1080p can also be delivered at 29.97 fps, can't it? Or even 24fps for that matter, yes?
The thread should be titled "What is the point if everything is from a crappy source"
I see lots of streaming 4k/1080p/720p that is made from a crappy source, so it still looks bad. There's a lot more to video quality than the number of pixels that have been made from the source.
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This thread reminded me that I have not updated my Excel sheet in a very long time:
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Agreed, it's not the resolution it's how bad the source looks. For my provider ABC is the worst, muddy and fuzzy as all get out. Yeah it's 720p but ESPN is also and it looks way better.
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I have friends that worked for ABC. They always produce video at the highest resolution and sound quality available at the time. This increases the syndication value.
But their OTA broadcast is 720p. I'm sure the bitrate and overall quality varies by market. There was a point around 2008 where the ABC affiliate here was sending 540i and NBA basketball was unwatchable. They were called out on it in the AVS Forum thread for my city and admitted they had hardware issues and that was the best they could do for the time being.
I'm guessing in another 10-15 years there will no longer be local affiliates sending signals from expensive high-powered towers. The writing is on the wall, streaming is going to be the standard, unfortunately.
Not from what I've seen, it was horrible in Atlanta and it's horrible in Orlando. I'm specifically talking about sports events like college football games. ESPN is way better and I don't know why.
I stated what they record, not what they transmit. If you are using an antenna or coax based cable, then there are other factors in play as well.
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Well they need to get a grip on their affiliates because they have the absolute worst in sports.
Have you contacted them and informed them of your quality issues?
Yep. They don't care.
That's a shame
To be fair, they're dealing with a wider pop that thinks that widescreen 480p is HD. So I get it when the engineers blow people off.
I usually just get a boilerplate response (if any), and then when you try to call them there's no way to reach engineering. My latest attempt was a year or more ago when my local Fox affiliate stopped their TVE stream. But that probably wasn't them, it was probably Fox. They are Fox owned.
A simple reply so the update to this threads is more visible to those possibly interested.
Interested in what?
The results of my testing between the encoded content starting with the 720P content recorded from streaming vs the 1080i content recorded from the cable.
Maybe no one cares, that is fine. I just said I was going to do some testing so I thought I would share the results for those that MIGHT be interested.
Maybe I am a small subset of users who actually re-encode my recordings for archiving and then keep them forever to watch with emby, but on the emby forums everyone would be asking for my results.
I am happy with streaming and Channels so it is a kudos to you too.
If you have something to report, why not just post it?
I updated the original post so if anyone new reads the thread they get the answer to my testing in the same post and do not have to read all the way through the thread looking.
Sorry, I didn't realize I was doing something wrong. 
To make maddox happy:
I did some testing with recording TCM movies, editing out the beginning and ending fluff and then encoding with HEVC using my custom settings, but because these are 720P and not 1080i I did not have to Inverse Telecine them.
The results are actually surprising to me but I am very happy. The recorded 720P content actually looks better played back on my TV than the 1080i or it is so close I can't tell. I parallel recorded the exact same movies both streaming and with my cable card. Then edited and encoded them then compared them playing back on my TV.
There are several all positive takeaways from this test. Editing the streamed content takes less time and the encoding takes way less time since I do not have to Inverse Telecine. The big difference is file size. The encoded streamed content is typically 35-40% smaller with the same or better quality than the same from 1080i source.
Examples for comarison below are just the video portion of the MKV file that results from encoding using my custom HEVC settings:
Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968) Streaming 720P - 905,917KB, Cable 1080i - 2,261,109KB
The Night Digger (1971) Streaming 720P - 415,134KB, Cable 1080i - 919,808KB
Just like when I encode a move recorded from cable and Blu-Ray the one from BR is always smaller because the better the source the smaller the resulting file once encoded. This is expected and presented here with the 720P vs the 1080i sources.
I cannot complain with these results and am happy. The only difference is that the TCM movies from cable come with 5.1 surround sound but since almost all content on this station is old enough to have never had original 5.1 surround audio it is faux 5.1 and manufactured and my 7.1 AV receiver can do the same thing in real time. The 720P encoded files are even smaller for this reason since they only have 1 stereo track AAC instead of a 1 stereo AC3 and 1 5.1 AC3 sound track. This is why for file size I compared only the video track.
I will be happily dumping my super expensive cable that has hundreds of useless channels that I pay a fortune for just because the 8-10 stations I watch are strategically placed on different tiers forcing many into the top tier with all channels so they can steal you blind. The few channels I am loosing going to streaming I really don't care about.
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If you are getting your TCM recordings from a TVE source, they stream it, and we get what they stream, which is true for any TVE source. Channels DVR has no control over what the source stream. We do not currently get better than stereo channel audio from any TVE source in my experience. As it turns out, most of my TV watching doesn't really need 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio to be acceptable.
If there was still a system in place that allowed me to use a cable card (for stations without DRM) with Channels DVR, I would use it over TVE any day, even at an inflated/negotiated cost. That said, if you still choose to use TVE, you might consider the reduced file size an advantage (albeit in stereo) if you want to archive as you probably don't need to re-encode to save hard drive space.
Sorry if I didn't understand the issue you were trying to convey.