Raleigh, NC - HDTV [Text View] - Page 39

jnv11

06-04-08, 09:45 PM

Hi Everyone! I'm a longtime lurker and first time poster. :) Hopefully someone has some advice. I have TWC Basic/Standard. On our old Phillips with QAM, we were able to get CBS, NBC, PBS and the CW 100%, while FOX and ABC were intermittent. Last night my new Samsung LN46A750 arrived, and looks great with PS3/Blu-Ray! :-) However, only PBS, CBS, and the CW come in clearly over the tuner. It found NBC, ABC, and FOX during the auto-program, but they rarely have a picture. Most of the time "weak or no signal" is displayed. The cable comes directly to the TV from the wall.

Is there anything I can do without having to upgrade to TWC's digital packages? I read through previous pages of the thread about a signal booster, and I ordered the Motorola 484095-001-00 from Amazon (sorry about not having a link, as a first time poster, I can't post links).

Do I install it between the cable and the TV, or somewhere outside the house?
Will this even help at all?
I'm an admitted new guy, but I'm trying to learn. Thanks everyone!!

Please be careful when installing a signal booster. If you install one without knowing what your current signal level is, you risk saturating your digital tuner, which might lead to tuner damage or an unreadable signal. For example, Motorolas SB5101 cable modem can handle signal levels from -15dBmV to 15dBmV. Any more than 15dBmV will blow out the cable modem's receiver. Therefore, you really need to have measured your signal before buying an amplifier. If your current signal level is 0 dBmV, you could be blowing out your receiver when you hook up the amplifier, which can add 15dBmV to your signal level.

I hate to advertise, but I feel that ordering the digital package for one month and having a tech come to install it may save you from having to discard blown out equipment.

chronoton7

06-05-08, 09:07 AM

Thanks for the advice jnv11. I wound up ordering the Motorola Tuner from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000066E6Y) yesterday, but now I have a bit of trepidation about using it! My ultimate goal is to get the "in the clear" digital channels sent by TWC to show up. I just don't like have another box (cable box) sitting there, or paying TWC more $ for box and remote rental.

jnv11

06-06-08, 02:32 PM

Scooper

06-07-08, 10:12 AM

scsiraid

06-07-08, 10:39 AM

Any other OTA viewers noticed that 17's digital signal has dropped significantly ? It used to come in pretty good here, now I am on a knife edge whether it locks or not, and this is on all my ATSC tuners.

Seems ok here. My TiVo S3 is showing signal strength of 86 with 28db SNR. 5-1 shows 92 and 29db.

Scooper

06-07-08, 08:49 PM

Probably on my end then. My cables are getting a bit long in tooth - time to replace the outside ones, anyway. I just had to do this on my DBS cables...

pipo66

06-08-08, 10:58 AM

I live in Wake Forest, and I used to receive the ABC 11.1 signal pretty good, but for 2 weeks now I am not able to tune it. Is anybody else having the same problem? I tried to contact the ABC engineering, with no luck.

Scooper

06-08-08, 03:04 PM

11.1 is fine, it's 17.x I'm having issues with.

Usually something like this is related to your particular location

pipo66

06-09-08, 05:45 PM

Thanks Scooter for the reply. Actually, I found the solution. I don't know if this is only in Wake Forest, but here we get the ABC 11 feed at 52.1. I wish I could help you with your problem. Maybe in your area NBC is also trasmitting digital using a different channel. Anyways, I was wondering in anybody knew when the new echostar tr-40 was coming out. I read it's gonna cost $39.99, so it's basically free with coupons.

Scooper

06-09-08, 06:31 PM

I seem to have found my issues - tighten up some coax connectors (and remove a UHF attenuator) seems to have fixed most of my issue.

jnv11

06-09-08, 08:42 PM

tarheelone

06-09-08, 10:41 PM

See this story (http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/1101802.html) from the News & Observer. Looks like MASN will either force another channel off the basic analog tier, fill up channels 75 and 76 (MASN has a MASN2 for times when both the Orioles and the Nationals are playing separate games simultaneously), force another reshuffle that will send two other analog channels to 75 and 76, or force more digital channels to SDV.

You thought the same thing back in January (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12888594#post12888594) and it hasn't happened yet. Time Warner is far from done fighting this and I don't think we'll be seeing MASN anytime soon.

jnv11

06-10-08, 03:12 AM

You thought the same thing back in January (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12888594#post12888594) and it hasn't happened yet. Time Warner is far from done fighting this and I don't think we'll be seeing MASN anytime soon.

I was not expecting the arbitrator to foul up in the ethics department, causing his decision to be voided and having to be redone by another arbitrator. Sure, TWC will continue to fight, but if it loses, analog 75 and 76 will be filled with MASN and MASN2, two networks that have been relocated to move MASN and MASN2 to the very basic cable tier will fill those channels, or two neworks will have to bee kicked to the Digital Variety tier to make room for MASN and MASN2.

I myself would prefer that MASN, MASN2, and MASN HD be sent to the Digital Variety and Digital Sports and Games tiers because we need to reclaim analog bandwidth to create room for SDV and DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems.

tarheelone

06-10-08, 08:55 PM

I noticed at Time Warner Cable's channel lineup changes page (http://www.timewarnercable.com/easterncarolina/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html) that Wilson is losing one more channel of analog with some moves including moving one channel to the digital tier to clear out analog channel 75 on July 1. Does this mean that we may be getting more HD channel or SDV on the old analog channels 75 and 76? I noticed that other TWC cable systems in this area already have cleared out channels 75 and 76 earlier by moving some channels around to reclaim otherwise empty analog channels.

I hope it is not four more HD channels because we already have three overcompressed HD channels in the 777MHz QAM channel that need to have one moved out to solve an overcompression issue, leaving room for only three more HD channel if the analog channels 75 and 76 becomes more HD QAM channels.

Looks like we are about to see what TWC will do with a little direct competition. Wilson has been building their own city owned fiber optic network(Greenlight) for years now and is rolling out it's own digital phone/internet/cable service. Looks like it will be launching soon as they started signing people up today (http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/story/3022343/). Their HD lineup (http://www.greenlightnc.com/home/cable/channels/) has more channels than TWC and at first glance the price appears cheaper. Their slowest internet speeds start at 10Mbps up and down. I can only hope that this makes SDV come along faster because I'm sure TWC doesn't want to completely lose the Wilson market. For once, it actually makes we wish I still lived in Wilson. Not available yet for my parents house but as much as my dad hates TW, I'm sure they'll jump as soon as it is.

VisionOn

06-11-08, 07:24 AM

Looks like we are about to see what TWC will do with a little direct competition. Wilson has been building their own city owned fiber optic network(Greenlight) for years now and is rolling out it's own digital phone/internet/cable service.

Saw that on the news last night. I only now just checked out the site. Faster and cheaper and with more HD as well. Including the Starz and Cinemax HD channels I've been asking TWC about for three #$#@@** years!

Internet speeds up to 100 Mbps! That's just funny. Even the $54 tier is twice as fast as Road Runner.

Lucky Wilson. That's probably as close to FiOS reaching this area as we are likely to see.

ENDContra

06-11-08, 10:36 AM

For those of you that for some reason never make it to the main HDTV programming forum:

ACC & SEC Tentatively plan for 2008 HD football broadcasts (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1038049)

Now if only some Raleigh station that has nothing better to show on a Saturday afternoon than reruns of Just Shoot Me or Judge Judy or whatever would pick up the SEC games (even if only in SD).

texas_nightowl

06-13-08, 10:18 AM

drewwho

06-13-08, 10:27 AM

Is the smoke from the wildfires impacting OTA reception for anybody?

We just had our upstairs A/C unit replaced, and I needed to remove my antennas in the attic to give the workmen better access to the A/C unit. After replacing them, the command line linux utilities (azap) seem to be reporting slightly less signal strength than they did when I last fooled with things (in April) (0xd000 now vs 0xf000 then). I'm worried I haven't got them back exactly how I had them (or that the new A/C unit changed the dynamics of the attic). Then again, I'm wondering if the smoke from the wildfire might be generally reducing signal strength.

Thanks,

Drew

Scooper

06-13-08, 12:06 PM

It should have zero. I'd look at other factors.

tarheelone

06-13-08, 12:48 PM

Anyone watch CSI last night and have some pops in the audio? I have basic cable direct into the tv and then an optical cable from the tv to my receiver. I muted the receiver and turned up the volume directly on the tv and still noticed the pops in the audio. Seems like I noticed this earlier this week (or maybe last week) too on Without a Trace? I haven't been watching much tv lately, but wonder if anyone else has had the problem? Didn't seem to notice problems on other channels, so assume this to be a WRAL thing? Are there any settings I can make on my AVR anyway? (Yamaha RX-V1800)

I have noticed the pops on WRAL the last two nights. Last night on CSI and the night before during Criminal Minds. I figured it was just a WRAL problem since I haven't been getting the pops on any other channels. Might be a 5.1 problem since I watched Million $ Password before CSI and didn't notice the pops and it was in SD.

gbmannc

06-13-08, 08:50 PM

I have noticed the pops on WRAL the last two nights. Last night on CSI and the night before during Criminal Minds. I figured it was just a WRAL problem since I haven't been getting the pops on any other channels. Might be a 5.1 problem since I watched Million $ Password before CSI and didn't notice the pops and it was in SD.

I noticed the pops last night on CSI while using my new QAM tuner. I though it was the tuner...

I've been having trouble tuning to 11.1 (ABC HD) and 50.1 (Fox HD). I found out they both use physical channel 113 (113.1 for abc 113.4 for fox). Is anyone else getting trouble on those 2 channels. Does it have anything to do with having both channels on 113?

texas_nightowl

06-13-08, 09:25 PM

mikea28

06-15-08, 02:24 PM

These are fairly annoying IMO:

1. when rewinding, there seems to be some sort of overshoot compensation built-in, similar to the FF feature. However, with rewind, this kind of doesn't make sense since you could just watch for a few extra seconds. instead, i have to purposefully overshoot so that overshoot compensation can actually put me where i want. VERY annoying. Backasswards if you ask me.

2. occasionally when deleting a show from the DVR "list," it'll jump back to the small one-line guide sort of superimposed on the list of recorded shows, at which point, you're not really sure which of the two menus you're actually using and nothing works quite right.

3. it doesn't remember where in the recording shows list you are when you re-enter it. it always starts in the same place, exactly 3 or 4 shows from the beginning of the list. Thus, when trying to delete a show you're currently watching, you have to go back into the recorded shows list and refind the show you're watching. this can be especially frustrating if you have the same show recorded multiple times with limited descriptions of which episode is which.

4. it's slow. it can't keep up with my remote commands. it's sad that it's actually slower than passport, which was actually quite pathetic compared to my old replaytv. vista media center absolutely FLIES compared to all of these solutions.

5. it crashes more often than the old passport.

I will admit the tivo-like "to do" list is nice. That's about the only feature I like though.

I'm moving away in a couple weeks anyways, and apparently the Moto DVRs from Comcast are pretty awful as well and the Comcast-TiVo running on the Moto DVR hardware is possibly even worse.

So in conclusion, real TiVo HD here I come!

IamtheWolf

06-15-08, 05:40 PM

mikea28

06-16-08, 12:59 AM

I've seen this mentioned many, many times. I use this work around:

When re-winding or FFwd hit the PAUSE button when you want to stop. It leaves you right where you hit the button.

This is an acceptable work around for me, but I agree it should work without this.
Ahhh good idea...I'll give that a try, but I'm still getting a TiVo HD ;)

I went and read the main navigator thread and there's tons of stuff I missed, but no need to rehash it here.

Lee L

06-16-08, 10:00 AM

Did anyone else notice that NBC 17 had very dim audio during the US Open Golf Coverage this weeked? I had to crank the receiver up at least 10 dB over the level we usually keep it at. Of course, the commercials, especially the Lexus ones were plenty loud and it blasted us out of the room every time. It certainly did not make me more likely to buy a Lexus.

I also notied that NBC's signal seems to be quite a bit lower right now. It was just on the verge of what my HR10-250 could lock in on (though the newer HR20-100 had no issues)

Scooper

06-16-08, 10:03 AM

Yes I have noticed the NBC17 power issue.

drewwho

06-16-08, 10:56 AM

I also notied that NBC's signal seems to be quite a bit lower right now. It was just on the verge of what my HR10-250 could lock in on (though the newer HR20-100 had no issues)

Hmm.. Maybe *that's* my problem (see post above about re-installing my attic antenna after an A/C unit replacement). I use NBC17 as my benchmark channel, since it is the most difficult for me to get. Perhaps my antenna positioning is not the cause of my apparent signal strength loss, if others are having problems picking up NBC17.

Drew

jrelmore

06-16-08, 11:03 PM

What's up with WRAL DTV broadast signals?
Anyone else noticing a much weaker signal today from 5.1 & 5.2? Basically unwatchable today -this morning and this evening. This morning signal strength was zero until 7:30 and not much better after. 50.3, 50.2, 50.3 were also weaker than normal but very watchable. All other digital channels were/are strong as ever.

17.1 is not great but normal for Cary tonight.

Would be nice if all DTV signals receive a boost when analog shuts-off. Will be getting Gen 6 tuners in a month hoping to assist multipath issues here.

David Thorwood

06-17-08, 02:12 PM

Can anyone offer suggestions for a decent indoor antenna that can be used on a second-floor (top-floor) apartment in Cary to receive ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC?

I purchased the Artec T3A-PRO CECB box and dropped my Time Warner cable service completely today. With rabbit-ears I can barely receive WRAL and WRAZ (but not while using the same antenna position). I'm fairly green when it comes to OTA, although I am fairly technical. Can anyone offer any advice on antennas I should try from the major chains (BBY, CC, RS, etc.)? Ideally I would like to buy the antenna in-store so that it can be returned if the signal stinks.

From other threads I noticed that tvfool and antennaweb images are often useful. The following images were produced using my location:

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/5356/tvfoolrz1.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tvfoolrz1.jpg)

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7127/antennawebmw0.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=antennawebmw0.jpg)

I apologize if this has been previously covered. I tried searching AVSForum but could not find the results I am looking for. I may be better of posting this question in a generic Antenna thread I came across - if so I will move it.

Thanks.

Trip in VA

06-17-08, 04:39 PM

The antenna to try is the Silver Sensor. I think it's currently sold by Phillips under the model number PHDTV1. If you can find that in the store and give it a shot, I personally think it's the best available UHF indoor antenna. I have one; it works great.

If you like it, return it anyway; it's available for under $20 online.

- Trip

tarheelone

06-17-08, 05:10 PM

jrelmore

06-17-08, 05:53 PM

sooke

06-17-08, 07:17 PM

VisionOn

06-17-08, 07:34 PM

From http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/1111325.html

Next year the company plans to add two free services — Start Over and Look Back — that allow customers to view cable shows and programs on demand, instead of having to watch at the time they are scheduled to start.

Hahaha, next year?

Those services have been around for what? 2 years now? The whole point of being converted to Navigator was for more enhanced services and SDV enabled HD channels. How is Start Over "coming soon" (as shown on the TWCNC site) when it's still 7 months away?

If this is how they are rolling out a service that's been going for that long that they created I don't expect them to dump significant HD on us, if and when they decide to turn on SDV in this area.

zim2dive

06-18-08, 08:49 AM

Hahaha, next year?.

.... along with all the HD that some of us have been watching since LAST year (on other services and at lower prices) :)

Gads, I wish Verizon would bring their FIOS east of Durham (ie. to me in Cary :) )... TWC is just soooo behind on both Video and Broadband offerings. We really get screwed by not having more options/competition here.

jnv11

06-18-08, 12:28 PM

Hahaha, next year?

Those services have been around for what? 2 years now? The whole point of being converted to Navigator was for more enhanced services and SDV enabled HD channels. How is Start Over "coming soon" (as shown on the TWCNC site) when it's still 7 months away?

If this is how they are rolling out a service that's been going for that long that they created I don't expect them to dump significant HD on us, if and when they decide to turn on SDV in this area.

Those two services apparently were originally written to run on top of SARA and not Passport. Now, TWC looks like it is trying to port those services to Navigator.

thunderclap8

06-18-08, 10:44 PM

jnv11

06-18-08, 11:41 PM

has NBC17 stopped showing the prime time lineup in HD? I noticed this last night too, the shows are marked as HD but are definitely not full widescreen.

But Leno and Conan last night were HD, and so was the Today show this morning. Confusing!

(I'm on TWC, watching via QAM)

I saw a part of NBC Nightly News in HD via Time Warner Cable in Cary, so some of their primetime lineup is in HD. Try checking Leno tonight (his show is in HD).

tarheelone

06-19-08, 03:37 PM

It looks like Time Warner is slowly starting to merge parts of their North Carolina operations together. A few months ago the local TWC page went from being Raleigh/Durham to Eastern Carolina. Yesterday it changed to just Carolinas ( http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/) and absorbed Charlotte into the mix. The state was once divided up into 4 different regions is now down to 2, Carolinas and Greensboro. I'm guessing it is unlikely Greensboro will be absorbed anytime soon since their Sara system is different than the rest of the state. I wonder if this means any future rollouts will happen on a statewide level.

VisionOn

06-19-08, 04:53 PM

It looks like Time Warner is slowly starting to merge parts of their North Carolina operations together. A few months ago the local TWC page went from being Raleigh/Durham to Eastern Carolina.

And now we have more HD! See how many channels we get now according to their site:

HD channels included FREE with Digital HD service:

201 UNC (PBS) HD
211 WTVD (ABC) HD
217 WNCN (NBC) HD
222 WLFL (CW) HD
228 WRDC (MyNetwork) HD
250 WRAZ (FOX) HD
255 WRAL (CBS) HD
277 HGTV HD
278 Food Network HD
279 National Geographic HD
280 HD Theater
281 TNT HD
282 TBS in HD
283 Versus/Golf Channel HD
284 A&E High Definition
285 HBO East High Definition
286 Showtime High Definition
289 ESPN2 High Definition
290 ESPN-HD
292 Music: High Definition
298 HD Showcase On Demand
299 Movies on Demand HD
411 HBO HD
451 Showtime High Definition
502 Movies on Demand HD
558 HD Showcase On Demand

Plus you can also get:

HD Movies On Demand
Order select movies and IMAX features On Demand with HD Movies On Demand. Titles are priced at $4.99.

HD Premiums
Each HD channel is included with your subscription to its corresponding premium channel.

* HBO HD
Included with subscription to HBO
Watch exciting blockbuster movies as well as HBO original programming.
* Showtime HD
Included with subscription to Showtime
Catch new release movies in HD along with original programming as well as championship boxing.

HD Suite
Enhance your high definition viewing experience with HD Suite. HD Suite is priced at $6.95/month.

*
MOJO
MOJO is HD programming tailored to fit men's interests from excellent food to extreme locales, from high-tech toys to high stakes antics, from Wall Street to easy street. Plus, NBA and MLB programming!
Click here for this month's highlights!
*
HDNet
HDNet produces and televises more hours of original programming in HD than any other domestic network.
Click here for this month's highlights!
*
HDNet Movies
HDNet Movies delivers a full schedule of feature films.
*
Universal HD
Universal HD offers the best of NBC’s library - all in high definition.

Can you see what they did there?

zim2dive

06-19-08, 08:03 PM

And now we have more HD! See how many channels we get now according to their site:

Plus you can also get:

Can you see what they did there?

Only 20 HD channels fewer than I get (on Dish) and for the low low price of, oh wait, $20 more :) I guess they are making progress.. guess they need to make a few more mergers :) :)

jnv11

06-19-08, 08:41 PM

Well, we can only stand to get more HD because SDV is still disabled. I guess that there are some legacy boxes still using Passport or Passport Echo.

As for Dish, you can't really count on the stability of the channel lineup. Dish is notorious for carriage disputes, and HD Lite. Look at what happened to Voom. According to the Wikipedia article on HD Lite, Dish quit the true HD business in September 2007 when they started downsampling HBO and Showtime HD. Of course, this claim could be complete BS because there is no citation to back this claim up.

Of course, TWC is not innocent either. TWC's HD Lite channels here are National Geographic HD, Food TV HD, and HGTV HD. They overcompress these channels to fit them into one QAM, when one QAM should hold only two HD channels at most if TWC is using MPEG-2.

VisionOn

06-19-08, 09:19 PM

I guess they are making progress.. guess they need to make a few more mergers :) :)

Nah they just need to rename the same channels in their lineup list and repeat them three times. Instant HD boost to the casual site onlooker!

popweaverhdtv

06-20-08, 06:59 AM

Only 20 HD channels fewer than I get (on Dish) and for the low low price of, oh wait, $20 more :) I guess they are making progress.. guess they need to make a few more mergers :) :)

I'd personally be happy if TWC bought Charter Communications (at least the NC Systems). At least we'd have a company that would be a little more willing to increase the number of Full-Time HD Channels in Western NC (currently around 20). I've had it with Charter promising more full-time HD and continuing to fall short (been nearly 8 months since last full-time HD channel was added).

Thank you for listening to my rant from outside the Triangle. :cool:

Daryl L

06-20-08, 12:48 PM

And now we have more HD! See how many channels we get now according to their site:

Plus you can also get:

Can you see what they did there?

I don't see anything different than what we've been getting for many months now.

tarheelone

06-20-08, 02:01 PM

I don't see anything different than what we've been getting for many months now.

He was simply pointing out the fact that they are trying to make it look like they have more channels than they do by listing the same channel twice. Using creative marketing instead of giving us actual channels.

VisionOn

06-20-08, 04:55 PM

He was simply pointing out the fact that they are trying to make it look like they have more channels than they do by listing the same channel twice. Using creative marketing instead of giving us actual channels.

Exactly. Now we get HBO East HD and also HBO HD! Movies on Demand HD and HD movies on Demand! etc.:rolleyes:

toxrtp

06-21-08, 09:15 AM

Does anyone have a list of all channels of unscrambled digital signals (HD and non-HD) that are available in Raleigh? There are a bunch in high channel numbers, and I would love to have a list, so I can switch between the comparable TWC analog version the QAM digital version and see which is clearer. I found an old list for Durham, but it's clearly not correct for Raleigh. Please post here and/or send to toxrtp@aol.com Thanks!:confused:

gbmannc

06-21-08, 11:11 AM

Daryl L

06-21-08, 11:25 AM

toxrtp

06-21-08, 12:42 PM

backwardshoop

06-21-08, 12:46 PM

Well, at least we know now the pops aren't our tuners! Must be WRAL.

I haven't had any problems with 11.1 or 50.1. Not sure what to recommend. My setup is coax cable (TWC basic pkg only) direct to the TV (Panasonic plasma).

Has anyone found a reason (fix) for these pops? I get this on my Dish network and OTA. With OTA, the pop is coming across as taking my audio receiver out of DD.

gbmannc

06-21-08, 01:24 PM

Unfortunately, it is really not accurate for Raleigh. For example, I receive on QAM channels 78-9; 89-9; 104-1, 104-9; 105-6, 105-7; 112-7, 112-8; 117-11; 118-7, 118-8; and 119-1, 119-3, 119-6.

Further, the Durham page lists several channels I do not get, including 77-1, 77-2, 78-7, 78-12, 85-2, 85-3, 85-4, 89-10, 90-1, 90-2, 90-3, 90-4, 90-5, 104-9, 104-11, 105-1, 111-2, 111-3, 111-4, 112-9, 112-10, 113-1, 113-2, 113-3, 117-9, 118-2, 118-9, and 119-5.

I understand that my precise location may dictate certain stations being too weak for me to get them, but it wouldn't explain why I get so many that are not on the Durham list.

IM sorry but Im not understanding you. What channels come in on those stations you are recieving? Im in Apex, and the channels I recieve as well as the physical numbers are the same as the durham page I posted. Only thing that will come in on QAM is the major broadcasters (abs, cbs, nbc, fox, upn, pbs, WB) and some random news channels, thats it.

dslate69

06-23-08, 12:39 PM

Well, we can only stand to get more HD because SDV is still disabled. I guess that there are some legacy boxes still using Passport or Passport Echo.

Don't confuse ability to add HD channels with actually adding HD channels. TWC has never done anything in the past to make me think there will be a flood of HD after SDV. If anything they may add another $20 HD tier. ;)

As for Dish, you can't really count on the stability of the channel lineup. Dish is notorious for carriage disputes, and HD Lite.
One thing you CAN count on is DISH will always have more HD channels than TWC. And I'm sorry but not having a 16x9 guide for a 16x9 tv is inexcusable. I think the HD Lite term is WAY overused. I have a 61" and a 42" that look stunning with DISH HD. Both are 1080p and yes they look even better with Blu-Ray feeding it 1080p so I am cable of seeing differences in quality. Some swear that 1080i looks better than 720p, but I can't tell the difference. So until bandwidth restraints are a thing of the past I will deal with more quantity with a picture that I can't tell is or isn't full HD.
That said I am thinking of movining to DirecTv and have no idea what their quality is like. :D

zim2dive

06-23-08, 06:56 PM

As for Dish, you can't really count on the stability of the channel lineup. Dish is notorious for carriage disputes, and HD Lite. Look at what happened to Voom. According to the Wikipedia article on HD Lite, Dish quit the true HD business in September 2007 when they started downsampling HBO and Showtime HD. Of course, this claim could be complete BS because there is no citation to back this claim up.

I don't subscribe to the premium movie ch's so I can't comment on that, tho I get Cinemax for $0.01 b/c I use autopay (how can you argue with that??)
If you want to come by and see how good "HD lite" can look on a 42" 1080p LCD, feel free :) (personally I've never thought there was anything lacking in the picture.. if there is I'd love to see what "HD heavy" looks like.. I noticed no loss in PQ from the picture I had with TWC Digipic 1000). I guess I'd put it this way.. I don't know if TWC has any better PQ.. but I am thrilled enough with the PQ that I get that I have no need to pay another $25/mo and get fewer ch's for my effort.

What I can say is that since I switched to Dish ~14 months ago, I have always had at least 10 if not 20 more HD channels than TOTAL HD offering (if I bought all premium pkgs), and I am paying ~$25 less per month than the lowest TWC HD tier (DigiPic 1000 with HD DVR). I wish we had more options/competition locally so it didn't have to look like I am singling TWC out so much for the negative, but they are the only 800-lb gorilla in the area.

The lawsuits and Dish are an amusing drama, but even with the removal of Voom, I still have ~20 more HD channels than I would with TWC and that gap doesn't look to narrow any time soon. During my tenure, I think Voom is the only major channel removal I've seen. I had half that many channels on TWC shift pkgs on me (IFC and a few others moved from Digipic 1000 to some higher level pkg), so I consider that part of the game.

My allegiance is to value for my consumer $$ .. right now Dish has won that business and I have been lucky they have continued to deliver. It boggles my mind why folks would pay ~$75/mo to TWC for fewer HD ch's than I get for $45/mo from Dish.

YMMV.

jnv11

06-23-08, 07:25 PM

Don't confuse ability to add HD channels with actually adding HD channels. TWC has never done anything in the past to make me think there will be a flood of HD after SDV. If anything they may add another $20 HD tier. ;)

One thing you CAN count on is DISH will always have more HD channels than TWC. And I'm sorry but not having a 16x9 guide for a 16x9 tv is inexcusable. I think the HD Lite term is WAY overused. I have a 61" and a 42" that look stunning with DISH HD. Both are 1080p and yes they look even better with Blu-Ray feeding it 1080p so I am cable of seeing differences in quality. Some swear that 1080i looks better than 720p, but I can't tell the difference. So until bandwidth restraints are a thing of the past I will deal with more quantity with a picture that I can't tell is or isn't full HD.
That said I am thinking of movining to DirecTv and have no idea what their quality is like. :D

Look at the HD that was added to the Brooklyn and Queens boroughs of New York City on this old Engadget HD post (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/24/twcs-queens-brooklyn-hd-expansion-going-live-on-april-30/). This only happened when Passport was eliminated from their old systems. All of this (except for NY1, we would be better off with News 14 Carolina, NY1's equivalent here) had better hit our area once Passport is eliminated here.

I put up with the least amount of false advertising as possible. Don't advertise it if you can't deliver it. If I had a choice, I would heavily consider the BS factor in choosing a pay TV service.

As for the 16x9 guide and DISH, I never saw one when my parents used to subscribe to DISH a few years ago. We only got a 4x3 guide on our Dish 811 HD receiver that was incredibly wasteful of screen space by having each channel consume two lines. It also only displayed four channels at once and also did not display the description of the program in a upper left window, unlike Passport and Navigator. Its IPG was speedy (as long as you did not need to load more pieces of the guide when you go out of bounds with what is stored in memory) but was pathetic in functionality compared to even Navigator. Seeing the screenshots of newer DISH IPG's shows me that these faults have been rectified.

As for TWC's situation with a 4x3 guide, that is really no one's fault. S-A was forced to rush out an OCAP box to meet the FCC deadline. Also, the OCAP spec at the time only required a 640x480 internally generated graphics capability. Therefore, there was little change needed in hardware to technically meet the OCAP spec with the 8300HDC. However, its lame power supply unit and lack of a CPU that can handle Java interpretation well led to a rather pathetic box. The spec was later revised to add 960x540, which will allow a 16x9 guide to be used. Later OCAP boxes like the 8550HDC will meet this revised spec and have a CPU that handles Java efficiently.

As for my point with carriage disputes, the point still stands. Dish has had loads of carriage disputes which result in subscriber deprivation with many companies like Viacom (owner of Nickelodeon and MTV), Lifetime TV (a channel my mother loves), Court TV, Voom HD, and YES (a regional sports network for the New York area). Sure, TWC has had its own disputes that result in subscriber deprivation from time to time (KAYU-TV in Spokane, WA; NFL Network, and MASN), but usually is able to resolve them before things get really nasty. Also, Dish seems like it will breach contracts like what it did to its old advertising agency,The Media Group, which sent that company into chapter 11 bankruptcy and therefore helped destroy that company's TV networks. It also willfully infringes on TiVo DVR patents. In short, Dish Network seems like an untrustworthy company to do business with.

I feel that each company has its strengths. Dish is a low cost leader who does everything for low cost, but frequently uses dirty tricks including HD lite and broken contracts. DirecTV might cost a little more, but seems to be more ethical and does not get in the news for carriage disputes often. However, its HD lite is hard to swallow. TWC is like another Pizza Hut, where quality varies from location to location. We are lucky our division is so good, though I envy the HD bonanza the division serving New York City delivers. The divisions in the west coast are so bad that Comcast looks great in comparison according to JD Power polls. Here, we get few carriage disputes, nice customer service, and a nice escape net from spamhausen (we switched to Road Runner when BellSouth did not throw out its lottery spammers, causing our emails to get blocked as spam) and bad phone companies (we would have used this when we lived near Clayton and Sprint was owning and looting the local landline company, except that digital phone might not work with fax machines, which we use in our house). However, we are stuck with three HD Lite channels until SDV gets activated.

VisionOn

06-23-08, 07:41 PM

Look at the HD that was added to the Brooklyn and Queens boroughs of New York City on this old Engadget HD post (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/24/twcs-queens-brooklyn-hd-expansion-going-live-on-april-30/). This only happened when Passport was eliminated from their old systems. All of this (except for NY1, we would be better off with News 14 Carolina, NY1's equivalent here) had better hit our area once Passport is eliminated here.

The only reason all that HD keeps getting added to NY, is FiOS. Plain and simple.

Unless you are in one of the TWC test areas or a FiOS imminent area TWC will do nothing as slowly as possible. Take Start Over. A TWC feature built from the ground up over 2 years ago, but it only works on SARA and Navigator systems.

It's arriving here next year.

They've already Navigated a good chunk of existing boxes in Raleigh but it's still going to take over 6 months for something they own the rights for to get switched on. Just like all the other features that have been floating around SARA markets for years like the Quick Clips, Look Back etc.

They could enable SDV and convert all remaining boxes tomorrow and I still wouldn't expect TWC to reach 75 HD channels this year. They have zero incentive to do more when they can just charge more for what they already have.

(Years since I started requesting Cinemax and Starz HD: 3.5 and counting)

dslate69

06-23-08, 08:06 PM

I put up with the least amount of false advertising as possible. Don't advertise it if you can't deliver it. If I had a choice, I would heavily consider the BS factor in choosing a pay TV service.
Don't really get what you are saying here, I guess you think E* is deceptive in their ads like counting the same channels twice or something like that. :)
I thought you admitted in your other post that TWC is guilty of HD Lite along with every other provider in this area.

We only got a 4x3 guide on our Dish 811 HD receiver that was incredibly wasteful of screen space by having each channel consume two lines. It also only displayed four channels at once and also did not display the description of the program in a upper left window, unlike Passport and Navigator.
I think it would be fair to compare "flag ship" to "flag ship" and the 811 is not E*'s. I don't have any experience with the 811 per say but can tell you ALL the receivers are configurable as to how many channels, info, and hours on screen. I would have and did configure my parents receiver for them. :)

As for my point with carriage disputes, the point still stands. Dish has had loads of carriage disputes which result in subscriber deprivation with many companies...
E* is trying to get the best price for it's customers and if I lose Lifetime for a few weeks (I have it blocked anyway) from time to time, so be it. I will say it is easier to negotiate with LESS providers than with MORE :D , so if you put more value on LESS disputes than MORE channels you are with the right provider.

As I said before I have no loyalty to E* as I am looking at moving to D*. However if we are to say TWC is a better choice than E*, then we must ignore the facts. Now you could bring up aesthetics, VOD or any other point that may fall in TWC's favor, but they have been left out of the discussion to this point.

jnv11

06-23-08, 10:08 PM

Don't really get what you are saying here, I guess you think E* is deceptive in their ads like counting the same channels twice or something like that. :)
I thought you admitted in your other post that TWC is guilty of HD Lite along with every other provider in this area.

I admitted that TWC is guilty of some HD Lite. However, they do not do it as much as the satellite companies. TWC is partially full HD and partially HD Lite. The satellite companies are totally HD Lite as far as I know. This may have changed if the H.264 channels provide full resolution. However, I do not know if the H.264 channels are full resolution or are downsampled. If I was running this household, I might jump ship to another carrier if there was a full bitrate only pay HD service. Once Passport and Passport Echo are retired, I would hope that the HD Lite is retired with it as well by using SDV.

I think it would be fair to compare "flag ship" to "flag ship" and the 811 is not E*'s. I don't have any experience with the 811 per say but can tell you ALL the receivers are configurable as to how many channels, info, and hours on screen. I would have and did configure my parents receiver for them. :)

We either had to choose either four channels and a scaled video window while wasting the upper left quadrant of the screen nearly completely, or many channels and no scaled video window using the 811. Also, it only showed one hour and thirty minutes. I could not configure the amount of time it could show at once. Passport on the 3100HD, which is also not TWC's flagship, was much better than this. However, we might have traded it in for an OCAP box if it was Navigated and it did not work well. Thankfully, the 811 is obsolete and no longer produced. I have seen a screenshot of newer Dish software for newer receivers, and they have fixed much of the issues. However, Dish still needs to get each channel onto one line instead of two.

E* is trying to get the best price for it's customers and if I lose Lifetime for a few weeks (I have it blocked anyway) from time to time, so be it. I will say it is easier to negotiate with LESS providers than with MORE :D , so if you put more value on LESS disputes than MORE channels you are with the right provider.

I value stability very much if I have to sign a contract that locks you into a provider for a significant amount of time. If I sign a contract with a satellite company and my channel lineup loses channels, I will feel defrauded. If the cable company loses too many channels, at least the subscriber can dump it without paying a termination fee. Therefore, my tolerance for carriage disputes varies with whatever contracts I must sign. With a cable service that can be dumped with little penalty, I will tolerate more carriage disputes. If I must lock myself up with a 2-year contract, I will have no tolerance for these shenanigans until the contract runs out. Dish with its combination of contracts and carriage disputes rules it out of my consideration. I will tolerate one or the other, but not both at the same time. Seeing how often Dish gets into these messes, I would rather have DirecTV if I had to get satellite service.

As I said before I have no loyalty to E* as I am looking at moving to D*. However if we are to say TWC is a better choice than E*, then we must ignore the facts. Now you could bring up aesthetics, VOD or any other point that may fall in TWC's favor, but they have been left out of the discussion to this point.

We don't have to ignore the facts. It is just that some people weigh different facts differently. For example, if the local provider here was Comcast instead of TWC, I would urge my parents to order up DirecTV because Comcast is known for hiring inept and criminally-inclined contractors, treating its own employees like they are BS, having a customer service department which is worse than worthless, and selling throttled Internet service. For another example, I find the combination of two-year contracts and carriage disputes intolerable, while you seem to accept this combination. I will tolerate one or the other, but they are intolerable to me when mixed together. Also, we needed TWC's Road Runner to escape BellSouth when it turned into a spamhaus ("Spamhaus" is a term meaning an ISP that does not kick off its spammers. The Spamhaus Project is a completely different group that idetnifies spamhausen to allow responsible ISPs to block them).

EDIT: I will in all fairness acknowledge the point about FiOS pushing TWC in New York City to provide more HD. Competition would help. If I was the head of a city cable commission, I would require that either two or more cable companies to operate simultaneously, or I would disallow cable altogether unless one of the two companies died. In this case, the system should be sold to another cable company. If all cities did this, Comcast will die, and TWC would have to shore up its HD lineup to be competitive.

dslate69

06-24-08, 09:27 AM

I will in all fairness acknowledge the point about FiOS pushing TWC in New York City to provide more HD. Competition would help. If I was the head of a city cable commission, I would require that either two or more cable companies to operate simultaneously
We can definitely AGREE on that.

Lee L

06-24-08, 02:44 PM

Anyone have issues with ABC 11 last night? We had about an hour long gap from about 9:13 to 10:15 with a few substantial dropouts a while later. This is the DirecTV MPEG 4 local. They put a card up after a few minutes, but I wonder if it was an OTA outage or just the DirecTV feed.

hubs99

06-24-08, 07:48 PM

I'm having trouble with ABC11 today. Jittery and jumpy..
My neighbor had cable installed I hope they didnt screw something up.
BAH

jimholcomb

06-24-08, 09:49 PM

I'm having trouble with ABC11 today. Jittery and jumpy..
My neighbor had cable installed I hope they didnt screw something up.
BAH

Saw the same thing on 211 during the 6:30 news.

Jim

Hiatt66

06-25-08, 12:16 PM

According to TWC lineup we lost Mojo and gained FSN South.

zim2dive

06-25-08, 01:54 PM

According to TWC lineup we lost Mojo and gained FSN South.

OMG, they dropped a channel ?!?!?!?! TWC is just as evil/dastardly/unreliable as Dish!!! :D

doctorj

06-25-08, 03:09 PM

How can we tell when SDV is activated? Is there a channel we go to in the guide? Here's hoping this lineup change is a sign of more changes (additions) to come soon.

jnv11

06-25-08, 03:11 PM

According to TWC lineup we lost Mojo and gained FSN South.

The website is wrong at this moment. I just tuned into channel 291 and it still is listed as MOJO HD in the guide and still shows a MOJO HD program.

Hiatt66

06-25-08, 03:24 PM

When I checked the line-up earlier it still showed MOJO on 291. Must have changed it sometime today. I noticed all of the line-ups have it.

jnv11

06-25-08, 04:06 PM

OMG, they dropped a channel ?!?!?!?! TWC is just as evil/dastardly/unreliable as Dish!!! :D

I guess that I goofed when I railed against the instability of Dish unconditionally. :o I should have stated that dropping channels willy-nilly is wrong when its customers are locked in by multi-year binding contracts with high early termination fees that reset each time you move and fail to terminate at the time of the move. I can tolerate some instability if there is no binding contract because I can escape if that channel is something I really care about, like WRAL. In that case, I could just escape to DirecTV. With a binding contract, removing channels feels like a breach of contract because I signed the binding contract expecting the channel, and it was removed.

For example, customers were able to flee the abysmal TWC division that dropped KAYU-TV (the local Fox affiliate in the Spokane DMA) because there was no contract. When Lifetime was dropped by Dish, Lifetime had to offer $200 rebates out of its own pockets to mostly offset the $240 early termination fees Dish imposed in order to soften the market distortion these contracts create to allow the customers to flee to cable or DirecTV.

dslate69

06-25-08, 08:26 PM

When Lifetime was dropped by Dish, Lifetime had to offer $200 rebates out of its own pockets to mostly offset the $240 early termination fees Dish imposed in order to soften the market distortion these contracts create to allow the customers to flee to cable or DirecTV.
It wouldn't be $240 for everyone maybe for those that JUST signed up. I bet a lot of men were happy that couple of weeks and a lot less bored watching tv with their wives. :D
By the way, less than a year of DISH will save you $240 over TWC.
So it would be a wash.

tarheelone

06-25-08, 08:53 PM

According to TWC lineup we lost Mojo and gained FSN South.

That's interesting for several reasons. TWC has long used MOJO(or INHD as it was previously known) to show the local ACC games or Hurricanes games that were in HD. It's also interesting in that as far as I know there is no full time feed of FSNS HD other than when there are games on. This varies by market since the FSNS that we see here is not the same that they see in Charlotte or Atlanta. As of right now FSNS HD would be useless to us as there are no local HD games until the Canes return this fall. I think maybe The Best Damn Sports Show and one or two other shows are in HD now but nothing else. I read somewhere there that FSN is going to beef up it's HD lineup this fall and have more of it's programming in HD.

How can we tell when SDV is activated? Is there a channel we go to in the guide? Here's hoping this lineup change is a sign of more changes (additions) to come soon.

There is not a channel within navigator that you can go to and see all the details like there was with passport. You have to go into the diagnostics on Navigator to check it. I checked tonight and SDV is still not enabled in this area. I hope they enable it soon because I am getting tired of waiting. I see Greensboro got a nice HD bump this week.

Hiatt66

06-25-08, 09:09 PM

Well..I still have MOJO on 291 so I don't know if it's a goof on the website or not...lol.

jnv11

06-25-08, 09:39 PM

It wouldn't be $240 for everyone maybe for those that JUST signed up. I bet a lot of men were happy that couple of weeks and a lot less bored watching tv with their wives. :D
By the way, less than a year of DISH will save you $240 over TWC.
So it would be a wash.

Nope. The $240 figure was not prorated at all when we paid it. We paid it because we were not getting some of the small-time locals through Dish (for example WRPX at one time broadcast Family Feud which I like), we were concerned about how the dish would affect how the house would look (Our house's fron points southwest), the contract would reset again when we moved, and Dish at the time did not offer HD locals (this was the deciding factor).

Later on, when BellSouth would not kick off its lottery spammers who sent their spam through BellSouth's email servers, this caused our emails which have to be sent trhough the same servers to be falsely rejected as spam by many ISPs. Since we switched to cable from Dish, we were able to go to Road Runner to escape the spamhaus (and dodge an avalanche of lottery spam the spammers on BellSouth were spewing to throughout the Internet). Sure, its big latency at the time really slowed down my ssh usage (ssh is latency dependent, not throughput dependent), but that was an unfortunate tradeoff caused by the use of the DOCSIS 1.1 cable modem protocol. The switch to the DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem protocol has cut latency quite a bit, but DSL still beats cable out in latency. If we were still using Dish, we might have been stuck with a spamhaus because Road Runner costs too much unless you get it discounted by bundling it with cable.

zim2dive

06-25-08, 10:36 PM

As for the 16x9 guide and DISH, I never saw one when my parents used to subscribe to DISH a few years ago. We only got a 4x3 guide on our Dish 811 HD receiver that was incredibly wasteful of screen space by having each channel consume two lines. It also only displayed four channels at once and also did not display the description of the program in a upper left window, unlike Passport and Navigator. Its IPG was speedy (as long as you did not need to load more pieces of the guide when you go out of bounds with what is stored in memory) but was pathetic in functionality compared to even Navigator. Seeing the screenshots of newer DISH IPG's shows me that these faults have been rectified.

More than rectified.. I checked mine tonite.. we have 6 configurations you can choose from.. on the most info version I can get

- 9 channels top to bottom
- 3 hours side to side

I don't have TWC any more to compare.. but I don't think any of their software can touch that (my buddy in Austin on TWC said he only gets 5 ch top to bottom on his 8300HD)

As for the "risks" of Dish... Its been a gamble that has paid off for me.. over the length of my 18 month contract I will have saved at least 18*$40 (just went and looked at the current TWC rates for Digipic1000+DVR+HD suite+don't forget tax) = $720 .. all that savings + 20 ch more HD :D

VisionOn

06-26-08, 02:42 AM

How can we tell when SDV is activated?.

There will be a base on Mars and we'll all have flying cars.

Daryl L

06-26-08, 11:16 AM

jnv11

06-26-08, 11:24 AM

Isn't FSN South the network the two FCC arbitrators ruled against TWC on about TWC refusing to carry recently, with TWC saying they would appeal the ruling?

And don't we get Fox Sport South on ch.38 (we do in Lumberton)? Are they different channels besides one being SD and one being HD.

You have MASN and FSN South mixed up. MASN is one of two networks TWC wants to put onto the sports tier (the other being the NFL Network), while FSN South is on the standard analog tier. TWC and MASN are in a nasty arbitration fight, while TWC and FSN South have a good relationship.

NCCaniac

06-26-08, 11:25 AM

Isn't FSN South the network the two FCC arbitrators ruled against TWC on about TWC refusing to carry recently, with TWC saying they would appeal the ruling?

Nope. That was MASN (Mid-atlantic Sports Network).

Hiatt66

06-26-08, 11:31 AM

We get FOX Sports NET SD...The FSN South is listed in the HD section of the lineup. MOJO does not show up in the HD suite list.

Daryl L

06-26-08, 04:52 PM

Ah, gotcha guys. I knew it was some sports network. :)

tarheelone

06-26-08, 11:21 PM

From http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/1111325.html

Time Warner expanding services, News 14
By John Murawski, Staff Writer
Comment on this story

Time Warner is expanding video-on-demand services and plotting a comeback for the defunct cell phone service known as Pivot.
The company will introduce a successor to Pivot at some point, Carol Hevey, Time Warner’s executive vice president for the Carolinas, said this morning during speech in downtown Raleigh. Time Warner’s joint venture with financially beleaguered Sprint Nextel was discontinued last year amid administrative and logistical issues.

In August Time Warner is expanding its 24-hour regional news program, News 14, to about 150,000 customers in eastern North Carolina. The expansion will bring the news program to all Time Warner customers in North Carolina. The program currently reaches about 1.5 million customers.

Next year the company plans to add two free services — Start Over and Look Back — that allow customers to view cable shows and programs on demand, instead of having to watch at the time they are scheduled to start.

Here is a little more depth to this story...this article gives me a little more hope...but not much...

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1111927.html
Competition drives Time Warner to grow
John Murawski, Staff Writer
Comment on this story

Time Warner Cable is adding services and will expand its regional cable-news channel to Eastern North Carolina in August, part of a broader effort to woo customers amid increasing competition.
Currently, the company is introducing in this region a caller ID service that flashes a caller's name and number on the TV screen. The company also is exploring wireless Internet service, Carol Hevey, Time Warner's executive vice president for the Carolina region, said during a speech Tuesday morning in Raleigh.

Next year, the company plans to add two free services that allow customers to watch cable programs on demand instead of having to watch at the time they are scheduled to start, she said.

"There is a philosophy to be constantly developing products," Hevey said. "As often as we can create them, we get them rolled out."

The Triangle's dominant cable provider is working to fend off satellite TV rivals as well as telecommunications giants, such as AT&T and Verizon, that are adding TV service. Also, municipalities such as Wilson are beginning to provide their own cable TV and high-speed Internet services.

The competition also is forcing Time Warner to review its prices. But Hevey stopped short of acknowledging that competition will result in cheaper rates.

"The cable TV companies are just getting slapped in the face with the reality that they have competition," said communications analyst Jeff Kagan in Atlanta. "The good news is that customers are going to have a choice. Prices are going to be low, innovation is going to be higher."

Time Warner expects to expand its News 14 channel this summer to its remaining 150,000 customers in Eastern North Carolina, and it will open a small bureau on the coast, Hevey said. About 1.5 million customers in the Carolinas already get News 14.

Also, Time Warner is working on a successor to its Pivot cell phone service, which quietly shut down in April, Hevey said.

KLebda

06-30-08, 02:05 PM

My older Pace HD box was updated to Mystro late last week. Anybody know if any more updates are needed before SDV can be switched on?

dslate69

06-30-08, 03:11 PM

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080630006148&newsLang=en

fmoraes

06-30-08, 09:43 PM

posg

06-30-08, 09:44 PM

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080630006148&newsLang=en

Hello Old Friend,

I don't see any mention of VOOM On Demand from Charlievision. Time to play catch up again.

P.S. You win. I dropped TWC for DirecTV.

Anyway, looks like a move to Seattle is in the cards, so I hand the custodianship of the Raleigh thread over to you. I'll be watching....;););)

jnv11

07-01-08, 03:43 AM

Hi,

Does anybody notices the brighter areas on NBC17HD? It is not always noticeable, but usually during the Wimbledon coverage, when it zooms on players and you can see the dark green background, you can see that the place where the SD side bars would be are a bit brighter than the rest of the image.

This is usually very noticeable during the beach volleyball coverage, so it should be quite visible during this weekend coverage.

Francisco

What kind of screen do you have? I think that what you have is screen burn-in. The same problem happens to me, but I know it is screen burn-in because my family's HD monitor is a rear projection CRT. My father got this TV because we did not like the idea of buying a TV that would be totally obsolete in a few years.

fmoraes

07-01-08, 01:52 PM

What kind of screen do you have? I think that what you have is screen burn-in. The same problem happens to me, but I know it is screen burn-in because my family's HD monitor is a rear projection CRT. My father got this TV because we did not like the idea of buying a TV that would be totally obsolete in a few years.

I have rear projection Samsung 42" DLP TV. NBCHD is the only station I ever notice this when watching HD shows. I never noticed it on WRAL HD.

I wouldn't think this is due to burn in. Can someone else check it out during Wimbledon coverage or during the beach volleyball tournament on the weekend?

I will be out on vacation, but I'd like to hear confirmation from others. NBC17ENG, maybe you can weight in as well?

Francisco

dslate69

07-01-08, 03:51 PM

Hello Old Friend,

I don't see any mention of VOOM On Demand from Charlievision. Time to play catch up again.

P.S. You win. I dropped TWC for DirecTV.

Anyway, looks like a move to Seattle is in the cards, so I hand the custodianship of the Raleigh thread over to you. I'll be watching....;););)
:D:D:D
I called you out a couple pages ago when the thread was in a drought, good to see your still alive and kickin'.
I have enjoyed E* for many years but alas I think a move is in my future too... just to D*, but a move just the same. :D
I think E* has let D* overtake them on HD and on software features which are the 2 things E* always had. I will be checking out my buddies new D* HD DVR this weekend and will make the decision then. The only real knock I have heard on D*'s HD DVR is the speed so that's one thing I will be looking at. Also D* will be adding local PBS HD feeds; one of your checks in the TWC column from debates past. :p
Good luck with your move... this is were SAT really shines no surprises.
I'll be ok here, I think I might have found a new nemesis in jnv11. :cool:

jnv11

07-01-08, 06:56 PM

Now that Wilson has dropped analog channel 75, can anyone with MDN, Passport, or Passport Echo check to see if one of the three channels that are/were stuffed into the 777MHz QAM has been moved out? I cannot check this myself because ODN's diagnostic screens do not show this information.

As for being dslate69's nemesis, I just like TWC much better than E*. I could go for a long rant if I had the time. Although TWC sucks in some areas (Navigator having some stupid choices in design, and missing MASN), the positives (like offering competition in phone and Internet to the telco, and having outstanding local customer service) outweigh the negatives in my mind for TWC versus E*.

posg

07-01-08, 07:19 PM

:D:D:D
I called you out a couple pages ago when the thread was in a drought, good to see your still alive and kickin'.
I have enjoyed E* for many years but alas I think a move is in my future too... just to D*, but a move just the same. :D
I think E* has let D* overtake them on HD and on software features which are the 2 things E* always had. I will be checking out my buddies new D* HD DVR this weekend and will make the decision then. The only real knock I have heard on D*'s HD DVR is the speed so that's one thing I will be looking at. Also D* will be adding local PBS HD feeds; one of your checks in the TWC column from debates past. :p
Good luck with your move... this is were SAT really shines no surprises.
I'll be ok here, I think I might have found a new nemesis in jnv11. :cool:

I've been on the road so much lately that I haven't kept up with this thread, or anything else for that matter. Don't let E*'s retention Nazis presuade you, D* is the better product, and the less sleazy company of the two. My bet is still on cable long term, they're getting close to opening the flood gates. (I know, you've heard that before, but I did say give it a year or so, about little over a year ago.)

P.S. I did pick up one of the Netflix Roku streaming players. I see the future much more clearly now......

dslate69

07-01-08, 08:11 PM

My bet is still on cable long term, they're getting close to opening the flood gates. (I know, you've heard that before, but I did say give it a year or so, about little over a year ago.)
Come now you have said it well over 2 years ago maybe 3. ;) Even if they let the flood gates up the hardware is unbearable at the moment. Not to mention they are in the pocket of big media so much that you will never see 30 sec skip and other features they frown on.
P.S. I did pick up one of the Netflix Roku streaming players. I see the future much more clearly now......
I am an HD snob. So until they have HD it is worthless to me. I think D* and E* and MediaCenter for that matter will sign deals with Netflix before long. In fact now that I think about it MediaCenter already has a plugin or at least a hack out now.
I have the Popcorn Hour and love it (great 1080p picture). The only real knock would be the speed of the menu and caching of 1080p content over the network. 2nd gen of devices like this will be a must have.

dslate69

07-01-08, 08:31 PM

As for being dslate69's nemesis, I just like TWC much better than E*. I could go for a long rant if I had the time. Although TWC sucks in some areas (Navigator having some stupid choices in design, and missing MASN), the positives (like offering competition in phone and Internet to the telco, and having outstanding local customer service) outweigh the negatives in my mind for TWC versus E*.
Navigator is the reason my buddy went with D*, so I have a system to check out this weekend. He wasn't willing to put up with the reboots and growing pains.
My Internet from TWC is $5 cheaper (and free upgrade to business class) for being a duke employee, my VOIP is $15 unlimited a month and SAT with all it's extra HD is cheaper than TWC, so I can't see how triple play could be cheaper. I don't have 1 check going to 1 company but it's all drafted anyway so I am more than content with 3 company's that end up being cheaper than 1.
I still wish there was a true alternative to RR so I could leave TWC all together as I owe them for the 3 missed days (2 days they went to wrong address) of work and hole in the ceiling (that I had to raise cane about to get finally get fixed). Still never a call to compensate me (I tried to call twice but hung up after 30 minutes). Yea they have great customer service alright. :rolleyes:

yaleforks

07-01-08, 09:32 PM

jnv11

07-01-08, 11:41 PM

Navigator is the reason my buddy went with D*, so I have a system to check out this weekend. He wasn't willing to put up with the reboots and growing pains.
My Internet from TWC is $5 cheaper (and free upgrade to business class) for being a duke employee, my VOIP is $15 unlimited a month and SAT with all it's extra HD is cheaper than TWC, so I can't see how triple play could be cheaper. I don't have 1 check going to 1 company but it's all drafted anyway so I am more than content with 3 company's that end up being cheaper than 1.
I still wish there was a true alternative to RR so I could leave TWC all together as I owe them for the 3 missed days (2 days they went to wrong address) of work and hole in the ceiling (that I had to raise cane about to get finally get fixed). Still never a call to compensate me (I tried to call twice but hung up after 30 minutes). Yea they have great customer service alright. :rolleyes:

Who was the idiot who put the hole in your roof? I have never had that happen. Maybe we could tell the customer service rep next time we need a service call not to send the idiot who did that. None of the service calls we have gone through have gone so wrong in my house.

The only one that has had something go wrong (although it is understandable) is the installation call, when the contractor failed to check to see if the amplifier that was installed was absolutely necessary, and did not know that it made the signal borderline too strong. This was undetected for a couple of years because the source signal was weak enough where the amplified signal was not causing macroblocking. Later, the source got strong enough where macroblocking occurred, and the customer service representative discovered that the service was too strong (15 dBmV. The ideal signal level is 0 dBmV, and the hardware should be able to tolerate a range of -15 dBmV to 15 dBmV. It is possible that the hardware cannot measure signal levels beyond saturation or extremely weak signals), and sent a TWC technician who was not a contractor to replace the amplified splitter with a regular one.

I can't blame you for wanting to toss TWC out if the technician put a hole in your ceiling.

As for what I have seen with TWC, here are how I judge TWC:
Pros:

Contract can be entirely skipped if you don't take a teaser rate.
Many older TVs can be connected without a set top box.
Newer TVs are in the works that will not need a box but still run the OCAP application for features not built into the TV.
Great customer service at my house so far.
Most HD channels are full-bitrate.
All locals are either included or have equivalents available (e.g. WACN is not present in Cary, but the network that feeds it, Daystar Television Network, is on digital cable 192. There is also a TeleFutura station here, WTNC-LP, but TWC gives the source feed in basic cable.
Local HD channels.
Community access channels like Cary TV 11 and NCSU TV. I occasionally watch the town council meeting and learned about the altenrate-day watering schedule by watching Cary TV 11. If I did not watch this channel soon after moving to this house, my family could have been fined for using the sprinklers on the wrong day without knowing that some days were disallowed.
Music Choice has some good music without annoying DJs.
Video on Demand.

Cons:

Navigator has different issues depending on which version is running. MDN is crash-prone due to bugs. ODN can be crashed because the 8300HDC power supply unit is overloaded and also has some minor bugs and some missing features. ODN will also crash when eSATA is used
No MASN.
HGTV HD, Food Network HD, and National Geographic HD are sharing the same QAM as far as I know, creating three channels of avoidable HD Lite.
Vulnerable to backhoe fade and drunken drivers.
Will occasionally drop a channel.
Few HD channels compared to the rest. Hopefully SDV will fix this.
DVRs have small drives.

When we used to have Dish, here is how I judged it:
Pros:

Low cost leader.
NASA TV (some of this channel's educational content is great and is a mostly undiscovered gem.)
Some international channels that are not available through TWC.

Cons:

Two-year contracts are unavoidable and restart when you move.
Dish will drop channels willy-nilly, which is unacceptable when your only escape is extremely expensive due to the two-year contract.
The base package my parents subscribed to, America's Top 60, had too many shopping channels compared to the other channels. I might have been happier with a higher-end package which has more channels with actual substance. The HD tier add-on my parents paid for was nice, though.
Dish seems to be sleazy in its business dealings. It unilaterally dropped its old advertisement agency, The Media Group, and dropped the channels its subsidiary, The Network Group, suddenly, creating a financial perfect storm for that company that destroyed The Network Group's channels and sent The Media Group to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Dish also unilaterally dropped Voom, which was one of its major attractions.
Jumped onto the HD Lite bandwagon for its 1080i channels.
The non-DVR IPG that I used was so bad that it made Navigator and SARA look great. For example, when the option to turn on the video window is active, the upper-left quadrant could have been used to show a summary of the program selected in the IPG. Instead, that space was completely wasted. Later screenshots of later versions of the Dish IPG have shown that this flaw has been fixed. However, each channel still uses two lines when one was sufficient.
Rain fade. Having lived near Huntsville, Alabama; which is in the middle of a tornado alley; I do not like rain fade at all because I need to know when to head to the basement when I often have nothing that needs to be done there. I don't like this because I have too many things to do to go to the basement if the tornado is in eastern Wake county while I live in western Wake county.

I don't know much about DirecTV, but here is what I have heard about it:
Pros:

Lower cost than cable.
Some international channels not available through TWC.
Rarely if ever gets into retransmission disputes.
Great customer service.

Cons:

Binding contracts are unavoidable.
Has exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. NFL's antitrust exemption must be modified to disallow exclusive rights deals to correct this market abuse.
Started the HD Lite bandwagon.
Rain fade.

jnv11

07-01-08, 11:45 PM

Well today i went to try to get a new deal by upgrading to DigiPIC4000 since my old one year deal is done with. And to my suprise the only way i could get a new deal was to sign a 2 year contract. Am i crazy or is this the case with all TWC subscribers in the triangle area?

We did not fall for any teaser rates, so we never got two-year contracts. Maybe because you fell for teaser rates, you fell into this predicament. My advice is to buy only what you can get without any contracts, unless the contract-less option is extremely horrible (e.g. Comcast). If you are under a contract, let it run out before you do anything that can reset it.

yaleforks

07-01-08, 11:50 PM

We did not fall for any teaser rates, so we never got two-year contracts. Maybe because you fell for teaser rates, you fell into this predicament. My advice is to buy only what you can get without any contracts, unless the contract-less option is extremely horrible (e.g. Comcast). If you are under a contract, let it run out before you do anything that can reset it.

This is with TWC. I thought one of the advantages to having cable was no contracts?

jnv11

07-02-08, 12:11 AM

This is with TWC. I thought one of the advantages to having cable was no contracts?

I did not know about these contracts. However, I would have refused teaser rates in the beginning because I thought that there would be a catch, just like ARMs which are part of the mortgage crisis wrecking our economy. I guess refusing binding contracts is the option to take if you do not want to risk getting trapped. As for you, read your contract. See if upgrading resets the length of the contract. If so, wait it out. Otherwise, you could choose to get DigiPic 4000 at the regular rate and not at the teaser rate if you want to do so, or you could wait it out if the regular rate is too expensive.

Jack the cat

07-02-08, 10:46 AM

Hiatt66

07-02-08, 11:19 AM

LOL....Why is using Monster coax bad and TWC coax better? LOL.

gstelmack

07-02-08, 01:25 PM

Well today i went to try to get a new deal by upgrading to DigiPIC4000 since my old one year deal is done with. And to my suprise the only way i could get a new deal was to sign a 2 year contract. Am i crazy or is this the case with all TWC subscribers in the triangle area?

That's for special deals. When I got it a couple of weeks ago, it was called something like a "Price Guarantee". It ended up being about $20 cheaper than the standard going rate (so I basically end up with 2 premium channels free) and locks in the rate. Given our situation we're unlikely to switch out in the next 2 years, so the $20/month was worth it to see if they actually deliver on all this HD, and we can decide who to go with then.

But the agreements are not required if you just want one of the standard packages, they aren't tied to getting new equipment or something (you can get cable easily enough without the commitment).

jnv11

07-02-08, 02:57 PM

Just a question if anyone has the same problem or a solution?

Last 2 HD pay per view movies keep freezing during the movie. During the freezing, the cable box clicks. Last time it tripped my surge supressor during a freeze, shutting down the TV and cable box. This never happened with the old Passport software.

Called TWC, they sent a "technician" who said it is a head end problem that only effected some customers. Could not answer why some customers and not others. Said my main problem was using a Monster Cable coax from the wall to the box and not the TWC cable. This in spite of construction installed coax with cat5 bundle in all the walls.

Guess I am stuck with no pay per view. Suggestions?

I had that happen when the power supply on my old 8240HDC started cooking itself, and I was not watching pay-per-view at the time. Do you smell burnt electronics above the box? If so, swap it out, and put the new box on some 2x4s and out in the open, not in an enclosed space. The 2x4s are necessary because the power supply seems to be fine for the 8300HD legacy model, but needs to put out more wattage than it is designed for when inside an 8300HDC or 8240HDC. Since power supplies run better and put out more stable power when they are cooler, keeping your next box cool might solve the problem.

jimholcomb

07-02-08, 03:17 PM

drewwho

07-02-08, 03:28 PM

The 2x4s are necessary because the power supply seems to be fine for the 8300HD legacy model, but needs to put out more wattage than it is designed for when inside an 8300HDC or 8240HDC. Since power supplies run better and put out more stable power when they are cooler, keeping your next box cool might solve the problem.

Wow! How much power do these boxes consume? Does anybody with one have a power meter (like a kill-a-watt, a wattsup, etc)?

Drew

dslate69

07-02-08, 06:45 PM

This is with TWC. I thought one of the advantages to having cable was no contracts?
Contracts, contracts, contracts... that's all I ever hear from SAT bashers.
Glad to see they are willing to blow off the mention of them when it applies to TWC. :rolleyes:

BTW: SAT doesn't have contracts either for those that pay full price.

dslate69

07-02-08, 06:55 PM

You probably have a another year or two to get to it though. :)

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/07/02/ask-engadget-hd-what-is-switched-digital-video-sdv/

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/07/02/analyst-sees-tough-going-for-tru2way/

jnv11

07-02-08, 06:59 PM

Contracts, contracts, contracts... that's all I ever hear from SAT bashers.
Glad to see they are willing to blow off the mention of them when it applies to TWC. :rolleyes:

BTW: SAT doesn't have contracts either for those that pay full price.

Could you please link to a site that shows a full price package for satellite? If we ever go satellite again (e.g. moving into Comcast territory in most of the US besides the west coast where they are actually competent; or TWC territory in the west coast, where I have heard that calling the TWC division there pathetic is an insult to all pathetic things), I would be interested in such a deal.

dslate69

07-02-08, 08:11 PM

Could you please link to a site that shows a full price package for satellite? If we ever go satellite again (e.g. moving into Comcast territory in most of the US besides the west coast where they are actually competent; or TWC territory in the west coast, where I have heard that calling the TWC division there pathetic is an insult to all pathetic things), I would be interested in such a deal.

Their is no contract when you own your equipment and point the dish yourself. Contracts are only there to insure you don't get a free install and dish then cancel a week later.
I'm not going to hunt down a link as this is common knowledge.

VisionOn

07-02-08, 08:39 PM

Their is no contract when you own your equipment and point the dish yourself.

I don't see not having to buy cable equipment as a benefit. In fact I see it as a drawback since you have no options at all and are stuck with whatever aging box TWC decides to keep around. You can't upgrade them, you can't experiment with them, you can't get updates to the firmware when the manufacturer releases them ... instead you have to pay a permanent rental fee to the cable company. I've paid for my DVR many times over.

And for the purposes of this thread there is no competition between TWC and sat providers.

TWC will never catch up with satellite HD this year. I'll be surprised if they ever catch up now. Even with the promise of SDV. I remember when Posg was predicting that very occurrence two years ago and here we are today, two years later and nothing has changed.

TWC are slow in reacting in the two major areas that HD needs. Channel negotiation and hardware. Without one you don't get HD, and in our case we don't have either in abundance.

I still find it hilarious that after all these years Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham etc. still don't get Bravo in any format and Carrboro does!

jnv11

07-02-08, 10:16 PM

Their is no contract when you own your equipment and point the dish yourself. Contracts are only there to insure you don't get a free install and dish then cancel a week later.
I'm not going to hunt down a link as this is common knowledge.

That is news to me. I thought the contract was required. After finding this out, it looks like Dish has listened to the customers more. I am glad that they have options for customers who want no contract.

jnv11

07-02-08, 11:15 PM

I don't see not having to buy cable equipment as a benefit. In fact I see it as a drawback since you have no options at all and are stuck with whatever aging box TWC decides to keep around. You can't upgrade them, you can't experiment with them, you can't get updates to the firmware when the manufacturer releases them ... instead you have to pay a permanent rental fee to the cable company. I've paid for my DVR many times over.

And for the purposes of this thread there is no competition between TWC and sat providers.

TWC will never catch up with satellite HD this year. I'll be surprised if they ever catch up now. Even with the promise of SDV. I remember when Posg was predicting that very occurrence two years ago and here we are today, two years later and nothing has changed.

TWC are slow in reacting in the two major areas that HD needs. Channel negotiation and hardware. Without one you don't get HD, and in our case we don't have either in abundance.

I still find it hilarious that after all these years Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham etc. still don't get Bravo in any format and Carrboro does!

Actually, leasing a box has a few advantages. If the satellite company or cable company breaks a leased box with a firmware update like what TWC did with MDN (we have an ESL person here, so closed captioning, HDTV, and DVR are combined from time to time, causing crashes with MDN 2.4.1-92), a box swap was what it took to solve that problem. Also, if TWC decides to go to MPEG-4, TWC pays for the new boxes and for disposing of the old boxes. With satellite, Dish or DirecTV still puts out the firmware updates via satellite. If they are smart, they will replace any box they break and give ownership to the wronged customers. However, if they introduce new technology like MPEG-4, I think that customers who own the obsolete boxes will have to pay to lease or buy a new box. Leasers might be able to send the obsolete box back for a box swap with the newer box whenever they need to order an upgrade needing the new technology. However, I fear that they might wind up possibly extending the contract or starting a new contract with the box swap. Please correct me if I am wrong on how this works.

As for not upgrading them, that is not entirely true. I have done box swaps to deal with slow boxes (e.g. replace the 3100HD with a 3250HD box because the 3100HD was slow and missing an TOSLINK out that I expected to need because we were soon buying a home theater system for Dad for Christmas) and to deal with broken software, like what happened with MDN update to my old 8300HD box and how I unearthed a corner case when DVR, HD, and closed captioning that caused crashes. The technician that showed up to help us deal with a signal level problem this weekend (it was so strong that it was saturating the receiver in my 8300HDC, causing it to get image quality errors on many HD channels) said that he likes the new Samsung boxes that will come out later on. I will probably be one of the first ones to get this upgrade, because these boxes look like they were designed from the ground up to handle OCAP and <tru2way>. They will be able to open a widescreen guide as long as the software is able to draw it and probably have CPUs with the branch predictors needed to really speed up Java bytecode interpretation and recompilation.

As for Bravo, you may be right. I have almost never seen it, so I do not know what I am missing out on.

As for channel negotiation (SDV), our division was deploying Navigator slowly to prevent the local customer service centers from getting jammed by a sudden deployment. This had the nasty side effect of no SDV while there are some Passport boxes still out there. It certainly seems wise because such jamming will cause so many people needing a box swap that the centers will run out quickly, causing more mayhem. A slow trickle allows them to handle the inevitable box swaps slowly, avoiding too much disruption.

As for the hardware, you are right. We need better boxes than the 8300HDC/8240HDC fiascos.

dslate69

07-03-08, 09:40 AM

A slow trickle allows them to handle the inevitable box swaps slowly, avoiding too much disruption.
A wordy one, you are. ;)

But I thought this quote from your novel sums up TWC's overall business plan to a T.
TWC is not responsive enough to make any significant changes and what you get tomorrow will ALWAYS be relative to what you get today.
None of us should be surprised that the crappy receivers, crappy software, crappy HD channel line-up and crappy overall service come from the same vicinity as that trickle. ;)
:D :D :D

drill

07-03-08, 12:21 PM

I still wish there was a true alternative to RR

though not a "true alternative", you could get earthlink broadband cable service. its cheaper than standalone roadrunner. 41.95 for earthlink, 44.95 for RR i believe. its the same broadband cable service, with the exception that you get an earthlink email address, and use the earthlink news servers if you use news, and you get 20 hours of dialup service per month if you ever need it. otherwise, its the same 5 mbit service. the bill still comes from time warner, but earthlink gets a cut, and like i said, its cheaper for the same service.

dslate69

07-03-08, 12:44 PM

though not a "true alternative", you could get earthlink broadband cable service. its cheaper than standalone roadrunner. 41.95 for earthlink, 44.95 for RR i believe. its the same broadband cable service, with the exception that you get an earthlink email address, and use the earthlink news servers if you use news, and you get 20 hours of dialup service per month if you ever need it. otherwise, its the same 5 mbit service. the bill still comes from time warner, but earthlink gets a cut, and like i said, its cheaper for the same service.
Thanks for the info.
RR has always been rock solid for me; an outage here and there but speed and all pretty consistent. I am sure earthlink would be the same. My problem with twc has always been service and hold times. My guess when I need a truck roll for a earthlink problem it would still be twc. :(
This is a good to know though as I believe RR just dropped their usenet service. I use a 3rd party for this already. Retention on the free ones are unusable for me.

jnv11

07-03-08, 11:28 PM

though not a "true alternative", you could get earthlink broadband cable service. its cheaper than standalone roadrunner. 41.95 for earthlink, 44.95 for RR i believe. its the same broadband cable service, with the exception that you get an earthlink email address, and use the earthlink news servers if you use news, and you get 20 hours of dialup service per month if you ever need it. otherwise, its the same 5 mbit service. the bill still comes from time warner, but earthlink gets a cut, and like i said, its cheaper for the same service.

Earthlink is not a real option if you do not want the "Church" of Scientology handling your Internet connection. It was founded by Scientologists and still has some of their ilk running Earthlink at the top.

jnv11

07-03-08, 11:33 PM

I found this out today:

Maybe it might be a good idea to check what is behind the cable plate whenever there is a picture quality problem. I noticed that the connection to the plate going to my cable box redefines pathetic: it was a twist-on connector that was weak and failing. I fixed it by replacing it with a crimp-on connector. Try checking that out when you have a picture quality problem. Your homebuilder's electrician might have been an idiot. This will affect cable, satellite, and over-the-air connections.

drill

07-04-08, 03:07 PM

Thanks for the info.
RR has always been rock solid for me; an outage here and there but speed and all pretty consistent. I am sure earthlink would be the same. My problem with twc has always been service and hold times. My guess when I need a truck roll for a earthlink problem it would still be twc. :(
This is a good to know though as I believe RR just dropped their usenet service. I use a 3rd party for this already. Retention on the free ones are unusable for me.

actually, that's another difference. earthlink uses their own contractors when they need to roll the truck. if i have problems, i call earthlink, not TWC. though i haven't had a problem in a LONG time. when RR first came to the area many moons ago (circa 2000), i was a beta tester. for the first year or so after RR went "live" and non-beta, i would have issues about once a month or so. but the service has been really stable since. i switched to earthlink around 2002 to save money (RR was $52/mo back then when earthlink was $42).

i haven't used earthlink usenet servers in over a year. i assume they are still up and running. iirc, their retention time was better than RR, but not by a lot.

as to earthlink's ties to scientology, i can't say ... but that doesn't bother me ... at least not to jnv11's degree :)

VisionOn

07-04-08, 06:04 PM

Earthlink is not a real option if you do not want the "Church" of Scientology handling your Internet connection. It was founded by Scientologists and still has some of their ilk running Earthlink at the top.

Yeah, that's a logical argument. Opinions and advice should be based on the practicality or technical capability of a subject. Not whether you find their religious affiliations objectionable.

That's why AVS doesn't discuss religion. It's not relevant to Mbps.

jnv11

07-04-08, 08:06 PM

Yeah, that's a logical argument. Opinions and advice should be based on the practicality or technical capability of a subject. Not whether you find their religious affiliations objectionable.

That's why AVS doesn't discuss religion. It's not relevant to Mbps.

I do not care about the religious affilations in most cases. However, the Church of Scientology has caused many abuses relating to the Internet. See this Wikipedia article about its conflict with the Internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_the_Internet) and this article on EarthLink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthLink) to explain why I think that EarthLink has a conflict of interest. Scientology and the Internet have conflicted so many times that I think that a Scientologist would have a conflict of interest if he or she worked in an ISP due to this unique situation. I don't like conflicts of interest. When I do have one, I usually try to pass the judgement job to someone else. When I see someone with a possibility of conflict of interest regarding a job, I rule him out from consideration for the job.

larc919

07-06-08, 10:44 AM

i haven't used earthlink usenet servers in over a year. i assume they are still up and running. iirc, their retention time was better than RR, but not by a lot.Earthlink gave up on maintaining their own Usenet servers last year and outsourced it to Supernews. Then Supernews was bought by Giganews, which now supplies EL's Usenet. Both retention and completion are excellent. Bothersome download limits were done away with once Usenet was outsourced.

larc919

07-06-08, 11:05 AM

though not a "true alternative", you could get earthlink broadband cable service. its cheaper than standalone roadrunner. 41.95 for earthlink, 44.95 for RR i believe. its the same broadband cable service, with the exception that you get an earthlink email address, and use the earthlink news servers if you use news, and you get 20 hours of dialup service per month if you ever need it. otherwise, its the same 5 mbit service. the bill still comes from time warner, but earthlink gets a cut, and like i said, its cheaper for the same service.Actually, max download speed is now 7Mb/sec! Don't know whether this is still the case, but when I switched from RR to EL doing it through TWC didn't result in any saving. I had to get the switchover made by ordering direct from EL to get it for $3 less per month.

There's really no difference most users would ever notice except for the fact that RR now has no Usenet and EL has excellent Usenet (via Giganews).

EricRobins

07-07-08, 11:22 AM

I don't know much about DirecTV, but here is what I have heard about it:
Pros:

Has exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. NFL's antitrust exemption must be modified to disallow exclusive rights deals to correct this market abuse.

Please explain to me why one company choosing an particular distribution scenario is a "market abuse".

jnv11

07-07-08, 02:05 PM

Please explain to me why one company choosing an particular distribution scenario is a "market abuse".

If the NFL had one iota of fairness, would license NFL Sunday Ticket to any service that wanted it, like DirecTV, Dish, FiOS, U-Verse, or any of the cable companies. As of now, the only way to get out-of-market NFL games is through DirecTV. This allows DirecTV to charge whatever it wants for NFL Sunday Ticket. Therefore, we never get any clue what the real market value for NFL Sunday Ticket would be because if all of the pay TV providers were able to offer it, they might offer lower prices or package it with other services like their sports tiers. The same thing happened with NFL football games when the NFL signed an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts. Now, with a few exceptions, the Madden series of football video games has stagnated. Exclusive deals generally lower innovation and raise prices, which is contrary to how a free market should work.

This is one reason I favor the cable companies and Dish Network in their disputes over the NFL Network. I don't like Dish, but I can understand their stance in moving it to their America's Top 200 package instead of their basic America's Top 100 package because the NFL charges too much for a channel that is not popular enough to warrant its cost, sparking another lawsuit. This is one lawsuit I hope Dish wins. Maybe if the NFL was smart enough to allow all pay TV organizations to broadcast the NFL Sunday Ticket to subscribers who want to pay for it and can afford it, the pay TV services would be more amenable to putting the NFL Network on their standard tiers.

ENDContra

07-08-08, 02:42 AM

Does anyone know the status of CW22 and MyRDC? Last night, once again, CW network programming was in SD. At first I thought this was the typical "forgot to flip the switch" deal that they pretty much do every night. But then I noticed when I put it in PIP, my Dish DVR displayed it as 4:3 rather than 16:9, indicating that it was an SD channel. For the record, this was CW22 over the air, and was the same channel number I usually watch (CW22 only has one as far as I know).

easternncnewswat

07-08-08, 02:11 PM

HDMe2

07-08-08, 04:29 PM

Maybe CW22 is doing some upgrades so they can broadcast ABC 11's news in HD...

Noticed over the weekend that NBC 17 ran HD weather crawls on HD programming. Guess this means that RAL, TVD and NCN can all do HD crawls now. No more dropping to SD.

Good news there for NBC 17, I hadn't noticed them running any HD crawls. I'm glad to see this technology has finally been implemented. I understood why it wasn't just an easy fix like the old analog crawls, and was afraid it might be too costly to implement at local levels for a while.

As for CW22.. I haven't watched much since rerun season began, but I had noticed the sometimes SD nature every once in a while... also sometimes lower signal strength than usual even on a clear day... so maybe all of this taken together means some work is being done. That would be a positive thing.

Soon as ABC went HD with their local news the next question I had was wonder when CW22 would be able to carry the 10pm newscast in HD. That will be cool when they can do that.

frankpc

07-09-08, 08:38 AM

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6576530.html

Our box continues to have problems with audio dropouts requiring a hard reboot. To be fair, the "on demand" streams seem to be doing better - maybe they got that one fixed.

Frank

yaleforks

07-09-08, 11:43 AM

Does anyone have any idea when more HD channels are coming to the Raleigh/Durham market via TWC?

Daryl L

07-09-08, 12:23 PM

Does anyone have any idea when more HD channels are coming to the Raleigh/Durham market via TWC?

HAHAHA you'll have a better chance at finding the answer to the meaning of life. ;)

jspENC

07-09-08, 02:40 PM

Good news there for NBC 17, I hadn't noticed them running any HD crawls. I'm glad to see this technology has finally been implemented. I understood why it wasn't just an easy fix like the old analog crawls, and was afraid it might be too costly to implement at local levels for a while.

As for CW22.. I haven't watched much since rerun season began, but I had noticed the sometimes SD nature every once in a while... also sometimes lower signal strength than usual even on a clear day... so maybe all of this taken together means some work is being done. That would be a positive thing.

Soon as ABC went HD with their local news the next question I had was wonder when CW22 would be able to carry the 10pm newscast in HD. That will be cool when they can do that.

Did WNCN's crawl have a map bug? I noticed WRAL's and WTVD's crawl system didn't have a map with the county affected painted in, and no radar, so those kind of crawls to me are not very helpful. I'd rather just turn to 11.2 and look at the radar. Stations don't come on live much any more when bad weather is happening because so many people send stupid complaint e-mails about ruining programming...(babies) so roofs could be blown off your house if you wait for that... All I usually look at is my county and color code on the map to see if there is anything going on and ignore the rest!;)

jimholcomb

07-09-08, 04:33 PM

Does anyone have any idea when more HD channels are coming to the Raleigh/Durham market via TWC?

I've heard SDV is coming at the end of this month or August. That should bring a few more channels our way.

Jim

hdavidt

07-09-08, 08:47 PM

Is anyone else in the Apex/Cary Time Warner service area experiencing problem with TV Guide on Screen service? I ask them to install the open cable cablecard (CableCard 2.0) they advertise on their website (Says 4th qtr 2007 or 1st qtr 2008)... what I received was the old legacy one way CableCard... and the built in TV guide on my LG Plasma isn't working... Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

jspENC

07-09-08, 09:40 PM

If anyone watched the call-in show on UNC TV tonight, there was a call that came in with regard to experiencing problems receiving the UNC signal in the Raleigh area reliably compared to the other local stations, and intermittent reception when the wind blows and when it is raining. They made no mention of moving the transmitting site, but did say that they would be moving off the current channel on Feb. 2009. My family in Sampson county cannot get the signal from Chapel Hill down there either, with their huge over the roof combo antenna. I have tried to explain to them that they may need to adjust the current antenna. They get 4 analog roughly. It seems quite a few all over the state are having a few problem stations at their particular locations. I think it is important to remember that the current antenna you are using, will likely NOT be the solution for DTV as most signals are in the UHF spectrum. I highly recommend getting a UHF ONLY antenna and not using a combo. The combo is eating up the VHF signals, and sacrificing the UHF significantly. This however may come to an end when the analog signals are turned off, and there isn't so much interference and overload. The UHF antenna in most areas will still get a reliable signal for the future digital VHF's like WTVD. WNCT is already on VHF, and WCTI will be on VHF as well if you live east of Raleigh and pick them up. I use a Radio Shack U-75 R only UHF and get WNCT's digital signal on channel 10 at 91% 42 miles away. I also get the analogs very well like this.

SugarBowl

07-10-08, 10:54 AM

Smackrabbit

07-14-08, 07:45 AM

Has anyone else been having issues with NBC-HD and audio glitches when going to/from commercial over the past couple of days on TWC? Whenever it switches between program and ad (during golf yesterday, and the Today show this morning), there's a loud 'pop' type sound that is highly annoying to hear all the time. I recently upgraded my receiver but since it's only happening on NBC, I don't think it is an issue on my end. Thanks.

Celeron

07-14-08, 08:02 AM

NBC17ENG

07-14-08, 01:24 PM

Totally my fault. I had punched us back to the old signal path while working on the HD weather crawl system, and forgot to punch it back. It should be gone now.

jbradg

07-15-08, 09:24 AM

doctorj

07-15-08, 10:08 AM

I hope TWC in RDU implements SDV soon! If I don't get more HD programming, I'll probably switch to DTV. I'm getting tired of waiting. If the word is by the end of August, I'll check the diag screen to see if SDV has been initialized. If not, DTV here I come.

I'm with you buddy. TWC acts like it would be committing a crime to give us a statement that includes an approximate date on when we can expect new HD channels.

Lee L

07-15-08, 10:32 AM

So, did anyone else notice that WRAL was off the air with all their digital last night? I just happened to see 5.1 sometime after 8:00 PM and it was gone - searching for signal as well as all teh subchannels. The DirecTV locals were off the air with a card as well.

pkscout

07-15-08, 07:41 PM

Smackrabbit

07-16-08, 09:04 AM

frankpc

07-16-08, 01:15 PM

Smackrabbit

07-16-08, 02:35 PM

If I wasn't concerned about trees obstructing the path I'd be a DirectTV subscriber by now. Just me personally, but they look like a very good deal from a price/programming/equipment perspective.

Frank

Our condo building has rules against a dish, which I know they can't force me to take down, but our condo also doesn't have a southern view, so I can't mount the dish specifically on my unit, so then they can prevent me from mounting it somewhere else on the building unfortunately. I've been tempted to call DirecTV to see if they can offer any other options, since I would switch if I could.

jnv11

07-16-08, 02:35 PM

I've had an 8300HD box for around 2 years now, and in the past 3 days, it's managed to shutdown and restart it's self 4 times, so I miss a few minutes of whatever show I was watching. Is anyone else running into the same issue since the software update? I recall reading about a newer box, but that it's much slower with the new guide as well which makes me not want to upgrade, but I would rather have that then constant reboots. Any suggestions from people out there?

If you go to the 8300HDC or the 8240HDC, here are my tips:

This cable box's power supply is too lame, causing it to generate too much heat.
Put this box in the open.
Do not enclose it in anything but a room and the surface this box is placed upon.
Do not put this box on a carpet.
Put this box on a couple of 2x4s. This allows the box to scoop up more air via convection currents, allowing the overloaded power supply to cool down and not overheat. Personally, I had one overheat, cook itself, and smell like burnt electronics when I did not have this box on a couple of 2x4s. This overheating power supply episode caused the box to crash often. Ever since I placed the replacement box on a couple of 2x4s, failed recordings became nearly nonexistent in my experience.
eSATA does not work correctly on the version of ODN that TWC Carolinas is using here. A newer version of ODN in different markets has fixed the eSATA bug that crashes our version of ODN.

These problems are because this box is a rushed engineering job that did not have enough time going through QA due to the FCC separable security deadline, causing the engineers to overlook the possibility of needing to beef up the power supply. A beefier power supply would generate less heat and more stable power. The newer Cisco 8550HDC, Cisco 8552HDC, or some newer Samsung boxes which are designed from the ground up with these FCC restrictions in mind along with many welcome enhancements should eliminate many of these concerns.

You might also want to wait around until the next version of MDN (the software train that runs on legacy Scientific Atlanta boxes) is loaded onto the TWC Carolinas devision. This version is much more stable.

jbradg

07-16-08, 05:01 PM

jnv11

07-16-08, 10:10 PM

My 8300HDC doesn't have crashes or failed recording issues and mine isn't on 2x4's. Sure it puts out heat, but I haven't noticed much more than my old 8300HD or my old SD DVR. Other than heat, how do you know the power supply is not sufficient?

Overheating power supplies in PCs generate unstable power and sometimes start smelling like burnt electronics. I have built and repaired PCs, and the symptoms I had with the 8240HDC that cooked in my house are similar to a bad power supply unit in a PC: random crashes that happened often and the smell of burnt electronics. The only symptoms for a bad power supply unit that were missing from the old 8240HDC that I traded in for the 8300HDC are smoke and explosions. You can see a videotaped power supply units under test exploding in this advertisement video (http://corsair.com/cinema/movie.aspx?id=622747) advertising what bad power supplies do that was vouched for by [H]ard|OCP (http://www.hardocp.com/), an enthusiast PC website, in this mini-article (http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MzM2ODcsLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdCwsLDE=).

How old is your box, and what hardware version is it? I noticed on the bottom of the 8300HDC and the 8240HDC that there is a manufacturing date and a hardware revision number printed on a white sticker. The 8300HDC that I put on 2x4s was made in April 29, 2008 and has a revision 6.3 hardware. I forgot to get that information on the 8240HDC that overheated. Maybe different hardware versions have better power supply units.

pkscout

07-17-08, 10:18 PM

Did anyone else notice WRAL wasn't broadcasting again tonight OTA HD? Our TiVo showed the 6pm news as not recorded because there was no signal, and WRAL was blank when I got home. It came up a few minutes later (i.e. around 9:30pm).

jrelmore

07-18-08, 01:55 PM

This morning noticed that 5.2 was not broadcasting, though there was a strong signal on the meter.

posg

07-20-08, 10:08 AM

This is at least the second time that WNCN screwed up the "Meet the Press" feed. A few seconds into the broadcast and up come the color bars. They then go to some local fill.

I pick up WITN off air. No problems there. What gives NBC17ENG ???

I also occasionally pick up WXII. Their SD content on the HD channel (both local and network) looks significantly better than WNCN. It's crisper and color is not "washed out". The HD is a little better as well. WITN on the other hand isn't any better than WNCN.

jamieh1

07-20-08, 10:51 AM

WRAL News Channel 5.2 will be back on the air Thursday, WRAL took it down to do some testing.

jrelmore

07-20-08, 01:30 PM

Hoping WRAL will boost their signals -IMO their signals are slightly weaker than they were a year ago. Where 17.1 signals have improved over the year.

I think it's lousy planning and implementation that we are forced to convert to OTA digital when analog has much better range. Sure there are advantages to digital, but if reception is inferior to analog then you get no picture and no choice but to subscribe to a pay service.
Another example of where our government adds unnecessary cost onto our citizens. <end of rant>

jamieh1

07-20-08, 02:37 PM

I live in Washington NC 20 miles east of Greenville NC about 90 miles from Raleigh and I get WRAL, WTVD, WNCN, WLFL, WRDC, WRAY and WRAZ digital every day from about 5p- 10a. I can not get a analog signal from them, except 11, 17, 28 and 50 some days and its not clear, snowy.

easternncnewswat

07-20-08, 02:56 PM

WRAL News Channel 5.2 will be back on the air Thursday, WRAL took it down to do some testing.

Wonder if they've got one of those new encoders that will allow two HD channels in the same bandwith?

Scooper

07-20-08, 03:09 PM

HDMe2

07-20-08, 07:01 PM

I think it's lousy planning and implementation that we are forced to convert to OTA digital when analog has much better range.

Unfortunately that statement is simply not true as a blanket statement. Several things are in play here...

1. VHF frequency signals travel farther than UHF frequencies. Most of the digital OTA in this area is going to remain on UHF after the transition. At least one (WTVD) will be going back to a VHF frequency.

2. "Range" is a tricky thing. Do you define range as the farthest from the tower that you can see a pristine signal? Or the farthest that you can see a watchable signal with some problems? Or the farthest any measurable signal can be verified?

At the same power level, and at the same frequency, there is no reason why a digital signal would not travel just as far as an analog signal. However, there are some tradeoffs. Because of built-in error correction a digital signal can lose a few bits here and there without affecting picture/audio quality, so a digital signal *should* be pristine at a greater range than an analog signal.

After the "pristine" range, however the rules change a bit. An analog signal can still be quite watchable at a greater range, albeit poorer picture/audio quality, because its format (without going into a lot of details) allows better reproduction of a poor quality signal than does digital. Digital reaches an increasing cascading failure rate once you exceed its ability to error correct and will lose the entire picture while an analog signal *might* still be viewable with lots of snow and sound glitches.

3. Different things interfere differently, including the signal itself, with digital vs analog. Things in the way affect both equally, but digital "multipath" has an ability to act like it is cancelling out parts of itself moreso than analog transmissions. Still, a good antenna properly configured should be able to eliminate most multipath.

Bottom line... analog doesn't go farther than digital as a be-all statement. IF you are ok viewing snowy picture, then yes analog does go farther. The biggest things in play here are UHF compared to VHF frequencies (channel 5 VHF vs channel 53 UHF for instance) and the FCC restricting digital broadcasts in some cases to lower power than analog counterparts.

jnv11

07-20-08, 09:19 PM

Unfortunately that statement is simply not true as a blanket statement. Several things are in play here...

1. VHF frequency signals travel farther than UHF frequencies. Most of the digital OTA in this area is going to remain on UHF after the transition. At least one (WTVD) will be going back to a VHF frequency.

2. "Range" is a tricky thing. Do you define range as the farthest from the tower that you can see a pristine signal? Or the farthest that you can see a watchable signal with some problems? Or the farthest any measurable signal can be verified?

At the same power level, and at the same frequency, there is no reason why a digital signal would not travel just as far as an analog signal. However, there are some tradeoffs. Because of built-in error correction a digital signal can lose a few bits here and there without affecting picture/audio quality, so a digital signal *should* be pristine at a greater range than an analog signal.

After the "pristine" range, however the rules change a bit. An analog signal can still be quite watchable at a greater range, albeit poorer picture/audio quality, because its format (without going into a lot of details) allows better reproduction of a poor quality signal than does digital. Digital reaches an increasing cascading failure rate once you exceed its ability to error correct and will lose the entire picture while an analog signal *might* still be viewable with lots of snow and sound glitches.

3. Different things interfere differently, including the signal itself, with digital vs analog. Things in the way affect both equally, but digital "multipath" has an ability to act like it is cancelling out parts of itself moreso than analog transmissions. Still, a good antenna properly configured should be able to eliminate most multipath.

Bottom line... analog doesn't go farther than digital as a be-all statement. IF you are ok viewing snowy picture, then yes analog does go farther. The biggest things in play here are UHF compared to VHF frequencies (channel 5 VHF vs channel 53 UHF for instance) and the FCC restricting digital broadcasts in some cases to lower power than analog counterparts.

The main reason the government is forcing digital is to clear out bandwidth on the radio spectrum. Here is a summary of what forced the government to force DTV on us:

Nextel starts out as a radio dispatch service and therefore shares bandwidth with other radio dispatch services, like plumbers, police, firefighters, and ambulances.
Nextel realizes that it can easily hack its network to provide cellular service easily and does so.
All of those cell phone calls are crowding out and interfering with the dispatch services used by emergency responders like police.
Some people notice that there is immense waste in the TV broadcast bands and want to eliminate some channels.
Broadcasters feel threatened by the loss of channels.
FCC challenges them to justify why they should keep that bandwidth.
Broadcast engineers create many different proposed TV standards.
They are either all analog, digital, or hybrids.
FCC is impressed by efficiencies in some digital parts of the proposed standards and tells the engineers that it is ruling out any analog signals except what is needed to get digital signals carried on radio waves which can only carry analog signals. This means that the digital signals are converted to analog; but with a high enough signal to noise ratio, the digital signals can be perfectly regenerated from the analog radio waves.
ATSC, today's standard for over-the-air transmission of digital television, is created. It also does not trample upon neighboring chanels unlike NTSC, where neighboring channels like 2 and 3 will weaken each other because NTSC channels crosstalk with their neighbors. Analog cable ignores this problem by amplifying the signal so much that the crosstalk does little damage compared to the huge signal level. ATSC has almost no crosstalk to speak of, so channels can be reorganized to allow some to become neighbors without any consequence other than a channel number change.
Some channels in the UHF are removed anyways. Some of this bandwidth will be reserved for first responders like fire, police, and ambulance. The government will lose some money by not being able to auction off this spectrum. Other areas are auctioned off (mostly to cell phone companies), netting the FCC some massive moolah.

If the market had been left alone, we would still be using NTSC, or there would be TV standards wars which would make the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war look like nothing worth mentioning.

ziltink

07-21-08, 08:30 AM

Hello, I have recently purchased two new RCA DTA800 receivers with my government coupons. I am quite impressed with how Digital TV reception is in my area in North East Raleigh. I currently get about 26 channels total, WUNC, WRAL, WTVD, WNCN, WRAY, WRPX, WUVC & WRAZ. I am currently only using a small amplified indoor antenna in my attic. It wasn't just as easy as plugging it in and tossing it up there, I had to walk around up there with this thing to find the best location. I am looking to purchase a better antenna in the future and would like some recommendations for something I can put in the attic, maybe a good outdoor one that will work well. I have been reading about the Channel Master 4221 for attic and sounds good, but any other good ideas would be helpful.

My second part of this post is about the channel guide Recently I have noticed WRAL 5.2 Newschannel has dropped out, I found the answer to that question on this message board today, so no problem there. However, on WTVD and the subchannels, I am missing EPG information. WTVD is the only channel missing this information.

Finally, I noticed that on the WUNC 4.2 HD channel, I am missing audio whenever they are broadcasting at 8PM. I believe this to be an issue with the RCA DTA800 box. If I do a channel scan whenever WUNC 4.2 HD is broadcasting at 8PM, I get audio and all channels (4.1 - 4.5 + 4.100, whatever that is for). However, whenever 4.2 HD stops broadcasting and the other two missing channels start again, 4.4 and 4.5, they're missing audio. So, I have to re-scan the channels to get audio back for 4.4 and 4.5. But, 4.2 HD will be missing audio again the next day. I don't have an HD TV so it's not a huge deal, but just an annoying one. Hey, I'm just happy I get a decent signal on WUNC at all! :)

Well, thanks for any help that may come along. I am really enjoying Digital TV, I have sense canceled my cable TV as I get more channels with better quality than I had before. I subscribed to the lowest cable tier for $14-$15 a month.

jrelmore

07-21-08, 09:12 AM

For a good antenna go to WRAL online and complete the form for a free one. Likely will send the CM4221.

And thanks for the above clarification on the OTA Conversion mandate.

drewwho

07-21-08, 10:07 AM

Finally, I noticed that on the WUNC 4.2 HD channel, I am missing audio whenever they are broadcasting at 8PM. I believe this to be an issue with the RCA DTA800 box. If I do a channel scan whenever WUNC 4.2 HD is broadcasting at 8PM, I get audio and all channels (4.1 - 4.5 + 4.100, whatever that is for). However, whenever 4.2 HD stops broadcasting and the other two missing channels start again, 4.4 and 4.5, they're missing audio. So, I have to re-scan the channels to get audio back for 4.4 and 4.5. But, 4.2 HD will be missing audio again the next day. I don't have an HD TV so it's not a huge deal, but just an annoying one. Hey, I'm just happy I get a decent signal on WUNC at all! :)

The problem is that WUNC switches their subchannels around everyday. From the hours of 8PM-11PM channels 4-1, 4-2, and 4-3 are active, and 4-4, 4-5 are placeholders; 11PM -> 8PM 4-1, 4-3, 4-4 and 4-5 are active, and 4-2 is a placeholder. The issue you're hitting is that these placeholder channels do not have audio PIDs associated with them. Your box does a channel scan, and remembers the video/audio pids associated with each subchannel. Since 4-2 had no audio when you did your scan, you never hear audio on 4-2 until you do a rescan.

I had the same problem with SageTV (my HTPC software), and they sent me a patch which fixes the problem. I think they re-examine every subchannel when they tune now, which obviously slows down tuning and channel changing. You should complain to RCA, perhaps they can fix the same bug in their firmware.

I'd actually prefer it if WUNC simply added placeholder audio pids to the inactive channels. It seems like this would prevent a *lot* of problems. It might be worth trying to contact them regarding this.

Drew

drewwho

07-21-08, 10:30 AM

Wonder if they've got one of those new encoders that will allow two HD channels in the same bandwith?

Do you have a link to more information on this? This sounds like "hd-light", and I really hope that WRAL's quality is not impacted.

Drew

Trip in VA

07-21-08, 03:45 PM

I saw WRAL-DT this morning and the whole 5-2 subchannel is just GONE. No PIDs or anything. But there was about 5 mbps of null packets, thus the bandwidth for it is still being reserved.

Wonder what's going on over there.

And let's all hope they're not doing two HD feeds. I've heard nothing but horror stories in the places where that is happening.

- Trip

HDMe2

07-21-08, 03:52 PM

I'd actually prefer it if WUNC simply added placeholder audio pids to the inactive channels. It seems like this would prevent a *lot* of problems. It might be worth trying to contact them regarding this.

Same problem here with my Dish receiver. Actually, in my case it is not a problem with normal tuning... but if I set a timer to record channel 4.2 for an 8pm show, the entire show will not have audio. Only way to make it work is to set the timer for after 4.2 is on the air with audio.

I did report this to Dish and WUNC... and actually put one of the WUNC engineers in touch with Dish Network engineers. Last I knew the guys at WUNC were trying to do something on their end, but last I knew it still didn't fix the issue.

I agree that it would be much easier if they would just broadcast the equivalent of an audio "slate" all day.

ziltink

07-21-08, 06:34 PM

For a good antenna go to WRAL online and complete the form for a free one. Likely will send the CM4221.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced my reciept for my converter boxes. So I don't think I will qualify for this.

jamieh1

07-21-08, 08:39 PM

WRAL is testing a new technology that will give them a more robust mobile signal.
WRAL 5.2 will be back Thursday.

Lee L

07-22-08, 10:27 AM

I was just thinking that might be why when I read their announcement at WRAL.com.

ziltink

07-22-08, 02:24 PM

However, on WTVD and the subchannels, I am missing EPG information. WTVD is the only channel missing this information.

Thanks for all the useful information, this forum is great! Recently, I am now receiving the WTVD EPG again. I guess being new to DTV, I'm not used to how things drop in and out. Maybe this is due to all the last minute testing being done by all the stations. I figured if I'm getting a good signal, the EPG should show up as well.

What is the minimum signal strength that can be decoded by a DTV tuner? Currently, I get around 40% on some channels depending on the time of day and still get good video and audio with minimal drop outs.

Scooper

07-22-08, 03:43 PM

Depends on the tuner and the software. IOW - no real good answer - you really can't compare too different brands on their meters.

tarheelone

07-22-08, 05:52 PM

http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1149559.html

Cable guide annoys viewers
By Danny Hooley, Staff Writer
Comment on this story

If you're a Time Warner Cable customer who uses a cable box, you can't help but notice a big change in the menu lately.
Time Warner recently rolled out the Navigator menu as a replacement to the old Passport menu system for finding and recording programs.

Time Warner promised Navigator would be an improvement over the old system, calling it the "smartest and easiest" way to find shows and citing the soon-to-come "start over" option that allows viewers to jump to the beginning of a show if they missed the first few minutes. There's also an on-screen caller ID that saves viewers who subscribe to TWC's digital phone service from getting off the couch needlessly to answer unwanted calls.

But, compared to Passport, it's disappointing. No longer can you just click the little red button in search mode to find all future showings of a highlighted program. Now, you have to take a couple of steps before typing out the title of the program you'd like to search on the keyboard.

There are frequent reboots. The time between changing screens and channels has slowed considerably.

"It's not only annoying, but sometimes there's stuff on the screen you don't want your grandchildren to see, or somebody on there you can't stand, and want to get off the screen, like Dr. Phil," says Jack McGarrigle, 74, of Fuquay-Varina. "Plus they changed it to white against a pale blue background, which is difficult to read."

When rewinding a show by a few seconds, viewers may find that, when the "play" button is hit, the show jumps back to the point where rewinding started. (Here's a helpful hint: Hit the "play" button twice for slow-motion, then hit "play" once again for regular speed, and your show should start again at the point where you want it.)

The show synopses on the menu are much shorter than they used to be, and sometimes even incomplete and lacking content information useful to parents. People who record and save shows on the DVR no longer have any clue as to how long they have until one of their shows gets bumped off the "saved" list by other, newer shows.

Melissa Buscher, director of media relations for Time Warner locally, says the menu system was changed in an effort to conserve bandwidth for additional high-definition channels in the future.

"Rolling out the new guide is like any new technology," Buscher says in a written statement. "There are bugs that need to be worked out, and we are doing that. The new guide will have enhanced search and browsing features that enable a better customer experience.

"Beyond that, it serves as the platform from which we will launch many more HD channels. We are listening to our customers and are aware of the issues some of them are experiencing. We apologize for any inconvenience and promise that we will continue to work hard to fix the issues."

Buscher says Time Warner is also working on improving wait times for customers who call in complaints, only to be greeted by an automated voice, then kept on hold interminably.

"We have had higher-then-normal phone traffic over the last few weeks," she says. "Besides the storms and power outages in our service area, there have been some issues with the technology. So we're increasing staffing, and improving some items in our call center to get more customers in as quickly as possible."

danny.hooley@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4728

VisionOn

07-22-08, 07:00 PM

zim2dive

07-24-08, 08:44 AM

Digital television broadcaster WRAL, based here, and the Capitol Broadcasting (CBC) New Media Group said Tuesday they are sponsoring the state’s first field test of mobile digital television technology in the Raleigh-Durham TV market this week.
rest of the article at http://www.twice.com/article/CA6580958.html

jnv11

07-24-08, 02:22 PM

I rebooted my box manually because I noticed that it reported an error in the diagnostics. After the reboot, I noticed that the diagnostics stated that SDV was authorized for my box. However, the next page shows that the SDV carousel failed to load. (I think that a carousel is a channel used to broadcast data instead of video that constantly repeats like firmware and application code for boxes needing upgrades, interactive program guide data, and VOD menus. Boxes without DOCSIS cable modems must wait for the appropriate data passes by in the carousel when loading guide data causing them to take too long to load, while boxes with DOCSIS cable modems can just request the portion of the guide they need and have just that sent to them instantly. However, reading the carousel is better for background loads like the one that occurs during the guide's daily update because it uses one broadcast instead of many unicasts.)

It looks like TWC is in the middle of setting up SDV in our area.

yaleforks

07-24-08, 06:49 PM

SDV is enabled for me in Durham 27713

ktut

07-24-08, 07:07 PM

Raleigh is also getting SDV.

Hiatt66

07-24-08, 08:28 PM

I rebooted my box and it has SDV enabled but nothing to see yet.

ktut

07-24-08, 08:42 PM

Check out channels 770 to 781 in Raleigh.

Trip in VA

07-25-08, 12:10 AM

WRAL is testing a new technology that will give them a more robust mobile signal.
WRAL 5.2 will be back Thursday.

Wish I'd managed to catch their test; would have liked to have seen how it looked on TSReader...

- Trip

sooke

07-25-08, 08:08 PM

Check out channels 770 to 781 in Raleigh.

Nothing there for me. Nearest channels are about 745, then a gap, then 800.

My HD DVR rebooted itself a couple days ago. Not sure how to get into diagnostics to see if SDV is enabled.

Sooke

VisionOn

07-25-08, 08:13 PM

My HD DVR rebooted itself a couple days ago. Not sure how to get into diagnostics to see if SDV is enabled.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13819253#post138192534

tarheelone

07-25-08, 08:55 PM

Check out channels 770 to 781 in Raleigh.
Is there anyway in the diagnostics to tell if these channels are actually SDV?

Nothing there for me. Nearest channels are about 745, then a gap, then 800.

My HD DVR rebooted itself a couple days ago. Not sure how to get into diagnostics to see if SDV is enabled.

Sooke

The channels won't show up in the guide. You have to actually turn to the channels.

yaleforks

07-25-08, 10:39 PM

Channels are here in Durham 770-781..

jnv11

07-26-08, 02:23 AM

Could you please post the model number of the boxes that are able to get SDV in your profiles or on this forum? I am unable to get any of channels 770-781 on my 8300HDC, only getting notices that I must subscribe to them or that some error occurred.

My guess is that the equipment for DAVIC-based SDV is up, but the equipment for the DOCSIS-based SDV is not yet ready. SDV requires two-way access to do these tasks: request a channel, send keep-alive messages, and let the head end know when a channel is no longer needed. The first task is obvious. The second task is needed so that a failing box does not lock the channel it was using when it failed forever. For example, a short circuit develops due to someone failing to use a stud sensor to find a suitable place to hang a painting and therefore puts a nail through a power line instead of a stud, causing the circuit breaker to notice the short circuit and trip. The cable box was tuned to an SDV channel. Without a keep-alive message, there would be no way to detect the failed box to clear room in the SDV pool of channels. The third task enables faster clearing of channels in the SDV pool whose contents are watched or recorded by nobody at all. Now, here is the problematic area: DAVIC, the type of cable modem in all standardized cable boxes going back to the Explorer 2100, maxes out at 2.048Mbps in Motorola boxes in both directions and 1.544Mbps on Scientific-Atlanta boxes in both directions, which is not much bandwidth in today's scenario, especially because it is shared and upstream is collision-prone. DOCSIS 1.0 allows up to 38Mbps downstream and 9Mbps upstream, which should provide plenty of room for these tasks despite being collision-prone on the upstream side. Therefore, DOCSIS should be used whenever possible for SDV, falling back to DAVIC only when DOCSIS hardware is not present.

Since all Scientific-Atlanta boxes with CableCARDs have a DOCSIS cable modem in them, ODN, which runs on CableCARD-based boxes, uses DOCSIS by default and might fall back to DAVIC in case no DOCSIS hardware can be found (which actually occurs in one CableCARD-based SDTV box made by Motorola). However, many legacy boxes did not have the option for DOCSIS to be built in. Therefore, MDN, which runs on boxes without CableCARDs, must use DAVIC.

I would like to know if my guess as why SDV does not work on my box is correct or not. Therefore, if anyone posts a model number of a CableCARD-based box as being able to get these channels, I will know that my guess is wrong.

yaleforks

07-26-08, 08:14 AM

8300HD and a 8240HDC both get the channels

Hiatt66

07-26-08, 09:06 AM

I tuned to them and it's the HBO's, HDNET, HDNET Movies, Outddor, NATGEO, all with SW in the title. Nothing was watchable though. Closest that tuned was NATGEO but it was a black screen.

tarheelone

07-26-08, 12:42 PM

I tuned to them and it's the HBO's, HDNET, HDNET Movies, Outddor, NATGEO, all with SW in the title. Nothing was watchable though. Closest that tuned was NATGEO but it was a black screen.

It's also Fuel, Gameshow network and Boom. The first night I tuned in the channels I got nothing. But last night I had to do a hard reboot on my 8300HD because I wasn't getting any sound and after the hard reboot, HDNET, HDNET Movies and Boom were all watchable. NatGeo is still a black screen but the other 3 came in fine. I have a feeling if you subscribe to HBO or to the digital sports tier you would get those channels as well. Try a hard reboot to see if you can get the channels.

Splat!

07-26-08, 01:28 PM

Are there any new HD channels added with the SDV enablement so far? If there have added significant HD upgrades, then I might actually get around to getting a digital box.

Hiatt66

07-26-08, 01:58 PM

Are there any new HD channels added with the SDV enablement so far? If there have added significant HD upgrades, then I might actually get around to getting a digital box.

Nothing new yet.

ktut

07-26-08, 03:43 PM

How many months (or years) do you guess we will have to wait now for any new channels?

larc919

07-27-08, 01:37 PM

TWC will come up with new HD channels at the same time they raise prices.

VisionOn

07-27-08, 09:37 PM

TWC will come up with new HD channels at the same time they raise prices.

Don't see why. They've raised prices several times in the past and added nothing new to justify it.

We'll probably get more HD when Verizon grabs some market share in our area. Until then there is nothing to make TWC sweat.

doctorj

07-28-08, 10:18 AM

I emailed someone at TWC in Raleigh and actually got back a written response and not the standard canned one. She said they hoped to have many new HD channels by Q4 and they would likely include ABC family, ESPN News, Discovery, TLC, Science Channel, CNN, and the Weather Channel and then hopefully more in 2009. Animal Channel might have been another but I can't remember and don't have that email in front of me at the moment.

jnv11

07-29-08, 10:07 PM

jimholcomb

07-29-08, 10:33 PM

I noticed that HDNet (channel 293), HDNet Movies (channel 294), and Boomerang (channel 185) have been moved to SDV. While I have no trouble tuning to Boomerang, sometimes HDNet and HDNet Movies fails to tune. Are others having the same problem? I included the channel numbers because I think that digital channel numbers are the same throughout the Raleigh-Durham area.

How can you tell they've moved to SDV?

I don't subscribe to the 2 HD channels you mention but Boomerang on 185 tunes fine.

jnv11

07-29-08, 11:41 PM

How can you tell they've moved to SDV?

I don't subscribe to the 2 HD channels you mention but Boomerang on 185 tunes fine.

You can tell if they are on SDV if you go to the diagnostics, at least in ODN. When SDV is enabled and the SDV carousel has been read, you can tell whether each tuner is inactive, tuning a non-SDV channel, or an SDV channel on the first SDV diagnostic page. I think that this is page 7 of the ODN diagnostics.

jrelmore

07-30-08, 07:57 AM

WRAL is testing a new technology that will give them a more robust mobile signal.
WRAL 5.2 will be back Thursday.

(day 1 of 6th gen HD OTA LG Tuner, upgrade from 1st gen)
5.2 back on the air, but signal is not more 'robust'. 5.1 5.2 have less robust signal than 50.1-3. And signal weaker than any other local network OTA DTV. I even get Greensboro 2.1-2 & UNCC 4.1-100 much better than 5.1-2 and that's from the back side of my CM4228 reflector. The posted FCC form indicates they are planning to install a new antenna by 3/2009 'post transition'.

ziltink

07-30-08, 08:18 AM

(day 1 of 6th gen HD OTA LG Tuner)
5.2 back on the air, but signal is not more 'robust'. 5.1 5.2 have less robust signal than 50.1-3. And signal weaker than any other local network OTA DTV. I even get Greensboro 2.1-2 & UNCC 4.1-100 much better than 5.1-2 and that's from the back side of my CM4228 reflector. The posted FCC form indicates they are planning to install a new antenna by 3/2009 'post transition'.

I noticed the channel had more drop outs than usual also. Also, on their news channel, 5.2, the ticker at the bottom had some HTML code scrolling across at times.

fmoraes

07-30-08, 11:04 AM

I've came back from vacation yesterday and I noticed some channels are missing guide data. Is that due to the recent SDV enablement? Anyone else noticed this?

I've seen this on TNTHD, HDNet, etc...

drewwho

07-30-08, 11:45 AM

(day 1 of 6th gen HD OTA LG Tuner, upgrade from 1st gen)

Is the tuner in a TV, a standalone box, PCI / USB based? Which specific model?

Drew

jrelmore

07-30-08, 11:57 AM

Is the tuner in a TV, a standalone box, PCI / USB based? Which specific model?
Artec T3A: so far not a bad box for $3 on the kitchen SD. 50% better OTA reception than 1g Samsung T150, 25% better reception than 2yo Toshiba DTV.

jnv11

07-30-08, 12:24 PM

I would like to apologize for getting a few facts screwed up. Apparently, going through AXIOM's diagnostics (the diagnostics that show up when you press VOL- and VOL+ on the cable box, and then when the message light turns on you press CH+) showed me that DAVIC, not DOCSIS Set-top Gateway, was the two-way protocol in use. My best guess now about why ODN is faster than MDN when changing the day in the guide is that ODN caches the guide data from the carousel, knowing that there is enough memory to do so. MDN has to run on all the legacy boxes, so must use many memory minimization tricks. One of these tricks is to keep only a day or two's worth of guide data in memory and discard the rest, only to read it again should the user desire further days. By contrast, Passport Echo could assume that it was running on at least an Explorer 8000, and therefore saved guide data the user went through. As far as I can remember, Passport (the non-DVR version) acted like MDN in its handling of guide data because it was designed to run on at least a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000.

In short, Navigator currently uses DAVIC and not DOCSIS Set-top Gateway, at least in Cary, NC.

jimholcomb

07-30-08, 03:39 PM

scsiraid

07-30-08, 07:19 PM

I noticed that HDNet (channel 293), HDNet Movies (channel 294), and Boomerang (channel 185) have been moved to SDV. While I have no trouble tuning to Boomerang, sometimes HDNet and HDNet Movies fails to tune. Are others having the same problem? I included the channel numbers because I think that digital channel numbers are the same throughout the Raleigh-Durham area.

293 and 294 are still linear here in Apex. My TiVo S3 still gets both just fine. Its possible they have switched their own boxes to an SDV copy but the linear copy is still up and running.

VisionOn

07-30-08, 07:24 PM

jnv11

07-31-08, 12:34 AM

I've came back from vacation yesterday and I noticed some channels are missing guide data. Is that due to the recent SDV enablement? Anyone else noticed this?

I've seen this on TNTHD, HDNet, etc...

What kind of cable box do you have? If you have a cable box without a CableCARD, we could possibly learn that the bug is possibly limited to the MDN software that runs on these boxes. I have not experienced this bug on my 8300HDC running ODN.

Daryl L

07-31-08, 02:16 PM

I got a software update just after midnight last night on my HD8300DVR. Went from 2.4.1-52 to 2.4.1-107.

ddi

08-01-08, 12:55 PM

I got a software update just after midnight last night on my HD8300DVR. Went from 2.4.1-52 to 2.4.1-107.
Yeah, me too. Way to go, Time-Warner! It's not like anyone would actually be watching TV at effing midnight!

Scooper

08-11-08, 11:54 AM

Bump

Lee L

08-11-08, 11:57 AM

So, anyone see lots of droping in and out of HD on NBC17 during the Olympics coverage? Some seems random and it also seems like they are dropping out of HD each hour to put up the ID. Is there somethign broken over there NBC17eng?

I will have to say thanks for the way the Radar was put up last night. It was nice to see full use of the HD frame on the HD broadcast so that the radar was way off to the side. You should do a primer on that for everyone else. You could bump it down a few dozen pixels too while you are at it. ;)

ncsu1

08-11-08, 12:11 PM

I had posted something about that too before the database break, and one thing I am wondering about is if NBC can put the weather alerts into the HD channel, why can't they put the station ID on the HD channel?

On Sunday it was dropping down to SD every hour on the hour for about 30 seconds and since then it looks like it is attempting to dropdown, flickers for a second, and goes back to HD, and it does it again when the station ID (which isn't visible, since it never dropped down to SD) is turned off on the SD channel.

drewwho

08-11-08, 12:58 PM

So, anyone see lots of droping in and out of HD on NBC17 during the Olympics coverage? Some seems random and it also seems like they are dropping out of HD each hour to put up the ID. Is there somethign broken over there NBC17eng?

The only time I noticed it was last night, when President Bush was being interviewed. I thought maybe it was his reality distortion field interfering with the HD signal or something :)

I will have to say thanks for the way the Radar was put up last night. It was nice to see full use of the HD frame on the HD broadcast so that the radar was way off to the side. You should do a primer on that for everyone else. You could bump it down a few dozen pixels too while you are at it. ;)

Indeed, I was very impressed to see the weather crawl in HD. I second the thanks! Though it would be nice if they moved it to the top of the screen depending on the content was being sent over, so it did not obscure the score/time/whatever information that goes across the bottom of the screen for some sports.

Drew

VisionOn

08-11-08, 07:06 PM

still no SDV HD channels here. After 20 minutes on hold I got through to TWC and end result is a truck roll on Wednesday.

Checking the diagnostics I don't see the box listed as registered with an SDV server so I'm guessing a box fix isn't going to change that.

ncsu1

08-11-08, 10:10 PM

I had posted something about that too before the database break, and one thing I am wondering about is if NBC can put the weather alerts into the HD channel, why can't they put the station ID on the HD channel?

THANK GOD! somebody heard me! :D :D :D

The 10:00 station ID was in HD without dropping down to SD!

And it appears I'm not the only one having these problems per the Navigator thread, but just watching NBC HD on WNCN during the Olympics I'm getting multiple reboots per day, last night it was 4 reboots over a 2 hour period past midnight, and a few today. Is anyone else having these problems?

It is making me very mad, I wanted to go back and record last night's 4x100 relay but the box rebooted before I could do so.

Tony Tingen

08-11-08, 10:20 PM

I see that USA HD is now at Channel 1501 (Time Warner cable in Raleigh). I assume this is just temporary during the Olympics since it is not duplicated in the HD Suite. Well I get to enjoy HD "Monk" and "Psych" for a few days anyway.

jnv11

08-11-08, 10:22 PM

THANK GOD! somebody heard me! :D :D :D

The 10:00 station ID was in HD without dropping down to SD!

And it appears I'm not the only one having these problems per the Navigator thread, but just watching NBC HD on WNCN during the Olympics I'm getting multiple reboots per day, last night it was 4 reboots over a 2 hour period past midnight, and a few today. Is anyone else having these problems?

It is making me very mad, I wanted to go back and record last night's 4x100 relay but the box rebooted before I could do so.

What box are you using? I am not getting any crashes here on WNCN HD.

ncsu1

08-11-08, 10:44 PM

Explorer 8300HD.

jnv11

08-11-08, 11:28 PM

Explorer 8300HD.

Here are my guesses as why this is crashing:

Are you using closed captioning? This was a massive source of reboots on my 8300HD before I swapped it out with an 8240HDC (which later overheated a month later and was swapped out with an 8300HDC). Turn closed captioning off if this is the case.

Check the signal level. To do this on an 8300HD with Navigator, press and hold select until the mail light flashes. Then press down. Use page up and page down until you find the page that tells you the signal levels for the channel or QAM tuners. They should be between -8 dBmV to +8 dBmV, where the optimum signal level is 0 dBmV. If the signal levels are orange or red, or exceed the range I gave you, call TWC to have a technician come to your house and fix the signal level. Bad signal levels can crash the boxes.

WNCN's engineer is maxing out the bit rate it can pump out on its HD channel for the Olympics. Maybe your box is running out of RAM and crashing due to the high bit rate. If so, swap out your box with an 8300HDC, which has much more RAM.

As long as you go all out in keeping an 8300HDC cool without sticking it in a refrigerator or freezer (e.g. putting it in the open on top of a couple of 2x4s or some LEGO towers), it almost never crashes when running ODN Navigator, even when handling WNCN HD. The 8300HDC and the 8240HDC overheat easily because its power supply unit was designed for the 8300HD, which used less power because it did not have to power a CableCARD. Power supplies can supply more stable power when they are cooler. As they heat up, their capacity for providing stable power goes down. When this limit is exceeded, the power supplied will be trashy enough to flip bits, causing a crash.

TECHNICAL RANT AHEAD:

My guess as why ODN is more stable than MDN is because Java requires the implementation of software-based memory protection, which allows the JVM to generate stack traces that point to the location in the code where an illegal memory operation occurs. This allows these bugs to be fixed quickly in the development cycle. Since Java is run through an interpreter or a just-in-time compiler, software-based memory protection is relatively cheap in this model.

However, MDN Navigator (which runs on cable boxes without CableCARDs) is written in C. C has no facilities whatsoever for intercepting illegal memory operations and relies on the CPU's memory management unit and the operating system to thwart illegal memory operations. PowerTV, the operating system that runs on Scientific Atlanta boxes, does not provide memory protection because this allows the use of cheaper CPUs that lack memory management units. Therefore, illegal memory operations can corrupt memory locations including the operating system without getting caught until the corrupted area in memory is read from, potentially causing a crash. Even an operating system that includes hardware memory protection is not foolproof to this kind of thing because a bug that corrupts only areas that are legitimately under the control of the buggy program will not get caught.

ncsu1

08-12-08, 01:19 AM

jnv11

08-12-08, 02:57 AM

Well I did have the CC set to On with mute so I'll see if that helps..

The power levels are between +4 to +6dBmV depending on which screen I'm supposed to be looking at, so I guess that should be fine.

If you need closed captioning, you need a CableCARD-based box like the 8240HDC or the 8300HDC. It is rock solid on these boxes.

doctorj

08-12-08, 10:03 AM

VisionOn

08-12-08, 10:06 AM

Smackrabbit

08-12-08, 10:09 AM

Explorer 8300HD.

I am also running an 8300HD and since the software was updated, I get 1-2 reboots a day and I don't use Closed Captioning, and it is in a very well ventilated area so heat shouldn't be an issue. I had yet another reboot last night just a few minutes before the Men's 200m Freestyle, so I'm sure at some point I'm going to miss an event that I really want to see because of this. I'll be changing to Dish as soon as I get an appointment scheduled for the end of the month as my calls to TW have done nothing to get this issue fixed.

Duffboy

08-12-08, 10:42 AM

I have the explorer 8300 connected via HDMI. After software download I only get constant recording (1hr) when the tv is on. I suspect the software now recognizes the signal from the HDMI and starts recording only then. Old software it was constantly recording that 1 hour block of the last channel(s).

It still records set recordings while TV is off as normal.

Any way to set to old way?

jnv11

08-12-08, 11:59 AM

I am also running an 8300HD and since the software was updated, I get 1-2 reboots a day and I don't use Closed Captioning, and it is in a very well ventilated area so heat shouldn't be an issue. I had yet another reboot last night just a few minutes before the Men's 200m Freestyle, so I'm sure at some point I'm going to miss an event that I really want to see because of this. I'll be changing to Dish as soon as I get an appointment scheduled for the end of the month as my calls to TW have done nothing to get this issue fixed.

Ventilation is not so much a problem for the 8300HD, but it is a major problem for the 8300HDC.

However, MDN, which runs on non-CableCARD boxes, seems buggier than ODN, which runs on CableCARD boxes. Try swapping out the box for the 8300HDC. My guess is that the MDN Navigator software fails to allocate enough RAM for dealing with the incoming bitstream for processing and therefore causing another buffer overflow, because WNCN really stepped up the data rate to deliver high quality HDTV.

I am pretty sure that the AXIOM OCAP middleware layer probably handles the video decoding for ODN Navigator that runs on the 8240HDC and the 8300HDC. Since Scientific Atlanta sells the AXIOM OCAP middleware layer, it would have used its experience with SARA to help Esmertec, the company that wrote AXIOM for Time Warner Cable and Scientific Atlanta, select a buffer size that handles worst case bitrate scenarios like high-bitrate HDTV stations like WNCN is doing now. The same could be said about the closed captioning buffers in memory.

doctorj

08-12-08, 03:32 PM

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

Fella, I'm familiar with the Navigator thread. I didn't find what I needed so I asked it here in the Raleigh thread since there's like other Raleigh users that might be going what I'm attempting to do.

VisionOn

08-12-08, 03:42 PM

Fella, I'm familiar with the Navigator thread. I didn't find what I needed so I asked it here in the Raleigh thread since there's like other Raleigh users that might be going what I'm attempting to do.

This is the HDTV thread not the Navigator thread and there are more users using the external drives in the Navigator thread than you will ever find here.

If you didn't get an answer there you won't find one anywhere else.

Erik Garci

08-12-08, 04:30 PM

When my 3250HD box was converted to Navigator two weeks ago, I lost all of the On Demand channels
I am finally getting the On Demand channels again. It seems that the software updates were causing my 3250HD to lose channels. First it lost the On Demand channels, then it also lost the Basic channels a few days ago. TWC replaced the 3250HD with a 4250HDC, and the 4250HDC gets all those channels.

tarheelone

08-12-08, 07:21 PM

Fella, I'm familiar with the Navigator thread. I didn't find what I needed so I asked it here in the Raleigh thread since there's like other Raleigh users that might be going what I'm attempting to do.

I have an 8300HD with an external drive and I have never had the sleep problem. The problem was mainly with 8300HDCs. From what I have read on the navigator thread though is that the latest version of navigator fixes the eSATA sleep problem the 8300HDCs were having.

robotron2084

08-12-08, 09:06 PM

I have an 8300HD with an external drive and I have never had the sleep problem. The problem was mainly with 8300HDCs. From what I have read on the navigator thread though is that the latest version of navigator fixes the eSATA sleep problem the 8300HDCs were having.

Yes, the new version reportedly fixes the problem, but the new version (2.4.10.something) hasn't been deployed here yet.

tarheelone

08-12-08, 10:30 PM

Yes, the new version reportedly fixes the problem, but the new version (2.4.10.something) hasn't been deployed here yet.

Just to clarify, it hasn't been deployed on the HDCs but it has been deployed on the HDs.

jnv11

08-12-08, 10:57 PM

Just to clarify, it hasn't been deployed on the HDCs but it has been deployed on the HDs.

Nope. ODN 2.4.10_11 requires an OCAP middleware to run because it is written in Java. Since the AXIOM OCAP middleware sold by Cisco requires a large amount of memory (Cisco states in the 8300HDC datasheets that it only recommends its AXIOM OCAP middleware for boxes that have 128MB of main memory), and TWC's legacy non-CableCARD boxes have anywhere from 8MB of main RAM to 64MB of main RAM, Time Warner Cable cannot use ODN on these boxes. TWC instead uses the original MDN Navigator (which ODN is a port of where the port beats the original in stability) on these boxes.

The current version of MDN Navigator is MDN 2.4.1-107-ptv. This version is the one being deployed here on legacy boxes.

jnv11

08-12-08, 11:01 PM

Anyone here using a Time Warner HD box with an external drive? I'm wondering if the sleep bug that I have read about in old threads has been fixed in the latest Navigator software we have here in Raleigh. Thanks.

If you are using a box without a CableCARD, eSATA is fine.

Currently, if you are using a box with a CableCARD, eSATA is buggy as of this writing in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville area.

When will ODN 2.4.10_11 arrive here and make CableCARD users able to use eSATA?

doctorj

08-13-08, 09:41 AM

Tarheelone, Robotron, Jnv11 thanks for your help.:)

drewwho

08-13-08, 11:56 AM

WRAL is testing a new technology that will give them a more robust mobile signal.
WRAL 5.2 will be back Thursday.

Does anybody know if the bandwidth for this mobile signal will permanently be pulled from their single ATSC channel? Or will they get a new frequency for mobile use?

From this article (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/12/korea_mobile_tv_flop/) it hardly seems worth the effort.

Drew

Scooper

08-13-08, 12:51 PM

5.2 is back, so who knows ?

VisionOn

08-13-08, 07:53 PM

Tarheelone, Robotron, Jnv11 thanks for your help.:)

If you had asked your question in the Nav thread you would have got the same answer and more. We read that as well. You should also check it out now because there's another discussion underway about the same subject.

VisionOn

08-13-08, 08:01 PM

Still no USAHD, Soccer HD or Bball HD here.

After spending 30 minutes here on the phone with various people and checking levels the TWC tech left to find somewhere else to test the service from the headend. He's still looking into it.

Interestingly he had come back from vacation and had no idea the channels existed. Neither did the first tech he called either. He also said that SDV was being tested by employees here but was deactivated a while back because TWC wanted to wait until Wilmington made the digital switch so they could do some other stuff.

If that's the case then September might actually see some HD progress from TWC.

Maybe.

jimholcomb

08-14-08, 07:27 AM

If you have had problems with reboots on your Time Warner digital box during the Olympics on NBC17 HD channel 217 please email me at jim.holcombNOSPAM@yahoo.com (remove the NOSPAM please) so I can forward it to my contact at TW.

Please include the model of box you have, software version, and any other information you feel comfortable with sharing with a total stranger. :)

Thanks,
Jim

billand20

08-14-08, 11:15 AM

Anyone know of someone that will do directv installs? I have a line of sight problem to get HD, but directv won't get on my room to do the install. I know a custom installer would cost, but wondered if anyone still did that. Any help would be appreciated.

CCsoftball7

08-14-08, 11:18 AM

billand20

08-14-08, 03:12 PM

Yes, sorry roof.

mdb77a

08-15-08, 01:41 PM

Hello everyone, I was hoping to get a little friendly advice from the knowledgeable folks on this thread. I live in Cary and am building an HTPC. What I can't figure out is what channels I can get with what tuners. I will be using cable, at least for now. So I need either clear QAM or NTSC I think. I'd like to get the HDHomerun, but it doesn't have NTSC.

Currently I only have TWC's basic package. I had one of the digital tiers but got so fed up with TWC's lousy service and bad products that I could no longer stomach sending them the cash every month. So, I only get the networks (in SD and HD) and a few other random channels (SD only). The cable plugs straight into my Panasonic 720p 42". The manual and everything I've read on line regarding the TV never mention a QAM tuner for this model, just ATSC/NTSC. So are the channels I'm receiving now analog, even the HD, or do I really have a QAM tuner in my Panny?

Also, after I ditched the settop box, and before my service was cut down (at the curb) to the basic package I received 100 or so channels with the cable run straight into the TV. Am I correct that those were unencrypted analog?

So, if I decided to get the standard package again, which includes those 100 or so channels in standard def., would I be able to DVR them using HD Homerun and a VMC system (or Sage, GBPVR, etc.)? Or do I need to have an ATSC tuner? And then if I get a second tuner (e.g., ATI 650), can I use both of them at the same time e.g., record something with the NTSC card and watch something else with the Homerun?

Thanks for any help. I've been reading a zillion threads and sites on this stuff and still can't sort out what I need to know. Of course, I emailed TWC and asked them and they gave me some generic response that didn't tell me anything. ("Dear TWC: Thanks, I know the sky is blue. But that wasn't what I was asking!")

drewwho

08-15-08, 02:20 PM

So, I only get the networks (in SD and HD) and a few other random channels (SD only). The cable plugs straight into my Panasonic 720p 42". The manual and everything I've read on line regarding the TV never mention a QAM tuner for this model, just ATSC/NTSC. So are the channels I'm receiving now analog, even the HD, or do I really have a QAM tuner in my Panny?

Yes, either the tuner is QAM, or you've got a *REALLY* powerful ATSC tuner, and it is using the cable lead as an antenna.

Also, after I ditched the settop box, and before my service was cut down (at the curb) to the basic package I received 100 or so channels with the cable run straight into the TV. Am I correct that those were unencrypted analog?

Yes

So, if I decided to get the standard package again, which includes those 100 or so channels in standard def., would I be able to DVR them using HD Homerun and a VMC system (or Sage, GBPVR, etc.)? Or do I need to have an ATSC tuner? And then if I get a second tuner (e.g., ATI 650), can I use both of them at the same time e.g., record something with the NTSC card and watch something else with the Homerun?

You'll need an analog tuner to get those 100 channels in the same fashion; an HDHR is QAM/ATSC only, and won't get them. However, it is unclear how long TWC will keep sending analog cable. Once they convert over to digital only, your only option will be to rent a set top box, and record from it either using an analog capture card, or something like the new Hauppage HD-PVR (which can capture HD via component).

I'd really suggest just putting up an antenna and giving TWC the boot, most of the stations you're getting with basic that you cannot get OTA are worthless. Once you buy a digital tuner card (or if you still have the receipt from your TV), you can get a free antenna from WRAL that should give you good reception from the Cary area. Search the thread for WRAL antenna giveaway.

I'd strongly recommend SageTV and their HD100 extender. I converted from MythTV, and I see lots of VMC refugees on the SageTV forums.

Welcome to the HTPC club.

Drew

jnv11

08-15-08, 02:58 PM

Yes, either the tuner is QAM, or you've got a *REALLY* powerful ATSC tuner, and it is using the cable lead as an antenna.

Yes

You'll need an analog tuner to get those 100 channels in the same fashion; an HDHR is QAM/ATSC only, and won't get them. However, it is unclear how long TWC will keep sending analog cable. Once they convert over to digital only, your only option will be to rent a set top box, and record from it either using an analog capture card, or something like the new Hauppage HD-PVR (which can capture HD via component).

I'd really suggest just putting up an antenna and giving TWC the boot, most of the stations you're getting with basic that you cannot get OTA are worthless. Once you buy a digital tuner card (or if you still have the receipt from your TV), you can get a free antenna from WRAL that should give you good reception from the Cary area. Search the thread for WRAL antenna giveaway.

I'd strongly recommend SageTV and their HD100 extender. I converted from MythTV, and I see lots of VMC refugees on the SageTV forums.

Welcome to the HTPC club.

Drew

I think the regulation is that cable must do one of these two things for three years after the OTA NTSC shutdown: thow in a complimentary cable box to convert the digital signal to NTSC (this is for all-digital cable companies), or keep pumping out NTSC.