Channel 99- ??

[carlosvic]

Playing around last night and saw that my guide showed several channels on 99- .......when I tuned in all I was getting was audio. Channels listed were USDTV????, ESPN, ESPN2, Food, HGTV. I got all excited thinking we were getting new HD content.

Anyone know what this is all about?

OK USDTV appears to be sometype of interactive channel. Its got several screens of different stations showing.

 

[cbearnm]

If you do a search for USDTV you will find many threads.

They are an over-the-air cable company (If that makes any sense).

Basically they are renting bandwidth from digital signals in many cities and people subscribe to their package of 'cable' programs using a $200 (or some say $100 now) receiver from WalMart. They are digital, but not HD by any means. At least in Albuquerque, they are all in the 99-xx subchannels. Quite irritating to have your HD signal compromised by the station selling off part of the HD signal to USDTV.

They have a 'summary' channel (99 or 99-1) that shows their current offerings. The rest are 'scrambled', at least to some degree. You don't have your location listed, but I would bet that they are preparing to launch in your area. Once they are running, all you will have is the multi-screen window.

 

[carlosvic]

Im in L.A. and already have those channels through Directv. So why would Directv use our bandwith for USDTV when they already offer those channels?

 

[carlosvic]

Wait......maybe I misunderstood your response. Are you saying that Im picking the signal up OTA?

 

[Hogarth]

Every channel with a dash in it is ATSC OTA.

 

[carlosvic]

I understand now.

I was just checking out their website. Right now it shows they are only broadcasting in three cities. They must be preparing to start up in L.A.

Funny though, Their website advertises that their content is HD but when you look at the line-up itself the only thing that is HD are some of the locals. Everything else is in SD

 

[Hogarth]

Yeah. They're weird.
Even though they broadcast in only a few places, you can get the receivers from Walmart virtually everywhere.

I love how one PDF on their web site says "Less for Less!"

I guess they feel they have a unique market niche.

Most of us 'round these parts don't like it. The big broadcasters are reselling portions of their bandwidth to USDTV, thus making less available for their own OTA broadcasts.

 

[cbearnm]

I understand now.

I was just checking out their website. Right now it shows they are only broadcasting in three cities. They must be preparing to start up in L.A.

Funny though, Their website advertises that their content is HD but when you look at the line-up itself the only thing that is HD are some of the locals. Everything else is in SD

Yes, USDTV's signal is picked up by your OTA receiver, making you think that maybe it is from D*, but as noted before, if the channels has a (-) in it, it is OTA.

That's how deceptive they are. Their ads imply that you are getting THEIR channels in HD, when actually, it would only be the locals that are transmitting HD, that you receive OTA. The channels they transmit are all SD.
Here in Albuquerque, we will probably not see WB or UPN in (true) HD due to the leasing of a large part of their bandwidth to USDTV.

Although some folks locally have found it to be a good cheap OTA HD receiver, without subscribing to their service, not that I would endorse that idea.