Quote:
Originally Posted by 1881-A
This morning while watching KUSA-9 NBC Denver (which I pay dearly to get on my DSR922), the news anchors was discussing the up coming new format on HD digital programming in Feb. 2009. Whereas, all analog TV would be phased out. They mentioned the new FTA MPEG HD receivers would be able to view all HD channels/stations without any paid subscription. Ar least that was my take of what they were telling.
So, I've taken the time today to search on the internet all about DVB-MPEG-2 receivers, and how I can watch a lot of channels on FTA receivers. That was the basic of my questions on who has the best units, and...where, what, why, and when to move towards buying one of these receivers. |
I think that what you heard on that program was extremely misleading, and mostly wrong.
The phasing out thing is for over the air (OTA) analog stations, and they are being replaced by ATSC digital, which is similar to FTA mpeg sat receivers, but what they were talking about wasn't satellite FTA, but they're talking about over the air digital coming from your local stations. There is no forced phaseout of any kind for satellite, however it is phasing out on it's own. Also the forced phaseout doesn't ever mention HD, it's only an analog to digital conversion, not analog to HD. So the program you saw was very misleading.
However, in most places, there is no need to wait. If you want to receive OTA ATSC digital. Most places the stations are transmitting both analog and digital, and you can get an ATSC tuner to receive it now. What they are talking about is not the same thing as DVB FTA . The ATSC over the air stuff is pretty much guaranteed to be free, but it will just be your local stations, plus most channels are including a few other public service channels, like weather channels, etc.
On satellite, you won't find free local channels, but you will find SOME network stuff. If you want movies, you'll probably have to either subscribe to DTV, dishnet or get an HD adapter for your 4DTV, but it won't be free either. The DVB FTA HD stuff usually isn't movie type channels, although sometimes it is, and there is no guarantee that what you see there today will be there tomorrow.