I ended-up unplugging the power cord of the receiver for a few seconds, then plugged it back in again. It worked, although it took the receiver a good 10+ minutes to cycle through a half-dozen or so status messages while it was “booting up”. The HD DVR actually took longer to boot than Windows 95! I had thought this to be an isolated incident, but it turns out that I wasn’t alone.

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail that I just received from DirecTV this afternoon. It seems that quite a few people must have experienced the same “glitch” that I did. DirecTV’s “official” method for getting your HDTV DVR and receiver un-stuck is to press the reset button. That should work just as well as the “unplug it, then plug it back in” method that I used. Fortunately, I didn’t lose any programming that was set to record on the HD DVR. Those of you who haven’t turned on your HDTV sets today may want to do so though, just to make sure that your DirecTV DVR or satellite receiver hasn’t turned into a zombie like mine did.

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR HD DVR OR DVR RECEIVER

In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch. If your HD DVR or DVR receiver is not responding to your remote control or front panel commands, you can resolve this issue by pressing the red “Reset” button located inside the small door on the front right corner of your receiver. Please allow about 15 minutes for your receiver to complete the resetting process. Once completed, your picture will return automatically. Unfortunately, any show you may have scheduled to record yesterday will not be available on your DVR.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Our promise is to provide you with the best television experience, and to resolve any issues that might arise as quickly as possible. If you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting us at 1-800-347-3288.

There are actually quite a number of requirements you must meet in order to use the new service, which offers movies, news clips, documentaries and other content that is recorded directly to a customer’s DVR.

First off, DirecTV customers must lease a combination DirecTV receiver and DVR and subscribe to programming with DVR service. Downloading of any HD content requires the lease of a DirecTV HD-DVR, along with a subscription to their DVR service and HDTV programming option. DirecTV charges its customers an extra $9.95 per month in order to have access to any HDTV programming. This is in addition to normal programming subscription fees. The customer obviously must also have an HDTV capable television or converter box in order to view any HDTV content. Next, you will need access to a broadband Internet connection, as all Video On Demand content is actually downloaded via the Internet, rather than being received via satellite.

The service claims to currently have up to 4,000 titles available for download. This may sound like a lot, but actually looks pretty paltry when compared to the thousands of hours of programming available to DirecTV subscribers, who can already use their DVRs to schedule recordings months ahead of time. DirecTV was also the first programming provider to make its DVR features available to control via the Internet or cellphone, allowing customers to choose what they want to record from almost anywhere. DirecTV is offering this as a “free” addition to their regular programming, so it doesn’t cost anything extra to those who already have the above mentioned services.

Installation

Setup for the service is very straightforward if you already have normal DirecTV service up-and-running. An Ethernet port built into the back of most late model DirecTV receivers plugs directly into your broadband router. It will work using DHCP detection or can be programmed to use a static IP address. I was able to have the service activated and working in less than 5 minutes. It will likely take you longer if you don’t already have an Ethernet port available near your TV set. It is also possible to use a wireless broadband router in order to provide your receiver/DVR with Internet access. However, I would not recommend it due to the high transfer speeds and associated bandwidth bottleneck it would create on your network.

Once activated, you simply use your remote control to surf to channel 1000. From there, you are taken into a sub-menu, where you can browse programming by content type, genre or by individual channels. A number of networks such as The History Channel, HBO and Comedy Central have their own sub-sub-menus, which allows you to view all available VOD programming available from their respective networks.

The Bad News

Up until this point, I was pretty impressed with what I saw. It was only after I started taking a close look at what programming was available that I began to wonder whether this new service was really worth the effort. The most disappointing aspect of the service, by far, is the large number of movie titles that are only available via pay-per-view. From an economic perspective, this certainly makes sense. DirecTV isn’t making any “extra” money on this, unless you pay extra, so they have to have some type of “value added” programming. Still, the breadth and width of movies and TV programs that are classified as pay-per-view is rather staggering. Some of the movies on PPV are 20 or even 30 years old, and have been shown on network television for free on many occasions. Some network programmers, such as NBC, have also started charging for content that you can normally view for free. Personally, I find it rather insulting being asked to pay $1.99 just to watch a re-run of a network TV show. That’s just me though.

Another let down was the fact that there is no ability to sort through programming based upon what channels you already subscribe to. For example, almost all movies that do not fall into the PPV category are on premium movie channels like STARZ, HBO, Showtime, TMC, Cinemax, etc. Those listings will appear, even if you don’t subscribe to them. So, anyone browsing through the “movies” category that does not subscribe to DirecTV’s most expensive programming packages (which can easily run you well over $100 per month) will find very little that is available to them without paying extra.

Another disappointment is the lack of HDTV programming available to subscribers. Only a small percentage of DirecTV’s overall HDTV content is available via its VOD service. This is likely due to the high cost of bandwidth for transmitting HDTV content across the Internet. Even at broadband speeds, HDTV programs seem to take forever to download. It’s standard definition programming does not transfer all that quickly either. Even with the full bandwidth of a commercial T1 connection, waiting for features to complete downloading can be like watching a teapot and waiting for the water to boil. This is quite obviously not a real-time type of service. It’s nice for scheduling things to download well ahead of when you want to watch them, but not if you want to watch them immediately.

The Good News

The reason that titles take so long to download using this service can easily be justified by watching the final product. Since you are actually downloading an MPEG4 file, which is the same type of compression method used to transmit their programming via satellite, the quality of picture you will receive from their Video On Demand service is literally indistinguishable from DirecTV’s regular programming. In fact, other than the “VOD” label that shows-up next to each title, there is almost no way of telling the difference between programming you have recorded via satellite and VOD titles that you have downloaded over the Internet. They all appear right together when viewing a list of your recorded content.

One benefit of using DirecTV’s VOD service to download titles, rather than recording them to your DVR the traditional way, is that most titles currently have few, if any, commercial interruptions. So, DVR users who are used to hitting the fast-forward button to skip through commercials on recorded content can finally give their fingers a rest. Most shows have been re-edited to include a limited number of commercials, most of them being “teaser” ads for other network shows. It actually makes some network programming tolerable to sit through.

There is also a slew of exclusive content available to DirecTV VOD subscribers. Most of the titles we ran across were compiled by sources such as CNN. They have quite a number of interviews and short segments available that never quite made it on to their regular broadcasts. The presentation style seems to be much more laid-back than you would expect from some of these programmers. You are just as likely to see interviewers wearing a T-Shirt as a tie. I’m guessing that a large number of these shows will never see the light of day on regular television. The same can be said for many of the short clips you will find for reality shows and documentaries on other channels. There are a large number of outtakes, bloopers and other material that normally would never have gone any further than the cutting room floor. Enjoy it while you can. Once the mass public starts watching these services, we doubt that this type of programming will show-up anyplace other than YouTube.

Programming Pros and Cons

The programming you will find available from different programmers might not exactly be what one would expect. While some channels provide a wide array of programming that substantially duplicates what is available on their regular video channels, others provide only a small glimpse of what is available. For instance, while you will find a very good assortment of commercial-free movies available to you from HBO and Showtime (if you also subscribe to their premium movie services), you will find that others such as American Movie Classics don’t make ANY movies available for download. As for sports programming, you won’t find any. None of the national or regional sports channels have video on demand programming. Period. You will need to rely upon traditional DVR recording to catch any sporting events, unless they happen to be on pay-per-view.

Another programming oddity lies in the ability to download clips from some shows, but being unable to download the entire show. For example, while a number of clips from Comedy Central’s “Roast” series are often available for VOD download, you won’t be able to find entire shows from the series for download.

Probably the most frustrating thing for me is the inability to distinguish which programming is available to me as as a subscriber, and which isn’t. You won’t be able to download any programming from HBO’s Video On Demand service unless you subscribe to HBO, which makes sense. However, there are quite a few Video On Demand channels in the menu that I don’t even recognize. Some of these include The Smithsonian Channel, The Anime Network, Eurocinema, Film Festival, MGM, SONY, Warner Brothers, WWE, etc. New ones seem to be added all of the time. How do you know if you will be allowed to download programs on these channels or not? You won’t. You are seemingly allowed to schedule recordings on every channel that appears. If you are “eligible” to receive programming on these channels, the program will be downloaded for you. If you are not, the program will simply never appear. Seriously! There are no error messages or other menu help to clue you in on what you are allowed to download. Other than that, and perhaps your own memory (who can remember an exact list of the 200+ available channels that they subscribe to?), there is seemingly no way to tell which programs you are allowed to record, and which you aren’t.

The Bottom Line

Despite a number of programming “quirks”, if you already have DVR service with DirecTV and a broadband connection, this one really is a no-brainer. There is no extra cost involved and it takes only minutes to get up-and-running. The number of titles is limited at the moment, but everything we have read would tend to indicate that much, much more programming is on the way. While the service is definitely not something that would make me want to rush out and subscribe to DirecTV if I didn’t already have it, the superior programming, picture quality and customer service you will get as compared to cable is more than enough reason to make the switch.

DirecTV’s VOD service is a win-win situation for DirecTV, the programmers and consumers. If you don’t already have DirecTV, this is just another reason to make the switch from cable. I’ve been subscribing to DirecTV for well over 10 years now, and you couldn’t pay me to go back to cable. For those of you who have to have “everything” when it comes to television, this is about as close as you can get to TV Nirvana at the moment. If you can’t find something worth viewing with DirecTV HDTV service and video on demand, there truly is nothing to watch!

Update: This is just a brief update to the original article that I wrote above in 2008. Since I originally started viewing DirecTV’s Video On Demand (VOD) service, some additional technical issues have come to light. For starters, it seems that the original HR-22 HD-DVR receiver I started out with was a true lemon. It suffered from numerous “technical difficulties” during the few months that I owned it and finally had to be returned to the factory for replacement. I was sent a slightly updated version of the HR-22, which seems to have undergone some slight cosmetic as well as internal changes.

The cause of the old HR-22 having to be replaced was fairly obvious to me… a crashed hard drive. Unfortunately, I lost all of the pre-recoded content I had saved, including a number of pay-per-view events. The big loss here is due to the fact that DirecTV no longer allows you to save these events as long as you want on your DVR. They automatically “expire” after a certain amount of time, just as all DirecTV Video On Demand content eventually does.

As a side note, I had to pay a $20 shipping and handling charge to get the receiver replaced, even though it is technically a rented product. I have never understood DirecTV’s rental scheme. First, I had to pay $200 to (I thought) BUY the receiver. I didn’t sign any agreement saying that I agreed to “rent” the thing. After that, I have to pay an extra $5 per month to “rent” the HD-DVR FOREVER! To add insult to injury, activating the receiver that I paid $200 for puts me on the hook for the next TWO YEARS to pay an extra $10 a month for access to HD programming, whether you are able to view it or not. Strangely, DirecTV also gives you the option to pay another $6.95 per month for “insurance”, just in case you need help with a defective product of theirs. This seems more like the kind of scam that the cable companies or DISH Network would think of. It’s one of the few things about DirecTV that I really find myself insulted by, as a consumer.

On to more technical matters… I have found that not all video quality is created equal, when it comes to DirecTV’s Video On Demand service. Some “channels” on the VOD system seem of much higher quality than others. In particular, STARZ offers a huge selection of movies for download to those who purchase their service on DirecTV. Far more than any of the other premium movie channels. There’s just one problem… the video quality of their titles in standard resolution can be nearly unwatchable. I downloaded quite a number of STARZ movies on VOD that I had to quit watching after a few minutes, due to their awful video quality (or lack thereof). The problem was always the same. Video contained washed-out colors and blurry images. The blurriness was bad enough that it was difficult, if not impossible, to read any text that appeared in movie scenes. The quality difference was clearly visible when comparing it to the video on any standard resolution DirecTV channel.

Generally, poor video quality like this is usually the result of over-compression. That is, STARZ and/or DirecTV is likely trying to save money on bandwidth by purposefully reducing the picture quality in order to achieve faster download times. There really is no technical way to quantify the difference, due to the proprietary nature of DirecTV’s encoding system. However, the results are quite obvious to anyone that does not have severely impaired vision.

Another small “quirk” of DirecTV’s Video On Demand Service relates to volume control. For some reason, the audio levels of all programming downloaded via video on demand is significantly lower than that of DirecTV’s live, satellite programming. Unless you adjust the volume when switching from live satellite to video on demand, you will have a very difficult time hearing anything. Conversely, switching from video on demand titles to the live satellite feed will likely result in sound levels being so high as to severely annoy your next door neighbors. If you are unlucky enough to switch from a video on demand title to a live DirecTV channel during a commercial, you could be in for a very rude awakening, indeed. DirecTV raises audio levels during certain commercials so high as to make me worry about permanent hearing loss. The Federal Communications Commission bans this type of practice by over-the-air broadcasters, but it seems that DirecTV is immune from these regulations.

Speaking of which, I must admit that I no longer watch ANY DirecTV programming (that has commercials) in real-time, with the sole exception of news and some sports programming. Their blatant disregard for public safety by jacking up audio levels during their own commercials has finally pushed me to the point where I refuse to sit through ANY commercials on their service. Unless it’s a live event, I simply pre-record programs to my HD-DVR, then watch them later. I skip through ALL commercials using the fast forward button. It’s obvious that DirecTV itself is the one behind this, since the problem is worst during their own in-house ads. Some of these spots are promos for DirecTV, while others are simply those that they sell to other advertisers during time slots made available to them by the basic cable channels that they carry. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know when or where these ads will appear, so I am simply forced to stop watching all ads that appear anywhere on DirecTV, or order to avoid the pain and suffering that results from the outrageously high volume levels of DirecTV’s ads.

So, a note to those companies that advertise on any of the networks carried by DirecTV. I DO NOT WATCH YOUR COMMERCIALS. EVER. IF YOU ARE PAYING DIRECTV FOR “ADVERTISING”, YOU WARE WASTING YOUR MONEY. As long as DirecTV continues their current eardrum torturing scheme, I will continue “boycotting” their advertisers. Not that DirecTV is the only company guilty of this. Most cable systems do the same thing. It doesn’t mean that I have to put up with it though.

AACS – Advanced Access Control System. A computer specification for guarding next-generation optical-media content created by the film, electronics, and software industries.

AC-3 – (see Dolby Digital 5.1)

Aliasing – Jaggedness that appears at diagonal edges of objects in a pixel or raster image. De-aliasing (anti-aliasing) is a smoothing of the jagged edges by blending adjacent pixels slightly.

Artifact – A flaw in an image caused by the way the data is processed. Interference and noise are not usually called artifacts. So artifacts are in a sense predictable.

Aspect ratio - The ratio of screen width to screen height. For TVs it is either 4:3 (1.33:1) or 16:9 (1.78:1). Theater film uses many different aspect ratios, some as high as 2.5:1.

ATSC – (Advanced Television System Committee technical standard) This is the name of the technology used by terrestrial digital TV stations in the U.S.

Blocking – Macro-blocking An over-compression of the image that makes the block edges slightly noticeable. This “checkerboarding” is subtle and usually momentary. Some causes are:

1. Software bugs in the MPEG encoder.
2. The neBlockstwork allocating too little bandwidth to the broadcast.
3. The picture being portrayed is just changing too fast.

Blocks - Macro-blocks MPEG-2 divides the screen into small square regions called blocks and uses a mathematical process to compress the data for each block. Macro-blocks are a small group of blocks. See What exactly is ATSC? .

BNC connectors – These common RF connectors are sometimes found on VGA cables in place of a VGA connector. They employ a quarter-turn twist-lock mechanism.

Bob and Weave – Two processes for de-interlacing (converting interlaced video into progressive scan). Weave refers to combining successive fields. Also called interfield, this method preserves the original resolution. Bob refers to up-converting a field into a frame, in effect creating new lines by averaging the adjacent lines above and below. Also called intrafield, this method causes a loss of resolution but never causes motion artifacts. See also Motion Adaptive De-interlacing.

Breakup – Also called dropouts, block errors, or macro-block errors, these are gross errors in the picture caused by reception errors that result from interference and signal noise. Both audio and video are affected, with video distortions about five times as prevalent as audio dropouts. This ratio never seems to change. If the ratio is anything else then the cause is a network problem, not a reception error. The shortest-lasting breakups just cause a few macro-blocks to be obviously wrong, while more severe errors cause major parts of the screen to be left un-updated for a time, and possibly the whole image to freeze. Green shows up a lot.

Cable card - The Cable Card is the mechanism the industry has adopted to prevent the piracy of cable services. Nearly all cable channels are encrypted, the main exception being local stations. The cable card contains the keys to unlock encryption.

If you want the simplicity that comes with the cable receiver being integrated with the TV then you should buy a TV with a cable card slot. However if you like TiVo then you would instead get a DVR, which will have its own cable card slot. The cable card is supplied by the cable company. The card is a special purpose PCMCIA card (like used in many computers).

The present cable card system for DTV is called CableCARD 1.0. There are two types of cards: SCards (single stream) and MCards (multiple stream). MCards are used when a DVR can record multiple programs simultaneously.

CableCARD 1.0 – lacks two-way features and cannot be used for ordering pay-per-view, interactive guide, and other two-way features. Millions of cable card slots in TVs already sold are going unused. Reasons include: 1. The viewer uses satellite. 2. The viewer doesn’t want subscription channels. 3. The user wants two-way features and so has to use a cable box. Some TV makers are reducing the number of sets they sell having cable card slots, but they say they will increase the number when two-way is possible. Two-way is not available because the technical standard is not yet established. (The CEA and NCTA are fighting each other and the FCC has been a timid referee.) Present DTV systems with CableCARD 1.0 are labeled DCR (Digital Cable Ready). Future DTVs will likely be labeled iDCR (Interactive Digital Cable Ready).

Warning: The term CableCARD 2.0 has two conflicting definitions. 1. CableCARD 2.0 was first used to refer to the next generation of cable services that included two-way features. 2. SCards were introduced first. Later, when MCards were introduced they were commonly referred to as CableCARD 2.0.

C-band / Ku-band – 1. a range of RF spectrum. C-band is approximately 4 GHz. Ku-band is app. 12 GHz. 2. Geo-stationary satellites the networks use to acquire and distribute programming to affiliates and cable TV companies. These satellites use C-band and Ku-band frequencies. 3. a consumer service that uses the satellites the networks originally set up for themselves. An 8-foot steerable dish is required. Some channels are free. Others are available by subscription. The digital channel subscription service is called 4DTV.

CEC - (Consumer Electronics Control) This feature allows units to control each other. The commands tend to be the same as the buttons of an infrared remote control, so fewer remotes are necessary. The implementation is a single-wire bus that is a “party line” connecting to all units. The HDMI cable carries this line.

CECB – Coupon Eligible Converter Box. An analog-to-digital DTV converter box that has been approved by the federal government for use with its $40 discount coupons.  Coupons are available from the U.S. federal government at http://www.dtv2009.gov .

COFDM - modulation technique. This technical standard has been used in Europe and other places for digital TV. 8VSB is used in the U.S.

Color temperature – This describes how white is displayed. Low temperature means slightly reddish, while high temperature means slightly bluish. Standard NTSC white corresponds to the color a glowing hot object would be at 6500° K

Comb filter – A circuit in NTSC sets that separates the color information from the brightness information.

Component video - This 3-wire convention was created for connecting DVD players to TVs or monitors. It avoids downgrading the signal to NTSC. The signals may be RGB or YPrPb. Some HD STBs have only component video output.

Composite video - This 1-wire standard contains all video information: intensity, color, and sync. The encoding is the same as NTSC, and thus has the “overlapping sideband” problem which sometimes causes wrong colors to appear.

Convergence – An adjustment that must be made occasionally to CRT sets. This adjustment makes the three colors coincide perfectly.

DBS – (direct broadcast satellites) These satellites are powerful enough to be received by an 18 inch dish. They use Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies. Companies that provide DBS services to consumers in the U.S. are DirecTV and Dish Network. Canadian DBS providers are Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu. Also called DSS. They typically broadcast in some type of digital format that is encrypted at the uplink and decoded by the receivers of authorized subscribers.

D-ILA – (Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier) (see LCOS)

DirecTV – One of the two major providers of DBS programming in the United States.

Dish Network - One of the two major providers of DBS programming in the United States.

DLP - (digital light processor). A technology for video projection, also call DMD (Digital Micro-mirror Device). It is a large chip with about a million tiny mirrors on its surface. The chip can tilt each mirror to vary the amount of light reflected off of it.

Dolby Digital 2.0 – This is a two channel (stereo or Pro Logic) version of Dolby Digital. It is often used by DBS systems.

Dolby Digital 5.1 – Also known as AC-3, it provides 6 channels of sound: left, center, right, left rear, right rear, and sub-woofer. It is also called “5.1 channels” since the 6th channel has reduced bandwidth. Dolby Digital 5.1 is the audio standard for all U.S. digital TV stations, most DVDs, some DBS programs, and many theaters.

Dolby Pro Logic Surround – This is a 4-channel analog system. During recording, the 4 channels are “folded” into 2 stereo channels. If played back without a Pro Logic decoder, it sounds like normal stereo. This format is becoming obsolete.

Dot Crawl – a common flaw in NTSC images caused by the “overlapping sidebands” problem. It consists of animated checkerboard patterns which appear along vertical color transitions.

DTCP - (Digital Transmission Content Protection) This is an encryption standard for IEEE 1394 that prevents the copying of first-run movies and pay-per-view events. DTCP is also called 5C Copy protection (in reference to the ‘five companies’ that license it).

DTS - An alternative to Dolby Digital. ATSC does not use DTS but some DVDs do. Most audio receivers that work with Dolby Digital also handle DTS.

DTV – (digital TV). Examples of DTV are DBS satellite services, digital cable TV services, and ATSC digital TV (over-the-air, broadcast) stations.

DTVLink – This logo is on equipment that has IEEE 1394 and DTCP.

DVB – (Digital Video Broadcasting) An alternative to ATSC used in most of the world outside the U.S. It has three different standards:

· DVB-T is for terrestrial (OTA) broadcasts.

· DVB-S is for satellite broadcasts.

· DVB-C is for cable broadcasts.

DVI - (Digital Visual Interface) This connector conveys HDTV image scanning signals in binary data form. The data rate is very high (1.65 Gb/s). Binary data is preferred by monitors that are not CRTs. DVI comes with a decryption option called HDCP which will decode encrypted programs such as first-run movies.

EDTV – (enhanced definition TV) Essentially DVD quality, it is a small step up from NTSC. An EDTV will convert all 18 ATSC formats to 480p.

FCC – (Federal Communications Commission) This is a Federal agency responsible for regulating radio wave usage and some other media. The FCC answers to Congress and also implements international radio standards.

Fire-wire – (see IEEE 1394)

First-surface mirror – Normal mirrors have the silvering on the back surface of the glass. First surface mirrors have it on the front. Cleaning a first-surface mirror must be done very carefully.

Flicker (or Twitter) - Flicker is a pulsating of the image, a flaw most noticeable in images drawn only 24 or 30 times per second. Flicker is usually only noticeable in bright whites.

FM – Frequency Modulation. An analog method of modulating a carrier wave (frequency) with an audio or video signal. Primarily used for transmission of audio and music.

FTA – “Free To Air” or “Free To All”. This is a digital satellite technology employing MPEG-2, but it is not compatible with DBS systems (Dish or DirecTV) or with Motorola Digicipher II (C-band 4DTV) and it doesn’t have a provision for encryption. At the present time the only high definition stations on FTA are PBS, Voom, The Outdoor Channel, and Movie Central. Lyngsat.com lists all the stations. Skyvision.com, FTAsatellite.com, and others sell receivers. The frequencies used are Ku-band and C-band. FTA’s forte is that it is cheap and very international. FTA is heavily used outside the U.S. FTA started becoming popular in the U.S. about 2002 among experimenters and immigrants. In the opinion of some people the rise of FTA is a mistake and HDTV might eventually kill it. It might survive in the U.S. market because of a need for an unregulated domain for international stations.

GLV – (Grating Light Valve) This is another contender to replace CRTs in projection TVs.

HAVi – (Home Audio Video Interoperability) This is a standard for 1394 bus audio and video devices. It is software that is required for the units to talk to each other. HAVi allows plug-and-play recognition of devices, interoperability, and brand independence.

HDCP – (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) This is a DVI decryption option. It will decode encrypted programs such as first-run movies. (It’s real function is to prevent unauthorized copying of programs.)

HD- Capable TV A standard definition set with a digital tuner. (This term was probably invented to confuse people.)

HD- Ready TV An HDTV monitor or TV that lacks a digital tuner.

HDMI – (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) This miniature connector is intended to replace DVI. It is backward compatible with DVI, and an adapter will connect it to a DVI unit. It has 19 pins and carries DVI plus digital audio. It also has a reverse data line (DDC) that allows the STB to sense the monitor’s state and native formats, and a control line (CEC) for system level control.

HDTV – (High Definition TV) A TV that displays 1280×720 pixels or better.

IEEE 1394 - Also called Firewire or iLink. Originally a serial bus for PCs, 1394 may or may not become the interconnection standard for DTV products. It is competing with HDMI. IEEE 1394 is a spec for a hardware interconnect plus a software shell. But additional software, such as HAVi, is required for connected units to actually talk to each other.

i.link – (see IEEE 1394) Sometimes referred to as “firewire”.

Interlaced scan – Historically, TV CRTs are interlaced, while computer CRTs are not. Interlaced means that the electron beam skips every other horizontal line, filling in the missing lines on the next pass. A frame is composed of 2 fields. One field is all of the odd numbered lines, and the other field is all of the even numbered lines.

Jack – A female connector, usually for audio or video connections.

Ka band – A range of RF spectrum centered around 30 Gigahertz. Historically never used, DirecTV and Dish Network are starting to launch satellites that use these frequencies. (The name comes from “above K band”. K band is a long established military band.)

Ku band – A range of RF spectrum centered around 12 Gigahertz. These are the principal frequencies used by DirecTV and Dish Network, although DirecTV will probably some day move entirely to Ka band. (The name comes from “under K band”.)

LCD – (Liquid Crystal Display) LCD is the most common flat panel display technology.

LCOS – (Liquid Crystal On Silicon) This is an LCD-like projection technology.

LFE - (Low Frequency Effects) Sub-woofer. The 6th channel in a 5.1 channel system.

Line Doublers – This device converts NTSC or 480i into 480p. Line doublers with motion-adaptive processing can to an extent turn a 30 frames/sec image into a 60 frames/sec image, thus removing some of the jerkiness and blurriness associated with motion.

LNA – Low Noise Amplifier. These were used in C-Band TVRO systems prior to the invention of the LNB. The only difference between an LNA and LNB is that the LNB downconverts the original satellite transmission frequency to a lower frequency for transmission through coaxial cable. There is lower loss in coaxial cable at these frequencies, making LNBs more efficient than LNAs.

LNB – (Low Noise Block converter) An LNB can be found at the focus point of a dish antenna. It is a low noise amplifier that also converts the signal to a lower frequency. (The original higher frequency would not travel very far in ordinary coaxial cable.)

Mosquitoes Fuzzy dots that can appear near sharp edges in MPEG and JPEG images, possibly looking like a swarm of mosquitoes. These artifacts are caused by over-compression or over-enhancement of edges.

Motion Adaptive De-interlacing The image is divided into regions where there is motion and where there is none. Areas of the image without motion are de-interlaced using “weave”, and areas with motion are de-interlaced using “bob”. See Bob and Weave.

MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group technical standard 2) This is a widely used standard for digital encoding of motion pictures. It typically achieves a 50 to 1 compression of data. It achieves this mainly by not retransmitting areas of the screen that have not changed since the previous frame.

MTS – (Multi-channel Television Sound) This refers to an analog NTSC TV equipped with stereo and SAP (separate audio program) features.

Multipoint convergence – Projection TVs with 3 CRTs require periodic adjustment to keep the 3 images perfectly aligned. Typically this is a simple 5 minute procedure the consumer must do every month or so.

Multi-path interference – Some neighborhoods are plagued with this problem: The signal finds more than one path to the antenna. Multi-path results from diffraction around the sides of hills and buildings. For NTSC sets this will result in ghosts: multiple images shifted laterally. For DTVs the result can be an unusable signal, even though it may be strong. The solutions are moving the antenna or selecting a very directional antenna. Newer generations of DTV receivers are better able to cope with multi-path.

Must-Carry – This refers to the legal obligation of cable companies to carry analog or digital signals of over-the-air local broadcasters.

Native format – Most DTVs will convert the 18 ATSC formats into 1 or 2 formats and will draw only those. For these sets, the ‘native’ format is 1. the formats the set will draw or 2. the original format. (These are contradictory definitions, but they reflect current practice. 1 is probably the preferred meaning.)

NTSC – (National Television System Committee technical standard) This is analog TV invented in 1946. NTSC has 525 lines (483 visible) interlaced, 60 fields per second. This (analog) standard is in use in North America, Japan, South Korea, Burma, Taiwan, the Philippines, and much of South America.

OAR – (original aspect ratio) Also called Letterbox format, OAR means that none of the image is clipped or squeezed. Unused parts of the screen are usually black.

OLED – (Organic LED) A new display technology. Somewhat resembling plasma, it uses organic Light Emitting Diodes.

OTA – (over the air) Analog or digital terrestial broadcasting of a television signal. Typically used to refer to broadcast television stations in North America.

Over-scan/Under-scan – Computer CRT monitors under-scan, which means they leave a thin black border around the image. TVs over-scan, which means a small part of the image perimeter is lost. (Digital displays don’t necessarily do either.)

PAL - (Phase Altering Line standard) This alternative to NTSC has 625 lines, interlaced, 50 fields per second. It is used in most of Europe, Asia (except USSR), Africa, and Australia, and parts of South America.

Pan-and-scan – A method of broadcasting a wide screen film on a 4:3 channel. Most of the time just the center of the image is shown. (The right and left edges are clipped off.)

PCM – (Pulse Code Modulation) or L-PCM (Linear PCM) This 2-channel digital audio standard is simpler than Dolby Digital.

Pixilation - What you see when you sit too close. (You see individual pixels.)

Plug – A male connector.

PrimeStar – An early attempt by Cox Cable to compete in the DBS market. It ran this KU band system in the United States for several years before folding, opting to concentrate on its cable television franchises. Its early demise was heavily fueled by an expensive anti-satellite-TV campaign launched by its cable television division. Since it was one of only two commercial DBS satellite television providers at the time, the ads largely served to discredit their own product.

Progressive scan – This is the opposite of interlaced scan.

PSIP data – (Program and System Information Protocol) This data is arranged as a table with multiple sub-tables. The data identifies the station name, what the sub-channels are, the program name, the following programs, content advisories, language options, and caption options. Some of this data is transmitted as often as 7 times per second.

PVP-OPM – Protected Video Path Output Protection Management. Downgrades computer video resolution or blocks the picture entirely if the connected display doesn’t support content protection.

PVP-UAB – Protected Video Path User-Accessible Bus. Encrypts video content as it passes over the PCI Express bus from the high-def disc to prevent other PCI Express devices from intercepting the video stream.

Rainbow effect – A side effect of delivering the image colors sequentially instead of simultaneously. DLP displays have this effect if they use a spinning color wheel or sequentially-firing LEDs. Most viewers are not bothered by the rainbow effect.

Raster – A group of closely-spaced lines whose brightness changes so as to appear to be an image.

RGB – 1. red-green-blue 2. a 3-wire standard (See component video) 3. a 5-wire standard (See VGA.)

RGBHV – See VGA.

Screendoor effect – If each pixel has a dark border around it, viewers who sit too close can see it. The effect is somewhat like looking through a screendoor.

SDTV – (standard definition TV) SDTV is 480i, which is approximately the resolution of NTSC and DVDs.

SECAM – (Sequential Color And Memory standard) This alternative to NTSC. This analog television transmission standard has 625 lines interlaced at 50 fields per second. It is used in the former USSR, France, and parts of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

SPDIF - (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) This is digital audio, and can be either coaxial cable or fiber optic.

Spotlight – A pay-television channel launched on C-Band by Cox Cable in the late 1980′s. It was intended to replace HBO as the main pay channel on all Cox franchises. Customer complains and lack of support from major studios led to an early death for this channel. It survived for less than 4 years.

STB - (Set Top Box) These include satellite receivers, cable TV receivers, OTA receivers, and various recording devices.

Sub-channels – OTA DTV stations can show multiple programs simultaneously, subject to the 6 MHz bandwidth limit. This is called multicasting.

SVGA – Super VGA. See VGA.

S-video – Also called Y/C, this two-wire standard keeps the color separate from the intensity signal, and thus avoids the overlapping sideband problem of composite signals. (Converting an NTSC signal to S-video gains you nothing since what was lost cannot be recreated.) Although the quality of S-video is close to component video, S-video cannot transport anything better than 480i.

Symbol rate – The symbol rate for ATSC is 10.76 million symbols/sec. 8VSB has 3 bits/symbol. After the error correction bits are removed the net transfer rate is 19.28 million bits/sec.

THX – 1. a standard that theaters try to meet. 2. equipment to help theaters meet that standard.

Toslink – A fiber optic cable standard.

Transponder – A satellite channel. There is often one program per transponder. Some transponders are wider than 6 MHz and can carry more than one NTSC program. Several digital channels can fit on one transponder.

TVRO – Television Receive Only. The earliest C-Band satellite television systems were referred to as TVRO systems. This was to distinguish the home dish reception systems from “uplink” dishes, which actually transmit signals to satellites, and thus require proper licensing from the Federal Communications Commission. The earliest systems were roughly the same size in diameter as uplinks, often being 10 meters, or around 20′ wide. Most early parabolic dishes also featured solid aluminum, steel or fiberglass reflectors, as opposed to mesh C-Band systems that became popular later on.

VC1 – VideoCypher 1. A legacy TV encryption standard invented by Macom/General Instruments. It was the first satellite television encyption standard to digitally encypt both the audio and video portions of an NTSC signal. Based upon the original 64 Bit DES encryption standard, it is now considered too weak an encryption scheme for transmission of sensitive data. Its use was very limited, due to the high cost of the technology at the time. The earliest adopters were the CBS Television Network for its network TV news feeds on C-Band, and NASA, which used the technology to encrypt video transmissions during space shuttle missions conducted for the United States Department of Defense (DoD).

VC2 – VideoCypher 2. One of the earliest encryption standards used in satellite television, primarily for C-Band signals. Introduced in the late 1980′s, it encrypts NTSC video using analog sync destabilization and audio using a proprietary digital format. It is still in use with some C-Band broadcasters.

VGA – a 5-wire standard interface, originally for computer monitors, now common for HDTV monitors. Usually the 5 wires are in one cable. The connector can be either a 15-pin connector or five BNC connectors. The signals are usually red, green, blue, horizontal sync, and vertical sync. But Y, Pr, and Pb can replace the colors.

Virtual channel number – This is the channel the consumer thinks he is watching. The actual (physical) channel is selected by a hidden mechanism.

YCrCb – Almost identical to YPrPb. If you connect a YCrCb unit to a YPrPb unit you might have to adjust the color slightly. YCrCb is an older standard uncommon for consumer connections.

YPrPb - Color representation requires three independent variables. CRTs prefer red, green, and blue. Ink jet printers prefer yellow, magenta, and cyan. NTSC encodes color as luminance (brightness), hue (color), and saturation (absence of white in colors). Storage media such as DVDs prefer Y, Pr, and Pb, where Y is luminance, Pr is red-Y, and Pb is blue-Y. This is because Pr and Pb can be at lower resolution and not degrade the image noticeably, thus saving storage space.

YPrPbHV – See VGA.

3:2 pull-down This is the process of converting a 24 frames/sec image into a 30 frames/sec image. Some line-doublers will reverse this process to acquire the original, and then re-perform it.

4DTV – This is a DTV subscription service for C-band and Ku-band. Transponders are digitally encrypted using a proprietary format.

5.1 channel – This is 6 channel audio. The 6th channel (the sub-woofer) has reduced bandwidth.

5C Copy Protection – See DTCP.

8VSB modulation technique – (8-level vestigial sideband) DTV stations in the U.S. use 8VSB modulation. This is an AM mode wherein the carrier is multiplied by an 8-level digital signal, and then a filter is used to remove all but the carrier and 6 MHz of the upper sideband. (“8VSB” is often used as a synonym for OTA.)

Portions of this document Copyright 2002-2009 by Ken Nist. The “document” includes all web pages at www.hdtvprimer.com. The author places no restrictions on the use of this document. It may be used by anyone in any manner for any purpose. Additional definitions copyright 2009 by Vantek Communications, Inc.

Among the channels listed is KBVU, a local broadcast station that is affiliated with the FOX Television Network (FOX 29). Strangely, KBVU does not actually broadcast a signal in HDTV, nor has it announced any plans to do so in the near future.

Unfortunately, SuddenLink Communications has no local phone number to contact them at. Every published number available for the company goes to an out-of-state call center and it is generally impossible to reach anyone locally by telephone. The company does not generally publicly disclose what rates they charge for their cable services, other than limited-time “teaser” rates, so we have no idea what any of their services cost. I receive (junk) mailings on the average of about once per week from SuddenLink, and I have never seen them make any mention of what their rates actually are.

We were unable to contact Eureka Television Group, the owner of KBVU-TV, by the time this article was published. We will let you know of anything we find out from them subsequently about the situation though. Fortunately, they do have a local telephone number.

HDTV Is On The Way

HDTV and DTV service is coming soon to a television set near you, even if you live in Humboldt County. In February of 2009, most broadcasters across the county will be changing the frequencies that they currently broadcast at and start transmitting their signals in an all-digital format called DTV (Digital Television). The only over-the-air analog TV signals remaining will be that of Low-Power Television (LPTV) stations.

U.S. Government To The Rescue?

Many would argue that the Federal Government seems to be helping its citizens adjust to digital television in much the same manner as it helped the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Too little, too late. Few people seem to know what the transition to DTV will mean, or how it will affect them.

For those of you who do not have HDTV-ready television sets, the federal government has coupons for you. That’s right, every household in the United States is eligible to receive up to two (2) coupons good for $40 each towards the purchase of a government-approved “CECB” converter box. This box will allow you watch digital TV (DTV) signals on older, analog TV sets. Think of this as a bonus on top of your IRS “economic stimulus” check. Unfortunately, all of the CECB receivers we have found currently retail for $50 and up. It is highly questionable whether these converters will ever reach the $40 mark, making them free to consumers.

You can receive your coupons via mail from a program run by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Why the program is not administered by the Federal Communications Commission, I have no clue. In any event, you can apply to receive your coupons online at the website address: https://www.dtv2009.gov/ApplyCoupon.aspx , or call 1-800-DTV-2009 to get the forms mailed to you.

Once having filled out the form, you will be placed on a waiting list to receive your coupons. You will have less than 90 days to make use of the coupons once you receive them. Locally, you should be able to buy one of these CECB converters at Radio Shack, if they are in stock. I have even seen them sold at Walgreen’s in Fortuna recently. If you want to purchase a box over the Internet, the situation is a bit more muddled, since most online checkout systems have absolutely no clue as to how to handle discounts from a government coupon. You can currently find many units available on Amazon.Com though.

What Will Happen

If you are a cable television subscriber, you will not need a new converter in order to watch channels on cable, before or after February 2009. Most cable channels are already transmitted in a proprietary digital format that can only be decoded by their own cable converters. If you already have a cable converter that is leased or sold to you by your cable company, that should be all you need. On some cable systems, channels on “basic” tiers will continue to be transmitted to subscribers in the pre-2009 (NTSC) analog format. If a local station switches to digital, the cable company may decide to “downconvert” the station’s digital (DTV) into analog, which would allow you to continue receiving local channels without a DTV converter box. That decision is up to your local cable television provider though.

If you subscribe to television service via satellite (i.e. DirecTV or DISH Network) you will not need a new converter to watch HD signals, because satellite broadcasters also use their own type of proprietary digital format. The DTV switchover should not affect you at all.

If you receive TV broadcasts via “rabbit ears”, an outdoor antenna, an antenna built-in to your television set or even just a coat hanger, you WILL need a CECB converter box in order to watch most local television stations after February 2009. If you already have an HDTV-Ready television set, it already has a digital tuner built-in. No converter should be necessary in that case. Almost all plasma and LCD flat screen TV sets sold in the past two years have digital tuners built-in. You will only need a converter if you have an older set that only tunes-in analog TV signals.

DTV VS. HDTV

So, what is the difference between DTV and HDTV? All full-power (non-LPTV) broadcasters will be switching to DTV in February 2009. DTV simply stands for Digital Television. It produces a picture that is arguably equal in quality to a traditional analog TV signal, which is what most broadcasters currently use.

On the other hand, High Definition Television (HDTV) is unlikely to be used by the majority of broadcasters for some time to come. It produces a much higher quality picture than traditional analog or standard DTV broadcasts. However, it is still a very expensive broadcast technology to deploy, and few stations will be switching to it in the near term. All television stations that broadcast HDTV signals will be doing so via a digital signal (DTV). However, few who broadcast in DTV will have HDTV. Clear as mud?

What You See…

You will NOT be able to see the “High Definition” version of DTV broadcasts (if HDTV is broadcast locally) any more than you would be able to listen to a stereo TV broadcast with a TV that has only one speaker, or a color broadcast with a black-and-white TV, even if you have a converter box. Only HDTV ready televisions are capable of displaying the higher definition picture.

The CECB converter boxes will at least allow you watch DTV programming in standard resolution after the old VHF and UHF analog channels have switched to digital in 2009 though, and you will be able to use them to receive most local TV stations in Humboldt County right away. Keep in mind, these converters are only meant to pick up OVER-THE-AIR, local broadcasts. So, you will still need an external antenna of some type to pick up a signal. If you are not currently within range of analog TV reception, a converter will not likely be of much use to you.

Recent Experimentation

I currently use a standard HDTV set at my home in Eureka and receive most of the local stations in DTV using a fairly large, outdoor, mast-mounted UHF Yagi antenna. I can’t say as I am all that impressed with the type of signal that I receive from most local broadcasters, but it is a better picture than I could get on many of the older analog simulcasts. My house actually resides BELOW sea level, so I am probably lucky to get any signal at all.

Unlike with analog broadcasts, DTV is an “all-or-nothing” type of proposition. You will either get a perfect signal, or none at all. In that regards, it is much like satellite television. Gone will be the days of watching TV in fringe areas with weak reception. You will either get a signal, or you won’t. Occasionally, you may see the signal fading in quality due to weather conditions. When this happens, you will typically start to see what is called pixelation on the screen. This may be followed by the screen “freezing” on a single frame, or going black altogether.

This “all-or-nothing” DTV quality has its obvious downsides, but in most cases much can be done to improve the chances of receiving a signal just good enough to keep the tuner “locked” on a channel. By far, the best investment you can make is in a high-gain, directional, outdoor UHF TV antenna. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Generally speaking though, the bigger, the better. A 10′ long “ugly” rooftop antenna will always outperform a “cute” looking circular antenna or pair of rabbit ears.

What Type of Antenna?

First of all, I highly advise you NOT to buy any antenna that is small enough to set on top of your TV set, even if it has an amplifier built into it. The whole concept of adding an amplifier to an antenna that is only inches away from your TV set makes little sense. While the signal of the DTV stations may be increased by the amplifier, so will any background noise or interference. To make matters worse, indoor antennas suffer from what is called “multipath”. Indoors, a TV signal will bounce off walls, doors and other objects much the same as light will bounce off a mirror. Unfortunately, DTV does not handle multipath situations very well. You will be infinitely better off with an outdoor antenna that has a line-of-sight view of the station’s transmitter.

So, what will you need in order to set up a proper antenna for DTV reception? The materials are much the same as are used when installing a home satellite dish. The majority of the cost will be in the antenna itself.

Most high-quality, directional, outdoor antennas are referred to as Yagi antennas. The name came from the designer of the original antenna concept. These antennas will give you the most DTV bang for your buck. The outdoor antenna should be connected to your television or converter box via high-quality RG-6 coaxial cable, which is the same cabling used in satellite and most cable television installations. Each end of the cable must be fitted with “F” connectors, which are available from any hardware store. You can usually buy coaxial cable with F connectors already fitted to each end in 25′ lengths.

You will also need an antenna mast. These can typically be found at Radio Shack or at local hardware stores. They usually come in heights of 6′ and 10′. You may be able to save a few bucks by substituting metal pipe for an antenna mast. In that case, look for pipe that has around a 1.5″ outside diameter.

Lastly, you will need some type of mounting bracket. There are numerous types of mounting brackets for antenna masts, depending what you plan to mount the mast on. There are mounting brackets specially designed to affix your mast to a chimney, among other things. Typically, you will be mounting the antenna on the side of a house though. These brackets are easy to find online and locally at places like Radio Shack.

If you have to run at least 75′ of cable between your antenna and DTV receiver, it might be a good investment to purchase a mast mounted pre-amplifier. The best place to amplify a signal is as close to the antenna itself as possible. The closer to the receiver an amplifier is located, the less good it will do you. If you are unsure of whether you will need a pre-amp, you can always buy one after installing the antenna, later on. They are relatively simple to install and will mount on the mast directly below the antenna itself. Your money will be best spent investing in as big an antenna as possible first though. Only if you still can not get a watchable signal should you then consider adding a pre-amp.

One other option that you may want to consider if you are in a very “fringe” DTV area is an antenna rotor. What does it do? To put it simply, an antenna rotor allows you to rotate your outdoor DTV antenna at a 360 degree angle without having to go outside and move it manually. While the majority of television broadcasters in the area transmit their signal from somewhere high atop Kneeland Mountain, there are stations like KIEM-TV that place their main transmitter and low-power translators in alternative locations. It might be necessary in some cases to change the direction your antenna is pointing in to get a decent signal from each station. A good quality rotor is a significant investment, so you will definitely want to see if you can get decent reception without using one at first. Most rotors these days come with a wireless remote that will store the position of your favorite channels in memory. If you are unsure of what type of antenna rotor you will need for your particular installation, it is best to ask a professional. As is the case with most antennas, the bigger, the better. An underpowered or cheap-o rotor is the part of your system that is most likely to break-down first, especially if you live in an area with high winds.

What NOT To Buy

If you rely solely upon advice from a salesperson at a local electronics store, you are bound to be disappointed with what you have paid for. The majority of salespeople have never installed an antenna, and most are paid a higher commission for selling you the most expensive solution possible, NOT the BEST solution possible. If you need advice, go to a website or shop locally with a dealer that specializes in selling Over The Air antennas. If you can’t find one, look for dealers or installers that handle satellite television equipment. Many of the older satellite dealers have extensive experience in installing Over The Air antennas.

Some items that you should definitely steer clear of are things such as worthless gold-plated connectors and accessories. None of these will improve your signal significantly. In fact, most brands only use gold plating for the ground portion of the connector, which doesn’t even carry the signal! These overpriced items exist for one reason only. To sucker people out of their money. If you meet a salesperson claiming that anything gold-plated will improve your signal, don’t walk away… RUN!

Another nearly worthless contraption is the small, indoor antenna that is shaped like a satellite dish. You will be no better off with these than with a 99 cent pair of “rabbit ears”. Like gold-plated connectors, these things are for cosmetic purposes only. The “dish” portion of the antenna serves absolutely no functional purpose whatsoever.

You should also avoid in-line amplifiers on short runs of cable (i.e. 75′ or less). Line amplifiers are only meant to help in conditions where there is a significant loss of signal between the antenna and the receiver. Unless your antenna is a very long distance away from the receiver, a line amp is not going to do you much (if any) good. It might even make the picture worse.

“Flat antennas”, circular antennas and omnidirectional antennas will only work well in limited situations, where you are very close to a TV station’s transmitter. A traditional, directional antenna will always outperform these, and usually at a lower price. The bigger and uglier the antenna, the more likely it is to work well. The less something looks like an antenna, the less it tends to perform like an antenna. The only situation where I would recommend these types of antennas are in situations where zoning restrictions do not allow you to erect a real antenna, or if you live in an apartment building.

“House wiring” antennas are also just a gimmick. They claim to use your home’s electrical wiring as an antenna for television reception. There are many, many reasons why these devices do not work as advertised. They might sound good in theory to the average consumer, but anyone who knows anything about antennas knows that you would be better off just using a coat hanger and saving your money.

Snap-On F connectors are completely inferior to threaded, crimped on F connectors. Avoid any cable with connectors that are not threaded. Similarly, you should avoid bargain-brand RG-6 coaxial cable if you want good reception. Good quality coaxial cable is the second most important part of any antenna system, next to the antenna. Belden makes quality cable. That brand is usually a safe bet. The more shielding coaxial cable has, the better. Typically, high-quality RG-6 coaxial cable will feel a bit “stiff” and you will have a difficult time bending it at a 90 degree angle. Never use cable that has a “floppy” or “rubbery” quality to it, or that appears smaller in diameter to other RG-6 cable. Do NOT use RG-59 or other types of coaxial cable that are cheaper, but inferior in design.

How To Get HD On Your HDTV

So, you’ve spent a lot of money on a fancy, new flat panel, HDTV ready TV set. The picture may have looked great when you saw it in the store at Costco, but it looks lousy in your living room. What’s the deal? First of all, you can bet that the picture you were watching at the store was from either satellite or a Blu-Ray DVD player. If you want the best picture you can possibly see on your HDTV set, you will need to buy a Blu-Ray DVD player or a Playstation III console that has one built in to it. At the moment, these players are still rather pricey. Eventually, they will replace most home DVD players. For the moment though, you will have to shell out some serious cash for both a player and the limited number of discs that are available for it.

If you thought that you might be able to get an HDTV signal over the air for free with an antenna, you are in for a long wait. No local broadcasters have yet announced plans to offer their signals in HDTV. They are not required to do so by law, and it will likely be years before any stations are broadcasting in high definition.

So, what are your alternatives? Right now, cable and satellite subscription services are your only real options. The local cable company in most of Humboldt County is SuddenLink Communications. They claim to currently have up to 21 channels available in HD. Pricing for their services are not published, so we can’t give you an apples vs apples comparison to satellite TV providers whom openly advertise their subscription rates.

The United States currently has two DBS satellite providers who offer service to consumers via small, pizza sized antennas. They are DirecTV and DISH Network. Currently, DirecTV has the most HDTV channels and programming available. When comparing the two side-by-side, DirecTV is definitely the leader when it comes to the number of channels available, number of sports packages available and in receiver technology. DISH Network mainly advertises themselves as an alternative to cable and is a bit more competitive on price.

Little Known Alternatives

There are a few sources of HDTV programming that the majority of the public is totally unaware of. They are usually more expensive than cable or standard DBS service, but are worth considering if you can afford it.

The first alternative is a C-Band satellite system with a 4DTV receiver. C-Band satellites operate on different frequencies than that of DBS providers. These were the first satellite systems available to home users, and generally require a dish antenna that is at least 6′ wide. In Humboldt County, which has marginal reception of most U.S. satellites, I would not recommend anything smaller than a 9′ dish. Next to Blu-Ray, the HDTV picture you will get with C-Band 4DTV programming is the best you can find. Programming packages are much more flexible than with DBS providers and subscription services are the cheapest you will find anywhere. The trade-off is the expense involved in setting up a C-Band system and the amount of space it will take-up in your yard. Expect to spend in the neighborhood of $1,500 or more to have such a system installed. This is definitely NOT a “do-it-yourself” type of project if you are unfamiliar with how these systems work. The biggest upside with these systems is the fact that you can get a lot of programming “in the clear”, which means free and unscrambled, that is quite simply unavailable anywhere else. With the proper hardware you can pull-in hundreds of TV channels and radio stations across North America and even some from Central America. A C-Band system is the ultimate in home entertainment. No cable or DBS system in the world provides as much programming as is available using a “Big Ugly Dish”. Still, only a small percentage of it is currently broadcast in HD.

Another alternative that is well beyond the reach of most consumers is the unadvertised DirecTV Titanium package. For $7,500 a year, you get every single channel that DirecTV broadcasts. This includes all HDTV channels, all pay-per-view movies and events, all local network affiliates… everything. I can’t imagine anywhere else that you could possibly get more HD programming from. It certainly isn’t cheap though.

Lastly, the most obscure programming source for HD comes from our neighbors to the North… Canada. There is a little-known “grey market” in satellite television programming that involves StarChoice, which is a DBS programmer that is only legally allowed to sell it’s services in Canada. StarChoice is one of two DBS providers that serve Canada. Neither DirecTV nor DISH Networks are legally allowed to be sold there, so Canada has it’s own version of DBS. Many of the channels on StarChoice are just American cable channels and broadcast networks, much as you would get from a U.S. satellite or cable provider. However, there are a number of exclusively Canadian channels on StarChoice as well. You can also receive the U.S. broadcast networks in both Eastern time AND Pacific time. The number of HD channels is currently limited, but growing. So, what’s the catch? The catch is… you can’t “legally” buy the programming in the U.S. However, there is at least one company that will act as a “broker” and resell you the service for a yearly fee. They take care of all the billing, and provide StarChoice with a phony Canadian address and contact name in order to get your service authorized. The company is able to do this through a loophole in current international law. While being technically a copyright violation, you are still paying for the programming, so shutting down these types of services is not a big priority for law enforcement and I’ve never heard of anyone being prosecuted for such a “crime”. Still, it involves some amount of risk. Try searching Google for more information on these services. You will be amazed at the amount of original programming you can get for a rather modest price.