Toddmoe - WFLX appears to be down because I am not receiving 29-1 in Weston. Luckily I can receive 7-1 from Miami.

WFLX is down for me, also getting break up on WPEC

WFLX down for me. That makes four people and conclusive proof it's them and not you (or me).

I guess I'm glad to hear that others are having the same problem. Right now, I don't get 29-1 wflx and 25-1 wpbf at all. I'm getting 5-1 wptv and 12-1 wpec but both are so broken up that their unwatchable. I have a hughes E-86 and was to the point that I was considering a new receiver.
This is getting to be a real pain. I hope soon that the stations can get
their signals correct or s**** together.

Originally posted by lmfgh
I guess I'm glad to hear that others are having the same problem. Right now, I don't get 29-1 wflx and 25-1 wpbf at all. I'm getting 5-1 wptv and 12-1 wpec but both are so broken up that their unwatchable. I have a hughes E-86 and was to the point that I was considering a new receiver.
This is getting to be a real pain. I hope soon that the stations can get
their signals correct or s**** together.

I didn't check 25 last night so I don't know if transmitting or not. But, you are aware their tower is in the opposite direction from all of the others? That could be your problem with 25.

I actually have 2 antennas in the attic. A radioshack bow tie and a silver.
One pointed south and the other north. They had been working for awhile.
I know one thing, I know alot more about this stuff now than I did a year ago. Alot of time and money later and its still not right. I hope one day soon
(in our life time) HD will be worth it. The picture is when its working.
Lynne

I did check 25 last night and I was getting it fine in Lake Worth, haven't checked today though

Is it a big "tropospheric ducting" night tonight? I'm getting everything- WPB, Miami, and all the stations from Orlando too. In fact, I'm noticing that some Orlando stations are showing stronger signal gauge readings than some WPB and Miami stations. Anyone else getting bonus DTV stations tonight?

lwhitefl, 27-1 is apparently coming online sometime in June per their website. I have sent an email asking for something more specific but they simply copy the exact same text off of the website and send it back. Let's hope they don't buy their equipment from the same source as 5-1. I do look forward to some PBS-HD. Tonight, I'm getting PBS from both Miami and Orlando and the HD is great!

Yeah the miami PBS is even multi-casting with as many as 5 sub-channels at once. When they were just 2-1 and 2-2 they had even better quality on the HD loop.

Hey folks

Just got the HDTV Dish Network upgrade installed, awesome so far. Now want to go to OTA, need an antenna. Anyone in SE Boca (Palm Beach Farms) with expereinces to share?

In saw lumberman is down my way but can't pm him/her.

The Dish installer told me that if the local channel signal they send out comes over in HD, I get it automatically on the HD outputs. I think.

Is this correct?

thx

Originally posted by HobeSoundDarryl
Pickle, I am north but I'm quite a bit further from the towers (Hobe Sound) than you. I'm using a fairly modern box (Zenith 1080). I think it's nuts that the signal is stable for some and not for others. They've been broadcasting for more than 1 year now. When are they going to get it right?

However, if the problem is truly directional, it may be a clue for the team at 55-1. Anybody E or S of the towers have reception problems?

I finally solved my antenna problem. To make a very long story short - I ended up with two RS VHF/UHF antennas in my attic, combined with a high quality combiner, one facing north and one facing south. Also using a Channel Master amplifier with a direct run to the receiver with high quality RG-6. The final "TaDa" was when I set the HR10-250 to clear the scanned OTA channels and then rescanned. 5-1, 12-1, 29-1, 25-1, 34-1 and some of the Dade/Broward stations are locked solid.

Did you use the same exact antenna for the combination and follow the whole equal lengths method?

Originally posted by Bighitter
Did you use the same exact antenna for the combination and follow the whole equal lengths method?
No. Really I just threw it together. :D Was I lucky?

Well considering when I tried the same with 2 different antennas and "similiar" lengths of coax I got almost no channels I would have to say yes. I am getting tempted to pick up another 4228 and do a vertical stack as i am apparently getting some occasional air traffic multipath on some of the miami stations.

However this will wait until we get into the new house in a month or two.

The PGA golf tournament started in HD on WPECDT (12-1), but just a couple of station breaks ago reverted to SD. This has become a fairly common occurrence, but I don't know whether the problem is with WPECDT or the CBS network.

I watched my first HD hockey game last night on ABC and the picture looks AWESOME !! Puts satellite to shame :( Looking forward to monday nights game in HD ;)

Originally posted by lwhitefl
The PGA golf tournament started in HD on WPECDT (12-1), but just a couple of station breaks ago reverted to SD. This has become a fairly common occurrence, but I don't know whether the problem is with WPECDT or the CBS network.

Len,

I have emailed your remarks to our Chief Engineer and General Manager. Thanks for the heads-up.

Anyone else notice periodic pixelization and constant horrible audio sync during last night's NASCAR race on WFLX? My signal strength was fine so I don't think it was me, but I would think someone else would comment since there should have been a fairly wide audience.

Originally posted by ricksm3
Anyone else notice periodic pixelization and constant horrible audio sync during last night's NASCAR race on WFLX? My signal strength was fine so I don't think it was me, but I would think someone else would comment since there should have been a fairly wide audience.

I know that I have got to the point where I just take it in stride. At this point (until 2006) the thing to do is to call the station during the broadcast and hope that someone can fix it. Of course nights, weekends and holidays no one will answer the phone.

WFLX-DT was unviewable last night. I had to switch to WSVN-DT instead. I guess WFLX is still having transmitter problems.

Originally posted by David McRoy
Len,

I have emailed your remarks to our Chief Engineer and General Manager. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks Dave - I also used the WPEC web site to send emails as well. At this point in time CBS seems more committed to HDTV than any other commerical network. I particularly appreciate the fine work CBS sports is doing broadcasting weekly PGA golf tournaments in HD.

WPTV-DT has been looking good lately here in W. Lake Worth, EXCEPT for those constant quick black flashes. I thought Dave McKinley and his engineers solved that problem a long time ago...what's the story?

I noticed the WFLX problem the other night, though on my end it was just audio drop outs that appeared to be part of the stream as my reciever didnt try to switch to another format like it normally does when there is a signal problem.

Unlike the other WPB HD stations, WPECDT (12-1) is breaking up pretty badly here today. Has anyone in the Stuart area found a attic antenna or amplifier that will make WPECDT more stable in this area?

Don't know whether it's the NBC network or WPTVDT, but the lip sync problem on today's Belmont Triple Crown horse race is horrible.

Its just WPTV-DT, 6-1 out of miami does not have the audio sync issue. It is really bad on 5-1.

Originally posted by Bighitter
Its just WPTV-DT, 6-1 out of miami does not have the audio sync issue. It is really bad on 5-1.

Exactly. And WPTV couldn't get it right for the Derby or Preakness, either. I just don't understand.

Originally posted by lwhitefl
Unlike the other WPB HD stations, WPECDT (12-1) is breaking up pretty badly here today. Has anyone in the Stuart area found a attic antenna or amplifier that will make WPECDT more stable in this area?

Len I use a 5 element channel 13 yagi for WPECDT and get a very stable signal. I don't recall ever getting a dropout, even in bad weather.

This is a very small antenna which facilitates finding an optimum location in an attic installation.

Joel

Originally posted by Joel Graffman
Len I use a 5 element channel 13 yagi for WPECDT and get a very stable signal. I don't recall ever getting a dropout, even in bad weather.

This is a very small antenna which facilitates finding an optimum location in an attic installation.

Joel
Joel,
I'm currently using a relatively small Gemini A20 UHF/VHF in my attic. Where did you get the 5 element channel 13 yagi? Is this the only antenna you use for HD reception? If you use additional antennas, how do you combine them? Do you use an amplifier, and if so, what type?

Originally posted by lwhitefl
Joel,
I'm currently using a relatively small Gemini A20 UHF/VHF in my attic. Where did you get the 5 element channel 13 yagi? Is this the only antenna you use for HD reception? If you use additional antennas, how do you combine them? Do you use an amplifier, and if so, what type?

I guess I have to amend my previous remarks and eat some crow.

I started watching the Tony's last night on 12.1 and was getting audio dropouts every few minutes. I checked channel 12 and there was significant lightning static visible. I ended up watching the program on cable. I checked at the end of the program and there was no static on 12 and the audio on 12.1 was fine, this is the first time I have had a problem like this. BTW, the lightning did not affect the UHF digital stations.

To answer your question, my UHF antenna is a Radio Shack UHF yagi. I use a UHF/VHF antenna coupler ( Winegard I believe ) and a 13db amplifier I picked up at Lowe's. I found the yagi online at Stark Electronics.

I am not familiar with your antenna, but if it is small and UHF/VHF it is not a high gain antenna. You can probably best improve your 12.1 reception with a better antenna rather than fooling with different pre-amps.

If you want to discuss this, please call at 221-7896.

Joel

Now here is the big question. NFL football is just around the corner, FOX will be showing quite a few games in HD. Will WFLX be able to pass these games along to us in HD? If not, how long until they will be equipped to do so.

well they currently upconvert to 1080i, but I don't know if that means they have the right stuff or not, I guess we'll find out sooner or later

Originally posted by Joel Graffman
I started watching the Tony's last night on 12.1 and was getting audio dropouts every few minutes. I checked channel 12 and there was significant lightning static visible. I ended up watching the program on cable. I checked at the end of the program and there was no static on 12 and the audio on 12.1 was fine, this is the first time I have had a problem like this. BTW, the lightning did not affect the UHF digital stations.



Joel

I've have noticed the two things that can really kill a normally stable DTV signal are 1) dynamic multipath interference caused by aircraft and 2) impulse noise that is either manmade or due to lightning. Yes, VHF frequencies are more susceptible to impulse noise interference than UHF.

Originally posted by David McRoy
I've have noticed the two things that can really kill a normally stable DTV signal are 1) dynamic multipath interference caused by aircraft and 2) impulse noise that is either manmade or due to lightning. Yes, VHF frequencies are more susceptible to impulse noise interference than UHF.

And lo-band VHF more susceptible than hi-band VHF. Fortunately, the lo-band spectrum is going away.

Actually, some stations will be allowed to reclaim lowband VHF channels after the transition is completed. The advantage is lower power consumption and lower transmitter cost. The disadvantage, of course, is higher suceptability to impulse noise.

Originally posted by David McRoy
Actually, some stations will be allowed to reclaim lowband VHF channels after the transition is completed.
Unless the additional transmission problems associated with VHF are resolved, that would only serve to weaken the digital transmission.

Originally posted by David McRoy
Actually, some stations will be allowed to reclaim lowband VHF channels after the transition is completed.
Apparently I have been mis-informed. I read someplace that the FCC was reclaiming channels 2-6 to be sold for other uses.

In most markets, that's true. And even then a broadcaster may elect to purchase part of that spectrum for ATSC broadcasting. In any event, I suspect ATSC broadcasting will remain a rarity on channels 2 through 6.

Off topic: Is anyone who is a Dish Network subscriber missing and Dish channels today?

Originally posted by David McRoy
Off topic: Is anyone who is a Dish Network subscriber missing and Dish channels today? [/B]


I was missing a few DISH channels early this AM, but they seem to be back now. I was getting the "Searching for Satellite" screen for the missing ones.

TonyV

Yeah I turned on today and it was all screwy....

I ran a check switch and it got everything back, but changing channels is really slow

It looks like sat. 110 was down this a.m.
There's lots of talk overhere (www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=28412) .

Mighty fine job on the Leno HD tonight WPTV. I bet WTVJ enjoys the extra viewers.

Originally posted by Panth1
Mighty fine job on the Leno HD tonight WPTV. I bet WTVJ enjoys the extra viewers.

What ws the problem? Audio sync out of whack again?

Originally posted by ricksm3
What ws the problem? Audio sync out of whack again?
It was in SD.

Hi all, I posted the below message on the WXEL website and got back a minimal (but interesting) reply that said: "July 4, 2004 is THE day!" I find it intersting that the date is a big holiday, but I guess there are no holidays in TV broadcasting. Here's the message I posted to get this reply...

How long until you start testing on 27-1? Hi, it's June and I am among a good-sized crowd anxiously awaiting your DTV (27-1) signal to start testing. I keep checking but it seems that there is still no signal at all (and no broadcast tests yet). I've seen the website statement, so can you offer any feedback beyond that? When will 27-1 fire up for testing? When do you think the channel will go live? Any information other than the website statement would be appreciated. I can't wait for PBS-HD!

Looks like another SD Leno.... :rolleyes:

Well now it's HD but more like a slideshow, with video freezes every 5 seconds

Originally posted by HobeSoundDarryl
Hi all, I posted the below message on the WXEL website and got back a minimal (but interesting) reply that said: "July 4, 2004 is THE day! Thanks, for the update. I noticed last night that WXEL-42 is back on full power. Apparently their mast work is complete.

Originally posted by HobeSoundDarryl
Hi all, I posted the below message on the WXEL website and got back a minimal (but interesting) reply that said: "July 4, 2004 is THE day!" I find it intersting that the date is a big holiday, but I guess there are no holidays in TV broadcasting. Here's the message I posted to get this reply...

How long until you start testing on 27-1? Hi, it's June and I am among a good-sized crowd anxiously awaiting your DTV (27-1) signal to start testing. I keep checking but it seems that there is still no signal at all (and no broadcast tests yet). I've seen the website statement, so can you offer any feedback beyond that? When will 27-1 fire up for testing? When do you think the channel will go live? Any information other than the website statement would be appreciated. I can't wait for PBS-HD!

That is really amusing because I'd called them over a month ago and left a message for their chief engineer; the response he left on my voicemail was: "I expect that we will be on the air on July 4th, that's if the antenna doesn't fall down or anything like that." :D

---Rudy

I'm new to this thread and need to ask a newbie question (sorry). I'm in downtown west palm near the intercoastal and belvedere road. I got a terk 55 HD antenna and don't get the ABC or UPN digital stations locally or any miami stations with it. Really my main goal is to add those 2 networks and I"ll have everything I need. Is there any single antenna I can get that will do this that anyone can recommend?

Welcome baylorgator :)

I'm using a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna in my attic and im getting most of the WPB channels (including ABC and UPN) and some miami channels.
Give the Silver Sensor a shot, Sears sells it for $39.99 and you could return it if it doesn't work out. (BTW im at Jog & Hypo)

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/sc/30471331-2-120-0.gif

I am in Lake Worth and also have a Terk 55 outside. Six months ago I bought the Silver Sensor and placed it on top of my entertainment system and it gets better reception then the 55 outside. It sounds too good to be true, but its not. I adjusted my Terk to face South and now only use it to get Miami PBS.

I live about half way between Miami and West Palm Beach. I use an outside antenna and get good results from each direction. I am puzzled why the HDvideo from channel 4 in Miami is so much sharper and clearer than the same signal from channel 12 in WPB. The video from channel 12 is definitely much softer. I didn't think this was supposed to happen with digital signals. Anyone got an answer?? Thanks

TonyV

WPEC runs a radar sub channel which takes some of the bandwidth away from the HD channel while WFOR does not run a sub channel.

Thanks all for the suggestions. The terk 55 (while inside) picks up WPB sations except ABC and UPN. Mounted on the roof it's useless (which makes no sense to me). The silver sensor doesn't pick up NBC and CBS while pointed in one direction, so that didn't do it. None get miami stations. Has anybody had any luck with other antennas? I'm in a 1 story residence, by the way.

Many have had success with Square Shooter not only here but around the country. I have one on a rotor and it works very well. There are some very lengthly threads on the Forum if you do a search.

My brother is moving into his new house soon on the Boca/Delray line (around Lyons Rd. and Atlantic Blvd./Clint Moore Rd.) and he has the Zenith Silver Sensor antenna (just like I do here in Lake Worth)...

Does anyone know what OTA H/DTV stations he may be able to pick up from that location with the Zenith SS antenna? I told him that if it didn't work out with the SS, then he should probably get the SquareShooter instead.

I get all the local WPB H/DTV stations with my SS from here in W. Lake Worth (but I'm very close to the antenna farm) and I suspect he may be able to pick up the stronger WPB OTA signals like 5.1, 12.1, and 29.1, but I was wondering if he might be able to pick up any Miami H/DTV stations from Boca/Delray...anyone know? Thanks.

I'm in south Boca and get all the Miami station using a SS for UHF and rabbit ears for the VHF stations as well as fox, cbs, and nbc from West Palm.

Hello folks,

I am newbie to HD TV w/ my new 26" Samsung w/ built in tuner, though I have been a home theater buff for some time. I am in Palm Beach Gardens. I have been reading through the threads, but still have some questions.

1) What antenna set up has worked for folks from Palm Beach Gardens? I know higher and bigger is better, but I was hoping to avoid having to put an big antenna outside. I have a decent size attic with cement tile roof. I have a cheap ($19) RCA amplified rabbit ears in the attic now and can get 3-4 HD stations pretty good. I am going to try that Zenith next and see what that adds. The SD channel OTA broadcasts are terrible, but I have DSS with local channels for that.

2) Is there a definitive place/website where one can get the latest info on what stations are broadcasting HD and what channel in our area? I have a list that says channel 25 is on 25.1, but I get 25 on 16.1.

Any suggestions from folks in my area would be appreciated and thanks for your help,

Manny

Bsgoren: I live in SE Boca (Hidden Valley area) - with a cheap dish mounted half circle antenna, I can get nearly all Miami stations except for 2-x, plus all WPB stations.

Manny - I tried a good old fashioned full size antenna in my attic, but due to the heavy cement roof tile (I presume), it only picked up a handfull of stations, and did not do nearly as well as the antenna mentioned above.

jb

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Bsgoren: I live in SE Boca (Hidden Valley area) - with a cheap dish mounted half circle antenna, I can get nearly all Miami stations except for 2-x, plus all WPB stations.



Do have a two story house ?

Hi Manny, my home is in Palm Beach Gardens and I'm using the Terk 55 in the attic on my 811. A lot of people hate it and say its overpriced, which probably is true, but it works okay. I didnt pay anything for it anyways so I'm not complaining. To find the stations I use http://antennaweb.org
The reason WPBF 25 doesn't remap to 16.1 is because they dont have the PSIP data in the stream to tell the receivers to re-map to 25.1.

No, single story.

Manny,
Try www.titantv.com for a listing of whats available from our locals in HD.

Update...

Well with Zenith antenna in my addict and aimed SSW I get channel 5 great, Fox 29.1 good, and Pax pretty good. UPN is so/so, probably because it is north of me. I was getting ABC on 16.1, but have not had that come in some time. Are they still transmitting? I have never been able to get CBS, which is a bummer since I enjoy David Letterman. Would it help to have 2 Zenith antennas, aiming in different directions?
I have also considered the “flying wing” looking antenna that Radio Shack sells (Cat # 15-2185), has anyone had any experience with that one?

Thanks for all your tips.

Manny

Manny, a couple of us have used dual silver sensors with good results. There are a number of threads telling you no way, don't to it, it will never work, but I've had great success (and I'm no genius) and I think Vinny has had pretty good luck.

Its worth a try. I point 1 pretty much due south and the other north west and get everything available in the area with the exception of miami 7-1 and 10-1 those are VHF stations and the SS is a UHF antenna.

Those two Miami stations are the ones I watch most often - good stable signal out of them.

Thanks for the info, toddmoe and JeffBowser. I'm I bit far north in Palm Bch Gardens I think for the Miami stations.

Do you have the antenna in the attick? And, do you have cement tile roof?

I am up your way in Lake Worth and I do have them in the attic and run through a channel master preamp. I preamp them because I diplex them into my Dtv multiswitch and then break them back out at the TV's. I probably wouldn't need the preamp if I didn't diplex them.

The attic is 2nd story and I do have a cement tile roof.

I tried antennas in the attic of my single story house, but I found my cement tile roof attenuated the signal too much.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
I tried antennas in the attic of my single story house, but I found my cement tile roof attenuated the signal too much. Sounds like you had some other problem. I have a cement tile roof and get good reception from WPB/Martin channels using attic yagi's.

Apparently WXEL has commenced testing their new digital xmitter. I was receiving them on 27.1, 27.2 & 27.3 yesterday ( Friday, 25 Jun ) shortly after 5:00 pm. They were not on the air later in the evening.

Not sure if they were on full power, the signal was somewhat weaker than the adjacent channel WFLX. However, I had no drop-outs.

Joel - maybe so. Someday this fall when it cools down I would like to revisit the setup. My original plan for the attic antenna was to continue to receive broadcast TV in the worst storms (hurricane?). I have a smaller television on a 1200 watt UPS also for that purpose.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
My original plan for the attic antenna was to continue to receive broadcast TV in the worst storms (hurricane?). Unless you have a metal roof or steel house you should be able to get excellent recepton with an appropriate attic antenna in your area.

Well, cement, and especially rebar reinforced, is known to attenuate signals. I'm not sure about "excellent" reception, but if I pay attention to what I am doing next time, perhaps I can get something I can live with.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Well, cement, and especially rebar reinforced, is known to attenuate signals. I'm not sure about "excellent" reception, but if I pay attention to what I am doing next time, perhaps I can get something I can live with. Is your roof tile, or is does it contain rebar?

Roof is regular cement tile, 5/8 plywood base, strapped all over the place. My walls, up to the rafter level are cement block, every 3 feet rebar reinforced poured columns. Indoors or out, if any antenna does not have some view out of a window, the best I can get is a lot of snow on analog or an in/out digital signal.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Roof is regular cement tile, 5/8 plywood base, strapped all over the place. If the plywood base is strapped down thru the walls and the only metal in most of the roof is nails like mine is, you shouldn't have a problem.

No, I have plates and straps through out the rafters, not just to the walls. I've retrofitted this house to exceed Miami-Dade code.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
No, I have plates and straps through out the rafters, not just to the walls. I've retrofitted this house to exceed Miami-Dade code. I expect that is your problem, not the tile roof.

Maybe, but concrete does antenuate signals, that can't be argued. How much is the question. All I know is the same antenna under my tile under performs the same antenna on top of the tile. I am about to just put a pole - in addition to being able to get a good antenna and rotor, it will get the dish off my facia, not a great place for it. Anyone here know of a company that will come out and do all this ? All the DirecTV retailers locally just laugh when I mention pole and antenna installation.

My experiences with cement tile roof up in Palm Bch Gardens...

With the Zenith Silver Sensor in my attic aimed SSW I got consistent signal for 5(NBC), good signal for 29(FOX), and PAX. It was hit of miss for 34 (UPN). I have not gotten ABC on 16.1 since first got the set and never been able to get CBS at 12.1.

Today I got a the Radio Shack (15-2160) suspended in my attic pointed S and get better signals on the channels I already got, still no ABC 16.1 or CBS 12.1. I am returning the Zenith and sticking with the Radio Shack since it is $17 cheaper and I can use it outside later if I choose to.

Originally posted by MannyG
Today I got a the Radio Shack (15-2160) suspended in my attic pointed S and get better signals on the channels I already got, still no ABC 16.1 or CBS 12.1. I am returning the Zenith and sticking with the Radio Shack since it is $17 cheaper and I can use it outside later if I choose to. Manny, ABC ( 25.1/digital 16) is in Martin County. If you experiment with antenna positioning you should be able to receive it. One thing you can do is take advantage of the fact that channel 25 ( analog ) and 25.1 transmit from the same tower. Take a small TV up to your attic try different positions and you will be able to find the best angle for this and other stations. If you are able to receive a passable analog picture, you should be able to get a good digital picture. BTW, this is also true for 12.1 and 12. Even tho your antenna is UHF only, you should be close enough to the transmitter to get good reception with this antenna.

Once you have established reception for various angles, you may find that you need more than one antenna (or a rotator). With more than one antenna you may need an A/B switch. Sometimes you can couple the antennas with inexpensive devices.

FYI, I use the same antenna you do ( along with a channel 13 yagi ) in my attic and get good results. My antennas are directed towards the Palm Beach county antenna farm. Antenna direction for Channels 25.1 and 34.1 is off by 50 degrees or so, but the reception is fine because the transmitters are only 8-10 miles from me.

I know it's been discussed too many times already, but here's one more comment about 5-1 and the challenge to recieve it. Today, I finally gave up on getting a lot more HD from D* (new 7S satt or not) and had Voom installed. Everything else (antenna, cables, connectors, etc. stayed the same). Previously my fairly new (circa 2002- and not a first generation DTC-100) D* HD box had great difficulty maintaining a stable picture on 5-1. However, the new Voom box locks it with no issues. I do not credit Voom with a far superior box, but this test eliminated a few things that were harder to test such a location, trees, roof elements, etc.

I still find fault that the ATSC standard is apparently not completely in place in the 5-1 signal, such that some tuners cannot lock a signal while others can. But 5-1 is now working for me in my situation.

JoelGraffman, was there a picture on 27-1,2 & 3 or was it just a black screen? If a picture, could you see any HD? Did it look good? I've been looking forward to PBS-HD in this area for a long time. I can get 2-1 from Miami some of the time, but it would be nice to have another HD channel more than some of the time. My communciation with WXEL called "July 4" as "THE DAY". Let's hope so!

Originally posted by HobeSoundDarryl
JoelGraffman, was there a picture on 27-1,2 & 3 or was it just a black screen? Picture on all three channels none of which was HD. 27.1 was the same as 42, 27.2 was another PBS channel, I believe the same one that is on DirecTV, 27.3 was a different program - not sure what it was. I expect they are testing during normal working hours. It wasn't on last night.

Great! Now that I have Voom. I don't have the ability any more to scan for new channels (apparently this is an impending feature in the next software upgrade), but it is good to know that you can see the channels being tested. Maybe they will actually hit their independence day target!

Since they are probably going to follow other PBS channel leads by slicing up their bandwith for multiple sub-channels, I hope they are installing equipment used by 2-x in Miami, as I have been impressed with their HD offerings in spite of the fact that they seem to also be able to run some subchannels during HD broadcasts. I also like how they pull back during HD broadcasts (turning off a few SD channels) to give the HD the bandwith it needs to look great. I guess we'll see soon.

HobeSoundDarryl:

I've had Voom for several months. The next software push will include OTA scanning. It is close. So close it could be tonight although I'm not showing I'm targeted yet as of my last check last night.

Have any of you VOOMers seen a difference in your SD PQ over DTV signal? My OTA signal looks much better than the compressed stuff on DTV, and I wondered how Voom compares.

To my eyes, SD quality looks about the same. OTA is going to look much better in most cases because you are seeing more bandwith usage with the OTA signal vs. the compressed SD signals from satt (especially with local channels). Voom SD national channels looks about the same as D* SD nationals to my eyes. Some have said slightly better, and others say worse (so it's probably more eye of the beholder).

The big change is that now I am suddenly watching much less SD, as I can seem to always find something interesting to watch in HD from many Voom HD channels plus OTA local HD broadcasts. So, for me, the pictures on my TV in general look much better now (because my SD viewing has plunged).

Sent to WXEL evening 29 June:

WXEL-DT signal report

Attic UHF yagi, Sony HD-200 tuner, single story house. Good picture with no drop-outs. Here's an estimate on how you compare with the other WPB digital xmitters.

WPTV 90 %
WPEC 90 %
WFLX 85 %
WPXP 70 %
WXEL 65 %

Good luck, Joel Graffman

WXEL response PM 1 July:

Thanks for the update. We're still testing and "tweaking" the system. We're not sure when you were looking at us but the transmitter is down 2 out of 32 modules so we're a little underpowered. Yesterday we were running at 80% and today we ran as low as 50% with a bad exciter. We also had some heat problems that we resolved today.

We should be good by the 4th.

I know it's cliché's but "Stay Tuned."

Thanks,
Michael J. Maville
Director of Engineering
WXEL TV42/FM90.7
Barry Telecommunications, Inc.

Can anyone help me decide if splitting at the receiver is a bad idea, from a signal loss stand point ?

Right now I have two lines coming down from my attic on a common wall between master bedroom and family room. I had been sending 1 cable to either room's box. This, however, doesn't allow me to record two channels at the same time on my TIVO box in the family room.

I could run a new line to the family room to then have two lines to feed the Directv TIVO box. To do this, I would have to install a new multi-switch in the attic near where the satelite line comes in the house (can't reach the satelite dish easily without tearing through some screening and then repairing it). This is obviously a lot more work, especially given the summer temps these days in Florida in my attic. And, I'm moving in a couple months so I'm hesitent to do this.

Or, I was hoping the better option would be to simply use a multiswitch on the line going to the family room at the receiver there using one of those DC-block gizmos to assure I don't fry the LNB, right ?

My question is, in option 2, how much signal loss might I see, or is this so minimal, it won't be an issue ?

thanks very much

You usually lose around 7.5 dB depending on the splitter. As long as the signal remains above DTV's 15dB noise threshold all will be fine. But below that threshold the signal can't be decoded.

Full power on WXEL TV42 has been restored. Power was reduced temporarily to allow a new digital antenna to be installed on the tower. Now once again, viewers can enjoy their favorite WXEL and PBS programming with a clear signal. More importantly, after three years and more than five million dollars, WXEL Television will begin digital transmission on Channel 27 beginning July 4, 2004 at high noon. WXEL DTV27 will offer multicasting (featuring the Florida Knowledge Network and PBS You) and shows in life-like high definition during Prime Timetime. Viewers will need a digital television along with a digital antenna, digital cable or a converter in order to view. President and CEO Jerry Carr will personally activate the new digital transmission system. "This is going to be one of the most thrilling days of my career. We've worked long and hard for this moment and we could not have done it without the support of our members and corporate sponsors," said Carr.

So much for a 24 hour HD Channel. Id rather have a looping HD then PBS You, I already have that, Oh well...

So where did WFLX run off to today? :mad:

WFLX ran off for me, too. At least it's not just me.

It's back. Time for some racing. :cool:

Damn that sucks I was hoping for a full bandwidth HD Loop atleast for a little while. Since WPBT went to 5 channel multicasting their HD PQ has drastically decreased.

Has anyone caught anthing on WXEL today. I can't get anything from either WFLXDT or WXELDT right now...

Originally posted by bgall
Has anyone caught anthing on WXEL today. I can't get anything from either WFLXDT or WXELDT right now...


WXEL is up and running. When I entered 27-1 on my Samsung STB it remapped to 80-3, 80-4, 80-5, and 80-6. Everything was in 4:3. There was no HD programming or PBS demo loop.

Down here in Miami, my Hughes HTN-HD reciever is seeing 80-3 mapping to 27-3 in HD programming (16x9) with no 27-1 or 27-2 coming up. Looks like the PSIP needs to be re-programmed at the station for proper mapping. Signal strength is excellent at 100 on my DST3000 and "good" on the HTN-HD.

I was able to get WXELDT with a pair of junky rabbit ears but not with my attic antenna. I was getting:
27-1 WXEL
27-2 PBS Kids
27-3 PBS You

with no remapping and all the channels labeled WXEL.

Originally posted by bgall
I was able to get WXELDT with a pair of junky rabbit ears but not with my attic antenna. I was getting:
27-1 WXEL
27-2 PBS Kids
27-3 PBS You

with no remapping and all the channels labeled WXEL.

Same here :( I could not get a signal with my silver sensor in the attic but when I tried the ss next to the tv I barely got a signal, 27-1, 27-2 and 27-3.
Maybe their not running full power on the DT side.....

WXEL remapped from 80-3 to 27-1, 27-2, 27-3. There is still no HD programming. I see that 27-3 is labeled WXELDT.

They were showing the PBS HD feed earlier today then it just switched over to a couple SD channels around 4:30pm or so while I was watching a show on battleships. Had to switch over to WPBT to finish watching it.

Originally posted by David McRoy
You usually lose around 7.5 dB depending on the splitter. I am sure you mean't 3.5 db.

Joel

I briefly flipped to 42.2 WXEL HD this evening and saw a few minutes of their PBS HD programming; nevermind the documentary about homing pigeons :D , the HD picture quality was about the worst I've seen so far. Now, I'm not talking about the signal or screen freezes or audio sync issues, but the PQ itself.

I understand that WXEL-HD has just come on line and they'll be tweaking their HD broadcasts for months to come, but the quality was just horrible which may have been from the PBS feed or just bad upconversion to HD...either way, the PQ was extremely "blocky" (it couldn't handle any movement whatsoever without the digital block noise) and overall, the picture was noisy, not a smooth, clean PQ like we're used to seeing on any of our local OTA H/DTV or HD SAT broadcasts. I'm sure there's a good explanation for this bad HD PQ this evening, but I sure hope I don't see that again (and I could do without the pigeon story as well :D ).

Originally posted by bsgoren
I understand that WXEL-HD has just come on line and they'll be tweaking their HD broadcasts for months to come, but the quality was just horrible which may have been from the PBS feed or just bad upconversion to HD... Are you sure it was supposed to be HDTV? If it was there would be no upconversion.

I do agree that they still have big problems. The worst of which is the poor PQ of the digital simulcast of channel 42.

Originally posted by bsgoren
I briefly flipped to 42.2 WXEL HD this evening and saw a few minutes of their PBS HD programming; nevermind the documentary about homing pigeons :D , the HD picture quality was about the worst I've seen so far. Now, I'm not talking about the signal or screen freezes or audio sync issues, but the PQ itself.

I understand that WXEL-HD has just come on line and they'll be tweaking their HD broadcasts for months to come, but the quality was just horrible which may have been from the PBS feed or just bad upconversion to HD...either way, the PQ was extremely "blocky" (it couldn't handle any movement whatsoever without the digital block noise) and overall, the picture was noisy, not a smooth, clean PQ like we're used to seeing on any of our local OTA H/DTV or HD SAT broadcasts. I'm sure there's a good explanation for this bad HD PQ this evening, but I sure hope I don't see that again (and I could do without the pigeon story as well :D ).

What do you expect from a station that multicasts. This practice in combination with the HD sham TNT is doing will doom HD. I have no clue why WXEL and WPBT insist on leaving the sub stations on while broadcasting HD. This just degrades the HD broadcast. Apparently statistical multiplexing doesn't work that well when the primary station and the substation are broadcasting the same thing. When WPBT is broadcasting a nature special in HD that is also on the SD simulcast the picture is unmatchable with the slightest motion. I wish stations would stop the multicasting nonsense or at least have the intelligence to shut off all sub stations when HD is being broadcast on the primary station.

"What do you expect from a station that multicasts. This practice in combination with the HD sham TNT is doing will doom HD"

I know what will doom HD - folks immediately complaining about quality of the signal they are receiving (a signal that is free, I might add), a mere 4 days after they have gone live, instead of encouraging their efforts. This is PBS, remember ? I am surprised they have the cash to do this at all.

"Doom HD" - come on - HD is not doomed because some stations can't manage to broadcast a stable or top quality signal. This will pass.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
"What do you expect from a station that multicasts. This practice in combination with the HD sham TNT is doing will doom HD"

I know what will doom HD - folks immediately complaining about quality of the signal they are receiving (a signal that is free, I might add), a mere 4 days after they have gone live, instead of encouraging their efforts. This is PBS, remember ? I am surprised they have the cash to do this at all.

"Doom HD" - come on - HD is not doomed because some stations can't manage to broadcast a stable or top quality signal. This will pass.

You're right. I should keep my comments to myself.

Is this the way things were when the TV was just released ...? And when it went to COLOR ?
I guess this is the price of being on the "cutting edge"...
Personally I can't think of more than two of my friends that have HD tv yet..So I will give the station's some time to figure this out....

Anyone else getting some good tropo? I just put up an antenna in the attic, about 25ft in the air, and receiving the digital feeds from the ABC and NBC Ft. Myers affiliates as well as analog CBS.

Originally posted by teejay44
Is this the way things were when the TV was just released ...? And when it went to COLOR ?
I guess this is the price of being on the "cutting edge"...
Personally I can't think of more than two of my friends that have HD tv yet..So I will give the station's some time to figure this out.... As I recall, color introduction was trouble-free. However, digital is a much bigger technololgy shift than color.

Hey, just so everyone knows...when I posted my comments about WXEL-HD's broadcast of the 'homing pigeon story' :D, it wasn't to complain, but just to comment on the really bad motion artifacts/digital block noise and bad PQ of their HD broadcast. I do agree we need to give WXEL-DT time to work things out; it just better not take as long as it took WPTV-DT! :rolleyes:

I wish I could get WXEL. I can't seem to find it, and I live in Boca. Neither scanning nor directly typing in the address will get me the digital channels, although I get the analog one just fine.

NASCAR
No nascar in 16*9 from NBC 6 today. Thank god i get NBC from West Palm beach they had a great 16*9 picture upconverted to 1080I. I get both FOX and NBC from West Palm. They are way ahead of the broward county staions.
Only problem today with NBC in WPB was they have a very bad audio sync problem which i hope they takes care of soon.

Did anybody else have this problem

Originally posted by obrook
Did anybody else have this problem
WPTV has had audio sync problems for a long time. I don't know if it's equipment problems or human error but they either need to either rip out their equipment and dump it in front of the manufacturer or hire someone that knows how to fix it. Every other station seems to have their audio and video synced correctly.

As for WTVJ, they have really been slacking off on passing network programs in widescreen/HDTV. They are owned by NBC and should know when network is sending widescreen programming.

Disappointing indeed. :o

If anyone catches the All Star Game tonight let us know how it turns out on WFLX-DT. I wont be able to check it out since im not in town :(

Also how are things improving with WXEL? Anyone catch any of the Soundstage shows?

Good day Does anyone have any experience with Antenna Direct DB4 Bowtie in west Lake Worth (just N of Lake Worth Road and just W of Turnpike)?
Thank you

I caught the Nova special on 42-2 last night on Pompeii and the scrolls recovered from 2000 years ago. It was the first time I saw any HD on WXEL. It was absolutely amazing. The same picture perfect, glass window image as PBS 2-1 in Miami which I do not get very well in Lake Worth. Thank you WXEL and PBS. It is great having the three feeds. I was surprised that the picture quality was as good as it was since the 42-1 channel was transmitting at the same time. I thought people said they couldn't push HD and SD at the same time. I guess WXEL should educate everyone else. No Audio-Synch issues like all of the other networks. BTW, no dropouts in over an hour of watching. Simply amazing.

So what's the scoop on WXEL? It appears they have worked out their PSIP channel allocation issues- now they are on 42-x channels, right? From what I can interpret from the above, 42-1 is SD, 42-2 is HD(?). Is there a 42.3? I have Voom, so I can't scan for it (yet), and I'd like to call them and tell them to add the channel, but I want to be sure that I am asking for the right thing. Could someone actually getting it provide a quick summary of exactly what they are getting, all subchannels broadcasting, etc. Thanks!

Originally posted by HobeSoundDarryl
So what's the scoop on WXEL? Apparently WXEL is still working out the bugs. I was watching last night on 42.1 and the programming switched to what I believe was on 42.2 and a few minutes later switched back. At the time I was getting 42 programming on 42.1, another pbs channel on 42.2 and an information slide on 42.3 and 42.4.

So I guess they're going to be following the same format as WPBT.

42-1 WXEL (24/7)
42-2 PBSHD (primetime)
42-3 PBS Kids (daytime)
42-4 PBS You (daytime)

Also do they have dolby digital when HD is on?

Darryl, Voom is supposedly sending out the new software for the channel scanning. The only complaint I've read is that all you can do is scan, you can't manual add to see what signal you are getting on the fringe stations to make improvements

Thanks for the info. Please post when you think you are seeing the final setup for 42 and the various subchannels.

bgall, yes I know that software is coming sometime (it somewhat feels like waiting for more HD channels on D* again- only I doubt the wait will be as long). I hope they download it soon. Thanks for the info.

Originally posted by Joel Graffman
Apparently WXEL is still working out the bugs. I was watching last night on 42.1 and the programming switched to what I believe was on 42.2 and a few minutes later switched back. At the time I was getting 42 programming on 42.1, another pbs channel on 42.2 and an information slide on 42.3 and 42.4.

So when you were watching was there HD programming on 42.1?

Well TitanTV is listing it as

42.1 WXEL (24/7) - Switching to HD when a matching HD program is on much like the other networks do

42.2 PBS Kids (11PM-8PM)

42.3 PBS You (11PM-8PM)

42.3 Local Programming (4AM-8PM)

but both Joel and Warren say that there's been another channel on while HD has been on so I wonder what it is at well.

I'm not around to check it out myself so I'm really just taking guesses

Originally posted by bgall
So when you were watching was there HD programming on 42.1? No, standard definition.

Need some antenna help. I'm in Jupiter about a block from the beach. According to antenna web I'm about equidistant from the Lantanta and Martin county antenna farms. I live in a 2 story townhouse.

I currently have a RS 15-1880 sitting on top of my wall unit on the first floor going into a Hitachi S700 (built in HD receiver). I currently get

5-1 - 70%
12-1/2 - 60%
16 - 70%
29 - 70%
34 - 50%
42-1/2/3/4 - 70%
49-1 - 10% (not enough to get a picture but the tuner knows it is there)
67 1/2/3/4 - 75%

Most are enough to hold the picture but I do get infrequent dropouts.

The questions - I'm about to get D* mostly for ST, but hoping the HD content will come soon. Should I look at getting an antenna for the attic (roof is not an option) and if so what one. Is an antenna required for D* to provide me the local channels in HD or is that coming off the dish?

I did catch that Pompeii special last night on PBSHD - looked incredible. However they had a show on incredible birds tonight and the pixellation was terrible. Opposite ends of the scale on two consecutive nights.

Adelphia sent a notice on Saturday about their latest HD efforts. They have added inHD, inHD2, and ESPN-HD, starting July 19th. They will be part of an HD Plus tier for $5 / month. HDNet and HDNet Movies used to be part of the standard HD package but will be added to the HD Plus package.

The lineup is currently:

701: WPBF-HD (ABC)
704: WPTV-HD (NBC)
751: SHOWTIME HD
752: STARZ HD
761: HDNET
762: HDNET MOVIES
763: inHD
764: inHD2
765: ESPN-HD

They are now offering an HD-DVR Digital Video Recorder as well.

42-x finally starts coming in for me - whooo, nice stable HD pic, I love it. Now, for some bizarre reason, I can no longer get Miami channel 10, my favorite Dolphin station. Since earlier this summer, the usual stable 10.x has disappeared. I sure hope it comes back before football season starts, 25-x was none too stable last season (or was it 12-x? Either way, I mean the WPB Dolphin station).

we live in Margate, and Channel comes in ok for our StealthTenna, but not for my friend's Winegard SquareShooter. In fact we only got channel 10 to come in on his antenna for afew seconds when it was aimed at the right area. Guys from winegard informed us that Channel 10 and Channel 7 both put out half the power they should be putting out. So if you ar ein WPB, things might be even worse for you.

The best thing to do is just borrow antennas from your friends, and see which one works the best. Best case scenario is you find someone with a standing wave meter to walk around and find the best spot for coverage in your house.

A week or so ago, I installed a new directv HR10-250 high definition TIVO.

Over the past 3-5 days, I've noticed CBS over-the-air has had momentary pixel and audio drop-outs, where I never experienced that with my non-tivo high def receiver.

It's hard to make a comparison, old to new receiver, but the new receivers signal strength appears much better and CBS is particularly strong, maybe too strong ?

One example was CSI, I believe it was over the weekend sometime.

Anyone know if WPB's CBS HD signal has been having difficulties or is anyone else experiencing this ?

thanks

Thanks Jeff O., that's good info.

crsanders,

One of the reasons I held back on buying this new HDTV TIVO is to give it time for the bugs to get worked out. My friend got one of the first regular Hughes HDTV receivers in March of 2003, and has had tons of problems that cannot even be explained by the manufacturer. He's had problems similar to yours too.

The whole issue here is these boxes are being controlled by lots of buggy software. Granted many times the problems are with the TV station, but let's face it, we have these boxes with software that are trying to sync up to very fast moving signals, and someitmes they drop the ball. Remember, these are not old analog streams, these are definite high speed serial digital streams, with sync bits and all. I fyou miss a sync bit, your whole image falls apart and you start to see tiling.

The manufacturers like to blame you, your setup, the weather, a plane flying overhead, the stock market, basically everything but their own buggy assed code. Usually problems happen on totally clear sunny days with no aircraft present, which means either tower or box is the source of the problem.

Remember, no side will admit to their mistakes. A few times, I saw channel 5 running the wrong audio from another show, because they chose not to broadcast the normal NBC show that night. All sorts of SNAFUs like this occur.

One thing I do recommend is keeping current on the new software for your box. If there is a new release and you don't have it loaded, the outsourced customer service reps in India will be quick to blame it on that. So always keep up to date on the latest code. Don't give them any reasons to blame it on anything you have done, or your setup.

Lastly, if you can, setup both your receivers running at the same time and see if it happens on both. You cannot just say that it never happened on the old box, therefore it is not happening now. You have to see both operating at the same time to see if the error exists on both units.

The fact that you have great signal strength leads me to suspect the issue is with the software on your box.

If all else fails, the next time this happens, try this, it always works for me:

Stand on your left foot, while holding your right off the ground. Next, with your left hand, rub your belly in circular motions, as you pat your head with your right hand. That should fix it.

crsanders,

Haven't noticed this problem on my HR10-250, HTL-HD or DST-3000 with WPEC so I think that can atleast rule out the software of the HD Tivo.

They are basically series 1 Tivos with OTA and HD capabilities added anyways so it was a very solid code base to build off of from the start.

Thanks bighitter, I agree with your conclusions. Can you comment on the strength of your WPEC signal where you are ?

I may need an attenuator for really strong signals.

thanks in advance for any help you might provide

I have an extremely strong signal as I have a Channel Master 4228 on my roof with a pre-amp so that I can reliably pull in the miami channels. It may be possible that you need an attenuator but I doubt that is the case.

Originally posted by Bighitter
I have an extremely strong signal as I have a Channel Master 4228 on my roof with a pre-amp so that I can reliably pull in the miami channels. It may be possible that you need an attenuator but I doubt that is the case.

Are you able to pull in WPEC-DT with the 4228, even though it's UHF only?I'm trying to find a more stable solution that the POS I have now...


Whoops, i guess I should've read more. I would think that it wouldn't work, why does it work? is it because it's on the fringe of VHF being at 13?

Originally posted by bgall
I would think that it wouldn't work, why does it work? is it because it's on the fringe of VHF being at 13?

WPEC has a great signal. When they first went on the air I was using only a UHF yagi in my attic ( 40 miles from the transmitter ) Even with this antenna the picture was pretty reliable. However, even tho channel 13 numerically is near the first UHF frequency it is actually a long ways away. Channel 13 is around 213 mHZ and the UHF spectrum starts at 470 mHZ.

Garbled Closed Captions

This is not truly a local reception problem, but I don't know exactly where it fits.Despite an excellent siginal from DirecTV (almost pegged on my Sony HD-200 meter),I get garbled closed captions on my Loewe Aconda TV on HBO-HD and Showtime-HD. The same program on the non HD HBO and Showtime channels have good closed captions. Digital OTA channels are fine also. What is going on?

Originally posted by Oldfart
Garbled Closed Captions

This is not truly a local reception problem, but I don't know exactly where it fits.Despite an excellent siginal from DirecTV (almost pegged on my Sony HD-200 meter),I get garbled closed captions on my Loewe Aconda TV on HBO-HD and Showtime-HD. The same program on the non HD HBO and Showtime channels have good closed captions. Digital OTA channels are fine also. What is going on?


This is an ok forum for dss info...

http://www.satelliteguys.us

Yes I get WPEC fine with my 4228 and my Radio Shack DoubleBowtie as well which is also a UHF only antenna. I also get signals on 7-1 and 10-1 though not quite enough for a picture.

Alan,

I don't think HBO-HD and Showtime HD support closed-captioning on true HD (as opposed to upconverted) shows at all. Whenever they show a feature in HD there's a super at the beginning that says CC is not available on HD programming.

I second Dave. I often turn on CC, and true HD programs seem never to have captions. It really sucks.

David McRoy -

A few replies above is a question I was asking where I was seeing periodic audio drop-outs last weekend accompanied by pixelization loss.

Since I've only had my new HR10-250 installed for a week or so, I didn't know if it was maybe the fault of the receiver or maybe your station was having some known issues.

Can you comment ?

thanks very much in advance

Re: Garbled Closed Captions

I just checked the opening of "The Tuxedo" on HBOHD, and it says that CC are provided. What is not provided with HDTV is "ESP". The CCs are there, but garbled. Can someone check this out and let me know if the garbled CCs on HBOHD and SHOHD via DirecTV are a general problem, or just my problem?

Originally posted by crsanders
David McRoy -

A few replies above is a question I was asking where I was seeing periodic audio drop-outs last weekend accompanied by pixelization loss.

Since I've only had my new HR10-250 installed for a week or so, I didn't know if it was maybe the fault of the receiver or maybe your station was having some known issues.

Can you comment ?

thanks very much in advance

I too have been getting some dropouts on 12-1 for the last few days. It still may be some kind of local interference for me as I don't see anyone else reporting problems.

As for your HR10-250 (I LOVE this thing) I have found that this seems to "tighten up" the tuner and gives you better reception. I don't know why this works but it does.
Messages & Setup, Settings, Channels, Off air channels, Clear scanned off-air channels.
When that's done do a "Scan for off-air channels".

Let me know if this works for you too.

Regarding 12-1 WPEC:

I'll toss out one other thing to see if anyone can confirm -

Last couple days I've been getting a weird pixelization problem. Random but frequent large swatches of very small individual pixelization. I'm not really sure how to describe it. They appear and disappear very quickly. Sometimes it covers about a third of the screen at the bottom. Other times it's in different areas. Sometimes it seems to accompany motion, other times not. It is quite frequent but doesn't happen to me on any other channel so I have to conclude it stems from WPEC. I wish I could describe it better but it's a type of pixel distortion I haven't seen anywhere else.

By the way, I'm using a Voom box. WPEC is my strongest OTA signal - runs anywhere from 88 to 92 in strength.

I'll look into this.

Ricksm3 and David -

Rick describes well what I'm seeing and mentioned in my earlier posts.

thanks Dave for looking into this.

Originally posted by ricksm3
Regarding 12-1 WPEC:

I'll toss out one other thing to see if anyone can confirm -

Last couple days I've been getting a weird pixelization problem. Random but frequent large swatches of very small individual pixelization. I'm not really sure how to describe it. They appear and disappear very quickly. Sometimes it covers about a third of the screen at the bottom. Other times it's in different areas. Sometimes it seems to accompany motion, other times not. It is quite frequent but doesn't happen to me on any other channel so I have to conclude it stems from WPEC. I wish I could describe it better but it's a type of pixel distortion I haven't seen anywhere else.

By the way, I'm using a Voom box. WPEC is my strongest OTA signal - runs anywhere from 88 to 92 in strength.

Yes, I too noticed some very strange audio dropouts with pixelization last night on the WPEC-DT's HD broadcast of CSI. My Sony HD-200 showed a very strong signal each time it occurred. It occurred intermittantly through CSI and even through the SD commercials. I'm sure Dave McRoy and his team can track down the cause and correct it...WPEC-DT has always been the most stable of DT broadcasters in the WPB area and this is hopefully just a minor problem which will be fixed soon.

My wife always makes me watch CSI in bed, she won't stay up late with me to watch it in HD from the family room.

Say - does that give me an excuse to put HDTV in the bedroom ?!??!?!!

Re: WPEC-DT Pixelation

I spoke with our engineers today. The last time we had to deal with this it turned out to have been caused by interference from a pirate FM station in Lake Worth that has since been shut down. (The second harmonics for FM broadcast frequencies above about 100 MHz falls into the channel 13 spectrum. We actually see this all the time at the studio because we are in Mangonia Park only a mile away from a tower that has some legal high-power FMs on it.) It appears that this time you guys are noticing a problem not only in Lake Worth but as far away as Jupiter. Can I ask everyone here with the problem to send me a private message with your approximate location? Just your town name will do. That way we can make a "map" of where the interference exists and maybe track down another pirate, if that's the problem.

I live in extreme NE Lake Worth and don't have aroblem, oddly.

Last night CSI was so bad that I had to switch back to D*.

Has anyone noticed a drop in signal strength on 5-1 in the past few days? It went from 70-75% down to about 50%. 12-1 also seems to have dropped as well, but all others remain about the same. I'm in Jupiter. D* is being installed tomorrow and I wanted to clarify it was a problem before my hardware and wiring configuration changes.

Originally posted by greenknight
Last night CSI was so bad that I had to switch back to D*.

Are you saying you get the national CBS-HD from D*, how is this so?

Is WXEL-DT working? It started out on 27-(1 through 4), then remapped to 42-(1 through 4), last night all I could get was 27-4 (a wide-screen program but it didn't look HD). Also I do not get any PSIP info, just "Regular Programming". Are they on the air or still in testing?

I am receiving 4 channels from WXEL now, Saturday afternoon. Late last night they had one HD feed of PBS HD.

Does anyone know where I can get a Square Shooter (SS-2000) locally or does anyone have any experience with it - especially how well it works?

Being new in the area, I notice that Adelphia Cable does not carry CBS in HD. Also, Adelphia does not carry DiscoveryHD or HBOHD. Does anyone know if Adelphia has any plans to carry any of those channels.

Also, when I got my cable installed, Adelphia supplied me with an SA3250 HD cable box. I notice that even when I set the box to pass through, every channel is up-converted to 1080i when using the component video out on the box. Is that correct that Adlephia up-converts everything or is there something wrong with my cable box?

Originally posted by ElectricPickle
Is WXEL-DT working? It started out on 27-(1 through 4), then remapped to 42-(1 through 4), last night all I could get was 27-4 (a wide-screen program but it didn't look HD). Also I do not get any PSIP info, just "Regular Programming". Are they on the air or still in testing? They are "on", but still have some bugs. I've seen the same problems, no program guide and intermittent re-mapping problems.

Abramsky - I can't answer about Adelphia, but I do know that most HDTV capable boxes output 1080i (or 720p) from the component outputs, usually selectable by a switch on the back, or a menu item. This conversion is done by the box, not by the provider.

bgall - no, just D* channel 12.

I did a re-scan on the HR10-250 today and WXEL 42-1 thru 4 came back. TiVo'd some of the Las Vegas series from WPTV-DT 5-1 and watched two of them today. PQ is great but on the second one audio sync was whacked by about a second or two.

I wish The Discovery Channel would synchronize their "shot in HD" shows with Discovery HD Theater. American Chopper is shot in HD now but the new episodes are shown first on the SD Discovery Channel. Two weeks later it's on Discovery's HD channel. I filed a note on their suggestions page so we'll see what happens.

Hey, I wish D*TV would add a few more HD channels already to their HD package...it's about time. They need to add a few like Starz!-HD and a some other HD channels or the cable co's will be surpassing them very quickly in the next year or so, and they'll lose many customers. I'm not sure if they sent their new bird up into orbit; the new sat was supposed to go up in June I think and add more bandwidth for the locals (which in turn would free up some bandwidth for new HD channels as many suspected). I know this thread is for local H-DTV broadcasts (so I apologize for getting a bit off topic), but everything is sort of coming together now with cable and sat offerings. Anyone know more about this?

I agree with you there, bsgoren - my hope for stable local HDTV lies in DirecTV. I doubt we'll ever get stable signals from the antenna. Heck, even 42-x was pixelating and disappearing altogether on me today, and I'm less than, probably, 15 miles from their antenna.

I had an appointment last week to get an HD/DVR combo unit installed by Adelphia. On the second day, no one showed up the first day, the contractor for Adelphia showed up to install two boxes, and HD and an separate DVR. I asked him to leave since he had never seen the HD/DVR. I called Adelphia and was told the boxes won't be available until August. I went to the Lake Worth Adelphia location and was told this was not true, they have the combo units. I have an appointment for tomorrow for the install.

Does anyone have the Adelphia HD/DVR?
What output connections are used... Coax or Optical audio?
Does it have OTA or should I continuie to keep my Zenith HDV420?

When I bought my HDV420 26 months ago, I was told it would be used when cable companies started broadcasting HD. I think the Salesman made that up.

Thanks for any info.

Sorry, I can't help you, but I see Adelphia is no better that it was some years ago when I told the to buzz off and signed up with DirecTV.

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Bsgoren: I live in SE Boca (Hidden Valley area) - with a cheap dish mounted half circle antenna, I can get nearly all Miami stations except for 2-x, plus all WPB stations.

Manny - I tried a good old fashioned full size antenna in my attic, but due to the heavy cement roof tile (I presume), it only picked up a handfull of stations, and did not do nearly as well as the antenna mentioned above.

jb

JeffB- does this still hold true? I am in Deerfield about a mile west of 95 off of Hillsboro and am having a hard time deciding on an antenna to pick up local HD programming. I would love to get the mia/ft.l & wpb stations. Do you get a good pq on wfor? Any particular brand you would suggest?

Chris

Chris - private message replied to.

I am going to put up a full sized antenna again - I want more reliable signals, and I want to see if I can gain far north stations, in the off chance I can pick up any blacked out Dolphin games.....:p

Re: WPEC-DT Pxelation

I have received five replies on this regarding location. Two of you live really close to our transmitter, one in northern Royal Palm Beach and two in the Jupiter/Juno Beach area.

The next question our engineers have is approximately how often you see pixelation. Please respond here in this thread.

Thanks!

Originally posted by David McRoy
Re: WPEC-DT Pxelation

I have received five replies on this regarding location. Two of you live really close to our transmitter, one in northern Royal Palm Beach and two in the Jupiter/Juno Beach area.

The next question our engineers have is approximately ow often you see pixelation. Please respond here in this thread.

Thanks!

I haven't watched WPEC-DT for a few days, but last week, the pixelization/audio dropouts were occuring intermittantly every 3-4 minutes or so; I'll check this evening during Navy NCIS (HD) and Big Brother (although it's SD) to see if the pixelization occurs...I suggest the others who monitor this thread do the same for Dave tonight and later this week. :) Thanks, Dave.

Could explain why I don't see much pixelation - The only thing I watch on CBS is CSI, and by that time, I am usually in bed watching on regular satellite on a regular TV...... Of course, there is Survivor, but that's not in HD, so I also watch that via satellite. Gee - perhaps this explains why I am not so bothered by these pixelation problems as some of you are.....

Last week it was like bsgoren said: almost ever 5 minutes or so (big guess here).

Since then I would say it has been less, but I can not say for sure. I'll try and watch some programs each night this week and report back.

thanks

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Could explain why I don't see much pixelation - The only thing I watch on CBS is CSI, and by that time, I am usually in bed watching on regular satellite on a regular TV...... Of course, there is Survivor, but that's not in HD, so I also watch that via satellite. Gee - perhaps this explains why I am not so bothered by these pixelation problems as some of you are.....

Jeff,

You are missing a lot of good HD programs on CBS!!! True, the CSI shows are probably the best HD broadcasts on CBS other than the live HD NFL games (speaking of HD picture quality and actual show quality), but CBS has many others in HD that look great and are also decent shows as well...I understand 'snuggling with the wife' is fun :D, but watching CSI, CSI Miami (and CSI New York City this fall) in HD are simply phenomenal; the HD quality makes the show so much better to watch!!! If I go upstairs to watch them on the old 27" in the bedroom or even the 48" RPTV (SD) in my home-office, it's just disappointing; I feel like I just don't get the full effect. Check 'em out in HD if you can. :)

Originally posted by bsgoren
Jeff,
...I understand 'snuggling with the wife' is fun :D, but watching CSI, CSI Miami (and CSI New York City this fall) in HD are simply phenomenal; the HD quality makes the show so much better to watch!!! If I go upstairs to watch them on the old 27" in the bedroom or even the 48" RPTV (SD) in my home-office, it's just disappointing; I feel like I just don't get the full effect. Check 'em out in HD if you can. :)

Or get an HD TiVo PVR and watch your programs on YOUR schedule.

Goren & Pickle - both good suggestions. Why do they have to put such good shows on so late (relative to an old family man, anyway). Way off subject, but even worse is when they play around with the schedule such that you can't find the d**ed show from one week to the next. I guess the Tivo solution will help with that, but my wife will cease to allow any "snuggling" if I put one more electronical box on top of our TV !

Dave McRoy,

I watched some of 'NCIS' on WPEC-DT this evening and didn't notice any pixelization/audio dropouts like last week. Is it a big mystery or was the problem fixed?

Same here. I too watched some of Navy CIS and it was rock steady. Atmospheric conditions maybe? Aliens from Mars trying to contact us? I don't know. :D

I was just looking on Zap2It's tv guide and it shows that Adelphia has ESPN-HD on channel 765. Is this right?

I don't know much about their HD service since I'm on their Motorola system and still can't get HD service.

There is other HD content on CBS besides Gator football? :D

Originally posted by David McRoy
Re: WPEC-DT Pxelation

I have received five replies on this regarding location. Two of you live really close to our transmitter, one in northern Royal Palm Beach and two in the Jupiter/Juno Beach area.

The next question our engineers have is approximately how often you see pixelation. Please respond here in this thread.

Thanks!

Dave:

I'm the RPB guy. Missed this thread yesterday as Grandchild number two arrived at 7:00 last evening. Mom and baby are fine - Grandpa is a little worse for wear.

I'll pay more attention tonight. I think I watched some on Monday. Can't remember for sure. If so, the problem was gone. But, I agree with the others - when it was happening last week, it was quite frequent - maybe every three or four minutes.

Yesterday I had my Adelphia HD-DVR Installed. ESPN-HD is available as well as StarzHD, ShowHD, HDNET and HDNET Movies. ABC and NBC are channels, but only one came in while the other did not have a picture last night. I noticed on the Adelphia website that INHD1 and 2 should be available but were not. I realize they are a Tier service but since I have ESPN-HD I should have them as well. I only spent an hour playing with the new box last night, so I will verify the channels tonight, but ESPN-HD did carry the WSOP, I watched the beginning and DVR'd the rest. The box was a Scientific Atlanta box, and they used my Optical audio cable and Component video cables to connect it through my Audio receiver.

More detail to come tomorrow.

Does anyone know when Adelphia will be carrying WPEC? HiDefDave? I think I'm too far to bust out an antenna (Palm City).

avmike,

We do have DTV viewers in Palm City, so with a big-enough rig you can get us over the air.

Regarding Adelphia, we are still in negotiations with them over remuneration.

Originally posted by avmike
Does anyone know when Adelphia will be carrying WPEC? HiDefDave? I think I'm too far to bust out an antenna (Palm City). Unless you have a metal roof you should be able to get by with a decent antenna in the attic. I get a very strong signal on this station with a 5 element ch 13 yagi in my attic.

Joel - visit any good antenna website, and they will state to expect up to a 50% reduction in signal strength if you put your antenna in your attic. I can attest to this myself, from personal experience. Fringe stations typically will not come in if you stuff your antenna in your attic. Your story actually surprises me.

I live in a condo in Coral Springs. I would REALLY like some help with this. I see all these channels that broadcast in HD, but Advanced Cable doesn't get any of them (CBS comes online soon). I was wondering, what is the cheapest, most reliable solution for me, to pick up these OTA signals? I would need an indoor antenna and STB, but I just don't have a lot of money (spent it all on the TV). Any suggestions?

Seems quite a few people here have luck with a Silver Sensor, indoors. If possible, an outdoor antenna on the roof will give you the best range, or you may want to experiment with a full size antenna stuffed in your attic. Traditional metal antennas mounted outside still seem to still do best, in my personal opinion, and are pretty cheap.

Joel,
Sounds encouraging, what other locals are you able to pick up?

I recently switched to Voom after 10 years with D*. The new software upgrade ocurred yesterday, so that now the Voom box can scan for local channels. I did the autoscan and picked up 3 channels that I did not expect. All are from Ft. Myers. I'm in Hobe Sound. I have occassionally been able to pick up 20 (NBC) for a few minutes with the old D* reciever- usually in the winter- but I am surprised to be getting these channels now (20, 26 and 46). I was under the impression that the tropospheric effect is mostly a cold winter night effect. Also, I notice that I am locking Miami stations better than before.

Does Voom have better tuning chips or is this probably just some kind of atmospheric event?

I have picked up digital NBC and ABC from Ft. Myers every once in a while when the weather conditions are good. Also get analog channel 11 a few times a week at night.

I also found something weird is that I was picking up an analog channel 16 today that was home shopping network or one of those shopping channels. I have no idea where it came from because WPBF broadcasts their digital channel on 16.

Edit: Oh yea I forgot to congratulate WPTV and WTVJ at their fine work on Leno HD. :rolleyes:

Yeah good thing I'll be able to catch the olympics on Dish, so I wont have to worry about watching an out of sync Olympics show. I wonder If WPTV will even bother showing it

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Joel - visit any good antenna website, and they will state to expect up to a 50% reduction in signal strength if you put your antenna in your attic. I can attest to this myself, from personal experience. Fringe stations typically will not come in if you stuff your antenna in your attic. Your story actually surprises me. Everything you say is correct, except that WPEC is not a "fringe" station in Palm City. I invite you to come by and see for yourself.

Originally posted by David McRoy
Re: WPEC-DT Pxelation

I have received five replies on this regarding location. Two of you live really close to our transmitter, one in northern Royal Palm Beach and two in the Jupiter/Juno Beach area.

The next question our engineers have is approximately how often you see pixelation. Please respond here in this thread.

Thanks!

David:

Watched from 9 to 10:00 last night. No problems whatsoever. Don't know what you guys did to fix the issues but I applaud your willingness to keep tabs on this forum and spring to action. Sure wish some of the other locals shared the same concerns as you.:)

Originally posted by avmike
Joel,
Sounds encouraging, what other locals are you able to pick up? WPTV, WPBF, WFLX, WTVX, WXEL, WPXP. All stations are very strong with the exception of WXEL which is about 20% weaker than the rest. However even WXEL indicates "normal" strength is generally reliable and I believe the occasional probems I have had relate to digital start up.

This might be useful data for antenna positioning , obtained from the FCC web site.

ID, Channel, ERP, Ant Hgt, Location

WPEC-DT, 13 , 29.5 kW, 291 m, 26° 35' 18.00" N 80° 12' 30.00" W

WXEL-DT, 27, 400 kW, 440 m, 26° 34' 37.00" N 80° 14' 32.00" W

WFLX-DT , 28, 630 kW, 458 m , 26° 34' 37.00" N 80° 14'.00"W

WPXP-DT, 36, 1000 kW, 385 m, 26° 35' 20.00" N 80° 12' 44.00" W

WPTV-DT, 55, 900 kW, 386.5 m, 26° 35' 20.00" N 80° 12' 43.00" W

WPBF-DT, 16, 1000 kW, 454 m, 27° 07' 17.00" N 80° 23' 42.00" W

WTVX -DT, 50, 704 kW, 437.3m, 27° 07' 19.00" N 80° 23' 20.00" W


Note: Even tho WPEC has comparitively low power, since it is VHF the station coverage will be comparable.

Sorry Joel, I confess to not knowing where Palm City is.

I was watching the DNC last night on WPTV-DT; it was in SD of course, but I was more disappointed from the horrible audio sync problem. I thought WPTV-DT had fixed that problem once and for all a while back????

Originally posted by JeffBowser
Sorry Joel, I confess to not knowing where Palm City is. We like to keep this little piece of paradise a secret, but if you must know it is 35 miles N of WPalm Beach, a bedroom community adjacent to Stewart.

Originally posted by bsgoren
I was watching the DNC last night on WPTV-DT; it was in SD of course, but I was more disappointed from the horrible audio sync problem. I thought WPTV-DT had fixed that problem once and for all a while back????

Nope. It still happens more often than not. Hard to conclude anything other than they just don't care whether it's right or not. I don't watch that channel very often but every time I do and it's out-of-sync, I send a polite email to the engineer pointing out it is a continuing problem. Have never received a response.:rolleyes:

Yeah I guess WPTV just stopped, well whenever they try to fix something it just gets worse, so I guess they dont Bother.

They cycle is kinda like this:

Out of sync audio
The black flash of death
And the drop of a steady signal where the signals jump form like 70-50

WPTV has been trashed so much around here that WPTVDAVE was stopped coming around.

It's kinda sad :(

Originally posted by bgall
Yeah I guess WPTV just stopped, well whenever they try to fix something it just gets worse, so I guess they dont Bother.

They cycle is kinda like this:

Out of sync audio
The black flash of death
And the drop of a steady signal where the signals jump form like 70-50

WPTV has been trashed so much around here that WPTVDAVE was stopped coming around.

It's kinda sad :(

Yes, I guess it is SAD and PATHETIC that it would appear as if WPTV-DT just doesn't care anymore. Usually, from what I've seen, their HD broadcasts have been fairly stable for the past several months. However, it should be unexcusable that we should see the same exact audio sync problem and black flashes today, more than 1 year after they went live...that's just riduclous that they are just unable to rid themselves of those problems.

I think they should "clean house" there and get some real engineers who really care about providing a rock-steady, stable H/DTV broadcast, like Dave McRoy and his team at WPEC-DT...at least we know they care!!! :) It's unfortunate that somebody (or some people) at WPTV-DT is not doing their job and has dropped the ball. NBC (and locally, WPTV) used to be my favorite network...the 'Peacock' is severely wounded (shot himself in the foot :rolleyes: ) and CBS is now my favorite (including WPEC locally). :D

I have noticed that WPTV loses audio sync a lot on Jay Leno ! It drives me nuts...

Anyone else notice that BOTH WPTV and WTVJ will BOTH sometimes lose HD on leno and revert to SD when coming back from a commercial break ?!? I literally have my hand on the remote to switch from wtvj or wptv and sometimes they both are in SD and I'm stuck !!!!

Is it me ?!?! Are there any other Leno HD watchers out there that have noticed this ? It seems to only be when Leno is on, is there literally a person who flips a switch and forgets ???

I used to get this channel quite strong, but now it seems to be gone. While it rarely has anything I like to watch, it still shows up in the guide and was wondering if anyone locally still got it?

I've never been able to get them, so I'm not sure they're still around.

Last time I saw that the palm beach lakes tower was broadcasting at a mere 1Kw

I'm not sure If the stuart tower is still on...

Just saw on a commercial that HD service is now available to the former Comcast system in Boca Raton.

Called up and am going to have it installed on Thursday. I'm sure comedy will ensue when the tech says it's not available/working. $25 install fee as well.

Anyone know if they supply good cables? They better be worth $25. ;)

Well I think WPTV changed the sync issue, so there now back on stage 2 of the cycle, unstable power signal

I only skimmed through the channels last night, but when I passed over WPTV it seemed as if they were still out-of-sync, but maybe only half as bad as usual.

Wxel program lisings Have finally appeared on the digital channels on my samsung
Thak god

What's up with WXEL's logo now. It's huge and annoying. Almost poked me in the eye when I turned it on. :mad:

Brickyard on nbc:

I noticed it was nOT in HD on WTVJ but was in full HD on WPTV in west palm.

Good job wptv , why is wtvj so lazy and not airing it properly ?!? Let me guess no ones working the hd switch on a Sunday..... sounds like a union job to me.

Originally posted by jhillestad
Brickyard on nbc:

I noticed it was nOT in HD on WTVJ but was in full HD on WPTV in west palm.

Good job wptv , why is wtvj so lazy and not airing it properly ?!? Let me guess no ones working the hd switch on a Sunday..... sounds like a union job to me.

Didn't look like HD to me - just widescreen. Maybe I'm wrong? Anyway, same old WPTV with an audio sync so bad it was hard to believe. Sorry to say, but WPTV never does a good job. Based on a long-standing, dismal, track record, the Olympics will be a joke.:(

Update and questions on Adelphia HD-DVR combo unit.

The DVR is great for recording HD and SD. For HD it will record about 18 hours vs. about 50 for SD. It will record two channels at the same time.

The channel lineup has been problamatic. This Saturday will be my thrid revisit to try to get all of my HD channels up and running. I think Adelphia has internal problems but they can only send out a tech. I currently get the following/have the following problems:
701 WPBF - No Problem
704 WPTV - Grey screen no picture???
750 HBOHD - No Problem
751 ShoHD - No Problem
752 StarzHD - No Problem
761 HDNET - Screen Says Not Authorized
762 HDNET Movies - Screen Says Not Authorized
763 HDNET INHD1- Screen Says Not Authorized (Worked my first week)
764 HDNET INHD2- Screen Says Not Authorized (Worked my first week)
765 ESPNHD - No Problem

I watched the convention on INHD so I know it was workign and the Adelphia people say their system shows I should receive the signal but they do not find anythign at my house.

HDNET, HDNET Mov and ESPNHD is party of HD Tier which I get dso I am quite perplexed.

Does anyone have any ideas what to have Adelphia do?

For $8 I don't wnat to give up my HD-DVR, but it would be nice if they could give me the channels they say they offer. The tech's are nice knowledgable people, but their system is fu___ up.

Any advice?

Warren1111 said:
For $8 I don't wnat to give up my HD-DVR, but it would be nice if they could give me the channels they say they offer. The tech's are nice knowledgable people, but their system is fu___ up. Any Advice?

Sure Warren, here is my advice to you: Run as far away from Adelphia as you can. In my 15 year experience with them they never deliver what they promise.

In Warren1111s post, he shows the current channel listing for Adelphia. I noticed that the INHD channels are listed as HDNET INHDx. I was not under the impression that Mark Cuban owned the INHD channels. Similarly, I thought they were cables answer to the HDNETs. Is there any business relationship between INHD and HDNET? Is it just Adelphia incompetence to list them as if they are connected?

INHD has nothing to do with HDNet.

The Brickyard was in HD. I didnt have an audio sync problem that I could tell anyway....

Originally posted by jhillestad
Brickyard on nbc:

I noticed it was nOT in HD on WTVJ but was in full HD on WPTV in west palm.

Good job wptv , why is wtvj so lazy and not airing it properly ?!? Let me guess no ones working the hd switch on a Sunday..... sounds like a union job to me.

WTVJ is horrible with HD - Law & Order is rarely in HD - I always TiVo the WPB channel since they are almost always in HD. Can't wait for the D* NBC feed so I can be done with WTVJ.

Does anyone know if WPTV will be running the Olympics 8 hour HDTV loop in the digital channel?. The schedule just shows a mirror of the analog channel ?

Sandy

I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter because they've given permission to the service providers to transmit the feed to us through them

warren1111

I had the same problem with Adelphia. The deal is that you have to sign up for the Adelphia digital tier for $4.95 a month, the first month is free.

That will get you INHD and HDNET, total of 4 channels. The CSR can turn them on instantly.

What is still missing iin HD cable land is DiscoveryHD, CBS and FOX.

Did anyone watch MNF tonight? I was having terrible audio dropouts - it was really annoying. I know it isn't my tuner because I used 2 different ones. Signal strength seemed to be fairly stable in the 80's.

Never had an audio dropout but we should still get a hold of WPBF because (at least on my receiver, I'm assuming it's the same through out) There audio is flaged as 6.1, which is obviously wrong, I'm not sure what effect this does but it's a note. Also there audio is very low on the HD programs, I know they've turned it up before but it's back to the low level.

HofstraJet , I noticed in your in Springs ... what kind of antenna are you using ?

I'm in 33065 and get a lot of multipath with ch6 wtvj , Where did you pick up the hdtivo ?

Originally posted by jhillestad
Brickyard on nbc:

I noticed it was nOT in HD on WTVJ but was in full HD on WPTV in west palm.

Good job wptv , why is wtvj so lazy and not airing it properly ?!? Let me guess no ones working the hd switch on a Sunday..... sounds like a union job to me.

I spoke to Master Control on Sunday evening and they were having problems with the HD feed; the young man responsible for the HD equipment is on vacation. I just spoke to the Chief Engineer, and he will look into this. By the way, the opening ceremonies of the Olympics will begin in SD at 8pm, but the HD feed starts at 9pm. In the 8pm to 9pm slot on the HD feed, NBC will air an HD recap of the Salt Lake City games.

Originally posted by jhillestad
HofstraJet , I noticed in your in Springs ... what kind of antenna are you using ?

I'm in 33065 and get a lot of multipath with ch6 wtvj , Where did you pick up the hdtivo ?


ChannelMaster 4228 on a ChannelMaster 9521A rotator. I am right by Atlantic and the Sawgrass. HDTiVo purchased from circuitcity.com (they are only available online and are usually in stock: http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-9712&qp=0051808480863&oid=93509&m=0 )

Bgal, Are you sure wptv has given waivers for Direct Tv to turn on the NBC HD feed on ch 84 in West Palmfor the Olympics? Miami yes but West Palm Wptv is not an O&O station so they dont have to give waivers?

Sandy

HofstraJet , how are you getting ch 7 , 10 and 12 they are vhf. ? Does the channelmaster still pick them up or do you use a combiner with a vhf antenna somewhere ?

I am currently using the Radio Shack HD "wing" omni antenna on a RS rotator outside. I've got it picking up WPBF ABC in Tequesta and WTVX 34 if Ft. Pierce .

Is yours in the attic or outside ? my attic mount was working great but wtvj was getting multipath problems and no wpbf or wtvx , this left me no second source for abc.

Can i email you direct, I would love to hear from a fellow Coral Springer about their HD scenarios , I've been messing with this for a few weeks now, there cant be many Springs residence picking up HD because everyone here seems to be a slave to the cable company....

Originally posted by jhillestad
. I've got it picking up WPBF ABC in Tequesta and WTVX 34 if Ft. Pierce.
Neither of these channels are in Tequesta or Ft Pierce. Both transmission towers are in Martin County near to 27 07 N, 80 23 W. Just West of I-95.

Well, 2 days to go until the Olympics (in HD hopefully :rolleyes: )...will WPTV-DT provide a consistent, stable HD broadcast without any audio sync problems, black flashes or other issues????? We'll know soon, but as a possible precurser of what's to come, I noticed the worst audio sync problem (about a 3-4 sec. delay) on WPTV-DT's HD broadcast of Law & Order this evening!!!!! I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, but it's only been about 16 months or so since WPTV-DT went live and they still can't get it right, so.....

You've got 2 days guys; please don't fail us and don't embarass yourselves!!!! :mad:

No pressure, no pressure...:D

Yes it was really bad on Law and Order, but I guess that was good, because it finally caused them to figure it out, for like the 10th time ;)

But at least they were nice enough to allow us to watch the Olympics from either D*, E*, or Voom, as well as them. So that's good.

Originally posted by jhillestad
HofstraJet , how are you getting ch 7 , 10 and 12 they are vhf. ? Does the channelmaster still pick them up or do you use a combiner with a vhf antenna somewhere ?

I am currently using the Radio Shack HD "wing" omni antenna on a RS rotator outside. I've got it picking up WPBF ABC in Tequesta and WTVX 34 if Ft. Pierce .

Is yours in the attic or outside ? my attic mount was working great but wtvj was getting multipath problems and no wpbf or wtvx , this left me no second source for abc.

Can i email you direct, I would love to hear from a fellow Coral Springer about their HD scenarios , I've been messing with this for a few weeks now, there cant be many Springs residence picking up HD because everyone here seems to be a slave to the cable company....

I live near Coral Ridge and Wiles and would also be interested in your discussion. I will be out of touch for about 2 weeks but let me know how we can communicate directly then (I'm new to this so I'm not sure about passing email addresses thru the forum).

If I get a chance I will post my antenna info tomorrow.

HG

bgall,

Are you sure we can get the Olympic NBC-HD feed via D*, without a waiver from WPTV? I know there has been some controversy regarding this only being avaialable in O&O markets, or if it will be available to everyone on ch. 84.

Also, has anyone been able to get a waiver from WPEC for the national CBS-HD feed on D*?

Thanks,
sfin54

Not sure of the exact location of wpbf or wtvx but antennaweb.org places the transmitter almost 60 miles from Springs, what town are they near (tranmission towers). My attic rig will not pull them down but my outdoor rig will.

guy, when u return just "pm" me and I'll send ya my email.

Originally posted by sfin54
bgall,

Are you sure we can get the Olympic NBC-HD feed via D*, without a waiver from WPTV? I know there has been some controversy regarding this only being available in O&O markets, or if it will be available to everyone on ch. 84.


Yes, West Palm is in the listed of cities posted
Here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=432292
and here: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/hdtv/olympics/index.shtml

these links are related to Dish Network but the consensus is that the eligible markets are the same for all providers

Originally posted by bgall
Yes, West Palm is in the listed of cities posted
Here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=432292
and here: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/hdtv/olympics/index.shtml

these links are related to Dish Network but the consensus is that the eligible markets are the same for all providers

Is there anything we, as D*TV customers need to do to receive the NBC HD Olympics feed? Should we call D*TV and ask them to activate the channel? I would probably watch the D*TV feed as I do not have the confidence in WPTV-DT to provide a stable, trouble free HD broadcast. I would be so frustrated watching the Olympics in HD with a horrible audio sync delay or crazy black flashes every 30 sec. :mad: Thanks.

Originally posted by bsgoren
Is there anything we, as D*TV customers need to do to receive the NBC HD Olympics feed? Should we call D*TV and ask them to activate the channel? I would probably watch the D*TV feed as I do not have the confidence in WPTV-DT to provide a stable, trouble free HD broadcast. I would be so frustrated watching the Olympics in HD with a horrible audio sync delay or crazy black flashes every 30 sec. :mad: Thanks.

Does this help?
http://www.directv.com/see/landing/2004Olympics.html

Edit: I spoke with a DirecTV rep and she stated that only the Miami market would get channel 84 and that there was nothing else they could do. But you can probably keep calling them until you find someone sympathetic to your cause and get them to turn it on. It's not that important to me though.

Originally posted by bsgoren
Is there anything we, as D*TV customers need to do to receive the NBC HD Olympics feed? Should we call D*TV and ask them to activate the channel? I would probably watch the D*TV feed as I do not have the confidence in WPTV-DT to provide a stable, trouble free HD broadcast. I would be so frustrated watching the Olympics in HD with a horrible audio sync delay or crazy black flashes every 30 sec. :mad: Thanks.

So, I just called D*TV and asked them about it. They said that D*TV channel 84 may OR may not carry the NBC HD Olympics feed in the W. Palm Beach area beginning Friday...they're not sure, b/c they know that WPTV (and WPTV-DT) are not NBC-owned affiliates, so they don't ordinarily provide the DTV broadcasts for this station (the waiver thing). However, to make things even more confusing, they said that "if Dish Network will be carrying the NBC HD feed for the Olympics in the West Palm Beach area, then D*TV probably will as well." Sure enough, the Dish Network Web site does list WPB area as a market which HD Olympics coverage will be broadcast. D*TV said their list is not complete at this time, and they won't know until Friday. Huh???? :confused:

Bottom line is...on Friday at 8PM or 9PM, if your D*TV guide shows channel 84 and you get an HD signal, then you got it. Otherwise, we don't and we'll have to rely on crappy, unstable, audio-sync delayed, black-flashing WPTV-DT for watching the Olympics in HD! :mad:

Just spoke to a CSR at D* (Clueless as usual), and asked about the Olympic feed on ch. 84 for our area.
First she says that since I have the HD package I will get all Special Events on that channel automatically. I then asked her if that includes the HD Olympic feed. She puts me on hold to go ask someone, comes back and says only if I'm in a O&O market.
I then tell her that since E* and Adelphia are offering it, I had heard D* would also offer it in these non O&O markets. Again, she goes to ask someone, and comes back and says Yes if your cable company is offering it than so will D*.
So I ask if I need to do anything to have it turned for Friday, and again she goes and asks someone. She returns and says that nothing has been finalized, and that I will need to check their web site Friday to see if I can get it, or call them Friday night?:confused:
So after all that, we still don't know much (not that I expected to get much of answer from their CSRs).

BTW, I asked if they were taking waiver requests for WPTV or WFLX national HD feed which are due to come online soon. The answer: "We don't offer those stations, and have no information when/if they will be available." At that point I said "thank You," and hung up. :mad:

Oh Great... :( The HD feed doesn't start on DBS until 1 AM. So now if you want to watch at 9 you have to watch WPTV, and they are getting the black flashes, drops in signal, and they're not even equipped with AC3, bummer :(

What the F????? Just as I expected from WPTV-DT!!! Crap!!! Yes, the Olympics are HD on WPTV-DT alright...ice skating from the 2002 Olympics with audio from the 2004 Olympics. A bit confusing guys, don't you think? :confused: Whoever thought of that one should be fired! And, of course, the crazy black flashes are happening too. This sucks. I'm so p/o'd. I think they should all be fired and just start over already. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Yes this really really really really really really sucks!!!!!!

Dang WPTV and NBC, why couldn't they just the opening ceremony in HD in simulcast like they do every other show what a joke!!

I guess I'll just save myself the effort and watch it at 1 AM on dish lol


:mad: :rolleyes: :(

While old video footage mixed with live audio from the opening ceremonies was a major screw up... It appears from NBC's site the Olympics are supposed to start on NBC at 8pm and NBCHD at 9pm. (EST)

www.nbcolympics.com

Originally posted by avmike
While old video footage mixed with live audio from the opening ceremonies was a major screw up... It appears from NBC's site the Olympics are supposed to start on NBC at 8pm and NBCHD at 9pm. (EST)

www.nbcolympics.com

Yes, I see that now, so everything I just saw in the past hour on WPTV (analog cable), I now will see again on WPTV-DT???? I don't think so. Why did NBC do this? What was the purpose for this 1 hour delay for HD??? This is just ridiculous. Are all the Olympics HD coverage going to be 1 hour behind the analog? What gives? :confused: :mad: :mad:

It is strange. It's definitely a completely different feed (announcers constantly referring to HD and NBCHD, replaying the same annoying Sony HD commercial) but I don't know why it has to lag behind by an hour...

The one hour delayed was plannned all along, I just didnt think that I'd have to watch it on WPTV, the DBS feed got stalled till 1 AM ET

The reason for the delay is that it is a completly different package with different announcers cameras and commercials.

I've had a ton of drop outs tonight, I get bad multipath where I am and I've seen a couple of black flashes from WPTV

All I can say is...Shame on WPTV-DT and NBC for a very poor start to their extremely hyped up HD broadcast of the Olympics! Black flashes, audio dropouts, 1 screen freeze, 1 hour delay for the HD broadcast, the same Sony commercial over and over, and different commentators. What, did Katie Couric refuse to commentate for the HD broadcast? :rolleyes: Give me a break...why did there have to be two separate broadcasts anyhow? And if they had to do it like that, couldn't they both have started at the same time (8PM EST)? Very poor planning on the part of NBC and abysmal (as usual) performance on the part of WPTV-DT. Gee Guys...you've only had more than 1 year to get it right. Shame on you...you should all be fired! :mad: :mad: :mad:

Kudos to WPEC for using some of their digital spectrum to provide expanded weather coverage during Charley. If you missed it WINK-TV from Ft Myers was simulcast on 13.2 during the height of the storm. WINK was in the center of things and provided comprehensive coverage and a unique perspective on the storm.

It is gratifying to see a bit imagination used by at least one station to take advantage of this largely wasted digital bandwidth. Coverage would have been more effective had they not kept it a secret. Perhaps a crawler on their analog channel could have been used.

Another NBC screw-up that nobody mentioned yet---Even after the 2004 coverage started at 9:00PM, and the audio was consistent with the HD picture, the closed captions continued to be those of the SD broadcast.