The Best HDTV Picture, $0 per Month

For now, let's put aside the question of which flat panel or projector gives the best picture.  See  http://www.dhaudioandhometheater.com/blog/2011/03/30/flat-panel-pla... for that discussion as regards flat panels.  For this article, I'm talking about broadcast sources of high definition TV.  While I've never been shown that one cable or satellite provider is better than another cable or satellite provider--I'm not saying it isn't true--I have been shown that off-air antenna broadcast looks superior to all the rest.  This is no secret, but I saw it with my own eyes.

I'm a DirecTV subscriber.  I like their picture for when I'm not being hyper-critical of image quality.  Still, I don't know that it's any better or worse than the other subscription services (e.g. Dish Network, Cablevision, Time Warner, Comcast, Verizon Fios, etc.)  From firsthand experience, I can say that DirecTV appears no better or worse, in my house, than Comcast.  (DirecTV's support is significantly less frustrating than Comcast's--no small consideration.)

Sometimes, like when I watch sporting events, I am hyper-critical of picture quality.  This is when I notice, while watching my DirecTV high-defintion DVR/Satellite receiver, that fine detail is a bit soft.  Far worse, when the image is moving, detail goes out the window.  Take a look at your own HDTV the next time you're watching a football game--though any moving image will do.  I bet if you watch a football game, the grass looks like grass for only brief moments when the image is still.  Most of the time, instead of seeing blades of grass, you see only swatches of green color.  This is high definition TV?  Are you kidding me?

So, I'm watching the Bears mutilate the Vikings, and I'm thinking, "are you kidding me?   This picture gets blurry with any motion at all!  Let me try getting the game from the off-air broadcast."  So, I hooked up my trusty old FM antenna to my Tivo--I need the Tivo for its off-air high-definition TV tuner--and I spent 15 minutes positioning the antenna to tune in the game.  Most of the motion artifacts I suffered through were now gone.  The rumors about off-air picture quality being superior to the subscription-based services appear to be true.   As the conventional wisdom goes, over-the-air broadcasters use less compression than the subscription broadcasters.  To help you understand how I come to this conclusion, I'm watching on a 105" diagonal, 16:9 screen, with a JVC DLA HD550 1080P front projector.

The hunt for a better antenna is on.   Ideally, the antenna would remember its best position for each channel I want to watch.  My automated remote control would command the antenna.  So, if I select NBC on my remote, the antenna would position itself to receive NBC.  PBS, which is channel 13 here in the greater New York City metro area, I know requires a different antenna orientation.  When I select PBS on my automated remote control, the antenna should reorient itself to receive the off-air PBS broadcast.  I get about 10 HD channels when I connect my FM antenna to my son's Panasonic LCD TV, which is located one flight up from the Tivo tuner.  Those channels are the major 2-13 ones and then 3 more above that.  There is also non-HD stuff that the FM antenna picks up.  I'm getting 25 channels total.  I hope to be able to receive all the 2-13 channels off-air, via the Tivo tuner, for viewing on my main screen.

For the right household, the off-air TV option can save a lot of money over the cost of subscription based TV, and the HD channels you get will look better.  And, should you be concerned about losing the ability to record TV for watching on your own schedule, that's what Tivo excels at.  And, if you're concerned about missing TV shows that are not broadcast over the air on channels 2-13, I find that the better TV shows always seem to make it to DVD anyway.  And, one can also view shows via the streaming TV services that are available through many of today's Blu-ray DVD players.  Keep in mind, however, that regular DVD and streaming is not likey to look as good as subscription based HDTV.