Originally posted by Prelude2k
I'm not exactly sure how I am getting WCDC since my antenna is directional and pointed at Boston, but it must be picking it up off the back side of the antenna...

-Mike

Mike,

WCDC is a 220,000 watt station licensed to North Adams, MA. You may be getting reflections off of Wachusett Mountain. A Channel Master 4228 may solve your problem. No guarantees, however.

Bob

I've received WCDC when I lived Milton, just south of Boston (and before WCEA-LP went on-the-air). WCDC transmits from Mt. Greylok, so they have a very high location. I'm not surprised that you are receiving them in Hubbardston.


On the question of WHDH's 16:9 inside a 4:3 inside a 16:9, I
asked the station the same question. Shows like The West Wing
are transmitted by NBC in 4:3 format (with the letterbox).
WHDH simply broadcasts whatever they receive. Only a few
NBC shows are sent to the affiliates in true HDTV format right
now (Crossing Jordan, Leno).

I receivedthe following from GBH

Dear Viewer,

We are happy to let you know that we will be doing some extended testing on our HDTV station DT19. The following is the up coming schedule.
January 21 through February 1st 2002: we will be testing at ¼ power.
Mondays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM.
Tuesdays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM
Wednesdays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM
Thursdays - 8AM to 6:30PM.
Fridays - 4:30PM to 11:PM.

One big exception is Monday, January 28th - 4:30PM until 11PM, for ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre Othello. For this program we will be at full Power.

Starting February 4, 2002 we will be testing, during the following times, at full power until further notice.
Monday through Sunday - 4:30PM to 11:PM.
These windows will help to facilitate a variety of engineering and interactive tests.

Sincerely,
WGBH Audience and Member Services

Originally posted by alv
Starting February 4, 2002 we will be testing, during the following times, at full power until further notice.
Monday through Sunday - 4:30PM to 11:PM.

So Boston PBS goes live prime-time 7 days in two weeks. Good news indeed, and long overdue.

Originally posted by thartnett


So Boston PBS goes live prime-time 7 days in two weeks. Good news indeed, and long overdue.

I just got the same notice. I responded asking if there's a way for me to contribute, earmarked for DTV work.

Good thing that WGBH is going full-prime-time. But will they just broadcast the demo loop or will they be passing the PBS feed?

Sal

Originally posted by Sal
Good thing that WGBH is going full-prime-time. But will they just broadcast the demo loop or will they be passing the PBS feed?

Sal

Aren't these the same?

I just made a contribution on their WEB page. I put the following in their comments section:

Please apply my membership in support of the HDTV program at WGBH. I am an HDTV enthusiast and would like to see more HDTV programming on channel 19. Thank you very much for the great work you've done so far.

My family's 3 favorite programs are: NOVA, Nature and Arthur

DougG,

This is really weird. We don't live that far apart and I've been slowly upgrading my antenna system just so I could get WHDH. I never had any problems with FOX, CVB or BZ.

Finally, after going to a Winegard 8-bay antenna (attic mount) AND just recently adding a Channel Master 7775 amplifier, all is well. The WHDH problem is no doubt multi path because the signal is so variable all the time. The amplifier, though, keeps it over the minimum threshold required to keep WHDH locked in.

Thank you WGBH Audience and Member Services. I hope all planned PBS HD feed programs (scheduled programs) are accomodated during the expand testing.

With WSBK going DTV this Spring, Boston will really be a super HD city.

Tim

I haven't been able to tune in WGBH. I get all the others fine on my Zenith1080. Is the channel number 19-1?
When will they be broadcasting? I'd like to give it another try at the right time.

Len in MA

Originally posted by RAP
DougG,

This is really weird. We don't live that far apart and I've been slowly upgrading my antenna system just so I could get WHDH. I never had any problems with FOX, CVB or BZ.



RAP - I live off River Road in west Andover, on the downslope of the hill which eventually meets it at the bottom of my street. While I'm not at the top of the hill, I am about 90% towards the top which certainly makes things easier. I've determined that my main problem is due to a hill in Tewksbury which can be seen directly off the Rt 133 exit from 495N. Turns out this couldn't be any more directly in my LOS to the DTV tower in Needham. Based on my current rotator vector, I've deduced that I'm probably receiving all my signal as reflection off the 99.5 FM radio tower which is located slightly east of this hill. Since I'm receiving a reflection, this reduces the amount of signal I can receive as opposed to having a direct LOS at this distance. So, while WFXT-DT's transmit power may be sufficient for those even at greater distance, for my situation its not. The higher powers of all the other area stations IS suffucient to allow me reception without breakups.

I should be receiving a Winegard AP-4700 preamp shortly which has a moderate UHF gain of 19dB. Hopefully this should allow me to reliably receive FXT-DT while not over-boosting the other stations. I'll let you know how it goes...

Originally posted by Lend27
I haven't been able to tune in WGBH. I get all the others fine on my Zenith1080. Is the channel number 19-1?
When will they be broadcasting? I'd like to give it another try at the right time.

Len in MA

Here's the latest on scheduling on channel 19:

> Dear Viewer,
>
> We are happy to let you know that we will be doing some extended testing on
> our HDTV station DT19. *The following is the up coming
>schedule.
>
> January 21 through February 1st 2002: we will be testing at
>1/4 power.
>
> Mondays - *** **4:30PM to 6:30PM. *
> Tuesdays - ******4:30PM to 6:30PM
> Wednesdays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM
> Thursdays - *****8AM to 6:30PM. *
> Fridays - **********4:30PM to 11:PM. *
>
> One big exception is Monday, January 28th - 4:30PM until 11PM, for
> ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre Othello. For this program we will be at full
> Power.
>
>
> Starting February 4, 2002 we will be testing, during the following times,
> at full power until further notice.
>
> Monday through Sunday - 4:30PM to 11:PM.
>
> These windows will help to facilitate a variety of engineering and
> interactive tests.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>

Please see my thread titled " My antenna success story" on the HDTV Hardware section.
I hope it may help someone through their quest for antenna success.

Len in MA

Originally posted by jhe
Anybody know what if anything is happening up there in Manchester???

I set up my system for the "Fiesta in the Sky" HDTV special last night from channel 57 and in the process I did a scan pointed north.

My DTC100 logged in some station at channel 59 as an analog channel. I don't know of any analog channel 59 around here, so I am wondering if they are doing some testing that confuses the tuner? I got no picture.

It is my understanding WMUR-DT cahnnel 59 will begin regular operation by May 1,2002.

brandish

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for quite some time and recently decided to take the HDTV plunge. After reading and reading and reading, I went with the Samsung SIR-T150 and a CM4228 antenna up in the attic, with the CM7777 pre-amp and a rotator. My display is the Pioneer Elite 510HD, which I'm driving with an RGB 1080i signal from the T150.

Well, I finally got off my butt tonight and got the antenna installed and cables run downstairs to my family room and got it all running.

I just finished watching Leno in HD and I am *totally* blown away!! Wow! What an amazingly crisp image, clean and no noise.

Switching back and forth to compare the OTA HDTV image with that on my Charter digital cable has left me very disappointed, in Charter that is... I'm stunned at how poor a picture I've been living with.

Just want to say Thanks! to everyone here, if it wasn't for this forum, I probaly wouldn't have taken the plunge.

Regards,

Dan W.
Pepperell, MA

It would be useful to have an antenna location registry/database for the Boston towers.

Something like: lat./long., elevation, receiver type, signal strengths, antenna type, preamp

This would make it easier for new users to get some ideas before they buy.

Originally posted by ismeltitudeltit
It would be useful to have an antenna location registry/database for the Boston towers.


Visit http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/index.htm for links to many sources of antenna location & selection information...

does anyone know why my sony tv
will let me adjsut zoom-modes for
channel
2.2 but not for 4.1 or 5.1? 4.1 & 5.1
stay stuck in "full" mode. with 2.2
i can zoom the sdtv signal any way
the tv supports.

also, it seems like the upconverted ntsc signal on 4.1 & 5.1 looks way better
than the 2.2 upconverted ntsc. wgbh
must have a very different upconversion scheme ? thanks for any clues &
happy dtv-viewing everyone.

/eli

Originally posted by tveli
does anyone know why my sony tv
will let me adjsut zoom-modes for
channel
2.2 but not for 4.1 or 5.1? 4.1 & 5.1
stay stuck in "full" mode. with 2.2
i can zoom the sdtv signal any way
the tv supports.

You can not adjust the Zoom mode when the station broadcast in 16:9, you can only only adjust the zoom when they broadcast in 4:3 mode. Press "Guide" on the remote to see what if it is in 16:9 or 4:3. You will also see that you can not adjust the zoom on 7.1 but you can on 7.2.

Originally posted by tveli
does anyone know why my sony tv will let me adjsut zoom-modes forchannel 2.2 but not for 4.1 or 5.1? 4.1 & 5.1 stay stuck in "full" mode. with 2.2 i can zoom the sdtv signal any way the tv supports.

also, it seems like the upconverted ntsc signal on 4.1 & 5.1 looks way better than the 2.2 upconverted ntsc. wgbh must have a very different upconversion scheme ? thanks for any clues & happy dtv-viewing everyone.


Hey eli,

I believe your two questions are related -- 2.2 is broadcast as an SDTV signal (480i, I assume), which your TV is programmed to manipulate like you're doing.

The signals on 4.1 and 5.1 (and 7.1) are up-converted at the station, and thus are being broadcast at HDTV resolution (1080i or 720p, depending). I'd guess your TV doesn't have as much flexibility in fiddling with that type of signal. My E* 6000 lets me zoom HD signals onto my 4:3 display, don't have a 16:9 (yet) to experiment with...

The station's upconverters/line doublers are probably much higher quality than what's in your TV/receiver, which would explain the quality difference.

Your earlier question about the "wider" picture in the upconvert fits in here too: the station can include NTSC's overscan in the upconverted signal, which gives you a little more picture information at each end of what you'd normally see on analog.

See ya in the office! :-)

(Another) Steve.

thanks MikeD. that makes sense.
i actually haven't found the "guide"
functionality on my tv yet or otherwise
it was blank if i found it... i'll search for it again...

as for 7.1 & 7.2, i wish i could receive
them. the tv knows they are there but
has never gotten a strong enough signal
to show me a picture. same for 25.1 .
i hope wfxt & whdh increase their
transmitter power soon. i'd really like
to watch the supa-bowl in 480p/16:9 , but
it is apparently not to be.

oh, thank you too, (another) Steve !
it all makes sense now, including
the "bonus"
overscan on 4.1 .
lately i've been seeing some of the bonus
overscan on 5.1 too. ya, my TV does
not allow zooming on 1080i or 720p signals,
so that fits your explanation too. thanks!

i'm sure i'm not the only one planning
watch the Pats tough game tomorrow,
in NTSC upconverted to 1080i!
for football games the bonus overscan
is especially nice - we get to see an
extra couple yards of the field! :)

go Pats!

Originally posted by rudolpht
As Steve mentioned, you can on the 6000.

Tim,

The "you" in my post was to tveli who does not have the 6000. So their is no reason to repeat what Steve said.

Well, we'll be seeing the Pats in 480p.

Mike,

No intention to offend, and not wanting to argue grammar. The general "you" as in one confused at least me in perpetuating a common misconception that no STB is available that can manipulate an HD frame. The 6000 can (but I would happily trade this feature for the other ergonomic features of the DST-3000, so I have both).

Best regards,
Tim

In the 'JUST AN IDLE THOUGHT' department, if given the choice, would we rather see the Super Bowl in 16x9, 1080i, or would we rather see the PATS in the Super Bowl. Well, I hate to say it but this time, SD wins out over HD. Incidentally, if I remember correctly, St. Louis does not have a FOX-digital station yet, so chalk one up for Boston in the St. Louis-Boston rivalry, even if the only advantage we'll have over Ram fans is seeing a few extra yardlines.

Go Pats!!!!!

Did we show those Steelers how to play football or what???!!!!!

Now on to new Orleans........ and 480p widescreen right here!!!

Jambalaya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Len in Westport

Loving HDTV with my ZenithDTV1080 and Hitachi 43UWX10B

and all the help I got right here with my new OTA stuff!!!!

I took advantage of the summer weather and adjusted my Blake antenna (2 JBX21-B's) spacing from 20 to 35 inches, as recommended by cymro in Ca.

And Sunday night my DTC-100 got readings of 82 peak, for WENH-DT.

This ties my best readings on WGBH-DT!

Of course with atmospherics, it won't always be this good, but every 5-8 point improvement helps: My previous record for WENH-DT was 74

Based on my measured beam width reduction and gain increases I think I am now at close to the ideal spacing.

Len,
Don't get too excited about "Fox Digital Widescreen". As near as I can tell, it's the same old 480i cameras set to anamorphic mode. The NFC championship was the same deal (480i, upconverted to 480p by the affiliates) without the anamorphic treatment and it was pretty poor to watch on FXT-DT. I can't see how applying an anamorphic stretch to this signal will help the poor resolution of those cameras on the wide shots. On my 50" plasma you can't even read the player's numbers on those shots.

"I receivedthe following from GBH

Dear Viewer,

We are happy to let you know that we will be doing some extended testing on our HDTV station DT19. The following is the up coming schedule.
January 21 through February 1st 2002: we will be testing at ¼ power.
Mondays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM.
Tuesdays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM
Wednesdays - 4:30PM to 6:30PM
Thursdays - 8AM to 6:30PM.
Fridays - 4:30PM to 11:PM.

One big exception is Monday, January 28th - 4:30PM until 11PM, for ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre Othello. For this program we will be at full Power."
I'll start off by saying I have yet to get in DT19 but have gotten 2-1 WGBH(on DTC-100) and did see a little HD a month ago but my signal lately on 2-1 has only been around 35%.Has anyone seen any big jump in reception today as they were supposed to be going full power.
No improvement here for me.Still in the 30's

:(

OK, so 'GBH-DT claims to be doing full power?! Couldn't be, nothing but snow on 19 here in Andover. Anyone in my neck of the woods getting any signal now (7:30PM) ??

I am way down here in Falmouth on the cape and I am getting a great signal 97% and a super picture - the lip synch issue is there but otherwise - fantastic. I am using a sony hd-100 and I am getting it in on ch 2.1

John

Originally posted by Doug G
OK, so 'GBH-DT claims to be doing full power?! Couldn't be, nothing but snow on 19 here in Andover. Anyone in my neck of the woods getting any signal now (7:30PM) ??

GBH-DT is good up here. They had a lip sync problem with "Smart Travelers". They are showing the exact same demo as WENH-DT at the same time. I switch between the two. WENH-DT is stronger then GBH-DT with my setup and location. WENH-DT is not having the lip sync problem.

Man, this is weird....last time I had this problem with WENH-DT I had to unplug the Panny STB and plug it back in, sort of a hard-reset I guess. Well, I just repeated the sequence and still no signal on channel 19. I'm pulling in every channel in the area tonight without problems, so I'm at a loss to explain this. Clearly others in my area are receiving so I can't imagine what it could be. They are on channel 19 on the DTV tower in Needham, right? Anyone with a Panny getting them? Oh well, I always have WENH-DT for now...Thanks all for the feedback.

Ewww. It's a shame the bit rate is so low. The scenes outside of the police station look horrible.

I do hope WGBH improves.

-j (longing for WETA in DC)

Thartnett:

In the HD programming forum, there is a long thread talking about FOX's "widescreen". Basically, the widescreen is what the camera will "see" and pass through digitally in 16:9. Those watching the analog version will simply gets the sides of the picture "cut-off".

Also, the production should be much better than what you saw last weekend. It's a better version of upconverting 480i. The question is, how much clearer?

WFXT-DT, for a time, was transmitting in 720p which I thought looked much better than their current 480p. Why the upconvert looked so much better or why FXT stopped transmitting in 720p is a mystery.

Originally posted by jeff43
In the HD programming forum, there is a long thread talking about FOX's "widescreen".
Also, the production should be much better than what you saw last weekend. It's a better version of upconverting 480i. The question is, how much clearer?

I read the thread....and it's debated hotly how a "better version of upconversion" is possible. As the man said, we'll see. By the way, wouldn't Fox have used the best production possible for the NFC championship? Will the "swooshes" and the 480i animated robots be cooler for the SuperBowl?

Questions? According to an online guide, the following shows will be shown tonight on FOX.

That '80s Show (8-8:30pm, 480p)
Grounded For Life (8:30-9pm, 480p)
Bernie Mac (9:00-9:30pm, 480p)
Titus (9:30-10pm, 480p)

Will this be representative of the quality we will see for the super bowl only in 16X9 format?
Will Boston FOX be broadcasting in 480P tonight?

Ron

Looks pretty good. Not HD but better than no widescreen on X-Files last Sunday.

Go Pats,
Tim

Anyone know why WCVB isn't broadcasting 5.1 lately? The last few times I've checked, the shows were in 720P, but no 5.1 sound. My receiever showed "Prologic" like it normally does for their non-HD programming.


-Mike

Did anyone else have a problem with audio interference on WHDH last night? While watching Harvey Leonard do the weather, I suddenly started getting audio of a 5-channel test. You know, the usual "center channel, 256 hertz, polarity test" and then a test tone for 20 seconds. Then another signal. This went on to at least the beginning of Leno when I got annoyed and turned it off. My wife even said, "Don't they have anyone monitoring their broadcast?" It happened on both my RCA DTC-100s. Anyone else?

SMK

Originally posted by RoyGBiv
Did anyone else have a problem with audio interference on WHDH last night?

Yes, I got the audio test during the 11:00 news. I switch to 7.2 during the news to get rid of the test audio. Then back to 7.1 for the Tonight show. The audio test was over for the Tonight show.

I, like all of you, want to watch the Superbowl in HD glory... but Fox has the Suoerbowl this year, and it'd be nice to be able to watch it at least in digital.

Where is WFXT-DT (31)?

I normally watch through TiVo, so my digital viewing has been less than normal, but I finally watched Leno on 42 in HD!

On my SH-D09:
I get 7 out of 9 (77%) for WHDH-DT 42
I get 8 out of 9 (88%) for WBZ-DT 30
I get 8 out of 9 (88%) for WCVB-DT 20

My channel scan can't find WGBH-DT (19), which is something I'd expect, but it can't find WFXT-DT (31)... Are they still at low power or something?

I use two antennas combined with a VHF/UHF combiner; a ChannelMaster Quantum 1162A (outside) for VHF and a Winegard PR-9022 (in attic) for UHF. Using just the Quantum for both VHF/UHF, as far as I remember, didn't improve UHF... but I should probably re-test that theory.

I bought one of those huge VU-210XR antenna's from Radio Shack for $3.66 ($3.49 + 5% tax), and now I'm getting WFXT-DT. Did they increase power, or is this thing just that good?

I'm now getting 7-8/9 on all WFXT-DT, and 8/9 on WBZ-DT, WHDH-DT, WCVB-DT and WUTF-DT (which was WHUB-DT). I now get a digital spanish channel!

I can almost consistently (with very sporadic breaks) get all the Boston channels (4,5,7,23,25) except PBS from Hollis (next to Nashua in NH). I was able to get PBS from Durham, NH for a couple of hours last night (incredible picture) but then it went away.

Has anyone around this area been able to consistently get PBS from either Durham (WENH) or Boston (WGBH)? If so where do you point the antenna?

I am pointing mine (1/2 of a RS VU120 in attic) S-SE as directed by www.antennaweb.org.

Thanks!!

WGBH transmits from the same tower that WBZ and WCVB use. So, aiming is not the problem. The problem is it has been using variable power output while testing, and it has only been on sporadicly. Starting this week it is going to be on 4:30 to 11:30 every evening at full power!

SMK

AHHHH, I just lost Fox (25-1). I am receiving good signal, but my Samsung T150 shows NO SIGNAL when I tune to the channel.

Hope this gets fixed before the SuperBowl.

Ack! We just lost Fox 25-1 here too. The Signal reception is still strong...problems over at Fox?

Lost it here in Nashua NH too.

This could be really disappointing if they can't get their sh!t together in a real hurry!

No FOX here either. What gives?
I had it this morning, and it looked good. Nothing now.
Hope they get it fixed soon!!!!!

Len in Westport

Ditto! Getting signal strength of about 70 on DTC-100 but no picture and "weak signal" indicator. This happened just after they were showing a picture that had a zillion lines running through it like a dirty tape head or weak analog broadcast. I sure hope FOX gets it together before kick-off time or this is going to be major embarrassment.

This is just great. Hopefully they are working on the issue. I have 90+% on the signal meter, but no picture/sound.....

---Andy

Strong signal on meter no Pic or sound. Glad I have the dish channel as a back up. No Wide Screen though. Could Fox have screwed this up for HD watchers more if they tried?

I can't wait till a REAL network gets the game again..........

Fox is up again. Hopefully for the game as well...

---Andy

So has anyone called Fox do find out what's up?

Here in RI lost picture and sound getting a 78 meter

I just had Fox25 DT up at 31.1, then it seems to have re-mapped itself... My Sony dumps 31.1 and states "now available at 25.1." Sure 'nuff, there it is!

I hope this back-and-forth doesn't become the trend for the evening!

Mike,
The re-map to 25.1 has been that way for several months now.

--Andy

Been watching WFXT_DT on and off now for the last couple of hours. Didnt notice any drops. I was switching between FXt and WHDH which is showing the NBA game in HD and also Dolby 5.1 audio, although I'm only getting sound from the center and front speakers. No audio from rear speakers.

The pregame show on Fox is also coming in widescreen.

Sal

Just finished watching the Lakers and the Mav's on NBC. WOW. I bought my HDTV last week, and got the STB yesterday.

Thanks to this thread for lots of good info.

My only complaint about today's game on NBC....the Dolby Digital was horrible. Very very bad sound quality. It sounded thin and had lots of echo. Did anyone else notice this?? I hope it isnt my equipment. I know my pre-amp works fine, but the STB may be at fault. I cant believe NBC would broadcast an entire game with that poor of an audio track.....


Jeff

Jeff,
Watched part of the game also. Your equipment is fine. I run a Lexicon DC-2 and is sounded like a cheap DSP was turned on. It sounded fine in 2 channel mode.
WFXT had me scared with their earlier problems, but we got through the game with 2 quick dropouts. Not unusual for me with the FOX station and my setup. Now if they could only do HDTV next year....

---Andy Garabedian

P.S. The Pats are #1 or am I dreaming.....

Then we are dreaming collectively.

Frustrating part was the score be cut off (overscanned) on the 480p feed.

Not many complainst given literal last second results.

Tim

Mike Emery - do i read correctly that you are
in Nashua and are able to pick up 25.1 ?!

i'm in merrimack and have never gotten a picture
from 25.1, although my sony does do the
the "remap" and that there is a channel at 25.1 .
may i ask how many degrees delta you have
to turn your antenna to get 25.1 compared to getting 4.1, 5.1 ?

you also reported difficulty picking up 2.1 .
i've almost never had difficulty with 2.1/2.2 -
i pick it up just fine with the same antenna
direction i use for 4.1/5.1 (~southeast).
antenna is radio shack vx-120r indoors with the VHF portions not attached.

Pats cheers !

Originally posted by mianesva
.....................
Has anyone around this area been able to consistently get PBS from either Durham (WENH) or Boston (WGBH)? If so where do you point the antenna?
...................................

Thanks!!

I get WENH-DT fairly regularly now, after putting up my dual UHF array. But you are much closer than I am to the station, so should have less trouble.

Sat night reception was about normal to good. Got 70 on my DTC-100. Last night was even better with readings up to 76.

But I have to aim my antenna differently and tilt it as well each night to adjust for atmospheric conditions. With these adjustments it is quite good enough to watch at least in the winter, about 6 out of 7 evenings. Daytime on Sat and Sunday is more iffy.

Originally posted by mianesva

I am pointing mine (1/2 of a RS VU120 in attic) S-SE as directed by www.antennaweb.org.

Thanks!!

Recheck your data. I aim NNE from my house.
Even from Nashua the station (WENH-DT)
is definitely not S from you. The transmitter is in Deerfield NH.

Starting tonight maybe you can get WGBH-DT with your southerly aim.

Hi All,

I've been having some difficulties receiving some of the Boston DTV signals our here in Ashland (WSW of Framingham). Some of the signals (NBC and CBS) fluctuate from time to time, making it difficult for my STB to maintain a signal lock.

My house has a relatively clear sight line to the towers in Needham, and analog TV-44 is coming in pretty strong (a little snow). I've tried using a Terk TV50 (POS), RS double bow-tie (15-1623) without much luck. The past weekend, I went to You-do-it and picked up a Winegard 8800 8-bay bowtie. The Winegard seems to work much better than the RS and Terk units, but I've still got signal fluctuation on some channels.

It seems like a multipath issue, but I'm just a newbie. Any ideas on how to resolve this? Do I need to use an amplifier? a more directional antenna? TIA!

Setup:
Samsung SIR-T150 STB
Winegard PR8800 in the attic (RG6)

-mike

mml7,

First check the terrain and buildings around you. Check a topographical map, and try to see what could be reflecting the multipath at you.

If you have it from the rear, you may find the 8 bay Channel Master better than the Winegard. Or you could add some chicken-wire screening to the back of your Winegard to try to improve the F/B ratio.

If you get multipath from the front a Channel Master 4248 or better a Blake JBX series yagi should help you more.

Finally you need to experiment with location: Moving just a few feet up down or sideways can often make a difference.

Also you may still need practice aiming: This is very critical and you can't just go by map directions, or even the tuning meter alone.

"Mike Emery - do i read correctly that you are
in Nashua and are able to pick up 25.1 ?!

i'm in merrimack and have never gotten a picture
from 25.1, although my sony does do the
the "remap" and that there is a channel at 25.1 .
may i ask how many degrees delta you have
to turn your antenna to get 25.1 compared to getting 4.1, 5.1 ?"

Yes, I get 25.1 pretty well, except for the weirdness with jumping around from 25.1 to 31.1 (or whatever) and back and forth. Did any Dish or DTC-100/other user experience the re-mapping on Fox, or just us integrated-Sony users?

I don't change my vector at all... My antenna setup is, well, crude! I've got a 100" Winegard sticking out a window of my front porch! Bolted to the sill, it's pretty stable now, even during the last ice storm. I'm also using an AP4800 amplifier. I've got some terrain directly between my location and the Needham tower, it's aimed just a tick east off due south.

On my Dish 6000 I was getting strengths in the low 80's for the majors, and low-mid 70s for Fox. I hope to improve that when I move the antenna to chimney-mount, and gain about 25' elevation and enhanced spouse approval.

Originally posted by rudolpht
Then we are dreaming collectively.

Frustrating part was the score be cut off (overscanned) on the 480p feed.

Not many complainst given literal last second results.

Tim

Oh good! I wasn't just me then... I was also noticng that the letterboxed commericals (on all four sides!) had uneven bars top and bottom...

on my mits ws65857 and a hipix card, i had no overscan on the scoreboard. When they only had the "NFL on FOX" logo on the upper right, I was getting part of the X cropped off, but the scoreboard was fine. There was just a wee bit of space on the top but the score part it self seemd to be in the 4:3 space on the 16x9 screen.

Sal

Originally posted by Mike Emery
"...
Did any Dish or DTC-100/other user experience the re-mapping on Fox, or just us integrated-Sony users?

...




DTC-100 users have to do a rescan whenever there is a re-mapping problem and I experienced that problem with FOX this Sunday. When it happened there was no picture/audio on 25-1 althogh the signal strength was shown very strong and 31-2 wasn't automatically there either.

Originally posted by mml7
I've been having some difficulties receiving some of the Boston DTV signals our here in Ashland (WSW of Framingham). Some of the signals (NBC and CBS) fluctuate from time to time, making it difficult for my STB to maintain a signal lock.

Mike,

It sounds like you are doing everything right. Just make sure you point the antenna for the most ghost-free picture on channel 44. I live in Hopkinton, near the Ashland line, and I get a rock-solid picture on all of the Boston stations. If you can't get this fixed, send me a private email and perhaps I can stop by your place.

Bob Hess
Director, Broadcast Operations/Engineering
WBZ

I finished building the RS VU120 (attached all pieces) and was playing with different positions in the attic (being careful not to fall into the kitchen...) and I am now able to get the following channels (all from Boston) by pointing the antenna south and up at a 45 degree angle.

The % is the approximate signal strength as reported by the Sony built in HDTV tuner of the 34xbr2 (wished it reported an actual number...)

2.1 (the HD feed) 80%
2.2 PBS (regular feed, but not in HD) 80%
4.1 CBS 75 - 78%
5.1 ABC 80 - 85%
7.1 NBC 64%
23.1 Spanish channel 75%
23.2 (blank) 75%
25.1 Fox 65%


BTW, Patch Adams (9pm on ABC) started in 4:3 and switched to 16:9 about 25min into the movie. Was I the only one who experienced this?

One would think that I should not have to touch that antenna now, but something tells me tomorrow it may be totally different results....

Does anyone in the Nashua area have similar or better results?

Thanks!!

They were supposed to be running at full power from 4:30pm - 11:30pm last night (Monday Feb 4th), but I was unable to get any signal.

Did they change the schedule? Anyone have updated info?

Jeff

Channel 19 (WGBH-DT) came in last night better than usual in Lexington.

DTC-100 readings were 78-80.

I watched MacNeil-Lehrer and then some of the HD demo loop, before switching to try ch 57.

So it was on at 6-7:30 or so. No idea what happened later.

Originally posted by Jeff Peake
They were supposed to be running at full power from 4:30pm - 11:30pm last night (Monday Feb 4th), but I was unable to get any signal.

Did they change the schedule? Anyone have updated info?

Jeff

The signal was strong in Framingham last night. I am using an indoor RS double bowtie antenna.

Originally posted by jhe
mml7,

First check the terrain and buildings around you. Check a topographical map, and try to see what could be reflecting the multipath at you.

If you have it from the rear, you may find the 8 bay Channel Master better than the Winegard. Or you could add some chicken-wire screening to the back of your Winegard to try to improve the F/B ratio.

If you get multipath from the front a Channel Master 4248 or better a Blake JBX series yagi should help you more.

Finally you need to experiment with location: Moving just a few feet up down or sideways can often make a difference.

Also you may still need practice aiming: This is very critical and you can't just go by map directions, or even the tuning meter alone.

Thanks for the pointers. I'm only assuming that I've got multipath problems since I get wild signal fluctuations from time to time. I don't have access to a topo map, but it's pretty much a clear shot E-NE (no trees, buildings or visible water towers).

I'll try the chicken wire trick, as well as play around with the location in the attic more. It just seems so flaky, this antenna voodoo stuff. Just when I think I have the antenna in a good spot (strong WGBX signal, steady signal strenght on all channels), something happens and 2 of the channels go kaput.

Anywhere locally where I can check out the CM4248 (besides Stark, which closes well before I get home from work)?

-mike

Strong WGBH-DT signal here in Framingham right now (4:45pm)

mml7: I know this antenna stuff can be pretty flaky. Took me a long time to get good signal on all channels. Especially since i used to rely on a hill to the immediate south of me to get reflected signals and anytime there was wind I would get dropouts. I have a silver sensor antenna connected now outside on the balcony and that is working extremely well. I also have a CM 3021 (UHF only - 4 bay antenna). If you like you can borrow that to test out if it works for you. I'm not using it.

Can you put your antenna outside to see if you might get a better signal? Maybe some pipes in the walls are reflecting the signal?

Sal

WGBH-DT is actually coming in for me around 76- 81% and overcoming the Channel 19 in North Adams that was killing me before. HDTV shots still don't seem as sharp as the WGBY one's do, maybe it's from the splitting the bandwidth for both the HDTV and analog feeds?

-Mike

Originally posted by Jeff Peake
They were supposed to be running at full power from 4:30pm - 11:30pm last night (Monday Feb 4th), but I was unable to get any signal.

Did they change the schedule? Anyone have updated info?

Jeff

Jeff - you're not trying to tune them in on a Panny TU-HDS20 by any chance are you?

I also cannot receive them despite getting every other DTV station in the area flawlessly (even 23.1 out of Worcester!) All I get on ch. 19 is snow with a periodic audible "beat" that cycles about once every second. At least I can reliably get ENH-DT no problem, so I'm not totally SOL, but it would still be nice to be able to get them.

Can anyone help me out here?!?! This is driving me absolutely CRAZY!!!!!

Originally posted by Doug G


Jeff - you're not trying to tune them in on a Panny TU-HDS20 by any chance are you?
.............................................
Can anyone help me out here?!?! This is driving me absolutely CRAZY!!!!!

I have the old Panasonic model 50 tuner and that sort of works OK. It has a big problem dealing with the 480i subchannels, and gets hung so bad on that that it won't respond to channel change commands from the remote.

So for WGBH-DT I have to tune the HD sub channel normally. Then for the SD sub I have to switch the back of the Panasonic from 1080 mode to 480p mode.

Other than that it works about the same as my RCA DTC-100.

No idea if your new tuner has this same family flaw.

Caught HDH testing Dolby Digital this afternoon, happened to be home for lunch. While testing the audio they had HD color bars up. Think they're getting ready for Olympic coverage? Last I checked, I was receiving DD 5.1 during the news.

Reset my zip code to "00000" (although not sure this matters since I no longer use a dish) and re-ran the "auto" channel detect and lo and behold it found channel 19!! I manually added 57 later and now I'm successfully receiving all available Boston area DTV signals.

Dang, this TU-HDS20 is about the fussiest, quirkiest piece of electronic gear I've ever owned.

I'm looking for a miracle....

I am unable to pull down WGBH. I live in dowtown Boston and have a Silver Sensor and Rat Shack Double Bow-Tie. I can get every other digital channel, but no WGBH!

I am using the DTC-100 and have tried doing a full rescan of all channels and still no luck. Am I doing something wrong here or looking in the wrong place (channel 19 right?)?

I get the impression the WGBH signal strenghth is comparable to other channels so I don't get what's going on.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks-

I live in Brookline and have never received WGBH successfully. I get perfect reception of FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Problem two, I no longer am receiving the Olympic transmission. HELP!!!

I am looking forward to NCAA basketball tomorrow. I hope that doesn't get screwed up as well...

WHDH transmitter is now back on the air and they have are showing the coverage from the beginning.

Am I the only one who picks up GBH on 2-1?I've never gotten squat out of 19.

Bojo,
When WGBH is on it is actually transmitting on CH 19 in the UHF band. The reason you see it on 2-1 is that PSIP, at the command of WGBH, re-maps 19-1 to 2-1. I don't know what STB you are using but if you don't want the channels re-maped, you should turn PSIP off if you can.

thanks Mike E - sounds like you are getting
25.1 when i do not thanks to a bunch of reasons:
- bigger antenna
- antenna is outdoors
- amplifier...

lately i've been enjoying the 2.2 SDTV
broadcasts which are letterboxed to 16:9 -
i use the linear zoom mode for those to
get them to fill the screen...

and i'm still waiting for channel seven
to transmit with more power. presumably
they are licensed for 1Mwatt just like
4, 5, and 2...

steve elias

Is anyone else experiencing the bad audio on 7.1? It sounds like they are talking in a closet. Also once, when they went to local (at then end of the opening night ceremony), I could hear the local audio along with the HDTV audio.

Could they be broadcasting 5.1 at the same time as normal audio but with a slight delay? It sounds that way. Even on the advertisements.

The audio is REALLY bad. I have never had this problem with other HDTV broadcasts.

Mike- Yes, I noticed this exact same thing, although I hadn't come up with the "simultaneous" transmission theory. I think you're probably on the right track. Anyone know if there's a number to call the station's engineering room? If they have the same problems today I think I'll try to call and give them the heads up. Actually, I have Jim Shultis' email so I'll drop him a quick note also.

Aside from that, I thought the coverage/commentary (or lack thereof) was much better than NBC and the PQ is pretty good, too, given that they're multicasting the analog station on 7-2. Too bad everything is a day delayed, but I plan to watch the HD broadcast anyway.

I thought the aerial shots flying over the Rocky mountains were spectacular and show the true potential of HDTV!!

GO Team USA!!!! :D

I had the same experience with their audio....same thing happened when they were broadcasting the Laker/Mavericks game last week....switched to the HDNet coverage and the audio was perfect

Originally posted by eags
I had the same experience with their audio....same thing happened when they were broadcasting the Laker/Mavericks game last week....switched to the HDNet coverage and the audio was perfect

Same problem with the sound here but Ch. 7-1 seems to have more base in the 5.1 than does HDNet.

Originally posted by JSteinberg
I live in Brookline and have never received WGBH successfully. I get perfect reception of FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Problem two, I no longer am receiving the Olympic transmission. HELP!!!

I am looking forward to NCAA basketball tomorrow. I hope that doesn't get screwed up as well...

I live in Brookline, too, and get WGBH with no problems. I do live way up on a hill, so that might have something do with it. Whatever the reason, it looks good enough that my watching habits elicited from my wife the following comment: "We must be getting old if we're watching PBS. And what IS this?"

Same audio problems on WHDH-DT today so I just called and spoke with a person who said he would notify engineering of the problem. He said there was only one person "up there" but he would let them know. I also sent email to Jim Shultis, although I imagine he won't receive that until Monday.

Here's to hoping they can get this straightened out in the next day or so...

Originally posted by Doug G
Same audio problems on WHDH-DT today so I just called and spoke with a person who said he would notify engineering of the problem.

Doug,

It sounds like they fixed it. Maybe we should get paid for QA. :)

Mike

Mike - They're back at DD 2.0 according to my receiver's display. I can't really gripe since it sounds way better and since I'm using DPL2 for suround decoding its almost as good as having a 5.1 audio feed, although I hope they do get the 5.1 encoder working properly very soon.

Sounds like its an NBC problem (not local) according to a thread over in HDTV programming. Seems others reported similar issues in other areas of the country.

Anyone else seeing really bad pixelation on both WGBH-DT and WHDH-DT for their Hidef programming with lots of movement in the program? I used to watch the demo loop on WGBY for awhile and it was pretty clear and crisp, but the WGBH loops are pretty bad looking with the same demos almost depressing to watch. When I was watching the Olympics on WHDH yesterday, very often with a lot of movement I started seeing noticeable pixelation, especially with the hockey. Anyone else seeing all this? I assume it's because they are multicasting. :(

I thought I heard one of the channels last night say they were doing two Indiana Jones movies back to back. Anyone know if they'll be in Hidef? I can't remember if I was watching WCVB or WBZ last night when I heard it.

-Mike

Mike,

See my thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=869350#post869350

I am pretty sure the Indiana Jones movies are on ABC but they are scheduled for 1.5 hours each. Must be severely edited.

Originally posted by alv
I am pretty sure the Indiana Jones movies are on ABC but they are scheduled for 1.5 hours each. Must be severely edited.

According to tvguide Raiders of the Lost Ark is on ABC next Sunday 8pm to 11pm, and Temple of Doom is on the next day 8:30pm to 11pm. So it looks like there won't be much editing, just lots of commercials. I hope they're high def.

So far, twice this afternoon (Monday 2/11) 7.1 has re-mapped itself to 42, then kicked itself back to 7.1.

"Ch 7 is now available at ch 42"

So I go there...

"Ch 42 is now available at ch 7."

What the heck is this all about? It's really getting annoying as I try to watch the Olympics in HD.

(Sony receiver, BTW)

Originally posted by Mike Emery
So far, twice this afternoon (Monday 2/11) 7.1 has re-mapped itself to 42, then kicked itself back to 7.1.

"Ch 7 is now available at ch 42"

So I go there...

"Ch 42 is now available at ch 7."

What the heck is this all about? It's really getting annoying as I try to watch the Olympics in HD.

(Sony receiver, BTW)

With DCT-100 I have to rescan whenever remapping happens ...
Luckily I have HdNet so that I didn't have both with WHDH-DT's "experiment" during the Olympics.

Originally posted by Mike Emery

So far, twice this afternoon (Monday 2/11) 7.1 has re-mapped itself to 42, then kicked itself back to 7.1.

<snip>



This happened to me a few times on Sunday afternoon. Don't know what's going on, but my Samsung SIR-T150 re-mapped the stations without a hiccup. It also seemed like WHDH lost their HD feed for a few hours over the weekend...?

mike

Any news on our new channels like 39? 41?
13? 51? 35? etc.

I keep seeing them all listed for May 1, but I would think some would turn on a little before then, unless they are really planning to be late and afraid to tell us!

Last we heard 39 was due in March, and then the big tour? Still on track for March, Bob Hess?

Any more news?

Originally posted by jhe


Last we heard 39 was due in March, and then the big tour? Still on track for March, Bob Hess?

Any more news?

We are working very hard to meet a May 1 deadline.

- Bob

Hey, anybody know how I can get in touch with WHDH? I want to ask them to not multicast during Olympics because it causes poor PQ on the HD feed. Why do they need to simulcast the SD picture anyway?

Originally posted by ismeltitudeltit
... Why do they need to simulcast the SD picture anyway?

Multicasting allow viewers to have a choice on what they watch. They can watch the delayed HDTV or the more current SD Olympics. It also allows them to watch the news and other things when 7.1 is showing the Olympics. There may also be a policy that they must multicast on DTV what they are showing on the analog TV but I’m not sure.

Also, some STB do not allow viewers to zoom the picture when it is in a 16x9 frame. Some viewers like to zoom the picture on some programs like "The West Wing" which is letterboxed. In my option, it is better to watch "The West Wing" in zoomed SD then it is to watch it letterboxed in a 4:3 window of the 16x9 frame.

Mike: I think you may be correct that stations have to be showing the same telecast on their digital stations that their analog stations are showing. That would explain why WGBH is multicasting also. But when the Olympics are over and 7-1 is showing the identical programming as 7-2 then it is redundant. As for eliminating letterboxing on certain programming, you could just switch your receiver to 480i and view it though S-Video and upconvert the 16:9 letterbox to 4:3.

Whatever their reasons for multicasting, I don't believe there is any requirement that they simulcast their analog stations programming.

Channel 30 showed movies from 38 and they do full HDTV only.

And WENH-DT channel 57 never multicasts their channel 11 programs when they are doing HDTV.

Originally posted by Benji
As for eliminating letterboxing on certain programming, you could just switch your receiver to 480i and view it though S-Video and upconvert the 16:9 letterbox to 4:3.
Originally posted by MikeD
Also, some STB do not allow viewers to zoom the picture when it is in a 16x9 frame.

My receiver is built into the HDTV so I can not do that. Many can but some can’t. Thanks for the idea.

Whats up with the audio dropouts during the Olympics? I was watching this morning around 6AM and my audio was in and out every couple of seconds. Is it just me? Or is it my Sony 777ES receiver choking on 7.1? I've watched other times and get very occasional dropouts, but this morning was unwatchable.

WGBH-DT Channel 19 was strong and looked normal, except I got no picture or sub channel data.
I tried all three of my tuners: RCA Panasonic and Samsung.

Did anybody have a tuner that could decode this?

===================================

Also noted a strong digital carrier on channel 59, but it went away very quickly. Looks like they are getting ready to come back!

Yeah i had strong signal last night on ch 19 but no picture or audio. Tried at various times but blank always. Also... how strong a signal are people getting from WHDH? That channel is consistently giving me problems. Especially when its a little windy. I am in Framingham near the 90/9 Junction.

Sal

Originally posted by Sal
Yeah i had strong signal last night on ch 19 but no picture or audio. Tried at various times but blank always. Also... how strong a signal are people getting from WHDH? That channel is consistently giving me problems. Especially when its a little windy. I am in Framingham near the 90/9 Junction.

Sal

Sal, I'm also getting weak reception with HDH (and FXT). Wind is always a problem. In fact, to get a somewhat watchable (stable) picture, I need to tune within about 5 degrees using the rotator. Problem is that FXT is the same way but a little to the south which means I can't surf between the two unless I rotate the antenna a little.

I think both stations are transmitting at reduced power (as compared to GBH, CVB and BZT). I hope they go to a higher ERP soon (if they continue to do this after May 1st, can I complain to the FCC?)

The thing is that WFXT is my strong station. On the Hipix I am getting signal strengths of:

WBZ - 80-82
WCVB - 81-84
WFXT - 85-86
WGBH - 82-83

and WHDH when i can pick it is usually around 70-75 but right now its at 0. I think when the atmosphereic conditions are just right, i get the 70-75 otherwise its 0 :(

On the DISH 6000:

WBZ - 72-75
WCVB-78-80
WFXT- 88-92
WGBH-80-82

Sal

hi... i saw the odd behavior from WGBH-DT last night too. my sony xbr2 told me "channel 2
is visible on channel 19". at that time signal strengh was reported as 50% on channel 2.
channel 19 had the strongest signal strength
i've ever seen on any channel - almost up to the "r" in "strength". of course that metric is not meaningful to most of you - it corresponds to
maybe 70% or 75% . but apparently WGBH was
just transmitting a "carrier" or something like that - no picture, no sound... i had been looking
forward to SDTV-watching the documentaries about Saddam and how must attack Iraq again.
i actually caved in and watched some of it in NTSC, oh the pain of watching NTSC ;) ;) ;)

from southern NH...

Heard from channel 19 that they are having software problems with their encoder.

We may get a pbs channel 80 feed while this is getting fixed.

Originally posted by Sal
...................
how strong a signal are people getting from WHDH? That channel is consistently giving me problems. Especially when its a little windy. I am in Framingham near the 90/9 Junction.

Sal

In Lexington channel 42 comes in about the same as 19 does on my Blake antennas. For both these my DTC 100 reads 82 typically.

Channel 42 and 19 both have worse multipath where I am than 20 or 30 which come in at readings of 88 usually.

In fact: Channel 20 and 30 work fine with an indoor antenna or my old attic antenna I used to use for analog tv. Channels 19 and 42 may work too with these when conditions are ideal, but if it rains a bit or there is snow on the ground, I only get 42 with the Blakes on my tower.

It took me only 2 years to get an antenna that works for all the channels around here! I just keep my fingers crossed it works for the new ones due in May.

Channel 42 should be plenty powerful enough to reach Framingham area. If wind affects you that is a good sign your problem is multipath, like it is for me.

I would suggest you try a Blake. Use a rotor if you don't have one. Make sure your antenna doesn't sway too much in wind. And as a last resort try a Samsung tuner.

I see only channel 31 WFXT is really weak at 78 Kw, though they are asking for 154 kw.

WHDH power is up there with the best of our channels.

Originally posted by Sal
Yeah i had strong signal last night on ch 19 but no picture or audio. Tried at various times but blank always. Also... how strong a signal are people getting from WHDH? That channel is consistently giving me problems. Especially when its a little windy. I am in Framingham near the 90/9 Junction.

Sal

Sal,

I'm also near the 90/9 junction and WHDH is the only signal that gives me some problems. I don't have problems every day, but when I do, the signal strength (noise?) meter fluctuates wildly.

I think that I've pointed my antenna right at the WBZ tower as GBH, WBZ and WCVB come in the strongest. FXT comes in the weakest, but my STB rarely has problems locking on. I've been contemplating tweaking my antenna, but I'd hate to ruin my signal on other stations.

Originally posted by ismeltitudeltit
Wind is always a problem. In fact, to get a somewhat watchable (stable) picture, I need to tune within about 5 degrees using the rotator. Problem is that FXT is the same way but a little to the south which means I can't surf between the two unless I rotate the antenna a little.

ismeltitudeltit,

All channels stable one town west, but indoor and running 2 4248s in parallel. Fox was hardest to get & keep, but solid, but thankfully no wind in the attic.

Tim

Just set up a Zenith 1080 in Exeter NH. on seacoast near Mass. border.
Have great trouble getting Channel 44 analog here with very snowy6 picture at best.
Was happy to find that I am receiving all active Boston digital stations with signal strength meter at lower third of NORMAL. Picture quality is excellent on Marquee 9500LC at 1080I.
Zenith unit also puts out a very good upsampled image from 480I, and isw at least equivalent on analog antenna and Direct TV upsampling to my C'Band reception with an IEV line qwuadrupler. Was very surprised at this.
Interestingly, I still see a slightly better image using the C-Band 1080I feed from Showtime and HBO than I am seeing from HD NET on 199.
Bill

Does anyone know if WGBH is still having their software problem? Last night during Olympic commercials I switched over to PBS, but each time that I did, I got audio that sounded fine along with video that looked like a slide show with about 1 frame per second. This was despite a signal strength of 60-70 (with the other 4 DT stations giving me strengths of 80-90). Is this true for everyone else, or am I having some kind of unique problem?

I had the same problem on GBH last night.

hi, yes i saw the 'slide-show' wgbh 2.1 problems last night and the night before too. signal strength was 'nominal' for my setup,
65% maybe. it looks to me like they are experimenting the time-division-multiplexing
or whatever other thresholds there are which adjust how much bandwidth 2.2/SD can have relative compared to 2.1/HD .
no free lunch...
in any case, i've been watching 2.2 aplenty and am
glad it is reliable compared to 2.1 during
the recent 'tests'.
i' suppose i've seen all the 2.1 demo-tapes too many time now and am finally bored with them :)
happy presidents day - anyone out there buy a car today!? ;)

WCVB-DT will broadcast a new HD Chronicle titled "Ticket to Ride", a program on trains.
It will be broadcast in 1080I.
This should be an interesting as it was edited with an Avid Media Composer DSHD.
The program was completely produced without the need to down convert for editing. A Panasonic DVCPRO-100 Camcorder was used to shoot the program.
Art Donahue shot, edited and produced the show.

The program airs Monday Feb 25 at 7:30 Pm on WCVB-DT

Brandish

Ross: Thanks for the info. Any chance the 2AM replay will also be in HD?

On another note, just noticed on my 65" Mits, while watching the WHDH-DT Olympic ice-dancing presentation, my screen has shown the first sign of BURN-IN. On the white ice surface in the lower right hand corner I can just barely make out the WBZ (4) News logo. This is my first case of screen burn-in. I've had the TV for about 14 months. It's only noticeable on the white surface thank goodness. I hope this is as bad as it gets. Guess I'll have to diversify my local news watching more.

benji,

Have you had your set calibrated so that the contrast is very low?
If not it helps a lot with burnin.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by alv
benji,

Have you had your set calibrated so that the contrast is very low?
If not it helps a lot with burnin. [/QUOTE

I keep contrast at about 40%. I've tried adjusting it lower but the picture just isn't satisfactory for my tastes. If this is the worst burn-in I have to deal with, I'll have to live with it. It's only noticeable on an all-white screen and then you have to look very carefully to make it out. I don't like it but I'll live with it.

Looks like they finally got both sub-channels
working again.

Originally posted by jhe
Looks like they finally got both sub-channels
working again.

Is it just me or does it look like there's less overall pixellation on the HD channel? Did they get their stat-mux setup to work?

When will "analog channel #19" go away? I get so frustrated when I flip thru channels when 19-2/19-3 are not broadcasting, and analog channel 19 locks in. It then means I have to wait until digital channel 19-2 & 19-3 are being broadcast before I can do a new channel search so it is reset to the digital 19. Not something that is worth buying a whole new HD tuner over, but frustrating none the less. Any idea when analog 19 will go away?

Was alternating between channel 2 and 11 HDTV at 7;30 lat night. Both were showing a travel program, with 11 being perfect and 2 having voice a bit ahead of picture. Glad to se we New Hampshirites are ahead of you Bostonians on something.
Bill G

Originally posted by RScogland
When will "analog channel #19" go away? I get so frustrated when I flip thru channels on a non-Friday night, and analog channel 19 locks in because I then have to wait until digital channel 19-2 & 19-3 are being broadcast before I can do a new channel search so it is reset to the digital 19.

What does Friday have to do with it? Ch 19 digital is now on every night!

As for analog 19 I made it go away early: I got a Samsung tuner that only gets digital stations.

May is almost here, so who still needs analog ?
Till May I can tune analog on my VCR if I really need to.

Question for Bob Hess,

Hi Bob,

Now that CBS has announced that they will carry the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in Washington DC (as well as the Final Four), in HD will I have to hope that the CBS programmers feed WBZ the games from the Washington, DC area or will WBZ-DT automatically show the games being broadcast there despite the feed that is being sent to WBZ analog?

Thanks

Mark

Originally posted by jhe




As for analog 19 I made it go away early: I got a Samsung tuner that only gets digital stations.



I think you missed the point here. Even though the signal is analog, it still uses the same broadcast frequency as the digital, and thus creates interference with the digital broadcast. You are probably far enough away from the low power analog ch19 so it doesn't affect you, however it does affect many of us still.

Originally posted by Bill Gaw2
Glad to se we New Hampshirites are ahead of you Bostonians on something.

... but we already have indorr plumbing....

Tim

Originally posted by eags
Question for Bob Hess,

Hi Bob,

Now that CBS has announced that they will carry the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in Washington DC (as well as the Final Four), in HD will I have to hope that the CBS programmers feed WBZ the games from the Washington, DC area or will WBZ-DT automatically show the games being broadcast there despite the feed that is being sent to WBZ analog?

Thanks

Mark
Mark,


WBZ will air the game that CBS sends us via the HD feed. It will be a single game and not a multichannel SDTV, multigame, broadcast.

Bob

Did anyone else watching WBZ last night have a problem with pixelization. I seem to have more problems on this channel then all the others. Any advice would be helpful. I have a DST 3000 receiver.

i was watching cbs/4.1 last night from 8PM
to 9:30PM, after watching the HD-chronicle
on channel 5.1 . the picture from CBS did
not have more pixelation than usual - perhaps
one or two pixelation "events" per half-hour show,
and one or two quick audio dropouts per show.
i'm never
sure if the pixelation is due to my distance
from the transmitter & nonoptimal indoor antenna setup, or whether it is happening somewhere before
the transmitter.

with the audio dropouts i notice that the tv recovers the audio much faster than do my sony DS5000 headphones which are connected to the TV
via the optical cable. those headphones always take an extra second to "lock in" to the bitstream, which is much slower than the tv
audio/speaker system locks in.

Question for Bob Hess!!

Bob, this is Chris Lawrence, you know the one with the Dish CBS-HD issue. Anyway, I went to Radio Shack today and bought an indoor antenna, the gentleman at R-Shack told me it was a good indoor digital. He had no clue, but I wanted to just test something once again in my house to see if I could pick up the HD feed in Worcester (they were out of double bowtie). I was able to tune channel 30, 31, and 42 into my Dish 6000 receiver and saw that the signal reception, in my basement was at 60% bursts. The signal would go to 60, and on occasion 70% but then drop back out to 0. At one point I actually had a picture from WBZ and WHDH coming in for about a minute before I lost it!

Sooo, knowing this, and knowing that the antenna I bought, which I am returning, is a piece of junk, is it worth it to visit Stark Electronic and buy a real antenna for my attick? My only issue is, they have a no return policy on their antenna!

Originally posted by thedataman
... is it worth it to visit Stark Electronic and buy a real antenna for my attick? My only issue is, they have a no return policy on their antenna!

That must be a new policy. I returned a antenna a few months ago.

Just a passing comment. I caught NOVA last night on WGBH-DT 2-1 and not only was the display beautiful (no dropouts/100% signal strength with an indoor antenna) but I was pleasantly surprised to hear it all in Dolby 5.1. Keep up the good work WGBH and it would be nice if you could be broadcasting the entire day 7 days a week but I understand cost constraints.

Originally posted by Benji
Just a passing comment. I caught NOVA last night on WGBH-DT 2-1 and not only was the display beautiful (no dropouts/100% signal strength with an indoor antenna) but I was pleasantly surprised to hear it all in Dolby 5.1. Keep up the good work WGBH and it would be nice if you could be broadcasting the entire day 7 days a week but I understand cost constraints.

They are on 7 days a week now!
After 4:30 PM

Originally posted by thedataman
Question for Bob Hess!!

Bob, this is Chris Lawrence, you know the one with the Dish CBS-HD issue. Anyway, I went to Radio Shack today and bought an indoor antenna, the gentleman at R-Shack told me it was a good indoor digital. He had no clue, but I wanted to just test something once again in my house to see if I could pick up the HD feed in Worcester (they were out of double bowtie). I was able to tune channel 30, 31, and 42 into my Dish 6000 receiver and saw that the signal reception, in my basement was at 60% bursts. The signal would go to 60, and on occasion 70% but then drop back out to 0. At one point I actually had a picture from WBZ and WHDH coming in for about a minute before I lost it!

Sooo, knowing this, and knowing that the antenna I bought, which I am returning, is a piece of junk, is it worth it to visit Stark Electronic and buy a real antenna for my attick? My only issue is, they have a no return policy on their antenna!
Chris,

This is very good news! I'm guessing an antenna like the Channel Master 4228 (about $50) may work in your attic.

Bob

Originally posted by steverobertson
Did anyone else watching WBZ last night have a problem with pixelization. I seem to have more problems on this channel then all the others. Any advice would be helpful. I have a DST 3000 receiver.

I'm not just saying this because I'm the WBZ guy.........

At my place in Hopkinton, which sits on a pond (read into this "low spot") I have a really lousy antenna (VHF/UHF Radio Shack) that has been done-in by several storms (I should post a picture of it). I watch WBZ all of the time on my Sony HD set and DTC-100 and I NEVER see any pixelization. Furthermore, I get pretty darn good reception on a Radio Shack indoor double bowtie.

I have had some reports from fairly "close-in" viewers who have reported pixelization and dropouts and each time they have been using a monster antenna that has far too much gain and is far too directional for a location within a few miles of the tower. Some have even had preamps. They have switched to much simpler antennas like the Channel Master 3021 and the problem is solved. This may be the way to go in Walpole.

- Bob

Bob,

Thank you for your reply I know I have been down this road with you before and I thought I was allset because I hadn't had any problems for awhile. I guess swapping out the antenna maybe an option but what I don't understand is why it don't happen with the other channels and not all the time with WBZ.

Chris,

Knowing where you live and now hearing the results you had with the Rat Shack junk I'm very confident that the CM4228 and a good quality pre-amp (CM or BT) will get you a good solid signal even mounted in the attic. Try to pick a location if possible that pulls the signal through ONLY wood and shingles and avoid roof ridges or intersections that may have metal flashing which will mess with the signal some.

I agree about Stark not accepting returns, if you keep the box and the unit looking totally new so they can re-sell it they shoud taek it back no trouble. My antenna guy made me go back and get a better quality amp and Stark took it back with no problem.

Let me know how you do old friend....!

OK. So here is what I have been able to do so far. I hooked up the antenna (4228) without the pre-amp and got a very strong channel 44 signal. (This is what everyone has been telling to me to go by). Ithen unhooked everything and hooked up the preamp and got a signal that looked like DSS, it was awesome on channel 44. I tested all of this out on the TV in my living room (NOT digital) because it was closer to the antenna (alot of running back and forth trying to point the damn thing). I got 25, 38, and 56 with mild snow, no ghosting.

I ran the cable to the basement, hooked it all up and viola!!! I got WBZ, WHDH, WCVB, WFXT, and WGBH. This was about 7:00pm this evening. Signal strength was high 70's on WGBH, Low 70's onWBZ, low 60's on WCVB and WHDH, and mid 60's on WFXT.

The signal strength then went south from there. WGBH still remained the strongest of all with WBZ follwed a close second, but WBZ would stay between 62 and 67, then drop to 0, the pic would pixelize and then go blac, then signal strength when it returned would go to 83, then back to low 60's. The other channels got progressively worse as well. I took off about 10:00 to go play hockey, came back and just turned on the set with WBZ, now WBZ shows a signal strength in the upper 70's and low 80's. But after about 7 minutes without interruption, the strength dropped to zero and then came back in the upper 60's and low 70's. I tuned to channel 44 and low and behold, I have some minor ghosting. What gives?

Originally posted by thedataman
........
I hooked up the antenna (4228) without the pre-amp and got a very strong channel 44 signal. (This is what everyone has been telling to me to go by). Ithen unhooked everything and hooked up the preamp and got a signal that looked like DSS,it was awesome on channel 44.
...............................
I ran the cable to the basement, hooked it all up and viola!!! I got WBZ, WHDH, WCVB, WFXT, and WGBH. This was about 7:00pm this evening. Signal strength was high 70's on WGBH, Low 70's onWBZ, low 60's on WCVB and WHDH, and mid 60's on WFXT.

The signal strength then went south from there.
...........................................
. I tuned to channel 44 and low and behold, I have some minor ghosting. What gives?

I see three problems with what you are doing:

1 Everyone is wrong! You can not aim at channel 44 and expect the digital channels to be right in most areas. This will only work if you have very little multipath. With multipath each channel is likely to come in best in a different direction. I have to aim my antenna over a range of 30 degrees to just get 19, 20, and 30 from the same tower! With bad multipath you have to try to set the antenna to null the worst of it rather than aiming for best signal strength.

2 Just because 44 looks great with a preamp does not guarantee it is helping every channel. You need to check with and without it. You could easily have some overload from a Worcester channel. This could also vary with how reflective the atmosphere is if it is not a constant problem.

3 If the signals change on you you may have multipath that is dynamic: The snow on the ground caused me to reaim for channel 19 last night, and it came in great, but at about 20 degrees to the left of the normal aim for dry conditions. If you have this kind of multipath you will definitely need a rotor.

If you are in the North/East side of Worcester, ch. 27 may be giving you problems, especially if you are using a preamp. Channel 27 is the tower located off I-290 in Boylston. They run 1.1Mw erp.

I live about 3 miles from the WUNI transmitter. Needless to say, They were overloading my preamp such that analog ch. 25 was not receivable. Their signal was mixing with analog ch. 4 to give some nice effects on top analog ch. 38. I use analog TV for reference because I can see the results of interference issues a lot easier than in the digital world. In this configuration, I was also unable to receive digital WHDH (ch. 42).

In any case, I installed a tunable notch filter from Stark (about $25). You have to install it at the antenna feedpoint BEFORE the
signal gets to the preamp. The filter can notch two channels, or you can set both notches to the same channel to get double the effect. This is what I did. (If you don't have any special equipment, the adjustment can be done quite easily by setting your TV to channel 27 and adjusting for maximum noise). I now have reliable reception of all five Boston DT's, as well as excellent reception of all the analog channels. (EXCEPT for channel 27, of course!)

Good Luck!

Chris,

It's possible that a notch filter may be helpful as "rld" suggests but I'm a bit puzzled by the 7 minute period where it works perfect only to fall into the toliet (and stay there right).

I'm wondering if the amp is overdriving the OTA front end on the receiver somehow. Try taking the amp totally out of the signal chain and see what you get.

When I set up my system it was nearly 2 years ago when all of the stations that were on-the-air were at very reduced power and without the amp I got a big fat ZERO, maybe even 60 miles away as we both are does not require the amp now that they are all at or near full power.

Keep us informed, I'm very curious.

Ok. I read through everyone's posts and then took to action.

I went up in the attick and started to repoint the antenna, not focusing on the strngth of 44 but the signal strength of the DTV stations themselves. Albeit I had to run up and down 3 flights of stairs to do this, plus up and down a ladder. But after about 1/2 hour of moving this way and that, I am getting an 83 - 86% signal on WBZ, an 79 - 81% signal on WCVB, a 67 - 71% signal on WHDH and WFXT, and an 81 - 84 % signal on WGBH.

I was able to watch all of CSI on WBZ last night from 9-10 with only one signal drop for about 1/2 second during a commercial, after that not another drop, and I watched The Agency fom 10-11 and it was just plain AWESOME. CSI was especially great, the fly overs of Las Vegas were phenomenal!!

I think I can declare my battle over and that I am victorious. Thanks to all that have helped.:) :)

Originally posted by thedataman
I think I can declare my battle over and that I am victorious. Thanks to all that have helped.:) :)

Don't get too excited yet If you have a lot of trees in your area. When the leaves fill in on the trees you will see a big difference in your signal strength.

Andy

Don't ya just love this cr^p?
Thank god my antenna is in the same room as my TV. I use the Antenna Assistance mode on the DTC100, and move the antenna around a couple times a night. I live in a low spot with lots of trees. Every once in a while, I think about putting up a good outdoor antenna, then I think:
Would I rather just stand up and tweak the antenna a couple times a night, or worry about running in and out of the house a couple times a month?
Makes you realize why the average consumer isn't rushing out to buy HD. I'd go to satellite, but you need to be able to see 2 birds (at least), and with all the trees, I don't think there is anywhere to put the dish.
Someday soon, the cable companies will see the light, and we can have our cake and eat it too. Nah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone else notice a pretty severe "pop" in the DD audio during the first half of Alias last night? I've heard this several times now over the last week, but seemingly only on programming coming from WCVB-DT.

Noticed a good increase in reception strength on the Dish 6000 over the weekend. We went from low 80s to low 90s. All other stations are unchanged.

Originally posted by ismeltitudeltit
Noticed a good increase in reception strength on the Dish 6000 over the weekend. We went from low 80s to low 90s. All other stations are unchanged.
Nope....same 725,000 watts at 'BZ

- Bob

Bob Hess,

I see from another thread and FCC that WSBK-DT expects to be late, due to FCC delays and transmitter delivery delays.

Can't you just fire up your old 4KW WBZ-DT transmitter meanwhile?

Originally posted by jhe
Bob Hess,

I see from another thread and FCC that WSBK-DT expects to be late, due to FCC delays and transmitter delivery delays.

Can't you just fire up your old 4KW WBZ-DT transmitter meanwhile?
We sent the small transmitter to another station so it is not available. I'm optimistic that we will have something on the air this summer.

Bob

Bob Hess - Is there any hope at all that WBZ-DT will ever have the correct channel map on my TU-HDS20 so programming appears on 4-1? All other OTA stations I receive are working properly in this regard. I wouldn't really even mind, except it adds 4-1 in my channel lineup but I still have to tune 30-1 to get programming. So it seems like its at least partially working? Weren't you supposed to have done a SW upgrade several months ago which you thought might address this?

Just looking for an update....

Not really sure, Doug. We have had our PSIP stream analyzed. We do see the problem on the same model receiver at the Station. Most other receivers seem to handle our PSIP stream OK. It is possible that the problem could be associated with another station's PSIP stream or the problem could be in the Panny receivers. Every other receiver we have at WBZ (and we have a bunch) shows WBZ on 4.1.

Bob

Bob, that's weird, especially since all other area OTA stations do map and appear properly on their virtual channels. This would seem to indicate that the problem doesn't lie entirely with the Panny box. Thanks for following up on this and please post any updates as you receive them.

My TU-DST50 Panny (predecessor to the '20) does the same thing. When I run autoprogram, it adds channel 4 to the lineup, but I don't get any signal there -- only on 30.

There must be something different about what WBZ is doing compared to the other channels! If we can figure out what it is, there might be a solution.

-Bob D.

Where have all the Boston people gone? ;-)
Not many posts here lately. So I'll keep it going with a question.

What was the problem with Channel 7's audio on 7-1 the last
few days? It seems to be ok now, but it sounded like crap for a few days.

Also, I see that most of the Boston and Prov stations that are not on digital now, will not make the May 1 date. Can't say that I am surprised, but I am disappointed. Anyone got any info on that?

Len

I sent an e-mail to Jim Shultis about the sound problem yesterday but never got a response. In the meantime, the problem cleared up. I would like to see the Providence DT stations come on also, although I can receive most of the Boston stations well. Lend27: what info do you have about the Prov. stations being late? I know WSBK may not be on until mid to late Summer according to one of Bob Hess' posts. I believe WLVI is still down for May 1.

There have been fragmented posts in hardware and programming.

someone was looking for installation help, Shrewsbury I believe. I thought he may have better luck in this thread.

Is 7 really cleared up. It affected both the HD & SD channels.

Tim

Tim: 7-1 is back to normal.

Originally posted by Lend27
.........................
Also, I see that most of the Boston and Prov stations that are not on digital now, will not make the May 1 date. Can't say that I am surprised, but I am disappointed. Anyone got any info on that?

Len

See my list:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131725

Delays are for technical reasons mostly, and FCC delays on mod requests.

WNDS-DT wants to pretend they're a PBS station and go on air May 2003, instead of just 6 months late. They claim financial hardship.

WJAR-DT decided to try to get WLNE to co-locate on their tower, delaying everything, esp while waiting for FCC approval.

WPRI merged into LIN and new owners found a cheaper way to go by starting over again.

WNAC New owners had tower problems and FCC delays to deal with.

For full info go to www.fcc.gov click on site map (top right).

Then select "Mass Media Bureau Consolidated Data Base Search Page - main"

Finally "search for application information" and fill in the form.

"CBS has given its O&Os and affiliates permission to carry Friday and
Sunday's HD March Madness games from Washington on their digital
channels whether or not they have the D.C. games on their SD channels"

The above was copied from my daily HDTV Magagazine. Any truth to this Bob? If so, what will WBZ be doing?

Thanks Bob

In a previous reply in this thread, Bob Hess already stated WBZ-DT will carry the HD telecasts.

Benji is correct. WBZ-DT, 4.1, will carry all of the HD games available to us.

The plan right now is to air HD games as follows:

Friday, 3/15 - MCI Center, Wash, DC: Noon-5P & 7:30P-12:30A
Sunday, 3/17 - MCI Center: Noon-7P
Thursday, 3/21 - Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY: 7:30P-12:30A
Saturday, 3/23 - Rupp Arena: 4:30P-9:00P
Saturday, 3/30 - Final 4: 6P-11P

This is the information I have right now, subject to change.

- Bob

Greetings all. Just found this forum after many month of HD trials and tribulations. Got by with a lot of great info from the HDTV magazine list ... but now I find a Boston specific forum. Outstanding. Put up my own OTA antenna (CM4248 no preamp - purchased at Stark) on around Superbowl time. Signal strength and image are outstanding here in Leominster.

Here's a question ... anyone know why 7.1 has light gray sidebars rather than black for non-16:9 stuff?

Thanks,
RedCard

I'm watching the NCAA tournament tonight on WBZ and I couldn't help but notice that the commercial for the Masters says "In HDTV where available". Bob, can you shed any light on this for us?

Sure will be nice tomorrow when the games (from DC) are in HD, this other stuff does not do it for me.

Originally posted by RedCard


Here's a question ... anyone know why 7.1 has light gray sidebars rather than black for non-16:9 stuff?

Thanks,
RedCard

Digital stations can make the sidebars in their 16:9 transmissions any color or design they choose. The manufactures suggest gray as opposed to black to lessen burn-in problems with our HDTVs.

Originally posted by woz
I'm watching the NCAA tournament tonight on WBZ and I couldn't help but notice that the commercial for the Masters says "In HDTV where available". Bob, can you shed any light on this for us?

Sure will be nice tomorrow when the games (from DC) are in HD, this other stuff does not do it for me.

If CBS offers us the Masters, you will see it on WBZ.

Bob

Hi Bob,
Sorry to be a pest, but your PSIP time on WBZ-DT, is off by 2+ minutes. Then again it is far better then WFXT-DT which is off by one hour! WCVB is right on and WHDH is only slightly off.

Thanks,

Pat

Originally posted by patjoy
Hi Bob,
Sorry to be a pest, but your PSIP time on WBZ-DT, is off by 2+ minutes. Then again it is far better then WFXT-DT which is off by one hour! WCVB is right on and WHDH is only slightly off.

Thanks,

Pat

Pat,

Sorry about this. We should really lock this into our GPS clock system like everything else is around this building. Has not been on our priority list. We will update the time.

Bob

Benji wrote: Digital stations can make the sidebars in their 16:9 transmissions any color or design they choose. The manufactures suggest gray as opposed to black to lessen burn-in problems with our HDTVs.

Thanks Benji. Kind of odd that only one of all our local digitals selects the "very distracting imho" light gray.

Red

If they can use any color, why not a variable sidebar, both in color and location (move the whole 4:3 image slowly side to side)? Seem to recall seeing blue variable-blend sidebars on one of the channels. The key is to change the image. I know I've been careful to minimize black sidebars but am starting to notice some permanent ghost image on the sides after 1 year. This is a real problem.

CBS uses the colored sidebars on its HDTV sports broadcasts when showing an upconverted 4:3 image (exam.: the announcers in the studio). Also NBC used colored sidebars during its Olympic coverage when showing a 4:3 upconvert.

I wonder what's up with WCVB-DT? Since the James Bond movie last night, their SD transmission is stretched to 16:9. I'm wondering if this is an experiment or someone just flipped the wrong switch.

yes the new wcvb s t r e t c h e d
format stinks, i too noticed it started after
the Bond movie last night.
i hope it is not intentional. wonder
if ABC has some sort of edict about that -
considering that i have heard that WMUR-DT in NH stretches their signal like that.

southern NH,

Actually their programming was stretched before the James Bond movie, too. Also, did anyone notice that the digital surround sound (which my receiver said was 3/2 format) was not quite right?? No LFE or center sound, plus the volume was way low! I had to turn up the volume pretty high, and once when changing stations, I got blasted out of the living room from the new channel!!!:rolleyes:

Yes, I've noticed the extra low audio level on WCVB. It is very annoying when changing channels.

It wasn't just changing channels. I noticed a change in volume staying in Ch. 20. Very annoying.

Anyone have any contacts at WCVB? The low volume is really annoying (and potentially dangerous if you don't remember to turn down the volume before changing channels).

At the risk of following up my own post....

I found an email address for someone at WCVB and dropped them a note. They replied:

> Major power hit....we're working on it.

So, they're aware of the problem and working on it.

I'm just glad they were able to limp along thru Bond and Alias....

-j

Anyone notice that Fox's programming at 9pm was horizontally squished?

I managed to get ahold of someone in engineering and they 'flipped the switch' to Widescreen.

-j

:confused: I live in Boston Back Bay and I have been unable to pull down any signal from WCVB (20).

Up until now I have been receiving WCVB pretty well using my indoor Silver Sensor (55-70) and now I don't get any signal indication.

Anyone have any insights or recommendations on this?

Striola: Digital OTA signals seem to be highly inconsistent and somewhat unreliable. I use an indoor antenna also and if I move it ever so slightly I sometimes lose signals entirely. As for WCVB, I receive at best a perfect signal (100%) and at worst no signal at all. Play with your antenna and use the antenna signal menu in your receiver (if it has one) and you should be able to retrieve the signal. This evening my WCVB signal is at 100%.

fwiw, i've noticed that the DTV signal strength drops off
noticeably if there is any snow falling between my home &
the needham towers.

I wonder what's up with WHDH not broadcasting any HD so far this week??

ive been lurking reading posts on this thread. I got the panny tuhds20 stb the other day and i was having the problem w/ wbz on 30-1 instead of 4-1. I did a scan this evening ~700 and wbz is now showing up on 4-1. So bob now the panny works like the other stbs for wbz. Thought other people would like to know.


nate

Originally posted by alczervik2
ive been lurking reading posts on this thread. I got the panny tuhds20 stb the other day and i was having the problem w/ wbz on 30-1 instead of 4-1. I did a scan this evening ~700 and wbz is now showing up on 4-1. So bob now the panny works like the other stbs for wbz. Thought other people would like to know.


nate

Thanks, Nate. With the suggestion of one of our Forum members, we were able to work with the manufacturer of the PSIP equipment and found the problem.

Bob

Bob - This is excellent news!! Had I turned my receiver on last night I would have been pleasantly surpirsed, but seeing it here is just as good. Thanks for the great follow through on this issue, its been a long-time coming!

Bob Hess,

Just found the new improved Channel 4 website. Only 1 problem: Still can't find all those tower and transmitter construction photos, etc. Not even a mention that you are broadcasting on channel 30 in Digital!

I know you're busy getting ready for your April delivery of the channel 39 transmitter, and preparing for our AVS tour? but can't the web gurus get something up about your new HDTV broadcast channel?

I want to take the plunge with OTA HDTV, but I was wondering if AT&T cable was currently sending the Boston stations over the cable? Some cable providers are doing this now.

Thanks.

Nope, they're not....

-j

Originally posted by jhe
Bob Hess,

Just found the new improved Channel 4 website. Only 1 problem: Still can't find all those tower and transmitter construction photos, etc. Not even a mention that you are broadcasting on channel 30 in Digital!

I know you're busy getting ready for your April delivery of the channel 39 transmitter, and preparing for our AVS tour? but can't the web gurus get something up about your new HDTV broadcast channel?

The Webmaster has it on her list. She will soon be updating the HDTV page from the old web site.

- Bob

Glad to see WBZ-DT PSIP working with the Panny STB's now.
The fix also works for the older unit I have (TU-DST50).

Bob H. - I'm curious what fixed it -- can you point me to the
relevant forum page with the info that did the trick?

-Bob

Originally posted by rjd
Glad to see WBZ-DT PSIP working with the Panny STB's now.
The fix also works for the older unit I have (TU-DST50).

Bob H. - I'm curious what fixed it -- can you point me to the
relevant forum page with the info that did the trick?

-Bob

There was some "default" information in our PSIP stream referring to the channel allocation (channel 30). At the suggestion of someone who read about this on the forum and sent me a private email, we changed from the default to manually inputting the frequency of channel 30. Apparently the Panasonic boxes need this information but none of the other boxes have been affected.

- Bob

Originally posted by tveli
yes the new wcvb s t r e t c h e d
format stinks, i too noticed it started after
the Bond movie last night.
i hope it is not intentional. wonder
if ABC has some sort of edict about that -
considering that i have heard that WMUR-DT in NH stretches their signal like that.

southern NH,

FWIW, ABC in CT is also stretching the SD picture. maybe it IS something from the mother network. It bugs me as well.

Andy

For you night owls.....

Flight of the Intruder will air on WBZ Sunday, March 24, from 3am - 5am (Saturday night/Sunday morning). This in HD, of course.

Bob

Was going to say WCVB and WMUR are owned by the same people,
but not so for WTNH. So much for that theory.

Yes, the stretched format is annoying. I remember when 'BZ tried
the same thing, with just as many complaints.

Just updated my station list for Boston area in my thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131725

Looks like now we could have all major networks:
CBS ABC NBC WB UPN PBS in digital HDTV by mid-summer!

And then there's FOX but nobody gets that in HDTV!

So maybe we can join the CEA Digital City list with Houston and Portland, and get the local stores to demo actual HDTV from our local stations????

could someone post the URL for the "new wbz hdtv website" ?

also jhe - what's the url for your station list - and
does it show power level? i'm mostly interested in
which stations broadcast at 1Mwatt so i can pick them
up with my current antenna. am i correct in assuming
that channel 7 will be broadcasting 1Mwatt on may 1?
and what about 56/WB? maybe not 1Mwatt for them - maybe
they are restricted to the same/lame 78000 watts as
is channel 25 ?

hey, how about that announcement of some new Zenith HDTV
sets with integrated tuner. 34" for $2500 including
tuner is a way better price than $3800 or $4000 for the
sony 34xbr2, and also is better than the price quoted
for the sony 34xbr2-followon - the one without integrated tuner.

oh, i didn't take note of whether the zenith
have firewire/HDCP/DVI/whatever.

Originally posted by tveli

...............................................
also jhe - what's the url for your station list - and
does it show power level?
..............................................


I updated my prev post to include the link.

I don't show power levels, since then antenna heights can be an issue too, and I wanted to list in one place when I should go looking for new channels, and I don't see this listed anywhere in simple form.

Regarding power levels you can go to fcc.gov, or even easier check out

100000watts.com which goes to:

http://100kwatts.tmi.net/

or go to http://www.transmitter.com and download the FCC database listings there in spreadsheet format.


Anyway looks like the important stations will all have plenty of power, over 100 kw at least, except ch 13 which needs less being vhf.

I see even ch 31 is asking to double their power to get over 100 Kwatts.

So barring terrain problems, everyone should be able to get the new stations out to 50-60 miles or so, but maybe not with rabbit ears.

Originally posted by tveli
could someone post the URL for the "new wbz hdtv website" ?

also jhe - what's the url for your station list - and
does it show power level? i'm mostly interested in
which stations broadcast at 1Mwatt so i can pick them
up with my current antenna. am i correct in assuming
that channel 7 will be broadcasting 1Mwatt on may 1?
and what about 56/WB? maybe not 1Mwatt for them - maybe
they are restricted to the same/lame 78000 watts as
is channel 25 ?



WBZ HDTV web site? News to me!

By the way, there is no station in Boston licensed for one million watts. Where are you located?

Bob Hess
Director, Broadcast Operations/Engineering
WBZ-TV/WSBK-TV/WLWC-TV/WBZ-AM/WODS-FM

hi Bob,
i must have misread something about
a wbz dtv website - see now it just an updated
channel 4 website. hey, if it doesn't mention DTV
it isn't up-to-date enough for me!

i am located in merrimack NH
in/near the soughegan river valley.
no 1Mwatt stations out of boston? good news -
so it takes less power than 1Mwatt for a DTV signal to reach me from needham.

thanks for updating your status post, jhe, you lexingtonian antenna wild man. how does your monster antenna tower go over with the neighbors?

btw, i grew up in lexington (so to speak).
lhs class of '79 .

Originally posted by tveli

........................................
i am located in merrimack NH
in/near the soughegan river valley.
no 1Mwatt stations out of boston? good news -
so it takes less power than 1Mwatt for a DTV signal to reach me from needham.

thanks for updating your status post, jhe, you lexingtonian antenna wild man. how does your monster antenna tower go over with the neighbors?
.............................................
.

I guess if you can get ch 31 you should be able to get the rest of the important stations, at least south to Needham. And you should get 57 great (I get it about 95% of the time at night, 60% days.) Your biggest problem might be the local Merrimack transmitters that could make using a preamp difficult.

As for my tower, it is tapered like the channel 7 tower, and looks pretty! I had one neighbor stop and ask if I was a ham, and when I tried to explain that the tower was just for TV she just looked at me in disbelief!

Luckily I am not near the historic districts, and am so close to Burlington nobody should notice my little tower.
From the street some of my neighbors with big 3 ft dishes in their front yards look far worse! Not to mention those ugly cables strung up and down the streets now that we have multiple cable systems thrust upon us!

Anybody heard from WHDH yet? No HD for Crossing Jordan last night either. I did see the "HDTV where available" bug at the beginning, though.

Boston area stations please note,

Channel 57 WENH-DT had a failure and is off the air!

But the important thing is they now have a "transmission status" page at their web: http://www.nhptv.org, accessed right on their digital tv schedule page! It has info on the problem and says when to expect them to get back on air!

I think this is a super use of their web page, and I sure hope other stations will get something similar set up to cover outages, low power operation, and even temporary problems requiring stretched pictures.

thanks for the additional info, jhe. i'm chuckling since
you call your 100-ft tower "little"!
i grew up in lex. near burlington too - we used to take
a quick walk
through the woods & across route 3 to burlington mall -
back when there was about 1 car per minute on rt 3 !
if you like please feel free to email me direct at eli@employees.org ,
so we don't bore the non-Lexies with the lex-specific
talk (oh, the travesty of PAYT, and what fun the airshow
will be this summer!)

as for channel 31, i've never gotten a picture from it.
also i've never gotten WENH-DT. my outdoor antenna is indoors,
in a south-facing room of the house. radio shack vx-120xr,
no preamp/amp. i always leave
the antenna pointed at needham. you mention local merrimack NH transmitters - to which do you refer - i am aware of none!

the only DTV stations i've ever received are
wbz, wcvb, wgbh, wutf (Spanish). but with those first 3 channels, i almost never watch cable tv any more. i'd
rather watch upconverted 1080i commercials than analog HBO!
(ok, i'm exagerating slightly...)

well, i'm psyched for NYPD blue tonight in HD - my favorite tv show.. DTV rules!

in other news, widescreen review has their whole issue
devoted to the new JVC D-VHS VCR. my interest level
about that unit is increased but i'm not willing to take
the plunge until they include a DTV-tuner...
yes,that subject belongs in another thread !

Originally posted by thartnett
Anybody heard from WHDH yet? No HD for Crossing Jordan last night either. I did see the "HDTV where available" bug at the beginning, though.
I also thought Crossing Jordan was not going to be in HiDef, but only the beginning scenes, before the opening credits were SD. After they came back from commercial break, it was back to HiDef for the duration of the show ....

Jim:)

Originally posted by tveli
thanks for the additional info, jhe. i'm chuckling since
you call your 100-ft tower "little"!
...............................................


Just for the record my tower (from Glenn Martin Engineering) is the smallest one made as far as I can tell, and is about 17.5 ft tall, but I extend it a bit with a long mast. It is even UPS shippable. It is made to go on roofs, but I didn't want to work up there changing all the antennas I've gone through.

Anyway, your request for power levels got me looking, and they are pretty interesting I think to a lot of people here, so my list now includes them.

Key points: Looks like WFXT-DT channel 31 is requesting to go up to 1 Megawatt. Another really key 1 megawatt station appears to be the Home Shopping Channel 18 planned for Lawrence.

I didn't want to add elevations to the list, but I noticed that channel 29 in Worcester looks to be the area record holder for antenna once they get going at 598 meters AMSL.

Most stations' antennas cluster around 300-400 meters, with some higher to the North and some lower ones toward RI.

Originally posted by jhe


Just for the record my tower (from Glenn Martin Engineering) is the smallest one made as far as I can tell, and is about 17.5 ft tall, but I extend it a bit with a long mast. It is even UPS shippable. It is made to go on roofs, but I didn't want to work up there changing all the antennas I've gone through.


Once cable takes over - and there is now a faint light at the end of the tunnel - we've got to get you a ham license so that tower can be used properly!

- Bob

Bob, you say " once cable takes over" as if it
were a foregone benign conclusion! i wish!
the light at the
end of the tunnel could be a sdtv-train or a much worse train :
mightn't the cable companies perpetuate ntsc & their
existing infrastructure even after "2006" when all
OTA broadcasts are DTV? what's their incentive
to upgrade 6.023x10^23 ntsc set-top-boxes, when they
can just buy a few tuners & converters to install
at the headend? ti fear they make more $ if they keep
their existing infrastructure, using the entire available bandwidth
for "digital cable" style overcompression of ntsc. they'd
be able to provide their 500 channels , with
quality adequate enough for enough viewers... :|

i wish cable would "take over" in a benign way that
provided HD signals to joe 6 pack with no $100 payment. but i am extremely skeptical. i think cable industry's natural goal is to eliminate/ignore hdtv and provide only SDTV at best, if they provide DTV at all. in many situations
i fear it may be more cost effective for the
cable companies to keep sending ntsc 480i via
their absurdly compressed "digital cable" - NTSC over
their cable plant using their existing infrastructure,
converting atsc->ntsc as they receive it from whatever
satellites & antennas. no observable service change
from the customer viewpoint, so many (most?) customer would not
mind that situation

please tell me what you think of the light at
the end of the tunnel with dtv & cable ?
my viewpoint is from so far in the peanut gallery
that it is surely not adequately clueful.

'm hoping that via DTV broadcast tv can resurge as a technology to compete more with cable & satellite.
with cross-licensing deals, local stations
could work out deals where they would broadcast
an associated-network's signal over the air.
for example, whdh in boston could broadcast
msnbc/cnbc on channel 7.3 ? on a scale of 1 to 10
how wacky are my ideas of what the broadcast/cable/satellite industry & infrastructure will look like in 5 years?

singal strenth for channel 4 went to 99 last night did they change something.
gene

Originally posted by Bob Hess


Once cable takes over - and there is now a faint light at the end of the tunnel - we've got to get you a ham license so that tower can be used properly!

- Bob

Maybe I could find time to try for a ham license someday. I looked into it once in the old days, and got stuck at morse code. If it makes you feel any better I do have a couple of short wave radios, and long wire antennas.

But as to cable taking over (Sorry Bob, Viacomm probably owns lots of cable, but I still think of channel 4 as Westinghouse!): Not sure why anybody has it? I tried it once and the picture was so terrible with every channel cross modulating with the others I got dizzy watching it. And if it takes over how would people get news when a hurricane takes down all the cable lines???

Actually seems to me cable is pretty obsolete now, with them trying to cram thousands of channels into one little cable! If TV has any real competition it should come from Broadband with all the switching done at the head end and only the signals desired being sent out to each house, more like the old telephone system. Then there should be room for everything to be in HDTV resolution with much lower costs.

Originally posted by gene avallon
singal strenth for channel 4 went to 99 last night did they change something.
gene
Nope!

Same WBZ - Full power all the time.

- Bob

I continue to receive 100% signal on 4 and 5 down in Taunton but last night the bottom dropped out of my 7 and 25 signal. I was getting about 60% on 7, last night only about 20% and about 45% on 25, last night about 20% also. I guessit had something to do with the heavy rainstorm. The stations seem to be coming back now. 4 and 5 remain rock solid using a RS amp. VHF-UHF set-top antenna at a west-facing window sill.

For all you Shrewsbury residents out there, I reported in another thread that I've been in contact with the S.C.C Manager of Technical Operations with regards to HDTV availability. I was told recently that S.C.C is still on track to offer HDTV via cable by late summer/early fall, once the Scientific Atlanta 3100HD boxes are available to them, and after adding the required equipment to their headend facility (antennas, encoders, etc.).

I'm not sure what type of programming will be offered, but I'm assuming the locals (since he mentioned adding new antennas) and hopefully HBO and Showtime HD.

Dino

Hope everything actually works out in Shrewsbury....Maybe I should consider moving. I'm sure Sutton will be one of the last in line if Charter ever decides to upgrade to HD in this area. I'm still waiting for digital cable and broadband access even after Worcester got it 2+ years ago.

Can someone out there with some electronic expertise please explain to me why on a miserable rainy, raw morning like this morning, my digital signals are at all time highs?

Normally I get the following: 20 (100%), 30 (100%), 31 (35-40) and 42 (45-50). As of this moment, the signals on 31 and 42 are 72% and 90% respectively. WHY???

One word - Atmospherics.

It is a temperature inversion. Often when cold air overrides warm air, it causes a ducting effect. This bends the electromagnetic waves (VHF/UHF broadcasts) to follow the curvature of the earth. This is different then VHF/UHF signals being reflected in the F2 layer of the atmosphere. Temperature inversions affect more local or shorter distance radio and TV transmissions. F2 layer would take you hundreds or thousands of miles. You would see Florida stations for example with F2 skip. When for example WBZ was on the tower with their temp antenna and low power, I could not receive them. When a front would come by I could get BZ for a few hours until the front moved by. Hope that this explains this phenomena.

Pat

One more question: Is there any way we could arrange to have these same atmospheric conditions 24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week?

Wishful thinking! Too bad the stations won't use repeaters for us out on "the fringe".

I was looking forward to watching "Greg the Bunny" and
"X-Files".

Both programs had a banner at the start proclaiming they were in Widescreen, but neither program was in widescreen. I called the switchboard and was connected to Dennis in Engineering, and he was not sure neither show was in widescreen.

I really wish broadcasters would get their act togther. Fox could learn alot from WBZ.

-j

Jeff,

You beat me to it. WTFO.

Tim

Benji, that would make it to easy.....

Pat

Both programs had a banner at the start proclaiming they were in Widescreen

Ya, some sort of "High Resolution" wide screen? What the heck is that load of crap. Do they think people are that stupid?
Yup, I'm gonna go out and get rid of my "High Definition" TV and get me one of them new "High Resolution" ones...
Right.

Glad to see ch 57 is back on air. "Tracks Ahead" is great.

Also finding 19 better lately. Anyone know if 19 analog in Boston is switching off for them now more? WGBH-DT seems more solid.

By the way on the pbs station list I counted something over 40 stations on air now, so looks like at least pbs must be covering most of the country now with HDTV! They even show WENH-DT now, but don't see WGBH-DT on the list yet.

Bob Hess,

Looks like your big fix for channel mapping on Panasonics has made the thing work on my Samsung tuner also.

I always tune to 30 direct, so didn't notice at first. Samsung displays the remap always, regardless of which number I tune with.

The FOX network should really be called the "FO" network, in respect to the fact that they can't place their logo/bug on an HD screen so that
the "X" isn't cut off. Not that I don't miss the logo being out of the way...

Well, if you pronounce it like "faux" (meaning fake), it's actually kinda fitting. "Faux High Resolution Widescreen".

-j

I know this isn't an original idea but that 'FO' is really a subliminal message to all of us who prefer 1080i vs. 480p from the heirarchy at FOX.

Originally posted by jhe
Bob Hess,

Looks like your big fix for channel mapping on Panasonics has made the thing work on my Samsung tuner also.

I always tune to 30 direct, so didn't notice at first. Samsung displays the remap always, regardless of which number I tune with.

We aim to please! Sorry it took so long.

- Bob

A little off the HDTV topic, but for those of you interested, tonight's Red Sox-Royals game on DirecTV will be on ch. 625 versus 623(NESN) because of the Bruins game. This info comes from the Redsox.com website.

thanks

Could anyone in Boston suggest a good antenna/DTV dish installer?

My dish is on a 5' mast on a tripod roof mount and the dish seems to move out of alignment a couple of times a year....

-jeff

Is WBZ having a power problem? I ask because this station has always been coming in strong for me in Shrewsbury (for over a year!), but since Saturday or so I can't get it anymore.

Thanks,
Dino

I was going to watch Raymond last night. No WBZ on 4-1. I then flipped over to 30-1 and it was there. Maybe there is something wrong with the channel mapping. - Hal

isn't watching fox in zoomable ATSC 480i better
than watching it ntsc? i receive my channelmaster 4248 monster
UHF antenna today and hope to be able to pick up channel 25 here in southern namsha.

Originally posted by tveli
isn't watching fox in zoomable ATSC 480i better
than watching it ntsc? i receive my channelmaster 4248 monsterUHF antenna today and hope to be able to pick up channel 25 here in southern namsha.

Yes it is better. But don't tell Fox that! It still looks bad compared to 1080i.

Good luck with that antenna.

Did anyone else have disappointing reception during PBS's Shape of Life last night? All non-PBS stations were giving me 80-100 signal strengths. PBS was coming in at 40-60, and the picture and sound were both having some serious problems.

robergec,

Only watched a couple of minutes of ch 19 last night, and it was OK.

But I have noticed that last week my reception on 19 was better than ever, and this week it has been back to its normal flakyness.

I assume there are still problems with analog 19 on the Pru not shutting down.

All you can do is complain to the FCC, and meanwhile make your antenna more directional. I use dual Blakes, and 19 works quite well with 2-4 glitches in 20 minutes. But I'd still expect a local station like this to come in glitch free.

Note we had rain last night and this makes the situation worse for most people. The ground reflects more, and so more of the garbage analog 19 signal gets mixed into the real digital 19 signal.

Originally posted by jeffw
Could anyone in Boston suggest a good antenna/DTV dish installer?

My dish is on a 5' mast on a tripod roof mount and the dish seems to move out of alignment a couple of times a year....

-jeff


The Antenna Man (Blair) in Beverly, MA
phone: 800-339-8353


I used him three times (DirecTV, Antenna, & DirecTV upgrade) with success.

WBZ-DT WILL BROADCAST THE MASTERS IN HDTV ON THURSDAY, APRIL 11 AND FRIDAY, APRIL 12 (4:00-6:30 PM EACH DAY). WBZ-TV (ANALOG) WILL STAY WITH NORMAL PROGRAMING

THE THIRD AND FINAL ROUNDS OF THE MASTERS WILL BE SIMULCAST ON WBZ-DT AND WBZ-TV (ANALOG) SATURDAY, APRIL 13 (3:30-6:30 PM) AND SUNDAY, APRIL 14 (2:30-7:00 PM) LIVE FROM AUGUSTA NATIONAL GOLF CLUB IN AUGUSTA, GA.


Bob Hess
Director, Broadcast Operations/Engineering
WBZ-TV/WSBK-TV/WLWC-TV

Is it just me with constant drop outs with WGBH? I get solid signal of 83 but constant blips of pixellization/freeze/sound drop every 15 seconds or so. It seems to only happen on GBH-HD, not GBH-SD but I haven't watched GBH-SD to any great extent. Only thing I can think of is the fact that my hipix claims that they are broadcasting @ 45mbits and all the other channels show lower. Any thoughts?