Step into a world where the focus is keenly set on Save 10000 In 1 Year. Within the confines of this article, a tapestry of references to Save 10000 In 1 Year awaits your exploration. If your pursuit involves unraveling the depths of Save 10000 In 1 Year, you've arrived at the perfect destination.
Our narrative unfolds with a wealth of insights surrounding Save 10000 In 1 Year. This is not just a standard article; it's a curated journey into the facets and intricacies of Save 10000 In 1 Year. Whether you're thirsting for comprehensive knowledge or just a glimpse into the universe of Save 10000 In 1 Year, this promises to be an enriching experience.
The spotlight is firmly on Save 10000 In 1 Year, and as you navigate through the text on these digital pages, you'll discover an extensive array of information centered around Save 10000 In 1 Year. This is more than mere information; it's an invitation to immerse yourself in the enthralling world of Save 10000 In 1 Year.
So, if you're eager to satisfy your curiosity about Save 10000 In 1 Year, your journey commences here. Let's embark together on a captivating odyssey through the myriad dimensions of Save 10000 In 1 Year.
Save $100 on This 128GB 11-inch iPad Pro During Early Prime Day Deals
Save $100 on This 128GB 11-inch iPad Pro During Early Prime Day Deals
While it can be difficult to find direct discounts on Apple items, a number of authorized Apple retailers have offered some products, including iPads, at big bargains. With Prime Day on the way, Amazon's biggest members-only sale of the year, you can expect to see markdowns on everything from top tech to everyday essentials.
Prime Day may not start until July 12, but early Prime Day deals have already begun, including $100 off the 2021 11-inch iPad Pro with 128GB of storage, which brings the price of the M1-powered iPad Pro to just $699.
The 2021 iPad Pro was selected as one of our picks for best iPads available, particularly if you're a creator. This iPad has improved performance and battery life over its predecessor, and it comes equipped with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
The M1 chip allows you to use intensive apps with ease, including graphics apps like those in Adobe Creative Cloud. However, if you're going to be working on massive projects, you'll probably want to opt for a larger 1TB iPad Pro, which also comes with an increase to 16GB of RAM. But keep in mind, those upgrades will cost a lot more.
For the average user who just wants better, faster performance, with lightning-fast app launch, fast downloads and high-quality streaming, this iPad Pro is still a major upgrade, with the iPad Pro's M1 processor putting its processing power on par with M1 Macs. It also features an 11-inch Liquid Retina display with ProMotion, True Tone and P3 wide color.
Video calling is great on the iPad Pro as well. The device is equipped with four-speaker audio and five studio-quality microphones, along with a 12-megapixel wide camera and a 10-megapixel ultra wide camera. It has a lidar scanner for photos, video and immersive AR. It's also compatible with helpful accessories like the second-gen Apple Pencil, the Magic Keyboard and the Smart Keyboard Folio.
If a different iPad model is more appealing to you, be sure to check out all the best Prime Day iPad deals available now.
Read more: iPad Air 2022 vs. iPad Pro 2021: Which M1 Tablet Is Best?
NFTs explained: Why people spend millions of dollars on JPEGs
NFTs explained: Why people spend millions of dollars on JPEGs
Take a quick look at the image to the right. What, if anything, could convince you that image is worth $9 million?
Richerd/OpenSea
What you're looking at is an NFT, one of the first ever created. It's part of the CryptoPunks collection, a set of 10,000 NFTs released in 2017, a time when much of the world was still finding out what bitcoin is.
Most likely you've already rolled your eyes, either at the $9 million figure or at the very idea of NFTs themselves. The response to nonfungible tokens hasn't changed much since March when they first started exploding. The public at large has reflexively dismissed them as environmentally harmful scams. The bigger the sale, the more brazen the injustice.
Which brings us back to the above pixelated chap. Its owner is Richerd, an affable Canadian software developer. He started building cryptocurrency software around 2013, but eventually tired of it. After discovering NFTs earlier this year, Richerd bought CryptoPunk #6046 on March 31 for $86,000 in what he said was the biggest purchase he'd ever made in his life.
Richerd, who has over 80,000 followers on Twitter, last month claimed that his CryptoPunk was priceless to him and wasn't for sale no matter the price. The very next day his determination was tested when an offer came through for 2,500 ether, or $9.5 million. It was made not because Richerd's CryptoPunk is worth that amount -- similar NFTs now go for about $400,000 -- but rather because his bluff was very publicly being called. It was a challenge, but it was still a legitimate offer. If Richerd clicked "accept", 2,500 ether would have flowed into his wallet.
Richerd rejected the offer.
"Well, obviously, the day before I said 'I'm not selling it for any price,' so if I sell it for that price, I'd be going against my integrity," Richerd told me over a Zoom call. "On top of that, I've used this CryptoPunk as my profile pic, as my brand. Everyone knows that's me."
Not too long ago, Richerd's explanation would have sounded insane to me. How divorced from reality would someone need to be to offer eight figures on a picture that looks like a Fiverr job? How scandalously misguided would a person need to be to rebuff that offer? After I spent a few months researching and following NFTs, however, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. In fact, it makes a whole lot of sense.
There are 10,000 NFTs in the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. Here are three examples. The middle one is owned by Jimmy Fallon.
Yuga Labs
Bitcoin millionaires
Here is one quick fact that explains why NFTs are bought for the equivalent of a CEO's salary: Bitcoin is estimated to have made over 100,000 millionaires. It's no surprise that NFTs became a phenomenon in March. That's when bitcoin hit $60,000, up over 500% from just six months prior.
When you see a headline or a tweet about some preposterous sum being spent on an NFT, it's easy to become bewildered over how absurd that purchase would be for you. What's easy to forget is that very expensive things are almost exclusively bought by very rich people -- and very rich people spend a lot on status symbols.
Take Bored Ape Yacht Club, for example. It's a collection of 10,000 ape NFTs, all with different traits that make some rarer than others. Rare ones have sold over for over a million bucks, but common variants go for around $200,000. (At the time of launch back in April, BAYC developers sold the NFTs for $190 each.) BAYC, owned by the likes of Steph Curry and Jimmy Fallon, is what you'd call a "profile pic collection." The main purpose of the images is to be used as your display photo on Discord, where most NFT business goes down, or on Twitter, Instagram or wherever else.
To recap: $200,000 minimum for a profile picture.
In isolation, that's insane. But place it on a spectrum of how wealthy people spend money, and it becomes less staggering. You can right click and save a JPEG, so why spend money on it? Well, you can buy a nice house in a safe neighborhood almost anywhere in the world for $1 million, yet celebrities regularly snap up $20 million mansions. You can find a fashionable dress for under $500, yet brands like Chanel build their business on selling ones for 20 times that amount.
Up to 100,000 people became millionaires when that green line shot skyward.
coinmarketcap.com
We accept that rich folks buy extravagant items offline. Is it so inconceivable they would buy extravagant things online, too?
"In the real world, how do people flex their wealth?" said Alex Gedevani, an analyst at cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital. "It can be buying cars or watches. How scalable is that versus if I buy a CryptoPunk and use it as my profile picture?"
Obviously, status symbols aren't specific to the rich. All of us indulge in some way or another, be it buying a $20,000 new car when a $7,000 used vehicle will do, or buying a $30 T-shirt when Walmart sells basics for under $5. What most status symbols have in common is that they have a specific audience in mind. The banker sporting his Rolex and the chief executive stepping into her Bentley don't care that I think either of those purchases is excessive. They have a small but powerful group of people they're trying to influence. So, too, with NFTs.
In the case of Richerd, he runs his own business, Manifold, where he helps show digital artists like Beeple how they can use blockchain technology to make art that could only exist as NFTs. Being a part of the most sought-after NFT collection helps in those circles. And when he says his brand is built on his Punk, he's not exaggerating -- a group of investors even named their organization after him.
"Anybody who owns a CryptoPunk believes certain things," Richerd explained. "Either you've been in the community for a long time so you believe in what these are, or you've paid a lot of money to get in, which shows conviction.
"I want to show my conviction. This is one of those projects that makes you put your money where your mouth is."
A bit of trouble
NFTs are polarizing. There's a small group of people who believe in the underlying technology (tokens that prove ownership of a digital good), but there are many more who regard it as a hoax. Just as the second group struggles to see any value in NFTs, the first group can sometimes be defensive about the technology's imperfections.
And make no doubt about it, there are a lot of issues with NFTs.
First is the confounding inaccessibility. There's a reason software developers tend to do well in crypto and NFT trading: Setting up blockchain wallets and other required digital apparatus is difficult. Even just buying and selling can be perilous. Send money to the wrong wallet address by accident, and it's gone forever.
Then there are the fees. Imagine you're interested in dipping your toes into nonfungible waters and you have $1,000 you're willing to lose. If you're minting a new NFT during a public sale you'll usually spend between $120 and $400. Not too bad -- until you factor in the transaction fees. Most NFTs are built on the ethereum blockchain, which is notoriously inefficient. The more people using ethereum, be it through trading altcoins or buying NFTs, the higher the fees. At a good time you'll spend about $100 per transaction, though double or triple that amount is common. Suddenly that $1,000 doesn't go very far.
This is especially troublesome for NFTs, which are infamous for causing "gas wars." It's possible for 100,000 people to buy shiba inu coins at once, since there are a quadrillion in circulation. But when 10,000 people try to buy an NFT, it results in a massive spike in transaction costs as some users outbid each other to speed up their purchase. It may only last a minute or two, but a lot of damage can be done in that time. People spending over $10,000 on a transaction fee isn't rare. People losing $1,000 on a failed transaction isn't, either.
This is what it looks like when someone spends $4,000 on a failed transaction. It's rare, but not rare enough.
Etherscan screenshot by Daniel Van Boom
Ethereum's inefficiency also contributes to the other major criticism of NFTs, the massive amount of energy they consume. Note that this is something of a semantic issue: NFTs aren't bad for the environment as much as ethereum is. Other networks, like Solana, use a fraction of the power. Ethereum developers are expected to implement an upgrade next year that will make mining it consume 1% the energy it currently does. At this moment though, while no one can say precisely how much energy ethereum consumes, we know it's a lot. (Bitcoin, despite getting all the headlines, is even less efficient than ethereum, which is why almost nothing is built on its blockchain.)
And finally, there's the fact that most people trading NFTs are doing so to make a profit. Scams are everywhere, and prices are volatile. Most of the people who create, buy and sell NFTs are ignorant or uninterested in the technology. If there is a technological leap taking place, it's likely to be obscured by the dizzying price movements.
"I'd call it a bubble," Gedvani said, "because the amount of speculators that are entering the market is outpacing genuine creators."
But a bubble can pop and leave something better in its wake. Think of Pets.com. It had a peak valuation of $290 million in February 2000 but by November of that year, as the infamous dot-com bubble began to burst, it had already closed shop. It's used as a cautionary tale for speculative trading in bubbles. But the impulse to invest in Pets.com evidently ended up being justifiable. That particular venture was misguided, but the e-commerce trend it was flicking at was legitimate. Seven-figure pixel art may not be forever, but proof of digital ownership, which is what NFTs are really about, may be.
A big 2022
Where NFTs will end up is anyone's guess -- and anyone who claims to know is probably trying to sell you something. What we do know is that the amount of people buying NFTs is almost definitely about to grow.
It's estimated that around 250,000 people trade NFTs each month on OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace. In the short term, CoinBase will soon open its own NFT marketplace, for which 2 million users are on the waiting list. Robinhood has similar plans.
More importantly, giant companies that already make money outside of the crypto space want in. Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, has just announced a game in which players can earn bitcoin. Twitter and the company formerly known as Facebook plan to integrate NFTs into their platforms, and Epic Games says it's open to doing so too. Envision a world where instead of buying skins in Fortnite, you buy an NFT for those skins that you own -- meaning you can trade it for outfits and weapons in other games, or sell it once you're done with it. (Epic said it won't integrate such a mechanic into Fortnite, but that may not stop competitors.)
Richerd reckons the flood of people soon to enter the NFT marketplace will create a broader diversity of digital products sold for different audiences. Your neighbor might not want to spend $200 -- much less $200,000 -- on a profile picture, but maybe they'll be willing to spend $10 on a one-of-a-kind skin, or on a product in Facebook's Metaverse. But though the space may change, he remains confident that CryptoPunk #6046 is safe for a while yet.
"Even if every NFT falls," he said, "CryptoPunks will be the last one."
Tv buying guide 2021 how to buy a tv 2021 tv buyers guide 2021 how to buy a new tv 2021 television buying guide 2021 at home tv shopping channels uk tv shopping uk
TV Shopping? Consider buying a 2021 TV (and Save Money)
TV Shopping? Consider buying a 2021 TV (and Save Money)
What's happening
New 2022 TV models are now available, but plenty of 2021 TVs are still out there.
Why it matters
2022 TVs might be newer, but they're also more expensive and have similar features to the 2021 models. You'll save money right now by grabbing a 2021 unit. Or wait until the fall when 2022 TVs will be on sale.
If you're looking to get a new TV without breaking the bank, opting for last year's model or waiting a few months until prices drop on 2022 models are your best bets to get all the features you want while still saving money. That's because TVs are a mature technology, which means that new, groundbreaking features don't come out every single year. Changes are incremental, with new models adding only minor updates year-over-year. For example, a 2021 TV at a given size or price will generally have similar picture quality and features to its 2022 counterpart. There are still deals on 2021 TVs, which are significantly less expensive than the current models.
When deciding which TV to buy and when, everyone should know about the annual television pricing cycle. It starts at CES, the huge tech show that happens every January, when new TVs (plus other tech like laptops and car technology) are announced each year. Later in the spring and summer -- basically now -- many of the new models are already on the shelves. But those new sets are at their highest prices of the year. During the fall, manufacturers start slashing prices to make way for next year's crop of new TVs.
If you want the latest and greatest technology you're probably already set on a 2022 model and you'll certainly be able to save money on those in the fall. But if you're looking to get a new TV right now, scooping up a deal on a 2021 set is going to be the most affordable option. Just know that you'll probably have to jump on a bargain when you see them, as eventually manufacturers will sell out of their 2021 models.
Read more: LG C1 vs. LG C2: Which OLED TV Should You Buy?
Sony and Samsung TVs with QD-OLED, a new technology promising better picture quality, are expensive and only available in 55- and 65-inch sizes.
Sony
If I buy a 2021 model now, what new features am I missing?
To put it succinctly, not too much. There's always something new around the corner, but changes from year-to-year are usually incremental. If you worry about missing out on the latest and greatest tech, it should give you peace of mind that even if something really new hits the market, it's going to be very expensive.
New QD-OLED TVs from Samsung and Sony are a good example. They combine OLED displays with quantum dot technology, and claim higher brightness and better color compared to current OLED TVs. One of these new sets might sound enticing, but QD-OLEDs come with a premium price tag, so they might be tough to recommend over more-affordable OLEDs like the LG C2.
Read more: QD-OLED: Everything We Know About the Newest TV Tech From Samsung and Sony
In 2022, traditional OLED TVs are arriving in untraditional sizes. This year, LG introduced the 42-inch C2 Series TV, the smallest OLED on the market, while also laying claim to the largest OLED available with the 97-inch G2 TV.
New for 2022, LG's OLED C2 now comes in 42- and 97-inch sizes.
Richard Peterson/CNET
Mini-LED TVs are also on the rise and could deliver close-to-OLED picture quality, but the new models we know about so far will also be expensive. The Sony Z9K and X95K are the company's first models with mini-LED, and the TCL X925pro has a new kind of slimmer mini-LED backlight, but none of them will be cheap. Samsung, TCL and Vizio are expected to announce more TVs later this year, many of which will use mini-LED, but we doubt they'll offer huge improvements over the 2021 models.
Also rolling out across the country is NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0. This is free over-the-air 4K TV, and it's moving forward quite quickly -- it might already be available in your city. In 2022 we'll see more TVs with built-in tuners that cost less than ever. Don't feel you need to rush to upgrade, or get those specific models however, since in the worst case you'll be able to buy a cheap external tuner and connect that to your TV.
Read more:Gaming Modes, Webcams and QD-OLED: Which 2022 TV Trends Stand Out?
There's also HDMI 2.1. While 2.1 has several new technologies that are great, it's not going to make any current TVs obsolete (unless it's a current 8K TV, but that's yet another story). As long as your current TV works with your current sources, you should be fine.
Really old TVs, older than 10 years, might have issues connecting to modern streaming and disc sources, but there's no real workaround for that. If your TV doesn't work with a new Roku or Blu-ray player, then you might need to upgrade if you want to use one of those.
Do I need to upgrade?
Forget all the new tech. If your TV works and you're happy with it, keep it. Don't feel any pressure to upgrade.
Modern TVs are, on average, brighter and have better picture quality than the TVs from a few years ago. Unless you're the type of videophile who wants to tweak every setting and fixates on nits and color accuracy, however, you probably don't need a new TV.
The pressure to upgrade is pervasive in our tech culture, but TVs tend to last (and be perfectly functional) longer than most devices. They don't, for example, have batteries that lose capacity like mobile phones -- or have wires that wear out like headphones. A TV from five or even 10 years ago likely works fine, though it might not look as good as the current 4K HDR TVs. So again, if that's not a huge deal for you, you can likely keep what you have for a few more years.
Read more: Best TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X, Series S
This is even true when considering new consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. If you've got a PS4, Xbox One or any console connected via HDMI, the new consoles should work fine. They might look better on a new TV, but they'll still look great on yours.
If your TV is having issues, or you just want something larger, that's a different story. New TVs are much cheaper per inch than TVs of the past. You'll be able to replace your current TV with something the same size, looks better and is cheaper than your old TV. Or you can pay the same amount as your old TV and get something that's far bigger.
When is the best time to buy a TV?
TV sales are the biggest in the fall and culminate on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are always some incredibly cheap 4K TVs on offer, but that's not the whole story.
First of all, the TVs that get the huge discounts are usually either no-name brands, or low-end models from name brands. They're fine if you just want a cheap TV, but they're not going to offer the picture quality of an even slightly higher-end model. The best TVs go on sale as well, but deep discounts on those are less common.
TV sales happen all year, but Black Friday season sees the biggest discounts.
Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images
Second, massive discounts on TVs are rare in general. It might be counterintuitive, but TVs typically don't have much mark-up. There isn't a lot of profit in a $500 TV. So unless the store is trying to clear out stock, you shouldn't expect a gigantic drop in price even during sales. Plenty of good discounts are available, they're just not going to be "50% off" or similar, unless there's a specific reason that model is getting such an extreme discount. Or it's a doorbuster in limited quantities.
Third, most big companies don't allow stores to offer their own pricing. This is called UPP, or unilateral pricing policy. It means that a TV from that company is going to cost the same, whether it's on Amazon, in Best Buy, or anywhere else. Well, anywhere else that wants to continue selling TVs from that company. If this sounds sketchy, it is, but that's a topic for a different article.
The Samsung Frame may look sophisticated, but your current TV might work just as well.
Samsung
All in all, is it worth upgrading my TV?
Here's the short version:
Get a new TV now if:
Your current TV is having issues, or is too old to connect to a streaming service like Netflix.
You're willing to buy from a place that has a price-match policy, in case there's a sale.
You want something bigger than what you have now.
Don't get a TV now if:
Your current TV works fine.
There's literally anything else you need or want to spend money on.
If you've got the itch for something new, but you're still on the fence, consider giving your TV a bit of a makeover. If you've never adjusted the settings, it's easy to do and will probably make your TV look better than it ever has. That might tide you over for a bit.
And if you finally decide that, yes, you're ready to buy a new TV now, we at CNET do have some guidelines and suggested models.
As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff Morrison does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, airplane graveyards and more.
You can follow his exploits on Instagram and his travel video series on YouTube. He also wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel.
§
NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, is continuing its rapid rollout across the country. Major markets like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, Houston and more all have stations transmitting. Meanwhile New York, Boston, and many other markets are slated to have broadcasts later this year. While not every station in every market has a NextGen TV counterpart, more and more are coming on the air.
What's NextGen TV? It's an update to the free HDTV you can already get over-the-air in nearly every city in the US. There's no monthly fee, but you do need either a new TV with a built-in tuner or a standalone external tuner. The standard allows broadcast stations to send higher quality signals than ever before with features like 4K, HDR, 120 Hz, and more. ATSC 3.0 proponents also claim better reception indoors and on-the-go -- whether it's on your phone, or even in your car. The best part is that if you're watching it on your TV it uses the same standard antennas available today.
One potential downside? ATSC 3.0 will also let broadcasters track your viewing habits, information that can be used for targeted advertising, just like companies such as Facebook and Google use today.
Read more:Best TV antennas for cord cutters, starting at just $10
NextGen TV to you
ATSC.org
Here's the top-line info:
If you get your TV from streaming, cable or satellite, NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 won't affect you at all.
The transition is voluntary. Stations don't have to switch. Many have already, however, for reasons we'll explain below.
It's not backwards-compatible with the current HD standard (ATSC 1.0), so your current TV won't be able to receive it. Your current antenna should work fine though.
Stations that switch to NextGen TV will still have to keep broadcasting ATSC 1.0 for five years.
There are multiple models and sizes of TV with built-in tuners available now from Hisense, LG, Sony, Samsung and others.
As of the beginning of 2022 the majority of the largest markets in the US have at least one channel broadcasting NextGen TV. By the end of 2022, nearly all major and many minor markets will have multiple channels .
Here's the map of actual stations as of January 2022. Orange denotes stations that are live now. Blue is launching before summer. White sometime after the summer.
ATSC
How it will work in your home
Put simply: If you connect an antenna to your TV you will receive free programming, just like most people can get now. Yet, that is selling the potential benefits of NextGen TV short.
NextGen TV is IP-based, so in practice it can be moved around your home just like any internet content can right now. For example, you connect an antenna to a tuner box inside your home, but that box is not connected to your TV at all. Instead, it's connected to your router. This means anything with access to your network can have access to over-the-air TV, be it your TV, your phone, your tablet or even a streaming device like Apple TV. There will be traditional tuners as well, of course, but this is a new and interesting alternative.
This also means it's possible we'll see mobile devices with built-in tuners, so you can watch live TV while you're out and about, like you can with Netflix and YouTube now. How willing phone companies will be to put tuners in their phones remains to be seen, however. You don't see a lot of phones that can get radio broadcasts now, even though such a thing is easy to implement. We'll talk more about that in a moment.
'Voluntary'
In November of 2017, the Federal Communications Commission approved ATSC 3.0 as the next generation of broadcast standard, on a "voluntary, market-driven basis" (PDF). It also required stations to continue broadcasting ATSC 1.0 (i.e. "HD"). This is actually part of the issue as to why it's voluntary.
During the mandatory DTV transition in the early 2000s, stations in a city were given a new frequency (channel, in other words), to broadcast digital TV, while they still broadcast analog on their old channel. These older channels were eventually reclaimed by the FCC for other uses when the proverbial switch was flipped to turn off analog broadcasts. Since a changeover isn't occurring this time around, stations and markets are left to themselves how best to share or use the over-the-air spectrum in their areas.
Because there's no new bandwidth, broadcasters will temporarily share transmitters. Two or more stations will use one tower for ATSC 1.0 (HD) broadcasts and those stations will use another tower for ATSC 3.0 (UHD) broadcasts. This will mean a temporary reduction in bandwidth for each channel, but potentially a limited impact on picture quality due to the better modern HD encoders. More info here.
ATSC/TVTechnology.com
While it's not a mandatory standard, many broadcasters still seem enthusiastic about NextGen. At the beginning of the roll-out, then executive vice president of communications at the National Association of Broadcasters Dennis Wharton told CNET that the improvement in quality, overall coverage and the built-in safety features mean that most stations would be enthusiastic to offer ATSC 3.0.
John Hane, president of the Spectrum Consortium (an industry group with broadcasters Sinclair, Nexstar and Univision as members), was equally confident: "The FCC had to make it voluntary because the FCC couldn't provide transition channels. [The industry] asked the FCC to make it voluntary. We want the market to manage it. We knew the market would demand it, and broadcasters and hardware makers in fact are embracing it."
Given the competition broadcasters have with cable, streaming and so on, 3.0 could be a way to stabilize or even increase their income by offering better picture quality, better coverage and, most importantly, targeted ads.
Ah yes, targeted ads…
Broadcast TV will know what you're watching
One of NextGen TV's more controversial features is a "return data path," which is a way for the station you're watching to know you're watching. Not only does this allow a more accurate count of who's watching what shows, but it creates the opportunity for every marketer's dream: targeted advertising.
Ads specific to your viewing habits, income level and even ethnicity (presumed by your neighborhood, for example) could get slotted in by your local station. This is something brand-new for broadcast TV. Today, over-the-air broadcasts are pretty much the only way to watch television that doesn't track your viewing habits. Sure, the return data path could also allow "alternative audio tracks and interactive elements," but it's the targeted ads and tracking many observers are worried about.
The finer details are all still being worked out, but here's the thing: If your TV is connected to the internet, it's already tracking you. Pretty much every app, streaming service, smart TV and cable or satellite box all track your usage to a greater or lesser extent.
Return data path is still in the planning stages, even as the other aspects of NextGen TV are already going live. There is a silver lining: There will be an opt-out option. While it also requires Internet access, if this type of thing bothers you, just don't connect your TV or NextGen TV receiver to the internet. You will inevitably lose some of the other features of NextGen TV, however.
That said, we'll keep an eye on this for any further developments.
Free TV on your phone?
Another point of potential contention is getting ATSC 3.0 tuners into phones. At a most basic level, carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are in the business of selling you data. If suddenly you can get lots of high-quality content for free on your phone, they potentially lose money. Ever wonder why your phone doesn't have an FM radio tuner? Same reason.
T-Mobile made a preemptive strike along those lines all the way back in September 2017, writing a white paper (PDF) that, among other things, claims, "In light of the detrimental effects that inclusion of ATSC 3.0 can have on the cost and size of a device, the technology trade-offs required to accommodate competing technologies, and the reduced performance and spectral efficiency that it will have for other mobile bands and services, the decision as to whether to include ATSC 3.0 in a device must be left to the market to decide."
"The market" determined you didn't need an FM tuner in your phone, and in the few phones that had an FM tuner, if you bought it through an American provider, it was almost always disabled.
TV broadcasters, on the other hand, are huge fans of ATSC 3.0 on mobile phones. It means more potential eyeballs and, incidentally, a guarantee of active internet access for that return data path. John Hane of the Spectrum Consortium feels that tuners built into phones is "inevitable," and that international adoption of ATSC 3.0 will help push it forward. Wharton says that the focus is getting TVs to work, but mobile is in the plan.
Then there's portable TVs, of which there are HD versions on the market and have been for years. The next-generation ATSC 3.0 versions of these will likely get better reception in addition to the higher resolution offered by the new standard.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Cost (for you)
NextGen TV is not backward compatible with current TV tuners. To get it, you'll eventually need either a new TV or an external tuner.
However, you shouldn't feel a push to upgrade since:
1. NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 isn't mandatory, and it doesn't affect cable, satellite or streaming TV.
2. HD tuners cost as little as $30 to $40 now, and NextGen TV tuners, which currently sell between $200 and $300, will eventually be cheap as well.
3. Even after they start NextGen broadcasts, stations will have to keep broadcasting regular old HD.
Here's the actual language:
"The programming aired on the ATSC 1.0 simulcast channel must be 'substantially similar' to the programming aired on the 3.0 channel. This means that the programming must be the same, except for programming features that are based on the enhanced capabilities of ATSC 3.0, advertisements and promotions for upcoming programs. The substantially similar requirement will sunset in five years from its effective date absent further action by the Commission to extend it."
In other words, the HD broadcast has to be essentially the same as the new 3.0 broadcast for five years, perhaps longer depending on future FCC actions.
Which brings us to point 3. By the time people had to buy them, HD tuners were inexpensive and are even more so now. The HD tuner I use is currently $26 on Amazon. The first generation NextGen tuners available now are more expensive than that, though they're not outrageous. We'll discuss those below. By the time anyone actually requires one, however, they'll almost certainly be affordable.
Which is good, because there aren't any planned subsidies this time around for people to get a tuner for cheap. I'm sure this is at least partly due to how few people actually still use OTA as their sole form of TV reception. Maybe this will change as more stations convert, but we're a ways away from that.
As you can see, there are lots of parts that need to get upgraded all along the chain before you can get 3.0 in your home.
ATSC/TVTechnology.com
Here's another way to think about it: The first HD broadcasts began in the mid-90s, but when did you buy your first HDTV? As far as the 3.0 transition is concerned we're in the late-90s, maybe generously the early 2000s, now. Things seem like they're moving at a much more rapid pace than the transition from analog to DTV/HDTV, but even so, it will be a long time before ATSC 3.0 completely replaces the current standard.
How to get NextGen right now
LG
If you want to check it out for yourself, many of you already can. The first stop is to go to WatchNextGenTV.com. That website will help you find what stations in your area are broadcasting, or which ones will soon.
Next up you'll need something to receive it. If you're in the market for a new TV there are several options available from Hisense, LG, Samsung, and Sony. Here's our list of all the 2022 TVs with built-in next-gen tuners.
If you want to check out NextGen TV without buying a new television, you'll need an external tuner. It's still early days, so there aren't many options.
The Tablo ATSC 3.0 Quad HDMI DVR
Nuvvyo
At CES 2022 Nuvvyo announced the Tablo, a quad-tuner box that can connect to a TV directly, or transmit over a network to Rokus, Apple TVs, or computers on your home network.
The Silicon Dust has two models, the $199 HomeRun Flex 4K and the $279 HomeRun Scribe 4K. Both have ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 tuners.
If you want a more traditional tuner, BitRouter plans to start shipping its first ZapperBox M1 tuners in the spring. You can reserve one now for $249. It doesn't have internal storage, but BitRouter plans to add the ability to save content on network-attached storage, or NAS, devices via a firmware update. They also plan to add the ability to send the content around your home network, like what the Scribe 4K does.
Zapperbox
Then there's what to watch. Being early in the process, you're not going to find much 4K content, possibly not any. This was the same with the early years of HDTV. It's also going to vary per area. There is certainly a lot of 4K content being produced right now, and that has been the case for several years. So in that way, we're in better shape than we were in the early days of HD.
Basic and paid cable channels over-the-air?
One company is using the bandwidth and IP nature of NextGen to do something a little different. It's a hybrid paid TV service, sort of like cable/satellite, but using over-the-air broadcasts to deliver the content. It's called Evoca, and right now it's available only in Boise, Idaho. Edge Networks is the company behind it, and it wants to roll it out to other small markets where cable offerings are limited, and broadband speeds are slow or expensive.
It's an interesting idea for underserved and often forgotten-about markets.
Read more: Cable TV channels and 4K from an antenna?
Seeing the future
The transition from analog broadcasting to HD, if you count from the formation of the Grand Alliance to the final analog broadcast, took 16 years.
Though many aspects of technology move rapidly, getting dozens of companies, plus the governments of the US and many other countries, all to agree to specific standards, takes time. So does the testing of the new tech. There are a lot of cogs and sprockets that have to align for this to work, and it would be a lot harder to fix once it's all live.
But technology moves faster and faster. It's highly doubtful it will take 16 years to fully implement NextGen TV. As we mentioned at the top, dozens of stations are already broadcasting. Will every station in your city switch to NextGen TV? Probably not, but the bigger ones likely will. This is especially true if there are already other NextGen TV stations in your area. There's a potential here for stations to make additional money in the long run with 3.0, and that's obviously a big motivator.
There's also the question of how much content there will be. If it follows the HDTV transition model, big sporting events in 4K HDR will come first, followed by lots and lots of shows featuring nature scenes and closeups of bugs. Seriously -- this was totally a thing. Then we'll see a handful of scripted prime-time shows. My guess would be the popular, solidly profitable ones that are produced (not just aired) by networks like CBS and NBC.
So should you hold off buying a new TV? Nope, not unless you only get your shows over the air. And even if you do, by the time there's enough content to be interesting, there will be cheap tuner boxes you can connect to whatever TV you have.
For now, NextGen TV seems to be well on its way.
As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000 mile road trips, and more. Check out Tech Treks for all his tours and adventures.
He wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel. You can follow his adventures on Instagram and his YouTube channel.
TV Shopping? Consider buying a 2021 TV (and Save Money)
TV Shopping? Consider buying a 2021 TV (and Save Money)
What's happening
New 2022 TV models are now available, but plenty of 2021 TVs are still out there.
Why it matters
2022 TVs might be newer, but they're also more expensive and have similar features to the 2021 models. You'll save money right now by grabbing a 2021 unit. Or wait until the fall when 2022 TVs will be on sale.
If you're looking to get a new TV without breaking the bank, opting for last year's model or waiting a few months until prices drop on 2022 models are your best bets to get all the features you want while still saving money. That's because TVs are a mature technology, which means that new, groundbreaking features don't come out every single year. Changes are incremental, with new models adding only minor updates year-over-year. For example, a 2021 TV at a given size or price will generally have similar picture quality and features to its 2022 counterpart. There are still deals on 2021 TVs, which are significantly less expensive than the current models.
When deciding which TV to buy and when, everyone should know about the annual television pricing cycle. It starts at CES, the huge tech show that happens every January, when new TVs (plus other tech like laptops and car technology) are announced each year. Later in the spring and summer -- basically now -- many of the new models are already on the shelves. But those new sets are at their highest prices of the year. During the fall, manufacturers start slashing prices to make way for next year's crop of new TVs.
If you want the latest and greatest technology you're probably already set on a 2022 model and you'll certainly be able to save money on those in the fall. But if you're looking to get a new TV right now, scooping up a deal on a 2021 set is going to be the most affordable option. Just know that you'll probably have to jump on a bargain when you see them, as eventually manufacturers will sell out of their 2021 models.
Read more: LG C1 vs. LG C2: Which OLED TV Should You Buy?
Sony and Samsung TVs with QD-OLED, a new technology promising better picture quality, are expensive and only available in 55- and 65-inch sizes.
Sony
If I buy a 2021 model now, what new features am I missing?
To put it succinctly, not too much. There's always something new around the corner, but changes from year-to-year are usually incremental. If you worry about missing out on the latest and greatest tech, it should give you peace of mind that even if something really new hits the market, it's going to be very expensive.
New QD-OLED TVs from Samsung and Sony are a good example. They combine OLED displays with quantum dot technology, and claim higher brightness and better color compared to current OLED TVs. One of these new sets might sound enticing, but QD-OLEDs come with a premium price tag, so they might be tough to recommend over more-affordable OLEDs like the LG C2.
Read more: QD-OLED: Everything We Know About the Newest TV Tech From Samsung and Sony
In 2022, traditional OLED TVs are arriving in untraditional sizes. This year, LG introduced the 42-inch C2 Series TV, the smallest OLED on the market, while also laying claim to the largest OLED available with the 97-inch G2 TV.
New for 2022, LG's OLED C2 now comes in 42- and 97-inch sizes.
Richard Peterson/CNET
Mini-LED TVs are also on the rise and could deliver close-to-OLED picture quality, but the new models we know about so far will also be expensive. The Sony Z9K and X95K are the company's first models with mini-LED, and the TCL X925pro has a new kind of slimmer mini-LED backlight, but none of them will be cheap. Samsung, TCL and Vizio are expected to announce more TVs later this year, many of which will use mini-LED, but we doubt they'll offer huge improvements over the 2021 models.
Also rolling out across the country is NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0. This is free over-the-air 4K TV, and it's moving forward quite quickly -- it might already be available in your city. In 2022 we'll see more TVs with built-in tuners that cost less than ever. Don't feel you need to rush to upgrade, or get those specific models however, since in the worst case you'll be able to buy a cheap external tuner and connect that to your TV.
Read more:Gaming Modes, Webcams and QD-OLED: Which 2022 TV Trends Stand Out?
There's also HDMI 2.1. While 2.1 has several new technologies that are great, it's not going to make any current TVs obsolete (unless it's a current 8K TV, but that's yet another story). As long as your current TV works with your current sources, you should be fine.
Really old TVs, older than 10 years, might have issues connecting to modern streaming and disc sources, but there's no real workaround for that. If your TV doesn't work with a new Roku or Blu-ray player, then you might need to upgrade if you want to use one of those.
Do I need to upgrade?
Forget all the new tech. If your TV works and you're happy with it, keep it. Don't feel any pressure to upgrade.
Modern TVs are, on average, brighter and have better picture quality than the TVs from a few years ago. Unless you're the type of videophile who wants to tweak every setting and fixates on nits and color accuracy, however, you probably don't need a new TV.
The pressure to upgrade is pervasive in our tech culture, but TVs tend to last (and be perfectly functional) longer than most devices. They don't, for example, have batteries that lose capacity like mobile phones -- or have wires that wear out like headphones. A TV from five or even 10 years ago likely works fine, though it might not look as good as the current 4K HDR TVs. So again, if that's not a huge deal for you, you can likely keep what you have for a few more years.
Read more: Best TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X, Series S
This is even true when considering new consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. If you've got a PS4, Xbox One or any console connected via HDMI, the new consoles should work fine. They might look better on a new TV, but they'll still look great on yours.
If your TV is having issues, or you just want something larger, that's a different story. New TVs are much cheaper per inch than TVs of the past. You'll be able to replace your current TV with something the same size, looks better and is cheaper than your old TV. Or you can pay the same amount as your old TV and get something that's far bigger.
When is the best time to buy a TV?
TV sales are the biggest in the fall and culminate on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are always some incredibly cheap 4K TVs on offer, but that's not the whole story.
First of all, the TVs that get the huge discounts are usually either no-name brands, or low-end models from name brands. They're fine if you just want a cheap TV, but they're not going to offer the picture quality of an even slightly higher-end model. The best TVs go on sale as well, but deep discounts on those are less common.
TV sales happen all year, but Black Friday season sees the biggest discounts.
Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images
Second, massive discounts on TVs are rare in general. It might be counterintuitive, but TVs typically don't have much mark-up. There isn't a lot of profit in a $500 TV. So unless the store is trying to clear out stock, you shouldn't expect a gigantic drop in price even during sales. Plenty of good discounts are available, they're just not going to be "50% off" or similar, unless there's a specific reason that model is getting such an extreme discount. Or it's a doorbuster in limited quantities.
Third, most big companies don't allow stores to offer their own pricing. This is called UPP, or unilateral pricing policy. It means that a TV from that company is going to cost the same, whether it's on Amazon, in Best Buy, or anywhere else. Well, anywhere else that wants to continue selling TVs from that company. If this sounds sketchy, it is, but that's a topic for a different article.
The Samsung Frame may look sophisticated, but your current TV might work just as well.
Samsung
All in all, is it worth upgrading my TV?
Here's the short version:
Get a new TV now if:
Your current TV is having issues, or is too old to connect to a streaming service like Netflix.
You're willing to buy from a place that has a price-match policy, in case there's a sale.
You want something bigger than what you have now.
Don't get a TV now if:
Your current TV works fine.
There's literally anything else you need or want to spend money on.
If you've got the itch for something new, but you're still on the fence, consider giving your TV a bit of a makeover. If you've never adjusted the settings, it's easy to do and will probably make your TV look better than it ever has. That might tide you over for a bit.
And if you finally decide that, yes, you're ready to buy a new TV now, we at CNET do have some guidelines and suggested models.
As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff Morrison does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, airplane graveyards and more.
You can follow his exploits on Instagram and his travel video series on YouTube. He also wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel.
§
NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, is continuing its rapid rollout across the country. Major markets like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, Houston and more all have stations transmitting. Meanwhile New York, Boston, and many other markets are slated to have broadcasts later this year. While not every station in every market has a NextGen TV counterpart, more and more are coming on the air.
What's NextGen TV? It's an update to the free HDTV you can already get over-the-air in nearly every city in the US. There's no monthly fee, but you do need either a new TV with a built-in tuner or a standalone external tuner. The standard allows broadcast stations to send higher quality signals than ever before with features like 4K, HDR, 120 Hz, and more. ATSC 3.0 proponents also claim better reception indoors and on-the-go -- whether it's on your phone, or even in your car. The best part is that if you're watching it on your TV it uses the same standard antennas available today.
One potential downside? ATSC 3.0 will also let broadcasters track your viewing habits, information that can be used for targeted advertising, just like companies such as Facebook and Google use today.
Read more:Best TV antennas for cord cutters, starting at just $10
NextGen TV to you
ATSC.org
Here's the top-line info:
If you get your TV from streaming, cable or satellite, NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 won't affect you at all.
The transition is voluntary. Stations don't have to switch. Many have already, however, for reasons we'll explain below.
It's not backwards-compatible with the current HD standard (ATSC 1.0), so your current TV won't be able to receive it. Your current antenna should work fine though.
Stations that switch to NextGen TV will still have to keep broadcasting ATSC 1.0 for five years.
There are multiple models and sizes of TV with built-in tuners available now from Hisense, LG, Sony, Samsung and others.
As of the beginning of 2022 the majority of the largest markets in the US have at least one channel broadcasting NextGen TV. By the end of 2022, nearly all major and many minor markets will have multiple channels .
Here's the map of actual stations as of January 2022. Orange denotes stations that are live now. Blue is launching before summer. White sometime after the summer.
ATSC
How it will work in your home
Put simply: If you connect an antenna to your TV you will receive free programming, just like most people can get now. Yet, that is selling the potential benefits of NextGen TV short.
NextGen TV is IP-based, so in practice it can be moved around your home just like any internet content can right now. For example, you connect an antenna to a tuner box inside your home, but that box is not connected to your TV at all. Instead, it's connected to your router. This means anything with access to your network can have access to over-the-air TV, be it your TV, your phone, your tablet or even a streaming device like Apple TV. There will be traditional tuners as well, of course, but this is a new and interesting alternative.
This also means it's possible we'll see mobile devices with built-in tuners, so you can watch live TV while you're out and about, like you can with Netflix and YouTube now. How willing phone companies will be to put tuners in their phones remains to be seen, however. You don't see a lot of phones that can get radio broadcasts now, even though such a thing is easy to implement. We'll talk more about that in a moment.
'Voluntary'
In November of 2017, the Federal Communications Commission approved ATSC 3.0 as the next generation of broadcast standard, on a "voluntary, market-driven basis" (PDF). It also required stations to continue broadcasting ATSC 1.0 (i.e. "HD"). This is actually part of the issue as to why it's voluntary.
During the mandatory DTV transition in the early 2000s, stations in a city were given a new frequency (channel, in other words), to broadcast digital TV, while they still broadcast analog on their old channel. These older channels were eventually reclaimed by the FCC for other uses when the proverbial switch was flipped to turn off analog broadcasts. Since a changeover isn't occurring this time around, stations and markets are left to themselves how best to share or use the over-the-air spectrum in their areas.
Because there's no new bandwidth, broadcasters will temporarily share transmitters. Two or more stations will use one tower for ATSC 1.0 (HD) broadcasts and those stations will use another tower for ATSC 3.0 (UHD) broadcasts. This will mean a temporary reduction in bandwidth for each channel, but potentially a limited impact on picture quality due to the better modern HD encoders. More info here.
ATSC/TVTechnology.com
While it's not a mandatory standard, many broadcasters still seem enthusiastic about NextGen. At the beginning of the roll-out, then executive vice president of communications at the National Association of Broadcasters Dennis Wharton told CNET that the improvement in quality, overall coverage and the built-in safety features mean that most stations would be enthusiastic to offer ATSC 3.0.
John Hane, president of the Spectrum Consortium (an industry group with broadcasters Sinclair, Nexstar and Univision as members), was equally confident: "The FCC had to make it voluntary because the FCC couldn't provide transition channels. [The industry] asked the FCC to make it voluntary. We want the market to manage it. We knew the market would demand it, and broadcasters and hardware makers in fact are embracing it."
Given the competition broadcasters have with cable, streaming and so on, 3.0 could be a way to stabilize or even increase their income by offering better picture quality, better coverage and, most importantly, targeted ads.
Ah yes, targeted ads…
Broadcast TV will know what you're watching
One of NextGen TV's more controversial features is a "return data path," which is a way for the station you're watching to know you're watching. Not only does this allow a more accurate count of who's watching what shows, but it creates the opportunity for every marketer's dream: targeted advertising.
Ads specific to your viewing habits, income level and even ethnicity (presumed by your neighborhood, for example) could get slotted in by your local station. This is something brand-new for broadcast TV. Today, over-the-air broadcasts are pretty much the only way to watch television that doesn't track your viewing habits. Sure, the return data path could also allow "alternative audio tracks and interactive elements," but it's the targeted ads and tracking many observers are worried about.
The finer details are all still being worked out, but here's the thing: If your TV is connected to the internet, it's already tracking you. Pretty much every app, streaming service, smart TV and cable or satellite box all track your usage to a greater or lesser extent.
Return data path is still in the planning stages, even as the other aspects of NextGen TV are already going live. There is a silver lining: There will be an opt-out option. While it also requires Internet access, if this type of thing bothers you, just don't connect your TV or NextGen TV receiver to the internet. You will inevitably lose some of the other features of NextGen TV, however.
That said, we'll keep an eye on this for any further developments.
Free TV on your phone?
Another point of potential contention is getting ATSC 3.0 tuners into phones. At a most basic level, carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are in the business of selling you data. If suddenly you can get lots of high-quality content for free on your phone, they potentially lose money. Ever wonder why your phone doesn't have an FM radio tuner? Same reason.
T-Mobile made a preemptive strike along those lines all the way back in September 2017, writing a white paper (PDF) that, among other things, claims, "In light of the detrimental effects that inclusion of ATSC 3.0 can have on the cost and size of a device, the technology trade-offs required to accommodate competing technologies, and the reduced performance and spectral efficiency that it will have for other mobile bands and services, the decision as to whether to include ATSC 3.0 in a device must be left to the market to decide."
"The market" determined you didn't need an FM tuner in your phone, and in the few phones that had an FM tuner, if you bought it through an American provider, it was almost always disabled.
TV broadcasters, on the other hand, are huge fans of ATSC 3.0 on mobile phones. It means more potential eyeballs and, incidentally, a guarantee of active internet access for that return data path. John Hane of the Spectrum Consortium feels that tuners built into phones is "inevitable," and that international adoption of ATSC 3.0 will help push it forward. Wharton says that the focus is getting TVs to work, but mobile is in the plan.
Then there's portable TVs, of which there are HD versions on the market and have been for years. The next-generation ATSC 3.0 versions of these will likely get better reception in addition to the higher resolution offered by the new standard.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Cost (for you)
NextGen TV is not backward compatible with current TV tuners. To get it, you'll eventually need either a new TV or an external tuner.
However, you shouldn't feel a push to upgrade since:
1. NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 isn't mandatory, and it doesn't affect cable, satellite or streaming TV.
2. HD tuners cost as little as $30 to $40 now, and NextGen TV tuners, which currently sell between $200 and $300, will eventually be cheap as well.
3. Even after they start NextGen broadcasts, stations will have to keep broadcasting regular old HD.
Here's the actual language:
"The programming aired on the ATSC 1.0 simulcast channel must be 'substantially similar' to the programming aired on the 3.0 channel. This means that the programming must be the same, except for programming features that are based on the enhanced capabilities of ATSC 3.0, advertisements and promotions for upcoming programs. The substantially similar requirement will sunset in five years from its effective date absent further action by the Commission to extend it."
In other words, the HD broadcast has to be essentially the same as the new 3.0 broadcast for five years, perhaps longer depending on future FCC actions.
Which brings us to point 3. By the time people had to buy them, HD tuners were inexpensive and are even more so now. The HD tuner I use is currently $26 on Amazon. The first generation NextGen tuners available now are more expensive than that, though they're not outrageous. We'll discuss those below. By the time anyone actually requires one, however, they'll almost certainly be affordable.
Which is good, because there aren't any planned subsidies this time around for people to get a tuner for cheap. I'm sure this is at least partly due to how few people actually still use OTA as their sole form of TV reception. Maybe this will change as more stations convert, but we're a ways away from that.
As you can see, there are lots of parts that need to get upgraded all along the chain before you can get 3.0 in your home.
ATSC/TVTechnology.com
Here's another way to think about it: The first HD broadcasts began in the mid-90s, but when did you buy your first HDTV? As far as the 3.0 transition is concerned we're in the late-90s, maybe generously the early 2000s, now. Things seem like they're moving at a much more rapid pace than the transition from analog to DTV/HDTV, but even so, it will be a long time before ATSC 3.0 completely replaces the current standard.
How to get NextGen right now
LG
If you want to check it out for yourself, many of you already can. The first stop is to go to WatchNextGenTV.com. That website will help you find what stations in your area are broadcasting, or which ones will soon.
Next up you'll need something to receive it. If you're in the market for a new TV there are several options available from Hisense, LG, Samsung, and Sony. Here's our list of all the 2022 TVs with built-in next-gen tuners.
If you want to check out NextGen TV without buying a new television, you'll need an external tuner. It's still early days, so there aren't many options.
The Tablo ATSC 3.0 Quad HDMI DVR
Nuvvyo
At CES 2022 Nuvvyo announced the Tablo, a quad-tuner box that can connect to a TV directly, or transmit over a network to Rokus, Apple TVs, or computers on your home network.
The Silicon Dust has two models, the $199 HomeRun Flex 4K and the $279 HomeRun Scribe 4K. Both have ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 tuners.
If you want a more traditional tuner, BitRouter plans to start shipping its first ZapperBox M1 tuners in the spring. You can reserve one now for $249. It doesn't have internal storage, but BitRouter plans to add the ability to save content on network-attached storage, or NAS, devices via a firmware update. They also plan to add the ability to send the content around your home network, like what the Scribe 4K does.
Zapperbox
Then there's what to watch. Being early in the process, you're not going to find much 4K content, possibly not any. This was the same with the early years of HDTV. It's also going to vary per area. There is certainly a lot of 4K content being produced right now, and that has been the case for several years. So in that way, we're in better shape than we were in the early days of HD.
Basic and paid cable channels over-the-air?
One company is using the bandwidth and IP nature of NextGen to do something a little different. It's a hybrid paid TV service, sort of like cable/satellite, but using over-the-air broadcasts to deliver the content. It's called Evoca, and right now it's available only in Boise, Idaho. Edge Networks is the company behind it, and it wants to roll it out to other small markets where cable offerings are limited, and broadband speeds are slow or expensive.
It's an interesting idea for underserved and often forgotten-about markets.
Read more: Cable TV channels and 4K from an antenna?
Seeing the future
The transition from analog broadcasting to HD, if you count from the formation of the Grand Alliance to the final analog broadcast, took 16 years.
Though many aspects of technology move rapidly, getting dozens of companies, plus the governments of the US and many other countries, all to agree to specific standards, takes time. So does the testing of the new tech. There are a lot of cogs and sprockets that have to align for this to work, and it would be a lot harder to fix once it's all live.
But technology moves faster and faster. It's highly doubtful it will take 16 years to fully implement NextGen TV. As we mentioned at the top, dozens of stations are already broadcasting. Will every station in your city switch to NextGen TV? Probably not, but the bigger ones likely will. This is especially true if there are already other NextGen TV stations in your area. There's a potential here for stations to make additional money in the long run with 3.0, and that's obviously a big motivator.
There's also the question of how much content there will be. If it follows the HDTV transition model, big sporting events in 4K HDR will come first, followed by lots and lots of shows featuring nature scenes and closeups of bugs. Seriously -- this was totally a thing. Then we'll see a handful of scripted prime-time shows. My guess would be the popular, solidly profitable ones that are produced (not just aired) by networks like CBS and NBC.
So should you hold off buying a new TV? Nope, not unless you only get your shows over the air. And even if you do, by the time there's enough content to be interesting, there will be cheap tuner boxes you can connect to whatever TV you have.
For now, NextGen TV seems to be well on its way.
As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000 mile road trips, and more. Check out Tech Treks for all his tours and adventures.
He wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel. You can follow his adventures on Instagram and his YouTube channel.
