HDTV, First Contact

I read on one internet posting that it was possible to get lots of good HDTV programming OTA ("over the air"). So I ran out to the nearby Radio Shack, bought an old fashioned set of rabit ear antennas, and hooked it up to our new TV set.

Wow...

HDTV is AMAZING.

I found 2 channels right away... KPIX (CBS), and KBWB. The first HDTV show we watched was CSI on CBS. The picture and sound quality was like nothing we experienced before. It's difficult to describe the experience, but it's kind of like having the picture become more three dimensional because the clarity on the screen is so sharp.

Later, by playing around with the position of the antenna, I was able to find these additional channels:

• KGO (ABC, in HD)
• KTVU (Fox, in HD)
• KNTV (NBC, in HD)
• KQED (PBS, in HD) NOTE: KQED offers several different PBS channels
  Channel 9.1 is HDTV
  Channel 9.2 is SD
  Channel 9.3 is PBS world
  Channel 9.4 is PBS life
  Channel 9.5 is PBS kids
  
• KBHK (UPN, digital, but no HD)
• KICU (Action 36, digital, but no HD)
• KCSM (digital, but no HD)

There are a bunch of other random channels (non-English, shopping, etc.) that I haven't taken the time to figure out. But the experience of watching digital TV has been really awesome.

The problem with picking up analog TV signals off of an antenna is that the picture is often snowy or blurred due to signal drift and random noise. But with digital, picture and sound quality is perfect, so long as there is adequate signal strength.