[aaronwt]

I previously posted somewhere that OTA 3.0 and my cable look visually similar and the OTA 3.0 advantage is sound quality. Well, last night The Voice and People's Choice Awards OTA 3.0 looked noticeably clearer and better than cable.

Here in the DC area the ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 channels look equally as bad. The ATSC 1.0 channels are bitstarved with a bunch of sub-channels. And the five ATSC 3.0 channels are all sharing the same broadcast frequency.

I am using an HDHomeRun Flex 4K to access the ATSC 3.0 channels.

 

[aaronwt]

I just bought one to try with Plex only to find out after that Plex does not support the Dolby audio yet.

I am just using the atsc 1.0 channels here with my flex 4k and Plex DVR right now.. since Here in the DC area the picture quality is basically the same as the atsc 3.0 channels. So hopefully plex gets the ac-4 audio issue worked out later this year.


Sent from my Tab A7 Gray

 

[aaronwt]

The encoding is much better than ancient MPEG2, but the HEVC encoding ATSC 3.0 uses is already outdated. It came out way back in 2013. Even more efficient codecs are in use now (like AV1) with some of the streaming services.

Although H.266/VVC is the direct successor to HEVC/H.265. But AV1 is royalty free.

 

[aaronwt]

Yes. I have an HDHomeRun Flex 4K. And use it with my Plex DVR. But because of the AC-4 audio issue. Where the vast majority of devices cannot decode it. And with it also not working with Plex. I don't record any of the five ATSC 3.0 channels broadcast here in the DC area.

Plus, since they are all sharing the same frequency. The quality is basically the same as their ATSC 1.0 counterparts. So there would really be no advantage for me to be record the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts anyway.

 

[aaronwt]

I have 6 stations in my area broadcasting new gen signals, which include all four networks. What NextGen tuners are even available now?

https://www.antennaweb.org/results

I've been using an HDHomeRun Flex 4K since the beginning of the year. It has two ATSC 3.0 and two ATSC 1.0 tuners. But, here in the DC area, the 3.0 stations have the same quality as the 1.0 stations. And my Plex DVR can't work with the AC-4 audio yet. Like most devices. So there is no reason for me to record the ATSC 3.0 channels.

I also use three HDHomeRun Prime boxes on FiOS. One with a cable card and the other two without. So it looks like the local OTA stations on the other two. So the Plex DVR has ten tuners to record from for the local content. And then three for cable channels from the Prime I use with a cable card.