One thing is very clear, the local ABC feed looks MUCH better than the local CBS feed does over Cox. Not to mention that ABC is in 5.1 and CBS is not.

Could we be getting NFL Network and NBC in hd soon? Right now on channel 970 and 993 they're listed, but it says it is being used for testing purposes.

ABC also looks much better than CBS OTA. The problem is the two subchannels stealing bandwidth from the main channel. CBS is much worse since they added the weather channel.

It's about damn time Cox added some channels to their HD lineup. I have been so upset with Cox that I considered having DirecTV install their HD service. I understand Tucson locals are not in HD as yet but I can always use the Phx feed or my OTA ant. Not like I watch much of Tucson's news anyway...

So what the hell is the problem with NBC? Sunday Night Football is just not the same in SD.

Tyler,
I noticed that too. It might have been the network feed. I get my NBC from DirecTV and my TIVO was blank when I went to play it back.

Last night I went to watch the Mon night sitcoms on CBS and found out that KOLD is at it again with their poor DTV broadcast service. My HTPC tuners can't get the signal at all, and I tried my one external tuner and got video in HD but no sound at all. I called and left a friendly voice mail for Mr. Romain last night when I found out nothing was recorded.

I still need to call the station manager and ask him why their DTV reliability is the worst of all the stations here in Tucson, and when they plan on making an investment to improve it. This is the 3rd time they've done whatever it is that keeps some tuners from being able to receive the broadcast when some still work, and this time there's no audio even for the ones that can tune in the signal.

COMCAST Tucson people! Please call 744-1900 NOW and complain! We are a "test" EPG advertisement market for COMCAST, The friendly CSR I just spoke too also said that she hated the ads as well and that they were waiting for customers to call and complain to make the decision to keep them or get rid of them. She also said yesterday, 20Nov06, was the last day of the survey, WTF, they just started this last week, like Friday? I tried to call over the weekend and since it was the weekend the calls were routed to New Mexico and after 20 minutes I gave up. Poor customer treatment. BTW, I pay $172 a MONTH for to COMCAST and while this does include the "internet" and a couple of HD-DVR's it is STILL $172 a MONTH! Speak up peeps!

NFLHD starts Thursday on Cox........

It will be on 719... My Tivo has already updated the channel lineup......

Looks like some one at COX has a rooting intrest in the Ohio State vs Michigan game. The loss of INHD 2 is not surprising since its going dark as of Jan 1st still i'll miss the FSN HD hockey.

All FSN games will move to INHD1

I am already getting NFLHD, but it is very pixelated. Anyone else having trouble with it on Cox?

I am already getting NFLHD, but it is very pixelated. Anyone else having trouble with it on Cox?


I watched NFLHD this morning and it was looking good. Tonight during the game it was breaking up horribly and unwatchable. Disappointing as I was excited to get tonights game in HD. Oh well, should know better than to get my hopes up with Cox.

I called Cox about it and they had me reboot my DVR, which did help, but the CSR told me that I had poor signal quality and I will have someone out on Friday to take a look at it.

I called Cox about it and they had me reboot my DVR, which did help, but the CSR told me that I had poor signal quality and I will have someone out on Friday to take a look at it.

Thinking back, ESPN2HD was all messed one of the first nights it was on too. I watched some programming on NFLHD today and there weren't any problems. Hopefully this week is better.


Now for Cox to stop teasing us with the NBCHD channel in the 900's :)

I had 4 Cox trucks show up on Friday and they re-wired my entire house.

I switched to the football game that was on ABC-HD to check it out, and thought I might have to entertain the entire crew while they were here. :-)

The field techs are great, I just with the corporate would come around with more channels.

Hey guys, great thread. Lots of info.

We just got the 50" Vizio plasma, haven't seen anything in HD yet though. I'm making the switch from Dish Network to direct TV, got a free year of the HD package and lots of other goodies. DirecTV said I can't get local channels in HD though. Do they just mean I can't get them in HD through DirecTV or I can't get local channels in HD at all? Do I just need an antennae?

Can't wait to watch stuff in HD :D

You can get SD locals from DirecTV now. You will be able to get HD locals whenever Tucson gets them (???) provided you have the DirecTV HD receiver H20 or HD DVR HR20 and the AT-9 dish.

Meanwhile, you can get local HD just fine over the air if your location and antenna permit and you have a receiver or DVR that accepts over the air HD. (Curently the H20 does, but the HR20 doesn't. The DirecTiVo HD HR10--if you can find one--does a good job over the air.)

Even without a receiver from Direct that can tune OTA HD, your Vizio TV has an ATSC tuner. So you can connect an antenna to your TV's antenna input to watch HD locals. Use an indoor UHF antenna and see what you get.

www.antennaweb.org will tell you which way to point your antenna, which will be towards Mt.Bigalow for most stations.

thanks for the info, but i'm a little confused, which isn't too surprising :p. I'm getting the H20 receiver, will I still need to buy an antennae? If so, how will I see the local channels? Just have to turn off the DTV receiver and switch TV modes or something?

You'll need an antenna to see local HD signals.

You should be able to plug it into the DirectTV box, it should have a separate antenna connection, but the channels are integrated with the dtv guide, so it's user friendly. (i think)

Until the box is installed, you can plug the antenna directly to the TV and watch HD over the weekend :)

I am not positive, but I imagine DirectTV does what the Dish does... they include a UHF antenna, mounted on the dish outside, and the local HD channels come in through the DVR. That way, you are able to record HD local channels on the DVR and see them in the program guide. You do have to sign up for local SD channels in order to view them on the guide, but its worth it.

You do have to sign up for local SD channels in order to view them on the guide, but its worth it.
Actually, you don't, at least, I did not have to with my HR10-250, in Surprise.

Dish Network requires a locals subscription to see Guide Data for Digital Locals. DirecTV does not. DirecTV will not install an antenna for free, but they will do it for a nominal fee. Best thing to do is hook up an indoor antenna and see if it will work adequately. If not, have the outdoor antenna installed.

Thanks again for the help, really.

I want to go out and buy an antenna today, but not sure what kind to get. The antennaWeb site there helped out somewhat, but I'm not sure what the end result means exactly, here's a picture of what come up after I put in my info at the site there: http://www.freewebs.com/fustercluck/atennastuff.jpg

It'd be a big help if someone could recommend an Antenna that would get me all the local channels (mainly ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox) in HD. I have no idea what antenna to buy, would like to buy it today though...college football baby, and NFL tomorrow :p - So I will probably buy retail, and not online.

Terk makes one, and it looks exactly like the "Silver Sensor" one made by Zenith, I believe. These seem to be the best, and nice looking indoor ones. I have two of the Terks, and they work great. Radio Shack has em, and Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. The run about $50. The Radio Shack variety comes with an amplifier. You may or may not see a benefit from the amplifier. Mine works without it just fine.

Most people report terrible results from the Terk, so I would suggest anything else as a better alternative. The real Silver Sensor works much better, and is generally recommended as the best indoor antenna. Other good choices would be the Antennasdirect DB2 or the ChannelMaster CM4221. Even though both the DB2 and CM4221 are outdoor antennas, they are small and suitable for indoor use as well.

Dish Network requires a locals subscription to see Guide Data for Digital Locals. DirecTV does not. DirecTV will not install an antenna for free, but they will do it for a nominal fee. Best thing to do is hook up an indoor antenna and see if it will work adequately. If not, have the outdoor antenna installed.
They installed mine for free in 2004, but their policies might have changed since then.

Did you get an antenna for free? I had to pay $99.00 for the antenna, but there wasn't an additional install fee. I went with 4 SD Tivos and one HD Tivo last year. I think is was around $100.00 for the extra work done and I tipped the guy $50 because he was here for about 6 hours. Lotsa work done and I'm very happy. I've since hacked all of the Tivos and have hardwired network going on. Streaming music and shared programming is great. I've also got the ability to rip DVDs on my computer and play them on any Tivo (except the HD box). I wish DirecTV would have continued their relationship with Tivo and that the ongoing underground development could continue as strong as it did a couple of years back. Overall...I think these hacked Tivos are the best DVRs on the market.

The antenna was free, but it did not work for my area, and I knew it wouldn't since I was surrounded by mountains. This was in Nevada, and I lived just east of Lake Tahoe in Carson Valley. However, in Surprise it worked just fine.

I am having a great time with the HR-20's, it hasn't failed me yet. In fact, I think it is better than the HR10, which I still own, and thank goodness I don't need an antenna to receive network HD. I do miss using my MyHd-130, for I was doing the same as you recording/streaming/burning to DVD, and to my other HTPC's.

Best regards.

Thanks for the help guys, that was awesome. I was able to watch all of SNL in HDTV, was beautiful, just makes SDTV so much worse though, and it was alright pretty horrible :p

I can't seem to be KVOA and KOLD at the same time, maybe I just need to tinker with the antenna more? All other channels work fine. BTW, the antenna is somewhat of an eyesore, we can live with it how it is but is there a way to hide it and still get optimum reception? Thanks again, you guys are great..

Thanks for the help guys, that was awesome. I was able to watch all of SNL in HDTV, was beautiful, just makes SDTV so much worse though, and it was alright pretty horrible :p

I can't seem to be KVOA and KOLD at the same time, maybe I just need to tinker with the antenna more? All other channels work fine. BTW, the antenna is somewhat of an eyesore, we can live with it how it is but is there a way to hide it and still get optimum reception? Thanks again, you guys are great..

I hid mine on the roof. Some people hide them in the attic.

You can put them wherever, you just have to get a cable there. I had mine sitting in the garage for a while until I put one on the roof.

Tivocommunity has a post from Earl stating the patch is coming sometime before the end of College Bowl season. I hope it comes soon - as I have had to resort to recording The Simpsons (FOX) on SD lately due to the audio dropouts. I also receive them (the dropouts - not The Simpsons ;)) on NBC now, just not as badly.

Hopefully they got it right with this incantation. Will post if I get it soon.

PixelFreak

I actually got desperate enough to re-format my drive and go back to the old 3.? version. Not only did I have the audio dropouts (on Boston Legal no less), but I had serious issues with the remote control and some partial recordings. I'll certainly be waiting for your experience with the new software before plugging in the phone line to accept any future upgrades. I loved the speed and folders, but I really like hearing all of the dialog on shows I watch.

Thanks for the "head's up". I'm looking forward to speed and reliability!!!

Please...somebody tell me that KOLD will not be stretching all 4:3 content to fit the screen !!! I have buttons that can do that for me. I now have to set my TV to 4:3 on this channel and "Auto Fit" everything else. YUCK!!!!!!

Please...somebody tell me that KOLD will not be stretching all 4:3 content to fit the screen !!! I have buttons that can do that for me. I now have to set my TV to 4:3 on this channel and "Auto Fit" everything else. YUCK!!!!!!

That would be crap. I haven't seen that yet, but KOLD is really starting to annoy me. I used to be happy that they let Cox carry their signal, but now that they have the news channel, the sports really look like crap on 13.1. It's like an abstract painting of blocks whenever there is a lot of motion on the screen, which happens every so often on sporting events. It's even noticeable on CSI now.

It's gotta be my favorite team to watch KOLD football now. I watched the Cardinals game on Fox this Sunday over the block fest that was on KOLD.

KOLD is getting worse every day. About the only thing I watch there regularly is CSI, and you are correct, it is starting to look terrible.

I agree that the OTA HD programming from KOLD is getting very bad. Do they provide the same signal to COX for cable distribution, or do they give COX a less compressed feed?

it is just as bad on Cox. I hoped switching back to the antenna would clear up my audio drop-outs and picture tiling, but alas... Apparently they don't even care.

...I have had to resort to recording The Simpsons (FOX) on SD lately due to the audio dropouts. ...

Why would you not record the Simpsons on SD? Recording it on the HD channel just makes it take up more space. Or do you mean to say that the Simpsons is actually produced and broadcast in HD, and I've just never known that?

Why would you not record the Simpsons on SD? Recording it on the HD channel just makes it take up more space. Or do you mean to say that the Simpsons is actually produced and broadcast in HD, and I've just never known that?
I record them on the OTA HD channel (which is just SD upconverted) because it is MUCH clearer than the digital feed that DirecTV sends me for my local channels. It's obvious when you watch them - the colors are muddled together and the yellows are more orangey (yeah, it's a word! :) ). It's just distracting, but will work while the audio dropouts continue. I also don't keep my list too full, so the space issue is not a concern for me. I don't archive on it.

I haven't received the update, but it appears to be rolling well as many are reporting positive results on the tivocommunity boards. I will update with mine.

Can someone please post the COX digital channel numbers for their box and for direct cable (QAM) connection. In particular:

KGUN-DT ABC
KMSB-DT FOX
ESPN2

I would like to update the first page and am particulary interested in the QAM channels. My stepson is getting an HDTV but will only have a direct cable feed from COX. Thanks.

I have 709 for ABC and 732 for ESPN2. Don't know the QAM numbers.

We don't get Fox.

I have 709 for ABC and 732 for ESPN2. Don't know the QAM numbers.

We don't get Fox.
Thanks. I guess I was confused on KMSB. I suppose I can always wait to scan the QAM channels.

The game was supposed to be in HD, started out saying HDTV provided by Harris, but it was in SD the whole game. I recorded it and just watched it tonight so I couldn't call KOLD and find out what the problem was while it was on. It might have been CBS so I'll save final judgment until I get the final answer as to why it wasn't in HD, just wondering if anyone else saw it and if it was in HD for them on COX or Comcast maybe. I have a feeling it was just the KOLD control room not doing their job again and not setting the HD switch for the DTV broadcast. I'm not surprised everyone else is agreeing that KOLD is the red-headed stepchild of the DTV stations here, talk about being the first digital station in town and then having every other station leave you in the dust the past couple of years.

Thanks in advance for anyone who might have caught the game or recorded it.

Yes...KOLD is now, by far, the worst. King of Queens was also in SD. I hated Friday nights as well. They can't do Letterman in HD because of their High School football show? The macro-blocking on NFL is horrendous. Besides that......

ABC on Cox appears to to be QAM256 Channel 104 (675Mhz), program #2

ESPN in HD is encrypted, or at least not a valid MPEG2 stream.
NBC HD is listed on the cable box's channel listing, but not available. And it doesn't seem to be any of the unencrypted QAM channels.

Cox has also moved ESPN HD to Channel 733 from 720. They have placed a notice on 720 regarding this move.

Can anyone recommend good plasma/ home theater installer to help me with my new TV? (wall mount) I also need to run another dish on my roof as well and it would be nice if someone could do both.

Thanks in advance!

Where is the dividing line between Cox and Comcast? I'm in hte northern end of
Green Valley & apparently cna only get Cox. Correct?

Can anyone recommend good plasma/ home theater installer to help me with my new TV? (wall mount) I also need to run another dish on my roof as well and it would be nice if someone could do both.

Thanks in advance!

Wilson's on Broadway gave me the name of a guy that was great.. I have had him do a number of jobs for me.. Shoot me a PM and I will give you his name and number, but it will be 1/8 before i can do it..

Yes...KOLD is now, by far, the worst. King of Queens was also in SD. I hated Friday nights as well. They can't do Letterman in HD because of their High School football show? The macro-blocking on NFL is horrendous. Besides that......

Has anyone else noticed the flashing during the NCAA Basketball games that are in HD? It's been that way for a couple of years now and I recorded the game this weekend and it's still there. It wasn't that bad for the Kansas v. South Carolina game, but when they switched to the Indiana/Mich St game it was very noticeable. Every 5 - 10 seconds (or more often sometimes) there is a flash in the picture and it only seems to be during the HD basketball games for whatever reason. I've never noticed it during football games on CBS, there's also times when the picture goes fuzzy/out of focus and then comes back and the sound drops to a low volume and then comes back. That even happens during primetime shows, but it would be nice if they could do something about the flashing during the basketball games. It's going to be even more annoying now that I'm watching on a 100" screen. Time to try calling KOLD I guess to see if they are aware of the problem and if there are any plans to do anything about it.

What happened to the NFLHD channel on Cox? It is bad enough that they don't have all the locals, now they are taking away some of what I already had.

Crap, I can't tune into the KOLD-DT channels OTA. They are on Cox ok. Anyone know if Cox gets them OTA and rebroadcasts or if they have a direct feed from KOLD.

I'll mess with the antenna a little bit I guess.

No CBS today on OTA. It's working on Comcast. If you depend on OTA for your football then I guess it's nothing new. There must be something that can be done about this?

Looks like CBS is back on OTA. I guess we will see how it does.

Crap, I can't tune into the KOLD-DT channels OTA. They are on Cox ok. Anyone know if Cox gets them OTA and rebroadcasts or if they have a direct feed from KOLD.

I'll mess with the antenna a little bit I guess.

Well it came back on OTA before football started so I'm happy. So far so good, except for all the macroblocking.

KOLD has the superbowl. We need to really lobby the powers at KOLD to turn off 13-2 & 13-3 for the SuberBowl.

I exchanged e-mail with Stewart Romain, chief engineer at KOLD. He says that when the Tube Music network was first introduced, they did reduce the bandwidth for the main channel. He says that with the addition of the NewsNow channel, they also added some sophisticated encoding equipment that varies the allotted bandwidth of each of the channels as each needs it. He adds that "when there is motion on any of the channels (which causes the need of more bandwidth) this encoder instantaneously allots the needed bandwith to the channel that needs it. "

Although KOLD-DT has been a bit unreliable as of late, I have to admit that I do not see any more "macroblocking" on KOLD HD shows than I do on the other stations. Do others still see things differently?

Stewart also reports that Cox and Comcast get direct fiber feed of the signals and would be able to deliver them with minimum compression. He believes that they do use a substantial amount of compression, however. He says he subscribes to Comcast at his home and that he sees much more macroblocking on the cable signal than he sees on the OTA signal.

I wonder if those of you who have both COX and OTA could compare your results for KOLD-DT.

Although KOLD-DT has been a bit unreliable as of late, I have to admit that I do not see any more "macroblocking" on KOLD HD shows than I do on the other stations. Do others still see things differently?

On regular primetime shows I don't notice the macroblocking much as there isn't a lot of action. It's really when it's football that it's problem some. Compared to the NFL on KVOA-HD, KOLD has significantly more macroblocking, and both are 1080i HD signals. KVOA was carrying a 4-2 which made NASCAR on the primary channel block horribly. Even without 4-2, there is still some blocking in racing, but not nearly as bad as it used to be.


Stewart also reports that Cox and Comcast get direct fiber feed of the signals and would be able to deliver them with minimum compression. He believes that they do use a substantial amount of compression, however. He says he subscribes to Comcast at his home and that he sees much more macroblocking on the cable signal than he sees on the OTA signal.

I wonder if those of you who have both COX and OTA could compare your results for KOLD-DT.

I'll watch tomorrow Patriot's game on Cox to see how it compares to today's Raven's game OTA. I was under the assumption that the feed that Cox got, although delivered differently, was the same feed that went OTA, especially since they also get the feed for TheTube & the NewsNow. But I'll check it out tomorrow. I'd switch now, but I'm watching the Raven's game on delay (MythTV) and can't look at live broadcast :)

Is anyone having low signal problems with FOX OTA? I'm at Campbell & Prince with line-of-site to Bigalow. I get 80 to 100% signal for all other Bigalow channels but I'm down to 20% on Fox. This has been an intermittent issue for me since last spring. I'm using a roof mounted Winegard PR-440 antenna and a MyHD MDP-120 card. I'm thinking of getting a larger antenna but it's hard for me to blame my own hardware since I get the other channels flawlessly.

Any suggestions and/or comments would be appreciated.

Is anyone having low signal problems with FOX OTA? I'm at Campbell & Prince with line-of-site to Bigalow. I get 80 to 100% signal for all other Bigalow channels but I'm down to 20% on Fox. This has been an intermittent issue for me since last spring. I'm using a roof mounted Winegard PR-440 antenna and a MyHD MDP-120 card. I'm thinking of getting a larger antenna but it's hard for me to blame my own hardware since I get the other channels flawlessly.

Any suggestions and/or comments would be appreciated.

I'll withhold comments on KMSB until after the Saints game, don't want to jinx anything.

I do believe the transmitters at bigalow are oriented differently for different channels. If I twist my antenna some channels come in better than others. There isn't a "happy place" where they all come in with full strength for me.

Anyway, you may try twisting your antenna, but keeping it pointed the same direction, if the others drop into the 70's range but it brings KMSB up to a stronger signal, that may be a good compromise. But really, line of site to the towers as close as you are, you should be able to pick them up with a coat hanger. (not the plastic style :) )

We're having big problems with the Saints/Eagles game :( - I hate this crap. I was pretty sure TV technology changed in the last 50 years, but apparently not, still having to adjust the rabbit ears every two seconds, I'm expecting I love Lucy to come on any minute :p.

It's really aggrivating. We usually get most other channels ok, but Fox was bad all day, it goes from 30-70% signal, but drops down to 0% every 2 seconds or so, i hate it. Antennaweb says compas orientation is 30 degrees and frequency assignment is 25, i have no idea what either of those mean.

So, this sucks. Playoff football on and can't watch it in HD, what a bummer. I live near TMC. I hope DirecTV broadcasts locals here in HD soon.

Is anyone having low signal problems with FOX OTA? I'm at Campbell & Prince with line-of-site to Bigalow. I get 80 to 100% signal for all other Bigalow channels but I'm down to 20% on Fox. This has been an intermittent issue for me since last spring. I'm using a roof mounted Winegard PR-440 antenna and a MyHD MDP-120 card. I'm thinking of getting a larger antenna but it's hard for me to blame my own hardware since I get the other channels flawlessly.

Any suggestions and/or comments would be appreciated.

KMSB (FOX) currently has problems with their broadcast equipment and their signal strength is only at 65 (meter on my tuner) when it's normally at 75. This has happened a couple of times the past couple of months and Walcott Dennison the engineer for KMSB has resolved the issue by restarting the broadcast equipment on Mt. Bigelow. The last time it happened he thought he knew what the problem was and was planning on getting it fixed. Apparently they haven't yet though or it's a new problem or broke again if it was repaired. Problem is the signal is weak but not out and I can still get one of my tuners to work, but others won't. There isn't anyone to call at KMSB either to let them know it's malfunctioning so it probably won't get fixed until Monday at the earliest unfortunately. If someone knows how to reach someone at KMSB or Mr. Dennison, they can probably get it fixed for tomorrow's NFL game if they are just told about the problem somehow. If you used to get FOX fine and don't know, don't change anything, the signal will be back at normal strength and it will work again as soon as they restart their system. You can find previous posts about this issue if you look back in this thread a page or two.

...If someone knows how to reach someone at KMSB or Mr. Dennison, they can probably get it fixed for tomorrow's NFL game if they are just told about the problem somehow.And before 24 starts tomorrow night! :(

I agree, have Direct TV and utilize OTA for the local high def. My DirectTV local channels stink. I live near Grant and Tanque Verde. I utilize a samsung powered in house OTA antenna that works great for a bedroom sony 40 inch LCD amd a radio shack powered in house for an office smsung dlp. Unfortunatley, I cna never get good reception for my biggest tv in the family roo, went on the rooyesterday to try a terk roof mount in hopes of getting fox for today's Bears game but need to go up and re-direct How much do trees factor in ? I have a lot of big trees in line of sight to bigelow
we need Direc Tv to giv e us our locals in high def (as well as the Golf Chanel
Braindoc

And before 24 starts tomorrow night! :(

No kidding, this is a huge weekend for Fox. For people still having problems, I think they have a sister station in Phoenix. Maybe if you can get intouch with their news desk or something, you may have some luck.

Has anyone noticed a drop in picture quality on Cox in the HD channels? It seems that over the last 2 weeks or so the channels have really dropped off. At first I thought it might be my DLP set, but just as I am thinking that, something comes on that looks amazing.

Could they be playing some games with the contract renewal going on?

For those of you who have 24 recorded in HD OTA, you will be disappointed to see that KMSB lost the HD feed during the last 15 minutes of the show. I haven't seen that happen in some time. Hopefully it was just a one-time fluke. Seems their switching has been much improved over the last year.

For those of you who have 24 recorded in HD OTA, you will be disappointed to see that KMSB lost the HD feed during the last 15 minutes of the show. I haven't seen that happen in some time. Hopefully it was just a one-time fluke. Seems their switching has been much improved over the last year.

Odd, I watched the two hour episode tape delayed last night and it never dropped out of HD. I think there was one glitch in the recording, but I don't recall when. I don't know if the glitch was my equipment or theirs.

I just recently hooked up HD recorders to my MythTV so I was nervous yesterday watching the 2 football games and then 24, all time shifted. But it went off without a hitch. Hopefully it works well again tonight.

I'm recording OTA from around Alvernon & I-10.

Has anyone noticed a drop in picture quality on Cox in the HD channels? It seems that over the last 2 weeks or so the channels have really dropped off. At first I thought it might be my DLP set, but just as I am thinking that, something comes on that looks amazing.

Could they be playing some games with the contract renewal going on?


I usually will catch a movie on UniversalHD or watch sports on ESPN1/2HD. I noticed recently a couple of college basketball games were not very crisp and they there was a decent amount of noise around the players and any movement.

But I've watched other games and sportscenter football hightlights that look great. I think what I've seen has been subpar setups at the location of the event rather than an issue with Cox.

So I got a notice from Cox that although their rates are going up, mine will stay the same since I had a bundle plan.

Then it goes on to state that the rental for my HD receiver is going up $2. I can't believe how pissed I got about $2 last night. It's like I was in a movie trying to get my $2. I wonder what kind of improvements I'm going to get in my receiver now that it costs an extra $2. Yep, that would be none.

I guess the receiver that they already paid for and that I've been renting for 2 years just got more expensive, imagine that.

Anyone have issues with Monday's broadcast of 24? I lost about 15 minutes of the show. 2 gaps of about 5-10 minutes during the program. Using OTA with HR10-250.

So I got a notice from Cox that although their rates are going up, mine will stay the same since I had a bundle plan.

Then it goes on to state that the rental for my HD receiver is going up $2. I can't believe how pissed I got about $2 last night. It's like I was in a movie trying to get my $2. I wonder what kind of improvements I'm going to get in my receiver now that it costs an extra $2. Yep, that would be none.

I guess the receiver that they already paid for and that I've been renting for 2 years just got more expensive, imagine that.

I feel your pain.I too have a package deal with Cox for the internet, phone, and cable. I am real close of taking the equipment down to their office and telling them to shove the entire system up their A**. What balls they have to increase the monthly service and Cox can not even proivide a service worthy of watching. If I could find a better package with Dish or Direct I would. I need to have a system with 4 receivers with one of the receivers having HD with DVR, Internet, and phone. Does anyone have a clue what Cox charges just for internet and phone?

Anyone have issues with Monday's broadcast of 24? I lost about 15 minutes of the show. 2 gaps of about 5-10 minutes during the program. Using OTA with HR10-250.

I only got through the first hour last night, but no issues so far. Keeping fingers crossed for when I go home tonight.

My Cox bill for internet, phone, and long-distance is now running about $75/month.

I read recently where Cox made a deal for Tivo to provide service through Cox. Maybe the increase of $3 for the DVR box is to cover that? Software downloads may be forthcoming? I dont think much of the lousy quality and lack of HD locals, but the pricing is hard to beat. I have been shopping for a new service--but cannot find a better deal with 3 HD TVs, 2 with DVRs.

Anyone have issues with Monday's broadcast of 24? I lost about 15 minutes of the show. 2 gaps of about 5-10 minutes during the program. Using OTA with HR10-250.
My HR10-250 had two gaps, leaving me with ... you know, I was going to say a 1:55 recording, but now that I think about it I think it may have been a 1:45 recording, which would mean I lost the same 15 minutes.

I read recently where Cox made a deal for Tivo to provide service through Cox. Maybe the increase of $3 for the DVR box is to cover that? Software downloads may be forthcoming?
Not likely. I'm pretty sure that the TiVo work is happening on Motorola boxes. Cox hasn't been using Motorola boxes here in Tucson.

I read recently where Cox made a deal for Tivo to provide service through Cox. Maybe the increase of $3 for the DVR box is to cover that? Software downloads may be forthcoming? I dont think much of the lousy quality and lack of HD locals, but the pricing is hard to beat. I have been shopping for a new service--but cannot find a better deal with 3 HD TVs, 2 with DVRs.
The $3.00 has nothing to do with Tivo. When the Tivo service becomes available, it will be a premium add-on.

I feel your pain.I too have a package deal with Cox for the internet, phone, and cable. I am real close of taking the equipment down to their office and telling them to shove the entire system up their A**. What balls they have to increase the monthly service and Cox can not even proivide a service worthy of watching. If I could find a better package with Dish or Direct I would. I need to have a system with 4 receivers with one of the receivers having HD with DVR, Internet, and phone. Does anyone have a clue what Cox charges just for internet and phone?
You do get a discount "bundled" plan for internet and phone. You may also end up with "free" basic cable as they cannot filter those channels out (last time I had them).

Have you priced Qwest DSL? I've got lifetime pricing at $34.99 for 6 MB / 768 KPBS. I choose Qwest over Cox because Qwest does not block ports. I also have a strong dislike for Cox because of how they appear to treat Tucson as a "step-child" to Phoenix.

I only got through the first hour last night, but no issues so far. Keeping fingers crossed for when I go home tonight.
What are you using as your DVR? How'd the second hour go?

If tlhis hasn't been brought previously, D* is coming out with 100 HD channels before year-end. Luckily, I am already setup for it, including the HR-20 STB and dish.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12760_7-9674995-5.html?tag=nl.e722

Anyone have issues with Monday's broadcast of 24? I lost about 15 minutes of the show. 2 gaps of about 5-10 minutes during the program. Using OTA with HR10-250.

Monday night I had 2 signal drops but I don't think they were very long. Sunday night I lost the wide screen and it also looked like the HD was dropped near the end of the 2 hours.
I was recording OTA with a Dish 622.

Anyone have issues with Monday's broadcast of 24? I lost about 15 minutes of the show. 2 gaps of about 5-10 minutes during the program. Using OTA with HR10-250.I noticed the same two drops in real time on Comcast. I had to quickly switch to the analog station and then checked back during commercial. I didn't have time to try OTA.

I don't recall having trouble Sun night, except for the usual audio drops here and there (especially before the show which scared me). There was also an increase in audio level during one segment, but not quite as loud as the commercials :rolleyes:.

You do get a discount "bundled" plan for internet and phone. You may also end up with "free" basic cable as they cannot filter those channels out (last time I had them).

Have you priced Qwest DSL? I've got lifetime pricing at $34.99 for 6 MB / 768 KPBS. I choose Qwest over Cox because Qwest does not block ports. I also have a strong dislike for Cox because of how they appear to treat Tucson as a "step-child" to Phoenix.

I never thought i would be mad because Qwest is not available where I live, but it has happened.. No Qwest in Rancho Vistoso area..

If I could find a better package with Dish or Direct I would. I need to have a system with 4 receivers with one of the receivers having HD with DVR, Internet, and phone. Does anyone have a clue what Cox charges just for internet and phone?
I have D* with 2 HR20 DVR's and one HR10 DVR (not using it at the moment), and two SD STB's, one of which is in Surprise, am using Vonage @ $24.95/month, and I receive expanded basic free, since I have internet services with Western Broadband.

We have Cox Expanded Basic and have been getting CBS's HD channel on 106.2 for the past several months. But recently that channel went dead it seems. Now I can get CBS HD on 106.1, but w/out any sound. Anyone have any ideas what is going on with this? Also, does anyone know if Cox will be getting NBC or Fox HD soon? Thanks.

What are you using as your DVR? How'd the second hour go?

There were a couple screwups, though I don't know how much time I missed. It didn't feel like I missed a lot of time. Now I'm curious so I may download the episode just to compare.

I use MythTV as my DVR. Unfortunately it lists the time of the recording based on the scheduled time, so I'm not sure what I missed.

My recording showed a length of 1:43.

This is a long thread to read through and I don't know if I have that much time . . . everyone always says to perform a search on forums like these but I figured it would be best to just ask my question:

I just purchased a set with a Terk TV55 antenna (I should have read through the pages before buying this antenna, I know) and I am able to receive all digital channels except KOLD and KVOA. The television is located in a slump block building very close to the airport (Campbell and Bilby). Should this be an issue or have I done something wrong with set-up? Should I just reconsider my antenna choice for this distance from the towers? Thanks for reading and for your suggestions.

-K

Go here, http://antennaweb.org to see if that antenna measures up to the task. However, Terk antennas don't have the best of reputations.

Best of luck.

Has anyone else out there watched Northern Exposure on the Universal HD channel? I get it through Cox, and I find it odd that they are running the show in what looks like 4x3 SD yet they run the promos in glorious HD. Is it just Cox doing something? Have any of the rest of you that get Universal HD noticed this?

It's 4:3 HD since that's how the show was originally shot.

It's 4:3 HD since that's how the show was originally shot.

No, it was shot on 35mm and they can aspect ratio it anyway that they want. The commercial promo's for the show are in full screen 16x9 with no distortion. When the show is on, it looks just like I was watching it on any SD channel. I have read a few posts on a Northern Exposure forum, I was surprised to find out that there was such a thing, and their reports is that it is 16x9 on their cable system.

4:3 was OAR for the show and doing it at 16:9 would require cropping. 35mm does not necessarily equal widescreen. A number of movies originally shot on 35mm were shot 4:3 and have been aired as 4:3 HD. The Wizard of Oz, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas have all been done this way.

What I am seeing when I tune into the show is certainly not in HD. The picture quality is absolutely terrible.

Watching 13-1 CBS HD - Colts Patriots game - picture looks pretty bad. Maybe the rain? Especially when there is any fast movement, grass looks terrible, colors aren't very vibrant.

It looks fine watching via Cox. I did't check OTA.

I don't do OTA HD, and it looks good on Cox. It is really starting to snow here (Golf Links and Craycroft) I wonder how that might effect the signal?

Snowing here too, I'm at Campbell & Speedway (U of A). Picture is still rather crappy, especially on grass and closeups. The digital menus look good however. Using OTA.

Congrats to all local broadcasters. Snow everywhere and nobody went down. I'm impressed.

So today I flipped back and forth between OTA & Cox during the Colts-Pats game.

It seemed to have the same blocking on both feeds. Next week I'm getting a tuner that does QAM & ATSC. Then I can actually compare the bitrates of the two feeds.

But as with others, I didn't have any problems with any of my OTA signals tonight. I paused the football game for a good hour and played out back with the kids. Then I got inside and I started watching the game again at which time I realized that I had just relied on OTA reception during the snow from KOLD, but it all worked out, except the score.

Is there any reason that 58-1 is now showing HD and non-HD material as "stretch-o-vision"? Noticed it Thursday and they have not switched back. Is there a hardware problem?

Tony

Is there any reason that 58-1 is now showing HD and non-HD material as "stretch-o-vision"? Noticed it Thursday and they have not switched back. Is there a hardware problem?

Tony

Well, got the answer... a hardware transition. They say should be completed today - weather permiting - and back up soon.

Tony

OTA 13-1 has been consistently terrible during sportsfor me with the macroblocking; it does seem worse since the introduction of the subchannels...pity. The newfangled bandwidth "throttler" mentioned in an earlier post is definitely not working.

FWIW, TNT-HD on DirecTV has crappy HD during their NBA broadcasts, too.

Eric
Tanque Verde & Houghton

I was so disappointed find that CBS has the Super Bowl this year. I hope they just shut down the sub-channels for a few hours and give us a tremendous showing of, what should be, a great Super Bowl.

What's the latest on Cox providing TiVO software?

Did Fox OTA HD go out for everyone Sunday night? Sometime during the Simpsons?

Did not go out on me, Simpsons and King of the Hill had no hiccups.

Looks likle comcast just added Fox Sports AZ HD to the lineup.

KOLD WILL disable the Tube and its weather subchannel for the SuperBowl.

KOLD WILL disable the Tube and its weather subchannel for the SuperBowl.
That is great news. Thanks KOLD !!!

I haven't read this entire forum and I'm sure antenna brands and quality have been covered. Can anyone recommend a good antenna for the Ina and Thornydale area that has been proven effective in receiving all the HD channels in the area? Thank you

I haven't read this entire forum and I'm sure antenna brands and quality have been covered. Can anyone recommend a good antenna for the Ina and Thornydale area that has been proven effective in receiving all the HD channels in the area? Thank you

Ina & Thornydale unfortunately has a good chance of receiving nothing from Bigalow (4,9,11,13,6,18) and only receiving 58 due to the shadows of the mountain.

Punch your address into www.antennaweb.org and see what it says for digital channels. If you have Comcast than you can get all the locals in HD with a standard QAM tuner if your TV has it, for no extra cost over the basic cable. If you rent their box then it costs more. The second post of the thread has the QAM channel numbers for Comcast HD.

[QUOTE=toastyfries]Ina & Thornydale unfortunately has a good chance of receiving nothing from Bigalow (4,9,11,13,6,18) and only receiving 58 due to the shadows of the mountain.


Thanks for your response. It doesn't look good for my options. I have satellite through DTV with HD and a new Sony SXRD with QAM, but don't want to switch back to cable. I was hoping to get an antenna and watch the Superbowl in HD for the first time ever, but no dice. I'll just have to wait for "the negotiations with local networks" to be resolved. Thanks

With the QAM, you only need to pay for the lowest level of service for $15 a month or something like that, but that won't be before the Superbowl unfortunately.

KOLD WILL disable the Tube and its weather subchannel for the SuperBowl.

When I checked yesterday (Saturday, 3Feb) they were already "off" as they are currently...

When I checked yesterday (Saturday, 3Feb) they were already "off" as they are currently...

I think they went off Friday in the middle of Oprah because my wife's recording stopped 15minutes into the show.

I was so excited that they turned them off early to limit any sort of technical errors with the off switch. I'm excited to see a full bandwidth broadcast on CBS. I've heard a lot of praise of CBS's NFL picture quality.

The Superbowl looked great with the sub channels turned off. I really wish that they would just leave them off.

I don't know if it was me or everyone but I lost 13.1 for a few minutes in the postgame. I'm glad they waited until it was over to have technical difficulties. I agree that it looked great. I actually wasn't even paying attention to the picture quality as it was good and I could forget about it.

Grammy's in HD? Not on Comcast......is it really so hard to keep HD working?????? Bad KOLD bad....

No HD for Grammys OTA on KOLD either.

Boom! HD Grammy's finally, only an hour or so late....somebody got the hamsters spinning their wheels again....

Boom! HD Grammy's finally, only an hour or so late....somebody got the hamsters spinning their wheels again....

Yeah, but man, some of those scenes looked horrible. This had to be the worst HD presentation I've ever seen.

From today's Arizona Daily Star


Customers critical of Cox HD; company says more is coming
Availability part of debate over public access
By Rob O'Dell
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.12.2007
advertisementCox Communications often portrays its cable franchise negotiations with Tucson as a simple trade-off: less public access channels for more high-definition offerings.
Company executives contend cutting public access channels will open up bandwidth for more high-def (HD) channels in the next few years.
But many Cox customers are criticizing the company for not practicing now what it is preaching for the future.
Wendell Byram, a retired technology executive who lives in Green Valley, said he just moved here from Boise, Idaho, where the HD offerings were much more plentiful from another cable provider.
"It's significantly better and the town is 185,000 people," Byram said. He added, "Wouldn't you think" Tucson would have better offerings as a larger market?
Byram said the offerings in Tucson are limited, although he thinks Cox could provide more HD channels if it really wanted to. He said the issue holding the company back is probably money.
Robert Bishop, a retired engineer in Green Valley, has two HD TVs but is cutting Cox's HD service on one of them because of the high costs involved.
"There's not enough HD programming and they're raising rates," Bishop said. "It's crazy."
Cox counters that it has steadily added HD channels over time, announcing Friday that the company has just signed a deal to have the local NBC affiliate, KVOA, available in high-definition.
"We've already contracted for PBS, CBS and ABC," said Anne Doris, Cox's vice president for Southern Arizona. "We've just recently inked an agreement with KVOA."
KVOA President and General Manager Gary Nielsen confirmed the agreement and said he hoped KVOA could be on in HD by mid-March.
For a long time, Cox only offered one local broadcast channel in high-definition: CBS affiliate KOLD. Then, in November, the company began offering ABC affiliate KGUN in HD on the eve of the giant Michigan-Ohio State football game broadcast on that channel.
Doris said Cox's HD lineup depends on contractual agreements it has signed with the content providers. It offers as many HD channels as it has contracts for, Doris said.
For example, it doesn't have FOX in HD because the company is negotiating with Fox on a contract to deliver the programming.
Those negotiations are happening at the national level, Doris said. Fox 11 General Manager Tod Smith said the same, adding it's mainly talks between each company's headquarters.
Joe Curry, a Sahuarita software technician, said Cox's HD channel lineup is inferior for one reason — money.
"I'm sure the issue is money. They don't want to pay subscription fees for the high-def programming," Curry said.
Curry doesn't buy Cox's bandwidth argument, saying, "They've got the bandwidth to get high-def channels."
Doris said Cox "intends to have at least two more broadcast channels in HD" regardless of when it settles its cable franchise renewal with the city. Negotiations broke down last month, with the number of public access channels being the main stumbling block.
The city vowed to take Cox through the time-consuming and expensive federal license-renewal process, while Cox helped introduce a bill in the Arizona Legislature that would dictate the license renewal terms to the city.
Doris said just because there is the bandwidth available to provide more HD channels now, that "doesn't mean we won't need more in the future.
"We need the bandwidth to accommodate that," Doris said.
That's why Cox wants to reduce the number of public access channels, she said, because those channels limit Cox's bandwidth and future opportunities for HD channels. "Our bandwidth challenges are real challenges," Doris said.
But Sahuarita customer Curry said that if the city is going to allow Cox to drop the public access channels, it needs to extract concessions on the HD channels Cox says are right around the corner.
"They need to make sure they are required to upgrade their HD channel lineup," Curry said. "And make them stick to their schedule to bring them online."
● Contact reporter Rob O'Dell at 573-4240 or rodell@azstarnet.com.

Yeah, but man, some of those scenes looked horrible. This had to be the worst HD presentation I've ever seen.

To be fair, before anybody blames KOLD for that, it's not entirely KOLD's fault. There were numerous scenes with lots of flashing lights (strobes and such). Those are hell on MPEG2 compression, which normally only has to deal with less than 1/3 of the picture changing at any given time. Get a stage full of strobes, and every pixel of the image starts going from dark to light and back again, sometimes multiple times per second.

Same thing with the confetti (I think during the Chili Peppers?). The tighter shots were half confetti, which was quickly moving across the screen, making every shot go from dark, to light, to dark, to light...

The director at the Grammy's should be aware of these kinds of things and should have brought it up during rehearsal top have them tone it down. Failing that, he could have cut back to more long shots.

Even if KOLD didn't have the subchannels and devoted the full alloted bandwidth to the Grammy's (like the Super Bowl), those shots still would have looked horrible.

The delay getting the HD feed turned on, though... That seems to be entirely KOLD's fault.

Boom! HD Grammy's finally, only an hour or so late....somebody got the hamsters spinning their wheels again....

I called the news desk at about 7:05, she checked with the control room and said they said it would be HD in 10 - 15 minutes, took them an hour but it finally started working. I called back at that time and asked to be transferred to the head control room person's voice mail at the station and it just rang and rang and never went to voice mail. Left another message for the Chief Engineer instead.

KOLD hasn't kept their DTV and HD broadcast up to the same level as the other stations in town for years now, and apparently nothings going to change that until they are forced to rely on it like their analog broadcast. The signal at least seems to be bit more reliable now than when it would go out everytime there was precipitation in the area, but HD is still a crapshoot when it's a recorded program as opposed to a live sports event. Luckily things were working well for the Super Bowl.

I live in downtown Tucson. I'm pretty fed up with Cox and have been thinking of dropping them for a while. Last weekend I purchased an outdoor antenna with a signal booster, went to antenna web and mounted it facing Mt. Bigelow.

I'm having a couple of problems. First of all I have two HD TVs but one is a couple years old and only has an NTSC tuner. I can wait a month or so and purchase a DVD player with an ATSC tuner through which I can run my antenna cable. I haven't tried my other TV yet, but it's newer and I (hope) has an ATSC tuner. I can't seem to find out from the manual. It's a Sharp LC-42D62U

Anyway, the bigger problem is I get pretty good reception from PBS (6), ABC (9), and CBS (13). I pick up Fox better on 50 than 11, and get poor reception from NBC on 4 and ghosts on 64. I've played with the direction of the antenna but nothing seems to really help.

This confuses me because I think they all use the same antenna tower on Mt. Bigelow. I assume channels 50 and 64 are bouncing from somewhere else.

Can anyone tell me how I can pick up good OTA signals, preferably HD from downtown?

Thanks in advance

McGinty

http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelLanding/0,1058,1761,00.html

Your Sharp has an ATSC tuner it appears. With an outdoor antenna in downtown Tucson you'll be able to get all the HD signals OTA without problems, once hooked up to an ATSC tuner. Analog reception is much more fickle than digital. With digital, once it locks you'll get the best signal possible. Also the digitals in Tucson are on the UHF frequencies and the major analogs are VHF, so they'll require different antenna types.

I haven't seen a DVD player with ATSC tuner, but I haven't looked for them either. You should be able to get an ATSC STB from Ebay for < $100 for your second HDTV.

Thanks, that helped. I connected to my newer Sharp and sure enough picked up the local analog and especially digital and HD channels really well.

I also realized I have an old Samsung SIR-TS360 DirectTV HD Receiver. It says I can set up and receive local channels even if I don't subscribe to DirecTV, which I no longer do. However, when I connect it it searches for satellite reception and of course fails. it then does not give me an option in the setup menu to search for OTA signals. Any suggestions or do I need to simply purchase another HD Receiver for my other television?

Thanks again.

McGinty

I don't know know about that receiver. If it's possible then I'm sure you'll find it searching on Google and such.

Anyone here using the HR20-700 by DirecTV? I'm having "issues" with KGUN and audio drops. Wondering if anyone else is.

I have the HR20. I presume you are talking about OTA, correct? I can't receive anything via OTA, so I cannot help you, however click this link, and look at userid MikeW's post. It appears it was not the HR20's fault.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=831589#post831589

I have the HR20-700 and have no dropouts via OTA on KGUN. Now KOLD, that's another story, but it's them and their multiplexing of the digital signals.

Dave

It must not be station related. I had no issues for the 2 hour 24 episode. Watched According to Jim from the 9:30 KSMB airing and had breakups throughout the show. I'm glad my plan was to use the HR20 as the backup and kept Tivo in the living room. I'm sure the box will be fine in time, it's just not ready to be my main DVR.

Hello all,

I've been using a Silver Sensor with my DTV Tivo HR10-250 to pull HDTV signals with good results. However, reception lately has been pretty sporadic, and I'm ready to get rid of the indoor antenna on my shelf so I'm looking to go outdoor.

I'm in Rita Ranch and Antenna Web says a yellow antenna will suffice, I'm 22 miles from the sources I want. I'm considering one of the following Channel Masters:

CM3016 Suburban Antenna
CM3010 Stealth Antenna
CM4221 4 bay bowtie
CM4228 8 bay bowtie

Any thoughts on the above models or other recommendations? I've read good things about the CM4228, but is it overkill for my needs? And I'll take performance over looks.

Is there a good source in town for these antenna?

Finally, I have an installation question. I currently have an old Sprint Broadband antenna on the house that isn't being used with wire running down to my cable-in on the house. I was hoping I could just mount one of the above on the the existing mast, hook it up to the existing wiring and send it through the house. There is a coax wallplate in the living room and master bedroom. The cable from the old Sprint antenna to the cable-in is labelled as CATV 18 AWG. Will this work for my intended use?

Thanks everyone for any help!

Sean

Some of the gurus on the Phoenix HD forum at AVS highly recommend the CM4228 antenna, and yes the coaxial marked CATV 18 AWG is just the stuff you need, I have it newly wired throughout my house.

HTH,

Rich

Is anyone else having problems with Ch 13-1 ota this morining. I am getting the SD feed over E* but not OTA.

Is anyone else having problems with Ch 13-1 ota this morining. I am getting the SD feed over E* but not OTA.

Blank 13-1 for me, too at 11:12

Blank 13-1 for me, too at 11:12

now i have sound on 13-1, but no picture at 1:25 Cats are gettign drubbed so I'm not missing much watching in SD

Even when the picture and audio were on the picture was not in HD.

We, in Tucson, have a major event next week, covered by NBC/KOLD, the Accenture Match Play Championship. If their coverage of the Nissan LA Open this weekend is any indication, Tucson can be assured of continued relagation relagation as a backwater podunk town. While the Golf Channel managed two days of glorious HD coverage of the Nissan, once KOLD arrived, no sound, SD signal with frequent freezes. What the *ell is going on? Is it to much to ask for to have an HD picture and sound?

For those of us with Cox, we will get neither the Golf Channel coverage or the NBC coverage in HD.

According to the Daily Star, an agreement has been signed, but Cox will not start providing the signal until sometime in March.

I think I have finally given up on Cox getting me any more HD content. Looks like I will be signing up with Dish over the next week or two.

The Dish package I am looking at will give me 28 HD channels, I can't imagine how long it will take for Cox to get to that level.

I think I have finally given up on Cox getting me any more HD content. Looks like I will be signing up with Dish over the next week or two.

The Dish package I am looking at will give me 28 HD channels, I can't imagine how long it will take for Cox to get to that level.
Well, you know that D* will over 100 HD channels later this year. Also, you might want to find out which one, D* or E* will have locals in HD first. We have them in Pinal with D*, although from Pheonix.

I wonder how the little mishap with their new satellite will effect their getting new HD channels?

D* will have 50 new HDs by the end of the year. They'll have the capacity for 150, but there isn't enough content out there to reach that number. I don't think there is even 50 out there.

I prefer DirecTV over Dish because of the ability to record two OTA channels at the same time. If you can get HD OTA, DirecTV is the better choice in the long run. Dish's 622 can only record 1 OTA channel at a time and our locals are not available from them.

I wonder how the little mishap with their new satellite will effect their getting new HD channels?
Hmm, hadn't heard about that???

D* will have 50 new HDs by the end of the year. They'll have the capacity for 150, but there isn't enough content out there to reach that number. I don't think there is even 50 out there.

I have read several articles indicating that it was going to be 100 HD channels by the end of the year, and one was written by D*, has that changed recently?

I just read some more about it. It wasn't actually D*'s satellite that exploded, but the company that they had contracted with to launch one of the 2 new ones that had the explosion.

After reading on some of the forums, and some articles in some different HD publications, they are expecting this to delay D* from getting their 100 channels this year.

Is anyone else having problems with Ch 13-1 ota this morining. I am getting the SD feed over E* but not OTA.

Yep KOLD was at it again yesterday and Friday night with their lame OTA DTV broadcast. HD didn't start Fri night until 8 instead of 7, yesterday the whole Cats game was a mess and golf was too, it was in HD for about 1/2 hour, the rest of the 3 hrs was SD with and without sound or with sound that was a full second out of sync with the video. I haven't checked it yet today I record stuff and watch it later. Maybe we can all try calling CBS to let them know the HD content the network is spending a lot of money on to provide is being bastardized by their local affiliate and we're not getting it in HD. Maybe they can fine KOLD or at least put some pressure on them to get their duct taped broken down POS system fixed once and for all. I think we are one of the 30 or 50 top markets in the country, it's not like we just got DTV OTA started up a few months ago.

Just ordered Dish. Direct was not willing to give me any sort of special offers since I had been a customer 6 or 7 years ago, I didn't seem to qualify for the new customer only stuff.

Got a great deal from Dish and it will be installed next weekend. Would be sooner but I will be out of town for work this coming week.

Just ordered Dish. Direct was not willing to give me any sort of special offers since I had been a customer 6 or 7 years ago, I didn't seem to qualify for the new customer only stuff.

Got a great deal from Dish and it will be installed next weekend. Would be sooner but I will be out of town for work this coming week.
Should have had your wife (if you have one) call and get the deals, that's what I did this latest sign-up. Got one HR20 for $99, and the other for free (the installer was suppose to take my HR10 in exchange, but he forgot).

Hello all,

I've been using a Silver Sensor with my DTV Tivo HR10-250 to pull HDTV signals with good results. However, reception lately has been pretty sporadic, and I'm ready to get rid of the indoor antenna on my shelf so I'm looking to go outdoor.

I'm in Rita Ranch and Antenna Web says a yellow antenna will suffice, I'm 22 miles from the sources I want. I'm considering one of the following Channel Masters:

CM3016 Suburban Antenna
CM3010 Stealth Antenna
CM4221 4 bay bowtie
CM4228 8 bay bowtie

Any thoughts on the above models or other recommendations? I've read good things about the CM4228, but is it overkill for my needs? And I'll take performance over looks.

Is there a good source in town for these antenna?

Finally, I have an installation question. I currently have an old Sprint Broadband antenna on the house that isn't being used with wire running down to my cable-in on the house. I was hoping I could just mount one of the above on the the existing mast, hook it up to the existing wiring and send it through the house. There is a coax wallplate in the living room and master bedroom. The cable from the old Sprint antenna to the cable-in is labelled as CATV 18 AWG. Will this work for my intended use?

Thanks everyone for any help!

Sean

I'm 21 miles away and use a $24 basic outdoor UHF antenna link (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088) I picked up from Radio Shack. I have line of site to Bigalow, but 58 & 27 have houses in the way. Since I get them via Cox I don't worry about them, but they do come in weak. If I mounted the antenna on the second story eve that would probably help with that, it's currently mounted on the 1st story garage roof.

I would give that a try and see if it works. Could save a bit of money if it does. I don't get any problems on the Bigalow channels except for when KOLD messes up.

Regarding your current mount, the sprint antennas aren't very big so make sure it is attached well enough for whatever you pick. And make sure it is grounded. It's my understanding that properly grounding the antenna helps keep it from building up static and attracting lightning.

Billy

PS Using that antenna, it picks up the signals it's not pointing at if you don't attach the rear angle things, and it still picks up the Bigalow signal fine.

I'm 21 miles away and use a $24 basic outdoor UHF antenna link (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088) I picked up from Radio Shack.

Thanks, I'll give that model a try.


Regarding your current mount, the sprint antennas aren't very big so make sure it is attached well enough for whatever you pick. And make sure it is grounded. It's my understanding that properly grounding the antenna helps keep it from building up static and attracting lightning.

Yes it should be strong enough, but it looks like the antenna comes with mounting hardware if things look different once I get on the roof. It's also connected to the main ground block on the side of the house.

Thanks for the help!

Sean

I got the Dish service installed yesterday. I am now convinced that Cox was playing some sort of games with their HD service in Tucson. Since the talk of the license renewal, I have noticed that my HD picture quality was simply not what I thought it should have been. I even posted about it here once.

I had started thinking that there might be something wrong with my 50" DLP, but DVDs still looked great.

I am once again blown away by the HD picture quality of my set. I am getting 28 HD channels now, plus the Dish DVR allows me to hook up my antenna and record the OTA stuff. I couldn't be happier.

Anyone have a recommendation for an antenna installer/company? There are three business's listed under 'Antenna' in the phone book, but I'm sure there are a variety of options. I am interested in a rooftop antenna and running a cable to three or four rooms depending on the costs.

Anyone have a recommendation for an antenna installer/company? There are three business's listed under 'Antenna' in the phone book, but I'm sure there are a variety of options. I am interested in a rooftop antenna and running a cable to three or four rooms depending on the costs.

audio video specialists at 520-850-3439.. Used them many times and always high quality work at reasonable $$


avspecialists@cox.net

Anybody else having problems with KOLD yesterday and today? My HTPC tuners can't get the channel at all again because they've messed up whatever the tag is that gives the channel info to certain tuners. My one external tuner I can get the video okay but there is no sound for 13-1 or 13-3 the Tube. Is it working from Cox and just not OTA? The sound was out yesterday as well I guess, although I didn't find that out until today. Thx!

Since dumping Cox about a week ago, I have been getting the locals using the tuner in the VIP622 that comes with Dish.

I just went and checked and 13-1 seems to be coming in just fine. No problems with the audio or picture.

I deleted the mapping for both the 13-2 and 13-3 subs so I can't check those for you.

Anybody else having problems with KOLD yesterday and today? My HTPC tuners can't get the channel at all again because they've messed up whatever the tag is that gives the channel info to certain tuners. My one external tuner I can get the video okay but there is no sound for 13-1 or 13-3 the Tube. Is it working from Cox and just not OTA? The sound was out yesterday as well I guess, although I didn't find that out until today. Thx!KOLD and The Tube are OK on Comcast in NW Tucson. Tough shot for OTA without a rooftop antenna; not far, but there are mountains in the way. In a test a few days ago using a laptop, OnAir GT and Zenith Silver Sensor inside at an east-facing window, I could get all of the Bigelow digitals (weak but there) except KOLD, which was much lower than the rest. Figured they might be on low power.

The non-Bigelow locals, KWBA (CW) and KUAS (PBS-HD) came in easily without half trying, even with the little whip that came with the GT.

If you're still not getting them, try tuning to (or rescanning) the actual channel, 32.

Fox HD coming to Cox soon !!!!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/conws/4604129.html

Since dumping Cox about a week ago, I have been getting the locals using the tuner in the VIP622 that comes with Dish.

I just went and checked and 13-1 seems to be coming in just fine. No problems with the audio or picture.

I deleted the mapping for both the 13-2 and 13-3 subs so I can't check those for you.

Thanks for checking. I had sound on 13-3 last night, but still not on 13-1, not sure if 13-2 ever has sound or not. I still can't get anything on my HTPC tuners though, and since the sound still isn't working on my Accurian they must still have something wrong with the station info or channel tag that's being broadcast. This has happened before and I left a couple of messages for the engineer over the weekend, hopefully it will be fixed today, not sure why it wasn't yesterday. When I tried re-scanning the channels for a USB tuner I have connected to the HTPC, it brought up the video for 13-1 and paused there for 30 seconds or so, but didn't add the channel to the "channels list" for the tuner, so it was able to get the signal, but couldn't get the channel info or broadcast flag or whatever it is that tells it what channel it really is I guess.

I've tried both 13-1 and 32-1 and tried re-setting my HTPC tuners, they get all the other stations just fine, and were getting KOLD fine also until last week Friday, so I don't think it's my hardware or antenna, and my signal strength on the Accurian is 70+ and the video on 13-1 is fine, just no sound for whatever reason. I won't start panicking until it gets later in the week and all of the tournament games are getting closer this weekend.

Thx!

Thanks for checking. I had sound on 13-3 last night, but still not on 13-1, not sure if 13-2 ever has sound or not. I still can't get anything on my HTPC tuners though, and since the sound still isn't working on my Accurian they must still have something wrong with the station info or channel tag that's being broadcast. This has happened before and I left a couple of messages for the engineer over the weekend, hopefully it will be fixed today, not sure why it wasn't yesterday. When I tried re-scanning the channels for a USB tuner I have connected to the HTPC, it brought up the video for 13-1 and paused there for 30 seconds or so, but didn't add the channel to the "channels list" for the tuner, so it was able to get the signal, but couldn't get the channel info or broadcast flag or whatever it is that tells it what channel it really is I guess.

I've tried both 13-1 and 32-1 and tried re-setting my HTPC tuners, they get all the other stations just fine, and were getting KOLD fine also until last week Friday, so I don't think it's my hardware or antenna, and my signal strength on the Accurian is 70+ and the video on 13-1 is fine, just no sound for whatever reason. I won't start panicking until it gets later in the week and all of the tournament games are getting closer this weekend.

Thx!

I live not far from you at Harrison and Speedway and am using a DirecTV HD-DVR (model HR20-700) with a Silver Sensor indoor antenna. Receiving video and audio on 13-1, 13-2, and 13-3. Does your receiver require you to set audio output to Dolby Digital to get sound on 13-1? Could it have reset to a default?

Kirk

Anyone have a recommendation for an antenna installer/company? There are three business's listed under 'Antenna' in the phone book, but I'm sure there are a variety of options. I am interested in a rooftop antenna and running a cable to three or four rooms depending on the costs.

Don't use splitters, you will inherit a signal loss every time you go through one. Instead use a Distribution Amplifier. They have one input and five outputs with the gain level on the outputs adjustable. Radio Shack has a good one.

Not in Tucson but from Green Valley I pull most signals with the following strengths per my Dish Vip622 HD-DVR:

KVOA 4 99%
KUAT 6 74
KGUN 9 99
KMSB 11 86 Green Valley
KOLD 13 87
KTTU 18 97
KUVE 46.1 95 Green Valley
KFTU 46.2 95 Douglas?

Can't pull KUAS. Get very infrequent drop outs on KUAT. Get some flakey stuff from KOLD like drop-outs varying volumes, etc. I guess the OLD is appropriate : )

I have an older medium range rooftop antenna pointing about 15 degrees east of north.

I've queried KOLD and KUAT twice regarding the location of their xmitters since the FCC data is conflicting; the latitude/longitude coordinate put them on Mt. Bigalow but their antenna height ( ~4600') puts them in NW Tucson. Neither has yet replied.

Must say that the feeds I'm getting from DISH and OTA are beautiful on my 42" Olevia 542i HDTV. Could never go back to Dish, Cox or analog OTA -- never, never, never!

Have you tried http://antennaweb.org

I live not far from you at Harrison and Speedway and am using a DirecTV HD-DVR (model HR20-700) with a Silver Sensor indoor antenna. Receiving video and audio on 13-1, 13-2, and 13-3. Does your receiver require you to set audio output to Dolby Digital to get sound on 13-1? Could it have reset to a default?

Kirk

Thanks for checking and posting a reply. It was all working again Wed night, video & sound on all my tuners including my HTPC so it was something with the broadcast because I didn't change anything on my end. I guess I'm just blessed with strange tuners that are affected by whatever this was when most others aren't.

Thx again to all that replied to my inquiries!

Diamondbacks go to KTTU in '08.

http://www.belonews.com/pressRelease.x2?release=20060324-894.html

The press release is almost a year old. I certainly hope Belo plans on passing the HD signal to Tucson next year.

What HD signal? Even KTVK isn't getting HD this year because the D'backs aren't providing it.

Where did you hear that? I googled away and couldn't find anything. This news is highly disappointing!

Where did you hear that? I googled away and couldn't find anything. This news is highly disappointing!
Here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9981090&&#post9981090)

What happens to all of the HD EQ? Was it leased as a trial last year? The logic is extremely backwards. More HD sets out there and the D'Backs decide it's time to go back to the 1900's? Did they also remodel the luxury suites with lime green refrigerators and shag carpeting? Is Matt Williams coming back to play third?

If I have my choice between the D'backs vs. anybody in SD and the Royals vs. the Devil Rays in HD, I'd pick the latter. I sure hope they re-think this decision. When do they plan on going HD again? After the effects of global warming have consumed both coasts? Bring back Jerry !!!!

It was originally posted on the Arizona HDTV Forums (can't post a link since it's a bad word on AVS, Google it). It's really a shame since the recently-signed Cox-Belo deal would have brought KTVK-DT to Cox Phoenix. I suppose the reason is that HD production runs about 30% more than SD, and they still have to spend additional money provide the feed to the station(s). I would guess that the decision was made before the carriage agreement was signed, and there weren't enough OTA/D*/Qwest viewers to justify the added expense.

I'd never seen that site before. I wonder how they track HD vs SD viewership. I was very impressed with the PQ of the games coming from KWBA and I was looking forward to more quantity this year. I'm stunned that it has come to this. Gotta wonder what the execs of the team are thinking. How much did it cost the organization to change color schemes?

Good news for Cox customers! KVOA, #704 is online today. Looks like some other changes, too, but Cox has not updated the lineup on their website, and TitanTV hasn't gotten the word either... Court TV and SciFi channels are in the expanded basic lineup finally, too!

Also here in Green Valley, and Mt. Bigelow is at 12% for the main tower with most of the stations including 13.1 for CBS. The CW is at 110% for there HD channel 58.1. Hope this helps.

Does KUAT broadcast in HD in the evenings? Their website claims they do (http://kuat.org/tv/digital_television/) and the first page of this forum claims they do. However, I haven't gotten a signal on 6.1 in ages.

KUAS (27) now broadcasts PBS-HD 24 hours/day. KUAT is on the air from 5:00 AM - Midnight with 3 additional multicasts. They no longer offer any HD content.

Do you have any signal strength on digital channel 30?

Hi,

I have posted a few times about my quest to get HD locals via OTA with an HR10-250. Here is an update. After spending significant time on first waivers and then antenna installation and placement, I have solved the problem - Comcast with a TiVo series 3! The PQ is excellent, all HD content is stable and unpixelated, and the Comcast installation of the cable cards was a flawless 15 minute exercise. Since the CC's don't provide OnDemand access, an STB was provided at n/c.

At this point, I am very pleased with the programming choices available and more importantly, so is my wife :D The TiVo series 3 also supports playing music and photos over the LAN, which works great for us.

Comcast service runs a few dollars less per month than the comparable D* package (Total Choice Plus), including CC rental. Comcast also has a $400 credit on dish buyback which, together with the sale of my HR10, will ease the series 3 pain.

Anybody want to buy a nice HR10-250, CM-4228 antenna and tripod mast? :)

KUAS (27) now broadcasts PBS-HD 24 hours/day. KUAT is on the air from 5:00 AM - Midnight with 3 additional multicasts. They no longer offer any HD content.

Do you have any signal strength on digital channel 30?

I pick up 30 just fine on 6.2 through 6.5. Just nothing on 6.1.
KUAS (27) is not a simulcast of PBS, it's very repetitive, and it's not on Bigelow. It would be nice to have 6.1 HD back in the evenings (as it once was). Anyone know why they canceled the HD broadcast?

6.1 showed the same broadcast as what was on 27.1 so there really is no need for the HD 6.1. I believe I get 6.1 as SD now (at work so I am not sure) and sometimes they show an SD version of what is on 27.1, usually Nature or Nova in the evening.

I guess I just don't understand how PBS is handling their digital channels. The content and schedule on analog KUAT channel 6 is what most people consider PBS in Tucson. In my view, there should be a digital simulcast of analog KUAT channel 6 that shows HD content when available and upconverted SD the rest of the time (I thought this used to be 6.1 but may I’m wrong). Currently, KUAT 6.x never shows HD content and KUAS 27 shows a somewhat random assortment of HD shows that usually have very little to do with what's showing on analog KUAT channel 6.

KUAT decided not to carry the PBSHD feed because PBS started charging a lot more for it and they had better use for that money than carrying duplicate HD feeds. Creating a channel that upconverts SD or passes HD when present would require the ability to record and play out HD dynamically, which most network affiliates don't have, let alone PBS stations.

Yea 27.1 seems to be a looping feed for the most part, although evenings sometimes have new episodes of shows which then become part of the loop.

Creating a channel that upconverts SD or passes HD when present would require the ability to record and play out HD dynamically, which most network affiliates don't have, let alone PBS stations.

My use of the term “upconverted” was incorrect. My expectation is that Tucson would have a PBS channel that mimics the other major networks, that is, broadcast a digital simulcast of the analog station with HD content when available. As it stands, if I want to see a PB S show that I know is available nationally in HD, I will not find it in HD on KUAT 6.1 and I may or may not find it on KUAS 27.1 and if I do find it on 27.1 it may or may not be at the scheduled time.

Again, your suggestion requires at the very least the ability to run a constant delay to sync up primetime HD with SD because of the MST delay, and at worst the ability to archive every show fed on PBS HD and play it out at will. Most PBS stations do this with their analog channel since the equipment is ubiquitous and cheap, but the ability for anyone (PBS or otherwise) to do this with HD is uncommon and expensive. You could donate $100k to KUAS/KUAT and that would only start to cover the costs to upgrade their entire master control to work with HD. KAET is doing this to coincide with their move to a new location along with the rest of the ASU school of journalism, but I have seen nothing on KUAS/KUAT's plans.

I personally don't care what time a show comes on, because I have a TiVo. I could give a flying fig whether the HD version of the show comes on at the same time as the SD version. However, what burns me up is that America's Test Kitchen is produced in HD this season. The SD version is available on channel 6, however, the HD version is nowhere to be found on 27-1 at any time (or anywhere else for that matter). That's a problem that could certainly be remedied without re-outfitting the whole control room.

coyoteaz: "the ability for anyone (PBS or otherwise) to do this with HD is uncommon and expensive" - I don't understand this statement. Every other network in Tucson does exactly what I'm suggesting, HD when available, SD otherwise.

adavidw: I agree. There have been other PBS-HD shows that I have not been able to watch in HD for the same reason. This is exactly what I find unacceptable. Especially with the station that was more or less the pioneer in HD in Tucson.

JPeterman: PBS doesn't operate like the commercial networks, and their stations don't work like their commercial counterparts either. A commercial network has a schedule that most affiliates carry. There's an SD feed and an HD simulcast where available. PBS has several SD channels with different programming and an HD feed that is only slightly related to any of their SD feeds. Certain popular programs like Nova and Nature first air on the HD channel at the same time as the east coast SD feed and are usually, but not always, the same episode. The prime time schedule repeats 3 hours later to coincide with the west coast feed. But with those few exceptions, PBS-HD has a different program schedule.

PBS affiliates have always been more independent than most other network stations, cherry-picking from the network's multiple feeds or running their own shows. It would be impractical for them to take HD when available, because most of the time it isn't.

Some stations air PBS-HD and their own station's programs in SD on one carrier. Others do that only at night and switch to 4 SD channels during the day (which can upset some digital receivers when the station pulls the rug out from under them). I applaud KUAT/KUAS for giving its viewers the best of both worlds by giving PBS-HD its own separate channel.

PBS clearly doesn't have the rights to enough HD programming to fill their schedule. They repeat a lot, and only about half of their shows are truly HD. The rest are SD upconverts zoomed to fill the screen. The results range from very good to horrendous. I'd put History Detectives in the very good category, at least DVD quality. Nova and Nature are sometimes HD but more often not. At least they tell you at the start of each show if it is or isn't.

KUAT's own The Desert Speaks is always HD and looks great. That's the sort of thing all PBS stations should be turning out, instead of the typical talking-heads-in-a-studio.

Thanks for the info. It clears things up.

question to those with direct tv.. anybody noticing a lot of pixalation the past few days.. kind of like we get during monsoon season.. seems to be worse on locals..

question to those with direct tv.. anybody noticing a lot of pixalation the past few days.. kind of like we get during monsoon season.. seems to be worse on locals..
Nope, it has been very good, particularly the HD locals, which is all I watch, when I watch locals.

question to those with direct tv.. anybody noticing a lot of pixalation the past few days.. kind of like we get during monsoon season.. seems to be worse on locals..
Yes, I have on SD and HD channels. Thought it was just me but since about mid last week it seems to have gotten worse.

EDIT: From memory I saw it on Rome, Sunday night on HBO HD, The Dresden Files Sunday SD on SciFi and The Riches last night on FX SD. There were more that I didn't note.

I had recorded "The Dresdan Files" last Sunday, and it was perfect, go figure.

Nope, it has been very good, particularly the HD locals, which is all I watch, when I watch locals.

IFRC, you get the Phoenix channels don't you.. I think they come off a different sat then tucson channels..

Corrrect, but both Phoenix and Tucson share the same spot-beam, so I am guessing they are using the same sats, but I could be wrong about the sats.

I don't recall seeing it here before, but KVOA's saying they'll be doing the news in HD sometime "this spring". I wonder whether all the remote stuff will actually be shot in HD too, or it's just the studio stuff. Here's the link. (http://www.kvoa.com/global/Story.asp?s=6179531)

Fox is "remodeling" their studio. They say 6 weeks. I'd think they must be getting ready for HD as well.

Hope Cox does not take six more week to get Fox added to the HD channels.

Has anyone else noticed a drop in signal strength for KUAT-DT? About 10 days ago I noticed a 10% drop on my signal meter.

Has anyone else noticed a drop in signal strength for KUAT-DT? About 10 days ago I noticed a 10% drop on my signal meter.

Yes. dropped from about 73% to 63% yesterday. It's at 64% right now. However, I can't detect any difference in picture quality. I'm located in Green Valley.

Hi,

If anyone wants a CM-4228 antenna with tripod, mast and pre-amp for $50, let me know. This is less than half price and the antenna is around a year old. Pick-up only (NW Tucson).

Thanks,

Again, your suggestion requires at the very least the ability to run a constant delay to sync up primetime HD with SD because of the MST delay, and at worst the ability to archive every show fed on PBS HD and play it out at will. Most PBS stations do this with their analog channel since the equipment is ubiquitous and cheap, but the ability for anyone (PBS or otherwise) to do this with HD is uncommon and expensive. You could donate $100k to KUAS/KUAT and that would only start to cover the costs to upgrade their entire master control to work with HD. KAET is doing this to coincide with their move to a new location along with the rest of the ASU school of journalism, but I have seen nothing on KUAS/KUAT's plans.

KUAT is well into the upgrade of our production studios and master control to produce, edit and schedule HD content (to get off the national loop).

Unfortunately the GM has been bitten by the multicasting bug, and wants to downconvert (PBS and local) HD to 8-9mbit 720 so that we can have SD on the same channel. :(

Plans aren't finalized, but unless there's a compelling reason not to, it'll probably happen.

Yes. dropped from about 73% to 63% yesterday. It's at 64% right now. However, I can't detect any difference in picture quality. I'm located in Green Valley.


Our transmitter is composed of two amplifier cabinets... one is down due to the failure of an _expensive_ part.

KUAT is well into the upgrade of our production studios and master control to produce, edit and schedule HD content (to get off the national loop).

Unfortunately the GM has been bitten by the multicasting bug, and wants to downconvert (PBS and local) HD to 8-9mbit 720 so that we can have SD on the same channel. :(

Plans aren't finalized, but unless there's a compelling reason not to, it'll probably happen.
How many million is that upgrade costing? I've seen estimates of $3-6 million for upgrades to do HD news, so I imagine the costs are somewhere in that order of magnitude.

What's the point of multicasting more channels if there are already 4 on KUAT? Tucson is lucky that it has 2 PBS stations and the ability to multicast a bunch of SD channels while also having full-bitrate HD. Here in Phoenix, KAET is planning to downconvert to 720p with 2 SD channels (Create and something else as yet undecided), so we will get screwed on the HD and won't have near the variety that you have down there.

Compelling reason not to: HDlite sucks. We're already suffering through low res, low bitrate crap on satellite and useless multicasted weather channels on terrestrial broadcasts, so at least leave viewers one option for pristine HD.

Compelling reason not to: HDlite sucks. We're already suffering through low res, low bitrate crap on satellite and useless multicasted weather channels on terrestrial broadcasts, so at least leave viewers one option for pristine HD.

Let him know, viewer comments carry weight :)

Jack Gibson - jgibson@kuat.org

Coming to KWBA 58.2 on 4/26...

A good addition for the hispanic community.

http://www.latv.com/sales/articles/broadCastMarkets.html

Does anyone know the DTV channel numbers for NBC and ABC that Cox uses? I'm trying to add the Digital Channels to Windows Media Center (XX-X format), and used the first page of this forum for the other channels, but NBC and ABC are not listed (ABC just says 709 and NBC is not listed).

I also tried looking on Cox's website, but they don't seem to advertise that too well.

Thanks for the help.

Does anyone know the DTV channel numbers for NBC and ABC that Cox uses? I'm trying to add the Digital Channels to Windows Media Center (XX-X format), and used the first page of this forum for the other channels, but NBC and ABC are not listed (ABC just says 709 and NBC is not listed).

I also tried looking on Cox's website, but they don't seem to advertise that too well.

Thanks for the help.

704 = Ch. 4

709 = Ch. 9

713 = Ch. 13

704 = Ch. 4

709 = Ch. 9

713 = Ch. 13

Thanks... I did see this from Cox's website, but not sure how this correlates to the XXX-X format for DTV channels. When adding a digital channel in media center I have to add it in a different format. For example, Cox's PBS (listed as 706) is entered as 111-1 in Media Center. I just don't have these values for 704 and 709, nor are they posted on the first page.

Or if someone knows of an easier way to add digital channels to Media Center, I would appreciate that, too!

I am getting channel 4, nbc as 104.0 and channel 9, abc, as 104.1

I am getting channel 4, nbc as 104.0 and channel 9, abc, as 104.1

Thanks for the info!

HD lineup changes for Cox Tucson for April: KMSB-DT is being added on 711 and NatGeo HD is being added on 722.

I am getting channel 4, nbc as 104.0 and channel 9, abc, as 104.1

Huh... turns out MCE 2005 doesn't support unencrypted QAM anyhow... even if my tuner cards do. I couldn't add any of Cox's HD local channels. :(

Makes me want to do install Linux and try MythTV!

Sounds great but when in April do we get FOX?

Anybody else watch or record Wedding Bells or anything else on Fox Sun night? It wasn't in HD which I just found out last night when I watched it. Anybody check it on Mon night? I didn't so I don't know if it was back in HD or not. I recorded House and Am Idol last night but didn't get good recordings because the signal strength is low again 65 on my receiver instead of 75 - 78 or higher that it normally is. This has happened a couple of times the past few months, the signal is still there, but it's not as strong as normal so the reception is all broken up and isn't solid like it normally is.

Just wondering if anyone else has had any OTA problems with Fox the past few days or not.

Thx!

Huh... turns out MCE 2005 doesn't support unencrypted QAM anyhow... even if my tuner cards do. I couldn't add any of Cox's HD local channels. :(

Makes me want to do install Linux and try MythTV!

That's crazy, why would they not support that. I'm using a combination of unencrypted QAM on one tuner, and OTA on a couple others with MythTV and all is well. It schedules the stuff on the proper tuners depending on what it can record where and I've been pleased. The QAM setup I found a little confusing, but eventually got it going.

Be warned that there is often some sort of troubleshooting involved with MythTV and Linux initially, but once it is setup it works pretty good. And make sure your tuner supports QAM. The first tuner I bought for myth was OTA only and I didn't read the box close enough, but was able to return it as I bought it from a big box store.

Anybody else watch or record Wedding Bells or anything else on Fox Sun night? It wasn't in HD which I just found out last night when I watched it. Anybody check it on Mon night? I didn't so I don't know if it was back in HD or not. I recorded House and Am Idol last night but didn't get good recordings because the signal strength is low again 65 on my receiver instead of 75 - 78 or higher that it normally is. This has happened a couple of times the past few months, the signal is still there, but it's not as strong as normal so the reception is all broken up and isn't solid like it normally is.

Just wondering if anyone else has had any OTA problems with Fox the past few days or not.

Thx!

I haven't noticed problems with Fox, but last night both Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal on ABC weren't on in HD, or at least on the Cox HD channels...bummer.

I haven't noticed problems with Fox, but last night both Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal on ABC weren't on in HD, or at least on the Cox HD channels...bummer.


Yea Dancing with the stars appeared to not even be filmed in HD (wasn't widescreen) so maybe they felt like going cheap last night.

I haven't noticed problems with Fox, but last night both Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal on ABC weren't on in HD, or at least on the Cox HD channels...bummer.

I recorded DWTS, a few minutes into the program there was some text that went across the screen saying there were technical difficulties at ABC and the program wouldn't be in HD, so at least they said something about it and it wasn't local.

Sounds great but when in April do we get FOX?

It was reported in the Inside Media column of Tucson Business a few weeks ago that it'd be April 26. Fingers crossed!

Channel lineup changes on the night of 4/25-4/26.

ABC's network switching crapped out for the East feed last night, so it wasn't HD for anyone in Eastern, Central, or Mountain. Dancing with the Stars is normally HD.

It was HD in the Pacific time zone.

I've also noticed the power drop on Fox KMSB-DT. They are down 20% on my signal meter.

Anybody else watch or record Wedding Bells or anything else on Fox Sun night? It wasn't in HD which I just found out last night when I watched it. Anybody check it on Mon night? I didn't so I don't know if it was back in HD or not. I recorded House and Am Idol last night but didn't get good recordings because the signal strength is low again 65 on my receiver instead of 75 - 78 or higher that it normally is. This has happened a couple of times the past few months, the signal is still there, but it's not as strong as normal so the reception is all broken up and isn't solid like it normally is.

Just wondering if anyone else has had any OTA problems with Fox the past few days or not.

Thx!

KMSB-DT was very low signal for me during House.

Just purchased a new Yamaha RX-V2700 receiver and will be switching all my HDMI equipment through the receiver. I currently have an OPPO 971 DVD, Samsung HD OTA receiver, and a 8300 HD DVR cable box.

Am I going to have a problem getting a HDMI signal out of the 8300 with the cable box being controlled by COX? I sure would like some heads up information... Thanks...

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/Images/YEC/AV_Receivers/Views/BP_RX-V2700.jpg

the hdmi output works fine for me with the 8300...

Can anyone else verify if they're getting low power on Fox still? Drive was unwatchable for me tonight with all the dropouts, and I want to make sure it's not just me.

It's not just you...

Tony

Anyone over the last week or so having an issue with OTA channel KOLD 1131?

Running Vista MCE using a Vbox Cats Eye OTA Tuner, lately it shows there is no TV signal. When doing the signal strength check, it comes in > 90%. All of my other channels display OK.

Another friend of mine with the same tuner is noticing the same problem with MCE2005.

My thinking is they have messed up their signal translation or something. I could have sworn this happened previously with this same station.

In the meantime, I can get the signal from the cable box but HD would be nice.

Hello fellow Tuscon people. I was wondering if someone could recommend the "best" indoor antenna for me. My zip code is 85706. I'm in a newer development called Tres Pueblos. It's located between Bilby & Drexel and Between Tucson & Campbell.

Here are the stats from AntennaWeb:

* yellow - uhf KUAS-DT 27.1 PBS TUCSON AZ 310° 6.2 28
* yellow - uhf KUAT-DT 6.1 PBS TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 30
* yellow - uhf KTTU-DT 18.1 MNT TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 19
* green - uhf KGUN-DT 9.1 ABC TUCSON AZ 24° 22.7 35
* green - uhf KMSB-DT 11.1 FOX TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 25
* red - uhf KVOA-DT 4.1 NBC TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 23
* red - uhf KUVE-DT 46.1 UNI GREEN VALLEY AZ 24° 22.8 47
* red - uhf KOLD-DT 13.1 CBS TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 32
* red - uhf KHRR-DT 42.1 TEL TUCSON AZ 294° 12.5 42

I'm looking for an antenna under $100. Is it even worth it? I already have Cox, so the only channel I'm REALLY looking to get is NBC because of Heroes (sorry, I'm a geek :) ). So unless Cox is picking up NBCHD soon, I need an OTA antenna. Thanks in advance!

Hello fellow Tuscon people. I was wondering if someone could recommend the "best" indoor antenna for me. My zip code is 85706. I'm in a newer development called Tres Pueblos. It's located between Bilby & Drexel and Between Tucson & Campbell.

Here are the stats from AntennaWeb:

* yellow - uhf KUAS-DT 27.1 PBS TUCSON AZ 310° 6.2 28
* yellow - uhf KUAT-DT 6.1 PBS TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 30
* yellow - uhf KTTU-DT 18.1 MNT TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 19
* green - uhf KGUN-DT 9.1 ABC TUCSON AZ 24° 22.7 35
* green - uhf KMSB-DT 11.1 FOX TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 25
* red - uhf KVOA-DT 4.1 NBC TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 23
* red - uhf KUVE-DT 46.1 UNI GREEN VALLEY AZ 24° 22.8 47
* red - uhf KOLD-DT 13.1 CBS TUCSON AZ 24° 22.9 32
* red - uhf KHRR-DT 42.1 TEL TUCSON AZ 294° 12.5 42

I'm looking for an antenna under $100. Is it even worth it? I already have Cox, so the only channel I'm REALLY looking to get is NBC because of Heroes (sorry, I'm a geek :) ). So unless Cox is picking up NBCHD soon, I need an OTA antenna. Thanks in advance!

I beleive 704 on the Cox system is NBC HD.

I beleive 704 on the Cox system is NBC HD.

Wow. I don't know how I missed that all this time...

How very strange. Was it always like that? Oh well.

I guess my question is moot then. I'd go for the OTA antenna anyway because of the better quality, but then I couldn't DVR it, so...

Wow. I don't know how I missed that all this time...

How very strange. Was it always like that? Oh well.

I guess my question is moot then. I'd go for the OTA antenna anyway because of the better quality, but then I couldn't DVR it, so...


I haven't noticed Cox downgrading our local HD channels so I think the picture quality will be about the same. Although I rarely watch the Cox HD locals since we are used to using the TV's tuner OTA.

(I live nearby and had a crappy indoor antenna that worked most of the time. Just some generic Radio Shack amplified loop antenna. I switched to a simple outdoor UHF antenna, something like $25 at Radio Shack. I don't have any problems with that. But now that you know KVOA-HD is on Cox and KMSB-DT will be coming in a week or two, I'd just skip the antenna.

I'm looking for an antenna under $100. Is it even worth it? I already have Cox, so the only channel I'm REALLY looking to get is NBC because of Heroes (sorry, I'm a geek :) ). So unless Cox is picking up NBCHD soon, I need an OTA antenna. Thanks in advance!

I'm at 85716, and I wanted Fox HD, so I just took an old antenna I've had since college and it picked everything up fine.

Anyone over the last week or so having an issue with OTA channel KOLD 1131?

Running Vista MCE using a Vbox Cats Eye OTA Tuner, lately it shows there is no TV signal. When doing the signal strength check, it comes in > 90%. All of my other channels display OK.

Another friend of mine with the same tuner is noticing the same problem with MCE2005.


Same thing here. Just picked up a Vbox 3560 USB tuner and get 100% on 13.1 -3, but no signal. I'm not sure if it's just with the Vbox tuner though. I need to check the other tuner cards to see if there's a signal.

When you say the signal translation, is that channel 13 broadcasting or Vbox doing something wrong?

Same thing here. Just picked up a Vbox 3560 USB tuner and get 100% on 13.1 -3, but no signal. I'm not sure if it's just with the Vbox tuner though. I need to check the other tuner cards to see if there's a signal.

When you say the signal translation, is that channel 13 broadcasting or Vbox doing something wrong?


I have a Vbox USB Tuner and also get 'no signal'. This happened last year for almost a week... I have a Sony 34" widescreen HDTV with integrated tuner, and 1131 DOES come in on that tuner. However, I think it is ultimately a problem with the local CBS affiliate because no other station has this problem. Something about the mpeg stream causes either the vbox or the MCE mpeg decoder to be unable to view it.

Tonight I had a recorded show "jericho" but it was nearly 0 bytes and got a media error when trying to play it. So MCE thinks it is recording something off the air but its unable to get anything.

I had disabled my Avermedia A180 tuners to test my new Vbox tuner (trying to get better reception... A180s aren't cutting it). I've enabled the Avermedia cards and get the same thing... some signal (but around 60%), but no picture. So I would rule out the tuner cards.

The good news is I get 100% across the board for all Tucson channels on my new Vbox tuner! I'm going to order a second one tomorrow and sell the Avermedia cards.

Even though Windows MCE doesn't support QAM, it looks like this product as a technique to fool MCE into thinking the QAM channels are ATSC or something.

http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/products/hdhomerun

I have two of these myself, but use them with Myth, so I'm nut sure how well that trick it does works. I haven't investigated this myself, just saw the subject in the forums the other day and thought that it might be useful to someone here.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=23

The HD Homerun will not record analog channels at all, that's its biggest drawback to me.

Billy

PS I have three tuners set to ATSC and 1 to QAM in my setup. That way I can point my antenna and not worry about 58, as I can get that from QAM, and 11 I can get from OTA and not Cox. Myth does a great job at shuffling schedules on tuners to make sure I don't miss anything.

I saw a crawl on 13.2 last night stating they were going down at 1:00 AM for maintenance. Did this solved the 13.1 problems for you guys?

I saw a crawl on 13.2 last night stating they were going down at 1:00 AM for maintenance. Did this solved the 13.1 problems for you guys?

I just checked this morning and 1131 is still not providing a picture. Note that the signal quality is 97% however its not translating into a picture using my Vbox Cats Eye. All of the other OTA channels are fine so it must be something to do with the contents of the signal.

I guess the next step is to work with KOLD technical support and send them an email to ask whats up.

I have the ATI HDTV Wonder card (I know...verrry old). I haven't fired it up in months. Checked today and I see the same symptoms here as well.

I guess the next step is to work with KOLD technical support and send them an email to ask whats up.

I looked on KOLD's website and didn't see any technical support contact info. Do you know who to contact? I'll add to the emails if it'll help speed up a fix!

Also, is this only MCE? Does anyone see this with Myth or some other PVR software?

Another box that does not work with KOLD. I picked up an old VOOM box and hooked it up today. Signal strength is at 95 but it won't save the channel. All other local digitals are fine.

I looked on KOLD's website and didn't see any technical support contact info. Do you know who to contact? I'll add to the emails if it'll help speed up a fix!


I also looked on the web site and didn't find any emails to contact though the web site is a bit of a mess, IMHO. I went ahead and sent an email to the main kold address and also plan to call them to see if they have anyone that I can talk to. Its Saturday so I doubt anyone is there, but I will try on Monday.

If anyone has a more direct contact or approach, please let us know!

Stewart Romain is the Chief Engineer at KOLD you can call 733-1414 #7 to leave a message, but don't expect to get a response, nor any response from e-mail. I sent e-mails and left messages for months without hardly any replies, they just aren't willing to put any money or effort into their DTV broadcast to make sure it's working right, and it's constantly having problems on a weekly basis, not to mention their control room is often asleep at the switch for HD so like today the entire 3 hrs of the PGA tournament that was supposed to be in HD wasn't, although primetime is tonight. Usually it's only 20 or 30 minutes until someone wakes up and flips the switch, but not this time, was it any different on COX if anyone caught any of the PGA today (not the Champions tour but the PGA at TCP from 12 - 3).

Good luck!

I have also had problems receiving KOLD DT using a Series 3 TiVo. The TiVo listing shows CBS as being on channel 13-1, but there is no picture there (gray screen). If I use the TiVo's signal strength meter on 13-1, it reports "digital signal acquired" and a strength of about 80%. The HD receiver in my TV (RCA F38310) receives CBS on 32-3 just fine. It shows nothing on 13-1. I have been able to use the TiVo's channel scan feature to find 32-3 and display it, but TiVo doesn't know it's CBS and won't record any shows on it. Other friends have been receiving KOLDDT without any problems (one uses a set-top OTA receiver, the other gets the signal via Dish Network). For me, the problem started a couple months ago and reappeared about a week ago.

KOLD is such a joke. No HD for the New Orleans golf tournament yesterday, or today....UNTIL the very last putt on the very last hole! What kind of small-time operation are they running down there. I called Comcast and they comiserated, but said it was a KOLD problem.

Hey folks has anyone checked whether it is a 1080i versus a 720p issue? I know CBS broacast HD 1080i

Hey folks has anyone checked whether it is a 1080i versus a 720p issue? I know CBS broacast HD 1080i
Your question really makes no sense.

Did anyone check out KVOA's first HD local news broadcast at 10 p.m. last night?

Did anyone check out KVOA's first HD local news broadcast at 10 p.m. last night?

I did and will say it looked great!

Set looks nice, Weather animations in HD looked awesome,

Even some of the remotes shot yesterday were in HD.

Good Job KVOA.......