In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, our equine-challenged heroes come upon the Rabbit of Caerbannog, which appears to be an ordinary, harmless rabbit until it starts killing people.
Outdated, obsolete -- but useful again with DTV
With the transition to broadcast digital TV (DTV) in the U.S. — whenever it’s going to happen — outdated, obsolete “rabbit ears” indoor antennas are poised to become a viable threat to cable and satellite TV providers, especially as consumers become increasingly budget-conscious.
My eyes were opened to this threat recently when my parents asked me to connect a digital converter box to the small, 5 year old LCD TV my mother uses in the kitchen. I was naturally concerned that they had (1) attempted a technology purchase without seeking my advice and (2) had gone to Radio Shack to do it.
But what a pleasant surprise the Zenith DTT901 digital converter box turned out to be! (The Shack took care of them — thanks, guys.) For about $20 (after coupon), that little TV suddenly had the best picture in the house:
- Digital-perfect reception of all of Boston’s network affiliates (and then some), and several new sub-channels to boot
- Automatic scaling, zooming, and cropping of HD and SD programming
- An on-screen program guide
And since all of Boston’s DTV stations are currently UHF, they don’t even need the VHF “ears” extended (only channel 7 is currently scheduled to return to its old VHF frequency after the transition’s analog shutdown).
Clearly, this is not the broadcast TV of my youth.
Broadcast TV then
Back then, living 25.5 miles southeast of Boston’s primary broadcast towers in Needham, MA (thanks, AntennaWeb!) meant that we had a VHF/UHF antenna on our chimney, just like everyone else. Ours rotated, though, controlled by an unapologetically analog dial which made a satisfyingly mechanical “thunk” as it stepped the mast from NW to SSW to try for Providence stations too.
Broadcast TV now
Picture quality was mediocre at best. Snow, static, ghosts, waves, whatever, whenever. We signed up for cable as soon as it became available in our town and never looked back. We switched to digital in the early 1990′s as soon as DirecTV receivers hit the magic $99 mark.
But with DTV so easily available, of such high quality, and with such advanced features — for free — why would anyone in the city or suburbs ever pay a $9 or $10 monthly fee for a barebones “local TV” package again?
For cable and satellite providers feeling pressure on the high-end as consumers respond to the economy by shedding premium channels, this new threat to the low-end is unwelcome indeed. Multi-play packages and other retention efforts (such as Cablevision’s Optimum WiFi deployment) become all the more important, but must be targeted carefully, like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, not haphazardly like Jimmy Carter’s boat oars.
Filed under: Consumer Pricing & Packaging | Comments (30)
Tom
February 14th, 2009 - 5:42 pm
While DTV might be great for city and suburbs, rabbit ears are not sufficient for fringe areas. Even many rooftop antennas are not even good enough for fringe areas. Our fringe area antenna worked just fine picking up all the analog broadcast channels from New York City from our location 65 miles away, but we can only receive one Digital TV station using the same existing fringe area antenna. Cable companies my lose those folks who drop their cable service in the near burbs, but will make up for the loss by signing up folks in the exurbs who can’t pick up an damn thing off their rabbit ears or rooftop antennas.
Rogers Cable - Beware of the Killer Rabbit (Ears) For Free Over-the-air Digital HDTV « ….brad’s blog….
February 14th, 2009 - 7:38 pm
[...] of interesting observations about over-the-air ATSC television in a blog post he makes called Cable and Satellite Providers: Beware the Killer Rabbit (Ears) [...]
Brad Fortner
February 14th, 2009 - 7:40 pm
Jeffrey,
Nice post. I posted a comment and reply on my blog at http://bradfortner.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/rogers-cable-beware-of-the-killer-rabbit-ears-for-free-over-the-air-digital-hdtv/
….brad….
Charlie
February 14th, 2009 - 8:01 pm
We were paying around $65 for the local only package + internet from our cable provider, but as soon as I saw the free stuff, I immediately canceled cable and signed up for DSL internet for $35 a month. We’re getting more channels at higher quality and saving $300 a year! Thank you DTV!
Metastable
February 14th, 2009 - 8:49 pm
Any idea what channels are available in the Philadelphia area with these “Rabbit ears” ? Is there any place we can go to to get a listing ?
Tony P
February 14th, 2009 - 11:00 pm
Might want to swap out the antenna on the rotator though.
I just picked up a Pinnacle HD Pro stick. With the little telescoping antenna I can pickup WBZ in Needham no problem, plus I get WJAR, WPRI, WNAC and WSBE. Curiously thought I don’t get WLNE.
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 1:16 am
@Tom
You’re right — DTV’s digital perfection comes at a (nearly) all-or-nothing price and there’s been a lot of discussion recently about the impact on fringe areas.
Station engineers have been gearing up for an intensive period of testing and tweaking immediately after the DTV transition — plans which have only been complicated by the inconsistently-enforced delay.
But 65 miles is a tough one, for sure. I would be curious to hear what AntennaWeb suggests for you — a properly-aimed outdoor directional with an amp might work.
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 1:38 am
@Metastable
AntennaWeb.org, a joint service of CEA and NAB, is the easiest way I know of to get a channel listing for your area. Just enter your address, and it will spit out all the DTV (and analog) stations, along with their distance, compass heading, and recommended antenna type.
Also, a fellow who goes by “Falcon_77″ on the AVS Forum compiles and updates a comprehensive database of channel assignments. It’s downloadable as a spreadsheet at http://www.rabbitears.info/ss/
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Jason Roysdon
February 15th, 2009 - 2:51 am
The reason I “pay” for local channels is that it costs me less to “buy” the locals for $13+tax (~$15) and get 12mb/s download internet for $35 more, $50 total. It costs like $60 to get internet-only Cable internet from Comcast here.
DSL just doesn’t compare to Cable speeds unless you can get U-verse or whatever AT&T is calling their fiber to the home internet, and like DSL, it’s only in limited areas. That’s the fastest you can get DSL? 2mb/s? That’s 1/6th the speed of my Comcast. I also don’t have to run cruddy PPPoE and have a reduced MTU (meaning the max packet size I can send it reduced). I’ve also had the same IP address for 4 years now, after moving 4 times (same city, but I got a newer cable modem as the other one started acting up).
What’s DSL cost anyway? At least $13 (and that deal is good for just a year, right), and to get DSL you need a phone line for at least $20 – so $33 for a year, but then DSL goes to $30/month, so you’re right at the same cost of my cable internet. Plus, that’s just for the slower 1.5mb/s speed – it’s going to run to $35/month for 3mb/s DSL, so $5/more per month for slower service. If I could get internet w/o CableTV/POTS fees, I would, but each service requires it.
However, as I don’t want to pay more for Cable to get [H]DTV, I will be putting up an OTA antenna to connect to my MythTV DVR box. I’ll then have 3 tuners I can record on: 2 analog cable tuners connected to my original Happauge PVR-500 (two analog tuners in one card for $140), and 1 DTV OTA antenna to my new Hauppauge PVR-1600 (one analog tuner and one digital tuner for $109). It’ll use the DTV tuner as a first priority, and the two analogs for lower priority shows.
Hubert Gaskins
February 15th, 2009 - 9:34 am
I quit cable service about a year ago when I realized that in spite of all the so called channels available on cable I was only a watching a few more than is available by antenna. About a year earlier I’d started researching online viewing and noted that a couple of networks were already streaming content, and over time all the networks began streaming. Then along comes Hulu which added even more choice, and with excellent quality. I then built two HTPC’s with HD TV Tuners and was able to pick up some great content off air content. Cable might have lots of stations but the internet allows one to choose the what and when they watch. Off air comes in with stunnng quality that surpasses cable. I already had FIOS so I canceled the $80 a month I spent on cable and have never looked back.
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 10:19 am
@Jason Roysdon
Hi Jason:
I think your Comcast story is a good example of a packaging decision to optimize the wrong metric; I would encourage Comcast to maximize revenue — especially now — rather than an inflated subscriber count at the cost of revenue.
But I’m with you re: DSL. It was the right product, at the right time, but that time was about 15 years ago. I only recently left Comcast myself because Verizon’s FiOS became available in my area.
I am finally going to get serious about MythTV myself. The Series 1 DirecTV Tivo upstairs has served well — it’s the longest-running linux server in my house! — but with DTV, I have finally cut the DirecTV “cord” as well.
If you’re finding yourself low on HD tuners, check out the external, ethernet-equipped HDHomeRun from Silicon Dust. MythTV and all the other major packages support it. I just helped fix a bug in the Mac port of XBMC to stream from it live, so hopefully that fix will soon make its way into Plex and Boxee.
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 10:53 am
@Hubert Gaskins
Hi Hubert:
Yankee Group’s vision is that evolutionary developments of the network can have revolutionary impact. The ability to stream premium HD content across the public net, authorized and unauthorized, is clearly a game-changer, with Hulu being the poster child, as you point out.
BitTorrent stradles two worlds: BitTorrent, the company, has distribution deals with several content and software providers while BitTorrent, the protocol, rules the roost at The Pirate Bay, EZTV, and among all my friends.
Just as Tivo — and VCRs earlier — legitimized time-shifting, Sling Media is blazing the trail for place-shifting. Once firmly established, the right to place-shift — to consume the content we are legitimately entitled to, wherever we are, and via whatever device we choose, will create an entirely on-demand video world without each of us having to set up personal DVRs just to capture programming when it’s broadcast. Now that raises the question of the role of broadcast delivery of content in an Anywhere world. That’s fodder for a whole stream of research from Yankee Group, and not something I’m going to tackle alone… in a blog comment… on a Sunday… 
Thanks,
Jeffrey
JC
February 15th, 2009 - 11:28 am
Please never, ever use AntennaWeb. AntennaWeb is complete garbage.
Try TVFool.com
Tom
February 15th, 2009 - 12:29 pm
Jeffery wrote:
> But 65 miles is a tough one, for sure. I would be curious
> to hear what AntennaWeb suggests for you — a
> properly-aimed outdoor directional with an amp might work.
AntennaWeb results show just two stations (one TBN affiliate and one station with infomerical programming).
* yellow
uhf WRNN-DT 48.1 IND KINGSTON, NY 199° 11.9 48
* yellow
uhf WTBY-DT 54.1 TBN POUGHKEEPSIE, NY 199° 11.9 27
They are both line of sight with transmitters on top of Mt. Beacon (which by the way is the mountain responsible for blocking UHF signals from New York City TV stations because it is in between my location and the Empire State Building).
We have two rooftop antennas (UHF and VHF) on the same mast. Both are directional Yagi antennas that are over 25 years old. I did some improvements last year (added an preamp and replace twin lead cable with RG6 coax) and we went from picking up zero digital TV stations up to one originating from NYC, WNYW-DT broadcasting at 990kW.
The only other option is to turn both antennas north to aim at Albany, NY stations, which are 70 miles away. That’s very difficult to do because the rusted antenna mast won’t break loose from its mounted location. The mounting brackets on the side of the house would have to be removed and the whole thing taken down, so might as well replace everything. It’s unfortunate my existing setup is not good enough for Digital TV because I am located between two TV markets (New York City and Albany, NY), so we rely on cable.
Tom
February 15th, 2009 - 12:47 pm
By the way, for those do-it-yourselfers, you might be interested in making your own Hoverman UHF TV antenna.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker_workshop_dtv_antenna_steadyca.html
I saw this on PBS last month, and link takes you to the video.
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 2:48 pm
@JC
Thanks — will have to give TVFool.com a look.
Jeffrey
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 3:03 pm
@Tom
Thanks for your comments.
Yours is a great situation for us to keep in mind as we continue our research on how ubiquitous connectivity will be provided beyond — or between — major metro markets.
My guess? Broadcast will feel increasing pressure from on-demand consumption, especially if place-shifting becomes as accepted by content owners as time-shifting has.
The Anywhere Network which Yankee Group sees emerging from the convergence of wired and wireless broadband technologies is an enabling technology, but communications service providers, networks, station owners, studios, and other content owners will need to learn to work together much differently. But first they need to realize it’s not optional — it’s inevitable.
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Tom
February 15th, 2009 - 5:28 pm
Thanks Jeffrey.
TVFool.com is not as conservative as AntennaWeb.com because it uses the Longely-Rice model. I plugged in my location into TVFool. At the top of the results list were the same two line of sight local stations picked up by AntennaWeb, followed by several Albany, NY stations. At the bottom of the list were all the NYC stations. It looks like I’d have better luck aiming the antennas north toward Albany, NY. The signal path in the results also show single edge diffraction from Albany which is more favorable than the double edge diffraction from New York City. Fringe area digital TV reception is certainly turning out to be more of a challenge than I expected. However, I may not be alone.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/blog.aspx?id=72982
Jeffrey Breen
February 15th, 2009 - 8:05 pm
Hi @Tom:
Thanks for that link. I don’t envy the station engineers — they knew they had a lot of testing and tweaking ahead of them, but now their job is even more complicated by the non-uniform delay of the transition. I should look at the Falcon_77′s database to see what the cutover schedule is for NYC and Albany. Some cities are on track for a total cut on Feb. 17, like San Diego. Others will have some transition, but not others — only making more work as the engineers try to track down interference issues.
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Geekazine Podcast - Ep 73 - 2-18-09 - Geekazine.com
February 17th, 2009 - 8:07 pm
[...] – S.U.N. (Straight Up News) DTV Switch for Some Rabbit Ears Are God Pirates On Trial Conflicker Bounty iPhone Card Counting Kindle Violates Copyright 67 Laptops [...]
Tom
February 20th, 2009 - 11:11 am
@Jeffrey:
I doubt station engineers will have fringe viewers in mind when they tweak their signals. Nearly all of them are already running at full power. I’ve sent an email complaint to the chief engineer of one of the NYC TV stations and never got a reply. Consider the story of Frank Bergman that was in our local newspaper last month:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901150335
Who is going to help him? The FCC should let station engineers increase their digital signal to match the analog signal pattern in those markets where terrain in a challenge to the “Cliff Effect” of Digital TV. Unfortunately, that won’t happen and some folks will lose their over the air TV reception anyway.
N.C.
April 20th, 2009 - 4:16 pm
Here’s some bloggers that have a different opinion.
http://www.edn.com/blog/1700000170/post/1840038384.html
http://www.cringely.com/2009/01/the-coming-dtv-nightmare/
I guess we won’t know the complete story until after June 12, 2009.
Tom
June 10th, 2009 - 10:43 am
June 12 is nearly here and the DTV transition will be history soon. Honestly I hope it turns out alright. Some folks like Jeffery will be marveling at the crisp picture and extra channels, and some folks may find they get fewer channels (or none at all) because of antenna issues. For most people, the transition will pass without any impact in their lives. People who have cable or satellite service won’t notice any changes. However, there are some folks who never were interested in watching TV or maybe have moved on to other mediums like the Internet for entertainment.
Doc Searls has a great essay in his blog …
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/what-if-they-gave-dtv-transition-and-nobody-came
Jeffrey Breen
June 12th, 2009 - 3:13 pm
Hi Tom:
Thanks for this and your other thoughtful comments on this thread.
Today is the day. And I think you are right that for most, the day will pass unnoticed.
My colleague Carl Howe just blogged on the topic: “112 million households yawn as analog TV switches off” (
http://blogs.yankeegroup.com/2009/06/11/consumers-yawn-as-analog-tv-switches-off/).
Any change requires adjustment, and for those who have put off DTV until today (the aptly named “Analogs” from Yankee Group’s consumer segmentation model), here’s what Carl predicts to be the main pain points:
1. New channel numbers (like “44-1″)
2. New remotes controls
3. Shifting channel locations — gotta hit “rescan” on Saturday
4. New antennas
Fringe reception aside — which I think you have covered very well — I agree.
Me? Well, I do marvel at the picture quality I can get for free. And I’m not alone.
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Tom
July 14th, 2009 - 11:00 am
Just to follow up, one month after the transition, it’s still not smooth sailing for some folks with all this double rescanning and adjusting/replacing antennas…
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1656289,CST-NWS-tv08.article
http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_c/TechTalk.html
There has also been a reverse migration to cable.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/1662963,3_1_EL13_07CABLE_S1-090713.article
Tom
July 14th, 2009 - 11:31 am
Here’s an article about the rural problems receiving Digital TV.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20090707/NEWS01/907070316/1002
Our problems on the fringe (65 Miles north of NYC) still persist – we can only receive WNYW off the UHF rooftop antenna and our giant VHF antenna can’t pull in Channels 7, 11 and 13 after then went back to VHF June 13th. Even folks closer to the Empire State Building in the suburbs around NYC are having trouble.
http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/deMarrais_kevin/digital_conversion_placeholder.html?c=y&page=2
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/0709_Some_still_having_problems_with_digital_TV_conversion.html
Tom
July 15th, 2009 - 2:13 pm
One overlooked issue is that for the elderly they can’t afford cable service and must rely on over the air TV signals.
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/wilkin/2009/jun/19/digital-nightmares/
Figuring out how to connect a converter box is bad enough, but having to deal with antenna problems can be overwhelming.
Tom
July 27th, 2009 - 1:11 pm
In some places, Jeffrey’s prediction of people ditching cable is happening.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2009/07/27/technobuddy_0727.ART_ART_07-27-09_A9_VFEIS7C.html?sid=101
On the other hand, for some folks things got worse after the transition, so the FCC is dispatching engineers to those problem areas.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/316319-FCC_Engineers_To_Take_Closer_Look_At_DTV_Problem_Areas.php
I wish one of those engineers would come to my house! I got something to show them!
Jeffrey Breen
July 31st, 2009 - 9:27 am
Hi Tom:
Thanks for the links. I wish there were a quick fix for your situation. As you point out, I really feel for your less tech-savvy neighbors.
Have pay TV providers in your area stepped up with extra marketing and promotions in response?
Thanks,
Jeffrey
Tom
July 31st, 2009 - 7:38 pm
We now rely on receiving our TV signals from Cablevision since our current antennas cannot pick up enough digital TV stations over the air. Nobody wanted to go up on the roof to replace the antenna, which has rusted frozen to the mast and would be difficult to remove. Besides, our house is the only one left on the street that has rooftop TV antennas (our neighbors signed up for cable or satellite service decades ago). Verizon (FiOS TV) and Cablevision (Optimum TV) serve our area, and we get junk mail and phone calls all the time from them. Verizon started cold calling with sales pitches as soon as they got approved from our town to provide FiOS TV service. They even had a salesman come to our front door once! Cablevision has been bothering us for years, but they really stepped up their marketing campaign when FiOS became available in our area. You think they would try to promote the entry level basic broadcast package (the cheapest tier for over the air broadcast channels only), but they were mostly interested in selling us their bundled packages (Internet + phone + TV).
