Just curious if anyone else out there is watching 50.2 OTA Retro TV and if they noticed last night thatthe picture for Hawaii Five O and Magnum was pretty compressed with lots of pixel crawl but than when Mission Impossible came on it was back to a pretty good picture.

-Donb2

Just curious if anyone else out there is watching 50.2 OTA Retro TV and if they noticed last night thatthe picture for Hawaii Five O and Magnum was pretty compressed with lots of pixel crawl but than when Mission Impossible came on it was back to a pretty good picture.

Maybe WRAZ decided to bump up the HD bandwidth for the baseball playoff game?

Drew

drewwho,

That is exactly what I thought and was fine with it. Until I discovered that the game was still on while Mission Impossible was on. And Mission Impossible looked as good as 50.2 ever did in the past.

Maybe who ever dedicated the bandwidth to the game did not set it to go past 11pm.

-DonB2

I see 4.1 PBS putting up notice that they would have somedown time for maintenance in the early am hours. I think it was over last weekend.

Does anyone know what they did? Maybe move the transmit antenna to the Garner Farm:D

-DonB2

Maybe who ever dedicated the bandwidth to the game did not set it to go past 11pm.


According to the TMS schedule info (used by my MythTV box, and probably Tivo, etc), the game was scheduled to end at 11pm. So perhaps they just set it up ahead of time, and then went home :)

Drew

I also am having all kinds of problems. I had one of the old HD DVRs and the RF front end went bad, and we went down to the Atlantic Ave office and just swapped for a new one and they gave us one of these new boxes. Similar issues, shows not recording, shows disappearing, even the rewind live programming (the buttons are currently not active or some such nonsense). Other than the cost, I like TWC...picture quality is OK, etc. but this is driving me mad. I've had such poor experience with the folks on the phone, I won't call because I know I'll get somebody who is reading from some script (why don't they just outsource this to India, or just not answer the phone)?

Anybody got any tips on how to get to someone knowledgable at TWC? I spend a bunch of money every month with these guys, and this just stinks. If I miss one more Grey's Anatomy....well, let's just say Momma ain't happy.

As of Monday afternoon at 1:00, my 8300 HDC stopped recording anything, saying "Channel not available (2)". Of course I could tune them juts fine. Pulled power to force a full reboot, and it immediately started recording stuff it should have been doing in the first place. My 8300 HD has been chugging along fine downstairs.

If they don't fix it fast, I may just have to go back to DirecTV...

Letter from Time Warner received today; looks like they're getting closer to turning on SDV...

Dear XXXX,
As part of Time Warner Cable's commitment to provide the latest technology and excellent customer service, it is necessary from time to time to make changes to our services to better serve our customers.
As you are aware, the current CableCARD technology enables access to "one-way" programming services. Therefore, "two-way" interactive services such as On Demand programming or the On-Screen Guide require the use of a digital set-top box. As part of our ongoing upgrades to digital services, Time Warner Cable will be moving select High Definition channels and West Coast time zone channels of our premium channels to a two-way switched digital technology. Premium services such as HBO, Cinemax and Showtime that offer multiple channels showing the same programming, only delayed based upon time zone, will only be available to customers with "two-way" digital set-top boxes.
Please note that as of November 16, 2007, the following channels will no longer be available to CableCARD customers:
Ch. 289- ESPN2 HD Ch. 409- HBO Family West Ch. 431- ThrillerMax West
Ch. 292- MHD Ch. 410- HBO Signature West Ch. 448- Showtime West
Ch. 295- Universal HD Ch. 428- Cinemax West Ch. 449- Showtime Too West
Ch. 407- HBO West Ch. 429- MoreMax West Ch. 450- Showcase West
Ch. 408- HBO2 West Ch. 430- ActionMax West
You will continue to enjoy HD broadcast channels, TNT HD, Discovery HD and ESPN HD with your CableCARD service. Also, please be assured that you will continue to receive all the primary channels associated with your premium services. For example, HBO customers with a CableCARD will continue to receive HBO, HBO2, HBO Family, HBO Signature, HBO Comedy, HBO Zone, HBO Latino and HBO HD.
If you would like to continue to receive the channels noted above after November 16, 2007, please contact us at 1-866-4-TWC-NOW or visit a Time Warner Cable Customer Care location to obtain an HD cable box which will give you access to all of Time Warner Cable's programming and features. We will provide this equipment to you free of charge for six months.
Thank you for being a Time Warner Cable customer.
Sincerely,
Time Warner Cable

I just got an HDHomerun and I'm having trouble getting many of the channels purportedly Clear QAM. I can only get the PBS and CBS channels no Fox, ABC or NBC. Is there something I need to be doing differently? Is my reception too weak or something?

Letter from Time Warner received today; looks like they're getting closer to turning on SDV...

Dear XXXX,
As part of Time Warner Cable's commitment to provide the latest technology and excellent customer service, it is necessary from time to time to make changes to our services to better serve our customers.
As you are aware, the current CableCARD technology enables access to "one-way" programming services. Therefore, "two-way" interactive services such as On Demand programming or the On-Screen Guide require the use of a digital set-top box. As part of our ongoing upgrades to digital services, Time Warner Cable will be moving select High Definition channels and West Coast time zone channels of our premium channels to a two-way switched digital technology. Premium services such as HBO, Cinemax and Showtime that offer multiple channels showing the same programming, only delayed based upon time zone, will only be available to customers with "two-way" digital set-top boxes.
Please note that as of November 16, 2007, the following channels will no longer be available to CableCARD customers:
Ch. 289- ESPN2 HD Ch. 409- HBO Family West Ch. 431- ThrillerMax West
Ch. 292- MHD Ch. 410- HBO Signature West Ch. 448- Showtime West
Ch. 295- Universal HD Ch. 428- Cinemax West Ch. 449- Showtime Too West
Ch. 407- HBO West Ch. 429- MoreMax West Ch. 450- Showcase West
Ch. 408- HBO2 West Ch. 430- ActionMax West
You will continue to enjoy HD broadcast channels, TNT HD, Discovery HD and ESPN HD with your CableCARD service. Also, please be assured that you will continue to receive all the primary channels associated with your premium services. For example, HBO customers with a CableCARD will continue to receive HBO, HBO2, HBO Family, HBO Signature, HBO Comedy, HBO Zone, HBO Latino and HBO HD.
If you would like to continue to receive the channels noted above after November 16, 2007, please contact us at 1-866-4-TWC-NOW or visit a Time Warner Cable Customer Care location to obtain an HD cable box which will give you access to all of Time Warner Cable's programming and features. We will provide this equipment to you free of charge for six months.
Thank you for being a Time Warner Cable customer.
Sincerely,
Time Warner Cable


I got the letter too. Notably missing from the letter is the HDSuite channels. I had been previously told that they were the ones going. However, Im concerned that their omission was an oversight.... need to get some clarification from TWC.

Notably missing from the letter is the HDSuite channels.
292 (MHD) and 295 (UHD) are mentioned. They are in the HD Suite.

Does this mean that CableCARD will still get the other HD Suite channels (291, 293, 294)?

292 (MHD) and 295 (UHD) are mentioned. They are in the HD Suite.

Does this mean that CableCARD will still get the other HD Suite channels (291, 293, 294)?


Yea... your right of course. Mojo, HDNet and HDNet movies are the ones important to me....

I sent an email to TWC with the question... We will see... but I have a baaaaad feeling.

I just got an HDHomerun and I'm having trouble getting many of the channels purportedly Clear QAM. I can only get the PBS and CBS channels no Fox, ABC or NBC. Is there something I need to be doing differently? Is my reception too weak or something?
Have you already tried the channel numbers on this list?

Unencrypted Digital TV Channels in Durham, NC (http://home1.gte.net/res18h39/channels.htm)

Yea... your right of course. Mojo, HDNet and HDNet movies are the ones important to me....

I sent an email to TWC with the question... We will see... but I have a baaaaad feeling.

Received this response... I hope Elena is right....

TRACKING NUMBER: 139847
Inquiry:
Dear TWC,

I received the 'cablecard' letter today and I have a question. The letter indicates specifically that ESPN2HD, UHD and MTVHD is being removed. However, It doesnt mention the HDSuite channels (Mojo, HDNET, HDNET Movies). Can I assume that they will remain available to cablecard??
____________________________________________________________ _____
Response:Thank you for contacting us. The current HD channels listed in the letter are switching to digital platform, therefore current cablecard subscribers will not have these channels. However, all other HD channels should be operational.


Please let us know if we can be of any additional assistance.

Thank you for using Time Warner Cable.
Elena
Time Warner Cable Support
Raleigh, NC

I just got an HDHomerun and I'm having trouble getting many of the channels purportedly Clear QAM. I can only get the PBS and CBS channels no Fox, ABC or NBC. Is there something I need to be doing differently? Is my reception too weak or something?

I've also got an HDHomerun and don't have any troubles getting all of the local stations via QAM. Have you checked the signal strength? I believe you need >90% for good QAM reception. Perhaps you have one too many splitters between the drop from TW and your HDHomerun...

As it looks like TWC SDV activation is imminent in the Triangle, what can we expect in terms of new HD programming (cablecard issues aside). I imagine that TWC is starting to see an exodus to D* as the new MPEG4 channels are going live. I tried myself but got tree'ed out (by one tree in my neighbor's yard, :mad:).

Can we expect a similar glut of new channels or are they going to continue to trickle them out one or two at a time. Also, will SDV allow them to offer as many as D* or are they still basically hamstrung until if and when they decide to run more fiber?

As it looks like TWC SDV activation is imminent in the Triangle, what can we expect in terms of new HD programming (cablecard issues aside). I imagine that TWC is starting to see an exodus to D* as the new MPEG4 channels are going live. I tried myself but got tree'ed out (by one tree in my neighbor's yard, :mad:).

Can we expect a similar glut of new channels or are they going to continue to trickle them out one or two at a time. Also, will SDV allow them to offer as many as D* or are they still basically hamstrung until if and when they decide to run more fiber?

TWC told me that SDV turn on was in first quarter. The SDV divisions of TWC NC just got something in the range of 10 channels.

As it looks like TWC SDV activation is imminent in the Triangle, what can we expect in terms of new HD programming (cablecard issues aside). I imagine that TWC is starting to see an exodus to D* as the new MPEG4 channels are going live. I tried myself but got tree'ed out (by one tree in my neighbor's yard, :mad:).

Can we expect a similar glut of new channels or are they going to continue to trickle them out one or two at a time. Also, will SDV allow them to offer as many as D* or are they still basically hamstrung until if and when they decide to run more fiber?

By this time next year, the difference between DirecTV and Time Warner will be this....

DirecTV will count four different PPV view start times for the same movie as four HD channels, will still count all the Distant Locals you're not even allowed to buy, and will count every regional version of FSN as a full channel even though 95% of it's programming in not unique.

Time Warner will claim fewer channels, but actually have many many more choices, because SDV supports VOD and Linear satellite does not.

Any questions ????:D:D:D

P.S. For the record, I have both TWC and DirecTV for now. I'm guessing in a year I'll be back to cable only. We'll see.

P.S.S. I sorta got "treed" too. I can't see 119. However, the ONLY channels on 119 are ESPN2 and HDNet. The rest of the MPEG2 channels are on 110. I had to sign a waiver saying that I knew I couldn't get 119 and didn't care.

How to record TWC Standard tier channels to a PC?

Hi, I'm new to HD and want to be able to record both HD and non-HD content to a PC (Media Center or Myth).

I'm planning to go with TWC b/c of OTA reception issues.

I've done some research and am looking at the HDHomerun, but what I'm wondering about are the channels that aren't on our local "Unencrypted Digital" list.

Is there a way to record these (ESPNHD, etc.)? Can you do it without a STB? Can you do it with a STB, via the firewire port? If so, is firewire a reliable approach here with whatever local TWC configurations are? How do people handle this?

Just looking for some local experience on how this can work with what TWC has in the Triangle. (Note I'm assuming this won't work with any of the satellite providers.)

Thanks for any assistance!

By this time next year, the difference between DirecTV and Time Warner will be this....


DirecTV will have an IPG that works.

TWC will have Navigator.

How to record TWC Standard tier channels to a PC?

Hi, I'm new to HD and want to be able to record both HD and non-HD content to a PC (Media Center or Myth).

I'm planning to go with TWC b/c of OTA reception issues.

I've done some research and am looking at the HDHomerun, but what I'm wondering about are the channels that aren't on our local "Unencrypted Digital" list.

Is there a way to record these (ESPNHD, etc.)? Can you do it without a STB? Can you do it with a STB, via the firewire port? If so, is firewire a reliable approach here with whatever local TWC configurations are? How do people handle this?

Just looking for some local experience on how this can work with what TWC has in the Triangle. (Note I'm assuming this won't work with any of the satellite providers.)

Thanks for any assistance!

Before you can record it you'll have to be able to view it first, meaning you won't be able to record encrypted channels (SD or HD) without the service. Search in this forum for recording via firewire interface, once you have the service via STB

DirecTV will have an IPG that works.

TWC will have Navigator.

I'll give you that one....

However, DirecTVs bit starved SD channels will still look horrible, and Time Warner's digital SD channels will look remarkably good.

My biggest dissappointment with DirecTV is just how awful the SD channels look.....

Hello, here in Goldsboro the 5.1 sound from the networks, most notably WRAL has been wicked bad. The center channel goes in and out and is unbearable to listen to. I was watching Discovery and the 5.1 was good there. All movies that use 5.1 sound good so it's not my amp. Have any of you noticed this? TWC issue? I have a 8300HD DVR.

TWC must be really hard up for bandwidth. Noticed that they have 3 HD streams on a single channel. 711Mhz is carrying A&EHD, GolfVSHD and MTVHD. 657Mhz is carrying HDNet, HDNet Movies and TBSHD. Not too good for picture quality.... 5.8G for 61 minutes on MTVHD. HD Lite?

Just came back from a 4 day business trip, to complete disaster. First, some background...

I get a call from my wife on Friday that the TV was freaking out (she meant the cable box, but it's all the same to her). Basically, things had locked all the way up.

I told her to pull the plug and reboot. That seemed to do the job. However, when I got home from the trip this evening, it was stuck on the Disney Channel, with no way to change channels or bring up the guide. So, I pulled the plug again.

This is where things REALLY get strange. When it boots now, it says "nOhd" for a while before it begins the 14 to 1 countdown. Haven't noticed that before, but "No HD" can't be good.

When it finally comes back online, it's like I've got a brand new cable box! ALL my recordings are gone. All scheduled recordings are gone. My default channel is back to 14. It's back to 480i output only, and in 4x3 aspect ratio. It shows the time on the front instead of the channel. So, I'm pissed, cause I lost a bunch of stuff I wanted to record, but oh well.

NOW the problem is that, despite setting a couple series records again, they don't take. They don't show up as red in the guide, and the "series manager" screen shows 0 recorded, and 0 scheduled.

What on earth is going on? There's no way my wife pushed the reset combo. How could my box have been blown up like that.

And it might be my imagination, but I swear this ALCS game doesn't look quite "hi-def."

Any thoughts? At least, how can I start scheduling recordings again?

This is my first post here, and I apologize if this question has been answered (I did not find it while searching). Here it goes...

If I buy a set with a built in QAM Tuner, I can receive local HD programming (unscrambled) through the coaxial cable. That much I understand.

Here's my question... does the cable have to be connected directly to the television? Or, does the cable-to cable box-to TV connection still work?

I want an HDTV predominantly for local/network programming. Which is already free and OTA. But, I do not want to lose my DVR and current Digital Cable package (at this point, an HD-DVR is not important to me).

TWC tells me it is an extra $10 a month to switch to HD. But it's my understanding that what I want is already there - for free. I just need to know if I am 'forced' to get an HD set top box IF I want to simply keep the DVR, Guide, and InDemand features.

Just came back from a 4 day business trip, to complete disaster. First, some background...

I get a call from my wife on Friday that the TV was freaking out (she meant the cable box, but it's all the same to her). Basically, things had locked all the way up.

I told her to pull the plug and reboot. That seemed to do the job. However, when I got home from the trip this evening, it was stuck on the Disney Channel, with no way to change channels or bring up the guide. So, I pulled the plug again.

This is where things REALLY get strange. When it boots now, it says "nOhd" for a while before it begins the 14 to 1 countdown. Haven't noticed that before, but "No HD" can't be good.

When it finally comes back online, it's like I've got a brand new cable box! ALL my recordings are gone. All scheduled recordings are gone. My default channel is back to 14. It's back to 480i output only, and in 4x3 aspect ratio. It shows the time on the front instead of the channel. So, I'm pissed, cause I lost a bunch of stuff I wanted to record, but oh well.

NOW the problem is that, despite setting a couple series records again, they don't take. They don't show up as red in the guide, and the "series manager" screen shows 0 recorded, and 0 scheduled.

What on earth is going on? There's no way my wife pushed the reset combo. How could my box have been blown up like that.

And it might be my imagination, but I swear this ALCS game doesn't look quite "hi-def."

Any thoughts? At least, how can I start scheduling recordings again?

n0hd is probably no harddrive. Sounds like the harddrive failed. Time for a new box.... maybe you will get one of the outstanding ocrap units.... unless youre lucky...

This is my first post here, and I apologize if this question has been answered (I did not find it while searching). Here it goes...

If I buy a set with a built in QAM Tuner, I can receive local HD programming (unscrambled) through the coaxial cable. That much I understand.

Here's my question... does the cable have to be connected directly to the television? Or, does the cable-to cable box-to TV connection still work?

I want an HDTV predominantly for local/network programming. Which is already free and OTA. But, I do not want to lose my DVR and current Digital Cable package (at this point, an HD-DVR is not important to me).

TWC tells me it is an extra $10 a month to switch to HD. But it's my understanding that what I want is already there - for free. I just need to know if I am 'forced' to get an HD set top box IF I want to simply keep the DVR, Guide, and InDemand features.

If you want HD then the coax cable from TWC goes from the wall to the cable box. From the cable box to the tv should be (depending on what kind of TV) either component cables (5 wires) or HDMI (1 wire) or DVI + Audio (3 wires). SVideo or Composite is only for SD. Running coax from the cable box to the TV is the worst possible connection for picture quality.

If your set has a QAM tuner then it will have two coax inputs... one for OTA and one for cable. Connect your antenna to the OTA antenna input and leave the cable input unconnected and get your cable stuff from the cablebox.

But it's my understanding that what I want is already there - for free. I just need to know if I am 'forced' to get an HD set top box IF I want to simply keep the DVR, Guide, and InDemand features.

You can keep your DVR just the way it is, and get a splitter (digital cable ready, bidirectional) and two short coax cables. Remove the coax cable from the DVR. Connect the coax cable to the "input" of the splitter, and one coax from the output of the splitter to the TV, and one coax from the splitter output to the DVR.

However, before going to this trouble, I'd first just connect the TV right to the wall and see how well it picks up QAM. Some TVs don't work well..

Drew

However, DirecTVs bit starved SD channels will still look horrible, and Time Warner's digital SD channels will look remarkably good.

Except if you have CableCard, where they are analog, and look even worse..

Drew

If you want HD then the coax cable from TWC goes from the wall to the cable box. From the cable box to the tv should be (depending on what kind of TV) either component cables (5 wires) or HDMI (1 wire) or DVI + Audio (3 wires). SVideo or Composite is only for SD. Running coax from the cable box to the TV is the worst possible connection for picture quality.

If your set has a QAM tuner then it will have two coax inputs... one for OTA and one for cable. Connect your antenna to the OTA antenna input and leave the cable input unconnected and get your cable stuff from the cablebox.

A TV with both QAM (cable) and ATSC (digital over-the-air)/NTSC (analog over-the air) tuners will not necessarily have two coax connections. Both my Vizio and Sony sets have such dual tuners with a single antenna/cable connection.

Here in Cary, after connecting the cable directly to the TV, I get all the HD local channels (4, 5, 11, 17, 22, 28, 40, 50) including their subchannels. You get a bunch of other SD digital channels, all of which are duplicates of other channels. You do NOT get any HD channels like TNT-HD, ESPN-HD, MOJO, etc.

A TV with both QAM (cable) and ATSC (digital over-the-air)/NTSC (analog over-the air) tuners will not necessarily have two coax connections. Both my Vizio and Sony sets have such dual tuners with a single antenna/cable connection.

Here in Cary, after connecting the cable directly to the TV, I get all the HD local channels (4, 5, 11, 17, 22, 28, 40, 50) including their subchannels. You get a bunch of other SD digital channels, all of which are duplicates of other channels. You do NOT get any HD channels like TNT-HD, ESPN-HD, MOJO, etc.

Interesting. Wasnt aware of that. My 3 QAM sets all have 2 coax connections.

Except if you have CableCard, where they are analog, and look even worse..

Drew

I get digital simulcast on ALL channels through my cable card. I didn't when it was first installed, but one day, voila, there they were. Some sort of node upgrade ???

I get digital simulcast on ALL channels through my cable card. I didn't when it was first installed, but one day, voila, there they were. Some sort of node upgrade ???

Sounds like TWC made a mistake. My 0-99 are definitely analog with all three cablecards.

Can someone confirm if WTVD has converted its local newscasts to HD? ABC corporate's top engineer said a couple weeks ago it has already happened, but I'm not sure as I see no mention of it at WTVD's site. I know when WABC in NYC converted, it was quiet while they tested it out - so I am assuming WTVD has also done a soft launch. Anyone have any confirmation?

DirecTV will have an IPG that works.

TWC will have Navigator.

If I have another week where my Navigator box decides to stop recording mysteriously, or decides not to tell me that Bionic Woman is on again Saturday in HD after dropping the Wednesday recording (seriously, it did not know about a show on in 3 days?), I'll be back to DirecTV fairly quickly. Assuming my trees aren't blocking all the new satellites. I love the SD picture quality, I like having local weather and local news channels, I like not dealing with rain fade, but I absolutely will not put up with a guide that stops recording at random and doesn't have shows less than a week out.

I get digital simulcast on ALL channels through my cable card. I didn't when it was first installed, but one day, voila, there they were. Some sort of node upgrade ???

Hmm.. that's a new one to me. The lack of digital versions of the SD channels on TWC is one of the reasons I didn't get a TivoHD when I was thinking about switching away from MythTV.

Drew

n0hd is probably no harddrive. Sounds like the harddrive failed. Time for a new box.... maybe you will get one of the outstanding ocrap units.... unless youre lucky...


Yup. I just came to post the same thing. HD died. What gave it away for me was the fact that the DVR part showed a 100% full hard drive, in spite of the fact that there was nothing on it.

Just went and got a new unit. What is this ocrap I'm supposed to be leary of. My original unit was OCAP, and so far, this one looks the same.

If you want HD then the coax cable from TWC goes from the wall to the cable box. From the cable box to the tv should be (depending on what kind of TV) either component cables (5 wires) or HDMI (1 wire) or DVI + Audio (3 wires). SVideo or Composite is only for SD. Running coax from the cable box to the TV is the worst possible connection for picture quality.

If your set has a QAM tuner then it will have two coax inputs... one for OTA and one for cable. Connect your antenna to the OTA antenna input and leave the cable input unconnected and get your cable stuff from the cablebox.

My current cablebox does not have component out (bummer), but it does have S-Video and Composite. So, it seems I have a great arrangement - HD network programming without losing my DVR and keeping my cable bill the same cost!

The other benefit - the TV I'm on the verge of purchasing gets 'rave' reviews for it's SD display. And, considering my current set is 13 years old, it will be an upgrade across the board!

Now I need to convince my wife :)

You can keep your DVR just the way it is, and get a splitter (digital cable ready, bidirectional) and two short coax cables. Remove the coax cable from the DVR. Connect the coax cable to the "input" of the splitter, and one coax from the output of the splitter to the TV, and one coax from the splitter output to the DVR.

However, before going to this trouble, I'd first just connect the TV right to the wall and see how well it picks up QAM. Some TVs don't work well..

Drew

Thanks for the advice. The TV I'm on the verge of getting only has one coax input. No problem, though!

I'll buy a splitter, run one cable straight into the television and the other into the cable box. I'll then use an S-Video input for the cable box/SD programming.

That should work, right?

Thanks for the advice. The TV I'm on the verge of getting only has one coax input. No problem, though!

I'll buy a splitter, run one cable straight into the television and the other into the cable box. I'll then use an S-Video input for the cable box/SD programming.

That should work, right?

Don't see why not. I'm doing something similar with Dish Network - using OTA for local HDTV and S-Video for my SD Dish programming. (Also RF modulated, but that's another discussion :) )

n0hd is probably no harddrive. Sounds like the harddrive failed. Time for a new box.... maybe you will get one of the outstanding ocrap units.... unless youre lucky...

I was told by the TW tech that came out to replace my box a couple of weeks ago that's all they're giving out now (at least for the HD units).

Soon as I watch a couple of the recordings I'm going for my 4th HD cable box. This one reboots just as often.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but does any of the MNF games air anymore in free HD for our area? (I guess one has to pay for ESPN-HD). Or for that matter in SD ? I was just talking to a friend from San Diego and he said their local TV station airs Chargers games in HD. I know we don't have a "local" team but maybe Panthers games? Just wondering ...

Sorry if this is a stupid question but does any of the MNF games air anymore in free HD for our area? (I guess one has to pay for ESPN-HD). Or for that matter in SD ? I was just talking to a friend from San Diego and he said their local TV station airs Chargers games in HD. I know we don't have a "local" team but maybe Panthers games? Just wondering ...

Carolina is our local home team. But i don't think they have any Monday night games this year to test this.

Is anyone recording SD channels on TimeWarner Cable to a PC?

Is it possible to do this for non-HD content?

I'd like to go straight from the cable to the tuner card on my PC without a TWC set-top box or DVR.

Is this possible?

Thanks!

I'd like to go straight from the cable to the tuner card on my PC without a TWC set-top box or DVR.

Is this possible?

Yes, but only for the analog channels. Most of the digital SD channels (with the exception of the local broadcast channels, some junk shopping and religious channels, and some preview channels) are encrypted. Thanks to "Open" Cable and DRM, you still can't buy a cable-card equipped digital tuner for a PC. Even if you could, or if you bought one of the pre-packaged approved solutions, TWC still won't give access to the SD channels via cable card, thanks to the whole cable card vs planned Switched Digital Video rollout fiasco.

Drew

Even if you could, or if you bought one of the pre-packaged approved solutions, TWC still won't give access to the SD channels via cable card, thanks to the whole cable card vs planned Switched Digital Video rollout fiasco.
You can access digital SD channels via CableCARD except for the ones below 100 (and the "west" premium channels after 11/16/2007).

Is anyone recording SD channels on TimeWarner Cable to a PC?

Is it possible to do this for non-HD content?

I'd like to go straight from the cable to the tuner card on my PC without a TWC set-top box or DVR.

Is this possible?

Thanks!


If your tuner is QAM, you should be able to get the SD network channels without a cablecard.

This is my first post here, and I apologize if this question has been answered (I did not find it while searching). Here it goes...

If I buy a set with a built in QAM Tuner, I can receive local HD programming (unscrambled) through the coaxial cable. That much I understand.

Here's my question... does the cable have to be connected directly to the television? Or, does the cable-to cable box-to TV connection still work?

I want an HDTV predominantly for local/network programming. Which is already free and OTA. But, I do not want to lose my DVR and current Digital Cable package (at this point, an HD-DVR is not important to me).

TWC tells me it is an extra $10 a month to switch to HD. But it's my understanding that what I want is already there - for free. I just need to know if I am 'forced' to get an HD set top box IF I want to simply keep the DVR, Guide, and InDemand features.

This makes no sense. If you are already a TWC digital subscriber and have a digital cable box, you can simply swap it for the HD box for free. This does not add anything and it is exactly what I did. The HD box will give you all the networks in HD of course but you will also get TNT, TBS, A&E, Versus/Golf, ESPN1, ESPN2, and Discovery Theater in HD for no additional cost. Those channels are all included in the digital package. You won't need a splitter or anything. They will give you component cables when they give you the HD box.

WC tells me it is an extra $10 a month to switch to HD. But it's my understanding that what I want is already there - for free. I just need to know if I am 'forced' to get an HD set top box IF I want to simply keep the DVR, Guide, and InDemand features.

This makes no sense. If you are already a TWC digital subscriber and have a digital cable box, you can simply swap it for the HD box for free. This does not add anything and it is exactly what I did. The HD box will give you all the networks in HD of course but you will also get TNT, TBS, A&E, Versus/Golf, ESPN1, ESPN2, and Discovery Theater in HD for no additional cost. Those channels are all included in the digital package. You won't need a splitter or anything. They will give you component cables when they give you the HD box.

I think the confusion brendan is having is that TWC is trying to up sell him on the useless HD suite. Doctorj is right. You can get an HD-DVR for the same price you're paying now and get the HD channels not in the HD package.

You most definitely can have an HD DVR without paying for the HD Suite package. That's what I have right now. You lose HDNet, HDNet Movies, UHD, and Mojo by not having the HD Suite but since I have DirecTV also, the net loss for me is Mojo. And I don't want to pay the extra charge for a single channel.

Did TWC add CNN-HD and Food-HD?

I just got an email from them with this survey:

Which of our new HD channels is your favorite?
TBS HD
CNN HD
A&E HD
HGTV HD
Food HD
Other

Did TWC add CNN-HD and Food-HD?

I just got an email from them with this survey:

Which of our new HD channels is your favorite?
TBS HD
CNN HD
A&E HD
HGTV HD
Food HD
Other

I got the same email. Just another example of how badly out of sync TWC is with their actual markets. We don't have CNN, HG or Food HD here. Just like HD Showcase On Demand, which they constantly advertise on their InDemand channels.

Did TWC add CNN-HD and Food-HD?

I just got an email from them with this survey:

Which of our new HD channels is your favorite?
TBS HD
CNN HD
A&E HD
HGTV HD
Food HD
Other

I was curious about the same thing. I thought they were doing a marketing survey for D*. ;)

Jeff

It probably meant to say - which HD channel do you want next...

I (finally) did a re-scan of digital channels (SD and HD) and noticed that channel numbers actually line up now with actual broadcast channels - WRAL=5, NBC17=17, etc. (Standard subscription only). However I still can not get and Fox=50 content, the screen just shows blank. I'm in Cary.

Zilla,

Does FOX come in ok on 113.4?

I recently moved to the area, and have been working on getting my indoor antenna set up. I pick up every digital station just fine, except for NBC (I get a blank screen on 17.1 or any of their subchannels). Is there anything different about their broadcast?

Most shows I watch are on NBC, I should have known I'd have trouble with this station :)

I recently moved to the area, and have been working on getting my indoor antenna set up. I pick up every digital station just fine, except for NBC (I get a blank screen). Is there anything different about their broadcast?

Most shows I watch are on NBC, I should have known I'd have trouble with this station :)

According to tvfool.com, NCN 17 has the weakest xmitter of the main local channels (525 kW, vs 841-1000 for the other main networks)

I get high 90's-100 on all the OTA locals except NBC.

In case you don't know about it, WRAL will send you a free antenna (see the 1st post in this thread for info). I mounted mine inside my upper attic with superb results. Just took 75' of coax running down the inside of the garage and then under the house to the TV.

Mike

Ah ha, thanks! That is wonderful news. I don't have my receipt for my TV or PC tuner anymore though. Will they process the form anyway?

NBC's transmitter was by far the weakest where I used to live, too.

Zilla,

Does FOX come in ok on 113.4?

No. I manually scanned channel 113 to no avail.

I was told by the TW tech that came out to replace my box a couple of weeks ago that's all they're giving out now (at least for the HD units).

Soon as I watch a couple of the recordings I'm going for my 4th HD cable box. This one reboots just as often.

Finished up the recordings and went to swap the box. I went to the closest convenience center and there was a sign on the door saying they had no more HD DVR's availalble. Went to a second location and they had 2 or 3 more and if I hurried back to my car there would probably still be one left.

Let's see how my 4th box fares.

Jim

So I currently have Mojo and MHD available to me, but I don't have the HD extra pack. Oopsy or something new? I had thought maybe they had opened Mojo for the USC-Oregon game today since it was a simulcast of FSN in HD, but it's still open, and well, so is MHD...

Mojo is gone, so i think my hunch about the game was right, but i still have mhd.

Mojo came back for the Cal Arizona State game. I had no idea they did that. I'd have been watching more games this year!

Sugarbowl wrote:

Did TWC add CNN-HD and Food-HD?

I just got an email from them with this survey:

Which of our new HD channels is your favorite?
TBS HD
CNN HD
A&E HD
HGTV HD
Food HD
Other


You'ld think they could easily harvest this information from their set top boxes (ie. which channels are being watched and for how long). Why bother with trying to get people to respond to an email survey.

Sooke

Sugarbowl wrote:

Did TWC add CNN-HD and Food-HD?

I just got an email from them with this survey:

Which of our new HD channels is your favorite?
TBS HD
CNN HD
A&E HD
HGTV HD
Food HD
Other


You'ld think they could easily harvest this information from their set top boxes (ie. which channels are being watched and for how long). Why bother with trying to get people to respond to an email survey.

Sooke

IANAL, but I have heard that gathering information using your cable box is illegal. Therefore, the cable company must rely on Nielsen (which only probes consenting customers) or an email to get this data. I cannot prove this, though. I would recommend speaking to an attorney that knows about laws regarding cable to verify this statement.

Well I Just looked at TWC's website. Shows MHD as no longer in the HD suite. When did they do this?

Well I Just looked at TWC's website. Shows MHD as no longer in the HD suite. When did they do this?

Sometime in the past week?

TWC Raleigh are obviously playing the desperation card. Not being able to compete with actual channel numbers they are trying to boost the "Home of FreeHD" promotion. After adding A&E, TBS and Vs, they don't have any "FreeHD" cards left to play except by putting pay channels into the free tier.

Sometime in the past week?

TWC Raleigh are obviously playing the desperation card. Not being able to compete with actual channel numbers they are trying to boost the "Home of FreeHD" promotion. After adding A&E, TBS and Vs, they don't have any "FreeHD" cards left to play except by putting pay channels into the free tier.

"Free HD" should really be clear QAM channels.

"Home of FreeHD"

What exactly is this?

-DonB2

"IANAL, but I have heard that gathering information using your cable box is illegal. Therefore, the cable company must rely on Nielsen (which only probes consenting customers) or an email to get this data. I cannot prove this, though. I would recommend speaking to an attorney that knows about laws regarding cable to verify this statement."

I quit using GMAIL for this reason. I found that Google was throwing up ads in a side frame of my Email session and each ad was directly related to words found in th content of my EMAIL as well as the EMAILS I was reading.

If I happened to have text in my GMAIL of Samsung DTB-H260 there would be an ad with some store selling the Samsung unit.

Overall nothing wrong with this as I was not paying to use GMAIL, but I just found it disturbing and I didn't need a reminder on a minute by minute basis about how easy it is to gather info on the Web.

-DonB2

I live in Apex off of 751 near Jean's Berry Patch. I have a Terrestrial Digital DB2 antenna mounted on top of my house and I have a HR10-250 as my receiver. I've had this setup for approx. 3 months. My signal strengths are:

5 high 80s
11 high 60s
17 mid 80s
50 low 90s

Obviously channel 11 is too low. I've also had problems with pixelation on channel 5. Everything seemed to be working pretty well until a couple of weeks ago. Before I climb up on my 3 story roof I'd appreciate any ideas on whether this is just a alignment or connection issue, or do I need a bigger antenna like the DB4?

Thanks.

I live in Apex off of 751 near Jean's Berry Patch. I have a Terrestrial Digital DB2 antenna mounted on top of my house and I have a HR10-250 as my receiver. I've had this setup for approx. 3 months. My signal strengths are:

5 high 80s
11 high 60s
17 mid 80s
50 low 90s

Obviously channel 11 is too low. I've also had problems with pixelation on channel 5. Everything seemed to be working pretty well until a couple of weeks ago. Before I climb up on my 3 story roof I'd appreciate any ideas on whether this is just a alignment or connection issue, or do I need a bigger antenna like the DB4?

Thanks.

Suggest you drop an email to wral-tvengineeringinfo@wral.com and give them your exact location, antenna mounting height and situation and ask for an antenna recommendation. They will actually give you an antenna free if you can supply a receipt for an HDTV.

http://www.wral.com/wral-tv/story/1180307/

krcoggins,

A bigger antenna can't hurt. In a worse case scenario you may have an overdrive issue on 5 but it does not look like you will have it where you are located.


I have been having reception issues over the last few weeks with my attic mounted set up in Holly Springs. I ended up rearranging both my antennas to compensate for marginal PBS.

As the weather changes rain gets attached to trees causing reflection issue, leaves fall, the reception changes.

You may also think about a rotor so you can make fine adjustments withour going on the roof and or gain PBS out of Chapel Hill.

BTW- I see someone finally picked up the Pumpkin that rolled into the ditch facing the Nursery/Garden center on the other side of 751.

-Donb2

Thanks for the feedback. I sent an email to wral. I guess I'll wait and see what they say.

Donb2, I rarely go out that way so I didn't see the renegade Pumpkin. :)

Bit off topic really, but does anyone know of a way to see Bobcat games broadcast only on WMYT (which is out of Charlotte)? Apparently, our local CBS isn't local enough to count for the NBA. Anyone happen to know if it's being run on a Dish channel a local sports bar may have (May as well, spent half the winter last year watching NCSU at Champps!)

Otherwise, can anyone suggest a really, really, really big antenna....

Ry

Bit off topic really, but does anyone know of a way to see Bobcat games broadcast only on WMYT (which is out of Charlotte)? Apparently, our local CBS isn't local enough to count for the NBA. Anyone happen to know if it's being run on a Dish channel a local sports bar may have (May as well, spent half the winter last year watching NCSU at Champps!)

Otherwise, can anyone suggest a really, really, really big antenna....

Ry

If I'm not mistaken, Bobcats games that are on WMYT are on WRDC (channel 28) in the Raleigh area.

Bit off topic really, but does anyone know of a way to see Bobcat games broadcast only on WMYT (which is out of Charlotte)? Apparently, our local CBS isn't local enough to count for the NBA.

Not sure how CBS enters into the equation here.. The NBA sold all its rights to ESPN/ABC and TNT for game coverage. NBATV carries some games, and HDNet does some Mavericks games as well.

Local channels in local markets carry for teams in their area OTA in many cases... but as far as I know, there's no reason it would be CBS-specific or any other.

It does happen, as I was already beaten to it above, that in Raleigh we get Bobcat games on 28. I would love to see some HD, since 28-1 is HD.. but I'm guessing that will be a while coming since the Bobcats still aren't winning much and last I heard lost a couple of major players this year to injury already.

Not sure how CBS enters into the equation here.. The NBA sold all its rights to ESPN/ABC and TNT for game coverage. NBATV carries some games, and HDNet does some Mavericks games as well.

Local channels in local markets carry for teams in their area OTA in many cases... but as far as I know, there's no reason it would be CBS-specific or any other.

It does happen, as I was already beaten to it above, that in Raleigh we get Bobcat games on 28. I would love to see some HD, since 28-1 is HD.. but I'm guessing that will be a while coming since the Bobcats still aren't winning much and last I heard lost a couple of major players this year to injury already.

Near as I can tell, they aren't this year, or least, they aren't yet. Most of the games are going to be on NWS14 and the others I can't find a listing for at all. Have some faith in the Bobcats! They should do alright this year given some time to gel. They'll at least do better than last year, and should pull off a winning season at the very least, but that's a topic for another thread...

At any rate, I can't find any listing for any of the WMYT games, including the home opener on Friday night. The one thing I did find is that it is covered by League Pass, so I suppose some sports bar should have it going.

The Great Pumpkin

In watching the Great Pumpkin on 11.1 last night we were struck with how vivid the colors were. It looked like the characters were jumping off the screen. And this was even after I stretched the 4:3 to fit my 16:9 screen.

I realise that cartoons in general always look crisp but this was especially so.

And than as if to prove this, the second peanuts cartoon that came on at 8:30 was washed out looking and fuzzy.

Maybe they cleaned up the great pumpkin video recently but if so I missed it in the credits.

-DonB2

Not sure how CBS enters into the equation here.. The NBA sold all its rights to ESPN/ABC and TNT for game coverage. NBATV carries some games, and HDNet does some Mavericks games as well.

Local channels in local markets carry for teams in their area OTA in many cases... but as far as I know, there's no reason it would be CBS-specific or any other.

It does happen, as I was already beaten to it above, that in Raleigh we get Bobcat games on 28. I would love to see some HD, since 28-1 is HD.. but I'm guessing that will be a while coming since the Bobcats still aren't winning much and last I heard lost a couple of major players this year to injury already.

Unfortunately, the only stations that will broadcast Bobcat games are WMYT and News 14 Carolina this year, according to this page (http://www.nba.com/bobcats/Corporate_PartnershipMedia-050316.html) in the Bobcats' web site. Since WMYT is owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, it might not hurt to contact WRAL (Capitol Broadcasting's flagship station) and ask them to negotiate carriage rights for Raleigh. If that fails, you would want to hope that NBA League Pass will carry Bobcat games here (and not be subject to a dreaded blackout).

Anyone able to get the Canes at Panthers in HD via DirecTV. 633 looked horrible for SD even and channel 94 was blocked for me. I'm in Orange County Mebane.

Unfortunately, the only stations that will broadcast Bobcat games are WMYT and News 14 Carolina this year, according to this page (http://www.nba.com/bobcats/Corporate_PartnershipMedia-050316.html) in the Bobcats' web site. Since WMYT is owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, it might not hurt to contact WRAL (Capitol Broadcasting's flagship station) and ask them to negotiate carriage rights for Raleigh. If that fails, you would want to hope that NBA League Pass will carry Bobcat games here (and not be subject to a dreaded blackout).

That's interesting, and must be a change for this season since last season Bobcats games were on 28... I am surprised, if Capitol is using their news channel on cable, then why wouldn't they broadcast OTA on 5-2 for the digital OTA customers at least.

Then again, to be blunt, the Bobcats have not yet impressed even with some local (or at least local college) talent and for as much as I root for them and hope they do well, I don't often watch Bobcats games even when televised unless I am watching for their opponent.

I used to watch the Hornets all the time, including their inaugural season games... but as their ownership went insane and eventually moved to New Orleans, my interest waned... and unfortunately while I like the new ownership in Charlotte that now has the Bobcats, the team just hasn't performed consistently enough for me to consistently want to watch.

That's interesting, and must be a change for this season since last season Bobcats games were on 28... I am surprised, if Capitol is using their news channel on cable, then why wouldn't they broadcast OTA on 5-2 for the digital OTA customers at least.

Then again, to be blunt, the Bobcats have not yet impressed even with some local (or at least local college) talent and for as much as I root for them and hope they do well, I don't often watch Bobcats games even when televised unless I am watching for their opponent.

I used to watch the Hornets all the time, including their inaugural season games... but as their ownership went insane and eventually moved to New Orleans, my interest waned... and unfortunately while I like the new ownership in Charlotte that now has the Bobcats, the team just hasn't performed consistently enough for me to consistently want to watch.

I don't think that WRAL broadcasts Bobcats games on its subchannels, neither on cable nor over the air. They use their news channel on cable nearly exclusively for news, reruns of CBS News and their own news, documentaries they produce themselves, and a local game show whose contestants are teams from local high schools.

Never mind, my bad :-(

Over the last week or so, I have noticed that WRAL-HD via D* has been having significant lip-sync problems.

Network programming seems fine, as only the 11 PM news has been messed up. When I switch to OTA, it seems fine.

Has anyone notices lip-sync problems on other programs on RAL?

Has anybody had any image breakups/pixelation during primetime HD on WNCN-HD on TWC 217 over the past few weeks? I get it happening a few times each evening I watch 217. Thats the only TWC channel I have been having this problem on. And my HD cable box shows a signal strength of 0 to -1 which is basicly equal to my other HD channels. WNCN 17-1 OTA is to week for me to pick up most of the time to compare against TWC's carriage. I don't know if it's a local thing, Netwok thing or cable thing. My troubleshooting suggests it's not a cable thing but I don't know.

Daryl L

I was watching 17.1 on cable Friday night near your area, and it was doing the breakups for me too. It has to be the cable. Also Friday night 11.1 was off completely at 7 PM

My PBS 4.1 OTA has been pretty reliable after moving my antennas until last night when it started dropping out again.

It appears this happens when there is even a slight wind which causees more severe multipath issues. I am hoping once the leaves are off the trees I will again have reliable reception with my attic mounted 4228 Set up.

-DonB2

I (finally) did a re-scan of digital channels (SD and HD) and noticed that channel numbers actually line up now with actual broadcast channels - WRAL=5, NBC17=17, etc. (Standard subscription only). However I still can not get and Fox=50 content, the screen just shows blank. I'm in Cary.

Zilla,

Does FOX come in ok on 113.4?

No. I manually scanned channel 113 to no avail.

foxhd was on 113.4 and abchd was on 113.1 until ~1-2 weeks ago.

now they are in 50.1 and 11.1 respectively.

it appears twc remapped the channels.

i get those over QAM.

shpitz,

What about 50.2 ? Do they have RTN on 50.2 the Retro channel that is available with OTA ?

DonB2

Is there anybody around with just "basic" and a cablecard?
I tried to get this, but TWC claims that their system does not allow it. TWC told me that a DIGIPiC package is required in order to use a CableCARD.

By the way, I have read reports that some other cable systems allow it.

Latest addition (http://www.timewarnercable.com/NC/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html)Recent Channel Lineup Changes/Additions

November 7, 2007: NHL Network was added to Digital Sports & Games Ch. 330. The NHL Network features wall-to-wall coverage of the NHL with up to 40 games available this season.

For the month of November, we will offer a FREE PREVIEW to all Digital Cable customers. After the free preview, customers interested in the NHL Network will need to purchase the Digital Sports and Games tier, which is currently $2.95 per month.

Daryl L

I was watching 17.1 on cable Friday night near your area, and it was doing the breakups for me too. It has to be the cable. Also Friday night 11.1 was off completely at 7 PM
Thanks, I still see the problem but it's not as bad or as often.

shpitz,

What about 50.2 ? Do they have RTN on 50.2 the Retro channel that is available with OTA ?

DonB2

yes, just tuned to it to check. RTN

Was anybody else annoyed Tues night when SVU was shown in a tiny box in the corner of the screen so that local election results could be repeated endlessly? It was almost insulting when it popped back into HD mode just in time for the closing credits.

Would it be possible for broadcasters either :

a) Keep the crawl off the HD channel, and periodically advertise that election results (or school closings, or whatever) are available on a different digital subchannel and on the web site.

b) Get HD capable crawl insertion equipment so that they don't need to show primetime HD programming in a tiny little window?

c) Recognize that in these local elections that nobody voted in, nobody cares about the results? And even more true, that those who do care about the results would rather look at them at their own pace on a website or on a subchannel with a dedicated news show. I do vote, and I do care about the results, but the crawl is just a major annoyance to me.

Drew

foxhd was on 113.4 and abchd was on 113.1 until ~1-2 weeks ago.

now they are in 50.1 and 11.1 respectively.

it appears twc remapped the channels.


They never moved from 113, TWC just (finally) fixed their channel remapping metadata. My old HDTV which doesn't understand the cable channel mapping tables still happily finds them on 113, where they've been for at least the last 4 years or so. When I get a new TV, I hope to find one with a menu option to get it to ignore channel mapping ... what a huge amount of pain and suffering it has caused people with new TVs!

Drew

Was anybody else annoyed Tues night when SVU was shown in a tiny box in the corner of the screen so that local election results could be repeated endlessly? It was almost insulting when it popped back into HD mode just in time for the closing credits.

Would it be possible for broadcasters either :

a) Keep the crawl off the HD channel, and periodically advertise that election results (or school closings, or whatever) are available on a different digital subchannel and on the web site.

b) Get HD capable crawl insertion equipment so that they don't need to show primetime HD programming in a tiny little window?

c) Recognize that in these local elections that nobody voted in, nobody cares about the results? And even more true, that those who do care about the results would rather look at them at their own pace on a website or on a subchannel with a dedicated news show. I do vote, and I do care about the results, but the crawl is just a major annoyance to me.

Drew

Yes. I was ticked. It seems that all they did was switch to the SD feed. I dont know who made that decision but they should be sentenced to watching stretched SD 4:3 for a couple days. If I wanted election results, I could have just switched to the SD Channel.

I tried to get this, but TWC claims that their system does not allow it. TWC told me that a DIGIPiC package is required in order to use a CableCARD.

By the way, I have read reports that some other cable systems allow it.

Ugh.. I sort of figured this. Thanks for the info.

Drew

Has anybody had any image breakups/pixelation during primetime HD on WNCN-HD

I've seen a few breakups in my OTA recordings of shows on 17.1 in the last week or two, and I've never seen as many before. I figured it was just the leaves falling, etc, but maybe there is a problem if there are also breakups on TWC. It is not very bad, just one or two seconds out of an hour.

Drew

Ugh.. I sort of figured this. Thanks for the info.

Just to clarify, I downgraded to Basic service, and I still have a CableCARD in my Sony DVR, which still has the channel mappings. For example, it still tunes to channel 250 for FOX HD (instead of 50.1 or 113.4). However, TWC is demanding that I return the CableCARD to them within 14 days.

Just to clarify, I downgraded to Basic service, and I still have a CableCARD in my Sony DVR, which still has the channel mappings. For example, it still tunes to channel 250 for FOX HD (instead of 50.1 or 113.4). However, TWC is demanding that I return the CableCARD to them within 14 days.

That's really annoying, because the channel mappings would allow a TivoHD to work with basic service + CC rental. Which is what I wanted to do.

What happens if you don't return it? Would they continue to charge you rental ("Don't throw me in the brier patch!") or would they charge you an outrageous replacement fee and deactivate it? Heck, it if somehow continued to provide the mapping data, it might even be worth it.

Drew

Just to clarify, I downgraded to Basic service, and I still have a CableCARD in my Sony DVR, which still has the channel mappings. For example, it still tunes to channel 250 for FOX HD (instead of 50.1 or 113.4). However, TWC is demanding that I return the CableCARD to them within 14 days.

Does the card allow the decode of any of the others digital channels or just basic + Local HD's?

If just locals... you might try an email to Tom Adams (President of local TWC) and appeal your case. tom.adams@twcable.com

I've seen a few breakups in my OTA recordings of shows on 17.1 in the last week or two, and I've never seen as many before. I figured it was just the leaves falling, etc, but maybe there is a problem if there are also breakups on TWC. It is not very bad, just one or two seconds out of an hour.

Drew
Thanks for mentioning it. It's been going on so long it's starting to bug me to watch NBC. Obviously it's happening on Cable and OTA. Now if we knew if it is occuring locally or at the network level.

NBC17ENG, could you please check on this for us. It would be greatly appreciated. :)

What happens if you don't return it? Would they continue to charge you rental ("Don't throw me in the brier patch!") or would they charge you an outrageous replacement fee and deactivate it? Heck, it if somehow continued to provide the mapping data, it might even be worth it.
One of the reps told me that if I don't return it then I would be charged the full price of a new CableCARD, whatever that happens to be. After that, I don't know if it would be deactived, or if it would continue to get mapping data.

Does the card allow the decode of any of the others digital channels or just basic + Local HD's?
On my CableCARD device, right now I can only watch the Basic analog channels (2 to 24) and the local digital channels (200 to 257, although the trap is interfering with 222 and 228). I can also watch 100 and 102, since they are unencrypted.
If just locals... you might try an email to Tom Adams (President of local TWC) and appeal your case. tom.adams@twcable.com
I emailed the VP of Customer Care, who forwarded my email to someone else, who basically told me the same thing... to return the CableCARD.

I've checked my recordings on my TWC DVR, but haven't caught any breakups, but I have a lot more to go through. For the on air side, I have had the following transmitter "hiccups" which should not have affected the TWC fiber feed, although I'm not sure how the Fayetteville Hub is getting their feed right now.

Friday 11-2 21:02:41 - 21:03:59
Tuesday 11-6 05:47:56 - 05:48:03
06:37:04 - 06:37:06
06:37:14 - 06:37:18
Wednesday 11-7 22:46:05 - 22:46:10

See if these times match what you guys are reporting. The power drops and returns so fast we can't nail down exactly what is causing it, but we're trying our best to eliminate it.

I've checked my recordings on my TWC DVR, but haven't caught any breakups, but I have a lot more to go through. For the on air side, I have had the following transmitter "hiccups" which should not have affected the TWC fiber feed, although I'm not sure how the Fayetteville Hub is getting their feed right now.

Friday 11-2 21:02:41 - 21:03:59
Tuesday 11-6 05:47:56 - 05:48:03
06:37:04 - 06:37:06
06:37:14 - 06:37:18
Wednesday 11-7 22:46:05 - 22:46:10

See if these times match what you guys are reporting. The power drops and returns so fast we can't nail down exactly what is causing it, but we're trying our best to eliminate it.
Thank you NBC17ENG. I do get my feed out of Lumberton straight from Fayetteville. I can't say for sure on the Friday 11-2 21:02:41 - 21:03:59 time but it happened a couple time during Las Vegas (late in the 10pm show). No idea about that Tuesday time since I only watch during primetime. The Wednesday time above looks about right. It happened a couple time during ER Thursday night (lastnight) also. Sorry if I missed you mentioning the quoted info previously.

After that, I don't know if it would be deactived, or if it would continue to get mapping data.
Actually, it looks like my CableCARD has already been deactivated in some ways. I checked the diagnostic screens, and they no longer say "Authorization Received", and they say "Waiting for CP Auth" instead of "CP Auth Received".

Over the last week or so, I have noticed that WRAL-HD via D* has been having significant lip-sync problems.

Network programming seems fine, as only the 11 PM news has been messed up. When I switch to OTA, it seems fine.

Has anyone notices lip-sync problems on other programs on RAL?

I have experienced the same problems on D* with WRAL's newscasts, especially the 5-6pm slot. I do not notice any of the problems on the OTA signal.

They never moved from 113, TWC just (finally) fixed their channel remapping metadata. My old HDTV which doesn't understand the cable channel mapping tables still happily finds them on 113, where they've been for at least the last 4 years or so. When I get a new TV, I hope to find one with a menu option to get it to ignore channel mapping ... what a huge amount of pain and suffering it has caused people with new TVs!

Drew

oh, didn't know that ;)

i had a Philips 60" DLP which had them on 113.x also and my vizio had them on 113.x as well, but other QAM stations were different on the Philips than on the vizio.

i kinda memorized all the channels so no problem here... only the wife keeps asking me every time, she doesn't get it... hehe

Was anybody else annoyed Tues night when SVU was shown in a tiny box in the corner of the screen so that local election results could be repeated endlessly? It was almost insulting when it popped back into HD mode just in time for the closing credits.

Would it be possible for broadcasters either :

a) Keep the crawl off the HD channel, and periodically advertise that election results (or school closings, or whatever) are available on a different digital subchannel and on the web site.

b) Get HD capable crawl insertion equipment so that they don't need to show primetime HD programming in a tiny little window?

c) Recognize that in these local elections that nobody voted in, nobody cares about the results? And even more true, that those who do care about the results would rather look at them at their own pace on a website or on a subchannel with a dedicated news show. I do vote, and I do care about the results, but the crawl is just a major annoyance to me.

Drew

that's almost as bad as watching all the local sports events on CBS as upscaled SD crap, that is outright PATHETIC... just like the state-unc football match i'm watching right now.

I get most of the OTA channels without a problem with my little antenna hooked up to a Vista Media Center box but can not for the life of me figure out how to get NBC. 17.1 shows up as no signal but if I add 55.1 with a frequency of 55 I can get a full signal. That is awesome but I can not get any picture or audio on the channel. Anyone have any ideas?

I get most of the OTA channels without a problem with my little antenna hooked up to a Vista Media Center box but can not for the life of me figure out how to get NBC. 17.1 shows up as no signal but if I add 55.1 with a frequency of 55 I can get a full signal. That is awesome but I can not get any picture or audio on the channel. Anyone have any ideas?

There is some kind of bug in vista that affects NBC. Search back a few months, I believe NBC17ENG was posting about it and that there is some kind of workaround.

Or you could upgrade to Linux & MythTV :)

Drew

i had a Philips 60" DLP which had them on 113.x also and my vizio had them on 113.x as well, but other QAM stations were different on the Philips than on the vizio.


Where were they on the phillips? I'm thinking about a phillips LCD. It would be cool if they were immune to the QAM remapping mess.

Drew

Thank you, that had been bugging me for a while now. Now I can start watching My Name Is Earl and The Office again.

I have experienced the same problems on D* with WRAL's newscasts, especially the 5-6pm slot. I do not notice any of the problems on the OTA signal.

Most of my problems have been w/ the 11PM news on RAL, but CSI (this past Thursday) was so unwatchable that I actually switched to the SD recording I had on another DVR. Basically, I am in the process of switching all of my RAL programming from D* to OTA.

If there is anyone else left on this forum that uses OTA ATSC I was curious if they noticed the time of Day on the stations and also the EPG guide are off by an hour since we switched to Daylight Savings time.

-DonB2

All OK here (all HD is viewed OTA)

If there is anyone else left on this forum that uses OTA ATSC I was curious if they noticed the time of Day on the stations and also the EPG guide are off by an hour since we switched to Daylight Savings time.

-DonB2

My Pioneer was confused for a week (due to it not knowing about Bush moving daylight savings time). But it is ok now.

If there is anyone else left on this forum that uses OTA ATSC I was curious if they noticed the time of Day on the stations and also the EPG guide are off by an hour since we switched to Daylight Savings time.


I use OTA ATSC, but I gave up on trying to use the free OTA ATSC EPG info for my MythTV DVR. In the month or two I tried it over the summer, there was always one station with no information beyond "DTV Program", and many stations frequently had incorrect information. Even WRAL's sister station WRAZ was frequently missing data, or showing incorrect information. I finally gave in and subscribed to the TMS data for a few $/month.

Drew

Drew,

I am recording Garner "Rockford Files" manually because the feed from the Garner xmitters EPG is messed up:D

eyekode,

Maybe I need to power cycle my Samsung H260.


On another note UNC PBS 4-2 is no longer showing the HD will resume logo. Instead I now am back to the beauteous "No Signal" when I go to 4-2 outside of the 8 to 11 pm slot.

-DonB2

Ditto - on both my Samsung and the Olevia TV's tuner.

Where were they on the phillips? I'm thinking about a phillips LCD. It would be cool if they were immune to the QAM remapping mess.

Drew

when i had both my Philips DLP and the Vizio, the Philips had the QAM channels on 111 and 113 for nbc, abc, fox while at the same time in my vizio nbc was on 17.1 instead of 111.1 and fox & abc were still on 113.

that was the case until about a few weeks ago when fox and abc moved to 50.1 and 11.1 over QAM in my vizio.

Since then I sold my Philips DLP so I can't tell you if they got remapped on it as well.

hope this helps...

I use OTA ATSC, but I gave up on trying to use the free OTA ATSC EPG info for my MythTV DVR. In the month or two I tried it over the summer, there was always one station with no information beyond "DTV Program", and many stations frequently had incorrect information. Even WRAL's sister station WRAZ was frequently missing data, or showing incorrect information. I finally gave in and subscribed to the TMS data for a few $/month.

Drew

Yup, the EPG situation is not good. Especially problematic for MythTV. Plus I could never get the video perfect in Myth (tearing, must have been a myth specific bug because it didn't happen in mplayer...).

So I caved and went over to the darkside... I am now running Vista Media Center. I am pleasantly surprised. Only 2 issues:
1) channel 17 is mapped to ATSC channel 17... should be 55. But this forum helped me find/fix that issue.
2) the infamous "green screen" when starting HD issue. But that only happens occasionally and there are workarrounds.

OTA digital now looks almost as good as through my Pio 5070's processor. And it seems to handle low signal OTA better then Myth (which would crash).

eyekode,

Maybe I need to power cycle my Samsung H260.


On another note UNC PBS 4-2 is no longer showing the HD will resume logo. Instead I now am back to the beauteous "No Signal" when I go to 4-2 outside of the 8 to 11 pm slot.

-DonB2

As far as I know the reason some sets EPG is confused is due to the date of day light savings time changing. The sets have a hard-coded date for DST and their program has not been updated.

So it is a different problem if you are still seeing it. But if you are not seeing it anymore, then it is probably the same problem and the only thing that can fix it for next year is a firmware update.

Yup, the EPG situation is not good. Especially problematic for MythTV. Plus I could never get the video perfect in Myth (tearing, must have been a myth specific bug because it didn't happen in mplayer...).

I took a look at Sage back when I was thinking about making the switch, and on my 3-year old P4, the video was actually *worse* on Windows than it was in Linux. Right now, I have perfect 720p playback in Linux (even for 1080i shows), but things fall apart when trying to display at 1080i. I'm going to upgrade to a large 1080p LCD soon, so I need to get good 1080p playback. I'm torn between building a new, beefier machine and switching to Sage and using the Sage HD media extender when it comes out.

At any rate, does MCE do video output smarter/better than Sage? Is it still limited to 2 tuners, meaning I'd have to cobble together some jointenna solution for PBS and would not be able to record 2 networks + PBS at the same time?

Drew

"My Pioneer was confused for a week (due to it not knowing about Bush moving daylight savings time). But it is ok now"

I power cycled my Samsung DTB-H260 and time was still off by 1 hr. I than did a Channel search and time was still off by 1 hr.

I then used the old digital "long in the tooth" ATSC tuner that is built into my Pioneer PDP -43 Plasma tv and it showed the correct time of day.

So than I went back to settings on the Samsung and changed the Yes box next to Daylight Savings time to No and now the Samsung is showing the correct "Bush" time.

-DonB2

Since September, the 1st one died within a few days, the 2nd and 3rd rebooted daily, and this morning the 4th is in a continuous reboot cycle.

Is anyone else in the Raleigh area having these types of problems?

Thanks,
Jim

which way do i point my antenna to receive ENC-TV..i see that its mentioned in the titan tv guide.

which way do i point my antenna to receive ENC-TV..i see that its mentioned in the titan tv guide.

ENC? What channel # is this being listed as? Where are you located?

ENC TV is on 48 or 12.3 - The tower is located at Trenton just west of New Bern. 12.1 is the ABC station for Eastern NC

which way do i point my antenna to receive ENC-TV..i see that its mentioned in the titan tv guide.

For best solution, go to:
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx

and follow directions.

For those of you that have attempted to record HD to your PC via Firewire, what channels have you been able to capture? Im assuming everything but HBO, Showtime, and the HD Tier should be good, but Id like to know for sure in case that could be causing some of the problems Im having (getting the "Cannot start capture" error in CapDVHS).

Since September, the 1st one died within a few days, the 2nd and 3rd rebooted daily, and this morning the 4th is in a continuous reboot cycle.

Is anyone else in the Raleigh area having these types of problems?

Thanks,
Jim

if you are running Navigator on those 8300HDC boxes (and you probably are) then you are not alone. It's a Navigator problem courtesy of TWC, that extends beyond NC.

Join the "fun" here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830

On a similar note I noticed my latest TWC bill hs a note that says, pay attention to next month's bill, important changes to the cable service are on the way. I can only hazard a guess that this means they are planning to finally unleash Navigator crippleware on the rest of us using Passport.

And Tivo HD is suddenly looking very inviting.

For those of you that have attempted to record HD to your PC via Firewire, what channels have you been able to capture?
I have been able to capture all of the local HD channels except for PBS HD (WUNC), which causes CapDVHS to crash immediately. I also tried using TSReader Lite, but it complains that the PAT table is missing from PBS HD, and the bitrate is much lower than it should be. So I cannot record PBS HD to a PC, although I can record it to DVHS.

Great...so this whole experiment has been a waste of time for me, since I have a QAM tuner. So is there absolutely no way to capture ESPNHD without using a DVHS player? I just dont think the non-pay channels should be set to "copy once".

So is there absolutely no way to capture ESPNHD without using a DVHS player?
Another way to capture encrypted Firewire is to get a Blu-ray recorder from Japan.

What's the deal with the SD with blue side-bars on WRAL-HD this afternoon on Directv (and I assume OTA)?

(Never mind. It's fixed)

What's the deal with the SD with blue side-bars on WRAL-HD this afternoon on Directv (and I assume OTA)?

(Never mind. It's fixed)

I sent an email to WRAL engineering. They said that they had an equipment failure this week and are using an older box that is generating the blue bars. They hope to be back to normal next week.

-Matt

I had DirectV for two years in 2005 and 2006 and I hated it. Every channel was a pixelation fest, and the local channels were unwatchable. I had it for so long because I lived in a rural area without cable access, but as soon as I moved back to Raleigh I switched to cable (Time Warner). However, cable, while having better image quality, also sucks, because it has this DVR with a Passport OS that works like crap, and I'm really sick of it, plus their HD offering compared to DirecTV is pathetic. They brag about their new HD offerings, more crap from Turner such as TBS that shows mostly SD programs with the borders enlarged to fit the widescreen ratio, which is an insult to HDTV. I read in a forum that Directv started sending their signals in Mpeg-4 and it looks better now. Can anybody attest to that? Do they have a decent picture quality now?

Also, does their current DVR have a firewire port that allows transferring of shows to the computer like the cable DVR does?

I had DirectV for two years in 2005 and 2006 and I hated it. ......I read in a forum that Directv started sending their signals in Mpeg-4 and it looks better now. Can anybody attest to that? Do they have a decent picture quality now?

Also, does their current DVR have a firewire port that allows transferring of shows to the computer like the cable DVR does?

I have both TWC and DirecTV for now. If I had to pick a winner now, it would be DirecTV. Their HD selection is superior and the picture quality is ALMOST as good as cable on the MPEG-2 channels (they've been improved as of late) and the MPEG-4 channels look fine.

My biggest complaint though, and why I hang on to TWC is that DirecTV's SD channels look AWFUL. I suspect that they are actually 240p upconverted to 480i. They are blurry, have poor contrast ratio, and are designed to look OK on a raster driven 27" CRT. I can't watch them. TWC's digital simulcast channels can be downright stunning, given the quality of the source material.

I also am holding on to TWC for the DVR. I'm not ready to make a permanent commitment to DirecTV until TWC rolls out their HD solution. I still suspect that long term TWC (cable in general) is going to be the much better solution.

I have both TWC and DirecTV for now. If I had to pick a winner now, it would be DirecTV. Their HD selection is superior and the picture quality is ALMOST as good as cable on the MPEG-2 channels (they've been improved as of late) and the MPEG-4 channels look fine.

My biggest complaint though, and why I hang on to TWC is that DirecTV's SD channels look AWFUL. I suspect that they are actually 240p upconverted to 480i. They are blurry, have poor contrast ratio, and are designed to look OK on a raster driven 27" CRT. I can't watch them. TWC's digital simulcast channels can be downright stunning, given the quality of the source material.

I also am holding on to TWC for the DVR. I'm not ready to make a permanent commitment to DirecTV until TWC rolls out their HD solution. I still suspect that long term TWC (cable in general) is going to be the much better solution.

So you say the HD channels. at least the Mpeg-2 ones, don't look as good as cable? Because the ones on cable don't look that good to me to start with. I can tell the pixelation unless it's a very quiet scene. And what about the Mpeg-4 ones? Do they look better than cable, equal or worse?

I'm not surprised to hear about Directv's SD channels looking terrible. If it's the same it used to be when I had it, it's vomitive. I wish they would get a class action suit that would force them to refund their customers what they paid for that pathetic service.

So you say the HD channels. at least the Mpeg-2 ones, don't look as good as cable? Because the ones on cable don't look that good to me to start with. I can tell the pixelation unless it's a very quiet scene. And what about the Mpeg-4 ones? Do they look better than cable, equal or worse?

I'm not surprised to hear about Directv's SD channels looking terrible. If it's the same it used to be when I had it, it's vomitive. I wish they would get a class action suit that would force them to refund their customers what they paid for that pathetic service.

All HD (and/or all digital video) at the consumer level, be it broadcast, cable, satellite, HD DVD, or Blu-ray is compressed. Compression will have artifacts. They will be more obvious in video with motion. The severity will vary, some of it is in the source material, some is a product of additional compression added by the end use provider. Don't expect perfect.

The DirecTV MPEG-4 locals don't seem to have quite as much fine detail as OTA or cable, but the sharpness is there. I wouldn't have wasted my time with DirecTV if there HD looked like it did a year ago. I'm content with the quality of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 channels. If you don't like cable's HD, you won't like DirecTV either. But the picture quality is 90% as good as cable, but not equal, and certainly not better.

I guess it comes down to this. Do you want the 16 ounce porterhouse, or the 8 ounce filet ??? Sometimes it's a tough call.

I'm actually in Las Vegas on business as I type this, so I think I'll go downstairs and struggle with that exact choice....

The DirecTV MPEG-4 locals don't seem to have quite as much fine detail as OTA or cable, but the sharpness is there. I wouldn't have wasted my time with DirecTV if there HD looked like it did a year ago. I'm content with the quality of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 channels. If you don't like cable's HD, you won't like DirecTV either. But the picture quality is 90% as good as cable, but not equal, and certainly not better.


I think there are stations on DirecTV that look better than cable and vice versa. During the MLB playoffs, TBS on DirecTV (MPEG-4) was better than cable (TWC) was better than DirecTV (MPEG-2). However, VS on cable seems to look better than DirecTV MPEG-4. I wonder if part of that could be STB driven?

I'm not sure I can say definitively which looks "best". However, DirecTV blows cable out of the water with sheer volume. I'm quite happy with MPEG-4. However, I still have TWC as well. :)

All HD (and/or all digital video) at the consumer level, be it broadcast, cable, satellite, HD DVD, or Blu-ray is compressed. Compression will have artifacts. They will be more obvious in video with motion. The severity will vary, some of it is in the source material, some is a product of additional compression added by the end use provider. Don't expect perfect.

The DirecTV MPEG-4 locals don't seem to have quite as much fine detail as OTA or cable, but the sharpness is there. I wouldn't have wasted my time with DirecTV if there HD looked like it did a year ago. I'm content with the quality of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 channels. If you don't like cable's HD, you won't like DirecTV either. But the picture quality is 90% as good as cable, but not equal, and certainly not better.

I guess it comes down to this. Do you want the 16 ounce porterhouse, or the 8 ounce filet ??? Sometimes it's a tough call.

I'm actually in Las Vegas on business as I type this, so I think I'll go downstairs and struggle with that exact choice....

I agree with you about PQ for HD and SD channels. I dumped TWC for Dish Network several months ago. I did it primarily for programming reasons. I still have basic cable with TWC, just in case I get transmission problems with the dish (which I haven't yet). I think the PQ of HD channels was a little sharper with TWC, but I'm satisfied with Dish. I'm not an expert, so I really don't care about all the technical differences. I know one thing, though-- with the NFL and the cable companies still squabbling, I'm happy that I switched in time for a game like tonight (GB/Dallas) in HD on the NFL Network.

Enjoy Vegas. I was at the Mandalay Bay for a couple days in late October. The city is not my cup of tea, but it's fun to visit.

Has anyone noticed video problem on TNT-HD on TWC?

I see some red areas on images at times. It is quite notice during the NBA basketball game tonight.

I've also noticed a big delay on CC on CBS-HD as well as of this week.

Francisco

Has anyone noticed video problem on TNT-HD on TWC?

I see some red areas on images at times. It is quite notice during the NBA basketball game tonight.

I've also noticed a big delay on CC on CBS-HD as well as of this week.

I'm glad that someone else has noticed this problem. Since TWC added TBSHD to the line-up, CBSHD has been pretty bad for me.

Also, TNT-HD has the same red areas on the image--TBSHD does the same thing. I first noticed it while watching law and order on tnt-hd.

Anyone have any idea of when TWC will get more channels and what they will be?

Enjoy Vegas. I was at the Mandalay Bay for a couple days in late October. The city is not my cup of tea, but it's fun to visit.

I got stuck at the Hard Rock Hotel, not my choice. Yeah, Vegas, three days every four or five years in plenty enough. It helps when you're on someone else's dime.;););)

Has anyone noticed video problem on TNT-HD on TWC?

I see some red areas on images at times. It is quite notice during the NBA basketball game tonight.

Francisco

It doesn't surprise me coming from TNT or any of those Turner channels. They're all crap. They dare to call themselves HD when half their programming is SD with that horrendous stretching at the sides. Pathetic. And try capturing a feed from TNT "HD". They are so lame that they air part of their commercials in SD, but not upconverted, I mean real SD. They switch resolutions on the fly. Couldn't be more pathetic.

They are so lame that they air part of their commercials in SD, but not upconverted, I mean real SD. They switch resolutions on the fly. Couldn't be more pathetic.
Some of their commercials are also 720p. My DVR outputs the native format, so whenever they switch between 1080i/720p/480i, the display goes blank for a few seconds while it resyncs to the new format, so I don't see part of the commercial.

I've also noticed a big delay on CC on CBS-HD as well as of this week.


It's not just TWC broad case of CBS-HD that has the CC delay. I'm getting OTA and seeing it as well. Anyone know where to report this kinda of stuff?

It's not just TWC broad case of CBS-HD that has the CC delay. I'm getting OTA and seeing it as well. Anyone know where to report this kinda of stuff?
Checked WRAL's website and found a couple ways to report this. Try:

http://www.wral.com/apps/feedback/feedback/?d_id_person=381

Or send email to:

wral-tvengineeringinfo@wral.com

So, I just got a new Sony 1080P 46" TV and gave my old 32" 4:3 CRT to a friend.

First, the picture is amazing. Being able to count the pins in the WRAL news anchors' laptops when sitting on my couch is really awesome.

As I feared, this TV has one of the newfangled QAM tuners which obeys the cable virtual channel tables. I have a question for those of you who were "unable" to get FOX and ABC via QAM until a month or two ago. Can you guys also see all the other channels with no virtual channel mapping (105.*, 112.*, 119*, eg the spanish channels, home shopping, cspan, SD mirrors of broadcast channels etc)?

Last, when we took my old CRT to my buddy's, he almost didn't want it. He had been using a tiny 25" SD CRT, and never noticed how horrible his DirectTV SD channels looked. Before we put the TV on Craig's list, I coerced him into trying a DVD. I'm looking forward to him getting an antenna. :)

Drew

Checked WRAL's website and found a couple ways to report this. Try:

http://www.wral.com/apps/feedback/feedback/?d_id_person=381

Or send email to:

wral-tvengineeringinfo@wral.com

Ah, thanks much. CC issue reported. Hopefully it'll be clear for tomorrows shows

I have both TWC and DirecTV for now. If I had to pick a winner now, it would be DirecTV. Their HD selection is superior ...
Been gone for a while but glad to see things have changed for the better. :D
I see you got tired of TWC's HD rollout schedule and decided you had time for a contract or three before TWC offers any real HD choices.
Glad we have an new SAT advocate on the board. ;)

Been gone for a while but glad to see things have changed for the better. :D
I see you got tired of TWC's HD rollout schedule and decided you had time for a contract or three before TWC offers any real HD choices.
Glad we have an new SAT advocate on the board. ;)

Glad to see you back. Yeah, once I actually confirmed that DirecTV had a product that delivered on it's promise, I decided to jump on board for now. After my "commitment" has expired, I'll try to negotiate a hardware upgrade (DVR) to keep me as a customer.

But I haven't given up on cable being the better long term solution. We'll see where things are a year from now. Maybe Charlie will have a twelve LNB dish by then.;););)

I just hope that TWC improves their HD offering soon. No matter how many HD channels DirecTV offers, I don't wanna switch to them. They disgust me as a company. They publicize their service as being better than cable because it's "100% digital" and their image quality is vomitive, at least when I had the SD service from 04 to early 07. It was hurtful for me to pay $60 a month for a service that on a scale of 0 to 10 I would've graded less than zero, but I was living in places that didn't have cable so I didn't have a choice. I'd rather wait until cable catches up than giving any more money to those creeps. I'm not a happy customer of TWC, but I'll take it any day over Directv.

Glad to see you back. Yeah, once I actually confirmed that DirecTV had a product that delivered on it's promise, I decided to jump on board for now. After my "commitment" has expired, I'll try to negotiate a hardware upgrade (DVR) to keep me as a customer.

But I haven't given up on cable being the better long term solution. We'll see where things are a year from now. Maybe Charlie will have a twelve LNB dish by then.;););)
Yea the key words with "cable being the better long term solution" are "long term". TWC embracing HD has nothing to do with capacity; although I know their capacity is tapped out right now. It has everything to do with a real alternative. Yes DISH and a SAT on the roof works for me, but not for everyone. Either physically or esthetically cable is the only solution. If FIOS ever makes it to this area you will see an about face by TWC and of course the crowing that they were pioneers and led the way for HD in every home.

If anyone is sitting on the sidelines envious of all the HD that is out their that they can't watch on TWC, you have "at least" the term of the longest SAT "contract" out their.

Last night I confirmed something I have suspected for awhile. There was a MYTV program that was in SD on WRDC-28.1/Raleigh, but it was in HD on WMYV-48.1/Greensboro. So it's not the network that's not transmitting HD, but our local affiliate.

^Reaper on CW22 also was not shown in HD, although it has been all season until last night. I sent them an email, although I doubt it will change anything.

Hey Guys,

I'm sure this has been asked countless times but I just sold my CRT and got a Samsung Plasma.

I have not tried Direct TV in a few years but they offer so many more channels than TW Cable I have been wanting to try them.

Should I make the switch?

Thank is advance.

Hey Guys,

I'm sure this has been asked countless times but I just sold my CRT and got a Samsung Plasma.

I have not tried Direct TV in a few years but they offer so many more channels than TW Cable I have been wanting to try them.

Should I make the switch?

Thank is advance.

No. They may have more channels but their picture quality is crap.

I've had Direct HDTV now of about a year. To me the HD is great.

No. They may have more channels but their picture quality is crap.

Can you please explain why it's crap? Are you saying the SD is crap or there HD? I have found that since I got this new TV all I do is look for HD programs and I could really care less about SD right now.

Thanks,
Dank

Hey Guys,

I'm sure this has been asked countless times but I just sold my CRT and got a Samsung Plasma.

I have not tried Direct TV in a few years but they offer so many more channels than TW Cable I have been wanting to try them.

Should I make the switch?

Thank is advance.

The MPEG-4 channels are stellar. I have both TWC and DirecTV and have no complaints about DirecTV's PQ with the MPEG4. However, the MPEG2 channels leave a bit to be desired.

No. They may have more channels but their picture quality is crap.

Your post is based upon ignorance, quite obviously.

[QUOTE=CCsoftball7;12413561]The MPEG-4 channels are stellar. I have both TWC and DirecTV and have no complaints about DirecTV's PQ with the MPEG4. However, the MPEG2 channels leave a bit to be desired.



Can you please explain the differance between the two?

If I do go with Direct what kind of equipment should I request?

What dish? What box?

Sorry I'm new to all of this.

But I guess the only way I would switch is if they offer a free HD DVR.

Thanks

Can you please explain the differance between the two?

If I do go with Direct what kind of equipment should I request?

What dish? What box?

Sorry I'm new to all of this.

But I guess the only way I would switch is if they offer a free HD DVR.

Thanks

Check out the General DirecTV discussion (http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12) or the DirecTV Programmings discussion (http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=125). All the new boxes are MPEG4. However, there are still some HD channels using MPEG2 encoding (ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, TNT-HD, Universal-HD, HD-Theater, HDNET, HDNET Movies). I'm not sure if there is a free DVR, but I like my DVR much better than the SA8300HD. :)

Check out the General DirecTV discussion (http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12) or the DirecTV Programmings discussion (http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=125). All the new boxes are MPEG4. However, there are still some HD channels using MPEG2 encoding (ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, TNT-HD, Universal-HD, HD-Theater, HDNET, HDNET Movies). I'm not sure if there is a free DVR, but I like my DVR much better than the SA8300HD. :)

Thanks man,

I will go there and learn some.

Don't forget DISH. They have a better DVR than D* at the moment (the 30 second skip is a god send).
They also have a FREE HD DVR offer going on...
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/offer/index.shtml

Don't forget DISH. They have a better DVR than D* at the moment (the 30 second skip is a god send).
They also have a FREE HD DVR offer going on...
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/offer/index.shtml

Thanks, But I have not heard very good things about Dish.

We'll see where things are a year from now. Maybe Charlie will have a twelve LNB dish by then.;););)

Doubtful - but 6 dual lnb dishes is a possibility. ;)

Thanks, But I have not heard very good things about Dish.
You may be talking to the wrong people. ;)
This forum for example seems to have several happy DISH subs. Have you read much good about D*'s flagship HD DVR? maybe you have, but I haven't.

Can you please explain why it's crap? Are you saying the SD is crap or there HD? I have found that since I got this new TV all I do is look for HD programs and I could really care less about SD right now.

Thanks,
Dank

Well, I had the SD channels, and the picture quality was downright repulsive. I'm talking the worst of the worst. Internet downloads looked far better than DTV. Based on my experience with them, and the fact that according to other people here their HD is below TWC quality, I wouldn't switch to them.

Your post is based upon ignorance, quite obviously.

Not really, although I'll give you that I haven't had the HD service, only the SD one. But that's the problem when a company has such terrible service in one of their products, that bad impression stays with you, and you actually don't want to use that company even if another one of their products is not terribly bad.

Last night I confirmed something I have suspected for awhile. There was a MYTV program that was in SD on WRDC-28.1/Raleigh, but it was in HD on WMYV-48.1/Greensboro. So it's not the network that's not transmitting HD, but our local affiliate.

That is strange. I have noticed HD programming from channel 228 (WRDC) on Time Warner Cable during primetime hours. Could someone see if WRDC is sending out HD only to TWC? I do not have an ATSC decoder because my television is an HD monitor that requires a set top box to view HDTV broadcasts, and I am using an Explorer 8300HD, which decodes QAM and not ATSC.

If this is true, my guess is that TWC is loaning out MPEG-2 encoders to WRDC and other Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) stations that are not HD-ready as part of their contract to carry SBGI HD feeds until SBGI stations are able to acquire their own encoders, and that TWC's encoders are for TWC cable feeds only.

They have to have an MPEG2 encoder to broadcast - my guess is that SGBI is giving the finger to everyone who is NOT cable subscriber(and whom they are NOT getting any extra money from). After all - it is only required that the stations broadcast in ATSC format - no requirement for High Definition. Although, my 3 ATSC tuners all say they are broadcasting 22 and 28 in 720p - most all the 4:3 programming is pillarboxed.

I'm sort of handicapped here because I work in the evenings M-F and can't see it for myself.

They have to have an MPEG2 encoder to broadcast - my guess is that SGBI is giving the finger to everyone who is NOT cable subscriber(and whom they are NOT getting any extra money from). After all - it is only required that the stations broadcast in ATSC format - no requirement for High Definition. Although, my 3 ATSC tuners all say they are broadcasting 22 and 28 in 720p - most all the 4:3 programming is pillarboxed.

I'm sort of handicapped here because I work in the evenings M-F and can't see it for myself.

It is probable that TWC is paying SBGI some money because they know how big and powerful it is and did not want prices SBGI was demanding to escalate the way they did when Mediacom tried to bargain with SBGI. Therefore, TWC accepted one of SBGI's earlier offers to keep it from getting angry and start demanding more money, remembering the exorbitant fees Mediacom had to pay SBGI when it tried to stand its ground but surrendered to keep more customers from leaving when the Super Bowl was imminent.

It is also possible that WRDC is pillarboxing anything you can see because its entire local library is SD only and therefore the only thing they can broadcast in HD is whatever is coming from the MyNetworkTV feed which is active only when you are at work.

That is strange. I have noticed HD programming from channel 228 (WRDC) on Time Warner Cable during primetime hours. Could someone see if WRDC is sending out HD only to TWC? I do not have an ATSC decoder because my television is an HD monitor that requires a set top box to view HDTV broadcasts, and I am using an Explorer 8300HD, which decodes QAM and not ATSC.

If this is true, my guess is that TWC is loaning out MPEG-2 encoders to WRDC and other Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) stations that are not HD-ready as part of their contract to carry SBGI HD feeds until SBGI stations are able to acquire their own encoders, and that TWC's encoders are for TWC cable feeds only.

Last night the movie "The Ref" was in HD OTA out of Greensboro, but in SD locally OTA and on TWC. WRDC is simply not passing MYTV HD any longer. It's either busted, or perhaps Sinclair relocated the HD gear to another station.

I seriously doubt Sinclair is "giving the finger" to those receiving their channel over the air, especially considering they had a big thing awhile back promoting "free HD" that you can get over the air. Plus, CW22 was in standard on Tuesday night as well as I mentioned (havent watched any other night since I knew Smallville was a rerun)...my guess is they had some equipment failure, which, if so, it would be nice if they would address the issue in some fashion by posting here or putting a notice on their website or something...just admit when there are problems rather than hoping no one notices.

WRDC seems to have it's HD fixed. Although last night's movie was 4:3, the MYTV bug was outside the 4:3 window, meaning a 16:9 transmission.

As bad as Sinclair is, at least it is honest about WRDC not being HD ready. Please see http://www.sbgi.net/business/all.shtml#raleigh. I am guessing that WRDC is listed as not HD ready probably because they do not have the redundancy needed to handle HD consistently in the face of breakdowns.

For some reason ZAP 2 it has dropped the digital/multicast channel listings and only is listing the analog local OTA channels.

http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?zipcode=27540


-DonBa1

For some reason ZAP 2 it has dropped the digital/multicast channel listings and only is listing the analog local OTA channels.

http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?zipcode=27540


-DonBa1

I see the Digital OTA channels in both your zip and mine (27513). The odd thing is that they are listed with their real UHF frequency, and no channel remapping.

Drew

drewwho,

I will look again. Maybe I have to clear my cache or something.

Thanks for checking,

Don

Over the last couple days I've noticed that channel 217 (NCNHD) and 218 (NCNSD) are so pixilated that they often only show as a blank gray screen. The lower channel duplicate of 218, channel 6, appears fine. No other SD or HD channels in the 2xx range have this issue ... they all appear normal. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Thanks!

Setup:
8300HD + 500GB eSATA

drewwho,

Well I am seeing what you do now and it will take some getting use to for me if they keep it in this format.

They are the only on line tv guide that shows the multicast channels that I presently know of.

Thanks,

DonB2

Don't forget DISH. They have a better DVR than D* at the moment (the 30 second skip is a god send).
They also have a FREE HD DVR offer going on...
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/offer/index.shtml

Their HD selection is only better than TWC, but they don't have Sci-Fi and USA HD.

I'm getting a new HDTV on Thursday. I currently have TWC. They came out today 2 hours late with an SA Explorer 8300 HD that they couldn't get to boot. I'm wondering about the quality of the picture and the number of HD channels TWC vs DTV and also about the quality of their HD DVR box.

Thanks for any input.

Does anybody have any insider information as to when TWC Raleigh will have Sci-Fi and USA in HD?

Does anybody have any insider information as to when TWC Raleigh will have Sci-Fi and USA in HD?

watch this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=652328

Their HD selection is only better than TWC, but they don't have Sci-Fi and USA HD.

Rumors are that Dish will be picking these up any day now (hope was for last Fri)

Mike

Does anybody have any insider information as to when TWC Raleigh will have Sci-Fi and USA in HD?

I don't even think they've signed a deal. All these rollouts revolve around technical capacity and contract renewal cycles. It will be a long year for the impatient.

It will be a long year for the impatient.

Is there anyone on TWC who still has any patience? Mine ran out long ago.

3 years of channel requests and still no Cinemax HD or Starz HD is more than long enough to wait.

Is there anyone on TWC who still has any patience? Mine ran out long ago.

3 years of channel requests and still no Cinemax HD or Starz HD is more than long enough to wait.

If you take the universe of subscribers that have Cinemax and/or Starz AND have an HD, you're probably talking less than 5% of the subscriber base. Not a very compelling reason to commit bandwidth when it's already at a premium.

I'm willing to wager that by this time next year, there will be at least a half a dozen or more HD Cinemax channels available on TWC, and still only 3 on DirecTV. AND you will probably have Cinemax HD ON DEMAND as well. But if you're impatient, then you have options.....

I'm willing to wager that by this time next year, there will be at least a half a dozen or more HD Cinemax channels available on TWC, and still only 3 on DirecTV. AND you will probably have Cinemax HD ON DEMAND as well. But if you're impatient, then you have options.....

What are you willing to wager? ;)

If you take the universe of subscribers that have Cinemax and/or Starz AND have an HD, you're probably talking less than 5% of the subscriber base. Not a very compelling reason to commit bandwidth when it's already at a premium.

I'm willing to wager that by this time next year, there will be at least a half a dozen or more HD Cinemax channels available on TWC, and still only 3 on DirecTV. AND you will probably have Cinemax HD ON DEMAND as well. But if you're impatient, then you have options.....

isn't that the same wager you made a year ago and the previous year before that when Dish was killing TWC in the HD race?

I'm willing to wager that the 5% of the subscriber base who want Cinemax and Starz HD is 5% more than wanted or even knew about A&E HD.

And no, as been discussed before. I don't have options. Just because you have nice line of sight doesn't mean everyone else who is shackled to TWC does.

<cough>

I think we'll only see a trickle of HD activity from programmers and video distributors until next year. Next year will be the landslide. STARZ-HD quite frankly is probably not even on the radar screen at TWC at this point.

By next summer, the satellite guys will have the bulk of their HD local rollout behind them, and they'll have an installed base of HD receivers hungry for programming.

The cable guys will be implementing bandwidth recovery strategies on a wide scale basis.

The telcos may be breathing down everyones necks.

Programmers will jump into the fray once the distribution bottlenecks have been resolved.

And we just passed the milestone where HD sets are outselling SD sets.

2007 is when it all starts getting interesting. For now, it's spits and spats, dribs and drabs. Patience please. The race has only just begun.

that was on 06-05-06. Patience is relative and isn't applicable when your customer base dies of old age before something gets done.

:D
I love it!!!!

POSG has been defending TWC since the SAT companies came along and "started global warming", "killed the US dollar", and every other bad thing that has ever happened.

But now the big difference is he is the proud (or not so proud) subscriber to D* as well as his first love TWC. :)
And let's not forget if POSG keeps making the same prediction year after year, eventually he will be right and who will be laughing then? Besides those of us that moved to SAT years before and have been enjoying ALL that HD has to give us. ;)

I would maybe be willing to try HD Directv for one year given some favorable comments here (and despite my terrible experience with that company), but to me the deal breaker is that I found out their boxes don't have firewire ports to capture HDTV without 5c protection. I'd rather have that feature with less channels for now and wait. All I really care about is Sci-Fi and USA in HD, and CNN HD would be nice, but I don't care about the rest.

:D
I love it!!!!

POSG has been defending TWC since the SAT companies came along and "started global warming", "killed the US dollar", and every other bad thing that has ever happened.

But now the big difference is he is the proud (or not so proud) subscriber to D* as well as his first love TWC. :)
And let's not forget if POSG keeps making the same prediction year after year, eventually he will be right and who will be laughing then? Besides those of us that moved to SAT years before and have been enjoying ALL that HD has to give us. ;)

The one's who will be laughing will be the one's that didn't sign a long term contract, spent hundreds of dollars on equipment that's sure to be obsolete in a year or two, and the one's that don't have an erector set on their roof that doesn't work in the rain.

They'll be laughing while they chose among thousands of HD video on demand choices.

But they may still be lamenting the sad fact that they don't have "Monsters" or the "Kung Fu" channel. Or will they???:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Happy Holidays !!!

PS sebaz - You may find, as I did, that you won't care too much that the SD channels are unwatchable, because there's a deep enough selection of HD content that you won't really watch SD much, if at all.

"and the one's that don't have an erector set on their roof that doesn't work in the rain."

I have an erector set, aerials, and a dish. They sing in the rain for me... LOL Only when an intense Thunderstorm comes along do I loose D* and only for about 5 minutes if that. This year I bet I haven't lost more than five minutes of service. Can you say that about cable? I know my neighbors have been out for several hours this year total.

... an erector set on their roof that doesn't work in the rain.
Now POSG you have a dish now, how many times has it gone out on you? Be honest.
Mine has probably gone out 5-10 minutes in the last year. My cable when I had it was measured in hours.

They'll be laughing while they chose among thousands of HD video on demand choices.

Really? Is this another prediction that you will be making every year?

But they may still be lamenting the sad fact that they don't have "Monsters" or the "Kung Fu" channel. Or will they???:rolleyes::rolleyes:

It's all about choice. I think THT-HD is worthless myself. Pretty soon even cable will have it's share of so called worthless HD channels (wealth-HD anyone?). I actually watch Monster-HD from time to time for some of the Freddy or Jason slash fests (I can be pretty "High-Brow").

Happy Holidays !!!

Thanks, I've missed getting you riled up. All in fun you know.
And Merry Christmas to you.

The true telling moment will be when you are happy enough with just TWC's HD offerings to ditch D*. Speaking of which what kind of receiver are you using for D*? Is it a HD-DVR, with all that HD I hope so.

I purchased a Magnavox MWR10D6 DVD recorder at Walmart for $50.00 about a month ago to replace my Coby DVD recorder that died. I am really enjoying it for recording ATSC Christmas shows and for later viewing of RTN 50.2 shows. It has been very very reliable for recording.

I have a Samsung STB that I select the channel I want to record from the EPG and than set the time record on the Magnavox for the same time and correct input and have gotten pretty decent digital recordings. Of course they are not HD but they are much nicer to watch then ghosty analog.

Eventually I would like to get a DVD recorder with Hard Drive and ATSC Electronic Programming guide. I think Panasonic makes one but not sure.

-DonB2

The true telling moment will be when you are happy enough with just TWC's HD offerings to ditch D*. Speaking of which what kind of receiver are you using for D*? Is it a HD-DVR, with all that HD I hope so.

I'm only a casual DVR user. There are a half a dozen broadcast network series I record for later viewing, and mostly because I travel so much.

So there are three reasons I keep TWC.

One is not wishing to invest $300 in a DVR at this point, it's simpler to just use the TWC one. It's perfectly servicable for my needs.

Second is that I have two HD sets (one with the $1.75 cable card), and two analog sets, and once I started doing the math, the up charge to keep all those sets "fed" by keeping TWC was not that much.

And finally, I do still watch enough SD to appreciate the significant PQ difference with TWC.

But in all honesty, DirecTV is the better choice at this point...

I was really hoping you were using the HD-DVR from D*.
As bad as TWC's service and HD choices are, their hardware is worse.
Isn't TWC's EPG still 4x3? There are so many basic features like hiding channels , 9day guide and 30 sec skip that I just CAN"T give up.
Just a few more steps towards the light... I know it's scary but believe me you will be better off. And in 5 years when TWC catches up you can go back. :)

I was really hoping you were using the HD-DVR from D*.
As bad as TWC's service and HD choices are, their hardware is worse.
Isn't TWC's EPG still 4x3? There are so many basic features like hiding channels , 9day guide and 30 sec skip that I just CAN"T give up.
Just a few more steps towards the light... I know it's scary but believe me you will be better off. And in 5 years when TWC catches up you can go back. :)

But once Navigator is deployed, the TWC user interface will be much better.............:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

(It's a joke !!!)

But once Navigator is deployed, the TWC user interface will be much better.............:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

(It's a joke !!!)

Any idea when this will happen around here? Are we going to lose already recorded programs, settings, etc?

Any idea when this will happen around here? Are we going to lose already recorded programs, settings, etc?

It will come very soon without warning in your sleep and it will likely delete all your saved programs. You have been warned.

Somebody complained a month or two ago about the yellow line down the left hand side of NBC17's HD broadcast. I didn't much care at the time, since I had a CRT HDTV with unavoidable 15% overscan.

Fast forward a month, and I've finally got a nice 46" 1080P native Sony LCD panel, and I really enjoy watching the other 1080i channels with no overscan. However, the #$%@'ing line on NBC17 is still there, and it is really, really, really ugly and annoying. To make it worse, the setting to change between 1:1 and overscan is buried a few menus deep on my TV, so it is a PITA to switch between overscan for NBC17, and 1:1 for everybody else. Is this a network thing, or is this purely NBC17's problem? Is there any way we can talk them into fixing it?

Also, does anybody else think that CBS's NFL football looks considerably better than NBC's SNF in terms of clarity and pixelization? What I can't decide is if NBC does not look good because of all the bizarre stuff they do in the game's production (ugly as sin score bar, crazy handycam style nervous zooming and panning) or if it is because the broadcast is really just more compressed and this is something NBC17 could fix locally. (maybe by dropping the pointless, bandwidth wasting NBC17SD).

Drew

Also, does anybody else think that CBS's NFL football looks considerably better than NBC's SNF in terms of clarity and pixelization? What I can't decide is if NBC does not look good because of all the bizarre stuff they do in the game's production (ugly as sin score bar, crazy handycam style nervous zooming and panning) or if it is because the broadcast is really just more compressed and this is something NBC17 could fix locally. (maybe by dropping the pointless, bandwidth wasting NBC17SD).
Drew

yes.

NBC's SNF PQ is definitely the worst of the NFL football games. If the camera is steady, and there is no onscreen motion, the picture is very clear. But once there is motion either by the camera, or by the players, the picture gets pixelized/macro-blocky. Its really noticeable in backgrounds when the camera is following a player jogging back to the huddle. In other broadcast, the background is out of focus, but smooth (as it should be). In the NBC broadcast, the background is out of focus, but the macro blocks are VERY visible. It looks to me like NBCs encoders aren't as good, or the encoders are trying to encode detail where there isn't detail, or NBC isn't allocating enough bandwidth to the HD feed.

I have DirectTV, but get all the locals OTA. all the other broadcasts (NFL Network, CBS, FOX, ESPN) are better than NBC. So far this season, I have been VERY impressed with NFL Network games on DirecTV. I think NFLN games have the best PQ, followed by CBS/FOX. CBS and FOX usually have really good HD NFL broadcasts. But, very occasionally, a FOX or CBS game will be noticeably lower quality, but never as bad as NBC Sunday Night Football. ESPN is usually pretty good, but doesn't seem as good as the best FOX or CBS broadcast. I'm not sure what causes the variation of quality on the same network ... perhaps older camera's and production equipement at the game?

Somebody complained a month or two ago about the yellow line down the left hand side of NBC17's HD broadcast. I didn't much care at the time, since I had a CRT HDTV with unavoidable 15% overscan.

Fast forward a month, and I've finally got a nice 46" 1080P native Sony LCD panel, and I really enjoy watching the other 1080i channels with no overscan. However, the #$%@'ing line on NBC17 is still there, and it is really, really, really ugly and annoying. To make it worse, the setting to change between 1:1 and overscan is buried a few menus deep on my TV, so it is a PITA to switch between overscan for NBC17, and 1:1 for everybody else. Is this a network thing, or is this purely NBC17's problem? Is there any way we can talk them into fixing it?

Also, does anybody else think that CBS's NFL football looks considerably better than NBC's SNF in terms of clarity and pixelization? What I can't decide is if NBC does not look good because of all the bizarre stuff they do in the game's production (ugly as sin score bar, crazy handycam style nervous zooming and panning) or if it is because the broadcast is really just more compressed and this is something NBC17 could fix locally. (maybe by dropping the pointless, bandwidth wasting NBC17SD).

Drew

The "full pixel" mode is OK for some program sources, but it does show information outside of the "safe screen" area that broadcasters are concerned with. You should use the "normal" setting as your default, and resort to "full pixel" on those "special occasions".

I created a macro on my remote to make the switch a lot easier.

Other channels, MHD. CW, MYTV, even HDNet have similar undesirable crap on their edges as well. but theirs are on the top and/or right side.

The DirecTV receiver allows you to scoot the picture horizontally a tad to mask the problems, but since some are on the right and some are on the left, it's more bother than it's worth.

Anyone having reception issues with Fox 50.1? I'm in Mebane. I'm getting 17.1, 5.1, 22.1, 11.1 just fine (External OTA Antennae). All my tuners get nothing from 50.1 for the last two days. I wonder if I have something interfering at that frequency.

50 is still good at my house (or, it was this morning).

Edit - just IM'ed the wife - 50.1 is still good at my place.

But then, 22.1 is usually my weakest station as well as the WUNC ones that I can receive (36.1 out of Roanoke Rapids and 4.1 out of Chapel Hill).

The "full pixel" mode is OK for some program sources, but it does show information outside of the "safe screen" area that broadcasters are concerned with. You should use the "normal" setting as your default, and resort to "full pixel" on those "special occasions".

What I don't understand is why do we still have the "safe screen" stuff now that a large percentage (majority?) of HD sets are LCD or Plasma and either have no overscan by default, or are can be configured with no overscan. It has to be hurting image quality to take a 1920x1080 signal, zoom it by 1%, and then display it on a 1920x1080 screen. That just seems insanely dumb. Part of the reason I got a 1080P display was to avoid scaling artifacts.


The DirecTV receiver allows you to scoot the picture horizontally a tad to mask the problems, but since some are on the right and some are on the left, it's more bother than it's worth.

Actually, my TV can scoot the picture horizontally and vertically as well. But, as you say this does not help because the crud is in different places on different channels. FWIW, the other out of safe area stuff I've noticed has been on ABC11 / FOX50, where there is noise in the top center of the picture when they are showing non-hd 4:3 letterboxed content. I've heard that this is VBI data from the analog signal, and it doesn't bother me much especially since I never see it during HD content, only SD syndicated reruns and commercials during HD shows.

I guess what we really need is for the TV or STB to draw a 1% rectangle around the edges. Call it an "edge mask" or something. That would get rid of the garbage w/o unwanted scaling.

But the yellow line is just so annoying because there doesn't seem to be any good reason for it. It has to be a bug in the equipment someplace :(

Sigh.

Drew

yes.
In the NBC broadcast, the background is out of focus, but the macro blocks are VERY visible. It looks to me like NBCs encoders aren't as good, or the encoders are trying to encode detail where there isn't detail, or NBC isn't allocating enough bandwidth to the HD feed.


Thanks. I was somewhat worried it might be my TV. After spending mucho $$$, you tend to get a little nervous! Things like this were not so visible on my old CRT HDTV, but it was soooo much smaller that it glossed over all but the worst problems.


I'm not sure what causes the variation of quality on the same network ... perhaps older camera's and production equipement at the game?

I think that might be it. I noticed the same thing with basketball. The Duke/Michigan game the weekend before last looked much, much better than the Purdue game last weekend, even though both games were shown on CBS, etc.

Drew

Fast forward a month, and I've finally got a nice 46" 1080P native Sony LCD panel, and I really enjoy watching the other 1080i channels with no overscan. However, the #$%@'ing line on NBC17 is still there, and it is really, really, really ugly and annoying. To make it worse, the setting to change between 1:1 and overscan is buried a few menus deep on my TV, so it is a PITA to switch between overscan for NBC17, and 1:1 for everybody else. Is this a network thing, or is this purely NBC17's problem? Is there any way we can talk them into fixing it?


I can see it as well in full pixel mode but never notice when the shows are on.

I'm usually too distracted by all the NBC promos that fly across the screen or the stupidly white bugs that sit next to the NBC logo.

50 is still good at my house (or, it was this morning).

Edit - just IM'ed the wife - 50.1 is still good at my place.

But then, 22.1 is usually my weakest station as well as the WUNC ones that I can receive (36.1 out of Roanoke Rapids and 4.1 out of Chapel Hill).

Thank you, I must have something going on on that frequency. Everything else comes in just fine. Thank you for checking.

"Anyone having reception issues with Fox 50.1? I'm in Mebane. I'm getting 17.1, 5.1, 22.1, 11.1 just fine (External OTA Antennae). All my tuners get nothing from 50.1 for the last two days. I wonder if I have something interfering at that frequency."

All your ATSC tuners are having problems getting 50.1?

I was thinking you had a channel remapping issue but not on all tuners.
Maybe take one of your tuners up to your source antenna and bypass your house cabling and see if you can get it.

Also try adjusting your antenna slightly. Sometimes atmospheric conditions, leaves or lack of leaves , wind and so on can affect reception of just one channel.

DonB2

According to TWC (http://www.timewarnercable.com/NC/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html) website their suppose to add:

HGTV HD – Channel 277
Food Network HD – Channel 278
National Geographic HD – Channel 279
today but I'm not getting them yet.

According to TWC (http://www.timewarnercable.com/NC/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html) website their suppose to add:

HGTV HD – Channel 277
Food Network HD – Channel 278
National Geographic HD – Channel 279
today but I'm not getting them yet.

I did not see where this was suppose to happen today....maybe I missed it.

I did not see where this was suppose to happen today....maybe I missed it.
Sorry all. They were listed there as being added December 20, 2007 and showed in the channel listings page when I posted it. There gone from both pages now.

"Anyone having reception issues with Fox 50.1? I'm in Mebane. I'm getting 17.1, 5.1, 22.1, 11.1 just fine (External OTA Antennae). All my tuners get nothing from 50.1 for the last two days. I wonder if I have something interfering at that frequency."

All your ATSC tuners are having problems getting 50.1?

I was thinking you had a channel remapping issue but not on all tuners.
Maybe take one of your tuners up to your source antenna and bypass your house cabling and see if you can get it.

Also try adjusting your antenna slightly. Sometimes atmospheric conditions, leaves or lack of leaves , wind and so on can affect reception of just one channel.

DonB2

We were getting 50.1 & 50.2 with no problem This past Monday. We tried to watch in a few min. ago and no luck at all. Event went to the setup setting to see my reading & it is showing "0". Have no idea what has happen.

Hopefully that means we are pretty close to getting those channels...although Ill admit theres a bunch of other channels Id rather have before Food and HGTV. Food is just going to make me want to eat more.

Raleigh TWC just informed that in January 2008, anyone who has a Premium channel (HBO, Showtime etc), will be getting the On-Demand channel of that Premium for free. So Digital tier plus HBO will also net you HBO On-Demand now also..

HGTV-HD, Food HD, and National Geographic HD are on TWC in Raleigh now. 277, 278, and 279.

HGTV-HD, Food HD, and National Geographic HD are on TWC in Raleigh now. 277, 278, and 279.

Yup.... Note that they are all three on the same QAM channel (777Mhz) so they are 'bit rate challenged'. No guide data though....

They are even available to Cablecards.....

HGTV-HD, Food HD, and National Geographic HD are on TWC in Raleigh now. 277, 278, and 279.

Wonderful. More crap instead of HD channels that people actually want, such as USA, Sci-Fi, CNN, etc.

Yup.... Note that they are all three on the same QAM channel (777Mhz) so they are 'bit rate challenged'. No guide data though....

They are even available to Cablecards.....

They are bitrate challenged all right...they look like crap!!! Unless you have a 26" LCD and you watch it from a mile away.

Wonderful. More crap instead of HD channels that people actually want, such as USA, Sci-Fi, CNN, etc.

To each his own. I'd like to get HGTV in HD and couldn't care less about CNN (which is on your list of "channels that people actually want").

Oh, and TWC didn't say the new HD channels would look any good, just that they would have them ;)

Wonderful. More crap instead of HD channels that people actually want, such as USA, Sci-Fi, CNN, etc.

I'll take Food Network in HD gladly. Although I do want whatever Discovery HD channel it is that has Mythbusters in HD...

Admittedly, I do want more HD movie channels before any of them, though.

Oh, and TWC didn't say the new HD channels would look any good, just that they would have them ;)

Yes, well, since I'm paying for their lousy service, I would expect good quality, especially in their HD channels. I can see why many people seem to be switching to Directv, although that's another company I despise.

"Anyone having reception issues with Fox 50.1? I'm in Mebane. I'm getting 17.1, 5.1, 22.1, 11.1 just fine (External OTA Antennae). All my tuners get nothing from 50.1 for the last two days. I wonder if I have something interfering at that frequency."

All your ATSC tuners are having problems getting 50.1?

I was thinking you had a channel remapping issue but not on all tuners.
Maybe take one of your tuners up to your source antenna and bypass your house cabling and see if you can get it.

Also try adjusting your antenna slightly. Sometimes atmospheric conditions, leaves or lack of leaves , wind and so on can affect reception of just one channel.



DonB2

I have an external antennae hooked to my HR20 and through my house to 5 other ATSC tuners. Here are my readings on the HR20.

4.2 88%
5.1 80%
11.1 98%
17.1 76%
22.1 97%
30.1 71%
50.1 58%

I thought all of these stations come from one tower in Clayton. How can I get different readings for different stations?

4.2 (WUNC) is out in Chapel Hill.
30.1 is out in Wilson

All the others are out there at Garner, 11 and 17 on their own towers. It may also be a power issue - 17 may not be sending as much.

Or an interference issue, I can get all the stations, but have more problems with 22 or 17 than any of the others. What's ironic is that 28 is actually my best DTV station, followed by WRAL /WRAZ, then WTVD, WNCN and finally pulling up the back, WUNP/ WRAY/WUNC.

I have an external antennae hooked to my HR20 and through my house to 5 other ATSC tuners. Here are my readings on the HR20.

4.2 88%
5.1 80%
11.1 98%
17.1 76%
22.1 97%
30.1 71%
50.1 58%

I thought all of these stations come from one tower in Clayton. How can I get different readings for different stations?

WRAY (30.1) is not on that tower, but on the same location as that worse than worthless infomercial and shop at home station's analog antenna which is east of Zebulon. (I consider all shop at home and informercial-only channels worse than worthless, because they waste bandwidth that could be used for more HD channels on our cable system but are wasting space on cable due to the "must-carry" rule. Also, if I wanted to shop at home, I prefer using the Internet.)

As for WUNC (4.2), its digital transmitter is southwest of Chapel Hill.

As for the troubles with 50.1, I remember having the same problems when my family used to use Dish Network (which was before they offered HD locals), until we moved to Cary and moved to Time Warner Cable, which I have been much happier with because I hated going to the attic very often to adjust the antenna. If I subtly adjusted the antenna, I would get some channels and lose others, no matter what I did, even though the channels are at the same tower. My suggestion is to wire up a remote-controlled motor to your antenna so you can adjust it to try to find your station's sweet spot. Better yet, you can move to Time Warner Cable if it is available if you are having trouble with reception. I have compared it to Pizza Hut before because some areas have poor service like the west coast of the U.S. generally has service so bad that Comcast looks good in comparison while others have excellent service, like New York and the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville divisions.

Raleigh TWC just informed that in January 2008, anyone who has a Premium channel (HBO, Showtime etc), will be getting the On-Demand channel of that Premium for free. So Digital tier plus HBO will also net you HBO On-Demand now also..
They are already listed as "FREE" on the price list (http://www.timewarnercable.com/nc/products/pricingpages/raleigh.html). I wonder if you have to call them to activate it.

Raleigh TWC just informed that in January 2008, anyone who has a Premium channel (HBO, Showtime etc), will be getting the On-Demand channel of that Premium for free. So Digital tier plus HBO will also net you HBO On-Demand now also..

I wonder if that will finally end the Starz On Demand stalemate now?

I have an external antennae hooked to my HR20 and through my house to 5 other ATSC tuners. Here are my readings on the HR20.

4.2 88%
5.1 80%
11.1 98%
17.1 76%
22.1 97%
30.1 71%
50.1 58%

I thought all of these stations come from one tower in Clayton. How can I get different readings for different stations?

Even for stations in the same general location or same tower, different frequencies act differently for multipath and general propagation. Then you have antenna differences (both on the broadcast and receiving end) and total power to factor in.

Even for stations in the same general location or same tower, different frequencies act differently for multipath and general propagation. Then you have antenna differences (both on the broadcast and receiving end) and total power to factor in.

What's strange is, I moved here a little over three years ago, the same setup worked with 50.1 witout flaw over the past 3 years and started to get more and more flacky over the last 6 months. They did build a house in its path, but my antennae is over 40 feet off the ground and above my roof line.

Just read an item at IMDb that incoming Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes may spin off TWC as well as selling AOL and Time, Inc. If that were to happen, it's anybody's guess how it would affect TWC operations.

Directv added 2 more HDchannels today.

CSTV HD
TENNIS CHANNEL HD

Hurricanes game tonight supposed to be on FSN-HD, but TWC has decided they cant "flip the switch" to show it. CSR gives me the runaround, says there are issues with the MOJO channel. Im pretty sure FSN broadcasts have nothing to do with the MOJO channel. I had to call them last Sunday too for the Sunday Night Hoops doubleheader...thankfully they figured out what was going on then.

Is there a way to complain about TBS-HD and TNT-HD? Those two channels should not be allowed to be called HD. Almost all the movies shown are stretched, which is pretty unbearable to watch. I'd rather watch 4:3 than that weird stretched image.

What's their problem? No money to buy the HD version of the movie?

just noticed that i'm getting all the new HD channels on my cablecards.

just noticed that i'm getting all the new HD channels on my cablecards.

Man I wish TWC would make up it's mind. I'm getting analog only from them until I can get the digital simulcast of all the analog channels as well as all the HD channels on my TiVo S3. With all the back and forth on SDV I just keep waiting (at least until the USB tuning resolver comes out for the TiVo).

OK, I'm waiting for the S3 to support the multi-stream cable cards too. So it's not all TWC. ;)

Has anybody else noticed wierd audio on commercials when watching WRAL 5.1 in DD5.1 ? It's like the channel upconverting is going all wierd - the sound will come outout of Right front and Center, and not in stereo or only the center. This is using a Samsung DTB-H260F STB on TOSLINK, converted to digital coax into a Yamaha receiver.

Does anyone know why the new channels (TBSHD, FOODHD, etc...) don't seem to have closed captioning support?

Has anybody else noticed wierd audio on commercials when watching WRAL 5.1 in DD5.1 ? It's like the channel upconverting is going all wierd - the sound will come outout of Right front and Center, and not in stereo or only the center. This is using a Samsung DTB-H260F STB on TOSLINK, converted to digital coax into a Yamaha receiver.

Yea, I've noticed it. It seems to happen when there are local insert commercials. The national ones seem OK to me.

Thanks - I hoped I wasn't the only one who noticed. And yes - you're right - national ones OK, local inserts not so good. The exceptions to the local inserts bad seems to be their own. I think production needs to check how to mix the commercials from other production studios to at least get them in stereo, preferably with dialog in the center channel and music on the L/R fronts.

I think I would prefer either a DD2.0 going to L/R front or a straight mono mix to the center over what I'm hearing now.

Just upgraded to digital cable (TWC), help please
Hi, I just upgraded from standard to digital cable and got the HD DVR (SA 8300HDC) from TWC. The TV is a Panasonic TC 32LE60 and connected through component input. A couple questions/concerns: 1. The picture quality, especially HD, is noticeably worse than what I had before using the cable box. 2. I get black bars now whereas HD was in full screen before. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Just upgraded to digital cable (TWC), help please
Hi, I just upgraded from standard to digital cable and got the HD DVR (SA 8300HDC) from TWC. The TV is a Panasonic TC 32LE60 and connected through component input. A couple questions/concerns: 1. The picture quality, especially HD, is noticeably worse than what I had before using the cable box. 2. I get black bars now whereas HD was in full screen before. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

If you have a HDC you're using Time Warner's Navigator IPG which has it's own set of quirks.

Try posting your question here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830

There is a story today in the News and Observer about Time Warner and their HD plans. I would post the link but I'm not able to yet. Perhaps someone else can post it for me.

newsobserver.com/business/story/855233.html