I hate to be the "glass is half empty" guy here, but notice that Randy did not specify what the POWER of the HD signal will be. They can transmit HD without turning the wattage up.

They are already transmitting a digital signal that three households can receive. If you are one of those three, then you will get to see HD from ABC too.

Maybe I am wrong, hope so for all of our sake, but ABC has lied too many times before to be taken literally.

I hate to be the "glass is half empty" guy here, but notice that Randy did not specify what the POWER of the HD signal will be. They can transmit HD without turning the wattage up.

They are already transmitting a digital signal that three households can receive. If you are one of those three, then you will get to see HD from ABC too.

Maybe I am wrong, hope so for all of our sake, but ABC has lied too many times before to be taken literally.

jtuck2, I was thinking the exact same thing. In fact, I would almost say that is more probable than improbable. Instead of 3 people getting it now probably a whole 10 people will get it.

I just got this response this morning.

We're just now completing the build-out of our full power, high definition facilities (we have been transmitting a low power, standard definition signal). We are planning a "test" this coming Monday, 8/8 during the NFL pre-season game. If you can, please tune in and let us know how it looks.

Thanks for your inquiry.

Ray Cole, President
Citadel Communications
3903 Westown Parkway
West Des Moines, IA 50266
Phone: 515-457-9645 (Ext. 127)
Fax: 515-457-1033

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 9:20 PM
Subject: HD


When can we expect an HD signal or any signal on channel 59 that can be seen in Ames?

Mr. Cole I will be there to check it out, hopefully HD will be there as well.

Mr. Cole I will be there to check it out, hopefully HD will be there as well.

Me too, but color me skeptical. I'm just north of Ogden at 1135' with a good antenna, with which I receive all the other HD channels perfectly. So, let's see what we get from WOI. Thank God we only have to put up with them for one more year and then it's on to ESPN-HD (for NFL).

Quick question for anyone out there that can help. When I cannot my antenna directly into the TV (sony), I can get 50.3, but when I move it and let it go thru my Sony HD Receiver, I can not get 11.x? All other ones are fine either way.
Is there something I am missing or doing wrong.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Well tonight is the night....I would imagine WOI should start playing with the signal throughout the day...anyone who gets a heartbeat from them please let us know!

woi-dt was not putting out a signal at 7-730am this morning, maybe we can get lucky and they are working on getting things rolling tonight..

sbormann do you live in DSM and previously were getting WOI? Just wondering if they have shut off their little measley setup in prep for the nice setup in Alleman

I live in norwalk, i get ~60% signal, but it was dead this AM.

Sweet that actually sounds like a good sign...I live in State Center so I have a very little hope of seeing the game tonight, but if they broadcast HD in 5.1 then I can look forward to Sept 1st...

I would hope so. But i am not going to hold my breath for this station. I will definitely check it out. The signal I get is pretty much worthless, hopefully they can bump up the power quite a bit too...

I just have a zenith silver antenna on top of the tv. Nothing too special.

I would hope so. But i am not going to hold my breath for this station. I will definitely check it out. The signal I get is pretty much worthless, hopefully they can bump up the power quite a bit too...

I just have a zenith silver antenna on top of the tv. Nothing too special.

That's the set-up I have too, but it works fine for channel 8, 11, 13, & 17. I'm hoping it will work for channel 5 as well, but I'll be surprised if it does unless they majorly jack up the power.

Well just got home and did a test...what do you know I am actually getting some signal from WOI, my dish 811 is bouncing between 49 and 69 so not enough to get locked in, but first time I have ever got anything....woo woo

I haven't been able to get anything. I'm hoping when the NFL game comes on maybe there will be a jump in power.

I'm getting 71%, blank screen, a little reassuring

Remember the quote foks:
We're just now completing the build-out of our full power, high definition facilities (we have been transmitting a low power, standard definition signal). We are planning a "test" this coming Monday, 8/8 during the NFL pre-season game. If you can, please tune in and let us know how it looks.

Key words: "planning" & "test"
Don't get too discouraged if you don't get what you expected tonight. It'll come. There are usually problems at startups like this, and they usually have to bring the power up slowly...

Nothing in Altoona so far....

I sure hope they get it going this year! I'm planning on moving back to Des Moines in late Sept/early Oct. I've been spolied for the last year here in St. Louis.

I have 70+% power, but no signal on 5.1. I agree it is a good sign, I don't really care if they show me preseason football, let's get the bugs ironed out now.

Man, I HATE Madden!!!

You can find a link to leave your feedback about their signal tonight. Notice all the ads they have about HD on their website for HD on September 1 for it's fall lineup? Did you also see how they also advertised their signal during the commercials?


http://www.woitv.com/Global/category.asp?c=7588

I have the signal but a black screen. I am geussing everyone else is getting that too?

Got a chance to check out my old voom receiver and it was getting a signal of 87 so it locked on, however like everyone else just a black screen...well this is definitely a good sign and I hope WOI gets the issues resolved quickly...someone needs to point out this thread so they can get instant reliable feedback rather than through their website...

All I was able to get was a black screen as well. Next chance for football is in 2 weeks. Anyone hear if they are going to be broadcasting during the rest of the week? From the responses I have seen, it seems it would be during football. Can't believe they would not be bringing it up other times for testing.
I would gladly help them test the signal if they would give us more info when to be looking for it.

Everyone make sure to leave your feedback for WOI from the link above so they know they still have issues that need to be fixed.

If I recall correctly, seems like a couple of stations had the black screen here when they started up. I believe they need to work on get their PSIP data correct.

I couldn't quite lock on to their siganl here in CR to look at the data, but I bet that's the problem....

That could be it hdtvincr as my voom box wouldnt add the channel when scanned even though it had a high signal...its as if the box didnt know where to map the channel too

Last night I received a signal stregth of 80 but was not able to get any picture at all. I thought that all I needed was 60 or better? Am I doing something wrong? Will they turn up the power more or is this it?

cad sounds like you had plenty of signal, but WOI was only broadcasting a blank screen last night...at the moment my best guess is they are still doing testing so it was kind of expected...2 weeks till the next game...

Thanks Sarcoptic. I will keep my fingers crossed.

25 miles south of Fort Dodge here. I too got a signal of about 65% last night and still today when I check, it has a blank screen. I get 11,13,8. and 17 with a great picture. Hope that WOI does the same when the bugs are worked out.

Last night I received a signal stregth of 80 but was not able to get any picture at all. I thought that all I needed was 60 or better? Am I doing something wrong? Will they turn up the power more or is this it?


Most of us (I haven't seen anyone saying they got video), got a black screen. Some signal strength...probably enough for a pix, but it wasn't been "sent" correctly, so none of us could decode it.

I got a nice lock on a signal, but no video, nor would it add to the channels list.

:mad:

When I scanned for it my system did find it and add it to the channel list.

It's been in my channel list for 4 months. The highest signal strength has only been 25, though.

5.1 is coming in strong for me tonight during the Peter Jennings special.
HD show is at 9, will hopefully see an HD signal.
I am getting a rock solid 70 reading and this is just a little weaker than my weakest signal (FOX).
I only really care about MNF in HD on ABC and that goes away after this year but I think ABC has the Super Bowl this year so this is great news!
Bryan

PS
I am about 35 miles from the towers.

Getting 5-1 as well. Picture quality leaves a little bit to be desired at this point but it is better than just a black screen. Not as crisp as other digital channels for the SD content but I know they are still testing equipment.
I am with BTW2003 maybe we will see Lost in HD at 9:00

No HD tonight for Lost.
ltrain20 my 5.1 SD signal also isn't as clean as the other digital SD signals.
On the vertical right side of my screen there is a line that is fainter than the surrounding pixels on either side of that line and it runs the entire length of the screen.
Could just be my particular setup?
Bryan

Got 5.1 as well. Watching Lost but it's not in HD. Picture quality is very average. But hey at least this is a start.



I'm with btw, as long as it works for Monday Night Football I'll be happy.

I'm getting a signal that looks a little worse than my d*tv signal. I also see that whiteish bar on the right side

oh, and I'm getting about 75% signal strength. The others come in around 80-90% at my house (~20mi SE)

I'm getting a signal that looks a little worse than my d*tv signal. I also see that whiteish bar on the right side

I am getting a pix this evening. It is periodically pixellating (breaking up), probably due to multi-path or such. It was added with a scan. I will take some signal measurements tomorrow night, if it is on.

It is a start!

Yeah I'm getting some break up as well. Think this is the most power they will probably have?

BTW2003 I saw the line on the right side as well, so do not think it is your setup.
I also agree with joyandrob as it was slightly worse than the D* signal.

I can't measure the signal strength because of the great signal meter on the Samsung TS360. Like the receiver except Samsung never has gotten the OTA signal meter to work.

I did not check to see how the audio was being broadcast as I figured with no HD would not have surrond sound.

As others have said it is a start, late start but a start.

Hopefully they will have it all wrapped up and everything functioning by the next MNF football game.

I'm receiving the signal now after I moved my indoor antenna. Picture is bad but signal strength in the 80s. Most of the other locals are in the 90s except FOX...

I hate to interrupt this channel 5 party, but I've got a question about channel 13. Do any of you DirecTV users get a complete channel guide listing for 13-1? On both of my HD Tivos I only get listings from 7:00PM to 11:30PM on weekdays. The rest of the time it just says "sign off".

Stoen -

Ditto here. For some reason they don't send out their schedule on items. Usually the ones in HD are the only ones listed. Not always, but most of the time.

What time did everyone check on Channel 5? I checked for signal around 5pm last night and didnt check as I wasnt getting anything then....I guess I will try tonight...

Maybe the reason there is a picture now is because it is not in HD. Is anyone getting an HD broadcast or just the regular signal over the new channel? Maybe when they go back to a HD broadcast there will be no picture again. Just a thought.

I too have the 13.1 issue. It makes it very hard to Tivo anything on 13.1 is there a way we can facilitate the problem? Maybe push WHO a little?

I was unable to watch 5.1 last night, I will check it tonight.

5.1 came in last night non-HD. Lost was on. Was hoping they could get it into HD by the 22nd anyway.

cad, I agree trying to Tivo something on 13.1 is nearly impossible. I think the best thing would probably drop WHO an e-mail or letter asking if they can get their WHO DT line-up updated for Directv viewers.

Sure enough I got channel 5 on my old voom receiver but no luck with my Dish 811, still bouncing around...either way congrats WOI

Sarcoptic
I have a dish 811 as well and I am getting 5.1 at 65% with a picture and all now. Haven't seen anything in HD yet but at least have the channel locked in and a regular broadcast. I am about 70 miles north of Des Moines. Strange it doesn't come in on your dish 811.

I had my OTA still through a multi switch back when I had voom, I threw on a normal splitter and now I am in business with the 811, my signal is 69% living in state center....so when can we start complaining about no 5.1 sound heh

WOI must have increased their power, i am now getting 80% upstairs and 73% downstairs. Approx a 10% signal increase. Looks good. The picture is a million times better too now.

cad, I agree trying to Tivo something on 13.1 is nearly impossible. I think the best thing would probably drop WHO an e-mail or letter asking if they can get their WHO DT line-up updated for Directv viewers.
About the only thing you can do is a manual recording by date and time. Inconvenient, but it works.

I also don't get guide info for 11-1 IPTV. Curiously, I do get if for the other IPBN channels that I cannot receive (21-1 KTINDT and 32-1 KBINDT).

13.1 guide data is usually just primetime programming.
I suggest emailing WHOTV to complain. I don't really have a problem with it since most if not all the HD stuff is listed in the guide and I get the locals on satellite.

I do have complete guide data for 11-1 however.
Maybe you need to re-scan/re-boot for it to show up?
Bryan

13.1 guide data is usually just primetime programming.
I suggest emailing WHOTV to complain.
Just an FWI, I get the complete schedule OTA from WHO. You may want to first try emailing DirectTV first. Usually this means there is something goofy in the link after it leaves WHO's transmission and is probably a problem somewhere on DirectTV's side. (I could be wrong, though, as I've never had to deal with DirectTV, uh, directly...) ;)

Sorry for creating two posts in a row here... But figured this was big enough news to get it's own post.

Letterman will go HD on August 29th. :D I don't know many of the details yet, but I'll try to find out a bit more this weekend... In the meantime, you guys can probably checkout the other thread as I usually get home after all the info has been posted. ;)

Finally! The Late Show with David Letterman in HDTV on CBS - 8/29/05! (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=568867)

I have been able to get WOI channel 5's digital TV signal today (12 AUG 2005) at 2 pm. I tried it over the weekend during the preseason NFL game because I got an email from Randy Shelton at WOI that said the following:
We are testing our HD signal during preseason NFL and will be broadcasting full time beginning September 1.
Media Center told me there was no signal detected. I checked the signal strength meter, and it was a partial red block (MCE's signal strength shows in color bars). Today it was showing 6 green blocks (a full bar). That is as good as the meter goes (and is the same as 8, 11, 13, and 17's digital channels as well). Later in the day there was no picture or signal, but it was there for a while. I live on the southwest side of Ames, so the antennas are all pretty close. The partial red block (or sometimes a red block and a half) is what I usually get for WOI's channel 1051. It seems that at times they are running full power and it works good, but at other times they take it down for some work. I am sure glad to see some progress though. I had wondered if I was ever going to get their digital signal. By the way, my antenna is the little indoor one that comes with an ATI HDTV Wonder (kind of a Silver Sensor knockoff). I put it up in my attic and ran it down to my basement through a 3-way splitter. It then runs from the -3.5dB output of that splitter up to the living room and through a 4-way (-7dB) splitter into the HDTV Wonder. It is amazing the signals work through all of that RG6 and two splitters and still gives a good signal (no amps either).

And...Media Center always shows the IPTV digital listing as the exact same thing as the analog channel. This happens to work for the other networks, but IPTV has a different lineup on the digital channel. This means the digtal channel 1111 never has the right info in the Media Center Guide listing. :)

Speaking of IPTV ...

Today I started getting a subchannel 2 again on the Waterloo IPTV station, KRIN-DT. Channel 32-2 is running a simulcast of IPTV analog.

Channel 32-1 continues to run all HD or widescreen, all the time.

Anyone getting an 11-2 in Des Moines?

(P.S.: Glad to hear you'll be getting ABC soon!)

I also don't get guide info for 11-1 IPTV. Curiously, I do get if for the other IPBN channels that I cannot receive (21-1 KTINDT and 32-1 KBINDT).
I had a somewhat related issue a while back. I had 2 different 11-1 stations listed in my guide. The names were different, I think one ended in DT and the other had HD. One had guide information and the other didn't. You might want to check your available channels and see if you have another 11-1 and if not do a rescan like Bryan suggested.

[ ... ]
I do have complete guide data for 11-1 however.
Maybe you need to re-scan/re-boot for it to show up?
Bryan
I tried a re-scan and that fixed it. Thank you. You too, stoen.

KCRG is broadcasting Any Given Sunday tonight in HD, hopefully WOI tries to as well...

I haven't seen any HD from WOI.
But the sd signal is steady and I haven't seen any breakups in the signal.
They did say they would be testing the HD signal during the NFL pre-season.
Next ABC preseason game isn't until 8/22.
Bryan

I was watching the IRL race on WOI this afternoon and thought for a lark that I would check 5-1. To my surprise it was up and running with comparable signal strength to WHO and KCCI. Don't know if it will last, but for this moment in time it's up.

From strongest to weakest this is how the stations come in for me.
11-1 IPTV
13-1 WHO
8-1 KCCI
17-1 KDSM
5-1 WOI

Lowest is low 70's and highest is mid 90's.
That is with a pre-amp on my antenna,
Hopefully when everybody is full power I won't need the pre-amp.
I am about 35 miles from the towers.
Bryan

I am picking up SD signal on 5.1. They had the Indy race on yesterday afternoon and I saw the news on there this AM as I was flipping around.

Anyone seen any HD out of them? MNF is on ESPN tonight, so no football on ABC this week. :)

Did I mention that I hate Madden?

I've gotten their SD signal plenty of times. Occasionally it starts losing something and the picture gets jumpy and freezes. The audio still goes though. I'm pretty sure it is them, and not my Media Center PC or reception. Anyone else notice this once in a while with them? As for HD, I think they have tried to broadcast in HD sometimes, and when they do it isn't working right. For instance when Any Given Sunday was being sent out by ABC in HD and SD (supposedly KCRG was transmitting it in HD anyway), I think WOI may have tried to send it out in HD, because I was not getting anything to come up. After a while I tried back and it was there (the movie), but it was SD only. Also, someone else mentioned this as well. Maybe they are still having some bugs with the HD transmission hardware. BTW, does anyone know a good utility to get signal strength with an HDTV Wonder in a Media Center 2005 machine without installing the ATI software? All I can do right now is use the EDIT DIGITAL CHANNELS utility in Media Center and look at the little green squares on the signal indicator.

Holy Sh*t!!! WOI - ABC in HD. Picture and Sound!!!!!!!!!!! They had about a 10 second glitch with sound but the picture was right on at 7pm!

Picture quality isn't as perfect as CBS or FOX, but I'll take it!

Holy Sh*t!!! WOI - ABC in HD. Picture and Sound!!!!!!!!!!! They had about a 10 second glitch with sound but the picture was right on at 7pm!

Picture quality isn't as perfect as CBS or FOX, but I'll take it!

The picture quality here is terrible. Soft, milky...but it does appear to be HD, maybe upconverted something, cuz it really looks pitiful. It looks better than OTA SD and better than DirecTV local...but still no where near what it should look like, unless "According to Jim" is done in some artsie "supersoft" fashion.

I haven't checked the sound quality...other than its level is WAY, WAY down from KCCI-DT which is currently showing an NCIS re-run. (although not in DD, I don't think).

I'll keep an eye on things....this is progress. WOI-DT is not breaking up as badly as before, either.

At times the picture quality looked OK other times saw a lot of macroblocking and other issues. Seemed like they were testing tonight.
The sound seemed to be low on the center channel. Background sounds were turned way up and the center channel for voices were audible at times but very low.

Getting closer!!

At times the picture quality looked OK other times saw a lot of macroblocking and other issues. Seemed like they were testing tonight.
The sound seemed to be low on the center channel. Background sounds were turned way up and the center channel for voices were audible at times but very low.

Getting closer!!

I watched the HD ?!?, between 9 and 10 (Boston Legal) and the audio was amazing for its lack of a center channel. They must have some astounding separation, as I heard background laughter, but the center dialogue was totally absent.

I didn't see much macro blocking or pixellation, but the video was very steady (albeit blurry/soft/washed out). Also, my rx did not detect the audio as DD, but rather Pro Logic, with no center channel. Very strange.

Hope i am folowing the rules here, but here goes anyway.
I am planning to move to DSM from Dallas (yeah i know..."stay down there!" ha ha).
I currently get local HD channels on comcast cable. I was thinking of going back to dish network once i move up there, but i am concerned about the quality of local HD channels with the antenna that attaches to the dish. I am a little spoiled with perfect HD picture down here and see posts of 75% reception quality on some channels there. isnt that oxymoronic...fuzzy HD?
anyway, can i get some feedback from folks who have this setup (local HD channels and DISH)?

THANKS

Order the DirecTv HD Tivo today..anybody have any experience with the OTA tuner in this area??
I have the Samsung TS360 now and it works fine. I have seen different reports on the HR10-250 tuner with some saying it is better and others saying it is worse than the 360.

thanks

c22v - I have DirecTv and just use a STB antenna and get the OTA signal just fine. I was thinking about getting a silver sensor antenna by my $15 cheepy antenna seems to be doing OK.

Fuzzy picture right now just applies to our ABC channel. They are way behind the other channels.
CBS, NBC and Fox all do a good job.
ABC is still testing equipment but says they should be fully operational by Sept 1. As others will tell you we will believe it when we see it.
WB network does not broadcast a digital signal at this time. Which sucks because Smallville is great in HD. Get to see old episodes on HDNET atl east.

So depending on where you live in the area reception probably will not be that big a deal..

I have the HR-250. It's awesome. I have not had any of the complaints that people have posted on TiVo Community. My only complaint is that I bought it 35 days before they dropped the price, so even though I negotiated with D*TV fo $250 off, I still overpaid by $250+.

Lost was not in HD last night. I would love to catch a "test night" to see what ABC's HD looks like.

ltrain20
Thanks!!!

Tuxedo on 5.1 appears to be in HD, but no DD...just pro logic. (7 p.m.). At least there is a center channel (dialog) this evening.

For real HD and very good dolby digital, check out NFL Pre-Season football on 17.1 right now. Perfect pix and stunning audio. Just like last year. Very good job, KDSM!

Scratch that...I saw the full screen presentation and thought it was HD (Tuxedo on 5.1). Unfortunately, I was on an SD channel. Barf! That'll teach me to play with the laptop and try to pay attention to the TV at the same time!

NFL Pre-Season is very good on 17.1

Tuxedo wasn't in HD for me. I didn't check till the last few minutes though.
I haven't seen any HD from 5.1.
Bryan

I guess we'll know more when the next pre-season game comes on ABC.

5.1 was showing HD last night!
It was soft/blurry though. Perfect picture for awhile and when the camera changed angles or a different camera shot was used it was blurry and not very clear.
Hopefully it will be fixed in time for MNF.

Bryan

For anyone reading, WOI is broadcasting A Beautiful Mind tonight in HD and DD 5.1 till 10....kinda weird some frames look amazing for HD, then it switches to a really soft washed out image....must be perfecting the image quality tonight or something...

My first post here. By some twist of luck, I've been able to receive 5.1 at my Clive home for many months, so I've been watching for changes. Nice that they've now upped their power. I believe what we're seeing now, though, is a highly compressed "HD" signal. It's so highly compressed that it's having the effect of being something less than even normal standard definition, except during times when the video image stays still for a few seconds. Then the compression gets a few seconds to catch up and sharpen the image up. The soft "posterized" look we see is an MPEG compression artifact. I have no internal knowledge of WOI's plant, but I'd guess that we're currently looking at what may eventually be WOI-DT's "emergency backup" studio-to-transmitter link, perhaps over a T1 land line. They're probably still working on their HD microwave STL. But, we're seeing the first signs of them doing something more than just upconverting and retransmitting their plain old NTSC program. It's a real process getting this stuff on the air, involving a lot of "invisible" components and first-generation hardware headaches.

"I see!"

I was just in Ames over the weekend and saw WOI-DT! Yes, it had the occasional blurring you described, but the signal itself was very stable.

Hopefully they can get their studio-transmitter link working. I remember their analog seemed to have some occasional "cleanliness" issues since they moved their master control from Ames to West Des Moines in the late '90s, so it must not be the easiest path in the world.

BTW, it was interesting to see how popular the 13-2 "First Alert Mega Doppler" kiosks were on Friday night at the State Fair!

From ABC:

"While it performs upgrades at its HDTV release facility, the ABC television
network will be interrupting its HDTV feed to its affiliate stations
beginning Tuesday, Aug. 23, and continuing through Friday, Aug. 26.

Viewers of ABC will experience no interruption of programming. However,
viewers watching on high-definition equipment will see an upconverted
network feed and not a high-definition feed during this period."

http://www.woitv.com/

They are really advertising their full power HD tonight. Will be nice to check out

Well, I don't see any real improvements for this game either. Everyone else the same way? Still have both sound and picture issues.

Both sound and picture seem to be stable, but as I said the other night, the picture is really soft and washed out with movement, then you have those moments where there is little action and it looks great....hopefully WOI or ABC get that figured out...either way good job WOI

I hope this isn't what we can expect from WOI once the football season starts. I'm assuming this is the HD signal, as my audio receiver is decoding Dolby 5.1 audio signal. The picture is very poor, even in comparison with the (compressed) HD I receive from DirecTV. But then I may be expecting too much from WOI, given their history.

Both sound and picture seem to be stable, but as I said the other night, the picture is really soft and washed out with movement, then you have those moments where there is little action and it looks great....hopefully WOI or ABC get that figured out...either way good job WOI


Yeah I just noticed that as well. When the action is taking place picture looks average at best but when they do a close-up on somebody who is standing relatively still the picture looks pretty darn good. Hope they fix that, but I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up being the best that we get.

I get both an east and a west coast feed through a Canadian satellite and the WOI sound and picture are both very poor by comparison. The signal is strong and relatively stable but I can't stand the poor video quality.

Sorry if this question has been answered (sure it has). I cuurently have Direct TV and am wanting the local channels in HD so I can watch football. What do I have to do to make this work I live right outside Des Moines in Urbandale. Thanks and I appreciate your help

Sorry if this question has been answered (sure it has). I cuurently have Direct TV and am wanting the local channels in HD so I can watch football. What do I have to do to make this work I live right outside Des Moines in Urbandale. Thanks and I appreciate your help

You should be able to get all the digital stations in the area with just rabbitt ears, I have heard the "silver sensor" is the best.
NBC,PBS,CBS,FOX all have a good strong digital signal and do HD programs really well.
ABC has only recently increased their digital signal and while it is a strong and steady now their HD isn't up to speed yet.

You will need a HD capable receiver to watch HD on the local channels, and of course a HD tv, some TV's have a HD tuner already.

I use an HD-Tivo and rarely have problems with any of the locals anymore, they also recently dropped the price on the HD-Tivo.

If you want the HD package from DirectTv you will need the triple lnb dish.
I dropped the HD package and will only use it during NFL season so I can watch Sunday Night Football on ESPN HD. I also have the NFL Sunday Ticket package, it is the only way I can watch my team every week as the locals around here tend to only show the Vikes, Bears, and Chiefs.

Bryan

You should be able to get all the digital stations in the area with just rabbitt ears, I have heard the "silver sensor" is the best.
NBC,PBS,CBS,FOX all have a good strong digital signal and do HD programs really well.
ABC has only recently increased their digital signal and while it is a strong and steady now their HD isn't up to speed yet.

You will need a HD capable receiver to watch HD on the local channels, and of course a HD tv, some TV's have a HD tuner already.

I use an HD-Tivo and rarely have problems with any of the locals anymore, they also recently dropped the price on the HD-Tivo.

If you want the HD package from DirectTv you will need the triple lnb dish.
I dropped the HD package and will only use it during NFL season so I can watch Sunday Night Football on ESPN HD. I also have the NFL Sunday Ticket package, it is the only way I can watch my team every week as the locals around here tend to only show the Vikes, Bears, and Chiefs.

Bryan


Thanks for your reply I have a HDTivo with a HD TV. Does NFL Sunday ticket come in HD? As far as antennas I picked a little one up from radio shack and it works fine.

NFL Sunday Ticket does come in HD, however this year you have to pay extra for it.
It is called the "Super Fan" package and it is $99 extra if you are a new subscriber to the Sunday Ticket, if you subscribed to the Sunday Ticket last year they lower the price to $49.

Bryan

Now that WOI has a steady signal how about working on those PQ issues, the movie the other night was suppose to be in HD....what I saw didn't even pass as SD quality...I hope to god WOI isn't going to leave it at this and say "there we met FCC guidelines leave us alone"

I too noticed the soft image. From the looks of it, it appears they are encoding at the wrong bitrate (too low). It should be around 19 megabits/sec ideally. It looks like they are pushing out much less than that. I contacted the station and they indicated they will be doing some additional testing tonight (and I hope some tweaking). So far, it looks the same, but signal strength appears to have improved somewhat.

You know though... for WOI this is a giant leap forward. I will give them credit for getting there. They are only 2 or so years behind their competition, but now they have momentum! Hey, you HAVE to look for the bright stuff here :rolleyes:

While watching the game, (and the Lions still suck ), the picture almost seems to be getting better... but it could be me. They still have the switch between SD and HD to work on too. I hope the engineer is having fun though, finally. It has to be good to finally get to play with the toys.

I'd be surprised if it gets any better than what we are seeing currently on WOI-DT. They will say we did the "upgrades" and this is the best we can do and it passes regulations. yada yada yada :mad:

oh man; that would really suck! But, I do see your point. :-)

Interesting note from eastern Iowa:

Apparently WHBF-DT (CBS Rock Island, same owner as WOI-DT) has been doing some testing of its own -- and viewers on the Cedar Rapids - Davenport thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=365282&goto=lastpost) are making similar complaints about what they see as "soft" picture quality.

I can't get WHBF from my Cedar Rapids apartment, but it sounded awfully similar to what I saw on 'OI when I was in central Iowa almost a couple of weeks back.

Wonder if anyone local has mobile HD units yet... sure would be nice to see ISU vs UI in HD. Is it televised nationally, or just WOI?

On Monday I got an email from Sawyer at WOI and was asked to watch MNF and then tell them what I thought. I Tivoed the game so I could view all parts of the game. On Tuesday I emailed them back and told them although I live in Nevada,IA I should be getting a signal higher than 67-71. All other stations I receive at 85-90. Because of the low signal I got alot of picture breakups and a very soft and posterized picture. I told them that I was hoping for better PQ by now. At times the analog picture was much better the the digital one. At the end I wished them good luck. Thought it couldn't hurt.

If they are FINALLY getting around to getting the HD stuff working, and they are asking for help, and taking feedback in a way that is helpful to us and to them, then all is well, and I would be more than willing to give feedback as well.

As for the "soft" picture, I live by Granger, up on a hill, and have excellent reception. Their signal is weaker than other stations, but strong enough that I don't think the picture quality had to do with actual reception. It's digitial, so you're either going to see something or you are going to see pixelation as the math is done to figure out what it can do with limited data. I wasn't getting artifacts that would say the signal strength was a problem. What I was seeing was like watching an over-compressed video. The grass was ugly green pulsating blobs, for example, instead of blades of grass on the field. This would be typical of a low bandwidth/high compression problem.

Just my $02. How did you manage to get them to ask you what you thought?

Someone earlier in this thread had posted to go to the WOI homepage and they had a link for feedback on their HD signal. I filled out a form and gave them my thoughts on their PQ. Then on Monday I got an email from this Sawyer fellow and asked me to watch MNF and let them know what I thought of the PQ. I misstated in my earlier post about the signal level and the PQ quality. What I meant to say was, because of the low signal I was getting pixelation and the softness and posterization was what I was seeing on my TV. This I thought had to do with compression and maybe bit rate.

Wonder if anyone local has mobile HD units yet... sure would be nice to see ISU vs UI in HD. Is it televised nationally, or just WOI?
Last I checked it was ABC regional. I know KCRG is showing it out here in the eastern part of the Cyclone state. :)
(To my Hawkeye friends: Hey, at least the smiley comes out in black and gold!)

In case you hadn't heard yet, ESPN2-HD is supposed to go live on DirecTV September 8.

Hello all-

I recently purchased a Pioneer PDP 5050 Plasma for my house in Oskaloosa, IA. I'm about 60 miles from DSM and want to start watching some HD or SD off-air. I visited antennaweb to get some info about whether I would be able to reach the DT signal and it looks like I would.

The question I have is that we currently have an old antenna on top of our house that probably reaches 25 - 30 feet up in the air from the ground. I'm not sure if it can pick up HD signals, but I know for sure it picks up Analog b/c we have had it over the air in the past.

My TV has a DT signal strength tester, but it has no readings coming through?? Any pointers for what I can do? Is there someone in Des Moines that does signal strength readings from your house?? Thanks for your help.

I have seen this here in Sioux City on KSIN-DT 27.2. This only started after the fair coverage began. 27.1 has HD content all day, and 27.2 has been simulcasting the analogue. Dunno how long this will last tho, the official spiel from Johnston was that there will eventually be a maximum of four channels running on digital. When HD broadcasts like Nature or NOVA are showing it's possible that 27.1 will soak up all of the bandwidth and push the other channels offline. I have been trying to contact IPTV and discover whether the SD simulcast of the analogue signal will continue or not.

Being a fan of Britcoms and Doctor Who, I have a need for the regular signals. It would be great to get them on digital, but mum so far.

I'm answering in this thread as I am also moving back to the DM area and have been watching this WOI debacle for a while. Too bad for ABC, I knew Ray Cole when he was General Manager of KCAU/ABC in Sioux City. My dad went to school with him back in the day.

Speaking of IPTV ...

Today I started getting a subchannel 2 again on the Waterloo IPTV station, KRIN-DT. Channel 32-2 is running a simulcast of IPTV analog.

Channel 32-1 continues to run all HD or widescreen, all the time.

Anyone getting an 11-2 in Des Moines?

(P.S.: Glad to hear you'll be getting ABC soon!)

I have seen this here in Sioux City on KSIN-DT 27.2. This only started after the fair coverage began. 27.1 has HD content all day, and 27.2 has been simulcasting the analogue. Dunno how long this will last tho, the official spiel from Johnston was that there will eventually be a maximum of four channels running on digital. When HD broadcasts like Nature or NOVA are showing it's possible that 27.1 will soak up all of the bandwidth and push the other channels offline. I have been trying to contact IPTV and discover whether the SD simulcast of the analogue signal will continue or not.

Being a fan of Britcoms and Doctor Who, I have a need for the regular signals. It would be great to get them on digital, but mum so far.

I'm answering in this thread as I am also moving back to the DM area and have been watching this WOI debacle for a while. Too bad for ABC, I knew Ray Cole when he was General Manager of KCAU/ABC in Sioux City. My dad went to school with him back in the day.

tommygun:

Reception basics are the same whether you're talking analog or digital. The only "tricky" thing is this:

While channels 5, 8, 11 and 13 show up on DT receivers using those numbers, they're actually simulcasting their DT using UHF frequencies, at least for now. Therefore, whether you get analog 5, 8, 11 or 13 is not as important as whether you get analog 17 or 23. (5, 8, 11, 13, 17 and 23 all transmit from the Alleman area.)

If you're getting analog 17 or 23 with little or no ghosting, and no more than a little "snow", you should be able to get the DTs of everything but 23, which doesn't have a DT yet. Otherwise, you may need to upgrade at least the UHF part of your antenna.

I wouldn't throw away the VHF part, though ... Central Iowa's VHF channels are seeking to go back to VHF when the analog stations are shut off.

I was just on the WOITV forum and asked them if they were having problems. Basically they said yes. They asked for patience and time. I told them most of us had no problem with that and just asked that we all be kept informed. No info is NOT good news. The moderator said he would try to get some info for us later this week, but he did say there were delays. :( .

Hi All,

Just installed the Antenna Direct SR15 on my roof in Windsor Heights. I'm getting excellent signal strength from ABC, NBC, and FOX (70+) - but I'm having trouble with CBS and PBS (less than 30). I thought these stations were all transmitting from the same location. Should I try re-aiming the antenna, or consider a booster?

Also, can anyone explain the difference among the multiple FOX and PBS options? I notice that one of the FOX options transmits 5.1 audio.

dline:

It looks like I'm only getting 5, 8, 11, & 13 on analog so perhaps I just need an antenna upgrade or a professional signal reading from my location in Oskaloosa. Can you give me some references of places to go and shop for antennas or ask more questions in Des Moines? I love my new TV, but it's pointless without the HD programming. Oh one more thing... I recently went with Dish Network for my provider. Are they doing distant HD for the top four networks?

Thx

tommygun

Anybody happen to watch the Miami/FSU game tonight? It looks like WOI-DT has a much better picture quality. WOI Forums moderator is threatening to take forums away if we don't an interest in anything other than HDTV forums. What a load of crap!

Does anyone know if WHO and the local Fox station are broadcasting at max power?

I live in WDM in a low area with a hill and large houses and trees to the north of me (toward Alleman) and I have always had trouble getting those two stations in (2 years now). I have a large Channel Master antenna (can't remember the model) on a 10' mast on the highest peek of my house. I am running a 22Db power amp. I get WOI at about 66%, KCCI at 90% and PBS at about 70%. At times I've had WHO and FOX come in strong but it has allways been short lived.

Thanks
Jeff

thats strange
WOI is the weakest where i live (south of dsm) and i got 75-80%
FOX is 2nd weakest (83%)

the rest are 95+ with a simple indoor antenna

WOI is weakest around 70
FOX is next mid 70's
KCCI, WHO, IPTV are all 90+

I live about 30 miles from the towers and use a channel master with preamp.
Maybe you should try an adjustable attennuator from radio shack. It sounds strange but you may be getting too strong a signal and are overdriving your receiver. The HD-Tivo has problems with too strong a signal.
All stations transmit from the same area. Alleman.
In WDM if you get strong signals from some of the stations you should get strong signals from all of them.
You might try re-aiming your antenna to bring in the weak stations and the strong stations should still be good. Anything above 70 is acceptable in my experience.
If you buy a variable attenuator from radio shack and it doesn't help you can always take it back and get your money back.

The Miami-FSU game last night on WOI still wasn't acceptable as far as HD is concerned. The signal was strong and steady but the HD wasn't up to par.
Bryan

I still have problems with WOI. Last night during the game, it would freeze up and jam my receiver. I had to unplug it and down load twice to get it to work again. The picture was constantly going in and out of focus and it was breaking up off and on between freezing. I live in West Des Moines and get most of the other channels without problem. The one partial exception being IPTV which sometimes breaks up also.
Why can't WOI get its act together?

Received this today from Doug Sawyer @ WOI (in response to my post re: their HD reception)

Hello,

Just to let you know, they've found the gremlin in our HDTV system that
was
causing problems.
Look for a much better picture soon!

Doug

I checked out ESPN 2 on channel 72 (D*) this morning. It looked pretty good. It was a long time coming. Watched Lost last night and at times the picture was very good. :)

I talked with a co-worker that has mediacom HD pack and he said that only 13, 8 and 11 are currently being fed to the Mediacom customers in HD. Has anyone heard when 5 and 17 will be in there lineup in HD?

I currently have E* and am frustrated with trying to get a couple of our local digital stations (13 & 17) through my antenna because of my low location in WDM. Plus I like the fact that Mediacom offers the HD DVR free for only a small mthly rental fee.

Thanks.
Jeff

Received this today from Doug Sawyer @ WOI (in response to my post re: their HD reception)

Hello,

Just to let you know, they've found the gremlin in our HDTV system that
was
causing problems.
Look for a much better picture soon!

Doug

Hopefully soon means 8PM tonight!

I talked with a co-worker that has mediacom HD pack and he said that only 13, 8 and 11 are currently being fed to the Mediacom customers in HD. Has anyone heard when 5 and 17 will be in there lineup in HD?

I currently have E* and am frustrated with trying to get a couple of our local digital stations (13 & 17) through my antenna because of my low location in WDM. Plus I like the fact that Mediacom offers the HD DVR free for only a small mthly rental fee.

Thanks.
Jeff

DirectTv will have locals in HD in the future. Not sure how far into the future, rumor has it in late 06.

Bryan

Received this today from Doug Sawyer @ WOI (in response to my post re: their HD reception)

Hello,

Just to let you know, they've found the gremlin in our HDTV system that
was
causing problems.
Look for a much better picture soon!

Doug

Be very interesting to see how long it takes to fix this "Gremlin". Somehow I'm guessing it won't be a short time period. Wish it would be fixed for tonight's Patriots vs. Raiders game! :mad:

I talked with a co-worker that has mediacom HD pack and he said that only 13, 8 and 11 are currently being fed to the Mediacom customers in HD. Has anyone heard when 5 and 17 will be in there lineup in HD?

I wouldn't hold my breath for 17 since Sinclair Broadcast Group owns them. They're pretty well known in the industry for trying to get cable companies to pay to retransmit their DT signals. There hasn't been a lot written about 5's owners in that regard, but they did have trouble negotiating with Dish Network early on, when sat companies started offering Des Moines local SD channels. (They've since reached an agreement.)

Congrats WOI you look great tonight!!!!

Holy Crap it's working!! Unbelievable!

For the first time in my life I'm going to say great job WOI!

I believe the 'gremlin' has been removed. First time I've actually seen a legit HD signal from WOI (Raiders - Pats game). Comparing to WABC-HD on DirecTV, picture looks comparable. Audio levels are a little lower, but 5.1 surround seems to be working well also.

Hoping the Iowa - ISU game is available in HD and things are working this well on Saturday.

Can't say I expected WOI to get things working given their recent history, but so far so good...

Did anyone else's WOI feed go lousy at the end of the Patriot's first posession? It was looking and sounding great and then all of a sudden everything broke up. Just wondering if it's my signal or the station.

Now picture s mostly back, but no audio... just me?

Now picture s mostly back, but no audio... just me?

I'm seeing the same - perfect (or close) during the opening drive, then some breakups. Seems to be clearing up now on the Raider's 2nd drive. Tweaking?

I believe the 'gremlin' has been removed. First time I've actually seen a legit HD signal from WOI (Raiders - Pats game). Comparing to WABC-HD on DirecTV, picture looks comparable. Audio levels are a little lower, but 5.1 surround seems to be working well also.

Hoping the Iowa - ISU game is available in HD and things are working this well on Saturday.

Can't say I expected WOI to get things working given their recent history, but so far so good...

The opening of the show, and until the Patriots possession which resulted in their first field goal was VERY good. Excellent DD 5.1 and no breakup in th pix.

The last 4 plays before the field goal were so broken up that it was unwatchable. Now the 2nd Raider possession has started (about 8:27 p.m). and the pix is fine again, although the sound dropped out when it was so badly pixellated and has not returned, but the pix is good.

The receiver is hung...it won't respond to the remote, had to do a hard reset ...which it is booting up from now and downloading the guide info. Receiver is a Samsung 360 which has given me no trouble whatsoever.

OK...pix and sound are back...now let's see how long it lasts. Hmmmm..5 mins and no break-up.

I'll post later if I have time

[QUOTE=flysupes]Now picture s mostly back, but no audio... just me?[/QUOTE

No, it's not just you, my symptoms were identical with the same break-up and loss of audio at the same part of the game you referred to.

The Raiders' 2nd drive had no break-up at all. They just punted and went to commercial.

It is unlikely that several of us separated by many miles would have received multi-path or other propagation effects at the same time...it has to be the station.

I still have no sound.

Picture looks damn good though!

I still have no sound.

Do a "reset" on your receiver. Does it have a reset button? It will download the guide (after rebooting), takes a few mins, and since then, audio has been fine.

No HD for Iowa-Iowa State, but at least the digital SD picture will be a better than a analog signal...havent had any breakups after the initial ones...man this looks very comparable to FOX quality awesome stuff for WOI!!!

That did it! Thanks Hasan!!

That did it! Thanks Hasan!!

You bet, that's what these forums are for. So far so good, nearly 9 p.m., and no more brakeups, audio or vidoe. Video is pretty sharp. I'll report back later. Gotta watch another program with the wife, then will switch back to FB and see if the signal and pix quality has held in there.

Finally WOI has a great picutre, but like everyone else I am getting alot of breakup. My signal strength ranges from near 0 to mid 30's to upper 60's. I hope the next big hurdle will be to get the station up to full power. Congrats to WOI. :)

All I can say is WOW! Turned it on, noticed it was coming in at 59-1 instead of 5-1 now, so figured they are still working on it... and wow are they! I'd say it's looking as good as CBS HD now! Bout time. Nice work WOI.

Wow, pigs fly, and WOI does HD football. I'm glad they got it up and running before I move back in a month or so.

Other than the breakups when they were tweaking things it looks great.
At least we will get 1 season of HD MNF out of WOI.
They are also doing the Super Bowl this year IIRC.

Good job! Finally

Bryan

Just checked the signal meter and WOI is coming in at high 70's which is stronger than KDSM which is in the mid 70's, all the others are 90+.

Bryan

Hmm my signal is still low 70's whereas FOX is low 80's....as for better than CBS I wish...CBS and NBC both use 1080i for sports whereas FOX and ABC use 720p....for me the 1080i signals always look better on both my mitsui and my infocus x1...

Can anyone tell me where the WOI DT tower is located? Is it at the Alleman location like the rest of the group? Also, are they full power yet?

Can anyone tell me where the WOI DT tower is located? Is it at the Alleman location like the rest of the group? Also, are they full power yet?

All digital stations are transmitting at Alleman.

16 KDSM
19 WHO
31 KCCI
50 IPTV
59 WOI

KDSM is my weakest signal(mid 70's), then WOI(high 70's), all others are 90+

Can't tell you if they are transmitting at full power. I get all of them and am about 30 miles from the towers. So I am a happy camper!
Bryan

Let me start by saying I'm a novice at this HD stuff, so bare with me please!

I have an HD TV, Direct TV (with the HD package) and get my local channels (HD) over an antenna on the roof. When I press the "guide" button, I get 3 (or 4) different channels for all the other locals, including 1 channel that is HD. I understand that WOI is now broadcasting in HD (yeah!!!) on 5.1 or 59. My question is, how do I get my receiver to program / pick up 5.1 or 59? Right now I only get 2 Channel 5's (as I always have), neither of which are HD. Thanks for your help.

BJ-if you don't think it will hurt anything, you might wait until you are sure 5-1 is on and then letting the receiver go through the set up process again where it automatically scans the channels.
You can also add the channel manually and it is probably in the receiver set up mode also. If you just want to check to see if it is on and go there manually, on my Directv receiver the right > button is also the (-) button so I can hit 5-1 and go there that way.
(If on the other hand you have an old Panasonic receiver like I do in my other room that is supposed to get local HD channels, you may be screwed because a lot of people like myself could never get the local HD to work. I now have a LG receiver that works great for the local stuff in that half of the house.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Channel 5-1 looked great Thursday night but my receiver froze up once again. Does anyone else have a problem with this and channel 5-1? It doesn't happen on 8-1, 13-1 etc. or I would think that my receiver was at fault. (The drop outs start and then the picture freezes. At that point, no control on my receiver will work and I have to get up and unplug it, then let it download the software again. This is the Directv receiver that is less than a year old.)

Let me start by saying I'm a novice at this HD stuff, so bare with me please!

I have an HD TV, Direct TV (with the HD package) and get my local channels (HD) over an antenna on the roof. When I press the "guide" button, I get 3 (or 4) different channels for all the other locals, including 1 channel that is HD. I understand that WOI is now broadcasting in HD (yeah!!!) on 5.1 or 59. My question is, how do I get my receiver to program / pick up 5.1 or 59? Right now I only get 2 Channel 5's (as I always have), neither of which are HD. Thanks for your help.

You need to go into your setup and look for where you can tell it to scan channels (when you know 5.1 is on the air). When you do a scan (of digital channels) if it finds it, it will be added to your list. The easiest way to do this is to tune your receiver to an existing digital channel, like CBS, then go into setup, select the "scan digital channels" item, and let it go look...takes a couple minutes. When it's done, it will add the channel.

Extra Channel 5's that you don't want on the menu can be put on the "don't display" list in your Profile setup.

You don't say what kind of receiver you are using, so I don't know your particular menu structure. I have a Samsung 360.

BJ-if you don't think it will hurt anything, you might wait until you are sure 5-1 is on and then letting the receiver go through the set up process again where it automatically scans the channels.
You can also add the channel manually and it is probably in the receiver set up mode also. If you just want to check to see if it is on and go there manually, on my Directv receiver the right > button is also the (-) button so I can hit 5-1 and go there that way.
(If on the other hand you have an old Panasonic receiver like I do in my other room that is supposed to get local HD channels, you may be screwed because a lot of people like myself could never get the local HD to work. I now have a LG receiver that works great for the local stuff in that half of the house.)
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Channel 5-1 looked great Thursday night but my receiver froze up once again. Does anyone else have a problem with this and channel 5-1? It doesn't happen on 8-1, 13-1 etc. or I would think that my receiver was at fault. (The drop outs start and then the picture freezes. At that point, no control on my receiver will work and I have to get up and unplug it, then let it download the software again. This is the Directv receiver that is less than a year old.)

It is perfectly normal for a lot of the satellite receivers to freeze in response to breaking up....it confuses the receiver and it goes into an unknown state and cannot recover until it is reset. My 360 has done it in response to WOI digital.

So, until WOI gets their act straight, you (and I, and others) will be doint a lot of resets to recover the normal operation of our receivers.

I have an HD TV, Direct TV (with the HD package) and get my local channels (HD) over an antenna on the roof. ....... My question is, how do I get my receiver to program / pick up 5.1 or 59?
Like mentioned, somewhere in the setup, you should be able to re-scan.

You do not mention the brand of your DirectTv HD box, but most likely it has the advanced program guide (APG). If this works on your brand like it does on my Zenith HD-SAT520 with APG, somewhere in your setup you can enter your zip code and it will pull the info from DirectTV without any scanning for channels. I know WOI-DT IS there, cause I have programmed for Des Moines stations before and see it listed.

Anybody else having problems getting a picture on 5.1 or 59.1 since Thursday? It sounds like they might have remapped the signal from 5.1 to 59.1 that day, but I don't get picture on either channel. It was fine before. They evidently did something else to their signal that my receiver is unable to decode. When I check signal strength, it shows 80%+ on either channel. But when I tune to either channel it says 'No TV signal'. All other digital channels in the area come in great even with 70% signal strength. Help!!

Hasan-thank for the info about the receiver freezing.

Channel 5 looked great at the beginning of the Ohio St vs Texas game then went into the toilet. I gave up trying to watch the HD channel before half time. I wish someone with money would buy them.

Let's see how they do on MNF tomorrow. There's always hope <g>

Anybody else having problems getting a picture on 5.1 or 59.1 since Thursday? It sounds like they might have remapped the signal from 5.1 to 59.1 that day, but I don't get picture on either channel. It was fine before. They evidently did something else to their signal that my receiver is unable to decode. When I check signal strength, it shows 80%+ on either channel. But when I tune to either channel it says 'No TV signal'. All other digital channels in the area come in great even with 70% signal strength. Help!!
I have the exact same problem when using my Media Center 2005 PC. I have tried the AverTVHD program and Media Center to tune in the channel, but neither one gets any picture. I also tried adding 1591 (channel 59). No luck. Anyone have any ideas?

seriously.. Anyone have ANY ideas about this? My MCE computer has never had any problems with WOI's signal until just recently. Now both channel 5-1 and the manual 1591 show up with 6 green bars (full signal on MCE interface), but say no TV signal detected when I try to tune to them. I also tried 5-2 and 5-3 just for giggles, but the same thing there (signal but no picture). Anyone?

I hope this isn't premature, but it seems that the WOI-DT picture is back for us MCE2005 users. Now we all have to work on KPWB! Enjoy your 2005 football season!

Hello Des Moines,

I just moved to Polk City, IA from Florida and when I got set up with Mediacom, they did not provide me the Motorola 6412 "Phase III" box. Does anyone out there know when or if Mediacom is going to provide these? It's definitely the ticket for widescreen users to view analog signals better.

On a positive note for me, it looks like I'm just 4-6 miles from the OTA towers.

I look forward to talking to you guys as time goes on.

Thanks,

MNF last night was pretty good. WOI blew it in the 4th qrt though. The HD signal became unwatchable in the 4th qrt, like they were "testing" things.

Do us a favor and test during halftime.

Bryan

Will Des Moines ever get UPN? Not a very exciting station, really, but I sometimes wonder why we don't have it.

MNF last night was pretty good. WOI blew it in the 4th qrt though. The HD signal became unwatchable in the 4th qrt, like they were "testing" things.

Do us a favor and test during halftime.

Bryan

It was a nationwide problem; it was with the uplink to the satellite.

Do we know if WOI is at full power yet. Every time I watch WOI I get major pixelation. All the other stations come in just fine. I am beginning to wonder if I need a new anenna or what. When I do get the digital signal, the picture is great. It seems my signal strength is always around 70, if it is higher the picture is fine and if it is much below 70 the pixelation starts in. I'm just wondering because this weekend would be a good time to change my setup. :confused:

i was wondering the same thing. I'm about 60 miles south of Des Moines and I get NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS all just fine on my antenna, but I get nothing for WOI. It would be nice to see their digital signal area map to see if Oskaloosa is reached by the signal.

Will Des Moines ever get UPN? Not a very exciting station, really, but I sometimes wonder why we don't have it.
That's a tricky one.

Pappas Telecasting, owner of KPWB (analog 23, no digital) is still seeking approval to buy the rights to KDMI, a proposed digital-only station, from Caroline K. Powley. In an attachment they mention UPN as one possibility if they can get that license; other possibilities include a digital outlet for WB 23 and perhaps Spanish-language programming.

One sticking point is the FCC's duopoly rule. Pappas appears to make a pretty good case for a waiver, but I don't see that the FCC has ruled yet.

(Click here (http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1071231&Service=TV&Form_id=314&Facility_id=78915) to see their application. Click here (http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=321426) to see their petition to waive to duopoly rule, in .pdf.)

You're not alone in your suffering -- the Quad Cities has only a low-power UPN, and Waterloo's UPN doesn't reach Cedar Rapids. Both are analog only.

tommygun_00 I have just recently been able to pick up channel 5 in Osky. I can get it at about 65-67% in the same antenna location as 8,13,11,and 17, but if I move my antenna to the north a little more I can pick it up and lock at 80-85%

irishpride, what kind of set up do you have there for antenna?

I went to radioshack and bought the $79.99 antenna, and added the phillips 28db outdoor antenna amp. for $29.96. I don't know if you could get them without the amp. I had it from a previous set-up that could only get channel 13. I forgot to tell you it is on a 8 foot mast on my garage.

I currently have a Wineguard HD antenna on top of my house with a 6 foot pole plus an internal amp running to tv. I have the antenna pointed at 155 degrees with 190 being straight North. I pick up 8.1, 11.1, 11.2, 13.1, 13.2, 17.1 & 17.2. Everytime I search I have trouble picking up any ABC. I know that I don't have the greatest signal strength for these, but it seems like I should be able to pick up WOI if they are full power now. Any suggestions on a degree to try or have you tried Kirksville MO KTVO-DT 3.1??

I will try to get out later today to get you a compass reading.

i was wondering the same thing. I'm about 60 miles south of Des Moines and I get NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS all just fine on my antenna, but I get nothing for WOI. It would be nice to see their digital signal area map to see if Oskaloosa is reached by the signal.

60 miles, what kind of signal strength are you receiving from the towers at your location? I am considering a move approx 60 miles due west of the DM metro area (audubon, ia) and would be very interested in your experience with these stations at this distance.

KCAU (WOI's sister ABC station in Sioux City) does not have very decent DT service either at this time.

60 miles, what kind of signal strength are you receiving from the towers at your location? I am considering a move approx 60 miles due west of the DM metro area (audubon, ia) and would be very interested in your experience with these stations at this distance.

KCAU (WOI's sister ABC station in Sioux City) does not have very decent DT service either at this time.


I would first check out www.antennaweb.org at certain locations in audubon or if you know your new address. Antennaweb said I wouldn't be able to get any digital from my location, but I did some studying on this and found out that the parameters that they measure antennaweb with aren't very forgiving. Instead I use antenna selector through www.titantv.com. Here you will get a better idea of what you will be able to get and they provide the data for antennaweb so it is accurate.

I usually get around a 50-60 reading on most of those channels, but the nice part with digital is that it is either there and you can see it or it isn't. My house is down in a valley, but really I've been impressed thus far with the exception of WOI. It sucks not being able to watch MNF in HD!!

tommygun..... I checked my antenna, and with 190 as north, my antenna is pointed at 140. The Notre Dame game is on abc this week so on friday night I will move my antenna to get the best reception and give you a compass reading of it. I have to move the antenna by hand, if I spend one more dollar on anything that has to do with my tv the wife is going to kill me. So no rotor for me! By the way I have never pointed my antenna south to try to get channel 3, but I know you can get 5 if I can. It might take a pre amp and a taller mast, but you should get it.

tommygun..... I checked my antenna, and with 190 as north, my antenna is pointed at 140. The Notre Dame game is on abc this week so on friday night I will move my antenna to get the best reception and give you a compass reading of it. I have to move the antenna by hand, if I spend one more dollar on anything that has to do with my tv the wife is going to kill me. So no rotor for me! By the way I have never pointed my antenna south to try to get channel 3, but I know you can get 5 if I can. It might take a pre amp and a taller mast, but you should get it.

It looks like I can't get it. I tried pointing my antenna right where you told me as well as a few degrees either way and I still get nothing. It isn't even picking up the analog signal. I guess I'll have to get a taller mast or a tower in order to get it, but it just boggles me that I can get all the others ,but no signal for ABC. Guess I won't be watching anything in SD or HD.

Thanks for your help irish!

anyone else having sattelite reception troubel tonight? I'm south side of Des Moines and signal is out... searching for sattelite. Weather is perfectly clear. I'm missing Lost!

I think it's a problem with WOI. I have D*TV and an OTA antenna for HD. Both signals are having problems. I'm switching between both to try not to miss dialogue. Hopefully they show a rerun on Saturday like they did last year.

60 miles, what kind of signal strength are you receiving from the towers at your location? I am considering a move approx 60 miles due west of the DM metro area (audubon, ia) and would be very interested in your experience with these stations at this distance.

KCAU (WOI's sister ABC station in Sioux City) does not have very decent DT service either at this time.
You might also check into Omaha's stations. I lived in Audubon in the 1960's when I was very young. I seem to remember the Omaha stations came in better than Des Moines. Obviously much has changed since then, but for what it's worth ...

For awhile tonight all of the locals were out on D*..I was wondering if it was my HDTivo but other receivers were not getting the locals either.

Looks like I was not the only one who was having picture issues during Lost. Picture was breaking up throughout the show. At times it is good and then unwatchable.

Seems to be the norm for WOI. Picture may be good for 30 to an hour and then has issues.

Armaggedon the other night was good for the most part.

Is this what others are seeing as well??

ltrain, you had the same experience that I had. D* must have had major problems last night. Most LIL channels were screwy. As for WOIDT I am wondering if they will ever get things fixed.

60 miles, what kind of signal strength are you receiving from the towers at your location? I am considering a move approx 60 miles due west of the DM metro area (audubon, ia) and would be very interested in your experience with these stations at this distance.

KCAU (WOI's sister ABC station in Sioux City) does not have very decent DT service either at this time.
Someone suggested Omaha ... they have an ABC station owned by the same company which owns KCCI. It's called KETV, channel 7-1, digital channel is 20. Audubon is right on the edge of the FCC's map contour for KETV-DT, whether they're running full power or half power, so you may have a shot. It can't hurt.

Posted Friday, September 9, 2005




Please note that some indoor HDTV antennas may need some adjustment to properly receive our 1 million watt signal radiating from Alleman, Iowa on Channel 59.

I don't have to adjust mine to get any other station at 85-95%+ why should this matter and it doesn't work if you try it

this is a joke: http://www.woitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3667456

I finally was able to get WOI-DT 5-1 today over my lunch hour when I went home. Since my tuner doesn't let me just add individual digital channels I have to let it search for all the channels everytime I want to try to pick one up. I went home and turned on the search and it finally picked up ABC but only at 26% signal strength. I'm just pumped that it actually found it, cause now I can at least watch my Hawkeyes tomorrow in SD!!

Could someone post the latest HD channel list for Mediacom in Des Moines? We're moving within the metro area and I'm tired of all the OTA problems with HD. Now that we've dropped Sunday Ticket from D*, I have no allegiance to D*.

TIA,

Mediacom Lineup as of 9/23/05:

808 - KCCI DT (CBS)
811 - KDIN DT (PBS/IPTV)
813 - WHO DT (NBC)
830 - ESPN HD
831 - ESPN2HD
840 - Universal HD
841 - Discovery HD
850 - HDnet
851 - HDnet Movies

Pay Channels (come free if you subscribe to the channel)

880 - HBO HD
885 - Starz HD
890 - Showtime HD
892 - The Movie Channel HD

I am very happy with the picture quality of Mediacom. Also, the DVR records very well in HD. Its an extra five bucks a month, and I surely get my money's worth out of it. :)

808-KCCI(CBS)
811-KDIN(PBS)
813-WHO(NBC)
830-ESPN
831-ESPN2
840-Universal
841-Discovery
850-HDNet
851-HDNet Movies
880-HBO
885-Starz
890-Show
892-The Movie Channel

I am jealous of you Mediacom people watching ISU in HD....only if Dish Network would get on that ball!!!

I hear that, dish is testing my patients with espn2 hd.

Interesting... Mediacom here in CR has INHD1 & INHD2.....

Damn I want INHD1 and 2 :/

I have an outdoor antenna on the top of my two story house. I get 17,13,8, and 11 with a great picture no problems at 90% plus signal strength. I can only get 5 at 60% or so today and the picture is breaking up so bad you can't even look at it. Guess I will watch the Hawkeyes on regular channel 5 on Dishnetwork with the crappy picture 5 has always had on Dish. WOI needs to get there stuff together.

I can't believe how bad (actually I can) the picture is. The first half of the 1st Qtr was good, but the last half of the 1st Qtr has been un-watchable on WOI-DT. Come on WOI...get it together!

It just keeps getting worse, I tried to call them but I couldn't reach anyone. I hate watching Notre Dame on dishnetwork locals!

It looks like CBS KCCI is having trouble with their audio for the noon game today. Anyone else having the problem? It isn't playing the commentators talking... which really may not be all that bad!

Dialogue came back about 2-ish in the afternoon. It seems as though it may have been some weird interaction between the metadata that was being sent from network that caused the Dolby encoder to freak out. Just as an FYI, in a few weeks, it will be much easier for us to monitor the 5.1 signal going out. Oh, and I got a promotion...so soon I too will be among the button pushers. ;) And yes, I will try my best to not forget to flip the proverbial switch when I am there. :D

Was anyone else having problems with KCCI DT yesterday during the Bears game? Picture kept breaking up on me. Couldn't get a solid signal. I have been noticing that more and more with this station lately. I know the weather wasn't that good yesterday so I don't know if that was causing the issue or what. But KCCI's signal use to come in the best for me but lately it breaks up way more than any of the other stations do.

Am I the only one having this problem?

MNF is just starting. It's breaking up terribly. (again).

I'm not that picky...I can tolerate a lot of defects, but this is ridiculous.

I keep hoping that it is going to get better, but I see no evidence of it.

MNF signal is choppy at best. I've had to go back to my D*TV signal. Grr. Can't they get this right? I've been trying to HD TiVo my favorite shows, but have missed critical moments when the signal breaks up. Why can't WOI get it right?

MNF HD on WOI was unwatchable last night. Long stretches of no problems followed by long stretches of a lot of video and audio breakups.
Maybe WOI will get it right in time for the SuperBowl?!?

Bryan

Dialogue came back about 2-ish in the afternoon. It seems as though it may have been some weird interaction between the metadata that was being sent from network that caused the Dolby encoder to freak out. Just as an FYI, in a few weeks, it will be much easier for us to monitor the 5.1 signal going out. Oh, and I got a promotion...so soon I too will be among the button pushers. ;) And yes, I will try my best to not forget to flip the proverbial switch when I am there. :D

Congrats on the promotion!
I haven't had any problems with your station's HD video signal in a looong time.

The audio is always a lot lower on the digital channel than the analog channel though. Also the audio on the commercials are way too loud compared to the show's audio.

Is this a station issue? or a network issue?

Thanks,
Bryan

Congrats KC and thanks for keeping us all updated on the HD conings and goings. I hope that your info will not stop now that you are a big shot. :)

I too have the volume issue. Much lower on the HD channel?

In addition I am a HDTivo-ite and hate to tivo a game only to find out later that it is unwatchable. Hopefully this will all go away in the near future.

I have the HDTivo and generally have no problems with any of the stations except WOI of course.

The digital audio VS the analog audio is my biggest complaint right now. I am not talking 5.1 audio issues either, just the regular audio signal. It seems all the stations have much lower audio volumes on the digital channels. Maybe it is a quirk with the hdtivo?

Once ABC loses MNF I won't watch that channel much if at all.

Bryan

Thanks for the info KC and good luck with your new promotion. HD is great for me too with the exception of the loud commercials and the audio being soft, but really not an issue.

I have only been able to get WOI one time and since then I get nothing. The signal strength is usually aroun 23 out of 100, so that could tell the story. WOI needs to step up for Central Iowa!

Thanks everyone. :)

And no, you're not the only ones to have noticed the differing audio levles. Usually it's a local thing in how equipment is setup in the transmission chain. The mystical new room is almost complete and should have better monitoring equipment to ensure the audio & video for both analog & digital are more consistently monitored.

Also, I believe some of the different audio levels are due to the flipping back and forth from 5.1 to 2.0. My receiver at home is too dumb to tell me, but do other stations actually change their encoding from surround to stereo during network and local commercials?

I hate to keep harping about WOI but it is getting very frustrating. At times the picture is great and then bang---- it is unwatchable. If WOI is still playing with their signal why are they doing it in prime time or during a football game. It really seems to be odd that they can't keep a good picture for an hour. I don't remember the other channels having this much problem. :(

ISU54 - I agree

For all Des Moines viewers
WOI has the feeback form on the website. I gave them feedback today and will after trying to watch Boston Legal. Signal was unwatchable from 9:20 to at least 9:30. I started watching the HD feed again at 9:45 and it was fine until the shows end.

I told them to check the AVS board as well and they could see more concerns.

So if you get a chance fill out the form - it can't hurt.

It almost sounds like maybe they're having power issues. Since I still have yet to get a halfway decent signal from them... has anyone compared the signal level between a 'good' time and a 'bad' time?

I did almost get a solid picture last night... only sad thing was that it was after they had signed off and I couldn't even see their prom slide.

KC,
Everytime the picture goes bad the signal strength remains very close to 80. After adjusting my antenna my signal has remained close to 80 at all times. I still get KCCI @ about 95, KDIN@85, WHO@90+ and KDSM@80. I have freinds at work that can't get WOI at all. This all just seems very odd. If I were advertisers on WOI I would not very pleased.

Well I took a chance and set my myHD card to record the first episode of Commander in Chief on WOI last night. Needless to say the picture must have gone bad and locked up the computer. So I missed my subsequent recordings of Law and Order and Criminal Minds before I discovered the lockup.

They are truly a joke, I have yet to be able to watch an entire HD football game on their digital channel without the picture dissolving into an unwatchable matte of multicolored pixels. So I have decided to remove all WOI recordings from my schedules and will go back to ignoring all of their programming for another year. I have plenty of other HD material to watch.

Their monitoring and response in their HD forum is also a joke.

Does anyone know who to contact at WHO to ask technical questions regarding their digital signal? I search their website and saw nothing there. I suppose I could call the station directly and ask but I thought I would try here first and see if anyone knows.

Thanks.

If anyone does get the WHO contact, I'd like it too. I missed the 1st episode of West Wing because my D*TV HD TiVo does not show West Wing on Sunday night programming. It's weird that they don't display all their programming on the 13-1 signal. Not sure how I'll record the show if I'm not at home...

This is the only link I could find:
http://www.whotv.com/Global/Link.asp?L=56875

Bryan

I called back last Saterday and got to talk to a engineer. The number I called was the stations direct number off their internet site, I will find it and post at the end of this post. I can't recall the guys name I talked to, but he gave me some strange explanation about the ABC feed had to travel thru 5 boxes before it was sent ota and somewhere in one of those boxes the signal was getting scrambled so to speak. He seemed to have no control over it because WOI was sharing testing equipment that could fix the problem with several other stations. On last Saterday a different station had the equipment.

here's the number, ask for engineering or if is after hours there is a recording, just follow the directions it gies you for engineering.
515-457-9645

The more that call the faster they might get this problem fixed!

For those (like me) that are having trouble with WOI, you may want to try a different antenna. I live in Clive, way out by Waukee. I get every station, including WOI OTA, but WOI is very unstable. At times it is fine and others it is completely pixelized. You can see this behavior in the signal strength settings, which are anywhere from 74 down to 0 and bouncing everywhere in between. This despite trying every possible antenna placement and orientation that I can think of. I am using the Silver Sensor antenna. With this antenna, the signal strength varies all over the place based on what is happening in the house (blinds open, blinds closed, people walking in the living room, where you sit, etc.)

Today, my new Winegard SS-3000 SharpShooter antenna arrived. I've had it running for 3 hours now and I have to say that so far I am hopeful. WOI has been completely solid for that entire time. The antenna has a powered injector, which I also tried on the Silver Sensor and could not get the same good results. So, I have to believe it is the antenna and not just the addition of the power injector.

With the SS-3000, my signal strengths are NOT higher. However, they are very solid and stable. They vary a BUNCH based on the orientation and location of the SS-3000 but once you tweak the location, the signal strength appears to stay put. WOI isn't bouncing all over, it is a straight, solid 71 or so. The SS-3000 literature says that the antenna was specifically engineered for multipath problems and designed to pick up reflected signals indoors and filter out the rest. Evidence by my now stable WOI signal strength, I have to say that I am impressed so far.

I will let you know how this works out through a variety of weather conditions.

Easy

I have the same issue with WHO. Many times there is a HD show but does not show up in the programming. We need WHO to fix this. Let me know if you find a contact.

Anyone notice that it appears WOI has reduced their power output? I am pulling a 64-65% signal, which, last time i had checked it was in the 70's. My Antenna location/setup has not changed.

On a good note, even though its SD programming, at least its not breaking up...

WOI was perfect tonight during Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. Hopefullly they can keep this up!

Anyone else having issues with KDSM signal today?? During football today had a lot of signal breakup and signal strength was jumping around. Before I tempt fate with adjusting and ruining WOI wanted to make sure it was my antenna and not a channel issues.

WOI was great tonight and pretty much anytime I watched over the weekend. Hope this means good things.

I watched the entire Chief game on Fox with no problems with pixelation or sound. In fact the sound was amazing today. Fox does a great job with the sound and ambience.

Thanks - Will have to play around with the antenna. Usually KDSM is pretty solid so it was strange that I was having issues today.

Just wish every stations signal strength could be as good as KCCI and WHO.

WOI was perfect tonight during Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. Hopefullly they can keep this up!


Unfortunately it pixelated very badly for me during Housewives and most of the time (when I checked) the signal was so low that there was no picture at all. That's too bad because I would love to see the Housewives in HD. I have a similar problem on WHO-DT. In fact, WHO-DT is worse for me. I never get a picture. KCCI-DT, FOX-DT and PBS-DT, I get very well usually with no problems.

Thanks for the link to WHO's comment page btw2003. I went in and mentioned the problem with their online guide (at least for D* customers.) Saturday night was the premiere of SNL in Hi Def, but I couldn't go in and set up a season pass with my HD Tivo because the guide said SIGNED OFF. I noticed this is true for a lot of the time on WHO. I wrote and asked them to address the issue. If you have a second you may want to drop a note too... more names usually results in faster action!

flysupes,

your welcome. I did send a note to both WHO and DirectTv.
DirectTv replied to my email and asked that I called their technical support:
"call 1-800-531-5000 and select the option for technical assistance"

I haven't had a chance to call them about it yet. Maybe tonight.

Haven't seen any reply from WHO as of yet.

Bryan

Here's the response I got from WHO today. Great news.

____________________
We here at WHO-TV have been providing the information for our HD programming. Yours is the first feedback about this and it will be corrected.

Thank you for watching WHO-TV, that is something we never take for granted.

Dave Peterson
WHO-TV
515-242-3541
___________________

Anybody else watching SURFACE on WHO tonight? The signal keeps breaking up like I have weak signal.

Today I went to check on the WOI Forum page about some questions that I had asked and HD section was gone. This was the only area that had any posts for the last week or two. Of course in the Info area they now want you to go to the HD Feedback Link on the regular website to ask your question. This also says that they will get back to the poster personally. (Which they could have done in their forum.) If it wasn't for MNF and Lost I would never watch WOI. :(

This also says that they will get back to the poster personally. :(

I posted to their feedback webpage last week and got an email back the next day from Doug Sawyer, the Promotion Manager saying...

"I have forwarded your complaint to our CEO. He has promised to respond to
every viewer complaint."

So far, I have not heard from the CEO or anyone from WOI.

Ok guys,

I finally had a chance to call DirectTv about the incomplete guide data on channel 13-1...

He claimed that the OTA guide data is obtained by the antenna and not the satellite.
He even offered to replace my HD-Tivo, but I said this is the only problem I have and wouldn't want to exchange my receiver for something that probably will have the same problem anyway.

This is the first complaint that he has ever seen on this problem and it will not go any farther if other users don't also complain.

So if you are a DirectTv user who doesn't get complete guide data on channel 13-1 please call 1-800-695-9251 and ask for a HD technician and complain about incomplete guide data on channel 13-1.

I have emailed WHO about this problem but haven't heard anything from them. I just called the number Easy-E posted:
"Dave Peterson
WHO-TV
515-242-3541"

I left a voice mail message. I suggest others who have this problem do the same thing.


On another note I did record "Night Stalker" off channel 5-1 on 9/29 and it was flawless! Hopefully 5-1 has corrected all the problems.
Thanks,
Bryan

BTW

I too have the incomplete data issue with 13. I also have a HDTIVO (that I love). It is my very uneducated opinion that the problem is with WHO. I am able to receive the info from the other OTA channels which leads me to believe it is WHO

Agreed cad,

WHO's guide frequently says SIGNED OFF during high def programming. Happened again this weekend with SNL. I want to set up a season pass for SNL and other high def shows, but can't. C'mon WHO!

I sent a follow-up e-mail to Dave Peterson on Friday night reemphasizing the need for them to correct their schedule on 13-1. As of yet no response to the follow-up.

Regarding WHO-DT's guide info, try contacting Brad Olk (brad.olk@whotv.com) at WHO. He is the Chief Engineer. I emailed a question to a generic email at WHO and received back an email from Brad.

My email to Brad was a question asking if WHO is planning to increase their power anytime soon because I cannot get in their channel in WDM. I live in a low lying area and have trouble with both WHO and WOI all the time, but NO problems with the other local dig channels.

Anyway, Brad told be that they are NOT increasing the power any more until the time comes to turn off the analog signal, years down the road. Another thing he told me is since I'm using a power amp on my outdoor antenna, that could be the culprit. He said that I could be getting too much signal going into my tuner. I will try removing it to see if that works, but I doubt it because I do not have a good clear shot to Alleman because of a large hill, houses and trees. I have the antenna on a 10' mast on my highest peek of the roof and have always had trouble getting some of the locals (13 and 5 since they started and sometimes 17). KCCI-DT and 11-1 have always come in great for me.

Howdy kids....HD newbie on the block and I'm lovin' it. My locals are coming in wonderful and the installer said I was one of the lucky ones. We live half way up Grand Ave, just north of 63rd.

Anyway....just wanted to give a shout-out.

My first bummer moment? When I realized that Dish Network provides a better selection of HD channels. Especially.....Monsters! Please DTV....bring us blood and guts via the old classic horror like Mario Bava and Dario Argento!! I may switch over if it's going to be like this at DTV.

Good news DVDWhore... DirecTV has launched and is launching more sattelites to give them a great deal more bandwidth to carry HD programming. They will be the undisputed leader in HD programming very soon. You made the right choice!

Well this is interesting. KCCI's 10pm newscast is on, and the receiver is showing Dolby Digital 5.1.

It's obviously just 2-channel stereo...as was "Without a Trace" before it. But usually my receiver displays Dolby Digital 2-channel during the broadcast.

I flipped it to 13.1 and back just to see if the receiver was "stuck" somehow, but 13.1 went to 2-channel, and KCCI went back to 5.1.

What's up with that...We're still working out the kinks with the new master control and automation system. Until the automation figures out how to talk to the HD switcher, we're having to hard punch (er, click) the source. That's probably also keeping the audio encoder from defaulting back to 2.0 during local stuff. I see if anyone knows more tonight, or if, at least for audio, that will be the new norm for a while.

Can any of the local stations air delayed/rerun material in HD? Just curious since shows like West Wing and Enterprise air here in good old pillarboxed form on the digital channel. Very annoying.

I called Directv as well about the Incomplete Guide Data for 13-1 and they said they are moving it up to "higher priority", what that exactly means I'm not sure, but they also said to be sure to contact WHO as well about it.

I told them about this forum and others saying they are having the same issue so he said he would get on here to show his "bosses" that it wasn't just one person having the problem.

So everybody else contact Directv and WHO as well and maybe we can get this problem corrected.

Can any of the local stations air delayed/rerun material in HD? Just curious since shows like West Wing and Enterprise air here in good old pillarboxed form on the digital channel. Very annoying.
I hear KCCI's aired a syndicated special once (I believe it was The Remarkable Journey). But unless the syndicators of The West Wing and Enterprise are somehow feeding the shows in HD, it's not happening no matter what kind of playback equipment the stations have.

(I assume you mean re-runs of The West Wing. The first run shows on NBC Sunday night should still be airing in HD on WHO.)

I called Directv as well about the Incomplete Guide Data for 13-1 and they said they are moving it up to "higher priority", what that exactly means I'm not sure, but they also said to be sure to contact WHO as well about it.

I told them about this forum and others saying they are having the same issue so he said he would get on here to show his "bosses" that it wasn't just one person having the problem.

So everybody else contact Directv and WHO as well and maybe we can get this problem corrected.

Great!
I have emailed WHO, voicemailed WHO, I emailed the chief engineer at WHO (recently). I have not heard back anything at all from WHO.

If you use DirectTv and have incomplete guide data please call 1-800-695-9251 and ask for a HD tech. It looks like that is the only way this issue will get solved.

Thanks,
Bryan

Great!
I have emailed WHO, voicemailed WHO, I emailed the chief engineer at WHO (recently). I have not heard back anything at all from WHO.



I did same....and called DTV. I'll join this army!

I'm sure glad I only have to call them once every couple of years or so for something. I love DTV and always have, but MAN I hate having to call them.


I thought I'd feel that way too....but I was very pleased with the service I recieved today from one of the techs. Very helpful and fixed the problem in a heartbeat. Now, if the programming choices were not an insult.....I might actually like them. After 3 years as a subscriber.....I'm just about ready to pack my bags.

I hear KCCI's aired a syndicated special once (I believe it was The Remarkable Journey). But unless the syndicators of The West Wing and Enterprise are somehow feeding the shows in HD, it's not happening no matter what kind of playback equipment the stations have.Yep, unfortunately the HD version of Enterprise isn't offered in syndication yet. But yes, if it were, we do have one HD deck that the show could be played out of. It's actually kind of depressing seeing the deck sit next to all the other machines and receive very little use.

Thanks for the comments tesg. I've been working every night since Wednesday, so I haven't had a chance to be home during primetime to see how it looks/sounds. I believe the new limiter on the upconverted side is what's normalizing the audio...which is helpful since there's no sure way right now for us to check the audio levels as we're dubbing in spots. (Just have to pray stuff is going into it in unity.) I'll pass along your comments about the sound.

BTW, there are still issues with some recorded shows. For much of the same reason stated above, the automation seems to be recorded them too hot and you hear some distortion. It doesn't affect all shows, and I believe it to really only be when it's received on a certain dish. I'm hoping it will be worked out by the end of the week.

//edit// I should add that we figured out how to get the automation to switch the HD source, so hard punching the source is no longer required... //edit//

WOI or should it be WHY, as it why about 1 month ago did they have a good solid DTV/HD picture at 70%s. Not great strength, given the rest of the stations I get in the 80s and 90s, but enough to be solid without pixelation and audio breakup.

As of late, including tonight, 64% signal, pixelation, audio breakup, etc. Doesn't matter where the antenae points, and I have a decent one outside. I am by Granger, and not very far from Alleman at all. What gives? I mean WHY?

Anyone have any newer information from them, other than this:

WOI-TV now offers a full power HDTV signal. Our digital assignment is quite far from those of the other Des Moines TV stations. Accordingly, your antenna may need to be moved of adjusted in order to receive a signal of acceptable strength, or to eliminate "ghosting", which may cause drops in your signal level and/or video pixelation.

I moved mine all over, to no avail.

Hi,

I just got my Sony KDP-51WS655 last week and have it in my basement. I've been on vacation so I haven't gotten a chance to play with it much yet. I did however find an OLD set of bunny ears. I was actually able to pick up Fox in HD really good, channel 8 picked up but cut in and out alot. PBS 11.1 and 11.2 came in okay. Nothing on channel 13 or 5. I'm now going to try an different indoor antenna to try to pick up the rest. I'm over in the Easter Lake Estates area on the far SE side of Des Moines. Anybody in the area have a recommendation? I've heard that quite a few people are having good luck with the RCA Amplified ANT-1245 from Wal Mart. Unless anyone has any other options I'll give that one a shot.

Thanks!

WOI or should it be WHY, as it why about 1 month ago did they have a good solid DTV/HD picture at 70%s. Not great strength, given the rest of the stations I get in the 80s and 90s, but enough to be solid without pixelation and audio breakup.

As of late, including tonight, 64% signal, pixelation, audio breakup, etc. Doesn't matter where the antenae points, and I have a decent one outside. I am by Granger, and not very far from Alleman at all. What gives? I mean WHY?

Anyone have any newer information from them, other than this:

WOI-TV now offers a full power HDTV signal. Our digital assignment is quite far from those of the other Des Moines TV stations. Accordingly, your antenna may need to be moved of adjusted in order to receive a signal of acceptable strength, or to eliminate "ghosting", which may cause drops in your signal level and/or video pixelation.

I moved mine all over, to no avail.

I agree with the above post for WOI needing to get their stuff figured out. I am up here in the NW corner of Ankeny, about 4 miles from the towers. I currently am using a 1980's set of rabbit ears to pull in WHO and KCCI at 100%, KDSM and IPTV at about 80%. Then there is WOI, which tops out at about 60% on a steady day.

To be quite honest, I don't watch WOI enough to get real mad about their problems, because there just aren't that many decent shows on ABC. However, when I tune into WOI at 8 pm on Sunday - I want it to be working! For the past two Sunday nights, I have had to switch over to the analog cable version of Desperate Housewives because the WOI feed was unusable. I tried moving the antenna around as well, but no use.

The saddest part is that WOI has the Super Bowl this year. When they have a steady signal, the picture is amazing. I just wish they could figure out how to keep it steady all the time.