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Mystery Digital Television Channels In The Air: Who Knew?

June 4th, 2007

Uh, so I finally got around to hooking up an old fashioned antenna to our HD TV and… some strange channels I’d never heard of before are found in the high end of the spectrum.

There’s this strange kid’s channel called Qubo. Cartoons look really nice on a flat panel screen with crisp lines. This one seems to have the best quality, but it’s all kid programs.

Also, a couple channels from some network called Ion. I checked out their schedule and it looks like the show reruns of Alice and… Battlestar Galactica. I’m watching Alice right now and the colors are nice, but it looks like someone’s old VHS tape. There’s also Telemundo and a Chinese Channel.

I was hoping to snag Public Television (KQED) near us but I think we’re right in between San Jose and San Fransisco where the reception sucks. We’re definitely not in sight line of Mout Sutro. Rats, because they have several HD channels.

This is going to call for some further research for sure.

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  • Mike
    Did some research when my dad got an HD television. Nice choice on the Samsung...went with that, too. Only beef is that the one we've got takes a second to turn on. You press the button, and you've got literally 2-3 seconds before it beeps and turns on. Yet, if you get impatient and press the power button again, it will turn itself off before powering on. I usually walk up to the TV, because I don't trust the remote for that.

    As for the HDTV channels, you can buy a stronger antenna. Used to work at Target, they've got several to choose from. We never installed any, and went with a cable box instead The cable box carries digital broadcast channels, as well as whatever's digital on cable - not much. Mostly HBO, which we don't get.
  • Hey Mike... yeah I noticed that few second delay until the Galaxian type sound indicating it has turned on.

    I'll definitely have to look into the HD antenna stuff. HD digital cable I assume is rather pricey...

    I'm still getting used to this digital HD thing. I just now realized the picture was getting stretched out on different settings. I guess there are different modes - 4:3, 16: something or other. The digital broadcast channels are in 4:3 so the TV was stretching them out horizontally. Of course, the alternative is to do 4:3 but then there are black bars on both sides!
  • Mike
    Actually, here Comcast only charges about $10 more per month, for the same channels. Again, it's probably only going to be regular cable (non-HD), along with HD broadcast channels. I don't know if you have more HD cable channels in your area, though.

    As long as you don't upgrade to more channels (and they'll desperately want you to...they "accidentally" gave us HBO, Showtime, etc. upon hooking up the cable box - we had to call and cancel that).

    You can achieve the same thing by sticking with regular cable, and using an antenna to pick up the HD broadcast channels. You'll just have to switch back and forth between cable and broadcast...I'm not sure if this involves physically removing the antenna. Might be worth the extra $10 a month.

    Yeah, the resolutions are confusing. I don't know what we're using at the moment (I can check in the morning). But HDTV is really nice, I've got to say. It took a lot of reading online to get the right settings, what with the 1080p, 4:3, 16:9, and all that. It looked pretty bad at first, particularly when people were moving around on TV.

    If you sit far enough away from the TV, it'll look better. It's actually recommended that you be a few feet from the TV for things to look right.
  • Hmmmmmmm! Check out this link...

    http://www.slate.com/id/2167389/
  • Mike
    Neat! I'm not sure what to make of it, but it sounds interesting.

    These same people could just pirate their movies, and see them from beginning to end, as many times as they want, whenever they want. No need for a $170 box for picking up these "mystery channels."
  • I don't think Ion is high definition ...

    In general, you don't need a stronger antenna to pick HDTV broadcasts. Just make sure you have the right antenna for your location and read the reviews.
    In my view, CM4228 is the best when it comes to the UHF HDTV reception ...
  • Yeah these channels are digital now that I think about it. I really would like to snag the public television channels in my area, so any more information about antennas is welcome... thanks.
  • Hello, for a long time I read your blog, thanks for that that write interesting and
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