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OTA antenna vs cable picture quality.
Posted on 9/20/20 at 12:11 pm
Posted on 9/20/20 at 12:11 pm
I had to move abruptly because the house I was renting had two oaks fall through it during sally. Anyways, I'm waiting for my uverse to be delivered and noticed while watching football that the picture is amazing. It's noticeably better than cable. I'm thinking of leaving it hooked up and watching my local channels through it.
5
Posted on 9/20/20 at 12:44 pm to Easye921
I noticed the same. OTA probably uses less compression than many of the cable/satellite/streaming services. PSVue had great picture quality before they went belly up. Anyhow, I agree with you. I leave an antenna connected to my TVs for games of interest for that very reason.
Posted on 9/20/20 at 12:59 pm to Easye921
More bandwidth can be sent through the antenna. I think next is satellite, then cable, then u-verse if it comes through 2 copper cables to your house.
Posted on 9/20/20 at 1:28 pm to LEASTBAY
Is it still the same resolution? 720p/1080i ?
Posted on 9/20/20 at 2:00 pm to Easye921
I’ve noticed the same thing. It’s a very crisp picture OTA.
Posted on 9/20/20 at 2:18 pm to Easye921
quote:
Is it still the same resolution? 720p/1080i ?
Yes. Just less compression I assume
Posted on 9/20/20 at 6:42 pm to jg8623
Correct OTA is the least compressed signal you can get using mpeg2. It's probably 15-20Mbits signal. Cable has to compress it further, probably 10-15Mbits, in order to fit everything in their limited bandwidth since they have so many garbage channels.
Satellite uses mpeg4, so their signals are more efficient compression so they can look similar to OTA at lower bit rates.
Satellite uses mpeg4, so their signals are more efficient compression so they can look similar to OTA at lower bit rates.
Posted on 9/21/20 at 10:49 am to mchias1
Any reason why I got clear channels with my digital antenna last year at this time and now in the same spot the picture and sound are erratic?
Posted on 9/21/20 at 11:16 am to Easye921
all cable companies (Uverse included) compress the signals to a very poor 720p quality.
OTA is going to give you the native picture produced sent from the original broadcast.
If you want quality HD picture you have to go DirecTV, Dish Network or a streaming service.
OTA is going to give you the native picture produced sent from the original broadcast.
If you want quality HD picture you have to go DirecTV, Dish Network or a streaming service.
Posted on 9/21/20 at 6:13 pm to notsince98
quote:
all cable companies (Uverse included) compress the signals to a very poor 720p quality
No they are 1080p, it's just compressed. They dont downscale to 720p, generally speaking. Some channels are 720p and upscaled, and they look like garbage.
The real answer is OTA channels are not compressed. You lose a lot of quality from compression, but cable companies for the longest didn't have capacity for uncompressed 1080p, it's still expensive to implement enough bandwidth for it, customers are used to it, and they still have to bandwidth consumption on their networks.
This post was edited on 9/21/20 at 6:17 pm
Posted on 9/21/20 at 6:24 pm to Saskwatch
quote:
Any reason why I got clear channels with my digital antenna last year at this time and now in the same spot the picture and sound are erratic?
Sometimes the signals move or some shite. Rescan and that should fix it.
Posted on 9/21/20 at 8:07 pm to Hulkklogan
quote:
No they are 1080p, it's just compressed.
Pretty sure it’s not 1080p. They broadcast in either 1080i or 720p
ABC and Fox is 720p
NBC and CBS, along with most others, do 1080i
This post was edited on 9/21/20 at 8:13 pm
Posted on 9/21/20 at 8:33 pm to jg8623
You're right about 1080i vs 1080p, and some channels do 720p and upscale to 1080. Fox for sure does, you can tell in the football broadcasts. Even OTA Fox44 looks like garbage.
I'm not a video specialist but I've been around our head end guys enough to pick up on some of that stuff.
I'm not a video specialist but I've been around our head end guys enough to pick up on some of that stuff.
Posted on 9/21/20 at 9:15 pm to Hulkklogan
Yea, Fox44 is awful. Shouldn’t even qualify as HD
Posted on 9/22/20 at 10:31 am to jg8623
Any recommendations for one of the smaller antennas to use for a TV I'm putting on our deck? I already have a 4 foot RCA in the attic for the ones in the living room and bedroom, but don't really want to split that again, or drill through brick to get a line out to the deck.
We're thinking of mainly using a firestick out there to stream, but I'd like to be able to hook a small antenna to it for watching football. I remember the Mohu Leaf being mentioned in other threads, is that still a good option or are there better ones out now?
Also, another reason I don't want to tie into the antenna in the attic is I want to be able to move the TV around. Initially was going to mount it on the wall, but now I'm thinking of adding a stand mount that swivels and is height adjustable. The wife doesn't want the TV to be a focal point out there, and the way she wants to arrange the furniture would mean where we thought about mounting it wouldn't work great. So we'll either get or build a little table and set the TV on there when we want to watch, and I can move it back to the office we had built out there when not using it. Plus I can have the TV in the office while I'm working, or if the kids want to watch something on the couch in there they could.
LINK
We're thinking of mainly using a firestick out there to stream, but I'd like to be able to hook a small antenna to it for watching football. I remember the Mohu Leaf being mentioned in other threads, is that still a good option or are there better ones out now?
Also, another reason I don't want to tie into the antenna in the attic is I want to be able to move the TV around. Initially was going to mount it on the wall, but now I'm thinking of adding a stand mount that swivels and is height adjustable. The wife doesn't want the TV to be a focal point out there, and the way she wants to arrange the furniture would mean where we thought about mounting it wouldn't work great. So we'll either get or build a little table and set the TV on there when we want to watch, and I can move it back to the office we had built out there when not using it. Plus I can have the TV in the office while I'm working, or if the kids want to watch something on the couch in there they could.
LINK
Posted on 9/22/20 at 10:50 am to Hulkklogan
quote:
No they are 1080p, it's just compressed. They dont downscale to 720p, generally speaking. Some channels are 720p and upscaled, and they look like garbage.
Can you find one cable company that sends 1080p signals for their regular channels? Cox, Comcast, Suddenlink, Uverse, etc. all downscale everything to 720p and compress it a lot.
Nobody does 1080p outside of possibly streaming but even then CBS and NBC send the signal out in 1080i and ABC and Fox send the signal out in 720p. So it makes no sense for anyone to upscale that to 1080p and try to send it out.
Posted on 9/22/20 at 10:50 am to Hulkklogan
quote:
You're right about 1080i vs 1080p, and some channels do 720p and upscale to 1080. Fox for sure does, you can tell in the football broadcasts. Even OTA Fox44 looks like garbage.
I'm not a video specialist but I've been around our head end guys enough to pick up on some of that stuff.
If you are seeing any upscale on Fox that is your local station only. All Fox broadcasts are 720p.
I have a local ABC station that does something similar. They think people want 1080i so they convert ABC's native 720p to 1080i before sending OTA and it doesn't look good.
This post was edited on 9/22/20 at 10:52 am
Posted on 9/22/20 at 1:13 pm to Hulkklogan
Cable companies consider HD to be 720p. They don’t have the bandwidth for anything higher. Some cable companies are going the IP route for 4K content.
Dish uses 1440x1080 and upscales it to 1080 at the receiver. DirecTV sends it out in 1920x1080, but it’s still interlaced (1080i).
Dish uses 1440x1080 and upscales it to 1080 at the receiver. DirecTV sends it out in 1920x1080, but it’s still interlaced (1080i).
Posted on 9/22/20 at 3:12 pm to BigD45
quote:
DirecTV sends it out in 1920x1080, but it’s still interlaced (1080i).
Directv sends everything out in native. If a channel is in 720p, that is what the DirecTV signal is. If the channel is 1080i, DirecTV sends it in 1080i.
Posted on 9/22/20 at 4:20 pm to LEASTBAY
quote:
More bandwidth can be sent through the antenna.
It's not about terrestrial TV stations having more bandwidth (they have 6 MHz per channel), it's about how the cable company handles their bandwidth and how they compress each channel. You have to remember that cable companies have more channels to juggle around.
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