mach,

Currently WICS is not even broadcasting in HD (at least as of MNF last night). Do you know which other stations are broadcast with Mediacom? If not, it's quite possible that they don't have other HD locals yet, as Insight currently only has Fox. Also, there is no CBS-HD, WB-HD, or UPN-HD available OTA or otherwise (at least in Champaign), so at best, you'd be getting NBC, ABC, and FOX. If that's worth the price to you (16.95 at last check with Insight, since it's packaged with the DVR). If you get an antenna and have a decent location for it, you can get a FOX, NBC, and ABC signal fairly easily OTA.

mach,

Currently WICS is not even broadcasting in HD (at least as of MNF last night). Do you know which other stations are broadcast with Mediacom? If not, it's quite possible that they don't have other HD locals yet, as Insight currently only has Fox. Also, there is no CBS-HD, WB-HD, or UPN-HD available OTA or otherwise (at least in Champaign), so at best, you'd be getting NBC, ABC, and FOX. If that's worth the price to you (16.95 at last check with Insight, since it's packaged with the DVR). If you get an antenna and have a decent location for it, you can get a FOX, NBC, and ABC signal fairly easily OTA.

Oooohhhhh this is too easy. :mad: I am not sure why anyone would care if WICS would bring their Digital signal into anyones cable line up because they cannot get their act together.... Since the WICS/WAND swap WICS has yet to pass HD. (Although a previous poster witnessed it for a few moments.) At least as of the MNF game last night they weren't.

T

I am about 60 miles south of champaign....I currently have mediacom and recieve WCCU(fox- champaign) and WTHI(cbs- terre haute) in hd , but no abc or nbc...I am not sure if I can pick up any stations from this far away ..I wasnt aware that WICS wasnt up since I dont have an antenna...I just thought that since they sent me that email maybe they were close to getting something done..

thanks for the info guys

I'm on Insight and have the dual tuner DVR box, the single tuner DVR is a POS. The few dollars more that it costs over the standard digital box is worth it for the DVR alone... the HD channels are an added bonus. WAF on the DVR is high :)

Mach,

Since you receive CBS-HD, you will no longer get any sympathy from me. ;)

The FCC has published the first round of channel allotments post DTV transition. All the locals in the area are listed for central Illinois, WICS, WICD (meaning no 15 or 20 after) will stay at their current DTV channel, while not a surprise WCIA will drop 3 for their digital allotment. WRSP is going to its 44? Digital channel, since 55 is out of the core channels of 2-51. Take a look here.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2649A2.pdf

Listed by call sign. If this has already been discussed, sorry. However this is a complete list of all US stations and is much easier to look up then digging into the FCC web page one call sign per query.

I am attempting to get NBC WGEM (Quincy) from Macomb, IL. Antennaweb.org says its about 52miles away. WGEM broadcast digitally on channel 10.1. Would having a UHF only antenna (Like a Channel Master 4228) cause problems since that is such a low channel?

Thanks

OK, Ken and/or Bob. I've gotta bone to pick again. :(

I brought up the fact a few weeks ago about no WCCU information on my D** program guide. One of you said you would check on it. Then you got back with me and said that since WRSP was the D** Fox affiliate being shown on their local package that is why the WCCU programming is not listed. I brought up the fact that WICD always showed up in my guide even though they were not the D** NBC affiliate on the local package. Then you said you do more checking into the situation.

Well, I still haven't seen or heard anything more and now WILL-DT 12-1 and 12-2, which have been up and running for barely a month, shows up in my guide with full programming description. I do notice that WCCU's programming shows up on Titan TV. But I don't want to have to run to my computer to find out which regional game is being broadcast by WCCU or other programming which isn't FOX national feed.

I appreciate all the hard work both you guys do and the information that you supply this forum. Just wish someone could get this detail worked out.

That is a good question Rick, I'm out of town on a project, but will get with Ken next week
and see if we can resolve this. Thanks for the patience..
I have an idea that Ken and I need to look at..

I haven't posted anything regarding this subject because there's no progress to report. Unless you want to call DirecTV and the company we provide our programming info to pointing fingers at each other progress.

I'm still working on it though.

rick,

If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem on E*. The data shows up for 55, but not for 27. Additionally on mine, it shows up for 20, but not for 15, so it doesn't appear to be strictly FOX related.

rick,

If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem on E*. The data shows up for 55, but not for 27. Additionally on mine, it shows up for 20, but not for 15, so it doesn't appear to be strictly FOX related.


It doesn't, sorry. Two wrongs don't make a right. :p

I'm on Insight and have the dual tuner DVR box, the single tuner DVR is a POS. The few dollars more that it costs over the standard digital box is worth it for the DVR alone... the HD channels are an added bonus. WAF on the DVR is high :)

Few dollars? Isn't it like 15 or 16 bucks a month more than the single tuner DVR?

Few dollars? Isn't it like 15 or 16 bucks a month more than the single tuner DVR?

Nope. It's $15.95/month. I was told over the phone that it was only $12.95/month for a year, but I've paid 15.95 since I've had it. Insight's customer service may be the worst I have ever experienced. I cringe at the thought of calling them.

WAF on the DVR is high.

What does that mean?

Few dollars? Isn't it like 15 or 16 bucks a month more than the single tuner DVR?
If you subscribe to digital cable you pay about $9 a month for the set top box with no DVR, if you upgrade to the DVR you pay about $16 instead . So like I said, the DVR box is only a few dollars more than the standard digital cable STB.

WAF=Wife Approval Factor
If your goal is to get HD channels, but the wife is scoffing at the idea. Sell them on the DVR instead, they'll love it and you'll get HD channels ;)

While watching ND vs. USC today, I noticed a lot of pixelation issues on 17.1. I do not have these issues with other channels and I was wondering:

a) Anybody else have this issue?

b) Is it a result of 1080i vs. 720p?

c) Is it the NBC affiliate, and their compression of the signal?

I TiVoed the USC/Notre Dame game and I have watched the first half and the quality was pretty spectacular.... I didn't notice any problems and it was OTA 17.1....

T

WAF=Wife Approval Factor
If your goal is to get HD channels, but the wife is scoffing at the idea. Sell them on the DVR instead, they'll love it and you'll get HD channels ;)

Yep..gave wifey her own tivo..now she's really happy with the HDTV in the bedroom,, even tho she's watching sd channels on it.. :)

Oooohhhhh this is too easy. :mad: I am not sure why anyone would care if WICS would bring their Digital signal into anyones cable line up because they cannot get their act together.... Since the WICS/WAND swap WICS has yet to pass HD. (Although a previous poster witnessed it for a few moments.) At least as of the MNF game last night they weren't.

T
I work for WICS, so i might be able to ell you whats going on. I am not an engineer though.. After the switch it took quite a while for the ABC people to come in and hook up all of their recievers (our old ones were owned by NBC). As of about a week ago the ABC dishes are finally installed and the recievers wired, however we are having issues with our HD switcher Not switching the From SD audio when it switches video feeds. We can send out 720p HD video, but currently the audio comes from the SD source.. needless to say the sync is way off so we havent bothered running the HD till its fixed. Last time i checked the engineers had called the switchers maker (miranda) about the problem and were waiting for parts/advice. The good news is though when its all finally working, we should be broadcasting in 5.1. Be patient.... i want to watch lost and alias in HD as well..

Dr.

Thanks Doc! :)

It's good to know that somebody from WICS cares enough to give us some feedback on this forum. The symptoms you describe match exactly what I saw for a brief couple of moments on MNF a couple of weeks ago. I hope you guys get the kinks worked out soon. I'm anxiously awaiting MNF in HD again (as well as Lost). 5.1 is a nice bonus, too!

Is anyone that has insight having a problem with ch. 769? It's not in HD for me during the West Wing. I called Insight but they are absolute morons and they won't listen. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Nope. It's $15.95/month. I was told over the phone that it was only $12.95/month for a year, but I've paid 15.95 since I've had it.


this is for the dual? i was told that this is on top of what is paid for the single tuner dvr. anyway you slice it though, insight charges way too much freakin money.

Doc,

I don't know how closely WICS/WICD are linked, but is this possibly their problem as well? Sometimes the sync is right, other times it's way off on WICD...

Doc,

I don't know how closely WICS/WICD are linked, but is this possibly their problem as well? Sometimes the sync is right, other times it's way off on WICD...

WICS and WICD both run the same schedule, have the same General manager, and the same owners. WICD is actually controlled from Springfield during early and late hours.. However both stations have their own Net equipment and transmitters. I *think* we have matching HD equipment though so it could be their problem too. I have never actually been to WICD though and we only have remote control of the analog equipment so i cant say for sure.

Dr.

I work for WICS, so i might be able to ell you whats going on. I am not an engineer though.. After the switch it took quite a while for the ABC people to come in and hook up all of their recievers (our old ones were owned by NBC). As of about a week ago the ABC dishes are finally installed and the recievers wired, however we are having issues with our HD switcher Not switching the From SD audio when it switches video feeds. We can send out 720p HD video, but currently the audio comes from the SD source.. needless to say the sync is way off so we havent bothered running the HD till its fixed. Last time i checked the engineers had called the switchers maker (miranda) about the problem and were waiting for parts/advice. The good news is though when its all finally working, we should be broadcasting in 5.1. Be patient.... i want to watch lost and alias in HD as well..

Dr.

I do appreciate the explanation. It still doesn't reduce the frustration. :cool: Looking forward to MNF.

Thanks
T

hey is 27-1 out of service today? I can get crap

hey is 27-1 out of service today?I'm looking at WCCU-DT right now and all looks fine. You might want to check your antenna orientation, the rain today might be causing you some multipath issues.

Hi all, last couple of days channel 27.1 has been dropping out quite often. Anyone else been noticing this? Thank you.

jeff

Can anyone tell me what is going on with 27.1 Fox? Every few minutes I get scrambled picture or dropouts. Watching the World Series but really getting ticked with the picture. It started almost a week ago. Please can anyone let me know whats with Fox? Thanks!

Jeff

I can't tell you what's up, but I can tell you that you aren't the only one seeing it.

I've been keeping a close eye on WCCU-DT for about the last 1/2 hour and haven't seen a single glitch or break up.

kvandivo, jask and AMD...
Could you post or PM me with your location, receiver and antenna configuration please? Also, if your using an indoor antenna, have you tried repointing it or moving it to a different location? I can't stress enough how finicky indoor antennas can be. I use one myself and was having to repoint it regularly until I added a preamp.

I'm inside of Champaign, south of Hessel park. Using a HD5000 tuner card (www.hd5000.com) with mythtv, and I have a big honkin' 50 element antenna that, no doubt, has the neighbors jealous. It's got the channelmaster preamp on it, and it is pointed in the general direction of springfield, lets say. I've been on the phone for the past 20 minutes or so, but it actually seemed to calm down about 9 (probably when you started watching it)..

So you're watching WRSP-DT, 55.1?

No. 27-1. It's been doing pretty well in the 9:30-10:00 timeframe. (i'm behind 20 minutes or so in watching it due to the phone call)

From what you describe, that's a pretty directional antenna you have.... pointed in the opposite direction of the station you are trying to receive. It's very likely that you are picking up a bounce and not a direct signal, or a combination of both. Either way, the situation lends itself towards multipath, the Achilles Heel of DTV reception.

Some things you can try are:
1) Putting up a second antenna pointed to the northeast
2) Putting a rotor on your antenna
3) Try receiving WRSP-DT, 55.1 which is in the direction your antenna is pointed. WRSP-DT programming is identical to WCCU-DT and many viewers in Champaign have had good success receiving it.

Hi Ken,
I am in Danville. I have an antenna on a 40' tower w/ a preamp and rotor system. I had been receiving 27.1 with out any probems until a few days ago. As for all the other local HD channels, they are coming in great. Any ideas Ken? Thanks Jeff

Kirby,

I also seen an improvement later in the game.

Jeff

jask,
Not sure what might be causing your problem. What reciever do you have?

I'll be looking into recent posts of reception problems with WCCU-DT. Any other reception reports I can get are greatly appreciated.

I have found a problem with the FOX Splicing system and I have them working on it. I'll post once we get the problem straightened out. I am hopeful that this will fix the problems some of you have been experiencing.

We just completed working on the FOX Splicer. It may require some of you to have to do a rescan on your receiver.

looking great for me so far. (man, I love hdtv)

Still dropping out on me. In the last hour and half maybe 12 times dropped out. It doesn't seem to be doing it as much as last night. I use two tuners : 1 directly through my TV, and one input through my D** tv HD DVR. Switched back and forth and both tuners acting the same way.

jeff

I've only had a blip or two. Other than that, the projector has been displaying a gorgeous 7' x 4' image.

Appears like Springfield WICS 20 flipped that glorious HD switch back finally after the "conversion" sometime over the weekend. I TiVo 2 deplorable ( :rolleyes: ) shows called Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy for wife and they both started in HD.

Wooohoooo

T

Appears like Springfield WICS 20 flipped that glorious HD switch back finally after the "conversion" sometime over the weekend. I TiVo 2 deplorable ( :rolleyes: ) shows called Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy for wife and they both started in HD.

Wooohoooo

T
thats strange...... Im not getting any signal from them at all. my other OTA channels are working.. hmm...

Dr.

Did anyone have trouble with 15.1 last night? My diagnostics on my TV said I had a locked signal and I could not get any signal, tried rescanning and it still didn't work. Even 20.1 wouldn't come in either.

Did anyone have trouble with 15.1 last night? My diagnostics on my TV said I had a locked signal and I could not get any signal, tried rescanning and it still didn't work. Even 20.1 wouldn't come in either.

Me too, but 20 (i.e. 42) is usually just too weak.

15 (41) was strange: most of the time the meter on my new Radio Snack
box said signal strength was 90 (very good) but every three seconds
it dropped for a very short time to about 20 (very bad). No picture
at all.

Doug McDonald

Did anyone have trouble with 15.1 last night? My diagnostics on my TV said I had a locked signal and I could not get any signal, tried rescanning and it still didn't work. Even 20.1 wouldn't come in either.
exact same problem i had last night.. I had 98 signal strength and it was locked, it would even load the station identifier... Ill ask the engineers tonight, find out what was up..

Dr.

I was getting dropouts during Monday Night Football every minute or two tonight. My signal would be between 80 and 83, then just drop completely to 0. Ten seconds or so later, it would be back. It got so annoying I finally switched to SD on Dish.

BLEAGH!

I was getting dropouts during Monday Night Football every minute or two tonight. My signal would be between 80 and 83, then just drop completely to 0. Ten seconds or so later, it would be back. It got so annoying I finally switched to SD on Dish.

BLEAGH!
were you watching 15 or 20? I watched 20 with no issues whatsoever, super picture and sound all night.

And incase you guys haven't noticed i think we (wics) got our HD worked out.. No DD5.1 yet (it was causing all the problems) but its in sync now so stuff *should* be in HiDef now.

Dr.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. It was 15 (I can't pick up 20 in east Urbana).

Hi all,

Just over a week ago I had been getting the best HD picture ever on Channel 27.1 FOX, but now I get at least 4 dropouts an hour. Some lasting as long as 5 seconds. I live north side of Danville , 2 miles west of the airport. I have a forty foot tower w/ a very nice Winegard antenna, as well as a preamp and rotor system. Like I said earlier, I couldn't have had a better picture 2 weeks ago, no dropouts. Anyone near me having any problems with 27.1? Anyone at all? Any response would be appreciated.

Thank you,

jeff

I also live in Danville, Jask.

I've been pretty busy on other things, but I'll keep an eye out on 27.1 to see if I notice anything.

I've got the game on now, and it's happening again tonight. For some reason the signal wil drop off, will lose picture for a few seconds, then signal will go back up and picture will return. This happend every 10 to 15 minutes last night, and is happening again tonight

Any ideas??? My guess is a glich in their transmitter

Terry

Dunno, but it seems to be only 27-1. Haven't seen it at all on 55-1, been watching for about the last hour and a half.

Just did it again, it only seems to be on 27.1 I'm only about 4.5 miles from their tower, and always pull a great signal. Oh well.....

Yea, same here. Again! Stinks doesn't it? Thanks for the replies! I was wondering if it wasn't my set-up.

Jeff

I've been seeing quite a few "freeze-ups" during the MLB playoffs on 27.1. At random intervals (4-8 times per hour?) the picture will freeze for about 4-10 seconds and then things will jump back to normal. No pixelation blocks. Signal ranging between 82 and 86.

Pain in the butt; glad I'm not trying to record anything... :(

Since there are a number of us seeing this behavior, I'm guessing it's NOT a problem with my system. ;)

I didn't watch last night, but I'd put tonight's problems similar to game 1, and definitely worse than game 2.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=595458

rick,

I think most people here are having problems with the OTA signal rather than the D* signal (although I could be wrong). The thread you linked to is specifically for the national feeds through D*, rather than people with D* who are watching OTA broadcasts. If it was a FOX problem, I would expect 55-1 to also be experiencing it, especially given the link between 55 and 27, and 55 had no dropouts at all last night.

The thing is though that it seems to be the same problem.

rick,
I would expect 55-1 to also be experiencing it, especially given the link between 55 and 27, and 55 had no dropouts at all last night.

That's a good assumption... have you all tried re-scanning before Ken and I go
changing equipment configurations?

Thanks..

That's a good assumption... have you all tried re-scanning before Ken and I go
changing equipment configurations?

Thanks..

Dumb question, but what exactly would rescanning do other than finding the signal again?

Thanks.

If the receiver's memory has been corrupted by a bad signal,as happens sometimes when the splicer burps, it may have to rescan to correct its memory. Ken and I just got off the phone, we're not optimistic that will correct it but would like you to try it first.

I use several different boxes here for monitoring our signal..the all respond differently
to problems in the signal. My Sony 300 is almost bullet proof, where the samsungs and
motorola's are easily confused.

WCCU's signal transport is somewhat more complex (the digital carries the analog) than most other stations.

Thanks guys

Ken and Bob

Hi, I have tried rescanning several times with both the TV tuner (antenna input) and through HD DVR. Nothings worked. Thank you for your great work and info through this forum.

Jask

I believe I have observed the problem you are refering to and I made a change on my end. I have been keeping an eye on it all day, when possible, I haven't seen any dropouts.

As always, your feedback on the issue is greatly appreciated.

Hello, New to forum. Been reading it for months. I live a few miles east of Lincoln and get a perfect, strong signal of WAOE (39) with a 20 year old antenna in my attic. I never have gotten WHOI (40). Here's the digital stations I receive. My antenna doesn't move.

9-1 WILL -PBS-HD Urbana
9-2 WILL -PBS-SD "
18-1 WAND -NBC-HD Decatur
18-2 WAND -NBC-SD "
22-1 WBUI -WB-SD Decatur
28-1 WYZZ -FOX-HD Bloomington
30-3 WMBD -CBS-SD Peoria
39-1 WAOE -UPN-SD Peoria
42-1 WICS -ABC-HD Springfield
44-1 WRSP -FOX-HD Springfield
44-2 WRSP -FOX-SD "
46-1 WTVP -PBS-SD Peoria
46-2 WTVP -PBS-HD "
57-1 WEEK -NBC-HD Peoria
57-2 WEEK -NBC-SD "

I want CBS in HD !

First time posting in this thread. Been reading this thread for at least two years. Stupid question here. Being South of Mattoon, I am wondering if this is the correct thread to be posting in or if I should use the Terre Haute thread? A week or two ago I started getting WTHI HD. But I also get WRSP, WICD, WILL, WICS, and WAND digital stations. Like I said stupid question, I'm guessing it is alright to post in both.

No we consider Cumberland County part of this thread, you are lucky to get WTHI in HD, the signal doesn't carry up here so we can't get CBS in HD, your very lucky down there!

WTHI DT is a week signal, especially during the day but at night it's better. I get about four bars on my Samsung sir-t151 during the day. Also my outside antenna I put up back in 1987, a Winegard VHF/UHF combo, is probably on it's last leg.

Got my first chance to really sit down and watch WCCU on Sunday, and I didn't notice any drop-outs or any other video problems that were mentioned above. If there was a problem, it must have been worked out.

Thanks Rick.

Anyone else not getting audio on MNF (channel 15)?

Better yet, the lead-in with Ray Lewis and the animated "Chicken Little" charcters was in HD, but now the game itself is not???

WTF!!

Update: Picture finally snapped into HD (someone must have kicked whomever manually flips the switch over there) but I'm occasionally getting sound dropouts. :(

Hey WCCU, think maybe you guys could take over *all* the local HD? Seems like your station is the only damned network that has a clue...

ABC Network had an issue..
But thanks, I'm sure we'll mess up at some point along the way!

Hi guys, I have had a 37 inch LCD Sharp Aquos tv for almost 4 months and was told to not even bother with indoor hd amplified antenna's. I bought an RCA amplified antenna for the hell of it on Sunday, and it actually works!! I live in the Trails of Brittany area (Duncan and Kirby) and can receive WAND (15) and WICD (17) and the PBS channel in HD. I cannot receive the Fox channal (in Urbana) and of course CBS is not broadcasting in HD as of yet. My question is, WICD has a signal strength of 85-88 most of the time, but the sound kicks in and out. Watched Monday night football (Steelers vs. Ravens) in HD for first time but sound kept kicking off and on. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do? I really do not want a roof mounted antenna as I already have Directv. Are there better models of HD antenna's that will allow me to receive Fox HD? I'm a newbie so sorry for the long winded post!! HD rocks!!! On WAND at least.

why does it list NBC stations like WGEM out of Quincy or WAND out of Decatur?


http://www.nationalchamps.net/2005/tv_listings/coverage_maps/nov5.pdf

Thanks,

jstiefel

Hi guys, I have had a 37 inch LCD Sharp Aquos tv for almost 4 months and was told to not even bother with indoor hd amplified antenna's. I bought an RCA amplified antenna for the hell of it on Sunday, and it actually works!! I live in the Trails of Brittany area (Duncan and Kirby) and can receive WAND (15) and WICD (17) and the PBS channel in HD. I cannot receive the Fox channal (in Urbana) and of course CBS is not broadcasting in HD as of yet. My question is, WICD has a signal strength of 85-88 most of the time, but the sound kicks in and out. Watched Monday night football (Steelers vs. Ravens) in HD for first time but sound kept kicking off and on. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do? I really do not want a roof mounted antenna as I already have Directv. Are there better models of HD antenna's that will allow me to receive Fox HD? I'm a newbie so sorry for the long winded post!! HD rocks!!! On WAND at least.

shera1,

I live in Sawgrass, and I've had the best luck picking up 55-1 out of springfield rather than 27-1 out of champaign, so you may try that for Fox. Of course I have a roofmounted antenna.

Thanks Nalesic, I guess I'm lucky to get WAND,WCIS, and PBS in HD with an indoor antenna

I use a Philips Indoor amplified antenna (UHF boost is 35db, VHF boost is 50db) in Mahomet and receive 3 (SD), 12, 15, 17, 20, 27, 55 (all in HD) and 23 in SD. The best bet would be to get an amplified indoor and you should get either Fox affiliate just fine.

thanks guys, going to have to see if i can boost the output on my RCA indoor amplified antenna to get FOX. Are you guys having problems with sound on 15 HD?

Hi guys, I have had a 37 inch LCD Sharp Aquos tv for almost 4 months and was told to not even bother with indoor hd amplified antenna's. I bought an RCA amplified antenna for the hell of it on Sunday, and it actually works!! I live in the Trails of Brittany area (Duncan and Kirby) and can receive WAND (15) and WICD (17) and the PBS channel in HD. I cannot receive the Fox channal (in Urbana) and of course CBS is not broadcasting in HD as of yet. My question is, WICD has a signal strength of 85-88 most of the time, but the sound kicks in and out. Watched Monday night football (Steelers vs. Ravens) in HD for first time but sound kept kicking off and on. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do? I really do not want a roof mounted antenna as I already have Directv. Are there better models of HD antenna's that will allow me to receive Fox HD? I'm a newbie so sorry for the long winded post!! HD rocks!!! On WAND at least.

What about an antenna in your attic??? I have had one for about a year and it works great. Depending on the composition of your house, distance to antennas and other factors it could work well. I have a CM 4221 mounted in a X-mas tree stand in the attic and I am also using a CM 7777 preamp.

Good luck.... Yeah HD is the berries :D

T

thanks guys, going to have to see if i can boost the output on my RCA indoor amplified antenna to get FOX. Are you guys having problems with sound on 15 HD?

The sound on 15 was a one-time (hopefully) issue. I have not had that issue in the past. BTW, I live in Parkland Ridge (Duncan and Bradley), and receive Fox 27.1 with an indoor Terk. You may just want to try repositioning the antenna (www.antennaweb.org) for better reception. Good luck.

Thanks for the info guys. Now we need WCIA (3) to get their act in gear!!

Thanks for the info guys. Now we need WCIA (3) to get their act in gear!!

I think this is the official motto of the thread.

Not to get people's hopes up, but I'm watching WB-23 right now, and normally when it was the SD DTV broadcast, it would stretch to fit the screen. For some reason now it is NOT stretched, and appears to be a SD-HD upconvert. Can anybody confirm this? I don't want to screw around with the wires enough to figure it out for sure...

Update: WB-23 is, in fact, broadcasting in HD! Of course they are now suffering the HD audio-sync that WAND and WICD had when they switched, all though not as badly. Still, a step in the right direction!

yep, caught part of smallville last night in HD on WB. Looked pretty Good.

Now if CBS would get their stuff in Hd ..... for the thousandth time!

To dream... the impossible dream...

I sent the following E-mail to WCIA:

It truly is a shame that the largest station in central Illinois is the
only one that does not broadcast a HD signal, now that WBUI and WILL
have gone HD.

WCIA has always been the "leader" in central Illinois, but now it is
offering a broadcasting service that is inferior to all the other
"network" stations.

CBS has taken a lead in HD broadcasting, by making a full schedule of
nightly shows available in HD. But not for us here in central Illinois.

I am extremely disappointed in your stations resistance to broadcast a
HD signal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I received the following response from Russ Hamilton, himself:

We are in the process of building a completely new HD Tower at a cost of over 2,000,000 Dollars for WCIA and also a HD Tower for WCFN at 1,900,000 Dollars. Let me know what you think of the HD from WBUI and how you receive HD in your home. We have two stations to transfer over to Full Power Digital and HD and after almost a year of study three different firms have finally agreed that new towers are the answer in lieu of reinforcing current structures. When we finish we will put our digital signal and HD up against anyone. Also we currently signed a contract with cable for our digital and HD signal (unlike some of the stations in this market) so we are moving on our schedule and will be completed next year. There is no resistance to HD nor has there been but with the government changing dates every month we finally have a hard date and time so we can invest over 4,000,000 Dollars.

Russ Hamilton
Vice President & General Manager
WCIA/WCFN
509 S. Neil Street
Champaign, IL 61820

What a joke. No resistance? Other channels have been broadcasting HD here for over two years, and he says they'll have it ready next year? Screw WCIA.

There is no resistance to HD nor has there been but with the government changing dates every month we finally have a hard date and time so we can invest over 4,000,000 Dollars.


No resistance, that is absurd! Maybe not at the local level, but somewhere up the chain there has been RESISTANCE or they wouldn't be the last ones to the party.

And the government dates have nothing to do with HD. And they have 'changed' twice, yes? The original digital date and now the 2009 date???

But I will take it as fast as they can do it. Any more specifics on this 'hard date' other than sometime next year. I'm hoping that doesn't mean Dec 2006.

Lip-sync problem on 15-1. Where does one need to file a complaint about the constant audio problems occurring at 15-1. I have sent email after email about this situation and I have yet to get a response. Maybe I am the only one experiencing this but their audio is not in stride with the video. Last night on MNF when you watched Madden and Michaels the problem was obvious. I think it has been this way since the change-over.

You're not the only one Vitale. I've noticed it ever since the changeover as well. Fortunately, 20-1 seemed to have straightened it out, so I just watch that.

What a joke. No resistance? Other channels have been broadcasting HD here for over two years, and he says they'll have it ready next year? Screw WCIA.
whats confusing for me is that they are ALREADY broadcasting a Digital signal, If you have the Tower AND antenna to Broadcast DTV, you should be able to Broadcast HDTV, You just need HD network Recievers and the Switching and Microwave equpiment. If the equipment they have can Do 8VSB DTV.. they can do HDTV. Alot of stations have had the Tower issue, Most have gone with a lower Side mount antenna.. A lower sidemount is better then none at all, When the Analogs are switched off the DTV antenna will be moved to the top.

BTW, is anyone having dropouts on 55.1? When i watch it off air i get dropouts once in a while, My signal drops from 97 down to around 60 and loses lock. I get 20.1 Perfect with 98 signal and no dropouts.. 55's and 20's Transmitters are pretty much right next to each other so i dont think its a aiming problem. I am using an 4 bay UHF attic antenna.


Dr.

If you have the Tower AND antenna to Broadcast DTV, you should be able to Broadcast HDTV, You just need HD network Recievers and the Switching and Microwave equpiment. If the equipment they have can Do 8VSB DTV.. they can do HDTV.
Dr.

Not quite..as mentioned requires receivers and switching,also requires an HD encoder, at a minimum of 27k to 54k..plus other gear for the CBS design..the same microwave that carries DTv carries HD, it doesn't know any difference.
(unless they're encoding at the transmitter, which means they'd need a very expensive new digital microwave)
Also requires possible updates and modifications to the receive earth station as well. So not quite as simple as believed, but a lot easier than it used to be.

The point is that going HD costs a lots less than building a new tower and paying for the million watt antenna and the high power Ch. 48 amplifier to feed it.

AND ... most of the cost of going HD has nothing to do with the new tower: it is getting the signal from CBS into their quonset hut (now well disguised!) , through a switched, and out over a digital microwave ... yes, Virginia, they are digitizing their analog signal at the transmitter.

If they were to go HD now, the only thing that would be a real extra expense is putting up the digital microwave antenna at the old transmitter site and
finding a place for the receiver and encoder at the transmitter building. They would of course leave the UPN digital signal as it is now, just put in a major bitrate reduction on it. Maybe put in a better SD encoder for it. When they go to the new tower the only problem is putting up the new microwave antenna and then physically moving all the encoder stuff.

Doug McDonald

It's very disappointing that I seemed to have lost WBUI-23 on one of my sets. This seems to have developed sometime late summer/early fall. I am in SW Champaign with an attic mounted west facing yagi with CM preamp. I feed two different receivers through a simple splitter after the preamp power feed.

The Motorola box (hdt101) gets all the channels (3,12,15,17,23,55 digitals) rock solid with never a dropout. Unfortunately, the first generation MyHD card in my pc has lost the ability to get 23 - it hovers just below the strength needed; i.e. it gets a picture for a second or two every couple of minutes. All other channels are just fine. Back in the spring 23 worked just fine as well.

Anyone know if WBUI has any tower/transmitter upgrade plans in the reasonable future. I tried tweaking antenna position and a few other ideas, but it looks like I need a newer generation tuner card if I want wbui on the htpc.

jtv

JTV, Try and rescan for channels. 23 recently changed their signal, it may have affected your setup?

Steven

JTV

Yes, They are using 22-1 and 22-2. I'm expecting dual HD and SD broadcasts.

flyingfan

WRSP-DT is off air for maintenance. Parts are scheduled to arrive Tuesday 11/15.

WRSP-DT is off air for maintenance. Parts are scheduled to arrive Tuesday 11/15.


Does that mean no Prison Break in HD tonight and possibly no House tomorrow night? Thanks for the update.

Is anyone else seeing wild up and down Signal Strength on WAND? I only live like 30 miles southeast with an external antennae and it has been unwatchable for me for the last week.

Does that mean no Prison Break in HD tonight and possibly no House tomorrow night? Thanks for the update.

Yep..At least for Prison Break..hopefully the part I just sent to Ken via fedex will fix the transmitter in time for House.. :eek:

quaff, if you can, point your antenna NE, you should be able to get 27-1 FOX HD unless you are quite far southwest of champaign.

Ugh. Horrible lip-sync issues on 15 tonight... as usual.

I guess it IS rocket science... ;)

Anyone know if WBUI has any tower/transmitter upgrade plans in the reasonable future. I tried tweaking antenna position and a few other ideas, but it looks like I need a newer generation tuner card if I want wbui on the htpc.

jtv

WBUI built their current tower in the spring of 2000 if I remember correctly. Drove by it every day commuting for 6 months while it went up. It's the exact same height at WAND due to FAA restrictions. So I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. As for power level, they may be operating at a reduced level tell the transition. But I'm not sure and taking a look at the FCC web site might give a clearer idea. Also it's most likely they are using a side mount antenna for DTV on the tower. Depending on its placement, one side would be more attenuated, probably the north side with the antenna on the south side.

As for lid sync on other stations, reminds me of the early testing of HD. Often the demos were travel videos with music, no lip sync to see. Being at the time it still was being worked out. Still is I guess..

quaff, if you can, point your antenna NE, you should be able to get 27-1 FOX HD unless you are quite far southwest of champaign.


Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I am a subscriber with the absolute worst company in the history of man: Insight. (That may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but they do suck).

Anyway, thanks for the updates on Fox.

WRSP-DT is back on air.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I am a subscriber with the absolute worst company in the history of man: Insight. (That may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but they do suck).

Anyway, thanks for the updates on Fox.

What exaggeration? If anything, you are being generous towards them...

anyone notice WAND's HDTV audio? it seems to be missing The center channel (and subsequently all dialog) Anyone know anyone over there that can fix it? I tried off Air and cable on both TV's its gotta be an issue on their end.

*EDIT* It Seems they have fixed it...

Dr.

Hello all... This is my first post (I have lurked for a while) and let me start by saying that I am impressed by the knowledgeable people who post here.

I just went to Radio Shack yesterday and bought their $90 HDTV STB. I have one comment and one problem seeking an answer from this very knowledgable assembly.

Note: using good old rabbit ears (in SW Urbana, on the first floor of my house, few outside obstructions) I can pick up WCCU, WILL, WAND very well, while WBUI and WICD comes in so-so, and WCIA comes in with nothing (I always hover around 48-49% signal strength, but no picture or sound).

Anyway, I was watching Desperate Housewifes (solely for testing purposes, you understand--I think I am one of 15 people in the country you think this show is worthless), and, like the others on this list, noticed that the lipsynch is off. Who ever wrote that this was fixed today, this does not seem to be the case.

Now for the problem. The connection that I reference above comes from plugging the HDTV box into a conventional CRT using the video out or the S-video out, both of which, obviously, are analog. Before that, I tried hooking it up to a DLP projector that is native HDTV, with Component cables. This was in the basement of my house. Now, frankly, I was not expecting to get anything down there, particularly with rabbit ears, but was curious to find that WAND and WCCU came in when my box was set to receive 480p---the problem was that when it displayed (even when I could get no display) the picture is doubled. It was literally a double picture of the action, each box of equal size, side by side. I get garbage when I set the manual switch in the back to 720p or 1080i.

I ruled out the component cable or the projector being the problem by running a dvd from the component jack to the projector (it worked fine). That leaves the Radioshack STB (I think its from a company called Adjulent) or the OTA transmission causing the problem. I am stumped because (as I indicate at the top of this entry) the STB works fine when connected to old fashioned TVs. Any thoughts?

Thanks. :)

I ruled out the component cable or the projector being the problem by running a dvd from the component jack to the projector (it worked fine). That leaves the Radioshack STB (I think its from a company called Adjulent) or the OTA transmission causing the problem. )

It still could be that the projector is incompatible with 720p or 1080i.
Only one possible suggestion: the switch on the back is very cheesy,
try wiggling it. That worked for me!

Doug McDonald

Radio Shack's website did not report the $90 HD STB in stock in any local store. If you did get it locally, could you post what store had it in stock.

Thanks.

I stopped by Urbana store a couple of weeks ago and they said the one reported in stock at their store was "out for repair". Since they now list none in stock, maybe aloha picked up that one?

WRSP-DT is off air for maintenance. No ETA yet for when I'll have it fixed.

WRSP-DT is off air for maintenance. No ETA yet for when I'll have it fixed.

Ken, is this by any chance to address the random signal loss? The last couple days, I've been getting drops every ten minutes or so. Nothing sustained, it always comes back quickly, but is kind of a pain, especially if it happens during a crucial point in a show.

I stopped by Urbana store a couple of weeks ago and they said the one reported in stock at their store was "out for repair". Since they now list none in stock, maybe aloha picked up that one?

I had that one, which I bought in Kankakee. It broke in 8 hours. Dead. Returned by me. They got another one from Kankakee, which was some sort of return or
repair and I bought it. No manual. But it seems to work fine.

Doug McDonald

Ken, is this by any chance to address the random signal loss? The last couple days, I've been getting drops every ten minutes or so.Yes, the problem is related.

WRSP-DT is back up.

Anyone know why WAND didn't make the HD switch yesterday during the Macy's parade??? I was really looking forward to this... :( I watched for about an hour and then gave up.

T

Anyone know why WAND didn't make the HD switch yesterday during the Macy's parade??? I was really looking forward to this... :( I watched for about an hour and then gave up.

T

Yes. It was on tape delay, and NBC O&O's and affiliates don't have HD recording/playback equipment yet. WMAQ in Chicago was on tape delay
and SD as well.

Did anyone experience any trouble with 27-1 yesterday? I could not get to come in at all even after moving the antenna and rescanning three times. My location is (Duncan/Clayton) in Champaign using a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna. Bummer having to watch the Bears game using Insight's standard cable.

I have the Insight HD and Fox was all kinds of messed up. Had to mostly watch the SD even for Simpsons and Family Guy.

Did anyone experience any trouble with 27-1 yesterday? I could not get to come in at all even after moving the antenna and rescanning three times. My location is (Duncan/Clayton) in Champaign using a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna. Bummer having to watch the Bears game using Insight's standard cable.

I live in Parkland Ridge subdivision and had no problems.

I have review the last year worth of posts, but with the changing of stations, would like to get the most up to date suggestions

I currently live in southwest champaign in the southwood subdivision just south of kirby and west of mattis, in a ranch style house. I am going to be installing a dtv HD receiver and would like to get at a minimum Fox, ABC and NBC in HD using a OFA. This can be mounted in the attic if necessary. Could someone please give me a recommendation on type of antenna to purchase and which direction to point it.

Thanks in advance for you time.

Jeff

Yeah gang. Receiving WHOI, on channel 40 down here in Lincoln area for the first time. They must have boosted their signal strength.

I currently live in southwest champaign in the southwood subdivision just south of kirby and west of mattis, in a ranch style house. I am going to be installing a dtv HD receiver and would like to get at a minimum Fox, ABC and NBC in HD using a OFA. This can be mounted in the attic if necessary. Could someone please give me a recommendation on type of antenna to purchase and which direction to point it.

Jeff

I have a friend near you and he never succeeded with a single commercial
antenna. I recommend two quad-bowtie antennas mounted on the roof,
one pointed west, one east, with two separate leadins. Radio Shack has
a little switch withj a remote control that you can use to switch between antennas.

If you could mount a single quad-bowtie antenna with the reflector cut off,
at least 25 feet in the air, that would do with a single leadin ...

Doug McDonald

I have 2 antennae mounted in my attic, one pointed east and one west. I use a single feed line for both, though that's not the recommended way. Someone here at AVS did some measurements showing a very great signal loss of an attic mounted antenna vs. one mounted in the open air.

With our arrangement of transmitter towers here in CU, I wonder if an amplified bi-directional antenna like this one might work:

http://www.winegard.com/offair/sensar.htm#ds

If I weren't so scared of heights, I'd buy one and try it.

If I weren't so scared of heights, I'd buy one and try it.


Heights are only a problem if you fall... :eek:

Heights are only a problem if you fall... :eek:
Heights are only a problem when you *stop* falling. :D

I have just recently purchased a Hitachi 42 LCD that has a built in tuner with cable card slot. I do not have the digital package for Insight. If I get the cable card what benifits will it allow me.

FYI. my tuner already picks up NBC, ABC and PBS in HD. Also get all the on demand movies somehow. What effect on getting the card have on the current hd channels I receive.

RoosterinIL

With our arrangement of transmitter towers here in CU, I wonder if an amplified bi-directional antenna like this one might work:

http://www.winegard.com/offair/sensar.htm#ds



That's a LOW BAND VHF antenna primarily. It's terribly
wrong for here.

What you want to try is a Channelmaster or Winegard quad-bowtie
with the reflector cut off, high up in the air. This won't work well for WCCU
unless you can be sure you are well above or east of Yankee Ridge.

It will get WILL ch. 9 just fine.

Doug McDonald

I currently live in southwest champaign in the southwood subdivision just south of kirby and west of mattis, in a ranch style house. I am going to be installing a dtv HD receiver and would like to get at a minimum Fox, ABC and NBC in HD using a OFA. This can be mounted in the attic if necessary. Could someone please give me a recommendation on type of antenna to purchase and which direction to point it.

Jeff
Hmmm. Don't know about the ranch house. I have a two storey with an attic mounted antenna. I use the small rs yagi ($25) which works better for me than the rs double bowtie (which is supposed to be inferior to winegrad/cm bowties). I have a 100+ ft cable run and use a cm preamp ($60 or so at lowes).

I use to have one east facing and one west facing antenna, but now I find that I can get away with just the west facing antenna. I get cbs,nbc,abc, fox, wb, pbs with my Motorola hdt101 stb. For Fox, I use 55 which makes 27 irrelevant. I think if you want 27 dependably you need the east facing antenna. I get 27 on my west facing antenna but it's irregular.

As people have discussed, height is important so I can't predict how you will do in a ranch house. I suspect you will be okay if there aren't any taller homes and/or tall trees too close - but that's just a guess.

jtv

Could not get 27-1 again last night at 9:30 in NW Champaign. Did others experience this? Rescanned 5 times while moving antenna 5 times with no luck. Samsung TS360 receiver.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Has anyone with a Dish Network 942 had a problem with channel 20 out of Springfield? I get a 98% signal but the receiver will not lock on the station. Any ideas on the reason for this, all the other locals come in with no problem. I live just south of Taylorville.

Where is 27-1? Bears game to begin and no HD.

I'm watching 27-1 in HD...

nalesic,

Where would your location be? I am in northwest Champaign near the intersection of
Clayton and Duncan. I use a silver sensor antenna hooked up to my Samsung TS360. I have had no problem until last week getting 27-1. Now, no matter where I place the antenna, 27-1 will not show up. Maybe it's my receiver but I get all other digital ota channels without a problem. Man, this blows.

Here in Danville, I was able to watch the entire Bears/Steelers game in HD. Excellent picture and sound quality. No problems whatsoever.

I'm in Sawgrass (Bradley and Staley), but I use a roof-mounted directional RS Yagi. Hooks into my Dish Network 811 POS.

ktFOX55/27,

Any clues at what the problem may be with my situation? Using a silver sensor antenna with a Samsung TS360 receiver. I have rescanned and rebooted the receiver numerous times with no success. Like I said in earlier posts, 27-1 is the only ota channel I can not receive now, but it used to come in loud and clear. It has been this way for over a week.

Nalesic,
Is this the same Nalesic posting on the IB?

Nalesic,
Is this the same Nalesic posting on the IB?

Sure is.

Vitale
Have you tried adding a preamp? Best recommendation, get a rooftop antenna.

Ken,

I think I just emailed you at WCCU but not sure. I have been getting 27-1 with a Silver Sensor for months with a very strong signal. Nothing around me has changed dramatically, has output power been lessened by WCCU? I have not tried a preamp

Nothing has changed on WCCU's broadcast. As I have stated many times in the past, indoor antennas can be finicky. I use an indoor antenna and could not pull in anything reliably until I switched to an antenna with a preamp.

I will go and try a preamp. Thanks for the help

Vitale'sFakeEye

Just wondering if there had been any recent new construction near where you live which could block or reduce signal?

cheers,

Geoffrey

Geoffrey,

Nope, nada, nothing. What is really perplexing is, that the receiver acts like 27-1 isn't even in existence. If I could get 27-1 but all it said was lack of signal strength I wouldn't be so mystified. Plus, the signal I was getting used to be so strong that it didn't matter where I placed the antenna to receive it.

Vitale,

For what it's worth...

I live just off of Clayton in Parkland Ridge subdivision. I'm able to pick up 27-1 with a Terk HDTVi indoor antenna. Prior to the major problem at Fox 27 that had their DTV down for a week or two, I was receiving loud and clear without moving the antenna. Ever since that outage, I have had to move the antenna to a different location in the room to view 27-1 without break-ups.

However, since I found the new spot, I have not had any problem whatsoever.

Andy,

I have tried and tried to find that "magical spot" but so far it's a no-go and I will continue looking. In the meantime here is what I did to receive 3-1 and 3-2 without having to move my antenna. Since my Silver Sensor has to be moved to get these channels I thought I would go out and buy another Silver Sensor and hook them both together and see if this would work, instead of me getting up off the couch and readjusting the antenna. Well, I hooked up both antennas and ran their cables into a two to one splitter and then directly into my receiver. One antenna is facing almost due west while the other is facing east to southeast. It worked! 3-1(WCIA) and 3-2(WCFN) come in loud and clear with no ghosting or anything like that and now I don't have to move the antenna. So here are the channels I am able to get with the two Silver Sensors hooked together: 3-1(WCIA), 3-2(WCFN), 15-1(WICD), 17-1 & 17-2(WAND), 23-1(WBUI). Before a week or so ago 27-1(WCCU) came in strong as well as 12-1 & 12-2 (PBS). If I really want to watch PBS I have to do a little tweaking on the antenna pointing east to southeast to get it to come in. But, since I watch PBS seldomly that does not bother me. Now if I could only figure out that darn 27-1! Next option is to put on a preamp. Remember, I was able to get all these channels before with one antenna but I had to move the antenna to get specific channels.

Hi folks-
I don't currently live there, but I'm curious what HD options there are for those living in Charleston IL - OTA at all? What is the cable company and what do they offer for HD?
Is this the right board for Charleston?
thanks for the info....

-MOE

Hi folks-
I don't currently live there, but I'm curious what HD options there are for those living in Charleston IL - OTA at all?

Is this the right board for Charleston?
thanks for the info....

-MOE

This is the right place for Charleston, but so is wherever Terre Haute
goes.

I think that people in Charleston can get all of the HD stations
we have in Champaign (or Springfield), which means ABC, NBC, Fox, PBS (WILL)
and WB. We don't have CBS in HD.

Doug McDonald

Hi folks-
I don't currently live there, but I'm curious what HD options there are for those living in Charleston IL - OTA at all? What is the cable company and what do they offer for HD?
Is this the right board for Charleston?
thanks for the info....

-MOE

Also, http://www.checkhd.com and http://www.antennaweb.org can give guidance on what there is and where it is.

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whether Insight (I'm in Urbana, IL) has the local HDTV networks "in the clear" accessible via a QAM tuner.

We currently subscribe to the basic-basic cable (~$12/month) which includes the analog local networks and PBS. I am wondering if this same basic cable service would allow me to pick up these same local networks in HDTV if we had a QAM tuner hooked up. We are not looking to increase our cable costs by stepping up to a more expensive subscription with Insight at this time.

Also, if the HDTV locals are accessible via QAM on Insight, how would the quality compare with the OTA HDTV broadcasts?

Thanks very much for any responses !

Insight only has FOX HD at this time, so the most you'll get is 1 HD channel from Insight. I don't know if it's in the clear or not though.

Thanks for the reply!

As far as the networks go, Insight claims to have at least NBC and FOX in HD (from their website for the Urbana zip code). Too bad that they seem to be behind the OTA local broadcasting in HD. I suppose they will catch up eventually.

A co-employee who lives in Mahomet just got an HDTV and wonders if any HD is available on Mahomet's cable system (Mediacom???). I couldn't find any relevant information the web and wonder if anyone here knows.

Thanks.

Mediacom has FOX in HD through its cable box, if you have a digital tuner in your TV it pulls in FOX, ABC (Peoria), NBC (Peoria) and PBS (Peoria).

Is ABC *EVER* going to get the audio sync correct???

Monday Night Football is out of sync... like clockwork... every ****ing week.

I just sent an e-mail complaint to the comment link on their website. Maybe if enough people gripe it will get fixed.


Is ABC *EVER* going to get the audio sync correct???

Monday Night Football is out of sync... like clockwork... every ****ing week.

I live east of Lincoln and watched channel 40, (19-1) , in HD with Doby D. 5.1 with everything perfect. WHOI did a great job. No sync audio problems there.
I get 9 channels here in HD with OTA with 20 year old fixed direction antenna in my attic.

Is ABC *EVER* going to get the audio sync correct???

Monday Night Football is out of sync... like clockwork... every ****ing week.

Are you watching 15-1 or 20-1 heavy?

Good luck in getting 15-1 to fix the audio sync problem. I have emailed them at least 5 times on this issue as well as numerous voicemails being made. Result.......No feedback at all from any email or voicemail. 15-1 is pretty pathetic with their HD but they are leaps and bounds ahead of that boob of a station WCIA. Thanks WICD for the HD, now go the extra step and make it enjoyable to watch.

I recommend for those who have the ability, use 20-1 instead. If you're using a directional antenna, just aim it SW instead of NE. This should give you 20-1 for ABC and 55-1 for FOX, while still getting 17-1, 3-1, and 23-1.

I live east of Lincoln and watched channel 40, (19-1) , in HD with Doby D. 5.1 with everything perfect. WHOI did a great job. No sync audio problems there.
I get 9 channels here in HD with OTA with 20 year old fixed direction antenna in my attic.

I am glad someone has chimed in from Lincoln. :D I live just north of Springfield and I would think Lincoln would be a sweet spot. Between Decatur, Champaign, Springfield, Bloom/Norm and Peoria. What channels are you getting??? Are you using a preamp like a CM 7777??? That could possibly help get more channels.

T

I am glad someone has chimed in from Lincoln. I live just north of Springfield and I would think Lincoln would be a sweet spot. Between Decatur, Champaign, Springfield, Bloom/Norm and Peoria. What channels are you getting??? Are you using a preamp like a CM 7777??? That could possibly help get more channels.


Thumperxr69,

I get, 12-1,12-2,17-1,17-2,19-1,20-1,23-1,23-2,25-1,25-2,31-3,43-1,47-1,47-2,55-1,55-2,
59-1(39-1 on my listings). I bought a preamp but have not had a chance to install it yet.

Thanks for the reply!

As far as the networks go, Insight claims to have at least NBC and FOX in HD (from their website for the Urbana zip code). Too bad that they seem to be behind the OTA local broadcasting in HD. I suppose they will catch up eventually.

Insight does indeed have NBC and FOX. NBC was just added, and of course no one was told, it just appeared one day. I mean, thats great, the more the merrier, its just that it'd be nice to have some sort of schedule to follow so you can look forward to when another channel will be available. Anyway, NBC so far looks good, no signal problems yet. FOX on the other hand, while when its working looks fantastic, has frequent problems with its HD signal. Many a time I have had to switch to the analog station. Hopefully Insight will get their crap together and get WICD (ABC)HD out before the Super Bowl. Jerks.

Noob,
Insight did give us notice of NBC HD. It was on the previous months bill and it said that WAND HD will be starting Dec. 1. I know it wasn't much advertisement but they did tell us. As far as WICD, they definitely won't be on Insight anytime in the near future because they are Sinclair owned. This means no SuperBowl or BCS games in HD for me. I am not going to spend 200 dollars for a separate OTA HD reciever just to get one station. Some good news. I emailed WCIA and they said that they have already come to an agreement with Insight to carry their HD signal when they get one up and running. The bad news is that it could be a year or so before that happens. I am praying that we get it before football season starts next year, but that may be wishful thinking.

I live in Windsor, IL. I am using a Phillips Mant310 for my HD reception. I can get quite a few stations, mostly in Champaign, Decatur, and Springfield (15.1, 20.1, 22.3, 22.4, 23.1, 23.2, 41.3, 44.3, 44.4, 55.1, and 55.2). My problem is that I cant get close to getting WAND 17.1 or any NBC for that matter. I am getting a pretty strong WB 23 from decatur and I can pull in 17 really well from analog. I am within 40 miles of Decatur which is closer to me than Champaign or Springfield. Why can't I get WAND? Any tips? Today I tried the supposedly stronger Phillips MANT510 to no avail. In fact it was worse. If I am pulling in WB 23.1, shouldn't I be getting WAND from the same setting?

An early Christmas gift from our friends at WCCU.

Finally!!! :rolleyes: WCCU's programming is showing up on my D** Program Guide.

Ken and/or Bob, thank you, or thank whomever is responsible for finally getting this taken care of.

Great Rrrrick8, not sure that we did anything..at least we didn't on our end..!

Ken is on a much needed vacation next week, so please be patient and understanding if
there are any problems with WRSP-WCCU's digital while he's gone!

Just found out a few days ago about Sinclair coming to an agreement with Insight to carry WICD ABC 15 in HD. There is a press release on Sinclairs websight about this. I don't know when it will be added but it may be soon because WYZZ out of Peoria, which is also a sinclair station and part of this deal just got added to the Insight lineup today according to people on the Peoria board. Hopefully we will get WICD added by next week in time to watch the BCS bowl games.

Hey Gator!! That's excellent news! Thank you for the update!! What is the deal about Sinclair? Are they some sort of enemy of Insight?

From my understanding, Sinclair is demanding that Cable companies pay for the right to show their HD signals. So it doesn't have anything to do solely with Insight. Someone else may be able to better explain it but I think that is the jist of it. So now we will have NBC, ABC, and Fox in HD on Insight. So CBS is the only one left. The good news and I posted this earlier is that CBS (WCIA) already has a deal with Insight to show their HD Signal whenever they start broadcasting in HD. I emailed the station manager, Russ, and he confirmed this but he didn't say when this would happen, but it sounded like it would be sometime next year.

gators, this is the response I posted (on page 62) that I got from Russ. I had to laugh at the last sentence of his reply...

I sent the following E-mail to WCIA:

It truly is a shame that the largest station in central Illinois is the
only one that does not broadcast a HD signal, now that WBUI and WILL
have gone HD.

WCIA has always been the "leader" in central Illinois, but now it is
offering a broadcasting service that is inferior to all the other
"network" stations.

CBS has taken a lead in HD broadcasting, by making a full schedule of
nightly shows available in HD. But not for us here in central Illinois.

I am extremely disappointed in your stations resistance to broadcast a
HD signal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I received the following response from Russ Hamilton:

We are in the process of building a completely new HD Tower at a cost of over 2,000,000 Dollars for WCIA and also a HD Tower for WCFN at 1,900,000 Dollars. Let me know what you think of the HD from WBUI and how you receive HD in your home. We have two stations to transfer over to Full Power Digital and HD and after almost a year of study three different firms have finally agreed that new towers are the answer in lieu of reinforcing current structures. When we finish we will put our digital signal and HD up against anyone. Also we currently signed a contract with cable for our digital and HD signal (unlike some of the stations in this market) so we are moving on our schedule and will be completed next year. There is no resistance to HD nor has there been but with the government changing dates every month we finally have a hard date and time so we can invest over 4,000,000 Dollars.

Russ Hamilton
Vice President & General Manager
WCIA/WCFN
509 S. Neil Street
Champaign, IL 61820

__________________
Rick

I emailed WICD to see if they were going to follow suit with WYZZ. I will post the reply when and if i get one.

I'm pretty new to this whole HDTV thing and am a bit baffled. I recently purchased a Philips 51" widescreen HDTV with built-in digital tuner. Nice TV at a great price ($799 @ Circuit City back in late November).

Anyway, I'm living in Marshall, IL and have MediaCom cable. Once I got the TV I ordered up MediaCom's Hi-Def tier of channels. They came out a few days later and switched out my old digital cable box and replaced it with an HDTV cable box with a DVR (nice feature).

Over the past few weeks I've been learning my way around both the TV and the new cable box, but have been baffled by various things. I can tune in the digital signal from WTHI (Terre Haute) on rabbit ears and get an awesome picture, but the picture I get on various cable channels is just so-so. Even when I went to the MediaCom hi-def channels the picture was only "okay"...not nearly as good as the WTHI DTV signal I was getting from my rabbit ears.

I've been doing a little reading about the HDMI jack on the back of both the TV and the cable box. I was curious if using HDMI cables would improve my picture...and more importantly would it improve it substantially enough to make the $100+ cables worth it.

So, today I was shopping and a salesman at Circuit City said it would make things better, but he determined by asking me some questions that MediaCom only set me up using standard composite audio/video cables. He said at the very least I needed to upgrade to component video cables.

Based on his advise, I bought a set of component cables and hooked them. It took a minute to figure out that my picture was no longer viewed on AV1 on my TV, but now on the HD CVI channel. After I figured that out I immediately noticed the signal was MUCH better when I went to watch the MediaCom hi-def tier channels, but the normal cable channels now SUCK. I mean some of them are unwatchable. This all changed with the changing of the cables. I switched back to the composite cables and the regular cable stuff is much better and the hi-def stuff is so-so. I switch back to the new component cables and hi-def rocks...regular cable sucks.

I know this is a long message and probably belongs somewhere else in the forums, but I thought putting it in the Champaign forum might make sense if it's a market specific cable issue I'm dealing with. I'm open to any and all suggestions and/or comments.

Thanks in advance,
Doug

I'm pretty new to this whole HDTV thing and am a bit baffled. I recently purchased a Philips 51" widescreen HDTV with built-in digital tuner. Nice TV at a great price ($799 @ Circuit City back in late November).

Doug

Hi Doug. Welcome to the crazy world of the transition to HDTV.

In order to view true HD, your cable box must be connected to your TV with either component cables (which apparently you now have) or an HDMI cable. When you do this, you will get the HD channels in their full hi-resolution glory.

Unfortunately, this also means that standard-definition channels must be "upconverted" in order to be shown. An HD signal has either 1080 or 720 lines of resolution; a standard definition signal has 480. So in order to get a standard definition signal to "play" via an HD connection, electronics either inside your TV or inside your cable box have to process this signal and convert it to 1080 or 720 lines by repeating or extrapolating data in the picture. The problem is that the way you have your cable box connected now, this upconversion is being done by your cable box, which almost certainly has very crappy electronics for doing this. That's why the HD pictures look great, but the SD pictures look terrible.

Your best bet would be to do the following. Use TWO of your TV inputs for your cable box. Leave your component cable as-is, but then also run another S-video or standard composite video cable from the output of your cable box to the input of your TV. When you watch standard-definition stuff, switch to this second input, and let your TV do the processing to the signal to show it, rather than letting your cable box do it. As you've already experienced (from when you had your cable box hooked up with only a composite video cable earlier), your TV does a better job of this conversion than your cable box.

It's something of a hassle, but until cable boxes get better electronic circuits for doing this conversion or all our programming becomes HD (not likely any time in the mid-future), you're almost certainly better off letting the TV do it by switching to a standard-defintion input on your TV.

John Colombo

Thanks for the welcome and the information. It made perfect sense. It's just a shame anyone would have to go to such measures to be able to get a good picture. Hopefully TVs, cable boxes, and broadcasters will all get on the same page sometime soon. :)

I'll hook up the old composite cables back into the AV1 jacks and switch back and forth between the inputs depending on what kind of signal I'm watching.

Thanks again for the help. Now I think I'm going to look into an extrenal antenna so I can see what all I can pick up.

Doug

Doug,

If your cable box has an s-video output, you should give that a try as well for the standard definition stuff. An s-video connection is typically quite a bit better than a composite connection, although it will depend on the cable box to some extent.

I recently read a detailed discussion somewhere else on these forums about cable quality vs. price. The consensus was that the super expensive cables are not worth the cost. monoprice.com was highly recommended for having very good quality cables for a fraction of what they charge at the retail stores - this applies to digital (HDMI) as well as analog (component, s-video, etc.) cables. It is important to figure out which connection will work best for your particular setup, as you are doing.

- Jamie

Thanks for the welcome and the information. It made perfect sense. It's just a shame anyone would have to go to such measures to be able to get a good picture. Hopefully TVs, cable boxes, and broadcasters will all get on the same page sometime soon. :)

I'll hook up the old composite cables back into the AV1 jacks and switch back and forth between the inputs depending on what kind of signal I'm watching.

Thanks again for the help. Now I think I'm going to look into an extrenal antenna so I can see what all I can pick up.

Doug

One last point - if your cable box supports HDMI, you almost certainly would be better off connecting it to your TV that way. Using HDMI keeps the TV signal in digital form all the way to the TV set, instead of relying on the cable box to convert the digital signal to an analog HD signal. My sister has a Motorola cable box and a Samsung DLP TV with an HDMI connection. I hooked it up for her both ways, and the HDMI connection was clearly superior on HDTV, and even made SD channels watchable. With her cable box, you could set it up so that it would simply pass the digital data, whether it was HD or SD, to the TV and then the TV was always doing the upconversion for SD stuff. I don't know if your box can work the same way, but you might try it out.

John C.

Yes, my cable box (Motorola DCT6412 III) does have an HDMI output...and my TV (Philips 51PP9100D/37) has a matching HDMI input. I'll give that a try.

Thanks again for all the help.

Doug

**Update**

I went out and bought an HDMI cable and installed it between my cable box and the TV. I can see a bit of difference...in fact I think the regular cable channels actually look a little worse than they did when I was using component cables. HD still rocks!

I'm really at a loss on how to make my cable channels tolerable. Right now they give you a headache after about 20 minutes of viewing.

**Update**

I went out and bought an HDMI cable and installed it between my cable box and the TV. I can see a bit of difference...in fact I think the regular cable channels actually look a little worse than they did when I was using component cables. HD still rocks!

I'm really at a loss on how to make my cable channels tolerable. Right now they give you a headache after about 20 minutes of viewing.

The problem is with the up conversion, it depends so much on the internal circuitry. Normally the TV has the best up conversion then a cable box or sat box. Best to feed the TV with S-video or composite, not through the component outputs that are probably being unconverted to at least 480P (progressive). That’s what I do with my Sony 36" XBR CRT. In fact, I’m one of the few that have both cable and satellite. Through a fluke with the cable company I was only to get the locals only (2-21) and some PEG channels. But when I skipped out on a payment when I was gone they disconnected me, when I got hooked back up I ended up with all 78 analog channels. I’m not complaining. :) But it seems to me when I compare the same channels on sat to cable, that the cable channels are sharper with better contrast, shades between the darks and lights. If I have a choice to watch a show on both cable and sat, I will take the cable feed. However, I've noticed that some of the "cable" channels (they all are delivered by satellite to them, duh) are showing pixilation sometimes, meaning that, that network has switched to some digital feed instead on an analog satellite feed, like most have been. The worst are E! and FX, in fact their audio is worse then their video. Strange, but video takes up way more capacity and they are skimping on the audio compression. I hear it both on sat and cable. I can't stand it; it's like a bad MP3. Might not hear it on the typical 3" TV speaker but a decent TV with bigger speakers or through a sound system, it's annoying.

The other falsehood, is that TV's like my Sony have "interlaced" and "progressive" mode. When in fact the TV is always a Progressive picture, but switching between the two "modes" just changes the way it processes the video. So interlaced video never really looks like the way it should and never takes advantage of the way it's presented to the eye. I never see the line twitter that comes with interlaced on text and some graphics. Interlaced analog sources would look a lot better on TV's if the manufactures would do no processing and pass it though in its native format. Instead of always up converting to at least 480P and more often to 525P. This is so they don't have to switch scanning speeds from 15kHz to 31KHz. You can use 31Khz for 480P all the way up to 1080i. Strangely enough only 1080i is displayed as interlaced, but that's only if you have a CRT display, not DLP or LCD, those are fixed pixel and can only display progressively. That's why I always fell that it’s a better picture if the station takes their SD image and up converts it to 1080i to keep the interlaced component and in the process lose none of the SD resolution. The NY CBS feed on Dishnetwork is done this way, and when you feed the SD output of the sat receiver with the donwcoverted HD of SD material it looks far superior to any other SD channel on Dish. Partly because it's not compressed to 2Mb/sec, but also because it's preserved as interlaced.

If I remember, Sampo used to make a truly multisync 32" widescreen Tv that would display in both 15kHz and 31kHz's depending on the source material. However I heard it had a terrible Y/C filter and would cause ringing artifacts on high frequency material that was feed in on the composite input, this included the TV tuner. CRT front projectors should also be capable of multisync inputs, and some up to computer sync rates.

But alas, most TV's and video monitors sold in today’s stores do not do this and we are left with hoping the internal up conversion circuitry will do a good job. I've been quite pleased with Sony's Digital Reality Creation (DRC) that came with my CRT Tv. (quite adjustable pallets) I don't know if they use the same for their LCD's or it would work as well with them. But it still seems to be the best built in circuitry I've seen so far. They don’t use DRC while in HD, only sharpness and velocity modulation are available in that mode. Since there is 6 times the resolution, no need to try and make it appear sharper then it is, like with SD.

I just recently got a HDTV and I've noticed some problems with the local stations, especially WICD/ABC. Is it just me or is the lip sync off on WICD? Also, WICD seems to like to switch between SD and HD for no reason whatsoever. So sometimes I see HD for a while, then after a commercial break, the program will resume in SD, and then switch to HD again. Has anyone else also seen these problems?

Edit: And for some reason they switched the New Years program to SD shortly after midnight...

Anyone here know if they have a signal on the air yet?

Thanks,
Greg B

Max,
Do you mean if WICD has a signal on Insight yet? If so the answer in not yet. I was hoping it would be by tomorrow for the football games. I am a little mad because several of the other stations that were part of the deal(Peoria and Columbus OH) already have their stations up on Insight. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised I guess.

Edit-Nevermind, I now see you were talking about another station.

No, Max is asking about WEIU.

I have not seen anything posted referencing that they have went active yet, Max.

I don't believe WEIU (PBS in Charleston) has a DT signal going yet. I believe the rollout of that should coincide with the finish of their new tower. I think that might happen later this year.

I just recently got a HDTV and I've noticed some problems with the local stations, especially WICD/ABC. Is it just me or is the lip sync off on WICD? Also, WICD seems to like to switch between SD and HD for no reason whatsoever. So sometimes I see HD for a while, then after a commercial break, the program will resume in SD, and then switch to HD again. Has anyone else also seen these problems?

Edit: And for some reason they switched the New Years program to SD shortly after midnight...


Welcome Cgy:

These are common problems and have been discussed before. Some programs and channels seem to have lip sync issues worse than others. Welcome to the leading edge. The dreaded "switch" is also a common problem.


T

That is very exciting since that is where a lot of the illini games are and the rest of the sports ie march maddness : )
Did he give any sort of timeframe as to when this new tower would be operational. It would be great to have it up before the tournament. If would expidite things I'm pretty handy w/ a soldering iron.

gators, this is the response I posted (on page 62) that I got from Russ. I had to laugh at the last sentence of his reply...

I sent the following E-mail to WCIA:

It truly is a shame that the largest station in central Illinois is the
only one that does not broadcast a HD signal, now that WBUI and WILL
have gone HD.

WCIA has always been the "leader" in central Illinois, but now it is
offering a broadcasting service that is inferior to all the other
"network" stations.

CBS has taken a lead in HD broadcasting, by making a full schedule of
nightly shows available in HD. But not for us here in central Illinois.

I am extremely disappointed in your stations resistance to broadcast a
HD signal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I received the following response from Russ Hamilton:

We are in the process of building a completely new HD Tower at a cost of over 2,000,000 Dollars for WCIA and also a HD Tower for WCFN at 1,900,000 Dollars. Let me know what you think of the HD from WBUI and how you receive HD in your home. We have two stations to transfer over to Full Power Digital and HD and after almost a year of study three different firms have finally agreed that new towers are the answer in lieu of reinforcing current structures. When we finish we will put our digital signal and HD up against anyone. Also we currently signed a contract with cable for our digital and HD signal (unlike some of the stations in this market) so we are moving on our schedule and will be completed next year. There is no resistance to HD nor has there been but with the government changing dates every month we finally have a hard date and time so we can invest over 4,000,000 Dollars.

Russ Hamilton
Vice President & General Manager
WCIA/WCFN
509 S. Neil Street
Champaign, IL 61820

__________________
Rick

I've been experimenting with indoor HDTV antennas. I started with basic rabbit ears allegedly optimized for HD. It pulled in WTHI-DT (Terre Haute) and WUSI-DT perfectly, but that was it. Next I went with one everyoine has been raving about...the Zenith Silver Sensor. Yuck! It was deaf (or blind). I could barely pick up WTHI-DT without it cutting out all the time. Returned it and got another one many folks have talked about...the Terk HDTVa (amplified version). It's the best so far, though I can't WTHI-DT on it. I now get WFXW (Fox in TH)...WUSI...and WICD-DT (ABC out of Champaign/Urbana). Watching the Notre Dame/Ohio State bowl game in HD right now. WOW!

Thanks again for everyone's help and advice.

Doug
Marshall, IL

Hi everyone.

A colleague of mine treated himself to a new HDTV plasma TV; he now wants to get an outdoor antenna to get the local HDTV channels (he's been using rabbit ears, which are OK from his location in Yankee Ridge for 27 and 15, but he's having trouble with stations from the west). But he'd rather hire an installer than go the DIY route, so . . .

Can anyone recommend a decent antenna INSTALLER in town?

John C.

I am a very unsatisfied Insight customer and have been thinking of changing to Dish Network. My problem with Insight is the non-HD programming is horrible. Despite the wrath of my wife for spending even more money on a TV that "doesn't look very good", I purchased a receiver and indoor antenna. Now I get some local HD / digital programming and am mostly satisfied (Despite audio sync problems). Just before I pulled the trigger on a 18 month contract to get digital programming from Dish Network, Insight slowly begins to come out with local channels in HD.
From my understanding the Dish Network offers digital programming on all channels and but no HD on local channels. Insight offers analog programming over a digital signal for all cable channels and slowly is offering HD and digital on locals. My questions are: When is Insight going to give me digital programming on "cable" channels? Is Insight required to give us digital programming by the end of 2006 or does that only apply to the networks? Has anyone switched between Dish Network / Insight and would like to give me their thoughts. Is there any way to get Comcast in Champaign?

I am a very unsatisfied Insight customer and have been thinking of changing to Dish Network. My problem with Insight is the non-HD programming is horrible. Despite the wrath of my wife for spending even more money on a TV that "doesn't look very good", I purchased a receiver and indoor antenna. Now I get some local HD / digital programming and am mostly satisfied (Despite audio sync problems). Just before I pulled the trigger on a 18 month contract to get digital programming from Dish Network, Insight slowly begins to come out with local channels in HD.
From my understanding the Dish Network offers digital programming on all channels and but no HD on local channels. Insight offers analog programming over a digital signal for all cable channels and slowly is offering HD and digital on locals. My questions are: When is Insight going to give me digital programming on "cable" channels? Is Insight required to give us digital programming by the end of 2006 or does that only apply to the networks? Has anyone switched between Dish Network / Insight and would like to give me their thoughts. Is there any way to get Comcast in Champaign?

Hi Chad.

Why are you considering only Dish Network? DirecTV is also an option; they have an HD channel lineup now that includes many "national" HD channels (e.g., ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, UniversalHD, HD-Net, HD-Net movies) and have already launched local network HD in the major markets, with plans to expand to all top-100 markets (that includes ours) in the next two years. Dish Network probably has the edge on DirecTV for HD programming right now, but you should at least consider the DirecTV option.

As for Insight, I'm sure Insight would love to switch all their standard programming to digital delivery (as opposed to their current mix of analog and digital cable), but so far the cable commissions in each city and consumer complaints about having to rent converter boxes have stymied such a move. I would only caution that "digital" channels are not necessarily of better quality; there are some horrible-looking standard-definition channels on both Dish and DirecTV, even though the channels are all delivered digitally, and some of the best quality video I ever saw (as good as DVDs) came from my 10' "big ugly dish" back in the day when networks still broadcast their affiliate feeds in analog. So "digital" does not automatically mean "better." The picture quality on digital channels is a direct result of not only the quality of the original video, but also how much bandwidth the service allocates to its digital signals. You won't see HDTV quality on non-HD digital channels on Dish, for example.

So I'd suggest that if you are thinking of going the satellite route solely because you are unhappy with the video quality of the analog cable channels on Insight, you might want to do a direct comparison of those channels with the same ones via Dish or DirecTV on the same TV. I think that some of the local electronics stores (Best Buy?) might have both satellite and cable feeds in their TV areas, or you might try one of the high-end stores such as Glenn Poor's or Champagne Audio to see if they could make such a comparison. Don't be surprised if you find equally-dreadful video on satellite services as on Insight.

John C.

As far as WICD goes, I wrote this:
I just heard that WYZZ (Sinclair owned) out of Peoria was added to the Peoria Insight HD lineup. Can we expect WICD to be added to Champaign’s Insight HD lineup soon? (Has a deal with Insight been made yet?) It’d be nice to be able to watch the Super Bowl and BCS Championship in HD without having to shell out extra cash to buy a tuner. Thanks!!

...and received this:
As I understand it, the deal has been struck and you should be seeing our digital signal on Insight soon.


Alaina C. Marx
Human Resources Manager/Programming Coordinator
WICS/WICD
Phone: (217)753-5620
Fax: (217)522-6720

So take that as you will, but its essentially good news. Hope this helps!

Noob,
I also got a reply back from Insight saying that it would definitely be on within the next 10 days, probably a bit sooner. They are waiting for some equipment. So we should definitely be set as far as the super bowl is concerned but probably not for the Texas/USC game on Wednesday. Oh well, guess I can't complain to much. He also said that PBS WILL will be on soon also, although PBS does nothing for me, I figure it might be good news for some. S

Noob,
He also said that PBS WILL will be on soon also, although PBS does nothing for me, I figure it might be good news for some. S

Black Adder and Mr. Bean in HD!!! haha!

If you are thinking about switching to dish network you may want to wait...
I believe later this year they will be switching much of their HD content from Mpeg2 to Mpeg4 encoding. This is a much better more compact encoding that will allow them to carry a lot more HD content including HD locals for selected markets (probably not CU). The flip side is that their current HD recievers do not look like they do Mpeg4 yet @ least they are not advertising it (which I assume they would be if they did do Mpeg4).

I currently have the Dish network HD PVR an earlier version of the current DVR942 which gets and decodes all of the current Dish HD content as well as the off air HD channels that one can receive w/ their antenna... and here is the best part... it digitally records all of the satellite AND terrestrial content. So that means that you have "tivo" functionality for anything digital you can get from your antenna. "So I've got that going for me... which is nice"


Why are you considering only Dish Network? DirecTV is also an option; they have an HD channel lineup now that includes many "national" HD channels (e.g., ESPN-HD, ESPN2-HD, UniversalHD, HD-Net, HD-Net movies) and have already launched local network HD in the major markets, with plans to expand to all top-100 markets (that includes ours) in the next two years. Dish Network probably has the edge on DirecTV for HD programming right now, but you should at least consider the DirecTV option.

John C.

I currently have the Dish network HD PVR an earlier version of the current DVR942 which gets and decodes all of the current Dish HD content as well as the off air HD channels that one can receive w/ their antenna... and here is the best part... it digitally records all of the satellite AND terrestrial content. So that means that you have "tivo" functionality for anything digital you can get from your antenna. "So I've got that going for me... which is nice"

DirecTV has the same thing - a real TIVO, the HR10-250, currently available for $399. It has two DirecTV HD tuners, plus two off-air HD tuners, so that you can record two different programs at once (I think this is the way the Dish box works, too). But DirecTV is also moving to MPEG4 - in fact, that's what they are already using to uplink local HD channels in the top-10 markets, including Chicago. Their new DVR (not with true TIVO software, unfortunately) will be available this month with MPEG4 capability, and the real news is the Home Media box that will record satellite or OTA programming and then stream it via a network connection to satellite boxes in the rest of the house. Probably won't be available until summer, though.

John C.

Chad,

I converted from Insight to DirecTV a few years back after receiving the worst customer service in the world from Insight. I just recently bought a 50" HDTV, and I have enjoyed the PQ of DirecTV SD programming. Furthermore, I recently purchased the D* HD package as well. Again, I have been a satisfied customer of D*. As John stated, D* is beginning it's roll-out of MPEG4, and if you purchase an MPEG2 box now, it is my understanding that you will be upgraded for free (provided certain conditions are met).

John C. has it right, DirecTV is a very good product. I saved a lot of money by switching to D* and SBCYahoo! DSL from Insight Cable and Broadband. And I am extremely happy with both services. The customer service of D* has been adequate, but is far and away better than anything I ever received from Insight. To be fair, I know very little of Dish Network and whether or not it's a viable service, but I'm guessing they also put Insight to shame.

Good luck!

Noob,
He also said that PBS WILL will be on soon also, although PBS does nothing for me, I figure it might be good news for some. S

You just might be surprised. I have never watched much PBS-TV prior to WILL-HD going active. Since then though, I've watched a lot of programs from the PBS- National-HD feed on 12-1.

If that is the channel they are adding it will be a very good addition to Insight. If it just the WILL-DT SD signal, then it, as you said, it may not do anything for you.

DirecTV has the same thing - a real TIVO, the HR10-250, currently available for $399. It has two DirecTV HD tuners, plus two off-air HD tuners, so that you can record two different programs at once (I think this is the way the Dish box works, too). But DirecTV is also moving to MPEG4 - in fact, that's what they are already using to uplink local HD channels in the top-10 markets, including Chicago. Their new DVR (not with true TIVO software, unfortunately) will be available this month with MPEG4 capability, and the real news is the Home Media box that will record satellite or OTA programming and then stream it via a network connection to satellite boxes in the rest of the house. Probably won't be available until summer, though.

John C.

Not to nitpick ;) John but probably a couple of the only advantages the E* box has over the HR10-250 is it does PIP and the menus are much faster. But as John said both are viable options. I have had the HR10-250 for almost 9 mos and it is without a doubt the piece of electronics I have ever owned. I have been off cable for almost 5 years.

T

If you are thinking about switching to dish network you may want to wait...
I believe later this year they will be switching much of their HD content from Mpeg2 to Mpeg4 encoding. This is a much better more compact encoding that will allow them to carry a lot more HD content including HD locals for selected markets (probably not CU). The flip side is that their current HD recievers do not look like they do Mpeg4 yet @ least they are not advertising it (which I assume they would be if they did do Mpeg4).

I currently have the Dish network HD PVR an earlier version of the current DVR942 which gets and decodes all of the current Dish HD content as well as the off air HD channels that one can receive w/ their antenna... and here is the best part... it digitally records all of the satellite AND terrestrial content. So that means that you have "tivo" functionality for anything digital you can get from your antenna. "So I've got that going for me... which is nice"

As far as waiting....You could continue to wait but the water is great. :D As we all do. You have to weigh your own priorities. If you like football and since the season is almost over you could wait till this fall and wait till the MPEG4 plays out a little more.

T

I also have dishnetwork. Its a great product. I have the standard 811 HD reciever, which doesnt have a DVR. My only complaint is that about once a month it locks up and needs to be rebooted. I love that I get espnHD, DiscoveryHD, TNTHD and that it also works as an OTA reciever for local HD. I get ABC, NBC, FOX, WB, PBS all over my antenna...lone exception of course is wcia/CBS...because well they are just stupid.

As for Directv....I personally would not go with them. They over compress their signal into something known as HD-LITE. This only applys to the Satellite Channels from directv not the ones you would receive over an antenna...for example espnHD, Discovery HD, any national networks from like new york you might receive ...o say for example CBS HD if you got a waiver because our local cbs affiliate doesnt broadcast in HD...anyhow.

True HD signals are sent in either 1280x720p resolution (p stands for progressive scan ..all lines are drawn at once instead of everyother...think computer monitor) or 1920x1080i resolution (i stands for interlaced...everyother line is drawn every 1/30 of a second or something like that).

The first number is how many lines are in the picture vertically from left to right (think this '|'). The second number is how many lies are in the picture horizontally top to botton (think this '-'). Most people when they talk HD leave off the first number and say you either have a 1080i signal or 720p signal (btw in general 1080i is better for slow moving pictures like landscapes and 720p is generall considered better for fast moving pictures like sports....ABC, FOX, ESPNHD all broadcast in 720p...CBS, NBC, Discovery, and some others broadcast in 1080i...each have their advantages)

Now how this all effects Directv....well direct sends ESPNHD, National FOX and ABC in its native resolution (1280x720p)...so no problem there

But when it comes to the 1080i stations...all other HD on their service...they go from 1920x1080i to either 1440x1080i OR 1280x1080i. They steal lines of resolution which decreases the picture quality in order to be able to fit more channels on their satellites up in space...in other words you're not getting what your paying for. Dish Network also tried to this with some of their channels...but the backlash was so great that they kept the current channels alone. (on a side note...they recently added the old VOOM HD channels to their lineup and those may be in HD LITE...which would be bad).

The picture ends up being a litte softer (it depends on the viewer)...but it may not bug you at all and look 'fine'. But to me its the principal of the thing...if im paying for HD I want HD not some lesser version.

Just my two cents....if I've made an error in my description someone plese correct me...its a lot of information and I tend to get a little confused myself.

Oh yeah if you do decide to go with Dishnetwork they are as someone mentioned above rolling out new MPEG4 receivers...which everyone will eventually have to convert to (direttv is going through this same thing and may solve their hd-lite problem in the future)...I think they are available now...but the only channels being broadcast in mpeg4 are local HD...and only detroit the testbed city has them...I would suspect it will be at least a year or better before central illinois locals are added to dish or directtv in HD. So the only point of getting an mpeg4 reciever now is to avoid having to get one when dish/direct decide to turn off mpeg2 which will be a couple of years or as they add new HD channels because new HD channels will likely be in MPEG4 and older mpeg2 HD receivers wont be able to watch them.

Ok thats enough to confuse anyone...

For more info on HD-LITE
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=50176

Dish Networks new MPEG4 HD reciever (no DVR)
http://www.dishstore.net/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=261

Info on Dish Networks conversion to MPEG4 recievers plus cities with MPEG4 HD Locals (HD Lil)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=616427

Info on DirecTVs conversion to MPEG4 recievers plus cities with MPEG4 HD Locals
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=46954


Jeremy

In case anyone is interested, Sinclair Broadcast group finally reached an agreement with Insight cable to carry WICS (abc 20) and WICD's (abc 15) HD signals again. I have been told WICS HD will be Channel 772 on insight cable. Should be up within the next week or so. In time for the Superbowl In HD...

Dr.

In case anyone is interested, Sinclair Broadcast group finally reached an agreement with Insight cable to carry WICS (abc 20) and WICD's (abc 15) HD signals again. I have been told WICS HD will be Channel 772 on insight cable. Should be up within the next week or so. In time for the Superbowl In HD...

Dr.

Can anyone tell me what the cost is to get HD service from Insight Cable in C/U? I've been trying to figure it out from their web site, but I'm stumped. It appears to me that you've got to subscribe to their digital tier, then also to their HD package, plus rent an HD converter box, but maybe I've got this completely screwed up. Anyone know for sure?

Thanks!

John C.

John,
I have Insight Cable in C/U. I have the HD DVR which is what you need in order to recieve the HD channels(I am not sure if Insight does cable cards or not, my TV doesn't have the capability). The DVR is 13 dollars a month. You get the local HD channels at no additional charge. The locals Insight carries are NBC, FOX, and ABC is going to be added within the week. WILL PBS will also be added soon. If you want additional HD channels you have to subscribe to the HD Pak which is 7.95 a month. This is ESPN, Discovery, UHD, HDNET and HDNET Movies. I really only watch ESPN but it is worth it for me. Hope this helps.

John,
I have Insight Cable in C/U. I have the HD DVR which is what you need in order to recieve the HD channels(I am not sure if Insight does cable cards or not, my TV doesn't have the capability). The DVR is 13 dollars a month. You get the local HD channels at no additional charge. The locals Insight carries are NBC, FOX, and ABC is going to be added within the week. WILL PBS will also be added soon. If you want additional HD channels you have to subscribe to the HD Pak which is 7.95 a month. This is ESPN, Discovery, UHD, HDNET and HDNET Movies. I really only watch ESPN but it is worth it for me. Hope this helps.

So, if I understand this right, you start with their digital cable service at $35.50 per month. Then you add on the HD/DVR service which is $13/mth?? And if you want ESPN/HD, then you add another $8 a month. Is that right?

Do they charge for multiple boxes for multiple rooms - e.g., suppose I want an HD-DVR in four rooms in my house. Do I pay $13 per room or do they hook up all my rooms and give me a box for each for the same $13?

John C.

I have been trying to figure out if Insight carries the local HD channels "in the clear" (unencrypted). If so, you would be able to tune in the local HD stations as long as you have a qam capable HD tuner, and subscribe to at least the basic package (~$12/month).

It is relatively common for the HD locals to be carried unencrypted, but I have been unable to confirm if this is true for Insight in C/U. Generally, the premium HD networks (such as ESPN) will always be encrypted, and require a cable box (or cable card) from the cable co.

John,
I have Insight Cable in C/U. I have the HD DVR which is what you need in order to recieve the HD channels(I am not sure if Insight does cable cards or not, my TV doesn't have the capability). The DVR is 13 dollars a month. You get the local HD channels at no additional charge. The locals Insight carries are NBC, FOX, and ABC is going to be added within the week. WILL PBS will also be added soon. If you want additional HD channels you have to subscribe to the HD Pak which is 7.95 a month. This is ESPN, Discovery, UHD, HDNET and HDNET Movies. I really only watch ESPN but it is worth it for me. Hope this helps.

Plus, Insight has reached and agreement with WCIA (CBS) to show CBSHD when WCIA gets their tower up and starts broadcasting a digital signal.

So, if I understand this right, you start with their digital cable service at $35.50 per month. Then you add on the HD/DVR service which is $13/mth?? And if you want ESPN/HD, then you add another $8 a month. Is that right?

Do they charge for multiple boxes for multiple rooms - e.g., suppose I want an HD-DVR in four rooms in my house. Do I pay $13 per room or do they hook up all my rooms and give me a box for each for the same $13?

John C.


John,

The way it works is, you pay $35.50 a month for the basic digital cable + $13 a month for the DVR +$8 a month for the HD package + $5 for each additional cable box. So your cost is:

$56.50/month + $5/month for each additional TV. Plus all their taxes,fees, etc.

Plus, Insight has reached and agreement with WCIA (CBS) to show CBSHD when WCIA gets their tower up and starts broadcasting a digital signal.

Don't hold your breath on that one. Recent word from WCIA's engineers are that it will be 2007 before that happens.

John C.

John,

The way it works is, you pay $35.50 a month for the basic digital cable + $13 a month for the DVR +$8 a month for the HD package + $5 for each additional cable box. So your cost is:

$56.50/month + $5/month for each additional TV. Plus all their taxes,fees, etc.

Thanks. Looks like DirecTV is still a better deal price-wise and content wise, since I get the local HD stations via off-air anyway. But I will say that based on some announcements DISH made at CES, they may be more attractive soon. They are adding ESPN-2 to their HD package, which already has TNT-HD that DirecTV doesn't have. I'll wait until their new VIP622 DVR is out and tested, but I could see a switch in my future . . .

John C.

I have been trying to figure out if Insight carries the local HD channels "in the clear" (unencrypted). If so, you would be able to tune in the local HD stations as long as you have a qam capable HD tuner, and subscribe to at least the basic package (~$12/month).

It is relatively common for the HD locals to be carried unencrypted, but I have been unable to confirm if this is true for Insight in C/U. Generally, the premium HD networks (such as ESPN) will always be encrypted, and require a cable box (or cable card) from the cable co.
I have Insight With the HD package and just as a test i hooked up my QAM compatable TV (30XS955) to the cable and got nothing. Are you supposed to hook the cable up to the ANT, or the CATV post? is the Cable the QAM tuner or the ANT? I tried both with no success

Dr.

I have been trying to figure out if Insight carries the local HD channels "in the clear" (unencrypted).

I believe so. I am able to get NBC (17-1) and FOX (55-1) in HD through basic cable.

Dr. ---- You need to screw the cable wire into the CATV and then run your auto program, I have a sony 57" CRT and it takes almost an hour to do but you should then get the unencrypted channels.

What DVR are you paying $13/month for with Insight? I've got the dual tuner motorola and I pay $15.95/month.

When they first released the Dual Tuner HD DVR last year they were doing some promotion where you get it for the first year for 13 dollars instead of the regular 15.95. I don't know if they are still doing it or not

When they first released the Dual Tuner HD DVR last year they were doing some promotion where you get it for the first year for 13 dollars instead of the regular 15.95. I don't know if they are still doing it or not


I wonder why I pay $15.95/month then. I've had one since they first came out and I even remember they said it would only be $13. I forgot all about it until I read this thread. I guess I will have to call and complain and hopefully get the cheaper price. Insight sure is a miserable company.

cgy1 - good to know... thanks for the confirmation.

I wonder why I pay $15.95/month then. I've had one since they first came out and I even remember they said it would only be $13. I forgot all about it until I read this thread. I guess I will have to call and complain and hopefully get the cheaper price. Insight sure is a miserable company.

Im thinking I was paying 12.95 per month, and when i asked about upgrading my dvr to a dual tuner, they told me it'd be all of $0.05 extra a month. I had to reconfirm this a few times, but thats what it is. So now i am paying 13/mo. There was no mention of any promotion, she just told me itd be 5 cents extra per month.

Hey there, first time poster, long time creeper. First of all, thanks to a lot of the previous posters, you've been a great resource.

I currently get my HD OTA, and I get a clear signal on everything except the WB (22.1,22.2) from my first floor apartment on State and Green in Champaign. I'm using a Terk indoor antenna, through a Samsung SIR-T460 (I think thats the model number?), and viewing on a Hitachi 51" RPTV 51F500. I also have a custom HTPC.

What I was wondering about was Insight HD. I was going to go with Dish, but since I am moving in august, I don't want to pay an extra installation fee, so I am considering Insight. So I have a few questions about the insight HD service....

-What bitrate are they rebroadcasting their HD feeds at, and how would you compare the viewing quality to OTA reception. I don't want to go with their service if they are going to give me HD-Lite, or highly compressed refeeds from OTA....

-What channels are available in HD?

-What outputs does the Insight STB/DVR have? DVI? component? Both?

any help would be appreciated....

Happy viewing,

Kevin Manus :D

Both Dish and Insight have the same core channels in their HD Pack:

ESPNHD
DiscoveryHD
HDNet
HDNet Movies

Insight also has UniversalHD

Dish has TNTHD, and it's been reported that they will be adding ESPN2HD shortly.

Both (I believe) offer HBOHD and SHOHD if you subscribe to the corresponding movie channel packages.

Insight not carrying TNTHD is a dealbreaker for me.

Both Insight and Dish really are dismal, and DirecTV even more so. Since Voom went under, there hasn't been a decent HD provider. I miss StarzHD, and having HBO2HD, which no other providers carry.

Dish subscribers *can* get 10 of the Voom HD movie channels for an extra monthly fee if they have a satellite pointed at 61.5

Just say no to DirecTV and HD-Lite!

Anyone have any idea about my first question regarding bitrate and the quality of Insight HD?

Anyone have any idea about my first question regarding bitrate and the quality of Insight HD?
its hard to tell because the cable box wont give you that info, But the locals look better on cable then they do off air. Or at least it seems that way. I know that some of the locals have Fibre connections to the headend so there is no loss.

Dr.

Does anyone here know how (or where I can find out how) or some information on calibrating my TV? I have a samusung HL p4663w. Thanks.

There is a display calibration forum in the display devices area of AVS. You'll find some good tips there. I calibrated a front projector using SpyderPro and an Excel spreadsheet someone posted on the forum. I was able to get pretty near to the ideal response and was pleased with the result.


Does anyone here know how (or where I can find out how) or some information on calibrating my TV? I have a samusung HL p4663w. Thanks.

Not sure if I'm the only one with MediaCom cable here on the forum, but I'm experiencing problems with the HD tier.

Last night I noticed I was only able to receive 1 of the 9 HD channels in the tier. Specifically, WTHI-DT out of Terre Haute. All the others (ESPN, HDNET, INHD, HBO, Starz, etc...) had no picture.

I called MediaCom tech support who claimed no one else had reported a similar problem. They remotely reset my cable box and said to wait about 45 minutes for everything to download again. I waited the prescribed time and noticed the box turn itself back on. So, I fired things up to check it out.

First check was channel 710 (WTHI-DT)...that continued to work. Next I bumped up to 715 (ESPN HD). I got a picture and sound this time...good news. Wrong! That lasted all of about 3 seconds and it turned black again...as were all of the other channels.

I called MediaCom back and said the same thing was happening. Once again they reset the cable box and told me to wait until it was done and turned itself back on. I did that and when I fired things up again...the same exact thing happened.

I gave up and went to bed. I called MediaCom back at 6:30 this morning while I was driving to work and they said they'd set up a service call...for NEXT Friday. A freakin' week from now. I was pissed, but they didn't back down. I demanded a credit on my account for the outage since I do pay extra for the HD tier. They told me NO. Said they don't issue credits if you receive some level of service...only when you have a 100% outage.

So...I'm pissed to say the least. Anyone else having a similar problem or have any suggestions? And I should point out satellite service is NOT an option in the apartment house in which I currently reside.

Doug
Marshall, IL

Does anyone here know how (or where I can find out how) or some information on calibrating my TV? I have a samusung HL p4663w. Thanks.

Here is a place that specializes in it and has techs across the country. Imaging sciences (http://www.imagingscience.com/isf-trained.cf)

I looked into and it can be steep. I believe it was going to run me about $500.

T

anyone heard anything regarding mediacom and wics(sinclair) ? thought they might try and get something done before the superbowl :(

When I signed up for MediaCom's HD tier a month ago I was told verbal agreements had been reached to carry the HD signals of all the major network affiliates in the area...they were just waiting on the paperwork to get done and would be adding the signals soon. I took it with a grain of salt and have seen no indication they are any closer.

I just noticed there is a dedicated forum here at AVS for Calibration this...der duuhhhh I never noticed it before

Calibrating (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=139)

T

anyone heard anything regarding mediacom and wics(sinclair) ? thought they might try and get something done before the superbowl :(
I work for WICS... what i have been told is that the deals HAVE been signed, and Insight was to take us off the air for a week or so and then Install a Fibre Connection to the headend. The engineers have been contacted about it and have told me they are just waiting on insight. We should be showing up on cable Anyday now. I actually expected it before now.. I will have one of the engineers call em and find out what the hold up is. Insight told us everything should be done BEFORE the superbowl.

Dr.

I'm watching West Wing on 17-1 (WAND), and about 5 minutes into the show, it looks like it jumps into a mode where every other video frame is dropped. The audio comes through fine, and it even looks like it's roughly in sync with the picture. The video, on other hand, looks almost like stop-motion and is very annoying.

This started right at the point in the show where CJ and Danny are sitting in the restaurant and Danny starts talking about the President's son-in-law. Using my TiVo, I can go back and watch it again and clearly see it switch into "stop-motion", and continue that way for the next 30-some minutes. It looks like the video problem got worse until about 39 minutes into it, when it suddenly corrected itself and went back to normal.

Has anyone else seen this with WAND? The hi-def picture isn't really worth stuttering video during primetime.

Glad I'm not the only one. I just started watching Law & Order CI and am seeing the same thing. Doesn't appear to be happening during commercials, just the shows themselves.

Hmm... I'm not seeing the same video problem with L&O CI, but the lip sync looks like it's completely off. It almost looks like the video is ahead of the audio, which is the opposite of what I'm used to.

Video is back to normal but horrible lip sync.

I noticed the same frame issue a week or so ago on WAND. I thought they fixed it then...

Hello,

I'm getting OTA digital feeds, and I was wondering if anyone knew much about the EIT data.

http://www.interactivetvweb.org/tutorial/dtv-intro/atsc-si/eit-aeit.shtml

has a brief intro on the EIT data. Basically, it downloads the upcoming show information.

In the past, I've had WILL-HD info coming in via EIT and some others. At the moment, I'm getting:

WCCU-SD (pretty useless.. always just says Fox SAP)
WAND-DT (goes out about 12 hours)
WAND-SD (the weather stuff)
WBUI-HD
WBUI-DT

So, I'm missing Fox HD, WILL-HD, WCIA-digital (perhaps I won't get them until they actually go HD, but from what I gather, EIT is a digital thing, not a HD thing), and WICD...

Anyone else experiencing this? I use mythtv to capture the information, so it is possible that the problem is with myth or the digital tuner card drivers, but I wanted to see what other people were experiencing from OTA.

Thanks!

Kirby

Fox and WILL are already transmitting an HD signal. A banner on the top of the screen on Fox told me I was watching an NFL playoff game yesterday, so it sounds like Fox may have this feature enabled.



So, I'm missing Fox HD, WILL-HD, WCIA-digital (perhaps I won't get them until they actually go HD

So if you were getting program info from Fox, that definitely means that I should have had it yesterday as well. Thanks for the data point. Looks like I might have some debugging to do on my end.

To make sure that everyone is clear, I'm not talking about the HD signal itself... just the EIT data stream.

I work for WICS... what i have been told is that the deals HAVE been signed, and Insight was to take us off the air for a week or so and then Install a Fibre Connection to the headend. The engineers have been contacted about it and have told me they are just waiting on insight. We should be showing up on cable Anyday now. I actually expected it before now.. I will have one of the engineers call em and find out what the hold up is. Insight told us everything should be done BEFORE the superbowl.

Dr.

Thanks a lot !! that would be wonderful :)

I just bought an LG 3510a tuner, have Insight Basic service, and am trying to figure out which HD locals I should be able to receive via QAM. I've read in this thread of success with WAND and WCCU. It is my understanding that the cablecos are required by FCC to provide in their basic feed (in the clear) any local station that is broadcasting HD OTA. So, does that mean I should also be able to get WICD, WILL and WBUI via QAM?

Eventually I'll start playing with OTA HD, but I'm looking for the easy route for now.

Thanks.

OK….About 6-7 months ago I had no problem receiving 3-1 (Springfield Broadcast of WCIA) and then all of a sudden I get 0 signal strength on this station. In general this is not a big deal because I receive CBS from D* and my CBS programs are TiVoed from this national feed…..but the day before yesterday I was in a pickle. The Illini were only on locally and I could not receive a signal. I know I used to receive 49-2 also which I believe was 3-1 mapped virtually. OK ...this has always been confusing when CBS "exited" but it seems to be worse lately since I cannot pick up 3-1. Anyone else have similar problems???

Ideas???

T

Lately my Dish 921 has been remapping WCFL to 3-1 rather than WCIA. I've had to tune to the analog version of WCIA several times to watch basketball games.


OK….About 6-7 months ago I had no problem receiving 3-1 (Springfield Broadcast of WCIA) and then all of a sudden I get 0 signal strength on this station. In general this is not a big deal because I receive CBS from D* and my CBS programs are TiVoed from this national feed…..but the day before yesterday I was in a pickle. The Illini were only on locally and I could not receive a signal. I know I used to receive 49-2 also which I believe was 3-1 mapped virtually. OK ...this has always been confusing when CBS "exited" but it seems to be worse lately since I cannot pick up 3-1. Anyone else have similar problems???

Ideas???

T

OK….About 6-7 months ago I had no problem receiving 3-1 (Springfield Broadcast of WCIA) and then all of a sudden I get 0 signal strength on this station. In general this is not a big deal because I receive CBS from D* and my CBS programs are TiVoed from this national feed…..but the day before yesterday I was in a pickle. The Illini were only on locally and I could not receive a signal. I know I used to receive 49-2 also which I believe was 3-1 mapped virtually. OK ...this has always been confusing when CBS "exited" but it seems to be worse lately since I cannot pick up 3-1. Anyone else have similar problems???
T
I had issues getting 49-1 and 49-2 (Springfield CBS and UPN) at one location in my house. Turned out to be a bad diplexer. Replaced the diplexer and got 49-* back. Any chance you might be experiencing the same thing?

So, I'm missing Fox HD, WILL-HD, WCIA-digital (perhaps I won't get them until they actually go HD, but from what I gather, EIT is a digital thing, not a HD thing), and WICD...

Kirby

All of these that you listed, I am receiving.

WILL-DT/HD, WCIA-DT and WICD-DT/HD I have been receiving since the stations went active (or so it seems). As for WCCU-HD, I just started receiving their guide a month or so ago after complaining to Ken & Bob (our resident FOX guys). Though they said they didn't have anything to do with it, it just showed up on day and has stuck around ever since.

By the way, I'm talking about my D** on-screen guide. I'm not sure what service you are using.