TV channels 38-51 going and replaced with ATSC 3.0

Alright Ill try the post over here .

(quoted from post at 14:43:31 01/14/21) Starting mid 2020 the TV channels 28-51 that the FCC auctioned off will gradually no longer carry TV signals . 38-51 will be used for wireless cellular type communications .
Your existing TV tuner may not receive some or all of the new ATSC 3.0 digital format .
The new ATSC 3.0 standard will provide 4K resolution , video on demand , enhanced sound and interactive content .

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You have to question what is meant by "channels 38-51" here, because the "channel" (number) you tune your TV to is not necessarily the same as the "channel" (frequency) on the backend.

Near as I can tell, most if not all of the over the air TV that you currently watch no longer uses these channels already, so you won't be missing anything, and therefore there is no need to go on a tirade over the "loss" of these channels.

The FCC still maintains the same channel . For the upper and lower frequency allotted to channel 2, 3, 4 etc .
Each channel is the same bandwidth and centre frequency as in the analog days . Just the tuner displays what ever has been assigned as an ID . Eg 3.0. 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 etc even through the broad cast is being received on the channel 5 band .

Yup, just verified that this is old news, and now I remember...

If you had to rescan your over the air channels, this is the reason.

Aren't those two unrelated things? The decommission of 38-51 (aka "repack") required a rescan to find the relocated stations, but that's a done deal.

ATSC 3.0, also called "Next Gen TV", is currently being rolled out in the US and Canada, but the stations that broadcast in ATSC 3.0 are also simultaneously broadcasting in ATSC 1.0. It seems unlikely that broadcasters will be in a rush to kill 1.0, given that most TVs in use today don't support 3.0.

Of course, none of this matters if you get your TV from satellite or cable.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure any of the over the air channels are broadcasting 4K content or even set up to broadcast 4k. Now if they have a magic wand that makes the westerns I watch on Grit TV change format to 4k then that will make me happy. Yeeehaw, Audie Murphy, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne in 4K, can't wait.

I think over the air is going away entirely.

Cable, sat, and through the internet all create revenue for the local stations. The big towers and transmitters cost them money, they are just as happy to abandon them
as anything. And suck up the royalties they get from cable, etc.

It won’t happen tomorrow, but I think it will be the eventual deal.

The last round of re adjustment, probably the one mentioned here, I lost a lot of over the air channels. Several cut power, and I am in a seam of overlap where channels
come from the main transmitter 80-90 miles away, or they come from the other direction on lower power repeater 35 miles away. They cut power on some and they put
others too close to each other, since I am at the almost exact overlap of signal to power area I can no longer get either one reliably. Seems like they don’t care to set it
up right, just waiting to kill it all.

Paul

Most people I talk to don’t even know you can get tv over the air.

I've been buying the these high gain plastic antennas the last few years. Rated around 28 to 36 db gain. Claim to get 150 mile range but I get all the area stations at 60 miles. They last about a couple years. Wind blows on them and knocks out the rotor or birds land on them and break the plastic pieces. Bot one for the neighbor lady who canceled Dish. Put it on her dish pole on the roof after cutting notches to squeeze the end down to fit the hole. Gets about 40 some stations. Latest I got is the Will brands model on Amazing for 40 bux. Built better than others.

At our condo in Florida, I got tired of paying 150 bucks a month for basic cable and internet, so I switched to internet only and went with an antenna for local TV. I experimented with a couple of different indoor antennas. The flat ones you stick on the wall did OK, but even though we could get 30 channels reception was spotty and the only major networks we could get were ABC and PBS. I figured the problem was the steel studs in the condo walls; all the Tampa area transmitters are located on the far side of the building from our TV. So I worked on a better solution.

What I found that worked was a mini-Yagi that's intended to be installed in an attic. Both Lowes and HD sell them for 50 bucks; I used the Lowes GE-branded one. I was able to fit the antenna through an access panel in the ceiling so I could put it right behind the concrete block wall nearest the TV towers. Then I had to fish a coax back to the TV, which meant cutting some holes in walls and drilling through a few studs. Now we get 89 channels including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS. I actually think the content is better with the antenna than with basic cable.

Here's the antenna I used. Our condo is about 30 miles from most of the Tampa-area transmitters.
GE mini Yagi

> I think over the air is going away entirely.

> Cable, sat, and through the internet all create revenue for the local stations. The big towers and transmitters cost them money, they are just as happy to abandon them as anything. And suck up the royalties they get from cable, etc.

Actually cable and satellite are haemorrhaging customers like crazy. People are figuring out they can stream content over the internet much cheaper than paying for cable TV. Sure the cable companies still make a little money on internet, but it's not nearly as profitable as selling premium cable TV channels. Not to mention losing the exorbitant rent they charge for cable converter boxes.

I think over-the-air TV will survive, even though most millenials don't watch it and may not even realize it exists. Advertising revenue will keep it alive for the foreseeable future.

(quoted from post at 09:22:53 01/15/21) At our condo in Florida, I got tired of paying 150 bucks a month for basic cable and internet, ...

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If they are not already, you should have your condo association look at bundling these services. On the east coast of FL we pay for internet and cable as part of our association fee. For about $60 a month we get high speed internet (>100mbs) and a really large cable package.

Over the air TV is required by law for the stations to retain their broadcast licenses by the FCC. Also, I seriously doubt that they are losing any money on over the air broadcasting. They are so bloated with advertising that there is little actual programming taking place.

In my own humble opinion, what we call television will make some radical changes over the next few decades. I see 4k becoming widespread - even over the air. I also see streaming becoming the mainstream viewing medium and cable and satellite fading into history. Cable is getting too greedy and are pricing themselves out of the market. They are charging too much to end users and then having too much advertising.

One of my pet peeves about TV is the so-called cable-only "stations" like History, Discovery, Science, Nickelodeon, and others. Since they are only available through a signal provider like cable or satellite, they are what I call subscription channels, As such, they are getting paid for their content. The signal provider pays them for their channel while the consumer pays the signal provider to view their content. Then, they load it up with advertising. That was a BIG deciding factor when I cut the cable for good. I do not want to see a lot of advertising on a pay channel!

"I think over-the-air TV will survive, even though most millenials don't watch it and may not even realize it exists. Advertising revenue will keep it alive for the foreseeable future"

Advertisers will spend their money elsewhere when the baby boomers are a lesser minority than they are know.

I suspect the push to convert those frequencies to the mentioned purposes was from the over the air stations.

Low frequency Channels 2-6 54-88Hz in particular along with 7-13 174-218 are of little to no interest to cellular users . The antenna are too long to fit in compact devices .
Channel 14 and up from 470Hz upwards are of interest to cellular providers .

I haven't had much luck with the mini yagi.

Around here we have a dozen personal injury lawyers making the tv stations rich with their win big and in a wreck, need a check and call in the bull commercials running non-stop and repeat back to back. Saw one in Vegas years ago who called himself the tornado or twister and then spun around till he looked like a tornado.

(quoted from post at 17:05:36 01/14/21) I think over the air is going away entirely.


Paul

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Agreed, most younger people don't watch TV anyways. The out of date concept of "tuning in at a certain time for your favorite show" is a relic of yesteryear.

I haven't had TV in 10 years anyways. Internet and streaming what I want when I want.

> If they are not already, you should have your condo association look at bundling these services. On the east coast of FL we pay for internet and cable as part of our association fee. For about $60 a month we get high speed internet (>100mbs) and a really large cable package.

That's not a bad idea. The building is serviced by two different companies, so there's some leverage if folks will agree. But it's a fairly small building (32 units) and has a number of absentee landlords who don't really care about the price of cable. My BIL in Port Orange has a deal similar to yours, but his condo building is huge.

> Advertisers will spend their money elsewhere when the baby boomers are a lesser minority than they are know.

TV advertising is still the best way to target a small geographical area, although companies like Google have become pretty adept at targeting ads to receptive viewers. But nobody has figured out how to force internet users to watch internet ads. As newspaper readership continues to fall, much of that advertising will shift to TV.