lol, i dont like the idea of tv ****.... people come over and it's like yeah.... i got tv ****.... it's not a good look when the ladies come over haha

 

I 2nd that emotion. Bay area over-the-air HD is really good, just plug in your cheap antenna and do a channel-scan. IMO, the HD picture is actually slightly better than Comcast, perhaps due to less signal degradation/splitting in my neighborhood.

I just turned my Comcast box back into those jackals this morning, rates kept going up. Even after threatening to leave them for DirecTV, they wouldn't extend my 6 month promotional price. Since when is $50 of revenue not better than $0/month to a business? But I digress...

 

what do you mean "YOU PEOPLE"

 

So those antenna will get you what kind of channels and it's FREE
?

 

believe it or not, what the people who created the standards for digitial tv (and HD is a subset of digital tv), they didnt decided to use a diff set of frequencies.

they decided to just use the current ones that analog was already using.

so, when i first got my HDTV set eons ago, i connected it to the rooftop antenna the house has had for over 20 years.

sure enough, i was able to pick up ABC. and back then they werent broadcasting HD stuff as much as today. i actually caught a few minutes of SHAVING PRIVATE RYAN (i remembered since i bought the set on a memorial day).

anyways, a bulk of all san fran bay area tv station are on the UHF frequencies (if you look on your tv set, anything on the channel 13-67). with the lone station of KNTV which broadcasts on 11-1 (and 11-2 and 11-3), as only VHF station.

so, if you live near MT SUTRO in SF or san bruno mountain, AND YOU HAVE A clear vision to it, you have a good chance of picking up a good majority of the tv stations.

which btw, the san fran bay area market, was the first to have all tv stations broadcast in digital.

more linkees to digital and HDTV:

http://www.choisser.com/xmtrs.html
http://www.choisser.com/sfonair.html

if you really want geeky, there is a yahoo group for san fran bay area HDTV users:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HDTV-in-SFbay/

LOTS AND LOTS of great info there. more that i can spew out.

 

i mean to use EWE, as the word for a female sheep. though it is pronounced as "you" also...

 

oh i forgot to answer this.

no, you wont be getting the CABLE channels, that some are getting now.

only OVER THE AIR stations, meaning those stations in the bay area. like KTVU, KNTV, KPIX, KGO, KBCW, KRON, etc.

so if you were getting ESPN on your HD set, that had a QAM tuner, that was a side benefit.

but then again, you would still had to be paying for basic cable fees for that to happen.

with OTA, it's free, well of course the cost of the antenna.

but dont be fooled into buying an antenna that is specifically marketed as an HDTV antenna. they are liars.

early on, i bought a $150 TERK antenna that was crap. glad i was able to return it. i ended up buying a $30 indoor one that still today, does the job.

 

I'm using a large outdoor one, old school one, and I live in union city and I get nearly EVERY OTA channel there is in the bay area.

 

oops...

i stand correct.

KNTV moved their transmitter location from loma prieta to MT SAN BRUNO so then went from 11-* to 12-*.

it used to be a pain to receive KNTV since the rabbit ears must be pointed at a precise angle or i lose it...

and in a weird thing, KGO, which operates on 24-*, will move over to VHF and resume broadcasting on 7-* once they turn off their analog transmitter.

but you say, leo, are you nuts, KGO on my digital tuner was coming in on 7-* already.

yes and no.

officially, KGO was given the 24-* frequency space. there is a weird thing called PSIP (program and system information protocol) that allows tv stations to psuedo send fake channel. it was a table that the tv then translates back to the proper channel.

for example, to pick up the main digital channel for KGO, you would tune to 24-1.

but you could also tune in 7-1, but there was a slight delay before it changes the channel to 24-1.

that's why when you first set up your HD TV, one of things asked is your zip code...

ahh, the good ol days before comcast HD and now, vista media center... lol...

 

yeah... a bunch of channels go moved around.... thats prob why i wasn't able to pick anything up till i did another auto search for channels. CW and action 36 has HD channels now... once was channel 11(tv guide) got moved all theway up to 1XX.XX (don't remeber the channel) but just from standard cable i'm getting 71 analog channels and 90 something digital channels... most of the digital channels are radio stations or music choice... but whatever... you get what you can get right?

 

forgot about this website, which lists evereything in the QAM area for my zip code of 94555

http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun...Postcode=94555

 

for the record, before WB merged with UPN, both channels in the bay area were already digital AND had HD content.

KICU, OTOH, was weird. they were one of the early DTV adapters, since they were the sister channel of KTVU. but somehow, their HD equipment sucks major ***** since they can only broadcast live HD program and not taped stuff...


booo....

comcast broadcasts ALL of the san fran FM stations. plus also have a bunch of music stations, which was kinda nice at the beginning.

 

my friends in MV used ot get Speed and Golf, above their basic 71 channels with no type of box, just wall cable.

channel eighty something and ninety something. It was cool since it was years ago when speed was good.

 

Gagen, is there a way to get sound to my AVR if I go the OTA route?

I have a tuner in the TV. TV is connect to AVR via HDMI.

 

unless your TV has an optical audio OUTPUT, then you are out of luck...

it has to be digital audio output. if you use the analog outputs, DD5.1 isnt passed through it.