HDTV in Washington DC. (Future updates will most likely be on my blog.)

02/24/06 Early HD adopters, like me, are screwed. The path to get HD into an HD-capable set has, until recently, been component cables. If you hook an X-Box up to your TV in HD, it goes through component cables. The only way to get a high-resolution signal from the next-gen HD DVD sets will be through an HDMI-compliant DVI adapter. Unfortunately, my set doesn't have a DVI input. Someone might make an adapter, but that would defeat the copy-protection scheme. Of course, the copy-protection scheme also means I won't be buying an HD-DVD player or any HD-DVDs.

02/18/06 Finally an update. Starpower is still working great. For one price, I get HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, and more -- both HD Channels (1 each) and regular. I no longer have rabbit ears in the house and was only able to receive channels 5, 9 and 26 in Washington, DC with any regularity. I am a couple hundred yards from the Channel 4 antenna, but I couldn't lock onto the signal reliably because multipath interference killed my reception.

Multipath interference is one of the fundamental problems of 8VSB, the wireless broadcast standard for ATSC/HD in the US. The Europeans didn't choose 8VSB because it sucks. (The other standard, COFDM, may suck too, however: "Neither 8VSB nor COFDM performed acceptably in most indoor test installations. " They recommend a 30-foot high antenna.) A lot of people out there think they can buy an HD receiver and start watching the same channels they receive now. 8VSB is either on or off, it's not like an unlocked signal is watchable. It's either perfect or you can't see it. Some people will need a rooftop antenna, others will be able to watch something with rabbit ears. Most, I suspect, will end up paying cable for HD, in which case you don't even need an HD receiver. The cable box is your HD receiver. Comcast (useful FAQ, annoying-as-hell Flash delivery) and Starpower (now RCN) will hook it up, and their techs can connect the cable box to your HD TV (no HD receiver required) for the price of a set of component cables. About the only thing more I could ask for is the availability of Verizon FIOS for Internet AND Cable TV.

And another thing. Retail blows. Circuit City, Best Buy, Graffiti, all want you to buy but won't tell you how all the pieces work together. The prices might be OK but what's the use if you can't watch HD after spending your hard-earned cash on the equipment. Personally I like ProVideo because their prices are good and their staff somewhat knowledgeable but not as condescending as Myer-Emco's. (I am in no way connected to any of them and I can always play stump the salesman with questions like "Will Blu-Ray's DRM be compatible with that?") Myer-Emco can come and hook everything up for you, but their prices are significantly higher. One time I called about a THX Ultra receiver for a price, and I told them it was 70% more than the store two blocks away sold it for, and they told me to go buy it there. I did.

02/17/06 As usual, NBC's Winter Olympics coverage is pretty bad. They've dropped their HD signal several times now, reverting to NTSC for hours at a time. The Washington Post's Sally Jenkins had an excellent piece on it that pretty much summed it up for me: "TURIN, Italy -- The Olympics are going on around here somewhere, but they're buried under so much junk, swill and sludge that it's hard to find them."

NBC has 2,700 network staffers in Turin, and they can't keep their signal up.

12/27/03 The Starpower box is funny. I can see every HD channel except NBC/WRC-TV 4, so I'm stuck with stretched letter box. It looks like crap. Oh well -- back to HBO in HD. This is why we're not watching TV anymore, and Nielsen is right:

Nielsen reported that 18-to-34-year-old men are watching between 8% and 12% LESS television. Their figures caused so much trouble for the networks that Nielsen went back and double checked all their numbers. Nielsen's explanation is that these men are "watching DVDs, playing videogames and surfing the Web," according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). There is a precedent -- back in 1990, women started watching less TV, and the networks freaked out then, too. The ratings eventually went back up, but there was never an explanation. The Los Angles Times also has a free story on the Nielsen drop.

Hello? YOUR PROGRAMMING IS OBSOLETE AND YOUR TECHNOLOGY DOESN'T WORK ANY MORE.

06/05/03 The Starpower Cable guy installed a new HDTV box in my system. It works great. Channels 160-175 are HD -- but not all programming is in HD. I get NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, PBSHD, HDNet, DiscoveryHD, HBO and maybe one other channel in HD, as well as all the regular stuff in plain old NTSC.

The box itself has many ports -- Component, S, and RCA for audio and video, as well as a digital optical connection for Dolby audio. The box also has USB and Ethernet ports, but I'm not sure what they're for. I'll get front and back pix of the box up here soon.

05/28/03 Comcast Cable in Montgomery County offers HDTV sets, but they have to send a tech to install them. (The rep the signal had to be checked. It would cost just under $30.)

05/27/03 Starpower says I will be able to order an HDTV cable box on June 2. Can it really be happening? Is this what we've been waiting for? Will I have to not move my rabbit ears every time I switch HD stations?

Washington Post article. (December 8, 2002)

11/20/02 Finally, I watched something on ABC in HD -- NYPDBlue, and it looked great. Reception is good, too. There are a lot of new channels in HD. Looks like WJLA is going to launch another broadcast, since they have full-field bars on an adjacent channel. WETA has four different digital channels now. This list now accurately reflects what's available here.

06/27/02  I looked at a spiffy new website promoting HDTV. Finally, a source of knowledge about what's going on on different stations in different markets. Well, almost. It has this information about Washington, DC, which is wrong. WTTG has been broadcasting HDTV and DTV for some time now, like the Superbowl. WJLA now has an HD broadcast, with a few shows in HD. WRC has a few NBC shows in HD. The Leno show is always in HD, but I watch Letterman. Changing to HD is not as simple as getting new cameras -- the set has to be redecorated and even makeup is different. HD is so good that you can see a lot of things you wouldn't normally see in standard definition.

What I really want is Croc Hunter in HD. How cool would that be? I mean, does HD really ad anything to CBS's crappy sitcoms? Wouldn't you rather watch buildings implode on the Discover Channel in HD?

04/15/02  My building has had Starpower for three months now. Their channel line-up is about the same as Comcast's DC service, except I now get the Comedy Channel. Contrary to what the salesperson said way back when, there are NO High-Def channels available through Starpower; there aren't even any outputs on the cable box for them. I'm still using rabbit ears to pull in the digital signals. Once again, the Superbowl looked great and reception was better from WTTG than it was from WUSA last year.

01/15/02 My HDTV-capable has been fixed!

It looks fine now.

For six months, there were cables hanging outside each door in our apartment building. These cables have been hidden. Still no word from Starpower. Maybe they decided not to install. Maybe they're just going bankrupt, but nobody at Starpower seems to know. (I called and asked.) I guess I'll never find out if what their sales rep said is true: "All the channels are high-definition." (Actually, now I know. NO cable systems in Washington, (Comcast and Starpower) offer ANY HD programming. The boxes and systems just don't do it.)

12/1/2001

Starpower has contractors working in the building again, six months since they completed installing the cables up to the doorways of each apartment.  Cables have been hanging in front of each apartment's doorway for the past six months. Of course, they're not working at a pace that will result in any of us having Starpower cable for another few months. The condo board has done nothing to get things moving any faster despite a 33% increase in condo fees over the past three years, not to mention their "special assessments" to make the lobby look nicer. The elevators still break down all the time. In the meantime, I'm still paying exorbitant prices to DC Cablevision. I'm getting very tempted to just get someone to install an HD DirecTV dish outside my window and then hiring a lawyer to deal with the condo board.

October 26, 2001

Finally, someone wrote a letter to the editor of The Washington Post about WJLA-TV, the local ABC Affiliate here in Washington, DC. To quote Scott Gammans, "ABC already broadcasts most of its prime-time lineup in high definition. Unfortunately, Washington-area viewers cannot see these broadcasts because the local ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV, broadcasts only in standard definition.".

If you're wondering what equipment I use, I have another page for that.

June, 2001

I recently got an HD receiver for my 16:9 television. HD broadcasts look like gangbusters. I can see film grain on some programming.

HD broadcasts are not without problems, however. I need two indoor antennas to get all the HD stations without getting up and messing with antennas. One of the toughest stations to get is WRC, whose broadcast antenna is about 400 yards from my apartment. Of course, my apartment building has a rooftop antenna, but they filter out the HDTV stations. And they won't allow me an external antenna that will get HDTV signals. So it's not much wonder that HDTV isn't going anywhere fast, although the Superbowl looked incredible.  

I have a south-facing window, so you'd think I could get HBO in high-def -- they have some great HD programming -- but I can't, thanks again to my condo. Where's the FCC? Yeah -- right. The FCC is going to make sure you can get HDTV, broadband, low long distance rates... and the check is in the mail. Basically the FCC is powerless to stop Congress from selling consumers out to the huge corporations that fund their elections.