http://crunchyjew.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] crunchyjew.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] davis_square2008-10-02 10:49 am
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Over the air digital tv

Does anyone know if there is over the air digital tv reception in the Davis Square area? I'm looking to drop my cable but would still like to have basic networks particularly for the election season.
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[identity profile] warlord-mit.livejournal.com 2008-10-02 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I've got a small indoor antenna in Teele Sq and I get decent but not excellent reception. What antenna do you have? I'd love to get OTA working "well enough", now that RCN is going the bogus route and encrypting all their HD QAM.
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[personal profile] smammy 2008-10-02 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I've heard that FCC rules prohibit cable operators from encrypting their retransmissions of over-the-air channels, digital or analog. Is RCN really doing that? Last I checked (6 months ago) all the local network channels were still unencrypted.

[identity profile] warlord-mit.livejournal.com 2008-10-03 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
That's my understanding of the FCC rules, too. But yes, RCN is really doing that. They started doing it in May (so 6 months ago it was still all okay). All HD is encrypted, even the local OTA HD channels.

I've filed a complaint with the FCC, but who knows if that will help anything?
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[personal profile] smammy 2008-10-03 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
OK, so it looks like the FCC rule doesn't prevent them from encrypting OTA channels, they just have to provide you with the unencrypted stream somehow. I remember reading that many providers set up their cable boxes to dump the MPEG2 transport streams to FireWire. Never tried it though, since I've never actually bought cable. :)
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