Recent content by Lifterguy

WTAE - the Pittsburgh ABC affiliate moved frequencies for their main signal last week and ran lots of announcements advising OTA viewers to rescan. Based on the number of stations that need to move to another frequency, I expect we'll be rescanning several more times over the next two years.

Your theory is correct. With only a limited amount of bandwidth, something needs to be compressed to fit multiple channels on a single channel allocation. To broadcast two channels in HD, they have to reduce the bitrate on both channels. A lower bit rate will look fine on pictures with little...

Pittsburgh's (PA) PBS station, WQED, has agreed to move from VHF High (13) to VHF Low (2). For decades, KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast on channel 2 in analog, prior to the digital conversion. They had a strong signal and wide coverage area. Will WQED face challenges broadcasting in digital on...

I have a friend with a Samsung TV connected to an antenna, and I do remember seeing a program guide on his TV as well. The guide would have to work off of PSIP - which usually limits how far into the future you can look. The accuracy of the guide depends on the station providing the correct...

Pittsburgh's WQED has announced they are adding PBS Kids to their subchannel line up. PBS Kids will be 13.5. (Main channel is 13.1, Create - 13.2, World Channel - 13.3, Showcase - 13.4) More choice is a good thing - I'm just hoping the picture quality won't suffer too much with that many...

For the 60 or so markets that have an ION station, ION's Qubo provides kids programs, and ION Life has some old HGTV / Food Network programs (mostly Canadian produced shows). ION Life is kind of an odd mix, with lots of scripted series mixed in with the lifestyle programs. The PBS Create...

Thanks Jay! You guys are going to get me to spend $400! ;)

I'm currently using a Tivo Premier for OTA viewing. It generally has worked well, with rock steady reception on most channels. Unfortunately I have a a few channels (2 or 3) where I occasionally get some break up - especially in the summer when the leaves are on the trees. I read comments...

My TVFool report is similar to the one shown here. I went with the GE Attic Antenna by Jasco - actually I ended up getting two of them. Both are in the attic. One is connected directly to my Tivo - no splitter, no amplifier - I wanted the Tivo to have the best possible signal. The other one...

Interesting. This might explain why Sinclair has held off adding any diginets to Pittsburgh's WPMY (22) - while sister station WPGH (53) has two sub-channels - GET and GRIT.

So, for anyone who cares, here's my update in my adventures with OTA reception and antennas: Before going to the trouble of mounting an outdoor antenna, I decided to try out some candidates in my attic first, where it would be easier to swap out and adjust antenna. I took one of the coax cables...

Thanks for all input. I had not considered the omni-directional, because I've always been skeptical of how well they work, but I'm giving that a little more consideration now. I need to make a final decision within the next few days, then it will probably take me another week or two to get it...

I dropped Dish and went with OTA/Netflix a couple of months ago. I have a Tivo Premier and I'm currently using a Winegard Sharpshooter (indoor) antenna that is on top of a tall cabinet in the living room of my 1 story house. It worked fine in the winter, but as I expected, I'm getting some...

Hi - just found this thread - interesting to know that I'm in good company. I had Dish Network for about 15 years, and really loved the Dish DVR (VIP 722). There are only two of us in the house, but we like to have the TV on in different room, so I was feeding the Dish box signal to all the...

This may be true. But if YOU don't like the price of the Turner bundle, then YOU could decide not to pay it - it takes your TV provider out of the equation. Right now we have forced bundling. In the ideal setup the consumer would be given the choice whether to buy a bundle or buy...