Friday, January 22, 2010


AETN will air "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief," Friday at 7 p.m.

In addition to musical performances, Wyclef Jean in New York City, George Clooney in Los Angeles, and CNN's Anderson Cooper reporting from Haiti, "Hope for Haiti Now" will also feature Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson and more than 100 of the biggest names in film, television and music.

The lineup of musical performances includes Madonna, Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira and Sting in New York; Haitian artist Emeline Michel, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and a group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; and Beyoncé, Coldplay, and a group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z and Rihanna in London.

"Hope for Haiti Now" will begin accepting donations at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT on Friday via the following methods:

» Online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org
» Phone: 877-99-HAITI
» Text: Text "GIVE" to 50555
» Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017

"Hope for Haiti Now," will benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation and the newly formed Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation. Proceeds from "Hope for Haiti Now" will be split among each organization's individual funds for Haiti earthquake relief. With the exception of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, each partner organization was selected for its history of operation and collaboration within the NGO community in Haiti.

AETN is airing this benefit as a public service and will not benefit in any way from this broadcast nor from any contributions made to the relief efforts.



AETN's regular Friday night public affairs will air after the benefit. The schedule is as follows:

9:00 p.m. Arkansas Week

9:30 Washington Week

10:00 NOW on PBS

10:30 McLaughlin Group

11:00 Charlie Rose

12:00 a.m. Bill Moyers Journal

Obama
Wednesday, January 27 and
Thursday, January 28, 2010


AETN will broadcast President Obama's State of the Union address live on Wednesday, January 27. The broadcast begins at 8 p.m.



The president's speech will pre-empt some or all of the first episode of The National Parks: America's Best Idea. This episode will be repeated in its entirety on Thursday, January 28, from 7 to 9 p.m.


Title

If you have any questions or comments, call 1-800-662-2386. Thank you for watching AETN.

Sincerely,
Mona Dixon
AETN Foundation

Anyone tell me where digital channel 42 is from? I rotated my antenna from 0 to 360, and it maintained a 12% signal level, with several dropouts to 0, but could not find a peak in any direction (although when pointed at 310 it did jump to 16 for a second. KTAL (15.1) and KTBS (28.1) coming in good tonight.

Anyone tell me where digital channel 42 is from? I rotated my antenna from 0 to 360, and it maintained a 12% signal level, with several dropouts to 0, but could not find a peak in any direction (although when pointed at 310 it did jump to 16 for a second. KTAL (15.1) and KTBS (28.1) coming in good tonight.

Sorry Don't don't where (RF 42) is?

Wikipedia says KARZ, 42 (RF 44) Shinall Mountain!

I live in Thayer MO on the MO / AR Border and KARZ is coming in the 70% range! It pops in and out sometimes! Must be Tropo!

Also getting KATV, KARK, and KLRT!!!

Anyone tell me where digital channel 42 is from? I rotated my antenna from 0 to 360, and it maintained a 12% signal level, with several dropouts to 0, but could not find a peak in any direction (although when pointed at 310 it did jump to 16 for a second. KTAL (15.1) and KTBS (28.1) coming in good tonight.

KMYT (42 "41-1") Tulsa (MNTV)
KPXD (42 "68-1") Arlington TX (Ion)
KTBU (42 "55-1") Conroe TX (ind)
The above are the closest FP digitals on channel 42 (actual channel) to Central Arkansas.

KTAL was very tacky in its broadcast....dropping the broadcast down to SDTV to run its own crawler graphics. I also logged the Haiti benefit on KPXJ, KTBS, KFSM, KAFT, KSFX, and of course KSPR.

Wikipedia says Shinall Mountain! I don't know personally!

I live in Thayer MO on the MO / AR Border and KARZ is coming in the 70% range! It pops in and out sometimes! Must be Tropo!

Also getting KATV, KARK, and KLRT!!!

Yeppers.... You are in a no-man's land between two channel 44's--KARZ and KYTV. Before KARZ raised their power, KYTV would leapfrog down here on strong openings.

Yeah I sure I am!!!

Usually all I can get OTA is KAIT 8 Jonesboro AR, (69-85%) but when certain vehicles go up and down the street it pixilates and loses sound until it passes! Usually happens of a daytime! But its fine at night! If I'm lucky KTEJ 20 AETN/PBS and KVTJ 48.

I can't get Springfield MO locals very well! If I'm lucky I see KSPR for a few minutes then dead!

Little Rock AR and Memphis TN will come in before Springfield will!

On Monday my 91XG UHF Antenna arrives! Maybe my UHF reception will improve!

So I will have 91XG UHF and Winegard YA 1713 VHF and CM 7777!!!!

Right now for UHF I'm using a RadioShack 160 Inch VHF/ UHF for UHF!

Hope KARK lasts long enough to watch Conan's last show!

KMYT (42 "41-1") Tulsa (MNTV)
KPXD (42 "68-1") Arlington TX (Ion)
KTBU (42 "55-1") Conroe TX (ind)
The above are the closest FP digitals on channel 42 (actual channel) to Central Arkansas.

.

Thanks. Checked my log from last summer, and KTBU was already logged...so that was probably the one. I cant get anything from the FT Smith/Fayetteville/Tulsa direction. Was getting Springfield ch 19 at about 20% tonight, but rarely can lock it either. Southwest is about the only direction I can get a "regular" tropo night.

The XG91 with a YA1713 and 7777 is ALMOST the same configuration I use (I use the Telves DAT75 for UHF, which has almost identical gain), so you should REALLY see a vast improvement. This combo outperforms my Channel Master all band Quantum with DEEPEST FRINGE UHF section and 7777 amp by a bunch...for example, I cannot get ch 18 low power (1 edge about 20 miles) to even show up on the quantum, while the DAT75 locks it at 80-90%!!! Separate antennas are the way to go for DXing. You should be quite happy with that rig.

Just logged another one of Nexstar's NBC stable of stations....KSNF 46 (16-1) Joplin MO at 9:40pm this evening. Ducts are moving east

The XG91 with a YA1713 and 7777 is ALMOST the same configuration I use (I use the Telves DAT75 for UHF, which has almost identical gain), so you should REALLY see a vast improvement. This combo outperforms my Channel Master all band Quantum with DEEPEST FRINGE UHF section and 7777 amp by a bunch...for example, I cannot get ch 18 low power (1 edge about 20 miles) to even show up on the quantum, while the DAT75 locks it at 80-90%!!! Separate antennas are the way to go for DXing. You should be quite happy with that rig.

Thanks a lot!!!

Just logged another one of Nexstar's NBC stable of stations....KSNF 46 (16-1) Joplin MO at 9:40pm this evening. Ducts are moving east

You and your RF sucking location make me sick ;)
Im catching up. I got KSPR to lock for 30 seconds hahahaha

You and your RF sucking location make me sick ;)


Funny... I can never get tropo enhancement when I really need it...such as on nights of CBS's broadcast of Victoria's Secret or a ABC station when our "local affiliate" is running ahem....'local programming'.

ABC and CBS are both available on C band in HD. Dont have room for a big dish? You seem like a prime candidate.

Yesterday (Friday) when I got home at 4 PM, my TV reception was the worst ever! KETG, KVTH, and KARK were down to 60% on the DTVPal and all the other Little Rock channels had "no signal." The at 9 PM everything was back to normal. Do you guys think atmospheric conditions were causing this? Thanks!

Most likely. Cant remember where you are, but if another station "skips in" on a channel you normally get, the results are a loss or reduction in signal strength.

WHAT is KARK DOING? Trying to watch NBC Nightly News, since the storm has cut out the satellite, and KARK interrupted the news, started showing an infomercial, then cut it off and showed three more commercials, then played THREE commercials, but only the first 10 seconds of each, then a PROMO, now a car commercial. If they lost the network feed, at LEAST put up a screen saying so, or go to the local news early. This is rediculous, Its like they have a cat running across their switcher.

Update on my Arkwest IPTV setup. Standard channels are not so great, but watchable. HD channels are bad ass, most seem to be slightly better than Directv, but I dont have Directv side by side to say for sure. According to the links info below, the DVR I have utilizes both mpeg 2 and 4. I have 4 HD-DVR's and all are working great. You can record 2 other shows at once while you watch any other channel you choose. Also set up where you can choose to share rentals and recordings with other HD-DVR's in your system. This means we can record or rent a movie in the living room and if folks in other rooms want to watch it, they can view it on their tv as well. I still am learning and I think I've just scratched the surface as to what a system like this is truly capable of. One thing it does not have is an ATSC tuner for OTA. It has and antenna IN but apparently its only NTSC...Here is a link to the HD-DVR's that Arkwest is using in their IPTV system. Its made by Amino and is called the Amninet530 (A530). For extensive info on the 530, click the PDF link just below the picture and info. It takes a few seconds for the PDF file to load.

http://www.aminocom.com/index.asp?pageID=2145848495

BTW, I also hooked the 530 up via Optical to my Yahmaha RX-V2600 Home Theater System.....for whatever reason, I've noticed a difference in the sound vs when I had my Directv and Dishnetwork systems hooked up. The IPTV box is delivering much crisper sounds....Also for the first time noticed a true difference in the PQ between Component and HDMI....the HDMI is clearer and more defined...not much, but some, enough to tell.

Well, after the storms passed, and I finished my day driving around the state reprogramming timers on coffee and tea machines that got glitched, I turned on my AM21 (DirecTv ATSC tuner) to catch 11-2, and got the dreded "Searching for Signal" message. Checked other channels. Only 7.x channels were coming in, and the signal stregth on those was 30%. Hmmm. Checked everything I could check, no dice. Unplugged the CM7777 power supply, and signals remained the same. Went up on the roof, and bypassed the 7777 with a barrel connector, and all the stations are back up to 85% to 100%. Looks like either my power supply, or the 7777 bit the dust. Luckily, its my "spare" one, hooked to the Quantum to DX channels 2-6. Since its not on a rotor, I just keep in pointed at Mexico :), and since Mexico is toward Shinall, I used it for my DVR tuner, so I wouldnt have to worry about ruining a recording by DXing with the rotor.

Anyway, Ill test it further once I can get it off the pole (read WHEN ITS WARMER). Damn thing was plugged into a UPS too, so shouldnt have gotten any spikes unless they came in from the antenna itself.

Glad you got your antenna back up and running dave:)

I noticed something intersting about my Arkwest HD-DVR. Its has a 160GB capacity. I currently have 5 HD movies recorded which equals 490 minutes. Including the live buffer, it says it is currently 21% full. This confuses me a bit. I've always understood that it took somewhere in the 35-40 GB range to record an HD show. If this is true, then my DVR should already be full. The reciever does handle both mpeg 2 and mpeg4. If I understand correctly, MPeg 4 only takes up about a quarter of the same space required by Mpeg2. Maybe this is why I have only used 21% of my storage for 5 HD movies? If anyone knows, please educate me..thanks:)

At full bitrate, on my computer (since I really have no way to determine what size the files are on my DirecTv box), a 1 hr h.264 (mpeg4) HD recording uses approx 5 GB. 5GB*5 two hour movies(10HRS) would be 50GB which would be 30% of your drive. If I drop the bitrate to 11 instead of 13, I can get 1 HR is 4GB. 4GB*10HRs - 40GB, which would be about 25% of your drive, so they must be using about 10.5MB/s.

I've been running some nifty coverage maps lately for use on RabbitEars. I want to run two or three for Little Rock; which stations should I create maps for?

- Trip

KATV is the strongest UHF here and the only one that will come in on my portable, KTHV is the strongest VHF hi, and KETS is the weakest VHF hi, although its at a different transmitter location than the rest.

So you think KATV, KTHV, and KETS?

Any other opinions before I start the process?

- Trip

Below is a link to the Modems that Arkwest is using for their IPTV system inside the home. Comtrend NexusLink 5631. I have 4 of them, each STB/HDTV has its own seperate Modem. I did a little wire swapping in the living room just for kicks. The TV in the living Room...my 60" sony, is sharing a modem with my internet connection for the computers. Every other modem only has 1 tv connected to them. Wondering if the PQ in the living room could be degraded a bit because it shares the internet connection? I tried to swap modems with the wires but the living room tv would not run off of modem #2 and the bedroom would not run off of modem #1. Each modem and STB must be assigned a specific I.P. address....probably why it wouldnt work when I swapped modems/wires. I've been messing around with the setup trying to understand how it all works , what runs what and what connections can and cannot be used. Anyway, here is the link to the modem. Let me know if you guys read anything positive or negative about the modems. It is a ADSL2+. I'm trying to educate you guys right along with me on this new IPTV system:D

http://www.comtrend.com/na/dbase/upload/CT5631E_R1.1_011508.pdf

At full bitrate, on my computer (since I really have no way to determine what size the files are on my DirecTv box), a 1 hr h.264 (mpeg4) HD recording uses approx 5 GB. 5GB*5 two hour movies(10HRS) would be 50GB which would be 30% of your drive. If I drop the bitrate to 11 instead of 13, I can get 1 HR is 4GB. 4GB*10HRs - 40GB, which would be about 25% of your drive, so they must be using about 10.5MB/s.

Thanks for the explanation Dave. I understand it a bit better now. Whats your opinion of the 10.5MB/s? Good? Bad? In Between? I do know the STB's can handle both Mpeg2 & 4. I do know that one of the installers told me that some HD channels are 20 megs and others 15 megs...he said none of their HD's are below 15 megs. I do know the ADSL2+, Comtrends NexusLink5631 Modem Ethernet and USB Ports Support LAN traffic at 100Mbps speeds. What Potentials can you draw from this info? I've tried researching IPTV delivery types/setups, but the info on IPTV right now is very vague and it seems everyone has a different ideas as to what is the best delivery system. I know IPTV is in its infancy, but I'm trying to get my brain around it:D

Each HDTV stream has a video PID, Audio PID and maybe a second audio PID, etc. If the guy told you the stream was 20 MB, and you box can record two HD streams at once, the max they could use would be 10 each. If they throw in a SD stream too, its probably 8. I dont REALLY notice any degredation until I drop my encoder down to about 9...unless Im right on top of the TV, or watching REALLY fast moving scenes, like the opening scene in Nova.

The TV and Internet use different frequencies, so one shouldnt subtract from the other IF i read correctly.

Hey, just call Arkwest if you have questions, Ill bet their techs love talking about that stuff.

So you have 160GB on each box? Thats pretty cool.
You would use a LOT of disc space at 20MBs if they are using that for EACH HD channel...Im thinking. Someone on here has a program they send data to rabbitears with, that measures all that. Maybe they could get you a copy and it would tell all. Im also guessing the 15MB channels are the 720p ones and the 20MB channels are the 1080i ones, but thats just a guess.

So you think KATV, KTHV, and KETS?

Maps now exist for:

KETS: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1238643&map=Y
KARK: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=286175&map=Y
KATV: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1250521&map=Y
KTHV: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=601619&map=Y

The files are massive, so you will need a fast computer and connection in order to view these maps.

- Trip

Maps now exist for:

KETS: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1238643&map=Y
KARK: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=286175&map=Y
KATV: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1250521&map=Y
KTHV: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=601619&map=Y

The files are massive, so you will need a fast computer and connection in order to view these maps.

- Trip
I just think its amazing they can get away with a signal pattern that small. You would think they would want or need to be a lot bigger covering a lot more folks than they do. I mean, considering they are supposed to be the big bad stations of the state. If you can't even hardly hit Searcy which is only about an hour away, then you have a sh**ty signal.

Hey, just call Arkwest if you have questions, Ill bet their techs love talking about that stuff.

What are you trying to say, Dave? To quit asking you so many questions? LOL Just playin.

I tried to swap modems with the wires but the living room tv would not run off of modem #2 and the bedroom would not run off of modem #1. Each modem and STB must be assigned a specific I.P. address....probably why it wouldnt work when I swapped modems/wires.

It shouldn't matter where each modem is hooked up. They aren't tied to TV's usually. They could be in this case, but I find that hard to believe. A wire is a wire to a modem. As long as you have a signal coming into the modem (which I doubt is a modem in itself, do you not have a main gateway somewhere in the house that feeds all the other cat5 that the boxes are connected to??), the TV's should work.

I just think its amazing they can get away with a signal pattern that small. You would think they would want or need to be a lot bigger covering a lot more folks than they do. I mean, considering they are supposed to be the big bad stations of the state. If you can't even hardly hit Searcy which is only about an hour away, then you have a sh**ty signal.

I'm sure they could operate on low-VHF and thus get around the terrain. KETS knows how that worked out, right? :D

All the power in the world won't get around terrain blockages, and Arkansas is full of them.

Also, note that my maps are run assuming a height of 13 feet rather than the FCC standard of 30 feet. This is to better account for indoor antennas, and thus makes the maps appear more pessimistic when it comes to roof antennas.

- Trip

snip .... I tried to swap modems with the wires but the living room tv would not run off of modem #2 and the bedroom would not run off of modem #1. Each modem and STB must be assigned a specific I.P. address....probably why it wouldnt work when I swapped modems/wires.Supposition follows:

If these IPTV setups are anything like a home LAN then modem #1 (with internet connection) is probably setup as a "gateway" router. That is to say it is doing all the routing of data to the other (so-called) modems which are probably in some sort of bridge mode (dumb mode that just sends data back and forth from/to the gateway router/modem). So if modem #1 gets moved and #2 put in its place the dumber #2 wouldn't know what to do with the incoming data.

As I say, just supposition.

dmatch

Supposition follows:

If these IPTV setups are anything like a home LAN then modem #1 (with internet connection) is probably setup as a "gateway" router. That is to say it is doing all the routing of data to the other (so-called) modems which are probably in some sort of bridge mode (dumb mode that just sends data back and forth from/to the gateway router/modem). So if modem #1 gets moved and #2 put in its place the dumber #2 wouldn't know what to do with the incoming data.

As I say, just supposition.

dmatch
Didn't think about the gateway being inside the first box. Good catch. :)

I'm sure they could operate on low-VHF and thus get around the terrain. KETS knows how that worked out, right? :D

All the power in the world won't get around terrain blockages, and Arkansas is full of them.

Also, note that my maps are run assuming a height of 13 feet rather than the FCC standard of 30 feet. This is to better account for indoor antennas, and thus makes the maps appear more pessimistic when it comes to roof antennas.

- Trip
The state isn't THAT hilly until you get much further out than what that shows. At least to the east it isn't hilly at all. It is all flat prairie like land to the east of Little Rock till you hit Forrest City. There is no excuse for the signal not penetrating any further than that.

Thanks for all the info guys. Most of you are a lot smarter, or at least more educated on most of these issues than I am. I have a poultry farm and just try to learn this stuff mainly as hobby so I can have nice setups in my home. I know many of you actually have jobs or have worked in the fields of communications/tv. You guys are my "quick fix" to problems or questions I may encounter. I really do appreciate all the help:)

Supposition follows:

If these IPTV setups are anything like a home LAN then modem #1 (with internet connection) is probably setup as a "gateway" router. That is to say it is doing all the routing of data to the other (so-called) modems which are probably in some sort of bridge mode (dumb mode that just sends data back and forth from/to the gateway router/modem). So if modem #1 gets moved and #2 put in its place the dumber #2 wouldn't know what to do with the incoming data.

As I say, just supposition.

dmatch

This morning, I turned all the tvs/stbs on, then I uplugged modem #1. All the other Tv's besides the the living room tv which I unplugged still worked. I then noticed that each modems ADSL port had an incoming CAT5E Wire connected. When Arkwest installed/buried the new Wire Cabling from the hub in the yard to the house, they also changed the box on the outside of the house. The old box was the size of a pesonal pan pizza box both width height and depth. The new box is about the size of a medium pizza box but it much deeper, sticks off the side of the house about 6-8 inches. They installed single CAT5E from this box to each modem (they had to crawl under the house to do this). So, each modem has its own dedicated CAT5E from the box on the outside of the house. None of the TV's are affected by the other modems inside the home. So, if I've got this right, its....Outside box...to inside modem....to room Ethernet jack at floor level...then CAT5E wire to the STB. The description of the CAT5E as written on the outside shield is at the bottom of this post. I also remember the installer talking on the cell phone to their main guy back at the offices in Danville. Heard him talking about each individual modem/stb/tv showing up on a seperate port in their distribution room. 3 tv's were on at first and the 4th was not. The guy at Danville said the port was showing a connection so they rebooted the STB for that tv and it accepted on the second reboot. If I understood their conversation, we have at least 5 ports at their main offices that we are connected to. 4 connected to modems/stbs/tv's and 1 for the internet/phone. I also recall them associating all our ports with one number such as 464 on their board. Under that number, each port was identified seperately. Kind of like storing several documents belonging to one person into one File.

CAT 5E 0928 FT (0282.8 M)
Superior Essex CAT 5E 4 PR 24 (UL)
CMX Outdoor/CMR 257 9 H
Made In USA.....(I like this part:D)

If what I understand about Fiber to the premises is right, the fiber comes to the house into a special box. Probably like what you are seeing. That special box has to have power I believe. Then that box converts the signal from light to the signal that cat5 can handle. Then that box has ports of some sort, probably like a 5 port hub like you are describing, that feed the rest of the TV's and all that stuff. So, yeah, what you are saying sounds right now that I think about it. It's been so long since I have messed with any of that crap, I am lucky to remember what I do. Take pictures of the outside stuff and the STB's in the house, please. :)

As far as that stuff you put at the bottom, none of it is really important except the Superior Essex part. Thats the company that made it. And the outdoor part because, well, its outdoors. :) The FT part in the first line just is how far into the spool they were when they ran that line.

If what I understand about Fiber to the premises is right, the fiber comes to the house into a special box. Probably like what you are seeing. That special box has to have power I believe. Then that box converts the signal from light to the signal that cat5 can handle. Then that box has ports of some sort, probably like a 5 port hub like you are describing, that feed the rest of the TV's and all that stuff. So, yeah, what you are saying sounds right now that I think about it. It's been so long since I have messed with any of that crap, I am lucky to remember what I do. Take pictures of the outside stuff and the STB's in the house, please. :)

As far as that stuff you put at the bottom, none of it is really important except the Superior Essex part. Thats the company that made it. And the outdoor part because, well, its outdoors. :) The FT part in the first line just is how far into the spool they were when they ran that line.

Thanks Steve, I'll try to gets some pics up tomorrow sometime. I just got in from work and the wife and kids want to go eat at pizza hut...so probably no time to take them tonight. Thanks for the help.:)

Hardware Pics from Arkwest IPTV setup

More

One more time

Obama vs Homer ;) And you have to many channel master rotor controllers...Do they turn in unison, or did you figure out a way to give them separate remote codes?

Am I nuts or is THV2 showing SD CBS network programming instead of THV2? Also hearing weird audio, like a newscast.

Obama vs Homer ;) And you have to many channel master rotor controllers...Do they turn in unison, or did you figure out a way to give them separate remote codes?

I tried to get pics of a b-ball game on ESPNU but the camera just wouldnt take a good pic......oh well it was those blamed Longhorns anyways...lucky it didnt break my camera:D....

as for the CM controllers....I have a piece of black tape I keep over the IR sensor. One is for LR and the other for FS. The tape blocks out the IR to the ones I dont want to use. Takes a few seconds to pull it off and put it on the other one, but it works:D:D See, this is why my wife get aggravated at me....I have an antenna system for both markets.....really no need for a rotor if your a normal person.....I thought they needed rotors:D:D:D I wouldnt have it any other way (my wife would) I love being able to turn those babies in any direction I desire. The only thing that would make it nicer is the ability to remotely move the antenna higher and lower with tower set up.....I guess I can always keep hoping for it someday:)

As for the Arkwest stuff, I get a kick out of pic 241...notice what it says on the left hand side door? Telephone Company Property.....Do Not Open! Now how was I supposed to know that if its printed on the inside instead of the outside:confused::D Unfortunatley for AVS psychos like me who want to know how everything works......I lose my ability to read in those situations. I've always been the type of person that when it says "do not open"....I'm probably going to open it:) My dad used to get pretty angry at me when I was a child......I took his new drill apart, took his fishing poles apart, took his lawn mower apart and many other things......man I just had to know what made it all tick....dad wasnt too happy though, cant say as I blame him

Maps now exist for:

KETS: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1238643&map=Y
KARK: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=286175&map=Y
KATV: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1250521&map=Y
KTHV: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=601619&map=Y

The files are massive, so you will need a fast computer and connection in order to view these maps.

- Trip

Is there a way a map could be generated for WABG (RF ch32) Greenwood MS. The small ridge of hills just east of here block them out. The areas of the SE Arkansas Delta and Monticello cannot get KARK at all and instead WABG. The joys of short spacing DTV channels.

As for the Arkwest stuff, I get a kick out of pic 241...notice what it says on the left hand side door? Telephone Company Property.....Do Not Open!

Well, Actually, the part you opened is the "customer access" area, which you are supposed to be able to access, since its legal to do your own in home wiring. The "Do Not Open" area, is the telco's area, where all their goodies are, like the wires coming in, filters, and other stuff they dont want you messing with :)

Is there a way a map could be generated for WABG (RF ch32) Greenwood MS. The small ridge of hills just east of here block them out. The areas of the SE Arkansas Delta and Monticello cannot get KARK at all and instead WABG. The joys of short spacing DTV channels.

I was thinking of you when I made the KARK map and made WABG at the same time. Didn't mention it here since it wasn't a Little Rock station. Meant to e-mail but didn't get a chance (swamped by school; these things run while I'm sleeping/in class).

Here are the steps to view any map I've made:

http://www.rabbitears.info/screencaps/1-temp/click.png
http://www.rabbitears.info/screencaps/1-temp/click2.png

Simply replace WDBJ with WABG.

Enjoy. :)

- Trip

Well, Actually, the part you opened is the "customer access" area, which you are supposed to be able to access, since its legal to do your own in home wiring. The "Do Not Open" area, is the telco's area, where all their goodies are, like the wires coming in, filters, and other stuff they dont want you messing with :)
There is no customer access area on that box. Just the whole inside is the telco part.

Still trying to figure out what that black wire coming in the bottom goes to. And what those two gray wires that run around the outer area are for. Those network cables also don't look like they are wired up like normal network cables. That whole box is WEIRD to me. :) And its nothing like I thought it would be for a fiber. It isn't fiber fed at all. It truly is a ADSL2 install. I am glad I don't have that near me. I would be futzing with it all the fricken time!!! :)

Two stations in the Ozarks are now doing local news in HD:
KSPR 19 (33-n) abc
KYTV 44 (3-n) nbc

Both have HD local commercial capability and HD time shift capability.
Ft Smith's KFSM 18 (5-n) cbs also has local HD time shift capability.

Still trying to figure out what that black wire coming in the bottom goes to. And what those two gray wires that run around the outer area are for. Those network cables also don't look like they are wired up like normal network cables. That whole box is WEIRD to me. :) And its nothing like I thought it would be for a fiber. It isn't fiber fed at all. It truly is a ADSL2 install. I am glad I don't have that near me. I would be futzing with it all the fricken time!!! :)

I dont really understand how they are doing it, but the HD looks really good. I've gone back and forth between the antenna and the local HD's on Arkwest and I cant tell a bit of difference. The individual DVR's per room is very nice as well. I currently have 10 HD recordings on my living room DVR and its 46% full. Currently 1,130 minutes or just under 19 hrs. The PQ of the recordings during play back is just as good as the original showing. So far we are extremely happy with this Arkwest system. I'm getting my telephone service with all the perks, Internet speed of 768 DSL and the TV service which consist of each room having its own HD-DVR with 160GB capacity, all the regualar channels both SD and HD and HBO and Showtime which consist of 24 channels, all in HD except for 4 of the showtime channels.........$173/month tax included.:D

DirecTV (two DVRs 1.7 terabytes), two HD receivers all with Multiroom video, Starz and Encore, Sports extra pak, HD extra pack) $104, Comcast internet ($43), Vonage ($32) = $179. Sounds like a wash to me :)

DirecTV (two DVRs 1.7 terabytes), two HD receivers all with Multiroom video, Starz and Encore, Sports extra pak, HD extra pack) $104, Comcast internet ($43), Vonage ($32) = $179. Sounds like a wash to me :)

You know the main reason I dumped the small dish companies when I had a chance to get something descent from a local provider? The headaches. Those small dish companies have always been a pain in the butt to deal with. Something always goes wrong and they try to stick you with the bill. I have gotten so tired of that the past 4 years. Before I had a small dish, I had been on C-band for 17 years and never had one headache to deal with. Now that I've gotten rid of the small's....I'm hoping Arkwest will be a headache free situation much like my C-band years were. Arkwest does something pretty nice for the community. First they have a community channel on 3 for local advertising, announcements, birthday & Anniversary listings and so on. Second they have a local weather channel on 30 totally dedicated to the area that they serve and its set up much like The Weather Channel, very professional looking with all the maps, forcast and advanced animations. Third they film all the local High School and Junior High Football and Basketball games and then offer them for free on VOD. So for me, a local guy, Arkwest offers a lot of things I just cant get from anyone else.

I wasnt downing Arkwest, just noting we both pay about the same for service. To be honest, Ive not had a single service call to DirecTv since I started with them the first week they were up and running, and I cannot even remember how long ago that was, but my customer ID number is UNDER 5000... :) I can imagine they are just like dealing with any large company with call takers that could not give a crap about you. Luckily, Ive always bought my own equipment (leased for purists) from Best Buy, installed my own stuff, and so on. Were we to have a local cable company like you have, with hometown employees that cared, and the channels I wanted, I wouldnt hesitate to leave DirecTv, but my options are Dish, DirecTv and Comcast. Comcast does internet better than anyone, but their TV sucks. DirecTv does TV better than any of my other choices, but doesnt have phone or internet. UVerse seems to be the next choice I will have, eventually, but from dealing with them trying to get my boss' system working right, and her friends system working right, they basically had a "we will tell you how to fix it over the phone free, but it will cost $$$ to send someone out to fix what we screwed up" attitude. They gave my boss a temporary VOIP phone number, while they had her 30 yr old POTS number ported over to U-verse. The POTS line was ATT also. WTF? Well, they hooked the phones in her house to the temporary number, didnt tell her, she had people calling her for two weeks that got a ring ring ring... Her phone never rang. After she discovered it, they claimed it took 3 to 4 weeks to port the number (FROM ATT to ATT???). They also said they couldnt CALL FORWARD her POTS number to the VOIP number, and told her to tall ALL her friends and contacts and give them the temporary number. She hung up on em. Fast Forward two weeks.... Still not working... Calls again. They say your old POTS number has been switched. Still no ring. Wanted to send a tech out for $$$$ to diagnose the problem. I told her Id go to her house and figure it out. Took me 2 minutes to discover they had the POTS number going to the AUX jack on the residential gateway, and STILL HAD THE TEMP number on the Line 1 jack, and still active. I got on the phone, and using the phone company lingo they could understand, finally got someone who understood what had happened. He punched in some keys on his computer, told me to unplug the line from the AUX jack and plug it into Line 1, and reboot the gateway. Presto, her POTS number FINALLY rang the phone....THEN I had to get them to DISCONNECT the temporary line, which they had kept on, assuming she wanted to pay TWO phone bills.... What a bunch of retarded people.

I wont even go into my conversation with the installer. Yes, I will... He was hooking up her Sony Bravia to component cables. I told him my boss wanted the HD TVs hooked up with a digital connection, HDMI. The installer looked at me with a straight face and said "They are both digital, its all digital coming out of the gateway". I decided at that point not to get into an arguement, so I just said, well, she wants the ONE CABLE digital connection, so she doesnt have all those bulky digital colored cables running to the box, so he went out and got an HDMI cable for each of her three TVs, grumbling the whole time.

Im sure glad I got to see two U-verse roll outs first hand. They wont ever step foot near my HDTV :)
Be glad you live in a small town. If I could move to a small town, and have a job that pays what Im making here, and find a house for what I could sell mine for, Id be out of this traffic infected jungle. I grew up on a dairy farm, and boy do I miss feeding those cows I used to bitch about feeding.

HD segment on KTHV news tonight about bald eagles. Was this the first HD local segment or have there been others?

They did one about a year ago too.

Dave, I know you were not downing Arkwest, I'm sorry if my post implied it that way, I'm not the best word selector when I'm writing. I was just saying its a relief for me to get away from the small dishes. For years I was so happy with my C-band, easy up keep, great service and picture, pretty much watch anything you wanted. Then it all the analog cut off stuff started happeneing. So I then bought a motorola 4DTV and HD decoder. Had that for a couple of years, but digital was much harder to deal with than analog ever was. In all my years with analog, I never once lost a clear picture, not in wind and rain storms, not when it snowed, unless a tornado blew my 10 footer over, it was going to deliver. I had the Toshiba TRX reciever and used it for 10 years with no work to it at all. I retired it when I got my 4dtv, but the toshiba TRX still works. I had a few more problems with keeping a picture when I went digital. A few things contributed to this. For one, I really needed to re-align my dish. Second, a tree next to the BUD had grown bigger and now had a few limbs hanging out about half way over the dish. With analog, it was never a problem, with digital, the limbs were definitely a problem. Also, my dish was aimed right at a telephone pole and powerline. Once again, with analog it was never a problem, it seemed to affect the digital at times. So the bottom line was the day I finally went with a small dish was a doomsday for me. I no longer could enjoy the freedom I had known for most of my grown up life. Once I began to get into the small dishes, I felt like I had been handcuffed. TV had gone from an enjoyable adventurous experience to a governed headache. With my big dish down, and our local Suddenlink cable still offering 80's quality analog cable, I felt cornered by the small dishes because they have so many restraints yet offer such great quality picture and programming. When Arkwest came along, I jumped in 2007 to get off the small dishes, yet I was disappointed with the low quality SD. Being very frustrated, I signed up with Directv for 2 years. Then Arkwest finally got it right and offered HD....suddenly I did not feel trapped any longer, finally I had another choice. Thats all I was trying to say in my earlier post. I know you probably wouldnt form an opinion about any tv servcie without seeing it for yourself first. I also was not downing the small dishes, they offer great PQ and selections, but I think everyone can relate to the hometown aspect of things. Besides, having choices usually brings prices down. I figure in the future as IPTV gets more widespread, we will see cable, satellite and IPTV pricing come down so they can compete for customers.

Dave, sounds like Uverse has some real idiots working for them. The day Arkwest installed my equipment, they were going to use component cables because that is what comes with their DVR's in the box. I told them I had HDMI's and they lit up and threw the Components back in the box. They said they would rather hook everyone up HDMI to keep the complete feed all digital. The installer went into a long talk about how they like to keep their feed digital all the way to the tv if possible. I can see why too, I had one box hooked up with both component and HDMI. I've never seen a difference in the past, but swapping inputs I could clearly see better clarity and more defined detail thru the HDMI. I also had a few questions about the system after they left. I called Arkwest and requested to talk to the installer. He called me back in less than 5 minutes and answered all my questions and told me if I needed them for anything else, call back and let them know. They must know what they are doing, we've had this setup for a week now and have not had one single problem with anything in any room. Arkwest is small, but they are smart and I believe a lot of big companies could learn a few things from them.

I dont really understand how they are doing it, but the HD looks really good. I've gone back and forth between the antenna and the local HD's on Arkwest and I cant tell a bit of difference. The individual DVR's per room is very nice as well. I currently have 10 HD recordings on my living room DVR and its 46% full. Currently 1,130 minutes or just under 19 hrs. The PQ of the recordings during play back is just as good as the original showing. So far we are extremely happy with this Arkwest system. I'm getting my telephone service with all the perks, Internet speed of 768 DSL and the TV service which consist of each room having its own HD-DVR with 160GB capacity, all the regualar channels both SD and HD and HBO and Showtime which consist of 24 channels, all in HD except for 4 of the showtime channels.........$173/month tax included.:D
You'd think with all that bandwidth for the HD channels, they could give you a little bit faster speed. That is real slow to me. :)

You'd think with all that bandwidth for the HD channels, they could give you a little bit faster speed. That is real slow to me. :)

I hear that alot, unfortunately 768 is very fast to me:D It wasnt long ago that I was 256....and before that....super slow dial up. Whats your speeds Steve? I know that the top speed for Arkwest is 1.5m/256k 256 is the fastest upload they offer. How fast is 1.5m?

1.5Mbps is slow too. :) I have 12Mbps. :)

1.5Mbps is slow too. :) I have 12Mbps. :)

WOW! I cant even imagine how fast that is. Do you know if DSL speeds are effected by traffic on the lines? We have DSL but our area is small compared to a place like Little Rock. Just wondering if my DSL might be faster because of small numbers, because it seems pretty fast. I can dowload a video of 2MB in about a minute.......yeah I know that probably seem slow:o:D

DSL isnt affected by traffic except for the internet connection from Arkwest. Cable is, but apparently no one in my neighborhood uses it much, cuz my speeds are in the 12Mbps down, 2.0Mbs up. Upload speed really doesnt matter unless you are trying to send a video file or something to someone. 1.5 would be twice as fast as your current 768.

DirecTV (two DVRs 1.7 terabytes), two HD receivers all with Multiroom video, Starz and Encore, Sports extra pak, HD extra pack) $104, Comcast internet ($43), Vonage ($32) = $179. Sounds like a wash to me :)

Dave, is your $43 internet charge from Comcast before tax any fees? And is it month-to-month without a contract? Same question for Vonage? As you may recall I have DirecTV. I would love the speed that you have for an internet connection. I'm paying $30 for DSL 'Pro" tier which is 3.0 mbps (I actually connect at 2.4 mbps). The landline and DSL part of my ATT bill is $43 and $30 incl. tax and fees, respectively which is close to your $43+$32. So if your numbers include tax and any applicable fees, our costs are comparable. The difference is your much faster internet connection.

I am no longer under contract with DirecTV and am considering all options. However, I have no interest in Comcast TV and U-Verse is not available to me. If it were I might switch my landline and current DSL to U-Verse then after a month or so discontinue the tv part of U-Verse to get what I'm told is a faster Internet connection than my current DSL. I spent an hour at an ATT store playing with U-Verse and found only 1 thing I liked better than DirecTV...faster channel changing. IMO, picture quality was not as good as my DirecTV and certainly not as good as OTA.

1.5Mbps is slow too. :) I have 12Mbps. :)

Steve, I've probably overlooked it in this thread somewhere...who is your internet provider?

Dave, is your $43 internet charge from Comcast before tax any fees? .

Internet: 42.95
Modem rental: 5.00
Tax: 0.40
Total: 48.35

Speed is http://www.speedtest.net/result/699128765.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
No contract.

Vonage had a 1 yr contract when I signed up, but I really like their service, and the equipment was free.

Internet: 42.95
Modem rental: 5.00
Tax: 0.40
Total: 48.35

Speed is http://www.speedtest.net/result/699128765.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
No contract.

Vonage had a 1 yr contract when I signed up, but I really like their service, and the equipment was free.

I guess you could buy your own modem if you chose to? The think I like lease about my DSL is the slow upload...which I use for digital photos...
Yours would be fantastic for both directions of traffic.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/699133510.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Yea, I could buy a modem at Best Buy, but for $5, Ill just use theirs. If anything goes wrong, Ill let them worry about it. I already have two ADSL modems and one SDSL modem from previous providers and decided not to add to my collection of trash. I really liked the SDSL, it was 1.5/1.5, but they want so much money for it compared to ADSL, or comcast, its just not worth it.

Decided to test my connection to the server you used in order to get apples to apples comparison...slightly faster than Springfield, MO which is the "Recommended Server" for me according to Speedtest.net

http://www.speedtest.net/result/699149221.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Yea, of course, Comcast uses Speedboost, so those numbers are inflated from the actual speed I would get if I was to download a movie or video, but its accurate for webpages, youtube clips, and 90% of the normal stuff. I havent actually tested the sustained download transfer speed, but its fast.

So why is my 768 so fast?:confused: I rarely have to wait on anything except videos to download. Changing Web pages happens as fast as I can click, I dont see how it could be much faster. My Bro in law works in russellville and uses both cable and DSL at his work place. I'm sure they have the top speeds over there for the city and I know the place where he works would have the fastest connection. When they come to our house, he always talks about how fast our connection is and says its just as fast if not faster than the connection at his workplace and at the courthouse. So I'm a bit confused, mainly because my connection isnt slow at all, its pretty darn fast. So what would make my DSL 768 so fast? I'm just trying to figure it out becasue according to you guys speeds, I should see some major lag, but I dont. I dowload a lot of vids, I'm sure that might be where I'd find the biggest difference. Another question might also be, how in he world can Arkwest deliver 71 crisp HD channels and 205 SD channels thru a system this slow??? The more I try to learn about this stuff the more I get confused. Is the uverse in LR more advanced than what Arkwest is delivering thru...and if so, why cant Uverse get it rigth? The HD on my Arkwest system is as good as I've ever seen.......so whats up with Uverse screwing it up so badly?

http://www.speedtest.net/result/699236652.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Check your ping times (thats what really makes web pages fast). My ping times are 35ms. If your ping times are 50-100ms, it will make web pages appear slower, since it has to add up all the ping times for all the different parts of the page to load.

Check your ping times (thats what really makes web pages fast). My ping times are 35ms. If your ping times are 50-100ms, it will make web pages appear slower, since it has to add up all the ping times for all the different parts of the page to load.

the ping in my test above says 88

Cant go by the ping in the test, you would need to check the ping times to the actual website you are testing, for example, if you wanted to check ping times to google.com, you would open up the Command prompt window and type PING WWW.GOOGLE.COM. It should look like this:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Netbook>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [74.125.65.105] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 74.125.65.105:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 28ms

The number you are wanting is the Average ^^^^ ping time. Also, lots of web sites with advertising use adds offsite, which can take lots of time to load, as those ping times could be much longer, which is why I use AdBlockPlus with FireFox, as it prevents the website from even trying to access ads on the well known (and user added) websites.

Cant go by the ping in the test, you would need to check the ping times to the actual website you are testing, for example, if you wanted to check ping times to google.com, you would open up the Command prompt window and type PING WWW.GOOGLE.COM. It should look like this:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Netbook>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [74.125.65.105] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.105: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 74.125.65.105:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 28ms

The number you are wanting is the Average ^^^^ ping time. Also, lots of web sites with advertising use adds offsite, which can take lots of time to load, as those ping times could be much longer, which is why I use AdBlockPlus with FireFox, as it prevents the website from even trying to access ads on the well known (and user added) websites.

Ok...thats over my head:o

Ok...thats over my head:o

If you are running XP, click the run menu, and type COMMAND. It will open a DOS window and give you a dos prompt. Just type PING followed by the website you want to test. Any valid www. address will work.

if you are runnings windows 7, type command in the search box, and wait until it finds command prompt, click on that, and do the same. Its easy. Other commands you can type in that window are:

TRACERT www.google.com
Which will show you the path and how many servers you really have to connect through to get to them, It will also show you how many hops ARKWEST uses internally before your data leaves ARKWEST and going out onto the internet.

IPCONFIG
This will show you your current IP address, subnet, and Domain Name Server settings. Can be useful when diagnosing whether your computer is having problems connecting to the internet, or if its ARKWEST that is having problems getting your data TO the internet, or its your router is in need of a reboot.

Either I have a bad problem or KETS OTA is down (or very low power). Can anyone confirm? Nothing there all day.

dmatch

Its off the air...No loss.

From www.aetn.org:
Do to inclement weather, KETS has been off the air since approximately 7:45 a.m. We are currently working to restore the signal.

Its off the air...No loss.

From www.aetn.org:
Do to inclement weather, KETS has been off the air since approximately 7:45 a.m. We are currently working to restore the signal.

KETS is on very low power at the moment. Signal received via the Zenith converter/Winegard 10 element yagi/CM7777 preamp just pixelates. I just got done watching a DVD movie and just checking conditions, emails, and messages.

Ok, not as hard as I thought. I pinged www.avsforum.com. couldnt figure out how to copy and paste it so here are my Ping #'s

66ms
65ms
67ms
73ms

Pinged another site I visit often and came up with the same numbers except the last one which change from 73 to 68.

Pinged Walmart and all 4 timed out and sent back no readings.

Pinged Youtube and got
48ms
46ms
54ms
55ms

Pinged Spritof76fireworks and got
121ms
122ms
111ms
114ms

Do to inclement weather....
Holy crap! Due they no they our a educational network?:rolleyes:

dmatch

KETS is on very low power at the moment. Signal received via the Zenith converter/Winegard 10 element yagi/CM7777 preamp just pixelates. I just got done watching a DVD movie and just checking conditions, emails, and messages.

Well, I decided against turning my antenna the 30 degrees further south to see if I could get it. Its actually at 178 degrees from me, and my antennas are pointed at 225, but the elements are covered in ice, so I dont want to stress em out trying to turn it, but the signal level is 0 here, with an occasional burp to 40% and right back to 0. For comparison, ch 18 off the back is 16%. Its not making it to DirecTvs receive site on Colonel Glenn either, as the "We know your local station is screwed up" slide is still up. All the PBS programming is coming in great on KU band though ;)

Arkyman, those are reasonable times for a rural telco. Looks like you are doing ok there. Are they picking up the locals for your IPTV system from an antenna farm up on a mountaintop, or using a fiber feed? Was thinking about that when you were reporting the lightning causing glitches. If they are getting it OTA, I would imagine lightning would cause glitches for them as much as they do for me with my antenna.

Holy crap! Due they no they our a educational network?:rolleyes:

dmatch

Apparently the same person programming the aspect ratio is doing their spell checking.

Well, I decided against turning my antenna the 30 degrees further south to see if I could get it. Its actually at 178 degrees from me, and my antennas are pointed at 225, but the elements are covered in ice, so I dont want to stress em out trying to turn it, but the signal level is 0 here, with an occasional burp to 40% and right back to 0. For comparison, ch 18 off the back is 16%. Its not making it to DirecTvs receive site on Colonel Glenn either, as the "We know your local station is screwed up" slide is still up. All the PBS programming is coming in great on KU band though ;)

Just checked the Dish Network feed of KETS--audio/video dropouts make the programming unwatchable on top of the forced cropped-stretchovision.

The rotor at this place isn't going to move until things melt later this weekend.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2yx58qs.jpg

Strange ruler. It starts at 8.:D

dmatch

He probably has it sitting in a hole hahahaha.

AETN version: He prolly has it sitting in a whole.

Or AETN TV version:

HHHHHHeeeeeeeeee ppppppprollyyyyyyyyy hhhhhhhhhhassssssss iiiiiiittttt ......

Oh wait, that's more like panoramic stretch.:rolleyes:

dmatch

y'all are funny. at least today. :)

http://i46.tinypic.com/2yx58qs.jpg

Very nice. I took some pictures like that during the big snow up here, but I had to move from a ruler to a tape measure about half-way through. :eek:

- Trip

Dave, not sure how Arkwest gets their OTA feeds. It could be an antenna farm but I'm not sure where it would be. Do they have one on Mt. Magazine? If not, its probably fiber. With the interference I experienced during the storm on locals, you'd think its the farm, however, I checked my own OTA system on the same channels during that storm and didnt have near the lightning interference that Arkwest feed had.

Arxaw....we got about 3-4 inches here in the central part of Yell county. Much more than the 1" dusting all the news channels were calling for.

AETN's message changes, but they are still using the same grammar and spell checker:

From AETN.ORG:
Do to ice buildup on the KETS antenna, AETN is currently broadcasting on reduced power.

I sent off an email to Tom-FM as well, since their IBOC is off, and I miss my TomFM.2 channel. Hopefully that is weather related as well, and not a decision to can IBOC right after I bought a HD radio on the advice of their advertising!

EDIT: Checked my antenna, and all is well, so rotated it directly at KETS, and signal level is a solid 16%. No lock.
Actually getting a stronger signal on ch13 from Gurdon.

KETS's signal is up today (guess the ice is melting). Its now equal to the signal from channel 26 in Hot Springs here at my location (72%).

TomFM is still RDS only, no Tom2, and no reply to my email sent to them yesterday.

Update on Tom-FM. Got an email back:

Dave - thanks for the heads-up. I'm putting our engineer on this job.

Thanks again - Tom

It is the weather, by the way!


As of 2/1 at 4:45pm, Tom FM HD1 and HD2 are back online. Yea!

Sorry, haven't looked over here in a few days. Just assumed noone was talking since I didn't get any email reminders. I don't understand what the point of the emails are if they don't tell you when people post.

Anyway, as far as the question of who I use, I am using Comcast just the same as Dave is. I, however, decided to purchase my own modem. My modem is DOCSIS 3 compliant, so I get the nifty channel bonding feature which gives me MUCH bigger boosts in speed on the speedboost part of it.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/704910986.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

That's what I am getting. After the speedboost dies out, I am getting the 12Mbps advertised. It looks like 1.6MBps on a bandwidth meter. Sometimes it will kick up to 1.7, but it mainly stays 1.5 or 1.6. It is well worth it to me. There are much faster speeds I could get if I wanted to pay for it.


EDIT: Here's springfield. :)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/704913626.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Sorry, haven't looked over here in a few days. Just assumed noone was talking since I didn't get any email reminders. I don't understand what the point of the emails are if they don't tell you when people post.Sometimes, notifications quit working. If they do, go to the User CP and deselect/reselect instant email notifications to fix it.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/706180714.png
:rolleyes:

I'm sorry to see that. Please tell me that was via tethering or something to your laptop?

Nope. Verizon 3G data card via wireless router to desktop computer. Rooftop yagi antenna aimed at an unobstructed LOS Verizon tower. I'm looking at the blinky red tower lights as I type this.

It used to work great, with fairly constant speeds ~1mbps. But Verizon has oversold the data card service here to people with no alternative except AT&T EDGE or satellite, both of which also suck. They continue to advertise the data card service in the local paper every week. The problem is that there is not enough backhaul out of here to LR.

It's sad, but my AT&T landline is served by fiber optic cable from town. It changes to copper at a Remote Terminal about a mile or so from the house. The fiber was installed before DSL was invented, and AT&T never upgraded the RT for DSL capability. And they probably never will, since they will likely sell off their podunk land line operations soon.

Luckily, a local company in Eureka is installing a wireless broadband tower a couple hundred yards from our house in the next few months. Minimum speeds will be ~7mbps, which is fine for what I use the internet for. I'm long out of contract with verizon and will be dumping them faster than Toyota stock, as soon as this new service gets up and running.

Wish me luck. When DirecTv changed their rates on Feb 1st, they apparently not only lost my autopay credit card information, they lost my January payment, claiming the bank refused the charge for insufficent funds (not even possible) on Feb 1st. The bank shows it was paid Jan 15th, and shows no reversals or credits to me account. Now DirecTv is wanting TWO months payment IMMEDIATELY, or they will terminate my service.

Anyone with Dish network? I may be looking for a new satellite TV supplier. Since DirecTv doesnt have my credit card info, Im sure not going to pay a ETF or return my equipment I paid for either. If they report it to the credit bureau, Ill challenge them through the credit bureau. What imbecels

Sorry, haven't looked over here in a few days. Just assumed noone was talking since I didn't get any email reminders. I don't understand what the point of the emails are if they don't tell you when people post.


If you dont click the link in the email, it wont send any further emails. If you stop getting messages, click on one of the previous email links, and it will start up again. Weird, but thats what it does to me. I cant get a notice on my cell phone, then log in with my computer and read. I wont get anymore, but if I click on the email link, they start back up.

...If you stop getting messages, click on one of the previous email links, and it will start up again...Thanks for that info. Good to know. I was going back to User CP and reselecting Instant Email Notification. They probably do that to weed out sending repeat "new message" notices to dormant accounts or email addresses.

Wish me luck. When DirecTv changed their rates on Feb 1st, they apparently not only lost my autopay credit card information, they lost my January payment, claiming the bank refused the charge for insufficent funds (not even possible) on Feb 1st. The bank shows it was paid Jan 15th, and shows no reversals or credits to me account. Now DirecTv is wanting TWO months payment IMMEDIATELY, or they will terminate my service.

Anyone with Dish network? I may be looking for a new satellite TV supplier. Since DirecTv doesnt have my credit card info, Im sure not going to pay a ETF or return my equipment I paid for either. If they report it to the credit bureau, Ill challenge them through the credit bureau. What imbecelsDave, this is one of several reasons I never use a bank account, debit card or auto pay for any bill payments. I've had too many similar problems with all three. I pay all bills with a credit card, I use a dedicated card account for that purpose, and I never carry a balance on it. With no autopays setup on a card, if you have a problem and suspect you may be re-billed for something, one simple phone call to the card company takes care of things. Just call the "lost card" department and order a new one.

After 14 years with DirecTV, I switched to Dish after DirecTV sent a forced software update (Not CE software) that bricked my DVR. They wanted to charge me for a new DVR and charge to roll a truck just to swap it out. The Dish DVRs blow away DirecTV's, feature-wise. I was charged an ETF, but I didn't care. The Dish 6 month intro price more than paid for that.

I had two leased HR20-700 DVRs. But they only sent one return kit and told me on the phone (twice) that only one DVR was leased. Their records are a disaster.

Good luck.

Sorry, haven't looked over here in a few days. Just assumed noone was talking since I didn't get any email reminders. I don't understand what the point of the emails are if they don't tell you when people post. ....snip
The e-mail notifications are like DBS/Cable contracts, you have to read the fine print.;):)
There may be other replies also, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

Yours,

AVS Forum Team

dmatch

I guess I have been lucky, really. I haven't had any issues with billing like that. Just looked at mine and its fine. Arxaw, you still have that other non-bricked DVR? Wanna git rid of it? LOL I am still looking at getting another one so I can play in this MRV game. :)

DIRECTV probably wouldnt authorize it. I fired off a letter to the presidents office this morning. Will see what happens.

I don't see why they wouldn't. I could pretend I bought it at a garage sale. And tell them the person said that DirecTV didn't want it back because it was owned or something. There ARE owned HR20-700's out there. It would be worth a shot....that is if arxaw has it and is willing to send it over. :)

They told me I own it, but I know that is not true. I obtained it from an online DirecTV agent and paid a subsidized fee. Not even close to the full price to buy one outright.

But I'm not parting with it, because I don't trust their record keeping any more than Dave does now. I'm hanging onto it for now, in case they ever do an audit or something and decide it's theirs.

Office of the President just called. Some csr had accidentally credited someone elses payment to my account, and when that persons TV got shut off, they reversed the payment. She still needs me to fax proof from my bank of my January payment tho. Stupid.

They told me I own it, but I know that is not true. I obtained it from an online DirecTV agent and paid a subsidized fee. Not even close to the full price to buy one outright.

But I'm not parting with it, because I don't trust their record keeping any more than Dave does now. I'm hanging onto it for now, in case they ever do an audit or something and decide it's theirs.
I understand about wanting to hold on to it.

In any case, there really is no "full price" for one of those boxes. There are ways to buy them outright now and actually own them for the same price as it costs to get one leased from them. There are a lot of people who own their boxes and still only paid the $199, or sometimes less, for them. So, it is possible to own it.

I am willing to bet that there are some units that get shipped to some dealers that are owned units based on the serial numbers or receiver id's or something. Others you get from Best Buy or well known places like that are probably in the system as leased units based on the same information. So, depending on who you got it from, the system might not recognize it as a leased unit, but owned instead when you activated it. Kinda like product keys for Windows, one might be exactly the same as the other in length and stuff, but depending on certain parts of the code, or however they determine it, it is only an upgrade instead of a full version.

That's just my .02 worth on the matter of owned vs. leased. :)

Office of the President just called. Some csr had accidentally credited someone elses payment to my account, and when that persons TV got shut off, they reversed the payment. She still needs me to fax proof from my bank of my January payment tho. Stupid.
So, what the hell happened to your original payment? In that case, there should have been at least DOUBLE the amount you paid on the account. Sounds like the moron reversed ALL the money that was credited to your account. So, that moron's mistake is causing you way too much trouble. I mean, if it was THEIR mistake, then they owe you a free month at the least because of this trouble.

So, what the hell happened to your original payment? In that case, there should have been at least DOUBLE the amount you paid on the account. Sounds like the moron reversed ALL the money that was credited to your account. So, that moron's mistake is causing you way too much trouble. I mean, if it was THEIR mistake, then they owe you a free month at the least because of this trouble.

Now they are wanting me to fax them a full copy with running balances, of my checking account. I refuse to do this. It is none of their business. I faxed them the routing information where their transaction was paid. If thats not good enough for them, Ill just buy a Tivo and get Comcast, or check out Dishnetwork. I was REALLY hoping U-Verse would have made it to our neighborhood, but they skipped right over us, and went out to Sherwood, where the money is. I hate AT&T, but at least I can go to their office and cuss them out in person.
Looks like I might just have to move my 10' dish into my back yard where my 6' is, with a good line of site, and do the FTA/OTA thing. Since I watch mostly sports, and most of that is viewable free with a 10'er, I might just get rid of pay TV completely. Ive totally had it with spending my work time trying to correct someone elses mistake.

They have absolutely no need to see your running balance. That sounds like a bit much. That is too much of an invasion to your privacy. The most you should have to do is fax them the portion of your bank statement that shows the payment to them cleared. Nothing more. I would tell them that if they don't do their job properly, you are going to have to get your lawyer in on this and possibly something like the AG's office. I am sure there are people around here that can call them up and get them to do right.

Thats exactly what I told her. I faxed her the copy of the cleared payment, and told her if they disconnected my service, I would consider it a breach of contract and act accordingly. (And by act accordingly, which I didnt explain to her, was to subscribe to DISH network before DirecTv can post a negative on my credit report, Call and request a bunch of return boxes for my leased equipment, and post an ad for the sale of my owned equipment, followed by filing a claim in small claims court for a refund of my up front lease fees (due to their breach of contract), etc. Turns out, all the equipment they sent me to alpha test, is actually owned, so I should be able to get quite a bit of money for it.

I just logged into their site, and find that they now DO list my debit card in their records again (It wasnt there yesterday), but they have the incorrect expiration date on it. I left it incorrect ;)

I paid the Feb bill via my banks billpay rather than credit card, and if they disconnect my on the 22nd, I will go to the bank and have that payment reversed, and let DirecTv take me to arbitration (per their terms of service).

Even if they DO fix this mess, I will probably drop DirecTv when my contract expires. I find I am mainly watching OTA and FTA now anyway. Speed and ESPN feeds are commercial free on FTA. PBS beats Discovery and Nat Geo with their commercial ridden programming, and I can get AlJazeera, ABC NewsOne and MSNBC on FTA for news.

Hell, I would go to the bank and have the January payment reversed. Wait a couple of days to see if they say anything, then go ahead and pay it again. Since you will have your money back, it won't be like you are out anything, plus they can't say anything about the reversal because, according to them, they never got it. That way the whole thing will be fixed.

Oh, they acknowlege they got the Jan payment, they are just claiming I reversed it on Feb 2nd. I cant send proof I didnt reverse it without sending them a running bank register, which I will not do. Its none of their business who I send money to. If they were to just look at their own records, they would see the account they reversed the payment to wasnt mine. To make things even funnier, the reversal was for $98.00. How could I reverse PART of a $103.60 payment? They are idiots, and will be out a long time customer REAL SOON.

Oh, guess I missed the part where they say you reversed it. So, if they think you reversed it, then go ahead and do it. Pretty easy to me. They can't say crap about you doing it if they already think you did it. LOL I mean, seriously, that's what I would do. I'd tell them "Look, fine, you think I reversed the payment and won't work with me on this? Then I WILL reverse the payment and you guys will be screwed TWICE!" :)

You know, it puts a timestamp along with who the CSR that did the reversal or whatever on each and every transaction. You would think it would be simple to ask them "Who's login is associated with that transaction? Oh, you see it's not mine? Then there's your damn answer!" Their computer system keeps track of each item that is entered into the system along with where it goes or what happened. You are just getting the idiots who don't know how to do their damn job it looks like.

Its now in the hands of the Advocacy section of the Office of the President. I really dont care anymore if they shut it off on Feb 22nd or not. If it werent for the ETF, Id shut it off right now.

Dave, your troubles are the product of business's who do not believe in keeping it local. Its much cheaper and easier for Directv and Dish to keep their business on the national level and not the local level....but for the customer who actually recieves the service and needs action...its hell to pay. One of the main reasons I jumped to Arkwest and dropped the small dish....I can actually call anytime and talk to someone I personally know. I can even call their home if I have a problem on the weekend and they dont mind at all, in fact they are glad to help. This is something that does not exist with big companies who serve a national audience or region. If I were in LR like you guys and had the knowledge that some of you have, I'd head down to AT&T and explain to them the correct bandwidth required to supply good quality HD to homes. They are you local company and they are the alternative to your cable companies and the two small dish companies. If enough folks in LR expressed their concerns with AT&T, they might actually make the changes required to deliver high quality hd. Honestly, if AT&T could get their U-verse right, it would be the best option for all of you Little Rockers as far as a pay or subscription service goes. Sounds like Directv screwed ya man, I feel for ya......your a working man and I know you earn your money, it sucks when multi-million dollar companies up and steal from ya! I'm not norally sue minded...but...maybe you can sue them....they'd never miss it

IF U-Verse was available anywhere near my house, but its not. They bypassed my section of town to install out farther in the suburbs where there are more wealthy people.

IF U-Verse was available anywhere near my house, but its not. They bypassed my section of town to install out farther in the suburbs where there are more wealthy people.

Well that aint right. Maybe they will get out your way soon.......you know how it is....the rich get richer

I'm glad it not just us ol' AVS Forum posters. Ron Breeding of KUAR public radio in Little Rock posted to his blog (http://arkansasline.blogspot.com/2010/02/hd-local-news-slow-in-coming.html) a link to a audio report from KUAR he did about Little Rock's current darth of HDTV local newscasts.

A link to the KUAR page featuring the audio report is also at KUAR's website (http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuar/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1608795/KUAR.Features/Craig..Dawn.and.Liz.in.HD).

Yea, I listened to that earlier. Sounds like Fox16 is contemplating morning newscast. What they should do is get rid of the 9pm, use that money to go HD. Have one at 7am, 5pm, 10pm...In HD. Slam Dunk. Heck, their PQ is so good now on SD, just make it widescreen, and save the money for all the switchers and crap.

Dave, your troubles are the product of business's who do not believe in keeping it local. Its much cheaper and easier for Directv and Dish to keep their business on the national level and not the local level....but for the customer who actually recieves the service and needs action...its hell to pay. One of the main reasons I jumped to Arkwest and dropped the small dish....I can actually call anytime and talk to someone I personally know. I can even call their home if I have a problem on the weekend and they dont mind at all, in fact they are glad to help. This is something that does not exist with big companies who serve a national audience or region. If I were in LR like you guys and had the knowledge that some of you have, I'd head down to AT&T and explain to them the correct bandwidth required to supply good quality HD to homes. They are you local company and they are the alternative to your cable companies and the two small dish companies. If enough folks in LR expressed their concerns with AT&T, they might actually make the changes required to deliver high quality hd. Honestly, if AT&T could get their U-verse right, it would be the best option for all of you Little Rockers as far as a pay or subscription service goes. Sounds like Directv screwed ya man, I feel for ya......your a working man and I know you earn your money, it sucks when multi-million dollar companies up and steal from ya! I'm not norally sue minded...but...maybe you can sue them....they'd never miss it
You are assuming that AT&T is any different than DirecTV or Dish. They are not. They are exactly the same. They do not give a crap any more than anyone else.

But at least you can go into their local store and punch em in the face. BTW, Hulu has all the programs I watch on Directv I found, so Im gonna dump them down to the lowest possible package and ride out my contract.

But at least you can go into their local store and punch em in the face. BTW, Hulu has all the programs I watch on Directv I found, so Im gonna dump them down to the lowest possible package and ride out my contract.
Yeah, good luck with that! :)

Hulu doesn't have all the programs we like. PLUS, they don't carry a lot of the past seasons. My wife and I are behind on a lot of the shows we watch, and they simply aren't up on Hulu to catch up on. Thank goodness for torrents!!!

All I watch on DirecTv besides sports is Comedy Central, Speed, ESPN's. I can get ESPNs feeds and Speeds feeds on my big dish, and Hulu has Daily Show and Cobert report, so Im good.

All I watch on DirecTv besides sports is Comedy Central, Speed, ESPN's. I can get ESPNs feeds and Speeds feeds on my big dish, and Hulu has Daily Show and Cobert report, so Im good.
Hmm, if that's all you watch then, yeah, DirecTV was a major waste of money for you. I don't blame you for saying to hell with it. I don't do a whole lot of sports. Most of my TV interests are in the mind numbing comedies. :) If I were single, or had a wife that would tolerate my ways of getting TV content, then I would go the same route. DirecTV just charges WAY WAY too much to me. I wouldn't mind paying like maybe $70 at the extreme most, but what they have me paying is much more. Oh well, as long as the money maker doesn't mind paying it, then I guess we will. :)

Well, I subbed to Major League Baseball, which is the main reason I have DirecTv...but, with the cheapest package, and a single owned receiver, I could still get the ball games from them. Then suspend my account during the non-season. They have a package called choice basic for $12, if you can talk them into giving it to you. I suspect if I threaten to disconnect completely, they will let me have that one to be able to sub to baseball.

If not, are the Cards on the RSN on Comcast basic?

If I am not mistaken, you can only suspend your account one time during your contract period. I had asked about that once before after I had suspended it for my time on U-Verse. I thought that it would be alright to try to go Internet only. When I asked them they said nope, can't do it. I didn't know about that choice basic. Guess it might be like the metered line the phone company will give you if you ask real hard.

I seriously doubt you will be able to get many card games through Comcast. If you only have the basic analog stuff (which I believe they are about to get rid of), there is this channel, I think its 98, that has the games on it. It looks pretty bad though and I don't think it had a whole lot of them. You pretty much HAVE to get FS Midwest. That way you will miss maybe 20 games most I think. That's what I get the sports pak for and it works pretty well.

Well, I subbed to Major League Baseball, which is the main reason I have DirecTv...but, with the cheapest package, and a single owned receiver, I could still get the ball games from them. Then suspend my account during the non-season. They have a package called choice basic for $12, if you can talk them into giving it to you. I suspect if I threaten to disconnect completely, they will let me have that one to be able to sub to baseball.

If not, are the Cards on the RSN on Comcast basic?You probably already know about this but here it is just in case:

http://www.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp

Haven't seen the quality so don't take this as a recommendation.

It does say that you can watch any archived games without restriction. Other than that I know nothing about MLB's blackout restrictions.

Edit: I'm having deja vu or we did this same discussion last year.

dmatch

You probably already know about this but here it is just in case:

http://www.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp

Haven't seen the quality so don't take this as a recommendation.

It does say that you can watch any archived games without restriction. Other than that I know nothing about MLB's blackout restrictions.

Edit: I'm having deja vu or we did this same discussion last year.

dmatch

Thanks, but THIS makes me really nervous:
The below-listed Club(s) is within the searched home television territory, and MLB.TV is subject to blackout for all regular season live games for these Club(s):

* Houston Astros
* Texas Rangers
* St. Louis Cardinals
* Kansas City Royals

In addition, live regular season games for all thirty Clubs are subject to blackout during the national Fox Saturday and ESPN Sunday night game telecast windows.

I guess they want me to lay a coax from Little Rock to fricking St Louis, so I can pick it up OTA ;) Screw em all. I just wont watch baseball either. Im totally fed up at this point, and really dont give a sh*t if I even have a TV anymore. Its all money and lawyers and mo money and mo lawyers. They can all kiss my butt. Ill just watch what I can on my FTA dish, and go fishing more.

Yeah, the video looks really good from what I understand and have seen, but the problem with those MLB.TV things is that you can NOT watch ANY local teams games live. You can watch them all you want like the day after. The *******s don't seem to understand that we are pretty much in no-mans-land here. We are smack dab in the middle between Dallas and St. Louis, so we get screwed. They set up the blackouts to keep people within driving distance of games from watching it on TV or whatever (which you can still do anyway with the FSN's somehow). The only problem is that the damn FCC and local broadcasters associations got in and set up these damn ridiculous DMA's that we all suffer from. According to the broadcasters that set up the rules, we can just drive to any game we want to. They don't understand that 5 hours is a bit ridiculous for someone around here (Little Rock) to go to a game. And they won't bend at all on it for some reason making the DMA's a little more reasonable. So, since that is the case, we are all bending over for them to have their way with us. We just have to be smart enough to use good quality lube so it doesn't hurt so bad....be it going with DirecTV or some other method that might be a tiny bit cheaper. This is the reason why you set up something like a P.O. Box in St. Louis so you can be within their DMA via DirecTV or MLB.TV or whatever so you can get what you want, how you want it.


And yes, we talk about this damn near every year. And it's usually my fault because I am wanting Cardinals games in the best quality possible.

I seriously doubt you will be able to get many card games through Comcast. If you only have the basic analog stuff (which I believe they are about to get rid of), there is this channel, I think its 98, that has the games on it. It looks pretty bad though and I don't think it had a whole lot of them. You pretty much HAVE to get FS Midwest. That way you will miss maybe 20 games most I think. That's what I get the sports pak for and it works pretty well.

Actually, nearly all of the Cards games are on Comcast 98. The picture quality, however, is very very bad. I'm not sure what package you have to take to get channel 98 included. I subscribed to the very cheapest package (basic?) in order to reduce my internet bill. (It's cheaper to take cable and internet than internet alone.) I'm only supposed to get channels 2-21. However, Comcast did not put the filters in line, so I'm getting everything from 2 to 98. If they are planning to drop digital basic I haven't heard anything about it.

Comcast recently upped the charge for basic(?) from $12.95 to $16.95 per month. And Dish upped my bill for February from $99 and change to $106+. They re-aligned all of my services, though, into different groupings, so I can't tell which items they are charging more for.

Not digital basic....analog basic, the basic you get right now. They are tired of people getting it for less than they want, so they are going to fix it where you have to have a converter box. If the government gets its way, though, you are going to be able to get one converter box for free and have to pay for the rest. And they can't put the filters on the line, legally, because the locals on the digital tier fall on channel 66 or there around it. They are required by law to leave those untouched and putting the filter on there that blocks ESPN I think will take those digital locals out of the loop, thus violating law.

EDIT: Let me add this. Everything I say here is from my research on all of these topics while, most of the time, in a pis$ed off state because of not getting something how I want. Or sometimes some of the information, like the analog basic and stuff like that, is from people on the Internet or from technicians I run into through any dealings I have. There is NO way that any of what I have said is either accurate or close to accurate. It's just things I have gained to understand as true along the way. I don't think you should put any stock into anything I say. :)

Not digital basic....analog basic, the basic you get right now.

I mis-typed. I meant analog basic, of course.

They are tired of people getting it for less than they want, so they are going to fix it where you have to have a converter box. If the government gets its way, though, you are going to be able to get one converter box for free and have to pay for the rest. And they can't put the filters on the line, legally, because the locals on the digital tier fall on channel 66 or there around it. They are required by law to leave those untouched and putting the filter on there that blocks ESPN I think will take those digital locals out of the loop, thus violating law.

Baseball, by the way, is on 96, not 98. I just re-checked. 98 is "Marketplace." Channels 78-95 are blank. Maybe that's where the local digitals are.

Oh yeah, forgot the number. That's still analog, so crap. The local digital channels are on 66 primarily. That's what the repair tech's computer showed when I was talking to him about the filters not letting them through, that's when he pulled out the filters. The TV you are looking at these channels on is incapable of receiving digital channels without a converter box. The living room TV on the other hand is fully able to pick up ClearQAM digital channels.

mlb.tv uses your IP address to calculate where you are, so a PO Box wont do any good. They KNOW where your computer is ;)

mlb.tv uses your IP address to calculate where you are, so a PO Box wont do any good. They KNOW where your computer is ;)
Oh, wasn't sure how they did that. I just knew that I had put in my real address on the website, so just assumed that they did it that way. That makes sense though because that's how they do it, along with GPS, to block you on the iPhone app.

If the logo on the right side of the screen just says AETN its usually stretched from 4:3 to 16:9 Aspect Ratio! Picture looks odd!

If the logo on the right side of the screen says AETN HD its usually not stretched! Either in a 16:9 or 4:3 Aspect Ratio naturally!

My Theory is subject to change because AETN is very unpredictable!
____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________

Example Pictures below

Note Blue area represents where the video would be on an actual Analog TV with Converter Box!

On the channels that will allow it I leave them like this!
http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx158/outdoortvreception/Digital%20Picture%20Formats/169Ratio.jpg
letterbox 16:9 Aspect Ratio Usually HD! But some stations Stretch! Like AETN!

http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx158/outdoortvreception/Digital%20Picture%20Formats/43AspectRatio.jpg
4:3 Aspect Ratio Usually SD! Unless the station forgets to switch to HD feed!

This is my opinion but stretching to full screen degrades the picture! And stuff gets cut off the screen! I wish they would leave the picture like my two pictures on satelite and cable!

So far I haven't burned the bars into the screen yet! Knock on wood!

Thanks, but THIS makes me really nervous:


I guess they want me to lay a coax from Little Rock to fricking St Louis, so I can pick it up OTA ;) Screw em all. I just wont watch baseball either. Im totally fed up at this point, and really dont give a sh*t if I even have a TV anymore. Its all money and lawyers and mo money and mo lawyers. They can all kiss my butt. Ill just watch what I can on my FTA dish, and go fishing more.
Maybe we can at least watch KSDK Cardinal games (BUD) with some decent quality again this year. Although, I tend to be an all-or-none type and don't like all the missed games during the week and that severely hinders my enthusiasm for it.

I really wish I knew what you thought about all this.;)

Just kidding. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Edit: RE the pictures above this post. Am I missing something or are they just blue rectangles?

dmatch

Edit: RE the pictures above this post. Am I missing something or are they just blue rectangles?

dmatch

YES! and NO!

The Blue 16:9 Rectangle and the blue 4:3 Square represent the area on a Analog TV screen using Converter Box where you would normally see video!

There would not be as many black bars on a new TV!

Sorry I don't have the ability to post screen shots from my TV yet!

Im on the mobile version, so I dont get ads or picture or rectangles, so I cant help ya :)
I thought KSDK only did Sunday games...Did they do all the games?

snip.....
I thought KSDK only did Sunday games...Did they do all the games?Only Sunday games and not all of them. That's why I can't get a lot of enthusiasm for it anymore. You just miss too much during the week. Also, kind of out of sight out of mind.

dmatch

I don't keep up with the Little Rock locals much as I don't watch the local news, but while watching the Super Bowl tonight I thought I noticed a couple of promos for KTHV in HD/16:9. Have I missed something? Has KTHV gone HD in the studio for local news or are they getting ready to?

No. They just run a HD remote news segment or two each week. The studio heads are still SD.

No. They just run a HD remote news segment or two each week. The studio heads are still SD.

haha. Just saw one of those remotes and thought that a new era had dawned in the LR area, but oh well. My guess is that the on-air talent is scared *^&#%$ by the idea of being seen in HD. :eek: I don't think any of them on any of the channels will be treated kindly by the cameras.

--MDG

I doubt Craig Oneil cares ;)

KTHV keeps flirting with local HD with station IDs, the occasional bone thrown ("Amazed By Arkansas", that Central High piece back in 2007), and some local ads. But until their newscasts go live in the studio with HDTV they've *not* officially made the switch.

I thought the same thing...Craig O'Neil in HD would not be a pretty picture! :-)

I had a first just now. A satellite snow outage. I had already wiped all the snow off my dishes, but got a searching for satellite on DirecTv. The snow was coming down so hard and heavy (trace to 1" my butt, way to go KARK your weather authroity hahaha), it was actually blocking the signal just like the Thunderstorm. Well, I managed to JUST make it home in time. Its getting nasty out there in Little Rock.

Good night to stay home and watch the Olympics opening ceremonies. Will feel like we are in Canada.

We had the same problem here. The dish is on the roof though, so I can't get to it to wipe it off. We usually don't lose it in a thunderstorm unless its just a big, bad, knockin limbs off a tree thunderstorm. :)

I haven't even stepped foot outside the house today. LOL

mlb.tv uses your IP address to calculate where you are, so a PO Box wont do any good. They KNOW where your computer is ;)Could you use some sort of proxy software to hide or forge your IP address?

Ittybitty snowflakes here at the moment, but it's steadily coming down. I haven't had to clear snow off the Dish yet this year.

~33°, so the roads are still clear for now.
http://www.arkansashighways.com/Road/mapopt.htm

Thats cuz the idiots said YOU were gonna get the snow, but instead WE got the snow.

Steveken: When it says to call DirecTv, you should call and tell em you dont really need any help, cuz you know that the snow is covering the dish, but you are just calling because the box told you too, and ask them what they want :)

Yep, getting diddly on it right now. All 0's on ever transponder and satellite. I might have to find a way to wipe it off. Dunno how though.

H20 ain't even saying anything. Just a black screen.

Ok, went outside to clear it off. Got a long pole used to change in-ceiling light bulbs extended all the way out. Was a little difficult with the rain hitting me in the face and without my glasses cause I wanted to be able to see a little, but I got it done. The snow in the side yard was at least above my ankle bone...maybe deeper, so I think its at least 10 inches over there. On the driveway it was only about 6 inches or so. Enough to go over the top of my boot. Needless to say, its a lot more than what we are used to. :)

Was telling my wife that back in the 2000 snow and stuff, I had my 18" dish out on the walkway of my apartment and it had a lot of snow on it, but never went out. I am guessing cause the new dish and the sensitivity of the aiming, the inch or two that was on it was enough to muck it up. Funny. :) Oh well, at least I am going now. hehehe

@Dave, never listen to idiots. :)

@steveken, don't call. They'll just f*ck up your bill. LOL

Just thought of something, I hope that what I did wasn't enough to mess up the alignment. I didn't hit it hard or anything, and I hope the guy tightened it down real good, but you can never tell. I just rubbed the plastic cup that grabs bulbs with suction across it enough to knock the snow loose.

Nah, if you are getting 50 or higher on 99c and 103cb you are still good to go. This weather above us has so much ice and snow in it up in the clouds, its really attenuating the signals a lot, especially on KA band.

Just talked to my son near Conway, who said he had swept the snow off his D dish (he could reach it easily) but still couldn't get a satellite signal. I suggested a red button reset and it worked for him. Since I cannot reach my D dish, I decided to try a reset myself but no luck. Even worse, now I cannot see my DVR content, including MRV DVR content on that particular receiver nor am I able to access the On Demand feature on the receiver that I re-set. So unless you are able to reach (safely) your dish, I wouldn't try a reset. Oh well, looks like OTA locals for tonight's news!

Nah, if you are getting 50 or higher on 99c and 103cb you are still good to go. This weather above us has so much ice and snow in it up in the clouds, its really attenuating the signals a lot, especially on KA band.


I'm getting zeros across the board. And the spot beam sats are not even an option now. I can see my dish from the window and it is about 60%+ covered with snow.

Yea, thats a nasty piece of programming in D* DVRs. It even prevents them from being able to tune local OTA channels if you reboot it. To make matters worse, if it goes for a couple hours without guide data, it will reboot itself.
Thats why I always suggest having a OTA antenna plugged into the TV as well as the DirecTv box.

Channel 7.2 RTN apparently has snow on their dish too. Was trying to watch Mchales Navy, and got the pixellation/signal loss screen, and the recording aborted. I had to use a shovel to get the snow off my 6'er. Even on C band, which isnt that affected by snow was dropping out, and it was the weight of the snow pushing the elevation of the dish down so far, it was pointing below the satellite. This is some HEAVY snow, weight wise.

Just talked to my son near Conway, who said he had swept the snow off his D dish (he could reach it easily) but still couldn't get a satellite signal. I suggested a red button reset and it worked for him. Since I cannot reach my D dish, I decided to try a reset myself but no luck. Even worse, now I cannot see my DVR content, including MRV DVR content on that particular receiver nor am I able to access the On Demand feature on the receiver that I re-set. So unless you are able to reach (safely) your dish, I wouldn't try a reset. Oh well, looks like OTA locals for tonight's news!
Yep, when you RBR a box while it has no signal, it will NOT be able to come up until you have a good signal to feed it. Otherwise, it can't get any of the validation or guide data that it needs to complete the boot. Best bet would be to get a long pole or stick to knock at least 20% of that snow off there. You might get enough of a signal to get back going.

I think I'll just stick with OTA since I'm already getting a dish out of alignment message and not great sat signal strengths on the HD sats. After reading your comment, Steve, about knocking it out of alignment I don't want to attempt it. But I mainly don't want to attempt it because I don't have a 30 foot stick or pole! :-)

I think I'll just stick with OTA since I'm already getting a dish out of alignment message and not great sat signal strengths on the HD sats. After reading your comment, Steve, about knocking it out of alignment I don't want to attempt it. But I mainly don't want to attempt it because I don't have a 30 foot stick or pole! :-)

I meant to say "...I was ALREADY getting..."

Day 4 of not watching DirecTv....So far, so good. I discovered my favorite sci-fi show when I was a kid, Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel on HULU. Damn the quality is so much better now than it was on my 19" color set with rabbit ears back in the day :)

Well boys....thru this whole storm....I've lost my Arkwest IPTV signal ZERO times.....been watching nice crisp HD programming while ya'll have been sweeping and resetting.......ha ha.....I had to rub it in guys:p.....I'm just messin with yuns....hope ya'll get your systems back on track soon. When I had directv, everytime a dark cloud rolled up in the southern sky I lost my signal.....aggravating

Day 4 of not watching DirecTv....So far, so good. I discovered my favorite sci-fi show when I was a kid, Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel on HULU. Damn the quality is so much better now than it was on my 19" color set with rabbit ears back in the day :)

If it wasnt for the ESPN networks not being on C-band, I would have never swapped to the small dish in 2005. Every C-band provider I contacted said ESPN did not see the need to contract with C-band customers any longer since the numbers had dwindled so badly the past few years. Had everything in HD that I wanted on C-band thru my 4dtv and HDD motorola....but no ESPN....and I just couldnt take it.

Well boys....thru this whole storm....I've lost my Arkwest IPTV signal ZERO times.....been watching nice crisp HD programming while ya'll have been sweeping and resetting.......ha ha.....I had to rub it in guys:p.....I'm just messin with yuns....hope ya'll get your systems back on track soon. When I had directv, everytime a dark cloud rolled up in the southern sky I lost my signal.....aggravating
Mine is fine. We were busy enough yesterday watching movies and things off my torrent computer that we didn't know it was out until we accidentally noticed it when turning on the system real fast for something. :) Besides that, I never lose the signal....ever. Well, not never ever, but only when its raining like pourin water out of a boot. Then I shouldn't be watchin TV anyway. LOL It never goes out when I am worried about it. Since we moved into this new house, it hasn't gone out once.

ESPN isn't all that great to me. I hate their commentators and they rarely show anything I actually want to see. I mean, I really really hate their commentators. It drives me up the wall to have to listen to their guys that do the baseball games. I think its Joe Morgan and some old fat white guy. They just irritate me to no end. I have to turn on Mike Shannon who isn't much better with his steeeeeeerike stuff. :)

DirecTv finally figured out what they did. They credited someone elses payment made over the phone to my account the day before my December 13th autobillpay. Since my account had a zero balance that day, the billpay never took the money out of my account. Then in February, when the customer realized THEY were past due, THEY reversed the charge that had erroneously been credited to my account, so then *I* got a disconnect notice. Its all straightened out now. I owe DirecTv the $103 from DECEMBER they never drafted out of my account, and they apologized for the mistake. I only hope they didnt disconnect the poor other customers service who paid their bill over the phone and had a stupid CSR credit it to my account.

In any case, DirecTv no longer has my credit card info, no longer has me on billpay, and my bank is handling the payments to DirecTv each month now. The bank officer told me she just switched to DISH for the same reasons, she said DirecTv is so incompetent. If it wasnt for that damn CONTRACT. Oh well. Another year and 4 months to go.

DirecTv finally figured out what they did. They credited someone elses payment made over the phone to my account the day before my December 13th autobillpay. Since my account had a zero balance that day, the billpay never took the money out of my account. Then in February, when the customer realized THEY were past due, THEY reversed the charge that had erroneously been credited to my account, so then *I* got a disconnect notice. Its all straightened out now. I owe DirecTv the $103 from DECEMBER they never drafted out of my account, and they apologized for the mistake. I only hope they didnt disconnect the poor other customers service who paid their bill over the phone and had a stupid CSR credit it to my account.

In any case, DirecTv no longer has my credit card info, no longer has me on billpay, and my bank is handling the payments to DirecTv each month now. The bank officer told me she just switched to DISH for the same reasons, she said DirecTv is so incompetent. If it wasnt for that damn CONTRACT. Oh well. Another year and 4 months to go.
All they did was apologize??? I would be demanding a few months of free sh*t. THAT exact thing happening is the exact reason I never trust any goober working at a call center to handle a payment. I know computers are far less likely to screw things up when payments are concerned. I trust the computer systems far more than I trust the idiots there.

Problem is, goobers have access to computers.

Problem is, goobers have access to computers.
Yeah, but what you fail to realize is that unless there is a specific reason to touch the billing portion of an account, not a single person ever does, so it can't get messed up for the most part. 99.99999% of the autopay accounts at DirecTV NEVER have the billing portion get touched because, quite simply, there is no reason to. You see, a vast majority of the problems with computers are a result of human interaction. Someone going into a system and hitting something by accident, not knowing what they are doing, or just playing with it is the standard cause of a program malfunctioning.

It is the folks who won't join up with at least the last decade of the 20th, who don't have credit or even as simple as a debit card, don't have a computer, or just absolutely insist on calling in and talking to a person over the phone to make their payment that cause crap like this to happen. If EVERYONE used some form of autopay on their accounts, nothing like this would EVER happen.

I'm sorry, but its the people who either choose to or have to call in to a CSR to make their payment that make me mad. It is those people who require DirecTV to keep billing CSR's in their employ. It is those CSR's that do nothing but take billing calls that add onto your DirecTV bill each month a little more. If we could get people on a payment method that requires no human interaction, we could probably save quite a bit off our bills every month.

You see, usually the computer systems that take payments don't ever fail unless they are screwed with by a human at some point. When they are written, they are tested extremely well to make sure there aren't any kinds of items that can trip it up and screw up a payment or whatever. They go out of their way to throw every possible scenario at the program to make it fault. Of course, sometimes a situation is overlooked, but it takes a pretty wacky incident to throw a monkey in the wrench and cause the computer to screw up. Like only coding a one or two digit year and then have that special persons case violate a rule or something and make the computer think it is for a year outside of the valid range. It can be something off the wall like that to screw it up. But even then, those cases are extremely rare. You can handle literally millions of transactions without having a violation to the rules set in the program.

The point is, keep humans out of the billing system and crap like this simply does not happen except in extremely rare cases.

Add to that, when I try to enter my DirecTv account number into the banks billpay to get my bill electronically sent to the banks computer each month, it reports my account number is invalid. Its says all DirecTv account numbers have 9 digits. Guess they forgot us pioneers with 4 digit account numbers. Even adding 5 zeros in front of it caused an error, so I just didnt mess with it. Ill just let DirecTv keep emailing my bill directly to me.

Add to that, when I try to enter my DirecTv account number into the banks billpay to get my bill electronically sent to the banks computer each month, it reports my account number is invalid. Its says all DirecTv account numbers have 9 digits. Guess they forgot us pioneers with 4 digit account numbers. Even adding 5 zeros in front of it caused an error, so I just didnt mess with it. Ill just let DirecTv keep emailing my bill directly to me.
What? Really? That is pretty interesting. I wonder if calling the bank to tell them about it would help anything. They need to know that there are still a few early adopters out there with low account numbers.

It shows only the 4 digits for your account on the DirecTV site?? I wonder what my original number was. I know it isn't the 10million number I have now. :) I got it I think in like maybe 97, so I bet it was pretty low.

Got a tv question for you Arkies. Graininess? On my SXRD tv, I never notice my screen projecting a grainy picture. However, with most LCDs, I notice it a lot. Whether its my Vizio in the bedroom or the whole wall of HD's at Walmart....I notice a grainy look in many scenes, especially outdoor scenes with lots of light. I think this is referred to as "mosquito crawl". My mom and dad have a 47" LG LCD 120hz with True Motion. They like it on, but I think it degrades the PQ somewhat and often causes a grainy looking scene. So, why do I constantly see this artifact on LCDs yet hardly ever see it in my SXRD? This is concerning to me because eventually I'll have to replace my SXRD..to me, the grainy scenes are unacceptable. I often think to myself that the PQ of the newer HDTVs has actually been downgraded to some of the older sets. My SXRD blows my old Mistubishi Wide screen 65" away on normal HD programming from Satellite such as sports or HBO..something like that. However, my old Mits blows my SXRD away when it comes to DVD movies. I dont think I've ever seen a better looking PQ thru 480p dvd than my old mits could give. It is a CRT which smokes everything esle ever invented when it comes to deep Blacks.....still today, I dont know of a new technology that can reproduce the blacks as well as an old CRT based monitor.

Low contrast ratio. Compare those sets with either a plasma or a area backlit LED model, and you will probably see that effect is gone.

Having the lcd calibrated will also pretty much eliminate that.
The source also has a lot to do with it. Overcompression will cause that effect as well.

Low contrast ratio. Compare those sets with either a plasma or a area backlit LED model, and you will probably see that effect is gone.

Having the lcd calibrated will also pretty much eliminate that.
The source also has a lot to do with it. Overcompression will cause that effect as well.

Thanks Dave, I've always wondered what caused this. So, contrast ratio would be considered extremely important in the selection of an HDTV. I've heard it both ways, but always leaned toward having the best Contrast ratio possible. I believe my SXRD has a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. This also explains why my little 26" Vizio with 400:1 contrast looks so washed out....flesh tones look soft and on some Channels (in SD especially) you just cant ever get it adjusted to look right.

First, and most importantly, IGNORE the contrast ratio's posted by the manufacturers. Some measure the contrast with the SET OFF, for dark, and the SET ON BRIGHT WHITE for light, not something you would EVER see watching TV. Others use what they call Dynamic contrast ratio. Just go to one of the internet review sites, and find out what the REAL contrast ratio is. That said, the new area backlit LED models (they use LEDS small groups covering the entire back of the LCD panel) have great contrast ratios in real life. In an area of the screen with a dark scene, the bank of LED backlights is turned OFF, yeilding a totally black area. The only drawback to this method is it makes for some weird looking effects on scrolling white text on a black background. There is another LED backlight setup, which has about 1/2 the contrast as the area backlighting, but about 10 times more than a standard LCD using flourescent backlight, and that would be the Samsung method (those are also the ones that are only about an inch thick), and offer a good balance between the two (and are cheaper as well).

60hz, 120hz, 240hz... Well, let your eyes be the judge. 60hz is standard. They adopted 120hz to make the fast motion of sports appear less blurred, as well as to facilitate the set to be able to display movies in native format (24 frames per second) without having to use 3:2 pulldown (show three frames, then two), as 24 frames per second x 5 = 120, where 60 isnt divisable. 240hz is also able to show movies (24 frames x 10), however, the electronics adds a "video camera" effect which some find distracting.

Personally, I have a 60hz LCD with flourescent backlighting, but found the calibration settings some of the professional inhome techs ended up with while calibrating several customers sets, and I pulled up the menu and popped the numbers in (there were about 35 of them), and the difference was night and day compared to the "MOVIE" "DYNAMIC" "VIVID" and other presets. Of course this has to be done for EACH input, as most sets have a memory for each.

If I had to buy another set today, I would get one with area LED backlighting, and 120hz (or 240hz with the option to turn it off).

I have noticed several widescreen commercials (Wilsons Home Improvement, Sissy's Log Cabin) on KARK, being aired in SQUISH-O-VISION 4:3. One has to wonder, why would a local advertiser shoot a commercial in widescreen knowing the station will air it in 4:3? Ill bet on a 4:3 set, it REALLY looks squished...

That is, unless KARK is planning on going widescreen or HD on their newscasts soon.

I have noticed several widescreen commercials (Wilsons Home Improvement, Sissy's Log Cabin) on KARK, being aired in SQUISH-O-VISION 4:3. One has to wonder, why would a local advertiser shoot a commercial in widescreen knowing the station will air it in 4:3? Ill bet on a 4:3 set, it REALLY looks squished...

That is, unless KARK is planning on going widescreen or HD on their newscasts soon.
Oh hell, Furniture Factory Outlet was doing that for YEARS. They finally got smart it looks like and quit doing that crap.

I've noticed those squished commercials as well, even FFO. The thing is, I don't think it's completely KARK's fault. When I worked at Comcast, I would get some of those same spots in to put into the local ad playout there, and they would come in squished. I would run them through my edit system and adjust them to the correct aspect ratio (SD letterboxed) before sending them to encoding.

I've noticed those squished commercials as well, even FFO. The thing is, I don't think it's completely KARK's fault. When I worked at Comcast, I would get some of those same spots in to put into the local ad playout there, and they would come in squished. I would run them through my edit system and adjust them to the correct aspect ratio (SD letterboxed) before sending them to encoding.
Yeah, meant to put in there that it isn't just KARK. An FFO commercial was on a "Two and a Half Men" from KTHV and it was still squished. It's the way the production company sends them out. I guess they aren't bright enough to quit filming them that way. Hell, it's probably a Ron Sherman deal.

Looks like DirecTv lost KARKDT during the Olympics. Luckily, Im recording/watching the Olympics on SageTV. Didnt even know KARK was off DirecTv until they reported it on the news after the olympics were over, and asked DirecTv customers to quit calling KARK about it :)

I've noticed those squished commercials as well, even FFO. The thing is, I don't think it's completely KARK's fault. When I worked at Comcast, I would get some of those same spots in to put into the local ad playout there, and they would come in squished. I would run them through my edit system and adjust them to the correct aspect ratio (SD letterboxed) before sending them to encoding.@RockyF,
Yep, they are produced in 4:3 anamorphic, which as you are aware, is supposed to be reformatted to 16:9 widescreen or letterbox by the station.

Correcting it would involve the stations having a clue or caring, which they obviously don't. The only thing that will get it corrected is if the companies paying for the ads complain about the squishovision, reminiscent of dropout-plagued and seldom watched AETN.

But hey, it's only commercials. Except on AETN, where the whole friggin' program is sometimes shown that way.

All I know is, that rubber chicken on the Arkansas Gold & Silver (or whatever it is) commercial has got to go. I don't know the exact name since I switch away as soon as I hear the stupid chicken.

yea baby! Cluck cluck.

All I know is, that rubber chicken on the Arkansas Gold & Silver (or whatever it is) commercial has got to go. I don't know the exact name since I switch away as soon as I hear the stupid chicken.
Call them up and complain then. :)

I hate that commercial...annoying

All I know is, that rubber chicken on the Arkansas Gold & Silver (or whatever it is) commercial has got to go. I don't know the exact name since I switch away as soon as I hear the stupid chicken.

All I know is, that rubber chicken on the Arkansas Gold & Silver (or whatever it is) commercial has got to go. I don't know the exact name since I switch away as soon as I hear the stupid chicken.

I agree its stoopid. However, that ad campaign wasn't dreamed up in Little Rock. A retailer/buyer in Buffalo NY uses that same campaign. DXer Garth in Canada found an ad with the same pitchman/rubber chicken airing on Buffalo's WGRZ (http://tvgarth.blogspot.com/2010/01/tv-garth-year-in-review-part-3.html) (look down for item #12 "Airport Plaza Jewelry").

That said, there are many ads on the Lil' Rock airwaves that are insipid.

Agreed, many/most are insipid. The volume is usually cranked up to twice the normal level on most commercials, and then here comes the chicken yelling on top of that.

Per 10pm THV newscast....Google wants to use arkansas as a test site for 1GB per second internet speed. They are taking offers from Arkansas cities as volunteers for the service.

AETN has changed something. Sometimes AETN 2 allows you to change picture format. But the bad part is sometimes this causes you to not be able to change the picture format for AETN 1. And sometimes you can change both AETN 1 and AETN 2. I keep them in widescreen mode to preserve aspect ratio!

I got a new sat receiver for Nascar and a side benefit is I can now get the Louisiana PBS netwok. Bye AETN.

I got a new sat receiver for Nascar and a side benefit is I can now get the Louisiana PBS netwok. Bye AETN.
Welcome to the world of DVB-S2/8PSK. That seems to be where a lot of stuff (new uplinks and backhauls) is heading.

Did you get the Vantage, AZBox or what? Are you using it on your 6 footer or 10 footer? A lot of C-band DVB-S2/8PSK stuff out there seems to want something bigger than a 6 footer, especially those transmissions with high FEC (9/10).

There's been some BISS encrypting going on with NASCAR as you probably already know. I hope we don't lose it this year but it looks like we might. I think they have even messed around with the International feed a bit.

dmatch

Azbox Elite. Using all 4 dishes. The 6'er is just big enough to get NBC on KU. The 4'er is going good with AMC21. Using the 10' for AMC16 (its the only one it can see through the trees). Im going to move the 10' to the back yard where the 6' is now, come spring, when I can dig a hole, and mount a new pipe. Its all gonna depend on what I can lock with Nascar feeds.

AETN has changed something. Sometimes AETN 2 allows you to change picture format. But the bad part is sometimes this causes you to not be able to change the picture format for AETN 1. And sometimes you can change both AETN 1 and AETN 2. I keep them in widescreen mode to preserve aspect ratio!Yes, something did change on KETS-DT2. They are flagging the 704x480i stuff as having a 16:9 format. Unfortunately, if your TV obeys that flag most, if not all, of the stuff they show will now be stretch-o-vision. Gosh, I hate that.

dmatch

Azbox Elite. Using all 4 dishes. The 6'er is just big enough to get NBC on KU. The 4'er is going good with AMC21. Using the 10' for AMC16 (its the only one it can see through the trees). Im going to move the 10' to the back yard where the 6' is now, come spring, when I can dig a hole, and mount a new pipe. Its all gonna depend on what I can lock with Nascar feeds.Was NOT a good day for NASCAR backhaul viewers.:(

At least now you have even more choices for PBS (LPB, OETA) and can stay away from the KETS stretch-o-vision.

dmatch

Yea, NBC HD East,Central, Mountain, West, Universal HD on the 10'er now, and the way they do the audio, I dont have to be bothered with noisy commercials :) Looks like they made sure to watch the unscrambled Nascar feed you will need a 12 to 16' dish now. What a shame. I still have DirecTv for those kind of shennanigans tho. Maybe Hotpass will be in the clear tomorrow. I mainly upgraded because my Pansat had such poor sensitivity, even a raindrop would cause PBSHD to break up.

Im debating if I want to move the 10' into the back yard or not. Not really missing out on anything except those weak AMC3 feeds, and from the reports I heard today, only a couple 10' users could get a lock. I had it on G16, but I get all those channels fine on the 6', so I moved the 10' over to 105 to get the Olympics, since I couldnt lock NBC at all with the smaller dish.

Yes, something did change on KETS-DT2. They are flagging the 704x480i stuff as having a 16:9 format. Unfortunately, if your TV obeys that flag most, if not all, of the stuff they show will now be stretch-o-vision. Gosh, I hate that.AETN is so FUBAR.

Now, even more.

Already a benefit. Oklahoma PBS HD showing the movie 9 to 5... Im loving this.

Oh no.... More Ice dancing...

Since no one else is talking, Ill go off topic for a moment, and comment on this:
http://tvdxseark.blogspot.com/2010/02/viewer-and-critic-backlash-against-nbc.html

Im really disappointed with NBCs coverage of the olympics. It has turned into one giant fluff piece, with a little bit of real sports thrown in (Apolo Ono, Shaun White come to mind).

I actually enjoyed Mondays Cobert Report (watch it on HULU.com if you dont get Comedy Central). He interviewed the Canadian parliament member from Vancouver in a sarcastic Bob Costas imitation, and then had a REAL interview with Shaun White in Letterman style. It was almost better than actually watching White win the gold on his first of the "best of two" format runs, and then follow up an already gold medal performance with a new move he has been practicing for two years to perfect, and not even needing it to win.

I moved my dish to the "NBC sat" in hopes of getting the USA vs Canada hockey game in HD, but to no avail. Ended up finding out after the event, it was available on Canada's satellite in HD. Shame on NBC for showing fluff, pawning it off as sports, and sidelining the real sports to a news channel not even available in high def on the nations biggest satellite provider, or missing completely from smaller cable systems.

At least I could watch the ski jumping on the west coast feed after I fell asleep trying to watch Ice Dancing (who picks those outfits anyway?).

I just hope NBC goes broke, or gets bought out by Comcast before the next Olympics.

Back to topic: Aint no DX going on, snow is a comin again, and my dishes act like giant snow bowls. I actually spent more time shoveling the dishes than the sidewalk last week....

.... snip ....
I just hope NBC goes broke, or gets bought out by Comcast before the next Olympics.
...snip...
Looks like a done deal to me unless there is some sort of FCC or other government involvement that would stop it. Anyway, it probably couldn't get much worse even though Comcast IS a cable giant and I can't see them wanting to improve OTA broadcasting. Perhaps, converting it to a cable network would fit their style though.

I have watched virtually all the Olympics on Canadian TV via BUD satellite. A lot of it in HD on Anik F2/E2 and some SD on Anik F1. However, what little I have watched on NBC-KARK-DT sure seems to have a lot of that fluff you are talking about. The Canadians do it too but they also seem to find a lot more time for actual sports events.

Another shocking thing was I thought I could actually watch some daytime Olympics on NBC, so I tuned into KARK-DT one day only to find JUDGE JUDY. So I went back to the ol'e satellite dish to watch some live Olympic sports. All those hours and hours of Olympics are available to NBC and they show JUDGE JUDY. Come on.

dmatch

2pm CST via KARK (nbc) or Canadian CTV, etc 'BUD' feed.

Aw, now why does it have to be about Hockey? You too good for Curling? :)

You know what sucks, having your son kick your USB dongle for the wireless keyboard and mouse on your Media Center computer. I would have fixed it, but it appears that he ripped the solder pads off the PCB, so I don't know how to do it without getting into some alternate wiring to join the pins with the traces. Those are too small to do. It's hell finding a replacement dongle, I tell ya! :)

Anyway, back on topic, I know. LOL

The #Cardinals TV schedule is here: http://foxsportsmidwest.com/pages/landing?Cardinals-announce-2010-schedule=1&blockID=185839&feedID=3708. 130 games on FSMW. 20 on KSDK. 10 on network TV. 7 from spring training. #stlcards

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Proposes OTA Spectrum Auction (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/450763-FCC_Proposing_TV_Spectrum_Auction.php)

That could really screw up DXing, but doesnt sound like it would affect current OTA reception of normal local stations.

That could really screw up DXing, but doesnt sound like it would affect current OTA reception of normal local stations.

As is usually the case, the devil is always in the details. Although some of Chairman Genachowski's proposals are well thought out on some issues (such as net neutrality), I'm not sure I buy into his proposal to auction off more frequency spectrum without knowing more. There are many of the fringe broadcasters (TBN, Daystar, Ion, Jewerly TV) that don't serve the public interest and their passing from the broadcast airwaves won't be a major loss in viewers or influence. Where things get sticky is that the Nexstars/Newport Television/Sinclairs that own NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox affiliates will seriously consider taking the money and running. There is much low-hanging fruit out there that these overextended broadcast conglomerates would rather cash out.

There is a wild-card factor in this mix--I'm also of the view that there won't be 5 major English-language broadcast networks in the US in 5-10 years. NBC and The CW are struggling--much of which is self-inflicted, especially by NBC. Those two networks could fold or convert to cable/sat only channels.

Surely the sale of say, Fox16, would generate much more revenue than they would make by folding it up. I can see KTWN, or whatever the hell that station is typing up channel 9 and 28 analog folding it up and cashing it, but from that article, they were only going to offer the cash in option to stations in markets where they need the bandwidth, which shouldnt affect anyone save the midwest (southern Lake michegan region), East coast, and Cali. The rest of the markets have plenty of open channels the government could use. What I would hate to see, is the govt using ALL the available unused spectrum, rendering the possibility of new stations impossible.

KTWN is on channel 18 (virtual and physical). KZJG is on 9, KJLR is on 28 according to FCC.

Edit: Sorry. Removed a rant about the state of government which probably shouldn't be here, and wouldn't make any difference anyway.

dmatch

Wow, we sure have gotten boring. :)

I resemble that.:rolleyes:

dmatch

Just wondering something. I have been watching NBC for the past couple of days during some olympics crap that was on. Every now and then the feed would get really pixelated in spots, but tonight it was REALLY bad. There were moments it would be like 40% of the screen that was pixelated and cause the audio to drop out enough that my receiver had trouble getting it back. I had to change channels a couple of times or sometimes it would come back by my rewinding the DVR a little bit. Did anyone else notice this? It wasn't just in the feed of the sports, but in the commercials and everything else that looked to come from NBC directly. I guess it could have been KARK though. Just was curious.


Also, I think I figured out the whole blaring audio issue. It occurred to me the other day that 99.9999% of the time that I notice the audio increase dramatically during the commercials was when the audio source went from 5.1 to 2.1. The audio is at exactly the same limit I think, its just our perception, plus the way the audio is processed by the systems that make them sound louder. I think its all just being pushed thru 3 less speakers, so it sounds louder. I think if we were to force our systems to put everything out through all 5.1 channels all the time, the levels would seem to be about the same. Just my thought on it. Let me know what you think.

OTA or a pay provider? I'm yet to see pixalation during the Olympics. I get mine OTA instead of via some provider (I'm just too dang cheap to pay for TV). If the antenna in the attic can't catch it we don't watch it.

I've been seeing quite a bit of pixelating on HD locals off Directv. Anyone else notice this? Guess it could be my receiver since the signal strenght off 99.15 is 95+

I've been seeing quite a bit of pixelating on HD locals off Directv. Anyone else notice this? Guess it could be my receiver since the signal strenght off 99.15 is 95+

I've noticed it since Sunday night. I have two receivers (HR20 & HR21) and the problem is on each. Does anyone know what satellite and transponder the LR HD locals are on?

Thanks,
fly

99s Two strongest ones. Think one is 24. Have to wait to get home to check. Was really bad on PBS last night.

I happen to record the Law and Order two hour episodes Monday on both my HR21 and my OTA TiVo and the TiVo recorded the shows with almost no pixelation and the DirecTv DVRs were really badly pixelated.

Wondering if we might be in a period of fairly high solar activity that could be causing it???? Trip would know I bet.

No, we are at the low end of the solar cycle. It is, however, the time of year the sun passes directly down the clarke belt, but that would only affect signals for about 10 minutes per satellite, and in the afternoon.

... Does anyone know what satellite and transponder the LR HD locals are on?

Thanks,
fly

The source I looked up had the LIT HD locals on 99s T15

Directv didn't have any problems logged so I guess I was the only one complaining to them as of Wednesday. I would guess the problem is at the CH16 upload site. Wobbly antenna-bad cable-bad encoder. Unfortunately nobody ever check this stuff until they get a bunch of complaints.

Guess you didn't notice it when I was bitching about the pixelation and sound issues I noticed during the Olympics on NBC. I have seen it a couple of other times on KATV and maybe the one time I was watching KTHV live, but thats about all I have watched recently that is local.

I really think its a DirecTV issue.

DirecTv HD Locals listing:

CALL SAT TR
KETS 99s 15
KARK 99s 15
KARZ 99s 23
KASN 99s 23
KATV 99s 15
KLRT 99s 15
KTHV 99s 15

Is anyone still having pixelation and sound issues with the locals on Directv? I started having intermittent pixelation and audio dropouts early in the week, so I called Directv today. They claim that they haven't received any complaints from the area. They also couldn't tell me which transponder the locals are on, but were more than happy to schedule someone to come out and look at my dish for $50.

After finding the satellite and transponder info here, I looked at my signal strength and it was 94 for 99s T15 and 96 for 99s T23.

I dont watch PBS on DirecTv, since AETN doesnt know how to run a tv station. I will check for you though, and post tomorrow if Im having any problems with it. I just installed a PCI HD satellite tuner in my SageTv server to record PBS directly to my hard drive, so I wouldnt have to deal with AETN anymore :)

Oh of COURSE they will be willing to do a truck roll to have someone look at your dish because it just HAS to be your dish and not the service. Fraking jerks!! There isn't a single person we can talk to at the call centers that can do anything to help with the pixelations on ALL the local channels. We can only hope that someone like Allen will call them up and work with them to figure out the problems.

re the below quote: I had called them middle of last week. I note this Sun AM that there are lots of hits on the locals. Rather than spend a lot of energy calling them names, post back their trouble ticket reference number and Rep ID to this forum after you call them.

I've got a new receiver on the way since I've also discovered a bad tuner, so when I get it I can show the new equipment as having the same problem. I know it is there since my H21 also has hits.

After we get a few references I've got time to attempt to get some higher level to look at this issue. The only way to overcome these bureaucratic roadblocks is with facts.

One advantage I have over most people is I'm out of contract with them. I can just switch.

Is anyone still having pixelation and sound issues with the locals on Directv? I started having intermittent pixelation and audio dropouts early in the week, so I called Directv today. They claim that they haven't received any complaints from the area.

I cant believe I am spending 30 minutes with this computer for dummies merry go round...just to talk to a live person.

CSR: Autumn
Ticket: They dont have ticket numbers
Resolution: Trouble report sent to broadcast center.

I cant believe I am spending 30 minutes with this computer for dummies merry go round...just to talk to a live person.

CSR: Autumn
Ticket: They dont have ticket numbers
Resolution: Trouble report sent to broadcast center.
There ya go, Dave. THAT is the reason I don't bother calling them. It does absolutely NO good. I have been with them for way too long so I know what will happen when I call. It is far easier to get the local engineers from the TV stations to call them up. I find it hard to believe that no one from local stations has DirecTV and watches their own channels. I mean, wouldn't they of all people have noticed it by now and tried to do something about it?

Well, considering we are talking about, mainly, KETS here, and their broadcast engineers cant even set the aspect ratio correctly, Im not holding my breath they would watch their signal off satellite. I also wouldnt even attempt to call their engineering department, since I would probably move off the main topic and start spouting off about all the terrible decisions they are making, and get blacklisted.

I really havent noticed it on the other channels, and it appears, from the looks of it, to be noise blurps on the VHF signal at the receive site. It doesnt act like a typical encoder problem.

I dont expect much to be done either, but was just making the report to assist the other people above. I have four PBSHD feeds I watch, Louisiana PBS, Oklahoma PBS, and National PBS East and West. I never watch it on DirecTv, except for one Nova episode I missed, and had to record it off AETN on their one hour later delay, and thats when I noticed it, and then read about it here. Ive since deleted that recording, and replaced it with a real 1080i copy from PBS National (they replayed it last night at midnight while all the other PBS stations are running their begathons).

Well, considering we are talking about, mainly, KETS here, and their broadcast engineers cant even set the aspect ratio correctly, Im not holding my breath they would watch their signal off satellite. I also wouldnt even attempt to call their engineering department, since I would probably move off the main topic and start spouting off about all the terrible decisions they are making, and get blacklisted.

I really havent noticed it on the other channels, and it appears, from the looks of it, to be noise blurps on the VHF signal at the receive site. It doesnt act like a typical encoder problem.

I dont expect much to be done either, but was just making the report to assist the other people above. I have four PBSHD feeds I watch, Louisiana PBS, Oklahoma PBS, and National PBS East and West. I never watch it on DirecTv, except for one Nova episode I missed, and had to record it off AETN on their one hour later delay, and thats when I noticed it, and then read about it here. Ive since deleted that recording, and replaced it with a real 1080i copy from PBS National (they replayed it last night at midnight while all the other PBS stations are running their begathons).
Actually, no, we aren't talking about KETS mainly. It is one channel that gets turned on 3 times a month maybe. I am talking about the big 3 mainly. What I am talking about is more than noise blurps. I am talking about in some cases the lower 3rd of the image getting pixelated and unwatchable like it is just going away or something, not normal just pixel stuff. I mean it is bad. It only lasts a few seconds when it does happen, but it is annoying. I haven't watched a lot of local TV since the Olympics when it was the worst, so I am not sure how bad it is now. I have been watching a lot of old stuff off my computer that we missed cause the DVR deleted them.

I just don't understand how you can watch so much PBS. :) There just isn't enough on it to keep me interested for too long. I mean, some of the stuff is interesting, but not just gotta watch it. :) You spend as much time with PBS as I do on like everything else I watch combined. LOL Whatever floats your boat though.

I spend more time on SpeedHD than I do on PBS. Al Jazeera is my main news source, along with CNN (when they actually have news, and not Larry King). The rest of my time is spent watching Sports feeds. Gotta remember, I work 5-6 days a week, 8 to 10 hrs a day, so I dont have an awful lot of time to spend watching TV, so it just sounds like I watch a lot of PBS. I actually only watch about 7 hrs a week of it. Newshour each day, Nova on Tuesdays, and Nature on Sundays. Occasionally Ill watch Independent Lens. Just depends whats on.

Is anyone still having pixelation and sound issues with the locals on Directv? I started having intermittent pixelation and audio dropouts early in the week, so I called Directv today. They claim that they haven't received any complaints from the area. They also couldn't tell me which transponder the locals are on, but were more than happy to schedule someone to come out and look at my dish for $50.

After finding the satellite and transponder info here, I looked at my signal strength and it was 94 for 99s T15 and 96 for 99s T23.

I'm still having pixelation today as I have since last Sunday.

fly

re the below quote: I had called them middle of last week. I note this Sun AM that there are lots of hits on the locals. Rather than spend a lot of energy calling them names, post back their trouble ticket reference number and Rep ID to this forum after you call them.

I've got a new receiver on the way since I've also discovered a bad tuner, so when I get it I can show the new equipment as having the same problem. I know it is there since my H21 also has hits.

After we get a few references I've got time to attempt to get some higher level to look at this issue. The only way to overcome these bureaucratic roadblocks is with facts.

One advantage I have over most people is I'm out of contract with them. I can just switch.

Called Directv back today to cancel the service tech that was supposed to come look at my dish on Friday. Didn't want to be out any money if this is not a problem with my equipment.

Talked to Angie at Directv and explained to her that there are several people having the same issues. She said she would escalate the ticket, but didn't have a ticket #.

I was over at Old Chicago pizza today and had them switch to the race. They use directv and ch16 had hits on it over there just like we all are reporting. If you call Directv, continue to post back the details and I'll use your notes when I call them tomorrow. Wheels don't work weekends.

Yea, I actually had a decent CSR who recognized that since my 99s/15 strength was 94, and It didnt affect any of the satellite channels, that it wasnt my system, and didnt have me endlessly run through reboots and menus.

Those bottom 1/3rd green lines you are seeing on KATV is on the OTA broadcast also. I just switched from ABC HD watching the Oscars to KATV for the news, and started seeing those green lines popping up. So thats not going to be DIrecTvs fault.

Well, the time I was seeing them the worst was on NBC during the Olympics.

Like I said, I haven't bothered to watch local TV in about a week now, so I am not sure how the others are doing. I started seeing that crap and experiencing my A/V receiver having to switch audio modes (and not coming back with audio sometimes) and said the heck with it.

I wrote DirecTV today. They tried to send someone out after they said they haven't had any other complaints.

Just wondering, any response to the letter or email that you wrote to DirecTV? I am interested if they even cared enough to respond. :) I wish big companies such as this would go ahead and go back to being good to their customers and keeping their best interest in mind instead of being focused on the bottom line. Oh well, capitalism at its best.

Spring is here...and the tornados blew in some kick butt tropo.... SEVERAL new logs and lots of old ones... Current DX coming in:
KALB,KTAL,KNOE,KETZ,KPXJ,WMAO,KLAX,KMCT,KBCA,KKYK (ch 49-1),KAQY 11,WXVT,LPBHD phys 13 and 23),WNTZ,KLWB,KATC,KADN,KBTV...All coming in at this time... Good thing I woke up and couldnt sleep tonight.

Just wondering, any response to the letter or email that you wrote to DirecTV? I am interested if they even cared enough to respond. :) I wish big companies such as this would go ahead and go back to being good to their customers and keeping their best interest in mind instead of being focused on the bottom line. Oh well, capitalism at its best.

They did respond to the e-mail with about the same response that everyone else got on the phone. They wanted to send out someone to look at the dish. In the past I have found that DirecTV is very responsive to e-mail questions. Sometimes I will get a free trial of a premium without even asking or hinting for it.

fly

Spring is here...and the tornados blew in some kick butt tropo.... SEVERAL new logs and lots of old ones... Current DX coming in:
KALB,KTAL,KNOE,KETZ,KPXJ,WMAO,KLAX,KMCT,KBCA,KKYK (ch 49-1),KAQY 11,WXVT,LPBHD phys 13 and 23),WNTZ,KLWB,KATC,KADN,KBTV...All coming in at this time... Good thing I woke up and couldnt sleep tonight.

With those logs, you just needed some crawfish and beer and that would have been almost like being there ;)

I unplugged the gear last night and only had 20-30 minutes this morning to DX this morning.--- I thought I was hearing KDAQ 89.9 Shreveport on the portable radio, but it turned out to be WMAB 89.9 Starkville/State University MS Needless to say, the antenna got hooked up quickly and had some good relogs but not what you pulled in. I didn't wake up until after sunrise and had to be at work this morning.

I've yet to lock KAQY, or KKYK 49. I've only logged KATC and KBTV back in the analog days.

You know, I did remarkably well. I only lost satellite maybe for a total of 5 minutes during all that. I remember it was during Snow White and I had to resort to my back up Comcast connection for Ryan to watch more of it.

Anyone in Central Ark. DMA logged KAFT 9 (13-n) lately? Around the first of March, they doubled their transmitter power at Winslow from ~19kW ERP to ~38kW.

FWIW, here in Carroll County, I have noticed no increase in their signal strength since the power bump.

I wonder, who will carry the KSDK Cardinals games for us this year? It was 49 in the past, right? And when the digital switch happened, didn't that get rid of that channel for most of us here in Little Rock? Especially for HD Cards games? Help me refresh my memory please. I wanna send them an email asking about it.

Its on 20-1 now Steve. Dont know if they resigned for the games tho. Same players as Equity, different name. SOSDD.

arxaw: Ive never logged ANY stations from West or NWA. The ONLY station ive ever logged from that direction is KSPR in Springfield, Mo. Stupid AETN. Thats only a 3db increase, so I wouldnt expect it would make much of a difference anyway.

Ok, I thought so. I sent them an email telling them how that is now an LP station and how no one in Little Rock can get it OTA and I seriously doubt their ability to carry the games even on cable or satellite, much less in HD. I told them of my desires for them to be carried on a bigger channel that is actually full power and can do HD. Hopefully they will respond with what their plans are for this season. Chances are, we will miss the game Saturday that they are carrying.