Over-the-Air HD programming

So I've picked up this 32" LCD TV from Howard, my brother-in-law, who happens to know someone with a great deal on these TVs. Since our old TV in the livingroom was in dire need of retirement, I decided to take the plunge now, instead of waiting to get a larger one later.

After reading the specs, I realized that this TV has a built-in HD tuner, so I went out to CVS Pharmacy and picked up a $10 antenna (it was late, and they're open 24 hours). I figured it would be a good alternate to the HD programming I'm going to get from Charter--who'll be here to install a HD-DVR next week. I had been talking to Joyce earlier, and checked out her HDTV (with a powered antenna), and it seems she's only getting HD from three networks (NBC, ABC and the CW, plus the several extras you apparently can only pick up with an HD tuner). Imagine my surprise when I found that I could not only pick up all the major networks in HD, but also several others...

1. Channel 2 (CBS), broadcast in 1080i

2. Channel 4 (NBC), 1080i

3. Channel 5 (The CW), 1080i

4. Channel 7 (ABC), 720p

5. Channel 9 (KCAL, local station), 1080i

6. Channel 11 (Fox), 720p

7. Channel 13 (MyNetworkTV), 720p

8. Channel 28 (KCET, PBS), 1080i

9. Channel 50 (KOCE, PBS), 1080i

The TV's autoscan actually found other PBS stations, but when I switched them I either got "no signal" or bad reception, so I don't know if they're sending HD signals or not. It's also picking up a bunch of sub-channels, which cannot be picked up with a standard tuner, although the broadcast signal for those are only 480i.


Since the TV also has picture-in-picture, I decided to see how the HD signal compares to the regular signal I'm getting from Charter. At least for now, it seems that the signal from Charter reaches my home a second or so faster than HD.
(HD in the main picture, cable-SD in the sub-picture.)