Digital Video Recorder
What we have in mind is a DVR that we can hook-up to our home Comcast HD cable, record shows/movies, then use an HDMI cable to watch on the road. Don't need the TiVo features, just something that woul...
Forum Discussion
wa8yxm wrote:
I would have to check but from what I understand the cable companies are REQUIRED to offer the Over the Air stations (Or at one time they were) "In the clear".. now that was before Digital OTA,, with Digital OTA I see a number of "Tier Two" (That is #-2 or #-3) channels that DO NOT appear on the cable list.
IN fact I have my DVR's set to do mixed recording at the moment. Sometimes picking a show off Cable, sometimes off OTA. But I think they are, or at least WERE required to carry local boradcast in the clear..
OF course the Cable/Sat companies are trying to eliminate OTA broadcast, I do not think it will happen, but .. Well,,, It might happen.
Actually it is a "catch 22" for cable companies and even Satellite companies to a certain extent.
Cable companies are supposed to carry OTA channels, however a FCC ruling quite a few years back allows OTA stations to CHARGE cable and satellite companies for carrying the OTA stations.
Makes for a rather confusing set of rules?
I guess the point folks are missing is the cable companies are not dropping the OTA stations.
When OTA broadcasters were forced to drop analog broadcasting, the cable companies CONTINUED rebroadcasting the OTA channels in ANALOG NTSC. Understanding what the cable co does to get all these channels on a single wire is helpful.
Early days of cable it was not more than simply a Master antenna placed high on a hill with some serious amplification. This worked but often cable company had issues with providing a solid signal for all channels.
The next generation of cable multiple antennas were setup along with multiple tuners. The turners allowed the cable company some freedom to manipulate the video and audio (insert cable co commercials is one thing). Then all the feeds from the tuners were sent to cable TV modulators. This allowed the cable co to "offset" the channels a bit which stooped the actual broadcast channels with strong signals from causing interference on the cable.
Cable co could also now "fill in" unused channels with what is now known as "basic" channels.
When OTA broadcasters switched to ATSC, the cable companies simply changed tuners from old NTSC to ATSC. The cable co kept the analog NTSC on the cable.
For the most part "basic" cable provides OTA plus a bunch of other stuff like HGTV, Discovery and the like.
Doesn't mean the OTA is going away, it is the NTSC part.
