Adventures in the Land of QAM

As I was watching my WVU Mountaineers throttle Georgetown last night (see it here!), my enjoyment was furthered by the lovely HD broadcast of the game. And then it occurred to me -- I wonder how many people who could be watching it this way didn't know they could?

I won't speak for everybody's cable system, but mine (Comcast), sends numerous HD channels out over the wire that are open for anybody to receive. It's their little secret -- they'll never tell you they're available. Instead, they want you to subscribe to their HDTV packages, add their tuner box, and pay their extra fees for the privilege of using your HDTV the way it was intended.

What do I do? Simply use my QAM tuner. I instruct my TV to search for digital channels, and it locates all the channels (SD and HD) that are available. As I said, many of Comcast's offerings aren't scrambled, so I can tune them in without having the man stick it to me. I get all of my broadcast channels, plus ESPN, ESPN2, and several others, in HD without paying a cent above my basic cable.

The downside? You get some weird channels -- like 89.1403 for Discovery, for example. And I suppose there's always the chance they'll decide to scramble the channels. But for now, I'm a happy guy. Let's Go Mountaineers! (In HD, of course).

Ken

Still fair and balanced -- our bottom five posts

Our last post we took stock of where we were after 20,000 views and ran down our five most popular posts. Just as we did when we hit the 10,000 mark, we're also going to list the five least popular posts, in descending order. After all, if we celebrate the good, we ought to acknowledge the bad.

5) After the Bum Rush -- My analysis of the attempt to send the record labels a message by pushing an independent release to the top of the iTunes charts. Was it successful? Fortunately, more folks responded to the challenge than read my post about it.

4) I Want My MTV YouTube -- I'm hoping this one's in the gutter just because it's so recent. I offer up the concept that YouTube serves the function of the original version of Music Television.

3) Pulling Cable -- Ken observed new fiber being laid in his neighborhood. Would HDTV finally be available? Did you care?

2) The Revolution Will Be Dugg -- My attempt to put the spreading of DRM codes as an act of civil disobedience into a larger context.

And the absolute least-read post so far:

1) Return of the Marching Memes -- This was also the least popular 10,000 views ago. When you're not interested, you're really not interested.

Four of the five bottom posts are mine. Ken finally has an entry, but he still comes out ahead when you look at the most popular posts. No matter how we look at the stats, you, gentle reader, have voted with your mouse clicks. Quality wins over quantity once more. And I don't think either of us would want it any other way.

- Ralph

Pulling cable

Cable service here in Charlottesville, VA hasn't been much to write about. Most recently we've been served(?) by Adelphia Cable, who were much more adapt at losing money than providing quality service or maintaining their infrastructure. The result? Poor reception on many of my favorite channels and a lack of digital and HD broadcasting

The only thing stopping me from moving over to DirecTV was the lack of local channels in our market's packages. That, and the expense of setting up the system I really wanted -- an HD package with built-in Tivo PVR. I'm stingy enough to wait for prices to come down a bit.

So, it was a relief to me to see Comcast take over local operations recently. Now I could hope to see my snowy picture improve, at the very least. Some consolation whilst I await my dream system. Several months in, the news isn't too good yet -- my picture looks the same, and I'm paying more money. At least Comcast is good at sending out glossy brochures enticing me to sign up for digital cable.

However, hope remains. Through the local A/V grapevine I've been able to track down occasional SDTV and HDTV broadcasts on unused subchannels. This has been erratic at best. On some evenings I'll pick up beautiful HD signals on my Sony 34" TV, but more often than not, my explorations have come up empty, with "No signal" showing on channels I was watching the night before.

The other positive development has been the regular appearance of work gangs pulling new cable through the system. Nothing's hooked up yet, but the appearance of bundles of cable springing daffodil-like out of the ground is like a sign of spring after a hard winter.

I can only hope.