Has anyone been able to get 1501 (USA Network HD), 1503(Olympic Soccer channel), or 1504(Olympic Basketball channel) in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville DMA?

These missing channels are an epic fail worse than the epic fail known as MDN Navigator (too unstable to be usable in my house where someone must constantly use closed captioning).

Has anyone been able to get 1501 (USA Network HD), 1503(Olympic Soccer channel), or 1504(Olympic Basketball channel) in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville DMA?

These missing channels are an epic fail worse than the epic fail known as MDN Navigator (too unstable to be usable in my house where someone must constantly use closed captioning).

Yup... I have them in Apex. They are SDV/SDB. I watched some Law and Order CI on USA-HD recently.

I posted this over on DBSTalk. Thought I would re post here.

I have replaced my RG-6 cable from my CM4228 with RG11. I recorded signal strength before and after switching and have noticed a increase in signal strength of 3-6 pts. WRAZ50 was not locking with the RG6,but has no dropouts so far using RG11 although the signal is hovering at 60-64. I plan to monitor this a few hrs then swap back to the RG6 and see if I am able to keep WRAZ locked then. Having trouble receiving a solid FOX signal is reason for the testing,so also plan to do some test with FOX 8/14 and Fox 26. Both 26 and 50 are over 60 miles away while 14 is closer,but is not very strong. I normally am unable to get WRAZ50 during the daytime and wasn't receiving it today before switching. I also normally suffer dropouts on it even when getting a signal of 65-70. I hoping the RG11 is improving my signal loss just enough to stop the dropouts. I will keep results posted.

NBC17Eng

What gives??? WNCN looks like the video modulation level is running at about 65%. Picture is washed out. Big difference between WNCN and other area NBC stations, WITN and WXII, and other Raleigh stations. Looks the same on cable, OTA, DirecTV: crappy.

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.

You need to call TWC to run a service call. A signal booster is NOT the correct solution.

I'm getting them in Raleigh with my TWC cable boxes. an 8300HD and a 3250HD.

I think they are also available on QAM but at different channel locations like 123.1 and 123.2 or thereabouts. I had to rescan my QAM channels for them to show up there.

Has anyone been able to get 1501 (USA Network HD), 1503(Olympic Soccer channel), or 1504(Olympic Basketball channel) in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville DMA?

These missing channels are an epic fail worse than the epic fail known as MDN Navigator (too unstable to be usable in my house where someone must constantly use closed captioning).

EVen when they're not missing, they're still an epic fail in primetime. USA shows the normal USA garbage, and the Basketball and Soccer channels just show the upcoming live games. The least they could do would be to replay the games during primetime. A person can only stand so much beach volleyball. I really miss living near Canada, where we could at least choose the far superior CBC coverage.

Drew

EVen when they're not missing, they're still an epic fail in primetime. USA shows the normal USA garbage, and the Basketball and Soccer channels just show the upcoming live games. The least they could do would be to replay the games during primetime. A person can only stand so much beach volleyball. I really miss living near Canada, where we could at least choose the far superior CBC coverage.

Drew

You could go to http://www.nbcolympics.com/ and find the live video feed for many sports. I used it to watch Nadal barely defeat Djokovic today live. It is not as good as an HDTV, and the framerate looks more like 30fps, but it gets the job done as long as you have a decent broadband connection and possibly might only work for Windows Vista. I am not sure if Windows Vista is required, but I will let you know this in order to not be heckled if the Windows Vista requirement is true.

EVen when they're not missing, they're still an epic fail in primetime. USA shows the normal USA garbage, and the Basketball and Soccer channels just show the upcoming live games. The least they could do would be to replay the games during primetime. A person can only stand so much beach volleyball. I really miss living near Canada, where we could at least choose the far superior CBC coverage.

Drew

<RANT>
Being from Brazil and used to the way they covered Olympics in there, all I can say is that the NBC coverage is very lacking, centered on winning only and wastes way too much time talking, showing little background stories, instead of showing the games.

I understand wanting to cover the US athletes and I am perfectly fine with that, but there are others competing, show them some respect as well by showing a little of the others as well, not just the US and 1 or 2 others.

There are lots of games going on which could be shown live, specially at the late hours of the night. Don't get me started on the guide data which is wrong, bulky and impossible to decipher, even online.
</RANT>

Done.

Yesterday, I called TWC again. The first call was lost due to a power failure. Second call told me to switch out the box and scheduled another truck roll for next Thursday. Switching out the box did not help. I now have another 8240HDC.

I called TWC again that night for a third time. I reached a technician who lives in Cary and has the same problem. He said that my earlier calls last week solved the problem for most in my area, so some techs were thinking that the problem was solved. He performed some research and took a long time. The system timed out the hold on my call.

I called a fourth time. This technician said that the third technician was able to declare a systemwide outage because he and I have the same problem, we both did everything that could be done at the customer premises, and our problems pointed to the head end. Problems at the head end require a systemwide outage to be declared in order to alert someone to fix the problem if it was not noticed internally. However, they can only be declared if the technician has multiple cases where the problem points to the head end. This is to prevent isolated cases where the fault is probably with the customer premises from causing risky measures from being taken at the head end. The fourth technician said that she wanted to keep the truck roll to verify that everything gets fixed as a result of the outage.

Hopefully, the systemwide outage will get the remaining bugs out of the SDV system responsible for channels 1501-1504 with 1502 excluded.

Still no channels here and the TWC tech hasn't called back.

By the time this gets resolved (if ever) the olympics will be off air and the channels will be gone anyway.

Man, I really consider myself lucky. We've had the Olympic channels since just before the Olympics started. I'm right around the Durham-Chapel Hill border just off Hwy 54 about a mile south of I-40.

Of course luck is fleeting. Last weekend we lost everything off the DVR because these channels are set up in monsterous blocks of up to 8 hours. One such 8 hour HD block resulted in the need to delete everything off the DVR (except the previous 4 hour HD block that was recorded just before it) thanks to the tiny hard drive used by these boxes. Why they can't split these blocks is beyond me and there's nothing I can do about it because you can't end it more than 15 minutes earlier and there's no manual record time to use instead with Navigator.

You could go to http://www.nbcolympics.com/ and find the live video feed for many sports. I used it to watch Nadal barely defeat Djokovic today live. It is not as good as an HDTV, and the framerate looks more like 30fps, but it gets the job done as long as you have a decent broadband connection and possibly might only work for Windows Vista. I am not sure if Windows Vista is required, but I will let you know this in order to not be heckled if the Windows Vista requirement is true.

Vista will never touch any of my machines. But it seems to work on MacOSX 10.5 once you download the silverlight junk.

I've not played with them much, but from what I've seen so far, they don't let you watch anything live that they might consider ever broadcasting, so I guess it is pretty hit or miss. And, call me old fashioned, but I prefer watching TV on my TV, and I haven't been able to figure out how to capture the streams so I can run them through SageTV to my extender which is next to the TV. This leaves me with the options of NBC's poor coverage, or "illegal" streams which I can at least capture.

Does anybody know why the Basketball and Soccer channels don't broadcast taped games in primetime, or perhaps one of the many other events? It seems like a pointless expense to add 2 HD channels that are only showing content when people are sleeping / working..

Drew

Does anybody know why the Basketball and Soccer channels don't broadcast taped games in primetime, or perhaps one of the many other events? It seems like a pointless expense to add 2 HD channels that are only showing content when people are sleeping / working.

I don't know about basketball, but what makes this really stupid in the case of soccer is that the majority of the games they do broadcast are already tape delayed since they are played at the same time. It's not like they are live to begin with so why not show them again. In fact, I watched a couple this afternoon that were a replay of the early morning games, so yeah, why not show them again in the evening. And like I said, they are a pain to record during the week because of how it's just one big 8 hour block in the guide. With the small hard drive in these boxes, I can't afford to record a single 8 hour block of HD content.

I wonder if NBC is purposely limiting the evening coverage to prevent losing audience share from their main NBC primetime coverage. Just a thought.

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

Thanks Drew. I've thought about trying OTA and might pick up the free antenna, but running the cable through my attic will not be a pretty affair. Also, at some point I might have to break down and pick up TWC's standard package because I don't know if I can go the whole hockey season without FSN for Hurricanes games.

I've also considered the extender route. But for now I am just going to locate the HTPC so it can be directly connected to the TVA and audio. I want to use the thing with mlb.tv, xm online, etc. and I think that will run more smoothly directly connected. But I still may pick up the sage tv app once I am up and running.

FYI,

I hooked up an RCA ANT103 antenna to a Zenith DTT901 DTV converter box in my apartment in Apex, and by simply aiming the loop antenna towards the towers in Garner the DTT901 picked up solid reception on:

2-1, 2-2 WFMY-DT (Greensboro, NC)
4-1,4-2,4-3,4-4,4-5 WUNC-DT
5-1,5-2 WRAL-DT
11-1,11-2,11-3 WTVD-DT
17-1,17-2,17-3 WNCN-DT
20-1 WCWG-DT (Lexington, NC)
22-1 WLFL-DT
28-1 WRDC-DT
40-1,40-2 WUVC-DT (Fayetteville, NC)
50-1,50-2,50-3 WRAZ-DT

Admittedly, there are freezes on 2 or 3 of the weaker channels about once an hour, but I consider that acceptable for free good quality reception. Also, the antenna is pointing in a direction that goes through the entire building from back to front so the freezes could be eliminated with a better line of sight.

In comparison, I originally had the RCA antenna connected to my Samsung TS160 to get HD reception and I could barely pull in 5-1 and 5-2. That shows how good the tuner in the Zenith is compared to a 1st generation ATSC tuner.

I highly recommend the RCA ANT103 antenna and the Zenith DTT901 for OTA DTV reception.

FYI,

I hooked up an RCA ANT103 antenna to a Zenith DTT901 DTV converter box in my apartment in Apex, and by simply aiming the loop antenna towards the towers in Garner the DTT901 picked up solid reception on:

2-1, 2-2 WFMY-DT (Greensboro, NC)
4-1,4-2,4-3,4-4,4-5 WUNC-DT
5-1,5-2 WRAL-DT
11-1,11-2,11-3 WTVD-DT
17-1,17-2,17-3 WNCN-DT
20-1 WCWG-DT (Lexington, NC)
22-1 WLFL-DT
28-1 WRDC-DT
40-1,40-2 WUVC-DT (Fayetteville, NC)
50-1,50-2,50-3 WRAZ-DT

Admittedly, there are freezes on 2 or 3 of the weaker channels about once an hour, but I consider that acceptable for free good quality reception. Also, the antenna is pointing in a direction that goes through the entire building from back to front so the freezes could be eliminated with a better line of sight.

In comparison, I originally had the RCA antenna connected to my Samsung TS160 to get HD reception and I could barely pull in 5-1 and 5-2. That shows how good the tuner in the Zenith is compared to a 1st generation ATSC tuner.

I highly recommend the RCA ANT103 antenna and the Zenith DTT901 for OTA DTV reception.
That the magic of being in the right location,I'm over 60 miles away.

TWC has gotten the Olympic basketball channel working, but USA HD and the Olympic soccer channel still fail.

I noticed that the basketball channel uses 735MHz as its SDV frequency, but the failures try to tune to 699MHz as their SDV frequencies now.

TWC has gotten the Olympic basketball channel working, but USA HD and the Olympic soccer channel still fail.

I noticed that the basketball channel uses 735MHz as its SDV frequency, but the failures try to tune to 699MHz as their SDV frequencies now.

Working just fine in Apex.... BB and Soccer are showing just schedules. USAHD and UHD are in programs.

Apart from UHD, the Olympic channels are still as dead here as the day the tech left last week to check from somewhere else and look at the headend.

Three days without a follow up call? I'm not expecting the situation to be fixed here before the Olympics are over.

USAHD comes in at 555 over the TV QAM tuner but 585 on the box. I wish Nav had a manual tuning feature like Passport used to.

Looks like all three non-duplicate Olympics channels are dead again.

Time Warner replaced the cover for my splitter and amplifier on the side of my house in Cary. They used their cover that has requires a special wrench to open it. Since they did not connect all of my outlets to my splitter, I need to open the cover. Where can I get a wrench? Is the same one that is used to disconnect an F connector that has the security "shroud" around it?

While I think I know what SDV is, I do have some questions. Has it been implemented in Cary? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it true that a TivoHD even with a cable card will not work with SDV? (I'm trying to find an alternative to this piece-of-junk Scientific Atlanta DVR that has to be rebooted every day or two for no reason.)

While I think I know what SDV is, I do have some questions. Has it been implemented in Cary? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it true that a TivoHD even with a cable card will not work with SDV? (I'm trying to find an alternative to this piece-of-junk Scientific Atlanta DVR that has to be rebooted every day or two for no reason.)


The Olympics channels (except NBC and UHD) are currently SDV. Nothing else currently is though. The TiVo S3 is currently not capable of dealing with SDV until the cableco's deploy the 'tuning adapter'. Hopefully that should be soon.....


http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/19/hands-on-with-the-cisco-tuning-adapter-sta1520/

http://community.livejournal.com/tivolovers/674912.html

Time Warner replaced the cover for my splitter and amplifier on the side of my house in Cary. They used their cover that has requires a special wrench to open it. Since they did not connect all of my outlets to my splitter, I need to open the cover. Where can I get a wrench? Is the same one that is used to disconnect an F connector that has the security "shroud" around it?

I do not know of any security shroud, because this is not present in the connection in my house. The best thing to do is to schedule another truck roll ASAP.

I do not know of any security shroud, because this is not present in the connection in my house. The best thing to do is to schedule another truck roll ASAP.

Boltcutters?

My box has no locks of any kind. Just a wiretie holding it closed. Of course its my amp inside it so I would be torqued if they locked it so I couldnt get into it.

While I think I know what SDV is, I do have some questions. Has it been implemented in Cary? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it true that a TivoHD even with a cable card will not work with SDV? (I'm trying to find an alternative to this piece-of-junk Scientific Atlanta DVR that has to be rebooted every day or two for no reason.)

SDV is implemented in Cary. It is responsible for delivering three of the four special Olympics channels, 1501, 1503, and 1504.

SDV, when properly implemented, will bring an HD boom. For example, who watches QVC or HSN? Those channels are good candidates to go to SDV. This will clear out room for more meaningful channels like more of Discovery Channel's HD networks, SciFi HD, Weather Channel HD, CNBC HD, CNN HD, NASA TV (This is an SD channel, but is an undiscovered gem of an educational channel), Bravo HD, more ESPN HD networks like ESPNU and ESPNEWS, MASN HD, and so on. It will also clear out room for international channels. For example, SBTN is a Vietnamese channel that is present in Charlotte's Time Warner Cable division but does not show here. It would make a nice gift for Mom. RAI is an Italian channel. Dad would love this.

As for why your box is crashing, what model box are you using?

If you use one without a CableCARD, it is probably crashing because there is something wrong in how it handles extra-long programs like the Olympics in its program guide. If you do not need eSATA or HDMI, swap that sucker out for a DVR with a CableCARD, because its software handles that corner case fine.

If you use one with a CableCARD, here are the various reasons it might be crashing:

It is connected to an eSATA drive. The version in the Raleigh/Durham market, ODN 2.4.9_3, fails to handle eSATA correctly. Version ODN 2.4.10_11 fixes this bug, but has not been deployed yet.
It is connected to the television via HDMI. HDMI is broken in 2.4.9_3, but fixed in 2.4.10_11.
It is overheating. The 8240HDC and 8300HDC boxes with CableCARDs were engineering rush jobs where the engineers apparently failed to beef up the power supply to handle the load of a CableCARD. Going all out on cooling without using a refrigerator or freezer will solve this. For example, put some 2x4s or some towers built with LEGOs under the box to give this box lots of air to use to dissipate heat through convection. Also, put this box in the open. I personally have had an 8240HDC start crashing and then smelling like burnt electronics due to overheating even though the box was out in the open. Putting the next box on some 2x4s kept it from following suit.
Your signal level is either too weak or too strong. To check this, be sure you have the time to reboot afterwards. Then press VOL+ and VOL- on the box simultaneously. When the mail light turns on, press CH+. Then go through the AXIOM diagnostics pages with the remote until you find the FDC signal level and the signal levels going to the channel/QAM tuners. If any one of them is outside the range of -8dBmV to +8dBmV, you need to schedule a truck roll to have your signal level fixed. Be sure to reboot the box after using the AXIOM diagnostics this way because Navigator sometimes destabilizes after this.

Boltcutters?

My box has no locks of any kind. Just a wiretie holding it closed. Of course its my amp inside it so I would be torqued if they locked it so I couldnt get into it.

I actually had to get a truck roll to remove an amp and replace it with a regular splitter because the amp made the signal so strong it caused picture corruption by blowing out my cable box's receivers at 12dBmV.

That amplifier was TWC property, by the way.

I actually had to get a truck roll to remove an amp and replace it with a regular splitter because the amp made the signal so strong it caused picture corruption by blowing out my cable box's receivers at 12dBmV.

That amplifier was TWC property, by the way.

+12 is definitely too much. Im running about +1dbmv.

When I moved into the new house in late 2000, TWC made me buy an amp from them. I have 8 drops. They used a 4 output amp and filled the box with splitters to fan it out to 7 plus a dedicated split before the amp for the cable modem. The box wouldnt even close properly. When I had all the problems with the TiVo S3 I asked them to switch out the box for a larger one which they did without complaint or cost. I had already switched out the amp for an 8 port but kept the dedicated presplit for the cable modem. Signal levels are about perfect.

It seems that the SDV Olympic channels - 1501, 1503, and 1504 - are finally working.

I came in late on this discussion, so my question may have already been answered, but if it has, I can't find it. Will the new channels 1501, etc. disappear after the Olympics? My concern is will USA HD go away?

I came in late on this discussion, so my question may have already been answered, but if it has, I can't find it. Will the new channels 1501, etc. disappear after the Olympics? My concern is will USA HD go away?

On Time Warner Cable's announcement for the Olympic channels at http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/programming/olympics/default.html , it states that USA HD is marked with an asterisk stating that USA HD is carried for the Olympics.

Maybe when the bugs in the SDV equipment are worked out, it might come back.

I came in late on this discussion, so my question may have already been answered, but if it has, I can't find it. Will the new channels 1501, etc. disappear after the Olympics? My concern is will USA HD go away?


Yep enjoy them why you can because come next Monday(Aug 25) they will be gone. It has nothing to do with SDV or bandwidth. Time Warner corporate does not currently have a carriage agreement in place for USA HD or SCI-FI HD or any other NBC Universal HD station other than Universal HD. USA HD is not carried permanently on any Time Warner system. This was a temporary carriage so when the Olympics are over the channels are gone. They won't be back until a carriage agreement is reached and who knows when that will be. I am pissed that USA HD is going to be gone! Haven't watched any of the olympics on it but I've watched a ton of other stuff.

Yep enjoy them why you can because come next Monday(Aug 25) they will be gone. It has nothing to do with SDV or bandwidth. Time Warner corporate does not currently have a carriage agreement in place for USA HD or SCI-FI HD or any other NBC Universal HD station other than Universal HD. USA HD is not carried permanently on any Time Warner system. This was a temporary carriage so when the Olympics are over the channels are gone. They won't be back until a carriage agreement is reached and who knows when that will be. I am pissed that USA HD is going to be gone! Haven't watched any of the olympics on it but I've watched a ton of other stuff.
I really hate that USA HD will be going away also. They did the same thing with Universal HD. Had it a few weeks for some kind of sporting event, and then took it away. It seems to me that with all of the flat screen sets that are being sold, the public is not going to be happy with standard definition TV. I think that it is inevitability that at some time in the future, most all broadcasting will be HD. Time Warner seems to be dragging their feet on adding more HD content to try to save a buck, but sooner or later they are going to have to spend the money. I don't have satellite TV, but if you can believe the ads, they already have much more HD content. I am thinking of switching for that very reason.

The technician I spoke to today found out that 699MHz was already used for one non-SDV channel: History Channel on channel 118. Frequencies can only be used for either non-SDV channels or SDV channels, but not both. Apparently, one of these might have happened: the technician at the head end noticed this configuration screwup independently, the technician at the head end is reading the forum and noticed my post about the channels on 699MHz are screwed up while the one on 735MHz was fine, or I was assigned another frequency on random after nobody tried tuning to the failed channels for a while.

Also, the technician stated that ODN 2.4.10_11 is ready to deploy, but will be deployed once the Olympics are over.

We decided to keep the Thursday truck roll in case something fouls up again with these channels tonight, but if everything goes well, the truck roll will be cancelled tomorrow.

Did anybody else get a cablecard letter today? SDV officially gets turned on Sept 13th (even though its already on for some of the olympic stuff). The letter also indicates that Tuning Adapters will be made available later this year and that it is 'contemplated' that it will be at no charge. Nothing earth shattering being moved at this time.

Full info from the TiVo Forum.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6601322#post6601322

I need some help/advice from someone who knows something about Cable/Cable Boxes/HDTV service.

I live in Chapel Hill and I've got a Samsung 4661F TV. I get my cable through Time Warner. I've got a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDC cable box. This problem is this, the CBS HD station (channel 255) has stopped working. It had freezing and judders and is basically completely unwatchable. This is the only channel that does this (except that I noticed that the digital music channels were doing it as well).

I rebooted the cable box and that seemed to fix the problem - for awhile. Then it re-occurred. I re-booted again, and again the problem was temporarily fixed. I noticed that at one time, the SD CBS station was also experiencing the same kind of freezing and judders, but tonight the SD channel seemed to be working fine, while the HD channel isn't.

Basically, I don't know what this problem is - if it's my TV somehow, or it's the cable box, or if it's CBS (though I'd think if it was a CBS problem that someone else would have complained by now.)

Does anyone know what's causing this, and why it's only the one channel?

Thanks.

WRAL is usually rock solid and it's working fine here.

Have you tried jacking the cable directly into the TV to see if you can see it on clear QAM? You can find it at 5.1.

WRAL is usually rock solid and it's working fine here.

Have you tried jacking the cable directly into the TV to see if you can see it on clear QAM? You can find it at 5.1.
I am going to have to plead total ignorance here. How would I go about checking this? Put the cable directly into the TV and then...what?

Sorry, I'm a computer moron.

I am going to have to plead total ignorance here. How would I go about checking this? Put the cable directly into the TV and then...what?

Sorry, I'm a computer moron.

Plug the cable coax directly into the TV and then run the channel setup. Your Sammy is a recent model so it should have a QAM tuner to pick up cable signals. After the setup has completed just enter 5.1 on your remote.

When you've done that you should buy a signal splitter at some point. You can then feed the cable signal to both your TV and your DVR and watch local HD and other basic cable channels directly through your TV tuner when the DVR is busy recording.

Plug the cable coax directly into the TV and then run the channel setup. Your Sammy is a recent model so it should have a QAM tuner to pick up cable signals. After the setup has completed just enter 5.1 on your remote.

When you've done that you should buy a signal splitter at some point. You can then feed the cable signal to both your TV and your DVR and watch local HD and other basic cable channels directly through your TV tuner when the DVR is busy recording.
Okay, I'll try that.

Assuming that the signal is good, would that mean that the problem lies in the Cable Box (which is sort of what I suspected since re-booting seemed to fix it for a short time). I just didn't understand why it was only the one channel. Everything else comes in fine.

Assuming that the signal is good, would that mean that the problem lies in the Cable Box (which is sort of what I suspected since re-booting seemed to fix it for a short time). I just didn't understand why it was only the one channel. Everything else comes in fine.

Could be the cable box but considering what TWC are doing with channels at the moment it could be something else. There's a couple of us who can't see the Olympic HD channels even though everyone else can, so what's going on with your WRAL could be a TWC delivery problem.

Either way if you get WRAL over QAM on your TV then you'll need a service call. Unless someone else in Chapel Hill is having the same issue then it could be a localized thing. Check back here tomorrow when more people have had time to read the thread.

I need some help/advice from someone who knows something about Cable/Cable Boxes/HDTV service.

I live in Chapel Hill and I've got a Samsung 4661F TV. I get my cable through Time Warner. I've got a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDC cable box. This problem is this, the CBS HD station (channel 255) has stopped working. It had freezing and judders and is basically completely unwatchable. This is the only channel that does this (except that I noticed that the digital music channels were doing it as well).

I rebooted the cable box and that seemed to fix the problem - for awhile. Then it re-occurred. I re-booted again, and again the problem was temporarily fixed. I noticed that at one time, the SD CBS station was also experiencing the same kind of freezing and judders, but tonight the SD channel seemed to be working fine, while the HD channel isn't.

Basically, I don't know what this problem is - if it's my TV somehow, or it's the cable box, or if it's CBS (though I'd think if it was a CBS problem that someone else would have complained by now.)

Does anyone know what's causing this, and why it's only the one channel?

Thanks.

You might just have a signal that is too weak or too strong. To check this, first you must do this at a time you can afford a 10-minute reboot afterwards because this sometimes destabilizes the box. When you are ready, press VOL- and VOL+ on the box itself until the mail light turns on. Press CH+. Flip through the pages using the Page+ and Page- buttons on the remote until you find the FDC signal level (the signal level out of band data arrives at) and the QAM tuner signal levels. All of these should be between -8 dBmV and 8 dBmV, with 0 dBmV being ideal. If they are out of this range, call Time Warner Cable to have your signal level fixed.

After doing this, it is a good idea to reboot your box because this sometimes destabilizes the box.

Just to liven things up a bit, is there anyone here besides me looking at / working with various CECBs in our area, and what's your experiances with them ?

Personally - I've been using my TV (an Olevia T232), a Samsung DTB-H260F, an insignia 14 inch CRT, and a few of the available CECBs. For the most part, reception OTA on all devices has been closely comparable. I own a Philco TB100HH9, and I have tested the Zenith and Digital Stream non-passthru models.

I need some help/advice from someone who knows something about Cable/Cable Boxes/HDTV service.

I live in Chapel Hill and I've got a Samsung 4661F TV. I get my cable through Time Warner. I've got a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDC cable box. This problem is this, the CBS HD station (channel 255) has stopped working.....

First thing is a quick check of all your connections. Believe it or not, anywhere from the main source into your home to the equipment can come loose. If you have more than one TV. and the others don't have the problem, then check the connections to the set with the problem.

Just to liven things up a bit, is there anyone here besides me looking at / working with various CECBs in our area, and what's your experiances with them ?

Personally - I've been using my TV (an Olevia T232), a Samsung DTB-H260F, an insignia 14 inch CRT, and a few of the available CECBs. For the most part, reception OTA on all devices has been closely comparable. I own a Philco TB100HH9, and I have tested the Zenith and Digital Stream non-passthru models.

Had to look up CECB ... Coupon-eligible converter box (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CECB)

Jim

Recent info disclosed from TWC rep while signing up for service:

TWC: Thank you for choosing Time Warner Cable Chat Support. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Me: Just add more HD channels !!!! I'm having to give up DirecTV and losing a bunch.
TWC: We are about to impliment switched digital video within the next month, and almost double our HD channel lineup, I think you will be pleased!

Recent info disclosed from TWC rep while signing up for service:

TWC: Thank you for choosing Time Warner Cable Chat Support. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Me: Just add more HD channels !!!! I'm having to give up DirecTV and losing a bunch.
TWC: We are about to impliment switched digital video within the next month, and almost double our HD channel lineup, I think you will be pleased!

We are about to impliment switched digital video within the next monthCurrently being done. xD

and almost double our HD channel lineup, I think you will be pleased!Unfortunately she didn't mention any date after the "," with that part of the answer. xD

Currently being done. xD

Unfortunately she didn't mention any date after the "," with that part of the answer. xD

and "almost double" means less than 44 national HD channels at some undisclosed point in the future, compared to say ... DirecTV with a 100 right now.

So still playing catchup and not getting any closer. Assuming that SDV actually works flawlessly. Which based on current experience it won't. Not in my area at least.

and "almost double" means less than 44 national HD channels at some undisclosed point in the future, compared to say ... DirecTV with a 100 right now.

So still playing catchup and not getting any closer. Assuming that SDV actually works flawlessly. Which based on current experience it won't. Not in my area at least.

Right now, TWC in our area has been making rookie mistakes on SDV, as evidenced by the total failure until yesterday in my neighborhood on the Olympic channels. For example, the technician I spoke to two days ago stated that the SDV technology used by Navigator is incapable of allowing the same frequency to deliver both SDV and non-SDV content on the same frequency, but the server was telling my box to tune to 699MHz, a frequency that was in use by some non-SDV content like History International.

If you use ODN and some SDV channels work and some SDV channels fail, page 7 of the ODN diagnostics will prove invaluable. It will tell you the last frequency tuned in order to receive the last SDV channel you were on, or the current one if you are tuned to an SDV channel. It will also tell you if the channel you are on is an SDV channel. Telling this information to a knowledgeable technician will let him or her discover if the head end is misconfigured in this way. In this case, the technician can fire off an email to an engineer to fix the misconfigured SDV server.

Do any of you know of any similar pages in the MDN diagnostics? I would not be able to help here since it has been a few months ago since I said good riddance to MDN due to the closed captioning bug and swapped out my legacy box for an ODN box.

Hopefully, my multiple calls to TWC to finally root out the problem will give the engineers at the head end some time with the school of hard knocks about how to configure the SDV server properly to tell it not to tell our boxes to tune to illegal frequencies before the big rollout.

VisionOn, if you call TWC tech support enough, maybe your trouble ticket could be combined with another trouble ticket from another customer suffering from the same problems who also happens to use the same head end as your head end, allowing a global outage to be declared. Better yet, if your neighbors are also complaining about this problem, urge them to call TWC support as well about this problem, increasing the chance that a global outage will be declared. This will alert some engineer to get into the head end to do some troubleshooting.

One annoying side effect I have suffered is that the Muzak that plays when I am on hold with TWC is now stuck in my head. Don't you hate that when this happens?

My advice is to press TWC to get this issue fixed ASAP before the big SDV rollout, and prevent the customer service lines from jamming up for hours on this issue. They will be jammed up enough by customers who have unidirectional CableCARD televisions who cannot receive the SDV channels at all who suddenly need to rent a set-top box.

Wow... Olympic Audio on NBC is screwed up tonight... (OTA and Cable) Hopefully NBC17ENG is on the case...

Maybe some more competition to wake TWC out of its slumber...

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/21/craigslist-ad-hints-at-u-verse-in-raleigh-durham-nc/

I am trying to get a good attic antenna set up for my home and would like a good recommendation. I live in the 27616 area code and I currently can pick up UNCTV, WRAL, WLFL, WNCN, WTVD, WRPX and WRAZ with my indoor antenna placed in my attic. However, I do get drop outs during the afternoon. I am currently splitting off to three rooms.

What would be a good outdoor antenna I could use without an amplifer or with an amplifer? It is very hard to pick up UNCTV and WRPX because they are almost in opposite directions from the other channels. So, I guess a good multidirectional antenna would be best. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Maybe some more competition to wake TWC out of its slumber...

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/21/craigslist-ad-hints-at-u-verse-in-raleigh-durham-nc/

You beat me by a couple hours.
Of course I did have China Buffet so I am moving very slow this afternoon.

More competition the better. I have 3 friends now that have dropped TWC since there java rollout. This market is prime for another cable to home choice.

I guess it is competition for some, but since I often want to record more than 1 show at a time and often up to 4, U-Verse is out for me.

I guess it is competition for some, but since I often want to record more than 1 show at a time and often up to 4, U-Verse is out for me.

Or if you live in the Verizon part of the Triangle, where FIOS is just a dream for 2012. Wasn't deregulation suppose to increase the competition between phone carriers? Sure seems like they just carved up the territory and did nothing else. It's sad when I consider cable a viable competitor to the baby bells.

Did anybody else get a cablecard letter today? SDV officially gets turned on Sept 13th (even though its already on for some of the olympic stuff). The letter also indicates that Tuning Adapters will be made available later this year and that it is 'contemplated' that it will be at no charge. Nothing earth shattering being moved at this time.

Full info from the TiVo Forum.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6601322#post6601322

I got the letter. the only channel that might be missed is Noggin for the kids. No mention of a price reduction of course.

Does anyone in this area have on-screen Caller ID and digital phone service working with an 8300HD? If so, which MDN version does your 8300 have installed? Thanks!

Does anyone in this area have on-screen Caller ID and digital phone service working with an 8300HD? If so, which MDN version does your 8300 have installed? Thanks!

Works here in Cary with version 2.4.1-107 but it also worked with the previous version.

Jim

Thanks for the quick reply! Is there a version between 92 and 107?

Thanks for the quick reply! Is there a version between 92 and 107?

There probably are, but they probably are failed versions that never made it out of the lab. As for Caller ID, if it does not work on your box and you have digital phone, I have heard that the best solution is a call to customer service to ask that caller ID on your box to be turned on, because that requires some configuration at the local headquarters.

There probably are, but they probably are failed versions that never made it out of the lab. As for Caller ID, if it does not work on your box and you have digital phone, I have heard that the best solution is a call to customer service to ask that caller ID on your box to be turned on, because that requires some configuration at the local headquarters.

After my last box swap caller ID stopped working and I had to call tech support to get it fixed. I believe I was on the -92 version at the time.

Jim

Thanks guys, I'll give them a call and see what's up.

First of all, I have enjoyed reading this forum - despite the fact that this is the #28 TV market, it is the 4th most active forum in the US!

A couple of questions...

I have been receiving a "Please Wait..." message over the last couple of days - it just lays on top of (mostly HD) channels. I have an 8300 (I think) box - the HD HDMI box without the DVR. I am wondering if that means that the box needs to be replaced - it does have some ventilation room. I am in Morrisville (which means Cary TWC).

Secondly, I read the message in the first post about channels in Durham - my channels on my second HD (no box) are different, which is fine, but I am intrigued that I can get 4.2 and 5.1, as well as 28.1, and occassionally 11.1, but not 17 or 50. It it a Toshiba set, with all 3 antennas - and came up with 300 channels. I did get the Olympic channels at 123.1/123.2 and 124.1/2 - but I don't think we could get real NBC in HD.

Wonder if there is something I can do to solve these 2 problems.

Thanks!

Has UNC TV recently changed their broadcast? I did a channel scan over the weekend and noticed the previous channel 4.2 that wasn't showing audio because of an issue with my DTV box is now working along with all the other channels, 4.1, .2, .3, .4, .5. Also, I noticed I'm no longer getting a 4.100 channel that UNC was showing before. This is wonderful whatever is happening!

I don't know if it's related, but on September 25th, I read in another thread that UNC will be altering their signals such that it will look something like this, 24/7:

4-1 UNC-HD
4-2 UNC-KD
4-3 UNC-NC

Again, that may vary, but those three subchannels, 24/7. UNC-HD, I assume, will feature the normal UNC schedule but in HD when available.

- Trip

First of all, I have enjoyed reading this forum - despite the fact that this is the #28 TV market, it is the 4th most active forum in the US!

A couple of questions...

I have been receiving a "Please Wait..." message over the last couple of days - it just lays on top of (mostly HD) channels. I have an 8300 (I think) box - the HD HDMI box without the DVR. I am wondering if that means that the box needs to be replaced - it does have some ventilation room. I am in Morrisville (which means Cary TWC).

Secondly, I read the message in the first post about channels in Durham - my channels on my second HD (no box) are different, which is fine, but I am intrigued that I can get 4.2 and 5.1, as well as 28.1, and occassionally 11.1, but not 17 or 50. It it a Toshiba set, with all 3 antennas - and came up with 300 channels. I did get the Olympic channels at 123.1/123.2 and 124.1/2 - but I don't think we could get real NBC in HD.

Wonder if there is something I can do to solve these 2 problems.

Thanks!

First, you probably do not have an 8300 box. All Scientific Atlanta boxes whose number starts with an 8 are DVRs.

Second, my guess is that you might have either a very weak signal level or a signal level so strong that it is blowing out your cable box's receivers. I have never encountered these symptoms, but a weak signal is my first guess because HD channels have higher bitrates than standard channels, and higher bitrates mean that the boxes have less time to figure out what each symbol in a data stream means and that each symbol has less time to settle down before the next symbol is transmitted.

My best guess is that you need to call TWC to send someone to your house to fix the signal level.

Has UNC TV recently changed their broadcast? I did a channel scan over the weekend and noticed the previous channel 4.2 that wasn't showing audio because of an issue with my DTV box is now working along with all the other channels, 4.1, .2, .3, .4, .5. Also, I noticed I'm no longer getting a 4.100 channel that UNC was showing before. This is wonderful whatever is happening!

Yes, I complained about how they were doing the primetime/non-primetime switch (by having video-only trickle streams). They replied that although what they were doing was within the DTV spec, they now realize that some receivers are buggy and get confused by it. So they have switched to having both a video and audio trickle stream. This allows DTV receivers which cache the audio and video PIDs to handle the UNC-TV primetime/non-primetime lineup change without having to do a re-scan.

Drew

24/7:
4-1 UNC-HD
4-2 UNC-KD
4-3 UNC-NC


I heard that also, but I didn't know the date.

Drew

Are HDNet (ch. 293), HDNet Movies (ch. 294), and Boomerang (ch. 185) now normally on SDV, or does this only happen after you have tuned to one of the SDV test channels (channels 770-780)?

I heard that also, but I didn't know the date.

Drew

Sept. 25th is the date. (Source: http://unc-tv-dtv.blogspot.com/ )

Happy 400th Posting to me...

Are HDNet (ch. 293), HDNet Movies (ch. 294), and Boomerang (ch. 185) now normally on SDV, or does this only happen after you have tuned to one of the SDV test channels (channels 770-780)?

They are still linear here... 765Mhz for HDNet. TiVo S3's and 8300HD recieve them fine.

Whatever happened to the decision that TWC must carry MASN? It's college football time again..

They are still linear here... 765Mhz for HDNet. TiVo S3's and 8300HD recieve them fine.

This confirms that they are still available for unidirectional devices.

How about two-way devices like TWC's own cable boxes and <tru2way> enabled devices?

EDIT: Maybe this situation is so because my neighborhood has a TWC technician living in it, and this is the beta test.

Whatever happened to the decision that TWC must carry MASN? It's college football time again..

Time Warner is still appealing it. Don't expect to see it anytime soon.

If anyone is curious about what our transmitter site is like, I've posted a tour of the WNCN transmitters on my blog at http://blogs.wncn.info/dtv/2008/08/22/tour-the-wncn-transmitter-site/

Nielsen reports 83,000 Raleigh-Durham households are not digital ready. With most homes having 2-3 TV sets, that's a bit disturbing to me. If you know anyone that is not ready yet, help them convert now.

Nice video. Thanks.

Cool !

Will this channel eventually be restored to the way it was, used as a 24/7 newschannel like WNCN's competitors do, or be totally removed?

Coupon-eligible converter boxes should be able to generate a 480i feed for those who need NTSC, so I feel that the first solution is not one that would serve much of a purpose. The other two solutions in my opinion would either create a useful service or boost picture quality on the HD feed and/or the NBC Weather Plus channel.

I personally would prefer for it to be banished, or at the least changed to different programming than 17.1 . Having an SD feed of the same programming that's on 17.1 is a waste, IMO.

I put it back on air yesterday a little after 10:00 AM as it was, SD for the 4:3 folks. When Mobile Personal Handhelds become reality next year, it has to go away. MPH uses quite a bit of bandwidth, up to 4.5 MBps, so there will be no room for it, and is a much more valuable use of the bandwidth.

We did look at alternative programming for it, but who needs another constant replay of News? The purpose for it is digital SD cable viewers without the HD option. They get 218 and 219, but not 217.

If anyone is curious about what our transmitter site is like, I've posted a tour of the WNCN transmitters on my blog at http://blogs.wncn.info/dtv/2008/08/22/tour-the-wncn-transmitter-site/

Nielsen reports 83,000 Raleigh-Durham households are not digital ready. With most homes having 2-3 TV sets, that's a bit disturbing to me. If you know anyone that is not ready yet, help them convert now.

That URL does not work well with Firefox 3.01 on my PC, had to switch to IE7. Enjoyed the video!

Re: readiness for digital - isn't Wilmington going all digital sometime in September? Should be interesting to see how that goes.

Jim

I put it back on air yesterday a little after 10:00 AM as it was, SD for the 4:3 folks. When Mobile Personal Handhelds become reality next year, it has to go away. MPH uses quite a bit of bandwidth, up to 4.5 MBps, so there will be no room for it, and is a much more valuable use of the bandwidth.

Ugh, what a waste of bandwidth. Did you see the Reg article I posted a link to in regards to WRAL's MPH test last month?

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/12/korea_mobile_tv_flop/

Even Koreans turn off mobile TV

Despite billions invested in turning mobile phones into pocket TV sets, the public continues to find it all a giant yawn. A study by TMC Media published earlier this month suggests that peak-time viewing of direct broadcast TV on phones in Korea barely exceeds the pollsters' margin of error.

TMC found that only 1.17 per cent of the mobile TV-equipped audience was watching - peaking at 3.58 per cent during the commute rush hour. Around 48 per cent of receivers are built into mobile phones.

Which begs the question - if the Koreans don't want mobile TV, then who does?
<.....>

Re: readiness for digital - isn't Wilmington going all digital sometime in September? Should be interesting to see how that goes.
It happens September 8.

I put it back on air yesterday a little after 10:00 AM as it was, SD for the 4:3 folks. When Mobile Personal Handhelds become reality next year, it has to go away. MPH uses quite a bit of bandwidth, up to 4.5 MBps, so there will be no room for it, and is a much more valuable use of the bandwidth.

We did look at alternative programming for it, but who needs another constant replay of News? The purpose for it is digital SD cable viewers without the HD option. They get 218 and 219, but not 217.

On cable, I am still getting a blue screen with this message in white:

CHANNEL 218 WNCN SD WILL
BE OFF THE AIR DURING THE 2008
OLYMPICS.

Maybe you switched it back for OTA transmission, but cable has not been switched back yet.

Next time you disable a channel, could you instead use a black background? The way you have it now reminds me of a BSOD. Thanks.

are we getting espnu-hd on thursday here in raleigh?

are we getting espnu-hd on thursday here in raleigh?

TWC corporate does have a carriage agreement with ESPNU-HD and it will be added in some markets on Thursday. However, it is up to each market to decide when to add the channels. My guess is that we will not be one of those markets. Since they are moving a bunch of channels to SDV on or around September 13 I would guess that we will probably see it with some other channels sometime in September. Here's hoping anyway.

On cable, I am still getting a blue screen with this message in white:

CHANNEL 218 WNCN SD WILL
BE OFF THE AIR DURING THE 2008
OLYMPICS.

Maybe you switched it back for OTA transmission, but cable has not been switched back yet.

Next time you disable a channel, could you instead use a black background? The way you have it now reminds me of a BSOD. Thanks.

That message is inserted by TWC. Over the air was black. I have no control of how it looks, etc. Thanks for bringing this up. I'll remind them to take it down.

The company is driving me crazy. What are the alternatives to ReplayTV for set-top boxes?

1) Tivo Series 3
2) Tivo HD
3) DirectTV
4) ?

Based on the pending SDV changes with Time Warner, I have no clue what makes sense today. Four of my 5 TVs are SD and will stay that way for a while. The ReplayTVs do exactly what I want them to do, but my account is getting ready to get cancelled because my credit card is expired. By the time I saw the notice, the company was closed until Tuesday. The accounts will cancel tomorrow, and there is NO way that I will pay a reinstatement fee or a higher price.

An HTPC is not a good choice right now. I have a PC with a video card, but it is nowhere nearly as user friendly as a ReplayTV.

An HTPC is not a good choice right now. I have a PC with a video card, but it is nowhere nearly as user friendly as a ReplayTV.

Try the free trial of SageTV before you give up on HTPCs. For HD, I'd suggest using SageTV with an HD100 media extender as the most reliable and trouble free experience. You can get SD media extenders for your other TVs. There are no recurring changes. You buy the server software once, and you have guide data for the lifetime of the company.

Drew

The company is driving me crazy. What are the alternatives to ReplayTV for set-top boxes?

1) Tivo Series 3
2) Tivo HD
3) DirectTV
4) ?

Based on the pending SDV changes with Time Warner, I have no clue what makes sense today. Four of my 5 TVs are SD and will stay that way for a while. The ReplayTVs do exactly what I want them to do, but my account is getting ready to get cancelled because my credit card is expired. By the time I saw the notice, the company was closed until Tuesday. The accounts will cancel tomorrow, and there is NO way that I will pay a reinstatement fee or a higher price.

An HTPC is not a good choice right now. I have a PC with a video card, but it is nowhere nearly as user friendly as a ReplayTV.

I have two TiVo's and love 'em. A S3 and a THD. Both have cablecards and work great. SDV is a concern but hopefully TWC will come thru with the Tuning Adapters this year as promised.

Anyone else having audio trouble on NBC17? I'm tuning it in HD via an HDHomeRun pulling the clear QAM from TWC in North Raleigh. Occasionally the audio volume is VERY low and I have to turn my speakers all the way up just to hear what is being said. Then, when a commercial comes on, it blasts out at full volume.

I noticed when this happens my stereo receiver reports the audio changing from DolbyD to ProLogicII.

All the other channels are fine, and if I change channels, those work fine. Going back to NBC17 brings the same issue back.

Anyone else having any trouble?

Yes, I get the same problem occasionally. Happened on Today show twice this week. Watched in SD where audio was fine.

Yes, I get the same problem occasionally. Happened on Today show twice this week. Watched in SD where audio was fine.

Yah, the Today show and NBC Nightly News seem to have the problem most frequently.

All,

I have been in contact with NBC17 regarding the sound issues on TW217 since Wednesday the 27th. They were very cooperative and resolved the issues several times, only to have someone else put the wrong equipment online.

I will send this thread to the person I was communicating with, unfortunately since it is a holiday weekend, we may have to grin and bear it until Tuesday.

Cheers

To some, it's called progress. :eek: NBC has finally realized KU-band satellites fade out in a hard rain. They have come up with a new C-band back-up which is less affected by weather with the latest in technology and a Sigma rating of 1. (Inside joke for my former GE colleagues) The new system delivers everything from the network in HD, and is center cut down-converted for the SD back-up.

Audio is now in a "superior" phase aligned format instead of the 3 discrete pairs they send on KU. It's really super fine and nifty in 2.0 stereo. But when a show is in 5.1, my Dolby encoder looks at it, laughs, strangles the dialog and amplifies the ambient surround channels.

When we discovered how bad it was in testing, I asked them not to use it until we could figure out why it was coming through like that.

Meanwhile, someone decided the reason we needed a back-up receiver was because our main KU receiver was failing and unreliable, so they inserted it in the play list commands to be the primary HD network receiver, instead of following the C-band rain fade switch on SD. NBC is replacing the KU system this year, and the manufacturer no longer supports the old receiver, but otherwise; it has been running along just fine.

A real person has to go through each days play list and change that source manually until we can un-do the log change in primary receivers someone made by misunderstanding what we wanted in the first place. Since logs are prepared in advance; things will equalize with Wednesday's log.

However, it did rain in buckets Saturday night. We lost all network feeds on KU. They had no choice but to go to the C-band, which this time oddly had the issue on the SD side. So both feeds had weird audio.

Guess what I'll be doing all day Tuesday!:rolleyes:

I have the HD package but can only get WTVD etc. in SD. I hooked up rabbit ears to get the digital HD signal and it looks great but I lose signal in bad weather.

Any clue when Dish will offer Raleigh/Durham local channels in HD??

I have the HD package but can only get WTVD etc. in SD. I hooked up rabbit ears to get the digital HD signal and it looks great but I lose signal in bad weather.

Any clue when Dish will offer Raleigh/Durham local channels in HD??

I believe they should be available, as I had Dish out yesterday to see about an install at my condo, but of the 5 satellites I needed to see, the one carrying HD locals is the only one that I wasn't able to pick up from my deck, so I couldn't do an install.

I don't suppose anyone knows if TW can do something similar to TurboHD from Dish? All I want are the HD stations and HBO, nothing else matters to me as I never change the channels past that.

I have the HD package but can only get WTVD etc. in SD. I hooked up rabbit ears to get the digital HD signal and it looks great but I lose signal in bad weather.

Any clue when Dish will offer Raleigh/Durham local channels in HD??

They are already offered and have been for at least the past year.

They are already offered and have been for at least the past year.So what's my problem and why can't I see them even in the "All Programs" guide? Do I not have the correct sat? I believe I have 110 and 119. When Dish installed the two the installer said that I would be able to pick up HD and I do. But I sure don't see the locals in HD.

So what's my problem and why can't I see them even in the "All Programs" guide? Do I not have the correct sat? I believe I have 110 and 119. When Dish installed the two the installer said that I would be able to pick up HD and I do. But I sure don't see the locals in HD.

I believe the locals are on 61.5, but I will try to look more and see for sure.

So what's my problem and why can't I see them even in the "All Programs" guide? Do I not have the correct sat? I believe I have 110 and 119. When Dish installed the two the installer said that I would be able to pick up HD and I do. But I sure don't see the locals in HD.

Did you subscribe to the locals pkg?

http://www.echostaruser.com/hdlocal.php

Raleigh
Available 12/6/06
ABC CBS NBC Fox 118.75°, CONUS, but 61.5° spot-beam also available 6/25 (EA)
6465/11 6466/5 6467/17 6468/50

I believe they should be available, as I had Dish out yesterday to see about an install at my condo, but of the 5 satellites I needed to see, the one carrying HD locals is the only one that I wasn't able to pick up from my deck, so I couldn't do an install.

I don't suppose anyone knows if TW can do something similar to TurboHD from Dish? All I want are the HD stations and HBO, nothing else matters to me as I never change the channels past that.

TWC already carries HBO HD and all of the local HD stations. However, it does not carry as many HD networks as either of the satcos.

However, don't expect more HD networks from TWC until after September 17, when its SDV technology is apparently scheduled to launch, clearing more room for more HD.

Did you subscribe to the locals pkg?

http://www.echostaruser.com/hdlocal.php

Raleigh
Available 12/6/06
ABC CBS NBC Fox 118.75°, CONUS, but 61.5° spot-beam also available 6/25 (EA)
6465/11 6466/5 6467/17 6468/50
Yes. I just contacted Dish via a chat line and here's a transcript:Please wait while we find a representative to assist you. In order to ensure we are providing you with the highest level of customer satisfaction, this conversation will be recorded.
You have been connected to (24DrDcb) Cat P..
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Thank you for choosing Dish Network the leader in HD and DVR. I will be happy to assist you today. Please give me 2-3 minutes to access your account and review the information you have already provided.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: I apologize you're experiencing this issue. I'm more than happy to help you with this.
Lee Beck: Okay
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Have they ever come in for you?
Lee Beck: no. I am getting them on rabbit ears but only sopradically. Nothing from the dish.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Ok, one moment please.
Lee Beck: I believe I am getting sat 110 and 119, are the HD locals on one of htose?
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: I'm checking that now.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: I'm showing they come off of 118.7,
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: You should be getting signal from that for your HD channels.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Are you able to access other HD programming?
Lee Beck: That's probably what I'm calling 119
Lee Beck: Yes, I am getting lots of HD channels
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: You get 119/118.7/110.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Ok, good.
Lee Beck: I don't recall seeing the designation 118.7 when I access "check signal"
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: According to your account you should be receiving that as well as 129.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Let's check.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Please press Menu on your remote then 6, 1 then 3. Please tell me what's in field H for Device. What does it show for field A (once it finishes going through the steps) and G (satellite numbers and colour below each one)?
Lee Beck: Sorry, but I'm not at home now. If you tell me what to check I will do that later.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Ok.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: You want to go through those steps and see what it shows for field G.
Lee Beck: I can easily to the check that you just mentioned
Lee Beck: okay, The next time I contact you I'll be in fromt of the TV with remote in hand
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Ok, great.
(24DrDcb) Cat P.: Can I help you with anything else?
Lee Beck: I'll sign off for now and print the info you just provided I believe I may have a technical problem but I'll need to wait to resolve it when I get home in front of the TV. Strange that I don't even see 6465 on the on-screen channel guide.

The Raleigh HD locals are in two places right now. They are on the 118.7 satellite (this is different than the 119) and on the 61.5. I'm not sure if just anyone can get them from 61.5, though, since that is supposed to be part of the "Eastern Arc" that they are just now starting to use for new customers.

Most SD channels are on 110/119. Most HD is on either 61.5 or 129, with about 9 or so channels (and some PPV) on the 110 location.

Anyone having any WRAL OTA problems today?

Late last night my receiver "signal strength" was down from the normal 95-100 to around 85. Today it is down to 75 and is breaking up. I know signal "strength" meters are unreliable and not entirely useful, but the fact that I have seen that meter drop significantly and am seeing signal problems tells me something is going on.

FYI, I have not changed my antenna configuration and reception of other channels (4, 11, 17, 22, 28, 50, etc) has not changed at all. In fact for about 5 minutes late last night I was even getting channel 7 barely!

Just wanted to see if anyone knows of channel 5 OTA broadcast issues today or if I need to look harder at my setup.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is tower work going on out there ..

The Raleigh HD locals are in two places right now. They are on the 118.7 satellite (this is different than the 119) and on the 61.5. I'm not sure if just anyone can get them from 61.5, though, since that is supposed to be part of the "Eastern Arc" that they are just now starting to use for new customers.

Most SD channels are on 110/119. Most HD is on either 61.5 or 129, with about 9 or so channels (and some PPV) on the 110 location.I suspect that my problem lies therein. I have only one dish on my roof. It was installed when I moved a few months ago. I can't see the LNBs to see how many it has. Too steep a pitch for me to climb up there either.

I do know that the installer first had a problem with a good line of sight to all of the Dish satellites. I'm wondering if he compromised and didn't bring them all in. 61.5 sounds awfully low on the horizon, but shouldn't I be able to get 118.7 and 129 if I am getting 110/119? Might this be an adjustment problem? Or does Dish need to put up another dish?

Am I correct in assuming that the higher the number the higher the satellite is from the horizon (e.g., 118.7 should be higher than 110).

61.5 refers to the longtitude line - it's actually pointed HIGHER in the sky than 110/119. 61.5 is off to the southEAST, towards Bermuda.

I suspect that my problem lies therein. I have only one dish on my roof. It was installed when I moved a few months ago. I can't see the LNBs to see how many it has. Too steep a pitch for me to climb up there either.

I do know that the installer first had a problem with a good line of sight to all of the Dish satellites. I'm wondering if he compromised and didn't bring them all in. 61.5 sounds awfully low on the horizon, but shouldn't I be able to get 118.7 and 129 if I am getting 110/119? Might this be an adjustment problem? Or does Dish need to put up another dish?

Am I correct in assuming that the higher the number the higher the satellite is from the horizon (e.g., 118.7 should be higher than 110).

As someone else beat me to it, those satellite numbers are longitude, and don't necessarily directly reflect where it is relative to the horizon.

Typically people in our part of the country have a better line of sight to 61.5 than 129, but I happen to be pointed at 129. At some point when existing customers become elligible I will probably want to migrate towards the "Eastern Arc" configuration for better reception but for now I'm on the old plan.

118.7 is a different kind of animal and requires a special type of LNB and dish to receive. Dish did get a "combo" LNB that gets both 118.7 and 119, so it is possible to have a single dish solution on the roof that gets 110/118.7/119/129. I happen to have a 2-dish solution with 110/118.7/119 on one and 129 on another because I got much better signal that way and I already had 2 on the roof from prior configurations.

You will probably have to first determine what is really on your roof before you know for sure... because if you subscribe to HD and locals, you should see 5/11/17/50 for the Raleigh locals in HD.

IF you only have a single-dish then you might not even be getting all the HD possible so you'd stand to benefit from that as well as the locals.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is tower work going on out there ..

I went ahead and slightly tweaked my antenna anyway, and got my WRAL back to the high 90s though it still is fluctuating more than usual. At least I was able to do that without sacrificing anything else.

I'm still getting by with my indoor config while I decide what I want to do for a big antenna... and my indoor setup works quite nicely really.

As someone else beat me to it, those satellite numbers are longitude, and don't necessarily directly reflect where it is relative to the horizon.Typically people in our part of the country have a better line of sight to 61.5 than 129, but I happen to be pointed at 129. At some point when existing customers become elligible I will probably want to migrate towards the "Eastern Arc" configuration for better reception but for now I'm on the old plan.118.7 is a different kind of animal and requires a special type of LNB and dish to receive. Dish did get a "combo" LNB that gets both 118.7 and 119, so it is possible to have a single dish solution on the roof that gets 110/118.7/119/129. I happen to have a 2-dish solution with 110/118.7/119 on one and 129 on another because I got much better signal that way and I already had 2 on the roof from prior configurations.You will probably have to first determine what is really on your roof before you know for sure... because if you subscribe to HD and locals, you should see 5/11/17/50 for the Raleigh locals in HD.IF you only have a single-dish then you might not even be getting all the HD possible so you'd stand to benefit from that as well as the locals.lots of good information here - and encouraging. I'm home now and checked the sys info screen. Found that I'm getting 110/119/129 but not 61.5 or 118.5. My dish either doesn't have the right hardware or only likes integers:).I called dish and they're sending someone out on Monday between noon and 5. That means I either take half a day off from work and they show at 6 pm or I take a chance, come home at 2:00 or so, and they've come and gone and we reschedule.

I gave an abridged version of my recent setup. The first dish guy that came out said there were some trees in the way and that he couldn't bring in the HD channels. At least that's what I thought he said. I pointed to the unmet neighbor's yard, probably a $750K house, and said that he likely is getting HD and his dish is ground level and closer to the trees than my rooftop. The tech said that his dish was DirecTV and their HD sats are higher. He said that I could get a second opinion, which I did, and the 2nd guy said HD - no problema. That's where I've been until today when I learned that HD is available for locals. True I'm getting lots of HD so I figured the 2nd guy was just better at getting to the sats. Now I'm wondering if the first tech aborted when he determined that he couldn't get 118.5/61.5.I guess I'll find out Monday, but I'm wondering if there's enough information from the givens (the sats that I get plus the neighbor's DirecTV dish much lower than mine) to determine if it’s a hardware/software issue rather than an issue of “seeing” the sats.

Thanks for all the help. I’m getting smarter.

Once again the audio on NBC 17 is a mess !!!

I suspect that my problem lies therein. I have only one dish on my roof. It was installed when I moved a few months ago. I can't see the LNBs to see how many it has. Too steep a pitch for me to climb up there either.

I do know that the installer first had a problem with a good line of sight to all of the Dish satellites. I'm wondering if he compromised and didn't bring them all in. 61.5 sounds awfully low on the horizon, but shouldn't I be able to get 118.7 and 129 if I am getting 110/119? Might this be an adjustment problem? Or does Dish need to put up another dish?

Am I correct in assuming that the higher the number the higher the satellite is from the horizon (e.g., 118.7 should be higher than 110).

Couple of quick points based on my understanding from reading at SatGuys (which I recommend) http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/145238-eastern-arc-dish-info-install-guide.html

For now, ignore 61.5... its not really relevant to the cause your problem (there's a chance it may be an alternate solution, but you should not NEED 61.5). If your install was several months ago, 129 should have been working for you.

If you got a 1000.2 dish with a previous HD install, you should have been able to get ALL of Dish's HD offerings with that single dish (which picks up signals from 3 sats).. and all of those channels are still there (that is what I have and I get all 40-some of Dish's non-premium HD channels) (I'm not counting RSN's, PPV or any other silly business companies use to inflate their # of HD channels).

Your questions are probably better off being answered at SatGuys (or DBSTalk if you prefer)

In a nutshell, it appears there is a mis-install, or setup mistake on your account.

EDIT: and to clarify... 61.5 only started carrying HD for us in the past few weeks.. your previous installer should have REFUSED to do your install unless you were able to get all HD channels from non-61.5 sats. And yes, sometimes when there are LOS issues with one service, the other service will work b/c their sats are in a different position, offering a different LOS option.

However, don't expect more HD networks from TWC until after September 17, when its SDV technology is apparently scheduled to launch, clearing more room for more HD.

I'm confused. We've had SDV at least where I live since before the Olympics.

The new Navigator is here... The new Navigator is here...

Ok, it's not really that exciting, but I fell asleep on the couch last night and when I woke up around 2AM, I noticed the box was getting an update. Checked it and I'm now at 2.4.10_11.

I'm confused. We've had SDV at least where I live since before the Olympics.

It's actually September 13th and yes SDV has been activate for well over a month but September 13th is when TWC moves a bunch of lesser watched SD channels to SDV to free up bandwidth. The list of channels being moved can be found here.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=402796

It's actually September 13th and yes SDV has been activate for well over a month but September 13th is when TWC moves a bunch of lesser watched SD channels to SDV to free up bandwidth. The list of channels being moved can be found here.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...22#post6601322

Linky no worky...

Linky no worky...

I found a good link:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=402796

Hope this helps.

I'm confused. We've had SDV at least where I live since before the Olympics.

I should have been more clear about the SDV rollout. It is just experimental now, but will go into production on September 13.

Its experimental status caused most of the temporary Olympic channels to fail until one of my service calls reached a technician who had the same problem as I did under the same system, allowing him to combine my trouble ticket and his trouble ticket to allow him to declare a systemwide outage. This allowed TWC to dispatch someone or a team into the head end to figure out what was wrong, and it took that person or team a few days to fix the problem: the SDV server was misconfigured, causing it to send tuners to frequencies whose modulators were set up for non-SDV service. This caused those channels to fail.

Hopefully, the fix has taught the people at the head end not to make the same mistake when SDV is rolled into production on September 13.

I found a good link:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=402796

Hope this helps.

Grazie...

Hopefully, the fix has taught the people at the head end not to make the same mistake when SDV is rolled into production on September 13.

Are we taking bets?? :D

Are we taking bets?? :D

That is why I wrote "Hopefully". I do not know if they have learned or not, but only fools will make the same mistake soon after fixing the mistake the first time around.

If you got a 1000.2 dish with a previous HD install, you should have been able to get ALL of Dish's HD offerings with that single dish (which picks up signals from 3 sats).. and all of those channels are still there (that is what I have and I get all 40-some of Dish's non-premium HD channels) (I'm not counting RSN's, PPV or any other silly business companies use to inflate their # of HD channels).

What he needs is a 1000+ dish to pick up 4 satellite locations if he wants his Raleigh HD channels. Those are only on and active at the 118.7 location. Depending upon when he had his install, I agree he probably never got the proper dish to begin with most likely.

As for the line-of-sight issues... generally where people have problems is 129 vs 61.5 or in some cases having a problem with either 110 or 119 due to a tree or something. But if he can get 119 then there's no reason he can't get 118.7, so the problem is "simply" that he has the wrong dish on the roof.

Hopefully they can straighten things out for him with a new dish.

The Raleigh HD locals are mirrored on 61.5, as well as 118.75

No buffering of second tuner on SA8300HDC

With my unfortunate replacement of my SA8300HD with a SA8300HDC, I have noticed several, but will only ask about one rather annoying bug.

When switching channels from one tuner to another, via PIP swap. the tuner that was "background" does not buffer, until brought to the foreground. Hence, I can not rewind. When I return tuner "a", via PIP and swap, if I have closed the PIP window, that too has lost its buffer.

This will be most disappointing come football season, when i am trying to watch 2 games, and swap back and forth during commercials. If I am recording on both channels, it will properly buffer.

I have been upgraded to the latest navigator. (2.4.10_11).

Has anyone else seen a similar issue?

No buffering of second tuner on SA8300HDC

With my unfortunate replacement of my SA8300HD with a SA8300HDC, I have noticed several, but will only ask about one rather annoying bug.

When switching channels from one tuner to another, via PIP swap. the tuner that was "background" does not buffer, until brought to the foreground. Hence, I can not rewind. When I return tuner "a", via PIP and swap, if I have closed the PIP window, that too has lost its buffer.

This will be most disappointing come football season, when i am trying to watch 2 games, and swap back and forth during commercials. If I am recording on both channels, it will properly buffer.

I have been upgraded to the latest navigator. (2.4.10_11).

Has anyone else seen a similar issue?

This is not a bug but a missing feature that is in MDN Navigator (the natively-run software that ran on your old 8300HD) and not in ODN Navigator (the OCAP-based software that runs on the newer 8300HDC).

My guess as why this is so is because the secondary tuner is used to monitor a carousel, or a channel used to constantly broadcast data, when it is not being used for PIP or recording. The evidence is that when I set up a series recording and am not recording, the scaled video in the window still plays. When I set up a series recording when something is recording in the background, the video cuts out until the series recording setup completes. My guess is that the primary tuner might be tuned to that carousel to make sure it has the latest guide data so that it can schedule all upcoming shows accurately to let you know about conflicts due to last minute changes.

The best thing to do is to record the show on both channels.

Another missing feature from ODN that is in MDN is the ability to restrict a series recording to a specified time of day.

One misfeature you will not miss from MDN Navigator is its instability. ODN has seemed to be much more stable than MDN in my experience.

One feature that was missing in MDN but is in ODN and is great for plasma TV and rear-projection CRT owners is the ability to choose how bright or dark the borders around 4x3 television programs on a 16x9 screen are, helping to minimize burn-in. This can be found in the Devices submenu of the quick settings menu.

What he needs is a 1000+ dish to pick up 4 satellite locations if he wants his Raleigh HD channels. Those are only on and active at the 118.7 location. Depending upon when he had his install, I agree he probably never got the proper dish to begin with most likely.

As for the line-of-sight issues... generally where people have problems is 129 vs 61.5 or in some cases having a problem with either 110 or 119 due to a tree or something. But if he can get 119 then there's no reason he can't get 118.7, so the problem is "simply" that he has the wrong dish on the roof.

Hopefully they can straighten things out for him with a new dish.

Yes, brain fart on my end.. thanks for the correction. I had 1000+ and 1000.2 reversed in my mind.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/65712-first-look-dish-500-dish-1000-dish-1000-2-a.html

I have been upgraded to the latest navigator. (2.4.10_11).

Has anyone else seen a similar issue?

go here for Navigator feedback:

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

Does anyone here use a TivoHD with TWC in the Raleigh area? Any issues with that (I don't use any On Demand features, so that doesn't matter to me)? Is there a timeline yet for SDV support for the TivoHD once TWC starts moving channels around next weekend? I have all the HBO stations, so that would matter to me. Thanks.

I noticed today that I am not getting DD on any channel. This could be my receiver but I don't think so. I can play a DVD and it's in DD. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just me?

I noticed today that I am not getting DD on any channel. This could be my receiver but I don't think so. I can play a CD and it's in DD. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just me?

Yeah I've had this problem twice in the past month or so on my 8300HD. I've had to do a hard reboot(aka unplug) the box and wait for the 5 minute reboot and it's been fine after that. Annoying but not a huge deal.

I noticed today that I am not getting DD on any channel. This could be my receiver but I don't think so. I can play a CD and it's in DD. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just me?

Check your audio format settings. If you have a box without a CableCARD in its back, your audio format setting is in the Audio Settings menu. If you have a box with a CableCARD in its back, the audio format setting is in the Devices menu in the Quick Settings menu. The "Dolby Digital" setting forces Dolby Digital out. The "HDMI" setting tells the box to negotiate which audio format to send via the HDMI port, and the resulting audio format will be sent through the HDMI, S/PDIF, and TOSLINK ports. The "Other" setting forces PCM out.

As for playing a CD and getting Dolby Digital, it is better that the CD sound goes to your receiver as PCM instead of Dolby Digital because converting between sound formats gives you the weaknesses of both formats and none of their strengths. Dolby Digital is better than PCM if you have more than two channels because it can handle more than two channels because it is smaller than PCM. However, it throws away some sound data. PCM can only handle two channels because it is uncompressed and there is a throughput limit on these cables or interfaces that will be violated if PCM is used to transport more than two channels at once. Therefore, a conversion from Dolby Digital to PCM will downmix 5.1 channel sound to stereo sound, and a conversion from PCM audio to Dolby Digital only will damage your sound. Therefore, try to avoid format conversions except when dealing with incompatabilities.

One exception to this would be to deal with a bad cable which cannot handle the high throughput of raw PCM and therefore Dolby Digital's lower throughput can save the day. However, if this is the case, replace that cable.

Does anyone here use a TivoHD with TWC in the Raleigh area? Any issues with that (I don't use any On Demand features, so that doesn't matter to me)? Is there a timeline yet for SDV support for the TivoHD once TWC starts moving channels around next weekend? I have all the HBO stations, so that would matter to me. Thanks.

I have an S3 and a THD. Both have cablecards (1 Mcard in THD and 2 Mcards in S3). No problems. Love 'em. Ive heard nothing relative to TA timeline beyond what was in the cablecard letter (sometime this year).

Yeah I've had this problem twice in the past month or so on my 8300HD. I've had to do a hard reboot(aka unplug) the box and wait for the 5 minute reboot and it's been fine after that. Annoying but not a huge deal.

Thanks. I did a cold boot of the 8300 and that fixed it.

Hi,

I have an 8300HD DVR which reboots from time to time. I was thinking whether I should go try to swap it for a better box before the new TV season starts. Any suggestions on what I should try to get?

Reading the posts, moving to ODN I would be missing some of the features.

Francisco

I'm watching Stand Up To Cancer on ABC HD and the audio is not only really bad but there's a huge lip synch delay.

Flipping over to NBC HD the audio is perfect.

edit: nope it look the audio feed NBC is getting from the taped segments also has the delay. The audio is slightly worse as well. Still not as bad as ABC.

Could be related to the overnight storm that blew through... but today my WRAL problems are back (not unwatchable but signal levels fluctuating and lower than usual)... and also today WRDC is much lower and is experiencing signal breakup.

No problems with the other OTA channels.. and again I haven't done anything, so am wondering if anyone else is having these OTA problems today or has heard if there was any damage to the tower farm.

WTF! Wake--Ole Miss game on WTVD is not HD!!

It looks like they just flipped the switch to HD on the WF game.

It is twenty minutes before NFL kick off and FOX 50 is not broadcasting in HD :eek: .....wow, it came on while I was typing this message. I was getting nervous. :(

Did I miss the news that the NBC17 tower fell down? Past few days I've received no (zero) signal from them 17.1,17.2,...

Analog OTA reception fine.

Looked fine this morning while I was out there. The DTV antenna is still bolted to the analog antenna. I tried a channel scan on my old RCA box and it found us fine, but I lost WRAL while gaining WITN and WNCT digitals in my office. I was wondering if something in my PSIP could have changed, but there's no indication of any problem here.

We are also getting into the Fall season where the atmosphere and trees are playing tricks on us. It will be interesting to hear what Trip in Va is receiving these days.

Did I miss the news that the NBC17 tower fell down? Past few days I've received no (zero) signal from them 17.1,17.2,...

Analog OTA reception fine.

Maybe you need to reset your receiver. I get all 3 at normal signal levels. Another thought, did you have any trees fall/move in your area?

Looked fine this morning while I was out there. The DTV antenna is still bolted to the analog antenna. I tried a channel scan on my old RCA box and it found us fine, but I lost WRAL while gaining WITN and WNCT digitals in my office. I was wondering if something in my PSIP could have changed, but there's no indication of any problem here.

We are also getting into the Fall season where the atmosphere and trees are playing tricks on us. It will be interesting to hear what Trip in Va is receiving these days.


Weird PSIP stuff...my 17.2 and 17.3 now show as a PBS station??? I'm not sure what's up with that, but I get the tuning fine.

I did re-scan, which made no difference, just B4 noon.
Oddly, after some days of absolutely zero signal on DTV 17, I am getting a weak signal now, just past noon. Weak signal from 17 this time of day is not far below normal. Are you sure someone didn't flip a switch following my post?
I've been enjoying near flawless 24/7 reception for the last month, since installing an Artec T3A Pro CECB on the kitchen TV. But this issue was also present (not) on a 2yo digital TV. I have a message in to ChannelMaster, as perhaps my 7778 pre-amp is starting to have issues.

Unfortunately:) no trees fell during the rain storm. Perhaps the rain did allow the trees to grab more of 'my' signal, but believe there's something more at issue here.

Last night I watched "Swingtown", recorded during primetime on Friday night on WRAL-HD just before Hanna hit. I fully expected them to break in every 5 minutes with weather hype, but they seemed to have restricted themselves to just pre-empting the "scenes from last week", and to running an HD weather crawl. This was much, much better than I expected!

DRew

We are also getting into the Fall season where the atmosphere and trees are playing tricks on us. It will be interesting to hear what Trip in Va is receiving these days.

Did I hear my name? =)

I'm at UVA now, which puts me away from home. That said, I set up my old desktop with my WinTV-D to be remote controllable (though I can't use the rotor from here).

At home on a regular day, digitally I see 7/10/13/27/38 from Roanoke (15 is there but useless, thanks low-VHF digital!). Turning the antenna, I see 29 from Charlottesville and 6/8/35 from Richmond. I get hints of signal out of WUNC-DT, but that's it. Nothing else as far as non-tropo stuff goes.

On the analog side, 15, 27, and 38 look really soft to me. 38 has always been soft, I think that might be something on their end. 15 has ever since WRPX-DT signed on, but 27 picked up quite a bit of softness when WRDC-DT powered up.

As for tropo, I had two or three instances over the summer of WNCN analog wiping out WFXR-DT (this with the antenna aimed at Roanoke) that makes me worry about what happens when WNCN-DT moves to 17. I mean, I can fall back on WWCW-DT 20, but it'll only be Fox-SD. I kinda wish WNCN-DT could have petitioned for 47 (WYDO-DT could've gotten 17 or 45) so as to reduce that interference concern, but nobody really cares outside of those affected. I'd also be concerned about WUNP-DT 36 conflicting with WPXR-DT but for whatever reason I don't see WUNP here very much, and never did even before the digitals fired up.

Over the summer, tropo brought me digitals for all of the Richmond stations, all of the Raleigh stations except WFPX-DT (co-channel with WPXR-DT), all of the Greensboro stations, all of the full-powered Wilmington stations except WSFX-DT (co-channel with WSLS-DT), most of the Greenville stations (not WNCT, WUNM, WUND, WPXU, all co-channel to locals), and a few of the Norfolk stations. I also saw WBTV-DT from Charlotte and 13/15/21 from Florence.

I can't wait to see what my reception looks like after the transition (in particular, I really want a PBS. Any PBS. I don't care if it's 15 in Roanoke or not). I don't forsee too much changing as far as Roanoke/Charlottesville/Richmond (though I'm hoping the 340 kW that WHTJ-DT or the 436 kW that WCVE-DT wants will help me get a PBS), but as for Raleigh, I think that'll be a distant memory. Before the digitals started coming on, I could see 4/5/11/17/22 from Raleigh all the time with the antenna aimed that way, which implies a cutoff around channel 25 where the terrain would kill it. I might see WTVD on channel 11, but that's about it. 17 is co-channel to WFXR-DT, and everything else is above channel 25 (WUNC-DT is co-channel to WTVR-DT Richmond).

Is there anything specific you wanted to ask me about? :D

- Trip

Weird PSIP stuff...my 17.2 and 17.3 now show as a PBS station??? I'm not sure what's up with that, but I get the tuning fine.
That's too much weird PSIP stuff for one day. I just re-booted my PSIP generator.

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).
Ok, so apparently I was wrong on this. Im looking at TWC and Dish at the same time now...on Dish, CW22 is in SD, while on TWC its in HD. Assuming CW22 doesnt have a direct link to TWC, is it possible that my DVR is finding a subchannel rather than than the main HD channel? Is that even something that could happen?

CW22 will NOT be in HD on Dish, unless you're getting it OTA.

^Yes, as I said in my post, Im referring to CW22 OTA.

Has anyone else noticed that the transponder (77, 543Mhz) is no longer available?

I originally was able to lock 77 using TS Reader, and view 77.1, Virtual 22.1 - WLFLDT and 77.2, Virtual 28.1 - WRDCDT
Same as the listings on silicondust, and home1.gte.net, unfortunately I cannot post URLs as I am too new to the forum.

So, my question is has anyone else noticed that these channels are unavailable via clearQAM and does anyone have a contact who we should inform? I doubt the standard phone support will care.

EDIT: Found that I had a problem with my coax cable. By moving the cable I was able to get 77 to lock. So I changed it out and am having no other problems...sorry to waste peoples time.

I was hoping someone could help with this. I've built my own Vista box to use as an HTPC. Couldn't be happier with it, except that I can't get the tuner to work much at all. The box is Vista Home Premium, ASUS P5Q Pro board, Intel 2.5 GHz x2, and an ATI 3650 512 MB vid card. The tuner card is the Avermedia m780 combo PCIE card.

Putting aside the issues with the poor analog quality, I cannot for the life of me get anything more than a few QAM channels (as in about 3) and on those, all I get is the sound. The picture is just black. Now, black is a nice color and all, but its not what I'm looking for in a TV viewing experience.

Oh, also, I do not have an STB. I have the cable direct into the tuner card. The cable is not split, and I recently had a TWC guy test the line and he said the signal was strong. I am using avermedia's app (Aver Media Center), not Vista Media Center (although if I use avermedia's Vista plug in, I get the same results in Vista). I am a basic cable subscriber, and I can get a crisp HD picture on my TV even with a splitter on the line, so I don't think its a signal issue. Sorry for rambling. If anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it.

Putting aside the issues with the poor analog quality, I cannot for the life of me get anything more than a few QAM channels (as in about 3) and on those, all I get is the sound. The picture is just black. Now, black is a nice color and all, but its not what I'm looking for in a TV viewing experience.


I wonder if the QAM tuning software from avermedia is just broken and is confused by TWC's setup? The combination of audio only and only a few channels makes it sound like some sort of tuning problem. What channels are you getting the audio on?

Bearing in mind that I know *nothing* about who controls tuning in Vista (I wouldn't touch vista with a 10' pole), I wonder if using some other software rather than the avermedia stuff might help. I would try the trial of SageTV, and see if it does any better. I would suggest you boot a linux live cd and see what azap said, but your tuner is not supported in Linux :(

Good luck!

Drew

What HD channels are they going to add to TWC after the switch? I just don't see anything happening. They've already said they have no plans to offer USA HD or any other Universal channels. I mean what is the hold up? It's freaking USA network, you know, the channel that has been available on standard cable forever. What about ESPNews HD, ESPNU HD? What's the issue? I wish we had Fios here, but it doesn't look good. I'd switch to Dish HD Turbo in a second but I can't because of apartment.

I wonder if the QAM tuning software from avermedia is just broken and is confused by TWC's setup? The combination of audio only and only a few channels makes it sound like some sort of tuning problem. What channels are you getting the audio on?

Bearing in mind that I know *nothing* about who controls tuning in Vista (I wouldn't touch vista with a 10' pole), I wonder if using some other software rather than the avermedia stuff might help. I would try the trial of SageTV, and see if it does any better. I would suggest you boot a linux live cd and see what azap said, but your tuner is not supported in Linux :(

Good luck!

Drew

Thanks Drew. I am not sure what channels I am getting because I only get the sound. So I'll have to listen a little longer in order to figure out the call letters. And thanks for the tip on SageTV. I had forgotten about the 30-day trial, and I've heard nothing but good things about it. I will give that a whirl. But first, I have gotten in touch with a developer at avermedia who is running a beta test on some new apps for this card and he is walking me through some stuff. So if that doesn't work, I'll pop back here and see what else I can work out.

BTW, I tried to load a couple of different linux distros to make a mythTV box, but I kept getting some weird loop/busybox error that I couldn't get past no matter what I tried. So I went with Vista. I love the linux concept but I just find Windows more forgiving.

Does anyone knows what's the green icon with a white star inside that shows up on some recordings?

Francisco

Does anyone knows what's the green icon with a white star inside that shows up on some recordings?

Francisco

Assuming it is Navigator, it means that the recording is marked as "do not delete" (if not marked, it may get deleted if space is needed for new recordings).

What HD channels are they going to add to TWC after the switch? I just don't see anything happening. They've already said they have no plans to offer USA HD or any other Universal channels. I mean what is the hold up? It's freaking USA network, you know, the channel that has been available on standard cable forever. What about ESPNews HD, ESPNU HD? What's the issue? I wish we had Fios here, but it doesn't look good. I'd switch to Dish HD Turbo in a second but I can't because of apartment.
Back in '92, I dropped TWC like a stone because of their inability to resolve snow on my reception. Installed DirecTV and loved it. Almost cried when we moved to a condo last year and had to install TWC because we face north. I have to admit, the quality is better overall even if the box gets stupid once and a while and I have to reboot it.

So like you, I have very little faith that TWC will do the right thing, even if they are losing market share to satellite.

Is NBC-17 OTA at reduced power tonight? All other stations are coming in strong, but NBC-17 signal strength is like a roller coaster. Are there any websites that list the power levels of local OTA stations?

Back in '92, I dropped TWC like a stone because of their inability to resolve snow on my reception. Installed DirecTV and loved it. Almost cried when we moved to a condo last year and had to install TWC because we face north. I have to admit, the quality is better overall even if the box gets stupid once and a while and I have to reboot it.

So like you, I have very little faith that TWC will do the right thing, even if they are losing market share to satellite.


You would really be crying if you saw the MPEG-4 quality on DirecTV. ;)

Any word on those new HD channels we were rumored to get today when they throw the switch on SDV?:rolleyes:

Any word on those new HD channels we were rumored to get today when they throw the switch on SDV?:rolleyes:

You'll know that they've activated SDV when your set top box locks up and won't reboot.;););)

Any word on those new HD channels we were rumored to get today when they throw the switch on SDV?:rolleyes:

The move is actually happening tomorrow on the 13th. And there was no promise of getting new HD channels, just that they are moving a bunch of SD channels to SDV. By moving the SD channels, that in theory opens the door for more HD channels. Even communism works in theory.

For those interested, here's the e-mail reply I received from Wayne Estabrooks (Engineering Specialist) at UNC-TV concerning their new DT subchannel setup beginning on Sept. 25th:


Mr. *****,

If you are referring to over-the-air (OTA) digital reception with an
antenna, we are expecting to go to full time HD on the 25th of
September. This will result in 2 less subchannels overall.
The subchannel lineup for OTA will only have three subchannels. They
will be UNC-TV -1, UNC-KD -2 and UNC-NC -3.

Cable carriage will be mostly unchanged.

The UNC-TV -1 subchannel will be primarily HD 24/7 and the KD and NC
channels will be SD. The UNC-TV -1 channel will be in the HD format
full time but there will be some SD programs or widescreen SD programs
in the schedule. I hope this answers your questions but if not, please
feel free to e-mail me at westabrooks(*at*)unctv(*dot*)org or call me. Please also let us know where you are located and which UNC-TV station(s) you receive.

Wayne Estabrooks - Engineering Specialist
UNC Center for Public Television

You would really be crying if you saw the MPEG-4 quality on DirecTV. ;)

BS
Another uninformed post about satellite quality from a fan of a sparse HD and random reboots.

BS
Another uninformed post about satellite quality from a fan of a sparse HD and random reboots.

Huh? I have Navigator with TWC and I have DirecTV as well...why do you feel my opinion is uninformed? I have done A/B comparisons on multiple occasions. The DirecTV MPEG-4 is stellar...

The reason for my quote:

... Almost cried when we moved to a condo last year and had to install TWC because we face north. I have to admit, the quality is better overall even if the box gets stupid once and a while and I have to reboot it....

Strange! I'm watching Ghost Whisperer on WRAL 5.1. It's wide screen, but not HD via QAM. Anybody having the same problem getting it OTA or on TWC HD?

As part of the antenna work at the Auburn tower for the DTV conversion, the digital signals for WRAL-DT,WRAZ-DT,WLFL-DT,WRDC-DT as well as both DTV and analog for WNCN will be turned off for a short period of time Monday morning between 2:00 AM and 5:00 AM.

This should not affect Time-Warner systems fed by fiber.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as the stations involved perform required antenna changes and testing prior to and after February 17th, 2009.

There will be no changes to the signals afterwards, but be aware OTA viewers may have to re-scan the channels on your receivers.

Huh? I have Navigator with TWC and I have DirecTV as well...why do you feel my opinion is uninformed? I have done A/B comparisons on multiple occasions. The DirecTV MPEG-4 is stellar...
My sincerest apologies, I obviously read your post wrong.

Crying+Quality+(Sat Provider) = my misinterpretation
Usually on this forum sat quality gets bashed and nothing could be further from the truth and obviously you agree.
I really need to spend more time on the internet when I am at work so this doesn't happen again. :)
Again my apologies.

Well, today is the day for the official SDV turn on.... Has anybody noticed that their node has transitioned to SDV? Here in Apex, it looks like we are still linear but Ive only checked a few channels.

My sincerest apologies, I obviously read your post wrong.

Crying+Quality+(Sat Provider) = my misinterpretation
Usually on this forum sat quality gets bashed and nothing could be further from the truth and obviously you agree.
I really need to spend more time on the internet when I am at work so this doesn't happen again. :)
Again my apologies.

Whew...I just couldn't figure out what the post was referencing. :) Thanks for the clarification.

ugh! ABC 11 seems to have forgotten to flip the HD switch for the GT-VT game. They had this exact same problem last week for the first part of the Wake game. They'd better have this sorted out by the big game tonight b/w USC-tOSU.

ugh! ABC 11 seems to have forgotten to flip the HD switch for the GT-VT game. They had this exact same problem last week for the first part of the Wake game. They'd better have this sorted out by the big game tonight b/w USC-tOSU.


WXII, WWAY, and WCTI are not in HD for the VT / GT game either.
,

WXII, WWAY, and WCTI are not in HD for the VT / GT game either.
,

Titan TV doesnt show the game as HD.... Even the OSU game doesnt show as HD on Titan TV.

ugh! ABC 11 seems to have forgotten to flip the HD switch for the GT-VT game. They had this exact same problem last week for the first part of the Wake game. They'd better have this sorted out by the big game tonight b/w USC-tOSU.

Game wasn't done in HD...the other 2 regional games were HD, but GT-VT was in SD. Not a local issue.

Game wasn't done in HD...the other 2 regional games were HD, but GT-VT was in SD. Not a local issue.

Yep, I thought WLOS had forgotten to flip the switch when I turned to this game. Then, I remembered that not every ABC College Football game doesn't air in HD (regardless of it being an ESPN-produced telecast).

So today the East Carolina game was broadcast by WITN...in the Raleigh area, it is unavailable, unless you have a great reception from Washington (me with my indoor antenna, I dont). Even if you purchase ESPN Gameplan, the game is blackedout for the entire state, regardless of where its actually available. My question is, why do none of the Raleigh stations pick up these broadcasts and put on their subchannel? Its been done before (UNC @ ECU a few years back on WRAL, main channel no less)...Im just wondering if WITN wont allow it on a regular basis, or if none of the local stations are willing to stop broadcasting a radar loop for 3 hours :). Im not an ECU fan, but Ive got to think there are a bunch here in Raleigh and this viewing area, as well as just football fans that would like more football and to see what ECU can do this year considering they are 3-0 now.

WTVD started showing syndicated "Lost" reruns last night at 3:30 AM. The HD syndication thread indicates that many stations are showing these in HD. Our local outlet, WTVD, is not. If you care, complain to the station.

So today the East Carolina game was broadcast by WITN...in the Raleigh area, it is unavailable, unless you have a great reception from Washington (me with my indoor antenna, I dont). Even if you purchase ESPN Gameplan, the game is blackedout for the entire state, regardless of where its actually available. My question is, why do none of the Raleigh stations pick up these broadcasts and put on their subchannel? Its been done before (UNC @ ECU a few years back on WRAL, main channel no less)...Im just wondering if WITN wont allow it on a regular basis, or if none of the local stations are willing to stop broadcasting a radar loop for 3 hours :). Im not an ECU fan, but Ive got to think there are a bunch here in Raleigh and this viewing area, as well as just football fans that would like more football and to see what ECU can do this year considering they are 3-0 now.

Nothing against Boston College, but during the most recent ACC expansion I was really hoping ECU could join. I like their colors, and I like to see them doing well and they usually play some ACC schools every year anyway.

I would watch ECU games if they were on in Raleigh, especially when they are playing ranked teams like last week vs WVU... maybe if they keep winning we'll get more televised games.

Yep, I thought WLOS had forgotten to flip the switch when I turned to this game. Then, I remembered that not every ABC College Football game doesn't air in HD (regardless of it being an ESPN-produced telecast).

Even though ESPN/ABC said before the season that EVERY Game on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU would be in HD....Someone lie about HD? I'm shocked. Are we sure TW doesn't own ESPN?:D

Wow,

What a great forum. I've been looking for something like this for some time. You even have the NBC17 engineer posting. If we only had the TWC engineers also posting.

I have an EE background but have been in Digital Print Technology sales for many years. I haven't kept up with HD tech so I have much to learn. I love the quality of my 40XBR4 and continue to see what I can do to improve the quality of picture and programming. BTW - I'm encouraged by the recent improvements in TWC programming.

I recently moved to a new home in the same subdivision which has prompted some lessons. I have two tvs in the home. The older Sony on the cable box and the XBR4 was connected directly to cable. In the old home, I had problems with signal drop on the cable box. In the new home, I was having problems with signal drop directly connected to cable. BTW - the picture quality directly connected to cable is pretty awesome.

Did some investigating and have figured out the cable is split to two cables and then one split to four other cables. Once I hooked one of the main split cables to my XBR4 the signal drop stopped. Now I understand much of my previous problem is likely due to the cable splits in this subdivision. I'll get some high quality gold plated splitters to help with that.

I'm now giving up on viewing directly from cable on my XBR4. I need the box for ESPN Game Plan and I want the encoded HD channels. I'm not real happy with the quality through the box but find that it is livable. I do have to say that the quality on the ESPN Game last night was really bad but that was likely because of a bad feed. I've read back in the thread but didn't want to spend my whole day looking for answers. What I'm asking may have been covered and I saw some discussion about the 8300HDC. The big questions are 1) Will changing to the 8300HDC improve HD quality? 2) Is there any other way to improve HD quality coming from TWC?

Thanks so much for this forum. Looking forward to being a part of it.

Thanks for the updates you are giving us. It's good to know what is going on in the Raleigh area.
HDDON2

So during the NED/NYJ game, WRAL had to go down to SD in order to tell us that the news was on one of their subchannels. Sigh...

So during the NED/NYJ game, WRAL had to go down to SD in order to tell us that the news was on one of their subchannels. Sigh...

NED?

At any rate, that's odd. They did a great job of using HD crawls for weather alerts when the last hurricane blew through. You'd think they could do the same with a burb for the news..

Drew

I wondered about that also. They seem to be inconsistent with that. They also have to drop out for the lottery numbers.

Is anyone with TWC in Cary having the following problem:
If I switch the channel to 255(WRAL HD) sometimes the screen stays black -- as if no signal. If I switch to any other channel no problem. It does not happen every time- about 1 in 3 times. I can fix it by going up a channel then back down to 255. I have 2 set top boxes from TWC 8300HD and 4250HDC they both do it. I first noticed this yesterday.
Thanks

Is anyone with TWC in Cary having the following problem:
If I switch the channel to 255(WRAL HD) sometimes the screen stays black -- as if no signal. If I switch to any other channel no problem. It does not happen every time- about 1 in 3 times. I can fix it by going up a channel then back down to 255. I have 2 set top boxes from TWC 8300HD and 4250HDC they both do it. I first noticed this yesterday.
Thanks


I'm in Cary and had the same thing happened to me last night as well. I started on 255 - black screen - switched to 290, back to 255 - still black screen. Channel up, then channel down to 255 and it then showed programming.

I started having problems with the 3 WRAL digital channels Monday morning. CableCard set is the worst - reception continuously cycles on and off. QAM sets do the same, but a little slower. 8300HD box reboots. I called TWC service, and they were basically clueless, and think it is a problem at my house, and will send someone out, in about a week. I talked with someone here at work, on Durham TWC system, and he said he is also having a similar problem.

From the News and Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1220591.html

TV stations to test digital Wednesday

If you get only static on your television during the 6 p.m. news Wednesday, consider yourself warned.
Many TV stations across the state will switch to digital-only broadcasting for one minute between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The idea is to alert viewers to the nationwide change coming Feb. 17, 2009, when all TV broadcasts will go digital.

In the Triangle, WRAL, WTVD and WNCN (NBC17) are participating in the test. Analog signals will be shut off for one minute, letting viewers know whether they're ready for the change coming in February.

The switch to digital will not affect those with cable hookups, digital TVs or converter boxes. But viewers who get reception over the air will lose their signal and see only static and snow.

The test comes a week after Wilmington began all digital broadcasting in advance of the national transition.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and individual broadcasters have been reminding people of the February change. Those who want to keep their analog television sets can get $40 coupons for converter boxes.

To apply for a coupon, call 1-888-388-2009 or go to www.dtv2009.gov.

But viewers who get reception over the air will lose their signal and see only static and snow.
Wouldn't it be better to show a warning message instead of snow? Some people might not know what snow is supposed to indicate.

Wouldn't it be better to show a warning message instead of snow? Some people might not know what snow is supposed to indicate.

I'd assume that the anchors will explain what's about to happen. I think the shock factor of losing the picture would be more useful to knock people awake.

Even better would be if they cut back after that minute and they pretend someone has just said something really funny during the snow. :D

I think this is a GREAT idea, as long as they explain what happened, why, and what to do next.

Just got a new Samsung PN50A550 Plasma TV. Love this set, but it has a major delay between channel changes. I have TW cable TV with a Scientific Atlanta 8300DVR. Previously I had a HD ready Sony tube TV with no problems. Now when I change channels, especially when going from a SD to a HD station (or back) there is an alert that appears saying "searching for signal". This can be up for as long as 4-5 seconds. This can't be normal. I am using HDMI connection to the box, but it does the same thing using a component connection as well. I just want to know if there's something wrong with my set since I just got it. Any help on this is appreciated.

TV stations to test digital Wednesday


I think it is a great idea... but it should be for the entire 6pm newscast, not just one minute. And, don't turn off analog, just put up a slide stating that this is a test and if you see this slide, you AREN'T ready for the digital conversion in February.

Might not be a bad idea to do this once per month, then a few more times in January. Some people might miss the news Wednesday and still be unaware.

I started having problems with the 3 WRAL digital channels Monday morning. CableCard set is the worst - reception continuously cycles on and off. QAM sets do the same, but a little slower. 8300HD box reboots. I called TWC service, and they were basically clueless, and think it is a problem at my house, and will send someone out, in about a week. I talked with someone here at work, on Durham TWC system, and he said he is also having a similar problem.

I'm having the same problem in Cary. Only affects WRAL, and *may* only be the digital feeds. FWIW, I have basic cable with the cable plugged straight into a Panasonic plasma.

Why is it that some prime time shows on the major network HD will not stretch to fill my Samsung 550? All the SD material stretches automatically...I don't have to do anything, it's the 4:3 stuff they air on the HD channels that drives me nuts. I have a plasma and don't want black bars. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Why is it that some prime time shows on the major network HD will not stretch to fill my Samsung 550? All the SD material stretches automatically...I don't have to do anything, it's the 4:3 stuff they air on the HD channels that drives me nuts. I have a plasma and don't want black bars. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

My TV will stretch anything (although I don't stretch anything).

If the signal being fed to your TV is 1080i or 720p your set may not stretch it...You might be able to hit your format (or whatever it is called) button and do it manually each time. 1080i or 720p programming that shows 4:3 with pillar bars is actually 16:9; therefore, your set sees it as such. The bars are actually part of the frame. Have you tried to stretch it manually?

I'm having the same problem in Cary. Only affects WRAL, and *may* only be the digital feeds. FWIW, I have basic cable with the cable plugged straight into a Panasonic plasma.

I was talking to Pete at WRAL yesterday and he mentioned TWC had an IP address conflict that knocked them off on a QAM feed. They are monitoring it now, but it took a little while for TWC to track it down. It should be back now.

I'll be a star tonight at around 6:10 on NBC 17 news as we do the test. Hopefully it won't be too confusing, and maybe amusing!

TV's will perform stretch-o-vision on 4:3 material, but when stations up-convert 4:3 to 16:9 1080i, the TV assumes the picture is a full 16:9 and may not automatically do a stretch. Some sets detect the black side bars and will do it. You may have a sub-menu that triggers that, but it may be one of "those things".:D

Just got a new Samsung PN50A550 Plasma TV. Love this set, but it has a major delay between channel changes. I have TW cable TV with a Scientific Atlanta 8300DVR. Previously I had a HD ready Sony tube TV with no problems. Now when I change channels, especially when going from a SD to a HD station (or back) there is an alert that appears saying "searching for signal". This can be up for as long as 4-5 seconds. This can't be normal. I am using HDMI connection to the box, but it does the same thing using a component connection as well. I just want to know if there's something wrong with my set since I just got it. Any help on this is appreciated.

What formats have you selected in the 8300HD to send to your display? If you've selected 480i/p, 720p, and 1080i, then as you change channels if the signal format changes, then the TV might be re-adjusting to a different format signal coming in. If you only send one signal type (say 1080i if you have a 1080p set) then you'll have the 8300HD do the scaling and it shouldn't have to handshake when you change channels, but picture quality may slightly suffer.

It takes a second to change channels on mine and get a picture when moving between 720p and 1080i, but on different TV's it could be shorter or longer.

Is anyone with TWC in Cary having the following problem:
If I switch the channel to 255(WRAL HD) sometimes the screen stays black -- as if no signal. If I switch to any other channel no problem. It does not happen every time- about 1 in 3 times. I can fix it by going up a channel then back down to 255. I have 2 set top boxes from TWC 8300HD and 4250HDC they both do it. I first noticed this yesterday.
Thanks

This started working OK last night and have not had this trouble today.

Thanks for the reply. I've tried everything. Funny thing is, my 8300 sometimes will not let me select 1080i in the settings menu. I set it and it goes right back to 720p. I have no idea why. I really think the box is a flake.....but it's my fourth one in the past two years and the best one by far. The other three lost their "minds" almost every day.

I watched the DTV test last night on the new with my DTV box and an old portable analog TV, very neat how that works. Went to static and then showed a message saying "You can't see DTV", or something like that. Makes me appreciate my DTV converter box. I also didn't realize there seems like a half second delay between analog and digital, I guess because of the buffering. Really neat stuff.

It appears that TWC has activated SDV in Raleigh. Check out these channels:

770 FUELSW
771 GSNSW
772 HBOFWSW
773 HBOSWSW
774 SWHDNET *
775 SWHDMO *
776 HBOWSW
777 HBOW2SW
778 BOOMSW *
779 NHLSW
780 OUTDOORSW
781 NGEOT (no signal)

* Programming I am authorized to receive. There is programming on these channels and it is a second or so ahead of it's linear version. Seems to work fine. I'm sure these duplicates are test channels. It's anybodies guess on a numbering convention that will be eventually be used for the SW (switched video) channels.

The good news is that TWC subscribers are closer to having access to much more HD programming. From a programming standpoint, TWC has HD deals for most of the big program suppliers, the exceptions being NBC Universal (in progress) and Viacom (unknown) and of course NFL Network.

Rumor has it that several HD channels will be launched before the end of the quarter, which would be before the end of the month.

Betting on that would be as risky as investing in the market.

The good news is that TWC subscribers are closer to having access to much more HD programming. From a programming standpoint, TWC has HD deals for most of the big program suppliers, the exceptions being NBC Universal (in progress) and Viacom (unknown) and of course NFL Network.

Rumor has it that several HD channels will be launched before the end of the quarter, which would be before the end of the month.

Betting on that would be as risky as investing in the market.

Yes, that is good news. I'm hoping for ESPN-U HD as it's not on DirecTV yet. :)

It appears that TWC has activated SDV in Raleigh. Check out these channels:

770 FUELSW
771 GSNSW
772 HBOFWSW
773 HBOSWSW
774 SWHDNET *
775 SWHDMO *
776 HBOWSW
777 HBOW2SW
778 BOOMSW *
779 NHLSW
780 OUTDOORSW
781 NGEOT (no signal)

* Programming I am authorized to receive. There is programming on these channels and it is a second or so ahead of it's linear version. Seems to work fine. I'm sure these duplicates are test channels. It's anybodies guess on a numbering convention that will be eventually be used for the SW (switched video) channels.

The good news is that TWC subscribers are closer to having access to much more HD programming. From a programming standpoint, TWC has HD deals for most of the big program suppliers, the exceptions being NBC Universal (in progress) and Viacom (unknown) and of course NFL Network.

Rumor has it that several HD channels will be launched before the end of the quarter, which would be before the end of the month.

Betting on that would be as risky as investing in the market.

Those test channels have been out there for several months now. Anybody out there been able to confirm that any channels were moved to SDV on the 13th? I'm beginning to wonder if the 13th was a typo in their letter to cablecard users. I've never known TW to do anything on a Saturday and all the cablecard users in Charlotte are saying their letter said the channels there will be moved on the 23rd. That is a Tuesday and which seems to be the day that TW perfers to make channel changes. SCSIRAID have you found any channels that have been moved yet?

Those test channels have been out there for several months now. Anybody out there been able to confirm that any channels were moved to SDV on the 13th? I'm beginning to wonder if the 13th was a typo in their letter to cablecard users. I've never known TW to do anything on a Saturday and all the cablecard users in Charlotte are saying their letter said the channels there will be moved on the 23rd. That is a Tuesday and which seems to be the day that TW perfers to make channel changes. SCSIRAID have you found any channels that have been moved yet?

Curious that those channels just showed up in my favorite channels menu. Perhaps SDV is being rolled out geographically and they can't actually implement it until all nodes have been activated. Who knows. They certainly hold their cards close.

Curious that those channels just showed up in my favorite channels menu. Perhaps SDV is being rolled out geographically and they can't actually implement it until all nodes have been activated. Who knows. They certainly hold their cards close.

You assume they have cards to show :D

Well never thought I would see this so quickly:

From Time Warner's channel change page(http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html)

Sept. 25, 2008: Big Ten Network will be available to Digital Sports & Games subscribers. Big Ten Network is a 24-hr channel consisting of primarily of Big Ten Conference sporting events and sports programming, as well as an amount of ancillary programming related to the Big Ten Conference member universities, their students, communities and alumni. Coverage includes live telecasts of football, basketball, baseball and Olympic sports.


Standard Definition: Channel 323
High Definition: Channel 287

(followup from a previous post)
Apparently NCN is the weakest signal I receive and every morning - it is so weak as to appear non-existent. Even on clear/dry mornings such as today. Through the day the signal improves slightly, though not enough to allow viewing of NCN programming.

All other OTA DTV signals from the Garner antenna farm are received as a strong signal with uninterrupted quality. Chapel Hill and even Greensboro DTV signals are of much better quality than NCN.

The NCN DTV signal had improved over the past year, until about a month ago - since then we are no longer able to watch NCN.

Well never thought I would see this so quickly:

From Time Warner's channel change page(http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html)

Sept. 25, 2008: Big Ten Network will be available to Digital Sports & Games subscribers. Big Ten Network is a 24-hr channel consisting of primarily of Big Ten Conference sporting events and sports programming, as well as an amount of ancillary programming related to the Big Ten Conference member universities, their students, communities and alumni. Coverage includes live telecasts of football, basketball, baseball and Olympic sports.


Standard Definition: Channel 323
High Definition: Channel 287

Makes one wonder if September 25th will bring anything else. Actually, being a Purdue grad, this is a welcome addition.

As part of the antenna work at the Auburn tower for the DTV conversion, the digital signals for WRAL-DT,WRAZ-DT,WLFL-DT,WRDC-DT as well as both DTV and analog for WNCN will be turned off for a short period of time Monday morning between 2:00 AM and 5:00 AM.

This should not affect Time-Warner systems fed by fiber.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as the stations involved perform required antenna changes and testing prior to and after February 17th, 2009.

There will be no changes to the signals afterwards, but be aware OTA viewers may have to re-scan the channels on your receivers.

I came here to post a question about NBC, and went back 4 "Pages" and found this post.

I've completely lost NBC17 via an OTA antenna. 1 month ago it was fine.
I mean it went from pure good-picture to nothing...

I'm gonna do the roof top shuffle, but did something dramatic happen (with the above information as a hint).
Did the antenna get stronger/weaker or move up/down the auburn towers in garner? I mean its weird.

Oh yeah, I have an antenna rotator

Its not just one OTA source either.
I have 2 Hauppauge cards. (1600 and 1800). (Vista Media Center).
I have a Samsung OTA tuner box.
I have a TivoHD.
And I have the television tuner itself.

I even ran a straight line from the antenna to the TV.

I have a signal amplifier and I have an attenuator. I've tried a few permutations. Amp ON/Off/Removed. Attenuator High/Low/Removed.

Is it just me? I saw one other post mentioning issues with 17.1.
I don't remember the exact date (I should have written it down).
I did watch closing ceremonies....but after that....all I remember is nothing with 17.1 Which seems right for the date mentioned in the above quote.

.....

Please use the "Quote" button, because there are alot of disjoint discussions in the one thread.

Thanks.

Is it just me? I saw one other post mentioning issues with 17.1.


I haven't watched anything recorded OTA from NBC17 in a few months. However, from a brief viewing of live tv, I *seem* to be getting WNCN just fine right now. I'll know more when NBC has stuff I want to watch next week (office, earl, svu).

I'm in Cary, in Silvergrove (near 54/Cary Pky intersection). The earlier poster complaining about poor NBC reception was also in Cary. Are you in Cary too?

Drew

I haven't watched anything recorded OTA from NBC17 in a few months. However, from a brief viewing of live tv, I *seem* to be getting WNCN just fine right now. I'll know more when NBC has stuff I want to watch next week (office, earl, svu).

I'm in Cary, in Silvergrove (near 54/Cary Pky intersection). The earlier poster complaining about poor NBC reception was also in Cary. Are you in Cary too?

Drew

I am in Apex, near the 751 and 64W intersection (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=751+64+Intersection+Apex+NC&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.089956,77.167969&ie=UTF8&ll=35.740939,-78.949814&spn=0.396258,0.602875&z=11&iwloc=addr) (east of Jordan Lake by a few miles). ( A few miles northeast of this intersection ).

I am going to a buddy's house to check his as well. He's near crossroads plaza.

(followup from a previous post)
Apparently NCN is the weakest signal I receive and every morning - it is so weak as to appear non-existent. Even on clear/dry mornings such as today. Through the day the signal improves slightly, though not enough to allow viewing of NCN programming.

All other OTA DTV signals from the Garner antenna farm are received as a strong signal with uninterrupted quality. Chapel Hill and even Greensboro DTV signals are of much better quality than NCN.

The NCN DTV signal had improved over the past year, until about a month ago - since then we are no longer able to watch NCN.

17-1 is coming in strong for me here in Apex (Near Old Jenks and 55). TiVo shows signal strength 92 and SNR 30db which is excellent. 5-1 is 92 and 29db.

http://www.skyreport.com/#article8

A DTV transition hiccup? On Wednesday, stations in North Carolina, including WRAL in Raleigh, conducted a soft test of their digital signals. The broadcaster said during the soft switch, DISH and DIRECTV aired the analog feed, which for that moment didn’t provide any programming. The station said the DBS services will turn on a digital signal by December

Week of December 15th is what I've seen for the conversion of Dish & DirecTV's SD feeds from analog to digital.

Wonder how many phone calls they got?

According to the story at WRAL.com, they got a quite a few.

I believe Bob's report above, even though I as well as a lot of other viewers aren't having an issue picking up WNCN-DT. If those of you with antennas would help me out, I'll try a little OTA experiment to see if we can scientifically prove the issue. To make this official, I will not say what I am about to do, nor when I will do it. Here's what I want you folks to do:

Check the signal strength or quality meter on your DTV OTA receivers and write down the numbers if available for all the locals daily and the time of day you took the readings. At least do the 5 digitals on the Auburn tower: 5,17,22,28,& 50.

At some point early next week, I will change something. You can send me an email (mailto:rmizelle@wncn.com) or PM here on this site daily, or wait until I say the test is over. Send me those numbers, details of your antenna, type of receiver and address. (I will not visit you, I promise, but I need your general location)

We'll see if there's a correlation in Bob's situation and I'll report back what we find. The more folks that help out, the better.

I believe Bob's report above, even though I as well as a lot of other viewers aren't having an issue picking up WNCN-DT. If those of you with antennas would help me out, I'll try a little OTA experiment to see if we can scientifically prove the issue. To make this official, I will not say what I am about to do, nor when I will do it. Here's what I want you folks to do:

Check the signal strength or quality meter on your DTV OTA receivers and write down the numbers if available for all the locals daily and the time of day you took the readings. At least do the 5 digitals on the Auburn tower: 5,17,22,28,& 50.

At some point early next week, I will change something. You can send me an email (mailto:rmizelle@wncn.com) or PM here on this site daily, or wait until I say the test is over. Send me those numbers, details of your antenna, type of receiver and address. (I will not visit you, I promise, but I need your general location)

We'll see if there's a correlation in Bob's situation and I'll report back what we find. The more folks that help out, the better.

I'm getting NCN-DT solid 90% on all three of my sets down here in Gville; indoor amp antenna.

I believe Bob's report above, even though I as well as a lot of other viewers aren't having an issue picking up WNCN-DT. If those of you with antennas would help me out, I'll try a little OTA experiment to see if we can scientifically prove the issue. To make this official, I will not say what I am about to do, nor when I will do it. Here's what I want you folks to do:

Check the signal strength or quality meter on your DTV OTA receivers and write down the numbers if available for all the locals daily and the time of day you took the readings. At least do the 5 digitals on the Auburn tower: 5,17,22,28,& 50.

At some point early next week, I will change something. You can send me an email (mailto:rmizelle@wncn.com) or PM here on this site daily, or wait until I say the test is over. Send me those numbers, details of your antenna, type of receiver and address. (I will not visit you, I promise, but I need your general location)

We'll see if there's a correlation in Bob's situation and I'll report back what we find. The more folks that help out, the better.

Would you like it in spreadsheet form, with several readings per day ? Not a problem for me - I'll try to do 2-3 readings per day on my tuners that have meters.

Good to see you Geo! Join in the fun because the more data points, the better. Oddly Greenville has not been a problem area, but in my blog I mention most of the emails come from within the 30 mile circle, and especially Moore County and Northwest of Durham. The more location points we identify, the better.

Spread sheet will be fine as that's what I'll end up plotting this in anyway.

Thanks for helping out. (and I'm sure Bob will thank you too!)

Location:
Cary...Weston Parkway and Norwell Blvd
Readings going from 77-95. Typically, 87 is the norm and it is usually rock solid there.

Let's not taint the data by posting here or discussing anything among ourselves. Please just keep a diary and email me next week, and that will give us a clear picture. (pun intended)

Have a great weekend!

Hey, NBC17ENG, anything you can do to help us with commercial volume? Watching Ryder Cup all weekend, but especially Sunday was painful. There were some network commercials that seemed louder than the program material and I know there is nothing you can do about that, but many of the local insert commercials were 10 plus dB (judging by my receivers volume control when we turned it down) louder than the rest of the commercials. The whole house shook several times when we forgot to turn the volume down.

Was the lack of 5.1 on Sunday Night Football last night just NBC17? Or was it an NBC thing?

Picture quality was nice, but no 5.1 surround last night for the duration of the game.

Hi all,

I'm having an odd problem with TWC and both of my 8300HD boxes (Original boxes not the HDC models). For some odd reason whenever I tune a 1080 feed (For example the Sunday night football game) the boxes (This happens on both boxes) will randomly reboot themselves. I can watch a 720 signal (like Fox) all day and the boxes are fine. For some reason on NBC and CBS, these boxes reboot.

The odder thing is they will reboot for a couple of times (Worst was last Sunday's football game where the box rebooted 5 times before halftime was over) and then they will be fine.

For instance, while watching Sunday night's game we had 3 reboots between the end of the 1st quarter and the end of halftime. But the rest of the game was fine. The 3rd and 4th quarters played fine with no rebooting at all.

I've pulled up the signal strength, and if I'm reading the right numbers the signal strength seems to stay around -2 to -4 I'm not sure what the strength reads right during a reboot as I never know when that is going to happen. After the 1st or 2nd reboot I'll pull up the diags and try and take a look but the signal looks right to me (Again if I'm reading it correctly), although I always seem to miss the reading right at the moment of rebooting.

This happens on both of my boxes (One in the bedroom and one in the living room). Both boxes are hooked directly to the tvs (One a 32" Olevia 532 and one a 40" Samsung a750) with monoprice HDMI cables. We have only seen this on 1080 sources (Like CBS, or NBC broadcasts) and mostly just during football (We watch very little broadcast stuff). I haven't had a chance yet to tune both tvs to the same game and see if they reboot at the same time (planing on trying that next Sunday). I also as yet have not had a chance to try any prime time shows to see if it does it there (The wife says it has, but I have no idea what she was watching when it did). Anybody have any suggestions on what's good on prime time :D

I'm mostly curious if anybody else might be seeing something along this line or if I'm on my lonesome. I've read other problems that people have had with the 8300HD (Non c models) and except for this 1080 thing, these boxes have been fine since we got them over a year ago. I've not had (knock on virtual wood) any of the problems that I've read here or have heard coworkers rant about. I just can't watch 1080 signals:(

If it makes any bit of difference, I live in the Carpenter Village area of Cary. We're right under RDU's approach lanes, but I wouldn't think that that should interfere with the cable boxes (Although you never know)

Any way any thoughts, suggestions, random thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

I'm having an odd problem with TWC and both of my 8300HD boxes (Original boxes not the HDC models). For some odd reason whenever I tune a 1080 feed (For example the Sunday night football game) the boxes (This happens on both boxes) will randomly reboot themselves. I can watch a 720 signal (like Fox) all day and the boxes are fine. For some reason on NBC and CBS, these boxes reboot.

The odder thing is they will reboot for a couple of times (Worst was last Sunday's football game where the box rebooted 5 times before halftime was over) and then they will be fine.

For instance, while watching Sunday night's game we had 3 reboots between the end of the 1st quarter and the end of halftime. But the rest of the game was fine. The 3rd and 4th quarters played fine with no rebooting at all.

I've pulled up the signal strength, and if I'm reading the right numbers the signal strength seems to stay around -2 to -4 I'm not sure what the strength reads right during a reboot as I never know when that is going to happen. After the 1st or 2nd reboot I'll pull up the diags and try and take a look but the signal looks right to me (Again if I'm reading it correctly), although I always seem to miss the reading right at the moment of rebooting.

This happens on both of my boxes (One in the bedroom and one in the living room). Both boxes are hooked directly to the tvs (One a 32" Olevia 532 and one a 40" Samsung a750) with monoprice HDMI cables. We have only seen this on 1080 sources (Like CBS, or NBC broadcasts) and mostly just during football (We watch very little broadcast stuff). I haven't had a chance yet to tune both tvs to the same game and see if they reboot at the same time (planing on trying that next Sunday). I also as yet have not had a chance to try any prime time shows to see if it does it there (The wife says it has, but I have no idea what she was watching when it did). Anybody have any suggestions on what's good on prime time :D

I'm mostly curious if anybody else might be seeing something along this line or if I'm on my lonesome. I've read other problems that people have had with the 8300HD (Non c models) and except for this 1080 thing, these boxes have been fine since we got them over a year ago. I've not had (knock on virtual wood) any of the problems that I've read here or have heard coworkers rant about. I just can't watch 1080 signals:(

If it makes any bit of difference, I live in the Carpenter Village area of Cary. We're right under RDU's approach lanes, but I wouldn't think that that should interfere with the cable boxes (Although you never know)

Any way any thoughts, suggestions, random thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Your signal level is fine, so I don't think that you have anything to worry about signal-wise unless your signal-to-noise level is too low.

I need to define a few terms before the rest of this response. The core terms are bolded. The other terms are not, but thrown in to help you understand the bolded terms and each other.

AXIOM OCAP Middleware: Cisco's official OCAP middleware that translates OCAP to native machine code with its Java virtual machine and takes care of the CableCARD for the OCAP developer.
CableCARD: A PCMCIA or CardBus card that performs decryption of digital cable for a cable box, computer, or television. All new cable boxes are required by the FCC to accept a decryptor that can later be removed instead of having an integrated decryptor that cannot be removed in an effort to force the creation of a generic cable box that you can buy at an electronics store, plug the decryptor into the cable box, plug the cable box into the cable network, and go.
MDN: Mystro Digital Navigator. This is the original interactive program guide developed in-house by Time Warner Cable. This program cannot run on cable boxes with CableCARDs because it apparently relies upon an integrated decryptor. It is written in C and is compiled to native machine code, so it is much faster than ODN.
OCAP: OpenCable Application Platform. A Java-based platform that allows any generic cable box, computer, or television that meets this specification to run any program guide written for this specification.
ODN: OCAP Digital Navigator: A port of MDN to the OCAP specification. Since boxes with CableCARDs cannot run MDN, Time Warner Cable has to deploy ODN on these boxes on Navigator-based systems because it needs the AXIOM OCAP Middleware to handle the CableCARD.

This sounds like a problem with MDN that was causing crashing during the Olympics. They were an NBC program and therefore broadcast in 1080i, and their timeslots in the guide were unusually long. Football games often have very long timeslots as well. On the Time Warner Cable Navigator forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830), someone found out that there is a bug in the current version of MDN, 2.4.1-107, that caused it to crash when watching unusually long HD programs.

MDN is written to PowerTV OS, the operating system that runs on top of Scientific Atlanta's and Cisco's cable boxes. This operating system requires the programmer to do all memory management manually and does not protect programs from corrupting each other or the operating system when there is a memory management bug in the code. My experience with MDN has suggested that there might be a memory overflow issue that is crashing you up. I used an earlier version of MDN that did not have the bug you had, but had another bug involving closed captioning, HDTV, and DVR functionality. Since my mother is an English as a Second Language person, faulty closed captioning was the critical bug that doomed my box to a box swap. The closed captioning bug was fixed for the current version, but it looks like the bug fix introduced the bug you are suffering.

ODN does not have these problems. In fact, because Java manages memory for the programmer automatically, checks all dynamic memory accesses, and thwarts all illegal memory operations; the only way a memory management bug could happen in a Java-based program is for the Java virtual machine to have a serious bug in its memory manager.

However, since ODN is written in Java, it is usually noticeably slower than MDN on comparable hardware like the 8300HD. ODN also takes longer to boot because it must first boot the PowerTV OS, then must launch the AXIOM OCAP Middleware, and this middleware must then launch ODN in its Java virtual machine. MDN boots by first booting the PowerTV OS, and then this OS launches MDN. However, if you have an old box that MDN Navigator has made sluggish, ODN on modern boxes will likely be faster than the old box.

My advice is that you need a box swap because the bug you are crashing with does not occur with ODN. Since old 8300HDs are now illegal to manufacture or import, you will get a box with a CableCARD that will run ODN. However, some of the 8300HDC and 8240HDC boxes are a bit flakier than the old 8300HD hardware-wise, so don't be afraid to swap them out if they fail. You could also wait until the next version of MDN arrives to fix this bug, but who knows when it will arrive and will it introduce another critical bug for HD viewers? I would prefer slow but stable software instead of fast and unstable software.

Thanks for taking the readings over the weekend. Send me your signal data (mailto:rmizelle@wncn.com) including location, brand / type of receiver, antenna, date / time and visual indication of the signal. (Solid, some blocking, severe blocking, or no signal)

Depending on the number of emails, I'll post results tomorrow or Thursday and explain what went on. Excel or plain text is fine.

The TWC SDV test channels in the 700's have disappeared. Give that, and with the announcement of Big Ten Network SD & HD launching Thursday, my guess is that the SDV rollout and new HD channels is about to happen. They have not yet killed the existing linear feeds of the legacy channels which are moving to SDV status.

Hi all,

I'm having an odd problem with TWC and both of my 8300HD boxes (Original boxes not the HDC models). For some odd reason whenever I tune a 1080 feed (For example the Sunday night football game) the boxes (This happens on both boxes) will randomly reboot themselves. I can watch a 720 signal (like Fox) all day and the boxes are fine. For some reason on NBC and CBS, these boxes reboot.

The odder thing is they will reboot for a couple of times (Worst was last Sunday's football game where the box rebooted 5 times before halftime was over) and then they will be fine.

For instance, while watching Sunday night's game we had 3 reboots between the end of the 1st quarter and the end of halftime. But the rest of the game was fine. The 3rd and 4th quarters played fine with no rebooting at all.

I've pulled up the signal strength, and if I'm reading the right numbers the signal strength seems to stay around -2 to -4 I'm not sure what the strength reads right during a reboot as I never know when that is going to happen. After the 1st or 2nd reboot I'll pull up the diags and try and take a look but the signal looks right to me (Again if I'm reading it correctly), although I always seem to miss the reading right at the moment of rebooting.

This happens on both of my boxes (One in the bedroom and one in the living room). Both boxes are hooked directly to the tvs (One a 32" Olevia 532 and one a 40" Samsung a750) with monoprice HDMI cables. We have only seen this on 1080 sources (Like CBS, or NBC broadcasts) and mostly just during football (We watch very little broadcast stuff). I haven't had a chance yet to tune both tvs to the same game and see if they reboot at the same time (planing on trying that next Sunday). I also as yet have not had a chance to try any prime time shows to see if it does it there (The wife says it has, but I have no idea what she was watching when it did). Anybody have any suggestions on what's good on prime time :D

I'm mostly curious if anybody else might be seeing something along this line or if I'm on my lonesome. I've read other problems that people have had with the 8300HD (Non c models) and except for this 1080 thing, these boxes have been fine since we got them over a year ago. I've not had (knock on virtual wood) any of the problems that I've read here or have heard coworkers rant about. I just can't watch 1080 signals:(

If it makes any bit of difference, I live in the Carpenter Village area of Cary. We're right under RDU's approach lanes, but I wouldn't think that that should interfere with the cable boxes (Although you never know)

Any way any thoughts, suggestions, random thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Hi,

Thanks for posting this, I have had similar problems while watching / recording HD programs over the last several weeks on NBC17 via TWC with my 8300HD. I have had the box for 18-24 months and I live near Holly Springs / Fuquay which is in the Cary area as far as TWC is concerned.

I had the same multiple reboot scenario while watching and recording the Ryder Cup golf event on Sunday. It happened 3 or 4 times between 4pm and 6pm. That falls into the long HD program category. Luckily I was able to watch in SD on another TV while the 8300HD rebooted (and rebooted, and rebooted.....)

I also had the same issue while watching the NBC Evening News, several times in the last week or the week before. One notable occurrence was while watching it after recording, the program recorded correctly but the box crashed 2 or 3 times during playback! We eventually were able to see the entire program, it did not crash at the same point in the program while re-watching. The remainder of the Evening News crashes were on other days while watching "live".

FWIW, my 8300HD is set to an output resolution of 720p to match my display.

Thanks,
Bob

Hi,

Thanks for posting this, I have had similar problems while watching / recording HD programs over the last several weeks on NBC17 via TWC with my 8300HD. I have had the box for 18-24 months and I live near Holly Springs / Fuquay which is in the Cary area as far as TWC is concerned.

I had the same multiple reboot scenario while watching and recording the Ryder Cup golf event on Sunday. It happened 3 or 4 times between 4pm and 6pm. That falls into the long HD program category. Luckily I was able to watch in SD on another TV while the 8300HD rebooted (and rebooted, and rebooted.....)

I also had the same issue while watching the NBC Evening News, several times in the last week or the week before. One notable occurrence was while watching it after recording, the program recorded correctly but the box crashed 2 or 3 times during playback! We eventually were able to see the entire program, it did not crash at the same point in the program while re-watching. The remainder of the Evening News crashes were on other days while watching "live".

FWIW, my 8300HD is set to an output resolution of 720p to match my display.

Thanks,
Bob

I've been told TWC employees are testing the fix for the MDN guide problem at home and it should be rolled out soon.

-- Jim

Well never thought I would see this so quickly:

From Time Warner's channel change page(http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/programming/channelChangeUpdate.html)

Sept. 25, 2008: Big Ten Network will be available to Digital Sports & Games subscribers. Big Ten Network is a 24-hr channel consisting of primarily of Big Ten Conference sporting events and sports programming, as well as an amount of ancillary programming related to the Big Ten Conference member universities, their students, communities and alumni. Coverage includes live telecasts of football, basketball, baseball and Olympic sports.


Standard Definition: Channel 323
High Definition: Channel 287

Being from Ohio I was ecstatic to find out we are getting the Big Ten Network. As I read further, they are putting it on the sports tier and it's going to be an extra $3.50 a month. HOW MUCH OF MY MONEY DO YOU WANT TIME WARNER??? :mad:

HOW MUCH OF MY MONEY DO YOU WANT TIME WARNER??? :mad:


Simple... ALL OF IT. :D

Being from Ohio I was ecstatic to find out we are getting the Big Ten Network. As I read further, they are putting it on the sports tier and it's going to be an extra $3.50 a month. HOW MUCH OF MY MONEY DO YOU WANT TIME WARNER??? :mad:

Does it suck to have to pay $3.50? Yes. But consider the alternative...If they didn't put it on the Sports Tier you wouldn't be getting it at all. MASN and the NFL Network refuse to let TW put them on the sports tier. As a result we have gotten neither of those channels. Less than a month ago, The Big Ten Network and Time Warner come to an agreement that lets them add it to the sports tier and less than a month later it is added here. Do I think this is clearly a way for TW to make more money by making folks pay for the Sports Tier? Yes. Do I think it's crazy what we pay TW already for the limited number of channels we get? Without a doubt. Would I rather pay $3.50 than not have it at all? Absolutely.

Does it suck to have to pay $3.50? Yes. But consider the alternative...If they didn't put it on the Sports Tier you wouldn't be getting it at all. MASN and the NFL Network refuse to let TW put them on the sports tier. As a result we have gotten neither of those channels. Less than a month ago, The Big Ten Network and Time Warner come to an agreement that lets them add it to the sports tier and less than a month later it is added here. Do I think this is clearly a way for TW to make more money by making folks pay for the Sports Tier? Yes. Do I think it's crazy what we pay TW already for the limited number of channels we get? Without a doubt. Would I rather pay $3.50 than not have it at all? Absolutely.

I hear you, but with all the other HD channels out there which TWC already has carriage agreements for but don't carry here in Raleigh, this wouldn't have been my first choice. I mean how do they justify coming up with the bandwith for the Olympics and now the Big10-HD but they still haven't found the bandwidth for CNN-HD, Discovery-HD, TLC-HD, Weather-HD, ESPNU-HD, ESPNews-HD, History-HD, etc.

I mean how do they justify coming up with the bandwith for the Olympics and now the Big10-HD but they still haven't found the bandwidth for CNN-HD, Discovery-HD, TLC-HD, Weather-HD, ESPNU-HD, ESPNews-HD, History-HD, etc.

It's very simple for them to justify... $$$$$$$$$$ I am sure that the number of sports tier subscribers will increase before this weekend. Adding CNN, ESPNU or any of the other channels does not directly increase their revenue, although I'm sure that when they do add those channels they will use it to justify a rate increase. As for where the bandwidth is coming from, all the channels during the Olympics were SDV and I wouldn't be surprised if both the SD and HD feeds for the Big Ten Network end up being SDV. If the channels they are testing down in Charlotte are any indication we should be seeing 4 or 5 new channels over the next month or so.

It's very simple for them to justify... $$$$$$$$$$ I am sure that the number of sports tier subscribers will increase before this weekend. Adding CNN, ESPNU or any of the other channels does not directly increase their revenue, although I'm sure that when they do add those channels they will use it to justify a rate increase. As for where the bandwidth is coming from, all the channels during the Olympics were SDV and I wouldn't be surprised if both the SD and HD feeds for the Big Ten Network end up being SDV. If the channels they are testing down in Charlotte are any indication we should be seeing 4 or 5 new channels over the next month or so.

Hmmmm... what are they testing in Charlotte? enquiring minds gotta know :)

Hmmmm... what are they testing in Charlotte? enquiring minds gotta know :)


From what I am reading in various post on the Charlotte Thread(http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=128876&page=153):

ABC Family HD
Planet Green HD
Disney Channel HD
ESPNU HD

You know... nothing useful or exciting but at least it would be something.

Don't forget: Starting tomorrow (Thursday) UNC-HD (http://unc-tv-dtv.blogspot.com/2008/08/viewer-question-presently-i-get-regular.html) begins running 24 hours a day OTA:

Starting Sept 25, 2008 UNC-TV will be changing its configuration of digital services. It will provided UNC-TV in high definition, UNC-KD and UNC-NC in standard definition all the time. The switching back and forth between 8 and 11pm will stop.

Don't forget: Starting tomorrow (Thursday) UNC-HD (http://unc-tv-dtv.blogspot.com/2008/08/viewer-question-presently-i-get-regular.html) begins running 24 hours a day OTA:

Thursday not-at-the-start-of-a-month is a weird day to make such a change... but aside from that... anyone know when this will actually happen?

Midnight tonight? Or just stay on once it kicks on at 8pm tonight? Or sometime during the day tomorrow?

I've noticed my Dish EPG hasn't accounted for this programming change as yet, so I'm guessing that subchannel info hasn't trickled to Tribune yet for the future... but I was curious when to expect the changeover in formats to happen as I plan on watching more PBS when it does.

You know, it makes no sense that TWC is adding Big Ten Network before ESPNUHD. This weekend, ESPNU has Virginia at Duke, Navy at Wake Forest, and South Florida at NC State...all in HD. Next weekend, Duke at Georgia Tech and possible UConn at UNC. Granted, this wouldnt help me out as I have Dish, but at least Id have plenty of friends that I could visit :). I just think in the Carolinas area, these games are going to be of more interest than whats on the BTN (which according to the TV schedule, is only 2 games period over the next 2 weekends).

At least the fact that BTN is on 287 rather than 288 means most likely 288 is reserved for ESPNU (or ESPNews)

ENDContra, here in Florence SC we got ESPNUHD about a week or so ago and got the bigten hd this morning, I was switch to dish and found out they didn't have the U hd so I have them on hold, also found out directv doesn't have the U hd either, I thought that was wierd that neither had it, but I will try again later. Right now I can't give up the U hd.

You know, it makes no sense that TWC is adding Big Ten Network before ESPNUHD. This weekend, ESPNU has Virginia at Duke, Navy at Wake Forest, and South Florida at NC State...all in HD. Next weekend, Duke at Georgia Tech and possible UConn at UNC. Granted, this wouldnt help me out as I have Dish, but at least Id have plenty of friends that I could visit :). I just think in the Carolinas area, these games are going to be of more interest than whats on the BTN (which according to the TV schedule, is only 2 games period over the next 2 weekends).

At least the fact that BTN is on 287 rather than 288 means most likely 288 is reserved for ESPNU (or ESPNews)

What will be amusing to see is if ESPNU stops broadcasting as many ACC games after they get picked up :) ie.. they seem to have a knack for broadcasting the games from an area where they aren't broadcast (yet) so that customers will call and complain until the operators do pick them up ;)

or I may just be pre-caffeine-cynical ;)

Last call!
Thanks for taking the readings over the weekend. Send me your signal data (mailto:rmizelle@wncn.com) including location, brand / type of receiver, antenna, date / time and visual indication of the signal. (Solid, some blocking, severe blocking, or no signal)

Depending on the number of emails, I'll post results tomorrow or Thursday and explain what went on. Excel or plain text is fine.

Last call!

I have data...just don't have the spreadsheet at work. I'll send to you tonight.

Last call!

You should have mine already.

How does UNC's OTA signal look this morning? Has the configuration changed yet?

- Trip

Now about comments/ complaints about ATSC -

GORGEOUS pictures when there aren't any problems. Today's windy weather doesn't help my reception AT ALL - living in a hole in a forest makes me extremely susceptible to winddriven leaves causing multipath,