TVO Wants Out of Broadcasting

... and why it's a bad move for everyone.

An editorial from your Average Joe

In a recent declaration, TVO (the public broadcaster of Ontario) seems to no longer be interested in, well,  … broadcasting … outside of Toronto. The publicly-funded organization has decided to close down eight transmitters, including the one in our nation’s capital Ottawa, leaving only it's only over-the-air broadcasting station operational in the 6ix.  What does this mean?

Well for starters, Ontarians are getting a raw deal as something that was available for free over-the-air to anyone with a TV and an antenna is now only available through a pay service (either TV or internet). So to get TVO, Ontarians outside Toronto are essentially being asked to pay a third party to provide them with something they already fund with their taxes.

The only good news here is the deal isn’t done: shutdown would be at the end of July and there is still time to intervene. In fact, here are a few reasons below on why you should pressure TVO, the Ontario government, the CRTC, consumer protection boards and anyone else who will listen to take a long hard look at this plan before it goes through and screens start going dark in ON: 

 

First of all, where did they get the numbers?

The aforementioned article states “this decision will impact less than 1% of Ontario households” with no citation or mention on how this number was derived. Does TVO actually know how many viewers watch their programming via an antenna? For example, a 2015 report shows about 8% of Canadians do not subscribe to a TV service (cable or streaming) and Ottawa as the 7^th largest TV market in Canada. I've combed whatever data I could find and could not reach this figure. Soooo TVO...  1%? Are you sure?

 

Also, what defines a “household” and why limit it only to that? How many cable households have secondary TVs attached to antennas on kitchen counters, kids’ playrooms? How about businesses like hair salons and waiting rooms at dentist offices? Daycares? Community centers?

 

Another question is whether any due diligence was done to assess the impact on the so-called “1%”? Did TVO survey or talk to any of the viewers that would be impacted? What about the elderly who aren’t technically savvy enough to use streaming internet options or those on fixed incomes that cannot afford a pay TV subscription?

The numbers just don’t add up. The 1% number is meaningless ... and faceless.

It sets a dangerous precedent for other broadcasting networks

Allowing TVO to close all but one transmitter (Toronto) and still allowing it to retain “must carry” status in cable packages has definitely raised eyebrows. If the CRTC allows this to go through (especially in a major urban area such as the Ottawa region) this could set jurisprudence that many Canadian broadcasters owned by cable / satellite parents may soon look to copy. What would prevent another broadcaster from closing all but one “symbolic” transmitter?

Sure TVO, it's big but I'm not sure the signal will reach the 7th largest TV market in Canada from there.

 

The shutdown hits the people who depend on it the most

With perhaps the exception of Ottawa, most of these transmitters serve areas like small communities and rural areas where there are actually little or few options for broadband internet. So you can understand the confusion when people see that “prevalent access to TVO’s high-quality educational video content either through … access to a broadband internet connection” is a reason for shutting down the transmitters.

Also, TV by antenna is free from recurring monthly charges and is most popular amongst people in socio-financial situations that do not allow them to pay a monthly cable bill full of service fees and equipment rental charges. The cost of cable has skyrocketed, whereas over-the-air TV programming has remained free of charge to the public.

TVO is leaving Canadians at the mercy of pay TV mega conglomerates to get their content

TVO states “TVO’s audiences overwhelmingly receive our content through cable, direct-to-home satellite … platforms”. Oh those guys. Yes, well that makes everything better.

 

So TVO is telling us to get their programming from the likes of corporate entities who just decided to raise prices on TV and broadband packages because ... you know ... that's life? The same companies who were mandated by the CRTC with the task of providing Canadians with a basic service at a reasonable price and instead decided to spit in the eye of the Canadian public? Well, I mean that’s when they weren’t trying to bamboozle potential customers out of picking said basic package ). So thank you TVO for leaving us in the capable, well-meaning hands of companies that garnered a thousand complaints in a six week period.

I can already hear the service rep at the Cable Co. now: “Yes sir, but if you cancel our service you won’t have access to our many channels of quality programming ... like TVO”  Oh, the irony.

So you say we can still get TVO from our friendly, reputable cable and satellite providers? Yeah, about that ...

 

Were any other options explored to maintain service?

Ok, so there is a budget crunch. Fine. Besides a complete shutdown of transmitters, were other options explored by TVO? How about joining forces with the federal government and using infrastructure funding to have TVO/CBC/SRC broadcast from the same transmitter using digital multicasting to serve communities that were already shunned by CBC and now TVO?  Again, very disappointing to see this lack of effort from a public broadcaster.

Why get out of broadcasting now?

The latest trends show that over-the-air TV is making a comeback. First of all, antenna-friendly devices have popped up everywhere in new tech from Xbox to Canada’s very own uber-hip antenna-friendly DVR TabloTV (which BTW is from a Canadian innovation company based in Ottawa employing many Ontarians … and ironically is also where TVO is shutting off its transmitter). In fact, TV antenna products were all the rage at CES last month.

Second, the future is bright with the advent of ATSC 3.0, the new over-the-air broadcasting standard that will allow OTA broadcasters to reach everything from rabbit ears to mobile phones and integrate content with the very same interactive platforms TVO is mentioning in its digital shift. If anything, why not hang on a bit longer and upgrade straight to ATSC3? Opportunity: missed.

Recent Canadian data shows traditional pay TV service is the medium in stagnation / decline. Graphic courtesy @MontrealOTA

Finally, the numbers show that pay TV is past its glory days: ratings for pay-only networks are tanking, cable companies are bleeding subscribers and conversely, over-the-air TV use is rising as antenna sales surge and a new generation of Canadians leaves pay TV to fade away with the era of baby boomers. Oh and those up-and-coming millennials? Well, they love antennas as can be seen from growing social media communities and on popular reddit threads.

 

So what can you do?

Well, for starters you can help TVO come to its senses by writing them directly via email at asktvo@tvo.org .

If you want to add your voice to the rest of the crowd, sign this online petition to ask for due diligence from the Ontario government (who funds TVO with your tax dollars) before this decision goes through in July 2017.

If you want to put your eggs in other baskets, contact the CRTC and file a complaint under TV accessibility if you will be losing TVO’s broadcast service. Feel free to ask some of the questions mentioned above.

Finally, you can also contact the Ontario Consumer Protection Board and file a complaint … but this one is a long shot.

Make your voice heard, and stay tuned…

OTA TV: It's Not Just About Cordcutting

Over-The-Air TV Can be a Great Add-on to Other Services Too

For some bizarre reason, people assume that if you use an antenna to watch TV you’re automatically a “cordcutter”. Truth be told there is actually a growing number of “cord-pinchers” or “cable squeezers” that have kept a foothold on their pay TV service yet added OTA as a secondary source to fit their TV needs.

In fact, this issue has been brought up many times in recent months as there is reason to believe this “unseen population” of Canadian consumers using OTA as a source for television is large enough to bump up the number of people using broadcast TV in urban areas in Canada from 1 in 10 to as much as 1 in 5 households.

The issue at hand is that in surveys done by the CRTC there is no clear identification of secondary sources of TV and usage rates. As soon as you are a pay TV or ITV customer at your address, the assumption by the Canadian government’s telecommunications giant is that your household is “on the grid” and has no use for the over-the-air signal being sent to you for free. As a result, this has led to a perceived small number of people that use broadcast TV services, affecting advertising demand and the way the regulator makes decisions that affect the broadcast industry and Canadian consumers as a whole.

With a bit of research and listening to some testimonials, your Average Joe has come across a whole number of savvy, cost-effective Canadians that have kept some aspect of a pay TV service and still use broadcast OTA TV. Here are some of these stories with the hopes of inspiring some of you out there to hop on the free TV bandwagon before the CRTC decides there is no bandwagon at all:

Secondary TVs

“The cost of adding another receiver for our TV in the kitchen was ridiculous. There was a flat fee to do the install and apparently a new switch or something was required as well and we would have had to drill holes in our walls to pass cable. It just wasn’t worth it for the hour of news I’d watch in the morning during breakfast and the background programming we like to have on when tidying up the dinner dishes.” This TV watcher got around the issue by simply hanging a flat indoor antenna to the wall, just above his wall mounted flatscreen TV. “It’s the perfect fit for our kitchen. We get all our major local stations, the image is crisp and the installation took up no room … no shelf for the receiver, no passing cables in the wall … I did it myself in an afternoon”.

Adding a flat antenna like the Mohu Leaf under a cabinet (above) or on the wall makes having a kitchen TV showing your local channels a space-saving breeze; regardless of the TV service you have in your living room.  Photo courtesy of www.gadgetreview.com

We’ve heard the same thing for countless other applications. “Did the cable company think I would pay over $150 for a HD receiver just to watch Jimmy Kimmel in my bedroom?” said another fellow using his indoor antenna as a secondary source of late night TV.

“I’m not watching Game of Thrones on my dinky TV when I’m on the treadmill … that’s what my home theatre basement setup is for. I just need something to distract me for an hour or so” said another TV viewer who opted for an antenna setup in their home gym. “Even from the basement, it was easy to get a coax going out to a wall-mounted compact antenna about 12 feet off the ground. Why would I pay a monthly rental fee for another receiver just for a few hours of TV a week?”

The pursists

“I couldn’t stand the simsubbing which meant missed plays and cut-off of the announcers” said one purist NFL fan that prides himself on his “dual feed setup” in his man cave on game days. “I catch CBS and NBC out of Buffalo and I’m not watching the hacked and slashed feed via my cable provider. I get the real commentary, the real commercial breaks and I don’t get interrupted when the post-game commentary comes on. Needless to say, our Super Bowl party is always at my house year after year and my friends are envious of my dual cable / antenna setup. I do need my cable feed to watch the weeknight games though so I wouldn’t be able to live without it.”  


Just in case …

Antennas seem to be the “Plan B” of choice for some satellite TV subscribers in case their signal goes down – sometimes due to bad local weather, rain fade, an issue at the uplink or snow accumulation on their dish during the winter. “Service calls take a while and are expensive, and it’s too dangerous to go up there on my own in the winter to clear off the snow and ice build-up. I use my antenna input to get by and usually after the sun gets at it for a few hours the dish is clear again” said one such user.

Don't be left out in the cold with no TV. A backup OTA TV setup can get you through those snowy patches as local OTA broadcasts are not affected in the same way as satellite signals by bad weather.

There are also more and more people also investing in handheld and battery TVs to get through blackouts and other types of emergencies / disasters. “We were without power for almost 3 days after a windstorm last summer. A portable TV antenna combo and a car adapter was our lifeline” said one such family.

New portable digital TVs use antennas to bring you crisp, HD pictures courtesy of your local broadcasters, even when the power or cable is out. Photo courtesy RCA.

 

Go mobile

“I laughed when I heard Bell Fibe was bragging about offering wireless TV receivers that can go anywhere; even outside” said one antenna aficionado “We’ve been doing that for years. My wife and I found it was such a shame to be stuck inside on a nice summer evening, and PVRing our shows to watch later at night was a no go as we’d fall asleep by then. We would routinely set up a small flatscreen outside and clamp an antenna to our railing for an evening of outdoor TV. I guess you can say we took the concept of having an outdoor living room to another level!” laughed one adventurous outdoor TV watcher. The highlight of his summer in fact was watching the Boston-Chicago Stanley Cup finals on CBC under the stars with some neighbourhood friends and some brewsies on his deck. When asked if the setup was difficult or cumbersome he said, “No, but we just have to find a way to keep the bugs off the darn TV screen!”

Watching TV a few feet from your house is one thing but what do you do when you’re a few miles out? TV antennas are still the TV provider of choice for the RV community, who once again because they have no address (and chances are their owners have cable at home) do not pop up anywhere on the CRTC surveys as OTA users.

Second addresses

There are many people that use antennas at secondary residences such as cottages. One ingenious person I talked to found a way to maximize the use of his pay TV satellite service by using his antenna.

“We have a 3-season cottage, and OTA reception up there is difficult. What we do is we had a satellite service installed at both our primary and secondary residences on the same account, and once we open the cottage we call our provider to swap our service form our city address to the cottage address.” This practice is a very well-kept secret amongst some providers who would rather get you to sign up twice at both addresses, and switching between either the primary or secondary address for satellite service is perfectly legal by the way.

“So this means we use our OTA setup in the city throughout the late spring, summer and early fall when we’re rarely there, but still nets us almost 30 channels. We PVR anything that we don’t have via OTA at the cottage and catch up on our viewing on the weekends when we head up. Then in the summer we’re up there for weeks at a time so we have our full service with us, and we swap back when we close up for winter. Our city OTA setup allows us to maximizes the flexibility in our satellite plan without having to pay a dime more”


Businesses

“I was pouring money down the drain” said one garage shop owner who was paying a monthly cable bill for essentially one SD channel he had running on one TV in his waiting room. Through a referral from a friend, he paid a one-time setup that gave him almost 20 free digital channels via a roof-mount antenna, and a splitter to a newly purchased 2^nd TV in his lunchroom as a bonus for his employees, funded with the money he saved by cancelling cable. “Once I got the facts it was a no-brainer to switch to an antenna. And to top it off, I’m now showing my clients an HD image.”

David vs Goliath

“I couldn’t stand the way (my pay TV provider) treated me.” Said one frustrated pay TV subscriber who also has an antenna in his attic.  “They would do anything to get me to sign on, and once they had me I was chopped liver. So I learnt my lesson, now I constantly shop around and drop my service once I’m not happy”. It seems to be a general consensus that pay TV subscribers everywhere are fed up with rising prices, outrageous add-on fees (why are you charging more for “digital service”?? Do you even support analog signals anyways?) and a Rubik’s cube of programming “packages” that satisfy only the interests of the people collecting the bills, not the customer. “Without an OTA setup I would never be able to pay hardball with these guys. They gave me grief about a credit they had promised me when I signed on, so after almost an hour of arguing I cancelled my service. What did I care, I still had almost 30 channels of free TV to fall back upon. Lo and behold a senior rep called back a week later and I was able to negotiate a better deal than I had before to re-sign. Since then they’re already raised the price on me twice so I’m keeping an eye on them … and because of my OTA setup running in parallel, I’m not afraid to pull the plug again if I see one more unreasonable hike. That’s the only way to send a message to the guys.”

Conclusion

Hopefully the above examples have (as a minimum) inspired some of you out there that it’s worth giving “cord-pinching” a shot by using a secondary TV setup by antenna– if not for convenience, for the health of your wallet and sanity of your finances.

Do you have any cord-pinching or cable-squeezing stories? Are you enjoying a free TV setup? Contact Average Joe today to share your story with us!

September 1st: Over-the-Air Television's Day in the Sun

A Day to Appreciate Free TV

When people find out that I use (and strongly recommend) an antenna as a primary source of television, the reactions are quite interesting:

 

“You can still watch TV with an antenna?”

 

“Isn’t the picture fuzzy? Aren’t you always getting up and adjusting your rabbit ears?”

 

“Isn’t that illegal? I thought the RCMP shut that down and the boxes don’t work anymore?”

 

“Aren’t there only like, 2 channels???”

 

Enter Canadian National OTA DTV Broadcasting Day‏, or affectionately known in the online world as Canada’s “OTA Day” (#OTADay in the Twittersphere).  OTA Day is the anniversary of Canada’s digital TV transition, which for most people passed by without much fanfare two years ago today, at midnight on August 31^st 2009.

The goal of this day to show appreciation for the various over-the-air broadcasters and the people that bring us local TV for free, and most importantly to raise awareness that OTA TV is still alive and well. In keeping with the spirit of this day, allow me to answer and elaborate on some of the major questions people have about watching TV via an antenna:

 

Yes, those rabbit ears still work

 

So what changed two years ago? Well, basically TV broadcasters got with the times and converted their equipment from analog to digital (think of the jump in quality when your old analog cellphones went digital, or when VHS tapes moved to DVD/BluRay). It was a huge investment and essentially rendered analog-only TV technology (which remained pretty much unchanged since the 60’s) obsolete. The good news is converter boxes can breathe new life into those analog-only TVs still in your home and if your TV is less than 6 years old, you’re already ready to receive the new digital signals.

This TV will need a converter but if you have a flatscreen, you’re already ready for DTV.

 

As for antennas, chances are you’re still good. As part of the transition, the TV broadcast spectrum was compressed meaning certain channels had to be relocated. The VHF-Lo bad of the spectrum was removed (channels 2 thru 6) and the UHF spectrum was capped at 51. So as long as your previous antenna was capable of receiving VHF-Hi and UHF channels, you’re good to go! If you’re in the market for a new antenna, the good news is this compressed range allowed manufacturers to improve and redesign their antennas with concentrated performance in this tighter range. The result is a new generation of smaller, more powerful antennas…. But I’ll get into that later.

 

No more fuzzy picture

 

Remember the days of trying in vain to move those rabbit ears and improve an image plagued by snow, static and ghosting images? Well those are a thing of the past. Just like when digital CDs eliminated the snap crackle and pop of vinyl records, the new digital tuners have filters and autocorrection that can remove these unwanted artifacts. The result is a crystal clear digital image coming in at resolutions as high as 720p or 1080i, and 5.1 sound. Some will argue that the picture quality is even better than satellite or cable due to the fact that over-the-air television is not compressed.

 

The only drawback? Digital reception is hit or miss – you will have a clear image until signal strength drops below 30%, where the tuner will not be able to display anything.

Check out the difference between analog (NTSC) vs digital (ATSC) broadcast technology via side-by-side real-time splitscreen in this video link. (Courtesy YouTube.com)

 

Over-The-Air TV is not illegal TV

 

OTA TV is governed by Industry Canada and the CRTC here in Canada and the FCC south of the border, similar to our local radio stations. And just like with radio, it is completely free and legal to receive this signal as long as you purchase the required equipment and that the broadcaster has a licence approved by the CRTC. Most broadcasters transmit over-the-air either because of legacy local TV stations and to have certain rights on local cable channels which pay lucrative amounts to re-transmit their signal to subscribers. In the beginning, cable TV was merely a community antenna (known as a cable head end) that received over-the-air TV signals and transmitted them via a coax cable system to subscribers at a minimal fee. Over time, cable only channels were added and we have the monster telcos that we have now, but the base channels are mostly still free locals!

 

Unfortunately, the term “free TV” has got a bad reputation because of illegal practices done in the late 90’s involving illegally modified satellite receiver boxes ("stolen TV" would be a better term in this case). People would modify set-top receivers intended for reception of legally free and unencrypted satellite TV channels to decode encrypted pay channels from service providers like Dish Network and DirectTV (legal unencrypted channels exist carried on international telecom satellites like international news channels and religious programming). Anti-piracy technology was put in place and authorities cracked down on the main sources of the modified hardware, essentially ending this practice.

 

Channel selection

 

If you live in an urban area and especially an urban area near the US border, you are in a free TV goldmine. The main complaint about over-the-air TV was that there weren’t enough channels. Sure, you won’t get the Pay TV only specialty channels (TSN, Discovery, CNN) but since the US and Canadian digital transition, channel selection has actually increased.

 

In the Toronto and Montreal areas, there are actually more free over-the-air channels, mostly due to the fact US stations adopted multicasting, a new technology that allows multiple programming to be broadcast on one channels. For example, a FOX affiliate added CW programming as its secondary. PBs stations can go 2 or 3 subchannels deep, adding networks like CREATE and WorldView.

 

You don’t necessarily need a hulking antenna

 

A lot of people think of TV antennas as heavy, large, clunky eyesores perched upon rusty towers. The fact of the matter is that while those antennas will still work with DTV signals, the digital transition sent a lot of antenna manufacturers back to the drawing board and consumers are reaping the benefits with new products. Super-compact antennas exist that are the size of a paperback book or even stick on a window can be used to replace rabbit ears and bring in local channels. Slightly larger antennas that are no bigger than a satellite dish can replace enormous deep fringe hardware in most markets. These new compact DTV antennas are even inconspicuous enough to be installed on apartment/condo balconies or other areas with no roof access. For example, in Montreal an antenna the size of a BBQ grill has enough gain packed into its design that it can bring in all line-of-sight channels.

 

Yet not all antennas are created equal – to find the best one for your particular location consult with a local antenna retailer, the manufacturer or visit the wealth of knowledge available on reputable online forums.

 

 

 

 

New antennas like the razor-thin Mohu Leaf indoor antenna (top), Winegard FlatWave AIR (center) and Antennas Direct Clearstream series (bottom) are new compact antennas that pack a lot of punch in a small package.

 

Over-The-Air broadcasting is not dead

 

In Canada, history was made in early 2013 as for the first time ever Pay TV companies lost subscribers for two financial quarters in a row. Skyrocketing bills, unreasonable fees, constraints in programming packages and bad service have more and more Canadians cutting the cord and looking for other options. So where have these viewers gone? For many in urban areas, over-the-air television has filled in to provide a good solid free channel base and some users couple this with streaming services to add speciality programming at a much more cost effective rate (Netflix, Apple TV)

It's a fact: cordcutting has come to Canada as consumers fume over rising prices (amongst other things).

 

In fact, using the example of Montreal, the city saw a rebirth of OTA with the national network CityTV recently setting up shop by buying out smaller outfit Metro 14; and a for the first time in over 20 years a new broadcast channel has installed a new transmitter and is set to launch in the coming month (Canal ICI). Other broadcasters in the city like V-Tele upgraded their transmitters to feed a wider OTA audience as their first installation was inadequate and was met with complaints from a larger-than-anticipated OTA-only TV following in the city.

 

On a larger scale, antenna manufacturers have reported a surge in sales in North America and new antennas continue to show up on the market and succeed. Tivo launched its newest Roamio products with built-in DTV tuners and a plethora of devices are flooding the market to get people to watch antenna TV on laptops, iPads and even turn home computers into fully customizable DVRs.

Sales in antennas have boomed (top) since broadcast TV went digital and new products keep coming out, like the HD HomeRun (above) which adds an OTA TV feed to your home WiFi network. (Photo courtesy NewEgg.ca)

 

OTA Day is also a sign of the growing resurgence of the popularity of broadcast TV. A growing community is showing its support and appreciation for the people who create and provide us with free TV and locally produced programming. Even retailers are jumping on board to use this weekend to provide boxing-day type sales on OTA gear.

 

Online OTA mega-retailers like Angel Electronics (above) and Save And Replay are some of the retailers offering OTA Day sales and promotions this weekend.

 

Conclusion

 

If you are a want-to-be cordcutter or just a savvy consumer looking to keep the money in your pocket and out of those of the Pay TV executives, do not discount the opportunities presented by over-the-air broadcast TV. And if you already are enjoying the services of your local OTA broadcasters, don’t be shy to take some time today to send them a note, email, call or tweet to thank them for their OTA feed.

 

Happy OTA Day everyone from your one and only Average Joe!

Antennas Direct Clearstream 2 The Right Choice To Put Under The Tree

Give the gift of free HDTV this year with this powerful, compact antenna.

At the heart of any over-the-air setup is the single most critical component that will make or break your experience: the antenna. The antenna is your lifeline to free TV. Remember, even the best TVs, signal amplifiers and receivers can only make the best out of what your antenna is feeding them. With a bad antenna (or the wrong antenna for your geographic location), your reception will be weak and spotty and you may not get all the channels that are available in your area. The good news is that many good antennas exist out there; the bad news is that a lot of bad antennas exist too.

So how do you know what antenna is right for you? Well as we outlined in many earlier posts, the internet is a great resource to learn the most you can about what you need to get the perfect OTA setup. Sites like TVFool can let you know what is available for free in your area and who strong the signals are and from which direction(s). Other discussion forums can link you to members in your area who may post on what works for them. In the end, you should have an answer to all your questions and get the perfect setup for your location.

However, I often get emails and messages asking which antenna I recommend for general purpose use in major Canadian cities and suburbs. After testing various models, the Antennas Direct Clearstream 2 is a good general purpose antenna that delivers the most bang for the buck for the majority of urban or suburban Canadian consumers. Let’s get into the details on antennas and why this one is probably a sure bet for you.

Model: Antennas Direct Clearstream 2 Antenna (also “CS2 Complete” or SC2 VHF upgrade kit)

Size: 12” wide by 20” high x 4” thick. Back mounting brace requires another 4”.

Package includes: Clearstream 2 antenna and all necessary hardware to install to a mast (not included). Assembly required.

Output: One F-type connector (cable coax) for RG-59 or RG-6 cable.

Pros: Powerful antenna in a small package, wide angle reception, good gain on distant channels, indoor friendly, finished look, easy to point and install. Great for metropolitan and suburban areas. Testing showed it was able to consistently pull in DTV signals originating 70 miles away. Robust reception in poor weather conditions.

Cons: Basic Clearstream 2 model is UHF only (channels 14 and up), a VHF upgrade kit or “CS2 Complete” model is required to get the UHF and VHF-Hi channels (7-13). For rural areas, this antenna may not be the best choice.




Antenna Basics

Antennas come in many different shapes and sizes, mostly to serve different purposes. Some are meant to be highly directional, only picking up channels from a specific direction and ignoring noise from other directions. Others are meant especially for long-range reception.

In general, the larger the antenna, the better the ability to pick up distant signals and to hold onto them during bad weather. The higher up you place your antenna, the better your reception will be as well. Ideally, if your antenna is within the line of sight with the transmission tower, all but an act of God could break your flawless reception of the DTV signal. Indoor antennas are easy to use and install but TV signals can easily lose 50% of their strength by the time they’ve fought through the bricks, pipes and siding in your house’s walls.

The biggest challenge I’ve seen for consumers is that not everyone can (or wants to) put up 80-foot towers with antennas the size of a 4-wheeler in their backyard, yet everyone would love free HDTV. So, Average Joe went on a mission and reviewed and tested a few antennas to find one that was compact and powerful enough to be used indoor or outdoor, and would be easy for consumers to install and mount.

What to Look For

First and foremost I suggest to any consumer to do their research first. The good news is commercial TV antennas have been around since the 1950s so there are a lot of good companies with years of valuable experience out there.

• Look for a reputable company and analyze their line of products. A company with many different makes of antennas and accessories (masts, rotators, amps) is usually a good sign.
• Who do reputable vendors carry? No not just the big box stores or discount electronics outfits, call some well-known installers to see what they recommend in your area and what brands they carry.
• Do your research online. Sometimes a Google search for reviews or hitting up a discussion forum may save you from a costly mistake.
• Avoid antennas from companies that make outlandish claims. Antennas the size of a coat-hanger than can pick up TV stations from 100 miles away in all directions are usually too good to be true. Reputable companies will honestly post the limitations of their antennas for consumers to see and even provide charts showing how it fairs for a given frequency (channel) and distance.

Beware, there are many “junk” antennas out there on the internet and your money may be better spent elsewhere! Antennas such as the one above have been proven by experts to not live up to their claims and to be cheaply built. On the plus side though your neighbours may act nicer to you seeing as you have a death ray on your roof pointed at their house.

• Try to see the antenna before buying it. If you are mounting it outdoors, look at the hardware and the construction of the antenna. Does it look sturdy? Will metal parts rust or are they sufficiently protected? Does it look like it can handle years of wear and tear from wind, rain, snow and ice? If you are looking for an indoor installation only, look at the size of the antenna – will it fit in your room? Where will you put it and how will you adjust its position? Does it have sharp edges or pointy parts that may scratch your paint or even injure sometime?

Clearstream 2 Installation

The CS2 antenna came with a great instruction manual showing the gain chart of the antenna as a function of direction. Using this chart and TVFool, I was able to find an orientation that would allow me to capture signals coming from two major directions without the need to rotate or adjust it.

If you want to go way up high with this antenna, the antenna easily installs to a any standard antenna chimney mast or tower. One great option with this antenna model is that you can also use a satellite dish J-mast to mount it to the roof, eaves or siding of your home. The mast also acts as a stand for use indoors.




Rather than but the Antennas Direct mast, I purchased a J-mast from a satellite store as it was available at a much lower price (it was grey instead of black but whoop-de-doo). With the antenna mounted on the mast I added a flat wooden foot to keep it from toppling and was able to easily install it indoors on a bookshelf.
Using a satellite J-mast also makes it easy to install the CS2 outdoors as it would install like an ordinary satellite dish. With a few screws it installs easily to the roof or siding, or if you’re switching from satellite to OTA, simply toss the dish and replace it on the existing mast with this.



The clamps and mounting hardware are well built, sturdy and easy to adjust and tighten into place. My test model was up during early winter snow and ice and a late fall rain storm and it hasn’t budged a bit.

If installing outside, check your local by-laws to see if you need a permit. The important thing here is that this is not a conventional antenna, most city by-laws or restrictions are to limit those enormous roof or tower mounted antennas that are 10 feet long. Average Joe says that if people are allowed to install satellite dishes, then you should be good to go with this baby as it is more comparable to a satellite dish than those eyesore antenna juggernauts.

Clearstream 2 Performance (Outdoors)

Wow, wow and wow. They weren’t kidding round with this antenna. For the test, given my location it was deemed I would require a small 26dB amplifier. The tests were then run with about 50ft of RG-6 cable between the antenna and TV (amplifier is in-line about 5ft from the TV).

My first test consisted of just holding the antenna out a second floor window in the general direction from my TVFool analysis and easily yielded all my channels as predicted. The tuner showed strengths of 92% and up for my locals (less than 30 miles) and strengths of 80% for the distant (60-70 miles). A second test with a permanent outdoor mount adding a bit more height, kept the local signals rock solid with some topping off at 100% giving the farther stations a jump to 86-87%.
During inclement weather, the weakest distant channels would drop closer to 60% (yet no issues in terms of viewability) and the locals were bulletproof.

Clearstream 2 Performance (Indoors)

If you really have no option to install this antenna outside (hard to believe since it’s so compact, versatile and easy to install) you can use the CS2 indoors. Reception was degraded by about 50% by aluminium, brick and shingle siding, especially for long range (30miles+) stations. Vinyl siding was OK but finding a “sweet spot” indoors was trickier than outdoors. In general, the best locations for the antenna were high up on bookshelves and/or near windows. Forget about use in a basement or inside thick stone / cement walls that you may find in an “industrial condo loft” environment.

Overall, it definitely won't be worse than other type of indoor antenna being sold on the market, just be careful as it is larger than most typical indoor-only antennas so make sure you have enough space to give it the elbow room it needs for andjustment and installation.

Appearance

Unlike other types of antennas (i.e. bowties or arrow-style directionals), the CS2 has no sharp protruding edges. The plastic cover on its “figure eight” front end gives it a nice finished look and does not look too out of place when used indoors (if you really have no option). Also, the nice black finish on the reflector and large spacing between grids won’t make it seem like you have a BBQ grill hanging over your TV.



When mounted outside, the antenna is no more conspicuous that a satellite dish, and will cause even less strain on your siding or roof as the wind will blow through it much easier than a solid Shaw or Bell dish.



Prices and Where to Buy

Before we get into pricing, I would just like to give kudos to Antennas Direct on their support of the Canadian market. Being a US company, its primary interest is the US market so most promotions from its website do not apply to Canadians and certain products are not available north of the border. The good news is that when contacted the US offices were always supportive and willing to assist Canadian inquiries. In certain cases they offered to do special shipping for products not yet available through Canadian distributers. For another inquiry, they offered to work through a Canadian distributer of their product to provide a product also not yet available in Canadian as a special order. This is great customer service as opposed to some other companies that seem to think of the Canadian market as just an afterthought.

As for where to buy, Antennas Direct products are not yet carried by any major Canadian retail outlets or electronics big box stores. Your best bet would be a specialized antenna dealer or smaller scale electronics store (a list is available on the Antennas Direct website). The good news is these retailers ship from online orders and luckily the CS2 is lightweight and small enough so shipping costs are reasonable, but not negligible. A Google search may also pop up a few specialized stores in your area that carry this product as well. Prices vary by about +/- 10 dollars from retailer to retailer.

If you can’t pick it up locally, generally your best savings will be on shipping so be sure to shop around online and getting the complete total from two or three different retailers before purchasing. Buying from out-of-province may be an option as the shipping fee may be marginally more but you may save in the end on the local provincial sales tax.

Conclusion

The Antennas Direct Clearstream 2 Antenna is a great general purpose antenna that comes at a reasonable price and is compact enough to have an installation solution for everybody. Don’t waste your time and money on junk antennas; if you’re looking for a good antenna to become serious about going with an over-the-air TV setup, this is a good model to start with!

More info on this antenna is available on the Antennas Direct website.

Channel Master's DVR a Cut Above The Rest

CM7000PAL Receiver Gives Consumers the Most out of OTA DTV

Message from Average Joe:

Dear savvy consumers and blog followers,

thank you so much for your feedback concerning this item. After reading your comments and doing some additional research I have decided to retract my initial review recommending this item due to the lack of support of Channel Master of its Canadian customers. It seems many of the issues you have raised could be easily fixed by a simple software update, and yet Channel Master has made none available and refuses to give a timeline.

Coming up short: one of many frustrating problems for Canadian CM-7000PAL users is the inability to enter a 6-character Canadian postal code. This means that crucial TVGOS (TV Guide On Screen) data being broadcast by CTV cannot be downloaded to enhance the PVR experience of the end user. A simple software upgrade could easily solve this as well as other reported issues such as slow channel changes and remote response. At over $300 a pop, wouldn't you think Canadian consumers deserve some resepct/support?

Due to "crippled" functionality and limited features to north-of-the-border residents, I cannot in all honesty no longer recommend this item for purchase to Canadian consumers at the current list prices of its major Canadian distributors. It is very unfortunately as minor software tweaks would certainly make this unit a must-have for any OTA enthusiast.

The CM-7000PAL is essentially the famous Bell TV PVR that is re-purposed for OTA DTV signals. Even the remotes are doppelgangers. Unfortunately it lacks the back-end support that could have easily made this a great product for all Canadian OTA TV viewers.

With that being said, I sympathize with the frustration felt by many of you. What's strange is that most of you are not necessarily upset with the quality of the product but with the inability of the manufacturer to take a few basic steps to make this product exceptional.

OTA Program Guide Trumps Bell TV

Pay TV subscribers are furious over Bell turning their program guide into a billboard

Remember those “free internet” companies in the late 90’s and early 2000s that provided free dial-up internet in exchange for having a cheesy ad banner appear on your computer while you were surfing? Kind of annoying, but nonetheless a small inconvenience for having a free service. Well earlier this week Bell TV went one step further and pulled the same stunt - but this time to their paying customers - by turning a line in their program guide into a rotating billboard for pay-per-view movies. The advertisement remains until it is manually cleared by the user via the remote.

Average Joe completely understands the outrage of Bell TV subscribers to having this annoying feature imposed on them. Could this be yet another reason to turn away from the satellite and cable mega-corporations and switch to the pristine program guides available from free over-the-air digital television?

Ask a Bell TV subscriber how they like their new on-screen program guide – they recently lost their last line in the program guide to a rotating banner ad for pay-per-view movies (above). Your Average Joe recommends to consumers to explore the uncluttered program guides offered by Over-The-Air DTV receivers instead which are free from unsolicited software updates to add advertisements from the big telemedia companies (below).


As a paying customer, do you think your provider has the right to flood you with unsolicited advertisements via your on-screen program guide? Send your comments to Average Joe now via my email address in my profile!

Dish Network DTVPal

Average Joe’s Recommended Converter Box for the “Anything but Obsolete” TV crowd

In my previous post I identified the “anything but obsolete” group as those that wanted to keep their analog TV for a while longer without breaking the bank, and yet enjoy the new benefits of the DTV viewing experience. For these people I recommend the DTVPal converter box from Dish Network (yes, the satellite company).

Model: Dish Network DTVPal

Package includes: Instructions, converter box, DC power supply, remote and coax cable

Inputs: co-axial antenna

Outputs: standard definition via RCA (yellow / red / white) and co-axial

Pros: Best program guide and user interface I’ve ever seen on a converter box, good picture quality, sensitive tuner, easy to setup and add / edit channels.

Cons: Remote cannot control the TV power, with the digital conversion over in the US the box is end-of-life and can only be bought off aftermarket sources (not retail)

The “WOW” Factor

Having tested a few converter boxes, nothing knocked my socks off like the DTV Pal. Unsuspecting test subjects at the Average Joe household thought that I had a satellite receiver connected to the TV; nobody could believe that this was running off an antenna. The program guide, the antenna alignment tools, the features and snazzy graphics … if you’re looking for the wow factor, this is the converter box that delivers it.
Appearance

The box itself is compact and discrete-looking with its black colour and only one green LED that lights up when in use. It does not look out-of place at all in a modern home theatre setup. The remote is ergonomic and looks high-end, its buttons are all a good size and are clearly labeled. There are no buttons or controls on the box.
Setup

The initial setup is one of the easiest I’ve seen on the market. An on-screen setup wizard guides you step by step through the installation process and lets you optimize your antenna placement before running a full scan, which is a very smart feature to have. Essentially you manually enter the channel RF numbers and use the signal strength to guide your antenna placement. For my test setup, I used one channel from the US and one local. Once your antenna is in the right spot, you go to the next step that runs a full scan; you sit back and watch as it identifies each channel it pulls in.Once the scan is done, it downloads the program guide with a progress screen similar to what the big boys on the satellite services have. I never had an OTA receiver box make me feel so classy. One note: if the box has been powered off for a while, the program guide will need to be re-downloaded with fresh information next time you start it up. The delay could be a bit annoying but this step can always be skipped. Besides that, the guide does update itself automatically every so often and if new channels are found they will be added automatically as well. You also have the option to perform re-scans without losing the previously scanned channels which is great for people that have signals coming from different directions and need to use antenna rotors or re-adjust indoor antennas.
As an extra bonus there is even an option manually punch in the RF frequency of a channel and see if the receiver can grab it, which is good for those hard to-reach channels that you just can’t seem to find in an automatic scan.

THIS is what a DTV guide should be!

Now the best part of it all – the program guide. By the way, Bell TV subscribers may find the user interface very familiar, and with good reason too as Bell essentially use re-branded Dish Network receivers. The program guide displays days of information (if available from the broadcaster) in a very easy to browse and user-friendly table. Not only do you get to see your entire programming selection at a glance, but options allow you to search the listing as well. Compare this to the program guide or “onscreen info” provided on the converter boxes in the big stores and you’ll see why this is easily its best in its class. It even beats out several newer satellite / cable boxes I’ve seen (yes Videotron, I’m talking to you: the 1990’s video game industry called, they want their graphics back). As a bonus, even the channel names can be manually edited in the guide to say whatever you want instead of the default DTV station callsign (i.e. "CTV-HD" instead of "WBRF-18")As if it couldn’t get any better, you can even search the guide for your program title and then set up auto-tuning to plan your night of TV watching and have the channels switch automatically. Once again, go ask those salespeople what do those other converter boxes have?

Ease of use:

The remote is well laid out which simply adds to the great user interface provided by the DTVPal. I absolutely love the “View TV” button which no matter where you are in the menu or guide automatically brings you right back to your show. The main program guide is one button away, and by using the left and right arrows you can access an on-screen minimalist version guide for browsing while watching your show.
Program info is also a button push away, and by default the antenna strength is shown when the main program banner appears which is an added bonus as it gives you a heads up to adjust your antenna if you see the bar a bit too low on the scale. In any case, at any point a warning message is automatically displayed if the level begins to drop to levels where degradation may occur, just like the big boys with satellite subscriptions have. Nice.Two small pet peeves concerning the remote: I would have loved to be able to control my TV power with this remote. The DTVPal remote is so ergonomic and sexy that I would have liked nothing more than to take my TV remote and archive it in a drawer in my TV stand. Oh well. The other thing is you may notice there are no dots or hyphens so keying in a DTV subchannel is a bit awkward: rather than dialling say 4-2 or 4.2, you need to tap in 0042 and the receiver will interpret it as 004-2. A small little inconvenience, but to honest with the guide being as good as it is I find myself changing channels mostly through the guide screen than anything.

Performance:

When compared to other boxes and TV tuners, the DTVPal was found to have the same if not better reception than standard tuners or converter boxes. During certain bouts of bad weather, I found the receiver held onto signals of lower strength much better than my TV tuner. The picture quality is good although other boxes may have marginally better results as per the Consumer Reports chart but there are really no majorly detrimental issues with the picture quality.

It sounds awesome, so where do I buy one?

You have to remember one thing – analog TVs are a thing of the past so a converter box is essentially a one-off piece of technology for obsolete equipment. The bad news is that with the DTV transition being over in the US, the market has shrunk and the DTVPal is no longer available for retail sale.

The good news however is that all those analog TV owners that gobbled up these boxes in 2009 in the US are starting to replace their TVs and are putting their used DTVPal boxes up for sale. With the Canadian dollar essentially at par (if not better) than the American, buying a used DTVPal off eBay or a similar website is your best bet to get this awesome box at a seriously reduced price.

With shipping included, you should be able to find a used DTVPal in good condition for around $50 USD, which is reasonable given the prices of new but inferior converters. As with all online purchases, just remember Average Joe’s golden rules for buying online:

- For used items, make sure the photos in the listing are of the unit that will be mailed to you

- Do your research on the vendor – do they have good feedback, are easy to contact and seem reputable?

- Inquire on which payment service will give you a better conversion rate. Don’t be shy to call your credit card company or compare their rates online to PayPal.

- NEVER ship across the border in anything besides United States Postal Service or Canada Post. Services such as UPS or FedEx will incur you extra brokerage fees that are more than likely not included in the price and are 100% your responsibility to pay once it’s delivered.

- Clean your used item when you receive it, especially in this case the remote which has been manipulated by strangers. I suggest using Lysol Disinfectant Wipes.

Conclusion:

Although you may be stuck with a standard definition TV for a while, the Dish Network DTVPal will let you enjoy those years with its awesome features. By far it is the only converter box out there that has that “wow” factor. If you want one: do your research, be patient and you’ll bag yourself a great deal buying a used unit in good condition online.

A Look at the Canadian "Public Service” TV Announcements of the Digital Transition

But who exactly are they really serving?

Despite the unfortunate media apathy around the digital transition, chances are you’ve at least started to see spots on the major networks about the upcoming analog Armageddon. These so-called public service announcements are to inform OTA TV viewers of the pening changes.

In all honesty, I like public service announcements. They let you know what’s happening, for what reason and what to do if it affects you. For example, a recent PSA in the local newspaper described some changes by the city water works in my area. In the humble opinion of your Average Joe here, it had all the key elements essential to a clear and concise public service announcement. It stated that our water main was being replaced on a certain date (notification) in order to improve water pressure in our area and replace the aging pipes (reason), thus reducing the risk of a break and to update to the latest materials (benefit). It told us to expect no water service for a period of time (information) and to run the taps once the water was back on (action).

That, my friends, is the form that I would normally expect from a PSA: tell people what’s happening, when it's happening, why it’s happening, how it affects them, and last but not least what they need to know and do about it.

When I finally saw the PSA’s from the three largest national networks concerning the DTV transition, I was disappointed with what I found.

While all three networks notified viewers of the change, there was no talk of the reason for the change and the benefits from it. Without reasons or benefits, changes are sometimes perceived as a burden. Someone who has no idea why the digital transition is being done could easily be confused, even think that they are being suckered into paying for a converter box to compensate for something the broadcaster is doing or the government is imposing on them.

Why not give the reason and the benefits? People can keep their analog TVs and benefit from the more robust signal and new on-screen program info. Owners of HDTVs can look forward to this as well and the availability of HD programming and new functionalities with modern day devices such as TiVos and DVRs.

Second, I was appalled to see the blatant advertising going on – suggesting subscription to a satellite or cable service as a way to prepare for the digital transition. True, technically this is an option as the DTV transition is transparent to pay subscribers, but this is like bringing your car into the garage to have the radio antenna fixed and the guy suggests signing up to satellite radio instead. It's an obvious attempt to upsell, not to help you with the issue at hand. The CTV and Global PSAs go one step further by actually advertising the pay TV services provided by their parent companies on both the TV spot, the 1-8XX number and the website. All this in a so-called public service announcement? Not impressed at all.

Call the toll free numbers or visit the website and the advertising for pay TV services is always there.

Kudos though on CBC for at least specifying that a converter box is easy to install and affordable. Of course, CTV referred their viewers to their parent company’s retail chain to buy the converter box.

Have a look at the following TV spots (barely considered as PSAs in my opinion) from the three major networks. Can you spot the blatant advertising and lack of info?

Global TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcb8u9thpq0

CTV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shVnHUcYs68

CBC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7B0SMzjdx8

So remember that example of the PSA I gave about the water works at the beginning of this post? Well, this is like a PSA that tells you they are digging everything up to change the water pipe, but hey, why are you drinking tap water? If you drank bottled water you wouldn’t be affected and by the way Perrier is on sale at Loblaws. Oh yeah and you may want to run the taps or something if you really want to go back to drinking tap water when we’re done.


Well then Average Joe, if you’re so smart, why don’t you make a PSA that’s better than the network ones?

After fuming over the lack of info and the almost deliberate hood-winking of consumers from these PSAs, I decided to make my own! Here is a sample PSA put together by myself in the span of about 30 minutes with my crude computer and graphic skills. The entire PSA would run for less than a minute, which seems reasonable considering the analog transition is about a month away. Here are the screen captures with the captions just below.

If you receive your TV programming “over the air” via an exterior or rabbit ear antenna, this message applies to you.

Your current analog broadcast service is being upgraded to digital television (DTV). Industry Canada has mandated Canadian over-the-air broadcasters to cease analog broadcasts effective September 1st, 2011.

This change is necessary in order for you to enjoy the full potential of modern-day HDTV technology via your antenna TV, including

- 1080i HD picture and 5.1 surround sound
- Easier and improved antenna reception
- On-screen program info and guides
- Compatibility with modern devices such as PVR / DVRs

As well as the potential for future digital programming options and features

To ensure you are ready to receive the new DTV signal, check your current TV for a digital tuner. If you have purchased a new TV in Canada within the past 3 years your TV will most likely already be DTV compatible. To check your equipment for compatibility, look for the DTV logo on your TV or on documentation provided with your TV.

If your TV is not DTV capable, you will need to install a digital-to-analog converter box by September 1st. These boxes are easy to install and can be purchased inexpensively from most local electronics or hardware stores.

On September 1st, be prepared for the new and bright future of over-the-air digital television! If you subscribe to pay TV services such as cable, satellite, or TV-over-internet, you will not be affected by these changes.

Conclusion

OK, so it’s clear we can’t rely on the big networks to help us navigate through the digital transition. But surely the retail market is willing to help us out, right? YOUR Average Joe is going undercover on the next installment of Revenge of the Rabbit Ears so be sure to check back soon and see what we find!