Hey Lon. I've been playing with the Connecticut ATSC 3.0 channels since launch. When they first launched, things weren't great. There were audio issues, graphical glitching, etc. However those all have seemingly been fixed. What cool is WTNH and WTIC both provide 1080p broadcasts now. Not only that, but WTIC actually produces some content in 1080p, including all their news broadcasts, so they look noticeably clearer than their ATSC 1.0 720p counterpart. I'm in Southern Hartford county, so signal with my antenna even on the ATSC 1.0 channels (even WTNH and WCTX) was always 100%, but I've heard that the ATSC 3.0 signal reaches further, so I'm crossing my fingers you'll have some luck!
As a professional TV engineer who works for 2 stations, I can tell you that the main HD stream is probably getting bit-squeezed because of subchannel growth. It used to be stations only broadcast 2 or 3 channels but now stations are moving to 7 or 8 channels and those bits have to come from somewhere and they almost always come from the main HD channel.
Agreed, they're getting really bad about it; 6 used to be a rarity for subchannels but as companies like Scripps/Ion and Tegna launch more subchannels (which basically carry old cable content outside the Newsys, MeTVs and Antenna TVs) it's standard they get more money for all those ads, which is why ATSC 3.0 will eventually get a big push.
This is interesting. I've noticed that for some stations, their primary is 720P and they have 7 additional subchannels at 480I. I assumed the design engineers of the channel modulators would have figured this design into their unit but guess I'm wrong. Our PBS affiiliate runs their primary at 1080i and when I asked about more than 3 subs, they said, "Nope, do the math, we can only have 1 primary at 1080i and 3 subs at 480i" whereas another station runs a primary at 1080i with 4 subs! Do the commercial modulators allow engineers to decide how they want their modulators set up and is it possible to actually overload them? By "bit squeezed," do you mean the primary begins running less than a true 720P (or 1080i?) or has dropouts if too many subs are added? I've often wondered the actual limit of subs.
@@RickPaquin Actually the modulators don't have anything to do with it. The modulators (or transmitters) simply modulate a 19.39 mbps data signal onto a 6 MHz channel. How a station carves up that 19.39 mbps depends on the encoder. My station's encoder is actually a series of Linux based virtual machines that encode up to 8 signals but that is simply a physical input card limitation. If we added another card or tied two encoders together, we could have more. What I think you might be confusing is resolution and bitrate. You can have 1080i signal that uses 18 mbps (19.39 mbps minus audio and psip data) or you can have a 1080i signal that uses 5 mbps. Both signals are technically 1080i but the 5 mbps signal will look bad and pixelate a lot. PBS (like most networks) have a minimum bitrate. For example, PBS probably has a minimum bitrate around 12 mbps which only leaves about 6 mbps left for subchannels. If each subchannel requires 2 mbps then they can only do 3 subchannels. I actually have a RU-vid channel (click on my picture to see it) and I could put together a video about this, if it would help as I understand this may be a difficult subject to understand. Maybe @lon.tv would like to have me on to explain it as ATSC 3.0 is even more complicated.
I ditched the cable TV portion two or three years ago. This initially saved me money but over the years, the costs have doubled or tripled for TV service from streamers. I am now on RU-vid TV which has had a few large price increases recently but I do still have more flexibility over getting service from the local provider.
I had two HD HomeRun devices but over the years they both failed but my haupauge WinTV stick that I bought for $15 when Circuit city was going out of business still works fine and the plus is that it works with a free titan TV OTA TV schedule that directly lets me choose the shows to record
This is bad to hear. Yes, I also have VERY OLD haupauge devices that still work, but the Win machines themselves have now failed and I have no desire to replace them. That's why I went to HDHomeRun. Did you contact the company? I would expect a 5yr life span, unless they are hit with lighning.
The Fox feed might be the national feed that isn't always on. Ota degraded also, it's about have the bitrate since the repak. Also you should get PBS if your area has a live stream. No cable subscription needed
Outside of markets where they have a local station they own (where it is 24/7), Fox only broadcasts when the network is active nationally, so during primetime and sports. I presumably get it, but it's taking a while for Fox to get that stream up for Milwaukee. On the other channels, there are rare cases where a syndicated program could be blacked out because of syndication exclusivity. This has lessened from a couple years ago thankfully, but it's still possible.
The ATSC terrestrial transmission standard defines the bit-stream content and transport and its digital transmission in the specified 6MHz RF channel. The nominal transmission bit rate depends on the chosen digital RF modulation scheme. The ATSC chosen scheme, 8VSB, limits the transmission bit rate to 19.38Mb/s(video and audio). This constraint offers no other alternative but bit-rate reduction and compression to accommodate all the ATSC formats. So, all of the sub channels, .-1 thru however many sub channels the station wants to have, has to fit in that 19.38Mb/s. One of my locals(FOX), has 8 sub channels. And as we know, the Mpeg-2 codec is a very old and is not very good at compressing a video stream. Over the years, that amount of bandwidth given to the .1 channel has decreased to allow for more sub channels. This has resulted in worse picture quality on the .1 sub channel. Garbage in, garbage out. What about ATSC 3.0? It is still constrained by the 19.38Mb/s but is using a much more efficient codec - H.265 HEVC. Note: ATSC is not married to H.265. They can switch to another codec in the future. A local broadcast engineer posted the following capabilities of ATSC 3.0 when my locals started a single ASTC 3.0 transmission last summer. "ATSC 3.0 can do: 1 4K, 5 HD, 20 SD, or any combination of the above." The single ATSC 3.0 transmission went with the 5 HD combination.
Get sling tv. You can get a modem very cheap where you can integrate your local channels in with sling tv. I have more cable channels than I can deal with and my local channels from Chicago for $35 a month. Can't beat it. But you're limited to 720P currently. But I hear sling TV will increase the resolution before way too long.
Cable providers are adjusting their plans in such a way to make TV part of the plan cheap to discourage cord-cutting. Just like it costs more to remove your VoIP number than to keep it since it is part of a plan package. I have seen this with other SPs as well.
I just want to add that the TV Everywhere feature on channels is still in beta I believe. At times some channels have issues although it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem lately. Some issues could be reauthorization as its done in the background every few weeks and sometimes you will manually have to go in the settings and rescan the individual channel.
@@jerrygaguru yeah I know. I think this feature will never get out of it because while it works very well issues could occur so it is not stable enough
@@simplydan It won’t get out of Beta because of licensing, something Plex is trying to copy and do now by adding similar beta features. ( all though Plex dumps things fast when there is licensing issue like retro gaming great feature only 30 mins to get running, I hate it is gone ) but I have all feature on a stand alone PC for several years with no issue with Antenna, RU-vid TV and other services with only it not marking some commercials correctly because I remove before sending to Plex. Grant I have 4 computers i7 3.4ghz with 32 gb of ram on 250gb SSD for OS and temp files and store on 8 TB seagate 7200 rpm drive, 1 for each process dump all data a march set of Plex server mirrored for total 6 servers in a Air conditioner room, Power sometimes cost more than buying the services but I would have to watch commercials then. I will update and review the servers once a month and most of my maintenance is what I need to delete to maintain enough free space.
We ditched premium TV years ago, and rely on antenna + streaming. Don't miss it at all. Occasionally we will activate Sling to get ESPN as needed, but not for more than a month or two. I like Channel Master products for antenna and amps.
eventually, when ATSC 3.0 becomes the primary format, they will move the ATSC 3.0 signals to their main towers. Here in Atlanta, all 5 stations broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 are on one tower, which is nice.
Do it Lon! I had HDHomeRun Prime with Comcast w/HBO and switched to an antenna & HBO Max and haven't missed cable AT ALL. I am using the Silicondust ATSC 3.0 tuner but I don't think Boston stations have switched to that yet ... but I should check again ...
Looks like some new tvs have built in antenna. Figured they would, but this is firet hearing about this. I guess still depends on what kind of guide or platform you want you still may have to purchase a HD homerun, happauge and use live channels app with tvirl for a guide. Looks like they have next-gen tv astc 3.0 here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
What is the legality of dvring any program from a tv everywhere source vs an antenna? Is it legal to dvr say from Philo with a subscription or from pluto tv or is it illegal?
Lon the OTA signal might have changed to 720p. At least in my area where nbc and cbs historically have been 1080i they are being broadcast at 720p so the local broadcasters can fit more sub channels. I don’t have cable or an over the top service anymore. RU-vid and my Plex server are my main sources now. Edit: since you say that ATSC 3 has lit up in your area, then even more likely the broadcasters are doing 720p.
So with TV everywhere through Channels does it rebroadcast your signal you are receiving in your home over your home internet upload or does it just remotely authenticate and allow the user which is outside of your homes ip address to access the stream from your cable company?
Several months ago TV technology ran an article about a USB ATS 3.0 receiver that was made by (odm) Atlanta dth Incorporated it was supposed to come out in the second quarter of this year have you heard anymore about this I have not this device was supposed to run between 50 and $60
My Spectrum with internet tv and Hbo max is $151 after all taxes and fees. Internet alone is $80, so for me cable is cheaper than a live streaming service also
Not necessarily. Depending upon if you want sports or not. Yeah there's a bunch of networks that are in the $5 -10 , range like discovery etc... Plus sling tv is realistic for a few things. Best bet is get the channels you actually need and then look at the El cheap o services. (Philo) Yt , and the direct are just gonna keep going up an up
@@richardsmith1161 thats also insane, i pay half the price for that in denmark.. its a matter of time, you just need to cut the cord in the states (like the rest of the western world did) and then the prices will come down as the numbers go up
While you might want to go with the double model of that antenna. I don't think you mentioned if you have any VHS stations just that it has a Hi-VHF element. If the channel in question is not VHF try removing the VHF element from the mix. That should boost Signal Quality 3.5dB or 5% on the meter. It seems odd to me that Signal Strength is not larger than the SQ but I have seen it before. For best overall antenna within 50 miles with Hi-VHF needs I start with the Televes Ellipse. They have optimized it for the repack along with the long range Dat Boss model which I now use on my home. Tyler just put out a review on it and did the Ellipse last January when it rolled out. Both of those come with a power injector and built in preamp which now sports one for VHF and one for UHF and it also has LTE and 5G filter. Which could be the issue here? Anyway all this combined with an auto gain amp makes it about the most issue proof antenna on the market today. If you got the bigger Antennas Direct model and see similar effects still but better SQ you may need a filter. Generally speaking the problem with amps is they just amplify a bad signal and I have found in separate VHF and UHF antenna set ups that some sort of feed back can be induced that effects the VHF streams. If the VHF stream is filtered very tightly then combined with the UHF that issue disappears. You might also try moving the antenna position in any direction of the current one or test areas where you think you would like it. A friend of mine just tried the new app for iOS that uses the HDHR gui [Tyler just reviewed it, $2.99]. My friend tried it while tuning 3 channels and is micro adjusting his antennas position to find the best balance. He has it strapped to a galvanized fence and guide wires to secure a 30' pole he found at a yard sale.
I only just heard that some stations are starting to switch their ATSC 1.0 broadcasts from MPEG2 to MPEG4 (AVC) so it could actually be happening on the source? It does still sound like it's being mucked with though.
Hello. I live in Groton, CT. and the OTA stations are not cost effective to receive right now. And after researching many legal streaming apps I have found it to be cheaper to stay on cable. Your right ; you have to do your research 73 ..de Leo k.
I believe ABC stations were broadcasting in 720p instead of 1080i all along. But yeah, CATV adds another layer of compression which doesn't look great.
The example was from WFSB, which is a 1080i signal (Live! is on that station in the Hartford market), so Xfinity is reducing the video quality, to 720p, and the same with his A&E example (also 1080i). Usually the TVE signal is straight from the station/broadcast group's/network master control. However they do reduce it from the master even then in order to vary the bitrate, which itself is still limited. There are SOME ABC stations which do broadcast in 1080i and upscale network programming from 720p, but it's a limited group, mainly Hearst and a few Tegna stations that were under a certain old owner who preferred all-1080i operations. ETA - Since Live! is a Disney-produced program from WABC which is transmitted by them by default in 720p, so that could explain why it's so muddy and soft, and especially so being re-downscaled by Xfinity. A better example and source pool of comparison to use might be recording an episode of "Kelly Clarkson", which is a 1080i-transmitted show on a 1080i NBC-owned station; it would be interesting to see if NBC is in that format on Xfinity and TVE and compare it to an episode of The Talk also airing on WFSB (Live is its only syndicated program so there's not much from syndication we can compare there) and a show on the CW station (which is the only other 1080i in the market besides the PBS station). Sorry to add to this Lon, I just realized that might be part of the issue!
I've gone back and forth with having cable, ditching cable, subscribing to Sling and Philo and using an antenna. My conclusion: I only like the History Channel, and I'm pretty lukewarm on most if it's content. The rest is unadulterated trash. I can't stand any of it. I end up watching regular old RU-vid videos primarily and sometimes watch METV over the antenna late at night for some Hogan's Heroes. I remember the 80's and 90's having great TV like. Then in the early 2000's it was pretty good (X-Files, 24, Lost, My Name Is Earl, etc.). Now it's reality trash, talent contests or propaganda news and the vast majority of Cable programming is more or less of the same. Streaming options like Netflix, Showtime, Paramount etc. are just as bad.
As usual, another great video, many thanks. Now cord cutting, do you know with any of the options, that one can turn on Audio Description or captions? Comcast and i think Dish, and I know Sky in the UK, with their boxes also gives you a search for programmes by voice option and the ability to search for say programmes that have audio description. So I am keen to know as a blind person, if any cordcutting options offer any of these accessibility features? Many thanks.
Lon! I just watched your streaming video. I have an older Tablo that is not ATSC 3.0 compliant and in our leafless winter get all of our locals. In the summer I do not get WFSB 3 so subscribe to Paramount+. The trees are solid around me and I am at the bottom of a hill. Every time I ride up your hill on my bike I wonder why you would ever have an issue getting all local channels with a roof mounted antenna… even before ATSC 3.0. I have an Antennas Direct ClearStream 4V (X2) with one pointing towards Hartford and the other New Haven. I have a Televes combiner and preamp up at the antenna and a powered signal booster for 3 TVs in the basement. Other than channel 3, this system blasts right through the leafy trees.
I wish the FCC would allow all of the local OTA channels to be streamed on a universal app. I see Amazon has been adding a lot of local TV news channels, which is nice, but it seems silly that companies, such as Spectrum Cable, still has a hold on these, and will not allow them to stream. It would be still for me to spend $65/month for "basic TV", just to watch the free OTA channels, which just don't come in very well do to RF interference.
totally agree...The FCC has failed us in this department...Locast should have thrived with the help of the FCC...they should have protected them....instead they got sued and ultimately had to file chapter 11
You pricing for RU-vid is correct if it is just you, but not correct if you the review term you are allowed to you share with 5 family and friends RU-vid TV subscription as as long as they return the home area every quarter. So with RU-vid TV, your Plex server, your upload speed and channels you you have more option. Fill free to contact me for more info.
As far as cutting the TV side of cable, did you account for all the fees associated to TV, sports, etc, and also any equipment you would no longer need?
Yes as noted in earlier videos I do not have any Comcast equipment in the house thanks to the HDHomerun Prime. The only fee on top of the subscription is the local broadcast fee which was included in the bill analysis.
Yeah if you had att fiber cord cutting would be a no brainer. It's unfortunate comcast is winning because their internet is too expensive if you want just internet.
I highly recommend the Televes Ellipse 148883 for an outdoor antenna great for UHF/VHF and it includes a preamp. It is about $159 though but easily pays for itself if you cut the cord.
Have you tried upgrading your channels server to the latest pre release then running another channel scan or another scan on fox after the upgrade? That could solve your channels issue.
I have cable TV bundled with my internet. But all my local channels and most of the international channels that I watch have streaming services on the internet. So I mostly watch TV on the internet. I don't really need cable TV, I just have it because it's bundled with the internet.
I still got a sd box from the cable company. IDK they didn't want to give it to me the hd one already. Maybe ill go and ask for one. living room TV has the hd box. They pay for extra channels so i just leave it there. SD content for now. Ill go over there if they will just give me a box. The package prob comes with multiple TV's hooked up. Miss when you didn't need a box at all. whatever. If they give me greef i can always just get a antenna. Any smart apps that get the basic channels. Globel, cbc, fox, nbc, ect. The rest of the channels are usually shows from those channels anyways. I usually just watch amazon prime video, I canceled netflix awile ago to save some cash...
flow tv in general have been one of the biggest supliers of propaganda for many years.. just look how much knowledge people have now, compared to when we only had radio and tv.. perhaps many of americas problems comes from newsstations and their agenda
They are biased. I don’t disagree with him one bit. So somebody can’t have a different opinion from you? Bet you’re one of the ones that considers yourself open minded as long as they agree with you.
@@ericg7490 My point was politics had NOTHING to do with antennas, nor does it have anything to do with Lon's video of Channels. Let's keep it that way.
I’ve been using Channels for a while with a good antenna. If you get the right antenna and installed properly, you will get the locals pulls a lot more. MOVE to Channels away from Plex. You won’t look back.
I use Channels for live TV watching, but Plex's DVR is better in my experience. I also like that recorded shows can land in the same TV library as the rest of our media.
wow 🤣 are you still using cable tv in the states. then it actually makes sense how the country moves more and more away from other western country´s. flow tv have been one of the biggest supliers of propaganda in many years
What I suggest to people who want to lower their cost and perhaps cut the cord, for sit down and make a list of the channels that they absolutely need to have. And you would be surprised the alternatives when you look around a bit from what I understand, Westmore media consolidation. Discovery plus content is going to merge in with HBO Max. I actually spend a lot of my time watching RU-vid videos I get tired of the same commercials, but I am not willing to pay $30 a month for a subscription for premium RU-vid
