Lexington, KY - HDTV [Text View] - Page 10

hdinlexky2

03-22-06, 10:02 PM

Now that the other stations in the market have picked their final digital channel WDKY should be able to apply for one of the analog channels (channel 18 would work real well) to be their final DTV channel. Yes they would have to replace the antenna but the analog transmitter could be retrofitted for digital operation and the Ch 4 system retired.

WAVE asked me once if we were going to back to 46 in the Lexington market.. The answer was and still is no. We will stay on 42.

William on a different subject, I had mentioned this several months back in a post. I have DirecTV and pick up WKLE with OTA 46-4 for HD. The program guide DirecTV provides for the channel 46-4 is always wrong at primetime for the HD programming. I have an HD Tivo, so this error makes it difficult to record stuff and to know whats going to be on. I also have an HD TV card MyHD and I use TItan TV and they seem to have the primetime okay with the exception they don't list the programming as being in HD. Any chance this DirecTV thing can be fixed.

Thanks!

lamer

03-23-06, 07:42 AM

William,

I understand you are an engineer for KET. Know anything about the old analog equipment? In particular the terestrial microwave feed (KEWS)? I devoted 15 years working on that equipment to keep it going.

Lamer

Juppers

03-23-06, 10:05 AM

Dear Mr. ********,

We are in the process of repairing our HDTV transmit antenna. We are awaiting a
part, and we will return to full power as soon as the transmit antenna is
repaired. We have an ETA for the part to arrive Thursday 3/23, and the tower
work should be complete by Friday evening. Thanks for your patience,

WDKY Engineering

William Smith

03-23-06, 10:32 AM

William on a different subject, I had mentioned this several months back in a post. I have DirecTV and pick up WKLE with OTA 46-4 for HD. The program guide DirecTV provides for the channel 46-4 is always wrong at primetime for the HD programming. I have an HD Tivo, so this error makes it difficult to record stuff and to know whats going to be on. I also have an HD TV card MyHD and I use TItan TV and they seem to have the primetime okay with the exception they don't list the programming as being in HD. Any chance this DirecTV thing can be fixed.

Thanks!

I passed this up to the folks who interface with Direct TV et all, Its really strange as in some markets they get the data right but in others its in left field somewhere. I will re-send your comments up the food chain..

KEWS (its under COT's control) still exists but We ( KET) now maintain our outbound routes. We installed data modem to analog adapters in 2000 to allow us to use the Farrinon equipment to create a 20 Mbps STL system that would run on the 27 year old equipment. We have since replaced all of the Farrinon gear in the PC to TX routes with new equipment. The new gear extended the fade margins on all hops by about 13 dB. We have also use the same modem technology to deliver a 20 Mbps pipe from C2 to 4A.

Sadly the returns from NKU and Morehead state are down.. NKU due to a concrete attenuator and Morehead due to no TV department....

The analog messaging is still there but there is a project in the works to replace it .

HDTVChallenged

03-23-06, 12:23 PM

I passed this up to the folks who interface with Direct TV et all, Its really strange as in some markets they get the data right but in others its in left field somewhere. I will re-send your comments up the food chain..

Yeah this is a really strange situation. The local Adelphia system appears to be getting the guide info correct for KET4. D* is still a mixed bag depending on which transmitter you're looking at, although, I haven't checked all of them since before the HD-server changes.

lamer

03-23-06, 01:24 PM

It's amazing how long that analog stuff has worked. I suppose the D/A converter replaced the FV-40 shelf? I was quite impressed with the video that would come out of that shelf. Do you monitor the Farinon video radio via the data stream so you no longer have to rely on KEWS/COT or do you rely on their alarm reporting system? (I also worked at COT for five years as a Network Engineer on the data side. However, my real love was that good ole analog microwave equipment.) Using the ole Tek equipment to verify all the differential-phase, -gain, overshoot, ringing, etc. Ah, those were the days. No doubt I would be astounded with the digital stuff. However, I'll bet it is not repairable any more like the old stuff.

The only transmitter I ever visited was site 30. I was always fascinated with the PA tubes. I can tell you a story relating to the transmitter door interlock and how rugged those old tubes really are.

Did you work for KET during the 80's and early 90's?

William Smith

03-23-06, 02:22 PM

karlito1

03-23-06, 06:07 PM

In case anyone else hasn't heard, I just got a reply from WDKY:

"We are in the process of repairing our HDTV transmit antenna. We are awaiting a
part, and we will return to full power as soon as the transmit antenna is
repaired. We have an ETA for the part to arrive Thursday 3/23, and the tower
work should be complete by Friday evening. Thanks for your patience,

WDKY Engineering"

I hope this info is helpful, and all goes well on Friday.

cheers!

HDTVChallenged

03-23-06, 06:40 PM

Uhh ... like WDKY-DT is back on the air, dudes! (as of ~5:30ish pm)

karlito1

03-23-06, 07:05 PM

guess i'll have to check it out. wasn't watching the tele whilst forwarding the info.

hdinlexky2

03-23-06, 07:58 PM

The adapters work at video baseband so all we had to to do the FV-40 shelves was strap out the filter and turn off the video clamp. The new radios are still "analog video" radios in the microwave sense but a 4 step analog signal (6.3 MHz. wide) is inserted into the FM modulator input. The Alarm Center is now at C.H. and they monitor the radios for us..

Thanks William. Once you think they have corrected the situation here in Lexington, I will check and confirm with you, just let me know. I watch KET at least a couple times a week for HD programming (46-4). Also, my baby like teletubbies on 46-1, too bad thats not in HD, oh well, don't think my baby cares anyway :-) I appreciate the great HD programming you have.

BenCJedi

03-23-06, 08:06 PM

hdinlexky2

03-23-06, 08:57 PM

Looks like WDKY-DT is back! My signal is 10 percentage points lower, but it is working right now. Still I have a decent lock out here in Winchester. How about you Lexington folks? Signal stronger thataway now?

I am getting a typical signal I believe with a bit more fluctuation than normal. With my rooftop antenna, tonight for WDKY-DT, in Lexington Masterson Station area, my DirecTV Tivo is averaging 85, but fluctuating quite a bit (between 75 and 90). I don't think its weaker than normal. I have a MyHD MDP-130 capture card in my PC and i am getting between 65 and 80 on that same signal. For My HD card I also have the QAM Insight cable signal and its between 65 to 70.

hdteevee

03-25-06, 01:57 PM

cpcat

03-25-06, 02:32 PM

Does anyone know if any of the Lexington or Louisville channels can be picked up OTA in my area. I have a antenna tower next to my house and would love to be able to use it to get hd ota. Has any one been successful in this are? I'm about 97 miles from Louisville and 70 from Lexington.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

I would think you'd have better luck with Nashville, Knoxville, and Bowling Green from there. I'm around 75 miles out from Lex and I can get WKYT fairly consistently but it has taken alot of work. FOX is doable for me but more inconsistent. WLEX,WKLE and WTVQ are no-gos.

You may be eligible for HD east coast feeds from D*.

timescaper

04-08-06, 12:39 PM

pczarapa

04-08-06, 12:44 PM

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I'm in north Madison county and all we have is Adelphia or I'd look into it. I have Directv now, and I understand there's some 5 LNB behemoth dish and new receiver to buy when they do offer the expanded HD channels.

FYI - Insight is launching new HD channels in about a month.

Total line-up will have:

ABC-HD
CBS-HD
FOX-HD
NBC-HD
PBS-HD
TNT-HD
UNIVERSAL-HD
ESPN-HD
DISCOVERY HD THEATRE
HD NET
HD NET MOVIES
MHD (HYBRID OF MTV/VH1/CMT IN HD)
HBO-HD
CINEMAX-HD
SHOWTIME-HD
STARZ!-HD

Juppers

04-08-06, 02:11 PM

FYI - Insight is launching new HD channels in about a month.

Total line-up will have:

ABC-HD
CBS-HD
FOX-HD
NBC-HD
PBS-HD
TNT-HD
UNIVERSAL-HD
ESPN-HD
DISCOVERY HD THEATRE
HD NET
HD NET MOVIES
MHD (HYBRID OF MTV/VH1/CMT IN HD)
HBO-HD
CINEMAX-HD
SHOWTIME-HD
STARZ!-HD

So they are adding MHD, Starz-HD and Max-HD? Not sure of their current lineup, I think it is the same as DTV right now. Thanks for the heads up!

HDTVChallenged

04-08-06, 02:14 PM

What? ... no ESPN2-HD? How could we ever live without that? :D

BenCJedi

04-10-06, 01:37 PM

Is WDKY-DT acting up for anyone else? The signal is very weak since I noticed this morning. Either their transmitter is affected again or they repointed the antenna (away from Winchester), as none of my equipment was moved/changed. I'll call the station and see if I can find out anything. I was just curious if anyone else can have a look and see how their WDKY-DT tuning is working right now.

BenCJedi

04-10-06, 01:45 PM

I spoke to Dave at WDKY who said they didn't make any changes, other than the transmitter being off for a gas spill (?). He said they were back up before Nascar Saturday and he says he tested at home and was getting a strong signal. I'm not at home to move the antenna around, but one tuner is showing 0-11% signal while the other is ~25%, neither enough for a lock. Is it possible that strong storms we had Friday night moved their transmitter to point away from me?

I'll play around with my wireloop antenna when I get home from work, just wondering what you all see right now on signal strength.

The information to call FOX is
859-967-1629, or e-mail engineering@wdky56.com
if anyone is seeing the same low signal and would like to tell them it isn't just me. All my equipment including the antenna is indoors (and not changed position for weeks). The other locals tune in fine.. just WDKY-DT weak signal

Juppers

04-10-06, 02:07 PM

I see my normal 90 from them right now. No issues here.

BenCJedi

04-10-06, 05:10 PM

Maybe the wind we had on Friday with the T-storms moved their transmitter to point more to Lexington. When I get home I will monkey with my antenna and see if I can improve my reception. Now that I think about it.. one of my cats was laying in the curled bundle of highly-shielded RG-6 and may have moved cable/the antenna ever so slightly. Perhaps that is the problem.

BenCJedi

04-10-06, 07:37 PM

Yep.. verified my problem was one of the cats! From a glance it looks like nothing was moved, but I guess his flab laying on the cables moved the antenna ever-so-slightly drastically affecting ONLY WDKY-DT reception. I appreciate everyone checking their signal. I have the most problems maintaining a good FOX signal no matter where I have lived. Back in the 50% range which is just enough for good signal. If I can beat the neighborhood deed of restrictions on "no antenna larger than 24"', I can probably reduce my signal problems with a big honking antenna outside.

cpcat

04-10-06, 08:12 PM

What? ... no ESPN2-HD? How could we ever live without that? :D

Well...

Just as soon have it as not. Quite a few games you'll miss if you don't have it.

Maybe it was just omitted from the list.

chuckgr

04-10-06, 08:34 PM

BenCJedi

04-10-06, 10:39 PM

You do know that the FCC ruled these deeds null and void, right?

Yes, but I didn't want to start anything not having quite closed on the house yet. I've been keeping my eyes peeled on the rest of the neighborhood to see if anyone else has installed antennas larger than a satellite dish. So far I haven't seen any homes like this. Many folks are complacent with just a dish or cable TV in their home. When I tell most people there is free digital TV OTA they give me these perplexing looks. It's almost as though the general populace doesn't realize these broadcast companies are spending huge lumps of money on new equipment to serve their communities. We all pay taxes.. doesn't some of this money come back in the form of free HDTV/DTV over the air? I suspect the argument from the housing authority would be something like "well can't you just use your dish or subscribe to cable TV for your locals?". Why are most people uneducated in regard to OTA digital existing? Also why do they believe 'HDTV antenna' is different than analog TV antenna? Marketing tricks sure trick folks

sgthavoc

04-10-06, 11:19 PM

BenCJedi

04-11-06, 12:02 PM

I live in Mt Sterling and just purchased my first HDTV and I am not happy with Adelphia's HD content (the only local I can get is WKYT and KET from them). I would like to know if anyone tell me if I have a chance of getting OTA HD channels out of Lexington. There are no tall structures around and I would like to use as small of an antenna as possible. I live in a subdivision near Easy Walker Park (if that helps). I would also like a suggestion to an OTA receiver.

I have been looking at the following antennas from Radio Shack

Model: DA-5200
and
Model: 15-2185

Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks!

You live east of me (I'm a new Winchester resident). The antenna I built for my apartment when I lived in Lexington is very receptive. See my posts for info on building one. It works fine inside the house too (providing a cat doesn't turn it in any way). :)

The antenna looks like this:
http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/hdtv/Twinlead01.jpg

http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/Pictures/hdtv/Twinlead02.jpg

Here are my posts on my antenna (which is very inexpensive)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7198918&&#post7198918
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7198881&&#post7198881

From Winchester my antenna is picking up FOX, NBC, CBS and ABC just fine (WTVQ-DT is actually fine, so ignore that in my post on that). I could probably get PBS by rotating the antenna a bit, but that would screw up reception for the other networks. I'll try that later.

sgthavoc

04-12-06, 09:03 PM

You live east of me (I'm a new Winchester resident). The antenna I built for my apartment when I lived in Lexington is very receptive. See my posts for info on building one. It works fine inside the house too (providing a cat doesn't turn it in any way). :)
=.

Thanks for the reply BenCJedi. I tried the small Radio Shack antenna and I could pick up the Lexington stations execpt for Fox (just holding up the antenna by hand and guessing at the direction). I think I will go with a channel master 4228 or 4221A. Do you think that I will need a amp on it?

I'm also looking for a good "cheap" receiver. I have a borrowed Huges HIRD-E8 and have been looking and the Samsung TS360 or the Pro Ban HD3150PLUS. I do not have Directv but heard that the TS360 will work with out it.

Any help or suggestion would be helpful.

BenCJedi

04-12-06, 10:33 PM

Thanks for the reply BenCJedi. I tried the small Radio Shack antenna and I could pick up the Lexington stations execpt for Fox (just holding up the antenna by hand and guessing at the direction). I think I will go with a channel master 4228 or 4221A. Do you think that I will need a amp on it?

No problem.. I put a great deal of effort into all the antenna stuff. The channel master 4228 is an excellant UHF antenna, but isn't going to help you pull in FOX. They are a toughie to get because they are on low band VHF. You need 83-inches of metal from end-to-end for optimal reception. This is science believe it or not. :)
See here for info on that:
http://www.kyes.com/antenna/rabbitear.html

Without going outside the apartment I lived at, the only real choice was constructing the wireloop antenna I mentioned in my last post. I tried all the VHF (combo UHF) antennas Lowes sold in the apartment attic with nothing but frustration. The wireloop antenna I constructed is specifically the exact length for VHF channel 4 (which is what WDKY-DT FOX is). This "home-brew" solution also happens to be very receptive for ABC, CBS and NBC, so for me it has given me the power to pull in all the major networks. I'm happy the same antenna works just as well out here in Winchester at the house. I do use the channel master 3044 distribution amplifier with my wireloop because it splits the signals 4 ways without degrading, so I could effectively route the signal to other HD tuners around the house. The CM3044 distribution amp is sold at Lowes (where I bought it).

I'm also looking for a good "cheap" receiver. I have a borrowed Huges HIRD-E8 and have been looking and the Samsung TS360 or the Pro Ban HD3150PLUS. I do not have Directv but heard that the TS360 will work with out it.

Any help or suggestion would be helpful.

As for 'cheap' receivers.. I go with HDTV/DTV capture cards for the PC because I like to record my HD and watch it on my own time. I own two HD tuner/capture boards.. one is a MyHD MDP-120 and the other is a DVICO Fusion 5 Lite. Both sell for about $100 online. The MyHD (latest model is MDP-130) is a hardware solution, so if you have an old PC lying around in the closet from 1999 or so (a Pentium III 600Mhz or something) is perfect to use with this card. I used mine in my old PC for awhile, but then pieced together a more powerful PC anyway.

Not sure about off-the-shelf HD tuners. I think I heard Wal-Mart was selling one for $200, but that was quite awhile ago. It wouldn't be able to record HD, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Also it was double the price of a tuner that could put good use to an old PC and give me the ability to timeshift.

m_vanmeter

04-13-06, 08:13 AM

I have had very good luck with a Samsung SIR-t451 receiver. I purchased 3 from refurbdepot (you fill in the rest of the URL) for myself and family members and all are working fine. Some don't like Samsung's use of gray bars when you view SD content, but for the bucks I saved, I can live with it.

I chased both the $200 Rat Shack receiver and the USDTV receiver that Wal-M was supposed to be getting rid of. Could not find either anywhere nearby, so I did some searching on the net and found the Samsung's at a price less than $150 each.

good luck

sgthavoc

04-13-06, 10:28 PM

Well I bit the bullet and bought the LG 3510A receiver/DVD from geeks tonight ($165 with shipping). The reviews seem mixed, but they seem mixed on every receiver I could find. I hope it works ok. I still need to purchase an antenna. Is there a place in Lexington that sells Channel Master or Wineguard?

CyberWhip

04-13-06, 11:35 PM

I also live in Mt Sterling, near Fogg Pike. I get all stations except FOX pretty good using a (mostly) UHF antenna. You will need an amplifier, especially to get KET very good out of Lexington. I use a ChannelMaster amplifier from Lowes (Winchester). They also sell CM antennas.

I have DISH HDTV so I have a tuner already, although I did try the one from Wal-Mart and it does work, but just OK. I don't think they sell them anymore. I returned it several months ago.

To get FOX56 you will need a pretty huge antenna due to the low VHF signal they transmit on. I have tried the homemade deal that Ben has and it does get a signal but I can't get it consistent enough. I haven't messed with it much for awhile. Let me know how your new antenna works out for FOX, I am thinking about getting one and sticking it in the attic. CPCAT had one that he was going to sell me, I don't know if he still has it, but you may want to try that one as it is the one FOX recommended (delhi yagi 4).

m_vanmeter

04-14-06, 08:14 AM

CM and Wineguard used to be sold by Radio-Electronics on Skain Ave. in Lexington
859-255-6661

William Smith

04-14-06, 05:30 PM

From the reports we are getting the CM antennas are out preforming the WG antennas..

YMMV

William

William Smith

04-14-06, 05:33 PM

BenCJedi

04-14-06, 06:48 PM

To get FOX56 you will need a pretty huge antenna due to the low VHF signal they transmit on. I have tried the homemade deal that Ben has and it does get a signal but I can't get it consistent enough. I haven't messed with it much for awhile. Let me know how your new antenna works out for FOX, I am thinking about getting one and sticking it in the attic. CPCAT had one that he was going to sell me, I don't know if he still has it, but you may want to try that one as it is the one FOX recommended (delhi yagi 4).

You can help draw more stable signal to your homebrew wireloop antenna if you make reflectors to place evenly behind your antenna. For WDKY-DT they need to be about 5% longer or about 87" from tip to tip. There's an optimal distance between antenna and each reflector you add, but I found the default truss/braces (whatever the 2x4"s that criss-cross each other in the attic are called) to be perfect distance between each other when I was at the Lexington apartment. I placed four of these reflectors equidistant behind the antenna. I used some thick grounding wire and just cut four 87" long runs and hung them on each truss with push pins in the wood. You could probably buy aluminum moulding at Lowes for this purpose for relatively cheap. It's the stuff you would use to put between your capreting and linoleum flooring. If I didn't have that grounding wire I would have tried that instead. Adding reflectors greatly stablized the signal.

Out in Winchester I don't even have any reflectors setup (the antenna is laying on a box on top of my wife's carrio-style desk on the second floor) and am getting 58% stable signal for FOX. It's working really well. I don't know if I will fool with moving the antenna for awhile and setting up some reflectors again.

You could always go with the WDKY antenna recommendation on their website which says:

Fox 56 is broadcasting in HDTV on VHF channel 4. Some viewers may need an outdoor VHF antenna to receive Fox-56. WDKY engineering has tested the Delhi 5Y4S Yagi antenna with success in difficult areas. For further information, please contact our engineering department at 859-967-1629, or e-mail engineering@wdky56.com and we will assist you in locating a vendor or contractor in your area to assist with reception issues."

I didn't want to buy the Delhi 5Y4S Yagi antenna and find out FOX picks up a different channel assisngment (other than VHF channel 4) and then have a useless antenna specifically built for channel 4 VHF. I figured at least with constructing my own I would learn something about signal reception and not spend a whole lot of money. With the amp and supplies I probably spent $40 on my homebrew antenna and it works great. the dsitribution amplifer is very useful, so I don't need to run splitters which will degrade the signal strength. I'm goo for 2 more HD tuners right now. :)

PD50U

04-14-06, 08:53 PM

KET Programming Note:::

Effective Sunday at 19:00 KET will be back on the PBS HD feed unitl July 1.. PBS has given us the rights to the service until July as a trial... This will also allow KET Personnel ( ME) to take some much needed time off..

Hi William,

I apologize if this was covered before, but can you elaborate on this? I assume this is something different than the current KET-4 feed? What is the "trial" trying to discern? Which KET channel will carry this feed?

Thanks.

William Smith

04-14-06, 09:50 PM

cpcat

04-14-06, 11:35 PM

I didn't want to buy the Delhi 5Y4S Yagi antenna and find out FOX picks up a different channel assisngment (other than VHF channel 4) and then have a useless antenna specifically built for channel 4 VHF. I figured at least with constructing my own I would learn something about signal reception and not spend a whole lot of money. With the amp and supplies I probably spent $40 on my homebrew antenna and it works great. the dsitribution amplifer is very useful, so I don't need to run splitters which will degrade the signal strength. I'm goo for 2 more HD tuners right now. :)

The 5 element Delhi ch. 4 antenna is around 45 dollars new if I recall. I guess with shipping it would be about 60. Used it would obviously be less.

It can be fun to build stuff, though. :rolleyes: The reflectors will only work if they happen to be oriented perpendicular to the signal which will require the house to be oriented appropriately.

Mt. Sterling is not Winchester and it's not Lexington either.

BenCJedi

04-14-06, 11:59 PM

It can be fun to build stuff, though. :rolleyes: The reflectors will only work if they happen to be oriented perpendicular to the signal which will require the house to be oriented appropriately.

I must have lucked out in Lexington. The apartment was pointed exactly right.. or I was really capturing a signal that reflected in some weird arc that just happened to work. If you remember my old posts in this thread I had put an 18" cymbal on the wall of the attic on the director side of the antenna and the signal strength kicked up a notch. Of course if someone clicked on their vacuum down the road my signal cut out a second too. :)

Mt. Sterling is not Winchester and it's not Lexington either.

True dat

HDTVChallenged

04-15-06, 01:08 AM

. We are still capturing HD material for use after July in our own schedule. While on the feed not all programs will be HD, some will be SD Widescreen. Our local service was all HD.

Yep ... I've learned to like the server mode ... especially since quite a bit of the HD material seems to fall outside the 3 hour primetime block. I get the impression that PBS central isn't getting many nibbles for the PBS-HD feed lately.

Are you going to bring back the full time feed on WKMJ? I started getting the "summertime" bounces again the other morning. :)

William Smith

04-15-06, 04:08 PM

Not at this time...

demonspawn

04-17-06, 12:18 PM

does this mean nomore glass blowing lol!!

PD50U

04-19-06, 09:49 PM

Since last October we have not had the program rights to air the PBS-HD feed directly. We purchased a small server to allow us to capture programs we did have rights to and generate a HD service locally. (PBS wanted $60K/year to allow us to pass through the service). PBS recently contacted us and offered the feed to us free of charge until July. We are still capturing HD material for use after July in our own schedule. While on the feed not all programs will be HD, some will be SD Widescreen. Our local service was all HD.

William

Thanks for the update. To be honest, I found the frequent repeats of the HD material very convenient as I can't record HD - if you missed a program you could always catch it later. I even watched "Chihuly over Venice" more than once. :)

I guess the idea is this is a "teaser" in the hopes that KET would pay for the feed later?

William Smith

04-20-06, 07:16 PM

Thats my guess..

BenCJedi

04-22-06, 06:27 PM

Just noticed today that WDKY-DT FOX56 is multi-casting on a .2 subchannel. The channel they added is called TheTube.

It is basically a free MTV that is just music videos (like MTV used to be in the 80s)

http://www.thetubetv.com/

http://s94980196.onlinehome.us/8602/HDTV/FOX56-TheTube01a.jpg

I did not think FOX was capable of multi-casting as their feed was directly from network and given to them "as-is".

I did notice my bitrates were lower on my regular FOX shows I had been watching lately. Instead of The O.C being a usual 3.5GB (sans commercials) it was like 2.81GB this week.

This station shows some great music vids that I have not seen in a long time including concert footage of different bands performing such as the Rolling Stones.

Are there any other FOX stations multi-casting in the US? Or are we an exception?

Nitewatchman

04-22-06, 08:00 PM

Just noticed today that WDKY-DT FOX56 is multi-casting on a .2 subchannel. The channel they added is called TheTube.

I also Noticed last night "The Tube" was up on 56.2 (PSIP remapped channel) from WDKY-DT.

I did not think FOX was capable of multi-casting as their feed was directly from network and given to them "as-is".

With Fox's feed to digital stations(including Fox HD) -- the Network stream is encoded at the Network level, and is "spliced" into the local stream at the affiliate+isn't decoded until it reaches your decoder - allways possible I suppose for the affiliate to try something "different", and who knows, but I doubt that is happening in this case .......

So, in short, it shouldn't be FOX HD that is effected by "multicasting" or too high compression ratio/too low bitrate, it is "the tube" which is effected.

I did notice my bitrates were lower on my regular FOX shows I had been watching lately. Instead of The O.C being a usual 3.5GB (sans commercials) it was like 2.81GB this week.

I'd guess probably because there were a bunch of null packets in the stream before WDKY-DT added "The Tube". All ATSC stations send 19.39Mb/s at all times, even if some(or much) of it are "null packets". With MPEG2, the amount of bandwidth needed by any program service(including 720p or 1080i) is variable, depending on the content. For instance, it is only during very short periods of say a NASCAR HD race(such as when a camera is looking through the fence panning along with the field) on NBC or NFL HD football in 1080i that the HD needs "everything" it can get(and sometimes more than that for the best HD PQ with 1080i -- think "strobe lights" .....).

I Believe Fox has is set up so stations can multicast at least 1 SD subchannel(although it may not allways be of "stellar" quality), using the "bits" that FOX HD doesn't use.

720p can work very well with 1 SD multicast service via MPEG2, but personally I've yet to see multicasting(or datacasting with anything other than available oppurtunistic bandwidth) be a good Idea in any shape or form for stations which are sending 1080i ..... That being said, I don't think it will take you too long to notice "The Tube" suffering with MPEG2 compression artifacts during bandwidth demanding portions of programming -- SD wise, there's quite a bit of that in Music videos ......

Are there any other FOX stations multi-casting in the US? Or are we an exception?

It's not a "Fox" affiliate thing, but yes, several in this area are running the Tube. WXIX-DT (Raycom owned Fox affiliate) Cincinnati has had "The Tube" up for about a year now(so has Raycom owned NBC affiliate WNWO-DT Toledo Ohio - wouldn't be surprised if it pops up on WAVE-DT at some point as well - as if they don't have enough subchannels already -- LOL), and Sinclair recently signed an agreement with "The Tube" folks to multicast it on many Sinclair stations. In addition to WDKY-DT, noticed last night that WTTE-DT (Sinclair operated Columbus, Ohio Fox affiliate) is now running "The Tube" as well.

Here is Sinclair's press release concerning "The Tube" on its stations :

http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_2006323_151.shtml

This station shows some great music vids that I have not seen in a long time including concert footage of different bands performing such as the Rolling Stones.

They do --- It's just too bad that(IMO) it oftentimes it looks(due to what appears to be MPEG2 compression artifacts) , and sounds like crap ....

HDTVChallenged

04-23-06, 12:53 PM

In addition to WDKY-DT, noticed last night that WTTE-DT (Sinclair operated Columbus, Ohio Fox affiliate) is now running "The Tube" as well.

For some reason, this does not surprise me. ;)

That being said, I don't think it will take you too long to notice "The Tube" suffering with MPEG2 compression artifacts during bandwidth demanding portions of programming --

... Just about 20 seconds to the first dissolve into tiny square blocks .... of course that might have just been the "normal" low-VHF band dropouts. :rolleyes: OTOH, it's almost watchable on the old 27" analog Sony.

Nitewatchman

04-23-06, 02:10 PM

... Just about 20 seconds to the first dissolve into tiny square blocks ....

Well, I did a little comparision of "The Tube" among WTTE-DT, WXIX-DT and WDKY-DT Friday night, and it looked pretty much exactly the same from all three stations .... To the point I was wondering if it was an issue with the feed the stations are getting for "The tube", or the limited bandwidth with MPEG2 for the stream from the station's encoder ... True -- All three stations in this case are Fox affiliates, but you'd think there at least might be "differences" among the SD encoders they are using for the Tube/etc(unless "The Tube" is doing something similair to what Fox is doing?), or bandwidth allocation "differences" among the stations when they aren't running Fox programming (which they weren't at the time) .....

OTOH, it's almost watchable on the old 27" analog Sony.

I have a 13" TV (a early 80's model with actual mechanical VHF+UHF tuners) hooked up DTV reciever (480i output - well it also goes through a RF modulator on a VCR), and I still see the same problems with MPEG2 compression artifacts on it such as occur on "The Tube" ..... But no, it perhaps doesn't quite look as bad as on a larger HD set and/or a "non-native" 480i display ....

OTOH, KET's SD services are among a few SD digital services I've seen in this area which appear to be "high quality" SD digital ......

HDTVChallenged

04-24-06, 01:02 AM

OTOH, KET's SD services are among a few SD digital services I've seen in this area which appear to be "high quality" SD digital ......

Yes they do seem to be the best of the multicasted SD signals. OTOH, they are often filtered down well below the resolution of a high quality analog signal. Once in a while, I flip over to an NTSC station and marvel at how much more "life" is in the picture (vs digital SD) ... This coming from someone that scoffed at LPs are better than CDs crowd. :)

PS: Yes I know KET doesn't count since the analogs are fed off of the digital feed. ;)

PPS: The sound on TheTube via WDKY appears to be monophonic ...

HDTV4usinky

04-24-06, 08:31 PM

"The Tube" is sent to WDKY the same way they receive FOX network. It comes over a fiber from Columbus. The WDKY feed comes from the same satellite receiver that WTTE uses. I've heard that they are having some audio issues and dropouts due to satellite dish-LNB-receiver issues. The WDKY splicer, PSIP generator, and FOX network satellite system are all located at WTTE. The data rate for "The Tube" is about 4 Mb/s. It's not HD, but it looks good, sounds good for the most part. HD has us all spoiled. This is my first post, but I plan to read and post a bit more. Hopefully something I post will be useful :p

Nitewatchman

04-25-06, 12:28 AM

Once in a while, I flip over to an NTSC station and marvel at how much more "life" is in the picture (vs digital SD) ...

Yep, few people seem to know just how good ol' analog NTSC SD *can* look ...

I must say I'm not really noticing that from KET SD digital services, even when compared to non-KET PBS analog stations when the same "feed" is simultanously available -- I usually end up preferring the KET digital version --- Not saying it looks "great" all of the time, as I think a lot depends upon the quality of the source ...

OTOH -- compression artifact issues aside --- many other SD ATSC services I've seen do often seem to have a bit of a "garish" look about them for some reason - Perhaps It may also be the case "variances" in the 480i output(or scaling when applicable) from different receivers I've used may play a bit of a part in this as well ...

PPS: The sound on TheTube via WDKY appears to be monophonic ...

I've thought I've noticed it in Stereo on occasion(but perhaps I was "hallucinating") from WXIX-DT, but it's usually been Mono(at least when I've checked it) from WXIX-DT as well ....

Nitewatchman

04-25-06, 12:45 AM

This is my first post, but I plan to read and post a bit more. Hopefully something I post will be useful :p

1st off Welcome to AVS! Yes, it's allways interesting to hear about how stations are doing things, thanks for posting+joining us.

If you talk to the Columbus WTTE/WSYX folks, Say Hi to Dan Carpenter for me .... Also tell him(and or the WDKY folks/etc) the upconverts on WDKY-DT/WSYX-DT/WTTE-DT and WSTR-DT look outstanding(IMO) for the most part these days, but WKEF-DT/WRGT-DT look like they could use a little "work" in that regard(as does the video signal via their analog stations ) .... ;)

It's not HD, but it looks good, sounds good for the most part. HD has us all spoiled.

Does it? Keep in mind, I wasn't comparing it to HD. Neither was HDC. I think it's often difficult to discuss picture "quality" issues here as it can be a very "subjective" thing, and there can be many variables involved. Certianly -- If you have any suggestions concerning how I might improve the quality of "The Tube" on my end, I'd like to hear about it .....

I don't expect 704x480i(or 640x480i) SD to "look like" or "as good" as HD, However, having become used to(for the most part) quality analog OTA NTSC Video over 30+ years of over the air viewing, I do expect any OTA SD(OR *HD* for that matter) digital broadcast service should look at LEAST as good (100% of the time, not just "most" of the time) as a quality NTSC Analog broadcast -- assuming reliable "above threshold" digital reception, and good, "ghost+snow free" analog reception of course ....

HDTV4usinky

04-25-06, 02:01 PM

Thanks for the warm welcome!

The best way to make "The Tube" look better is to sit further back from the set! Really, it's a work in progress, hopefully some better equipment on the front end will clean it up for all of us. Insight and WDKY are working on a fiber feed for the Insight headend, and that will take care of the receive issues that Insight has been having with the low V. WDKY really wants to provide a digital UHF solution, and the nearly new 130 kW analog Acrodyne Quantum with E2V ESCIOT tubes is up to the task. I doubt that anything happens with this before they turn off the analog in 2009, but I've been surprised in the past.

HDTV4usinky

04-25-06, 03:17 PM

NW, I do know Mr. Carpenter, and I'd like to thank him here for bringing "The Tube" to Lexington a month ahead of schedule. I really wish I found this forum back when WDKY was low power out of Lancaster-Buena Vista, but then again, I was kinda busy at the time. It's nice to see all the feedback, and that I'm not the only one watching! As far as the low V issues, when I lived in Lexington @ Richmond & Mt. Tabor, I had no problems with an indoor antenna. Versailles is a different issue all together. WAVE is off the back of my antenna, so a cut antenna located on the roof peak was the best option. The good news is that it picks up the UHF stations and ch 13 most of the time. This summer I'm going to shoot for Louisville with a UHF, and we'll see :)

BenCJedi, The WDKY digital antenna isn't moving in the wind, that's something it would only get to do once before WDKY built their third transmit tower :) It was pretty windy when you experienced your problems. Maybe some impulse noise as a result of utility lines blowing in the wind? I like the cat theory, but on sheilded coax... i don't know. I'm not sure why you need an amp on your setup, CH 4 loss in RG6 is < 2dB per 100' I have to pad down my signal. The amp will cause you more problems with impulse noise. The Delhi cut antenna is about $60 including shipping, and doesn't require spare parts from your drum set. It's a bit rough to install in an attic though.

The geeks at WDKY are busy most of the time, but the phone number to engineering is posted here a few pages back as well as at the WDKY website. If you leave a message, someone will call you back. I've found that they are really helpful. I don't think they send anyone to voicemail anymore to listen to the "engineering speech" that just rehashed the info on the website.

HDTV4usinky

04-25-06, 09:51 PM

It's me again. If I post a few more times, I can share photos and websites. AI was great in HD tonight. We had one glitch at the villa in Versailles, maybe a stray dishwasher or the A/C kicking in. I'm posting photos at photosite, under jsmith632.

Nitewatchman

04-26-06, 01:32 AM

HDTV4usinky ---

Excellent Pics of WDKY transmitter/stick/antennas+the NBC truck+screenshot! Here's the URL for folks since you can't post it yet :

http://www.photosite.com/jsmith632/Album1/

The new WDKY facility is a really nice one, and I have to say, the Channel 4 antenna sure is pretty :) ! If you get a chance and you should take a pic of that nice big backup generator in the back of the shack ... I'd seen some pics a friend had taken who had a tour of the place a little over a year ago ...

I'm take it it is likely WDKY-DT is planning on particpate in 3rd round channel elections ? If so, have you heard what they might be looking at/hoping for channel # wise? Thanks for any info you might have or can post!

I've had correspondance with Dan Carpenter as well as engineers at WRGT/WKEF on several occasions the past several years ... Fine folks, I enjoy talking to them, but I try not to pester them too much as I know they are busy .....

I do want to also add that I also am certianly appreciative of the addition of "The Tube" to WDKY-DT+WTTE-DT and the work to get it done ... I hope my earlier comments weren't "misunderstood", and perhaps I should have worded them a bit differently -- however, I must say I will be honest about what I see "on the screen" ....

Furthermore -- I do think the tube is an interesting service, and am glad to see it available OTA, and I also think it's a great idea(which makes sense!) for Fox affiliates to find a way to utilize the bandwidth available which is not used by Fox HD ... HOWEVER, my opinion would be very different in cases if/when the quality of the "main"(HD) program service were effected ;)

And, I do wish it could look a little better ... What puzzles me about that Is:

#1). Considering for example the quality of the SD digital services from, say -- KET(and the bandwidth usage of those - which If I recall correctly William has told us are generally 2.5~3Mb/s or so), I would have thought the tube could look better, at least on Fox HD affilates.

#2), From what I can tell it has looked exactly the same from all 4 stations(one of which was a NBC HD affiliate) I've seen it on.

#3) I've had the "tube" up here for a year now from local WXIX-DT, and it doesn't look any different now than it did a year ago - although I don't know what, if anything they've done to improve things.

So, it does lead me to wonder if what I'm seeing might be something "the tube" is doing rather than the affiliates .....

In case you are interested --- I'm 118 Miles North of the "new" WDKY Clay's ferry site. I'm Located between Cincinnati+Dayton, - Closer to Dayton - about 12~13 Miles SW of Dayton antenna farm. Although I don't see it "all the time", I see WDKY-DT quite often, most often of the "non-local" stations(locals are Cincinnati, Dayton, and WAVE 3(95 Miles) and WCMH 4(78 Miles) columbus are in all the time as well in at least a somewhat "viewable" fashion) ... Really, I generally see some sort of indication of signal from WDKY-DT all the time, and it's not unusual(even when there is no sign of a bit of enhanced signal propagation elsewhere) to decode it perfectly, and "dropout free" reception for hours on end ...

Concerning Low-VHF for DTV .. I must just be "lucky" here when it comes to a general lack of impulse noise issues, at least given what I've seen so far concerning WDKY-DT 118 miles away - well, except for nearby(generally) lightning strikes ...

... Anyhow .... my personal thoughts are, given the "issues" involved ... Instead of for DTV(and at this point it seems very few, if any full service DTV stations will end up on lo-VHF post-transistion, anyway) I really think it would be(would have) been best to use low-VHF for a "lifeline" OTA analog service, even past analog shut off, either indefinitely, or until all(well, nearly all) analog sets out there were retired or upgraded to DTV "naturally", which could be a very long time ... at which time, ch 2-6 perhaps would be the perfect place to "confine" BPL and unlicensed wireless devices <g> -- also, No Gov't "subsidized" DTV converters needed, and my handheld battery powered NTSC TV would still work when the power goes out for news+weather(storms) info! <g> OK, I'm being selfish there, but ....

I'd even think stations which "shared" the operating costs for the analog lo-VHF stations(which MOST markets have) could also share airtime on the market's "lifeline" analog lo-VHF station(s) ... and besides, perhaps that nice ch 4 antenna on WDKY tower could be put to good use for more than just a few years ..... Just a crazy idea I suppose ... and, Maybe a "Lo-VHF lifeline analog OTA" service wouldn't be "viable" enough to work ...

BenCJedi

04-26-06, 09:18 AM

HDTV4usinky Welcome!

You read too far back in this thread.. :) I USED to live in Lexington up until the end of February where I had all kinds of fun trying to be receptive to WDKY-DT on VHF-4. I lived close to that power substation behind Fayette Mall, so all sorts of weird signals were in the air that were very disruptive. 100% of the time I could flip the switch to the flourescent lights in the kitchen downstairs and cause a glitch/drop-out of my WDKY-DT signal. That cymbal in the attic used to improve the reception where the antenna was mounted. However as I was moving out of my apartment to a new house in Winchester, I had less and less 'things' in the apartment (the antenna stuff was last to leave) and my reception improved as I cleared more out. It improved especially when I took out my drum kit in the room directly below the attic where the antenna was positioned. I got 0-9% signal for WDKY-DT without any line amp using highly shielded RG-6 Coax (Acoustic Research).. heavy coat/shield cable (ordinarily not cheap, but I found a closeout deal). The amp is still a requirement for my new setup at the house. Without it, the signal is just as weak as it was at the apartment, however I am not using any reflectors or a cymbal for a director and the antenna isn't even in the attic. My WDKY-DT signal is up to 69% on one HDTV tuner card in one PC and 92% on the other HDTV tuner card in my other PC. I use PC card HDTV tuners because of the lower cost and ability to timeshift all my local HD content by recording to harddisks (and watch it when I am ready to). The newer HD card I use has a better tuner chip with much better multipath rejection, so that's why it registers a higher signal. Winchester is much less noise-polluted than Lexington is, so that's another reason my signals are stronger and less error-prone now.

The cat theory stands.. it's a definite. With my antenna balanced on the top hutch of my wife's computer desk and not held down with anything, the cat likes to sit in the coil of RG-6 next to the amp on the floor. His cat butt yanked on the antenna cable and pivoted the antenna. I caught him doing it the other day. That's why I lost my WDKY-DT signal a couple weeks ago. :) I need to move the antenna into my attic at the house or keep the cat out of the computer room. :)

I suspect I need the amp because the nature of computer noise. Afterall I am using HDTV PC tuner cards which are sensitive to noise. Without the amp I am lucky to pick up WKYT-DT. the amp brings in everything local.. just works best in my situation.

HDTV4usinky

04-26-06, 10:14 AM

This is my 5th post, I'll be able to mention that wdky56 has a website with my next post :) From what I understand, the website is hosted at Sinclair, and the engineering staff is unable to update it at will.

A side bar here, the engineering staff will not post anything here, they have been quoted out of context in the past, so don't expect to get the "inside scoop" from me. I'll make educated guesses based on info I might have heard, but please don't ever blame Sinlcair, anyone at WDKY, or anyone up in Columbus for the things I post. In pages past, I've seen that I'm not the only one with a direct channel to WDKY, and I feel that the people here with accurate information were very fair with their treatment of the staff at WDKY.

NW, Thanks for posting the photo site, I might be able to dig up some more. I really wanted to show that WDKY has invested the time and money to provide the best signal possible with the low V. Yes, there *might* be talks and plans to move the digital to a UHF in the future, but I'm not at all in the loop on that one. Back to "The Tube", It looks like they picked up equipment from Skylink (the hotel PPV people that went out of business years ago) or something. I bet they will find something with a better compression engine in the future. How about a run on paragraph.... The low V ideas you have are interesting. There are other interesting ideas as well coming from Hazard and other remote areas... There is one thing, well two or three, that I love about the low V. Try to receive anyone but WDKY well over the horizon. We have mountains here! And how about a transmitter that can send a usable signal to Dayton, despite a ch 4 in Columbus, while burning only 15kW of power? Oh, and last, the Harris transmitter just wants to work. No tubes, no glycol, no Di h20, just air for cooling. What if the 8VSB receiver gets it's act together enough to deal with a bit of impulse? Thanks for being here while I wasn't. All of your posts I've read were right on the money. Hopefully time will permit me to be more responsive in the future. I'd also like to thank HDC and WS and anyone else who provided accurate information that helped everyone enjoy the HD broadcast. You know who you are :)

BenC, you're another person that contribuited much info, and you're the first to let everyone know "The Tube" was out there, and you're also the person that brought this forum to my attention in a round about way. Thanks! Oh don't take anything I say personally, when I lived in a Lexington apartment, I had wires tied to my plants to improve reception....

Back to work, I'll try to get a few more photos online.

sgthavoc

04-26-06, 09:23 PM

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I don't know the answer. I know that you can use a diplexer to combine a satelite and OTA over on cable, but can you do any to combin Cable and OTA?

thanks!!

Nitewatchman

04-27-06, 12:09 AM

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I don't know the answer. I know that you can use a diplexer to combine a satelite and OTA over on cable, but can you do any to combin Cable and OTA?

thanks!!

No, as Cable+OTA use many of the same frequencies ... Well, probably not unless perhaps you spend $1,000's and set up a elaborate Master antenna system or cable head end ;)

You're in luck though, you don't have to just take my word on this, as there is an excellent thread on this currently in hardware area at this URL :

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=663889

Nitewatchman

04-27-06, 12:27 AM

And how about a transmitter that can send a usable signal to Dayton, despite a ch 4 in Columbus, while burning only 15kW of power? .

Some screenshots you might enjoy taken with digital camera attached to this post below ...

VHF antenna used with these screenshots - Winegard PR5030 at 30FT(nothing special) -

Description of attached pics :

Top Left Pic - WDKY-DT 4 at 23:46 EDT this evening. 118 Miles. Solid reception currently, No dropouts --- Antenna aiming : Azimuth :188 degrees Note: Azimuth indicator calibarted to North Star - Actual true bearing to WDKY-DT - 178 degrees -- sorry, I was being too lazy to reorient antenna for "exact" aiming, as I had it at 188 degrees, the normal heading I use for cincinnati locals -- signal quality meter would probably jump a bit if I'd used the Actual true bearing to WDKY-DT : 178 degrees.

Top Right Pic : Local ad airing on WCMH 4 Columbus at approx 11:47PM EDT this evening - 78 Miles - antenna aiming : Azimuth 70 Degrees (the true bearing to WCMH).

Right Bottom Pic : Tonight show on WCMH 4 this evning at around 11:49PM EDT ....

Left Bottom Pic (just because I had some room in the "frame" figured I ought to fill it with something, LOL) : WWL 4, New Orleans, LA - 740 Miles, Azimuth 207 degrees --- as received here via Sporadic E propagation during their Hurricane Katrina Coverage in September 2005.

BenCJedi

04-27-06, 12:50 AM

I still think American Idol is one of the best-looking HD programs on all of network TV.

Awesome FOX! And I just noticed today that the audio is 448kbps @ 48Khz, Fantastic!

Gotta love how the quality is so good you can see the pixels of the large screen behind the performances

bitmap example (http://s55.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3JGM5SQFXQVPX0MQRRM1XEVZRN)

NashDigie

04-27-06, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by Nitewatchman
VHF antenna used with these screenshots - Winegard PR5030 at 30FT(nothing special) -

I was just wondering what receiver did you use to get the WDKY-DT's screenshot? Is it a STB or an integrated tuner in your tv? If it is a STB, what brand is it? I was just curious.

NashDigie signing off.

Nitewatchman

04-27-06, 08:52 PM

Nashdigge,

It was a STB - A Zenith HDV420(~4th generation Zenith/LG).

If I would have been thinking, I would have used the internal ATSC receiver in another set here(Sony KD34XBR960) for the screenshot, as it has a little better signal info on it .... well sort of ... Don't know how much I really trust its SNR reading as far as "accuracy" goes, but generally lower AGC readings on it do mean stronger signal ... I've found Adding extra attenuation in feedline can often give me a much better idea of how "strong" signals actually are ...

HDTV4usinky

05-01-06, 10:58 AM

Has anyone called WDKY to ask if they will air the Monday's NASCAR race in HD?

Nitewatchman

05-01-06, 12:18 PM

Can't pull in WDKY-DT currently, but, FWIW, WRGT-DT Dayton currently(12pm EDT Mon) has the rescheduled NASCAR race up in HD, it's a rare treat for me to see any HD (other than PBS from WCET-DT) during lunchtime .... WXIX-DT Fox Cincy has up their reg scheduled programming ... Same thing happened the last monday race ....

HDTV4usinky

05-01-06, 02:12 PM

It looks like someone at WDKY switched the HD broadcast to the race. Maybe the engineers are testing something?

adampad

05-02-06, 05:40 PM

spikor

05-02-06, 09:59 PM

Where in Lexington can a Person go to buy a Channel master TV Antenna ?

BenCJedi

05-03-06, 12:00 PM

Where in Lexington can a Person go to buy a Channel master TV Antenna ?

Lowes on Nicholasville Rd by Wal-Mart has them, I believe

HDTV4usinky

05-04-06, 02:53 PM

Hey guys, I am new here and have a couple of questions. I live in Richmond and im wondering if I get a HD tuner if I could pick up the big 4 networks in HD? Since my TV is a little old I would like to know before I run out and buy a tuner box. Is there anything else I need? I feel like im over paying for HD with Adelphia cable here.

You shouldn't have much trouble receiving ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and KET from Richmond. WDKY and WKYT are on VHF channels, the rest are UHF. You should plan on using a good outdoor UHF/VHF antenna. On the plus side, all the channels are due north of Richmond, so you can point on one direction to pick up the "big 4." KET and WDKY are off I-75 at exit 97, everyone else is near MOW and Winchester Rd. HD is beautiful, and oh so free OTA.

hdinlexky2

05-10-06, 08:09 PM

Uh-oh LOST comes on in less than an hour and no signal from WTVQ-D. Hmm, life can be so cruel!

hdinlexky2

05-10-06, 08:31 PM

Uh-oh LOST comes on in less than an hour and no signal from WTVQ-D. Hmm, life can be so cruel!

I just called the station, the engineers are debugging the problem now, they don't know when they will be back on the air! I told them to try to fix it by 9PM so I can watch LOST then INVASION. i got my Tivo setup on on 36 on directv, but SD isn't the same. I also have a QAM cable tuner on they are off the air for HD cable as well. Bummer!

hdinlexky2

05-10-06, 08:42 PM

BenCJedi

05-10-06, 09:09 PM

I just called the station, the engineers are debugging the problem now, they don't know when they will be back on the air! I told them to try to fix it by 9PM so I can watch LOST then INVASION. i got my Tivo setup on on 36 on directv, but SD isn't the same. I also have a QAM cable tuner on they are off the air for HD cable as well. Bummer!

Luckily there are online resources for the HD transport streams when the local stations fail to deliver. *wink wink* :)
Also ABC offers their shows on their website after they air. The quality isn't half bad. It'd not HD or anything, but nice to have an official backup if all else fails.

Glad WTVQ-DT is back up.. I prefer to watch LOST live as well, even though I can timeshift it.

Gruber22

05-11-06, 04:13 PM

Can anyone comment on this link from the Chicago thread and how it relates to WDKY:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7614470&&#post7614470

They mention that round 2 for channel designations is complete and round 3 will soon begin. It has 2 fcc document links and neither one mention WDKY at all.

I know WDKY tried a while back to get a different channel (22 maybe?) but was denied. Are they still trying to get a different channel or have they decided to just stick with channel 4?

hdinlexky2

05-11-06, 05:47 PM

Luckily there are online resources for the HD transport streams when the local stations fail to deliver. *wink wink* :)
Also ABC offers their shows on their website after they air. The quality isn't half bad. It'd not HD or anything, but nice to have an official backup if all else fails.

Glad WTVQ-DT is back up.. I prefer to watch LOST live as well, even though I can timeshift it.

Hmm

What kind of online resources for HD transport streams are out there?? This sounds interesting!

hdinlexky2

05-11-06, 05:56 PM

Hmm

What kind of online resources for HD transport streams are out there?? This sounds interesting!

My LOST episodes run close to 7 GB, this would take me a while to download, even with a cable modem. Assuming a good connection 200 Kbyte / sec this would still take a day to download! But where??

NashDigie

05-11-06, 09:51 PM

I know WDKY tried a while back to get a different channel (22 maybe?) but was denied. Are they still trying to get a different channel or have they decided to just stick with channel 4?

WDKY is going to stick with channel 4 as their digital channel. If you can understand it, I am giving a link below to where I found out about it.

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/. . . (http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1039919&Service=TV&Form_id=382&Facility_id=64017)

NashDigie signing off.

BenCJedi

05-11-06, 09:52 PM

My LOST episodes run close to 7 GB, this would take me a while to download, even with a cable modem. Assuming a good connection 200 Kbyte / sec this would still take a day to download! But where??

Actually after you strip the null packets and remove the commercials an hour episode of Lost (for instance) is usually 4.3GB. That's how they show up online too. That's a perfect fit for a single layer DVDR. :)
The last few weeks though the episodes have been running 4.45GB so a DVDR and a CDR for one episode!
FOX hour-long shows on the other hand are normally always under 3GB, so they fit on a single layer DVDR every time (except American Idol.. FOX kicks up the bitrates for it). I usually record the transport streams OTA, edit them real quick with the HDTVtoMpeg2 app and then burn them to a DVDR along with an xvid AVI of the same episode (if it fits on the disc). This way I can either play the disc on my home theater PC to the HDTV or play the same disc on my mpeg-4 compatible DVD player on the small TV in the bedroom (Philips DVP642 is the DVD player model). I wonder if that Toshiba HD-DVD player that just came out will be able to play a DVDR with just transport stream files burnt on the disc. I'll have to do some research.

As far as the online resource I won't say more than you need to subscribe to a third party newsgroup service, such as usenetserver, which runs $15/month. I can usually queue up a download before bed and have it 100% all downloaded by when I get up in the morning on my cable broadband connection. I only use this as a last resort if I fail to have a good capture myself though.

Nitewatchman

05-11-06, 10:07 PM

WDKY is going to stick with channel 4 as their digital channel. If you can understand it, I am giving a link below to where I found out about it.

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/. . . (http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1039919&Service=TV&Form_id=382&Facility_id=64017)

NashDigie signing off.

That's their first round channel election, where they did indeed choose channel 4 They may(emphacize may as I do not know) have participated in 1st round only "out of an abundance of caution" or some such similar reason since their analog channel assignment is "out of core"(ch 2-51 are the channels to be used for DTV after analog shut off), channel 4 was really pretty much their only choice in first round.

However, The channel election rules do allow a station with only in-core lo-VHF channel assignments, or a station with only one in-core VHF-LO channel assignment(such as is the case with WDKY since 56 is out of core) the oppurtunity to select another suitable channel in the third round of elections, or have the FCC designate a suitable other channel for them.

We should find out soon enough, as FCC recently issued a public notice concerning the third round of elections. It's available for download under the 5/5/06 date here:

http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/

The public notice said stations participating in 3rd round should have their election forms filed with FCC by 5/26/06. There's allways the possibility this deadline could be pushed back.

For the channel election rules+procedures(including the rules I mentioned allowing the stations with lo-vhf allocations/etc), they are detailed in the FCC report and order for their 2nd periodic DTV review, available for download as listed under the 9/7/04 date at the same link above.

HDTV4usinky

05-12-06, 09:20 AM

I would be really surprised if WDKY doesn't end up with a digital UHF. They have a panel UHF antenna that can be "re-tuned" and they have a brand new ESCIOT equipped transmitter pushing the analog. Rumor has it that they sized the generator and transmitter building for a second UHF transmitter if needed. Now if the FCC would let them use the low-v to fill in the "hollers"......

lcosby

05-18-06, 09:33 PM

Gruber22

05-19-06, 11:21 AM

Rumor has it from satguys that Dish Network may add Lexington HD LIL with a new 118.7 sat location. Would require new dish hardware. This COULD be great news for those having fits with FOX56 (and don't have an HD cable option) if true.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=66310

HDTVChallenged

05-19-06, 12:23 PM

There analog channel 56 is "out of core". They have to stay on ch 4.

As stated above, they can participate in round 3 of the selection process and there will be UHF frequencies aplenty once KET (and others) start shutting down their analog transmitters. The real question is will Sinclair consider it worth the cost to "upgrade" yet again ...

PS: For those watching the FCC public access site: There is very often a significant delay between the time a station files a document (applications et al) and the time it appears on/in the website/datatbase.

Nitewatchman

05-19-06, 01:06 PM

Yes, There are 4 filings showing up in FCC CDBS for Round three elections, currently.

There analog channel 56 is "out of core". They have to stay on ch 4.

Follows are some details on channel election+the third round possibilities for WDKY to change their channel 4 election(if they so wish) which you might want to read concerning the info HDC mentioned, and that I also mentioned in my last post.

These rules are described in FCC's "Second Periodic Review of the
Commission's Rules and Policies Affecting the Conversion
To Digital Television", available here in PDF format :

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-192A1.pdf

And here in Word Doc format :

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-192A1.doc

You'll really want probably want to read through at least all of Section IV A. "Channel election(paragraphs 22~71), but here is paragraph 51 for convieninece :

:

51. Later opportunity to change elections of low VHF channels and channels subject to international coordination. Licensees electing, and receiving a tentative channel designation for, a low VHF channel or a channel subject to a pending international coordination issue will be permitted to seek an alternate tentative channel designation in the third round of elections. See discussion in section IV.A.1.f., infra.

From section IV.A.1.f., paragraph #63:

63. In this third round, we will also permit licensees with a low VHF channel or a channel subject to international coordination issues to seek an alternate tentative channel designation. Specifically, to the extent a preferred channel is available in this final election round, we will allow such licensees to elect a different channel for their final DTV operations, notwithstanding that they have an elected and "locked in" channel. These licensees may also request that the Commission determine a "best available" channel for them at full replication facilities. No other licensees with an elected (and "locked in") channel will be permitted to participate in this third and final round of elections.

As noted above, WDKY-DT participated in First round of elections, and chose channel 4(Generally speaking, it pretty much their only choice for first round). As I also mentioned in earlier post, as the above info from channel election rules allows for stations with tentative lo-VHF channel designation from 1st round(as is the case with WDKY-DT, they are on "4" listed FCC's first round tentative channel designation list), If they want, they can also particpate in 3rd Round of elections, and change to another channel as is mentioned in the rules above.

We should soon find out if WDKY is going to particpate in 3rd round(and try to get something other than 4), as I also believe I mentioned in an earlier post, the 3rd Round of Channel Elections are currently underway -- FCC's most recent public notice on the third round ( available here in PDF format : http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-991A1.pdf ) sets a deadline of 5/26/06 for stations to have their 3rd round election forms filed with FCC. Such deadlines have been known to be pushed back at times, for various reasons.

PD50U

05-24-06, 09:43 PM

My Panny with builtin QAM tuner occasionally "forgets" an HD channel; strangely, when it happens it's only one HD channel and not the others. Up until now, doing a ReScan brings all channels back.

Tonight, it happened with WDKY Fox (56-1) between 8:30-9:00PM. However, several ReScans did not bring it back.

Can anyone confirm that the Fox HD stations is/was online at this time? (and therefore possibly an issue with my set).

Thanks.

HDTV4usinky

05-25-06, 08:22 AM

I watched Idol in analog last night. Anyone catch it in HD? Rumor has it that the 8:00 hour repeated at 9:00. I'd like to hit my friends at WDKY with this info if it's correct.

Nitewatchman

05-25-06, 11:10 AM

Tonight, it happened with WDKY Fox (56-1) between 8:30-9:00PM. However, several ReScans did not bring it back.

I noticed last night around the same time that WDKY-DT was remapping to 27.5 rather than 56.1 when I punching in "4" on my receiver(this particular receiver allows "direct access" to a RF channel and immediately checks VCT info from the station whenever you "tune" to a new channel). At the time, I wasn't getting much more than just enough signal at times for a "PSIP lock" from WDKY-DT and decoding a frame of video every now and then, partly likely because of interference from "E-Skip" occuring at the time. A little earlier in the evening, WDKY-DT was remapping just fine "solely" to 56.1.

WRGT-DT, Fox Dayton has been remapping to either PSIP virtual channel 27.5 or 45.1 for a couple of weeks now, I can decode them perfectly on either channel. If this makes any sense, I also noticed last night that 27.5 "worked" somewhat for WXIX-DT, Fox Cincinnati as well(although I had to "punch in" 27.5 manually to get to it after tuning to WXIX-DT, otherwise they were "Remapping" from RF 29 to PSIP VC 19.x just fine .....

27.5 is labeled "East" in PSIP EIT or ETT, so I suspect a Fox/splicer related PSIP issue may be involved, here.

Can anyone confirm that the Fox HD stations is/was online at this time? (and therefore possibly an issue with my set).

I watched Idol in analog last night. Anyone catch it in HD? Rumor has it that the 8:00 hour repeated at 9:00. I'd like to hit my friends at WDKY with this info if it's correct.

I was getting AI just fine in HD last night from WXIX-DT Cincy/WRGT-DT Dayton, I think WDKY-DT had it up as well, but wasn't paying much attention, and I was generally decoding frames of Video after 8pm during commercial breaks, unfortunetly.

I have contacted WRGT folks in the past when this "27.5" thing has occured(it's occured several times over the past several months) - They keep "fixing it", but it keeps coming back, allways beginning at some point during times when the splicer is "active" with Fox programming .....

Hope some of the above helps ...

PD50U

05-25-06, 09:13 PM

I noticed last night around the same time that WDKY-DT was remapping to 27.5 rather than 56.1

27.5 is labeled "East" in PSIP EIT or ETT, so I suspect a Fox/splicer related PSIP issue may be involved, here.

Hope some of the above helps ...

Bingo, yes it did. :) WDKY-HD is now mapped to 27.5 with label East, just as you indicate. If I understand you correctly, this was not an "intended" change? I assume not,because it was not exactly great timing, although I personally am not a big AI fan.

But, it's great to know it's not my set! :p

I watched Idol in analog last night. Anyone catch it in HD? Rumor has it that the 8:00 hour repeated at 9:00. I'd like to hit my friends at WDKY with this info if it's correct.

We watched the first half-hour until they re-mapped the channel and I didn't notice that it had reappeared at 27.5. And to think my senior citizen M-I-law wants an HD set. I'm going to love explaining these kind of oddities. :confused: Tell your friends at WDKY we were not amused. :eek: :mad: [edit: NWMan indicates more likely a problem at the network level].

Nitewatchman

05-25-06, 09:18 PM

If I understand you correctly, this not an "intended" change?

I think it's safe to say "definitely not" .... It must have happened elsewhere as well, as I sorted through several other local threads in other areas today with the same scattered reports of "27.5" appearing from their local Fox affiliate.

BTW, 27.6 has also been "added" to WRGT-DT Dayton, I think it's from the "mountain time zone" mixup last night ... In their case, I can see the same programming service on 27.5, 27.6, or 45.1(the latter being where it should be) virtual channels ....

Just speculating(WAG), but I have a feeling at this point this is probably more of a Fox network problem than it is a local affiliate issue ....

HDTVChallenged

05-26-06, 11:55 AM

Wow ... Looks like I missed a lot of drama by ignoring AI this year :D

Nitewatchman

05-28-06, 10:51 AM

Just checked this morning, and noticed WDKY-DT's 720p Service is currently remapping via PSIP to :

27.5, 27.6 and 56.1 - Take your pick. Just like WRGT-DT Dayton, except the 56.1 is "45.1" in their case ....

"The Tube" is still there on 56.2.

Interestingly enough, as I've sometimes seen in other such "circumstances" -- with both "4"(for WDKY-DT) and "30"(for WRGT-DT) selected in this receiver's "channel edit list"(which goes by RF channel #'s, but channels "found" by autoscan or that I "select" manually show up while "channel surfing" via their PSIP remapped channel #'s as long as the PSIP stream can be decoded from a station on that RF channel), I get TWO 27.5's and TWO 27.6's that show up while "channel surfing, one each from WDKY-DT+WRGT-DT ....

HDTVChallenged

05-28-06, 07:23 PM

Nitewatchman

05-30-06, 09:14 PM

Yep I see the same thing, although it doesn't seem to bother either of my receivers.

I don't have any problems decoding, either.

However, I don't need 3 virtual channels for the same service from one station. On one receiver, I have no way to remove 27.5+27.6 from the "channel surf list" selectively without removing 56.1+56.2 as well. I can however deselect "4" from the "channel edit list" and tune to 4.3(Fox/720p) or 4.4(The Tube) "manually"(w/o use of PSIP), Which is something I'd also have to do in order to be able to directly/manually tune to any ATSC signal transmitting on 27.

Would imagine it could also be confusing for some folks, especially when there is another station that remaps to 27.x in a market .....

Haven't checked WDKY-DT for any EPG info from PSIP EIT's, but, on WRGT-DT, last I checked not getting any guide info from them while their "27.x" issue has been occuring -- which, from them has been about 3 weeks+ now during this most recent occurance ...

Also, I wonder if the "new" neilsen ratings boxes that measure DTV viewers work "properly" for measuring viewers of any stations which are having this current "problem" ?

In other words, I'd think they will need to get this "fixed", sooner or later .... ;)

slash007

05-31-06, 12:00 AM

I just bought a sony sxrd and I am unable to pick up the local (lexington) digital hd channels using the built in qam tuner (through the cable line and not an antenna) like I expected. Does anyone here own an sxrd and gets the tuner to pick up the digital hd channels? I have no problem tuning them in through cable using a hitachi crt that I have. This is really frustrating me and any help would be greatly appreciated before I return the tv. Thanks:)

NashDigie

05-31-06, 11:20 AM

I don't have any problems decoding, either.

However, I don't need 3 virtual channels for the same service from one station.

Also, I wonder if the "new" neilsen ratings boxes that measure DTV viewers work "properly" for measuring viewers of any stations which are having this current "problem" ?

In other words, I'd think they will need to get this "fixed", sooner or later .... ;)

I live in the Middle TN area. I am experiencing the same thing with my Fox affiliate(WZTV-Nashville,TN), but I have noticed something. I have noticed that on 27.5 in the PSIP it has "East" and 27.6 has "Mntn" (I'm guessing "Mountain"). What I think is that they are going to be putting a Fox feed whether it will be an affiliate feed or a straight-from-Fox feed on those channels. So, I don't think it is a problem. That is my opinion and I am not for sure about that. I will e-mail my Fox affiliate today. I will post the response to let you know what they say about it.

NashDigie signing off.

HDTVChallenged

05-31-06, 11:27 AM

Would imagine it could also be confusing for some folks, especially when there is another station that remaps to 27.x in a market .....

LOL ... you mean like WKYT-DT (27.1,27.2 and 27.3)? I guess it's a good thing they're at .5 and .6 or there'd be big trouble. ;)

In unrelated news, the tropo has been bouncing off the walls for the past three days. Logging stations from Cincy, Dayton and Indy ... my channel list is getting pretty full. ... And I finally saw a couple of frames of WB-HD (WSTR) last night ... it does exist, it really does :)

I've noticed that neither WXIX nor WDRB are having the 27.x issue, so I'm thinking it's more of a Sinclair issue than FOX. Although, I suppose some glitch in network feed could have triggered the problem.

HDTVChallenged

05-31-06, 12:54 PM

Well ... it's D-Day + 6 and still no sign of a round three election from WDKY. It's not looking very good for those of us suffering from the low-VHF blues.

BenCJedi

05-31-06, 01:22 PM

Low band UHF requires less power to broadcast, right? With power costs increasing, wouldn't it make more sense for WDKY-DT to stick with channel 4? They can continue to run their transmitter with the low power requirement. Or is advertising revenue finscally viable to sustain power consumption for transmission at higher frequencies? I imagine it was not cheap for WDKY to build the new tower. Would they have the opportunity to change to UHF after a few years? Perhaps they want to recoup some of the cost for the tower before purchasing/upgrading whatever to allow UHF transmission.

That stinks for those of us receiivng FOX-DTV/HD OTA. Last Thursday when we had that big thunderstorm everyt ime lightening flashed somewhere in KY my signal glitched. My transport stream from 'So You Think You Can Dance' last week is butchered beyond belief. There is plenty of dropped audio and digital artifacting every few seconds to make rewatching not enjoyable.

Nitewatchman

05-31-06, 05:40 PM

I've noticed that neither WXIX nor WDRB are having the 27.x issue, so I'm thinking it's more of a Sinclair issue than FOX. Although, I suppose some glitch in network feed could have triggered the problem.

27.5 East/27.6 MNTN was occuring from WXIX-DT Last Wednesday evening ---although a tad bit differently than the way it was/is happening on WDKY-DT/WRGT-DT, I expect perhaps due to possible differences in their PSIP setup --- In any event, last wed night one could decode WXIX-DT by tuning to 27.5/27.6 as well, but it was fixed from WXIX-DT by Thursday.

This is either the 3rd or 4th time this has occured from WRGT-DT the past several months, usually(except this last occurance now into it's 3rd week or so) they've "fixed it"(gotten rid of 27.5, this is the first time 27.6 has also "appeared") within a week or so, and the first couple of times I contacted them about it .... It's allways popped up "sometime" from WRGT-DT during Fox Programming for each occurance, just as was the case when, for the first time I've ever noticed, it also effected other stations as well(last week during A.I) ....

I was just "speculating" that the issue may be "fox related" since last Wednsday night, it was effecting all 4 Fox affiliates I was receiving at the time (WXIX-DT, WRGT-DT, WDKY-DT and WTTE-DT Columbus -- Of course, all three of the latter are Sinclair operated Fox affiliates) ..... Seems as if I had read somewhere(It's been so long ago however I don't remember much of it - so don't quote me on this -- I think one of the Fox affiliate engineers which post on AVS said something about it) that the "Fox splicer" does "send" some sort of PSIP info, which is "replaced" by the local PSIP stream, "sort of"(but the "other way around" I suppose) like the MPEG2 video/AC-3 audio stream is "spliced in" at the affiliate, and bypasses the "local" encoder during Fox programming, in effect replacing(sort of) the local stream .....

In unrelated news, the tropo has been bouncing off the walls for the past three days. Logging stations from Cincy, Dayton and Indy ... my channel list is getting pretty full. ... And I finally saw a couple of frames of WB-HD (WSTR) last night ... it does exist, it really does

Yep, I was seeing some of the Louisville+Lexington DT's(besides WDKY-DT, which I don't necessarily consider a "tropo" reception, as it's there at times when it isn't evident that "tropo" is there "elesewhere" if that makes any sense, LOL) last night around 11pm, Including WKYT-DT.

On the receiver I use most often for "DX" -- It will just create "multiple" entries when several stations remap to the same PSIP major channel, or major/minor channel # for that matter. For instance, one time I received The Nashville Station that remaps to 2.1, and I was also receiving Local Dayton station that remaps to 2.1 off the "back" of antenna. I just had TWO 2.1's I could "surf" to with channel up/down button -- One of them being Dayton station, the other being Nashville. Same thing with multiple 27.5/27.6's for WRGT-DT/WDKY-DT/etc. Other receiver's of course may not necessarily work so "kindly" ....

I believe WSTR-DT went to full power about 2~3 months ago or so -- we talked about it at the time in Cincy thread ... They're going to be "My Network TV" affiliate next Fall, In Cincy, WKRC-DT(CBS HD) is going to run CW(SD) on a SD subchannel ... Dayton WB HD affiliate WBDT-DT is going to be CW Affiliate however(I assume with HD, since they have WB HD currently) ...

What I think is that they are going to be putting a Fox feed whether it will be an affiliate feed or a straight-from-Fox feed on those channels. So, I don't think it is a problem. That is my opinion and I am not for sure about that.

Let us know what you find out from ZTV. I'd think they would need to use major channel numbers above 69 for that sort of thing. Such as was the case at one time at least, some PBS stations(not in this area) were doing that with PBS HD feed on (I think, If I recall correctly) on 80.x.

However, I believe it is a problem, as other stations also use PSIP Major Channel Number 27.

I'm also not so sure it's really "allowed"(for a major channel # in channel 2~69 to be used for that)anymore from a "full service" broadcast station, as Per FCC rules which went into effect a bit over a year ago or so, Stations must fully support PSIP A/65B standard(including sending "fully populated" EIT tables with EPG info out at least 12 hours ahead), and stations must also "remap" to their current analog channel allocation for the major channel number, even, oddly enough after analog shut off occurs ....

slash007

05-31-06, 11:44 PM

HDTVChallenged

05-31-06, 11:55 PM

I was just "speculating" that the issue may be "fox related" since last Wednsday night, it was effecting all 4 Fox affiliates I was receiving at the time (WXIX-DT, WRGT-DT, WDKY-DT and WTTE-DT Columbus -- Of course, all three of the latter are Sinclair operated Fox affiliates) .....

Yeah I guess it could have been happening without my notice, since my receivers primarily use D*'s guide maps.

Yep, I was seeing some of the Louisville+Lexington DT's(besides WDKY-DT, which I don't necessarily consider a "tropo" reception, as it's there at times when it isn't evident that "tropo" is there "elesewhere" if that makes any sense, LOL) last night around 11pm, Including WKYT-DT.

Most likely just a strong regional evening temperature inversion (ducting) ... The funny part is all the stations from the Cincy/Dayton direction are coming in off the attic mount antenna.

They're going to be "My Network TV" affiliate next Fall, In Cincy, WKRC-DT(CBS HD) is going to run CW(SD) on a SD subchannel ... Dayton WB HD affiliate WBDT-DT is going to be CW Affiliate however(I assume with HD, since they have WB HD currently) ...

Yeah, it looks like WKYT will carry CW on the current 27.2 in glorious SD. Hopefully WBKI will come through with an HD upgrade along with their power up. WBKI's current DT setup is pretty bizzare ... windowboxed 4:3 in a 480i channel (aka postage-stamped)

HDTVChallenged

06-01-06, 12:00 AM

Perhaps they want to recoup some of the cost for the tower before purchasing/upgrading whatever to allow UHF transmission. .

I could be wrong but I think it was established earlier that their current analog transmitter could be retrofitted for digital so the only other major item would be a new UHF antenna tuned to whatever frequency they wound up on.

OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if they just let cable/satellite "fix" the problem for them, given the (reported) 95% penetration rate in the market.

cpcat

06-01-06, 07:13 AM

Anybody? There has to be someone on this thread that has an sxrd. Thanks in advance:)

It obviously sounds like an issue with the SXRD as you had no problem before. Have you tried the SXRD owner's thread?

slash007

06-01-06, 12:02 PM

It obviously sounds like an issue with the SXRD as you had no problem before. Have you tried the SXRD owner's thread?

I have tried the owners thread and I have called sony 4 times and they can't figure it out and say that it must be something with the cable itself. I have tried 2 diff. sxrd's so I don't think that the tv is the problem, but I get the local hd channels using the same cable line on a diff. tv, so that can't be the problem either, so I just don't know what to do. That's why I was wondering if anyone here in Lex has the sxrd and gets the qam tuner to pick up the local hd's so that I can try a 3rd tv if need be. It is a hassle to just exchange tv's, so I would like some confirmation first.

If anyone here has an sxrd and gets the local hd's through the cable input, please let me know. Thanks.

cpcat

06-01-06, 12:34 PM

You might consider an outboard QAM tuner like the LG 3510a. It also has a decent upconverting DVD player to boot.

goldrich

06-01-06, 01:23 PM

I have tried the owners thread and I have called sony 4 times and they can't figure it out and say that it must be something with the cable itself. I have tried 2 diff. sxrd's so I don't think that the tv is the problem, but I get the local hd channels using the same cable line on a diff. tv, so that can't be the problem either, so I just don't know what to do. That's why I was wondering if anyone here in Lex has the sxrd and gets the qam tuner to pick up the local hd's so that I can try a 3rd tv if need be. It is a hassle to just exchange tv's, so I would like some confirmation first.

If anyone here has an sxrd and gets the local hd's through the cable input, please let me know. Thanks.

I own the Sony SXRD in Indy, but I've never tried that kind of connection with my cable. I'm using a digital tuner/PVR unit from the cable company (Bright House). I have tried receiving my local HD channels via QAM with the LG 3100A STB with fair results. My experience is that the stations tend to drop out and then I have to perform another channel scan. They don't seem to stay locked in.

Steve

slash007

06-01-06, 02:19 PM

I own the Sony SXRD in Indy, but I've never tried that kind of connection with my cable. I'm using a digital tuner/PVR unit from the cable company (Bright House). I have tried receiving my local HD channels via QAM with the LG 3100A STB with fair results. My experience is that the stations tend to drop out and then I have to perform another channel scan. They don't seem to stay locked in.

Steve

Using my hitachi crt, I can pick them up with a strong signal and they rarely drop out. I have only had to rescan to pick one up again once in the past year. I could try the LG, but I would hate to have to add another box when I should be getting the channels using the tv qam tuner. I have heard feedback from people in other states saying that they do get the local hd channels through the sxrd qam tuner, but nobody in lexington has spoken up. If I can find someone here that does receive them using the sxrd, I will exchange the tv again. Thanks.

Nitewatchman

06-01-06, 08:46 PM

Looks like the 27.5/27.6 PSIP issue is currently "fixed" for WDKY-DT +WTTE-DT 36 -- I'm just getting 56.1/56.2 from WDKY-DT, and 28.1/28.2 From WTTE-DT .... 27.5/27.7 is however currently still there on WRGT-DT Dayton ...

Update Sat 6/3 7pm - WRGT-DT PSIP VCT back to "normal" now as well .. No 27.5/27.6, just 45.1 ....

NashDigie

06-03-06, 01:57 AM

Looks like the 27.5/27.6 PSIP issue is currently "fixed" for WDKY-DT +WTTE-DT 36 -- I'm just getting 56.1/56.2 from WDKY-DT, and 28.1/28.2 From WTTE-DT .... 27.5/27.7 is however currently still there on WRGT-DT Dayton ...

I haven't gotten an e-mail back from my Fox affiliate(WZTV in Nashville), but I have noticed that 27.5 & 27.6 is gone for right now. Any more updates, I will let you know.

NashDigie signing off.

HDTV4usinky

06-06-06, 10:39 AM

Rumor has it that the 27.5/27.6 issue was splicer related. Grass Valley has promised a software upgrade to solve the problem, but for now they are only passing local PSIP 24/7 (thats 24 hours 7 days, not 24.7 lol) It was confusing to see 27.5 here in Lexington, as there is a 27.1,2 & 3.

An unrelated issue, anyone out there with DirecTV, please call WDKY at their engineering number, which BenCJedi posted earlier as 859-967-1629 and let them know when their Local into Local is flaking out on them. It looks like nobody at WDKY watches DirecTV

HDTVChallenged

06-06-06, 11:55 AM

An unrelated issue, anyone out there with DirecTV, ....

I think they fixed the WDKY LiL problem sometime last night.

slash007

06-07-06, 02:54 PM

Using my hitachi crt, I can pick them up with a strong signal and they rarely drop out. I have only had to rescan to pick one up again once in the past year. I could try the LG, but I would hate to have to add another box when I should be getting the channels using the tv qam tuner. I have heard feedback from people in other states saying that they do get the local hd channels through the sxrd qam tuner, but nobody in lexington has spoken up. If I can find someone here that does receive them using the sxrd, I will exchange the tv again. Thanks.

Does anyone here receive the local hd channels through the qam tuner (using cable) on channels other then 18-1,27-1,36-1,46-1,56-1? What I mean, are the local hd channels always on those channels or is it possible for a tv to remap them to different channels? Thanks.

HDTVChallenged

06-07-06, 06:39 PM

slash007

06-08-06, 12:53 AM

I don't have any experience with QAM or Insight, but the "normal" channel mapping for the local digital broadcast channels is three digit number (no dashes) up in the 700's on Insight's STBs. And I do believe it is possible for the channels to show up in odd places on a QAM capable set ... For what little it worth.

I get the feeling that you're the beta tester, Slash.

Just to update, I rechecked the higher digital channels and found nbc hd on 80.1. I then checked the rest very thoroughly and didn't find any of the other local hd channels. I will run the main cable line directly to the tv and recheck to make sure that I have the best signal possible. Anyhow, does nbc hd in lex have more power than the other hd towers? I am wondering why nbc showed up while none of the others did.

HDTVChallenged

06-08-06, 11:06 AM

Anyhow, does nbc hd in lex have more power than the other hd towers? I am wondering why nbc showed up while none of the others did.

Depends on how you look at it. :) WLEX does have the most power output of the UHF stations (475kW), but I'd bet that WDKY's 26.5kW xmitter on ch4 reaches farther.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with your problem. It sounds like you definately have Insight-QAM vs. SXRD compatibility issues. I've seen scattered reports of these types of problems in various threads. It's not limited to SXRD's, it's more of a QAM thing .... That pretty much wraps-up my knowledge of the subject ... good luck :)

PS: You could always go OTA (and get all the subchannels in the process.)

slash007

06-08-06, 11:25 AM

Depends on how you look at it. :) WLEX does have the most power output of the UHF stations (475kW), but I'd bet that WDKY's 26.5kW xmitter on ch4 reaches farther.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with your problem. It sounds like you definately have Insight-QAM vs. SXRD compatibility issues. I've seen scattered reports of these types of problems in various threads. It's not limited to SXRD's, it's more of a QAM thing .... That pretty much wraps-up my knowledge of the subject ... good luck :)

PS: You could always go OTA (and get all the subchannels in the process.)

Thanks:) Btw, I would go ota, but even with a roof mounted antenna I struggle to get a decent signal. Therefore the obsession with qam hd.

slash007

06-10-06, 01:01 PM

One final update, I FINALLY got all of my local hd channels on my sxrd!!!! After doing one last scan for digital channels, I was browsing through the channels that it found and realize that the previous hd channel that it had found 80.1, wasn't in there anymore. I then directly tuned to it and it came in fine. That gave me the idea that maybe the sxrd wasn't finding the local hd's during the scan but that if I could find the channel #'s that I could directly tune to them. Anyhow, I started with 81.1 and added .1 to every channel thereafter and found ALL of the local hd channels. Funny thing is, once I tuned them in directly, they were save in the channel guide and it even found all of the subchannels of the stations automatically, ie. 81.3,81.5 and so on. Needless to say, I am very excited and can't wait to watch the finals in HD tonigh on ABC. Thanks to all who replied and offered suggestions

Nitewatchman

06-10-06, 11:19 PM

Rumor has it that the 27.5/27.6 issue was splicer related. Grass Valley has promised a software upgrade to solve the problem, but for now they are only passing local PSIP 24/7 (thats 24 hours 7 days, not 24.7 lol).

Just wanted to say thanks for passing that along.

--------------------------------

On another note, hope too many folks aren't having problems receiving WDKY-DT during the Sporadic E propagation(e-skip "DX") openings as of late, especially as these distant signals via "e-skip" can be very strong at times, and can often effect channel 4 .... Of course, today+this evening has been quite fun for those of us who enjoy "dx'ing".

HDTVChallenged

06-11-06, 09:49 AM

On another note, hope too many folks aren't having problems receiving WDKY-DT during the Sporadic E propagation(e-skip "DX") openings as of late,

No more than usual, it's been trashing my Louisville reception though.

Gruber22

06-13-06, 09:49 AM

Hey slash007 - would you mind posting each channel that you found the lexington local digital channels on? (ie, something like 18.1 - 80.1, 27.1 - 81.1....)

I helped a friend last fall setup a Sony e42a10 and I had a hard time finding ANY of the local digital channels after a scan with a direct cable hookup. Mostly found TONS of digital audio. He gave up and just used an indoor antenna, but 56 doesn't work and others occasionally drop out. He has not yet upgraded his box to HD (already spends about $80/mn and doesn't want to spend anymore). If I could get your channel mappings I might convince him to scan again with the cable directly connected. Thanks!

jImbEam

06-13-06, 11:46 PM

From what I can figure out:
80.1 -> 18.1

72.1 -> 27.1

81.1 -> 36.1
81.4 -> 36.2

72.4 -> 46.2
72.5 -> 46.3
72.6 -> 46.4
72.13 -> 46.1

81.3 -> 56.1
81.5 -> 56.2

jImbEam

Gruber22

06-14-06, 07:57 AM

Thanks so much, jb. I'll pass that along. That is good information to have in this thread.

HDTVChallenged

07-04-06, 08:17 PM

It looks like PBS has ended their "free trial period." KET has gone back to using their server and programming KET4 locally. The good news is 100% HD on KET4, the bad news is it looks like we miss out on "Capitol 4th" and at least one episode of "Soundstage" in HD.

HDTVChallenged

07-04-06, 08:22 PM

WBKI-DT (WB/CW) has finally gone full power, many of you may be able to get them OTA now. They are still 480i, but at least one semi-official post on their website forum said that there *are* plans to go HD. ... Just an FYI :)

BenCJedi

07-04-06, 08:54 PM

WBKI-DT is RF channel 19, right?

I'm not picking up anything out here in Winchester. I'll need to figit with my antenna when I am not recording something. Still Campbellsville is a long way away. so there may not be a shot out here without a big, honking antenna on the roof.

Juppers

07-04-06, 08:59 PM

I'm having no luck getting WBKI on the west side of Lexington. Still need to go do some repointing to see if I can pick up anything at all. If not, then it will be time to pull out the big honking antenna and try again. I really don't want my only CW to be the WKYT subchannel joke.

HDTVChallenged

07-04-06, 11:14 PM

WBKI-DT is RF channel 19, right?.

Right. The edge of predicted coverage area (grade b) bisects downtown Lex, so it may be running on fumes by the time it gets to you. I don't know how the added noise level of the city, or the potential preamp overload/adjacent channel interference from WLEX(18) (or co-channel from WXIX) might affect your chances. Also, WBKI may be on and off for awhile, I'm not sure if they are done tweaking yet.

I do know that my ability to pull in WHAS(ch55) improved dramatically once WDKY relocated.

m_vanmeter

07-05-06, 09:09 AM

Hello,
has there been any information on when KET plans to transmit program "info" and actually send out the digital program guide for their DTV programming. It is sad that the system that pioneered DTV in Kentucky can't get their act together and transmit program information.

Martin
in Scott County

HDTV4usinky

07-05-06, 09:58 AM

I was pretty excited to watch the shuttle launch in HDTV on ABC... but then again, the PQ looked SD at best. During the test phase of ABC HD, they included a shuttle launch in the HD loop, along with outdoor video from NYC, and the ABC Times Square studio. The shuttle launch in the test video is awsome! I was pretty dissapointed with ABC on the STS-121 launch. Come on guys, you can do better! I can buy a good HDV camera for a couple grand.......

cpcat

07-05-06, 05:02 PM

Right. The edge of predicted coverage area (grade b) bisects downtown Lex, so it may be running on fumes by the time it gets to you. I don't know how the added noise level of the city, or the potential preamp overload/adjacent channel interference from WLEX(18) (or co-channel from WXIX) might affect your chances. Also, WBKI may be on and off for awhile, I'm not sure if they are done tweaking yet.

I do know that my ability to pull in WHAS(ch55) improved dramatically once WDKY relocated.

WBKI-DT 19 loud and clear here at 84 miles. Thanks for the heads up. Not sure I'll watch it much though. :o

HDTVChallenged

07-05-06, 06:39 PM

Thanks for the heads up. Not sure I'll watch it much though. :o

For me it's all dependent on whether they actually go HD by the time "The CW" starts up, and if I can figure out how to make them TiVo friendly. Otherwise they have a minimal advantage over 27.2.

William Smith

07-05-06, 07:40 PM

exelonman

07-05-06, 07:42 PM

HDTVChallenged

07-06-06, 01:11 AM

BenCJedi

07-12-06, 09:48 PM

Anyone having problems with 56-1 Fox tonight (vhf 4)? I just installed my antenna last week and it was working fine at that time (90+ signal on DirecTV H20), but tonight it is below 50% and pixelating. Wondering if weather may have shifted my antenna slightly or if they are having problems on their end? Thanks for helping the newbie.....;

The best antenna is an 83" from tip-to-tip loop of wire for WDKY-DT

I tried a variety of store-bought antennas and surprisingly the least expensive with some cheap flat wire from Radio Shack is the MOST receptive. Pin it to a long piece of wood and you can swing it around for the best position. Of course this is inside my house... it would probably work even better outside the house pinned along the roof-line (well the house orientation isn't right), but something could be worked out. I fought long and hard for WDKY-DT when I lived in Lexington. The signal quality is much better for it in Winchester.

I'd like to pick up WBKI-DT. I think my best bet would be a Channel Master 4228 outside, but the WLEX tower is probably screwing my chances. I'd only be watching Smallville in HD, but still it is one of my favorite shows so the effort to mess around with an antenna is likely.

HDTV4usinky

07-13-06, 09:47 AM

A ch 4 Yagi picks up WDKY pretty well. WDKY has a Yagi on their studio tower, and it feeds the DLP HDTV that you see in the studio window. It doesn't seem to suffer much from impulse noise, maybe it's because the antenna is so high up? I've been told that the same 5 element Yagi feeds several receivers, and the run to the studio window TV is at the end of about 200' of RG11 and 150' of RG6, all without any amplification. They must think the signal is pretty solid if they are willing to show it to the public.

On to a different rant, the July 10 issue of Televison Week has a full page ad for HDNet that states "Only HDNet brought you live, uninterrupted coverage of the historic July 4th, 2006 launch of Discovery in amazing high-definition... from 14 different cameras!" Too bad I don't have HDNet, and too bad the networks dropped the ball.

HDTVChallenged

07-13-06, 12:12 PM

I'd like to pick up WBKI-DT. I think my best bet would be a Channel Master 4228 outside, but the WLEX tower is probably screwing my chances. I'd only be watching Smallville in HD, but still it is one of my favorite shows so the effort to mess around with an antenna is likely.

As close as you are to the WLEX tower, your best bet is probably the 4228, outside, *without* any preamp. ... Historically, many of my problems with DXing Louisville stations have been due to preamp overload. In any case, as of this morning, WBKI-DT is still running 480i. OTOH, I doubt that they'll do any HD upgrade until CW launch is closer (if then...)

EDIT: Arrgh! For some reason, I keep flipping Versailles and Winchester on the map. :o You're probably in need of a lot of luck to pull in WBKI ... I'd still start with the 4228 though ...

HDTVChallenged

07-13-06, 12:16 PM

A ch 4 Yagi picks up WDKY pretty well. WDKY has a Yagi on their studio tower, and it feeds the DLP HDTV that you see in the studio window. It doesn't seem to suffer much from impulse noise, maybe it's because the antenna is so high up? .

LOL ... The Allstar Game was pretty ugly here, but then again with all the electricity in the air, I wasn't about to hook up my outside antennas ;)

Nitewatchman

07-13-06, 12:37 PM

Here's a picture of a nice single channel lo-VHF array that would probably work nicely for WDKY-DT reception in Fringe, well, probably "Beyond Fringe" locations ....

http://www.simplicitytool.com/ca_series_mount_vhf_quad_array.htm

If anyone wants to buy me one, and a nice 70 Ft tower to put it on which is capable for the windloads/iceloading involved, I'll surely find a place to put it .... ;)

CyberWhip

07-15-06, 10:57 AM

Yes, the HDNet feed of the shuttle in HD was outstanding. Apparently HDNet is working with NASA to provide video coverage of the launch in HD so NASA can capture any problems (foam falling off) at maximum resolution. That was their claim anyways.

BenCJedi

07-16-06, 11:36 AM

As close as you are to the WLEX tower, your best bet is probably the 4228, outside, *without* any preamp. ... Historically, many of my problems with DXing Louisville stations have been due to preamp overload. In any case, as of this morning, WBKI-DT is still running 480i. OTOH, I doubt that they'll do any HD upgrade until CW launch is closer (if then...)

EDIT: Arrgh! For some reason, I keep flipping Versailles and Winchester on the map. :o You're probably in need of a lot of luck to pull in WBKI ... I'd still start with the 4228 though ...

Thanks for the advice. I'm in no hurry. At least Campbellsville is a southwest bearing from me and the WLEX antenna is northwest, but that's not to say it won't be easy. My hope with a 4228 outside is that I can pick up the KET stuff better too. I'd like confirmation that WBKI-DT has gone to HD before messing around.

And whatever William has done for KET and the OTA program info also fixed titantv.com. Now all of their programming on the first 4 subchannels is showing up and therefore able to be effortlessly scheduled with my captue cards. Thanks William!

HDTVChallenged

07-16-06, 11:45 AM

And whatever William has done for KET and the OTA program info also fixed titantv.com. Now all of their programming on the first 4 subchannels is showing up and therefore able to be effortlessly scheduled with my captue cards. Thanks William!

Now if they could just figure out where the disconnect between KET and Tribune/Zap2It/DirecTV-APG is happening. :( :confused:

As for WBKI and HD, I'm sure it will get mentioned here or in the Louisville thread within hours (if not minutes) when/if it occurs. :)

NashDigie

07-17-06, 02:24 PM

For those of you that receive (or don't receive) WBKI-DT, there is information on the FCC website, that I found, that might help your reception of the channel. WBKI-DT is not fully constructed. Yes, it is broadcasting at 1000kw, but it is not as high on the tower as it is suppose to be, making the coverage area smaller, which may be the reason some of you (including me) have not received it yet. Below is a quote from the fcc application WBKI filed.

LOUISVILLE COMMUNICATIONS LLC IS COMMITTED TO SERVING WBKI-DT'S FULL MAXIMIZED SERVICE AREA. HOWEVER, FULL CONSTRUCTION OF THE STATION'S MAXIMIZED FACILITIES CANNOT BE ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT GREAT EXPENSE AND/OR A LOSS OF EXISTING ANALOG SERVICE DURING THE CONSTRUCTION NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE THE STATION'S DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION PERMIT SPECIFIES A TOP-MOUNT ANTENNA APERTURE WHICH IS CURRENTLY OCCUPIED BY WBKI-TV'S ANALOG ANTENNA. ACCORDINGLY, THE INSTANT STA PERMITS THE STATION TO GREATLY ENHANCE THE SERVICE PROVIDED TO THE PUBLIC UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THE STATION CAN TOP-MOUNT ITS DIGITAL ANTENNA.

The coverage area for WBKI-DT's full construction - http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT497538.html

The coverage area for WBKI-DT's temporary construction - http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DS1139260.html

NashDigie signing off.

BenCJedi

07-18-06, 11:14 PM

I saw a lightning strike close to around 7pm today strike the WLEX tower on my way home from work. When I got home I noticed WLEX-DT won't tune. ut oh!

Noctumluvr

07-28-06, 12:10 AM

I am moving to London KY or close by shortly and am trying to figure out if I should bring my Wineguard PR8800 with me.

Does anyone know what Digitals I can pull in and from where. I may need to move to a different thread.

Thanks for the help.

Tom

m_vanmeter

07-31-06, 10:24 AM

re: London, KY

put your future address in www.antennaweb.org - use the full address if you know it.

When I put a generic zip code in for London, it looks a little bleak. 50 to 80 miles is a long haul for UHF/VHF TV. You will probably need a very high roof top mount or a tower and a rotor. Good luck

kycubsfan

07-31-06, 12:43 PM

Look up posts by cpcat; he's in nearby Corbin, and has had good luck with stations from several markets (albiet with an impressive array.)

Noctumluvr

07-31-06, 11:43 PM

Thanks for the info. I looked it up on antennaweb and yeah that info kindof sucks. I will checks those post and see what I can figure out.

Thanks again.

bigticket

08-02-06, 12:00 PM

Hi,
I am in Georgetown, KY. Since yesterday I stopped receiving NBC, CBS, ABC in HD. I am getting FOX (56) in digital channel. I have indoor HDTVa from TERK antenna. Does anybody experience the same problem ??

thanks

onslowtn

08-09-06, 06:32 PM

WDKY DT

Someone from WDKY said that they would be doing something other than a power boost on channel 4. They could not comment on what it was at the time. I suspect the they will be doing the third round channel election to move from Ch. 4.
I have also heard that they could possibly move their Ch. 4 transmitter to possibly near Harlan if the FCC grants them another UHF channel. WKYT has a satellite station (WYMT) simulcasting their programming in Hazard. WDKY might want to keep their DT 4 transmitter in use by providing FOX programming for SE KY.

HDTV4usinky

08-10-06, 02:35 PM

WDKY DT

I don't think we will see WDKY make any changes in the near future. The FCC might have other plans for channel 4, so I'd be surprised if WDKY invests in a relocation to Harlan knowing that it might be short lived. It seems like it would be inexpensive, but there are legal issues, medical notifications, etc that make relocation a big pain in the behind. No doubt a full power ch 4 DT in Harlan up on a mountain top would be kick butt.... Draw a 60 mile circle around that! I guess they play wait and see with the FCC.

I have some friends at WDKY, if I get wind of anything I'll pass it along. Just don't hold your breath

morgantownhokie8

08-10-06, 08:37 PM

WLEX...anybody else having a problem getting HD tonight? All the other channels are working, but I"m not getting HD on WLEX. Maybe the storm?

BenCJedi

08-10-06, 10:29 PM

So why would WDKY build that spanking new tower at Clays Ferry and then abandon it to move the transmitter someplace else? Doesn't make sense to throw out the money they invested in that thing when maybe with enough begging the FCC will grant them a UHF channel. I can't complain about WDKY-DT other than lightning strikes disrupting the signal. Being away from Lexington makes a huge difference in my signal acquisition for WDKY-DT since I moved. The airwaves are simply less polluted out in Winchester, so I've had a MUCH easier time with stable signal locks. My antenna is a homebrew wireloop and amp inside a 2-story house, not even by a window and is rock solid. I feel for those stuck in apartments in Lexington. I had a time in hell finding the right place and tweaking to get enough signal for the bare minimum signal to get a lock in Lexington.

onslowtn

08-11-06, 11:48 AM

cpcat

08-11-06, 02:41 PM

I was referring to the possibility of WDKY getting a UHF channel to use on their new tower at Clays Ferry and moving the ch 4 transmitter to SE KY where they have no FOX affiliate. WKYT has WYMT in Hazard simulcasting their programming. There is a TV tower in Harlan that could be shared.

They often share programming as affiliates do, but I wouldn't characterize WYMT as simply simulcasting WKYT. They are separate stations which happen to be under the same ownership. WYMT has their own news, shows local programming and sporting events, and has separate syndicated programming.

WYMT does multicast WKYT on a subchannel though. Is this what you are referring to?

onslowtn

08-11-06, 03:40 PM

I am aware of the WYMT newscast and some slight programming differences, but they are barely a stand alone station. Their website is even the same as WKYT.

HDTV4usinky

08-23-06, 09:48 AM

Years ago WDKY researched the idea of building a translator in Hazard. If the FCC doesn't decide to sell off the low V spectrum, WDKY might very well want to move the ch 4 transmitter to SE KY. I doubt if anybody in Lex moves back to their analog channels with the possible exception of WKYT (but if I was paying their electric bill, I'd want to keep a high V) so WDKY might ask for ch 46 or the like after 2009. The low V, with all it's problems, is still the ideal way to transmit a signal in the mountains. If we are trying to pass along the idea of reusing the ch 4 transmitter in Harlan to the folks at WDKY, I can assure you somebody there reads this forum.

morgantownhokie8

08-24-06, 09:20 PM

Alright, I've got a QAM Tuner and usually can get all the local HD channels. Tonight though WTVQ on 81.1 says I'm Not Authorized? Anyone else getting this? Anyone else having a problem with WTVQ tonight?

morgantownhokie8

08-24-06, 09:25 PM

WTVQ is back on. Good. Worried there for a sec.

morgantownhokie8

08-24-06, 09:59 PM

I wonder what is going on over there?

vickiwjbd

08-28-06, 03:59 AM

vickiwjbd

08-28-06, 04:01 AM

Ours is HongYuan motor co., Ltd, which specializes and manufacturing Tubular Motors
(Diameter 35mm, 45mm, 59mm, 92mm)for
rolling shutter,electric window,awning, garage door and etc

db5

08-30-06, 11:55 PM

I'm a newbie with minimal technical knowledge. I need to put up an antenna to get HD programming from WDKY. The folks at WDKY recommend a YAGI ANTENNA 5Y4S. I currently get NO signal from Fox channel 56 using an in-the-attic antenna. However, the fellows at Fox insist that I will be able to get HD Fox programming with the YAGI ANTENNA 5Y4S if mounted on my roof. Two questions: (1) Does anyone have experience with this antenna and could offer tips/suggestions for installation? (2) Will I be able to get other Lexington HD programming from this antenna (e.g. ABC programming from Channel 36)?

mfenster

08-31-06, 05:03 PM

That's what I use. Located at Man-o-War/Harrodsburg Rd. Great reception. This antenna is only good for Digital Ch 4 (WDKY).

db5

08-31-06, 09:33 PM

So, does that mean I have to have separate antennas for EVERY channel I want to receive off-air HD broadcasting? BTW, I'm in Flemingsburg (65 east of Lexington).

HDTVChallenged

09-01-06, 01:20 AM

So, does that mean I have to have separate antennas for EVERY channel I want to receive off-air HD broadcasting? BTW, I'm in Flemingsburg (65 east of Lexington).

No ... but the situation is complicated by your distance, local terrain and the frequencies being used in Lex.

You'll need something like a ChannelMaster 4228 for WLEX (Ch39), WTVQ(Ch40) and WKLE (Ch42), although I suspect there's a KET transmitter that's much closer to your location than WKLE. WKYT is on Ch13 (VHF-hi) so you'll need either a full-band VHF antenna to pick up both WKYT and WDKY (Ch4) or the aforementioned yagis (there is a model for ch13 too.) Plus, you'll need the appropriate joiner/combiner or a/b/c switches to mesh it all together ... and perhaps a UHF preamp ...

OTOH, you might try one of the humongous ChannelMaster crossfire combo antennas ... the only trouble is the UHF sections on combos are usually sniffing fumes by the time you get to 65miles out.

noblee32

09-01-06, 01:26 PM

Back in the day (like thirty years ago!), I lived in Ewing (about 8 miles west of Flemingsburg). With a fifty foot tower, a decent VHF antenna and a CM 4228 pointed toward Cincinnati (primarily for WXIX), another CM 4228 pointed toward Lexington, combined with a decent preamp and distribution system, we had the best of both worlds.

I could receive WLWT - 5, WCPO-9, WKRC-12, WXIX-19, WCET-48, WLEX-18, WKYT-27, WTVQ-originaly on 62 then later moved to 36, WDKY-56 when it fired up, and we had the choice of WKLE (KET Lexington 46), WKMR (Morehead 38), and WKON (KET Owenton 52). More often than not, I could even get WDTN -2 Dayton and WHIO-7 in Dayton also. Now that digital channels are spread out between both bands in both markets, things aren't that easy.

Given your location sort of between markets and it's proven track record, I'd recommend getting the biggest, best, VHF and UHF antennas you can buy, put them on a rotator, add a preamp to the mix, and put them up as high as possible OUTSIDE. Irregardless of what some companies would like to try and sell you as a quick fix, there's just flat no substitute in the world of VHF/UHF reception for as much metal as possible up as high as you can get it OUTSIDE! PERIOD!!!!!

I now live in Lexington and currently have a CM 4228 and an Antenna Performance APS-9B (for FM DX'ing) chimney mounted with a rotator. Thankfully, I live on the south side of town and in relation to the surrounding area, I'm up pretty high. Without a preamp (given my location, I just flat can't use one do to intermod caused from being to close to the Lexington transmitters), I have no trouble receiving all Lexington digital channels WKMR-DT KET Morehead, WKSO-DT KET Somerset, WKON-DT KET Owenton and many others. Yes, this includes WDKY-DT broadcasting on VHF 4, WKYT-DT broadcasting on VHF 13, and WYMT-DT Hazard broadcasting on VHF 12. Yes I know a CM 4228 is primarily used for UHF, but it's VHF response is actually quite amazing. I can even receive on a semi-regular basis WKRC-DT and WCPO-DT out of Cincinnati, WSAZ-DT out of Huntington, and most of the Louisville DTV stations.

Located where you are with good antennas up as high as possible outside, a preamp, a rotator, and something decent to do the tuning would no doubt give you great results. Not only would you be able to receive the local stations you want on a regular and consistent basis but you might be pleasantly surprised at the other stations that might wander by when tropospheric conditions are just right. The other morning, I was watching WDTN-DT Dayton, WSMV-DT Nashville, and WZTV-DT Nashville right here in Lexington just using my CM 4228 and Accurian Digital set-top box. Knoxville, Crossville, and Cookeville Tenessee digital television stations wander by also from time to time for me here in Lexington. It'll mean more money and work initally but in the long run, you'll be well ahead in the game.

Good Luck and let us know what route you take,

Lee , KI4PFJ

db5

09-01-06, 11:32 PM

Will do. I have someone coming Tuesday who says he's installed several antennas in the area and I will be satisfied.

HDTVChallenged

09-02-06, 11:24 AM

Will do. I have someone coming Tuesday who says he's installed several antennas in the area and I will be satisfied.

Just make sure "someone" knows that you are shooting for the digital transmitters, and that VHF is involved for two of them. Otherwise you might still wind up with nothing for WKYT-DT and WDKY-DT. ;)

spikor

09-03-06, 12:15 PM

I also need someone to help with an antenna. IF your Installer that comes Tuesday does a good job I will need their HELP. I read somewhere either in the Lexington or Cincinnati forum of a TNT Installer? Maybe I was just thinking I just read it somewhere? I have 2 section of tower up plus the top with a Rotor and it being in the ground I am up 30 or so feet. I want to put in one other section of tower plus a new Antenna. A Channel Master 3671 I am testing it further back on the property probably 60 or so feet away from the tower that I am currently using. I am not up as high as my older one I am up 20 feet and I am blocked getting the Cincinnati Channels due to a Big Tree and a Hill. I can get Lexington in. BUT somehow cannot get in 27 which is VHF 13 and 56 which is VHF 4. And the Channel Master 3671 is VHF and UHF. Here is several things I am debating will it make a difference IF the Support boom is above(upside down) or below (right side up)the antenna or would it make a difference? It should not but I have seen crazier things as simple as this make a true difference. Also on the Bow tie on the Antenna should the Little prongs lay on top of the bowtie or be pointed forward toward the stations? IT seemed like it made a difference when I had the Antenna about 7 feet off of the ground? But maybe it is me? Who has a CM 3671 out there. I would do more on my own on the tower but I ain't all of that brave and need a bucket truck to do so. To put the other section of tower in plus putting up the new Antenna but if I cannot get the 3671 picking up any better it would be a waste of time putting it up where the old one is. Maybe I wasted my money and time on the 3671 maybe my older antenna is or was better than the 3671 but it is not too good on problem channel WCPO 9 (Digital 10) but I can pull in Oxford ohio which is beyond WCPO and probably UHF almost perfect. Any Help or Suggestion on the CM 3671 ? especially on the bow tie part should the prongs be resting on the bow tie or moved forward toward the stations? Maybe right now I am too low for 27 and 56? maybe some more height will do the trick? But I cannot go higher? Any one who has a Bucket truck out there I will pay for you gas to travel here but it needs to be capable to reach at least 40 feet easily.

HDTVChallenged

09-03-06, 12:31 PM

I also need someone to help with an antenna. ... I can get Lexington in. BUT somehow cannot get in 27 which is VHF 13 and 56 which is VHF 4. And the Channel Master 3671 is VHF and UHF. ...

It sounds like you missed something when assembling the 3671, I suspect the VHF section is not hooked up to the downlead. IIRC from the assembly sheet, there are some straps/jumpers that need to be hooked up to join the VHF elements to the UHF section. If you are getting the Lexington UHFs ok, you should have no trouble getting the VHFs with the 3671 ... if it's all hooked up correctly. This is one of the highest gain VHF antennas available, (not counting single channel yagi's.)

especially on the bow tie part should the prongs be resting on the bow tie or moved forward toward the stations?

I'm not sure what you mean by "prongs." :confused: ... Generally, nothing except the transmission lines a/o downlead should be in physical contact with the UHF bowtie dipole.

KG4KBU

09-05-06, 02:30 AM

[B]I think that all tv stations in LEX should put translators in the London/ Corbin area. Also along with that they all should put news room buildings in that area that way they can respond to news better in that area.

morgantownhokie8

09-05-06, 09:38 PM

Anybody having trouble getting WLEX-HD on 80.1 (insight) through the QAM tuner? It's been off since Thursday of last week for me and it's getting close to NFL on Thursday. Just wondering if anybody else is having a problem?

HDTV4usinky

09-06-06, 11:17 AM

Here's a website with "antenna joiners" it might help someone that wants to diplex a channel 4 antenna and a uhf-vhf without creating a multipath situation.

http://www.warrenelectronics.com/Antennas/joiners.htm

Spikor, I don't know of many antenna installers that would be comfortable with tower work, it seems like everyone wants to do rooftop installs. You might try Antennas Unlimited at 859-255-8190 I know they do commercial work, not sure about residential. I believe I read somewhere (that means DON'T quote me) that tower work is the most dangerous job in the US.

morgantownhokie8

09-07-06, 09:24 AM

For people with ATSC/QAM tuners, Insight moved WLEX-HD from 80.1 to 116.1.

spikor

09-07-06, 12:27 PM

With going even 10 feet higher on the tower like I said I am about 30 feet up now and it was just a job back then for me, my cousin and dad to put it up that high, getting the Rotor and the Antenna finally up was a job as well. But that is the reason I was asking if anyone has or knows a person with a Bucket truck capable of going up at least 40 feet /50 feet. So I can get one more section of tower in I have a 20 foot pole that I slide thru the middle and put on a platformso IF I need to go beyond 40 feet lets say to 48 feet or 50 some feet I can and still have enough pipe to keep everything running smoothly and guided ok. I figure with the extra 10 feet of tower and ajusting the pole 10 to 15 feet will give me enough space to go above any sudden blockages. Well maybe I can rent a bucket truck. I was going to rent a lift but $300 a day for less than 1 hours work or little over a hour is too costly. IF anyone who know or has a bucket truck at a reasonable price to pay to help let me know. I know a guy who does but he was suppose to been here months ago to help me put it up higher and in return I will help him out at his festival etc. Guess he did not need my help after all. I told him to help me get it up and in return I will help you or gladly pay you or help out at the festival and pay whatever else he needed to get squared up.

JohnnyVolcano

09-08-06, 04:41 PM

BenCJedi

09-08-06, 09:45 PM

CentralKY05

09-10-06, 12:56 PM

eruceht

09-10-06, 03:22 PM

I'm in Richmond and for some reason WKYT is only at around 60% and breaking up for me. it's usually in the low to mid 70's. 56 is at it's usual 75%, so I don't think it's my setup. Anyone else have this problem today?

I live in north Madison county and I'm getting 90-95% on WKYT & 56.1 which is about normal for me.

HDTV4usinky

09-12-06, 10:35 AM

Last year I could tune into WDKY using my indoor rabbit ears. This year, using the same equipment I get no signal at all. Did they change anything? I live in an apartment, so mounting antennas outside is out of the question. What are my options, other than sign up for insight?

I would go along with BenCJedi on building a cut antenna, but I would try to place the antenna outdoors if you have a south facing area to utilize. You may need to try several different locations before you find the one that works best. When I lived in an apartment, I had a wire wrapped on a set of rabbit ears, and it ran over to a potted palm tree near a sliding glass door. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. Ben has posted in the past that he once used cymbals as reflectors to improve WDKY. You may or may not need an amp, I wouldn't normally recommend one for channel 4, but as in Ben's case, if it works, great. I called a friend at WDKY, He said they haven't changed anything major in the HD setup since they moved to Clay's Ferry, and they are currently at 100% power.

Watch out for metal objects when positioning the antenna, remember you may have metal studs in the walls, or a fireplace with a metal flue. Your reception problem might be due to something a new neighbor has installed in their apartment.

Something else that could cause a problem is a channel 4 modulator on a video game or VCR. Your neighbors might have channel 4 spewing out of something that's causing interference.

BenCJedi

09-12-06, 09:07 PM

I spent HOURS (that when added together becomes DAYS) after work looking for the *sweet* spot when I lived in a Lexington apartment with my wireloop. One thing that made a big difference for me (besides an 18" cymbal hung on the back wall of the attic behind the antenna) was using quality, highly-shielded RG-6 coax cable. Here's exactly what I used:
http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=MCMProducts&product%5Fid=58-7500

Here is the amp I had great luck with
http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=MCMProducts&product%5Fid=33%2D290

Placement is key. I thought I was never getting WDKY-DT from inside my apartment. It was very difficult at first to find a locked signal. It really took a great deal of hunting for a spot. I recommend thumbtacks on each end of the wireloop, to pin everywhere possible (when in an attic).. your sheetrock walls wouldn't look great, so I wouldn't pin on that. Perhaps some small pieces of duct tape would allow temporary positioning on sheetrock walls. Or pin the antenna to some wood moulding at least 83" long and try moving it around your apartment.

I moved out of the apartment last March into a house in Winchester. As I was moving, the antenna and HD setup were the last things to go. The room right beneath the attic where the equipment was, also contained my drum set with 5 cymbals positioned directly below my antenna. I removed my drum set and observed the signal increase. Part of my difficulty and frustration with finding a good signal was affected by my drums. Like HDTV4usinky said, don't discount what objects your neighbors may have added to their apartments. My drum set illustrated to me I was unintentionally making the signal hunt more difficult on myself.

I am using the very same wireloop antenna in my house. It is not in the attic (yet) and sits on top of the hutch on my wife's desk. My Lexington WDKY-DT signal was normally a 49% high. In Winchester it is 69%. A big difference is being out in the country facing the side of Lexington that is occupied by cows and farm land. The air is less polluted by stray signals, so I am picking up much better quality signal. WDKY-DT only pops in audio/video when there's a lightning strike. If I were to go outside with the antenna I could probably get even more signal strength.

Anyhow good luck if you decide to make yourself a wireloop. Scientifically it is 'cut' exactly for VHF channel 4 (WDKY-DT), but it works awesome for WLEX-DT, WTVQ-DT and WKYT-DT.

cpcat

09-13-06, 08:08 AM

Wellington

09-13-06, 08:36 AM

Chris082676

09-13-06, 09:41 AM

Picked up a US Digital HD (OTA) box and having troubles with the PBS stations. Whenever I do a channel scan the unit stops at 42 (WKLE-PBS) and never goes on. If I unplug the antenna it will move on and finish adding the rest of the channels. I cannot even manually add that channel (42). When entering manually, the signal level is strong, but the screen is black and will not add to channel list. It seems the box does not "like" or know what to do with that channel. Anyone else seen this? All other channels work fine.

I have the same problem. I think it has to do with the software update. I recieved an update form the and ever since it has always locked up when searching on the PBS channels. Might wanna check this forum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=479882&page=12&pp=30&highlight=usdigital

Wellington

09-13-06, 10:07 AM

I have the same problem. I think it has to do with the software update. I recieved an update form the and ever since it has always locked up when searching on the PBS channels. Might wanna check this forum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=479882&page=12&pp=30&highlight=usdigital

Great ... now what to do ....
Is the company aware of this problem... or is it a PBS problem.
Looks like many, in different areas, are having this problem with PSB stations. Why is it just PBS?

William Smith

09-13-06, 10:13 AM

I can't answer as to what the box doesn't like.. When they first came out USDigital had a fix to cure the problem.. it sounds like they have undone their fix.. We've had a couple of emails on this recently but with USdigital out of business we can't help much..

I think it has to do with the number of subchannels and the PID numbers (tables start on pid 0 and programs start on PID 48)

Let me know if you have any luck with a fix..

William

Wellington

09-13-06, 10:39 AM

William,
Thanks for the info.... Maybe the number of sub-channels, as you mentioned. Looks like the stations they are having problems with have at least 5 sub-channels. Will keep searching....

Domle

09-14-06, 11:31 AM

Hey guys I need a little help for my friends in Lexington. I'm in California but I recently bought them a TV with built in HD tuner for their wedding gift. I need to get them an antenna and hopefully you guys can tell me if they are close enough to one of the local towers for digital reception with an indoor unit. Their antennaweb stats are

* yellow - vhf WDKY-DT 56.1 FOX DANVILLE KY 122° 11.5 4
* yellow - uhf WKLE-DT 46.1 PBS LEXINGTON KY 123° 11.3 42
* yellow - vhf WKYT-DT 27.1 CBS LEXINGTON KY 50° 7.9 13
* yellow - uhf WLEX-DT 18.1 NBC LEXINGTON KY 54° 8.0 39
* blue - uhf WTVQ-DT 36.1 ABC LEXINGTON KY 54° 8.0 40
* violet - uhf WUPX-DT 67.1 i MOREHEAD KY 98° 47.7 21

They live right on the corner of Tates Creek and Man o War.

I'd love to send them a channel master 4228 to try, but these folks are not the type of people to be able to install one. Do they have a good chance of reception with a silver sensor? The last time I was out there I don't remember seeing too many trees or tall buildings in the area.

HDTVChallenged

09-14-06, 05:10 PM

I'd love to send them a channel master 4228 to try, but these folks are not the type of people to be able to install one. Do they have a good chance of reception with a silver sensor? The last time I was out there I don't remember seeing too many trees or tall buildings in the area.

The 4228 is overkill. The main problems at this location are

1) CBS,NBC and ABC are in one direction and PBS and FOX are almost 180deg off in the another direction.

2) FOX is on lo-VHF ch4 which is a pain even under ideal conditions.

3) CBS is VHF and PBS is UHF.

All this means that the simplest solution is a small to medium combo antenna (CM 3016 or 3018) *with* a rotor ... not exactly tivo or channel surfing friendly, but it should work well enough (FOX being the likely troublemaker.) A silver sensor probably won't get everything ... especially not FOX.

HDTVChallenged

09-14-06, 10:03 PM

It looks like WBKI has started transmitting 1080i on 34.1. Perhaps at least some of us will get the CW in HD after all. :)

Domle

09-15-06, 12:12 AM

Are there any indoor antennas that would be worth a shot for both UHF and VHF?

HDTVChallenged

09-15-06, 01:27 AM

Are there any indoor antennas that would be worth a shot for both UHF and VHF?

The problem is that to pull in reliably Ch4 requires a pretty long dipole or large yagi/broadband VHF antenna ... generally bigger than you want to deal with indoors.

A CM4221 (half the 4228) *might* be sufficient to get the UHF's and Ch13 VHF (CBS) but you still have to deal with the azimuth issue. In fact, until the FOX station came online in HD, I used a 4221 alone in the attic with pretty good results. Now, I have a Frankensteinish combination of various antennas ... and I may be adding yet another soon (for the CW station) ...

HDTV4usinky

09-15-06, 08:15 AM

Hey guys I need a little help for my friends in Lexington. I'm in California but I recently bought them a TV with built in HD tuner for their wedding gift

I got married last October, need any more friends?

Insight cable has the locals in HD as well, so at worse case they would have to pay for cable. Channel 4 (Fox) off an indoor antenna is a bit of a stretch, but refer to BenCJedi's past posts for ways to make it work.

Domle

09-15-06, 10:45 AM

Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen. One last favor to ask, can you guys give me the name and number of a trusted professional installer in the tates creek/man o war area? If this is against the forum rules feel free to PM me.

William Smith

09-15-06, 03:35 PM

WKLE and WKLE-DT will be off the air at times next week due to the installation of WUKY's new antenna on the tower at Clays Ferry.

William

HDTV4usinky

09-15-06, 04:14 PM

Installers: Danny Brantley 859-278-1343 James Gray 859-626-1072 These are installers I have numbers for, can't speak for their work.

Domle

09-15-06, 04:53 PM

Installers: Danny Brantley 859-278-1343 James Gray 859-626-1072 These are installers I have numbers for, can't speak for their work.

Thanks friend, next time you get married put me on the guest list. ;)

ShadowEKU

09-18-06, 09:36 PM

BenCJedi

09-18-06, 10:16 PM

Did I miss something tonight? last night WKYT mysignals were the usual high 90s with a 1 or 2 percent fluctuation.

Today its all over the place 0 - peaks of 92 and then nothing... mysignal acts like its multipathing but its a strait shotout a siding wall in the attic...all the others (39, 40) are their usual strong self.....

KYT was lkike that for me last night with one HD tuner, but not with another recording the same content. I had unusually low signal and it was glitching all over the place. Maybe it is a precursor that fall is coming. I don't know why one tuner was problem-free while the other was having a very difficult time staying steady.

HDTVChallenged

09-19-06, 01:33 AM

Today its all over the place 0 - peaks of 92 and then nothing... mysignal acts like its multipathing but its a strait shotout a siding wall in the attic...all the others (39, 40) are their usual strong self.....

The frontal boundery was creating very strong tropo/ducting this evening. Signals were bouncing in from all over and at seemingly random times. Here at the ranch, WLKY-DT (Ch26) was getting completely shreaded by the Dayton analog CW station on ch26. WKYT was was problematic for awhile here too ... Fortunately, WLKY cleared up about the same time WKYT went down. Likewise, WBKI-DT was getting hosed by WXIX ... and I lost WLEX-DT for awhile until I switched to the outdoor antenna ... missed 7 minutes of "Studio 60 ..."

... An "interesting" evening for OTA reception.

ShadowEKU

09-19-06, 06:47 AM

Wow, yeah everything is fine this morning....

still wish i could get fox but ill deal....

William Smith

09-19-06, 06:57 AM

Shadow Warrior is that you?

sgthavoc

09-23-06, 04:02 PM

Hi guys, it's been a while. Hope everyone is doing fine.

On to the problem. I am in Mt. Sterling and have finally setup my antenna and built my box for HDTV, but I am running into a problem with CBS. I can get NBC and ABC at 100% signal, but I can't get above 55% for CBS.

My setup is a Dvico Fusion Gold 5 card, a Channel Master 4221 antenna (outside), and a Channel Master 7777 pre amp.

I have tried different softwares (BeyondTV, SageTV, MythTV and MCE 2005, but same result.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Sgt. Havoc

HDTVChallenged

09-23-06, 06:39 PM

Anyone have any ideas?

Try adding an actual VHF antenna to the mix. (WKYT-DT is on Ch13, WDKY-DT is on Ch4.) The CM4221 can work ok for ch13 in many but not all cases.

sgthavoc

09-23-06, 07:03 PM

Try adding an actual VHF antenna to the mix. (WKYT-DT is on Ch13, WDKY-DT is on Ch4.) The CM4221 can work ok for ch13 in many but not all cases.

You are the MAN!!! I had changed the amp to separate feeds for when I start trying to get FOX. I just went out and changed it back to combined and CBS is now 100% signal.

Thanks for the help!!!

Sgt. Havoc

sgthavoc

09-23-06, 08:56 PM

Can anyone suggest an antenna for FOX? I would like one to pair with my 4221. I would also like one that is not to big (wife factor). I tried making one that was suggested in this forum, but no luck.

Thanks,

Sgt. Havoc

HDTVChallenged

09-24-06, 01:02 PM

Can anyone suggest an antenna for FOX? I would like one to pair with my 4221. I would also like one that is not to big (wife factor).

You're not going to have much luck with the size factor, it's tough to defy the laws of electromagnetics. Ch4 needs a long dipole. I'd try a broadband VHF (perhaps a Winegard 5030) or combo antenna first ... only because joining a lo-VHF band or Ch4 cut-channel yagi to the CM4221 will be problematic if you still want WKYT on Ch13. I've seen a lo-VHF / hi-VHF+UHF combiner listed somewhere on the 'net, but they seem to be quite rare in the wild.

OTOH, you could always use an A/B switch ...

GT3Jay

09-25-06, 10:58 AM

Hello everyone,

I live in the Richmond area am looking for some advice with antenna choices. I have decided to take the dive into the HDTV world and would like to receive the local HD channels OTA. From the wealth of information and the many helpful people on this forum, I have focused in on a couple of antenna choices. The CM 4221 / 4228 seem to be recommended alot but I was thinking with a CM 3018 or 3021 I might have better luck getting WDKY-DT Ch.4-VHF.

I live about 3 miles east of I75 near exit 90.
Antennaweb lists WDKY-DT and WKLE-DT at ~13degrees and 7.5 miles. WLEX-DT, WKYT-DT at ~355 degrees and 18 miles. For some reason, WTVQ-DT doesn't show up in the list.

Does anyone in Richmond/N. Madison Co. have either of these setups, and how are they working for you? I am hoping to put the antenna in the attic of a two story house on a hill, but am not opposed to putting it on a mast outside?

Thank you in advance for any tips/advice.

HDTVChallenged

09-25-06, 11:56 AM

I was thinking with a CM 3018 or 3021 I might have better luck getting WDKY-DT Ch.4-VHF. .

Firstly, the 3021 is just a re-numbered 4221, otherwise they are identical.

Secondly, the CM3018 sounds like a good choice for your location, although I'd recommend an outside mounting for it. The UHF performance is not up to 4221 levels, but that shouldn't matter outside.

GT3Jay

09-25-06, 12:23 PM

Firstly, the 3021 is just a re-numbered 4221, otherwise they are identical.

Ooops. :o I meant to refer to a larger version of the 3018 and increased coverage. Just looked at CM website and should be 3019. Thanks for the reccomendation.

HDTVChallenged

09-25-06, 12:41 PM

Ooops. :o I meant to refer to a larger version of the 3018 and increased coverage. Just looked at CM website and should be 3019. Thanks for the reccomendation.

The 3018 might even be overkill inside of 20mi ;) Anyway, the last time I was over at Lexington's Lowes (Man-O-War and Nicholasville,) they had a pretty good stock of 3016s, 3018s, and 3020s ... the odd numbered models seem to be harder to find.

It's been awhile since I've been over there though ...

HDTV4usinky

09-27-06, 02:41 PM

Does anyone in Richmond/N. Madison Co. have either of these setups, and how are they working for you? I am hoping to put the antenna in the attic of a two story house on a hill, but am not opposed to putting it on a mast outside?

Thank you in advance for any tips/advice.

GT3, look north of your location. The bright white strobes you see during the day on the 1156' tower is WDKY. You shouldn't need to try too hard to pick it up. :) BenC has a few ideas for building a dipole. It could be modified for outside use pretty easy. I would use some 3/4" PVC conduit with a T in the middle to support the wire. Indoors, you should have pretty good sucess as well, but you might have more interference.

HDTVChallenged

09-27-06, 06:56 PM

.... For Veronica Mars, Smallville, Supernatural (et al) fans ... WBKI-DT has started broadcasting actual HD programming. Although the end result has been a bit rough so far.

cpcat

09-28-06, 08:08 AM

.... For Veronica Mars, Smallville, Supernatural (et al) fans ... WBKI-DT has started broadcasting actual HD programming. Although the end result has been a bit rough so far.

Thanks, although I never watch those. Tried Smallville a little on HDNet. I'll have to check my Crossville WB/CW as well.

eruceht

09-28-06, 04:34 PM

GT3Jay

09-28-06, 06:29 PM

Thank you for the input. I decided to try the cheap route first and swung by Radio Shack and picked up a U-75R antenna. I put it in the attic and was able to pull in 19 channels. I was floored. I definately was not expecting that for $25. I am having success with all the Lexington channels, WTVQ, KET, WLEX, WDKY and WKYT and thier assoc. weather channels. WDKY even has a secondary channel of 80's music videos. Some others that showed up include UPN 27.2, Worship 67.4, ION 67.1 and Qubo 67.2 saying coming in 2007.?.?

I do have one more question. How do you guys know what percent signal you are receiving? I have searched and searched and can't seem to find a way for me to tell the signal strength on my TV, Olevia LT37HVS. Do some TV's not have that option?

My first experience with HD programming was last night. We were blown away. Some show about dancing with stars, but the colors and clearity were beyond our expectations.

netbugwang

09-28-06, 10:06 PM

Hi, everybody. Nice chatting with you guys.
I am a biginner in HDTV, and am going to rent a apartment around UK Medical Center, University Drive. Can somebody tell me what can I do to recive OTA HDTV in my apartment?
Thank you very much, guys.

kbrod1

09-28-06, 11:07 PM

I live in Paris. Am I out of luck with regards to reception of a hd signal?

cpcat

09-29-06, 07:45 AM

OTA (over the air) digital TV including HDTV requires an ATSC tuner. This may already be incorporated into your TV if it is new or alternatively you may need to purchase an add-on set top box (STB). Many satellite STB's also contain ATSC tuners. For info on various choices, visit the HDTV reception hardware section of AVS. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=25

The signal for OTA (over the air) digital TV gets to your tuner in the traditional fashion via antenna/coax cable/antenna preamp. How much antenna, whether indoor or outdoor, and the need for a preamp depends on your location and distance to your local stations. The signals are broadcast over uhf/vhf just as they have been in the past and the technology is identical all the way up to the point of the HDTV tuner which is the only real difference.

Your local stations are currently broadcasting both analog (NTSC) and digital TV (ATSC) simultaneously as part of the so-called "digital transition". Last I heard, analog will shut down some time in 2009.

For a general idea of what antenna setup to use, go to http://www.antennaweb.org

Also, you can go to http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp and put in your lat/longitude in decimal form for bearings/distances to your local stations. A link to find your magnetic variation from true north is also provided there.

Source to find your lat/longitude: http://terraserver.microsoft.com/

Also visit the OTA reception FAQ: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=611957

That should get you started. Once armed with the basic info, any further questions can be posted in the reception thread at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8211150#post8211150 or in your local thread.