Why is wtvq not showing the football game tonight in hd???

Originally posted by rndthm
Why is wtvq not showing the football game tonight in hd???

I have noticed WTVQ on several occasions lately appearing not to "flip" the switch on their HD programming including the MNF game last night. It aggravates me to no end. I get excited, ready to sit down and watch a beautiful MNF game in HD and BAM, no HD picture. The bad thing is that WTVQ has been pretty reliable in my experience.

Hopefully they are on top of this and will straighten things out quickly. Anyone know a reason?

Originally posted by pjohnscpa
I have noticed WTVQ on several occasions lately appearing not to "flip" the switch on their HD programming including the MNF game last night. It aggravates me to no end. I get excited, ready to sit down and watch a beautiful MNF game in HD and BAM, no HD picture.
The worst thing is when you invite a friend over to watch in HD who's an avid fan of one the teams playing on Monday night... and no HD... That's a real bummer.

Previously in the early days of WKYT-DT they forgot to "flip the switch" I found out that a call into their newsroom desk with a request to check their HD switch would usually get an HD signal in a few minutes (have done this many times). However, I've never had an issue with WTVQ-DT yet... until last night as well... But I was more interested in baseball than football so I didn't grab the phone book and look up the WTVQ-DT news room number...

The nicer I was, the faster the switch got flipped... and be prepared for the newsroom people to be clueless, just don't get too technical with them when the fog sets in... just tell them to pass the info on to an engineer to check the "HD" switch.

WKYT-DT news tip hotline is 299-2727
WTVQ-DT 294-3636 (or 1-800-475-36TV)

(I've not tried the WTVQ numbers yet)

HDC - is WDKY-DT FOX doing baseball in their widescreen mode? If so, how does it look?

Originally posted by ragamuffin
HDC - is WDKY-DT FOX doing baseball in their widescreen mode? If so, how does it look?

Nope ... no FOX widescreen at all. I suspect Sinclair will skip the 480p WS and wait until FOX starts doing 720p before make any changes at WDKY-DT.

... Just a gut feeling ... ;)

HDC

PS: .... At least they are kind enough to overload every tuner in my house with their "max-power" analog signal. :rolleyes:

I sent a email out to Jim Brady at wtvq about an hour ago about the game last night not being shown in hd on their digital channel and this is the response that I just received.

"We had a failure of our HDTV satellite receiver, thus were not able to pass HDTV through. The failure was not discovered until yesterday morning and did not have time to get one from the vendor until this morning. The unit has been replaced and HDTV should be back for tonight's programming. We apologize for the problem and thank you for the inquiry."

rndthm,

Thanks for sending that e-mail and for posting the response!

WLEX is really dragging their feet w/HD. I keep hearing all these people talk about how good the Jay Leno Show looks in HD and wish WLEX would get their behinds in gear!!!

BTW, anyone else here have to use Pegasus for their DTV service?

pjohnscpa,

Unfortunately yes. Got forced to switch to Peg a number of years ago. Real pain. Always late to offer, no deals, but lots of opportunity for far worse customer service. What a joy to be described as "rural".

Originally posted by rndthm
" ... The unit has been replaced and HDTV should be back for tonight's programming. We apologize for the problem and thank you for the inquiry."

Humm ... still no HD tonight ... maybe he meant Wed night. Surely they aren't pointing at the dead/MIA bird by mistake :confused:

HDC

Does anyone get a HD picture on WKYT ? 27-1 and 27-2 SD look the same. Never had a problem with ABC (when they were able to transmit HD) or the satellite HD programs.

Originally posted by reesej
Does anyone get a HD picture on WKYT ? 27-1 and 27-2 SD look the same. Never had a problem with ABC (when they were able to transmit HD) or the satellite HD programs.

Need more info ... when and what programs were you watching, and what receiver are you using. WKYT most definately does HD. However, there is a problem with DirecTV's APG data on certain receivers. The short version is the D* problem will cause some receivers to tune to analog 27 instead of digital 13. This has been an ongoing issue since last year.

HDC

E 86 receiver
pany HD 42 Plasma

Checked what was on from 8pm until 11pm from last friday until Wed.
Just moved to Lex from Cinci and didn't have any problem in Cinci with ABC, CBS or ABC.
So is there a work around?

Originally posted by reesej
E 86 receiver
pany HD 42 Plasma

Checked what was on from 8pm until 11pm from last friday until Wed.
Just moved to Lex from Cinci and didn't have any problem in Cinci with ABC, CBS or ABC.
So is there a work around?

Yep, the E86 is one of the problem receivers. The only work around that's 100% effective is to remove the zipcode setting from the setup and do without the guide data for the locals. Occasionally, WKYT will disable their local remapping long enough for your receiver to store 13-1 as a seperate channel from 13-1 -> 27-1. Once you get 13-1 stored seperately, you can re-enable the guide data.

This is truely a pain. I can't believe it's been over a year and no-one's been able to figure out how to fix the problem. D* won't even talk to me since I'm a Pegasus customer. :rolleyes:

HDC

Do you know what makes WKYT different than the other stations that causes this to happen? (I do know they use a Harris Flexicoder.)

Originally posted by reesej
Do you know what makes WKYT different than the other stations that causes this to happen? (I do know they use a Harris Flexicoder.)

I'm 99% sure the problem is on the DirecTV side of the equation. What makes it even more annoying to me is that I could probably fix the problem in less than 5 minutes, if I could only access the appropriate database. :D

I suppose it's possible that someone at WKYT sent the wrong station ID or mapping info to the folks responsible for the guide data.

HDC

I'm actually in shock - I've been waiting for ABC to broadcast Toy Story 2 in HD for MONTHS - ever since I got my myHD card.. I had a wedding to go to tonight so I defragged, tested the antenea, verified the TitanTV created capture entry, verified the Windows clock.. everything was SET. When I came home around midnight I noticed the clocks were reset.. uh oh. Sure enough, the HTPC was OFF.. I powered it on and checked for Toy Story 2... nothing. NONE of it got captured. Apparently my power blinked before 8pm (not all of the clocks in the house were reset) but that was just enough to turn OFF the HTPC and NOT record Toy Story 2.. Again, I'm completely in shock. I'm HOPING someone at work recorded it so I can bring a firewire hard drive and get it from them.. but chances are I've missed my one shot - ABC hasn't been good about rebroadcasting HD content. It doesn't help that I'll be getting a GWIII this coming weekend... Man! :(

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
I'm 99% sure the problem is on the DirecTV side of the equation. What makes it even more annoying to me is that I could probably fix the problem in less than 5 minutes, if I could only access the appropriate database. :D

I suppose it's possible that someone at WKYT sent the wrong station ID or mapping info to the folks responsible for the guide data.

HDC

I removed the zip code and entered ch 13 again,
27-1 then showed up as 27-1HD on the menu instead of 27-1.
the HD pic could be seen on 13-1 and 27-1HD.

I entered the zip code again,
27-1HD changed to 27-1 and no HD pic
13-1 remained on the menu with a HD pic

Nothing changed with ABC 36-1, still get the HD pic with or without the zip.

Guess I'll never know the source of the problem but I do have a CBS HD pic now.

Originally posted by reesej
I entered the zip code again,
27-1HD changed to 27-1 and no HD pic
13-1 remained on the menu with a HD pic


Sounds like you should be OK now. You will have to tune to 13-1 to keep the receiver from jumping back to the analog station. Note: the radar subchannel 13-3 suffers from the same problem.

HDC

Originally posted by pjohnscpa
rndthm,

Thanks for sending that e-mail and for posting the response!

WLEX is really dragging their feet w/HD. I keep hearing all these people talk about how good the Jay Leno Show looks in HD and wish WLEX would get their behinds in gear!!!

BTW, anyone else here have to use Pegasus for their DTV service?

I had heard that WLEX would be live on Oct. 1st, when that did not happen I wrote them an e-mail. Here is what I got back..

"We had to wait for the FCC to act on our request for a channel change, from our originally assigned Channel 22 to our new Channel 39, which delayed our application for the DTV channel. This was accomplished in October 2001. Now we're STILL waiting for our Construction Permit from the FCC so we can order the transmitter and antenna. Since delivery of the antenna will be about six months, we hope to be on Channel 39 by the first part of next year, but it's out of our control.

We plan to carry whatever HDTV programs NBC provides, including Jay Leno.

Thank you for your interest in WLEX.

Dave Powell, Chief Engineer, WLEX-TV"

So it looks like it's a long way off for those that cannot get NBC from Louisville...

Chuck

Today (10/24/03) the digital tower is being painted... hopefully will be up by primetime. I hope it comes back up soon as I just got a GWIII and ABC always has great PQ. Just thought I'd pass along the info I got when I called..

The tower had better be steel (not digital)... and a "high" state or else there will be some "low" accountants at Media General...

Is it just me or is MNF in SD? I plan my night around this game.

They had small scrolling text right before the game to say that it was not going to be broadcast in HDTV because they moved the game to AZ... bummer!!

Originally posted by chuckgr
They had small scrolling text right before the game to say that it was not going to be broadcast in HDTV because they moved the game to AZ... bummer!!

Yes, but ABC was supposed to have upconverted the signal at the network. WTVQ apparently opted to just take the analog feed and pipe it through their local converter. Which means: Blech! Colors all wrong and washed out. Be nice if they could finally get the NTSC->ATSC color mapping right.

HDC

fellow lexingtonians,

I live in an apartment just off of Tates Creek just outside the Cirlce. I'm purchasing a new TV and was wondering if any of you live near me and could reccomend an OTA set top box and antenna. I was hoping an indoor antenna would work perfectly because I can pick up regular OTA feeds just fine with minimal snowing, but I figured hiDef feeds were different.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks,
Optik

Originally posted by optikill
I was hoping an indoor antenna would work perfectly because I can pick up regular OTA feeds just fine with minimal snowing, but I figured hiDef feeds were different.

Yeah you should be close enough to get ABC(WTVQ), CBS(WKYT) and probably KET with the indoor antenna. FOX (WDKY) is probably a lost cause from your location with any type of antenna - no big loss since it's only 480i. NBC(WLEX) is still missing-in-action. You might also want to consider going with Insight cable.

HDC

I thought about insight, it's i'm just trying to keep my bills as low as possible. I figured that the quality of OTA HiDef is much better than cable or compressed sat. Do yout think I'll be alright with my intended route?

As long as I get CBS and ABC I'll be a happy camper. I must have CSI and Monday Night Football :D

I could get a "small" outside mount antenna and place it on my patio, but I live on the ground floor and could easily become susectable to mischeif, doubtful, but possible.

I'm buying my 34xbr910 monday. I was hoping to start viewing some hidef as soon as possible.

Thanks Guys!

Originally posted by optikill
I thought about insight, it's i'm just trying to keep my bills as low as possible. I figured that the quality of OTA HiDef is much better than cable or compressed sat. Do yout think I'll be alright with my intended route?

Well ... you never know until you try. If you go the OTA only route, I'd start with something like the Sammy 151 or 351 STB. Get it somewhere that has a 'liberal' return policy (BB or CC) in case it doesn't work out. I think you'll be ok on signal strength, but multipath could be another story.

HDC

Thanks for the help!

Will Insight EVER have ABC-HD in their lineup?

WKYT asleep at the switch on 11/14 ... 3 hours of glorious upconverted primetime SD .... Must have had more important things like HS Football to worry about :mad: :rolleyes:

That does it ... time to put up the 4228/7777 for Louisville.

HDC

FWIW, I got this from Insight last week: The DVR digital box will be available in December 2003.
....
We are in negotiations with NBC, ABC, WB, and FOX. As the channels become available in HDTV we will provide them to you.I guess we'll know as soon as they know (?).

Yeah, I think I remember hearing December 8th for availability although my memory may be faulty. Here is a snippet of a reply I received from someone in their technical dept.

"Yes we will be using the [Motorola] DCT6208s. It will record all channels including HD. It has 2 fire wire ports as well as a DVI, RJ45 and 2 usbs all to be activated in the future. I do not know when that may be."

Just got an email from Insight. The DCT 6208 will run 12.95 a month plus tax.


Kelly Johnson
Lexington, KY

I can't seem to pick up WAVE. Anybody else having problems?

Originally posted by the19hole
I can't seem to pick up WAVE. Anybody else having problems?

Considering the weather is horrible, I'm not surprised.

For the past couple of days my reception for ABC has been spotty where my percent is jumping wildly and even with good percent the signal still drops. I haven't touched my antenae, and the channel like this is unwatchable. Is it me or is ABC painting their tower again? Thanks for any input :)

Originally posted by rob_fox
For the past couple of days my reception for ABC has been spotty where my percent is jumping wildly and even with good percent the signal still drops. I haven't touched my antenae, and the channel like this is unwatchable. Is it me or is ABC painting their tower again? Thanks for any input :)

WTVQ has been relatively stable for me recently, although I've had similar symptoms in the past due to atmospheric conditions or vegetation. It's possible that you're getting some odd localized atmospheric bouncing.

HDC

Originally posted by rob_fox
For the past couple of days my reception for ABC has been spotty where my percent is jumping wildly and even with good percent the signal still drops. I haven't touched my antenae, and the channel like this is unwatchable. Is it me or is ABC painting their tower again? Thanks for any input :)


I'm also seeing the same problem. I have a dish 6000 receiver with a 4228. I've changed the rotor with little help. Any thoughts?

I just bumped into this thread and am trying to catch up. Can you tell me if WB 19 WBKI-DT is reachable from Lexington? I live really close to the Fayette Mall in a townhome and am just getting into the HDTV game (after owning an HD-ready set for ~2.5 years). I really hope I will be watching Smallville and Angel in HDTV in the near future.

My wife let me order a MyHD digital tuner card for our home theater pc. It's sitting in the box waiting for Christmas to be unleashed. We have an abandoned UHF antenna in the attic that I aquisitioned into use for analog channels for now. It looks like this, so I assume it is UHF:

http://www.radioshack.com/images/ProductCatalog/ProductImage/15/15-2160.jpg

I don't know if I am using this antenna correctly. I have twin lead coming from the antenna for 20 feet or so and then I took a broken one of these, ripped out the circuitry and wired it so the twin-lead goes to a regular female f-connector, so I could run regular coax to the TV downstairs:

http://www.newark.com/product-details/image/mcm/image/33-0135.jpg

Basically I just have pure UHF from this (I think). Will I be able to pick up channel 13 WKYT-D, ok?

I also have a signal amp at the end of the coax right before the signal goes into the TV and split to TiVo/VCR. It is a little better than this one (25dba VHF and 12dba UHF, or the other way around.. I forget and can't find the actual one I own on the website I bought it from). Anyway it looks like this, but has a switch for FM trap-in FM trap-out (whatever that does).

http://www.newark.com/product-details/image/mcm/image/33-280.jpg

I wrote to WKYT and the operations manager told me to just give it all a shot. He said I may be ok with my current antenna on channel 13. My analog channel 27 comes in with some multipath. It's not terrible, but I look forward to a crystal clean if I can get the digital going.

I do get a fair signal for the WB station over analog. Just a bit snowy, so I am hoping the digital channel is reachable for me too. Are they live? How's the content?

Also in general, how is the Danville Fox station (channel 4, right?). Will that pose a problem for me with a UHF-only antenna?

I guess trial and error Christmas morning will give me the most feedback on what I can and cannot receive. Interestingly enough, the MyHD card has dual antenna inputs that both accept HD, so I surmise it would be possible to add a second antenna pointed specifically to WBKI. I'm trying to acquire the most channels for the least amount of money while I'm restricted to indoor antennas (apartment rules). It's nice a previous tenant left their antenna at least.

Any Lexington-specific and technical wiring suggestions is appreciated.

Ben,
Answers: (In no particular order)

Fox on channel 4 is probably a lost cause from your location. The antenna radiation pattern is pointed away from you. In any case, you will need a VHF antenna to even try. There is no FOX WS yet ... probably will skip it and go directly to 720p ... When?? Who knows, this is a Sinclair operation.

You can probably get KYT 13 on your current antenna.

Loose the twinlead and run coax all the way.

WBKI is up an running on an STA, which means they are very low powered, I've not been able to get more than a 'blip.' But then again I have severe multipath on the analog station. Again, don't expect HD any time soon, they are operating on a shoestring.

A rotor is a necessity at your location, especialy if you want to try for BKI, DKY and KET. WTVQ and WKYT are in the same general direction.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Ben,
Answers: (In no particular order)

Fox on channel 4 is probably a lost cause from your location. The antenna radiation pattern is pointed away from you. In any case, you will need a VHF antenna to even try. There is no FOX WS yet ... probably will skip it and go directly to 720p ... When?? Who knows, this is a Sinclair operation.

HDTVChallenged Thanks for the input! That stinks about FOX! Why the heck is the antenna pointed away from Lexington? Aren't they suppossed to be serving us here? It sounds like I have no chance of picking them up with that antenna in the attic. That's unfortunate. Though it is 480i (right?). I had hoped the bandwidth would be an improvement over my Fox channel on my dish (legacy waivered distant net for FOX5 in NYC - I'm from there so I enjoy seeing 'home'). FOX5 pixelates a bit and I had hoped local FOX56 over digital would surely provide higher bandwidth for less pixelation for my favorite recorded shows.


You can probably get KYT 13 on your current antenna.

That's good news! I'll post how it goes.


Loose the twinlead and run coax all the way.

The previous tenant was using twinlead. I have some RG-6 cable. Would that be my best bet? How would you recommend I hook coax into the antenna? I guess it doesn't matter which point the braided shield part goes to and which point the center connector part goes to?


WBKI is up an running on an STA, which means they are very low powered, I've not been able to get more than a 'blip.' But then again I have severe multipath on the analog station. Again, don't expect HD any time soon, they are operating on a shoestring.

My reception of WBKI 34 varies. It was great a month ago when I checked it, but with this snow on the ground it was horrible when I just checked. WBKI may also be a lost cause for me with current equipment. I was considering dumping my superstations package on Dish (if I can forfeit Enterprise on UPN), but it doesn't look like it is going to happen now.


A rotor is a necessity at your location, especialy if you want to try for BKI, DKY and KET. WTVQ and WKYT are in the same general direction.
HDC

A rotor isn't going to go over well with the wife. I don't know if we have room in the attic to rotate it too well either. I'll have to take a peek. :)

Originally posted by BenCJedi
[B]HDTVChallenged Thanks for the input! That stinks about FOX! Why the heck is the antenna pointed away from Lexington?


Because the community of licence is Danville not Lexington and they have to cover Danville at a minimum, which is all they are doing. This is Sinclair.



The previous tenant was using twinlead. I have some RG-6 cable. Would that be my best bet?



Yes - you can get a Balun (300ohm to 75ohm transformer) from Ratshack that will hook to the antenna where the twilead is now.


A rotor isn't going to go over well with the wife. I don't know if we have room in the attic to rotate it too well either. I'll have to take a peek. :)


You could always use more antennas with an A/B or A/B/C switch.

HDC

Sinclar isn't going to do much until they get a new transmitter site up and running...

Stay Tuned...

Originally posted by William Smith
Sinclar isn't going to do much until they get a new transmitter site up and running...

Stay Tuned...

Yeah ... I noticed that they've done another round of CP applications/modifications for WDKY. Sometimes I wonder if they're just trying to confuse the FCC ... or paralyze 'em with paperwork ;) :D

HDC

I have never heard of this Sinclair entity. Is it possible for Lexington to get their own tower? I find it strange that the Fox56 studio is at the end of Euclid Ave in Lexington, yet they are serving Danville. I guess it is more convenient for their news/story people, but why was the tower originally erected in Danville and not Lexington?

Because of the original station allocation ( Its a lot easier to be the first station in an area than to try to add a new one to a city that already had 4 allocations ( 18,27,36,and 62). They did not want to build on 62 ( for the same reasons WTVQ moved off of 62 in the 70's) so they were the first station in Danville....

WDKY's original studios were in the old diner theater off Paris Pike at the Interstate.

Plus you can't build a tower in Fayette Co. anymore,,, which is why 104.5 /105.5 's tower is at Bluegrass Station, and 95.3,99.1, and 102.5 are on Brandon Rd. WLEX tried for years to get permission for a tall tower on Winchester Rd. with no luck. ( they finally gave up)


Sinclair is just the latest owner of WDKY....

The device you took apart is needed to convert the antenna from 300 ohm for twin lead to 75 ohm for coax so you need one as it is needed for the coax. If you need the amp it should go near the antenna. You may not need the amp. I am in Hartland and use an indoor antenna with a distribution amp. I tried 3 different amps (and without an amp) And only one improved the picture so they all don't perform the same.
I am using a uhf antenna and CBS 13 (27-1) comes in great as does ABC 36-1.

Originally posted by reesej
The device you took apart is needed to convert the antenna from 300 ohm for twin lead to 75 ohm for coax so you need one as it is needed for the coax. If you need the amp it should go near the antenna. You may not need the amp. I am in Hartland and use an indoor antenna with a distribution amp. I tried 3 different amps (and without an amp) And only one improved the picture so they all don't perform the same.
I am using a uhf antenna and CBS 13 (27-1) comes in great as does ABC 36-1.

Thanks reesej ! Well I ripped out the guts in that device (since it was busted internally - stepped on) and merely used it so the physical twin-lead wires were converted to a female f-connector, so I could hook in a regular coax cable to the TiVo/TV/VCR downstairs, so there's no resistance change or anything as far as I know. Do I need to buy a new one of those devices with the guts intact? I don't know how picky HDTV tuners are with the incoming signal, so maybe it won't care how I have it setup now.

That amp does make a big difference for me now for analog stations. Without it I get much snow, but with it the snow is mostly gone on most channels leaving me some multipath on a few. What I always found strange is that the TiVo has superior analog tuning abilities than the VCR or the TV itself. The signal looks much worse through those, but the TiVo cleans it up somehow.

On the topic of towers... Why is it such an eyesore or something for more TV towers, but cell towers pop up all over the place and I don't see any troubles errecting those? I guess the length of the tower is a big factor.

Well.. counting down for Christmas, so I can finally use my MyHD card and see what this HDTV stuff is all about. :)

I've been struggling with the MyHD card and getting it to run flawlessly, particularly during playback. I don't think my PC is under-powered (1.1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird, MSI mobo (VIA chip),640MB PC100 ram, Radeon 64DDR, Philips Acoustic Edge audio card). Just having some minor stuttering on stuff recorded from WKYT and massive stuttering for WTVQ. Is the 1080i versus 720p my problem? I have the latest MyHD drivers and Radeon cat 3.8 drivers. I have tried several combos of software/drivers and have the best combo with that right now.

For some reason anything recorded on WKYT is fine, but stuff from the WTVQ jitters/audio breaks up. LiveTV watching is about perfect pn either station. I only have a 36%-50% signal for WTVQ, so maybe that is why the recordings are so terrible for it. WKYT is around 100% single and glitches only a little on playback (audio dropouts). I had to remove my signal amp from the antenna. I can't pick up ANY digital stations with it hooked in. Anyone know why? Can you recommend a signal amp that is fine with digital stations? I stopped in ratshack and noticed a 26db amp for $45. That seems pricey and I don't know if that will help me obtain better playback for WTVQ as well as give me a hand pulling in another station in the future (with bigger antenna of course). My favorite place to shop is out of a place in Ohio called MCM Electronics. I'll see if they have a better amp I can try.

Also why is there no program info for titantv.com on the MyHD guide for WKYT? WTVQ's guide is fine. Is there some trick I need to do cause TitanTV's website has the program info for WKYT, but my MyHD software does not.

Thanks for your continued help. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas.

Originally posted by BenCJedi
I've been struggling with the MyHD card and getting it to run flawlessly, particularly during playback. I don't think my PC is under-powered (1.1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird, MSI mobo (VIA chip),640MB PC100 ram, Radeon 64DDR, Philips Acoustic Edge audio card).
I don't have a MYHD card, but I use a HiPix card instead... Some basic common tuning items for "juicing" up a system for optimal disk performance applies across the board to all high speed video related configurations...

I'd suggest you inspect the "Home Theatre Computers" forum on AVS for specific MYHD issues. Since you're seeing "live" stuff OK, the signal being received is ok.

I've posted some info that is "general" in nature that may point you in the right direction in a previous "stuttering" related HiPix thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=1912060#post1912060

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=1939152#post1939152

I had to remove my signal amp from the antenna. I can't pick up ANY digital stations with it hooked in. Anyone know why?
Try hooking this antenna + amplifier arrangement into a standard analog TV and tune in channel 27 and 36 via analog... I'll bet you're overloading the input stage of your tuner with too much signal... I have to switch my pre-amp out of circuit for local stations (DTV or analog), and put it back in to pick up Cinci and L'ville.

Strange, but I tried the current amp again and am not getting the digital stations blocked. I actually picked up 4 more channels (mostly subchannels) from the PAX stuff and now channel WTVQ is around 68% signal. I'll test some recordings later. I can't pick up any Louisville or Cincy digital stations (nor the WBKI station digitally.. analog is snowy, but watchable) and was wondering what the Lexington folks can recommend for an antenna to extend my range. Since I can only mount it in the attic space (apartment rules), I may be SOL. Thanks for the links. I've been trying all I can to smooth the hardware and make it slick for playback, but anything more I hope can help. DMA is enabled on all drives, one drive is brand new, but I am thinking of defragging it anyhow. I know motherboards with VIA chips have latency issues over the PCI bus and I suspect that is just adding extra headache to the mix. I thought I patched that flaw, but maybe not. I'll keep massaging this thing.

Thanks ragamuffin for your posts. I seem to have almost every multimedia-related device on IRQ11 (soundcard, MyHD, USB ports, Ethernet card) . The machine/BIOS is being a pain about allowing me to reallocate what device gets what IRQ. They all seem to want IRQ11. I'll keep fighting with it though. Any tips on spreading these things out?

You probably will not have any luck picking up Cinci. I moved to Lex from the N ky area and was never able to receive Lex .
In N KY I used a Channel Master 3023 with a rotor. I tried a CM 7777 amp and it helped for receiving Dayton but would overpower the Cinci stations.
I did use a Radio Shack 15-1107 distribution amp which was better than without an amp.
In Lex I am using a smaller Radio shack uhf antenna (150-2160) mounted in the attic with the distribution amp mounted at the antenna. The antenna is aimed to receive CBS, ABC and PAX in Morehead.
For best receiption you need to pay attention to the tilt of the antenna also.
In a previous post you said you took apart the 75 ohm matching transformer , you need to replace it with one that works.
Put the amp at the antenna not at the receiver.
If you have room the CM 3023 will probably work better but it also maybe more directional which would be ok if you can use a rotor.
The location of the antenna is important also if there is anything near that is causing the signal to be reflected resulting in multipath (double images).
Multipath is worse than a little bit of snow for digital reception. So you may need to move it around.

Anyone else in Lexington with a MYHD card? I'm trouble-shooting why recordings made with WTVQ have audio dropout/stutter problems on playback and need a second opinion from someone else that can record the signal with the same card. All the other local digital stations I pick up play back fine. I only have a problem with ABC. Here's a sample clip:

WTVQ ABC 720p sample recording (http://www.strangeseeds.com/temp/seinfeld_ABC_720.tp)

I posted in the official MyHD 1.62.3 beta drivers thread and Cliff Watson (MyHD expert) has reponded there is a problem with the audio too. I just wonder if my hardware is failing or WTVQ is not encoding the audio correctly. I have ruled out any possible system problems with the PC (for days I been optimising it). Only WTVQ on playback is a problem. Thanks!

I have the old MyHD card (the 100 not the 120). I haven't recorded anything in a few weeks from Ch. 36 though. Not since whenever the last new Alias episode aired.

I will try and record something over the weekend and see if I have the problems you are having.

Thanks Dave! I have the newer 120. Cliff Watson says it is the 8VSB encoder at the TV station causing the problem. I don't think it is anything I can fix. I don't know how other cards tolerate the bad stream.. yours may be more resilient to it. I'm just trying to find out all I can and to find a way around it. I haven't had any luck converting it from a .ts to an .mpg either. The tool on this forum acts like it works, but the resulting mpg won't play. Mpeg2VCR has a hard time as well (ultra slow).

If there is something TVQ can do to fix it, I know I would really appreciate it. ABC is one channel I never got to watch (doesn't come in great over analog and I refuse to use Insight for anything other than Internet). ABC would never grant me a waiver for satellite either. Now that locals are available on Dish Network, I'm not going to pay an extra $5.99/month just to be able to get ABC. At least ABC-DT tunes in wonderfully with live TV with the MyHD. I just wish the recorded file would playback as good as the live airing operates. The audio stuttering is annoying.

Thanks for any troubleshooting you can help me with. ABC might not see it as a problem (or do you think they are doing something intentionally to thwart people recording their shows to disk?).

I am having a somewhat similiar problem with TVQ/ABC/36. I am not using using one of the HD cards but the Samsung TS160. On 36-1, I get a blank screen but when I check the OTA signal meter strength, it shows between 87% to 93%, noticably stronger than some OTA HD stations that I recieve solidly. When I go to 36-2 (the SD channel) I get a good picture. I also recieve the analog OTA without problems. I am getting the 27 HD signal just fine as well as the sat. HD channels with D*TV. Anyone have any ideas or any TS160 users that are not having this problem? Is there someone at TVQ that would repond positively to a request for help?

Mike Schummers

FWIW... I don't have the TS160 but the TS165 and don't see these problems. I have an external CM 4228 with a rotor on my roof and get 27 and 36 about the same 9 bars - very strong with little breakups or pixelization. I also get 3 from L'ville from my location here in Versailles from the backside of the antenna...

DaveStrorm : Problem solved (sorta)!

For WTVQ material that is recorded I have to set the windows registry value 'FILE_PLAY_MODE=1' under the 'MyHD' tree in 'Software'
Playback is then perfect!

For every other channel in the area I have to set that value to 0 and then those recorded files play back fine.

The two shall not operate peacefully, so the recording type is specific based on either 720p (WTVQ) or 1080i/480i (everyone else).

I'm using the MyHD beta drivers 1.62.3. I had problems with earlier drivers. At least I have some sort of resolution for playing back all channels without stuttering audio in some way.

Chuckgr,
You and I have very similiar setups. I have the CM 4228 on an external mast with a rotor and I am in Versailles. I didn't see this problem until about three weeks ago and with the holidays, I haven't had a chance to try to figure it out. I wonder if BenCJedi's note about different recording mode (??) might have something to do with something having changed in the TVQ signal. The fact that I don't seem to have any problem with any other OTA channels seems to say it's not antenna/cabling issues. Anyone have any other thoughts??

Mike Schummers

BenCJedi . . . I recorded something from TVQ and it played back just fine. I also checked and I don't have a FILE_PLAY_MODE setting in my registry for the MyHD software. MyHD has several pages of registry settings but that one isn't in there. In any event, I'm glad you have found a workaround.

kymikes . . . I have a Samsung SIR-T165 and I don't have any problems with TVQ on it. 36.1 and 36.2 both are coming in fine. I just have one of those little Zenith 10" or so antennas.

It does seem something has happened with the signal if these problems have just started occuring with you all lately. Although I don't have any problems like the ones you all have described, I have noticed the past few weeks I'm not picking up TVQ's signal as well as a month ago or so.

Dave: I rolled back to the older non-beta MyHD drivers and don't have to fool with the registry now. The beta 1.62.3 drivers are suppossed to give fantastic DVD playability (which they do), but they have that problem I described with TVQ. That reg setting may be new to the beta drivers I guess. The problem I am solving now are slight flickers in the overlay window from time to time. Full screen HD mode is great though. I have occassional audio dropout on playback of files, but I have not completely optimized the machine, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks for checking for me on your MyHD card.

I did manage to "fix" my problem with 36-1 by "clearing" the local zip code (both primary and secondary) and letting the TS160 clear the local channel info and the quirk with 36-1 went away. I do wonder what information is downloaded that conflicts with actual transmission and PSIP. I can't imagine how frustrated the true casual user would be with this type of situation. Maybe this is why cable will be more successful with HD than they would otherwise deserve. Thanks to all for your help.

I may have missed it in this thread, but those in Lexington that are receiving stations from Louisville and Cincinnati which stations are you receiving and what antenna/gain equipment are you using? Attic mount or roof mount? I'm trying to decide if it is worthwhile for me to replace the existing UHF antenna I am using now. A friend has told me his friend lives here in Lexington and is picking up Cincy and Louisville digital stations, but I have not heard back from the friend regarding the type of equipment his friend is using. Anyone in Lexington able to pick up WBKI? Is it a worthwhile goal for me to try?

I somehow missed your post reesej. I'll try to find out what my friend's friend is using. My friend says his antenna is in his attic and he is picking up Cincy and Louisville from the sound side of Versailles Rd. area of Lexington. I'm really interested in his equipment. I dunno if he gets the WB though. I noticed I can pick up their analog at ch 34 because it is 5000kilowatts versus only 1000kw for their digital station. I wish they could put 5000kw on their digital antenna. Then we'll be talking! On 34 I have another channel coming through at the same time.. what channel is that and how can I filter it out?

I moved the amp by the antenna and it helped a tad. Do I really need one of those converters since I am picking up ABC, CBS and PAX really good (68%, 100% and 34%, respectively)? I'm just using the dohickey I made to convert the twinlead to coax so it can go into the signal amp...then the rest comes out of the amp as coax. I'm not concerned with VHF I guess (can anyone confirm they are able to pick up FOX56-DT in Lex?).




Originally posted by reesej
You probably will not have any luck picking up Cinci. I moved to Lex from the N ky area and was never able to receive Lex .
In N KY I used a Channel Master 3023 with a rotor. I tried a CM 7777 amp and it helped for receiving Dayton but would overpower the Cinci stations.
I did use a Radio Shack 15-1107 distribution amp which was better than without an amp.
In Lex I am using a smaller Radio shack uhf antenna (150-2160) mounted in the attic with the distribution amp mounted at the antenna. The antenna is aimed to receive CBS, ABC and PAX in Morehead.
For best receiption you need to pay attention to the tilt of the antenna also.
In a previous post you said you took apart the 75 ohm matching transformer , you need to replace it with one that works.
Put the amp at the antenna not at the receiver.
If you have room the CM 3023 will probably work better but it also maybe more directional which would be ok if you can use a rotor.
The location of the antenna is important also if there is anything near that is causing the signal to be reflected resulting in multipath (double images).
Multipath is worse than a little bit of snow for digital reception. So you may need to move it around.

Originally posted by BenCJedi
Dave: I rolled back to the older non-beta MyHD drivers and don't have to fool with the registry now. The beta 1.62.3 drivers are suppossed to give fantastic DVD playability (which they do), but they have that problem I described with TVQ. That reg setting may be new to the beta drivers I guess. The problem I am solving now are slight flickers in the overlay window from time to time. Full screen HD mode is great though. I have occassional audio dropout on playback of files, but I have not completely optimized the machine, so we'll see how that goes.


BenCJedi:
I'm glad you got ABC working - I have the same card and had the same problem but I was on vacation so I didn't check email or the forum, whoops! That FILE_PLAY_MODE registry setting is present in the latest non beta drivers (if you don't want to fool with the beta you should be using v1.62.3E drv and v1.62.2 app, very stable and recommended):
http://www.digitalconnection.com/Support/cn_myhd_7.asp
but the default behavior changed for the beta - it now assumes your chipset is one of the newer Intel I865/875 or VIA chipsets and changes file playback behavior based on that. The previous above release does not default to this setting. When I installed the beta I had the same behavior as you so I went into the registry and changed the mode to 1 and everything is great. As for your audio dropouts, how is your audio connected? I use the SPDIF on the card directly into my Yamaha receiver and have no audio problems (as long as FILE_PLAYBACK_MODE=1) and my audio settings are SPDIF/SPDIF. If you are using your mobo/soundcard's SPDIF and/or using DirectSound or Wave you may get audio dropouts depending on soundcard, mobo, etc. Also, any decent amount of CPU activity can cause audio to drop as well - try playing with the "High Priority" checkbox (mine is off). Lastly, the latest non beta drivers handle audio dropouts much better, once again I suggest installing them via the link above and setting 1 in your registry. Defragging big files helps too :) As for flickering overlay, do you have an ATi card? I've heard a certain version of Catalyst driver may cause this.. you should turn off overlay anyway to free up CPU (may be another card of audio dropouts). I hope any of this was helpful, good luck.

PS: Still using the beta drivers - ABC,CBS,KET and PAX work properly and Monsters Inc looks absolutely incredible... wowzers :)

Originally posted by kyalumtwin
Just got an email from Insight. The DCT 6208 will run 12.95 a month plus tax.


Kelly Johnson
Lexington, KY

I dont know if this has been posted or not, but insight started rolling these out. Gonna get mine next Tuesday. Finally, an HD recorder!

rob_fox:
I've been working with Cliff and they discovered the problem with WTVQ here and recording with the MyHD. The MyHD driver was not configured for 720p at TVQ's 59.94 FPS framerate.

FILE_PLAY_MODE=0 seems to give me the best performance with the new beta driver Cliff sent me to test (MyHD_DRV_v1[1].62.3.14). I am only dropping audio with momentary video glitch when I have loops of different streams for the playback queue. That may be normal (I'm not sure). I haven't tested SPDIF to see if the audio is dropping out there as well. When the HTPC is downstairs I have been using the SPDIF on the MyHD card to my DD5.1 receiver (JVC). I have only really watched live stuff so far though. Even standard def commercials with higher bitrate are looking good, otherwise I'd be time-shifting everything. I'm sure that novelty will wear off soon though.

The flicker for the video (unrelated to file playback.. does it on live TV watching too) on the overlay may very well be a catalyst driver version problem. I think I am using 3.8 now and that seems to have improved a bit. When I first installed the card I didn't have any flicker at all, but I forget which cat driver I was using for my Radeon.

I wish I had everything working when Monsters Inc was on. How does it compare to the DVD in quality? I imagine much better cause of higher bitrate and resolution. I may have to badger you for a copy on a spare harddrive I carry around. :) (did you see the thread in the other forum for nullpacketstripper and HDTVtoMPEG? how small would Monsters Inc get using those apps?).

I'm not able to pick up KET digital at all.. just their analog stations. I am guessing my antenna is not pointed in the right direction.



Originally posted by rob_fox
BenCJedi:
I'm glad you got ABC working - I have the same card and had the same problem but I was on vacation so I didn't check email or the forum, whoops! That FILE_PLAY_MODE registry setting is present in the latest non beta drivers (if you don't want to fool with the beta you should be using v1.62.3E drv and v1.62.2 app, very stable and recommended):
http://www.digitalconnection.com/Support/cn_myhd_7.asp
but the default behavior changed for the beta - it now assumes your chipset is one of the newer Intel I865/875 or VIA chipsets and changes file playback behavior based on that. The previous above release does not default to this setting. When I installed the beta I had the same behavior as you so I went into the registry and changed the mode to 1 and everything is great. As for your audio dropouts, how is your audio connected? I use the SPDIF on the card directly into my Yamaha receiver and have no audio problems (as long as FILE_PLAYBACK_MODE=1) and my audio settings are SPDIF/SPDIF. If you are using your mobo/soundcard's SPDIF and/or using DirectSound or Wave you may get audio dropouts depending on soundcard, mobo, etc. Also, any decent amount of CPU activity can cause audio to drop as well - try playing with the "High Priority" checkbox (mine is off). Lastly, the latest non beta drivers handle audio dropouts much better, once again I suggest installing them via the link above and setting 1 in your registry. Defragging big files helps too :) As for flickering overlay, do you have an ATi card? I've heard a certain version of Catalyst driver may cause this.. you should turn off overlay anyway to free up CPU (may be another card of audio dropouts). I hope any of this was helpful, good luck.

PS: Still using the beta drivers - ABC,CBS,KET and PAX work properly and Monsters Inc looks absolutely incredible... wowzers :)

Originally posted by JohnnyVolcano
I dont know if this has been posted or not, but insight started rolling these out. Gonna get mine next Tuesday. Finally, an HD recorder!

What digital channels are available on it for the Lexington area?

jcblack,

I expect a full report on installation day!

infolink (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3178795#post3178795)

Congrats! You might be the first!

Originally posted by BenCJedi
I'm not able to pick up KET digital at all.. just their analog stations. I am guessing my antenna is not pointed in the right direction.

BenC... The "Lexington" KET tower is located on the south end of the I-75 bridge at Clays Ferry. Their DT is on UHF 42.

I can pick up KET from Owenton (UHF 44) and Somerset (UHF 14) as well from Lexington.

Any new news on the combined HDTV/PVR stb that Insight is offering?

EDIT: What bitblaze says below!

If you want functional/operational details on the units, there is some good info coming out in the L'ville thread. L'ville Insight is a little bit out in front of Lexington.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3156826#post3156826

The 6208 DVR is being offered to the existing 5100 Customers also. The list of customers are being called and scheduled if they desire to have the DVR. There is no shortage of the DVR, but only so many can be scheduled on a weekly basis. If you are, or know of anyone interested that has the 5100 and wants a DVR. Email me at boggs.w@insight-com.com with contact information and I'll have someone contact to arrange.
Thanks,
Winston Boggs
Technical Operations Manager
Insight (Lexington)

Just received the DVR myself today. So far, its pretty convenient to have an all-in-one box. The DVR is VERY basic and the GUI is horrid, plus the tvguide ads are pretty annoying, but it DOES do the job. HD recording looks great and it does have the DVI output enabled and in the comparison I did on my TV it makes a big difference. Kudos to insight for being one of the first to send those out on the market.

Mr. Boggs, any news yet as to when Insight will add ABC to their HD lineup?

Originally posted by JohnnyVolcano
Mr. Boggs, any news yet as to when Insight will add ABC to their HD lineup?

Now that is great question that I think many HD Insight customer would like to know about (including myself). I asked when I scheduled my settop box upgrade and the CSR gave the standard, but necessary answer of "that Insight was aware of the interest and continues to evaluate adding additional HD channels". So I assume discussions between ABC and Insight are going slowly.

Winston, Anything semi-official that you or anyone else can add?

Anyone notice that that 2 new sub channels have appeared? KET 5 and 6 (42-5, 42-6) They are just running color bars now. I wonder what is coming?

Originally posted by Wellington
Anyone notice that that 2 new sub channels have appeared? KET 5 and 6 (42-5, 42-6) They are just running color bars now. I wonder what is coming?

Not only that, but 42-7 is lit up too ... It looks like our very own CSPAN/CSPAN2. Now we get to witness the full horror of what happens in Frankfort ;) :D ... Well the public parts anyway ...

HDC

Insight is willing and has offered on numerous occasions to carry WTVQ's Digital Signal, including programming broadcast in (HD) on our system. Cable Companies must secure permission to carry a broadcaster's signal on their systems. The same agreement that is in place with WKYT has been offered to WTVQ more than once and at this point in time, they will not even return calls to our SVP of Operations. The equipment is purchased and in place and merely needs to be activated to begin transmission of the Digtial Signal of WTVQ, which technically could be done in minutes. If you have any question, feel free to call me at my office.

Thanks,
Winston Boggs
Technical Operations Manager
Insight (Lexington)
859-514-2418

Originally posted by bitblaze
If you have any question, feel free to call me at my office.



Sounds like I should just call WTVQ with my question.
Thanks for responding. BTW, the Insight rep just left, the 6208 DVR may not be the perfect set top box, but I am a happy camper. Very Nice!
Regards,
Dave

One problem I have with the 6208 DVR box is the ananlog channels are EXTREMELY grainy, almost to an unwatchable point. Anybody else experience the same thing?

It sounds like we do need to call WTVQ and start bugging them.

Thanks for the info, Winston.

I Had my 6208 installed yesterday in Columbus Ohio area and I agree, the analog channels look horrible. I'm calling Insight today to register a complaint about that and the $24 install charge.

Additionally the new info bar and channel guide have horrible graphics and the advertising is really annoying. Good luck, at least it sounds like you guys in Lex. have a good technical director @ Insight who reads this forum.

Go Cats! I grew up in KY.

Andy

Originally posted by JohnnyVolcano
It sounds like we do need to call WTVQ and start bugging them.

Calling WTVQ may not help much ... this foolishness is coming from Media General corperate level.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Calling WTVQ may not help much ... this foolishness is coming from Media General corperate level.
I'm completely ignorant of the management/ownership structure in the broadcasting industry... but I think our red feathered friends to the west in L'ville have ABC-HD on their Insight cable system... Are they not managed by Media General? If they are, what buttons did they push to get ABC-HD turned on?

I'm still not an Insight HD subscriber because I'm an early OTA adopter... but I know I will be someday... hopefully soon...

I am appreciative of Insight's leadership in the HD area and their presence in this forum. Thanks!

No, WHAS is a Belo station not Media General ( a sub of Disney)

I got my box last thursday night. It's quite nice to be able to timeshift / pause HD! YAHOO! I can finally watch some HD progamming that I like (instead of watching whatever HD is on)!

BUT... I'm not a big fan of the interface. And I've had a few problems - locked up, back in buffer sometimes plays w/o sound, ff and review really awkward /choppy / locks occasionally (HD, sd works smoothly). But the guide is the worst part - it's pretty much useless. As seen here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=17500

Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy to have the box. But it is a love-hate relationship, so far.

For you guys that have the Motorola Insight DVR, I understand it has FireWire in the back.. and I thought I saw on Motorola's site an advertisement saying you could plug in another hard drive and back up to it once the drive in the DVR is full.. has anyone tested this? If so, are the files straight transport stream dumps or are they encrypted?

Second, I stumbled upon this re Fox HDTV:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3246709#post3246709
Do you think any of that will apply to our low powered Danville based Fox station?

The firewire ports are disabled, unfortunately.

Anyone tried removing the harddrive yet in the Insight DVR and writing some sortware to rip off the recorded programs? :)

Originally posted by chuckgr
I had heard that WLEX would be live on Oct. 1st, when that did not happen I wrote them an e-mail. Here is what I got back..

"We had to wait for the FCC to act on our request for a channel change, from our originally assigned Channel 22 to our new Channel 39, which delayed our application for the DTV channel. This was accomplished in October 2001. Now we're STILL waiting for our Construction Permit from the FCC so we can order the transmitter and antenna. Since delivery of the antenna will be about six months, we hope to be on Channel 39 by the first part of next year, but it's out of our control.

We plan to carry whatever HDTV programs NBC provides, including Jay Leno.

Thank you for your interest in WLEX.

Dave Powell, Chief Engineer, WLEX-TV"

So it looks like it's a long way off for those that cannot get NBC from Louisville...

Chuck

I sent an email to WLEX on Tuesday. This is what I got back from them yesterday:

We had to wait for the FCC to act on our request for a channel change, from our originally assigned Channel 22 to our new Channel 39, which delayed our application for the DTV channel. This was accomplished in October 2001. Now we're STILL waiting for our Construction Permit from the FCC so we can order the transmitter and antenna. Since delivery of the antenna will be about six months, we hope to be on Channel 39 by early fall, but it's out of our control.

We plan to carry whatever HDTV programs NBC provides, including Jay Leno.

I spent over $4000 on my personal widescreen entertainment center with DTV, so I'm anxious, too.

Thank you for your interest in WLEX.

Dave Powell, Chief Engineer, WLEX-TV

So three months later, the same email except now pushing it out to early fall. I bet if someone checks in three more months they will push out to early 2005. :D :rolleyes: :mad:

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
I sent an email to WLEX on Tuesday. This is what I got back from them yesterday:

Here's some history from the archives of this forum...

(states WLEX "well underway" for May 2002) (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=952197#post952197)

(indicates a late 2003 date) (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=1661446#post1661446)

(notes no CP yet... on 10-12-02) (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=1434041#post1434041)

(notes an e:mail indicating 1Q03 as earliest for WLEX-DT) (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=1429543#post1429543)

I think WLEX-DT needs our help... obviously WLEX-DT has been lost in the paper trail at the FCC...

...and I'm sure everyone at WLEX is calling weekly and just being IGNORED by the FCC... I bet Michael Powell can get this oversight fixed!

We can help! Send an e:mail to the following requesting that they do some investigating into WLEX and please find their long lost paperwork and accelerate their CP so that they can comply with the FCC regulations for DTV.

e:mail FCC Chairman Michael Powell (http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/powell/mkp_email.html)

email your KY senators (http://www.senate.com/state/ky.html)

and congresspeople (http://www.aidsstories.com/states/ky.html)

I guess I'll be driving west to L'ville with my HD PVR and power inverter and park on the roadside somewhere on February 15th to catch the Daytona 500 on NBC...

Originally posted by ragamuffin

I guess I'll be driving west to L'ville with my HD PVR and power inverter and park on the roadside somewhere on February 15th to catch the Daytona 500 on NBC... [/B]

Before you resort to that...:) I pick up a decent signal from WAVE 3 in L'ville on the backside of my 4228 mounted on the roof... if I point it to the west I get a strong signal (as well as WLKY).. granted I am in Woodford county and a little closer but I know of people in Lex. getting WAVE as well...just a thought

Chuck

Originally posted by chuckgr
Before you resort to that...:) I pick up a decent signal from WAVE 3 in L'ville on the backside of my 4228 mounted on the roof... if I point it to the west I get a strong signal (as well as WLKY).. granted I am in Woodford county and a little closer but I know of people in Lex. getting WAVE as well...just a thought

Chuck
Thanks Chuck... I've got a CM-4228 up outside on a mast with a CM-7777 pre-amp and get WAVE analog 3 wonderfully (looks like a local LEX station to me with my setup)... their analog VHF-3 is only 56 miles from me and running at 100,000 watts... however their UHF-47 DT signal is not co-located with their analog and is 73 miles away from me. I'm not sure what kind of power they're putting out... When tropo conditions are good, I get WAVE-DT great... but right now tropo is nowhere to be found, so my WAVE-DT is marginal at best. I can lock in on Leno 50% of the time in the evenings, but a daytime NASCAR race is probably not going to work at this time of the year...

A couple of weeks ago I e-mailed WLEX asking if there would be any chance that they might be broadcasting the Daytona 500 in HDTV. After getting the same "form" response from WLEX I replied, Thanks for your response. As a Federal taxpayer, who at FCC could I contact to voice our displeasure for this unreasonable bureaucratic delay? The response from WLEX was Beats me... Before the "deadline" for everyone to be on air, our attorneys sent a letter to the FCC saying that we shouldn't need an extension because we still don't have the CP itself! Still nothing. The remaining licenses trickle out a few every week. I find it unbeleivable that the Chief Engineer would not know who to complain to at the FCC.
Tony

What is the best way to get HDTV in Lexington?

I'm contemplating satellite, cable, or OTA. I like OTA but we watch NBC 90% of the time and I really would like DiscoveryHD. I've heard that the new Insight combo box has terrible SD PQ. Is DirectTV or Dish any better on SD? It seems like Dish has a great deal right now. Free installation for 2 rooms, one with the HD box (the 811 I believe). Plus you get the Top60 channels for $35/mo.

I wish there was a way to just get the HD Pak w/ Insight and then use OTA for local channels as they become available.

I live in Rabbit Run (Harrrodsburg Rd in between New Circle & Man o War). Can I easily get an OTA signal without an attic or outdoor antenna? And I'll be watching this on a Hitachi 50v500 - which I've only had a couple of weeks and LOVE so far.

I really need some help from my fellow Lexingtonians.

I am getting ready to buy HD but am REALLY confused about the method to get the signal. Should I do OTA? Insight? Or Satellite?

What are you guys using and what would you say is the best method right now? Please let me know as I am depending upon your response.

Thanks!

We're R A C I N G !!!

NBC from L'ville in LOUD and CLEAR with Daytona 500 coverage in HD!

Looking good!

Originally posted by NickR
What is the best way to get HDTV in Lexington?
I think this is kind of like asking someone what kind of car should one buy... without knowing several important items about your requirements/desires/finances... it's really a wide open question that I can only answer by asking you a few questions for clarification:

1) The first question I'd have for you would be based on what you want to watch that is even available in HD? I watch mainly sporting events, while my wife watches prime time TV. ESPN-HD would seem to be an obvious "automatic" for me but with only a couple of HD games per week at the moment, it's not enough for me to bite yet... especially since they don't have UK on their 2003-2004 schedule. Otherwise, it would have been tempting...

NOTE: Keep in mind that initially you'll watch ANYTHING in HD... but after a while the novelty of HD will wear off (you'll still appreciate HD when you see it), and you'll eventually fall back into a mode of watching what you watch now...

2) The next question would be in regard to finances... you basically have an up front initial investment cost to absorb, and then potentially a periodic monthly fee. I personally put $299.00 into an OTA receiver long before Insight HD was available (and approx $300 for a computer to house this card, $40.00 for an antenna, $50.00 for an antenna pre-amp, and $65.00 for a rotor to turn my antenna). I have no recurring monthly fees with this investment. Satellite can have quite a large initial investment with an additional monthly fee comparible to cable. Insight cable HD has minimal initial startup costs, especially if you're already a digital service cable subscriber. I guess I'm a cheapskate with a $35.00/month cable bill... I can't compete with some of my co-workers who have cable bills way over $100/month... Can you really watch that much TV? ;-)

3) The final question is what are your viewing habits... Our family is a TIVO ( i.e. PVR) family now which means we control when we watch our TV. My wife will sacrifice HD quality for TIVO flexibility without question. My current $299.00 OTA HD card allows me to record HD to a hard disk to watch at our convenience. Don't confuse a "checkbox" item for PVR with "ease-of-use" for a PVR... TIVO's user interface is second to none... Currently Insight has a PVR offering that does work... but ain't real pretty at the moment... The satellite companies are bringing PVR offerings to the table this year as well... We'll see how well those first generation offerings compare to current TIVO technology.

Hope this helps answer your question and gives you some direction.

It might also be helpful for those on this forum who have each particular HD service to list the PROS and CONS of each?

Originally posted by ragamuffin
We're R A C I N G !!!

NBC from L'ville in LOUD and CLEAR with Daytona 500 coverage in HD!

Looking good!


I'm curious as to where you are located in Lexington. I live over by Hamburg and can't get a lock on WAVE. I'm using a cm 4228 with a preamp and a dish 6000 receiver. What stb do use?. Also do you have
any problems with WTVQ? I get a strong signal from them, but I get occasional picture freeze ups. The sound still comes in find though. I don't have any problems at all with WKYT, WKLE, or WUPX. I'm not sure if
my 6000 receiver is having a problem with WTVQ's signal.

Thanks
Robert

Originally posted by ragamuffin
We're R A C I N G !!!

NBC from L'ville in LOUD and CLEAR with Daytona 500 coverage in HD!

Looking good!

Is it my equipment or WAVE's (or NBC network for that matter) that was causing the sound to lag the picture by a second? Anyone else see this?

Chuck

Equip.: CM 4228, CM 7777, Samsung SIR-T165, Kenwood VR-7070

Ragamuffin - "It might also be helpful for those on this forum who have each particular HD service to list the PROS and CONS of each?"

That is more of what I'm looking for. Like I said, we mainly watch NBC, which is not available in Lex, correct? Since I live a little closer to Louisville than some, I thought I may be able to pick up WAVE, but I'm not for sure.

I agree that Insight is probably the easiest way to go but I have a couple of problems with that. First off, somehow we are lucking out in that we are paying $18 for the $30 Insight package. And I hate to upgrade to digital and HD because the bill will be well over $50/mo and that is too big of a jump to justify for 7 channels. At the same time, everything I've read says the new combo stb w/ pvr has terrible SD channel quality. And since we mainly watch NBC primetime shows, I dont really want to degrade that signal. But the extra $30/mo will pay for the OTA receiver in about a year, but I would have fewer channels w/ OTA.

Dish seems like the best solution right now. They currently have free installation for two rooms with one being the 811 HD box. For $35/mo you can get the Top60 package + the 4 channel HD Pak (DiscoveryHD, ESPN-HD, HDNet, and HDNet Movies). I'm really only interested in the DiscoveryHD until ESPN begin broadcasting more. Plus the 811 has OTA built-in but I would need another dish I believe. But the SD signal would be acceptable. I just wish I could get an NBC HD channel over Dish. If I could, I'd probably get it - even if its a west coast feed as long as its at the same time as the east coast feed.

So there is obviously not a perfect solution available. I was just looking for advice on what's the best deal out there right now, if you had to start all over. I'm not really interested in HTPC or a myHDTV card. That seems too hard for the wife to understand. And I would love to keep a small antenna (the Winegard SS-1000 SquareShooter looks like it would fit the bill - anyone local have any experience w/ it?)

Do any of you guys in Lex have first hand experience with the PVR that Insight is offering? I just put in an order to have one installed next week. Seeing as it is only a 5 dollar jump in my bill, I thought what the hell.

It is my understanding that I can't record and watch something different at the same time? Is there anyway around this?

Here is hoping that the locals get HD up and going ASAP.

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
I'm curious as to where you are located in Lexington.
I live near the intersection of Man-O'War and Harrodsburg Road.
I'm using a cm 4228 with a preamp and a dish 6000 receiver.
Also do you have any problems with WTVQ
I pull my pre-amp out for the local channels... it's way too much signal and overloads my receiver if I don't. You're practically sitting under the WTVQ-DT and WKYT-DT towers out near Hamburg and you definitely don't need a pre-amp for those signals at your location. Are your 8 bowties pointing towards the two tall towers over near the intersection of Man-O'War and Winchester Roads? The 4228 is very directional and you may need to point it towards the tower on the right (WTVQ-DT) to optimally receive their signal. You might possibly be picking up multipath that could be confusing your receiver? Or you may be overloading the receiver with too much signal (and getting away with decent WKYT-DT because you're pointing away from their tower and not overloading?).
What stb do use?.
I use a PC based Hipix card for my OTA.

Originally posted by chuckgr
Is it my equipment or WAVE's (or NBC network for that matter) that was causing the sound to lag the picture by a second? Anyone else see this?
It was an NBC issue reported by many...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=366925

You can monitor the "HDTV Programming" forum during live HD events and if there is a network problem, you'll know within minutes as people post live from all over the country... Pretty cool feedback mechanism...

Originally posted by ragamuffin
I live near the intersection of Man-O'War and Harrodsburg Road.

I pull my pre-amp out for the local channels... it's way too much signal and overloads my receiver if I don't. You're practically sitting under the WTVQ-DT and WKYT-DT towers out near Hamburg and you definitely don't need a pre-amp for those signals at your location. Are your 8 bowties pointing towards the two tall towers over near the intersection of Man-O'War and Winchester Roads? The 4228 is very directional and you may need to point it towards the tower on the right (WTVQ-DT) to optimally receive their signal. You might possibly be picking up multipath that could be confusing your receiver? Or you may be overloading the receiver with too much signal (and getting away with decent WKYT-DT because you're pointing away from their tower and not overloading?).

I use a PC based Hipix card for my OTA.

Ragamuffin,

Thanks for the reply. I pull the preamp just like you do for the locals. I got
it and the 4228 just to see if I can get Louisville. I was originally just using a cheap cm 3016 and was getting all the locals with it. Playing with it got channel 3 out of Louisville with some snow so I decided to try for the digitals with a 4228. I switched back to the 3016 Sunday night because I can set it up to get Lex's channels without having to move it around. I don't have the 3016 pointed directly at WTVQ, but will try that and see if it helps. My yard is still like a swamp from all the rain and snow so I will probably wait until Spring and play with the 4228 moving it around outside and getting higher to see if I can get anything from Louisville.

Again thanks for the reply,
Robert

Originally posted by NickR
Ragamuffin - "It might also be helpful for those on this forum who have each particular HD service to list the PROS and CONS of each?"

That is more of what I'm looking for. Like I said, we mainly watch NBC, which is not available in Lex, correct? Since I live a little closer to Louisville than some, I thought I may be able to pick up WAVE, but I'm not for sure.

I agree that Insight is probably the easiest way to go but I have a couple of problems with that. First off, somehow we are lucking out in that we are paying $18 for the $30 Insight package. And I hate to upgrade to digital and HD because the bill will be well over $50/mo and that is too big of a jump to justify for 7 channels. At the same time, everything I've read says the new combo stb w/ pvr has terrible SD channel quality. And since we mainly watch NBC primetime shows, I dont really want to degrade that signal. But the extra $30/mo will pay for the OTA receiver in about a year, but I would have fewer channels w/ OTA.

Dish seems like the best solution right now. They currently have free installation for two rooms with one being the 811 HD box. For $35/mo you can get the Top60 package + the 4 channel HD Pak (DiscoveryHD, ESPN-HD, HDNet, and HDNet Movies). I'm really only interested in the DiscoveryHD until ESPN begin broadcasting more. Plus the 811 has OTA built-in but I would need another dish I believe. But the SD signal would be acceptable. I just wish I could get an NBC HD channel over Dish. If I could, I'd probably get it - even if its a west coast feed as long as its at the same time as the east coast feed.

And I would love to keep a small antenna (the Winegard SS-1000 SquareShooter looks like it would fit the bill - anyone local have any experience w/ it?)


Nick,

I have Dish maybe I can give you some info about it. The HD channels on Dish look great, but the SD doesn't look that great on larger TVs. It maybe a personal preference on that though. On my smaller TV (27") I think the SD channels look great, however on my 48" Mits you can see artifacts from the compression Dish uses. Dish doesn't compress the HD channels.

You mentioned that Dish's deal is for an 811 and another receiver. Dish will charge you another $4.99 mirroring fee for the second receiver. You will only need one Dish not two. Dish used to have HBOhd, SHOWhd, and Lexington's PBS on the second dish, but the have all moved to the 110 location. Dish doesn't offer NBC in HD at this time, but I heard they are
trying to get NBC to let them provide a national feed. If they do I don't believe we will be able to get it. With the CBS HD you have to be in an area that isn't in a DMA or in a DMA owned by CBS. This will probably be the same with NBC. I have the HD pak and like it, but I don't feel it is worth $9.99 yet. They show alot of the same shows. Dish has the analog
Lex channels - ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, and WJKC, but they don't have the
WB channel(Insight does). If you want the locals it's another 5.99 or included with the Top60 at 29.99 (you save a buck). If you want WB/UPN
Dish has a package they call superstations that has them from across the country and everyone qualifies for. That package costs 5.99, but you can bundle it with locals for 8.99. You can go to Dishnetwork's website and check local channels for what you are eligible for.

I suggest you go by Dish Outlet on Palumbo Road in Lexington and look at the channels you like to watch. They have some big screens and you can judge the picture quality yourself.

As far as antennas go, from what I have read I don't think the Squareshooter will bring in WAVE from Louisville. It is more for channels in your area.

Hope I didn't confuse you any,
Robert

Thanks for the help. How stable is the OTA signal in my area (close to ragamuffin - on Harrodsburg inbetween New Circle & MOW)? And how easy is it to get WAVE in my location? Is it spotty or pretty consistent?

Originally posted by NickR
Thanks for the help. How stable is the OTA signal in my area (close to ragamuffin - on Harrodsburg inbetween New Circle & MOW)? And how easy is it to get WAVE in my location? Is it spotty or pretty consistent?
WKYT-DT (CBS), WTVQ-DT (ABC), and WKLE-DT (KET/PBS) are very stable in the Lexington area... of course your mileage will vary with choice and setup of antenna, and the physical obstructions that may lie in the path from your antenna to the towers broadcasting the signals.

Maximizing the height of your antenna from the ground, and using a directional antenna pointed directly at the tower of choice (i.e. using a rotor to selectively orient your antenna) will give you optimum results.

WAVE-DT in the Lexington area will be spotty at best... If you have access to a GPS device, you can log the coordinates of your location into an Excel spreadsheet you can grab from http://www.dxfm.com/ (near the bottom of the home page). You can then calculate the distance from your house to the TV tower.

On this same web site there is a "signal propagation" link in the left hand menu column. This "signal propagation" page has excellent information on signal propagation for TV frequency signals in the VHF and UHF ranges. Basically a rule of thumb I use is that a 900 foot TV tower running at FCC licensed power output will travel about 60 miles... above 60 miles distance from the tower and you'll need some "help" to get the signal. Help can come in the form of additional antenna height, a pre-amp, a better antenna, or via "troposcopic ducting". You should also note that most current DTV signals are not running at full power, but are instead running at a reduced power output level.

My GPS coordinates in the above mentioned spreadsheet show my distance from WAVE-DT to be 73 miles... I was fortunate that there was some help in the form of some slight tropo so I could pickup the Daytona 500 Sunday.

WAVE-DT in the Lexington area will be spotty at best...

Well I'm somewhat south of your location but probably about the same distance away. I've been able to get WLKY-DT fairly consistantly at all hours (from an indoor 4228/AP4800 combo no less.) WAVE-DT is indeed another story. Since WLKY and WAVE broadcast from the same location, I can only assume one of the following is occuring:

1) WLKY is currently putting out more power.
2) Channel 47 (frequency-wise) may not propgate as well as 26.
3) Possible adjacent channel interference from channel 46(KET).

One of these days when it warms up and SEC basketball is over, I'm going to try the antenna outdoors. (Don't want to risk screwing-up my alternate CBS feed until then ;) )

HDC

Originally posted by NickR
I live in Rabbit Run (Harrrodsburg Rd in between New Circle & Man o War). Can I easily get an OTA signal without an attic or outdoor antenna? And I'll be watching this on a Hitachi 50v500 - which I've only had a couple of weeks and LOVE so far.

We're neighbors! I live pretty close to you (Off Clay's Mill and Wellington Way) and I can tell you what I am able to get OTA. I am using a MyHD card on a home theater PC in my apartment (there's an antenna in the space above the second bedroom). The antenna is a small UHF antenna left from a previous tenant. I have this (http://mcm.newark.com/NewarkWebCommerce/mcm/en_US/support/catalog/productDetail.jsp?id=33-290) 'noisy' amplifier hooked in. I am able to pick up these digital channels:

13 WKYT-DT
40 WTVQ-DT
46 WKET-DT
67 (PAX, Faith network)

I am able to pick up 13 and 40 consistantly perfectly. 46 and 67 are spotty reception.

I wish I knew what equipment would get me the FOX station in Louisville as well as the WB station in Campbellsville.

Last night I was recording Survivor with my MyHD card on my HTPC off of WKYT-DT and noticed the new format.. 1280x720p, 59.94fps. Previously they were 1920x1080i at 29.97fps. I had been transcoding my recordings to divx AVI for personal archive, no problem with the original format, but this new format has thrown me for a loop. The framerate is causing some skippy-playback and audio sync issues. Does anyone know why the change was made in broadcast format at CBS? Is it a temporary change (I hope so).

Originally posted by BenCJedi
Last night I was recording Survivor with my MyHD card on my HTPC off of WKYT-DT and noticed the new format.. 1280x720p, 59.94fps. Previously they were 1920x1080i at 29.97fps. I had been transcoding my recordings to divx AVI for personal archive, no problem with the original format, but this new format has thrown me for a loop. The framerate is causing some skippy-playback and audio sync issues. Does anyone know why the change was made in broadcast format at CBS? Is it a temporary change (I hope so).

I don't know why they have done that. I can't tell what their format is. I
did notice that they didn't show CSI in HD Thursday night, but were back to
showing HD Friday night.

Originally posted by BenCJedi
Last night I was recording Survivor with my MyHD card on my HTPC off of WKYT-DT and noticed the new format.. 1280x720p, 59.94fps. Previously they were 1920x1080i at 29.97fps.

Humm ... verrrry interrrestingk ... I did notice that they seemed to be having some upconverter / encoder problems on 13-1 a couple of days ago.

Then again, perhaps they are experimenting with trying to squeeze more multicasting into their 19.3Mbps.

Thankfully, WLKY-DT is now within my range 95% of the time .... Grade B cuts both ways baby!!!! ;) :D

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Then again, perhaps they are experimenting with trying to squeeze more multicasting into their 19.3Mbps.
The following link mentions doing a looping newscast 24/7... maybe HDC is correct on the multicasting front...
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=852691

Originally posted by ragamuffin
The following link mentions doing a looping newscast 24/7...

I was under the impression that 13-2 was allocated for this, just haven't implemented loop part yet. Who knows, there's no rhyme or reason to when they actually utilize what they have set up.

I suspect they could be trying to put up an HD feed (at 720p) and have SEC basketball running on the 480i sub without the usual horrible macroblocking on the 480i sub-channel. Given that there's no way KYT is ever going to give up the UK/SEC/JP sports, I could almost live with this senario (temporary of course.)

HDC

But CSI looked so much better in the HD format they were using. Plus it was a snap to encode to divx avi (and still looked great on a 700MB CDR). I had to decimate the framerate by 2 for good divx avi playback with the new format. The drawback to that is the audio going out of sync 3 or so times throughout the encode. It was much simpler with the old format and 29.97fps. I'm guessing WKYT wouldn't have a reason for going back to the old broadcast format would they?

BenCJedi, how small is your indoor antenna? Is it a tabletop or rabbit ear model or something larger? I'm trying to figure out the smallest antenna I need without freaking out the wife with more equipment.

The following chart gives some information on various DTV transmission formats that are possible. It does appear that WKYT-DT can be more economical with a 1280x720px59.94fps rate than with a 1920x1080ix29.97fps rate. Leans in the direction of more multicasting potential...

Here's the link where I extracted this chart:

http://www.miranda.com/library.en/Digital%20Standards/Std_Poster.pdf

http://www.nelsonplain.com/atsc.gif

Originally posted by BenCJedi
I'm guessing WKYT wouldn't have a reason for going back to the old broadcast format would they?

Don't know ... don't really care anymore. WLKY has become my CBS-HD provider of choice ... higher bandwidth, better audio, much better looking SD upconverts compared to WKYT. The difference is stunning - especially on HD NFL broadcasts.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
...higher bandwidth, better audio, much better looking SD upconverts compared to WKYT.
... are they doing the DD 5.1 thing on their audio yet?

Originally posted by ragamuffin
... are they doing the DD 5.1 thing on their audio yet?

Well the 5.1 "light" on my reciever doesn't light up, but the surround mix is a lot more "active" plus the high frequency response is much better. In contrast, the audio on KYT is dull and muddy (for lack of better descriptive terms.) The Grammy broadcast really showed off the difference.

Still, my main beef with WKYT is not that they multicast, it's that 95% of the time they don't bother to use the capability to resolve the JP Sports vs CBS scheduling issues. With 1 analog and 2 digital "services" available, why oh why do we have to wait until 1:30 - 2:00am for Letterman or whatever else got preempted. You'd think they could put up CBS on at least one of those channels ...

Blah ... sign me "Fed Up in KY" ;)

HDC

Originally posted by NickR
BenCJedi, how small is your indoor antenna? Is it a tabletop or rabbit ear model or something larger? I'm trying to figure out the smallest antenna I need without freaking out the wife with more equipment.

Nick.. it's not a tabletop or rabbit ear model. It's a mounted-on-a-pole freebie UHF antenna a previous tenant forgot in the space above the second bedroom. It's around 2.5-3' I would estimate. Here's a picture so you can get an idea (angle corrected so stud is perpendicular to floor, as viewed through ceiling portal)

http://www.strangeseeds.com/pictures/hometheater/AtticAntenna2.JPG

I am finally ready to make the move and purchase a hi-def television. I have a question and thought this might be the best place to ask. I live in Somerset and we get our local stations from Lexington. Does anyone think there is any chance at all of me being able to pick up any of the hi-def signals from Lexington here in Somerset?? I'm about 75 miles from there. Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated. We have Charter cable here and according to them they have no immediate plans to offer any hi-def programming in this area.

Originally posted by ButchKy
Does anyone think there is any chance at all of me being able to pick up any of the hi-def signals from Lexington here in Somerset?? I'm about 75 miles from there.

Humm ... kind of dicey. You may be able to reel in WKYT (CBS) and of course, you have a KET x-mitter in your back yard. WTVQ(ABC) is a long shot, but, stranger things have happened. WLEX (NBC) is still in limbo.

HDC

Don't know if you have seen this:

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its decades-long leadership in television technology, PBS today announced the March 1, 2004 launch of the PBS HD Channel, making PBS the first broadcaster to provide a fully packaged 24/7 channel consisting entirely of High Definition and Widescreen content.
The PBS HD Channel will be available from local PBS stations that have transitioned to digital broadcasting, as well as through local digital cable systems that have agreed to retransmit the digital signal of their local public television station.

"The launch of the PBS HD Channel is a significant milestone in PBS' commitment to the digital transition," said Pat Mitchell, PBS President and CEO. "Local PBS digital stations already offer a range of digital services, including unique, groundbreaking multicasting content. The PBS HD Channel will be a key component of PBS' growing digital portfolio."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040225/dcw001_1.html

I wonder if KET will put this on one of their channels.

I am finally ready to make the move and purchase a hi-def television. I have a question and thought this might be the best place to ask. I live in Somerset and we get our local stations from Lexington. Does anyone think there is any chance at all of me being able to pick up any of the hi-def signals from Lexington here in Somerset?? I'm about 75 miles from there. Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated. We have Charter cable here and according to them they have no immediate plans to offer any hi-def programming in this area.

ButchKY,
I'm in Corbin and I can get nothing from the Lexington stations. WKYT is broadcasting directionally to the southeast, WTVQ to the north and WDKY is going north as well. I do pick up WYMT from Hazard , WATE ABC Knoxville, WBIR NBC Knoxville all HD. WATE is at full power and I bet you could get it as well. You could also try the Louisville stations. Search around here awhile to figure out what all you need. You'll definitely need a rooftop antenna. The Louisville CBS and WATE ABC in Knoxville are both 26 so you'll need a directional antenna (read YAGI) to pick up both. I think this is the reason I have no luck with CBS from Louisville because WATE is so strong (I use a CM 4228). Good Luck. PM me if you need any more help.
Charles

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
Don't know if you have seen this:

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its decades-long leadership in television technology, PBS today announced the March 1, 2004 launch of the PBS HD Channel, making PBS the first broadcaster to provide a fully packaged 24/7 channel consisting entirely of High Definition and Widescreen content.
The PBS HD Channel will be available from local PBS stations that have transitioned to digital broadcasting, as well as through local digital cable systems that have agreed to retransmit the digital signal of their local public television station.

"The launch of the PBS HD Channel is a significant milestone in PBS' commitment to the digital transition," said Pat Mitchell, PBS President and CEO. "Local PBS digital stations already offer a range of digital services, including unique, groundbreaking multicasting content. The PBS HD Channel will be a key component of PBS' growing digital portfolio."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040225/dcw001_1.html


I wonder if KET will put this on one of their channels.


Ask me no questions I tell you no lies.....

Did KET increase power for their Lexington tower? I am getting around 40% signal all the time now recently. It's like I added 6 more channels of educational goodness because it was around 20% signal earlier in the year and wouldn't even lock on most of the time. I made no hardware changes, so I assume something changed to increase their signal strength.

Originally posted by BenCJedi
Did KET increase power for their Lexington tower? I am getting around 40% signal all the time now recently. It's like I added 6 more channels of educational goodness because it was around 20% signal earlier in the year and wouldn't even lock on most of the time. I made no hardware changes, so I assume something changed to increase their signal strength.

Most likely weather and seasonal changes in the atmosphere ... This about the time things start changing. WTVQ has been a bit dicey for me this week, same thing happened last spring (for me anyway.) But I'm sure William will chime in with the official answer ...

HDC

Nope, all KET transmittters have been at full power since day 1.

Horray for changing weather then! Now if the atmosphere would just scoot over some WDKY-DT to my meager antenna in Lexington, that'd be even better. And while it is at it, I woldn't mind it curving over the WB-DT station too (shoestring operation or not).

Originally posted by BenCJedi
Horray for changing weather then! Now if the atmosphere would just scoot over some WDKY-DT to my meager antenna in Lexington, that'd be even better. And while it is at it, I woldn't mind it curving over the WB-DT station too (shoestring operation or not).

... Give it up on WDKY ...

On a related note, bounce/ducting season appears to have returned. Stations were booming in from Cincy and Louisville this morning. Nearly had the much maligned WDRB-DT and even Dayton stations ... Spring can't be far behind :D

HDC

PS: I can't believe how awful WKYT's upconverts look compared to upconverts on WKRC and WLKY ... it's like VHS vs DVD.

Has something happened to the WTVQ-DT (ABC) signal in Lexington? I cannot get a signal to save my life any more (nor can a friend of mine in a different part of town).

I have a rooftop antenna that according to my installer was splitting the CBS/ABC transmitters (I'm on Richmond Rd at the resevoir right before Jacobson park -- both are ~4 miles north of me). CBS comes in loud and clear (as does PBS 42) but ABC isn't even a blip any more.

Any thoughts? Getting up to the antenna for me isn't a real option (simply too afraid of heights, its a 4 story drop off the back side of the house, Oscars in HD not worth that :)) -- so any antenna work is going to require me calling in a contractor (speaking of, any have a favorite in Lexington that knows what they are doing when it comes to TV reception).

Thanks for any sugestions.

Originally posted by jstew9
Has something happened to the WTVQ-DT (ABC) signal in Lexington? I cannot get a signal to save my life any more (nor can a friend of mine in a different part of town).

Interesting ..... They are definately on the air, although the signal has been quite variable of late. (Note: I'm about 35mi from the tower.) I'd head done to the local ratshack, pick up a cheap indoor antenna and try that. (The double bow tie is a good bet.) The signal may actually be skipping over your location (weather conditions.) Or more likely, your roof top antenna may have gotten re-aimed courtesy of Mother-Nature.

Aiming is critical for WTVQ, but WKLE and WKYT are much more forgiving. (I can point my antenna 60deg off axis and still pull in WKLE and WKYT.)

HDC

Any new news on ABC and Insight? I just can't believe that I'm "stuck" watching CBS instead of ABC's HD programs.

FWIW, I've had the PVR for a little more than a month now. I LOVE the fact that I can timeshift DiscoverHD, HDnet(s) and CBS!!! Meh - bravo/espnhd. The performance is ok. I have a few problems using FF sometimes and the guide / interface is just frustrating. I really want ABC's movies.

WYMT problem :confused:

I've been watching WYMT-DT from Hazard for several mos. now as my only channel for CBS-HD. I just can't pull in WKYT and WVLT in Knoxville is too weak as well. Over the past few days I've lost their signal, though. It used to be my strongest one. I looked on the FCC site and they have an
STA for low power still in effect. However, they were at full power until recently AFAIK. Anyone with any ideas? Can multipath conditions be so bad sometimes that a strong signal drops out altogether? I still can register a signal, but it's erratic going from weak to moderate and back again. No picture. Not even mapping of the station on my LG tuner. I've emailed their CE and am awaiting a response.

Charles

I live in north Richmond and can't believe NBC in Lexington and Fox in Danville aren't broadcasting digital yet. Does anyone know if it's in the works?

Thanks!

Paul
Richmond,KY

I believe Fox is broadcasting, but at such low power that the signal is very difficult to receive. I can barely register a signal in Corbin on ch. 4 with a CM Stealthtenna and Blonder Tongue preamp at about 20 ft in the air.

WLEX has had all sorts of problems and it sounds like has drug it's feet in getting started. Supposedly, it was a problem obtaining a construction permit. They are supposed to be on Ch. 39 at 1000kw according to the FCC site but I've not heard anyone say when they'll start. Maybe since they're late they'll go to full power quickly. I can't receive WKYT or WTVQ in Corbin either as they are broadcasting directionally and not towards the south. WYMT is strong from Hazard for me though (the signal seems to be back at full strength now, didn't hear any word on what the problem was).

Charles

Edit: The WYMT CE did respond to my email and indeed their was a problem with their transmitter power supply for a day or two which has now been corrected.

I noticed last week's Survivor, Early Show, CSI and Letterman for WKYT were back at 1920x1080i @ 29.97fps. I think all their programming was back to that resolution/framerate. I guess they are still playing around. I hope they keep it in that format.

What's weird for me is that I am using a MyHD card for my HDTV/DTV and stuff that is shown in 1920x1080i @29.97fps plays perfectly when live, even when recording, but if the signal is 1280x720p @59.94fps and I am watching and/or recording live TV I have bad lip sync issues. I can play back those 720p recordings (non-live) and the audio is in sync perfctly with the video. Perhaps it is a hardware problem with my home theater PC and the MyHD card. It is on slower hardware, so that could be it. But anyway The MyHD card is fantastic. I can record HD programming, edit out commercials, remove the unwanted subchannels and fit a 44-minute show in full HD/DTV on a single DVDR disc. Of course the only way to play them back is on my home theater PC hardware, but it is nice to be able to clean off the harddrive once in awhile and have a nice archive of HD movies and shows for my expanding HD connection.

You're right.. I heard mention about the Sinclair thing with WDKY-4, so it is doubtful with a bigger antenna in the attic I would even get a blip for FOX-DT at my location. Is there no chance in hell they might point their HD antenna towards Lexington and kick up the power several notches? Or do you think Insight is going to pick it up? I only use Insight for their Internet service because of horrible experiences in the past with their shoddy TV signal. That was before they went to using some digital though. A few friends got the new Insight PVR and said the standard def digital channels look horrible. Did Insight fix that yet?

BenCjedi,
Where are you located? I'm in Corbin which is 60 mi away and I can get a weak signal intermittently but have never gotten a picture. Depending on which STA and antenna they are using, Fox is either broadcasting due south at 7.5kw or easterly at 26kw. It's probably the lower power or more people could get it in Lex. I would think. In any case, if I can register a signal down here, it might be worth a try for you depending on your location. The antenna is on the SE side of Lex., not in Danville as you may already know.

I don't have access to Insight down here. You're lucky to have a cable system that has heard of HD. The people at Charter don't even know the difference b/w "digital" cable and DTV.

Charles

Originally posted by BenCJedi
You're right.. I heard mention about the Sinclair thing with WDKY-4, so it is doubtful with a bigger antenna in the attic I would even get a blip for FOX-DT at my location. Is there no chance in hell they might point their HD antenna towards Lexington and kick up the power several notches?

Very little ... why?

1) Sinclair wants to move their tower.
2) Sinclair wants to get re-assigned from Ch4 to Ch22 ...
3) Sinclair isn't going to invest more than they have to, to meet the minimum FCC requirements.

HDC

PS: For the record, the entry for the 7.5kW STA is what WDKY is actually using.

PPS: You're not really missing much as there is no FOX WS on WDKY.

PPPS: Expect Sinclair to drag this out as long as they can continue to get away with it.

I talked to an engineer at WDKY back in November. He said they are going to put up a tower over by Richmond that would cover their entire viewing area sometime in the Spring. I sent them an email 2 weeks ago about the status of this or a change a plans. I still have not received a reply from them.

Originally posted by cpcat
BenCjedi,
Where are you located? I'm in Corbin which is 60 mi away and I can get a weak signal intermittently but have never gotten a picture. Depending on which STA and antenna they are using, Fox is either broadcasting due south at 7.5kw or easterly at 26kw. It's probably the lower power or more people could get it in Lex. I would think. In any case, if I can register a signal down here, it might be worth a try for you depending on your location. The antenna is on the SE side of Lex., not in Danville as you may already know.

I don't have access to Insight down here. You're lucky to have a cable system that has heard of HD. The people at Charter don't even know the difference b/w "digital" cable and DTV.

Charles

I'm on the south side of Lexington, very close to Fayette Mall. It doesn't sound like I would get any benefit from WDKY-DT anyhow, being they don't show any programs here in digital WS (which is what I wanted/hoped for). I have waivers on my dish for NY and LA programming and actually prefer their broadcasting style over local here (less annoying crawls and garbage all over the screen). I'd accept the garbage on the screen if I could pick up digital WS FOX here. It's taunting that FOX shows "available in digital widescreen" on the bottom of some TV series I watch and I have no way to get it. Hopefully changes are forced in the future and that format will actually make it here for broadcast.

I originally posted this in the HDTV Recorders section but didn't get much of a response there . . . .

I'm trying to view and / or record with the 6208 from Insight with a JVC 30K. I connected the 6208 to the JVC 30K via Firewire and then component output from the JVC to the TV. The picture on HD channels is about 90% perfect but I am seeing a pretty constant "line" of pixelization and some other random pixelization with sound cutouts and an infrequent total lost of picture and sound.

I was originally told by Insight that the Firewire ports were not active, however, in the debug menu of the 6208, it indicates 1 1394 port is active and this seems to be the case as I get absolutely nothing out of the 2nd 1394 port on the 6208.

If I unplug the power to the 6208 and then plug it back in . . . for a couple of minutes I have perfect sound and picture coming through the JVC 30K. However, after about 2 minutes maybe, the cable box gets an update which sets the correct time (it gets reset to 12:00 with the power unplugged). As soon as the time correction happens on the 6208, I start getting the pixelization and sound problems.

Does anyone know or have a guess if this is because of how I have the equipment setup or is this some intentional 6208 configuration being set by Insight to prevent the Firewire output from working?

I just wonder because it consistenly plays perfectly after ungplugging the 6208 and then plugging it back in. Perfect picture and sound . . . UNTIL the time gets set on the 6208 after about 3 minutes. And always at that precise moment the pixelization and sound dropouts start. And I've tried this on all the HD channels available - both local and non-local / premium - and it's the same story. If it didn't always happen at the instant the time gets set on the 6208, I'd almost think it was a bandwidth issue.

DaveStrorm,

I am doing this EXACT same thing except I'm using VirtualDVHS with my G5. And like you I get terrible pixelixation and sound dropouts. I just assumed the 6208 is a not the most robust of DVRs and called it a day. Maybe I can rip the hard drive out... :) Anyway, just wanted to let you know that you are not the only one, and I am saddened you haven't gotten any better response - keep us posted if you do.

Well I've taken the OTA jump - somewhat successfully. I have the Hitachi 50v500 (LCD rear projection) and I just picked up the LG LST-3510A (combo HD reciever and HD-DVD) hooked up via a $30 amplified RatShack indoor antenna. I can recieve 27-1, 2, 3 and it looks like 27-1 is HD, 27-2 is SD and I can't see anything on 27-3. I tried to watch the UK/UAB game and I guess it wasn't broadcast in HD?!? It didnt look any different via OTA than it did via analog Insight cable. The bad news is that I was watching Cold Case, it was the first available show in HD and I was far from impressed. I could barely tell a difference - if at all. Am I doing something wrong?

I guess I need a more powerful antenna to pick up the other two or three channels, right?!?

I live in the Rabbit Run subdiv (Harrodsburg Rd, btwn New Circle & MOW)

BTW, the 3510 is a very neat device. Its the first combo device, plus it upconverts DVD's to 720p or 1080i via DVI and component. The bad news is that the DVI colors are way off from the Component colors.

NickR,
WKYT is VHF ch. 13 (it remaps to 27 on the LG). WTVQ is uhf ch. 40 while FOX is VHF 4. You'll need at least a combo uhf/vhf indoor antenna. I'm in Corbin so I obviously need an outdoor one. Maybe someone else from Lexington can give you advice. I've heard alot of talk about the Silver Sensor. You'll be surprised how directional the reception is as well. Try playing with the direction on the antenna you have. There's also KET which everyone up there seems to get without any trouble. You can go to TVradioworld.com to find all the stations in your range. You can also go to http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp and punch in your coordinates (need to be at your exact location) to get bearings to all the stations in your area. To get your coordinates go to http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?... find your location in the aerial photos and click "info" in the top right corner. Use the decimal version for lat/long and longitude enter as a negative value. Magnetic variation was about -4 last I checked.

If you couldn't tell the difference on Cold Case you werent
watching it HD. It's not hard to tell and HD is always 16:9.

Good Luck
Charles

Nick, I am practically down the road from you (close to Meijer). 27-3 is just a radar weather map that continuously updates as the thing sweeps across the screen. I usually have to wait a few seconds for the weather map to appear.

You should be able to get ch40-1, 40-2 and PBS from our location. I am using a small 3' or so UHF antenna in the attic of my apartment. My signal is weak for PBS (around 20%), so the picture pixelates in and out and signal is sometimes non-existant. I could try re-pointing the antenna, but I like hitting 87-100% signal for WKYT since I do most watching on there anyway. Admittingly I have a 'noisy' signal amp (I have been told) inmy setup too. I don't watch Cold Case, but CSI in HD looks amazing on my 57" Sony HD-ready set. You were right about the UK games.. the last 2 were only in standard def and wouldn't have looked any better than off cable. They looked pretty pixelated to me actually.. like WKY didn't turn up the full bitrate potential of their broadcast or something (they were not multicasting other games, as in some areas around the country either).


Originally posted by NickR
Well I've taken the OTA jump - somewhat successfully. I have the Hitachi 50v500 (LCD rear projection) and I just picked up the LG LST-3510A (combo HD reciever and HD-DVD) hooked up via a $30 amplified RatShack indoor antenna. I can recieve 27-1, 2, 3 and it looks like 27-1 is HD, 27-2 is SD and I can't see anything on 27-3. I tried to watch the UK/UAB game and I guess it wasn't broadcast in HD?!? It didnt look any different via OTA than it did via analog Insight cable. The bad news is that I was watching Cold Case, it was the first available show in HD and I was far from impressed. I could barely tell a difference - if at all. Am I doing something wrong?

I guess I need a more powerful antenna to pick up the other two or three channels, right?!?

I live in the Rabbit Run subdiv (Harrodsburg Rd, btwn New Circle & MOW)

BTW, the 3510 is a very neat device. Its the first combo device, plus it upconverts DVD's to 720p or 1080i via DVI and component. The bad news is that the DVI colors are way off from the Component colors.

Originally posted by BenCJedi
... 27-3 is just a radar weather map that continuously updates as the thing sweeps across the screen. I usually have to wait a few seconds for the weather map to appear.

The WX radar has been off since the NCAA tourney started ... I'd expect it to return soon ;) As for KET, remember that the tower is down around Clay's Ferry so you Lex dwellers need to aim south to get the max signal. Note that lately, I've been getting 42 fine off of the back of my 4228 pointed at Louisville ... ( often getting 17 out of the 'ville too :D)

As for the upconverted UK games, WKYT actually looked better than WLKY (which doesn't multicast.) So it appears that raw bit-rate isn't always the whole enchilada. Don't know what's going on there, since Letterman and most other CBS upcons always looks better on WLKY than WKYT

Finally, expect WDKY-DT (Fox) to be nearly impossible to get in Lex due to the antenna radiation pattern.

HDC

Well I did get to watch CSI and that was amazing. We also switched over for Everyone loves Raymond, and that was pretty good. It was way better than SD, but still a little disappointing. But CSI was GREAT! A lot depends on cameras, focusing, and set design I guess.

My antenna is an amplified VHF extend-a-arm with a UHF adjustable loop in the middle. So maybe I can play with spinning the UHF loop to pick up WTVQ. I'm getting about 80% signal for KYT. I really wish WLEX would get in the game. We watch NBC 90% of the time. I bet Vegas looks GREAT in HD. WLEX, IF YOU'RE LISTENING - HURRY UP - YOU'RE WAY BEHIND - YOU'LL LOSE CUSTOMERS!!

Do I need to do anything different for getting UHF signals that I'm doing to get VHF WKYT? Is there a setting on the antenna or STB or TV that I need to change or should the box be able to pick up both on the same scan?

I thought I'd like DVI better on the LG, but component seems to have more vibrant colors. The only complaint I have with the LG 3510a is that it only has one coax input. So I cannot hook up my cable connection and OTA antenna at the same time. But oh well, for a first to market STB, its pretty good.

Originally posted by NickR
Do I need to do anything different for getting UHF signals that I'm doing to get VHF WKYT? Is there a setting on the antenna or STB or TV that I need to change or should the box be able to pick up both on the same scan?

One thing you might try is the Radioshack double bow tie antenna for UHF, (at your distance, I'd bet it work ok for WKYT-DT too.) Your LG box should be able to sort out VHF/UHF on it's own - just make sure it set for OTA and not cable.

HDC

WKYT did multicast for at least some of the games from Kansas City that were in HD. I saw at least one case on Friday and one on Sunday where 27.1 was showing the HD game from KC and 27.2 was showing a different game (the same one being shown on WKYT on Insight).

For this weekend, only the games from St. Louis (Fri. & Sun.) will be in HD so this is another chance to see if they do it again. Fri. at 7:10, the UAB vs. Kansas game will be in HD and the Xavier vs. Texas game at 7:27 will not be. Then, the Nevada vs. Ga. Tech game at around 9:40 will be in HD and the Illinois vs Duke game at around 9:57 will not be. I hope they do multicast because I'd like to see all those games with me controlling when to switch between them vs being at the whim of CBS.

Can a UHF antenna read the Fox VHF signal? Or do you need two antennas? Are there any "standard" antennas that I should look at. Is there anything that can consistently pick up NBC WAVE from Lville from my location (rabbit run subdiv).

Originally posted by NickR
Can a UHF antenna read the Fox VHF signal? Or do you need two antennas? Are there any "standard" antennas that I should look at. Is there anything that can consistently pick up NBC WAVE from Lville from my location (rabbit run subdiv).

Re: FOX VHF ... nope, you'll need a "full" sized VHF (or UHF/VHF combo) antenna even if you're in the right place ... again, Lex dwellers are pretty much beyond all hope right now. I haven't heard one single success story from folks north of the WDKY tower.

Re: WAVE ... well I'm still working on the "consistant" part myself, but it's getting easier as the atmosphere warms up. It might help if I get the antenna outside too :D For the record: For the Louisville shots, I'm using a ChannelMaster 4228 with a Winegard AP4800 pre-amp placed in a very fortunate signal "hot-spot."

HDC

Do you guys know anything about the # & quality of HD channels available on Insight? I thought I may be able to only subscribe to their digital cable service and hopefully pick up the unscrambled QAM HD channels like DiscoveryHD or ESPNHD - as well as the local HD channels - with the LG 3510a's built-in tuner. Does anyone know if this will work. Currently we have the regular analog cable service and the LG will pick up some of the movie channels and all of the digital music channels, but nothing else, not even the regular analog cable channel programming.

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
I haven't heard one single success story from folks north of the WDKY tower.
the one and only success story I've heard of north of the WDKY tower shows a sample image grabbed at 18 miles away...
http://www.dxfm.com/tv_images_digital.htm

Originally posted by ragamuffin
the one and only success story I've heard of north of the WDKY tower shows a sample image grabbed at 18 miles away...


... Looks like somebody has *way* too much time on their hands. That's some pretty amazing DX'ing ... the farthest I've managed so far is Dayton (~120-130mi), but then again all my antennas are inside.

Ragamuffin ... how's your WAVE-DT reception of late? I'm guessing I still need about another 5-6dB of signal to get them consistantly under normal "LOS" propagation.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Ragamuffin ... how's your WAVE-DT reception of late? I'm guessing I still need about another 5-6dB of signal to get them consistantly under normal "LOS" propagation.
I see them about mid 40's on my HiPix's signal meter these days (no splitters in the line, and my CM-7777 pre-amp is in the line). A signal at this level on my system drops out for about a second every 30 seconds or so... More on than off, but not really watchable. If I can get the signal level above 50, then it's rock solid. I pick up both CBS and ABC locally in the mid 80's on the meter (which I assume is max). So I'm a few db short of getting WAVE-DT perfectly these days. As things continue to warm up I'm hoping that some tropo enhancement will make up for the few db I'm currently short. MY GPS coordinates put me at 73 miles away from the WAVE-DT tower.

Originally posted by ragamuffin
... As things continue to warm up I'm hoping that some tropo enhancement will make up for the few db I'm currently short. MY GPS coordinates put me at 73 miles away from the WAVE-DT tower.

Yep same here, WAVE has been coming in ok between 9pm-signoff more often than not lately; at the same time, WLKY-DT is usually pegged at 100% on my E86. It's funny that WLKY often comes in stronger than WTVQ here (using a different antenna/amp.) Oh well, I think I'm going to wait until all the leaves come out before I try moving the 4228 outside. I'd hate to find a hotspot then loose it to vegetation in a few weeks.

HDC

Does anyone know what QAM channels Insight broadcasts? I've read that a lot of cable companies will not scramble their HD channels, and if that's so, I should be able to subscribe to the cheapest digital cable package and still receive the HD channels because my LG 3510a stb can decode QAM (unscrambled) channels. Any help....

I read somewhere that they do scramble. I'm not 100% sure though, nor do I remember where it was. Maybe here somewhere. It seems that maybe it was an email from a insight tech.

All of a sudden my signal strength for WTVQ-DT has gotten weak (from around 84% down to 34%), so I moved my UHF attic antenna in a position where I could raise it a bit higher. I had to turn the antenna a bit to increase signal, but in doing do WKYT-DT got weaker signal too (100% down to 69%). Now I have both WTVQ and WKYT around 69% with KET around 50%. Could my signal amp be the problem? It has been described as 'noisy' when I posted about it last on here. I also replaced the twinlead from the antenna to the signal amp with RG-59 as well as moved some electricity in the attic with the signal amp, so it is much, much closer to the antenna.

Is the springtime tree blooming reducing my signals? I thought I read something about tropo enhancement this time of year. Any ideas why my signal strength on all digital channels would be decreasing?

Originally posted by BenCJedi
.... Is the springtime tree blooming reducing my signals? I thought I read something about tropo enhancement this time of year. Any ideas why my signal strength on all digital channels would be decreasing?

Could be all of the above. This dratted cutoff-low weather system (and associated wind) has been playing havoc with my reception all week. My guess (at the moment) is that the cause of your trouble is wind induced multipath - sprouting leaves can be a factor.

HDC

Well this is weird, just popped on Fox to watch 24 and then figured, let's see if Fox digital will come in. Low and behold I'm getting a signal now. They must've cranked up their antenna!

There's been a little tropo afoot the last several days, which could explain it. I truly hope they've increased power, but I'd be surprised.

I've briefly been able to tune WJHL CBS out of Johnson City for the first time sporadically over the past few days as well as a brief shot of a religious station out of Virginia. I'm pretty sure it's tropospheric conditions which explain it. The weird thing is that some of the stations I usually have solid I've had some trouble with during the same time period.

Charles

Could be, it was coming in at about 80% according to my Sony HD200 receiver.

Is Fox still broadcasting here shortly after 11:00pm? I'm searching but getting nothing on DTV/VHF-4 (near Man O'War at Harrodsburg Road).

pczarapa, where are you located generally in the Lexington area?

I'm in far north Madison county, near Boone's Trace. I am still getting the digital signal pretty strong at 70%

Originally posted by ragamuffin
Is Fox still broadcasting here shortly after 11:00pm? I'm searching but getting nothing on DTV/VHF-4 (near Man O'War at Harrodsburg Road).

As far as I can tell, they run 24/7 on the digital side ... in fact, channel 4 tends to stay up and running even in those "rare" cases when 56 gets knocked off by lightning. ;)

HDC

message sanitized for your protection

Does anyone know if channel 4 will be WDKY's permanant digital location? I thought I had seen a while back that they were waiting on a UHF channel assignment.

(Long story short, channel 4 doesn't work for me now as I pipe dish 811 output throughout the house on channel 4. Would rather not change my setup if I don't have to!)

Originally posted by Gruber22
Does anyone know if channel 4 will be WDKY's permanant digital location? I thought I had seen a while back that they were waiting on a UHF channel assignment.

(Long story short, channel 4 doesn't work for me now as I pipe dish 811 output throughout the house on channel 4. Would rather not change my setup if I don't have to!)

WDKY has asked for channel 22 twice and has been denied at least once by the FCC. So it looks like they are probably stuck on 4 at least until the analog shutoff.

As for your 811 reciever: using the rf output on channel 4 shouldn't be a problem.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
As for your 811 reciever: using the rf output on channel 4 shouldn't be a problem.HDC

Thanks for the info on channel 22, HDC. That does sound familiar.

As to the 811, it is only a problem because the OTA coming in to the 811 already has the channel 4 signal from the 811 spliced in! So I'm thinking that is stomping on the digital channel 4 signal since I get 0% when adding it (in Gtown, by the way). I added (just for fun) an ANALOG channel 4 on the 811 setup and it was a freaky signal (kind of like looking into two mirrors at opposite ends of a room) with a feedback like hum.

If WDKY stays on 4 then I might just use a clean OTA into the 811 (before the channel 4 combine) to solve my problem.

According to the FCC site, they've applied for reassignment to ch. 22. I don't know if they're still actively pushing for it though. I'd rather they went to 22 myself as I'm a little more set up for distance via UHF.
Whatever they do, I'm sure I echo the sentiments of all that it'd be nice if they'd get on with it. I'm lucky in that I can get WTNZ out of Knoxville down here but it never hurts to have more than one choice.

Charles

Originally posted by Gruber22
As to the 811, it is only a problem because the OTA coming in to the 811 already has the channel 4 signal from the 811 spliced in!

Ok - you lost me there ... must have diagram ... Anyway, if by Gtown you mean Georgetown, you're chances of getting WDKY-DT are very slim due to the directional antenna being pointed away from you.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Ok - you lost me there ... must have diagram ... HDC

811 RCA composite outs ---> channel 4 modulator ---> routed to basement, combined with OTA antenna as channel 4 -----> amped, split, and routed thoughout house ----> comes back into same 811 room and into OTA antenna input on 811.

Originally chose channel 4 as channel 3 from Louis. was causing minor interference.

I will test a direct OTA connection before channel 4 combine to see if I have any luck with WDKY.

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Anyway, if by Gtown you mean Georgetown, you're chances of getting WDKY-DT are very slim due to the directional antenna being pointed away from you.


Yes, I do mean Georgetown. I know they were transmitting with little power and directionally but I thought the last few posts indicated that they had increased power or maybe even turned on the Clays Ferry transmitter.
If they haven't started with Clays Ferry, then you are right, Georgetown is likely a lost cause even with more power.

Originally posted by Gruber22
811 RCA composite outs ---> channel 4 modulator ---> routed to basement, combined with OTA antenna as channel 4 -----> amped, split, and routed thoughout house ----> comes back into same 811 room and into OTA antenna input on 811.

Humm ... not exactly what I would have done ... gives me headaches just thinking about it ;)

As for the earlier posts re WDKY, I'm pretty sure they were due to very strong thermal ducting over the area ... I've managed to pull in even weaker stations from 76mi out under similar conditions. Then again, all you can do is give it a try ...

HDC

PS: did I really type you're instead of your? ... must have more coffee

Per KET website:

KET is to expand PBS HD/WS programming to a full primetime schedule starting May 1!!!!! Outstanding. .... Congrats to KET and the mysterious Mr. Smith.

HDC

http://www.ket.org/dtv/programs.htm
http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules/tvschedules_hd.html

Two questions:

Since LEX is not available for HD, is anyone getting NBC in HD? What station are you picking up and with what equipment?

I am using rabbit ears right now and can get all the channels but FOX. I am looking to get an antenna to mount in the attic, but space is limited. Any suggestions? (I live in Hartland, Armstrong Mill side)

Thanks!

Bfdhe,
I believe folks go for WAVE in Louisville but that will require more than an indoor antenna. I'm in Corbin, so I watch WBIR in Knoxville.

Ragamuffin,
The PBS-HD on KET is great. It would even be better if WKSO in Somerset could get the audio to sync with the video. They've also been multicasting two other channels simultaneously which makes for a noticeable drop in PQ. The Tennessee and North Carolina stations only show one other channel while HD is on. In fact, the Tennessee stations show a continuous PBS-HD feed with only one other subchannel. This is the best use of bandwidth IMO, who watches those other channels anyway?

Charles
Edit: Bfdhe, I doubt you could swing WAVE from your attic. You'd need to go outdoors to get it reliably. A CM 4228 with an unobstructed view to the northwest and a CM 7777 or 7775 preamp would be a start.

Bdfhe,
Hear's my antenna.
You could likely receive WAVE with much less work (see above recc.)

Charles

Originally posted by cpcat
Bdfhe,
Hear's my antenna.
You could likely receive WAVE with much less work (see above recc.)

Charles

Thanks for the pics, but I doubt my Homeowners association would be thrilled with that. I will need something for in the attic or a little more hidden.

Originally posted by cpcat
The PBS-HD on KET is great. It would even be better if WKSO in Somerset could get the audio to sync with the video.
The Lexington PBS on DT-42 had audio sync issues as well this past weekend. I gave up trying to determine how far off it was... but it was well over 2 seconds...

Bfdhe,
HOA's can't legally keep you from erecting an antenna. In fact, the FCC has laid out specific laws protecting a homeowner's rights to OTA reception. Basically, you have the right to erect an antenna up to 10 ft above your highest roofline if necessary to provide adequate reception. You can go even higher but it has to comply with "local safety codes"or something to that effect. This would particularly apply to the Lexington area since reception of NBC/FOX is so difficult. There are multiple threads on this in the avsforum. Search with "HOA "or homeowner's association and you'll see what I mean.
Charles

Edit: Actually, congress passed the law. The FCC just tends to be the authority to enforce it.

Originally posted by cpcat
Bfdhe,
HOA's can't legally keep you from erecting an antenna..... Charles

Thanks, I will look into it. However, I still have the Wife factor too. :D

Originally posted by ragamuffin
The Lexington PBS on DT-42 had audio sync issues as well this past weekend. I gave up trying to determine how far off it was... but it was well over 2 seconds...

The way KET is wired up ... if it affects one station, it affects them all. William probably just needs to do a bit of tweaking to match up the audio/video feeds. (If he's not still mad at us ;) )

HDC

Check it tonight, We had a problem here over the weekend and since we 're on no overtime status I couldn't get in until after midnight on Saturday and had to develop a workaround to a firmware issue in the HD encoder.

William

William,
How about the multicasting issue? Do you plan to commonly broadcast 3 channels at once when the HD feed is on? It seems to negatively effect the picture quality.
Charles

Yes, KET will continue to broadcast the three channels during prime time but I am working to reduce the payload for the SD services..

There are several reasons:

1. The KET1 service is also decoded at the transmitter sites to feed the analog transmitters.

2. KET2 is delivered statewide via DTV to OTA viewers and is also carried in by many local cable companies as well as decoded at the Louisville site to feed the KET2 analog transmitter on Ch. 68.

3. KET is required by the FCC to simulcast analog programming on the DTV service at least 75 percent of the time and next year it will be 100 percent of the time. We comply with the 100 percent requirement now ( see reason 1)

Originally posted by William Smith
Check it tonight

I plan on it, nothing much on commercial TV 'til CSI ;). At one point Saturday night, I noticed there was audio but no video on KET4 during "Innovations." I figured that it was just some growing-pains since that show was ok earlier in the week.

HDC

Originally posted by William Smith
Check it tonight,

Update:

William,
I checked KET4 last night between 8pm-10pm. The audio sync was fixed, but there were occasional audio dropouts through out the period. 1 and 2 did not seem to have any dropout problems.

HDC

about the new KET,

Looked much better on Monday night. Excited to see the entire PBS HD/WS schedule. Thanks.

-Reagan

Did anyone else lose the signal from Ch. 27 yesterday afternoon and continued on through the early evening?

I could pick up KET so I don't think it was my antenna or box.

Originally posted by pjohnscpa
Did anyone else lose the signal from Ch. 27 yesterday afternoon and continued on through the early evening?

Digital or analog? I'm pretty sure both were running, however this is the time of year when things tend to get really squirrely with RF propagation in the afternoon. Trees are are almost in full foliage, winds kicking up, atmospheric ionization, thermal ducting, etc, etc. You might have trouble with 13 if you're trying to get by with a UHF only antenna. OTOH, Cincy and Dayton have been booming in during the early morning hours (>100mi for me.)

HDC

I was wondering what the regulation for antenna mounting is for someone renting an apartment. I currently have a UHF antenna in the attic space area, but know if it were outside my reception would probably increase dramatically. I know I have exclusive use of my balcony and currently use it (and have for the last 4+ years) for my satellite dish mount I created (5 gallon bucket of cement w/ 15' water pipe). I had to overshoot some trees around my apartment that I could not obliterate (I wish) in order to get a signal on my dish.

I would like to mount the antenna outside just below the satellite dish on the water pipe, but am concerned the property owner may object. Can they do so? My balcony is inaccessible from anywhere below it. The antenna could act like a sail on a boat and move the pole such that my satellite dish would lose reception, though the trees block the wind somewhat. I am wondering how high I can increase the length of my water pipe and remain in regulation since there's another 10' from the top of the current mount to the roof on the apartment (where I am not allowed to mount a dish, so I assume antenna would apply). Maybe with some guidewires anchored to my balcony I could increase the height and mount the antenna higher? If I were not stuck living in apartment I would go crazy with antennas (if the wife factor wasn't in check) :)

I just got this reply from Dave Powell at WLEX on the status
of their construction permit:

Nothing on the CP, but corporate let me order the transmitter and encoder
(which cost $100K more than the transmitter). They feel that we can push
the CP this way, and we really want to be on for August Olympics.

Dave


Hopefully they can get this done by the Olympics.

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Digital or analog? I'm pretty sure both were running, however this is the time of year when things tend to get really squirrely with RF propagation in the afternoon. Trees are are almost in full foliage, winds kicking up, atmospheric ionization, thermal ducting, etc, etc. You might have trouble with 13 if you're trying to get by with a UHF only antenna. OTOH, Cincy and Dayton have been booming in during the early morning hours (>100mi for me.)

HDC

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I was talking about the digital channels. I still cannot pick it up at all. The weird thing is that my signal strength for WKYT-DT is usually pretty strong. I will check out a few things tonight and report back tomorrow. Thanks.

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
I just got this reply from Dave Powell at WLEX on the status
of their construction permit:

Nothing on the CP, but corporate let me order the transmitter and encoder
(which cost $100K more than the transmitter). They feel that we can push
the CP this way, and we really want to be on for August Olympics.

Dave


Hopefully they can get this done by the Olympics.


Which means this is a baby transmitter..

HD encoders are under $100k

I've tried this before and due to early/poor firmware this trick did not work.. however Insight updated automagically the Motorola 6802 firmware from 7.07 to 7.10 and it works! I was able to take the resulting files and play them back on my myHD card properly. Setting up the Mac to capture these files is detailed at this URL:
http://mac_hdtv_timer.home.comcast.net/
Once I had streams on my Mac, I was able to use HDTV2MPEG2 over a network share to cut out commercials and split the files for easy FAT32 consumption :) I put them on the HTPC and they played perfectly via the myHD card - apparently the streams don't have to be exactly 19Mpbs or the capture card doesn't care that much.. Let the archiving begin, good luck!

Rob


[Edit] I thought this was a Mac/D-VHS deck owner solution only, but there MAY be a PC solution at this URL:
http://www.ptie.org/bsd/
If anyone has success with the Moto 6802 and those instructions do tell..

Here is a thread with info about WLEX. It starts about midway through.

Some of the regulars here posted the info, but just incase others missed it, here it is.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=402080

Any news about insight adding ABC to their HD lineup?

I was talking to an installer last night and he claimed the impass was over local ABC wanting Insight to carry all of their digital feeds. Insight it seems only wants to pay for their main feed.

Just FYI on the WLEX situation.

Pax's digital is on 21
and WDKY has an application in for Ch 22.

Originally posted by William Smith
Just FYI on the WLEX situation.

Pax's digital is on 21
and WDKY has an application in for Ch 22.

Yep ... but, WDKY has already been turned down at least once for the switch to 22. The problem is the Columbus(or Dayton), OH NBC analog station on 22, which lately has been coming in here quite nicely during the wee hours. I'm beginning to think WLEX may be out of luck until the analog shutoffs. Unless, of course, the TBN station and WLEX could agree to stay at medium to low power levels until the death-of-analog.

HDC

HDC,

What do you think of this?

Attached below are screenshots taken here at the SAME TIME(within a few seconds) of WLEX 18 (left - 107 miles - Az. 180) when it was booming in here via a little short range tropo scatter for hours and hours on morning of 6/3/03 -- and, at right local WBDT-DT 18 Dayton(12 miles - Az. 42 - analog is on 26) - No dropouts! WBDT-DT's "full power" CP is "only" 35KW "DTV" ERP non DA ... I think that's what they're running, and have been since they first came up in early 03.

Anyhow -- I took the screenshot of WBDT-DT off my Dayton antenna, then immediately switched the a/b switch to my Hi-gain antenna w/rotor, aimed towards Cincy/Lexington at the time. I've seen this same situation quite a number of times .... Of course, because of WBDT-DT's "DT Snow" coming in "off the side" I don't see WLEX as often, or as well as I used to when its just a weak signal, as I did before WBDT-DT came on the air ..

Oh, BTW, as long as I'm posting here ... I thought WAVE+WKYT did an excellent job with the storm coverage during those big storms (with the tornado N of Lexington) that rolled through over a week ago ...

Originally posted by Nitewatchman
HDC,

What do you think of this?

Attached below are screenshots taken here at the SAME TIME(within a few seconds) of WLEX 18 (left - 107 miles - Az. 180) when it was booming in here via a little short range tropo scatter for hours and hours on morning of 6/3/03 -- ....



I had a similar occurance one morning with the Hazard KET analog xmitter and the Cincy NBC digital station (RF 35) ... didn't even have to move my antenna. :D



Oh, BTW, as long as I'm posting here ... I thought WAVE+WKYT did an excellent job with the storm coverage during those big storms (with the tornado N of Lexington) that rolled through over a week ago ...

Agreed ... I was cycling between WLKY, WAVE, WKYT, WLEX and WTVQ and all of them were doing a fine job. I can't understand all the people that wrote in to the Courier-Journal complaining about the non-stop coverage. What is one life saved compared to a bit of temporary inconvienence? So I missed the burn off of "Line of Fire," big deal, I'll get over it.

HDC

Been kinda slow in here so I thought a post a reply I got back from Mr DTV
when I sent a question in on WDKY FOX getting a bigger antenna or increasing power so we could receive it in Lexington:

As far as I know, we are in the process of completing an agreement that
will allow our station to change location, increase height and power.
So, in a word, "YES". WDKY is also scheduled to carry/broadcast HD
with
the upcoming schedule starting in September.

Happy Viewing!

Sincerely, "Mr. DTV"

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
Been kinda slow in here so I thought a post a reply I got back from Mr DTV
when I sent a question in on WDKY FOX getting a bigger antenna or increasing power so we could receive it in Lexington:

As far as I know, we are in the process of completing an agreement that
will allow our station to change location, increase height and power.
So, in a word, "YES". WDKY is also scheduled to carry/broadcast HD
with
the upcoming schedule starting in September.

Happy Viewing!

Sincerely, "Mr. DTV"

That is EXCELLENT news!! I can't wait to be able to pick up FOX digitally OTA in Lexington. Did they say if they would be switching from VHF to UHF?

Originally posted by BenCJedi
That is EXCELLENT news!! I can't wait to be able to pick up FOX digitally OTA in Lexington. Did they say if they would be switching from VHF to UHF?

Here's that status as far as we (thanks to Nitewatchman) can determine from the filings on FCC site:

1) WDKY has secured a CP to move their *analog* tower from it's current location to around Clay's Ferry.

2) WDKY has another application for their digital service (on VHF - 4 ) to be co-located with the analog tower above. This application has *not been approved yet.* (Note: power increase to 26.6kW and much more favorable radiation pattern.)

Speculation: I suspect the digital application will not be approved until WDKY actually builds the new analog tower.

3) All previous applications to change from channel 4 to channel 22 have been denied or dismissed.

HDC

PS: WDKY has a history of "finding" or "planning" new tower sites, only to have some type of "problem" crop up to nix the whole affair. So I'll believe that we'll have FOX-HD in September, when I actually see it ;)

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Update:

William,
I checked KET4 last night between 8pm-10pm. The audio sync was fixed, but there were occasional audio dropouts through out the period. 1 and 2 did not seem to have any dropout problems.

HDC

What's up with the signal tonight? Thought I was going to see Nova in HD but I'm only getting a frame or two every few minutes... Same on 29 (another KET I get).. Anyone seeing this?

:confused:

Originally posted by chuckgr
What's up with the signal tonight? Thought I was going to see Nova in HD but I'm only getting a frame or two every few minutes... Same on 29 (another KET I get).. Anyone seeing this?

:confused:

Yep same here ... same thing happened last Thursday and Friday night. I haven't been able to crosscheck with WKMJ.

HDC

Anyone having a problem with WKYT remapping? The last few days WKYT is showing up on 13-1 instead of remapping to 27-1. I have a good signal at 85% and I tried to rescan numerous times, but still won't map.

I had a problem with KET Tuesday night also. Tried to watch Fleetwood Mac, but picture would just go in and out. Last night it appeared to be ok. I watch some of Ayers Rock at 10:00 and it looked pretty good.

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
Anyone having a problem with WKYT remapping? The last few days WKYT is showing up on 13-1 instead of remapping to 27-1. I have a good signal at 85% and I tried to rescan numerous times, but still won't map.

I had a problem with KET Tuesday night also. Tried to watch Fleetwood Mac, but picture would just go in and out. Last night it appeared to be ok. I watch some of Ayers Rock at 10:00 and it looked pretty good.

Same here... all of the above. I've seen the remapping problem on WAVE out of L'vile on occasion but it would remap correctly after a while (stronger signal?)

Chuck

Originally posted by chuckgr
Same here... all of the above. I've seen the remapping problem on WAVE out of L'vile on occasion but it would remap correctly after a while (stronger signal?)

Nope ... just PSIP generator issues ... Actually for some recievers, it's a blessing to have the "remap" disabled. The virtual mapping tends to cause more problems than it solves.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Nope ... just PSIP generator issues ... Actually for some recievers, it's a blessing to have the "remap" disabled. The virtual mapping tends to cause more problems than it solves.

HDC

OK, thanks for the info.. Now I need to see if I can turn off remapping on my STB.

Chuck

Originally posted by chuckgr
OK, thanks for the info.. Now I need to see if I can turn off remapping on my STB.

Oops, I may have been unclear, what I meant is many receivers behave much better if the *station* does not use virtual mapping - especially if the STB also uses program guide data from a third party (read D* receivers - specifically the Hughes E86.)

As long as you can still tune WKYT/WAVE using the actual RF channel number, be happy - it could be much worse.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Oops, I may have been unclear, what I meant is many receivers behave much better if the *station* does not use virtual mapping - especially if the STB also uses program guide data from a third party (read D* receivers - specifically the Hughes E86.)

As long as you can still tune WKYT/WAVE using the actual RF channel number, be happy - it could be much worse.

HDC

Alright.. clear now. Never really bothered me either way, would like it if the stations could fix it and stay consistent.. Same with the time signal...right now I get a different time for each station (and in many cases it's off by months) , I know this because my STB gets the time from the OTA signal (I did get WAVE to fix theirs, but it's wrong again..sigh).

Chuck

Kewl ... I notice that the PBS-HD guide data is starting to filter in for WKLE-DT. Thanks William (et al.) Now I have one less reason to get up off the couch :)

HDC

Dave Powell at WLEX has updated their digital status at WLEX Info (http://www.wlextv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1549052&nav=EQlxJSG5)

Looks like "several months" yet but apparently the FCC is finally moving.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Dave Powell at WLEX has updated their digital status at http://www.wlextv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1549052&nav=EQlxJSG5

Looks like "several months" yet but apparently the FCC is finally moving.

HDC


Well, I guess no Olympics in HD.:( Since I live on the far east side of Lexington I don't think it is worth my time to see if I can get WAVE out of Louisville.

Is WLEX going to change their channel number from 39? If not, is that going to be a problem with WTVQ at 40?

Robert

I noticed on WDKY's website that they are looking for a chief engineer.
I wonder if this will slow them down on any of their changes that they will be doing?

Robert

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
Is WLEX going to change their channel number from 39? If not, is that going to be a problem with WTVQ at 40?

As far as I can tell, it still going to be 39.

For you, there's always hope that you could reel in WLWT-DT (RF-35), especially late night, WAVE-DT isn't necessarily a lost cause either. Ya never know tell you try :)

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
Anyone having a problem with WKYT remapping? The last few days WKYT is showing up on 13-1 instead of remapping to 27-1. I have a good signal at 85% and I tried to rescan numerous times, but still won't map.

.

Yes, I am still having this problem with my HDTiVo. I couldn't figure out why I had a bunch of blank recordings, then I noticed that 27-1 was blank. I checked signal strength and it was at 92. I rescanned the channels and it found 13-1, 13-2, 13-3 with no guide data. The TiVo still wants to record on 27-1.

What can I do about this? Do I need to call the station and complain?

Originally posted by bfdhe
Yes, I am still having this problem with my HDTiVo. I couldn't figure out why I had a bunch of blank recordings, then I noticed that 27-1 was blank. I checked signal strength and it was at 92. I rescanned the channels and it found 13-1, 13-2, 13-3 with no guide data. The TiVo still wants to record on 27-1.

Ugh ... the virtual mapping lunacy rears another ugly head. I don't know what to tell you - my E86 is still (apparently) finding WKYT (on 27.1) and WAVE (on 3.1) from the APG mapping. Looks like the HDTivo handles the mapping information differently. A call to the station could help, in the mean time it looks like manual timers for you.

HDC

PS: How the heck did you get a hold of a HD-Tivo? (Lucky *****)

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
HDC

PS: How the heck did you get a hold of a HD-Tivo? (Lucky *****)

Got it from BestBuy. Ordered Online.

If you havent already, check out the HDTivo thread in this fourm (Tivo Community)

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
As far as I can tell, it still going to be 39.

For you, there's always hope that you could reel in WLWT-DT (RF-35), especially late night, WAVE-DT isn't necessarily a lost cause either. Ya never know tell you try :)

At my cabin at Cave Run lake, I can pick up WKRC-DT from Cincy but can't get WLWT-DT. Luckily, I can get WSAZ-DT from Huntington so I should be good to go for my Olympic watching. If I could just pick up a digital Fox channel from somewhere I could watch Fox Saturday baseball minus the snow.

I also wish I could pick up WTVQ-DT on a more consistent basis. Oh well.

Originally posted by bfdhe
Got it from BestBuy. Ordered Online.

Ye of the infinite patience ;) I gave up on playing the BB/CC roulette game, I suppose I'll wait until it's actually in stores - plus I'm not convinced it's worth it until D* expands their HD offerings.

HDC

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Ye of the infinite patience ;) I gave up on playing the BB/CC roulette game, I suppose I'll wait until it's actually in stores - plus I'm not convinced it's worth it until D* expands their HD offerings.

HDC

I have heard rumors that D* is going to add more HD channels getting up to around 20, also I saw a rumor posted on Satelliteguys.us yesterday that D* will show all NFL games in HD starting mid season. That might be of interest if you get Sunday ticket.

Robert

Originally posted by nuts4scuba
I have heard rumors that D* is going to add more HD channels getting up to around 20, also I saw a rumor posted on Satelliteguys.us yesterday that D* will show all NFL games in HD starting mid season. That might be of interest if you get Sunday ticket.

Robert

True, Fox will broadcast 6 games each Sunday in HD and CBS hasn't announced yet how many games they will broadcast in HD (last season was only 1) but there is a rumor they will broadcast ALL their AFC conference games in HD. That would be sweet.

I finally got rid of insight as well and signed up with D*. It was ridiculous that more than a year since they started their HD lineup and still the local WTVQ wasnt not added (for monday night football reasons). When asked why, they keep replying "We're in negotiations with the station". Well, let them keep negotiating. That was getting absurd. I lost the entire monday night broadcasts in HD of last season because of that. For this season, I said screw them and switched to D*. I dont know why I didnt do that before. Not to mention D* is cheaper.

Now Im just waiting for the HD Tivo to become available...

Johnny,

Hate to see you moved over to the Dish, but can understand your frustration with the WTVQ situation. Believe me, it has been equally as frustrating for us. I've been wanting to jump on here and update the local forum members on a preliminary road-map on our plans for the next 6 to 8 months. And also I would like to invite anyone interested to participate in open discussions hosted by Insight, to help us better understand what our current subscribers and non-subscriber's are looking for.

The marketing and customer service groups hold focus groups with a cross section of folks, but I am really looking for the people who understand all the new technology, and maybe not, but would like to. On my end, I would have my highest level technical people, who design and implement all the new services we are implementing currently and plan on over the near future.

If your are interested or know of anyone that is, please email me @

boggs.w@insight-com.com

1. WTVQ (Rumors Someone Told Me, not an Official Insight Statement)
Owned by Media General and has been holding out in hopes they could strike a deal to combine bandwidth with other digital broadcast stations and offer a package to compete directly with cable companies in their broadcast areas they own stations. Insight has been willing to sign an agreement just like we already have in place with WKYT and have had since DAY 1.

2. WDKY FOX Look for FOX to be on Inisght in Lexington on DAY 1 that their Transmitter is up and running @ Clays Ferry. We met with their Engineers 2 weeks ago. And no, the engineer moving to TVQ will not affect the timetable. FYI....it will be real close for the first game of the NFL Season!!!!

3. We will be launching both College Sports Television and the NFL Network in early August. Initially the NFL network will have 2 hours of HD programming per week and around the first of the year the will be launching a second channel of 24/7 HD programming. I' also read in the literature that there would be 54 preseason games, and I am pretty sure that I read we would also have all NFL games played on a particular Sunday available the next day on our SVOD service. Also, once the current contract runs up for the NFL Ticket with "D", Cable Companies, will finally have access.

4. As far as other HD Programming, there are 4 or 5 other channels that will be added by end of the year. But of course we have to wait until the ink is wet on the contracts before talking about them. But if I was a betting man, I would bet on........Inhd 1&2...TNT.....maybe some other movie channels???? Again..these are just some good rumors.....:)

5. Digital Overlay is our term for digital duplication of our analog lineup. While we have not made a decision to go full throttle yet, we are in the test phase of duplicating our analog lineup in a digital format. The preliminary plans and compression schemes I have seen so far would definitely give us a big edge over any sat delivered digital signals. More to come on this...Also, for those with the 6208 DVR and HI Def Televisions, this bring a vast improvement to picture quality.....

6. The analog picture quality on the 6208 DVR that is more visible on the bigger sets, is being looked at from a couple of different fronts. First, it does make sense and cable companies will have to go all digital at some time. Second, the second generation DVR, which I'm not really sure when Moto is going to release, or if they already have released. Insight plans on waiting until the first of the year to roll it out, which it should also include the second hard drive.

There are a bunch of really cool things coming in the next 6 to 8 months...but I think I've been long winded enough...

Thanks,
Winston Boggs
Technical Operations Manager
Lexington Insight
859-514-2418

Originally posted by bitblaze
There are a bunch of really cool things coming in the next 6 to 8 months...but I think I've been long winded enough...

Please be even more long winded should the mood strike. :D ... Now, if you could just convince corporate to buy out my local Adelphia system ...

Wow, that would be really cool......I think they are on the block right now, but the big boys are going to have to sort out how to divide up the monopoly board and you never can tell what is going to happen in the next few months.....there are some high level conversations going on for sure. I really don't see anyone else wanting the Kentucky properties though. I did see the Old Man and his Son was found Guilty of most charges...there is not much sympathy for those jokers, after what all came out...

Update at WLEX Update (http://www.wlextv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1549052&nav=EQlxJSG5)

Originally posted by bitblaze
Wow, that would be really cool......I think they are on the block right now, ...

yeah ... I figure about the only way my local Cable system will go HD is for somebody to buy them out. I suspect Adelphia's HD rollout is effectively dead in the water.

Originally posted by ragamuffin
Is Fox still broadcasting here shortly after 11:00pm? I'm searching but getting nothing on DTV/VHF-4 (near Man O'War at Harrodsburg Road).

pczarapa, where are you located generally in the Lexington area?

wow, you live darn close to me. :)

Originally posted by kleptophobiac
wow, you live darn close to me. :)

...And pretty darn close to me (just off Clays Mill). So it is possible for me to reach WDKY-DT from our area? What kind of VHF antenna do I need? I live in a townhome, so I can't mount one outside, but I have the attic where the UHF antenna is now. I wonder if I could get enough signal. My MyHD tuner card needs about 25% signal to lock on. What VHF antenna (name/model) do you think would need to buy to have a chance of picking up WDKY? I'd love a digital FOX signal.

Originally posted by BenCJedi
[BI wonder if I could get enough signal. My MyHD tuner card needs about 25% signal to lock on. [/B]

Based on my experience (in the prime radiation pattern), WDKY-DT needs a much larger margin of error for reliable reception than VHF-Hi or UHF stations. Where a steady 37% is usually enough for most stations, WDKY needs about 65% to be reliable on my E86 ... YMMV. Again, things should improve dramatically, if and when the Clay's Ferry plant goes on line.

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
Based on my experience (in the prime radiation pattern), WDKY-DT needs a much larger margin of error for reliable reception than VHF-Hi or UHF stations. Where a steady 37% is usually enough for most stations, WDKY needs about 65% to be reliable on my E86 ... YMMV. Again, things should improve dramatically, if and when the Clay's Ferry plant goes on line.

I still need to buy some form of VHF antenna to even have a shot at it. Just wondering what brand is good for my area. Antennaweb isn't showing WDKY and this site here is good at showing me info I am just starting to grasp, but it doesn't tell me the recommended antenna:
http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp
based on my latitude/longitude calculated here:
http://www.juggling.org/bin/do/map-find?lat=%2B37.995832&lon=-084.544936&zoom=9&wid=.009&ht=.006&action=mark&map.x=122&map.y=4
(no I moved my dot so stalkers wouldn't find me.. lol.. general area though)
I'll need an antenna I can fit through a 2.5X2.75' portal in the ceiling to the attic. Assembly required is a must. Is there a homebrew VHF antenna I could make that would use the entire attic?

I do see that the new WDKY tower will be over twice as tall and the radiation pattern will be fanned out more to cover more areas. It's over 3X as powerful over what they have now. I am wondering why they can't just go 1000kW. :D

Originally posted by BenCJedi
I'll need an antenna I can fit through a 2.5X2.75' portal in the ceiling to the attic. Assembly required is a must. Is there a homebrew VHF antenna I could make that would use the entire attic?


I'm using a RatShack combo antenna in my attic for WDKY and WKYT. It's been a while since I've seen that particular model on the RatSite though.

Yes, it is possible to construct your own "cut-to frequency" dipole, although it probably won't work much better than a pair of rabbit-ears. Building a "bigger" (aka stacked) VHF-Lo antenna would take way more room than you probably have. I wouldn't get too worked up over WDKY-DT until they start passing HD which ain't gonna happen until the new tower is up anyway.

Originally posted by HDTVChallenged
I'm using a RatShack combo antenna in my attic for WDKY and WKYT. It's been a while since I've seen that particular model on the RatSite though.

Yes, it is possible to construct your own "cut-to frequency" dipole, although it probably won't work much better than a pair of rabbit-ears. Building a "bigger" (aka stacked) VHF-Lo antenna would take way more room than you probably have. I wouldn't get too worked up over WDKY-DT until they start passing HD which ain't gonna happen until the new tower is up anyway.

I thought FOX only broadcasted in 480p (no HD) in widescreen (720X480). I know even that is higher resolution than Dish Network's source (480X480 if Local Lexington, 544X480 if distant net FOX from NY or LA). I'd imagine the WDKY-DT audio/video bitrates are also much higher than Dish. I assume Insight uses an analog feed and encodes to MPEG2 for their digital boxes, right, so that's probably as good as Dish? I still think the best quality source is going to be right from the horse's mouth.. if I could just get the signal. I'm a big-time FOX viewer and look forward to picking it up free digitally. It's disappointing to see FOX shows that say "available in widescreen where available", but you know Dish is chopping off the sides to make it 4:3 and I have a widescreen 57" TV, so I am missing some of the action. I guess I could try some antennas at Radio Shack if they will allow me to return them if I cannot get a signal.

WDKY has never passed the FOX widescreen programming and I'd be very surprised if they're ready for HDTV this fall. The only thing you're missing currently is standard resolution TV being broadcast digitally.

Originally posted by cpcat
WDKY has never passed the FOX widescreen programming and I'd be very surprised if they're ready for HDTV this fall. The only thing you're missing currently is standard resolution TV being broadcast digitally.

Ack! That I did not know! Yuck! If you're gonna broadcast digitally.. you may as well go all out. I guess WDKY-DT over the air only has the advantage of a clean signal (if you can get it to lock on) and no fees. I thought any FOX broadcaster broadcasting in digital was doing the widescreen digital. I guess I won't hold my breath for their upgrade and there is no real reason for me to invest in a VHF antenna at this time either. So disappointing :( .. all this time I thought they were doing the widescreen 480p deal. Why didn't someone mention that long ago when I started posting on here?

Originally posted by BenCJedi
all this time I thought they were doing the widescreen 480p deal. Why didn't someone mention that long ago when I started posting on here?

Thought I did (more than once), although it may have been before you started stopping by here ... Have patience, the "upgrades" may happen sooner than one might think.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY need your guys' advice.

I am a fellow Lexingtonian and am not happy with the 1 major channel that Insight provides. I am thinking of buying the new LG 4200A tuner to pair with my Sony GWIII LCD.

Is it worth the 300 bucks? Or should I just "wait" until Insight gets their act together and gives us more channels?

I really want to watch NFL when it is on in a few weeks.

What do you guys suggest? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE respond to me. My bank account and TV watching will thank you.

I'm assuming Insight provides WKYT? If that's so, going OTA would at most provide you with one more game per week in HD (MNF). I wouldn't bet on WDKY getting it together in time for FOX HD in the fall. OTOH, MNF is pretty cool so I guess it depends on what it's worth to you. If I were you and I was buying a new tuner I'd wait for the new 5th gen. chipsets which are supposed to come out in the fall. I don't think the 4200a has it yet. Maybe pick up a used 3100a or a used Samsung (can't remember the number designation, 150 maybe?).

You could also go with D* and NFL Sunday Ticket but that's a whole other ball of wax.

Originally posted by assassin
I REALLY REALLY REALLY need your guys' advice.

I am a fellow Lexingtonian and am not happy with the 1 major channel that Insight provides. I am thinking of buying the new LG 4200A tuner to pair with my Sony GWIII LCD.

Is it worth the 300 bucks? Or should I just "wait" until Insight gets their act together and gives us more channels?

I really want to watch NFL when it is on in a few weeks.

What do you guys suggest? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE respond to me. My bank account and TV watching will thank you.

Have an old PC lying around collecting dust? IMO it is more worth your $300 to buy a
MyHD (http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/mdp120.asp) .

The minimum system requirements are:
Pentium II 400MHz or faster processor
64MB of RAM
Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000, and XP
PCI bus v2.2 compliant - 33MHz or 66MHz operation (definitely check this or playback of your HD will not be fun, fine for live-TV viewing of HD though)

The card does all the heavy lifting, so your ancient PC will have new life breathed into it. You will be able to record the NFL games in HD and watch them over and over again on your own time (skipping over commercials). You'll need a large harddrive as an hour uses around 8.52GB or so. Comes with a remote. I couldn't be happier. One thing.. depending on the inputs of your HDTV you may need a VGA-to-component transcoder ($69) or that MyHD DVI daughtercard.

Insight only provides CBS. So I do not get ABC, NBC or FOX at all in HD.

I guess my question is this - Since I live in Lexington should I:

A)Buy an OTA HD tuner for about $300
B)Wait and do nothing and hope Insight cable comes through with more HD channels
C)Switch out of cable all together and go the satellite route

I am really having a hard time deciding. I need people with more knowledge to help me make this decision. Thanks for the help already.

Sincerely,
Confused in Lexington

PS - I do not have an old PC lying around so the MyHD option is out. Thanks for the advice though.

Please look at information I posted on 7-10-04, also feel free to call me with questions...
Thanks,
Winston Boggs
Technical Operations Manager
Insight (Lexington)
859-514-2418
boggs.w@insight-com.com

Assassin,
The OTA HD you have readily available in Lexington is ABC,PBS and CBS. NBC will be awhile (at least 6 mos if not longer) due to various issues discussed elsewhere in this thread. FOX is digital but not ready for HD yet and they've had a history of being slow in adopting (Sinclair owned) and I would be very surprised to see any HD from WDKY this fall. You'd need a tuner as well as an antenna for both uhf and vhf. I think many have to go with an outdoor one for reliable reception even in the Lexington area (others can correct me on this if it's wrong). If you go outdoors and go big, I think it's possible to receive WAVE from Louisville (NBC) so that'd get you the big three. WDRB (FOX) in Louisville might be doable as well depending on weather conditions. I'm not sure if they're ready to go HD or not in the fall. There's a thread dealing with FOX affiliate readiness for HD on this part of the forum. It sounds to me like Insight will not be offering any further major network HD for quite some time depending on what WDKY does and if they get their act together.

The decision has to be yours. Find out as much as you can before making it then go for it and don't look back. I'm purely OTA down here as far as HD is concerned. (Knoxville and Bristol stations primarily, can't get anything from Lexington reliably without help of Tropo).

I'm on the south side of Lexington using a small UHF antenna in the attic of my townhome. I receive digital channels WKYT, WKET and WTVQ just fine with a small booster (I can't remember how many signal db of improvement, but I was told some time ago it is a'noisy' one - works well enough though). Without having to repoint the antenna I get these signal strengths:

WKYT = 87%
WKET = 70%
WTVQ = 64%

So even in an apartment you should expect these signal strengths with antenna booster on just UHF (WKYT is close enough to UHF that the UHF antenna will work, even if technically it is VHF).