Hating Digital Television

[bicker]

Bicker, again I say I'll take donations. Why should I have to pay for getting the shaft.

I also get where you're coming from (but I'm not offering to donate ). It is a bit like having a highway near your home suddenly get very busy and therefore substantially noisier, because something big opened nearby. Sucks to be sure. That's life though.

 

[bicker]

We have DirecTV, my parents have Fios, ... and it didn't matter who was providing the signal, it kept going outta focus. ... Sure hope they figure it out or it is going to be a long season of watching college and pro sports.

Well, you're talking about cable and satellite.... nothing has recently changed, at least not that much, in how the networks (specifically) cover sports, nor in how cable and satellite services (specifically) carry HD channels. Most of them have been carrying sports, especially, in HD for years, already. I wouldn't expect things to change.

And your concerns are not very common, which makes me think that it might be issues with the various HDTVs that you and your parents have. Do you all perhaps have the same HDTVs, or more properly, which models do each of you have? I can check into them to see if the problems you're seeing are common complaints for those displays.

 

[ICF]

I watched all of the ND - Michagn game on ABC in HD on Direct and never saw any focus problems.

 

[sbell111]

Nothing has changed for us.

 

[jen0610]

Well, you're talking about cable and satellite.... nothing has recently changed, at least not that much, in how the networks (specifically) cover sports, nor in how cable and satellite services (specifically) carry HD channels. Most of them have been carrying sports, especially, in HD for years, already. I wouldn't expect things to change.

And your concerns are not very common, which makes me think that it might be issues with the various HDTVs that you and your parents have. Do you all perhaps have the same HDTVs, or more properly, which models do each of you have? I can check into them to see if the problems you're seeing are common complaints for those displays.

Two of us don't have HDTVs. I am not sure what model my parents have. All of us have the same TV's we had last Fall. Last fall, none of us had problems with the picture going outta focus during the football season.

We watched the MI/ND game on ABC on our TV. About every 4-6 minutes, it would go unfocused. During half time, we swiched over and watched one of the games Big Ten Network was showing and never had an issue for the 20 minutes we were on that channel. Switched back to ABC and it started again.

Saturday night, we went over and watched the OS/USC game (on ESPN) with my dad and no issues. We would jump over and check on the race, showing on ABC and would get outta focus.

At DH parents house, they do not have cable or satellite, they only have the regular broadcast channels. Sunday watched football with DH's parents on CBS and it went outta focus. Did not notice it, when we flipped over to the Fox channel to check on those games.

When it first started happening, I thought it was my eyes. Whenever it happened, I would rub my eyes or take off my glasses and clean them. DH finally asked me what I was doing. When I told him, he said it wasn't me, the TV was doing it.

 

[bicker]

Two of us don't have HDTVs. I am not sure what model my parents have. All of us have the same TV's we had last Fall. Last fall, none of us had problems with the picture going outta focus during the football season.

Regarding the two non-HDTVs (I didn't catch that you had non-HDTVs, earlier): What has changed is the the manner in which the analog signal you use was created. In the case of cable or satellite, a box they provide you could be downconverting a QAM signal, or the service provider could be downconverting for you at their head-end, or the broadcaster could be downconverting and providing the downconverted signal to the service provider. For over the air signals, you'd have a converter box which does the downconverting. In all four cases (some within your control and some definitely outside your control), there are high quality devices and low quality devices... clearly the low quality devices could be the cause of the problem. Since it is uncommon, I would look to the more local sources as the most likely culprits.

With regard to the HDTV, if HDTV is tuning into a non-HD channel, or in some way is getting non-HD service, then all of the above applies. If the HDTV is tuning in an HD channel, then what you're seeing there is very uncommon, so I would suspect the HDTV. There is no other rational explanation I can think of, given that so many other folks have no such problems.

 

[TerriP]

We still get Fox, ABC, PBS (good grief...we have A LOT of PBS stations!), and occasionally CBS, but we can't get NBC anymore. What I hate about digital TV is that you either get the channel, or you don't. Before, even if it was a little fuzzy, I could watch every station. Now, that option is gone...all I get is "Channel Not Available".

OH! And we still get the two local religious channels. WHY is it that they always come in crystal clear???? Maybe it's a sign!

Cable is not available where we live and our dish does not provide local channels where we live, so this is what we're stuck with. Boo.

 

[xoprincessmomxo]

Cable is not available where we live and our dish does not provide local channels where we live, so this is what we're stuck with. Boo.

That's the same as us. Can't get dish, can't get cable.

 

[ICF]

That's the same as us. Can't get dish, can't get cable.

where do you live that you can't get satellite?

 

[FireDancer]

Curious why this matters to you. I know why the govt. likes it / wants it, but generally speaking, this doesn't mean much to those who don't need that space for "professional" reasons.

I could care less about the parts that the government is keeping, but remember that the majority of the spectrum was auctioned off to the private sector. This will allow companies to offer wireless broadband and phone service over the old spectrum, which increased competition in both spaces. Using the spectrum for internet traffic will not only widen the reach of broadband but can be used to augment the pending WiMax and LTE rollouts that are hopefully coming in the years ahead.

It is quite rare that anyone can't get satellite reception from either DISH or DirecTv in the country. There are tools out there that will give you the elevation and azimuth you need for either. Unless there is a mountain in the way usually you can place the Dish somewhere on your property and get the wire in. Sometimes that means installing the dish away from the house and tunneling the cable in, no big deal. I know I would never consider moving anywhere that didn't have good broadband and satellite coverage. They are two things I checked before purchasing my house. That way I don't have to worry about what channels I get over the air.

 

[bicker]

where do you live that you can't get satellite?

Good point. The US Court of Appeals, just last week, highlighted that satellite service is available in every municipality in the country.

What the PP might be alluding to is that their personal decision, about which house/apartment to live in, may have precluded their ability to receive satellite service. While federal law ensures that homeowners and tenants cannot be prohibited from erecting satellite dishes to receive satellite service, the provisions of the federal law rely on the homeowner's/tenant's access to limited common space with the correct exposure to the satellites that the satellite services have chosen to make available. For a nearby apartment building, near my home, it basically means that you need to have a balcony with a view of the southwestern sky. Folks living on the other side of the building essentially have no place where they can put a satellite dish that will receive any satellite reception.

 

[Pig Pen]

I chose "other" because we have a digital converter at our camp near the Canadian border. We get a few US channels on it, but we also use the regular antenna to pick up a few English speaking channels from Canada (evidently they didn't go digital).

Since it's a camp for weekends, we don't really care so much about the TV, but the digital reception breaks up a lot and we lose the signal frequently. It's a pain when you lose the signal at a crucial part of the TV program!

At home we have cable with DVR and I wouldn't give it up for anything.

 

[bicker]

I know I would never consider moving anywhere that didn't have good broadband and satellite coverage. They are two things I checked before purchasing my house.

I think that this tends to be way too far down too many people's list of priorities... not that I think it should be more important to more people, but rather that it already is but too many people simply aren't honest to themselves about how important these things are to themselves, with regard to their choice about where to live.

To be precise though, I think it best to view this as "broadband plus either satellite or cable".

 

[FireDancer]

I think that this tends to be way too far down too many people's list of priorities... not that I think it should be more important to more people, but rather that it already is but too many people simply aren't honest to themselves about how important these things are to themselves, with regard to their choice about where to live.

To be precise though, I think it best to view this as "broadband plus either satellite or cable".

True enough. I am of the opinion, and it is only my opinion, that broadband has become a utility like running water and electricity. Of course the fact I am in IT and communication helps sway me that way a bit.

I am also of the opinion that TV and the web will continue to converge and there will be a lot more TV over IP in the future. Not only services like AT&T U-Verse and FIOS but also using hardware like the Roku player and software like Boxee to get streaming content from the monitor to the televison. Then all you need is broadband, and part of the spectrum that was given up now may be used to deliver that later.

I think the whole digital conversion is looked at way to narrowly buy the mainstream instead of from a thousand feet up and long term.

 

[Shadeaux]

Cable is not available where we live and our dish does not provide local channels where we live, so this is what we're stuck with. Boo.

Same here, no cable and Directv doesn't provide local channels. We lost ABC and CBS after the switch. This is with two indoor antennas and one outside antenna, all hooked up to digital tvs, no converter boxes needed. We're also stuck on dialup....no high speed available unless we want to pay a ridiculously high price for unreliable satellite internet.

And for whoever mentioned never moving somewhere that these weren't available...I've lived in this house for almost 30 years;long before these technologies were available.