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Over the air HDTV: report
I recently plunked down $650 to be able to get HDTV. That includes
$290 Polaroid 19" LCD HDTV, $180 Samsung HDTV set top box, $70 for an HDTV indoor antenna, and a whopping $65 for a special cable called an HDMI cable (in addition to tax). I watched some OTA HDTV tonight, and was disappointed. Many programs are not yet in full HDTV, including ABC World News. This results in blank space on the sides. Some commercials are in standard def, which on HDTV makes additional blank space on the top and bottom, giving an effect of the signal "floating" on a sea of darkness. Furthermore, the signal was jerky, like streaming internet video, with frequent pixelation. I even lost the signal for a few seconds, after which I checked to see if there was a "trip wire" in the settings that I could turn down or off. I once had a Panasonic TV that would give you a blue screen if the signal got too low. That I could turn off; this I can't. If the signal gets too low with the Samsung STB, it will give you a "weak signal" screensaver. Some stations are squeezing two signals on one HDTV channel. In two cases, the second channel is a 24/7 weather channel with local weather reports; in a third case the Fox station has a music video service called "The Tube" on their second channel. The PBS station has an amazing THREE stations on one channel! One is their regular channel, one is a second channel that is usually available only on cable, and a third is V-me, a PBS service for Latinos in Spanish. The Univision (Spanish language) channel supposedly has an HDTV service, but there's nothing there. Some reports have said that HDTV from different cities is available in Sacramento; my antenna won't pick it up. I suppose that if I had an outdoor antenna on a pole I'd get it. Two channels, including a local weather channel and the HDTV signal of a second tier station, are weak and keep cutting out. If this is HDTV after years of government pressure and millions spent, it's clearly not ready for prime time so to speak. Hopefully by switch time they'll have ironed out the bugs. My setup at first wouldn't pick up several stations with the slew buttons; I had to download an HDTV channel list off the net, then manually enter those stations into memory. Even more confusing, the Samsung box lists channels not by their HDTV assignment, but by their standard def channel, a hyphen, and a subchannel, ex. 6-1, 6-2, and 6-3 instead of Channel 53. You can USE the HD channel, but it switches you right back to this hyphenated system on the display. I suppose this is to ease the transition, and to allow subchannels, but you are left not only with two channel numbers for one station but something less than true HDTV, since stations force two or three services onto one HD channel. I doubt that was the FCC's intention. I suspect that when people realize that they're being forced into HDTV- with beaucoup dollar amounts required to switch-only to get standard def, they'll be mad. I'm an electronics geek anyway, so for me it was worth it. But Joe Sixpack will spend this sort of outlay and find his HD experience reduced so that his local TV station can bring him 24 hour weather or music videos, and start talking a blue streak. |
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