Use this thread to post updates on the status of HDTV in Fresno, CA. There are several other threads with bits and pieces of Fresno information but I think we need one go-to thread that people can post to with information as it becomes available. Right now on Comcast we have:
184 - local ABC affiliate
185- supposed to be NBC but is offline until ?
also have inHD1 and 2
HD-HBO
HD-Showtime
HD-ESPN

Specifically I would be interested in any information on when NBC, PBS, or Discovery HD will come online here. I am also interested in when CBS will happen but apparently that is the least likely due to contract disputes. Anybody?

I've been watching KSEE-DT, the local nbc affilliate, in high definition since last July on my ota tuner. They and the ABC affilliate are the only locals doing HD, though all the others with the exception of channel 18 (pbs) are broadcasting an SD digital signal ota.

Don't know why Comcast isn't carrying KSEE-DT, or any of the other local digitals.

The CBS contract disputes only affect markets where the local CBS affilliate is owned and operated by CBS. The local CBS station here in Fresno is owned by Clear Channel Communications, the radio station conglomerate.

They are broadcasting a digital signal at 1080i, but it's an upconvert of the analog feed (with a nasty stretch) as they are not yet equipped to recieve and pass on the CBS network HD feed. They originally announced that they would not be doing any HD until a year after getting on the air with thier digital signal in mid-August, but the engineer told me a while back that there was some chance of getting it by the end of the year.



Comcast has been pretty aggressive about adding new HD content in other markets, hopefully the same will happen here. In the meantime I'm getting more HD from DirecTV and OTA than what Comcast offers, admittedly at much greater initial expense for equipment.

Originally posted by Steve S
I've been watching KSEE-DT, the local nbc affilliate, in high definition since last July on my ota tuner. They and the ABC affilliate are the only locals doing HD, though all the others with the exception of channel 18 (pbs) are broadcasting an SD digital signal ota.


Hi Steve, question for you (pardon my ignorance). I am using Comcast with their HD motorola 5100 STB with a Samsung DLP monitor (HD ready, ie. no internal HD receiver). How can I also use an antenna to get these OTA channels? I don't see any way to connect an antenna to the 5100. Also is it necessary to have a roof antenna (I live in Clovis) or would a good in-room antenna suffice?

Thanks,
Rod

Rodney,

You would need an ATSC capable HD receiver. Unless you have a much newer TV with one built-in, generally you will need to purchase one separately. Like a Samsung T151. I say hold off purchasing an OTA receiver. Comcast should be making some lineup changes in January hopefully.

Pat

Here is an antenna map of the San Joaquin Valley. You can use it to aim your antenna to pick up local channels. It was supplied by Jeff Jordan at KFSN. Click on the attachment.

Man these winds are crazy tonight.

-Pat

Originally posted by patjensen
Rodney,

You would need an ATSC capable HD receiver. Unless you have a much newer TV with one built-in, generally you will need to purchase one separately. Like a Samsung T151. I say hold off purchasing an OTA receiver. Comcast should be making some lineup changes in January hopefully.

Pat

Hey Pat. Have you heard anything specific regarding the potential HD lineup changes in January? Also, I've heard rumors that Comcast will shortly be coming out with their motorola DVR HD cable box, any rumors on that release date?

Rodney,

I PM'd you back.

I'd agree with Pat that the best thing to do is wait and see what Comcast comes up with. I went the DirecTV route because I've been with them since 96, and when I first got started with HD in fall of 01, Comcast hadn't even bought out ATTBroadband yet so there really wasn't a cable option at that time.

If I were just starting out now, I'd go with Comcast and save the big bucks in equipment investment. Comcast nationally is one of the better companies at getting HD stuff on their systems, I'm sure their offerings here in Fresno will improve soon.

I've been in a couple of local sears stores checking out the Voom system and a lot of folks are in there buying HD-ready sets, so Comcast will have a lot more potential HD customers locally after the Christmas season.

Originally posted by Steve S
Rodney,

I PM'd you back.

I'd agree with Pat that the best thing to do is wait and see what Comcast comes up with. I went the DirecTV route because I've been with them since 96, and when I first got started with HD in fall of 01, Comcast hadn't even bought out ATTBroadband yet so there really wasn't a cable option at that time.

If I were just starting out now, I'd go with Comcast and save the big bucks in equipment investment. Comcast nationally is one of the better companies at getting HD stuff on their systems, I'm sure their offerings here in Fresno will improve soon.

I've been in a couple of local sears stores checking out the Voom system and a lot of folks are in there buying HD-ready sets, so Comcast will have a lot more potential HD customers locally after the Christmas season.

Hi Steve, I got your PM and I appreciate it.
I'm going to take the good advice offered here and sit tight with Comcast HD right now as I don't see a lot better HD content on one of the dishes. I've heard various rumors regarding upcoming changes to the local comcast line. The general concensus seems to be that NBC-HD could be online in January. Sounds like we also may get a HD-DVR anytime from Dec-March. Also it sounds like the moto5100 DVI output may come online in December which would be nice since I have a DVI monitor (Samsung DLP). Anyways thanks for the input!

Woohooo! My Samsung HLN467 should be here next week. I think I have made up my mind to ditch Directv (after being a loyal subscriber for 5 years) and switch to Comcast. I have a couple questions regarding Comcast's Fresno offering. 1> Is the DVI output on the 5100 now enabled? 2> When in is the HD-PVR (6000 series?) going to be available, and can we upgrade for just a few dollars more a month? 3> When is CBS going on line!!?!?

Pat, I'll call you tomorrow.

Toad

Originally posted by ToadMazter
Woohooo! My Samsung HLN467 should be here next week. I think I have made up my mind to ditch Directv (after being a loyal subscriber for 5 years) and switch to Comcast. I have a couple questions regarding Comcast's Fresno offering. 1> Is the DVI output on the 5100 now enabled? 2> When in is the HD-PVR (6000 series?) going to be available, and can we upgrade for just a few dollars more a month? 3> When is CBS going on line!!?!?

Pat, I'll call you tomorrow.

Toad

Hi neighbor.
1-no DVI not yet active but all signs point to activation within the next 4-6 weeks. Meanwhile, component looks fantastic.

2- 6280 unit most likely available by the end of the year. when you sign up for comcast be sure to ask for the digital HD box. You may have seen that comcast is running TV ads promoting their 'upcoming' DVR (6280) box.It will be $5 more per month than the HD box, a bargain.

3- Don't know about CBS. Our local station is not an O&O station meaning that it is locally owned and thus not restricted by national contracting disputes so it could happen any time. More realistically, NBC will be the next added to the HD list, likely in Jan or Feb.

YOu and I have the same set, by the way. You will LOVE it!

This might be old news, but it was new to me. Comcast is offering $400 for satellite receiver owners to switch service. I have been a Directv subscriber forever, but didn't want to pay $400 for a new HD receiver. I ordered Comcast last night, and it should be installed tomorrow. I'll get $25 off my Comcast bill for the next 16 months... which basically gets me the same price as my Directv, but I'll have an HD receiver and HBO! Now, I just need my Sammy to arrive.....

I just wanted to clarify a point. KGPE-DT isn't sending out 1080i. They are broadcasting a 720x480i signal flagged as 16:9. That's why your STB shows it as widescreen.

The MyHD card will stretch it back to 4:3 if you play with res and aspect ratio. I couldn't stand to watch it stretched off my HD100.

Additionally, the engineering department is trying to get HD ready for the Superbowl. I'm not sure if that's OTA only or Comcast carriage as well.

David,

Thanks for the clarification on KGPE. When they first came up I called up to complain about the stretch and the engineer told me they were doing an upconvert to 1080i and stretching, and that his Samsung box could undo the stretch. Since then they've had a few encoder problems and I've noticed lately that I can get my HD-200 to unstretch it if I switch the box to 480p output--it won't do this on KFSN or KSEE, so it stands to reason they aren't doing 1080i--my bad.

If I were starting now I'd probably go with Comcast to avoid the intial stb expense, but they aren't carrying any local digitals other than KFSN, and I find a digital ota signal better than analog cable or analog ota even for the stations that aren't doing HD. Every station in the area except PBS and the catholic channel (49?) is broadcasting a good digital SD picture which I couldn't get on comcast. I'm also getting a lot more HD on D* than Comcast is carrying, so having already spent the money I'll stick with D and OTA.

I really hope KGPE gets HD up earlier than the next summer original eta, I really wanna see CSI in HD. I have little or no hope that we'll ever see any WB or UPN programming in HD, though they do have decent digital SD most of the time.

To the Comcast HD subscribers:

A quick informal poll for DTC5100 details. I am trying to troubleshoot high pixelization, much more than I had on DirecTV. Maybe it is normal, but I am afraid once my 46" Samsung arrives that it will be worse. Does Comcast use higher/more compression on most channels than DISH/DirecTV? I wish they would reduce the number of offered channels so the quality would go up...

On to the poll. In the diagnostic menu, what is your SNR and AGC levels at d03 and d04. Also, what are you firmware and software versions?

Here are mine:
d03
SNR (about)22% GOOD
AGC 14 GOOD

d04
SNR (about)34% GOOD
AGC 80 GOOD

Firmware Version: 51.42-2002
S/W Version: 5.03

Thanks!

d03
SNR 22.3
AGC 17%

d04
SNR 35.1
AGC 52%

Same firmware. If you're talking about the "digital cable" channels, they've always looked worse to me than directv; I don't know if it's more compression or worse equipment.

On the plus side it looks like NBC showed up tonight on channel 185.

Indeed, I have just started receiving NBC as well. Look forward to watching Law and Order tonight in HD.. cool deal. It would be great if they could knock down CBS around Christmas, or at least before Super Bowl..

-Pat

Originally posted by aenea


On the plus side it looks like NBC showed up tonight on channel 185.


YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, forgive me for getting a little bit excited but I've been waiting for NBC-HD and wasn't expecting it for a couple months. I think this shows that Comcast is aware that there is a need for more HD content in this region and is making efforts. Now all we need is PBS, Discovery, CBS etc. :)

BTW I have the same firmware here as you guys, 5.03.

Another note. When I first got my DTC5100 - my analog cable channels had some serious lines running through them. My digital cable channels came through clear and my HD channels would pixelate often and lose audio sync. I went to Radio Shack and purchased an "HDTV ready" cable amplifier with 1 input and 1 output for $29. It makes quite a difference in my condo. I'm sure the problem is in the condo cable plant because there are over 300 units. I don't lose block sync on my cable modem though, so it is probably just marginal.

Just thought I would share that. If you have a huge amount of loss, it's almost always a bad rusty coupler or a bad connector on some RG58 or RG6. The wiring here is fairly new so the amplifier helped mitigate the loss.

Thanks for the tip Pat. BTW does that signal amplifier in any way interefere with the two-way communication that the moto 5100 requires?

I am sitting here watching Las Vegas on NBC-HD 185 in HD and it looks mighty good :cool:

Actually, the amplifier is made for two-way communication. It's supposed to improve SnR on analog/digital cable channels and cable modems as well if you get a duplexer or a dual-output amplifier.

I checked out Las Vegas and watched some concert scene mixed with some nice softcore. PQ looked good, that chick was pretty hot too!

Originally posted by patjensen
Actually, the amplifier is made for two-way communication. It's supposed to improve SnR on analog/digital cable channels and cable modems as well if you get a duplexer or a dual-output amplifier.

I checked out Las Vegas and watched some concert scene mixed with some nice softcore. PQ looked good, that chick was pretty hot too!

Yeah I was unpleasantly surprised to see that Las Vegas the show is not unlike Las Vegas the place, not suitable for kids. I can't believe some of the stuff they were showing on network TV at 9 PM. Oh well at least it was in HD.

What's up with the sound on the HD channels tonight? no sound at all on ESPN-HD, Frasier was almost unwatchable the sound was so off.

For those of you that noticed the sound sync problems on NBC HD 185 tonight, you may want to send a gentle encouraging email to the ksee GM and operations manager at georgeh3@ksee.com and jerryg@ksee.com to let them know we are hoping they will fix the issue. From what I have read this problem is most likely a local issue with their technical processing of the network feed. It doesn't hurt to let them know that people are wanting this fixed and apparently this has sped up a fix in other regions.

OK, sorry for the 3 posts in a row but I just posted in the HDTV digital recorders forum about the now-official release date for the HD-DVR in Fresno, see
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2915746#post2915746

Rodney,

Thanks for the update. I assume they aren't taking orders yet. What is the monthy $ going to be on the DVR?

Pat,

We need a find a way to configure the DVR to stream content over Ethernet/IP to the 5100... and maybe even to our XBOX's :-)

Adam

Originally posted by ToadMazter
Rodney,

Thanks for the update. I assume they aren't taking orders yet. What is the monthy $ going to be on the DVR?

Pat

Adam

hey Pat, the cost for the HD-DVR is an additional $5/month over the $4.99 per month we are currently paying for the HD moto 5100. That's a bargain IMHO considering purchasing one would cost hundreds of dollars and it would be outdated within 18 months.

I don't think it would be outdated in 18 months. What is going to come out and surpass it? HD Super DVR? All they can really add is features like HMO that is available on TiVo or more outputs. You won't get DTS. Maybe a bigger hard drive, but the TiVo units you can buy are able to have bigger hard drives.

The only thing that will outdate my current TiVo is the HD-TiVo or a series 2 DirecTiVo if they offer HMO on it.

Meanwhile, out in the boonies, I am waiting for more OTA HD and the HD-TiVo, as they will have 3-D Super HD before they bring cable into my area. It will be there a year before DSL, which should put it at about 2075, give or take a couple of years.

What I don't understand is why people who already have DirecTV would want to switch to Comcast. After all, you already have the equipment, unless local stations via cable is so much more appealing than using an antenna.

Originally posted by Mr.Poindexter
I don't think it would be outdated in 18 months. What is going to come out and surpass it? HD Super DVR? All they can really add is features like HMO that is available on TiVo or more outputs. You won't get DTS. Maybe a bigger hard drive, but the TiVo units you can buy are able to have bigger hard drives.

The only thing that will outdate my current TiVo is the HD-TiVo or a series 2 DirecTiVo if they offer HMO on it.



I was thinking in terms of hard drive size and user interface. Maybe not outdated but not state-of-the-art.

I'm not switching from DirecTV to Comcast unless Comcast comes up with significantly more HD content than D* and also starts carrying the local SD digital channels.

If I were starting out from nothing I would probably choose Comcast over D, but I have no problem getting locals ota off my antenna since I switched from a Hughes to a Sony HD-200.

I also noted the poor audio synch on Frazier last night--it's the first time I've encountered it on KSEE DT since they came up last July or so. Used to get poor audio synch a lot on KFSN but not lately.

What I don't understand is why people who already have DirecTV would want to switch to Comcast. After all, you already have the equipment, unless local stations via cable is so much more appealing than using an antenna.

I had been a DirecTV subscriber for 6 years. I just switched to Comcast because of the ability to rent equipment. If I had purchased a $600 Sat HD receiver, I would have to shell out another $1000 for a HD DVR model in a couple months. With Comcast, its just another $5 a month, no contract. And they gave me $400 back for switching away from satellite!

Although, looking at the photos of your 2400lbs home theater speaker system, I assume that a couple grand in satellite equipment is no big deal :-) What an awesome setup you have!

BTW- if you get too tired of waiting for DSL in Selma, I have a couple Cisco Aironet wireless bridges we could put up between our houses. 54Mb/sec is enough to stream archived HD content between us as well. I would only charge ya $2700 a month for rental and access to my cable modem. :-) Seriously, if you need highspeed Internet access in your area, there are a couple wireless providers I have worked with that are pretty good.

Adam

Originally posted by Steve S


I also noted the poor audio synch on Frazier last night--it's the first time I've encountered it on KSEE DT since they came up last July or so. Used to get poor audio synch a lot on KFSN but not lately.

This is a (same day) response I got from an email I sent to the KSEE NBC PM, George HIllis. Nice to see that he gives a darn and is interested in the quality of his HD broadcasts:

Rodney:
This is the first report of any sync problems with our digital signal. Our engineers monitor the signal on a daily basis and have not seen what you describe. We know that there can be syncing problems but again yours is the first report.

I am curious about the forum of HD enthusiasts here in Fresno. Is there a web site or a chat area that I could visit to see what everyone thinks?

Please keep me posted on how we are doing and if you experience the sync situation again. Thank you for taking the time to write.

George Hillis
Program/Operations Manager
KSEE24, NBC
Fresno/Visalia/Porterville/Merced

Is it just me or is "ed" not in HD tonight on 185 NBC KSEE?

While there is a forum, I think George is hoping it has more people. There are apparently quite a few Fresno people here, but I cannot find all of them.

Here is the reply from George at KSEE-24 as to the status their HD content:

"Adam, we received the replacement board for our transmitter vendor to day and it is being installed as I write. You should be watching in HD tonight."

This guy is VERY responsive. Must-See-TV is back! :-)

Adam

KSEE-DT is back up right now, as of 5:30 pm. They have consistently been very good about fixing outages quickly, and I've never seen them miss a switchover. In addition, when they have encoder problems which often can mimic equipment problems at our end, they shut down until it's fixed rather than leave up a bad signal.

BTW, anything new regarding KGPE (47.1) getting HD-capable? I really wanna see CSI in HD!!

Steve, you and me both. CSI is one of the MAJOR shows I want to see in HD. I even bought a super big antenna for my house trying to get Bakersfield but no luck.

Fresno HD Fans,

Did KGPE CBS come up today in HD OTA? I started hearing local CBS HD ads on ClearChannel radio stations today.. I was listening to Smooth Jazz 96.7 at around 9:30AM this morning. It said something like "Check out CBS's all new high definition digital broadcast!" I didn't see any posts here, so I wonder if it was just my flu medicine and me dreaming half awake in the shower.

If I'm smoking crack - did anyone hear the radio spot on there way to the office this morning?

-Pat

Pat,

I heard the radio commercial also. I thought they only mentioned digital, not HD.

I know they are trying to have HD ready before the Superbowl.

Tonight's broadcast is still 720x480i, at least for Becker.

I've heard the radio ads for KGPE many times. They start out touting whatever network shows are on that night and then go on to state that KGPE has new broadcast facilities for a clearer picture, including a "state of the art" digital transmitter. They do not mention High Definition in the ads, only make the claim of having "state of the art digital transmitter".

Their transmitter may indeed be state of the art, but apparently they don't have the equipment necessary to receive and pass on the CBS High-Definition broadcasts yet. The previous owners let things slide for years, the analog transmitter needed lots of work along with getting digital up so I don't think they had the budget right away to pass HD. The additional expense to enable a station to receive the HD and pass it along is very substantial, which is why I don't expect to see WB or UPN programming in HD before hell freezes over, though both are up with SD digital signals.

It was just my flu medicine then. I've emailed Mike Synder a bunch of times this year to get an update.. He's always been really responsive. I'm aware that their CBS upstream passthough is still in SD and they are getting that gear online now. Sorry to get everyone rattled up. :(

How about the Comcast HD PVR? Anyone going to pick one up at launch on Dec 14th? Or are we just going to watch all the repeats of the grass channel, I mean INHD...?

Pat

is anyone else having a problem getting one of the INHD channels? It just freezes when I turn to INHD1 channel 191. It's been doing this for 2 days. Anyone??

Hey fellas, I'm the new guy here. I'm up in Merced and my wife bought me a HDTV for Christmas, and my goal is to watch the SuperBowl in HD. Is our CBS affiliate broadcasting (Superbowl is CBS yes?) in HD? Can I pick it up OTA in Merced? Tips? Hints? Suggestions..?

Thanks Fellas,

Brian

Originally posted by stickyfingers
Hey fellas, I'm the new guy here. I'm up in Merced and my wife bought me a HDTV for Christmas, and my goal is to watch the SuperBowl in HD. Is our CBS affiliate broadcasting (Superbowl is CBS yes?) in HD? Can I pick it up OTA in Merced? Tips? Hints? Suggestions..?
Brian

Unfortunately Comcast doesn't carry the CBS HD feed, at least not yet. Rumors have it coming as soon as January or as far away as never. Reality is probably somewhere in between.

I'll let someone else answer the OTA question as I know very little about it.

Originally posted by stickyfingers
Hey fellas, I'm the new guy here. I'm up in Merced and my wife bought me a HDTV for Christmas, and my goal is to watch the SuperBowl in HD. Is our CBS affiliate broadcasting (Superbowl is CBS yes?) in HD? Can I pick it up OTA in Merced? Tips? Hints? Suggestions..?

Thanks Fellas,

Brian

Brian,

Depends on which CBS affilliate you're watching and how you're receiving it.
KGPE-DT Fresno is not currently capable of passing the HD signal from CBS, and is not carried by Comcast cable.

According to the station engineer at KGPE, the HD equipment is on order so it may be online by the time the Superbowl comes around. If this occurs you should be able to receive it with a decent ota HD tuner if your new set does not have one built in. Merced is about 45 miles from the transmitter so a good roof antenna will probably be a must.

CBS owned and operated stations that are broadcasting HD are not carried by comcast in their areas due to contractual problems between CBS and Comcast. This is why CBS HD channels are not available on Comcast in many larger markets. This does not apply to CBS affilliates that are not owned by CBS. KGPE is owned by Clear Channel Communications, not CBS, so may show up on Comcast.

KSEE-DT, the Fresno NBC affilliate was broadcasting in HD for several months before it showed up on Comcast here in Fresno, so even though KGPE is not CBS owned it may be delayed on Comcast anyway.

If your new set has an atsc (digital tv standard) tuner built in, get a good antenna and hook it up. If it has no built in digital tuner, get a good OTA only or OTA+DirecTV or Dish HD box. Check the HDTV tuner synopsis in the HDTV Hardware Forum and Antennaweb.org for info on tuners and antennas. From Merced you should already be able to receive NBC on KSEE-DT and ABC on KFSN-DT in HD. Getting a box that's also satellite capable will get you an additional 7 or so HD channels on Dish or DirecTV, and there's a new system called Voom that promises 39HD channels by next February but is so far pretty flaky at getting local ota HD channels.

Rodney & Stickyfingers,

The equipment we need for HD is starting to dribble in. When I have a firm date for launch that I can share, I will. In the meantime, I am working on it.

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV/DT

Originally posted by Mike Snyder
Rodney & Stickyfingers,

The equipment we need for HD is starting to dribble in. When I have a firm date for launch that I can share, I will. In the meantime, I am working on it.

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV/DT

Mike, thanks for participating in the forum and keeping us informed. Nothing beats having an "insider" to field our questions!

Welcome to AVS Mike, we're glad to have you!

BTW...if there's any Comcast employees in the Valley floating around here, I'd *love* to find out when Comcast will be offering HD in Merced.

Cheers All...

Brian

Welcome to AVS to our new Fresno HD viewers (and engineers). Lots of good updates this week - hopefully this means some good HD for all our local viewers getting HD sets for Christmas.

I'll save you all some bandwidth and keep this one short - I just wanted to say Happy Holidays to all the Fresno AVS readers.

Pat

Originally posted by patjensen
Welcome to AVS to our new Fresno HD viewers (and engineers). Lots of good updates this week - hopefully this means some good HD for all our local viewers getting HD sets for Christmas.

I'll save you all some bandwidth and keep this one short - I just wanted to say Happy Holidays to all the Fresno AVS readers.

Pat

Hi Pat, thanks for participating. What are these new updates this week that you referred to? (I'm hoping you mean there are a bunch of new HD channels coming online for us :))

I don't suppose any of you know what OTA reception might be in Yosemite Lakes Park? Recommended antenna? I've been to the antennaweb.org site and have their opinion. Any actual experience with reception?

I don't have an OTA antenna (yet) but most folks here in the locals section are recommending one level above whatever antennaweb says...

Brian

Hi Everyone,

I may be repeating myself since I'm still learning how the forum works. If you already know, forgive the rerun.

We're aiming to have the HDTV feed up by Jan. 1st. We're scrambling to get everything installed. Progress is good so far. We'll need to do part of it overnight next week. But I think we'll make it. I wanted to let everyone know. And also, thanks for your patience! Should there be a problem, I'll post that here. Things are looking good so far, though.

Comcast is going to add our HD signal to their digital tier. I don't know what channel number they're going to assign to it. If anybody on the forum is from Comcast and knows, you might share that with us.

Thanks,

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV 47/KGPE-DT 34

Originally posted by Mike Snyder


We're aiming to have the HDTV feed up by Jan. 1st.

Comcast is going to add our HD signal to their digital tier.

Thanks,

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV 47/KGPE-DT 34

Hey Mike, that's fantastic news for us! Thanks for letting us know. We'll try and get the comcast guys to fill us in on their plans with your HD broadcast as well. My guess is you will be channel 186.

Originally posted by Mike Snyder
Comcast is going to add our HD signal to their digital tier. I don't know what channel number they're going to assign to it. If anybody on the forum is from Comcast and knows, you might share that with us.

If anyone from Comcast stumbles by here, I'd appreciate any information as to when HD will be available in Merced. We received a postcard in the mail this week indicating that both HD and HSI will be available "shortly." Most folks here are Fresnans - so I'll squeak the wheel for your pals up North. ;)

Thanks again for contributing Mike!

Brian

Hi Everyone,

I'm fighting a last minute glitch with the HD equipment. Everything is in place, but I'm dealing with a configuration problem. If we can't get it going today, we're going to regroup on Monday.

Thanks for your patience and encouragement. Like I tell my staff, there are three things that make electronics easy; unfortunately nobody knows what they are.

Happy New Year in any case.


Mike

Mike, thanks for the update and good luck with getting it up and operational.

Heard any rumors about how quickly Comcast will start carrying your HD signal after you get it going?

Mike,

Great news. Thanks for all of the hard work.

David

We talked with them last week, but haven't heard anything since. They'll be getting a feed straight out of my HD encoder so it should look great when it happens. I'm waiting for them at this point.

I'll send a note out when we're operational with the on-air portion.

I noticed KGPE-DT is in an HD scanrate right now (5pm, 12/31/13) with gray bars on the side of the upconverted 4/3, so part of the job is apparently working. I like the gray bars for the sides of upconverts for burn in protection, though everyone else is using black.

Mike, thanks so much for keeping us posted. If it takes till next week or even longer I'm okay with that now that I know it's definitely coming.

Hope you and your hard working staff have a safe and happy new year!!!

The feed switched from framed 4:3 SD to full 16:9 HD at 9:00pm for The King of Queens but the sound disappeared at that point.

The sound on KSEE-DT went off after Leno on New Year's eve. This morning KSEE-DT was off the air.

How was the PQ on KGPE in HD?

The sound on KSEE-DT went off after Leno on New Year's eve. This morning KSEE-DT was off the air.

How was the PQ on KGPE in HD?

Are we going to be getting the Broncos game in HD today?

I guess not. :(

Maybe next week!

Bummer, I was hoping to see that too. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the near future.

Well, crossed fingers didn't help the Broncos... (my wife's team)

HD is up for NCIS tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

Way to go Mike and your entire crew!!!

Thanks,

David

Are you all pulling this OTA? I need the SB in HD. Comcast doesn't do HD in Merced. Any info on whether the Fresno CBS affil will allow a waiver so I can get CBS-HD from E*?

Brian

I hope CBS-HD is on Comcast before the super bowl, else I'll have to go over to a friend's house with my OTA receiver and pray that it works :cool:

Originally posted by Klin
I hope CBS-HD is on Comcast before the super bowl,

Amen to that-- what about it, Comcast?

Well the irony is that E* has had CBS-HD available for awhile, and today D* makes a big to-do about they know have CBS-HD too "broadcasting the SuperBowl in HD." Pffffffttt. How many CBS stations will actually let viewers in the region get waivers so they can see it...

Very few I imagine...

Brian

Wonderful news!! Can't wait for CSI tomorrow night!!

Brian, with a decent antenna you should be able to pick up KGPE-DT off the air unless you're stuck with a tall building in the way.

Let me add my enthusiastic thanks to Mike Reynolds and his intrepid crew!!!

By now you guys know, or have figured out, that our HD feed is up and running. I hope everyone enjoys it. The picture looks great at my house. BTW to Steve S., it's Mike Snyder, not Mike Reynolds.

With regards to the football game on Sunday, with the way the Broncos played, I was almost glad HD wasn't ready yet. Personal bias-I grew up in Denver and moved to CA in Aug. 2002.

Anytime we have problems or are making changes, I'll do my best to post it here. Thanks to everyone on the forum for your patience and encouragement. Enjoy!

Mike,

Thank you very much for the updates. I'm definitely looking forward to adding another HD Local channel to my line-up, even though I may have to use my OTA. I've still got my fingers crossed that comcast will add KGPE-HD to their lineup before the Super Bowl.

And tonight I will miss CSI because I will be on the road going to the CES. Too bad I don't have HD-TiVo yet. I will have to see if I can get the D-VHS deck to record it for me.

Mike,

Please accept my sincerest apologies for getting your name wrong--I was so excited about the good news I went into a brainfade.

Now I know why people rave about the PQ of CSI. Amazing!!!

YES. KGPE-DT is now online on Comcast, channel 186. Thank you Comcast :D :D :D

It's so great to finally be able to see CSI the way it was obviously intended-
HD really lets one appreciate the cinematography on this show--in SD it's mostly a greenish glob.

I haven't watched tv most evenings for the last few months--nothing really good on in HD and SD too painful to watch, but now the KGPE-DT is up in HD I'll be giving my dvd player a well deserved rest most weeknights.

Kinda off topic but I've got a question for you folks with Comcast in Fresno/Clovis:

Just what HD channels does Comcast carry at present? I am really disappointed that DirecTV did not announce any new HD other than CBS at the CES show and am seriously thinking about switching.

I called them last night and the csi only listed a few non-local HD channels, just Showtime, HBO, and ESPN--no Discovery HD, INHD1 or 2, etc.

I thought I'd ask those who are actually using Comcast if they could list the available HD channels? Thanks in advance!

Steve,

Comcast carries the Fresno CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates in HD, ESPN-HD, INHD1, INHD2, SHOWTIME-HD, and HBO-HD.

Yeah, baby! Got some KGPE CBS action on Comcast tonight. Loving it. We've got a respectable HD line up now. I dig on that new Weatherscan channel on 101 too, Fresno finally shows up on a TV weather map. Pretty neat addition for the new year. Wish it was HD too. I'm pretty happy. If my pals at Pappas can get Fox up in HD in September, we might be able to watch the 2005 baseball season. Haha.

Good job Mike in getting your gear turned up with some hefty deadlines under pressure from rabid Fresno HD fans :)

Cheers.

Pat

YES!!!
I'm so glad Comcast picked up the CBS-HD feed so quickly.

Steve, keep in mind that Direct TV has also been accused, fairly or not, of overly compressing their HD channels causing loss of picture quality. Comcast users (and cable users in general) haven't had this complaint.

And, no, I don't work for Comcast ;)

I've still got a few months to go on my D* commitment, and since they have DiscoveryHD and Comcast doesn't yet, I'm still currently getting more from D*.

So the time to switch is not now, but if Comcast has more to offer than D* next summer I'll reconsider. There's also the fact that Comcast carries none of the non-HD local digitals.

I am away a lot on the road right now , what is the latest news on our

pbs station going digital and HD?

CBS down, Discovery and PBS to go!

I'm sitting here watching the NE/TEN football game on Comcast 186 CBS in glorious HD. Looks awesome.

I'd like Discovery HD. It'd be cool for my wife, she could check out old episodes of Trading Spaces and isn't the crocodile hunter guy on Discovery? I know a lot of similar nature/outdoor shows are on INHD.

I'd also like our local UPN in HD. There a bunch of good shows, say Enterprise for instance. Hoshi Sato.. there's good eye candy. I know a language she can translate. :)

Regardless, I too was surprised at how fast Comcast turned up CBS once their HD feed came online. Must mean Comcast wants local HD as bad as we do. When is their PVR and VoD services coming online?

Spent the whole weekend working on the lawn, pool and spa, looking forward to sitting down and watching some good HD. Have a good one.

Pat

Originally posted by patjensen

Regardless, I too was surprised at how fast Comcast turned up CBS once their HD feed came online. Must mean Comcast wants local HD as bad as we do. When is their PVR and VoD services coming online?

Pat

You can check out the HDTV hardware forum for all the details but supposedly it could be as soon as this month for the 6208 HD-DVR. It's up in the air though because it's been delayed more than once already. THe date that is currently being tossed around is the 17th.

From what I've read, the digital conversion is the top priority at KVPT right now, but they are far short of having the funds to do it. Also they are prioritizing multicasting over HD.

I too would love to have UPN in HD, but not holding my breath. Their local affilliate isn't exactly rolling in money so it will probably be a long time if ever before they can afford the extra bucks to pass the HD signal off UPN.

I'm also wondering if channel 26, our Fox outlet, will invest in the HD equipment when Fox starts doing true HD. They never did carry Fox's 16/9 480p "enhanced" feed.

I just got thru watching Just Married on HBOHD via D*, sampled a bit of the basketball on HDNET, and am now tuned to the football game ota from KGPE-DT--I see no difference in pq between HDNet's live basketball over D* and the virgin ota Football game on 47.1. I am getting a few very brief audio dropouts on 47.1, and have seen one split second picture pixellation.
I'm assuming this is happening at the network because it never happens during breaks for local commercials.

Watched most of primetime on 47.1 last night--CBS really is the Tiffany network when it comes to HD picture quality and Mike Snyder and his crew did a magnificent job at KGPE. Now that I've seen some live sports on KGPE I can say their pq is at least as good as if not better than any HD I've seen from any source.

Steve,

I've been working pretty closely with Pappas's engineering team on a work project. After a meeting, I asked them what their plans were and they said HD was not a priority and they are pretty far out from bringing their feed online, even once Fox starts centrally broadcasting HD.

Back then they didn't even mention Fox central would be coming up in 720p in 2004 and that was around the time the announcement had been made.

A lot of these local broadcasters are strapped for cash. They think HD is important for the broadcasting industry, but it's a chicken and the egg issue. They won't turn it up unless there is viewers and ad dollars, and there "aren't viewers" because there is no HD content :) You know what I'm saying.

Pat

Thanks Pat.

While I knew our UPN station is pretty impoverished I thought Pappas was a bit healthier.

If/when HD veiwers get counted in the ratings perhaps they'll reconsider.

Doh!!! I watched the entire Colts/Chiefs game today on 47's analog cable feed. It wasn't until tonight I noticed that channel 186 is online. I should have checked the forum last night instead of going to Edward's to see "Big Fish".

I think I can schedule a SuperBowl party at my house now that the game will be in its full glory! Guess I better ok with the wife.

Can't wait to catch CSI this week.

Adam Todd
Cisco Systems, Inc
Clovis, CA 93611

I don't think it will be too bad. With FOX owning DirecTV, I think we will soon see a national FOX feed like CBS has. Then we would just need to get waivers to see the HD material.

The national Fox ED (Fox doesn't do HD) on D* was announced a week or so ago. See the sticky thread in the HDTV Programming Forum here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=348624). Of course it is O&O so you'll need waivers.

As an aside, what's the greatest distance any of you are getting the CBS OTA from. Antennaweb puts me at ~69 miles away, and most folks in the HDTV forums feel like 50 miles really is about the limit of consistent HD OTA reception. I don't have the ability to put up a huge antenna, but I might be able to put up a smaller attic mount one. I just don't want to spend a hundred dollars or so on an antenna if it's hopeless.

Brian

I don't understand why FOX is dragging their feet when it comes to broadcasting in HD. Friday night, I was able to choose from a show in HD on ABC, NBC, CBS, and the Suns/Kings game on ESPN-HD. Fox needs to get on board and keep up.

Got an e-mail from KFSN's (ABC) engineer about Enemy of the State featuring Dolby 5.1 tonight. Contents are below:

The Monday Night movie Enemy of the State will have commercial material
encoded in 5.1 surround sound. ABC is trying to find ways to produce a
consistent audio level during high definition programs. The problem
faced is the movie is encoded with surround sound and most commercial
material is in stereo. Please let me know what you think of the audio
quality.

Thanks,

Jeff Jordan
Director of Engineering
KFSN-TV
559-490-3212

Let's give this guy some feedback on this issue, for everyone that is able to watch (and has 5.1 sound). What's his email?

Commercials notoriously have set their volume levels high in the past. With the greater dynamic range for HDTV, it is a real problem. They should try to normalize the audio in the commercial and then re-encode it.

Speaking of audio, I have a weird problem with both KMPH and KFRE's digital channels as far as audio goes.

I have a Sony HD-200 connected via optical cable to my A/V receiver and analog straight to the tv.

If I enable Dolby Digital on the HD-200 I get very loud and garbled sound on those 2 channels (both Pappas broadcasting owned). If I switch the HD-200 to PCM for the digital audio out, they are a little louder than the other channels and not garbled. Analog straight to the tv is also ok but a little loud.

I don't know if this is a problem with the broadcast or my A/V receiver (Pioneer VSX45TX), but it only happens on those 2 channels.

If anyone else has a similar setup I'd appreciate hearing if they too have experienced this problem. Thanks in advance.

Originally posted by patjensen
Got an e-mail from KFSN's (ABC) engineer about Enemy of the State featuring Dolby 5.1 tonight. Contents are below:

The Monday Night movie Enemy of the State will have commercial material
encoded in 5.1 surround sound. ABC is trying to find ways to produce a
consistent audio level during high definition programs. The problem
faced is the movie is encoded with surround sound and most commercial
material is in stereo. Please let me know what you think of the audio
quality.

Thanks,

Jeff Jordan
Director of Engineering
KFSN-TV
559-490-3212

I thought the audio 5.1 was great although I did notice some synchronization problems, although there is always a debate about whose end this problem is on. I did not notice any volume variance between commercials and the show. I got good 5.1 throughout with no dropouts whatsoever. I'm using comcast HD 5100 cable box. The picture quality was outstanding.

I caught part of Enemy of the State at about 10:15. Waited for a commercial. The volume stayed pretty consistent when the commercials started. I wanted to compare the commercial volume with the program volume when it came back on, but it was not HD when it came back.

I finially got to see some CSI in HD. CSI:Miami looked pretty damn nice, I must say. I didn't like the show before, but now it will be a different story. I can't wait until Thursday.

I still don't understand why only one of my HD receivers (I have 4) will tune to ABC. I need to do some checking up on that when I get a chance.

There's a longer post in the HW forum, but I wanted to add this to the thread in case anyone else this far North (Merced) is trying for OTA reception. I picked up a SIR-T151 today and a Silver Sensor (yes...the wee tiny indoor Silver Sensor antenna) and after a bit of tweaking, I'm pulling all the digital stations in just fine. Low signal strength, but totally perfect audio and video. Bring on the HD!

Brian

Sweet! Thats great news man. What kind of signal strengths are you getting on each channel? Post it here so any of the guys from the North Valley can check it out.

I just got my 6Mb DSL circuit turned up.. this is my first post. Hello world.

Hey, is it just me or has CBS-HD on Comcast channel 186 been breaking up audio and video every few seconds for the past 2 days?? All my other HD and other channels are fine.

I can't speak to the CC issue, as I watch it OTA, but I've watched most of the HD CBS shows over the last couple days and it's not a station issue - everythings been fine.

Brian

Rodney,

Yes, CBS-HD on Comcast has been horrible for me all week with audio drops and video freezing every 2-3 seconds. I checked it this morning and Blues Clues was fine, so I am hoping Comcast resolved the issue. Still no program guide though....

Adam

There's no program guide for 47.1 ota either, just use the one for analog 47 (7 on comcast). 24 doesn't have guide data up for it's digital feed ota either. Most of the other digital ota channels do have guide data on ota recievers.

Well, it's fixed now. I called Comcast and complained, so maybe I can take credit for it :)
WHile I was on the phone with COmcast I managed to talk them into coming to my home and installing a powered distribution amplifier to replace the 6 way splitter that supplies my home. For free. They did it today.

I installed an antenna (actually re-connected an existing antenna) last night at my friend's aunt's home. I really wish these stations could get together and put all their damn broadcast towers in the same place. This 270' arc for all the stations in this area has got to end.

You either need a rotor or two antennas. With the HD TiVo, a rotor won't work, as the rotor tunes in CBS while it tunes out ABC.

Does anybody find it difficult to pick up ABC? We had difficulty getting that last night and I cannot get it on 3 of my 4 tuners, even though I have the largest antenna Channel Master makes plus an antena amp and a rotor. I might have to put up a dedicated ABC antenna if I can find one that works perfectly.

Mr. P,

From my location near FAT I'm getting all the local Fresno digital ota channels fine without a rotor. Are you trying to get both Fresno and Bakersfield or is it because you're in Selma?

Probably because I am in Selma. Even now, to tune in CBS, I lose FOX.

Wow. My first game in HD. Wow. In the future if the NFL schedules games they damn sure better make the second game HD, because Fox's ED poo almost ran the people outta my house after the gorgeous CBS-HD broadcast. Thanks Mike.

Brian (Btw...I notice someone slacked flipping the switch to the HD feed after one of the commercial breaks...) ;)

Our FOX affiliate didn't send out the ED feed, though. Instead, we got 4:3 480i via digital transmission. 16x9 480p would have looked much better than what we got, but I too would like to see true HD. FOX will be much better next year with 720p and if Pappas cannot pass the signal, we will just need to get a waiver to get the national FOX HD feed from DirecTV.

Who's your Fox affiliate Poindexter?

Same as yours, I would assume. KMPH. Pappas. Channel 26. They are not yet sending 480p widescreen, unless I have been out of the loop.

Looked 16:9 to me. I get bars on any 4:3 material w/my STB, and this was WS. Still looked terrible compared to the CBS HD material.

Brian

I didn't get widescreen, so I went to my bay area feed, which looks better than Pappas' digital 480i feed. I didn't go back, but I have never seen FOX digital widescreen come from Pappas. I was under the impression that they didn't have the equipment to pass the signal. Perhaps I was mistaken.

Originally posted by Mr.Poindexter
FOX will be much better next year with 720p and if Pappas cannot pass the signal, we will just need to get a waiver to get the national FOX HD feed from DirecTV.

Good luck on getting a waiver. KMPH is very "hometown/local" oriented. Remember when they were running those "we're your hometown/local" station? I can't remember the exact phrase they used. I think it had a kid on a bicycle delivering newspapers. I am 99% sure they will deny your waiver. They don't want your eyes viewing commercials from another area.

Getting a waiver is usually a 100% guaranteed no because they don't want to lose advertising revenue. The key is to let them know you will no longer advertise on their channel with your local business because they won't give you a waiver to get a higher quality picture.

It is all about the advertising revenue.

Hi Everyone,

First off thanks for the nice comments about our HD signal. Most of what I get on the phone is complaints. It's nice to hear some positive feedback! BTW to Brian-someone was a little slow switching back to HD yesterday. We've been doing it manually. It should be tied in with automation today.

And an FYI on antenna locations for the folks in Selma and Merced: Everyone's antennas are on two separate mountains. Fox, NBC and PBS are on Bear Mountain southeast of Fresno. My station, ABC, NBC-DT, UPN, and I believe WB are at Meadow Lakes northeast of Fresno.

I live in Clovis and end up pointing my antenna due east to pick up everybody. Hope that helps anyone who is having reception problems.

Thanks again for the positive feedback. I'll pass it on to our GM and my crew.

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV/DT

Mike,

I don't think we can give you enough thanks for CSI in HDTV! I am even watching CSI Miami now.

You're welcome, Mr. Poindexter. Enjoy!!

FWIW, I have no idea why anyone would gripe at you folks...everything I've seen (thus far) has been outstanding - I guess some folks will be unhappy regardless. I knew, by watching the switching, it was manual but that one wee snafu (it was only 15 seconds late or so) gave me a chance to explain to my guests that, in spite of all the technology going into us watching the broadcast, there really was a guy somewhere who had to "flip the switch." :D

I agree with stickyfingers, am very happy with KGPE's HD. I first got HD back in fall of 01, when ABC had already been up for about 6 months. Only within the last 3 months have they been as consistently good as KGPE is after only a coupla weeks. It is so cool to see what CSI is really meant to look like instead of the hazy analog feed. Joan of Arcadia, in which most scenes are fairly dark looks amazing. I'm looking forward to CSI Miami tonight.

BTW, KGPE's switch flipping has been so consistent I thought they already were automated!

Mike (& Friends). The State of the Union looked Jaw-Droppingly good tonight. I had no problem gathering the family round to watch it. After seeing that a few other CBS stations botched it, I just wanted to compliment you folks over at KGPE (again) on what a quality job you did (and continue to do).

Thanks,

Brian

Well not to reply to my own reply, but ya'll are sleeping, so I'm going to. ;)

KVPT, someone else posted is not digital, and has no plans to do so? That seems odd, because the PBS Digital TV (http://www.pbs.org/digitaltv/localstation.htm) page states that "85% of the country is now served by PBS DTV. We shouldn't be in the bottom 15% - Valley Pride! (or "Sour Grapes!) ;)

Brian

I really would like to see PBS in HD. I hope KVPT gets it in gear. Someone send them a $50k donation and require it be used for HD equipment upgrades :)

I think we'd cover that if Poindexter sold, oh...one of his speakers... ;)

Brian

Yeah, but then I would have to listen to their pledge drives in MONO! Sure, they are in mono now, but I would hate to give up stereo so others could have it. I'm not a martyr, after all.

I suppose I could just sell theother speaker so that Pappas can transmit 24 in Fox Digital Widescreen. Then I would at least be able to enjoy the 49er games a little more. They might not win much, but they will look good when losing. :(

A few weeks ago I read in the paper that the digital conversion is a top priority at KVPT, but they're still a lot more than 50k short. In the article the KVPT contact said their main goal in going digital is to allow multicasting and made no mention whatever of HD.

Since the equipment to pass an HD signal is very costly over and above what's needed to get an SD digital signal on the air, I don't expect to see KVPT in HD any time soon.

This is the pbs station that thinks 40 year old Ed Sullivan reruns are perfect for Saturday night.

Getting SD digital 480i out is certainly the cheapest option, but is a multicasting encoder that much cheaper than being able to retransmit HDTV?

Hi Guys,

Just checking in to see how everyone liked the Super Bowl in HD. And please no comments about Janet. I'm jusy interested in how everyone liked the football game. I was at the station to oversee things. It looked great on our HD picture in the lobby. How did it look to you guys?

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV 47/KGPE-DT 34

It looked fantastic for me via comcast.

Picture quality was excellent with no breakups. Audio was solid throughout, no dropouts at all.

I only wish I could be as complimentary on the halftime show :rolleyes:

Hey Mike,
It looked great. I had some friends over and it sold them on HD. In the past few months, three of my buddies came over and watched some HD and now they all have it. Great Job!! :)

Thanks.
Jeff

It looked great. I have the DirecTV feed for CBS HD and I compared before the game. Your signal looked much better. I didn't flip back and forth during the game, as I didn't want to miss the game or the commercials. I just got the DirecTV feed as a back-up in case something went down.

I get Voom installed tomorrow - a 3 room install. I could only wish that they all look as good at the local CBS signal.

Mike,

Your HD broadcast on Superbowl Sunday was flawless as far as I'm concerned. The audio stutter during the halftime show was reported nationwide, so I attributed it to the network feed.

The consistent high quality and reliability of KGPE-DT's HD broadcasts is very much appreciated. My meanderings around this forum indicate that you guys are doing a far better job than many stations in much larger markets with presumably much larger technical budgets.

Your own enthusiasm and the fact that KGPE has an HD demo in the station lobby indicate that KGPE takes pride in their HD capability and really gives it a high priority, as opposed to some other local broadcasters that seem to be doing it only because of FCC mandate.

I caught the tail end of a station break the other day promoting KGPE-DT's HD broadcasts on channel 34. I was on the digital channel at the time but really hope that was also broadcast on the analog feed. I've seen no on-air promotion of any of the other local channel's HD capability. A lot of HD capable sets were sold in the last few months but I bet few of them are actually getting HD. Your continued promotions will help with this situation.

Thanks guys. I'm pretty proud of it and I'm glad everyone likes the picture quality. We see HD as an opportunity to bring more to our viewers. Thanks for watching!

Don't know how many of you watched L&O:SVU last night, but the dingdong at KSEE flipped the switch going to the 10:25 commercial then meandered through the hallways or something because the HD feed wasn't switched back on until 10:50. Boooooooooo KSEE Booooooooooo.

If you were watching, actually even if you weren't ;) , drop 'em an email to let them know that's not acceptable. I think it's important they know folks *are* watching the HD feeds.

Here's (http://www.ksee24.com/contacts/) the link for the KSEE contact page.

Brian

I just E-mailed the KSEE General Manager, Mr. Jerry Giesler, asking if their switching was automated or manual and politely mentionning last night's outage and got an almost immediate reply:

"It is manual, but we are taking steps to make sure it does not happen again. Thanks for writing. I was the one who called master control last night because I went over to KSEE-DT and saw it was not right. You are not alone!"

So the GM of the station appears to be solidly on our side!!

Kudos to Mr. Giesler and KSEE-DT

I need to let everyone know that we had a failure with our HD router early Friday morning. As a result, I can't switch to HD broadcasts from CBS. This is both upsetting and frustrating. We've been as happy as everyone on the forum with our HD lineup. The frustrating part is trying to get a replacement out of Canada. Right now it's hung up in customs and they might be sending me the wrong part!

I wanted everyone to know what's up. We're working as quick as we can to get it resolved. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV/DT

Thanks for the update Mike - sorry to hear that. A lot of us work on routers for a living ;) We know what your going through. You backed your configuration up, right? Keep us posted on how things progress.

Pat

Thanks for the update. Good luck with your part coming in.

Good luck getting it running, we're waiting patiently :)

Thanks for letting us know, Mike. I called the newsroom at about 8:15 Friday night to find out why Joan of Arcadia wasn't in HD and a very nice lady answered and told me there'd been an equipment problem. It was really nice that she knew about it and was able to pass on the information.
Good luck Mike, and thanks for caring.

By contrast, KSEE-DT was also not showing L&O in HD. A phone call to them got me a guy who knew nothing, and hadn't even heard of HD.

Just for giggles I turned on the digital cc on my HD-200 and found that KGPE is doing digital closed captionning, even during the local news in the morning. None of the other locals are doing this yet.

Hi everyone,

As you may have noticed we're back to passing HD again as of yesterday; although I'm still having some problems with remote triggering of the router. Oh well, it's a loaner and ours will be back in a few weeks. Thanks to everyone for their patience and support.

FYI to Pat Jensen: In this case it was a video router, which short for routing switcher; it's not like a Cisco. It wouldn't even boot up, so having the configuration written down didn't help. And the factory frowns on us getting into the firmware; different settings with Hyperterminal get you nowhere. Since it's still under warranty, I'll be a good boy...for now. And if you already knew all this, forgive the basic explanation.

Oh and we've been doing closed captioning on DT since day one; even before we added HD to the mix.

Talk to you guys soon,


Mike Snyder
Chief Engineer
KGPE-TV/KGPE-DT

Am I the only one that didn't know that Cinemax HD was now available here through Comcast?

I happened to see a reference to it on their web page and called them. I signed up for it yesterday, costs an extra $10/month but they gave me a 6 month free trial when I asked if there were any promotions. It also comes bundled with about 15 other movie channels in SD.

So, add Cinemax HD to the growing list here in Fresno.

Yeah, I get that on Voom. Still no Fox News on Voom, though.

Is Pappas ever going to upgrade to transmit their higher than 480i signals?

Comcast csrs usually don't know what's available-anybody got a current list of what HD channels they have in Fresno? Discovery HD or HDNet yet?
thanks in advance.

Originally posted by Steve S
Comcast csrs usually don't know what's available-anybody got a current list of what HD channels they have in Fresno? Discovery HD or HDNet yet?
thanks in advance.

Currently available in Fresno with Comcast:
ABC
CBS
NBC
INHD 1 & 2
Showtime
HBO
Cinemax
ESPN

I got an email from a viewer that said he lost my DT signal during the rain last night. I didn't have any problems at home, but I've got an outdoor yagi. Did anyone get rainfade last night or in the last few days on any of the DT signals? Thanks in advance.

Mike,

No rain fade last night, during a couple of very heavy rains--I have a medium/large VHF/UHF antenna and RG-6 but it's only 4 feet above my 1 story home's roofpeak, Sony HD-200 box.

Once in the last couple of weeks a very severe squall knocked out my DirecTV signal for about 10 minutes but all the local otas were good, so I'd have to assume my local digital reception is less subject to rain fade than DirecTV, which has only gone out 5 or 10 times since I got it back in '96.

Maybe the person who e-mailed you had an issue with tree branches blowing into the signal path near his antenna rather than actual rain fade?

That's a good point, Steve. I've asked the viewer to write back with some details about location and antenna type. The rain was hard enough in Clovis last night that neither scenario would surpise me. But with the power I'm putting out on DTV, I should be punching through almost anything. It will be interesting to see. I'll post the reply for everyone. Talk to you later.

Mike,

rest assured that we are all verrrrrry grateful for all that power!! With so many stations in the rest of the country running low power for HD, it's nice that we don't have that problem.

If you need help with the PG&E we might be able to take up a collection.

Mike,

Thank you for maximizing the HD passed during NCIS last night. There was some 4x3 while the info was shown on the bottom of the screen, but it was right back to HD afterward. Excellent work.

I wish I could say the same for KFSN and their broadcast of NYPD Blue. Had to watch the entire thing in SD, and I don't even remember seeing any results on the screen during the program. At least they showed it .

David

Hi all, I'm very new to HD, in fact my DirecTv STB won't be here till Tuesday :D But I keep seeing mention of Voom here. What exactly is it?
And is there a sort of TV Guide for HD shows ??

Thanks

Montano,

Welcome to the forum. Voom is a new sat service that specializes in HDTV and offer more HDTV than any other provider. If you want to see it, shoot me a private mail and I will give you a screening of it. I have a three room install in my home right now.

Mike

Mike,

Just out of curiousity, are you getting any of the locals on your Voom setup and how well do they come in?

I've thought about Voom but have some concerns about it not being able to do scans for locals but instead relying on mapping from the Voom satellite. My HD-200 keeps track when KGPE sometimes moves from 47.1 to 34.2, and recently when KSEE-DT moved from 24.1 to 16.1 for a few days, was wondering if Voom can do this or if the channels are lost when the psip data gets wonky.

Some FYIs and a question for you guys. CBS is only offering a few regional games of NCAA stuff in HD, but most of the golf tournaments this year, including the Masters, will be in HD. The wide shots on golf should make one heck of an HD picture.

To David Ortiz, you're welcome. I saw no reason to leave an HD show in SD just for the sake of convenience; we'll work on making it cleaner. And welcome to the forum Montano

Question, I had a call from someone near 99 and Clinton saying they could pick up our analog, but not DTV. The only think I've ever experienced like that was a nicked and bent cable that attenuated some channels. Anybody else heard of something like that? The guy says he picks up everybody's HD signal except mine; even though he can pick up my analog.

Any thoughts?

Hello Mike:

Its odd that you mention it. I was having a problem with 59's digital signal but could pick up their analog. I knew what the problem was right away-for me, my antenna was pointed too far South (more like SW-was trying to see if I could get south valley stations). Put the antenna back where it belonged and all was okay.

When I first got my HD set I put my rooftop antenna in the house on a 5' poll. (old style flat wire mesh-and the wife didn't complain either :D ). It was quite picky as far as digital signals were concerned. I would tilt the pole just a little bit and CBS/ABC (can't remember which one) would fade in and out. I'm about a mile East of 99 at Sierra (side bar 200 yards from where Brian Calhun(sp) :eek: got caught saw your remote truck there) and my HD is just fine.

I can pick up ABC on analog, but not on digital. I have tried 3 antennas, both with and without amps and rotors and 10 different HDTV tuners spread across 5 different brands. Only one tuner has been able to pick up ABC, although two other ones were able to for a while but cannot do so now.

I just gave up on getting ABC in HD, which is really sad considering they were to first to offer HD in Fresno.

Originally posted by Mr.Poindexter
I can pick up ABC on analog, but not on digital. I have tried 3 antennas, both with and without amps and rotors and 10 different HDTV tuners spread across 5 different brands. Only one tuner has been able to pick up ABC, although two other ones were able to for a while but cannot do so now.

I just gave up on getting ABC in HD, which is really sad considering they were to first to offer HD in Fresno.


I thought I was the only one having this problem. I get all the other locals in good. I tired a LG and my dish 6000 to pick up 30 and it only comes in and out with the LG and the 6000 doesn't get any singal at all. I give up on abc but damn Im gonna miss those mnf games in HD :mad: I live in southeast fresno, btw the sd singal for 30 comes in good.

Where in SE Fresno? I am in Selma and that is also SE.

Originally posted by Mr.Poindexter
Where in SE Fresno? I am in Selma and that is also SE. right on the outskirt's before you get to selma near clovis. What was the brand of receiver that you had that could pick up abc?

I originally was able to pick it up on my iTech AccessDTV and on my ProScan PS HD105. I then was unable to pick it up after my antenna was destroyed by my re-roofers. I got a new antenna and it didn't work. Two other antennas didn't help, either. I used the following receivers to no avail:

iTech AccessDTV
Proscan PS HD-105
RCA DTC-100 (4 different receivers)
Voom (3 different receivers)

I was able to pick it up with my Sony HD-100 and still can, so I don't understand about that.

I live in Exeter about 55 miles from channel 30 transmitter and have no reception problems with ABC Fresno HD programing.

I live in Sunnyside, and pick up all the HD chanels with a Silver Sensor. When I had it inside, I could not get ABC. Then I read where some people were putting these tiny antennas outside, with great results. So I decided to try it in my garage, and now every channel comes in perfectly. I simply placed the antenna on top of the refrigerator I have in my garage. :-)

I have a Samsung T-160 DirecTV HD Receiver.

I'm about a mile due west of FAT, roughly Clinton and Maple, and get KFSN-DT quite well with a Ratshack UHF/VHF roof antenna only about 4 feet above my single story roofpeak.

KFSN-DT is actually broadcast on VHF channel 9, which conventional wisdom says should come in decently with a UHF antenna, but it was never really stable for me until I put up the UHF/VHF antenna. It's a Radio Shack VU-160XR, no rotor or amp. My house has a stone-coated steel roof and the exterior walls are double-thick stucco so indoor or attic antennas are virtually useless, though I never tried a Silver Sensor.

Only problem I have with KFSN-DT is their occasional sloppiness with SD/HD switching.

They didn't flip the HD switch until after the first commercial for Kingdom Hospital last Wed, and flipped it back to SD 5 minutes before the show was over. This last was not just forgetting after a commercial break, the show was actually in progress when the flip back to SD occurred. Apparently the switch flipper decided to go home early. This sorta crap should not be acceptable.

Dunno if it's the clear weather today or what but today I was able to get abc and watch the whole kings game.( too bad it's not in hd thou) Hope it stays.

Well, Voom now has CBS in their guide! March Madness awaits...

Still waiting on NBC, but there is going to be an update downloaded over the next couple of days and maybe they will add channel scanning. I did put in a request to have that fixed. Each service request escalates the priority, so the more people ask, the quicker it gets done.

OK, maybe this is old news but I see starz HD on channel 200 (comcast) today for the first time!

More good news. Seems like we've been getting about 1 new channel per month lately.

Now for Discovery channel I hope.

Has anyone been seeing problems with Fox digital especially during the commercial promos for other shows? Bad pixelization(sp) during American Idol?

Also do you know anyone local who does RPTV calibrations that won't break the bank?:rolleyes:

Drew,

It looks to me like FOX is taking their analog signal and converting it to digital and sending that out. I saw a lot of analog artifacts the other day on their digital channel which would only happen if they have an analog source. It is quite possible that their encoder is a total piece of crap.

Is anyone watching the masters on CBS through comcast? I'm getting some audio skipping here. But the PQ is fantastic :)

I was watching it on INHD for a while yesterday and it literally took my breath away a couple times the PQ was so good. I'm not sure if it's possible for TV to look better than being there, but this was close.

Mike...

CBS is having the worst signal tonite that I've seen since January - 50% here in Merced. Is it my setup (which hasn't changed) or did something odd happen tonite..? I can't tune in KGPE.

[edit]

With some tinkering I've been able to pull in an ok signal for the last half hour or so. Could just be the funky weather we've been having. I just haven't had less than a very good signal for the last 4 months or so - anyhow problem solved. Keep up the good work!

Brian

Brian,

I watched all of CSI last night on KGPE-DT, 47.1, without a single glitch, but I'm in Fresno near the airport. I think ota digital may be somewhat subject to "rain fade" but don't know if there was any rain between the 47 transmitter and Merced last night.

This is kind of off-topic for this forum, but I built a local Central Valley forum with interesting links, tech news and open chat (not HD related) and I thought I'd post it here. The URL is:

http://www.futureunix.net/linklocal

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

Pat

Hi Guys,

Brian-No problems with power or anything on my side. There might have been a shower or two rolling through the area, but nothing that I'm aware of. I've gotten notes from a few folks who have signal problems with DT when it rains. I'll do some digging on that one. I thought I'd gotten away from rain fade when I quit doing satellite stuff.

The golf tournaments have looked great in HD. Even my kids, who rank golf on TV at the same level as watching paint dry, were impressed by the picture.

Talk to you soon,

Not that I watch the show, but I happened to come home for lunch on Tuesday and turned on Young & the Restles becuase I thought it was HD, but it was only showing up as a 4x3 picture.

FYI

Hi Drew,

We're dealing with that one. It's a concern because Y&R is one of the higher rated daytime shows. Thanks for letting me know.

Having read the recent announcements that Fox will start doing true HD on Sept. 12, including up to 6 NFL games a week, I was wondering if anyone knows if KMPH has any plans to start broadcasting in HD. They never did step up to the plate and pass Fox's 480p widescreen and Pappas is kinda thought to be anti-HD, so I don't want to get my hopes up.

I e-mailed the station (lost the engineer's e-mail address unfortunately) and they haven't replied yet.

Copy of e-mail received from their engineer:



On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 11:36:35 -0800 "Dresser, Steve" <Sdresser@kmph.com> writes:
> The plan is to begin broadcast of FOX Widescreen HD in the Fall of
> 2004,
> when FOX begins sending High Definition programming to affiliate
> stations.
>
> Steve Dresser-Chief Engineer
> KMPH TV
>

[Mr.Burns]Excellent, Smithers...[/Mr.Burns]

Thanks Drew! That is indeed good news. Soon we'll have 4 ota HD channels to choose from, all that's left is WB and UPN, and PBS, but I'm not holding my breath for them.

I noticed a problem with the audio on KGPE Sunday night May 2. The commercial breaks seemed fine, but the HD had garbled audio for Cold Case and the movie afterward. I checked the OTA signal and Comcast and the problem is on both. I thought my new TiVo unit had a glitch.

Channel 7 looks really weird on the TiVo though.

Cold case was messed up for me also - bad audio via OTA signal.

Will the local fresno CBS grant a waiver for the HD CBS from LA on DirecTV?

Did all of the 11 planned local channels come online Thursday for Dtv? How is the picture quality? Don't have a 119 dish to test and am wondering.

Are all on transponder 31 from Sat 119? It's simple to check, just tune to one of the local channels, and then goto check signal strength screen to see what transponder it is on. Doing this for each local channel would show if each one is on transponder 31. Hopefully someone can check this for me and post. thanks.

Look for channel 40 KVPT-DT on Thursday! (7-1-04)

Did I miss somthing? How long has comcast done discovery HD? I havent watched much tv lately but last night I clicked over to HD and right after INHD2 was DHDTV. =)

Originally posted by baduela
Did I miss somthing? How long has comcast done discovery HD? I havent watched much tv lately but last night I clicked over to HD and right after INHD2 was DHDTV. =)

Just started in the last few days (I think across the nation for comcast)

Is KVPT up yet, tried a scan last night and got nada. Any word on what the delay is?

Yes, I live in Coarsegold, and it comes in like gangbusters.

got it this morning! thanks Mike!

Yup, for Comcast subscribers channel 193 is now Discovery channel theater in stunning HD :)

Any word on PBS going HD? I was expecting it to be HD not just digital. The picture is better no longer have the scanning line from left to right as on analog.

Does anyone with Comcast HD package get HD NBC & ABC?

I have a set with an intigrated QAM tuner and last year I was able to get these. (I only get cable in the fall for the football season). This year I am only able to get CBS (station 1-2 on Comcast).

It's not a big deal because I can use ANT2 OTA to get these two stations other than the pain of switching inputs. FWIW I also get the INHD's & ESPNHD as I did last year.

Yes, Comcast HD package includes NBC, CBS, and ABC (channels 185, 186, 184) as well as ESPN, INHD1&2, Discovery, HBO, SHowtime, and Starz.

It's odd that Comcast passes through to QAM tuners the INHD's & ESPNHD but not all the locals HD's.

Well I guess I can't complain since all I subscribed to was basic analog cable (no converter box) and I am getting these HD channels as a bonus.

What is the status of Comcast offering an HD-DVR in Fresno/Clovis? I've been off the forum for a while, so I'm sorry if this has already been answered.

Thanks!
Adam

I spoke with the engineer at KMPH and was told that they probably won't be online for the start of the football season. Definitely by the Superbowl.

Instead of accepting the FOX owned equipment, they will purchase their own, allowing them to have more control over things like subchannels.

I voiced my preference to have no subchannels when special events are on, but I was told that full bandwidth is not necessary. I didn't ask about DD 5.1, but if they don't use FOX's splicer, they will have to buy additional Dolby decoders and encoders to pass along the 5.1 stream. My fear is that the extra equipment for DD5.1 will be deemed unnecessary.

This is definitely a sad turn of events in my opinion. I was looking forward to FOX programming in 720p with DD5.1.

As far as KFRE is concerned, (also owned by Pappas Telecasting) the recent ruling will affect its power output, in a couple of years. At least the engineer now knows that the WB is indeed broadcasting HD. I knew that it was at least the second year, but after checking, it is the third year for them.

To be fair, there's hardly a ROI for the digital switchover. I guess I should be happy with what's out there.

David Ortiz

Bump.

Well, David, if you have Sunday Ticket, you can still get all of the FOX football games. I don't think we are in a blackout area. Being a 49er fan, I am really wanting to get my team in HD.

What about UPN and PBS? Any word on when they will be sending out HDTV?

Right after PBS went Digital I called and asked them about HD time frame. They said it was in their plans but could not say when. I asked if it would happen before the years end, they could not answer.

So I don't look for it any time soon:(

David,

If KMPH does the Fox Hd stuff in 720p there should be no problem with subchannels. KFSN (ABC) does 720p hd and 2 subchannels with no degradation of the HD signal. Apparently 720p requires less bandwidth than 1080i so the probablitity of HD picture degradation due to subchannels sapping bandwidth is a bit less.

I just wish Pappas would get their act together regarding the wierdly high audio levels on their digital channels.

Speaking of "wierdly high audio" CBS audio is way low on their digital channel until the commercials come on and then they blast you out of the room. Yet on their analog station the volume is consistent.

After switching back and forth between the two it appears that the digital channels commercials are at the same level as the analog, but for some reason on the digital the program source audio is too low.

The problem we are running into is the same we had with analog - the commercials would run the volume higher than the shows would. With digital audio, we have increased dynamic range and the commercials can blast you even more. I think an excellent solution would be for the stations to normalize the audio levels of all commercials to be the same as the program they are showing.

Who watches commercials? ;)

oops... wrong forum

Hi Everyone,

We lost our HD encoder this morning, which means we're off the air with HD until we get a replacement in house. At this writing, we're trying to get a loaner in house, but I can't guarantee the time frame.

I'm real sorry for the inconvenience. We apologize for the loss of signal. We are working on it and will get the signal restored as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for taking the time to post that here, Mike. I don't watch golf but think I got some in HD on KGPE-DT this afternoon while channel surfing?

On another topic, anyone else notice that KSEE-DT has started simulcasting the analog feed on 24-2? I took that subchannel off my custom list a few months ago as they were only showing a test pattern so I may have been the last to notice the subchannel was active.

They had this up this afternoon while running the Olympic opening ceremony feed on 24-1, I didn't notice any degradation in the HD feed due to the subchannel being active, at least it looked exactly the same as channel 84 on D* which was running the same HD feed.

There was a crawl on 24-2 stating the HD feed and the digital simulcast of the analog feed were sponsored by Table Mountain Casino.

Steve,

We actually figured out the problem later in the morning. Some settings in the encoder had gotten changed. We'll lock it out from now on.

Have a good week.

Hi folks,

I wanted to let everyone know that our analog OTA signal may seem noisy this week. We're replacing our main antenna, so we're running at low power into a loaner unit. We're making a city-grade signal, but not much beyond that.

We expect to finish the analog antenna by the end of this week. Once it's back up, there should be a noticable improvement in the analog signal.

And while I have people on the tower, I'm reducing power on DTV so I don't fry my tower crew. DTV will be back up to full power during the evening, so you won't miss any of your HD shows.

If anyone has questions, drop me a note. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks Mike! Every time there's a glitch in my reception I get paranoid about my gear, being updated like this by a station engineer really puts my mind at ease.

Hello Mike:

Any info on my previous post about low volume on your digital channel, yet volume on commercials is too high.

Thanks

Has anyone else noticed severe combing on 24.1 (KSEE's HD feed) during locally upconverted programming?? It's ok when true HD is on, or when they are running the network upconverted stuff, but during locally originated commercials and programming I'm seeing really nasty combing whenever there's movement on the screen or during camera pans.

I'm watching OTA on a Sony HD-200, wondered if any of you guys with Comcast have seen the same thing?

Seemed to start after the Olympics, about the time they started simulcasting the analog stuff on 24.2.

Yes I have.

Also I had to get an HD comcast Box because they encrypt their HD now. Which stinks because one more box one more remote and one more decoder. I guess I can go with DVI and let my set decode, but I just like the idea that my set was doing all the work through the ANT inputs. It might just be me, but I think it was a better picture before and I think OTA HD is better. But what do I know:confused:

FOr those of you that also have Comcast you noticed that they did a wholesale shift of all their HD from channel 185-198 to 903 to 936. Scared me for a minute when I couldn't find any HD channels but to their credit I went on their web page and they had an up-to-date channel lineup listing showing the change.

They have also added Discovery to their HD channels, I guess that was about 2 months ago. Yay!

Just to brag, I bought another HD set to compliment my 46 inch samsung DLP that I have in the great room. This one is for the master bedroom, a Sony Wega plasma. I ordered another HD box from Comcast, another $5 per month.

I'm still waiting impatiently for Comcast to roll out their HD DVR. Apparently now we are looking at end-of-year but I will believe it when I see it. Until then it's TiVo in SD.

I just bought a house in Clovis this last weekend. It will be ready in about 8 months, so I will need to see what the options are for cable. What channels does Comcast offer in HD now?

Moving from Selma? Clovis is great.

Comcast has INHD1 & 2, ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, Starz, Cinemax, HBO, Showtime, & DiscoveryHD.

Comcast gets a lot of flack, some deserved I'm sure, but I've found them to be fine. A couple examples, they have saturday appointments for any problems readily available. They came in and installed a signal booster on a saturday, no charge. I've been satisfied with their CS.

Let me know anyone, if I have missed something.

Fox Sports Bay Area HD preempts programming on INHD 2. They have shown Giants and A's games.

Anyone with the HR10-250 having issues with 7-1? Audio is fine, but the video is choppy. Other OTA channels are fine.

David

Hi folks,

We're having a problem with our DTV transmitter that started yesterday morning and it's off the air. The component we need is on the way. We're working quickly to get it restored. I'll try and post a note once we're back up. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Originally posted by Mike Snyder
Hi folks,

We're having a problem with our DTV transmitter that started yesterday morning and it's off the air. The component we need is on the way. We're working quickly to get it restored. I'll try and post a note once we're back up. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Mike, thanks for the heads-up.

RE: KGPE-DT

Nice timing, no HD for the premiere of CSI last night! Also, what happened to the Raider's game last Sunday? It was almost half an hour into the game before they finally switched from the Dallas/Cleveland game over to the Raiders!

I noticed the same thing. It appears we got the HD feed on the digital channel at first and the Raiders on the analog (non hd game last week). Also the morning HD game was on digital (don't remember the teams) however on analog the Texans were on. So it was like we got bonus games whether this was done on purpose I don't know, but hey more choices is a good thing.

Exactly, and it would have all been fine and dandy except my analog channel has been coming in poorly since Direct TV has added the local channels. I was having to switch over to my TV receiver to pick up a decent picture on analog 47. Anybody else having this problem?

Well, I am going to host an open house event and we will have a blind test on speaker cables and interconnects. If anybody who frequents this forum wants to make the trek down to Selma (just outside of Fresno) just drop me a line.

I posted the main link in the area home theater meets, but I wanted to post here as well to make sure everyone from the Fresno area heard about it.

Location: Selma, CA
Date: Saturday, Novemeber 13th
Time: 6:00pm to 11:00pm (cable test will be about 1 hour during the party)

The test will use the following:

Processor: Lexicon MC-12B V4
Speakers: Genesis 6.1

Speaker Cables: Straight Wire Virtuoso vs. 12 Guage generic speaker wire
Balanced Interconnects: Straight Wire Encore II vs. A generic cable purchased from the local pro-audio shop

I will try and secure some other really high end cables/interconnects to add to the shootout. Perhaps something from Transparent and/or MIT.

I will also look into putting in an Adcom GFP-750 preamp for this test. The Adcom actually got an "A" recommendation from stereophile long ago and one of the reviewers said it was the best he heard at any price, so I need to see if it sounds cleaner than the Lexicon and if so, use it for the test.

I had about 15 people at the last open house I hosted, so I will bring in a temporary second row seating platform in the living room for the audio test.

Here is the link to the invitation thread in the Area Home Theater Meets forum. (http://avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=450994)

If anybody wants to come out, let me know. Also, I am open to suggestions for what else I should add in for comparisons. I don't want the cable test to take too long, but I want to make sure that we cover enough items to make the majority of people satisfied that if we don't find a difference, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

I was surprised KGPE didn't show the Texans-Chiefs game in HD. I tried to call 47, but couldn't get through.

Anyone with Comcast have problems with the HD for the Raiders game? After the start of the second halft I was getting lots of lock ups it also was bad on ABC during the same time period with only half a scree showing.

Also Comcast is no longer encrypting all of their HD channels and I can pick them up again with my built in QAM Tuner. Of course this is after I get the new HD box. I guess I need to call Comcast and see what their policy is, if they continue to send it in the the clear I prefer to use my internal tuner.

Originally posted by DrewM
Anyone with Comcast have problems with the HD for the Raiders game? After the start of the second halft I was getting lots of lock ups it also was bad on ABC during the same time period with only half a scree showing.



It's not just you. I was having the same problem except my wife and I were trying to watch "duplex" on one of the HD movie channels and it kept freezing up. It fixed itself after about 15 minutes and we were able to finish the show. I think it was a temporary issue with comcast.

I also had the half-screen showing on ABC.

That's one of the great things about this forum, we can check with others to make sure the problem isn't with OUR equipment :)

Any word yet on KMPH Fox 26 doing any HD? Last I heard they'd opted out of the free upgrade from Fox preferring to do their own, I e-mailed them very politely about a month or so ago but have gotten no reply.

Still getting that annoying combing on KSEE-DT's local upconvert on their HD feed.

It looks so bad on KSEE that I think they have an anti-DCDi chip.

I spoke with the chief engineer at KMPH the Friday before football started. He basically said that FOX had too much control if they used their stuff, but they would be HD before the Superbowl.

Asked about World Series and he didn't know. He said something about doing a crude hookup and just plugging the equipment directly in for a temporary HD work around. Not sure what that means though.

If my A's make it to the fall classic and its not HD that will be:( .

Originally posted by DrewM
He basically said that FOX had too much control if they used their stuff

Interesting. Control of WHAT?

Advertising and local programming.

Local Advertising could not be inserted over the feed. Now I'm trusting my memory from three weeks ago, so I could be wrong.

Originally posted by Mr.Poindexter
It looks so bad on KSEE that I think they have an anti-DCDi chip.

Couldn't have put it better myself. It's so bad that I watch the SD digital feed (24.2) instead of the HD one when they aren't actually doing HD.

They just started this SD simulcast of the analog channel after the olympics, and it looks very nice for SD. Since their true HD stuff still looks good, I doubt if the combing on 24.1 is a bandwidth issue. It wasn't like this before the Olympics, wonder what happenned?

Don't suppose there's any hope of any HD from KVPT?

I asked one of the guys from UPN today about HDTV and he started to explain it to me like I don't know much about it. He asked me how much I thought it cost to broadcast HDTV. I told him they would need a realtime HD encoder like a Harris Flexicoder or a Terranex Xantus 6u, plus a digital transmitter and tower, etc, so my guess was 1.2Mil, which he said was very close.

Once I pointed out that they already had the transmitter, their costs to transmit HDTV should be much less now, but he said it was still a couple hundred thousand, so they didn't know when they would do that. No chance of catching Enterprise in HD anytime soon, I guess.

I don't expect KVPT to start HD soon, either. They still don't even have a digital transmitter, do they?

ahhhhhhh.....Pappas... get with the 'program' already!!!

Pappas is the Sinclair of the central valley, as far as I'm concerned. Audio on their WB digital channel is way out of whack--way too loud and sometimes distorted unless I switch my HD-200 to pcm.

KVPT was up on 40.1 for a while but disappeared a few weeks ago. They are the most piss poor excuse for a PBS station in the country, not just for this snafu but for their endless reruns of Lawrence Welk and Ed Sullivan. They're so afraid of offending some bluenose contributors that they never run any of the good stuff.

Um, maybe I"m missing something, but doesn't our local KGPE broadcast NFL games in HD? This is the first week I've been home to watch, but the Texans game is just regular ol digital. Have we had any games in HD on 47-1?

Snatch, the game must be shot in HD and CBS doesn't shoot all their games in HD. They shoot the "A" game and the "B" game I believe, but if the game they are showing isn't one of those, then you are stuck at 480i. The Raiders/Texans game wouldn't be an A or B game this week.

What happened to HD on KSEE Sunday (Oct. 3)? No HD for American Dreams, no HD for Criminal Intent, and I didn't even check for Crossing Jordan.

What gives?

David

My HD-TiVo stopped picking up HD from KSEE. Now it only records the 480i signal on 24-1. Did they move their HD feed to another subchannel and does anybody know how I can get it?

All of my episodes of The Tonight Show are 480i now. I did get L&O in HD the other day, so I don't know what is up.

24.1 is now 1080i upconverted from 480i (Monday, 10/04, 3pm.) 24.2 is 480i. Didn't try it last night.

That sucks. Any reason as to why they stopped passing the HDTV feed?

I don't know whats up- but I'm showing Las Vegas in HD for tonight. Don't know if it actually will be or not, but I guess we'll see. On that note, does anyone have any updates on OTA Fox HD for Fresno? I have no patience, I know.

I've been super busy and not around AVS much lately, though I do check in here every coupla weeks, but my contract w/E* is up in 8 weeks or so and w/Warrior season around the corner (I know, I know...but Warrior fans are TRUE fans) I might look at Comcast again if they're carrying the FSBA HD feeds. I know someone alluded to the fact InHD has preempted some programming to air FSBA HD - but do they show all the FSBA HD broadcasts?

Additionally, what's the status/ETA on HD DVRs from Comcast..?

Thanks Fellas,

Brian

I don't know how many Basketball games they will be showing, my guess is the inhd web site will give you an answer.

As for the Comcast HD DVR, there are thousands of posts on AVS regarding this but I will try to summarize my knowledge on the issue.

There has been a selected rollout of the HD DVR (Mostly the Motorola 6208 single tuner with 10 hrs of HD recording capacity) in a few markets mostly in the east, southeast, and the south. NOT in california. Comcast will not give an estimate publicly about when it will happen here but word on the street is not before the end of the year, and it is possible that they will skip releasing the 6208 and wait for the dual tuner version to finish testing, which could put the release date even later.

Originally posted by rodneyremington
I don't know how many Basketball games they will be showing, my guess is the inhd web site will give you an answer.
Season doesn't start till Nov, so the InHD schedule has no info, but I imagine if they showed all the FSBA HD Giants/A's games then it's a fairly safe assumption they will do the same w/the basketball season. Not having InHD for baseball season myself, this is why I asked.
As for the Comcast HD DVR, there are thousands of posts on AVS regarding this but I will try to summarize my knowledge on the issue.
Thanks...I knew Comcast was rolling it out regionally, but since Comcast rolled out HD in Fresno months before they did in Merced I was hoping one of you Fresnans had been bugging Comcast for awhile.

Looks like I might have to pony up for the HDTivo...

Brian

Hey folks,

I've been in an HD drought for a while as I moved to DTV to catch the Dodgers games. I just recently installed a Samsung TS360 OTA/DirecTV receiver with a tri-LNB dish. (ony place I could find it in town was Circuit City) Working good getting LA Sat and Fresno HD OTA locals. I took a software upgrade to it last night which has caused some slight breakage (dropouts and losing access card info) but knowledge of the issues are widespread so it should get resolved soon.

Most of the HD DTV receivers are taking software upgrades to prep them for the new birds being turned up by year end. Anyways - I'm happy to have Discovery, HDNET, ESPN and whatever new channels they launch - plus the HD locals.

HD Tivo looks saweet. I just can't drop 10 bones for it when I have to buy all the latest Cisco gear. Rats.

Pat

Alright, starting to get impatient here. Last time I asked about HD NFL on CBS I was told they only do certain game each week- understandable. Well this weel Ken H says the Oakland-Indy game is HD on CBS this week. I turned it on right at 10 and the initial opening CBS did was HD, and then suddenly someone flipped the switch and the broadcast went SD. I am now sitting here with my HDTV and HD receiver watching a game that from what our trusted mod said was HD, the feed started in HD, and now its gone!!

What gives? KGPE??