Anyone know if WLFI is going to get to HD by the final 4?

I live in South Lafayette, and with an attic antenna and amp I can get CBS from Indy but it is sometime good and sometimes not. I can also pull NBC and FOX from indy but they come and go Reciever won't stay locked. So I'm really hoping for WLFI since I can pull it without a problem from Rossville. Just want my HDTV. :)

rogerssa,

A few weeks ago I contacted WLFI and was told they hoped to be up with HD in time for the NCAA Final 4. If you'd like to get an update contact the engineering supervisor, Carl Booker, at www.cbooker@WLFI.com . When you get a response please post it here. Thanks.

Steve

I also checked with WLFI a few weeks back and was told that they were hoping to have HD working by April. I haven't checked again. I am looking forward to the change. I am outside West Lafayette and have a roof top antenna with pre-amp. I get 45, 46, 11,and 25 very strong. 9, 32, and 20 come and go. I bet if you moved your attena from the attic to your roof, you would get Fox and NBC consistantly. I am probably 30 miles further out and rarely loss them.

Well I emailed and here is the reply I recieved.

"Mr. Rogers,

I'm sorry to tell you that the equipment needed to broadcast HD has not
arrived yet, so it's not likely to be installed real soon. However, our
Standard Digital channel has been up and running continuously for several
months now. Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Carl Booker, Engineering Supervisor"

So it doesn't look like WLFI will have HD for the final 4.

Silly Rabbit,

Thats great you get such good reception from where you are. I'm tying to find a good way to mount a antenna on my roof. Then I hope to get better reception.

Shane

Hello - first time poster here. I have noticed from some previous posts that PBS channel 20 in Indy is transmitting some HD programming. I looked at my programming guide ( I have a Samsung TS 160) and I do not see a channel listed for it.

I'm receiving other HD programming just fine - HD Net, OTA stations such as channel 8-1, etc. I don't show anything similar for channel 20 though on this menu. I live just north of Indy by the way - Noblesville area.

Does anyone have any thoughts, information, etc? Thanks in advance...:)

Welcome, indyken. Yes, WFYI-DT (21) has been broadcasting HD material for a few weeks now. I live near Carmel, about 6 miles NE of the WFYI tower, and my signal from this station is weaker than from the other DT stations and I'm using an outside antenna. You didn't mention what type of antenna you are using. It sounds as though you are letting your STB remap the DT channel numbers, so you should find the HD programming on 20-1 or 20-2 (I'm at work now and I forget whether it's subchannel 1 or 2) and a simulcast of analog Channel 20 programming on 20-2 or 20-3.

Make sure you have a good antenna with a good connection and that it is aimed properly. I've found that moving the antenna just a few degrees can be the difference between a strong signal and nothing at all.

Good luck finding it and let us know how things work out with WFYI-DT.

Steve

FYI.......Some of you may have already seen this post here at the AVS Forum website, but I thought I would share it with the Indiana crew. This AVS Forum member has a great post which will calculate all the TV stations in your area (up to 400 miles) and tell you according to your exact house address which direction to point your antenna for various stations. At this same post you'll find links to other websites where you can locate the numbers needed for your location in order to calculate your particular figures. Good luck and I hope this might be helpful to some...............


First go to this post......

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/show...threadid=238672

The first post there is by "dswallow" where you'll find the program for calculating the stations in your area. But before you can do that you need to know your coordinates (latitude and longitude). To figure this scroll down the posts to the one by "mark_la" where he's posted the link for this calculation. Use those figures and go back to the first post and plug in your numbers. Also at this first post you'll find the link to figure the magnetic declination figure for your location. (I figured mine to be -3.47. I think it's fairly close. At least the calculations seem to work great with my rotor readings. If I'm wrong,for the Indy area, please let me know). Good luck. I think it's a great tool for finding stations and knowing where to locate your antenna.

Steve

Thanks Gold, I'll move the antenna a bit. It's an outside antennna by the way, a Winegard Deep Fringe with rotor. And yes, I have never done anything with the receiver, the channels like 8-1, 8-2 just appear on the menu when I call them up. I didn't realize until reading some of the posts here that the stations are broadcasting with such low power signals - that's helpful infoirmation. Thanks again, I'll let you know.

Indyken,

I live in Noblesville as well, south side off of 146th street. I get 20-1 at fairly high strength (80+, all other major digital channels at 100%) with a set of cheap-o RCA rabbit ears and a Hughes E-86. Make sure you rescan for the new channels, if you have not already done so. I don't think they will just appear in your guide.

Steve

Here's some good news for people receiving WSBT-DT (Ch 30) from South Bend, IN. I got an e-mail from their chief engineer who reported that their PSIP generator is fixed, so it now shows up in your EPG as 22 instead of 30. Also, he said that they are getting ready to start sending programming information via PSIP.

Finally, I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but WSBT-DT's HD signal looks tons better. I'm watching the Connecticut/Texas game and it looks great, with negligible motion artifacts.

Tom Weber (or anyone else),

Will the Michigan State vs Texas NCAA game be broadcast in HD tomorrow??? It should since there are no other games to multi-cast now, correct?

Thanks!
Kevin

Thanks Swegrzyn, we'll try that. I actually am north of you in Arcadia, to be precise, but if your getting those type of results with a pair of "rabbit ears", I should more than make up for the difference with a deep fringe antenna and elevation gain - I hope...:) Thanks again.

As you can see by now, we are doing the Texas-Michigan St. game in HD, and I came in to crank in the 5.1 surround as well. So far I can't tell much surround content, but it may just be that it's surprisingly subtle (a first for television <g>).

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Tom Webber: GREAT JOB! Please keep up the good work. Picture is unbelievable.

Tom,

Great picture quality with 5.1 surround sound, you did it. :)

Nice work on the sound and the games...

Looked awesome! Much better overall HD production than last year's HD games IMO.

Unfortunately no Indiana or Big10 teams to root for in the Final4 though :-(

Thanks Tom!

Kevin

Originally posted by Tom Weber
As you can see by now, we are doing the Texas-Michigan St. game in HD, and I came in to crank in the 5.1 surround as well. So far I can't tell much surround content, but it may just be that it's surprisingly subtle (a first for television <g>).

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering


Tom,

Great job. The picture quality was quite good. I do agree with you on the 5.1 surround comment. I noticed that my receiver/amp unit indicated 5.1 surround but I sure couldn't hear it. Yes, if it was there it was very subtle indeed. I switched to HBO-HD to make sure my unit was working and I sure could hear it from that source. Anyway, thanks for the great HD picture!

Steve

Wow, Tom Weber - great work, that was beautiful. I can't wait to see your efforts for NFL football this fall, that was my prime reason for buying the Hitachi that I have.

Thanks to all there at CBS and to yourself Tom for bringing this to us.

I noticed on the Michigan State game, and then this evening on CSI-Miami, some audio drop outs. They are noticeable, but not "show stopping". No tick or pop or anything, just the audio drops for a second or less. I haven't noticed any pattern to when they happen. I am using a Samsung 150 STB with no special sound gear, just left and right stereo going into my TV.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Ken

Back in late February/early March, there was quite a bit of discussion in this thread about the color saturation breakups on WISH-DT. I've seen the same issue on WXIN-DT ever since we bought our digital gear, and if anything, WXIN's problem seems worse than it was on WISH. Now that WISH has corrected theirs, I wonder if WXIN would benefit from doing whatever Tom did. Or perhaps it's just a problem with my tuner. Has anyone else seen this?

DirectorBoy,

Last evening while watching Boston Public, I noticed a number of breakups/dropouts on WXIN-DT. I think a couple of them might have been on my end (antenna location last evening seemed to be very critical and sensitive) but I believe most of them were on WXIN's end. My familiar contact at WXIN has been Rick Poling but I hear that he is out of the office until mid April. I'll see if I can locate another contact.

Steve

Tom,
I like the idea of dd 5.1 but only with channel 8 the 5.1 comes across on the front rt and lt speaker no center or rears. I checked wfyi, hbo and sho and the 5.1 works from all channels. I use rca dtc100 if that helps.

Thanks
Brad

It's the same problem with 5.1 vs. stereo that existed when FM stereo first came out. If you turn the enhancement on and off, some recievers no longer lock into the signal, and you have to (in this case) tune off of the channel and then back onto it.

This is, of course, not desirable. Thus my inclination at this point to just leave 5.1 enabled, and sometimes its in stereo and sometimes its in full surround - but not switch back and forth into and out of 5.1 encoding mode.

I talked with the guys at WRTV, and they do pretty much the same thing for the same reason.

The other possibility, for the time being, is to just activate 5.1 for the once-a-month or so special program that features true surround.

I'll probably learn a bit more about 5.1 mode switching at the broadcaster's convention next week - and give the forum a chance to vote in the interim <g>.

In the meantime, I'm leaving it in 5.1 for the Final Four this coming weekend.


Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Thanks Tom,

You are right that WRTV comes across the same.

P.S. Keep up the good work.

Brad

Anyone here live in Bloomington? I've been thinking about HDTV STB for months and I just don't want to put up an antenna and get an STB if I'm not going to be able to watch all the Indy stations.

Any clue if the signals come down this far if I had a roof antenna put up?

Insight Communications is Offering ABC, CBS, HBO and Showtime in digital starting the 11th if you get a $10/mo box from them. But I don't want to do that because I'm a Directv subscriber.

Avian,
I live in Spencer and I can pick up 4,6,8,13 wfyi 20, and 59 hdtv channels at 88 to 92 strength and my dtc100 with a rooftop antenna. Also upn 23 in the 70s, and pbs wvut 22 in Vincennes and wthi in Terre Haute only in the mid 50s on those two channels and I have to turn the rotor on them so you should be just fine picking up the indy channels.

Brad

BradH,

I'm impressed you can pick up WTHI in Terre Haute. It's only operating at about 1/3 power. When they finally crank up the power, you should easily get 90+ signal. Also, WTWO will be on the air toward the end of April. They are waiting for the transmitter to come in from Germany. It's date of arrival is April 19. Everything else is ready to go. I'll post back when they light up.

WTHI is hard to pickup if I didn't live on a big hill I don't think I would be able to pick it up at all, It will be nice when they are full power.

Brad

I have just noticed that WFYI DT 20.1 PBS demo loop is not running has anyone else had the same problem?

thanks
Brad

I noticed it was out last night. Haven't checked today.

Go here-->
http://www.wfyi.org/wfyi2003/dtvMain.asp

They are planning on runing multicasts throghout the day and switching to HDTV at 8pm on 20.1. I hate this cause I used to watch SmartTravels at 7:30 and now I dont know when its on... On thier website above, they have a message board for DTV I know it is moderated. I wonder if we all go complain about it in there if we can get them to change it ?

Greg

Tom W,
The NCAA feed looks and sounds terrific!!! Great job and thanks for all your hard work.

Tom,

looks tonight's CBS is SD only, is that because of the NCAA?

thanks.

I dont think so. I was watching My Big fat Greek Life, and when they switched to HD the sound was bad (Just Static) so eventually they switched back to SD. My guess is this might of had to do with the time change (East coast 1 hour ahead and they need to record it to play it at 8pm). Just a thought.

Greg

I just set up my rooftop antenna and did my first scan for digital channels with Samsung SIR-TS160 at about 6pm last night. I live near Eagle Creek reservoir.

The scan got 5 digital channels (didn't make notes of which ones). Is there a place I can go (Indy digital and HDTV faq for newbies) to cross-check the performance of my system?

Also, I've browsed this forum a bit and saw something about "letting your receiver re-number the channels." What's the "proper" way to set this up?

Finally, when is the best time to scan for channels to program the most complele listing?

TIA,
Todd/Indy

Wonder if any fellow Central Indiana viewer know what is up with WRTV- DT (25-1) ABC-affiliate?

"Altantis-" a lot of drop out, then was SD,

tonight it looks SD also?

thanks for your input,

Just finished watching the NCAA championship on WISHDT (CBS).

In a word...breathless! The quality of the game was great...but the quality of the HDTV broadcast was OUTSTANDING!!!!

Great job Tom!

I live in Lafayette, IN. I recently seen that Insight is offering HD for about 4 channels HBO, SHO I know of not sure what the other 2 channels are. Anyone have it? I have a Attic Antenna now nice large one with a channel Master amp, but I'm only able to pick up CBS and NBC maybe out of Indy.

I'd like to put up a roof antenna but have no idea what to buy or anything. So I'm thinking of going to the Cable.

Anyone have ideas of what Insight is like now and perhaps what they maybe like later or suggestions?

Shane

In Kokomo they have HBO SHO CBS (Indy) and ABC (Indy), I think Lafayette is the same. I haven't seen Insight's HD yet. Trying to get my co-worker (who has a HD ready TV and Insight digital cable) to pay the extra $2 for the HD cable box rental, but he hasn't done so yet.

Let us know if you try it out.

OTA reception is marginal for some of the Indy stations in Kokomo. DirecTV dropouts during rain showers is a pain too. I'd probably consider going back to cable when they have more HD channels, except for:
-DirecTivo with 2 tuner recording is awesome
-I don't think the HD cable boxes can receive OTA HD broadcasts

I think you are correct on the cable broadcasts not doing OTA HD. I have a Samsung T150 now for OTA, but like I said not getting great reception. Might sell it might not.

My Direct TV aggrement ends this month so I'm thinking of getting Digital cable with HD heck for 2 bucks why not. Just another peice of equipment in my huge rack of things. :)

Shane

I think you are correct on the cable broadcasts not doing OTA HD. I have a Samsung T150 now for OTA, but like I said not getting great reception. Might sell it might not.

My Direct TV aggrement ends this month so I'm thinking of getting Digital cable with HD heck for 2 bucks why not. Just another peice of equipment in my huge rack of things. :)

Shane

Just wanted to say I am extremely happy with Tribune for putting both Fox 59 and WB 4 on DTV 45. I live on Indy's north side and would have no chance of getting WB4's Trafalgar broadcast. Does anyone know if this is permanent, or will they remove WB from D45 when WTTK's DTV broadcast comes online? I use an indoor antenna, not certain on my chances of getting a signal from Kokomo. I get the UPN broadcast from Cicero fine, but that seems to be much higher power than the other channels, doubt I'd get 29 as well.

Also, I'm curious if the WTTV broadcast from Trafalgar does subchannels when the Pacers play. I noticed last night that the D45-1 WB feed cut away from the Pacers game at 9pm to switch to HDTV Smallville. Got me thinking that on their main signal they could just do a subchannel for the game and keep their regular programming schedule. I would LOVE that.

Last night WFYI DT had Nova on whiched looked real nice in 1080i.

Brad

Anyone having issues with WTHR 13.1-2 tonight? I did some antenna adjustments earlier wich at the time did not seem to have an affect on reception. Now 13.1-2 is fading in and out with sig toping out in the high 90's which makes me think it might be a transmission problem. I also noticed they are not doing 16:9, its back to 4:3.

fgr41,

I just switched to WTHR-DT. I see what you mean by the 4:3 screen, instead of the stretched 16:9. I've never seen this station look this way before. And as for the signal, it is rock solid at my location, but I'm only 3 miles from the tower.

I know it's not HD, but at the moment, IMO, the best looking PQ from all the Indy DTV stations is WXIN-DT. The Fox show that's on now is being presented in widescreen and looks very good for not being HD. By the way, I got an email today from Rick Poling at WXIN/WTTV. Rick is recuperating from surgery and apparently won't be back at work for another week or two. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

Steve

Glad to hear that the NCAA games went well. I was a little nervous because I was out of town for them, but I called in and everything seemed to be OK.

Since CBS changed their audio transmission setup, our HD delay audio setup needed to change, and we're getting that reset today, now that I'm back. Fortunately, last night was no real HD, so nothing lost, only Tuesday was an issue.

Regards,
Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Originally posted by Tom Weber
Glad to hear that the NCAA games went well. I was a little nervous because I was out of town for them, but I called in and everything seemed to be OK.

Since CBS changed their audio transmission setup, our HD delay audio setup needed to change, and we're getting that reset today, now that I'm back. Fortunately, last night was no real HD, so nothing lost, only Tuesday was an issue.

Regards,
Tom Weber
WISH Engineering


Tom,

I, too, was out of town during the final games this past Saturday and Monday, but a friend told me that Monday nights game was one of the best HD events he's seen. He said it was really spectacular. Great job from CBS and WISH-DT.

By the way, hopefully all of your studio cameras are fine this afternoon following my studio visit with Pam Elliott this morning....... :-)

Steve

CBS-HD (CSI and Without a trace) is sharp and vivid, thanks for your attention Tom.

Anyone here watch anything on WNDY D32 lately? they aren't even doing their analog upconverting correctly. Its annoying. They are broadcasting their signal inside a 1920x1080i feed, but framed at 14:9 instead of 16:9. That's about 1690x1080. Its annoying because its just the regular 4:3 feed, stretched to rather silly proportions. Compare it to the framed stuff on CBS or NBC if you want to see how bad it looks.
I asked them about why they do that and got this response:

>Dear Viewer,
>
>Thanks for watching DT32!
>
>We run the programming through a high-end Faroudja video processor.
>15:9
>was chosen as a 'link' from 4:3 to 16:9.
>
>Regards,
>
>UPN23/DT32

Nice non-answer. Anyone have a clue why they would do this? I'm in favor of them keeping the original aspect ratio. Buffy, and especially Enterprise look horrible. Feel free to send your opinion on their page's feedback form if you agree.

Anyone having trouble recieving WISH-TV main channel audio today? (Sat. 4/12 - 1:45pm)
Seems like I can get the weather channel's audio just fine, but there isn't anything on the main channel.
It seems to be recieving DD 2.0, yet there isn't any audio.

Anyone else having trouble?
Thanks,
-Bob

Disrguard prior post, I called and left a message at the station and in the next 20 min it was fixed.
Thanks WISH!
-Bob <---about to enjoy the masters saturday coverage

abman,
I agree 100%. As I understand it Enterprise is recorded in true HD. To broadcast it in upconverted distortovision, Faroudja processing or not, borders on criminal. It's a shame the FCC didn't require a bit more than just being on the air.

I wonder if WNDY-DT realizes the disservice they are doing? If this is what someone were to first see as HDTV they would probably say, "Why bother." It certainly isn't the stunning picture that true HD broadcasts can be. I was really looking forward to getting UPN programming in HD. Now all I can say about it is that it is better than cable, barely.

Do you suppose if enough of us wrote in we could get them to improve it?

Looks like channel 8 lost the audio around 10:15 PM during The Agency.

Channel 8 Channel List Problem

Anyone else having an issue with 8-4 still showing up but flipping you back to 8-1. When I walk the channel, I hit 8-1, 8-2 (LWS), 8-4 which rolls me back to 8-1 causing a loop.

I think this varies depending on which receiver you have. Mine doesn't do what you described, it just stays on 8.4 if I go to that channel. My Philips DSHD800 (same as Mits/Hughes E86/Toshiba) gets some info from DirecTV too I think.

Maybe someone can throw some light on this - last week I noticed that WTHR was back in the old 4:3 display. However, just recently (at least on my Hitachi 51") it has switched back to 16:9, but in the "zoom" format it seems........the headlines on the top and bottom of the screen are cut off. Anyone else notice this, or is it just me? All my other channels are fine by the way.

Thanks! Ken

I also noticed that Channel 13 on my tv also looks chopped off at the top and also the bottom. It also appears like the "zoom" feature also. Looks bad! The Masters looked fabulous on my MITS 55511. Fantastic pictures!

I will confirm that WTHR (13) looks zoomed on my end too. I was just thinking it was an overscan on my end.

Update - I just noticed this morning that WTHR looks "normal" - the headlines on the top and bottom were not cut off. The "zoomed" look seems to have been corrected - at least to my eyes.

Hi all. :)
I have a DTC100 and a 51 wide Hitachi. Will be putting up my antenna this week sometime. I am in Elwood Indiana. Close to 28 and 37. What do I have to look forward to?

Anybody from Elwood? LOL

I live close to you in Elwood - I'm in Arcadia. I also have a Hitachi 51" with a Samsung TS 160 receiver. I can pick up all of the Indy stations just fine. I have a deep fringe Channel Master antenna that's been up on the roof for 12 years now. It works just fine for digital and HD. I also have Direct TV, but the only HD on there is the HD Net channel. So, good luck with your antenna installation and future HD viewing....:)

Another DTV station that you guys in Arcadia and Elwood should be able to receive in the near future will be WIPB-DT, 52 (PBS). Today I called the station and found out that they have filed for a 6-month extension due to land acquisition and tower construction delays. The extension would give them up to around November to sign on. I was not aware that the station is erecting a new tower. The present WIPB-49 tower (the old WLBC-49 tower) is not capable of handling the new digital antenna.

Steve

Hi All,

We're open to making adjustments on our aspect ratio. The 15:9 was chosen for a few reasons but we'd certainly like to hear your opinion.

My "non-answer" above was basically attempting to answering the questions of "why" the picture looks the way it does. I didn't get any follow up until I saw the posting on the forum.

Glad to field thoughts and criticisim from our viewers.

If there's enough of a unified response, I'm sure we'd consider changing the setting.

Regards,

Don Renollet
Chief Engineer
WNDY UPN23/DT32
Indianapolis

Why on earth would you choose 15:9? No TV is made 15:9, I just can't come up with any reason why a company would distort a perfectly good image and blast it at thier customers that way.

Please explain your reasons for 15:9...

Don Renollet,
Thanks for being open to change. I for one would vote for 16:9. I would say this even if I still watched on a 4:3 set (I don't). One of my pet peeves is distorting the aspect ratio. I'd much rather watch something with a letterbox where the geometry is correct rather then stretched and distorted. WISH and WTHR are very guilty of this (just in case they're listening).

Also if there is anyway to do so please run Enterprise in true HD, which I understand it's recorded in, instead of the upconverted whatever it is now. If Stargate SG1 is available in HD I would love to see it aired that way also. As it stands now the program picture quality on both is better than TW analog cable, but not by much. Your Plainfield audience will thank you.

Don Renollet,

Another problem with stretching the picture was very evident last evening while watching the Firebirds game. The stretching process moved the graphics (scoreboard area) up so high that I could only see about half of it. I truly enjoy watching programs in widescreen, but not at the expense of distorting or losing video images. Just some thoughts from this viewer.

Steve

Watching DTV on a 16:9 screen, I definitely prefer Tribune's undistorted AR on WXIN and WTTV. The picture is always perfect regardless of the aspect ratio of the program.

However, it seems to me that given most STB's capabilities of letterboxing and pillarboxing, as well as the burn-in risk of many RPTV's, WISH's uncropped 16:9 stretch is the way to go. I hate having to switch back and forth between "pillarbox" and "normal" when WISH alternates between upconverted 4:3 and true 16:9, but at least I have the option of watching an undistorted picture while the RPTV folks have the option of leaving the picture stretched to avoid burn-in.

With 15:9, there's still that sliver of black on either side, so the burn-in problem isn't eliminated. And for folks like me who want NO distortion and NO cropping, we're out of luck, too. "Normal" AR is too wide, "Pillarbox" is too narrow. WTHR, WNDY, and especially WRTV are very difficult to watch because of this.

Thanks for the input - 15:9 is simply an option on the Faroudja processor. This ratio may have roots in some of the early aspect ratio experimentations from the 70s.

As for Enterprise - we would love to broadcast it in HD. It's just not available to us in HD form.

We actually have had some early positive comments from viewers on the 15:9 choice. We'll evaluate the settings and see if can't improve our pix.

Thanks for everybody's input.

Regards,

Don

Smallville on 59-2 sure looks good, is it the real deal 1080i or......?

It's coming in Ditigal on my surround, but the rear speaker icons aren't lit like they are on a Directv 5.1 signal or DVD.

Hate to ask this again, but I've gotta make sure it's not a problem on my end... Is WXIN-DT (ch. 45) essentially off the air again? The signal deteriorated over the course of several days last week, and since about Sunday it's been gone. It looks like there's a very, very weak signal but not nearly enough to lock in on. And it looks like the signal occasionally disappears altogether for a minute or two.

Originally posted by DirectorBoy
Hate to ask this again, but I've gotta make sure it's not a problem on my end... Is WXIN-DT (ch. 45) essentially off the air again? The signal deteriorated over the course of several days last week, and since about Sunday it's been gone. It looks like there's a very, very weak signal but not nearly enough to lock in on. And it looks like the signal occasionally disappears altogether for a minute or two.



Got it here. But it's 59-1 on my DTC100.

Stupid black side bars. :mad:

WXIN-DT (59.1 or 45.1 depending on how it maps) is coming in fine here.

Hmmm... Their signal dropped off considerably a few weeks ago (verified by Goldrich and others), and my observations then match what I'm seeing now. Strange. Guess I'll check my antenna tonight.

Thanks for the feedback!

Has anyone had trouble with WFYI Lately?

They are supposed to switch from Multicasting at 8pm (20.4, 20.3, 20.2) to just 20.2, and 20.1 whitch is supposed to be the HD channel. At 8pm however My Channels stay 20.4, 20.3, 20.2 but I only get a picture on 20.2... I never ever get 20.1 back to see the HD feed or Demo Loop. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing this.

Greg

I've noticed the same thing with WFYI. I believe I read that part of their reasoning for their current setup is automation... nobody has to "flip the switch" every night for HD. That doesn't seem to be working too well, which is disappointing since I've twice wanted to show guests PBS-HD, only to find that their computer has failed to "flip the switch".

Back to WXIN, something has definitely changed with their broadcast power or something. I spent hours this weekend trying to find the perfect sweet spot for my antenna to pick up WXIN without sacrificing other channels. Before last week, I could've used rabbit ears to pull it in, but now it suddenly behaves like a station whose transmitter is a good 50 miles away (it's actually more like 10). Nothing has changed with the landscape around my home or with any other digital channel reception, but at least I can finally watch it again. Hope it holds.

DirectorBoy,

I have not experienced any reception problems recently with WXIN-DT. Do you have a lot of tall trees in your yard or neighborhood? Before I installed a better outside antenna I did have some problems receiving this station and occasionally the other UHF stations this time of the year when the leaves came out on the trees. There are quite a few tall trees near my antenna as it points toward WXIN's tower. The leaves can have a blocking affect on the signal and actually reduce the strength of that signal. Also, especially on windy days, the swaying of trees and the movement of the leaves can really play around with the signal and cause intermittent dropouts, too. This may or may not be your problem.

Let me know if your problem continues. I've got several extra antennas that we could experiment with if you'd like.

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the offer... very kind of you! Fortunately, everything is still looking good on my end. That's an excellent point about leaves on the trees... never though of that. As a reference, though, WTHR has always been weak for me (but just good enough), their tower is in almost the exact same direction, and I've had no change with them. But I know antenna reception is subject to a million variables, so who knows. Thanks again!

Normally, my three HDTV channels work fine. On occassion the time warner supplied reciever will cut out if you switch channels to quickly, but for the most part the picture quality is outstanding. However, during WISH-TV's broadcast of the NCAA tournament, the picture would appear to skip frames and become overly pixelated. I blew off the problem as a one time issue, but tonight during the Pacers/Boston game, I had the same problem all evening long. The problem is most pronounced when there is lots of movement on the screen. Time Warner/Bright House has not been helpful. Does anyone know if the cable company is restricting bandwidth. If my TV was the issue, the TV screen would just go blank instead of displaying a garbled transmission. Any advice would be appreciated. Direct TV may be in my futuer if this is how any high motion sport will be displayed on Time Warner.

BCrist,
I don't know about restricting bandwidth but not very helpful pretty well describes past dealings with TW. The calls sort of go like this, "My cable is out. All I get is snow on all channels." TW: "Is your TV plugged in?" Duh! Sound familiar?

This info does help me decide though. I'd been considering upgrading my cable service and this pretty well confirms my original conclusion. Pretty well clueless. Did you know the people talking to the public haven't even seen their HD service?

I think I'll go satellite if I can figure out were to place the dish and miss all the big trees.

If you go Direct TV you may want to put an antenna up. I don't know where you are but here in the Indy area there's 6 stations available including WISH-DT. Their OTA signal is very good though they do tend to stretch the 4:3 images to 16:9 on upconverted material. The people tend to get a little wide... This at least is better then the stations that broadcast a non-standard size or use a non-linear stretch to get to 16:9. With WISH if you can control aspect ratio in HD you can get back to a correct 4:3 image. I can do this but have to down-rez to 480p :(.

Originally posted by Avian
Anyone here live in Bloomington? I've been thinking about HDTV STB for months and I just don't want to put up an antenna and get an STB if I'm not going to be able to watch all the Indy stations.

Any clue if the signals come down this far if I had a roof antenna put up?

Insight Communications is Offering ABC, CBS, HBO and Showtime in digital starting the 11th if you get a $10/mo box from them. But I don't want to do that because I'm a Directv subscriber.

Im in Bloomington and wonder the same. Anyone succesfully use a roof top antenna and a STB to get HDTV? It looks to me like we are a little to far away. On the bright side I am scheduled to get the Insight Cable HD Box next week:) Its only a $2 adder to my current package.

Guys,
I live in Spencer on the Monroe Co. line with a roof top antenna I get all the Indy DTV channels with 88 to 92 signal strength, also Terre Haute WTHI-DT 10 in the 40s to 50s and Vincennes WVUT-DT PBS ins the 70s. So you guys in Bloomington should be just fine.

Brad

I just got off the phone with Brad at WTIU PBS in Bloomington and he said they should be up and running some time next week with HD channel he also said they with multi cast during the day and pass on PBS-DT programming at night.

Brad

BRADH,

Thanks for the update on WTIU-DT, 14. I've sent them several emails but I've never received a response. I'll be watching for it and seeing how the reception is on the northside of Indy (58 miles).

Steve

Originally posted by flyin_frenchman
Hi All,

We're open to making adjustments on our aspect ratio. The 15:9 was chosen for a few reasons but we'd certainly like to hear your opinion.

My "non-answer" above was basically attempting to answering the questions of "why" the picture looks the way it does. I didn't get any follow up until I saw the posting on the forum.

Glad to field thoughts and criticisim from our viewers.

If there's enough of a unified response, I'm sure we'd consider changing the setting.

Regards,

Don Renollet
Chief Engineer
WNDY UPN23/DT32

Indianapolis


Per Don's recent post with some feedback from area viewers, yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I noticed that WNDY-DT, 32 was using the 4:3 aspect ratio for its programming. I don't know if this was a test or whether he has made a permanent change.

Also, yesterday afternoon I noticed that WFYI-DT, 21 was using three subchannels. 21-2 was a simulcast of ch. 20; 21-3 was PBS You ; and 21-4 was a simulcast of sister station WTBU-69.

Steve

Yes. I noticed the same thing Saturday night. Stargate SG-1 looked good on WNDY. Hopefully Enterprise will be in it's full 16:9 glory this coming Wednesday. Real shame UPN won't send Enterprise out in HD though.

Well I received my Insight Cable HD Box today. Channels are:

HD HBO East
HD Showtime
CBS HD Wish TV
ABC HD rtv 6
and CSPAN ??? Not sure if this is HD or some test channel.

Anyways picture is fantastic and I look forward to future additions in channels. Cost is $2 above the Digital TV packager per month. Right now it is setup with two Motorola boxes, however the installer said as soon as Insight receives some software updates they will consolidate all digital chanels to the new box.

Originally posted by cseyer
[B]Well I received my Insight Cable HD Box today. Channels are:

Cool! Let us know what is going on with the CSPAN channel, is it just widescreen or is it HD? I haven't heard any discussions of CSPAN being HD in my readings of the HDTV Programming forum here at avsforum.

Did they give you any idea when and what other HD channels they will be adding (ESPN, HDnet, Discovery, etc)?

Anyone heard if there are HD PVR Cable boxes in the works? Are there non-HD TiVo cable boxes anywhere out there now? DirecTV's HD progress has been pretty slow going. I'm ready for the HD DirecTiVo!!!

It will be interesting to see how Insight does at adding new channels. Any ideas why Insight wouldn't pass all the local digital channels through right now (NBC, WB, PBS, Fox)? Are they bandwidth limited like DirecTV is or do they have to pay for the right to use it?

Kevin

Keep us posted on insight I live in Spencer and they are rebuilding the cable system now. They told me the will offer it here as soon as there done. If they put on a few more channels I may dump D**.


Brad

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kwerner
[B]Cool! Let us know what is going on with the CSPAN channel, is it just widescreen or is it HD? I haven't heard any discussions of CSPAN being HD in my readings of the HDTV Programming forum here at avsforum.


CSPAN appears to be the normal cspan, 4:3 looks they are testing how to put the normal analog stations onto this box???? Ill try giving a tech person a call tommorow. The other 4 channels are definetly HD. When I ordered the CSR mentioned Discovery HD was something they were working on and other local channels. the sooner the better this is way cool! Watching Spiderman on HBO HD now it is fantastic!

I hooked up my Zenith 420 STB last night for the first time and noticed that 8-1 and 59-1 had no audio.

I am using the the optical coax output, this morning 8-1 had audio but still none on 59-1 is it me or the stations ?

I live in Anderson and seem to have good signal on all available channels overall the unit seems to perform well.

Thanks

It's the stations, I had the same problem.

Originally posted by Dave Hudson
I am using the the optical coax output, this morning 8-1 had audio but still none on 59-1 is it me or the stations ?

Same here, no audio during 24 last night on 59-1. Didn't notice or try 8-1.

I have noticed 59-1 having no audio for a few days. I thought it was kind of nice, really ;) .

I didn't try 8-1 last night, but I'm sure Tom will get it straightened out.

Ken

Originally posted by KBandy
I have noticed 59-1 having no audio for a few days.

Ken

I noticed the same situation last evening. I thought it was just a brief glitch, but after looking at the various posts at this site it is obvious that this has been going on for a number of hours(days). A short time ago I sent an email to Rick Poling at WXIN/WTTV to make sure he is aware of it. With all of us using various STB's sometimes the TV personnel are not aware of problems until we contact them. Thanks.

Steve

I just received an update from Rick on the audio situation at WXIN-DT. He reports that the problem was fixed this morning. It should be fine now.

Steve

Rick at WXIN has been pretty responsive. He's always seemed interested in keeping things running right.

I wish I could say the same for Paul Roehm at WRTV. I've never had audio on 25.2 but since they have audio on their RCA STB it must be my problem. He did inquire as to what STB I was using but no further response upon hearing I was using a HiPix. WRTV's signal usually runs ~80% here in Plainfield. Other than short outages like 59.1 I have audio on the other 5 (not counting the .2s, .3s etc) stations I receive.

Regarding audio on 25. Ever since I first fired up my Sammy 150, I have had "choppy" audio on 25-1, 25-2 has always been OK. I'm sure it is a Samsung problem, though because if I power down my STB and power back up it will be OK. It may take a few cycles, though.

Paul was pretty responsive when I first contacted him about the problem last summer.


Ken

Maybe I'm an isolated case...

I have the same problem with 25.1 for the first few seconds then it come in ok, I have rca dtc100.

Brad

I just wanted to comment that I liked the format it was broadcast in this past Wed night. All 4 sides had "bars" but it looked good - people not streched, etc. It was the best yet, IMO

I am getting no video from 13.1 this morning. Wanted to make sure I'm not the only one.

I have had no trouble with 13.1 this morning other than a couple audio drop outs..

Im wondering if anyone else is having the same ghosting problem I'm having on 13.1. While watching it sometimes the feed seems to be interupted with another feed for a few seconds. The picture changes along with audio then everything goes back to normal.

Anyone?

Fort Wayne now has two DTV stations (kinda) WFFT-DT 36-1 (FOX 55) has test bars up but running low power as of tonight and must be pointed right on or no signal.

Thanks for the update. I still waiting on WTIU 30 to turn on there dtv channel after they said they were going to the first on may I will keep looking for it.

Brad

Hi,

I'm looking into adding HD to my setup. I live in Indy (northwest side of town) and I'm considering getting the Comcast HD service but with only 3 channels available it doesn't sound very attractive. What is my best bet as far as receiver for HD (make and model would be great)? I want something that can show all the HD channels available in Indy without breaking the bank. I use ebay all the time so you can also suggest older models :)

I'll be hooking up this receiver via component video to a Projector and to a receiver via the optical out for audio.

thanks!
Jorge

Jorge,
You might want to take a look at one of the computer card based solutions if you have a PC anywhere near the projector and if you are only looking at OTA HD. They usually have the additional benefit of being able to record a HD stream to the hard drive at about 9GB/hr. This let's you time shift and keep the picture quality equal to the broadcast.

The downside is they don't do DBS or HD cable. Also, since it is a computer the operation can be a bit tweakier to get every thing set up and working. There's loads of info on these in the HTPC forum.

I'm happy with my HiPix card but it appears to be obsolescent. I don't believe the card is being marketed anywhere and the software development team has been real quiet of late.

I have noticed Channel 6 being quite choppy lately.

The worst thing I have seen recently is Channel 13 and their broadcast of The West Wing. I realize it is just letter boxed and not HD but the OTA analog signal and OTA digital signal are over scanned beyond belief. I also have the same problems with the signal from DirecTV using my UltimateTV receiver. It is even worse when they run weather alerts...

Overall, remember we are now watching time shifted HD since Indiana doesn't switch time. If I remember, there were some glitches with this last summer too.

Rick Poling at WXIN/WTTV/WTTK had this comment in an email
today..............

"We're preparing to build WTTK-DT at Windfall at low power. It should
be on
the air by the end of July or so."


Apparently this is being done while the FCC reviews Tribune's request
to move WTTK-DT's tower site from the WTTK-29 tower in Windfall, IN to
the WXIN tower in NW Indy. I found the FCC info about the STA. It will
have 3.3kw. @ 500 ft.

MAX HD in Greensburg saw WTIU-DT, 14, Bloomington on the air this morning. Here at 6:30 p.m. I am not receiving it at all. Maybe the station is not ready for full-time operation, or maybe it's on the air and I'm too far away to receive it (58 miles).

Steve

This morning at 7:56 I caught WTIU-DT, 14, Bloomington, back on the air. Living on the northside of Indy near Carmel, 58 miles from the WTIU tower, I was barely able to lock in a signal. Between the distance and their directional antenna, this will be a hit or miss DTV station for me.

Any other reception reports on this new station?

Steve

I have a question about the DTV channel 45 -2 (or channel 59-2) WTTV-DT.

recently I noticed that WTTV-DT (45-2) is stretched only (even when "Everwood" and "Smallville" on)... wonder any policy change resulted in that?

would appreciate it if you could provide some insight.

thanks.

(unfortunately, I couldn't pick up DTV 53 (as I live on the N.W. side of Indy))

Very, very annoying that channel 6 is having choppy audio problems during the NBA Playoffs. Is anyone else having the same stutter problems?

WISE-DT 19-1 on the air in Fort Wayne (old call WKJG-33) they have a very good signal in SW Fort Wayne. You High Gain directionals outside 60 miles should get this one. And I'm sure most of you know WFFT-DT 36-1 (FOX 55) is running regular programming now.

Originally posted by Randy J Mays
WISE-DT 19-1 on the air in Fort Wayne (old call WKJG-33) they have a very good signal in SW Fort Wayne. You High Gain directionals outside 60 miles should get this one. And I'm sure most of you know WFFT-DT 36-1 (FOX 55) is running regular programming now.

Thanks for the update Randy.Do you know what their hours of operation are,and power levels? Probably won't see them tonite as conditions are poor,but hopefully in the near future when conditions are more favorable.I've already picked up Dt-40 over a very strong WHMB-40,so these two ought be a piece of cake.

Been a longtime visitor, first time post. Recently bought a HD200. Cannot get WRTV Channel 6 in HD for two nights. (Not happy that I missed Game 3 of the NHL playoffs) on Saturday. I have over 90% signal strength on that channel. The STB displays the channel as 25.1 however I only see the top half of the program the bottom half is all garbled. The STB picks up the audio in DD5.1 and transmits it fine. The STB maps 6.1 however it has no signal. It also maps 25 and 25.2. 25 comes in as nothing and 25.2 is the WRTV news. The weird thing is that 25 shows a program schedule (like religious programming) and everything else shows "regular schedule".

All the other HD channels work fine (but, I cannot find WTTV yet, analog has always been tough), get strong signal on WTHR, WISH, WFYI...

Things I have tried:

1.) Connected rabbit ears direct. No change.
2.) Different format mode. Tried them all no change.

Any thoughts? Me or the TV station?

I live on the west side of town and have trouble with WRTV as well. In order to get it consistently I have to redirect my antenna which causes me to loose other stations. I can get 44, 45, and 32 at around 98 on the signal meeter. 9 comes in around 82 and 25 depends on the day.

I tried to catch the game on sat but was getting zero signal on 25. I don't know if they were having serious issues or my antenna was just way off.

WTTV might be coming in on 59.2, thats where I get it.

Gee, I'm not aware that WRTV has mapped itself to 6-1 and 6-2 for many months now. Has it been a while siince you've done a thorough re-scan?

Also, on the set-top-boxes here (different brand), they will sometimes garble the bottom half of the screen. Fix is to turn the box off for 10 seconds. Note that this is on boxes that we have on 24/7/365.

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Hey tom if you need anyone to test signal in bloomington you could hook me up with a reciever :) heh I really wish HD recievers weren't so expensive.

Ok I'm trying to watch the NHL game tonight and am getting very frustrated. My signal meeter for 25 will hit as hight as 98 and maintains a level of around 94 but then it drops to 40 or even goes to zero for a second or two then comes back up to the 90's.

My antenna is in my attic and nothing is external that would be shifting in the wind. My other channels are not seeing the dramatic shift in signal strength, although WISH is kinda low.

Is anyone else seeing that kind of signal fluctuation tonight?

fgr41,
I'm no expert but that sounds like multipath. I haven't been watching HD tonight since I can only wish SciFi was available that way so haven't observed your issue today. I did fight the same thing until I got my current attic antenna location. WRTV is a particular problem for this. Seems like weather changes can cause it too. It doesn't have to be your antenna moving but anything in between you and the transmitter, trees, airplanes etc.

From what I understand the signal meter on a HD reciever isn't strength but quality. Multipath increasing the error rate can give those kinds of drops in level. It can be really frustrating to solve.

Originally posted by Les Auber
fgr41,
I'm no expert but that sounds like multipath. I haven't been watching HD tonight since I can only wish SciFi was available that way so haven't observed your issue today. I did fight the same thing until I got my current attic antenna location. WRTV is a particular problem for this. Seems like weather changes can cause it too. It doesn't have to be your antenna moving but anything in between you and the transmitter, trees, airplanes etc.

From what I understand the signal meter on a HD reciever isn't strength but quality. Multipath increasing the error rate can give those kinds of drops in level. It can be really frustrating to solve.

Is there anything that will help me aim the antenna to optimize the signal?

I figured I would come home yesterday and the problem with WRTV would still be there and I would miss the NHL game. To my surprise, everything worked. I saw my first HD hockey game last night. Don't know what happened, I didn't do anything but I was extremely happy about it.

Maybe it was the 10 second rule, but I am kind of doubting it.

I checked WTTV on channel 59.2 and sure enough it was there. Thanks.

I bought my STB on Saturday so it has been recent. 6.1 is displayed but has no signal.

MAX HD,

Your question "Do you know what their hours of operation are,and power levels?" WISE-TV 33 DT 19-1 is up the full broadcast day but I could not get a response from the head engineer on the power output. (voice mail only and they won't call back)

fgr41,
Maybe the experts have a way to get an antenna right the first time but I sure don't know it. Like I said it's frustrating with trial and much error at least for me. I started off playing with rabbit ears and then a radio shack double bow tie in the living room. No matter what I did there I could only get one or two stations at a time no matter how it was aimed. I got semi-lucky when I put an antenna in the attic. The location turned out ok but I almost wore the ladder out going up and down tweaking the azimuth. Even now I'll have a station drop out occaisionally like you described. WRTV is particularly bad in this respect and it comes back in with me doing nothing in a day or so.

I have no clue if it's something they're doing at the tranmitter site or something in between. I do know the RS double bow tie I'm using is borderline for my location.

One thing you might try is www.antennaweb.org. When you feed in your address it will give you the correct azimuth for the stations from your location. This is at least a good starting point for aiming. If it is multipath a different location in your attic may be better.

A more directional antenna may help also since they are less sensitive to off axis reception. If there's an sure fire method of antenna selection I've never heard it. What works in one place may fail in another under what appears to be similar.

Hopefully one of the station engineers that actually understand RF propogation and other arcane arts chimes in here if I'm too far off on anything.

Could someone tell me where I could find a listing of all the HDTV stations in Indianapolis or provide me with the station numbers. Could someone also explain how the station numbering works such as 59-1, 13-2, etc. Sorry if this seems very basic but I am new to the game. Thanks.

I have some info here: http://www.itesla.com/indyhd

Other than that take a look at all the FAQ's in these forums.

Here is a web page for the whole state www.100000watts.com/tv/IN.html


Brad

Quick west side (Eagle Creek area) DTV question... Is VHF at all important for central IN digital TV reception, or is only UHF needed? I want to try a Zenith Silver Sensor, which is UHF only. Anybody done this?

Thanks,
Todd/Indy

If you want to watch CBS, VHF is important. WISH DTV is channel 9. I wish they would make all the DTV stations UHF so I could buy a big UHF antenna instead of a medium VHF-UHF combo. CBS in Lafayette is VHF 11 too.

Thanks... Interesting--my brother has the Silver Sensor and he tells me he gets WISH just fine with it. Is this possible? Or will a "UHF only" antenna like the Silver Sensor sometimes reach into the upper VHF band?

Todd/Indy

I'm using a RS double bow tie UHF antenna for the Indy stations, WISH included. Works fine. Don't know if this translates to the larger UHF only antennas or not.

I just switched from using my Samsung 151 to Insight today. I live in Lafayette, and haven't been able to get great signals from over the air. Wife was fighting me on putting up the Antenna on the roof instead of the attic. So I gave up and droped DTV and chose to get Insight (have cable modem already).

I don't really like haveing two seperate boxes, especially now I have to use 2 Digital inputs on my reciever. And the fact only have 4 channels. CBS, ABC, HBO and SHO. But hopefully they get some more HD channels in the future.

Anyone else using Insight in Indiana? Good bad?

Now to find a guide on what HBO and SHO are broadcasting in HD.

Shane

Within maybe 10 miles of the transmitter, I wouln't be at all surprised to see a UHF antenna pick up enough of VHF to make your sets work. It's a horribly inefficient process but at that close, there's lots of signal so even a lot of inefficiency is OK.

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

I noticed this evening that WTIU-DT, 14, Bloomington (PBS), is finally back on the air. I have not seen it for almost three weeks. I believe the station had some interference issues to resolve.

I am 58 miles from their tower and although their analog signal on ch. 30 is very poor at my location tonight, the digital signal is fairly strong and stable. I'm seeing a few dropouts. 14-1 is the PBS-HD loop and 14-2 is the regular analog feed.

Steve

Thanks Steve,

I will try it tonight Iam only 20 miles or so from the tower but have not caught them on the air yet. Are they mapping the dtv to 30-1 and 30-2?

Thanks
Brad

Originally posted by BRADH
Thanks Steve,

I will try it tonight Iam only 20 miles or so from the tower but have not caught them on the air yet. Are they mapping the dtv to 30-1 and 30-2?

Thanks
Brad


Brad,

WTIU-DT was not on the air this morning, at least prior to 8:15. Apparently the station is still testing and making adjustments. Emails to the station in the past have gone unanswered.

As for remapping to ch. 30, I can't answer that question. Because I enjoy occasional DTV DXing, I don't use that feature on my STB. I have it turned off. When looking for new DTV's, I find it very confusing to use the remapping feature.

Have you or anyone else heard any recent news about WTBU-DT, 44 or WIPX-DT, 27?

Steve

Steve,
I haven't heard anything on WTBU-DT OR WIPX-DT. I have called WTIU and spoke with Brad a few times but he has nothing really to say. I will watch WFYI.

Brad

The antenna for WIPX has just been installed and the transmitter is being installed.

I am CE of the Pax station in Grand Rapids Mi and speak with their CE on a regular basis.

I would expect WIPX-DT in the very near future.

Dick Castanie
CE WZPX Battle Creek/Grand Rapids
NTSC 43 DTV 44

I see another local has thrown their DT hat into the ring.WTWO DT-36-1 with a nice stong signal of 75-80 on the DTC-100 @ 103mi..Can't quite get WTHI DT-24-too much WCVN DT from Cincy.Already logged it anyway.Good regional signals tonite.Chicago,Detroit,Cleveland,etc.Not much new though.

Congratulations to WTWO!

DTV # 102 logged

GregB

Earlier today I chatted online with Rick Poling at WXIN/WTTV/WTTK. Here's some updated info from Rick........


"We are busily gathering what we need to build WTTK-DT at Windfall (temporary
low power). Should be on by end of July.

Also, I am increasing the power on WXIN-DT this week, gradually. I should
be done by Friday evening. We will be off the air for awhile Friday
afternoon to retune and recalibrate and make it all legal." .....................


WXIN-DT is licensed to go from 200 kw. to 745 kw.

Steve

Steve, has anything in your past discussions with Rick indicated that they are aware of their high-chroma/breakup problem, or intend to look into it? It's the issue similar to what Tom Weber fixed at WISH a while back. Reds are most sensitive, but any bright color that displays at an unusually high chroma level causes at least some pixelization, if not complete signal dropout.

DirectorBoy,

Thanks for bringing up the high-chroma/breakup problem with WXIN-DT. I forgot to mention that to Rick yesterday, so I passed your message to him this afternoon. I'll let you know what the response is. It might be a few days as I know he is very busy right now with the WXIN-DT transmitter and building the new WTTK-DT facility.

Steve

Originally posted by DirectorBoy
Steve, has anything in your past discussions with Rick indicated that they are aware of their high-chroma/breakup problem, or intend to look into it? It's the issue similar to what Tom Weber fixed at WISH a while back. Reds are most sensitive, but any bright color that displays at an unusually high chroma level causes at least some pixelization, if not complete signal dropout.


Here's Rick's reply:


Steve -

The answer is yes. The problem is our microwave from the studio to the
transmitter carries both analog and digital on the same system, and the high
color bleeds over into the digital and wipes it out.

We are going to solve it when we move to our new studio in December. From
the new building, the digital and analog microwaves will be separate
systems, because of that very problem. I pushed hard for that setup, and
it's going to cost a little more money, but the results will be worth it.

Rick

If you are already on Rick Poling's email list at WXIN-DT you have already seen this email that was sent out late Friday afternoon..........................


"To all of you who have expressed an interest in WXIN's DTV signal:

Just a quick note to let you know that we have increased our power from
200kW to 700kW. This is the maximum we are allowed by the FCC. This is a
process that was begun on Monday and increased gradually until today. Also
note that we were off the air about 3 hours this afternoon to officially
recalibrate all the meters on the transmitter to the new levels.

Those of you who keep track of such things might want to check your signal
level and see if it went up. Also, some of you out on the fringe may
actually be able to get us better, with less dropouts than before. And,
there might be a few out on the edge that can get us now that couldn't
before. Please reply to this message with any reception reports."

Thanks.

Rick Poling
RF Supervisor
WTTK-TV 29
WTTK-DT 54
WTTV-TV WB 4
WTTV-DT 53
WXIN-TV FOX 59
WXIN-DT 45

................Send reception reports to RPoling@Tribune.com


Thanks, Rick, for upgrading the signal and for keeping your DTV viewers informed......

Last evening I noticed that the signal was much stronger at my house (5 miles from the tower). I was able to rotate my outside antenna almost 100 degrees off target before I noticed any big drop in signal and corresponding dropouts. With the station's lower power I had to be within a few degrees of their tower for good reception.

Steve

I have been having a lot of problems lately with audio dropouts and pixelation with a few of my channels. I am using a Hughes E86 with a rooftop mounted multi directional antenna with a amp. I was getting 100% signal on all of my locals. I have been using this setup for about the past two weeks without a problem. However during the last couple of days I have been having problems with 8-1 breaking up so bad that it is unwatchable. PBS 20-1 and a couple of my other locals are also ocassionaly doing the same thing. Then weather is perfectly calm tonight. Anyone have any ideas.

Everything seems to be better now for the moment. No problems with any of the other channels. This seems to happen occasionally. Dont know if it is a STB problem or something else. The weather is perfectly calm tonight so I can rule that out. Usually I have problems with 8-1 while watching the price is right in the morning. This has been happening the past couple of days. My wife has also been griping about problems with the locals in the evening. Please feel free to chime in. Thanks.

Matthew,

What you're experiencing is normal signal propagation levels that are common during this time of the year.In the morning hours till noon and in the evening just before dark till around 10pm or so,distant stations will try to share your viewing pleasure on the channels you are trying to watch.

The only way to combat this problem is to use a highly DIRECTIONAL antenna w/rotor to minimize the interference.

Your elevation is around 200ft lower than Indy.That doesn't help your situation either.

The culprits fritzing DT-21 and DT-9 is likely WBNA-21 Lou,Ky,or WPTA-21 Ft Wayne and WCPO-9 Cincy,Oh.

This really had and I guess still has me a little freaked out.

How long can I expect this to occur? Will it get better as the summer goes on? I never noticed any problems with 20-1 until last night. 8-1 has usually been the worst of all the stations.

My antenna is mounted approximately 10 foot above the roof on my one story house with a clear shot to the north to Indy.

Originally posted by MatthewH
This really had and I guess still has me a little freaked out.

How long can I expect this to occur? Will it get better as the summer goes on?

Well,as a Dxer I hope it lasts forever,and gets a lot worse.

*****JUST KIDDING*****

OK,by the numbers:

What's your distance to the Indy towers?
What's the make and model # of your antenna/preamp?
How high is the antenna from the ground?

BTW,I noticed a low signal on WFYI DT-21 this morning with some drops.But,the reason for this was WBNS DT-21 Columbus,Oh was blasting in from 134mi to the east of here with a great drop-free signal.Actually had them both in by turning the antennas,which is pretty rare,as they[DT stations] usually cancel each other out,and neither one is received.

MAX HD

Sorry it took so long to reply back, work has been really crazy. I am going to have to measure the height of my antenna. I would estimate it at around somewhere around 40 feet above the ground. I will get up there tomorrow and measure.

As for the make and model of the antenna/preamp, I am not exactly for certain. It came with the house that we bought. The antenna is pretty big. Again, I will attempt to get up on the roof and see if I can get any information.

As for my distance from the Indy towers, I live north of Columbus about 1 mile from the Shelby/Bartholomew County Line.

My wife said that she was again have dropouts and pixelation problems tonight with most of the channels especially 59-1 which was what she watching. I got home around 10:00 p.m. and watched part of CSI on 8-1 and had no problems on any of the channels. It looks like 10:00 is the magic time that things stop acting up.

I will try to get some more specific answers to your questions and post them tomorrow.

Thanks Again.

Originally posted by MatthewH
Everything seems to be better now for the moment. No problems with any of the other channels. This seems to happen occasionally. Dont know if it is a STB problem or something else. The weather is perfectly calm tonight so I can rule that out. Usually I have problems with 8-1 while watching the price is right in the morning. This has been happening the past couple of days. My wife has also been griping about problems with the locals in the evening. Please feel free to chime in. Thanks.

I have been having the same problems (however, I live closer to Indy in Fishers). I will have a very strong signal and then it will break up, particularly with the channels noted and 13-1. For some reason, UPN 23-1 never seems to be affected but the others are.

Sunday I had breakup with WXIN 59-1 watching the nascar race I have a signal of 94 the breakup was pretty bad.

Brad

I was having issues with the picture as well. Seemed to be more of a signal freakout due to the image being sent than the signal strength itself. It seemed to happen when they would change cameras or do replays. I think its more of a WXIN problem than ours.

I also noticed the same problems during the nascar race on 59-1.

I had the evening off tonight and had a chance to watch some television and did not notice any of the usual problems between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. that I had been having. Go figure.

Hey, folks.

We apparently looked at our HD encoder cockeyed today, and it decided to take offence and quit for a couple of hours. Finally had to reload its software and set it up again.

I -think- the lip sync is fairly close, but will gladly accept opinions for a few days and I'll dial it in.

Regards,
Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Concerning the announcement this week that FOX is gearing up to go HD, I received this reply from Rick Poling at WXIN..............................


Steve -

This will give us a good excuse to include that in
the new building, as the well-meaning but short-sighted people who designed
the new building layout didn't anticipate FOX going to HD anytime soon. I
wish we had known about this about 2 months ago.

FOX will also have to provide us some different equipment for reception, and
we don't know what that will be yet, so it will be kind of difficult to
design it in to the new building until we know what we need.

Rick

WISH-DT lost the power supply in our modulator Sat. morn. about 4 AM. Trying to get a power supply or a loaner modulator, but on a holiday weekend who knows?

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Tom I hope you get the mdulator but if you dont I still think WISH-DT is the HDTV channel we have best of luck.

Brad

Modulator is being shipped, but there's a day's delay in customs (coming from Toronto, Canada). Arrival anticipated on Mon. morn.

Tom

Hi Tom,
I don't know if you have control of this or not but is it possible to transmit 4:3 programing as 4:3? A lot of what I see on WISH-DT looks like 4:3 stretched to 16:9 with the picture geometry suffering in the process.

Also, I only get the left audio channel on 8.2 LWS. This may be me as my HiPix card does still have it's quirks even though the HiPix software team did banish many of them.
Thanks,

You know, I also would like to see the 4:3 pictures broadcast in 4:3. Just my $.02.

Ken

Tom,

All I've got to say is thank you. I'm new to the HD arena in Indy and I've been getting quite upset yesterday and today trying to get 8-1 to come in. In the previous four days your channels were awesome, so I couldn't believe that they were the only ones not coming in. Checking this posting saved me a lot of anger and fidgeting with my antenna! Thank you!

Modulator actually arrived this aft. so it's all back and on the air as of about 5 PM.

Regards,

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

LWS audio IS only transmitted on the left channel. Right channel is tones for the cable companies to start and stop their commercial insertions.

Comments re: aspect ratio will be forwarded to the guy who sets policy <g>.

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Tom,
Please, please, please try to advocate using the correct 4:3 aspect ratio on NTSC material!!! Frankly, I find the distorted image to be almost impossible to view, and even default to viewing the NTSC signal (being saddened when I know that the image could be so much better.) Even when I use one of my tuners that support changing the aspect ratio, the extra steps needed to correct the results of an unfortunate policy decision shows the results of misguided decision processes. I understand the issue of plasma display burn-in, but it should be the responsibility of the display device itself to avoid self-inflicted damage.

I sure hope that the decision isn't being made because of the notion of a 'full screen' shows more detail, or filling the screen looks more 'professional' (NOT!!!)

The aspect ratio change is most ludicrous for local commercials!!! Even if the daytime policy might be 'fat mode', it is worst for prime-time commercial inserts, because they look horrible during the obvious change from BEAUTIFUL CBS network images to the visually softer, upconverted fat-mode stuff. A local example might be WXIN, which seems to do 4:3 once in a while, and find that their digital signal of NTSC material is almost always
superior.

Otherwise, you guys at WISH seem to be doing better and better with your HDTV stuff, and perhaps 2/3 of my prime time TV viewing is on CBS. One of the major reasons for sampling CBS shows at the beginning of the seasons is that CBS is the most likely network to do a damned good job of HDTV.

John

Has noticed that WTIU-DT 30 hasn't been on the air lately when it was I had a 90+ strength just wondering.

Brad

Are the digital PBS stations still up?

I was getting the PBS HD loop, then the storms came through and moved my antenna, I just moved it into position, (220 degrees) but I can't get 20-1 or 20-2.

I have 82% signal strength on 20.


Is it just me?????

:)

I am watching 20-1 now. Great Tom Petty concert on.. Crystal clear. Channel 20-2 coming in also.

Originally posted by Buckster1959
I am watching 20-1 now. Great Tom Petty concert on.. Crystal clear. Channel 20-2 coming in also.


Thanks Buck.....

I don't know what the problem is, I figure 82% on 20 should let me pull them in. Just get weak signal message and no info on the channel banner. :(

Can't for the life of me figure out how to get signal strength on the channels like 20-1, 23-1, etc.... No problem getting signal strength on regular channels like 8, 20, etc...

Well, they are back up tonight. :) Antenna still in the same position.

Must have been a falicipator shorting out or something.:D

Might have just been an over abundance of alpha particles, aka sun storm.

I was flipping around bored out of my skull and looking for something to test out my system on when I tuned to 20.1 WFYI. They were playing the Tom Petty concert and all I could do was turn it up.

I was blown away by the video and audio quality. The only thing that wasn't superb was the audio sync. I think the audio was about .4 sec slow.

Over all I have to say that was the best OTA HD broadcast I have seen, both for audio and video. Stunning work WFYI, keep it up.

WTTK-DT 54, Kokomo (tower in Windfall) should be on the air this coming week. Rick Poling passed along this information today.

Steve

That's great news about the Kokomo transmitter. Now let's hope they'll be able to pass/time-shift the HD signal for the WB's new HD fall programming. (I've been assuming the time change in April is why they stopped, but I don't know that for a fact.)

What channel will it be?

Has WB been working for anyone on 45.2 lately?

The broadcast channel will be 54. 45.2 has been working fine for me, except for a few days a week or two ago when it was out. Haven't checked it today, though.

Hi all,

Somewhat unusual inquiry for an unidentified reception of Spanish audio on Ch 50 from central or northern Indiana,maybe even lower Mich.

I heard this on 8-01-02 around 10:30 pm,and heard it one other time I can't remember just when.Another Dxer from Ill also heard this a couple of days ago.

Has anyone "seen or "heard' of this station?

Thanks

Greg B

MAX HD
I did once a week or so ago I will check again to see what channel it was on I thought it was a lower one for me.

Brad

This morning I noticed that WTTK-DT 54, Kokomo is on the air. It appears that the engineers are still tweaking the station. There is no video for the WTTV feed at the moment but the subchannel feeding WXIN is fine. I am 29 miles from the tower in Windfall and I'm currently receiving a fairly strong signal. (STA.....3.3 kw. omni-directional @ 152 m.)

Steve

Paul Roehm at WRTV reports that according to an ABC internal website, tonight's Packers/Chiefs game is supposed to be in HD with surround sound instead of 5.1.

Steve

WOW!!! That will be cool to see MNF in HD. Is that going to be all season?

Originally posted by KBandy
WOW!!! That will be cool to see MNF in HD. Is that going to be all season?

Yes, MNF on ABC is scheduled to be in HD this season. I was not sure whether any of the preseason games would be in HD until I got this email response from Paul. Network programming in HD certainly seems to be moving forward.

Steve

Too bad the game is not in "wide-screen" mode. Great picture , but a waste.. Bummer! was looking forward to it.. The Super Bowl looked great however.....

Looks like I was wrong.... Widescreen mode now.. Looks Great!

Hey all....just recently switched from Comcast to Direct Tv and on the advice of a friend went with the HD receiver and dish. Wow, so I am amazed by the Direct Tv HD channels and I come across this forum and alot of talk about over-air HD channels.....at first I just dismiss it thinking there was some special equipment I needed or it would be too much trouble. As I continue to read about it, and chat with an avs forum regular I see it is very possible for me to aquire these channels. I talked to a friend of mine...a dish network subscriber and he is also amazed by what I tell him about being able to receive HD channels over an antenna. Him not wanting to be outdone goes out the same weekend and purchases an HD Direct Tv receiver and dish and a Terk 55 antenna. Is having the Direct Tv dish installed this weekend. He calls me up today and tells me what he has found. He was able to receive the over air hd channels with the Terk 55 sitting on top of his TV. I couldn't believe it.....so I went out today and "got me one of them terk 55s" Well...initially I was very discouraged, I scanned the over air channels with my reciever, picked up a bunch, but they looked like crap. I got a long coax cable and even dragged the terk outside moving it around like an idiot while my wife told me if it was better or worse :) The kids had no idea what was going on :) So I laid in bed preparing myself to mount this thing outside the next day...but wondering if I had mad a mistake because I had the thing outside and I was not seeing these amazing channels my friend and others spoke of. I jump out of bed at 3am to move the stuff to the basement so the kids don't mess with it in the morning but I try one more thing. Under scan type I see digital.....hmm, as I am running down to the basement to grab the antenna I think "yeah, that may have been my problem!!" I hook it back up, scan for digital channels and yeehaa!! I have HD channels over air :) It only says it finds 5 but in my guide I have about 10 :) Some say DTV but most say HD and they all have this #-# channel numbers I have been seeing in this thread. At any rate, my long story short I got it to work, and want more :) My signal for the over air channels I get is 93%, would I gain any channels by moving this thing to the attic over my garage? Also, is there a channel listing for Indy over air channels we should get? I would also like to know the location of the antennas if that info is anywhere. Sorry for the story, but I was kinda excited about my revelation and how it came about :)

Bill Kennedy

Welcome to the new TV!

Glad things are working out for you. I was using the 55 as well but found it to be well below par. It just didn't have the strength I needed, living in Avon. I opted to get a channel master mast antenna from Lowe's, put it in my attach and slapped an amp on it. BADA BING!

If you are looking to find out what channels are broadcasting and from where check out antenna web (http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.asp). For an online listing of what is going to be on, the best one is Titan TV (http://www.titantv.com).

Glad the Terk55 is working for you, and welcome to all that is HD in Indiana.

Originally posted by wkennedy
Hey all....
...
My signal for the over air channels I get is 93%, would I gain any channels by moving this thing to the attic over my garage? Also, is there a channel listing for Indy over air channels we should get? I would also like to know the location of the antennas if that info is anywhere. Sorry for the story, but I was kinda excited about my revelation and how it came about :)

Bill Kennedy


Welcome Bill! I have a webpage setup listing everything I get up here in Kokomo: www.itesla.com/indyhd (http://www.itesla.com/indyhd)

antennaweb.org (http://antennaweb.org) will show you what direction all the towers are from your house and what type antenna is best for you. Most of the towers are on the northwest side of Indy, so that's probably the direction you want to aim it.

Thanks guys, I was quite excited to get it all working. As far as antenna pointing, it looks as though the attic over my garage is facing Northwest so I think it can only get better if I move it up there. If I can get the channels I am now with it in the corner behind my tv I am thinking I will get at least those if not more by moving it :)

Bill

What are the folks in the Anderson/Muncie areas using to successfully recieve the Indianapolis area stations? I'm taking the plunge and live out in the country between A and M. No major obstructions, just a few large trees.---Thanks for any Info.

I tried a large RS omnidirectional antenna but I can't get WISH at all and others are rough.

Murv,

I am having good luck with the Terk 55. I live on the SE side of Indy though so my location may have more to do with it than antenna selection.

Bill

Hmmm.... had a hiccup with WISH-DT last night, got it somewhat better by 10 PM, but really fixed only this afternoon.

Anyone have problems last night 8P-10P, or even until this afternoon?

I thought I'd see an inquiry here!

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Sorry Tom,

Been too busy with school to watch TV this week. Have to say the coverage of the race was right on this past weekend. When are they going to be doing time in HD?

Hi Tom,

Lost your signal around 8:45 Monday night and was still out at 10, but everything was fine Tuesday evening. Noticed that LWS was also out on Noblesville Insight cable on Monday evening. Perhaps they receive via digital OTA.

Originally posted by goldrich
This morning I noticed that WTTK-DT 54, Kokomo is on the air. It appears that the engineers are still tweaking the station. There is no video for the WTTV feed at the moment but the subchannel feeding WXIN is fine. I am 29 miles from the tower in Windfall and I'm currently receiving a fairly strong signal. (STA.....3.3 kw. omni-directional @ 152 m.)

Steve

Is WTTK on the air still? Are they doing the WB HD shows?

kwerner,

I haven't had much extra time to watch tv this week but the last I checked, about two days ago, it was still on the air. I have not seen any WTTV (WB) programming on the air. They must be having a problem with that subchannel (54-1), or else my STB is not seeing it, but I'm getting subchannel 2 just fine with WXIN (Fox) programming.

Steve

I'm having a devil of a time getting OTA in downtown. I'm in Woodruff Place, right next to Tech High School, on the VERY neasr-east side.

AntennaWeb is reporting that most of the Indy networks stations are in the 'Red' zone and NW of me. An outdoor antenna is non-trivial since Woodruff Place is a historic neighborhood.

Is anyone else downtown able to pull in the mayor Indy stations with either an indoor or a non-mast (stealth, dish clip-on) outdoor antenna? What are you using?

Just how far away are the towers from downtown?

Most of the transmitters seem to center around 79th and township line road near St. Vincent's hospital. Try antennaweb.org to get a compass bearing for directing your antenna. P.S. you have a private email.

Does nayone know if the Terk 55 is directional? I guess I could checlk the box but I am sitting here at work and thought I would ask real quick :) Is it better to mount it vertical or horizontal..or does it matter.

Bill

I was thinking it was directional but I may be wrong.

I was thinking you should mount it horizontally but I may be wrong.

I tried it and didn't have great luck so now its in my garage as an FM antenna. For my needs it was a waist of $, I had to get a mast antenna.

Hmm, I am getting very good results with it mounted in my attic over the garage. A couple of the channels have signals in the 60s but most are in the 90s. I was just curious if I would gain anything by mounting it vertically.

Always want more...more...more!! :)

Bill

Well, I am going to try posting this here to see what kind of response I get... I have had a DISH 6000 for quite some time, but just recently had an off air antenna installed. What I am getting is very impressive. I get most all of the digital station signals from Indy, 4, 6, 8, 13, 20, 42 and 59. All of these come in with over 85% signal strength. I even get some stations from Louisville (2 and 32).

My one big complaint is that I get the best analogue picture from 23/WNDY/UPN, but I get basically no singal from their digital station. Ever now and then I get a bouncing signal up to 67% and then nothing again. I have tried rotating the antenna and still get the same results.

I have a Winegard HD7084P. I would think that if I get a great analogue signal that the DT signal would be good enough. My only question would be the power at which WNDY-DT is transmitting.

I have not tried to get the Terre Haute stations, yet... Are they on the air?

Wil

WilEAdams,

WNDY-DT 32 is at maximum power, 1000kw., but it does utilize a directional antenna from the tower just north of Noblesville, near Strawtown. You can check out the configuration of the signal pattern at this website http://www.fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?sCurrentService=TV&tabSearchType=Appl&sAppIDNumber=616116

Another thing to keep in mind with this particular station and your location is that analog station WLKY, 32, Louisville covers a large area of Southern Indiana. Besides WNDY's directional signal, you might also be experiencing some interference from time to time from WLKY's signal. This seems to be quite common in some overlapping coverage areas. For example, if you live between Indy and Cincinnati, like Greensburg, it can be difficult to receive WISH-DT 9 and/or WCPO 9 (analog), Cincinnati.

As for Terre Haute, there are only two DTVs on the air at the moment, WTHI-DT 24 and WTWO-DT 36. Both are currently operating at low power, so it might be difficult for you to receive them. I recently read that the owners of WBAK, 38 (digital to be ch. 39) have filed for another extension with the FCC. The station claims it is for financial reasons.

Steve
Indy

Thanks for the information!

I am now pretty much sure that WLKY is the culprit, as it comes in very strong in this area. As for Terre Haute, I only get about a 26% signal strength for both WTHI-DT 24 and WTWO-DT 36. So, I hope that improves once and if they go full power.

I've got good news for Lafayette, IN residents -- For those who subscribe to Insight's HD offerings -- We're going to be getting HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD, and ESPN HD in mid-September. They were originally slated to be released July 1, but some head end problems delayed the channels. Well, can't wait 'til mid-september!

Is WLFI-DT CBS in Lafayette HD capable? My friend is having trouble getting CBS Indy so using Lafayette is an option, but WLFI doesn't even appear to be HD.

Originally posted by SlickVik
I've got good news for Lafayette, IN residents -- For those who This should go for Kokomo too correct? I think we are in the Lafayette area.

Originally posted by kwerner
Is WLFI-DT CBS in Lafayette HD capable? My friend is having trouble getting CBS Indy so using Lafayette is an option, but WLFI doesn't even appear to be HD.


So far WLFI-DT is not setup for HD. Supposedly they have been in the process of converting but it hasn't happened yet. Last year the word was that it would be in by the first of the year (2003) and then the word was that it might be in by NCAA basketball tournament time. In the past I've contacted WLFI's C.E. through their website and I've also spoken to Tom Weber at sister station WISH. Maybe Tom will reply to these posts.

Steve

It's coming, but it's been a "the faster I go the behinder I get" kind of August.

Sigh

Tom Weber

Did anyone loose audio on WISH DT last night after CSI Miami ? I was watching MNF and switched over to CSI Miama during comercials. It was fine. However when the news came on there was no audio. I was watching via Insight HDTV in Greenfield.

Also Tom, could you share with us the breakdown of your digital channel bandwidth ? ie 19 mbs total how much goes the the main HDTV feed, and how much of that goes to the multicast channels?

Thanks!

Greg

While we're on the subject of WISH, tuning to any WISH subchannel has often been causing my Samsung STB to reboot, sometimes repeatedly. This seemed to start around the time the encoder died a few Mondays ago. Same problem also occurred back before the NCAA playoffs.

Roughly, HD runs at 16 Mbits, LWS at 2 Mbits, and radar at 0.5 Mbits. Audio and PSIP round out the rest.

Yeah, I'm having an issue with an audio device. It got reset when the early morning maintenance guy came in and noticed it.

I need to upgrade PSIP soon anyway to deal with Closed Captioning. Perhaps that will help with the STB reboots. That's the first I had heard of that in several months.

Regards,
Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Hey Tom,

What is the best thing to do to bump up the signal reception for WISH. I live in Avon and am pointing my antenna in as neutral a direction as I can to get all the channels. I can get a lock and strong signal on everything but WISH, I'm guessing because its on UHF/VHF don't know which but the opposite of everyone else in town. Would my assumption be correct, what can I try to boost my reception. I am using a channel master.

THANKS

WISH DT channel 9 is VHF. Is your channel master a combo (UHF and VHF)? The VHF part are the big wide elements (usually the back half of a combo). The UHF part is the section with a bunch of small elements and two little arms going up and down. Kind of hard to describe with words.

I'm up in Kokomo and have trouble with VHF-9 too. I wish they would all use UHF so we each could just buy a big UHF antenna (which would be much smaller than a combo).

Ok thanks for the info. Yes my channel master is a combo antenna. I thought the VHF/UHF were switched on the antenna, thanks for the info. I wish there was a way to aim the 2 independantly, is that possible?

I have a combo and a UHF only antenna joined with a "splitter/combiner":
http://www.itesla.com/hometheater/images/wiring.gif

Technically speaking, I don't know if it is recommended to do this. I know it helps me because at the moment my friend has my UHF and my reception of WFYI is way down. My combo is aimed almost due South, a little West. The UHF is aimed South South East to help with PBS and UPN.

There could be issues with one antenna cancelling out the signal from the other if they aren't aligned. If you dig through the forum you will find people "stacking" antennas which requires precise positioning of the two, but I think that's different than what we want.

You can give it a try at least, you can get a ~$20 UHF antenna and a cheap splitter from Radio Shack to play with.

Kevin,

What are you using as a combiner to combine the 2 UHF's together?

Thanks!

Greg

Originally posted by Gthompson What are you using as a combiner to combine the 2 UHF's together?Not sure exactly, just a cheap splitter like they sell at Radio Shack so you can split cable tv onto two tv's.

Has anything changed in the signals from WTHR and WISH? I can not see to pick them up the last couple of days. I have rotated my antenna and still am having troubles.

thanks,
Wil

WTHR is as strong as ever for me. WISH, I always have a problem with.

Tom,

Will WISHDT be showing the Patriots Eagles game in HD after the Colts game this sunday ?


Thanks!

Greg

Whether they show the HD game or not, it doesn't look like it will be after they show the Colts game. (Blackout city, here we come.)

Programming says yes, 3PM game will be HD and 5.1. Patriots/Eagles will be the only game on WISH - Colts are blacked out.

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Also - just got told this afternoon, don't forget SEC football on Saturday, also in HD.

Happy HD Football weekend!

Tom Weber,
WISH Engineering

Tom,

Just wanted to tell you that both Games looked great. Thanks for all you do!

Greg

I love the 10 minutes of HD football I have been able to watch this year. Someone please stop the every day madness so I can have time to watch an entire game!

I've been lurking for about 6 months on this thread now. I've noticed that it has become pretty quiet, especially compared to many of the other local threads. I assume that this is due to the high quality of digital signals in the area. For one, I'm thrilled to be able to get all the major networks with a simple attic setup. I've seen the troubles that others have, and we, for the most part, don't have them.

A guarded kudos to the Indy DTV stations. I'm happy with my service, but, as a newbie DTV nut, let me say, please don't rest on your laurels. Keep on being at the forefront!

Bakem


P.S. Can somebody get RTV to remap to 6-1 instead of 25-1?!?

P.S. Can somebody get RTV to remap to 6-1 instead of 25-1?!?

It seems like I read somewhere that WRTV will eventually abandon channel 6 due to a request/requirement to free up more spectrum for FM broadcast radio. So, after all of the analog stations complete the digital change-over, there will be no more "channel 6".

Can some one confirm that, or did I have a really weird dream?

Ken

25-1 maps to 6-1 on my Philips HD DirecTV box. 25-2 doesn't map to 6-2 though.

What about 59-2 WTTV? My friend (with Hughes box) and I are both having trouble with 45.2 disappearing from the channel list every night. Typing 45-2 brings it back and it immediately maps back to 59-2. Another friend with builtin HD Mits TV says it's not mapping to 59-2 at all for him.

Originally posted by KBandy
P.S. Can somebody get RTV to remap to 6-1 instead of 25-1?!?

It seems like I read somewhere that WRTV will eventually abandon channel 6 due to a request/requirement to free up more spectrum for FM broadcast radio. So, after all of the analog stations complete the digital change-over, there will be no more "channel 6".

Can some one confirm that, or did I have a really weird dream?

Ken


Ken,

No, you didn't have a really weird dream. Earlier this year I posted some comments from Paul Roehm at WRTV about this subject. In part, here's what he said about this at the time....................................................



"I don't know that an "official" decision has been made. But, there are a
couple of issues that we have considered. The FCC has allocated no channel
6 DTV stations, and has made noise about taking 82 to 88 mhz to expand the
educational FM band. So there may not be any 6 to go back to..............


When we built out the Digital system, we went on the air in September 1999
at our full licensed power (898kw) and we took the channel 6 antenna off the
top of the tower and replaced it with a channel 25 antenna. Then put a new
wrap-around channel 6 antenna below it.

As I said, no official decision has been made."

p:

Paul Roehm
WRTV, Indianapolis
paul_roehm@wrtv.com



As far as I know, nothing has changed since this post earlier this year. Maybe this is why most STBs don't remap to ch. 6. If I find out anything more on this subject I'll be happy to post.

Steve

WTTK-DT 54, Kokomo..............

Recently I've noticed that my RCA DTC100 receives both WTTV programming on 54-1 (29-1 remapped) and WXIN programming on 54-2 (29-2 remapped) while my Samsung SIR-T151 only receives the WXIN programming on 54-2 (29-2 remapped). The 151 recognizes 54-1 (29-1) but produces no video or audio. The screen is blank. A TV DXer in Illinois recently picked up this station with his Hauppauge WinTV-D tuner and saw the same blank screen on 54-1.

Is anyone else seeing this with WTTK-DT? If so, what brand and model of STB are you using. I'd like to give Rick Poling at WXIN/WTTV/WTTK some background information on this situation. Thanks.

Steve

Just an FYI for everyone. I have Insight Cable out of Noblesville (I live in the Greenfield area) and they turned on ESPNHD, Bravo HD+, HDNET, HDNET Movies, and DiscoveryHD. All for 7.99 a month. That gives me WRTV, WISH, WFYI, HBOHD, SHOHD and the channels listed above in High Definition. I highly recommend them for HD service if you are so inclined.

Greg

Thank Greg,

I live in Spencer close to Bloomington and have Insight cable I just have the basic cable I get HD from antenna and dss. I was waiting for them to offer more HD I hope its down this was I will give them a call.

Brad

Zotz!

Tuned in CSI on FRiday night and discovered that CBS is now sending their 3rd channel of audio as part of their Dolby E transmission. So, when I leave our audio encoder in 5.1 channel mode, you now get Left, Right, and, in the center channel, either the Video Description Service, or Spanish.

One more reason to get the 2-channel/5.1 channel switching hooked up to the sutomation, I guess.

This wasn't much of an issue until the HD football on weekends became 5.1 surround in the past couple of weeks.

(If they didn't change things, I wouldn't have a job....)

Tom Weber
WISH Engineering

Originally posted by Tom Weber
Zotz!

Tuned in CSI on FRiday night and discovered that CBS is now sending their 3rd channel of audio as part of their Dolby E transmission. So, when I leave our audio encoder in 5.1 channel mode, you now get Left, Right, and, in the center channel, either the Video Description Service, or Spanish.



At least it's nice that CBS communicates these tech issues to their affiliates;)

Ken

WISH Cleveland vs. SanFran football game is in DD5.1 but WISH has not switched from Pro Logic so we are not getting announcers. Wish I new a number to call and I would. Oh well maybe someone will get it flipped over.

Greg

DD 5.1 just switched on.

Greg

SF/CLE on CBS, is it just me or does this game look noticeably worse than last week's HD game? I've seen the image completely break up a couple times too. My signal strength is 80-90.

According to their programming schedule, WNDY-DT 32 will present the Colts/Saints Sunday night game in HD! For those of us who are currently not hooked up to ESPN-HD, this is great news. I have sent an email to CE Don Renollet for verification.

Also, while checking out their schedule, I noticed WNDY-DT will air one of my favorite movies, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" with John Candy and Steve Martin, in HD at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28 prior to the game.

Steve

Sorry.......False alarm.......Once again Titan TV has wrong information on its programming schedule for WNDY-DT 32. Apparently the Colts/Saints game on Sunday night will NOT be in HD on WNDY-DT. I received this reply from Don at WNDY...........


"We're only running the standard def version on UPN23/DT32."


Thanks for the feedback, Don. I thought I had read somewhere earlier this year that your station was ready to pass along HD programming as soon as HD programming was available. Obviously, I was wrong on that account.

Steve

I read somewhere (probably on this forum) that ESPN would only let local affiliates have the standard definition version of the Sunday night game, whether they wanted the HD or not.

Is the "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" info also incorrect?

I found the relevant thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=303258

Originally posted by Gabro Jay
I read somewhere (probably on this forum) that ESPN would only let local affiliates have the standard definition version of the Sunday night game, whether they wanted the HD or not.

Is the "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" info also incorrect?


Gabro Jay,

Thanks for the info about local affiliates simulcasting Sunday night football from ESPN. I did not know that ESPN-HD only offers the SD version to local affiliate stations. This is why WNDY-DT will not be able to present the Colts Sunday night game in HD, even though WNDY-DT 32 IS capable of passing HD broadcasts. CE Don Renollet provided some more info late this afternoon...........................................


"In HD, often the contractual becomes more of a limiting factor than the technical. We have the ability to air HD material. Once per month, we run the Paramount HD movie. In the case of ESPN, I believe they are very protective of their HD content right
now. I'm sure that in time, there will be more extensive HD offerings. We have the ability to switch between our upconverted SD material and real HD. It will just take time to build up an HD distribution network that is as capable as the SD network. These additional feeds require additional resources to handle."

............................................................ .................................


As for Sunday's movie, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," I believe it is part of WNDY-DT's Paramount HD movie package, so it should be in HD.

Thanks again to you and Don for your assistance. Now I think we've got this one figured out.

Steve

Is anybody else getting black screens on WTTV DT53 and WXIN DT45? I seem to only be getting black screens and nothing more on both DT53 (04-01 and 04-02) and DT45 (59-01 and 59-02).

Wil

Wil,

I don't have any problems with WTTV-DT 53 and WXIN-DT 45, but I have been seeing a blank screen with my Samsung SIR-T151 on WTTK-DT 54, subchannel 1, which offers WTTV programming. See my earlier post near the top of page 25. What brand and model of digital tuner are you using? Thanks.

Have you tried unplugging your tuner, waiting a few minutes and then plugging it in again? Let it reset and see if that makes any difference.

Steve

My relatively old analog 30" Toshiba died. To replace it, I bought a Mitsubishi 55" RPT HDTV. I live in the Broadripple area and have Brighthouse cable. I just got the HDTV cable box. I get CBS, PBS, HBO East and West in HD. Those stations work just fine.

It seems that there is a lot of HD broadcasting in the area. I have not bought an HDTV OTA tuner. Right now, cable is my only source for HDTV. My question is this: What is the timetable for Brighthouse to offer more HD programming? Any idea on when it will reach agreements with the other local network affiliates?

I want to avoid the expense of the OTA tuner, particularly if it will be unnecessary shortly due to increased cable offerings. I don't want to deal with putting an antenna on the roof or in the attic and trying to run a line down. My TV is in the basement, and my house is old.I could deal with a Zenith silver sensor type indoor if I had to. But I am afraid if I went that route, since my TV is in the basement, I might not even get reception if I bought the OTA tuner.

PFC,

Welcome to the world of HDTV! Thanks for the info on Bright House cable. I live near Carmel, where the cable supplier is Bright House, and I've recently been thinking about calling them to inquire about channels offered, price, etc. One day last year I called their office and when I asked about HD service, the customer rep. didn't have a clue about it. She then put me on hold to check for more details and after waiting almost 15 minutes I hung up! From your comments, they don't seem to offer much. For the last two years I've been using the RCA DTC100 for satellite and OTA reception.

At the moment it is rather difficult to answer your main question. From what I know about this, it is up to each individual station to negotiate a deal with the local cable company about carrying each station. As more and more HD-ready sets are sold I'm sure the pressure will start mounting against the cable company as well as each station that is not already online.

Keep us updated on your cable service in regards to how you like it, added stations, etc. Thanks..... By the way, regarding one of your comments, when I first got my receiver, my best reception of WXIN-DT 45 was with my antenna sitting on the floor in my basement!!!

Steve

Goldrich,

I will say this much in Brighthouse's defense:

In order to get Brighthouse HD service, one must have the HD capable digital cable box. I already had digital cable with a digital cable box. They had to swap out the cable box I had for the new one. Because I already had digital cable, and a cable box, the additional monthly price price for me to get HD? ZERO DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS!

The interesting thing is they would not let me bring my box in to let me switch it myself. They had to install it for me. After completely uninstalling it so that I could move the box to where I wanted it, and then reinstalling it, I don't exactly know why they had to come to do that. I suppose the cable guy might have had to go out to the box to tweak some things, but I don't know. I already had the guy schedule to come to install a cable outlet in my basement. I called them the morning they were going to come to add the outlet and told them that I had gotten an HDTV and would like the upgraded box. They said that they could install it when they came later that same day. So, the trip didn't cost me anything extra either. All in all, Brighthouse service in this regard was pretty positive. That is-- they gave the customer serve one would expect, but not beam about, were this any type of service other than a utility with a protected franchise granted by the city.


Now, Brighthouse does also offer HD discovery. I did not get the channel when I tried to tune it in. The reason why was not explained to me, but I am pretty sure I know why I don't get it. I only have the standard digital cable offerings. I did not get the digital expanded package with all of the various discovery channels and the DIY Channel, Fashion Channel, Sundance, etc. I assume that if I spring the additional 7.00 a month for the expanded package, I will get all of that, plus the HD discovery.

If I could just get Brighthouse to add ESPN HD (by Sunday night's Colts game, if its not too much trouble) and NBC HD (By Thursdays ER Premier, while you are at it), I would be a happy (okay, content) camper. (In case Brighthouse is reading this, it is fair to say that if only you were to add these two channels quickly, I promise I won't buy a satellite dish. I could wait for a while for the WB, ABC (at least until Next Monday's Colt's Tampa Bay game), and FOX (what's the deal with non HD wide screen broadcasting, anyway?). I can't make any promises if I have to break down and buy an OTA tuner. If I do get the OTA tuner, I can alway get that Terk antenna to go on my dish. All digital channels, not just some digital and some analog. Hmmm, . . . Brighthouse, care to share your thoughts before I make any hasty decisions?)