[hapster85]

Looks like Louisville has finally made at least one "coming soon" deployment list. Haven't been able to figure out which station(s) has announced, or when. I have one TV with a 3.0 tuner, so I'll be able to keep check it out then it happens.

Eventually, I'll upgrade my DVR. Surely if TiVo had plans for a 3.0 device they would've said so by now wouldn't they?

 

[hapster85]

Tablo had expected to be launching their 3.0 compatible DVR this spring, but the current status is "delayed because of evolving DRM broadcast rights". Apparently, broadcast station owners have announced their intent to encrypt their signals. Which begs the question, why does a free OTA signal need to be encrypted? Does this signal the beginning of the end for free OTA?

 

[hapster85]

What I read didn't indicate if that meant all of their content, or just some of it. And I didn't really dig into it. The only thing Tablo said about it was that they would have bake the decryption keys into the hardware at the factory, and couldn't do it later by firmware update. Thus the delay.

Edit: Spelling

 

[hapster85]

Here's what the antenna guy had to say about ATSC 3.0 and encryption. As I thought, the FCC requires the main station to be broadcast in the clear. That could change, of course.

 

[hapster85]

Yes, but that main signal could be at 480p. Nothing says it has to be in HD. Then you would need to pay for 1080p/4K.

While it's possible they would charge for 1080 HD, I don't think it's likely. As mentioned in the video, 4k might be another story.

I think we're down to 2 of the major network locals airing in 1080i here in Louisville. A couple never were. Others have downgraded to 720p in favor of more subchannels. I doubt most viewers have even noticed.

 

[hapster85]

Yeah that would be a pretty bad use case. I really don't think stations that adopt 3.0 are going to continue broadcasting in 1.0 any longer than they have to, because of cost.