Agreed.

But I really am curious about the questions I asked.

What programs do you watch on those channels? And would you watch them if they were available in SD only? And would your choice be the same if there were no SD versions of ESPN/ESPN-2? And if ESPN/ESPN2HD were 100% HD, how would you feel about their addition to the HDSuite (assuming they cause the price to increase)?

I don't watch too many shows on InHD, etc. If I do, it's because they are in HD, not because of the content. My whole issue is TWC putting ESPN in the HD Suite. If ESPN were mostly HD, I would have no problem. Regardless of where they put it, they are going to charge for it in one way or another. It is just a matter of principal. If TWC is going to have a HD Suite, I sorta' expect the content to be HD.

I don't watch too many shows on InHD, etc. If I do, it's because they are in HD, not because of the content. My whole issue is TWC putting ESPN in the HD Suite. If ESPN were mostly HD, I would have no problem. Regardless of where they put it, they are going to charge for it in one way or another. It is just a matter of principal. If TWC is going to have a HD Suite, I sorta' expect the content to be HD.

Well put. Having the mostly SD ESPNHD in the HD suite package could be a problem if they add ESPNHD2 and up the cost. I do watch a fair amount of HD on the IN** HD channels, some because I want to see them and others just because they are in HD and are so beautiful.

If ESPNHD or HD2 were not in the HD suite, I wouldn't pay extra for them with the current minimal HD content (mostly "ball" sports) exhibited by ESPNHD. But as someone previously remarked, viewing preferences differ so I guess we'll just have to pay for what we want and accept the baggage that comes along with it--or not.

I don't watch too many shows on InHD, etc. If I do, it's because they are in HD, not because of the content. My whole issue is TWC putting ESPN in the HD Suite. If ESPN were mostly HD, I would have no problem. Regardless of where they put it, they are going to charge for it in one way or another. It is just a matter of principal. If TWC is going to have a HD Suite, I sorta' expect the content to be HD.

I wonder if you guys would feel differently if every "cable" HD channel TWC carries were part of the HDSuite - like DiscoveryHD and TNT-HD. But since those channels aren't part of the HDSuite, it gives customers reason to question why channels like ESPN/ESPN2 should be.

I personally think that it would make more sense to have either all the cable HD channels in one HDSuite, or only have the channels with unique programming (not a simulcast) as part of the HDSuite. That would make it HDNet, HDNet Movies, INHD, INHD2, DiscoveryHD, and Universal HD (whenever they do add that).

Why don't they do this? I think it goes without saying that it's about $$. By putting ESPN/ESPN2 in the HDSuite, they not only pass on the cost (+ profit) that ESPN charges, but they also use it to "sell" the HDSuite to customers who might not care for those other channels otherwise.

I personally think that it would make more sense to have either all the cable HD channels in one HDSuite

I agree with this logic.

I also want to comment on TWC's 8300 STB. I am currently at my farm in SC and we have Dish down here. The controls of this thing are not intuitive as the 8300 is. It is difficult to control. Granted we are only down here several times a year, but...this thing is rotten.

TWC has done a great job making our lives a lot easier to view, replay, record using the software and UI on the 8300HD PVR. They deserve a little credit. I would not use Dish if I had a lot of options down here.

I think the best packaging choice for the viewer would be a complete 'a la carte' option in which the pricing for each channel would be refective of its underlying cost to the cable provider. I imagine that the major network local channels (ABC, NBC, etc.) would be relatively low cost, whereas the ESPN's and HD channels would be much higher.

It'd be very fair and tend to reduce a lot of the politicking that is currently involved.

Personally, I'd love to be able to have a channel line-up that eliminated all of those that I NEVER watch - like the spanish stations, etc.

I suppose that the cable suppliers would be against it because: 1) it would call for a more sophisticated ordering & hook-up system, and 2) it would complicate their lives, 3) people probably wouldn't subscribe to as much as they do now.

I know that there is an argument that many of the more minor channels wouldn't survive in a pay-as-you-go system (IFC, TRIO, etc.). If that's really true then I'd miss them.

On the other hand, that brings to mind the PBS argument that if it weren't for the conscripted public contribution (i.e. - tax money) they wouldn't be able to operate and provide a more 'elevated' programing agenda. That may well be the case, however I'd just as soon see some commercials mixed into the programming as compared to the what they now do when they spend weeks at a time having a "Festival" (i.e. - begging for money).

I don't want to start any big political discussion - just wanted to advocate for a pure 'a la carte' programming choice.

Of all the HD channels in the TWC suite, i watch ESPN the most......probably 75%. When there's not an interesting game on, i'll check out Discovery HD (which is free) but i wish they'd do away w/ American Chopper and Monster Garage. I'd rather see monkeys flying around in trees then rednecks welding in HD. HDnet or HDmovies never has anything that i like on. Ditto for Cinemax and HBO HD. One day everything will be in HD. Our kid's kids will be unimpressed with the content that we currently stew over with jaw dropping fashion because it will be the norm. I too yearn for ESPN2 to be added to TWC's package but if i could recieve that stuff OTA & not have to pay for it, i'll wait for the technology. :p

I'd rather see monkeys flying around in trees then rednecks welding in HD.

lmao, i like that "idear" LOL

YEEHAW!!! :D We got another new channel today! It's on ch.557 and it's called Exercise TV On Demand! Thank goodness, because back-to-back episodes of Denise Austin on ch.25 and 24/7 of FitTV on ch.72 just wasn't doing it for me. :eek: :rolleyes:

Are we still contributing to the pot for ESPN, when we are also paying for ESPNHD? Why not create a true HD package that drops the non-HD versions of the same channel, and keeps the price the same? I would be happy if they would drop the analog networks, espn, and tnt from my guide. Would that drive the cost down any?

Are we still contributing to the pot for ESPN, when we are also paying for ESPNHD? Why not create a true HD package that drops the non-HD versions of the same channel, and keeps the price the same? I would be happy if they would drop the analog networks, espn, and tnt from my guide. Would that drive the cost down any?

that won't happen as the HD channel listing is COMPLETELY different than the SD version of it. it means that even though it's the same broadcaster, it's a completely different channel as the content is completely different.

i don't think a regular tv will be able to display an HD signal unless the tv will down-scale the picture or something...

I subscribed TWC basic service and just got a new LCD TV. Originally got a Hitachi 26" but found it too small and exchange for a 32" LG. Both have built-in HDTV turner. After auto scan for channels directly from wall jack, UNCHD (with many others in HD format) can be picked by both TVs, but have trouble sustain reception. Screen tend to go blank within 20 seconds or so and although sometime the screen will resume, most often the screen will either stay blank for the Hitachi or change to CATV-0 on the LG. Has any encounter the same problem on other TV set ? Is there a fix for that?

UNCHD (with many others in HD format) can be picked by both TVs, but have trouble sustain reception

UNCHD is very sensitive to a weak signal, and/or loose connections. It is the only digital channel which I am unable to regularly receive with my Zenith (LG) TV. You may want to consider checking your cables and connectors, and removing any splitters that you don't really need. After that, you may want to try an amplifier (buy it someplace like Radio Shack, where it is easy to return when it doesn't help).

A better alternative might be to just get UNCHD over the air. In my location (Cary, near the new Lowes at Evans & Maynard), a Zenith Silver Sensor pulls UNC-HD in quite well, when it is pointed in the correct direction. Depending on how hard your TV is to switch between Cable and OTA, this may not be a good option (it is not a good option for me). For some reason, the Dvico fusion HDTV5 card in my MythTV box has no trouble with UNCHD, so we record everything we want to watch on our DVR, rather than trying to watch it live.

Good luck!

Drew

I've had a HD monitor for about 2 years so my reception has been via a TWC cable box (currently 8300HD DVR). I was thinking about getting a smaller LCD for the bedroom. I "think" what I'm reading here is that if I had a HDTV with a tuner, I could pick up all of TWC content, both HD and SD that isn't scrambled with a straight cable hookup (no box). Is that correct?

The UNC PBS DTV channels from the Chapel Hill tower have a very strong OTA signal. I'm about 35 miles away from the tower and receive it at 94% on my DirecTV H10-250 receiver with a CM 4221 in my attic.

It seems everyone here, at least in the recent threads, is a TWC sub. I'll ask anyway if anyone knows when MPEG4 D* HD locals will be available in our DMA. The best I have heard is mid 2006.


Thanks!

--Carl

The MPEG 4 upgrade for Raleigh is scheduled for April 2006. It involves a new Ka/Ku antenna upgrade, a new Ka/Ku multiswitch and new receiver systems.

I'd like to know more about the software defects that others have found so far and the overall quality of the new MPEG 4 DVR. Might be better to let more time pass until they get any big issues resolved and pump out a couple versions of new software.

I've had a HD monitor for about 2 years so my reception has been via a TWC cable box (currently 8300HD DVR). I was thinking about getting a smaller LCD for the bedroom. I "think" what I'm reading here is that if I had a HDTV with a tuner, I could pick up all of TWC content, both HD and SD that isn't scrambled with a straight cable hookup (no box). Is that correct?

That is correct. You will get the networks, TNTHD, and i think DiscoveryHD.

I live in Durham, NC.. and I'm trying to find a store from which I can buy a panasonic edtv or hdtv plasma. I've been to bb, cc and tweeter... does anyone know of a local store that sells items for less than the well known stores? Please send me a private message with the info if you know of a place.

Ivan

try Costco

they show some online.

That is correct. You will get the networks, TNTHD, and i think DiscoveryHD.

Is this true for built-in NTSC tuners?

Is this true for built-in NTSC tuners?

Do you mean ATSC? If you do, then yes. All ATSC built-in tuners should pick up the networks, etc.

The channels in TWC's HD Suite are:
290 ESPN HD

291 INHD

292 INHD2

293 HD Net

294 HDNet Movies

All of these channels, with the exception of ESPN HD, are almost 100% HD. So, we already pay $6.95 extra for this "suite". I suspect that if TWC adds ESPN2, the next thing we will see is them going up on the price of this "suite". I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to pay extra for channels that may have "some" HD content. Maybe the "big game" is in HD on ESPN, but the majority of the things that I watch on ESPN are NOT in HD.


I would have LOVED to have been able to watch NC State in HD on ESPN2 today. Who actually carries ESPN2 in HD? No one in our area.

4) HDTV channels are bandwidth hogs, bandwidth that can be used for more lucrative programming, like VOD


and you would think there would be more HD VOD content...

btw, am I the only one that thinks TWCs VOD/Pay Per View content is lacking?

That is the one thing that we miss from DirecTV. Better Pay Per View shows.

I would have LOVED to have been able to watch NC State in HD on ESPN2 today. Who actually carries ESPN2 in HD? No one in our area.


DirecTV carries ESPN2, the NC State game looked good on ESPN2 HD today.

I've had a HD monitor for about 2 years so my reception has been via a TWC cable box (currently 8300HD DVR). I was thinking about getting a smaller LCD for the bedroom. I "think" what I'm reading here is that if I had a HDTV with a tuner, I could pick up all of TWC content, both HD and SD that isn't scrambled with a straight cable hookup (no box). Is that correct?
Depends on the capability built into the LCD:

1. If the LCD is only a monitor, without any NTSC or ATSC tuner, then you must use an external TWC box.

2. If the LCD has a built-in NTSC tuner, a combination NTSC/ATSC tuner or is marked as being Digital Cable Ready (DCR),
then it will receive analog channels (below CH100), just like any old "Cable Ready" TV.

3. If the LCD is marked as being Digital Cable Ready (DCR), then the built-in QAM tuner (without the CableCARD installed)
should be able to watch the digital simulcast channels (below CH100), the local HD channels and whatever else
TWC sends out unencrypted (e.g. TNT-HD and maybe DISC-HD if they set the bits wrong).

4. If the LCD is marked as being Digital Cable Ready (DCR) and you decide to rent a CableCARD, HD-STB or HD-PVR from TWC,
then it will also be able to watch all of the encrypted digital channels. [Obviously the "best" option.]

5. If the LCD has a built-in ATSC tuner, then it can be hooked to an on-the-air antenna to pick up local DTV stations,
but it won't make any sense of the QAM digital signals on cable.

=================================================
ADDENDUM: All (nearly all???) Digital Cable Ready (DCR) HDTVs will have a combination NTSC/ATSC tuner.
Most of them have two separate coax inputs: one for connection to cable (NTSC/QAM) and the other to an on-the-air antenna (NTSC/ATSC).

Do you mean ATSC? If you do, then yes. All ATSC built-in tuners should pick up the networks, etc.

I see that built-in NTSC tuners are more predominant than ATSC tuners, so I meant NTSC. However, this may is probably changing. So built-in ATSC tuners will pick up QAM information from cable?

Depends on the capability built into the LCD:

3. If the LCD is marked as being Digital Cable Ready (DCR), then the built-in QAM tuner (without the CableCARD installed)
should be able to watch the digital simulcast channels (below CH100), the local HD channels and whatever else
TWC sends out unencrypted (e.g. TNT-HD and maybe DISC-HD if they set the bits wrong).

I have a Sharp LC-26D7U LCD TV with built-in ATSC tuner marked as Digital Cable Ready (DCR) with a cablecard slot. I use it without a cablecard. I gets all analog channels below ch.100, but only a small few of the digital simulcasted channels below ch.100 which are all mapped to ch.0 including DISC-HD and TNT-HD. But all the local HD and SD digital channels are mapped to their proper channel numbers (WRAL TO 5.x's, WTVD to 11.x's, WNCN to 17.x's and WRAZ to 50.x's).

I see that built-in NTSC tuners are more predominant than ATSC tuners, so I meant NTSC. However, this may is probably changing. So built-in ATSC tuners will pick up QAM information from cable?

There are three digital transmission formats, ATSC for over the air broadcasting, QAM for cable systems, and QPSK for satellite. They are not cross compatible. Some TV sets can tune both ATSC and QAM. Others cannot. (Be careful!!!) None tune QPSK. NTSC is old fashioned analogue. Clear now???

There are three digital transmission formats, ATSC for over the air broadcasting, QAM for cable systems, and QPSK for satellite. They are not cross compatible. Some TV sets can tune both ATSC and QAM. Others cannot. (Be careful!!!) None tune QPSK. NTSC is old fashioned analogue. Clear now???

No not clear at all; muddier on the contrary. I know that NTSC is old-fashioned analogue. I also know that the three digital formats (I'm only concerned with ATSC and QAM) are not cross-compatible, so how can some TV sets tune to both ATSC and QAM? Are they equipped with both ATSC and QAM tuners? I had a ATSC card in my HTPC that was NOT able to tune to QAM (of course) so I RMA'd it since I couldn't get clear OTA channels where I am (Cary).

I see that built-in NTSC tuners are more predominant than ATSC tuners, so I meant NTSC. However, this may is probably changing. So built-in ATSC tuners will pick up QAM information from cable?
Although they all use the same RF tuner circuitry, there are several different demodulation circuits that may or may not be included: NTSC, ATSC and QAM.

If the HDTV is marked as being Digital Cable Ready (DCR) then for sure it has a QAM demodulator and has a slot to accept a CableCARD decryption module.
Gary Shapiro (head of CEA, Consumers Elecronics Assoc) indicated that he did not know of any DCR HDTV that didn't ALSO have a built-in NTSC/ATSC tuner. DCR HDTVs normally are equipped with at least two coax inputs: one for cable and a second for an on-the-air antenna.

When an HDTV (or STB) is NOT marked as being DCR, you have to read the specs very carefully:
Many HDTVs only have NTSC tuner......no ATSC and no QAM.
Some HDTVs have an NTSC/ATSC tuner.....but no QAM.
Most OTA HD-STB's have ATSC only tuner....but no QAM and no NTSC!!!!

I have a Sharp LC-26D7U LCD TV with built-in ATSC tuner marked as Digital Cable Ready (DCR) with a cablecard slot. I use it without a cablecard. I gets all analog channels below ch.100, but only a small few of the digital simulcasted channels below ch.100 which are all mapped to ch.0 including DISC-HD and TNT-HD. But all the local HD and SD digital channels are mapped to their proper channel numbers (WRAL TO 5.x's, WTVD to 11.x's, WNCN to 17.x's and WRAZ to 50.x's).
Can you list ALL of the QAM channels you receive?
Information from other users with different types of QAM tuners would also be valuable.
If the Dig Simulcast channels are all being mapped to subchannels under CH0,
maybe there is a firmware upgrade you need from Sharp to properly handle this oddball situation????
I find it hard to believe that TWC would intentionally make it more difficult for QAM tuners to pick up these unencrypted channels.

Also it would be of interest if someone with an STB could go into the Extended Diagnostic pages
and determine which QAM frequencies are being used for Digital Simulcast channels.....maybe they picked the "gap" between CH6 and CH7???

=================================================
Here in San Diego, we are curious as to your experience with Digital Simulcast.
We are still waiting for TWC-SD to finish up the conversion....
Seems they quit working on it in December.....and in the mean time numerous channels lost sound....
Hopefully, they'll finish up in January so we no longer have to deal with the (buggy, buggy) 11xx series temporary channel numbers...

My TV is only finding 0.0 on Time Warner which is UNC.

I have a sony 50" Grand Wega LCD.

Discovery HD is 84.2 and TNTHD is 84.3

[QUOTE=holl_ands
Here in San Diego, we are curious as to your experience with Digital Simulcast.
We are still waiting for TWC-SD to finish up the conversion....
Seems they quit working on it in December.....and in the mean time numerous channels lost sound....


One thing I've noticed is that some channels are obviously "digital pass-throughs", i.e. channels being received from network satellite feeds and transcoded without manipultation to a QAM carrier. Others, for a variety of reasons, are converted locally to digital from an analogue source. The "pass-throughs" tend to be higher quality overall.

Some channels look a lot better in the digital realm, some look worse. From a stability standpoint, the digital channels seem quite robust. The number of channels per QAM carrier varies. I assume channels like HBO use a much higher bit rate than others, resulting in much higher video quality.

As mentioned before, standard definition channels seem to look a lot better on an HDTV display if the set top box is configured to output "pass-through" resolution rather than "fixed" resolution. See instructions at your cable company's web site.

Is this true for built-in NTSC tuners?

ATSC tuners, NTSC can't receive HD content...

i have a 60" Philips DLP and it has a built-in ATSC tuner.

as cbordman stated above, you can receive all networks plus DiscoveryHD as they are free and unscrambled. EPSN HD and all the others are not.

i live in a 3-story townhome and we have cable jacks in every room in the house. the signal in the living room where the tv is located is excellent, so HDJUMP, i'm not really sure what the problem is on your end.

maybe the installer used a low-end lower bandwidth splitters that cause the HD channels to be attenuated? it could be many things...

here is the list of HD channels that i get with my tv using it's built-in ATSC tuner:

084.2 DiscoveryHD Theatre
084.3 TNT HD
085.2 CBS HD
090.2 UNC(PBS) HD
090.3 PBS KD
111.2 NBC HD
113.1 ABC HD
113.4 FOX HD

Can you list ALL of the QAM channels you receive?
Information from other users with different types of QAM tuners would also be valuable.
If the Dig Simulcast channels are all being mapped to subchannels under CH0,
maybe there is a firmware upgrade you need from Sharp to properly handle this oddball situation????
I find it hard to believe that TWC would intentionally make it more difficult for QAM tuners to pick up these unencrypted channels.

OK dude, you asked for it. Hope the following doesn't confuse you. ;)

This list is the channels my SAMSUNG SIR-T451 got 2/3 months ago.

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 (WMWB 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!

Not sure if these are still the same, I don't have the Samsung anymore.

============================================================ =====================================
This list is the channels my SHARP LC-26D7U has now. And looks like the 119.x's that showed on the Samsung were on ch.0 on the Sharp when I first got it two months ago but are gone now.

0 ABC11 SD WTVD-DT
0 TVGUIDE CHANNEL
0 WB22 SD WLFL
0 CBS5 SD WRAL
0 NBA LEAGUE PASS PREVIEW CHANNEL
0 DISCHD
0 TNTHD
0 FOX SD WRAZ
0 UPN28 SD WRDC
0 OXYGEN CHANNEL
0 UNC-TV SD (KIDS?)
0 NBC17 SD WNCN-DT
0 QVC SHOPPING CHANNEL
0 HSN HOME SHOPPING NETWORK
0 TRAVEL CHANNEL
0 TWC NEWS14 CAROLINA WEATHER CHANNEL (CABLE CH.100)
0 ONDEMAND PREVIEW
0 EVENTS INDEMAND PREVIEW
0 UNIVISION SD
0 WGN9 SD
0 NOT SURE, NO LOGO AND PAID PROGRAMMING
0 TELEFUTURA SD
0 SAHLA LOCAL ACCESS CHANNEL (?) CH.60 ON CABLE
0 NEWS 14 CAROLINA
0 NBC SD (WNCN17 OR WECT6?)
0 WB NETWORK (NO OTA AFFILIATE)
0 WRAL5 SD WEATHER CENTER (113.4)
4.3 UNCSD KIDS
4.4 UNC-ED
5.1 CBS WRAL5 HD
5.2 CBS WRAL5 SD NEWS
5.3 CBS WRAL5 SD
5.4 BLANK
5.5 BLANK
11.1 ABC WTVD11 HD
11.2 ABC WTVD11 SD RADAR
11.3 ABC WTVD11 SD
17.1 NBC WNCN17 HD
17.2 NBC WNCN17 SD
17.3 NBC WNCN17 WEATHER PLUS
50.2 FOX50 WRAZ HD
50.3 FOX50 WRAZ SD

I know some of these channels show up above ch.77 like DISCHD & TNTHD on 84.1 & 84.2 and PBS in the 90.x's but the Sharp grabbed so many blanks caused by ppv's I guess that it's to annoying scrolling through them all to try associating them to the channels mapped to 0.

Punching in the following on the Sharp:
85.1, 85.2, 85.3 jumps to 5.x's
111.1, 111.2, 111.3 jumps to 17.x's
113.1, 113.5, 113.6 jumps to 11.x's
113.2, 113.3, 113.4 jumps to 50.x's

ATSC tuners, NTSC can't receive HD content...

i have a 60" Philips DLP and it has a built-in ATSC tuner.

as cbordman stated above, you can receive all networks plus DiscoveryHD as they are free and unscrambled. EPSN HD and all the others are not.

i live in a 3-story townhome and we have cable jacks in every room in the house. the signal in the living room where the tv is located is excellent, so HDJUMP, i'm not really sure what the problem is on your end.

maybe the installer used a low-end lower bandwidth splitters that cause the HD channels to be attenuated? it could be many things...

here is the list of HD channels that i get with my tv using it's built-in ATSC tuner:

084.2 DiscoveryHD Theatre
084.3 TNT HD
085.2 CBS HD
090.2 UNC(PBS) HD
090.3 PBS KD
111.2 NBC HD
113.1 ABC HD
113.4 FOX HD

Empirical data always supercedes theory. But for my education, how can an ATSC tuner tune to what I understand is QAM? (The question is not necessarily directed at you; I'm not questioning your data.)

Some initial comments:

1. The BASIC tier seems to be all there, except CPC, Govt Access, Edu Programming and Triangle TV?
[I'm looking at TWC-Raleigh on-line channel lineup, yours may be different.]

2. Only a couple channels on the STANDARD tier are unencrypted QAM (e.g. OXYGEN & TRAVEL).
In our (incomplete) Digital Simulcast, ALL of the analog channels below CH100 are (thus far) labeled (per STB) as being unencrypted.
Seems they are preventing you from viewing what was probably viewable before with an analog tuner.

3. The Sharp is obviously using the PSIP information to remap into Virtual Channel numbers,
whereas the Samsung simply displays the physical QAM channel number.

So which (if any) of the CH0 programs does the Sharp not display????
And how do you select which one to watch????
[Can you tell I don't have a Sharp....]

ATSC tuners, NTSC can't receive HD content...

i have a 60" Philips DLP and it has a built-in ATSC tuner.

as cbordman stated above, you can receive all networks plus DiscoveryHD as they are free and unscrambled. EPSN HD and all the others are not.

i live in a 3-story townhome and we have cable jacks in every room in the house. the signal in the living room where the tv is located is excellent, so HDJUMP, i'm not really sure what the problem is on your end.

maybe the installer used a low-end lower bandwidth splitters that cause the HD channels to be attenuated? it could be many things...

here is the list of HD channels that i get with my tv using it's built-in ATSC tuner:

084.2 DiscoveryHD Theatre
084.3 TNT HD
085.2 CBS HD
090.2 UNC(PBS) HD
090.3 PBS KD
111.2 NBC HD
113.1 ABC HD
113.4 FOX HD


These are obviously QAM physical channel numbers....not ATSC (max is CH69).
Your HDTV may have an ATSC tuner, but it is also clearly capable of demodulating QAM.

You are picking up fewer QAM channels than DARLY L, probably due to being on a different section of the TWC system that has not yet been upgraded for Digital Simulcast.....

These are obviously QAM physical channel numbers....not ATSC (max is CH69).
Your HDTV may have an ATSC tuner, but it is also clearly capable of demodulating QAM.
(snip)


So picture me in a HDTV 101 class...


Professor: There are three digital transmission formats, ATSC for over the air broadcasting, QAM for cable systems, and QPSK for satellite. They are not cross compatible. Some TV sets can tune both ATSC and QAM. Others cannot. (Be careful!!!) None tune QPSK. NTSC is old fashioned analogue. Clear now???


Student 1: (But) here is the list of HD channels that i get with my tv using it's built-in ATSC tuner:

084.2 DiscoveryHD Theatre
084.3 TNT HD
085.2 CBS HD
090.2 UNC(PBS) HD
090.3 PBS KD
111.2 NBC HD
113.1 ABC HD
113.4 FOX HD

Student 2 (me): So obviously not ALL ATSC tuners can do this correct Mr. Professor? I had an HD tuner on my HTPC and it did NOT pick up QAM channels. So how can I tell if a specific ATSC-equipped HDTV can pick QAM without first buying it and finding out either way?


Professor: If the HDTV is marked as being Digital Cable Ready (DCR) then for sure it has a QAM demodulator and has a slot to accept a CableCARD decryption module.
Gary Shapiro (head of CEA, Consumers Elecronics Assoc) indicated that he did not know of any DCR HDTV that didn't ALSO have a built-in NTSC/ATSC tuner. DCR HDTVs normally are equipped with at least two coax inputs: one for cable and a second for an on-the-air antenna.

Student 2 to Student 1: Is your TV equipped with at least 2 coax inputs? I'm guessing not. So back to my question - how can one tell what ATSC-equipped TVs can pick up both ATSC and QAM?

The number of coax inputs won't tell you much of anything....other than how much the manufacturer is trying to save you money.....
I've seen NTSC/ATSC/QAM/CableCARD capable HDTVs that only have one coax input....vice separate On-Air and Cable inputs....
Which means using an RF switch to change between ON-AIR and Cable and probably a channel rescan every time you do it.....GROAAANNNN.
Since many cable systems do not carry WB-HD and UPN-HD (and others), having separate inputs is highly desirable.

Only way to find out is to carefully read the fine print on the websites and in the User's Manual.

===================================================
Rule #1: If it claims to be "DIGITAL CABLE READY, DCR", then it has a unencrypted QAM Demodulator capability.
Leasing a CableCARD will upgrade it to receive encrypted QAM cable channels.

Rule #2: If the manufacturer's website claims that the HDTV or STB has ATSC/QAM capability (and no CableCARD slot),
then it has ATSC and unencrypted QAM Demodulator capability.

Rule #3: Always check the manufacturer's site and ALWAYS treat a retailer's site with skepticism.
I always download the User Manual before I buy something.

Rule #4: When you read that an OTA HD-STB (e.g. R-S Accurian and Sylvania 6900DTE) will work on cable systems
and they don't actually claim that it has a QAM Demodulator, then be real careful to check other user's experience.
I know that these particular HD-STBs claim that they work on cable systems, but ONLY if the cable system is using ATSC (8-VSB or 16-VSB) modulation.
However, in the U.S. the cable industry standardized on QAM rather than ATSC, so the only U.S. "cable" systems
that might be using ATSC are perhaps High Occupancy Building systems that are redistributing the ATSC on-air signal.

Rule #5: PCI HD Tuner Cards (for PCs) that claim to have a QAM Demodulator might be a real pain to get working....
Since MS Media Center does not (yet) support QAM, a number of software patches and workarounds have been developed to (sorta) get it working....
Or switch to some other operating system, like MythTV.

Rule #6: Carefully investigate what other users in your area have experienced.
Although unencrypted local HD (and encrypted CableCARD) reception via cable are Federally mandated requirements,
the cable companies are going out of their way to pretend that it doesn't exist.
The CSR and service techs are not trained to handle it and hence don't know how to sell it to you or fix it once you've got it working.....

That is just one of the reasons I am curious as to how Digital Simulcast is working.
DS is supposed to replicate "all" analog channels on (hopefully) unencrypted QAM channels.

sorry if i misinformed you about my tv... it does have an atsc tuner that does QAM as well.

also, i was watching the Sugar Bowl on ABC-HD 113.1, and around mid 4th qtr the picture just died. it is still dead and the game is not over yet...

is any of you experiencing the same problem?

my phillips is the 60PP9100D/37 (http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/catalog/catalog.jsp?fhquery=fh_secondid%3D60pp9100d_37_us_consumer%2 6fh_location%3D%2F%2Fconsumer%2Fen_US%2Fcategories%3Ccatalog _us_consumer%2Fcategories%3Ctv_gr_us_consumer%2Fcategories%3 Cprojection_tv_ca_us_consumer%26&productId=60PP9100D_37_US_CONSUMER&activeCategory=TV_GR_US_CONSUMER&fredhopperpage=detail.jsp&language=en&country=US&catalogType=CONSUMER&proxybuster=IYMDXLIPV1TCXJ0RMRESHQVHKFSEKI5P) just in case you wanna check out the specs.

Yeah it froze and went out on TWC 211...212 also appeared to be dead as well. At first I thought it was my DVR acting up again (still stuck with a 8000HD :( ), but I saw the same problem on two other HD boxes since then. Hopefully they get this fixed before the Rose Bowl.

The OTA signal went dead too for ABCHD.

sorry if i misinformed you about my tv... it does have an atsc tuner that does QAM as well.


I think what you really mean is that your tv has BOTH an ATSC tuner and a QAM tuner. One tuner won't do both - although they may share the same coaxial input.

The bottom line is this ...

NTSC tuner - can only receive analog broadcasts
ATSC tuner - can only receive digital OTA broadcasts with the use of an antenna
QAM tuner - can only receive digital cable broadcasts - unscrambled

If your tv can do more than one of these things, it has more than one tuner. If you don't know which one(s) your tv has, your best bet is to check the manual and/or the manufacturer website.

Most/all tv's that have QAM capability tend to have ATSC capability - the reverse is not true.

I hope that clears it up. :)

yes deArgila, i meant QAM tuner ;-)

been a long day and i wrote the reply WAY past my bedtime hehe

just to add, not all QAM tuners are the same... to get unscrambled cable you will need a QAM 256 type tuner... some QAM tuners are only 8vsb which cannot process the unscrambled cable signal.

Some initial comments:

1. The BASIC tier seems to be all there, except CPC, Govt Access, Edu Programming and Triangle TV?
[I'm looking at TWC-Raleigh on-line channel lineup, yours may be different.]

2. Only a couple channels on the STANDARD tier are unencrypted QAM (e.g. OXYGEN & TRAVEL).
In our (incomplete) Digital Simulcast, ALL of the analog channels below CH100 are (thus far) labeled (per STB) as being unencrypted.
Seems they are preventing you from viewing what was probably viewable before with an analog tuner.

3. The Sharp is obviously using the PSIP information to remap into Virtual Channel numbers,
whereas the Samsung simply displays the physical QAM channel number.

So which (if any) of the CH0 programs does the Sharp not display????
And how do you select which one to watch????
[Can you tell I don't have a Sharp....]

1. I get the TWC-Lumberton online channel line-up.
2. Not sure how to check for encryption on cable STB.
3. I guess. :)

So which (if any) of the CH0 programs does the Sharp not display????
And how do you select which one to watch????
[Can you tell I don't have a Sharp....]

The list is included below. I first click 0 or 2 on the remote and scroll through all the channels on ch.0.

BOLD RED = The unencrypted QAM channels my Sharp gets on ch.0, the rest it doesn't.

Basic
0 Telefutura
1 TV Guide Channel
2 WFXB FOX [FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACE SC]
3 WWMB UPN [FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH SC]
4 WUVC UNIVISION
5 WRAL CBS [RALEIGH NC]
6 Community Programming
8 WFPX i
9 WECT NBC [WILMINGTON NC]
10 WPDE ABC [FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH SC]
11 WTVD ABC [RALEIGH NC]
12 WUNU PBS
13 WBTW CBS [FLORENCE/MYRTLE BEACH SC]
14 News 14 Carolina
15 WB
16 WGN
17 Home Shopping Network

Standard
18 ABC Family
19 QVC
20 The Weather Channel
21 A&E
22 Inspirational Network
23 TLC
24 TBS
25 Lifetime Television
26 CNN
27 Spike TV
28 TNT
29 Nickelodeon
30 USA
31 ESPN
32 ESPN-2
33 Headline News
34 Comedy Central
35 VH1
36 MTV
37 BET
38 Fox Sports Net
39 E!
40 Court TV
41 American Movie Classics
42 The Discovery Channel
45 The Golf Channel
46 Lifetime Movie Network
47 TV Land
48 CMT
49 Shop NBC
50 OLN
51 The History Channel
52 ESPN Classic
54 Turner Classic Movies
55 Oxygen
56 C-SPAN
57 The Disney Channel
58 Discovery Health Channel
59 SoapNet
60 Leased Access
61 Women's Entertainment
62 Hallmark Channel
64 Animal Planet
65 HGTV
66 Food Network
68 TBN
69 Cartoon Network
70 National Geographic
71 Travel Channel
72 FitTV
73 Sci-Fi
74 CNBC
75 MSNBC
76 Fox News Channel
77 FX

PLUS FROM CABLE CH. ABOVE 100
WRAZ SD FOX [RALEIGH NC]
WNCN17 SD ABC [RALEIGH NC]
NBA LEAGUE PASS PREVIEW
DISCHD
TNTHD
TWC NEWS14 CAROLINA WEATHER CHANNEL
ONDEMAND PREVIEW
EVENTS INDEMAND PREVIEW

yes deArgila, i meant QAM tuner ;-)

been a long day and i wrote the reply WAY past my bedtime hehe

just to add, not all QAM tuners are the same... to get unscrambled cable you will need a QAM 256 type tuner... some QAM tuners are only 8vsb which cannot process the unscrambled cable signal.

I think your confused.

ATSC = 8VSB
Cable can leave it as 8vsb or change it to QAM to retransmit. Most cable systems change it to QAM.

Satelite systems use QPSK instead of QAM.

Hi:

I have an OTA setup and was wondering if any of the local Raleigh stations regulary broadcast a test pattern signal at a set time. My setup is for 1080i. Any idea what station(s) and at what time(s)?

Oh, and if there are any other local OTA folks do you notice a difference in picture quality for prime time (or sports) in HD? I seem to.

Thanks,

Henry

Not that I am aware of, but you should use a DVD source such as DVE or the THX tool that comes with some DVDs to adjust your display.

Yes, in fact many things can effect the HD display quailty:

- the source camera used
- if not a live event, the storage device/media of the source content
- the amount of compression used
- the distribution network
- the scaler chip in the receiver
- the scaler chip in the display
- digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions
- connection type from receiver to display
- cable quality for video connections (DMI, HDMI, component)
- the glass and panel technology
- reaction time of panel (smearing)
- noise reduction processing

Typically, I find the best sources for HD display are most live sporting events via OTA and DVDs via an upconverting DVD player with Superbit/special edition DVDs.

Did anyone else have the problem where all of (TimeWarner) ABC's digital channels disappeared last night at the end of the Sugar Bowl?

I was watching the game on TWC 211 and with about 6 minutes left, the picture froze. I thought it was a transmission glitch, but after 30 seconds, I changed the channel. When I went back to 211, there was no signal. Ditto for their "Standard Definition" channels, too.

The analog was ok. I was pissed because I was a few minutes behind on the DVR. I missed 4 minutes by switching to the analog channel. Curse you, TWC!

Last night at 10:00 PM exactly when "Medium" started, my DirecTV H10-250 rebooted itself. First time in over 4 months of use.

Has anyone else been having intermittent issues with freezing/pixellation on HDNET Movies? I also had brief issues yesterday with pixellation on ESPNHD. I'm not sure if it's my SA8300 or TWC. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I live in Durham, NC.. and I'm trying to find a store from which I can buy a panasonic edtv or hdtv plasma. I've been to bb, cc and tweeter... does anyone know of a local store that sells items for less than the well known stores? Please send me a private message with the info if you know of a place.

Ivan

tiger direct on capital blvd in raleigh sells panasonic plasmas. last year i bought the commercial 42 inch ed version.

yes deArgila, i meant QAM tuner ;-)

been a long day and i wrote the reply WAY past my bedtime hehe

just to add, not all QAM tuners are the same... to get unscrambled cable you will need a QAM 256 type tuner... some QAM tuners are only 8vsb which cannot process the unscrambled cable signal.
Perhaps you mean that some (older??) QAM tuners would only do QAM-64 and not QAM-64 plus QAM-256???

sorry if i misinformed you about my tv... it does have an atsc tuner that does QAM as well.

also, i was watching the Sugar Bowl on ABC-HD 113.1, and around mid 4th qtr the picture just died. it is still dead and the game is not over yet...

is any of you experiencing the same problem?

my phillips is the 60PP9100D/37 (http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/catalog/catalog.jsp?fhquery=fh_secondid%3D60pp9100d_37_us_consumer%2 6fh_location%3D%2F%2Fconsumer%2Fen_US%2Fcategories%3Ccatalog _us_consumer%2Fcategories%3Ctv_gr_us_consumer%2Fcategories%3 Cprojection_tv_ca_us_consumer%26&productId=60PP9100D_37_US_CONSUMER&activeCategory=TV_GR_US_CONSUMER&fredhopperpage=detail.jsp&language=en&country=US&catalogType=CONSUMER&proxybuster=IYMDXLIPV1TCXJ0RMRESHQVHKFSEKI5P) just in case you wanna check out the specs.

Looks like your TV has 3 tuners: NTSC, ATSC, and QAM - from the link you provided...
Tuner/Reception/Transmission
Aerial Input : 75 ohm F-type Antenna
Cable : Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM
Stereo System : BTSC
TV system : ATSC, NTSC
Video Playback : NTSC

Has anyone else been having intermittent issues with freezing/pixellation on HDNET Movies? I also had brief issues yesterday with pixellation on ESPNHD. I'm not sure if it's my SA8300 or TWC. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I'm getting these problems on CMT right now. I usually have trouble getting any signal on NBC17 (217), comedy central (36), and many of the 100's channels. I've just noticed that I can never get IFC to show a picture.

Looks like your TV has 3 tuners: NTSC, ATSC, and QAM - from the link you provided...
Tuner/Reception/Transmission
Aerial Input : 75 ohm F-type Antenna
Cable : Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM
Stereo System : BTSC
TV system : ATSC, NTSC
Video Playback : NTSC
Some important comments re terminology. "Tuner" is frequently mis-used, when "Demodulator" is meant.

The Philips brocure showed one and only one coax input (marked CABLE/ANTENNA):
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/6/60pp9100d_37/60pp9100d_37_pss_aen.pdf
Since it does not appear to have separate CABLE and ANTENNA coax inputs, an external switch
and probably a complete channel rescan would be required for connection to both at the same time.
Also, since the Philips does not claim to support PIP, I conclude that it has only ONE RF Tuner inside the chassis.
That single RF Tuner then can feed either of three different Demodulators: NTSC, ATSC and unencrypted QAM.

Many Demodulator chips (ATI, Broadcom, LG, etc) include the QAM Demodulator software algorithms
on the same high speed signal processor chip as the ATSC software algorithms.
And most of them use a separate NTSC Demodulator chip. These chips may or may not be mounted inside the tuner's "tin can".

PIP requires two RF Tuners and the ability to run two Demodulators (same or different) at the same time.
Which is why PIP costs more and sometimes has restrictions on what can be PIP'd, such as NTSC+ATSC, maybe NTSC+NTSC, but not two ATSC programs.

Another overlooked detail re PIP is it's possible effect on sensitivity.
The On-Air signal must go through a 2:1 RF Splitter (either external or internal to the HDTV)
in order to feed the same signal to both RF Tuners (whether NTSC+NTSC, NTSC+ATSC, etc).
This results in a 4 dB loss in sensitifvity (i.e. Noise Figure) compared to connection without the RF Splitter.
If you use an external RF Splitter to feed two coax inputs for PIP, be aware that it is costing 4 dB of sensitivity
that may or may not be important for reliable reception.

Has anyone else been having intermittent issues with freezing/pixellation on HDNET Movies? I also had brief issues yesterday with pixellation on ESPNHD. I'm not sure if it's my SA8300 or TWC. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Both HDNet and HDNet movies have had this problem for as long as I've had the HD tier, about six months. When I complain, TWC insists on sending a tech out to my house. I have a strong, clean signal, and have actually connected a spectrum analyzer to look for evidence of intermittant ingress (none found). Send them an e-mail. Maybe if they get enough they'll look into it.

[QUOTE=holl_ands]Some important comments re terminology. "Tuner" is frequently mis-used, when "Demodulator" is meant.

POI.
Frequently misused modulator/demodulator refers to analog signals while coder/decoder refers to digital. From these com(e) ;) the short forms: modem and codec.



Henry

PS no Flame intended

HDNet and HDNet movies do not have this problem on DirecTV, which implies the problem is in TWCs network versus the source.

Where did you get the spectrum analyzer ? Did you rent it ?


Both HDNet and HDNet movies have had this problem for as long as I've had the HD tier, about six months. When I complain, TWC insists on sending a tech out to my house. I have a strong, clean signal, and have actually connected a spectrum analyzer to look for evidence of intermittant ingress (none found). Send them an e-mail. Maybe if they get enough they'll look into it.

Both HDNet and HDNet movies have had this problem for as long as I've had the HD tier, about six months. When I complain, TWC insists on sending a tech out to my house. I have a strong, clean signal, and have actually connected a spectrum analyzer to look for evidence of intermittant ingress (none found). Send them an e-mail. Maybe if they get enough they'll look into it.

I live in north Raleigh, and frequently have the same problems with HDNet and HDNet movies. I also had the pixelation on ESPNHD on Sunday PM. I've also called TWC when this happened after I purchased my HDTV. They did the same thing ... tested the signal and said it looked fine. It's definitely TWC but they'll never admit it.

HDNet and HDNet movies do not have this problem on DirecTV, which implies the problem is in TWCs network versus the source.

Where did you get the spectrum analyzer ? Did you rent it ?

Borrowed spectrum analyzer from work. Used a tunable filter to identify the QAM that carries the problem channels, then monitered them while waiting for the drop outs. I didn't see any anomolies concurrent with the events.

Some important comments re terminology. "Tuner" is frequently mis-used, when "Demodulator" is meant.

The Philips brocure showed one and only one coax input (marked CABLE/ANTENNA):
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/6/60pp9100d_37/60pp9100d_37_pss_aen.pdf
Since it does not appear to have separate CABLE and ANTENNA coax inputs, an external switch
and probably a complete channel rescan would be required for connection to both at the same time.
Also, since the Philips does not claim to support PIP, I conclude that it has only ONE RF Tuner inside the chassis.
That single RF Tuner then can feed either of three different Demodulators: NTSC, ATSC and unencrypted QAM.

Many Demodulator chips (ATI, Broadcom, LG, etc) include the QAM Demodulator software algorithms
on the same high speed signal processor chip as the ATSC software algorithms.
And most of them use a separate NTSC Demodulator chip. These chips may or may not be mounted inside the tuner's "tin can".

PIP requires two RF Tuners and the ability to run two Demodulators (same or different) at the same time.
Which is why PIP costs more and sometimes has restrictions on what can be PIP'd, such as NTSC+ATSC, maybe NTSC+NTSC, but not two ATSC programs.

Another overlooked detail re PIP is it's possible effect on sensitivity.
The On-Air signal must go through a 2:1 RF Splitter (either external or internal to the HDTV)
in order to feed the same signal to both RF Tuners (whether NTSC+NTSC, NTSC+ATSC, etc).
This results in a 4 dB loss in sensitifvity (i.e. Noise Figure) compared to connection without the RF Splitter.
If you use an external RF Splitter to feed two coax inputs for PIP, be aware that it is costing 4 dB of sensitivity
that may or may not be important for reliable reception.

That was educational for me, thanks!

I have a Terk 38 antenna and I live on the south side of Raleigh on a hill just under 10 miles from the towers SE of Raleigh with nothing blocking my SE view. Should be great for reception but... I live in a historic district (Boylan Heights) so I have the antenna installed in my attic. I am able to receive every channel (as below) but I can't receive UPN-WRDC. My auto scan (Syntax Olevia LCD TV) picks it up as a channel with name WRDC-DT but when I try to change to that station nothing ever comes in.

I looked in the guide on the wrdc28 web site and I couldn't find any HD content. Is there something screwy like they don't broadcast unless they have some HD content to show?

Or do I just need to do something to improve my reception? When I look at channel strength on my TV every single channel says it's 49% all the time so I don't think that's actually telling me anything.

(Sorry if this has been asked and answered, I searched the forums and google but everything I find says it should be available and should only require a "red" antenna.)


WRAL-DT 5.1 CBS 9.8 Miles
WTVD-DT 11.1 ABC 9.9 Miles
WNCN-DT 17.1 NBC 9.8 Miles
WLFL-DT 22.1 WB 9.8 Miles
WRDC-DT 28.1 UPN 9.8 Miles
WRAZ-DT 50.1 FOX 9.8 Miles

[QUOTE=holl_ands]Some important comments re terminology. "Tuner" is frequently mis-used, when "Demodulator" is meant.

POI.
Frequently misused modulator/demodulator refers to analog signals while coder/decoder refers to digital. From these com(e) ;) the short forms: modem and codec.



Henry

PS no Flame intended
None taken....the Comm Sys Eng terminology that I've been immersed in can be very arcane.

Modulator/Demodulator is very commonly used for both analog and digital processes,
esp. since more and more of the formerly analog processes are done digitally today.
"Demodulatior" usually means taking a complex, modulated input signal (e.g. RF, IF or baseband)
and then converting it into something "useful" (e.g. MPEG2).

In an FM system, the "Demodulator" would take the 10.7 MHz IF signal and convert it into an audio signal.
This used to be done with analog discriminators, i.e. mistuned IF transformers,
but today might be done entirely in software on a chip.

Coder/Decoder usually means an all digital process involving Error Detection and Correction Codes,
although it could include other related all digital processes such as interleaving, encryption/decryption, etc.
But alone it wouldn't be called "Demodulation" and is only one of several digital processes involved in demodulating the ATSC signal.

For example the Adaptive Equalizer is an all digital (software) process that is more akin to classic demodulator processes
(e.g. radar correlation) but would never be called a "Decoder" by someone building ATSC systems.

Answer to question regarding WRDC above. The answer is NO, they do not broadcast in HDTV, and I don't believe they have any near-term plans to. You see, both WLFL-DT and WRDC-DT are owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, which is less of a broadcaster, and more of a political party. Don't look for cable carriage of either of these any time soon either.

WLFL-DT has terrible HDTV picture quality. Either crappy equipment, or the noise filtering is set way too high. But they really, really, really don't care, really.

P.S. Both of the Sinclair stations are broadcasting with extremely low power with special temporary permits, and again, don't expect them to upgrade until absolutely necessary, because, again, they really, really, really don't care.

supersalo,

there was some pixelation and loss of sound for brief seconds from time to time, but it didn't die on me like it died on you. it did die completely 2 days ago during close to the end of the psu-fsu match.

i watch discovery-hd quite a lot and i've never experienced any glitches in video or audio, nbc-hd last night while jay leno was on was flawless as well.

the only station i really notice problems with is abc-hd.

i'm using my built-in QAM tuner/demodulator/whatever-u-wanna-call-it that the tv has.

Am I the only one who experienced poor audio during last night's national championship game on ABC-HD? I'm a TWC subscriber w/ an SA 8300. I turned the unit off, etc., and nothing seemed to work. Also turned the DD output from the SA box "off" and "on." I had no center or surround channels in DD 5.1.

Am I the only one who experienced poor audio during last night's national championship game on ABC-HD? I'm a TWC subscriber w/ an SA 8300. I turned the unit off, etc., and nothing seemed to work. Also turned the DD output from the SA box "off" and "on." I had no center or surround channels in DD 5.1.

My audio worked great in Cary.

I'm not that happy with the direction DirecTV is going with their service and non-TiVo DVR, so I've been thinking about my options. One of them is to build a MythTV box with a couple ATSC tuners and a couple analog tuners. But if TWC is going to cut off all the analog in the next year or so, that would leave me with only ATSC recording, as I don't see the opensource community being able to hack a driver for Microsoft's upcoming cablecard support for MCE.

So, does anyone have a link or something to a date for the analog cutoff?

BTW, in case anyone is wondering, here are my current choices:

1- cablecard based HD TiVo (given they canceled their CES press conference and are doing "informal demos" on the show floor I'm not optimistic about that)
2- the much rumored Apple DVR (guess I'll know about that after MacWorld)
3- MythTV box
4- MCE on the same hardware, if I can stomach having a Windows machine in the house
5- stick with DirecTV and wait another 6 months to a year (which I would have to do for option 4 to be able to do cablecard anyway) and test the waters again

I was a happy Dish Network customer for many years until a month ago when I switched to TWC because I wanted to get HD with DVR capability.

To get HD DVR with Dish you have to purchase the DVR ($ 600). My Dish SD DVR also cost me $ 600 a few years ago and is now not worth much so I didn't want to do that again.

So far I'm quite pleased with TWC and the 8300 DVR.

I don't have to own it and didn't have to mess with antennaes as I would have if I wanted to get the locals in HD through Dish.

I also like the simplicity of operation that results by having all of my input coming from one source.

One significant gripe that have is the limited amount of storage on the 8300's hard drive. I think that it maxs out at around 25 hours of HD material or 90 hours of SD stuff.

I'm trying to reorganize my thinking so that I view this limitation as reasonable. I do tend to collect shows that I think I want to view but never seem to get around to watching - which probably means that I'm not really that interested in them :-).

So far the operation of the 8300 has been very good. I too have experienced the short pixelation effects that are frequently mentioned, but I haven't had any real failures in which things don't get recorded at all and/or other events that completly ruin viewing.

The effective distruption to my viewing is equivalent to what I got with Dish interference during storms, etc.

So for those on the fence about how to go about getting a working HD DVR system I'd have to give a thumbs up to TWC & the 8300.

I'm not that happy with the direction DirecTV is going with their service and non-TiVo DVR, so I've been thinking about my options. One of them is to build a MythTV box with a couple ATSC tuners and a couple analog tuners. But if TWC is going to cut off all the analog in the next year or so, that would leave me with only ATSC recording, as I don't see the opensource community being able to hack a driver for Microsoft's upcoming cablecard support for MCE.

So, does anyone have a link or something to a date for the analog cutoff?

BTW, in case anyone is wondering, here are my current choices:

1- cablecard based HD TiVo (given they canceled their CES press conference and are doing "informal demos" on the show floor I'm not optimistic about that)
2- the much rumored Apple DVR (guess I'll know about that after MacWorld)
3- MythTV box
4- MCE on the same hardware, if I can stomach having a Windows machine in the house
5- stick with DirecTV and wait another 6 months to a year (which I would have to do for option 4 to be able to do cablecard anyway) and test the waters again

Analog cutoff for On-Air is probably 17 Feb 2009 (subject to Prez signature and future changes by Congress).
Analog cutoff for at least some "Basic" channels on TWC may be well beyond that date in order to hold on to budget and STB phobic users.
Not all of the analog channels need to go away to make way for explosion of HD channels.

An ATSC tuner with unencrypted QAM capability would be able to tune the local HD channels, TNT-HD and maybe DISC-HD (if they don't encrypt it).
It should also be able to tune the unencrypted QAM Digital Simulcast channels that were recently listed in this thread.

Microsoft is working on a Media Center upgrade which would support CableCARD, but it's probably more than a year away.

In the mean time, checkout this (MythTV based???) Media Center with CableCARD capability:
http://www.vwbinc.com/press/122205pr.html

I live in Chapel Hill and am rather far from the HD towers. I was bummed out and had almost quit on the idea of getting HD channels for free, until i started reading about all of this QAM stuff. Can someone verify this for me? I am looking at either getting the RCA ATSC 11 tuner (NO QAM) or the lg 3510a (supports QAM). I simply want to receive the networks in hd (abc, nbc, cbs, and fox are plenty). I have regular old coaxial straight from the wall into the tv analog cable. If i were to purchase one of these tuners (assuming, too, in chapel hill that these channels are unencrypted) would i be able to receive them without a digital package? Thanks in advance.

Well, looks like TiVo announced the Series 3 (HD cablecard) (http://engadget.com/2006/01/05/tivo-announces-series-3-hd-tivo-due-this-year/) after all. I'm kind of a TiVo slut, so I'll probably just hang on to my DirecTV HD TiVo until the cable ready one comes out. Of course there's still MacWorld... ;)

I live in Chapel Hill and am rather far from the HD towers. I was bummed out and had almost quit on the idea of getting HD channels for free, until i started reading about all of this QAM stuff. Can someone verify this for me? I am looking at either getting the RCA ATSC 11 tuner (NO QAM) or the lg 3510a (supports QAM). I simply want to receive the networks in hd (abc, nbc, cbs, and fox are plenty). I have regular old coaxial straight from the wall into the tv analog cable. If i were to purchase one of these tuners (assuming, too, in chapel hill that these channels are unencrypted) would i be able to receive them without a digital package? Thanks in advance.

Yes, you will be able to pick up the HD networks via TimeWarner as long as you have a QAM tuner.

I live in Chapel Hill and am rather far from the HD towers. I was bummed out and had almost quit on the idea of getting HD channels for free, until i started reading about all of this QAM stuff. Can someone verify this for me? I am looking at either getting the RCA ATSC 11 tuner (NO QAM) or the lg 3510a (supports QAM). I simply want to receive the networks in hd (abc, nbc, cbs, and fox are plenty). I have regular old coaxial straight from the wall into the tv analog cable. If i were to purchase one of these tuners (assuming, too, in chapel hill that these channels are unencrypted) would i be able to receive them without a digital package? Thanks in advance.


bdwork - Yup the QAM route is a viable option. Even with the basic TWC subscription you get all the channels you mentioned and more in HD with digital surround sound.

However I would HIGHLY advise 2 things.

1 - Read back thru about 7-10+ pages of this post to learn more.
2 - The LG box is fairly good but make sure you purchase with a LOCAL dealer and have a good return policy. I have an older LG unit and it has issues with PBS due to the lower QAM signal that PBS via TWC pushes thru the cable. (yup, you have to worry a bit about signal strength even over cable)
My older LG unit also has issues with TNT-HD audio. There are a few QAM STB tuners on the market. Even Rat-Shak had a decent unit for under 100 bucks a few months ago.

Hopefully the newer LG units are better and you won't have an issue, but you should shop local so you can take it home and return it if a particular unit doesn't have a quality set of internal components.

best of luck

The R-S HTS-6000 Accurian OTA STB only does ATSC and NOT QAM or even NTSC.
This is typical for many OTA STB's, with notable exception of the LG product line.
Which I find fascinating, since for the past several years, nearly all of the ATSC Decoder chip
from ATI, Broadcom, LG, etc have had QAM capabiity built into them.

BTW: LG has indicated that they have no more interest in making stand-alone OTA STBs,
other than maybe the govt. (SD only) STB voucher program.
Which makes the LST-4200A nearly impossible to find---new or used.
And the other models are also way over priced...check eBay & Froogle.

See fol for a comprehensive STB summary:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=179095
Note that NONE of the DirecTV/Dish/old VOOM Receivers do QAM.

And it is very difficult to get QAM capable PCI cards to work in MS Media Center....
How do you spell c-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y???

In defense of Time Warner, they are one of the first operators to roll out digital simulcast of analogue channels in order to eventually reclaim needed bandwidth for future HDTV and VOD programming.

Not to drag this quote too far from the past, but with the announcement of the TiVo Series 3, I thought I'd take another look at TWC's packages. This quote above leads me to believe that TWC is simulcasting *all* their analogue channels, at least that's one way to read it. But looking at the TWC site, it looks like all their simulcasting are the local channels not the rest of the stuff on the basic and standard packages. I was kind of looking forward to the idea of Sci-Fi in digital (although I wish they had Sci Fi in HD), but if I'm reading the site right, that channel is still analog only.

Can anybody clarify this? Thx.

This quote above leads me to believe that TWC is simulcasting *all* their analogue channels, at least that's one way to read it. But looking at the TWC site, it looks like all their simulcasting are the local channels not the rest of the stuff on the basic and standard packages. I was kind of looking forward to the idea of Sci-Fi in digital (although I wish they had Sci Fi in HD), but if I'm reading the site right, that channel is still analog only.

Can anybody clarify this? Thx.

It's all digital now (with the sole exception of channel 0, the TV Guide channel). I've verified this by going into my cable boxes' diag screens. Channel 0 reads ANALOG, while everything else reads QAM 256. Also, my SA8300 DVR is hooked up to my receiver via coaxial and it indicates that the audio on all the channels above 0 is Dolby Digital.
About a year ago TWC sent letters out to all DVR subscribers warning us that we'd have to recreate any series recordings on channels 2-99 since they were going digital and this would (for whatever reason) make series recordings stop working.

TWC is doing Digital Simulcast, which means that the analog channels are still there for users
who simply plug it into their TVs without an STB (try it yourself to verify).

Some (or all??) of the analog channels may go away in the distant future....
I'm guessing a sub-set will remain for a bare-bones offering that does not require hassle of an STB,
which could be a competitive advantage 2-3 years from now, when On-Air STBs will be required for all conventional TV's.

For the most part, the TWC local neighborhood node is being fed an all-digital fibre-optic signal,
which is then converted into the conventional analog NTSC signals for connection directly to TVs (no-STB)
and is also being multiplexed onto the usual QAM-256 digital carrier (as many as 13 per carrier) for STB/DVR.

If you punch in an analog channel number (below 100), a connected TV will tune to the old channel frequencies.
However, if you punch in the same channel number into an STB/DVR, then that will be used as an index
to tune to the appropriate QAM-256 carrier and sub-channel to find the all-digital program.

ALL DIGITAL to STB/DVR users....except Source to Cable Head may or may not be all digital.
ALL DIGITAL to the Neighborhood Hub and then converted to analog for direct connect to TV.

===========================================
PS: Digital Menus (like OnDemand and TV Guide) do not contain a normal "video" program and hence the Analog readout is bogus.
Sometimes I've noticed that it is a hold over from a previously tuned "normal" channel.

==============================================
PPS: Hopefully ALL of the analog channels are duplicated as digital QAM channels. (In San Diego they are.)
If an unencrypted QAM tuner is unable to view a Digital Simulcast channel,
it may be due to it being encrypted or otherwise hidden from view except an authorized STB/DVR.
The status for these channels can be determined at the bottom of the Extended Diagnostic "TUNING" menu.

it is very strange, i have an Onkyo HT780 HTIB that i set up a few days ago, and when i listen to HDTV broadcasts straight from the tv with the built-in QAM tuner, i only get sound in the fronts and center.

the receiver is showing me that the signal it gets through the coaxial out of the tv is indeed 5.1 (3/2.1), but for some reason i've never noticed that any sound come out of the rear speakers...

did anyone hear anything from the rear speakers while watching any of the bowls in HD?

the TV audio setting is set to output DD, and when i watch dvds through optical-out i do get sound from the rear speakers.

am i missing something? sometimes in movies nothing comes out of the rear speakers in some scenes, but usually they are being used...

Anyboby know when and where HD test patterns can be found on DirecTV ?

Anyboby know when and where HD test patterns can be found on DirecTV ?

I believe there is one on early in the morning (6am??) on HDNet, but you have to have the HD package to get that. Other than that I don't think there is anything.

Thanks pkscout. Have you used a local ISF calibration service in the Raleigh/Durham area that you can recommend to me ?

Thanks pkscout. Have you used a local ISF calibration service in the Raleigh/Durham area that you can recommend to me ?

Nope. I actually just used the THX test stuff that was on one of the DVD's I bought (I don't remember which one, but Pirates of the Carribean has the stuff on it) to adjust my plasma and audio system (I won't say calibrate because that conotes a level of detail I didn't get into).

I'm trying to help a friend setup his surround sound system. His system consists of a Samsung HL-R5067W DLP, Yamaha HTR-5840 Receiver, and SA8300 HD DVR from Time Warner.

The issue we're having has to do with getting Dolby Digital 5.1 through the receiver when watching HD television programs. We have been successful with the receiver showing DD when watching a DVD (we have an optical audio cable going from the DVD to the receiver). However, we watch an HD TV program with DD 5.1, we see PCM on the receiver instead of DD (we have a separate optical audio cable going from the TV to the receiver). The TV has a "optical output" option, but unfortunately it is greyed out. We don't know if this is because the SA8300 is doing this or what?

Does anyone have experience with this problem or a similar scenario? Is the problem being caused by the SA8300? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

Depending on how you have the 8300 cabled to the HLR, you may have to become aware of the HDMI limits. If using HDMI, to get something beyond stereo, you will have to go into the 8300 as follows and make sure you change the setting.

Settings --> More Settings --> Audio Digital Out --> Dolby Digital

If you have HDMI selected, then the 8300 talks to the Samsung and sets itself to stereo mode b/c that's what the Samsung tells the 8300 it is capable of handling....fun aye?

Be aware that when you make that change, you will lose sound on the HDMI input... so we have to bounce back and forth between DD and HDMI. When we want to just use the HDMI input directly to the TV we have to go change it back.

This may be what you are seeing?

Thanks for your response.

We are using HDMI and the Audio Digital Out on the 8300 does have Dolby Digital selected. I'm not understanding what you mean when you say "Be aware that when you make that change, you will lose sound on the HDMI input." Are you saying we'll not have any audio coming into the TV? With these settings we are getting sound, it's just not DD.

Thanks.

Thanks for your response.

We are using HDMI and the Audio Digital Out on the 8300 does have Dolby Digital selected. I'm not understanding what you mean when you say "Be aware that when you make that change, you will lose sound on the HDMI input." Are you saying we'll not have any audio coming into the TV? With these settings we are getting sound, it's just not DD.

Thanks.
I have a similar setup but I use the HDMI cable only for the DVD player (for video) and a digital coaxial cable for the DD5.1 sound (only had 1 optical outlet on the HT receiver). I use a digital optical audio cable for the connection between the 8300HD and my HT receiver. I haven't had any problems for the last 8 months.

Is anyone in the Raleigh, NC area still getting TV Guide On Screen listing data from channel 4 using an antenna?

I've been getting the listings for several months without problems, but it seems to have stopped sometime around Friday ...

The VBI test appears to show that there are no VBI packets coming from Channel 4, so I figured I'd see if anyone else has the same problem.

Thanks,

-Jim

" Are you saying we'll not have any audio coming into the TV? With these settings we are getting sound, it's just not DD.

earlier append..
(we have a separate optical audio cable going from the TV to the receiver).



Steve, The optical cable going from the Samsung --> Yamaha is your root cause of no DD. You need to make the following change --> move the audio cable you have going from the Samsung --> Yamaha and reconnect it directly to the SA8300HD as in SA8300HD (optical or coax) ---> Yamaha.. now here's why.

This may halp clarify further...here's my setup..

SA 8300HD HDMI --> Samsung HLR HDMI1 input
SSA 8300HD Optical / Coax--> Sound System / Decoder
I do NOT use the optical output from the Samsung..(see below why)

Now when you make the following change on the SA 8300HD to enable DD

Settings --> More Settings --> Audio Digital Out --> Dolby Digital

you will lose ALL audio output from the SA8300HD --> Samsung HDMI (no sound directly from Samsung) but you WILL get DD output from the SA8300HD to your sound system via the COAX or Optical link. This is b/c the SA8300HD shuts down the audio section of the HDMI feed w/ that setting change. I cannot remember exactly if that is WAD b/c the Samsung cannot handle DD or a limit of the SA8300 and/or HDMI not being able to pass DD over the HDMI link - doesn't really matter, it is the way it works today.

Now if you flip the SA8300HD as follows

Settings --> More Settings --> Audio Digital Out --> HDMI

you will get STEREO sound to the Samsung via the HDMI1 b/c the Samsung can ONLY handle 2 channel audio as part of its sound matrix AND b/c HDMI is a 2-way protocol, it tells the SA8300HD that it is talking to a device that is ONLY capable of 2 channel audio, so then the SA8300HD changes ALL of its outputs to be 2 channel stereo (including the OPTICAL / COAX ) hence no DD see fun aye?

This has been a BIG issue discussed many times on some of SA8300 and Samsung threads - search around AVS for more info.

Also, I've read that one of the reasons Samsung integrated the optical output on the set was to control the audio/video timings (DLP sets do A LOTof processing on the video signals before display) and hence we get "lip sync" issues between the video and audio signals. When you bypass the Samsung optical output by not using it, you may start to see some "lip sync" issues in your setup...depending on how fast/well the receiver processes the signals and whether your Yamaha has an "audio delay" feature which some newer receivers do have integrated. If you do have serious lip sync issue (and it varies w/ people & equipment) and your Yamaha has no integrated delay, then you will need an external delay device to introduce the delays needed such as those made by felston and others.

Now to keep the SO and kid happy, I made this connection below so they can get sound from the Samsung w/o having to alter the SA8300 settings. 6 of 1, half dozen of another but it seems easier for them when they do not want DD. When I'm around and we want DD, I make sure we are using the HDMI input w/DD ON.

SA 8300HD Component + R/L Audio --> Samsung Component 1 + R/L Audio

This thread may be helpful --> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=543331&page=1

Vincent

Vincent,

Thanks very much for your reponse. I'll get back with my friend today and connect the optical audio cable from the SA8300HD to the receiver. Hopefully that'll give us DD. I'll give an update.

Thanks,

Steve

Vincent,

A quick update. We moved the optical audio cable from the TV to the SA83000HD and now have Dolby Digital coming throught the A/V receiver. The Panthers victory "sounded" great!!!

Thanks to you and others on this forum for your assistance in helping me get a better understanding of HDMI.

Steve

I have made several comments in the past regarding WNCN-17 poor digital picture quality, and "NBCeng" has responded indicating that indeed some improvements can be expected in the near future.

In the meantime, I installed a UHF yagi, and a highband VHF yagi, connected with a VHF/UHF splitter/combiner in my attic in North Raleigh in the vicinity of Falls of Neuse and Durant. I am able to receive very reliable digital signals from WITN-7 (NBC) and WNCT-9 (CBS), their digital signals being on channels 32 and 10 respectively. In fact, better than WLFL-22.

WCTI-12 (ABC) is a different story. Besides being twelve or so miles farther out, their digital assignment is on channel 48, and must be beamed southeast to protect analogue 48 from Greensboro. Add to that the fact that 48 is sandwiched between a strong local analogue signal on 47 and digital signal on 49, and it just ain't there. That should change when the final assignments are occupied, they go back to channel 12.

As hoped, WITN's HDTV NBC picture quality is far superior to WNCN's.

P.S. As an added bonus to the above, UNC's digital channel 23 comes in quite good as well. I have never had much luck with digital 59 out of Chapel Hill.

A few pages back I posted something indicating that a cable card was required to get any digital channels except the networks, TNT-HD and Discovery HD theater and said TWC was keeping the other channels hostage as a way of extorting more money from folks.

Well, boy did I blow that one. I think I've been mad at TWC for so long I just don't think straight when it comes to them. More research here and other places shows that you apparently only need a QAM tuner to get the digital channels that corepsond to the basic and standard channels, so for the same $50 (a little bit less actually) I would pay for analog I can get digital channels without having to rent anything else from TWC. That's actually about $5 less than what I pay on DirecTV.

::bows his head in shame and begs forgiveness::

So now I'm back to maybe building a MythTV box with a couple of QAM tuners to get digitial and HD from TWC. Anybody in the area had any experience with that (Specifically with the new digitial simulcast channels)?

pkscout,

Step number one in the transition from boyhood to manhood, admitting publically when one is wrong. Congratulations, but don't ever go into politics or talk radio.

Except I'm not sure that what you say IS true. In Raleigh, the only QAM channels I get without a cable card are the broadcast (including their HDTV versions), shopping, religious, local origination, and those two HDTV channels. Did something change???

pkscout,

Step number one in the transition from boyhood to manhood, admitting publically when one is wrong. Congratulations, but don't ever go into politics or talk radio.

Except I'm not sure that what you say IS true. In Raleigh, the only QAM channels I get without a cable card are the broadcast (including their HDTV versions), shopping, religious, local origination, and those two HDTV channels. Did something change???

Hmmm, maybe not. I know of at least one TWC area that gets all the basic and standard channels QAM unencrypted, maybe Raleigh doesn't. The MythTV folks have also run into some areas (mostly Comcast) where the QAM channel is there but it has the PSIP data stripped off of it (aparently against FCC regulations). MythTV ignores any QAM channel that doesn't have PSIP data. Apparently their going to change that behavior in 0.19 so that the channel appears with a really obvious holder description so that you can go back and manually fix it.

So either TWC is stripping off the PSIP data for those channels, you do, in fact, need a cablecard (or STB) to decode them, or there is some other bizare thing going on.

If it's one of the first two, I might not be as wrong as I thought I was. ;)

P.S. Who you callin' boy? If it wasn't now a federal offense to annoy someone online (http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html?part=rss&tag=6022491&subj=news) I might have to type mean things at you for that. :D (I am, of course, kidding)

A few pages back I posted something indicating that a cable card was required to get any digital channels except the networks, TNT-HD and Discovery HD theater and said TWC was keeping the other channels hostage as a way of extorting more money from folks.

<......................>

Well, boy did I blow that one.
So now I'm back to maybe building a MythTV box with a couple of QAM tuners to get digitial and HD from TWC. Anybody in the area had any experience with that (Specifically with the new digitial simulcast channels)?

You didn't blow it, you were correct.

I have a Mythtv box with a Dvico Fusion5 Gold HDTV tuner, and I can get only the networks, DISC-HD, TNT-HD, and the SD simulcasts of the basic stations. I do not get the digital versions of the standard lineup (SciFi, ESPN, FSN, etc). If you know how to get the standard lineup from a pure QAM256 tuner without CableCard, I'd love to hear it.

Drew

MythTV ignores any QAM channel that doesn't have PSIP data. Apparently their going to change that behavior in 0.19 so that the channel appears with a really obvious holder description so that you can go back and manually fix it.


It is more than missing PSIP, if I correctly understand what PSIP is. I think PSIP is what supplies the channel ID (WRAL-HD) and basic program info.

I'm running a SVN snapshot from last fall. When I setup my box, the channel scan was pretty much useless. I used the azap program from dvb-utils and mplayer to manually build a channels.conf file and loaded that that. I believe (and my memory is fuzzy) that the HD locals had their PSIP data intact, however pure cable channels, like TNT-HD and DISC-HD had no PSIP data. Nor was there PSIP data for the basic stations (eg, digital mirrors of the basic cable lineup).

I'm fairly certain that the "standard" lineup is protected by some sort of conditional access (or scrambling). If I tune (using azap again) to a channel which according to dvb-traffic has a lot of SD stream, I cannot play any of them with mplayer.

Drew

I wouldn't expect the cable community to ever back off from placing conditional access on QAM channels. This is a Godsend for them. For years people have been making illegal connections. Conditional access provides a much more secure revenue stream. The satellite guys have done it since day one.

Other than the fact that the first generation cable cards seem to suffer interface issues and are only "one-way", expect them to replace set tops boxes over the next few years.

I think TWC only charges $1.75/month. I think that's more than fair.

HeHe, now Raleigh is not the only area to have WAUG-TV (was on ch.20). It is now apparently system wide on ch.102. :)

what about channels like Nogin on 184? The electronic babysitter is very important.

Even though the CableCard is $1.75 TWC will charge you around $50 to come out and "set it up".

On the CableCARD note has TWC indicated when CableCARD v2 will be available? Devices are being annonced at CES2006 this year.

HeHe, now Raleigh is not the only area to have WAUG-TV (was on ch.20). It is now apparently system wide on ch.102. :)

Which makes NO sense, since all WAUG is is a 24/7 feed of Black Family Channel, which is already available on channel 129. (is "is is" grammatically correct???)

Which makes NO sense, since all WAUG is is a 24/7 feed of Black Family Channel, which is already available on channel 129. (is "is is" grammatically correct???)

I noticed and was confused by this as well. Are they planning to migrate from 129 and free up that channel?

Which makes NO sense, since all WAUG is is a 24/7 feed of Black Family Channel, which is already available on channel 129. (is "is is" grammatically correct???)

Yep, that's the first thing I noticed. :) Here (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:XOVC2A3JNSEJ:naowc-proxy.nandomedia.com/business/nc/story/1990753p-8376008c.html+waug-tv&hl=en) is a google cached article I found.

I think TWC only charges $1.75/month. I think that's more than fair.

For this month at least. As more and more people switch to cablecard i'm sure the price will go up. And of course there will be a premium for "enhanced cablecard" when 2.0 comes out.

For this month at least. As more and more people switch to cablecard i'm sure the price will go up. And of course there will be a premium for "enhanced cablecard" when 2.0 comes out.

No, in fact I would guess that once two-way capability is supported, cable operators will give the darn things (cable cards) away. Hardware is NOT where cable operators make money. It's PROGRAMMING, especially PPV, VOD, (and porn, shhh). And a two-way cable card is a cheap access device to give everybody access to impulse viewing. They'd be foolish to behave otherwise.

I have made several comments in the past regarding WNCN-17 poor digital picture quality, and "NBCeng" has responded indicating that indeed some improvements can be expected in the near future.

In the meantime, I installed a UHF yagi, and a highband VHF yagi, connected with a VHF/UHF splitter/combiner in my attic in North Raleigh in the vicinity of Falls of Neuse and Durant. I am able to receive very reliable digital signals from WITN-7 (NBC) and WNCT-9 (CBS), their digital signals being on channels 32 and 10 respectively. In fact, better than WLFL-22.

As hoped, WITN's HDTV NBC picture quality is far superior to WNCN's.

NBCENG - any chance we might see improvment of PQ by the Olympics - I will be highly disappointed if the PQ is similar to that of what I saw for the Notre Dame games this fall.

Could we at least see a temporary shutdown of the multicast subchannels?

Hi folks,
I just switched from Directv to TW to go HD-DVR. Got a great deal, my question is with the HDMI on the SA8300. From all the previous posts, it appears this port is active, but I seem to be having a problem with it. I have a DVI input on my TV. So I went to Best Buy and bought an HDMI to DVI converter allows the DVI cable to hook up to the 8300's HDMI port. When I plug it into the 8300, the box goes to 480i and I can't see anything on the screen except squiggles since it's an HD input. If I unplug it and use component, all works well and I can verify the box is set to 1080i only. So I don't know if the box is messed up or the hdmi to dvi converter or if something needs to be setup on the box.
Thanks,
Brian

Is anyone in the Raleigh, NC area still getting TV Guide On Screen listing data from channel 4 using an antenna?

I've been getting the listings for several months without problems, but it seems to have stopped sometime around Friday ...

The VBI test appears to show that there are no VBI packets coming from Channel 4, so I figured I'd see if anyone else has the same problem.

Thanks,

-Jim

I may be seeing the same issue. [ Im in Apex, and use the antenna for tvgos, and ota hd]. Currently, my guide says No Listings Available, and that more should be available in 24 hours. Says it is waiting for completion of my Setup Change (or something like that??). [ But I haven't changed my setup ]

Are you still seeing the symptoms? Is anyone else?

BTW - (just out of curiosity; sorry if newbie question): What's VBI test and how do you determine whether or not VBI packets are coming in on channel 4?

Hi folks,
I just switched from Directv to TW to go HD-DVR. Got a great deal, my question is with the HDMI on the SA8300. From all the previous posts, it appears this port is active, but I seem to be having a problem with it. I have a DVI input on my TV. So I went to Best Buy and bought an HDMI to DVI converter allows the DVI cable to hook up to the 8300's HDMI port. When I plug it into the 8300, the box goes to 480i and I can't see anything on the screen except squiggles since it's an HD input. If I unplug it and use component, all works well and I can verify the box is set to 1080i only. So I don't know if the box is messed up or the hdmi to dvi converter or if something needs to be setup on the box.
Thanks,
Brian

Well I rebooted the box again and turned the tv on first before turning on the STB and all seems well now. HDMI is a workin. Sweet box.

NBCENG - any chance we might see improvment of PQ by the Olympics - I will be highly disappointed if the PQ is similar to that of what I saw for the Notre Dame games this fall.

Could we at least see a temporary shutdown of the multicast subchannels?
Gonna try every trick I can. The power for the new equipment is finally finished, and we found the rack rails were damaged yesterday so we can't bolt the new stuff in until new rails come in. I'm also working on plan "B" in case the new equipment can't be online by that time. :eek:

I've been having strange issues with my box lately. If I try to go into the advanced options menu where I can change favorite channels and what not, as soon as I hit the more options button the box reboots. Also, if I try and use the box's stretch feature (# key), the box reboots. I REALLY don't want to trade in the box since i'd have to redo my DVR stuff, but I suppose it's my only option.

I may be seeing the same issue. [ Im in Apex, and use the antenna for tvgos, and ota hd]. Currently, my guide says No Listings Available, and that more should be available in 24 hours. Says it is waiting for completion of my Setup Change (or something like that??). [ But I haven't changed my setup ]

Are you still seeing the symptoms? Is anyone else?

BTW - (just out of curiosity; sorry if newbie question): What's VBI test and how do you determine whether or not VBI packets are coming in on channel 4?

I've tried various antennas and resetting the box. If you are seeing the same issues I'm guessing that UNC-TV is at fault - the problem is figuring out how to contact them ... They don't seem interested in replying to email.

You can find the host channel on TVGOS by pressing Guide, going to Setup, press down arrow once, then press 753159852. This gets you into the TVGOS summary screens ... press right arraow, and look for host channel ... it is probably something like 0:0-4 ... the 0:0 means OTA - I think the cable input would be 1:0, and the 4 is the channel it is getting the guide data from. The VBI channel will usually be the current channel, you can ignore that. You can press the various arrow keys to get various info ... in this case I don't think any of it will be of help because the statistics are all old - you probably have not gotten anything since Thursday morning (give or take a day).

How can I be sure that I am getting the best signal possible from TWC? I live in Cary and have a Sony KDFE50A10 with a 3250HD STB. The HD channels look great, but the other channels look a little worse than before I got the HDTV!

I am running the video right from the STB into the TV via component cable. However, the STB has a DVI out port. Would going from the DVI port on the STB to the HDMI on the TV improve things at all?

I look forward to your replies!

steveoh62,

trying never hurts, if you have the right cabling give HDMI a try and see if it improves the PQ over the component.

also, some tvs have different capabilities in each input, some inputs will accept 480i, some will accept 480p, etc, so check your tv's manual and see if you can use other component inputs (in case you tv has more than 1 component input) and compare the quality.

I've tried various antennas and resetting the box. If you are seeing the same issues I'm guessing that UNC-TV is at fault - the problem is figuring out how to contact them ... They don't seem interested in replying to email.

Both times I've contacted them about HD reception problems, they have been very responsive. Much more so than any of the commercial broadcasters. I filled out the form at http://www.unctv.org/aboutus/contactus.html on a Saturday, and got an email from an engineer the next business day (Monday). The engineer occasionally visits this forum (Wayne Estabrook). Maybe you could PM him..

Drew

Hello fellow Triangle residents !

I am using the TWC SA8300 box myself and am mostly happy with the implementation of the DVR itself (though I would like an active SATA port for connecting an external hard drive). Certainly, I wouldn't want to fore-go a DVR, even if it meant losing HD.

The one thing that kind of spoils it all is the severe compression/pixelation on certain shows ("Las Vegas" is a prime example). I understand that the OTA HD is not compressed which sounds great and I will get started on the research of how to get that set up...if the answer to the following question is a yes :)

Is there an effective way to use my DVR with those OTA channels, in terms of time-shifting them ?

Thanks in advance !

I am running the video right from the STB into the TV via component cable. However, the STB has a DVI out port. Would going from the DVI port on the STB to the HDMI on the TV improve things at all?


make sure that DVI port is active before buying an expensive cable!

The one thing that kind of spoils it all is the severe compression/pixelation on certain shows ("Las Vegas" is a prime example).



Las Vegas is an NBC show, and our local affiliate (NBC17) has the worst HDTV performance in terms of pixelization that I've seen. Even WB22's HD is better than NBC17's. The only thing which will help you get NBC shows better is to wait for them to fix/upgrade their equipment, or to try to get NBC from a different source (like a Winston-Salem station, or maybe a satellite feed). There is a discussion going on here where it sounds like they are installing new equipment, and would like to have in in place in time for the Olympics.

Drew

Both times I've contacted them about HD reception problems, they have been very responsive. Much more so than any of the commercial broadcasters. I filled out the form at http://www.unctv.org/aboutus/contactus.html on a Saturday, and got an email from an engineer the next business day (Monday). The engineer occasionally visits this forum (Wayne Estabrook). Maybe you could PM him..

Drew

Thanks - I never got email back when I used the contact form, but I left a phone message this morning for Wayne and he quickly called me back (much appreciated!) - he seems like a good guy. It appears that most of the Gemstar guide setup is automated, but he's going to look into it - hopefully he'll be able to resolve the problem.

is WTVD down. I'm getting WRAL, WRAZ in 85% range, and NBC about 70%. I normally get WTVD at around 80%. Today WTVD is 0% no fluctuations. Any ideas.

Las Vegas is an NBC show, and our local affiliate (NBC17) has the worst HDTV performance in terms of pixelization that I've seen. Even WB22's HD is better than NBC17's. The only thing which will help you get NBC shows better is to wait for them to fix/upgrade their equipment, or to try to get NBC from a different source (like a Winston-Salem station, or maybe a satellite feed). There is a discussion going on here where it sounds like they are installing new equipment, and would like to have in in place in time for the Olympics.

Drew

Absolutely 100% correct. NBC17 is terrible as a direct result of their lack of investment in good equipment and transmitting only at half power. Totally lame.

I have a CM 4228 and CM 7777 in my attic to receive WXII-DT in Winston-Salam for this very reason. It's 40 miles away from me, 25 miles farther away than WNCN NBC 17 but at least I get high quality receiption of all of the NBC programming. :)

Las Vegas is an NBC show, and our local affiliate (NBC17) has the worst HDTV performance in terms of pixelization that I've seen. Even WB22's HD is better than NBC17's. The only thing which will help you get NBC shows better is to wait for them to fix/upgrade their equipment, or to try to get NBC from a different source (like a Winston-Salem station, or maybe a satellite feed). There is a discussion going on here where it sounds like they are installing new equipment, and would like to have in in place in time for the Olympics.
Drew

Fair enough. My main question, though, was whether there is a way to capture/timeshift OTA HD on the SA8300 ?

Absolutely 100% correct. NBC17 is terrible as a direct result of their lack of investment in good equipment and transmitting only at half power. Totally lame.

I have a CM 4228 and CM 7777 in my attic to receive WXII-DT in Winston-Salam for this very reason. It's 40 miles away from me, 25 miles farther away than WNCN NBC 17 but at least I get high quality receiption of all of the NBC programming. :)

Math Question:

If WXII is 40 miles away from you, and it's 25 miles farther than WNCN, then you must be 15 miles from WNCN. According to my math, worst case would be that WXII and WNCN would be 55 miles apart. In reality, they are 115 miles apart. Begs the question, "where exactly are you?" I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, (well maybe a little), but I would be interested in picking up WXII as well from North Raleigh, but didn't think it possible. Comments.

Fair enough. My main question, though, was whether there is a way to capture/timeshift OTA HD on the SA8300 ?

As far as I know, an SA8300 supplied by a cable provider can be used on cable only . In order to timeshift OTA HD, you need to get a 3rd party DVR like the upcoming HD Tivo, a satellite company DVR, etc. Or you could build a DVR from a PC, using MythTv, Windows Media Center, SageTV, etc.

I built a MythTV box with one OTA (ATSC) tuner and one Cable (QAM) tuner and 1/2 terrabyte of storage, and I'm very happy with it. All in all, an HD Tivo would have been easier to deal with, but since they weren't available last year when I built this box, and since they won't be available until the end of this year, I think I made the right choice.

Drew

Fair enough. My main question, though, was whether there is a way to capture/timeshift OTA HD on the SA8300 ?

You'll need one of these: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7276048&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03022&id=1117178795519

only $1000, i'll take 5... :D

I built a MythTV box with one OTA (ATSC) tuner and one Cable (QAM) tuner and 1/2 terrabyte of storage, and I'm very happy with it. All in all, an HD Tivo would have been easier to deal with, but since they weren't available last year when I built this box, and since they won't be available until the end of this year, I think I made the right choice.


Can you comment on which QAM channels you get? Is there a list?

Can you comment on which QAM channels you get? Is there a list?

I get all the unencrypted hi-def QAM channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, TNT-HD, DISC-HD. Plus I get the digital mirror of the "basic cable" tier (locals as above, UPN, WB, WGN, shopping, religious, and PPV preview channels). This is with a DVICO Fusion HDTV5 Gold card.

I *don't* get any premium channels, nor can I, since my setup does not support cable card. Hopefully somebody will get that working on linux, especially since there are now USB cable-card QAM tuners.

Drew

I get all the unencrypted hi-def QAM channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, TNT-HD, DISC-HD. Plus I get the digital mirror of the "basic cable" tier (locals as above, UPN, WB, WGN, shopping, religious, and PPV preview channels). This is with a DVICO Fusion HDTV5 Gold card.

I *don't* get any premium channels, nor can I, since my setup does not support cable card. Hopefully somebody will get that working on linux, especially since there are now USB cable-card QAM tuners.

Drew

Can you record HDTV program with the Fusion?

As far as I know, an SA8300 supplied by a cable provider can be used on cable only . In order to timeshift OTA HD, you need to get a 3rd party DVR like the upcoming HD Tivo, a satellite company DVR, etc. Or you could build a DVR from a PC, using MythTv, Windows Media Center, SageTV, etc.

I built a MythTV box with one OTA (ATSC) tuner and one Cable (QAM) tuner and 1/2 terrabyte of storage, and I'm very happy with it. All in all, an HD Tivo would have been easier to deal with, but since they weren't available last year when I built this box, and since they won't be available until the end of this year, I think I made the right choice.

Drew

Ok, thanks Drew! I will look into some alternatives when I have time, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on an easy solution in the meantime (like finding out all I had to do was buy a $20 tuner or something :) )

Thanks again.

- Kel

Math Question:

If WXII is 40 miles away from you, and it's 25 miles farther than WNCN, then you must be 15 miles from WNCN. According to my math, worst case would be that WXII and WNCN would be 55 miles apart. In reality, they are 115 miles apart. Begs the question, "where exactly are you?" I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, (well maybe a little), but I would be interested in picking up WXII as well from North Raleigh, but didn't think it possible. Comments.


Most Triangle viewers who get us are in the Alamance County area. I'm not aware, though I could be wrong, of anyone who picks us up as far east as Orange and Wake Counties. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It would be pretty incredible for someone in North Raleigh to be picking up WXII-DT, though I suppose it could be possible. Our antenna is just so much father west than WFMY and the others in the Randolph County antenna field.

I get all the unencrypted hi-def QAM channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, TNT-HD, DISC-HD. Plus I get the digital mirror of the "basic cable" tier (locals as above, UPN, WB, WGN, shopping, religious, and PPV preview channels). This is with a DVICO Fusion HDTV5 Gold card.

I *don't* get any premium channels, nor can I, since my setup does not support cable card. Hopefully somebody will get that working on linux, especially since there are now USB cable-card QAM tuners.

Drew

That's what I was afraid of. Once the linux community has figured out the cable card it will be time to include Myth on my Linux server...

Most Triangle viewers who get us are in the Alamance County area. I'm not aware, though I could be wrong, of anyone who picks us up as far east as Orange and Wake Counties. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It would be pretty incredible for someone in North Raleigh to be picking up WXII-DT, though I suppose it could be possible. Our antenna is just so much father west than WFMY and the others in the Randolph County antenna field.

I picked up WXII from Apex with my antenna pointed in the right direction. Now I'm pointed at the WRAL tower, so I can't get it anymore. That was with an amplified Silver Sensor. I'm sure my amplified attic yagi would get it if directed there.

Brian

Can you record HDTV program with the Fusion?

Yes, all the unencrypted QAM stations can be recorded.

Drew

I get all the unencrypted hi-def QAM channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, TNT-HD, DISC-HD. Plus I get the digital mirror of the "basic cable" tier (locals as above, UPN, WB, WGN, shopping, religious, and PPV preview channels). This is with a DVICO Fusion HDTV5 Gold card.

I *don't* get any premium channels, nor can I, since my setup does not support cable card. Hopefully somebody will get that working on linux, especially since there are now USB cable-card QAM tuners.

Drew

Drew, are you on TWC in Cary? I'm in Cary and tried this with a basic cable connection and QAM tuner... I only "see" digital channels in channel ranges of approximately 85-* and higher, but everything I tune in claims to be encrypted. I've read the postings of the last few weeks and was thinking I should be able to see at least local HD channels over this link (that's all I'm really interested in). Are the digital channels at the same logical "spot", e.g. WRAL on 5-* over cable? Sorry in advance if I'm missing something simple here.

WTVD-11........"Crumbs"..........OOPS..........forget (again) to flip the HDTV switch?????????????

Drew, are you on TWC in Cary? I'm in Cary and tried this with a basic cable connection and QAM tuner... I only "see" digital channels in channel ranges of approximately 85-* and higher, but everything I tune in claims to be encrypted. I've read the postings of the last few weeks and was thinking I should be able to see at least local HD channels over this link (that's all I'm really interested in). Are the digital channels at the same logical "spot", e.g. WRAL on 5-* over cable? Sorry in advance if I'm missing something simple here.

Yes, I'm on TWC in Cary. I currently have the "standard" cable package. We upgraded from basic in December for basketball season, and none of my HD channels changed. Try 85-2 for WRAL-HD. You'll only see 5-* if your TV does remapping for QAM. Mine only does that for ATSC. Here is where my HD channels are:

84-2 DISC-HD
84-3 TNT-HD
85-2 WRAL-HD
90-2 WUNC-HD
111-2 NBC17-HD
113-1 WTVD-HD
113-4 WRAZ-HD

Search back a few pages (or 10s of pages) in this thread for a complete list, including SD subchannels.

Drew

Math Question:

If WXII is 40 miles away from you, and it's 25 miles farther than WNCN, then you must be 15 miles from WNCN. According to my math, worst case would be that WXII and WNCN would be 55 miles apart. In reality, they are 115 miles apart. Begs the question, "where exactly are you?" I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, (well maybe a little), but I would be interested in picking up WXII as well from North Raleigh, but didn't think it possible. Comments.


Crabtree mall area, on top of the hill.

I didn't watch TV yesterday, but on Wednesday all channels were being seen on the guide correctly on my Samsung T151.



I may be seeing the same issue. [ Im in Apex, and use the antenna for tvgos, and ota hd]. Currently, my guide says No Listings Available, and that more should be available in 24 hours. Says it is waiting for completion of my Setup Change (or something like that??). [ But I haven't changed my setup ]

Are you still seeing the symptoms? Is anyone else?

BTW - (just out of curiosity; sorry if newbie question): What's VBI test and how do you determine whether or not VBI packets are coming in on channel 4?

I didn't watch TV yesterday, but on Wednesday all channels were being seen on the guide correctly on my Samsung T151.

He has a Sony DVR that gets it's guide data from TV Guide via UNC-TV ... I think your receiver gets it from the ATSC signal for each station ...

UNC-TV had some problems with a phone line due to a lightning strike, which caused the guide data to be unavailable for several days last week.

I have a Sharp HD LCD with ATSC/QAM in the Clear/DCR tuner and TVGOS. Anybody able to get TVGOS to work over TWC? I certainly can't. My Host Channel is blank.

Wayne Estabrook,

If UNC-TV is sending TVGOS data would it be possibe to see if TWC is blocking it? I get: ch.12 WUNU-TV (analog) from TWC of Lumberton down here below the Fayetteville system.

And I assume straight from UNC over TWC I also get these below with the ATSC/QAM tuner:

ch.200 UNC (PBS)
ch.201 UNC (PBS) HD
ch.202 UNC KIDS
ch.203 UNC Educational
ch.204 UNC NC

I get all the unencrypted hi-def QAM channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, TNT-HD, DISC-HD. Plus I get the digital mirror of the "basic cable" tier (locals as above, UPN, WB, WGN, shopping, religious, and PPV preview channels). This is with a DVICO Fusion HDTV5 Gold card.

I *don't* get any premium channels, nor can I, since my setup does not support cable card. Hopefully somebody will get that working on linux, especially since there are now USB cable-card QAM tuners.

Drew
Actually. there are no cablecard tuners of any sort for PC yet. The first showings were at CES last week and they won't be released until Windows Vista is out, which will be the first OS to support cablecard. Vista is expected late this year.

my tv has a built-in QAM/ATSC tuner and it has a built-in guide.

any channel i tune into says no information available...

is TWC blocking it? or am i missing something? do i need to tune to a certain channel in order for the tv to download the guide data?

i live on glenwood close to I540 in Raleigh.

Has something happened to WTVD-11 OTA { 11.1,11.2.11.3 } ? For some reason I can't pick them up anymore OTA

Yes, I'm on TWC in Cary. I currently have the "standard" cable package. We upgraded from basic in December for basketball season, and none of my HD channels changed. Try 85-2 for WRAL-HD. You'll only see 5-* if your TV does remapping for QAM. Mine only does that for ATSC. Here is where my HD channels are:

84-2 DISC-HD
84-3 TNT-HD
85-2 WRAL-HD
90-2 WUNC-HD
111-2 NBC17-HD
113-1 WTVD-HD
113-4 WRAZ-HD

Search back a few pages (or 10s of pages) in this thread for a complete list, including SD subchannels.

Drew

Thanks Drew. Interestingly, I don't see any of these channels. I do see digital channels at other numbers in this range, e.g. 86-1, -2, -3, all the way to 86-15. Also 87 and at various channels all the way through 121. When I tune into any of these, I get the "digital channel is encrypted" message. When I try to go to any of the channels you have listed, nothing. Has anyone else had this problem? TV is a Toshiba 62HM15 with ATSC and QAM tuner built in.

Don

Actually. there are no cablecard tuners of any sort for PC yet. The first showings were at CES last week and they won't be released until Windows Vista is out, which will be the first OS to support cablecard. Vista is expected late this year.

Well, I did see a picture of one, so it must exist ;)

Drew

It's 8:50 Friday night and I'm watching WTVD on 11-1 OTA right now.

Steve

Actually. there are no cablecard tuners of any sort for PC yet. The first showings were at CES last week and they won't be released until Windows Vista is out, which will be the first OS to support cablecard. Vista is expected late this year.
FYI: A Linux based Media Center from vwbinc claims to now support CableCard input--
Giving access to encrypted and unencrypted cable channels.
Availabilty is given as Q2 of 2006 (i.e. Apr-Jun this year).
http://www.vwbinc.com/press/122205pr.html

NBC really looks like crap over my QAM, picture is the most pixelate of all the HD channels available unencrypted.

and the golden globe awards wasn't even true-HD since it wasn't wide-screen...

....
and the golden globe awards wasn't even true-HD since it wasn't wide-screen...

I'm not Hollywood, but read my tagline. Down here (and I think most everywhere), if there is a Red carpet, and your dressed to impress, then HD should be in order.

NBC told the world last night they didn't think so.

Good news

Just got of the phone with George Douglas VP of marketing for the Raleigh Division for Time Warner.

First I must point out that he was very helpful and a very nice guy to boot. Im actually impressed that he even took the time to give me a call.

Anyway, on to the news I know you guys are waiting to hear. As of Feb 1st we are getting Universal HD and this time it is not going to go away. He said once we get it on Feb 1st it is here to stay.

He also said that he is about 90% sure that ESPN2HD will be available in 3-4 months.

He also made mention of something called "switched digital". From what I understand, it has made available alot more bandwidth then before.

The last thing he talked about was some kind of plan to put certain basic channels that dont have many viewers on a On demand type channel and that way those channels will be freed up for more space.

Just thought I would let you guys know the good news. UniversalHD on Feb 1st!!

Good news
Anyway, on to the news I know you guys are waiting to hear. As of Feb 1st we are getting Universal HD and this time it is not going to go away. He said once we get it on Feb 1st it is here to stay.


Great! It will be nice to have HD Olympic coverage not mangled by NBC17. I can't say I'm impressed with the rest of the programming, but watchable Olympics will definately be a plus.

Do you have any idea how will it be packaged? At extra cost, or as part of the basic HD lineup? During the preview, it was available as un-scrambled QAM around 78 or 79. I hope they leave it like this.

Drew

Great! It will be nice to have HD Olympic coverage not mangled by NBC17. I can't say I'm impressed with the rest of the programming, but watchable Olympics will definately be a plus.

Do you have any idea how will it be packaged? At extra cost, or as part of the basic HD lineup? During the preview, it was available as un-scrambled QAM around 78 or 79. I hope they leave it like this.

Drew
from what i understand, it will be added to the HD suite at no extra cost to us just like it was during the tennis matches. only this time, it wont be taken off.

Good news

Just got of the phone with George Douglas VP of marketing for the Raleigh Division for Time Warner.

First I must point out that he was very helpful and a very nice guy to boot. Im actually impressed that he even took the time to give me a call.

Anyway, on to the news I know you guys are waiting to hear. As of Feb 1st we are getting Universal HD and this time it is not going to go away. He said once we get it on Feb 1st it is here to stay.

He also said that he is about 90% sure that ESPN2HD will be available in 3-4 months.

He also made mention of something called "switched digital". From what I understand, it has made available alot more bandwidth then before.

The last thing he talked about was some kind of plan to put certain basic channels that dont have many viewers on a On demand type channel and that way those channels will be freed up for more space.

Just thought I would let you guys know the good news. UniversalHD on Feb 1st!!

Thx alot for the info. :) I'm guessing he didn't mention any timeframe for "Switched Digital" capability or the any basic stations going to OnDemand.

TWC of Columbia SC has had "Switched Digital" for a little while now which freed up ban width for them to add UniversalHD over a month ago.

I'm currently on Duke's campus and was wondering what type of OTA Antenna I would need to receive HD feeds from the local affiliates (ie. ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS)? Any suggestions as to what brand/model I should use and if there are any local stores (near Durham or on 15/501) where I could get a good deal on such products? My TV has a built-in QAM/ATSC tuner so there should be no need to get buy another one. I also cannot just plug in my television since DukeTV doesn't send out HD signals just yet. Thanks.

I have been looking into the Winegard Squareshooter since a real-looking antenna is pretty much out of the question. It is rated as a Red Uni-directional antenna which was suggested by the Consumer Electronics Association Antenna Selector. I'm ~32 miles away from the towers. Anyone know of any other non-conventional looking antennas that fit the Red Uni-directional requirement?

I'm up here in Timberlake.....Just North of Durham and We use this one. Does a great job.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=AD-DB8

HDTV-NUT,

Do you know if Time Warner was planning on charging more for the HD package with Universal HD and ESPN2 HD added?

Also,

Does anybody know if/ when the Verizon FiOS service will be available in Raleigh?

I'm up here in Timberlake.....Just North of Durham and We use this one. Does a great job.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=AD-DB8

*or* you can buy a Channel Master product from Warren Electronics and save a few bucks:

http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/4221.htm

Since you are located on the Duke campus, and you are only 30 miles or so away from the Raleigh towers, the 4221 would work great as long as it has some elevation above ground level and no major obstructions such as buildings or trees.

You will also need another antenna for WUNC in Chapel Hill and the 4221 would be good for that too. They have some decent HD content sometimes. :)

TWC Durham's ESPNHD is unwatchable tonight. Video and audio drops out every 2 seconds. Doesn't happen on any other channel. Absolutely pitiful. Time to start looking at alternatives to TWC.

Thanks for the help so far guys. I looked at both antennas mentioned and while they would definately aid in helping me get an OTA signal, I cannot put such a large object on my roof. I'm still in dorm housing (3-yr-must-live-on-campus-rule-sucks) and I'm not "supposed" to have access to the roof. The SS-1000/2000 interested me because it's shape is very discrete. Does anyone know of local stores who sell Winegard products at a decent price?

Query re Switched Digital Broadcast (SDB):

The new Digital Content Manager (from Scientific Atlanta, TWC's equipment provider) presumably has provided Digital Simulcast and more importantly should also provide SDB in order to double the useful capacity....and make room for alot more HD channels.

Has anyone seen any evidence of QAM frequencies and program numbers jumping around as they are dynamically reassigned.
This would be targeted for the less popular channels.

For more info on SDB, see:
http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages/2/4226.html#POST22373

Great! It will be nice to have HD Olympic coverage not mangled by NBC17. I can't say I'm impressed with the rest of the programming, but watchable Olympics will definately be a plus.

Do you have any idea how will it be packaged? At extra cost, or as part of the basic HD lineup? During the preview, it was available as un-scrambled QAM around 78 or 79. I hope they leave it like this.

Drew

Don't get your hopes up. UHD is owned by NBC...the programming (and pixellation, softness, etc.) is quite similar. Unfortunately, I think it has something to do with the processing on the broadcaster's end, not necessarily on the local end.

Hi,

I've recently moved to TWC after many years of DirecTV so that I could get more HD. I am currently using a SA 8300HD box and the cable feed produces a beautiful picture. I am however, experiencing fairly frequent picture breakup. The signal strength is good at +3db and I am wondering if this problem is a sofware/cablebox problem.

Does anyone have this same problem?

HDTV-NUT,
Does anybody know if/ when the Verizon FiOS service will be available in Raleigh?

ain't gonna happen since Raleigh is not a Verizon city... afaik the only Verizon town in our area is Durham and still there is no eta as to when FIOS will be available.

once it will i will greatly consider moving to Durham.

we're stuck with hell-south and the crap they offer.

thank god for VoIP :D

Hi,

Can I hook my TWC HD cable box at someone else's house (also in my area with TWC)? Seems like it should work since the box does all the work, right? Or is it somehow lo-jacked?

thanks,

Scott

Since you are located on the Duke campus, and you are only 30 miles or so away from the Raleigh towers, the 4221 would work great as long as it has some elevation above ground level and no major obstructions such as buildings or trees.

You will also need another antenna for WUNC in Chapel Hill and the 4221 would be good for that too. They have some decent HD content sometimes. :)


The only problem with WUNC's HD content from an OTA perspective is that they limit the broadcasting to only 3 hours per day (8pm to 11pm). They're broadcasting 4 digital SD channels most of the day (4.1, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5) and during primetime they turn off 4.4 and 4.5 to make room for the HD channel on 4.2. So, if you're only interested in the HD part of WUNC, I'm not so sure a 2nd antenna is worth while.

Who knows, on the Duke campus, one might be just close enough to Chapel Hill to get a strong enough signal from WUNC w/o having to point an antenna directly at it. I live in northern Durham, I have an antenna on my 2-story roof pointed in between the Raleigh towers and the Chapel Hill tower and I receive all the area stations without a two antenna setup or a rotator.

Hi,

Can I hook my TWC HD cable box at someone else's house (also in my area with TWC)? Seems like it should work since the box does all the work, right? Or is it somehow lo-jacked?

thanks,

Scott

Well, I was mistaken about the 'area'. All this time I thought Raleigh and Cary had the same programming, but they don't so this probably won't work anyway :( .

Scott

Hi,

I've recently moved to TWC after many years of DirecTV so that I could get more HD. I am currently using a SA 8300HD box and the cable feed produces a beautiful picture. I am however, experiencing fairly frequent picture breakup. The signal strength is good at +3db and I am wondering if this problem is a sofware/cablebox problem.

Does anyone have this same problem?

what channels in particular? Some have reported issues.

NBC really looks like crap over my QAM, picture is the most pixelate of all the HD channels available unencrypted.

and the golden globe awards wasn't even true-HD since it wasn't wide-screen...
That would be because our local NBC affiliate sucks, but reportedly they're working on it. I feel bad saying it because since one of their engineers posts here and has been very helpful and responsive, but their equipment is just not very good for the time being.
If the Golden Globes weren't widescreen, then it wasn't a question of "True HD" or "Fake HD" but rather it was straight up SD (unless they forgot to throw the HD switch again).

Good news

Just got of the phone with George Douglas VP of marketing for the Raleigh Division for Time Warner.

First I must point out that he was very helpful and a very nice guy to boot. Im actually impressed that he even took the time to give me a call.

Anyway, on to the news I know you guys are waiting to hear. As of Feb 1st we are getting Universal HD and this time it is not going to go away. He said once we get it on Feb 1st it is here to stay.

He also said that he is about 90% sure that ESPN2HD will be available in 3-4 months.

He also made mention of something called "switched digital". From what I understand, it has made available alot more bandwidth then before.

The last thing he talked about was some kind of plan to put certain basic channels that dont have many viewers on a On demand type channel and that way those channels will be freed up for more space.

Just thought I would let you guys know the good news. UniversalHD on Feb 1st!!
I think that's good and bad news really....UniversalHD will be nice to have, but the delay on ESPN2HD is going to be painful, especially since bball season will be over by then, and let's be honest, baseball is boring, HD or not.

FYI: A Linux based Media Center from vwbinc claims to now support CableCard input--
Giving access to encrypted and unencrypted cable channels.
Availabilty is given as Q2 of 2006 (i.e. Apr-Jun this year).
http://www.vwbinc.com/press/122205pr.html
Wow, that's news to me. At CES ATI was reporting that they'd be the first (and possibly only) ones with CableCard for PCs and that it wouldn't be out until Vista was released.

Is anybody having an HDCP handshake problem with the HDMI out on the SA8300HD box from Time Warner? I got my box back in June of '05. Just wondering if they've released a fix or an updated box since then to fix the issue.

Also, if anyone has done any comparisons, is it even worth worrying about as far as picture quality compared to component video?

TWC Durham's ESPNHD is unwatchable tonight. Video and audio drops out every 2 seconds. Doesn't happen on any other channel. Absolutely pitiful. Time to start looking at alternatives to TWC.
I watched the majority of the Duke/NC State game on Wednesday night and from what I remember the reception was fine including the audio feed (TWC's SA8300 using digital coax set to Dolby Digital). You may have a local issue warranting a service call. good luck

Is anybody having an HDCP handshake problem with the HDMI out on the SA8300HD box from Time Warner? I got my box back in June of '05. Just wondering if they've released a fix or an updated box since then to fix the issue.

Also, if anyone has done any comparisons, is it even worth worrying about as far as picture quality compared to component video?

Mine has never worked with my Optoma H77. I have read all the work-arounds (such as turning one off and back on while the other is already on) and none have worked. Time Warner wasn't helpful (big surprise) and neither was Optoma.

After reading a lot of posts, I decided not to worry about it since there didn't seem to be a quality increase for most people (and was a decrease for some, though I suspect that has more to do with different clibrations on the different inputs).

Is anybody having an HDCP handshake problem with the HDMI out on the SA8300HD box from Time Warner? I got my box back in June of '05. Just wondering if they've released a fix or an updated box since then to fix the issue.

Also, if anyone has done any comparisons, is it even worth worrying about as far as picture quality compared to component video?

I've had my SA8300HD DVR connected to my Sharp LCD LC-26D7U's HDMI(w/HDCP) input for two months and haven't had any problem. I used the Component connection for a week and I also tried the HDMI -> DVI input and both HDMI and DVI connections looked slightly crisper (especially with text) than the Component connection and colors are stronger. I have to turn the color control down 5 steps (to -5 calibrated with HDNet, HBO and InHD test patterns) lower than all other inputs (set to 0 calibrated with DVE).

Below are the last two software updates to my SA8300HD DVR dated.

[NEWEST on 8-25-05]
Versions:
ResApp Version: PASSPORT Echo 1.8.111
OS Version: PowerTV 6.14.43.3sp
Driver Version: 1
ResApp Date: July 29 2005
OS Date: July 6 2004
PowerKey: PKEY_3.8.4.1-p +dvrs3
PowerKey Date: June 22 2004

[on 6-28-05]
Versions:
ResApp Version: PASSPORT Echo 1.8.098
OS Version: PowerTV 6.8.9.4sp
Driver Version: 1
ResApp Date: Jan 25 2005
OS Date: Aug 11 2004
PowerKey: PKEY_3.7.5.110-p +dvrs3
PowerKey Date: Oct 20 2004

Pretty funny, kel, but I'm an H77 owner myself. I've been able to get an upconverting dvd player to work fine with it, but not my SA8300HD. I didn't even bother calling Time Warner because I was guessing they wouldn't know what I was talking about or blame it on the projector. Not a huge deal to me for right now because I don't even have an hdmi switching receiver, so component makes more sense right now. I'd just like to know there is a fix for it in case I decide to start using it.

I think that's good and bad news really....UniversalHD will be nice to have, but the delay on ESPN2HD is going to be painful, especially since bball season will be over by then, and let's be honest, baseball is boring, HD or not.


You know what they say about opinions ;). Personally, I love baseball and can't stand basketball, pro or college (I moved to the wrong area, I know).

Hi,
Can I hook my TWC HD cable box at someone else's house (also in my area with TWC)? Seems like it should work since the box does all the work, right? Or is it somehow lo-jacked?
Scott

Better watch out, better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why....

TWC had to specifically authorize your cable box when it was first plugged in.

Your local neighborhood hub (200-500 homes/hub) knows your STBs serial number
and keeps track of how far away the box is via a round-trip delay measurement
and also knows the total return cable loss from your box back to the hub as part
of the process of periodically adjusting the level of the Return Data Channel (RDC).

Even if you moved it next door, TWC has the ability to know you moved it.....

If TWC catches you moving it outside of your home (and they will), you are in
violation of the lease agreement and you may be placed on the BLACK LIST
of cable scoflaws....not to mention liable to prosecution....

Will OTA HDTV work in Willow Spring? We're just south of Raleigh off of 42. I'm thinking about canceling cable... just not worth the $$. But having the regular stations in HD would be nice!

Will OTA HDTV work in Willow Spring? We're just south of Raleigh off of 42. I'm thinking about canceling cable... just not worth the $$. But having the regular stations in HD would be nice!

I'm approximately 77 miles south (Pembroke) of Raleigh with a rooftop UHF/VHF amped antenna (25 ft. high) and I get WTVD, WRAL, WRAZ and WNCN almost every evening. Afternoons are around 35/40% of the time. (WNCN a little less than the others due to them being low power).

Nice! Now I just have to find a receiver and antenna. Is it true that WRAL will provide an antenna?

I'm approximately 77 miles south (Pembroke) of Raleigh with a rooftop UHF/VHF amped antenna (25 ft. high) and I get WTVD, WRAL, WRAZ and WNCN almost every evening. Afternoons are around 35/40% of the time. (WNCN a little less than the others due to them being low power).

Hi Daryl

What antenna are you using ? Is it stationary or on a rotor ?

Seems that Raleigh is your best MTA based upon your location.

I'd have a lot of fun if I lived there with additional antennas poining to Myrle Beach, Wilmington and Charlotte. :-)

I am in Jacksonville NC, 90 miles away from the Raleigh antenna farm, and get WRAL, and WTVD almost every night and morning. I do not even have the antennas pointing directly at the tower. I do not get WRAZ however. I think I get interference from South Carolina.
But I do get Greenville NC easily and WIlmington channels all the time with the exception of WECT (evenings and mornings only)

Nice! Now I just have to find a receiver and antenna. Is it true that WRAL will provide an antenna?
They used to. It's where I got my antenna about a year ago and a friend of mine got his more recently than that. However, the email address for the contact I had there no longer works as of a couple of months ago. They may have discontinued the offer ... but it's worth trying if you can get a hold of someone there.

what channels in particular? Some have reported issues.

I've seen breakup on HDNet channels and WUNC standard. The NewsHour on WUNC on Wednesday night was pretty bad with frequent dropouts. I also note that another post reported problems on ESPNHD.

Is this problem widespread and do a lot just put up with it?

Is it true that WRAL will provide an antenna?

They gave me one back in Feb 2000 when I got my first HD-ready TV but I already had a bigger one so I gave it away. No idea if they still do.

Hi Daryl

What antenna are you using ? Is it stationary or on a rotor ?

Seems that Raleigh is your best MTA based upon your location.

I'd have a lot of fun if I lived there with additional antennas poining to Myrle Beach, Wilmington and Charlotte. :-)

I have a channel master Crossfire 3671 antenna and Titan 7777 amp on a rotor. Raleigh is north of me at about 10 degrees N but I get their stations (WTVD, WRAL, WRAZ and WNCN) best pointed about 110 degees eastwardly. I never get WLFL or WRDC. This also allows me to WECT and WWAY of Wilmington also WPDE, WBTW and WWMB out of Florence/Myrtle Beach SC. Ocassionally I get CBS 9.x of Greenville and CBS 2.x of Greensboro. So I never bother turning my antenna.

I receive DD 5.1 just fine most of the time. The 8300HD box has a mind of it's own and sometimes will revert back for no apparent reason. When I see a show that is suppose to be DD 5.1 but it's not, I go back into setup and re-authorize DD (even though it already shows DD) and this seems to fix it for the time being.
I had this same problem sporadically last fall. Now it seems to be occurring almost daily. Afftects both real time tv viewing and recorded shows. While it can be worked around by going into the set up menu, it is getting to be an annoyance. Anyone else seeing this occur on such a regular basis? Is it time to ask TWC to replace the 8300HD DVR? Thanks for any input.

Nice! Now I just have to find a receiver and antenna. Is it true that WRAL will provide an antenna?

You might want to contact Patrice Jobes <PJobes@wral.com> - I think you'll need to fax her a copy of your HD reciever receipt (or email a scan of it).

Chuck deCourt is the station manager of WRAL <cdecourt@wral.com>

They sent me one and it works great!
(now if only I could get UNC as well without having to rotate the antenna)

-Jim

I had this same problem sporadically last fall. Now it seems to be occurring almost daily. Afftects both real time tv viewing and recorded shows. While it can be worked around by going into the set up menu, it is getting to be an annoyance. Anyone else seeing this occur on such a regular basis? Is it time to ask TWC to replace the 8300HD DVR? Thanks for any input.


this is a common problem. It may be something to do with your Echo version. See this thread for other reports from around the country. You'll have to search because I can't remember exactly when I last saw this issue.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=453804

Gonna try every trick I can. The power for the new equipment is finally finished, and we found the rack rails were damaged yesterday so we can't bolt the new stuff in until new rails come in. I'm also working on plan "B" in case the new equipment can't be online by that time. :eek:
Just curious ... any updates on the progress for this upgrade project??

Thanks in advance.

Just curious ... any updates on the progress for this upgrade project??

Thanks in advance.

Hopefully this will be completed before the 2006 Olympic Games in February.

HDTV-NUT,

Do you know if Time Warner was planning on charging more for the HD package with Universal HD and ESPN2 HD added?

Also,

Does anybody know if/ when the Verizon FiOS service will be available in Raleigh?
I dont think they are planning to charge more for the additional channels.

I would also be interested to know if Fios is comming to raleigh. Although here in North Raleigh, we have Bell south so..

I've had my SA8300HD DVR connected to my Sharp LCD LC-26D7U's HDMI(w/HDCP) input for two months and haven't had any problem. I used the Component connection for a week and I also tried the HDMI -> DVI input and both HDMI and DVI connections looked slightly crisper (especially with text) than the Component connection and colors are stronger. I have to turn the color control down 5 steps (to -5 calibrated with HDNet, HBO and InHD test patterns) lower than all other inputs (set to 0 calibrated with DVE).

Below are the last two software updates to my SA8300HD DVR dated.

[NEWEST on 8-25-05]
Versions:
ResApp Version: PASSPORT Echo 1.8.111
OS Version: PowerTV 6.14.43.3sp
Driver Version: 1
ResApp Date: July 29 2005
OS Date: July 6 2004
PowerKey: PKEY_3.8.4.1-p +dvrs3
PowerKey Date: June 22 2004

[on 6-28-05]
Versions:
ResApp Version: PASSPORT Echo 1.8.098
OS Version: PowerTV 6.8.9.4sp
Driver Version: 1
ResApp Date: Jan 25 2005
OS Date: Aug 11 2004
PowerKey: PKEY_3.7.5.110-p +dvrs3
PowerKey Date: Oct 20 2004


oddly enough i have used both HDMI and my avic component cable from my 8300 to my new Samsung 1080p tv and its the component that has the better picture for me. the component picture is flawless, perfect blacks and white, very crisp and reall couldnt be any clearer. i dont know if its the quility of the component cable http://www.aviccable.com/video-cables-component-video-cable-c-1_3.html or if its just that the 8300 is processing the HDMI signal wrong. dont get me wrong, the hdmi still looks great, the average person couldnt tell the difference. but i have tested it out for a good amount of time and determined that there are more artifacts in the picture using the HDMI.

I dont think they are planning to charge more for the additional channels.

I would also be interested to know if Fios is comming to raleigh. Although here in North Raleigh, we have Bell south so..

Verizon will never offer the Fios service in Raleigh because we are in the territory of the BellSouth RBOC. BellSouth is totally enamered with DSL these days, and proud of it, as the be all, do all technology. You should vist their headquarters, you'd think that they invented DSL and make money from it, totally wierd. They have giant posters and banners displyed everywhere touting DSL.

Really sad, they are way behind the times.

Fios is a facilities based service, Verizon has to bury fiber optic cable to provide the service. They won't do that in BellSouth territory.

Verizon will never offer the Fios service in Raleigh because we are in the territory of the BellSouth RBOC. BellSouth is totally enamered with DSL these days, and proud of it, as the be all, do all technology. You should vist their headquarters, you'd think that they invented DSL and make money from it, totally wierd. They have giant posters and banners displyed everywhere touting DSL.

Really sad, they are way behind the times.

Fios is a facilities based service, Verizon has to bury fiber optic cable to provide the service. They won't do that in BellSouth territory.
ya, i know what you mean about them being behind.

on a side note. we have just moved into a new townhouse here in raleigh. there are little Bell South boxes behind our building that says, "buried fiber optic cables". does that just have to do with the telephone stuff or do you think they are preparing some kind of TV programming?

Someone on the Wimington NC forum posted that UniversalHD showed up on their TWC system this morning.

ya, i know what you mean about them being behind.

on a side note. we have just moved into a new townhouse here in raleigh. there are little Bell South boxes behind our building that says, "buried fiber optic cables". does that just have to do with the telephone stuff or do you think they are preparing some kind of TV programming?


The buried fiber optic cable that you found is used to 1.) link the central offices together, 2.) provide direct fiber connectivity to large commercial buildings that use many digitial communication services.

Today in Raleigh the best residential data service is from Time Warner Cable. However, their TV service is inferior to satellite. TWC has lots of pixelation on their HD channels and their SD channels are all grainy.

In a few months their residential data service will get much better, and faster, as a result of their joint venture with Sprint. After that Internet TV (ITV, not IPTV) will become broadly available and then we will be in a whole new world.

Then we can all say bye, bye to BellSouth. :)

Is there any word that Time Warner is going to re-brand the HD On-demand channel to "24 hours of The Ring?"

However, their TV service is inferior to satellite. TWC has lots of pixelation on their HD channels and their SD channels are all grainy.

I have to disagree. I was with Dish for 3 days before going back TWC. I could not deal with the "HD lite" on Sat. Also the SD channels on DISH were horriable. My TWC hd channels and SD channels for that matter are flawless. maybe it is different here in North Raleigh?

I had this same problem sporadically last fall. Now it seems to be occurring almost daily. Afftects both real time tv viewing and recorded shows. While it can be worked around by going into the set up menu, it is getting to be an annoyance. Anyone else seeing this occur on such a regular basis? Is it time to ask TWC to replace the 8300HD DVR? Thanks for any input.

I've noticed that if I am watching something in DD5.1 and I have 2 upcoming (simultaneaous) recordings scheduled, it kicks out of DD and into DPL... at which point I must reboot the box to get DD out of it for anything, even stored recordings. Seems like a firmware bug to me.

As for reboots.. the box is just flaky.. if I try to go thru my favorites quickly (I programmed the ~20 ch
I ever want to watch into FAV and never use CH+-, I can get the box to hang and reboot maybe every 20th time as I go by the Comedy ch (36)... favorites in that area go 29, 30, 34, 36, 38...

Mike

I'm using a TWC digital box. I was watching the 10:00pm news on fox last night and noticed that the audio and video are out of sync by 1 sec. on both channels 250 (HD) and 251)SD). Any fix to this, or does the network have to fix it.

Just curious ... any updates on the progress for this upgrade project??

Thanks in advance.
The manufacturer crew is supposed to be in today, Jan 24th. I was expecting them yesterday, but television has nothing to do with communications! If it all goes well, it should be on tonight. I will let y'all know and (sigh) ask for comments. Just be nice and honest. :) It still gives us a little time to tweak before Olympics.

Hello to everyone!

Just got a new HDTV (Samsung HLR5078) and also am new to this forum. I've got a question I thought ya'll could help me with concerning TWC's DVR. I have them scheduled to come over to deliver tonite the HD8300 STB and DVR. From reading various threads on this forum I'm wondering the following:

*Does TWC enable both the HDMI and the component ports on the DVR (I understand it varies according to the cable provider)?
*Does TWC provide the HDMI cable from the DVR to the TV?
*Is the SATA cable port enabled on the DVR (I'd like to install an additional hardrive)?
*For various reasons I plan on keeping the CableCard I have installed whilst adding the DVR primarily for recording/playback (using a cable splitter from the wall outlet). What are the drawbacks to this arrangement?

Also, so far I have found the RDU TWC people to be phenomenally ignorant of their equipment both for the installers and customer service representatives. I'm wondering if there is anyone in customer service ya'll could suggest to answer service difficulty questions? Is it just me but did the analog channels just disappear for awhile this last weekend (while still receiving all digital ones)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello to everyone!

Just got a new HDTV (Samsung HLR5078) and also am new to this forum. I've got a question I thought ya'll could help me with concerning TWC's DVR. I have them scheduled to come over to deliver tonite the HD8300 STB and DVR. From reading various threads on this forum I'm wondering the following:

*Does TWC enable both the HDMI and the component ports on the DVR (I understand it varies according to the cable provider)?
*Does TWC provide the HDMI cable from the DVR to the TV?
*Is the SATA cable port enabled on the DVR (I'd like to install an additional hardrive)?
*For various reasons I plan on keeping the CableCard I have installed whilst adding the DVR primarily for recording/playback (using a cable splitter from the wall outlet). What are the drawbacks to this arrangement?

Also, so far I have found the RDU TWC people to be phenomenally ignorant of their equipment both for the installers and customer service representatives. I'm wondering if there is anyone in customer service ya'll could suggest to answer service difficulty questions? Is it just me but did the analog channels just disappear for awhile this last weekend (while still receiving all digital ones)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Congrats on the Samsung 5078. I purchased a 5668 in August and have been very happy with this set.

Regarding HDMI/Component. TWC supplied Component cable only. I was told that while the HDMI port was activated, it is not supported for any problems. I have been satisfied with PQ of Component so have not even tried the HDMI hookup.

Sorry don't know anything about the SATA port. I had searched the forums awhile back to try and find external HDD solution. Did not have much luck. It would be nice to have something along those lines since HD recordings rapidly fill up the DVR.

I had originally intended to have cable card + 8300DVR. When I told TWC that they responded only one tech does the install and would have meant longer wait. Decided to pass and have been running a splitter before the 8300 for the few times I want to record 2 channels while watching a third. Works fine for me.

When you go with cablecard, you lose a lot of the show info data provided by cable box. TV Guide is supposed to be of some help but that has its own share of issues. To maintain full DD 5.1 to your AVR, you would have to run optical lines from both Cable Card and the 8300. Despite what the Samsung DLP user's manual implies, you apparently cannot get DD 5.1 out of the Samsung DLPs' optical connection when you use cable box regardless of connection between STB and DLP.

From the various forums, there have been some that indicated a cable card provides a superior picture than using STB. That might be the case but my picture looks so darn good now I really didn't see the need for the additional expense. However, that are obviously others that have different opinions.

Has anyone heard about the news that WB and UPN are merging into a single new network, the CW?

So what do you guys think this will mean in our area? I imagine that, since both affiliates in our market have the same ownership (Sinclair), one of them would become the affiliate for the new network. I just hope it's WLFL so we can at least get the programming of the new network in High Definition (and that way, it would stop mattering when would WRDC make the jump to HD).

Hello to everyone!

Just got a new HDTV (Samsung HLR5078) and also am new to this forum. I've got a question I thought ya'll could help me with concerning TWC's DVR. I have them scheduled to come over to deliver tonite the HD8300 STB and DVR. From reading various threads on this forum I'm wondering the following:

*Does TWC enable both the HDMI and the component ports on the DVR (I understand it varies according to the cable provider)?
*Does TWC provide the HDMI cable from the DVR to the TV?
*Is the SATA cable port enabled on the DVR (I'd like to install an additional hardrive)?
*For various reasons I plan on keeping the CableCard I have installed whilst adding the DVR primarily for recording/playback (using a cable splitter from the wall outlet). What are the drawbacks to this arrangement?

Also, so far I have found the RDU TWC people to be phenomenally ignorant of their equipment both for the installers and customer service representatives. I'm wondering if there is anyone in customer service ya'll could suggest to answer service difficulty questions? Is it just me but did the analog channels just disappear for awhile this last weekend (while still receiving all digital ones)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Well done on your purchase.

I have the SA8300 and have had zero problems. All HD ports are active - including HDMI.
SATA port isn't active - doubtful it will be anytime soon.

Actually, the folks at TWC are informative - at least in my experience. I've found the best way to get a straight answer is by emailing them directly. Those emails get routed to the appropriate areas of expertise. They've gotten back to me on a few technical questions promptly.

Rock on and enjoy.

Has anyone heard about the news that WB and UPN are merging into a single new network, the CW?

So what do you guys think this will mean in our area? I imagine that, since both affiliates in our market have the same ownership (Sinclair), one of them would become the affiliate for the new network. I just hope it's WLFL so we can at least get the programming of the new network in High Definition (and that way, it would stop mattering when would WRDC make the jump to HD).

There is no guarantee that Sinclair would necessarily have the affiliation to the new network on EITHER of their outlets. If I were CW, I'd be shopping for ANYBODY else to affiliate with.

Thx alot for the info. :) I'm guessing he didn't mention any timeframe for "Switched Digital" capability or the any basic stations going to OnDemand.

TWC of Columbia SC has had "Switched Digital" for a little while now which freed up ban width for them to add UniversalHD over a month ago.

I think that's Start Over that Columbia has. Basically, you can start programs (only on certain channels) from the beginning. An access screen pops up on certain channels giving you access to "start over" a show. I would prefer a DVR, however.

As for switched digital - I don't think any company has gone to this yet? I could be wrong. I'm not too sure - but I believe this entails taking a chunk of channels that people do not access or surf to (or rarely watch)- and putting those on a streaming-type platform. If a channel is not being used (or watched) then it's not taking up bandwidth. Something like that.

The manufacturer crew is supposed to be in today, Jan 24th. I was expecting them yesterday, but television has nothing to do with communications! If it all goes well, it should be on tonight. I will let y'all know and (sigh) ask for comments. Just be nice and honest. :) It still gives us a little time to tweak before Olympics.

NBC17ENG

Hurray!!!!! Much much much better!!!!! Compared WNCN with WITN last night and if anything WNCN looks a teeny bit better. Now just don't go selling the station to Sinclair or Nexstar. Thanks from all of us who care.

The manufacturer crew is supposed to be in today, Jan 24th. I was expecting them yesterday, but television has nothing to do with communications! If it all goes well, it should be on tonight. I will let y'all know and (sigh) ask for comments. Just be nice and honest. :) It still gives us a little time to tweak before Olympics.

I haven't had a chance to watch yet. I'll post (or PM you) once I've had a chance to do an A/B comparison with an older show. Thanks for all your hard work. Your efforts are truly appreciated - especially if everything is perfect in time for ND football next fall. :)

Jeff

Just read in the January TW Update that Universal HD will be offered beginning Feb. 1 as part of the HD Suite. Finally, a new HD channel :)

I think that's Start Over that Columbia has. Basically, you can start programs (only on certain channels) from the beginning. An access screen pops up on certain channels giving you access to "start over" a show. I would prefer a DVR, however.

As for switched digital - I don't think any company has gone to this yet? I could be wrong. I'm not too sure - but I believe this entails taking a chunk of channels that people do not access or surf to (or rarely watch)- and putting those on a streaming-type platform. If a channel is not being used (or watched) then it's not taking up bandwidth. Something like that.

I think I read that Time Warner is testing switched video in Austin, could be wrong. It will be interesting to see how seamless the access to "on request" channels is. If they are not easily "surfable", the implications for the carriage agreements with cable operators are tremedous. But switched video is the major bandwidth advantage cable has over satellite, and why cable is a more viable long term platform.

Other emerging distribution platforms include FTTH (fiber to the home) which Verizon is rolling out in several markets, and AT&T's Project Lightpeed, a hybrid fiber/dedicated copper pair solution. Not to mention the emerging access to video content on the internet.

Because of all of these "on demand" friendly solutions, expect the DVR to go the way of the VCR in less than ten years. One thing to be sure, the times they are a changin'.

Just read in the January TW Update that Universal HD will be offered beginning Feb. 1 as part of the HD Suite. Finally, a new HD channel :)


This confirms what AndyHDTV and tommy122 said earlier. UHD for Feb 1st in the Raleigh/Cary area. It will be part of the HD package but you will get it free for the Month of February. Kinda funny how it works out that it is free for the only month that most people will want to watch it?

HD Suite:

Time Warner Cable's Premium HD package - Click here for more information!

Ch. 290 - ESPN HD
Ch. 291 - INHD
Ch. 292 - INHD2
Ch. 293 - HDNet
Ch. 294 - HDNet Movies
Ch. 299/502 - HD Movies On Demand
Ch. 295 Universal HD - coming February 1st! Watch a Free Preview of Universal HD the entire month of February!

http://www.timewarnercable.com/nc/products/cable/hdtv.html

Well done on your purchase.

I have the SA8300 and have had zero problems. All HD ports are active - including HDMI.
SATA port isn't active - doubtful it will be anytime soon.

Actually, the folks at TWC are informative - at least in my experience. I've found the best way to get a straight answer is by emailing them directly. Those emails get routed to the appropriate areas of expertise. They've gotten back to me on a few technical questions promptly.

Rock on and enjoy.


Thanks for the info. I'm bummed about the SATA port, though will try your email method to TWC to see if I can get better answers from them.

Congrats on the Samsung 5078. I purchased a 5668 in August and have been very happy with this set.

Regarding HDMI/Component. TWC supplied Component cable only. I was told that while the HDMI port was activated, it is not supported for any problems. I have been satisfied with PQ of Component so have not even tried the HDMI hookup.

Sorry don't know anything about the SATA port. I had searched the forums awhile back to try and find external HDD solution. Did not have much luck. It would be nice to have something along those lines since HD recordings rapidly fill up the DVR.

I had originally intended to have cable card + 8300DVR. When I told TWC that they responded only one tech does the install and would have meant longer wait. Decided to pass and have been running a splitter before the 8300 for the few times I want to record 2 channels while watching a third. Works fine for me.

When you go with cablecard, you lose a lot of the show info data provided by cable box. TV Guide is supposed to be of some help but that has its own share of issues. To maintain full DD 5.1 to your AVR, you would have to run optical lines from both Cable Card and the 8300. Despite what the Samsung DLP user's manual implies, you apparently cannot get DD 5.1 out of the Samsung DLPs' optical connection when you use cable box regardless of connection between STB and DLP.

From the various forums, there have been some that indicated a cable card provides a superior picture than using STB. That might be the case but my picture looks so darn good now I really didn't see the need for the additional expense. However, that are obviously others that have different opinions.

Thanks for all your comments. I am going to more thoroughly check out the DD5.1 issue you mentioned. Hopefully the "78" model works a little differently. Will let you know how it goes.

BTW, so far my eyes can't really tell the difference between the CableCard picture and the DVR picture quality. I do notice, however, that the sound from the CableCard through the tv speakers is less "tinny" than through the DVR. Otherwise, no complaints at all about the SA8300HD.

I really appreciate the help you guys in the forum offer. I did luck out with a pretty good tech for the install last night, but even he didn't know that the SATA output wasn't enabled.

I think that's Start Over that Columbia has. Basically, you can start programs (only on certain channels) from the beginning. An access screen pops up on certain channels giving you access to "start over" a show. I would prefer a DVR, however.

As for switched digital - I don't think any company has gone to this yet? I could be wrong. I'm not too sure - but I believe this entails taking a chunk of channels that people do not access or surf to (or rarely watch)- and putting those on a streaming-type platform. If a channel is not being used (or watched) then it's not taking up bandwidth. Something like that.

Yep, I knew they already had "Start Over" but after seeing "Diana Smith, Director of Marketing for Video Services Time Warner Cable South Carolina" mention about two months ago that "SDV" would come very soon I was thinking they had it by now.

Plus I could swear I saw in a post of hers that freed up bandwidth due to SDV allowed them to add UHD but I couldn't find the post. :)

Just read in the January TW Update that Universal HD will be offered beginning Feb. 1 as part of the HD Suite. Finally, a new HD channel :)

I got that e-mail too. I was hoping they would be adding "The Sleuth Channel" (http://www.sleuthchannel.com/) to the lineup at the same time. It was also part of the TWC/Universal/NBC agreement. Somewhere else on TWC Sleuth already replaced the Trio channel.

And Where's MHD? I'm reading good things about it. :)

Yep, I knew they already had "Start Over" but after seeing "Diana Smith, Director of Marketing for Video Services Time Warner Cable South Carolina" mention about two months ago that "SDV" would come very soon I was thinking they had it by now.

Plus I could swear I saw in a post of hers that freed up bandwidth due to SDV allowed them to add UHD but I couldn't find the post. :)
I don't think TWC-SC has Switched Digital Video Broadcast.....yet...

When it is activated, some of the lesser viewed channels are dynamically reassigned to digital QAM carriers.
This is probably incompatible with one-way CableCARD-I HDTVs, since there is no return path to request adding a "missing" channel.
When TWC upgrades to CableCARD-II, only new HDTVs would be capable of SDV--the return path modulator must be built into a CC-II capable HDTV.

The dynamically reasssigned channels would REQUIRE the use of an external STB.
Channel surfing with an STB may also be a bit of a challenge to SDV.
So the impact appears to be non-trivial.

Hence, initially, SDV may be limited to adding more VOD services...

Quote from a recent article about SDV:

"Channel surfing is not an issue because the switch was so fast," he said. Subscribers couldn't tell their channels were being switched, he said.

The biggest problem with channel surfers is that magical period when one program ends and the next one has not yet begun.
Many customers will go into channel surf mode at the same time, demanding to "see", if however briefly, each channel of interest.
"I'm sorry, all of our QAM channels are temporarily busy, but we will service your request as soon as we can...."

Regarding bandwidth capacity and Switched Digital Video:

About five years ago, I was responsible for designing an overbuild cable system in a major market out west. The system architechure was as follows: The franchise area was divided into 400 home service areas. Twelve fiber cores were assigned to each service area linking it to the headend in a redundant ring. Only two of the twelve fibers were used in the initial operation, one for forward transmissions, the other for the return path, the rest for future migration. All 400 homes shared one two-way path.

However, there were four distribution branches originating at the physical node site (node being the transition equipment from fiber to coax), each with 100 homes. The physical node could be subdivided into smaller service areas with the installation of plug-in modules and supported by the spare fibers, making the migration from 400 homes on a fiber to as few as 100 homes an extremely simple task.

I thought at the time this was overkill, but now it all makes perfect sense. It makes all this switched video possible without the choke points that some operators will inevitably encounter.

This is why I believe the DVR is only an interum solution. Eventually, one will be able to request any archived programming off a central server, eliminating the need to "plan ahead" and manage his hard drive capacity. Services like "Start Over" and "Free On Demand" are indications of things to come.

Regarding bandwidth capacity and Switched Digital Video:

This is why I believe the DVR is only an interum solution. Eventually, one will be able to request any archived programming off a central server, eliminating the need to "plan ahead" and manage his hard drive capacity. Services like "Start Over" and "Free On Demand" are indications of things to come.

The need to plan ahead and manage hard drive space is mostly an artifact of the measly storage capacity of cable / sat. company supplied DVRs. The last time I came close to running out of space, I just ordered a new 300GB Sata drive and threw it into my PC based DVR. If I didn't want to throw money at the problem, I could also have transcoded shows down to DVD quality, which is still far better than any ON-DEMAND programming I've ever seen.

The demise of the DVR depends on how much archived programming there is, what quality it is delivered in, and what the usage pattern of the consumer is. For example, the trend toward whole-season storyline arcs and weekly cliffhangers make me prefer to watch series like "24" and "Alias" only after my DVR has archived a complete season, or at least most of one. Unless VOD archives TV shows from months ago, they'll pry my DVR out of my cold, dead hands.

Before anybody asks: Yes, entire seasons of HD TV series will either not fit, or will nearly fill the TWC DVR. That's one of the many reasons I use an expandable PC based DVR which allows me to either add storage space, or transcode my shows into more space efficient formats.

Drew

We are already seeing whole TV series archived on iTunes and Google Video. The quality issue is a bandwidth issue, and switched video is the solution. The DVR is nothing more than a fancy high tech VCR. It WILL go away.

The need to plan ahead and manage hard drive space is mostly an artifact of the measly storage capacity of cable / sat. company supplied DVRs. The last time I came close to running out of space, I just ordered a new 300GB Sata drive and threw it into my PC based DVR. If I didn't want to throw money at the problem, I could also have transcoded shows down to DVD quality, which is still far better than any ON-DEMAND programming I've ever seen.

The demise of the DVR depends on how much archived programming there is, what quality it is delivered in, and what the usage pattern of the consumer is. For example, the trend toward whole-season storyline arcs and weekly cliffhangers make me prefer to watch series like "24" and "Alias" only after my DVR has archived a complete season, or at least most of one. Unless VOD archives TV shows from months ago, they'll pry my DVR out of my cold, dead hands.

Before anybody asks: Yes, entire seasons of HD TV series will either not fit, or will nearly fill the TWC DVR. That's one of the many reasons I use an expandable PC based DVR which allows me to either add storage space, or transcode my shows into more space efficient formats.

Drew

I understand how it is that you are able to record HD OTA content to your PC, but how do you accomplish this with encrypted TWC HD content?

As I am currently suffering through an utterly frustrating email exchange with TWC about firewire capability for HD boxes, I am curious as to your success.

Things would definitely be easier if the SATA capabilities of the TWC HD DVR were enabled!

BTW, I'll update the forum thread when I finally get TWC pinned down on the HD firewire issue (one TWC response so far says "yes", the other says "no").

We are already seeing whole TV series archived on iTunes and Google Video. The quality issue is a bandwidth issue, and switched video is the solution. The DVR is nothing more than a fancy high tech VCR. It WILL go away.

Those are both "for pay" solutions. If you're going to talk about them, you might as well include DVD boxed sets, and there is no bandwidth or quality limit there. My understanding of switched video was that it would basically expand the free on-demand shows. If it is a "for pay" option, then I'm *really* not interested.

In any case, your DVR might go away, but I'm not you, and mine won't.

Drew

I understand how it is that you are able to record HD OTA content to your PC, but how do you accomplish this with encrypted TWC HD content?


I don't record anything that is encrypted. I'm a cheapskate, and I just subscribe to "basic" cable (well, I'm being ripped off for "standard" now so that I can watch basketball, but that will end next month). There is far more to watch on broadcast TV than I have time to view.

Drew

Those are both "for pay" solutions. If you're going to talk about them, you might as well include DVD boxed sets, and there is no bandwidth or quality limit there. My understanding of switched video was that it would basically expand the free on-demand shows. If it is a "for pay" option, then I'm *really* not interested.

In any case, your DVR might go away, but I'm not you, and mine won't.

Drew

Switched Video is a technology. "For Pay" is a business strategy. DVR boxes are an unnecessary clunky piece of expensive hardware. All that a DVR is able to do is time shift. It is not a practical solution for archiving TV series and movies. (Burn a DVD if you want to archive). Switched Video can accomplish everything a DVR can and more for much less capital expense. Virtual time shifting might be a "for free" feature of switched video, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.

I remember reading that DVD players would never replace VCR's because they couldn't record.

None of this has much to do with Raleigh, per se, except I think switched video is coming here fairly soon.

Switched Video can accomplish everything a DVR can and more for much less capital expense..

I'm atypical. I'm a consumer who prefers a large, fixed captial expense to own a piece of equipment that I control to a large monthly expense to be allowed to rent a technology I have no control over. I'm also one of these people who hates cable boxes, by the way.

Anyway, enough. You're not going to make me excited about switched video, and I'm not going to convince you that lots of people don't care, so let's just agree to disagree.

Drew

I'm atypical. I'm a consumer who prefers a large, fixed captial expense to own a piece of equipment that I control to a large monthly expense to be allowed to rent a technology I have no control over. I'm also one of these people who hates cable boxes, by the way.

Anyway, enough. You're not going to make me excited about switched video, and I'm not going to convince you that lots of people don't care, so let's just agree to disagree.

Drew

The problem with "owning" technology is that it's usually obsolete before it's paid for.

As far as "not caring", I'm confused. I thought this forum was basically for people who DO care. Enough.....

The problem with "owning" technology is that it's usually obsolete before it's paid for.

As far as "not caring", I'm confused. I thought this forum was basically for people who DO care. Enough.....

My HD dvr will be paid for this summer (if you compare to renting one from TWC). I doubt there will be no more OTA ATSC HD broadcasts by then.

Anyway, my "not caring" is that I'm not excited about using switched video. And everything I've heard so far about switched video makes it sound like it probably won't cary HD, it will just make more room by offloading SD channels that have very little demand.

Drew

My HD dvr will be paid for this summer (if you compare to renting one from TWC). I doubt there will be no more OTA ATSC HD broadcasts by then.

Anyway, my "not caring" is that I'm not excited about using switched video. And everything I've heard so far about switched video makes it sound like it probably won't cary HD, it will just make more room by offloading SD channels that have very little demand.

Drew

Near term, SDV will probably be utilized primarily to stream less popular channels, but as OCAP (open cable application platform) and two-way CableCards become a reality, look for most (if not all) digital programming, SD and especially HD, to be switched. In less than ten years, analogue transmissions on cable systems will probably be gone as well. The remaining NTSC sets will have to have set top boxes.

Scenerio: You want to watch Season One Episode Two of "Lost" in HDTV??? It's free if your watch the "with commercials" version, or 99 cents without.

Let's face it, other than live news and sports, scheduled TV viewing is becoming obsolete.

Let's face it, other than live news and sports, scheduled TV viewing is becoming obsolete.

I agree. Already with DVR's, VCR's etc. you can watch your shows when YOU want to. The networks apparently don't get it yet with all of the jockeying of shows from one time slot to another trying to get a larger share of the rating. None of this has affected me at all. I still watch the shows that I want to regardless of where they put them and I think that most other people do also.

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.

I have a big red target on my back covering the yellow stripe.

Yep, I knew they already had "Start Over" but after seeing "Diana Smith, Director of Marketing for Video Services Time Warner Cable South Carolina" mention about two months ago that "SDV" would come very soon I was thinking they had it by now.

Plus I could swear I saw in a post of hers that freed up bandwidth due to SDV allowed them to add UHD but I couldn't find the post. :)
I only recently learned that TWC South Carolina is on the SARA operating system....
Which means they are completely different than TW systems using PASSPORT....like Raleigh and mine in San Diego.

Just read in the January TW Update that Universal HD will be offered beginning Feb. 1 as part of the HD Suite. Finally, a new HD channel :)
We're hoping for not only UNIV-HD, but also MHD and ESPN2-HD.
TWC-SD's competitor, COX-SD started MHD yesterday and UNIV-HD late last year.

Only need to conquer/overthrow/subvert one analog channel assignment....come on TWC!!!

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.

I have a big red target on my back covering the yellow stripe.
I thought "My Name is Earl" looked damn good tonight, but I was only half paying attention and had no idea the new encoder was in. Also, it's not a great show to check with since I don't watch it often and it doesn't have much if any fast motion. I'll keep my eye out for next week's Scrubs because that looked like crap the last couple, even though it's SD on an HD station.

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.

I have a big red target on my back covering the yellow stripe.

NBC17ENG, you were one of my last updates on my webpage! I think the new encoder is doing a great job! HD looks tremendously better as well as your 2 SD subs. I was pleasently surprised last night watching the re-broadcast of The Tonight Show; saw some minor pixilization, but far and away, it is a more than noticeable improvement! Congrats!

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.

I have a big red target on my back covering the yellow stripe.

I've been A/B'ing WITN and WNCN. You look much better than before, but perhaps the noise filtering is a little higher than WITN, causing a slight "smearing" as a motion articfact. (I think WLFL must have their noise filtering WIDE open) The SD isn't yet up to par with your neighbors at 5 and 11. Keep up the good work!!!

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.
.
This is more on-topic than anything else has been recently :)

I took a brief look at "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" last night, and they seemed to look really good. I was just excited to checkout the encoder, and so I just watched the first scene or so of each show before going to bed. I'm looking forward to seeing some fast motion to judge the pixelization, but things are definitely looking up!

I wonder: Are you now using the same brand of encoder as WRAL? My DVR (running very beta software that I've never wanted to touch because it has worked well enough) always thinks that shows on WRAL are about 8 minutes per hour shorter than they really are (eg, the length of a 1 hour show appears as 52:00). This only used to happen on WRAL, but last night's sitcoms on NBC17 seemed to be about 8 minutes per hour shorter than they should have been. I'm *not* complaining about this, I just thought it was interesting.

Drew

I told y'all I'd be updating the forum on my quest to add additional recording capacity to my cable HD system. Yes I have a working SA8300HD DVR, but I want additional storage (20 hours of HD storage content is not enough).

Unfortunately, TWC email support responses have been inadequate, contradictory, and uniformed in an excruciatingly frustrating way. I finally yesterday got someone in tech level 3 support on the phone who although could not answer my questions, he did keep me on the phone the entire time while asking around the office and calling the install supervisor guys as well in order to finally come up with definitive answers. Yeah!

Anyway, the skinny is as follows (and I will repeat some things I posted previously):

1) SATA port (to add external SATA hard drives) is not enabled on the SA8300HD because the PASSPORT software used for the DVR does not yet work with SATA (this is why TWC Charlotte users, who have the SARA software system, can add additional harddrive storage to their SA8300HD DVR's using the SATA port).

2) Firewire port, though shown as "enabled" on the diagnostic screen of the SA8300HD (Channel 999), does not work.

3) SA3250 STB (I clarified that they won't be bringing/installing a SA3250HD) is the only option for having a workable firewire connection with TWC-Raleigh. Apparently TWC-Raleigh techs have to modify somewhat the box to make this happen, and to provide the user with the HD encrypted content.

Since I am a user who wants to store/archive HD content, I have opted to use a D-VHS system utilizing the firewire connection on the SA3250. Specifically, I'm adding a Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U unit which will not only play/record in D-VHS, but also play/record in SVHS and VHS. BTW, for anyone who's wondering, you can, with a simple modification to the tape case, use SVHS tapes instead of paying the $20 for a D-VHS tape. Reports from owners of this unit report playback virtually indistinguishable from the original HD broadcast. I'm looking forward to that.

I remarked to a friend yesterday that "I wonder how many people have been told by TWC-Raleigh that they couldn't do what I'm about to do just because they got ahold of the ignorant dolts at customer service!". AVSFORUM had the threads with the information I needed to ask the right questions. THANK YOU ALL!

Now I will of course be updating again after the install at the end of next week (they said they build 'em by the order). Wish me luck...I'm not feeling too confident quite yet.

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.

I have a big red target on my back covering the yellow stripe.

My DVR'd copy of Lost from Wed (HD) had a ~5 second loss of audio around the 54 minute mark.
No break-up, just complete drop-out. Video looked great. Not complaining, just offering a data point. (this was TWC)

Mike

I only recently learned that TWC South Carolina is on the SARA operating system....
Which means they are completely different than TW systems using PASSPORT....like Raleigh and mine in San Diego.

Yep, I've known for quite some time they use SARA. :)

Don't want to get off topic, but switched digital is coming, and TWC is excited, and NBC Universal is ready to roll. Will it be the end of free TV? Hum.......

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.

I have a big red target on my back covering the yellow stripe.

The shows the past couple nights on the HD channel has looked better (crisper with more depth). A race will tell the most. But the SD channel shows the most improvement. It really looks good. No more looking like an old avi codec video streamed over 56k modem. Nicely done, Thanks alot :D

My DVR'd copy of Lost from Wed (HD) had a ~5 second loss of audio around the 54 minute mark.
No break-up, just complete drop-out. Video looked great. Not complaining, just offering a data point. (this was TWC)


Isn't Lost an ABC show? It's not much of a data point for the engineer at our NBC station, except for competitive analysis. ;)

Anyway, back to me. How do I look?

I was home for lunch and watched "The Office" from last night. It looked quite good. I did not notice any pixelization when they panned the camera around the room in pseudo handy-cam documentary style. This is much better than before!

Drew

Anyway, back to me. How do I look? Does this new encoder make me look fat? And not just the HD, tell me how the SD's look too. (Also sound) There's been reports of certain boxes (Radio Shack) that can't pick up the new encoders from up north. Any issues, let me know.


Only watched Earl last night and it looked good over this way. I'll spin around the channels tonight and see what the rest are like. SNL was the show I most remember having artifacts so I'll check that out on Saturday.