Poll for March Madness multicast options

[snodgrass23]

A quick poll about your thoughts of whether you would prefer to have all of the games in full HiDef, or would you prefer the games to be multicast in SD?

[snodgrass23]

wow. Full HD has a 2-1 lead so far. :)

[Scott]

Added to front page. I'm really interested to see how this turns out.

[gkx10]

Scott...
When I click on "submit" I get a window from "Pay Pal" to fill out for payment to HD COLUMBUS... is this a virus in my computer, or for real?

Thanks
George

[Scott]

Scott...
When I click on "submit" I get a window from "Pay Pal" to fill out for payment to HD COLUMBUS... is this a virus in my computer, or for real?

Thanks
George

Sounds like a bug. I'll check it out.

[Scott]

Scott...
When I click on "submit" I get a window from "Pay Pal" to fill out for payment to HD COLUMBUS... is this a virus in my computer, or for real?

Thanks
George

You're referring to the homepage poll, correct? That's where I saw it happening as well. The Sponsorship module on the homepage was missing the closing form tag and was confusing the poll module.

Fixed now. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[KevinGC]

Hey George. The quick fix would have been for you to just fill out the paypal info and pay. lol

P.S. How are you and the family?

[gkx10]

Thanks Scott,
Glad you found it and it wasn't me or my box
George

[festivus]

I can't believe the way the poll is going. You mean that you guys would rather be stuck with one game than to be able to choose from 4 games? And do PiP with them? I'm a bit shocked. HD is nice for sure. But...

[Scott]

I can't believe the way the poll is going. You mean that you guys would rather be stuck with one game than to be able to choose from 4 games? And do PiP with them? I'm a bit shocked. HD is nice for sure. But...

It's only a 4 vote swing--it's almost 50/50... This is an HD board ya' know :D

[TvPat]

I think that the nearly 50-50 vote in an HD forum speaks volumes.

The first two days of the NCAA Tournament are the greatest two sports days of the year, IMHO. The reason that it's so awesome is because there are 4 important games going on at the same time all day long, not because the Buckeyes new uniforms look great in hi-def. It's the sheer volume of games that makes next weekend so great. That is what makes losing the multicast so disappointing.

I've already taken those two days off. I'm signing up Mega March Madness and not worrying about the $69. And I'll get ALL of the games in HD.

Hopefully the multicast will return next year.

[Scott]

PARTY @ PAT'S HOUSE!!!

[MeHDTV]

I can't believe the way the poll is going. You mean that you guys would rather be stuck with one game than to be able to choose from 4 games? And do PiP with them? I'm a bit shocked. HD is nice for sure. But...

You're exactly right. I don't care if WBNS is going Hd for their newscasts, I'm done with them.

Anyone know if Dayton is going to multicast? I'd buy a huge antenna for that.

[MeHDTV]

Just curious how many of the respondants are not affected because they have digital cable? The poll should be exclusivly for those that watch via OTA and satellite.

[Robbiee19]

PARTY @ PAT'S HOUSE!!!I am there!!!! I'll buy a party pack from Wild Buffeo Wings!!!

[jchiso]

The poll should be exclusivly for those that watch via OTA and satellite.
I've deliberately chosen not to vote and sully the results, as I have always opted for the Mega March Madness package on DirecTV.

To offer a minority opinion to TVPat, the two greatest sports days of the year are the first two days of the women's tourney, since the games start at noon and end at two the next morning!

[festivus]

As was noted, this is an HD site so "this is not a scientific poll". Since we all have HD TV's, some may have digital cable and the results are so close, I think that Frank's new proposal of HD for one game and multicast for a second game is a great compromise. How much HD quality will be lost? I'm betting that most of us won't notice. To me, the quality of the WBNS HD signal is so good that a slight degradation will be nothing.

[snodgrass23]

While I agree that this site will tend to be slanted towards HD, who else would you ask? Normal Joe Schmoe without an HD capabilities wouldn't have the HD OTA tuner anyway and wouldn't even know about this. They probably love this new way because they can probably get the multicast now if they have cable.

[TvPat]

Beginning this month, ALL TV sets over 13 inches and any device such as a VCR with a built-in tuner must have an ATSC tuner. By this time next year there will be many more devices that could tune in the multicast over the air but are not necessarily HD.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-190A1.pdf

I actually owned an ATSC set top box two years before I owned an HDTV, and I used it to tune the multicast over the air. Now it's a paperweight, because the multicast is only on digital cable.

The multicast has been carried on digital cable for the last few years. This is the first year it is not available over the air.

[snodgrass23]

I actually owned an ATSC set top box two years before I owned an HDTV, and I used it to tune the multicast over the air. Now it's a paperweight, because the multicast is only on digital cable.

The multicast has been carried on digital cable for the last few years. This is the first year it is not available over the air.

I didn't realize that cable had carried the multicast in the past.

I would say you are definitely the exception to the rule of using a high def tuner before having a high def TV (though as you stated, this may start changing assuming the general public actually uses the ATSC tuner). I still stand by my statement that an HDTV forum is a perfect place to have this poll since these are the people that take advantage of the multicast.

[MeHDTV]

Maybe WBNS is doing it this way since so many SDTV's with integrated ATSC tuners have been sold and before too many SDTV owners realize that choice of games has been taken away from them.

It's a pity that the NFL and now MLB are making their fans switch to DirecTV or not see their out of market teams. Now you have to choose between providers to see your out of market or exciting games in the early part of the tournament.

Monopolies suck, the NFL and MLB are greedy and turning their backs on fans. Now WBNS is turning it's back on it's viewers by "monopolizing" what viewers have to watch. It's a sad day in the ATSC transition.

[TvPat]

I probably used a bad example to make my point. I agree that I am not a normal example (for anything), so here are some others.

A guy I know at work wanted a flat screen TV for his family room, and the only kind he could get was HD. He doesn't have cable or satellite. He only uses the internal ATSC tuner. He said the best thing about it is getting multiple PBS channels. He thinks HD is cool and watches it when he can, but he would definitely vote for the multicast.

Someone else I know bought an LCD TV because it fit better in her living room. She only has basic cable. She only cares about Florida sports (since she went there), so she would probably vote for the multicast.

Have you ever been to a bar that has wide screen HDTV's showing low def ESPN stretched out to fill the screen? (It pisses me off too.) I'll bet they'd vote for the multicast, since they don't seem to know what hi-def even is.

If you bought a TV larger than 25 inches manufactured after March 1, 2006, or one larger than 36 inches manufactured after July 1, 2005, by law it has an ATSC tuner. As of March 1, 2007, all TV's larger than 13 inches must have an ATSC tuner.

There are Joe Schmoes out there who bought big TV's in the last year that don't care that much about HDTV. They just wanted a big TV, and HD is about all they can get. This is a forum of HD enthusiasts, so you would expect any vote in this forum to lean to the HD side. I would probably vote the HD side in every vote except this one.

[MeHDTV]

The good thing is you don't even need to watch WBNS except for the Buckeyes games. Watch all games for FREE at

http://www.ncaasports.com/mmod

There are still VIP passes available which give you priority, and it's free. An excellent way to boycott WBNS and let them know how you feel thru lower ratings.

TvPat hit the nail on the head. I know at least 10 people who bought Tube TV's with integrated tuners and WERE looking forward to the tournament. I told them all about the multicasts for the tourney and they are gonna be really ticked when it doesn't happen.

[TvPat]

I don't want to boycott WBNS. They are one of only about 8 stations in the whole country that makes the extra games available at all, and I appreciate their effort.

WRAL in Raleigh was the first to multicast the tournament, probably because of so many tournament teams in that area. WRAL was also the first HD station in the country. WBNS was not far behind. Someone told me that the serial number on their HD equipment is "5". WBNS has been a leader in HD, and it looks like they will continue to be.

I am just disappointed that they chose to make the multicast exclusive to cable instead of making the HD feed exclusive to cable. They already have a fiber connection to the cable companies for their HD channel. They could have just left that alone and disributed the multicast channels to the cable companies via over the air antenna. I hope they consider this next year when more people will have ATSC tuners.

By the way, don't count on March Madness on Demand. I had a VIP Pass last year and I sat in a "Waiting Room" for half the game.

[rossl]

The good thing is you don't even need to watch WBNS except for the Buckeyes games. Watch all games for FREE at

http://www.ncaasports.com/mmod




Hehehe thats funny. Lets watch games in a tiny 480x360 window with an atrocious low bitrate... :eek:

MeHDTV, you need to change your name.

[Robbiee19]

I agree WBNS is the leaeder for HD in our area. Its just that with OTA mulitcast everyone reguardless of provider would have had access to the mulitcast games.

[MeHDTV]

Hehehe thats funny. Lets watch games in a tiny 480x360 window with an atrocious low bitrate... :eek:

MeHDTV, you need to change your name.


I'd rather watch Nevada or Oregon at 480x360 than Vanderbilt at 1080i.

[Scott]

And multicast takes the lead. On an HDTV board :eek:

[Scott]

I went ahead and ordered the DirecTV March Madness package.