Thanks for the suggestions on the directv options.

To be honest, I am a bit of an idiot. I moved three months ago before I bought the new television. I had already been with directv for over two years. The directv retention reps practically fell all over themselves when I told them that I just wanted to move, no extras boxes, no upgrades, etc. I didn't realize at the time that I would be wanting a new hdtv box or hd directivo. Now that I have the samsung I am really wanting to go back in time and ask for a little more. Ah well. Hindsight is 20/20. Now I'm hooked on the contract and they probably wouldn't do squat for me. To top it all off I need an upgraded dish. I'm still on the round dish. As most of you know, Memphis locals are on the old birds. Anybody see any good deals on an hr10-250?

I do believe that the Superbowl is on Fox this year. It would be great to watch it in HD.

Luckily, the Superbowl is on ABC this year. It was on Fox last year...Time Warner Cable added WHBQ days before the game.

Welcome noobie :) excuse me satjunkee

How long ago did you sign your new contract with them? D* is going to start "renting" their boxes like cable does, and you are in a 2 year contract. If you do decide you want to get rid of D*, there is a #/24th termination fee and you have to give the equipment back or pay for it. Or, even though you did just move, people who have HD on average spend more money per month. I'm pretty sure that the retention folks would be able to give you some type of credit towards the purchase and activation of a HD reciever. I don't see any harm in giving them a call and asking for it since you said they did try to give you upgrades when you moved. I've called before just to ask a simple question, and they give me a $10 credit for being a "valued" customer. I really believe they will work with you.

This is what I would do and points you need to make/ask for.

Say you just bought an HDTV and you really want to get HD from D*. Your neighbor has HD and you were amazed by the picture. But you can't justify the price of a new HD reciever. Since you have been with them for so long, will they provide you a credit to help you pay for a HD stb. I would ask for at least $100. I think Best Buy has some for either $199 or $299. Or like I said earlier, go the ebay route. Tell them you will buy the reciever on your own. If they push back say you will buy the HD pack at $12 a month.

Go for it and let us know what they say. Good luck.

So how long did it take for everyone to see the blocking on both CBS and NBC? Me, during the first play I watched for both. Beautiful!

This is kinda a strange request. Does anyone on this board have a website that supports .ASP pages? If so, please pm me as soon as possible. I have a couple of questions about it.

I PMed you earlier.

Man, my internet has been so screwed up since last thursday.. So while it's working...
What in the world is up with ABC 24? Their digital feed is set to SD right now. They were broadcasting in HD last night. I know there's no HD programming on now, but UPN 30 is set to HD.

WOW! I am shocked and impressed. ABC's hd feed is DOWN, but UPN is showing the Memphis Tigers game in HIGH DEF! Where is this game?! Is this local or what? Who's filming this? Did ABC24/UPN30 finally get HD cameras??

Edit:
Wow, this IS local. Holy crap, I guess I was right.
I mentioned a while back that one station in town would be getting HD news soon.. Any guesses as to who I meant? :)
They're letterboxing it on the SD feed! This is so exciting. Maybe they'll be getting 5.1 next. I hope that this ABC outage is just temporary.
Ugh, it's looking like they are going to preempt WB in HD to show the Vibe Awards tape delayed.. Why can't they air the HD shows, since they can't tape delay those, and THEN show the SD one?

Man, where are you guys when the big stuff happens?.. :P This is exciting stuff. I wonder how long before Eyewitness News gets everything sorted out and their HD news online?
It's so funny watching on the SD feed, because you can see they are protecting for 4x3 (there are two white vertical bars on the sides of the letterbox window), but it's in 16x9. I say they just letterbox, quit protecting, and be done with it. :-D

I'm here watching it. Had a friend come over and just left. I nearly crapped my pants when I saw the game in HD. But I am unable to keep a good signal on the game. Keeps fluctuating from 0 to 100. It is really strange because I never have that problem with this channel. Anyone else experiencing that?

Someone asked me up at work today if they game will be in HD and I told him no since it is local. I was wrong.

LOL, yeah. I would have said the same thing. I lost it when I saw it was HD.
It looks like they fixed the white 4x3 protection lines on the SD channel.

I'm not having any signal problems, mx. My signal is rock solid. The picture actually looks pretty good. It's not Fox HD quality, but considering this is LOCAL, I'd say they are off to a good start.

Wow! I just read your posts on the Local HD game and tuned in for the last minute! COOL! I never thought I'd see the day when a locally covered game was in HD through a local channel.

I've been having trouble with ABC and UPN for over two weeks now with their signal strenght fluctuating, so I tried somethign crazy. I played with the antenna until I finally found a spot where they are all working.

I used to have it set about 70degrees, which is where the towers should be located in relation to my house. Indeed for a long while this setting was perfect. But a couple weeks ago I started experiencing trouble on most of the channels. I finally found a new sweet spot that is about 10degrees, which is totally not in the direction of the towers, but it is working somehow.

I wonder if tree leaves falling and foliage changing could cause that much adjustment of the signal...maybe it's now reflecting off something else that I am getting the new signal from? Weird.

Sure enough I wake up this morning and my signal strength won't budge off 100. hmmmm. Guess it was the wind and maybe trees moving around. It was strange because the other 2 stations that broadcast off the same tower I wasn't having a problem with them at all. Oh well.

I created a feedback poll that I would like for everyone here to fill out. It is located at http://www.sugarplumgals.com/hd/poll_welcome.htm This poll is to see what our thoughts are on the HD offerings by our local networks. I decided to set this up after Jeff's rant a few weeks ago. I hope that many people fill it out so we can make a difference with things we complain about all the time here.

If you know someone who does have HD but is not a part of this board, send them this link and ask them to fill it out, then pass it on to other HD'ers they know, and so on. Let's try to get as many people as possible to fill this out.

I am not going to send this link to the station managers because I am the one who set this up and that would seem a little cheep. So I advise some of you to send this link out to the email address's I provided in an earlier post.

great idea and I already filled out the surveys.

Now, lets hope ABC will get their act together and give me Dolby Digital 5.1 so that I can watch LOST the ways its supposed to be watched.

Just finished filling out the surveys. Thanks for doing the work mx6bfast. Let us know the results when they're finished. I accidentally closed it before I had time to email you for the results.

Is anyone else having trouble with the sound on WLMT tonight?

I'm really, really worried. No HD for the WB tonight...
As long as they get it together by 10pm tomorrow...
At least ABC is back online.

Is anyone else having trouble with the sound on WLMT tonight?
Not having any problems here. I am still getting 100% signal again tonight. Maybe there is a big tree between me and my 2 miles to the tower, that only effects WLMT when it's real windy. :D

Thanks for doing the poll mx6bfast.

Yeah, I had this ear-splitting clicking/static sound coming through on WLMT last night during Veronica Mars. Since it was still doing it 10 minutes in, I just gave up and turned it off. Frustrating, since that's a cool show.

Was VM in HD last night? I recorded it but haven't had a chance to check yet.

It was in HD, with pretty decent image quality. But the ear-splitting click noise was the only audio coming out, at least for the 10 minutes I watched until turning it off.

That's so weird. They didn't air the WB shows in HD last night. Go figure.

Has WPTY been switching to SD early at the end of all the 9 pm HD shows now? I have noticed it 3 times recently.

What.. the...... heck........
ABC 24 preempted ALIAS for coverage of Dr. Rogers's memorial at Bellevue Baptist.
You have GOT to be kidding me. With the picture quality dropping dramatically, no 5.1, and this kind of thing, 24/30 is quickly sliding into last place behind 3 in my eyes.

Yeah, they just got a nasty letter...

Well, its official. Something's definately wrong with the WB HD. They tried splicing it and it was a flickering green screen.

They said Alias will run at 1:05am tonight. Well, that's nice...
Here's what I don't get. Why can't they run the coverage of the Funeral on the Analog channel, and pass Alias through on the Digital?! That way, at least we get a choice..

Well, its official. Something's definately wrong with the WB HD. They tried splicing it and it was a flickering green screen.

They said Alias will run at 1:05am tonight. Well, that's nice...
Here's what I don't get. Why can't they run the coverage of the Funeral on the Analog channel, and pass Alias through on the Digital?! That way, at least we get a choice..
Because we don't matter to them. It's all what they want to do, not what the customers want. That's kinda one reason why I made the poll, to see if the station managers really do care what we think. There's only been like 10 people take it so far, and that's hardly enough to make a dent. So people, if you haven't taken it yet, please do. And give comments on teh channels, don't just skip over the comments area. I spent many hours working on it and also my spreadsheet.

But hey, at least the Tigers are looking good. Making UA look like wanna be's at #14.

What.. the...... heck........
ABC 24 preempted ALIAS for coverage of Dr. Rogers's memorial at Bellevue Baptist.
You have GOT to be kidding me. With the picture quality dropping dramatically, no 5.1, and this kind of thing, 24/30 is quickly sliding into last place behind 3 in my eyes.

Yeah, they just got a nasty letter...

Yeah, this was an extremely bad move on their part, because MOST of the people who actually cared to WATCH the memorial were AT the memorial. Most people who are not Baptist and were not part of the Bellevue Megachurch only cared in passing about his death and I certainly did not see the importance of showing his memorial on TV.

WMC?? Are they off the air? I didn't get a signal from them last night.

I guess I can see why WPTY did show the funeral. Adrian Rogers is such a big name here, and also they show Bellevue on Sunday mornings at 9. Maybe they felt like they needed to show it for those followers who watch Bellevue on tv. There were 2 channels showing it, WPTY and 3-2. It is a sad thing for him to pass away.

From WLMT about the Tiger games in HD:

Thanks for watching.
We will be doing some of the home games in HD, but not the away games.

Wow. An ACTUAL reply from 24/30. I've got good news people, and it doesn't involve a gecko...

"We recently received WPTY-DT's 5.1 encoder...however, might be few days before it's programmed and installed. No immediate plans for 5.1 on WLMT. Still working on 5.1 for Tigers game, but I wouldn't hold my breath. As for the HD tape delay...you are correct. We do not have the equipment to tape delay HD. We are setup as "pass-thru" only. We are currently evaluating HD tape delay options. Thanks for the email!

Scott Prentice
Chief Engineer

This was attached to the bottom:

-----Original Message-----
From: Hart, Marshall
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 9:06 AM
To: Prentice, Damon
Subject: FW: I'm truly dumbfounded at this.

Scott,
Could you please address the audio question, and when you do could you please copy me?
Thanks,
marshall"

It looks like someone pushed Scott to address the 5.1 issue.
If my information is correct, and 24/30 is prepping to go HD with news, I'm betting they will suddenly have a way to tape delay HD.... :)

Emails that I've sent to the feedback have taken a while to get back. Like the one I posted above yours, took 3 days to get an answer. I got mine from Marshall. It's funny each time I get a response from Scott, its forwarded from Marshall with pretty much the same please/copy me stuff.

Bout freaking time about 5.1. I hope they stay true to this email. I've recieved responses saying they are about to get it in for the past 6 months.

update to poll: I added in channel numbers for cable HD channels. I was asked about that today twice at work. If anyone knows the channel number for the Tube let me know.

The first half of the Colts-Bengals game was available on both WREG and D* Sunday Ticket, and the difference was night and day. The ST feed was sharp and clear, with no motion artifacts or blocking. My rough estimate would be at least twice the resolution.

Now, since everyone complains about D* "HD-Lite" being reduced resolution, what the heck does that make WREG? HD-Barely? HD-Almost?

The first half of the Colts-Bengals game was available on both WREG and D* Sunday Ticket, and the difference was night and day. The ST feed was sharp and clear, with no motion artifacts or blocking. My rough estimate would be at least twice the resolution.

Now, since everyone complains about D* "HD-Lite" being reduced resolution, what the heck does that make WREG? HD-Barely? HD-Almost?
That doesn't really surprise me. SEC looked really bad yesteday. How about HD-Crap? I think HD to WREG, and WMC means Hardly Definition.

Speaking of WMC, the ND and NASCAR race were both littered with blocking, again. I have stopped watching football on both channels. I have been watching WPTY and ESPN a lot more now.

It's pretty sad when the highlites on ESPN BLOW AWAY the pq we get here.

On a lighter note, WREG now has a huge probably plasma tv for their weather. I wonder if it has been setup for HD. If the station manager knew better he wouldn't.

I heard Tim Spencer on Rock 103 say, this morning, they are now broadcasting in HD-Radio. They now have 6 sub-channels to fill with programming. So it looks like bandwidth starved HD is now hitting the radio stations. Of course, I'm not sure how much the sub-channels will effect audio only.

I was flipping through, and WOW, that is a HUGE plasma on WREG for the Weather.
The sets are different too, the ones behind the anchors.

It looks to me like they are prepping for a change to HD... The sets seem like they have more room to me, plus that giant HDTV.... The graphics on weather are different too, like they had them redone.

I hope 24/30 gets online first.

They have been making changes to their set for the past 2 weeks. Their new advanced doppler radar is about a week old. The one on I think WMC follows the weather mans hands around, kinda like VR.

I thought I had been seeing this for a while and I am thoroughly convinced, I see blocking on WPTY when they have the MNF logo fly in.

About that big ass plasma, I wonder what size that is? I betcha if they put one of thier HD shows on an HDTivo, and then replayed it on air, we could see the blocking from that tv on our tv. :)

A buddy of mine went hd recently and we were talking about the local channels here. He was able to see all the blocking that we complain about here and also read quite a few pages to get caught up. Long story short, I told him to email the email addresses on the channel 3 and 5 websites. He hasn't recieved a response from the person at channel 5, but he told me about the one he got Saturday. He forwarded it to me, and lets just say, well, read it for yourself. I'm putting his email to channel 3 before the response he got.

Hi,
Since I first emailed you I have spent a lot of time reading up on high
definition stuff. I have also noticed that there is a major difference in
high definition shows and channels here locally. I was asking my neighbor
some high def questions and he was really helpful. He provided me with a
message board where people here can talk about local high def stuff. I have
a couple of questions for you to answer to help me out.

1. How much bandwidth is given to the channel 3-1?
2. If it is not given the full amount, is that why I see pixelation on
high def shows and games? It is really bad on football games on the
weekends.
3. Can newsanytime be turned off during high def shows?
4. Do you control the sound, or is that from CBS? A couple of shows the
music part is much louder than the dialogue.
5. Why is it that channel 5 has 2 sub channels, but the high def shows
on that channel look better than from channel 3? There is not as much
pixelation on that channel than on your channel.
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this site to you, but it is located at
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=167943&page=110&pp=20. I
saw this post and thought it might be of interest to you. I agree because I
just spent alot of money for high def and I don't like what I see from
channel 3.

Note to all station managers currently multicasting:

<Begin Rant>
Very few people if any watch your multicasts on any regular basis (if I'm
wrong, then please post which multicast content you like best and why
others should join you). Most people who have invested in HD equipment and
OTA receivers don't want the extra "bonus" programming you can offer on
your multicasts. What they have spent the money, time, and resources for is
to have the outstanding HD picture.

Just because the ability is there to multicast, it does not mean that you
have to use it.

You have actually lost viewers through multicasting. Many have stopped
watching a lot of your regular shows in favor of other stations not
multicasting and still showing a HIGH PQ.

Now, most of the day there is not HD programming on. Why not run the
multicasting then? When HD is on, turn multicasting off. Is there some
reason this is not possible? I mean is anyone really watching the weather
during primetime HD programming? Is anyone really watching The Tube during
primetime HD programming? I don't think so, otherwise those shows would BE
ON primetime. Nobody cares about them. It is a waste of the extra bandwidth
that would make the real primtime shows that people actually care about
look better.

</End Rant>

thanks,
clay

************************************************************ ******
From: jim.anhalt@wreg.com
To: clayrichards2323@aim.com
Cc: ron.walter@wreg.com
Sent: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 15:49:39 -0600
Subject: Re: High def questions


I just watched this afternoons football game on WREG-TV and found the
quality to be quite good.
On a 30" CRT tube monitor with a professional receiver I saw no pixelation.
On a 70" Sony consumer grade LCD projection TV, I could see the slightest
hint of fringing on the white helmets during rapid movement.
It is not practical to turn secondary program services off and on.
The best reception will be obtained over the air using a roof mounted or
attic antenna.
The WMC transmitter site is at a different location than WREG, be sure your
antenna is correctly oriented.
Cable companies use more processing and therefore provide a lower quality
signal.
Thank you for your comments.

I'm sorry..... What?

You couldn't see the pixelation... on a 70" HD?..
*I* have a TWENTY-SIX INCH CRT and *I* can see the pixelation.

He CLEARLY knows NOTHING about how HD signals work. You get a PERFECT picture, or NO picture. Antenna placement doesn't matter as long you get a signal.

Notice how he says he watched it on WREG-TV. NOT WREG-DT. Of course you saw no pixelation on WREG-TV, its Analog...

See, Analog looks good to him, no WONDER he can't see what we see! :)

Please tell me this is November Fools Day. Anyone, please.

I'm sorry..... What?
I don't think I could've said it better myself.

I agree, no idea what he is doing. My 3 month old yesterday asked me when I changed from the D* FOX HD feed to 3-1 for the Bengals/Colts game "Dad, why does the Giants game look so much better than the Colts game?" After I picked my jaw off the floor I explained to him why, then he started crying and asking for his passie.

Wow, I mean, wow. This is almost enough to make me stop watching WREG all together. What the hell game was he watching?

Please tell me this is November Fools Day. Anyone, please.
More like WREG fools year!

3 MONTH old?! What the...? I'm hoping that should read 3 YEAR old, otherwise, I know some people of the U of M who would like to meet this kid.. ;)

3 MONTH old?! What the...? I'm hoping that should read 3 YEAR old, otherwise, I know some people of the U of M who would like to meet this kid.. ;)
Nope, 3 month. He's very quick to learn. haha But yet he knows when the pq is good. Truthfully, when I changed to WREG yesterday, he started crying. When I changed to another channel he stopped. That's what made me figure out what he was trying to say. :D

In light of yesterday's post, I am going to publish the poll as of today. I had to save it into a .zip file since I can't upload excel spreadsheets. But don't worry, there are no virus's on it. It is pretty interesting. I still need more people to take it tho, so if you haven't please do so. And have your friends take it too.

LOL. The crying says it all!

Oh! Here's something I have been meaning to post for a while.
Want to see what NBC-HD REALLY looks like? Go to Wal-Mart. They play clips from NBC shows on their HDTV's. And WOW, does it blow away WMC's broadcast.

Who would've expected that? Silly me looking forward to see the clips on ESPN of both NBC and CBS so I can see what I have been missing.

Apparently I'm not missing much, because WREG only sees a "slight hint of fringing". What does that even mean? Each time I read that I am still amazed by the response.

"Fringing - Fringing occurs when the edges surrounding an image begin to breakdown. This specifically refers to this incidence in the process of matting: one image in effect bleeds into the other with which a composite is being made. In color photography the distinguishing edges between colors lack clarity, blur and are not coordinated with their intial positions."

I have
a couple of questions for you to answer to help me out.

1. How much bandwidth is given to the channel 3-1?
2. If it is not given the full amount, is that why I see pixelation on
high def shows and games? It is really bad on football games on the
weekends.
4. Do you control the sound, or is that from CBS? A couple of shows the
music part is much louder than the dialogue.

Of course he doesn't even answer these at all.

3. Can newsanytime be turned off during high def shows?

5. Why is it that channel 5 has 2 sub channels, but the high def shows
on that channel look better than from channel 3? There is not as much
pixelation on that channel than on your channel.

And he only halfway answers these. So, can the multicasts be turned off or not? Or do they just not want to (i.e. too lazy to do it).

I just watched this afternoons football game on WREG-TV and found the
quality to be quite good.
What are your standards to define "quite good?" While you may see it as quite good, apparently most people don't, and we are the customers.

On a 30" CRT tube monitor with a professional receiver I saw no pixelation.
So, what exactly is a professional receiver? You know nobody told me I'd have to have professional equipment to see high PQ. (snob). But, then again, the PQ looks much better on other channels with my plain old non-professional equipment.

On a 70" Sony consumer grade LCD projection TV, I could see the slightest
hint of fringing on the white helmets during rapid movement.
It is not practical to turn secondary program services off and on.
The best reception will be obtained over the air using a roof mounted or
attic antenna.
The WMC transmitter site is at a different location than WREG, be sure your
antenna is correctly oriented.
Cable companies use more processing and therefore provide a lower quality
signal.
Thank you for your comments.
So, you are admitting that there is distortion (at least I assume that is what you mean by "fringing.") I do have an antenna correctly oriented with a 95 signal strength, and I don't have cable, but amazingly there is still pixelization. Hmmm? Please don't belittle us by telling us the problem is because our antenna is not properly oriented. Don't you think we've tried that already?

Let me guess the next response from the guy would be that it's my equipment. These people are ridiculous and obviously think their consumers are all idiots and fools.

P.S. often times cynicism and sarcasm don't come across well in written text, but hopefully most of my comments above were taken that way.

It doesn't really matter how your comments get taken when talking about WREG. You couldn't POSSIBLY come off looking worse than they already have. ;)

Ok, well I'm actually watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. Pretty funny actually. The HD content is completely different from what's being shown on SD. Also, either it is complete amateur day at the station or they are trying to automate the HD to SD switching for commercials, but it is not working.

Finally, if anyone wants to see "fringing" or pixelization, please tune into this show. Watching the marching bands, which should be a feast of bright crisp colors and synchronized movements really shown off on our HD equipment, actually devolves into a mess of blurry, pixelizated, goop.

Wow, this is kinda pathetic. What HD content? I don't see anything in HD on NBC. Something's screwed up with that NBC bug in the corner. It's stretched horizontally.

What in the WORLD is going on with WMC?...
The dog show is in HD now. What happened with the parade?!

This is what WMC did this morning.

Showed the parade HD feed on 5-1, but a couple of times would cut into it to show SD commercials the same time as the SD feed went to commercial. Saw it twice from 10 - 11. The parade was actually over at 11.

At 11, started showing the HD feed of the dog show on 5-1. 5 minutes into it, cut back to a tape delay of the parade in SD.

At 12, joined the dog show in progress in HD.

*shaking my head* Who is running this channel? The winner from WREG?

I was about to call the engineers and ask them to turn the dog show back on. But I knew they wouldn't, so I didn't call. Besides I have to cook, I'll listen to another local channel.

Soooo, basically, they aired local commercials, which were NOT supposed to be there, which cause the broadcasts to be out of sync?

I swear, give me a waiver. Please. That's the EASIEST solution, WMC (and for that matter WREG, WPTY and WLMT :)) has to do NOTHING, the crappy local broadcasts can continue the way they want them to, and we'll stop complaining.

Yeah, that'd be too logical.

I agree.

Not only that, like Jeff said, it wasn't that great of PQ. I counted maybe 5 at the most HD cameras. During the part with the cheerleaders wearing yellow and red, it was hard to even make out there were humans there. Then on the tape delay, it looked fake. The tape delay Pq was worse than the HD feed.

Everyone, we had incorrect information from NBC yesterday. We programmed our system to show the Macy’s parade in HD but they did not provide an HD Central Zone feed of the Parade. So we were showing the East Coast feed of the parade in HD, but the way our system is setup we roll our breaks off the SD feed that NBC sends us. So the breaks did not line up. Once we got the information from NBC that there was no central time zone HD feed I made the decision to stay with the HD as long as we could be we eventually had to switch back to our SD feed. Sorry for the problem I was trying to show as much HD as possible but in retrospect I should probably have just had Master Control stay with the SD feed.



Sorry for the problems

David

Dave--

I like the decision to maximize HD. So I, for one, think you made the right call. It would have been especially annoying to watch it in SD when Matt and Katie kept going on and on about it being in HD.

Stick with that "as much HD as possible" attitude!

I just read those 2 posts by mollerup and ravma (somehow I wasn't getting any update emails from AVS for 2 days)

Good stuff. I really do tend to believe that "Some Clown from WREG" ie Jim Anhalt does think we are idiots. He is only as good as his manager.

...Sorry for the problem I was trying to show as much HD as possible but in retrospect I should probably have just had Master Control stay with the SD feed.



Sorry for the problems

David
Thanks for keeping us updated.

I also agree with Wiggo that "as much HD as possible" is better than staying with SD feed. Even with the problems it was better than SD could ever be.

Thanks.

I heard Tim Spencer on Rock 103 say, this morning, they are now broadcasting in HD-Radio. They now have 6 sub-channels to fill with programming. So it looks like bandwidth starved HD is now hitting the radio stations. Of course, I'm not sure how much the sub-channels will effect audio only.

In one of the recent issues of Sound&Vision stated that Memphis had 6 digital (HD) radio stations on air. Kind of surprised this is the first I have even heard in metioned locally.

Man I must be out of touch with today's radio. I used to listen to radio every day, but now I may go weeks without ever turning a radio on. And I haven't subscribed to an audio magazine for several years now. Don't even look at the audio section of AVS that much either. So, I don't remember hearing or reading anything about HD Radio (http://www.ibiquity.com/hdradio/hdradio_hdstations.htm) , until now.

Kind of funny I thought, that over in England there was a survey that revealed that 80% of listeners thought digital radio sounded better. Today, I compared one track on analog AM radio to the same track on digital AM, and the dif is like night and day. Now the dif between a good FM broadcast and digital FM was more subtle.

Oh, here is a link (http://www.ibiquity.com/cgi-bin/liststations?state=TN) to the stations broadcasting in digital locally. At least for now, none are multi-casting.

For me, HD radio just isn't that big a deal. I love my XM Satellite Radio. :) It might be a bit compressed, but you get a LOT more variety, without commercials.

I don't think I will ever go back to FM radio.

I knew a couple of the others were broadcasting in digital. One of my friends have a digital radio in her Envoy which displays the song that's playing. That's the only way I could tell it was digital. I couldn't tell any difference in the sound quality.

someone at TW told me in Jan theyre supposed to add more HD content.
Can someone confirm this?

i dont feel like thumbing through pages and pages of arguments trying to find an answer.
thanks.

Tigers game at the FEF tonight, so it might be HD again.

Tigers game at the FEF tonight, so it might be HD again.

So far it looks like it's going to be SD. Oh well, at least the first time was nice (I guess it was the same station...can't remember). Hopefully they will show some more later on in the season, maybe against some bigger opponents.

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on the HD Directv Tivo. I learned very quickly that you do not get the major stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) in hi-def over satellite. The directv rep indicated that they would send a waiver request to the local affiliates to request that I be allowed to get the National feed (NY I think) because I can not get the local feeds in high-def through directv. What is the success rate for such a thing? I imagine that distance from the local OTA antennas has something to do with this waiver too. If you are close enough to the OTA to receive, do they deny the waiver request? BTW, I am in Lakeland. The Directv rep indicated that they have 45 days to respond. Did it take that long with those of you that have done this? Thanks for any info.

Satjunkee

Hopefully they will show some more later on in the season, maybe against some bigger opponents.
Tonight's game was done by CSTV, but broadcast on UPN. If it was a UPN production it probably woulda been HD.

satjunkee, I bet you will only get FOX for the HD waivers. Whoever you spoke to at D* was mis-informed. BUT, I would be interested to see if you got any waivers granted other than FOX. I doubt it tho, because Lakeland isn't that far from the towers. You will be stuck seeing the same crappy picture on our local CBS and NBC that we are seeing.

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on the HD Directv Tivo. I learned very quickly that you do not get the major stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) in hi-def over satellite. The directv rep indicated that they would send a waiver request to the local affiliates to request that I be allowed to get the National feed (NY I think) because I can not get the local feeds in high-def through directv. What is the success rate for such a thing? I imagine that distance from the local OTA antennas has something to do with this waiver too. If you are close enough to the OTA to receive, do they deny the waiver request? BTW, I am in Lakeland. The Directv rep indicated that they have 45 days to respond. Did it take that long with those of you that have done this? Thanks for any info.

Satjunkee

I know you should be able to get 88 Fox East national feed on Directv even without a waiver. I know I got it, but I had to talk to some special department and not the regular customer service. I didn't even try to get the waivers from the other stations as I had heard they would be denied if you live within range (I live in East Memphis).
Good luck to you though. I know my father-in-law has the national feeds, but I think it's because he was "grandfathered" in when you used to not have a waiver to get the national feeds. Or it could be a messup on Directv's part, but I know he also never requested waivers. Hopefully others can let you know more about how the process works.

Just flipped through WPTY. Still no 5.1. *sigh* I swear, this is driving me crazy.

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on the HD Directv Tivo. I learned very quickly that you do not get the major stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) in hi-def over satellite. The directv rep indicated that they would send a waiver request to the local affiliates to request that I be allowed to get the National feed (NY I think) because I can not get the local feeds in high-def through directv. What is the success rate for such a thing? I imagine that distance from the local OTA antennas has something to do with this waiver too. If you are close enough to the OTA to receive, do they deny the waiver request? BTW, I am in Lakeland. The Directv rep indicated that they have 45 days to respond. Did it take that long with those of you that have done this? Thanks for any info.

Satjunkee


I also live in Lakeland. I recently re-submitted for waivers, they were denied. Fox was the only one that was not denied. As mentioned previously, you will get Fox on channel 88. I do not have a problem receiving the other signals OTA with an antenna in the attic.

Just flipped through WPTY. Still no 5.1. *sigh* I swear, this is driving me crazy.
Dated: 12-29-04
ABC is rolling out a new HD downlink for it's affiliates in 2005. This will provide us with the Dolby encoder needed to pass ABC 5.1. We are scheduled to install in July...

8-31-05:
We are installing ABC's new rack this week...However, Dolby encoder install will be delayed few weeks. Maybe mid September?

Looks like the new version of WHBQ and their tower.

I have not been to this forum for a couple of years (!) but was wondering what the state of the Memphis HD channels is at the moment. I can usually get 24-1 at good signal strength, and sometimes 3-1. However 5-1, 10-1 13-1 and 30-1 are very poor. Is this a problem with my OTA antenna or are other people having similar problems. I live in Midtown so I am not really close to the transmission towers, but is this an issue with my setup or users in general.

Thanks

I have not been to this forum for a couple of years (!) but was wondering what the state of the Memphis HD channels is at the moment. I can usually get 24-1 at good signal strength, and sometimes 3-1. However 5-1, 10-1 13-1 and 30-1 are very poor. Is this a problem with my OTA antenna or are other people having similar problems. I live in Midtown so I am not really close to the transmission towers, but is this an issue with my setup or users in general.
The state at the moment is they aren't good. Multicasting has ruined WREG & WMC. WLMT has been decreased for no apparent reason, WPTY must've done the same thing since there have been reports of seeing blocking. And WHBQ, well, let's just say no.

But to answer your questions above, 5, 24, and 30 broadcast from the same tower. 5 is at a lower power than usual due to technical issues (which was explained to me why the pq decreased even more after the subchannels decreased them in the first place). You wont be able to pick up 13, unless you are right by their offices. 10 for me has been kinda funny at times.

I don't live in mid-town so I can't help you as far as where to point your antenna. But you really shouldn't have to move your antenna that much if at all to get the stations, since they will be almost in a straight line from that area. I'm sure someone here can help you more.

mx6bfast,

Thanks for the update. Looks like we are regressing rather than progressing! Has this resulted in more griping to the networks and are there any real plans for the Memphis local channels to get their act together? Also, is there any news on DirecTV upgrading this area with the 5 lnb dishes to provide improved HD programming (and perhaps cutting the local channels out of the loop)?

Thanks

Thanks for the update. Looks like we are regressing rather than progressing! Has this resulted in more griping to the networks and are there any real plans for the Memphis local channels to get their act together?
The only stations that seem to care are WPTY and WMC. But WMC multicasts and wont turn them off. EngDave has listened to our concerns and made changes, but not all that we ask for. WPTY also runs WLMT. WLMT had the bandwidth cut down to 15 mb’s for no reason. It was upped for a week or 2 but the pq has gone back down. WPTY, I have been noticing blocking during MNF, and some of the other shows don’t seem to pop out of the tv as much. I wonder if they are seeing what they can get away with before they start to multicast?

And WREG is a joke. The PQ used to be amazing. But once they turned on NA the pq went to crap. If you read the email above from another poster, you will understand why we think that of them. (Btw…I am working on taking screen shots with my camera and post them here of WREG. If anyone can take screen shots directly from an HD receiver to their computer, let me know.)
Also, is there any news on DirecTV upgrading this area with the 5 lnb dishes to provide improved HD programming (and perhaps cutting the local channels out of the loop)?
I doubt we will ever get the national feeds of the big 4, other than FOX since ours is an O&O. The 2nd sat finally went up a couple of weeks ago and D* is starting to bring more cities on-line to mpeg-4. We are in the DMA 42 range, 1 closer if they skip over New Orleans, and I first thought we would have locals in HD from D* early 06. Looks like that might be a little longer. But personally, I’m not going to jump on it until the HD-DVR is available from D*. Or by that time I would have moved to Comcast and dropped D* completely. Just depends on a multitude of factors.

I haven’t read the threads about the rollout in a few weeks, but they first said the HD LIL feed would come directly from the station. Meaning if WMC sends WMC-DT out at 16 mb’s, including subchannels, D* would get 16mb’s, not 19 mb’s. But I’m not sure if D* is gonna carry the subchannels. Once D* gets them they would then be encoded I don’t know how many times so the pq could be a tad worse from D* than OTA. I haven’t read that thread so if I’m wrong someone please correct me. I guess I need to get a reading.

Thanks for the updates. It is really sad when you have had an HD plasma for over 3 years and you are still scrambling for decent programming to appreciate it. If only the local channels here invested some of their advertising revenue on decent signal quality rather than crap news vignettes that no one cares about.The only good thing is that D* has great customer service and has made my life much easier during a recent move and system upgrade. Hopefully they will ease the pain with more HD for non-local channels.

If only the local channels here invested some of their advertising revenue on decent signal quality rather than crap news vignettes that no one cares about.
That's why I made the poll. So far the subchannels are watched VERY VERY little.

I have not been to this forum for a couple of years (!) but was wondering what the state of the Memphis HD channels is at the moment. I can usually get 24-1 at good signal strength, and sometimes 3-1. However 5-1, 10-1 13-1 and 30-1 are very poor. Is this a problem with my OTA antenna or are other people having similar problems. I live in Midtown so I am not really close to the transmission towers, but is this an issue with my setup or users in general.

Thanks
I also live in MidTown and can get everything except 13-1 from one position of a RadioShack Double Bowtie in the attic. 10 has been finicky for the past couple of weeks but the others have been consistent.

Eyewitness News has placed an HDTV behind the meteorologists.

It's coming. It might not look very good when it gets here, but it's coming. :)

mx: Great point on WPTY/WLMT. I bet that they are going to multicast. What they will put on there in anyone's guess (News maybe, but do they have the bandwidth for that with the conversion coming?)

If they are 'testing the waters' to see what they can get away with, I hope they realize that WE REALIZED when the picture quality went down, and that they CANT get away with multicasting without a fight.

Does anyone know why they can't just get more bandwidth? It would seem that there is plenty of empty space over the air?

I'll tell you one thing though: If they had a multicast channel that aired syndication shows, (sitcom reruns, dramas, etc. If anyone remembers what WLMT USED to be like, before it became UPN, that's what I'm talking about.), and it could be done WITHOUT COMPROMISING the picture quality, I would probably watch. The thing is, they need to get more bandwidth, and ACTUAL content.

Tonight's Tigers game is showing WLMT/UPN 30, so maybe tonight's game will be in HD.

http://gotigersgo.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/mem-m-baskbl-sched.html

Tonight's Tigers game is showing WLMT/UPN 30, so maybe tonight's game will be in HD.

http://gotigersgo.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/mem-m-baskbl-sched.html
That would be nice. I wonder if there is some way to encourage it. It shouldn't cost them any more than a regular broadcast should it? Especially since they already own the equipment.

HDTV_Duffus,

Thanks for the update. I'll recheck my system and see if something is screwed up.

WMC spliced NBC Nightly News to the Digital feed at the very beginning of the broadcast, but spliced it back a few seconds later. It's amazing how much SHARPER it looked for a few seconds.

Tonight's Tigers game is showing WLMT/UPN 30, so maybe tonight's game will be in HD.

http://gotigersgo.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/mem-m-baskbl-sched.html
Although not officially listed on the web schedule you referenced, it looks like another CSTV broadcast...at least their logo is in the score graphics. In any case it's not HD. Too bad!

Another week, another Lost, another stereo track...

Yeah, it blows.

My post was for the Tigers game, but can also relate to WPTY's non 5.1

I was wondering if anyone has the SA-3250hd was able to use the firewire ports, as described in the 3250 thread. I have heard that TWC have changed to not allow any firewire ports to work?

Does anyone know exactly what resolutions the local channels broadcast at it seems that some channels on HD are in 720p while others are less. I could not find a really good discussion of what the locals are using, other then to say the PQ is pretty bad.

I must agree it is a pain to only have a few channels using 5.1 I hope that this will change.

Also I did try to use my FM turner to see if the radio stations are in digital, non of the frequences I tried on my receiver could give me a digital signal. I know at times while watching TV my receiver will give me a digital 2.0 or 5.1 lock.

Also it was too bad the tigers game was not in HD, that sucked big time.

Rthoreau

Also I did try to use my FM turner to see if the radio stations are in digital, non of the frequences I tried on my receiver could give me a digital signal.Do you actually have an HD Radio tuner?

Does anyone know exactly what resolutions the local channels broadcast at it seems that some channels on HD are in 720p while others are less. I could not find a really good discussion of what the locals are using, other then to say the PQ is pretty bad.
1080i: WREG, WMC, WKNO, WLMT
720p: WHBQ, WPTY
I must agree it is a pain to only have a few channels using 5.1 I hope that this will change.
WMC has 5.1 equipment, they just haven't been able to get it to work correctly. Same with WKNO, they have it, but I don't know what they are doing with it. Probably just laying around.

Do you actually have an HD Radio tuner?

That's a good question, I am using the Panny XR55, I assumed that it could pick up digital channels, but maybe I over looked something.

If they do broadcast in digital is the music they play going to be in 5.1 or stereo?

I guess its kind of like digital TV, just because its says digital doe's not mean its HD. I don't play radio that much so it's not a big loss.

Rthoreau

1080i: WREG, WMC, WKNO, WLMT
720p: WHBQ, WPTY


Thanks, Thats funny why does WREG broadcast in 1080i, when it looks worse then 480p, or about the same.

Can any of you folks tell the diference between 1080i and 720p, I have cable and TNT I assume is 1080i looks great as well as WKNO, and the Discovery Channel. Those are the best hd channels I receive, I do know that there is a big debate about the two resolutions but both look about the same.

But what do I know I have a 32 inch TV and an early one at that, so I might be missing on the quality a bit.

Rthoreau

Thanks, Thats funny why does WREG broadcast in 1080i, when it looks worse then 480p, or about the same.
:D
Can any of you folks tell the diference between 1080i and 720p, I have cable and TNT I assume is 1080i looks great as well as WKNO, and the Discovery Channel. Those are the best hd channels I receive, I do know that there is a big debate about the two resolutions but both look about the same.
Personally I can. It's a lot easier to tell the difference with our locals. The ones that multicast and screw up the picture run 1080. The one that doesn't ruin the pq is 720. So it's actually kinda easy. Of course I have 20/12 vision so I might be an exception.

Remember that the stations don't make the choice between 720p and 1080i, the networks do.
That being said, I agree with mx, I can tell the difference between 720p and 1080i.

Ya know, they're already talking about 1080p and beyond...

Per the usual, the PQ on Smallville is severly lacking. This is an episode from last year, and my Season 4 DVD upscaled to 1080i looks about the same as this. (There's a LOT less pixelation on the DVD.) At least it's a rerun tonight, since Oprah's on Dave (but that won't look any better.... :-/)

Oddly enough, the audio is showing up as 2.1 surround sound on my receiver.

Edit: This is kinda fun! I'm running the DVD side by side with the broadcast.. During fast motion scenes, the DVD definately wins. The resolutions is obviously a bit better for the broadcast, but not much...

Final result: I asked someone here which one was airing live. (I covered the WB logo and the source as I switched between the two inputs.) The result? She couldn't tell a difference. It's not exactly scientific, but its good enough. :)

That was a fun way to kill 30 minutes...

Remember that the stations don't make the choice between 720p and 1080i, the networks do.
That being said, I agree with mx, I can tell the difference between 720p and 1080i.

Ya know, they're already talking about 1080p and beyond...


I like the idea of 1080p, but when it becomes a standard that is broadcast then I might jump on the band waggon.

I think that 1080i on TNT, and the Discovery channel is very nice, but if it was in 720p I probably would not mind that much. Like you say, if I watch WREG in 1080i or 720p it looks the same to me, can't tell, that goes for almost all the locals whether its 1080i or 720p.

Thats good that a upconvert dvd matches some of the quality, I just wonder how blu-ray will match up in quality. I guess that is why I still have my htpc, if blu-ray comes out, and the drives are cheap I could very much see me getting one for the htpc. That is another reason I want firewire out of my stb, so I can watch 1080i shows without the dvr. Only sad thing about it is I might have to upgrade as a my current systems play 1080i like crap. I hope in the future it will get better as the software players get better code.

Rthoreau

I like the idea of 1080p, but when it becomes a standard that is broadcast then I might jump on the band waggon.
When that happens, just imagine how bad our locals will look here.

I'm not impressed at all by ABC's games today. No pop to them. I wonder if that is because WPTY isn't givng it enough bandwidth.

And WREG, no comment. I can't talk that bad without using bad language.

I have posted results as of 12-5, http://www.sugarplumgals.com/hd/poll_finished.htm

If you haven't taken it yet or know someone who has HD, send them this link. All of our talk will just be talk unless we have some facts to show the stations. The results show just how useless the subchannels are to WREG and WMC. But I doubt 20 responses will be enough to have them think of changing. Shoot, if your wife watches HD have them fill this out. The more people who fill it out there merrier.

Your probably right I doubt the locals will take these results very seriously. I bet for every one that voted, their are a dozen people who think the same. After all, all those hd set's leaving the retail chain stores have to be going some where.

Then you have to consider that most people really are not that web savy to find this forum. What would be interesting is if someone like engdave had an idea of all the e-mail complaints that come into a station about hd. We just might be the tip of the iceberg, we might be the most vocal, but surely not the only ones who want better hd.

Rthoreau

Your probably right I doubt the locals will take these results very seriously. I bet for every one that voted, their are a dozen people who think the same. After all, all those hd set's leaving the retail chain stores have to be going some where.

Then you have to consider that most people really are not that web savy to find this forum. What would be interesting is if someone like engdave had an idea of all the e-mail complaints that come into a station about hd. We just might be the tip of the iceberg, we might be the most vocal, but surely not the only ones who want better hd.

That’s why I put the poll out there. Personally I thought I would get more responses from it. Is it just because people don’t care what they see, or they don’t know what they are missing? If they came into HD in the past say 6 months, then they missed out on non-multicasting, even tho WREG started doing it over a year ago.

I’ll admit I’ve sent emails to all the stations, not all of them are to complain. But here recently, a lot of them have been to. But if I’ve been given 10 widgets for almost 2 years and then all the sudden am being given 6, yeah I’m gonna say something. Maybe it’s just a result of the role in my job. If something goes wrong, I find out how to fix it. Why is it not as good as it used to be? What’s making it from not being as good as it used to be?

Did anyone here send the link to anyone at the local affiliates? I’d be interested if they would pass the poll to people who provide them with feedback. I would have no problem with that. I would just be weary of them cooking their books. But if they were getting low marks I’m sure they would stop sending it out.

About the tip of the iceberg, I know you are correct that we are. I know of 5 friends on mine who have HD that aren’t members of this forum. I sent the poll link to them to fill out. I’ll have to follow up to make sure they fill it out. Plus I have a handy link to this forum 2 x on the site.

Instead of complaining to the station engineers, or even management, maybe we should be complaining to the companies that advertise on these stations. That is where the money comes from, and we all know it's the money that talks! So if the advertisers knew that people were turning the channel to watch a station that has better picture (and sound) quality, maybe they would take another look at where their money is going.

Then again there probably just aren't enough of us to make a difference. We are AV enthusiasts after all, your average TV viewer just is not that concerned. I believe most people (well many anyway), that purchase HDTVs now have them connected to analog cable. Really...I know several that have HDTVs and have never seen HDTV.

They can get away with it, because many people don't understand what HD looks like, or how to actually get it. I think our efforts might be futile. The stations only care about their interests.

Look at what E* did today with the Voom21 package. They downgraded all the channels to 1280x1080i. I wonder how many people will notice.

I've even thought about going above the station manager, to the company that owns the station.

STILL no 5.1 on WPTY.
5.1 is becoming the new broadcast tower. :(

mx, I doubt if the parent companies would do anything. I think that WPTY/WLMT's owner (ClearChannel) won't give a crap, and WMC's owner (Raycom Media) is multicasting on most, if not ALL their affiliates.

Who owns WREG?

We have an O&O Fox, but they clearly don't care either. (Fox in general has no clue what they are doing though... :))

NY Times

...... I'm sorry.. What?

The NY Times company owns WREG. Probably shoulda quoted you, but didn't have much time to respond.

I saw the weatherman's plasma on WPTY or WLMT a few days ago. After seeing WREG's mammoth plasma, the one on either WPTY or WLMT doesn't look so big anymore. Maybe they need to get one the size of the ones behind the anchors.

Man it was cold yesterday and this morning. I wonder when the temp will be up around 70 again? (like it was a few weeks ago, real cold then real warm) :)

I believe most people (well many anyway), that purchase HDTVs now have them connected to analog cable. Really...I know several that have HDTVs and have never seen HDTV.
I went to Thanksgiving at my uncle's house, and saw he had just bought a nice, big HD set. When I asked him questions about whether or not it had the tuner built in, or if he considered getting TW HD, he looked at me like I was speaking Greek. I'm guessing the kids selling these TVs at Best Buy don't really make an effort to inform their customers about what HD is. I imagine there's plenty of people who see the excellent PQ at Best Buy, and are at home scratching their heads over the stretched-out, blurry, pixelated mess they're watching at home via cable.

Speaking of mess, is it just me, or was the WREG signal very elusive Sunday? Normally I can watch the NFL games they broadcast, but Sunday, I was up and tweaking my antenna every few seconds to catch the signal, before finally just giving up and watching it on DTV. :(

I went to Thanksgiving at my uncle's house, and saw he had just bought a nice, big HD set. When I asked him questions about whether or not it had the tuner built in, or if he considered getting TW HD, he looked at me like I was speaking Greek. I'm guessing the kids selling these TVs at Best Buy don't really make an effort to inform their customers about what HD is. I imagine there's plenty of people who see the excellent PQ at Best Buy, and are at home scratching their heads over the stretched-out, blurry, pixelated mess they're watching at home via cable.

Speaking of mess, is it just me, or was the WREG signal very elusive Sunday? Normally I can watch the NFL games they broadcast, but Sunday, I was up and tweaking my antenna every few seconds to catch the signal, before finally just giving up and watching it on DTV. :(

WREG-DT was breaking up at my location as well during the first quarter of the Broncos/Chiefs game. The signal had stabilized considerably by the second half.

BTW, guys, I'm new to this thread. I just ran across it a couple of days ago. It's great to find fellow Mid-Southerners in on the HDTV action...even if that action is less than desirable at times! Great thread; keep it going...

Chase

The NY Times company owns WREG. Probably shoulda quoted you, but didn't have much time to respond.

I saw the weatherman's plasma on WPTY or WLMT a few days ago. After seeing WREG's mammoth plasma, the one on either WPTY or WLMT doesn't look so big anymore. Maybe they need to get one the size of the ones behind the anchors.

Man it was cold yesterday and this morning. I wonder when the temp will be up around 70 again? (like it was a few weeks ago, real cold then real warm) :)

:), You misunderstood, mx. I got what you meant by that, I'm just still shocked that THEY own it...

Are the plasmas behind the anchors on 24/30 real? I always thought they looked chromakeyed..

theatre_man: Welcome to the forums! :)

:), You misunderstood, mx. I got what you meant by that, I'm just still shocked that THEY own it...
so that was more of a “what” like the WREG response. :)

Are the plasmas behind the anchors on 24/30 real? I always thought they looked chromakeyed..
Your probably right. They are probably just screens.

theatre_man: Welcome to the forums!
Definitely. By your user name and websites, it looks like you are pretty well versed in the hd area. I’d be interested in your views of the local channels here.

Instead of complaining to the station engineers, or even management, maybe we should be complaining to the companies that advertise on these stations. That is where the money comes from, and we all know it's the money that talks! So if the advertisers knew that people were turning the channel to watch a station that has better picture (and sound) quality, maybe they would take another look at where their money is going.


That might work but most of the advertisements are done by the national channels, such as the car commericials. I guess you could list the local advertisers and give them a call, but they are small potatoes compared to the big boys. I guess any decline in revenue will make people wake up, after all its just a matter of time.

Just look at the options available now, I-tunes is offering more content so their is competition. For me its just a matter of time, I think that once Apple show's the way we could get 1080p episodes to download. Depending on the content I could pay a few dollars for something like that. Maybe after Apple makes a deal with all the nationals, I will use that as levarge with the locals, after all who needs low PQ multicasting crap when a better copy is available for a low cost.

As it is now with the ab hdtv Usenet news groups I can get about all the stuff I miss as it is. But I do like the idea that not everyone is capable of doing it the way I do.

Rthoreau

You guys can complain to the advertisers all you want, but if you run off that Royal Furniture chick, you might have some very upset people...... myself included! ;)

As it is now with the ab hdtv Usenet news groups I can get about all the stuff I miss as it is. But I do like the idea that not everyone is capable of doing it the way I do.
What's the deal with the usenet group? Never heard of it.

Just a few years ago, the best picture and sound we could get at home was DVD. We didn't really expect much from broadcast TV. Then we saw HDTV. Wow! Better picture (with the empty promise of 5.1 sound) from broadcast. Better than DVD (picture anyway). My point is, in the not too distant future, HD-DVD will give us the best picture and sound we can get at home, and broadcast digital TV will give us more choices of content but the quality isn't going to be much better than in the analog days. :eek: Sure looks like it's headed that way, anyway.

I also had trouble getting the Broncos/Chiefs game that did not improve during the game. This was really disappointing since WREG reception is usually reliable. The night before, WMC was unwatchable, featuring 10 seconds of audio followed by 30 seconds of frozen, pixelated garbage. I took a few screen shots with a digital camera for reference. The more challenging part was getting a shot of what a good screen should look like.

Thanks mx for putting that poll together. Even if a single station takes notice and improves PQ. For all we know, it may be that WHBQ decides to forego multicasting when the get their tower working in 2010 (not that they've committed to that date).

I'd agree that ignorance plays a large part in the relative few who speak up about quality. The viewer that thinks: "I have a HDTV, therefore I'm watching HDTV" is the same as the one makes sure that the DVD player is a progressive scan model to plug into a 15 year-old 19 inch television. I'd say that it's not just the big retailers that don't give consumers the whole picture. One experience with one of the satellite companies showed me that they'd be more than willing to send a HD box to a subscriber without mentioning that it's only good to pick up an extra hhandfulof channels that would actually be in HD. The rest of the channels, including locals, would have the same quality as before. Basically setting subscribers up to pay 10 dollars more a month for the pprivilegeof watching the same programming and quality.

I've had people tell me there isn't that much improvement with a HD picture, yet after going side-by-side with the satellite feed, I've never had anyone ask to switch off of HD. Apparently though, it is unfortunate that my experiences have all come after the start of multicasting.

LOL, I just flipped on WREG and Jim Jaggers was supposedly directing this choir, but since you can see more on the sides on the HD feed, you could see ANOTHER person's hand directing them for real behind him. It was just on the edge, so if you weren't watching the HD feed, you thought Jim Jaggers could really direct! :)

Ah, the wonders of overscan (and the lack thereof on my TV!!!)

What's the deal with the usenet group? Never heard of it.

In the beginning there was ... Just kidding!

It's alt.binaries.hdtv, lot's of people post all the HBO, Showtime, some well known favorites in 1080i, or 720p format. Say you like Rome or Deadwood, then you can get your fix if you did not record it, or if you missed an episode. Or if you don't have access to them, and want to catch up on something new.

Just a quick note on Usenet, it's the grand daddy of most of the p2p networks, in other words before p2p or ********** their was Usenet. This was used by Universities to pass information to each other, and is still in use today. You can find almost everything on Usenet, especially since the mpaa is starting to crack down on bittorent. You can find Anime, TV shows and about anything that turns your fancy.

I look at it as another tool, that allows me to see HD content, but to each his own.

Rthoreau

WREG was DEFINATELY testing some sort of splicer during Jeopardy. I saw at least 2 or 3 feed splices, even though I'm sure they tape delay Jeopardy.

They have new graphics for the anchors' names too...

I was watching CSI last night and the first five minutes was not delayed, as I could see major lip-sync errors. Then after the first set of commericals it was back to normal.

That's the only explanation I could think of to fix the lip-sync, or they fixed it while the commerical were on. The other day I also seen it on the tonight show, seems they are still having problems.

Did anyone see the new survey that describes only 50% of hdtv owners have the system hooked up right. You can find the artile on slashdot, that's just sad no wonder the locals and nationals can get away with their crap.

Rthoreau

Did anyone see the new survey that describes only 50% of hdtv owners have the system hooked up right.I'm surprised that even 50% surveyed had their TV properly connected.

Actually guys, you've got to read this article (http://www.techliberation.com/archives/027416.php). :eek:

I wonder how many of those 50% got their HDTV's at B&M stores?

Has anyone ever gone to Best Buy for example, and just kinda hung around and listened to the people who work there? I'm sure everyone here has a story like this, I was just hanging out while my wife was on the phone looking up something, and I was in the tv area. (store at Wolfchase) I was just minding my own business and this guy was looking at this plasma and was talking to the salesperson, since I was in the same isle I decided to listen in. I don't remember all that was said but the customer was fed total bs. For example, he can get 13-1 with an antenna where he lived. Not only that all he needed was an antenna, not an hd stb. (tv wasn't HD-ready) The guy said he would think about it. I felt bad for the guy so I followed him out of the area and told him the truth about HD stuff here. He was amazed by how much wrong info he was told.
Another time when I was buying a returned E86, the dude ringing me up was doing the same thing. Then when I told him no on a couple of things he "had heard form his friend" started arguing with me. Politely I told him I just wanted to help and give him right info, and he was still arguing with me and started kinda slamming things down on the desk. I asked for my card back and left.

Will someone call WREG and tell them to flip the Duke vs. Texas game to HD!!! I don't know the number to call. Thanks!

I started watching it in SD at my parents house on their 32". ugh. Once my wife's party was over I was able to come home and watch it in HD. Apparently someone did call. And man does it look bad. So much blocking everywhere. sad sad sad

The member lastStop created a graphical document with the results from the survey. It's good stuff and has been posted on the poll site.

I wonder how many of those 50% got their HDTV's at B&M stores?

Has anyone ever gone to Best Buy for example, and just kinda hung around and listened to the people who work there?.

Oh Yeah! I've heard some good ones there before, when I've been buying equipment, I have known far more than the people working there. I can't imagine what most people think when they get their new set home only to realize they've been misled. No wonder there are so many "open box" items there. People return things because they don't know how to use them or weren't told the "truth" about them.

The member lastStop created a graphical document with the results from the survey. It's good stuff and has been posted on the poll site.
Thanks lastStop, those were really helpful in seeing the results.

My neighbor responded to the email he got back a couple of weeks ago, and sad to say it doesn't get any better. He forwarded me this. His email on top.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Jim,
Thank you for the response. I have some more questions related to your
responses.

I want to make sure we are talking about the same channel. You mentioned
WREG-TV and I was talking about WREG-DT. Did you mean WREG-DT?

I am watching on a Mitusbishi 55" tv that I performed the Avia calibration
disk on. I was able to see much more than what you mentioned. Are you
watching the feed coming from CBS, or the one that you are sending out?
What we were getting was when the camera showed the crowd and it panned
around it was hard to make out that it was even people. During the plays,
and even afterwards, when the camera would show a closeup of a player or
someone on the sidelines, if they started walking or someone walked in
front of them they went all blurry and there is pixelation all around their
body. I'm watching this from a distance of about 15 feet. When I move
closer to the tv it starts getting exponentially worse. This was happening
during both the SEC and NFL games this weekend. I've noticed that this
isn't related only to sports, but also other programming during the week.

I live in Cordova, and I get around 90% of a signal from 28 and between 75
- 80% from 52. I am using an antenna to get the local channels in high def.
I don't have any dropouts from either one. I don't know why that would make
a difference to the picture. I've noticed that when the signal gets down
below 40% I start losing the picture and auido completely.

I'm just curious because I don't know, why can't the subchannel be turned
off? Also can you please answer how much bandwidth is being given to main
channel? Can that be increased to get rid of pixelation on the screen?

thanks,
clay
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was watching WREG-DT
I was watching our over the air signal.
A crowd consists of many pieces of digital data.
With todays technology the crowd should look good but you will not be able
to recognize each face as the camera pans.
On close ups of players on the field I could see a very, slight short
duration blur on the edge of the white helmets.
I saw no pixalation at all.
Your signal level is more than adequate, in fact you might inquire with
Mitusbishi to see if 90% could cause signal over load on their receiver.
If the subchannel was turned on and off some receivers would get confused
and need to be turned on & off or reconfigured.
It would become very confusing to have a subchannel a some times and not at
others.
The signal that we transmit is far superior to other HDTV sources such as
cable and satellite ( they compress much more).
Very little bandwidth is allocated to the subchannel.
Thanks for watching WREG-DT
HDTV is not perfect but most people view a more pleasing (email apparently cuts off here)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anytime I am in BestBuy I try to help the poor people in the tv section. Most of the time it goes well. They are shocked at what I know. Then again, I am shocked at what they do not know.

With very little effort they could know much more.

Oh no he di’ent *snapping fingers*

Lets go line-by-line and figure out why I have that song “Here’s your sign” stuck in my head

I was watching WREG-DT
ok
I was watching our over the air signal.
good he knows what that means
A crowd consists of many pieces of digital data.
no, a crowd consist of people
With todays technology the crowd should look good but you will not be able
to recognize each face as the camera pans.
do we really expect to point out people we know from a camera pan. Kinda impossible
On close ups of players on the field I could see a very, slight short
duration blur on the edge of the white helmets.
what about the colored helmets? Did you happen to miss the fact that there were blocks all over them?
I saw no pixalation at all.
get your eyes checked, sir. My wife used to work for Dr Buck at Eyemaster’s, he only charges like $35.
Your signal level is more than adequate, in fact you might inquire with
Mitusbishi to see if 90% could cause signal over load on their receiver.
Then why would other shots look good? Wouldn’t all of the program be messed up? Is the guy using an internal tuner?
If the subchannel was turned on and off some receivers would get confused
and need to be turned on & off or reconfigured.
Really, sure just not a channel scan?
It would become very confusing to have a subchannel a some times and not at
others.
not really, no one watches them anyways. If a tree falls in the middle of the woods, and no one hears it, did it really fall?
The signal that we transmit is far superior to other HDTV sources such as
cable and satellite ( they compress much more).
blatant lie. I have seen much better on D* than getting WREG-DT
Very little bandwidth is allocated to the subchannel.
How much is going to 3-1? Still gonna skirt around that question? So it wouldn’t take much to turn it off would it
Thanks for watching WREG-DT
Personally, I am going to start watching less of this channel
HDTV is not perfect but most people view a more pleasing
…..picture. Oh yeah, I’ll just change the channel.


It’s funny that this guy really believes all his claims. It just so happens since that first email that was posted, I have been working on another page that shows just how bad WREG’s pq is. Once I get it up I will post the site on here.

Hello all. I have reading the posts about all of the poor PQ you have been experiencing from HD in Memphis. Maybe I don't know what to look for -- but I rarely see a problem. From my experience HD looks great compared to the non-HD alternatives (digital or analog).

I will tell y'all a bit about my equipment/setup and maybe you can tell me what to look for. Again the HD looks great to me, but maybe my 50+ year old eyes aren't what they once were!

I tend to watch HD over TWC, but I do have an antenna and can get all except FOX over the air from Fayette county.

For over the air I use the integrated tuner in the TV (Sony KDF70XBR)

For TWC (which is mostly what I watch) I have the PACE HD box from TWC. I have that "rare box" in order to use the DVI connection to the TV (maybe DVI is the answer?)

Now I will listen. I have been watching several football games as well as numerous sitcoms and don't see the constant "blocking" and "pixelation" but maybe I wouldn't recognize it.

Let me know what to look for.

Thanks...Bill

Did anyone else just lose the Monday Night Football OTA transmission from WPTY-DT?

Chase

Did anyone else just lose the Monday Night Football OTA transmission from WPTY-DT?I wasn't watching, but just checked and I don't have any signal from WPTY-DT.

I wasn't watching, but just checked and I don't have any signal from WPTY-DT.

Thanks. Just checking to make sure the problem wasn't here. Signal's back now...

Everytime I checked there wasn't a signal. I got a signal with just over 2 minutes left in the game. Of course I did not start to check until the 3 quarter.

I had a frozen screen for a while. I didn't realize it until I looked up on the tv and the Saints player hadn't moved. I checked the signal strength and still had a signal. I checked again roughly 30 minutes later and it was back on.

Hello all. I have reading the posts about all of the poor PQ you have been experiencing from HD in Memphis. Maybe I don't know what to look for -- but I rarely see a problem. From my experience HD looks great compared to the non-HD alternatives (digital or analog).

Now I will listen. I have been watching several football games as well as numerous sitcoms and don't see the constant "blocking" and "pixelation" but maybe I wouldn't recognize it.

Let me know what to look for.
Bill, one question I have for you is how far do you sit from your tv? If you sit too far then you could be missing it. There is a website that has the optimal viewing distance, but I can't remeber the name. I'll try to find it and post it.

I have a Mits 42" and sit roughly 14 feet away. From that distance, I am able to see edges in things on the screen that are not flowing. Since the stations don't send enough bandwidth for the channel, we see these "blocks" on the screen. Next time you watch tv, watch WREG during say CSI. When the program changes to another screen, for a split second you can see these blocks on the screen. On Sunday, watch the NFL game on 3. Far away shots will look fine, but when they closeup on players/coaches, when there is a lot of movement or players walk around in the back/foreground, look at the edges around the players. The website that I am working on will provide examples of this happening. Or you can chekc it out on Saturday when the NCAA basketball game is on.

Last night on the Victoria Secret show it was horrendous. I know the flashes of lights are hard on the encoders, but even when there weren't any flashes the blocking was prevelant.

Somehow WMC does a better job of this, but the Notre Dame games were horrible. I'm not sure if Action Sports will be on anymore, but it is there also.

I do agree that HD shows look much better than the SD shows, but we aren't supposed to see these type of things in HD. And once upon a time ago in Memphis, we didn't. But if we don't step up and say something then they will think it's ok.

Viewing Distance Calculator (http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html)

Jerry

Thanks

I live in Cordova and can't get FOX HD from my antennae. I get everything else perfectly. Is this normal. Should I bother trying to move the setup to the attic or get a better antennae?

thanks for any help.

I live in Cordova and can't get FOX HD from my antennae. I get everything else perfectly. Is this normal. Should I bother trying to move the setup to the attic or get a better antennae?
Hi and welcome.

No you will not be able to pick it up. That is the only station that no one can pick up, unless you are within spitting distance of the tower at their station.

However, if you have D*, you can get the national feed since our station is owned and operated (O&O) by FOX.

If you have D*, then channel 88 will be FOX.

Bill, one question I have for you is how far do you sit from your tv? If you sit too far then you could be missing it...

mx6bfast -- I also sit approximately 14 ft from a Sony 70"

I do have a theory though... Fox almost always looks good and they have a fibre link to TWC. WMC was putting in a fibre link when I spoke with EngDave several months ago. Now even with multicasting over the air could they not be sending the full HD signal to TWC over fibre? I have no clue how the other stations are connected to TWC.

Perhaps EngDave (if he still watches this forum) could comment on that theory.

I need to start watching OTA for a few weeks to see what happens. Maybe will start with football games tomorrow.

Thanks for all the good info.
Bill

Some potentially helpful info about multicasting in this link. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6744477&&#post6744477)

Hey guys,

I visited a friend in Memphis, well, Germantown to be precise, and he has DTV, but never heard of an OTA.

I have the OTA setup in Phoenix, and I'm just shocked DTV never mentioned it as an option for him.

Can he get Digital signals from there? Is there something blocking the towers that would prevent him?

I really want to help him get hooked up...he has this nice plasma, and no local HD...

Thanks,

Mike

Hey Mike,
Being in Germantown he shouldn't have any trouble getting the local stations OTA here, except FOX. He wouldn't need a hefty antenna either. Give him this website, www.antennaweb.org and send him our way if he has any trouble.

Hey Mike,
Being in Germantown he shouldn't have any trouble getting the local stations OTA here, except FOX. He wouldn't need a hefty antenna either. Give him this website, www.antennaweb.org and send him our way if he has any trouble.


I agree, he is close to the antennas and alot of folks have had good results with the Silver Sensor which I think you can pick up at CircuitCity or Best Buy. As was stated, don't waste time on 13-1, but the others should be availble with the antenna in a fixed position.

I agree, he is close to the antennas and alot of folks have had good results with the Silver Sensor which I think you can pick up at CircuitCity or Best Buy. As was stated, don't waste time on 13-1, but the others should be availble with the antenna in a fixed position.


Thanks guys...

One last question...I have an HD Tivo with the OTA stuff...since he doesn't have all that, and just has a normal HD receiver...say he goes out and buys this Silver Sensor antennna...what does he need to do to see those channels in his guide?

Just attach the antenna, and go into settings and flip some switch to receive OTA signals?

Mike

Just attach the antenna, and go into settings and flip some switch to receive OTA signals?
In the settings he would go to Over The Air/Antenna settings and enter in his zip code. The Tivo would then scan for the local channels and add them to his channel guide.

Tigers game in HD again tonight on WLMT. For some strange reason last time the game was in HD I had this exact same problem. Fluctuating signal strength from WLMT. It's only affecting my E86's, when I usually have a solid 100%. I'm able to watch on my HDTivo with no problem. I dunno. I know tomorrow I'll be back at 100%.

PQ is ok. Lots of blocking around the players when they are walking around, even worse when running.

Tigers game in HD again tonight on WLMT. For some strange reason last time the game was in HD I had this exact same problem. Fluctuating signal strength from WLMT. It's only affecting my E86's, when I usually have a solid 100%. I'm able to watch on my HDTivo with no problem. I dunno. I know tomorrow I'll be back at 100%.

PQ is ok. Lots of blocking around the players when they are walking around, even worse when running.



Solid signal on HD TIVO, no blocking noticed and the audio was even in sync.

Signal on my E86's back at 100 this morning for 30-1. *sigh*

STILL no 5.1 on ABC......

Does anyone know exactly when TW is supposed to change to Comcast?

Last I heard it was sometime first quarter 2006. I spoke with a one of the techs about this a month ago and he said they have made everyone sign non-disclosure agreements. He said management hasn't said a word to anyone since the announcement so no one really knows what's going to happen. He also said the ONLY reason Comcast was interested in this market was because of how well Road Runner Business Class was doing. I've never had Comcast before, but from what I've seen on their website they have a way better info-guide. Not to mention Comcast and TiVo inked that deal to run TiVo software on the Scientific-Atlantic boxes.

Thanks for the info. I'm thinking about dumping D* for Comcast, but it depends on the costs. I was in the Nashville thread and asked a few questions there about Comcast and the prices and such, and was kinda turned off. I hope that there are better deals here locally.

I'll just have to figure out how I can get credits if I decide to go back to D* when the home media server comes out and they get the other sats up.

I just got my new 42in Hdtv with built in Tuner and I have a Samsung Sir ts360 d* receiver no hd package or 3 lnb dish. I have the largest radio shack antenna in my attic hanging by telephone wire. I have a 3 way splitter sending signals to bedroom regular tv, new hdtv, and satellite receiver. Can I get a smaller antenna for the attic (radio shack preferably to pick up the local hd channels) so I don't have to split the signal so many times. I am about 15-18 miles from the towers according to antennaweb site. I am getting a most signals between 40-60. I would like to increase that hopefully to 80-90. Last ? I know fox 13 is not up an running yet for ota but I can only get wreg tv channel 3 with dd 5.1 surround sound, all the others are just regular dd 2.0 surround, is this correct for everyone using ota antenna??? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jdmac29

Hi jdmac,
You say you split the signal 3 ways sending them to different tv's. Are they only split that 1 times 3 ways, or more at the tv's? I'm not sure if there is anyone from Tipton county here. If so they can help you with the antenna question. You could buy an amp to try to boost the signal strength. Being that close to the antennas a small indoor could be fine. It just depends if there is a lot of buildings and such in your path. Have you tried moving the antenna around in your attic to see if you get better reception? WREG is the only channel sending 5.1 right now. WMC tried it but it sounded pretty bad. The are supposed to begin working on that again after the new year. We are waiting on the other channels, most notably WPTY.

I finally got the page up that I was talking about seeing the blocking from WREG. Here is the link, http://www.sugarplumgals.com/hd/pictures_of_wreg.htm

Thanks guys...

One last question...I have an HD Tivo with the OTA stuff...since he doesn't have all that, and just has a normal HD receiver...say he goes out and buys this Silver Sensor antennna...what does he need to do to see those channels in his guide?

Just attach the antenna, and go into settings and flip some switch to receive OTA signals?

Mike


You said your friend was using a D* HD reciever, your friend should be able to connect the OTA to his current HD receiver. Go through the setup menu and add OTA.

Have your friend log onto this site and we will help him.

From the engineer at WHBQ:
************************************************************ **********
I've been following the thread on the AVS Forum. If all goes well, we should
have a belated Christmas present for them. I plan to throw the switch on the
1 MegaWatt transmitter on Tuesday morning.

I would like to do this before Christmas so that all those new DTV receivers
would be able to see us, but the new transmitter has to run in "black heat"
mode for a full week to break the tubes in before I can put a signal through
them.

I'm sorry for all of the delays - believe me, I would have loved to have
gotten on the air sooner. We've had delays from various sources, including
Katrina (the tower crew had to do emergency repairs elsewhere, and that
delayed our project), Shelby Code permits, MLGW transformer replacement, and
the usual problems with modifying a fifty-year-old tower.

We may have to turn the transmitter off for short periods of time in January
to complete the tower modifications above the antenna (the tower crew can't
climb through the area of the antenna with the power on - zaps them), but they
shouldn't be long, and should be during the day (no true HD then, anyway).

By the way, we have no plans to multicast for the foreseeable future, so you
will get the full 19 Mb/s for the HD signal.

There might be some transmitter burps at first (we sprang a cooling water leak
yesterday that we're fixing today), but this model has a reputation for
reliability. The antenna and transmission line tested excellently, so they
should be as good as they can get.

Wish us luck! And Merry Christmas to you and the rest of the AVS Forum!
************************************************************ *******

From the engineer at WHBQ:That is good news! As I've never seen any FOX-HD. I get OTA only, no HDTV on cable, and I don't have a sat. system.

And it's nice to know that local engineers are reading this forum. What would it take to get more of them to actually participate? Is EngDave the only one who does? And Dave, where have you been lately?

Finally!

And it's nice to know that local engineers are reading this forum. What would it take to get more of them to actually participate? Is EngDave the only one who does? And Dave, where have you been lately?
I asked the engineer from WHBQ about that, who happens to be named David also. He said he can't post on here. I didn't ask why.

I have been in contact with Dave from WMC thru email, so he is still alive. :)

Scott Prentice is WPTYdude. He said he is pretty busy so he doesn't get the chance to watch this forum much. In his defense, he does work on 3 different stations. WPTY, WLMT, and one in Jackson, TN.

It would be nice to have the engineers for all the stations posting here regularly.

From the engineer at WHBQ:

I've been following the thread on the AVS Forum. If all goes well, we should
have a belated Christmas present for them. I plan to throw the switch on the
1 MegaWatt transmitter on Tuesday morning.

Praise the Lord, some good news from WHBQ! Thanks, guys. Without your tower, I'd be watching all the NFC playoff games in SD. My house isn't wired for cable, and DirecTV can't get a FOX HD feed through the terrain.

Is it too much to hope for 5.1 audio?

Definitely. By your user name and websites, it looks like you are pretty well versed in the hd area. I’d be interested in your views of the local channels here.

mx,

You had previously asked for my opinion on local HD broadcasting. My specialty is really audio, but I know a little (very little) about video.

I have on occasion noticed blocking of the magnitude depicted by the pictures of WREG that you recently posted. However, it always accompanies a significant drop in signal strength -- usually a complete drop-out. Under normal signal conditions, I'm not really bothered by blocking. I do see some aliasing around the edges of very bright distant objects that are set against dark backgrounds (like white football helmets against a green field in a wide shot). It is not motion-related and never occurs during close-ups.

Every weekend I watch NFL games in HD from DirecTV (NFL Sunday Ticket), WREG and WPTY, so there's ample opportunity to compare the feeds. The best image I have seen to date came from WREG early in the season; HOWEVER, the quality varies on a weekly basis. The local broadcasts generally look better than DirecTV, but it depends on how many HD games DirecTV is broadcasting. The best image I've seen from them came within the last week or two when they were only transmitting one HD game. It was comparable to the local broadcasts.

I don't watch much TV -- about the only thing I do watch is NFL football. So, there could be many issues out there that I don't see. My biggest concern right now is getting a stable OTA signal. Some stations fluctuate much more than they should.

As an audio guy, WREG receives high marks for being the only station currently broadcasting (correct) 5.1 audio. Come on, competition!

FYI, my system...

RCA DBS dish pulling down DirecTV 101 bird

Antennas Direct DB4 OTA antenna fix-mounted in attic

DirecTV H10 DBS/OTA receiver connected via HDMI to Denon AVR-4806 A/V receiver connected via HDMI to SIM2 HT-300 XTRA-H projector

Screen Research CP2 ~8' wide ~14' from viewing position to form a horizontal subtended viewing angle of ~34 degrees

Sincerely,

Chase

Is it too much to hope for 5.1 audio?
I asked about that in a follow up email, but didn't get a response yet. I'll let you know when he emails me back.

If I am correct the nfl on cbs was suppossed to be in hd and dd 5.1 but I did not get dd 5.1 and the picture looked about the same on whbq 13 sd. Am I correct?

The early game we are getting isn't HD, but the late game is.

Hi, I was wondering if someone could tell what HD Channels are curently available from Time Warner Cable in Memphis? I am not from Memphis so can't fine this information, but i have family there who i will have to help setting up once they purchase an HDTV. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I was wondering if someone could tell what HD Channels are curently available from Time Warner Cable in Memphis? I am not from Memphis so can't fine this information, but i have family there who i will have to help setting up once they purchase an HDTV. Thanks in advance.

from http://www.timewarnercable.com/CustomerService/CLU/TWCCLUs.ashx?CLUID=70&Zip=&Image1.x=71&Image1.y=9 Also know this could change a little bit as TW is changing to Comcast soon

High Definition
803 WREG-DT CBS Memphis
805 WMC-HD NBC Memphis
807 WPTY-HD ABC Memphis
809 WLMT-DT UPN/WB Memphis
810 WKNO-HD PBS Memphis
813 WHBQ-HD FOX Memphis
815 HBO HD
816 HBO West HD
825 Memphis Grizzlies Games in HD (when available)
826 TNT HD
840 Showtime HD
841 Showtime-HD West
844 Discovery HD Theater
850 Movies on Demand HD
857 NHL Games in HD from OLN (when available)

High Definition Premium Tier
851 INHD
852 INHD2
855 ESPN-HD
860 HD Net
861 HDNet Movies

Thanks alot mx6bfast, i appreciate it.

The 27th and it still isn't on yet.

The 27th and it still isn't on yet.
I recieved an email from David at WHBQ this morning, and he said he was on his way to throw the switch, that it should be on around 10. He tested it for alittle bit Friday and it worked. He also said he welcomes feedback, and his email address is David.Brant@FOXTV.COM .

They will pass 5.1 audio. Since they use a splicer and not a switcher they should not have any lip sync issues, if they do it's national not local.

I'll be checking for it later tonight when I get home.

I recieved an email from David at WHBQ this morning, and he said he was on his way to throw the switch, that it should be on around 10. He tested it for alittle bit Friday and it worked. He also said he welcomes feedback, and his email address is David.Brant@FOXTV.COM .

They will pass 5.1 audio. Since they use a splicer and not a switcher they should not have any lip sync issues, if they do it's national not local.

I'll be checking for it later tonight when I get home.

WHBQ-DT is on the air with 93% signal strength and (currently) good stability at my location on the East Memphis/Germantown border.

Chase

My signal in WHBQ-DT is pixelating a lot... in Southaven.

Where is the tower located?

Where is the tower located?35° 10' 29.00" N Latitude
89° 50' 42.00" W Longitude

35° 10' 29.00" N Latitude
89° 50' 42.00" W Longitude

Thanks...

Which equals..

35.174722 N Latitude..

89.845 W longitude

Or for those of us that are direction deficient, like me, the antenna at the Whitten exit off I-40. :)

Able to tune in 13 this afternoon. Reception was spotty, kept jumping from strength 7 to 0 and back again. May try a larger antenna soon or turn the current one closer to the direction of the tower. At this point it's a welcome addition.

"Bones" on 13-1 is looking good right now. A/Bing it with FoxNY on D*, it looks and sounds a teensy bit better (and earlier, since 13-1 doesn't have the extra satellite delay).

I'm getting spotty reception too. Not good enough to do a comparison. Will mess with my antenna later this week to get a solid signal. Don't like the colored bug tho.

Picture looked good on Fox tonight when it wasn't frozen or broken into blocks, which wasn't very often.

I'm really at a loss of how to get the reception to improve. WPTY is the only station I can consistently watch in digital, WREG is probably better than 80% but it's a yes or no thing. Either I can watch hours at a time without any problems or the picture freezes the whole time. WMC has been a lost cause for months and WHBQ appears to be in its league.

I've been working with a indoor amplified antenna which I thought was acceptable based on the reception of two of three networks and the belief that WMC is still broadcasting at half power. I tried going to an medium sized outdoor antenna placed in the attic but it didn't improve the digital stations at all. I flipped back and forth between the indoor and attic and the results were the same or worse. I'm not even sure where I need to make improvements. With only one digital tuner to work with, I don't know if it's a tuner issue, weak signal, multipath signal or something else. If anyone can tell me how to find out what I need to do to improve the reception please let me know. I've tried the go bigger until it works method but that doesn't seem to be making much progress.

Is 13.1 at full power? My meter bounces from 0 - 13 and no picture. Are they broadcasting from the analog tower?

lastStop,
How far are you from the broadcast tower? If you are at a distance like I am, the weather can make a huge dif in reception. Also, to test for weak signal and/or multi-path, look at an analog channel from the same tower. If you see "snow", it means weak signal, if you see "ghosts", that's multi-path.

Neil,
Thanks for the help.

I'm between 9 and 15 miles from the different towers according to Antennaweb. I'll check the analog stations later today. WHBQ had always been showing with snow on the indoor antenna. Last night, the attic antenna showed the analog station very clearly but with definite ghosting. Sounds like I may have different issues to address depending on which antenna I choose.

Oh, yes, the colored bug is more annoying than the Fox5 grey bug. But the gigantic colored bug on the SD feed is even more horrific (I just saw it for the first time on Good Morning, Memphis).

I'm getting a signal strength of 93 (compared to 83 for WMC, 95 for WPTY, and 92 for WREG). Of course, I live three miles from the antenna farm, and can see them when standing on my roof next to my antenna. In fact, I even have an attenuator on the antenna because without it the signals are so strong they overdrive the HD-Tivo.

I live about 6 miles from the WHBQ tower, but this morning was still having fluctuation signals, which never went over 79. WREG is pretty much in the same line, and I have 100 for that, no issues. I didn't think I would need to mess with the antenna since it is in the same general direction. I guess I'll have to do it this weekend, or tonight if my wife falls asleep while watching Tivo.

btw...WHBQ-DT isn't on www.antennaweb.org use WHBQ 13 for your aiming

Well I live in Tipton County, right outside of Millington and I got a good picture but I had some breakup also on occassion. I am about 17 miles from the tower.
I will adjust my antenna more this weekend to see what can be done to fix it.
signal strength fluctated from 45- 60 on my Sammy sir ts 360

I would strongly suggest switching to outdoor antennas for your over the air reception of the local channels. Indoor antennas are not going to work nearly as well as an outdoor antenna mounted above your roof line will. Attic mounting the antennas will only marginally improve the reception compared to indoor antennas. (It will not help with Multipath)

By far the best way to maximize your signal strength is to go with an outdoor mount. Most of the DTV's are currently broadcasting on UHF channels using 8VSB modulation, which is susceptible to Multipath. Mounting antennas indoors or in attics will cause the multipath issue to be exacerbated. From what I am reading with the signal strength jumping it sounds like a multipath problem. (just guessing though)

Mounting antennas outside will help with both signal strength and multipath issues.

My two cents worth.

Engdave

After fiddling with my antenna in the attic I am now able to receive all of Memphis' DTV stations... Including WHBQ-DT with no dropouts :D

All I had to do was turn the antenna a few more degrees to the north.

BTW I live in Southaven, MS.

After fiddling with my antenna in the attic I am now able to receive all of Memphis' DTV stations... Including WHBQ-DT with no dropouts :D

All I had to do was turn the antenna a few more degrees to the north.
Good job. You give me hope :D

Good job. You give me hope :D

Thanx...

FYI I am using the Radio Shack 15-2160 (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=family) UHF antenna, along with a Channel Master CM 7777 (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?CAT=Amplifiers&PROD=ANC7777) preamp.

Jerry

If 13 is broadcasting from their analog tower, I'm 16.7 miles away according to antennaweb. It's on a compass heading of 183 deg. Channel 10 is 18.1 miles at 179 deg. Channel 10 comes in great.

My antenna is in the attic (second story) but it is on the south end of the house and facing south. There isn't any metal, etc anywhere near it. It is approx. 18 inches from the gable. It is an 8 bay 4228. I may have to put it outside but not sure where I'll put it.

At less than 20 miles I don't think I would need an amp, do I??. BTW, I am using an HD Tivo.

This is good. STACKED is the first HD show I see on WHBQ-DT. Glad they're finally on the Air! :D

I am watching the bowl games on ESPNHD(and drinking BEER :D ... Don't worry I am not driving :D )... for the heck of it I went to WHBQ during commercials... it is still coming in strong from where I am at and looking good.

Jerry

If 13 is broadcasting from their analog tower, I'm 16.7 miles away according to antennaweb. It's on a compass heading of 183 deg. Channel 10 is 18.1 miles at 179 deg. Channel 10 comes in great.

At less than 20 miles I don't think I would need an amp, do I??. BTW, I am using an HD Tivo.
I was in the same boat as you, only closer. I came home from work today and now I have a signal that goes between 72 - 93 for WHBQ, and a constant 93 - 100 for WREG & WKNO. Haven't had any dropouts since this morning on WHBQ, never have any on the others. Can be a strange thing sometimes.

Moved my antenna 2 inches to the left and now have a good signal from 13-1. Finally.

But man, what a bug. I was able to get a signal last night and was put off by the bug. Too colorful. I hope they do something about it since something like that can cause burn-in on my tv.

I asked David at WHBQ about this today actually, and he said they are working on making a more transparent one.

Why do they have to have a station identifier on screen all the time, anyway? I know that most, if not all, networks do it, but why? I enjoy many of the HD programs on WKNO, but I really don't like the WKNO/PBS-HD banner they have on screen constantly, even though it is transparent. Back in the analog day, the station ID would be on-screen for a few seconds, maybe a minute, then vanish. Why not do that way with HD? Do they think we won't be able to tell it's a hi-def program if they don't tell us?

I've wondered the same. Apparently there are buffoons out there that can't remember which channel they are watching. They really are a waste to constantly have on the screen.

I got this yesterday afternoon from David at WHBQ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We've got some sort of problem with the transmitter that results in constant
unlocking of the signal. On my office receiver, it looks like garbled crap.
On our test receivers, it just doesn't receive at all. Our transmitter
engineer is on the phone with the transmitter manufacturer to resolve it, but
I don't know how long it will take.

Could you pass the word to the AVS Forum that we're having trouble, and it's
not their sets. We have also had a couple of times (mostly in the middle of
the night) when the transmitter "crowbars", resulting in half power operation
for short periods. This is part of the normal breaking in period for the
transmitter, and shouldn't go on much longer.

Sorry to get everyone excited about HD, then lose our signal just when the
good shows come on!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good to know he is passing the word along. I noticed last night that my signal was dropping out. Hopefully it wont take them too long to get it resolved.

A buddy of mine I work with has TW and has had continued problems with ESPN HD. When he is having problems with it, the picture will turn black. If he leaves it on that channel, every now and then, the announcers will come on with that digital synthezised sound. Or the picture will come back for a split second and freeze with digital lines all in it. This is sporadic, and TW doesn't know what the problem is. He said they are coming out on Wednesday. Has anyone experienced this problem before?

He has the HD-dvr.

I noticed a loss of signal late yesterday afternoon... but It came back at about 6 PM or so... in fact my wife watched Shallow Hal on WHBQ.

Jerry

WHBQ-DT now has a normal transport stream, but work continues on a failed exciter (Exciter A is normal, but Exciter B has to be switched in occasionally for troubleshooting purposes). This may result in reduced power for short periods of time. It should be back to full power for the weekend unless something else goes wrong.

"Crowbars" will occasionally occur, but they only result in momentary reduction of power, and shouldn't affect viewers within the nearest counties. By the way, an "exciter" is a low-power stage that makes a transmittable signal out of the "transport stream" that represents the audio and video signal. This is then fed to two high-power amplifiers that are combined together for the final output of the transmitter. A "crowbar" is an automatic protective circuit that cuts the 23 kV voltage to the amplifier tube if it detects an overcurrent event. These are not unusual with new tubes, but should slack off as it ages some.

Happy New Year to all!

DTV Dave, great to see you on the forum. And even better to see your broadcast on-the-air! I know everyone here wants to say thanks for all your hard work getting the new transmitter online. Whose transmitter did you buy? It must be an IOT if your getting periodic crowbars. Though 23KV seems a bit low for the beam voltage on an IOT. Sounds like you have 2 cabinets which will make your life a lot easier. (I am jealous yes)

I know it can be frustrating trying to get a new tube to "settle in". Sometimes you have to do some filament management to get things to calm down. Welcome to the wonderful world of Water Cooled?, UHF TV! LOL It can be fun at times.

Best of luck with the new transmitter in the 2006!

EngDave

Thanks, Dave! I hear that WHBQ-DT has a Axcera MSDC IOT transmitter. They call it a Visionary HP50DDP, so it's capable of 50 kW, but it's loafing at 41 kW out of the filter. The beam voltage may have been higher (I only caught a quick look at the meter before they kicked me out of their building!). Overall, it looks like a pretty solidly built transmitter.

They were fortunate that they found their first water leak before they turned the pumps on!

Watching the bowl game on WREG, and man, do the highlites from ESPN look sooooo much better than what we are getting. Blocking everywhere around players moving, as usual.

Sweet, Tigers in HD.

LOL, Woah, I leave for FOUR days, and Fox goes live OTA....

I even thought on the way back to Memphis, What if Fox went live while I was gone?...

LOL, Woah, I leave for FOUR days, and Fox goes live OTA....

I even thought on the way back to Memphis, What if Fox went live while I was gone?...
You shoulda left 2 years ago. ha-ha

Too bad you can't leave and come back and WREG and WMC would have stopped multicasting and have the picture look beautiful again. You'd never come back.

This is so funny, WREG is doing their 50th anniversary special, and are talking about how the man who started WREC-TV was a visionary, and always thought ahead of his time.

LOL, They are talking about 'testing' before they went on the air 50 years ago today.

It's kind of sad that the people today don't care as much as the ones who started this station.

Dang, STILL no 5.1 on WPTY. I figured, if Fox can get online, maybe there's hope for everyone else.

Ok, So since Fox has gotten their act together, we need to take a vote: Who's going to be the 'new' Fox? ;)

Thanks for those who replied about antenna issues. I understand the points of roof mounting an antenna but I'm not at the point of climbing onto the roof.

I ended up switching out the large antenna with the small amplified one and the signal strength improved markedly on all channels. The outdoor one was returned and the indoor antenna is moving up to the attic.

This may be a case where the ends justify the means and putting the largest antenna as high as possible could solve all the issues. However, I am trying to avoid overkill. Part of the issue is that I have no way to quantify the changes between one setup and the next. I can look at the signal strength but I've had readings of 3 and 7, both with steady pictures. I can look at the analog[1] channels but I don't have the cable runs to do them side-by-side with different setups.

In any case, moving the indoor antenna to the attic is the configuration I'm going with now and so far has given good results.

I'm looking forward to getting the games today on WHBQ. I rescanned the stations last night and got 53-3 as a separate channel, my set did not rename it to 13 as it does for other channels. Has anyone else had this happen. I also picked up a third subchannel on the rescan for WKNO. There's no programming currently it just says that WKNO^2 is coming January 9.

[1] I made a comment in a previous thread that on an indoor antenna 13 was fuzzy (weak) while a larger antenna in the attic produced a clear but ghosted (multipath) 13. I later realized that the comparison was probably not valid because the VHF portion of the indoor antenna has not been connected and most likely caused the weaker signal.

Dang, STILL no 5.1 on WPTY. I figured, if Fox can get online, maybe there's hope for everyone else.

Ok, So since Fox has gotten their act together, we need to take a vote: Who's going to be the 'new' Fox? ;)
Well, you can look at it in a couple of different ways.

First lets take the issue of 5.1 audio. This is the way that I see the "new audio" FOX.
1) WPTY. If they have the equipment, get it up and running. You are able a half year behind getting it installed from what was first communicated. If they don't have it, stop lying to us saying you do.
2) WMC. They get bonus points for at least having and trying out the equipment. Now they need to get it working in time for NASCAR.
3) WLMT. the WB broadcast some shows in 5.1. Sure would like to hear it. And I swear I have heard 5.1 from this station before, during Lord of the Rings.
4) WKNO. Don't really care when they install it, personally. From other emails I got from their engineer, they should have the equipment.

Second lets take issue of quality video presentation.
1) WREG. Lots of blocking during any sports presentation, in addition to regular prime time programming. Watching the Sun Bowl and some NFL yesterday it pains me to think that their engineer can't see what all of us are talking about here. I get jealous that other cities see the games without multicasting. It's really sad when the best pq of CBS games are highlites on ESPN. But like mollerup posted, when your new title is "Some clown at WREG", what do you expect. And of course I posted that link on the other page of pictures of games on WREG. The pq hasn't gotten much better at all. They win the award for most degraded picture with multicasting. Way to go!!!! Come get your prize. *awards them toilet brush*
2) WMC. Used to be the multicast leader in the mid-south. And no, PAX doesn't count since they don't broadcast HD. But now with WKNO coming soon with PBS2 (noticed that too laststop) they have been tied. Since multicasting Weather - and the Tube, pq on the main channel has lost its sharpness to the point of being soft. And sports, ugh! I know that NBC has a problem with live events as a whole, but the multicasting doesn't make it much better here. Case in point, I was in nearly all of the ND game threads and posted that we were getting games with a lot of blocking, and swimming grass. Other cities with NBC stations that didn't multicast said their pictures were beautiful and it was tough to see the blocking. So that leads me to believe that taking away however many mb's of bandwidth really made it that bad. Then as a comparison I would catch parts of the games on UHD thru D*. Many people said the replay on UHD was much worse than their local NBC, and it looked just as bad to what we got OTA. Ouch. Again, best pq is on highlites on ESPN. Action Sports and horseracing aren't that much better. I was planning on watching a lot of the Olympics since a lot more of it is supposed to be in HD, but if we get just as bad pq as we do for the other sports, I'll be popping in some dvd's that I haven't seen in a while, or maybe paint around the house.
3) WLMT. Only sending 15 mb's for this channel. Drastically needs more as there is a lot more blocking on this channel than I remember against last year. Tiger's games give them some brownie points, but the pq takes back about 60% of the brownie back. Even when players are walking to the bench it looks like WREG. A lot of movement really causes a lot of blocking.
4) WKNO, again, personally don't watch much on this channel.

That's just my take on it. I would like to see these issues resolved in 2006, but I doubt all of them will. Maybe the sound issue will, but I don't think anything will be done on the pq side of it. Hell, I could care less if they ran 30 subchannels during the day, but if they turned it off during HD broadcasts, and I mean all of them, I'd see that as a step in the right direction.

I didn't think I'd be saying this already, but WHBQ is leading the way locally. Even tho it took them forever to go live they:
1) Have 5.1
2) NO plans for subchannels
3) send the main station at 19 mb's

I mean what else can you ask for??

I agree completely. Like I've said before, now that WHBQ is online OTA, they ARE the best station in town.

I personally hope that WPTY/WLMT is the one who fixes things, mainly because I watch more of those two channels than anything.

You're not crazy, during LOTR, WLMT had 5.1. This is what I don't get, if they HAVE THE EQUIPMENT, why arent they online?! It makes no sense to run the channels at 15mbs. There's 3mbs there that's not being used. It's like they are lowering the audio and video quality on purpose.

From the Commercial Appeal:
Changes at WKNO

A lot is happening at WKNO-TV Channel 10.

On Jan. 9 the station will launch a new 24-hour digital channel, WKNO2, located at Channel 10.2 on digital television sets or at Channel 910 on Time Warner's digital cable service.

The new channel will present an opportunity for more programming. WKNO2 will feature KNO Kids programs, the best of PBS and local productions.

Additionally, WKNO2 will premiere a new public television service, Create, which features lifestyle and how-to-programming with shows like "Chefs of Napa Valley," "The Best of Joy of Painting" and "New Scandinavian Cooking."

That's not all the news.

WKNO's "Memphis Memoirs: When TV Came to Town" has also been nominated for a regional Emmy award in the category of historical documentary.

"When TV Came to Town" was produced by Bonnie Perkins Kourvelas and premiered in December 2004.

WHBQ did take a very long time to get up at full power. If you remember, when 5 and 3 came up they only had one channel and the pq was really nice. Let's just hope WHBQ doesn't "see the light" and add several subchannels to broaden our programming options at the expense of the main HD feed, YUK!

The locals have gone into the HDtoilet to give us the wonderful extra weather and constant news channels (like we don't have enough already) and the music channels (that I and many others could care less about). The end result is a crappy downrezzing of the main HD feed that you bought the fancy new HDTV for.

Just about anyone that has an HDTV has cable or satellite. We have plenty of viewing options. We don't need these other "programming options" from our local stations. What we need from our local stations is a pristine HD channel running at full bandwidth.

It looks like the only option for true HD is via satellite and then just a few channels.

OK, I've vented. I feel better now

Well WPTY started the year off right. Didn't turn the HD feed on.

I got master control and asked if they could turn the HD feed on and she said "Oh, ok" 1 second later it was in HD. It surprised me just how easy that was. I guess there really is a switch. On/Off.

If it's that easy, how hard is it to turn a subchannel off for HD programming?

I think the issue with subchannels is that you have to rescan for them if they go off, and the stations are afraid people won't be able to do that.

The easiest way to 'turn off' the subchannels is to drop the bandwidth down to practically nothing, and black the channel out. That way, its still 'on' but its not taking PQ away.

There's literally IS an on/off HD switch. :)

LOL, Woah, I leave for FOUR days, and Fox goes live OTA....

I even thought on the way back to Memphis, What if Fox went live while I was gone?...

Haha Me too. I was out of town for Christmas vacation and get back and flipping through channels, when I just about fell off the sofa! Well it's finally arrived and so far the PQ is very good. Hope they don't ruin it by doing "you know what."

Does anyone know how this will affect my Fox National feed from D*?

OK, I've vented. I feel better now

I agree and I vented a while ago too! Mollerup's Rant on HD sub channels (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6408482&&#post6408482)

mx said that he was told by the Fox Engineer that they have NO plans to multicast!

I would imagine it wouldn't effect your D*, since Fox13 is an O&O station.

Fox EASILY beats all the other stations for picture quality. I'm so excited that they got this online, and just in time for 24!!

Just checked the forum for the first time in a while and found out Fox was on air. I rescanned this afternoon and am getting excellent signal in Desoto county. Can't wait for 24 either. I've had my Sony HDTV for one year today. This is a great anniversary present.

I'm trying out HD through cable using my sets built in QAM tuner. I plugged the cable into the set after one split and scanned the channels. It picked up all of the digital SD stations and four of the HD stations (WREG, WMC, WKNO, and WHBQ).

First question: Has anyone been able to find WPTY with this method? The four stations above were re-named/numbered from other places. The set picked up a bunch of other digital channels, which I'm guessing are the encrypted ones like the HD movies. I've gone channel-by-channel through these and found The Tube, but no WPTY. Would a CableCARD help?

I would have thought that reception would not be an issue with cable, however, I'm getting massive breakup on WMC and WHBQ. Is there a reason cable channels would break up? Would a CableCARD help? Am I doomed to not get a quality signal from WMC without risking a swan dive from my roof?

Thanks for any advice on any of the issues.

Just checked the forum for the first time in a while and found out Fox was on air. I rescanned this afternoon and am getting excellent signal in Desoto county. Can't wait for 24 either. I've had my Sony HDTV for one year today. This is a great anniversary present.

One more 24 fan checking in.

Did anyone see Vertical Limit last night? I tuned in about 2/3 of the way through. It looked very nice -- first time I've seen a movie via OTA HD.

Has anyone asked the local broadcast engineers how they're determining the DialNorm values for their Dolby AC-3 streams?

Chase

laststop, I couldn't ever find WPTY or WLMT's HD feeds. And I had the same massive picture breakup you are having on WMC and WHBQ. It may be a problem with their signal, but I doubt they would help you.. :(

Here's a list I compiled of clear QAM channels:
80-2 - WHBQ HD
80-3 - WMC HD
81-12 - WMC Weather Plus
84-3 - WKNO HD
86-1 - WLMT SD
86-2 - WMC SD
86-3 - WHBQ SD
86-4 - WPTY SD
86-5 - WREG SD
93-9 - C-SPAN 2
93-10 - CCTV 9 (Chinese News Channel! Pretty cool, actually..)
102-10 - The Tube
102-11 - TWC Promo Channel
108-1 - News Channel 3 Anytime
108-4 - WREG SD

Something interesting I noticed on WREG. On the 7-day forecast, they are protecting for 4x3 and 16x9. If you crop the top and bottom of the 4x3 frame off (imagine looking at a letterboxed image on a 4x3 tv), you wouldn't lose any important information, and if you crop the left and right off of THAT Widescreen frame (crop the sides off of the letterboxed image, so all 4 sides have 'black bars'), you STILL wouldn't lose anything...

Confusing: Yes
Proof HD news is coming: Maybe
Am I Crazy: No

The easiest way to 'turn off' the subchannels is to drop the bandwidth down to practically nothing, and black the channel out. That way, its still 'on' but its not taking PQ away.
I'd be happy with that.
Something interesting I noticed on WREG. On the 7-day forecast, they are protecting for 4x3 and 16x9. If you crop the top and bottom of the 4x3 frame off (imagine looking at a letterboxed image on a 4x3 tv), you wouldn't lose any important information, and if you crop the left and right off of THAT Widescreen frame (crop the sides off of the letterboxed image, so all 4 sides have 'black bars'), you STILL wouldn't lose anything...
I have noticed that during the weather segments, on the digital channel you can see a chest on the right side of the screen. And the images all cut off early on the left, including the ticker. But when you watch the feed from D*, it goes all the way to the screen, and you can't see the chest on the right side of the screen.

Was anyone having problems with WPTY today? I was experiencing occasion dropouts earlier today for a little bit. But once the Fiesta Bowl started they pretty much went away.

I was able finally get WHBQ and keep all the other channels. It only took me 2 hours. :( I had everything fine but WLMT last night with occasional dropouts, but got that resolved this morning. I have noticed the WHBQ feed has a slightly better pq than the D* feed. I'll be changing my HDTivo recordings soon.

The one I keep having issues with is WMC. I can get everything else solid, except WMC. I have to move the antenna around to get it, and then that messes everything else up.

FINALLY got to see Arrested Development in HD tonight (without pixelation problems). MAN, I love that show. Here's hoping Showtime saves it..


"George Bluth: The Home Builders Organization won't help us.
Michael Bluth: Well, I figured the HBO wouldn't help us.
George Bluth: I guess it's Showtime! We should put on a show of some kind.."

:)

I must admit the nfl games and the college football games looked awesome, I flipped to wmc 5 for the other bowl game today wouldn't you know it no hd I am sure across the country that game was in hd but our local station did not want to broadcast it that way. I am about max 18 miles from any of the towers and so far I am using a radioshack 190 antenna by signal strenth is in the 90's and I am not having any problems with any of the channels so far blocking or sound issues. When I do see the wrec 3 sub channel for news the picture looks funny showing the newcast in that little box but otherwise the hd looks good on the main channel. I agree with everyone all stations need to be in dd 5.1.

ravma479,
Thanks for the list. Also good to know that you've had the same issues with missing channels and breakup. I called the manufacturer today to find out if others had reported issues with the QAM tuner. Their suggestion was to reset and rescan to address the breakup issue. Immediately after the scan WMC and WHBQ seemed to come in steady but the issue was back by the next time I turned the set on.

Two additions to your list I came across today:
90-20 Encore WAM SD
110-8 Encore SD

The last scan today failed to pick up any digital stations on 110, but I can still manually enter 110-8 to get there.

Fortunately, WPTY OTA comes in great for me. I did notice sparkles throughout the screen on the closeup/huddle shots towards the end of the game, especially in the ND uniforms. Did anyone else notice this? I couldn't see it during the actual plays but could not tell if this was because they weren't there or the different background and greater motion kept them from being visible.

I must admit the nfl games and the college football games looked awesome, I flipped to wmc 5 for the other bowl game today wouldn't you know it no hd I am sure across the country that game was in hd but our local station did not want to broadcast it that way. I am about max 18 miles from any of the towers and so far I am using a radioshack 190 antenna by signal strenth is in the 90's and I am not having any problems with any of the channels so far blocking or sound issues. When I do see the wrec 3 sub channel for news the picture looks funny showing the newcast in that little box but otherwise the hd looks good on the main channel. I agree with everyone all stations need to be in dd 5.1.

That wasn't WMC's fault...

NBC drops the ball again - Gator bowl not in HD (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=625100)

BTW NBC was the only station to NOT broadcast any Bowl game in HD...

Jerry

EngDave and DTV Dave: whatever you just said just flew way over my head. Good to have the engineers on here.

tiger bob: ?...

Newbie questions here:

1. Just got a D* HR10-250 with external antenna... picking up CBS, FOX (!), PBS, UPN, PAX, just fine. ABC signal appears pretty blocky like other folks have reported. WMC isn't coming in at all, so no NBC in HD. Is their signal strength about as high as the other towers? They look like they're all about in the same spot.

2. Has anyone had any luck with getting waivers for getting HD stations over D* outside of Fox? I called and complained to D* and got them to turn on 88 but they said for the other channels it would take 90 days to process the waiver request. Am I wasting my time?

3. The framerates on ESPN during football games are running 60fps. Are any of the broadcast stations broadcast with that many frames? Or would that require too much bandwidth?

splam: Welcome to the Forums!

1 - I always have trouble with WMC. Their signal seems a lot weaker and a lot less stable than the others in town.

2 - I think the only way you are going to get waivers for anyone other than Fox is to raid their offices. :)

(Sorry, Been watching too much 24 with my brother, to get him caught up for
<cheapplug> The 2 night, 4 hour season premiere beginning January 15th and 8/7c, on Fox.
And while your at it, watch Arrested Development, Mondays at 8/7c. Heck, we fought so long for FoxHD, you might as well use it. :)</cheapplug>
)

Ahem...

I doubt that they would ever give waivers out. Even though it would get us to shut up about PQ. I could care less if they ran 50 subchannels, as long as I had a waiver for an untouched feed.

3 - I believe that Fox is running at 60fps, not sure about ABC. 60fps means they are running at 720p, which Fox and ABC do. NBC, UPN, WB, and CBS run at 1080i, which is 30fps.



No HD for the WB tonight. They better have it back next week when the shows start up again.

WREG hasn't spliced Letterman yet. Man, our affiliates are off it tonight.

Did you guys know that ABC broadcasts Good Morning America in HD, but our affiliate chooses not to pass the HD feed?

I CANNOT believe I this. I only found out about it after seeing a blip at Best Buy about it. Apparently, they've been in HD for MONTHS now.

I'm heading out of town for a week. I'm going to CES in Vegas. Since Fox started broadcasting after I left last time, maybe this time, all the other problems will be fixed!



...or not.

Thanks for the info ravma. As you can see I'm still pretty new at this.

According to antennaweb my antenna should be at 10 degrees. D*dude put it up at 25 (originally put it up at 190 - same direction as the sattelite - until I was able to convince him that Memphis was north of Olive Branch, MS). I'll get up there with a ladder tonight and see if WMC comes in.

Next step is a bigger antenna, probably stuck in my attic.

24 rocks. Can't wait for HD. Hopefully it will be 5.1?

tiger bob: ?...
They were talking about the broadcast towers 1 page back.

Did you guys know that ABC broadcasts Good Morning America in HD, but our affiliate chooses not to pass the HD feed?

I CANNOT believe I this. I only found out about it after seeing a blip at Best Buy about it. Apparently, they've been in HD for MONTHS now.
Yeah GMA has been in HD for a while now. What sucks in the central time zone gets a tape delayed SD broadcast. They are supposed to be resolving that soon, but it does blow. There is a GMA thread on here somewhere.
I'm heading out of town for a week. I'm going to CES in Vegas. Since Fox started broadcasting after I left last time, maybe this time, all the other problems will be fixed!
...or not.
I've got to admit I'm a little jealous of you going. If you happen to find someone from CBS or NBC that has some pull, tell them to visit this thread, that we need some help. Altho I think "or not". If you leave and something else here gets fixed, I'm going to start paying your way out of town to get other issues resolved. :D
Have fun, get something fixed for us.

Thanks for the info ravma. As you can see I'm still pretty new at this.
No problem, everyone was new at one time. :D
D*dude put it up at 25 (originally put it up at 190 - same direction as the sattelite - until I was able to convince him that Memphis was north of Olive Branch, MS). I'll get up there with a ladder tonight and see if WMC comes in.
You didn't happen to ask him if he went to a Memphis City School? Most everyone at first had or still has problems with WMC. I was told by the WMC engineer that they had to cut down on the power because it was causing some other piece of equipment to act up. WMC broadcasts from the same tower as WPTY and WLMT, so if you are getting those pretty good you should be headed in the right direction
24 rocks. Can't wait for HD. Hopefully it will be 5.1?
Yes it will be. The WHBQ tower is setup for 5.1.

Ah, Gotcha. So it's not the affiliate's fault. That's good to hear, I think..

Regarding the WHBQ bug. Nearly every Fox affiliate I've seen has had a bug just like ours, so it might be a corporate decision.

What would you prefer me to get fixed? 5.1 Dolby? PQ?

splam: 24 WILL be in 5.1. :)

Regarding the WHBQ bug. Nearly every Fox affiliate I've seen has had a bug just like ours, so it might be a corporate decision.
I've emailed David about this and he said they do have a newer transparent bug, but they are waiting to get it loaded into the splicer. He's trying to push to have that change asap.
What would you prefer me to get fixed? 5.1 Dolby? PQ?
All of it at one time. Personally, first pq with WREG and WMC, then audio on WMC and WPTY. But I'm flexible....

Guys, thanks again for the info. This is definitely one of the nicer/more helpful forums out there!

Figured I was pointed at the same cluster as WPTY and WLMT as I'm 20.6 miles and 10 degress away from all three (including WMC).

So what would help more? An amp on the existing antenna or a bigger antenna? The WAF (wife acceptance factor) on a bigger antenna may be a problem. And as I'm getting signal strength from 90-95 on the other two stations, am I just SOL? I've never seen more than 12 from WMC.

As everyone else has pointed out, there's not much worth watching on NBC these days anyway... but it would be nice to cut local channels from D* if I could get a signal of some sort from WMC.

And if anyone from the local FOX affiliate reads this, thanks a bundle for the great signal!

Ah, well that's good. The bug kind of bothered me, but I assumed Fox mandated affiliates to have a non-transparent bug, as I have yet to see any screencaps or whatnot of HD shows that don't have that type of bug.

Personally, I'd like to get the 5.1 up on WPTY and get the PQ back on WPTY and WLMT, but that's just me. I'll do my best. ;)

splam: You're probably going to need a bigger antenna. What size is it? Is there heavy tree cover in your area?

Fox 13 seems to be down. At least its during the day.

Fox 13 seems to be down. At least its during the day.
Must be doing some upgrades that needs to be done to the tower.

I hear tell that WHBQ-DT is working on their failed "B Exciter" today - switching parts of it out with the other one to test it. They appear to be done for the day, but may do something like that tomorrow.