Comment Re:Fix HD First (Score 3, Informative) 559
There are so many facts wrong in your post that I sincerely hope you don't work in the technical field of broadcasting. OTA uses MPEG-2 (same codec as on DVD's), which is a lossy compression technique. ABC NBC and CBS stations all take an MPEG-4 feed from their network and re encode it to MPEG-2; FOX stations get MPEG-2 video that they then "splice" is their network bug and local commercials and promos.
Getting a lousy picture on digital TV from a poor or unaligned antenna is a lie that salesmen use. If the signal isn't strong enough the picture will drop out, you'll see big blocks everywhere, its quite obvious. Anyways, I have an outdoor antenna with actual line of sight to the towers on top of Sandia Peak and I can very easily see compression artifacts on each station; some are worse than others because they have sub-channel. If you can't see them you don't know what is meant by artifacts, you need glasses, your TV is small, or you sit a long ways away.
Cable systems *usually* pass on the local stations exactly as they are. DirecTV and Dish Network re compress them back to MPEG-4. Thats right, when you watch ABC/CBS/NBC on D* its gone from MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 and back to (a much lower bandwidth) MPEG-4 video.
Is 4k/UHD pretty silly? Yes, because in the end we'll just get an overly compressed junk signal just like regular HD, because that means more channels crammed in and more cash for the providers.