Originally posted by Damon Hill
I guess I'll have to call again. How is it that some of you just automatically get the channel and others dont? Why should it be any different between two people in the same area?

hehe, your talking about D* here.

Call back and tell them to look at the list and Memphis is an FOX O&O station. And since FOX HD is on right now per the agreement you should be getting the channel. If the CSR decides not to do it ask to speak to his supervisor. then go up from there. Apparently there is an HD group. Maybe you will need to get to them.

Damon,

Just as mx6bfast said, ask to speak to the HD Group, I think they are also called the Speacial Projects Group. I have used them several times and they actually know what's going on.

I think the direct #800-531-5000, if that doesn't work ask for "Special Projects". They were able to hook me up back during the MLB Playoffs.....after probably 4-5 calls I was directed to them.

Good Luck

There is NO EXCUSE for what UPN is doing. They are SPLICING THE FEED to overlay an ad for the 9pm newcast, then they are SPLICING it BACK to the HD. This is so annoying, and I cant even concentrate on the show when they do it.
Edit: Just to clarify, this is the LOCAL affiliate, WLMT, doing this.
Btw, has anyone heard anything new about the WB HD?

Were they cutting to SD during an HD show when giving a news teaser? I think that's what you said.

WPTY used to do that but they finally stopped. Yes it is annoying as hell.

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. :p
I cant remember about 10 minutes of Veronica Mars cause I was so distracted. :(
I hope they stop it soon.

Originally posted by dre
"dre - on my sony connected to TWC regular cable (non-digital) I get the following:

70.1 UPN - HD
70.2 NBC - HD
94.8 CBS - HD

regards...Bill"


Bill:

Do you have this input into a HDTV via coax with non-digital regular TWC cable.......how does that work ???

Jerry

dre - I have a sony with integrated ATSC tuner (KDF-70XBR950) that has two coax inputs. One for antenna and the other for cable. I have the TWC standard cable going in the cable input and find the above channels there.

Bill

Good News!

I took your advice and when I called yesterday I got to speak to yet another uninformed CSR who didn't know anything. He said the same thing as the guy before. That no one is getting the channels yet.

I asked for him to transfer me to the Special Projects group. Nice young lady answers the phone and I tell her:

"Hi Lynette. I need your help. D*'s website shows that FoxHD is available for people only in the O&O markets and with the HD package. I have the HD package and get the Memphis, TN feed which is O&O by Fox. I should be getting the channel but there is no picture. Can you help?"

"Sure. Let me check... OK, you should be receiveing the channel but it just hasn't been added to your account yet. *click, click, click* OK, your all done!"

No how easy was that!? It's amazing that the left hand of D* doesnt know what the right hand is doing.

Come on SUPERBOWL!

I hope I am reading the posts right. Fox HD is now up full time? I know it was up during the baseball playoffs. Just want to make sure that this is not some special deal until NFL is over. I really hope not because I would love to have 24 in HD.

Originally posted by rcoxjd1
I hope I am reading the posts right. Fox HD is now up full time? I know it was up during the baseball playoffs. Just want to make sure that this is not some special deal until NFL is over. I really hope not because I would love to have 24 in HD.

For now it is full time. I would love to see 24 in HD also.

Jerry

Hey! GILMORE GIRLS is in HD. Right now! WPTYdude rocks!

Now if he can just get them to kill those annoying flips to SD for news promos in the middle of shows, we can submit him for sainthood.

Of course I would be out of town for one of the shows I want the MOST in HD. :(
Oh well, maybe it's a trend? :-p
WPTYDude's AWESOME (cept for that whole SD-flipping thing)....

Hello, all. I'm a long-time lurker who finally joined up.

What's the deal with channel 50 DT? (I know, I know: no HD there, and essentially no interesting programming there either especially since I haven't noticed any Grizzlies games this year.) But I'm showing excellent OTA signal strength with no picture. Any ideas?

I noticed that ABC E/W just showed up on D* channels 86/87. I'm guessing we need a waiver to get it. And that waivers are hard to come by. (No offense to WPTYDude, but I still sometimes get massive picture breakdown, even though living close in midtown. And I don't think the problem is my end, because 80% of the time it's excellent.)

Fingers crossed for ESPN2-HD on D* this weekend. Go Tigers.

Hey, Welcome.
50 DT comes in fine here. They have 4 stations, 50-1 through 50-4.

Also, ABC 24 lacks 5.1, so there's another good reason to get a waiver. :-p I dont know if you can get ABC on satellite in Memphis, however. You might be able to pick up the other ABC affiliate in our area, (can't remember where it is though), if you had a large enough antenna.

And I turned on UPN 30 on Friday to find What I Like About You and Reba in HD!!! FINALLY!!! :) I can't wait for Smallville and Gilmore Girls. It's too bad that Angel didn't make it long enough to get an HD showing here.

Originally posted by ravma479
And I turned on UPN 30 on Friday to find What I Like About You and Reba in HD!!! FINALLY!!! :) I can't wait for Smallville and Gilmore Girls. It's too bad that Angel didn't make it long enough to get an HD showing here.

Awesome. I was going to check those to see if they were in HD. But I forgot to check until 10:40, and then I told myself to check again during Reba. Sure enuogh starting working on something else and missed it.

Originally posted by ravma479

50 DT comes in fine here. They have 4 stations, 50-1 through 50-4.

I know. I've been getting it for nearly a year. The last few days though...nothing. Even though the signal strength is excellent. That's what's puzzling.

Originally posted by ravma479
I dont know if you can get ABC on satellite in Memphis, however.

It just showed up on the D* receiver a couple of days ago, so yes (finally) you can. Except you can't because of the need for waivers. :mad:

Originally posted by ravma479

And I turned on UPN 30 on Friday to find What I Like About You and Reba in HD!!! FINALLY!!! :) I can't wait for Smallville and Gilmore Girls. It's too bad that Angel didn't make it long enough to get an HD showing here.

Tonight UPN 30 had (I believe) The Mountain listed on the guide as HD, but it was in fact showing as letterboxed SD. What's up with that? I've been enjoying Smallville reruns in HD on HD-Net. It will be great to finally get the new ones in HD, too.

Originally posted by rp3
I know. I've been getting it for nearly a year. The last few days though...nothing. Even though the signal strength is excellent. That's what's puzzling.


I noticed this also.

Hmm, odd. Yeah Pax's stations are out for me too.

Its Sunday Night...
and you expect HD content on Memphis stations? Have you ever SEEN Memphis stations on Sunday nights?? ;)

Whats going on with 3-1? I got no picture yesterday at all but had a very strong signal strength. Anybody else have this problem?

Originally posted by ravma479
Its Sunday Night...
and you expect HD content on Memphis stations? Have you ever SEEN Memphis stations on Sunday nights?? ;)

Well...er...um. The only primetime programming I watch regularly is on Sunday night: Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal. Both in glorious HD, so long as the picture doesn't break up. (Most of the time it doesn't.) Right here in li'l ol' Memphis Tenn, with thanks to WPTYDude.

(Surely I'm not the only one who's noticed the Star Trek references in Boston Legal. Beyond the obvious (Kirk & Odo), haven't I seen a number of Star Trek guest star appearances? I'd swear at least one of the quirkier judges was occasionally on Star Trek Classic as a guest star. And perhaps Denny's/Kirk's/Shatner's wooden legged woman too.)

The only thing that bugs me is that they always switch back to the SD feed before showing the next week previews on Boston Legal.

An HD newbie here.

Anybody know when Time Warner will get Fox in HD? I have the HD box but only get UPN, WREG, WPTY. The Super Bowl is in HD so I would sure like to watch it that way! If not TW, can I get it through an HD antenna? My TV has a built in HD tuner.

Also, I've heard from some folks that TW cable sucks for HD compared to Direct TV. Is this true in your experience?

Thanks for any help you guys can give.

jb

jb:

I think I'm one the few TWC HD users on this Memphis forum, and I find the picture quality to be very stable and high quality. You will find that DirectTV users think their reception is the best, and OTA users say theirs is the best !! and so forth and so on......

It is going to be a while before FOX is on TWC HD...their signal is very weak. WMC should come on board soon. From what I understand, if you want the SuperBowl, you will need a dish system and a national feed. Let some of the other guys help you who use this reception method !!

Good luck

dre

Originally posted by jacksonburn
Anybody know when Time Warner will get Fox in HD? I have the HD box but only get UPN, WREG, WPTY. The Super Bowl is in HD so I would sure like to watch it that way! If not TW, can I get it through an HD antenna? My TV has a built in HD tuner.

Your best bet to get WHBQ-DT is to go with D* and get the national FOX feed. Or, go setup camp in their parking lot. It will still be months until they move their programming to the new tower. And who knows how long that will be, it was supposed to be done this past summer.

Also, I've heard from some folks that TW cable sucks for HD compared to Direct TV. Is this true in your experience?


Personally I think some of the HD channels on D* look good. SNF on ESPN is extremely crisp. With NFLST over hopefully they will increase the bandwidth going to the ones that are starved. OTA looks just as good if not better than the D* channels. WREG HD football games used to look pristine, but they have been done in with pixelation all year long. I have been corresponding thru email with the station manager of WREG so hopefully something good will come out of that. ABC MNF has looked great, and the Capital One Bowl looked awesome the other day. WMC and WLMT don't multicast, and those pictures looked very good. WKNO multicasts, and that picture is hit or miss.

As far as which has the better pic, its really up to your own opinions. I will say that I was at a friends house of mine who has TW and we were watching a Rams/Pats (I think) game in HD on WREG a few weeks ago and it didn't look near as good as my tv. But then again I have calibrated my set.

again:

Whats going on with CBS 3-1?

I got no picture yesterday at all but had a very strong signal strength.

Anybody else have this problem?

Originally posted by Damon Hill
Whats going on with CBS 3-1?

I got no picture yesterday at all but had a very strong signal strength.

Anybody else have this problem?

I had a picture all day yesterday and also this morning. I'll check again when I get home tonight.

Great, thanks for the help guys.

Damon Hill, I had the same problem with 3-1 also. Even though I have my zip code in the Sammy 360 box, I went ahead and did a rescan and 3-1 came. Wierd.

Jerry

I thought the Rose Bowl looked great the other night over the air. The fiesta stuttered on me all night though. Hopefully the Sugar comes in clear.

Originally posted by jawilljr
Damon Hill, I had the same problem with 3-1 also. Even though I have my zip code in the Sammy 360 box, I went ahead and did a rescan and 3-1 came. Wierd.

Jerry

I guess I should try that because I didn't get any of 3-1 last night either. Time to rescan when I get home.

Thanks

I was getting 3-1 all last night. My RR is down so I didn't have internet access. Good thing it only took them until the first commercial break to startup DD5.1.

The Fiesta was the worse of the games on ABC so far I think. The far away shots didn't look clear. I thought the Capital One Bowl looked the best.

Hi Folks,
Just wanted to chime in here. I am in Pontotoc MS, 80 miles from the Memphis towers and am getting fairly reliable reception of most Memphis DTV stations, especially @ night. WREG-strong signal: WKNO-strong signal; WPTY-good @ night w/a few dropouts. WMC-same as WPTY.
I too have a strong signal from the PAX station, but no picture. Also, my D* STB maps this to ch 50-1 sometimes, and ch 51-1 thru 51-6 others. Could this be a problem at the station? Not really a biggie as I rarely watch that network anyway. The reason I tried for the Memphis channels was for the ABC-HD. After all my work and success, D* turned on my ABC HD distants the next week. FYI, WPTY over the air still looks a little better IMO than D*ch 86 & 87. It is one of the cleanest HD signals that I have seen. Thanks and happy viewing.

Deno

Channel 24-1 during LOST
Is everyone losing audio and getting picture stuttering? I'm using the HDTivo and watching live and it is unwatchable. I've reset the Tivo to record the SD channel - really want to see Alias.

Rick

Originally posted by hdtvluvr
Channel 24-1 during LOST
Is everyone losing audio and getting picture stuttering? I'm using the HDTivo and watching live and it is unwatchable. I've reset the Tivo to record the SD channel - really want to see Alias.

unfortunatley that's common for 24-1

Yeah, Memphis and a few other cities around the country are having this problem with ABC's digital OTA signal.

I have the HD-Tivo and have the same problem. I hooked up my old E-86 last night to watch LOST. It didn't have the audio dropouts and the video stutter a lot less. Eventhough it has some video stutter it is watchable. So I guess I'll keep it hooked up for Wednesday nights :).

I can't get d8 ABC HD feed but I get CBS,NBC, and Fox. Why?

I can't get D* ABC HD feed but I get CBS,NBC, and Fox. Why?

Originally posted by cfitz
I can't get D* ABC HD feed but I get CBS,NBC, and Fox. Why?

I wouldn't call D* about it. You are only supposed to get FOX HD.

Jerry

DIY network is going to have a home theater building / setup show starting Jan. 17th. You can read about it here.

http://www.diynet.com/diy/shows/episode/0,2046,DIY_14255_36342,00.html

I have read about the problems with ABC-24 Memphis and I am also having the same problems with stuttering/audio dropout. I am using the HDTivo unit HR10-250. I have noticed that I am able to fast forward while on OTA ABC-24.1 like I have paused at some point to catch up to Live TV.

My first question is: Is this an ABC-24.1 problem, a Tivo problem, or something else? Has anyone else had this problem and actually SOLVED it?It is really frustrating trying to solve it if it is a problem from the station.

Second Question: Last night I was watching "Medium" on NBC 5.1 and noticed that there was a horrible Audio/Video Synch problem. The sound was at least a quarter to half second delayed. I tried to switch channels and then switch back, but to no avail. Did anyone else have this problem? This is the only time I have noticed this, so I am hoping it was just a one time station problem.

Any comments/suggestions/insight greatly appreciatied.

Answer 1) It seems to be a 24.1 & a HDTivo problem. Since we are not the only city having the problem it appears to lie with both players. The chief engineer of WPTY has sent the data stream to have it evaluated. For all of our sakes I hope it gets fixed soon.

Asnwer 2) The A/V out of sync is not as common as it used to be, but I noticed this the other day when watching this show. Maybe it is just with the show, since I didn't see it with any other ones. It used to happen with ER but I haven't seen it in a while. Again sorry no answer. There is a medium thread in the programming area, maybe someone there might have seen the sync also.

I use TW cable to get the memphis local stations in hd (due to trees I can't get OTA reception). I have a new Sony Grand Wega 16 x 9 widescreen hd tv and the cable box is connected to the TV thru component cables.

I get black boxes above and below the picture when watching these local hd broadcasts. I have my tv set to 16 x 9 screen and i can't find any setting on the cable box to eliminate these black boxes.

Does everyone have the same situation?
Thanks for any help.

I am not a frequent poster. I lurk this forum and more specifically: this thread. I am a DirecTv subscriber and have been for some time and have and had my sir-t351 hooked up to my hd toshiba for a while. I have no HD DirectTv service. Today when I returned home from work I turned on my D and went to a local to watch the tigers game. However, none of my locals had schedule information or signal coming in. Upon closer inspection I noticed many local channels added. The channels looked something like this:

3
ME3
3-1
WREGDT
5
ME5
5-1
WMCDT
10
ME10
10-1
WKNODT
13
ME13
13-1
WHBQDT

and so on, through all my locals. I rebooted the machine and everything was back to normal. Was this an accidental glitch of things to come or what? it makes me very curious. Anyone else, similar experiences?

Did anyone else have any problems with the HD feed of "24" on Fox, Channel 88?

The video stuttered so badly, I had to watch the regular broadcast of it.

I kept trying back to see if it was corrected, but the video never synced up with the audio and the lower half of the video stuttered consistantly. Anyone else notice this?

redscare,
No that's normal, unless there is something different about your stb. If it is a D* HD box then you should be getting the DT channels show up on your guide. The stb is setup to recieve OTA signals. Those OTA signals are given the -# identifier so you will know that it is a local digital channel, which passes HD feeds when a program is in HD. ex: ME3 (WREG) 3-1 (WREG-DT)As long as you have had an antenna hooked up you should have been seeing those DT stations.

Originally posted by Damon Hill
Did anyone else have any problems with the HD feed of "24" on Fox, Channel 88?

The video stuttered so badly, I had to watch the regular broadcast of it.

I kept trying back to see if it was corrected, but the video never synced up with the audio and the lower half of the video stuttered consistantly. Anyone else notice this?

It is the Samsung 360 bug. For more information read this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=485536), then sign the petition to fix the 360 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=485860).

Jerry

Mxbfast, I have no HD DirecTv box. I have an off-air only T351 hooked up seperately. However, my DirecTv box is just your basic RCA SD box. I have a single LNB dish. I do not subscribe to any HD material. Nor does my RCA SD box pick up off-air HD. That is what was so odd about this.

So was it odd that you had the local channels or the DT channels show up in your guide? From your earlier post it seemed like you said it was odd you got the DT stations.

So I guess we've gotton so jaded that no one even bothers to complain when WMC does the entire Monday lineup (Las Vegas, Medium, and Tonight) in SD. (sigh)

mx6bfast
the DT stations shouldn't have been there. I had never seen them before and not since. I thought it was an odd glitch possibly having something to do with HD locals coming to Dtv memphis

I just looked up that reciever and it gets OTA HD. Have you been watching HD? From another source?

This is what I got when I did a search for it on google:

Samsung brings you great flexibility for delivering FREE over-the-air digital television signals to a DTV-ready TV with external video and audio inputs, or DTV-capable computer monitors. Samsung technology easily tunes and decodes all 18 ATSC Table 3 broadcast formats. You can view HDTV,SDTV and listen to Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio through your audio system.

my Sir-T351 and RCA directv box are completely seperate.
My RCA D* box runs through Svideo while my SIR-T351 runs via DVI.

I have to switch inputs between HD and DirecTv SD.

That channel guide I described above mysteriously appeared on my SD RCA D* box.

OK I understand now.

But your earlier question, as of now no, its not a sign of things to come. I'm sure later this year or maybe even early next year we will get word about our locals in HD beikng carried by D*.

Originally posted by wiggo
So I guess we've gotton so jaded that no one even bothers to complain when WMC does the entire Monday lineup (Las Vegas, Medium, and Tonight) in SD. (sigh)

I certainly noticed it, but what ya gonna do? Every time it happens I consider going over to the station and demanding a D* waiver, but I only have time for a certain number of battles in my life.:rolleyes:

Well, it now appears that 24-1 is no longer having problems with stuttering on my HDTIVO. However, beginning yesterday, I have noticed an increase in UPN 30-1 and NBC 5-1 problems with picture dropout/pixelization. It is fairly steady and problematic for both channels. All other (except FOX of course) are working perfectly now.

Anyone else experiencing any problems. I am now wondering if this is an antenna problem. However, I would tend to rule this out because my antenna is stationary roof mounted and it has not been moved at all. Could there be a problem with the transmission tower or stations?

Thanks

Someone from the Tivo forum told me that the engineer at WPTY was going to load a fix for the issues we are seeing with the HDTivo. Hopefully whatever he loaded didn't mess up the HD broadcast of the WB shows. I sure was enjoying them in HD, finally.

I didn't know for sure if it was loaded or not, but after changing the channel to Gilmore Girls I figured it was loaded. Strange it was only video issues and no audio issues. Even when they switched back to the network SD feed of GG it was still happening, but on the local feed (grey bars) it was fine.

Good thing, because I finally took the plunge and bought the HDTivo yesterday. I was worried about the WPTY issues.

I, too, have seen increasing dropouts and pixelization on WMC, even on Monday when everything was broadcast SD, so apparently it is a digital problem, not an HD problem.

See what happens? I complain about SD on WMC, and now they're not even on the air.

Originally posted by wiggo
See what happens? I complain about SD on WMC, and now they're not even on the air.

Please don't say anything about WREG.

:cool:

I had horrible signal from WPTY during Alias last night. It was fluctuating, strong, weak, strong... had lots of breakups. Anybody else?

And this WMC thing... aren't we all entitled to waivers? Jeez!

I am now getting great picture and audio from 24-1 OTA. Watched the entire ep of LOST finally in HD with no probs! Yeah!

However, I guess I'm not the only one having problems with NBC 5-1 and UPN 30-1?

I checked again on antennaweb.org and saw that all three of those are listed as coming from the same degree orientation and exact miles from my house so I guess they are all on same transmission tower? Maybe a problem with the tower? Please let me know if this asssumption is wrong.

Aside from 5-1 and 30-1 I'm having no probs now...except FOX, but I finally called D* and they gave me the National Fox feed for HD. As others have posted, you must first go through the regular customer service hoops then speak to the HD specialists. He took my information and had it working in under 30 seconds.

Please post if anyone knows what's going on is UPN 30-1 or NBC 5-1.

Thanks

Originally posted by mollerup
I checked again on antennaweb.org and saw that all three of those are listed as coming from the same degree orientation and exact miles from my house so I guess they are all on same transmission tower? Maybe a problem with the tower? Please let me know if this asssumption is wrong.


Did you spell assumption that way on purpose? haha

Maybe the fix for 24-1 broke 30-1 and 5-1? So I guess we can get a poll going. Would you rather:

Have skips on 24-1 with 30-1 and 5-1 fine and in HD
-or-
Have 24-1 perfectly and lose HD on 30-1 and nothing on 5-1

Right now 5-1 is dead... no signal... I am getting a picture on 30-1 but no audio...

Jerry

The engineer at 24.1 advised he swapped equipment with 30.1 to correct the stuttering at 24.1 because they felt there were fewer viewers of 30.1 and they are still working on correcting the problem.

5.1 advises they have equipment failure(again) and should have replacement parts by tomorrow(yeah right). they advise they have the weakest signal in town (except for 13.1) and they have no backup that other stations have because they are not committed to the expense to have a first class HD output because they don't think the demand is there. they say less than 1% have HD??

If WMC doesn't believe that there is demand for HD in Memphis, then will they grant waivers for HD Distant Locals with D*? They can't have their cake and eat it too . . . okay, I know they can. I just wish we had some alternatives. Who do we need to talk to?

I agree. Has anyone actually talked to anyone at WMC about a waiver?

I haven't read all the stuff about the new laws about waivers but if we ask for waivers for the HD feed from D* can it still be granted?

Seriously, somebody give me an email address or a phone number... I'll do some complaining/begging.

On a lighter note, my HD Tivo is due in today! Woohoo!

Can I ask all of you to do something for me this weekend. Watch the NFL games on CBS this weekend. Please look for any type of pixelization or blocking. The engineer at WREG keeps telling me they are not seeing any problems with their data stream when they send the signals outs. I don't know if they are actually watching the games.

But I would like for everyone to critique the PQ. For example I always see blocking when a player is moving on the edges of their jerseys. The inside of the jersey around the numbers will become blurry. Also when there are graphics popping on the screen do those pixelate? I want to see what everyone else says. So please watch the games and then post your comments here.

Thanks,
Dennis

I only caught a little bit of the Colts game, but I didn't really notice anything. It may have been the snow. I did notice pixilization one time during the game when the camera was focused on deep field and somebody moved closely between the camera and the intended shot. That was pixelized. However, didn't see too much else...looked pretty sharp.

I guess NBC 5-1 is still out? I noticed it back on briefly Friday day, but haven't seen it since then.

Originally posted by mollerup
However, didn't see too much else...looked pretty sharp.

Yeah I was looking pretty hard both games. I only saw a handful of instances total during both games where there was pixelation. I thought they looked better. Man I hope they fixed whatever they were doing.

Originally posted by mollerup
I guess NBC 5-1 is still out? I noticed it back on briefly Friday day, but haven't seen it since then.

Strange the engineer called me Friday and we talked for about 10 minutes. He told me it was up as of 9 am Friday. Of course when I got home at 6 it was down again. wiggo hit the nail on the head, we are so used to them bot flipping the switch or whatever, its not that big of a deal. Whereas WREG or WPTY doesn't and it's bigger news, people start posting on the board. To get respect you have to demand respect.

I noticed that I was getting the same pausing issues on 30-1 as I was 24-1 on Friday night from my HDTivo. MY E86 was fine, but when we started watching what we missed I could only watch 3 minutes of the show and had to go back to the SD version that I also record.

Originally posted by mx6bfast
I noticed that I was getting the same pausing issues on 30-1 as I was 24-1 on Friday night from my HDTivo. MY E86 was fine, but when we started watching what we missed I could only watch 3 minutes of the show and had to go back to the SD version that I also record.

Well, jimsim did say that 30-1 and 24-1 swapped eguipment, so the problem followed the equipment. I spent the weekend setting up 24-1 season passes and deleting 30-1 season passes on the HD-Tivo and programming my HDR230 to record the 30-1 shows and deleting the 24-1 programs, since it is unaffected by whatever is annoying the HD-Tivo.

Of course, during the football game and primetime yesterday, Fox 88 on D* started the same pausing problems as (now) 30-1, although somewhat less often, but still often enough to be very annoying.

And we wonder why people aren't willing to spend thousands of dollars to be early adopters of HDTV.

Originally posted by Cheep
Seriously, somebody give me an email address or a phone number... I'll do some complaining/begging.


http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=209759

Howard Meagle, hmeagle@wmctv.com

Let us know what you hear. I sent him a long email and recieved a call back from the engineer. Doesn't matter tho, the signal is still down and the engineer out out until Wednesday.

I sent the following and will let you know what I get back.

****************************************
Mr.. Meagle, I wasn't sure who else to contact at your station. I have tried to watch your Digital Station several times over the last week (including last night's airing of Las Vegas) and have had no signal. I am receiving the all the other digital stations in town (except channel 13 of course) and have done nothing to my antenna. I would assume that your station is not currently transmitting in Digital. I know you have had many problems since becoming the first Digital station in town. I guess it would be correct to assume that you are once again having some sort of technical issue. I am able to view my favorite NBC shows on standard definition, thankfully. However it is disheartening that even though your station has been supporting Digital broadcasting for nearly 3 years now, you still find it acceptable to go long periods with no digital presence. I understand that your Digital market is not currently being measured and that the vast majority of your audience is only watching the analog station, but having invested quite a bit of my time and money in the equipment to view what your station said it would support it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I do understand that things happen that are beyond your control, however it would be nice if you could communicate on your web page when the digital station has problems. I searched for and couldn't find anywhere on the web site a notice that you were having a digital outage.

I have also heard that you are not currently focused on expanding viewership on your Digital Station, if that is the case has there been any consideration given to giving satellite subscribers a waiver for the digital station?

Thank you for your time.
****************************************

Looks good.

btw...In case you missed it, the Griz had an HD game on D* last week against Minn. It was a FSN game. There is another one tomorrow night. I'm not sure if it will be carried by D* but from what I understand only subs in that net's area are recieving the games. I think its on channel 96 or 98.

In case no one's noticed, WMC-DT is back on the air (although L&O:SVU not in HD).

So I was programming my season passes into my new HDTivo, and I noticed that there are no listings for Smallville and Gilmore Girls, other than the SD versions coming off the sat. I thought I'd read from you guys that they were showing these two in HD now... right?

Originally posted by Cheep
So I was programming my season passes into my new HDTivo, and I noticed that there are no listings for Smallville and Gilmore Girls, other than the SD versions coming off the sat. I thought I'd read from you guys that they were showing these two in HD now... right?

They were, until they swapped out equipment and now the WB hasn't been in HD for almost 2 weeks. And then when you do record 30-1, it might have the same symptoms as 24-1 did.

Anyways, you will have to do a manual recording. The EPG cuts off after 10, I think.

I had serious reception problems with 24-1 last night. Couldn't get Lost and Alias last light, which really ticks me off. Anybody else have problems?

Originally posted by Cheep
I had serious reception problems with 24-1 last night. Couldn't get Lost and Alias last light, which really ticks me off. Anybody else have problems?

No problems with 24-1 for me. LOST came in fine.

What receiver do you have?

HDTivo, which I just switched over to, so maybe it's that. I could always get it fine with my Hughes HTL-HD.

Originally posted by Cheep
HDTivo, which I just switched over to, so maybe it's that. I could always get it fine with my Hughes HTL-HD.

I may be wrong, but read back through this thread. I think folks with the HDTivo have been having problems with stuttering or audio synch.

I think I was just having signal strength problems. The HDTivo is just not as sensitve as the Hughes receiver was. When I switched out receivers, I just left the antenna (Silver Sensor) in the same position, which was a mistake, I guess. I messed around with my antenna positioning this morning and got a decent signal from CBS, NBC and ABC at the same time, which is all I can ask for.

Originally posted by Damon Hill
I think folks with the HDTivo have been having problems with stuttering or audio synch.

Those have now been fixed. But now it's showing up on 30-1.

Originally posted by mx6bfast
Those have now been fixed. But now it's showing up on 30-1.

If it ain't one thing it's another. Ah, the joys of trying to be on the cutting edge of technology. :)

*Sigh* Anyone else having trouble with WREG (No Sound) and WMC (Off the air)?

Or is it just me ;/

Also, does anyone know if there is a BUD (C-band satellite) feed of FOX Network in HD available like there seems to be on D*?

Originally posted by bgoering
*Sigh* Anyone else having trouble with WREG (No Sound) and WMC (Off the air)?

Or is it just me ;/

I was having the same problems (and also no WREG newschannel; I foolishly hoped they had abandoned multicasting) until I deleted and rescanned my channels (see the sticky at the top of this forum about PSIP changes).

OK, wait, WMC is gone again. Apparently they're working on it. It went off during Bush's speech this afternoon. There's a signal; there just isn't anything on it (except for a brief flash of the news a few minutes ago).

Originally posted by wiggo
I was having the same problems (and also no WREG newschannel; I foolishly hoped they had abandoned multicasting) until I deleted and rescanned my channels (see the sticky at the top of this forum about PSIP changes).

OK, wait, WMC is gone again. Apparently they're working on it. It went off during Bush's speech this afternoon. There's a signal; there just isn't anything on it (except for a brief flash of the news a few minutes ago).

Well they seem to be back now..just in time for Joey :)

I still am not receiving a picture on 5-1. I get a 90% signal, but no pic. Anyone else with this problem? The receiver is a RCA DTC-210. Thanks, Kevin

Originally posted by 9ChargerFan
I still am not receiving a picture on 5-1. I get a 90% signal, but no pic. Anyone else with this problem? The receiver is a RCA DTC-210. Thanks, Kevin
On my OTA Sony receiver I found that 5.1 had miraculously moved back to 52.1 - you might try to rescan for it.

I tried rescanning the channels several times, but still no luck. Even tried deleted them then re adding them, but that didn't work either. It came in great until the last time 5-1 went down.

I tried rescanning the channels several times, but still no luck. Even tried deleted them then re adding them, but that didn't work either. It came in great until the last time 5-1 went down.

Do WMC and PAX transmit from the same tower? I am getting all the PAX channels in fine.

I've got three tuners (HD-Tivo, Samsung, and Zenith), and I've deleted and rescanned all three, and except for the momentary success I posted earlier can't get WMC back, either. So I think the fault lies not with the receivers, but in the transmitter.

Funny. WMC used to be good and WPTY terrible, and now it's the other way around (WPTY was doing excellent HD almost all day today). Fortunately, I watch much, much more ABC than NBC, and now that trend will continue as my NBC viewing heads toward zero.

Wiggo,
Thanks for the update. Good to know it's not just me having issues. I just sent an email to WMC to see if they have changed the way they are sending out the signal or if they are having problems transmitting again. I will post any reply I get. Also, anyone know if WHBQ is ever going to get their act together and start sending a decent powered signal out? It's sad that I can pick up PBS out of Oxford which is probably 50+ miles away but not FOX.

3-1 seems fine on my HDTIVO, but as others have noted, WMC-TV 5-1 was not broadcasting. It is receiving a signal, just nothing on it.

Anyone heard more about the option of getting a waver on D*.

Unbelievable that WKNO has virtually a rock solid performance on 10-1 and 10-3. Even PAX has solid HD programming, but a big network NBC can't get their act together. Also, good job to WREG 3-1, theirs seems to be pretty solid.

Sorry to hear you folks are still having problems. I think I must be the only one here that doesn't use the D* tuner for OTA!

As of now (6:09 AM) WMC is still coming in on 52.1 on the integrated OTA tuner on my Sony KDF-70XBR950. I think it used to come in on 5.1, and some time before that it was 52.1. Maybe they need to decide which channel to broadcast on...

Hmmm, now this is interesting. I just tried a re-scan for the channels on my box and it DID NOT recognize 52.1

However, what I generally do is enter the channel directly on the remote, and when I key in 52.1 it picks it up and comes in fine. If someone calls the station that info may (or may not) be of help...as for me I am off to work :)

Originally posted by 9ChargerFan
Do WMC and PAX transmit from the same tower? I am getting all the PAX channels in fine.

No, but they are within 4 miles of each other. PAX is sending out the strongest signal. WMC, WPTY, WLMT are all on the same tower in Brunswick. PAX is by Brother. WKNO, WREG, and whenever WHBQ moves, their towers are all just off 40 between Whitten and Appling.

Also, anyone know if WHBQ is ever going to get their act together and start sending a decent powered signal out?

hehe, pick a date. Supposedly late summer 03. Then again early summer 04, but then maybe in the fall 04. The new date is June I think. So unless you have D*, don't expect it anytime soon. But if have been to their website they have been "under construction" for over 2 months. Apparently they have no idea what they are doing with anything. I have the engineer's email addy if you want to pm me.

I'm finally getting video on 5-1 again before I left for work.

So I am still unable to get picture or sound on WMC on any of my three receivers. But I just looked at my "Now Playing" list on the HD-Tivo, and the Tonight Show from last night is there (and watchable). So apparently I can record WMC, I just can't watch it live.

Whoa, that's really weird. I haven't tried to record anything with my HDTivo, because I haven't seen anything but a black screen on 5-1.

I have the E86 D* receiver and was receiving NBC last night. Was still up when I left for work this morning.

Originally posted by wiggo
So I am still unable to get picture or sound on WMC on any of my three receivers. But I just looked at my "Now Playing" list on the HD-Tivo, and the Tonight Show from last night is there (and watchable). So apparently I can record WMC, I just can't watch it live.

Well for this reason, I hope they are sending at least a blank screen again tonight. I can't miss Medical Investigation in HD again.


Originally posted by Jeffrey T
I have the E86 D* receiver and was receiving NBC last night. Was still up when I left for work this morning.

What time did you see it last night? I have E86's also and didn't have anything last night but had video this morning. Is WMC-DT up right now for those at home?

I have a POS Sammy 360... good signal strength on 5-1 but a blank screen and no audio.

Jerry

Still have a blank screen... so let me get this straight-- folks with HDTivos and Sammy 360s get a blank screen, but E86s get a picture?
I was about to sell my Hughes HTL-HD, maybe I should hang onto it for now...

I have an HDTivo and getting a picture.

Man, this is weird. Still getting good signal from WMC on all three receivers, but no audio or video. Just deleted and rescanned the HD-Tivo off-air channels, and still no go. No wait, I just flipped back and there it is. I hope it lasts long enough for Medical Investigation and Tonight.

Meanwhile, on the Sammy 360, flipping between WMC and WREG causes the Sammy to flip between 1080i and 720p, so it's getting enough signal to know it's 1080i.

Just to jump in here. I have VOOM and get channel 5 only occasionally. They were receivable Wednesday night, but not tonight or last night. Their website says that they are transmitting at 50% power, so I'm hoping they'll get up and running consistantly soon. I sent an email but got no reply. About what I expected. Don't watch much on 5 anyway. I was getting a 93 signal strength Wednesday.

Well, we got the WB in HD again. And even no stuttering on the HDTivo. I'm happy about that.

But the picture looks really soft. Has it always been like this?

I cannot get audio or video on 5.1 or 52.1 but I don't get the dreaded searching for signal either. I have tried both the HDTivo and HD RCA recievers. Same results. I have tried rebooting, deleting and rescanning to no avail. I have talked to people in master control at WMC and their only answer is they are transmitting and nothing is wrong. Obviously their fix last week was only temporary and they still have a coding problem or some other video technicality but are too arrogant to admit it. Maybe their head engineer, Derick will be more helpful Monday.

current update on channel reception

3.1 3.2 - working perfectly
5.1 - no audio or video, but no "searching for signal" either..
10.1 10.3 - working perfectly
13.1 - n/a
24.1 - encountered stuttering/pixelization Saturday 2pm while watching (otherwise has been working very well since the UPN ABC equipment swap ==hope this stuttering is only temporary)
30.1 - Today was really weird...half the screen had a stuttering feed from upn and the bottom half was a frozen picture of whatever was on CBS at the time...what the?!?!
50.1-4 all fine

Why can't NBC get their sh@t together? ABC/UPN?

FYI I'm using an HD TIVO with a rooftop antenna.

I guess everone else is also experiencing problems with 5.1. What about ABC today?

I was getting the same thing on 30.1 also. The bottom half was a frozen picture of my last tuned station??? Weird.

5.1 no picture or audio... everything else was fine.

Samsung 360

Jerry

TimeWarner was having an HD presentation at Best Buy on Winchester. I was there before it started and didn't wait. But the rumor from a BB employee was TW cable will have FOX-HD in time for the Super Bowl.

Originally posted by locomo
TimeWarner was having an HD presentation at Best Buy on Winchester. I was there before it started and didn't wait. But the rumor from a BB employee was TW cable will have FOX-HD in time for the Super Bowl.

Altho I don't really trust BB employees, I hope this is correct. If they do I will be attending a SB party at my friends house who has TW since I am not having a party this year. If not I will be at home watching it on D*.

Btw...30-1 on the HDTivo was experiencing the same stuttering issues as 24-1. I counted 14 times in a 25 minute span when watching it today.

OT, man it is really windy outside. I can hear my dog's metal bowls moving across the patio in the back, and my dog's are in the garage.

Still having problems on 24.1 as of Saturday night. Anyone else having OTA issues?

I would like to know if it is just my antenna or a station problem. It is much like it was before the UPN ABC swap. My stuttering/picture pixelization started today when it was windy so I'm hoping my antenna didn't get moved!

Originally posted by mollerup
Still having problems on 24.1 as of Saturday night. Anyone else having OTA issues?


Getting it fine here

Anybody watch the two playoff games yesterday? They were like night and day-- the CBS game (OTA) looked wonderful (except for slight pixelization on backgrounds and fast moving stuff sometimes), while the FOX game (DTV sat) looked pretty bad. There was a huge difference in detail and color saturation.

Still have blank screen on WMC. Anybody get an acknowledgement of issues from them?

On my HD-Tivo, I'm getting WMC about half the time (Friday no Medical Investigation but got Tonight), but on the other two tuners still getting nothing (and wildly different signal strengths, even though they're all hooked to the same rooftop antenna; the HD-Tivo has the strongest signal and is the one that sometimes gets a picture and sound, so it may be a signal strength issue combined with some other issue).

Was Medical Investigation a new show or repeat? I didn't get it tivo'd either but I do not record repeats.

I think it was a repeat, but I told the Season Pass to record it anyway, and it tried, but to no avail. Yet a half-hour later, Tonight recorded fine.

MI was a repeat Friday night. It was the episode when they were on the island when the people got sick from viewing pictures made of poop. But it was in HD, on both my E86 and HDTivo.

I tried the thing where I recorded a program on 5-1 that was blank, but was getting a signal. When trying to view the program the HDTivo choked. It had a black screen with the typing still showing, like it copied the description on the video.

Yeah FOXHD looked pretty bad compaired to 3-1. Although I still noticed pixelation on WREG, more this week than last. I guess we will never get the level of clarity we had from them before. Too bad, if you are new you missed a treat. It blew ESPNHD and MNF away!

I am going to start monitoring this forum to try and help everyone with the HDTV issues. From my reading of the last few pages some people are having problems receiving WMC's signal, but some people are not. We have just recently purchased a service from DecisionMark that will allow us to insert the program guide information into our transport stream. Everyone should now be able to view the program guides in your receivers. I believe what has happened is that the Virtual Channel Table is not being refreshed in some of the receivers that you are using. We need to find a way to blow out all the programmed channels and have your receiver hunt again for the channel assignments. When it does that it should find our channel again. We changed the VCT to reflect the new information that we are inserting and I believe this is why some people are having trouble.

I will monitor here regularly so please post questions for WMC here.

Thanks for your patience
David Evans
Director of Engineering WMC

Thank you for registering David. I know one of the first questions will be does WMC plan to upgrade to more power anytime soon? And does anyone monitor the feed on Sunday nights? Sundays are very rarely in HD anymore.

Thanks for the helpful info, David. When I get home tonight, I'll try and erase all my OTA channels and re-scan on my HDTivo. From what you're saying, maybe that'll fix the problem.

Well, whatever EngDave did today, it fixed it. I just rescanned all three tuners, and WMC is back (and on the Zenith, it's now 5-1 instead of 52-2, which is what it was showing the past few months). Woohoo! Just in time, too, as Las Vegas and Medium are new, and CBS is all reruns.

Thanks, Dave!! And keep on monitoring the board, because as you see, we're not shy and you'll know what's going on with at least some of your audience.

Dave Thanx for the info. I am now receiving 5-1 WMC-DT using the Sammy 360.

Jerry

Thanks for the info. I rescanned and WMC came back on. It's nice to see a local station engineer take interest in this site and some of its local customers. Kevin

Now that the WMC problem is solved, thanks very much to David, are any of you having problems with WPTY 24-1? I'm watching Extreme Makeover: How They Do That and it stuttering again. So is 30-1.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I noticed tonight that the feed had the program listing and everything! And FINALLY on 5-1 with a PERFECT signal. Well done! Maybe you should give Fox 13 a hand. ;)

Hey, just a comment for you by the way. Can you explain what happens on Sunday nights? The feed almost NEVER gets spliced. Do you guys have to manually switch the feed? Just kind of curious, because I know that people have had to call the station many times to get them to turn it back on.
Thanks!!

I didn't try anything last night, I just wanted to note that I appreciate a station engineer taking time out of his day to register on this board and keep us up to date. It is much appreciated. I'm a sap for that American Dreams show and would like to see it in HD before they cancel it.

Glad that many apparently have met with success in getting the WMC HD signal. If you are still having trouble you may have to check with the manufacturer of your receiver for more specific instructions on clearing out all the old channel information.

We just recently purchased a HD Frame Synchronizer that we are going to insert into our processing gear. It should allow the signal to stay constant when we switch between our local up-converted content and our NBC HD feed. I am hoping to have this installed today or tomorrow. This may help some of the receivers that are unlocking when we do that switching. I just asked my Operations manager to pull the complete NBC HD schedule and verify our computers are programmed correctly to switch the signal between the HD and the up-converted signal. We have tried to automate this to ensure the signal automatically switches back to NBC HD when we come out of a local break but have met with limited success.

Please understand our Master Control was built to switch NTSC analog signals not HD signals. We have been trying to improve the consistency and quality of our switching but it is a struggle.

On another note I went to C.C. last night and purchased a Samsung SIR-T451 HD receiver. We are going to install it here at the studio as a test system. We have several K-Tech reference receivers that are very expensive and work pretty well. Have been curious as to the consumer receivers and how well they work. This one cost $200 but is loaded with all the outputs you could want.

I am also crafting a letter that will explain the "lower power" issue that everyone talks about on WMC. More on that later....

David Evans
Director of Engineering WMC

Dave,

Glad to see you sign up. I want to thank you also for the time you have taken to speak with me on the phone.

My question is about the DD5.1 signal. I receive the signal in DD2.0. I also receive ABC in DD2.0.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Jeffrey T
I also receive ABC in DD2.0.

I asked the engineer at WPTY about that and got this response:

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...

Is anyone besides me having trouble with 24.1 dropping out tonight. It seems 30.1 is working perfectly -- aren't they the same tower?

Hey, Dave.
Thanks for the info! I have a question though. Besides the HD content, what about SD content? You are well aware, I am sure, of how shows such as Late Night with Conan O Brien, Last Call With Carson Daly, and Days of Our Lives look. They are stretched slightly horizontally, (What is with that, by the way?), and aren't as crisp as SD programs which are broadcast from the main NBC feed. (Look at the first 15 or so minutes of Conan and it looks a LOT better than the latter part.) Is there any hope for these programs being broadcast normally? What about local and syndicated content? Can it be shown normally?
Thanks for taking the time to interact with us, we TRULY appreciate it!
Kevin

PS. for Everyone, We have HD on UPN AGAIN! Gilmore Girls in HD! Smallville!! :-p And no stuttering here!

Originally posted by ravma479
PS. for Everyone, We have HD on UPN AGAIN! Gilmore Girls in HD! Smallville!! :-p And no stuttering here!

Did you watch them live or Tivo'd? When I watched them live there wasn't a problem. When they were Tivo'd they stuttered.

I checked it this morning briefly, and I didn't notice any stuttering in HD. Then, in my excitement over seeing Lauren Graham in HD, I accidentally DELETED Gilmore Girls from the HDTivo. I was "cleaning up" the old SD Tivo, and deleted everything from the now playing list on the HDTivo. I thought I had set up separate remote addresses, but apparently that didn't happen. Yeeesh!

Does anyone get anything on WKNO's HD channel? I only get a black screen, no sound, but no notice that there is no signal either. I am new at the digital game and get HD ok on everything but 13 now that 5 is up to speed, but nothing at all on 10-3, RF 29. When I scan channels I get a 97 signal strength on that channel.

Hey dogpoobob,
As I understand it, Fox is not broadcasting in HD locally yet. Or if they are it is at such a low power you would basically have to be in their parking lot to get it. Anyway, nobody around here is able to get it.

However, if you have DirecTV you can get the national HD feed on channel 88. You will have to call them though and go through the motions with regular customer service who should finally transfer you to the HD department.

as for 10-3, that is another WKNO (PBS) feed. I live around the University of Memphis and get reception perfectly with a great picture.

BTW anyone else still having any stuttering problems with 24-1 or 30-1. Those two are the only two still consistently giving problems for me. I would think it is my HDTIVO issue, but it seems that it is ONLY with these two channels. I have read at the TIVO forum others with stuttering problems, but those seem to be on all HD channels including the D* feeds.

Hey guys, don't know if this has been posted but I'm getting channel 5 in perfectly on my OTA reciever. Not just perfectly but its on 5-1 instead of 52-1! And theres a full digital channel guide! And the channel guide for 30-1 say WLMT 1080i through 10 oclock tonight, that info cuts off for a while and then starts back up with WB programming!
In need of FOX 13. Need it please

mollerup:
Yeah, I understand that 13 is low power and waiting to move their antenna. I really don't understand the 10-3 thing though, since I get such a high signal strength indication.

This just in. Time Warner added Fox 13 to the HD line up yesterday. I have not watched any HD yet, but I will catch The O.C. and Point Pleasant on tommorrow.

Can someone please make or bribe FOX 13 into turning up there broadcast power on the DTV tower. At least for the Superbowl! I have DirecTV and don't subscribe to HD but do have an OTA tuner. I need it. Please...

I don't think you have to subscribe to the HD Pack to get FOXHD with DTV. They have the information posted on their website, call this number it is the HDTV eligibility number for DirecTV, 1 800 263 0028. It took about 5 seconds for me to get it turned on.

I have been doing some catching up on this thread......................

First thanks for the interest and the offers of listening and helping David Evans. Welcome to the forums!!

Another, as some of you may know, I am quite far from the antenna farm over here in Arkansas. I do not have the stuttering issues that many of you mention. It seems over here, when I lock on a channel, I may have one or two drop outs at the most while I watch for an hour or two. I am using an E86, which used to drop quite frequently, until I took steps to keep it cooler.

I wonder for those being "in town" if the problems the are having is due to multipath interference?? If possible (and if you haven't already) you might try a more directional antenna to test for the problem.

On a personal note, I am on the fence on the purchase of an HDTiVo. How many local guys have one, and what is your opinion of it??

So Smalliville was not in HD last night. Nice, solid SD signal-- which looks way better than the horrible picture off the DTV satellite, but no HD.

Dirk, I got an HDTivo last week. So far I love it. The OTA reception is about the same as my Hughes was (indoor Silver Sensor antenna). I get WREG, WMC, WPTY, WKNO and WLMT pretty well from East Memphis. Functionality is exactly the same as my SD DTivo, which as far as I'm concerned, is near perfect. I haven't had problems with stuttering like some others here-- I think those problems have been worked out on the network end.

does anyone know if you have to subscribe to the HD pack in order to receive HD locals?
Any other information on TNT HD or other HD channels possibly being offered under the total choice plus?

I just found out I don't have to have HD pack to watch HD locals! I'm gonna piss my pants. Now I just have to get an HD dtvreciever.

Anyone know if I receive HD locals with single LNB?

Thanks

Originally posted by mx6bfast
I asked the engineer at WPTY about that and got this response:

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...


Thanks for the heads up.

I live in Cordova and receive all of the available local channels without any problem. I have a Sony 60" with a built in tuner. I don't get and stuttering or macroblocking with any channels. I do work at a local station and got good advice on antenna placement and type from our engineer. Other than the Fox situation, all is great!

Originally posted by RedScare
Any other information on TNT HD or other HD channels possibly being offered under the total choice plus?

Anyone know if I receive HD locals with single LNB?

I take it you are talking about D*. No new information right now. If it isn't on the HDTV programming forum that a new channel is live then there's a good chance nothing new yet.

HD locals are not up on D*, unless you live in cities where all the stations are O&O. So for Memphis you still have to use an antenna. FOX HD is on channel 88 since the local station is O&O. Another point to your question is HD channels. Depending on which satellite your dish is hitting, you might not get all the HD channels. I think they are on different birds. You will have to upgrade to a 3-lnb dish if that is the case.

robandkiki, which station do you work at?

WPTY / WLMT

Can you ask the engineer if they will have EPG past 10 pm, especially for WLMT? Since the WB is after 10 and some are in HD, I would love to be able to set it and sleep instead of having to do a manual recording.

WREG, WMC, and WHBQ do it way past 10

I just got a call from my son watching TV and he said FOX 13 just came on Time Warner Cable HD, channel 813 !!!!!!!

Dennis, Here is the response form engineering.

"I can't get WLMT-DT EPG working until Tandberg repairs our encoder. We currently cannot mux EPG on WLMT-DT."

I worked on a rather long post this morning for about 30 minutes that unfortunately had a URL in the post. I have not posted 5 times yet so I lost my entire message when I tried to post it. :(

Will work on it again later.
Sorry, should have read the rules.

David E
WMC

Oh no! Sorry, Dave. Thanks for the effort, and we look forward to your next try.

That sucks. Especially on such a big post. Just make 2 quick posts saying I'm back and Albert Means is smart and you will have your 5 posts.

EngDave:

Now that Fox 13 is on TWC HD, WMC is the only local station not on TWC HD. Any idea when ya'll might be on HD cable ?

dre

Good idea.

Post 4

David E
WMC

Will work on the other post again look for it on Monday.

As far as WMC on TWC? Raycom America (owns WMC) and Time Warner Corporate have been in negotiations for several months. When this will happen is unknown at this point. Rumor has it that a deal will happen soon, but ???

Sorry

David E
WMC

Post 5! Now I can post a URL!

David,
Please don't multicast. There are only 3 channels that have stellar PQ, WMC, WLMT, and WPTY. Medical Investigation looks beautiful. btw, how much bandwidth are you sending out on HD broadcasts?

WREG & WKNO PQ has been ruined with multicasting.

Looks like we have a good chance of getting more Griz games in HD on D*.

http://msn.foxsports.com/name/HD

Why not turn off the second multicast when HD content is on primetime. That way the bandwidth can be devoted to what its there for to begin with. However, this is not possible at WKNO, since they have HD 24/7 (more of less)

I've mentioned that to WREG before, but I never got a response on that. I also asked about football games.
Correct if I am wrong, but are we, the DT OTA'rs, the only ones that can see this channel? It doesn't come thru analog does it?

WREG always says "It looks fine on our end. the stream looks fine."

David, does WMC have HD monitors at the station to monitor the actual PQ, not they data stream?

Any word on when D* will pick-up ESPN2 HD?

Don't mean to be a pest, but I got little response to my question, so I'll reask it and hope for a little better response. Do you get anything on 10-3? All that I get is a black screen with no sound even though the signal strength is above 95 when I scan. Your input would be appreciated.

10-3 is WKNO HD. I get it in perfect with high signal strength. If you are getting nothing but a black screen then something is definitely wrong

Try 29-2 or 3

Oh, lookie there, WMC in SD again.

btw...did anyone else notice D* added PAX to the local channels? I did yesterday when I was fixing my antenna in the attic.

What is the deal with the HD on WMC? Last night it just went away.

Any ideas Dave?

Checked the programming on our switcher myself this morning and found out why Sunday nights was not switching properly. (Will Flog all guilty parties who missed this last week ) I believe the problem should be fixed for next Sunday night. Please let me know next week how it goes. It sounds easy but the system is again being used totally different than the original design, so that is why these problems crop up.

We are using full bandwidth for our HD signal. ~18Mbits for HD

David E.
Director of Engineering
WMC

Thanks for the quick and honest response. I work in the business so I can certainly understand the situation with how the equipment is being "forced into new duty" with HD. Keep the faith. It all has to work out someday.

Dave,
I found the easiest way to fix the sunday night problem at WMC is to give them a call. They usually splice it a few minutes later..

...What? You work for them? Oh...
:)

In all seriousness, thanks for all your help with getting the issues resolved. It's VERY helpful to know what is going on. Last night wasnt actually that bad, we almost had 60% uptime for the HD.

Good luck with the issues you guys are having!

A question for all of you....

I have a 60" Sony with a slot for a cable card. I am considering getting one from TW. Has anyone gotten a card from TW? I'm curious about how they are to deal with. I already have Voom, Direct TV and basic cable and I am looking for ways to consolidate some of my sources for input.

Gracias

mx6bfast


What channel would the Griz game be on?

robandkiki,
TimeWarner has a deal if you switch from satellite. (is Voom going to stay?) You get Digital Package, HBO-HD,SHO-HD,HD-locals(except NBC) and HD-DVR for $40/month, good for 16 months. (HD pack w/ INHD, HDNET and ESPN is another $8?). I have an HD box with firewire out for another $8 a month so cable card should be cheaper. You would probably have to drop Basic cable a few days beforehand.

is that 16 months or 6 months? and if it's 6, do you know what my obligation and cost would be? How did you get that deal? just call and say "I'm thinking of switching from DirecTv" ?
I'd like to know more, because they are only open 7-6 mon - friday and I never have a chance to talk to them.

thanks

Originally posted by Jeffrey T
mx6bfast

What channel would the Griz game be on?

Either 96, 97 or 98. More than likely 96 or 97.

RedScare,
Yes, you have to mention the satellite switch deal. 16 months, can quit anytime, need to show a satellite receipt, but the techs never asked me for one. I wish the DVR had firewire out (for archival purposes) but the SA3250 with firewire works pretty good if you have a D-VHS. The DVR is nowhere good as TIVO but it does have 2 tuners.
lo

That actually sounds pretty good. If we could get Engineer Dave to get WMC on, I would be set. Word from Voom has been that they will probably become part of Dish Network service. Maybe a HD tier or part of an additional package. So far, it works great and the picture is UNBELIEVABLE! Voom has a sports channel (Worldsport) that is entirely in HD and airs Spanish League Soccer all day. For a soccer fan like myself, it's great. TW says that the cable card rental is $1.75 per month plus whatever packages you want to add.

Originally posted by mx6bfast
Either 96, 97 or 98. More than likely 96 or 97.

Thanks. I will check it out.

I am fairly new to the HDTV ota signals and I need to get a good antenna. I have tried at least 5 antennas and found that the best one was the cheapest one from Best Buy. It is an indoor antenna omni-directional. I have checked antennaweb.org and I am not more than 8 miles from any HD broadcast tower. I get channel 3 and 10 all of the time. The rest of the channels are spotty but I get them. Is there something I can do to get better signal reception? Bigger antenna? Outside omni-directional?

I will have to use an omni-directional b/c I have antennas from 2 degrees all the way to 244 degrees.

Any suggestions would be great!!

Well guys, Time Warner is coming out Friday to install. Unfortunately I couldn't get the before mentioned rate of $40/month. I did however get DigiPic 4000(255 channels), HBO and HBO On Demand, Cinemax and Cinemax On Demand, Showtime and Showtime On Demand, TMC and TMC On Demand, an HD DVR, two additional digital boxes, and all of the HD they offer for just under $70/month. Free installation. Best part: no commitment, no contract.

I think this was a good move considering I'm paying close to 60/month to D* for 3 boxes and total choice plus locals. No HD/No DVRs.
And now I can run coax runs of basic cable to two extra rooms and not have to pay monthly.

Thoughts?

I also live in Cordova and I get all of the signals available (no WHBQ) clear as a bell with an antenna in my attic. It's a Radio Shack # 15-2152. It was about $52. I work at a television station and got some good advice from my engineer on placement in my attic. He made me aware that the ductwork in the attic can deflect and reflect the OTA signal and cause problems. He asked that I make sure the antenna was between the ductwork and the towers in question so that the signal did not fight the reflection and disturbance of the ducts. I put mine up inside my attic, aimed it between the farthest towers on each side and hooked it up. Every station came in.

I hope that helps.

Hmmm...

Originally posted by RedScare
Where in cordova do you live? I'm off of chimenyrock, just less than half a mile from the school and I get WHBQ at a very high signal strength, even when using an old analog antenna as a makeshift digital antenna.

You sure your talking about WHBQ? Fox 13

I live very close to the intersection of Hwy 64 and Berryhill. On the WHBQ situation, our engineering department can't receive their signal at the station and it's only 1 mile from WHBQ.

Hey Dennis, this is Keith. I am still working on getting my antenna situation worked out. I get WMC (NBC) most of the time but it gets grainy and fades in and out. I live near the Ral-Lagrange, Dexter and Macon intersection. I printed out the antennaweb.org digital channels map. 28, 25, 31, 51 and 52 are toward the north and range anywhere from .8 of a mile to 8.5 miles (which is channel 52). CBS comes from the same general direction and it comes in at a very high signal rate. The CBS tower is only 1.2 miles from the house.

None of the stations are more than 8.5 miles from me. I didn't want to mount an exterior antenna unless I had no other choice. I thought being so close to the towers would allow me to use an indoor antenna. I bought the one from Best Buy that looks like a large bow tie. It has an amplification setting also but when I use it, it messes up the signal even more.

Sup Keith. I had a strange feeling that was you.

I have an extra antenna that I am not using I'll bring to our scrimmage Sunday. I'll let you test it out and see if it works. Being that close to all the antennas you should have much of a problem. If you are getting WPTY and WLMT great then you are close. Those and WMC are all of the same tower.

Good luck with your install on Friday, RedScare. Let me tell you my little story from today:

TWC was scheduled to install an HD-DVR box in my home this morning between 8am and 10am. I was already for their prompt arrival at 8am. At 12pm, when nobody had showed, at the behest of my wife, I called TW.

Three transfers later I was on the phone with "General Fiber," the contractor that had been assigned my install. Their dispatcher was pretty rude on the phone, but told me that my guy would be at my house within 30 minutes. He was. In the meantime, I called TWC, and politely told them if he DIDN'T show I would cancel my entire service. I was pretty upset.

The guy showed up at 12:30, and acted like he had never seen a cable box in his life. He plugged the box into the TV (while I was getting ready for work). I came back into the living room, and he was sitting there, "waiting for a signal." We both waited for about 5 minutes, and then he suddenly jumped up. "Oops!" he said, "One more thing...I need to plug it into the wall."

That's right...he forgot to plug the cable into the box.

After we solved that problem, the box STILL didn't work. So, he called his boss to see if we could get another. His boss says, "Well, if that rebuilt box we gave you didn't work, tell him it'll be a couple of weeks before we get any more of the HD-DVRs in."

A couple of weeks?!? Between him being 2 and 1/2 hours late, his lack of basic installation knowledge, and the apparent backorder of the cable box I wanted...I was pretty miffed. The installer left, and the General Fiber dispatcher told me their warehouse guy was out to lunch, and would call me as soon as he got back to tell me when I could get another box. 6 hours later, he must still be eating, because I never got a call.

I ended up going to the TWC office on Poplar and waiting in line another 45 minutes this afternoon, where I picked up the HD-DVR myself. I figure...I can plug it into the wall, so I'm already as good as my installer. Hopefully it'll work...its sitting in my car right now, waiting for me to get off work.

I'll let you know.

(As an aside, I was able to pick up all of TWC Local HD channels...WREG, WHBQ, WPTY, etc using the digital tuner built in to my HDTV...I just plugged the cable into the digital coax on the back of my TV. So if you have a tuner...it still can be done. I am just afraid they'll scramble WHBQ right before the Super Bowl...my entire reason for going through this hassle!)

EDIT: A second aside...I live in Horn Lake, and can easily pick up all the Memphis Local HDs (with the exception of WHBQ, obviously, with a pair of amplified rabbit ears that are sitting on top of the TV. Not bad.)

There's a reason I stay with DirecTV (besides the wonder that is the Tivo UI...) and that is, the general incompetence and ignorance of TW employees/contractors. Nothing personal to any of them... I just have not had good customer relations experience.

I got it all hooked up. It's working great...except...

I've got all the premium channels. Every last one. I definitely didn't ask for anything but the basic digital tier and the basic HD channels.

Should I call and tell them? :confused:

jsp2000, I'm sorry to hear of your unfortunate incident with Time Warner. I am not all that surprised by what I hear from them. If they didn't have a box that worked and I had to go get my own I would call TW and wouldn't hang up until I got some kind of credit. I don't have time for it. Especially since I'm switching from directv for these guys.

One of the major reasons I'm switching is for the game sunday too. Unfortunately, my scheduled install is Friday 2:00-4:30. I told the rep that I had to be at work at 4:30 and I usually leave at 4:20(work at wolfchase). She said that she would make sure the installer was prompt. If he's not prompt we're gonna have a problem.

BTW, if you've got all the channels I would call Time Warner and use the automatted system to check your account balance first. If its 80 or 90 then talk to a rep, but if you're getting an exceptional deal (like they gave me), then you may want to let it ride.

Anyone see in the paper today where WHBQ will be increasing their signal strength for the super bowl?

Game available on HD TV


Sunday's Super Bowl will be available on high definition television in Memphis.

Advertisement


Things were iffy for awhile as WHBQ-TV Channel 13 worked on boosting its power before launching its hi-def signal.

You can watch the game on Time Warner Cable Channel 813. If you have DirecTV and subscribe either to its local programming package or its HD package, you can pick up the game on Channel 88. If you don't have cable or a satellite, you can pull the game off the air.

What section?

Originally posted by robandkiki
What section?

sports

Me again....

I found the article in the CA. It's not really an article just a text box inside another article in the sports section. Page D4, bottom area.

I'm very curious about how it got done all of a sudden. I'll try and tune it in tonight to see if it's up and running. If so, that's great.

Here is the article (http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/sports/article/0,1426,MCA_461_3519413,00.html).

Registration required or use bugmenot (http://www.bugmenot.com/).

Jerry

I wonder if we will all need to become instant friends with this person :D
Originally posted by robandkiki
On the WHBQ situation, our engineering department can't receive their signal at the station and it's only 1 mile from WHBQ.

I wonder how long they will keep the power up after the SB?

I wonder what impact this will have on moving to the new tower.

Will it melt their current tower. It's probably never had that much juice. hehe

Ok, Smallville was not in HD again last night. Gilmore Girls was on Tuesday night, which is cool. Anybody know what's going on?

Just got in from the office and tried to tune in the WHBQ signal over the air. Nothing. No signal available.

Hoax? Lie?

Anyone have a better experience?

I believe they (WHBQ) are only turning it up the day of the Superbowl, maybe like an hour beforehand

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, Dennis - good to hear from you again!

No, no power boost. We're in the process of ordering the high-power
equipment now, but it will take about 6 months (maybe less) to get the
equipment built an on the air.

Whoever came up with the power boost idea must know something that I
don't!

David P. Brant
Chief Engineer
WHBQ-TV/DT Fox13
485 South Highland Street
Memphis, TN 38111
(901) 320-1206

>>> "Dennis Thompson" 02/03/05 11:34AM >>>

Hi David,

I saw that WHBQ will be boosting power for the Super Bowl. For us
living in the Cordova/Germantown/Bartlett area, do you think we will be able to get it? Most of the people who post on the Memphis board are in that area.

Also, will power go back down after the game? Or will it stay powered
up until its moved to the new tower?

I know personally I would rather watch the game OTA since I'm sure
there will be a lot less compression than watching thru DirecTV.

Thanks,
Dennis
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I then sent him a response with the article in it. I haven't heard anything back yet.

So now, the CA has been wrong on 2 of its last HD articles. They must be believing the people at Best Buy.

thanks for looking into it Dennis.

Where is Fox's "temporary" tower they are supposedly turning on for the SuperBowl versus the new one in the future going to be?

Also, ER was great tonight...PQ was excellent and no audio/video synch problems like I had been noticing with some other NBC shows. Thanks EngDave!

Originally posted by mollerup
Where is Fox's "temporary" tower they are supposedly turning on for the SuperBowl versus the new one in the future going to be?


The current one is at the station. The new one is at Raleigh-LaGrange Rd and I-40.

Originally posted by Cheep
Ok, Smallville was not in HD again last night. Gilmore Girls was on Tuesday night, which is cool. Anybody know what's going on?

They have no way to record and delay HD programming. When WB programming is shown in HD, it's because they're showing the west coast feed (10 PM CDT = 8 PM PDT). On Wednesdays, they're tape-delaying both the UPN and WB feeds, so neither is in HD. Smallville will be in HD when it's back at 10 (after basketball season).

OHHhhh, I gotcha. Thanks for the info. Maybe we should chip in and buy the station an HD-DVR? Heh.

Hey Dennis, Sup!! I bought the large Radio Shack attic antenna and I am installing it tonight. If this dosen't work I guess nothing will. I will let ya know tomorrow if it is working. In checking the HD channels from DTV I found that they are showing Fox on channel 88. I hope that they don't scramble it before the game, but I got the antenna in case they do.

Talk at ya later!!

Make sure to watch WMC News tonight at 5:00pm or 6:00pm. We will have a major announcement about our HD signal here in Memphis. Have been sworn to silence but want to make sure you watch the News, because I am sure many people will be happy when they hear.

LOL
Sorry to be so cryptic.

David E.
Director of Engineering
WMC

I was gonna run an errand after work, not any more.

I'll be watching.

Will you be powering up, and letting WHBQ borrow power for Sunday? :D

Well, I had TW come out to install my cable today. They were scheduled 2:30-4:30 and I asked that they be prompt since I had to be at work at 4:30.

I get a call from TW at 2:30 telling me they're ready to come install my cable and wanted to make sure I was home. I told them I was ready and she said they'd be by shortly. The guy shows up at 2:54; stunned, I shake his hand and show him what we're doing. He looks at the current setup and then steps outside. He very competently tells me the situation and explains what we'll have to do.

Unfortunately, I've never had cable in my house(like I told the TW rep) and a line has to be run from the box in front of the neighbors yard to my house... underground. Can't be done for 4 to 5 days the guy says. He apologizes, makes a call to have the line run, collects his things and leaves.

I didn't get my cable installed but I hope I get the same installer again when they come back.

Sucks dude. This installer at least sounds like he knows to plug the cable box into the wall.

This was announced just a few minutes ago.


MEMPHIS – WMC-TV 5 announced today that an agreement has been reached with Time Warner Cable to carry WMC’s HDTV signal. “We are extremely pleased to be working with Time Warner to provide their subscribers the quality NBC programs currently produced in High Definition, including NASCAR and ER”, says WMC-TV Vice President/General Manager Howard Meagle. “Since we launched HDTV in January 2002 it has been very important to us to provide this service to as many of our viewers as possible,” says Meagle. Time Warner Cable has more than 250,000 subscribers in the Mid-South. WMC-HD will be available to Time Warner’s HD customers on channel 805.

NBC currently produces most of its primetime lineup in HD including; Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Medium, Committed, Third Watch, Medical Investigation, The West Wing, Joey, Will & Grace, ER and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. NASCAR on NBC will also be broadcast in HDTV beginning with the Pepsi 400, July 2, 2005.

WMC-TV is a Raycom Media station. Raycom Media owns and operates 42 television stations. From a geographic standpoint, Raycom is one of the nation’s largest broadcast companies with stations stretching from San Juan to Honolulu, and employs over 2,500 individuals in full and part-time positions.

Raycom Media stations cover over 10% of U.S. television households with operations in 20 states plus 1.3 million TV households in Puerto Rico. The Company also owns Raycom Sports, a marketing, production, and events management and distribution company.





Have a good weekend.


David E.
Director of Engineering
WMC

We finally have all the locals on TWC. Happy I am.

How many HD channels does TW have now?

I've been waiting for them to add channel five for a long time. It's about time! The Tonight Show looks great in HD. No program guide yet. I am guessing it will get downloaded tonight. Now if more cable channels would follow TNT's lead.

cbs, nbc, Abc, UPN/WB, PBS, Fox, HBO and HBO west, TNT, SHO and SHO West, Discovery, ON Demand, INHD1, INHD2, ESPN, HDNET, and HDNET Movies
All I need now is ESPN2

825 Fox Sports South HD

825 is not on the guide anymore. Two channels that are that I failed to mention are GRIZHD, and BRAVE. I caught a few Braves games on BRAVE but I have yet to see anything on the other channel.

Wow. I didn't realize TW had that many HD channels. Now that my commitment is over with D*, all those channels look real nice. I have a couple of questions regarding them.

1) Has anyone been able to compare PQ with TW and D*? Even TW and OTA?

2) How do the SD channels look as compared to D* SD channels?

3) Does the HD-DVR have pretty good functionality like Tivo?

4) I already have RR, do I get a discount since I already have that service?

I'm going to get some info about TW cable from the Kroger around me. The website sucks.

mx6bfast:

I'm fairly new to this forum, though I've lurked for awhile. I had TWC 2 years ago when I lived in Ohio, and signed with them again last week after buying an HDTV. In the middle of that time, I had D* for a year. That being said, my opinions according to your questions...

1. PQ is decent on the digital channels. The HD also looks good. The channels TW offers on it's analog tier come through as analog even on your digital cable...they just pass through the box (this is what I was told by my installer in Ohio, and it looks the same down here when it comes to PQ and Sound Quality). IMHO, those channels (your ESPNs, TNTs, SciFIs, etc) don't look as good as D*.

2. Not quite as good, as I said above.

3. It's not quite as intuitive as TiVo, and frankly, it feels a bit clunky as far as response time goes. I've only had this box (8300HD-DVR) for a couple of days, so I'm still getting used to it. Also, it doesn't tell you how much TIME is left on the disk...it just gives you a percentage. It does, however, record HD, which is nice considering it's just a fancy cable box.

4. No discount I am aware of. $44.95 a month (I think, without checking the bill).

Also, I never had a problem with D* customer service, although I only dealth with them on an extremely limited basis. TW on the other hand...well, you can read in this thread about the nightmare I had getting hooked up.

Just to clarify...I'm not trying to bash TW. I'm really excited that they have all the Memphis locals now in HD. I think the HD-DVR is a great value to someone like me, who can't afford to dish out even more $$$ (after my TV purchase) for an HD TiVoish device. However...TW is expensive, and their customer service leaves A LOT to be desired.

completely agree with you jsp2000. "Value" is the keyword. For what I'm paying a month for basic D* in three rooms, I can have to TWC with HD-DVR and all the premiums(thanks to the D* switch deal they gave me) for not much more.
I agree, a lot of the analog channels don't look as good as comparable D* channels. But, the locals are the big deal here. Even the analog locals look much better than the overcompressed D* locals. And now they're all in HD!

Plus, TNT HD now, who knows who will follow next and I'm betting big that TWC will be one of the first to carry it. Not too mention, $1000 for a HD-DVR from D* with sub-par pq. Thats outrageous to me.

BTW, I'm a brand new TWC sub and I have yet to have any bad customer service from them. I'm sure I'll hit a bump eventually, but its not as bad as some may make it out to be.

My whole thing right now is price. I get the middle tier, HBO/Cinemax, Sports Pack, locals, and HD package. I currently have 4 active recievers, Tivo service, and the protection plan. I still have about 3 months of the free HD package left, and am getting $10 off for 5 more months because of an email I sent to D*, and $5 off with Bellsouth. Right now that comes out to $96.

I have 3 e86's (1 not active with D*), HD-Tivo, and an SD-Tivo. I would want pretty much the same programming that I have now. Depending on how many channels I can watch/record on the HD-DVR, I might have to go with 1 each in the bedroom and LR, and another HD reciever in the LR. Then just a regular box in the office. Would I be able to get 2 HD-DVR's? And all the other things mentioned for cheaper or around the same price with TW?

There's only one way to find out. It would never hurt to call and ask. Mention to the TW CSR what you have, what you want and what you're willing to pay, if they can't try to comply, hang up.

TWC gives you some heavy discounts (for your first months) when you switch over from satellite. I think it would be definitely worth it to at least take a look.

I went for several months without anything after I moved to Memphis...money was tight and cable/satellite was a luxury we thought we could do without. I waited one month too long to be classified by TW as someone switching from satellite to cable. I could have kicked myself, because the promotion I could have gotten was awesome.

Probably worth a shot, mx6bfast!

WMC and WHBQ in HD on TimeWarner. So far the pre-game stuff looks and sounds great. I wonder if it will last long enough for the big race on the 20th? All good things come to those that wait. I wonder if I should get a better big screen now?

Anybody been able to pick up WHBQ OTA yet today? I got 100% on signal power a few hours ago but no video or audio.

Gut

Originally posted by mx6bfast
Wow. I didn't realize TW had that many HD channels. Now that my commitment is over with D*, all those channels look real nice. I have a couple of questions regarding them.

1) Has anyone been able to compare PQ with TW and D*? Even TW and OTA?

2) How do the SD channels look as compared to D* SD channels?

3) Does the HD-DVR have pretty good functionality like Tivo?

4) I already have RR, do I get a discount since I already have that service?

I'm going to get some info about TW cable from the Kroger around me. The website sucks.
Back in October when D* started messing with their HD channels I tried TWC again.
1) HD channels looked better on TWC. OTA still a little better than TWC.

2) Analog channels on TWC looked awful. Some digital channels looked better on TWC and some looked better on D*. However, there's a lot less compression artifacts on TWC.

3) TWC HD-DVR is no where near the class of the HD-Tivo. The TWC HD-DVR was the first DVR I've had and I didn't like it. Maybe they've improved it since October though. There was no way to record first runs only. No season passes, no wishlist. A very slim down search feature. Tivo is working on a CableCard Tivo but I don't know if they are going to have an HD version.

4) TWC will drop the price back to $40.00 on Digital Tier 1000 and up packages. At least they use to.

One other thing. The EPG is no where in the class of any of the D* STBs EPG. TWC EPG list about 4 or 5 channels at a time and shows 1 1/2 hours, I think.

One more thing.. I got a mailing from TWC saying they are upgrading a lot of their equipment out in the field a couple of months ago. Not sure what it is for . But they were in my neighborhood last week.

I plan on sticking with D* until this summer and see what the new sat(s) brings us. I know it will be awhile before we get the LIL-HD. But I'm hoping they will clean up the compression some and add a few more national HD channels. If they don't, then I'll probably check into TWC again.

I never could pick up Fox over the air yesterday.

if you read up in this post you'll see the whole FOX OTA thing was a load of bunk...

Originally posted by mx6bfast
Wow. I didn't realize TW had that many HD channels. Now that my commitment is over with D*, all those channels look real nice. I have a couple of questions regarding them.

1) Has anyone been able to compare PQ with TW and D*? Even TW and OTA?

2) How do the SD channels look as compared to D* SD channels?

3) Does the HD-DVR have pretty good functionality like Tivo?

4) I already have RR, do I get a discount since I already have that service?



I was a long-time E* customer, but decided to flip back to TW when I moved back in September. I had two reasons to make the change: TW gave me a very attractive offer as a dish win-back customer ($39.99 per month for the Digipic 2000 package, which includes all the digital channels plus two premium movie channel packages with the price guaranteed for a year) and the ability to get an HD DVR without having to pay $1,000 upfront (e.g., HD-TiVo). My thoughts:

1 - The picture quality of the TW HD stations is excellent--little to no discernible difference compared to OTA. The picture quality of the SD channels using a digital box is also very good. HOWEVER, the picture quality of the SD channels using the 8300 HD-DVR is noticeably worse. You can partially sidestep this issue by inputting a direct cable feed into your TV and using that to watch SD. Or just watch HD programming on the DVR.

2 - As mentioned above, I think SD channels are nearly as good as E* when using a digital box, noticeably worse when using the HD-DVR. As mentioned elsewhere, there are fewer compression artifacts on the TW signal.

3 - The functionality of the HD-DVR is a joke. I've used a stand alone TiVo for more than two years, and the brand-new 8300 box that TW is issuing is years behind in usability. I could give you a laundry list as to why it falls far short of TiVo, but will simply use the language of an earlier post--the TW DVR is very "clunky". However, the HD picture is great and the price is right, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

The TW HD broadcast of the game on Fox 13 yesterday looked great.

I was out of town at the Mardi Gras and got home and BAM.....Channel 5 HD on TWC !! Now my life is complete !!!!

dre

I appreciate the responses I recieved about TW. I'm gonna stay with D*. The SD PQ and "clunky" HD-DVR pushed me away.

2 friends of mine just recently purchased HDTV's and have TW cable. How much a month does it cost a month for a HD-DVR?

Originally posted by mx6bfast
I appreciate the responses I recieved about TW. I'm gonna stay with D*. The SD PQ and "clunky" HD-DVR pushed me away.

2 friends of mine just recently purchased HDTV's and have TW cable. How much a month does it cost a month for a HD-DVR?
They charge the same pricec for the HD-DVR stb as a SD stb, $7.95. They also charge $6.00 (Tier 2000 and up), $6.95 (Tier 1000) for the DVR service. And it's for each DVR you have. So if you have two DVR's you'll pay $12.00 for the service plus $7.95 for each stb.

I am on the fence as well when it comes to TW and D*. I do not want to fork out 1K for an HD-TiVo just to get a couple of HD channels with D*. There is also no offical word from D* yet as to how they will handle the upgrade for those that have bought an HD-TiVo! TW looks good because every major network is now in HD and it will be at LEAST a year from now before D* will be able to compete with that once the new birds are up! Here is the main reason I am considering...once the new MPEG 4 equipment comes out and D* is ready in Memphis with all the locals it will be all the new customers that get the great deals on the HD-DVR stuff instead of the existing customers of D*!

PRO's: (D*)
Lakehouse has a receiver for 5 bucks extra a month
Tivo (series 2)
Get over the air stuff now (except for FOX!!!!!!!!!!!)
NFL Sunday Ticket

PRO's (TW)
Get all the major networks through DVR box!
Can record in HD
Will get a great deal w/ TW since I am a Sat. customer
Will get a great deal w/ D* when I go back a year from now
Free HD-DVR box


:confused: CRAP!!!!!!!!!...what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

radar, FOX HD will be available for free thru D* since our local station is O&O

Correct, FoxHD is currently available on Channel 88 via D*
For me,
NFL Sunday Ticket is the biggest Pro with majority of games being in HD.

I don't have an HD-TiVo so I can't pick up any HD unless it is over the air. This is one BIG reason I am considering TW, it will take 1K plus just to get the few HD channels that D* has now! I really think it will be 12 plus months before we will be able to get all the locals in HD via D* here in Memphis.

Originally posted by radar44
I don't have an HD-TiVo so I can't pick up any HD unless it is over the air. This is one BIG reason I am considering TW, it will take 1K plus just to get the few HD channels that D* has now! I really think it will be 12 plus months before we will be able to get all the locals in HD via D* here in Memphis.

Any HD stb from D* can pick up local OTA stations. But the HD-Tivo is the only one that will record them.

I don't believe that only new customers will get the good deals. For those that paid the $1k for an HD-Tivo, and have other D* HD stb's, will get some sort of compensation. This has been said by people "in the know" on various threads both here and tivocommunity. I think everyone is over reacting about the upgrade to -4, personally.

Since we are DMA 44 right now, I think we will probably have HD-LIL within 12 months. Of course this is all just speculation.

Hey D!! I installed the large Radio Shack antenna in the attic. Ran RG-6 to it and hooked it up. I got all excited turned on the D* HD and nothing from the OTA's. I turned up the volume on the TV and went to the attic to start messing with the tuning. I twisted, turned, bumped, giggled and hit that antenna six ways till SB Sunday. As a last resort I unpluged the the cable from the antenna and BAM I heard the OTA's loud and clear in the attic. I went down to the TV and all of the OTA's came in clear (except FOX). As a test I hooked the antenna back up and re-checked the tv signals. NOTHING!! Unplugged antenna again and back come the channels.

WHAT gives?? Have I hooked up something wrong. I am getting all of the channels with fairly clear reception with only a RG-6 cable running into the attic. Am I really lucky or what? I want the antenna to work but I guess I don't need it??

HELP!!! :confused:

Hey Fireman, I don't know what's going on, but I guess it's possible for the RG-6 cable itself to act as an antenna (don't really know).

However, some advice about antenna selection. If you got one of the large radio shack traditional looking antennas, that only has one small UHF receptor on it. The rest of it all the long arms of the anntenna are for receiving VHF. All the digital channels are broadcast on UHF, so that big traditional antenna may not be the best (again this is assuming that is the RadioShack type of antenna you got). A better bet would be to get a UHF specific antenna such as one found at web sites like these:
http://www.antennasdirect.com/ or http://www.hdtvantennas.net/ or try the Zenith Silver Sensor. At least that was my experience after first trying the Radio Shack one.

But then again...if an RG-6 coax is working for you why mess with a good thing!

So that explains why you weren't at the scrimmage Sunday. haha. Strange. I'll call you on your cell on my way home. If you get this before you get my call give me a call.

Hey guys. I have a question for you. What Stations in Memphis are O&O? I have D* and even though I live in Arkansas, D* forces me to take Memphis locals. Because of that, right now I am telling D* that I live in Pine Bluff so I can receive Little Rock locals but I actually live in Helena and I also receive NY/LA DNS HD channels but with the Shvera law, D* has said that you can either have locals or DNS after April 7th 2005. If there are any O&O stations in Memphis, then I would be able to receive them in HD and then I wouldn't need the DNS feeds so I am trying to see what my options are at this point.

Thanks,
Tommy

WHBQ 13, FOX

Thanks. Looks like I will be "moving" to NY then if they decide to take away my DNS feeds.

Tommy

This is so odd...
The feed is spliced, but Law and Order is in a 4x3 ratio. It's a new ep too, so it's definately supposed to be in Widescreen. :( Maybe it's a national problem? Or maybe they are passing the wrong feed through.

BTW, Anyone know the average prices of TWC for service with an HD-DVR and HD Channels? Can you JUST get the HD's? How much are they with the packages?

Was it just me or did anyone else have a problem with pixelization or digital bleed with WMC HD last night, ie Law and order or Leno?

ravma479:

I pay about $103.00 per month for TWC digital with both HD tiers, 1 HDDVR box, 1 HD box, 1 digital box.including tax ......and NO pay channels !

Originally posted by jimsim
Was it just me or did anyone else have a problem with pixelization or digital bleed with WMC HD last night, ie Law and order or Leno?

Yes, and tonight also...Joey started off with a black screen then progressed to a pillared SD feed on the HD signal (both OTA and on TWC). Will & Grace much the same, Apprentice and others have had pixelation, waiting to see what ER does...

LOL - as I write this TWC 805 WMC went to black again with a flickering white line at the bottom. What is up?