As far as I know, the only game in town for HDTV broadcasts is DirecTV
or DISH satellite programming. Comcast HD cable programming is not
available in our market nor does it sound like it will be any time
soon.

I am a DirecTV customer, so I am quite familiar with their offerings. I am
particularly interested in getting the HDTV broadcasts of our local Bay Area
stations. DISH may offer something similar, but DirectTV can only provide
local HD programming via an upgrade to a new Ka/Ku-band capable dish and by
getting one of their receivers or DVRs (digital video recorders) that can
handle MPEG4 formats (the H20 or just finally released HR20). This might be
okay except for two things: 1) DirecTV’s new DVR that can handle MPEG4 is
not Tivo-based and for many (including myself) a huge barrier to adoption
because of the awful interface, and 2) the preferred method of getting HD
signals is OTA (over the air) if one can. The satellite and cable signals
are compressed and thus lose some of the HD resolution.

But afaik, it is simply not possible to get the OTA transmissions directly
in this area, with the possible exception of NBC 11.1, despite the plethora
of HDTV channels broadcasting from Sutro Tower in San Francisco. And even
11.1 probably requires a medium to large directional rooftop mounted
antenna. This is based on data from antennaweb.org which the net community
seems to judge fairly accurate.

DirecTV, at least, provides a Tivo-based DVR that can receive MPEG2
satellite HD programming as well as integrating with OTA HD programming (the
HR10-250). In our market, we used to at least be able to get the major
network HD broadcasts out of LA and/or NY in MPEG2 format (requiring no dish
upgrade), but now that DirecTV is offering the local HDs in MPEG4, FCC rules
require them to cut off those LA/NY feeds to us. :-(

See HDTV on the coast? PART 2 of 2 for the rest…

I have been striving in vain to find a good installer with knowledge of the
local terrain and signal strengths. Ken Johnson posted some great data in a
thread here back in May claiming that OTA was not a lost cause
<http://coastsider.com/index.php/site/news/1223>—but I have yet to find
a good local resource to come actually check it out at my house. In my case,
I’d be willing to put up an appropriate antenna if I could get most of the
HD programming out of San Francisco - but I’ve seen very few antennas
coastside and tons of satellite dishes, so that makes me fear it wouldn’t do
any good.

If any of your readers have data on receiving HD OTA broadcasts with
success, I’d love to know what channels they’re getting, where they are, and
what antenna they have. For locations, it would be nice if folks don’t
assume that everyone will recognize the name of a particular community. For
example, Ken Johnson cited Casa del Mar and Imperial Bay as having good
signal strength—and I have no clue where those are.

This could also be a good forum for DISH users to chime in, and yet another
call to Comcast to quit treating us like second class citizens. Comcast
doesn’t offer their DVR (which is some cruddy non-Tivo thing anyway) or VoIP
services here either - although their broadband ISP offering can’t be beat,
at least in terms of bandwidth.

Thanks,
Brian Dantes
El Granada (lower Highlands, about a mile east of Hwy 1 and Capistrano Rd)

I just wish Comcast would offer HDTV and Pay Per View. We’re in a spot within Montara where we can’t get any satellite because of the trees blocking the signal. We can’t get regular antenna signal because of the trees and mountain. So we are at the mercy of Comcast. Until they get the environmental approval to send the new HD signal through their lines we can’t get the additional benefits. For all the money we are paying Comcast it would be nice to have their latest features. Is there anyone we can petition or press on to get this approved? Or should I just be lucky I get digital cable?

If Comcast would offer a Tivo-based DVR and HDTV local channels, I would seriously entertain dropping DirecTV right away. I have Comcast High Speed Internet (HSI)—and I would certainly consider getting VoIP from Comcast too if they bothered to offer it here.

I finally gave up the ghost on trying to get HDTV OTA here in El Granada. I just don’t have the time or equipment to research it myself—and the few installers I was able to talk to at Strawflower Electronics seemed to feel it was a lost cause.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet with DirectTV and get the new non-Tivo MPEG4-based HD DVR (the HR20) and upgrade my dish. But Ironwood Communications, the provider DTV uses for installs in the Bay Area, cancelled my installation literally at 6pm the night before the appointment because they didn’t have the equipment. That pissed me off so much I cancelled the order entirely. If Comcast didn’t suck even worse, I would have dumped DTV entirely.

So then I tried very hard to convince a supervisor in the Distant Networks group of DTV to let me have the MPEG2 HDTV feeds out of L.A. and N.Y. These I can get on my current dish and I can use the HR10-50 DVR which is Tivo-based. The new NDS non-Tivo DVRs (the RC15 and the HR20) that DTV is forcing on its customers are just a horrible step backwards from the Dual Tivos.

But alas, the DN group said that they could not give me those feeds because the FCC says that can’t provide distant feeds when the local feeds are available. I protested saying that they were overzealously interpreting the FCC’s rules (which are bullshit anyway—it really burns me up that a local station can tell me that I can’t watch a station in another city). I pointed out that the MPEG2 feeds were less compressed and thus offered a better HD resolution than the MPEG4 signals they were offering for my local stations—thus they were comparing apples and oranges. The distant feeds are better signals (although uncompressed OTA is still supreme)—and thus not the same, so the local station exclusivity rules should not apply. Th DTV DN supervisor promised to take my point up with higher powers and get back to me the next day. It’s now been five days and counting.

Why the hell do I have to pay for expensive cable or satellite TV to get my local broadcasts anyway? I’d like to see my local governments mount repeaters on the tops of those mountains so that we can get those SF Sutro Tower signals like everyone else in the Bay Area.

I do love our little isolated pocket over here—but we pay a heavy price for it in terms of lack of infrastructure and services that the rest of the Bay Area enjoys.

Brian