How to tune to sub channels directly?

[bryan27]

I still use the Zenith box in my basement home theater system. No HD TV, but it does output Dolby Digital, so it's far superior than the built-in analog stereo TV tuner.

I had mine before VOOM came out and used it until my VOOM channel map was corrected. Now I use it in the bedroom with a Dell monitor and speakers.

I think sub-channels are useful, it depends on what your station wants to do. One of our stations has a weather radar. Radar doesn't use much bandwidth as the picture has very little movement. In areas missing networks I've seen subchannels with WB and UPN programming.

Broadcast equipment is always improving. So a station running HD and a Sub-Channel with equipment from 2000 will generally look terrible, and a station doing the same but with 2005 equipment will generally look much better. The terrible looking station could add upgrades, but the cost isn't justified yet so they continue to pump out crap.

Hey Zombie, did you hear that WPXI will be cutting off it's analog signal in May? It was on their newscast several days ago.

 

[TheTimm]

Actually in pittsburgh PBS uses subchannel 2 (13-2) as its main broadcast. Although its just an HD loop that PBS runs and I can't imagine wanting to record it.. I would guess some other channels in other cities may do the same, although i'm not sure why.

I was only referring to the sub-channels that are used for weather radars and tower cameras and such. Here in Detroit the PBS sub-channel 56-2 is a broadcast of the analog channel that everyone can get OTA -- completely different programming from the digital channel 56-1 that requires a digital tuner. I like both of those channels.

 

[zombie]

Hey Zombie, did you hear that WPXI will be cutting off it's analog signal in May? It was on their newscast several days ago.

Considering all they (NBC) seem to run any more is law and order 3 times a night and it's in HD i guess it makes sense