I think that 11-1's quality started to go downhill well before 11-2 started broadcasting in so-called "HD".I'd have to completely agree. I distinctly remember trying to watch college football last season on ABC versus ESPN and easily noticing the quality difference was night and day. Since all sports aired on ABC are produced by ESPN and distributed on the same backend, there should be little difference. But what WTVD calls "HD" is a frankly a joke. I think this season they did try and mitigate the issue by applying a slight blur to the image, but this only adds a layer of softness to the picture that makes it only look as good as a decently upscaled DVD.

(By ESPN, I mean ESPN and ESPN2, not that crappy pixelated image that Time Warner is trying to also push off as "HD" for their SDV channels. What an embarrassment when watching ESPNU on a 106" screen!)

October 28, 2009: The following channels will be added:

Classic On Demand - Channel 512
Thriller On Demand - Channel 513
Kids/Teens On Demand - Channel 514
Action On Demand - Channel 515
Comedy On Demand - Channel 516
Drama On Demand - Channel 517
Lo Mejor On Demand - Channel 547
HBO 2 East HD - Channel 414
BBC America HD - Channel 235
Headline News HD - Channel 232
Investigation Discovery HD - Channel 236
truTV HD - Channel 242
MSNBC HD - Channel 233
TCM HD - Channel 243


November 24, 2009: The following channels will be added:

HBO Signature East HD - Channel 415
HBO Family East HD - Channel 416
HBO Comedy East HD - Channel 417
HBO Zone East HD - Channel 418
HBO Latino East HD - Channel 419
Showtime Too HD - Channel 454
Action Max HD - Channel 436
Cartoon HD - Channel 230
WE HD - Channel 231
IFC HD - Channel 306

Can someone tell me why WRAL isn't showing any NFL football right now? It's 1:30 and they are showing the f-ing Wedding Singer instead of the NFL. What the hell?????? :mad::mad:

Can someone tell me why WRAL isn't showing any NFL football right now? It's 1:30 and they are showing the f-ing Wedding Singer instead of the NFL. What the hell?????? :mad::mad:

They have only one game (Bills / Panthers @4pm) this weekend, and Fox has 2. It seems to trade off like this, where Fox has 2 and CBS has 1, then CBS has 2 and Fox has 1. They've been doing it like this for years. Complain to the money-grubbing scumbags that run the NFL. And while you're at it, ask them to offer a paid streaming service like the MLB.tv for their games, so we can watch out-of-market NFL without being beholden to DirecTV, which many fans can't get (trees, landlords, HOAs, etc) even if they are willing to pay their exorbitant rates. I would kill for NFL.tv.

Drew

PS: Go Bills (I know, that's going to make me really popular around here, but I'm just so excited to finally see my team w/o having to go to a sports bar)

Thanks for the explanation.

a 32" tv isn't going to "expose" mpeg macroblocking like a 70" tv will. the smaller the TV, the less dependence on high quality encoding. try standing closer to your 32" TV, like maybe 2 feet away. any macroblocking should be more apparent.


Ain't no macroblocking happening today, gentlemen - at least when I tell the TV to do a 1:1 of a 720p component feed. And I was watching from about 3-4 feet from the screen.

Now, When I looked at it from my PC (again OTA 11.1) - and went full screen - I did see some fuzzing / muddying up of text graphics (white text on a black background was where it really showed). But again - no other macroblocking etc. (and I've been a Dish sub long enough that I KNOW what that looks like).

I can send you a 20GB recording of the race if you would like to examine it yourself.

I would suggest that it's your upscaling on your TVs that's causing your issues.

Ain't no macroblocking happening today, gentlemen - at least when I tell the TV to do a 1:1 of a 720p component feed. And I was watching from about 3-4 feet from the screen.

Now, When I looked at it from my PC (again OTA 11.1) - and went full screen - I did see some fuzzing / muddying up of text graphics (white text on a black background was where it really showed). But again - no other macroblocking etc. (and I've been a Dish sub long enough that I KNOW what that looks like).

I can send you a 20GB recording of the race if you would like to examine it yourself.

I would suggest that it's your upscaling on your TVs that's causing your issues.

Are you watching on DISH or OTA? When you watch cars move, you don't see macroblocking. However, when graphics come on the screen (like you are watching ESPN of ABC)...watch the graphics as they "disappear". You can see macrblocking every time.

Are you watching on DISH or OTA? When you watch cars move, you don't see macroblocking. However, when graphics come on the screen (like you are watching ESPN of ABC)...watch the graphics as they "disappear". You can see macrblocking every time.

I'm watching the race OTA. I'll take a better look now that I know what you're talking about.

PS: Go Bills (I know, that's going to make me really popular around here, but I'm just so excited to finally see my team w/o having to go to a sports bar)

2nd that Drew...I'm a western NYer myself, glad to see them on TV!

I'm watching the race OTA. I'll take a better look now that I know what you're talking about.

The only time I notice actual blocking on races is in a quick transition or the closeup of hte cars shows focussed crowd flying by behind them. THis causes problems no matter what, but looks worse on ABC than it used to.

The real problem is the overall compression and softness. Look at the edge of any graphic and you get tons of compression caused edge problems, sometimes extending a dozen or more pixels away from the graphic. It is very noticeable even at beyond normal viewing distances to me. I notice this on 3 1080i plasmas and 2 720 LCDs veiwing OTA so it is not merely cross conversions IMO.

Anyone having problems tuning FXHD in the last day or two, specifically on cablecard?

I can tune it but I have a friend about a mile away who hasn't been able to, on a Tivo S3 with cablecard. Equipment has been restarted.

The only time I notice actual blocking on races is in a quick transition or the closeup of hte cars shows focussed crowd flying by behind them. THis causes problems no matter what, but looks worse on ABC than it used to.

The real problem is the overall compression and softness. Look at the edge of any graphic and you get tons of compression caused edge problems, sometimes extending a dozen or more pixels away from the graphic. It is very noticeable even at beyond normal viewing distances to me. I notice this on 3 1080i plasmas and 2 720 LCDs veiwing OTA so it is not merely cross conversions IMO.

If you look hard enough at ANY digital TV - you can get blurry background flying by while the object they are tracking stays perfect.

On the 2nd paragraph - I guess I'm conditioned by years of barely adequate DBS SD to notice things like that. That's one reason our normal viewing distance is in the 10-15 feet range - so little issues like that get hidden.

October 28, 2009: The following channels will be added:

Classic On Demand - Channel 512
Thriller On Demand - Channel 513
Kids/Teens On Demand - Channel 514
Action On Demand - Channel 515
Comedy On Demand - Channel 516
Drama On Demand - Channel 517
Lo Mejor On Demand - Channel 547
HBO 2 East HD - Channel 414
BBC America HD - Channel 235
Headline News HD - Channel 232
Investigation Discovery HD - Channel 236
truTV HD - Channel 242
MSNBC HD - Channel 233
TCM HD - Channel 243


November 24, 2009: The following channels will be added:

HBO Signature East HD - Channel 415
HBO Family East HD - Channel 416
HBO Comedy East HD - Channel 417
HBO Zone East HD - Channel 418
HBO Latino East HD - Channel 419
Showtime Too HD - Channel 454
Action Max HD - Channel 436
Cartoon HD - Channel 230
WE HD - Channel 231
IFC HD - Channel 306

The new HD channels are up and running at my house a day early, Raleigh near Crabtree Valley Mall. (Except for all the "On Demand" faux channels). Starting to get aggressively pounded by AT&T Uverse marketing. The race is on....

On Friday I finished installing Windows 7 on my dual TWC CableCARD system. Because it is Windows 7, I'm able to use the SDV tuning adapter, which is working well. I'm now getting all non-demand channels, including Fox Sports South HD and ESPNU-HD.

The TWC technician (who was surprisingly adept) said that they had done one installation in Garner, but couldn't get it working. The reason is that the ATI tuner firmware update and the SDV tuning adapter drivers are not yet available to the public (they were supposed to be available last week!). I'm not able to forward these to anyone, but can say that the system is running solidly. After 4 days I have had no CableCARD pairing issues (have one single-channel, and one multi-stream).

Pretty soon, Microsoft will release the tool which will allow any fairly new PC (not just certified systems) to run CableCARD tuners with Windows 7 Media Center. For those of you have been watching this possibility, my advice is to wait until ?February? when the Ceton 6-tuner internal card is said to be released. Right now you can get a pair of external ATI CableCARD tuners, but they are $400 a piece, and cannot handle multistream, so you will tune exactly one channel per tuner + CableCARD you purchase and rent, respectively. The Ceton tuner will enable a single Multistream CableCARD to tune SIX simultaneous streams. Very nice.

One enhancement I was excited about was the change in DRM for Media Center. Before, only cable channels tuned with an ATI DCTuner contained DRM. Windows 7 takes that away and makes the system recognize whatever the cable company is flagging, on a per-show basis. So, potentially nothing would have DRM. Unfortunately everything I've recorded in Windows 7 through Time Warner's, CableCARDs has been "copy-protected" (officially known as "copy-once"). This copy protection is important for me because I want to move recordings to the iPhone so I can watch them during lunch. Alas, there is no improvement on this topic so far when moving from Vista to 7 in Raleigh.

For those wondering about a QAM tuner, I recommend the HDHomeRun dual clear QAM tuner (~$150). It sits as a network device with two coax inputs, and offers all of Time Warner's channels up to 24, DRM-free. About 90% of what I record and watch is network TV anyway, so it makes for a nice tuner #3 and tuner #4 for the system. Yes it only does clear QAM, but honestly, the cable companies are making moves to make ATSC extinct anyway, so I'm not too worried about its inability to record ATSC channels.

For those wondering about channel mapping in Media Center 7, this is much improved. HDHomeRun is getting QAM channels (like 83.3 or so), and puts them in Media Center automatically on the correct Time Warner channel, in most cases. Some manual mapping will need to be done, but that is easy. Simply find 83.3 in the guide, and edit the channel. The next screen allows you to assign the correct channel number. From here you can merge the channels with those tuned from the ATI tuners if you want.

What I did is I mapped all HD versions of WRAL to channel 3, and gave the HDHomeRun priority. I also hid all SD versions of WRAL from the guide to avoid confusion. Now when anyone in the house tunes to 3, they will get WRAL-HD off the HDHomeRun if possible. If someone else is using both HDHomeRun QAM tuners, then it will show WRAL from TWC's 255. Of course, that is all back-end, and really improves the WAF. The bottom line is that we no longer have to map QAM channels to the 2000's and worry about whether we are recording a show in HD/SD, or the DRM-free zone or not. The wife just puts it on 3 and records!

Check out this video for how to set it up like this.
http://mynetworkproject.blogspot.com/2009/09/swap-sd-for-hd-in-your-media-center.html

If any of you have any MC7 questions, I'd be happy to help you!

I am preparing a story showcasing all of the TV options in the area. I want to do a short video of each system's UI, and need a Dish HD customer to help me out. Is there anyone here who can help me?

I am having some problems with WNCN's audio. I am viewing through clear QAM and through 255 on CableCARD (isn't that just shooting out that same clear QAM signal, only remapped?) on Time Warner Cable, and several shows I watch are coming through ONLY in the L and R front channel speakers.

I have a Yamaha 5.1 amp, and during some shows, like Jay Leno, the amp's display shows all 5 channels coming through, but all I can hear are front L and R. Also, when I throw the amp into any of the processed surround modes, I can never get audio to come through the center channel. On most "stereo" broadcasts, the amp will parse out the exactly synched common audio and throw it through the center channel while keeping the unique audio to the L and R.

During many NBC broadcasts, such as NFL football, I am getting true 5.1 sound.

Anyone have an explanation for why this is happening?

everything I've recorded in Windows 7 through Time Warner's, CableCARDs has been "copy-protected" (officially known as "copy-once"). This copy protection is important for me because I want to move recordings to the iPhone so I can watch them during lunch. Alas, there is no improvement on this topic so far when moving from Vista to 7 in Raleigh.

You should consider an HD-PVR. You hook it to the component output of your HD cable or satellite box, and it records a DRM-free MPEG4 720p or 1080i stream that you can do whatever you want with. It is fully supported in SageTV, as well as MythTV 0.22, and a number of other PVR software packages. I think there may be a plugin for MC as well.


For those wondering about a QAM tuner, I recommend the HDHomeRun dual clear QAM tuner (~$150) <...> Yes it only does clear QAM, but honestly, the cable companies are making moves to make ATSC extinct anyway, so I'm not too worried about its inability to record ATSC channels.

Uh.. the HDHomeRun is an ATSC (over the air) tuner as well as a QAM tuner. You can even run one port as ATSC and the other as QAM. Perhaps you have your acronyms confused, and you mean to say CableCard, and not ATSC? I hope the cable companies won't kill ATSC.

It sounds like you have a client / server setup. What do you use for playback devices (eg, frontends, or clients, the box you connect to the TV)?

Drew

If any of you have any MC7 questions, I'd be happy to help you!

So I've been running 7MC for a while (now finally the real deal) but just use QAM (and I only subscribe to roadrunner). So I get 4xPBS, 2xCBS, 2xFOX, 3xABC, 3xNBC, CW, myRDC, news14, WGNamerica, and ION. I've also used my antenna, but I have some issues with WUNC reception, so for now just sticking with QAM.

I don't have an HD homerun...anyway, you can bypass the tedious work of channel and guide mapping using Guide Tool (http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool) to add whatever guide info you want to use on a per channel basis, edit the channel number, etc...much easier than going through 7MC GUI. You can even add channel logos (I will post them for others if you want some that I tweaked for 7MC) or use http://mychannellogos.com/default.aspx

Anyways, 7MC and QAM plus HULU Desktop app and ZincTV works fine for us and wifey approved :cool:

Uh.. the HDHomeRun is an ATSC (over the air) tuner as well as a QAM tuner. You can even run one port as ATSC and the other as QAM. Perhaps you have your acronyms confused, and you mean to say CableCard, and not ATSC? I hope the cable companies won't kill ATSC.

It sounds like you have a client / server setup. What do you use for playback devices (eg, frontends, or clients, the box you connect to the TV)?

Drew

Yes, you are right about the HDHomeRun's abilities. I live in a hole, however, and my OTA reception is terrible. It's just simpler to grab the clear QAM off of TWC to get the locals with it.

Unfortunately, I don't have my acronyms mixed up. Because of bandwidth, cable companies want to put the entire lineup on QAM. This would require every TV for every customer to have either an internal QAM tuner or an external QAM tuner (for legacy hardware). The companies are probably going to be required to offer these boxes for free in order to keep their contracts valid.

Sage has its place, but for me Media Center, even with some DRM, is the dream system. The $200 HD-PVR is not supported in Media Center, and requires Sage customers to rent a TWC box for each HD-PVR (which is what, $20/mo?). That's a weak link in the chain that is unacceptable for me. Their boxes change channels too slowly and are too unstable. The CableCARDs are $4/mo.

My Media Center PC is directly connected to the den HDTV and audio system. I'm using 3 Linksys DMA2100 and 1 DLink DSM-750 extenders in each of my rooms through the house.

Yes, you are right about the HDHomeRun's abilities. I live in a hole, however, and my OTA reception is terrible. It's just simpler to grab the clear QAM off of TWC to get the locals with it.

And I've been screwed in the past by TWC changing the QAM frequecies without notice, and/or breaking the cable virtual channel table, so I prefer to use OTA. A $70 investment in an antenna and an afternoon of fishing wires beats chasing QAM.


Unfortunately, I don't have my acronyms mixed up. Because of bandwidth, cable companies want to put the entire lineup on QAM. This would require every TV for every customer to have either an internal QAM tuner or an external QAM tuner (for legacy hardware). The companies are probably going to be required to offer these boxes for free in order to keep their contracts valid.

You're talking about cable companies shutting off their analog broadcast. That still doesn't affect the free ATSC that broadcasters offer over the air. Also, from the companies that have already switched (mostly Comcast), they generally encrypt nearly everything, so all that a non-cable card "clear" QAM tuner in a TV, or in an HDHR could receive would be the "basic" channels. Eg, no ESPN, CNN, etc.


Sage has its place, but for me Media Center, even with some DRM, is the dream system. The $200 HD-PVR is not supported in Media Center, and requires Sage customers to rent a TWC box for each HD-PVR (which is what, $20/mo?). That's a weak link in the chain that is unacceptable for me. Their boxes change channels too slowly and are too unstable. The CableCARDs are $4/mo.

I thought a non-DVR box was less than that ($10?). I don't even have cable. Nearly anything I want is available via hulu or similar. As to the tuning adapters being the weak link -- maybe in Windows, but I know many Linux SageTV / MythTV users who swear by the things. The advantage is that the format is open. Until somebody breaks the CC DRM, you'll need an HD-PVR or similar if you want to transcode your premium shows to use on your own terms.


My Media Center PC is directly connected to the den HDTV and audio system. I'm using 3 Linksys DMA2100 and 1 DLink DSM-750 extenders in each of my rooms through the house.

How snappy is the gui? What are the drawbacks as compared to a PC client? I think there is a commercial skipping extension for 7MC. Will that work in the extender like it does on SageTV.

BTW, I don't want to sound like I'm too much of a SageTV advocate. I'm not, and I'm looking for alternatives. SageTV's extenders are flaky, and painfully slow, and the GUI is state-of-the-art for 1995. But my HD100 extenders spank any PC playback I've ever seen in terms of quality. This is mostly due to how MythTV fails to properly display telecined HD, but the Sigma chipset in my HD100 looks better (to me) than 7MC running on an Nvidia Ion. And 7MC was nearly as sluggish on the Ion as SageTV was on the HD100 extender.

Drew

If you look hard enough at ANY digital TV - you can get blurry background flying by while the object they are tracking stays perfect.



You are right, all HD is like that, but I have noticed it becoming much more prevalent since they started teh Live Well crap on ABC.

...
Unfortunately, I don't have my acronyms mixed up. Because of bandwidth, cable companies want to put the entire lineup on QAM. This would require every TV for every customer to have either an internal QAM tuner or an external QAM tuner (for legacy hardware). The companies are probably going to be required to offer these boxes for free in order to keep their contracts valid.
...

But what does any of that have to do with ATSC?

But what does any of that have to do with ATSC?

Perhaps he is talking about analog cable tuners. I could see in the years down the road TVs only having QAM and ATSC tuners and forgoing the old "cable-ready (i.e. analog cable tuner capable)" tuners.

Perhaps he is talking about analog cable tuners. I could see in the years down the road TVs only having QAM and ATSC tuners and forgoing the old "cable-ready (i.e. analog cable tuner capable)" tuners.

I think that's what he's talking about.

My impression from the MythTV and SageTV communities is that the cable companies that have gone all digital have first made the "standard" (eg, Ch 15 -> 75) lineup available via clear QAM, and then they rent customers "Digital Tuning Adapters" (DTAs) that are basically just a QAM tuner that does channel re-mapping. At this point, if you have a QAM tuner in your TV (or HTPC) you're golden. After a while, they began encrypting some or all of those channels, so you end up roughly where we are now: all QAM is encrypted except for the local broadcast channels, and maybe one or two others. But at this point, you no longer have analog, and all TVs need a box to get ESPN, CNN, etc. I think this happened because the DTAs are non-cable card boxes, and they received a waiver from the FCC in order to enable encryption on non-cable card DTAs.
See, for example, http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43792

Drew

(Scratch what I said bout ATSC.) I'm talking about the cable companies going to total encrypted QAM for the entire band, except for unencrypted for locals they may be contractually obligated to carry. Two months ago the FCC granted permission (http://www.multichannel.com/article/328866-FCC_Grants_DTA_Waivers_To_Four_Vendors.php) to the cable companies' request of presenting encrypted QAM across the entire band, requiring settop boxes on all TVs.

What I'm talking about is referenced in these articles:

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=637 (http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=637)
http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/08/28/clear-qam-hd-isnt-going-anywhere/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/13/would-dual-must-carry-be-good-or-bad-for-hdtv/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/07/comcast-begins-digital-transition-in-chicago/

I don't think our locals will be encrypted, but there are some cable operators who currently are.

HDHomeRUN: Yeah, the ATSC might be worth a day in the attic, given that there is less compression in OTA signals than what TWC packages, I just haven't gotten any success with receiving all of them correctly.

MediaCenter: The extenders are very snappy. Granted, I am only using them on 13" TVs in bedrooms and the kitchen. I have heard very good things about the XBox360's abilities as an extender, and the newer ones are quiet enough to use now. I am going to do a big comparison, complete with HD video of each interface, of each of the area's TV options, so you'll see the interface there.

(Scratch what I said bout ATSC.) I'm talking about the cable companies going to total encrypted QAM for the entire band, except for unencrypted for locals they may be contractually obligated to carry.

OK, so I guessed what you were trying to say.. I think the FCC should have never issued that waiver without requiring the cable companies to offer a-la-carte programming. The technical reason for bundles is analog filtering limitations. Since encryption can be done at the channel granularity, they should be required to offer channels a-la-carte if they want to use these DTA and encrypt QAM.

HDHomeRUN: Yeah, the ATSC might be worth a day in the attic, given that there is less compression in OTA signals than what TWC packages, I just haven't gotten any success with receiving all of them correctly.


Unless something has changed in the last few weeks, TWC does not compress OTA when they transfer it to QAM. But in some sense you're right -- if you have a good enough antenna, you can pick up the Greensboro CBS and ABC affiliates, and get a less compressed HD signal than WRAL and WTVD offer us.

Drew

Someone at NBC17 fell asleep and hit the control board tonight. A total mess on Conan.

They dropped local ads in during the monologue, came back in time for Conan to go to the ads, had to spin the peacock logo for a minute during the designated local ad spot because they then had nothing to show, and then came back too late and ran into the desk opening.

Unless something has changed in the last few weeks, TWC does not compress OTA when they transfer it to QAM. But in some sense you're right -- if you have a good enough antenna, you can pick up the Greensboro CBS and ABC affiliates, and get a less compressed HD signal than WRAL and WTVD offer us.

Drew

There also may be perceived differences between OTA and QAM that are tuner-related. Just because on paper they should result in the same quality picture, I'm sure there may be tuner processing differences that could account for a difference one way or another. Just thinking out loud.

WRAY is being sold to the company that owns WLXI in Greensboro. Expect religion to appear there in HD stretch-o-vision at some point.

- Trip

That reminds me... Wasn't there rumors/speculation of Ion going HD at some point?

ION went HD in a few places, then went bankrupt. I haven't heard about any upgrades since. The nearest, I think, is Norfolk, where WPXV 49-1 is in 720p.

- Trip

Thanks, Trip... I don't always get Ion well enough but if they had gone HD I would make more of an effort to boost my signal reception.

So, I'm home sick, channel surfing OTA. WUNC has their 4-1 1080i channel showing kids cartoons, and their 4-3 480i channel showing beautiful travel shows. Who was the braniac that decided to show cartoons in 1080i HD, and scenic travel shows in 480i? Can we get a little common sense here..? I mean come on, I've got a 3 year old. He doesn't care if Curious George and WordWorld are in HD. All he cares is that he gets to watch them.

Drew

So, I'm home sick, channel surfing OTA. WUNC has their 4-1 1080i channel showing kids cartoons, and their 4-3 480i channel showing beautiful travel shows. Who was the braniac that decided to show cartoons in 1080i HD, and scenic travel shows in 480i? Can we get a little common sense here..? I mean come on, I've got a 3 year old. He doesn't care if Curious George and WordWorld are in HD. All he cares is that he gets to watch them.

Drew

Some cartoons do look nice in HD... but overall I do agree with you. I've noted some programs airing on 4-2 as well that would be better served in HD than on the SD sub-channel.

I don't have Time-Warner... Anyone know if cable is getting any other HD feeds than the 4-1 still? I remember when they first went to the 24/7 HD OTA feed with mixed SD/HD programming Time Warner still had the 24/7 all-HD-all-the-time feed from UNC.

So, I'm home sick, channel surfing OTA. WUNC has their 4-1 1080i channel showing kids cartoons, and their 4-3 480i channel showing beautiful travel shows. Who was the braniac that decided to show cartoons in 1080i HD, and scenic travel shows in 480i? Can we get a little common sense here..? I mean come on, I've got a 3 year old. He doesn't care if Curious George and WordWorld are in HD. All he cares is that he gets to watch them.

Drew

I was told they're ultimately planning to get rid of kids shows on 4-1 in favor of the 24/7 UNC-KD feed. However, since UNC-KD is not carried on all systems on the same tier of service, they can't do it yet.

- Trip

I was told they're ultimately planning to get rid of kids shows on 4-1 in favor of the 24/7 UNC-KD feed. However, since UNC-KD is not carried on all systems on the same tier of service, they can't do it yet.

- Trip

If they do that... I hope they won't ditch them all. Lots of OTA folks would miss out on Sesame Street in HD if they are not getting it OTA and don't have cable.

I'm out of the age group, but admit to sneaking a peek now and then just to see familiar old characters in HD.

Up until about a month ago using Win 7 RC, I received Time Warner Raleigh 4.1 and 5.1 in HD and their respective subchannels were also available. Now the MC Guide has only 4.1 and 5.1 (no subchannels) and the actual channel shown is SD.

I just installed the "real" Windows 7 hoping it would solve the problem. No luck. Exactly the same symptoms

I've tried manually entering the channels but MC won't ask me for the physical channel. I don't know the correct QAM channels but am guessing 85.x for 5.1 and 90.x for 4.1 and would try experimenting if I could only enter the physical channel.

I set up with TWC Digital Cable selected with an AVerTV Combo PCI-E M780 and the drivers (2.5.64.32) that came with Win 7.

Any local Media Center user out successfully getting these channels? Thanks!

If they do that... I hope they won't ditch them all. Lots of OTA folks would miss out on Sesame Street in HD if they are not getting it OTA and don't have cable.

I'm out of the age group, but admit to sneaking a peek now and then just to see familiar old characters in HD.

I actually have a 3 year old. Earlier this year when they started showing Sesame Street in HD, I recorded a few but soon decided it was a waste of space. The problem was that the new segments were HD, but the recycled segments were up-converted SD, so not much of the show was actually in HD. The kid didn't seem to care much either way. Now he seems to have moved on, and prefers WordWorld & Curious George. Both of those look fine in SD, so I've setup my recordings to always record from the SD 4.2 to save space. Beleive me, he'd rather have 50 or 60 episodes to choose from than have 5 or 10 in HD.

Drew

I was told they're ultimately planning to get rid of kids shows on 4-1 in favor of the 24/7 UNC-KD feed. However, since UNC-KD is not carried on all systems on the same tier of service, they can't do it yet.

- Trip

That sounds familiar... And they are boxed in by incompetent cable companies, and out of spec digital tuners, so they can't do something creative, like make 4-3 HD from 8am-6pm, or have the cable companies carry 4-2 WUNC-KIDS from 8am to 6pm..

Drew

I actually have a 3 year old. Earlier this year when they started showing Sesame Street in HD, I recorded a few but soon decided it was a waste of space. The problem was that the new segments were HD, but the recycled segments were up-converted SD, so not much of the show was actually in HD. The kid didn't seem to care much either way. Now he seems to have moved on, and prefers WordWorld & Curious George. Both of those look fine in SD, so I've setup my recordings to always record from the SD 4.2 to save space. Beleive me, he'd rather have 50 or 60 episodes to choose from than have 5 or 10 in HD.

Drew

I thought that was essentially what UNC-KD was for anyway... for all the kids programs. I realize Sesame St still recycles old SD footage (some of that brings back memories of my childhood so it's nice)... but I'll still give it a slight pass because they are making new HD footage.

But for the other stuff, especially the stuff they aren't showing in HD at all... seems like the 4.2 sub-channel OTA covers it. They even repeat the morning Sesame St in the afternoon on 4.2 in SD around the time kids get home from school.

I am disappointed that there isn't more HD on 4.1, since we know they have more than they show on a daily basis.

Up until about a month ago using Win 7 RC, I received Time Warner Raleigh 4.1 and 5.1 in HD and their respective subchannels were also available. Now the MC Guide has only 4.1 and 5.1 (no subchannels) and the actual channel shown is SD.

I just installed the "real" Windows 7 hoping it would solve the problem. No luck. Exactly the same symptoms

I've tried manually entering the channels but MC won't ask me for the physical channel. I don't know the correct QAM channels but am guessing 85.x for 5.1 and 90.x for 4.1 and would try experimenting if I could only enter the physical channel.

I set up with TWC Digital Cable selected with an AVerTV Combo PCI-E M780 and the drivers (2.5.64.32) that came with Win 7.

Any local Media Center user out successfully getting these channels? Thanks!

This does work, QAM and 7MC. The easiest way is to install guide tool http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool then you can go the the appropriate QAM channel...use http://home.roadrunner.com/~res18h39/channels.htm for the physical addresses of the channels (e.g. 85.2, 85.3 for WRAL-DT and WRAL-DT2) and you can easily map the channel guide info to your new QAM channel, and you can make it whatever channel number you want it to appear as in 7MC. You can also do this through the 7MC GUI, but its tedious to map 20 channels this way. Let me know if you need more help.

NitDawg

This does work, QAM and 7MC. The easiest way is to install guide tool http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool then you can go the the appropriate QAM channel...use http://home.roadrunner.com/~res18h39/channels.htm (http://home.roadrunner.com/%7Eres18h39/channels.htm) for the physical addresses of the channels (e.g. 85.2, 85.3 for WRAL-DT and WRAL-DT2) and you can easily map the channel guide info to your new QAM channel, and you can make it whatever channel number you want it to appear as in 7MC. You can also do this through the 7MC GUI, but its tedious to map 20 channels this way. Let me know if you need more help.

Yep, I had to do the same thing last night to setup WMC7 with WRAL and UNC using HDHomerun.

Very slow process but it works in the end.

Yep, I had to do the same thing last night to setup WMC7 with WRAL and UNC using HDHomerun.

Very slow process but it works in the end.

Same here. The HD Homerun app at least does a scan first and reports the correct channels that need to be added in media center.

It looks like the latest driver from silicon dust will automate some of this:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7683

Anyone having problem fast forwarding on their DVR? I have an 8300HD DVR and the CSI: Miami from last night doesn't seem to fast forward correctly. I know it is going forward but the screen doesn't update to show the content at the same rate. I tested with Heroes and it was fine, so it seems to be only happening with CSI: Miami at the moment.

got upgraded to MDN 2.4.6-19 yesterday and Sort by Favorites is gone. One of the few features that made keeping the TWC DVR bearable! Why in the world would they remove functionality!?! (rhetorical question)

got upgraded to MDN 2.4.6-19 yesterday and Sort by Favorites is gone. One of the few features that made keeping the TWC DVR bearable! Why in the world would they remove functionality!?! (rhetorical question)


I was wondering the same thing....(rhetorical answer :) )

\rant on
The old rule about not removing things without adding something "better" is only a rule for those organizations who want to please their external customers. 'Nuff said.....
\rant off

Bob

This does work, QAM and 7MC. The easiest way is to install guide tool http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool then you can go the the appropriate QAM channel...use http://home.roadrunner.com/~res18h39/channels.htm for the physical addresses of the channels (e.g. 85.2, 85.3 for WRAL-DT and WRAL-DT2) and you can easily map the channel guide info to your new QAM channel, and you can make it whatever channel number you want it to appear as in 7MC. You can also do this through the 7MC GUI, but its tedious to map 20 channels this way. Let me know if you need more help.

NitDawg
I've installed the GuideTool but still am confused and found no help info.

For WRALDT I tried overtyping the 5.1 with 85.2 and got the message "Service is scrambled The current service is encrypted and cannot be viewed at this time.

I see all the Cxx.x listings which I guess are for the QAM subchannels but 85.2 to 85.4 are not included.

I tried using the TWC channel 255 but still got the SD picture.

WTVD and WNCN are listed with all their subchannels and work correctly.

Even with the GuideTool I don't see how to indicate all 3 parameters, the 5.1listing number, the QAM 85.2 number, and the appropriate guide listing.

I've installed the GuideTool but still am confused and found no help info.

For WRALDT I tried overtyping the 5.1 with 85.2 and got the message "Service is scrambled The current service is encrypted and cannot be viewed at this time.

I see all the Cxx.x listings which I guess are for the QAM subchannels but 85.2 to 85.4 are not included.

I tried using the TWC channel 255 but still got the SD picture.

WTVD and WNCN are listed with all their subchannels and work correctly.

Even with the GuideTool I don't see how to indicate all 3 parameters, the 5.1listing number, the QAM 85.2 number, and the appropriate guide listing.

Well let's start just through MC...I'm not at home, but go into 7MC, under 'Settings', 'TV', 'Guide', and I think its under add missing channels...select that, enter 85.2, then 64 for the modulation (I think) then you type in a name, WRAL-DT, then that's it. Then you can go into the Guide menu under TV settings, scroll all the way down to 85.2 and manually select the guide listing. Does that work?

got upgraded to MDN 2.4.6-19 yesterday and Sort by Favorites is gone. One of the few features that made keeping the TWC DVR bearable! Why in the world would they remove functionality!?! (rhetorical question)

Time Warner's response ... unsatisfactory, as expected:

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable Email Support.
I understand after the Navigator upgrade, sort by favorites feature is unavailable. You have found that this feature is still on the website.
I apologize for the inconvenience and will be glad to help you.
Thank you for bringing this to our notice. We will share your suggestion with our technical team is working on several improvements to the Search functionality. With the latest improvement, when you press B for search, the keyboard displays immediately. You can then press and hold any of the arrow keys to skip quickly through the letters and it will wrap around to the next row.
With the next phase of improvements, when you press B for Search, the program list displayed to the right of the keyboard will be positioned on the title of the program you are either currently watching or have navigated to in the Guide.
A later phase of improvements will allow you to search for a channel number by entering the name of the network. It will further consolidate multiple listings for the same show.

Well let's start just through MC...I'm not at home, but go into 7MC, under 'Settings', 'TV', 'Guide', and I think its under add missing channels...select that, enter 85.2, then 64 for the modulation (I think) then you type in a name, WRAL-DT, then that's it. Then you can go into the Guide menu under TV settings, scroll all the way down to 85.2 and manually select the guide listing. Does that work?
Finally some progress! Adding 85.2 and 90.2 got me an HD picture. I was then able to associate the 5.1 and 4.1 guides. I have no idea why it worked this time vs. my many previous attempts but now we're getting somewhere.

Thanks for you help!

One more thing...is it possible to have them show up in the Guide listings as 5.1 and 4.1?

Hey guys, I have a quick question. I haven't had a TWC Digital cable box since February (I've been using QAM), but I am thinking about getting one soon. What is the best box to get? I used to have the SA 3250HD, but I was not impressed with either the picture quality or performance with SDV channels. Is there a newer box that I could get?

By the way, I am not interested in a DVR.

Finally some progress! Adding 85.2 and 90.2 got me an HD picture. I was then able to associate the 5.1 and 4.1 guides. I have no idea why it worked this time vs. my many previous attempts but now we're getting somewhere.

Thanks for you help!

One more thing...is it possible to have them show up in the Guide listings as 5.1 and 4.1?

Yes, if you installed guide tool, you can change the channel numbers on the right column...change 85.2 to 5.1 etc.

Through the 7MC GUI you can also do this...'Settings' 'TV' 'Guide' 'Edit Channel Info' then select 85.2 and you can change the channel number to 5.1...this is the 'virtual' channel number...save it, go back to your guide and you should be good to go.

NitDawg

Yes, if you installed guide tool, you can change the channel numbers on the right column...change 85.2 to 5.1 etc.

Through the 7MC GUI you can also do this...'Settings' 'TV' 'Guide' 'Edit Channel Info' then select 85.2 and you can change the channel number to 5.1...this is the 'virtual' channel number...save it, go back to your guide and you should be good to go.

NitDawg
Thanks, nitdawg!!! It's all come together now with your excellent help.

Does anybody know to report these channel errors to Microsoft so we don't have to jump through hoops and rely on the kindness of strangers?

Time-Warner will switch NBC 17 to a new QAM frequency Wednesday night. This may require re-scanning channels on Thursday. I would imagine other changes will be made, but have no direct knowledge of any other changes. They just said we were moving.

If you see or don't see things correctly Thursday, re-scanning may bring things back to normal.

Time-Warner will switch NBC 17 to a new QAM frequency Wednesday night....

Thanks for the heads up!

Did they say what time things would change? I'm assuming overnight, which might hose the late night talk shows that I like to record.

Thanks, nitdawg!!! It's all come together now with your excellent help.

Does anybody know to report these channel errors to Microsoft so we don't have to jump through hoops and rely on the kindness of strangers?

No problem!

Hey guys, I have a quick question. I haven't had a TWC Digital cable box since February (I've been using QAM), but I am thinking about getting one soon. What is the best box to get? I used to have the SA 3250HD, but I was not impressed with either the picture quality or performance with SDV channels. Is there a newer box that I could get?

By the way, I am not interested in a DVR.

I am in a similar situation, have a HD-DVR for one TV but need a new non-DVR HD box for another. Any recommendations or cautions before I head to the Cary TWC office?

Thanks,
Bob

Time-Warner will switch NBC 17 to a new QAM frequency Wednesday night. This may require re-scanning channels on Thursday. I would imagine other changes will be made, but have no direct knowledge of any other changes. They just said we were moving.

If you see or don't see things correctly Thursday, re-scanning may bring things back to normal.

Thanks for keeping us ahead of TW. The thing is my family in your viewing area on TW cable doesn't know how to rescan and will just watch analog until I visit again and do it for them!:eek:

Anyone using a Moxi w/tuning adapter?

The latest downgrade/upgrade to Navigator is grinding my bones and I think I'd rather deal with a CableCard and a tuning box rather than using a TWC box much longer.

AT&T is showing it as available in my neighborhood (southern Chapel Hill). Anyone in the area live with it?

How is PQ? I find cable appalling (compared to Dish), but stick with it because RR is so far superior.

Perhaps I will Guinea Pig....

Anyone else see the CMA's last night? The broadcast mix was HORRIBLE. Like, when Brad Paisley and Taylor Swift performed at the beginning, there were no vocals. None.

They should fire whoever was in charge of the mix for that show.

AT&T is showing it as available in my neighborhood (southern Chapel Hill). Anyone in the area live with it?

How is PQ? I find cable appalling (compared to Dish), but stick with it because RR is so far superior.

Perhaps I will Guinea Pig....

PQ is okay, probably not as good as Dish, about the same as TWC. However, I do not get the picture breakup that I got with TWC. The internet is as good or better.

Thanks for keeping us ahead of TW. The thing is my family in your viewing area on TW cable doesn't know how to rescan and will just watch analog until I visit again and do it for them!:eek:

So has anyone noticed a change?

I did a rescan on my HD Homerun tuner and I don't think WNCNDT TWC channel 217 moved.

I did notice some other channels moved around, or at least the HD Homerun view of channel names, TWC channel guide numbers and frequencies changed. I even had TCM HD in the clear for a few minutes :-).

So has anyone noticed a change?

I did a rescan on my HD Homerun tuner and I don't think WNCNDT TWC channel 217 moved.

I did notice some other channels moved around, or at least the HD Homerun view of channel names, TWC channel guide numbers and frequencies changed. I even had TCM HD in the clear for a few minutes :-).

According to Russ's blog, it was put on hold....

BTW, I picked up a SA4240HDC the other day and so far I have had no problems with it. Also, it looked like it was a new box (meaning that now one else has used it before me), so that's always a plus.

I am in a similar situation, have a HD-DVR for one TV but need a new non-DVR HD box for another. Any recommendations or cautions before I head to the Cary TWC office?

Thanks,
Bob

Have any channels recently received a boost in power? I've noticed ion in Raleigh seems to be up about 20% compared to a few months ago. Also the Raleigh Spanish language channel seems to be up about 20% as well. Could this be because of the season or did some of these channels actually get a boost?

Have any channels recently received a boost in power? I've noticed ion in Raleigh seems to be up about 20% compared to a few months ago. Also the Raleigh Spanish language channel seems to be up about 20% as well. Could this be because of the season or did some of these channels actually get a boost?

Depends on your location, also, with the leaves coming down that should help some marginal situations.

WTVD has gotten a recent power boost granted from the FCC, but the ION / Spanish station (they're more southerly - towards Fayetteville) have been pretty much been at max licensed power since well before June 12. There is also an ION channel out of Rocky Mount that's only 10 miles from me.

WTVD has gotten a recent power boost granted from the FCC.Yeah, from 20.7kW ERP to 45kW on channel 11. I'm wondering whether this will get them a footprint equal to what they had with 1000kW on channel 52. Somehow, WTVD's decision to move from 52 to 11 doesn't look very smart in hindsight. Even I can see that. One would think their supposedly skilled engineers would have had sufficient foresight to see it.

It was a corporate decision. All of the ABC O&O stations moved back to their analog channels, regardless of band, including WPVI in Philly which moved back to channel 6. (!)

- Trip

It was a corporate decision. All of the ABC O&O stations moved back to their analog channels, regardless of band, including WPVI in Philly which moved back to channel 6. (!)

- Trip

Wow! Between that, and the livewell 720p subchannel, I'm pretty much convinced that ABC are total morons..

Drew

So, Has WTVD actually upped their power yet?

I don't know about WTVD, but I get WLFL and WRDC at 50% 90 miles away, and the rest I can't get a picture until really early or late day. WNCN will come and go at 30% most times.

It was a corporate decision. All of the ABC O&O stations moved back to their analog channels, regardless of band, including WPVI in Philly which moved back to channel 6.Then the idiocy was somewhere other than at WTVD? ;)

I'm guessing the reason they chose that route for their stations was lower power requirements that would cost them less in broadcast operating expense. It would be a bit poetic if making corrections were to wind up costing them more than they would have saved if everything had worked satisfactorily on VHS from the outset.

I originally thought the FCC wasn't going to license any digital station to transmit in the VHF band, even the upper range.

So, Has WTVD actually upped their power yet?

I never saw anything official, but I noted in this thread weeks ago that my signal took a big jump (On my Dish receiver it went from approx 74 to 90) a couple of weeks back and has been consistently higher since then.

second night in a row cable is out starting at around 9:30 pm. Last night went completely out....tonight MANY HD channels not working. Waited on hold with TWC for about 45 mins only to have them tell me there are outages in my area. Southern Wake. I misses a freaking great football game last night and now Top Gear. TWC sucks.

second night in a row cable is out starting at around 9:30 pm. Last night went completely out....tonight MANY HD channels not working. Waited on hold with TWC for about 45 mins only to have them tell me there are outages in my area. Southern Wake. I misses a freaking great football game last night and now Top Gear. TWC sucks.

All SDV channels are out for me here in SE Durham.

All SDV channels are out for me here in SE Durham.

Same for me in Chapel Hill. I figured it was the tuning adapters acting up in a new way, but sounds like it's a more systemic thing.

Same story in West Cary last night no SDV channels.

Same story in West Cary last night no SDV channels.


Likewise..

Has anybody else noticed that OTA WUNC is getting out better lately ? Since some of my stuff has dried a bit, I'm now getting WUNC almost as good as WUNP.

Has anybody else noticed that OTA WUNC is getting out better lately ? Since some of my stuff has dried a bit, I'm now getting WUNC almost as good as WUNP.

I've noticed that as well. I'm getting WUNC off the side of my antenna, and usually I get pixelation at least half a dozen times during a 30 minute show. The last couple of weeks the recordings on my TiVo have been almost flawless.

Did anybody else lose WNCN via Time Warner clear QAM channel 75-2 (virtual channel 17-1) this morning? I would normally call TWC for support but I only pay for Road Runner.

Did anybody else lose WNCN via Time Warner clear QAM channel 75-2 (virtual channel 17-1) this morning? I would normally call TWC for support but I only pay for Road Runner.

Russ told us a while back that TWC was moving it but had put it on hold. Perhaps it has happened... you might do a rescan and see if you can find it.

Did anybody else lose WNCN via Time Warner clear QAM channel 75-2 (virtual channel 17-1) this morning? I would normally call TWC for support but I only pay for Road Runner.

Something like this was planned 2 weeks ago or so but it wasn't clear when the change would actually happen. Rescan your channels and it should remap to 17.1. Here's the blog post regarding the change but it doesn't have any updated info as of yet:

http://dtv.myncblogs.com/2009/11/10/alert-for-time-warner-customers/

Something like this was planned 2 weeks ago or so but it wasn't clear when the change would actually happen. Rescan your channels and it should remap to 17.1. Here's the blog post regarding the change but it doesn't have any updated info as of yet:

http://dtv.myncblogs.com/2009/11/10/alert-for-time-warner-customers/

Thanks, 2 out of 3 of my tuners pick it up now. I think it actually moved to 75-2 but I don't know what it was at before. 1 of the 2 good tuners is an HD HomeRun and it's only showing about 50% signal strength which is lower than what I'm used to seeing for QAM cable channels. I usually see 90% or more. I'm guessing that is why one of my tuners can't pick it up.

I use the HD HomeRun tuner with Vista Media Center and I have no idea how to get Media Center to start tuning to 75-2 instead of the old mapping for WNCN. Anybody out there know how to do this without messing up my Media Center Guide and Scheduled Recordings?

Thanks, 2 out of 3 of my tuners pick it up now. I think it actually moved to 75-2 but I don't know what it was at before. 1 of the 2 good tuners is an HD HomeRun and it's only showing about 50% signal strength which is lower than what I'm used to seeing for QAM cable channels. I usually see 90% or more. I'm guessing that is why one of my tuners can't pick it up.

I use the HD HomeRun tuner with Vista Media Center and I have no idea how to get Media Center to start tuning to 75-2 instead of the old mapping for WNCN. Anybody out there know how to do this without messing up my Media Center Guide and Scheduled Recordings?

You can add a QAM channel manually through the tv settings, add missing channel, put in 75-2 call it whatever you want for the name. Then go back to settings, tv, edit guide and you can uncheck your old 17-1 channel, scroll down to 75-2, edit this channel where you can change the number to 17-1 (this is so it appears as 17-1 in your guide, but still tunes to 75-2) edit the guide listings and select WNCNDT.

Thanks, 2 out of 3 of my tuners pick it up now. I think it actually moved to 75-2 but I don't know what it was at before. 1 of the 2 good tuners is an HD HomeRun and it's only showing about 50% signal strength which is lower than what I'm used to seeing for QAM cable channels. I usually see 90% or more. I'm guessing that is why one of my tuners can't pick it up.


75 is quite low for QAM, and pretty close to the frequency range that TWC blocks at the street if you don't have analog service, so it is not surprising that one of your tuners can no longer get NBC17.

Is it possible to tell Media Center to never use your weak tuner for NBC17, or will you start to randomly miss recordings whenever it schedules a recording for NBC17 on the weak tuner?

Drew

75 is quite low for QAM, and pretty close to the frequency range that TWC blocks at the street if you don't have analog service, so it is not surprising that one of your tuners can no longer get NBC17.

Is it possible to tell Media Center to never use your weak tuner for NBC17, or will you start to randomly miss recordings whenever it schedules a recording for NBC17 on the weak tuner?

Drew

Yes. You do have channel control per tuner so you could turn off 17 on the weak tuner if needed. I'll check tonight to see if WNCN is elsewhere, but 75 is low!

Yes. You do have channel control per tuner so you could turn off 17 on the weak tuner if needed. I'll check tonight to see if WNCN is elsewhere, but 75 is low!

It is indeed on 75 now here in Cary... I rescanned a TV at lunch time. Luckily, I record OTA, so I don't need to worry about frequency changes like this.

Drew

I moved to Garner about a month ago and when I did the rescan of channels in Windows 7 Media Center it gave me just four channels that were supposed to be the WRAL ones but none of them was the real 5.1, so I deleted them and I setup manually following the numbers in the guide at http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:27603#lineup_341683

A couple of weeks later I noticed that suddenly some of the local HD channels and their SD look-like-crappers little brothers showed up in the Media Center guide, even though I had not touched anything. I left them there, and today I had some extra time so I decided to setup the signal again to make the guide more neat and see if now the channels were showing their real numbers, such as 11.1, 17.1, etc.

So after MC finished the scan I saw the list of channels and I saw all the locals, but when I started changing channels, 11.1 shows some crappy local Garner community channel, and 50.1 shows nothing at all, just a black screen. 17.1 and 5.1 show what they're supposed to. So I went into the settings and I changed the number of 11.1 to 92.1 and 50.1 to 92.4, which are the numbers shown in the website I mentioned above and I had them like that for the last month showing ABC and FOX respectively.

Then I went to live TV and in 92.1 I still get that Garner channel and the same black screen in 50.1. All I can think is that TWC changed the frequencies without warning. Does anybody know anything?

So after MC finished the scan I saw the list of channels and I saw all the locals, but when I started changing channels, 11.1 shows some crappy local Garner community channel, and 50.1 shows nothing at all, just a black screen. 17.1 and 5.1 show what they're supposed to. So I went into the settings and I changed the number of 11.1 to 92.1 and 50.1 to 92.4, which are the numbers shown in the website I mentioned above and I had them like that for the last month showing ABC and FOX respectively.

Then I went to live TV and in 92.1 I still get that Garner channel and the same black screen in 50.1. All I can think is that TWC changed the frequencies without warning. Does anybody know anything?

I think I've posted a few versions of this already, but here it goes...

Changing the channel number in 7MC when you "edit" the channel simply changes the virtual channel number that you seen in the 7MC guide...it does not tune a different channel --- simply edits the guide display.

Remove the current 50.1 channel. Go into settings, add a new channel, enter 92.4, call it fox or WRAZDT. Then go back and "edit" the channel (like you did before) and change the number to 50.1 or whatever you would like to number it and change the guide listings to WRAZDT.

Give it a whirl.

Thanks, I actually figured it out after I posted and after adding the channels they show up. My question is, why when MC7 does the full scan it doesn't find the real 11.1 and 50.1 like for example, my TV set does? Is this negligence on TWC's part, some technical guideline they're not following, or could it be my TV tuner card (AverMedia Duet)?

Yes. You do have channel control per tuner so you could turn off 17 on the weak tuner if needed. I'll check tonight to see if WNCN is elsewhere, but 75 is low!

Thought you might find this interesting... I got in touch with the people at Silicon Dust, they make the HDHomeRun. Here is what they had to say:

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7902

I think it actually moved to 75-2 but I don't know what it was at before.I rescanned for QAM and am not getting 17.1 at all now (nor am I able to get anything on 75.2). Anybody solved the problem yet?

So this is why I missed Community tonight.

TWC had to move NBC today, when I was too busy to check the forum and get advanced warning. :rolleyes:

75.2 missing in action here in North Raleigh. Silicondust config reports signal strength of only 64% on channel 75.

All my other channels are reporting 90% or higher.

Are we out of luck as far as NBC goes? If so, that sucks, bad.

75.2 missing in action here in North Raleigh. Silicondust config reports signal strength of only 64% on channel 75.

It sounds like you guys are getting hit by the filter. I was wondering how long it would be until that happened. Are all you guys RoadRunner only, or at least without analog "standard" cable? Having done both, I'll say that roof/Attic antennas are fairly cheap, and often more reliable than TWC. No worries about missing recordings due to surprise frequency changes, and no worries about getting filtered.

Drew

I rescanned for QAM and am not getting 17.1 at all now (nor am I able to get anything on 75.2). Anybody solved the problem yet?

I have two TV sets. One can tune manually (LG 37LH20) and one can only tune to channels found in the scan (Westinghouse LTV-27w7). The LG can pick up WNCN on 75-2. The Westinghouse never picked it up in the scan.

Because I don't pay for any TV services (just road runner), I was weary about calling TWC for support on this issue. Instead I went online and chatted with a rep and they are sending a tech to my house on Tuesday to look at the signal. I'm guessing the rep didn't notice the discrepancy. Or they will be sending a sales person instead of a tech :)

We'll see what happens.

75.2 is no show here in WMC. HDHR picks it up with 88% strength and SageTV can find see it but not WMC7.

My main TV is unhooked at the moment so I can't check that.

TW screwed us again.

OTA is a beautiful thing sometimes :D

Looks like I got it back. Had to do some WMC massaging and restarting but the PQ is not great.

Sorry I couldn't warn anyone since I didn't get any advance warning either. If you still have issues with QAM on TWC, call'em and get them to fix it. Our QAM should be in the clear regardless how you receive it or which frequency they put it on.

Hm...my HDHR tuner shows WNCN HD on TWC 75-2 coming in at 97-98% signal strength, 96-100% signal quality, 100% symbol quality over here in Morrisville.

I am having other problems with one of my TVs though. After doing a rescan it no longer finds any of the WUNC or WRAL digitals even though they come through strong on my HDHR and my other TVs.

I suppose that one drop might be weaker or maybe I need to double check to see if the TV has some channel lineup edits that it's keeping rather than clearing with the rescan. But I don't think WUNC or WRAL had moved recently onto channels that I might have previously removed (e.g. all the shopping junk).

I have only TWC's broadcast cable package, which probably means I'm getting hit by a crappy filter out on the curb. I've had enough of these frequency changes and I think I'm going to mount up the Channel Master antenna WRAL shipped out a few years ago. I tested it quick in the living room, on the TV directly, last night and it pulled down a 98% signal strength on WNCN and the other locals. Another quick test across the house's coax plant and its still working well. To be honest, I didn't think OTA would work so well.

Here's a side, semi-related question. Can I put a splitter behind the antenna and drive both the HDHomeRun tuners from one antenna?

...
Here's a side, semi-related question. Can I put a splitter behind the antenna and drive both the HDHomeRun tuners from one antenna?

That should work fine, though signal quality caveats apply as with any splits.

I'm having the same issue. I'm using the HDHomerun in WMC7. I pay for roadrunner and basic cable (the cheap $12 package) and lost the signal for the HD WNCN channel. I was able to find a non-HD channel (89.something if i remember properly) to get the NBC in SD, but i'm not a happy camper. I had the Homerun rescan for channels last night and all the HD WNCN channel was gone. For those of you who have resolved the issue, how have you done it?

Thanks!

Would it be easier to reassign NBC to a better channel (what was wrong with 17.1 TWC had to change it?) or to have truck rolls to everyone affected by a filter?

The filters were already affecting some people for WLFL HD (77.1) and WRDC HD (77.2), but I suppose that more people are being affected now that WNCN HD has been moved to 75.2. FCC rules prohibit TWC from blocking WNCN HD, so their only options are to move it to a channel that is not blocked, or to replace the filters with different ones that do not block channel 75, or to remove the filters altogether.

The filters were already affecting some people for WLFL HD (77.1) and WRDC HD (77.2), but I suppose that more people are being affected now that WNCN HD has been moved to 75.2. FCC rules prohibit TWC from blocking WNCN HD, so their only options are to move it to a channel that is not blocked, or to replace the filters with different ones that do not block channel 75, or to remove the filters altogether.

Thank you for your interest response, but its prompted a few additional questions/comments.

1. I'm a little confused. Are you saying that TWC deliberately moves channels around periodically just for the sake of screwing with its customers? I'm a bit confused as to what is actually going on here and WHY it is going on.

2. Also, I didnt even know there was a WRDCHD, since my tuner only picks up a SD version. And which network is WLFL? Presently, i'm getting FOX, CBS, and ABC just fine in HD.

3. And, channels do i need to program into media center (presently)

Time Warner moves things around because they are not controlled by anyone on where they can locate digital channels, and they do this when they add new services and need to squeeze bandwidth.

WLFL 22.1 is The CW (CBS and Warner Bros.) HDTV

Thank you for your interest response, but its prompted a few additional questions/comments.

1. I'm a little confused. Are you saying that TWC deliberately moves channels around periodically just for the sake of screwing with its customers? I'm a bit confused as to what is actually going on here and WHY it is going on.

2. Also, I didnt even know there was a WRDCHD, since my tuner only picks up a SD version. And which network is WLFL? Presently, i'm getting FOX, CBS, and ABC just fine in HD.

3. And, channels do i need to program into media center (presently)

1 - Yes - see also the above post

2.There should be both WRDC in HD and WLFL in HD. WLFL is the CW

3. ?

That should work fine, though signal quality caveats apply as with any splits.

Any reason why I can't plug my antenna into my motorola drop amp to help boost the signal a bit? I've got it hooked up now, it seems to be working fine.

Any reason why I can't plug my antenna into my motorola drop amp to help boost the signal a bit? I've got it hooked up now, it seems to be working fine.

I'm not an expert, but I would expect it to work.

Would it be easier to reassign NBC to a better channel (what was wrong with 17.1 TWC had to change it?) or to have truck rolls to everyone affected by a filter?

WNCN's HD channel used to be on 102-2. That channel now has some encrypted programming on it.

Who knows why they moved WNCN down to 75-2. Maybe when folks who have the "basic" plan call to complain, they'll try to upsell them to the "standard" plan (or whatever they call stuff these days).

I got my OTA antenna rocking it. I get all the channels I did off of clear QAM. The only thing that comes in a little spotty is UNC TV which rides around 60% signal strength, 67% signal quality.

Everything else is 80%+.

TWC just saved me $16/month by moving WNCN.

...
TWC just saved me $16/month by moving WNCN.

I hope you let them know, beyond calling up to cancel that part of your service, assuming you're continuing with broadband and/or phone service with them. Maybe you could write a letter detailing why so they don't just chalk it up to someone cutting back due to the economy or some factor other than their viewer unfriendly moves.

What do I need to do to get NBC again? I rescanned in the HDHomerun setup utility and it didnt find any channels in the 75 range. I also went into media center and selected "add missing channel" and added channel 75.2, named it NBC and added the guide listing for NBC to the channel, but that didnt come up with anything. How can i resolve this issue?

Thanks!

Call Dime Wanter Cable and tell them about it, or put up / hook up a UHF TV antenna.

so .icalled twc and the tech support rep was an idiot and told me that my package is only for channels 2 thru 27 and 75.2 is not in that range and that its a problemwithm tuner, not them. what exactly do i need to tell them to do?

so .icalled twc and the tech support rep was an idiot and told me that my package is only for channels 2 thru 27 and 75.2 is not in that range and that its a problemwithm tuner, not them. what exactly do i need to tell them to do?

Keep phoning back until you get one with sense and explain to them that local digital channels are Federally mandated to be transmitted in clear QAM over TWC or something similar.

Keep phoning back until you get one with sense and explain to them that local digital channels are Federally mandated to be transmitted in clear QAM over TWC or something similar.

Ok, i'm on the phone with them now. this is the second rep i've talked to and she has no idea what i'm talking about. she doesnt understand what 75.2 is. she is insisting that WNCN is channel 6. The problem is not that she doesnt beleive i should be getting WNCN. THe problem is she doesnt know what i'm talking about when i refer to clear QAM or local digitial channels. is there a specific phrasing on what needs to be done to resolve the issue that will make sense to them? Like, "you need to go into this system and unfilter this channel?"

Ok, i'm on the phone with them now. this is the second rep i've talked to and she has no idea what i'm talking about. she doesnt understand what 75.2 is. she is insisting that WNCN is channel 6. The problem is not that she doesnt beleive i should be getting WNCN. THe problem is she doesnt know what i'm talking about when i refer to clear QAM or local digitial channels. is there a specific phrasing on what needs to be done to resolve the issue that will make sense to them? Like, "you need to go into this system and unfilter this channel?"

That's about par for what I've run into when talking to TWC. I just set up an antenna and I'll be calling next week to cancel my TWC service.

It sounds like you guys are getting hit by the filter. I was wondering how long it would be until that happened. Are all you guys RoadRunner only, or at least without analog "standard" cable? Having done both, I'll say that roof/Attic antennas are fairly cheap, and often more reliable than TWC. No worries about missing recordings due to surprise frequency changes, and no worries about getting filtered.

Drew

I have "basic" cable...@$12/month plus RoadRunner. I'm also in N. Raleigh. Right now, I have no 17-1 and no 75-2. Luckily I don't actually watch anything on a regular basis on NBC. If desperate, obviously analog channel 6 is still showing up. I only noticed 17-1 was missing when I was flipping channels. Rescanned and still had nothing. (Panasonic plasma, no set top box or cable card or media center etc.)

I haven't called yet...maybe I'll waste some time at work doing that Monday. Unfortunately, I can't install a roof/attic antenna since I'm in an apartment.

Ok, i finally got TWC to agree to send a technician out. Will the technician understand what they need to do? What specifically should I tell the tech so they understand what they need to do to resovle the provlem? Thanks!

I would talk about the cable system 'Head End' where they locate all their antennas and satellite dishes for receiving signals. This is where the problem is, and where changes were made. Usually, they have specific engineers for maintaining that area, and those are not the ones that come to the homes. The person that is coming to your home will probably not be able to fix anything, unless you have a weak signal around or in your home.

The cable comp. plays these games because they want to hook you up with a box, and push a higher bill on you. They make it sound all good, but most of what you get isn't worth it.

Cable companies need to have strict regulations imposed on them from the FCC. Right now they do not, and our government wants to get rid of free broadcast airwave TV to put into place more broadband services. If they do go that way, it would mean even higher TV rates, and poorer service.

I have broadcast cable in Durham and I'm having the same problem with NBC17 HD. I guess I'll have to watch Sunday Night Football in SD tomorrow night, which sucks royally. Is there any chance TWC will fix this problem?

Ok, i finally got TWC to agree to send a technician out. Will the technician understand what they need to do? What specifically should I tell the tech so they understand what they need to do to resovle the provlem? Thanks!

If you get a good one, you should be in good shape. When I had a problem a few weeks ago with Road Runner not working (I didn't change anything on my end where things were running great for months, so TWC did something on their end to break it), I got a good tech out to my house.

He took the time to understand the hairball of a system I have with the cable modem, TV, the HDHR and the tuner cards in my PC. I probably should have got his business card so I'd know who to ask for in the future (if they even allowed that kind of thing) or to put a good word in for him with TWC (or maybe not--that might get him fired, giving good customer service :-).

Anyway, I think mentioning the physical channel number (75-2) and unusual equipment like the HDHR is a mistake when talking to the first level tech support on the phone.

Just tell them that WNCNDT isn't coming in on your TV anymore, rescanning isn't helping and other HD local channels are coming in fine. If they tell you that you need a digital cable box or CableCARD to receive HD channels, tell them they are wrong (well, not in those words!) and point to this web page of THEIRS:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/site.faqs/Cable/CableCARD/If-I-have-a-cable-ready-HDTV-s

That doesn't quite cover all the bases though since they might still cite the bogus digital vs. analog cable and/or "Broadcast" vs. "Basic" (formerly known as Standard service?) packages to try to weasel out of their obligation to get that signal to you. Having references to the relevant FCC regs there might help.

Ok, i finally got TWC to agree to send a technician out. Will the technician understand what they need to do? What specifically should I tell the tech so they understand what they need to do to resovle the provlem? Thanks!
Tell the tech to remove the filter (a.k.a. the trap), which is usually installed in the junction box next to the road. After it has been removed, try tuning to 75.2, or do a channel scan, and you should be able to receive WNCN HD, proving that the filter was blocking it.

I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope that loud rumbling noise is a resolution and not a train!

I'll try to keep you updated here and here (www.dtv.myncblogs.com).

what kind of time frame should we be expecting for the possible change to a temporary frequency not affected by the filter?

I've noticed that as well. I'm getting WUNC off the side of my antenna, and usually I get pixelation at least half a dozen times during a 30 minute show. The last couple of weeks the recordings on my TiVo have been almost flawless.

I still get a lot of breakup.. did UNC ever move their tower, increase power, or whatever it was they were going to do? :)

Looks like the new channels are up a day early... at least the non-Premium ones (Cartoon and WE). Also looks like TWC has added more SDV QAM's. The lowest SDV QAM previously was 699Mhz... today I am seeing down to 657Mhz. Since they typically come in 8's, im hoping they added 651-693Mhz to the SDV pool. That should help the 'not available' issues folks are seeing. It also could open up some new opportunities for more HD... Please please please.

what kind of time frame should we be expecting for the possible change to a temporary frequency not affected by the filter?

It could be Tuesday.

I have "basic" cable...@$12/month plus RoadRunner. I'm also in N. Raleigh. Right now, I have no 17-1 and no 75-2. Luckily I don't actually watch anything on a regular basis on NBC. If desperate, obviously analog channel 6 is still showing up. I only noticed 17-1 was missing when I was flipping channels. Rescanned and still had nothing. (Panasonic plasma, no set top box or cable card or media center etc.)


My 17.1 over QAM was gone as well, did a rescan in the TV and now it's back. It is still 17.1, just finished watching football.

It could be Tuesday.

Thanks for the update!

It'd be nice if they'd move the numerous shopping and mostly infomercial channels to 75-* and put WNCN in their place.

The conspiracy minded among us may be wondering if the impending acquisition of NBC/Universal by another cable company had anything to do with this.

Or if this incident will be cited in an upcoming FCC waiver request by TWC to move to all encrypted digital with "free" digital converter boxes to avoid customer problems with band trap filters.

It could be Tuesday.

You guys ever going to HD news?

Looks like the new channels are up a day early... at least the non-Premium ones (Cartoon and WE). Also looks like TWC has added more SDV QAM's. The lowest SDV QAM previously was 699Mhz... today I am seeing down to 657Mhz. Since they typically come in 8's, im hoping they added 651-693Mhz to the SDV pool. That should help the 'not available' issues folks are seeing. It also could open up some new opportunities for more HD... Please please please.

Finally saw them around 6am.

Also looks like TWC has dupe mapped Fox News HD (224 and 238), FX HD (225 and 245), USA HD (226 and 258), and AMC HD (227 and 244). Don't know what that's about.

Anyone else having reception issues this morning with WRAZ? Everything else is maxed out except for them...seems odd.

Has anybody noticed any problems getting WRAL OTA in the last week or so? I've never, ever had problems with them before, but my recording of Thurs. night's Mentalist was very glitchy, and I had a few glitches in the Colts/Ravens game yesterday afternoon. I have not been having problems with any other channels; usually all channels are perfect for me. With the leaves falling, I'd think things would be getting better, not worse. Unless... Hmm... Did some station on channel 48 in a different market just get a boost in power, so I'm being hit by DX-ing again?

Thanks,

Drew

Has anybody noticed any problems getting WRAL OTA in the last week or so? I've never, ever had problems with them before, but my recording of Thurs. night's Mentalist was very glitchy, and I had a few glitches in the Colts/Ravens game yesterday afternoon. I have not been having problems with any other channels; usually all channels are perfect for me. With the leaves falling, I'd think things would be getting better, not worse. Unless... Hmm... Did some station on channel 48 in a different market just get a boost in power, so I'm being hit by DX-ing again?

Thanks,

Drew

I saw the same issue with the fball game...my wife ran outside and told me the TV was broken and the football game is off. Better question, why wasn't I watching the football game!

But this morning I am having serious issues with fox50.

As I posted a little earlier, I have had a hard time picking up WRAL and WRAZ compared to the others. (17.1, 22.1, and 28.1) WRAZ has always been the hardest to get for me, but WRAL up until recently came in as easily as those others.

While doing a new scan yesterday to fix 17.1 NBC, I discovered a new station over QAM:

102.2 BBC America HD (1080i)

While doing a new scan yesterday to fix 17.1 NBC, I discovered a new station over QAM:

102.2 BBC America HD (1080i)

That was added Oct 28th

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/support/policies/channelchange.html

That was added Oct 28th

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/support/policies/channelchange.html

Thanks for the link but it is irrelavent as to what's available on unencrpted QAM.

I have analog cable and only watch HD via QAM.

I also noticed a few more glitches than normal this past week with WRAL. I kind of dismissed it at the times it occured, but it is interesting that others are seeing it also.

While doing a new scan yesterday to fix 17.1 NBC, I discovered a new station over QAM:

102.2 BBC America HD (1080i)

I bet it won't be there long. My guess is they forgot to block it out, since that is where 17.1 was.

As I posted a little earlier, I have had a hard time picking up WRAL and WRAZ compared to the others. (17.1, 22.1, and 28.1) WRAZ has always been the hardest to get for me, but WRAL up until recently came in as easily as those others.

I did some quick tests this morning, using the linux "azap" tool to count 1 second periods with bit errors on WRAL, WRAZ, and NBC17. This was using my worst (circa 2004) nxt2002 based tuner, which I've retired from normal use. I ran for 30 to 45 minutes on each channel.
WRAL: 47 glitches/hr
WRAZ: 16 glitches/hr
NBC17: 12 glitches/hr

I'm not really sure how much this means. This tuner has always been horrible (which is why it is retired), but it does seem to show that WRAL is now by far my worst station. I really wonder if something changed at their tower.

Drew

While doing a new scan yesterday to fix 17.1 NBC, I discovered a new station over QAM:

102.2 BBC America HD (1080i)

Do you know what physical channel it is on?

I put my HDHR tuner to 102 and the only stuff on there are some four-digit encrypted subchannels and a five-digit control subchannel.

Do you know what physical channel it is on?

I put my HDHR tuner to 102 and the only stuff on there are some four-digit encrypted subchannels and a five-digit control subchannel.

BBCA is SDV and should be encrypted. 102 is one of the new SDV QAM's. They may have had it in the clear inadvertently...

I did some quick tests this morning, using the linux "azap" tool to count 1 second periods with bit errors on WRAL, WRAZ, and NBC17. This was using my worst (circa 2004) nxt2002 based tuner, which I've retired from normal use. I ran for 30 to 45 minutes on each channel.
WRAL: 47 glitches/hr
WRAZ: 16 glitches/hr
NBC17: 12 glitches/hr

I'm not really sure how much this means. This tuner has always been horrible (which is why it is retired), but it does seem to show that WRAL is now by far my worst station. I really wonder if something changed at their tower.

Drew

It would be nice to have some metrics from a month or so ago...do they have anyone on AVS to chime it? But I agree, something does seem to me amiss...maybe something funny with the weather we've had.

I did some quick tests this morning, using the linux "azap" tool to count 1 second periods with bit errors on WRAL, WRAZ, and NBC17. This was using my worst (circa 2004) nxt2002 based tuner, which I've retired from normal use. I ran for 30 to 45 minutes on each channel.
WRAL: 47 glitches/hr
WRAZ: 16 glitches/hr
NBC17: 12 glitches/hr

I'm not really sure how much this means. This tuner has always been horrible (which is why it is retired), but it does seem to show that WRAL is now by far my worst station. I really wonder if something changed at their tower.

Drew

Are these counts 'corrected' or 'uncorrectable' errors? That many uncorrecteable would be significant.

Ive had 5-1 and 50-1 tuned for about 5 hours on my TiVo. 5-1 error counts are zero while 50-1 has had zero uncorrectable and 18 correctable.

Hey guys, I'm a relative newbe to posting on the forum so forgive me if I mess up.

Nothing at the transmitter has changed since June. Since WRAL and WRAZ are now the only local stations at the high end of the spectrum we are relatively more challenged than the others by changes in vegatation, rain etc. Every year in the spring and fall we receive some calls and emails from viewers who suddenly develop reception issues. The leaves coming off the trees often allow a reflected signal to put a notch in what you were receiving. As the trees move that can come and go. The best thing to do is to re-peak the antenna for the least amount of change in signal level over several minutes. It's best if you do it on a windy day. Hope this helps.

Hey guys, I'm a relative newbe to posting on the forum so forgive me if I mess up.

Nothing at the transmitter has changed since June. Since WRAL and WRAZ are now the only local stations at the high end of the spectrum we are relatively more challenged than the others by changes in vegatation, rain etc. Every year in the spring and fall we receive some calls and emails from viewers who suddenly develop reception issues. The leaves coming off the trees often allow a reflected signal to put a notch in what you were receiving. As the trees move that can come and go. The best thing to do is to re-peak the antenna for the least amount of change in signal level over several minutes. It's best if you do it on a windy day. Hope this helps.

Thanks Matt... Welcome to the forum!!

I was incorrect in the previous post. The down East station is on 47. The only other full power 48 is in Charlotte.

I was incorrect in the previous post. The down East station is on 47. The only other full power 48 is in Charlotte.

I thought the nearest 48 was in Columbia SC.

- Trip

Thanks Matt. I've got several trees in the direction of the towers across from me. The leaves started coming down over the last couple of weeks, and that is when the signals started changing (WRAL worse, and WLFL/WRDC even better). I think those leaves may have been throwing the signal down to my antenna before, and now they are not there to do it, so I have lost the strength for the upper channels, and gained it for the lower. Other stations on 46 WWAY and 47 WYDO may be overloading me since the leaves are off enough to ruin 48 too

Are these counts 'corrected' or 'uncorrectable' errors? That many uncorrecteable would be significant.

Ive had 5-1 and 50-1 tuned for about 5 hours on my TiVo. 5-1 error counts are zero while 50-1 has had zero uncorrectable and 18 correctable.

This tool reports "ber" (bit error rate) and "unc" (uncorrectable errors) and loss of lock. It reports a sample once per second. So for example, I think this might be 1 tivo correctable error:

status 1f | signal fb80 | snr de0e | ber 00000170 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK

Whereas this would be one tivo uncorrectable:
status 1f | signal 8de0 | snr 5c04 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000004 | FE_HAS_LOCK

And I imagine loosing signal lock would be too:
status 00 | signal 4e20 | snr 597e | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 |


I counted all of these as "errors". Only WRAL lost lock, and had any uncorrectable errors, and they were clustered around a 30 second space. Eg:


status 1f | signal f740 | snr d160 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f570 | snr cb4e | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f7e0 | snr d21c | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f7b0 | snr d160 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f5e0 | snr cf88 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f010 | snr bcf8 | ber 000000d8 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f030 | snr b7d6 | ber 00001de0 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f130 | snr c190 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 00 | signal 4e20 | snr 597e | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 |
status 1f | signal f000 | snr bbde | ber 00007ff8 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f000 | snr b71a | ber 00000070 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 00 | signal 6050 | snr 59b0 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 |
status 1f | signal 8de0 | snr 5c04 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000004 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal e090 | snr 835e | ber 00007ff8 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal ed30 | snr 9e34 | ber 00007ff8 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal ec50 | snr 9faa | ber 00001970 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal e390 | snr 9d78 | ber 00007ff8 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal dc80 | snr 8ae4 | ber 00007ff8 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 00 | signal a860 | snr 516c | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 |
status 1f | signal f6a0 | snr cf88 | ber 00000058 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f4d0 | snr cb7e | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f1f0 | snr c686 | ber 000001e0 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f1b0 | snr cb7e | ber 00000010 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f610 | snr c658 | ber 000021f0 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal f830 | snr d100 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK

Remember -- this is the worlds worst tuner. It has terrible multipath rejection. I saved it to use mainly to re-orient my antennas. I guess it may be time to do that.

Drew

It seemed that some people were saying they got NBC working again. I re-scanned with my HDHR and I still can't find NBC at all. Thoughts?

It seemed that some people were saying they got NBC working again. I re-scanned with my HDHR and I still can't find NBC at all. Thoughts?

I would say wait until Russell Mizelle says the problem is resolved. Its on the filter fringe, so some tuners may be more apt versus others in picking it up, hence some people getting it and others not. Also, those that rescanned and picked it up would not have any issues if they don't have a filter at the curb, the would have simply needed a rescan. This should only affect you if you have the 'broadcast' package or just RR.

Are these counts 'corrected' or 'uncorrectable' errors? That many uncorrecteable would be significant.

Ive had 5-1 and 50-1 tuned for about 5 hours on my TiVo. 5-1 error counts are zero while 50-1 has had zero uncorrectable and 18 correctable.

After 5 more hours... 5-1 error count remains at 0 and 50-1 is at 0 uncorrected and 23 corrected.

It seemed that some people were saying they got NBC working again. I re-scanned with my HDHR and I still can't find NBC at all. Thoughts?

TWC still has 217 mapped to channel 75 (531Mhz).

Time-Warner just alerted me they will apply the fix at 1:00 AM Tuesday morning. (Tonight)

A re-scan in the morning should put things back right.:)

Time-Warner just alerted me they will apply the fix at 1:00 AM Tuesday morning. (Tonight)

A re-scan in the morning should put things back right.:)

Thanks for the heads up.

I guess I should record Jimmy Fallon on an analog channel tonight as well since the HD recording will get hosed midway through :-(.

I think the DVR, set top boxes and cable cards will follow along with the changeover, but there may be a glitch at the switch. It would be interesting to find out. It should only affect the direct to QAM connected folks.

Awesome! I just realized that was my 200th post on this site! Woo Hoo!

Time-Warner just alerted me they will apply the fix at 1:00 AM Tuesday morning. (Tonight)

A re-scan in the morning should put things back right.:)

Just did a re-scan and 17.1 NBC is now working in Cary ...

...It should only affect the direct to QAM connected folks.


Looks like the switch happened some time after 1:35am since Jimmy Fallon recorded in its entirety from the 75-2 QAM channel via my HTPC.

The physical channel looks like it's on 93-2 now, though it's coming over at ~89% signal strength, ~83% signal quality according to my HD Homerun tuner.

So while I'm glad other folks are able to receive it now, the signal quality for me is quite a bit lower than it was when it was on 75-2.

I think I might miss the flurry of activity on here now that the crisis has been resolved but I'm glad the issue is fixed for the QAMers.

So I haven't used QAM for a long enough stretch to really know the answer to this, I mostly use OTA, but how often does TWC remap the clear QAM channels? Just a curiosity question for the QAM users.

FWIW, my WRAL problems may have resolved themselves. A bunch of recordings made Monday were all perfect.

I'm hoping that the problem was my neighbor's oak tree dropping its leaves, and having them all blow around in my line of sight to WRAL in the rainy/windy weather over the weekend. The tree is mostly bare now, but my wife remembered that we had lots of leaves blowing around over the weekend.

Drew

So I haven't used QAM for a long enough stretch to really know the answer to this, I mostly use OTA, but how often does TWC remap the clear QAM channels? Just a curiosity question for the QAM users.

They seem to move them around whenever they add a new batch of HD channels, and need to re-shuffle things to make room. We went years without them moving anything in 2004-2006, but recently they've been moving things around more often to make room for all the channels they're adding.

The biggest problem I had with them was they would occasionally break the CVCT (which carries the remapping data that maps, say, physical 75.2 to virtual 17.1). They broke this for ABC and Fox, and that caused MythTV to freak out. That's when I put up an antenna.

Drew

So I haven't used QAM for a long enough stretch to really know the answer to this, I mostly use OTA, but how often does TWC remap the clear QAM channels? Just a curiosity question for the QAM users.

I can only speak for myself, I've been using QAM for about 6 months and this is the first time TWC has remapped a channel.

This morning everything is working for me after a rescan. I had written before that 1 out of 3 of my tuners was not able to pick up WNCN on 75-2. Now that WNCN is on 93-2 all is well.

Don't know if this have been mentioned:

Has anyone noticed that the quality of FOX 50 (50.1) has gotten bad? It used to be as good as NBC, ABC, or CBS. But in the past month it looks like something is wrong. I still get a strong signal (80-90%). It's just that the picture looks off and grainy whereas it used to be clean.

Don't know if this have been mentioned:

Has anyone noticed that the quality of FOX 50 (50.1) has gotten bad? It used to be as good as NBC, ABC, or CBS. But in the past month it looks like something is wrong. I still get a strong signal (80-90%). It's just that the picture looks off and grainy whereas it used to be clean.

What shows? The stuff I watch (House, Bones, Fringe) looks as good as it ever did to me, and much better than the fuzzy, washed-out ABC 11 picture. For primetime, 50.1 is pumping out over 6GB/hr, which is a lot for 720p (and much better than ABC's 4.x GB/hr).

Drew

Don't know if this have been mentioned:

Has anyone noticed that the quality of FOX 50 (50.1) has gotten bad? It used to be as good as NBC, ABC, or CBS. But in the past month it looks like something is wrong. I still get a strong signal (80-90%). It's just that the picture looks off and grainy whereas it used to be clean.

What source - OTA, Cable, DBS ? I'm with Drew - it looks as good as ever to me...

Ok, i rescanned the HDHomerun and was able to view NBC within the HDHOmeruns ap, but windows 7 media center encounters a serious error everytime it tries to rescan and tells me to restart my computer. now i can't get any channels in media center. i've restarted the computer several times and the problem is continuing. also tried system restore and it didnt work. anyone else have this problem?

So I haven't used QAM for a long enough stretch to really know the answer to this, I mostly use OTA, but how often does TWC remap the clear QAM channels? Just a curiosity question for the QAM users.

Not very often, at least not in the last couple of years since I've had an HTPC with QAM tuners in it. Before this most recent business with putting WNCNDT down at 75-2 and now up higher, I don't recall having to rescan to pick up existing channels having been moved to another frequency.

When they moved the Cartoon Network analog channel around and added Bravo analog, my HTPC DVR software managed to pick up that change automatically. I guess there's an immediate mapping of the channel to a frequency on analog cable, but QAM digital channels have a level of indirection between the channel number in the guide and the frequency, yet despite there being data in the stream capable of providing the mapping, it doesn't get reliably done (not by Beyond TV, my main HTPC DVR software, not by Windows 7 Media Center which I've tried recently, I'm not sure about other HTPC DVR software).

what source - ota, cable, dbs ? I'm with drew - it looks as good as ever to me...

ota

What shows? The stuff I watch (House, Bones, Fringe) looks as good as it ever did to me, and much better than the fuzzy, washed-out ABC 11 picture. For primetime, 50.1 is pumping out over 6GB/hr, which is a lot for 720p (and much better than ABC's 4.x GB/hr).

Drew


Now that I've checked it for the past few days, it must be a "primetime" thing...as you mention. In the afternoon it seems fuzzier to me, which is what I was basing my opinion on. Now that I've paid more attention to the 8pm and later shows, it looks much better again.

Guess I never noticed the difference in times until now.

It's possible that the afternoon syndicated shows are only sent in SD, and that WRAZ is upconverting them.

Something I haven't heard anyone else share on this thread is that even the TWC DVR's were effected by the move of WNCN. I have 2 QAM sets, an HDHR and 2 DVR's and thought something was up with the HD feed when it disappeared on all of them. A full reboot (unplug) brought the DVR's back.

How ironic that TWC called to upsell me last night. - I was significantly lacking of holiday cheer.

Something I haven't heard anyone else share on this thread is that even the TWC DVR's were effected by the move of WNCN. I have 2 QAM sets, an HDHR and 2 DVR's and thought something was up with the HD feed when it disappeared on all of them. A full reboot (unplug) brought the DVR's back.

How ironic that TWC called to upsell me last night. - I was significantly lacking of holiday cheer.

If you have digital cable service, then you wont have the filter on your line that was filtering out WNCN.. so no.. TWC's boxes werent impacted.

It's possible that the afternoon syndicated shows are only sent in SD, and that WRAZ is upconverting them.

Checking today, this is exactly what it seems like. Morning news - great picture. Some afternoon shows - fuzzy. Later on and evening - great picture again.

So what you are saying makes sense. Thanks.

In Eastern NC, the family and I noticed that WRAL aired "Andy Griffith" in the place of WRAL's 6 p.m. News Tonight. We changed the channel to WNCT and then WNCN, but I wasn't able to get hold of the remote to change it back to see if there was an issue at WRAL (nothing on their website to confirm). Any info?

My wife reported the same thing - something about technical difficulties. The news did start a little later.

My wife reported the same thing - something about technical difficulties. The news did start a little later.

Thanks for the follow-up.

Every week almost when ESPN2/ABC split coverage on college football games, whatever one is SUPPOSED to be on ESPN2HD is never on, we just get ESPNNews. Anyone know why??

Every week almost when ESPN2/ABC split coverage on college football games, whatever one is SUPPOSED to be on ESPN2HD is never on, we just get ESPNNews. Anyone know why??

Was wondering the same thing. Where's the Notre Dame/Stanford game?

Was wondering the same thing. Where's the Notre Dame/Sanford game?


Found it on the Standard Def ESPN2. ESPN2HD is ESPNNews though...pretty weak.

On satellite (Dish or DirecTV) ESPN just gets blacked out.

The problem, ultimately, is that no one carries both an east and a west coast HD feed for the ESPN channels...

So, the markets that have the Stanford game on ABC don't have ESPN blacked out since it is carrying the Georgia Tech game on the east coast.

Perhaps on the west coast they have a similar issue where they get Stanford OTA but have ESPN blacked out because they aren't getting an east coast ESPNHD feed.

TWC still has 217 mapped to channel 75 (531Mhz).

perhaps related...

the past several days i've been having terrible problems with 217: on one box (samsung 3090, directly connected-HDMI to TV) the picture is completely broken up/pixelated and the sound stutters. on another box (SA 4240, HDMI to AVR to display) there is no sync at all...black screen & surround decoder on AVR is freaking out & flashing through a bunch of options.

sucked last night watching Pit/Balt in SD at 110" with stereo audio...boo hoo.

December 16, 2009: The following channels will be added:

Logo - Channel 128
NBA TV HD - Channel 335
HD Movies On Demand Titles in the Guide - Channels 1002-1009


NBA TV (Channel 324) will be available on the Digital tier along with the Games and Sports Tier. Sundance (East) Channel 302 and Sundance (West) Channel 303 will be available on the Digital Tier along with the Cinema Choice Tier.


December 30, 2009: The following channels will be added:

History International HD - Channel 227
RFD HD - Channel 229
Showtime Showcase HD - Channel 445
Showtime Extreme HD - Channel 456
MoreMax HD - Channel 435
ThrillerMax HD - Channel 437
Blue Highways - Channel 134



Hallmark Movie Channel HD (Channel 246) will migrate from the HD Tier to the Digital Tier.

December 30, 2009: The following channels will be added:

RFD HD - Channel 229
Blue Highways - Channel 134



Wow. This is the best they could come up with?

[B]NBA TV HD - Channel 335


NBA TV (Channel 324) will be available on the Digital tier along with the Games and Sports Tier.

Does this strike anyone else as hypocritical? TWC can't agree with the NFL Network because they insist on putting it on the sports tier. Yet the MLB Network (which they are a part owner) and now the NBA TV can be put on the digital tier. And the Golf channel is on basic cable. The NFL is 10 times more popular than any sport, and TWC calls it "niche". Only one of the top 5 carriers not to carry the NFLN. Tell you something? Be prepared for more of the same-- have you seen their new lame ("Roll Over or Get Tough") web site?

Does this strike anyone else as hypocritical? TWC can't agree with the NFL Network because they insist on putting it on the sports tier. Yet the MLB Network (which they are a part owner) and now the NBA TV can be put on the digital tier. And the Golf channel is on basic cable. The NFL is 10 times more popular than any sport, and TWC calls it "niche". Only one of the top 5 carriers not to carry the NFLN. Tell you something? Be prepared for more of the same-- have you seen their new lame ("Roll Over or Get Tough") web site?

As I recall, the dispute is over the NFLN wanting a basic/standard cable slot. As such, MLB and NBA launches are in line with what TWC is requiring. The Golf channel would be the glaring conflict in their reasoning.

As I recall, the dispute is over the NFLN wanting a basic cable slot. As such, MLB and NBA launches are in line with what TWC is requiring. The Golf channel would be the glaring conflict in their reasoning.

Nope. They want a more widely distributed level (like digital)-- on the same level as MLB and now NBA networks. Comcast just did the same thing. TWC wants to relegate it to the sports tier and jack up the price of that level and keep the profit.

Has anyone else noticed the signal quality on WRAL being poor lately? Last night while watching House, I had breakups every 60 seconds or so. Happened on both plasmas, and then on my HTPC in my theater which has, by far, the most sensitive tuners in the house.

Just curious...

Has anybody heard when 17.1 will have local HD capability? Seems they can't even run a commercial in HD let alone originate anything in their studio.

I think they also raised up the cost of my road runner service. Probably trying to get more people into that price lock.

Our goal and plan is to convert early next year if the economy supports it. We are also still examining the damage this recent QAM switch during the ratings book has done.

Our goal and plan is to convert early next year if the economy supports it. We are also still examining the damage this recent QAM switch during the ratings book has done.

This kind of thing is why I wonder why so many of our local stations seem "in bed" with Time Warner.

I have Dish, and I know Dish plays hardball... so that's a whole different discussion... but channels like WRAL and WUNC provide dedicated unique feeds to Time Warner that aren't even available OTA.

I know why those feeds can't be provided OTA... and I know a deal with Dish (or DirecTV) would require negotiations and moolah changing hands... but it seems to send the message that many of our local stations would rather their viewers subscribe to cable than satellite or OTA.

That seems to put a dangerous bit of control in Time Warner's hands for local programming... and in the case of the recent snafu that left many people without WNCN for days, this leaves the local station and viewers without any recourse for the consequences.

Has anyone else noticed the signal quality on WRAL being poor lately? Last night while watching House, I had breakups every 60 seconds or so. Happened on both plasmas, and then on my HTPC in my theater which has, by far, the most sensitive tuners in the house.

Do you mean WRAZ (50.1)? If so, it was fine for me during last night's House. No breakups at all. This was OTA.

Drew

Our goal and plan is to convert early next year if the economy supports it. We are also still examining the damage this recent QAM switch during the ratings book has done.

Do you guys really have any Neilsen households that use QAM? Heck, I would imagine that most people that Neilsen picks probably think picking up HD off an "old fashioned" antenna is practically voodoo, much less that you can also do it off your cable feed with the right tuner.

Has anyone else noticed the signal quality on WRAL being poor lately? Last night while watching House, I had breakups every 60 seconds or so. Happened on both plasmas, and then on my HTPC in my theater which has, by far, the most sensitive tuners in the house.

OTA or QAM? I've noticed signal breakup for a few seconds lately over QAM in five to ten minute intervals. Usually during WRAL news.

Do you mean WRAZ (50.1)? If so, it was fine for me during last night's House. No breakups at all. This was OTA.

Drew

Yeah, thats what I meant. Mine is OTA.

I have TWC hooked up directly to my HDTV. For over a year I had no problems receiving all of the UNCTV (PBS) stations, including the HD on 4.2. For the past week, the only UNCTV channel I can get is 4.0 I have rescanned several times but still have not found it. The various channel 4s (4.0-4.3) show up on my on screen tv guide, but it is impossible to tune to them.:confused: BTW, TWC says they don't support any of the "decimal" channels. I am really ticked that my apartment faces north and I can't get satellite.

Early Friday morning December 4th, between 1:40 AM and 4:30 AM, WNCN will be off the air as a courtesy for maintenance at WRAZ. All stations on the Auburn tower will shut down during this period to allow WRAZ to work on their antenna.

This does not impact Time-Warner customers, but other systems will be affected, such as DirecTV and Dish Network. The signals should be back on air near the end of the maintenance window.

Only WNCN, WRAL, WRAZ and WLFL will be off the air during this time.

So the WRAZ antenna isn't working right? I know it had been quite difficult for me compared to others.

I accidentally recorded "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" again last night, having recorded it a year ago. The difference in file sizes for the same show makes it clear how much WRAL has cut 5-1's bandwidth:

Dec 3, 2008: 61 minutes, 6.93GB
Dec 2, 2009: 62 minutes, 6.36GB

I'm not sure why this year's was 1 minute longer, maybe they needed more commercials..

Drew

I accidentally recorded "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" again last night, having recorded it a year ago. The difference in file sizes for the same show makes it clear how much WRAL has cut 5-1's bandwidth:

Dec 3, 2008: 61 minutes, 6.93GB
Dec 2, 2009: 62 minutes, 6.36GB

I'm not sure why this year's was 1 minute longer, maybe they needed more commercials..

Drew


So, adjusting for the number of minutes, it looks like it is a nearly 10% smaller file.

Early Friday morning December 4th, between 1:40 AM and 4:30 AM, WNCN will be off the air as a courtesy for maintenance at WRAZ. All stations on the Auburn tower will shut down during this period to allow WRAZ to work on their antenna.

This does not impact Time-Warner customers, but other systems will be affected, such as DirecTV and Dish Network. The signals should be back on air near the end of the maintenance window.

Only WNCN, WRAL, WRAZ and WLFL will be off the air during this time.

Anybody know what the result of the WRAZ antenna maintenance was (or if it happened) this morning?

I ask because... I was out all day, but home this evening to find I'm getting far less signal on WRAZ than I had been getting.

I'm down from 99/100 to 79-83 on my Dish receiver.. and while I know those levels are not entirely accurate meaningful measurements, a 20-pt change in levels usually indicates to me something different and since I haven't changed anything on my end I wanted to ask.

Saw this on Engadget, but figured I'd link the original article here for consumption.

FCC Admits CableCARD a failure, vows to try something else (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/fcc-admits-cablecard-a-failure-vows-to-try-something-else.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss)

I live in Chatham county 28 miles from the Raleigh broadcast towers
and with surrounding trees. Never-the-less (with an 8 element bow-tie)
last fall I received most of the Raleigh DTV stations OTA after the leaves had
fallen.

Now I receive none after rescanning.

I have DishNet and can get all of them, but I prefer OTA because it
is not compressed.

Is this the "As we had warned earlier, after the June 12th switch, some DTV stations cut their power by over 90%, making reception nearly impossible" effect or do I need to spend more time replacing cables and connectors.

Thanks for any help.

Skip Coombe
skipcoombe@gmail.com

There hasn't been any significant changes since June 12. You might start out with a www.tvfool.com of your address.

I live in Chatham county 28 miles from the Raleigh broadcast towers
and with surrounding trees. Never-the-less (with an 8 element bow-tie)
last fall I received most of the Raleigh DTV stations OTA after the leaves had
fallen.

Now I receive none after rescanning.

I have DishNet and can get all of them, but I prefer OTA because it
is not compressed.

Is this the "As we had warned earlier, after the June 12th switch, some DTV stations cut their power by over 90%, making reception nearly impossible" effect or do I need to spend more time replacing cables and connectors.

Thanks for any help.

Skip Coombe
skipcoombe@gmail.com

Any pre-amps? If not, check the balun at the antenna connector, and the fitting. It may have gotten water in it, and rusted/rotted the coax pin.

Thanks Scooper & jspENC.

I do have a pre-amp and difficult to access collection of cables
and connectors.

Now that I can reasonably expect to get back to last year's
reception I will start debugging the path.

Skip
skipcoombe@gmail.com

It seems like WRAZ is working better now. Last night WRAZ and WRAL were coming in about the same, at 75 - 80%. WLFL and RDC came in at 92-97% and WNCN at 87% around the time I was checking.

Thanks Scooper & jspENC.

I do have a pre-amp and difficult to access collection of cables
and connectors.

Now that I can reasonably expect to get back to last year's
reception I will start debugging the path.

Skip
skipcoombe@gmail.com

Let me rephrase my above statement - if there have been changes since June 12, they have been to make it easier to receive the station. Example - June 12 - WRAL moved to the top of the tower on channel 48 - on 500KW. Within a month they moved to 1MW. WUNC is slowly upgrading their facilities - Now their antenna is higher AND has more power - I'm even getting them pretty good out here in Youngsville now (as well as WUNP from Roanoke Rapids). WTVD has had a power increase approved and I think it is implemented.

As quick reminder -
Call sign, market channel, RF channel
WUNC,4,25
WRAL,5,48
WTVD,11,11
WNCN,17,17
WLFL,22,27
WRDC,28,28
WRAZ,50,49

WUNC also has a request to put in a channel 30 translator aimed right at Raleigh out in the Garner antenna farm.

I'll be glad when WUNC is up to speed. I used to watch it alot. It was my strongest and clearest channel before the transition. It's now my most unreliable channel.

Our TimeWarner/Scientific Atlanta DVR, like most, is a piece of junk. It has to be reset quite often so that the pause and fast forward controls work. TW says they have a new model. I don't know what it would be. Does anyone know if the new ones are better than the ones that are a year or more old?

I'd really love to go to HTPC, but every time I try to work out the hardware, it gets too confusing.

Our TimeWarner/Scientific Atlanta DVR, like most, is a piece of junk. It has to be reset quite often so that the pause and fast forward controls work. TW says they have a new model. I don't know what it would be. Does anyone know if the new ones are better than the ones that are a year or more old?

I'd really love to go to HTPC, but every time I try to work out the hardware, it gets too confusing.

If you just want to go OTA or analog cable the HTPC route is pretty easy regarding hardware and installation. The cable card route (from what I hear, not gone down that road) is where the hardware issues really come into play, although others here may be able to chime in regards to that arena. That being said, my family has been more than happy getting rid of cable and enjoying the HTPC.

Even a Dell Zino with 2 tuners would work as well: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/t/81389.aspx
TGB - Not the best place to ask for advice, but good background reading.

Our TimeWarner/Scientific Atlanta DVR, like most, is a piece of junk. It has to be reset quite often so that the pause and fast forward controls work. TW says they have a new model. I don't know what it would be. Does anyone know if the new ones are better than the ones that are a year or more old?

I'd really love to go to HTPC, but every time I try to work out the hardware, it gets too confusing.

they will trade you boxes if you bring the old one into a local customer service center. those boxes are almost never new when you get them, and in my experience it is well worth trading a time or two until you get a reliable one. they're out there.

the 'new' boxes are made by samsung. i got one last time i traded (SMT-H3090). had two issues, which have both been corrected. now it's quite stable...at least as good as the best SA boxes i've had, and probably better. much more attractive as well...sleek piano black, if that matters.

issue 1 is that to get 5.1 DD, you have to get into the service menu and enable it. kind of buried, but i had no trouble googling for instructions (which i've forgotten, otherwise i'd pass along)

issue 2 was that occasionally when switching channels via 'last' recall or direct entry, i'd get a black screen & no sound. using sequential up/down changes would not cause the problem, and usually you could get the channel you were looking for with a quick up/down. but that screwed up the 'last channel' memory, and it was quite annoying not being able to 'last' back and forth between the two desired channels. i don't know if this was a tuner bug, or a sync issue with HDMI, or what...but it appears to have corrected itself. likely the box got a software upgrade.

one major 'pro'. i never could get an external esata disk to work as additional dvr storage with my SA boxes. hooked right up, recognized & formatted with the sammy.

$0.02.

A bit OT, but since most of you guys have RR, I thought I'd ask here:

Last weekend there was a cable guy installing cable to my neighbor's house. I've noticed that all this week my cable modem b/w is about 1/2 of what it was before (3.5Mb/s rather than 7Mb/s). I first measured it on Weds or Thurs, after I noticed the box had rebooted (or at least my network was hosed, as my natbox had a stale address, with 12 hours left on the lease). It has been slow every time I've measured, and downloads are taking twice as long. At any rate, I'm seeing this from http://192.168.100.1/signal.html

Down:
Frequency 609000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 37 dB
QAM 256
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level -7 dBmV

Up:

Channel ID 7
Frequency 33000676 Hz Ranged
Ranging Service ID 3648
Symbol Rate 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level 44 dBmV

Is this within normal ranges?

Thanks,

Drew

Is this within normal ranges?

This is what I have

Frequency 609000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 38 dB
Power Level 3 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 1
Frequency 33000000 Hz Ranged
Power Level 34 dBmV

Looks like the speedtest system is now skewed by some caching or bursting? I know I don't have 24Mbps constant service.. but that's what it reports.

A bit OT, but since most of you guys have RR, I thought I'd ask here:

Last weekend there was a cable guy installing cable to my neighbor's house. I've noticed that all this week my cable modem b/w is about 1/2 of what it was before (3.5Mb/s rather than 7Mb/s). I first measured it on Weds or Thurs, after I noticed the box had rebooted (or at least my network was hosed, as my natbox had a stale address, with 12 hours left on the lease). It has been slow every time I've measured, and downloads are taking twice as long. At any rate, I'm seeing this from http://192.168.100.1/signal.html

Down:
Frequency 609000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 37 dB
QAM 256
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level -7 dBmV

Up:

Channel ID 7
Frequency 33000676 Hz Ranged
Ranging Service ID 3648
Symbol Rate 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level 44 dBmV

Is this within normal ranges?

Thanks,

Drew

Your levels look fine. -7 is a touch low but within norms. SNR of 37 is great.

Your levels look fine. -7 is a touch low but within norms. SNR of 37 is great.

Thanks guys. I look forward to some quality time on the phone with TWC..

Drew

Maybe off the HDTV angle a little bit, but I figured this would be a good place as any to ask the members, anyone try internet service from Clear.com (http://www.clear.com/shop/services/home)?

You'll connect at download speeds up to 6 Mbps and upload speeds up to 1Mbps.


$45/month not too bad, just curious.

I am pretty tempted to try Clear. From what I can see, the beat the crap out of ATT on speed and price on internet and it is even better with internet and phone from them. I went into a chat with a rep and they inist that ther eis absolutely no cap at all. They said that I can use my connection 100% with no change in service level and no overage charges. Seems hard to beleive they can deliver this all over wireless and not cap it though.

I am pretty tempted to try Clear. From what I can see, the beat the crap out of ATT on speed and price on internet and it is even better with internet and phone from them. I went into a chat with a rep and they inist that ther eis absolutely no cap at all. They said that I can use my connection 100% with no change in service level and no overage charges. Seems hard to beleive they can deliver this all over wireless and not cap it though.

I'm tempted too...I think all I saw was a 2 yr committed plan, so that makes me a little worried in case its not all it is cracked up to be, but I am tempted.

I'm tempted too...I think all I saw was a 2 yr committed plan, so that makes me a little worried in case its not all it is cracked up to be, but I am tempted.

Quick glance at the site shows a 2 year plan and a month-to-month.

* Get free activation ($35 Savings)
* Save money up front with device leases

seems to be the only differences between the two. (obviously the above would be with the 2 year plan).

Well looks like AT&T is digging up spots in my neighborhood for UVerse. Seriously considering the jump for faster upload speeds, with any luck smoother gaming (my RR connection always seems a bit bursty), a whole-house DVR that can record 4 shows at once and is web programmable, and what looks like a cheaper price. Given how pixellated action movies are showing on TWC HD, I'm not that concerned about PQ questions with UVerse, since I'm moving to Blu-Ray for movie watching anyway. Although if sports are unwatchable in HD, that would be a concern.

Anyway, here's hoping it won't be long now.

Well looks like AT&T is digging up spots in my neighborhood for UVerse. Seriously considering the jump for faster upload speeds, with any luck smoother gaming (my RR connection always seems a bit bursty), a whole-house DVR that can record 4 shows at once and is web programmable, and what looks like a cheaper price. Given how pixellated action movies are showing on TWC HD, I'm not that concerned about PQ questions with UVerse, since I'm moving to Blu-Ray for movie watching anyway. Although if sports are unwatchable in HD, that would be a concern.

Anyway, here's hoping it won't be long now.

It's available in our neighborhood (55 and highhouse). But it's not cheaper than what we're paying time warner for 3 hdtvs, internet, and phone.

Well looks like AT&T is digging up spots in my neighborhood for UVerse. Seriously considering the jump for faster upload speeds, with any luck smoother gaming (my RR connection always seems a bit bursty), a whole-house DVR that can record 4 shows at once and is web programmable, and what looks like a cheaper price. Given how pixellated action movies are showing on TWC HD, I'm not that concerned about PQ questions with UVerse, since I'm moving to Blu-Ray for movie watching anyway. Although if sports are unwatchable in HD, that would be a concern.

Anyway, here's hoping it won't be long now.

What part of Cary? More competition is always a good thing.

What part of Cary? More competition is always a good thing.

Sure is but it didn't stop Time Warner from jacking the rates again in January. I got the notification of the rate increase in my bill yesterday.

Anybody here actually using U-Verse? I've been curious about it. I'm a little apprehensive with that last stretch from the neighborhood box being DSL (at least - that's my understanding of how it works).

If I didn't have a Tivo, I'd have probably already given it a try. I already wired my house for network, and U-Verse has been available in my neighborhood for 6 months or so (Wellington Park, near Tryon and Cary Pkwy).

What part of Cary? More competition is always a good thing.

I'm in MacArthur Park, so southwest Cary Parkway.

The other reason I'm strongly considering it is that I'm sick and tired of being told "Channel Unavailable, Try Back Later" when I want to watch something. It happens 2-3 times per week, and that's way too much for something I'm paying for...

Sure is but it didn't stop Time Warner from jacking the rates again in January. I got the notification of the rate increase in my bill yesterday.

Dang... I use their paperless bill. I didnt know there was another increase. How bad? Ill have to do some website surfing.

Dang... I use their paperless bill. I didnt know there was another increase. How bad? Ill have to do some website surfing.

I do the paperless bill to but just happened to look at it this month and found the following on the bottom of it:

Dear Time Warner Cable Customer:
We are always looking for ways to offer our customers the highest quality and best value.You expect excellence in
your entertainment and communications services, and we strive to exceed your expectations.You also want the best
value possible, and that's why we work very hard to control costs. When costs rise, we need to pass on some of
these costs to our customers to maintain the high level of service you expect from us. Sports and broadcast
programming costs are by far the largest contributor to price increases.


Due to continued rising costs, prices for some services will increase on your next bill statement. Please refer to the
chart below for adjustments to Time Warner Cable's monthly prices. If you are currently receiving a promotional
discount for services, your discounted price will remain in effect until the end of the promotional period.


Service From To
Broadcast Cable-- $14.75 --> $17.45
Basic Cable-- $56.66 --> $59.95
Digital Cable -- $71.95 --> $76.95
Digital and RR -- $114.90 --> $117.95
Digital and Phone -- $116.90 --> $117.95
Digital, Phone and RR -- $154.85 --> $157.90
Digital Box -- $7.23 --> $7.00
Digital Remote -- $ .32 --> $ 0.34
DIgital TIer -- $ 9.10 --> $11.95
DIgital extra outlet -- $ 8.98 --> $8.98
DVR ServIce, per outlet-- no change
Road Runner LIte -- $24.95 --> $27.95
RR BasIc, bundled -- $ 32.95 --> $37.95
RR bundled basic cable -- $47.95 --> $49.95
RR bundled Digital Cable -- $42.95 --> $44.95
Earthlink,bundled BasIc -- $47.95 -->$49.95
Earthlink,bundled DIgItal -- $42.95 -->$ 44.95

Time Warner Cable is focused on developing new products, features and services that take advantage of the latest
technology to keep you connected, informed and entertained. Our digital cable service is better than ever, with more
HD channels, On Demand programming choices, and great new features like Start Over ®. Our award-winning Road
Runner® service continues to be second to none in terms of speed, reliability, content and value. Now, Road Runner
High Speed Online customers can take advantage of PowerBoost™, which provides an extra burst of speed when
downloading large files.

Many of our customers save hundreds of dollars annually by taking advantage of our bundled service options and
Price Lock Guarantee packages.You can learn more about our bundled service options at YourTWC.com
We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Time Warner Cable.
Sincerely,
Time Warner Cable

Dang... I use their paperless bill. I didnt know there was another increase. How bad? Ill have to do some website surfing.
Not much of an increase in my case (probably around $4-5/mo.), but there's enough of an increase across the board to give me pause. If I had a decent LoS to satellite, I might consider going that route honestly, or maybe try OTA + Hulu/etc. TWC's continual rate hikes without any corresponding quality of service increase is really starting to aggravate me, not to mention the shoddy Navigator UI and hardware issues.

Dang... I use their paperless bill. I didnt know there was another increase. How bad? Ill have to do some website surfing.

We are always looking for ways to offer our customers the highest quality and best value. You expect excellence in your entertainment and communications services, and we strive to exceed your expectations. You also want the best value possible, and that's why we work very hard to control costs. When costs rise, we need to pass on some of these costs to our customers to maintain the high level of service you expect from us. Sports and broadcast programming costs are by far the largest contributor to price increases.
Due to continued rising costs, prices for some services will increase on your next bill statement. Please refer to the chart below for adjustments to Time Warner Cable's monthly prices. If you are currently receiving a promotional discount for services, your discounted price will remain in effect until the end of the promotional period.

Service |From |To
Broadcast Cable| $ 12.95| $ 17.00
Basic Cable (includes Broadcast Cable and Cable Programming Tier)| $ 56.66 |$ 59.95
Digital Cable (includes Basic Cable, digital programming tier, digital equipment and Navigator interactive guide)| $ 71.95 |$ 76.95
Digital Cable and Road Runner High Speed Online| $114.90 |$117.95
Digital Cable and Digital Phone Unlimited Nationwide |$116.90 |117.95
Digital Cable, Road Runner High Speed Online and Digital Phone Unlimited Nationwide|$154.85 |$157.90
Digital box |$ 7.23| $ 7.00
Digital remote |$ .32 |$ 0.34
Digital Programming Tier| $ 9.10 |$ 11.95
Digital Cable, each additional outlet |$ 8.98| $ 8.98
DVR Service, per outlet |no change|
Road Runner Lite |$ 24.95 |$ 27.95
Road Runner Basic, bundled with Cable or Digital Phone |$ 32.95| $ 37.95 |
Road Runner High Speed Online, bundled with Broadcast Cable, Basic Cable or Digital Phone |$ 47.95 |$ 49.95
Road Runner High Speed Online, bundled with Digital Cable |$ 42.95 |$ 44.95
Earthlink, bundled with Broadcast Cable, Basic Cable or Digital Phone |$ 47.95| $ 49.95
Earthlink, bundled with Digital Cable| $ 42.95 |$ 44.95

(dang, took so long to format the table it was already posted!)

I thought they just had a rate hike last year as well. My standalone RR is now $55/month.

(dang, took so long to format the table it was already posted!)


Yeah but your table looks alot better than mine. :D

Yeah but your table looks alot better than mine. :D

Thanks guys....

I'm hoping someone can confirm this is a general problem and not simply something on my end....

Long story short, got the HTPC built and it's working like a champ BUT I cannot get the WinTV-HVR-2250 to find WLFL-DT or WRDC-DT (22.1 and 28.1) at all via clear QAM on TWC. In otherwords, I am getting 4.1,5.1, 11.1, 17.1, 50.1....and the other crappy subchannels, but no CW or MyRDC.

To troubleshoot I have tried scanning (and rescanning) with both the Hauppage and my Samsung with built-in ATSC/QAM tuner and.....nothing. 22.1 and 28.1 won't show.

Adding and editing channels in Win7MCE (using the silicondust site for actual channel maps) hasn't helped either. I did have an opportunity to speak with an engineer for the station and he has confirmed that where he is located he is picking up the broadcast on clear QAM via TWC.

Can anyone confirm/deny that 22.1 and 28.1 (hopefully in Apex) are showing up on TWC clear QAM?

Thanks. This has frustrated me to no end.

I'm hoping someone can confirm this is a general problem and not simply something on my end....

Long story short, got the HTPC built and it's working like a champ BUT I cannot get the WinTV-HVR-2250 to find WLFL-DT or WRDC-DT (22.1 and 28.1) at all via clear QAM on TWC. In otherwords, I am getting 4.1,5.1, 11.1, 17.1, 50.1....and the other crappy subchannels, but no CW or MyRDC.

To troubleshoot I have tried scanning (and rescanning) with both the Hauppage and my Samsung with built-in ATSC/QAM tuner and.....nothing. 22.1 and 28.1 won't show.

Adding and editing channels in Win7MCE (using the silicondust site for actual channel maps) hasn't helped either. I did have an opportunity to speak with an engineer for the station and he has confirmed that where he is located he is picking up the broadcast on clear QAM via TWC.

Can anyone confirm/deny that 22.1 and 28.1 (hopefully in Apex) are showing up on TWC clear QAM?

Thanks. This has frustrated me to no end.

22 and 28 are on QAM 543Mhz (ch 77)

Can anyone confirm/deny that 22.1 and 28.1 (hopefully in Apex) are showing up on TWC clear QAM?

I'm in Cary, and they're here for me. Since they're on Channel 77, I suspect you might have a low signal due to a filter to block the lower channels. Do you get analog channel 74 OK?

Drew

Weird. Analog 74 comes in loud and clear...but no amount of fiddling will allow me to get 77.

Does anyone have the Digital Access Package (TWC) in Raleigh/Durham? What HD stations do you get or not get?

Does anyone have the Digital Access Package (TWC) in Raleigh/Durham? What HD stations do you get or not get?

The list can found online at http://www.timewarnercable.com/carolinas/support/clu/clu.ashx

The list can found online at http://www.timewarnercable.com/carolinas/support/clu/clu.ashx

I dont see Digital Access on the list at all. Just Digital Variety.