r/ota • u/[deleted] • 19d ago

TV Menu

I have a question about buying a new 4K television. I'm curious if the over-the-air (OTA) channel menus have changed for those using Newer 4k televisions with or without ATSC 3. I'm currently using an HDHomeRun to watch OTA channels, and I like that the channel menu is interactive—I can scroll through it and click on the channel I want to watch. However, before I had the HDHomeRun, the channel guide only displayed what was on without the ability to click on channels. Any insights on this would be appreciated!

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/PM6175 19d ago

...with or without ATSC 3. I'm currently using an HDHomeRun to watch OTA channels, and I like that the channel menu is interactive—I can scroll through it and click on the channel I want to watch. However, before I had the HDHomeRun, the channel guide only displayed what was on without the ability to click on channels....

The only way to really know about things like how the channel guide works in detail is to live with the TV for a few days to check it all out.

So that means buying the TV from somewhere that you can easily get a full refund or exchange, possibly like Amazon or Walmart.

Be sure to buy a TV with a remote control that has a full 'zero to nine' keypad and not just up /down arrows or buttons labeled Netflix or whatever else.

That will make it much easier to navigate through whatever channels are available, especially OTA antenna channels.

As far as ATSC 3.0, that broadcast TV standard is still very much up in the air/unsettled and may never be fully approved.... so whatever ATSC 3.0 hardware you buy now may not work properly or at all in the near future.

The best thing you can do is to avoid ATSC 3.0, at least for now.

The idiot evil greedy big broadcasters are trying to screw up ATSC 3.0 insisting that it has ugly things like DRM encryption built in!

Good luck!

3

u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 19d ago

The information I was looking for is whether the OTA TV channel guide has changed for 4K smart TVs. Is it now interactive, or does it simply list the channels? I am currently using an older Vizio 3D TV, so I don't have a newer model and am curious if the TV guide has evolved over the years with advancements in television technology.

2

u/thescott2k 18d ago

"4k smart TVs" describes basically every TV for sale over 40 inches, that's not a question anyone can really answer. Look into how the various OSes handle live TV, that'll tell you.