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The Digital TV Transition hasn't been hurting for attention over the last year. Not only is the federally funded converter box coupon program surely one of the most well-publicized government subsidies ever created (think about it—have you ever seen prime-time TV commercials advertising Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants?), but recently Congress decided it hadn't been publicized enough, and extended the deadline for broadcasters to switch to entirely digital feeds from February 17 to June 12.
Still, if you're among the non-cable subscribers who hurried to meet the original deadline, chances are good you're already enjoying a wider range of programming and much improved picture quality on your old TV sets. And it occurred to DCist recently that those of our readers who have cable or satellite subscriptions on all their TV sets and never had to bother with the transition may have no idea what they're missing.
After the jump, you'll find our take on the channels currently widely available over the free, digital airwaves within the District. If you're out in Virginia and Maryland and are getting different free channels, let us know about them in the comments.
- WRC-1/NBC 4.1: This the exact same local NBC broadcast you get over cable, satellite or analog (up until June 12, anyway).
- WRC-2/NBC 4.2: Like most local news broadcasters, WRC/NBC4 has opted to devote their second digital channel entirely to local weather. Tune in for a near-constant weather map, five-day forecast, and remixed muzak.
- WRC-3/NBC 4.3: NBC has filled this third channel entirely with Olympic-style sporting events. Often old Olympic footage but sometimes more recent world championship events, it's all skiing, cycling, swimming, and the like. If you just can't get enough Olympic competition, we guess this is your dream channel, but given that most of the contests being shown have already been decided, we don't really get this decision. Hopefully NBC will make something more out of this channel down the road.
- WTTG/FOX 5: The same as the local FOX broadcast.
- WJLA-1/ABC 7.1: The same as the local ABC broadcast.
- WJLA-2/ABC 7.2: WJLA's all-local weather channel, similar to NBC4's, but with the added bonus of broadcasting WTOP over the top of it instead of bad elevator music. By far the best weather-only digital broadcast in the area.
- WJLA-3/ABC 7.3 Hands down the greatest thing to happen to free broadcast TV in a generation. Channel 7.3 shows classic TV shows around the clock (with the occasional break for middle-of-the-night infomercials). Daily episodes of McHale's Navy, Leave It to Beaver, A-Team, Magnum, P.I., Rockford Files, and, most crucially, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, have quickly become staples in many a DCist's home, even if the channel did replace the interesting but not quite fully realized Local Point TV. Not every 7.3 show is a winner, however. Stay away from the likes of Night Gallery and It Takes a Thief, shows so dated and oddly paced it's not hard to figure out why you had never heard of them before.
- WUSA-1/CBS 9.1: The same as the local CBS broadcast.
- WUSA-2/CBS 9.2: The local CBS affiliate all-weather channel is just a live feed of the area's Doppler radar reading, with no context, no five-day forecast, and no sound. You can do better, WUSA!
- WDCA/My 20: Same as the MyNetworkTV/FOX sister station broadcast you're used to.
- WETA/26.1: WETA has four different digital channels broadcasting currently. The first offers the same programming you see on regular WETA: History Detectives, The NewsHour, and best of all lately, classic episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on Sundays at 11 p.m.
- WETA/26.2: WETA's second channel is known as "WETA Create," and is mostly cooking and home improvement shows. Here you'll find Sewing with Nancy, Jacques Pépin's Fast Food My Way, New Yankee Workshop, Made in Spain, and Lidia's Family Table.
- WETA/26.3: WETA 3 is WETA Kids, an all-kids programming channel, including shows like Super WHY!, Cyberchase, Bob the Builder and Big Comfy Couch.
- WETA/26.4: This is WETA's "other channel," which schedules a sort of remixed version of 26.1, but all too often shows the exact same program that other WETA channels are showing at the same time. We love that WETA is offering such a variety of programming, but they would serve us even better if they could somehow coordinate not showing Charlie Rose on three channels at once.
- WHUT/32: Same programming you're used to from WHUT. It's lamentable that WETA has four channels and WHUT only has one.
- CW/50: The same CW you already know. It's probably hoping for too much to expect channel 50 to start broadcasting a 2nd or 3rd channel, but if we could make a suggestion: mine old episodes of UPN and WB shows, CW! All we want is recycled Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls. Heck, we'd settle for Charmed marathons.
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My Fios has them all, plus 10 HBOs in HD. When I had comcast HD, I think I had most of those too.
Yah, but the point is these are all free and much better than we had with just over the air analog. Even better, while you're paying a zillion bucks a year for your FIOS TV I'm out here 50 miles from town pulling in crystal clear DTV broadcasts from DC and Balto for nothing. Who needs all that other crap, especially when there's life that can be lived outside the couch with the money saved?
I live in downtown Silver Spring, and those are the exact channels that I get for free. NBC Universal Sports is an awesome channel. Just the other day, I watched a 2 hour documentary on the Iron Man competition. Good stuff =)
I helped my mom get her converter box hooked up over xmas, and the picture quality rivals my digital cable. I'm really tempted to just drop cable and save $$$.
Forgot to add, everything came in great except Maryland Public TV channel 22 which is her favorite channel. I bought a indoor antenna (rabbit ears with UHF loop) and hooked that up and now 22 comes in good, but only if you move it to point in the right direction. Channel 22 has a regular, a spanish only channel, and at least one other side channel as well.
All other channels listed above (and a Spanish channel (Telemundo?) too) come in fine no matter.
It's worth noting that ABC7 has leased WWTD-LP (Channel 49) for an indeterminate period of time to allow for an analog relay of its signal. The channel doesn't make it very far outside of DC, but should provide a watchable analog picture to most of the District after they shut down their mauin analog signal. There is currently no requirement for Low-Power TV stations to convert to digital, though many plan to.
Once the DTV transition is over, MHZ Networks many international channels will once again be available Over-the-air. They broadcast from the 'burbs, so digital reception in the city might be spotty, but check them out here: http://www.mhznetworks.org/how-to-watch-mhz/
Finally, people should be reminded that they will definitely need to re-scan their converter boxes after June 12 and may need to adjust their antennas, as many DC channels (Notably 7 and 9) are returning to their VHF channel assignments for their digital transmissions. They are currently operating on interim UHF signals.
Universal Sports (4.3) is a wonderful channel! They show a lot of sports that used to be the domain of ABC's "Wide World Of Sports" back in the Jim McKay days: FIS skiing, track & field, et al. What's great is that they show the events mostly in "raw" format: every competitor (the case with most of their winter sports coverage), none of the "sob story" mini documentaries (okay, so they do have those with the Ironman coverage), and usually some decent commentators.
What I don't like about DTV in DC is that the entire DTV specification is biased toward folks who have access to roof antennae (or who live above street level, at least one or two floors up). Living in a basement apartment often means precipitous signal drops whenever a truck passes, or a wind gust causes trees to move. It's frustrating, and tough to follow some shows when bits and pieces of dialog are dropped. I've tried better antennae to little-to-no avail, and given that I rent, the likelihood of installing an outdoor antenna is quite slim.
But will I go cable? Not on your life! Why pay for stuff that, to this point, I've been able to watch for free (save for my annual PBS donation)? And most cable carriers are not carrying all of the digital sub-channels (like Universal Sports), which is a reduction in channel selection - WTF?
We'll see what happens in June, when the broadcasters are allowed to crank up their transmitters to full power. If it doesn't improve, though... grr....
Oh, and about the difference between 26.1 and 26.4: the former is WETA-HD, which doesn't have as many "gimme gimme" pledge drives interrupting the normal programming. The latter is the same as the analog broadcast, which means a lot of Wayne Dyer crapola during the all-too-frequent fundraising drives.
re-runs of simon and simon and the a-team. brilliant use of this technology. who are these morons programming this stuff? could they be ANY lazier?
I just watch everything through Hulu or Netflix now. Though, I can't seem to find a full stream of the local news. "Are your kids safe? Tonight at 11."
Am I the only one who is having a terrible time picking up most of the channels??
Although I live on the 7th floor and have bought a flashy ariel (the first one had to go back), most of the channels remain elusive.
Does anyone know whether things are likely to improve after the digital switch over?
We have the same problem. CBS is particularly bad - which of course is the ONE network that broadcasts the ONE show I watch religiously.
what kind of antenna are you sporting, sommer? i have the cheap-ass rabbit ear (not rabbit ears mind you—just one) and it leaves a lot to be desired. if i adjust it to get ch. 5, then ch. 4 goes away. lots of little annoying stuff like that...
I just have regular rabbit ears. From the sounds of some of the comments below, if I had a better one, I could also get Baltimore stations and maybe a couple others. But I do get all these channels in crystal clear.
7.3 also shows old episodes of The Incredible Hulk and Knight Rider every evening.
Seconding songfta's recommendation of universal sports.. and I'm not sure what time of day you're watching, Sommer, but they don't show reruns at all when I watch. They have been showing the current season of the skiing and sledding world cups, often with same-day coverage. They also had live curling from the US Olympic trials a few weeks ago.
Hopefully NBC will keep Universal Sports.
"given that I rent, the likelihood of installing an outdoor antenna is quite slim."
Under federal law, a landlord must allow a TV antenna installation (at your expense, of course). However the law only applies to those areas under your "exclusive use", so it may not help if you're trying to put something outside and you don't have a patio to yourself. But if you agree to pay for installation and to leave it there after you move, in my view that adds value to the apartment and the landlord would want that. In any case, for more info see: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html
Hey, don't go dissin' Night Gallery. Back in high school we'd do a "did you see that!" over cigs and a Carrol's grilled cheese at lunchtime!
Yeah. Lay off Night Gallery. Some of us were permanently damaged by that show. I'll never forget the version they did of Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" complete with Orson Welles voiceover. If the story wasn't creepy enough, the bellbottoms and wide collars are enough to scare the fertilizer out of you. And what a great pantheon of actors, everyone from Abe Vigoda to Larry Storch, and then Rod Serling rolls out to give his homily, cigarette in hand. It's like an acid flashback minus the nudity, pudding, and police beatdown.
In addition to all those listed, we also get two Baltimore stations, including This TV, with great movies most of the time. We have a directional antenna, so we can point it directly towards Baltimore. We do have to adjust the direction based on the station sometimes. We get best reception when we point it NNW, though CBS comes in best due West. Kind of a pain, but nothing terrible.
We have this antenna, indoors on the first floor. Works great, but again, it's highly directional.
My complaint is that all these new great channels aren't listed in the TV schedule. Is that ever going to happen?
Speaking of Charm City, who do I have to go down on to find Captain Chesapeake and Captain 20 episodes? I tracked down the Speed Racer, Jonny Quest, The Banana Splits, and Ultraman back catalog, but I really need a couple of guys in $h!tty public access tv costumes to complete my a la richerche du temps perdu.
Hey Monkey! Thanks for the link to Captain C. I miss Moandy the Sea Monster.
For apartment renters, this is a very highly regarded antenna design for city use. If I didn't live in a basement it's what I'd use. At least it's what I'd try first before spending more money on something else. :-)
So what you're saying is that I'm missing nothing at all. That selection sucks balls. I'll keep my HBO, Comedy Central, History Channel, and Food Network. Oh, and my on demand movies and tv shows.
Now all you need is that intravenous feeding tube!
I haven't checked out the digital channels in a while, but at my old job, where there were a lot of slow days, and an HDTV set up, I used to watch... like 5 or 6 MPT channels, and at least for a while 50 had a second channel called "The Tube" that just showed old music videos, and live concert footage and such. It was pretty great. Sorry to hear it's not there anymore.
I live in Columbia Heights and have an unamplified, omnidirectional antenna on the roof (a Winegard MS-1000, which looks like a flying saucer on a pole). In addition to the channels listed in the article I get WMPT (22-1, the HD feed; 22-2, labeled MPT-Sel -- and usually exactly the same thing as the HD feed, just in SD; and 22-3 V-Me, their all-Spanish, all-the-time channel) and WNUV (54-1, CW out of Baltimore). MPT used to have better HD picture quality than WETA, but since they siphoned off bandwidth for V-Me there's been no obvious difference. MPT and WETA usually have the same primetime schedule, but not always.
I just did a channel scan and right this second I'm also picking up WMAR, WBAL, WJZ, and WBFF from Baltimore, but it's unusual for me to see all of those with my antenna. In general if you want to pick up the Baltimore stations you need a directional antenna.
If you're looking for antenna recommendations the best source is the Washington/Baltimore thread at AVS Forum. The regulars there have a pretty good idea what antennas will work where.
Geek alert:
I have a Winegard MS-2000.
Right now its not connected because I get locals thru DishNetwork, but I'm about to cancel that. I've set it up though, just to test.
I'm in Alexandria, and I was a little disappointed that I can't get MPT, or WNVT which is a bit too far out in VA.
I took some old coax cable (dumped my cable tv so I don't need it) and plugged it into the back of my box. I kind of string it up near the window of my apt and it works pretty well.
Mind you, I hardly watch TV anymore. Why? Because I'm better than you.
Hey Monkey! Thanks for the link to Captain C. I miss Moandy the Sea Monster.
Sorry about the double posts...I just get so excited thinking about the old mindless tv shows of my youth.
Wonderama
Tobor the 8th Man
Kimba the White Lion
Channel 50 is also adding something called "ThisTV" (mentioned above) to one of their subchannels soon.
I wish these rerun channels would also air vintage commercials, instead of the endless ads for Snuggies and Aqua Globes.
50-2 used to show "The Tube" or as we called it, MTV for Geezers. It was great, but it went under. Lots of music videos, a mix of modern and 80s stuff. Not enough commercials to sustain them though.
7-3 did run vintage ads when they first came on the air. There were a lot of pen commercials.
The Digital TV transition is no trouble at all if your cables are correctly polarized. Go to Screen 47 of the DTV Converter Box On-Screen Installation Guide and use the resident GPS to correctly align your antenna for each channel, allowing for local ionospheric conditions, and ARRRGGGHH!
Technical reference:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/tv-d-day-usa/