Same here. We don't need two more ATSC 1 tuners. If they offered a 2-tuner ATSC 3.0 product I might be inclined to bite.
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Well, you could always look at it as a 2 ATSC3 tuner device, and that you are getting 2 extra 1.0 tuners for free. And if you really don't want the extra 1.0 tuners, just disable all the 1.0 stations on the device, leaving it only with the 3.0 stations enabled.
If you do that, you now have a 2 tuner ATSC3 model, no 1.0 channels that will be tuned from it.
It's the price for me. You are still paying $200.
Reminds me of the sandwich shop sign: "Buy one for double the normal price, get one free."
I don't care to pay for tuners I'll neither need nor use. Besides which: All of one station in our market has fired-up ATSC 3.0 so far, we're receiving their ATSC 1.0 simulcast just fine, and we very rarely watch that channel. So we don't even need the ATSC 3.0 tuners yet.
So further info an observations about my migration in the interest in helping others:
1: My first test was to see if the newer flex 4K tuners had any improvement over the extend tuners. I happen to have one of the older extend units with a fan. My area does not have any ATSC 3.0 stations yet, so all my tests are based on ATSC 1.0 channels for now.
My test was to keep the same antenna setup (using the exact same location and orientation) and just swap the antenna input between the two units (no splitter) to see if the symbol quality improved on one troublesome channel I have been dealing with that can get pixelated during high winds or rain.
I use a very handy iOS app called SIGNAL GH to look at my station lineup signal levels. What I observed was a very slight improvement of signal strength and signal quality on the flex 4K but not very much. I was hoping for a bigger improvement frankly. I live in the twin cities metro and the extend pulled in 69 stations, while the flex surprisingly only saw 67 stations. All the major stations that I care about were found by both tuners. I’ve got all the undesirable stations blocked out in the HDHomeRun lineup.
So I’m waiting for a rainstorm tomorrow to see if the flex 4K symbol quality has any improvement on this one channel (ktsp local abc station)
2: don’t get caught
I didn’t add a station guide provider to the new flex 4K after adding it as a source on the server so even though I set my tuner priority to the flex unit, channels dvr only knew about the older extend tuner, which had no antenna. So I lost a couple of recordings set up for last night and early this morning. Remember to add the station guide provider and refresh all the guide data. I’m hoping this will fix the problem tonight for masterchef. To be safe I also powered down the extend, but they should do exist if I choose to keep the extend.
Hope this helps others. Wish my area had ATSC 3.0 , but there is so little broadcast material on these days, that I doubt the broadcasters would want to invest any money when it seems everyone is moving to streaming models. But that’s a guess on my part, and a whole different subject
Best
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Distant stations may come and go as day turns into night or vice versa. I recommend checking several times. Some of my passes selected new distant stations that the 4K had pulled in, but my Connect had never received those stations and they had disappeared when the recording times came around. Aman has since improved the software's approach to that problem, but you can't be too careful.
As I've been saying all along.
The broadcast TV industry thinks ATSC 3.0 (aka: "NextGen TV") is wonderful, because the manufactures think they're going a resell everybody new TVs, Hollyweird thinks they're going to rake in a ton of additional money from DRM'd content, and advertisers think they're going to force people to watch the incessant TV adverts people have been skipping with VCRs (in the past) and, more recently, DVRs.
The problem is: The broadcasters have allowed the quality of their content to degrade so badly they've been hemorrhaging viewers like there's no tomorrow. (And, for broadcasters, maybe there will be.)
So now the local OTA stations have to be looking at the expense of deploying ATSC 3.0 and wondering if the game will be worth the candle. I believe that, as with the recent repack, some will decide it's not and, when ATSC 1.0 is EOL'd, simply close their doors.
I have two reasons for being interested in only a two-channel ATSC 3.0 tuner. One is, with the current product, I don't care to pay for another two ATSC 1.0 tuners I don't need. The other reason is we watch so little OTA TV now I don't think we need even four tuners anymore. IOW: Even if SD was selling a 4-tuner ATSC 3.0 device, I don't think I'd be willing to pay for it.
It migrates just fine. I had zero issues. I also have zero 3.0 stations. It does pickup fewer 1.0 stations for me (doesn’t get all the distant ones), but I agree with the other guy - what it DOES pull in is a lot more usable / stable. I also think station switching is a little better / faster with the 4K… If you get it, be sure to update the 4K device firmware. Not sure why another user said it defaults to tuner 2/3 for them. Mine uses 0/1 all the time…
I did get it mine recently and am interested how it performs during atmospheric changes. I have the latest firmware, and mine pleasantly uses tuners 0 and 1 first as well.
Mine's been rock solid with atmospheric changes. Hasn't found any more stations, hasn't "lost" any of the ones it found before - and all the found stations have come through rock solid. Including one station ~60 miles away that the old Quatro found in scans, but could never actually tune to
Cool! So far so good here as well..
For me, there was zero difference in signal reception with the 1.0 stations i get.
The Flex 4K just got a firmware update, with one of the changes being " HDFX-4K: Prioritize tuning ATSC 1.0 channels on the ATSC 1.0 tuners." Now that I've updated to release 20210624, it is in fact now using tuners 2 and 3 to tune everything, just like speedingcheetah mentioned 5 days ago.
For me, the Flex has always from day one used tuners 2 and 3 first for 1.0 stations.
not sure what firmware it came with but it is on : 20210501beta1 right now.
I just found out that my area... Richmond VA, just went to 3.0 yesterday. I am ordering the Flex 4K today from Amazon. Thanks for all the info. above... adding it should go easy...hopefully.
Tom
Considering a Flex 4k. Does ATSC 3.0 audio work on Channels? I'm confused based on what I've seen over on the HDHomeRun site.
I purchased the Connect 4k model a little over a year ago... Having a hard time finding a comparison to the new Flex 4k to see if it's worth the squeeze.
Yes audio works on atsc 3
The only difference is the addition of a USB port to allow the Flex to function as a DVR for SD's software. As far as Channels is concerned, there is no difference.
(Channels cannot access drives attached to HDHR tuners.)
My Flex4k arrived today and I can confirm it's working fine. The reason I moved to the Flex4k is because the ABC affiliate here in Pittsburgh has its tower located in a completely opposite direction from all others, far south of the city as opposed to north. They recently went NextGen and that tower is broadcasting from the northernly location so I can now get all my local affiliates with a reliable signal.
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