OTA HD versus E* HD

[JH1949]

I am 65 miles away from Nashville OTA transmission towers and cannot receive any channels with a small amplified indoor antenna.

Also when I first had Voom a few years ago, they could not get any signal through the Channel Master 3010 StealthTenna with the 3038 amplifier.

I do not qualify for CBS-HD on my 61.5

My local Dish installer said he was able to get OTA HD at another customer by installing a 120 mile regular UHF-VHF antenna to overcome the hills and trees.

Before I shell out the money for OTA HD, can someone tell me how it looks compared to some of the Voom channels, like HDNews or Equator or Rave.

 

[mdonnelly]

Assuming you can get a signal over 70 for the digital stations on your E* receiver, OTA picture quality is better than what E* provides. Below 70, your picture will start to pixillate, or you'll get no picture at all.

Can't compare OTA to VOOM, but I have seen the same show on HDNET and OTA, and OTA was (marginally) better. That's saying something, because HDNET is VERY good.

 

[Bradtothebone]

I don't have VOOM, so I can't speak for that, but if your locals don't multicast and you can get a decent signal without dropouts, you will be very happy with the pictures. Of course they can only pass on what the networks send to them, so everyones' mileage varies somewhat.

That being said, there are other issues with OTA via Dish equipment that you should be aware of, which may or may not affect you. I suggest you read the support forums for your particular receiver to get more info, or consider investing in a stand-alone STB for OTA.

Brad

 

[Cyclone]

OTA is worth it not so much for the PQ, as much as the variety of programs that you can get in HD from the networks. A majority of the HD that I watch is OTA, just because of Sports, Dramas, Comedys, and all that good network stuff.

 

[RandallA]

I just got my first taste at HD last Saturday and OTA channels blow E* HD channels away. I've been watching the Baseball playoffs on FOX and I just can't stop saying WOW. Go for it, they are worthy.

 

[Minsk1]

I just got my first taste at HD last Saturday and OTA channels blow E* HD channels away. I've been watching the Baseball playoffs on FOX and I just can't stop saying WOW. Go for it, they are worthy.

First, let's not compare apples to oranges. I mean you cannot compare HD movie (very often it is just upconverts, and it is not E* fault) with live HD events.
For ex, live ESPN football on E* has the best PQ in my opinion. Only CBS football can be compared to that, ABC football is very close, Fox HD OTA is in last place.
Then if you compare shows, then TNT HD Law and Order series is close to NBC OTA HD Law and Order.
E* HD is very good when stations actually broadcast HD programs and not upconverts.
To replay to the original post - of course you should invest $40 for Channel Master 4228 and maybe another $50 for Channel Master Titan 7777 pre-amp and get thos HD OTA stations. This setup works for me just fine with two antennas in the attic (another one is a very cheap from Menards) combined with splitter. Cheap antenna easily gets Miwaukee (20 miles), 4228 gets Chicago (70 miles) for total of 34 OTA digital stations.
That is my opinion.

 

[colinbarton]

ota

ota is great. no reruns, and the network shows and sports are less generic. i have a winegard square shooter with their amplifier and my signal went from a 60% to a 90%. 75 miles might be too far unless you can get the antenna high. might be worth a try. my winegard is on the same mast as the dish which is on my apartment balcony. stations are 55 miles away. good luck.

 

[M Sparks]

ota is great. no reruns, and the network shows and sports are less generic.

You guys must get different networks where you live. Out here, we have ABC, CBS, NBC, ect. Lots of reruns, and every show seems the same. In fact, we get this one network that has the same dang show almost every night- they just do it in different cities.

OK, so My Name is Earl is OK, and the american version of The Office is getting better. Nice of NBC to put them on one after the other. And Medium is not bad. The only other thing we watch on network TV is Arrested Development, but Fox seems to have yanked it already, haven't seen it in weeks. So that means, out of 81 hours a week of the "big 4", we watch 2 1/2 hours.

And we don't get any of it in HD.

 

[Carl B]

If your local network affiliate doesn't multi-cast and you have a signal above 70, then their HD is equal to or better than HD from E*. E* does well with HDNET and HDNMV, but over the course of the past year they have played games with the signals on DiscoveryHD and particularly TNT-HD. As a result, those channels have breakups, freezes, and sound problems. E* was just trying to squeeze too much signal on too little bandwidth w/ those channels.

ESPN-HD is SD more than half the time, but they generally do a good job w/ Sunday Night NFL. However, they did better a couple of years ago on that PQ than they are doing now. I suspect they are pinching ESPN-HD's bandwidth as well.

Most network locals are doing a good job passing along the network HD. Live or taped shows are particularly impressive in PQ, plus they offer far more original programming than the 5 E* HD channels you pay $10/month for. I don't have VOOM and never did, so I can't comment on them.

If you can get OTA HD, do it!

 

[mattyo]

I live in Lebanon, TN and have an OTA installed in my attic so I get all the Local HD content out of Nashville (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, PBS). It is well worth the investment.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

In general OTA picture quality will always out do anything the SAT company's can provide. Not saying that OTA is perfect as it isnt....Bit starved broadcast due to multicastasting (sub channels) multi-path issue can make OTA for some a bad if not impossiable venture.BUT it is worth the try becasue as many have stated most of the HD you will get is FREE and comes from the networks.

So select you antenna and pre amp carefully...get a roatar and a tall mast (at least 15')...and think of it as a project and have some fun with it.

 

[jergenf]

Nashville   
  WNAB    WB    58.n   23 
  WUXP    UPN   30.n   21 
  WNPT    PBS    8.n   46 
  WCTE    PBS   22.n   52 
  WSMV    NBC    4.n   10 
  WNPX    PAX   28.n   36 
  WHTN    IND   39.n   38 
  WJFB    IND   66.n   44 
  WPGD    IND   50.n   51 
  WZTV    FOX   17.n   15 
  WTVF    CBS    5.n   56 
  WKRN    ABC    2.n   27

You're probably are going to need a deep fringe VHF/UHF antenna with 28db preamp because (WSMV) NBC station is in the VHF range and the (WTVF) CBS most likely will revert back to chan 5 after analog broadcast end transmission. (WCTE) will also revert back to 22 but that no big deal. 65 miles is just at max range for UHF and most of your digital channels reside there.

 

[JH1949]

Nashville   
  WNAB    WB    58.n   23 
  WUXP    UPN   30.n   21 
  WNPT    PBS    8.n   46 
  WCTE    PBS   22.n   52 
  WSMV    NBC    4.n   10 
  WNPX    PAX   28.n   36 
  WHTN    IND   39.n   38 
  WJFB    IND   66.n   44 
  WPGD    IND   50.n   51 
  WZTV    FOX   17.n   15 
  WTVF    CBS    5.n   56 
  WKRN    ABC    2.n   27

You're probably are going to need a deep fringe VHF/UHF antenna with 28db preamp because (WSMV) NBC station is in the VHF range and the (WTVF) CBS most likely will revert back to chan 5 after analog broadcast end transmission. (WCTE) will also revert back to 22 but that no big deal. 65 miles is just at max range for UHF and most of your digital channels reside there.

The installer is having trouble getting VHF NBC at another house so I asked him to look into a Channel Master 4248 or Winegard PR9032 or Winegard HD9095P. He suggested trying this as is to see if get all channels at 80-90 before looking into a preamp.

Also, I found out that if I turned the old Voom StealthTenna away from Nashville and aimed it at Bowling Green KY, could get their digital PBS and analog NBC. The digital NBC is in test mode at 500 watts and could not pickup for now, but expect to when they go to full power.

 

[jakesnake3037]

To replay to the original post - of course you should invest $40 for Channel Master 4228 and maybe another $50 for Channel Master Titan 7777 pre-amp and get thos HD OTA stations. This setup works for me just fine with two antennas in the attic (another one is a very cheap from Menards) combined with splitter. Cheap antenna easily gets Miwaukee (20 miles), 4228 gets Chicago (70 miles) for total of 34 OTA digital stations.
That is my opinion.

Just curious..Can I get a list of all those OTA stations!! Are Superstations OTA?

 

[waltinvt]

One thing to keep in mind. Although Dish provides the means to receive digital OTA on some of their receivers, it's not something they're likely to embrace.

In fact when you think about it, since Dish wants to sell you SD LiLs now and possibly HD LiLs in a few areas in the future, that makes them in direct competition with OTA.

Why should they go out of their way to improve OTA reception on their receivers if it's likely to infringe on the programming they sell? This might explain some of the problems their receivers have with OTA.

Almost any stand alone digital receiver will lock more signals and be less suceptable to multipath than either the 811 or 942.

 

[JohnC]

I live about 62 miles from the Atlanta stations with basically flat terrain (no close hills to looks over). I receive all of the Atlanta HD stations all of the time except for the low powered CBS HD station that I usually receive at night. However, I receive the New York CBS HD feed through E* and can not see any difference in the quality. I have a Winegard 9095HD antenna for UHF mounted about 4 feet above a 10 element Winegard high band (7-13) yagi for NBC 10 with a Channel Master Titan 777 preamp and remote control Channel Master rotar. The UHF antenna is mounted about 40 feet above ground level. This was a lot of work to install, but has worked very well. With E* about to offer the Atlanta HD locals, I certainly would not do it now.

 

[JH1949]

antenna only, Fox @ 90 on E* signal

28db preamp, ABC+PBS+PAX in mid 70's

28 db preamp WB in low 80's

28 db preamp did not help UPN+CBS from 50 - may be blocked by hills 1/2 mile down

installer to come back next week with another preamp about double above

 

[murf]

Being a retailer that also does a lot of antenna installs I can guarantee you that the OTA picture is much better than sat HD. The sat signal is compressed more than the antenna signal [90% of the time].