What are they testing? This is more irritating than WAKA.

No HD here as well on two turners. I;ll check leno later.

I'm finally getting WSFA... the radar on 12-3 studders or twitches a lot though... not sure how to describe it but it's doing something weird.

12-1 looks good but no HD at this time. I don't know if we'll see HD until the Olympics.

12-2 looks grainy.

I just got an e-mail from Hoyt Andres. He said he thought they were passing on the HD signal and he would check with the engineering department. Like I said, maybe somebody just didn't throw the switch.
Just hope they get things together for the olympics.

No HD for Leno.

Nnamd,
I played w/ my antenna yesterday afternoon and got FOX's signal to come in pretty steady, this morning it was back at very low signal strength. I don't know if they are dropping power at night and cranking back up in the morning but I got a good signal. I'm going to play w/ it some more at lunch today and see if I can get it to receive a better signal by adjusting the antenna a slight bit more. I did watch it last night w/o any drop out problems.

I think something is wrong with my toshiba set top box tho. I did check my antenna all the way up to the end. I unpluged it hoping that something might reset but It only gets up to 6% if anything at all. And on my other receiver i'm getting a good signal. They both are on the same cable. Either a storm has messed it up or Dish upgraged something and it messed up channel 16. I'll try looking at the menus and see if I can set back to factory defaults or something.

WSFA was looking good till the picture froze....back to 480p for the time being.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
WSFA was looking good till the picture froze....back to 480p for the time being.

Just hope they get everything worked out before the Olympics. There is a segment coming up shortly on the WSFA news about HDTV and WSFA. Looks like that are starting to promote HD now. Of course, it would help, if they could transmit more than 15 minutes or so of HD.

I noticed on that short segment they passed. one part had alot of pixalation as i feared. Does the Bhm station split there signal into three channels?

Unless they plan on broadcasting something different on 12-2, I don't see the point in having a duplicate program running at a lower resolution taking up bandwidth. For the Olympics yes, regular program its a waste. The radar doesn't bother me as it probably doesn't take up much space. Anyways they've got the Tonight Show back on in HD it looks alright.

Originally posted by Nnamd
I noticed on that short segment they passed. one part had alot of pixalation as i feared. Does the Bhm station split there signal into three channels?

No, I only have one channel from the B'ham NBC station (52-1/13-1).
However, after the first few minutes WSFA switched Leno over to HD and it
looks as good as anything I've gotten from B'ham. The radar is cool, but I
don't see the need for an SD digital channel that mirrors the HD channel. Who would watch the SD feed when they could watch the HD feed?

(I've been watching Leno and have noticed a lot of artifacts beginning to show up. Wish they would use the bandwidth from 12-2 (14-2) for the HD channel also and not have to overcompress their signal--if that is what is causing the problems.)

I noticed these artifacts too... I was kindly disappointed but I suppose they do have some work to do to perfect it. At least I hope they can do better especially when it comes to the olympics. Of course it looks much better than what we get on the analog side.

My wife likes the idea of the radar on 12-3 but it still jitters/twitches a little.

I noticed at the beginning of The Leno Show that they had a small square banner that read TV 14 flash up for a few seconds.

I remember when the HD signal for the B'ham NBC station was getting on the air--it was a good while before they worked out all of the bugs and had a consistently stable signal--even had periods when they were totally off the air for several days. Hopefully, since it took WSFA so long to finally get on the air, they have already worked out must of the bugs and what we are seeing are only some minor problems that will be quickly resolved
(like I said, I hope it is not a problem of overcompression--the NBC and CBS stations from B'ham do not have any sub-channels--at least none mapped on my receiver.)

P.S. 12-3 (radar) is perfectly stable for me.

I haven't been able to see the digital channels yet as my voom receiver hasn't mapped WSFA yet.

One thing I noticed is that on Friday, on analog, WSFA was plugging it as their digital channel, not their high def channel. We sure that they're actually using the bandwidth to transmit HD and not chopping it up for 3 digital SD channels??

They are passing thru HD on 12-1, I didn't watch the whole Tonight Show so I didn't see any artifacts on my screen but the picture so far has looked pretty good. I think the Law and Order or whatever that comes on tonight is HD so I'm going to watch it to see if I have any issues w/ my picture. As a side note, I don't know what ya'll prefer, but I would like to see them stretch the picture on non HD programming to get rid of those side bars. That's just me though.

It's 1080i, but I am afraid that we may be seeing artifacts related to compression (is OTA compressed?). There is a tennis match on WSFA right now and, even though it is SD, there is quite a bit of pixelation. On the other hand, PBS has 3 channels, but I haven't noticed any problems on the HD channel. Looks very good. Maybe, the problems with WSFA's signal are just problems associated with the beginning of broadcasting and they can work them out.

Well... whether we see artifacts, pixelation, or whatever... we all should e-mail Hoyt and complain. The more complaints they receive the better chance we have of getting them to do something. I don't think they believe there's that many people that are concerned with whether they have DTV/HD. Which by percentages there probably isn't but I can't see where it would hurt to voice our opinions and complaints anyway.

I wouldn't mind stretching either as long as they can do it right. Keep the center unstretched (or slightly zoom the center with overscan on the top and bottom slightly to help) and just stretch the edges a little. My Hughes HTL-HD does a good job of stretching... even better than my Toshiba which I always thought did a pretty good job.

I would prefer them do like ABC does. Streatch regular broadcast until they pass HD. Now when the image is focused on one item the picture looks great. I do notice the pixalation on PBS and it's real bad. and I have 100% on PBS. I also think the radar is a good idea but 12-2 is a very bad idea. There is no need what so ever for 12-2. I hope they drop it.
Local channels have to get the idea in their heads that they are one of the few ways people can get full uncompressed broadcast and use that as a selling point. I wish at least when they pass HD content the will drop 12-2

I watched leno on two receivers and you can tell when the camera moves or alot of action on screen the picture looks like it is just not getting enough information. I know it's 1080i but there is a diffrence you can tell when your receiver just dont have enough information to process. I see it on PBS to.

Why can't WSFA do like WNCF and have just one channel for its digital transmission (WNCF may have plans for multicasting but I haven't heard them). The picture is excellent on WNCF. WSFA has one of the largest, if not the largest coverage area in AL (from North of Montgomery to north Florida). They said one of the reasons it took so long to get on the air is that they wanted to start up full power and do things right. They've just begun broadcasting so maybe things will improve. If nothing else, at least we have another HD signal. Maybe I expected too much. I realize that the bottom line is the final arbiter in station choices (especially when they choices are made in corporate offices away from the local area).

Watched the first few minutes of Law and Order. The HD signal is coming through but it is almost unwatchable with bad pixelation and audio drop outs. I'm going to send an e-mail to Hoyt Andres.

I'm not having any problems so far...knock on wood.

I just turned back to WSFA and I don't have the pixelation and audio drop outs now. I sent another e-mail to Hoyt Andres letting him know this.

I wrote too soon. Now that the news is on the pixelation and audio drop outs are back. I wonder if they increased the bandwidth for the HD broadcast at the expense of 12-2 and have reduced it now that they only have to broadcast SD?

Originally posted by Tigerman73
. As a side note, I don't know what ya'll prefer, but I would like to see them stretch the picture on non HD programming to get rid of those side bars. That's just me though.


Oh heavens no. :rolleyes:

Don't suggest they stretch anything or we'll wind up with junk like on TNT-HD. A disproportional stretch. Pans make you sea sick. yuk.

Most HD sets have stretch modes of their own. Use one of those.

On a side note to the side note: :D

Anyone notice the color quality of the HD signal?? Saturation levels, color matrix, etc.

I just e-mailed Hoyt myself. I suggested eliminating 12-2.

There's a new limited series tomorrow night that starts "The Grid". Wonder if it will be HD?

I don't know about color that much... it looks okay to me but my eyes are not spot on for color. If they ever broadcast a football game in HD then that seems to be when the colors really shine.

Ehhh.... uhh... scratch that show on NBC. The commercial for "The Grid" said right after "Law & Order" on Monday night so my mind was on NBC but the commercial was on TNT and so is the show.

I just got an e-mail back from Hoyt. I had mentioned pixelation and also suggested using the bandwidth from 12-2 for the HD channel. He said that
was over his technical knowledge and he would forward it on to the engineering guys. But, Jim, the picture looks fine with good color and, except for the pixelation, seems as good as the B'ham picture. Right now, I am still using my indoor antenna for WSFA and, when I adjusted it a little, the pixelation seemed to go away.

On reguilar broacast do like they are doing on 12-2 but when HD use both channels for bandw. Like WNCF is doing now. 12-3 is ok

Maybe the problems I'm seeing with my picture are because I'm only 16 miles from the tower and have too strong of a signal. I might need to make use of my remote controlled rotor for once.

Or maybe we all should pick up one of those Algolith Mosquito's for $4995.

Well I guess they passed the storm test, I had no major problems, only minor pixelation when the lightening was the worst. Other than that I have had a great picture w/o any problems.

I got my HD Tivo today. I was a little worried about OTA as I had heard mixed reports on the OTA tuner. At set up it mapped all the digital channels in this area except WSFA (I assume since they are just on the air they are not in the DirectTv or whomevers data base). A scan put WSFA in the guide. At first I just had my indoor antenna hooked up. I got nada.
I then connnected my outdoor antenna (still aimed at B'ham) and I got strong signals from WSFA and WAIQ. I got a fairly good signal from WCOV
(my Samsung never pulled in Fox) and a so-so signal from WNCF. Once I reposition my antenna I should have no problems with the Montgomery area signals. The only B'ham station I still care about is CBS but I think I'll probably go ahead and reorient my antenna. I haven't had much luck lately with B'ham. Maybe WAKA will feel some pressure now that WNCF and WSFA are on the air. I wish, but, I seriously doubt it.

Voom added channel scanning feature to their receivers. Now I get 12 like gangbusters. Lookout Olympics.

WAIQ use to be very borderline. If anything, it would lock on just enough to impress you with the picture and then breakup or freeze.

This morning, I added another 5' section to the antenna mast. Using a channelmaster 4228 with an amplifier. This was scary as I'm already pretty high and trying to manouver an antenna on a 10' mast was a little crazy. Anyway, now my signal number for WAIQ is something like 93. Picture doesn't freeze, but I am getting frequent pixelzation on part of the screen and audio dropouts. Viewing the antenna strength meter, the signal is well into the green area and only fluctuates slightly(well within the green). Although its improved substantially, is this as good as its likely to be until they get their big antenna back and are up to full power?

As a side note. This past week I was emailing someone over at WAIQ and learned that the big antenna that got toasted last March, probably won't be back until September or October.

Ah... Voom finally sent out the software upgrade. Cool. I'm glad because they were sure a lot of people screaming about it.

Jim... that 4228... it's the bowtie antenna right? Will it pick up the higher range of VHF like 8 and 12 analog?

Sonnie,

Yeah, I think its called a double bowtie. I was just checking the map from antenna web. It appears that I've got it aimed directly at channel 12 and 20, which makes it about 40 degrees away from PBS. Maybe I should try splitting the difference and rotate 20 degrees. Even without the rotation, the extra 5 ft definately helped. Sure hate to drag that ladder out again. aarrrggg. How's your PBS (WAIQ)reception?

Originally posted by JimP
Voom added channel scanning feature to their receivers. Now I get 12 like gangbusters. Lookout Olympics.

WAIQ use to be very borderline. If anything, it would lock on just enough to impress you with the picture and then breakup or freeze.

This morning, I added another 5' section to the antenna mast. Using a channelmaster 4228 with an amplifier. This was scary as I'm already pretty high and trying to manouver an antenna on a 10' mast was a little crazy. Anyway, now my signal number for WAIQ is something like 93. Picture doesn't freeze, but I am getting frequent pixelzation on part of the screen and audio dropouts. Viewing the antenna strength meter, the signal is well into the green area and only fluctuates slightly(well within the green). Although its improved substantially, is this as good as its likely to be until they get their big antenna back and are up to full power?

As a side note. This past week I was emailing someone over at WAIQ and learned that the big antenna that got toasted last March, probably won't be back until September or October.

I get 100% on PBS and still get the drop outs and pixelzation. I think part of it is due to spliting the signal into two channels. I guess we gonna have to live with it tho. Networks see that extra channel as extra ad revenue. I see them using that extra channel for PAID AD programs. Well not PBS but the big networks. I have nothing against that if they would shut it down when HD content is being passed.

I don't get anything but 12 right now. No PBS, no ABC, and no FOX.


Jim... does your 4228 pick up the higher range of VHF like 8 and 12 analog?

Sonnie,

Yes, I get all 4 channels. PBS pixalates a little, but I think its more to do with the transmitter than anything else. Namb confirmed this.

I also have an amp on the 4228. Not sure that I still need it, but short of a caffene overdose, I'm not getting back on that ladder. lol

If I recall correctly, these other channels are to the right (west?) of WSFA. If your antenna is to the left(east?) you might be missing them. It seems that 20 and 12 are at the same location, but not sure.

20's signal is coming from their tower at their building in Montgomery, WSFA's tower is out in the middle of nowhere south of Montgomery, I have a VHF/UHF/FM directional antenna in my attic and am able to pick up all the digital and HDTV channels with the antenna pointing towards the SSE. I am located in Millbrook for reference.

Yeah... 20 is in Montgomery and they are not sure if they are going to install their digital antenna on the WSFA tower or not. Supposedly it's still "up in air" as to what they are going to do.

20 with it's weak signal is gonna be too far for me to recieve with the antenna I have (45-50 miles the way the crow flies) as well as 32.

I might get PBS if I rotate my antenna away from 12's tower a little but to tell ya the truth I don't watch too much PBS other that a few of their concerts all along.


Jim... I was thinkin' about getting either the 4228 or 4248 UHF only antenna but I wanted to make sure I can still pick up those 2 VHF channels of WAKA 8 and WSFA 12 that are analog.

Is channel 8 analog pretty clear with your 4228?

Here is a link to the debate of not passing the full uncompressed signal. Most is over my head. But it does affect pic quality.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=425446&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

Sonnie,

You had me scratching my head about channel 8. You were asking about analog 8. I was thinking digital channel 8, which isn't even broadcasting yet. lol
Don't know about analog 8 as I haven't tried receiving OTA for that. I'll move my antenna lead to the ntsc tuner and see what I get. I guess I could use a splitter and leave it there.

Well I'm not meaning for you to go to any trouble just for me. Probably whoever I purchased the antenna from could probably tell me.

It seems like I read somewhere that most UHF antennas would normally pick up the higher band VHF channels 7-13.

What's worse is I'm getting a headache trying to figure out which one would be better for me the 4248 yagi or the 4228 bowtie.

Sonnie

No problem. Just got finished.

The amplified 4228 gets channel 8 analog just fine. I noticed that there is just a slight ghost picture. However, with it aimed in the direction it is for channel 12 digital, channel 12 analog looks pretty rough. Don't know what's happening there.

The 4228 is considered a directional antenna. Is the 4248 directional?

So when we gonna have a meeting and where? hehe. Maybe all the local channel Engineers could show up. We could have systems setup and pictures of everyone's HD systems. Swap idea's and other things. Get Sony, Sanyo, and other reps. to show up. Get Hooter girls to bring some wings. Runco to setup a projector system. Have seminars to explain the workings of HDTV. Oh guess we will have to rent the Civic Center for this.

Would be nice tho huh?

I'm game, but are you sure the Civic Center is large enough? lol

lol... the Civic Center? We better move it to Legion Field.

You guys put together an evening and I'll see if I can't get my wife to come along. She's kinda shy so it might be just me to start with but I'm definitely game.

Who's furnishing the steaks?


I figure one of your homes would work better since most of you are from that area and I'm in Luverne... unless you all are willing to drive here... I'd love to host a gathering. Keep in mind though that here we can only drink iced tea, coffee, and cokes... however we do have a dedicated smoking area (in our palm room and it has AC).



Jim... yes the 4248 is directional but it may not be quite as strong as the 4228. I'm surprised that analog 12 is a problem since both the analog and digital are on the same tower but it could be the UHF antenna has something to do with it.

Sonnie,

I was surprised too. Channel 8 came in better than 12. Only possibilty is maybe its too strong?

I've got an attinuator at home that I can rig up and see how lowering the gain affect reception of 12 analog. I'll get to it sometime tonight.

Anybody watch the game last night on WNCF?? Looked good. Also noticed this morning WSFA had stopped mapping from 12-1 thru 3 and was coming up on 14-1 thru 3. Also WCOV was off the air this morning.

Thanks for the info Jim... something tells me that an attenuator wouldn't work with digital but what do I know.


Yes... I'm excited about the Olympics. I understand that there will be more air time than ever before.

Did I hear WSFA is broadcasting the Olympics on channel 28? Surely I misheard this.

Thank you channel 12 for @#$!@#$!@#4 our hp signal with your two channel crap. I'm going to birminham to tape this.

IT SUCKS. IT SUCKS. IT SUCKS. You guys need to watch ABC 32 Monday night football and learn!!!!!!!!

What is the E-mail address for 12. I looked on their web site but could'nt find it.

Hoyt Andres handres@wsfa.com

Ok. If thier E-mail server takes E-mail from my little E-mail server, this is what I sent him.

I would like to voice my opion about your HD broadcast. It sucks. There is no need for 14-2. Everyone thinks 14-3 is a good idea and does not mind the little bandwith it uses. But anyone who has a digital tuner can down convert the signal if needed. 14-2 takes away A LOT from 14-1. At least when you pass HD kill 14-2. When I saw monday night football on ABC it blew my mind away. and that is 720P. Even compressed 720p off satalight looks better than what you are passing. I am watching it now and see nothing but blocking and fuzzy and i'm getting 100% signal. I have two receivers and get the same on both. You are robbing us. Your cutting a 4 megpix picture down to 3 so you can pass a 1 megpix picture that no one is even looking at.
I know your plans are to make 12-2 a paid ad channel or something but I think you dont understand something that can make local channels shine above all other channels a consumer can receive. Full uncompressed programing.

Darryl Mann
Holtville, Al

I didn't get home until around 7:30 but what I am seeing so far looks good.

Sure when everything is still the picture looks awsome but when people start moving I can tell my receivers are starving for data.

I agree... what I saw was not a really breathtaking picture like I see with other HD channels. It was fuzzy quite often.

I was disappointed and will e-mail Hoyt as well.

What blockiness?

Initially, at 7:00, what I was getting on 12-1 was a replay of the 2002 winter Olympics from Salt Lake City. Figure skating. It was in HD. 12-2 was SD of the 2004 Olympics from Athens. Oh pah.

Frankly, the picture off of 12-1 was excellant, all though it wasn't what I wanted to watch. It seems that it was around 8:00 when they started to play the 2004 Olympics which I had already seen off of my SD cable signal. I did use twin view on my Sony, so I was watching both. The HD feed off of the OTA portion of my Voom satellite looked very good.

I honestly felt like this was the first example of a local station carving up their bandwidth to send two different feeds and sell double the advertising.

What didn't make any sense to me at 7:00 was all the whoopla about the Olympics being in HD when what they were broadcasting in HD was 2 years old and the Athens Olympics was still in SD.

Had I known that they would also pick up on the Athens Olympics, I'm certain that I wouldn't have spoiled the experience by watching it first in SD.

I didn't see any blockiness, pixelations, etc, even with motion. Almost sounds like we were watching two different feeds. Of course the production itself of the opening ceremonies (for me) went from "wow" to
what were they thinking (Bjork?).

When the camera was showing a broad picture, as in the enitire stadium it looked good, but when they swapped to another camera that zoomed in close I could definitely see a fuzziness to the picture... similar to motion artifacts. The picture was not sharp. It may have been the camera but if some of you were seeing a good picture then I don't know. Seems odd that one shot would look good and another looked fuzzy. I did not see any pixelization.

Switching topics a bit--We'll have to avoid newspapers, tv news (national and local), ESPN, etc. if we want to see the events and not know the outcome before hand. Why can't the media, when they know the events will be shown delayed, wait until we have a chance to see the events before they announce the winners? I know the answer but it is so frustrating to be looking forward to seeing a big event and then hearing the winner announced before hand. In our media saturated world you just almost have to isolate yourself to avoid inadvertently hearing a winner announced. Just a little rant.

I have watched it on my big screen tv and PC monitor. Maybe it's certain cameras but I remember being able to read T-Shirts off people in the stands off monday night football. There is something about it that just does not standout like other live events I have seen. Anyone seen a soccor game on hdnet? Guess I was expecting too much for 1080I

Originally posted by Nnamd
I have watched it on my big screen tv and PC monitor. Maybe it's certain cameras but I remember being able to read T-Shirts off people in the stands off monday night football. There is something about it that just does not standout like other live events I have seen. Anyone seen a soccor game on hdnet? Guess I was expecting too much for 1080I

I was not nearly as excited about the Olympics in HD when I found out the HD feed was on a 24 hour delay. I guess I'll do most of my watching on 12-2. It's hard not to hear the results of the SD delayed feed much less the 24 hour delayed HD feed. Was the 2002 HD feed on a seperate channel that was delayed 24 hours from the SD channel. Doesn't make a lot a sense to me. Why spend all of the money to do HD and then give it second class status along with the HD viewers?

Originally posted by SD4934
I was not nearly as excited about the Olympics in HD when I found out the HD feed was on a 24 hour delay. I guess I'll do most of my watching on 12-2. It's hard not to hear the results of the SD delayed feed much less the 24 hour delayed HD feed. Was the 2002 HD feed on a seperate channel that was delayed 24 hours from the SD channel. Doesn't make a lot a sense to me. Why spend all of the money to do HD and then give it second class status along with the HD viewers?

I'm with you, this seems idiotic.:mad:

The only thing that even comes close to making sense is that the HD feed doesn't have local sponsors so to keep the local affiliates in a positive cash flow, they have to delay it to give the affiliates the edge to sell advertising on the SD feed.

This does present an interesting test to see if people are willing to watch a 24 hr delay in HD when the SD of the content has already been aired.

I didn't see it in the opening ceremony, but watching the synchronized diving on the HD feed (which I saw last night in SD) when there is fast motion there is a period of blockiness in the picture. I don't know if this is WSFA or from NBC. Hopefully, tonight I will get the signal from B'ham and can compare WSFA's signal with WVTM's signal. When I brought Road Runner up, on the home page was the results of today's US/Puerto Rico basketball game. I guess I'm going to have to set my home page to something else until the Olympics are over (and avoid newspapers, TV, etc--why can't reporting of the games also have a time delay?).

I was just reading some other posts in AVS forum and there seems to be several complaints about artifacts in the picture--this may be coming from NBC and is not the fault of the local broadcasters. I read something about their being a world feed for HD and since we are 50 hz and Europe is 60 hz
the conversion could be causing some artifacts. I don't really undertand this so I may make no sense at all.

Nope 12-1 is pixelating bad. As long at the camera is or object/person being shot is stationary its fine, once it moves forget about it. Pixels, pixels everywhere. It's not going to change until they shut 12-2 off. Luckily I've got DirecTV's special event channel and they've got a good pic up even though some folks bitch about their compression.

Yeah, somethings is going on. Friday night during the opening ceremony on 12-1, I didn't see anything that coud have been described as blockiness/pixelization. Today, Sunday, its another story. Seeing motion artifacts galore.

Originally posted by JimP
Yeah, somethings is going on. Friday night during the opening ceremony on 12-1, I didn't see anything that coud have been described as blockiness/pixelization. Today, Sunday, its another story. Seeing motion artifacts galore.

In my post about hz, I should have said we are 60 hz and Euorpe is 50 hz.
If the original feed is 50 hz and has to be converted to 60 hz for American TV I can see where some artifacts might be introduced. Tigerman, how did you get DirectTv channel 84? My TV shows "not available in this area."
But anyway, I'll do most of my Olympic viewing on the SD channel.

Yeah... what about 84?

I see the same pixelization on the diving... it's terrible and is worse on the replays.

Keeping a residence in Birmingham has its priveledges. I see a very small amount of pixelation on DirecTV but like you said it may come from the convert of pictures over the ocean.

Well well... if I had just looked I'd seen channel 84 on Directv. I didn't get a chance to watch a lot on 84 last night but what I saw was better than WSFA. I want to see diving though to really make the comparison or some other event that has fast moving cameras involved.

I was getting a good signal from B'ham last night so I was able to compare
the B'ham signal with WSFA. All I got a chance to compare was swimming events. I couldn't tell any difference. I wanted to compare diving but it would have been very late (or early) before the synchronized diving that I had seen earlier on WSFA would be shown again.

Originally posted by SD4934
I was getting a good signal from B'ham last night so I was able to compare
the B'ham signal with WSFA. All I got a chance to compare was swimming events. I couldn't tell any difference. I wanted to compare diving but it would have been very late (or early) before the synchronized diving that I had seen earlier on WSFA would be shown again.

I would be interested in what you find out. Did'nt you say bham does'nt split thier channels into sub channels? Have you done a scan to see if they did for the olympics?

Originally posted by Nnamd
I would be interested in what you find out. Did'nt you say bham does'nt split thier channels into sub channels? Have you done a scan to see if they did for the olympics?

WVTM from Bham (52 mapped to 13-1) has just one channel. I scanned just a short while ago and only got 13-1. I was comparing the picture tonight and it appears there was some pixelation (blockiness) during part of the WSFA feed that wasn't on WVTM feed. But this was just a quick comparison. I was watching swimming and men's gymanstics on the SD
channel.

Is it just me or is anybody else getting the HD feed on all 3 WSFA channels?
In my guide I noticed I have 3 12-1s, 3 12-2s and 3 12-3s. They are all the HD feed. Is it just my receiver doing weird things? I rescanned and still had the 9 channel 12s.

I only am receiving on 12-1. Lost 12-2 sometimes this morning. This evening I noticed that 12-3 is gone.

I just redid all my cables and did a recan and i'm only mapping 12-1. Thanks WSFA for doing that. Now maybe we will get a better pic.

I still cannot get 20-1

This is what I'm seing now.

1. Pic still looks a little soft (Guess that's from the feed)
2. Only pixelation I see now is when the olympic rings go flying accross the screen. And not that much. Before if a person moved to fast it caused Pixels.

3. Just switched from swimming to gymnastics. Inside shot looks better. Not as much pixulation when they flip around. I would say much better than before.
I say it's better. What yall say?

I scanned again and am down to 1 12-2 and two each of 12-2 and 12-3.
I didn't have guide data before for the digital channels but now the guide date is for the SD schedule and with 12-3 showing Doppler Radar although
the HD feed is on all the channels (I guess it is really just one channel). I guess my receiver and WSFA's PSIP generator don't interact really well.
Look's like WSFA is responding to its few HD viewers.

Originally posted by SD4934
I scanned again and am down to 1 12-2 and two each of 12-2 and 12-3.
I didn't have guide data before for the digital channels but now the guide date is for the SD schedule and with 12-3 showing Doppler Radar although
the HD feed is on all the channels (I guess it is really just one channel). I guess my receiver and WSFA's PSIP generator don't interact really well.
Look's like WSFA is responding to its few HD viewers. Have you tried a reset then a rescan?

Originally posted by bearmur
Have you tried a reset then a rescan?

No. I don't really want to reset and start from scratch. The extra channel #s should go away eventually. If not, I'll just take them out of the guide.

Originally posted by SD4934
I scanned again and am down to 1 12-2 and two each of 12-2 and 12-3.
I didn't have guide data before for the digital channels but now the guide date is for the SD schedule and with 12-3 showing Doppler Radar although
the HD feed is on all the channels (I guess it is really just one channel). I guess my receiver and WSFA's PSIP generator don't interact really well.
Look's like WSFA is responding to its few HD viewers.

You have to clear your scanned in channels and do a rescan to clear out 12-2 and 12-3. At least I have to on my receiver. Then uncheck 12-2, and 12-3 out of your favorite list.
I noticed guide data as well on Directv

Things are seem to be pretty guiet here. I guess the only concerns now are Fox's weak signal, PBS multicasting and the holdout of WAKA. On another note, I wanted to leave my antenna pointed toward B'ham and still get good reception of my local channels. I decided to try the Zenith
Silver Sensor indoor antenna with amp. I get very strong signals for PBS,
WAKA and WSFA with it sitting on top of my tv. I put my outdoor antenna and the SS on an A/B switch and can easily switch between antenna feeds.
The only station I have problems with is WCOV but I don't watch a whole lot on FOX anyway.

I been watching the olympics myself. I did go to Radioshack and get me a new cable converter. The peice that connects your cable to your antenna. I got a gold plated one. But seing I will be moving soon i just hooked it up to a yagi without my preamp and sat it on top of my air conditioner. hehe. I think I may have had a bad one. Getting a better signal but still cannot get fox's digital. So I just watch their analog when I want to watch fox. Maybe Ill fool with it this weekend. Work been a little stressfull latley, and remodeling house.

Originally posted by Nnamd
I been watching the olympics myself. I did go to Radioshack and get me a new cable converter. The peice that connects your cable to your antenna. I got a gold plated one. But seing I will be moving soon i just hooked it up to a yagi without my preamp and sat it on top of my air conditioner. hehe. I think I may have had a bad one. Getting a better signal but still cannot get fox's digital. So I just watch their analog when I want to watch fox. Maybe Ill fool with it this weekend. Work been a little stressfull latley, and remodeling house.

The baluns sold at Radioshack (and Lowes) are very cheaply built. They are high-loss baluns. Check around in your area for a place that sells the same balun that Channel Master uses. I found a place a few miles up the road from me that sold it for $2. It made all the difference in the world for picking up signals.

The only pressing question I have is when will WCOV be ready to go HD?? I know Fox throw's the switch on the 12th but does anyone know if and when COV is scheduled to have the splicer installed?

...and what about WKAB (CBS)?

WAKA is pathetic and they'll be claiming they have no money from now until eternity gets here. If I was a betting man I would take the odds they hold out until the end before finally transitioning over.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
WAKA is pathetic and they'll be claiming they have no money from now until eternity gets here. If I was a betting man I would take the odds they hold out until the end before finally transitioning over.

I think they will hold out until the end and then do as little as possible.
Although, as more people are receiving the HD signals from the other networks maybe that will put pressure on WAKA. They are going to do what that think is in their financial best interest and if they are losing advertising money to WSFA, WNCF...but that is probably a long ways off.

Originally posted by taz291819
The baluns sold at Radioshack (and Lowes) are very cheaply built. They are high-loss baluns. Check around in your area for a place that sells the same balun that Channel Master uses. I found a place a few miles up the road from me that sold it for $2. It made all the difference in the world for picking up signals.

What ya think about this one?
http://www.weisd.com/store2/CM%200035B.html

I see WSFA is multicasting again. What do they plan to use 12-2 for? It seems like a waste to just mirror 12-1 with at. At least APT has different programming on its' HD and SD channels.

Stan

I'd speculate that they're testing their ability to use both channels. Guess they figured out the radar channel wasn't going to be a big hit, that is until tornado season.

I just got an HDTIVO from the BestBUY in Montgomery. However, I cannot receive 32-1 anymore with my indoor antenna, Radio Shack 15-1880. I still get 12-1 & 26-1. Is there a problem with 32-1 or is the HDTIVO OTA tuner not as good as Samsung TS 160? Also, is there a better indoor HDTV antenna? Thanks for any help.

32-1 is coming in strong and clear for me today. I haven't noticed any problems other than the signal was jumping around some this morning but as of right now it is doing fine.

Originally posted by tomtb2
I just got an HDTIVO from the BestBUY in Montgomery. However, I cannot receive 32-1 anymore with my indoor antenna, Radio Shack 15-1880. I still get 12-1 & 26-1. Is there a problem with 32-1 or is the HDTIVO OTA tuner not as good as Samsung TS 160? Also, is there a better indoor HDTV antenna? Thanks for any help.

I've had my HD Tivo for about a month and I've found the tuner, for me, to
be better than the tuner in my Samsung 160. The Samsung never pulled in Fox but the HD Tivo does (albeit a very sporadic signal). I still have my outdoor antenna pointed toward B'ham. For the Montgomery stations I am using the Zenith Silver Sensor indoor antenna with an amplifier (I got the antenna and amplifier from Amazon.com for $49.95 with free shipping). With the Silver Sensor I get strong signals for WSFA, WAIQ and WNCF.
I haven't had a problem with 32-1. Some people here on AVS Forum in the HD Tivo section have reported a problem with the tuner in the HD Tivo not being as sensitive as their previous receiver, others have reported the opposite. In my case the tuner in the HD Tivo appears more sensitive than my Samsung 160. You might want to give the Siver Sensor a try (Best Buy did have it--do not try the Terk knockoff that looks like the Silver Sensor--I did and wasn't able to receive anything). Since you are in Montgomery you might not need the amp. I am between Wetumpka and Millbrrok and I tried mine without the amp and got WSFA but nothing else. It seems to be the choice for the best indoor UHF antenna. Enjoy your HD Tivo. I know I am. I wasn't sure about spending $999 for it, but, to me, it has been worth it (I still use my Replay for WAKA).

Thanks for the information. By moving the antenna I am able get 32-1. With the Silver Sensor do you have to move it around to get each station or can you leave it in one direction?

Originally posted by tomtb2
Thanks for the information. By moving the antenna I am able get 32-1. With the Silver Sensor do you have to move it around to get each station or can you leave it in one direction?

With the Silver Sensor I can get all the stations without moving the antenna. I had another indoor antenna previously (a Terk "butterfly" style that I got a while back before I knew better) that I had to rotate to get all
the stations--and then I didn't always get them. But with the Silver Sensor in one position I get strong signals from ABC, NBC and PBS (if WCOV would just increase their signal modestly I should get it also). After reading good things about the Silver Sensor I decided to try it and I was very surprised at how well it did (and does). The last time I was in Best Buy they didn't have the Silver Sensor in stock. I did see them in stock at Sears for $39.99. If you need an amplifer, the Amazon.com package deal is a good buy. (On Amazon the antenna is sold under the Gemini name but it is the same antenna ZHDTV1). Like I said, don't get the Terk knockoff that looks like the Silver Sensor (Best Buy may tell you it's the same thing). It's no good.

tomb2

SD4934 is north of Montgomery so your results may differ when it comes to aiming an antenna.

For anyone who might care, Voom satellite just added the SciFi channel. Picture quality, even for standard definition, is better than Brighthouse Cable. Sound qulity is also improved.

One think that I did see with the SciFi network, is that on Stargate SG-1, the green shift (looks like grayscale error) in part is due to the signal from the network as it also appears on Voom. Its not all to do with Brighthouse. Also, it varies. Sometimes it looks O.K., while other times it shifts green slightly.

The reception is much better with Silver Sensor than the Radio Shack. The signal is more consistent. I am getting 12-1,26-1, and 32-1 without out an amp. I am getting a weak signal from 20-1. Now, if WAKA would get onboard. Thanks for all the help.

Originally posted by tomtb2
The reception is much better with Silver Sensor than the Radio Shack. The signal is more consistent. I am getting 12-1,26-1, and 32-1 without out an amp. I am getting a weak signal from 20-1. Now, if WAKA would get onboard. Thanks for all the help.

Glad the SS worked out for you. I just wish WCOV would increase their
power--I get a weak signal from with the Silver Signal but not enough to lock on to. I can get a lock with my outdoor antenna (I use an A/B switch so I can go back and forth between the antennas) pointed towards B'ham but still a weak signal with a lot of drop outs. Not sure how our antennas will fare if WAKA ever gets on the air since their tower for analog transmission is no where near towers of the other stations (and I assume their digital transmission will be generated from the same area).

Looks like WCOV FOX did not go 720p for the NFL or DD 5.1. I did email them last month and the reply was sometime in September. Still waiting.

The last I heard a couple of weeks ago was they expected the equipment in the middle of September (which would be anytime now) the problem is they have to get the equipment installed and then the splicer from FOX has to be installed before they can pass the 720p signal, that would need to be scheduled after the equipment is installed and I would imagine there is a waiting list. I would imagine it would be October at the earliest before we see any HD from WCOV, but then again I could be wrong. I am able to get the signal pretty steady at about 66% as long as it doesn't rain in Montgomery. Until they get their signal on another tower they won't be increasing from 1.1kw. I would email the engineer and ask him if they have received the HD equipment yet.

Wonder what Ivan will do to our dishes and outdoor antennas? I had to make a quick trip to Louisiana and came back today. I came through Mobile and got caught in the evacuation traffic going up I-65. Seeing all of these people fleeing their homes for safety makes TV seem somehow not that important. Here is hoping and praying for the safety of what's really important. We can always replace our things.

I went ahead and took down my TV antenna. It also has my CB and scanner antenna also. So that did ok. My dish still looks ok but I still have no power at home to see if it has been blown off a tad. I has a tree fall on my feince but thank God that was the only damage I had.

Came through with only minor problems. A couple of leaks--but not major.
I'll get somebody to repair those and inspect my roof, but I am in no hurry.
I'll let the repair people take care of the people with real problems first.
One of my neighbors trees (a small one) fell over in my yard. Didn't hurt anything except his fence. My power came back on today about 10:30 (I'm taking a break from cleaning up my yard). My dish and antenna came through with no problems. My sat reception is fine. I unhooked everything from my Tivo (including the power cord) before the storm hit. When I powered it back up a short time ago everything was fine excpet my OTA reception. I even hooked my indoor antenna up to it directly, still no OTA signal strength. That input is activated and my OTA channels still show in my guide. I've gone through set-up again and still nothing. It looks like that input on the unit is dead. I'll post over in the HD Tivo forum and see if anybody else had that problem before calling customer service. The storm couldn't have caused the problem because nothing on the Tivo was connected. I could understand if it was my outdoor anenna but it doesn't work with my indoor antenna either. Of course, that is a very minor problem compared to some of the problems caused be Ivan, I'm just thankful that no lives were lost (that I know of) and I haven't heard of any
injuries other than minor.

I'm at the office right now, but we have no power at home and it looks like it might be 10-14 days before we do. No physical damage to us or our home. A few trees down here and there but nothing serious. Our dish made it through fine but obviously we will not be watching satellite TV for a while.

Hope all you guys are okay.

Sonnie, sorry to hear about the long time without power. I was out for just a little over 24 hours, I can't imagine being out for about two weeks.
However, like I said earlier, this makes us realize how important TV is in the whole scheme of things. We should really be thankful that no more damage was done then occurred in this area (compared to the coastal areas) and that there was no loss of life in this area (that I am aware of).
Just pray that Jeanne and the one following do not come our way.

I agree... we are very thankful of the minimal damage and especially that no one got injured. The power outage will be aggravating but we'll survive. We've roughed it before. When Opal came through it was 10-11 days before power was established out our way. Most of the city limits of Luverne doesn't even have power yet, only the immediate downtown area. None of the gas stations have power yet. We are in the country on South Alabama Rural Electric which covers such a wide area.

We understand Greenville got hit pretty hard. My brother with the Coast Guard at the Dolphin Island office... it is extremely bad down that way, which we would have imagined.

All I can get is channel 20.

Channels 12, 26, and 32 are not coming in.

Anyone else experiencing the same.

I need to figure out if its the stations or my antenna.

Believe it or not, the only OTA channel I can get is 20-1.

Originally posted by JimP
All I can get is channel 20.

Channels 12, 26, and 32 are not coming in.

Anyone else experiencing the same.

I need to figure out if its the stations or my antenna.

It's the stations. I couldn't get anything, even with my indoor antenna.
I got the stations via my cable feed. I thought it was a problem with my
receivers OTA tuner and called DirecTV. There was one thing they wanted me to try before they sent me a new unit. That didn't work and I was on hold on the number they gave me to call back to when I checked my e-mail and had a PM from Tomb2 and he said all he could get was WCOV. I checked again and I was getting a signal from WCOV (I swear I wasn't earlier). Glad I checked me email--if not I would have been swapping out my Tivo when there was nothing wrong. Thanks Tomb2. I need to learn to be more patient.

I think wsfa web site said thier power was out and their generator was down as well. I have'nt been home and not sure if I have power yet. I might just go ahead and move into my house if it's two weeks before we get any power.

I can get 20 and 26 but no signal strength on 12 and 32.

buckeye1 and Sonny, sorry to hear about your power being out. Anything you might need that we can provide?

Thanks for the heads up on the down stations.

Completely lost Voom satellite and Brighthouse cable. Got the satellite dished back on the bird this afternoon, but cable is still out.

It was interesting that I lost cable long before the winds moved the dish off of satellite alignment. I would have thought that satellite would have gone first. Voom 24" dish was a real trooper.

JimP,

I actually came through this really well. I never lost power or internet for more than 3 minutes at a time. Trees up and down my street were split and uprooted, but, mine had already been removed because of previous storms.

Charter internet stayed up and running even though all the neighbors with knology were down.

Satellite dishes somehow stayed aligned. I thought my antenna had been moved, but, I guess it is the stations with problems.

buckeye1

Speaking of internet, with Brighthouse cable down, I've had to switch back to a dial up modem.

Its somewhat disconcerting to see just how addicted I am to surfing the net. Do they make a patch for that like the ones smokers have?? ;-)

abc 32 is up as of this morning. Leaves only 12 that I can't get.

JimP,
Completely understand the internet thing, I have a business internet account at the house to guarantee repair time.

Just saw at the wsfa web site that they have power outages at the transmitter site.

Here is the link to wsfa story.


http://wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2299927

Burried in the Ryder Cup story. Geeze

They really should have posted a message on their home page.

Once again sports fans get screwed in central Alabama, no Ryder Cup this morning because of the power outages with WSFA digital. Seems like in the past, the cable systems would bring the Ryder Cup from another market and show it on another channel. If you don't have an HD tv, golf is not even availiable. Maybe, more HDTV sets will be sold.

I guess I lucked out with the internet. Except for the time when the power was out I never lost my cable (WSFA is still coming in on cable).

Just got home from the Auburn LSU game and found that Brighthouse cable (including cable internet) is back up and running.

Any news on WSFA digital?

WSFA is back on.

Here in Jasmine Hills, WSFA's signal strength is fluctuating, sometimes dropping below minimum usable levels.

I've been on the roof adjusting the aim, so I may have made it worst, not better.

Are you finding it consistant?

I have only watched WSFA briefly and it seemed ok.

Been watching all of the Football games in HD. Even saw half of the Browns & Cowboys until they realized this was a blackout area.

I'm still having problems with WSFA.

Is everyone getting a consistant signal?

Hey guys. I recorded some olympic stuff off channel 12 while they had 3 sub channels. I asked on this forum how to remove the other two sub channels. I got a private message from the author of HDTVTOMPEG program and he sent me a beta ver of his software. I was able to remove the standard and radar channel from the TS streams I recorded.

No problems with WSFA.

tomtb2

Thanks for responding.

What's happening with me is that I can turn my antenna counterclockwise and pick up WSFA pretty strong, but then I loose WCOF and WAIQ. If I turn it to get WAIQ very strong, I totally loose WSFA. Prestorm, I could get both without moving the antenna. On the signal strength meter, it looks like WSFA is staying fairly costant, yet just below the point that I can lock in a signal. What doesn't make sense to me is that I can get WSFA, but I have to turn the antenna quite a bit from where it use to be aimed..

I called and spoke with someone at WSFA this morning and he said that he'd send somebody up the tower in the next few days to check things out.

I got a few dropouts from WSFA myself when I tuned them in. Did'nt mess with the antenna tho.

Not sure what improved my signal.

At about 10:25 this past Saturday, I was again up the ladder fiddling with the antenna. I essentially gave up on trying to lock both signals in and aimed it based on some signal power setting I had recorded a while back. I also unscrew the coax from the amplifier and reconnected it.

After putting the ladder up, I check on the signal strength meter and WSFA had gone from an 80 to 99. Very strong signal, no dropouts or anything. I also had the other channels that I was suppose to.

Don't know for sure if WSFA correct something at their tower or if disconnecting and reconnecting the coax did something. The strength of the other channels didn't improve, so I'm inclined to think that it was WSFA.

Is channel 20 doing 720P yet?

Not until they install their HD equipment and then FOX installs the splicer. I don't know where they are at yet, you might want to email the engineer, he's pretty good at getting back to you quickly. They were scheduled to get the HD stuff in around the middle of this month but I haven't bothered to email him lately to find out if it is actually in or has been installed yet.

WCOV has their HD equipment up and running, they will have to get the splicer installed before 720p will be going as you cannot display HD unless the splicer is up and running, so there programming will be coming across 4:3 on network programs until then. Hey hey, we are close to having them all up and going now if CBS will get off their lazy butts, but I think I have a greater chance of winning the lotto then getting HD from Selma.

What's the RF channel for CBS out of Selma?

If your asking about WAKA they would be 8 on SD and 55 I believe on HD

Not WAKA, unless they've recently switched to HD and didn't tell anybody.

Isn't there a CBS affiliate out of Selma that's HD?

WAKA is Selma-Montgomery.

Has WAKA started broadcasting digital?

Nope, they are the last hold out in the Montgomery market. As far as I know they have no plans to go digital at this time. Every filing they make they cry about they have no money to costruct. That's why I was saying I have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting HD out of Selma. D* can't get those 2 sats up quick enough next year where I can hopefully get the HD CBS feed out of Birmingham so I can see some SEC football in HD instead of 480i. FOX should begin broadcasting in HD sometime later next week if everything goes as planned according to their website. By the way, have I told ya'll yet WAKA SUCKS!!!!!

In the few contacts I have had with WAKA trying to get a waiver to get the E* HD feed (I'm with D* now but I have made no attempt to get a waiver from WAKA again--they are totally unwilling to grant waivers) I was told at first by the end of 2003 they would be digital and then by the end of 2004 and, from the last response, my perception was that they had no plans to go digital. I don't think we will see a digital signal from them until they are forced to do so. Hopefully I am wrong. Maybe, the other major Montgomery stations going digital will put some pressure on them but I doubt it. I've managed to see a little SEC football from B'ham when the game has been at night or run late. At least there is
ESPN HD.

Yeah... I've gotten that same kinda feedback from the WAKA folks. They just don't care and they'll get extensions or whatever to keep it away as long as they can.

Sorry about that Jim... I didn't mean to lead you to believe WAKA was DT yet. They are considered a Selma-Montgomery station but still analog. Their tower is between Selma and Montgomery and I think they are still licensed to Selma but considered the CBS Montgomery market.

I think WCOV use to be the CBS affiliate in Montgomery many moons ago but when then WAKA came into the scene and after having a couple of CBS affiliates for a while, CBS dropped WCOV. Or it mighta been when FOX came around. I can't remember all the details but it was something like that.

Close but the loss of CBS had nothing to do with Fox. CBS had no use for a UHF affiliate in Montgomery after VHF WAKA was permitted to move to a tall tower in Gordonsville and run full power. Previously, WAKA (WSLA-TV) ran comparatively low power from a 300' tower in Selma. Fox came along just in time to save the day for WCOV after CBS cancelled the affiliation.

Well Guys. I going to move into my new house down the road this weekend. Wish me luck.. Maybe I can hit some Bham statations from there.

Sonny,
No problem, I thought I'd missed it. lol

Nnamd,
Good luck on the move to the new house. Be safe.

Originally posted by JimP
Has WAKA started broadcasting digital?

Hopefully We'll have WAKA on by early spring. The DT antenna and transmission line are currently being installed, and the digital microwave has been delivered and will be installed later this month. The full-power (3 Tube) transmitter has been ordered and we are awaiting delivery.
We will pass CBS-HD with Dolby 5.1 once we are on-air.
:)

bdfox18doe

Sounds like you're in the know.

What's your affiliation with WAKA

I'm one of the system design engineers..
I handle the design and installation of the video/audio/encoding/multiplexing/PSIP for all the stations in our group,
of which WAKA is one.

Well Bob, welcome to this thread.

As many of us like the CBS programming, having WAKA go HD couldn't happen soon enough. CSI in HD, woo hoo.

Having WAKA would be huge as I am most interested in watching HD football specifically college and of course the NFL, I don't watch any CBS right now except for that as I try to gravitate towards the HD programs I can watch. Anyways, I hope they do make the move in the Spring (will be here before you know it). Thanks for the info Bob!!!

You're Welcome. We'll be looking to many of you here for reception reports as well as letting us know if there are any problems. I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Originally posted by bdfox18doe
You're Welcome. We'll be looking to many of you here for reception reports as well as letting us know if there are any problems. I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Thanks for the info. It's good to finally get some concrete info about WAKA.

Okay... now I might have to retract all those negative things I said about WAKA now. Of course I really didn't say them... I just repeated what I was told. lol This is definitely a different tone that what I've heard from the techs at the station... and I'm excited to hear it.

Yeah... welcome Bob! Do keep us informed.

What's the signal strength going to be like? Any coverage maps available yet?

I'm a big CSI fan too! Great shows. I love football too... lot's of good college football in HD on CBS.


Way past my bedtime... nighty night.

I would be interested in the planned signal strength also. Will WAKA start out at full power?

Yes, full power, with 3 Tubes WAKA will be about 1 megawatt ERP.

Sounds good.

Well. Moved most of my big stuff in. Just alot of little things. Have'nt had much time to fool with TV but I still cannot get fox digital on my box. Will WAKA have any sub channels or will it be all one channel like ABC 32 does?

Originally posted by Nnamd
Well. Moved most of my big stuff in. Just alot of little things. Have'nt had much time to fool with TV but I still cannot get fox digital on my box. Will WAKA have any sub channels or will it be all one channel like ABC 32 does?

Could you get Fox in Slapout before? What sort of antenna are you using?

I use to get 100% on fox. I'm thinking it's my box. Maybe a lighting storm messed up just that channel. I have tried a yagi and one of those flat ones. I get good on 12 26 and 32. What's weired is I run the cable thru my set top box that cannot get 20 and from that I run it to MYHD pc tuner card and I get about 68% on that. I have my antenna pointed at the same location as i point for 12.

There are known compatability issues with the splicer FOX uses and the
MyHd card..We have several viewers here who cannot receive us using the
MyHD card. ATI has been unresponsive to my emails.

Nnamd
How does your OTA antenna heigth look?

Is the bottom of it at least a couple of feet higher than any part of the roof that may be blocking it?

Originally posted by bdfox18doe
There are known compatability issues with the splicer FOX uses and the
MyHd card..We have several viewers here who cannot receive us using the
MyHD card. ATI has been unresponsive to my emails.

Does this mean that the MyHD card will not work with either an SD or an HDTV signal or both if they are fed through the splicer? Any recommendation on a PC card that does work well? I was thinking of getting one.

So far. the ATI won't work at all with the FOX signal, at least here. I have one, but have not had time to install it to test. I don't have any experience with any other cards..

My antenna from where I was out was about 30 feet off the ground with nothing but open feild from where I point it. Where it is now it's about 20 feet off the ground becase I have'nt installed it where I want to yet at my new house. But nothing is in it's way but open feild faceing south. I also have a preamp. I'm using a yagi at the moment. I point South with a little west and get 100% on 12-1.

MYHD card CAN receive FOX (average 68%) it's my set top box that is getting NO % on channel 16 and they are both on the same cable. But I get a nice clean pic on the Analog channel for 20. My Set top box is the first connection after the preamp.
Did channel 20 (16) change some code in the past 2 or 3 months? Because that's when it started to happen. Because all I can figure is my set top box got shorted out on channel 16 only or they are sending code my box cannot understand. (it's a 169 time mod. A Toshiba Directv box)

Originally posted by W4IMM
Does this mean that the MyHD card will not work with either an SD or an HDTV signal or both if they are fed through the splicer? Any recommendation on a PC card that does work well? I was thinking of getting one.

Mine works fine with all the locals. I have this one.
http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/myhd.asp

IT has two cable inputs and I have OTA on one and Cable on the other. It up converts to 1080P (on my pc monitor) if I want or down. It gets both Digital and Analog and Cable. It has alot of options and I can also run it to my TV if I like. I have made some good captions and with HDTVtoMPEG software I can edit out comercials and sub channels. (Get ya a big hard drive tho. heheh. I have a 250 gig hard drive and already I had to remove some stuff to make room for others.) I will be passing some TS to DVD soon when I get time. It also makes a good DVD player and it can up convert those DVD's if you have the crack but I did'nt notice much diffrence after being use to HD.

A guy in my office was asking about them today and we where looking at the ATI HDTV wonder card. IT's about half the price but have'nt had one to play with.

Just make sure you get one with a built in decoder card. You do not want to tax your CPU. They cost more but I think they are worth it.
Not sure about the newer model. and hmmm. was looking to get the ATI one in the future for other PC but now I'm not sure.
I really like MyHd card tho.

Interesting reading. Why I was'nt so happy with 12's sub channels. He can explain better.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/Pages/itshdtv.htm

Do the signals from Montgomery and Columbus reach Auburn? I have HDTV through Charter and don't get any network stations.

Originally posted by Jof
Do the signals from Montgomery and Columbus reach Auburn? I have HDTV through Charter and don't get any network stations.

I'm sure channel 12 would. And you could hit a PBS from somewhere. I dont know about 32. Maybe Columbus has a ABC station. And i am pretty sure you wont get channel 20 Fox. You would need a outside antenna i'm sure. But I would wait to see if anyone else responds that's closer to Auburn.

FOX is going live w/ their 720p signal tonight, they will be multicasting on 20-2 also, but hey at least we'll have football in HD this weekend...everybody give your feedback on how the picture looks when the programming starts.

Picture looks great watching NFL on FOX and the sound is in DD 5.1. Thank you WCOV.

The picture on the NFL games looked great! Now, if only WAKA would hurry up. I was in Atlanta last weekend and saw GA- Tenn in HD. SEC football in HD is fantastic.

Originally posted by bdfox18doe
Hopefully We'll have WAKA on by early spring. The DT antenna and transmission line are currently being installed, and the digital microwave has been delivered and will be installed later this month. The full-power (3 Tube) transmitter has been ordered and we are awaiting delivery.
We will pass CBS-HD with Dolby 5.1 once we are on-air.
:)

I don't suppose any of you guys have a Denon 3800 DVD player??

How about a Denon 5900 that's been SDI modified and a scaler like the Iscan Hd?

Originally posted by Tigerman73
FOX is going live w/ their 720p signal tonight, they will be multicasting on 20-2 also, but hey at least we'll have football in HD this weekend...everybody give your feedback on how the picture looks when the programming starts.

Looks better than their standard channel. The baseball game that is..

Awesome, thanks for the posts folks, I completely missed the WCOV changeover this weekend. It looks great.

I'm using Knology's SA 8000HD and have an OTA antenna for WSFA and WCOV through my HTPC. I wish Knology would get the deals done with them. I can't believe I had to put up an antenna for 2 channels.

Are you able to pick up ABC 32-1?? If you getting Fox I would think you could pick up ABC since all those towers are in the same general vicinity if I'm thinking correctly.

I clicked over Tue night to channel 20's HD ball game and got a much better pic that what I saw when they first cut over. They did something right.

Originally posted by Tigerman73
Are you able to pick up ABC 32-1?? If you getting Fox I would think you could pick up ABC since all those towers are in the same general vicinity if I'm thinking correctly.

I can get ABC and PBS HD from my OTA antenna as well, but since I already have both of them in HD via cable, they are more convenient there. Once Knology picks up NBC and FOX HD, I'll probably take the antenna down.

Originally posted by NeedMoreToys
I can get ABC and PBS HD from my OTA antenna as well, but since I already have both of them in HD via cable, they are more convenient there. Once Knology picks up NBC and FOX HD, I'll probably take the antenna down.

How much difference can you see between the cable and OTA feeds?

Originally posted by W4IMM
How much difference can you see between the cable and OTA feeds?

If I'm looking REALLY close, I think the OTA is a tad better. In general, they look the same to me on a 61" DLP.

Looks to me after seing diffrent sorces of feeds that 32-1 is becoming my favorite. Switching between the Baseball and football last monday night and the movies that ABC shows they seem to get a better pic. Now from sat my fav is HDnet. Cant wait till 1080P. Bigest impact for me was Monday night football. I just said "WOW"

What's your fav?
What made the biggiest impact for you?

Anybody watching "Lost" on ABC? Excellent picture quality and the best sound (DD 5.1) I have heard on network TV (I really like the program too).

Originally posted by SD4934
Anybody watching "Lost" on ABC? Excellent picture quality and the best sound (DD 5.1) I have heard on network TV (I really like the program too).

A guy in my office that has a HDTV set but no set top box yet keeps telling me about it. And he likes the show even in standard def. I almost have talked him into at least a PC HD tuner card but he's waiting for price on the HDTivo to come down. I have only watched a little of it but have'nt had time latley to get into tv viewing.

When does "Lost" come on?

Originally posted by JimP
When does "Lost" come on?

Wednesday's at 7:00 P.M. I'm usually out then but I have it as a season pass on my HD Tivo. The LFE track of the Dolby 5.1 mix really gives my subwoofer a good work out in places. I think it is the best new show this season by far (it's a little hard to come in after the season started as each episode builds on the other but ABC is rerunning a couple of episodes this Saturday night--I know, football in HD on ESPN at that time--but there is a good thread in the HD Programming section here at AVS Forum to bring you up to speed). I forgot the amount ABC spent on this series--I read it somewhere--but it was a tremendous amount for network TV and the show reflects it--really looks and sounds like a theatrical movie. I guess you can tell I really like this program--it's really a departure from all the L&Os and CSI's (and their clones). ABC seems to be the only one of the "big 3" willing to take a risk.

Anyone able to get WB? I heard they are going to show Lord of the Rings in High Def next month. If so what channel? Antenna web shows 29 in selma being digital but I have not been able to pick them up.

Nnamd,

Is 29 WB's RF number or their channel designation?

On my Voom satellite box, if it doesn't pick up the channel on a scan, I can input it using the RF number.

By the way gang, Voom got the channel scanning feature implemented a couple of months ago.

Double "By the Way". There's been some talk about Voom being bought out by Dish. So if you have any interest in going with Voom, lease their equipment as it may not be compatible with another system.

It just says 29. And I did a scan in that direction on all channels and got nothing.

When I set up my receiver, 29-1 was added to my guide (with program information) but I have never been able to receive that channel. I do get some indication on my receivers OTA signal strength (quality) meter but not enough to lock in. Same goes for 69 (UPN).

I also have 29-1 and guide data but never been able to get anything. But I get 67's UPN analog signial pretty good so I hope their Digital will not be hard to get. It is in the same direction as I point for 12 and 20. I also have never been able to get 45-1 that is on my guide data tho I dont watch it.

I tried 29-1 last night also. Nada, nothing.

http://www.thewb.com/Shows/Special/0%2c11116%2c196758%2c00.html

Looks like this thread is dying out. I guess not much is happening here.

Hopefully this spring there will be MUCH activity!

Originally posted by bdfox18doe
Hopefully this spring there will be MUCH activity!

Good to see you are still with us. So, still looks like a go for WAKA this spring?

I sent a email to WRJM-67 UPN concerning a sound problem(coming out of 1 channel only) and also when will they go HD. This is the replay.
__
Hi Barry,

Thanks for your note. This is something that we have been addressing for quite some time. The basic situation revolves around the output transmission of our analog signal. To answer your question for both the stereo reception and the Digital broadcasting, it is something that our engineering department is working towards. The simple answer to your audio issue is that when we start our digital broadcasting, that will be when our single channel audio will move to digital stereo audio.
There are few standards still being ironed out in the broadcast industry as far as transforming the entire broadcast community from analog to digital, and our engineering team is extremely involved in the adoption of these standards. Our studio has already begun the transformation, and we hope to have our transmitter completely integrated within broadcast standard within the upcoming months.
I apologize for not being able to give you a firm date at this time, but I can assure you that it is not far away, and as soon as we are satisfied with having the highest quality and most widely accepted technology we will deliver it to you and the rest of our viewing audience.
The transformation to digital transmission is on the top of our priority list, but at the same time, we want to make sure that when we do it, we do it in a format that will be of the highest quality and allow the highest percentage of viewers to be able to receive it.
Once again, thank you for your questions, and thank you for your interest in our station.
Sincerely,
Nicky Bull
Station Manager
UPN 67 WRJM-TV

Does anyone else fine it ironic that the person writing the response is named "Bull".

I got moved into my new house and have setup my new antenna with a rotor. I tried to pull in some Bham stations but no luck. Still cannot get channel 20-1 but what's weird is if I point my antenna north and a tad west I can all most pull in enough signal to get them. I think I'm gonna buy me another ext pole and add 10 more feet to it and try bham again.

Nnamd

Are you using an amplifier on the antenna?

Originally posted by JimP
Nnamd

Are you using an amplifier on the antenna?

I'm using a Preamp. From the weird reception from 20-1 i'm thinking they must be doing something off the beaten path from the other stations.
I'm north of Montgomery so pointing north I cannot pickup any of the other Montgomery stations but almost get 20-1 (in and out) Maybe it's bouncing off a tree or something. But when I point south all other stations come in but 0% on 20-1. But behind my set top box running out to my pc tuner card I get 0% when pointed north but about 65% pointing south. I'm no radio hobbiest but that's just weird.

It should be pointing south.

If you're picking up 20-1 by pointing north, you're probably picking it up off of the back side of you your antenna.

Anybody having problems with WNCF? I haven't picked up a signal since Friday night. Don't know just how long I haven't received the signal since I didn't try after Friday night until last night. Is it just me or is WNCF digital down (still get the analog via cable)?

Dead as a doornail here, I haven't gotten it since Friday at least also.

I have'nt been getting them as well. Havent check the signal lvl yet.

I have had a signal strength of 0 since at least Saturday morning. I was hoping it would be better by last night, but still had no signal during the football game. I sent feedback this morning, hopefully they reply.

Originally posted by SD4934
Just received a reply from WSFA. TitanTV lists them as going live 5-1. The station manager e-mailed in reply to my e-mail that they have just received their construction permit and hope to be on the air by October or November. I guess PBS still plans to be on the air in May. Other than that,
not much happening here (except faux HD Fox says they will be on the air in June--I guess widescreen 480p is better than nothing). Stan

I don't want to burst your bubble but I got that same answer two years ago from the station manager at WSFA. He promised that WSFA would be digital by Novermber 2002. BTW, I wouldn't be looking for HDTV but rather digital when they do convert over. WSFA is strictly in the business for themselves... with complete disregard to their customers' wishes. That was evident when the station refused to allow me to receive HD directly from Direct TV. Maybe management has changed since I last talked to them but I doubt it. Hopefully, this time they're telling the truth.

Originally posted by JimP
Stan:

April for WSFA. God only knows when for WAKA.

JimP

Same goes for WSFA. Only difference between WAKA and WSFA is ...WAKA is being up front and honest about it. WSFA is just plain making empty promises with no intention of fulfilling them. I heard that same old story from the station manager at WSFA in August 2002 except that WSFA would be up and going by November 2002.

Gaz

WSFA been digital and HD in prime time for several months.

Am I missing something?

Anyway, WNCF is back.

Originally posted by gaz
WAKA is being up front and honest about it.

Why wouldn't we? nothing to hide here..

Is WAKA still shooting for Spring of 05??? I'd love to have ya'll get it going before the Final 4. Just as long as we get football next year in HD!!!!

Yes, at this time we are on target for Spring..the antenna and transmission line have been hung and are awaiting delivery of the transmitter.

Originally posted by JimP
Gaz

WSFA been digital and HD in prime time for several months.

Am I missing something?

Probably not. I was unaware of WSFA's move to digital. My mistake. It is indeed a surprise. I don't have a dish that receives local signals. If WSFA'S digital signal reaches beyond Montgomery's city limits, I might look into getting one.

Originally posted by gaz
Probably not. I was unaware of WSFA's move to digital. My mistake. It is indeed a surprise. I don't have a dish that receives local signals. If WSFA'S digital signal reaches beyond Montgomery's city limits, I might look into getting one.

Gaz, They are transmitting full-power from South of Montgomery. I'm not sure of the broadcast radius but I would think, if WSFA's analog signal reaches Auburn you should have a good chance.

Is there stations in Georga that can be pulled in from Auburn? I would check to see if they are digital on Antenna web's web site.
The other day I pointed north and got 11% on channel 30-1. What channel is that?

Originally posted by Nnamd
Is there stations in Georga that can be pulled in from Auburn? I would check to see if they are digital on Antenna web's web site.
The other day I pointed north and got 11% on channel 30-1. What channel is that?

Ch. 42 in Birmingham has a Ch. 30 DTV counterpart. Might have been that but should have read-out as 46-1 unless PSIP information is incorrect.

Originally posted by Nnamd
Is there stations in Georga that can be pulled in from Auburn? I would check to see if they are digital on Antenna web's web site.
The other day I pointed north and got 11% on channel 30-1. What channel is that?

That's WIAT (CBS) from B'ham. I am able to get good signals from there from time to time (tonight is one of those times). It is mapped to 42-1.
NBC is also full power from B'ham (52-1 mapped to 13-1). These are the only B'ham channels I get somewhat regularly (although NBC doesn't matter now that we have WSFA).

Originally posted by SD4934
Gaz, They are transmitting full-power from South of Montgomery. I'm not sure of the broadcast radius but I would think, if WSFA's analog signal reaches Auburn you should have a good chance.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Gaz

Originally posted by gaz
Thanks, I'll check it out.

Gaz

Well????? Keep us updated. hehehe.

Originally posted by SD4934
That's WIAT (CBS) from B'ham. I am able to get good signals from there from time to time (tonight is one of those times). It is mapped to 42-1.
NBC is also full power from B'ham (52-1 mapped to 13-1). These are the only B'ham channels I get somewhat regularly (although NBC doesn't matter now that we have WSFA).

You must live on one of those big hills in Wetumpka.

Originally posted by Nnamd
You must live on one of those big hills in Wetumpka.

No, I'm in Elmore. I have a 7 ft parabolic antenna on my roof peak with a Blunder tongue (not sure about the spelling) pre amp.

I am thinking about replacing my indoor antenna. Any suggestions for an outdoor antenna? In the Montgomery area, who sells and installs outdoor antennas?

tomtb2

Have you tried antennaweb.org to find out which kind of antenna is recommended? You can also get a map that tells you what direction the stations are relative to your location.

Lowe's on the eastern bypass has some channel master antennas. I found that Radio Shack has a good variety of mounting brackets.

Maybe one of the others can make installer recommendations. I basically got my extention ladder out and did it myself. The worst part was when I added a second 5' second of mast to get the antenna up enough. Major improvement in signal strength and the accompanying picture, but sure was scary doing it.

Will you be installing in your attic? Living in the city limits I would try the attic. Radio Shack has some that should do the job for you. Or Lowes. Only thing is channels might be in to much of a diffrent direction for you. For me. Mostly all channels are in the same direction for me. But a Yagi should work just fine for you.

Originally posted by tomtb2
Any suggestions for an outdoor antenna?

Winegaurd Squareshooter..tho only UHF, it works VERY well. Here in Charlotte, I get ALL 9 local DTv's Perfectly....:)..
P.S..I'm friends with WAKA.. :cool:

Originally posted by bdfox18doe
Winegaurd Squareshooter..tho only UHF, it works VERY well. Here in Charlotte, I get ALL 9 local DTv's Perfectly....:)..
P.S..I'm friends with WAKA.. :cool:


Speaking of which, I'm ready to dump my cable service but need WAKA to be digital so I can pick it up with my satellite services' OTA digital tuner.

Any target date other than spring time????

:D

Originally posted by JimP
Any target date other than spring time???
:D

yes..Early Spring time..:)

Originally posted by bdfox18doe
Yes, at this time we are on target for Spring..the antenna and transmission line have been hung and are awaiting delivery of the transmitter.

Where's the antenna located?

Anyone notice more dropout with PBS lately??

Hey guys...

Thought I'd drop in and say hello... hope you all had a Merry Christmas... also hope you will have a Happy New Year.

All is going well down in Luverne. WSFA still looking questionable at best with the HD... but we enjoy the Directv HD... it always looks pretty good.

Anybody have problems with 12-1 lately? I got an outdoor antenna recently & get a very strong signal but I get alot of dropouts. I got the antenna from Tompkins Electronics.

tomtb2

Are you talking about audio dropouts or where the picture freezes periodically?

Picture freezes

I haven't watched a lot on NBC the past few days, but I don't recall any problems with what I have watched.

If anyone needs any commscope RG-11 coax I have two different kinds to sale for cheap! The first kind is F1177TSVM (Tripleshielded, 77%braid, Brightwire for corrosion resistance, Groundwire) the second is F1177TSEF (Tripleshieded, 77%braid, PE jacket for underground use, Floodant for waterproofing) This very expensive coax that CATV companies use. I got a great deal on this stuff so get it while its here. CHEAP! Let me know, I don't live to far from Montgomery

Does anyone have any idea when Knology will add NBC HD and Fox HD to their lineup?

Does anyone know if or when Charter is going to offer HD channels besides ESPN, HBO, Showtime, Disc, and HGTV?

Guess not

Hey All-
An update on WAKA-Dt, as we've been down doing a bit of work today:

The CH-55 DT antenna and transmission line have been hung and are completing final testing.
The 3 tube, 1 megawatt digital transmitter will be delivered soon.
The digital microwave has been installed and is operational.
Expected delivery of the CBS HD receiver is mid-late February, and we will pass the CBS HD & 5.1 on day one.
The encoding gear is currently operational here in Charlotte as WOLO-DT, once the new WOLO gear arrives we will begin system installation.

We'll keep you posted as to the actual on air date..somewhere around spring or so as there is a tremendous amount of work left to do.

For those who don't know, the tower is located off CR12 near Gordonsville..
Right beside the WNCF tower.

bdfox18doe

Thanks for the update.

We're looking forward to getting CBS in High Def.

If you're going to be in the area for a few days, let us know. We can take you to dinner one evening.

Thanks for the offer..leaving late this afternoon after a trip over to selma unfortunately..We'll keep you posted..

Sounds good. The fact that the tower will be near the WNCF tower sounds good (was afraid it might be away from the other stations towers)--should be able to get all the digital channels without moving the antenna. Hopefully, CBS will be carrying SEC football again this fall.

WAKA in HD before March Madness and the Masters hopefully! I can hardly wait.

Uhh..we've never said BEFORE March madness, which is doubtful at best.
Tho I wish, that's a bit optimistic!

Originally posted by JPAUB
Does anyone have any idea when Knology will add NBC HD and Fox HD to their lineup?

There is a "rumor" today (Jan 21) that WCOV and Knology have reached an agreement for carriage of WCOV-DT, and that Knology is looking for ways to get the last NFL playoff game (Jan 23) on. That's all the information I have at the moment.

Originally posted by W4IMM
There is a "rumor" today (Jan 21) that WCOV and Knology have reached an agreement for carriage of WCOV-DT, and that Knology is looking for ways to get the last NFL playoff game (Jan 23) on. That's all the information I have at the moment.

I can add a little to your rumor. Channel 905 FOXHD is now live on Knology.

I was hoping for the NCAA Tourney in HD but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Keep the updates coming and at least we're going to have College Football in HD next Fall!!!!!

I just found out today that Voom satellite sold its Rainbow 1 satellite to Echostar. Don't know what's going to happen with my satellite service with them, but did want to check into other alternatives.

I still have Brighthouse cable TV (digital, but not HD), but my understanding is that they do not offer a DVR type of recorder for their very limited HD service. Does anyone know if the firewire port on their HD receiver is active and if there are any compatability problems with the available hard drive recorders?

Also, with cable services that have HD channels, are the SD channel analog or digital?

Originally posted by JimP
I just found out today that Voom satellite sold its Rainbow 1 satellite to Echostar. Don't know what's going to happen with my satellite service with them, but did want to check into other alternatives.

I still have Brighthouse cable TV (digital, but not HD), but my understanding is that they do not offer a DVR type of recorder for their very limited HD service. Does anyone know if the firewire port on their HD receiver is active and if there are any compatability problems with the available hard drive recorders?

Also, with cable services that have HD channels, are the SD channel analog or digital?

At least with Knology and Charter, the sub 100 channels are all analog. I'm assuming Brighthouse is the same. I need to call them. I'm moving to Wetumpka soon and they are the cable that is available. Their website didn't mention HD PVRs like the one I have with Knology. I was planning on going back to Dish Network and using an antenna for the local HD stations. If Knology would get NBC HD going, I could take down the antenna at my current house.

The only deciding factor that leans me back toward satellite is the analog channels you're asking about. They really look bad on Knology when compared to Dish Network's broadcast of the same channel (and I can get a real UPN station).