This is quite interesting.
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Love it. Poke ATSC and A3SA in the eye!
Why isn’t this station owner running ATSC instead of the bureaucrats they have now?
Solves the problem of Constellation Designs ATSC 3.0 patents.
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It's K03IM-D a LPTV station in Eugene Oregon, and they've been doing it for the past several years.
They did it by using 23.98 fps and slow moving content that can get the bitrates below 4 Mbps, something that won't work for actual network programming with live sports. i.e. the Fox Sports 4K feeds that have the Big East and Big Ten tournaments this week average around 18 mbps at 59.94 fps.
They get away with it because LPTV stations are exempt from many of the requirements that full power and Class A stations have to follow. HEVC is not part of the ATSC 1.0 specs and chipsets capable of decoding HEVC didn't become available until 2015, so very few TVs can view it as even if the TV supports HEVC for streaming, the ATSC 1.0 tuner side has to be coded to recognize streamtype 0x24 as HEVC. Even stations that are now using H264 for some subchannels have compatibility problems, even though that has been an optional part of the specs since 2009.
LPTV stations are also exempt from the simulcasting requirements, so they don't need to guarantee that their main ATSC 1.0 feed can still be seen by the first generation of ATSC tuners that came out in the late 90s.
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Go figure...
I am by no means a expert in radio or video tech... but i been wondering for many years, why not just change from mpeg2 to mpeg4, or more modern codecs for those OTA broadcasts. The "experts" then yell at you for such a preposterous idea. That would never work, the tech does not support it. Need a whole new "next gen" system.
Whelp, there you go. 4K and multiple HD sub channels IS possible using current tech.
Now, i am sure that ATSC 3.0 still has a leg up tech wise for signal and overall radio tech advancements etc, that would benefit transmission and reception. But, after this revelation, it is not the hale marry game changing miracle tech transition it is advertised to be.
"next gen" not so much. Well, next gen to control content, DRM, "interactive content" more ways to force ads on you. etc.
Wonder if that guy who owns that "small" tv station is gonna get some flack or fallout from this.
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It's only works with this LPTV station because they're using 24 fps and slow moving content where you can get bitrates below 5 Mbps. It will not work with the network 4K progamming available from Fox, NBCU, CBS/Paramount, ESPN/ABC and others that's 59.94 fps and 18 mbps+
Even if ATSC 1.0 stations didn't have to follow the specs, no major network is going to allow their affiliates to switch to a codec that makes every tuner made prior to 2015 obsolete and only works with post-2015 4K TVs that had their ATSC 1.0 tuners coded to recognize a streamtype that isn't part of the specs. H264 is also mostly limited to lesser networks for similar reasons, as despite being an optional part of the spec since 2009, a lot of ATSC 1.0 TVs are still manufactured to be MPEG-2 only, heck even Tablo has problems handling h264 subchannels.
Welcome to the forums! I guess you're kind of a newcomer here, eh.
Not the point.
Infact, in order to get OTA tv, in the future, consumers already are being forced to "upgrade" their tv/hardware.
They already gonna make old tuners not work when 1.0 is sunset... makes no difference really if consumer is forced to upgrade to a 2015+ tv or a 2025 (or whatever tv that has 3.0 tuner).
In both scenarios, either upgrade current 1.0 broadcast, or move to Next Gen 3.0, still is forced hardware upgrade on the consumer side (for those still using older hardware, which the vast majority of the average consumer, most likely are not) MOst people these days still use cable or sat, or are streaming, OTA users are a overall, much smaller market than those others)
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No one is being forced to upgrade to ATSC 3.0 anytime this decade. The recent NextGen filings have much more realistic estimates in the 2030s.
And unless they start a coupon converter program and implement an ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate for all TVs sold in the USA and a mandate for all stations to launch ATSC 3.0 services, NextGen tuner penetration will never meet the threshold needed for the networks and their advertisers to allow their affiliates to go ATSC 3.0 only, and even then, no major network station is going to voluntarily go ATSC 3.0 only when the rest of their local competitors are still broadcasting ATSC 1.0
Also, that is very much the point. Even if they ignore the compatibility issues, the ONLY reason this works is because they are low bitrate and low framerate channels. What little 4K network programming is currently available would look like a jumpy and pixelated mess at 24 fps and less than 5 Mbps when they originate as 59.94 fps broadcasts with 18 mbps+ bitrates.
On a side note, @kyl416 I'm impressed with all your technical knowledge about TV specs and channels/networks. 
I enjoy reading your posts. 
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Have to completely disagree with you.
Most media content is made in 23.97 or 24 FPS including 4K UHD movies these days
With the possible exception of “fast moving content” such as sports, which people bend over backwards over, have to see every minor thing in extreme detail. In that case, online streaming is often the better source these days for that specialized use case.
30 FPS 60 FPS 120 FPS content honestly most can hardly tell the difference unless you compare side-by-side and high framerate only makes sense for sports or gaming. TV and movie producers also prefer the 24 FPS for the cinematic look as that’s how they intend the content look. And I don’t need 60 FPS just to watch my local news.
And the newer codecs can be at a much lower bit rate and still look just as good as bit rates on older codecs that need much higher bitrate.
Stations that broadcast at 30fps or 60fps, still air programs that were originally made in 23.97 or 24fps. It is a pointless and wasteful thing. Maybe dynamic fps broadcast could be a thing. Only pushing high fps when needs, for a sports program etc. No idea if that is possible with current tech though.
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The only 4K programming from the networks is live sports and it is already HEVC, and it's content that you will very much notice if it's changed from 59.94 fps to 24 fps.
You can only get down to 5 mbps and lower bitrates when it's content that doesn't change that often. Like 90% of the time the NASA 4K feed is a still ISS camera. The rapid panning of the cameras as the action moves across the field, court, or racetrack will never let them get live 4K sports feeds down to bitrates that low.
(Yes H266/VVC is slowly becoming a thing, but it was only finalized in 2020, very few hardware encoders are available, and software decoding 4K content requires more processing power than most consumer electronics can handle, so even if it gets adopted into ATSC 3.0 specs tomorrow, no one will be using it anytime soon)
Then keep stations dedicated to sports, at high fps, or only use high fps when needed (or when source content is filmed in that rate).
Comparing 30fps 1.0 to 60fps 3.0 station, same sports airing, i can see no difference.
But, that just me, and i do not have a ultra high end or wall sized tv that many die hard sports fans tend to have... could also be my market, may be upscaling source broadcast for 3.0.
From my experience, in my market, the lower bitrate HEVC 3.0 stations looks marginally to significantly better then the much higher bitrate1.0 mpeg2. Depends on the network. Though, since the 3.0 launch, all the 1.0 stations have much lower bitrates now. Nothing is higher than about 8Mbps on 1.0 now. Before, i saw as high as 15Mbps.
My local FOX station, 1.0 bitrate is 5-6Mbps mpeg2, 3.0 is 3-4Mbps HEVC and it looks cleaner, sharper, less compression artifacts. And if they used AV1, would look just the same and use even less bitrate/bandwidth. Lower bitrate, newer codec almost always means better picture overall. But, can be worse if the station not setup things right... was the case for a bit in my market, they had some issues with encoding they had to work out.
Old mpeg2 needs to die. imo. It takes up WAY to much space anyways.
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You can blame everyone who wanted HD to coincide with the ATSC 1.0 rollout for us being stuck with a codec from the 90s like MPEG-2. The rest of the world focused more on having additional channel choices for their digital launches and outside of some special event only broadcasts like the olympics, HD didn't become standard for both OTA and cable until the late 2000s/early 2010s when they were able to use H264.
Also, the lack of bandwidth on a lighthouse is not the only reason why we don't currently have 4K OTA broadcasts from the networks. New equipment is needed across the entire pipeline from the network's broadcast center to the affiliates' master controls and local control rooms in order to ingest and rebroadcast 4K and overlay any required local content for top of the hour IDs, severe/EAS alerts, local ads, etc. In ESPN/ABC's case most of their 4K events are still raw production truck feeds that don't contain any ads or in studio segments, and some are just a specific camera angle. FOX Sports only recently started including ads in their 4K telecasts a year or two ago, while this past year's Super Bowl was CBS's first ever "4K" telecast. During the early years of 4K there was only one 4K production truck that the networks had to share.
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