ATSC 3.0 OTA Television

[BirdDog]

Thought this would be of interest to any of those who primarily use OTA for their television viewing:  https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/atsc-3-0-ota-broadcast-standard-4k-dolby-atmos/

I had no idea this was even in the works. At least it sounds like one new converter/tuner will be able to serve all TVs in the house, hasn't been that long since I upgraded to the digital flat screens. If like things in the past though it could be several years off before significant country wide implementation since they're just talking about it now. I personally could care less about 4k definition on a screen smaller than my entire wall, lol.

[GabeU]

Interesting info.  That they are still concentrating on improvements to the OTA system is nice.  I'd hate to see the day when it's completely abandoned, or at least abandoned at the commercial level, and every person is stuck with pay TV or nothing. 

I, too, don't really care about 4K TV.  Standard HD is just fine with me, as is DVD quality SD.  Heck, I still only have five Blu Ray movies, yet dozens upon dozens of DVDs, and I still buy DVDs.  I quite often peruse the $5 DVD bin at Walmart.  😛 

[MarkJFine]

As an on-again, off-again radio and TV DXer I really wait for weather inversions for OTA. And then the chase is on.

Because of the terrain, I might get channels 7 and 9 here in the DC area, which are still on VHF HI channels, the rest are on old UHF frequencies which don't carry well here at all without some serious atmospheric help. This, even with a high-gain, highly directional, well-pointed TV antenna.

To me, good signal scanning and updating is the key over picture resolution, and HD (if even used) is good enough. I can't imagine 4k being used OTA and working right.

Anyway, I have one Sanyo that does incremental scanning to update newly available channels/subcarriers whcih is excellent, but doesn't show guide info as part of it's firmware. I also have an LG that doesn't scan as good, but reads/displays the underlying meta data to display what you're watching real well.

Then you have the DirecTV ATS add-on tuner (it used to be built-in, but the stopped that), which is fairly sensitive, but it's highly dependent upon the tuning data they provide. It will only scan for what it thinks is available and has guide data for in a specific market.

For example, we used to have the MHz Network (whcih I used to love) spread over two transmitters in the area (Goldvein - real close to me, and Fairfax) but the operator of those transmitters sold them ove the summer. DTV still has guide data for them and thinks they're still there. When they did have it right, they could never get the subcarriers right, so you couldn't tune most of them... They currenty have one of 7's 4 channels (TBD) completely unlisted, which is a shame. Absolutely awful way of doing things.

[BirdDog]

I get around 26 channels in the mountains where I live with furthest towers being about 80 mile away. Of course other than the major broadcast stations the rest are things like Comet, MeTV, LAF and religious.

From what I've been reading, the signal is actually supposed to be better and reach further with ATSC 3.0. Guess we'll see.

Oh, my hypocrisy is showing by the "I personally" phrase in original post. I should be irked at myself.  

[MarkJFine]

That's what's good about being on a mountain, instead of a valley (where I am).

With radio signals, the higher you are, the better you are.

Elevation, dry air (unless a low cloud is causing an upper air inversion for ducting), wet ground, no foliage, and of course no obstructions are key to reception.

Wife would love having MeTV back. We already have Comet on 7. TBD is a lot of fun to watch, just because it's so different.

Oh... and you know this whole thing is all about selling TVs and converter boxes. Pretty sure the new format might be slightly more error/noise resistant (a wider spectrum is always more noise resistant) but that doesn't mean a whole lot more range.

And, you're right. Not sure I really need UHD and Dolby Atmos for a tiny 19" TV that I use in my home office/gym or bedroom. But I'm sure they'd sell it as "not that you would, but you could..."

[GabeU]

I get exactly 19 OTA channels at the moment.  Right now I'm not getting PBS or Fox or any of the sub channels for those two.  The broadcast antennas are in a different direction from all of the others, and the Fox one is further away.  They sometimes comes in, and I can go out and turn the pole that the antenna is attached to in order to get them, but then I start losing some of the other channels.  Plus, in even in the lightest of rain I start losing Fox, so it's not even worth it.  Luckily, I get all the main ones (no sub channels) on DirecTV.  

Granted, some of those 20 channels are things I'd never watch and I'm not very familiar with, but I do get...

NBC, CBS, ABC, Antenna, Justice, Quest, Laff, Escape, Grit, CW, Bounce, MyTV, Stadium, Comet, GetTV, Independent (some MeTV), Heroes & Icons, MeTV and Daystar.

I have no doubt that with a better antenna I would get more channels, and better reception from the spotty ones.  I may even get a couple of channels out of Hamilton and Toronto.  I live on the side of a large hill that faces Buffalo and Toronto.