E* HD locals from OTA

[chrisw27]

Is E* first getting the HD locals from an OTA antenna, then rebroadcasting it as MPEG4?

 

[BFG]

in most cases, yes.

 

[chrisw27]

Ouch, so this means they're getting a compressed signal and compressing it even further so that it could be re-broadcasted to clients? Now I'm understanding why everyone's having so much problems and why NBC is always inconsistent with picture quality.

When I look at cable, the local picture quality is noticeably better on analog and HD channels. Do they get their feeds from better sources?

 

[kb7oeb]

Cable usually gets the same stream that goes out OTA, or they pick up the signal OTA. To offer cable a better picture than OTA the station would have to have encode another signal. I bet cable doesn't want a higher bandwidth feed anyway.

 

[Jim5506]

I thought Dish received locals by satellite uplink or by fiber optic feed.

 

[BFG]

they have to have fiber from the market to the location the channels get uplinked. But inside the market where that fiber hub is located dish could either have OTA antennas or the local station could send fiber to that hub.

 

[chrisw27]

Well, I was comparing my HD local Comcast feed with the HD local Satellite feed. E*'s was delayed 10 seconds, I was shocked. Looks like I'm going to use cable for my locals. Also, the HD E* feed sounded more raspy/thinner like it was re-encoded from the original sound format. Even the SD local feed was delayed 10 seconds.. does it really take long to re-transmit the feed? I compared network channels and there was no delay with E* vs cable.

 

[garys]

When you consider the distance the signal has to travel, I am really surprised it isn't longer. And just for your information, I get my locals OTA and when I still had cable hooked up, the cable signal was delayed about 7 seconds.