I sure hope it happens, but there are a bunch of people in Washington lobbying against it. WWW.DBSTalk.com has a few threads regarding this topic if your interested.

In an election year, Congress could easily vote the consumers' side instead of the broadcasters' side, if they hear from enough consumers.

I saw they had on a test screen last night on KXRM. showing the test lines for 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. I turned on the box this morning and it seems they fixed the ratio. Now if you view the 480i under full, it fills the screen completely, no picture truncations. Looks like they're trying to make the quality better and working late hours too (they had this screen up at close to 11pm, and it wasnt fixed then). Hopefully they will go to 720p soon.

I've seen the test image on KXRM-DT before too. I took it as more of a mistake when it was on. Anyway, KXRM says they will go to 720p when FOX does, which should be early September.

Do they mean full all the time upconverted 720p, or just 720p when HD programming is on? I would love it if they upconverted.

I don't think he's ever told me which way they'll do it. I could make a case where not upconverting is better - if we get an SD show in 480i, our STBs generally upconvert, and at least give us the choice of 4:3 or stretching it.

Got this update today from iwantmyHDTV.com


Urgent HDTV Message: Call Your Senators Now!
TIME IS RUNNING OUT, and we need your help! The broadcasters are now lobbying Congress to kill the Ensign bill which would allow satellite TV subscribers to receive HDTV service from ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX.

Unless the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee members vote YES on this bill, satellite TV companies will not be able to provide you network HDTV.

If your Senator is on the Senate Commerce Committee (see list below), please contact them and urge them to support the Ensign Satellite Bill.

This bill will be before the Senate Commerce Committee as early as Tuesday, July 20, and we need you to call your Senators to urge them to support the Ensign Bill.

Call 202.224.3121
and ask to be connected to your Senator's office.
Tell them to support the Ensign bill, S.2644.This bill will allow consumers to receive an HDTV feed of ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX via satellite when it is not available from their local broadcasters.

Arizona Senator John McCain
Alaska Senator Ted Stevens
California Senator Barbara Boxer
Florida Senator Bill Nelson
Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye
Illinois Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback
Louisiana Senator John B. Breaux
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe
Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry
Mississippi Senator Trent Lott
Montana Senator Conrad Burns
Nevada Senator John Ensign
New Hampshire Senator John Sununu
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg
North Dakota Senator Byron L. Dorgan
Oregon Senator Gordon Smith
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden
So. Carolina Senator Ernest F. Hollings
Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Virginia Senator George Allen
Washington Senator Maria Cantwell
W. Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV

Please visit www.iwantmyhdtv.com for more information. Thank you.


Being I'm still in Arizona I called Sen. McCains office and asked him to let me know how he plans to vote the issue. I'd recommend everyone pretend they are from one of these states and make a phone call :-)

Originally posted by TallGuy
I don't think he's ever told me which way they'll do it. I could make a case where not upconverting is better - if we get an SD show in 480i, our STBs generally upconvert, and at least give us the choice of 4:3 or stretching it.

I agree on the stretching part... but almost all STBs allow you to take away bars from upconverted content and stretch it.

The difference between Fox and CBS with their SD content is huge because KKTV upconverts and Fox doesn't. Their upconverters are much better then ours in the STBs, and it really shows. Either that or KXRM is messing the picture up somehow.

Originally posted by Vaggeto
I agree on the stretching part... but almost all STBs allow you to take away bars from upconverted content and stretch it.
OK, I didn't know that. My 2 HD STBs haven't had that capability.

The difference between Fox and CBS with their SD content is huge because KKTV upconverts and Fox doesn't. Their upconverters are much better then ours in the STBs, and it really shows. Either that or KXRM is messing the picture up somehow.
Even though I'm all for better picture quality, I just had the thought that I'd rather them send me SD shows in 480i, because they'll take up substantially less space on my HD-TiVo hard drive than an upconverted 720p signal. But I don't think they'll make their decision based on this little quibble of mine.

I sure want that bill to pass the Commerce Committee and then the Congress! KRDO would have to re-think things (and they probably think in mono, of course)...

Does it only record what it receives, or can it record HD shows in lower SD quality? I thought it had the option to lower the quality for more hours, which for HD content would be down-rezzing it?

On the STB issue... most can do it. For my E86 you need to change to 3:2 AR, and then watch stretched. It takes the bars away and stretches the programming just enough to lose the bars. But really all it would require is a couple touches of action 8, to get it to do it if you left it at 3:2 AR.

Good points for not upconverting though... I don't Tivo so I never would have thought of that.

Originally posted by Vaggeto
Does it only record what it receives, or can it record HD shows in lower SD quality? I thought it had the option to lower the quality for more hours, which for HD content would be down-rezzing it?
There's no quality setting on all the D* TiVos - the bits that come in from either D* or OTA go straight to the hard drive. You're referring to the standalone TiVos, which have 4 quality settings and an MPEG encoder to convert from analog in to digital on the hard drive. But a lot of PQ gets sacrificed in the A -> D -> A process.

I see... that is exactly what I was thinking of.

With DirecTV with locals and their HD Tivo I have the choice of recording SD KKTV off of the satellite or KKTV-HD OTA.

OK, so that's one option if you don't want to waste HD space on upconverted material. The D* channels are compressed quite a bit though, especially compared to a nice OTA digital signal. But... you have to pay for those, and why would you if you get them OTA?

Because you get ALL the locals for $5 from DirecTV, and you can't pick and choose just the stations that have no OTA signal. If all were up consistently on OTA, I guess I still couldn't drop the D* locals because of the other (non-DTV) TVs in the house.

While not HD related, many may be interested to know that Dish Network will be carrying the Altitude sports network which will have the Avs and Nuggets among others. Adelphia is supposedly in negotiations and DirecTV is, typically, mum about what they are doing. Anyone out there that is a DirecTV subscriber and a fan of the Avs and Nuggets should probably drop off an email to DirecTV.

--Ron

Good point. That would be really bad to have invested over $1200 in DirecTV equipment, and ditched cable, and then find out that D* won't carry the station. The games probably start in 3-4 months, I'd guess. I'll email them.

Originally posted by TallGuy
Good point. That would be really bad to have invested over $1200 in DirecTV equipment, and ditched cable, and then find out that D* won't carry the station. The games probably start in 3-4 months, I'd guess. I'll email them.

If Adelphia does not pick up the network, then we should be able to watch the hockey games on Center ice. If Adelphia does pick up the network, Center ice may black the games out. I am not certain what the blackout rules are when it comes to a 'new' network but I would bet they get blacked out.

--Ron

There be a light at the end of the tunnel!
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=269276#post269276

Looks like we just [i]might[i] get ABC and NBC in HD!

Hopefully in an election year Congress will side with the consumers!

The bill in congress has nothing to do with HDTV and everything to do with DTV. Since KRDO is already broadcasting digitally we would only qualify for NBC distant feeds.

For anyone wanting an HD TIVO, and is considering (or has) Adelphia HD, you might consider an HTPC with the new Fusion III HD QAM card. As anyone who attended the big Denver projector shootout knows, we ran most of the projectors off of my Home Theater PC (HTPC). I had a bunch of HD clips that I recorded with the Fusion III, but I was having problems with the card - whenever I tried to record, the picture would freeze up occasionally, and recording would totally stop after about 1 minute. The playback clips I had would stutter. At the time I was pretty unhappy with the Fusion III, but it was the only HD card capable of recording HD over cable.

Now DVICO has released new drivers for the Fusion III, and not only is the recording and reception stable, it now decodes and records the premium channels as well! I've been recording HD movies all week from HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, etc, plus material from HDNET and INHD. It all looks stunning, as the Fusion records the pure transport stream.

The Fusion III is available at several different places over the internet - do a google search and see. Price is under $200.

Now that the card and software are stable, I love this thing! My HTPC is now a TIVO using Adelphia HD as a source, I can record premium movies with no loss of quality, keep them if I want, and output via DVI on my Radeon 9600XT. Picture quality is phenomenal.

If anyone has any questions about the setup, or wants to see it in action, let me know. Right now I've got it hooked up to my Screenplay 7205 demo projector. All my contact info is below.

Just FYI...

John

John, that sounds like quite the setup! Just curious, how much HDD space does it take to record say a two hour HD broadcast with this card? I was thinking firewire out the Mot box into a PC and out the Radeon via component to my receiver 'cause my Sony RPTV doesn't have a DVI input but the capture part had me going...I don't think I'll have enough disk space to do this unless I partition another huge drive in NTFS. And then the pc cpu would have to be at least a 3.2 wouldn't it? Also I'm not clear, you are using the Adelphia Mot box firewire output to your card, right?

I'm assuming the PC wouldn't need to be that powerful because that capture card should do the decoding of the signal, so it shouldn't use much of your PC processor at all.

What I'm not understand is how you record all channels from Adelphia?

From the dvioc website for the Fusion 3 card, it doens't have firewire input... just QAM over regular cable... does it somehow decode like a HD cable box would?

The card has its own QAM tuner -that's the beauty of it. You just hook up the RF cable to the RF jack on the back of the card, auto-tune the stations, and you're set. Like I said, the premium HD channels are decoded as well.

A two hour movie is about 8 gigs. Split the .tp file into two 4 gigabyte files and burn it to DVD-R (you still need to play back the file in the PC - DVD players don't play transport streams). DVICO even includes (very) basic editing capability in the software.

I am running a P4 2.26 ghz. The Fusion III uses the Radeon card for HDTV decoding. It will do software decoding, but it doesn't work very well unless you have a very fast processor. My old card was a Radeon 7500, and it worked OK, but upgrading to the 9600XT made a world of difference. I also get to watch everything via DVI.

Like I said, anyone who wants to see it in action is welcome to come by, or give me a call.

John

Also -

I don't think the Firewire port on the cable box is activated, and even if it was, I don't think there is any way for the computer to recognize what it is recieving.

As I mentioned above, the Fusion does not "capture" the video - it actually records it directly from its own QAM capable tuner. I actually no longer use my cable box at all - I simply use the computer/Fusion III to tune all of the channels.

John

Hmm...

That can't be right?

It has to be something more the the QAM capable tuner... or wouldn't all those QAM capable TVs pick up all of the digital channels too? Also.. without the cable box to authorize what you get, does it pick up all channels? Just doesn't seem like something Adelphia would let customers do for long before they do whatever they can to stop it.

The tuner tunes 8VSB, 64QAM, and 256QAM. I take it you've already been to DVICO's site (www.dvico.com) - it's not the greatest, to say the least. When I downloaded the 2.63 software, it said that it would decrypt ALL channels. I was sceptical, but it actually found all of the premiums after reboot. With the original software release, it found the premiums but only displayed a blank screen. I have not tried to tune in the other digital (non-HD channels with it.

It works, at least for now! All I have connected to the card is the cable itself.

John

hmm.. seems good... wonder if they changed anything? Is there any chance I should try my E86 receiver to tune in their HD content?

Enjoy while you can! I know I have been. :)
The availability of the HD premium channels will be short lived. Adelphia is currently not encrypting those HD channels , and so they can be tuned by any full QAM capable tuner. I've been doing something similar using the firewire ports on the 6200 to my HTPC for the last month or so. Eventually, the HD-HBO, HD-SHO and HD-STZ will only be available if you also subscribe to a package that lets you get the SD versions of those channels. It's also likely that they will add a HD package and that you would have to subscribe to get HD-ESPN, HDNet, HDNet-Movies. As of yet, they don't seem to be implementing the 5c stuff either, but I'm sure they will once they go full subscription.

John -- I was at the Denver shoot-out and just wanted to take a minute and say thanks. I learned a lot about FP and am now bitten by the bug. Time to get rid of the "new" 61" DLP RP set I've got and go for the gold so to speak. :)

--Eric

Eric -

I was wondering about the premiums, whether they were scrambled or not. Since the Fusion did not pick up the premiums with the original software AND the software release claimed that it would decode all channels, I was hoping that the Fusion III was decoding the channels by itself. Evidently this is not the case. We'll see when Adelphia starts scrambling.

Curious - do you know when Adelphia intends to start encrypting?

So the firewire ports are active, and you are able to record from them? I didn't think that would be the case (see my reply to Joanr above).

Glad you enjoyed the shootout! I've usually got 4 or 5 front projectors on hand at any time for demo, for anyone who missed the show.

John

Originally posted by angilasaurus
Curious - do you know when Adelphia intends to start encrypting?
I have not heard anything official, but from what I gather from other sources here on AVS, it could be as soon as this month. I have not called and asked myself, in the delusional hope that they will forget about me and I'll keep getting em all. ;)


So the firewire ports are active, and you are able to record from them? I didn't think that would be the case (see my reply to Joanr above).
Yes, starting with firmware versions 7.07, they have been active, and in version 7.10 they worked out most/all the bugs to make it actually work. (All though v7.10 seems to now have issues with DVI handshaking). Supposedly the next firmware version will have this issue resolved as well.

Thanks, Ed!

John

I just pulled the trigger on a new HDTivo. It should arrive by the end of the week. I bought it mostly for HBO-HD, but I'd like to try to see what sort of OTA reception I can pick up here in Manitou. From what I understand I probably won't have much luck, but figured it's worth a shot. Can anyone recommend a local retailer with a decent selection of HD antennae and a decent return policy? I'm especially interested in the Wingard Squareshooter having heard good things about it for "difficult" locations and the WAF.

Also, has anyone in this area with DTV had any luck getting a waiver to receive CBS-HD from the satellite?

Originally posted by mtnsean
I just pulled the trigger on a new HDTivo. It should arrive by the end of the week. I bought it mostly for HBO-HD, but I'd like to try to see what sort of OTA reception I can pick up here in Manitou. From what I understand I probably won't have much luck, but figured it's worth a shot. Can anyone recommend a local retailer with a decent selection of HD antennae and a decent return policy? I'm especially interested in the Wingard Squareshooter having heard good things about it for "difficult" locations and the WAF.

Also, has anyone in this area with DTV had any luck getting a waiver to receive CBS-HD from the satellite?

Haven't ever tried for the waver but my antenna is just an ordinary mast antenna that I picked up at Home Depot (it was the 'small' one of the two they provide). I installed it in the attic and have always gotten relatively high numbers for the digital signals up in the Northgate region of Colorado Springs...

--Ron

Radio Shack has a few choices in the big ugly mast antenna area, and several indoor ones as well. I don't know who carries the SquareShooter here. I ordered mine from ValueElectonics.com in New York, found that the signal strengths were worse than my mast antenna, sent it back, and then had to badger them for 6 weeks to post my refund. So not much help there.

Is there a webpage out there with an up-to-date status for PBS-HD in the Springs?

Also, which local HD channels does Adelphia actually provide - my understanding is that Fox isn't broadcasting HD yet, but might do ED soon; CBS is in HD, and ABC/NBC/PBS aren't quite there yet? Can you get just locals in HD from Adelphia without paying for a bunch of other junk, and if so, how much $$?

I'm starting to have a little buyer's remorse on the HDTivo given my location (Manitou) and unlikelihood of picking up OTA locals. Tivo is more important to me than HD, but I'm wondering if I should hold out for either an Adelphia HD-DVR (I know, don't hold your breath and it ain't no Tivo) or an OpenCable Tivo (perfect world, but when?).

Sorry, I know much of this has been discussed in this thread, and I've been lurking for a while, but I still didn't see the answers.

Thanks,
Sean

Originally posted by mtnsean
Is there a webpage out there with an up-to-date status for PBS-HD in the Springs?
http://rmpbs.org/status/index.html

Also, which local HD channels does Adelphia actually provide - my understanding is that Fox isn't broadcasting HD yet, but might do ED soon; CBS is in HD, and ABC/NBC/PBS aren't quite there yet?
Fox has been ED 480p, and should be HD 720p in September. PBS should be this year, NBC should be next year, and ABC may be quite a few years away since they don't want to touch it or spend any money.

Thanks John, you answered all my questions. Well time will tell, it should be interesting. Please let us know what happens with the card after they start to scramble. Chances are you'll get whatever you are subscribed to. Isn't there some law that prevents them from forcing the public to use a STB box to receive HD with devices that are already HD ready? Or am I dreaming that I read that somewhere......

Originally posted by TallGuy
http://rmpbs.org/status/index.html

[B]
Fox has been ED 480p, and should be HD 720p in September. PBS should be this year, NBC should be next year, and ABC may be quite a few years away since they don't want to touch it or spend any money.

Thanks TallGuy. So presumably Adelphia will provide all those feeds as they become available. Wonder if they plan on putting out an HD-DVR?

-Sean

Originally posted by mtnsean
Thanks TallGuy. So presumably Adelphia will provide all those feeds as they become available. Wonder if they plan on putting out an HD-DVR?

-Sean
No doubt that Adelphia will provide the HD programming when the stations do. As far as new hardware, Adelphia has never been near the front of the pack...

Originally posted by mtnsean
So presumably Adelphia will provide all those feeds as they become available. Wonder if they plan on putting out an HD-DVR?


Adelphia currently offers the same transport stream via cable as you get OTA for all of the channels broadcasting in digital at the moment. Of course, only CBS is actually HD, but that should change later this year.

As far as a HD-PVR, I asked about that when I called to get my HD-STB from them, and was told they had no plans for such a device at this time. The CSRs are usually that last to know, so take that with a grain of salt.

--Eric

Thanks guys. I actually just got a bit of good news - I called D* and it turns out I'm eligible for Distant Network Services for Fox, NBC, and ABC. So if/when D* gets HD feeds for those guys I should be able to get them added to my account. I saw an announcement yesterday that NBC-HD was on its way.

My location is considered Grade B for CBS, so they're submitting a waiver for me. If that's approved, I should be able to get CBS-HD.

Too bad they don't offer PBS as a distant local - then I'd be all set.

Thanks,
Sean

Originally posted by EHHoffman
Adelphia currently offers the same transport stream via cable as you get OTA for all of the channels broadcasting in digital at the moment. Of course, only CBS is actually HD, but that should change later this year.

As far as a HD-PVR, I asked about that when I called to get my HD-STB from them, and was told they had no plans for such a device at this time. The CSRs are usually that last to know, so take that with a grain of salt.

--Eric

The CSR I spoke to about 3 weeks ago said that the Adelphia HD-PVR should be available in October here is the Springs.

John

FYI friends-

I've been resisting the $700+ ISF calibrations for a while, but I found a guy in Denver who is ISF-certified and is cheaper. He was a great guy to work with and did a really meticulous job on my Mitsubishi. I guess he does a lot of Hitachi RPTVs usually. Anyway, I recommend him to you.

Bill Gambrell
bill@homecentric.com
(303) 868-6437
http://www.homecentric.com/video.htm - the prices are at the bottom of the web page

Thanks TallGuy. Can anyone recommend a good ISF tech in the area who has decent experience with Sony GWIII's? I'd be willing to spend in the $200-400 range, but probably not more. Just looking for a basic calibration, nothing too fancy.

-Sean

I looked on the ISF site for local calibrators and called them about mine. One only does calibrations for equipment they sell, and the other guy sounded like he'd never worked on a Mitsubishi. So you might have to look around Denver.

You could talk to Bill, maybe he's done Sony's before. Also Alan Brown at www.cinemaquestinc.com.

Great to hear he did a good job for you.

Chip Moran did our projectors for the Denver shootout - he's based in Castle Rock and actually does rear projection primarily:

303-881-2102

He's listed on ISF's site, and is willing to travel to Colo Spgs, as well as calibrate televisions bought from other dealers.

Good Luck!

John

During that big storm on Wed night, couldnt see alot of the OTA digital signals. Now today all is good except KRDO comes in all choppy. Not sure if I moved my rabbit ear antennas and didn't tweak it just right, or they are having problems on their end, or lowered the power. Anybody receiving KRDO-DT fine?

KRDO-DT is almost always brutal for me. Seemed stronger than usual 2 nights ago, but haven't checked it lately.

I'm having the same problem with KRDO. Thought somehow the storm stopped me from getting the full signal... but none of the channels have ever been effected by storms before, so I think it's a problem on their end.

Originally posted by Vaggeto
I'm having the same problem with KRDO. Thought somehow the storm stopped me from getting the full signal... but none of the channels have ever been effected by storms before, so I think it's a problem on their end.

KRDO is messed up for me as well.

Well I guess if they were broadcasting in HD, everyone would be calling the station, wanting to know when its going to get fix. I do watch the digital cause I don't pay for locals on the dish, but I can still get the analog signal. Its a little fuzzy, but I might get an outdoor antenna later.

Was working for me earlier today for the 1 minute I had it on. Mighta watched longer if it was decent looking.

I was wondering if someone could give me a run down on where we are with each station's progress toward HD. Maybe the admin could stick this at the very beginning of the thread, or if one of the first couple posters could go back and edit this stuff in so everyone can find it easy...

I was also wondering if anyone has tried using some made up address or using a friends from Denver so they could try and see if the Denver spot beam is hitting the springs at all. I guess they are able to get CBS HD and Fox 480p thru their satellite feed. I know this seems unlikely, but I've heard the spot beams have a 100 mile radius (maybe that was diameter?), which would put at least some of the springs in that area...

Thanks in advance!

Yes... Denver spot beams are hitting Colorado Springs, I saw a picture once, and it covers a huge area. It might have been a few states big.

Now the news of them receiving this through their satellite feeds seem wrong. If so, they would be one of the first to get that, and it would be huge news. I think you're mistaken. Plus.. we already get those for free OTA.

I thought about it.. and I think you mean over D* because they O&O, meaning you can get the national feeds. Those feeds have nothing to do with spotbeams, and anyone who is eligable can get those.

I believe that CBS HD on the small dish satellite systems is not spot beam. Dish Network carries either the New York or L.A. CBS station in HD, I forget which. It can be recieved anywhere in the country but DishNet will only turn it on for you under certin conditions. Either you must live in an area covered by a CBS station that is owned by CBS and you must convince them that you can't recieve the signal well or you must live in a place where there is no CBS station at all.

Since KKTV is not owned by CBS you won't be allowed to get it CBS HD from DishNet or DirecTV.

Roy

Exactly.

But he was wondering about giving them a Denver address, so he could get them, which would probably work depending on the requirements to get O&O places to let you have the national feeds.

80106 zip code works with D* as I get the CBS HD West feed from them with that zip. I am only 5 miles N of Falcon (Latigo Trails area).

Crap, there's no sound on KKTV 11-1 for my favorite HD show, Without a Trace. Mr. Engineer, wake up! Break's over!

Beat me to the keyboard again Nathan!!

Helps to have a laptop near the TV. :)

The audio just came back (though I haven't been watching the whole thing). You know, at the magic half-hour point (9:30).

Think we'll watch the first half on TiVo from the SD channel, and then switch to kickbutt HD!

Geek!;)
To hell with the TV tonight, gonna go listen to some Jazz. Night All!

Again I say crap. It only came back for part of the commercials, but went away again for the show.

Just wondering - I don't have Adelphia, but apparently DirecTV will allow me to get the Olympics in HD only if my local cable provider (Adelphia) is also showing it.

Thanks,
Sean

Yeah, I was planning on calling DirecTV and taking a shot based on the Adelphia marketing email they sent me on 8/5/04 which says:
Can't get enough of the Olympics? Get more with ADELPHIA!

Beginning August 13th, watch the Complete Olympics with Adelphia Cable and NBC. The anticipation, the action, the glory - let Adelphia and The Complete Olympics take you there in HD. NBC will cover all 28 Summer Olympic events. Get it all with Adelphia!.

Worth a shot. A long shot.

Being shut out of the Olympics in HD this year is exactly why we need this bill to pass Congress. It has passed the Senate Commerce Committee and so now NEW letters to Congress are needed. In an election year, they should vote for consumers (voters) instead of TV stations (nonvoters). It takes 1 minute to send a letter to your congresspeople via this web site: http://www.iwantmyhdtv.com/iwanthdtv/wrapper.jsp?PID=5080-40

Go for it now!

Does anyone have any contact information for our local Adelphia people? Seems that not only do we not have any HD from our local NBC station for the Olympics, but the normal channel 5 analog signal just looks *horrible* today. I'm not sure what's worse...the picture quality or the annoying announcers ;)

Anyway, it occured to me that Adelphia used to run a feed from the Denver NBC station (was on channel 4 I think) back during the coverage of the big fire. It made me wonder if it was possible for Adelphia to send us an HD feed from the Denver NBC station?

Anyone know if that is even possible? And if so, who would be talk to (beg, plead, bride, etc)? I can't imagine having any luck going through the normal telephone system with them.

Having really enjoyed the Winter Olympics on HDnet two years ago, it's very sad not being able to watch them this year. It's almost like negative progress on HD has been made (at least with some networks).

Sad to say, we're screwed. I don't think there's any legal way that Adelphia, which has a Colorado Springs contract with KOAA, would be able to provide Denver's signal and commercials to us. Plus the technical side of getting it transferred between station and cable system would probably take weeks for engineers to set up and figure out, even if they wanted to.

Ahhh...at least we have a whole afternoon of HD on CBS with the PGA Championship.

And thanks for the link TallGuy...I'm going to go submit my letter right away. If they pass the law and D* is able to provide the HD networks to us, it would be enough for me to reactivate my D* subscription.

What is this on CBS...

A dual view of the PGA and The Broncos game... Why would they ever do this? Think they would ever do a dual view in the regular season?
Kinda worries me, and bothers me more because I have the NFL Network... and it's blacked out... I could be watching the game it is meant to be shown there, instead I have something that's probably 200 lines of resolution.

I wasn't home live when they did it, but saw it later and it makes a lot of sense. The PGA Championship is one of golf's 4 majors so the tournament was a big deal, and it was in a suspenseful playoff. A lot of viewers had to want to see how that ended, plus a lot of viewers want to see the Broncos (and they have contract obligations to the Broncos). Even though the pictures were each small, they didn't have to leave a group of fans too angry. And it was less than an hour, I think.

Yah.. I didn't realize it was so close to ending. I figured it was just on, and that the Broncos were bad timing for CBS. I just wish they didn't black it out for us if it was on NFL network if they weren't showing it correctly. It was for most of the time of the starters :-/

HI,
MikeP, local NBC has never been HD here and Adelphia will not bring in the Denver afilliate. Are you still getting all the HD premium movie channels that you are not subscribed to? I thought by now they would at least turn off Starz HD and Showtime HD since I don't buy the regular package for those channels. Hoping they will just neglect to turn it off.....I'm willing to pay the extra 5 bucks a month for the InHD and HDNET but they better not be billing me for the extra premiums I've been getting.

I didn't mind the split screen for the game yesterday but I'm hoping they don't make a habit of it. It's ok if you have a widescreen 57+ inch viewing area but it looked terrible on the smaller 35" tube in the kid's room.

Anyone hear anymore about an HD PVR combo from Adelphia?

Originally posted by Joanr
Are you still getting all the HD premium movie channels that you are not subscribed to?

While not directed toward me, I thought I'd chime in. I am still getting all of the HD channels, and have not been billed anything other then the HD STB rental fee. I don't subscribe to any of the premiums either.
I have suspected, but have no hard proof, that Adelphia will not start billing for the HD content until they get firmware issues worked out with the DVI port. The current firmware has an HDCP handshake bug that makes it all but useless.

--Eric

I actually already pay for all of the premium channels for all of the SD feeds, so I'm not a good one to ask.

On my big screen (120"), the split screen was fine for me :) Since I'm both a golf fan *and* a Broncos fan, I was happy to see CBS trying to satisfy all of their customers the best they could.

I've given up on the Olympics for now. I know some of the local stations don't seem to care about HD...they think there are not enough of us. Well, I for one have become a die-hard CBS fan and just don't watch either NBC or ABC anymore. Maybe they don't care about one poor little TV watcher like myself. But one of these days, this ignorance and distain for the HD market is going to bite them. Someday we'll look back when all TV is HD and wonder how anyone could have been so clueless to ignore HD.

Meanwhile, I'll keep sending letters and email to the local stations. It would be interesting to see a chart of HD status vs population of cities. My guess is that the lack of HD in CSprings would really stand out.

I'm in about the same situation with our locals.

I watch CBS probably 80% of the time compared to our other locals.
and for NBC it's only Leno and Conan. I couldn't name one show on NBC except Seinfeld

if news first really listened we would be watching olympics in hd right now.. and we would have hd.. i really dont belive this crap that there wating on the fcc.. on the fccs websight it showes them having there dtv licence.. i just think its the lack of movement on koaa and there just being lazy ignoring there market.. i for one watch cbs most of the time due to a veary big lack in hd here... i know that koaa is loosing revinue due to the lack of hdtv.. most hdtv users here in the springs watch kktv only cauz its in hd.... and if there wating on there tower permit.. then why dont they set up a tempary tower to transmit hd.. seen other stations do it in other areas... on the olympics issue.. i find it veary desturbing that koaa punishes there satellight subscribers... because adelphia does not have the proper equipment to get the national hd feed from nbc themselfs and i find it veary surprizing that koaa wont allow adelphia to get the feed from denver.. (seen kktv do it for broncos games and when there station was down due to power issues.. ) it just showes how much koaa really cares about ther market.. after all yes i do have a choice with my provider of tv services... i stoped feeding the cable pig years ago and i am proud to say im a dbs subscriber. and if your a cable subscriber.. what are you wating for.. better tv prices and programming is avab on satellight.. Its better than what the cable people make it out to be.. KOAA just give your DMA what they want. and stop ignoring us.. cauz it will bite u in the butt....

I have been reading this forum for a while now. Although it seems like I am the only one in Pueblo interested in HDTV, reception from the Springs is good, except for the lack of HD content. Seems like KKTV is the only one out there true to form. I did write KRDO to complain mainly for the Monday night games. Here was their reply:

"As of this writing the soonest we will have any HD content to broadcast will be the first or second quarter of 2005."
Joe Reed
Chief Engineer
Pikes Peak Broadcasting
719-575-6213

At least he did not say 2006. Hopefully, D*TV will get it together with FOX to broadcast their HD content before the superbowl. One can only keep the fingers crossed.

Thanks for the info, TReynolds. Well that's interesting. I thought KRDO was committed to not spending any money on it until the FCC made them, years down the road. After all, their analog signal doesn't have stereo audio. The key word in that sentence is "soonest", but it still gives me hope. I'd like to give up all ABC shows because of SD, but you can't skip Monday Night Football or Alias.

Go for it, KRDO!

Actually it still shows the license pending for KOAA at:
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/dtv/start/dtv2-69.txt

and if you want to complain or get info from the FCC on why its still delayed call this number:

FCC Media Bureau (202) 418-2600.

I'm amazed that KRDO would say 1st or 2nd quarter 2005. That's the earliest projection that I've seen.

Also, based on the link above, here is what is listed for KRDO: KRDO CO COLORADO SPRING 24 Authorized to construct and program test


I don't see any pending, and tha'ts the only KRDO listed on the whole thing. Maybe they were recently approved?

I think ay221 switched from KRDO to KOAA on us. KOAA does say pending under Colorado/Pueblo.

yeah, hadn't been on this thread in a few days and was responding to goaliebob99 post. I got that phone number from an email from the FCC, but haven't had time to call them. Actually I called once, but the person was out to lunch. Doubt it would do much good, though.

Saw the NFL preseason game on Fox, guess there not doing HD yet. Maybe regular season hopefully.

Oh... sorry, I was confused anyway. I always mix KRDO and KOAA up. I was thinking our NBC said they were going to be HD 1st or 2nd quarter... sorry. Not very suprising to me afterall, but it is good that they at least now plan to do it.

I think Fox and KXRM go HD around Sept. 12, the first Sunday of regular season.

I'm pretty sure Fox will do some testing... think they will take part in that? I think they will if they know about it.

In other (non-)news:

I wrote:
Any news on the status of HD from KTSC? From the way the updates were sounding, it seemed like it would have happened by now. Any new info is appreciated. Thanks.

And got back:
Rocky Mountain PBS is working very hard to convert over to HDTV as required by the FCC. We are halfway there. Between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 p.m we air our programs in simulcast and between the hours of 6 p.m. and midnight we air our programs in HDTV. If you would like to donate towards this effort please see http://www.rmpbs.org/dtv/future.html . Thank you. Sadie-Viewer Services

*sigh* I'm back in giving-up mode...

between the hours of 6 p.m. and midnight we air our programs in HDTV. Ain't no stinkinway they're broadcasting in HD. DTV yes, but no way it's HD.

Who told you that? Surely not anyone in KTSC engineering. I may have to call up my new pal Ian again.

"Sadie", apparently.. it's just the fact that someone who replies to emails doesn't know the difference between DTV and HDTV that really bothers me. Oh well.

Well she was sort of right except that Rocky Mtn PBS is comprised of 3 seperate stations. The one you guys are wondering about, one in Grand Junction and one in Denver. So for her to make a blanket statement about R M PBS in general with no regard to the specific station made it obviously a poor answer. It so happens of course that the station in Denver is indeed doing just what she said.

She seemed to overlook the important fact that you were asking about KTSC specifically and not KRMA. ;)

You can tell the person thought DTV = HDTV when they said they were required to have HDTV. So by that reply, I think that person believe HDTV is the same thing as DTV.
But then again, they would be digital 24/7, so I think Dan is correct.

Either way... they were supposed to be up and running within weeks Months ago... what happened? They led us on so well with the regular updates too!

If anyone has time during the week to call Engineering at KTSC and post the response here, that would be great. I did that a few months ago and they were very communicative and open.

Just talked to Ian at KTSC - he said that the current microwave equipment they have is unable to support HD - he's been working with the manufacturer (in CA) sending it back and forth to get it up to speed. He said he'd expected to be up by Mar (04) and this fall, and said that this fall is still (hopefully) looking good for broadcasting an HD signal. I told him we were all anxious to add more HD around here, and he said "no more than me." with a chuckle. :)

Fall would be good. I've decided that any new station going up on HD should get at least a little sidebar article in the Gazette announcing it to the city, which I think Andrew Wineke would want to run if one of us told him about it. Keep the good publicity working for some stations and against others...

Thanks for calling, PlayDoh.

And what's the reason for the screen name? Fan of The Simpsons?

The name? I like the simpsons, but that's not the origin.. I just came up with it a few years ago when I couldn't think of a better one. It's one of my forum fallbacks - all my usuals were taken :( (Including SexyLoverBoy99)

Nice to see that ESPNHD is doing it's Football broadcasts without the funky sidebars this season. Last night's Eagles game looked better than usual from them. Now to see what we get tonight for the Denver game. Will we get the KCNC feed from Denver in HD through Adelphia?

i think that would be up to kktv
....

The Bronco game tonight is a KKTV/KCNC exclusive and will be in SD. However the preseason game between the Patriots and the Panthers tomorrow night at 6:00 PM will be in HD and Dolby 5.1 surround.

Thanks for the info, Tim!

Originally posted by Joanr
Nice to see that ESPNHD is doing it's Football broadcasts without the funky sidebars this season. Last night's Eagles game looked better than usual from them. Now to see what we get tonight for the Denver game. Will we get the KCNC feed from Denver in HD through Adelphia?

Hehe... mainly because I think so far 90% of their games have been in HD.

Thanks for the info Tim! But... I thought the NFL Network had the Bronco game tonight also? Or do you mean KKTV will be exclusive to us because it will be blacked on the NFL network for us?

ESPN-HD football didn't have sidebars last season either.

I can understand CBS not doing too many preseason games in HD considering the cost. For the regular season, I guess they're going to do 3 HD games per week, out of what, 6-7 total games per week on CBS?

Just got my SquareShooter amplified version (SS-2000) and Terk 5x8 multiswitch up yesterday. I get 80's to 90's on my HD-TiVo on KTSC, KKTV and FOX. I couldn't pull in KRDO, but I haven't fine tuned the antenna's position yet. FWIW, I'm just a couple of miles south of County Line. I'm very pleased with the new setup!

Well guys, that was just CRS on my part, I was thinking Fox football. Adelphia didn't even feed us ESPN HD last season. Sorry 'bout that.

Hehe.. I knew something was up because ESPNHD either had sidebars, or is HD. So if it was HD you would have not been suprised it didn't have side bars.

What is CRS? I haven't heard that one.

chanceG, I've had a difficult time getting KRDO here in Gleneagle, and you're a little further out. I do have one house partially in the way, but it's mainly due to their weak signal. Often I receive it in the 20s or 30s on the strength/quality meter, but usually can't lock a picture. I'll be interested to see if you can get it in Monument.

If and when they go HD (in a decade or so :rolleyes: ), they need to increase the power.

CRS=Can't Remember ****!!:)

According to this link (http://directvdnseligibility.decisionmark.com/app/AddressEntry.asp) I'm eligible to receive ABC, NBC, and FOX as distant locals from D*. I supposedly have a "grade B" signal from CBS. I asked D* to request a waiver from KKTV on my behalf, which they did, and it was denied. I live in Manitou and don't get any OTA signals with the few antennas I've tried.

Why not just get the local channel package from D*? Good question, and the answer is HD. If I can get KKTV to grant me a waiver, I can receive CBS in HD from D*. I was wondering if anyone can give me tips for appealing the waiver decision directly with KKTV. I've heard some suggest I just keep pestering them until they acquiesce, and others suggest going the nice guy route and tell them how much I'd love to see CBS in HD. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Sean

This is unrelated, but have any of you signed up for VOOM yet? They have
more HD channels than all the rest.
JCH
Spectrascan
PS
Just added a Toshiba RD-XS32 DVD-R/RW/RAM/HD (Hard Disk) Recorder. It is great for all types of DVD recording, including time shifting. Highly recommended.

I don't know how to ask for a waiver successfully. If D* gets ABC-HD, I will be trying to beg/plead/bribe KRDO though.

Voom has its supporters and detractors. From what I hear, it's great to have lots of HD channels, but most of it is repeated material. Also, I've realized that I'm an incurable Tivohead and so live HD is almost like no HD for me.

Nice to see that D* added Bravo-HD today, channel 74 in time for the US Open in HD. I know they normally have a lot of repeated programming, but maybe now that they've added all the D* subscribers, they'll get some new content too.

Originally posted by Jan C. Hoigaard
This is unrelated, but have any of you signed up for VOOM yet? They have
more HD channels than all the rest.
JCH
Spectrascan
PS
Just added a Toshiba RD-XS32 DVD-R/RW/RAM/HD (Hard Disk) Recorder. It is great for all types of DVD recording, including time shifting. Highly recommended.

I've had Voom for around 5-6 months now. It's pretty good. A few missing SD channels(adelphia covers the rest), but tons of HD choices. Enough that I rarely switch to Discovery HD which used to be one of the most wached channels along with HDNet.

My HD D* receiver is basically an expensive cable tuner and unneeded HD-OTA receiver.

Originally posted by mtnsean
Why not just get the local channel package from D*? Good question, and the answer is HD. If I can get KKTV to grant me a waiver, I can receive CBS in HD from D*

Do what lots of folks do and "move" your service address to somewhere in Douglas County. The Denver CBS (and FOX) is O&O, so you can get the LA HD Feed.

TallGuy: I get 20-30's (bounces around) on one tuner, 0 on the other and it won't lock on the signal. I might get time today to play around with the antenna. I'll let you know.

Originally posted by TallGuy
chanceG, I've had a difficult time getting KRDO here in Gleneagle, and you're a little further out. I do have one house partially in the way, but it's mainly due to their weak signal. Often I receive it in the 20s or 30s on the strength/quality meter, but usually can't lock a picture. I'll be interested to see if you can get it in Monument.

I just finished fine tuning the placement of the SquareShooter and everything looks great! It's on the front face of my deck, about 10' off the ground and facing due South.

Setup is SS-2000-->preamp-->Terk M58-->PerfectVision Diplexer-->HDTiVo.

Results: KKTV=KXRM=KTSC=92, KRDO=70. Very stable picture on KRDO and hasn't dropped out in the last hour or so. Now I'm all set for when they go HD in 2020. :eek:

Good to hear that!

Now all we need is our local Fox to go HD... many are already, and someone even had KXRMs digital logo at their Fox on accident... so I know they can do it anytime!

Those are great levels, especially from Monument. I tried the Square Shooter up on my roof, but the levels weren't good because of one rooftop in my line of sight to Cheyenne Mountain, and I had to return it. My 6' Radio Shack antenna in the attic does OK except for KRDO. Guess there's nothing like an unobstructed view. For example, my boss lives within just miles of Cheyenne Mountain, in the Broadmoor, and can't pick up KXRM very easily.

Originally posted by Vaggeto
Good to hear that!

Now all we need is our local Fox to go HD... many are already, and someone even had KXRMs digital logo at their Fox on accident... so I know they can do it anytime!
Almost September 12th... their prime time lineup is trashy anyway... it's all about the NFL!

Originally posted by TallGuy
Those are great levels, especially from Monument. I tried the Square Shooter up on my roof, but the levels weren't good because of one rooftop in my line of sight to Cheyenne Mountain, and I had to return it.

Thanks! Did you try the amplified version? Robert (VE) talked me into it and I'm glad he did.

Guess there's nothing like an unobstructed view.

That's the thing, I am completely obstructed by trees to the south. I can't even see Pikes Peak and we're at 7500'. The wonders of multi-path I suppose. I guess we're due for a little good RF karma as our cell phones don't work here (not such bad thing...).

I didn't try the amplified version. Do you mean it's a different SquareShooter model, or you just bought a preamp to put in-line?

Originally posted by TallGuy
I didn't try the amplified version. Do you mean it's a different SquareShooter model, or you just bought a preamp to put in-line?

No, it's a different model. Being a skeptic, I wanted to know what I was getting for my $$$. So of course, I took it apart. :) There's an external power supply that puts out 15.2v AC. Inside the SS-2000 there is a circuit board with an couple of voltage regulators and an amplifier circuit on it. I suspect that on the non-amplified SS-1000 model, this board is replaced with a passive feedthrough board.

I mis-spoke in my previous message. The real setup is:

Setup is SS-2000-->power supply-->Terk M58-->PerfectVision Diplexer-->HDTiVo.

BTW, I ran a test with and without the amplifier: No amp: KRDO=30's with no picture, with amp: 70's and good (well as good as it gets) picture.

Thanks for that last sentence. Maybe I should try an amp on mine. I wonder if my little amp unit that Adelphia put in my mechanical room for cable would do the trick for the antenna line. The level of amplification is not adjustable, and everyone says that the HD-Tivo overloads very very easily. Does anyone think that I could damage anything by trying this?

Originally posted by TallGuy
The level of amplification is not adjustable, and everyone says that the HD-Tivo overloads very very easily. Does anyone think that I could damage anything by trying this?

I've heard the same thing, but unless it's really hot signal, I don't think it would damage the inputs (and I haven't read any reports to the contrary). More than likely what's happening is that the front-end AGC is getting saturated by the high input level. Just put an attenuator in-line with the input if you experience any saturation symptoms.

Re Adelphia amp: It's BW should be sufficient for OTA HDTV signals.

I'd like to provide an update I received from Mike at KXRM (Fox).
"The FOX hi-def equipment has been timed and tested. A slight amount of wiring to integrate the system with our house equipment remains to be completed.

Barring unforeseen difficulties, KXRM plans to air its first hi-def football game on September 12.

Mike Dunlap"

It sounds great and let's hope that it all works by Sunday.

Nice! Thanks, RJO.

According to my tuner box. it says the signal is HD. I mean fox 21 does. Not a HD broadcast show. but at least it says HD. A good sign

Almost time for TallGuy to change his signature

I'm more than willing to change it! But it will change all previous posts too, when the 1 was still correct. When KXRM goes HD, I'm going to email our writer from the Gazette and try to get them to put in a little sidebar on the TV page about Fox, our second HD station.

Looks like D* Sunday Ticket is carrying 6 or 7 HD NFL games this Sunday afternoon. Not that I have coughed up the money for them...

chanceG or anyone else: my little preamp says "54-1000 Mhz forward path 15db gain". Is that the right bandwidth for OTA VHF and UHF? Is 15db a little or a lot? When I do hook it up, I think I'll put the attenuator on too just to be sure I don't blow up a tuner. I'm interested to see if I can get KRDO-DT a lot stronger (not that it looks like 480p or 1080i or anything...)

Hey, who changed the name of our thread?

Guess we ain't "Offical" anymore!!

Originally posted by TallGuy
chanceG or anyone else: my little preamp says "54-1000 Mhz forward path 15db gain". Is that the right bandwidth for OTA VHF and UHF? Is 15db a little or a lot? When I do hook it up, I think I'll put the attenuator on too just to be sure I don't blow up a tuner. I'm interested to see if I can get KRDO-DT a lot stronger (not that it looks like 480p or 1080i or anything...)

That will work and should not overload the front end of your tuner. I can't see how it would cause any problems if only hooked up to an ota antenna and 15 db gain. Also, best to have it as close as possible to the antenna.

VHF - 30 MHz to 300 MHz.
UHF - 300 MHz to 3 GHz.

OTA television VHF channel 2 starts at 54 MHz and channel 69 UHF starts at 800 MHz.

Originally posted by TallGuy
chanceG or anyone else: my little preamp says "54-1000 Mhz forward path 15db gain". Is that the right bandwidth for OTA VHF and UHF? Is 15db a little or a lot?

That should be fine. 15db is probably the max amplification you want. Couldn't hurt to have some attenuators lying around, but I doubt you'll overload the tuner. Especially if the amp is placed at the far end.

Whooops, guess I should read ahead. Looks like celfon nailed it.

thanks guys

What is going on with the sound on CBS HD. We can barely hear them talking. Fox HD sounds and looks great!!!

What is going on with the sound on CBS HD. We can barely hear them talking. Fox HD sounds and looks great!!!

Not having any problems with the sound on CBS here. How's your signal strength?

Not trying to be too picky but I am finding Fox to have colors a bit oversaturated and picture not quite as sharp as CBS. CBS just looks more natural. It has that "looking through a window" look. Of course, Fox looks way better than it used to.

My Dish Network tuner is converting the Fox 720p to 1080i, so that can have something to do with it but ESPN HD has not had the oversaturation. We will see how the Bronco game looks tonight.

It is fun to have all of these HD games to compare.

Roy

Edit: 2nd game looked better on Fox, a pleasure to watch.

I'm so glad that KXRM successfully went to HD today! I'm going to have to change my signature now to 2 HD stations to Colorado Springs. I forgot how good the NFL looks in HD. I check out games that I'd never watch otherwise...

CBS left HD at about 2:17 p.m. I wonder if CBS' studio show is always going to be SD like this wrap-up is. FOX' studio looks great because it's HD. I don't mind for now if the colors are a little garish or oversaturated - it's great to have HD.

Now KKTV forgot to go back to HD for the U.S. Open tennis...or technical difficulties.

now it's back

Its, fantastic. Going to email Mike Dunlap and thank him.

Originally posted by Frank Zimkas
Not having any problems with the sound on CBS here. How's your signal strength?

Just getting a chance to respond. Watching Tennis now in Dolby digital and can not hear a thing. On my stereo receiver normal listening volume is 80. I have to turn it up to 53 to equal the same volume as 80 on all other channels.

My signal strength bounces between 77 and 79.

I have the same problem when watching anything on Discover HD. When there are narrated parts I can not hear a word the narrator is saying, but when it changes to a live person I hear loud and clear.

Is it something with my equipment??? I have Direct TV Samsung receiver SIR T160 HD receiver with audio going through a Yahama RX-V540.

I have also noticed that, at least for me, not too many programs are in dd 5.1 For example the Bronco game on ESPN HD is not in dd 5.1. My Yahmaha displays Dolby Digital when it senses it, and while watching the game it is not senseing DD.

p.s. Frank did you see my PM I left you at DBStalk.com?

It would help if your question was more specific .... which CBS channel? what program(s)? I've had no sound problems with my CBS HDTV channel in Seattle, but many recent problems with our local NBC channel. They keep forgetting to flip the switch to full HDTV with DD5.1 audio, and sometimes the DD5.1 audio is messed up with no center channel audio.

eichenberg, I haven't had any problems like the ones you are describing.

The Broncos game looked fantastic on ESPN-HD. I almost couldn't find a single flaw with the broadcast (now the refs were another matter).

BTW, the amp and the Radio Shack attentuator have managed to bring in KRDO solidly here - moved the signal strength from 20s to 60-70s. Why didn't I try that a long time ago...

For Fox today it seemed like the center channel was extremely quiet. I had to turn the receiver up a lot, but then if the refs blew a whistle or a coach yelled near a mic, it would be extremely loud. I think it had to be something wrong with our KXRM because no a single other source has this issue.
Fox seemed to have a decent picture overall, but ESPNs was much better, I think Fox has some work to do.

Originally posted by TallGuy
BTW, the amp and the Radio Shack attentuator have managed to bring in KRDO solidly here - moved the signal strength from 20s to 60-70s.

That's good news! Lately, I haven't been able to pull in KRDO. The odd thing is the signal strength on the HD-TiVo shows tuner 2 really low (20's) and tuner 1 where it's always been (70's). All other OTA signal strengths are unchanged (90+). When I can force it use tuner 1, I get a picture. Oh well, maybe it's just KRDO's flaky signal?

I would almost bet you're having the HD-TiVo overload issue. I've seen it described in much detail in another thread, that if you use an amp, you have to attenuate (weaken) the amplified signal so it doesn't freak out the HR10-250. That's exactly what happened to me - without an attenuator, one tuner dropped to low levels with no picture; with slight attenuation, both tuners were in the 70s even with a signal that was weak before the amp. I'm using a RS attenuator that was about $4 or something. I bet it will work for you.

Originally posted by TallGuy


The Broncos game looked fantastic on ESPN-HD. I almost couldn't find a single flaw with the broadcast (now the refs were another matter).



TallGuy, you have an HDTivo, right? Last night I was watching the game on ESPN-HD too on my HDTivo. I saw frequent thin horizontal black bands going across the screen. It was only on ESPN-HD, and I had the same problem on both component and HDMI. It seemed to be in the signal - when I'd back up the program and replay it, the bands would show up in the exact same place. I assume from your above statement you didn't experience this problem?

Great game BTW. That new 5'7"/195 lb. running back is amazing to watch.

-Sean

Originally posted by TallGuy
That's exactly what happened to me - without an attenuator, one tuner dropped to low levels with no picture; with slight attenuation, both tuners were in the 70s even with a signal that was weak before the amp. I'm using a RS attenuator that was about $4 or something. I bet it will work for you.

What's odd is that the problem only manifests itself on KRDO. Both tuners are fine on all other channels. Was that similiar to your symptoms? How many dB was the attenuator from RS? I'll give it a shot.

Originally posted by mtnsean
I saw frequent thin horizontal black bands going across the screen. It was only on ESPN-HD, and I had the same problem on both component and HDMI.
I didn't see anything like that on my HD-TiVo. That's interesting since we're both watching the same bits from the same satellite. ?

Originally posted by chanceG
What's odd is that the problem only manifests itself on KRDO. Both tuners are fine on all other channels. Was that similiar to your symptoms? How many dB was the attenuator from RS? I'll give it a shot.
Yeah, same here. And we're both way up north, so KRDO's weak signal is extra weak up here. The only thing I can think is that too much amplification of static or multipath or the bad signal is too much for the HD-TiVo, but a little less is OK. It was interesting to watch the dual strength meter as I turned the attenuator knob down.

The RS attentuator is so cheap and basic there aren't any markings on it about dB. The RS part number is 15-678.

Originally posted by TallGuy
I didn't see anything like that on my HD-TiVo. That's interesting since we're both watching the same bits from the same satellite. ?

Yeah, I was worried it was just me, but looks like others in the HDTivo forum had the same probs. Strange thing - not everyone has it, and not always with an HDTivo:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=194740

-Sean

Originally posted by TallGuy
The RS attentuator is so cheap and basic there aren't any markings on it about dB. The RS part number is 15-678.

I had a 6dB pad and tried it last night. No help. Interesting thing was that it knocked KRDO's signal strength down into the teens, but didn't affect the others at all (90+). Maybe 6dB isn't enough. I'll go spring for the variable attenuator today...

Anyone notice any problems with CSI:Miami last night? Toward the end of the show the sound was all garbled. No DD5.1 either.

Originally posted by chanceG
I had a 6dB pad and tried it last night. No help. Interesting thing was that it knocked KRDO's signal strength down into the teens, but didn't affect the others at all (90+). Maybe 6dB isn't enough. I'll go spring for the variable attenuator today...

No help with the variable attenuator either. The interesting thing is, the signal strength is much better the last two days (70+ on tuner1 and 50+ on tuner2).

I hooked up the variable attenuator and as I varied it from min to max, the signal strength dropped from 70->0, so I don't think I'm overdriving it.

I still can't understand the signal strength imbalance, but don't care (for now) as there's nothing worth watching on ABC anyway. All other stations are a rock solid 92 on both tuners. It's must be something about KRDOs crappy signal that TiVo doesn't like.

Frank Zimkas noted a distortion with CBS HD last night (CSI). I too had the same problems he described. Glad to see it wasn't just me.

___________________
David

chanceG - I really am surprised that didn't work for you. Your situation was so similar to mine. Also, our fact patterns were close to these posts by DonLandis in another forum, which is where I got the amp + attentuator idea:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4074247&highlight=attenuator#post4074247
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4074954&highlight=attenuator#post4074954
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4090290&highlight=attenuator#post4090290
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4236561&highlight=attenuator#post4236561

Just noticed my guide said that Speed was supposed to be HD tonight on Fox, but it wasn't HD on KXRM when I checked. Hope their equipment didn't go down. I might email Mike. Did any of you watch HD football on Fox today?

I caught bits and pieces. Looked damn good!!

Also, no Broncos in HD again next week! This year, we'd do better to be in an NFC town to have 6 HD games a week on FOX instead of 2-3 HD AFC games a week on CBS. :(

From CBS.com...
San Diego @ Denver 4:00 p.m. (available in HDTV)

I guess I made a bad conclusion after reviewing the NFL Sunday Ticket HD shows listed in the DirecTV onscreen program guide and seeing it wasn't there.

Glad they will be HD for their revenge game after today's mess!

Mess is right! 7-6!!! Sounds like the score from another Rockies loss.

Originally posted by TallGuy
chanceG - I really am surprised that didn't work for you. Your situation was so similar to mine.

Yeah, I thought so too. All other signals were a rock solid 92 and didn't start to come down until the var att was at about 50%. KRDO started at about 72 and slid down from there.

I've still got the var att and I figure I'll drag it out again once KRDO starts transmitting full power HD. In the meantime, I might as well watch/record the SD Sat signal instead as it will take up less HD space anyway.

is anyone watching KRDO ABC Monday Night Football?

I just got a Sony 51" RP. (KP-51WS520) and Dish Network 811 HD reciever. I thought they would give me a integrated antenna, but the installer said I have to buy it at Radio Shack.

Anyways, this is my first post, I just moved to the Springs from West Palm Beach Florida and trying to get everything set up.

The first HD local channel I found was KRDO just in time for the game. I have a good enough signal to watch it but it looks just like SD with Dolby Digital 2.0. Is there a problem with KRDO or my TV/reciever? Any help is appreciated.

thanks, I've been lurking for the past few weeks, since I'm in town now, I thought I would say hello.

Joe

Welcome to the Springs, the forum, and our little thread!

KRDO (ABC) does broadcast a Digital Signal but not an HD signal. Hell even their SD broadcast is mono. The only 2 channels that actually have an HD signal on-air is KKTV (CBS) and KXRM (FOX). KOAA (NBC) is stuck in limbo and our local PBS station was supposed to be on-air quite some time ago, guess they forgot to flip the switch.:rolleyes:

You forgot to mention KRDO's phone number is 632-1515. :) They seem to believe that even stereo audio is just a phase that consumers are going through.

Sorry, Joe, we have way less HD than Florida but fewer hurricanes too. (Read my signature line.)

Canadian Bell ExpressVu for ABC-HD keeps getting more tempting...

Frank, the HT link in your signature doesn't work for me...

Yep. Projected HD for KRDO (ABC) is sometime after January... so MNF next year in HD.

I noticed Northshore was in HD on Fox tonight. Just weird how their fox21 logo was just barely cut off of my screen. It almost made it, and I have a pretty low overscan %, so I'm assuming they're gonna have to move that before too long. It's also a little annoying being ~10% transparent and two seperate colors.

Yeah, sometime after January 2007...

Anyone know how long it usually takes the affiliates to respond to Satellite Waiver requests?

I faxed one to KOAA 2 weeks ago in hopes of being able to get the NBC-HD feed from DirecTV.

Do I have even a snowballs chance in hell of them granting my waiver request? :(

Stealing from MTV of the 80's, here's my new slogan for the Springs:
I want my HDTV!
Rob

Don't hold your breath. I doubt very seriously that you'll get it approved, but stranger things have happened.

Our mantra around here is HDTV NOW!!

Originally posted by radckh
Anyone know how long it usually takes the affiliates to respond to Satellite Waiver requests?

I faxed one to KOAA 2 weeks ago in hopes of being able to get the NBC-HD feed from DirecTV.

Do I have even a snowballs chance in hell of them granting my waiver request? :(

Stealing from MTV of the 80's, here's my new slogan for the Springs:
I want my HDTV!
Rob

Don't know about KOAA, but I had great success with KKTV. Their website even had a link specifically for people seeking waivers (under the contacts section). I just sent them an email, explained my reasoning, and within a day or two I had my waiver. Couldn't have been more pleased with the process, and now I have CBS-HD and NBC-HD from D* (I was already qualified for NBC based on my signal strength).

-Sean

Did they forget to turn on the HD for the Bronco game?

Wow, ay221, you just beat me to the punch. I was going to say how pissed I am that I pay for HD package monthly, NFL ticket, and have off air HD. The Bronco game is blacked out on the 90's because it's on the local off air, yet ONCE AGAIN, they don't have the game on in HD!!!! WTF!!!!! God this is a technological shithole I'ved moved to!

Thanks for letting me flame, but this place is something else!

OK, we need to call KKTV right now. Either somebody forgot something, or they're having technical issues, and I want to know which. So far, the only phone number I've found on their web site is 634-2844. I'll try it now - let's all try and whoever gets through to engineering, post the answer here.

I've been looking forward to the Broncos winning in HD all week!

Do you have to dial that 260 extension for sports to talk to someone?

260 didn't work for me, but 243 for the newsroom did. The newsroom lady talked to Engineering and the story was that they were only getting the Baltimore-Cincinnati (11:00) game in HD, which is now in the postgame wrap-up. They think they will switch to the Broncos in HD very soon when that is over.

That doesn't sound right to me at all. Engineering is probably tuned in to the wrong feed from CBS central. But at least they know about it.

If it's not fixed by halftime, everybody call 634-2844 ext. 243. They need to be flooded with calls.

Sent programming an email....kicked back for bad address. Linked directly from their website....

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

programming@kktv11news.com


Wonderful....will call at halftime as well, but the game is available as we speak in HD on channel 98...if only I was allowed to watch it!!!!! God I love this place.

Thanks for the good work ay221 and tallguy

Tim Timora, whenever you see this, can you tell us what the $#*^% went on with the Broncos game today? We shouldn't be nearly the only market in the country that's not able to receive the Broncos in HD (considering OTA, cable + NFL Sunday Ticket, nearly every other market could get this game but us).

all,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this two weeks in a row now??

davidfritz, this is still a great place to live. Just not so much for HD...

By the way, KKTV/CBS, there is gorgeous HD football on KXRM/FOX as we speak... Packers at Colts. Makes my HDTV and my eyes much happier.

Last weeks game wasn't scheduled to be in HD. Not all games are broadcast in HD. take a look at this. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=450780

Last week, CBS didn't send HD cameras to Jacksonville. CBS is only doing 3 games a week in HD, FOX is up to 6 HD games per week. So nothing KKTV could do about it last week.

This was our first mid-day sunday HD game this year, and somehow KKTV screwed it up. I would really like to know what happened. I don't see how they just wouldn't be getting the HD signal to give to us.

OK, it's halftime, let's call. Even though they're not too bright today, I have faith that they can figure it out.

Bottom line...

I pay for HD package and NFL Ticket...I won't be watching any game not on in HD when I have so many other choices. If advertising pays KKTV's bills, and the consumer pays the advertisers by wathing their advertisements and buying their products.....well, you get the picture. KKTV really screwed this one up if you ask me.

I just don't understand how it is we can track millions of tons of space debris from a mountain just a few miles away....how we can train the best pilots in the air force just a few miles north of that...how we can have several wafer fabrication facilities located within the city, and yet somehow the infrastructure rivals that of a town the size of alamosa.

The population here I believe runs around half a million....you'd think the locals would have a compulsion to get with the program here, not only with television signals, but with everything. The infrastructure as a whole is severely lacking for a city of this size. And it continues to grow....and grow...and grow...

What upsets me is since most of the Bronco games are on CBS, they don't get a chance to be in HD all the time like the NFC teams on Fox because CBS only does 3 games per week, and Fox does 5-7. When we do get it, it is important to me that it is available in HD here, and I hate for our CBS to screw it up.

IMO: Having Sunday Ticket has nothing to do with you not getting the Bronco game. The blackout rules are there, and the only issue you should have is with KKTV, not with the fact that you can't watch it in HD on D*.

Calling now...

Talking to them now, they say they are either having a problem with their server, or CBS' server. and that they have no ETA. I talked to whoever the 243 extension gives you.

Now KKTV tells me that the game is not in HD. I tell them that others in the country are watching it in HD, and that the first minute of the game showed the HDTV announcement by CBS. Then he says, well, our server is not receiving it in HD "from Salt Lake City or from Denver's channel 4". I said this is one of CBS' national 3 HD games of the week, and not through Denver's affiliate. He brings up the preseason games that were produced by the Denver station, as if that has anything to do with the regular season games which are always national.

I said that Engineering needs to call Salt Lake City and find out where the problem is. KKTV's guy in the newsroom says "That would be kind of like me calling Dan Rather and asking him" about the Memogate thing. So affiliates aren't allowed to talk engineer to engineer when there are major problems? They act like they can't do anything at all. You'd think they'd want to take pride in being the only local station to offer most of the Broncos games this year.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Now I'm glad I didn't invite friends over this week, telling them that the game would look great in HD. Would have really been burned by that. But I want to rely on their HD plans for games in the future - guess it's a crapshoot.

4:06 left in teh 3rd quarter and it went to HD

(and Lelie shines in HD)

They figured it out! 4:08 pm, 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter!

Just in time for an incredible touchdown catch by Lelie!!

This game in HD looks a hundred times better.

I'm guessing that next week's Denver at Tampa Bay game will be CBS-HD again. Sunday, 2 p.m.

The West CBS HD feed out of LA was HD the entire time. Looked good. Had some friends over for the game and KKTV being in SD at the time made for a nice A/B comparison for the HD neophyte. :)

How'd you get that? Do you have a grandfathered waiver?

(I would have preferred to be able to demo between KKTV 11-1 OTA vs. KKTV 11 SD from DirecTV.)

Originally posted by TallGuy
How'd you get that? Do you have a grandfathered waiver?

Indeed. I've always had the Denver locals. Which means no NBC-HD national feed. Just CBS-HD and FOX-HD (soon). Of course, those two I can pull in OTA just fine. :rolleyes:

Is there a contact person at KKTV who can provide the necessary instructions to the weekend crew to insure the Broncos HD feed gets passed through properly? I would hate to have a repeat of last weekends fiasco.

You could call Engineering but it might be too late now. It's cool that you can get their signal all the way in Castle Rock.

The lesson from last weekend is...we have to have more people calling, sooner. Last week, they must have fixed the glitch or realized their mistake when more and more people called. Whenever in the future it happens again, let's all call in the 1st quarter (and be courteous). There's strength in numbers.

Come to think of it, some of the prime time during the week KKTV/CBS shows have had several minutes of SD mixed in with the HD. They just don't have it down to a reliable practice yet. They'll have to hear from us or else it will seem like no one's watching the HD feed. (Which is scary because that could tempt them to turn down the power on the OTA signal to save money...)

It might be helpful for us newbies to post contact numbers and names of those we should talk to at the stations. I know I wanted to call, but did not know who to call.

eichenberg

During the Sunday problem, I just looked up the number in the phone book. I've called a couple stations a couple of times, and they're small enough that Engineering is probably like 2-3 employees.

When I called at halftime I talked to the newsroom, not engineering. The guy I talked to just asked outloud to anyone that was there if they knew what was going on, and he said "There is either something wrong with our server, or the server where we are getting the feed from." and when I asked for an ETA, he said he had no idea, and that the newsroom would never really have that type of information. So I think we need to find a better # to call so that we talk to people who might have a bit more to do with the HD broadcast.

Is anyone else having audio drop outs on Adelphia channel 721 (Fox HD). Trying to watch the Green Bay- NYG game and it's almost unwatchable.

Yep, Same thing here. I haven't tried moving my antenna around though.

Once again we the HDTV consumers are getting screwed by the local affiliates. KKTV did not start showing the broncos game in HD. Hopefully it will switch over before the 3rd quarter like last week.

-Mike

Looks like somebody forgot to flip the HD switch at KKTV again!!:mad:
Here's the two numbers from the phone book

634-2844
636-9292

I'm watching on delay...looks like they flipped the switch at 2:32. Did they tell you anything intelligent on the phone?

The first number was a recorded message, second one was a fax machine.

The signal was gone back and forth a few times from SD to HD. Looks okay right now.

I called KKTV and the begining of the Bronco and complained about the lack of HDTV. The lady who answered the phone was very courteous and called the Engineering dept and responded to me that CBS could only send one HD signal at a time to them. They had to wait until the Patriot/Bills game was finished to get us the Bronco game in HD. That's why it was late but it does not explain the numerous instances when it changes to SD or fails to return to HD after commercial breaks. Until they get it resolved I would prefer they just feed us the networkk feed only and forget about the local commercials.

Was anyone else a little annoyed at the FCC Chairman speaking on Monday Night Football about HDTV when he said the only thing keeping consumers from HDTV is the hardware!! Buying an HDTV does you no good if your local networks won't/can't broadcast HD!

On this subject, does anyone know any info on when we may have HD from KOAA or KRDO? Sure would be nice to get ER and MNF in HD!

Rob

KKTV will never show a game without local commercials...it's a business. I can't imagine why they could only get one HD game at a time, especially the out of market one. Makes no sense. Tim Timora from KKTV, are you still reading this?

radckh, you're right. We need a volunteer to call each of the two and get an update. I'm slammed at work from 7 am to 7 pm most every day right now. Anyone want to call and ask and report back here?

OK, now I'm more frustrated with KKTV. The entire show of Everybody Loves Raymond was SD tonight. One of their highest rated shows! Flip the dang switch...please.

By the way, I think we'll get to see the Broncos on FOX-HD this Sunday, for comparison to CBS-[sometimes]-HD.

Here's the content of an e-mail that I sent to KKTV's 'general manager' today...

With the new TV season starting recently, I've been watching a lot of KKTV-DT on my 55" HDTV. I have noticed that quite often the signal takes a few minutes to return to HD after a commercial break. (the signal is SD during the commercials, and for a few minutes of the show after the commercials). I thoroughly enjoy watching all of my favorite CBS prime time shows in High Definition, but this problem of KKTV-DT not sending the HD signal for a few minutes after each commercial break is annoying.

I would appreciate it greatly if you can look into this matter, or forward this e-mail to someone in that control area.

Thanks for your time,

-Paul Eigsti

Who knows if it will help, but it can't hurt.
:rolleyes:

Originally posted by radckh
Was anyone else a little annoyed at the FCC Chairman speaking on Monday Night Football about HDTV when he said the only thing keeping consumers from HDTV is the hardware!! Buying an HDTV does you no good if your local networks won't/can't broadcast HD!

On this subject, does anyone know any info on when we may have HD from KOAA or KRDO? Sure would be nice to get ER and MNF in HD!

Rob

I sent the following to Mr. Powel. His e-mail is Michael.Powell@fcc.gov


There was one point that I disagreed with. That is when you stated that the only
thing keeping consumers from HDTV is the harware! That is not entirely true. I
live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We have two (2) stations that broadcast in
HD. CBS and Fox. Our CBS station seems to always have problems with getting the
HD signal to us. What I mean is that sometimes we will be watching a program on
CBS and our local station will "forget" to flip the switch to allow the
HD signal to pass through to us. This happens on numerous occasions. For example
three weeks in a row now many of us with HD capabilities have had to call the local
station to tell them they need to switch over to the HD feed when watching a Denver
Broncos game that is suppose to be in HD. We have had to watch a SD picture for
half or a little bit more than half of the game. It is dissapoitnting to think
that if we did not call the station to complain they would not have switched over
to HD.

Colorado Springs also has two (2) other stations NBC and ABC. Our ABC station is
flat out refusing to switch to HD as they do not beleive there is a complelling
reason to switch. NBC has supposedly been having a problem getting a permit from
the FCC. This problem has been going on for two years now. The latest is that
the permit problem is cleared up and they will begin constructing a tower and be
SD by summer 2005, but no mention of HD in the near future.

So, it seems, the problem is two fold. Getting the hardware to the consumer, which
with prices on the decline is looking better and better for the consumer. The other
problem is that the local TV stations not willing to spend the money to upgrade
to HD to pass along to the consumer. This is very disconcerting.

Here's the e-mail that I received from Tim Timora at KKTV today....

Thank you for watching our HD programming. The preordaining in high definition from CBS has to be delayed one hour because of the mountain time zone. We use a computer that streams the HD in then plays it back an hour latter. When we do a commercial break the computer has to be recued to the proper time of the program. This might take a few seconds or longer because there is no fast forward or rewind on this computer. You can only advance or delay X number of seconds. DTV and HD is new and it takes awhile to work all of the bugs out of the system.

Tim Timora
KKTV

Here's my email to Mr. Powell at the FCC:

Mr. Powell-

I am a big fan of the HDTV revolution and have a significant investment in my personal home theater. Here in the Colorado Springs, Colorado market (500,000 population), we now have 2 stations broadcasting most of their available programming in HD, KKTV (CBS) and KXRM (FOX). We are apparently not very close at all to having KOAA (NBC) and KRDO (ABC) join the 21st century with HD. The rules are so loose about when they need to make the investment, and they seem to be moving slowly. Actually KOAA says their permit has been stuck with the FCC for about 2 years, and I don't know why the FCC has to take so long to resolve the interference issues that affect them. There really can't be much interference between them and Denver considering the terrain between them. KRDO seems to have no plans to move to HD, and so we are stuck without any NBC or ABC programming in HD.

The local stations own our eyeballs, and yet won't provide what the consumers want. Please consider moving strongly to persuade stations to move to HD quicker, or support the legislation to allow people in our situation the opportunity to receive HD national network signals via satellite until and only until the local station moves to HD. We feel like we're being held hostage by these stations on this issue and they have no disincentive to do what they're doing. Please approve the KOAA permit and push KRDO to join all of the other ABC stations around the country that are broadcasting in HD.

A reply would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening.

Originally posted by Paul E
Here's the e-mail that I received from Tim Timora at KKTV today....

I'm not sure I believe that. They were at one point very reliable. At the most they used to leave it in SD for a few seconds going back from commercial when they first started. Now all the sudden it is getting worse? I am guessing its new staff or something alone those lines. They've been doing this for quite awhile now, it's not brand new to them.

Broncos are leading at the half and we are all winners today!! Hats off to FOX for a great picture and great sound today!! Too bad KRDO is so damn anal about modernizing, I'd love to see MNF in 720P, as well as some of their prime time programs.

720P is fantastic for Sports/Action viewing.

If the Broncos drop this game, I don't want to see another 720p game again...

Seriously, could you believe seeing a 1st quarter in HD? A rarity for us lately!

Originally posted by Frank Zimkas
720P is fantastic for Sports/Action viewing.

Isn't that the truth? Even my Wife could tell the difference between CBS and FOX. She says FOX games always look better. Funny how KXRM could seamlessly handle switching back and forth from SD commercials to HD programming.... :eek:

Yeah, even for me converting back to 1080i for my display, 720p looks better than CBS. KKTV always has the pixelation on fast-moving shots.

Originally posted by Frank Zimkas
The first number was a recorded message, second one was a fax machine.

The signal was gone back and forth a few times from SD to HD. Looks okay right now.

Hi Frank. I am getting ready to fixed up my theater room to go front projector.I clicked on your HT link to see your theater layout and notice you have redish colored walls? Does your picture still come out good even though you don't have the dark ceilings and dark projection screen wall? I was looking at these dark blues and not sure how dark I need to go.

The pictures don't really show the true colors of the walls as well as I'd hoped. They're actually a dark brick red. The picture from the PJ on my DIY screen is great even though the walls are red. The white ceiling can be distracting at times but it's really not that bad. I've been comtemplating a color change for the whole room, gotta think about it a bit more though. I'vebeen considering Kodak #18 neutral grey on the side and rear walls, and Charcoal on the ceiling and front wall.

I haven't studied it a ton but my medium-charcoal gray walls have worked out well.

What color are your walls tall guy? I think picking out and putting on the right colors is more of a hassle than finding a good projector that I like.

The best way I can describe it is medium-charcoal gray. In my little picture, they look lighter, but with the lights down, they're very dark and don't reflect much light at all.

I still think more of y'all should put in a picture onto your AVS account of you and your HD baby...

Yeah, I don't even have a camera. I probably will take a pic once my HT is setup correctly. In my question, I messed up and meant to say what color is your ceiling. I know some people like to make that black. I am not good at painting so I am either going to pay my brother-in-law to do it, or hire someone in the phone book or something.

*EDIT*, just notice in your profile that you have a rear projection set, which probably the ceiling doesn't matter as much in that situation.

Anyways I will keep this back to the HDTV topic. Saw that KOAA is still under appilcation pending at the fcc website. Man I wish they would get that signed off quick.

My ceiling is gray also. Black might seem depressing to me. Of course, with the lights off, it doesn't matter. Even with an RPTV, there is so much light output that white walls could be a problem. But I'm not an expert.

Yeah, KOAA and KRDO...depressing. Guess we'll all keep watching less and less of NBC and ABC.

Broncos at Oakland in HD, Sunday, 2:15
http://www.chargertom.com/RaiderHaters.html

I painted my screen wall Charcoal, or as my wife says " Dark, Dark, Dark Charcoal...Hell it's black!":D When the lights go down the wall just disappears. Still planning on gray for the ceiling and remaining walls as well.

Hey everyone, this would be my first post on this forum. I probably didn't need to mention that since my question will give it away. I should probably tell you my general location: Rangewood and Vickers. Anyways, in the Springs area what types of OTA Antenna are you using? If I get D* or E*, with the HD programming, will the dish receive the OTA Local HDTV signals, or is that just a pipe dream? And if that assumption is correct, do I need to by some sort of a switch to go from SAT to OTA? In addition, what types of indoor antenna's work, or should I stay away from the indoor types? Last newbie question, I f need to hook up a OTA antenna, I will need to run RG6 (I think?), can I use an HDMI terminal to take advantage of that input?

My wife an I are purchasing either a Mitsu wd-52725 dlp or Sony GW4 55 LCD, and looking to ditch the Adelphia junk we currently get. Since I am totally new to the HDTV revolution I have a million questions. Most of my ?'s I've been able to locate an answer for by searching the posts, however these escape me. I thank you in advance for any help you can give to me!

Cack,
Welcome to the forum!
Neither E* or D* provide local stations in HD, it's SD only at present. OTA-HD is pretty staight forward with Dishnetwork HD receivers. simply add an antenna, scan for digital signals and your all set. DirecTv receivers work the same way.

As far as antennas go you don't need a special antenna, even a pair of rabbit ears will work in most cases. That being said, I opted for a Zenith ZHD-TV1, I picked it up from Sears for around $30-35. I'll think you'll find that FOX and CBS are pretty easy to pull in, but KRDO has a weak signal. I don't even bother with them, no HD.

HD from the first second of the game! Nice job, KKTV!

(And wake up, Broncos!)

I think they're awake now...:)

The NLCS on Fox looks gorgeous, I think, much better than the ALCS from Boston last night.

Hey thanks Frank!

I looked at the Zenith ZHD-TV1, it has gotten some good reviews, and seems a viable alternative to having one installed on my roof (fear of heights, and general lack of know how to properly install and calibrate). It appears that this is uhf only, will this matter, are there any channels missed because of this? I assume this plugs into an antenna input in the E* 811 hd recvr, how will I switch from sat to antenna?

Wow this price will be especially appealing to my wife, if it gets good reception! Thanks again Frank.

You are correct, the antenna connects to the "Ant. Input" jack on the 811. You won't be losing any VHF channels, DTV signals are in the UHF band. No switching, the channels will automatically show up in your guide. Simply surf the channels like you would with cable.

Originally posted by Frank Zimkas
You won't be losing any VHF channels, DTV signals are in the UHF band. No switching, the channels will automatically show up in your guide. Simply surf the channels like you would with cable.

My understanding is that DTV signals can show up in the UHF and VHF bands depending on what is assigned to the broadcaster. Are you basing your answer on only the currently available signals or on what is scheduled to be available in COS?

My suggestion would be to get a VHF and UHF antenna in case future channels were broadcast on VHF. Then you wouldn't need to change the antenna later.

edit: From the http://www.fcc.gov/oet/faqs/dtvfaqs.html,

"Under the FCC spectrum plan, we have provided most existing broadcasters with access to a 6 MHz channel for digital broadcasting within a core digital TV spectrum, i.e., TV channels 2 to 51."

and

"After the transition period (2006), the VHF channels (2-13) will remain available for DTV and the analog TV service will end on all channels."

In fact KKTV is broadcasting it's digital signal on channel 10 which is in the VHF band.

Right you are, current availablity.

Hmmm, come to think of it that doesn't make any sense either, kktv is on 10.

No Matter!! The Zenith antenna works!!

Damn, I hate when that happens, beaten to the punch again!

FYI,
The Zenith antenna can be used for both VHF and UHF reception. Click on the link and read the note near the bottom of the page. I connected mine directly to my receiver and get better reception than my previous antennas.

http://www.zenith.com/sub_prod/product_Display.asp?cat=49&id=131

Forget all this E* and spring for the HD-TiVo from D*. It timeshifts HD like the 921 from Dish Network, but it actually works. ;)

But... E* and D* don't have much HD to timeshift... Voom is another choice with more HD, and a whole-house PVR solution coming soon.

Originally posted by TallGuy
Forget all this E* and spring for the HD-TiVo from D*. It timeshifts HD like the 921 from Dish Network, but it actually works. ;)
But only if you have the 3-4 hours to wait for the guide to load....;)

Either way, HD-DVR's are the way to go. There are pro's and cons for all of the DBS/Cable systems. The biggest down side right now is programming, but that will change with time. Yes Voom has the most content, but the majority is upverted. To some that's a minus, others don't care.

Let's face facts, when you're an early adopter of a "New" technology, nothing ever moves fast enough for you, myself included. At this point we need to keep after the non-HD stations to get with the program, keep after your DBS/Cable provider to increase their HD offerings, and to keep each other informed about we know is happening.

We've still got lots of work to do, KOAA, KRDO, and KTSC are still lagging behind.

HDTV NOW!!!

Originally posted by Vaggeto
Voom is another choice with more HD, and a whole-house PVR solution coming soon.
Allegedly coming soon... :D