9 720p except for movies and old reruns shot in full screen. They are making the average Joe spend the money to upgrade set for nothing and not the rich cable and dish companies.

 

so no one in the US knows what's going to happen with picture quality?

 

garmoon,

From what I understand, if you have cable or satelite you shouldn't see a difference than what you have now. You won't have to upgrade your tv until your carrier no longer decides to support analog tvs. There will be both HD & SD programs and in 16x9 and 4x3 formats. As far as I know no one is going to upconvert any SD programs (read reruns, i.e., game shows, made for tv, etc.) at the broadcast level. The new stuff will mostly be in HD (and 16x9) but remember there are alot of professional SD(4x3) cameras out there that will be sold on the cheap.

OTA (Over The Air) on the other hand is different. Each digital channel can have sub-channels, i.e., 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 with different programing on each. For example, if you have 5 OTA stations now, when converted over to HD you could have 15 channels. There is a restriction though. Each station is allowed a specific amount of bandwidth so what I'm getting is the main channel, e.g., 3.1, in HD (1080i) and the other 2, 3.2 & 3.3, in SD(480i). The image dimensions will be a mix of the 16x9 and the 4x3. The 16x9 is becoming the new standard but, as I said above, there are alot of the 4x3 cameras out there. My local stations haven't converted over to the new cameras yet.

There is also the issue of transmission power for the OTA stations. It's becoming apparent that higher transmission power is needed, especially for the stations braodcasting on the lower frequencies. I know several of my locals have already put in for permission for power upgrades because there coverage area has dropped dramatically.

Hope this helps you out.

 

Well Hobbit112 pretty much wrapped it all up.

But just some more feedback, For anyone using an antenna to watch TV, all the local "Channel 4(5,6,7,8,9etc..)" You are now being forced to update your tvs.

As local tv is upgrading itself, and as a user of local free TV in my area, (I already upgraded TV) I have seen alot better picture quality in my local news and other basic channels.



Hope this helps too - Robbie

 

So I guess when it all changes in Feb, nothing is going to change in what's broadcast from each channel. You would think that broadcasters should be forced to improve their NEW programming to 16X9!

I got one of those converters for a small set at work and as Liez4Love said, channels 2 and 9 did not come in at all being only 15 miles from the tower. 27,33,44 all came in with rabbit ears-perfect pictures. Seems that all of this change is a downgrade! Soon the local stations will quit broadcasting OTA signals altogether-to save money. There will be no more free TV in the future!

 

Hang in there Garmoon!

Your channels 2 & 9 can come back, they just have to apply for authorization to boost transmission power. During this transition period the stations are able to broadcast their digital channels at a higher power rating. When they dial it back in to their allowed power and find out how much their coverage shrinks, they will apply to use more power. I believe the stations were guaranteed that their coverage area wouldn't change. My channel 12 (and it's 2 secondary channels) disappeared about 3-4 weeks ago, it came back a couple of days ago. I re-oriented my antenna slightly plus I believe they upped their power as their signal was initially very pixellated but now quite steady.

They are! The national channels have already switched over to 16x9 and the state public tv stations are also well on their way in the conversion. It's the local stations bringing up the rear as they have to budget for the new equipment, not just hold another telethon. Shoot, the Pappas group, which owns 2 stations in my area, is struggling and is trying to sell off some of their stations to bring in money.

 

@hobbitt

So I guess come Feb 19th Cox cable will be passing signals with 16X9 pictures on the non HD channels, since only about half of their channels have gone HD-way too few. That's great, a full 16X9 picture in 480p-can't wait. Should look even uglier! Progress! LMAO

 

@garmoon,

Cox is another issue, who knows what they are going to do. With them, I think to get HD you have to have a digital box plus a HD capable tv. If you don't have the digital box and a HD tv maybe Cox will crop all the 16x9 programs to 4x3 automatically. Again, who knows?

BTW, there is a misconception out there that if you subscribe to cable or sattelite you don't have to upgrade to a HD tv. This is true only as long as your provider supplies digital to analog boxes. They can change over to all digital anytime they wish, they were just not required to change over on Feb. 19th. I would imagine as long as their digital to analog converter boxes work, they will make them available.

I'm not a fan of Cox. I use them for internet only as they are the most reasonable priced now. I dropped their cable and went OTA about 5 years ago. Cox has this nasty habit of moving well-liked channels from their bulk tiers to pay tiers. And they keep raising their prices. And they can be beligerent. When I returned my box & remote, I watched the service rep toss the remote into a box (holding alot of remotes already) marked "trash". Cox then proceeded for the next 9 months to send me bills for $10.00 stating it was for a remote not turned in.

Have you read the fine print at Cox to get the HD channels? Here you go:

 

Yeah, I've been hating Cox here in Baton Rouge for 30 years. But the service IS reliable, but overpriced. It's a monopoly here. We have violent weather here weekly to make a small dish unreliable most of the time. All my friends who've tried the dishes have run back to Cox, especially the internet guys. You're right about the tier levels. We got our 1st HD tv almost 2 years ago and signed up for two HD DVR boxes. Just by themselves, the cost was $30 for both , then the digital tier was added to basic and expanded basic. Internet and HD Cable with 2 DVR boxes is costing $140 a month. My wife acquired her HD set for Xmas, I did the acquiring-I paid-she chose the set.! LOL For 2 other nonhd sets, Cox is saying they don't have to be touched. Evidently they will continue to pass analog signal as now, since we don't have boxes with them. I won't ever need HBO or the other $hit movie channels. With my DVDs and Netflix, I probably have a bigger selection, than them all together could supply!