I wanted to start a conversation particularly on The Box and the technology it employs. Where does everyone think its headed? Where does everyone think digital subchannels will go in the next 10 years?
I picked up my first HDTV antenna from ebay this week (A Zenith HDTV1 antenna to be precise) on my LG LCD HDTV tuner and it rocks. It's completely different engineering wise of course, but for those of you in who just casually visit this board should realize that you don't see static anymore. Its either a full signal, a medium signal with some skipping or a bad signal with a ton of skipping or a drop of signal. Personally I'd rather deal with the static and a picture than the darn skipping and loss of audio. Also, along with that loss of static is the loss of certain signals. Where I live in Gresham, I can't get both KGW and KPXG at the same time on their digital feeds, making me lose out on the PAX and Worship feeds I was eager to at least look at. I have to get up and repoint the antenna to make it work. Aside from that, I get the channel 8 weather feed, create tv on PBS and multiple religious channels (although these are not hardly watched in my house... How much Enlace do I need?)
One channel I eagerly heard about and came across though was The Tube, and if you are a 30 something male or female, you can appreciate the brilliance and simplicity of this channel. It was the brainchild of Les Garland, a major influence in VH1 and MTV early on and just plays music videos, something I hardly see on any of the two aforementioned foes. Info on how to view can be found below:
http://www.thetubetvinfo.com/howtowatch/
It's a subchannel here locally of KWBP, and shares revenue with each station it airs and partners with. The music video content is free, which is primarily why I think a station like this can be so successful even with only a fraction of the populus watching it. What I want to know is why others haven't found ways yet to use the digital subchannels as we are only 3 years away from Analog broadcasts ceasing altogether. TBN has been the only one to date who has gone out and fully embraced this technology which I find saddening to those of us who might feel we can dump our cable in favor of an old pair of bunny ears again.
USDTV, which was started by a few in Salt Lake City was trying a new technology in which ESPN, Disney, Fox News and a number of other channels were put on spare subchannels in the digital spectrum and were only available through their special decoder, which put feeds on channel 99. USDTV recently filed for Chapter 7 protection last month and looks to be liquidated unless a buyer can be found.
Ultimately it brings me to ask why haven't networks found ways to lease out or create new networks for their subchannels as a revenue generating stream? I'm guessing Fisher will put Univision on a subchannel of KATU, but why haven't others like FOX or CBS put together rerun programming on its subchannels affiliates run? I would think there would be some interest in an all 20th century rerun channel, or a Paramount spinoff channel on the CW or CBS spare spectrum. There isn't much in rerun contracts of lesser seen shows (think Dallas, Mr. Ed, Quiz show or others) and older movies are finally starting to emerge out of their patent lifecycles and are free for public showing.
Anyone have any dirt on what will happen or thoughts on what should be done?
I tuned into the game Sunday to watch it in Hi Definition and let me tell you -- the audio wasn't synced up to the people.
It was OK during the game, but when they jumped to the analysts it was very, very, very annoying. It felt like a bad Japanese movie.
I wonder if there is a way to fix this on my end, or if it's something to do with the satellite feed they get at the station. I had to switch back to standard resolution to be able to watch.