Has anyone's reception of Fox Digital improved?

I'm still getting pixelation and video breakups. Sunday's Saints game was totally unwatchable.

J C

fox is still terrible here as well.

Originally posted by Cinder
fox is still terrible here as well.

I e-mailed Joe Addalia this morning and here's his reply.

This is the first I have heard of this. I will ask the local engineers
to look into it as soon as they can. We are still dealing with storm
damage, so I'm not sure how quickly they can respond.

Joe

Sounds like more people need to send in a complaint.

J C

I'm having lots of weird signals today. I'm picking up abc but it's nowhere near what it used to be. Signal won't stabilize either, drops from 80% to 20% consistently.

CBS is solid for me now, but at the expense of ABC. For some reason i can't pull in either one strong unless i sacrifice the other. Before the storm i had both in the 90's, now i have cbs in the 80's and abc dropping all over the place, or abc in the high 80's and cbs falling apart in the 50's.

fox/wb is awful. I get it to the 70's, but it drops to the 40's and 50's every second, then it stabilizes , then completely drops out for a minute, then it's bouncing around again. I've never had great success with fox/wb for whatever reason, but i've never had the signal move so sharply and before the storm i got them solid at around the low 80's.

On another note i have nbc and upn stronger than i've ever had them.

I'll email joe, anyone else having trouble with other towers?

Daniel

Fox/WB are pretty damn bad for me as well.

News from WEAR:


Hi Daniel,

We took a beating. Our microwave dishes got misaligned, but we had those fixed by Friday. Channel 3 is at full power and sending a strong signal ... our DT17 is having some problems. If you're getting our digital signal but losing the others, it could be because the CBS and FOX towers are more northeast from your location, while we're a bit south of due east. WPMI-NBC15's tower went down during the storm, so they're not on-the-air. I'm not sure about their digital signal...I think it's on a different tower.

Also, we were scheduled to get our full-power tubes for our digital transmitter last week...but that got postponed by Ivan, and now we're having to wait to get rescheduled. The same thing with the crew coming in to install our ABC High Definition reception gear. I'll try to let you know as soon as it's rescheduled.

Have a very nice day!

Joe


also, i've tweaked my antenna a bit and now can pull in everything once again. Nothing is as strong as it once was, but they're stable for now...

Well that lasted long, i had a good solid signal from fox/wb for the last two days, now it's all over the place again, i haven't touched my antenna.

Called the station today. Fellow in programming says it will be a month or more to get HDTV on line . He made it sound like they have been put at the end of the list because of the delay from the hurricane. :( He was very surprised to hear that I recieve them in Crestview .

Is it not true that FOX 10.1 is broadcasting on the VHF, not UHF as all the other channels have been assigned?

While living in Chicago, WBBM CBS Channel 2 was dealt a VHF channel assignment (3), the forum still has an active thread about poor reception.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=297405&highlight=wbbm

Seems VHF is much harder to capture than UHF signals, must be in a sweet spot.

We receive the signal in West Mobile, can look pretty good yet notice a lot of drop outs, reminds me a lot of CBS in Chicago. Hope they can really crank up the power, it's great to have their OTA feeds!

We will be installing Direct TV this weekend, NFL package and a RCA DTC-210 HD receiver. We have been using this receiver at our store, impressed so far with the OTA sensitivity and the OTA channel surf speed.

Tom

Yeah, FOX-DTV is on channel 10, which is VHF. However, from the standpoint of the station, that's great. Less power is required for VHF vs. UHF - only 100 kilowatts for full power instead of the 1 megawatt required for our UHF stations.

In fact, Panama City's NBC station stalled for a couple of years on the build-out schedule demanding that FCC move their DTV assigned channel from UHF to VHF. And Dothan's CBS channel plans to drop their UHF DTV channel (36) and go back to channel 4 when the analog shutdown occurs so they can save money on their power bill This is prefectly legal and there may be other stations planning the same thing.

When I spoke with the engineer at FOX he explained that to me and that they thought it was a benefit, less energy used, better signal.

I hope he is correct!

I know one of the big issues with WBBM CBS in Chicago was that their digital channel assignment interfered with a lot of the Cable Companies, using channel 3/4 etc.

So, hopefully again, VHF is better!

Tom

We did get our Direct TV system installed last night (yawn....). Here is a post I made in another area today if your interested.

"Let me start off explaining that we have had this unit in our store displaying OTA only and I was impressed. For comparison we have the DST-3100 and had the Sony HD-200 and 300, Samsung SIRT-150 previously.

OK, just set up this unit last night at our home in Mobile, Al.

Very impressed so far, very impressed.

OTA reception is much more sensitive than our Sony 57WS550 TV (which has a very good OTA Tuner). I like the increased channel changing speed, excellent.

We now pick-up 55.1, saw this spot-tingly if at all in the past 3 months with the Sony, now pulling in all OTA channels in Mobile. Well see how this plays out.

As this is my first Direct Tv system in our home, I must say the set-up and menu system could not be easier.

The minimal Direct TV HD channel viewing I've done in 1080i has been excellent. I have been concerned with reports of major compression with the HD channels on Direct TV in general, have not seen that so far (the time spent with electronic and manual focus along with service level convergence really shows with this material).

The guides are fast and simple, need more time here, but like them a lot so far.

The 1080i up-convert of standard Direct 480i channels are really clean, really clean, looks great.

The remote programs nicely, our Pioneer 49tx receiver would not take the code from the RCA manual, but performed the "Auto Programming" and it worked, cool!

If you need only an OTA Tuner, this unit will perform that function, you must first insert the card however, otherwise you can not get the channels to scan. Again, the OTA tuner is the best I've used so far."

Tom

Did wkrg just go off the air? I had them pretty strong and now i have 0 signal, but everything else is good.

Originally posted by Cinder
Did wkrg just go off the air? I had them pretty strong and now i have 0 signal, but everything else is good.

I'm watching the Alabama vs. Arkansas game, but i'm getting major digital drop outs. There have been audio clicks and twice has went to 480i before flipping back to 1080i.

It kicked back in about 30 minutes before the game, they must have been fixing something, was getting major dropouts but i think they're having issues on their end, the audio is pretty funny, surround announcer at times :) Looking good now, clearly they found a problem and were trying to get it going for the bama game, good for them :)

Originally posted by Cinder
Did wkrg just go off the air? I had them pretty strong and now i have 0 signal, but everything else is good.

Thursday I lost the audio portion of 5-1 on both my receivers.
E-mailed a question to Mr. Richardson and he replied that he'd check it out.

In the process of reseting the unit I found that if I take out the zip code in local networks the audio comes in ok.

Almost all the channels are broadcasting the program guide now.

J C

Edit:

Caught the 4th quarter of the Alabama game and it was flawless.
Perfect picture and sound, can't say as much for the late part of the game.

Only the 1st quarter had issues, they got it going pretty good after that.

I had some issues with wkrg recording csi:ny , not sure what happened but it fell apart in the end.

Also i still don't receive program guide info for 55-1 (WB). This is very annoying as i can't set season passes to record shows. Granted it's moot at this point because i can't get fox/wb to stabilize above 60% which is very annoying as well. I've always had trouble with fox/wb, but had them stable at about 75% before the storm. I also had WKRG stable at about 85% before teh storm and the best i can get it now is a consistent 71%, with very mild pixelation occasionally.

I think Ivan did a little more to the towers than either the engineers know or are letting on. No reason for things to change this much, especially with less trees :)

Originally posted by Cinder
Only the 1st quarter had issues, they got it going pretty good after that.

I had some issues with wkrg recording csi:ny , not sure what happened but it fell apart in the end.

Also i still don't receive program guide info for 55-1 (WB). This is very annoying as i can't set season passes to record shows. Granted it's moot at this point because i can't get fox/wb to stabilize above 60% which is very annoying as well. I've always had trouble with fox/wb, but had them stable at about 75% before the storm. I also had WKRG stable at about 85% before teh storm and the best i can get it now is a consistent 71%, with very mild pixelation occasionally.

I think Ivan did a little more to the towers than either the engineers know or are letting on. No reason for things to change this much, especially with less trees :)

I had issues with WB the other night during Smallville. I had a few video dropouts. Whats up with WB not displaying Smallville in widescreen? I know they won't do HD, but i was under the impression we would still get 16x9 480p

I have not had audio on WKRG 5.1 since Ivan, any ideas on what cuased this and how to correct it? Thanks, KP

P.S. I hardly ever get audio on 42.1, even before Ivan, all other channels are OK.

WB showed smallville in 480p wide last year, they either forgot to make the switch to wide or something is messed up. Was very annoying, i had to fill the screen into a 4:3 size screen via svideo on my sammy dlp to avoid having bars on the sides and top and bottom. I also had so many breakups it was nearly unwatchable, fox/wb is terrible now for me. And with the season ticket's new rules for broadcasts i'm sure i'll be watching the damn saints on the satellite channel and not in hd, argh... oh well, at least i get to watch my raiders trounce chucky tonight.

Originally posted by wkp1
I have not had audio on WKRG 5.1 since Ivan, any ideas on what cuased this and how to correct it? Thanks, KP

P.S. I hardly ever get audio on 42.1, even before Ivan, all other channels are OK.

42.1 fixed their audio problem before Ivan, but now the station is completely down. 42-1 is back on for me and at with audio and video.

Regarding Fox, i'm getting a constant 90 out of 100, but i'm losing signal every few seconds and then reaquiring, very annoying indeed. I may have to "move" with directv so i can get the national feeds.

That's a pretty good signal.

As for nationals they're not in hd yet but have you tried getting a waiver? I got a waiver for nbc and fox, i can't get one with cbs and abc though i really really want one :)

Originally posted by Cinder
That's a pretty good signal.

As for nationals they're not in hd yet but have you tried getting a waiver? I got a waiver for nbc and fox, i can't get one with cbs and abc though i really really want one :)

NBC/ CBS and Fox are all in HD on Directv now. There's no way in hell i could get a waiver with my location.

I'm watching the pre-game show on Fox, which is being broadcast in 720p, and i've only had one video dropout in the last 15 minutes :)

Of course as soon as the game starts i start to get the same highly annoying video dropouts. ARGH!!

I know cbs and nbc are in hd on directv now, but i wasn't aware that fox was in hd (other than on sunday ticket.) i can go to fox east/west sd and see them since i have the waiver, but fox hd nationals does not show up, unlike nbc (which i can get) and cbs (which i can't). What channel do you see fox hd (east/west) on?

Yeh i can watch our local fox in hd for about a minute, then get crazy breakups, then back to smooth hd, then crazy breaks.

As a side note, since i have a waiver for fox wouldn't it make since that i could get local games on sunday ticket due to my waiver? weird

Packers vs Colts on Fox is just unwatchable, i don't understand why the pregame show can be just fine, but then go to complete hell when the game comes on.

CBS was breaking up on me as well and i have a solid signal, not sure if it's me or their end, i didn't watch that game but flipped to check it out.

Fox hd was rumored to go on directv this month but it hasn't happened yet.

I am new to hdtv, and have been glad to see this forum and local mobile folks posting. I live in lamplighter woods off grelot in west mobile. when I finally hooked up my pos sears amplified antenna friday i could get fox, cbs, apt, and nbc. The alabama game was great, as well as the packers game. I had no dropouts for csi on saturday night as well. I don't even know what a good antenna is, and hope to find one soon. I was not even aware that there was some hd programming ota. I have a lot to learn

thanks

mike

Mike,

Welcome to the thread. Glad to hear your experience was a piece of cake. If you got FOX, CBS, APT-PBS, and NBC and no drop-outs, your antenna is just fine. I would only think of getting another if you can't get ABC from Pensacola (channel 17) and even then, wait until the promised power upgrade and HD equipment is in place before making a decision.

Pensacola are promising HD in a month but we will see. Biloxi has ABC-HD but unless you're less than 70 miles to the tower I wouldn't worry about it. You should also be getting UPN on channel 45 if you're getting NBC-47. Pensacola's PBS is channel 31, which you may or maynot want. That's most everybody that's on the air right now.

How do you determine your signal strenght for OTA stations? Does it depend on your type of receiver? I have a DIRECTV Zeinth HD... Thanks

Originally posted by TS45
Is it not true that FOX 10.1 is broadcasting on the VHF, not UHF as all the other channels have been assigned?

While living in Chicago, WBBM CBS Channel 2 was dealt a VHF channel assignment (3), the forum still has an active thread about poor reception.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=297405&highlight=wbbm

Seems VHF is much harder to capture than UHF signals, must be in a sweet spot.

We receive the signal in West Mobile, can look pretty good yet notice a lot of drop outs, reminds me a lot of CBS in Chicago. Hope they can really crank up the power, it's great to have their OTA feeds!

We will be installing Direct TV this weekend, NFL package and a RCA DTC-210 HD receiver. We have been using this receiver at our store, impressed so far with the OTA sensitivity and the OTA channel surf speed.

Tom

The issue with WBBM in Chicago is that it's on channel 3. It's not all of VHF that's a problem, just low VHF, channels 2-6. WALA-DT should actually be one of the strongest digital TV stations in the country, since IIRC they broadcast at 124 (!) kW on channel 9, while the nearst upper-VHF signal to me is at full power at 3.2 kW on channel 11. I bet if my channel 11 was at 124 kW I could receive it.

I have a low-VHF digital (WBRA-DT, channel 3, PBS station sadly) and it is so irritating. Broadcasts at full power (7.25 kW) but is directional so they only put about 2.5 kW in my direction. Weakest signal I have. It's a pain to get even with the HUGE VHF antenna on the roof.

I think the biggest issue with VHF digital is the low power. VHF stations are spaced so close as it is that VHF digitals have to stay at low power for the most part. I personally would love to visit the Mobile area to see what kind of singal WALA-DT really puts out. At a decent power level like that, the signal should be plenty strong and would yield good results on many UHF antennas.

On the other hand, I doubt even maxing power out at 60 kW on low VHF digitals would fix their issues. Low VHF should be made into an expanded FM band. Leave TV with 7-51.

- Trip

well, I spoke to soon...i sat down last nite to watch CSI and i had no signal on 5.1..no cbs on the antenna. what happened is the doppler signal from wkrg 5.02 (on my pioneer pro) would pop up and then i could not change channels. I had to manually delete that channel to be able to cycle thru the rest of the stations. still no wkrg. would this phenomena be because their signal is weak now? after the hurricane, or could this be something on my end? i have changed nothing snce sunday, when i watched the packers on fox and then csi in hd on wkrg. just wondering out loud

mike

Trip,

In general,

I don't think its a channel seperation issue for low VHF, exactly. It the opposite, believe it or not; VHF propagation is very effective, with low atmospheric attenuation compared to UHF and signal bending allowing "over the horizon" capapibility that UHF can't do. So a little power goes a long way.

All that does cause interference with VHF channel, so we do get back to channel seperation, in a way. In a crowded area, any channel can be limited in power to prevent it from causing interference with another distant channel. In fact, Panama City, Florida is approved for a FOX DTV at 124 kW on channel 9, also. The towers (referring to Mobile's FOX on ch 9 and Panama City's FOX on 9) are about 150 miles apart. If they were closer, one of them would have to switch channels or lower its power to prevent possible interference.

But I'm not in Chicago and haven't have to deal with the problem so there maybe a lot of issues beyond this simplistic explanation.

Originally posted by RickRS
Trip,

In general,

I don't think its a channel seperation issue for low VHF, exactly. It the opposite, believe it or not; VHF propagation is very effective, with low atmospheric attenuation compared to UHF and signal bending allowing "over the horizon" capapibility that UHF can't do. So a little power goes a long way.

All that does cause interference with VHF channel, so we do get back to channel seperation, in a way. In a crowded area, any channel can be limited in power to prevent it from causing interference with another distant channel. In fact, Panama City, Florida is approved for a FOX DTV at 124 kW on channel 9, also. The towers (referring to Mobile's FOX on ch 9 and Panama City's FOX on 9) are about 150 miles apart. If they were closer, one of them would have to switch channels or lower its power to prevent possible interference.

But I'm not in Chicago and haven't have to deal with the problem so there maybe a lot of issues beyond this simplistic explanation.

The problem in Chicago for a long time (and still is) that there's a signal leak in the cable system, so WBBM-DT interferes with cable 3 (which until a year ago was WBBM!). The solution? Swap WBBM on 3 with C-SPAN on 22.

Aside from that, they transmit at a whopping 3.7 kW (someone on this forum has a dedicated VHF antenna within 10 miles and cannot get a reliable signal).

The major problems with low-VHF are:

E-skip
Propogation
Huge antennas
Low power

Only one of those issues can be resolved at the end of the conversion. I think we both know which one that is.

The fact is that low-VHF is not suitable for digital and I think most people/stations understand this. Those that intend to go after a low-VHF allocation after the conversion is over will likely not save money in the long run.

- Distant cable systems and viewers will not be able to rely on their OTA signal
- People may not bother with the huge antennas and may go for other affiliates of the network
- People who do will suffer from poor signal due to E-skip and propogation

Plus, as with today, portable TVs will not be able to tune the low-VHF signals.

If WTVY is smart, they will attempt to get a hold of either 7 or 8--whichever allocation WJHG doesn't use--and go to that one rather than back to channel 4. 7 would be better, to prevent issues with WAKA (which is digital 55 IIRC and so will most likely wind up back on 8).

- Trip

Just curious, my main problem with fox for me is a very inconsitent jumping around signal. It bounces from 30-75 all the time. Am i to understand i'm probably getting too much or a signal or too much multipath? If so what's the best way to rectify this, i need my preamp to get my uhf stations, but it may be preventing me from getting fox.

Thanks
Daniel

Another newbie ?? I had posted yesterday about not getting CBS at all on Antenna. I have found if I rotate the antenna so that i am pointed what seems to be away from the tower source i can pick up cabs on a very weak signal.i can watch whatever, but i cannot change the channel from cbs. I have been told locally that CBS signal here is the weakest it has been since the hurricane. But when I GET that supposed weak signal, I get no drop outs or pixelazation..a great pix. Just can't get past the channel without deleting it from the channel selection. So my stupid ? is..is this what i am to expect, that the only way to recieve cbs is to constantly point the antenna AWAY from the source? Are the stronger signals blocking CBS supposedly weaker signal? If I point towards the towers, i get Dt And HDTV signal fro ALL the rest available in this area. If I point away, I get a very weak CBS, but can't move past it.

I guess what I am asking from experienced folks is what do I do to try and fix this situation or at least approach the problem more scientifically

thanks

mike

Originally posted by mikegee
I guess what I am asking from experienced folks is what do I do to try and fix this situation or at least approach the problem more scientifically


Mike,

You may have received CBS because of atmospheric conditions or some other fluke. In orther words, it may be the other way around from what you're thinking now.

There are a couple of things you can try.

1. Go to http://www.antennaweb.org click on Choose Atnenna, put in your street address and click submit. This will list the stations you should normally be able to receive and the direction your antenna needs to be pointed to recieve them. It also shows the color code for the type of antenna you will need.

2. Using a compass, point your antenna towards what is listed on antennaweb.

3. You may need to raise the antenna if there are tall structures between you and the transmitters.

4. Using antennaweb how many miles are you from the CBS-DT transmitter and what color is the "Antenna Type"? If it's Violet then it is a very weak signal for you and you may need to raise your antenna, get an amplifier, or get a better antenna.

If you've already tried all of this, sorry, but that's about all I can recommend.


Steve

Trip,

Thank you for the great response. I was aware of the powerful signal that 10.1 does use, these drop outs reminded me an awful lot of my experience in Chicago with WBBM CBS, yes, I'm aware of the lower power that is broadcast due to cable interference etc. there too.

It would be a wonderful thing if 10.1 is the strongest and best in this area. Again, through our homes Sony TV, 57WS550 we experience a consistent albeit not quite as strong signal with 10.1, yet still have pixelization, Hic -cups, even though the signal meter does not change. Through our homes new DTC-210, the signal is maxed out, the strongest possible, does not move yet the pixelization, Hic -cups still occur. 10.1 came through pretty clean last night, did not watch too long however.

Same deal at the shop......?????...... Seems / most or all are experiencing this trouble in the area.



Originally posted by Trip in VA
The issue with WBBM in Chicago is that it's on channel 3. It's not all of VHF that's a problem, just low VHF, channels 2-6. WALA-DT should actually be one of the strongest digital TV stations in the country, since IIRC they broadcast at 124 (!) kW on channel 9, while the nearst upper-VHF signal to me is at full power at 3.2 kW on channel 11. I bet if my channel 11 was at 124 kW I could receive it.

I have a low-VHF digital (WBRA-DT, channel 3, PBS station sadly) and it is so irritating. Broadcasts at full power (7.25 kW) but is directional so they only put about 2.5 kW in my direction. Weakest signal I have. It's a pain to get even with the HUGE VHF antenna on the roof.

I think the biggest issue with VHF digital is the low power. VHF stations are spaced so close as it is that VHF digitals have to stay at low power for the most part. I personally would love to visit the Mobile area to see what kind of singal WALA-DT really puts out. At a decent power level like that, the signal should be plenty strong and would yield good results on many UHF antennas.

On the other hand, I doubt even maxing power out at 60 kW on low VHF digitals would fix their issues. Low VHF should be made into an expanded FM band. Leave TV with 7-51.

- Trip

Mike,

What receiver, STB, TV are you using?

The receiver locking up and refusing to allow you to change channels suggest a problem with the receiver instead of a weak signal. And it may not be your receiver's fault. There has been problems with the PSIP datastream that the station send out. I have a weird problem where my Samsung SIR-T150 STB would freeze every couple minutes when I tuned in CBS. Couldn't change channels when this happen. Turned out it was close captions. If it was on, CBS would freeze every two minutes for several minutes. Turn CC off, CBS was fine.

well...everything is in Blue at antennaweb.com. i have considered an amplifier...what kind do you recommend?

I am using a motorola dct6208 cable stb, but the antenna is run into the prioneer elite's media reciever, which is a seperate piece. there is seperate DTV antenna "plug" on the reciever that i have the antenna cable plugged into. I have not seen any closed captions on my tv...could that be turned on if they don't show? interesting. i will check that

Could you guys let me know about the Amplifier? is it powered? inside i guess? Antenna web said i needed a medium sized directional antenna that was amplified.

CBS has a lot of HD programming I like. It would be a shame not to get it. there has to be some sort of signal problem as the 5.01 hd wkrg signal may pop in and then jump immediately to the 5.01 wkrg doppler. that's when the lockup occurs.
thnaks for your continuing help

mike

Originally posted by mikegee
well...everything is in Blue at antennaweb.com. i have considered an amplifier...what kind do you recommend?

I am using a motorola dct6208 cable stb, but the antenna is run into the prioneer elite's media reciever, which is a seperate piece. there is seperate DTV antenna "plug" on the reciever that i have the antenna cable plugged into. I have not seen any closed captions on my tv...could that be turned on if they don't show? interesting. i will check that

Could you guys let me know about the Amplifier? is it powered? inside i guess? Antenna web said i needed a medium sized directional antenna that was amplified.

CBS has a lot of HD programming I like. It would be a shame not to get it. there has to be some sort of signal problem as the 5.01 hd wkrg signal may pop in and then jump immediately to the 5.01 wkrg doppler. that's when the lockup occurs.
thnaks for your continuing help

mike

I have a pre-amp that i could sell you for very very cheap. I bought it brand new from Absolute Home Theatre (Cinder's buisness) It has only been used for about a week. Let me know if you are interested.

WB 55-1 once again is not showing Smallville in widescreen. Who can we talk to?

addalia@wb18.com

That is Joe Addalia's email for fox/wb. Shoot him an email, let him know you're having trouble picking up the signal as well.

Glad to see you still don't need the preamp :) we need to work a time to calibrate your system in.

D

Originally posted by Cinder
addalia@wb18.com

That is Joe Addalia's email for fox/wb. Shoot him an email, let him know you're having trouble picking up the signal as well.

Glad to see you still don't need the preamp :) we need to work a time to calibrate your system in.

D

I emailed him, i'll post his response if i get one.

Cinder, how's next friday sound on video calibration? email me.

LSU vs Georgia on 5-1 is having MAJOR audio sync problems. Right now the audio is a good 2 - 3 seconds off. I have still yet to see a flawless network HD game this season. ESPN seems to be the only reliable HD content.

Anyone trying to watch the New Orleans game on OTA? The audio is dropping in and out.Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks,
Steve

Anyone else seeing the Dolphins game in 4:3 format? It's suppose to be HD.
I just sent WKRG an e-mail.

Steve

Originally posted by rute
Anyone trying to watch the New Orleans game on OTA? The audio is dropping in and out.Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks,
Steve

Yup, been having this problem since week 1 .

I haven't been able to watch fox since ivan, i get it at about 75% but it drops out continually.

CBS during the day for games has been terrible as well. The miami game was on sunday ticket in HD for the first half, then they blacked it out due to their fun new rule, pisses me off. I can't watch the saints in sd, it's just too ugly. I'm dreading when oakland plays the saints on fox. Then i'll actually have a game that will force me to go crazy on the local fox broadcaster if this dropout situation is not rectified.

Also with cbs, getting dropouts, always have dropouts during their football games, then at night my hd tivo records shows smoothly and without problem.

On another note, anyone have voom? I setup a voom system for a client and have all his stations at 78-79%, i just can't break 80% at his location. With this the voom box wouldn't lock on any channel saying 80% is the minimum allowed to watch a station. This is insane, i only have one station over 80% at my location with a directv box. argh

Originally posted by crimsonblake
WB 55-1 once again is not showing Smallville in widescreen. Who can we talk to?

Call WALA ask for the control room or a engineer ,they are their sister station and handle all the tech stuff. :(

Cinder,

What fun new rule are you referring too? I did not get a chance to watch the Miami game, but I also have Sunday ticket and never have any trouble with any of the HD broadcast games...

Regards,
BM

Originally posted by mill3704
Cinder,

What fun new rule are you referring too? I did not get a chance to watch the Miami game, but I also have Sunday ticket and never have any trouble with any of the HD broadcast games...

Regards,
BM

You have no issues with local Fox NFL broadcasts? I have NO problems with Fox what so ever on Monday - Saturday, but when Sunday football comes along, it all goes to hell.

The rule is that if a local channel, say your local CBS is showing a game, then nfl sunday ticket will black out the game on sunday ticket and force you to watch it locally.

So each week the saints game is shown locally on fox so it's blacked out on nfl sunday ticket.

Today the miami game was shown locally (they also forgot to flip the switch and make it HD.) Anyway, nfl sunday ticket showed the first half of the game due to the previous game going over their alloted time. Then the 2nd half was blacked out forcing you to watch the local affiliate.

There are lots of threads about this on hd programming. If you're not having this problem you're very lucky. I neve rhad this problem before, but this year i do.

Blake,
Really? I can't hold fox at all, though it's staying stable now, when i get a break i'll play with my antenna. I'll post a cpl pics of the current job i'm working on, it's a pretty cool setup. got the lexicon mc8/cx7 and rt 10 dvd going saturday night and it looked and sounded beautiful.

Originally posted by rute
Anyone else seeing the Dolphins game in 4:3 format? It's suppose to be HD.
I just sent WKRG an e-mail.

Steve

Here's the reply I got. It was very quick. I'm glad someone in the area responds to e-mail..:)

=====================================================
This weekend was the first under Centralized Master Control, no operators here.

Saturday. Ark/Fl Game was not in HDTV
LSU was in HDTV
Sunday Jets/Miami game should have be in HDTV but was not.

Sorry, we will get the bugs out of the automation, soon.

Best Regards,

Jim Richardson, CE
WKRG-TV 5, WKRG-DT 27
555 Broadcast Dr.
Mobile, AL 36606
(251)662-2975
(251)662-2911 FAX
jrichardson@wkrg.com
ARS K4VW

Here's Joe's reply to my e-mail complaining about poor reception on WALA.

Greetings:

Another week gone by and nothing has changed.

Saturday's Braves game was watchable but had lots of audio blips.
Sunday's Saints game was terrible, continuous extremely bad audio and
very
frequent pixelation.

You mentioned earlier that this may be a Fox thing, if so what are they
planning to do about it?

Do your local stations like WALA run HD STB's at the station so that
they
can monitor the reception same as their customers are getting or not
getting in this case?

Most of the Mobile local stations that have had much more problems than
you
have are running 3 or 4 of the most popular brands of HD STB's at the
station so that they can verify what is coming across the airways.

Thanks J C


JC,

Yes, our local engineers do monitor on Settops, however this issue seems
to be a weekend only problem and something we are not going to mess with
while in football.

We have a plan for this and are starting the process this week. We are
hoping to have it solved by Sunday.

Joe

Currently, in HD, all we get are the following:

HBO HD
Showtime HD
WPMI HD
Discovery High Definition Theater
ESPN HD
WSRE HD
INHD1
INHD2


Anyone have any word on when Cox will be getting more HD channel, mainly the big ones like ABC,CBS,FOX. WPMI being NBC and already broadcast in HD.

My problems with Fox are becoming progressively worse. Last night i flipped over to Fox just to see what was on, during the show Quintuplets i had many audio/video dropouts. Does Fox even recognize there is a problem?

Anyone lose cbs last night? I went from a good stable signal to about 20-30% yesterday. No change with anything on my end. Guess i'll play with the antenna again. argh

Originally posted by Cinder
Anyone lose cbs last night? I went from a good stable signal to about 20-30% yesterday. No change with anything on my end. Guess i'll play with the antenna again. argh

I watched CSI and Without A Trace, picture perfect..........

Did anyone watch the Cardinals game?
I switched in during commercials on CBS and the signal was 99+% better than it had been last week.

J C

Weird, i can't understand what happened to my signal. I can spin my antenna all the way around and the most i get on cbs is a falling apart 71%.

What antenna are you using? I'm going to have to look into a different antenna for my location i believe.

OK, part of the puzzle is clear, my mount has corroded completely through and the antenna was actually leaning pointing downward, not good for reception.

Seeing as my ridgid drill caught on fire the other day and is on it's way to get repaired/replaced i have no way of mounting a new antenna this weekend.

So, i brought the SS into my house and just hooked it up straight to my hd tivo. I'm pulling in cbs real good and upn pretty good. Can't get nbc (don't care have e/w feeds, abc (not a problem now but a big problem as soon as they go HD) and Fox (no change here.) This is without a preamp. I'm also pulling in 41 (pbs) for the first time very strong. Any suggestions on what this might mean and what i should pursue in the form of a new antenna, mount, whatever.

I just want my antenna to work and pull in all my stations. I"m sick of stations i've had for 2 years slowly going away. If i could find someone who knew exactly what they were doing and could set my antenna up i would be very happy and reward them nicely. I just can't understand my location. I've setup a house 1 block away and they're perfect. argh...

Originally posted by Cinder


What antenna are you using? I'm going to have to look into a different antenna for my location i believe.

I'm using the largest deep fring antenna that Radio Shack sells, I think it's approx. 100 miles VHF and 60 miles UHF, not sure.

At any rate it gets everything coming from Baldwin county including WSRE 23-1,2,3. It does not have to be exactly on, I can still get everything within about a 10 degree arch.

Hope this helps.

J C

Originally posted by Cinder
OK, part of the puzzle is clear, my mount has corroded completely through and the antenna was actually leaning pointing downward, not good for reception.

Seeing as my ridgid drill caught on fire the other day and is on it's way to get repaired/replaced i have no way of mounting a new antenna this weekend.

So, i brought the SS into my house and just hooked it up straight to my hd tivo. I'm pulling in cbs real good and upn pretty good. Can't get nbc (don't care have e/w feeds, abc (not a problem now but a big problem as soon as they go HD) and Fox (no change here.) This is without a preamp. I'm also pulling in 41 (pbs) for the first time very strong. Any suggestions on what this might mean and what i should pursue in the form of a new antenna, mount, whatever.

I just want my antenna to work and pull in all my stations. I"m sick of stations i've had for 2 years slowly going away. If i could find someone who knew exactly what they were doing and could set my antenna up i would be very happy and reward them nicely. I just can't understand my location. I've setup a house 1 block away and they're perfect. argh...

Have you tried a Channel Master 4228?

Cool, i'll try out a deep fringe and see how it does. I tried a cm 4228 a cpl years ago and things were fine, but then it started losing everything and now it's worthless. Granted that was in my attic.

Originally posted by Cinder
Cool, i'll try out a deep fringe and see how it does. I tried a cm 4228 a cpl years ago and things were fine, but then it started losing everything and now it's worthless. Granted that was in my attic.

The attic is probably the issue, is the wife keeping you from mounting it in the backyard?

That was the 4228 and a long time ago, my SS was mounted outside. My wife isn't keen on a big monstrosity outside, but may have to got hat route. i have cbs and upn perfect for now with the ss in my house.

Hi Folks,

My parents are moving to Gulf Shores. I am sure it is somewhere in this thread, but can someone summarize for me what HD options are currently available and what future ones are available (if applicable). This would include OTA and Cable.

FYI, I live north of Boston and we have PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox on both Cable and OTA, as well as NESN (New England Sports Network) and ESPN on Comcast Cable. There are some others, but that is primarily what I watch.

Best Regards,
- Hal

Originally posted by nobail
Hi Folks,

My parents are moving to Gulf Shores. I am sure it is somewhere in this thread, but can someone summarize for me what HD options are currently available and what future ones are available (if applicable). This would include OTA and Cable.

FYI, I live north of Boston and we have PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox on both Cable and OTA, as well as NESN (New England Sports Network) and ESPN on Comcast Cable. There are some others, but that is primarily what I watch.

Best Regards,
- Hal

You are DEFINATLY going to want to go with satellite. Mediacom offers cable in Gulf Shores, and they are by far the worst provider of any sort in the local area. You are also definatly going to need to go with a strong OTA antenna, the preferred antenna for our area is the channel master 4228. I've heard some other success with others, but i've yet to hear any bad experiences with this one.

Here is the status of our locals.

HD Channels
Fox Wala 10-1 720p/DD 5.1
NBC WPMI 15-1 1080i/ DD 5.1
CBS WKRG 5-1 1080i/ DD 5.1
PBS WEIQ 42-1 1080i/ DD 5.1
UPN WJTC 44-1 1080i/

Digital but not yet HD
WB WBPG 55-1 480i upconverted
ABC WEAR 3-1 480p ( HD within a month?)

Fox NFL football issues are fixed on my end. So far no problems at all.

I know i'm one of the only ones that had been receiving a singnal from Fox lately, has the signal improved for you guys?

Originally posted by crimsonblake
Fox NFL football issues are fixed on my end. So far no problems at all.

I know i'm one of the only ones that had been receiving a singnal from Fox lately, has the signal improved for you guys?

Sounds good here, also. Picture doesn't look HD though, at least not as good as WKRG. It could be the 720P thing, or maybe the game isn't being filmed in HD.

Update: Just checked Titan TV. The TB/NO game on Fox is not HD. The Panthers & Broncos game at 3:15 is, though. We'll see how the sound is then.

Steve

It's comin' in in HD here on my Samsung.

No doubt about it.

--Matt

Originally posted by pacenewbie
It's comin' in in HD here on my Samsung.

No doubt about it.

--Matt

Yeah, WALA is transmitting in HD but the cameras being used on the field are not HD, so it's upconverted. You can definietely see the difference in the Denver/Carolina game. (It's being filmed and transmitted in HD)

Steve

Hello, I am a newbie to the HD market and have a couple of questions. Does anyone know if Brighthouse cable, in the Cantonment area, offers cable-card technology or just a HD converter box? I am in the process of getting a HDTV with a cable-card slot and would rather us it than a box. Also, what would be your recommendations for an antenna to get OTA HD?
I am not sure how far I am from the towers, but most of them are within 10 degrees of each other and CheckHD is recommending a blue or violet to get all of the channels. Thanks for any help, Rich

Hi CrinsomBlake.

Thanks very much for the info. That is unfortunate that cable is not an option.

Originally posted by nobail
Hi CrinsomBlake.

Thanks very much for the info. That is unfortunate that cable is not an option.

Just curious, why the move to Gulf Shores? That place got blown off the map 2 weeks ago ;)

Hi,
I have not been getting WALA on channel 10-1, it has channel 55 programing. I tried re-booting the receiver (Samsung TS-360), and rescanning for channels and now I don't get 10-1 at all, but I get 55-1, which wasn't there before, it has channel 55 programing. I did have 10-1 after Ivan, and had some of the baseball games, but all of a sudden it just switched to 55 programming. Any Ideas what might be casuing this???

Thanks for any info. KP

KP, if you're new to HD in this area, the company that owns WALA-FOX bought WB-55 last year. WB-55 didn't even have a DTV channel assignment from the FCC and had no intention of going to digital under the old owners. They were going to just fold up when the transistion occurred. The new owners decided to simli-cast WB-55 on their channel cause FOX was not HD.

But back to your problem, I don't have the answer but have heard that some tuners have problems with this set-up and can't display one or the other of the two sub-channels. You should call the station's engineer and let him know that you are having problems and get him involve in it.

Originally posted by wkp1
Hi,
I have not been getting WALA on channel 10-1, it has channel 55 programing. I tried re-booting the receiver (Samsung TS-360), and rescanning for channels and now I don't get 10-1 at all, but I get 55-1, which wasn't there before, it has channel 55 programing. I did have 10-1 after Ivan, and had some of the baseball games, but all of a sudden it just switched to 55 programming. Any Ideas what might be casuing this???

Thanks for any info. KP

On my receiver, an older Samsung, channel 10-1 sometimes comes across as 9-1

Steve

Originally posted by wkp1
Hi,
I have not been getting WALA on channel 10-1, it has channel 55 programing. I tried re-booting the receiver (Samsung TS-360), and rescanning for channels and now I don't get 10-1 at all, but I get 55-1, which wasn't there before, it has channel 55 programing. I did have 10-1 after Ivan, and had some of the baseball games, but all of a sudden it just switched to 55 programming. Any Ideas what might be casuing this???

Thanks for any info. KP

I have the 360 with the same problem.

1. Contact Samsung customer support and report the problem. The Samsung 160 did the exact same thing until Samsung sent out a s/w update to fix it (6/02/04).

2. Channel scans make the problem worse.
Go into setup and select "no dish" and let the box reboot. This should give you 55-1 with no Fox-10.

Return to setup and select Triple LNB dish and reboot. When the system comes back up go to guick guide or regular guide channel 10-1. If you are revceiving channel 55 arrow left to the channel and leave the guide up.
Then switch back and fourth from 10 to other digital stations several times and usually it will switch back to Fox 10-1 and hold it until you have a power blip.

If this is unsuccessful, you may have to remove the zip code from local networks and repeat step 2.
Sounds like a lot of trouble but it works for me.

I watch channel 55 on the DirecTV local channels and to me it is as good as 55-1 upconvert.

Good luck J C

My grandmother has the 360, and like you guys, she has the exact same problem as well. I finally got it to pick up Fox instead of WB and i just left it alone. There's really no point in watching 55-1 OTA right now, there is no HD or widescreen content as of yet.

I get WPMI-HD through Cox cable and there is horrible pixellation everytime there is any action or when the camera pans. Is this a problem with NBC, WPMI, or Cox?

Originally posted by jello212
I get WPMI-HD through Cox cable and there is horrible pixellation everytime there is any action or when the camera pans. Is this a problem with NBC, WPMI, or Cox?

I would say it's a problem with the Box you have. I have Cox with HD and WPMI (715) seems to be fine. Once in a while I'll see a little pixelation but when I switch to the OTA HD from WPMI it's doing the same thing. Anyway, I just watched my recorded HD of Law and Order SVU and didn't have any pixelation during the show.

Steve

OTA for WPMI is very stable. As Steve said, Cox's box is the problem.

Is anyone currently able to receive WKRG-DT 27 using the Dish 6000? I got it perfectly until mid summer. Currently I get a strong signal but the receiver reboots after 30 seconds or so. Dish has not been able to help and the folks at WKRG say they have not made any changes. All other HD stations and satellite signals are fine.

Will they go HD in our lifetime ? :rolleyes:

Originally posted by lenbo
Will they go HD in our lifetime ? :rolleyes:

What is your current age??????? HA HA

How is everyone's Fox reception right now?

Fox appears to have improved some. I used to get "digital farts" from fox about every 30 seconds now they are about every 5 minutes.

I was curious if everyone who was not able to receive fox before, could possibly receive it now.

WJHG -DT On the Air

Well it only took two years of delay after delay but today I scanned and found WJHG-DT on the air. It is VHF channel 8 and maps to 7.1 on my Sony HD200. Nothing in high definition has been on yet so I am unsure if they are passing the NBC high definition signal.

If your close give them a try.

I now get ABC,CBS,NBC and PBS. No Fox yet.

Well i installed an antennas direct db4 today and it blows away my previous squareshooter. I think i'm switching to the db4 and db2 for my clients from here on out. Not terrible looking and does great. The only problem i have, which i had with the sqs as well, is no fox. The sucker just won't pull fox in. I assume because it's vhf, but at 9 i was hoping it might get it. Looks like i'm out of luck for watching my inept raiders try to lose to the equally inept saints this week in hd.

for what it's worth with the sqs with a preamp i received all stations (except for fox) around 70-80%.

Now, with the db4 and no preamp i receive everything at 88-92%. Still no fox though. Looks like i'm going to experiment with a small vhf antenna next to the db4 to pick up fox.

Does anyone know when Cox is going to stop using the "we're in negotiations" excuse and start carrying HD broadcasts for the local stations?

We're probably close to 18 months of negotiations. I have to start questioning Cox's veracity in this area.

Argh, why can't CBS remember to get their HD NFL games in hd, i watched some of the colts/jags game but it was 4:3, though the picture looked pretty good.

Mediacom has the same problem with our locals. I've talked to their manager a lot and all they have so far is NBC. They told me they'll have CBS and UPN soon, but they don't think they'll ever have fox/wb. The company that owns our local fox/wb stations doesn't believe in HD on cable, they want to broadcast multiple digital channels instead. Fun. No news on abc locally, though i wouldn't hold my breath if and when they go HD.

Argh, why can't CBS remember to get their HD NFL games in hd, i watched some of the colts/jags game but it was 4:3, though the picture looked pretty good.

Mediacom has the same problem with our locals. I've talked to their manager a lot and all they have so far is NBC. They told me they'll have CBS and UPN soon, but they don't think they'll ever have fox/wb. The company that owns our local fox/wb stations doesn't believe in HD on cable, they want to broadcast multiple digital channels instead. Fun. No news on abc locally, though i wouldn't hold my breath if and when they go HD.

Originally posted by Cinder
Argh, why can't CBS remember to get their HD NFL games in hd, i watched some of the colts/jags game but it was 4:3, though the picture looked pretty good.

Mediacom has the same problem with our locals. I've talked to their manager a lot and all they have so far is NBC. They told me they'll have CBS and UPN soon, but they don't think they'll ever have fox/wb. The company that owns our local fox/wb stations doesn't believe in HD on cable, they want to broadcast multiple digital channels instead. Fun. No news on abc locally, though i wouldn't hold my breath if and when they go HD.

If I remember correctly CBS is now running their HD from the main distro remoted. They have to swicth it up the line. From the email I got, they forget to do it sometimes. It looks like it never got swicthed over today as Cold Case was 4:3 also.

BTW, Just shot a friendly reminder off to Jim Richardson of WKRG mentioning that Sundays are probably not the best days to have HD broadcast problems.

Steve

Good news from WEAR:

Daniel,

Not much longer ...

We had the Andrew engineer (ABC contractor) in last week modifying our ABC satellite receivers and we have the conversion equipment installed in our control room. The Andrew engineer left without completing his part of the job because they had provided him with the wrong size parts for our satellite dishes (we have the older, larger dish). He's working on getting the correct size parts and get scheduled back in here to complete the job. My best guess at this point ... we'll be broadcasting HD within two weeks. And we'll promote that change heavily during our newscasts.

Thanks for the continued interest...and for keeping me updated on your reception of our signal. By the way, we had scheduled engineers in to install the high power tubes in our transmitter on October 17th ... Ivan the Terrible put an end to that plan. We now plan to reschedule them in just as soon as possible after we complete the ABC retrofit above. So you'll be able to get HD at a full one-million watts!

Have a great day!

Joe

What is everybodys experience with reception on 10-1 & 10-2 since they added 10-2 WB55 channel?

I seems to me like they have once again screwed them both up.
Is the 10-2 SD?

Is anyone having problems getting 5.1 Dolby on Fox DT10?

J C

My recpetion for wala has actually incresed. That said i don't understand the 10-1 and 10-2, i also still have 55-1 as well.

I get the signal at about 75% but it drops out 10% without warning and pixelates the picture about every 30 seconds. Dolby digital is fine while i have it.

Does anyone use Comcast HD in Mobile with a cable card TV? I called and they said that they offer it at no extra charge. Any users here?

Does anyone live in the Crestview, FL area, and can elaborate on their experience in picking up OTA signals and any recommendations on antenna types. I notice some posts from people in Fort Walton Beach.

Thanks

Planning on moving to Pensecola, Florida.
Is this the best thread for getting information on OTA signals and what is available in that area?

Can someone give a overview of what channels are available, and what kind of cable is there?
Now the cable question is there digital available.

And can some give a zip code for that area so I can look up antenna info.

Thanks

Originally posted by rayjonesy
Does anyone live in the Crestview, FL area, and can elaborate on their experience in picking up OTA signals and any recommendations on antenna types. I notice some posts from people in Fort Walton Beach.

Thanks

Welcome Ray , I live in Crestview and have a Channel Master 4228 UHF antenna. I receive channels 3 WEAR ABC, 4 WTVY CBC, 15 WPMI NBC , 44 WJTC UPN, and 23 WSRE PBS. These are all digital channels, all being HD except ABC, which has said they will go full power and HD within the next couple weeks. The antenna is roof mounted , it's about 25 ft high. Let me know if this helps. I might be able to give a few pointers that may help.

Thanks Lenbo,

I figured being 40 miles give or take I would be able to pick up some HD signals. Sweet, I was hoping to put something in my attic, but if it comes down too it I might just put up an antenna. Are you able to receive all of those channels without rotating the antenna once you have it set?

Anything you want or can think of that might help would be appreciated. I would easily pay for Cable or Satellite if they would just include all HD Nationals... ABC, NBC, CBS... but of course that would be asking for too much. If I can get the major channels in with an antenna I might go with VOOM, but I'm not too hapy that VOOM doesn't want to let you purchase used equipment and activate it..

Ok back to the topic, so you have the Channel Master 4228 UHF 25 feet off the ground. Did you ever try to receive FOX with a VHF antenna? How is your dropouts on channels? I've read a lot about signals just jumping all over depending on the time of day etc.

I'll keep reading and checking up to see any new info. Thanks for the timely response.

Ray

Originally posted by rayjonesy
Thanks Lenbo,

I figured being 40 miles give or take I would be able to pick up some HD signals. Sweet, I was hoping to put something in my attic, but if it comes down too it I might just put up an antenna. Are you able to receive all of those channels without rotating the antenna once you have it set?

Anything you want or can think of that might help would be appreciated. I would easily pay for Cable or Satellite if they would just include all HD Nationals... ABC, NBC, CBS... but of course that would be asking for too much. If I can get the major channels in with an antenna I might go with VOOM, but I'm not too hapy that VOOM doesn't want to let you purchase used equipment and activate it..

Ok back to the topic, so you have the Channel Master 4228 UHF 25 feet off the ground. Did you ever try to receive FOX with a VHF antenna? How is your dropouts on channels? I've read a lot about signals just jumping all over depending on the time of day etc.

I'll keep reading and checking up to see any new info. Thanks for the timely response.

Ray

Hey Ray , I don't know if I would be going with Voom right now , they may not be around this time next year. Directv says they will be adding local HD's next year in the mean time I get them OTA . All the stations I listed I get without any dropouts. The signal meter may jump around a little but no loss of picture or sound. As far as Fox goes it's transmitter is 74.9 miles away. Alot of people that are much closer have allot of dropouts. BTW I have a Channel Master 7777 amp on the antenna. A little thing I tried with the CM4228 was to take off the screen to see if I could get WTVY 4 CBS from Dothan AL. which is 180 degree's from the other stations. Well it worked just fine without any loss of signal with the P'cola stations.

What STB will you be using ?

I think you just wrote this but I just got home, so that's good timing.

Right now I have a Toshiba DST-3000 HD Receiver for DirecTV and a buddy says his works fine for OTA. Oh well no FOX for now.. when DTV gets HD, I'm sure I'll just transfer to them and all will be well. You sure are right VOOM does need to get in gear, we need competition so hopefully they will survive.

Thanks Lenbo, Since Fox seems to be such a problem I won't need the screen, so I'll just take it off. Now when I get a chance I'll go out and buy what I need.

Ray

Thought I'd add a bit of info.

WJHG TV7 NBC in Panama City went live with their digital signal 2 weeks ago and went live with HD on Sunday, 10/31/04. Today, Comcast added them to their lineup on channel 181.

Knology, a rival cable company, still has not added ABC or NBC yet.

That gives Panama City ABC - WMBB, WJHG - NBC, & WTVY - CBS Dothan all in HD now. We are still waiting on our local FOX station WPGX. I spoke with the engineer there and he said they should be running sometime this fall.

Anyone having problems with NBC tonight? I usually never have issues, but tonight it is just horrid... tons of breakups.

Originally posted by crimsonblake
Anyone having problems with NBC tonight? I usually never have issues, but tonight it is just horrid... tons of breakups.

No problem on Dauphin Island

Originally posted by wgilley
No problem on Dauphin Island

I was referring to Friday, not Thursday. Sorry about that.

Originally posted by Cinder
Good news from WEAR:

Daniel,

Not much longer ...

We had the Andrew engineer (ABC contractor) in last week modifying our ABC satellite receivers and we have the conversion equipment installed in our control room. The Andrew engineer left without completing his part of the job because they had provided him with the wrong size parts for our satellite dishes (we have the older, larger dish). He's working on getting the correct size parts and get scheduled back in here to complete the job. My best guess at this point ... we'll be broadcasting HD within two weeks. And we'll promote that change heavily during our newscasts.

Thanks for the continued interest...and for keeping me updated on your reception of our signal. By the way, we had scheduled engineers in to install the high power tubes in our transmitter on October 17th ... Ivan the Terrible put an end to that plan. We now plan to reschedule them in just as soon as possible after we complete the ABC retrofit above. So you'll be able to get HD at a full one-million watts!

Have a great day!

Joe


Well from what Joe says maybe this coming week we will see HD ? But then again this same song & dance about "in the next couple weeks " is really getting old. I can't say I will be holding my breath . Crossing my fingers with one hand , remote in the other .

PS: I hope everyone's life is finally getting back to normal post Ivan .

Hi,

I am new to the forum. I just got the Directv HDTivo and am trying to get the local OTA channels. I live in Pace. I have an existing antenna installed that I used to get local channels before Directv had them. Using it I am able to get Fox (9), PBS (31), UPN (45). NBC (47) is marginal. I cannot get ABC (17), or CBS (27). Does anyone have any advice? Is there anyone in Pace who gets 17 and 27? Thanks for your help.

Will this be the week that they go HD ? :rolleyes:

WEAR News )

Hi Daniel,

The Andrew engineer got our ABC dish retrofitted last week, and we have the ancillary equipment in the station. We have a tower crew scheduled in this week to finish the last repairs to our transmission line (damaged by Ivan), and we'll be installing the high power transmission tubes. Our Chief Engineer says if there are no unforseen problems, you'll get the HDTV feed of MNF next Monday! I'll let you know via e-mail if we get it completed earlier.

Joe

Although no longer a beach resident (a temporary situation I hope), I am back in the HD arena with a MITS-52725 (DLP technology). Using satellite, and antenna for OTA (near PNS airport) but getting very poor to non-existent reception on CBS (5-1), but I guess that is about par for them. Any rumors, or even facts, about better reception on CBS in the coming year?

I've noted the frequent WEAR promises of HD for MNF! maybe it will happen this week.

My set has its own tuner in addition to the Hughes tuner. Somewhat different PSIP interpretations by the two tuners. Where is NBC-HD? 15-1 or 15-2? 47-1 or 47-2 or ? Where is "55-1" these days?

Anyone have any news on ABC WEAR for tonight Game?


Thanks....

WEAR Fails Again!

And the answer is that WEAR fails, yet again, to deliver. Well, maybe next year.

I'm picking up a signal between Normal and Good (Best) on ABC. The Zeinth says it is HD, but the picture quality is not as good as I'm getting on my other HD channels or NBC. Pretty disappointing....

Anybody noticing a lot of pixelation on WKRG (CBS)? I usually have a very stable picture from them but the last few days it seems to break up a lot. The signal strength doesn't seem to drop. It may be the weather but I don't think so, as we've had worse weather and I've gotten good reception.

Steve

WKRG is not putting out enough power to get a watchable picture.

I'm getting pixelation as well. It started sometime sunday before the nfl game they forgot to turn on has HD again for god knows how many weeks. Very fricking annyoing as i have no options with sunday ticket blacking it out as well...

I've had a stead 93% signal quality on wkrg for sometime now until sunday.

I am wondering if anyone knows if I would be able to receive any HD channels OTA in Milton.

It is my understanding that WKRG is not updating the power until summer 2005. Any one else have a different understanding? I'm to far at this point, I'm only getting about 65-75%. It is not picking up a picture though? Also, did anyone have any success with WEAR?

My wkrg is back with minimal pixelation, i'm still getting more than i used to but it's very minor, i'm also getting some minor pixelation on upn which i've never had before (at least in a year or so.)

Cinder,

Did you get any info from WEAR?

Thanks,
Billy

Not yet, i'll email him tonight.

Daniel

I am getting 720p on channel 3-1 this morning, hopefully the football games today wil be in HD. Maybe they have finally made it!

Originally posted by wkp1
I am getting 720p on channel 3-1 this morning, hopefully the football games today wil be in HD. Maybe they have finally made it!

My Tivo disagrees, 704x480i, 4x3,

no 720p here, maybe they were testing it earlier?

Originally posted by dnewinchester
I am wondering if anyone knows if I would be able to receive any HD channels OTA in Milton.

For sure! I'm sure you will get PBS, NBC, UPN, and FOX/WB our four hi-power DTV channels. As you're about the same distance as the Penscola crowd you should get CBS and ABC, which are our underpowered channels.

Do I know this for a fact? No, but Crestview viewers ARE getting PBS, NBC, UPN. I think they can get CBS, but I'm not sure if they are getting FOX/WB. Also, CBS, NBC, and UPN are HD, FOX is ED, PBS is HD, but multicasted and can suffer pixalation very badly if you're watchinng an active scene and the two other channels are on. For that matter, CBS and NBC are multicasting, too, but only one other channel.

What are you thinking of using for an antenna setup?

how do you check the resolution with your tivo?

Originally posted by Cinder
how do you check the resolution with your tivo?

While watching a recorded program hit....

Select, Play, Select, Instant Replay, Select

To get it to go away, repeat the same process then hit the tivo menu button..

:)

Rick, Fox has been HD for weeks.

GULF SHORES ALABAMA QUESTION!! My parents are moving to Gulf Shore and I am trying to help them get setup. Are their any people from Gulf Shores on this forum? I understand due to a previous post that there is no HD from Cable. However, the installer that my parents are working with (out of Pensacola) says there is no HD available OTA? Is this true? My parents will be living on Fort Morgan Pennisula. Is OTA an option there? Is this installer right or wrong? If OTA is an option, would they need one antenna or two? (one to Mobile, one to Pensacola?)

Thanks in advance
- Hal

I live 6 miles N of GulfShores. You can get CBS, FOX,NBC,UPN two PBS and ABC [any day now] in HD OTA. I cant believe the guy told them that. Why get cable when you could get Directv and get more HD plus locals [analog]. You can get DSL 1.4mbps from gulftel so cable is not needed.

WB is digital only

Originally posted by trich
Rick, Fox has been HD for weeks.

My bad. FOX is not strong enough at my address and I gave up on it long ago. I'm still thinking it was just widescreen.

If its full HD, is the multcasting of WB still going on? And if so, is FOX HD quality suffering from that?

Rick they are multcasting with WB but the NFL games look as good as CBS or ESPN. Spider Man was on the other night in HD and it looked good also.

ps My house and my two acre yard was completely destroyed, thanks to Ivan.

All the Mobile/Pensacola transmition towers are in between Mobile and Pensacola at a location directly North of Gulf Shores, about 30 miles. One antenna can pickup all HD stations.

Originally posted by nobail
GULF SHORES ALABAMA QUESTION!! ... My parents will be living on Fort Morgan Pennisula. Is OTA an option there? Is this installer right or wrong? If OTA is an option, would they need one antenna or two? (one to Mobile, one to Pensacola?) - Hal
I live halfway down Ft Morgan Rd (between 9 and 10 mile markers). Using a $25 Silver Sensor indoor antenna, I get all the OTA I need in digital: HD for CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS-FL, PBS-AL, and supposedly ABC soon (SD to date). I also get SD digital for a couple of others. OTA is not a problem for me. Right now, I need to get up and walk 6 feet to aim it differently to pick up FOX vs. all the others. Am about to use a splitter to hook up 2 at once which I think will make this unnecessary. But remember, I'm using a little $25 indoor antenna hidden in a bookshelf, nothing on the roof. I had a roof antenna, but it didn't do much. I am now a Silver Sensor believer.

I mainly use DirecTV, but use OTA for network HD sports, for cool HD stuff on PBS, and for anything on those rare occasions when the rain is so intense that satellite signal is insufficient. The CBS station's second digital channel shows Doppler 24/7 which shows how fast the storm is moving by.

Whoever told you OTA is lousy may be unfamiliar with digital. A couple stations are clear in analog but others are not watchable. Where I am, digital provides a crucial improvement for some stations.

russell

Thanks for the great info. Sorry for the confusing question. According to my dad, the installer said that an Antenna would not help pick up the OTA that was available in the area because it was too far away. I will definitely recommend to him that he should get a very good attic antenna.

Regards,
- Hal

Originally posted by jerryez
All the Mobile/Pensacola transmition towers are in between Mobile and Pensacola at a location directly North of Gulf Shores, about 30 miles. One antenna can pickup all HD stations.
I know about the location of transmission towers. But I am 11 miles W of Gulf Shores and find that FOX requires a different antenna heading. Not just a smidgeon either, but about 110 degrees. In general, the FOX signal is much more squirrelly than any of the others. I suspect there is some kind of interference, at least where I am. Whatever the cause, a single antenna heading is not sufficient. This has been true at two houses with two kinds of antenna. I don't know why, but it happens.

Originally posted by nobail
Thanks for the great info. Sorry for the confusing question. According to my dad, the installer said that an Antenna would not help pick up the OTA that was available in the area because it was too far away. I will definitely recommend to him that he should get a very good attic antenna.
Regards,- Hal
Depends on the kind of roof. I have metal roof, which is great for not having to replace roof shingles after each hurricane. But it's bad for attic antennas. That's why I tried a Silver Sensor with a cheap little amp. Works great for me. If he has a shingle roof, then an attic antenna may work fine.

I live in the Navarre FL area with a DB8 in the attic... I am able to pick up the ABC, NBC, PBS, CBS (not as well) with no problems.... I been unable to pick up FOX.. So in Gulf Shores you should have no problem picking up the majority of the stations. I'm also a DIRECTV believer, they have the best HD for Sports packages with Pay Per View plus HBO and Showtime... A person you may want to talk to in that area is Cinder, very knowledgeable.... Cinder post regular to this forum...

Regards,
Billy

Folks remember Fox-WB are vhf all the rest are uhf.

That's right, FOX/WB is on channel 9, vhf. If you have a UHF only antenna, that's outside the design bandwidth and the gain can be greatly reduced at channel 9. You might get FOX, you might not.

Oh, metal roof.. I forgot about that. I just checked and yes, they will definitely have metal roof tiles. So, perhaps I can put one of Terk TV55's in their garage or some other antenna. There are plenty of options for indoor antennas. They absolutely do not want an outdoor antenna.

Thanks so much for all the great information!!!!

Regards,
- Hal

Originally posted by nobail
Oh, metal roof.. I forgot about that. I just checked and yes, they will definitely have metal roof tiles. So, perhaps I can put one of Terk TV55's in their garage or some other antenna. There are plenty of options for indoor antennas. They absolutely do not want an outdoor antenna.

Thanks so much for all the great information!!!!

Regards,
- Hal

I thought you wanted them to get all the OTA available ? A " Terk TV55 " :rolleyes:

I live in Pace and cannot seem to pick up WGRG digital on 27. Is anyone able to pick this up? I can get Fox, ABC, UPN, NBC, and PBS.

Originally posted by jkbs
I live in Pace and cannot seem to pick up WGRG digital on 27. Is anyone able to pick this up? I can get Fox, ABC, UPN, NBC, and PBS.

WKRG's DT27 power is supplied by a hamster with a bad ankle on a wheel. They will go full power in July 05. :p

Regarding the Terk TV55, I actually started this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=475393) asking for antenna advice on that topic in the HDTV hardware forum. I figured if an indoor antenna would work for some that live nearby, that this would be ok. It, of course, is not the ideal choice, but for a garage wall installation, I am not sure what would be better. If anyone wants to look at the above thread and comment, I would love some additional advice. I have a ChannelMaster 4248 in my attic in my home and it works great. I was going to install one of those until I hit the metal roof issue.

Best Regards,
- Hal

Originally posted by nobail
Regarding the Terk TV55, I actually started this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=475393) asking for antenna advice on that topic in the HDTV hardware forum. I figured if an indoor antenna would work for some that live nearby, that this would be ok. It, of course, is not the ideal choice, but for a garage wall installation, I am not sure what would be better. If anyone wants to look at the above thread and comment, I would love some additional advice. I have a ChannelMaster 4248 in my attic in my home and it works great. I was going to install one of those until I hit the metal roof issue.

Best Regards,
- Hal

http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

Maybe it could work on the right wall .

The squareshooter could work possibly on the right wall. I've installed them inside before and it's hit or miss, as with any install.

another antenna worth checking out is the DB2 or DB4 from antennas direct www.antennasdirect.com

i've installed these where a SS wouldn't work with good success. I have installed one DB2 inside and it worked great, on a garage wall should be fine. The DB2 and DB4 handle vhf much better than the square shooter as well in my experience, though aesthetically the ss still wins.

Anyway, be prepared to try a cpl different antennas as every location is different. I've installed antennas a block away from each other and had completely different results. This is why i now outsource all my antenna installs, they kill me :)

Daniel

Originally posted by nobail
Oh, metal roof.. I forgot about that. I just checked and yes, they will definitely have metal roof tiles. So, perhaps I can put one of Terk TV55's in their garage or some other antenna. There are plenty of options for indoor antennas. They absolutely do not want an outdoor antenna.
Thanks so much for all the great information!!!!
Regards, - Hal
I think it's smart have a metal roof and no outdoor antenna on the beach, but it does present a challenge about TV antennae. That is my situation.

I have no experience w/ Terk antennas because I heard so much bad stuff about them. I tried a Silver Sensor because I heard so much good stuff about them. You can find some opinion on them at: http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Silver_Sensor_Digital_HDTV_UHF_Indoor_Antenna___ZHDTV1/4505-6509_16-30471331.html.

For me, the Silver Sensor didn't do squat until I added a cheap antenna amp, then it worked great. It sits on a bookshelf near an exterior wall, about 3 feet from the living room TV. It's little and I can hide it behind stuff. For reasons unknown, at my location two different antenna headings are needed. So, I got a second Silver Sensor and combined their inputs into a single line by using a splitter backwards. By playing with the headings of the two of little antennas, I can get everything just fine now without moving them around. The cheap amp has 2 outputs; I have a run of co-ax to the bedroom TV, and it works great too.

I had tried other interior antennas without good results. I had tried putting a ChannelMaster outdoor antenna in an upstairs room so that it's line-of-sight was under the eaves of the metal roof, without good results. I amplified its signal, still without good results. I cannot explain why the Silver Sensors work when others do not, but I am very happy with them. At this point, I beleive that those little toy-like Silver Sensors are miracles that somehow defy the laws of physics ;-)

Others may have better options for you, I only have experience with these.

Originally posted by russdog
I have no experience w/ Terk antennas because I heard so much bad stuff about them. I tried a Silver Sensor because I heard so much good stuff about them. You can find some opinion on them at: http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Silver_Sensor_Digital_HDTV_UHF_Indoor_Antenna___ZHDTV1/4505-6509_16-30471331.html.

That link didn't work. Let's try this again...
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Silver_Sensor_Digital_HDTV_UHF_Indoor_Antenna___ZHDTV1/4505-6509_16-30471331.html

WKRG-DT

Has anyone tried to get a waiver from WKRG-DT (in order to get CBS-DT from DirecTV)? They claim to serve Pensacola (and other places) but obviously do not.

I have tried on numerous times and it keeps getting rejected. I called Joe Goldenlowski at WKRG and he says it is CBS policy not to grant the waviers.. They are suppose to upgrade their equipment with taller tower summer of 2005.

Excuse?

So what is WEAR's excuse this week? Lots of pixelation and no HD for MNF once again!

If anyone wants a slightly bent (by Ivan) 30 foot antenna mast, send me a PM. No charge. You pick up from Pensacola, near the airport.

yeh, not only is the digital signal awful, it's pixelated. I watched as usual on my satellite feed. I sent an email to wear a cpl days ago, no reply.

Guys,

My home theater company is starting to grow and i'm starting to look into adding new products to offer to my customers. I'm also looking for part time installers if anyone can recommend someone.

Anyway, just curious what companies you guys would like to see carried locally. (I know a lot of you are in pensacola and nearby, but you get the idea.)

Basically i'm looking at Bay Audio and Martin Logan for speakers. I currently carry Boston Acoustics and James Loudspeakers right now. I'm very happy with them so i may not add another line. I've also talked to aerial acoustics.

I've also researched cd servers. I'm split between Escient and ReQuest. I love the look of the ReQuest servers. They would match the Lexicon systems i put together beautifully. That said i've never worked with either, any insight would be great.

I'm also adding Kaleidascape very soon to my product lineup.

As a side note i'm offering a 20% christmas discount for any fellow AVS forum members who want to get something for the holidays. This is for anything from installs, to products, to audio or video calibrations. After the holidays i plan to maintain a continual 10% discount for all AVS forum members. Anyway, if anyone is interested shoot me a PM. If you'd like to know what i carry i'll PM you that info.

Hopefully we'll get WEAR up soon. In other news, how bout dem raiders :)



Daniel

Originally posted by Cinder
yeh, not only is the digital signal awful, it's pixelated. I watched as usual on my satellite feed. I sent an email to wear a cpl days ago, no reply.

Guys,

My home theater company is starting to grow and i'm starting to look into adding new products to offer to my customers. I'm also looking for part time installers if anyone can recommend someone.

Anyway, just curious what companies you guys would like to see carried locally. (I know a lot of you are in pensacola and nearby, but you get the idea.)

Basically i'm looking at Bay Audio and Martin Logan for speakers. I currently carry Boston Acoustics and James Loudspeakers right now. I'm very happy with them so i may not add another line. I've also talked to aerial acoustics.

I've also researched cd servers. I'm split between Escient and ReQuest. I love the look of the ReQuest servers. They would match the Lexicon systems i put together beautifully. That said i've never worked with either, any insight would be great.

I'm also adding Kaleidascape very soon to my product lineup.

As a side note i'm offering a 20% christmas discount for any fellow AVS forum members who want to get something for the holidays. This is for anything from installs, to products, to audio or video calibrations. After the holidays i plan to maintain a continual 10% discount for all AVS forum members. Anyway, if anyone is interested shoot me a PM. If you'd like to know what i carry i'll PM you that info.

Hopefully we'll get WEAR up soon. In other news, how bout dem raiders :)



Daniel

Hey Dan the paradigm line sound great.

I agree, they're a very nice quality speaker. However they're locked up by a competitor in mobile.

For those who might be interested, the following article appears in the business section of today's (12/1) Miami Herald.

COMCAST CABLE

DVR aimed at rivals
In a move to rival satellite TV providers, Comcast Cable today is launching its digital video recorder service in South Florida, which will allow subscribers to pause and rewind live television broadcasts as well as tape shows for future viewing.

Industry analysts say enhancing digital services is the way for cable companies to recharge rather stagnant subscriber growth and compete with satellite broadcasters.

DirecTV, the El Segundo, Calif., satellite TV provider, has been offering a TiVo digital recorder service since 2000.

The digital video recorder service is patterned on the technology pioneered by TiVo, the San Jose, Calif., company that developed the technology and hardware. TiVo also offers its own service independent of cable or satellite broadcasters.

The Comcast service, which the Philadelphia-based company began offering earlier this year in other parts of the country, will cost an additional $9.95 a month.

The service uses a set-top box provided by Comcast. There is no upfront equipment charge.

Hi everyone. I have been traveling and away from the forum for a few days. I would like to thank everyone who helped me with the Gulf Shores antenna questions. I have a few things to try out and I am sure I will get them up an running one way or another.

With Kind Regards,
- Hal

I'm having a few issues with NBC 47 (15-1)

Currently i'm getting NO signal on Digital 15-1, but the sub-channel 15-2 i'm getting a clear SDTV digital picture.

I thought this might be an issue with my tivo, so i rescanned the channels. Now i'm also getting my HD digital signal on 47-3 and my standard digital channel on 47-2? Anyone else having similar problems?

Since the Olympics, I've had weird results with WPMI-DT. With my Hughes tuner, I get SD on 15-1 and 15-2, and HD on 47-2. With the builtin tuner on my new Mits, I get SD on 15-1 and HD on 15-2 (most of the time).

Same on Dauphin Island. My JVC Dish 6000 changed earlier this week from 15-1 and 15-2 to 47-1 and 47-2. However, the HD is much better than WEAR :)

Now i just noticed that i'm getting no signal on UPN 44-1, are they down?

My Samsung 360 has dropped 15-2 and what I'm getting on 15-1 looks like widescreen SD upconvert.
I have DirecTV locals and it looks better than 15-1.

Has anyone e-mailed Tim?

J C

Beach, Ivan got my RS and SS [combined] so I could get vhf and uhf. I got a DB4 and NBC is now 47.1,47.2 on my Sony HD200. My Hughs stayed the same 15.1 15.2. The SB4 picks up all of our digital ch: even Fox, so I dont have to combine any more. You would not think that something this small would work so good and it is only 4lbs. Its about 20' in the air.

Bobby,

I have the db4 at my house and it's unreal. Granted i still can't pull in fox with any stability :)

oh well

Daniel I was told that the db4 would not pick up vhs. Over the years I have heard so much about a bow-tie so with out a antenna I though I would try one. I dont know why it gets 10.1 10.2 but it does. I will E-Mail you a pic: You can hardly see it on the pole.

I know, i can hardly see it when i look at it outside. It pulls in 10.1 around 60-70%. So some days i have it some days i don't. I need to work on it.

Originally posted by Cinder
I know, i can hardly see it when i look at it outside. It pulls in 10.1 around 60-70%. So some days i have it some days i don't. I need to work on it.

Daniel, are you getting UPN 44-1?

I'm getting it, its 1:26pm.

The SS would pick up uhf very good down here but would not get vhf at all.
I have a amp 30' from the db4.....one line in... two lines out.... because I have two HDTVs, works great on both.

Cool, i may try an amp, see what happens.

Originally posted by trich
I'm getting it, its 1:26pm.

UPN?

damn, whats going on with my setup........

Another day, another non-HD game on WKRG.

Guess someone was asleep at the switch again.

Thanks guys.

--Matt

Colts/Titans game was NOT an HD broadcast on CBS network today. I imagine that since it is raining today (Sunday), WEAR won't be able to start their HD service tomorrow! Any excuse is better than none.

Originally posted by beachrez
Colts/Titans game was NOT an HD broadcast on CBS network today. I imagine that since it is raining today (Sunday), WEAR won't be able to start their HD service tomorrow! Any excuse is better than none.

No WEAR can't start HD this week, the dog ate the instructions. When I called last week a very snide " engineer" Mark I think was his name, reminded me we had a hurricane ? No **** ? I thought that was a spring shower . He could not give a time line.:rolleyes:

Guys, we really need to put the pressure on WEAR 3-1 to have their HD up and running by the bowl season. I know i'm going to write a couple emails this week and i plan on calling in a few times too.

Statements from WEAR

This statement from WEAR was posted on 11/15/04:


"Hi Daniel,

The Andrew engineer got our ABC dish retrofitted last week, and we have the ancillary equipment in the station. We have a tower crew scheduled in this week to finish the last repairs to our transmission line (damaged by Ivan), and we'll be installing the high power transmission tubes. Our Chief Engineer says if there are no unforseen problems, you'll get the HDTV feed of MNF next Monday! I'll let you know via e-mail if we get it completed earlier.

Joe"

Can you contact WEAR and see if there's any HD movement ? Also ask about the VERY low volume and most audio coming from the right channel on DT 17 . Thanks :)

I'll shoot him another email.

Originally posted by Cinder
I'll shoot him another email.


Specifically ask if he'll have it ready by bowl season please :)

Another day, another non-HD game on WKRG.

Guess someone was asleep at the switch again.

Thanks guys.

--Matt_____________________________________

Same old sh--, and the 3:00 game today "is" in HD....except here.

Nfl sunday ticket forgot to turn it off on their end, so at least i finally get to watch a locally broadcast game in HD :)

From Joe (WEAR)

Frustrating is the word! We now have a call in to Acrodyne (our transmitter manufacturer) requesting them to send the parts and an installation crew to put in the tubes to bring us up to full power on our HD transmitter. We have all the parts in our Master Control center for passing HD from ABC. Our engineers are working as fast as they can to get all the pieces hooked up together (but remember, we're still doing repair projects from Hurricane Ivan). We have one tiny problem ... the company hired by Sinclair to provide our HD gear sent us the wrong monitors - they won't monitor 720P, which is ABC's and our chosen HD format! So we're waiting for them to send us the correct monitors so we can actually see what we're working on! I was speaking with our Chief Engineer just yesterday, pleading for him to get everything ready by the end of the year, so our Bowl Games would be in HD. He said if our suppliers get the gear to us, and Acrodyne gets the tubes installed, we'll have it...but he too is at the point that he won't make any guarantees, since there's so much that we don't have control of.

We'd like to give you a more definitive estimate for our HD activation schedule, but there are just too many factors being controlled by others.

I'll keep you posted.

Joe

WEAR

What a demonstration of incompentence and indifference on the part of management (Sinclair).

Originally posted by GulfView
WEAR

What a demostration of incompentence and indifference on the part of management (Sinclair).
They have plenty of energy for biased right-wing editorials.
Serving viewers is just not what they care about. They prefer to try to brainwash us instead.
I prefer simple things like good service and fairness.
They don't care about either one. Must be nice to be so rich.

No doubt, those editorials they have are fricking insane...

I guess we're going another week without HD on WEAR, or even an update at all.

Awesome.

--Matt

I think the latest is WEAR will go Hd in early 2009 if we're lucky. I heard the head engineer got a hangnail and has to take four years off to recuperate.

Thats alright by then everyone will reminisce about the old days and tune in to WEAR to watch analog TV. :mad:

I don't know why anyone is surprised by WEAR's feet dragging and overall incompetence. They are the same station that waited forever to broadcast in stereo when every other station started by the late 80's.

By the time WEAR finally gets the HD signal up the rest of the local stations will be broadcasting holographic images to our living rooms.

I just wish they would admit that they're not going to do it anytime soon instead of stringing us along.

"We'll have it by football season." - Nope
"They came and installed the stuff this week, it should be a week or 2" - Nope

I just wish they'd come out and say, "Look we don't have any idea when it will be live and it's NOT a priority for us"

--Matt

Originally posted by pacenewbie
I just wish they'd come out and say, "Look we don't have any idea when it will be live and it's NOT a priority for us"

--Matt

HD has never been a priority for WEAR. In fact, at one point they had a blurb on their home page stating that there is not enough HD viewership in Pensacola to worry about. It was discussed in here a while back. (Possibly even quoted)

Here's the original post with quotes. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3235648&highlight=WEAR#post3235648)

Steve

Guys, I think we will be able to get Local HD channels VIA DirecTV (in two or three years) before we can get HD VIA WEAR..........

J C

Any chance in H*LL that we will get WEAR in HD tonite for the championship game?
I didn't think so:rolleyes: .
DJ

Originally posted by DennyH
Any chance in H*LL that we will get WEAR in HD tonite for the championship game?
I didn't think so:rolleyes: .
DJ

Nope, but i'll be watching on ABC HD on Directv :). I "moved" to Brooklyn, NY on Jan 1. :) :) :)

Nope, but i'll be watching on ABC HD on Directv . I "moved" to Brooklyn, NY on Jan 1.


Hi neighbor, I live in New Hyde Park on Long Island NY.

You lucky dog! :D (on your getting the game tonite, not your moving from paradise:p )

Ironic as it is my newest customer is the father n law of the chief engineer at wear :) He said it will be awhile, but they're working on it. I haven't heard from my contact at wear since i've emailed them. Can't believe (actually i can) that they still don't have it in hd yet.

Originally posted by Cinder
Ironic as it is my newest customer is the father n law of the chief engineer at wear :) He said it will be awhile, but they're working on it. I haven't heard from my contact at wear since i've emailed them. Can't believe (actually i can) that they still don't have it in hd yet.
It would be nice to know what "working oni it means". It appears to be their phrase for "sitting on our butts doing absolutely nothing about it." Am I being too cynical? Could it possibly be any worse if they were not "working on it"?

It's too bad that citizens have no way to get an irresponsible station's license pulled. They use "our" airwaves, but they do exactly as they please, with no accountability whatsoever.

I have installed a CM3020 in the 36608 area and cant get it to pick up any of the HD channels. The small batwing that D*TV installed at least picks up Fox and the PBS channels. But using the same cable and putting it in the same location as the batwing, the 3020 gets nothing. Is there any chance that the antenna is bad? I know it seems unlikely, but I'm at my wits end as to why this wont work.
Thanks for any ideas.
DJ

That's very strange, you should get something. You may try a preamp just to see.

I will have a sencore rf generator that tracks where and the quality of the atsc signals you are receiving at your house in about 2-3 weeks. It's a long time, but if you haven't resolved it yet i could fire it up and see what you're getting out there. It measures a lot of things from signal strenth, error, noise ratio, multipath and does it on a spectrum analyzer so you can see if you have a clean flat signal, or if it dips due to a variety of things. I'm no pro at it by any means, i just got training on it when i got trained for audio and video calibrations, but i'm open to seeing if it helps you out.

As a side note the sucker cost me a bundle, if anyone wants to pay a small rental fee that they feel is adequate i'll travel to your place and fire it up to see how things look. It also measures satellite strenth as well as cable signal. With me being in a mediacom area i can't wait to go to some of my customers houses and report back to mediacom the low signal they're sending for their cable modems.

D

D, I appreciate your offer and if I haven't found the problem by then, I would love to have you come out. And I am not adverse to helping you out with a rental fee if its not too much :) . This thing has just about driven me to drink....well, thats the excuse that I am using anyway :D . I want so badly to have this figured out so that we can watch the NFL playoffs, but its looking less and less likely. The only good news is that the ONE channel that the small batwing picks up well is FOX.
BTW, we get good analog signals on all the locals with the cm3020, especially wear and wkrg, but ZERO digital signal. Way too strange.
And another btw, there is some type of amplifier near the receiver. The company that installed the batwing put it in.
D, email me at dragonbrkr@aol.com and I will give you my number.
Denny

Will I be able to get the Super Bowl in HD OTA? I live in the Pensacola area and would be watching on channel 47. thanks

No it will be on FOX DT channel 9 in the Pensacola/Mobile area.

Fox is 10.1 and WB is 10.2

Does anyone use WLOX as their ABC source? Is it HD ready?

Originally posted by DennyH
Does anyone use WLOX as their ABC source? Is it HD ready?

Yes & Yes.

J C

Welcome to the forum, Martyrhughes. Marty for short, yes?

Are you getting FOX at your location? Whats your antenna setup?

I've been getting a blank screen when tuning into DT17 since yesterday. Maybe it's a prelude to HD ??? ;)

Does anyone know the FOX DT channels in either Dothan or Panama City? It sure was nice watching the NFL playoffs on ABC Panama City and CBS Dothan. Switching down to the Dish local FOX had had an incredibly lower picture quality.


CM 4228
CM 7775
Dish 811
Toshiba 51H84

WEAR just came back on and now with an additional feed 3-2 SD. I think ,I hope this is the first day of HD !!! :eek: We'll see tonight .

Originally posted by lenbo
WEAR just came back on and now with an additional feed 3-2 SD. I think ,I hope this is the first day of HD !!! :eek: We'll see tonight .

In the immortal words of Winston Wolfe, "Let's not sucking each others @&*%# just yet." :D

I'm getting bits and pieces of a picture on 3-1 that keeps locking up and essentially no picture on 3-2.

Admittedly this is a major step in the right direction.

They're HD right NOW !!!:p :D

Is anyone actually seeing a moving picture?

I've got an LG 4200 and plenty of signal strength yet I get broken frozen images. Occasionally I get a crystal clear image for about 3 seconds but then it freezes like a snapshot.

Lots of breakups on 3-1 for me although signal strength is good. (Did they also increase transmitter power to 1 megawatt as they said they would?) Its likely, they are having problems with station to transmitter link. Problem was there on non-network programs as well so probably not the download from ABC.

Isn't it nice that they are finishing the job now that the football season is over for ABC?

coming in loud and clear here! Looks GREAT!

FINALLY

Terrible timing though....

Originally posted by crimsonblake
coming in loud and clear here! Looks GREAT!


It certainly isn't at my location.

Could it be that something in the stream is affecting the tuners differently?

Please post what brand receiver you have when commenting about WEAR HD reception....or lack thereof.

Originally posted by Grivo
It certainly isn't at my location.

Could it be that something in the stream is affecting the tuners differently?

Please post what brand receiver you have when commenting about WEAR HD reception....or lack thereof.

I don't have reception problems due to my location. I can look out my window and see the RSA tower under construction here in Mobile. I'm about 1 mile from the bay. Also my antenna is in my attic which is a good 40ft up (i'm in a historic duplex). My receiver is the HD Tivo from Directv.

Here are my signal strengths for each channel
Channel Signal (out of 100)

WEAR 3-1 Digital 17: 92
WKRG 5-1 Digital 27: 90
WALA 10-1 Digital 9: 90
WPMI 15-1 Digital 47: 85

Breaking up bad on my Sony Hd200 and my Hughes HTL. Damn, if they get this going I will "move" back. FWIW our locals here {HD-PQ} are just as good as D* from NY.

If you all remember it took 15.1 NBC 4 or 5 weeks to ger it right. And FOX had trouble, CBS is the only one that started up ok.

Getting it solid here.

That said veronica mars recorded on my hd tivo with no audio, very annoying.

Last nite i was going thru my channel selector on the antenna and stumbled upon abc on channel 80.1

I am in Mobile, and I have never gotten a signal here. HAs it always been here? I have not watched any HD there, but the signal and picture, while not up-converted, is strong and quite clear.

what am I seeing here?

thanks

mike

Is anyone receiving WEAR tonight? I'm not getting any signal.

Thanks,
Steve

steve...are you looking OTa for WEAR? because i have no signal either. where is the DT17 found?

mike

Zero signal here. 3.1

Originally posted by mikegee1
steve...are you looking OTa for WEAR? because i have no signal either. where is the DT17 found?

mike

Oh, Sorry, I meant OTA. Yes.. It looks like they are down. Maybe fixing the bugs in the HD transmitter....:)

WMBB out of Pensacola is working fine at about 73% tonight. I tried WEAR tonight after eveyone talked about the HD last night. I too could not receive signal on 17.

Oh Wow, Joy.

First i record veronica mars on upn but i don't get any audio because of soem new audio issue that is not compatible with teh hd tivo, though a rescan shoudl fix it.

Now my tivo doesn't record alias and lost because, surprise, abc went from 95% signal to 0% signal just when it counted. I knew i should have left it to record the sd channel, but i started to believe... oh well...

From Joe:


A quick update on our progress.

Right now, DT-17 is not on-the-air. The parts we had to order for our
transmitter were delayed in shipping (from California...maybe due to
their weather problems) but are scheduled to be here on Friday,
01/14/05. As soon as they arrive, our engineers will install them and
continue working on the high power upgrade. We hope to be back
on-the-air, at full power, and passing HDTV programming from ABC, by
Friday night.

I will be notifying by e-mail all those who have enquired about
WEAR-DT17, just as soon as we are back on-air.

Thanks to all of you for your patience, and thanks again for your
continued interest in WEAR-DT17.

Have a very nice day!

Joe

THAT IS GOOD NEWS ABOUT WEAR, I THOUGHT MAYBE SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH MY SETUP LASTNIGHT AFTER BEING ABLE TO GET THEM ON TUESDAY NIGHT.

ANOTHER QUESTION, IS EVERYBODY ABLE TO GET 5-1 WKRG-HD OK ?
I GET FOX,NBC,ABC (TOMORROW NIGHT ),WB, PBS, AND UPN OVER THE AIR LIVING IN GULFBREEZE AREA. i AM USING THE STEALTH ANTENNA IN THE ATTIC WITH AN AMPLIFIER . MY RECEIVER IS THE ONE INSIDE THE NEW 62725 DLP BY MITSUBISHI.

Oh yeh, he also mentioned wear being hd tuesday night was a mistake, the engineer left it on accidentally. He didn't want it turned on until it's 100% in order to not confuse anyone (such as me :) argh, anyone have a copy of this week's alias and lost??? )

I'm getting cbs fine, still no fox but that's anoother story, thank you directv for fox east/west :)

By the way, the stealth antenna was my first antenna, i found it to work really good, then lose a channel out of nowhere for no reason. I would then have to re aim it. This happened for me about every 3 months until i gave up on it in my area.

FWIW, I'm getting HD on 3.1 and 17.1 ABC

Since WEAR previously stated that HD would be working prior to the first Monday Night Football Game, does that mean we can expect a game this comming Monday night?:)


Steve

Originally posted by rute
Since WEAR previously stated that HD would be working prior to the first Monday Night Football Game, does that mean we can expect a game this comming Monday night?:)


Steve

Nope-- they meant the first Monday Night Football game of 2005.

Hello everyone. I'm brand new to this forum. It'll be great to interface with people in the "local" area. I'm in Baker Fl, a little town about 35 miles east of Pensacola, north of I-10. I've had an HDTV for a few months. I'm a Voomie and can only get major networks via OTA. I use a Winegard 8100 antenna. It's real monstrosity but I bought it for one specific purpose. It has 12.5db of gain at channel 9. There's no better consumer antanna for that channel. (That I could find.) But guess what, I still can't get WALA-DT 9... or WGRG-DT 27 for that matter. :mad: Granted, I'm in a deeeeep fringe area, 65 miles from these xmitters, but I can get the other stations in the P'cola/Mobile tower farm (58 miles distance) really well. It's hard for me to beleive that that last 7 miles completely kills the signal. Maybe if they would just boost their power a bit and get some more height on their towers I could get it. I do know that WALA-9 has pretty low power. The engineers say that because they are VHF they don't need as much power as UHF. To me that's a "text book" fact, not borne out in real life. Here's what I do get:

WPMI- 99 quality (Voom box shows "quality", a computed value based on strength and SNR)
WJTC-99
WEAR-99
WSRE-99

To the east I get:
WTYV-87 (Dothan)
WMBB-low 80's (Panama City, 85 miles away!) But only at night, and not every night.

I could really harp on my frustration in not getting Fox but I'll hold that for now. Talking to my HD buddies around here we've determined that we live in a huge "fox hole".

Let me close with one question, does anyone know for sure what power level WALA-DT uses. I think it's about 18KW. (pitiful)

I was thinking WALA was at full strength, but checking the FCC site they are listed as STA. Full strength is only 26kw and they are running 16kw.

WEAR was on the air HD and full power tonight. Looking good! I just checked during the commercial break frpm Joan of Arcadia and 3th Watch. Friday is not a must-see for ABC anymore. Now if WKRG or WTVY will just go to full power so Ft Walton can get CBS-HD OTA

Originally posted by Ricknau
Hello everyone. I'm brand new to this forum. It'll be great to interface with people in the "local" area. I'm in Baker Fl, a little town about 35 miles east of Pensacola, north of I-10. I've had an HDTV for a few months. I'm a Voomie and can only get major networks via OTA. I use a Winegard 8100 antenna. It's real monstrosity but I bought it for one specific purpose. It has 12.5db of gain at channel 9. There's no better consumer antanna for that channel. (That I could find.) But guess what, I still can't get WALA-DT 9... or WGRG-DT 27 for that matter. :mad: Granted, I'm in a deeeeep fringe area, 65 miles from these xmitters, but I can get the other stations in the P'cola/Mobile tower farm (58 miles distance) really well. It's hard for me to beleive that that last 7 miles completely kills the signal. Maybe if they would just boost their power a bit and get some more height on their towers I could get it. I do know that WALA-9 has pretty low power. The engineers say that because they are VHF they don't need as much power as UHF. To me that's a "text book" fact, not borne out in real life. Here's what I do get:

WPMI- 99 quality (Voom box shows "quality", a computed value based on strength and SNR)
WJTC-99
WEAR-99
WSRE-99

To the east I get:
WTYV-87 (Dothan)
WMBB-low 80's (Panama City, 85 miles away!) But only at night, and not every night.

I could really harp on my frustration in not getting Fox but I'll hold that for now. Talking to my HD buddies around here we've determined that we live in a huge "fox hole".

Let me close with one question, does anyone know for sure what power level WALA-DT uses. I think it's about 18KW. (pitiful)


You may want to try the Antennacraft's Y10-7-13 Yagi if Fox is that important to you.

http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/y10713.htm

Can't say it will work for sure ? But might be worth a try. Good luck.

BTW: I was going to try this antenna but the wife said" #@%* NO ", that "Thing" on the roof is too much now. I want my Saints in HD.

Oops, sorry, had the numbers for WALA wrong; its STA at 16.5 kW, full power at 29 kW.

The service contours for full power DTV looks like this (36 dBu):
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1022454.html

Not too encouraging.

However, that curve is not the end-all-be-all.

Looking at WEAR, they use to be (41 dBu):
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DS616440.html
Which doesn't reach into FWB. However, I got them fine until Ivan. Maybe because the polarazition was different than expected on the graph?

This is what they are now, assuming they are really broadcasting 1 MW (41 dBu);
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT562364.html

And just for kicks, WKRG with STA at 55kW with a short tower looks like this:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DS593820.html

If you want to check others, FCC link is http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/tvq.html
The maps can be found by clicking on the "service contour map" links in the results.

Whoa! WEAR sync of voice and image is really off in tonight's US Skating Championships.

Watched both games today and I loved the Fox HD PQ, but the CBS really looked pretty poor. Thoughts from anyone else about their PQ of the games?

I watched on directv's fox hd channel and it definately looked better than cbs today. I've watched season ticket all season and it varied with audio and video not only with which station was better, but which broadcast was better picture wise (regardless of network). The aerial shots on the cbs game today were awful.

Originally posted by DennyH
Watched both games today and I loved the Fox HD PQ, but the CBS really looked pretty poor. Thoughts from anyone else about their PQ of the games?

The biggest thing I noticed with CBS today was that the Green seemed to fade in and out. At first I thought it was my TV but after checking other channels I decided it was CBS. At times the field looked black and white due to the loss of Green. I think they were having problems with one of their HD cameras.


Steve

The other thing I noticed about the CBS broadcast was that they didnt seem to be able to focus today. Even "easy" shots that should have been supersharp were out of focus. I wonder if it was those "SONY" cameras they were touting :D

Is anyone willing to give me some one on one help for getting a HD system up and running in milton? please contact me at dnewinchester@mchsi.com

The voices were out of sync with the video on WEAR last night also, but the video did look excellent.

--Matt

yeah, it was sharp. Agreed, sync was out.

We got to point that out to the station.

You guys picking up wear now? I had it last week, but don't have it at all anymore.

Originally posted by Cinder
You guys picking up wear now? I had it last week, but don't have it at all anymore.

I'm not getting it either, must not be online right now.

Well, as I mentioned before, I am kinda new to HD. I want to thank Daniel and Rick for all their help setting up my system. I think I am on track for having it completed today. I am a little sad that I can't get FOX. And to make matters worse, I contacted DirecTv to find out about waivers and they told me that a new law enacted Dec2004 prevents them from requesting anymore waivers.

I was wondering if anyone knows if WALA is planning on increasing their signal to max. Accord to the map from the above posted link, I am well within range, but I don't get anything. I would really like to watch the Superbowl in HD, so if anyone has suggestions please let me know.

Just check, i got it now.

Daniel,

Dave Winchester has a Squareshooter. I was looking up the spec on Winegard's website and they show response at Channel 9 being 45 degrees off from center in their polar plots. So it seems that VHF response is not centered with UHF.

Since you have been working with the Squareshooter before, do you see this behavior? In other words, you have to point 45 degrees north of the WALA tower if east of it to get best reception of FOX?

My advise to Dave was to search for best response of channel 9, starting 45 degree north of where he was pointing now. If he can find WALA, then see if the other channels are ok.