Lou(?), any idea on how long it will take to get all of this installed? Before the end of the NFL regular season?

All I want for Christmas is Smallville. :)

The digital receiver was delivered this afternoon and I will be installing it Monday.

My consulting engineer tells me that the equipment for the power upgrade will be in sometime next week. I will get him down to Bryan for the installation as soon as possible. (Thanksgiving weekend will make scheduling difficult)

The next question is whether or not I'll be able to pick up a 4 kW signal with my antenna mount or will I need to move my Televes back outside? The local PBS is around 4 kW, but it is VHF and closer. I'm in South College Station and your tower is in North Bryan. Oh what fun. ;)

The next question is whether or not I'll be able to pick up a 4 kW signal with my antenna mount or will I need to move my Televes back outside? The local PBS is around 4 kW, but it is VHF and closer. I'm in South College Station and your tower is in North Bryan. Oh what fun. ;)

Sorry...We do what we can with whay we have.

I think we may get as much as 5 KW with the four parrelell amplifiers we ordered and once we get above the point where the signal on 28 analog stops overloading the 29 digital it should cover all of Bryan/CS.

I wouldn't recommend using an amplifier though because they tend ro accentuate adjacent channel splatter in their first stage. The amplifier we are using to receive channel 57 has a narrow band channel filter in front of it to eliminate interference from the other transmitters on the tower.

One more note...The channel 28 transmitter site is located on FM2818 on the west side of Bryan about a mile and 1/2 from Hwy 6

(Just east of the industrial park..Two towers side-by-side on the tallest one)

I'll try it with and without my amp (CM 7777). I might have to add a third antenna for KYLE: Yagi for KBTX and VHF for KCEN/KAMU on the CM 7777, and a maybe an 8 bay bowtie (CM 4228) without an amp for KYLE. Just need a jointenna from somebody. ;) I would use my rotor, but that's a nightmare for the wifey and TiVo.

Hey, Lou, good to hear from you! :) I have been meaning to call you again to see if there were any updates, since it's been a while since we last spoke. Glad to hear you haven't forgotten about us poor HD-Challenged Aggies. :o
Funny you should mention how you moved the antenna arrangement around in September, because I have noticed an improvement in my ability to receive 44-1 and 44-2. It still breaks up fairly often, but there are times when I can watch whole programs at night. And I did notice the KYLE SD feed on 44-2, but given the choice between HD/Digital and SD/Analog, well, I think you get the picture.

Hmmm.... Christmas (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6560343&&#post6560343) may come early this year!! :D

Just need a jointenna from somebody. ;)

And who would that be? ;) If you do get one, just hope they send you a correctly packaged one.

Sid, let us know when you get it. I'd love to be there for the install. Reading over at Satguys, the HD-DVR may be out in January. At least from what LonghornXP has been saying.

Sid, let us know when you get it. I'd love to be there for the install. Reading over at Satguys, the HD-DVR may be out in January. At least from what LonghornXP has been saying.
Post a pic! Oops, wrong forum!! :D
That would be great news!

Thanks for the info FoxCE - and please let us know here when it's up and running so we don't have to look for it.

I'm about to drool at the thought of watching House and (gasp!) The OC in HD!

.......I think we may get as much as 5 KW with the four parrelell amplifiers we ordered and once we get above the point where the signal on 28 analog stops overloading the 29 digital it should cover all of Bryan/CS.
.......One more note...The channel 28 transmitter site is located on FM2818 on the west side of Bryan about a mile and 1/2 from Hwy 6

(Just east of the industrial park..Two towers side-by-side on the tallest one)
Using my map program the towers look to be 12.7 miles west/southwest from my house. Hopefully your signal will reach that far at 4-5kw. Think you could be sure that the transmit antenna is on the East side of the tower? :D

That's with your tall tower. The big challenge will be for us attic mounted antenna users. :)

Reading over at Satguys, the HD-DVR may be out in January. At least from what LonghornXP has been saying.
Got a link?
Never mind, I think I found it. :)

Now that we got all the initial talk about fox coming to b/cs.... so we have any specifics on if the channel will be "full bitrate" or contain subchannels? Also since we are getting HD here I assume you got the splitter issues straightened out.

A related issue with cox, tom way hinted to me that they were going after the main feed in waco (didnt even mention the one here upgrading). Is that still the plan or will they feed from the upgradee tower here? Are there any differences between the one in waco vs the one that will be going in here (anything that would make cox want to use the main feed vs kyle)?

Now that we got all the initial talk about fox coming to b/cs.... so we have any specifics on if the channel will be "full bitrate" or contain subchannels? Also since we are getting HD here I assume you got the splitter issues straightened out.

A related issue with cox, tom way hinted to me that they were going after the main feed in waco (didnt even mention the one here upgrading). Is that still the plan or will they feed from the upgradee tower here? Are there any differences between the one in waco vs the one that will be going in here (anything that would make cox want to use the main feed vs kyle)?

The KWKT-DT feed is full 15 Mbit FOX-HD on 44.1 and 4 MBit KYLE-SD on 44.2.
The KYLE-DT feed will is 4 MBit KYLE-SD on 28.1 and full 15 MBit KWKT-HD on 28.2.

The receiver came in without the digital ouput card installed. The manufacturer is shipping the card direct so we can install it and get the FOX-HD on 28 (29) ASAP.

So there will be no differences at all between the HD feeds? (As im sure you are aware people here dont care at all about the SD feeds ;)). You mentioned the digital output card. Will both feeds (HD only) be 5.1?

Also is cox still planning on using the waco feed or the local feed here that you are aware of? (when i emailed him he said they had already moved and antenna to get the feed but couldnt pass it along until the transmission agreement was finished)

So there will be no differences at all between the HD feeds? (As im sure you are aware people here dont care at all about the SD feeds ;)). You mentioned the digital output card. Will both feeds (HD only) be 5.1?

Also is cox still planning on using the waco feed or the local feed here that you are aware of? (when i emailed him he said they had already moved and antenna to get the feed but couldnt pass it along until the transmission agreement was finished)

We pass through the full FOX digital stream without decoding it during all FOX programming. All content (including 5.1 audio) is broadcast untouched. (15 MBits)

WB programming is recorded on a digital server (unmodified 1080i/30) and converted to 720p/60 for broadcast after FOX Prime. The stereo audio stream embedded in the WB feed is passed thorugh unmodified.

Local commercials and non-network programming are upconverted from Standard Definition and encoded at 720p/60 for broadcast from our local encoder (12 MBits).

Temporary carriage authorization for KWKT-HD has been sent to COX cable.

Fox44CE - How has this latest information on hardware affected the timeline for going live here in B/CS?

It is being reported here (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=111993) that Houston will start the MPEG-4 upgrade Dec. 8th. Ohh, the anticipation!! :D

It is being reported here (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=111993) that Houston will start the MPEG-4 upgrade Dec. 8th. Ohh, the anticipation!! :D

why do you really care about mpeg4? you have all the locals now dont you? esp with fox coming to town the only thing we lack is abc. Its not like your gonna get a bunch of new national channels. ;) Plus you have to semi give up that HDtivo.

I guess you could make the PQ improvment argument but that wont help much since some of the houston hd stations multicast now and from what i have read hd lil's will be the same feed as ota (not fiber lines like what cox will have, but this is what i have read.... hopefully they will figure a way to get all channels at max bitrate). But I guess this really boils down to you gotta have the latest and greatest.

Fox44CE - How has this latest information on hardware affected the timeline for going live here in B/CS?

The digital card didn't come in today for the HD decoder that goes in Bryan to put 28.2 (KWKT-HD) on the air. If it doesn't come Monday (P.O. closed all weekwnd) I will set up my KYLE-DT Transmitter Decoder temporarily to get it on Tuesday latest.

I'm have the power amplifiers in house and am waiting the for Hybrid Combiners and my consultant to come down to do the alignment. (Hopefully next week)

Thanks for the updates, FOX44CE. We will be waiting for the big test!

Test it! Test it! Test it! :)

It's Monday...Is it here?...Is it here?...Is it here?...Is it here?...Is it here?

Season finale of Prison Break is tonight!!!

well any ota guys get it? still hasnt made an appearance on cox.

No sign of it yet. :(

Nothing at 2:10 PM...

I want House!!! :)

Something tells me FOX44CE is in hiding because its not done yet ;)

I did dispatch an an email to Tom Way so hopefully he will know whats up with cox getting fox-hd.

well tom way replied back (i think i am the only cox sub here now am i?).... they have a temporary wavier for fox (lasts through january). He said the feed will go live on channel 705 middle of next week and will be the Waco version of the feed not KYLE.

also sid and spank.... i found somebody who beats both of you and will put the number of sats on the roof contest to rest.

http://www.register-herald.com/cnhi/registerherald/homepage/local_story_331233330.html
http://www.register-herald.com/homepage/images_sizedimage_331233443/xl

I'm guessing he doesn't watch a lot of HD. Probably a 13" Emerson-kind-of-guy.

Well, a couple of blips here and there, but I think that was the same as before. FOX44CE, are you going to submit the info for the 28-2 subchannel to Tribune/DirecTV so that us DirecTV TiVo users can record/use the guide? Or have you already done this, and I just need to do the initial setup on the receiver again?

also sid and spank.... i found somebody who beats both of you and will put the number of sats on the roof contest to rest......
He probably has all those just to watch porn!! :p

Well, a couple of blips here and there, but I think that was the same as before.

Yeah I saw the "couple of blips" just a bit ago :(

I like that little piece of gutter right above the sidewalk. :D

I wonder if he has rain fade issues?? And what's that little blue sign next to the steps, "Protected by ADT" or something, or more like "Protected by Smith and Wesson"? If he closed that window the heat buildup from all the receivers he must have would turn that place into an oven.

Nah Jag...I still have COX, so your not alone.

Hey sid...is the only way to directly tune to an HD channel on the Zenith is to have it scanned in or manually added first. If that is the case then I will have to wait until I can get a constant signal until it locks on.

For some reason, ABC out of Wacko has been coming in pretty consistantly. And for an even odder reason I can pick up NBC out of h-town even though my antenna is pointed north.

Yeah, I think you have to have enough signal for the Zenith to lock on before it will add a channel. If it is marginal, you can sometimes just keep repeating a manual single channel scan until it finally picks it up, but there does need to be some signal.
I have noticed before that oddity about KPRC out of Houston, especially when we still lived in town. Sometimes you just never know where those signals will come from! ABC from Wacko does usually come in pretty well for me, too.

I too am on Cox. Glad to hear about Fox. I am looking forward to FoxHD. Now if we could just get ABC we would be set.

Not to pile on, but I'm still Cox too. I'm pumped about FOX going online.

But, if anyone knows, if the waiver is only temporary until January, is this for a specific thing like football or are they working to have a permanent agreement by then and this was just to get it up ASAP? Or are they wanting the permanent one to be with KYLE?

they are working on a full time agreement but cox has had the signal already for a few weeks now but didnt have the agreement so we could actually get it (as i understood it from my emails back and forth between tom way). This agreement gives them until jan to get the full time agreement done. I beleive the full time station will be the waco feed (i personally like them getting the waco feed because i forsee all kinds of problems with the reliability of KYLE)

And its nice to see there are some other cox subs here.... good to know im not alone and cox really does have a very good system here (as much sh!t as the D* humpers talk ;))

I am still really looking forward to that fiber line so we dont have to depend on kbtx anymore (back to our 19 mbit feed plus a few other things)

Maybe it'll be on tomorrow for The O.C. :(

Im suprised it has taken this long.... the way fox44 made it sound the ota would be up very quickly. hopefully cox can stick to its deadline. ;)

I need to film my wife sobbing uncontrollably on the couch with "You promised me the OC in HD this week." :)

JK CE - I know it's a tougher deal than you'll get credit for and its' appreciate...just let us joke with you in the meantime.

Has anyone been able to get FOX OTA yet? I've tried to scan for it several times on my H10 but I haven't had any luck yet. I'm thinking of trying my VOOM STB out this afternoon.

I just tried, and barely a blip, same as usual. :( I would think if they got it running FOX44 would make an announcement on here.

well still no HD for OTA guys?

Also we should have some sort of party again pretty soon (its been a while). I know sid was getting his mpeg4 stuff but thats still a ways off (unless sid knows something the rest of us dont). If that wont happen for a while I could host one (got a billiards table, but dont expect any insano pool/hottub ;))

I'd be game with getting together. I'll be out of town the week before Christmas (taking the wife to Disney World), but will be free just about any other time.

I'm game. What's on the menu?

well im poor do dont expect any steaks or fancy stuff. Probably would do some burgers if I hold it.

I just tried, and barely a blip, same as usual. :( I would think if they got it running FOX44 would make an announcement on here.

Sorry I havn't got back on. I had to go to Shreveport to help with a transmitter problem.

The digital ouput card for the OTA KWKT HD receiver came in while I was out of town.

I went down to the Bryan tarnsmitter site and installed it last night.

Over-the-Air channel 29 is now KYLE-SD (28.1) and KWKT-HD (28.2).

I cranked the power up tp 1.3 KW. (That's maxed out with one output amplifier).

The four ouput amplifiers are here and I am waiting only for my consulting engineer to finish the full power installation of our Baton Rouge stations.

He should be down early next week to install and proof the amplifier installation.

In the meantime, let me know if anyone is able to pick up the signal now.

We heard from Tom Way that COX is putting KWKT-HD on the system this week.

yeah we he said sometime "around the middle of the week" so hopefully it means tuesday and not thursday. :)

I live in South CS and I'm not even getting a blip.

Any word on getting 28.2 added to the DirecTV guide FOX44CE? That would make tuning it a lot easier for some of us.

Any word on getting 28.2 added to the DirecTV guide FOX44CE? That would make tuning it a lot easier for some of us.

I'm not sure how the Direct tuners pick up their channel guide, but I did add the KWKT-HD program guide to the FCC mandated PSIP tables on the KYLE Digital transmitter when I added 28.2. The KWKT-HD program guide maps out on 28.2 correctly on my demodulator at the transmitter site. :)

CE - Does it surprise you that I'm not picking up the signal in south CS? Any suggestions?

I'm not sure how the Direct tuners pick up their channel guide, but I did add the KWKT-HD program guide to the FCC mandated PSIP tables on the KYLE Digital transmitter when I added 28.2. The KWKT-HD program guide maps out on 28.2 correctly on my demodulator at the transmitter site. :)

I'm pretty sure DirecTV gets their guide info from Tribune Media / www.zap2it.com, and not from the PSIP. We'll get the channel, but there won't be any program guide info needed for TiVo, etc. unless Tribune/zap lists the digital subchannel for KYLE. Right now they only list 28.1.

CE - Does it surprise you that I'm not picking up the signal in south CS? Any suggestions?

your chances are almost 0 until they go full power.... the tower is in north bryan and currently broadcating at a very low power. I have a friend in northern bryan (villa maria and 2818 intersection) so i will see if he is getting any signal from 28-2.

EDIT: My friend just replied back. He said he is getting no signal from 28-2 or 1 but his antenna setup isnt the best around (no preamp) but he lives pretty close to the tower in north bryan.

Sid, looks like its time to play guinea pig.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6662000&&#post6662000

Sid, looks like its time to play guinea pig.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6662000&&#post6662000
I've been debating whether or not to try ordering the new dish from one of the online vendors.
http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Felix.gif
As mentioned before, it won't really get me anything extra right now, but I know I'll need it eventually and having a pro install isn't really an option. ;) If I wait a while I'm not sure if I will be able to get it from a third party later. Decisions, decisions.... :confused:

FOX44CE, thanks again for the updates. So are you saying you have four more amps to put on the tower in addition to the one already online, for a total of five? I tried 28-1 again tonight, and still nothing. :( Sure hope that extra boost later works. If this latest project works we might have to think of something to reward all your effort! :)

I've been debating whether or not to try ordering the new dish from one of the online vendors.
http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Felix.gif
As mentioned before, it won't really get me anything extra right now, but I know I'll need it eventually and having a pro install isn't really an option. ;) If I wait a while I'm not sure if I will be able to get it from a third party later. Decisions, decisions.... :confused:

wavering on that 2yr re-commit are we. ;)

i agree.... mpeg4 really doesnt get you anything (esp with fox coming to town, all we really need is abc to go HD). After that theres not a whole lot else in the HD dept (that cox/d* dont already have). Plus from the looks of it there wont be any new national mpeg4 channels on d* for a long time still.

One thing I still never heard of is if you lose your dns (out of market) feeds if you move to mpeg4. If you do then Id say hell no because you would lose the ability to record HD. (atleast off the satellite). And that would make your life much harder (some shows could be recorded and some would have to be watched live)

It might be harder to get the dish later but I would think it would be easier and cheaper over time. Especially when they move to that lease program (unless they find a way to muck that up as well) and pull a dish 942 where its not really a lease.

Woooohooooo...My SIL's waivers were resubmitted and she was approved for Fox and ABC. Better late than never. Almost a moot point since fox will be on cox this week. Still gives me one extra tuner when I have the other two taken up recording something.

MNF in HD baby...no dropouts!

The directv lady did confirm that h-town is going live with mpeg4 on the 8th. She said that she didn't know when the distants will go dark, hopefully not for a while.

wavering on that 2yr re-commit are we. ;)
No, not really. In fact, I already did re-commit when I activated the H20. Not a problem for me, Buy-and-Hold has worked for me so far! :p

One thing I still never heard of is if you lose your dns (out of market) feeds if you move to mpeg4. If you do then Id say hell no because you would lose the ability to record HD. (atleast off the satellite). And that would make your life much harder (some shows could be recorded and some would have to be watched live)
So far the Detroit people who upgraded still have the DNS they had before. It's been said the DNS feeds won't go away in a market until everyone in that market has had the opportunity to upgrade all equipment to MPEG-4, but who really knows for sure. It would really suck if the DNS disappeared before at least being upped to the new HD-DVR.
I am kind of curious if the H-town locals would just show up with the new equipment, or if you have to call to have them activated.

Woooohooooo...My SIL's waivers were resubmitted and she was approved for Fox and ABC. Better late than never. Almost a moot point since fox will be on cox this week. Still gives me one extra tuner when I have the other two taken up recording something.

MNF in HD baby...no dropouts!

The directv lady did confirm that h-town is going live with mpeg4 on the 8th. She said that she didn't know when the distants will go dark, hopefully not for a while.
Glad to hear it worked out! http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Big-Thumbs-Up.gif

I pointed my antenna toward the tower yesterday and had no luck with FOX. Hopefully we'll have better luck when the power increases. That's okay though, I've been able to watch the Cowboys in HD the last two weeks with my DNS and this week they'll be on CBS in HD!

labman --
did you receive your rebate for the H20 yet? I'm thinking about ordering one, but I've had trouble with D*'s rebates in the past.

Well still not online on cox.... as of tuesday morning.

Also for the cox subs here... I have a question. Does anybody notice a big difference between the sound levels of the "digital" (110-900) vs the analog channels (2-70)? For me its a good 10 db difference and it sometimes annoying when watching a movie on HBO and go to a analog where its very loud for a few seconds. I was going to send tom way an email about it but wanted to make sure its not my system first (I have a friend with cox SD and he complains of the same digital->analog sound problems).

So, is anyone considering a gathering of any sort for the Rose Bowl, or any other game? Being on a Wed. night makes it a little less favorable, I would think.

So, is anyone considering a gathering of any sort for the Rose Bowl, or any other game? Being on a Wed. night makes it a little less favorable, I would think.

who cares about the sips? Ill watch it but having a party is a bit much imo ;)

Its not like we are in a bowl to watch or anything.

labman --
did you receive your rebate for the H20 yet? I'm thinking about ordering one, but I've had trouble with D*'s rebates in the past.
No, I haven't even sent it in yet. Just got the form a little over a week ago.

who cares about the sips? Ill watch it but having a party is a bit much imo ;)

Its not like we are in a bowl to watch or anything.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, too. Wonder if the sips are gonna get "Bush"-whacked?? :D

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, too. Wonder if the sips are gonna get "Bush"-whacked?? :D

I hope so... I really do think if we were able to run on them very consistently with 2 freshmen I think 2 really good backs will run for much more. Granted they dont run the option.

Hmm...I just opened my HDTV tuner's software and I think I'm seeing KWKT-HD now (on Cox). It's being mapped as 44-1 for me, looks like it's on physical channel 66-2. I have no idea what channel that would show up as for you guys with actual cable boxes.

Now to wait for something that'll be in HD on FOX...:)

EDIT: still isnt showing up for me on the 6412 dvr (but you cant view any channels not in the guide so it might be an issue of them not updating my guide yet)

Are you actually getting a picture on foxhd channel? Man i will have to read up on this dvr to see if there is a way to manual tune a channel.

EDIT: still isnt showing up for me on the 6412 dvr (but you cant view any channels not in the guide so it might be an issue of them not updating my guide yet)

Are you actually getting a picture on foxhd channel? Man i will have to read up on this dvr to see if there is a way to manual tune a channel.

Yes, I'm getting a picture. The Simpsons is on right now (err, just ended). :p

damit all to hell.... now i gotta figure out how to hack this thing to get it to show me 705.

Isn't it just like KBTX to forget to flip the switch until there is only 20mins left in the victoria secret show!

yeah i cant wait for cox to move to that fiber line... im tired of depending on kbtx to "flip the switch". I didnt even watch it past the first few mins because it wasnt HD.

I am getting FoxHD on 705 with my cable card.

I can confirm that I started getting FOX HD from Cox last night.

Yaaa!!!

dvr or cable card/computer tuner. my guide never updated last night.

esturk --
was the WB programming in HD as well?

esturk --
was the WB programming in HD as well?

I can answer this - the WB programming that I saw last night was indeed in HD. Picture quality could have been a bit better, but I'd never seen any WB HD programming before to know what it generally looks like.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Get the OTA feed fixed NOOOOWWWWWW....can't...go...on...without...Fox...HD

As for the "party" we could do it Dec 17th (saturday) or wait till after new years. The 24th and 31st are out due to the holidays. If we did after it would have to be Jan 14th probably.

So sid which one do you prefer. The plan was to get sid to bring his mpeg4 dish and compare d* mpeg4, mpeg2 and cox. But he still has to buy it first. Ill probably pickup a box of those burgers at rosenthalls and cook some of those up.


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Get the OTA feed fixed NOOOOWWWWWW....can't...go...on...without...Fox...HD

You dont know how much it pained me last night knowing it was on the system but my damn guide couldnt see it. I must have rebooted my box 50 times last night.

I'll be at Disney World on the 17th, so January works for me.

ok we will just plan for after new years (hopefully cox rolls out the digital rebuild in my area by then so I will have uniHD to compare, tom told me it should be completed on my node by the end of dec).

BTW for cox 6412 users pionneer is going to be rolling out a major overhaul to the software...

Video Mosaic capability - video thumbnails that can be selected for more information
iSubscribe capability - impulse subscription for VOD or premium channels used in conjunction with Video Mosaic.

Passport Weather - 5 day forecasts from Accuweather
Passtime Games - high resolution card games
Folders for organizing saved recordings - "Auto Play" feature to play all episodes in a folder
Re-designed high-resolution graphics for settings and menus organized in expandable folders
Saved Show List enhancements:
Summary of used disk space and estimated remaining time
Sort recordings alphabetically or by erasure date
Unviewed shows shown in bold font, already viewed in standard font
Episodes of a series can be grouped into expandable or collapsable folders with several options for actions on the whole folder such as play all, erase all, etc.
A new "Upcoming Episodes List" option to display all episodes of a repeat recording for the week
New sorting and filtering options in Time View of the guide such as hiding PPV and Music channels, showing HD channels only, etc.

DAC messaging support for messages from headend (this already is in 2.5.x)

http://www.pioneerdigital.com//pdf/Mosaic_Specs_Final.pdf
(has some screenshots of the new user interface.... i must say i cant wait for this update). I love the new look.

FOX44CE, thanks again for the updates. So are you saying you have four more amps to put on the tower in addition to the one already online, for a total of five? I tried 28-1 again tonight, and still nothing. :( Sure hope that extra boost later works. If this latest project works we might have to think of something to reward all your effort! :)

labmansid,

We went down yesterday and verified the reported reception problem you guys have complained about.

It appears that there may be a problem in the base of the antenna or connector assembly. The transmitter is indicating some reflected power and we were unable to get stable reception beyond 1 mile away.

(1 KW should be receivable beyond 10 miles with the channel 28 trap we used)

I informed my consulting engineer and he will arrange for a tower climber and will bring his analyzer to troubleshoot.

He has to go to our station in El Paso Saturday before he comes here so it will be late in the week before we can address this situation.

As far as the amplifiers go, we will be running four amplifiers in parallel feeding the antenna.

The 100w existing amplifier in the transmitter will be used to overcome the additional losses in combiners.

Output power from four parallel amplifiers at 125 watts each will result in an ERP of 5 KW.

FOX44CE --
thanks for the updates and thanks for helping us out. It will be great to finally be able to reliably receive FOX and the WB programming in HD OTA!

Thanks FOX44CE. We even got an extra one kW out of the deal. I hate to ask, but any new info on the DirecTV guide problem?

Thanks FOX44CE. We even got an extra one kW out of the deal. I hate to ask, but any new info on the DirecTV guide problem?

elspankdog,

I just sent Tribune and TV Guide an update on our multicast situation.
KWKT-DT <44.1 & 44.2> and KYLE-DT (28.1 & 28.2>

I can't guarentee that they will get it right, but I sent them the correct information and they are already getting program schedules for both stations.

All they have to do is map the schedules to the correct channels:

44.1 = KWKT
44.2 = KYLE

28.1 = KYLE
28.2 = KWKT

Cool, thanks for the reply. Hopefully, everything will be good to go come this weekend.

mikey, I don't know if you kept the HK 635 or not, but there is a firmware upgrade available on the HK site now. One of the upgrades is the ability to force the receiver to stay in a 7 channel mode. This was a must-have for me.

yep i have fox hd on 705 with cox.. guess they did update the guide. plus its not breaking up at all in this kind of bad weather which is nice to see. So everybody should have it on cox now.

Hmmmm....so should I stay with my SIL's directv foxhd and abchd....or switch to my pops account with ABCHD, and all the premiums (HBOHD, SHOWHD)? I noticed on the FOXE they don't do the WB at night.

Hmmmm....so should I stay with my SIL's directv foxhd and abchd....or switch to my pops account with ABCHD, and all the premiums (HBOHD, SHOWHD)? I noticed on the FOXE they don't do the WB at night.

Honestly Im surpised all you d* subs arent on one account. ;)

Yes, I'm still alive.

Question: For any if you that have ABC NY HD feed, have you been seeing lots of "macro blocking" and signal drop outs altogether? Last night, ABC HD went out completely and I got a Directv message on-screen showing "techical difficulties". My sat signal strength is 95-100 on that sat and transponder. This has been going on for 3-4 weeks now. Also, I checked same on my other HD receiver and got the same message.

Sounds like an uplike problem to me...not my Sat dish, cable or receiver.

Just wondering if you had similar experiences before I called Directv.

Mikey H.

Yes, I'm still alive.

Question: For any if you that have ABC NY HD feed, have you been seeing lots of "macro blocking" and signal drop outs altogether? Last night, ABC HD went out completely and I got a Directv message on-screen showing "techical difficulties". My sat signal strength is 95-100 on that sat and transponder. This has been going on for 3-4 weeks now. Also, I checked same on my other HD receiver and got the same message.

Sounds like an uplike problem to me...not my Sat dish, cable or receiver.

Just wondering if you had similar experiences before I called Directv.

Mikey H.
Yeah, Mikey, ABC-NY is known to do that occasionaly. It can be rather distracting. I noticed last night the message about difficulties. If I recall, seems like the NY-NBC has done that before as well, so it is something to do with D* and their uplinks.

questions d*/fox44ce... "stacked" is listed as HD. (cnet hdtv world and the fox website isnt of much help here). Just wondering since this was supposed to be a new show and it says HD wondering why it wasnt. Is stacked not HD yet or something like that?

I just wanted to see what foxHD looked like and according to my guide this was the first show.

EDIT: Also "one tree hill" on the wb side is also sd. Im begnning to think kwkt turned off the hd transmitter tonight to protect it from the weather.

I just checked 44-1 (Waco) and "One Tree Hill" is only 4:3 OTA, also.
Well, the rain is starting to freeze on exposed objects here. I might have some new interesting photos of the antenna setup by morning! :D

I just checked 44-1 (Waco) and "One Tree Hill" is only 4:3 OTA, also.
Well, the rain is starting to freeze on exposed objects here. I might have some new interesting photos of the antenna setup by morning! :D

Assumed it was them since 2 shows in a row were SD... sucks that this was my first foxHD night. :)

Atleast the signal has been rock solid though (when I have been switching back to check, didnt notice a single dropout)

mikey, I don't know if you kept the HK 635 or not, but there is a firmware upgrade available on the HK site now. One of the upgrades is the ability to force the receiver to stay in a 7 channel mode. This was a must-have for me.

Thanks for thinking about me, but I ended up returning the HK after Audio-Video decided to fix my Yamaha at no charge. It was out of warranty by three months, but they did the right thing. :)

Thanks for thinking about me, but I ended up returning the HK after Audio-Video decided to fix my Yamaha at no charge. It was out of warranty by three months, but they did the right thing. :)
Hmmm... I wonder how much an open-box HK635 goes for?? :p

Don't tell me you two guys have a snow day.

Anybody know when the Harmony 890 is coming out?

Don't tell me you two guys have a snow day.
What, you don't? :D

Anybody know when the Harmony 890 is coming out?
Upgraditis already??

Just want the RF; ready to ditch my ir transmitter system. Plus, the second 880 I got doesn't work with my TiVos/ir system like the first one did. Thank you very much Mr. MPEG4. ;)

I can see wanting RF. And by the way, the box that got replaced was at least over a few months old! :rolleyes:

But you got two newer boxes since you bought the 1080 in addition to the H20. :rolleyes:

The only receiver I want is the Yamaha HTR-5990 (their newest generation of the one I got). Namely because it supports HDMI switching and I could finally ditch component and svideo completly but they are still running over $600 bucks.

BTW its thursday labrat... you upgrade yet? ;)

Assumed it was them since 2 shows in a row were SD... sucks that this was my first foxHD night. :)

Atleast the signal has been rock solid though (when I have been switching back to check, didnt notice a single dropout)

NOTE: On the WB re-runs of One Tree Hill are 4:3.

Only the new episodes are 16:9 HD.

We aired all FOX and WB programming last night as delivered (4:3 or 16:9 - 720p)

Don't know why the guide was wrong.

I've experienced that discrepancy on Time Warner here in Waco also.

The only receiver I want is the Yamaha HTR-5990 (their newest generation of the one I got). Namely because it supports HDMI switching and I could finally ditch component and svideo completly but they are still running over $600 bucks.

Remember this bad boy jag:
http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/SamsungAVR3000_th.jpg

Hope the weather doesn't slow anything down FOX44CE.

NOTE: On the WB re-runs of One Tree Hill are 4:3.

Only the new episodes are 16:9 HD.

We aired all FOX and WB programming last night as delivered (4:3 or 16:9 - 720p)

Don't know why the guide was wrong.

I've experienced that discrepancy on Time Warner here in Waco also.

Ok, just a note then it said both episodes were "new" on the cox guide. (i assumed repeats wouldnt be HD)


And which receiver is that spank?

Also have some new bitrates/rez for cox cable.

700 (17.3 mbit) KAMU - PBS - HD (no subchannels)
705 (14.2 mbit -> 15 mbit for football) KWKT - FOX - HD (1 sub channel but as I understand it this is the max fox sends)
710 (16.2 mbit) KBTX - CBS - HD (added upn digital subchannel but is going back to 19mbit with fiberline) 730 (17.9 mbit) KCEN - NBC - HD (no subchannels)
732 (18.5 mvit) ESPN HD 734 (18.8 mbit) Discovery HD Theater
735 (13 mbit) Universal HD (this is part of a digital rebuild in my area and is not yet active in my area but a guy in our local thread says its at 13mbit)
736 (16.5 mbit) iNHD 1
738 (14.0 mbit) iNHD 2
740 (14.0 mbit) HBO HD
742 Showtime HD (dont sub to)
744 Starz! HD (dont sub to)

The InHD's jump around alot so Im going to assume they do some sort of vbr stream (probably the reason i never got a good reading). But I can watch the real time bitrates on all my HD channels so what i put was the "average". Im sure sure I beleive HBO's bitrate as rome looked excellent to me and was 11-14 on the bitrate scale (there is never pixellization on it that you see with a bitrate starved signal). But it might be due to the extra protection on the premium feeds.

EDIT: The bitrate (according to my firewire) was still at 11-13.5 mbit. Nowhere near the 15 we were supposed to get. I checked at the beginning of the OC and once on Everwood and both were fluxuating between 11-13.5. I would assume its cox doing the reduction on it (since they are pulling the feed from OTA waco and if I remember FOX44CE said their tower was at 15mbit). Or it could be part of the "extra" bw is coming from the digital rebuild that I have not yet gotten. The OC and Everwood didnt look particularly good. Ill wait for FOX44CE to put a reply up before I send an email to Tom Way (hoping this is a temporary issue or something)

No OTA...tears...falling...depression...can't...take...it...any more...

No OTA...tears...falling...depression...can't...take...it...any more...

you could always come to the dark side and get cable.... we have a real nice signal now. Just have to work on ABC and we will be set. :)

I made a fox/wb harmony 880 channel button.... if anybody else with an 880 wants to have a logo for fox/wb hd.

It should be attached to this post.

Also have some new bitrates/rez for cox cable.

700 KAMU - PBS - HD ~13.5
705 KWKT - FOX - HD ~13.0 (this was a SD show so maybe the bitrate jumps when something HD is on)
710 KBTX - CBS - HD ~15.5
730 KCEN - NBC - HD ~17.9
732 ESPN HD ~18.9
734 Discovery HD Theater ~18.6
736 iNHD 1 ~it jumps alot but anywhere from 14-17 (probably why it always gives me wierd readings)
738 iNHD 2 ~ jumps from 12-15 (with some drops all the way to 6).
740 HBO HD ~14.5
742 Showtime HD (dont sub)

The InHD's jump around alot so Im going to assume they do some sort of vbr stream (probably the reason i never got a good reading). But I can watch the real time bitrates on all my HD channels so what i put was the "average". Im sure sure I beleive HBO's bitrate as rome looked excellent to me and was 11-14 on the bitrate scale (there is never pixellization on it that you see with a bitrate starved signal). But it might be due to the extra protection on the premium feeds.

EDIT: The bitrate (according to my firewire) was still at 11-13.5 mbit. Nowhere near the 15 we were supposed to get. I checked at the beginning of the OC and once on Everwood and both were fluxuating between 11-13.5. I would assume its cox doing the reduction on it (since they are pulling the feed from OTA waco and if I remember FOX44CE said their tower was at 15mbit). Or it could be part of the "extra" bw is coming from the digital rebuild that I have not yet gotten. The OC and Everwood didnt look particularly good. Ill wait for FOX44CE to put a reply up before I send an email to Tom Way (hoping this is a temporary issue or something)

FOX uses a variable bit rate. Normal programming is 13 MBits and sports is 15 MBits. We pass their digital stream as is using the FOX ASI splicer system.

WB is received from satellite and recorded at 1080i/30 ASI and converted to 720p/60 13 MBits on playback to maintain compatibility with the FOX system.

All upconverted material is 720p/60 12.5 MBits because that is the bitrate used by FOX the majority of the time.

At all times our multiplexer allots 15 MBits for use by FOX under their control.

COX cable receives all OTA HD with a K-Tech ASI digital receiver and passes it directly to their QUAM modulators after stripping out the muti-cast channels.

Hope this helps.

No OTA...tears...falling...depression...can't...take...it...any more...

Working on it as fast as we can. I feel your pain.

HAHAHAHA - We really do appeciate your work CE. Just the idea of having it in a couple of weeks makes me happy.

Not promising that I won't pout between now and then though :)

<-- Wonders if my antenna pointing toward Houston will pickup the FOX HD feed. I guess I'll just have to find a way to add another antenna.

I made a fox/wb harmony 880 channel button.... if anybody else with an 880 wants to have a logo for fox/wb hd.

It should be attached to this post.

Cool - I'll be able to differentiate between the FOX/WB and my FOX East coast feed.

FOX uses a variable bit rate. Normal programming is 13 MBits and sports is 15 MBits. We pass their digital stream as is using the FOX ASI splicer system.

WB is received from satellite and recorded at 1080i/30 ASI and converted to 720p/60 13 MBits on playback to maintain compatibility with the FOX system.

All upconverted material is 720p/60 12.5 MBits because that is the bitrate used by FOX the majority of the time.

At all times our multiplexer allots 15 MBits for use by FOX under their control.

COX cable receives all OTA HD with a K-Tech ASI digital receiver and passes it directly to their QUAM modulators after stripping out the muti-cast channels.

Hope this helps.

Ok thanks for the clarification.... I was a bit worried because I knew football was coming and football at 13.0 mbit would suck. ;) So all non football shows are going to be in the 13.5 mbit range? Is there any timeline to "increase" the default bitrates of their shows to 15 mbit?

Also hopefully later I will be able to put uni's HD bitrate up later today... the catv trucks are all over my area today and our tv reception was down this morning (and cable modem is still off, typing this at work). so hopefully I will have uniHD online when I get home (plus 2x as many "digital" channels).

Jag...trying to beat you to the punch....

I just checked Univ and it was averaging about 11.3Mbit. Seems kinda low. Let me know if you get anything different. ESPN was coming in around 18mbit, so maybe something on my end is screwed up.

Is the way you figure it out is to: capture file DVHS for 60sec, divide size by 60 and then multiply by 8. Seems to be right, huh?

Oh yeah...to those with COX, do you get STARZHD for free too? I don't sub to starz but I have had the Hd channel for months now.

they still havent reflashed my channel list so I dont have the channel yet (probably wont be until tomorrow or monday if they dont work over the weekend).

Actually to get my unofficial rates I just look at tsreader for 20 seconds (it shows the real time bitrates and I just take a mental average). That is a bit dissapointing that you are showing uniHD so low.

Also KWKT and KCEN were both spotty tonight (kwkt seemed to come back and now KCEN is black screen)... wonder what it was? They both made it through yesterday without problems (and the weather was much worse the past 2 days but tonight they are off and on) so it was wierd to lose them after making it through the weather. Is anybody else seeing it or could it be a lingering issue with the rebuild in my area?

One last good thing is the rebuild seemed to increase my signal strength on my channels across the board (all my HD channels are now in the good range where before they would border on the good/decent boarder plus the noise on the line is around 50% across the board which were all at 70-80% before)

Also KWKT and KCEN were both spotty tonight (kwkt seemed to come back and now KCEN is black screen)... wonder what it was? They both made it through yesterday without problems (and the weather was much worse the past 2 days but tonight they are off and on) so it was wierd to lose them after making it through the weather. Is anybody else seeing it or could it be a lingering issue with the rebuild in my area?

For what it's worth, KWKT and KCEN are both black for me right now - not sure what's up with that. My first thought was that they started encrypting it or something, though I don't know why they'd do that for (semi-)local channels. But they are both on the same physical channel... :confused:

Edit: KWKT just came back up, but the picture is breaking up a lot - tons of macroblocking, dropping out now and then too. I guess it's a problem with their antenna picking up the signal from Waco or something. KCEN is still completely black though.

For what it's worth, KWKT and KCEN are both black for me right now - not sure what's up with that. My first thought was that they started encrypting it or something, though I don't know why they'd do that for (semi-)local channels. But they are both on the same physical channel... :confused:

Edit: KWKT just came back up, but the picture is breaking up a lot - tons of macroblocking, dropping out now and then too. I guess it's a problem with their antenna picking up the signal from Waco or something. KCEN is still completely black though.

Id almost guess they might have moved the antenna or something because theres no reason they should be spotty tonight and made it through the past 2 days with no dropouts. Tonight is pretty good weather (other than being cold).

Now though both networks are back and stable.

Id almost guess they might have moved the antenna or something because theres no reason they should be spotty tonight and made it through the past 2 days with no dropouts. Tonight is pretty good weather (other than being cold).

Now though both networks are back and stable.

Update: I don't know about KCEN, but we had severe icing on both our digital and analog antennas both at Moody and Bryan Wednesday night.

It didn't seem to effect anything while it was frozen (no significant VSWR) but when it started to thaw Friday we lost reception on both KWKT digital and analog at our Bryan transmitter site along with a coincident rise in VSWR on both Moody transmitters.

Big chunks of ice come off one side of the antenna before the other (the side facing the sun) and this might have effected the pattern until the thaw was complete.

We were in Bryan at the transmitter site Friday to meet the electricians that are installing the power drop for the new amplifiers and the ice fall was so bad we had to leave.

Hope this helps............

Anybody have any comments about football today?

Anybody have any comments about football today?

It was perfect for me (but I didnt watch all of it but never noticed a dropout).... and I was able to confirm it was 15 mbit. The game looked pretty good for the weather conditions they had in pittsburgh. I do like that fox does the studio stuff in HD like TNT does for the NBA. It really gives a better "overall production"

And it very well could have been the thaw issue.... because both kcen and you guys were black screens/breakingup on cox at the same time. And I know you guys got quite a bit colder then we did (and had more ice/snow) and we did have a pretty good bit here (as you said at the bryan tower)

I watched the KWKT SD feed on Dish...so I have no comment. ;)

I'm not much of a football person, but I did watch a few minutes of whatever game was on KWKT-HD earlier today (on Cox, as usual)...picture looked great as far as I could tell, no dropouts that I saw either :)

I'll be looking forward to seeing 24 in HD here in a month :D

It was perfect for me (but I didnt watch all of it but never noticed a dropout).... and I was able to confirm it was 15 mbit. The game looked pretty good for the weather conditions they had in pittsburgh. I do like that fox does the studio stuff in HD like TNT does for the NBA. It really gives a better "overall production"

And it very well could have been the thaw issue.... because both kcen and you guys were black screens/breakingup on cox at the same time. And I know you guys got quite a bit colder then we did (and had more ice/snow) and we did have a pretty good bit here (as you said at the bryan tower)

Jagouar;

In the interest of delivering the best quality picture from both FOX and WB, I consulted with both networks' engineering departments and decided to change our local encoder bit-rate to a consistent value of 15 MBits.

Grass Valley (FOX) reprogrammed our splicer this morning and effective today all programming (WB and upconverted Syndication) will be broadcast at 15 MBits .

FOX will still be in control of bandwidth during their programming.
(13.5 MBits for non-sports and 15 MBits for sports - I can't create bits!)

The secondary channel (KYLE-SD) is now being broadcast at 3 MBits.

awesome.... glad to see a "PQ Improvement". We will see how much better WB programming looks now compared to FOX (IMO there is a huge difference between 13.5 and 15 even on 720p programming). Good to see you improving PQ while others are reducing it.... (*cough* kbtx *cough*). Anything scheduled to be HD tonight on the WB? I would love to do a comparison tonight.

Im very excited you are actually concerned with the PQ of your HD channels.... big kudos for that. As a side note I know there was some discussion about fox upping their bitrates across the board but that was a while ago and I have not heard anything since. Do you know of any plans for fox to increase their bw?

awesome.... glad to see a "PQ Improvement". We will see how much better WB programming looks now compared to FOX (IMO there is a huge difference between 13.5 and 15 even on 720p programming). Good to see you improving PQ while others are reducing it.... (*cough* kbtx *cough*). Anything scheduled to be HD tonight on the WB? I would love to do a comparison tonight.

Im very excited you are actually concerned with the PQ of your HD channels.... big kudos for that. As a side note I know there was some discussion about fox upping their bitrates across the board but that was a while ago and I have not heard anything since. Do you know of any plans for fox to increase their bw?

I attended the FOX Affiliate Engineering Board meeting in Studio City last month and it wasn't mentioned there.

The input from viewers is an invaluable aid in getting the most out of our equipment. (We aim to please!)

The reduction on the SD secondary doesn't hurt because it is only used for microwave backup and when I put it on line this morning for test, the picture on KYLE analog OTA was excellent as received here in Waco.

awesome.... glad to see a "PQ Improvement". We will see how much better WB programming looks now compared to FOX (IMO there is a huge difference between 13.5 and 15 even on 720p programming). Good to see you improving PQ while others are reducing it.... (*cough* kbtx *cough*). Anything scheduled to be HD tonight on the WB? I would love to do a comparison tonight.

Im very excited you are actually concerned with the PQ of your HD channels.... big kudos for that. As a side note I know there was some discussion about fox upping their bitrates across the board but that was a while ago and I have not heard anything since. Do you know of any plans for fox to increase their bw?

P.S. I normally use TV Guide online to get their HDTV only listings with the zip code set for 76710 - Time Warner Cable.

You might get that listing using COX cable in Bryan if they have it set up for KWKT.

For some reason the TV Guide listing service is down right now. (They are putting up a trouble notice) I know that new episodes of Reba are HD but I'm not sure about the rest of the prime lineup.

well the cox guide is decent at showing the HD logo by whats HD and what isnt but Im still new to this foxHD so Im still getting used to what is and isnt HD (because we all know there is no guide made so far that is 100% accurate)

FOX44CE --
what's the latest on bumping up the power for OTA reception here in CS? We are chomping at the bit! Thanks again for all the time and effort!

FOX44CE --
what's the latest on bumping up the power for OTA reception here in CS? We are chomping at the bit! Thanks again for all the time and effort!

My assistant is working with the electricians today to install power to the new amplifier rack and my consultant should be in from El Paso to so the install in the next day or two depending on what he runs into there.

awesome.... glad to see a "PQ Improvement". We will see how much better WB programming looks now compared to FOX (IMO there is a huge difference between 13.5 and 15 even on 720p programming). Good to see you improving PQ while others are reducing it.... (*cough* kbtx *cough*). Anything scheduled to be HD tonight on the WB? I would love to do a comparison tonight.

Im very excited you are actually concerned with the PQ of your HD channels.... big kudos for that. As a side note I know there was some discussion about fox upping their bitrates across the board but that was a while ago and I have not heard anything since. Do you know of any plans for fox to increase their bw?

About the FOX bitrates. I checked with my contact at FOX and because they have limited transponder availability for the four time-zone feeds they will not be increasing bandwidth for normal prime until all of the affiliates complete an earthstation upgrade.

They do have the best looking HD on sports though by a long-shot!

anybody else use media center 05 with a htpc? just wondering if im the only one (although i really dont use it) i knew it was able to communicate with the xbox360 and play content but this was very cool imo (http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/12/08/video-of-streaming-hdtv-to-an-xbox-360/)

You get cable card multi tuner with mce05 and be able to send all your recorded programs out to all your xboxes and media center extenders is very freaking cool. Just wish there was some way to have a xbox360 or extender to have the ability to play "live" tv so you wouldnt even need a cable box anywhere except your media center pc. Looks close to the networking power of voom's dvr that never made it out. Plus being able to save 10 bucks a month on a cable dvr rental and get unlimited storage capacity (more or less) would be sweet.

Yeah that would be cool if we could even find a 360 around in stock.

Ditto.

I may build up a box with MCE05, but who knows when you can find a 360. I don't mind waiting though. Oblivion is what I want to play and it has been delayed.

Dave doesn't have a 360? Where's that hell freezes over pic?

Dave doesn't have a 360? Where's that hell freezes over pic?
We should have made a new one last week! :p

BTW got a question OTAers.... I was at my dads house tonight getting me some free food and using my voom box (that i gave him for ota) to scan to see if fox was there yet (it wasnt) but i noticed there is no 12-2 or 12-3 anymore for kamu. Was this something screwed up with the voom box tonight or have they gotten rid of that horrid multicasting finally? (I havent bw checked cox kamu tonight so I dont know for sure yet) just wondering if others are tuning 12-2 or 12-3.

and on the 360 I have no motivation to even look for one right now.... i might consider one when they drop to 199 for the kickass package (but by that time im sure ps3 will be out with its badass blueray drive)

BTW got a question OTAers.... I was at my dads house tonight getting me some free food and using my voom box (that i gave him for ota) to scan to see if fox was there yet (it wasnt) but i noticed there is no 12-2 or 12-3 anymore for kamu. Was this something screwed up with the voom box tonight or have they gotten rid of that horrid multicasting finally? (I havent bw checked cox kamu tonight so I dont know for sure yet) just wondering if others are tuning 12-2 or 12-3.

12-2 and 12-3 aren't showing up OTA for me anymore either. Did another scan just to make sure and it only found 12-1.

Yeah I just checked KAMU is back at 19 mbit on cox and ota probably (well 18-19 vbr)!!!! Big kudos to them if it holds.

It sure does looks better tonight too.

I still get 12-1, 12-2, and 12-3 on the HD-Tivo, but they are all the same program, PBS-HD.

I still get 12-1, 12-2, and 12-3 on the HD-Tivo, but they are all the same program, PBS-HD.

did you rescan? when voom rescanned it didnt find any of the subchannels anymore.

Dave doesn't have a 360? Where's that hell freezes over pic?

LOL, nope. Too many college kids in this town with lots of free time on their hands. I did go to Target the day of the launch at about 5:30am, but there were already 20+ people in line for 10 machines. The manager did bring out some Starbucks though, so I didn't leave empty handed.

I will get one eventually though. I'll just have to move the Xbox to the bedroom per my wife's request. Remember, she's just as much of a geek as me. :D

I'll do a rescan tonight of KAMU and see if it's just 12-1. That'd be great if it is. Maybe they upped the bandwidth for graduation. hehe

FYI -

The entire FOX and WB lineup tonight is HD (Bones. House, Gilmore Girls & Supernatural).
My sources say FOX will be 12.5 MBit. (720p/60) We will air WB at 15 MBit (720p/60)

cool... look forward to doing my comparisons between fox and wb.

Hello All - KAMU is evaluating HD bit rates over the next couple of months. Currently only 12-1 is enabled at full bandwidth (19 mbit or so).
Comments and opinions welcomed.

Wayne Pecena
DOE - KAMU
wayne@kamu.tamu.edu

Heres your comment: KEEP IT. The subchannels are completly useless IMO because we have the "analog" feed on analog.

And better HD quality is always better. The fact that there is such an improvement recently should tell you something. And I can guarantee you everybody here will say keep it as well (and if anybody says starve it you better not show up at the party).

Speaking of the party if you or FOX44CE want to stop by and chat you are more then welcome. (time and date have not yet been finalized though)

I must politely disagree. Quality is important, but let's not forget the purpose of the enterprise is content, after all. With 12-2 now off, the main PBS programming is no longer available (esp. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, for which I make my annual contributions to KAMU) digitally OTA. Watching the analog version is much worse than 12-2 was. So I must now tune to one of the Waco PBS stations via the DirecTV "local channels" option, where the picture quality is only slightly better than KAMU's analog, i.e. intolerable. (I dropped Cox, because of a long history of poor service and poor quality in my neighborhood.)

BTW, DirecTV just sent me a card saying that all my requests for waivers for HD networks have been denied. Is this a scheme to force me to resubscribe to Cox in order to get ABC, Fox and NBC in HD?

I've had my HDTV tuner for ~10 months now - and I can count the number of times I've watched the KAMU SD digital channel (and even including the times I've watched the PBS SD digital channel in San Antonio) on one hand. At the same time, I find myself watching PBS-HD probably at least a few hours a week. The reduction in quality on the HD channel caused by low bitrates in the past was easily visible.

Given the choice, I think I'd rather have the HD channel take up all the bandwidth available to it. I could tell that the SD subchannel was better quality than the analog channel (although my analog tuner is pretty bad to begin with, so that may be part of it), but I can still just watch the analog channel if there's something on it that I want to watch. Ideally there would be enough bandwidth for both HD and SD on the same channel without really having to compromise something, but I guess we've got to work with what we have. For me, HD is more important than SD.

Hi Wayne, welcome to the forum.

Please, please keep it HD only. You could really see macroblocking when the other sub-channels were going.

Most of us on this forum want the highest quality possible and sub-channels take away from that. We're waiting to see what KBTX's UPN is going to do to its quality as well.

We may be a small, niche group right now, but I'm pretty sure all of us enjoy the HD programming on KAMU. I really like how y'all are doing in-house HD programming too. I'd love it if y'all could do Muster in HD.

Hi Wayne, welcome to the forum.

Please, please keep it HD only. You could really see macroblocking when the other sub-channels were going.

Most of us on this forum want the highest quality possible and sub-channels take away from that. We're waiting to see what KBTX's UPN is going to do to its quality as well.

We may be a small, niche group right now, but I'm pretty sure all of us enjoy the HD programming on KAMU. I really like how y'all are doing in-house HD programming too. I'd love it if y'all could do Muster in HD.

Speaking of in house stuff... i like it to but PLEASE FIX THE GUIDE. Its very annoying to not know when the local stuff is on and when Im wanting to watch an old "smart travels" show to find a local program taking its place. I dont know what needs to be done but it needs to get fixed.

I must politely disagree. Quality is important, but let's not forget the purpose of the enterprise is content, after all. With 12-2 now off, the main PBS programming is no longer available (esp. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, for which I make my annual contributions to KAMU) digitally OTA. Watching the analog version is much worse than 12-2 was. So I must now tune to one of the Waco PBS stations via the DirecTV "local channels" option, where the picture quality is only slightly better than KAMU's analog, i.e. intolerable. (I dropped Cox, because of a long history of poor service and poor quality in my neighborhood.)

BTW, DirecTV just sent me a card saying that all my requests for waivers for HD networks have been denied. Is this a scheme to force me to resubscribe to Cox in order to get ABC, Fox and NBC in HD?

Is picture quality that important when watching Jim Lehrer? I'd rather have better picture quality for more visually appealing material. BTW, resubscribing to Cox won't get you ABC in HD.

Not trying to give a rude welcome elmina; just adding my 2 cents.

Brian

What was on 12-2, anyway?? ;) I did notice an improvement in PQ, particularly in scenes with movement, once the subs went away. Personally, I don't have any school-aged kids, so Barney and the like don't interest me obviously. However, I can see where some, as noted above, do like to have the regular bread and butter PBS programs. Where would we be without "Antiques Roadshow"? With the current push from satellite to manufacture STB's with no analog tuners anymore, the regular analog channels are disappearing. Can you tell us just what kind of bitrates the individual subs were getting? Are that many really necessary? Can you just put up another transmitter? J/K on that last one (sort of). :D Thanks for joining us and asking our opinions! Better be prepared for lots of input. :)
And I can guarantee you everybody here will say keep it as well (and if anybody says starve it you better not show up at the party).

Speaking of the party if you or FOX44CE want to stop by and chat you are more then welcome. (time and date have not yet been finalized though)
So, where are we on a time/date? Will we need to stop at Sonic along the way? :p

Let's go OTA, Let's Go! (Clap Clap)

How sad is this...

My wife and I are pondering a move to Cypress (she works in Houston, and my career Real Estate allows me to work a couple of days per week from home, thus a potentially $ saving move)...

and one of my "Pros" I listed was "I can actually watch the locals in HD."

Damn, I'm worthless.

Let's go OTA, Let's Go! (Clap Clap)...My wife and I are pondering a move to Cypress....
Ah, my old stomping grounds. We lived along Telge Road when I was a kid. Of course, back then there was nothing out there. :)

Was there anything anywhere back then? :p

Comments from KAMU:
When KAMU began DTV broadcasts in 2003, we were required by FCC regulation to simulcast our analog programning, thus 12-2 was implemented. This FCC rule has now been eliminated and the analog simulcast is not longer required by FCC regulation. The 12-2 program feed is/was identical to the analog channel 15 broadcast. PBS supplies us SD program feeds and an HD feed. At times the program content is the same, but most of the time there are different programs. We attempt to air all local origination programs on both SD and HD channels.

Regarding the program guide, we seem to be struggling with getting the respective in-house systems talking to each other to populate the HD program info from the traffic system to the automation system and into the DTV PSIP system. I have a Zenith DirectTV and off-air HD receiver. Direct TV is over-ridding the OTA KAMU PSIP, thus the guide is empty when the PSIP data is really broadcast. Comment from others is appreciated in this area.

We have a full HD production studio system including three 1080i cameras, production switcher/DVE/graphics, and digital audio console. Our field HD equipment is limited to a post-production environment, but we do have two 1080i camcorders and have recently obtained a HDV camcorder. We also have HD NLE systems.

KAMU is interested in viewer experiences and viewpoints including being made aware of reception problems. I will attempt to help resolve these items if possible.

We will also be glad to host any "meetings" of the local group at KAMU as well as facility tours. I am very proud of our HD production plant and welcome showing it off.

Thanks to all for the previous comment and future comment regarding the 12-1/12-2 configuration.

Wayne Pecena
DOE - KAMU
wayne@kamu.tamu.edu
979.845.5662

Regarding the program guide, we seem to be struggling with getting the respective in-house systems talking to each other to populate the HD program info from the traffic system to the automation system and into the DTV PSIP system. I have a Zenith DirectTV and off-air HD receiver. Direct TV is over-ridding the OTA KAMU PSIP, thus the guide is empty when the PSIP data is really broadcast. Comment from others is appreciated in this area.

As long as you provide DirecTV/Tribune with the proper programming info including local stuff, shouldn't you be ok? I think some DirecTV boxes will actually show the PSIP data. My old RCA stb would while my Zenith 520 relies solely on DirecTV for guide info.

Thanks Wayne. You've always been very helpful and we appreciate the insight. I'm sure many of us would like to see the KAMU facilities - perhaps we can set something up after the holidays/break.

A facilities tour would be great. We're a pretty small group (~10), so I don't think we'd crowd up the area much.

It seems to be hit or miss with the HD-Tivo and guide data. Sometimes I see the local programs: the veterans show, etc., and sometimes I don't.

I saw this weekend that there was an episode of Austin City Limits w/ Lyle Lovett. It was showing fundraising instead, which I imagine was on the SD/analog feed. No biggie.

I remember once when I tried to record Ozomatli on Austin City Limits on the HD feed, and I got fundraising instead. Not a happy camper when I sat down to watch it.

Is getting the correct schedule to cox any different? Not sure who they use but I would like to see the guide info sent to whoever does cox's guide fixed as well.

Also you might talk to FOX44CE.... They have the fox and wb feeds going on the same channel at different times (not an ordinary setup) and they have managed to get the correct guide data put where it needs to be. Granted yours is slightly different in that your programming is all local stuff vs a "combine fox and wb feeds" but the same rules should apply.

Ah, my old stomping grounds. We lived along Telge Road when I was a kid. Of course, back then there was nothing out there.

Yeah we're not quite looking that far in off of 290...more like Fairfield or Villages of Cypress Lakes (less than 1/2 mile off of the freeway). Would be an easy decision had we not bought this house 10 months ago...

So AB, will you start working in the North Houston area or will you continue to work in B/CS? Let me know if you end up working around the Woodlands. We'll probably be looking for a house around there in the spring.

So AB, will you start working in the North Houston area or will you continue to work in B/CS? Let me know if you end up working around the Woodlands. We'll probably be looking for a house around there in the spring.

If we end up doing this, big if still at this point (God I hate hard decisions), I'm going to work both markets. I have a lot of contacts here in B/CS (especially investors) who I'm not going to let go, but I also want to get into that North and Northwest Houston market and learn it quickly so I can make good on contacts I make there (and ones like this one). If I don't know the market, I'm useless to you other than a door unlocker, so I plan to learn the market. :)

Take this for what it's worth fellas:

I came home today and my wife said that a D* technician came to our house claiming they would be doing a lot of work in our neighborhood over the next couple of days. He noticed our HDTV and asked if we had been upgraded to the new box for HD. Bless her heart, my wife just didn't know what to say, so she just said she thought so. Then he goes on to say that an upgrade will be available soon that will allow us to receive a lot more HD channels. He also told my wife that he would be in the neighborhood the next couple of days if I wanted to ask him any questions. Either this guy doesn't know what he's talking about or he does. I will try and run into him tomorrow and get further details.

So when in that sentence does the porn music start?

So when in that sentence does the porn music start?

Awesome :D

So when in that sentence does the porn music start?
HaHa!! A certain "Chappelle's Show" skit with sock puppets just popped into my head!! http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Exit-Stage-Right.gif

Endorphin --
If you are referring to my post, I really don't appreciate anything I say about my wife being associated with the porn industry. I was simply trying to provide information I thought would be valuable to this particular local thread.

Endorphin --
If you are referring to my post, I really don't appreciate anything I say about my wife being associated with the porn industry. I was simply trying to provide information I thought would be valuable to this particular local thread.

You havent been here very long.... so you missed all the "wedding doll" incedent stuff. Its all in good fun (IE he was messing with you).

http://people.tamu.edu/~wesson/lovestatue.bmp

JonnyB - Keep us posted - We'd be interested to hear anything you found out.

I remember once when I tried to record Ozomatli on Austin City Limits on the HD feed, and I got fundraising instead. Not a happy camper when I sat down to watch it.

I've had this occur several times in the last month on KAMU OTA (12-1) for various programs: Nature, American Experience, ACL, and Nova. I got locally produced stuff instead (Veterans interviews and other stuff).

Also, the guide data for my DirecTV receiver is correct (usually) for only 12-1, but never for 12-2, 12-3, and 15-2.

Does someone know a contact at KAMU we could complain to?

Is this a difficult issue for KAMU to correct, or am I a whiner?

Jeff

--

"Check yourself before you wreck yourself" - Ali G

I have a small rooftop antenna (it looks like a wing) that allows me to get both PBS/KAMU and CBS/KBTX in HD through my DirecTV HD receivers. I live near the intersection of Southwood and Southwest in College Station.

How likely is it I will get Fox44 in HD OTA with my setup?

When is Fox 44 scheduled to go online OTA?

Thanks to Fox for going forward with this upgrade. Also, thanks for the informational postings from everyone in this thread.

Jeff

Endorphin --
If you are referring to my post, I really don't appreciate anything I say about my wife being associated with the porn industry. I was simply trying to provide information I thought would be valuable to this particular local thread.

Sorry you were offended, but I was just cracking a joke. It sounded a lot like a "Dear Penthouse" letter or the plotline to a cheesy porn. Hell, I don't even know who you are.

I'll delete if you'd like.

I have a small rooftop antenna (it looks like a wing) that allows me to get both PBS/KAMU and CBS/KBTX in HD through my DirecTV HD receivers. I live near the intersection of Southwood and Southwest in College Station.

How likely is it I will get Fox44 in HD OTA with my setup?

When is Fox 44 scheduled to go online OTA?

Thanks to Fox for going forward with this upgrade. Also, thanks for the informational postings from everyone in this thread.

Jeff

You live VERY close to me (rayburn off of southwood and angelina).... but Im past my OTA days so I wont be of much help there. Fox is online now but at a very low power which should be increasing in a few days/weeks. You should be able to get it when they up the power (but has been on cox for a few days now so it doesnt matter to me).

As for the kamu guide one of their engineers posted about the feed (since we noticed it was back at 19mbit) and we brought up the guide problems. I dont know if/when they might fix it but Im sure they know about the issue.

Just for reference sake (I generally start to tune out when people start talking about Cox - not that there's anything wrong with that):

Those of you with COX - Their DVR does record in HD, yes? How many hours of HD programming does it hold? How much is it? monthly/flat fee/comes free with system

Thanks.

Just for reference sake (I generally start to tune out when people start talking about Cox - not that there's anything wrong with that):

Those of you with COX - Their DVR does record in HD, yes? How many hours of HD programming does it hold? How much is it? monthly/flat fee/comes free with system

Thanks.

I guess you really want to see your Cowboys in HD. ;)

It has a 120 gig hard drive in it but you only have access to ~90 of it for storage... it holds the rest for the 2 buffer channels (buffers 1 hr on both tuners at all times) and guide etc. The box does have firewire so it supports DVHS but I dont think anybody here has one (but thats what allows me to record my programming to my computer so space isnt as big of a concern but the dvr is not one to let it get too backed up, especially with pbs, nbc, disc, espn and eventually cbs at 19 mbit)

It is availaibe with any package but if you get the basic or extended basic (analog) you have to pay a $5 digital gateway fee to get the HD channels and be able to get the DVR.

That actual box costs $10 a month to rent and $5 for the DVR service (so $15 monthly). All the HD channels are included though with the $5 digital gateway fee or included with digital cable.

I was just thinking, when was UPN supposed to go live on 3-2? I thought it was supposed to be up by now, but it's not.

Did someone mention COX? http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/LaLaLa.gif

Yeah I thought I remember tom way telling me 12/15. I wonder if that fiber line is not yet completly setup yet. I know a big part of the reason they were running that fiber line was that cox was going to serve as a backup of some sort for kbtx in conjunction with upn so maybe they are making sure our nice fiber is in place before that.

Comments from KAMU:
KAMU is interested in viewer experiences and viewpoints including being made aware of reception problems. I will attempt to help resolve these items if possible.

We will also be glad to host any "meetings" of the local group at KAMU as well as facility tours. I am very proud of our HD production plant and welcome showing it off.


Wow! Lots of forum activity lately. I'm glad to see some new members, and I for one would love a tour of the studio. Jag, when is that party planned? It's probably mentioned somewhere in the last two or three hundred posts, but I'm to lazy to search.

Right now its planned for Jan 7th or the 14th... I do think the 14th will be better though because the ou bball game is at 1 PM so we could do it after where the 7th tech game is at 5PM (which doesnt lend itself very well to a couple hour block somewhere)

But really anytime is good.... I would love to schedule some tours but dont know who would be avaliable on a saturday (if the kamu guys would be around).

Any insites on when we might get ABCHD on Cox? BTW if you have a cablecard set up can you pay the digital gateway fee of $5 to get all of the HD channels. Right now I have the digital tier and the HDs are included.

I dont know about cablecard but i would assume the same would apply.... I used to have "extended basic" + "digitial gateway" + DVR and got all the HD channels sans hbo and sho but i never really tried to add them but as i understood it you have to have "digital cable" to get the movie package. Im planning on moving back to that plan after the party because I rarely watch the digital channels and have no need for all of the movies. But I am waiting for 2 reasons (1. the party to compare against d* if sid gets his mpeg4 stuff and I want to wait after my digital rebuild upgrade so I can be sure UHD gets activated on my account).

As for ABC last time I talked to tom way he said there were no immediate plans to add it (because the abc waco wants cox to carry the telemundo feed or something like that). But now that fox is online Im sure tom way/cox will be turning their full attention to abc. Hopefully they find a way to get a temp feed for the superbowl but Im not very optomistic.

Endorphin --
no harm done; I overreacted. No need to delete.

FOX44CE --
any updates about OTA reception here in BCS?

FOX44CE --
any updates about OTA reception here in BCS?
Maybe he's still working on it this evening. :D
I saw an ad for UPN on KBTX earlier, something about there now being "Two Choices for the Brazos Valley", like it was on now. All well and good, but it's not live yet, unless it's on Cox.

I haven't seen UPN on COX yet. I believe it is planned to be on cable channel 20. Or that is what I saw scrolling thorugh some channel guide information. Also KBTX has a website for UPN.
www.upnbcs.com

foxHD looks great today for the skins/boys game... even though the game isnt the best right now. (but im sure you ota guys knew i was going to rub it in when i can) ;)

But the signal has been rock solid which is very nice to see.... not a single drop at all from this channel other than last week when the ice was melting off the tower.

I haven't seen UPN on COX yet. I believe it is planned to be on cable channel 20. Or that is what I saw scrolling thorugh some channel guide information. Also KBTX has a website for UPN.
www.upnbcs.com


I would not expect it to be ota until we see it on channel 20 (and all the glorious cbs downrezzing ill never see once we get that fiber going;)). As i said earlier tom way made it sound like they were very important to cbs getting that upn feed live (serving as the backup or something like that with that fiber line would have to be active before cox would add the channel/go live). it was very cryptic though.

Whatever, I've had FOX-HD for over a year. Thanks D*. However, I can barely stand to watch it right now.

foxHD looks great today for the skins/boys game... even though the game isnt the best right now. (but im sure you ota guys knew i was going to rub it in when i can) ;)

I could have sworn you posted before about how you weren't really into pro football, why the change all of a sudden?? :rolleyes:
I would not expect it to be ota until we see it on channel 20 (and all the glorious cbs downrezzing ill never see once we get that fiber going;)). As i said earlier tom way made it sound like they were very important to cbs getting that upn feed live (serving as the backup or something like that with that fiber line would have to be active before cox would add the channel/go live).
I rather prefer watching KWTX-DT (CBS/Waco) over KBTX anyway (except for local news), since their CC works on the HD programs and KBTX has repeatedly ignored my inquiries into why theirs doesn't. Maybe I should ask them if the FCC might wonder why as well. :confused: They don't have subchannels yet, either.

I could have sworn you posted before about how you weren't really into pro football, why the change all of a sudden?? :rolleyes:

I rather prefer watching KWTX-DT (CBS/Waco) over KBTX anyway (except for local news), since their CC works on the HD programs and KBTX has repeatedly ignored my inquiries into why theirs doesn't. Maybe I should ask them if the FCC might wonder why as well. :confused: They don't have subchannels yet, either.

I think it works on cox (but havent tested them in a while).

And Im generally not a "pro" guy but I will watch local teams play (just dont care like I do with college ball and this was a season to forget for the aggies).

Hey jag, are you going to have Universal-HD by Jan 1 in time for BSG season 2? I've been waiting patiently; I didn't watch the SD episodes.

FOX44CE --
sorry to keep hounding you, but I was wondering where we stand on increased power for receiving FOX OTA here in College Station. Whenever you get a chance, we'd love an update. Thanks!

FOX44CE --
sorry to keep hounding you, but I was wondering where we stand on increased power for receiving FOX OTA here in College Station. Whenever you get a chance, we'd love an update. Thanks!

My assistant is meeting with our consulting engineer today at the Bryan transmitter site to put the analyzer on the antenna and repair it if possible.

Not all of the high power combiners were received yet, but if the antenna is brought into specifications, they plan to install two of the four power amps today.

That will get the power up to 2.5 KW.

If they find what I expect them to in the base connector of the antenna and can get it repaired, I imagine 2.5 Kw should cover most of you if you have a non-amplified antenna pointed at the hill on Harvey Mitchell Parkway (2818) just SouthEast of the Industrial area.

So do you think I should remove my preamp (Channel Master 7777) from the mix? I'm about 12 miles from the tower, and I have a Televes yagi in the attic.

So do you think I should remove my preamp (Channel Master 7777) from the mix? I'm about 12 miles from the tower, and I have a Televes yagi in the attic.

The Channel Master is pretty robust. Try it with it on line first.

I just suggest that if it won't come in with an amp, the overload of the amp from channel 28 analog might be the reason. (The 28 analog and 29 digital are locked together with GPS to enable the digital tuner to separate them.)

The Channel Master is pretty robust. Try it with it on line first.

I just suggest that if it won't come in with an amp, the overload of the amp from channel 28 analog might be the reason. (The 28 analog and 29 digital are locked together with GPS to enable the digital tuner to separate them.)

UPDATE:

I just talked to my assistant up on the tower disassembling the antenna.

When they tested it at the output of the transmitter with the Time Domain Reflectometer it indicated an open circuit somewhere at or near the antenna.

I'll let you know what they find and what the status is as soon as I find out.

(Apparently the system has been disipating all the power in the transmission line)

Hey jag, are you going to have Universal-HD by Jan 1 in time for BSG season 2? I've been waiting patiently; I didn't watch the SD episodes.

I hope so but Ive already seen the eps but I would like to see them again in HD (already forgot most of the plotlines)

UPDATE:

I just talked to my assistant up on the tower disassembling the antenna.

When they tested it at the output of the transmitter with the Time Domain Reflectometer it indicated an open circuit somewhere at or near the antenna.

I'll let you know what they find and what the status is as soon as I find out.

(Apparently the system has been disipating all the power in the transmission line)

UPDATE2:

The bad conection at the antenna has been repaired and sweep test performed on both the transmitter and antenna. (Both were well within specifications)

The combiners for the power amplifiers had the wrong connectors so we are still operating at 1KW.

My assistent was able to get a stable picture from his parents' house off the Hwy 6 loop past University Drive with a panel antenna on a ten foot pole and
an LG set top box on both 28.1 (KYLE-SD) and 28.2 (KWKT-HD)

Well, I won't be able to rotate the antenna until Two and a Half Men finishes recording. Anybody else able to pick anything up?

I scanned for OTA channels on my H10 and got nothing. I still can't get a signal on 28-1. I'll hook my OTA RG6 to my HR10-250 in a little while and try again.

"But Captain, we've got no power!!" :)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/sksloanski/Star%20Trek/Scotty.jpg

So how long before we get the right connectors for the combiners? Still can't get anything here in South CS.

Big News from cox (and OTA to an extent)!!! First off spank I dont get activated until Jan 18 (finally have a hard date atleast).

Second.... Cox is working on ABC now "They have requested a fiber link to the local KRHD so they can transmit from that location, and have refused to give me the KXXV in the interim. I anticipate if we can finalize the agreement in the next week, the channel should be available in the first quarter of 2006." (direct quote from Tom Way)

Also said they are looking into the audio volume issue between DD 5.1 and analog (said theres not a whole lot they can do to his knowledge but will see what his options are)

Good news Jag! Does that mean we HD OTA reception will also be available here in BCS?

Second.... Cox is working on ABC now " They have requested a fiber link to the local KRHD so they can transmit from that location, and have refused to give me the KXXV in the interim. I anticipate if we can finalize the agreement in the next week, the channel should be available in the first quarter of 2006." (direct quote from Tom Way)

I'm confused. Are you saying KRHD will be HD, and that's what Cox is going to get via the fiber link?

I dunno... That was an exact quote. I think they were going to use it to get the KXXV feed to their station (assuming they would build a digital tower). But I was a bit confused by that too.

And no KRHD (to my knowledge) will not be HD. Cox will get KXXV from waco (like they do now for nbc and fox) and then pass that signal on to krhd for their digital transmission (this is my guess atleast)

If they do transmit it, I wonder what low power they will choose? 1 kW or less, or something we can shoot for?

I haev no idea... just know cox looks to be getting the last channel ready (and the one Ive really been looking for). shame we will probably miss out on all the BCS games though (unless they do something very fast which i doubt).

The reason i think that is whats the use in even running a fiber line unless krhd was planning on atleast doing some sort of HD at krhd. Kinda wierd they wanted to use cox though (and not do something like what fox is doing)

also for you ota guys has upn shows up yet? i havent noticed it on cox yet so i was wondering. i want my damn fiberline to get completed so kbtx can go back to full bitrate (thats the one way we will know kbtx is back at full bitrate is when upn launches on channel 20).

Hey guys, I have a noob question for everyone. I have regular Direct TV now and Im about to make the jump to HD I think. Im really not satisfied with my regular DTV right now, and so my question is this.

What is the easiest way to do this from scratch in the most economical way? I believe the 2 satelite companies would be about 10 bucks a month cheaper than Cox, but the hassle with them would be much greater then just getting HDTV thru Cox? Because with Cox you dont have to have an OTA tuner if I understand correctly. I cant get regular ABC or NBC hardly at all with my rabbit ears where I am near Briarcrest and Boonville road so I imagine that HDTV with an OTA tuner would be a nightmare??

If you had it to do over again from scratch what would you do? Thanks guys and Gig 'em! :)

Chris

Windrider -

I am currently with D* - and am bought in pretty heavily. However, if I was starting from scratch right at this point in time - I'd be going with Cox. It is your only way into HD with a non-long-term binding agreement with relatively little outlay. Monthly charges will be more - but are offset by the $$ you would have to pay for equip for D*. Plus, at the moment it seems to be the only way to reliably get the networks (especially if ABC actually starts in the next month or two).

I would then consider switching if/when locals ever come to D*.

That's just my .02 though.

I hate to say it, but right now the easiest way to go would be with Cox. With them, you will be able to get CBS, PBS, NBC, FOX, and the WB (hopefully, ABC will be available early next year). They'll all be obtainable without an antenna, and you'll get to rent an HD-DVR. You won't be able to get HDNet, HDNet Movies, ESPN2-HD, TNT-HD, or the voOm channels.

If you choose DirecTV or Dish, you can get more national HD channels (you'll lose the INHDs) but probably fewer HD networks. With an outdoor UHF/VHF combo Channel Master you can get at Lowe's, you'll be able to get CBS, PBS, FOX (in the near future), and probably NBC at your more northern locale. The same will probably be obtainable with an attic mount as well. Those are the channels I can get with my attic mounted antenna setup.

If I could do it all over again, I would probably go with Cox, but since I got in so early, I was able to get all the HD networks from DirecTV. The only way I know of to do that now is to "move" to Houston and upgrade to the new MPEG4 gear. There is no MPEG4 HD-DVR however.

Brian

Ill third cox (but i am the one resident vocal cox sub, had directv, dish and voom before going back to cox). If they add abc we will have all the major local networks (and they have a decent national lineup, espn, universalHD (sorta), inhd, inhd2, discoveryHD, hbo, sho, starz (sorta)). The big advantage imo with cox is the ability to rent the HD-DVR (dual tuner and actually works really well, but its pretty vanilla compared to tivo but its got most features you need).

And actually if you want to do it cheaper there is a "hidden" package you can sub to (atleast at one time you could) in getting "extended basic" (~$40) and then pay a "digital gateway fee" ($5) and at one time you were able to get all the HD channels free of charge and be able to rent the DVR (~$15 a month). also remember you wont need a "receiver" at every tv in your house. You can get the extended basic package (channels 2-70) for free on every tv in hour house for free (granted you dont get all the channels like you would with satellite receiver but it also doesnt cost $5 extra per TV either)

Not to mention cox will look better across the board in the HD stuff. Their analog lineup is so/so. Some channels look better than digital satellite services and some look worse. But I rarely watch anything thats not on the HD channels anymore (a few exceptions). both directv and dish are in a state of expension and because of that they are both trying to "fit" too many channels on their satellites. The problem with this is to fit all those channels they have to reduce bitrates and bandwith associated with each channel which leads to a worse picture.

We are supposed to be having a avs party at my house in early 06 (if sid can get his mpeg4 equipment we were going to compare Directv MPEG2/MPEG4 and COX)

Thanks for the replies guys. It looks like Cox is the way to go. Thanks for the tip on the "extended basic."

The problem with their website is that you cant tell how much service actually is. (unless Im looking in the wrong place). Everything you click on says that the price will go up after the 2 month special ends. Wow! Thats comforting! It must not be cheap if they wont reveal it!!

Do you have to have the HD DVR with the digital gateway/extended deal in order to recieve the local HDTV channels? If your figures are correct that would be around $60 and with all the local taxes etc. that will probably be around 65 to 70 on the monthly bill? This will be a hard sell on the wife. She s spending money on TV stuff. Women! Well, mabye its just my wife. I am going to try to use the fact that I dropped down my DSL service to the 14.95 tier from the 37.95 tier, thus saving us money that can be applied to HDTV!! I hope she is in a good mood when I talk to her :)

Thanks for the replies guys I appreciate it!

Lots of activity here!! Like the sound of all the new stuff that is happening!!! Ok here is my first semi noob question.

1. From what i can see from recent posts Fox is now broadcasting OTA HD. Is this so?

2. If they are broadcasting i need to know what antenna to try first. My local channel dish point in the direction of the tower, I live in Castlegate so would I have any chance with one of the loop antenna's that go on the dish itself.

Any help is appreciated!!!

Peteo, the local FOX is broadcasting HD OTA, but only at 1 kW right now. You have no chance at getting that unless you live within a mile from the tower. However, they are in the process of upping the power to 5 kW which will hopefully be doable for all of us. I don't think the little dish loop antenna is going to cut it. You might want to try a Winegard Square Shooter. It can be mounted on your dish, and it is visually more acceptable than a traditional antenna. It resembles a a little square satellite dish.

Thanks for the replies guys. It looks like Cox is the way to go. Thanks for the tip on the "extended basic."

The problem with their website is that you cant tell how much service actually is. (unless Im looking in the wrong place). Everything you click on says that the price will go up after the 2 month special ends. Wow! Thats comforting! It must not be cheap if they wont reveal it!!

Do you have to have the HD DVR with the digital gateway/extended deal in order to recieve the local HDTV channels? If your figures are correct that would be around $60 and with all the local taxes etc. that will probably be around 65 to 70 on the monthly bill? This will be a hard sell on the wife. She s spending money on TV stuff. Women! Well, mabye its just my wife. I am going to try to use the fact that I dropped down my DSL service to the 14.95 tier from the 37.95 tier, thus saving us money that can be applied to HDTV!! I hope she is in a good mood when I talk to her :)

Thanks for the replies guys I appreciate it!

If you make the move to cox (and dont need the phoneline) I would consider dropping verizon dsl and getting cable modem. Its 4mbit/512 (much faster than verizon and it costs 40 a month (which is about what dsl costs when you factor in that 20/month phoneline requirement)

You dont need the digital gateway thing for locals (you can get that basic cable package at like 20 bucks but you will only get networks pretty much) but I think if you want the HD-DVR or ESPN, DISC, INHD, INHD2 or UNIHD you will need the gatway fee. Note if you want HBO,STARZ,SHO you WILL need the "digital cable package" (because you can only get movie networks with the digital package). If you do call and get them to give you that extended basic plus digital gateway let me know. Right now I am on the tail end of a 2 month program too giving me digital cable + hbo (which i will be dropping back to my extended basic+digital gateway pretty soon)

Peteo, the local FOX is broadcasting HD OTA, but only at 1 kW right now. You have no chance at getting that unless you live within a mile from the tower. However, they are in the process of upping the power to 5 kW which will hopefully be doable for all of us. I don't think the little dish loop antenna is going to cut it. You might want to try a Winegard Square Shooter. It can be mounted on your dish, and it is visually more acceptable than a traditional antenna. It resembles a a little square satellite dish.
Thanks for the info. I will watch the thread and see when the antenna power is upped!!

Anyone happen to have one of these laying around:

http://www.mycableshop.ca/300x300/P4_1.jpg

It's a P4 socket 478 heatsink retention bracket.

Aye for another vote for COX. I used to be a Dish sub for about 3 years, and recently switched to Cox. I also have Directv for my ABCHD (I don't count that as a sub since I'm not paying). At first I thought that I could get out a little cheaper than the dish/cox(internet) combo by going with cox all the way....but after my two discounted months by bill is as follows:

Limited Cable: $17
Expanded: $25
Movie, Sports, Variety Tier: $20
2X HD DVRS: $30
Internet: $40
Tax: $8

Total: approx $140/month

With this setup I get all channels except HBO, Showtime, CMAX, TMC. I do however get encore, and somehow StarzHD. Strange that I don't sub to startz but get only the HD channel. Also, there is no digital gateway fee for some reason either.

I agree that they need to get the fiber up ASAP. CSI is looking crappy to what it used to.

Aye for another vote for COX. I used to be a Dish sub for about 3 years, and recently switched to Cox. I also have Directv for my ABCHD (I don't count that as a sub since I'm not paying). At first I thought that I could get out a little cheaper than the dish/cox(internet) combo by going with cox all the way....but after my two discounted months by bill is as follows:

Limited Cable: $17
Expanded: $25
Movie, Sports, Variety Tier: $20
2X HD DVRS: $30
Internet: $40
Tax: $8

Total: approx $140/month

With this setup I get all channels except HBO, Showtime, CMAX, TMC. I do however get encore, and somehow StarzHD. Strange that I don't sub to startz but get only the HD channel. Also, there is no digital gateway fee for some reason either.

I agree that they need to get the fiber up ASAP. CSI is looking crappy to what it used to.

Whats a variety tier?
On my statements it says: Sports & Info Tier and Movie tier
Those 2 combined cost me $11.00
Also why does your HD/DVR receivers cost 15 each? I believe it is only $10.00 each. Unless you are counting the Service fee for DVR which is $5.00.

Im running the HD/DVR setup with no additonal premium programming with the Prefferred internet plan, and it costs me with tax $117 per month.
I also do not have a digital gateway fee.

Hey guys, just in case you don't have a fireplace or dont want to use it, INHD2 will have the Yule Log broadcast Christmas morning for 8 hours. Nothing better than a Fireplace in HDTV! Ohh, and that huge bug in the corner.

Whats a variety tier?
On my statements it says: Sports & Info Tier and Movie tier
Those 2 combined cost me $11.00
Also why does your HD/DVR receivers cost 15 each? I believe it is only $10.00 each. Unless you are counting the Service fee for DVR which is $5.00.

Im running the HD/DVR setup with no additonal premium programming with the Prefferred internet plan, and it costs me with tax $117 per month.
I also do not have a digital gateway fee.

The only thing you need the digital gateway fee for is if you want to sub to extended basic only and still get all the music/HD channels. Im about to drop back to that pack.

Limited Cable: $17
Expanded: $25
Digital Gateway: $5
1X HD DVRS: $15
Internet: $40
Tax: $8

Total: $110 (right now paying for digital cable and HBO running about $130)

Still not bad considering I have totally dropped verizon dsl and landline (40 bucks saved there) and my service is 4x as fast as the 768/128 I had with verizon.

Just comparing to directv/dish
DirecTV
Total Choice: $42
HD Pack $12

Total: 54

Dish
Americas Top 60 Plus locals: $37
HD pack: $10 bucks
voom: 5 bucks

Total: 52

Verizon (for both)
Landline: $22
DSL: 29.95 (first 3 months are reduced but im sure cox is running a similar deal)
Total: 52

Add it up and its very similar in pricing to cox. But with cox you get a HD receiver/recorder and extended basic at every tv in your house (directv/dish charge 5 bucks per extra box). And you get faster internet and better HD (with less SD than directv but same as dish but extended basic really does have every channel i want).

Plus with directv/dish until they get our locals up getting nbc and abc (when cox adds it) will always be somewhat of a crap shoot. The signals are very stable on cox (which quite honestly has suprised me since we are getting the feeds from waco and even in bad weather if the tower in waco is on the feed is coming in strong)... except for kcen sometimes gets flaky during leno (happens maybe once a month but usually is nice weather outside).

Anyone happen to have one of these laying around:

It's a P4 socket 478 heatsink retention bracket.

I might have one at work but I couldnt get it to you until after new years....

I might have one at work but I couldnt get it to you until after new years....

I might take you up on that. I don't want to have to pay shipping for that one little piece.

Someone building a HTPC?? :p

Not yet. Just a new one for the wife to use. She wanted a faster one. I'm trying to put this Frankenstein together, but I went the cheap route, and bought a plain box refurbed motherboard. The retention bracket was missing, plus, I have to figure all the connections out (no manual). It's nothing special: 2.4 P4, 1.25 GB ram, 100 GB HD, internal video/audio/nic, refurb DVD burner, cheapo case. It'll work (hopefully).

Sounds like fun! I know you'll get it done, should Michael Dell be worried?? :D
On another note, I noticed 3-2 now has color bars back up and the same audio as 3-1. Maybe the UPN debut is emminent, not that I am really looking forward to it. :(

Well I am.... it means I finally get KBTX back to proper bitrate ;)

I might take you up on that. I don't want to have to pay shipping for that one little piece.

I dont know for sure that I have one yet.... I know last week I disassembled/parted out a broken p4 we had.

Hey FOX44CE, Ice Age looks excellent tongiht (curious to see what bitrate it was at? if fox sends anything more than the standard 13.5 for movies (and i didnt want to turn my htpc to test).

Hey Jag - how do the Cox analog channels look on your TV?

some are better than dish/directv (scifi for instance) and some look bad (hgtv). Overall they are sharper (which is much better for a projector) but have snow. But dbs macroblocking was very bad when i had dish/directv. So Id say its a wash. Then the HDDVR and far superior HD sold it to me.

Thanks for making my decision easier (not!).

:)

Cox looks like a superior product at a better price for me right now, I just wonder how much installation would cost me (we built a house last year, and it's obviously not wired correctly for cable.

I dont think they charge you anything to run the wire... I could be wrong though.

I know they dont charge for service calls (i had to use them once when I first hooked up and nbc was spotty... the guy who came out even went up in my attic in the middle of summer to help me find the bad splitter... and it was 100F that day). I know my dad is still having a small issue with his locals dish (and to get a service call for him its 50 bucks for what cox does for free... I could probably do his move but it would require more cables and a new dish mount). All for something that should have been done right the first time. The d* installer put his locals dish pointing right though a tree (which last winter so there were no leaves). then the signal starts to get spotty a few months later in the spring but of course hes beyond their 30 guarantee or whatever and wont come back out unless he pays 50 bucks. I did a survey of his house and the only area that can see that part of the sky would be to chimnea mount it which would require a new mount.

Well I have all of the wire runs in my house to where I need them, would obviously just need to have someone wire it from wherever into the house/attic/control box and split, split, split!

Can you tell me the make and model # of your HD/DVR?

Its a motorola 6412 DVR (with pioneer software). And really you might wait a few weeks as we will be having the AVS party (if sid ever gets his mpeg4 equipment to do a cox vs d* mpeg4 vs d* mpeg2 comparison).

Also if you really want to compare call cox and see what they charge to run a line to your house... if its free add cox for a month and do a direct comparison. Thats the only true way to tell. I know when I did cox was much better than voom (HD and SD) and was very close to dish SD (didnt have a hd box then).

Sorry I'm nailing you with Qs...

I see USB and Ethernet on the box. What kind of additional functionality does it have?

the usb and ethernet dont add any features... the only feature is the ability to record HD to a computer or DVHS device via the firewire cable. Ive saved tons of clips of hd content via the firewire cable..... its works pretty well but isnt a direct copy method (which sucks) but its the only way to record uncompressed HD to a computer (you have to use it like a vcr).

Okay one more dumb one...

The package that you're about to downgrade to; does that include all of the HD channels or just the locals?

It used to include all HD channels (sans hbo,sho,starz because to be able to add those packages you need digital cable)... That was the first package I was singed up with but I am not sure they still do it.

Hey Jag - a few Qs re: the DVR


1) Is there a 30-second skip forward button? I can't seem to find one on the remote pic I saw, and I'm pretty damned used to mine on Dish :)

2) Does the DVR include Name-Based Recording? (where you can put in a name of a show and it records it each time it comes on?)

I'm sure I'll have more, thanks!

Hey Jag - a few Qs re: the DVR


1) Is there a 30-second skip forward button? I can't seem to find one on the remote pic I saw, and I'm pretty damned used to mine on Dish :)

2) Does the DVR include Name-Based Recording? (where you can put in a name of a show and it records it each time it comes on?)

I'm sure I'll have more, thanks!

It doesnt have a 30 sec skip (one of my complaints too) but it does move fast in the fast forwarding (there are 3 levels to fast forwarding).

And yes it supports all name based recording (it can record just new or new and old episodes, you can select how many to keep, what days to record on). Its very complete in its recording abilities.

The only thing I dont like about it is the 30 sec skip, the fact that the gui is only 4x3 and only a 120 gig hard drive. Other than those 3 issues its as good of a DVR as I have ever used (tivos included)

Well, I guess we won't see Fox-HD OTA until next year? :(

I wonder which will come first: increased Fox OTA power or ABC on Cox.