Do we even need terrestrial broadcast TV anymore?

[KEVIN_224]

I've received both Hartford and Springfield stations from South Windsor.  With the right antenna it's not too difficult.

I received WGGB-TV (ABC) channel 40 a grand total of ONCE in New Britain. I never received channel 22 (NBC) or 57 (PBS) in the Hardware City's south end whatsoever. I'd say South Windsor would be roughly halfway between New Britain and Springfield? (Hard to say for sure, since I-91 and Amtrak don't go through that town!)

[renegade]

I think we need terrestrial TV.  I'm watching it right now. It's a totally free service, courtesy of We The People, as it should be, just like radio.  If you want to pay for cable or satellite, that's perfectly fine, but if we let terrestrial TV go away, we're never going to be able to get it back.  I remain skeptical about streaming as an alternative.

* This is true so long as private companies decide to own and operate stations.

* All TV signals are "streamed".  The program feed leaves master control on a microwave uplink or on a fibre line to the transmitter.  The only difference is that microwave connections are circuit-switched and a fibre signal is packet-switched.

No.  When I say "streaming,"  I am referring to Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV+, Disney+, HBO+ and things like that, not linear OTA broadcasts.  They are not the same thing.

So what do consider IPTV to be?  Streaming or not streaming?

Still streaming.  If it doesn't come off an antenna and comes through the Internet, it's streaming.  My experience with Internet TV is that it's not as reliable.  I have 200+MB internet, and streaming is still filled with errors and buffering issues.

I still don't see a problem with having (and using) a totally free service, which is where this thread started.  I also believe that any service that has a "+" in the name is a minus for me.

Just my two cents.

[kphoger]

I think we need terrestrial TV.  I'm watching it right now. It's a totally free service, courtesy of We The People, as it should be, just like radio.  If you want to pay for cable or satellite, that's perfectly fine, but if we let terrestrial TV go away, we're never going to be able to get it back.  I remain skeptical about streaming as an alternative.

* This is true so long as private companies decide to own and operate stations.

* All TV signals are "streamed".  The program feed leaves master control on a microwave uplink or on a fibre line to the transmitter.  The only difference is that microwave connections are circuit-switched and a fibre signal is packet-switched.

No.  When I say "streaming,"  I am referring to Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV+, Disney+, HBO+ and things like that, not linear OTA broadcasts.  They are not the same thing.

So what do consider IPTV to be?  Streaming or not streaming?

Still streaming.  If it doesn't come off an antenna and comes through the Internet, it's streaming.  My experience with Internet TV is that it's not as reliable.  I have 200+MB internet, and streaming is still filled with errors and buffering issues.

I still don't see a problem with having (and using) a totally free service, which is where this thread started.  I also believe that any service that has a "+" in the name is a minus for me.

Just my two cents.

The reason I asked is that it's kind of a fine line between the two, and not necessarily commonsense.  For example, Contour service from Cox has two very similar options (among many):

1.  Have one wired host box and one or more wired client boxes elsewhere in the house.  The host box gets its information from the coax outlet, which gets its information from the coax drop running to your house from the mainline.  The client boxes get their information from the host box over your house's coax wiring by way of DSG tunneling (two-way multimedia traffic over coax lines).  This is how "normal" whole-home cable works.

2.  Have one wired DOCSIS 3.1 Panoramic gateway modem and one or more wired client boxes elsewhere in the house.  The modem gets its information from the coax outlet, which gets its information from the coax drop running to your house from the mainline.  The client boxes get their information from the modem over your house's coax wiring by way of DSG tunneling  (two-way multimedia traffic over coax lines).  This is how IPTV whole-home cable works if you don't have wireless boxes.

The only difference between those two options is that #1 has a cable box as the host while #2 has a modem as the host.  But, either way, it's coax all the way from the mainline to your TV in the other room, and it's the same channels and same programming either way.  (Edited to add:  In fact, the exact same model of client box can be used in either scenario.)  It seems like a rather arbitrary distinction to make–that #1 is "streaming" but #2 is not.

[jp the roadgeek]

I've received both Hartford and Springfield stations from South Windsor.  With the right antenna it's not too difficult.

I received WGGB-TV (ABC) channel 40 a grand total of ONCE in New Britain. I never received channel 22 (NBC) or 57 (PBS) in the Hardware City's south end whatsoever. I'd say South Windsor would be roughly halfway between New Britain and Springfield? (Hard to say for sure, since I-91 and Amtrak don't go through that town!)

In Southington, none of the Springfield stations come in.  If any were to, it would be WWLP, whose transmitter is on Provin Mountain in Feeding Hills, about 5 miles north of the CT/MA border.  I do, however, get Channel 8 and 59 fairly well.  At the office in Windsor (which I would say is halfway between New Britain and Springfield), the antenna we have only picks up 3, 19, 20, 24/65, 26, 30, and 61.  None of the Springfield stations come in.  WGBY is available on cable north of New Haven, and only Cox in Enfield carries WGGB. 

[ET21]

I cut cable and use a 4K over the air antenna to grab all the local news and over the air channels. Works great!

[bandit957]

Incidentally, reception got even worse a couple months ago when all the stations had to switch frequencies. I had just gotten a new TV, which worked great before then. When the stations switched, I lost half the stations.

[SP Cook]

I cut cable and use a 4K over the air antenna to grab all the local news and over the air channels. Works great!

Except that there is no OTA broadcasting in 4K in the United States. 

[coolkevs]

Reception is bad during rain/snow storms, but overall, I don't miss shucking out $100+/month for cable. We have 40+ channels at last count, although home shopping channels could go away.

[renegade]

Incidentally, reception got even worse a couple months ago when all the stations had to switch frequencies. I had just gotten a new TV, which worked great before then. When the stations switched, I lost half the stations.

There's a lot of work involved in TV stations changing frequencies (the TV Repack), and some stations have to operate on reduced power temporarily.  The stations you may be missing should return to full power in the coming weeks, and should return.

[vdeane]

Incidentally, reception got even worse a couple months ago when all the stations had to switch frequencies. I had just gotten a new TV, which worked great before then. When the stations switched, I lost half the stations.

Oddly enough, I had the opposite experience.  Of course, my reception of high-band UHF was always spotty at best (it ranged from "significant re-positioning of the antenna" in winter to "don't even bother trying to watch" in summer), so I'm more than happy it's essentially gone here.  A lot of stations went from unreliable/not able to watch at all to loud and clear.

On the other hand, I get our low VHF station, which has a reputation for being hard to receive (to the point that CBS is both channel 6.1 and 45.3), just fine.

[kphoger]

Incidentally, reception got even worse a couple months ago when all the stations had to switch frequencies. I had just gotten a new TV, which worked great before then. When the stations switched, I lost half the stations.

I had the opposite experience. 

Different antennas and different antenna positions work better for different frequencies.  I suspect that, if the two of you swapped antennas, you'd likely also swap experiences.

[jp the roadgeek]

Incidentally, reception got even worse a couple months ago when all the stations had to switch frequencies. I had just gotten a new TV, which worked great before then. When the stations switched, I lost half the stations.

I really didn't notice a difference, except that one station (WFSB) reduces power for about a month before the repack, then it was back to normal once the repack took place.  I actually gained 6 stations because WHPX moved its transmitter from Montville (about 40 miles from me) to Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington (about 7 miles from me). 

[vdeane]

Incidentally, reception got even worse a couple months ago when all the stations had to switch frequencies. I had just gotten a new TV, which worked great before then. When the stations switched, I lost half the stations.

I had the opposite experience. 

Different antennas and different antenna positions work better for different frequencies.  I suspect that, if the two of you swapped antennas, you'd likely also swap experiences.

It's worth noting that I live in a ground floor apartment very prone to multipath interference.  High band UHF won't reach my apartment with reliability no matter what.  I even talked to an antenna salesman once and they basically said that the antenna I have now is the best I can do (actually, they were amazed I could pick up anything at all).  They said the only antenna they had that would even otherwise match what I could pick up would cause me to lose CBS.

[KEVIN_224]

For those in greater Hartford: "Channel 19" is actually WVIT-TV channel 30-3, but with the TV displaying "19-1" for Telemundo (and then "19-2", really 30-4, for Telexitos). Similar happens with WTNH-TV (ABC) channel 8 of New Haven carrying WCTX-TV (MY) channel 59 on 8-3, with the TV displaying "59-1".

[Beltway]

With a good pointable outdoor antenna you can get stations 50 to 70 miles away and clearly.

[ftballfan]

With a good pointable outdoor antenna you can get stations 50 to 70 miles away and clearly.

My great-grandma, who lived near Onekama, MI, had a pointable outdoor antenna aimed east at the locals. She could get the entire set of local stations pointed that way as well as a duplicate PBS off the side. In the analog days, NBC was 20-25 miles east, CBS/FOX/PBS were 40-45 miles ESE, and ABC was 60 miles ENE (the second PBS was 20 miles SSW). In the digital era, there is a good chance a similar antenna could get all the locals, despite NBC and PBS relocating to the same tower as the ABC (NBC and ABC are co-owned in the market and placed a translator with NBC on .1 and ABC on .2 where NBC's analog signal broadcast from)

[KEVIN_224]

I had to look it up, as I have never heard of it.

https://goo.gl/maps/evDL4U1gAVX7xDhK8

[ozarkman417]

With more and more content that would usually be watched using a TV being available in the Internet, I don't see why I still have a cable TV subscription. My parents watch FOX on it and that's about it. I personally think a subscription to a service like HULU would serve me better.