if I were to "drop" the digital package ... would I still get the OTA "local" digital channels over cable?

As the previous poster pointed out, TWC may require the digital package to be able to rent the 8300 from them.

However, TWC currently sends the local digitals in the clear so any QAM capable DVR would work to record them. If you are computer savvy and have some time, you could build a MythTv or SageTV based PC for less than $1000, and still be able to record HD. And you'd be more in control, and able to archive your shows to DVD, able to expand your storage as much as you want, etc. You may even be able to buy an SA8300 (there are some on ebay), but I have no idea if you'd still get listings. Sage/Myth get their listings over the internet, not through cable like the SA8300 does. Heck, I have no idea if a purchased 8300 would work at all. But I know my MythTv box does :)

If you don't care about anything between 24-77, you could drop down to basic cable, and recoup the cost of the PC in a year or so. This is what I've done, and I installed an antenna in the attic to get WB22 (my wife likes Reba..), so even if TWC decides to scramble the locals, I can switch both tuner cards to OTA and all I'll loose is DiscoveryHD and TNT (I like your "law and order HD" comment!) .

Drew

New here guys, did a search and did not find anything on this thread, so hope this is not a annoying and repetitive question.

I have a friend that lives in Wake Forest, in the Heritage Golf Club community. He is having a devil of a time getting HDTV OTA, and D* installers have been next to useless.Anyway, according to antenna web, he is only about 20 miles from the towers, and has no tress or blockages in the path.

However, he has been using the piece of crap antenna D*. I am visiting him this weekend and wanted to see if anyone here lives in Wake and what sort of antenna do they use. I use a Silver Sensor here in Richmond, and I am tempted to just buy one of those and bring it to him. Anybody having good luck with that In Wake.


Anyway, thx in adsvance for any suggestions

For those of you have been around awhile, probelms with 217 are hardly new. I've had my Plasma TWC for over 2 years and 217 has always been the worst by far.

Even when it works, NBC's HD content of some sports, especially golf, is non-existent. Both the US Open and the Presidnent's cup were in SD while CBS's coverage of the Masters and the Solheim cup were in HD and awesome. Hopefully NBC will drop its coverage of golf and a real HD commited network picks it up. I guess that leaves out the golf channel though.

For those of you have been around awhile, probelms with 217 are hardly new. I've had my Plasma TWC for over 2 years and 217 has always been the worst by far.

Even when it works, NBC's HD content of some sports, especially golf, is non-existent. Both the US Open and the Presidnent's cup were in SD while CBS's coverage of the Masters and the Solheim cup were in HD and awesome. Hopefully NBC will drop its coverage of golf and a real HD commited network picks it up. I guess that leaves out the golf channel though.


NBC has seemed reluctant to go to HD especially as compared to CBS. The complaint here has been reception on the few NBC shows that are HD.

My sony tv's internal digital tuner is no longer able to pick up the local network digital channels over a Time Warner cable feed. The TV is less than a year old, and it used to work. Can the tuners go bad? Any way to troubleshoot and verify if the tuner is still functional?

cbordman
I would guess you mean QAM reception huh? I havn't checked mine in about 4 days, but it was working Monday night.
When did you first notice this?
I am sure you have tried to re-scan too and that didn't help?

I will check my LG unit tonight and report back after 8pm sometime. If my LG still gets reception and you have a good cable signale and you have tried to re-scan then yup, it could be your internal tuner.

What kind of Sony TV?

As I suspected from the DVR showing an end time of 8.56pm for HD Surface on NBC Monday, the show was corrupted again.

Roughly 40 minutes in the TWC HD feed reverted to SD after a commercial and then 10 minutes later the entire signal was completely garbled again for 4 minutes.

That's it I'm done, until this problem is confirmed fixed. Thankfully Surface isn't looking too good anyway so I'm not missing much on NBC.

As I suspected from the DVR showing an end time of 8.56pm for HD Surface on NBC Monday, the show was corrupted again.

Roughly 40 minutes in the TWC HD feed reverted to SD after a commercial and then 10 minutes later the entire signal was completely garbled again for 4 minutes.

That's it I'm done, until this problem is confirmed fixed. Thankfully Surface isn't looking too good anyway so I'm not missing much on NBC.

I'm a fan of Surface too and have had the same problem. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. In the mean time you can always record it off the analog channel. I know that's not the reason you got a HD DVR, but it's a work-a-round for the time being.

It's the sony 50" LCD projection, grand wega iv. I noticed it about the time that Time Warner switched all of the analog channels below 100 to digital. I did a rescan at that time, and it has never worked since. I have done several rescans. We also recently moved to holly springs, and still nothing with the digital tuner.

cbordman,
Sorry dude - my LG unit works just like normal for non-encrypted digital reception over TWC without a TWC-issued STB.

I can only guess it is some issue with the tuner or some abscure menu variant of how you might need to rescan. That's a guess though.

Keep bumping your issue to the top every few days, someone with another Grand wega IV might prove more useful.


I

The investigation of 217-219 is still ongoing, but we have not received any reports of issues since about last Wednesday. I did get one viewer reporting it happened on WTVD 211 Wednesday night, but it's unclear if this was an isolated incident, or related to our predicament. TWC is monitoring it 6 ways, and we have hired an outside consultant to investigate it. I scanned the surrounding forums, and tropo-ducting is still the number one suspect. Charlotte OTA thread had an incident reported, but the eastern NC and southeast Virginia threads were reporting extremely high tropo activity. The forecast maps also concur that the ducting activity here in central NC is at minimum right now, and some moderate activity starts again on Sunday. Greenville-NewBern-Washington reports the SE Virginia stations came in there, then went away, and the southern sations took over.
That makes it hard to pinpoint the exact source, or direction.
For Tommy122, I did list on page 91 here NBC NY had an issue and switched Surface to SD. (Sorry I was a little fuzzy on the exact show) The later break-up and recording stop must have been this latest issue. I urge you all to keep an eye on it (217) instead of abandoning it for recording purposes, because I can't monitor it 27/7. Your information has been awesome, and the more comments posted helps everyone.

The investigation of 217-219 is still ongoing, but we have not received any reports of issues since about last Wednesday. I did get one viewer reporting it happened on WTVD 211 Wednesday night, but it's unclear if this was an isolated incident, or related to our predicament. TWC is monitoring it 6 ways, and we have hired an outside consultant to investigate it. I scanned the surrounding forums, and tropo-ducting is still the number one suspect. Charlotte OTA thread had an incident reported, but the eastern NC and southeast Virginia threads were reporting extremely high tropo activity. The forecast maps also concur that the ducting activity here in central NC is at minimum right now, and some moderate activity starts again on Sunday. Greenville-NewBern-Washington reports the SE Virginia stations came in there, then went away, and the southern sations took over.
That makes it hard to pinpoint the exact source, or direction.
For Tommy122, I did list on page 91 here NBC NY had an issue and switched Surface to SD. (Sorry I was a little fuzzy on the exact show) The later break-up and recording stop must have been this latest issue. I urge you all to keep an eye on it (217) instead of abandoning it for recording purposes, because I can't monitor it 27/7. Your information has been awesome, and the more comments posted helps everyone.


Well said! Thanks again for keeping us informed. As a non-techie consumer of TWC, I think that if a person has trouble with their cable reception, it's logical to call the cable company. Which I did on several occasions. Each time I was told that they were not experiencing any problems. On about my 5th call, they fessed up that there was a problem but were quick to blame it on NBC17 which left me to believe that they were expecting NBC17 to fix it. I'm reasonably sure that engineers at TWC were aware of the problem. I don't know if there is some disconnect at TWC between the technical staff and the customer support staff, but if I had been told in the beginning that there was a problem and they were working on it, it would have eliminated my calling back as well as a technician's visit to my house. I'm sure this problem will be resolved soon and we can all move on the the next one. :)

Hrmpf. I'm in Morrisville and as far as NBC-HD, I've received TWC via QAM for the past month and have never been able receive NBC-HD or the other two subchannels.

I just received an SA 8000 DVR yesterday and indeed no luck with 217-219 using that tuner either.

I'll also add that the SA 8000 is a piece of junk. I get many audio dropouts and mpeg drop outs. Channels that I can receive perfectly in the clear are horrible with the STB. Even some digital channels -- especially SciFi 49 -- are unwatchable. I knew it was a bad sign when the installer had to boot the STB three or four times to get it working. I keep the second tuner on channel 0 so it doesn't have to do as much work, but it's not very usable.

I should have an 8300 soon, however and am hoping for better results. The installer said he had an 8300 for me in the van, but couldn't find it when he got here??

EDIT: 8300 arriving Friday. We'll see how that goes...

Just making sure we're all on the same page and up to date Tommy, since I haven't posted for a couple of days. Didn't want anyone to think I forgot about it, and to say I appreciate your input. I can't watch it all the time, and we're here to help each other.

One thing I thought of after reading Rewound's post, that may not be worth mentioning, is the importance of good cable connections. As I posted last week, a loose cable on my box at work knocked out my channels, and passed others. Some splitters and cables are known to have issues at hese bitrates or are not bi-directional, and I bet "some" builders buy the cheapest stuff they can find. Not all, but "some" may not have thought of this when selecting the cable & splitters that are run inside the walls before you bought the house.

While waiting for the Cable Techs to arrive, it may be good to do a little investigating on your own and locate those splitters in the walls that you may not have thought of. Even grounding units outside your house can degrade and cause problems from exposure to the elements, and lightning.

I'm on TWC in Raleigh and I'm trying to watch Amadeus on HDNet Movies and the channel is "blacked out". That is, on my 8300HD, the entire screen is gray, there's no audio, but the box shows "HDTV" and "1080i". All my other HD channels, including HDNet, are available. Is anyone else seeing this? What gives?

Just looked at mine in Goldsboro, NC and it's showing.

NBC17ENG - thanks for the feedback. I haven't seemed to have any problems for the past couple of days. Hopefully the problem is solved.

Yep, just noticed in the last twenty minutes or so it started showing again.

ARGGH!!!

What's up with the OTA signal of NBC-17? I'm just seeing green lines, but I can hear the 5.1 audio fine. NBC was working fine earlier this evening...

I just want to watch HDTV saturday night live (please!)

I've had the same green lines on TWC ever since Law & Order SVU. I'm going to quit recording on their HD channel. It's just too unreliable and I've missed too many of the new shows I wanted to see.

I have some of the most unbelivable bad luck and timing. The Sat receiver dumped out and it's back on now.

Based on recommendations here, I got a Terk outdoor antenna (T32) which is supposed to work in the Yellow, Lt. Green and Green ranges. I got good results but I am stumped by why I cannot get NBC (WNCN) which is supposed to be only 20 miles away according to antennaweb. I cannot get WB22 which is supposed to be 20 miles away as well but I guess that's because it requires a RED area antenna.

But for NBC. it says yellow which seems to be lowest on the scale and almost all antennas seem to cover that. I can receive many other channels in the same direction (like FOX/WRAZ, CBS/WRAL, ABC/WTVD) which all seem to be same distance away (all data from antennaweb). Incidentally, I don't get UPN (WRDC) either which is in the same direction.

Can someone please advise? I plan to get a antenna (Terk TV36) which is supposed to cover the red area as well and then hope for WB but I would like to get NBC as well.

Thanks!

p.s. THe address I used on antennaweb is 1000 upchurch farms lane, cary, nc 27519

I have a question somewhat unrelated to what I have been posting about lately. From reading posts in this thread, it seems that some people have cable and/or satellite and an OTA antenna. I have had cable ever since Time Warner came to town, and since TW also carries the local channels, I saw no need for an OTA antenna. I understand if someone doesn't what to pay cable rates or can't get cable and is happy with what you can get OTA, but why have both?

I'm on TWC in Raleigh and I'm trying to watch Amadeus on HDNet Movies and the channel is "blacked out". That is, on my 8300HD, the entire screen is gray, there's no audio, but the box shows "HDTV" and "1080i". All my other HD channels, including HDNet, are available. Is anyone else seeing this? What gives?


I tried to watch it last night and got the same thing you did. A black screen. At one time I briefly heard some audio right before 8:PM announcing it was going to be on. I don't have a DVR box so it had nothing to do with your box. Apparantly the channel was broke.

Nascar race is unwatchable on 217.

Nascar race is unwatchable on 217.

My picture is OK, except for the fact that the guide says HDTV and it's in 4:3 aspect ratio SD.

Nascar race is unwatchable on 217.


Yup.... same here... And the Tropo Ducting projection for today doesnt look that bad either. Index is 2. Even less for tomorrow.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~vem3ont22/tr_map/archive/1eam.jpg

Whatever the cause is... Im ready for it to go away. :)

Any more insight been gathered NBC17ENG?

My picture is OK, except for the fact that the guide says HDTV and it's in 4:3 aspect ratio SD.


Since my post, it has reverted to 16:9 HD and DD........go figure :)

I'm here at the station digging into it. I had us switched to SD until I could get here and see first hand what was going on. I punched the HD back when I was satisfied it was stable.

As I mentioned last week, the DXing forecast was nill until today, and those maps show "mild to moderate activity". I have not been able to find exactly what those maps looked like the last couple of weeks, but It's still the best theory I have to go on.

Todays NASCAR event was not[U] on Time-Warner's end, but reception on my satellite system incoming, and I caught it OTA as I ran out the door. Take a wild guess what position in the sky the sun is at race time in relation to the satellite at 103 degrees azimuth and approx 42 degrees elevation. It was clean by the time I got here, but I switched to the back-up dish anyway.

We're making measurements tomorrow around the area to pinpoint the problem. Remember, colors on a map and DXing is a fluid thing and not a solid "here not here" boundary, and we have no idea what level of interference will cause this to happen, nor can we "create" the interference "at will" to prove it.

This is still all my personal theory, but I don't see many other possible sources, and we've not excluded that there are more than one problem, so we have to get more data before we can "fix" the problem.

TWC customer here and a long time HD user. Last week I got the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR.

All weekend, every channel keeps dropping out. I never had problems before (except NBC 217) but now am getting it on HBO HD, the entire Patriots game today on CBS HD and now it cotinues on ESPN.

Are there issues with this DVR? If anyone has experienced probems with it, please advise

Thanks.

TWC customer here and a long time HD user. Last week I got the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR.

All weekend, every channel keeps dropping out. I never had problems before (except NBC 217) but now am getting it on HBO HD, the entire Patriots game today on CBS HD and now it cotinues on ESPN.

Are there issues with this DVR? If anyone has experienced probems with it, please advise

Thanks.

Its a piece of junk. The 8300HD is MUCH better. My old 8000HD experienced a lot of dropouts and reboots and 'just OK' picture quality. I love my 8300HD.

Its a piece of junk. The 8300HD is MUCH better. My old 8000HD experienced a lot of dropouts and reboots and 'just OK' picture quality. I love my 8300HD.


thanks...i will call TWC and hope that it I can get a new one

OK...... this is the strangest yet. Right now channel 217 is frozen on the last frame of Law & Order but the sound is from Crossing Jordan. This very well could be a 8300 thing. Is this happening to anyone else?

No, I saw this also ota here in Greenville, NC; this looks to be an equipment failure. Probably needs a reboot.

Bad day for HD viewers; WNCT, CBS, here in Greenville off and on with HD all day today with no PSIP data. Failed to cut to news at 11. A big ole equipment mess down here too tonight.

The investigation of 217-219 is still ongoing, but we have not received any reports of issues since about last Wednesday. .

Here in Cary, I had problems watching Inconceivable on Fri night, and SVU on Sat. via the integrated QAM tuner in my LG based TV. In both cases, the shows were pixelated and the signal meter on my TV swung between no signal, and "good" (gotta love these unitless meters..).

I haven't had trouble getting NBC before the recent disturbance, and I have not changed anything in my setup, so I would assume it is related to the recently reported problems.

Drew

I noticed the freezing of channel 17.0001 only. Had the correct sound track by the video was frozen in Law and Order--early in the show for that matter. 17.002 (standard) def was working properly...so I watched it there.

Based on recommendations here, I got a Terk outdoor antenna (T32) which is supposed to work in the Yellow, Lt. Green and Green ranges. I got good results but I am stumped by why I cannot get NBC (WNCN) which is supposed to be only 20 miles away according to antennaweb. I cannot get WB22 which is supposed to be 20 miles away as well but I guess that's because it requires a RED area antenna.

But for NBC. it says yellow which seems to be lowest on the scale and almost all antennas seem to cover that. I can receive many other channels in the same direction (like FOX/WRAZ, CBS/WRAL, ABC/WTVD) which all seem to be same distance away (all data from antennaweb). Incidentally, I don't get UPN (WRDC) either which is in the same direction.

Can someone please advise? I plan to get a antenna (Terk TV36) which is supposed to cover the red area as well and then hope for WB but I would like to get NBC as well.

Thanks!

p.s. THe address I used on antennaweb is 1000 upchurch farms lane, cary, nc 27519
I just mounted a channelmaster 3020 antenna, a replacement for an old Radio Shack damaged by a past hurricane. It increased my reception strength for some OTA channels. However, event though it is highly directional, it fails to pull in 22.1 reliably. Low signal strength must be the problem (about 1/2 the relative strength as other stations on what I think must be the same antenna or antenna farm out Clayton way) I just have to assume it is relatively low power from that station. The four main stations 5.1 (5.2), 11.1(11.2,11.3), 17.1(17.2, 17.3) and 50.1(50.1, 50.2, 50.3) all pull in quite well as do the subchannels. I have to rotate the antenna to get 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5, but when rotated they come in crystal clear.

Did discover that having very few or no splitters had a dramatic effect on signal strength delivered to the antenna input. Lesson learned....minimize the number of splitters used and the number of interviening devices used in getting the antenna signal to the TV, or OTA box is an important consideration along with length of the antenna cable.

PS. Am located in Raleigh off of Wade Avenue and the Beltline, down in a valley.

I also saw NBC17's video frozen for well over an hour on both OTA 17.1 and TWC 217 lastnight.

thanks...i will call TWC and hope that it I can get a new one
Hopefully, TWC comes right through but I would not take no as an answer. They will probably insist on doing the install themselves rather than letting you swap the box out at their office. If that is the case, it is still worth the hassle to get the 8300. Good luck!

I also saw NBC17's video frozen for well over an hour on both OTA 17.1 and TWC 217 lastnight.

Glad to see that it wasn't just me. I tuned in to TWC 217 to watch Crossing Jordan at 10:00 and that is the way I found it. (video frozen on Law & Order but DD sound from Crossing Jordan) 218 was OK, so I watched the show there. This morning 217 was back to normal, so whatever was wrong seems to have been fixed.

Is anyone as mad as I am that we don't have ESPN2HD or ESPNU? DirectTV does have both now.

ARGGH!!!

What's up with the OTA signal of NBC-17? I'm just seeing green lines, but I can hear the 5.1 audio fine. NBC was working fine earlier this evening...

I just want to watch HDTV saturday night live (please!)

Yep same here. On TWC no Sat Live. Made more annoying when Steve Carell started his monologue talking about how it was now in HD for the first time.

Luckily I wasn't recording it so I just went back to the old channel. Not fun though.

Is anyone as mad as I am that we don't have ESPN2HD or ESPNU? DirectTV does have both now.


I'd love 'em. Wouldn't mind having Universal HD back too..

The investigations are still in progress, and we gathered some great information today. Time-Warner has responded appropiately and, identified, corrected, and continues to monitor the 217-219 signals. The TWC guys have been awesome!

On the NBC 17 end, I found a connection (not connector, but about the same) causing the sat receiver signal level to be marginal, as well as a hard drive failure in the site controller for the dish. The Dell dude will drop a new computer off tomorrow to control the dish. This type of widespread damage is consistent with a lightning strike, but we have not had any storms lately. Could be static electricity, but it doesn't seem to be dry enough for that yet.

WTVD Engineers have identified a spurious signal near our channel 55, and WUNC Public TV is investigating from their side of town. Thanks Curtis and Wayne! I expect to get the final data tomorrow.

On the sat dish issue, here is the predicted sun outage times for this week on my HD dish. These happen every spring and fall, usually March and October as the sun travels an angle very near the center of the dish. My dish should not have been affected until tomorrow, (Tuesday), but with the reduced signal strength it makes sense it was affected yesterday (Sunday)

Oct 04 13:52 13:54 03.1
Oct 05 13:49 13:56 06.3
Oct 06 13:48 13:57 12.8
Oct 07 13:48 13:57 15.9
Oct 08 13:48 13:56 09.5
Oct 09 13:49 13:54 04.6

It's hard to not get too technical, but I hope I am getting you enough information to understand all the complex issues hitting all at once. If you want more or less, please say so.

DANG!!! You been a busy dude NBC17ENG. Much, Much appreciated. :D

A tip for TWC customers watching Las Vegas. Lastweeks episode airs tomorrow night @ 10pm on TNTHD and tonights episode airs next Tuesday just incase there's problems tonight. ;)

anyone having sound issues with monday night football? I can hear the crowd, but none of the commentary.

,,
i can hear them now.

Its a piece of junk. The 8300HD is MUCH better. My old 8000HD experienced a lot of dropouts and reboots and 'just OK' picture quality. I love my 8300HD.

Heh. Well, I think I know where your old box is. =)

I've been a heavy TiVo and DirecTV user for about three years now.

I don't expect the 8300HD to be like my TiVo, but I do expect it to work without rebooting three times a day. I'm hopeful I'll be happy with the new box.

Can't seem to record Vegas this evening. Anyone else lose the signal on channel 217?

Well, 217 went belly up at 8:54. Just in time for me to miss the last couple of minutes of Surface. It's 9:12 right now and it's still DOA.

anyone having sound issues with monday night football? I can hear the crowd, but none of the commentary.

,,
i can hear them now.

Even when you can hear the voices on 11-1 OTA isn't the volume level low? I've had this problem for 2+ years now with Monday Night Football. Is it just my setup? (Samsung DTV HD receiver, ChannelMaster 4221 antenna, JVC DD Receiver, Sony 50XBR800)

I am so sorry folks, I was 96% sure we'd get through tonight without a problem. We've certainly been ingesting a lot of data. Could anyone confirm if tonight's Surface had a problem OTA? I suspect it was my dish issue, but it would help us greatly if anyone can confirm if it did do it OTA as well as the Fayetteville area.

anyone having sound issues with monday night football? I can hear the crowd, but none of the commentary.

,,
i can hear them now.

The silence was great, while it lasted ;)

Even when you can hear the voices on 11-1 OTA isn't the volume level low? I've had this problem for 2+ years now with Monday Night Football. Is it just my setup? (Samsung DTV HD receiver, ChannelMaster 4221 antenna, JVC DD Receiver, Sony 50XBR800)


I was watching on Time Warner channel 211. I've never noticed the voices being too low.

Well I'm down here 40 miles south of Fayetteville getting TWC from Fayetteville. I didn't watch the NBC shows lastnight but I did record them on my SA8300HD DVR off TWC ch.217 and I haven't watched them yet but I just fastfowarded through Surface and Las Vegas and saw no video problem at all. I watched the first 15 minutes of Medium without any problem and DVR'd the rest.

DVR'd Prison Break on TWC ch.250 at same time. ;)

As for OTA 17.1 the weather/atmosphere/tropo prevented me from getting a good/steady lock on Raleigh area locals (except WRAL which I watched OTA). WRAL and WRAZ come in a little more consistant than WTVD and WNCN does for me. I'm ~77 miles from their towers but most evenings I get them pretty good.

I am trying to choose a good antenna so I can set my dad up with OTA HDTV. I've checked out Antennaweb.org and it looks like we need a Medium Directional w/ preamp but I wanted to see what other Chapel Hill/Carrboro users have had success with.


Thanks! :)

I'm using a Terk indoor antenna in Durham and couldn't get WB22 even when the displayed signal strength is over 80%. However, I did get NBC(WNCN) as well as FOX/WRAZ, CBS/WRAL, ABC/WTVD). I guess it probably has something to do with the compatibility between the DTV signal and the tuner/antenna.

Based on recommendations here, I got a Terk outdoor antenna (T32) which is supposed to work in the Yellow, Lt. Green and Green ranges. I got good results but I am stumped by why I cannot get NBC (WNCN) which is supposed to be only 20 miles away according to antennaweb. I cannot get WB22 which is supposed to be 20 miles away as well but I guess that's because it requires a RED area antenna.

But for NBC. it says yellow which seems to be lowest on the scale and almost all antennas seem to cover that. I can receive many other channels in the same direction (like FOX/WRAZ, CBS/WRAL, ABC/WTVD) which all seem to be same distance away (all data from antennaweb). Incidentally, I don't get UPN (WRDC) either which is in the same direction.

Can someone please advise? I plan to get a antenna (Terk TV36) which is supposed to cover the red area as well and then hope for WB but I would like to get NBC as well.

Thanks!

p.s. THe address I used on antennaweb is 1000 upchurch farms lane, cary, nc 27519

Well I'm down here 40 miles south of Fayetteville getting TWC from Fayetteville. I didn't watch the NBC shows lastnight but I did record them on my SA8300HD DVR off TWC ch.217 and I haven't watched them yet but I just fastfowarded through Surface and Las Vegas and saw no video problem at all. I watched the first 15 minutes of Medium without any problem and DVR'd the rest.


I just watched my recording of Surface and Las Vegas and the rest of Medium and did not experience any Video or Audio problems at all off Fayetteville's TWC hub.

Hi,

I've lurked here for 8 months or so, not really having anything to contribute or any burning questions to ask. I have definitely learned a lot from following the discussions, though.

I live in Durham near Southpoint, and have TWC (I already had cable before buying my HD set, and didn't really want to mess with an antenna.) I have finally decided to give in and order a DVR from TWC, and I wanted to ask for some advice and answers:

1) The 8300HD is the box I want, yes?

Any advice on how to make sure that's what I get? If they bring the older model should I just refuse it?

Is there any point in asking for a specific model when I place my order? My experience has been that TWC Durham customer service people are pretty clueless about hardware issues, while the service techs are fairly savvy.

2) Does the 8300HD have an HDMI output? I sure would like to make use of the HDMI input on my Sony.

3) Oh yeah, my wife wonders what kind of recording capacity the 8300 has?

I appreciate any advice :D

I'm a TWC user in the RTP area across from Southpoint and I can confirm that we lost Surface on 217 at 8:53 on Monday 10/3. We actually got the first 53 mins of the show (for a first!), but the picture quality was pretty low quality. There was all sorts of pixelation. Hope this helps, and thanks for working on the problem. I'd sure like to be able to count on my PVR being able to record an NBC show for me here in the future and actually being able to watch it! Thanks again.

Hi,

1) The 8300HD is the box I want, yes?

Any advice on how to make sure that's what I get? If they bring the older model should I just refuse it?

Is there any point in asking for a specific model when I place my order? My experience has been that TWC Durham customer service people are pretty clueless about hardware issues, while the service techs are fairly savvy.

2) Does the 8300HD have an HDMI output? I sure would like to make use of the HDMI input on my Sony.

3) Oh yeah, my wife wonders what kind of recording capacity the 8300 has?

I appreciate any advice :D

1) Yes, Absolutely
2) Yes
3) Tell them not to bother to come unless they are bringing an 8300. They will call before they come and you can reinforce it.

cbordman,
Sorry dude - my LG unit works just like normal for non-encrypted digital reception over TWC without a TWC-issued STB.

I can only guess it is some issue with the tuner or some abscure menu variant of how you might need to rescan. That's a guess though.

Keep bumping your issue to the top every few days, someone with another Grand wega IV might prove more useful.


I

Hi WildBill,

Can you confirm that non-encrypted QAM has worked in the past few days for you? I'm also in Apex, and having zero luck getting them on a new Toshiba LCD display with the built in QAM tuner. The TV claims all the channels are encrypted, even the locals.

Thanks-
Randal

Hi,

1) The 8300HD is the box I want, yes?

Any advice on how to make sure that's what I get? If they bring the older model should I just refuse it?

Is there any point in asking for a specific model when I place my order? My experience has been that TWC Durham customer service people are pretty clueless about hardware issues, while the service techs are fairly savvy.

2) Does the 8300HD have an HDMI output? I sure would like to make use of the HDMI input on my Sony.

3) Oh yeah, my wife wonders what kind of recording capacity the 8300 has?

I appreciate any advice :D


Yes the 8300HD is what you want and you should refuse an older model. Right now, TWC wants to sell you the DVR service ($6.95 extra for them per month). From what I have read, TWC will give you a lot of grief if you try to swap out an older model later on, so you better get it now.

The technician who brought out my 8300 said that he didn't think that the HDMI port was active, but again, from what I have read here, it is. My previous box (Pace) had a DVI port, so I went out and bought a rather pricy DVI cable. I had the S-video, component and DVI ports connected and I could switch back and forth from the various inputs. As far as I could tell, the DVI picture quality was no better (maybe not even as good) than component. Don't know about HDMI, but I suspect the same is true. I'd save my money and go with component video and optical audio.

I think that you can have about 20 HD recording before you start running out of disk space. Could be wrong about that, I haven't maxed it out yet.

I am trying to choose a good antenna so I can set my dad up with OTA HDTV. I've checked out Antennaweb.org and it looks like we need a Medium Directional w/ preamp but I wanted to see what other Chapel Hill/Carrboro users have had success with.


Thanks! :)I live about three miles outside of Carrboro heading towards Pittsboro. Antennaweb puts the mileage from the broadcast towers for my zip in the high 30s for the Raleigh stations. I have an old ChannelMaster U/V/F roof-mounted antenna on my house, that is aimed in the general direction, but could probably be tweaked. It has no pre-amp. Unfortunately, I don't know what current Channel Master product it would correspond to. I suspect Channel Master would have rated it for 45 miles UHF, but I can't swear it wasn't rated for 30. At any rate, I pick up the Raleigh stations with a signal strength in the low 80s as reported by the diagnostics in my TV. Thus far, I have not experienced reception problems. I think. I had some problems with the volume on MNF this week, but I think that was probably a network issue rather than reception. Hope so anyway.

Randal
Just noticed your post.

Yes, I watched the Yanks last night on FOX, caught about 10 minutes of a special on DISC-HD Theater and then switched to WRAL for the 11pm news in HD. All that via unencrypted QAM over TWC thru my LG box to my Tosh. RPTV. (older crt gun model)

Not that it matters but - I don't have a TWC issued cable box in my house and I only have the basic (10-12 bucks a month) subscription. Now I do also have digital phone and road-runner via TWC but that should not make a bit of difference

Randal - Also, try to tune manually the following stations:

85-2 (or 85.2) and 111.2 and 113.2 and 113.4. Those are CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX respectively. Those are the HD stations and if you can get those there should be a few sub-channels around them. 90.x is pbs and 84.2 is DISC and 84.3 is TNT. Those numbers are how they display on my LG box and I believe I have heard that Samsung tuners also get the same channels via QAM.

Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

BTW- (I might have switched nbc and abc as I am doing it from memory at work)


Bill

Is anyone as mad as I am that we don't have ESPN2HD or ESPNU? DirectTV does have both now. ____________________________________

Like you, I'm a Raleigh-Durham area TWC customer. I have e-mailed them endlessly for the past year about ESPN2HD, ESPNU and the NFL Network. I finally realized that their customer support "system" is to simply funnel all customer questions to the local TWC office ... who then just claim to know nothing about any channel additions (they usually say that "all carriage agreements are done by Time Warner corporate").

To make matters worse, TW has a terrible relationship with Disney/ABC/ESPN. So, unfortunately for us, I would not hold your breath on getting ESPN2HD or ESPNU in our lifetimes. Any addition, for that matter, is done only after Time Warner can pass on any additional cost to the customer. They never have or never will do it as a result of customer demand.

Just incase anybody might be interested. After getting my Sammy SIR-T451 lastweek I tried a scan of cable channels lastnight and today and below is my results after deleting all the PPV channel the T451 detected (~50 atleast but theres no Audio or Video on them, just a signal) here is the channels I was left with.

84.1 TNT (without the audio problem my LG 3510A had)
84.2 Dischd

85.1 CBSHD
85.2 CBSWX
85.3 CBSSD

90.1 PBS TV
90.2 PBSHD
90.3 PBS KIDS
90.4 PBS
90.5 PBS

105.13 CSTV (COLLEGE SPORTS TV)
105.11 TWC NEWS CHANNEL


111.1 NBCHD
111.2 NBCSD
111.3 NBCWX

113-1 ABCHD
113.5 ABCWX
113.6 ABCSD

113-2 FOXHD
113.3 FOXSD
113.4 FOXWX WRAL

117.9 PAX (PAX62 OF FAYETTEVILLE)
117.12 TELEMUNDO

118.2 (SOME LOCAL SALES CHANNEL OF RALEIGH)(CH.60 ON TWC OF RALEIGH/DURHAM/FAYETTEVILLE)
118.9 NBCSD ((WNCN 17 OF RALEIGH)
118.10 NBCSD (WECT 6 OF WILIMINGTON)
118.11 TWC NEWS CHANNEL

119.1 FOXSD (WFXB FOX43 OF FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH) (THIS DIGITAL CHANNEL MY CABLE BOX ONLY GETS IN ANALOG) ODD!
119.2 UPNSD (WWMB UPN21 OF FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH) (THIS DIGITAL CHANNEL MY CABLE BOX ONLY GETS IN ANALOG) ODD!
119.3 ABCSD (WPDE ABC15 OF FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH) (THIS DIGITAL CHANNEL MY CABLE BOX ONLY GETS IN ANALOG) ODD!
119.4 CBSSD (WBTW CBS13 OF FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH) (THIS DIGITAL CHANNEL MY CABLE BOX ONLY GETS IN ANALOG) ODD!


This list includes all the local digital channels my TWC carries here in Lumberton (were part of Florence viewing area, thats why we get their locals on cable) from the Fayetteville hub so far. No WB or UPN on my cable system in my town. I subscribe to the HD Suite and all Premium channels and the sports package so I'm not getting anything I don't pay for.

Please ignore the caps above. Typing with a mouthstick I just copied/pasted from my text file saving my neck some strain. :)

Thanks for the input Daryl.
Since I have a LG STB and it has issues with TNT-HD Audio, I think I will see if I can sell it on EBAY and buy the Sammy SIR-T451.

he OTA reception of the LG unit is great so I don't feel bad selling it as a OTA unit. Also, from trying to figure out this TWC TNT-HD audio issue, other providers around the country (comcast for example) don't have the audio issues TWC has with TNT-HD.

WildBill,

Just to let you know, the LG's on cable scan up to ch.135 but the Sammy only scans up to ch.125. Some say this is an error by Samsung. I'm not sure which is the standard. But as long as TWC here doesn't change channel asignment or utilize ch.126 thru 135 we'll be ok.

The OTA reception of the Sammy T451 is basicly identical to the recepetion my LG 3510A had.

Quote:
Originally Posted by windmiller
I am trying to choose a good antenna so I can set my dad up with OTA HDTV. I've checked out Antennaweb.org and it looks like we need a Medium Directional w/ preamp but I wanted to see what other Chapel Hill/Carrboro users have had success with.


Thanks!
I live about three miles outside of Carrboro heading towards Pittsboro. Antennaweb puts the mileage from the broadcast towers for my zip in the high 30s for the Raleigh stations. I have an old ChannelMaster U/V/F roof-mounted antenna on my house, that is aimed in the general direction, but could probably be tweaked. It has no pre-amp. Unfortunately, I don't know what current Channel Master product it would correspond to. I suspect Channel Master would have rated it for 45 miles UHF, but I can't swear it wasn't rated for 30. At any rate, I pick up the Raleigh stations with a signal strength in the low 80s as reported by the diagnostics in my TV. Thus far, I have not experienced reception problems. I think. I had some problems with the volume on MNF this week, but I think that was probably a network issue rather than reception. Hope so anyway.


Thanks so much for the reply! That is good to hear that you have been able to get the Raleigh channels. I'll post hear with my results!

In Morrisville, using 8300HD box. I just wanted to put out there that it has almost gotten to a point where trying to watch ANYTHING on NBC's HD signal is a pointless effort. I have heard the Surface problems have gotten really bad (and I see earlier this week more problems apparently?) but I don't watch Surface. What I do watch is Las Vegas and this is now the second week in a row that my recording of Las Vegas has been screwed up. Last week it was good for about 40 minutes, then the last 20 minutes was unwatchable. This week's recording shows as 8:59-8:59. Great. Less than 1 minute, apparently. While I recognize that missing a television show is no great tragedy in the scheme of the universe, I pay a lot of money for my TWC service and my TV and all the equipment and to be frank, it pisses me off that I can't watch NBC shows I want to in High Def. What the hell is going on?! Somehow WRAL doesn't have any problems getting High Def signals to TWC that I can watch without any problems on CSI, CSI: NY, and CSI: Miami. And Ghost Whisperer. No problems with any of those shows yet this season. And yet, 3 episodes into the new season of Las Vegas and I haven't been able to watch 2 of them?

I know, I'm probably preaching to the choir, I'm just in need of venting. Thanks for listening to me whine.

Randal
Just noticed your post.

Yes, I watched the Yanks last night on FOX, caught about 10 minutes of a special on DISC-HD Theater and then switched to WRAL for the 11pm news in HD. All that via unencrypted QAM over TWC thru my LG box to my Tosh. RPTV. (older crt gun model)

Not that it matters but - I don't have a TWC issued cable box in my house and I only have the basic (10-12 bucks a month) subscription. Now I do also have digital phone and road-runner via TWC but that should not make a bit of difference

Randal - Also, try to tune manually the following stations:

85-2 (or 85.2) and 111.2 and 113.2 and 113.4. Those are CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX respectively. Those are the HD stations and if you can get those there should be a few sub-channels around them. 90.x is pbs and 84.2 is DISC and 84.3 is TNT. Those numbers are how they display on my LG box and I believe I have heard that Samsung tuners also get the same channels via QAM.

Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

BTW- (I might have switched nbc and abc as I am doing it from memory at work)


Bill


I tried out those channels - the behavior is interesting. None of them really seem to work out right, but what happens is a number of them switch to channel 0, which is abc std. def digital (same as analog 13). The TV doesn't appear to think these channels are encrypted, it just seems to have trouble tuning them (at least the ones that don't jump over to 0).

I wonder if there's a software problem with the TV, I'm going to give Toshiba a call. It's a fairly new set, the 32HL95.

Thanks-
Randal

As far as I could tell, the DVI picture quality was no better (maybe not even as good) than component. Don't know about HDMI, but I suspect the same is true. I'd save my money and go with component video and optical audio.


Its not really about picture quality, its about freeing up an extra set of component inputs to run a gaming console into.

In any case, I called TWC today and ordered. I was adamant that they must send me an 8300HD. We'll see if they paid any attention to me when they come to install it.

Thanks for the input, folks.

This may be a little off topic for this thread, but since a lot of you have the SA8300HD DVR, maybe someone here knows. My 8300 will occasionally stop passing DD on all channels. The only way I can get it back is to reboot the box. This happened again tonight. Does anyone know why this happens?

This may be a little off topic for this thread, but since a lot of you have the SA8300HD DVR, maybe someone here knows. My 8300 will occasionally stop passing DD on all channels. The only way I can get it back is to reboot the box. This happened again tonight. Does anyone know why this happens?

I don't know why, but have noticed the same thing on my 8300.

I spent Tuesday afternoon in Durham checking signals around the area and working with the "team". NBC 17 signals went out on TWC as I was leaving the station to head over, and then again crashed after we walked out the head end building around 6:30. That yielded critical information, and we tested some theories with TWC Wednesday morning. (I know all the men on this site are big Martha fans, and I apologize for causing those glitches on purpose, but we wanted to see if minor or severe breaks in the bitstream was contributing) I did not get any new reports from Tuesday night or Wednesday. I watched the entire primetime Tuesday night and last night OTA, with no problems until right before my News at 11 last night when a station device caused the problem we tried to duplicate with TWC Wednesday morning. We will deal with that device this morning.

Thanks for your feedback, venting, whining or anything else you want to call it. It's all been extremely helpful.

I tried out those channels - the behavior is interesting. None of them really seem to work out right, but what happens is a number of them switch to channel 0, which is abc std. def digital (same as analog 13). The TV doesn't appear to think these channels are encrypted, it just seems to have trouble tuning them (at least the ones that don't jump over to 0).

I wonder if there's a software problem with the TV, I'm going to give Toshiba a call. It's a fairly new set, the 32HL95.

Thanks-
Randal

My infocus 61md10 over QAM does something similar for several channels. I'm not at home so I can't check them now, but I do remember that when I tune to DISC-HD (84.3) it will switch to channel 0, however I can still watch the channel flawlessly.

Of course I can't watch NBC-HD at all still. :( I wonder what the TWC installer will say is wrong this time when he sees that tomorrow? I just wish NBC and TWC luck in resolving this issue for everyone.

NBC17ENG,

All I watched on TWC ch.217 tuesday night was "My Name is Earl" and on Wendsday night ws "E-Ring" from Fayetteville and encounter no problems.

Yes the 8300HD is what you want and you should refuse an older model. Right now, TWC wants to sell you the DVR service ($6.95 extra for them per month). From what I have read, TWC will give you a lot of grief if you try to swap out an older model later on, so you better get it now.

The technician who brought out my 8300 said that he didn't think that the HDMI port was active, but again, from what I have read here, it is. My previous box (Pace) had a DVI port, so I went out and bought a rather pricy DVI cable. I had the S-video, component and DVI ports connected and I could switch back and forth from the various inputs. As far as I could tell, the DVI picture quality was no better (maybe not even as good) than component. Don't know about HDMI, but I suspect the same is true. I'd save my money and go with component video and optical audio.

I think that you can have about 20 HD recording before you start running out of disk space. Could be wrong about that, I haven't maxed it out yet.
I have TWC, live in Cary. The 8300HD has active HDMI output but not Firewire. I run HDMI from the 8300 to a Sony CRT HDTV. HOWEVER, I can't (nor could 2 TWC tech guys) get DD 5.1 from the 8300 HDMI connection. So, I ran a digital optical cable from the 8300 to my stereo and I now get great DD 5.1 when it is broadcast. And the HDMI cable gives a little better picture than component and it's only 1 cable vs. the 5 for component.

Now my problem is that non-HDTV channels look bad since I am used to HDTV.

... I can't (nor could 2 TWC tech guys) get DD 5.1 from the 8300 HDMI connection. ...


HDMI doesn't send DD5.1. It will only do stereo.

After a year of indecision on how to get an HD signal and an HD-DVR I've finally decided to drop my Dishnetwork subscription and go with Time Warner here in Chapel Hill. Although the Dish service has been excellent I can't see spending $ 600 on an HD-DVR and then have it become obselete in a few years.

In any case, I'm now looking for my *best* deal on Time Warner service. I'm currently getting their 'basic' service and will therefore be classified as an upgrading customer.

Anyone have suggestions on how to locate the best pricing? In the past I've read of people being offered special pricing and it varies depending on the source. So far the kiosk at Southpoint is offering a deal that will give me $ 16 off a month for the first year.

Ideas?

Anyone have suggestions on how to locate the best pricing? In the past I've read of people being offered special pricing and it varies depending on the source. So far the kiosk at Southpoint is offering a deal that will give me $ 16 off a month for the first year.

Ideas?

A friend of mine called TWC and told them they were "thinking" of switching from DishNetwork but it seemed more expensive than DirectTV. They offered her half price Digital for a year.

Call them a few times and see what they say.

Check here as well:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/nc/products/cable/digipicnewcustomers.html

Well, I agree with everyone that the SA 8300 is far superior to the 8000 box. I got my new box today and am much happier with the stability and performance.

Here's a good update for you NBC17ENG. After switching to the new box, I still had problems with NCN-HD ... however ... as you suggested I decided to explore all the connections and cables to eliminate that as a source of the problem.

In short, I replaced the RG6 run and everything looks great now. I find it a little odd the cable was the problem since I used the same tested spool, but likely I bent it accidentally on the first install and didn't realize it.

Another interesting note is that the firewire port is definitely enabled. My TV (infocus 61md10) has a firewire inputs so I can use the 8300HD as a tuner but of course don't get the OSD from the 8300HD.

I'll try out HDMI when that cable arrives but suspect it works just fine.

Excellent news Rewound! I found that something as simple as a crimp connector being too tight does it also. Common wisdom making cables is to squeeze the crimpers as hard as you can to ensure a good connection. At these bitrates, the cable actually acts as waveguide, and the shields and center foam are critical to a good transfer of signals, and bends are bad for it too. Make sure they are straight, or gently curved, with no 90 degree bends beware that tie wraps can also deform the center foam if zipped to tightly when neatening up those bundles of cables.

Who knew?!

Tried to watch OLN yesterday about 3:00 and the picture froze up. Anyone else have any issues yesterday afternoon?

NBC17....just to let you know that the Busch race is looking and sounding excellent today. No artifacts or breakups yet. Some motion artifacts but not nearly as bad as before. Thanks for the hard work in resolving the problems.

Thanks Hiatt66, it's great getting some good news! I did see a short OTA freeze on Law & Order last night, but since it cleared itself, it appears to be a network thing. When my stuff freezes, it stays that way until someone clears it. I won't get confirmation until Monday.

Meanwhile, check out the HD Beat site for a hidden HD only gag in My Name Is Earl. http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/10/04/my...rl-in-hd-rocks/

Ooops. Dunno why it copied the link wrong. Must be those technical difficulties I heard about!

http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/10/04/my-name-is-earl-in-hd-rocks/

So I'm finally getting around to watching the Crossing Jordan episodes that I recorded. I am watching the season premiere, which I guess is 3 weeks old? First off, there were glitches in the beginning, but those were done quick. Then at 41 minutes in, the whole thing went south so badly it was unwatchable, and I had to delete it from the 8300HD missing the last 19 minutes of the show. Why does WNCN even bother having an HD channel? Sheesh. Now I'll search for some way to watch what I missed of the episode, and then catch up (if I can, given NCN-HD's track record that's questionable) on the next two episodes, waiting on my my 8300HD

I just have to shake my head. WRAL's HD feeds of CSI, CSI-NY, CSI-Miami, and Ghost Whisperer have all been flawless, EVERY single episode so far in my watching experience.

Hey, I've just thought of an exception! "My Name is Earl" has not had any problems. How weird is that?


Lyman

--
"You just passed up the chance to have sex with a daytime hooker!"- Earl to Kenny

NBC17ENG,

NCN-HD looked great on Sunday for the nascar race (I'm not a fan, but it was fun to watch in HD). Had a few people over watching it and never saw an issue.

Thanks for the hard work!

Also watched the Panthers game afterwards and it was very enjoyable.


BTW, watching the night-race coming up in HD on Oct 15 ought to be a fantastic race.

Hey, I've just thought of an exception! "My Name is Earl" has not had any problems. How weird is that?


Chalk it up to Earl's good karma for his good deeds. :D

So I'm finally getting around to watching the Crossing Jordan episodes that I recorded. I am watching the season premiere, which I guess is 3 weeks old? First off, there were glitches in the beginning, but those were done quick. Then at 41 minutes in, the whole thing went south so badly it was unwatchable, and I had to delete it from the 8300HD missing the last 19 minutes of the show. Why does WNCN even bother having an HD channel?

You might want to check on the last three weeks of posts here to get a better idea what's going on. I record WNCN directly off the air and have never had a problem. It seems it's the WNCN linkup to TWC that is the issue.


Sheesh. Now I'll search for some way to watch what I missed of the episode, and then catch up (if I can, given NCN-HD's track record that's questionable) on the next two episodes, waiting on my my 8300HD


**********. I have used it on a couple of different occasions when shows I recorded didn't work for some reason. And so as not to get into a spat about the legality of this, I delete the episodes after I watch them. For show I like I will still by the DVDs at some point.

I don't know the appropriate place to post this...so...

Is anyone interested in a KF-60XBR800? It is a Sony 60 inch widescreen, GWII. I am going to be buying another Sony (KDS-R60XBR1 - 60 inch SXRD) and will be selling my set. If there is any interest, send me a PM. I have a price in mind, but not sure if I can post it. If I get a PM, I will send the price.

Thanks.

Jeff Beeler
Cary, NC

Anyone having problems with TWC HD Channels "skipping"? Been having a problem with HD channels for about a week now. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing anything before I call get my HD DVR replaced for the 3rd time in 3 weeks.

NBC17ENG,

NCN-HD looked great on Sunday for the nascar race (I'm not a fan, but it was fun to watch in HD). Had a few people over watching it and never saw an issue.

Thanks for the hard work!

Also watched the Panthers game afterwards and it was very enjoyable.


BTW, watching the night-race coming up in HD on Oct 15 ought to be a fantastic race.
Thanks for your feedback, you too Daryl L and Pkscout, good news is better! NBC confirmed they had uplink problems Saturday night causing the freeze in Law & Order around 10:15. I have not seen or heard of anymore problems from the TWC gang, but I am getting complaints of intermittent lip sync on all the local RDU channels on DirecTV now. (Yes, even those that "never" have any problems)
As for this weekend, I will be in the stands at Lowes Motor Speedway, so I think I can finally go out of town without worrying! :cool:

**********. I have used it on a couple of different occasions when shows I recorded didn't work for some reason. And so as not to get into a spat about the legality of this, I delete the episodes after I watch them. For show I like I will still by the DVDs at some point.

yep same here. When an early 8000HD wiped out two weeks worth of shows, ********** brought them back in time for me to catch up. Quality isn't great, but good enough to get you to the next airing.

Thanks for your feedback, you too Daryl L and Pkscout, good news is better! NBC confirmed they had uplink problems Saturday night causing the freeze in Law & Order around 10:15. I have not seen or heard of anymore problems from the TWC gang, but I am getting complaints of intermittent lip sync on all the local RDU channels on DirecTV now. (Yes, even those that "never" have any problems)
As for this weekend, I will be in the stands at Lowes Motor Speedway, so I think I can finally go out of town without worrying! :cool:

On a positive note, I haven't had any problems with anything that I have watched on TWC 217 in to past few days.

Enjoy the race!

NBC17ENG,

Enjoy the race. ;)

Congratulation, NBC. I successfully watched an entire episode of Surface last night, for the very first time. No transmission problems that I noticed, although the picture itself showed a lot of compression artifacts such as color banding and pixelization. I guess that's done where the network encodes the data stream. Or is it?

Oh, and no problems on Medium, either, nor on the little bit of Las Vegas. However (sorry), there were horrible audio problems on The Tonight Show. It was understandable, but quite annoying.

Thanks for the efforts to NBC17ENG and the silent lurkers from TWC.

Congratulation, NBC. I successfully watched an entire episode of Surface last night, for the very first time. No transmission problems that I noticed, although the picture itself showed a lot of compression artifacts such as color banding and pixelization. I guess that's done where the network encodes the data stream. Or is it?

Oh, and no problems on Medium, either, nor on the little bit of Las Vegas. However (sorry), there were horrible audio problems on The Tonight Show. It was understandable, but quite annoying.

Thanks for the efforts to NBC17ENG and the silent lurkers from TWC.


I too sucessfully watched Surface, Las Vegas and Medium with no problems. I did have some rather loud popping and static come out of my rear speakers a couple of times. Don't know if that was caused by the 8300, my av receiver, the broadcast or none of the above.

I thought I was seeing more artifacts this afternoon than I'm accustomed to. It's hard to tell with so many different types of receivers if it's on your end or mine. Typically, if it is on your end, simply "rebooting" fixes it. My end is more complicated. Let me check a few things in the morning.

Audio pops only in the rear channels? I've heard it in the main channels when the upstream analog switcher switches, and that has been driving me crazy, since it doesn't show up on the analog output. Give me a little longer to check these out. I'm basically reverse engineering this whole thing which is why we started at TWC and are working our way back to the source to be sure we got every issue that could affect you at home. And yes, I have found at least one loose cable at a patch panel!

...Audio pops only in the rear channels? I've heard it in the main channels when the..... !

It sounded like it was only coming from the rear channels but I could be mistaken because it happen so fast. It would be loud enough to make me jump but only lasted for a second or two.

For the first time since it aired, I too was able to watch Surface in HD on 217! There were still a number of artifacts in the picture throughout the show, but at least it was watchable for once!!! Great job, and keep up the good work! Now if we can just get a clear picture... ;-)

Sat down over the weekend and watched a couple of West Wings, E-Rings, and L&O:CI's on HD on my TWC DVR. Looked great. Thanks for working so hard on it (and putting up with our venting about it.)

I sure would like to know what you and TWC did to fix it...was it a collection of little things (cables, etc.) or propogation or adjacent channel interference or...?

Funny you say that since I just watched several freezes and glitches inbound from the satellite feed from New York from rain fade. But locally you guys get all the credit. We got great data from everyone that participated on this site, and emails, so all I had to do, (and still am) was follow your clues. We could not be at this point without your "venting", although, I must say I have a great staff and so does TWC; and a lot of friendly competitors. :)

Didn't say it was perfect....:)

but no more annoying than any of the other local HD feeds. Which is quite an improvement from where it was.

Well, we tried recording Joey on 217 last night and that ended up being a mistake. When we went to watch it later last night, we found that the sound was constantly cutting out, there was all sorts of pops and distortion in the rear speakers, and finally, we lost the picture a number of times during the show. It was somewhat watchable, but just barely. The whole time my wife kept yelling at me for even "trying to record an NBC show in HD." Looks like we may still have some problems...

Well, we tried recording Joey on 217 last night and that ended up being a mistake. When we went to watch it later last night, we found that the sound was constantly cutting out, there was all sorts of pops and distortion in the rear speakers, and finally, we lost the picture a number of times during the show. It was somewhat watchable, but just barely. The whole time my wife kept yelling at me for even "trying to record an NBC show in HD." Looks like we may still have some problems...

I had similar problems with Joey on my 8300. And all NBC fare appeared to be unclear or of lower quality.

Well, we tried recording Joey on 217 last night and that ended up being a mistake. When we went to watch it later last night, we found that the sound was constantly cutting out, there was all sorts of pops and distortion in the rear speakers, and finally, we lost the picture a number of times during the show. It was somewhat watchable, but just barely. The whole time my wife kept yelling at me for even "trying to record an NBC show in HD." Looks like we may still have some problems...

I had the same problem with my recording of Joey and both the 11:35 and 2:05 airings of Leno with my 8300HD DVR on TWC 217. No problem with ER though I watched it live. But according to This Post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=591442) it appears to be a NBC Network problem rather than a local one.

I had Joey running in HD for 20 seconds then switched to SD as soon as the problems started. The pixellation on the SD feed was fairly bad as well.

In addition to that I was getting audio bleed from another station in the left channel.

You might want to check on the last three weeks of posts here to get a better idea what's going on. I record WNCN directly off the air and have never had a problem. It seems it's the WNCN linkup to TWC that is the issue.



**********. I have used it on a couple of different occasions when shows I recorded didn't work for some reason. And so as not to get into a spat about the legality of this, I delete the episodes after I watch them. For show I like I will still by the DVDs at some point.

OK, I recognize then that it could be a TWC/NBC linkup problem. That doesn't make it any less annoying.

I just tried to watch the second episode of Crossing Jordan and it was useless too. <sigh>

Lyman

This time it was definitely rain fade at the source in New York, as has been the intermittent issues this week, and not NBC 17 / TWC. The northeast has been deluged by heavy rains causing the break-up. Here's the response I got from New York this morning:

The SD network can be uplinked from Burbank to avoid these uplink rain fades. The HD network does not have similar protection path yet.

ABC and CBS are both "C-band" distribution which is not affected by rain to the extent that Ku is affected.

I have noticed that occasionally network(s) will schedule a primetime show from 9:01-10:01 for example. This is enough to create a conflict if I have back to back recordings set up on two different channels. Is this something that is done intentionally by the network(s) for this very reason (to prevent people with DVR's/VCR's from watching the competition)?

Yes it is deliberate - to try to "discourage" you from changing channels.

I have noticed that occasionally network(s) will schedule a primetime show from 9:01-10:01 for example. This is enough to create a conflict if I have back to back recordings set up on two different channels. Is this something that is done intentionally by the network(s) for this very reason (to prevent people with DVR's/VCR's from watching the competition)?
I don't know if it is done on purpose but it is definitely irritating. ER recently has been starting at 9:59 and thus, if you record ER, it could conflict with other shows that are being recorded from 9:00 to 10:00. As a work-around in the past, I have set up manual recordings with the DVR to start/end a minute late/early to work around the issue.

The ND USC game has a lot of motion artifacts and not in DD 5.1

The ND USC game has a lot of motion artifacts and not in DD 5.1

Agreed...is NBCENG, is there any way the sub-channels could be turned off during the HD programming? I'm not sure if it's a source issue, or an issue on this end.

Thanks.

Jeff

Agreed...is NBCENG, is there any way the sub-channels could be turned off during the HD programming? I'm not sure if it's a source issue, or an issue on this end.

Thanks.

Jeff

Aside from all the recent problems, watching on TWC, the NBC HD channel is consistently sub-par, with an unacceptable level of motion artifacts, and the SD channel is always wretched, and really unwatchable, in my opinion.

I wouldn't try to sell anyone on the glories of HD watching the Notre Dame/USC game today. Somehow, WRAL manages to maintain superior video on their HD 1080 channel along with an OK SD channel, so it looks like it is possible to multichannel effectively.

Ive felt like NBC-HD was getting a lot better over the past few months (still not as good as it could be, but definitely better), but todays USC-ND game and the following NASCAR race are really, really bad. Theres a lot of pixelation even when nothing is moving (motion is even worse). Someone mentioned turning the subchannels off during HD programming. I can imagine that would be a big pain, but Ive always thought maybe NBC could cut down the bandwidth allocated to the two subchannels similar to what WRAL has done....NBC Weather Plus looks really good for SD, so theres definitely some room there.

but Ive always thought maybe NBC could cut down the bandwidth allocated to the two subchannels similar to what WRAL has done.

LOL, no offense to NBC17 but if they did that then 17-2 and TWC ch.218 would look like nothing more than a still image slideshow. I say this because currently 17-2 & ch.218 looks like some 7/8 year old .avi pc codec compression technology streaming over a dual 56k model or dsl. ;)

LOL, no offense to NBC17 but if they did that then 17-2 and TWC ch.218 would look like nothing more than a still image slideshow. I say this because currently 17-2 & ch.218 looks like some 7/8 year old .avi pc codec compression technology streaming over a dual 56k model or dsl. ;)

Yup... agree Daryl. TWC 7 looks quite a bit better than TWC 218.

Where is all the bandwidth going?

sports on NBC-HD have had horrible motion artifacts as long as i can remember. anyone remember the summer olympics fiasco?

LOL, no offense to NBC17 but if they did that then 17-2 and TWC ch.218 would look like nothing more than a still image slideshow. I say this because currently 17-2 & ch.218 looks like some 7/8 year old .avi pc codec compression technology streaming over a dual 56k model or dsl. ;)
Ahhh, Ive never watched 218 (theres no need really)....219 is very crisp though. I think you are right though that the analog->digital channel on TWC is better than the identical digital subchannel for all of the stations.

Anyone have a good source for UHF Antennas locally? I'm becoming increasing frustrated with my CM 3022. It seems like these things are mostly an exercise of trying different ones until you find something that works.

Thanks!

-Charles

Anyone have a good source for UHF Antennas locally? I'm becoming increasing frustrated with my CM 3022. It seems like these things are mostly an exercise of trying different ones until you find something that works.

Thanks!

-Charles


Charles,

You could try Consumer Direct Warehouse off of Wake Forest Road inside the beltline, which is where I got my CM4228 from. Be sure to call first, as they normally have to deliver what you want from their big warehouse in Garner to that particular store.

Good luck!
Dave

Ive felt like NBC-HD was getting a lot better over the past few months (still not as good as it could be, but definitely better), but todays USC-ND game and the following NASCAR race are really, really bad. Theres a lot of pixelation even when nothing is moving (motion is even worse). Someone mentioned turning the subchannels off during HD programming. I can imagine that would be a big pain, but Ive always thought maybe NBC could cut down the bandwidth allocated to the two subchannels similar to what WRAL has done....NBC Weather Plus looks really good for SD, so theres definitely some room there.

It was getting better, but something "new" has popped up late last week I haven't figured out yet. The normal kick with the boot hasn't seemed to help. I got mixed reviews on the game and race, some saying it looked bad, and some saying it wasn't that bad. Most were just mad the game went long, and NBC barely hit the race before the green flag. Even others were mad that the race went long, and SNL was delayed and not completely in HD. Can't please everybody, but give me a little credit for trying. :o I've never seen Weather Plus look this good, so it has to be getting all my spare bits from the mux. Vegas looked good until the promo at the end, and so far Medium looks good. I was just checking 17-2 and see some strange things in the letterboxed portion, (yes, even worse than normal), but gives me a clue that some noise is getting digitized, which eats up lots of bandwidth. Odds are I'll get a break soon. I usually don't have this much bad luck and unexplained issues popping up!

Well, I had no problem with audio or video on Surface, Las Vegas or Medium lastnight on 17-1 OTA aside from the previously mentioned audio crack/pop when switching between local commercial to network show.

I watched Surface and Las Vegas over TWC 217 last night with no audio or video problems.

Even others were mad that the race went long, and SNL was delayed and not completely in HD. Can't please everybody, but give me a little credit for trying. :o
SNL was The Best of David Spade (probably because of how mad Lorne Michaels was when a NASCAR race delayed SNL before), and since it was all archive material, it was all 4:3...you guys were passing HD apparently though, as the peacock was outside the 4:3 frame.

And as far as the football runover, that was the best thing that could have happened, because the prerace shows just go on and on and on. Start the race already! Really, theres nothing better than watching the end of an incredible football game like that, and then maybe 2 minutes later, the green drops at Charlotte :).

Thanks for the updates. See how hard it is to weed through fact and fiction? I agree back to back was better, but not as fun as the 8th row seats at the end of pit lane into the first turn. Man what a rush when the wind from the cars hit us as they blew by when the green flag dropped! That was my second race in Charlotte, and if you have never been, you really should, fan or not. (I was converted to a fan in May)
This morning we ran some test patterns through the HD encoder, (my apologies to all the Martha fans on here). We found the noise filter was knocking out significant detail. We shut that off, and so far tonight the Biggest Loser looks good with little motion artifacts, but some interesting color runout on the red sweatshirts. Reserving judgement for Earl, so let me know what you guys see.

I know I'm a bit late on this - but the PQ on USC/Notre Dame game on NBC-HD was just awful. It was worse than the old "Fox Widescreen."

However, highlights of the game looked great in HD on Sportscenter on ESPN-HD later that night. And the replay looked pretty good on UHD the following day.

Is there anything that can be done to improve the PQ on WNCN?

Did anyone besides me notice that NCIS (TWC 255) was not in HD or Dolby Digital tonight?

Earl looked and sounded fine tonight in TWC HD. Had some artifacts at the very beginning of the show (for about 2 seconds) but as I was watching it from the DVR tonight it could have just been the unit getting in gear.

A good show. I'm glad the ratings are good and NBC are sticking with it. Especially as the Earl cast like broadcasting in HD as much as the viewers.

Charles,

You could try Consumer Direct Warehouse off of Wake Forest Road inside the beltline, which is where I got my CM4228 from. Be sure to call first, as they normally have to deliver what you want from their big warehouse in Garner to that particular store.

Good luck!
Dave

Last time I stopped by (~ 2 months ago), they were in process of closing the brick/mortar storefront on WFR. I believe the internet section was still going, but we (as locals) no longer had the advantage of being able to stop by and browse. :(

Mike

Unfortunately I didn't get to watch NBC lastnight due to company so can't comment.

I use a splitter because we have two large HDTV's and hooked the second up in the living room for saturday's sports. We were watching the USC-Notre Dame game when I was hooking it up, and could hear a break-up when I was messing with the splitter to add the second cable. So I tightened the cable to my 8300.

After that, I have not noticed many(if any) break ups as I watched the rest of the football game, the race, and then last night I watched Earl and the Office and didn't notice any break ups. Still some artifact issues but that's just because IMO NBC HD is FAR behind ABC and CBS in their HD broadcasting, not a local issue at all.

But thanks to NBC17Eng for the tip to tighten connections, I highly suggest it..its gotten a lot better! I hope I didn't jinx it!

Did anyone besides me notice that NCIS (TWC 255) was not in HD or Dolby Digital tonight?

Yep....I noticed it too. Haven't checked Close to Home on my DVR to see if it was the same way.

Yep....I noticed it too. Haven't checked Close to Home on my DVR to see if it was the same way.

Just a curiosity question. NCIS was a new show and was listed in the guide as HDTV and DD 5.1. How does this happen? Did some technician forget to flip a switch?

This morning we ran some test patterns through the HD encoder, (my apologies to all the Martha fans on here). We found the noise filter was knocking out significant detail. We shut that off, and so far tonight the Biggest Loser looks good with little motion artifacts, but some interesting color runout on the red sweatshirts. Reserving judgement for Earl, so let me know what you guys see.

Tuesday night's L&O:SVU looked great when recorded from OTA. It seemed to have fewer motion artifacts and less pixelization than I remember seeing on NBC-17. The interesting thing is that show was far smaller than any other 1080i show I've ever recorded. It was 5.6GB, where a 1080i show has typically been between 6.2GB and 6.5GB in the past. There were no skips to account for a smaller file size, the entire hour was there. Do you have any idea why it might have been so small? I'm not complaining -- it looked great, and the smaller the file, the more I can fit on my hard drive ;)

Drew

I had problems with channels other than NBC so I called TWC. They just left and replaced my 8000 with another 8000. I asked the technician about an 8300 and he said he didn't like his. He preferred the 8000. Said the 8000 'responded more quickly'. He also said that unplugging the DVR overnight every once in a while would help stop the 'freezing'. His logic is that the hard drive never shuts off while the box is plugged in and somehow 'letting it rest' every once in a while will help. Sounds pretty hookey to me but what do I know. I'll try it and we'll see.

I had problems with channels other than NBC so I called TWC. They just left and replaced my 8000 with another 8000. I asked the technician about an 8300 and he said he didn't like his. He preferred the 8000. Said the 8000 'responded more quickly'. He also said that unplugging the DVR overnight every once in a while would help stop the 'freezing'. His logic is that the hard drive never shuts off while the box is plugged in and somehow 'letting it rest' every once in a while will help. Sounds pretty hookey to me but what do I know. I'll try it and we'll see.

Sounds like he is an idiot.

Idiot is not the word for it......

I had problems with channels other than NBC so I called TWC. They just left and replaced my 8000 with another 8000. I asked the technician about an 8300 and he said he didn't like his. He preferred the 8000. Said the 8000 'responded more quickly'. He also said that unplugging the DVR overnight every once in a while would help stop the 'freezing'. His logic is that the hard drive never shuts off while the box is plugged in and somehow 'letting it rest' every once in a while will help. Sounds pretty hookey to me but what do I know. I'll try it and we'll see.
Everyone that has commented on it says that the 8300 is a much better box than the 8000. I don't know if you can insist on getting a 8300, but you can be a royal pain in the a## and call every time you have the slightest problem with it. Sooner or later, TWC will replace it with a 8300. Don't know about the "letting it rest" thing.

Everyone that has commented on it says that the 8300 is a much better box than the 8000. I don't know if you can insist on getting a 8300, but you can be a royal pain in the a## and call every time you have the slightest problem with it. Sooner or later, TWC will replace it with a 8300. Don't know about the "letting it rest" thing.
When I made the appointment to upgrade my SD DVR to HD DVR, I asked that they install the 8300. They put it on the order and that's what showed up. Not much push back at all from TW. Or maybe I was just lucky.

When I made the appointment to upgrade my SD DVR to HD DVR, I asked that they install the 8300. They put it on the order and that's what showed up. Not much push back at all from TW. Or maybe I was just lucky.
I didn't have any problems either. I asked for the 8300 and that's what the technician showed up with. But I had a little leverage because I was upgrading my service. In his case though, if he justs calls up and says that he wants a 8300 because that's his preference, TWC may give him some grief.......maybe not...

Anyone hear of any new HD additions by TWC? I know, I know ... that stuff comes from TW corporate, but it's a joke how slow TW is to respond to real customer requests. I have sent them MANY e-mails requesting ESPN2HD, ESPNU (SD), and the NFL Network. Would it surprise anyone to know that TW is the only one of the top 5 cable providers to not have a deal for the NFL Network? I guess they will sit up in NY and count their money for now. Until they feel a little pressure from satellite for high volume competition, they will ignore all the grumbling from their customers.

Anyone hear of any new HD additions by TWC? I know, I know ... that stuff comes from TW corporate, but it's a joke how slow TW is to respond to real customer requests. I have sent them MANY e-mails requesting ESPN2HD, ESPNU (SD), and the NFL Network. Would it surprise anyone to know that TW is the only one of the top 5 cable providers to not have a deal for the NFL Network? I guess they will sit up in NY and count their money for now. Until they feel a little pressure from satellite for high volume competition, they will ignore all the grumbling from their customers.
I emailed them and requested that they add Universal HD. TW responded that they would pass my request on to management, so they're all over it :rolleyes:

I'd be happy if TWC just added WB and UPN in HD. They have all the other locals so it stands out when you tune in and it says "in HD and DD5.1" but you can't get it. Knowing that it's out there but you can't get it is worse than not having one more HD channel of reruns and old movies.

I posted earlier in this thread that NCIS on Tuesday was not in HD or DD 5.1 (TWC 255). A couple of people responded "me too". I sent an email to WRAL and their response is below. Could this have been a TWC issue. Did others have this problem? I can't see how this would just happen to me.


"Thank you for the message. To the best of our knowledge, NCIS was fed and broadcast in full HD this week and we have had no other complaints regarding that particular program. CBS DOES occasionally broadcast non-HD programs as part of its "Crimetime Saturday" replays. Some of those reruns do not air in HD, so you may have been watching at one of those times.

We have experienced no known problems with our HD programming, however, so we can't really respond to your concern. Thank you again for taking time to write.


WRAL"

I'd be happy if TWC just added WB and UPN in HD. They have all the other locals so it stands out when you tune in and it says "in HD and DD5.1" but you can't get it. Knowing that it's out there but you can't get it is worse than not having one more HD channel of reruns and old movies.

Well I'm no expert on how these things work, but my understanding is that this may not be TWC's fault. They just pass on what the local WB and UPN stations give them, which unfortunately is SD. The UPN station is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting which is notorious for not wanting to move to HD.

Sure wish I could watch Veronica Mars in HD.

Sooke

I posted earlier in this thread that NCIS on Tuesday was not in HD or DD 5.1 (TWC 255). A couple of people responded "me too". I sent an email to WRAL and their response is below. Could this have been a TWC issue. Did others have this problem? I can't see how this would just happen to me.


"Thank you for the message. To the best of our knowledge, NCIS was fed and broadcast in full HD this week and we have had no other complaints regarding that particular program. CBS DOES occasionally broadcast non-HD programs as part of its "Crimetime Saturday" replays. Some of those reruns do not air in HD, so you may have been watching at one of those times.

We have experienced no known problems with our HD programming, however, so we can't really respond to your concern. Thank you again for taking time to write.


WRAL"

I can garauntee you it was a problem with WRAL. I watched NCIS on WBTW-DT13 out of Florence, SC in HD OTA because WRAL was not in HD OTA nor on TWC. I kept checking on WRAL but they did not swittch to HD until a few minutes after 10pm just after "Close to Home's" opening credits.

I can garauntee you it was a problem with WRAL. I watched NCIS on WBTW-DT13 out of Florence, SC in HD OTA because WRAL was not in HD OTA nor on TWC. I kept checking on WRAL but they did not swittch to HD until a few minutes after 10pm just after "Close to Home's" opening credits.

Yup. Just checked the HD TiVo, and NCIS is definitely *not* in HD (I record it OTA).

I can garauntee you it was a problem with WRAL. I watched NCIS on WBTW-DT13 out of Florence, SC in HD OTA because WRAL was not in HD OTA nor on TWC. I kept checking on WRAL but they did not swittch to HD until a few minutes after 10pm just after "Close to Home's" opening credits.

Thanks. I knew that NCIS was not in HD on my end and I did some channel switching and all the other channels that were suppose to be in HD were. It's amazing to me that the local stations don't seem to know whether their signal is being received or not.

What I do watch is Las Vegas and this is now the second week in a row that my recording of Las Vegas has been screwed up. Last week it was good for about 40 minutes, then the last 20 minutes was unwatchable. .

I am experiencing the same thing with a 8000HD DVR in CHapel Hill.

What was happening on TWC ch.217 NBCHD during "Medium" lastnight? It was pxilating and freezing alot. "Las Vegas" only had 1 maybe 2 glitches only and I don't recall any problems during "Surface". The weather prevented me from locking onto NBCHD 17.1 lastnight.

Good question! I saw it too. I wound up having to watch the last 10 minutes on ch.7.

Just watched my recording of Vegas. I has pixilated several times. Am I reading correctly that other noticed this same thing or should I be calling TWC again about this 'new' 8000?

Well I'm no expert on how these things work, but my understanding is that this may not be TWC's fault. They just pass on what the local WB and UPN stations give them, which unfortunately is SD. The UPN station is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting which is notorious for not wanting to move to HD.

WB22 does broadcast in HD, though somewhat low power last I heard. The reason its not on TWC is because Sinclair wants carriage fees for their digital channels. UPN28 is not broadcasting in HD though, unless thats changed recently.

Could you tell if it (pixellation) was caused by motion or lots of small detailed portions of the pix? I'm looking at L&O OTA right now, and it looks like motion is causing it. We were thinking about loading the factory default file tomorrow and start over programming the settings, and right now looks like the best plan. I'll get back with you as soon as I know something.

I didn't have any problems either. I asked for the 8300 and that's what the technician showed up with. But I had a little leverage because I was upgrading my service. In his case though, if he justs calls up and says that he wants a 8300 because that's his preference, TWC may give him some grief.......maybe not...

I just got new TWC service this Sunday and the tech brought a 8000 out. I specifically asked for a 8300 when I placed my order. The problem is TWC outsources a lot of their installs and that subcontractor did not have any 8300's. The easy solution was to call TWC and tell them you want the 8300. It sounds like they don't have them kicking around so they told me Friday they'll bring one out.

Sadly, the 8000 they brought out was acting funky (slow boot, no boot). Last night it completely died. No clock and the hd makes a whining sound upon boot. So thankfully, I'm getting a new one. :D

Could you tell if it (pixellation) was caused by motion or lots of small detailed portions of the pix? I'm looking at L&O OTA right now, and it looks like motion is causing it. We were thinking about loading the factory default file tomorrow and start over programming the settings, and right now looks like the best plan. I'll get back with you as soon as I know something.

From what I've seen, most of the time pixellation is cause by motion (no matter how slight, even worse for fast motion). I have seen it using the 8300 and the QAM tuner. I haven't really noticed a small detail problem.

Could you tell if it (pixellation) was caused by motion or lots of small detailed portions of the pix? I'm looking at L&O OTA right now, and it looks like motion is causing it. We were thinking about loading the factory default file tomorrow and start over programming the settings, and right now looks like the best plan. I'll get back with you as soon as I know something.

What I refered to in my previous post wasn't due to motion artufacts. It was blocking up and freezing for a couple seconds at a time quite often just like the last time there was severe freezing problems.

But, I do see a pretty good bit of motion artifacting during fast motion stuff during shows but especially during the nascar races I see it alot. Something I don't see on TNTHD ot HDnet or ESPNHD on their races.

Could you tell if it (pixellation) was caused by motion or lots of small detailed portions of the pix? I'm looking at L&O OTA right now, and it looks like motion is causing it. We were thinking about loading the factory default file tomorrow and start over programming the settings, and right now looks like the best plan. I'll get back with you as soon as I know something.

In addition to Medium becoming unwatchable at the end, I noticed a lot of pixellation on Surface as well. It would happen whenever the scene was changing rapidly.

Hi,

I live in North Raleigh close to the Brier Creek Complex and have been trying to figure out which antenna would be best for me but am not quite sure. Can I have some suggestions from people who have tried different ones and live in the same vicinity? I went to the antennaweb website, and these are the channels I would like to receive. As you can see, the towers are within a 25 mile radius. I live in a housing subdivision with 2-3 story houses. I am open to roof installation as well as on a pole. Which antenna would you recommend? I want to get clear HD reception for the mentioned channels.

Thanks.

yellow - uhf WTVD-DT 11.1 ABC DURHAM NC 153° 20.9 52
* yellow - uhf WRAZ-DT 50.1 FOX RALEIGH NC 151° 20.7 49
* yellow - uhf WRAL-DT 5.1 CBS RALEIGH NC 151° 20.7 53
* yellow - uhf WNCN-DT 17.1 NBC GOLDSBORO 151° 20.7 55
* green - uhf WRDC-DT 28.1 UPN DURHAM NC 151° 20.7 27
* red - uhf WUNC-DT 4.1 PBS CHAPEL HILL 270° 23.5 59
* red - uhf WLFL-DT 22.1 WB RALEIGH NC 151° 20.7 57

Gentlemen if I have read this correctly we should get Universal HD channel shortly
or have I missed something thanks...

Universal HD and Time Warner (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=595449)

Gentlemen if I have read this correctly we should get Universal HD channel shortly
or have I missed something thanks...

Universal HD and Time Warner (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=595449)

TWC Raleigh already gave us UniversalHD temporarily and I wasn't that impressed. Not enough to pay for. That's a problem I have with all the TW Suite channels however. All reruns and old movies.

I'd like to see Cinemax and Starz HD sometime soon though.

The pact with NBC was part of a larger deal in which Time Warner agreed to continue carrying NBC Universal's cable channels — including newcomers Universal HD and Telemundo Puerto Rico — for two years.

The very last sentence does make it sound like TWC has made a deal to broadcast UniversalHD. I already have the HDSuite so I wouldn't mind watching some of FX's, USANetwork's shows on UHD in HD.

The very last sentence does make it sound like TWC has made a deal to broadcast UniversalHD. I already have the HDSuite so I wouldn't mind watching some of FX's, USANetwork's shows on UHD in HD.


I love SVU as much as the next guy, but I'd rather have ESPN2-HD...

The very last sentence does make it sound like TWC has made a deal to broadcast UniversalHD. I already have the HDSuite so I wouldn't mind watching some of FX's, USANetwork's shows on UHD in HD.

Ditto......

Well, I do like a few NBC, Sci-Fi, FX, USAnetwork and TNT shows but L&O is not one of them. Although it is a huge challenge trying to avoid any of the L&O shows. My goodness, I thing TNT airs it atleast 7/8 times or possible more in a 24 hour period as well as a couple other channels. :D

Looks like for ESPN2-HD someones gotta kiss that money grubbing Micheal Eisners buttocks, and I ain't doing that. :D

Did anybody else see stutter/freezing during the ESPNHD VT-BC game last night? Particularly during the 2nd quarter if I remember right....

Crazy stuff at the end of the horse race on NBC 17 today was Station equipment failure. PSIP generator and mux lost their brains, and if they don't tell your box how to tune it, then you can't tune it.

BTW, with the time change in the morning, I'm not sure which devices will automatically fall back. If you've got recordings scheduled, you might want to check to see if the times are off.

Has anyone else had a problem with DD 5.1 on ABC (TWC 211)? I have been having problems with the center channel. As an example, I just watched Night Stalker, which I had recorded, and it went from no center channel audio to extremely loud center channel audio. The front and rear channels were working fine. I have noticed this on most all shows that are broadcast in DD 5.1 on TWC211 lately. The sound is fine on all other channels which leads me to believe that it's a problem with 211(ABC) only.

I've noticed it over the air on 11.1... The music swells to the point it cuts out dialog on Monsters Inc. tonight. There is noticeable difference between WTVD and my local ABC WCTI.

I've noticed it over the air on 11.1... The music swells to the point it cuts out dialog on Monsters Inc. tonight. There is noticeable difference between WTVD and my local ABC WCTI.

I'm in Winston-Salem and get ABC on 45-2 WXLVDT2. Monsters Inc. tonight had periodic dropouts in the audio but the video was unaffected. It is also occurring right now, during Desperate Housewives. This is on an Accurian Radioshack tuner. The audio on other channels are fine. Is this a problem with ABC's broadcast or the Radioshack tuner?

Thanks for any help!

I also noticed no center channel during Monsters Inc. on WTVD. I just switched from cable HD to over the air, so I was assuming it was my setup. I'm glad to hear it's not just me.

There is something about this problem on the programming forum, but it's not happening on my local ABC WCTI 12.1 in New Bern. It is happening only on WTVD 11.1 as far as I can tell. I'm not able to pick up ABC WWAY 3.1 out of Wilmington tonight, so I don't know if it's happening there too.

Hi all,

I'm new to the Raleigh area and also new to HDTV.

I noticed tonight that some of the HD channels (DiscoveryHD and TNT) were flickering. I switched to a non-HD channel to verify it wasn't me and that appeared fine.

It seemed to be intermittent over the last 30 mins but seems ok now.

Just wondering if anyone else in Raleigh saw the same thing (Sat night around 10:30pm) or can offer some suggestions as to what I may be experiencing.

Thanks,
Craig

There is a TW Press Release claiming that they finished the DIGITAL SIMULCAST roll-out in Raleigh, NC.

This would replicate most (if not all) of the analog channels on the Digital Tier in order to
1) improve picture quality by eliminating extra D-A conversions (many sources are now digital, not analog)
2) allow them to claim that they are all digital to better compete with all digital satcom
3) permit use of lower cost "all-digital" STBs, esp DVRs that can eliminate a pair of analog to MPEG2 encoders.
4) offer less expensive digital "starter" tiers that include the "hook" for Free OnDemand and PPV VOD.
5) first step to eliminating some (if not all) analog channels to make way for more HD, VOD VoIP, et. al.

I checked program listing and didn't see any evidence of this happening....
But maybe it wouldn't show up in the listings....
Digital customers may only see digital channels via STB and analog via direct connect to TV.

So whatzup??? Have you seen any improvement for under CH 100???

holl_ands,

The conversion to digital on the lower channels happened about two months if I remember right. I have an SA-8300HD DVR. Yes to the question that the <100 channels look a heck of a lot better.

I noticed that WNCN 17.2 is now a static radar image. NBC17ENG, is the sd simulcast of 17.1 gone now? I've noticed you've been working on pq of 17.1. It looks better than it has in a while.

I noticed that WNCN 17.2 is now a static radar image. NBC17ENG, is the sd simulcast of 17.1 gone now? I've noticed you've been working on pq of 17.1. It looks better than it has in a while.

After reading this post I turned to TWC ch.217(17-1 OTA) and the bad motion artifacting I had previously noticed during the nascar racing is absent on todays race. It looks good. :) I wonder if some bandwidth was taken from ch.218(17-2) to help with that improvement since the static radar needs very little.

I would think that would be the case as well, Daryl L. 17.3, Weather Plus, still looks really good for a sub-channel, but 17.1 has improved greatly. I noticed some artifacting on 17.1 during a particularly fast motion, strobing type of commercial, but there is much improvement overall. NBC17ENG tends to take viewer comments seriously, so I'm sure he's been doing everything he can to make improvements. Kudos to him! :)

I would think that would be the case as well, Daryl L. 17.3, Weather Plus, still looks really good for a sub-channel, but 17.1 has improved greatly. I noticed some artifacting on 17.1 during a particularly fast motion, strobing type of commercial, but there is much improvement overall. NBC17ENG tends to take viewer comments seriously, so I'm sure he's been doing everything he can to make improvements. Kudos to him! :)

I agree, kudies to NBC17ENG. ;)

anyone else getting occasional freezing for 5 seconds or so during the panthers game today on WRAZ-HD via TWC?

I haven't noticed that, but my stb re-mapped WRAZ to 49.1-3...

Thanks guys, I wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for you! We experienced a major equipment issue yesterday near the end of the horse racing as I reported, and one of my guys was able to come in a fix it. It froze and stuttered again this morning during the News, so I ran in and did some tweaking to try and get it back on before noon. I might get fired for it, but I put the radar up and brought down the bitrate on 17-2 to get as much as possible for HD. :o The encoder seems to be eating bits and robbing the stream, but it was either that or nothing.

On a brighter note, the clock did fall back! :)

Let's hope you don't get fired. Nice picture though. I also noticed shortly after 5:00 am this morning your OTA guide data showed the correct time. :)

I hope you don't get fired for it either! I really hope management has taken a look at 17.2 and realizes that for the most part it is unwatchable as a SD simulcast. I'd rather see a static radar image or some other static information on 17.2 than a simulcast that isn't viewable. Plus, the HD 17.1 channel looks a whole lot better now!

Live in Cary, and although i'm getting a strong signal for Fox (around 90), I'm not getting nothing as far as picture. 50.1 (49) as the channel. Anyone else having issues?

They are having some issues, I believe... I mentioned earlier that my stb re-mapped WRAZ to 49.1-3. Try punching in 49 instead of 50 and see if that gives you something...

I found it at 49-3. Thanks for the info. I hope they fix soon so I don't have to rescan. Thanks again.

Watching The West Wing last night on TWC/NBCHD and it looked absolutely horrid. Very low picture quality, break ups, artifacts and motion blurring. It looked like the equivalant of downloading a DIVX version of an episode and then converting it to DVD..

I didn't see it, since I tuned in during Law & Order through Crossing Jordan, which both looked great OTA. It will take several hours before the DVR folks report back what they captured.

Very interesting that we had similar issues as WRAZ over the weekend with PSIP earlier. Beginning to think there's a Stephen King novel here since all transmitters are located together. Remember WTVD had audio issues and WRAL had a show in SD last week? Today is Halloween! When I get called out to the transmitter at night, it is always dark, isolated, with a thick fog hovering just above the ground. You hear footsteps in the leaves of the woods nearby. Deer? Ghosts? Sinister transmitter trolls or gremlins eating digital bits? Hum...............

holl_ands,

The conversion to digital on the lower channels happened about two months if I remember right. I have an SA-8300HD DVR. Yes to the question that the <100 channels look a heck of a lot better.

Better, yes..."heck of a lot", not really. Look at Speed Channel on 148, this is what a digital channel should look like, IMHO....its easily the best looking non-HD channel available. The <100 channels look like they are simply converting an analog channel to digital, rather than sending out the digital signal from the various cable networks...I would assume that at least some of these channels are sent out digitally to the cable provider, am I wrong?

[QUOTE=holl_ands]There is a TW Press Release claiming that they finished the DIGITAL SIMULCAST roll-out in Raleigh, NC.

Digital customers may only see digital channels via STB and analog via direct connect to TV.

My line is split. One goes to my 8300HD box and the other goes straight to my analog TV in the bedroom. I'm still picking up everything that I did before on the bedroom TV so wouldn't this imply that any analog to digital conversion is done by the stb?

[QUOTE=holl_ands]There is a TW Press Release claiming that they finished the DIGITAL SIMULCAST roll-out in Raleigh, NC.

Digital customers may only see digital channels via STB and analog via direct connect to TV.

My line is split. One goes to my 8300HD box and the other goes straight to my analog TV in the bedroom. I'm still picking up everything that I did before on the bedroom TV so wouldn't this imply that any analog to digital conversion is done by the stb?

The point of what TWC has done is to claim 'digital' transmission for cable channels. For example.... take WRAL on TWC 5. An analog set can and will continue to be able to receive analog WRAL on TWC 5 when directly connected to the analog cable. A digital Set Top Box however, when tuned to TWC 5, will not decode the analog version but will switch to a different frequency where a QAM version of WRAL generated by TWC is contained. This 'switch' will be transparent to the user and may result in a better picture and will defeat claims being made by satellite compaines.

I am experiencing the same issue as other poster with 50.1. I am getting 90+ signal strength but there is no Video or Audio.

-Don B

WRAZ-DT channel mapping is messed up

I was not able to get WRAZ-DT on 50-1 yesterday afternoon even tough it showed a 95+ signal. After reading this forum, I was able to receive it at 49-3.

Steve F

SteveFitz1 ,

Thanks,
I'll 49.3 tonight.

-Don B

Well, I just watched my HD recording of Crossing Jordan off TWC ch.217 and had no audio or video problems. PQ looked on par with previous episodes.

I've learned you can't judge a stations quality by a show alone. CBS for instance has NCIS that looks a little grainy and soft (sometimes slightly blurred) while on the same night Close to Home looks fantastic.

[QUOTE=tommy122]

The point of what TWC has done is to claim 'digital' transmission for cable channels. For example.... take WRAL on TWC 5. An analog set can and will continue to be able to receive analog WRAL on TWC 5 when directly connected to the analog cable. A digital Set Top Box however, when tuned to TWC 5, will not decode the analog version but will switch to a different frequency where a QAM version of WRAL generated by TWC is contained. This 'switch' will be transparent to the user and may result in a better picture and will defeat claims being made by satellite compaines.

=======================================
Two days ago we noticed TWC San Diego is half-way through process of establishing a Digital Simulcast system.
One of the new temporary channel numbers popped up in the Navigator Guide. The rest were easy to find.
When they finish the reconfiguration, I would expect the temporary numbers will be replaced with the old channel numbers.

=======================================
FYI: Depending on how soon analog distribution is replaced by digital distribution,
the fol. should be added to the list of advantages for Digital Simulcast:

6) savings to program distribution system (mostly Sat) since they can multiplex many more programs onto the
transponder channel formerly used for a single analog program.

7) possible savings to cable companies by eliminating the (now duplicative) analog distribution channels (below CH100).
However, this cost is offset by the additional cost of D/A Converters at each neighborhood Hub.

=====================================
C-BAND IS ALSO GOING ALL (OR ALMOST ALL) DIGITAL:
At least 13 single channel transponders being freed up....hopefully for more multiplexed HD channels....

Many cable systems have been receiving non-local analog feeds via C-Band B.U.D. (Big Useful Dish).
Over the course of the past year, the number of analog feeds has been slowly dropping, being replaced by multiplexed digital feeds.

SAT forums report that SCIFI and USA East Coast feeds willl be dropped on 15Nov05. As I recall, West Coast feeds were dropped Feb05.
This would be followed by CNN, TBS ,TNT, Headline News, TOON, TVLand and some STARZ/Encore analog feeds on 31Dec05.
Only a couple dozen analog feeds would be left...so look for them to also transition to digital sometime in the not too distant future.

The fol. report from Jun05, indicates the FCC is trying to banish ALL analog feeds on C-Band BUD:
http://testced.cahners1.com/ced/2005/0605/06cc.htm

Watching The West Wing last night on TWC/NBCHD and it looked absolutely horrid. Very low picture quality, break ups, artifacts and motion blurring. It looked like the equivalant of downloading a DIVX version of an episode and then converting it to DVD..

I watched my DVR'd version last night, and for TWC/Cary it seeemed fine to me. (was truly worried another end of episode would be cut off). Just saying it may have been a localized prob.

Mike

I've noticed that when some of the local stations air syndicated reruns of currently running TV shows, they are never in HD. Why is that? For example, WTVD (?) is airing the first season of Alias in the wee hours of the morning. It is not in HD. Yet TNT-HD is airing the same episodes in HD.

Is TNT up-converting a DVD quality show, or is there an extra charge for showing syndicated reruns in HD that TNT is willing to pay, but which our local stations are not willing to pay? Or is it just that they neglected to check the box for the HD media?

Thanks,

Drew

I've noticed that when some of the local stations air syndicated reruns of currently running TV shows, they are never in HD. Why is that? For example, WTVD (?) is airing the first season of Alias in the wee hours of the morning. It is not in HD. Yet TNT-HD is airing the same episodes in HD.

Is TNT up-converting a DVD quality show, or is there an extra charge for showing syndicated reruns in HD that TNT is willing to pay, but which our local stations are not willing to pay? Or is it just that they neglected to check the box for the HD media?

Thanks,

Drew

Good question. I have wondered the same thing. If the original show was in HD, why isn't the rerun? Everything on TNT HD is in HD, even the commercials. You'll notice TNT employs "stretchvision" quite a bit, but nevertheless, it's all in HD.

Well. Whether it is NBC or TWC or both who have gotten their act together, I am happy to say that I am completely caught up on Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan and the last 2-3 episodes of both shows have been 99% glitch, artifact and noise free. I can't tell you how nice that is!

OTA 50.1 was back last night. As well as the multicast channels.

-Don B

[QUOTE=holl_ands]There is a TW Press Release claiming that they finished the DIGITAL SIMULCAST roll-out in Raleigh, NC.

Digital customers may only see digital channels via STB and analog via direct connect to TV.

My line is split. One goes to my 8300HD box and the other goes straight to my analog TV in the bedroom. I'm still picking up everything that I did before on the bedroom TV so wouldn't this imply that any analog to digital conversion is done by the stb?
On your cable coax, channels below CH100 are still analog, for direct connect to cable ready TVs.
There has been discussion re eliminating many (and eventually ALL) of these channels,
encouraging users to use a hopefully lower cost all-digital STB or DVR. And make room for more HD channels.

Channels below 100 are ALSO now available on the digital tier, probably on six new encrypted QAM-256 carrier frequencies,
each carrying 12-13 SD programs. This is what a digital STB should be selecting when you punch in the old channel number.

When you consider that Cable is also running Broadband"Roadrunner" over the same wires do they really need the additional bandwidth that those 100 analog channels would free up?

-Don B

When you consider that Cable is also running Broadband"Roadrunner" over the same wires do they really need the additional bandwidth that those 100 analog channels would free up?

-Don B
that's actually yet another reason why they need the additional bandwidth. All that video is actually wider bandwidth than that RR connection. Freeing up bandwidth would leave room for more digital channels, more HD channels, less compression of the digital channels, and (potentially) even faster broadband internet speeds.

When you consider that Cable is also running Broadband"Roadrunner" over the same wires do they really need the additional bandwidth that those 100 analog channels would free up?

-Don B
Cable modems use a time slicing technique to share the downlink data capacity of QAM-256 carriers.
For a max QAM-256 data rate of 38 Mbps, only a few cable modem users can be simultaneously supported
if they are all downloading at the max rate of 6 Mbps.

I see, thanks for the feedback.

-Don B

I DVR'ed Close to Home last night (CBS5 TWC 255). It was suppose to be in HD DD 5.1. When I watched it today, it started off in SD and no DD. About 6 minutes into the show, it switched to HD 16:9 DD 5.1. I see this happen quite a bit. A HD show that switches to HD several minutes into the program. How does this happen? Is there someone asleep at the switch :) ?

I see this happen quite a bit. A HD show that switches to HD several minutes into the program. How does this happen? Is there someone asleep at the switch :) ?

from what I remember reading somewhere in the forums, yes someone very possibly did fall asleep or leave the control room at the wrong time.

from what I remember reading somewhere in the forums, yes someone very possibly did fall asleep or leave the control room at the wrong time.

If that's true, it's inexcusable. As much technology, time and expense that goes into getting out a broadcast in HD and to have a technician just forget to throw a switch, or whatever they do.........

I DVR'ed Close to Home last night (CBS5 TWC 255). It was suppose to be in HD DD 5.1. When I watched it today, it started off in SD and no DD. About 6 minutes into the show, it switched to HD 16:9 DD 5.1. I see this happen quite a bit. A HD show that switches to HD several minutes into the program. How does this happen? Is there someone asleep at the switch :) ?
At the local broadcast station, spiffy ad insertion systems can replace the national ad slot with a local ad.
Some of this PSIP management is automated, and apparently some of it is not...
And with the integration over the years of different equipment from different manufacturers, it is still very buggy, buggy, buggy. :eek:
Especially when (manually?) switching in and out of local news updates...HD and DD5.1 designators frequently get overlooked in the fray...

So maybe it's hardware (someone forget to throw a switch), but I'll bet most of the time someone forgot to click a tiny menu item in a very, very long list of menu items....
PSIP automation still means someone has to meticulously "program" many minute-by-minute events well in advance....without making too many mistakes..... :(
and then watch the local "plan" vanish before their very eyes as the network "plan" is changed on the fly (esp sports programs)...

This same process is replicated at the cable headend with a "new and improved" automated ad insertion system that came with the Digital Simulcast upgrade.
I've noticed that ads on the new Digital Simulcast channels in TWC-San Diego are frequently different from those shown on the analog counterpart.
With literally hundreds of channels on cable, how could someone at the cable headend have the time to put eyes on a particular channel to actually catch a miscue....

The mechanism for sending and then merging DD5.1 sound with the HD picture is very convoluted for most networks.
Mike Babbitt's presentation specifically addresses how DIALNORM can readily get mucked up in the maze:
https://secure.connect.pbs.org/conferences/technology/2005/Sessions/TC05_27.htm

and more DIALNORM info:
http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/35_COMT.02.04.Broadband.pdf
http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/AES5900.pdf

and WTMI for the PSIP obsessed:
http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/18_Metadata.Guide.pdf

Actually, it's much less interesting than all of that. We had an failure and had to bypass all of the 5.1 equipment. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for watching.

Pete

Woke up this morning and realized Good Morning America on WTVD was being broadcast in HD. Cool.....

Hopefully NBC and CBS will follow suit sometime soon.

Actually, it's much less interesting than all of that. We had an failure and had to bypass all of the 5.1 equipment. Sorry for the inconvenience
Pete
As complex as HDTV and DD 5.1 are, I realize that "stuff" happens from time to time. When the networks or local stations don't deliver what was advertised, for whatever reason, why not run a crawler at the bottom of the screen stating "Audio Difficulties" or whatever the problem is. When a show starts off with "The following program is presented in HDTV and Dolby Digital 5.1" and that doesn't happen, a shot crawler would be helpful. Those us with "big bucks" invested in a HDTV and home theater system are sensitive to these kind things :o .

I noticed that 28.1 was not mapped to 28 over the weekend. I did a channel search and found it at 80.

-Don B

On Thursday of last week I purchased a Sony 46WT520 hd ready wide screen set. I subscribe to dishnetwork using a 625 DVR connected via Svideo. I have been very disappointed with my set , pixelation was horrible on football and the Nascar race. I am thinking about going to circuit city and purchasing the Motorola hd receiver they have on clearance and an indoor antenna. Will the indoor antenna work in Nashville, NC, according to antenna org I am 38 miles from the towers.

Thanks,

Mack

You will do better to use an outdoor antenna outside.
That said, it can't hurt to try the indoor antenna. It may work...

On Thursday of last week I purchased a Sony 46WT520 hd ready wide screen set. I subscribe to dishnetwork using a 625 DVR connected via Svideo. I have been very disappointed with my set , pixelation was horrible on football and the Nascar race. I am thinking about going to circuit city and purchasing the Motorola hd receiver they have on clearance and an indoor antenna. Will the indoor antenna work in Nashville, NC, according to antenna org I am 38 miles from the towers.

Thanks,

Mack
It happens very often, but I'm confused here once again. (I was born and raised in the state of confusion, where I choose to live forever!) Are we talking the Dish Network sat signal (SD), or HD over the air from NBC 17, or WITN? I'm assuming SD over satellite, which might very well look horrible stretched on a 16:9 set, using the S-video connection. Feel free to correct me, or post more info, but if you're just looking at the sat signal, unless you are watching the WNBC-HD feed, then heck yeah, get an antenna and a good STB, and connect DVI or HDMI to the monitor. Down your way, an indoor antenna will work, but outdoors or in the attic is always the best. No harm trying it first on rabbit ears, but a good antenna will eliminate a lot of frustrations due to weather, furniture arrangements, etc. (Plus I'd get an outside rotor for obvious reasons I should not point out)

Be sure to check the Dish Network website to see if there's a trade up to an HD OTA / Sat DVR integrated box you can get. I'm not totally up on the options they give, but they may have an all in one box for a few bucks. The other guys here might be able to give you more info than I can on that side, or check the hardware forum on this site.

what's going on with upn 28?

I also had a DirecTV customer in Oxford complain of pixellation on some of the local channels. I was able to confirm this with the DirecTV receiver in my office on NBC 17, as well as affecting WTVD. I called DirecTV, and they looked at it, but said it all looked great, and by this time it looked better on my office set up. I have never received any equipment to monitor Dish Network.

Wayne at UNC told me Triumph moved their equipment out of his facility, and I have received a letter from Dish saying they relocated their pick up point, and DirecTV only confirmed verbally of their move. I'm assuming they have both contracted with the same company to receive all the local channels and backhaul them to their respective uplink centers.

If you're noticing issues on the standard definition channels on your satellite service, make sure you call them. One of my buddies used to work for one of them, and he said they never responded to any reports of issues until they got at least three verified complaints.

Hi all,

I have received the following feedback from a viewer. Have any of you experienced this?

Thanks

MESSAGE:
This message probably needs to go to engineering. The audio portion of the CBS hi-definition network feed, as received through Time-Warner Cable, has an "echo" problem that renders the audio almost unintelligible. I reported this problem once before, many months ago, and both Time-Warner Cable and a WRAL engineer I spoke with stated it was a CBS problem. (Note: WRAZ's hi-def audio and WRAL local programming audio are fine). Thought you might like to know - from the customer perspective, this is VERY annoying. We had to drop back to the analog signal for "NCIS" tonight because we could not stand the hi-def distortion.

Banshee,

If you are referring to UPN 28.1 as in not finding it Then look at my previous post below:

"I noticed that 28.1 was not mapped to 28 over the weekend. I did a channel search and found it at 80."

-Don B

MESSAGE:
This message probably needs to go to engineering. The audio portion of the CBS hi-definition network feed, as received through Time-Warner Cable, has an "echo" problem that renders the audio almost unintelligible. I reported this problem once before, many months ago, and both Time-Warner Cable and a WRAL engineer I spoke with stated it was a CBS problem. (Note: WRAZ's hi-def audio and WRAL local programming audio are fine). Thought you might like to know - from the customer perspective, this is VERY annoying. We had to drop back to the analog signal for "NCIS" tonight because we could not stand the hi-def distortion.


Ah yes, I experienced this last week. I think it was Yes Dear that was running in the background and I noticed that an echo was coming from the left rear channel in 5.1 mode. Initially I thought it was a voiceover so it didn't get my attention that quickly.

Switching back to stereo didn't remove the echo/repetition and eventually the sound cut off altogether. It came back about five minutes later and the echo was gone. Sorry, I don't remember if it was a 5.1 audio feed at that stage.

I recently upgraded from an HD Ready 32" Sony XBR CRT to the 32" XBR LCD with the built in 8VSB and QAM tuner. I also use the TWC Pace HD set top with a DVI/HDMI interface. The HDTV looks spectacular, depending, of course, on the source material. SDTV is as good or bad as one might expect.

The one major disappointment is WNCN's HDTV. The picture is very "soft", the colors are washed out, and there are more noticeable digital artifacts than on the other off-air and cable HDTV sources. There is no difference between the 8VSB, built in QAM, or set top tuner. Quite frankly, it looks more like up-converted 480i than HDTV. Even my non discriminating wife can tell the difference. Just A/B Leno and Letterman.

The WNCN SDTV looks worse than some of the better streaming internet video I've seen. The weather channel is the best looking channel in their digital package.

I will be putting up a UHF antenna to attempt to access WITN-DT. I get very reasonable analogue with bunny ears on channel 7 from my north Raleigh location, so I hope the digital 32 comes in.

Anybody have any comments on WNCN vs WITN or am I wasting my time???

Any comments from NBC17ENG???

What we've found is a "buffer over run" error in the video system, but nobody can figure out what "buffer" is possibly being overun. We tried for 3 days to get a hole punched through the firewall so the manufacturer could examine the issue directly, gave up and FTP'd the files to them, and are still waiting for an answer, thus no new information to report. Weather Plus is designed for DTV from the beginning. It is a pure digital ASI bitstream from the source to the antenna, so it does not have the issues conventional SD or programming conversions to HD and NTSC have.

Meanwhile, the new HD encoder, SD encoders, and a new multiplexer have been ordered and should be shipped by the end of the year, which I have not mentioned until the ink was dry and I knew for sure it was a done deal. I've been promised the new encoders can handle everything with no problem, but we'll have to wait and see about that.

I was a pallbearer for WITN's Transmitter Engineer who was a very dear friend and former employee at NBC 17 this past Sunday. Aparantly their transmitters took a sympathy shut down Friday afternoon and they were limping on the air all weekend. I haven't swung my antenna around to see if I can catch their digital signal yet, but if they need help, I'm there.

Thanks for the reply. I sounds like things are moving in the right direction. Keep us posted.

Sorry about the WITN engineer. I of course had no idea. My sympathies to his friends and family.

Ah yes, I experienced this last week. I think it was Yes Dear that was running in the background and I noticed that an echo was coming from the left rear channel in 5.1 mode. Initially I thought it was a voiceover so it didn't get my attention that quickly.

Switching back to stereo didn't remove the echo/repetition and eventually the sound cut off altogether. It came back about five minutes later and the echo was gone. Sorry, I don't remember if it was a 5.1 audio feed at that stage.


I also noticed this with "Yes, Dear" - but OTA with my HDTivo. So, it's not a TWC problem. My receiver wouldn't let me turn off the surround to just stereo - so I just erased the episode altogether. The problem was very annoying, to say the least.

Thanks guys, we'll see what we can find...

Thanks guys, we'll see what we can find...

I have to add that's the only occasion I've ever experienced that problem. If it only happens once I just put it down to some temporary technical issue that's not really worth mentioning.

NBC17ENG,

You made the correct assumption, SD over satellite. I wound up getting the Motorola and a Terk indoor antenna and currently can pick up all the area HD channels with about 70% signal strength. Now I am happy with my Sony.

The stations on the shared tower will be off the air around 2:30 AM Saturday morning (tonight) for tower light repairs. The signals should be available around 5:30 AM. Both NBC 17 analog and digital transmitters will be off, as well as WRAL-DT, WRAZ-DT, WLFL-DT and WRDC-DT.

All the analog signals will still be available on Time-Warner Cable, as well as WRAL-DT via fiber.

at least i can watch/hear greg fishel play the tuba....

While watching Category 7 on Wral 5.1 my STB froze on 2 occasions. I'm new to HD, does this indicate an issue with my equipment or the station?

Thanks,

Mack

Hi there--new to the Triangle area and I have a question about the 3250HD box TWC gave me. It's running the Passport software, for what it's worth.

The zoom/stretch functions DO NOT WORK at all on SD outputs. They do nothing. I'd really like them to, for reasons that involve using my non-HD TiVo on one of the SD outputs. It doesn't matter if I acccess them from the remote or the setup menu. It doesn't matter if I take the TiVo out of the equation. It doesn't matter if I'm using A/V, S-Video, Coax, whatever.

They DO work as usual when I have an HD signal going directly to the television.

So, the question: Is this normal for this box? My Pace box in my old town did not operate like this; I could zoom/stretch on all outputs. So is the 3250HD working as intended? Is anyone reading this able to zoom/stretch on SD outputs?

And final question...if I'm just stuck with it like this, what are the chances of my getting TWC to swap my box for a different model?

Thanks in advance.

Is anyone reading this able to zoom/stretch on SD outputs?
I cannot zoom/stretch the composite and S-video outputs, but I can set the component output to 480i and zoom/stretch it. If you need composite/S-video, then component can be converted by using an encoder such as the Harmonic Research CV-233 (http://www.hrx.com/cv223a.htm).

Thanks for the info--but that seems like quite a workaround for something I've seen other boxes do natively. :\

Tell TWC that you want a Pace box. They did it for me.

Evidently TWC is making strides too (or perhaps TNT) in the unencrypted QAM dept. Last night I suddenly had sound again over TNT-HD using my LG STB. THANKS TWC or TNT. Whoever it was - THANKS!!!!!!!

Mack - Not sure about your issue but from what I have read on these forums lockups can be common on occastion and rare on others. With WRAL - it is usually stable however. No matter what, some nights are just luck-of-the-draw. If you are using a TWC box, you might get better information by stating why type of box you have and re-asking your question.


Bill

Thanks Bill,

My STB is the Accurian HTS 6000.

Evidently TWC is making strides too (or perhaps TNT) in the unencrypted QAM dept. Last night I suddenly had sound again over TNT-HD using my LG STB. THANKS TWC or TNT. Whoever it was - THANKS!!!!!!!

Bill


I checked my LG box this morning, and I still have issues. I was getting audio - but it was all in Spanish. The language is set to English, of course. Changing it to Spanish or French did nothing - all three were in Spanish. NYPD Blue was the show on at the time.

it's been 1 year since i got my HDTV and switched from DirecTV to Time Warner. I don't believe a single HD channel has been added in that time frame.

deArgila,
It was definetly English last night when before NOTHING.
I was hoping to catch some B-Ball action tonight.
I hope it is working when I get home, I will check it out.

MACK - Is that box QAM capable or are you using it Over The Air. (OTA)

it's been 1 year since i got my HDTV and switched from DirecTV to Time Warner. I don't believe a single HD channel has been added in that time frame.

Don't feel bad. I *think* DirecTV has added EPSN2-HD in that time, and they *still* don't have TNT-HD. Discounting local channels, DirectTV and TWC are, in essence, at parity in terms of HD offering. Crappy, but in parity. ;)

Don't feel bad. I *think* DirecTV has added EPSN2-HD in that time, and they *still* don't have TNT-HD. Discounting local channels, DirectTV and TWC are, in essence, at parity in terms of HD offering. Crappy, but in parity. ;)
Why is TWC so reluctant to add more HD content?