What's weird is that RetroTv lists them as an Affiliate.

http://www.myretrotv.com/affiliates.html#

As I recall, there had been an agreement at one time that never happened. I remember seeing a few affiliate announcements that later fell apart, but they remained listed on then-RTN's website for a while after.

- Trip

I have a DISH DVR pal and I have not received PSIP program info from WBUI for a long time. I do get PSIP from WBUI from other TV's I have tried at work but the PSIP for the DVR is what I want.

Have you tried rescanning it now that THIS is on - you need to do that first.
You might even need to rescan WITHOUT the antenna connected, THEN reconnect & rescan - some converters seem to need this to totally flush out old info.

I am also dissapointed WBUI added a movie network as I second channel. I do not like it. I was hoping for Retro TV. I thought that is that they were going to carry.

I 2nd that, too - but I guess it's better than ANOTHER weather sub... :rolleyes:

RTV's New York City affiliate, WSAH, is dropping them at the end of the month due to poor technical quality (lip sync problems, continuous reruns of the same episodes over and over, etc) and upset advertisers. I can't say I'd blame a local station for skipping out on affiliating with RTV given their current reputation.

While I'm posting, let me ask this. Is there anyone in the area who uses a 32-bit Windows computer with tuner to watch OTA digital TV? If not, is there someone who would be willing to try it with an existing antenna setup if I was to provide a loaner tuner via postal mail?

I'm looking for someone to collect TSReader captures on as many of the local stations as can be received. I know it's a large market and so I'm not expecting any one person to be able to receive everything.

Thanks.

- Trip

Any talks to get HD on Dish Network?


Also, one last thing, others have confirmed this but the higher ups did indeed finally make a deal with Direct TV to put WBUI on in HD.

Just got my UVerse service yesterday, and tonight the FoxHD feed is showing the pillar box. Not sure if it's UVerse related, or a FOX 55 issue. Anyone else noticing this on other services?

Just got my UVerse service yesterday, and tonight the FoxHD feed is showing the pillar box. Not sure if it's UVerse related, or a FOX 55 issue. Anyone else noticing this on other services?

Yes. This is an issue with U-verse receiving both WRSP and WCCU's Fox feeds. Anything broadcast and viewed on the WRSP HD feed appears to be pillar boxed.

If you move to WCCU - it should clear up the issue. It works 100% for me. Be wary if scheduling any DVR recordings that they use WCCU as well, had a few screwed up because of this.

the pic quality on WBUI HD is not bad, but it is not good. it is now passable for those with average TVs or expectations, but it doesn't live up to the HD standard.

i did verify it is stat mux'd. sometimes the video bit rate will drop as low as 2Mbps. the hardware does a good job minimizing visible macroblocking but it strips the HD detail out in the process. the quant levels jump off the charts at times showing the encoder is indicating it doesn't have enough bits to accurately deliver the picture

i don't know about the movie sub channel; it will be gone in a year or so like all the other sub channels have gone. there is no market for them and no ad revenue for them either. stations have the equipment and plenty of monkeys with 'value addded' bright ideas so more to come.

Josh> the audio on WBUI wednesday night was off

i looked at the stats and see the audio is off norm
AC3 Audio: 3/2 Channels (L, C, R, SL, SR) + LFE, 48.0 kHz, 224 kbps.

that is mp3 like rates, especially for 5.1

Have you tried rescanning it now that THIS is on - you need to do that first.
You might even need to rescan WITHOUT the antenna connected, THEN reconnect & rescan - some converters seem to need this to totally flush out old info.

I 2nd that, too - but I guess it's better than ANOTHER weather sub... :rolleyes:

I tried deleting WBUI then scanning with no antenna and then scanning again but still no PSIP program info for WBUI. The DVR PAL does not delete stations when you scan it only finds new ones. You have to delete them manually first so I did that. It found 23.2 without me having to rescan as it finds new stations automatically.

I like weather subs but have no use for an old movie channel.

Josh> the audio on WBUI wednesday night was off

i looked at the stats and see the audio is off norm
AC3 Audio: 3/2 Channels (L, C, R, SL, SR) + LFE, 48.0 kHz, 224 kbps.

that is mp3 like rates, especially for 5.1

I'm not sure on the details but I know that last night (Wed) the other station engineer was here working on the audio sync issue. He said he made some major adjustments to settings on the Dolby E equipment and it seems to be better during the daytime shows. We won't know until tonight for Prime..

Other issues.

I'm not sure why WRSP would be pillar boxed on Uverse. They get their signal in our building via Fiber and we don't have any sort of SD sub channel on WRSP for them to be taking by mistake.

As for RetroTV, they were a consideration for a while but they have a poor reputation in general so we decided not to go with them. I actually thought the company had already gone out of business. Also possibly a factor, the Chief Engineer at the originating television group behind THIS used to be Chief engineer at WBUI, though that was not while WBUI was owned by GOCOM so at this point it's really just incidental.

As for the success of THIS, I guess time will tell on that though we've gotten a lot of positive feedback already. Part of the problem of the issues we've had with it so far being so noticeable was that we (engineering) were supposed to have until the 1st to work out the bugs before all of the cable companies started picking it up and they started running real spots on it.

The company that originally started RTN (Equity Broadcasting) went out of business, but sold it several months before bankruptcy to Luken Communications.

- Trip

I'm not sure why WRSP would be pillar boxed on Uverse. They get their signal in our building via Fiber and we don't have any sort of SD sub channel on WRSP for them to be taking by mistake.

Well even though both WBUI & WRSP do NOT broadcast an SD signal, DirecTV was having the very SAME problem w/WRSP when they first started carrying them in HD. I know this because one of my clients was bitching about it BIG time, as he had just upgraded to HD. I told him to stop calling DirecTV & call WRSP, as I suspect there was a problem in the feed that specifically went out to DirecTV, as the OTA & cable HD feeds were fine. Finally about 3-4 days later, it got fixed.

AndyM77 - I would call WRSP directly, as it may be a specific problem on what they send out to AT&T.

ehjay - where ARE you at? Are you saying that U-verse carries BOTH WRSP & WCCU? That doesn't make sense - aren't they the same exact feed anyway? Why would they be carrying BOTH in the same area - if anything, it's going to be one or the other, but it's my understanding that U-verse carries ONLY WRSP, in ALL areas including the Champaign area - just like both DBS companies do.

Well even though both WBUI & WRSP do NOT broadcast an SD signal, DirecTV was having the very SAME problem w/WRSP when they first started carrying them in HD. I know this because one of my clients was bitching about it BIG time, as he had just upgraded to HD. I told him to stop calling DirecTV & call WRSP, as I suspect there was a problem in the feed that specifically went out to DirecTV, as the OTA & cable HD feeds were fine. Finally about 3-4 days later, it got fixed.

AndyM77 - I would call WRSP directly, as it may be a specific problem on what they send out to AT&T.

ehjay - where ARE you at? Are you saying that U-verse carries BOTH WRSP & WCCU? That doesn't make sense - aren't they the same exact feed anyway? Why would they be carrying BOTH in the same area - if anything, it's going to be one or the other, but it's my understanding that U-verse carries ONLY WRSP, in ALL areas including the Champaign area - just like both DBS companies do.

Thanks dishrich, I was a D* sub before moving to UVerse, and remember Fox HD issues with them when they first went local HD. BTW - I have both WRSP and WCCU on my U-Verse. I'm in Northwest Champaign...

The previous problem with WRSP on Direct TV was a Direct TV issue. Someone called us about it but it was fixed because we called them.

The Uverse problem has been corrected and was due to the signal we were feeding them.

Also, Uverse does carry both WRSP and WCCU. They were originaqlly not sure which to carry but decided to carry both since WCCU has some localized news content and localized advertising for that area of the market. Also, they pick up WCCU and WRSP in our building via Fiber, they take WBUI OTA even though it comes out of the same control room.

My main speculation on the reasoning behind this is that they still think our studio is in Decatur even though we told them several times it's not. This is supported by the fact that they called to verify the address as the old one in Decatur. The only real benefit is that if the transmitter goes off, Uverse won't lose it's picture.

Also, Uverse does carry both WRSP and WCCU. They were originaqlly not sure which to carry but decided to carry both since WCCU has some localized news content and localized advertising for that area of the market. Also, they pick up WCCU and WRSP in our building via Fiber, they take WBUI OTA even though it comes out of the same control room.

That's interesting - OK, does U-verse carry BOTH WICS & WICD in Champaign as well? Considering they are 2 completely different stations, I would think so.

Hey Josh, one last question - how do you guys get WCCU to the Champaign tower, a direct (fiber) feed? At one time, didn't WCCU just take a direct OTA pickup over around the Decatur or Champaign area?

That's interesting - OK, does U-verse carry BOTH WICS & WICD in Champaign as well? Considering they are 2 completely different stations, I would think so.

No, U-Verse only carries WICS.

No, U-Verse only carries WICS.

WICD will be added soon,probably in the next 30 days

Jim

Well they still have NOT added WSEC-14 PBS, which serves our side here. :(

I wrote to WSEC last month & they said that AT&T could NOT pick up WSEC all the way over in Decatur (which I find very hard to believe), so they were working to get a fiber link between their site in Decatur & WSEC.

Well they still have NOT added WSEC-14 PBS, which serves our side here. :(

I wrote to WSEC last month & they said that AT&T could NOT pick up WSEC all the way over in Decatur (which I find very hard to believe), so they were working to get a fiber link between their site in Decatur & WSEC.


Same reason for the delay in adding WICD. The fiber link is supposed to be completed by the end of October.

Jim

WICD will be added soon,probably in the next 30 days

Jim

Speaking of WICD, is anyone else experiencing audio dropouts on this station? I have noticed it for the past week or so on HD shows like college football, Dancing with the Stars and Desperate Housewives. Am watching via Mediacom, but have yet to check if it is doing it OTA.

Mel

No WBUI OTA for the first 10 minutes of One Tree Hill last night. Come to think about it, there's been quite a few problems with WBUI the past couple weeks with both audio sync and video. I deleted Vampire Diaries a couple weeks ago because the first part of it was without sound and downloaded a torrent to view instead. There's been other times when 16:9 was dropped and 4:3 picked up instead. This used to be one of the most consistent stations when HD started being broadacst a few years ago. Ever since the move to Springfield, it seems there's been problems.

yes they've been having problems, but working on them, although work has been sidelined by frivolous stuff

Josh> this week's audio is now 2.0 stereo @ 448:
AC3 Audio: 2/0 Channels (L, R), 48.0 kHz, 448 kbps. Dialog Normalization: -27.0 dB

bit rates continue around 12mbps average, sometimes plummeting to as low as 2mbps on the HD feed. you should probably put a floor in on the HD side to not dip below 7mbps as the SD channel shouldn't need almost 10 itself


i was thinking i'll have to ask my friend for the nielsen locals come nov to see just what the viewer numbers are for this area.

No WBUI OTA for the first 10 minutes of One Tree Hill last night. Come to think about it, there's been quite a few problems with WBUI the past couple weeks with both audio sync and video. I deleted Vampire Diaries a couple weeks ago because the first part of it was without sound and downloaded a torrent to view instead. There's been other times when 16:9 was dropped and 4:3 picked up instead. This used to be one of the most consistent stations when HD started being broadacst a few years ago. Ever since the move to Springfield, it seems there's been problems.

That's interesting - OK, does U-verse carry BOTH WICS & WICD in Champaign as well? Considering they are 2 completely different stations, I would think so.

Hey Josh, one last question - how do you guys get WCCU to the Champaign tower, a direct (fiber) feed? At one time, didn't WCCU just take a direct OTA pickup over around the Decatur or Champaign area?

We use a microwave link. Originating at our Springfield studio. There are three relay towers to the actual tower near Penfield. The first leg of the hop also carries WBUI to the Oreana tower.

Our tower engineer, who's been working at the station for longer than I have been, said that at one point they were considering doing just one long hop from way up on WRSP's tower to the Penfield tower but it didn't work out.

No WBUI OTA for the first 10 minutes of One Tree Hill last night. Come to think about it, there's been quite a few problems with WBUI the past couple weeks with both audio sync and video. I deleted Vampire Diaries a couple weeks ago because the first part of it was without sound and downloaded a torrent to view instead. There's been other times when 16:9 was dropped and 4:3 picked up instead. This used to be one of the most consistent stations when HD started being broadacst a few years ago. Ever since the move to Springfield, it seems there's been problems.

The problems that night were an unexpected coincidental problem on top of a problem that should have been a non issue.

For some reason the HD feed receiver wasn't locked in at 7. Normally we'd fall back on the SD receiver but we've been using it to record some syndicated shows on another frequency so it was not tuned to the CW feed. The SD not being tuned wouldn't have been an issue if the HD reciever had been working since the HD "covers" the SD.

As for all of the smaller issues. At the time of the move we (Engineering) were under a lot fo pressure to keep WBUI on the air without downtime since it was the middle of November sweeps. We were setting up a new automation system and new video servers in Springfield with the Decatur operators still working in in the old control room. We were not getting replacement equipment for anything else other than the automation system and servers however. This mean that we were slowly taking away things like DVC decks from the Decatur studio to supplement what WRSP already had. At one point we were taking the entire day's worth of tapes back and forth since Decatur didn't have the equipment to record the syndicated shows anymore.

The other key was the rack of HD equipment. There's 20-30 devices all in one rack. in Decatur the HD rack was sort of a "ok it's there" set up since analog was still the meat of the station at the time. In order to make the move in Springfield easier we would make this equipment the heart of WBUI's feed and basically go all digital with with the signal. In order to make the move more quickly we removed all of the equipment, or at least most of it, from the HD rack and reused all of the cables when possible since terminating hundreds of cables takes days. The point was to minimize the downtime of the HD before we cut over to the new equipment in Springfield.

The whole thing was rewired in a day with mostly old cables. I remember when I first came on at WBUI my first assignment was to cable up that rack in Decatur, it took me like a month.

I guess the point of this story is mostly that the many of the cables in the rack were damaged during the move which has caused a few of our minor on air issues and signal drop outs. Many of them have since been replaced. Also we started feeding Dolby E from the network receiver which ended up being part of the problem with the audio drift as the later equipment wasn't set up for Dolby E. There's also issues occasionally with the automation system. It's the same brand and program as Decatur but it's a newer version and it runs three playlists and 4 times as much equipment now.

The video servers also haven't been quite what they were cracked up to be now that we're running all of our programming off of them instead of off tapes. during extremely busy times of the day such as early mornings, we have been dealing with replication issues (which would be why occasionally you may see a show start one episode only to change to a different one partway).

All of this of course isn't helped by a generally tough economy as there isn't as much budget to get things that would help alleviate some of these problems until it becomes a crisis. As far as I know, we're actually doing pretty well, but ACME, who owned us when we were in Decatur would pretty much give you anything if you asked for it. On the other hand, they (ACME) don't seem to be doing so hot these days.

Has any Comcast customers contacted a CS rep to find out why NBA HD channel is showing up in the cable guide on channel 960 but none of the programming is available? This is very frustrating.

Not to beat a dead horse but there were problems once again at the beginning of One Tree Hill for a couple minutes or so of no AV. BTW thanks for the previous response, Josh.

Can someone please tell me why FOX here in Champaign is so messed up? First off they don't air the HD broadcast of Bears preseason games...which is available to them. And then now they are only broadcasting NFL games in DD 2.0 via Comcast QAM. I highly doubt it's a Comcast issue since CBS and NBC come through at 5.1.

Someone told me on the Davenport post during the Bears preseason that our Fox station didn't have the equipment to handle an HD feed from any other stations other than the national feeds .WBBM feeds Bears preseason games,regular season games from the national feeds .The funny thing was during preseason NFL Network had Bears game in High Definition ,explain that one !!! :eek: :confused:

Can someone please tell me why FOX here in Champaign is so messed up? First off they don't air the HD broadcast of Bears preseason games...which is available to them. And then now they are only broadcasting NFL games in DD 2.0 via Comcast QAM. I highly doubt it's a Comcast issue since CBS and NBC come through at 5.1.
The local Fox channel has been broadcasting all the Fox network programs in DD 2.0 for quite a while now.

Why though? 5.1 doesn't not take up that much room. If the others (including CW) can broadcast in 5.1, why can't they?

As I said in my post before I edited it out, if the station is that lazy/cheap/stupid, just stop broadcasting all together and let Comcast pickup WFLD out of Chicago. It's not like we'd miss anything if any of our local newscasts and their 1970s SD presentations went the way of the dinosaurs. (Heck, when your best newsman in the territory is a guy out of Wausau, WI..Benton and one of the newscasts looks worse than those in Northern WI...WAND, you should be ashamed of yourselves.) If you're not financially capable or willing to join the 21st century, just go out of business instead of halfassing it.

Any Comcast customers have the Entertainment Sports Package that includes NFL-HD at channel 920, MLB-HD at channel 949. Are you receiving the NBA HD Channel 960? The channel is listed in the cable listings for C-U at comcast website and is on my cable guide, but I do not get any reception for this channel. Is this channel unavailable (NBA-HD) for anyone else who has the package with MLB-HD channel?

Someone told me on the Davenport post during the Bears preseason that our Fox station didn't have the equipment to handle an HD feed from any other stations other than the national feeds .WBBM feeds Bears preseason games,regular season games from the national feeds .The funny thing was during preseason NFL Network had Bears game in High Definition ,explain that one !!! :eek: :confused:

NFL Network is national and has the equipment on-site to receive it and transmit it in HD. I said on there that the Rockford station was widescreen HD...turns out, they could receive it in widescreen HD, but could only send it out widescreen SD. So if you are receiving something from a network, you have a much better chance of it being in HD, and if not, a much smaller chance (for now), particularly in medium and smaller sized markets.

Any Comcast customers have the Entertainment Sports Package that includes NFL-HD at channel 920, MLB-HD at channel 949. Are you receiving the NBA HD Channel 960? The channel is listed in the cable listings for C-U at comcast website and is on my cable guide, but I do not get any reception for this channel. Is this channel unavailable (NBA-HD) for anyone else who has the package with MLB-HD channel?

I'm getting the NBA-HD on channel 960 with no problem here in Champaign.

Just a note for those who might be wondering.

Yesterday we began experiencing short duration audio dropouts in our WCIA-DT signal. Our Tandberg 5780 encoder showed occasional faults, complaining it had no AC-3 input, so we first suspected the Dolby 569 Encoder. Its output was checked and found to be fine.

The encoder seemed to settle down in the afternoon, so I hoped it was a glitch and wouldn't happen again. Once I arrived home I got the dreaded call from Master Control that it was happening again, so I remoted in to the encoder and found the same faults occurring. The dropouts were only lasting a few seconds, so we decided to stick it out until after Letterman and reboot the encoder at that time.

At about 8:30 yesterday evening it failed again, and this time it didn't come back. I instructed the TD to reboot the encoder, resulting in about 2 minutes of dead air (an eternity in TV). It came back up and seemed to be OK.

Got another call this morning at 4:30AM. It had been solid for several hours, but the TD had to reboot it again around 3AM. It was again solid for several hours, and once I got to work started troubleshooting.

Eventually we suspected the encoder had a bad audio card, so I got tech support on the phone to help me reconfigure the B card. As I was talking to them the encoder failed again, so we hurriedly changed around the B card settings and once I moved the AC-3 audio cable to the other input audio came back and it has been solid all day.

Very frustrating, and demonstrates the digital cliff effect... it's either perfect or not there at all. Sometimes I miss analog's tendency to get a little fuzzy but still sort of working.

WCCU-DT / WRSP-DT both continue to do popup snipes with ads for their 1/2 priced deals - http://wrsp.gocommediadeals.com - during primetime programming, no less. As though it wasn't nice to finally have a network that generally didn't do snipes, and then the local affiliate decides to go and do it on their own.

Worse still, they're in SD, and knock the signal down to a letterboxed & pillared SD feed while on screen. I have a full 5-6 minutes of air that entirely ruins the HD picture whenever they feel the need to push these snipes up.

Could we stop these? Or at least insert them into the HD feed and not ruin our viewing experience?

Yeah don't see that happening. Unlike WCIA who has shown time and time again that they actually care about their tech savvy/demanding viewers, WCCU has made it fairly clear that they don't give a crap about us. Have they ever had someone around here or responded to viewer's complaints? I mean seriously...if their programming exec is lurking around here, do us all a favor and take a long leap off a short pier.

Yes, I am still a very very bitter and angry man that they are screwing with FOX Sport's 5.1 audio during NFL broadcasts. I wonder if a well placed call to FOX Corp. might lead to at least a network inquiry into WCCU's practices. Anyone have a suggestion?

Just a note for those who might be wondering.

Yesterday we began experiencing short duration audio dropouts in our WCIA-DT signal.
...
Very frustrating, and demonstrates the digital cliff effect... it's either perfect or not there at all. Sometimes I miss analog's tendency to get a little fuzzy but still sort of working.

I just saw my recording of Criminal Minds from Wednesday night and saw the audio drop outs you mentioned. The drop outs were frustrating, but having read your post, at least I knew you guys were aware of it and actively working to resolve it. (And turning on CC helped.)

Thanks for the technical updates. Everyone reading appreciates the work you're doing keeping things running, and your taking the time to keep us informed. Hearing that information makes our AVS Forum community feel like these technical problems are happening with us, instead of to us. That's a very empowering difference, and I appreciate that.

TBK

In also want to say how grateful I am for the station engineers that care enough to post their thoughts here as well as technical information. It is very much appreciated by all of us I think.

Can someone please tell me why FOX here in Champaign is so messed up? First off they don't air the HD broadcast of Bears preseason games...which is available to them. And then now they are only broadcasting NFL games in DD 2.0 via Comcast QAM. I highly doubt it's a Comcast issue since CBS and NBC come through at 5.1.

It's a bit of a late point but the way the FOX Splicer works with the HD prevents us from inserting local HD (Beyond our main upconverted stream) with our current equipment set up. This is why the Bears Preseason games were not in HD even though it was available on WRSP and WCCU.

Unlike the rest of the regular season, these games are not provided to us by the FOX network. We get them from another company off of different equipment.

Thank you Josh...that makes complete sense. Out of curiousity, does WFLD make the HD feed available at all or is it just a local equipment issue?

Any insight on the DD 2.0 vs 5.1 issue with REGULAR season games? Is that a affiliate issue or a Crapcast issue? I know from seeing the stats off of WFLD that FOX does provide 5.1 and have for quite a few years.

I'm getting the NBA-HD on channel 960 with no problem here in Champaign.
I finally am starting to get the NBA-HD channel on 960. I have been checking daily and the channel finally started showing up this past Wednesday, October 21.

Thank you Josh...that makes complete sense. Out of curiousity, does WFLD make the HD feed available at all or is it just a local equipment issue?

Any insight on the DD 2.0 vs 5.1 issue with REGULAR season games? Is that a affiliate issue or a Crapcast issue? I know from seeing the stats off of WFLD that FOX does provide 5.1 and have for quite a few years.

I'm pretty sure the HD feed was available for the bear's preseason games, the Splicer only takes two inputs to switch between them, one from the network receivers and one from our house upconverted stream. Fox is currently upgrading the splicing system for it's stations but I'm not sure if it's capable of taking multiple local streams or not.

As for the regular season games. Anything on WRSP comes straight off of the network receivers and out the door so if it's not 5.1 it's coming to us from the network that way. The way it's handled we can't even control the volume on the network feeds.

On WCCU we have a secondary output which is not 5.1 sound. This is due to a local need for equipment that would process the 5.1 sound. It's possible that the previously mentioned Splicer upgrade may resolve this, at this point we're kind of in a "wait and see" mode since the upgrade for us is probably going to happen within the next month or two. Fox has been somewhat unclear if they are going to give us new equipment for WCCU and WRSP or just for WRSP.

Any chance the dropouts on CW (via DirecTV) will be fixed soon? Watching Smallville over DirecTV is annoying because of the frequent breakups. I know my set up is not an issue -- strong signal strength, no other issues on other channels, etc. Is this a local issue or a DirecTV issue?

I rescanned a CECB tonight, & much to my surprise, WRSP did NOT map to 55.1, but instead to 44.3! So, I came home & scanned 4 others (all different brands) as well as one of my Sony HD's - all scanned at either 44.1 or 44.3. I tried selecting 55.1 on my Sony BEFORE rescan & it was dead.
Also, there is NO prog info data on any of the converters, either.
Any word when this will be fixed???

In the last three weeks I have had WGN 85-1 HD go out for about a week. Then Fox 55-1 HD go out for about three days during Game 5 of the World Series and now WAND 17-1 HD has been out for over a week and not come back. With Fox and WAND I connected my 30 year old wire screen antenna to my HD TV and was able to get Fox in HD and a weak signal for WAND. I would have to put the anntena on the roof to get a good signal. So I know it is not the stations' or my TV's fault. I called Comcast and they are giving the company line that they are not responsible for local broadcast signals and that Comcast does not provide these channels. I tried to explain that it is not the station or my TV that is the problem but of course they said it is not their problem.

I have a Panasonic HD TV with the QAM tuner and the only problem I ever had getting the major networks in HD was when Comcast was jerking around in early 2008 with WCIA/CBS from Champaign. My service with Comcast is expanded Basic with no boxes or receivers, which is what Comcast used to called the standard cable package. I am assuming that Comcast is done moving around the channel numbers for these local HD channels. I did reprogram my channels and that did not make any difference.

Is anybody with a HD televison and standard Comcast package having the same problem?

Thanks

In the last three weeks I have had WGN 85-1 HD go out for about a week. Then Fox 55-1 HD go out for about three days during Game 5 of the World Series and now WAND 17-1 HD has been out for over a week and not come back. With Fox and WAND I connected my 30 year old wire screen antenna to my HD TV and was able to get Fox in HD and a weak signal for WAND. I would have to put the anntena on the roof to get a good signal. So I know it is not the stations' or my TV's fault. I called Comcast and they are giving the company line that they are not responsible for local broadcast signals and that Comcast does not provide these channels. I tried to explain that it is not the station or my TV that is the problem but of course they said it is not their problem.

I have a Panasonic HD TV with the QAM tuner and the only problem I ever had getting the major networks in HD was when Comcast was jerking around in early 2008 with WCIA/CBS from Champaign. My service with Comcast is expanded Basic with no boxes or receivers, which is what Comcast used to called the standard cable package. I am assuming that Comcast is done moving around the channel numbers for these local HD channels. I did reprogram my channels and that did not make any difference.

Is anybody with a HD televison and standard Comcast package having the same problem?

Thanks

I figured it out. I reprogrammed the TV this time and found WAND Decatur NBC HD at channel 126-3. I swear I reprogramed the TV before and had no luck finding the WAND NBC HD channel. Apparently Comcast is back to jerking around with the local HD channels just to piss off people like me in order to get me to rent their box.

Jimhighdef

I figured it out. I reprogrammed the TV this time and found WAND Decatur NBC HD at channel 126-3. I swear I reprogramed the TV before and had no luck finding the WAND NBC HD channel. Apparently Comcast is back to jerking around with the local HD channels just to piss off people like me in order to get me to rent their box.

Yup, same prob here - WAND weather is also NOT mapped correctly anymore & is now at 126.4. :rolleyes:
CC DID also move the other local HD/subs around to different QAM's, but the PSIP mapping remained correct. They're probably moving things around (again) to make way for "Project Calvery" that's supposed to come here around 1st QTR 2010.

I rescanned a CECB tonight, & much to my surprise, WRSP did NOT map to 55.1, but instead to 44.3! So, I came home & scanned 4 others (all different brands) as well as one of my Sony HD's - all scanned at either 44.1 or 44.3. I tried selecting 55.1 on my Sony BEFORE rescan & it was dead.
Also, there is NO prog info data on any of the converters, either.
Any word when this will be fixed???

We had some issues with out Network (Internet not FOX) which prevented the computer that downloads the guide and programs the PSIP from connecting to the encoder. This problem was fixed though last night we had a similar issue for a short period of time. These two pieces of equipment do not like losing connectivity to each other and seem to have issues with reconnecting.

Any chance the dropouts on CW (via DirecTV) will be fixed soon? Watching Smallville over DirecTV is annoying because of the frequent breakups. I know my set up is not an issue -- strong signal strength, no other issues on other channels, etc. Is this a local issue or a DirecTV issue?

Is this video and audio ro just one or the other? Direct TV is fed directly off of our equipment for 23 and 55 since their equipment is in our building. That is, they don't take the Over the air signal for their feed.

Is this video and audio ro just one or the other? Direct TV is fed directly off of our equipment for 23 and 55 since their equipment is in our building. That is, they don't take the Over the air signal for their feed.In the past, I've noticed both audio and video breakups. Last Friday, I remember hearing audio breakups. I'm not sure about the video.

By the way, since you mentioned 55, I often notice issues with this channel as well. Usually it's the audio -- I hear a little Brrrp, and then the audio returns a second or two later. This happens quite often in House, and also during football on Sunday. I can't say I've noticed issues on any other channels -- at least not that I remember.

I'm following up on the last post, because I'm watching a recording of House right now, and I'm noticing both audio and video breakups. The audio cuts out, then the video breaks up for a split second. Then everything is fine for a while.

I've checked signal strength, set up, etc. Everything appears to be fine on my end. All DVRS in my house are exhibiting the same symptoms for 23 and 55. Again, I don't recall seeing this issue on other channels. I'll keep an eye out, though, and provide more information if I notice anything else.

Thanks for responding to my original post.

if you mean WBUI CW, then it is your issue. i have captured the OTA stream and scanned it with a transport and mpeg error detector and it is perfect; also via eyeball.

here is this past thursdays vampire diaries, all weeks before are ok too:

Sequence Summary:
File Size Processed: 5.60 GB, Play Time: 01h:01m:58s
1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps, 45.00 Mbps (12.07 Mbps Average).
Average Video Quality: 52.38 KB/Frame, 0.21 Bits/Pixel.
AC3 Audio: 3/2 Channels (L, C, R, SL, SR) + LFE, 48.0 kHz, 448 kbps.
Dialog Normalization: -27.0 dB, Center Mix Level: -3.0 dB, Surround Mix Level: -3.0 dB
0 of 104582 video frames found with errors.
0 of 116215 audio frames found with errors.
0 corrupted video bytes in file.
0.000000 seconds of video timestamp gaps.
0.000000 seconds of audio timestamp gaps.


Any chance the dropouts on CW (via DirecTV) will be fixed soon? Watching Smallville over DirecTV is annoying because of the frequent breakups. I know my set up is not an issue -- strong signal strength, no other issues on other channels, etc. Is this a local issue or a DirecTV issue?

also, thx Josh and crew for finally get the 5.1 back up and running.
is it real 5.1 from the network, or 5.1 generated locally from the network 2.0 mix?

it has been in synch and the stream shows no spec errors.

curious... if you don't touch the network audio, how do you insert your nielsen tag for their ratings boxes? i guess this market may not have them, but fox in other markets must be able to do it.

I'm pretty sure the HD feed was available for the bear's preseason games, the Splicer only takes two inputs to switch between them, one from the network receivers and one from our house upconverted stream. Fox is currently upgrading the splicing system for it's stations but I'm not sure if it's capable of taking multiple local streams or not.

As for the regular season games. Anything on WRSP comes straight off of the network receivers and out the door so if it's not 5.1 it's coming to us from the network that way. The way it's handled we can't even control the volume on the network feeds.

On WCCU we have a secondary output which is not 5.1 sound. This is due to a local need for equipment that would process the 5.1 sound. It's possible that the previously mentioned Splicer upgrade may resolve this, at this point we're kind of in a "wait and see" mode since the upgrade for us is probably going to happen within the next month or two. Fox has been somewhat unclear if they are going to give us new equipment for WCCU and WRSP or just for WRSP.

if you mean WBUI CW, then it is your issue. i have captured the OTA stream and scanned it with a transport and mpeg error detector and it is perfect; also via eyeball.I'm not questioning any issues with the OTA stream. I suspect it's an issue that's introduced when DirecTV re-encodes the audio / video to Mpeg-4.

Not sure if this is happening OTA, but 55 on DirecTV is pretty much unwatchable right now (during Rams / Cardinals game). Video is stuttering badly -- looks like stop motion animation. Ugh...

Appears to be just an issue with DirecTV local. OTA seems fine.

Update: Seems to be fixed now. Thanks to whomever fixed this!

Is anyone else having a problem getting WGN HD? It appears it is not available on Comcast right now. Is it available on satellite?

Is anyone else having a problem getting WGN HD? It appears it is not available on Comcast right now. Is it available on satellite?

It sure is over here - & in clear QAM to boot! I can't imagine that it's NOT over at your please, either.
It IS on DISH, NOT on DirecTV.

Hi all,

I just got my Comcast cable in Springfield upgraded(last month to be exact) to HD w/DVR and noticed that I have a (Motorola DCT6400) (http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/Business+Product+and+Services/TV+Video+Distribution/Customer+Premises+Equipment+%28Set-tops%29/Analog-Digital+QAM+Set-tops/DCT6400_US-EN) that has a DVI to HDMI output for HD.

Friend next door down that's had there cable for years has a newer box than mine(Motorola DCH6414) (http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/Business+Product+and+Services/TV+Video+Distribution/Customer+Premises+Equipment+%28Set-tops%29/Analog-Digital+QAM+Set-tops/DCH6416_US-EN) and has full HDMI out no DVI to HDMI.


My TV states it's HDMI(DVI) on cable vs. HDMI only on DVD player.

Question is, is there much difference between the two models? Pulled up the specs on both and the DCH is newer model but specs look to be about the same. (minus mine being older and having DVI to HDMI)


Thanks for the help all.

WAND17 (NBC) is now regularly showing both network NBC logo in bottom left and their affiliate logo in bottom right throughout length of primetime shows.

Isn't this in violation of an affiliate agreement or similar? I know some of the big four had similar rules regarding how long affiliates can display their local logos, etc -- but didn't think any had the right to just run in addition to the network branding throughout an entire show? It winds up leaving essentially 2 nbc logos on the screen, terrible!

Anyone know what happened to the Big Ten Network tonight during the Illini game? Lost the HD feed, switched to SD but lost that shortly after. No snow here in Champaign, so not sure what the problem was. It finally came back towards the end of the game. Someone in Springfield also mentioned it was out for them. Is the game uploaded in Chicago?

In HD throughout the entire game on Dish. Must be a problem your provider had.

I figured it out. I reprogrammed the TV this time and found WAND Decatur NBC HD at channel 126-3. I swear I reprogramed the TV before and had no luck finding the WAND NBC HD channel.

Just to let you know, this appears to be fixed properly - you'll need to rescan to find them, as well as WCFN-DT (3.2) got moved around as well, but is correct at 3.2.

Any idea how the Bears game will be treated if it's moved to Monday?

Any idea how the Bears game will be treated if it's moved to Monday?
No idea. I don't know if there has been an NFL game that has been postponed by a day before. Since ESPN controls the Monday night game slot, I can't imagine that the game could be broadcast on Monday night opposite ESPN's game. If they tried to televise it during the day on Monday, there won't be much of an audience to watch it.

The last I heard was the game was being moved ahead to 3:15 on Sunday. I don't know how that will help if the area is inundated with the amounts of snow they are predicting. It will be interesting to see what happens.

No idea. I don't know if there has been an NFL game that has been postponed by a day before. Since ESPN controls the Monday night game slot, I can't imagine that the game could be broadcast on Monday night opposite ESPN's game. If they tried to televise it during the day on Monday, there won't be much of an audience to watch it.

The last I heard was the game was being moved ahead to 3:15 on Sunday. I don't know how that will help if the area is inundated with the amounts of snow they are predicting. It will be interesting to see what happens.

As of 6PM CT Saturday, Baltimore officially has had 20", with up to 4" more expected.

Well it'll be played at 3:15. From the sounds of it, Baltimore International had crews clean off a runway and reopened the airport just long enough for the Bears to land in the past hour. I don't think they'd go to such extremes to get the team there if they weren't going to play the game. At this point they almost have to play it whether there's 50,000 or 50 people in the stands.

Anybody else having audio issues with 27.1 OTA in the last few days?

It sounds similar to the old analog when the white from the video portion of the signal bled into the audio signal.

Anybody else having audio issues with 27.1 OTA in the last few days?

It sounds similar to the old analog when the white from the video portion of the signal bled into the audio signal.
I noticed some audio problems while watching the channel briefly last night via Comcast. Speaking of Comcast, I noticed through their website that we are slated to get ESPN-U in HD. On the channel listing for our cable system it is identified as channel 961. I have not seen anything on the cable guide yet, though.

WAND, both SD and HD channels just bit the dust on Dish, right smack dab in the middle of the Jets-Bengals playoff game.

"Sorry for the interruption of service. There is no need to call us. We are aware that this TV station is temporatily unavailable and we will have this channel back as quickly as possible."

I was DVR-ing the game too.

Is it a Dish problem or is WAND off the air OTA as well?

If it's still off the air when my Eagles play tonight, I'm going to be friggin' PISSED.

WAND, both SD and HD channels just bit the dust on Dish, right smack dab in the middle of the Jets-Bengals playoff game.

"Sorry for the interruption of service. There is no need to call us. We are aware that this TV station is temporatily unavailable and we will have this channel back as quickly as possible."

I was DVR-ing the game too.

Is it a Dish problem or is WAND off the air OTA as well?

If it's still off the air when my Eagles play tonight, I'm going to be friggin' PISSED.


I have direct-tv and we lost the feed at the same time. Still don't have it back. Must be a local station problem, unless dish and dtv share the feed off the same sat or something somehow. I haven't checked OTA because I don't want to lug out the antenna.

It is apparently WAND itself as we lost them OTA as well.

It's back. I missed the 4th quarter of the Jets game though. :(

It's back. I missed the 4th quarter of the Jets game though. :(

we got it back on direct-tv too.

WAND was having some issues early in the day yesterday as well. I was watching the Today Show on Saturday morning and when the show cut to the local weather, I could hear the WAND announcer but was not getting any picture. That was watching via Comcast cable. So it definitely was a channel issue.

Is there a place that lists all the channels available via Clear QAM? We just have the very basic 20some channel service now but I'm thinking of dropping D* and moving to Comcast. Will a high level package yield any more channels than I get now?

It would help us tell you, if we knew WHICH city you're in... ;)

But for the most part, the ONLY things in ClearQAM are the local OTA's/subchannels, both in SD & HD, as well as digital copies of any other limited basic channels, such as PEG's, etc. You are NOT going to find cable channels such as CNN or ESPN, either in SD or HD, in ClearQAM.
IOW, any higher level pkg will NOT get you any more ClearQAM than what you're getting now...

Thanks...that pretty much answered my question. I record the Bears games over clear QAM and then edit/encode them on a dual layer dvd for archiving. If they had ESPN/NFLN via clear QAM it would have been a big factor in switching over from D*. I'm in the C-U market.

Anyone have any reception issues OTA today? I have lost 3.1 WCIA, 43.1 WYZZ, and 55.1 WRSP, along with 17.1 WAND and 20.1 WICS going off and on all day. I have had no issues with any of them for the last couple of years, so I wondered if I was the only one. Man, the premier of Human Target and 24 is tonight too.....

There's a lot of insane tropospheric ducting going on today in your area. You're probably receiving interference from other stations on the same channel. I would bet WTTV in Bloomington IN is trashing WCIA, WSJV in South Bend IN could be killing WYZZ, etc.

- Trip

Thanks Trip, I have troubleshot everything in the house, including restarting the tivo's, and the only place left for a problem would be the connections on the antenna. It is on the apex of my roof so I really didn't want to get up there in these conditions. Guess I will hope for the best.....:)

What kind of tuner do you have? If there are signals from, say, Indianapolis causing problems, perhaps you can watch Fox from Indianapolis instead tonight if it remains a problem.

- Trip

I am using two Tivo HD's. At this moment WRSP and WCIA are both working. I looked at the antenna and the connections are fine. It must be an atmospheric problem, I mean I have had no reception issues at all in the last 18 months or so and suddenly today all of my OTA's are gone or spotty. I also have a Sony HDD-250 and it is doing the same thing as the Tivos. Either no signal or it works fine, they come and go. Hopefully after today it will pass.

Are any Comcast customers here in Cham-Bana receiving ESPN-U in HD? When I go to comcast.com I see the HD channel for this network listed as being available on channel 961. The channel does not come up on my cable guide.

I spoke to a Comcast rep at Best Buy the other day who suggested I don't get the channel because I don't have a particular channel package. I don't think that explanation is correct because I get ESPN-U on the non-HD digital tier. I am anxious to hear if the channel is actually available to Comcast here.

[QUOTE=Marty Milton;17949244]Are any Comcast customers here in Cham-Bana receiving ESPN-U in HD? When I go to comcast.com I see the HD channel for this network listed as being available on channel 961. The channel does not come up on my cable guide./quote]

I think I get every Comcast sports channel available, and I can confirm I do not get channel 961 on my cablecards.

TBK

We have the same thing going on here in Galesburg Il but no ESPNU HD, Shows that way for Peoria as well plus shows they got Lifetime movie hd Planet Green Biography Hd but don't know if they got them ?

Trombonekenny and Big Bears Fans, thanks for the confirmation that I am not missing any channels. I had a feeling the Comcast rep didn't know what they were talking about. Big surprise, huh? ;) I knew that if I am getting a channel in the digital range I should also be getting the same channel in the HD range.

Time will tell if we ever get any new HD channels in this area in the near future from Comcast. I am not holding my breath, though.

Ever since the Jets-Bengals game blackout, I have been receiving a low signal. I have reset and rescanned my Directv HR20 several times, but still receive very low signal. My location is in Danville where WAND is suppose to have a translator, W31BX. Any ideas why the change?:mad:

I just got an e-mail from Tivo saying that comcast would soon be switching to all-digital service in Champaign. Has anyone received any info from Comcast about this? This is the first i've heard of it.

While it would be a hassle for analog devices, which would need a converter box to get cable channels, I think the tradeoff of more HD channels would be worth it.

Here is the text of the e-mail:

Dear TiVo Customer,

Comcast Cable is transitioning to an all-digital cable network. With all-digital cable, extended basic cable channels will be broadcast only in a digital format and require CableCARD(s) to be viewed. However, basic cable channels, which include your local network channels like ABC, CBS, and NBC , will continue to be broadcast in analog format.

There will be NO change in your recording capabilities as a result of this transition. If you have a TiVo HD or TiVo HD XL DVR, you will, however, need 1 M-Card (multi-stream CableCARD) or 2 S-Cards (single-stream CableCARDs) to continue receiving all the channels you are currently able to watch. If you have a Series3 HD DVR, you will need 2 M-Cards or 2 S-Cards. Please contact Comcast if you need to obtain CableCARD(s).

To learn more about Comcast's all-digital transition, please visit the links below:
If you have installed CableCards, your TiVo and TV service will NOT be affected by this transition. For more information please visit our Support Pages.
If you didn't install CableCards, you will only be able to view channels that are broadcast in analog format. For more information please visit our Support Pages.
Thanks for being a valued TiVo customer!

Your friends at TiVo

I got that message from TiVo too. That looks like the S3/HD message. I also got the one for their Series2/non-digital boxes. For reference, it's quoted below.

I haven't heard/seen anything about Comcast in our area going all digital, but I've been noticing the transitions -- decreasing number of existing analog channels, only adding new channels to digital, etc. The writing's on the wall.

I agree with you that an adapter/daisy-chained TiVos is not the way to go. This would just push me to replace the S2 with a digital model (or the Comcast DVR). I'm more concerned about Comcast switching to SDV in our area (which requires a tuning adapter with cablecards), but maybe the push to reclaim the analog signal space gets us around that, at least for a while. (My family in the St. Louis area/Charter were just notified of needing SDV tuning adapters soon.)

TBK

Dear TiVo Customer,

Comcast Cable is transitioning to an all-digital cable network. With all-digital cable, extended basic cable channels will be broadcast only in a digital format and will require a cable box to be viewed. However, basic cable channels, which include your local network channels like ABC, CBS, and NBC will continue to be broadcast in analog format.

There will be NO change in your recording capabilities as a result of this transition. You will, however, need a digital cable box to continue receiving all the channels you are currently able to watch. Please contact Comcast if you need a digital cable box.

To learn more about Comcast's all-digital transition, please visit the links below:

1. If you connect through a digital cable box, you will not lose any of your TV channels. For more information please visit our Support Pages.
2. If you don't connect through a digital cable box, you will need to get a digital cable box from your cable provider to continue receiving all of your channels. For more information please visit our Support Pages.

Thanks for being a valued TiVo customer!

Your friends at TiVo

I'm more concerned about Comcast switching to SDV in our area (which requires a tuning adapter with cablecards), but maybe the push to reclaim the analog signal space gets us around that, at least for a while. (My family in the St. Louis area/Charter were just notified of needing SDV tuning adapters soon.)

You don't need to worry; that's why cc went the DTA/only limited basic in analog route. That's why other cable co. such as Charter, TWC & Cox ARE requiring TA's, since they decided to leave up all those analog expanded basic channels. They made the business decision that it was better that subs would NOT require any boxes to get their existing expanded basic service - but it DOES require all that SDV equipment in the network, as well as TA's for CableCard subs.
Also, cc still has the option of removing all the limited basic analogs in the future; they are only required to leave OTA SD's in analog for 3 years. That would yield more bandwidth as well. Some cable co, such as RCN & Bend Broadband, have already done this, with Cablevision (in the NY area) looking to do this soon, as well as they are requesting a waiver to encrypt ALL digitals, including broadcast basics. (which they will most likely get, & which other cable co. with NO analog will probably follow suit)

[QUOTE=nyelton;18033156]I just got an e-mail from Tivo saying that comcast would soon be switching to all-digital service in Champaign. Has anyone received any info from Comcast about this? This is the first i've heard of it.

While it would be a hassle for analog devices, which would need a converter box to get cable channels, I think the tradeoff of more HD channels would be worth it.



I live in Springfield. I got a letter from Comcast from Northlake,Illinois today.
The important part of the letter states "Comcast is making significant upgrades to our network in your area .... The transition to digital clarity will require you to have a digital set-top box or digital adapter on all TV's connected to cable in order to continue receiving your expanded Basic line-up. Comcast will provide you with one digital set-top box and up to two digital adapters at no additional cost."

I am one of those expanded basic customers that has no cable box at this time. I have a digital HD Panasonic TV with a Qam tuner that allows me to get the major networks, the PBS stations and WGN (Comcast is unblocking this one) in high definition already. I understand the requirement for a digital adapter for my analog TV. What I don't understand is the need for a digital adapter for my digital HD TV or is Comcast lying to their customers again so that they get everybody on one of their boxes? And I am guessing with this additional digital set-top box Comcast still won't be providing ESPN, AMC History (channel 2 through 72) in HD without a different box or significant charge.

I am one of those expanded basic customers that has no cable box at this time. I have a digital HD Panasonic TV with a Qam tuner that allows me to get the major networks, the PBS stations and WGN (Comcast is unblocking this one) in high definition already. I understand the requirement for a digital adapter for my analog TV. What I don't understand is the need for a digital adapter for my digital HD TV or is Comcast lying to their customers again so that they get everybody on one of their boxes?

Because all those expanded basic digitals WILL be encrypted, just as they are today. When CC starts the Project Calvery project in an area, they will normally unencrypt these channels, so that QAM tuners will pick these SD stations up - THIS IS ONLY TEMPORARY. After all the analogs are deleted, CC WILL encrypt all these channels again to status quo, so the only channels your QAM tuner will pick up will be the current SD & HD limited basics, which you already are getting now. You will NOT get anymore in clear QAM than you do now.

And I am guessing with this additional digital set-top box Comcast still won't be providing ESPN, AMC History (channel 2 through 72) in HD without a different box

You got it!

I assume you realize that if you put the DTA in front of your HDTV, since it only has an RF out, you will NO longer even get the local HD's you get now. There is a simple, but kludgy fix:
-get a 2-way splitter & A/B switch
-run the cable into the splitter - one output to one side of the switch, other to the RF in of the DTA
-run the RF output of the DTA into the other side of the switch

Now, flip the switch one way to get all the current clear QAM HD's, flip it the other way to get the encrypted SD digitals through the DTA.
You are NOT going to get any encrypted HD's thru the DTA - you'll need to fork over f/an HD box.

edit: if you get the 1 free digital box & 2 free DTA's, if you use the digital box on your HDTV, you can do something a little easier. Put the 2-way split on the cable, one leg to the TV RF input, other to the digital box input. Run a composite A/V cable from the digital box into an A/V input on your TV. (you won't need an external A/B switch) Now, you can use your TV remote to switch between the clear QAM cable input & the A/V input from your digital box. BUT, you still will NOT get encrypted HD channels, either.

Because all those expanded basic digitals WILL be encrypted, just as they are today. When CC starts the Project Calvery project in an area, they will normally unencrypt these channels, so that QAM tuners will pick these SD stations up - THIS IS ONLY TEMPORARY. After all the analogs are deleted, CC WILL encrypt all these channels again to status quo, so the only channels your QAM tuner will pick up will be the current SD & HD limited basics, which you already are getting now. You will NOT get anymore in clear QAM than you do now.



You got it!

I assume you realize that if you put the DTA in front of your HDTV, since it only has an RF out, you will NO longer even get the local HD's you get now. There is a simple, but kludgy fix:
-get a 2-way splitter & A/B switch
-run the cable into the splitter - one output to one side of the switch, other to the RF in of the DTA
-run the RF output of the DTA into the other side of the switch

Now, flip the switch one way to get all the current clear QAM HD's, flip it the other way to get the encrypted SD digitals through the DTA.
You are NOT going to get any encrypted HD's thru the DTA - you'll need to fork over f/an HD box.

edit: if you get the 1 free digital box & 2 free DTA's, if you use the digital box on your HDTV, you can do something a little easier. Put the 2-way split on the cable, one leg to the TV RF input, other to the digital box input. Run a composite A/V cable from the digital box into an A/V input on your TV. (you won't need an external A/B switch) Now, you can use your TV remote to switch between the clear QAM cable input & the A/V input from your digital box. BUT, you still will NOT get encrypted HD channels, either.


Thanks for the response. I'm a little dense. I guess what I really wanted to ask and you probably know is, with my digtal HD Panasonic TV with the QAM tuner, will I need in the future to have Comcast's digtial set-top box or digital adapter to view the current Comcast Expanded Basic channels (which I'm guessing appears in analog format now) and the major networks and PBS stations in HD that I can view now? I think you are saying that I willl get the same Comcast Expanded Basic channels and the major networks and PBS stations in HD without either Comcast box/adapter but I am not sure. If true, will I be receiving channels 24 through 72 in analog or digital? I am currently getting channels such as 255-55 (Fox), which is the same as channel 7 Fox. However, I don't think this is Comcast's digital version of Fox as the clarity between channel 7 and 255-55 are the same and channel 255-55 is broadcast in 480i.

Comcast did not explain anything about their equipment in the letter. I assumed a Comcast digital adapter is for analog TV's. Am I right or wrong? In your response you talked about putting a DTA (I assume this is the digital adapter, please tell me if I am wrong) in front of my HDTV, which confused me.

I also assume the Comcast digital set-top box is for people that want Comcast's digital programing, which is not a lot different than Expanded Basic or for people with HD ready TV's without HD tuners.

I believe what he was saying is that the limited basic channels will be the only ones available without a box. (I believe leaving these unencrypted/box-free is a federal requirement.) You WILL need the box/adaptors for expanded basic SD channels. If you want the HD versions of expanded basic channels, you need to fork over the money for an HD capable box.

It is things such as this that make me happy I have D* for my viewing needs and Crapcast for internet and the QAM locals.

correct on all counts, including the D* part! :D

I am currently getting channels such as 255-55 (Fox), which is the same as channel 7 Fox. However, I don't think this is Comcast's digital version of Fox as the clarity between channel 7 and 255-55 are the same and channel 255-55 is broadcast in 480i.

It actually IS - it is an SD digital copy of ch 7 analog. (it's actually on QAM 73.xx, but for some reason, cc has done QAM remaps of the SD OTA's into the 2xx.xx range) The digital boxes/DTA's, will always tune ch 7 to this actual QAM.

The HD copy is on remap 55.1, which IIRC, is on QAM 119.xx.

I just finished a comprehensive clear QAM list for the Spfld headend, including actual QAM #'s & remaps, but haven't had time to memorialize it into a document...

Yet again Crapcast proves how little they care about their customers. I had my HTPC set to record the Olympic opening ceremonies and todays broadcasts while we were out of town. I came back to a whole lot of nothing. WAND's HD feed is gone and even a rescan isn't bringing it back on either the HTPC or the TV. Can anyone enlighten me as to why Comcast decided to screw with their QAM signal the day the Olympics started?

Yet again Crapcast proves how little they care about their customers. I had my HTPC set to record the Olympic opening ceremonies and todays broadcasts while we were out of town. I came back to a whole lot of nothing. WAND's HD feed is gone and even a rescan isn't bringing it back on either the HTPC or the TV. Can anyone enlighten me as to why Comcast decided to screw with their QAM signal the day the Olympics started?

Same for me, too. WICD-DT is gone, too. They were on the same multiplex. There are now standard def digital channels for the networks that weren't there last week (wand is 217-1). I did a chat with comcast support, but they didn't provide anything useful. They're sending a tech over on monday, but I'm sure there was a channel change that caused it.

Well after talking to one worthless Crapcast CSR who tried telling me that they never sent the channels, a supervisor came on the line and said they are trying to figure it out. Sounds like something got screwed up in the process of upgrading the system. I'm hopeful that it'll be corrected but not optimistic.

Well after talking to one worthless Crapcast CSR who tried telling me that they never sent the channels, a supervisor came on the line and said they are trying to figure it out. Sounds like something got screwed up in the process of upgrading the system. I'm hopeful that it'll be corrected but not optimistic.

The tech came out for me today. They had to switch the filter. WICD and WAND are now on channel 65.

I live in Savoy and having the same issues with NBC and ABC with no signal in HD. Do either of you have a cable card? I also just phoned Comcast and they stated they have no info of any problems. I hope they get this resolved?

I live in Savoy and having the same issues with NBC and ABC with no signal in HD. Do either of you have a cable card? I also just phoned Comcast and they stated they have no info of any problems. I hope they get this resolved?

No cable card for me. I just have the very basic cable.

The tech came out for me today. They had to switch the filter. WICD and WAND are now on channel 65.

Thanks for the info. I called back this afternoon and mentioned your fix. They are sending a tech out on Thursday to have a look. The rep seemed to think that the filter was a common sense first approach to fixing the problem.

msajeff,

Did the visit from the tech fix your problem and are the HD channel on a different channel or the same?

thanks

The explanation that I was given for the issue was that when they changed the HD channels to 65, the filter blocked them. Essentially if you get limited basic they block 23-70. Since all of the HD channels were above 70, it didn't matter. However when they made the change the filter was doing it's job by blocking it out. Cable Tech was cool...just pulled out his ladder, made a minor change, and the HD channels were right back where they should be.

From the sounds of it we can kiss QAM goodbye when they make the switch over to all digital. Everything will be blocked from the head and filters won't matter anymore.

Thanks for the info. I have expanded cable and HD shows up above 900. My NBC and ABC channels are 906 and 908. These channels are already digital, so not quite sure why they are absent. I guess i will have to call for a visit.

thanks again

Hi all,

WEIU's site doesn't mention any equipment upgrades or changes, but we're now getting a totally watchable WEIU OTA here in central Urbana. Reception had been very poor for us in the past. It seems too significant an improvement to just be a fluke of the weather.

Take care,
Mike

From the sounds of it we can kiss QAM goodbye when they make the switch over to all digital. Everything will be blocked from the head and filters won't matter anymore.

All limited basic QAM will STILL be unencrypted after the expanded basic analogs are gone, so you won't loose any more digitals than you already get now. As I said in the previous post above, when the expanded basics ARE put in clear QAM, it is ONLY a temporary thing, so again, you haven't had those anyway to count.

Anyone watch the USA / Canada hockey game on DirecTV today? If so, did you have video / audio breakups? I'm trying to determine if I'm having issues or if it was a DirecTV problem. Thanks.

It's not just you. NBC/WAND's been like that on Comcast the past day or two. SNL last night was very choppy; today's been in and out.

TBK

DirecTV 17, WAND OTA 17.1 and 17.2 have been breaking up badly for me for days now. I've used four different OTA tuners and two different DirecTV receivers. Not only have the olympics been breaking up but also local WAND material (news). Things have gone without much problem for a long time and then have gone very bad for periods of time. It seems pretty clear that problem is at WAND, not DirecTV, Comcast, or NBC. I sent off a query to WAND engineering this afternoon when I could not take it any more. I suggest others do likewise.

WMAQ's PQ/AQ has been top notch while yet again this market has their head in the sand. I realize that the cream of the engineering crop goes to the big markets like Chicago but some of this really seems to be paint-by-numbers kind of stuff. Aside from failing to join the 21st century with an HD newscast, WCIA is the one station that seems to "get it." WICD also seems to be moving along nicely. Between the lack of passing 5.1 on FOX, inconsistant 5.1 on the CW, and PQ on NBC you'd think we were in the middle of North Dakota....not 100 miles south of Chicago. Is it too much to ask that our HD stations transmit properly?

And one final comment about WAND... Why is it that they can not switch from the SD mode promo by their horrid weekend weathergirl (and lately the DQ commercial) to HD mode until it's a good 5-10 frames into the program? If they are running that short on time, I'd much rather have a second of blank air than see that twit stand there up with that weird look she does until the program resumes. Then again it is NBC so aside from sports it's not like any of the programming is worth watching...

All limited basic QAM will STILL be unencrypted after the expanded basic analogs are gone, so you won't loose any more digitals than you already get now. As I said in the previous post above, when the expanded basics ARE put in clear QAM, it is ONLY a temporary thing, so again, you haven't had those anyway to count.

In theory, yes. However as the whole filter/moving WICD/WAND to physical channel 65 proved, Comcast can throw a switch and shut down your access to that physical channel at any time. When I called to speak to them the first time, they even stated that they are not required to give you HD locals....just the SD versions. Trust me, if Comcast thinks they can screw you out of a few extra dollars they will.

What antenna and amplifier equipment have you had success with? I currently have a CM-4220 (for the wide angle of reception) and rabbit ears combined with a CM-7778 pre-amp in the attic. The UHF is pointed at WYZZ, Bloomington and VHF is obviously for WILL. Split three ways in the basement, I still get mostly great signal on local channels. What are you all using?

Comcast expanded basic goes digital on Nov. 30....

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/technology/2010-03-09/comcast-customers-watch-your-mail-digital-equipment-information.html

Did Comcast move the location of WCIA-DT? WMC is picking it up but it is invisible to my set and WinTv.

Did Comcast move the location of WCIA-DT? WMC is picking it up but it is invisible to my set and WinTv.
Yes , Just rescan your TV and it should find it.

Already rescanned with WinTV and it didn't help there. I guess I'll just rescan on the TV and see if I can manually add it in on the HTPC.

Has anyone watched WEIU-HD lately, PBS station for EIU. It is channel 915 on Comcast HD. This station is doing something no other station in the area is doing. WEIU is broadcasting their local programs in HD, including their weather broadcasts and even some movies they show at 10:00 pm. I was very surprised to see this from a small PBS affiliate.

Has anyone watched WEIU-HD lately, PBS station for EIU. It is channel 915 on Comcast HD. This station is doing something no other station in the area is doing. WEIU is broadcasting their local programs in HD, including their weather broadcasts and even some movies they show at 10:00 pm. I was very surprised to see this from a small PBS affiliate.

WOW, I'm surprised too - thank you much for this info! I was going to ask you if you were sure it was, because it's been on 915 (which of course is in the HD block) & all this time it has NOT been in HD. I know this because my SD digital converter would tune a picture to it, as well as WCFN-918. Well obviously, it NO longer will tune 915...

WEIU even finally updated their website to reflect this now:

http://www.weiu.net/

Now, if only DirecTV will broadcast it now in HD, since all the other HD locals are up in HD as well...

Is the CW up in HD on D* now?

Is the CW up in HD on D* now?
Yup.

Thank goodness. Guess it's time to move back.

I got my letter from Comcast a few weeks ago as to their supposed upgrade and offer of one free digital box and two free digital adapters.

1. They did not mention whether these devices were for your digital/HD tv or your analog tv. They used phases like primary and other tv's.

2. They offered no explanation as to why after 30 years of viewing analog tv with no box that now you need a digtal box for your digital/HD tv after they have eliminated the analog signal. Sounds like a technological downgrade to me. The real answer is that they have decided to block the expanded basic channels that we have been getting for 30 years unless you get a Comcast box and thereby force you to have on demand capability whether you want it or not.

3. They do not mention whether your tv remote will work the cable box or whether you will need a Comcast remote for either the digital box or digtial adapter. I'm guessing I will have to use their remote which will eliminate fast and easy channel surfing.

4. They did infer that you will be getting digtal picture and sound on your analog tv with the digital adapter. I guess I am an amateur at this as I did not think that was possible on an analog tv.

5. One person on this board, I think it was Dishrich, indicated that you don't want to put the digital adapter on your HD tv or you will lose your HD reception for the local stations (WCIA, WICS, WRSP, WAND, PBS, and WBUI). From his remarks I assume I will not lose my HD reception with these local stations if I use a digital box but I am not sure.

6. I do wonder if my digital DVD player and my analog DVD player will still be able to record programs if they are connected to a Comcast digtial box and digital adapter, respectively. Does anybody know? Also, would my digital DVD player be able to record programs if it is connected to a Comcast HD receiver?

Has anyone else been getting annoying marketing calls from Comcast? They try to mask it as a "service inquiry" but it devolves into a sales pitch. The bastards called/hung up 3 days in a row before they actually said something after I picked up. The guy went into his script and from googling the number I knew where it was going....the minute he shifted into sales I said "not interested" and hung up. Is Crapcast really getting that desperate for customers that they're using telemarketing tactics?

I heard mention of "going HD" on WAND yesterday. I am assuming this means HD news.. Did i hear this right? Anyone heard any details about this?

Dr.

I got my letter from Comcast a few weeks ago as to their supposed upgrade and offer of one free digital box and two free digital adapters.

1. They did not mention whether these devices were for your digital/HD tv or your analog tv. They used phases like primary and other tv's.

2. They offered no explanation as to why after 30 years of viewing analog tv with no box that now you need a digtal box for your digital/HD tv after they have eliminated the analog signal. Sounds like a technological downgrade to me. The real answer is that they have decided to block the expanded basic channels that we have been getting for 30 years unless you get a Comcast box and thereby force you to have on demand capability whether you want it or not.

3. They do not mention whether your tv remote will work the cable box or whether you will need a Comcast remote for either the digital box or digtial adapter. I'm guessing I will have to use their remote which will eliminate fast and easy channel surfing.

4. They did infer that you will be getting digtal picture and sound on your analog tv with the digital adapter. I guess I am an amateur at this as I did not think that was possible on an analog tv.

5. One person on this board, I think it was Dishrich, indicated that you don't want to put the digital adapter on your HD tv or you will lose your HD reception for the local stations (WCIA, WICS, WRSP, WAND, PBS, and WBUI). From his remarks I assume I will not lose my HD reception with these local stations if I use a digital box but I am not sure.

6a. I do wonder if my digital DVD player and my analog DVD player will still be able to record programs if they are connected to a Comcast digtial box and digital adapter, respectively. Does anybody know? 6b. Also, would my digital DVD player be able to record programs if it is connected to a Comcast HD receiver?

Hi Jim,

From afar 60 miles west of CHicago, I think I can still answer your questions.

1. You can put them on your HDTV or SDTV. Doesn't matter. It uses coax out to your TV.

2. It's an upgrade. No more snow. Much more consistent audio, video levels more uniform. Analog frequently had problems with individual channels. Not so much with digital, unless signal levels are way off.

3. Some remotes work with this DTA. From this thread:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22046196-DTA-Remote-to-Control-DTA

The following universal remotes work:

Logitech Harmony ONE
Logitech Harmony 1000
Philips Pronto
One for All 8820
Radio Shack (15-135)

But it's tough to get them to work with the box. And I have heard the DTA's change channels s l o w l y.

4. In the strictest sense, even if it is 1080p, it's always analog to your eyes.
But what they mean is that the transmission format to your residence is digital instead of analog. Theoretically, that should make for a better picture.

5. You can only use RF cable. So, if you had an antenna hooked up to your HDTV, you'd either have to choose between cable or antenna. You could get an A/B switch to change between the two, but that's a hassle.

6a. If you plug the RF cable into the DVD player, you should be able to; then run composite cable to your HDTV.
6b. No, because that video format is incompatible with standard definition DV players/recorders.

I heard mention of "going HD" on WAND yesterday. I am assuming this means HD news.. Did i hear this right? Anyone heard any details about this?

Dr.

I hadn't heard that, but they have usually been ahead of the other locals in adapting the new technologies. Besides the news in HD this also means that syndicated shows will be shown in HD, like The Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, to name a few.

Did you know that WEIU, the PBS station in Charleston is broadcasting their news and local shows in HD? Surprisingly they are the first local station in our area to go HD for local broadcasts. They actually started local broadcasts in HD a couple of months ago. I'm not sure what their digital channel is. Their analog channel was 51, and is available in HD on Comcast at 915.

5. If you connect the DTA using composite cables to your TV, you are fine.
If you use RF cable, then, if you had an antenna hooked up to your HDTV, you'd either have to choose between cable or antenna. You could get an A/B switch to change between the two, but that's a hassle.

Sorry, NONE of the CC DTA's have composite A/V out, ONLY RF 3/4 - he'll have to do the A/B switch-splitter (unless his TV happens to have 2 RF inputs, which pretty much none of them do nowadays)

WAND is planning to broadcast local programming in HD on July 1, 2010. I have noticed that WCIA is remodeling their news center. Have they announced that they will be broadcasting local stuff in HD then?

Sorry, NONE of the CC DTA's have composite A/V out, ONLY RF 3/4 - he'll have to do the A/B switch-splitter (unless his TV happens to have 2 RF inputs, which pretty much none of them do nowadays)

Lovely. OK, I take that back. Yes, A-B it will have to be.

Just got rid of D* and I am using Media Center to receive the QAM channels. Getting quite a few channels and all is looking good EXCEPT WCIA is in standard def??? Can anyone shed any light on this??? Even the guide data that has come indicates SD. This could be a bummer. :mad:

I am on Cass communications if that matters...

Thanks

Are you paying for expanded basic TV service from Cass? If not, they may have a trap on your line that's blocking whatever freq WCIA-HD is on. (I know it's carried on their systems just like the ABC, NBC, etc HD locals)
Have you tried a QAM TV tuner to see if it comes in on it? Are you looking at EVERY possible QAM# that comes in - they may NOT have the PSIP mapping set up correctly. (Comcast here has had several issues on PSIP mapping on some of our QAM HD locals from time to time...)

Are you paying for expanded basic TV service from Cass? If not, they may have a trap on your line that's blocking whatever freq WCIA-HD is on. (I know it's carried on their systems just like the ABC, NBC, etc HD locals)
Have you tried a QAM TV tuner to see if it comes in on it? Are you looking at EVERY possible QAM# that comes in - they may NOT have the PSIP mapping set up correctly. (Comcast here has had several issues on PSIP mapping on some of our QAM HD locals from time to time...)

Nope...not paying for expanded basic (but I do have a cable modem sub). Great idea on the QAM TV tuner. I see CBS from a QAM TV tuner on 68-8 but I can't see this channel through Media Center. Weird....

I have looked through the 160 channels with no luck. What is *very* weird is the CBS channel that I am picking up through my Media Center PC that is not in HD is from Quincy. The one off my TV QAM is the Champaign CBS I would expect.

All my other channels I pick up Fox, NBC, ABC, FOX, and others like ESPN all are coming i nin HD. Now if I can only get CBS in HD.....

Thanks

Nope...not paying for expanded basic (but I do have a cable modem sub).

Well are you still getting analog expanded basic service? If not, then you most definitely are trapped, & possibly WCIA-HD is in the range of the trap.

What is *very* weird is the CBS channel that I am picking up through my Media Center PC that is not in HD is from Quincy.

The Cass Virgina headend stopped carrying CBS & NBC from Quincy in analog some time ago, but DOES still carry them in SD digital only. (it's right on their channel lineup sheets)

http://home.casscomm.com/media/channel_lineups/VIRGINIA_3682010125018PM245.pdf

The one off my TV QAM is the Champaign CBS I would expect. Well since your system does ADS, you should see both a digital SD AND an HD version of it, & normally neither should be encrypted. Could still be a trap issue.

All my other channels I pick up Fox, NBC, ABC, FOX, and others like ESPN all are coming i nin HD. Now if I can only get CBS in HD.....

I'm actually surprised you're getting HD cable stations like ESPN, which means obviously they are NOT encrypted - pretty rare for a cable system to NOT encrypt something like this.

Thanks for the in-depth replies Rich....

I feel very lucky for the channels that I do get. The only thing I don't understand is that my scans from my QAM TV show the Champaign CBS in its full glory but from the tuner card/WMC I cannot get this channel??? That is the only bummer. Very strange....:confused:

WAND, Decatur, just started broadcasting their local news in HD, today, June 26th. They originally were scheduled to start on Thursday, July 1, but started with the 6:00 pm news tonight.

WAND, Decatur, just started broadcasting their local news in HD, today, June 26th. They originally were scheduled to start on Thursday, July 1, but started with the 6:00 pm news tonight.

No matter how great their picture is, it won't improve their reporting. And now we get to see their stupid 3d weather in more vibrant colors. When storms hit the area, their people can get an even bigger weather woody now. Kudos to WCIA for their new set however

No matter how great their picture is, it won't improve their reporting. And now we get to see their stupid 3d weather in more vibrant colors. When storms hit the area, their people can get an even bigger weather woody now. Kudos to WCIA for their new set however
Yes, I also think WAND stays on the air way too long when they interrupt programming to report severe weather. I swear they are going to come on the air and say -- "There is no severe weather in the area, but we are going to stay here until we find some."

I also like WCIA's new studio, but I wish they would start broadcasting their news in HD. It would even look better.

I also like WCIA's new studio, but I wish they would start broadcasting their news in HD. It would even look better.

Don't keep your hopes up. Nexstar recently had to completely rebuild KSNF in Joplin, MO due to the tower falling on the building, and did not opt to go HD. If they won't do it on a completely new installation, I personally wouldn't hold out much hope of them swapping out gear in places it's not necessary.

- Trip

Don't keep your hopes up. Nexstar recently had to completely rebuild KSNF in Joplin, MO due to the tower falling on the building, and did not opt to go HD. If they won't do it on a completely new installation, I personally wouldn't hold out much hope of them swapping out gear in places it's not necessary.
- Trip

I realize my hope is probably just wishful thinking. Of the four or five local stations, WCIA was the last station to broadcast in HD. As long as the ratings and revenues continue, I don't see WCIA going HD locally for a long time.

WCIA is the only local station worth a damn. So does HD make the weekend weather twit any more (un)bearable? WAND needs to clean house. Their weekday anchor comes across as a moron, the weekend weather chick looks like she just staggered in from a frat party, and the production values are worse than most of what you see in far northern WI.

They ought to have a term limit on people here....if you're not the best in the area and have been on the air here longer than 5 years, it's time to move on down the line and let someone else have a shot. Dave Benton was one of those guys who was in Wausau, WI and then moved up to this market and is perfect here. On the other hand, the WAND weekday guy is as bad as the weekend anchor in Rhinelander, WI.

WAND, Decatur, just started broadcasting their local news in HD, today, June 26th. They originally were scheduled to start on Thursday, July 1, but started with the 6:00 pm news tonight.

have you noticed if they are relaying any syndicated programming that is in HD in actual HD yet? that really is more important than local HD

have you noticed if they are relaying any syndicated programming that is in HD in actual HD yet? that really is more important than local HD

They haven't been showing any syndicated shows in HD yet. I too think that is more important. When WEIU in Charleston started broadcasting their news in HD, they also started showing all their local programming in HD, as well.

Happened to catch the news on Saturday night. Fairly impressive PQ...it reminds me of what I'd expect from a high school broadcast if their studio was given HD equipment. The stretchorama reports were brutal. You'd think they could at least go to Best Buy and grab a couple HD camcorders until they got real equipment.

Weather report wasn't too bad either. Looks like she may have been handicapped by the 80s graphics they had before the upgrade. Now if they could just find a way to fill the more noticable gap on the anchor... ;)

I currently built an HTPC and I've noticed that the audio is off by between a .5-1 second for WICDDT. All other channels are working fine. Is anyone else experiencing this or ever experienced this? If you have, how did you solve it?

What other info would you need to help diagnose what's going on?

WICD-DT was OK....the problem was with WCCU-DT, 27.1 earlier on Monday, 7-26. It's since been corrected.

Any word on if the station is going to get it's act together and finally simulcast the Bears preseason games in HD?

Hey all,

It's been a bit since I posted anything but in case anyone is keeping score or whatever you want to call it, I just wanted to say that I am no longer the Assistant Engineer for WRSP WCCU WBUI television.

I guess mostly I didn't want anyone thinking I had abandoned the feedback here or anything with no more replies.

This was not by any fault of myself or the station, I have simply moved on to better opportunities.

PS, I have no idea if the Bears Preseason games will be in HD or not this year.
--
Josh Miller begin_of_the_skype_highlighting*****end_of_the_skype_highlig hting

No HD tonight on the Bears/Chargers game on Fox 27.1? The picture looks like crap. :(

No HD tonight on the Bears/Chargers game on Fox 27.1? The picture looks like crap. :(

Sorry, Stan. Definitely HD in Chicago on WFLD-DT 31 (32.1).

WCCU should be ashamed of themselves. I saw their OTA feed and it looked as bad as some of the MNF broadcasts in the 70s. Thank god I have access to WFLD...I feel bad for the Crapcast customers (and those who don't know how to get WFLD) in the WCCU market. I'm a STH and i for one will be calling both the Bears and WFLD in the morning to lodge a complaint regarding WCCU. I highly doubt they will be happy to hear what this backwoods hick operation is doing to their product. (Yes, I remember Josh's explanation last year about the quality but really, that's not a valid excuse in this day of government mandated digital signals.)

Edit: It's nice to know that they actually do care. When I talked to WFLD they said they couldn't do anything since they are just middlemen for the broadcasts. The team wasn't happy at all and said they'd take address the issue with WFLD. Did anyone by chance use a TV capture card to record the game on thier computer? I'm thinking a snapshot of how bad the quality was would go a long way to forcing a fix to the issue. I'm hoping if it's an equipment issue (as Josh suggested last year) that perhaps they'll yank the rights from WCCU and offer them to WAND who should have the equipment now that they've done their upgrade.

Once again, Fox does not show the Bears game in HD. To add insult to injury is the "HD" logo on the screen in the top score bar.

The SD picture looks like ass.

Fox is lame, as usual.

At this point I'm just going to buy the Hauppauge PVR and transfer the WFLD HD feed from my sat DVR to the computer. I feel bad for you guys that are stuck with WCCU on Comcast and don't have the option to grab the Chicago feeds. I never asked but I may call my contact with the organization this week and see if there is anything in the contracts tying them to WCCU or if they could go to WAND next year. Perhaps if a lot of us start complaining they'll consider making the switch (if they can contractually.) I suspect that the last thing WCCU would want is to lose the preseason broadcasts since they essentially set up their advertising (and advertiser's rates.)

Not sure how it used to be but I remember Green Bay would have their preseason telecasts on WFRV which at the time was an ABC station. It's not like they HAVE to go with a FOX affiliate.

I just hope they get this Comcrap stuff figured out before the regular season starts. Otherwise I'll be on the horn with Direct TV.

It's not Comcast's fault...it's WCCU that is living in the stone ages. Like I said, unless you have sat where you came figure out a way around being stuck with Champaign locals you're at the mercy of WCCU and the other minor league stations in the area. If I remember from Josh's post last year, it has to do with WCCU not having the ability to retransmit a feed received from another station....they can retransmit (passthrough) a feed from the national feeds. So the Bears will be on WCCU in HD once the regular season begins and thankfully for you guys they don't have a 3pm game so you won't miss kickoffs. (Still can't believe the idiots at WCCU didn't have to/wouldn't cut away to it.)

Thanks msajeff for the update. Lets just hope who ever is picking up the regular season games will have the retransmit capability.

SD does look terrible on any plasma or LCD. It takes an old CRT TV to make SD look decent. I have yet to see SD on any flat panel look good.

It also looks horrid on my normally sized computer monitor. At this point I don't really care. Like I said, I have access to WFLD and have a HD PVR capture device that's being delivered tomorrow.

On another note, WAND is still looking awesome via our PC's QAM tuner. I jusst wish their end of commercial break weather spots were updated to HD so that it wasn't such as abrupt cut to the network HD feed of SNL and SNF.

WCCU should be ashamed of themselves. I saw their OTA feed and it looked as bad as some of the MNF broadcasts in the 70s. Thank god I have access to WFLD...I feel bad for the Crapcast customers (and those who don't know how to get WFLD) in the WCCU market. I'm a STH and i for one will be calling both the Bears and WFLD in the morning to lodge a complaint regarding WCCU. I highly doubt they will be happy to hear what this backwoods hick operation is doing to their product. (Yes, I remember Josh's explanation last year about the quality but really, that's not a valid excuse in this day of government mandated digital signals.)

Edit: It's nice to know that they actually do care. When I talked to WFLD they said they couldn't do anything since they are just middlemen for the broadcasts. The team wasn't happy at all and said they'd take address the issue with WFLD. Did anyone by chance use a TV capture card to record the game on thier computer? I'm thinking a snapshot of how bad the quality was would go a long way to forcing a fix to the issue. I'm hoping if it's an equipment issue (as Josh suggested last year) that perhaps they'll yank the rights from WCCU and offer them to WAND who should have the equipment now that they've done their upgrade.



the reality is, bears fans will still watch the garbage picture

the tv stations are in it for the money, and then the glory. more than likely the pre-season package costs a bundle, leaving little for upgrads as it is. spending that kind of money on 12 hours of programming in one year would be silly.

the only way to fix it is for viewers with the nielsen boxes and books to not watch it.

They haven't been showing any syndicated shows in HD yet. I too think that is more important. When WEIU in Charleston started broadcasting their news in HD, they also started showing all their local programming in HD, as well.

yeah, it is too different sets up equipment to do both, although they share a path

the syndicated shows have to be recorded, and then replayed through automation with local ads and what not, a significant upgrade.

the local broadcast stuff needs HD production and local ingest capability along with output


i too would rather have the top notch syndicated programming in HD rather than the high school news, but it is a step, and a more marketable one for the stations

Capped the Comcast local feed in case the storms screwed with the satellite. (Thankfully it didn't!) I may be thinking it was worse than it was in week 1 but tonight's broadcast seemed a bit better on WCCU.

WEIU was showing the movie The Mighty Wind in 1:78 to 1 HD and it looked great.

I have just disconnected my cable and now I have only OTA. I had the OTA digital feed for CBS out of Springfield (channel was 49-2 or something) off a DirecTV receiver from my antenna in my attic at one time.

Now Looking at TVFool I have no CBS channel available in the Springfield area. It looks like I will need to get a preamp or amplifier to get WMBD out of Peoria.

Ideas from anyone?? I live about 12 miles north of Springfield.

Thanks

You need to look for WCFN-DT 13 (49-1). It may have My Network TV listed as its affiliation on TVFool.

- Trip

CBS-HD is STILL on WCFN-DT 49-2, but is on RF13. It's actually a very strong signal, (MUCH stronger than when it was on RF53) so I'm very surprised you can't pull it in - even being 12 miles north of Spfld.
Is your attic antenna a UHF only - if so, that may be your problem, particularly being in an attic. (attics DO cut down on signal considerably, depending on house/roof construction)
Also, do you have it pointed properly - it should be pointed toward Mechanicsbug, since that is where the WCFN tower is (along w/WICS & WRSP)
An amp might help, but the antenna still needs SOME signal to amplify - if you aren't getting squat at the antenna, you're only amping noise. ;)

FYI - this past weekend I just installed a Winegard HD7078P V/U outside antenna in an attic down in Chatham & I had NO problem pulling in WCFN-DT - matter of fact, it pulled in EVERY local channel (including WILL-DT) & WITHOUT any kind of amp.

CBS-HD is STILL on WCFN-DT 49-2, but is on RF13. It's actually a very strong signal, (MUCH stronger than when it was on RF53) so I'm very surprised you can't pull it in - even being 12 miles north of Spfld.
Is your attic antenna a UHF only - if so, that may be your problem, particularly being in an attic. (attics DO cut down on signal considerably, depending on house/roof construction)
Also, do you have it pointed properly - it should be pointed toward Mechanicsbug, since that is where the WCFN tower is (along w/WICS & WRSP)
An amp might help, but the antenna still needs SOME signal to amplify - if you aren't getting squat at the antenna, you're only amping noise. ;)

FYI - this past weekend I just installed a Winegard HD7078P V/U outside antenna in an attic down in Chatham & I had NO problem pulling in WCFN-DT - matter of fact, it pulled in EVERY local channel (including WILL-DT) & WITHOUT any kind of amp.


Thanks
Yes my antenna is UHF (4 Bay 4221). When I had a preamp on I had no problems getting WCFN. (My preamp shot craps). What is weird I can get WEEK on the backside from this antenna.

I am not sure if I can fit that 7078 in my attic although the WAF is not important now the SO is no more I guess I can just drop the sucker in the front lawn. :D

Thanks
Yes my antenna is UHF (4 Bay 4221). When I had a preamp on I had no problems getting WCFN. (My preamp shot craps).

Again, that was probably BEFORE WCFN switched to RF13 - if it was still on RF53, it WOULD probably still work. WCFN did not switch to RF13 until June 2009 & your current antenna was NOT made to pick up VHF freqs. ;) ;)
Also, did you actually totally REMOVE your pre-amp out of your downlead - if it broken, it will not pass the TV signals properly. ;)

What is weird I can get WEEK on the backside from this antenna.

Not really weird, as you're actually probably getting it more off the side than back. (if you are pointing it toward the Spfld stations, Peoria would be straight north of you off the side of the antenna) All of the Peoria stations are actually fairly easy to pull in north of Spfld.

I am not sure if I can fit that 7078 in my attic although the WAF is not important now the SO is no more I guess I can just drop the sucker in the front lawn. :D

Well that's a tad low for good reception. :D But seriously, having it outside the house would be best.
But, if you insist on the attic, here's an equivalent Winegard antenna that will get you all locals, sans the VHF low band elements. (ch 2-6) Since those are the widest elements, this newer antenna is more narrower than the 7078:

http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/HD7695P.pdf

You might be surprised to find that you might be able to pull in WILL-DT yourself. (it's on RF9)

Also another tip - since you are so far north, it should NOT be hard to pull in the Peoria-Bloomington stations. Since your bow-tie isn't really suited for all the Spfld locals, simply turn it toward the north & you should be able to get the P/B channels. Run a separate coax to your set from the new antenna for Spfld & use an A/B switch to switch between the 2 antennas & WALLA - you now have locals from BOTH markets! :)

Wow ...where is the embarrassed emoticon when you need it??? *Thanks* for all your input Dishrich. I thought for sure the channel came in as 3-1...omfg. Of course you said 49-2 several times and I couldn't get it through my thick skull. 49-2 comes in at about 80% signal strength. woohooo

Thanks for the suggestion about an A/B switch but I have a Windows 7 Media Center that is being fed by an Averco Dual tuner (QAM) and a dual tuner HDHomeRun. (I just added the HDHomeRun plugged into the antenna in the attic).

I miss DirecTV but this setup is working out great.

I have had cable tv for 28 years but never had a cable box. I just hooked up my Comcast basic settop box (not digital adapter) to my digital DVD player with coax and the DVD player to my digital HDTV with QAM tuner with coax, also. I also have a HDMI connection from my DVD player to the HDTV. I even hooked up the left, right and video connections from the settop box to the DVD player, also.

Before today with just the Comcast coax cable from the wall to my DVD player and coax from the DVD to the HDTV and with the HDMI connection between the DVD and HDTV, I was able to get the local channels (CBS/WCIA, ABC/WCIS, NBC/WAND, and the PBS channels) in high definition.
Now with the box I cannot get the the local channels In HD. I called Comcast and got someone in Louisiana and she said that I have to have a high definition box in order to get the local channels in HD.

1. Is this true?


2. Obviously, I can unhook the Comcast box and go back the old way to get the HD local channels but not be able to get channels 24 through 72 after Comcast does their switchover in November and December for our area. As Comcast has stated that you will not need a box for the basic channels (2 to 23) even after December, although I wonder if that will change in the future. Is there an alternative to get the HD local channels and still get channels 24 to 72 on my HDTV?

I thought about splitting the cable coming out of the wall and send the signal straight to the TV and the other to Comcast cable box. Then i would watch channels 2 to 23 on the HDTV and channels 24 to 72 with my DVD player. Althought the last time I tried to spilt the signal between the TV and the DVD player without the Comcast cable box, the signal was good on the TV but snowy on the DVD player.

Any help would be appreciated as I don't want to pay Comcast $8 a month for HDTV that I already had.

Thanks

Well first of all, hooking a cable box to your DVD player makes no sense at all to me, so I haven't a clue what you're trying to accomplish here. (I've also never heard of a "coax input" on a DVD player, either :confused: :confused: ) It sounds like you're making it more complicated than necessary - if your DVD player has an HDMI output, that is ALL you should need to the TV.

Bottom line - if you don't want to spring for the HD box, then your only alternatives are:

- If your TV has an extra A/V input (yellow, white & red inputs), split the cable, then run 1 output to the cable box, the other output to the TV ant input. THEN, run an A/V cable from the A/V outs on the cable box, into those A/V inputs on the TV. You can then watch the local HD's on the TV tuner, then when you want to watch cable channels, switch the TV input to the A/V input above for the cable box, then change channels on the cable box. Since you can change TV inputs on the TV remote, you don't even have to get out of your chair to change between the cable box & straight cable feed. :) ;)

- If your TV does NOT have an A/V input, then split the cable, then run 1 output to one side of an A/B coax switch, the other output to the cable in on the box. Run the TV out on the cable box to the other side of the A/B switch. You'll have to put the TV on ch 3 when you flip the switch to the box output - then use the TV tuner when the switch is flipped to the straight cable feed.

As far as not needing a box for 2-22, I don't see this lasting forever, either. CC has already eliminated ALL analog channels (including limited basics) on a few systems, & is looking to eventually expand this to other systems. So far, they HAVE kept the limited basics on CLEAR QAM (NOT encrypted) on these systems...

Well first of all, hooking a cable box to your DVD player makes no sense at all to me, so I haven't a clue what you're trying to accomplish here. (I've also never heard of a "coax input" on a DVD player, either :confused: :confused: ) It sounds like you're making it more complicated than necessary - if your DVD player has an HDMI output, that is ALL you should need to the TV.

Bottom line - if you don't want to spring for the HD box, then your only alternatives are:

- If your TV has an extra A/V input (yellow, white & red inputs), split the cable, then run 1 output to the cable box, the other output to the TV ant input. THEN, run an A/V cable from the A/V outs on the cable box, into those A/V inputs on the TV. You can then watch the local HD's on the TV tuner, then when you want to watch cable channels, switch the TV input to the A/V input above for the cable box, then change channels on the cable box. Since you can change TV inputs on the TV remote, you don't even have to get out of your chair to change between the cable box & straight cable feed. :) ;)

As far as not needing a box for 2-22, I don't see this lasting forever, either. CC has already eliminated ALL analog channels (including limited basics) on a few systems, & is looking to eventually expand this to other systems. So far, they HAVE kept the limited basics on CLEAR QAM (NOT encrypted) on these systems...

First of all, thanks Dishrich.

Second, when I was referring to making coax connections between devices, I was referring to the Comcast cable and the AR cables that you buy at Best Buy which may be considered RG-6 cables now instead of the old standard 75 ohm coaxial cable.
Third, I should have said DVD recorder instead of DVD player. The Comcast manual says to connect the cable from the wall outlet to the settop box first and the box to the DVD recorder second and the DVD recorder to the HDTV. I would think you would want to do that anyway if you want to record any TV shows.

I tried my way first to get the local HD channels and it did work. I tried your way and it works better. The only possible downside with your way is that with connecting the left, right and video cables from the settop box to the HDTV, I am left with connecting the settop box to the DVD recorder with the RG-6 cable to the output and input terminals, respectively. However, for recording purposes I don't know if there is much difference usually the RG-6 cable versus the A/V cables.

Thanks for the future information regarding channels 2 to 22.

I have to say I am not excited about paying Comcast an extra $8 amonth for HD when I have been geting it for free for 3 years. I realize I would get all the channels in HD for $8.

In all seriousness, I would be happy to buy you lunch sometime or 1/2 hour of consulting time for your help if that is allowed on this website.

Jim, check your PM if you would like some more assistance...

A couple other tidbits I'll add - for our purposes of discussion, "75 ohm" & "RG6" cable is one & then same - bottom line, it's the RF inputs/outputs that you are speaking of - & now that you are telling me it's a DVD recorder, THAT makes way more sense. ;)

Yes, both recording & viewing programming out of the digital box will look better, & sound better (& in STEREO), out of the A/V outputs than using the coax (ch 3) output. As you can see, there is ONLY 1 set of A/V outputs on those digital boxes. While you could put a Y adaptor on the L/R audio outs, the video will probably degrade if you try this on the video output. There are inexpensive A/V distribution amps that take a single A/V output & split it 3-4 ways, which would be the correct way to do it.

If you don't want to do this, then another way to do it - run the A/V outputs from the digital box directly to the A/V inputs on the DVD recorder. Then, using the HDMI cable from the DVD recorder, you would have to leave the DVD recorder turned on & on the line input that the digital box is connected to, in order to watch thru the digital box out to the TV.

Of course, you can't use the RF out on the digital box to the TV, since you are also wanting to run the straight cable directly to it for the local HD - but you could run both if you put an A/B switch on the coax input to the TV. (1 side to the straight cable, the other side to the RF output on the digital box)

I got to be honest with you, while I am NOT making a sales pitch for Comcast in ANY way, you really should consider getting one of their DVR's. You would be able to actually record in HD (your DVD recorder obviously does NOT do this), have 2 tuners to record 2 shows at once, while still watching a 3rd pre-recorded show, skip commercials on pre-recorded shows, & obviously get the rest of the HD channels that are part of your cable pkg. You set shows directly off the guide with 1 touch & they automatically record with the guide listing data, so if shows change dates/times, the DVR follows along.
You can also hook up your DVD recorder very easily to the DVR & copy any shows you want to keep off the DVR to DVD. (the DVD's will NOT be in HD, of course)

After having a DVR for a few days, you'll wonder how you lived without one!!!

the tv stations are in it for the money, and then the glory. more than likely the pre-season package costs a bundle, leaving little for upgrads as it is. spending that kind of money on 12 hours of programming in one year would be silly.


This is more or less the case. The preseason games come from an independent provider, the regular season games are provided by Fox. Getting the HD feed would require extra receivers and switching equipment since the Fox network HD is all handled by a special network setup.

This goes for the syndicated content, which also, as you mentioned in the next post would require special video servers.

W33AY-LD on channel 33 is now on the air. What's on the mighty 4 kilowatt station? ;)

HSN.

- Trip

Nice to see Comcast finally coming through some new HD channels for our system. I like having more choices, although I really have to search to find them. I wish all the HD channels could be put all together.

Irritated that WAND and WICD won't invest in graphics for HD. WAND was showing the SNF game in SD. To make matters worse, their graphics for school closings was running right over the network graphics showing the score of the football game. I had to rely on the announcers to let me know what the score was.

Anyone else having problems getting guide info for the new Comcast channels? They're not up on the Comcast website, which I think may be the problem.

You should be getting a complete channel lineup in your next bill, complete with all the new HD (& other SD) channel adds. (I just got mine Monday)

Anyone else having problems getting guide info for the new Comcast channels? They're not up on the Comcast website, which I think may be the problem.

I put together a list of all the new channels from the mailing we got a few weeks ago. I combined the channels that were available on December 1 with the ones available on December 15. Here is a pdf file of the channels I have. I only included the new HBO channels, because I don't have any other subscription packages. Including the new HBO channels, I have over 45 new HD channels.

Except the OP didn't tell us WHICH system he's on - the C/U & S/D headends have slightly different channel lineups.

I'm on the Champaignn-Urbana system, and I know all the channels we're supposed to get, but I'm not getting guide information for the majority of them on my TiVo. Until yesterday at 3:30pm-ish I wasn't getting guide info for *any* of the new channels, but was able to tune to them.

Yesterday they made available the second batch, and I got a service update saying that a mix of the 12/1 and 12/15 batches had been added, but not all of them.

Without guide info, I'm unable to record anything on these channels. I can check the SD version to see what's currently playing, but can't schedule recordings. Guide info *is* available on the Comcast cable box, but I only use that for VOD purposes.

Looks like it's going to happen: WAND-DT is heading back to 17!

http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db1230/DA-10-2426A1.pdf

Anyone know when or if WSEC's Springfield translator still on analog channel 8 will be going digital? Lately I have been lucky to get a signal in the 40s on WSEC's main signal here downtown (I'm in a second floor apartment).

WSEC's Springfield translator will not be going digital because they are in debt and can not afford to upgrade it.

Any idea on when (or if) our Sinclair-owned WICS and WICD will be adding Cool TV and/or Country Network? The Cool TV site has been saying that at least WICD 15.2 is supposed to be an affiliate of that network. Meanwhile, Peoria has had Cool on WYZZ-43.2 since about November, and I've noticed that even KDNL in St. Louis might already have both Cool and Country Network. Would any of you be surprised to see our local Sinclair affiliates decide to drop the ball on both of these fledging music networks, even though they are already being offered on their stations in Peoria and St. Louis?

WSEC's Springfield translator will not be going digital because they are in debt and can not afford to upgrade it.

Here's my thought on Network Knowledge's situation--and I'm not sure if it would be feasible at this point due to the state's budget situation as well. (Some of this may be more appropriate for the Quincy/Hannibal thread--and perhaps even Davenport--but hardly anyone ever reads or posts on the Q/H subject thread).

If WQEC Quincy, per the 41 dBu service contour maps through the FCC's page, is now able to get such a signal knocking on the door of Macomb, what would be the point of Network Knowledge continuing to own WMEC in Macomb?

If the state had a better budget situation, while considering that WIU now owns WQPT in the Quad Cities, what about this idea: Network Knowledge selling WMEC to WIU and make channel 22 (DT 21) a repeater of WQPT. To me that seems like it would make more sense if the state ever got out of its budget morass--not to mention a WIU-owned PBS station in WIU's home city--and be kind of like an "addition by subtraction" for part of the Quincy market since WQPT airs MHzW as their subchannel rather than repeating Create or World from WQEC (some of which is aired by KQIN in the Quad Cities). What do you think?

Any idea on when (or if) our Sinclair-owned WICS and WICD will be adding Cool TV and/or Country Network? The Cool TV site has been saying that at least WICD 15.2 is supposed to be an affiliate of that network. Meanwhile, Peoria has had Cool on WYZZ-43.2 since about November, and I've noticed that even KDNL in St. Louis might already have both Cool and Country Network. Would any of you be surprised to see our local Sinclair affiliates decide to drop the ball on both of these fledging music networks, even though they are already being offered on their stations in Peoria and St. Louis?

Here's the story:
We've had the CoolTv equipment at WICD for sometime, but the CoolTv people can't make the server work with the EAS box we have. (Having the same problem in some of our other markets).
At WICS, we just got the Country Network equipment last week and we're trying to solve a encoder input issue...maybe next week.
AT WYZZ, we have CoolTv on, Also, just got the Country server the other week and I'm waiting for them to get the EAS to work.

Hope to solve all these issues soon!

So wait, you're only going to air Cool TV on WICD and TCN on WICS? Or did I misunderstand your message?

- Trip

So wait, you're only going to air Cool TV on WICD and TCN on WICS? Or did I misunderstand your message?

- Trip

Thats correct: CoolTv on WICD and Country Network on WICS.

Thats correct: CoolTv on WICD and Country Network on WICS.

OK, so considering that each station serves separate parts of our DMA, & that VERY few parts of our DMA can get BOTH signals - WHY are you doing a different sub on each station??? :eek:

OK, so considering that each station serves separate parts of our DMA, & that VERY few parts of our DMA can get BOTH signals - WHY are you doing a different sub on each station??? :eek:

That's a good question...decision made by someone else. However, it does give the bit rate headroom on each station. With the new encoders that hasn't been a problem though.

Is anyone else missing the PSIP for 49-2??? Running OTA just north of Springfield. All other channels have info. This is the only one saying "No Data". (I posted this in the Peoria, IL thread by mistake...arggggg)

Thanks

Just noticed this afternoon that The Country Network is now on the air in Springfield through WICS 20.2. Is Cool TV now on the air in C/U on WICD 15.2? But AFAIK, still not on Comcast's digital lineup yet.

Just noticed this afternoon that The Country Network is now on the air in Springfield through WICS 20.2. Is Cool TV now on the air in C/U on WICD 15.2? But AFAIK, still not on Comcast's digital lineup yet.

We're still waiting for CoolTV to fix an Emergency Broadcast warning issue at WICD.

Just noticed this afternoon that The Country Network is now on the air in Springfield through WICS 20.2... But AFAIK, still not on Comcast's digital lineup yet.

Evidently CC DID add TCN to the QAM signal here in Spfld, because it is now coming up on 20.2 on my clear QAM tuner. Doesn't appear to be mapped to their digital boxes yet.

Is anyone else missing the PSIP for 49-2??? Running OTA just north of Springfield. All other channels have info. This is the only one saying "No Data". (I posted this in the Peoria, IL thread by mistake...arggggg)

Thanks

The PSIP for 49-2 is now showing up again. It's magic. :rolleyes:

T

I have Comcast cable in Springfield with my HD and analog TV's. I have the digital starter package with the digital adapter for my analog and the digital receiver for my HD TV. About 6 weeks ago, about half of the channels from 24 to 72 are now shown in what I call super wide screen, whcih it appears to be in the 2.35/1 format instead of the 16/9 or 1.78/1 format. In other words I have black bars on top and bottom for both my HD and analopg tv's for some of the channels. It's not my TV setups obviously, it's Comcast because channels such as ESPN, AMC and CNN are in super widescreen but channels such as MSNBC, Big Ten Network and TNT are in the standard format that fills the screen on both the HD and Analog TV's. The major network channels are full screen both on the analog TV with channels such as 3, 12 and 17etc. and on the HD TV with the HD channels such as 3-1, 12-1, 17-1,etc.

Do any of you know what is going on with Comcast that makes some of these channels appear in super wide screen?

Is it going to stay like this or are all of the channels going to super wide screen or is this something that Comcast needs to fix?

I did not pay $2400 for a HD TV that I only get 75% of the screen filled.

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

Do any of you know what is going on with Comcast that makes some of these channels appear in super wide screen?

Is it going to stay like this or are all of the channels going to super wide screen or is this something that Comcast needs to fix?

It's not actually CC's fault; those cable networks themselves are doing this, & some have been doing this for almost a year. It's the same thing for ALL provider's SD channel feeds on these particular networks, including on SD only sat subs.

Simply put, these networks, such as Fox News, CNN, HLN, E!, etc. made a business decision, on the SD feeds to cable & sat providers, to send a letterbox version. The reason being - when they were previously sending a full-screen feed, they were obviously center-cutting their wide-screen picture, which means they could not put "important" information on the sides of the screen. (of course, the HD feed would be full screen on an HDTV) They really wanted to utilize ALL the screen real estate for all viewers - & also, wanted to stop having to mess with having to keep center-cutting their SD feed. So now, everyone gets the same feed - but SD subs have to look at top/bottom bars.

Now, the reason why you do not have this problem on the local channel SD feeds, is because CC is using either direct SD feeds from the TV stations, &/or is using OTA SD downconverters for the SD feeds, that utilize AFD (active format description) to automatically switch the SD feeds between center-cut & letterbox, depending on the program; it is set by the broadcaster &/or TV network:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Format_Description

So your "fixes" are:
- change your TV's aspect setting to "zoom" (center-cut) the picture yourself; of course, you'll have to change it manually on non-letterboxed channels.

- pay up for an HD box; at least Comcast DOES actually carry many of these feeds in HD - I'm still waiting on D* to add the HD feeds of many of these channels CC, DISH & U-verse ALL have! So in my case, I'm paying D* for HD service, & STILL getting these in SD letterbox on my HDTV's! :mad: :mad: :rolleyes:

Bottom line - it's only going to get WORSE as more & more networks w/HD feeds, choose to also ONLY send a letterbox SD feed; it's cheaper & easier to manage.

I see that TheCoolTV is finally on-air on 41.2. I decided to rescan for stations (hoping this rain would be good for at least a band opening, I did get a partial decode out of Decatur, which I usually don't). RabbitEars apparently shows it as on air, too. How recently did they finally get it on air?

It started on Friday March 25.

I'm glad that channel 49's schedule is over for Chicago Bulls game. It was hard to to watch on that channel in sd, when the rest of their schedule is on Comcast Chicago, WGN, TNT & ABC in HD. My question to the engineers is, why is their SD so blurry? I first thought it was from the uplink to Directv, but when I tried off the air on 3.2, the picture was just as bad. Their other programs on that channel aren't that fuzzy, mostly Bulls games.

I did not pay $2400 for a HD TV that I only get 75% of the screen filled.

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

If you want your TV to fill the screen, then you need to "pony up" for the HD channels. BTW, those black bars are there so people with the old 1:33:1 aspect ratio TVs receive the same content as the 1:78:1 HDTVs.

As far as Bulls games on channel 49, they also look terrible on Comcast cable, as well.

This may be slightly offtopic but has anyone else in the rural Champaign county area noticed their Comcast Internet speeds suffering lately? I've been running tests and they are coming back 20-30% slower than usual....OFFPEAK.

I'm currently trying to tune in WILL and WBUI from Danville. Given that both are more than 50 miles away according to TV Fool, that Danville is on lower ground than most of the rest of the market, and that I'm using an indoor antenna, I'm not too optimistic about tuning them in, but I'd like to give it a try.

My current antenna is a Terk HDTVa, located at ground level. It handles WICD and W31BX just fine and even manages WCCU (which I've had problems with on my previous antenna) and WCIA. Sure, it only gets ~35% on WCIA, but that works well enough. I highly doubt that I'll be able to tune in WBUI, but I'd like to give it a try. As for WILL, that's the big question. I'm not too confident in the HDTVa's VHF elements. How good are the HDTVa's rabbit ears?

Also, I'd like to know if there is any talk of GOCOM starting a subchannel on 26.2 and 55.2. It just struck me that they're the last station in the market without a subchannel of some sort.

Edit: In addition to the above issues, I'm less than a mile from WDNL's FM transmitter, so I'd like to know a little about FM filters, too.

Anyone know what is happening at WAND with their HD signal? Since last night, Wednesday, 6/8, WAND is not broadcasting in HD on Comcast. Is this also the case for over the air signal, as well?

Equipment failure. Repairs in progress as we speak.

Thanks for the update. I thought that was the problem.

If you want your TV to fill the screen, then you need to "pony up" for the HD channels. BTW, those black bars are there so people with the old 1:33:1 aspect ratio TVs receive the same content as the 1:78:1 HDTVs.

As far as Bulls games on channel 49, they also look terrible on Comcast cable, as well.

I know this is a old post, but I wanted to reply specifically about OTA signals, not the Comcast HD package and aspect ratios.

What I've seen so far with digital OTA is that not even the network broadcasts HD all of the time it seems, and many of the commercial spots - also network, not locally originated - are SD. This is my MAJOR gripe with the digital TV system in our area, or maybe the entire country. SD looks like crap on a HD LCD TV - maybe it would look OK on a plasma, but I don't have one to compare. The PQ of SD on a quality LCD TV fares very poorly compared to either of my Sony XBR SD CRT TVs. So, I have a great HD picture often on the LCD, but a crappy picture a fair amount of the time because of the program content. And, it appears that only WAND's news is in HD, so one has to put up with the poor OTA PQ with the other local stations locally-originated news programs.

Theoretically, DTV/HD is a winner. But, in reality for many people "in the sticks," and I include C-U in this unfortunate group, one can only receive 6 to 7 stations even using a decent external Hi-VHF and UHF rotatable array with a low noise preamp (switchable in and out). In the analog days, I never received fewer than 10 to 12 stations OTA, some albeit snowy, but very watchable and that included WGN.

What you constantly hear is folks in large metro areas being able to receive up to 25 to 40 DTV channels, some with only a good inside or attic antenna. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion for the majority of the country, i.e. the small city and rural areas, OTA DTV is a disaster compared to the analog days.

I know this is a old post, but I wanted to reply specifically about OTA signals, not the Comcast HD package and aspect ratios.

What I've seen so far with digital OTA is that not even the network broadcasts HD all of the time it seems, and many of the commercial spots - also network, not locally originated - are SD. This is my MAJOR gripe with the digital TV system in our area, or maybe the entire country. SD looks like crap on a HD LCD TV - maybe it would look OK on a plasma, but I don't have one to compare. The PQ of SD on a quality LCD TV fares very poorly compared to either of my Sony XBR SD CRT TVs. So, I have a great HD picture often on the LCD, but a crappy picture a fair amount of the time because of the program content. And, it appears that only WAND's news is in HD, so one has to put up with the poor OTA PQ with the other local stations locally-originated news programs.

Theoretically, DTV/HD is a winner. But, in reality for many people "in the sticks," and I include C-U in this unfortunate group, one can only receive 6 to 7 stations even using a decent external Hi-VHF and UHF rotatable array with a low noise preamp (switchable in and out). In the analog days, I never received fewer than 10 to 12 stations OTA, some albeit snowy, but very watchable and that included WGN.

What you constantly hear is folks in large metro areas being able to receive up to 25 to 40 DTV channels, some with only a good inside or attic antenna. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion for the majority of the country, i.e. the small city and rural areas, OTA DTV is a disaster compared to the analog days.

I have lived in the Champaign-Urbana almost all my life, and I don't recall ever getting more than 6 or 7 local channels during the analog TV days. I can even remember the days of only four local channels, WCIA, WAND, WICD, and WILL. People around here were never able to get WGN with an aerial or anywhere close to 25 stations. That is one of the reasons many people choose to have cable or satellite dishes.

I have lived in the Champaign-Urbana almost all my life, and I don't recall ever getting more than 6 or 7 local channels during the analog TV days. I can even remember the days of only four local channels, WCIA, WAND, WICD, and WILL. People around here were never able to get WGN with an aerial or anywhere close to 25 stations. That is one of the reasons many people choose to have cable or satellite dishes.

I've lived in C-U since 1968. As stated, I could receive 10 to 12 stations during the analog days, including all of the Terre Haute stations. WGN was watchable at night, but only audio during the day! This was with a 60 ft. Rohn 25G tower installation, and a Channel Master Yagi on a 13 ft. boom. The antenna used today is a similar VHF-Hi and UHF Channel Master long-boom Yagi on the same 60 ft. tower.

My point is that most in the media tells everyone how wonderful OTA DTV is, but for those of us in small cities, such as C-U or rural America, with a limited number of broadcast stations, it's simply not realistic to move away from cable or satellite to OTA. Yes, the quality of OTA is superior due to the lack of cable's compression, but the national vibe of "go OTA and save $$$ by dropping cable" is simply not going to happen for the masses in central Illinois. Now, if you lived in NYC or LA, that may be a different matter.

Close to football season again and I have one question in regard to the local FOX affiliate. I know they've done their song and dance regarding preseason HD but I'm wondering why the NFL games are coming across with only 2.0 audio via Comcast QAM? Every other channel comes across as 5.1 and WFLD (FOX Chicago) passes 5.1. I prefer to capture the Bears games via Comcast for Blu-Ray authoring but have had to use the WFLD feed through my HD PVR in order to have the 5.1 audio. I had half of last year's games ruined until I realized what these bozos were doing. At this point I'm just curious if it's a Comcast issue, a short term issue locally, or once again the local FOX station being cheap and deciding to treat their viewers like second class citizens.

I think it's a safe bet Comcast is NOT "altering" the audio that is being passed to them by our local affiliate - better direct your frustration straight to WRSP... ;) ;)

Just noticed that WAND is now broadcasting syndicated shows in HD, now. Jeopardy looks awesome in HD. Can't wait to see what the Wheel of Fortune will look like. As you know, until today WAND was only showing their news broadcasts in HD. Wheel of Fortune was also in HD and look very nice, as well.

MeTV is coming to WRSP and WCCU, according to the MeTV website. I was looking at the program schedule on their site and realized that the shows we're most interested in are only available late-night and other suboptimal times. Do you guys have any recommendations for OTA DVRs? We need one with either RCA out or S-Video out, since our TV is an older model. Additionally, I'd like a unit that can stream to other computers (or devices like Wii, iPhone, and iPad) in the house, that way we could watch DVR content in one room at the same time as OTA content in another room. If possible, I'd like it to be sub-$100.

My point is that most in the media tells everyone how wonderful OTA DTV is, but for those of us in small cities, such as C-U or rural America, with a limited number of broadcast stations, it's simply not realistic to move away from cable or satellite to OTA. Yes, the quality of OTA is superior due to the lack of cable's compression, but the national vibe of "go OTA and save $$$ by dropping cable" is simply not going to happen for the masses in central Illinois. Now, if you lived in NYC or LA, that may be a different matter.

The propagation maps would disagree. Certainly, many in-town locations or spots down in river valleys will always net less stations. But in between metros, a good antenna and a rotor can reel in quite a few. For example, there are locations like Odell where a good system can get Champaign, Peoria, and most of Chicago. There is a broad swath of territory between Rockford and LaSalle that can get Rockford, Chicago, Davenport, Madison, and Peoria.
The true beauty of DTV is that a station from 85 miles away that stays above 16:1 SNR looks just as good as a station from 5 miles away. Again, low valleys or heavy forests are the exceptions. Up on the open prairie is DTV heaven.

Update: After some research on TV Fool, I can see that in-town Champ/Urb is not good for getting signals from other markets. It's just a little too far from Peoria, Indy, & Chicago to have any chance at them. There are some ridges to the northwest and southeast of town that don't do you any favors, either.
Of course, up on top of those ridges is a different story. The town of Ridge Farm, south of Danville, can get Champaign, Indy, and Terre Haute.

There was a band opening to the east this morning. I got my first full reception from Terre Haute on digital UHF (WTWO), a partial decode of WFXW (first on digital), 2 partial decodes from Indy (WRTV, first on digital, and WFYI, that one's an all-time new one for me). I think it's not too late to make an attempt at Indy.

The band is really open today. If you want to try some VHF-Lo DXing, today's the day to do it. I heard KHDX (88.1) from St. Louis today on a car radio here in Danville. Come to think of it, it's certainly my first K station (of any sort) above 30 MHz, maybe my first K broadcast station from Danville period.

Another good opening today. I got a partial decode from Evansville on RF 28! VHF is pretty good today, too.

It's up here too. I'm getting a bunch of your stations, plus, indy & St. Louis. Also lots of stuff from eastern Iowa.

Caught a good opening around 9 AM, right before I had to leave for church. I had to stop the scan at Channel 30, but I got full decodes of just about all of the Indy UHF stations up to that point, including WRTV and WTTK. Frame skip and pixelation, but they came in well enough to add them to the channel list. WRTV in spite of co-channel from WCCU, and WTTK is only two channels away from W31BX, which is literally just a mile away.

Does anyone know if this market finally got it's act together and will have the Bears preseason in HD? At the very least I hope WCCU passes through FOX's 5.1 audio once the season starts.

Why did I ever believe that this cowpoke station would ever get it's act together? Yet again not only no HD but substandard SD with ghosting on their HD channel.

Does anyone know if this market finally got it's act together and will have the Bears preseason in HD? At the very least I hope WCCU passes through FOX's 5.1 audio once the season starts.

Why did I ever believe that this cowpoke station would ever get it's act together? Yet again not only no HD but substandard SD with ghosting on their HD channel.

I was suprised that WIFR in Rockford had the game in SD as well, but then about 1/2 way through the first quarter, it suddenly went HD. It could have been related to weather warnings, though.
Up in secondary-market Madison, WKOW did have the Packers game in HD, like the Bears/Packers primary market preseason stations always do (WFLD, WTMJ).
Personally, I can't stand watching sports in SD these days. I wonder why a station would do that...does it cost more to broadcast the Bears network feed in HD?

Why did I ever believe that this cowpoke station would ever get it's act together? Yet again not only no HD but substandard SD with ghosting on their HD channel.

Sweet jesus man, I don't think I can take another season of you whining about not getting a football game in HD. Boo-freaking-hoo. If you want to complete your archive of the games, I'm sure the NFL would be happy to sell you a copy.

Then maybe the local stations should join the 21st century. I mean for christsakes...WAND cut into a Notre Dame game a few years ago for local programming. That's something NBC learned not to do 40 years ago with the Heidi Game. I don't care how much the engineers want to whine about not having the equipment. We are years after the digital changeover and it's been even longer since HD became the norm. It's obvious that WFLD is sending out an HD feed. If WCCU doesn't want to modernize their equipment just shut it down and let us get our FOX programming from Chicago. I highly doubt many people will miss the college quality newscasts or local programming if any of these locals folded.

You are on an AV forum...if you don't think HD is something that should be expected (when the norm for sports is now HD,) perhaps YOU should find another forum. Thank you for your suggestion though...I get the games in HD via a non-Crapcast QAM/OTA source. It just makes capping them a bit more of a PITA.

The Colts game was on Channel 23 (in Champaign) and it was also 4:3 SD of not too good quality. The only saving grace is that most of the pre-season games are pretty junky anyway.

Then maybe the local stations should join the 21st century. I mean for christsakes...WAND cut into a Notre Dame game a few years ago for local programming. That's something NBC learned not to do 40 years ago with the Heidi Game. I don't care how much the engineers want to whine about not having the equipment. We are years after the digital changeover and it's been even longer since HD became the norm. It's obvious that WFLD is sending out an HD feed. If WCCU doesn't want to modernize their equipment just shut it down and let us get our FOX programming from Chicago. I highly doubt many people will miss the college quality newscasts or local programming if any of these locals folded.

A.) A Notre Dame game is not really something to complain about being cut away from. It's not of national importance, or even local importance.

B.) a Digital signal is not the same thing as HD. Every station in the market is capable of passing an HD signal from at least one source. WILL and WAND are capable of more than that, (just recently in WAND's case.) but all stations run 100% digital signals as required by law.

C.) While spending millions on changing over to all digital, I'm sure some of the stations decided to pick up a (relatively) slightly cheaper two source HD switcher figuring they'd switch between local programming (commercials/syndication/etc.) and Network programming. They probably don't own any HD decks, so why the have ability to switch to another source?

D.) Spending $80K+ to give you 4 pre-season football games in not economically feasible.

Now, I'm not an engineer, nor do I work for WCCU, but all these seem realistic estimations for what's going on

Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if most TV stations, employing rational risk aversion, aren't buying new equipment in order to have more money to buy a new transmitter in case the FCC makes good on its current UHF spectrum reallocation plan. I doubt the FCC will do anything on that front until after the LPTV digital conversion is finished, but that's only four years away. Especially for stations in a smaller market like ours (not to mention some of the even smaller markets neighboring us), where revenues aren't as high as the big markets like Chicago and Indy, it makes more sense to take precautions for a major band reassignment. Sure, WCCU is on RF 26 and may be able to hold onto its current frequency, but consider WICD RF 41 and WCIA RF 48, RF 21, 25, 29 out of Indy, 28 out of Bloomington, etc. If I owned a TV station, I wouldn't be inclined to gamble on this situation.

A.)
D.) Spending $80K+ to give you 4 pre-season football games in not economically feasible.


That's what I was asking above...is this the price tag? 20 grand to pass through a game in HD? Or is that 80 for the equipment, which would amortize over several seasons?

That's what I was asking above...is this the price tag? 20 grand to pass through a game in HD? Or is that 80 for the equipment, which would amortize over several seasons?

The 80K would be a ballpark for equipment. I believe the games are negotiated as just the game, no bonus cost for HD.

MeTV is live on 27.2. Good SD signal, no EPG available, though. MeTV has a schedule on their website and has schedule bumpers.

Edit: And rabbitears.info has updated already! Trip is pretty quick about this sort of thing, isn't he? Speaking of updating, does anyone have any idea how long it usually takes Zap2It to add new channels to their listings? It took a few weeks for them to add TheCoolTV on 15.2.

Edit 2: I contacted WRSP/WCCU's engineering department, they say EPG will be added in the next day or so. I'll post when I notice it.

Now that we've got a full complement of subchannels, I'd kinda like to see either WAND start a .3 general entertainment channel (or .2 then move weather to .3, I want them to keep weather) or see someone start a new channel, maybe an AntennaTV affiliate or something. I doubt any of this will come about, though. I'd still like to see GOCOM start up a translator for WBUI serving the extreme eastern section of the viewing area, like WAND does, as well, but, again, I doubt that will happen. Which really is a shame, as I like WBUI's syndicated programming much more than WCCU's, or WAND's and WICD's for that matter.

It was added this morning.

MeTV is live on 27.2. Good SD signal, no EPG available, though. MeTV has a schedule on their website and has schedule bumpers.

Edit: And rabbitears.info has updated already! Trip is pretty quick about this sort of thing, isn't he? Speaking of updating, does anyone have any idea how long it usually takes Zap2It to add new channels to their listings? It took a few weeks for them to add TheCoolTV on 15.2.

Edit 2: I contacted WRSP/WCCU's engineering department, they say EPG will be added in the next day or so. I'll post when I notice it.

Will MeTV be coming to Comcast systems in the market soon (probably on Digital Economy and higher packages)--unless it has been already added and I didn't see it.

Now that we've got a full complement of subchannels, I'd kinda like to see either WAND start a .3 general entertainment channel (or .2 then move weather to .3, I want them to keep weather) or see someone start a new channel, maybe an AntennaTV affiliate or something. I doubt any of this will come about, though. I'd still like to see GOCOM start up a translator for WBUI serving the extreme eastern section of the viewing area, like WAND does, as well, but, again, I doubt that will happen. Which really is a shame, as I like WBUI's syndicated programming much more than WCCU's, or WAND's and WICD's for that matter.

I see that WCIA's Nexstar sister station WMBD-31 Peoria will be the last station in the Peoria market to add a full complement of subchannels as they will be adding Bounce TV upon their launch on Sept. 26. There's a link on WMBD's website to Bounce below:

http://centralillinoisproud.com/bounce

Any chance that WCIA/WCFN could add a ".3" to their respective subchannels and add Bounce TV to both of their stations on both sides of the market--if Peoria's getting the network?

Also, what is the real reason why WICS/WICD only has one of the two music networks on each channel (Cool on WICD, Country on WICS), as opposed to other Sinclair stations in Peoria (WYZZ) and St. Louis (KDNL) having both subchannels on their stations? If the intent was to make the missing subchannel (Cool in Springfield and Country in Chambana) available on Comcast and other cable systems in the opposite sides of the market (a la WEIU-51.2 MHz World offered on Comcast in Springfield), it hasn't happened--we only have Country Network on digital cable here in Springfield.

I suppose it's possible WCIA would add Bounce as a .3. I'm not sure how well UPN did in the Champaign/Decatur/Springfield market, but, if anyone knows, it'd be Nexstar. In a market as geographically large as ours, subchannels are probably going to be the norm, as opposed to full bitrate HD, since launching a new service on a new station here requires a painful choice between cost and coverage area, whereas launching on an established station's subchannel lets you piggyback on their coverage area.

I'm surprised that there's not yet a first run general entertainment network that's launched on .2 channels, it's all niche programming, like MeTV, Bounce, weather, and the music subchannels. There was the .2 network, but that never got off the ground and seems dead now. I suppose it could be an opportunity for ION to expand their viewership without launching more stations (most of their stations are O&O). Their main network doesn't have much, if any, first run content currently, but they could package some of their ION Life and Qubo properties with some low cost first run content into a single feed for other stations to run. It wouldn't really draw in the viewers, but neither their current approach nor most subchannels do.

Will MeTV be coming to Comcast systems in the market soon (probably on Digital Economy and higher packages)--unless it has been already added and I didn't see it.

When it does get added, it will be in ALL packages, as it is considered a limited basic channel (broadcast basic)

I suppose it's possible WCIA would add Bounce as a .3. I'm not sure how well UPN did in the Champaign/Decatur/Springfield market, but, if anyone knows, it'd be Nexstar. In a market as geographically large as ours, subchannels are probably going to be the norm, as opposed to full bitrate HD, since launching a new service on a new station here requires a painful choice between cost and coverage area, whereas launching on an established station's subchannel lets you piggyback on their coverage area.

I hope the hell they DON'T & pull down the HD quality on CBS on BOTH 3.1/49.2!
Having 1 SD sub is OK, as CBS looks good now, so I do not have a problem with the status quo now, but NO more subs! :eek:

I'm not wholly convinced that they would add Bounce. I'm not sure how well UPN did here while it tried to target urban minorities, but I wouldn't believe it was an astounding success. Its signal coverage was poor (the only time I got it OTA was in January '09, right before I hooked up our converter box), but even despite that, I wouldn't think it did well. I would hardly call this market Urban in a cultural sense (any Urban flavor is probably due to college students hailing from metropolises like Chicago). On the other hand, the entirety of the market has about the same demographics as Peoria, going off of Wikipedia's numbers. (Decatur and Danville are the closest to Peoria, but not by that much.) Keep in mind that I just tallied up the numbers for Springfield, Decatur, Champaign, Urbana, and Danville (Danville was fewer than 10,000 smaller than Urbana, so I included it). This would mostly underreport whites, as suburban and rural environments are historically predominantly white.

Its signal coverage was poor (the only time I got it OTA was in January '09, right before I hooked up our converter box)

I assume you are ONLY talking about it on it's analog signal on WCFN-49. But while WCFN-49 did NOT reach over into C/U, it did have a pretty strong analog signal for the S/D broadcast area.
It also was carried on both 3.2 & 49.1 since day 1 - which those digital signals were launched at the same time WCFN-49 switched to UPN.

Granted those first digital signals were weaker than the current ones, but keep in mind that ALL the majority of cable systems in our DMA carried WCFN-49 on their limited basic analog service - so every one of these cable subs got it from day 1 as well, including the C/U coverage area.

Oh, I hadn't realized it. (Yes, I am talking about the analog OTA signal.) Still, I'm not sure how well UPN did in this market. Does anyone have Neilsen numbers from that time period?

Well it's pretty much a given that it did NOT do that well overall, anywhere - which is the reason it (& the WB) do NOT exist anymore!
Personally, I liked BOTH the WB & UPN WAY better than what replaced them. I watched all the shows on UPN's Monday night block. And Dilbert was an awesome show, but I believe it was already canceled by the time WCFN picked up UPN in our market.

Just an FYI; do you know that we got a full-time UPN affiliation BEFORE they did in St.Louis; they were actually one of the very last large markets to get one, on WRBU-46. (before then, UPN ran on KDNL-30 after prime time, then UPN shows were moved & split between KPLR-11 after hours & KNLC-24 - which only lasted a year or two)

I was actually watching UPN since day 1 BEFORE we got it on WCFN, via superstation WWOR-NY on satellite.

I've seen Dilbert on Netflix, definitely a worthwhile show.

You know, for being a major market, St. Louis strikes me as kinda backwoodsy when it comes to radio and TV. They don't have a 50,000 watt AM station, unlike most cities about their size further east. Slow to get or otherwise underserved by new networks (MeTV comes to mind as a recent example, historical ones include UPN and PAX*, PAX notoriously used a repeater of a station licensed to Mount Vernon - I went to school in Carbondale for a semester, and I can tell you, Mount Vernon is nowhere near St. Louis). They don't even have a major network O&O, something most cities of that size have at least 1 of. (I believe their Fox affiliate used to be O&O, but now its not.)

*ION doesn't even have an OTA affiliate for St. Louis anymore. It became an RTV affiliate (bad move, sticking with the ION affiliation would have been better, sadly), then Daystar.

You know, for being a major market, St. Louis strikes me as kinda backwoodsy when it comes to radio and TV. They don't have a 50,000 watt AM station, unlike most cities about their size further east. Slow to get or otherwise underserved by new networks (MeTV comes to mind as a recent example,)

Actually METV WAS recently added a few months ago to WRBU-46.2.
And believe it or not, they actually have a bunch of good subchannels scattered on several of their OTA's:

- Antenna TV on KTVI 2.2
- Live Well Network SD on KMOV 4.2 (OK, maybe NOT so much this one!)
- THIS TV on KPLR 11.2
- The Cool TV & The Country net on KDNL 30.2/30.3
- you already mentioned RTV; unfortunately, it's on an LP station in the immediate STL area

*ION doesn't even have an OTA affiliate for St. Louis anymore. It became an RTV affiliate (bad move, sticking with the ION affiliation would have been better, sadly), then Daystar.

You are right about STL TV market; it's ranked as the 21st largest DMA, yet besides what you already mentioned, look at all the other things it does NOT have compared to similar sized markets:

- ONLY 1 PBS affiliate; hell even WE up here have THREE!
- NO OTA Spanish channels
- the local ABC affiliate does NOT do any local news of their own, while the local CW affiliate DOES
- there are NO locally originated OTA broadcasts of either of their local sports teams (except for Cards games that are on the FOX TV network on Saturdays & on ESPN); both the Cards & Blues moved ALL those other broadcasts to FSN Midwest only (that also meant that there are NO games anymore on WBUI-23 up here, either)

This (& other reasons) is why I "moved" my satellite service to Chicago instead of St.Louis... :D

You know, for being a major market, St. Louis strikes me as kinda backwoodsy when it comes to radio and TV. They don't have a 50,000 watt AM station, unlike most cities about their size further east.

I thought KMOX was still 50,000 watts?

Does anyone know (or care) about the status of the W28BE translator in Springfield (which rebroadcasts EWTN)? They're still broadcasting on analog and wreaking havoc on WYZZ-DT north of Springfield, but for at least the past year I have not seen any entries on the FCC's TV query for W28BE. Looks like they're broadcasting illegally--or they had let their license lapse but is staying on the air.

Anyone knows who owns (or owned) channel 28 in Springfield and when analog trannies and LP's are finally shut down if one of the many LP/translator CP's for Springfield (many under the likes of "DTV America") might be used for EWTN (considering the high Catholic population here in the Springfield area)? Or if the channel 33 HSN signal (which upgraded to digital within the past year) might add a 33.2 EWTN subchannel?

I thought KMOX was still 50,000 watts?

It IS actually... ;)