We are still waiting for the parts to be shipped out that are needed to complete repairs.

As I'm watching the Ryder Cup in glorious SD over Dish this morning since the 33 digital signal just isn't doing well today, I'm wondering since the event causing the part to be needed happened around September 5th and its now September 20th, what is going on?

As I'm watching the Ryder Cup in glorious SD over Dish this morning since the 33 digital signal just isn't doing well today, I'm wondering since the event causing the part to be needed happened around September 5th and its now September 20th, what is going on?
The part needed for the main transmitter has not arrived yet. I have no idea when it will arrive. Hopefully sooner than later.

No HD for the Colts again...seriously?

No HD for the Colts again...seriously?

Looks like they tried when the Giants game ended but something was wrong.

Looks like they tried when the Giants game ended but something was wrong.


..and they keep trying, keeps stuttering and pixelating. *sigh*

So close... I think they're just getting a weak signal. This is consistent with the screen-saver like message that was displayed just before the game: "Loss of Signal". WANE has a history of being an excellent HD station (I would argue the best in the area). I'm sure they will get this corrected as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, equipment failures happen; just too bad it keeps happening during Colts games :-(

jckrac, I'm curious to find out what happened, but I'm sure you are concentrating on correcting the problem rather than posting messages online (thank you).

Its jckrac for 15.

And sure enough, right after I post, we're back up in HD! Thank you! :-D

I'll take a moment to collect myself after a very hectic 35 minutes here....

OK, here's the deal:
We had dual problems that made this a real PITA to chase. Our backup CBS dish (where this game is fed on) had a failure of its horizontal LNB. Normally, this isn't too big a deal. I can patch one of our steerable dishes into the system, and we'd be off and running.

However (and I just now found this out) that there was a problem with the feed out of Lucas Oil. Our sister station in Indy (who is also our Master Control) reported an outage worse than what we had. So even though our CBS HD receiver was locked and loaded fine, the feed was crap. That is why you saw the feed switch back and forth several times between SD and HD; it was confusing and should have been a 2 minute problem fixed before kickoff.

I apologize it took as long as it did. We'll look into the CBS dish problem tomorrow and should be back to normal Monday.

I'll take a moment to collect myself after a very hectic 35 minutes here....

OK, here's the deal:
We had dual problems that made this a real PITA to chase. Our backup CBS dish (where this game is fed on) had a failure of its horizontal LNB. Normally, this isn't too big a deal. I can patch one of our steerable dishes into the system, and we'd be off and running.

However (and I just now found this out) that there was a problem with the feed out of Lucas Oil. Our sister station in Indy (who is also our Master Control) reported an outage worse than what we had. So even though our CBS HD receiver was locked and loaded fine, the feed was crap. That is why you saw the feed switch back and forth several times between SD and HD; it was confusing and should have been a 2 minute problem fixed before kickoff.

I apologize it took as long as it did. We'll look into the CBS dish problem tomorrow and should be back to normal Monday.


Once again, thanks so much for your explanation!

Once again, thanks so much for your explanation!


As an avid Colts fan, my heart dropped when we started off not in HD. Not as bad as it dropped when we lost the game, though.

We are actually in progress of wiring up a new HD distrubtion system here, which will help eliminate some of these NFL issues. The problem is confounded by our unique set up in which our master control operations is in Indy, but our HD receivers are here. That confuses the folks at network operations when you have a problem like today.

Good news is we now know where the weak point is, and we'll get it fixed.

And for those of you looking for 60 minutes in HD for the first time tonight: it wasn't in HD for the first half. That was my fault. I pulled a patch panel connector when trying to get the Colts game running. Obviously, the network resets to normal operations after the game, and I didn't have the the connector in the right place. Sorry!

It seems that the signal is jumping all over the place. It's real strong for one second and then gone the next. It really sucks that this is happening during the Heroes premiere!

Anyone have an idea what is going on here?
Thanks,
T

Don't know, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with the issue. I haven't watched much NBC over the summer, but I have been watching Sunday Night Football the last few weeks without as much as even a glitch. I understand that WISE has been having transmitter issues, but haven't these transmitter issues been going on for nearly a year now? Seems I first noticed their problems last year during football season!

yeah i wonder whats going on tonight. i have watched most of the 3 sunday night games and didnt have a problem. now a show i want to watch is having all sorts of problems. i thought it was just me having problems also.

:mad:
I am so glad that we have moved into the digital age. Yet again another year of waiting for the rerun of Heros to play on the Dish. I went to Indiana's News Center web site and found the following wonderful info...

"Strong Signals Always:
The days of static and ghosts on your TV set are over. The digital signal will also strengthen signal quality, meaning the signal will be just as brilliantly clear and sharp up to 65 miles away if there are no obstructions between you and the tower and a quality antenna and preamp are used. If you can receive our digital signal, you will always get studio-quality video and audio."

I only live in the south end of Allen county and have never been able to get a good signal from 33, and trust me this has nothing to do with lack of equipment on my end.

Maybe they should change this to say Strong Signal* (* As long as you live in the 469 Loop).

How I long for the days when I could at least get a fuzzy picture to see my favorite shows when something was wrong with the transmitter.

You would think that with two stations in the area they could get it back up more quickly, but oh wait they can still broadcast their news on the other one.

While I understand equipment breaks down, realize this is why people move away from OTH, and while this may not seem important to lose a few customers, we are the ones that watch your shows, watch the advertisements, and bring revenue to your company.

I guess I should get dishnetwork out to measure my signal now, so I can get some HDTV from another market.

Well at least the analog signal still works... I can at least watch that for the time being....

T

The colts game was in full H.D. not on Wane-tv but it was on Wbbm-tv via direct tv. It was a shame our local stations suck!

The colts game was in full H.D. not on Wane-tv but it was on Wbbm-tv via direct tv. It was a shame our local stations suck!

I beg to differ about the HD comment (and won't touch the local stations suck comment.) It was in HD. Yes, we missed the first 5 minutes while a quick repair was made in the chain. You can thank CBS for the pixelization for the first 20 minutes of the presentation on WANE, but it WAS in full HD.

It is true the Colts game 2 weeks ago was not in HD due to an encoder failure. However, getting the HD up in less than 2 days (when the original thought was 2 weeks) was nothing more than a miracle.

My opinions our mine alone, and not of my employer.

It seems for the first time ever others are having problems with 33-1 and I am not. I watched the Heroes pre-premier broadcast as well as the full two hour premier in HD without a hiccup (well, it still looks overly compressed - unlike 15.1....)

That said, I live in the shadow of their tower and have my directional antennae pointed directly at their tower I used to have a 95%+ singal but recently am only pulling about 80-85% signal strength. (I believe they are operating on a lower power backup transmitter at the moment?)

Previously I had my antennae pointed about half way between 15 and 33's towers (best of both worlds - or so I thought). With this setup I experienced the same issues with 33-1 that others are reporting. My signal strength would frequently and repeatedly bounce from between 80-90% to virtually nothing and then recover. For months I just assumed it was continued transmitter issues from 33 but as others began reporting a solid signal from 33-1 I decided to try adjusting my antennae again, pointing it directly at 33's tower which has resulted in a reliable signal for about a month now.

I don't understand why I need an 80%+ signal from 33-1 in order to not have frequent signal drops when I have been able to watch FOX with a steady 58% signal. It just doesn't make any sense.

Speaking of FOX, has anyone else lost 36.1 recently? Obviously I wasn't pulling a very strong signal from them (who is?) so it's probably just a signal issue. I'm just so afraid to touch my antennae for fear of losing 33 again.

Martian21

36.1 is still there, it just still sucks.

Speaking of FOX, has anyone else lost 36.1 recently? Obviously I wasn't pulling a very strong signal from them (who is?) so it's probably just a signal issue. I'm just so afraid to touch my antennae for fear of losing 33 again.

Martian21

I've been having problems with FOX lately as well. My Samsung can't get a signal at all while my DVR tuner is getting around 47%.

Speaking of Fox, I haven't gotten a whiff of it since I moved here in July. Any idea when they'll be increasing the power? I'm guessing it'll be right around the time D* adds our locals, at which point it won't matter.

Speaking of FOX, has anyone else lost 36.1 recently? Obviously I wasn't pulling a very strong signal from them (who is?) so it's probably just a signal issue. I'm just so afraid to touch my antennae for fear of losing 33 again.

Martian21

We got a converter box about 3 weeks ago and Fox was showing up as 36.1. Now the middle of this week, I noticed the channel number went to 55.1

You may need to rescan.

Bobby

Anyone even surprised anymore?

John W, you read my mind. Golf was in HD earlier... who knows what happened?

Looks like it came in at some point. But, I've been long gone watching Ted Lilly's no-hitter on a station thats got even bigger problems.

Is everyone seeing the poor HD quality during prime time broadcasts? I was watching Survivor thursday night and the tiling was horrible then I finally got a black screen with big letters that read SIGNAL LOST on the screen. I had to switch to SD to watch the rest of it. I noticed that House was tiling as well. I am in Auburn. Thanks.

Deron:mad:

I got the same thing on Comcast during Survivor. Obviously Wane's problem..

Anyone hear when 33/19-1 is going to be back to full power? Bears game is tomorrow night and I'd like to watch it on my new HDTV in my office. :-)

Anyone hear when 33/19-1 is going to be back to full power? Bears game is tomorrow night and I'd like to watch it on my new HDTV in my office. :-)
The part needed should arive sometime around the fist week of October.

Does anyone else have a problem with their cell phone causing interference with WFFT?

Anytime I make or receive a call the picture freezes and the signal drops out. It doesn't effect any other channels. The phone is a GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) T-Mobile phone that is supposed to operate at 1900MHz here. According to the FCC WFFT operates in the 602-608 MHz band so I don't know why it would interfere.

Any ideas why this happens?

Does anyone else have a problem with their cell phone causing interference with WFFT?

Anytime I make or receive a call the picture freezes and the signal drops out. It doesn't effect any other channels. The phone is a GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) T-Mobile phone that is supposed to operate at 1900MHz here. According to the FCC WFFT operates in the 602-608 MHz band so I don't know why it would interfere.

Any ideas why this happens?

55's digital signal is only compatible with two tin cans and string as thats about the level its at.

What's with the audio level on CBS it's WAY too hot. I have to turn my receiver down about 10-15 clicks to get a matching level and am still getting a fuzzy overdrive type distortion. Mostly in the L/R channels. Switched it to the South Bend affiliate and it is fine.

What's with the audio level on CBS it's WAY too hot. I have to turn my receiver down about 10-15 clicks to get a matching level and am still getting a fuzzy overdrive type distortion. Mostly in the L/R channels. Switched it to the South Bend affiliate and it is fine.

It's always been like that ...

To give all of you advanced warning:

During the Colts game this coming Sunday (between 2:27 and 2:36 approx.) we will lose the HD feed from CBS due to a sun outage. Due to the large technical needs for CBS to feed regional games, they do not back up the HD during sun outages. SO the game at that point will be flipped to upconvert until the outage is over.

I felt advanced notice was in order due to a couple glitches over the last 2 Colt games.

To give all of you advanced warning:

During the Colts game this coming Sunday (between 2:27 and 2:36 approx.) we will lose the HD feed from CBS due to a sun outage. Due to the large technical needs for CBS to feed regional games, they do not back up the HD during sun outages. SO the game at that point will be flipped to upconvert until the outage is over.

I felt advanced notice was in order due to a couple glitches over the last 2 Colt games.

Seriously....thank you for that notice. You would be shocked at how many people would completely understand this. Is WANE going to put something on the website for general public (other than the 12 people that read avsforum) :D

I know that some (specifically, those who work the weekend) are aware there will be an outage. We used to run crawls alerting viewers of the situation, but I think they don't do that anymore as the analog won't go away (CBS can switch the analog, but I guess there isn't enough HD transponders or something like that to switch the HD.)

At the very least, the folks in the newsroom can let people know when they call in with complaints that its a known situation and nothing can be done to prevent it.

As far as the website goes, I couldn't tell you. Agree its a good idea, but outside my realm of influence.

Good grief. Can't anybody here play this game?

Well I see that un-wiseTV (home of the TinCaps) is broadcasting another unwatchable program. What on earth will happen after the cutt-off for analog?

Getting occasional freezes on WPTA today. Anyone else seeing the same thing?

Is anyone able to pull a good signal from WISE - 33. I live about 35 miles away and am able to putt 15-1 and 21-1 with a good signal strength. But when I go to pull 33-1 their signal just isn't there.

Is anyone able to pull a good signal from WISE - 33. I live about 35 miles away and am able to putt 15-1 and 21-1 with a good signal strength. But when I go to pull 33-1 their signal just isn't there.
WISE is still on a lower power back-up transimitter. They still have more power than FOX but I don't see much hope of you getting anything at 35 miles until they get their primary transmitter repaired.

WISE is still on a lower power back-up transimitter. They still have more power than FOX but I don't see much hope of you getting anything at 35 miles until they get their primary transmitter repaired.

Its been awhile. 15 had problems and turned things around in a day or two. I'm starting to get concerned about the synergistic relationship on Butler Road.

Its been awhile. 15 had problems and turned things around in a day or two. I'm starting to get concerned about the synergistic relationship on Butler Road.
Your just starting to get concerned? I was concerned before the deal was even final.

I know Fort Wayne isn't considered a "major market" but there are certainly much smaller markets with much better coverage than we have. OTA digital TV in Fort Wayne is in an extremely sad state. That said, I don't blame the station engineers who I know work very hard to keep things running. I blame those above them who aren't getting the engineers the tools and equipment they need to do their jobs. I'm sure the FCC also plays a roll as we all know they move slower than a herd of turtles.

Hello, another newbie here just ran across this GREAT forum searching for antenna pre-amps. Looks like lots of great info here!!

I’m about 43 miles north of Ft.Wayne, NW of Hudson and having degrading reception as of late. 15 & 39 are excellent, 21 good, 55 analog fair, 33 poor on a good day. Never any fox HD.

I replaced my Radio Shack “flying disc” w/built in amplifier & rotor with a new antenna:
AntennaCraft MXU-59, an old Winegard UHF pre-amp (~30db gain) , and raised it 4 feet.
That improved things somewhat, but 33 analog is still snowy & w/ HD dropouts although fewer. Before I buy anymore equipment, I’d like to find out if I really NEED to! :confused:

Does anyone know what the five local stations PRESENTLY have for output power? or who to contact for

I’ve heard the new 55 frequencies will be at 36 & at lower power than the others to prevent interference with other towns. Anyone know what the output power numbers will be after Feb 1 for ALL the local channels?
Thanks

Does anyone know what the five local stations PRESENTLY have for output power? or who to contact for

I’ve heard the new 55 frequencies will be at 36 & at lower power than the others to prevent interference with other towns. Anyone know what the output power numbers will be after Feb 1 for ALL the local channels?
Thanks
Try this (http://rabbitears.info), it's run by a forum member and has all the FCC info by market.

Off the top of my head, 39 is 90kW (yet the signal is still good) and 21 is in the 300s. 55 is licensed to go to a 1000kW, but to do that, they need to have the stuff first. They claim they'll get 60 miles. (http://fortwaynehomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=3991) I believe they've filed for another extension though.

Does anyone know what the five local stations PRESENTLY have for output power? or who to contact for

I’ve heard the new 55 frequencies will be at 36 & at lower power than the others to prevent interference with other towns. Anyone know what the output power numbers will be after Feb 1 for ALL the local channels?
Thanks

I run the site linked by NoToLowPower (I rather like that name), so here's what I know.

15-1 is at 317 kW on channel 31 with a permit to go to 1000 kW some time after Feb 17.
21-1 is at 335 kW on channel 24 and will not increase further.
33-1 is at 285 kW on channel 19 and wants to relocate to channel 18 and boost power to 320 kW, but the FCC has yet to approve this.
39-1 is at 90 kW on channel 40 and wants to boost power to 153 kW, but the FCC has yet to approve this.
55-1 is at 0.97 kW on channel 36 from a low spot on the tower. They will be at 1000 kW from the proper spot on their tower before Feb 17.
63-1 is at 16.5 kW on channel 12. VHF channels travel further than UHF channels with the same power level; this is WINM's final power level.

I hope that helps you out. If anyone sees any mistakes in my listings (I had to correct 39-4 just recently when they adjusted the programming there), do let me know.

- Trip

What's with the audio level on CBS it's WAY too hot. I have to turn my receiver down about 10-15 clicks to get a matching level and am still getting a fuzzy overdrive type distortion. Mostly in the L/R channels. Switched it to the South Bend affiliate and it is fine.

It's always been like that ...

I just noticed this a few weeks ago. Haven't been able to get around it yet. Really annoying.

I just noticed this a few weeks ago. Haven't been able to get around it yet. Really annoying.

We think it is a problem with our CBS HD receiver here. During TPIR today, the surrounds were fuzzy, but a reboot cleared it. This receiver is near end of life so we are trying our best to keep it happy until the switch is made to a new front end distrubition system from CBS.

As far as the loudness, I lowered the encoder values for our audio as far as it will let me, and it did bring it down quite a bit on our monitors.

We think it is a problem with our CBS HD receiver here. During TPIR today, the surrounds were fuzzy, but a reboot cleared it. This receiver is near end of life so we are trying our best to keep it happy until the switch is made to a new front end distrubition system from CBS.

As far as the loudness, I lowered the encoder values for our audio as far as it will let me, and it did bring it down quite a bit on our monitors.

Whatever was done with the sound hasn't been good here where I'm just trying to listen through the TV speakers. The NFL Today has sounded like its coming through a tin cup.
Of course, I turn it down anyway for the Colts and use my new SportSync Radio to listen to the Colts Radio Network. Of course, have to do that via Oldies 106 out of Wabash thanks to another Fort Wayne phenomenon-Federated Media's EIGHTEEN SECOND delay on WOWO, 24/7.

We think it is a problem with our CBS HD receiver here. During TPIR today, the surrounds were fuzzy, but a reboot cleared it. This receiver is near end of life so we are trying our best to keep it happy until the switch is made to a new front end distrubition system from CBS.

As far as the loudness, I lowered the encoder values for our audio as far as it will let me, and it did bring it down quite a bit on our monitors.

The digital audio (15.1) is twice as loud as 15 (analog) with distortion on the peaks during the Colts-Raven game (10/12/08). Can someone lower the levels?

Thanks.

NFL/CBS have a 30 point lead no HD rule?

Making my normal Sunday apperance here, with hopefully some answers to some questions.

First, with the HD going away during the Colt game: it goes back to earlier in the week when CBS sent an erroneous switch command to our receivers (and WLFI) and that switch command actually was almost akin to a master reset. Our engineer that was here reset the receiver to its home base, but nobody at CBS knew it was a master reset. So today at 11:59, when our receiver was supposed to switch to a different feed for the Colt game, it stayed on the normal east coast feed, which was the flex feed of the Colts. We had no way of knowing we had issues until the flex dropeed to a different game. By the time our engineer got there to fix it, it was late in the game. CBS is aware of the problem, and its a "known bug, you're lucky it didn't happen earlier to you." (WLFI had the same problem.) We now know what to look for, and will before the weekends from here on out.

Second, with the audio: ever since our encoder failure 3 weeks ago, we've been fighting several audio issues. It seems every time we get one licked, another pops up. We are aware of the loudness level and are working with the makers of the gear to figure out what is going on. We've lowered our audio as far as we can at the place of failure last month, and still have the issue.

Also posted this over in the Verizon FIOS thread...

Looks like Verizon is getting ready to expand the HD channel lineup in Fort Wayne. The guide now shows 18 new HD channels. I also counted an additional 13 Showtime/Starz/Movie Channel HD channels (I don't have HBO, so I didn't count those, but there were more of them also). All totaled there will be 98 HD channels offered. The channels aren't active yet, but obviously this is the first step to adding the channels. Here are the new channels in the guide: FX, WGN, ESPN News, Speed, Tennis, WFN, MAV TV, Fox Business, Fox News, Biography, QVC, PLNTG (?), Travel, ABC Family, HMC, MGM, Disney, Toon Disney.

Also posted this over in the Verizon FIOS thread...

Looks like Verizon is getting ready to expand the HD channel lineup in Fort Wayne. The guide now shows 18 new HD channels. I also counted an additional 13 Showtime/Starz/Movie Channel HD channels (I don't have HBO, so I didn't count those, but there were more of them also). All totaled there will be 98 HD channels offered. The channels aren't active yet, but obviously this is the first step to adding the channels. Here are the new channels in the guide: FX, WGN, ESPN News, Speed, Tennis, WFN, MAV TV, Fox Business, Fox News, Biography, QVC, PLNTG (?), Travel, ABC Family, HMC, MGM, Disney, Toon Disney.


I noticed that too, a pleasant surprise! Will they be active by November?

Discussion on this is going on over on the Verizon FIOS thread. I became concerned this evening when checking to see if the expanded HD channels were available. I was able to tune in all of the new movie channels (13 additional Showtime/Starz/Movie Channel HD stations), but still none of the new regular HD channels (Disney, FX, etc.) would tune in. They all said I needed to subscribe. I called Verizon, and they said (after talking to three different people) that I needed to have the Extreme HD service. I was signed up for FIOS TV Premier (which is all they had when I signed up over a year ago). They said the Extreme HD service would be $57.99/month compared with my current $42.99/month. $15 more per month for the additional channels!

Then I asked if there were any bundles that might bring the price down. Turns out with the "Flex Triple Play" you can get 20/5 internet, phone, and Extreme HD for $109.99/month. I've got extra standard and HD DVR boxes, so my price is quite a bit more than that, but it still comes out to less than I am currently paying.

If you're interested in trying, call Verizon to change your package. The number is 1-888-553-1555. Be persistent. It took me five attempts to get connected and find someone who knew what they were doing!

Discussion on this is going on over on the Verizon FIOS thread. I became concerned this evening when checking to see if the expanded HD channels were available. I was able to tune in all of the new movie channels (13 additional Showtime/Starz/Movie Channel HD stations), but still none of the new regular HD channels (Disney, FX, etc.) would tune in. They all said I needed to subscribe. I called Verizon, and they said (after talking to three different people) that I needed to have the Extreme HD service. I was signed up for FIOS TV Premier (which is all they had when I signed up over a year ago). They said the Extreme HD service would be $57.99/month compared with my current $42.99/month. $15 more per month for the additional channels!

Then I asked if there were any bundles that might bring the price down. Turns out with the "Flex Triple Play" you can get 20/5 internet, phone, and Extreme HD for $109.99/month. I've got extra standard and HD DVR boxes, so my price is quite a bit more than that, but it still comes out to less than I am currently paying.

If you're interested in trying, call Verizon to change your package. The number is 1-888-553-1555. Be persistent. It took me five attempts to get connected and find someone who knew what they were doing!



If you only want TV and internet(Flex Double Play)the price they will give you is $79.99. On the web page is say $71.66. The best way to get this price is to log into your account and then select the bundles page and chat with a representative. She gave me the package for $79.99 plus a $10 credit every month.

All:

We have had a catastophic failure of our CBS receivers at WANE. Both of them failed earlier today.

We are currently scrambling to get the issue resolved, and hope to have it fixed as soon as we possibly can.

I'll update you when I have more information.

Jeff
WANE-Engineering

Follow up with the CBS HD:

I've rigged a setup that has us back on the air right now during TPIR and Y&R. Since its rigged, its a temporary set up, but we hope that will at least bridge us until some spare equipment arrives.

EDIT:

Well, the rig died. It made it through daytime HD fine, but apparently croaked leading up to Survivor. The night crew is trying a different setup.

I thought I'd give you guys an update on our situation at WANE with our HD:

The issue that caused the failure during the Colts game has manifested itself into a full blown failure of 2 CBS receivers.

The maintenance staff of 3 we have (and with additonal help from our sister station WISH in Indy and our former CE who is now working at a sister station in VA) have been working around the clock for a solution.

The HD we have been broadcasting last night and tonight is from the new reciever that is part of the next generation of the CBS HD chain. The good news is we have it running for prime time now.

The bad news is we are not yet under network control and we have not had the chance to test this receiver on the various polarities CBS feeds on, with an emphasis on the NFL on Sundays.

The good news is that we have been able to prove the system on the transponder the Colt game is assigned on Sunday at 4:15 (and we'll have an engineer on site at kickoff.) We won't know about the early game (Steelers and Bengals) until the pregame show at noon.

I just thought I'd do my best to keep you guys in on the loop. The other audio problems (loudness in particular) have taken a back seat this week to at least get you guys an HD picture.

Have a great weekend, and go Colts.

Jeff
WANE Engineering

Jeff~

Thank you for all of your hard work at WANE, and especially for taking your personal time to keep us all aware of the issues.

Jeff~

Thank you for all of your hard work at WANE, and especially for taking your personal time to keep us all aware of the issues.

I agree, well said hoosier.

I agree, well said hoosier.

Amen.

Thanks for the kind comments, guys, it means a lot to us all at 15. Its been a real struggle this week with the digital, but were trying to keep ahead of it the best we can. Each one of us here thanks you as well for your patience as we continue the ongoing battle. Our hope is we get through the NFL tomorrow and we can finally put this puppy to rest and return to normal operation next week.

Sorry 'bout the kickoff, fellas. We aren't used to the new menu structure of the receiver yet.

Enjoy the game.

nice to see it was up and running, bad to see the colts not show up for the game

Is anyone else experiencing audio problems with CBS? The audio seems to be out of sync. I was watching How I Met Your Mother and it was driving me nuts....

Is anyone else experiencing audio problems with CBS? The audio seems to be out of sync. I was watching How I Met Your Mother and it was driving me nuts....

Yes, same thing last night.

i watched it today on my dvr and didnt notice any audio problems except for the usual

JohnW, Salty, et al:

Thank you guys for confirming what we've been noticing for a few weeks now about the lip sync.

We need your help guys' help on this one, starting tonight:
When you are watching WANE, and you see lip sync issues, can you write down the name of the program, time you were watching it, and how you were watching it (i.e., OTA, HD via Comcast, Fios, etc.) and fire me a PM with that data so we can go back and look at it via our "DVR" and see it coming out of our plant.

I don't want to pre-bias anyone by saying "this is the problem area we are working on" so I'll just say an adjustment was made earlier today to try and sync us up better, but I want your guys' honest opinion.

Hopefully that adjustment doesn't really screw things up audio wise tonight, but there is only one way to find out I guess.

Thanks in advance for your help in solving this problem.

FWIW, we also had discussions with some folks about the loudness today and have some ideas that we are going to look into tomorrow. We'd have done more with it today, but we were out of town in Indy all day for a workshop.

Jeff
WANE Engineering

Thanks a ton, Jeff, for your hard work!


FIOS TV folks: Call customer service.

They upgraded me to the Extreme HD package, which is $5 more per month, but they are issuing me a $5 credit per month to keep my bill from rising. The package also includes 20mb download speed (I had 5mb before).

The new IMG comes out tomorrow, too!

Thanks a ton, Jeff, for your hard work!


FIOS TV folks: Call customer service.

They upgraded me to the Extreme HD package, which is $5 more per month, but they are issuing me a $5 credit per month to keep my bill from rising. The package also includes 20mb download speed (I had 5mb before).

The new IMG comes out tomorrow, too!

How did you get the $5 credit? I am being upgraded today (Thursday) but they didn't offer a credit.

DIRECTV should be launching their HD locals within the next few weeks. I know Fort Wayne was on the list for November, anyone know the exact date?

DIRECTV should be launching their HD locals within the next few weeks. I know Fort Wayne was on the list for November, anyone know the exact date?


The "official" DirecTV announcement has only stated by the end of the year for the locals in HD via the satellite.

November 19th is the "scheduled" date for dual illumination of the standard def Fort Wayne locals on the 72.5* and 99*/103* satellites, as part of the nationwide migration away from the 72.5* in 2-dish markets. It is anticipated that the 19th will also be the date when the HD locals will be availlable, but I have not seen anything concrete.

Requirements will be a Slimline Ka/Ku dish with either the SL5 (5 LNB, 99,101,103,110,119) or the new SL3 (3 LNB 99,101,103) LNBs, and an Mpeg4 capable receiver.

Mpeg4 capable receivers are:

DVR- Model R22 (not HD)
HD- Models H20, H21, and H23
HD/DVR- Models HR20, HR21, and the new HR22

All of the above receivers, except the H23, require the B-band converters be attached somewhere in line after the multiswitch.

If you are receiving CNNHD and History Channel HD, then you have the proper equipment, with the proper configuration.

I'll try to post updates as they become availlable.

So, are they coming out to rip off the 72.5 dishes from everyone as well?

We are waiting for Dish to offer the Fort Wayne HD locals. We hear they are coming, just nobody knows when.
Steve

So, are they coming out to rip off the 72.5 dishes from everyone as well?

I doubt that will happen. I imagine it will be left to the customer to remove the 72.5 dish, if they desire.

If you don't mind me asking, what receivers are you currently using?

JohnW, Salty, et al:

Thank you guys for confirming what we've been noticing for a few weeks now about the lip sync.

We need your help guys' help on this one, starting tonight:
When you are watching WANE, and you see lip sync issues, can you write down the name of the program, time you were watching it, and how you were watching it (i.e., OTA, HD via Comcast, Fios, etc.) and fire me a PM with that data so we can go back and look at it via our "DVR" and see it coming out of our plant.

I don't want to pre-bias anyone by saying "this is the problem area we are working on" so I'll just say an adjustment was made earlier today to try and sync us up better, but I want your guys' honest opinion.

Hopefully that adjustment doesn't really screw things up audio wise tonight, but there is only one way to find out I guess.

Thanks in advance for your help in solving this problem.

FWIW, we also had discussions with some folks about the loudness today and have some ideas that we are going to look into tomorrow. We'd have done more with it today, but we were out of town in Indy all day for a workshop.

Jeff
WANE Engineering

The lip sync is off today on the NFL Today.

The "official" DirecTV announcement has only stated by the end of the year for the locals in HD via the satellite.

November 19th is the "scheduled" date for dual illumination of the standard def Fort Wayne locals on the 72.5* and 99*/103* satellites, as part of the nationwide migration away from the 72.5* in 2-dish markets. It is anticipated that the 19th will also be the date when the HD locals will be availlable, but I have not seen anything concrete.


Thanks for that info. It will be odd to watch Fox again. I have a legacy package, so I hope I can just tack on the local option for it.

Thanks a ton, Jeff, for your hard work!


FIOS TV folks: Call customer service.

They upgraded me to the Extreme HD package, which is $5 more per month, but they are issuing me a $5 credit per month to keep my bill from rising. The package also includes 20mb download speed (I had 5mb before).

The new IMG comes out tomorrow, too!


Called FIOS today and asked about Extreme HD. They said never heard of that plan. Could you pass along which number you called?
As a GTE retiree, Verizon leaves me a lot to wish for. There is always someone who doesn't seem to get the word. GTE Americast wasn't like this.

My thanks to all that have given input on our HD signal over the last couple of weeks. I thought I'd give you all some updates on where our progress lies.

With our HD receiver situation that affected several NFL games a few weeks back: I'm happy to say the next generation of receiver from CBS has been online now for 2 weeks without an issue. I'm also happy to report that we finally have it working like it should with regards to switching transponders. That turned out to be a bit of a pain, but as of yesterday, it is working (as I look at my desk to find some wood to knock on.)

Audio levels: while we are still louder than what I'd like, we have been able to pull it down to the point that it isn't in overdrive. There are times it does go into an overdrive situation, and we are working on it. We do have some gear out for repair that will help in this situation.

Lip Sync: please keep sending me reports via PM on when you have an issue with lip sync. I liken the problem to greased pig contest: we have the problem cornered, think we have a hold of it, and then it slips away. Long story short: with your reports we've slowly tracked it back and we think we know where the problem lies. The problem we are having now is making adjustments without turning WANE into a bad karate movie with audio.

A glimpse into the future: we continue to wire our side for the new CBS dist. system. Soon, all of our programming (with the exception of local news) will come from the same source from our control room in Indy (where our HD is fed from here now.) When that transition is made in the next couple of weeks, Indy will have our HD receive gear and can respond more quickly to wrong transponders. We will also be feeding through a clean/quiet switch which I believe is another cog in the wheel with lip sync. We expect that change to be coming within the next several weeks, and firmly believe it is a positive change.

Again, keep any reports of issues for our DT coming, and we'll continue to investigate it further!

Jeff
WANE-Engineering

Thanks Jeff,

That does seem to be good news.

I just recently have had the ability to see the full HD feed from you without any cropping. I've noticed that the top 10-20 rows of pixels seem to be a frame or two behind the rest of the picture. It looks like the picture has a horizontal tear.

Just gave myself a headache watching for the pixel delay you see Oryan. I thought I saw it during a non-hd commercial, but am not seeing it on our monitoring gear here during Y&R (which is in full HD.) I'll keep looking at it and see if it happens again.

Has anyone heard news about Comast adding any HD channels in FW in the near future? It seems like things have been really quiet from them, and there hasn't been an addition since Comcast Sportsnet Chicago HD in late August, early September. Are they out of space to add channels?

Has anyone here by chance been following one of the other threads on this website about recording problems from the Fort Wayne over the air stations? I have a few month old Philips DVD recorder and record the Fort Wayne digital and analog (Fox 55) stations with its over the air built in tuner. Back in September I started having problems recording the shows on Fox analog and NBC digital. Right in the middle of the show, usually in a commercial the unit stops and gives me an error saying "recording error +VR mode". I just got off the phone with Philips technical support and they told me that it is not the recorder, but that some of the networks, some of the time are now sending out broadcast flags to not allow copying. Has anyone else ran into this?

Thanks, Steve

Hey Jeff,

The STT has been an hour off since Sunday. The guy with the key missed that one.

Why is there VIR data in the video insert tonight? Happens on both my Sony and the Vizio. Is Indy providing it or . . .

And we all hope some of the income from all the political ads works its way into spares for engineering. Keep pushing and thanks!

Yes, a Granger, Indiana viewer of WNDU NBC South Bend has reported that when recording the Prime Time Saturday Night Live show certain segments wouldn't record which we surmised was because NBC was sending out a flag to prevent their recording.

Yes, a Granger, Indiana viewer of WNDU NBC South Bend has reported that when recording the Prime Time Saturday Night Live show certain segments wouldn't record which we surmised was because NBC was sending out a flag to prevent their recording.
I glad that MythTV doesn't suffer from this problem!

We all saw this coming...

Yup, it appears that most all of the new DVD recorders will shut down when they see this broadcast flag in the data stream. One very good reason to hold on to those old VHS recorders out there people as they so far work just fine. Hook up a cheap digital converter box to the line inputs on the VCR and you are good to go. I find it most interesting that none of the Engineers at the Fort Wayne stations will address the subject. We called FOX 55 engineering yesterday and we are still waiting on a call back from them.

Steve

Yup, it appears that most all of the new DVD recorders will shut down when they see this broadcast flag in the data stream. One very good reason to hold on to those old VHS recorders out there people as they so far work just fine. Hook up a cheap digital converter box to the line inputs on the VCR and you are good to go. I find it most interesting that none of the Engineers at the Fort Wayne stations will address the subject. We called FOX 55 engineering yesterday and we are still waiting on a call back from them.

Steve

Steve;

What would you like us to address? The suits in New York and Hollywood are the ones pushing the broadcast flag. Based on my checking from CBS, there isn't much of a choice from the local perspective.

Thanks for the reply jckrac. I understand that you have no control over the insertion of the broadcast flags at the local level. Engineering from FOX 55 called me back and said that they were not aware of them. I am primarily having the issues with them shutting down my DVD recorder from Fox 55 and almost always during the commercials. I guess I need to watch the next time that it happens to see if they are network or locally inserted spots when it shuts down.

Would you by chance have a website or forum location that could give us viewers more information about the broadcast flags that appear to be the wave of the future. I guess our days of recording off air signals are coming to an end.
I am an installer for Dish Network and we hear that they are playing with them also on the pay per view events.

Thanks, Steve in Huntington



Steve;

What would you like us to address? The suits in New York and Hollywood are the ones pushing the broadcast flag. Based on my checking from CBS, there isn't much of a choice from the local perspective.

Steve:

No problems.

I read up on CBS' plans on the broadcast flag, but that is on the engineering website, so I can't link to it. The piece on that website is older (I want to say 2003) and that was the newest version I can find. The ironic thing is that piece states its not meant to stop home recording, but that appears to be exactly what is happening.

When I get more time, I'll try and fish more info out.

Would you by chance have a website or forum location that could give us viewers more information about the broadcast flags that appear to be the wave of the future. I guess our days of recording off air signals are coming to an end.
I am an installer for Dish Network and we hear that they are playing with them also on the pay per view events.

Thanks, Steve in Huntington

As Martian21 mentioned above, I'd recommend looking in MythTV for recording OTA shows. It's a linux based DVR solution that ignores any broadcast flags. There are a few distributions that make it pretty easy to setup. Here are a few links.

http://mythtv.org/ - Main site
http://knoppmyth.net/ - Myth specific distro
http://mythbuntu.com/ - Ubuntu based distro

I personally use Knoppmyth and am extremely happy with it. I've also used Mythdora (Fedora based - http://www.mythdora.com/ ) and found it to work pretty well (I'm just not a fan of RPM based distros).

I've not yet tried Mythbuntu but I've heard good things.

You don't need to have a strong Linux background to get Knoppmyth running but it certainly helps.

Martian21

Has anyone heard news about Comast adding any HD channels in FW in the near future? It seems like things have been really quiet from them, and there hasn't been an addition since Comcast Sportsnet Chicago HD in late August, early September. Are they out of space to add channels?

I take the lack of a response to mean no one has heard anything. It's frustrating to see Comcast adding HD channels in other markets, but doing nothing in Fort Wayne. :mad:

about the lip sync being off on WANE DT, i really noticed it on letterman 12:03ish AM (night of 11/12, morning 11/13) during the stupid human trick playing the piano with the nose people. The sounds of the piano are off from the impact of their noses on the keys.

It seems that the signal strength for 36-1 has increased. Anyone else see this? Thanks.

Jim

It seems that the signal strength for 36-1 has increased. Anyone else see this? Thanks.

Jim

I checked at 7 am this morning (Sunday), and my signal strenght has not changed.

It seems that the signal strength for 36-1 has increased. Anyone else see this? Thanks.

Jim

Not here in Huntington. I've found it to be very weather/atmospheric conditions dependent based on it being very borderline for us.

It seems that the signal strength for 36-1 has increased. Anyone else see this? Thanks.

Jim

Not for me, it seems to be worse the last few weeks. I am only about 4 miles from the tower and 90% of the time I my signal is about 10% with frequent dropouts.

Not for me here on the south side of Huntington. We have a 70 foot tower with an 8 bay channel master antenna and high gain pre-amp and 95 percent of the time we have nothing. We talked to one of the engineers at 55 a couple of weeks ago and he said that they were still working on the hardware and shooting for the February 17th date. We would just be happy if they would quit sending out there broadcast flags in the middle of the analog commercials and shutting down my DVD recorder. They are the only network that we have the problem with.

Steve






It seems that the signal strength for 36-1 has increased. Anyone else see this? Thanks.

Jim

Maybe it was my setup, but I noticed lip sync issues when when president-elect Obama was on 60 minutes last night. Not severe, but enough to notice. I get Dayton OH CBS (WHIO) about as strong as WANE - swung over there and it was OK.

Thanks to all engineers & techs for your efforts to get your signal out. Hopefully your marketing people are pleased that their clients' ads are reaching people 60 miles away who shop & dine in the greater Ft Wayne area.

South Bend CBS Affiliate Switches to HD News

http://www.tvpredictions.com/localhd111708.htm

Fort Wayne HD locals are now live via DirecTV.

Channels 14 and 39 are SD only, 15, 21, 33, and 55 are HD.

I'll post more details when I find out which satellite/xponders the locals are broadcast from.

Just sent a question to a friend of mine to see if the subs are going to be carried. PBS really needs to get it's HD together. 3 subs of crap really doesn't work....

Just sent a question to a friend of mine to see if the subs are going to be carried. PBS really needs to get it's HD together. 3 subs of crap really doesn't work....
Agreed! While I like having the children's programming for my son it should not come at the expense of the main channel.

Fort Wayne HD locals are now live via DirecTV.

Channels 14 and 39 are SD only, 15, 21, 33, and 55 are HD.

I'll post more details when I find out which satellite/xponders the locals are broadcast from.

yes it is very nice to see these finally go live. i have been waiting ever since they announced fort wayne was getting local hd earlier in the year.

I just noticed that the guide data was showing HD on the sat. locals. Sweet! About friggin' time!

We talked to one of the engineers at 55 a couple of weeks ago and he said that they were still working on the hardware and shooting for the February 17th date.
So much for late October, huh?

So much for late October, huh?

Whatever happened to that planted 55 cheerleader who was on here sometime ago?

I've been thinking recently...

I noticed that 33-3 and 21-3 are really both the exact same stream. I know it used to be that 33-3 was NBC Weather Plus, where 21-3 was just a radar view, but recently they have been converted to identical streams. Add to that the fact that in the wee hours of the morning, 33-2 also joins the mix.

With 33-1 being 1080i, it is a bit bandwidth starved because of the support of two subchannels; the compression artifacting can be seen especially during fast scenes and fades. Why not just stop 33-3 and let it run full time on 21-3?

This decision is probably not made by the engineer (since it's more programming), but I'm just curious to find out what the logic is behind running two (and sometimes three) identical channels?

I've been thinking recently...

I noticed that 33-3 and 21-3 are really both the exact same stream. I know it used to be that 33-3 was NBC Weather Plus, where 21-3 was just a radar view, but recently they have been converted to identical streams. Add to that the fact that in the wee hours of the morning, 33-2 also joins the mix.

With 33-1 being 1080i, it is a bit bandwidth starved because of the support of two subchannels; the compression artifacting can be seen especially during fast scenes and fades. Why not just stop 33-3 and let it run full time on 21-3?

This decision is probably not made by the engineer (since it's more programming), but I'm just curious to find out what the logic is behind running two (and sometimes three) identical channels?
33-3 will become a local 24/7 newschannel the first week of December. 21-3 will remain the Vipir radar.

FYI:
Tonight we lost the NBC HD receiver. NBC is no longer replacing the current receivers. On Tuesday November 25th, NBC will be switching over to the new MPEG 4 format and we will be using a new receiver, so if everything goes OK, NBC will be back on HD that evening.

FYI:
Tonight we lost the NBC HD receiver. NBC is no longer replacing the current receivers. On Tuesday November 25th, NBC will be switching over to the new MPEG 4 format and we will be using a new receiver, so if everything goes OK, NBC will be back on HD that evening.

Amazing. So, no Colts HD Sunday night?

Amazing. So, no Colts HD Sunday night?
Not unless the receiver has a change of heart!

FYI:
Tonight we lost the NBC HD receiver. NBC is no longer replacing the current receivers. On Tuesday November 25th, NBC will be switching over to the new MPEG 4 format and we will be using a new receiver, so if everything goes OK, NBC will be back on HD that evening.

Sounds like the exact same scenario we had with our CBS receivers. I heard from a former co-worker who is now CE at an NBC station, and was shocked to hear that they are doing this during a holiday week.

Good luck to you guys during the change.

Not unless the receiver has a change of heart!

I say "amazing" because of the number of times problems have seemed to crop up on the rare times you have a Colts game on NBC or some other very special game or event. I think our first problem after we had an HD receiver was back when the Colts first made a late undefeated run and you all had San Diego-Indy that year and something went wrong and we had sd instead of hd. I know the timing is out of your control and somebody is probably teed off because of something they wanted to see whenever you go down. Just seems 33 has lost it more than once when there was something critical everyone locally would want to see.

I say "amazing" because of the number of times problems have seemed to crop up on the rare times you have a Colts game on NBC or some other very special game or event. I think our first problem after we had an HD receiver was back when the Colts first made a late undefeated run and you all had San Diego-Indy that year and something went wrong and we had sd instead of hd. I know the timing is out of your control and somebody is probably teed off because of something they wanted to see whenever you go down. Just seems 33 has lost it more than once when there was something critical everyone locally would want to see.

This is completely out of our control. NBC has been using receivers that should have been replaced years ago and they did not provide any backups. They are currently changing over to new receivers next week and within the next couple of months, they will also be providing back-up receivers.
ABC will also be providing backup receivers next month. The networks are finally taking the HD side of things more seriously now!
We can only be as good as the equipment will allow.
We take much pride in trying to produce the best quality digital signal and picture that we can with the outdated equipment that we have.

On a side note, we will be going on-line with a completely new full HD master control in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, we still do not have HD capable video servers and old HD encoders, but will be able to take most any "live" HD feeds and provide station ID's, school closings and weather alerts in full HD.

This is completely out of our control.

I understand that 100%. Was just commenting on what seems to be your and our "dumb luck". We appreciate everything you do and understand you are at the mercy of the networks and your employers.

Hopefully the new receivers/equipment will eliminate the softness and pixelation when a full screen changes to a new image.

Hopefully the new receivers/equipment will eliminate the softness and pixelation when a full screen changes to a new image.

THIS!

(how ya doin'?)

With so many local options for HDTV, I was wondering if anyone would be willing and able to do a comparison of picture quality between ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. In other words, who has the best local HD picture quality: OTA, FIOS, Cable, or Sat?
Are the bit-rates listed below correct for our area? (copied from this ZDNet Blog (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=962))
Source/service CODEC Resolution Bit-rate
Blu-ray H.264 or MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i/p 40
HD DVD H.264 or VC-1 1920×1080 1080i/p 28
ATSC HDTV MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i/p 19.39
Digital cable MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i/p ~ 16
Verizon FiOS
Video on demand MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i 15
DISH HD MPEG2/MPEG4 1440×1080 < 10
DIRECTV HD MPEG2/MPEG4 1280×1080 < 10
IPTV H.264 ? < 10
Xbox Live Video VC-1 1280×720 720p 6.8
DVD MPEG2 720×480 480i * 8
Apple iTunes QuickTime/H.264 1280×720 720p 4
Web “HD” downloads H.264 1280×720 720p 1.5

I would think that the OTA HD quality would be the upper bound for Cable/FIOS/Sat.

Just remember when doing your comparisons that most OTA digital stations are cramming 2-4 stations in that 19.39 Mbps. Digital cable often crams even more in.

If I'm not mistaken, Cable/FIOS/Sat get their local feeds from the same source as the OTA transmission, so there's no way they can be any higher quality than OTA for local channels.

Keep in mind, though, that OTA is always MPEG2, where (as mentioned in the chart above), FIOS/Sat can use MPEG4, so even though bitrates may be lower, MPEG4 is more efficient than MPEG2.

What is on Direct channel 14 if I may ask? Dish Network only has channels 15,21,33,39,55 and 63 up in SD MPEG2 at this time.

Steve



Fort Wayne HD locals are now live via DirecTV.

Channels 14 and 39 are SD only, 15, 21, 33, and 55 are HD.

I'll post more details when I find out which satellite/xponders the locals are broadcast from.

14 is probably a CW station from another market (Baltimore?).

- Trip

FYI:
Tonight we lost the NBC HD receiver. NBC is no longer replacing the current receivers. On Tuesday November 25th, NBC will be switching over to the new MPEG 4 format and we will be using a new receiver, so if everything goes OK, NBC will be back on HD that evening.

Well, how's it going?

FYI:
Tonight we lost the NBC HD receiver. NBC is no longer replacing the current receivers. On Tuesday November 25th, NBC will be switching over to the new MPEG 4 format and we will be using a new receiver, so if everything goes OK, NBC will be back on HD that evening.

Well, the picture is great, but, there is a sound issue. Nightly News music -and the Michael Douglas intro-came in loud and clear. All other speakers are barely audible. Regular 33 isn't that way.

well, the picture is great, but, there is a sound issue. Nightly news music -and the michael douglas intro-came in loud and clear. All other speakers are barely audible. Regular 33 isn't that way.

fixed!!!

14 is probably a CW station from another market (Baltimore?).

- Trip
Channel 14 on DirecTV is the Fort Wayne CW!

Seriously? I've not heard of DirecTV carrying any CW+ affiliates, rather they choose to substitute a CW affiliate from another market, the east coast markets getting WNUV from Baltimore.

- Trip

Seriously? I've not heard of DirecTV carrying any CW+ affiliates, rather they choose to substitute a CW affiliate from another market, the east coast markets getting WNUV from Baltimore.

- Trip
Yes, watch the station at 10:00pm on weeknights and you will see our live newscast.

I'm not in the market, but I believe you. Interesting stuff!

- Trip

Anyone know how DirecTV is getting the local feeds for Fort Wayne? Direct feed from the stations, OTA?? Just mainly me being curious, as they look spectacular! No discernible difference by me from my OTA receiver.

Anyone know how DirecTV is getting the local feeds for Fort Wayne? Direct feed from the stations, OTA?? Just mainly me being curious, as they look spectacular! No discernible difference by me from my OTA receiver.
I know that WPTA, WISE, WFFT all are received by DirecTV OTA. The central receive equipment for DirecTV is located in the WANE building, so they could be handing off the HD signal directly to them.

Hopefully the new receivers/equipment will eliminate the softness and pixelation when a full screen changes to a new image.

Doesn't look like it.

Again, keep any reports of issues for our DT coming, and we'll continue to investigate it further!

Jeff
WANE-Engineering


Jeff~

Did we lose the DD 5.1 soundtracks recently?

I noticed that at least the last 2 episodes of "The Unit" did not have the DD 5.1 Sound, only 2.0. I checked some of my DVR'ed programs and noticed that the 11/10 episode of "How I met your mother" contained the DD 5.1 sound. Episodes that aired on 11/17 and 11/24 only have 2.0 sound.

Hope that helps narrow it down.

Jeff~

Did we lose the DD 5.1 soundtracks recently?

I noticed that at least the last 2 episodes of "The Unit" did not have the DD 5.1 Sound, only 2.0. I checked some of my DVR'ed programs and noticed that the 11/10 episode of "How I met your mother" contained the DD 5.1 sound. Episodes that aired on 11/17 and 11/24 only have 2.0 sound.

Hope that helps narrow it down.

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Second: You are correct, right now we are not broadcasting in 5.1. Straight stereo for now. 2 weeks ago, we switched to our new front end HD system, which now is fed from Indy. We are now fed full time HD from Indy (when its available). A part of this change is the SD is now a center cut chop of the HD.

To not go completely technical on you, our downmixers are having a problem chopping down the 5.1 to stereo for the SD. So we've got it bypassed until we get the problem figured out with the manufacturer of the mixing gear. That is why it all the sudden dropped out on you.

You will notice some other changes with this new set up: we can now do school delays in full HD, and we can also do weather warnings in HD. (Its been online for a few months, but we've had it bypassed until now.) So the days of the HD being clear of the clutter are sadly coming to an end. Also, with this set up, our NFL switching problems should go away (even though it has been quiet on that front for a month or so.)

I know that WPTA, WISE, WFFT all are received by DirecTV OTA. The central receive equipment for DirecTV is located in the WANE building, so they could be handing off the HD signal directly to them.

ENGjas is correct: the antennas to recieve OTA are on our radar tower. We feed them direct, everyone else comes in OTA. The signal leaves our building via fiber. I'm not 100% sure where it goes after that, but I think its not fiber the whole way back to DirecTv.

It was interesting to talk the the bevy of people that worked on the install. Nice people as well.

I know that WPTA, WISE, WFFT all are received by DirecTV OTA. The central receive equipment for DirecTV is located in the WANE building, so they could be handing off the HD signal directly to them.

wow, so does anyone have an idea what the bitrates are for either OTA or DirectTV in our area. Anyone know how Dishtv compares?

...So the days of the HD being clear of the clutter are sadly coming to an end....


grrr

That was so nice to be able to watch a TV show in HD and not have it cluttered up by the huge radar in the corner when there was bad weather. To bad they didn't design in the ATSC standard a way for the consumer receiver equipment to be able to ignore the screen clutter. And I bet since the SD is a cropped HD, that the clutter will not be in the corner of the HD, but rather front and center. That deserves another grrrr. Jeff, I'm not upset at you as I know your just doing what the mucky mucks say.

I guess I'll have to start netflixing the shows I care about (The Unit, NCIS) when they are on Blu-ray. (Or have your clutter producing machines have a failure when those shows come on wink, wink)

... Anyone know how Dishtv compares?

Dish doesn't have the FW locals in HD yet.

grrr

That was so nice to be able to watch a TV show in HD and not have it cluttered up by the huge radar in the corner when there was bad weather. To bad they didn't design in the ATSC standard a way for the consumer receiver equipment to be able to ignore the screen clutter. And I bet since the SD is a cropped HD, that the clutter will not be in the corner of the HD, but rather front and center. That deserves another grrrr. Jeff, I'm not upset at you as I know your just doing what the mucky mucks say.

I guess I'll have to start netflixing the shows I care about (The Unit, NCIS) when they are on Blu-ray. (Or have your clutter producing machines have a failure when those shows come on wink, wink)

Front and center is a little extreme, but yeah, it will be in the "safe zone" for SD; meaning pulled to the right. I've seen it on the air back when we first installed it and I don't think it is as intrusive as it could be. Personally, I could do without the radar under most circumstances, but that is not my call.

I guess we all knew it was "just a matter of time" so to speak.

Well, our HD weather warning system is live for the first time.

Rest assured the position of the bug and the warning position will be changed over time as its too far right now. We've got some further debugging to do, obviously.

Special thanks one of the unsung heroes of WANE for working on ridding the map.

Anyone else notice the WANE feed on DirecTV being jerky? Been that way since sometime yesterday i believe.....not so via 15-1 OTA.

Anyone else notice the WANE feed on DirecTV being jerky? Been that way since sometime yesterday i believe.....not so via 15-1 OTA.

Yes, it is only the DirecTV Mpeg4 feed, and oddly only with "live" TV. I Have 2 HD/DVRs that are experiencing the same issue as you. If I pause/rewind there is no jittery video, FF to live and video is jittery again.

The Mpeg2 feed from the 72.5 dish is not having the issue on my SD equipment.

Have you heard any rumors as to how soon Dish Network will be up in HD?

Thanks, Steve

ENGjas is correct: the antennas to recieve OTA are on our radar tower. We feed them direct, everyone else comes in OTA. The signal leaves our building via fiber. I'm not 100% sure where it goes after that, but I think its not fiber the whole way back to DirecTv.

It was interesting to talk the the bevy of people that worked on the install. Nice people as well.

Have you heard any rumors as to how soon Dish Network will be up in HD?

Thanks, Steve

No clue. The Dish receive gear is over at 39. I hope soon for my parents sake!

Now what, ENGjas? Mrs. John W is the Bears fan and she is pissed.

16-1 out of South Bend has the Bears game. I am picking that up with my antenna pointing at Fort Wayne.

16-1 out of South Bend has the Bears game. I am picking that up with my antenna pointing at Fort Wayne.

Me Too

Now what, ENGjas? Mrs. John W is the Bears fan and she is pissed.

Mr. Mo Scratch is a vikings fan and he is pissed.

No South Bend for me and analog 33 is even bad for analog. Good grief.

I'm getting really tired of these promos "It's XX days til the switch to digital. Are you ready?"
Especially in these instances when it's clear the stations are no where near ready themselves.
Jeez.

Maybe its fixed. I have a picture on 33-1. Please, for the sake of my happy home.

For what its worth, guys, there was a major power problem in the areas of the stations last night. In WANE's case, it fried several pieces of gear (including our 15.2 feed for a while last night), but luckily, it spared most of the on-air gear (we'd have been really hosed if we would have had a early newscasts last night as it killed part of our router.)

Can't say for sure if that is what happened to our friends across the street last night, but it might have been part of the problem.

I am enjoying HD from DTV since last week. It's pretty nice...

For what its worth, guys, there was a major power problem in the areas of the stations last night. In WANE's case, it fried several pieces of gear (including our 15.2 feed for a while last night), but luckily, it spared most of the on-air gear (we'd have been really hosed if we would have had a early newscasts last night as it killed part of our router.)

Can't say for sure if that is what happened to our friends across the street last night, but it might have been part of the problem.
jckrac is correct, The power hit took out a part of the transmitter, luckily we had a spare part, but it took a while to get it setup.

jckrac is correct, The power hit took out a part of the transmitter, luckily we had a spare part, but it took a while to get it setup.

Ouch, I would think AEP would have a better grid out in that area. Glad you made it out relatively unscathed.

Ouch, I would think AEP would have a better grid out in that area. Glad you made it out relatively unscathed.


The same AEP who wanted to remove the pole structure they had placed on the poles that protect the wires that run directly under our guy wires WHILE the guys were being replaced??!!

They had a real bad night as later in the night, Jefferson Pointe went dark.

Comcast has a big ad in todays Huntington newspaper saying they will now be offering HD channels to our market. Pricing looks very expensive as it appears to only be available bundled with voice and internet starting 1-6-2009.

Wonder how many actual HD channels they will be offering??

Steve

It seems that the signal strength for 36-1 has increased. Anyone else see this? Thanks.

Jim

Something seems different here in Huntington this weekend. Usually with snow like its been we wouldn't be receiving it and we are.

Of course as usual, and my nefarious mind conjures up some outlandish reasons, even on this weekend when 55 digital has come in well through blinding snow, when the NFL comes on my signal strength here in Huntington goes down about 10 points.

Once again, I appeal for the help of the fine folks here at the AVS forums to help us at WANE.

A while back, we did an encoder swap on the HD. This encoder is the latest and greatest from the manufacturer.

This is a major change in the HD chain, and we are tracking all aspects of the signal. But the main issue we are watching is lip sync (again, still!)

I love TV (or I wouldn't work in the business) but I have to be honest when I say I don't have a lot of time at home to watch 15 (or our friends across the street for that matter.)

That is where you guys come in. If in the normal course of watching our HD, if you happen to see lip sync off, note the following and send me a message here on the forum:

Day of Program
Date
Time
Service you watch us on (FIOS, DirecTv HD, OTA, Comcast, etc....)

I will say (and I'm not trying to pre-bias anyone) that when we watch it at work it is OTA. When I watch it at home, it is OTA on my Panasonic 42" plasma. And since the encoder change, we have yet to see it out of sync. But we continue to track it as final tweaks are made.

For those of you that are interested in the technical side: the timing adjustments that were made (and helped out tremendously in our opinion) from one encoder to the next was less than 1/5th of a second.

Channel 14 on DirecTV is the Fort Wayne CW!

Any word on if there are any plans to offer the local CW in HD?

Any word on if there are any plans to offer the local CW in HD?
Our current encoders can only do one HD channel in a stream. At this time there are no plans to upgrade our encoders.

Anyone else notice the issue WFWA is having with the picture fading in and out during the time between shows? At first I just thought it was their weak signal but it's not the same pixelization you get with signal loss. Both the picture and audio fade out and back in for about a second. Usually between programs. I've been noticing it for the past couple of months.

Any estimates as to when WANE 15.1 will regain Dolby Digital 5.1 surround?

I had to scan for Wise tv because 33-3 was on all three channels. Finally my tuner locked on to 19-1, 19-2, 19-3 for channel 33. I do not display 33-1,33-2 and 33-3. also the network NBC is now on 19-2 in H.D. Wfft has the new addition complete for the new transmitter and it is in place. The cooling and ventallation system is installed as well I have not seen a new antenna sitting anywhere on the Fox grounds. I sure hope they are not going to try to use the old analog stick to save money! I am receiving Fox on 36-1 and it is displayed as 55 when viewed. In the Dupont and Tonkel rd. area using a winegard HD-1080 and recieving VHF DT 12 from the rear of the aerial as well.

tuner locked on to 19-1, 19-2, 19-3 for channel 33. I do not display 33-1,33-2 and 33-3. also the network NBC is now on 19-2 in H.D.

same problem here on my older Samsung DTV Tuner (33-1 is now on 19-2) but my HD Tuner in my PC still recognizes it as 33-1... weird.

Jeff,
I'm watching Big Bang Theory and the sound is not right. I've noticed as others have, that it is now DD 2.0. This setup makes the laugh track and other sounds very loud in comparison to the voices. It seems as though the center channel of the 5.1 mix is not being mixed into the DD2.0 track. This makes listening to the show hard as either the voices are inaudible or the laughs/music is too loud. I've tried both my surround sound and my TVs built in speakers.

Ryan

Edit: Towards the end of BBT, the screen flickered and it appears the sound is better (still DD2.0 though). The first few minutes of HIMYM also sound good.

I'm seeing the same issue here with Big Bang Theory. Although, this is a new issue whereas it being broadcast in 2.0 is not. Something went awry within the last week. On the plus side, no lip sync issues! (On DirecTV here....)

So far, no lip sync issues yet tonight on CBS. I'm getting the signal OTA.

Good morning all.

As I noted a while back when the question about 5.1 was raised: we are having mixing problems related to converting 5.1 down for our analog services. So we set the station up to run stereo as we continue to work with the manufacturers of the gear to come to a solution.

Last night, our control room in Indy somehow reverted to sending us 5.1. Since we are not currently set up to send that through the chain correctly, it came out FUBAR'ed.

The screen flickering was probably last night's tech trying to diagnose the problem. It looks like via the write-up from last night that it was back to normal stereo about 8:25. I just missed it as I tuned in about 8:30.

To answer when we will be back on 5.1: I don't know. Part of the system was just sent out for repair and its a legacy system: it will take a while to repair.

Jeff,
Thanks for the update. I do have one more comment on local news. It seems as if the news clips that you get from Indy are filmed in widescreen (HD possibly) and then when it goes out OTA from Fort Wayne, the widescreen gets compressed into 4:3. Basically, the 4:3 pillar bars are even larger when the widescreen signal has 4:3 pillar bars itself. Eg. the story on Blago last night was compressed, and the footage of Obama was 4:3 in within 4:3. Is this making any sense? Anyways, would it be possible to ether crop those news clips or letterbox them, so they are not squeezed?

Engjas,
Lately, like others, one of my tuners does not seem to be receiving the PSIP data. The tuner in my Samsung A650 does not seem to get the PSIP (no program info, channel at 19.1), whereas the tuner in my older Philips still shows the channel at 33.1.

Ryan

Wfft has the new addition complete for the new transmitter and it is in place. The cooling and ventallation system is installed as well I have not seen a new antenna sitting anywhere on the Fox grounds.

I received word two weeks ago that the new transmission line between the transmitter and antenna (status of the ant. unknown) still has to be installed. Not a good time of the year to be doing tower work.

Steve

Engjas,
Lately, like others, one of my tuners does not seem to be receiving the PSIP data. The tuner in my Samsung A650 does not seem to get the PSIP (no program info, channel at 19.1), whereas the tuner in my older Philips still shows the channel at 33.1.

Ryan
The PSIP issue with WISE is now resolved. This happens every few months, this is caused somewhere in our STL link. A reboot always fixes it. I try to stay ahead of it, but this time it got by me. This only seems to effect certain models of Samsung tuners.

FYI: WISE and WPTA will drop the HD feed whenever there are school closings. (as we did tonight) This is due to DirecTV and some cable headends now downconverting our HD signals.

This will only be until the first of the year when we go online with our new HD master control which will allow us to put up school closings in HD along with weather warnings.

I don't suppose that you could fore-go the closing on the HD channel and instead just put up a small text that says to tune to 15-2 or 33-3 or whatever, and put the school loop there instead? When it goes all digital, those channels should be available to everyone that can get the main channel.

I don't suppose that you could fore-go the closing on the HD channel and instead just put up a small text that says to tune to 15-2 or 33-3 or whatever, and put the school loop there instead? When it goes all digital, those channels should be available to everyone that can get the main channel.

So what do you say to basic tier Comcast customers who don't get 15-2? Same can be said with DirecTv and Dish.

In our case, our weather warning system and school delay information is available in HD, so we aren't dumping out of HD. I get the impression that 21/33 will be able to do that as well shortly.

I warned you guys not so long ago it was coming!

... I warned you guys not so long ago it was coming!

I know, but it still sucks.

So what do you say to basic tier Comcast customers who don't get 15-2? Same can be said with DirecTv and Dish.

I can understand cutting into the program to tell me that a tornado is at my doorstep, but school delays? Cutting in to warn people of imminent danger is fine. Maybe you could have a line that says "full list of school delays at 11:00 news" instead of tune to the other channel. Do you guys really need it going every second, all night long?

Granted, you don't cut away from HD, but it is still squeezed. I guess if you have to have it on the main channel all the time, use a smaller font, and get rid of the huge yellow/blue background.

I know, but it still sucks.



I can understand cutting into the program to tell me that a tornado is at my doorstep, but school delays? Cutting in to warn people of imminent danger is fine. Maybe you could have a line that says "full list of school delays at 11:00 news" instead of tune to the other channel. Do you guys really need it going every second, all night long?

Granted, you don't cut away from HD, but it is still squeezed. I guess if you have to have it on the main channel all the time, use a smaller font, and get rid of the huge yellow/blue background.

Ah, but it was in a smaller font and in a different position orignally. The problem then became it being chopped off on analog sets! That is part of the reason it looks so big on HD sets.

As for the squeeze: the question becomes this: school delays were orignally NOT squeezed, it was a straight lower third, downstream. So it covered up all supers, time and temp, etc. In a cage fight between folks not wanting the screen squeezed versus the folks wanting the time and temp and supers, you can guess who wins. But you are talking to an engineer, not a newsie, and my job is to impliment the decisions of those higher up the chain than I.

Don't get me wrong, I am not in disagreement with you: I enjoy my HD clear of everything UNLESS its imminent danger (tornado) OR if its 6 in the morning and I want to know if my kid has a school delay. I've never been a fan of school delays the night before (which NEVER happened back in the day!)

Anyone else see the test message promo today on channel 15 about the test all stations are running tonight at 7:30 PM? Apparently all of the analog channels are shutting down at 7:30 for awhile with a message telling people of the digital changeover coming two months from tonight. Channel 15 is apparently running a 30 minute show about it.

Steve

False alarm here Huntington members about Comcast HD. Stopped in at the Huntington Comcast office and ask about the ad in the paper. They said sorry that it was a misprint. No HD in Huntington, just the Fort Wayne area and part of Roanoke.

Steve



Comcast has a big ad in todays Huntington newspaper saying they will now be offering HD channels to our market. Pricing looks very expensive as it appears to only be available bundled with voice and internet starting 1-6-2009.

Wonder how many actual HD channels they will be offering??

Steve

Anyone else see the test message promo today on channel 15 about the test all stations are running tonight at 7:30 PM? Apparently all of the analog channels are shutting down at 7:30 for awhile with a message telling people of the digital changeover coming two months from tonight. Channel 15 is apparently running a 30 minute show about it.

Steve

The kicker about this whole situation is this: we're feeding the test and the show to our analog transmitter, while the digital will stay with Jeopardy.

The problem is this: some outlying cable companies and Dish (at last check anyway) use our analog OTA, so some people that are ok will still see the test message! Hopefully, this doesn't add too much confusion (believe me, there is a ton: have had several calls where the people are under the impression that the switch hasn't been thrown on the HD here or elsewhere.)

Yes, you are correct the last that I have heard on that Dish still pulls the analogs from you guys. We will know at 7:30 though wont we? I am a Dish installer here and we have had many calls about this test going on tonight here today. I have 50 cents that says your switchboard will be swamped. The last that I have heard is that Dish Network has no plans to offer the Fort Wayne HD locals until atleast March of next year, unlike Direct that already has the primary's up.

Steve



The kicker about this whole situation is this: we're feeding the test and the show to our analog transmitter, while the digital will stay with Jeopardy.

The problem is this: some outlying cable companies and Dish (at last check anyway) use our analog OTA, so some people that are ok will still see the test message! Hopefully, this doesn't add too much confusion (believe me, there is a ton: have had several calls where the people are under the impression that the switch hasn't been thrown on the HD here or elsewhere.)

Well, I will bet that test confused a bunch of Dish Network customers.

Dish ran CBS and FOX analog feeds.

Dish ran digital ABC, NBC, and PBS feeds.

Steve


Yes, you are correct the last that I have heard on that Dish still pulls the analogs from you guys. We will know at 7:30 though wont we? I am a Dish installer here and we have had many calls about this test going on tonight here today. I have 50 cents that says your switchboard will be swamped. The last that I have heard is that Dish Network has no plans to offer the Fort Wayne HD locals until at least March of next year, unlike Direct that already has the primary's up.

Steve

<rant>

Ah, but it was in a smaller font and in a different position orignally. The problem then became it being chopped off on analog sets! That is part of the reason it looks so big on HD sets.

It is very frustrating that the default way to handle an HD signal being downconverted is to crop it for 4:3. That should not be an option; the only option should be to letterbox it. That way, logos (why do i need a station ID, last time i checked, my TV didn't have a random channel button), school delays, NFL score bugs, etc. can escape the 4:3 safe jail. If the content providers would agree to not adhear to 4:3 safe, then those converting the signal for others would be forced to letterbox it.

As for the squeeze: the question becomes this: school delays were orignally NOT squeezed, it was a straight lower third, downstream. So it covered up all supers, time and temp, etc. In a cage fight between folks not wanting the screen squeezed versus the folks wanting the time and temp and supers, you can guess who wins. But you are talking to an engineer, not a newsie, and my job is to impliment the decisions of those higher up the chain than I.

I guess the real question is, are TV stations a public service or a business? If you get those two in the wrong order, you won't be in business. I know that your higherups will say both, but they have conflicting interests. If you loose me as a viewer, you loose what minuscule amount of ad revenue my house brings; the dollars going to netflix to catch the show next year on dvd or to dish when it is rerun on a cable network.

Don't get me wrong, I am not in disagreement with you: I enjoy my HD clear of everything UNLESS its imminent danger (tornado) OR if its 6 in the morning and I want to know if my kid has a school delay. I've never been a fan of school delays the night before (which NEVER happened back in the day!)

School delays the night before are asinine. It's fine to announce them during the late newscast if you're the type that stays up late, or like you say, catch the delays in the morning.

Somehow we got through the 50's, 60's, 70's, ... (not sure when the current delay when the road has ah snow flake trend started) just fine without school delays or their accompanying TV bugs. And people wonder why U.S. students are falling behind the rest of the world's students.

</rant>

As I mentioned earlier I was watching the test on all 5 Fort Wayne channels tonight on both the old analog and the new digital channels. As I also mentioned earlier in a post I am an installer for Dish network. Well, very sorry to say that Dish network has a whole lot of confused viewers this evening. I have received a bunch of calls here tonight from the Dish network satellite viewers asking why they need a new TV set or a digital converter box to continue watching channels 15 and 55 as they saw the specials there telling them they needed to. As I just mentioned tonight on the phone to the lady at the channel 15 news desk and through there feedback website that Dish network messed up and ran the 30 minutes special complete on there network which they should not have done. I feel sorry for the switchboard operator's on Thursday at channels 15 and 55.

Steve in Huntington

<rant>



It is very frustrating that the default way to handle an HD signal being downconverted is to crop it for 4:3. That should not be an option; the only option should be to letterbox it. That way, logos (why do i need a station ID, last time i checked, my TV didn't have a random channel button), school delays, NFL score bugs, etc. can escape the 4:3 safe jail. If the content providers would agree to not adhear to 4:3 safe, then those converting the signal for others would be forced to letterbox it.



I guess the real question is, are TV stations a public service or a business? If you get those two in the wrong order, you won't be in business. I know that your higherups will say both, but they have conflicting interests. If you loose me as a viewer, you loose what minuscule amount of ad revenue my house brings; the dollars going to netflix to catch the show next year on dvd or to dish when it is rerun on a cable network.



School delays the night before are asinine. It's fine to announce them during the late newscast if you're the type that stays up late, or like you say, catch the delays in the morning.

Somehow we got through the 50's, 60's, 70's, ... (not sure when the current delay when the road has ah snow flake trend started) just fine without school delays or their accompanying TV bugs. And people wonder why U.S. students are falling behind the rest of the world's students.

</rant>

Oryan:

Again, I'm not trying to debate you because of 2 fronts: 1) I agree with most of what you are saying, especially related to school delays. 2) Its a policy debate. I'm more playing devils advocate here.

I agree, you don't need a station ID. We do. The FCC kind of requires it.

As far as cropping the HD for SD: when we re-wired the station a few months ago, it was letterboxed for a brief while. And it looked awful on analog sets. It was recommended that we then crop it for the SD sets. Like it or not, there are still a ton (especially in the FW market) that are OTA analog.

I will pass your concerns on to the folks that make policy decisions on these issues.

Steve:

Thanks for the information. This gives me something to look forward to at work, I have a feeling I'll be on the phone quite a bit. I can add Dish to the Mediacom and some outlying Comcast folks who will be lighting me up today.

Rather odd that they only have part of the market up and ready.

Oryan:

Again, I'm not trying to debate you because of 2 fronts: 1) I agree with most of what you are saying, especially related to school delays. 2) Its a policy debate. I'm more playing devils advocate here.

As far as cropping the HD for SD: when we re-wired the station a few months ago, it was letterboxed for a brief while. And it looked awful on analog sets. It was recommended that we then crop it for the SD sets. Like it or not, there are still a ton (especially in the FW market) that are OTA analog.

I will pass your concerns on to the folks that make policy decisions on these issues.

Thanks Jeff. I do appreciate you taking time to keep us updated. It is just very annoying when technology is held back by policy. It's good to know that at least someone "on the inside" has similar views.

I agree, you don't need a station ID. We do. The FCC kind of requires it.

I didn't know that. I guess it makes sense, thinking it through. Someone needs to know who to complain to/sue if they see something they don't like (We can thank things like the wardrobe malfunction.)

PS. I think I saw you on the news last night. Lots of shots of all your equipment there.

Oryan:

Yeah, that probably was me. Janice interviewed me in front of our encoding gear about the transition. I haven't seen it as my 4 year old likes to be up before most of the world.

In a pure engineering utopia, your screen would be free of clutter, sans major events. Downstream keyers would be banished! :)

Steve:

Got 8 emails already from Dish customers about last night.....

Good luck there today on your busy day Jckrac on answering confused viewers questions. We are doing it here also. I wonder if your people got my e-mail that I sent to the feedback e-mail address last night about the test?

Steve

P.S. The last that we have heard from Dish Network they still have no plans to upgrade the Fort Wayne locals to HD like Directv has already done. Indy gets the upgrade next month.


Oryan:

Yeah, that probably was me. Janice interviewed me in front of our encoding gear about the transition. I haven't seen it as my 4 year old likes to be up before most of the world.

In a pure engineering utopia, your screen would be free of clutter, sans major events. Downstream keyers would be banished! :)

Steve:

Got 8 emails already from Dish customers about last night.....

I just noticed that Comcast added a few new HD channels---here are the ones I found:

214 Fox News HD
223 Speed HD
224 FX HD
279 MLB Network (not HD)

Well that is most interesting. No audio on either the analog or digital feeds from WANE since 9:00 PM. Background noise and music is fine but no one is talking. Turn on the close captioning and we are good to go.

Would guess a problem at the sat uplink?


Steve

Same problem we had a few nights ago. Dialouge channel is being mixed out from the Indy control room. I just got a call at home about 9:10. Engineer at the station is working with Indy to get it repaired. Hang tight....

Tell them not a big deal anyway. CSI is a repeat tonight. LOL


We love the close captioning. :<)

Steve



Same problem we had a few nights ago. Dialouge channel is being mixed out from the Indy control room. I just got a call at home about 9:10. Engineer at the station is working with Indy to get it repaired. Hang tight....

... and we're back...

I'm not pressing our control room too bad about it right now, they had a major equipment failure today. 10 stations went down all at the same time.

Bummer, that had to hurt. Just hope that we all make it through the predicted ice storm in the next 12 hours or so. We have a whole house standby generator here so we are good to go. We would guess they don't make one big enough for the transmitter?

Steve





... and we're back...

I'm not pressing our control room too bad about it right now, they had a major equipment failure today. 10 stations went down all at the same time.

Bummer, that had to hurt. Just hope that we all make it through the predicted ice storm in the next 12 hours or so. We have a whole house standby generator here so we are good to go. We would guess they don't make one big enough for the transmitter?

Steve

Ah, guess again!

BOTH transmitters have generators sitting in our tower yard, fully fueled and ready for service. The building also has its own, seperate generator. The building is also protected by a UPS that both conditions the power to the building and holds power if we lose the AEP feed while the generators crank up. Its a pretty robust set up. We literally just got the UPS fixed from the power spikes that we took (and 33) a few weeks ago, so its ok timing.

All that being said, however: no fun being in the building OR in the houses nearby when said ice melts and comes down from 700 feet.

...
All that being said, however: no fun being in the building OR in the houses nearby when said ice melts and comes down from 700 feet.

Damn, that would be scary. What's the worst damage that ice from that far up has done?

Smashed windshields is about as bad as I've seen it. We usually have everyone move cars when we think fallout will occur and send an ice warning to the boat factory beside us.

It can literally sound like bombs going off in our office we face the outside towards the tower.

Went to Toledo and was under a 1200 footer once with ice coming off the top. You haven't lived until you've seen a 12 foot long piece of ice come down from 1200 feet and land 500 feet away. It was awesome, yet so very scary.

On a side note, we've been on generator power here at 15 since about 6 this morning. We've stayed on the air throughout: hopefully AEP gets us back up before the fuel runs out!

WISE is off the air due to loss of AEP power.

Our lights have flickered four times now here in Huntington but so far our power is holding and the new generator has not needed to kick in.

Steve


WISE is off the air due to loss of AEP power.

Smashed windshields is about as bad as I've seen it. We usually have everyone move cars when we think fallout will occur and send an ice warning to the boat factory beside us.

It can literally sound like bombs going off in our office we face the outside towards the tower.

Went to Toledo and was under a 1200 footer once with ice coming off the top. You haven't lived until you've seen a 12 foot long piece of ice come down from 1200 feet and land 500 feet away. It was awesome, yet so very scary.

On a side note, we've been on generator power here at 15 since about 6 this morning. We've stayed on the air throughout: hopefully AEP gets us back up before the fuel runs out!

There's a clip on Youtube showing ice falling from a 1,600-ft TV tower.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfBp2QYOIbc&feature=related

Does anybody from Ft Wayne know if the local digital feeds for NBC, Fox are down or maybe running with low power, I know there are ice storms and power issues in the area?
Thanks

33 is still off the air at 12:55 PM and 55 appears to be at low power.
You can assume both are weather related.

Steve



Does anybody from Ft Wayne know if the local digital feeds for NBC, Fox are down or maybe running with low power, I know there are ice storms and power issues in the area?
Thanks

2:45 here on West State Blvd., still without power here at 15 (and we share the same circut as 33.) Generators still humming along keeping us on the air so far.

One of our sales folks just came back from 21. Said 4 cars in the parking lot had windshield damage from falling ice.

For sure, a historic day here in FW!

Be safe, everyone!

- Trip

WANE returned to AEP power about 3:15 this afternoon. Analog transmitter didn't like the transition back to AEP and threw up: digital didn't miss a beat. 400 gallons of fuel added back in for the next big one. What a day!

Wonder when 33 will be back up?


Steve




WANE returned to AEP power about 3:15 this afternoon. Analog transmitter didn't like the transition back to AEP and threw up: digital didn't miss a beat. 400 gallons of fuel added back in for the next big one. What a day!

Geesh, now 39 is off of the air?

Steve

Wonder when 33 will be back up?


Steve

Anyone know the current status of stations in Ft Wayne? are they all back up or are there still problems ?


Geesh, now 39 is off of the air?

Steve

Anyone know the current status of stations in Ft Wayne? are they all back up or are there still problems ?

As of right now, everything is on except 39 digital.

As of now all look good except 39 analog and digital are still off of the air.

39 is up on satellite though.

Steve

As of right now, everything is on except 39 digital.

I may be late to the game, but please tell me I don't have to endure that GIANT listing of closings that is squeezing the picture on WANE HD?

I may be late to the game, but please tell me I don't have to endure that GIANT listing of closings that is squeezing the picture on WANE HD?

Yep, it's there. Great way to waste an HD picture for a huge football game with "<Random church I've never heard of> closed today".

I agree! I just don't understand why they need to take up a quarter of the screen! I also don't understand why they need to run it 24/7. Can't we do closings on the 3's or something like The Weather Channel instead of all the time.

There has got to be a better way!

Martian

I agree! I just don't understand why they need to take up a quarter of the screen! I also don't understand why they need to run it 24/7. Can't we do closings on the 3's or something like The Weather Channel instead of all the time.

There has got to be a better way!

Martian

A sign of the times. Common sense is in very short supply.

As of today June, 11 Ft,Wayne has Digital 36 Fox . The omni directional antenna is mounted 200 feet off the ground with 100 watts running to the antenna. I am located 8 miles from the tower and only once did the signal lock on for 3 minutes. NBC digital 19 is on and the panel antenna is side mounted to the tower at 400 feet above ground level with 500 watts running to the antenna. I can lock on to this signal and do see some break ups every few minutes. Pbs digital 40-1 40-2 is on and thier new antenna is mounted at the top of 700 ft tower. HDTV is only on 40-1 PBS. TBN digital 12 is located 26 miles North East of here and is viewable. Of course a Highband VHF antenna is aimed only at this station. I was told by the Chief Engr. at WISE TV digital 19 that a new rulling is coming down that to have a total digital tv market and analog shut off forever, Eighty percent of the market must have digital receivers. hOW IN THE hell ARE THESE idiots GOING TO KEEP A COUNT? Analog tv is here for quite sometime and this area for Digital conversion is making me sick.

wow we have officially reached our 100th page in this thread. Above is a quote from the very first post to this thread over 5 years ago...
and WFFT is STILL LOW POWER :eek::mad::confused::(
but on a positive note I have really enjoyed learning so much from so many of you and a huge thanks to the local engineer types for all of the time spent keeping us updated as to the local issues and progress. long live free OTA in all of it's superior HD quality (well at least it is when it doesn't have the !$%%@! crawls mucking up the picture) ;)

I can already see others are annoyed by WANEs weather & delay graphics... so i thought id give my input...
I dont understand why the delay/closing text is huge, but the weather ticker text is teeny tiny (just the right size for me:) ) I noticed they don't show the map for advisories and watches, which makes sense since they are less of a threat. But poor Kosciusko Co viewers! when the map is on, who knows what advisories they have!!!:rolleyes:
As for the delays/closing bar, i can see why they have it running 24.7 for the current shelter/icestorm situation, but school delays at night???? Just simply wait til morning (plus the morning hours usually dont have HD programs to distort!)

Also, on WFWA DT3 create, during the "commercial" breaks, they are putting fades in & out on top of the Create feed, and every once in a while a local identification or funding. THe thing is, the timing gets off, so the fade comes in sometimes in the middle of a promo?! Anybody have an idea about what's going on?

I can already see others are annoyed by WANEs weather & delay graphics... so i thought id give my input...
I dont understand why the delay/closing text is huge, but the weather ticker text is teeny tiny (just the right size for me:) ) I noticed they don't show the map for advisories and watches, which makes sense since they are less of a threat. But poor Kosciusko Co viewers! when the map is on, who knows what advisories they have!!!:rolleyes:
As for the delays/closing bar, i can see why they have it running 24.7 for the current shelter/icestorm situation, but school delays at night???? Just simply wait til morning (plus the morning hours usually dont have HD programs to distort!)

Also, on WFWA DT3 create, during the "commercial" breaks, they are putting fades in & out on top of the Create feed, and every once in a while a local identification or funding. THe thing is, the timing gets off, so the fade comes in sometimes in the middle of a promo?! Anybody have an idea about what's going on?

Welcome to the boards!

I'll answer what I can for you with regards to the differences between the school closings versus the weather warnings as far as size goes: the weather warning system is a bit (rather, a lot!) easier to move around the screen and size. For example, when the system first went on the air, it was too low and being cut off of a lot of older sets. I can "grab" the crawl and lift it to where I want: I can also resize. Its very easy to do. And in my opinion, its the right move to not have the map up during non-warning events.

Contrast that with the school/business/church system. It looks huge on HD sets, I agree. The yellow on the right makes it stand out quite a bit as well. Why so huge? Take a look at it on an analog set if you get the chance (as this system is the only system and airs both on analog and digital.) You'll see that it scrapes the bottom of analog sets, and in some cases (like at my desk) the lower left is cut off.

The rest of the debate (why are they airing school delays in prime time or during football) is purely a policy debate, and that I am not a part of at this time.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!
Thanks for all the feedback!!!

Just checking in with pros and cons of verizon fios vs comcast. I have comcast cable now with 3 tvs in the house. Big screen in basement with an hd dvr hooked up to it. The other 2 tvs are just hooked in to coax, no digital boxes. I have fios internet/home phone and comcast cable. Just been biding my time to make the switch to the comcast triple play or go to all fios products (actually too lazy to make the switch, but i know i should be saving some money). Has anyone out there had comcast and verizon fios at diff times and give me their opinion on pros/cons of both?

Thanks in advance!

I'm a long time DirecTV customer but if you already have FiOS internet to your house you might as well go with FiOS TV. You'll get much more HD for your for your big screen and the SD quality is higher as well. It's a wash on the DVR because they both use Motorola which nobody likes.

I don't see Comcast adding too much HD until they go switched digital and who knows when that will happen in Fort Wayne.

Thought I'd pop in here one final time as I head off for a much welcomed vacation at years end and wish you all a very happy New Year.

Like ENGjas, I thank you for your feedback and reporting issues. It seems at times you guys are our first line of defense in certain situations.

We've got a few new tricks up our sleeves coming in 2009 that I think you'll enjoy.

Again, Happy New Year and we'll talk again in '09.

Before you leave, scratchy audio on both feeds during local news the last two nights.

Interesting. I was in the control room during the 5 o'clock show and didn't notice it. Was on the road home during the 6. You are still watching us OTA, right John?

Will leave an email with the group to have them look into it while I am gone. I'm trying to stay up and watch the 11 to see what I can hear, but I don't know if I'll make it thanks to a 4 year old that thought it would be nice to wake up at 5 this morning.

Interesting. I was in the control room during the 5 o'clock show and didn't notice it. Was on the road home during the 6. You are still watching us OTA, right John?

Will leave an email with the group to have them look into it while I am gone. I'm trying to stay up and watch the 11 to see what I can hear, but I don't know if I'll make it thanks to a 4 year old that thought it would be nice to wake up at 5 this morning.

It was that way OTA and via Dish.

Thanks John. I also hear it tonight during the 11, both on analog and digital OTA. Really seems to be cracking when somebody says something with a hard S in it. It almost sounds like its clipping or overdriven. The engineers there are aware of it and will look into it tomorrow.

Now, I'm off on that vacation now!

Most people are not aware that today is the unofficial death of BUD, what we call our big old ugly backyard satellite dishes. Motorola announced a few months back that today they would be terminating the analog videocipher data streams that have been up and running since approx 1985. I just wrote a short article to channel 15 to see if maybe they would mention it but I doubt much if they will. It is the little talked about change going on compared to the much talked about analog to digital conversion coming in February. Yes, the dishes can still be used if you have one of the newer and very expensive digital Digicipher receivers or one of the cheap FTA receivers but as that the programming choices with those are very limited as most all of the programmers only care about the two small dish companies. At least with my two ten foot dishes that we still run here we do not have to deal with rain fade like the small ones always do it seems. Just brush the heavy snow off a couple of times a year and we were good to go. I guess that technology must move on like BetaMax and VHS all good things come to an end.

BUD rest in peace.


Steve in Huntington

My frustration with 55's signal strength has been rendered moot after our upgrade to DirecTV HD, but it's still going to be an interesting race to see how close to midnight on Feb. 16 the power is boosted.
(Can they apply for any more extensions? Are they required to be at 1000 kW by Feb. 17?)

I heard on the evening news that the Director of the FCC will be at the Allen county library at 2:00 on Monday to answer questions with his PR stop.
I'm hoping I can squeeze it into my schedule to stop by & let him know what a bang-up job the Ft. Wayne station OWNERS are doing to us!

And also beg him NOT to grant 55 any more extensions.

Happy New Year!

Hi everybody :) I've been following the release of the DTVPal DVR TR-50 since January of 2008, and have finally received mine and started using it the last two weeks. For those of you that don't know, it is one of the only OTA DVR's available right now that supports HD. I am absolutely in love with it so far BUT its missing one of its key features, the TV guide data. It can only pick up digital signals, and I don't think Fort Wayne has any stations broadcasting them (CBS is supposed to everywhere else in the country). My brother in law has a sony DVR that uses analog TV Guide data broadcast by PBS, so I know what the guide is supposed to look like. Right now I only get about 8 hours of data from each channel's PSIP stream.

ANYBODY IN FT. WAYNE HAVE ANY INSIGHT WHEN DIGITAL OTA TV GUIDE SERVICE WILL BE BROADCAST?

Sorry if this has been addressed - looked back a few dozen posts and didn't see where it had been discussed recently. I seem to have gotten 5.1 audio from FW affiliates in the past, but today neither WANE (where I would like to watch the AFC playoff game) WISE or WPTA are broadcasting 5.1 OTA . . . why would that be?

Football is so much better in 5.1 . . . guess I'll wait on the Dayton OH signal to clean up a bit, hopefully as the fog lifts.

JR in OH

ANYBODY IN FT. WAYNE HAVE ANY INSIGHT WHEN DIGITAL OTA TV GUIDE SERVICE WILL BE BROADCAST?

I have two TVs that receive digital OTA. One is a set with built in TV Guide On Screen, and the other is just a converter box for an old analog set that uses OTA EPG. The set with TV Guide On Screen gets 14 days worth of listings, and updates itself nightly while it's turned off (I think at around 1am). One of the local stations must somehow be serving up the TV Guide listings overnight (I do not know how this process works; perhaps one of the engineers would like to inform me about this). The converter box with EPG will get several hours worth of listings as it tunes to each channel. Both seem to get guide data just fine for me.

I am curious as to how TV Guide On Screen service works though, as these listings are very separate from normal EPG in the channel (it even loads banner ads that change periodically when I'm looking at my guide). My TV is NOT hooked into anything other than an antenna, however, I can configure the set to give me listings for cable-only networks as well (such as TNT, HBO, etc).

Sorry if this has been addressed - looked back a few dozen posts and didn't see where it had been discussed recently. I seem to have gotten 5.1 audio from FW affiliates in the past, but today neither WANE (where I would like to watch the AFC playoff game) WISE or WPTA are broadcasting 5.1 OTA . . . why would that be?

Football is so much better in 5.1 . . . guess I'll wait on the Dayton OH signal to clean up a bit, hopefully as the fog lifts.

JR in OH

The only two stations in Fort Wayne broadcasting in 5.1 is WFFT and WANE. I doubt you can receive WFFT's signal in OH. WANE has had their 5.1 shut off for several weeks now because of an issue they had (see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15309125#post15309125)

Sorry if this has been addressed - looked back a few dozen posts and didn't see where it had been discussed recently. I seem to have gotten 5.1 audio from FW affiliates in the past, but today neither WANE (where I would like to watch the AFC playoff game) WISE or WPTA are broadcasting 5.1 OTA . . . why would that be?

Football is so much better in 5.1 . . . guess I'll wait on the Dayton OH signal to clean up a bit, hopefully as the fog lifts.

JR in OH

One piece of offending gear in this problem is out for repair, with the manufacturer saying 4-6 weeks for repair. I think I sent it out 2 weeks ago. This is only one piece in the chain with a problem, but its a big one.

I heard on the evening news that the Director of the FCC will be at the Allen county library at 2:00 on Monday to answer questions with his PR stop.
I'm hoping I can squeeze it into my schedule to stop by & let him know what a bang-up job the Ft. Wayne station OWNERS are doing to us!

And also beg him NOT to grant 55 any more extensions.



Beg for me too, please! :D

I heard on the evening news that the Director of the FCC will be at the Allen county library at 2:00 on Monday to answer questions with his PR stop.
I'm hoping I can squeeze it into my schedule to stop by & let him know what a bang-up job the Ft. Wayne station OWNERS are doing to us!

And also beg him NOT to grant 55 any more extensions.

Happy New Year!


I think (at least this was the plan before I left for vacation!) that I will be there with some others representing WANE. We will have a setup in there somewhere with a converter box setup. Feel free to stop by and say HI. I'm hard to miss, so don't be a stranger!

I have two TVs that receive digital OTA. The set with TV Guide On Screen gets 14 days worth of listings, and updates itself nightly while it's turned off (I think at around 1am).

Ok, I guess its good to know that someone is getting DIGITAL TV guide data. From what I've read on this forum, CBS is the station that broadcasts that data. Weird thing is that I called and talked to an engineer there and he didn't know what I was talking about. He said they only take care of their own PSIP data that gives basic information for 3 days out.

Did you have to put in a zip code when you installed that TV, or did the guide data appear all by itself with no intervention? I've tried putting my zip (46777) and an alternate zip that was in the DVR's manual (00102), BUT no go! I have no clue what the alternate zip is from.

Any help with digital OTA tv guide service be appreciated.

Ok, I guess its good to know that someone is getting DIGITAL TV guide data. From what I've read on this forum, CBS is the station that broadcasts that data. Weird thing is that I called and talked to an engineer there and he didn't know what I was talking about. He said they only take care of their own PSIP data that gives basic information for 3 days out.

Did you have to put in a zip code when you installed that TV, or did the guide data appear all by itself with no intervention? I've tried putting my zip (46777) and an alternate zip that was in the DVR's manual (00102), BUT no go! I have no clue what the alternate zip is from.

Any help with digital OTA tv guide service be appreciated.

Ah, a fellow Ossian resident!

Up until about a month ago, I didn't know anything about TV guide EPG, until I played with the lobby TV's here at the station. They have them, and they get the information. Where from I haven't a clue, but they got the info.

Yes, there is a contract between CBS and TV Guide, but to my knowledge, there is no set in stone rule that CBS stations must provide the service. We don't have the gear here at WANE for TV guide.

One piece of offending gear in this problem is out for repair, with the manufacturer saying 4-6 weeks for repair. I think I sent it out 2 weeks ago. This is only one piece in the chain with a problem, but its a big one.

Just curious... is there a gremlin in your building? :p

Just curious... is there a gremlin in your building? :p


Yeah, and someone fed it after midnight. I take it you are referring to the big audio problem we just had?

As I noticed back in 2006 WANE 15 Doppler was running on linux: http://www.linuxjournal.com/xstatic/announce/2006/announce39.txt under the "LINUX INCOGNITO: THERE'S LINUX INSIDE!" section.

So is Linux still in use and if so how much is it used?

As I noticed back in 2006 WANE 15 Doppler was running on linux: http://www.linuxjournal.com/xstatic/announce/2006/announce39.txt under the "LINUX INCOGNITO: THERE'S LINUX INSIDE!" section.

So is Linux still in use and if so how much is it used?

Yep, the radar uses Linux as its OS. And not knowing all that much about Linux, that makes it a pain in the rear to work on. Our Avid systems (our newsroom system) have a main brain that is also Linux based.

Well I'm sure that if you need help with it, there are folks around here who'd be glad to lend a hand. Kubuntu Linux user here, with a Linux server in my closet doing DNS, Apache, and SAMBA. :)

- Trip

We would also like to know if FOX 55 is going to be granted an extension if they miss the deadline or are we going to be without a feed come the date. Why is it that ALL of the other stations can put up the new feeds in plenty of time for the deadline but 55 cannot? If the owners down south do not have the funds why don't they sell it to someone that does.

Steve


I think (at least this was the plan before I left for vacation!) that I will be there with some others representing WANE. We will have a setup in there somewhere with a converter box setup. Feel free to stop by and say HI. I'm hard to miss, so don't be a stranger!