define OTA HDTV

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vsboxerboy

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I know that OTA HDTV channels are those that you can recieve over the air BUT my question is can I recieve channels that would come in OTA in HD through the my cable TV cable.

This is where I'm confused about OTA HDTV is it saying that I can only get HD channels that are broadcast over the air as in HD football etc but not HD HBO or whatever OR is it saying that whatever HD i want to see HAS to come from over an antenna which would require me to buy an HD antenna and stick it in my small ass room (college here so not only is space an issue but I move frequently).

baiscally boils down to do you need an antenna to get HDTV

my current setup is that we pay for cable in my house, I don't have a cable box in my room but the cable from the wall plugs into my pc via SD tuner and I get tv. If I were to get a HD tuner card and connect the same cable from the wall to the hd tuner card, would that work or would the card say "f u mehng"??
 
You would have to get a HD cable box from your carrier to get anything except local channels in HD.
 
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Yes but with a huge "but" to tag along and ruin the fun so I'm not even going to go into it.

So yeah, "no" would be the answer.
 
NOL1M1TMAN said:
You would have to get a HD cable box from your carrier to get anything except local channels in HD.
Click to expand...

wait wait wait.....so I CAN watch HD without a cable box so as long as its not local channels...I just really want to be able to watch football in HD which is local
 
fox, cbs, abc, nbc are the OTA channels, dont expect hbo, skinemax, showtime, or discovery hd to show up though.
 
maybe I'll just explain what I"m doing...

I have an hdtv... with an antenna plugged in (rabbit ears).
I get standard channels abc cbs nbc fox...
they all have HD channels as well.
I don't have cable.

If they don't come in over your antenna, you can always switch the input from your catv to the antenna. depends on the tv where that function is. mines right on the remote.
 
a lot cable companies have to broadcast the same channels as over the air, on their system in the QAM, and a lot of them run HD on these, do not count on getting paid for stations, but it may get you, the major networks; as long as you pay for cable, this is a legal way of getting hd. I would go over to avsforum and see if they have you local area in a thread, that woudl be the best way to learn what you are able to get.....
 
gjvrieze said:
a lot cable companies have to broadcast the same channels as over the air, on their system in the QAM, and a lot of them run HD on these, do not count on getting paid for stations, but it may get you, the major networks; as long as you pay for cable, this is a legal way of getting hd. I would go over to avsforum and see if they have you local area in a thread, that woudl be the best way to learn what you are able to get.....
Click to expand...


Interesting fact to backup part of your post...

The cable companies by LAW have to carry local affiliates. They have to, they have absolutely no choice. But there is no law that says that local affiliates can't charge for that either. Just outside my area in the next county, they are serviced by Mediacom. Mediacom is refusing to pay for the feed from one of the local affiliates, so that channel will no longer be available on their cable system. Locally it would be the Fox network, however, in other areas it would be the CBS affiliate

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6388451.html


I didn't initially know about this until a friend of mine that happens to be incharge of the HD service and high speed internet in my area for Cox told me about this. Funny thing is, he lives in Mediacom's serviceable area, and he has to put up with no Fox and he's pissed about missing sports.

Some of your local affiliates may not be broadcasting in HD yet, as they could have filed for all kinds of extensions with the FCC, so check first.
 
gjvrieze said:
a lot cable companies have to broadcast the same channels as over the air, on their system in the QAM, and a lot of them run HD on these, do not count on getting paid for stations, but it may get you, the major networks; as long as you pay for cable, this is a legal way of getting hd. I would go over to avsforum and see if they have you local area in a thread, that woudl be the best way to learn what you are able to get.....
Click to expand...
This doesn't mean they don't encrypt the QAM HD broadcast. Trying to use QAM is kind of like asking your GF for anal; you get lucky or you really get screwed but no PVR app supports QAM recording due to the proprietary nature of it so you're left using the crappy bundled apps.
 
I get a bunch of HD channels with my digital hd box through my cable provider. I get the normal OTA ones (but over the wire now), plus I get all the 'special' HD channels (such as discovery, starzHD, espnHD, etc). It only costed about $7 more per month than a regular SD digital cable box.
 
alright so what I'm getting is that trying to get HDTV through MCE (esp vista media center) even if all I want is the local channels in HD without the use of an amplified antenna.................I'm basically screwed as the only way to get that would be through a QAM tuner which arent good right??
 
Yes and no, it's not that QAM tuners aren't good. It's that MCE doesn't support QAM nor does any PVR app for the most part. So even if all of your local HD channels (same as OTA) are unencrypted you still wouldn't be able to tune them in MCE over QAM.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Yes and no, it's not that QAM tuners aren't good. It's that MCE doesn't support QAM nor does any PVR app for the most part. So even if all of your local HD channels (same as OTA) are unencrypted you still wouldn't be able to tune them in MCE over QAM.
Click to expand...

boo :(

ugggh this lack of HDTV in media center is reaaally killing me (and I'm sure alot of other people). It's just way too inconvenient to install an external antenna, deal with reception etc, and worst of all is running cables and trying to keep it neat.

Vista really needs to support HDTV through either QAM or CableCARD or I might cry/punch babies
 
vsboxerboy said:
boo :(

ugggh this lack of HDTV in media center is reaaally killing me (and I'm sure alot of other people). It's just way too inconvenient to install an external antenna, deal with reception etc, and worst of all is running cables and trying to keep it neat.

Vista really needs to support HDTV through either QAM or CableCARD or I might cry/punch babies
Click to expand...

It will support CableCARD - but it will be a limited engagement hardware-wise starting with OEMs.
 
Getting reception of local HDTV channels isn't a big deal with a small indoor antenna if you live close enough to the broadcast antennas. I'm about 15-20 miles from mine, and I could use a coat hanger for good reception on most of my OTA HD channels.

Try out antenna web and see what kind of antenna they recommend for your area. Unless your quite a ways from the broadcast location, an indoor antenna will serve you well.
 
vsboxerboy said:
boo :(

ugggh this lack of HDTV in media center is reaaally killing me (and I'm sure alot of other people). It's just way too inconvenient to install an external antenna, deal with reception etc, and worst of all is running cables and trying to keep it neat.
Click to expand...
Thank Hollywood and CableLabs for that one (especially Hollywood).
Vista really needs to support HDTV through either QAM or CableCARD or I might cry/punch babies
Click to expand...
Vista will have to support QAM since it supports CableCARD cause thats how CC tunes its channels but like Chris said if you want to use CableCARD then you're going to have to buy an OEM system that supports it. For a system to work with a CableCARD it's going to need a special driver only available from MS to certain approved vendors and then it's going to need a special mobo with the right toggle on it.

Of course the whole process is suppose to be a way to shut up everybody that wants actual real HD content; they can go "here, look. If you want this material you're going to have to do what we want you to do." and then when adoption rate is low due to all of the hurdles people will have to jump through in order to watch HBO or ESPN in HD they can pronounce the whole thing an utter failure and that people don't actually want HD. They've done it before, they'll do it again.
 
I used to live in an apartment that is 30-40 miles from the local tower (Sutro in SF).
I wasn't able to get jack OTA with the antenna from ATI's HDTV Blunder.
I bought a Fushion USB 5 Gold and was able to get the local's through the cable line via QAM. Recording TV with that app is like using a VCR, you manually schedule it from time slot to time slot. I bought a MyHD MD130 card because I heard the Cliff Watson Project makes recording scheduling easier. That ap is a big improvement over Fushion. But watching it on my desktop live is not that great. I prefer to record then watch with VLC or Windows Media player with the MyHD card. If I want to watch football live I usually use my 2nd system with the Fushion USB HD tuner.

Since I moved to a house with an Antenna on the roof I get HD OTA. I switched the Antenna to a Channel Master 4228. If you got a balcony or can mount an Antenna I serious look into it. The PQ is slightly better and I get 100% signal strength on all the local OTA HD channels. Plus I get CW and a few others that the local Comcast didn't have in QAM.
 
JonDoms said:
Since I moved to a house with an Antenna on the roof I get HD OTA. I switched the Antenna to a Channel Master 4228. If you got a balcony or can mount an Antenna I serious look into it. The PQ is slightly better and I get 100% signal strength on all the local OTA HD channels. Plus I get CW and a few others that the local Comcast didn't have in QAM.
Click to expand...

I currently use a Channel Master 4221 for my ota HDTV reception in my apartment. This is the 4 bay version of the 4228. It's small enough that I have it behind a bookshelf to where you can't even see it. Where I used to live I had it in my window behind the blinds that I never opened. The point is, they are small enough that you can use them indoors if you need to, and you are in a HDTV market that mainly uses UHF.
 
hardwarephreak said:
Interesting fact to backup part of your post...

The cable companies by LAW have to carry local affiliates. They have to, they have absolutely no choice. But there is no law that says that local affiliates can't charge for that either. Just outside my area in the next county, they are serviced by Mediacom. Mediacom is refusing to pay for the feed from one of the local affiliates, so that channel will no longer be available on their cable system. Locally it would be the Fox network, however, in other areas it would be the CBS affiliate

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6388451.html


I didn't initially know about this until a friend of mine that happens to be incharge of the HD service and high speed internet in my area for Cox told me about this. Funny thing is, he lives in Mediacom's serviceable area, and he has to put up with no Fox and he's pissed about missing sports.

Some of your local affiliates may not be broadcasting in HD yet, as they could have filed for all kinds of extensions with the FCC, so check first.
Click to expand...


haha good ol sinclair media, one of the major execs of that company was a major contributor to my old school

i was in des moines for thanksgiving and mediacom ran this sappy ad about how sinclair was taking advantage of mediacom and refusing to sign another contract with the same terms as the last one....i kinda laughed a bit but I didn't realize they were bound by law lol
 
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