Anyone know if there's word on UPN 30 getting Surround Sound equipment? The WB shows are Stereo only on 30, but they are broadcast in at least 2.0 nationally.

Are you talking about DD5.1? I know 30-1 can, cause last year LOTR was in 5.1 when it aired.

Oh really? Well, then why wasnt Supernatural in 5.1 last night? Or at the very least, 2.0?
The WB's showing LOTR:TTT in a few weeks, I wonder if that will be 5.1.

Are you seeing the lip sync problem with HD material only or are you seeing it in upconverted shows? I watch the HD in my office during the day and have noticed at times that the Lipsync on some HD shows is off occasionally. I have contacted NBC a couple of times and they tell me its not bad when it leaves them. :mad:

Sorry for not answering the earlier posts, I have not been monitoring the forum as closely as I need to.

David E
WMC

Hey Dave, I only seem to notice the sync issues with NBC HD programming. It is very annoying and makes it almost unwatchable for me. I don't know if it helps but I have seen this on my Hughes HTL-HD box.

Are you seeing the lip sync problem with HD material only or are you seeing it in upconverted shows? I watch the HD in my office during the day and have noticed at times that the Lipsync on some HD shows is off occasionally. I have contacted NBC a couple of times and they tell me its not bad when it leaves them. :mad:

Sorry for not answering the earlier posts, I have not been monitoring the forum as closely as I need to.

David E
WMC

Hi David,

Personally, I have mainly noticed on HD shows. I'll watch more carefully this weekend and see if I see it other places, such as upconverted shows or commercials and sub channels.

What would help you the most in troubleshooting?

Anyone else notice it at other times?

I saw it on an upconverted show last week, but I can't remember what it was. It only seems to happen during primetime. I've never seen it with Leno or Conan. The delay used to be longer than it is now, but it is still noticable.

I don't really care for ND football, but their game this week is at 1:30. Since their home games are in HD I will check to see if I see an audio delay then, and also the PQ.

Man I wish I could watch HD at work.

Wow, I was concerned whether or not we'd have 5.1 for LOTR: TTT tonight, but we don't even have HD. I'm getting very angry with UPN 30, very fast.

Edit: You've gotta be freaking kidding me. The emmys arent in HD? Isnt this supposed to be when we honor the "greatest" in TV, and we can't even get some freakin HD cameras in there?

I called to see if they can turn the HD feed on for TTT. She said she would look into it. I wonder if they will pull the west coast feed and show that in HD like they did for FOTR.

So, here are my thoughts on the HD games this weekend. I am usually viewing on my main tv, 42” Mits about 16 feet out.

ND on WMC - Amazing. It's amazing that there were a couple of shots that weren't full of blocking. I had to turn the game off because the grass was hurting my eyes. The grass would finally focus about a second or 2 after the still shot, then go right back to a mess of green when the camera moved. I was standing in my kitchen, which is a good 30 - 35 feet from my tv, and I could see the blocking all the way back there. Just simple movements looked horrible. Has got to be quite possibly the worst HD game I’ve ever seen due to the blocking.

SEC on WREG - More proof that the first NFL game they showed this season without blocking was a fluke. Game looked good under the lights with very little movement, but when the camera focused on one player and they moved, or someone in front of them moved, blocks everywhere. The longer shots looked nice because the players were so far away. Even replays were littered with blocks. Not to mention when the graphics burst into the scene it was a big ole mess.
If my wife says something about blocking, and she doesn’t have the best eyesight, I know it’s bad and not just me. Yes, she did say something about it. It only took her about 20 seconds to comment on the ND game just in passing.

NFL on WREG – Same as above. Both the SEC and NFL game would’ve looked amazing with the rich colors of the uniforms and lights. I saw more blocking during the NFL game than during the UT game. The Packers helmets were looking bad when they moved. This game looked even worse on my LCD.

I asked in each thread, for the people who didn’t see any blocking, if their local NBC or CBS was multicasting. For the CBS’s the answer was no. So there is proof that because WREG multicasts it screws up the PQ. As far as NBC, even cities that didn’t multicast were complaining. So I can’t place blame on WMC, but I do think that running 2 subchannels made the problem worse.

I also have to say that the UPN shows on WLMT looked soft Friday night.

I called to see if they can turn the HD feed on for TTT. She said she would look into it. I wonder if they will pull the west coast feed and show that in HD like they did for FOTR.

I couldn't believe it wasn't in widescreen HD for such a big TV movie. What were they thinking?!?

I put it on WMC-HD serveral times this weekend to check on the audio sync issue and it was present for me on the non-HD show "The Biggest Loser". There was also some other show that was on Sunday morning (can't remember the name) that was not in HD and there was still an audio sync issue. Please, for the love of all the money we have spent on HD, get this fixed for us!

When I got signal on WMC on Saturday, the game looked fine to me. My only problem with WMC is that I barely get signal during the day and at night it is hit or miss. But the game looked fine to me.

The NFL game looked better to me than the game that FOX had. Maybe I am strange but I do not see these issues on my TV that you have.

I too have seen the audio issue everyone is talking about. I'll watch tonight to see if I can see it again.

I also agree about the Notre Dame game, looked real bad. I also saw the blocking during the football games on WREG this weekend.

The NFL game looked better to me than the game that FOX had. Maybe I am strange but I do not see these issues on my TV that you have.
In my post I said that the CBS games looked good until there was movement. The picture was sharp, but once the camera focused on a coach, player, sidelines, when the camera followed them the outlines of whoever it was wasn't a defined line. If you watch CSI:Miami tonight, watch the opening credits, when the scenes changes you will see blocks on your tv. It is also this during the actual show.

What about The WB last night? How was the HD picture quality on.... wait, nevermind.

(And I got an email from UPN 30 saying they had 'Fixed' the issues which led to SD Gilmore Girls last Tuesday. Sure.. I believe that)

I checked out the CBS games, and totally agree. They looked terrible. WMC looked worse than usual too.

fwiw..I watched about 10 minutes of the Office last night in between Tivo'd shows and didn't see a lip synch issue. I'll probably be watching Surface and Earl tonight and will see if I see it then. As long as its not on ER my wife will be fine. She freaked out when it happened the past 2 seasons.

What about The WB last night? How was the HD picture quality on.... wait, nevermind.
:D
(And I got an email from UPN 30 saying they had 'Fixed' the issues which led to SD Gilmore Girls last Tuesday. Sure.. I believe that)
Looks like you got them to fix it. My wife flipped to Supernatural last night and it was in HD. But I still wanted to see TTT in HD.

I checked my recording of Gilmore Girls this morning... SD, until about 45 minutes in, when someone flipped the switch. Jeez.

Does anyone else have a season pass for What I Like About You and Reba on on 30-1 Friday nights? If so, are those coming up in the To Do List? The only one I am getting from those that night is Living With Fran. I nearly missed the season premieres on those last week because of it.

I sent an email about lord of the rings not being in HDTV sunday, still no response. Also David Letterman was in HDTV Monday night, it that the first time. I had not noticed. Anyone know the status of fox 13 getting their act together. It is real disappointing to miss the fall season. Has anyone had any luck with any type of antenna to receive their signal?

I sent an email about lord of the rings not being in HDTV sunday, still no response. Also David Letterman was in HDTV Monday night, it that the first time. I had not noticed. Anyone know the status of fox 13 getting their act together. It is real disappointing to miss the fall season. Has anyone had any luck with any type of antenna to receive their signal?

I have never received any type of signal from FOX 13 on a rooftop bowtie antenna oriented in any direction.

Also David Letterman was in HDTV Monday night, it that the first time. I had not noticed. Anyone know the status of fox 13 getting their act together. It is real disappointing to miss the fall season. Has anyone had any luck with any type of antenna to receive their signal?
Letterman has been in HD for I think about 2 or 3 weeks now.

I got this from the engineer at WHBQ on 8-1:
We're doing the building construction now, and the transmitter and antenna have been built. We still have to complete moving the NTSC equipment, add more air conditioning, build up the electrical feed, modify the tower and mount the antenna. All and all, it's coming along pretty well.

Is everyone else having pixelation problems with WREG? I happened to catch NCIS last night while it was recording and actually nothing was being recorded. Apparently the signal completely stopped. Of course I started watching at 7:40 on the analog channel so when it was over I started watching what Tivo had recorded. I think Tivo got about 5 - 10 minutes of pixelated stuff before signal was lost. I hate to have a season pass to record nothing or pixelation.
Please tell me that others had this problem so I'll know it isn't my equipment.

I got this from the engineer at WHBQ on 8-1:
We're doing the building construction now, and the transmitter and antenna have been built. We still have to complete moving the NTSC equipment, add more air conditioning, build up the electrical feed, modify the tower and mount the antenna. All and all, it's coming along pretty well.

I think by the time we get Fox HD here, 1080p will be the standard. :eek:

Anyone know if you can get a Basic Cable package with HD? I don't really need a lot of cable channels. The main reason I'd get it would be for Fox HD.

hdtvluvr: Pixelation is the standard for WREG... :( It's because they multicast. WMC has pixelation too, but I don't think that it is as bad.

The audio sync issue was better on WMC-HD Tueday night but it was still evident. I noticed it, for the first time ever, on ABC-HD last night during Lost.

It still amazes me that WHBQ has taken so long to get their act together, I wonder if it like that across the country. Maybe they were trying to drum up D* business!!!

Actually, we're not the only city with a Fox affiliate in this boat. That being said however, I think that most major markets have their HD online.

Since we get the NY FOX HD feed, I haven't watched more than 5 minutes per week on WHBQ.

But you have DTV don't you? I don't want to pay a ton of money a month for 1 channel. I just want a basic cable + HD package. Nothing fancy, just locals in HD and a few simple cable channels.

Yeah me too. I'm seriously thinking of looking at Comcast once it's here, especially since I have read they don't compress HD and are now getting Tivo. I wonder if they will require an agreement.

I watched Surface tonight, and I thought the PQ was pretty good. It didn't have a real 3-d look to it tho. I noticed the audio issues only at the beginning of the show. Once it came back from the first commercial break it was fine.

The audio sync issue was better on WMC-HD Tueday night but it was still evident. I noticed it, for the first time ever, on ABC-HD last night during Lost.


The audio synch problems tonight on Leno on WMC-HD 5-1 are aweful... probably the worst I've seen in a while. Leno is unwatchable because of it.

The continuing saga of lip sync has been a thorn in my side. We have 2 adjustments total we can make on lip sync. First we can adjust our locally up-converted material which apparently is holding OK. The second point we can adjust is the HD NBC IRD which we have set. If people are seeing some NBC HD shows correctly (no lip sync problems) but others with lip sync then the problem is NBC. We have to dig through several pages of menus to set the lip sync, and the IRD is on a UPS so it is not loosing its settings. The setting is not changing though I cannot say with absolute certainty that the signal from NBC is not changing.

I have done some internet searches on lip sync and there is some interesting information about delays being introduced in certain Plasma/LCD TVs. This won't explain all of it but it may be a contributing factor. I also found some interesting references to different receivers having this problem as well. hmmmmmmmm

I know this will sound like I am passing the buck but .............. I will continue to call NBC to try and get them to be more consistent.

David E
WMC

Nice to see you are on the case! I have Time Warner's SA8300 HD-DVR hooked up to a 65" Mitsubishi Rear Projection. In case you want to profile the equipment people have that are experiencing the audio-sync issue.

My main viewing TV is on a 42" Mits RPTV, E86 and HDTivo. I have surround sound hooked up to them. My 2nd place tv is a Sharp Aquos LCD, E86 with the sound thru the normal TV speakers.

I have seen lip synch issues on all three tv's I have HD on. A samsung tube with built in tuner running through tv speakers. A Samsung DLP with HDTIVO and surround sound. and a Toshiba Rear Projection with HDTivo and surround sound.

Hope this helps in resolving the issues.

Dave,
You're doing a LOT more than some of the other stations are, so THANK YOU for at least trying. I personally haven't noticed any major problems, although I don't watch NBC Primetime that much. I also haven't noticed any issues during Conan.

And while we're on the subject of sound, how's the 5.1 testing coming along?

I just checked out Leno from last night and didn't see any lip sync issues. I FF thru until after the commercials and it was all fine.

wiggo- I see where you are talking about on Leno from the other thread. I can't read that either. Just looks like purple lights on the building.

I just checked out Leno from last night and didn't see any lip sync issues. I FF thru until after the commercials and it was all fine.

wiggo- I see where you are talking about on Leno from the other thread. I can't read that either. Just looks like purple lights on the building.


I didn't watch Leno last night on any other tv's to see if it was as bad, but it was horrible on the one I was watching even after changing channels a couple of times to see if it would get any better.

ALL the commercials last night during the show were for the new HHR. Andy Dick was a character in all of them playing himself. But it was kind of cool watching them since they were a running story throughout the show. At least something different I haven't seen for commercials before.

And like another poster said, EngDave, thanks for trying and at least making the effort to monitor this forum and respond to our posts.

Well, I've now missed CSi Miami due to pixelation and freezes. I haven't reviewed any other CBS shows this week yet on my Tivo. Hope they are watchable. Anyway, I emailed the following to Ron at WREG:
Mr. Walter,

I am very disappointed with your HD feed. I would really like
to see the new fall shows on CBS in HD. However, there are problems with your
feed. I live in Atoka and have no difficulty in getting your analog
signal. Your HD feed is very pixelated and sometimes the picture just
freezes. An example was during CSi Miami on Monday night.
There is a forum on the internet that has a thread about
Memphis channels. It is located at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=167943&goto=newpost

There are members in this forum that live in Bartlett (very close to your tower)
and have the same problems. Therefore, I do not believe it is related
to consumer equipment but rather to your transmission. Please look into
this and let me know what you find. I would rather watch the new season
in HD rather than SD and any help you can provide would be appreciated
by myself and numerous others who have spent $$ on HD TV's.


and here is his response. I'm not sure who Jim is but hopefully they will begin monitoring this forum and their HD feed.

Jim,

Do we have a problem? Please help me respond to this man and it might be
worth our while to review the site to which this man refers. Thanks.

Ronald A. Walter
President and General Manager
WREG-TV/DT

Wow, an actual inquiry from WREG? That's unbelieveable. We've been trying to get them to look into the pixelation for a LONG time now.

He's talking about Jim Anhalt, the vp of engineering. I have sent Ron a couple of emails and got responses, at first they seemed to wanted to make the PQ better but now it's almost a form response with no meaning or care behind it. I've pretty much given up with them, it's apparent they don't care what the consumers think. I appreciate Dave and Scott coming on this board, even though Scott hasn't been here for a while.

I watched My Name is Earl, The Apprentice, and ER tonight on HDTivo, and didn't see the lip sync issues. ER was usually the worst the past couple of seasons. Is any seeing this issue OTA?

ugh, the SEC game looks worse today that it did last week. You know its bad when the coach for Florida takes a couple of steps, and his face goes blurry.

Has anyone been having any issues with 30-1 recently? First off, my to do list doesn't shows any new episodes for Everyone Hates Chris (meaning I missed the premiere) Second, on an e86 and HDTivo I was having a lot of pixelation as if I was loosing signal, but had a constant 100% signal while watching the WB both Tuesday and last night.

ugh, the SEC game looks worse today that it did last week. You know its bad when the coach for Florida takes a couple of steps, and his face goes blurry.

Has anyone been having any issues with 30-1 recently? First off, my to do list doesn't shows any new episodes for Everyone Hates Chris (meaning I missed the premiere) Second, on an e86 and HDTivo I was having a lot of pixelation as if I was loosing signal, but had a constant 100% signal while watching the WB both Tuesday and last night.

Agreed on the SEC game UK vs FLA...looks aweful.

Haven't noticed any trouble on 30-1, but don't have any season passes set up on it. But, I will look out for that next week when Smallville premiers. Thanks for heads up.

WLMT has looked bad lately. Either it's in SD when it should be HD, or HD with the artifacting you describe. The rerun of the SMallville season finale was especially pixelly, when there was the slightest movement on screen.

WREG has reached the limits of PQ. During Letterman, when they do a cut (where every pixel changes), it's like watching an old JPG resolve, with giant pixels, then big pixels, and finally the image resolves.

I agree about Letterman. It's really THAT bad.

It seems like our affiliates either don't care or don't have the ability to produce decent HD broadcasts.

I watched the rerun of Smallville last Thursday and was shocked by the picture quality. At times, the quality of my S4 DVDs (upconverted to 720p through my PC) looked better.

It seems like our affiliates either don't care.......to produce decent HD broadcasts.
I think this is an accurate statement. Not that anyone is asking, here is my take on HD here in Memphis:

WREG - I think anyone who reads the last 2 pages of this thread can read both mine and others views on them. They really could care less. Can't stand it when they switch from 5.1 to 2.0 multiple times during a 30 minute time span.

WMC - At least Dave is trying to meet his viewers suggestions. Lip sync issue, not turning on the HD feeds. If he could get the subchannels turned off during the HD programs he would be a god. Still waiting for 5.1 to work correctly

WKNO - No comment, their HD PQ isn't good, even HD programs look just better than 480p. Don't watch this channel enough to worry about it, due to the PQ. Has 5.1 but isn't passing it.

WHBQ - What year was the tower was supposed to be ready? At least we can get the national FOX HD feed

WPTY - Still waiting for the 5.1 encoder to be installed PQ looks good, no multicasting (probably yet)

WLMT - The PQ recently has looked soft, and have seen blocking on this channel recently. Now getting audio and video dropouts

Anyone else's thoughts?

btw....NFL still looked bad today. Looked even worse on my LCD. Actually I'm kinda glad it pushed me to the SF/Dallas game on FOX, it was really good.

WMC - At least Dave is trying to meet his viewers suggestions. Lip sync issue, not turning on the HD feeds. If he could get the subchannels turned off during the HD programs he would be a god. Still waiting for 5.1 to work correctly

WPTY - Still waiting for the 5.1 encoder to be installed PQ looks good, no multicasting (probably yet)



This is what I meant by "don't have the ability to produce decent HD broadcasts." They don't have the equipment in some cases to pass 5.1, etc. Although, at this point, sound should be the big issue, not picture quality.

Then again, maybe they just DONT care (sans Dave), and I just cut them too much slack. I'm more lenient with WMC, because at least I KNOW they are trying.


WREG - Can't stand it when they switch from 5.1 to 2.0 multiple times during a 30 minute time span.


UGH, this annoys me to no end.

You know, just to prove they don't give a crap about HD broadcasts, watch ANY 9pm show. The last 1-5 minutes WONT be in HD. They splice the feed back to SD WAY too early most nights. You'd think, since they are there doing the news and all, it wouldnt be THAT hard to manually throw the switch, or get the timing better.


WLMT - The PQ recently has looked soft, and have seen blocking on this channel recently. Now getting audio and video dropouts


TWO weeks in a row Gilmore Girls has been SD. They said they 'fixed it', but they didn't. And what's up with not airing LOTR in HD? WLMT needs 5.1 equipment too.

WKNO is decent, they just need to up the picture quality and pass the 5.1. PBS needs to get more HD programming too.
And you all should know my opinion of WHBQ by now....

I have the say the football games this week did not look good. Too much pixelation on the screen. So much for seeing the great PQ we used to get from CBS. They sure could learn a thing or 2 from Dave, and he's running 2 sub's.

At least we were spared no ND in HD this weekend. Man that game on NBC a few weeks ago was the worse I have ever seen. I hope NBC does something to try to fix that.

This is from an old email I got when I first emailed WREG 2 years ago about cutting to SD. "Now, we do go to SD at the end of our 9 p.m. shows to present a preview what will be in our 10 o'clock News. This is a local maneuver, not CBS. " Why do we need a preview for the news, when we have seen that same preview during the show we are watching? Besides, we don't see the preview until AFTER the show is over.

WLMT does have 5.1. They passed it when they showed LOTR:FOTR last year. The bass was kicking. I read that some WB shows are in 5.1. I wonder why they don't it during those shows?

ALL WB shows are at least Dolby Surround, although I think most are 5.1. Heck, I've seen a recording of Gilmore Girls with 5.1! (Although that MAY just be an upconverted 2.0 surround track)

So they've been doing that cutting to SD for a while now? Wow.

Hopefully, we'll get HD news equipment in Memphis soon. That would fix the cutting to SD issue. I've heard rumors that at least 1 station in town is in the planning stages.

Hopefully, we'll get HD news equipment in Memphis soon. That would fix the cutting to SD issue. I've heard rumors that at least 1 station in town is in the planning stages.
I hope it's not WREG. They already screw up their HD. There is limited movement by the anchors at the desk, so it might be tolerable. But even replays during football games are littered with blocking. And then what would they do for NewsAnytime? Up that bandwidth?

:(

Well, think about this. Whoever it is will already have a decent HD feed going when they go HD for news. Not many options..
:)

Glad to see that maybe the lip sync is getting better.

As for 5.1 I will have my guys look at it again later this week or early next week. We finally got The Tube launched on cable and we are finishing up a Master Control rebuild for Multicasting. When we finish that project I will move the 5.1 project back to the front burner sorry it has taken so long but other things keep crowding it down the list.

David E
WMC Engineering

Aww, the Tube's on cable now? I cant brag to my friends anymore. :(
Ah well, the more the merrier.

LOL, wow. I can't believe I missed this article:
http://www.nasdaq.com//aspxcontent/newsstory.aspx?textpath=20050914%5CACQDJON200509141814DOWJON ESDJONLINE001062.htm
It's downhill from here....

Grrrrrreat! Wonder if there's any way to feed a full-bandwidth signal to DTV and cable, so that the multicasting just affects the OTA channel? I dunno.

Say, was Gilmore Girls in HD last night? I Tivo'd it, but didn't have time to check this morning. WLMT needs to get their act together on the HD... Smallville starts this week!

Yep! FINALLY. Took em long enough. They managed to only have about 15 seconds of SD at the beginning.
I still wish they'd get 5.1 up and running for Smallville.

There is a thread about CBS's "big" plans here, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=580754. Of course you know WREG is gonna be all over this.

Speaking of WREG and their crappy HD, this weekend the Titans game is in HD. Should we start calling now to make sure they turn the HD feed on Sunday? :)

NASCAR is also on Sunday. Any chance we can get the sub's turned off for the race?

LOL, I figured you knew about this, mx.
We probably should have started calling LAST Sunday. :)

I Tivo'd Supernatural but probably wont watch it until this weekend. Please let me know if ya'll noticed any audio/video issues with the shows on WLMT.

I didn't notice anything on GG, but then again, this is the first GG HD broadcast I've seen this season, so.........

what happened to your post?

Lol, did you actually read that? I pulled it cause I'm not entirely sure I'm right. I found a more recent capture (IE, Yesterday) and it only has 1 stream.

But, since you brought this up, I'll repost this again. (I have to rewrite it though)

Basically, I found a Transport Stream clip of The Tonight Show. It has TWO feeds in it, an SD and an HD. Here's the interesting thing: The SD is perfectly synced, but the HD is out of sync. There are TWO audio tracks, a Stereo and a DD Surround, and TWO Video tracks, a 4x3 SD and a 16x9 HD. (I checked the TS in multiple video players, and they all play it the same. ) So, I'm wondering if NBC is still broadcasting this way in their Transport Streams. (The clip I have is from a few months ago.) Could this be the cause of the lip-sync problems?

Man, This Smallville season premiere is AWESOME.
But the picture quality is TERRIBLE. Especially in the big action scenes.

No HD for Everyone Hates Chris. Was still getting video drops, the scren was pixelating each time. Checked during Smallville for a minute and seeing the same thing. Did you see any of that last night?

Oh good, I'm so glad to know that it wasn't my antenna. I couldn't get it to quit dropping out! It was so annoying.
Why didn't they have HD for the UPN shows? I flipped over, and none of them were in HD.

I'm watching the game and my amp is showing but I am not getting any rears. Anyone else? Watching OTA in Memphis. 1 subchannel, lots of blocking.

I'm watching from Montgomery, AL. Great picture and sound to complement a
great game.

Reminder to all!:
Saturday Night Live premieres in HD tonight at around 10:30.

10 bucks says NBC letterboxes it on the SD.

No HD for Everyone Hates Chris. Was still getting video drops, the scren was pixelating each time. Checked during Smallville for a minute and seeing the same thing. Did you see any of that last night?


My Smallville was in HD, but horrible dropouts, blocking, and pixelization throughout even though I showed a decent signal strength.

Same here, Moller. The WB shows were in HD, but the UPN shows were not. I was so upset, this was a big episode too, and it kept dropping out and dropping out...

Good thing audio sync isn't a huge issue for NASCAR. When you can see people speaking, you can tell that it isn't synced but usually you just see 43 cars zipping by in a single pack.

They mentioned the sound was in Sony HD Audio. Would that have anything to do with it? The audio is out of sync in both the race bradcast and in the commercials.

I'm also glad I picked up an HDTV with a QAM tuner. The TW HD PVR was pixelating pretty badly so I watch it on the tuner, decoding the exact same cable signal, for the most part and just goto the PVR for replays.

So, are the local HD channels on TWC unencrypted?

Yes, you can tune the local HDs on TWC if you have a QAM-capable ATV tuner. I had them on my Mits briefly (before I dropped TWC for D*).

I finally heard from WPTYDude, he said he has seen the dropouts, just not as bad as we are saying, and he will look into it.

I also noticed an audio delay from the race yesterday. PQ was better than before, which I think has to do with the fact that it was a day race, and there weren't any poles around the infield. Those usually make the picture block more than anything when the camera is panning past them. But I did notice the fence around the outside part of the track experienced that. Really really really missed 5.1 for it. The last couple of laps if there wasn't an announcer talking, you didn't really hear anything.

And what do you say about football on WREG? Well, the Colts uniforms were shiny in the sun. That's about the only good thing I can say. I watched a total of about 5 minutes of both the SEC and NFL games, mostly to see the score. It took me 1 play Saturday to turn it off, and it was just a normal play that showed players walking around afterwards.

I hate to say it, but we will never see the quality of HD we had early last year here in Memphis.

Do we have any idea when WPTY will get 5.1 going?

I hate watching LOST in Dolby Prologic II, its so weak sounding.

Wait, so you only need basic cable and a QAM tuner to get the locals? Do you have to subscribe to the HD pack?

Right, I got the locals with basic cable and the built-in tuner in my Mits.

Wow, It DOES exist....
I saw Fox HD tonight. I mean, it says WHBQ-DT and whatnot... It's not a myth.
On a side note, I saw how truly bad WREG's PQ is. It was totally unwatchable.

Now if I could have just gotten MY tv to recognize the HD locals when I plugged it up. It's a QAM tuner too, but it wouldnt detect them. :( Does it require a special TYPE of QAM tuner?

I finally heard from WPTYDude, he said he has seen the dropouts, just not as bad as we are saying, and he will look into it.

I also noticed an audio delay from the race yesterday. PQ was better than before, which I think has to do with the fact that it was a day race, and there weren't any poles around the infield. Those usually make the picture block more than anything when the camera is panning past them. But I did notice the fence around the outside part of the track experienced that. Really really really missed 5.1 for it. The last couple of laps if there wasn't an announcer talking, you didn't really hear anything.

And what do you say about football on WREG? Well, the Colts uniforms were shiny in the sun. That's about the only good thing I can say. I watched a total of about 5 minutes of both the SEC and NFL games, mostly to see the score. It took me 1 play Saturday to turn it off, and it was just a normal play that showed players walking around afterwards.

I hate to say it, but we will never see the quality of HD we had early last year here in Memphis.

I noticed a much improvement in color and IMHO sharpness, but as you said still had breakups when panning along the fence.............the audio delay was terrible....they need to fix that.

I am afraid that watered down HD is the wave of the future. I was so hoping that for "reference material" all you would have to do is turn on your TV (maybe your DBS box), but both have failed us, and seems the pre-recorded guys are leaving us early adopters our with no full rez component. Sometimes I want to sell it all......tvs, pcs, stbs, avrs, dvrs, vcrs,dvd-rs, and get a 13 inch black and white and a battery powered AM radio.....

So the dropouts on Gilmore Girls, Everybody Loves Chris and Smallville are not just me? I thought I had antenna aiming problems. I really thought I had a solid signal, and maybe I actually did, from what you guys say. Watching those shows with the dropouts and pixelization is really maddening. That, along with the wife sitting next to me yelling, "We spent all this money for all this equipment, and we can't even watch our shows?? And all this fooling around with the antenna? This is ridiculous!"

Ridiculous, indeed.

So the dropouts on Gilmore Girls, Everybody Loves Chris and Smallville are not just me?
Nope it's not just you. The engineer for WLMT said he has seen it, but not as bad as I told him. I really hope he fixese it soon, or else I will stop watching the shows on channel 30, UPN and WB.

Aparrently we are somewhat correct in the fact that the PQ is not quite as good as it used to be.

Is anyone else's audio on WMC really choppy?

Yeah, it's been that way for two nights now. I don't really have any shows I watch on Mondays, but while I was flipping around I noticed it during Surface. I do watch My Name is Earl and The Office on Tuesday nights and both of those shows sounded like they were underwater.

Is anyone else's audio on WMC really choppy?
Yeah, the audio for Surface was all funked up. Different times of the show there would be a delay, but then a minute later there wouldn't be a delay. Then there were loud pops. Then towards the end there was a static sound coming from the speakers.

OTOH, didn't see any dropouts during the first 20 minutes of Supernatural last night. I then had to put the baby in his crib and then go to sleep.

There weren't any dropouts during GG last night, thankfully.
Now if it can just hold together for Smallville...

LOL, now this is just too funny:
http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/10/04/my-name-is-earl-in-hd-rocks/

LOL, now this is just too funny:
http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/10/04/my-name-is-earl-in-hd-rocks/
I'll be looking for that when I watch it from Tivo

My wife put our tv on 3-2 last night to try to see the story about the wreck in West Memphis, then after I slapped her to turn off that crap :P, I realized that we were getting 2 audio feeds. One from 3-1 and the other from 3-2, then add in a little hint of static and a schwoosing sound. Not to mention in the bottom left hand corner of the screen I could see video from 3-1. Ahhh, the joys of watching a channel that the engineer has no idea what they are doing.

Well, I made it through Smallville with no dropouts! Looks like whatever the problem was is fixed.
If they could just get 5.1 up and running on ABC24 and UPN30, we'd be in business.
Although, I will say this, the pixelation was HORRIFIC during the action scenes.

Watch one of the CSIs on WREG if you want horrific. It was only somewhat bad on WLMT compared to that, although still clearly nowhere near full bit-rate like last year (yet no subchannels; where is the bit-rate going?).

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Why aren't they passing the full bit-rate?

Watch one of the CSIs on WREG if you want horrific.
Or better yet, football.

I have noticed that shows like Still Standing and the one that is on after it no longer has a 3-d look to it.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Why aren't they passing the full bit-rate?
That's a really good question. I advise those who do see a difference in PQ on WLMT to use the programming email link and voice your concern.

Well, I think the SEC game has shown a little improvement compaired to previous weeks, but just a little. I guess the good thing is UGA isn't wearing their red jerseys.

Woohoo! I have cable. Now all I need to do is activate the QAM tuner in my Samsung, and I'll be set.
Just sent an email to 24/30. Hopefully they will reply back.

Is anyone getting sound out of the rears for SEC game?

Ugh, is WMC having issues again? No HD tonight.
Edit: Somewhat glitchy still, but its up.

Ugh, is WMC having issues again? No HD tonight.
Edit: Somewhat glitchy still, but its up.

So, isn't Saturday Night Live supposed to be in HD now? I missed it last week, but did they show it here in HD?

On both DirecTV (SD) and OTA, it was only 4:3 letterbox, and looking like SD to me. My guess was that it was in HD, but WMC wasn't passing it correctly.

It WAS HD last week, but they didn't pass the HD feed this week.

On a side note, I was talking with one of my friends in Houston during the show, and he told me that the affiliate there actually CROPS the letterbox to 4x3 on their SD channel so you lose some of the graphics and a lot of the picture. You can't see half the names during the opening. He even said that as they go to commercial, they splice it back to widescreen for about a second.

Yeah, our affiliate could be worse...

On a side note, I was talking with one of my friends in Houston during the show, and he told me that the affiliate there actually CROPS the letterbox to 4x3 on their SD channel so you lose some of the graphics and a lot of the picture. You can't see half the names during the opening. He even said that as they go to commercial, they splice it back to widescreen for about a second.

Yeah, our affiliate could be worse...

Hard to believe anyone would take the time to do something like that --cropping the picture. That would be awful!

I know! The affiliate actually goes out of their way to crop the picture. Clearly whoever is in charge at that affiliate doesn't understand aspect ratios.

Does the channel in Houston multicast? :)

WMC is working on it. Last night West Wing flipped into HD about halfway through for about 15 minutes, and the audio was fine (good synch, no more chop). I just hope they get it worked out by tonight for the prime-time lineup.

I got thru 6 shows on 30-1 with no breakups. Looks like that is fixed, great. I also noticed an improved PQ on the WB Friday night.

LOL, now this is just too funny:
http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/10/04/my-name-is-earl-in-hd-rocks/
Since the audio was messed up for this show, I ff'd until this part of the show. I tivo'd what I thought was the HD channel, but it was the D* feed. I could only see a small part of the dude, couldn't see the piece of paper.

Just wasting time to see if there is another Memphis HD board out there and found one at hdtvoice.com. Someone there posted this:

I live in the Bartlett area and the fox engineers just told me they have a new transmiter going up by the first of december, January at the latest.

So I'm guessing May?

The sync problems on WMC, if anything, are worse now. I watched the Conan O'Brien show with U2 that I Tivo'd from last week, and watching music is really funny. Larry Mullin's drumsticks were nowhere close to the beat. Medium, the other NBC show we watch, looks like a cheap kung-fu movie.

Just wasting time to see if there is another Memphis HD board out there and found one at hdtvoice.com. Someone there posted this:

I live in the Bartlett area and the fox engineers just told me they have a new transmiter going up by the first of december, January at the latest.

So I'm guessing May?

Yeah, but the part that the engineers didn't tell him this was planned to be December '06/January '07. :)

Last night My Name Is Earl was not in broadcast in HD until the last part of the show. As soon as started broadcasting in HD, the audio was out of sync. The audio remained out of sync during The Office as well. I changed the channel after that show so I do not know if it ever got better.

I noticed the same thing. Obviously, the sync thing has not gotten any better.

Great. Did anyone watch Surface? If so how was the audio on that? I'll probably be watching it tonight. I tuned into Leno but that wasn't in HD, so we switched to Letterman. I then went back to WMC and it was a commercial and even the commercial was off. I then turned back to Letterman for a couple of minutes and fell asleep.

Has anyone ever turned to 5-1 and gotten the Tube? That's happened to me a couple of times.

Surface was in SD at 4 different times. There was an audio delay during the whole episode. Sometimes it was very noticeable, sometimes just barely. But I did not see the audio completely synced up at all.

Man, this audio sync issue is everywhere! I tried to watch Boston Legal on KAIT last night, and the audio was way out of sync. Watched Lost on WPTY tonight, and the sync was good during the show, but the "this story at 10" breaks from the news room had about the worst audio sync I've ever seen (heard?).

Is KAIT broadcasting in 5.1 Dolby surround?

Don't know if KAIT is in DD 5.1. I'm only using stereo right now. In the process of rebuilding my theater and don't have the surround equipment set up just yet.

Leno wasn't in HD again last night, or at least for the first 30 minutes.

It wasnt HD for the whole time. Neither was Conan.

I have not seen any improvement in the audio synch problems on NBC. I even watched one song on The Tube just to see if there was a problem there. The singer was practically a whole line off on her vocals from the lyrics. And why has Leno and Conan not been in HD this week?

I emailed Dave about the late HD switching, or not at all.

Is KAIT broadcasting in 5.1 Dolby surround?

They were as of early this year. Unless something has happened they should still be. With my old STB I could use two anteanna feeds, as I can not get KAIT off the back side of my main antenna, I had a smaller unit for KAIT.

I am going to get a VHF/UHF combiner to join them on the same lead so I can pick up KAIT again.........just haven't done it yet.

Does anyone in Memphis pick up WHBQ 13.1?

Hi, Welcome.
No. WHBQ-DT over the air has long been a dream of mine, ever since I was a child. I've been waiting since before HDTV was even invented to get Fox 13.1.
:)

Seriously though, No. They've been telling us for a couple of years now they are working on the broadcast tower. They say it should be up by January, but they've been saying things like that for a while now.

My advice? Get cable or satellite if you want Fox HD. It's not going to happen over the air any time soon.
Sorry... Hope you enjoy this board. It's a great resource for discussing Memphis HD.

Too bad! I wanted to watch the World Series. Actually, I pretty much knew the answer.

I get the other Memphis HD and Digital stations OK with a Roof antenna- with the usual problems. NBC/WMC gives me the most fits. PBS/WKNO is by far the most stable. WREC/CBS is second, but it is sometimes a bit dark. I have noticed the voice sync problems on WMC mostly. I think I have only noticed 5.1 on WREG/CBS

I am still getting an analog feed from Time-Warner. Anyone know what they offer in their basic digital pkg's in HD. Can never get a straight answer from them.

Do you know if your TV has a QAM tuner built in? You can get the locals in HD with just the basic package if your TV has a QAM tuner.

Dave, the engineer at WMC, is working on the Lip-Sync problem. Supposedly 24/30 is getting 5.1 soon. Dave at WMC also said they were working on 5.1. WKNO has 5.1 coming in but they aren't passing it through.

Apparently not. It has an a NTSC analog tuner, a ATSC digital tuner, and a HDMI input. Not sure what the latter is good for- no other digital device I have has it. . . unless a cable box might.

Thanks for all the info, esp. about the sound. At least I now know that my Kenwood is passing on to me all that it is getting.

I watched My Name is Earl tonight (very funny sitcom btw) and it was in SD until the last segment. The audio was fine and then when it went HD the audio delay popped up. Then when it went to the closing credits, back to SD and a significant audio delay. As my son said last night *sighhhhhhh*

I do have 1 good thing to say about WREG's HD broadcasts, the 9 pm shows don't cut to SD early anymore. PQstill looks like crap tho.

Wow, you're right. I saw Without a Trace tonight and didnt even notice that.

I guess I'm still reeling from Smallville... Wow.......
The PQ on Smallville was a bit better this week I think. No dropouts, but still no Dolby.

Dave, the engineer at WMC, is working on the Lip-Sync problem. Really? WMC was absolutely unwatchable last night. They were not broadcasting in HD, the audio would repeat about every 10 seconds. The sound was really weird, I mean you would hear the voices speaking loooong before lips would move. And then, the same audio would repeat, almost in sync with the picture. I had to turn it off after just a minute or two. Ended up watching analog cable istead. Pretty bad when analog cable TV is better than our so called "HDTV". :eek:

WMC problems seem to be getting worse. For the last week, they have had trouble switching from SD to HD in a timely manner(or not switching at all) and the audio sync is getting worse. I don't know what the problem was last night but it was totally unwatchable as the audio seemed to have 2 different feeds and they were in no way compatible.

Please Eng Dave, help us enjoy your broadcasts as they should be. You have a great line up of HD shows this year but that is not doing us any good.

I normally watch Leno. The last to nights I have watched Dave. Leno has not been in HD for two days.

Maybe we should start a counter, number of days without HD on NBC.

Sorry, that I have been away from the forum for the last week. I have been sick and not in the office until yesterday.

I had my engineers go through the timer and reset everything last night for the SD/HD transitions they assured me it was set correctly. Apparently that was not the case I will have them check again.

We tried to run the 5.1 again last night but had to bail out of it almost immediately because our Dolby Encoder did not like the 5.1 coming from NBC. We contacted NBC and they sent us some additional settings/configurations to run in our Dolby Encoder. We also need to order an AES reference generator which we will do asap. (Another $1000 bucks to invest in our HD rack) This will provide a "stable AES reference" which they say is probably why our system is so flaky. The reference we are using is not "stable" enough. Well it works for everything else but what do I know...... (you guys don't need to answer that)

The lip sync issue is truly baffling because we now have 2 HD receivers outside of Master Control but inside the building that are receiving our signal over the air. My evening Engineer has been using these to tweak the Lip Sync. Tonight we have 2 shows that are not HD then at 9:00pm we have an HD show. My Chief Engineer is going to come in and look at the NBC signal at all the monitoring points we have in house. We are going to take all the delay we currently have in our air path. This will give us a reference (we hope) to start with. We have been looking very critically at our different monitoring sets in the building and we do see some of the video processing delay that I alluded to in my earlier post. Our Plasma seems to delay the audio less than our LCD sets do. We also have a tube monitor in Master Control that has traditionally been our setting point for the lip sync. That seems to have the least amount of video processing delay. But again all of them are so fractionally different that I can't believe this is what you guys are seeing/hearing at your homes.

Tonight should hopefully tell us more of what is going on. I will check the posts over this weekend so please feel free to blast/post away.

David E
WMC

I normally watch Leno. The last to nights I have watched Dave. Leno has not been in HD for two days.
Maybe we should start a counter, number of days without HD on NBC.
I know that Leno has not been completely in HD all week. I haven't watched the entire shows but I haven't watched more than 6 or 7 minutes total because it hasn't been in HD. I also switched to Letterman for HD.

Dave,
I see about the same "time amount" of delay coming from both my main setup in the living room with an A/V receiver as I do on my LCD using the speakers attached to it. The worst I have seen it is during NASCAR, and then real bad at the end of Earl wen it went back to SD. Maybe those can be checked out?

I very rarely watch evening shows live anymore, so when I watch NBC I can't call and ask to switch to HD. I have 2 questions 1) Are those that are watching these shows live calling WMC and asking them to flip the switch 2) Dave what number should we call in to report it to engineering?

Man, this audio sync issue is everywhere! I tried to watch Boston Legal on KAIT last night, and the audio was way out of sync. Watched Lost on WPTY tonight, and the sync was good during the show, but the "this story at 10" breaks from the news room had about the worst audio sync I've ever seen (heard?).
Yeah I saw that too. I watched it tonight and was short on a commercial break. Dee Griffin(th?) was talking and the audio was before her mouth moved.

I put it on WMC just now to check to see if there is an audio delay, and yes there is. It's slight, but noticable. Especially after watching other shows on Tivo that were fine. But the commercials are fine.

Called WMC about 10 minutes ago to ask them to turn the HD feed on for Mountain Dew Action Sports, which started at 1. The lady was nice and said no one was in there now but she will have them check when they return. If it stays this way things aren't looking good for the ND/USC game at 2:30. Dave if you are reading this this weekend, please get the HD feed turned on!! I've got people coming over and want to show off HD!!

HD feed is on now, because there are sidebars on this SD Sports Report.

Man, as the players ran out onto the field, it got REALLY blocky. The lip sync problem is VERY minimal today, actually. Looks like Dave is making improvements.

Action sports went HD around 2. I didn't notice an audio delay when they showed the announcers at the very beginning of the ND game. But yeah, the blocking is horrible. This is worse than the SEC game on WREG, and thats bad. Far away shots look good, better on WREG probably due to the green jerseys of ND. But up close shots make me question why I spent thousands on HD to see this stuff. I really am disappointed as to what our locals have done to their picture. I really wish that WLMT would do HD games, because I guarantee you the PQ would blow away both WMC and WREG.

So far rating today's games in PQ.
1) ESPN (Minn/Wisc) thru D*


4)WREG (LSU/UF)







12) WMC (ND/USC)

... I really am disappointed as to what our locals have done to their picture. I really wish that WLMT would do HD games, because I guarantee you the PQ would blow away both WMC and WREG.



I agree. the ND/USC game on 5 is probably the worst PQ I've ever seen on HD. It is blurry and very pixelized during any movement, and no sharpness around edges of people or other objects. I wish we could just SEE the difference without the subchannel feed on. Just a comparison to see if that really is the problem or something else. Maybe just one Saturday with the subs off and full bandwidth for the HD program. I would love to see it.

I seriuosly doubt anyone would miss the weather or the tube for an hour or two (or a year or ten for that matter) :)

I wish we could just SEE the difference without the subchannel feed on. Just a comparison to see if that really is the problem or something else. Maybe just one Saturday with the subs off and full bandwidth for the HD program. I would love to see it.
Today's ND/USC game is a national problem, but if WMC was running their main feed at 19mbs, I'm sure it wouldn't have been so bad. Just imagine seeing a fotball game with ABSOLUTELY NO BLOCKING, that's what we would see. Instead we see blocking when someone moves their face to the side.
I seriuosly doubt anyone would miss the weather or the tube for an hour or two (or a year or ten for that matter) :)
Considering I watch maybe, pushing it, maybe 10 minutes combined off all 3 subchannels from WREG and WMC, I for one wouldn't miss them. But it all comes down to the almighty $$. I mean really, how much money would the station's adverstising lose if the subchannels were turned off for a few hours each night and/or weekend? It can't be that much.

I wonder if the station managers of these stations have HD, and I wonder what they think about the product they provide to the public. Are they happy with it? Do they think we are stupid and can't see it? How many people here spent money on their setups just so they could see HD with blocks all over them? I can tell you that the station manager at WREG could give a rats arse about it. Each time I ask him he will answer the questions in my email except for that one. Proof that he doesn't care. Both Dave here and Scott at WPTY has listened to our concers, but all channels can do better.

btw...my friends asked me why both HD games today had a lot of blocks around the players. 2 of them were thinking really hard about going HD, but their thoughts have declined after seeing both games this weekend.

Dave... Why isn't SNL in HD?

Because this is 'The Best of David Spade'. :) They return live next week.

Because this is 'The Best of David Spade'. :) They return live next week.

Uh... Duh... :eek: Dave ignore my post :o

Jerry

I am experiencing some wild signal strength variations from WMCT. I seem to be always chasing the signal- could be my location SE Memphis. Sound Sync seems improved tho.

Not really related, nor does it matter much, but the sound on the Tube is identified as "Pro Logic" on my receiver, but the actual sound quality and type of spacial separation varies greatly from video to video. The PQ is generally awful.

Not really related, nor does it matter much, but the sound on the Tube is identified as "Pro Logic" on my receiver, but the actual sound quality and type of spacial separation varies greatly from video to video. The PQ is generally awful.
The PQ is awful because Dave listened to our concerns and took bandwidth away from the Tube and Weather + to put it towards 5-1. Which is the right thing to do if those 2 stations have to be on during HD broadcasts.

I tried to watch ER from Thursday night, and had to turn it off after 30 seconds. There were 2 audio tracks, one with a slight delay and the other with a 4 or 5 second delay. My wife was pissed. Luckily I am using my SD backup upstairs and set that recording up last week after all of these issues started popping up. My other NBC shows, not so lucky.

The PQ is awful because Dave listened to our concerns and took bandwidth away from the Tube and Weather + to put it towards 5-1. Which is the right thing to do if those 2 stations have to be on during HD broadcasts

I agree totally. I remember hearing some time back that this would happen: Stations would split the bandwidth into several special interedt broadcasts at the expense of a true HD signal. However this stuff is more in line of "no interest". How many folks watch "The Tube" compared to the HD programs?

I agree totally. I remember hearing some time back that this would happen: Stations would split the bandwidth into several special interedt broadcasts at the expense of a true HD signal. However this stuff is more in line of "no interest". How many folks watch "The Tube" compared to the HD programs?
It's a hapennin'. And it isn't good on the quailty side.

I turned on the tube last week for a few seconds. But it wasn't because I wanted to see what was on. I went to 5-1 and got the picture of 5-2. I turned up to 5-2, saw that video, then back to 5-1 and everything was fine. I think they whole time it has been on I have only watched 30 minutes total, with most of that being when it first went live. Weather +, 4 maybe? But I do swear half of the time I am channel surfing and it pauses on the Tube, there is a Peter Gabriel video on.

WREG News Anytime, maybe an hour since January.

I just hope that WLMT and WPTY don't run their own weather channel when they multicast. I would mention something about WHBQ, but we don't have to worry about that in the near term.

Do you really think that the Dec/Jan estimate holds any weight, or it just another empty promise? Has anyone been by the site and seen how far along it is?

Do you really think that the Dec/Jan estimate holds any weight, or it just another empty promise?
B
Has anyone been by the site and seen how far along it is?
I don't know exactly where it is, but if someone can tell me which intersection and which side of the interstate it is on I can drive by and take a look at it. I drive by the whole “tower farm” area everyday. All of the towers over there are built, I just think that they are adding equipment to it.

Watching the Colts/Rams game no ABC tonight I can really see a difference in the PQ from anything on CBS/NBC. Graphics are clear, movement is not blocky, and contrast/sharpness around the players or other objects is very clean.

So, how long before they start multicasting and ruin PQ?

Seems like I remember reading a few years ago, before anyone local was broadcasting ATSC, that ABC and others were thinking that the 720p format would cause fewer problems with fast motion content (like sports). Whereas, the 1080i format would provide a more detailed picture, but not handle motion as well. There seems to be some truth to that, huh? Still, I think multi-casting is the real problem.

On the multi-casting front, something really dumb is going on with the ABC affiliate in Jonesboro. They totally waste bandwidth by simulcasting the exact same programming, all the time, on their main 720p channel and one of the 480i sub-channels. Plus a weather channel on the other sub-channel. At least WMC has different content on all their sub-channels. Still, screws up the hi-def picture though, IMHO. I don't watch much sports, but just to see what you guys are talking about, I watched a little football and Nascar over the weekend, and I agree with you, the picture I was seeing could not be called high definition. The analog broadcast was easier on the eyes, at least whenever there is any motion. And isn't motion what sports is all about?

WREG's games used to look pristine, and had an amazing 3-d look to them. And I mean on par if not better than WPTY's. This was 2 years ago before they started multicasting. But you are right, that is the main problem.

I watched Reba and Fran from Friday today, and man the audio was messed up. Instead of the audio lagging, it was the video lagging. ugh.

GG looked pretty blocky tonight. It wasn't as bad as Smallville is/was, but the pixelation was noticably distracting.
Man, I want to see Supernatural, but after seeing it in 5.1, I just can't bring myself to watch.

Hey guys ... new to the HDTV thing, just got a Panasonic 34" widescreen a few weeks ago, and decided to grab a tuner and an antenna to see what all the fuss was about. Since I wasn't so sure about taking the plunge yet, I found an inexpensive tuner (16-3499 - $89.99) at Radio Shack, and bought the only antenna they had (cheapo picture frame antenna). I realize the tuner is a cheapie, but to be fair, when it does grab a signal, the picture is flawless. I was able to get PBS and CBS with the first antenna, but nothing else.

After going through several more antennas, each one rising in price, I still can't get more than one channel on any of them. The Terk HTDVi is great if you find the sweet spot and point it in the right direction, but that unfortunately has me carrying the antenna around my livingroom, making it hard to actually watch the TV (though it did pick up ABC for MNF beautifully from atop my set last night). My latest was the Terk TV5, and it won't pick up ANY channels. In all, I've been through 5 antennas, and I'm getting tired of returning them :-/

So I'm wondering if it's my tuner, or maybe I just need to try an outdoor antenna. I live in Midtown on Evergreen, between Poplar and Madison, if anyone is near that area, can you tell me what your setup is?? I'd hate to give up on this, because even after only seeing two games in HD, I am spoiled.

Stay away from Terk antennas... they are generally expensive junk. Also there is NO such thing as an HD antenna. An antenna made 50 years ago can pick up a HD broadcast.

The receiver you have is a very good one. The reason it is inexpensive is because it is being discontinued... not because it is junk. Here is a good thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=577291) on the receiver.

I live in Southaven and I am using the Radio Shack 15-2160 (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F001%5F002%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D2160) antenna in my attic. Other good brands of antenna are Channel Master and Winegard.

Go to antennaweb.org (http://www.antennaweb.org/) an put in your address, it will tell you how far away and in which direction the towers are from your house.

Good luck...

Jerry

So I'm wondering if it's my tuner, or maybe I just need to try an outdoor antenna. I live in Midtown on Evergreen, between Poplar and Madison, if anyone is near that area, can you tell me what your setup is?? I'd hate to give up on this, because even after only seeing two games in HD, I am spoiled.

Yeah, you get spoiled real quick with HD.

I went through a similar experience with antennas when I first got HD. I finally settled on a roof mounted 8-bay bowtie antenna with a remote controlled antenna rotator. Yes, I got fed up with returning them too!

Anyway, one of the best "set top" antennas I've found is the Zenith Silver Sensor. It's small, look's kind of cool, and really brings in the signal. Here's a link for it:

http://www.zenith.com/sub_prod/product_Display.asp?cat=49&id=131

Other people have had success with an attic installation of a larger antenna. When I tried that, it worked okay, but the rooftop installation, although the most trouble and expense has proven the best signal of all and most reliable.

Man, I want to see Supernatural, but after seeing it in 5.1, I just can't bring myself to watch.
Where did you see it in 5.1?

Hey guys ... new to the HDTV thing
Welcome.

Are there some tall trees around your house? That might cause an issue with you getting signals. I'm pretty sure where you are located, you would have to move your antenna just slightly, if at all to get all of the stations. Any good OTA'er would have gone thru a couple of antennas. If not, you suck. I’m one of the tiny few using a Terk that does work really well. The SS is awesome tho.

Just a few words of wisdom, don’t try to pick up WHBQ-DT, the signal isn’t strong enough to pick up.

Thanks for the tips guys. I will give the Silver Sensor a shot before I take the plunge and get on the roof (ah, I have to get up there anyway to fix a turbine vent :) ). No WHBQ is a bummer though, mainly because I was really hoping to have my friends over to watch the Superbowl this year.

No WHBQ is a bummer though, mainly because I was really hoping to have my friends over to watch the Superbowl this year.

Correct me if I am wrong... but I believe the Super Bowl will be on ABC (WPTY 24-1) this year.

Jerry

No WHBQ is a bummer though, mainly because I was really hoping to have my friends over to watch the Superbowl this year.
If you have D* you can get the national FOX HD feed. TW also has HD locals which does have WHBQ-DT.
Correct me if I am wrong... but I believe the Super Bowl will be on ABC (WPTY 24-1) this year.
Correct

Where did you see it in 5.1?

A friend of mine sent me a couple of clips of the Pilot in 5.1. It REALLY sounds nice. I guess I'll just wait for a DVD release.

It's the same with Lost. After hearing the DVD, it's so painful to watch on WPTY.

A friend of mine sent me a couple of clips of the Pilot in 5.1. It REALLY sounds nice. I guess I'll just wait for a DVD release.

It's the same with Lost. After hearing the DVD, it's so painful to watch on WPTY.
30-1 has shown a 5.1 program from the WB before. I've already asked about sending it but didn't get a response. Maybe others should email them and ask about it.

I HATE not hearing LOST in 5.1

I emailed them too, about the PQ on 30, and 5.1 on 24/30. No reply.

Hey guys ... new to the HDTV thing, just got a Panasonic 34" widescreen a few weeks ago, and decided to grab a tuner and an antenna to see what all the fuss was about. Since I wasn't so sure about taking the plunge yet, I found an inexpensive tuner (16-3499 - $89.99) at Radio Shack, and bought the only antenna they had (cheapo picture frame antenna). I realize the tuner is a cheapie, but to be fair, when it does grab a signal, the picture is flawless. I was able to get PBS and CBS with the first antenna, but nothing else.

After going through several more antennas, each one rising in price, I still can't get more than one channel on any of them. The Terk HTDVi is great if you find the sweet spot and point it in the right direction, but that unfortunately has me carrying the antenna around my livingroom, making it hard to actually watch the TV (though it did pick up ABC for MNF beautifully from atop my set last night). My latest was the Terk TV5, and it won't pick up ANY channels. In all, I've been through 5 antennas, and I'm getting tired of returning them :-/

So I'm wondering if it's my tuner, or maybe I just need to try an outdoor antenna. I live in Midtown on Evergreen, between Poplar and Madison, if anyone is near that area, can you tell me what your setup is?? I'd hate to give up on this, because even after only seeing two games in HD, I am spoiled.


I'm in MidTown (Evergreen just off Poplar). My setup is a Radio Shack Double Bowtie in the attic with a Radio Shack preamp (not sure of the model). I get everything except WHBQ with a good to great signal (>70%, most 90's).

As someone else suggested, I would try the Silver Sensor next. I certainly would recommend the Double Bowtie, but I think they discontinued it.

Good Luck, but you shouldn't have too much difficulty with the signal.

I'm in MidTown (Evergreen just off Poplar).
Pretty much neighbors then! I'm closer to the Madison side of Evergreen. I may give the attic method a try too -- just not so handy with running cable, so that's a last resort for me.

WOW, WMC is PASSING 5.1 DOLBY. The Apprentice is on, so its not real 5.1, but its showing up as 5.1 on my system. And there's NO LIP SYNC ISSUES.

It's weird, Dialog is coming out of ALL 5 speakers. It's doing the same thing when I switch to my analog Dolby Pro Logic II input though, so that must just be how NBC passes it.

Update: This is definately real 5.1, or at least an attempt. They spliced for local commercials, and it went down to Stereo. It came back when they spliced it again for the National feed. I guess we'll see if its real 5.1 when ER comes on.

WOW, WMC is PASSING 5.1 DOLBY. The Apprentice is on, so its not real 5.1, but its showing up as 5.1 on my system. And there's NO LIP SYNC ISSUES.

It's weird, Dialog is coming out of ALL 5 speakers. It's doing the same thing when I switch to my analog Dolby Pro Logic II input though, so that must just be how NBC passes it.

Update: This is definately real 5.1, or at least an attempt. They spliced for local commercials, and it went down to Stereo. It came back when they spliced it again for the National feed. I guess we'll see if its real 5.1 when ER comes on.
Cool. It does still have a little bit of a tunnel effect to it, but not as much as when they tried to pass it thru a few weeks ago. I'll be turning in to ER on time to see how it goes.

Yeah, Like I said, I think that's NBC's fault. I don't think The Apprentice is even in Dolby Surround.

Well, Sadly. It's not real 5.1. I think all they are doing is taking the Stereo track and outputting it to 5.1.

Dave: Have you verified all the settings? It sounds like the Dolby Decoder is taking a stereo track and outputting it to the 5 speakers. It's doing the same thing when I switch to Dolby Pro Logic II.
On a side note, if you guys get this sorted out, will this mean that Pro Logic II will work on other shows you air, like 24 on Saturdays? Maybe some of the late night sitcoms?

I appreciate the attempt by WMC for 5.1. Even for ER, which is broadcast in 5.1, there was still a bad tunnel effect. The rears were way too loud and ravma explains why. Regular stereo sounded better, I think.

I too appreciate this, and I'll say this Dave, you guys are close. Really, really close. I didn't notice ANY lip-sync problems last night. Just get the DD Decoder to pass the right audio feed and you've got it.

Now to Smallville's PQ.... It seemed to me like the quality went down since last week. The water scenes were horrific. The opening seemed worse too.
But DANG, was that a great ep. And I finally fixed the Dolby Pro Logic II on my decoder, so it was so nice to have surround sound for it.

I think that WPTY doesn't look as good as it did last year. I remember outdoor scenes from DH used to pop out at you and smack you in the face. Does anyone else think WPTY quality has gone down?

I think it has too, which doesn't make any sense. They aren't multicasting or anything! Why would the quality go down?!

mx6bfast, I have noticed that the PQ has dropped on WPTY also...

Jerry

I think that WPTY doesn't look as good as it did last year. I remember outdoor scenes from DH used to pop out at you and smack you in the face. Does anyone else think WPTY quality has gone down?

I just noticed the other night that Alias (WPTY 24-1) was very grainy. I haven't really watched it before, so I don't know if it is just the show or what.

However, I haven't noticed as much with other shows, so can't really say. For example, I don't think the PQ has gone down on Lost.

It's probably us that have changed more than the picture quality. We were so wowed when we first got HDTV that it looked perfect to us. Now that we have lived with it for a while and started to see the flaws that were there all along, we think the PQ has gone down.

I do not think that it is us.................

We all KNOW D* is lowering their PQ, but I did not realize just how much, until I punched up a recording on my HDTiVo from HDNet Movies from Febuary and was blown away.

While yes this is D* and not OTA, but IMHO, it shows I can still be "wowed" by high quality HD. <who would have ever really thought we have to say high quality HD>

There is the practice of "bit grooming" that can, and likely does go on with cable distribution of HDTV, and almost certainly does with D*(from what I've read anyway, as I don't have either). What I should have written earlier, was that I was commenting on the statement, "I think that WPTY doesn't look as good as it did last year", when there is no technical reason for the picture quality to have changed (as far as we know). On other local OTA stations, we have certainly seen a lower quality picture. We also know the reason for it.

Ok, what the heck? NBC had the tunnel 5.1 all throughout SNL, until the VERY END when it was perfectly distributed between all of my speakers. 24's on now, and the Dolby Pro Logic II is working perfectly. Dialog coming from the center, surround speakers working nicely.
What in the world is going on in that control room?

On a side note, during Franz Ferdinand's performances tonight, the PQ was TERRIBLE. So much pixelation as they jumped around the stage.

This being only my second week of HDTV, I have question: does CBS always jump back and forth to and from widescreen during NFL games? Last week, the Titans game was not widescreen, but the Patiots game was. Today, the first game was not widescreen, then it switched to widescreen for the end of the Eagles game, and now it's off again for the Titans game. What gives??

Yes. Usually only 1 game at a time is in HD. The rest are SD.
I'd love to hear your opinion of the picture quality on CBS's HD game.

Yes. Usually only 1 game at a time is in HD. The rest are SD.

Huh? Incorrect
There are usually only about 2 to 4 games a weekend that are SD.
The rest are HD.

Ok, what the heck? NBC had the tunnel 5.1 all throughout SNL, until the VERY END when it was perfectly distributed between all of my speakers. 24's on now, and the Dolby Pro Logic II is working perfectly. Dialog coming from the center, surround speakers working nicely.
What in the world is going on in that control room?

On a side note, during Franz Ferdinand's performances tonight, the PQ was TERRIBLE. So much pixelation as they jumped around the stage.
I tuned into SNL last night one time and it was during their first performance. It looked like the Tube, and the tunnel sound was awful. I turned it off. They seriously need to get that fixed, it has stopped me from watching the ND game, SNL, and now NASCAR.

Onto yesterday's games, we had the SEC and ND in HD. Which one did I watch? WPTY. Why? PQ for the SEC game was atrotious on close ups and crowd shots. From far away it was nice, but once the camera moved in "Whoa Nelly" did it go bad. I saw the last minute of the game (since I was talking to a buddy of mine and we were enjoying that UT was gonna lose) and when that dude made the field goal, I don't think I have seen worse blocking on and HD program EVER. And for ND, dear lord how much worse can you get. I watched the first couple of downs by BYU and the blocking was worse than on WREG. And the sound, I think I would rather hear someone's fingernails on a chalkboard.

NASCAR, I watched 10 seconds and turned it off because of the sound. I can't comment on the PQ at all because I didn't even put it back on WMC the rest of the evening.

If the managers of these stations have HD, I wonder what they think about the product they are putting out to the customers.

This being only my second week of HDTV, I have question: does CBS always jump back and forth to and from widescreen during NFL games? Last week, the Titans game was not widescreen, but the Patiots game was. Today, the first game was not widescreen, then it switched to widescreen for the end of the Eagles game, and now it's off again for the Titans game. What gives??
When a game is in HD WREG will show it widescreen (=HDTV). When its not in HD there will be black bars on the side. It just so happens that the Titans and Payton Manning weren't in HD this weekend. Those are the 2 teams that get the most viewers here in Memphis. It sucks because the Titans have rarely been in HD the past 2 seasons. The good thing, we can't comment on how bad the HD PQ looks. :)

Yes. Usually only 1 game at a time is in HD. The rest are SD.
I'd love to hear your opinion of the picture quality on CBS's HD game.
I thought the Patriot's game last Sunday was really good -- of course, it was the first game I saw in HD, but I was amazed at all the little things, like the color of the grass, and the sparkles in the Patriots' helmets. The few minutes of the Eagles game I saw yesterday was still great with a very clear picture. Which was why I was so disappointed that the Titans game was not in HD. But now that I know the deal (that it's not always in HD), I'll just tune over to the regular channel instead of sitting there hoping the picture snaps into place :)

I was also impressed by the MNF last week -- well, except for seeing Al Michaels in HD ... oh my ...

Note to all station managers currently multicasting:

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

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

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

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

</End Rant>

Hear, hear. I TOTALLY agree. Preach it, brother.

FYI, according to the lineup of games in HD to be shown next week on CBS, the Oakland at Titans game was listed as "HDTV".

I have to totally agree with Mollerup about his comments on multicasting. Couldn't have said it better myself. If these stations must multicast, do it during the daytime programming. I agree they are losing viewers because of the diminished picture quality on their HD broadcasts. HD quality should be improving but it is sadly moving back toward the SD quality.

I have watched the football games the past couple of weeks but didn't have the chance to comment. Long and short, the picture is bad. It definately has taken a back seat (if this were a Greyhound bus, back in the toilet seat)

I'm gonna join the "mollerup cult". Well done

Now if all the station managers read his post, and read our comments.

Here is a list of email addresses to contact concerning HD PQ (using emails from websites)

WREG: ron.walter@wreg.com (station president and GM)
WMC: not one showing, either im EngDave or email the station pres and gm hmeagle@wmctv.com
WKNO: wknopi@wkno.org
WHBQ: that's funny
WPTY: programming@abc24.com
WLMT: programming@abc24.com

Does anyone else notice these audio things?

WPTY: the audio is extremely low compaired to other stations?

WREG: Some shows, Yes Dear for example, the voices and at a normal pitch and then when they play the music its so high they nearly blow the speakers? I have my bass turned down pretty low and yet it is still booming.

I know what you're talking about with the WREG booming bass. However, it seems to be a CBS thing, because I get WREG, WCBI-Columbus MS, and WCBS-NYC on D* and they all have the same problem. Very annoying..

Deno

Huh? Incorrect
There are usually only about 2 to 4 games a weekend that are SD.
The rest are HD.

Really? Shows how much I watch CBS's football. I thought I remember from last year that they would show one at a time in HD. Did they get more equipment, or am I just remembering wrong?


mx6bfast - "WHBQ: that's funny"

Now that IS funny. :D


Does anyone know how much TWC's Expanded Basic package is? (The high end analog one.)

Really? Shows how much I watch CBS's football. I thought I remember from last year that they would show one at a time in HD. Did they get more equipment, or am I just remembering wrong?
Your not missing much, PQ wise.

Last season CBS was doing up to 3 games in HD per week. They were still at 3 this season. Usually the 3:15 game is the only one at that time and it's in HD.

In a related story, football PQ sucks on WREG.

Did anyone watch any HD shows on WMC last night? Did it still have the horrible tunnel effect? What about tonight's shows?

Speaking of WMC, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but when I tune to 52, I get some channel called "The Tube." Was wanting to watch "My Name Is Earl," but switched over to DirecTV to watch it instead. I could've sworn I picked up WMC at some point in the past ...

jrstinkfish, You're getting 5-2 (52-2), one of the TWO additional channels they are running on their HD stream. If you can enter the subchannel, enter 52-1 on your remote. Otherwise, you might want to try a rescan.

mx, I've flipped through a few games this season, so I know all about the PQ. :( (That, and you always ranting about it ;)) The tunnel effect is still on on WMC. I don't think Dave has been by here to see the comments.

On a side note, Great GG tonight, Kinda sad episode, but the PQ on 30-1 just keeps going down and down. It looked a LOT worse than last Tuesday. I just don't get it.

Speaking of WMC, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but when I tune to 52, I get some channel called "The Tube." Was wanting to watch "My Name Is Earl," but switched over to DirecTV to watch it instead. I could've sworn I picked up WMC at some point in the past ...
Every now and then this will happen to me also. I will switch to 5-1 and get the Tube. When I change off the channel and then come back it's back to the correct channel. That's about all that I personally watch of the Tube.

What kind of stb do you have? You can probably type in 5-1 in addition to 52-1 and get the same channel. Some stb's let you do that.

I'm curious, for those that have emailed people at the various stations about their PQ, what are they saying back? Ron from WREG just continues to say "sorry, we are monitoring the signal. It looks good from our end. yadda yadda yadda. Let me know if you see an improvement." Of course then I respond and say no. And as a concerned person does about their product after they ask for feedback, no response.

Scott at WPTY/WLMT did up the bitrate on WLMT, but since that week I've only watched 1 program (have 3 waiting in the Tivo). It's kinda hard to tell on Supernatural because of the colors. I'll try to watch VM tonight to see if I see a difference.

Like I said last night, I think Gilmore Girls actually looked WORSE this week than last week.
I emailed WPTY/WLMT but never got a reply. Same for WREG.
I tried to email WHBQ but it kept saying "Error, TV Station not found. Please try again in a few years." ;)

I'm curious, for those that have emailed people at the various stations about their PQ, what are they saying back? Ron from WREG just continues to say "sorry, we are monitoring the signal. It looks good from our end. yadda yadda yadda. Let me know if you see an improvement." Of course then I respond and say no. And as a concerned person does about their product after they ask for feedback, no response.

Same here about our local CBS

Ladies and Gentlemen, Today, a year long battle has ended for me.

It started out around a year ago when I bought my Samsung HDTV. I was so excited that I could finally get all the HD channels. I got home, hooked up an old antenna I had and proceeded to do a channel scan. I got 3-1, 5-1, 10-1/3, 24-1, 30-1, and 50-1/2/3/4. But, I just couldnt seem to pick up 13-1, Fox. So, I decided to go get a larger antenna.

I started out with the medium size antenna from Radio Shack. When that didn't work, I took it back for the large model. I then took THAT back and got the GIANT one. We actually had to strap that one to the roof of the car it was so large. I tried for weeks to get this channel with my antenna, I mounted it EVERYWHERE. Finally, out of desperation, I did a search for any websites with information on Memphis HD stations. It's then that I found this wonderful thread. However, finding this thread also came with the knowledge that Fox 13 was.. well, Fox 13. ;). I resided myself to not having Fox, as I couldnt get Cable or Satellite.

I left that giant, $100 antenna up and have used it to this day. I gave up on Fox 13, hoping eventually they would come around and get their tower online. I've been a regular contributor to this thread, so when someone mentioned QAM tuners a month ago, I did a bit of research. Armed with the knowledge that Time Warner sends the locals unencrypted, I took my TV over to someone's house who has cable. I plugged it up, scanned, but got nothing. Their TV however, which is also a Samsung, picked up ALL the locals, including Fox 13.

I searched for my model on the internet and found that, while it DOES have a QAM tuner, it's deactivated. I went ahead and ordered cable in the hopes I could get this TV working. I scoured for weeks to find the firmware which had been discussed on multiple sites. Apparently, this firmware would enable QAM on my TV. I finally tracked someone down who had it and got a copy. There was just one problem: It required a special cable for the upgrade.

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to get this cable made correctly. Today, I finally hit paydirt. I launched the firmware upgrade, and resigned myself to the fact that one of two things will probably happen,
A: My TV is going to get fried
B: My TV is going to get Fox.

I am so excited to say, that it is the latter of the two! I FINALLY have Fox HD!!!!

I'd like to extend a THANK YOU to everyone in this thread for helping out along the way. You guys are AWESOME, and it is so nice to have people in Memphis who can help out with this crazy thing we call HD. I'd also like to thank Fox 13 for all their hard work in getting their station online.

I'd LIKE to thank them, but I can't. :)

This is so great, I can't wait for Baseball tonight so I can check it out.

Way to go ravma...Let us know how it is.

Congratulations. Maybe one day, I too will have a success story like yours.....

*tear

Wow, Fox looks AMAZING. There's almost NO PIXELATION when there's HEAVY movement. It's REALLY HD. Obviously, it's not perfect, but it's AMAZING compared to WREG. (Who, for some reason, isn't broadcasting in HD at ALL tonight)

I think this may be the best picture I've ever seen from my TV.

mx - I thought you had FoxHD?! Don't you have DirecTV?

mx - I thought you had FoxHD?! Don't you have DirecTV?
Yeah, but your story is much better.

Every now and then this will happen to me also. I will switch to 5-1 and get the Tube. When I change off the channel and then come back it's back to the correct channel. That's about all that I personally watch of the Tube.

What kind of stb do you have? You can probably type in 5-1 in addition to 52-1 and get the same channel. Some stb's let you do that.
I've got the RS 16-3499, the dirt cheap clearance box. I haven't tried 5-1 yet, I'll give that a shot tonight. I still haven't dug into the manual for my box, I guess I ought to -- typical "I'll figure it out" guy.

Oh this IS cool.
Fox is showing Maid in Mahanttan tonight. On the HD feed, its in 2.35:1, the ORIGINAL Aspect Ratio!!
I CANNOT wait for Star Wars EpII when they air it in a few weeks.

Has anyone heard the 5.1 tunnel sound on WMC since Tuesday?

Well.....I read through this great thread and after reading ravma479's post above it motivated me to join the forum and contribute.....well at least to post for the first time and hopefully add to the forum in some way.

I just bought a Toshiba 62hm unit which has a ATSC/QAM tuner built in. I also have basic analog cable.....the one with out the TWC filters added. So how do I do what ravma479 did and get the local channels in HD using the tuner? Is there something I need to set up in my set-up menu in the TV? I tried using a Philips set-top antenna but I am not having success with that route here in Collierville.....the local channels are fuzzy with the antenna so now I am going to try the analog cable/QAM route. I have had the set for 3 days and while a home theater junkie, I am a complete novice as far as HD. Thanks for any help or guidance.

Well you guys have convinced me to wait on going the OTA/D* route for now. Too many prototype/testing issues for me. It looks like my HD options are either going thru TWC or waiting for the new D* birds and mpeg-4 stb's.

Does TWC broadcast any DD 5.1 thru it's SD digital channels on programs like Lost, Alias, ER, etc.? I know D* does not. A list of TWC SD programming in DD 5.1 would be nice.

Is TWC's HD offering more reliable than current OTA signals? The consensus here is that the PQ is not as good on TWC HD, but what about reliability of picture and sound, 5.1 included?

I have to say the SEC game today looks terrible. Far away shots look really nice, but when the camera comes up close, I almost puke.

I have to say the SEC game today looks terrible. Far away shots look really nice, but when the camera comes up close, I almost puke.
Agreed. Isn't multicasting the best!!!!

I put it on the horse race to see what that pq looked like and it was the same way. Closeups of the horse and when others walked in front of an HD camera the screen went to crap.

Ravma, can you comment on if there is a pq difference from OTA and thru TW?

I did a WMC comparison, and I didn't notice any difference.

Welcome to the forums, TigeraldoRivera and haveblue!!

haveblue, Can you tell me the exact model number for your TV? Basically what you need to do is plug the TWC cable directly into the back of the TV. If your TV has two coaxial inputs, find out which is the cable one. If your TV is truly QAM capable, you should just have to run a channel scan and it will pick up the digital channels that are not encrypted.

TigeraldoRivera, (LOVE that name! :)), TWC is passing 5.1 on Fox HD and (when I had it) CBS HD, so I would presume that if WMC or WPTY/WLMT had it, we'd be getting it too. As it stands, only WREG and WHBQ have 5.1. (It's really, REALLY freaky that Fox 13 is ahead of all the other stations in HD quality....)

I know that WPTY, WLMT and WREG are available through QAM, (I saw ALL the locals on another person's TV through QAM, so they are there), but I haven't been able to find them on my TV. Actually, I had WREG HD at one point, but that channel has switched to WREG SD now.. That makes THREE Digital CBS SD feeds. That's in addition to the analog one on channel 2... Go figure.

I am having issues getting whbq via tw. I have the pana 37" plasma hdtv . All work fine except fox? any one run into this? Channel 813 is just blacked out. I am connected via hdmi cable? I have no idea and neither does TWC. Any help would be appreciated. same with 815 WMC

Welcome to the forums, StJoel!

What specifically do you mean 'It's blacked out'? Can you get WREG, WPTY and WLMT's HD channels? Does it give any kind of error message when you tune to the channel? Does the channel name come up?

Thanks. I receive all othe hd channels just fine. Just not fox and wmc. Channel information comes up as if all is ok and the screen is just black. no messages. I have called TW and they tried rebooting with no success. According to them signal quality is fine. I have a tech coming wednesday to look at. But I think it is something to do with the hdmi hook up and the box. Thans for the prompt response.

Yeah, it may be. Have you tried hooking it up through Component cables?

I was able to watch some of the Titans game and the NASCAR race today. WREG looked the same horrible blocking mess. The NASCAR race was the worst pq I have seen on WMC to date. I don't know if it was the angle of the cameras, but it was really bad today. Both channels turned me off and I went to the channel with no blocking, D*'s FOX HD feed.

I swear, it pisses me off the stations pull this crap and call it HD. I really wish the "people who care" would read mollerup's post and do something about it. *Fingers crossed* At least WPTY doesn't have a sub channel to mess up the PQ for the Super Bowl.

Oh, OH. I'm pissed at WMC. They're preempting Law and Order CI for a Billy Graham special.
It's not like they can tape delay the HD feed for their late night rebroadcast.
They better not preempt Crossing Jordan too.

I HATE the fact that the affiliates can get away with this. They can drop the quality of the HD feed by multicasting, they can preempt programming, and we aren't 'allowed' to get a national network feed.

What can you do when your affiliate sucks? NOTHING.

Ravma, I tried the componenet hook up this morning with no luck. I am at a loss. Hopefully time warner will have some ideas.

Are the channels Tube, Weather +, and NewsAnytime on TW? If so, are they analog or digital?

Yes, they're available on Digital Cable. However, if you have a QAM tuner, you can get them too, as they're unencrypted.

So far, I've found:
WHBQ-DT, WMC-DT, Weather Plus, WKNO-DT, WLMT, WREG, WHBQ, WMC, WPTY, CCTV9 (A Chinese Channel, in English), C-Span 2, The Tube, NC3 Anytime, and various TWC promotional channels.

Well Time warner came yesterday and fixed my fox hd "blackout" issue. The cable providing my service from the main line to the house was damaged. Once the cable was replaced no issues. Also as an FYI Channels in HBO 312,313 are also a dead give away to a signal loss , these channels (including 805,813) are broadcast with the lowest strangth from TWC.

Ah, well no wonder I have signal problems on Fox HD.... It keeps breaking up.

Yes, they're available on Digital Cable. However, if you have a QAM tuner, you can get them too, as they're unencrypted.
If their digital then I guess there's no way to have them moved to analog. shite

I watched some WB and UPN stuff I had on Tivo over the weekend, and I do agree that the PQ has decreased again. Did you email the guy at WPTY about it?

Ohhhhh, no. No no no no. The audio keeps messing up on Smallville every minute or so.
I swear, What is up with our affiliates? Out of EVERYTHING all week, this is THE show I wait for the most. Why can't WPTY/WLMT get their act together?

Edit: Well, it's getting a bit better. Only one audio dropout every couple of minutes.
That last scene looked terrible, but it was kinda dark. Lois was all "patriotic", if you know what I mean. ;) Funny, considering they film it in Vancouver...

Has anyone else been experiencing trouble with ABC (WPTY 24-1) OTA?

I have had great reception of it for a long while now, then all of a sudden last night I noticed during Pirates of the Carribean, that it was blocking. So, I checked the signal strength and noticed it was high and then would go low for a few seconds. I adjusted the antenna to several positions with no improvement. It will have about a 90 or so strenght then drop off to 80's then down to practially nothing and then back up. Just wondering if it's a station problem or what, because other channels are still coming in fine. All solid mid 80's to 90's signal strenght.

Thanks.

Yes... for a couple of weeks WPTY 24-1 has had a much lower signal strength for me (coincidentally when there has been reruns, so I haven't missed it much). 30-1 has been fine though-- doesn't that come from the same tower?

Yes... for a couple of weeks WPTY 24-1 has had a much lower signal strength for me (coincidentally when there has been reruns, so I haven't missed it much). 30-1 has been fine though-- doesn't that come from the same tower?

30-1 also seems to be doing okay for me right now.

I sent and email to WPTY-24 programming to see if they had any idea of what may be going on. I'll keep you all updated of any replies I get.

Also, as you mentioned, this problem may have started before last night, but I have not been watching the reruns either over the last two weeks or so.

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

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

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

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

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for taking your time to email us about our HD offerings. I want to comment on a couple of points you raised in your email.

We have found that out of 30 people we questioned at our station, 8 watched our subchannels on a average of 5 hours a day. 7 of those are the people that would watch the Weather Channel but we have won those viewers!!! We found out the other one is my programming secretary who was told to choose that option. We decided to make this an in house poll, due to the fact that we know that the consumers would rate the subchannels very low. And to be quite frank, they don't matter to us. So as you can see, there is a benefit to having subchannels. Personally I watch them all the time, and I think they are great!

I too have HD and spent $1000's on my setup at my house, and I cannot see the issues you are talking about. My picture at my house is beautiful, and I do not see any issues at all with the picture. Are you dropping signals? Is your signal too strong? I'm asking because I want to see what you are seeing. I have gotten as close as 1 foot from my screen, and I have not see one macroblock at all. Digital is a new technology, and we are trying to tweak and learn as we go. I have even had engineering check from the source, and they say everything is ok. So it is my belief that sending out the HD signal at 14 mb is a very acceptable compromise, so we can run our subchannels.

Multicasting IS the future. If it wasn't for multicasting, we wouldn't be making any money. Do you think that the customers opinions actually matter? No. The only thing that matters to me is that I can multicast to my hearts desire, and that I can pull in the advertising revenues. Now you might not watch the subchannels, but those 7 people from the poll above have the chance to see a commercial for a product they like and will buy it.

We cannot turn off the subchannels during HD broadcasts. One reason is I don't want to have someone go flip a switch, as they might switch the wrong one. The other is the advertising dollars Iwould lose out on. If I have someone turn off a subchannel for a few hours each day, I'm losing $10 per day. In 30 years, that's $100k. So as you can see, it's not worth it in the long run.

So again, I am sorry that you are disappointed in our HD offerings. To those 7 people, the subchannels are very beneficial. To everyone else, it doesn't matter. So please, stop asking me about it. There is nothing wrong with our HD signals.

Regards,
Your station manager

Oh please, tell me that isn't real.
Please, please please, tell me that isn't real.

Oh please, tell me that isn't real.
Please, please please, tell me that isn't real.
It's not. I just thought I'd add some humor this Sat afternoon. But in any response we get, that's what they are meaning to say. If I knew I'd get a response, I'd email them that link, but they wont care. But it is a very good post by him.

ND game looks bad. blocking everywhere. Apparently this station manager didn't see his rant. :D

LOL, Yeah. I've got it on the background, and it looks terrible.
The more I read it, the more I convinced myself that YOU wrote that. ;) But, it still scared me...

Have you watched anything on WLMT in the past couple of days? I haven't, but I was wondering if they fixed the audio dropouts.

LOL, Yeah. I've got it on the background, and it looks terrible.
The more I read it, the more I convinced myself that YOU wrote that. ;) But, it still scared me...

Have you watched anything on WLMT in the past couple of days? I haven't, but I was wondering if they fixed the audio dropouts.
The PQ on both games has forced me to watch WPTY's offering.

No I haven't. I do know that it wasn't in HD for the WB last night. I'll check later when I watch those shows.

Nice response to the HDPQ rant. I was laughing all the way through. That is about as good as it would probably get from any station manager too.

Funny things is, what mx6bfast wrote is not very different from the replies I got to emails from at least one engineer a couple of years ago. There was no way they were going to stop multi-casting. Claimed the company that owns the station wouldn't let them make that decision locally.

Funny things is, what mx6bfast wrote is not very different from the replies I got to emails from at least one engineer a couple of years ago. There was no way they were going to stop multi-casting. Claimed the company that owns the station wouldn't let them make that decision locally.
Years, hmmm. WREG has been multicasting the longest. Was it someone from there?

Years, hmmm. WREG has been multicasting the longest. Was it someone from there?No, it was over in Jonesboro. They have been multi-casting since day one. Changed the content a little, but have always had three channels up. Two of them carry exactly the same content. :eek:

Originally Posted by Neil Laffoon
Funny things is, what mx6bfast wrote is not very different from the replies I got to emails from at least one engineer a couple of years ago. There was no way they were going to stop multi-casting. Claimed the company that owns the station wouldn't let them make that decision locally.

I can also relate to this arrogance from station managers. I talked to the WMC manager about a year and a half ago about their switching problems and he quickly(but politely) told me HD was a forced issue that was not worth the extra expense that was being forced on the stations and he didn't even have HD and there probably wasn't over a dozen HD sets in Memphis. Obviously he has never been to Circuit City or Best Buy on a weekend. Thank goodness Engineer Dave has a much better appreciation of our problems(and a positive approach).

The managers of the stations should be forced to purchase HD. Then they would not watch the sub channels either.

The managers of the stations should be forced to purchase HD. Then they would not watch the sub channels either.
No kidding.

I wonder if going above their head would make any difference? I mean seriously, I watched a total of 20 minutes on the 4 HD sports by WREG and WMC. Most of that was just background noise after I saw what the PQ looked like within the first 10 seconds. And to see what the scores were. Usually I would keep my tv set on one of those channels even when I wasn't even interested. I listened to an awful lot of WPTY this weekend.

This is the lineup on Sunday mornings for WREG.

10:00 - 2nd Presbitarian Church
10:30 - Cheers
11:00 - 1st Baptist Church

Does something there not fit, or is it just me?

Hey all! Just bought a Samsung Hi-Def TV and spent an afternoon trying to figure out why 13.1 would not come in. Must have changed antenna positions a dozen times and went through two different radio shack models. What a waste of time. It was amazing how hard it was to find out that Fox is not broadcasting (with any receivable strength) in the Memphis area. Most HDTV sites just list it as a channel that is being broadcast, hence all my frustration. The radio shack "techs" were clueless...of course. I'm glad that I found this forum so that I didn't go postal on someone. Thanks for the help (through all the previous posts) and I look forward to reading more.

SatJunkee

And "yah" I enjoy my DirecTV but can't find a reason to shell out all that money for a hi-def box and dish due to their pitiful offerings. Looking forward to the new bird(s).

Welcome to the forum Satjunkee. I feel your pain. I think I went through the same drama when I first tried to hook up hd ota. Why couldn't I get FOX?!? That was over a year ago for me and I'm sure many others have beew waiting even longer. Well, of course we're still waiting. Anyway, good luck with the rest of the new HD channels and enjoy the broadcasts on your new tv.

Any shows you like in particular? There are many other threads here that discuss HD shows as well.

satjunkee,

On DirecTV if you had the HD box you could get the East Fox feed on channel 88 in HD.

Jerry

When calling the Directv retention number got you an HD Tivo for $199 after Rebate, I wonder what kind of deals someone could have got or still get just for an HD box. I would think you could get one cheap.

I got an E86 for $50 shipped off Ebay. Works just fine.