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Jason Haslup
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Fri, 13 May 2005
NFL Sunday Ticket
blog :: hdtv
Last year Mystique and I started up "Football Sunday" -- a great day of hanging around the house, getting some things done, but always having a football game on. Sure, we'd still go get our burgers at The Garage each Sunday, but they usually had football on, too.
With DirecTV + our local CBS station, we'd usually have the added bonus of watching the games in high definition. That's when the real beauty of HD comes out. It really does enhance the experience.
I enjoyed football sunday so much that this year I was actually thinking about buying DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket. This would allow me to watch just about any game on Sunday with a good chance of getting that game in high definition, as well. It was $199 for the entire season which is a lot, but tempting.
But not anymore... it was just
announced that a new pricing plan was put in place for NFL Sunday
Ticket where it's now $219. Now that in itself isn't too bad, but
here's the kicker: another $100 for the high definition
games.
Are you kidding me? Another $100 on top of the extra $10/month I'm
paying for ~10 channels of HD? Talk about screwing your advanced
technology viewers... we're the folks that put up with paying
$10/month for four channels of HD two years ago. We're the folks who
tolerate your mini-HDTV service because you don't have enough
bandwidth for full HDTV, especially during the NFL season. And now
you're trying to get another $100 from us? Forget it. Crazy... I'm a little disappointed, but also relieved. DirecTV just
made that decision incredibly easy.
18 Hours and Counting...
CBS-HD should be showing up at 6am on Friday, January 30th on either
channel 80 or 81 (depending on where you are, I believe). I'm not all
that optimistic anymore that I'll get it, though... I emailed my
DirecTV co-op (since I'm not actually with DirecTV) and they seemed
unaware of the new CBS-HD channel. Crazy. I forwarded the press
release, so I'm hoping that will help out. I do give them credit for
having the HD package on the first day it was availabe in July of
2003, though, so maybe I'll be ok.
So as it stands, CBS-HD just in time for the Superbowl, which also
means in time for the Masters whenever that is (April?). That will be
cool... I hope they make it commercial-free again this year. Two
hours of high definition golfing goodness.
Not much other news other than DirecTV's HD-Tivo should be coming out
by March or April. By then my year at this non-DirecTV service
provider might be up, so I might try wrangling a discounted HD-Tivo if
I sign up for DirecTV service.
I'll update tomorrow... hopefully I'll have good news!
DirecTV + CBS HD + Fox HD
Good news from DirecTV -- apparently they're going to start
broadcasting CBS in high definition to some markets... Fox will be
following soon, I think, as well. I'm not quite sure I'll be able to
get those feeds, but I think I might be able to since I get the
national network feeds. I'm hoping my rural DirecTV provider (don't
ask) turns everything on in time for the SuperBowl (in HD!).
Also, I'm hoping Tivo will announce their HD recorder soon... I think
they have a press conference today at the Consumer Electronics Show
(going on now), so keep your fingers crossed.
I'll be selling my original Tivo on eBay soon... it has a lifetime
subscription already, and the original Tivos are great for hacking. I
hope to get $300 - $400 for it... maybe $500 if I throw in my TivoNet
card I never installed.
More NBC Info
More information on the digital feed from Butte that I've been
receiving every now and then...
Got a couple emails from NBC Montana today, including one from their
director of engineering which had all the good information. Their
digital signal is, as I've seen, coming from Butte, but it's only
being sent by a 500 Watt transmitter. Now, I don't claim to know much
about that side of television, but 500 watts doesn't seem that big, so
I'm kind of surprised that I'm receiving it in Bozeman.
Anyhow, Butte's digital station should be moving to high definition
broadcasts by the end of this year, which is good news. But more
importantly, Eagle Communications (licensee for NBC) has been pursuing
a digital channel for their Bozeman broadcasts but they have to jump
through some FCC hoops because of some low-power transmitter
issues. I guess they weren't allocated a digital channel, but they're
trying to get one. Then they need some other waiver, blah, blah, but
he said he was optimistic and they should be broadcasting in digital
for Bozeman in the spring!
That's awesome news for Bozeman... NBC and CBS have a great high
definition lineup, including football on Sundays from CBS, and shows
like Law and Order, and the West Wing from NBC.
In the meantime, I'm going to try out a long-range UHF-only antenna
that I've read good things about. The ChannelMaster 4228 isn't all
that huge of an antenna, so hopefully it won't look too bad up on the
roof. Heck, compared with my internet dish, anything will look
good...
In-line update... got another email from the engineering dude in
regards to my antenna talk (I mentioned I was going to try a new
antenna). Our local NBC has quickly leaped ahead as my favorite TV
station!
He mentioned that my omni-directional antenna doesn't have any gain,
so it's probably not doing a very good job. The more standard antenna
(yagi type) with the elements at a 90 degree angle to the boom will do
much better. Another interesting fact is that he said was that our
PBS and CBS channels will be using VHF, not UHF, for their digital
broadcasts. That kind of puts a damper on my choice of the
ChannelMaster 4228 which is UHF-only. He did say, though, that I
probably wouldn't need much of an antenna for those signals, so maybe
I could keep the omni up and combine the two signals.
Ahh, sounds like fun! Ideally I'd like to find a good antenna locally
so I can return it if it doesn't help... might have to make some runs
to the stores tonight before ordering online...
Digital NBC!
I sat down in front of the TV last night, looking forward to the
season premier of The West Wing, but a bit sad because our NBC station
here in Bozeman has just about the worst transmitter since the 60's.
I've got a nice antenna on the roof (sticking up six feet, to
boot... Mystique loves it), but NBC still comes in grainy, and it's
even worse on the big screen because it stretches the poor quality.
Anyhow... the day before I had been checking out
Titan TV which is a site that gives
you a nice, customized tv guide, but more importantly, it knows what
shows are in high definition. They also have a
front-end to Antenna Web that
shows what type of antenna you need to receive digital channels.
A little sidebar here... the FCC has mandated that stations switch to
digital broadcasting by 2005 or 2006, I forget. But just because it's
digital doesn't mean it's high definition... however, most production
shows (such as the west wing) are moving to high definition. Local
stuff will probably be standard definition for quite some time.
Back to the point... I saw on Titan TV that the Butte NBC station was
listed as digital and already broadcasting in digital. It also
listed the channel as 33 instead of its normal 6 or 42.
So, while The West Wing was rolling its starting credits, I set my HD
receiver to channel 33 and had it search for a digital signal, not
expecting one since I live in Bozeman, not Butte (and if you've been
paying attention to my HDTV posts, Butte is the official market that
the FCC requires be in digital, not Bozeman).
And of course you know what happened... channel 6.1 (digital stations
use <channel>.<sub-channel> numbering) popped into my Sony
receiver, and 'lo and behold, digital West Wing was being displayed on
my TV.
I think I mentally lost it for a couple minutes... Mystique had to
leave the room because of my child-like giddiness. I think she was
embarrassed and thankful that only the dogs were in the room.
My excitement was tempered a bit when I realized that it wasn't in
high definition, but the picture quality was near perfect for a
standard definition broadcast. When compared with our crappy
reception on channel 42, it was an impressive improvement.
So, within a month or so, our local CBS station will be up in true
high definition, so the only stations left are ABC and PBS (we don't
have a fox affiliate here, but they don't have any high definition
yet, anyhow). What's interesting is that I'm not all the far behind
Phoenix as far as digital stations go... they have a crappy CBS
affiliate and won't get HD for a while. We've got a great CBS
affiliate and a crappy ABC one, but we don't watch anything on ABC
anyhow, so having CBS is great.
I, of course, tried to get the Butte ABC station, and even tried the
CBS station (which wasn't listed as broadcasting), but neither came in
last night. Antenna Web recommends that I get an 88-inch antenna and
stick it up on my roof... I'll try to sneak that by Mystique, but even
with that I'm not sure I'd get Butte's ABC. My little powered radio
shack deal (which looks like a UFO on our roof but is only 14 inches
in diameter) is doing a good job with NBC, so I imagine it'll be
fine for CBS.
That's it... now I just need HD Tivo and we're all set... Hi, my
name is Jason, and I'm a TV tech junkie...
HDTV vs DVD
Why am I so jazzed about HDTV?
Now that's high definition
ESPN HD's sunday night baseball game was the Diamondbacks versus the
Dodgers... what a great looking picture! There's a huge difference in
quality, especially on a large, widescreen TV... the extra width adds
a lot on its own, but throw in the oustanding picture quality and
you're in baseball heaven.
It looks like ESPN's doing a great job with their HD channel... they
mix in SD footage nicely when showing highlights from other games,
etc... during the game, the updates from other games will be shown in
4:3 format with bars on the side that aren't intrusive or annoying.
All of their graphics are nicely formatted for HD, and the only thing
I've noticed so far is that the game info indicator (in the upper
left) is placed so that it works for HD and SD. So for HD viewing
it's a little too far towards the middle.
Discover HD has been fun to watch, as well... they've got some nice
documentaries filmed in HD. It's a nice channel to watch during the
commercials of the baseball games.
HBO HD is still doing ok but most of their new shows in the summer
aren't in high definition... so Sex and the City, The Wire, and
Project Greenlight are all shown in standard definition, but they look
good nonetheless. The've been showing Star Wars 2 fairly often in HD
which is always nice to watch (and hear).
It's On!
Today is the first of July... which means that the DirecTV high
definition package is officially turned on for all of us bleeding-edge
folks out there. For some reason I have to go through a rural
provider of DirecTV (don't get me started on that), but I just called
them this morning (bright and early at 8am, probably their first call
of the day), and was informed that ESPN HD is now live and on at my
house. Woohoo!
Unfortunately, I am not at my house. And to make matters more
interesting, Mystique's not answering the phone right now so I can see
if it works. Can you believe that? She knows it's the
biggest day in our DirecTV lives, yet she's outside feeding the dogs,
or mowing the lawn, or making breakfast for her folks. The nerve.
Just for that, we're watching 48 hours of ESPN-HD this weekend.
Ok, Mystique just called me back. After telling me that five calls
this morning was a bit unnecessary (and to be fair, only four were
me... the fifth was the nice 3 Rivers lady calling me back with
channel numbers), she tuned our TV to channel 73... and saw
Sportscenter! We're in!
I'm starting to feel a bit of a fever coming on... I should probably
go home so I don't infect the rest of RightNow...
High Definition
Being the TV and tech junkie that I am, I figured I'd start up a
category where I could talk about high definition television. So here
we go!
Big news this month, of course, is DirecTV's announcement of a high
definition package that starts up on July 1. They're adding ESPN-HD,
Discovery Theater HD, and HDNet Movies to their current high
definition programming which consists of HDNet, HBO-HD, and
Showtime-HD, as well as a high definition pay-per-view channel.
While not a stunning list of channels, they are, pretty much, all of
the high definition channels available that aren't local broadcasts.
ESPN-HD is the best addition, of course... ESPN seems to be quite
committed to high definition and it's only going to get better as the
year progresses. I've checked the schedule and the Diamondbacks are
on ESPN-HD twice in July. Fantastic!
On the local front, I've tried emailing our local network affiliates
to no avail... doesn't seem like email is an accepted form of
communication for them yet. So today I called a few of the stations
and found out some good information:
CBS (local channel 7) will start broadcasting in high definition
sometime around September, according to Ted in engineering. That's
great news because we watch a few shows on CBS, including the CSI's
and Without a Trace. I'm sure the CSI shows are HD, I'm not sure
about Without a Trace. An added bonus is that the Masters tournament
is on CBS and will probably be in high definition.
The PBS affiliate actually called me back when I left a message, which
was pretty cool. Jack told me that they're planning on broadcasting a
full high definition signal in the next coming months. They're in the
process of building their new facility on some mountain between here
and Livingston -- the same place that CBS is locating their tower. He
said all the equipment is ordered and they're all set to go, they're
just waiting for construction.
I also left a message at NBC but I had to call the Missoula office
because our local outfit isn't all that big. I think I talked to one
of the anchors when I called, actually... I don't really expect to
hear back from them, though... their current tower sucks as it is, and
I doubt if they're moving to HD anytime soon.
And finally, I called our ABC station but was a bit leary of the
message I got... I could call the station manager by pressing one, but
I didn't hear any options for the engineering group or anyone else
other than account executives. So I'll probably call back later today
and see if an actual person answers.
Just to round out the networks -- we don't have a local FOX affiliate
here, but that's actually not a big deal. FOX is pretty late on the
high definition bandwagon and have only just recently announced that
in the Fall of 2004 they expect to have high definition rolled out.
Maybe by then we'll either have an affiliate or DirecTV will offer
high definition local channels so we can pull in one from a big city.
More info when I get it, of course! Six days until I can
theoretically get ESPN-HD... not that I'm counting or anything...
Thu, 29 Jan 2004
blog :: hdtv
Thu, 08 Jan 2004
blog :: hdtv
Mon, 29 Sep 2003
blog :: hdtv
Thu, 25 Sep 2003
blog :: hdtv
Sun, 07 Sep 2003
blog :: hdtv
Here's
why. One of the best comparisons I've seen... and that's a DVD! You
don't want to see comparisons of normal TV vs. HDTV!
Mon, 07 Jul 2003
blog :: hdtv
Tue, 01 Jul 2003
blog :: hdtv
Thu, 26 Jun 2003
blog :: hdtv
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