Welcome, Anonymous  •  Sign In  •  Register  •  Help

OTA HD & Antennas

4K Ultra HD Codecs & Compression Standards

HDTV Expert - SMPTE Fall Technology Conference: UHDTV Symposium - Pete Putman

The SMPTE Fall Technology Conference featured a one-day technical symposium on next-generation image formats, including a presentation titled 'UHDTV: The Big Picture on Bigger Pictures' examining Ultra High Definition Television technology. The symposium addressed the broader landscape of pixel density, image quality, and format advancements, separating verified technical claims from speculation. Attendees gained practical insight into where UHDTV stands relative to competing next-gen formats and what those differences mean for real-world display and broadcast applications.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Blu-ray Streaming HD OTA HD & Antennas

HDTV Expert - TV, Over The Air and Everywhere!

Aereo's antenna-based internet rebroadcasting service has drawn legal threats from CBS and Fox, who demand retransmission fees despite losing two court battles, while the NFL's silence on Aereo carrying its games without rights payments raises pointed questions about selective enforcement. Nielsen data shows Blu-ray disc adoption grew 14% year-over-year in 2012, yet streaming faces serious reliability problems, with Conviva's analysis of 22 billion video streams finding 60% experienced quality degradation including re-buffering, slow startup, and low bit-rate picture quality. For consumers, the choice between physical media and streaming remains a genuine trade-off between convenience and consistent playback quality.

Pete Putman •
Columns
OTA HD & Antennas Home Theater

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #580: Mohu Sky HDTV Antenna

The Mohu Sky HDTV Antenna, a 23 x 11 inch multi-directional outdoor antenna rated for a 60-mile range, incorporates military-derived technology alongside a 15dB integrated amplifier and Clean Peak filter for low-noise digital signal amplification. In a non-ideal temporary installation outside a bedroom window, it pulled in 31 digital channels including upper UHF band signals and stations beyond the rated 60-mile range from San Diego and Mexico. For cord-cutters seeking a compact, easy-to-install outdoor antenna without professional setup, it outperforms larger alternatives at its $170 price point.

The HT Guys •
Podcasts
4K Ultra HD OTA HD & Antennas HDMI

HDTV Expert - 4K: HDTV Redux? - by Pete Putman

4K acquisition and display technology faces a convergence of familiar challenges, including a live 4K baseball broadcast in Japan transmitted at 120 Mb/s and Fox Sports deploying Sony F65 cameras for NFL referee reviews. On the consumer side, Hisense's XT-880 series targets 50- to 65-inch screens at CES 2013, while HDMI remains bottlenecked at 8 Gb/s, struggling to deliver 3840x2160 content above 30 Hz - a gap that DisplayPort at 17.2 Gb/s and an emerging HDMI 2.0 specification aim to close.

Pete Putman •
Columns
3DTV OTA HD & Antennas Sports

NBC Olympics & Panasonic Announce Nearly 80 Percent Of U.S. TV Households Will Receive High-Definition 3D Broadcast Feed Of The London 2012 Olympic Games

NBC Olympics and Panasonic are delivering the first-ever 3D broadcast of the Olympic Games to nearly 80 percent of U.S. TV households, with approximately 242 hours of Full HD 3D content distributed across major cable, satellite, and telco providers including Comcast, DirecTV, and Verizon. Captured using Panasonic's twin-lens Full HD 3D camera recorder systems, the next-day-delay programming covers 12 hours daily and spans events from gymnastics to track and field. Viewers with compatible 3D televisions can relive Olympic highlights in a format previously unavailable for the Games.

Shane Sturgeon •
Bulletins
Politics & Policy OTA HD & Antennas

HDTV Almanac - More U.S. Households Rely on TV Broadcasts

Over-the-air television reliance in the U.S. has grown to nearly 18% of TV households, with a GfK Media study showing approximately 7 million additional viewers dropping subscription services, bringing the exclusive over-the-air audience to more than 20 million. The shift is attributed to a combination of consumer cost-cutting and migration toward broadband-based streaming alternatives. Any FCC spectrum auction or reassignment must account for this substantial population that depends on free broadcast signals for access to information.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
Politics & Policy OTA HD & Antennas Standards

HDTV Almanac - Supreme Court Throws Out FOX and ABC Sanctions

The Supreme Court struck down FCC sanctions against ABC and FOX, including a $1.2 million penalty against ABC for nudity in an 'NYPD Blue' episode, ruling that the agency failed to provide fair warning about its 'fleeting expletive' enforcement rules before the incidents occurred. The narrow ruling leaves First Amendment questions unresolved and may also invalidate the FCC's half-million dollar fine against NBC stemming from the Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime incident. With a backlog of 1.5 million indecency complaints and ongoing tension between broadcast and subscription-based cable standards, further Supreme Court review appears likely.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
Standards 3DTV OTA HD & Antennas

Ed's View - What's Wrong with 3DTV

3DTV adoption has stalled due to premature commercialization, with industry bodies including CEA, SMPTE, and ATSC failing to establish standards before products reached consumers. The lack of finalized 3DTV standards means that fixes for the existing installed base cannot be delivered via firmware updates, creating potential legal and financial exposure for manufacturers. For consumers who already purchased 3DTV hardware, the absence of coordinated industry standards signals continued underperformance and limited content growth in the near term.

Ed Milbourn •
Columns
Cable HD Streaming HD OTA HD & Antennas

HDTV Almanac - Olympic Online Coverage Will Include Every Event

NBC will stream all 302 Summer Olympic medal events online, totaling an estimated 3,500 hours of coverage, but access requires an existing cable, satellite, or telco subscription that includes CNBC and MSNBC. Supported platforms include computers, smartphones, and tablets, making it broadly accessible for authenticated subscribers. This authentication model mirrors rumored plans by Hulu to require TV subscriber validation, signaling a broader industry shift toward pay-TV-gated access for major broadcast content online.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
OTA HD & Antennas Standards

HDTV Almanac - Stations Must Reveal Political Television Ad Data

New FCC rules passed Friday require television broadcasters to post political advertising rates on a public website, but the mandate initially applies only to the 200 largest stations affiliated with ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, leaving roughly 1,800 stations exempt for at least two years. Broadcasters had proposed disclosing aggregate figures broken down by candidate, but the FCC rejected that compromise in favor of specific rates paid. The practical effect remains uncertain, as legal challenges from television networks appear likely before the rules take effect.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
OTA HD & Antennas Home Theater

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #528: Mohu Leaf Plus Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna

The Mohu Leaf Plus Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna builds on its predecessor with USB-powered amplification and an extended reception range of 50 miles, compared to 40 miles for the standard Leaf. In real-world testing 20 miles from Los Angeles TV towers, the Leaf Plus found 38 digital channels versus 31 with the original, and delivered a more stable lock on previously unreliable signals. At $73.99 versus $35.99 for the standard model, the amplified version is the practical choice for viewers living 31 to 50 miles from transmitters or those who prefer a discreet behind-the-TV placement.

The HT Guys •
Podcasts
OTA HD & Antennas

HDTV Almanac - Death Spiral for Broadcast TV?

Free over-the-air television viewership in the U.S. dropped to just 5.8 million homes by Q3 2011, a decline of more than 7% year-over-year, as smaller broadcast stations struggle to attract advertisers and lack the retransmission fee leverage that larger networks use to offset revenue losses. The remaining audience skews elderly, rural, and low-income, demographics that hold little appeal for major advertisers, accelerating the negative feedback loop of declining ad dollars and shrinking reach. Whether a national broadband mandate could replace over-the-air broadcasting as a public access baseline is a policy question that demands urgent, deliberate discussion.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
Standards OTA HD & Antennas

Ed's View: Higher Definition?

Bandwidth constraints, not production capability, are the primary barrier to distributing 4K/UHDTV (2160p) or SHDTV (4320p) content in real time, particularly as 4G spectrum demand crowds out available airwaves. A promising alternative approach based on image 'modeling' would transmit compact model codes rather than full resolution data, with image accuracy determined by channel bandwidth rather than intrinsic resolution. This method requires quantum memory systems estimated at roughly 1K orders of magnitude beyond current consumer storage, with commercial viability projected 10 to 15 years out.

Ed Milbourn •
Columns
OTA HD & Antennas Streaming HD Smart TVs

HDTV Almanac - Smack-Down for Aereo?

Aereo, a cloud-based service enabling subscribers to access over-the-air broadcast TV via individually assigned remote antennas and a cloud DVR, faces simultaneous federal lawsuits filed in the Southern District of New York by major broadcasters including Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS. The service argues that consumers are legally entitled to receive broadcast signals via antenna and record content for personal use, positioning its technology as an extension of existing DVR rights. How courts rule on the individual antenna model could determine whether cloud-based broadcast TV delivery is legally viable.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
OTA HD & Antennas Satellite HD Cable HD

HDTV Almanac - After Midnight: More Retransmission Disputes

A retransmission consent dispute between New Young Broadcasting and Time Warner Cable over ABC affiliate stations WBAY-TV and a companion Albany outlet reached its February 29 deadline without resolution, prompting both parties to extend negotiations by one week to March 7. Rather than immediately triggering a blackout, the broadcaster advised viewers that free over-the-air reception remains available, while also pointing to DirecTV and DISH Network as alternatives. The standoff illustrates how carriage fee negotiations increasingly leave consumers caught between broadcasters and pay-TV providers fighting to protect shrinking revenue streams.

Alfred Poor •
Columns