SDV (Switched Digital Video) May Hinder My Super Bowl Experience
Like most Americans, I plan on watching the Super Bowl later on today. The only problem is that my cable company (Time Warner) uses Switched Digital (SDV) to broadcast Fox in high definition. Obviously, this presents a problem since my Series 3 TiVo is unable to tune SDV content. This will all change once TiVo comes out with a SDV dongle but for now, I’m stuck having to use my over the air (OTA) antenna to watch Fox in high definition. The only problem with this approach is that sometimes Fox doesn’t come in clearly if the weather is bad outside. Hopefully I won’t have any problems tonight and I will be able to watch the Super Bowl in HD.
Wish me luck :)….
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm |
Man that sucks, but honestly the OTA feed is usually better anyways, as must TWC systems compress the signal even further.
I do have good news for you though. Most stations get permits from the FCC to crank up the juice on Super Bowl Sunday, so you shouldn’t have any problem picking up the signal.
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pm |
Alex are you talking about Fox33 or Fox68? I wonder if you tweaked your antenna a little that you could improve Fox33. I believe the Fox33 transmitter is a little south of where you are pointing (I assume toward Syracuse).
The recent ice storm could make that hard though.
Do you have some rabbit ears you could use? I would think just a decent set of rabbit ears would get Fox33 for you!!
February 4th, 2008 at 5:58 am |
Hey Doug,
Thanks for leaving a comment and thanks for reminding me that I can get Fox33 OTA. When I first setup my Series 3, Fox33 was coming in horrible so I didn’t added it as one of my channels. Your comment made me go back and checkout 33 and sure enough it is now coming in better than 68. Because of this, I was able to watch the SB in HD!
Thanks again!
February 4th, 2008 at 12:30 pm |
Did you manage to watch? I thought Fox could have done a better job with the broadcast. The commercials were definitely higher PQ than the game itself. I would have rather CBS get the superbowl. Even the video level was changing camera to camera. Very distracting.
February 4th, 2008 at 3:18 pm |
Great to hear Alex!!! I had heard that Fox33 went HD a couple of weeks ago, most likely because of the game. The rumors are WKTV (NBC) will be HD this summer for the Olympics.
What a great game!!!
February 4th, 2008 at 8:28 pm |
it was a great game. Especially if you are a Giants fan!
February 4th, 2008 at 8:29 pm |
@chris
I did end up watching the game via my antenna. Take a look at my reply to Doug.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:23 pm |
[...] I went ahead and added my local Fox affiliate (33-1) to my Series 3 as a new OTA (over the air) channel. Right away, I noticed that my TiVo didn’t [...]
July 31st, 2008 at 12:10 pm |
Time Warner CANNOT use SDV to carry local programming. It must be carried via ClearQAM unencrypted and that’s the law. However, your Tivo probably doesn’t have a QAM tuner, but in Utica, TWC carried WFXV HD on digital channel 88.1 and has for some time.