A Gadget Story

[techieMoe]

This past weekend I decided to treat myself and buy a new TV. I'd been using my trusty 21" Sony Trinitron Wega for about 5 or 6 years now and it's performed admirably. I had no intention of replacing it until it died, but I came across a decent deal for a 32" LCD HDTV at my local Sam's Club (think Costco, my Yankee brethren), so I decided to take the plunge. It cost me $699 USD.

My girlfriend had recently also bought this particular kind of TV and we'd both been unexpectedly impressed by it, particularly since neither of us had ever heard of the brand (Vizio). I hooked up my Wii to it via my component video cables and it looked great.

Sunday evening I was bored and looking for something relatively cheap to really let my TV flex its muscles. I ran by my local Target and picked up an indoor UHF/VHF antenna (bunny ears) that claimed it supported HDTV broadcasts. I was intrigued but doubtful that I would get a decent signal at my house. It was just $27 USD, and I could always return it if it didn't work, so I figured what the heck.

I took the antenna home, hooked it up, did some tweaking of the various inputs, and set my TV to "auto-scan" for channels. I left it to do its thing while I surfed a bit on the web. Suddenly my TV sparked to life.

I was watching the local CBS station's HDTV broadcast of the Super Bowl. It was free, over the air, digital, and in 1080i HD. Needless to say I was shocked. I flipped around to other channels. Almost all of my local channels (NBC, ABC, CBS, UPN and FOX) were broadcasting simultaneously in analog and either 720p or 1080i HD.

I spent a few minutes enjoying the last 10 minutes of X-Men 2 on FOX. I was surprised to see that the picture quality looked at least on par with one of my fullscreen DVDs, and this was over the air. It was an interesting evening. I look forward to watching CSI and House, M.D this week and comparing the image quality to my analog satellite signal.

Oh, and an epilogue: my Trinitron is still performing great for my little brother now, and I expect it to continue to do so for some years to come.

[likwid]

That's insane! I had no idea HD could be done through the air.

[techieMoe]

That's insane! I had no idea HD could be done through the air.

Neither did I! It was quite a nice surprise.

[Vergil83]

Now you will be able to see every hair of stubble on House!

[techieMoe]

Just a little update: this past weekend I purchased the same antenna for my girlfriend and got her up and running in HD, as well as her neighbors (who had an antenna already but didn't know how to hook it up properly).

It's interesting how few people are aware that you can obtain HDTV for free over the air. I know I wasn't. I wonder if the subscription services are suppressing this knowledge or if it's just due to HDTV being such a new technology?

[bigtomrodney]

Timely then that this article should front page digg.com - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17080800/site/newsweek/

A buddy of mine in the states is getting his the same way. Unfortunately the only HD providers at the moment here in Ireland are Sky. The usual combination of proprietary hardware at €300+ per box and of course a subscription increase of €10 per month.

I think I'll wait until they get desperate and start giving the boxes out for free.

[towel401]

Yup HDTV can be done over the air. They have different standards over there though.

Here in yurop we got a DVB-S receiver box, there are hdtv channels but my box can't receive them. It is only a cheap thing, but then I don't really care because I only have a 21" CRT from LIDL I havn't gotten into the whole HDTV fad at all - not a big tv fan

Some of the satellite HDTV channels are free, but you need an expensive (doesn't have to be Sky) DVB receiver. Sky is a load of **** anyway. way too much money to pay for watching the box and a lot of the channels are available free. I get BBC, ITV, Al Jazeera, if I tilt the dish I can get a shitload of german channels and regional dutch channels

Sky are now boasting they have Channel 4 - The channel that for a few months of the year, broadcasts nothing but big brother or big brother-related crap. I remember something about they having to stop their web based service for a few days because someone cracked their stupid Windows Rights Management they put on their shows

[maclinwin]

Analog TV is due to phase out very quickly. FCC wants to sell the bandwidth. Digital broadcast use less spectrum.

With any digital signal, it pretty much there or it isn't, unlike analog where the quality of the signal degrades incrementally.

We get our local channels on Dish these days for a $1/channel month.

Wifey watches local. Me,...the food channel or DVD.

[techieMoe]

Analog TV is due to phase out very quickly. FCC wants to sell the bandwidth. Digital broadcast use less spectrum.

Yes, last I heard it was set for 2009, thereabouts.

[bigtomrodney]

Some of the satellite HDTV channels are free, but you need an expensive (doesn't have to be Sky) DVB receiver.

Another Irishman....Howerya. Do you have any links or information about getting HD without a Sky subscription? My searches haven't been that successful.