First, let me just say that finding this thread has been a godsend this last week, as I've been struggling to figure out how to get the Super Bowl in HDTV on my widescreen (if it matters, a Samsung SlimFit HDTV with Built-In HD Tuner). I have Cox, and have already written to complain about not having ABC in HD, but it looks like I still need some help.

I've purchased what sounds to be exactly the same OTA as Rory_Gilmore did, the 25dB Jensen antenna. When I put my TV on the "Air" mode, I can get channel 9 in pretty fuzzy, but nothing but static on channel 35. I live a block from campus, and I used antennaweb to find out that ABC is broadcasting NE from me. I'm a little confused as to where channels like 9.1 come in...how can I even tune my TV to that? Should I not be using "Air" mode? Should I just give up and watch it on regular ABC?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Cam

Cam, someone will chime in with real help, but until then:

Go into your TV's setup and find the channel area and have it do an auto-scan for Air channels. It will find the digital ones that can be picked up. It will assign 9.1 to the actual channel 35. Your remote should also allow you to punch in 9.1 once your TV has assigned the link. That's my crude description from doing it a year ago on mine.

Go here to see digital channel listings www.titantv.com

Digital channels come in very clear, unless the signal strength is very low, then you get pixeling or no signal. The fuzzy 9 is the analog signal, not the digital.

Good luck! HDTV is awesome - and free!

opnupurize,

Thanks for info, that is quite a system you have, I am envious. I will have to go with a QAM tuner, since I will be living in the Catalina Mtns. Actually, I was thinking of going with the MyHD MDP-130 card with the daughter card, and that interfaces with TitanTV guide. I know you mentioned that the DVICO Fusion HD tuner card is buggy, but they seem to have gotten a better handle on it now (I subscribe to that thread, right here). Their USB tuner would seem like a logical choice for you, since you've run out of slots, and it can even run on a laptop, and can tune ATSC, plus it has lower requirements in system resources.

Anyway, many thanks for the info.

Rich

I'm thinging about getting a HD tuner for my new Windows Media laptop. People seem to like this one:

DVICO FusionHDTV Gold USB Bundle

http://store.snapstream.com/fusionhdtv-gold-usb.html

MathCam

I have a Samsung HDTV too, so I would imagine the interface is similar.

If I do an autoscan, and I have signals on the digital frequencies it maps them to their 9-1, 13-1, 4-1, etc. If I have 9-1, and set analog 9 as deleted, when I press 9 on the remote it goes to 9-1 automatically. But you need 9-1 tuned in first for that to work :) And you do want to be on AIR. Also on my TV there is both a Cable input and and Antenna or Air input. Make sure your antenna is connected to the correct input.

When I had iffy reception and would lose a channel completely, I could tune to it's digital channel number (35 for KGUN) and once it picked up the signal it would flip over to 9-1 and remember the information.

KGUN has always broadcast a good signal for me, so if you can get anything from Bigalo, you'll probably get that one.

If you're not having luck with the antenna that you bought, return it and try another. If you have the cash/credit, buy a few from Best Buy/Walmart/CC and return the ones that don't work as well. Just keep the packaging nice so they can put it back on the floor. Also try picking up a long Coax cable and put the antenna on your porch/balcony. Even if it faces S or W, it may be a better signal than inside. If your porch faces N or E then definately try to put it outside, you'd probably get great reception there.

I was using an indoor antenna for a while. I just picked up an outdoor antenna ($25 cheapy from Radio Shack), but haven't mounted it yet. With the indoor antenna the signal would drop out now and again, and stutter, and the sound would glitch. I just put the outdoor antenna 1 ft off the ground last night for fun and I got KVOA all night without a single glitch, which was a new experience for me. Now it's a different antenna, I should try my indoor one outside as a test, but to me having it outside made a huge difference.

Both you and Rory have had bad luck with that Jenson, and both of you live in an area where you would expect to get the signals, at least fairly well. I was living in the south side of an apt on the bottom floor of 3 and was able to get pretty good HD signals.

Good luck.. You got all day Saturday to figure this out :)

Well, it seems like it is getting to be too late for a last minute deal to be struck with KGUN an Cox. It is truly a shame that these two companies, who "serve" our community, couldn't find a way to allow HD coverage of the Super Bowl on the cable system. Shame on both of you!

<--- very happy person.

Thanks, Toasty and Bigfoot. After a little bit of antenna wiggling and judicious use of the autoscan, I managed to pick up 9-1. Most of the other HD channels I picked up had shows in widescreen on, but ABC didn't...I presume this is just because of how they shot the show, right? Is the Super Bowl going to be broadcast in widescreen through this channel?

Cam

9-1 will be the HD and widescreen broadcast of the superbowl.

opnupurize,
Thanks for info, that is quite a system you have, I am envious. I will have to go with a QAM tuner, since I will be living in the Catalina Mtns. Actually, I was thinking of going with the MyHD MDP-130 card with the daughter card, and that interfaces with TitanTV guide. I know you mentioned that the DVICO Fusion HD tuner card is buggy, but they seem to have gotten a better handle on it now (I subscribe to that thread, right here). Their USB tuner would seem like a logical choice for you, since you've run out of slots, and it can even run on a laptop, and can tune ATSC, plus it has lower requirements in system resources.
Rich

I forgot about the MyHD cards as a QAM alternative, I didn't really spend any time regarding QAM, I just remembered seeing it mentioned here and there during my PVR and HD PVR research online. I might try the VBox Cat's Eye USB tuner since it's quite a bit cheaper than the Dvico and it sounds like it works well from what I've seen posted about it. Enjoy your HTPC, it's working out well for me so far, I think I might need to invest in some quieter CPU/case fans though.

Well, it seems like it is getting to be too late for a last minute deal to be struck with KGUN an Cox. It is truly a shame that these two companies, who "serve" our community, couldn't find a way to allow HD coverage of the Super Bowl on the cable system. Shame on both of you!

have you noticed that on all recent KGUN newscasts they have little spots on how to get the super bowl on Kgun.. Wonder if they are hoping folks will call Cox to complain and put some pressure on them..

have you noticed that on all recent KGUN newscasts they have little spots on how to get the super bowl on Kgun.. Wonder if they are hoping folks will call Cox to complain and put some pressure on them..
Are they describing how to get the signal OTA or do they mention Cox?

It depends on what part of town he lives in. Many people in Marana have a difficult time pulling in the siganls with an antenna. Try using an antenna, then run a search of digital channels. If he can save digital channel 35, it will show up on his TV as channel 9.1. That is where the Superbowl can be seen in Tucson.

9-1 will be the HD and widescreen broadcast of the superbowl.

Yes it is, and I'll be looking forward to watching it in HD in the boonies - Cochise, AZ - south of Willcox, north of Sunsites. I moved out to a 10 acre place I bought in early December. I went with the HD package from Dishnetwork. ESPN & the couple of other HD channels look great, but the feed from the Tucson locals looked really crappy on my Sony Widescreen HDTV. Dish apparently gets only the analog feed and compresses it into mpeg2; the resolution was very poor. So, I did some research and some shopping. A Winegard HD9095P looked the best directional UHV antenna and the Channel Master 7777 the best preamp. Antennaweb.org told me the transmitting towers on Mt. Bigelow were 55 miles away and the analog signals on VHF were all I could hope for. Well, I get channels 4.1, 6.1-5; 9.1, 11.1, & 13.1-2 at 80-90% signal strength. I lucked out on my location because the antenna orientation toward Mt. Bigelow is a "hole" in the skyline between 2 mountain ranges. My best reception is KSMB (Fox, 11.1) which is fortunate because my favorite show is "24", and is unbearable to watch in SD. KGUN (ABC, 9.1) is my weakest reception, and I sometimes lose it completely after 8:00 PM and have to switch to the satellite feed. Does KGUN power down transmitting power in the evening, even though it's Prime Time? Hopefully they will have the sense to not try to save a few pennies on electricity and not reduce transmitting power during the Superbowl.

Hoping to still be watching in HD at the halftime show with the Rolling Stones,
Dave now in Cochise

Ready for the Superbowl. I found a cheap HD tuner at the Walmart on Speedway, it was their last one, on clearance for $150. I went to Sears trying to find the silver sensor antenna but the guy there said that they had never stocked them. I ended up with an RCA ANT585.

Got home and hooked everything up and scanned for channels. First try it only found the PBS channels and CBS. Moved the antenna about 2 inches and tried again. This time it found all the channels, but 4.1 was too weak of a signal for it to lock onto. Moved the antenna 1/2 more of an inch and the 4.1 signal maxed out.

I am not happy with the setup, as I had to disconnect my DVD player to have the free component input to the TV, it only has 2, and I didn't want to go and drop money on an expensive cable to just watch the Superbowl on.

I have every intention of returning EVERY I bought today on Monday.

Ready for the Superbowl. I found a cheap HD tuner at the Walmart on Speedway, it was their last one, on clearance for $150. I went to Sears trying to find the silver sensor antenna but the guy there said that they had never stocked them. I ended up with an RCA ANT585.

Got home and hooked everything up and scanned for channels. First try it only found the PBS channels and CBS. Moved the antenna about 2 inches and tried again. This time it found all the channels, but 4.1 was too weak of a signal for it to lock onto. Moved the antenna 1/2 more of an inch and the 4.1 signal maxed out.

I am not happy with the setup, as I had to disconnect my DVD player to have the free component input to the TV, it only has 2, and I didn't want to go and drop money on an expensive cable to just watch the Superbowl on.

I have every intention of returning EVERY I bought today on Monday.

Scott,

I have an OTA receiver from Radio Shack, one of the cheapo closeouts from last year. It has an HDMI output to my TV. Does yours have HDMI? If so you can use that and you won't need to disconnect the DVD. The last time I was at RS their cables were drastically marked down, including HDMI. I don't recall which TV you have or what connections. I assume you are using an indoor antenna to look for OTA. I had an indoor for a short time but it never worked well. I reinstalled an old Radio Shack rooftop that I had and I now get all of the OTA HD stations in stunning reception. I assume you can't put up a rooftop? If not, I'm not sure how successful your reception will be for all the channels.

Good luck. I live on the west side near Tuc Mtns with clear line to Mt. Bigelow and Tuc. Mtn (for 13). OTA HD is great! and free!

Scott,

I have an OTA receiver from Radio Shack, one of the cheapo closeouts from last year. It has an HDMI output to my TV. Does yours have HDMI? If so you can use that and you won't need to disconnect the DVD. The last time I was at RS their cables were drastically marked down, including HDMI. I don't recall which TV you have or what connections. I assume you are using an indoor antenna to look for OTA. I had an indoor for a short time but it never worked well. I reinstalled an old Radio Shack rooftop that I had and I now get all of the OTA HD stations in stunning reception. I assume you can't put up a rooftop? If not, I'm not sure how successful your reception will be for all the channels.

Good luck. I live on the west side near Tuc Mtns with clear line to Mt. Bigelow and Tuc. Mtn (for 13). OTA HD is great! and free!

I could use the HDMI for the connection from my Cox DVR to the TV if I wanted to, but I am not really sure how much longer I will have the Cox DVR. My TV, a 50" Samsung DLP only has 2 component inputs. It also has HDMI and DVI.

I am not really concerned as I only plan to use the OTA tuner for the game on Sunday. After that, it will all be going back. The indoor antenna actually works quite well after I found the idea place to set it. I get all the channels at almost 100% signal. I could put an antenna on my roof, I own my own house, but it wouldn't intergrate into my DVR and I have come to REALLY like having a DVR.

I just refuse to live in the 21st century and have to use "rabbit ears" to watch TV on a regular basis. I have been boycotting the channels that refuse to allow their signals on Cox, and with the exception of the game tomorrow, I plan on doing it again starting Monday.

I have been boycotting the channels that refuse to allow their signals on Cox, and with the exception of the game tomorrow, I plan on doing it again starting Monday.
So a "selective" boycott. :cool:

So a "selective" boycott. :cool:


Well, I have to make some concessions for the Super Bowl!

Silver Sensor if you can get one or check out RadioShack. They do have some cheap models that work.

Well I spent the better part of the last hour calling around Tucson. Because my brother-in-law is working tonight. "TFD" I went ahead and had to make the purchase so that we had time in the morning to get it hooked up. I ended up purchasing a Terk UHF Antenna (TV32). Says it's good for the yellow, and green zones. With all the channels he is after and all at about 7 degrees this antenna should work. Let's hope....

Seems there has been a run on UHF antennas the last week locally...

http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/sjgreatdeals101_1878_218671001

You may not need to go to the roof for reception. I live about 5 miles SE of your bro-in-law and get everything with an indoor antenna. You must be scoring some points with the wife's family. Good for you...Hope you get to enjoy the game.

I live close to Golf Links and Craycroft and the indoor one I bought today gets all the channels at very high signal strength. I did have to move it around a few inches to get all of them.

Seems there has been a run on UHF antennas the last week locally...



Yeah, I've heard quite a few ads on the radio for antennas at Radio Shack.

I could use the HDMI for the connection from my Cox DVR to the TV if I wanted to, but I am not really sure how much longer I will have the Cox DVR. My TV, a 50" Samsung DLP only has 2 component inputs. It also has HDMI and DVI.

I am not really concerned as I only plan to use the OTA tuner for the game on Sunday. After that, it will all be going back. The indoor antenna actually works quite well after I found the idea place to set it. I get all the channels at almost 100% signal. I could put an antenna on my roof, I own my own house, but it wouldn't intergrate into my DVR and I have come to REALLY like having a DVR.

I just refuse to live in the 21st century and have to use "rabbit ears" to watch TV on a regular basis. I have been boycotting the channels that refuse to allow their signals on Cox, and with the exception of the game tomorrow, I plan on doing it again starting Monday.

The world would be a boring place if we all thought alike. I think it's pretty nifty that the best TV viewing quality is available for free with an antenna, just like my parents used. The cable & satellite companies have spent millions trying to convince the public OTA is "old fashioned" and poor quality. OTA digital broadcasting is, in my opinion, far superior in quality to SD (std. definition) cable & satellite, and comparable to their HD programing. Before I moved out to Cochise I rented an apartment near Country Club & Ft. Lowell. I worked alot & didn't have much time for TV viewing, so I couldn't justify Cox's $40 minimum cable service, plus I didn't like their lack of HD programming. I tried both the Silver Sensor from Sears (the Tucson Mall Sears carried them last Fall) and the Terk HDTVa indoor antenna from Radio Shack and preferred the Terk. I got terrific reception of all of Tucson's digital broadcast channels, except the WB broadcasting from Sierra Vista. And I prefer my antenna reception of HD broadcasts here in Cochise over SD programming on Dish Network.

And, please don't take this the wrong way - I'm not criticizing your Samsung DLP or Cox cable service. But I'm just surprised anyone would market a product as a TV but not include an integrated TV tuner, and that Cox wouldn't bother including one in their DVR. My CRT rear projection Sony HDTV is several years old but has its built in analog & digital TV tuner as input #1. I used that for OTA reception with the indoor antenna. Out here in Cochise I found it more convenient to hook the antenna coax into the integrated coax input / TV tuner on the Dish HD satellite receiver. It scans for OTA signals and then puts them right next to their local channel feeds on the channel line up.

Not to be too long-winded but, finally, if you like to "tinker" with computers you might consider making your own HTPC (Home Theater PC) for an OTA receiver and DVR. I took an older PC and put in a Fusion HDTV tuner card and ATI All-in-Wonder video card. The Fusion tuner card can recieve OTA and un-encrypted cable and display & record the programing. The ATI enables me to output the display via component cables in HD to my Sony. I have recorded all of "24" in HD last year & so far this year . . . . and am looking for more hard drive space :)

EDIT: As I said, I'm surprised anyone would market a product as a TV but not include an integrated TV tuner. I just did a Google on Samsung DLP. The product specs for the Samsung HL-R5067W (50" High-Definition rear-projection DLP TV), says "receives and decodes digital standard-definition and HDTV signals from over-the-air broadcasts (antenna required) and cable TV service".
- Are you sure you don't have a coax input on your Samsung for an antenna input to its built-in TV tuner? That thing you bought at WalMat sounds like it is for receiving digital OTA broadcast for older analog TVs that can't receive digital.

EDIT: As I said, I'm surprised anyone would market a product as a TV but not include an integrated TV tuner. I just did a Google on Samsung DLP. The product specs for the Samsung HL-R5067W (50" High-Definition rear-projection DLP TV), says "receives and decodes digital standard-definition and HDTV signals from over-the-air broadcasts (antenna required) and cable TV service".
- Are you sure you don't have a coax input on your Samsung for an antenna input to its built-in TV tuner? That thing you bought at WalMat sounds like it is for receiving digital OTA broadcast for older analog TVs that can't receive digital.

Let me start my reply by saying that there are more models of Samsung DLP sets than the 5067, and sadly, not all of them have digital tuners in them. Mine does not.

Personally, I don't find any excitement or charm in having to watch TV the same way my grandparents or even parents would have had to watch TV. I grew up in a place that did not have cable, and we had to have a motor on our antenna mast to rotate the roof mounted antenna each and every time we changed channels. It SUCKED and I don't want to do that again. There are many on this forum that have posted about using indoor antennas and they have to adjust them every time they switch channels. That being the case, why even bother with a remote control, just walk to the TV and change the channel, just like my parents and grandparents had to do. No thanks, I like technology.

You are correct, I could tinker with a PC and setup my own DVR that way, but I work in banking technology, and the last thing I want to do when I get home is start tinkering with a PC or anything else aside from my old land cruiser.

You are also correct in saying that HD content is better than SD content, EVERYONE here knows that. That is why so many of us are so upset that we can't get it from our cable company.

The fact remains, the local broadcast affiliates don't seem to care if we are watching their programming. Cox doesn't seem to care if their customers are happy. I am looking at alternatives to Cox, and when it comes to the network affiliates, I am simply not watching their programming, with the exceptions of those that are on Cox, namely CBS and The WB.

Are they describing how to get the signal OTA or do they mention Cox?

Yes they are describing how to get the OTA signal. They are not mentioning Cox, but they are saying if you have Comcast cable, you will be able to get it.

http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/sjgreatdeals101_1878_218671001

Here's a follow up on the outcome of using this antenna above. The antenna is mounted about 5' above the roof line. There was a tree that’s slightly border-line to the right of the path to Mt. Biglow.

Once the antenna was connected we did receive channels but nothing was registering on the signal strength meter on the plasma. In fact to get the best reception the antenna was pointed about 40 degrees. I decided that an in-line amplifier was needed so I headed to Radio Shack. Once the amplifier was installed I was able to bring the UHF antenna back to about 7 degrees and have a signal strength between 84 to 88. Picture quality of a basketball game on ABC was outstanding.

I suspect that those that have the indoor antennas that are receiving OTA HD have antennas that are amplified. For those that are still having problems with an outdoor antenna you may want to purchase an in-line amplifier.

http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/sjgreatdeals101_1878_218671001

Here's a follow up on the outcome of using this antenna above. The antenna is mounted about 5' above the roof line. There was a tree that’s slightly border-line to the right of the path to Mt. Biglow.

Once the antenna was connected we did receive channels but nothing was registering on the signal strength meter on the plasma. In fact to get the best reception the antenna was pointed about 40 degrees. I decided that an in-line amplifier was needed so I headed to Radio Shack. Once the amplifier was installed I was able to bring the UHF antenna back to about 7 degrees and have a signal strength between 84 to 88. Picture quality of a basketball game on ABC was outstanding.

I suspect that those that have the indoor antennas that are receiving OTA HD have antennas that are amplified. For those that are still having problems with an outdoor antenna you may want to purchase an in-line amplifier.

The indoor one that I bought, the RCA ANT585 has a 25db amplification.

I had a strange dream last night that I awoke today to find that ABC had been added to Cox's HD lineup in time for the Super Bowl. Imagine my disappointment when I turned on my TV to find that it was merely a dream. Comcast added ABC last month so their customers could view the Rose Bowl in HD.

Thanks go to Cox for screwing over their subscribers to prove their mettle in negotiations with KGUN-ABC. Yeah, thanks for nothing you fuc|<ing rats.

I had a strange dream last night that I awoke today to find that ABC had been added to Cox's HD lineup in time for the Super Bowl. Imagine my disappointment when I turned on my TV to find that it was merely a dream. Comcast added ABC last month so their customers could view the Rose Bowl in HD.

Thanks go to Cox for screwing over their subscribers to prove their mettle in negotiations with KGUN-ABC. Yeah, thanks for nothing you fuc|<ing rats.

I not only agree with you about Cox, but I love your screen name.

WOW... The super bowl game was crystal clear throughout the entire game using OTA. I will be installing an OTA antenna to receive HD at my home. I believe the quality of the picture is better than Cox is offering in their feed of HD over cable.

With the setup I was using, basically cheap stuff from both Walmart and Sears, I had a great picture though the whole game, but starting in the 3rd quarter I started having a lot of audio dropouts.

All in all, it was still nice to see the game in HD. Can't wait until I can get HD over the cable so my DVR will work with it.

With the setup I was using, basically cheap stuff from both Walmart and Sears, I had a great picture though the whole game, but starting in the 3rd quarter I started having a lot of audio dropouts.

All in all, it was still nice to see the game in HD. Can't wait until I can get HD over the cable so my DVR will work with it.

We never experience any dropouts. During a commercial I flipped over to the signal strength meter and was surprised that the meter had reached into the very low 90’s, but mainly stayed around 87. In flipping between HD channels delivered by Cox and the OTA antenna the quality of the OTA HD channels appeared to be better. Additionally I noticed that we were receiving 4 or 5 PBS HD channels, a few Spanish channels and maybe 10 other channels broadcasting in SD. What I did notice, the Terk 32 had a very wide path to receive OTA channels.

A neighbor next door who had moved in a few months ago stopped by the house to ask if we could help him for a few minutes, he dropped what he was doing and watched the entire football game. He was totally blown away by HDTV… I guess his remodel of his kitchen was not that important, but I bet will own a HDTV soon...

Game was crystal clear with no dropouts here either. Using a small outdoor antenna for the first time. I'll finally get to watch primetime in HD. We never would watch episodic programming on the indoor antenna due to the frequent* skips and dropouts. It always seemed to happen mid sentence at the climatic part of the story.

After watching the whole superbowl without any problems, and my wife seeing all the Lost previews in HD, we'll be using it a lot more.

May need to put a preamp on the antenna though, 58, 13, 6 are only 4-6 out of 10 bars. 4, 9, and 11 are full bars. Doesn't really matter which way I rotate the antenna with about a 20 degree margin of error for the Bigalow channels, their strength stays the same, 6 & 13 are low, and 4, 9, 11, and 18 are all real strong. I'm not really sure why. 27 isn't very strong either, but I mounted my antenna with Bigalow and location to service entrance my only concerns. I didn't want to run 10 miles of cable just to get a good signal on 27 & 58 :)

P.S. I got this antenna (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=search&kw=antenna&parentPage=family) from Radio Shack, but took off the back pieces. They blocked reception of non Bigalow channels but didn't help with 6 & 13, which I get both ways, just not real strong.


*In this case frequent is once or twice per 30 minutes, for a couple of seconds.

Does anyone know whether KWBA or KTTU will be the new CW channel? Hopefully KWBA since they are already HD.

We never experience any dropouts. During a commercial I flipped over to the signal strength meter and was surprised that the meter had reached into the very low 90’s, but mainly stayed around 87. In flipping between HD channels delivered by Cox and the OTA antenna the quality of the OTA HD channels appeared to be better. Additionally I noticed that we were receiving 4 or 5 PBS HD channels, a few Spanish channels and maybe 10 other channels broadcasting in SD. What I did notice, the Terk 32 had a very wide path to receive OTA channels.


The entire game came in crystal clear with my large outdoor antenna & preamp 54 miles (as a crow flies) out in Cochise County. Kudos to KGUN for a terriffic job in their OTA broadcast. I don't know where the fault lies in the Cox/KGUN dispute, but for the sake of those who "refuse to live in the 21st century with rabbit ears", I hope the resolve their differences. My only disappointment in the broadcast was the audio quality during the Stone's concert. But I think that was due to the technicians not doing a good job of feeding the audio equipment into the broadcast.

You know, I got "spanked" in the AVS Las Vegas HD forum for saying OTA quality was better than Cox. I used to live in Vegas. When I first got my HDTV I had Cox upgrade me to their HD service, at over $100/mo. I started researching AVS Forum and antennaweb.org and decided to go with an outdoor antenna and was blown away with the quality. I even got 5.1 digital surround sound which I never got with Cox. I found out later that the problem was Cox hooked up the analog audio cables from their box instead of digital. Anyway, I canceled Cox and just went with OTA.

And yes, in Tucson OTA you get 5 channels of PBS - 6.1 thru 6.5, although they're not always broadcasting on all of them.

And the game went my way, too. Even though they spanked my Broncos, I felt the Steelers deserved a win.

fault lies in the Cox/KGUN dispute, but for the sake of those who "refuse to live in the 21st century with rabbit ears", I hope the resolve their differences. My only disappointment in the broadcast was the audio quality

Are little backhanded attacks like that really needed here? We disagree on what we want for television service and that is fine. I watch almost zero live television, atleast 99% of what I do watch is recorded on my DVR and I watch that when I want to watch it. Because of that, OTA equipment that I can not record to my DVR is of no practical value to me.

Are little backhanded attacks like that really needed here?

I absolutely meant no disrespect. I honestly was just trying to say that I don't know what the problem is between KGUN & Cox, for for the sake of those who prefer their broadcast network HD programing from cable or Satellite instead OTA, I hope they resolve their dispute.

I was just trying to be a little light-hearted by injecting the rabbit ears comment.
I apologize that the way I phrased my comments caused you to feel I was belittling you in any way. I enjoy your posts.

Plus everyone knows that rabbit ears don't work well for UHF!

Any thoughts on Comcast getting local NBC for the winter olympics in HD?

It sure would be nice for those of us with no OTA access to get KVOA in HD on Comcast. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Are little backhanded attacks like that really needed here?


Jeez, don't be so sensitive...

I watch almost zero live television, atleast 99% of what I do watch is recorded on my DVR and I watch that when I want to watch it. Because of that, OTA equipment that I can not record to my DVR is of no practical value to me.

You can buy a DVR that will record OTA -- one such device is the LG LST-3410A (http://us.lge.com/Product/proddetail.jhtml?qs=pr|tv||search|0000000104|1000000112|0000 000001|0000000001|3|10|1|10||)

You can buy a DVR that will record OTA -- one such device is the LG LST-3410A (http://us.lge.com/Product/proddetail.jhtml?qs=pr|tv||search|0000000104|1000000112|0000 000001|0000000001|3|10|1|10||)

I have looked at some of those, and have come VERY close to pulling the trigger on one. I had a Tivo which I really loved before I made the switch to HD. I wish that Tivo would hurry up and release their HD series 3 model, which is supposed to come out later this year. Even if Cox does make the agreements with all the other locals, I will most likely go with the Series 3 Tivo when it is released and return the Cox DVR.

I'm up in Tempe for a few days on a biz trip. Watched my favorite show at the hotel last night - "24" - in analog, on a 19" TV. Yikes! How did we ever put up with it? IT didn't even seem like the same show.

I just hope my own DVR back home - a Fusion5 PC card runing in an XP PC box - was running happily, the power didn't go off, or the wind blow too strong to screw up antenna reception, so I can watch in HD when I get home . . . .

Any thoughts on Comcast getting local NBC for the winter olympics in HD?

It sure would be nice for those of us with no OTA access to get KVOA in HD on Comcast. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Not sure where I saw it, but I recall seeing that KVOA would be on Comcast for the olympics, but it could just be wishful thinking..

Many thanks Jim (Sanchez) for your reply. Sorry that I didn't respond before now but my computer has just been subjected to a major rebuild and I am just back online.
I was told by Comcast that the HDTV channels were in the early 200's. Is this true?

I think you can forget about the "bounced" signal but if your HDTV has an HD tuner, it likely has the ability to receive the HD signals on Comcast without a box of any sort. All you need to do is subscribe to the cheapest analog service from comcast and you will find the HD signals from about ch 86 up. That is what I do for local HD broadcasts and it works like a champ on my Samsung set. Until Directv gets their local HD signals that may be your only option.
Jim

Jim, I pressed enter before finishing! So if I subscribe to the locals at $12.99 a month and rent the Motorola HD DVR at $10 a month is this all I need for HDTV watching and recording? By the way does anyone have any comments on the Motorola that Comcast uses?
By the way I emailed Dish Network about HDTV locals and this was their reply.

"In regard to the local channels in HD, we appreciate your support on Ensign Bill, S.2644. This bill allows satellite companies to deliver HDTV feeds of ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX when they are not available by local broadcasters. We encourage you to contact your local senator with your comments or concerns. The Senate will soon be considering this legislation and it is critical that consumers across the country show their support for making digital television widely available and to allow satellite providers to offer an HDTV network signal when it is not offered by a local broadcaster".

So if I subscribe to the locals at $12.99 a month and rent the Motorola HD DVR at $10 a month is this all I need for HDTV watching and recording? By the way does anyone have any comments on the Motorola that Comcast uses?You need to subscribe to at least the lowest Digital tier to have the DVR work. The last time I used the motorola dual tuner DVR (last summer) it was pretty much worthless. I went through 4 units and they all had audio dropouts on most channels. They also would not record properly according to the time period I entered (ending early or stop after a few minutes) so I had to always record on my VCR in analog as backup! The manu system was also very primitive and a pain to use. I was waiting until all the locals went live and they fixed these problems before I try it again. Meanwhile, at least for my home theatre, I record OTA and do TIVO with a computer and it works great.

You need to subscribe to at least the lowest Digital tier to have the DVR work.

I, like Squeasel, only subscribe to Comcast's limited basic for $12.99 and have the dual tuner Motorola 6412 PVR for $10 more plus limited digital for $3.20 for a total of $26.10 a month and I can record everything including all the local digital SD and HD channels (except NBC 4) and also the TNT HD channel.

I do not subscribe to any higher digital tiers. For awhile I had the Starz HD channel alacarte. You can add any of the HD movie channels and some HD optional packages without subscribing to any digital tier. That was mandated by the FCC.

I'm attaching a copy of my cable bill that I posted once before.

Not sure where I saw it, but I recall seeing that KVOA would be on Comcast for the olympics, but it could just be wishful thinking..


We will not be getting the Olympics on KVOA (Ch 4 in analog) but Comcast has worked out some type of arrangements whereby Comcast HD customers will be able to view most of the Olympics in HD on INHD, Channel 227.

I am happy they were able to do this for those of us w/o the ability to get a HD signal OTA.

Thanks Comcast!!

The message on my box this morning said something like this:

Thanks to Universal HD and channel 227 (I think it was 227?) will host over 100 hours of Olympic Hockey and Ice Skating from 10Feb to xxFeb.

But 100 hours of Ice Skating and Hockey? I am hopeful they mean all of the Winter Olympics, geez, we gotta have curling in HD!

PS. I found this on the InHD site: "INHD and INHD2 are owned and operated by iN DEMAND Networks--the company's shareholders are Comcast iN DEMAND Holdings, Inc., Cox Communications Holdings, Inc., and Time Warner Entertainment - Advance/Newhouse Partnership. "

"INHD and INHD2 are owned and operated by iN DEMAND Networks--the company's shareholders are Comcast iN DEMAND Holdings, Inc., Cox Communications Holdings, Inc., and Time Warner Entertainment - Advance/Newhouse Partnership. "


They are partners but they cannot negotiate HD (local) broadcast channels for both communications companies? Like I should be surprised...

I'm surprised no one has commented on the fact that Cox has been running commercials non stop stating that there will be 200 hours of Olympics coverage on NBC and 100 on the Universal station in HD and that Cox is the BEST place to catch the Olympics.

Why?

What would make Cox better than Comcast for example?

They both have analog NBC and are both showing the Universal HD coverage of about 100 hours.

What Cox is doing is implying to those who don't know better, that there is an HD channel for NBC.

If the city cared or if this was something people really cared about, there are several misleading commericals by Cox that should be pulled or get them in trouble.

The other one I can think of is the one where it states "get Cox cable to get your favorite local programming in HD." Of course, they are careful to word it in a way where they can say that what they meant is that it's only the ones that they choose to actually show, but if you watch the commerical and asked 100 neutral people to answer whether they believed that meant Cox carried all of the local channels in HD, I'm willing to bet about 99% would say yes.

I mean, they say, catch your favorite programming, but they don't mention that if your favorite local programming is on Fox, NBC, or ABC, then you don't count.

The BEST way to catch the winter Olympics is OTA.

If you really want to see your favorite programming on HD you need to live where you can get Comcast (with everything but NBC).

Thanks again, Cox and Ms. Doris, no one lies quite like you.

It could be those are national commercials on Cox. Keep in mind that up here in Phoenix Cox customers get ABC, CBS, WB, PBS, FOX and NBC all in HD. Still no excuse but remember stations in other areas do not seem as determined to keep their HD signals from the cable companies.

Plus this spring DTV will be starting ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX locals in HD up here.

It's pretty obvious that much of the problems you have down in Tucson is a result of the station ownership.

Hey Wolffpack.... We don't want to hear it! It just pisses us off. Keep your gloating 'we got all the HD Channels' crap up in PHX :)

Just kidding.

But even if they are national or PHX commericials, they shouldn't be on the air down here as Rory described them. I haven't noticed them myself, but I'm pretty bad about flipping channels during commercials/ FFW through them. We could call Cox to complain, but they would just argue that we do have all the HD locals :)

Hey, you folks have it good. Alot easier selecting which of the few HD shows you plan on watching than it is up here. ;)

I will be moving sometime this year, I hope, to Tucson in the Saddlebrook community, and I have heard that internet and cable services are provided by Western Broadband. Anyone have their services, or heard about what they provide in HD content? I suspect not much, but who knows. I for one have never heard of them.

TIA,

Rich

Back to the Olympics:

Comcast kids you not in the Universal HD showing of Hockey and Ice Skating....that's it nothing else, no Curling, Skeleton, Ski Jump, etc. I went through every day of the schedule and you will see all kinds of Hockey....and highlights of Ice Skating, nothing more.

I am soooooo very happy I have that fancy Comcast HD DVR that will be mostly WORTHLESS during the Olympics....

It could be those are national commercials on Cox. Keep in mind that up here in Phoenix Cox customers get ABC, CBS, WB, PBS, FOX and NBC all in HD. Still no excuse but remember stations in other areas do not seem as determined to keep their HD signals from the cable companies.

Plus this spring DTV will be starting ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX locals in HD up here.

It's pretty obvious that much of the problems you have down in Tucson is a result of the station ownership.

I understand the point you are trying to make, but Cox should be and I believe is very aware of what commercials air and what they say. Any commercial about their "product" in that it's trying to get you to sign up or promote its content should only be for the area it's shown in.

They have the ability to change any commercials that are for the Phoenix area, but are airing here in Tucson.

Also, as I have pointed out before Belo, Inc owns the WB station in your area and had no problem coming to an agreement to share their HD feed, yet they also own the Fox station down here and they've still not been able to come to an agreement. These companies are also partners in a cable station up in your area, so I don't think ownership is the problem there.

I understand the point you are trying to make, but Cox should be and I believe is very aware of what commercials air and what they say. Any commercial about their "product" in that it's trying to get you to sign up or promote its content should only be for the area it's shown in.

They have the ability to change any commercials that are for the Phoenix area, but are airing here in Tucson.

Also, as I have pointed out before Belo, Inc owns the WB station in your area and had no problem coming to an agreement to share their HD feed, yet they also own the Fox station down here and they've still not been able to come to an agreement. These companies are also partners in a cable station up in your area, so I don't think ownership is the problem there.
I'm not a COX digital TV customer up here in Phoenix. I do use COX business internet but use DirecTV for all TV viewing. I have never seen the commercials mentioned.

Given that, I don't believe what was described was a Phoenix commercial. From what I can see of the channel lineup for other COX Cable areas it's a correct representation of their services.

I'm not trying to make any digs here. I took a quick look at Phoenix, San Diego, Cleveland and Las Vegas COX offerings. In each of these areas COX offers local HD for all the majors. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS including WB and UPN where available.

I don't know why COX Tucson can't get it done. Don't know if it's the stations (you mentioned Belo's agreement in Phoenix). Don't know how different COX areas are handled. Maybe a line of complaints to take is with COX corporate instead of the folks locally that don't seem to care.

Do some research in markets comparable to Tucson that COX is in. How do those compare. I'd guess you will find the same I have found. If that's the case take this issue outside of the local COX management.

Not trying to soap box or anything here. But it's very clear that COX can come to agreements with stations all over the US.

Back to this commercial (again, that I've never seen). I doubt COX Tucson even knows when it airs. Could just be part of their stream or it's an automated COX commercial. But from what I have seen, it could be that Tucson is the ONLY market COX serves that will not get the Olympics on NBC in HD. Not saying it is. But from the markets I've quickly looked at, Tucson is the only market the COX does not carry NBC HD.

You folks are getting a raw deal. My guess is it's from local COX management.

Comcast people check out the guide. Channel 211 has just been added to the lineup. That was the only channel slot not being used in the 210-215 local digital channel lineup. Being there is only one channel left that is not on Comcast it appears NBC local may be added to their lineup in time for the Winter Olympics. It looks mighty suspicious.

Comcast people check out the guide. Channel 211 has just been added to the lineup. That was the only channel slot not being used in the 210-215 local digital channel lineup. Being there is only one channel left that is not on Comcast it appears NBC local may be added to their lineup in time for the Winter Olympics. It looks mighty suspicious.
Is it just me, or is the smile on your avator getting bigger?

According to article in this mornings paper, Comcast and KVOA have reached an agreement allowing Comcast to carry KVOA-DT.. It will be on channel 211.. I checked this morning and it is there on the guide, but not live yet..

I will be moving sometime this year, I hope, to Tucson in the Saddlebrook community, and I have heard that internet and cable services are provided by Western Broadband. Anyone have their services, or heard about what they provide in HD content? I suspect not much, but who knows. I for one have never heard of them.

TIA,

Rich

I looked at some property in Saddlebrooke a year or so ago.. I don't recall all the details, but I do remember I was not too happy about the arrangements for TV or Internet..

bigbw,

Yep, me too. It looks dismal to say the least. Looks like I might have to go with D* or E* to get HD locals, however, D* might be sometime from now.

Thanks for the reply,

Rich

According to article in this mornings paper, Comcast and KVOA have reached an agreement allowing Comcast to carry KVOA-DT.. It will be on channel 211.. I checked this morning and it is there on the guide, but not live yet..

That is great news for those on Comcast, and just shows how bad it is for those of us on Cox.

Do you have a link for that story? I looked on Starnet this morning and wasn't able to find anything.

That is great news for those on Comcast, and just shows how bad it is for those of us on Cox.

Do you have a link for that story? I looked on Starnet this morning and wasn't able to find anything.

I could not find it on Starnet either.. In the hard copy paper it is on the Olympics page..

bigbw,

Yep, me too. It looks dismal to say the least. Looks like I might have to go with D* or E* to get HD locals, however, D* might be sometime from now.

Thanks for the reply,

Rich

I know they can't stop you from putting up a dish, but the impression I got from talking to the sales guy was that they would try..

My son, a Comcast subscriber in the foothills, called me this morning to let me know that KVOA in HD is now present on Comcast.

Dave

My son, a Comcast subscriber in the foothills, called me this morning to let me know that KVOA in HD is now present on Comcast.

Dave

I just read in the daily newspaper that KVOA is now available to Comcast HD subscribers on Channel 211. Apparently, they will start showing all programming in HD starting at 7PM tonight.

This is good news for Comcast subscribers.

I looked at some property in Saddlebrooke a year or so ago.. I don't recall all the details, but I do remember I was not too happy about the arrangements for TV or Internet..

I too have heard that TV and Internet are problems. I had a good friend who actually moved from Saddlebrook to Oro Valley because of those problems, plus he had a hard time getting to play golf when he wanted to play.

I know they can't stop you from putting up a dish, but the impression I got from talking to the sales guy was that they would try..

I never had that problem, in fact, I already have my pre-wire confirmed for SAT, cable, cable modem, audio, phones, fax, and VOIP. The only restriction was the SAT dish cannot be higher than 4ft from ground.

@tucsonbob,

Well, I hope not, at least for the internet. I finally found their website, and it looks like no locals in HD, which is a real bummer, since OTA is more than likely out of the question.

Thanks,

Rich

Finally!!

I am sitting here watching NBC-HD on Comcast (KVOA) ch 211 thinking WOW, we actually have all our local stations now (digital/HD) on cable. I thought this day would never come. I stumbled on to it last night and then it went black. But got up this morning and it was "live" with guide info and all. Thankfully I live in Comcast's coverage area. I just hope those of you that are forced to use Cox get the locals in digital/HD soon. Its a shame that Cox appears to care less what its subscribers want. And if I see another Cox commercial proclaiming how great and wonderful they are I think I'll throw up.

Here is my latest to Cox and CCd to all the members of the Tucson City Council.

It has just been announced in the Arizona Daily Star that Comcast has signed an agreement with KVOA (NBC) and will be offering the KVOA signal as of tonight. This brings Comcast to the level of having all the local HD content. If agreements could be made between Comcast and ALL of the local affiliates, why can't similar agreements be made between Cox and the locals?

Again, I would ask all the city council members to keep the lack of customer service in mind when it comes time to renew Cox's license agreement.

I just saw the Cox commercial telling me the "best way to watch the olympics in HD is on Cox." It ran on The Discovery Channel.

It is getting so sad I almost have to laugh.

I just got off the phone with Cox to complain about getting a commercial for something I can't watch, and the guy I spoke to, just told me that they have reached an agreement with KVOA and that starting with the Opening Ceremonies COX will have NBC in HD. I asked him when the signal would be turned on, and after putting me on hold for a few minutes he came back and said that it would start right when the olympic coverage starts.

Not holding my breath, but if true, it will be nice.

Nothing shows up on my DVR yet, but I will be checking to see.

Well...if you don't see NBC, at least know that Anne is an award winning history maker!

http://www.cox.com/tucson/press-20060207_anne-doris.asp

COX COMMUNICATIONS' ANNE DORIS RECEIVES ROSA PARKS LIVING HISTORY MAKERS AWARD

A sixteen-year veteran of the cable television and broadband industry, Doris was chosen for her leadership and community involvement as Cox's top executive in Southern Arizona.

I looked at some property in Saddlebrooke a year or so ago.. I don't recall all the details, but I do remember I was not too happy about the arrangements for TV or Internet..
As I mentioned a few pages back, I live in Tucson Estates 2 and we have quite a few refugees from Saddlebrooke. I am not sure what they didn't like about it but it seems they lived there a very short time. We visited Saddlebrooke several years ago and decided after much research that living there was too 'controlled' for us......but this is only a personal opinion and judging by the rate of expansion many people living there must be happy I guess! To be fair we are not golfers.

anyone else noticing the fabulous production KVOA's doing with the HD feed on 4.1?-- switching between 1/2 a screen of black in HD with sound, Full HD with no sound, and SD with sound...

Off to a good start, eh?

KOVA looks fubar'ed For Winter Games opening cermony HD ota switching back over to SD hope you lucky people on Comcast are fairing better.

As I mentioned a few pages back, I live in Tucson Estates 2 and we have quite a few refugees from Saddlebrooke. I am not sure what they didn't like about it but it seems they lived there a very short time. We visited Saddlebrooke several years ago and decided after much research that living there was too 'controlled' for us......but this is only a personal opinion and judging by the rate of expansion many people living there must be happy I guess! To be fair we are not golfers.

They are very controlled but we like that. Give you an example, where we live in Genoa, Nevada, which is a golf community there is no control and the CC&R's are so fragile that homeowners can get away with almost anything, including not taking care of their landscaping and only getting fines at $50/month which is nothing compared to actually performing on their landscaping duties, plus they are diminishing the neighborhood.

Anyway, I don't mean to get on a soapbox, but I like more control......it up's home values.

Also, I don't play golf, but I do play tennis, and pingpong.

BTW, this in The Preserve of Saddlebrook.


Thanks for the reply,

Rich

KOVA looks fubar'ed For Winter Games opening cermony HD ota switching back over to SD hope you lucky people on Comcast are fairing better.

First 7 mins only ...hopefully ;)

Just me, or no sound on 4.1 right now?

edit: it's back.

I just got off the phone with Cox to complain about getting a commercial for something I can't watch, and the guy I spoke to, just told me that they have reached an agreement with KVOA and that starting with the Opening Ceremonies COX will have NBC in HD. I asked him when the signal would be turned on, and after putting me on hold for a few minutes he came back and said that it would start right when the olympic coverage starts.

Not holding my breath, but if true, it will be nice.

Nothing shows up on my DVR yet, but I will be checking to see.

You got punk'd!

Hope you got his name.

Just me, or no sound on 4.1 right now?

edit: it's back.
KPNX 12.1 in Phoenix also started off with no sound on the HD feed.

You got punk'd!

Hope you got his name.

Yes, I will be giving Cox a call tomorrow and complain about how Dion lied to me. I will also be complaining to the city, they can't control content, but they do seem to like hearing about customer service problems.

The rep must have thought you were talking about Phoenix. Most of their CSRs will tell you that we have all locals in HD.

Read this story about how Cox lied to the Cable Council in a Gulf area city.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=56030

I just got off the phone with Cox again. The nice girl that I spoke to told me how Dion must have been confused about what channels Tucson offers. Of course she started out by saying that she was in Tucson and knew that Tucson had all locals. I asked her to check again and she put me on hold for about 5 minutes. She came back and said that Tucson has "some" HD channels.

I asked her to speak to a supervisor or manager so that I could complain about Dion telling me a flat out lie. She refused to let me speak to anyone else, and said that I could leave a message. I have left numerous messages with Cox and never got a reply, so I decided to not even bother.

Did Neon Dion specifically state KVOA? It is interesting that he mentioned it coming up in time for the Olympics. He must have known he wasn't talking about Phoenix.

Is there a Cable Commission in Tucson? If not, how were other communities' commissions started. Maybe we can gather a group and get some citizens and members of the City Council together to hear the complaints and bring them to Cox officially. If it doesn't require being a subscriber to be on the commission, I wouldn't mind donating some time to the cause.

Is anyone else getting a lot of drop outs on KVOA 4.1? I don't think it's reception but there have been a lot of problems on the olympics so far tonight (Sat 2/11).

My signal strength stays strong durring the dropouts.

Is anyone else getting a lot of drop outs on KVOA 4.1? I don't think it's reception but there have been a lot of problems on the olympics so far tonight (Sat 2/11).

My signal strength stays strong durring the dropouts.Yes, lots of dropouts and my signal strength stays at 98% throughout. They were too annoying for my wife, so now we're watching analog cable. Yuk! I hope they fix it wherever the problem is! :mad:
Edit: Apparently we are not alone:
HDTV Forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=643314&page=3)

Just read the main HDTV forum post and I guess there are weather issues in NY. uck.

Anyway, we had to switch to SD too.

The synopsis on the 3rd post mentions that KOLD isn't in DD5.1. What about the other HD channels? Should KVOA and KMSB be in 5.1 when available? I'm fairly sure I remember KGUN in 5.1 during MNF and the playoffs.

The olympics is the first time that I've payed attention to KVOA sound and it's not in 5.1, when it works that is :)

Yes, Toasty, I'm watching KVOA on Comcast and also getting a lot of drop outs. Ouch, there was a long one!! I was wondering if I switched to OTA if it would be better but apparently not. Cheeze, they are getting worse. Come on, NBC. You are going to cause a drop in HDTV sales.

Richard

Availability of Dolby 5.1 surround sound with HD from locals depends on how the audio was originally recorded and on whether the networks supply it to locals that way for them to pass thorugh. Not all that many network prime time programs are actually available in 5.1. Ditto for Satellite, including PPV movies from that souce which are often not in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. I suspect availability of 5.1 will become more common as we move into full digital TV broadcasting and more customers demand it. At this time I know relatively few among my wide circle of friends who have capability in their home for DD 5.1. However, I still believe its worth the extra investment in A/V equipment to have the capability because it definately expands, and heightens the TV experience, especially with HD.

Does anyone know if the dropouts are specific to Comcast or to Tucson OTA, or National? It is really annoying and not exactly impressive technology.

Does anyone know if the dropouts are specific to Comcast or to Tucson OTA, or National? It is really annoying and not exactly impressive technology.

National, everyone is reporting the problems on the HDTV Programming forum....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7114283&&#post7114283

Yes, Toasty, I'm watching KVOA on Comcast and also getting a lot of drop outs. Ouch, there was a long one!! I was wondering if I switched to OTA if it would be better but apparently not. Cheeze, they are getting worse. Come on, NBC. You are going to cause a drop in HDTV sales.

RichardAre you saying KVOA-DT is on Comcast now? I haven't noticed dropouts on Comcast analog KVOA.

The synopsis on the 3rd post mentions that KOLD isn't in DD5.1. What about the other HD channels? Should KVOA and KMSB be in 5.1 when available? I'm fairly sure I remember KGUN in 5.1 during MNF and the playoffs.

The olympics is the first time that I've payed attention to KVOA sound and it's not in 5.1, when it works that is :)Are you referring to cable or OTA? Post #1 should be accurate for OTA in regards to DD5.1. The only difference with cable, at least Comcast, is that KMSB is not in 5.1. Please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll change it. Thanks.

Saw in another thread it's due to the weather/blizzard out East. An NBC problem. Can't say it's true, just what I've read.

Yeah, it appears to be network related, the Phoenix people are complaining about on their forum.

Carey P.

KVOA is now on Comcast channel 211 in HD. They turned it on Friday with no announcement - not even on Comcast's message screen. Friday's newspaper made it sound like it was a permanent addition to Comcast HD channels. I hope so - I have all the major networks in HD on Comcast now so I can use the DVR and watch them when I want. (Sorry, Scott, I know how frustrating this must be for Cox subscribers.)

Today (Sunday) the drop outs on KVOA HD were much less - only a few. Maybe it was the storm in the NY area.

Richard

Carey P.

KVOA is now on Comcast channel 211 in HD..Good to hear! Thanks for the update. Now, if they just had reliable DVR boxes...

My experience with DD 5.1 is that Fox and ABC pass the 5.1 signal while NBC, PBC, CBS and WB do not.

I, like Squeasel, only subscribe to Comcast's limited basic for $12.99 and have the dual tuner Motorola 6412 PVR for $10 more plus limited digital for $3.20 for a total of $26.10 a month and I can record everything including all the local digital SD and HD channels (except NBC 4) and also the TNT HD channel.

I do not subscribe to any higher digital tiers. For awhile I had the Starz HD channel alacarte. You can add any of the HD movie channels and some HD optional packages without subscribing to any digital tier. That was mandated by the FCC.

I'm attaching a copy of my cable bill that I posted once before.

RJRSW thank you for your reply. How are you finding the reliability of the Motorola 6412 PVR? I have read so many OK and bad reports that I thought I use your views for making a decission!
Anyway thanks to the costs you provided I can at least negotiate with Comcast if they try to overcharge me.
Does anyone have any suggestions on a good CSR to talk to?

We've had the Comcast two tuner DVR for over a year now. We had a Replay TV box before we got HD. We have had no problems with it - no repairs. We really like the two tuners because we can watch one program and record another at the same time or record two shows at same time when we are gone. The only thing that is different than our Replay is that it does not allow you to rewind more than about 10 minutes when you are watching live TV. With Replay we would turn on a program at 8 pm and let it run, go to watch it at about 8:20, rewind to beginning of show, begin watching and FF through all commercials. At 9:00 we would be caught up to live TV.

We love being able to record HD. Replay would not do that. Menu is easy to use. Remote is pretty good too. I would recommend it. It beats paying $300 - $400 for our own DVR. You know that if you try it and don't like it you can take it back.

Richard

AzRich many thanks for the encouraging news. I agree about paying that much upfront, we have a Dish 721 that we purchased for around $250 and the hard drive started to play up just one week after the warranty expired! Luckilly I was able to transfer the sector with the software on it to a new drive using Norton Ghost, but it took most of the day (trial and error) and of course all of the recorded programs were lost. Just hope Comcast agree to giving me a new unit that behaves like yours does. By the way how is commercial skipping?

I may be mistaken, but since I have Preferred basic (needed in order to have Comcast Broadband), that at a minimum, I must subscribe to Digital Classic in order to have my Dual DVR work. This is $10.95/mo. It ends up being about $21 more than the $42.75 I'm already paying, not including broadband.

At least this is what I was told. In fact, I see no "Limited Digital" listed in the Comcast brochure.

If anyone has Comcast Broadband along with digital cable and knows otherwise, I'd be glad to hear about it before I try taking another chance on that Motorola box. Thanks in advance.

Squeasel,

There is no one button to skip commercials on Comcast's DVR remote. However somewhere on this forum I found the code number to program the remote (button C) to skip ahead 30 seconds. I just press this button 6 or 7 times to quickly skip through the commercials. This works fine for me.

Richard

AzRich,

But, I presume you can FF, right?

Carey P - You do not need to have Comcast Preferred Basic to have broadband. In fact, you do not have to have any TV service to have broadband data. However, their pricing structure makes it cheaper to get broadband+limited basic than just broadband alone. If you get limited basic, you still get all the OTA SD and HD (if your TV has an HD tuner).

Jim - You're absolutely right :o. Thanks for setting me straight.

I remember now why I have Preferred Basic - because the wife insists on CNN and the other news channels! So apparently I'm stuck getting Digital Classic as a minimum, unless there is some way they can forego those channels between 101 and 171. We certainly don't need those. Of course, that only would save $7 when I'm already paying over $90 altogether! :rolleyes: Oh well...

There was something else I remember about the filter block thingy they put down at the street when you have only Limited Basic. It seems it robbed some signal that affected my broadband and overall signal strength. My signal is not too strong out here, even after they installed a better cable to the street. I use an amplifier at the house.

My experience with DD 5.1 is that Fox and ABC pass the 5.1 signal while NBC, PBC, CBS and WB do not.

Hmm... forgot about that. I had to check that we (KUAT-DT30/PBS) didn't pass through. We used to, but when I checked I remembered that we had to re-encode to meet FCC guidelines... (We have to ID the station now and we don't have they keying or record/playback gear to run an ID proper. so we cut out the audio and audibly identify just before each hour).

But don' t worry... we'll have the money by 2025 to rectify the situation!

I wouldn't think, with all of the sub-channels on DT30 that there would be enough room for DD5.1. What about Channel 27?

I hooked up a new DVICO Fusion USB Gold to a [temporary] Silver Sensor, using Snapstream BeyondTV 4.x last Friday -- in anticipation of the Olympics.

And then later in the day when I setup a "backup" to record NBC SD on the Comcast HD DVR -- I noticed the NBC HD had appeared. Doh! <grin>

Anyway -- a quick thanks to you folks for already hashing out the DD 5.1 issue.

I banged my head trying to figure out why I was only getting DD 2CH for a while. I should have come here first! ;-)

Before I bang my head too much again -- what would folks suggest for an outdoor antenna?

I'm just south of the Catalina Foothills HS on Pontatoc, no major obstructions, but the neighbors can see all of my roof, so I'd like to keep things discrete.

It looks like most of the channels I want are coming from 41 degrees, with WB at 159 degrees. I assume that means a beam width of 118 degrees would be req'd without a rotor.

I've found these two "multidirectional" antenna's that may fit the description.

http://www.antennasdirect.com/lacrosse.html
http://winegard.com/offair/urban.htm

Thoughts?

I also have a recommendation for the simple DB2 here:
http://www.antennasdirect.com/DB2_Indoor_antenna.html

Not as pretty -- but it isn't huge, so maybe an option.

Thanks!
Timo

Is KGUN Digital off the air? Can't pull it in...Lost is on soon!!!

Is KGUN Digital off the air? Can't pull it in...Lost is on soon!!!


I'm not getting it either. I thought it might be the weather but with a signal strength of zero, something else has to be going on.

No 9.1 for me either, everything else is fine.

Before I bang my head too much again -- what would folks suggest for an outdoor antenna?


Radio Shack has one similar to that circular one if you want to try that. You can always return it if it doesn't work.

I put up one of these http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=search&kw=antenna&parentPage=family and pull in all the channels pointing it towards bigalow. That's without the rear two pieces attached. If I attach those pieces it actually cuts out non Bigalow channels and doesn't help anything else.

I think in Tucson metro, if you have line of site, you don't need anything too crazy for an outdoor antenna.

No 9.1 for me either, everything else is fine.Nothing here either. Man this sucks!

For those keeping score...46 is down as well. The towers are in different parts of town. Must be the wind...Welcome to the 21st Century!

Not getting 9 either. Called the news room but they said everything is fine. Yeah right.

It came back up some time during Lost. I recorded Lost and Invasion on my HD Tivo...Lost was a lost cause...still dead after 20 minutes. I noticed at the beginning of Invasion, there were the last few minutes of Lost in SD, then Invasion in HD.

Any word from the KGUN guy who lurks here occasionally?

My experience with DD 5.1 is that Fox and ABC pass the 5.1 signal while NBC, PBC, CBS and WB do not.

I believe I am getting DD 5.1 for some OTA network programs from CBS-Tucson, e.g., the CSI programs.

Squeasel,

There is no one button to skip commercials on Comcast's DVR remote. However somewhere on this forum I found the code number to program the remote (button C) to skip ahead 30 seconds.


Any idea where I could find that code or if it works on Cox HD-DVR remotes? I would guess they are very much alike. Thanks.

It came back up some time during Lost. I recorded Lost and Invasion on my HD Tivo...

Just checking on what you mean by an HD TIVO?

I believe I am getting DD 5.1 for some OTA network programs from CBS-Tucson, e.g., the CSI programs.

Even though the show might say DD 5.1 sound where available on CBS, only KGUN (ABC) and KMSB (FOX) have DD 5.1 coming through on their DTV broadcasts here.

I'm not sure it's even 5.1 from FOX because I'm using multi-channel on my HT receiver now from the sound card on a PC, and I'm not getting anything for the subwoofer from KMSB, but KGUN works fine. I get front/rear and center from KMSB but not the .1 for the subwoofer it seems like which I need to ask the KMSB engineer about.

The HD Tivo comes from DirecTV. It has two OTA digital tuners and two satellite tuners. It won't be able to do the mpeg4 stuff coming down the road for DirecTV's new HD programming, but does a fantastic job recording OTA.

I don't seem to have a problem with KMSB's .1 subwoofer stuff. During 24, I actually have to turn down the sub a little because the pounding sounds they make become too loud.

The HD Tivo comes from DirecTV. It has two OTA digital tuners and two satellite tuners.

I don't seem to have a problem with KMSB's .1 subwoofer stuff. During 24, I actually have to turn down the sub a little because the pounding sounds they make become too loud.

Thanks for explaining the HD Tivo, I might have to look into that rather than using the HTPC, although the OTA HD I'm getting now doesn't require any cost for satellite service.

KMSB via optical digital or coax digital from an HD receiver to my HT receiver is fine subwoofer wise, so I don't know why it seems to be different with the multichannel. My only guess is the subwoofer isn't separated for some reason and might be combined in with the 3/2 channels whereas it seems to be separate from KGUN. If I change to 2 channel and use PL II for KMSB everything is fine like the other DTV channels that don't have 5.1, but I'm not getting the benefit of 5.1 that way.

I really like the Tivo thing. They have the $200.00 rebate offer which expires at the end of the month. I went through www.*********************. Took about 10 days from order to install. I spent an extra $200 to have the outdoor antenna installed. I got tired of the little dropouts I'd get from people walking past the indoor antenna.

Dish Network has recently announced they will soon provide local channels in HD for 50 cities across the country via satellite in combination with their new line of MPEG-4 receivers. Not sure if and when this will include Tucson, but my guess is that we will eventually get local HD via Dish Network satellite here, possibly later this year. Their new 622 HD recording receiver looks like a winner and I am planning to upgrade from my current Dish 921 receiver in the near future -- they are offering attractive lease incentives on their new recording HD receivers. Dish is also substantially expanding their HD content via luanch of a new satellite this week. Good to see they are making the effort to stay competitive. I have been a happy customer with them for several years now.

According to this source, we are in the #71 market. Based on that number, and the amount of issues the local cable providers have had getting rights, I doubt Tucson will be part of the 50.

I'd been with Dish for over 5 years. I could have stayed with them and picked up one of thier HD DVRs. The biggest factor to me was that, even with the 622, there is only one OTA digital tuner on Dish equipment, while the Tivo has 2 OTA tuners. I want as much HD content as possible and wouldn't want to be limited to one show at a time.

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/broadcast.php

I have DirecTV w/HD Tivo - get locals (except WB) OTA in HD.

Last night, on CBS, Survivor sounded like it was being broadcast from a tin can, stuck in a phone booth.

Video was fine - audio sounded like a compressed stream from Realplayer ver.1 on a 28.8kbps modem...honestly, I almost turned it off. Meanwhile, all other channels were fine...

Am I the only one that noticed this? I was unable to check the channel after the show was over due to the tuners recording two other shows immediately - and I went to work this morning without remembering to check the audio for CBS HD OTA...just curious if anyone else had this problem?

Thanks,
Pixel

We had that "tinny" sound on everything on CBS last night. I didn't start watching until the local news, but it was also there during Letterman. This was on Cox.

My wife commented on it too - my ears have lost their frequency response so I didn't mind. I get CBS from Comcast w/o a cable box.
Jim

I heard the tinny sound last night on 13.1 and tonight, also. Tonight it cut out as the picture quailty shifted just before 8PM. Then the picture quality came back a few minutes later without the bad sound.
I'm glad for this group. I've had my 37" Dell LCD for about a week and I was worried that this problem might be my new rig. The station engineers sure have work ahead of them.
The Radio Shack antenna and splitter-amplifier that I have used for over 10 years is working great for the digital signals. Now for more HDTV!
I live near the New Loft with trees between me and Bigelow but the reception is awesome.

Anyone have any idea why I'm getting a duplicate of KMSB 11.1 on 27.3? That's not even KMSB's digital channel number.

They must be playing with PSIP for some reason. It was showing up on my set as channel 11.6. I was excited for a second. Thought they were broadcasting more content on sub-channels.

Dish Network has recently announced they will soon provide local channels in HD for 50 cities across the country via satellite in combination with their new line of MPEG-4 receivers. Not sure if and when this will include Tucson, but my guess is that we will eventually get local HD via Dish Network satellite here, possibly later this year. Their new 622 HD recording receiver looks like a winner and I am planning to upgrade from my current Dish 921 receiver in the near future -- they are offering attractive lease incentives on their new recording HD receivers. Dish is also substantially expanding their HD content via luanch of a new satellite this week. Good to see they are making the effort to stay competitive. I have been a happy customer with them for several years now.

Rdopso, sounds very tempting but I don't like the idea of signing an 18 month or 2 year contract with them! Or have I misunderstood this point on their web site?

I wouldn't think, with all of the sub-channels on DT30 that there would be enough room for DD5.1. What about Channel 27?


In order to meet FCC guidelines, we must ID the station every hour, either visually or aurally. Since we don't have the money for a keyer, we do audio. Since we don't have money for a 5.1 encoder, we have to downconvert the 5.1 to insert our voiceover, and at that point, we've got 2.0. Sucks, but that's the way it is.

They must be playing with PSIP for some reason. It was showing up on my set as channel 11.6. I was excited for a second. Thought they were broadcasting more content on sub-channels.


Wow, quite a difference of viewpoints. I'm scared of them putting any subchannels as it makes the HD sports look not as good. It's nice that only one major has subchannels in Tucson.

I gave some serious thought to going the Dish Network route, but a few things have turned me off on them. The 18 month contract is part of it, but the fact that we won't be seeing Tucson locals any time in the near future was a big part. The other was that they wanted me to pay them $300 for extra to use their HD DVR.

Anyone have any idea why I'm getting a duplicate of KMSB 11.1 on 27.3? That's not even KMSB's digital channel number.


It's showing up on 27.6 for me.

Could they be trying to get their signal to other parts of Tucson by leasing time on another tower or something like that?

Qwijib0, do you know anything about this?

Rdopso, sounds very tempting but I don't like the idea of signing an 18 month or 2 year contract with them! Or have I misunderstood this point on their web site?

Unless Dish has changed their policy since Dec.05, you can pay a $49 activation fee and avoid any contract. I gladly paid it; as I told the Sales Rep.: "18 months! Gimme a break! One of my marriages didn't last that long!"

I signed up for satellite service for the first time in my life when I moved out to rural Cochise County. Why anyone would go with satellite when the are within the availability of cable is beyond me. Dish's HD programming is OK, but their SD content, in my unbiased, humble opinion, is absolute crap. It's compressed down in mpeg2 and the resulting resolution is much inferior to cable or even analog OTA. As much as I don't like Cox, if their service was available out here, I would dump Dish in a flash. Maybe Dish's new mpeg4 service is better, but as I understand it it's being implemented to be able to provide more HD programing. And after being a customer for a little over 2 months, they want me to pay $250 to upgrade my 811 HD receiver. I think that's a No Thank You . . . .

Wow, quite a difference of viewpoints. I'm scared of them putting any subchannels as it makes the HD sports look not as good. It's nice that only one major has subchannels in Tucson.
KOLD seems to do a good job with only one subchannel. As long as it is real content, I think it's a good thing. With Fox only doing 720p, the amount of bandwidth taken for a subchannel shouldn't affect the programming on the main channel. I wouldn't want them to throw just anything (simulcast of SD, weather etc..). I like having The Tube available OTA.

Rdopso, sounds very tempting but I don't like the idea of signing an 18 month or 2 year contract with them! Or have I misunderstood this point on their web site?

If you are a new customer you can lease a new 622 for an initial payment of $300 and then pay the monthy lease fee for the unit of $6, plus the cost for one of their four HD packages. The upfront charge I believe includes the installation of their new Dish 1000 antenna system which provides expanded HD programming. One can also purchase the new 622 receiver directly from a retailer for I believe $750 and avoid the leasing deal, but the installation of the Dish 1000 system would probably cost $50.

For existing Dish customers such as myself who have either a Dish 921 or 942 HD receiver, we have the option (after April 1) of turning in our receiver and leasing the new 622 (including the Dish 1000 antennal) for an upfront cost of only $100 plus the monthly lease of $6 per month. This is the route I am going on April 1.

Here is a link to a good forum covering the new 622 receiver (check the "622 basics" thread first and then the others).

http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=107

Anyone else as disappointed in KOLD as I am that they did not televise the Arizona game in HD today? I recorded it while I watched the Daytona 500 in SD. I was looking forward to see at least one sports program in HD... guess not. Thanks.

I am hoping it will switch to HD later but I am not holding my breath.

Anyone else as disappointed in KOLD as I am that they did not televise the Arizona game in HD today? I recorded it while I watched the Daytona 500 in SD. I was looking forward to see at least one sports program in HD... guess not. Thanks.

I am hoping it will switch to HD later but I am not holding my breath.

They can only pass on what they receive and if the equipment that was used at Stanford is not HD camera and production equipment the local affiliate cannot do anything to change that.

I watched the Daytona 500 and it was in HD widescreen on my TV.

They can only pass on what they receive and if the equipment that was used at Stanford is not HD camera and production equipment the local affiliate cannot do anything to change that. I watched the Daytona 500 and it was in HD widescreen on my TV.

Why are SD cameras still being used for nationally televised games, if at all? If you are correct, than this is unacceptable from CBS. As far as the race goes, I have Cox, and therefore no NBC-HD signal.

CBS is crap. They are well know for not investing in the HD technology. During the NFL season they only broadcasted 3 games a week in HD. Compared to FOX which broadcast EVERY game in HD. I have read that CBS's excuse is bandwidth. I'm a NFC fan so I did get to see most of my teams games in HD. That is except for the afc/nfc game CBS covered which was in SD. Again CBS is crap and if they cannot commit to broadcasting every NFL game in HD they should not be allowed to carry NFL games.

Given that, how do you think BBall or any other sport fits in CBS's scheme? Not very high. It's a CBS Sports problem.

Daytona, I enjoyed it in HD OTA up here in Phoenix on NBC. NBC had it in HD and did a great job from what I saw. I doubt many of their "cam" shots were HD but they managed the transistions very well. Never really noticed any changes. A+ job to NBC....well, other than too many commercials. But that's another story.

Is anyone else having problems with Fox 11.1? I'm watching 24 and getting 50% signal with video quality issues (normal is close to 100%). Other stations seem fine.

No problems here in the S.E. part of town...I quickly scanned through the program on TIVO and it looks good.

Has there been any update on Cox getting KVOA, I know they missed the start of the Olympics. I am moving into the city so I will be losing my Comcast. What is the HD channel lineup of Cox, their site only lists a few. From what I have been reading though I think I will have to go with Dish. I am able to pull all ota stations and with the new hdbronze package I will be able to get around 30 hd channels for under $60.00.

Wow, Dish has 30 HD channels? I gotta take a look.

Locally, they only provide CBS, WB and PBS. If you want to DVR, you are MUCH better off with satellite (especially if you can get everything OTA).

Has there been any update on Cox getting KVOA, I know they missed the start of the Olympics. I am moving into the city so I will be losing my Comcast. What is the HD channel lineup of Cox, their site only lists a few. From what I have been reading though I think I will have to go with Dish. I am able to pull all ota stations and with the new hdbronze package I will be able to get around 30 hd channels for under $60.00.


There aren't many listed because they don't have many :rolleyes:

This is accurate for where I live: http://www.cox.com/tucson/digitalcable/lineup-Tucson-Green_Valley.pdf

I don't get the feeling that KGUN, KVOA, or KMSB will be coming down the pipe any time soon. KMSB has been on Comcast for a considerable amount of time but still not on Cox. Personally I don't like doing the contract thing with the sats so I'm just doing the OTA reception with my built in tuner.

Sucks that I don't have a DVR for HD though.

Hey guys I have the cox Explorer 8300Hd and I'm looking to get some OTA Signals. Can I just go buy an HD Antenna from best buy and hook it up to the 8300HD? If so how do I set this all up? I currently just have the cable coming in from the wall to the box and component cables to the tv.

Hey guys I have the cox Explorer 8300Hd and I'm looking to get some OTA Signals. Can I just go buy an HD Antenna from best buy and hook it up to the 8300HD? If so how do I set this all up? I currently just have the cable coming in from the wall to the box and component cables to the tv.

And there's the rub! You cannot hook up an OTA antenna to your cable box to get the HD signals that Cox does not provide. It is terribly unfortunate for Tucson residents to have to put up with this crap, but it is out of our hands. There are devices that will record OTA HD, but they are expensive and usually requires an intermediate user to configure. You can also get OTA HD DVRs from the satellite companies. The downside, as mentioned above, is that they require lengthy contracts. I believe it is 18 months for Dish Network and 24 months with DirecTV.

If you want the simplest method and can handle the contracts, go with satellite.

Well, one could always use one of the many PC tuner cards to receive OTA, and it could be your DVR. They're fairly cheap, particularly if you have an extra PC hanging around.

Rich

Hey guys I have the cox Explorer 8300Hd and I'm looking to get some OTA Signals. Can I just go buy an HD Antenna from best buy and hook it up to the 8300HD? If so how do I set this all up? I currently just have the cable coming in from the wall to the box and component cables to the tv.

No you need to hook up your antenna to an ATSC tuner. Either one built into your TV or one you pick up from BB, CC, Walmart etc. You should be able to get a set top ATSC tuner from the box stores for $200 or less. But this won't provide the DVR stuff that you're getting out of your SA box. I'm not sure what OTA HD options there are.

Well, one could always use one of the many PC tuner cards to receive OTA, and it could be your DVR. They're fairly cheap, particularly if you have an extra PC hanging around.

Rich

I use my HTPC to record OTA HD and receive all of the local channels instead of going the SAT/Cable route.

Be aware there are some somewhat high PC requirements to record and view HD programming if you plan to use an "extra PC" as your DVR. A decent graphics card and processor not to mention a fairly large HD are required.

Actually, there are many HDTV tuners that do not require much in the way of additional hardware, such as, the FusionHDTV 5 USB External HDTV, and MyHD MDP-130, and others. I pretty sure I am going to be getting the MyHD card.

Most folks would prefer a STB over a PC in their entertainment center. The PC route also requires more work than just plug and play.

Most folks would prefer a STB over a PC in their entertainment center. The PC route also requires more work than just plug and play.
Granted, and some people have no other choice. Also, the PC route allows one to burn HD recorded material to a DL disc.

No you need to hook up your antenna to an ATSC tuner. Either one built into your TV or one you pick up from BB, CC, Walmart etc. You should be able to get a set top ATSC tuner from the box stores for $200 or less. But this won't provide the DVR stuff that you're getting out of your SA box. I'm not sure what OTA HD options there are.

This looks like a good opportunity to let anyone who might be interested or might know someone that might be interested that I have a Samsung SIR-T165 HDTV STB receiver with firewire and DVI out as well as a JVC HM-DH30000u D-VHS Digital VCR which can be used with the receiver to record OTA HD. I'm recording Final Destination 2 on WB 58 KWBA right now.

They're both around 6 months old, got them like new on Ebay and I'm only selling because I invested in an HTPC to record HD now. Original remotes for both, and I have 7 D-VHS tapes good for 2-1/2 hrs of HD recording each, used 10 - 15 times a piece for $5 each. I also have a firewire cable (15') and DVI cable to go with the units. I'm asking $225 each for the receiver and the VCR.

Thanks in advance if anyone is interested or could let me know of someone who might be.

Actually, there are many HDTV tuners that do not require much in the way of additional hardware, such as, the FusionHDTV 5 USB External HDTV, and MyHD MDP-130, and others. I pretty sure I am going to be getting the MyHD card.

Recording HD doesn't require too heftly of a PC, just a lot of disk space 8+ GB per hour and one of the 8MB cache 7200 rpm drives if you're going to watch a recorded program at the same time you are recording something else. The Olympics for only a few days along with a couple of HD movies have used up most of my free 200GB of space already.

Playing back the HD program is what requires the heftier PC and video card, at least a 6600 or better Nvidia or X700 or better ATI both 128MB or better. A cpu in the 2.0Ghz or better range and 512MB of RAM minimum. If you only watch previously recorded programs the requirements aren't quite as high, if you want to watch while you're recording it will task your hard drive and cpu if it isn't up to this level. I had a 3.0Ghz cpu, 6600gt video card, and a SATA HD but only a 2MB cache. When I was recording a program and watching one at the same time I would get pauses in the recording. If I recorded first and then watched after it was done recording it was fine. I think it was the hard drive though more than the CPU level because at 8+ GB per hr, that's 2MB per second or more so with only a 2MB cache on the HD it wasn't able to put 4MB + of data (2MB recording and 2MB playing) on and off the hard drive without getting stuck once in awhile. My new PC has 16MB cache SATA drives and even though they are RAID 1 mirrored, I haven't had a pause or stuttering issue since, and I'm recording two HD programs and watching a third at the same time now (dual core 2.8Ghz CPU which might also be helping in that regard).

opnupurize,

You are 100% correct, but for my application, I will not be watching the recording via my computer, rather my HDTV, and on some programs that I record I will be burning those propgrams to a Dual Layered DVD Disc. And I also have HD Tivo to record those other programs, that I just want to watch via timeshift, but not to download, since I do not have a hacked Tivo Hd STB.

Best regards,

Rich

Rich...many HD TVs come with an RGB input. We've been discussing utilizing the PC to be the DVR, but watching it on your main set.

gworkman,

Yes, I know, I was just mentioning that there are other uses of having the PC be the DVR, and in particular my goals.

Best regards,

Rich

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else has lost thier picture and sound on the OTA 13-1, 13-3 feeds (KOLD-DT) (TUBE). The stations lock on OK, and the signal is adequate at 70% +, but again no picture or sound. It seems there was a similar problem on 18-1 (KTTU-DT) several months back. If I remember right certain recievers couldn't decode the bit stream and the code had to be reset or something had to be reset at the station. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Recording HD doesn't require too heftly of a PC, just a lot of disk space 8+ GB per hour and one of the 8MB cache 7200 rpm drives if you're going to watch a recorded program at the same time you are recording something else. The Olympics for only a few days along with a couple of HD movies have used up most of my free 200GB of space already. . . . and I'm recording two HD programs and watching a third at the same time now (dual core 2.8Ghz CPU which might also be helping in that regard).

Wow! I guess you're what they call a Power User. I built my own HTPC about a year ago - AMD Athlon 3400 2.25 Ghz, 2 SATA 160GB drives, Raid 0, Fusion 3 Gold ATSC Tuner. I used it more for time shifting, espcially in the the fall to record daytime college & NFL football games for watching in the evening. Also to record & archive season programing of my favorite shows, like "24". One hour of HDTV is about 8GB. But I use the HDTV2MPEG2 software to strip out the commercials, and that reduces it down to around 3.5 - 4GB, small enough to archive off to a single layer DVD-R disk. (Dual layer still too pricey for me). With the HDTV2MPEG2 software I was even able to split the Jan 15 & 16 two hour episodes into two-1 hour shows, to fit onto DVD-R. Link to the free download & discussion of the HDTV2MPEG2 software can be found in the AVS HTPC forum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26

If you'll consider selling the JVC D-VHS recorder separately, I may be interested. I'll send you a separate PM. I've been considering a Digital VHS recorder for some time as a more convenient option for archiving HDTV than burning endless DVD-R's, and I see there's quite a library of HD movies available in D-VHS. Who needs to wait for Blue-Ray or HD-DVD?

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else has lost thier picture and sound on the OTA 13-1, 13-3 feeds (KOLD-DT) (TUBE). The stations lock on OK, and the signal is adequate at 70% +, but again no picture or sound. It seems there was a similar problem on 18-1 (KTTU-DT) several months back. If I remember right certain recievers couldn't decode the bit stream and the code had to be reset or something had to be reset at the station. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.


good i am not the only one. Only 13-1 and 13-3 are not working. I am using a PC with a ATI card. WatchHDTV shows 64% but only a 704x480 pic so it stuck I guess in 480sd It hasn't worked all week. Luckily they are running a lot of repeats due to the olympics. No clue how that gets fixed.

good i am not the only one. Only 13-1 and 13-3 are not working. I am using a PC with a ATI card. WatchHDTV shows 64% but only a 704x480 pic so it stuck I guess in 480sd It hasn't worked all week. Luckily they are running a lot of repeats due to the olympics. No clue how that gets fixed.For me, 13-1 says poor signal quality and 11-1 says signal not available. This just seemed to happen tonight on my HDTV tuner.

opnupurize,

What Tuner card are you using to record 2 shows and watch another? I only use the old MyHD MDP-120 with DVI, but I don't think even the MDP-130 is capable of recording one station (let alone two) and watch another at the same time. Is this the Fusion card?

What Tuner card are you using to record 2 shows and watch another? I only use the old MyHD MDP-120 with DVI, but I don't think even the MDP-130 is capable of recording one station (let alone two) and watch another at the same time. Is this the Fusion card?

Sorry for not being more specific about that. There aren't any dual tuner HDTV cards available (yet) at least for ATSC. Fusion does make a dual tuner DVB-T card which I guess is the HDTV standard in Europe and Australia. I have two cards an ATI HDTV Wonder and a Kworld ATSC-110 and I use BeyondTV 4 for the PVR software. So I can record two programs at the same time and watch a third since the output is via the video card not the tuner cards. I'm planning on adding a third HDTV card or using a USB HDTV tuner depending on if I keep a sound card in the 3rd PCI slot or not.

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else has lost thier picture and sound on the OTA 13-1, 13-3 feeds (KOLD-DT) (TUBE). The stations lock on OK, and the signal is adequate at 70% +, but again no picture or sound. It seems there was a similar problem on 18-1 (KTTU-DT) several months back. If I remember right certain recievers couldn't decode the bit stream and the code had to be reset or something had to be reset at the station. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

I checked this afternoon and 13-1 and 13-3 were working fine for me with the proper channel numbers.

I checked this afternoon and 13-1 and 13-3 were working fine for me with the proper channel numbers.I haven't seen anything working on KOLD-DT since yesterday on either of my tuners. I also get a signal at 70% but no picture.

Yeah, sounds like this KOLD-DT (13-1,13-3) thing is a problem that is unique to certain digital tuners. I'm going to e-mail the tech guys over at KOLD today and see if I can get them to look into this growing problem.

I get 13 via Comcast on my TV's HD tuner. It worked perfectly last night.

I get 13 via Comcast on my TV's HD tuner. It worked perfectly last night.I guess this is an OTA problem only. I hadn't tried Comcast since that requires a rescan of all channels for me, which is a PIA.

KOLD works fine on my Tivo and one HD set. It locks up the tuner on my other set.

KOLD works fine on my Tivo and one HD set. It locks up the tuner on my other set.

Both KOLD 13.1 & 13.3 coming in fine for me OTA, both on the OTA tuner in my Dish 811 receiver and Fusion3 Gold PC ATSC tuner card.

Yeah, sounds like this KOLD-DT (13-1,13-3) thing is a problem that is unique to certain digital tuners. I'm going to e-mail the tech guys over at KOLD today and see if I can get them to look into this growing problem.

Thanks, anything you can do to help is appreciated. I bet they did a software upgrade last weekend :)

Yeah, sounds like this KOLD-DT (13-1,13-3) thing is a problem that is unique to certain digital tuners. I'm going to e-mail the tech guys over at KOLD today and see if I can get them to look into this growing problem.

I get them okay with my Samsung STB tuners a 165 and 151, but not with either of the HDTV PC cards, very strange. Is it some kind of broadcast flag or something that's confusing certain tuners? I'm not sure why this DTV stuff seems to be so complicated to get working correctly and keep it working correctly. Thanks for checking with the KOLD engineers about this, hopefully they will respond appropriately to the issue.

I was not getting 13-1 for the last week and this morning I unplugged my Direct TV H10 reciever and let it reset and I was able to get 13-1 back. I had a strong signal before resetting (93%) but no picture.

I was not getting 13-1 for the last week and this morning I unplugged my Direct TV H10 reciever and let it reset and I was able to get 13-1 back. I had a strong signal before resetting (93%) but no picture.I just tried re-scanning all the channels on my Panasonic plasma and now have 11-1 working again. However, 13-1 does not get recognized. If I manually enter it, it says poor signal quality. On my MyHD tuner it says 70% but I get no picture. Something is still up with that station.

I tried redcanning on my H10 receiver first and went from no 13-1 to none of the networks. Thats when I unplugged the set for two minutes then plugged it back in and got all channels again. NOt sure why this worked but it did for me.

I rescanned my plasma tuner for the Comcast digital channels so I could see KOLD-DT since OTA was not working well. I noticed a curious thing now when watching KGUN-DT 9-1.

Are any of you who use Comcast to watch 9-1 (on 89-1 or 210) seeing digital glitches or dropouts in the video and sometimes in the audio? Seems to happen at random during the program or commercials.

I am not seeing this at all when watching at same time OTA on my other tuner. So this must be a cable problem. But is it my cable, or is everyone seeing it? Thanks.

I was see the same thing and called KGUN about it a couple of weeks ago. To summarize my posting it basically is a problem with comcast's antenna that is used to pick up the signal. Apparently, it is not getting a solid signal causing the problem we are seeing.

I was see the same thing and called KGUN about it a couple of weeks ago. To summarize my posting it basically is a problem with comcast's antenna that is used to pick up the signal. Apparently, it is not getting a solid signal causing the problem we are seeing.

Nothing like finally getting it on cable and still having to deal with reception issues :)

I think KOLD on Cox has a similar problem. On cable it will glitch every now and again. OTA I don't have any problems.

I just spoke to The engineers at KOLD 13 and
explained the problems we are having with their signal. They had a power supply go down last week and have replaced it. They thought that it fixed the problem and now know it did not and some receiver still don't get sound or picture. I explained what the problems are and sent them
this like so they could read your comments. They said they will be working on the problem and will call me back when it is fixed. When they do I will post and let you all know.
These men were very polite and were happy to hear what the problems are so they can address them
cheuy

I just spoke to The engineers at KOLD 13 and
explained the problems we are having with their signal. They had a power supply go down last week and have replaced it. They thought that it fixed the problem and now know it did not and some receiver still don't get sound or picture. I explained what the problems are and sent them
this like so they could read your comments. They said they will be working on the problem and will call me back when it is fixed. When they do I will post and let you all know.
These men were very polite and were happy to hear what the problems are so they can address them
cheuyWow, I just got as message from the Chief Engineer explaining about the power supply as well. He said it went out last week from a power bump. They finally replaced it (came from France) and then found that another major component had failed. They replaced it now and said they believe things have straightened out. He said the picture should be back on now and I should check it again. If there is still a problem or even if it's working well now, he would like to know about it by calling 744-1313, Ext 283. I will be checking it later.

I can't vouch for the truth of it, but I was told by a Cox CSR today that the Tucson area would be getting a new channel lineup as of 15 March, and it would have "a bunch of new HD channels". Anyone else heard anything? Maybe the locals have finally made their deals with Cox? One can hope...

Wow, I just got as message from the Chief Engineer explaining about the power supply as well. He said it went out last week from a power bump. They finally replaced it (came from France) and then found that another major component had failed. They replaced it now and said they believe things have straightened out. He said the picture should be back on now and I should check it again. If there is still a problem or even if it's working well now, he would like to know about it by calling 744-1313, Ext 283. I will be checking it later.


I really appreciate this. My picture is back!!!!! I am using an ATI HDTV card under Win XP / WatchHDTV is the software I use.

:) :) :) :) :)

Carey P, Cheuy, and everyone involved,
Thanks for the fine effort. KOLD-DT (13-1,13-3) are back up and working well. :cool:

I can't vouch for the truth of it, but I was told by a Cox CSR today that the Tucson area would be getting a new channel lineup as of 15 March, and it would have "a bunch of new HD channels". Anyone else heard anything? Maybe the locals have finally made their deals with Cox? One can hope...

I wouldn't believe anything that a Cox CSR says unless it's in writing somewhere. There are so many stories and my own experiences with them just making stuff up or giving Phoenix information it's ridiculous.

We'll see.

Yes KOLD TV 13.1 and 13.3 are back on.
After talking to them and explaining which tvs
were not getting the signal the tech said it told him alot and would call me back.
He call 1/2 hour latter and said all was fixed.
the problem only afected tvs with thompson chips.
Let give Stewart Romain and Jim Arnold a big thank you
cheuy

Yes KOLD TV 13.1 and 13.3 are back on.
After talking to them and explaining which tvs were not getting the signal the tech said it told him alot and would call me back. He call 1/2 hour latter and said all was fixed. the problem only afected tvs with thompson chips. Let give Stewart Romain and Jim Arnold a big thank you cheuy

I'm glad KOLD fixed this problem and that they were fairly responsive this time in getting it working fairly quickly because that hasn't the case in the past. The last time they had a power issue it was because they didn't have a surge protector or a UPS which seems to me to be basic things that you would have for any kind of important electrical components. I have to admit that the KOLD signal has been fairly reliable for the past 6 months or so, but they continue to be one of the few stations in town that lose their broadcast for a week or more whereas I've never seen KVOA, KGUN, KMSB, KWBA down for more than 12 - 18 hrs and KTTU had some audio problems a few months back for a few days. Hopefully they are investing more in their DTV equipment, but with the extension for the digital to analogy changeover to 2009, I doubt it.

Actually Stewart Romain and Jim Arnold at KOLD TV are really interested in working in fixing any problems they or we have. As far as they were concerned the new power supply fixed their problems. It was not untill I spoke to then and explained brand of tv that had problems and ones that didn't that they were able to fix the problem. I think this fourm is an excellent place to talk about any problems we may have, but if the station is not aware of the problem as in this case it does not do any good to post a bitch here. Instead we should work together and with the stations to solve the problem. Until I spoke to Stewart Romain and Jim Arnold in a conforance call and explained in a reasonable attitude were they able to fix the problem.
They told me the only info they were getting was rude complants and not enough info as to what kind of problem we had. They said they would love to know of any problems, but they need to know the nature of the problems, not just hey where is the picture. Stewart Romain and Jim Arnold said they would love to work with anyone from this group to solve any problems in the future. I feel if we all work with them and post back the feedback we get would be of great use of this forum for us and them.
cheuy

I wouldn't believe anything that a Cox CSR says unless it's in writing somewhere. There are so many stories and my own experiences with them just making stuff up or giving Phoenix information it's ridiculous.

We'll see.


I agree. I sincerely hope we are both wrong but I am inclined to think it bullshit as well. I wonder if the original poster threatened to cancel or modify their service. Sounds like a ploy by Cox.

I am thinking of reducing my service too, mostly because I am tired of paying an extra $20 a month for their DVR. But now it looks like I am getting suckered into this contemptuous lie...

Well a lot of us included the types of tuners and such in our posts. Maybe the KOLD engineers should visit this forum once a day or something just to check it out. Or subscribe to it so that new messages are emailed to them (I think that's an option) It doesn't take much time at all to keep up with this forum, which has become fairly active of late.

Is anyone else still having problems with KGUN (ABC)? I have had an ongoing problem with audio dropouts and video freezes for some time now (viewed via my sets tuner on comcast). When I talked to KGUN, they maintained that it was Comcast's antenna getting a weak signal causing the problem. If this is the case (and I think it is) anyone know who we might report it to? I cannot imagine that the generic comcast number will help.
Jim

I don't have a problem with KGUN OTA (Aside from the fact they didn't broadcast Boston Legal in HD last night :( )

I do continue to have problems with KOLD. 5-10 times per show I get audio drop outs and 2-3 times I get a complete drop out. I have a signal strength in the 80s. It happens on my Zenith 50" Plasma, Magnavox 42" Plasma and HD Tivo.

Jim,

The video and audio dropouts occur only on Comcast, not OTA. However, if you are referring to those annoying video freezes, while audio continues to play, that is known by their engineers already and occurs for everyone I'm sure. Having said that, I haven't noticed those very lately, so maybe it is finally fixed. We will see during LOST tonight (which better not be in SD, like Boston Legal was!).
Edit: All seemed to go well, even on Comcast! Maybe the rain helped.

Actually Stewart Romain and Jim Arnold at KOLD TV are really interested in working in fixing any problems they or we have. As far as they were concerned the new power supply fixed their problems. It was not untill I spoke to then and explained brand of tv that had problems and ones that didn't that they were able to fix the problem.

Now... if we talk them into dropping the promo for the news at 9.50p and dropping out of 16x9........ that would be perfect....

Now... if we talk them into dropping the promo for the news at 9.50p and dropping out of 16x9........ that would be perfect....


Why do they drop out? They have the equipement to insert a bug on an HDTV stream. Why can't they insert the promo and leave it in HD?

No promo is best, but I know better than to expect that.

Cheuy, I'm not sure how long you've been getting OTA DTV or HD on Comcast or COX, but if it's only been since mid-2005 then you haven't experienced the problems we all have in the past with KOLD. Even now that their broadcast is working again as other posters have noted, there are dropouts and audio problems which have been going on for years now. We'll also see if the signal stays up when we finally get a real rain storm because typically that means KOLD will be out for a day or two since they can't seem to keep their DTV broadcast up when it rains up on Mt. Lemmon.

I'm willing to give Mr. Romain and Mr. Arnold the benefit of the doubt and start fresh this year, as long as they are responsive to the issues that we report to them and do something about them. Typically I received no response when reporting a tinny sound issue like there was with Survivor a couple of weeks ago or a program that was supposed to be in HD and wasn't. Not until I sent several e-mail messages escalating my language asking for a reply did I ever receive anything back from them. They seemed to be too busy to be bothered with reports about the DTV broadcast, after all it's only the analog broadcast that matters, it doesn't really matter if the DTV Broadcast is working or not, that's the attitude they had back in Jan/Feb of last year when it was out for over a month.

Again I hope that things have changed and they are truly interested in fixing any problems with their DTV broadcast quickly and so that they won't happen again (like getting surge suppressors and UPS' for their equipment), time will tell, but they haven't gained my trust back, not yet.

IIRC, about the time of the change in engineering teams, there was talk of getting the equipment needed to provide us with DD 5.1 sound. Have those plans gone by the board? Cheuy, you seem to have built a rapport with the current regime... how's 'bout asking them about this?

Tony

Bluestar48
Here is a copy of the E-mail I sent to KOLD. They are not monsters, they are really nice guys trying there best. I hope they do Join this group and answer so question to clear up the anger I am seeing in some of these post.
By the way I do not have anything to do with Kold TV other than have been able to talk to them on the phone and they have convince me they do care about your comments.

KOLD TV
(URL can not be posted but this is where it was I sent them)
Read Page 57 of the thread.

I think it would be good for you guys to join this news group and post a response to a few of them, so they know you are concerned about signal. It really helps to hear form the station that you do really care about quality and you are doing everything you can to fix any problem that may occur. It sure would take up much less time to post one message
on the group than having to answer every E-mail you get about problems. Most of them
really get pissed when they E-mail KOLD and never get a response. This is just a suggestion that would take up much less of your time and let people know your position.

I can't vouch for the truth of it, but I was told by a Cox CSR today that the Tucson area would be getting a new channel lineup as of 15 March, and it would have "a bunch of new HD channels". Anyone else heard anything? Maybe the locals have finally made their deals with Cox? One can hope...

My predictions for this "bunch of new HD channels" on Cox:

Extreme Bass Fishing Channel HD
People's Republic of China Official News Network HD
Miniature Golfing Channel HD
Telenovella Network HD (!en Espanol!)
General Mills' Cartoon Network HD
Suzie Homemaker Shopping Channel HD
24/7 HD Infomercial Channel #1
24/7 HD Infomercial Channel #2
Al-Jazeera Headline News... beheadings and bombings in HD, inshallah!

What, you thought we were gonna get KGUN? Hahahahahahaha! :D

Anyone here subscribe to MLB Extra Innings through Cox? Wondering if they black out the Padres games.

Anyone here subscribe to MLB Extra Innings through Cox? Wondering if they black out the Padres games.

I think the rule is a 100 mile radius. I subscribed through DirecTV for years and they only blocked out Diamondback games. Like you wanted to see those lames anyway, right?

Trust me...MLB rules are completely different than any other sport. Currently, Cox owns the rights for the Padres in Tucson. You cannot see any Padres games in Tucson with DirecTV or with MLB.TV. I'm just wondering if, because Cox owns the rights, do they allow the MLB EI games to be broadcast here.

I come from the home of MLB blackouts and proof that the rule is not 100 miles. In Las Vegas, the Giants, A's, Padres, Angels, Dodgers and Diamondbacks were all considered "In-Market". Because of this, all games involving those teams were blacked out on MLB-EI and MLB.TV. The only games we really got to see were the Dodgers and Angels on Fox Sports net and about 30 Diamondbacks games on a local independant channel.

I don't really care that much for the Padres...I'm a huge Giant's fan and guess who they open the season with???

What's really confusing, is a few years back when teh Dbacks were in the playoffs, Fox aired the Yankees game instead of the DBacks becuase they didn't consider Tucson as a local DBacks market.

What's really confusing, is a few years back when teh Dbacks were in the playoffs, Fox aired the Yankees game instead of the DBacks becuase they didn't consider Tucson as a local DBacks market.


I remember that, too. It was a series against the Mets. I thought that had more to do with ESPN's belief that the millions of Yankee fans here outnumbered everyone else.

Being a long-time Mets fan, I drove to the game, as planned when the series was announced. Mets won that series.

Just did a scan on my tuner and found KVOA now has a sub channel. The compelling programming is....SD version of the regular channel. :(

Just did a scan on my tuner and found KVOA now has a sub channel. The compelling programming is....SD version of the regular channel. :(


And this is so upsetting, because I was so excited when they stopped that subchannel previously.

During the olympics many people in different markets were complaining about poor picture quality. These people were all in markets where NBC had a subchannel. I thought our picture during the olympics was very good.

I remember NASCAR was aweful with a subchannel on KVOA. When NASCAR on NBC and Sunday Night NFL starts up, this is going to really iritate me.

Subchannels don't seem to hurt regular TV as much, but they really hurt sports. Many people claim that CBS has the best football picture, but here with KOLD and the Tube, they don't have the best picture. At least the Tube isn't just a simulcast.

With NBC turning on 4.2 SD I wanted to ask the group their opinon of an SD simulcast.

For your own selfish reasons, would you rather have the 4.2 SD simulcast or only 4.1 HD? And why?

Thanks

I like what KOLD does with their subchannel. I think simulcasting is a waste of bandwidth. If you are using the digital signal and want to fill a 4:3 screen, use the zoom feature of your tuner. Don't need the NBC Weather channel. Watching a Tucson weather forecast canbe quite dull.

If KVOA could turn on their subchannel just for non-primetime or news broadcasts, I would be all for it. It makes no sense to have it on for HD programs.

My tuner can't stretch a digital signal, so this would be great for SD programs that are in 4:3 format. Though I'm over my fear of burn in, I still like to fill the 16:9 screen.

Here are some QAM numbers for the broadcast channels on Cox.
Billy

111-1 27.1
111-2 13.1

106-1 58.1

82-13 6.2 (SD)
82-14 6.4 (SD)
82-15 6.3 (SD)

Here are some QAM numbers for the broadcast channels on Cox.
Billy

111-1 27.1
111-2 13.1

106-1 58.1

82-13 6.2 (SD)
82-14 6.4 (SD)
82-15 6.3 (SD)
Sorry, but can you elaborate on what these are and what I can do with them? I am a disgruntled Cox customer suffering from a lack of ABC/FOX-HD.

Sorry, but can you elaborate on what these are and what I can do with them? I am a disgruntled Cox customer suffering from a lack of ABC/FOX-HD.

You can tune those channels with a TV that has a built in QAM digital cable tuner without using the set top box. I use them for my TV Guide built into my Samsung DLP.

This won't help at all with the fact that Cox doesn't carry FOX, NBC, or ABC HD.

Am I the only one getting absolutely 0 signal from KGUN-DT 9.1? Did the storm wipe out their transmitter? If so, I assume Comcast doesn't have a signal either.

That is true, nothing on Comcast KGUN digital channel since yesterday sometime

The antennas appear to be covered in snow. Maybe its that special aluminium foil snow! :rolleyes:

Where did they get their transmission EQ from...Walmart or E-Bay?

That is true, nothing on Comcast KGUN digital channel since yesterday sometime
That's good news . . . sorta. I thought it was my antenna. The winds out here on Saturday were so strong it shifted my antenna from almost pointing due west to northwest. It's on a 30' pole anchored with cement in the ground, bolted to the eve of the house, secured with 3 guy wires. I thought it would survive a tornado . . .

Anyway, KMSB & KOLD actually come in a little stonger than before. But of course, no KGUN. Maybe the winds re-oreinted their antenna, like horizontally instead of vertical?

A dusting of snow on the ground here Sunday morning. OK, I've had my moment of glorious winter wonderland . . . I'm ready for spring! :p

With NBC turning on 4.2 SD I wanted to ask the group their opinon of an SD simulcast.

For your own selfish reasons, would you rather have the 4.2 SD simulcast or only 4.1 HD? And why?

Thanks For my own selfish reasons I like it. Liked it when they did it before. I hadn't noticed it was back. I'd like to see kgun and kold do it, again for my own selfish reasons.

Where did they get their transmission EQ from...Walmart or E-Bay?


I remember when HDTV sets became widely available around the 2nd half of 2000. So we're almost 6 years after that, and its still a total experiment.

Content is atleast just becoming available, but it seems like the local stations have no idea what it is or how to use their equipment (this may be just a Tucson thing I guess).

The NBC feed randomly switches from SD to HD like there is an operator being paid $6 an hour to flip the switch from commercial to tv show, and he is falling asleep.

CBS can't seem to manage to even broadcast digitally for very long without total failure. Wow, I don't know of another industry where this kind of incompetence would be hapily overlooked.

My thoughts, exactly! There is not an issue keeping the analog station up, so why so many issues with the digital broadcast? Can you imagine these digitals being off the air for DAYS at a time when that is the station's only source of revenue?

All I can add is that being up in Phoenix I don't see those problems with NBC or CBS. Right now, other than a sometimes occuring audio 'click' when going from local commercials back to the HD network signal it's dependable.

It's entirely a problem of money. A full setup of equipment to do automated switching of HD video and 5.1 audio can run $30000+, and there is still little to no return on the DTV investment. Only 2 stations in Phoenix have the full setup, Fox and CBS. NBC is halfway there, and ABC forces 5.1 full-time and has manual switch flipping. WB goes into HD manually at the beginning of the night, and never cuts to local commercials at all. If a top-15 market doesn't have it working right, don't hold your breath on Tucson getting it until 2009 draws near.

It's entirely a problem of money. A full setup of equipment to do automated switching of HD video and 5.1 audio can run $30000+, and there is still little to no return on the DTV investment.

I do believe you hit the nail on the head. I've never seen any statistics on what percentage of the population receives their television programming over-the-air, but I'd bet it's 10% or less & declining, and that includes both analog & digital. The cable & satellite companies have convinced the general population that it's "old fashioned" to use an antenna. Only very . . . frugal . . people are content with analog OTA, and only mostly tech savvy understand how good OTA digital TV is - or those who are stuck with a crap cable company that doesn't carry local HD.

When I bought my first HDTV in the fall of 2004 & living in Las Vegas I never gave a thought to using an antenna. I happily went along with Cox upping my monthly bill to over $100 to get HD programming. At least in LV Cox carried all the locals in HD ;)
After football season was over however, I began to grow disgruntled at paying so much for so little and did some research. I put up an antenna up on my roof (with neighbors grumblin "ain't that kinda old fashioned?") and Voila! I had HD video quality at least as good as Cox and 5.1 digital audio for the first time! (Found later the Cox technician had hooked up the STB using analog RCA audio jacks.) I said Goodbye to Cox.

So, yeah, it must be a tough decision for local TV stations to invest in expensive digital broadcast equipment when so few make use of it. But if you're going to do something, do it right! Must be a tough choice for airline companies to invest in new equipment & technology, too. I sure wouldn't climb into an airplane owned & operated by KGUN!

After 2+ days of digital blackout, you would think KGUN would at least issue a statement what the problem is & when they expect to correct it????

...
Maybe the winds re-oreinted their antenna, like horizontally instead of vertical?
...


So are some antennas horizontal and some vertical? This might explain why 6 & 13 don't come in anywhere near as strong as 4 & 9 for me. Well, 9 doesn't work at all last I checked, but normally...


And if they are oriented differently, why? Whose bright idea was that?

9 was back on last night. Jimmy Kimmel was on my DVR. Hopefully, Boston Legal will be on (in HD) this tonight.

Maybe the winds re-oreinted their antenna, like horizontally instead of vertical?
So are some antennas horizontal and some vertical? This might explain why 6 & 13 don't come in anywhere near as strong as 4 & 9 for me. Well, 9 doesn't work at all last I checked, but normally...


And if they are oriented differently, why? Whose bright idea was that?
Guess you missed the joke...a tower would only be horizontal if it got knocked over.

Tucson stations have had plenty of problems in the past with the antennas icing up, and 18" of snow on Mt. Lemmon from that last storm means there has to be a decent amount of frozen stuff on Bigelow too.

Guess you missed the joke...a tower would only be horizontal if it got knocked over.

Tucson stations have had plenty of problems in the past with the antennas icing up, and 18" of snow on Mt. Lemmon from that last storm means there has to be a decent amount of frozen stuff on Bigelow too.

LOL... yeah, I completely missed that one.

I experienced tons of audio dropouts and video stutters on KGUN last night. It was horrendous during Boston Legal. Anybody else experience the same?

I have had the same problem for some time now using Comcast without a cable box. I talked to a KGUN engineer who claims that the problem lies with Comcast's equipment that is used to receive KGUN's signal. Give Comcast a call at 744-1900 and see if we can get something done.
Jim

Hello all. I just joined the forum and have been reading it since late last week, when my Sharp LC-37DB5U arrived. KGUN has always given me the strongest analog signal where I am and until they went down during the storm, they had one of the strongest digital signals too (Albeit, only a short time for me!) Since they went down, I have been getting zero signal from them, even though I am getting mid 80s to mid 90s from the other stations transmitting from Bigelow. I can see the antennas from here directly with no obstructions. . Any suggestions, since apparently they are transmitting, though some poeple are still having problems? I've noticed in other threads that some outages can be tuner specific. Is there a specific engineer at KGUN who I should contact?

Thanks

Richard

KGUN is not accurate in their statement. I do not have Comcast and also experienced the audio/video jitters. Theirs were almost as bad as 13s have been. It appears to be tied to audio peaks which apparently the software/hardware do not handle properly.

Dave

Jim-I watch KGUN OTA. I'm in an area (under)served by Cox.

I can't vouch for the truth of it, but I was told by a Cox CSR today that the Tucson area would be getting a new channel lineup as of 15 March, and it would have "a bunch of new HD channels". Anyone else heard anything? Maybe the locals have finally made their deals with Cox? One can hope...

I wouldn't call it "a bunch of new HD channels" but I did get home from work this afternoon to find 1 new channel. MHD. It appears to be a music channel.

Just got off the phone with a Cox CSR to ask if this is just the first of a few channels that might show up today and was told that no, this was the only one that they are adding at this time.

She went on to give me the party line about how they are always working on trying to get us new channels, this is the only one we will probably see for awhile.

Just got off the phone with a Cox CSR to ask if this is just the first of a few channels that might show up today and was told that no, this was the only one that they are adding at this time.

She went on to give me the party line about how they are always working on trying to get us new channels, this is the only one we will probably see for awhile.


Yeah, I have had enough of this fu©kin' crap. I am cancelling my service right now, going back to DTV with TiVo and getting a HD tuner/ant. from Best Buy.

Yeah, I have had enough of this fu©kin' crap. I am cancelling my service right now, going back to DTV with TiVo and getting a HD tuner/ant. from Best Buy.

I sent a PM, but in case you don't use that like I barely do, here's what I sent.

I'm not sure what you're looking to get for a DTV tuner, but I have a Samsung SIR-T165 which is the top end model with firewire and DVI output and it's like new have had it for about 6 months and was using it for recording HD on a JVC D-VHS VCR. I've put together a PC now with HD tuner cards to record HDTV so I don't need the Samsung tuner anymore. I also have an older T151 which is a basic tuner from Samsung there second model and it works fine but is just component out and doesn't have a display for the channels like the 165 does and I also don't have a remote for it (I used the 165 remote). Anyways that one I would only ask $50 for and you can use a universal remote at least to change channels on it, not sure if it would work for the menu but you don't use the menu usually that often. I would ask $225 for the 165 tuner since the going rate on Ebay is 250 or more right now. If you might be interested you can PM back or e-mail me at ron_okpisz@hotmail.com.

How proud of their staff Anne Doris must be! I guess she will be getting an award for "screwing the customer -- again". Obviously they have no problem lying to a customer's face -- about both negotiating in good faith with the local channels, and adding HD content of at least some modicum of value. MTV HD. What a waste of bandwidth.

Cheuy, tell your buddies at KOLD that it's great that they are showing a different game on the DTV broadcast than the national CBS broadcast, but when CBS is switching to other games with a minute left that are within a few points, don't stay on the other stupid game that's on a timeout or only in the first half and switch to the national broadcast so we can see the end of the other games on DTV or in HD if the game is in HD rather than having to watch it on regular TV.

Stupid KOLD did this last year too, and Jim Arnold made a big deal of trying to give us more options of games to watch. That's great, but not when we're missing the end of close games because they don't have someone paying attention in the control room to go back to the regular CBS broadcast when it's important. If I wanted to watch analog TV I wouldn't have bought a digital TV and digital tuners.

If you really want to show a second game, how about showing it on 13-3 in place of The Tube when the games are on so we can watch the regular CBS broadcast (in HD for the games that are in HD) not whatever game you decide to show instead while we miss the end of the other close games. How can anyone there at KOLD think that makes any sense? Oh wait, I forgot, this is KOLD we're talking about.

A short followup to the KGUN audio problem on Comcast. I called Comcast and they acknowledged that they have a problem with the KGUN digital signal and have assigned a guy to look into it. We'll see what, if anything, comes out of this.
Jim

A short followup to the KGUN audio problem on Comcast. I called Comcast and they acknowledged that they have a problem with the KGUN digital signal and have assigned a guy to look into it. We'll see what, if anything, comes out of this.
JimI haven't had cable since 1986, but I'd probably bash Comcast too if I were their customer, notwithstanding the fact that those of us who receive KGUN HD OTA have observed and reported the same audio problems that you're blaming Comcast for.