Time Warner Cable Has added Starz-HD & Cinemax-HD in Austin & San Antonio, ask them about your area receiving these channels.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/sanantonio/programming/updates.html

Anyone see Letterman tonight (Monday)? During his monologue the image started to do a vertical roll...like in the old days when the v-sync was not right. 10 seconds later you see the KBTX feed switch to the SD feed and it was still there. They then switched it right back to the HD feed and the roll was still there. Not 15 seconds later Dave says something about..."Is this our problem or a system wide problem?" He proceeds to walk up to the camera and smashes the side of it with his hand and it was fixed.

It was funny that it fooled the people at KBTX and good to know that at least someone there is on the ball.

To bad we can't say the same about our ABCHD feed. Their HD coverage of the World Cup and the NBA finals has been horrible. I think they are about 2 for 20, and I thought that KBTX used to be bad in the day, but ABC has definately won that trophy.

Oh yeah...about that tower....that means that I have to get on the roof and take down the old one and put up the new one! Are you sure that you want to get rid of it? J/K!

I saw that.... i think it was on purpose though but it was funny to see and i bet the kbtx engineer freaked out.

And yes it is dissapointing about the abc feed but i think its more of an abc is too cheap problem in that they dont have any full time engineers and just rely on a computer system to do the hd. hopefully they do get better though (cbs has).

I saw that.... i think it was on purpose though but it was funny to see and i bet the kbtx engineer freaked out.

And yes it is dissapointing about the abc feed but i think its more of an abc is too cheap problem in that they dont have any full time engineers and just rely on a computer system to do the hd. hopefully they do get better though (cbs has).

We rely on computer automation for our HD and it works pretty well for us, doesn't it?

Brazos Power notified us this AM that they will be cutting power to our transmitter site on Harvey Mitchell Parkway for an indeterminate amount of time to work on the power lines.

We were off the air over 30 times yesterday and my assistent spent all afternoon there trying to convince them that they had a problem. I guess they did!

i live about 1 mile south of rock prairie and about 1 mile west of the bypass. should i be able to pick up kyle-dt? im using a small indoor antenna at the moment and one of those cheap walmart phillips amps and pickup kamu and kbtx ok, although i will get signal dropouts sometimes. i cant seem to get the tv to pick up channel 29 on the atsc, but 28 does come in sorta fuzzy. i was hoping with the tower upgrade i could get a signal, but that doesnt seem to be the case.
you guys think it is worth getting a roof antenna or one in the attic for ota? i know i need to get up there at some point and run coax to some more rooms anyway, but i have never done it before. is there a cheap option i would be satisfied with?

We rely on computer automation for our HD and it works pretty well for us, doesn't it?


Yeah, but that's only because FOX has a very limited HD lineup. :p

isnt your computer system more or less controlled by the main fox feed?

i know cbs is dependent on the local to switch to the hd feed and would assume abc is the same way.

you guys think it is worth getting a roof antenna or one in the attic for ota? i know i need to get up there at some point and run coax to some more rooms anyway, but i have never done it before. is there a cheap option i would be satisfied with?

You can always try moving your current antenna into the attic. That might get the job done without having to go to a bigger antenna.

I'm just using a $10 Radioshack antenna in my attic for KYLE and KAMU. My house is just south of Graham, so I'm not too far from you.

You can always try moving your current antenna into the attic. That might get the job done without having to go to a bigger antenna.

I'm just using a $10 Radioshack antenna in my attic for KYLE and KAMU. My house is just south of Graham, so I'm not too far from you.

awesome! i will definately try that. one of these days i am going to get around to going up there and getting coax to the rest of the rooms and probably some cat5e maybe..

isnt your computer system more or less controlled by the main fox feed?

i know cbs is dependent on the local to switch to the hd feed and would assume abc is the same way.

Our FOX splicer is switched locally by a computerized automation system using external GPI contacts. Our WB HD switch is controlled by another set of contacts on the automation system computer.

Incidentally, all FOX and WB programming are fed and switched HD whether wide screen or 4:3.

yeah from what ive seen all the other stations switch to SD (and off the HD feed when not in use)

no luck.. i have a small jensen antenna i bought on clearance from target (tv631?) and that cheapy philips amp. i moved them up to the attic after a couple of hours of figuring out how to run the coax cable. the signal strength is a whole lot better for kbtx and kamu, and channel 28 comes in more clearly, but i cant get my tv to detect anything for channel 29.

I think the digital channel was down yesterday due to some work on power lines. I couldn't get 28-1 or 28-2 either. You may want to try again tonight.

thanks dave. i guess i should have paid more attention to what fox44ce mentioned. i did put in a work order over at suddenlink for the hdtv box, as i cant seem to get enough HD.. i really dont like the idea of a set top box and yet another remote, but it might be worth a shot. i downgraded my internet in order to offset the cost, but i am thinking of dropping it altogether if i can get the $20 dry loop dsl. i really hate how these bills add up. i hope fios gets here soon so we can actually have some quality services for a decent price..


edit: is it worth it making the switch to Dish Network? i am currently under Suddenlink and just signed up for HD which puts my TV bill at $68 (Basic Extended + HD Box) currently and may go up about $5 in 6 months or so.
With the new HD Bonus Deal from Dish Network, ($100 rebate for all HD subscribers) and the current $100 rebate, I would get $20 off for 10 months with the Bronze HD package. If I go with Sundish.com, I think I can get an extra $100 rebate from them and the activation fee waived (standard) with the 18 month commitment. If I go with just 1 HD receiver, (we have a TV in the guest room and the bedroom, but RARELY ever use them), that puts me at $49.99/mo - $300/18mo = $33/mo net cost for the length of the contract.

cutting my tv bill in half sounds really good right now, especially with the extra HD (although i don't really understand the whole mpeg4 switchover or HDLite business). even if i stay with the cable internet and swallow the $10/mo no-cable fee, that still puts me at ~$20 under my current bill. i think i should be able to get dry loop dsl for $20/mo (although some operator lady i talked to this morning said the website was lying to me) which would then save me another $15 (no-cable fee + price difference). anyone in the south CS area confirm getting DSL without a phone line?

thanks guys!

no luck.. i have a small jensen antenna i bought on clearance from target (tv631?) and that cheapy philips amp. i moved them up to the attic after a couple of hours of figuring out how to run the coax cable. the signal strength is a whole lot better for kbtx and kamu, and channel 28 comes in more clearly, but i cant get my tv to detect anything for channel 29.

Your symptoms sound like you are pointing the antenna at KBTX on the east side of Bryan. The KYLE-TV/DT tower is west of Bryan on FM2818 about 1 mile off Hwy 6.

Also because of the strong signal on KYLE-TV (2 Megawatt on 28) your amplifier could be overloading and blocking out the KYLE-DT signal (5KW on 29).

I think the digital channel was down yesterday due to some work on power lines. I couldn't get 28-1 or 28-2 either. You may want to try again tonight.

We took a generator down yesterday to keep the KYLE-DT signal up for the cable company during the power work. The digital tranmitter was never down. Have I picked up a new problem? All indications are that the transmitter is making full power. Cox was able to pick it up ok from their head end.

We took a generator down yesterday to keep the KYLE-DT signal up for the cable company during the power work. The digital tranmitter was never down. Have I picked up a new problem? All indications are that the transmitter is making full power. Cox was able to pick it up ok from their head end.

see ota guys we get special treatment ;)

and to bgnome.... if dish had all the locals i would strongly consider them myself and they have pretty much all the hd channels avaliable but its going to be a long time before directv/dish will be able to offer legal locals in the b/cs area so for me the only option is suddenlink. I also dont like the fact that you have to get boxes at all of your tv's (and pay the $5 mirroring charge) where with cable you can get analog cable anywhere in the house for free (just not digital/hd services)

now when fios finally comes to town there is about a 95% chance suddenlink will be getting kicked to the curb (the only hangup might be getting a cablecard for fios because there is no way im using their dvr as ive heard they are worse than the moto/passport boxes suddenlink uses or them possibly not working out an agreement with the locals) and im ditching that one too when windows vista comes out. So having dvr access will be a must for me.

BTW fox44, if you EVER get any info that verizon is working on an agreement for carriage let us know..... I know im not the only one wiating for verizon fios to come to town. ;) (and that would be a nice heads up for us)

i think i am good with cbs and pbs. fox still doesn't come in, so i figure it has to be the antenna. i haven't really jumped on the dvr bandwagon, although i have played around a bit with sagetv and gbpvr on an old pc hooked up to the livingroom tv. it ended up just collecting shows we never got around to watching.. right now, i am just archiving my tv dvds to xvid and am going to use it to play them. i might get an ir blaster for the box, but itll depend on whether we really feel like using the pvr again. i am just glad i get twice the HD for half the cost..

there was a verizon tech out in front of out house a couple of months ago, i guess for tidying up the phone connections in the back around the neighborhood. i asked him about fios and he told me that we were originally in the books but had to be taken off for some reason. But he figured with us being the second largest verizon area in texas that we should be getting set up at least within a year. he also said that i couldnt get dry loop dsl out here, but im still keeping my fingers crossed.

We took a generator down yesterday to keep the KYLE-DT signal up for the cable company during the power work. The digital tranmitter was never down. Have I picked up a new problem? All indications are that the transmitter is making full power. Cox was able to pick it up ok from their head end.

It may be my antenna acting up as it's not working tonight as well. I have a silver sensor (attic) pointed in that general direction to pickup KAMU. I'm using a Jointenna, so I was surprised I even picked up 28-1/2 since it's only supposed to allow 12. I'll try to mess with it this weekend and see what comes in.

It may be my antenna acting up as it's not working tonight as well. I have a silver sensor (attic) pointed in that general direction to pickup KAMU. I'm using a Jointenna, so I was surprised I even picked up 28-1/2 since it's only supposed to allow 12. I'll try to mess with it this weekend and see what comes in.
It's working for me.

Newbie here. My first AVS post too. I live in CS, Windwood subdivision across hwy 6 from the Post Oak mall. I'm about 4-8 weeks from pulling the trigger on a 50" plasma and therefore upgrading our reception bundle. I was set on the panny 8uk, but now I have to see how the 9uk model plays out, quality and price wise. In the mean time I have to make a plan regarding subscriptions and OTA. I currently have Cox and COX dsl, but we seem to be at the end of a cable run -- not your highest quality signal. So, I'm leaning toward Directv with OTA. Plus, I'm an NFL kind of guy, so sunday ticket with hd has a nice ring to it. Might keep a minimalist Cox package for dsl. [I tried verizon dsl but the squirrels kept taking down the quality, literally.] My home is 2 story, so I have "some" confidence that the antenna thing might work for locals.

I'd love for you folks to weigh in on my decision making at this juncture. Especially re the antenna outlook and hardware recommendation for that. Pretty much a blank slate here with the above background. I'm a capable do-it-yourselfer. My current AV setup is 5.1 with component but no dvi or hdmi.

thanks in advance,
ron

i live about 1 mile south of rock prairie and about 1 mile west of the bypass. should i be able to pick up kyle-dt? im using a small indoor antenna at the moment and one of those cheap walmart phillips amps and pickup kamu and kbtx ok, although i will get signal dropouts sometimes. i cant seem to get the tv to pick up channel 29 on the atsc, but 28 does come in sorta fuzzy. i was hoping with the tower upgrade i could get a signal, but that doesnt seem to be the case.
you guys think it is worth getting a roof antenna or one in the attic for ota? i know i need to get up there at some point and run coax to some more rooms anyway, but i have never done it before. is there a cheap option i would be satisfied with?

Don't give up. My son lives on north campus near University in a first floor dorm with thick concrete walls. He gets OTA 3.1, 3.2,12.1,12.2,12.3,28.1,28.2 with a Silver Sensor on the floor aiming at ch3 tower. This turned out to be a "sweet spot" that he accidentally found. I later searched with the SS attached to 25ft RG-6 cable and found nothing better in his place, not even five feet above his already found floor antenna location while aiming through an open window which seemed to have a clear unobstructed view toward the ch3 tower. When trying through that window, he lost FoxDTV while keeping 3.-- and 12.--. So with the SS on the floor,he gets FoxDTV off the back of the SS I guess.

I then used the extension cable to aim the SS through another window toward ch28(29) tower, but could not get FoxDTV in that direction.

The Silver Sensor is an excellent indoor antenna and is very easy to move around looking for sweet spots. I've even used one in the attic also with and without a pre-amp.

ive heard nothing but good things about those SS antennas. is there anywhere in town we can get them?

as for cox/suddenlink, if you wan tto keep them around for internet service, we get 3 flavors: 256k down for $24.99, 4m down for $39.99, and 9m down for $54.99. i may be off on the exact specifics (not including promotional prices), but thats about right. you will also have to pay a fee if you get the internet service without the basic cable service ($16.99) which is supposed to be around $10. when i called to cancel my cable service, i went with the downgraded service and the csr said the fee was only $5, so i will be paying $29.99 plus tax. but the cheapestverizon option is $19.99 + tax for dry loop and is 3 times faster so hopefully that will work out.

Newbie here. My first AVS post too. I live in CS, Windwood subdivision across hwy 6 from the Post Oak mall. I'm about 4-8 weeks from pulling the trigger on a 50" plasma and therefore upgrading our reception bundle. I was set on the panny 8uk, but now I have to see how the 9uk model plays out, quality and price wise. In the mean time I have to make a plan regarding subscriptions and OTA. I currently have Cox and COX dsl, but we seem to be at the end of a cable run -- not your highest quality signal. So, I'm leaning toward Directv with OTA. Plus, I'm an NFL kind of guy, so sunday ticket with hd has a nice ring to it. Might keep a minimalist Cox package for dsl. [I tried verizon dsl but the squirrels kept taking down the quality, literally.] My home is 2 story, so I have "some" confidence that the antenna thing might work for locals.

I'd love for you folks to weigh in on my decision making at this juncture. Especially re the antenna outlook and hardware recommendation for that. Pretty much a blank slate here with the above background. I'm a capable do-it-yourselfer. My current AV setup is 5.1 with component but no dvi or hdmi.

thanks in advance,
ron

First off, welcome to our group! :) Up until 2-3 years ago I lived at the end of Spicewood with a nice view of the mall from my back yard ;) , so I have a little familiarity about your location. For OTA HD you ideally will need to put up a rather large antenna on a rather large mast/tower, and even then there is no gaurantee you will be able to get NBC and ABC reliably. Since you have a two story house, an attic location for a large antenna may work OK, as there are some here who have some luck in a one story attic, but it will probably not be 100% reliable. CBS, PBS, and now FOX (thanks FOX44CE!) should be pretty easy with minimal effort. Elspankdog appears to be in the process of moving :( , and so may have a good antenna you could try before going out to buy one new.
You can still have Cox check your place for HD signal availability, it may be better than you think (beat ya' to it, Jag! :D ). Sounds like you may be keeping them in some capacity anyway for internet at least. Like you say, maybe a minimal package for locals/internet and then have DirecTV for SundayTicket if you really have to have it!

anybody know what the contact info is for abc? they are off for the world cup games this morning.

Call us:
(979) 691-5743

Found that number for the local station but havent gotten an answer yet and my only phone has limited mins (pay as you go plan) so im not going to keep calling if anybdy who has a land line wants to try.


Well it's Saturday morning and another wonderful World Cup game is being broadcast in SD on ABC again. Hell if they gave me access I would be more then happy to go over there and flip the switch when needed. Also like always calls to this number (ex: 108 for the engineers) only results in the machine. :mad:

Well it's Saturday morning and another wonderful World Cup game is being broadcast in SD on ABC again. Hell if they gave me access I would be more then happy to go over there and flip the switch when needed. Also like always calls to this number (ex: 108 for the engineers) only results in the machine. :mad:
Don't blame KRHD/KXXV, it's HD OTA from Waco. :)

Actually its not... dont know what it is but its not from waco (atleast not their feed). the abc-hd feed on suddenlink is still 17mbit (which is much higher than the 13.5 from waco because of all the subchannels.)

I am working on getting tom way's new email address (since his cox one no longer works) so hopefully i will get some real information about him (about who/how to contact them)

And I agree weekends are when they are never on... and during the week they still arent that great about switching to hd.

and of course as soon as i make a post about them not switching to hd on the weekends they do for a bugs life.

Well now this morning it appears that KXXV is off the air. Anyone else seeing this? :confused:

krhd is on with suddenlink.... but its all SD programming.

Bgnome

ive heard nothing but good things about those SS antennas. is there anywhere in town we can get them?

I would first try the antenna that you already have with a 25ft or 50ft RG-6 extension cable from Home Depot or Lowes and thoroughly search the area. You also might need to use the pre-amp that you already have. Use your TV menu set-up to show signal strength on the digital channel you want and walk around with the cable/antenna and observe the read-out and find the "sweet spot" and perhaps you can get a lock on ch29. If you can't, then it is either move to the attic and try the indoor ant/pre-amp there OR get an outside antenna to put in the attic or on the roof.

I've found Silver Sensors at Best Buy in Dallas and on e-Bay and Amazon. I've been in CS BB, but I don't remember if they had them. Good Luck.

see ota guys we get special treatment ;)

and to bgnome.... if dish had all the locals i would strongly consider them myself and they have pretty much all the hd channels avaliable but its going to be a long time before directv/dish will be able to offer legal locals in the b/cs area so for me the only option is suddenlink. I also dont like the fact that you have to get boxes at all of your tv's (and pay the $5 mirroring charge) where with cable you can get analog cable anywhere in the house for free (just not digital/hd services)

now when fios finally comes to town there is about a 95% chance suddenlink will be getting kicked to the curb (the only hangup might be getting a cablecard for fios because there is no way im using their dvr as ive heard they are worse than the moto/passport boxes suddenlink uses or them possibly not working out an agreement with the locals) and im ditching that one too when windows vista comes out. So having dvr access will be a must for me.

BTW fox44, if you EVER get any info that verizon is working on an agreement for carriage let us know..... I know im not the only one wiating for verizon fios to come to town. ;) (and that would be a nice heads up for us)

Bryan coverage both OTA and cable is a priority for us. We relocated the antenna at Moody to optimize signal for the cable company also. (of course this allowed us to broadcast HD on 28.2 and supply a backup for our three hop microwave so everybody wins) As of this moment we have not been contacted by Verizon but I will let you know anything I can when we begin retrans negotiations.

cool.... will be very interesting to see what happens on that front.

on the suddenlink front news might not be so rosy.... according to a post in the tyler market (which is also suddenlink, we might be losing inhd's in favor of the hdnets). This would be very dissapointing imo if true.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7839065&&#post7839065

i really like the inhd's (especially their sports coverage and they have a few good series as well... really like that new mojo programming they have). Although it would be good to get a better movie selection with hdnet movies. I knew hdnets were coming regarless with suddenlink but was hoping we could have hdnets and inhd's.

Also I heard through the grapevine that suddbenlink is none to happy with krhd-hd (because they cheaped out and bought a 40k piece of equipment when they should have bought an 70k piece and have subsequently spent an additional 30k trying to make it work reliably) so thats the reason they have had so many problems with the hd feed. It was mentioned to me that suddenlink is looking into getting rid of krhd and moving to a different carrier (and it wasnt houston) but was given no details on that. My guess is the Tyler ABC station (KLTV) since its already on cox channel 720 there so they should already have the necessary means to get us the signal. From what Ive read they broadcast @ 14.5 mbit (which sucks) but they do have DD 5.1 which would be an improvement. but this is all speculation.

cool.... will be very interesting to see what happens on that front.

on the suddenlink front news might not be so rosy.... according to a post in the tyler market (which is also suddenlink, we might be losing inhd's in favor of the hdnets). This would be very dissapointing imo if true.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7839065&&#post7839065

i really like the inhd's (especially their sports coverage and they have a few good series as well... really like that new mojo programming they have). Although it would be good to get a better movie selection with hdnet movies. I knew hdnets were coming regarless with suddenlink but was hoping we could have hdnets and inhd's.

Also I heard through the grapevine that suddbenlink is none to happy with krhd-hd (because they cheaped out and bought a 40k piece of equipment when they should have bought an 70k piece and have subsequently spent an additional 30k trying to make it work reliably) so thats the reason they have had so many problems with the hd feed. It was mentioned to me that suddenlink is looking into getting rid of krhd and moving to a different carrier (and it wasnt houston) but was given no details on that. My guess is the Tyler ABC station (KLTV) since its already on cox channel 720 there so they should already have the necessary means to get us the signal. From what Ive read they broadcast @ 14.5 mbit (which sucks) but they do have DD 5.1 which would be an improvement. but this is all speculation.

Since Tyler falls under the same FCC cable rule (Adjacent Market) as Houston, I doubt that Suddenlink will carry Tyler.

The only real option they have is to pick up OTA KXXV DT from Waco.

Time Warner tried bringing in Dallas and Austin CBS HD under a direct contract with CBS during the KWTX-Time Warner UPN battle and ended up putting KWTX-HD back on after a week. (I'm not sure of all the details of this but the adjacent market exclusivity rule applies to both digital and analog under the new FCC ruling from Feb this year).

well what if they dont provide service.... surely cable have some recourse (and we actually have the abc out of houston on channel 3 but it goes offline during primetime programming which was very nice to have a few week ago when all of kxxv was offline due to those storms and cox just didnt turn off the houston abc feed). kxxv is doing a horrible job with abc here (over 50% of the time they are not in HD)

and alot of the time the signal is a black screen. Its also possible its a digital loophole too.

well what if they dont provide service.... surely cable have some recourse (and we actually have the abc out of houston on channel 3 but it goes offline during primetime programming which was very nice to have a few week ago when all of kxxv was offline due to those storms and cox just didnt turn off the houston abc feed). kxxv is doing a horrible job with abc here (over 50% of the time they are not in HD)

and alot of the time the signal is a black screen. Its also possible its a digital loophole too.

I'm not sure what's going on but KXXV-DT in Waco was off the air from Sunday night until this morning. Their analog station was on so it wasn't power problems.

like i said they are having serious problems and have had them for a while now... i for one dont fault tom way at all for looking to get a good carrier for abc.

cbs at first was a little flaky but lately have been excellent with the fiberline they have to suddenlink it never goes off even in lightning storms, kcen is generally excellent (rarely do they forget to go to the hd feed the only issue is sometimes around 11:50 the signal gets blocky for about 15 mins), kamu is fine (other than having a crappy bitrate) and you guys (kyle/kwkt) do a really nice job on suddenlink (other than that one wb screwup and the storm i cant remember when kwkt was offline with suddenlink). ABC by comparison is flat out bad. It really boiled over for me with the nba finals and not being able to count on them to actually broadcast HD. It really looks good when they do but Id rather have a lower bitrate feed thats always on.

KXXV/KRHD has never been very, shall we say, "Viewer Communication Friendly". They have some sort of contact procedure on their website, but numerous tries has resulted in zilch replies over the years. I would call their phone line in Waco, and could never get past the receptionist, who always seemed helpful but never gave any useful info. It's like they are actually some secret govt. agency front or something. :eek: At least I was able to get through to the guy at FOX once in a while! ;)

and suprise suprise krhd is black screen tonight.

First off, welcome to our group! :) Up until 2-3 years ago I lived at the end of Spicewood with a nice view of the mall from my back yard ;) , so I have a little familiarity about your location. For OTA HD you ideally will need to put up a rather large antenna on a rather large mast/tower, and even then there is no gaurantee you will be able to get NBC and ABC reliably. Since you have a two story house, an attic location for a large antenna may work OK, as there are some here who have some luck in a one story attic, but it will probably not be 100% reliable. CBS, PBS, and now FOX (thanks FOX44CE!) should be pretty easy with minimal effort. Elspankdog appears to be in the process of moving :( , and so may have a good antenna you could try before going out to buy one new.
You can still have Cox check your place for HD signal availability, it may be better than you think (beat ya' to it, Jag! :D ). Sounds like you may be keeping them in some capacity anyway for internet at least. Like you say, maybe a minimal package for locals/internet and then have DirecTV for SundayTicket if you really have to have it!

Thanks for the input. I think I'll try a outside antenna when the time comes. Will give the house a retro look, and give my wife something to grimace about :( . ron

Well guys, the rumors are now true. I came home today and gone was INHD and INHD2 and they were replaced with HDNET and HDNET Movies. Can't say I am surprised but I am disappointed. I guess we will see how the programming compares, but I was happy with INHD.

Well guys, the rumors are now true. I came home today and gone was INHD and INHD2 and they were replaced with HDNET and HDNET Movies. Can't say I am surprised but I am disappointed. I guess we will see how the programming compares, but I was happy with INHD.

NOOOO!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :( :( :(
Bye bye InHD.... I'll miss you!

i was gonna post it myself....

as far as sports programming they dont compare at all but hdnet does have better movies. im still happy to see we still have starz and universal (i really thought those were gone)

is anybody else noticing all the channel logos are messed up?

i was gonna post it myself....

as far as sports programming they dont compare at all but hdnet does have better movies. im still happy to see we still have starz and universal (i really thought those were gone)

is anybody else noticing all the channel logos are messed up?


Yeah channel logos are getting all messed up. I looked up the listing for HDNet and HDNet movies and I can't say I'm too happy :( just when I was starting to like MoJo.

I just saw that we lost the INHD's ... that really is frustrating. I loved the content and clarity of those channels more than any of the others.. well, besides maybe the free Starz :)

I just saw that we lost the INHD's ... that really is frustrating. I loved the content and clarity of those channels more than any of the others.. well, besides maybe the free Starz :)

SSSSSSHHHHHH!!!!! as much as people feep fluanting that im surpised tom way hasnt gotten wind of it. ;)

And for the record my channel logos seem to be fixed now. And I havent done bitrate readings in inhd yet but it looks as good as inhd did. just a shame we are going to lose all that sports content.

Well I figured I would post this (even though it doesnt apply to hdtv) but suddenlink has made a few changes to the SD lineup.

1. 72 Educational, 73 Jewelry Television have been removed (honestly I dont even know if cox ever had them but really both of those channels dont matter and am glad to see some of the analogs taking up space going)

2. This is the bigger one (atleast for me) on channel 123 we now have CSTV which has replaced NBA TV on cox. VERY excited to see CSTV added here (and is the last channel I missed off dish/directv)

3. We have kept cox sports tv (dont know if this will last but interesting nonetheless).

4. 129 American Movie Classics has been removed and replaced by the SportsMan Channel (i dont consider this an upgrade or downgrade... although for me it would be a slight upgrade but we already have 4 or 5 old movie channels on extended analog and no sporting channels like this... from the guide its alot of hunting/fishing shows which i have already setup a few series recordings for the fishing shows because i am starting to get back into fishing again)

5. 132-Fit TV, 172-AmericanLife TV have been completly removed with nothing replacing it. Never watched either of these channels so they are of no loss to me but still should be considered a downgrade.

Overall I am very happy with the new SD lineup (mainly because of cstv)

“Time Warner Cable has stated it will roll OCAP applications out in New York City; Milwaukee; Green Bay, Wis.; Lincoln, Neb.; and Waco, Texas, while Comcast Corp. has pledged to do so in Philadelphia, Denver and Northern New Jersey.
Joan Gillman, vice president of interactive TV and advanced advertising at Time Warner Cable, said work is under way to meet the October target date for rolling out OCAP in Time Warner’s initial markets.”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6344725

Of course ABC hasn't switched to HD signal. There has got to somthing done about this. Absolutely ridiculous!

i agree... krhd is horrible, hopefully tom way will be able to get us that better feed. i was willing to give them a month or so to get things straightened out but its been way past that and its still a big problem for them.

It actually did switch to hd at the very end (right at the start of penalty kicks) but its still inexcusable.

BTW saw this at HDbeat if you hdtivo guys didnt know about it...

http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/07/09/directv-hd-tivo-finally-gets-6-3-update/

and in true directv fashion they roll this out right before making all the boxes obsolete. but for people around here you might get another year of usage out of it.

/rant on
KRHD SUX AND ARE A BUNCH OF IDIOT BANANA EATING MONKEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
/rant off

Okay now that thats done. So hoping that I could see the world cup finals in HD....none was delivered except for the last 5 minutes during the shootout. That pissed me off more than anything that they would actually switch it at the end.

I called KXXV and actually talked to someone there twice during the game. They made sure that the switch was flipped. They really checked as I saw a blip right after I talked to them xcept nothing happened. I then called KRHD and ended up having to leave a message. I guess someone finally checked the answering machine in the middle of peeling bananas.

I hope KRHD goes into the pooper,gets shutdown, and suddenlink finds another carrier since; between the NBA finals and the WC, they are about 2 fer 1567880000000 in getting HD right.

those with suddenlink do me a favor and look at your latest bill (those that are getting starzHD). I noticed something today that might explain why we are getting the channel. On my digital package I have the "movie tier" (which is encore and a few others). Well encore is part of starz (they are both the same company) so suddenlink might consider encore part of starz and give us the starzHD channel. And yes I know I broke my own rule but this could be a legit way to get starzHD (but i need to see if others have the "movie tier" on their digital subscription.

those with suddenlink do me a favor and look at your latest bill (those that are getting starzHD). I noticed something today that might explain why we are getting the channel. On my digital package I have the "movie tier" (which is encore and a few others). Well encore is part of starz (they are both the same company) so suddenlink might consider encore part of starz and give us the starzHD channel. And yes I know I broke my own rule but this could be a legit way to get starzHD (but i need to see if others have the "movie tier" on their digital subscription.
I am a current subscriber to Suddenlink, and I do have the StarzHD active. In my bill, it does say I have the movie tier. I wonder why I would have StarzHD and not all the other Starz channels. I understand Encore is part of Starz, which is active, but why would they give me the Encore channels without Starz?

I dont know but I really think if cox was giving starzHD to everybody legally they would have discovered it by now. (and we have had it from the first day it was added)

Im trying to come up with a way we might "legally" have starz without having the actual starz package and encore being part of starz it might be whats needed.

/rant on
KRHD SUX AND ARE A BUNCH OF IDIOT BANANA EATING MONKEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
/rant off



Maybe this is one benefit of being on D* where I am forced to rely on OTA for HD locals, and thus 13-1 out of Houston for ABC, or I'm lucky enough to live where I can pick it up (hill in Pebble Creek)

I picked up one of these from BB during the 1 day sale for $1500+tax. Anyone have opinion on this set? It is the one the HD-DVD demo is setup with in the store.

I didn't really need it, so I am either going to sell my 55" Mitsubishi RP CRT HDTV and it's associated cabinet (See texags.com classified forum for pic), or sell the Westy 42", or return it to the store.

If I end up deciding to return it to the store is anyone interested in buying it from me for what I have in it? (1499+tax) I think I can add the protection plan for $150 too. Current in store price is $1899 for the floor model. I received it July 1 and have used it a grand total of 3 hours.

Bill

KRHD does suck BIG ONES, I am exactly as frustrated as you my friend. I've let various messages on thier voicemail. Granted I tend to call during non-business hours (Primetime) but this is times when most HD content is not even being aired in HD!!! UGH

I just received another HR10-250 today. I saw some posts about a deal they were offering so I called the retention department and told them I had received a flyer in the mail offering a FREE HD DVR. All I had to do was pay a $20 shipping charge. The code I used was DVR-4U2, if anyone else is interested in giving this a shot.

I just received another HR10-250 today. I saw some posts about a deal they were offering so I called the retention department and told them I had received a flyer in the mail offering a FREE HD DVR. All I had to do was pay a $20 shipping charge. The code I used was DVR-4U2, if anyone else is interested in giving this a shot.
Good deal! Did they ship it to you or did they have to send someone out to "install" it?

also do you have to commit for a year or two again? my dad would be very interested in this but he would need a new install since he doesnt have the 3lnb dish.

Thanks Jag and Synth. Additional info:Samsung HLR4667W, no cable box, no digital subscription,two separate inputs(OTA ant & cable), Cablecard slot without Cablecard in use, cable channels re-auto-scanned using "STD" setting. Cable lineup on this TV matches Cox website "College Station"(not "Rebuld")
Using OTA Silver Sensor, TV auto scan gets 3-1,3-2,12-1,12-3,12-3,28-1,28-2 plus snowy analogs. Using Cable input auto scan on "STD" cable system gets ch. 2-59(exact match of Cox website) PLUS 3-1 between cable ch 3 and ch 4 and 12.1 between cable ch 12 and ch 13 (however, NO 3-2,12-2,12-3,28-1,28.2, all of which he gets on SS OTA). There is no HD ABC, NBC, FOX on his cable line-up anywhere, even trying 66-1, etc. direct input.
If Silver Sensor is Disconnected and TV is in Ant mode, he gets nothing. If SS is Disconnected and TV is Cable mode, he gets the Cox CS list exactly as above PLUS 3-1 between Ch 3 and Ch 4 on cable line-up and Ch 12-1 between Ch 12 and Ch 13 on the cable line-up(Remember the Silver Sensor is NOT connected = he is not getting any OTA reception). These two channels are coming widescreen HD via cable.
Any thoughts or ideas. My son is in summer school and I will have to deal with it. I'm thinking about a certified letter to the Cox B/CS General Manager to try to get through the customer service ineptitude of the other day("Glen in Tyler") and be able to talk to someone who knows what I am talking about.
I've got a RS Accurian I may take there to see what I get on it if I can't fix this otherwise. He also has an ATI HDTV Wonder in a PC that is not connected currently to cable or ant. I may have to connect and scan it and see what it shows.

Follow-up info on this: Sent certified letter to Cox Gen Mgr. Cox tech called my son and told him that he needed a cable box, but couldn't explain how he got two local HDs off the cable input coax with no box. He said it's a moot point anyway as TAMU-Cox bulk account contract expires July 31 and TAMU has chosen to not renew, but instead to contract with Campus Televideo (http://www.campustelevideo.com/) which is "nowhere near ready to take it over". Cox has offered extension to A&M but A&M hasn't responded.

So, I'm assuming the bottom line $$ must be more favorable to A&M with this change. Since cable is included for students in their room charges, I guess there will be more of a slice back to A&M for extras(Premium subscriptions, PPV,VOD, etc) or less charges to school for the basic service or tech support for the wired system throughout campus, etc. A limited web search shows $13/month for HBO complaints at California-Irvine UCI housing cable TV issues (https://pv105234.reshsg.uci.edu/~jfeise/blogs/index.php/2005/02/16/excessive_hbo_price) with Campus Televideo.

For Synth and any other students lurking on this thread and for whoever is paying the tuition(up about 20% per year since legislature unfroze tuition a few yrs ago), it may mean watch your wallet.

yeah tamu is probably going to get cheaper tv service (saving them $$$ but they wont drop the prices of course)

http://netinfo.gmu.edu/services/channels.html
there is george masons channel lineup... looks to be analog only (and thus no hd service). ive looked at a few others via google search and none of them have more than 69 channels (which is the analog cutoff) so it looks like no digital service at all.

So who will be the first to setup a dish outside their dorm? When I was there we had a first floor room where we broke the locks to the windows and could go in and out through the window. I bet you could squeeze the cable through the crack. Or just drill through the side of the wall and silicon it up when you leave.

thats what i was thinking... this day and age quite a few fish have hdtv's (the smaller lcd types and they are perfect for a college dorm in terms of saving space). i do wonder if they are going to be allowed to have a dish though (and even if they can only a very select few are going to be in a position to see the southern sky)

btw fox44, can you explain to us what the hell this thread means?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=696851

are we now getting a higher bitrate foxhd? (I think all the fox stations are more or less the same bitrate wise from what I understand as everything is controlled by the fox headend)

For Synth and any other students lurking on this thread and for whoever is paying the tuition(up about 20% per year since legislature unfroze tuition a few yrs ago), it may mean watch your wallet.

Ugh....thanks for the heads-up. Just when we were finally able to get all the HD locals on cable in the dorms (even if ABC was off more often than it was on), it looks like we may lose them completely. I haven't been in College Station this summer so I don't know how good FOX's signal is after the power increase, but antenna reception in the dorms tends to be pretty poor (not even to mention NBC/ABC which aren't available OTA at all last I'd checked).

I hope they do renew with Cox at the last minute, but I'm not too hopeful.

Ugh....thanks for the heads-up. Just when we were finally able to get all the HD locals on cable in the dorms (even if ABC was off more often than it was on), it looks like we may lose them completely. I haven't been in College Station this summer so I don't know how good FOX's signal is after the power increase, but antenna reception in the dorms tends to be pretty poor (not even to mention NBC/ABC which aren't available OTA at all last I'd checked).

I hope they do renew with Cox at the last minute, but I'm not too hopeful.

Synth, don't give up on dorm antennas yet. My son is on the first floor, North Campus, and uses for OTA a Silver Sensor on the floor of his room pointing through 12" thick bricks in a SE direction toward ch 3 tower. He doesn't use an amp. He gets OTA HD CBS, PBS and FOX(Thanks FOX44CE-no drop outs since upgrade even with SS pointing away from your tower-a sweet spot I guess).

I know his prior rooms could have put a CM 4221 in the window without much trouble and once he even had a 4th floor NW facing window(?? Moody transmitters line of sight?? to add ABC and NBC to the locals??), but that was before he had his HD. If you have have a SE facing, you could try Houston if you are high enough. I think I've read in this thread previously that some guys are using 25-30 foot masts for Houston locals in CS and your dorm floor may match or exceed that.

thats what i was thinking... this day and age quite a few fish have hdtv's (the smaller lcd types and they are perfect for a college dorm in terms of saving space). i do wonder if they are going to be allowed to have a dish though (and even if they can only a very select few are going to be in a position to see the southern sky)

btw fox44, can you explain to us what the hell this thread means?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=696851

are we now getting a higher bitrate foxhd? (I think all the fox stations are more or less the same bitrate wise from what I understand as everything is controlled by the fox headend)

FOX has increased the bandwidth on their satellite feed to 75 MBps to enable them to deliver the entire lineup at 15 MBps 720p HD.

Prior to this they have been feeding prime time feeds at 13 MBps to allow them to be able to feed all three time zones with the correct time offset.

What this means is that all 720p programming will now be 15 MBps and baseball will be fed in 720p HD instead of the previous 480p (FOX Widescreen).

To allow them to do this it took almost two years because they had to replace the satellite dishes at every FOX affiliate in the country. (Including KWKT)

Synth, don't give up on dorm antennas yet. My son is on the first floor, North Campus, and uses for OTA a Silver Sensor on the floor of his room pointing through 12" thick bricks in a SE direction toward ch 3 tower. He doesn't use an amp. He gets OTA HD CBS, PBS and FOX(Thanks FOX44CE-no drop outs since upgrade even with SS pointing away from your tower-a sweet spot I guess).

I know his prior rooms could have put a CM 4221 in the window without much trouble and once he even had a 4th floor NW facing window(?? Moody transmitters line of sight?? to add ABC and NBC to the locals??), but that was before he had his HD. If you have have a SE facing, you could try Houston if you are high enough. I think I've read in this thread previously that some guys are using 25-30 foot masts for Houston locals in CS and your dorm floor may match or exceed that.

I will definitely try to pull in what I can when I get back to the dorms; I have a Silver Sensor myself and for the most part it's worked very well (when there are channels to realistically pick up :p ). Though, last year I actually did have a 4th floor NW-facing window (unfortunately with another dorm somewhat blocking line of sight), and I did go as far as picking up a CM 4228 to put in the window in an attempt to pick up distant HD OTA channels. I did manage to pick up one channel from Houston once (very briefly) and, even more strangely, one from Dallas one time (must have been some perfect atmospheric conditions), but overall I didn't reliably pick up anything from Waco (or Houston).

In any case I'll be in a first floor this coming semester, so I'm not too optimistic. ;)

Well, I'm officially in The Woodlands now. A whole new fun game of trying to get all the locals in HD, DSL with no phone line, and trying to get my D* to work in my apartment (apparently it is wired, but the signal is stacked; trying to find a destacker for cheap). Only doing the apartment thing for hopefully ~6 months, but I'm tired of it after only two days :eek:

the woodlands sucks.... get out of that hell hole ;)

Well internet service sucks at my apartment. It's wired for satellite so TWC is out of the question. DSL is available without a phone line, but the prices aren't all that great. $44.99 for 1.5 and 49.99 for 3.0. Those are six month prices. After that the price goes up $5. I was used to $30 Verizon. I guess it's still cheaper if you figure the local phone line cost.

Actually, the prices for SBC ended up being a little cheaper:
$39.99 for 1.5 and 44.99 for 3.0 with $30 for equipment after rebate. I got $5 off for being with Cingular.

damn.... thats very high. be warned my brother lives in houston and had sbc and wasnt too pleased with his service (and is now on twc) for internet. but you cant get twc regardless.

i kinda wish i lived in houston for twc... they have fsn-hd.

FOX has increased the bandwidth on their satellite feed to 75 MBps to enable them to deliver the entire lineup at 15 MBps 720p HD.

Prior to this they have been feeding prime time feeds at 13 MBps to allow them to be able to feed all three time zones with the correct time offset.

What this means is that all 720p programming will now be 15 MBps and baseball will be fed in 720p HD instead of the previous 480p (FOX Widescreen).

To allow them to do this it took almost two years because they had to replace the satellite dishes at every FOX affiliate in the country. (Including KWKT)

One other thing before I'm asked. Bandwidths on KWKT-HD and KYLE-DT:

44.1: KWKT-HD 720p/60 15 MBits (FOX/WB High Definition)
44.0: KYLE-TV (Hidden) 480i/30 3 MBits (KYLE Waco-Bryan STL backup)

28.1: KYLE-DT 480i'30 3 MBits (FOX/WB Standard Definition)
28.2: KWKT-HD 720p/60 15 MBits (FOX/WB High Definition)

Hey guys, just found this thread today after being an AVSForum reader for years and in BCS for over 10!

I'm out in Williams Creek (about a mile past Pebble Creek down Green Prairie). Bought a SquareShooter (the Terk version) from Best Buy yesterday and was wondering if this antenna is going to be good enough to pickup all the DTs for BCS.

I've got Dish Network for my mains, but of course there's no HD locals. The satellite installer connected one of the little remote control antennas to my OTA feed into the satellite tuner and I was able to pickup KBTX and KAMU (wow, they have a strong signal), but KBTX fades below 50 alot and the tuner isn't seeing KYLE or KRHD with that mini antenna.

My house faces E and I need to put the SquareShooter on the roof on the back side.

Anyone on Suddenlink notice the channel logos are not corresponding with the channels again? More change coming possibly?

noticed it.... i really hope they dont change though but i still fear we might be losing uhd and starz (unless suddenlink signed agreements with them recently)

Noticed the icon changes too, just think if we woke up with ESPN2HD tomorrow. I would happily give up UHD for ESPN2HD half the time the stuff that shows on UHD is garbage from before my time.

Has anyone picked up a DVR from Suddenlink lately? If so, did your box have a HDMI slot? I picked up one about 3 months ago and it did not. I was hoping I could bring mine back in and exchange boxes if they were available.

Fatalsync -

Welcome! I'm in Pebble Creek so I know of your plight (as do most of us in College Station). The biggest issue is that KBTX (cbs) is in the opposite direction from every other station. If you turned your antenna around, my guess is that you would get KBTX at 100 and no KAMU at all. With a small antenna (which I have as well) this is the best you can do.

Others in the forum have put up giant antennas and can get stations as far as Houston, but this generally requires a large antenna and a tower.

I haven't heard of anyone as far out as us that can pick up Fox reliably and ABC isn't broadcasting HD in our area.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask more questions, others will answer.

Has anyone picked up a DVR from Suddenlink lately? If so, did your box have a HDMI slot? I picked up one about 3 months ago and it did not. I was hoping I could bring mine back in and exchange boxes if they were available.

Yeah, you can take it back and ask for one of the newer boxes.. with the 160gb drives and the hdmi out. You don't need to bring all the plugs and wires.. just the box.

FYI, it looks like D* will start rolling out the new MP4 HD-DVR in select markets starting next month. Article here (http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=202) .

Follow-up info on this: Sent certified letter to Cox Gen Mgr. Cox tech called my son and told him that he needed a cable box, but couldn't explain how he got two local HDs off the cable input coax with no box. He said it's a moot point anyway as TAMU-Cox bulk account contract expires July 31 and TAMU has chosen to not renew, but instead to contract with Campus Televideo (http://www.campustelevideo.com/) which is "nowhere near ready to take it over". Cox has offered extension to A&M but A&M hasn't responded.

So, I'm assuming the bottom line $$ must be more favorable to A&M with this change. Since cable is included for students in their room charges, I guess there will be more of a slice back to A&M for extras(Premium subscriptions, PPV,VOD, etc) or less charges to school for the basic service or tech support for the wired system throughout campus, etc. A limited web search shows $13/month for HBO complaints at California-Irvine UCI housing cable TV issues (https://pv105234.reshsg.uci.edu/~jfeise/blogs/index.php/2005/02/16/excessive_hbo_price) with Campus Televideo.

For Synth and any other students lurking on this thread and for whoever is paying the tuition(up about 20% per year since legislature unfroze tuition a few yrs ago), it may mean watch your wallet.

For Synth and other students lurking here, Campus Televideo takes over TAMU dorms/apartments on July 31 at noon. Here is the general info link TAMU Campus Televideo (http://reslife.tamu.edu/current/cabletv/) . Channels 10, 11, and 12 are HBO premiums for $56 extra per semester. More vacant channels are available for additional pay channels. You will get all ESPNs (except HD),The NFL Network, FSSW , and CSTV included (my son is happy about these). There are NO clear HD listings (?? KAMU DT??).

Like I said earlier, hold on to your wallet (and your OTA antenna) .

you can bet $ there will be NO HD..... only option in the dorms will now be ota/dbs.

Yeah, you can take it back and ask for one of the newer boxes.. with the 160gb drives and the hdmi out. You don't need to bring all the plugs and wires.. just the box.

How are the newer 160 gig versions doing? (do they still have reliability problems?). Im still on my 120 gig and its working flawlessly so I really dont want to take a chance with the new one not working great. But I do need the extra 40 gigs of HD space.

Fatalsync -

Welcome! I'm in Pebble Creek so I know of your plight (as do most of us in College Station). The biggest issue is that KBTX (cbs) is in the opposite direction from every other station. If you turned your antenna around, my guess is that you would get KBTX at 100 and no KAMU at all. With a small antenna (which I have as well) this is the best you can do.

Others in the forum have put up giant antennas and can get stations as far as Houston, but this generally requires a large antenna and a tower.

I haven't heard of anyone as far out as us that can pick up Fox reliably and ABC isn't broadcasting HD in our area.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask more questions, others will answer.

I'm in PC too, 800 Southern Hills Ct if you want to look at my setup. I have the luck of having trees directly behind my antenna, but not too much in the way pointing south. I have a CM4228 I think, and I wouldn't call it a tower, just a pole mounted to chimney. I get all of the major networds from Houston, with only occasional freezing/issues with ABC. I haven't scanned lately for the new local fox HD, mostly because I get Fox 26 from Houston. I use a D* HR10-250 which is a weak tuner too.

Bill

I'm in PC too, 800 Southern Hills Ct if you want to look at my setup. I have the luck of having trees directly behind my antenna, but not too much in the way pointing south. I have a CM4228 I think, and I wouldn't call it a tower, just a pole mounted to chimney. I get all of the major networds from Houston, with only occasional freezing/issues with ABC. I haven't scanned lately for the new local fox HD, mostly because I get Fox 26 from Houston. I use a D* HR10-250 which is a weak tuner too.

Bill

I'm picking up KBTX and KAMU at fine signal levels with the SquareShooter, but I haven't really tweaked it. Still no luck on the KYLE reception. Are they up to the 5KW yet?

Wow Bill. How high up is your antenna? I've got some trees on the southern side of the house that are taller than the house which might be a problem getting over them. Do you have a signal booster of any type?

Thanks!

On another note, I noticed that there was a CW network spot on the KBTX UPN feed...

I read in a post in this thread about a month ago that it would be broadcasting SD only, does anyone know if that is still the case or will they broadcast HD content (Hooray for Smallville in HD!) in HD?

not a chance to ever get it locally ota.... an option for the houston people will be to get their feed. there is also a small chance suddenlink will get it (the fiberline is capable of transmitting the feed but would reqire a 15k commitment from somebody to buy equipment) but im not holding my breath.

So is it that KBTX doesn't have the equipment to broadcast CW over the air in HD and are too cheap to upgrade?

Sounds like I'm getting closer and closer to "moving in" with my mother-in-law in Houston for my E*.

kbtx runs the upn feed as a subchannel of the main hd feed (and one transmitter would only do one hd station) what it would require for them to get cw hd feed going is a second tower (which would be very expensive). but suddenlink doesnt have that problem because of the fiber line that was recently put in to link them up.... but as i said earlier they are fighting over $.

I'm picking up KBTX and KAMU at fine signal levels with the SquareShooter, but I haven't really tweaked it. Still no luck on the KYLE reception. Are they up to the 5KW yet?

Wow Bill. How high up is your antenna? I've got some trees on the southern side of the house that are taller than the house which might be a problem getting over them. Do you have a signal booster of any type?

Thanks!

Yes I have a pre-amp, again can't remember the model I think a 7777 or something like that. Antenna is just on a 10 foot pole strapped to the chimney, probably isn't even 5-6 feet above the chimney. I have a little luck with the South being relatively clear, and with a large tree behind my antenna from the street view it doesn't stick out. I do live up on a little hill, feel free to drive by and look at the setup.

Bill

kbtx runs the upn feed as a subchannel of the main hd feed (and one transmitter would only do one hd station) what it would require for them to get cw hd feed going is a second tower (which would be very expensive). but suddenlink doesnt have that problem because of the fiber line that was recently put in to link them up.... but as i said earlier they are fighting over $.

Actually that's not completely true. You can put two 1080i/30 HDs in one channel at 9MBits each with 1 MBit reserved for PSIP and compression artifacts are low.

(The total broadcast bandwidth is 19.39 MBits)

The local PBS in Waco is puttig a 1080i/30 and two 480i/30s in one channel and it looks pretty darned good (I've watched it at home and I can't see any problems).

Because 1080i/30 takes less bandwidth than 720p/60 and can be compressed much more efficiently you have more flexability if you're 1080i.

Total Pixel/Sec

1080i/30 1620x1080x30 = 52488000
720p/60 1280x720x60 = 55296000

Plus the spacial Odd/Even line relationship of Interlaced scan allows for 30% better compression without resulting in objectionable artifacts.

2 HD channels at 9mbit would look horrible.... there was already a big dropoff when they added the upn subchannel from 18mbit to 15 mbit.

Yes I have a pre-amp, again can't remember the model I think a 7777 or something like that. Antenna is just on a 10 foot pole strapped to the chimney, probably isn't even 5-6 feet above the chimney. I have a little luck with the South being relatively clear, and with a large tree behind my antenna from the street view it doesn't stick out. I do live up on a little hill, feel free to drive by and look at the setup.

Bill

Drove by your place. It's as if God carved out that little window through the trees for you to put your antenna. :)

Your house is a little bit taller than mine, but I think I'm going to try it. Is there anyplace in town that has ChannelMasters and a good return policy?

2 HD channels at 9mbit would look horrible.... there was already a big dropoff when they added the upn subchannel from 18mbit to 15 mbit.

I guess everybody is entitled to their opinion.

If anyone can get 34-1 from Waco (I don't think you can in Bryan) you can see a perfect example of fixed 9 MBit 1080i/30.

The problem with the other multiplexed stations in the market is that they use a Harris Flex-Coder that shares bandwidth by varying compression ratios and it does a basically lousy job of it sacrificing HD quality for SD bandwidth.

I am broadcasting FOX and WB at 15 MBits fixed and as I said 720p/60 requires more bandwidth that 1080i/30. I think most viewers will agree that our 720p is superior to other stations 1080i whether they are multicasting or not.

2 HD channels at 9mbit would look horrible.... there was already a big dropoff when they added the upn subchannel from 18mbit to 15 mbit.

I can't understand how you can say that a 1080i/30 video signal that contains significantly less pixels per second un-compressed than a 720p/60 signal can look worse than when they are both encoded at the same 15 MBits video encoder rate!

That's like saying that a stereo that has a 15Hz-18Khz frequency response sounds better than one that is 15Hz to 15KHz (TV specs) when 100% of people can't hear anything above 14 KHz maximum and most can't hear above 12 KHz.

But then audiophiles have been saying that for years!

[QUOTE=FOX44CE]
Total Pixel/Sec

1080i/30 1620x1080x30 = 52488000
720p/60 1280x720x60 = 55296000

FOX44CE, thanks for your work on 29 transmitter and 28 audio power overload issue. Help me on the math. I thought 1080i/30 was 1920 x 1080 x 30 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec.

[QUOTE=FOX44CE]
Total Pixel/Sec

1080i/30 1620x1080x30 = 52488000
720p/60 1280x720x60 = 55296000

FOX44CE, thanks for your work on 29 transmitter and 28 audio power overload issue. Help me on the math. I thought 1080i/30 was 1920 x 1080 x 30 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec.

1920 is right, but it should be 1920x540x30, since your're only drawing 1/2 scanlines,right?

I don't think so, since in both 480i and 1080i, it's 60 fields/sec (technically 59.97 for NTSC), each field containing every other line of the image, or 30 full frames.

---
Well, I'm officially on the HD bandwagon, although the closest thing to an HD display I have is my computer monitor, so I figured I should post instead of just lurking this thread. We just got a Samsung SIR-T451 tuner, and are using the attic-mounted antenna we'd been using to watch analog TV (a UHF-only Zenith something or other, Yagi-style but with a loop for the driven element and curved piece of aluminum for a reflector, plus RCA preamp... not my choices, but they worked ok). With the antenna pointed torward north Bryan, all the analog channels came in well. 40 and 47 have a little static, but 3, 15, 23, and 28 are great.

As far as HD reception, KAMU and KYLE/KWKT come in great. KBTX (both CBS and UPN) will be great for a few seconds and then suddenly drop out. I think we may have to get a second antenna, since KBTX is the opposite direction from everything else.

Watching the signal strength meter, KAMU is a solid 10 bars (out of 10). KWKT hovers around 8, ranging from 6 to 9; I haven't noticed any dropouts. KBTX will have 5-6 bars when it's a steady picture, then drop to zero for a few seconds when the picture messes up.

In comparison, with rabbit ears in the bedroom, I can get KBTX and KAMU perfectly (10 bars), but no KWKT at all (blips of 2-3 bars, but nothing steady).

Something strange: I'm only getting program guide info on KAMU. KBTX and KWKT both just show "no data". Also, I see perfect closed captions on KBTX, intermittent dropouts on KWKT (picture is fine however), and none on KAMU. Anybody else having that issue?

Data point: According to antenna web, KYLE is at 271 degrees, 11.6 miles from me (I live in Forest Lakes, about 4 miles east of Harvey/Hwy6).

One more thing, perhaps FOX44CE can explain (or fix): I've noticed the picture on the SD FOX signal is darker than the other channels, like somebody turned the brightness down. Many shows are like this, but the myNetwork promos are particularly dark. This goes for both 28 analog and 28-1 DT. 28-2 is normal, and you can really see the difference flipping between 28-1 and 28-2.

[QUOTE=russ26]

1920 is right, but it should be 1920x540x30, since your're only drawing 1/2 scanlines,right?

Interlaced:

One-half of a picture each 1/60th of a second.
Other-half of a picture next 1/60th of a second.

Whole picture every 1/30th of a second.


1920 x 540 x 60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec.

Hello fellow C.S. residents!! This is my first post in this forum, so please be kind.

I'm looking to add HDTV to my myth box and am wondering just what to expect in terms of the amount of channels I'll be able to pick up. I currently reside in SWV, and could easily put an ant. up on my chimney. There is a fiarly large oak that would be to the west of the ant, if it was pointing N-S. My bro lives a few blocks over and had an off-air ant. 10ft off his roof peak, and he picked up KBTX, KAMU, and 2-3 more in HD (that was till a nasty storm came through several months back).

I don't have an HD card yet, or ant., and would like recommendations on both. I'm also looking to get into satellite feeds on the mythbox also, and any information on that would also be appreciated.

Would a powered horizontal bar ant. a few feet above my chimney suffice? It'd probably be 18-22 ft off the ground, total. From which general directions do you find the antennas best reception comming from?

If this is the wrong thread, I apologize, but it seemed appropriate with regard to the location.

Speaking of mythtv... dave I finally got a good enough experince with vista to completly switch over my mce server to vista. 5472 finally has the performance to run with the 360 extended and actually looks very very cool.

Still a shame they dont have play dvd support in it (or a good way to add codecs) but for playing music and tv its working beautifully now.

[QUOTE=russ26][QUOTE=fatalsync]

Interlaced:

One-half of a picture each 1/60th of a second.
Other-half of a picture next 1/60th of a second.

Whole picture every 1/30th of a second.


1920 x 540 x 60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec.[/QUO

You are correct. 1080i is 1920x1080x30 or alternately 1920x540x60. [I don't do 1080i so I goofed]

Either way it is 62,208,000 Pixels/Sec but the compression algorithm in my Tandberg 5780 Encoder still shows that 1080i compressed to 15 MBits will produce less degradation than 720p compressed to 15 MBits.

The Tandberg recommendations for fixed compression is 9 MBits for 1080i and 12 MBits for 720p minimum in multichannel operation.

I suspect that is because the 1/30th second offset between the odd and even lines of the picture in 1080i already produces so many motion artifacts that don't exist in progressive scan that the blurry images are just deleted from the output.

In any case KWBU is encoding 34.1 at 9 MBits 1080i with a Tansdberg 5780 and it looks much better than the 15 MBit CBS HD from KWTX who using Flex-Coder.



My bad.

I don't think so, since in both 480i and 1080i, it's 60 fields/sec (technically 59.97 for NTSC), each field containing every other line of the image, or 30 full frames.

---
Well, I'm officially on the HD bandwagon, although the closest thing to an HD display I have is my computer monitor, so I figured I should post instead of just lurking this thread. We just got a Samsung SIR-T451 tuner, and are using the attic-mounted antenna we'd been using to watch analog TV (a UHF-only Zenith something or other, Yagi-style but with a loop for the driven element and curved piece of aluminum for a reflector, plus RCA preamp... not my choices, but they worked ok). With the antenna pointed torward north Bryan, all the analog channels came in well. 40 and 47 have a little static, but 3, 15, 23, and 28 are great.

As far as HD reception, KAMU and KYLE/KWKT come in great. KBTX (both CBS and UPN) will be great for a few seconds and then suddenly drop out. I think we may have to get a second antenna, since KBTX is the opposite direction from everything else.

Watching the signal strength meter, KAMU is a solid 10 bars (out of 10). KWKT hovers around 8, ranging from 6 to 9; I haven't noticed any dropouts. KBTX will have 5-6 bars when it's a steady picture, then drop to zero for a few seconds when the picture messes up.

In comparison, with rabbit ears in the bedroom, I can get KBTX and KAMU perfectly (10 bars), but no KWKT at all (blips of 2-3 bars, but nothing steady).

Something strange: I'm only getting program guide info on KAMU. KBTX and KWKT both just show "no data". Also, I see perfect closed captions on KBTX, intermittent dropouts on KWKT (picture is fine however), and none on KAMU. Anybody else having that issue?

Data point: According to antenna web, KYLE is at 271 degrees, 11.6 miles from me (I live in Forest Lakes, about 4 miles east of Harvey/Hwy6).

One more thing, perhaps FOX44CE can explain (or fix): I've noticed the picture on the SD FOX signal is darker than the other channels, like somebody turned the brightness down. Many shows are like this, but the myNetwork promos are particularly dark. This goes for both 28 analog and 28-1 DT. 28-2 is normal, and you can really see the difference flipping between 28-1 and 28-2.

Thanks for the input.

The KWKT HD upconvertor and analog transmitter STL are fed from the same proc amp as Time Warner and Grande cable in Waco and they keep a close eye on them.

We pick up the KYLE feed over the air to monitor it, and KYLE [the analog and digital transmitters] are fed by the same microwave link.

I have two waveform monitors side by side for the KWKT and KYLE over-the air demodulators and right now they are showing the exact same levels.

The vertical interval test signal [generated at the transmitter sites independant of the microwave] are both showing exactly 100% video level so the transmitters are set right.

I switched the KYLE transmitters over to my hidden KWKT-DT secondary STL feed from here and saw no level shift though.

I'll let you know.

Drove by your place. It's as if God carved out that little window through the trees for you to put your antenna. :)

Your house is a little bit taller than mine, but I think I'm going to try it. Is there anyplace in town that has ChannelMasters and a good return policy?

Bought mine online, some have mentioned that either Lowe's or HD has some pre-amp, but I don't know.

Yes, guess I'm lucky, although at the rate my Post Oaks are dying, trees won't be a problem soon. Lost 2 huge one's this year to what I believe is overwatering by my neighbor (runs off and collects on my side)

Bill

Something with the rain must have caused it, but I was able to get several channels out of Austin tonight (none from Waco though). All have since faded however. It was nice being able to watch that meaningless NFL game in HD on NBC. I guess we can't count on KCEN upgrading KMAY-23 until the FCC forces them to, eh? (And likewise for KXXV/KRHD)

Is anybody else able to see program/guide info for KBTX or KYLE (OTA)? I wonder if my receiver has a problem or it's the stations' fault.

BTW, are there any plans to (further) increase the power of KYLE-DT? Or is that not until the big switch date? While I can get it, it seems others are not so lucky.

Actually its not... dont know what it is but its not from waco (atleast not their feed). the abc-hd feed on suddenlink is still 17mbit (which is much higher than the 13.5 from waco because of all the subchannels.)

I am working on getting tom way's new email address (since his cox one no longer works) so hopefully i will get some real information about him (about who/how to contact them)

And I agree weekends are when they are never on... and during the week they still arent that great about switching to hd.


Did you ever have any luck contacting Tom Way? I was curious if there was any chance of us getting ESPN2HD in the future.

no i havent gotten a reply from the guy at texags with his new email.... i want to know whats going on with abc as well. (and any other additions in the works.... i would love to see fsn-hd added as well)

Anybody get a chance to flip by KAMU, they are doing thier local requests for donations and the quality is awesome. I don't know exactly where they shoot this but I'm assuming it's on campus. If so good to know our local PBS studio is already HD capable. I wonder if this has anything to do with the HD upgrade the athletic department is undergoing.

Any of you get a chance to drive by Kyle and check out the new screen? Can't wait to see HD images on there come Sept. hopefully they will have the HD upgrade complete by then so sideline cameras can feed replays to the screen in HD.

KAMU has had a HD studio for a few years now I believe. They do several local shows in HD as well as their donation drives. The station engineer has even offered us a tour, but we've never come up with a time to meet.

Very cool indeed though.

KAMU has had a HD studio for a few years now I believe. They do several local shows in HD as well as their donation drives. The station engineer has even offered us a tour, but we've never come up with a time to meet.

Very cool indeed though.

who was that that contacted him? it would be a good tour and maybe we could finally pressure him into getting some remote broadcast equipment so we could start getting them to do more hd stuff like muster (which could be played nationally on pbs).... certainly would be better than tons of repeats.

I want to say he posted somewhere in our monster thread.

Greetings - KAMU has had HD studio production (1080i) since the Fall of 2003. HD transmission began the week of Spring Break in 2003. Nearly all local productions are produced in HD and down-converted to SD where necessary.

Our HD plant is a HD-SDI infrastructure with embedded AC-3 audio. We do not have 5.1 channel origination capability at this time.

Remote production equipment is currently limited to two Sony broadcast grade HDCams and an industrial HDV camcorder. My hope is that our next remote truck will be a fully HD capable unit. Its only money. :)

Our productions efforts are independent of any TAMU Athletic Dept. activities.

KAMU would welcome to host your group at the station as well as arrange individual tours as requested. I am very proud of the technical plant we have been able to assemble at one of the smallest PBS stations in the country.

On a related note, we will begin HDTV broadcasts to the TAMU Doha, Qatar campus via our Internet2 connectivity capability. We have been active in various IP network HD broadcast demonstrations and tests for some time.

Also look for Governor and Congressional debates in October in a partnership with KBTX/KWTX originating from KAMU Studio A in HD of course.

And finally KAMU - FM (90.9) will be moving into the HD Radio world later this Fall when we begin iBquity HD Radio broadcast in addition to the current analog broadcast.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. I am always interested in your HD reception accomplishments and problems with KAMU or other stations as well.

I have been know to show up at individuals homes with test equipment in hand!


Wayne Pecena
Assistant Director of Educational Broadcast Services
KAMU Director of Engineering
w-pecena@tamu.edu
979-845-5662

Greetings - KAMU has had HD studio production (1080i) since the Fall of 2003. HD transmission began the week of Spring Break in 2003. Nearly all local productions are produced in HD and down-converted to SD where necessary.

Our HD plant is a HD-SDI infrastructure with embedded AC-3 audio. We do not have 5.1 channel origination capability at this time.

Remote production equipment is currently limited to two Sony broadcast grade HDCams and an industrial HDV camcorder. My hope is that our next remote truck will be a fully HD capable unit. Its only money. :)

Our productions efforts are independent of any TAMU Athletic Dept. activities.

KAMU would welcome to host your group at the station as well as arrange individual tours as requested. I am very proud of the technical plant we have been able to assemble at one of the smallest PBS stations in the country.

On a related note, we will begin HDTV broadcasts to the TAMU Doha, Qatar campus via our Internet2 connectivity capability. We have been active in various IP network HD broadcast demonstrations and tests for some time.

Also look for Governor and Congressional debates in October in a partnership with KBTX/KWTX originating from KAMU Studio A in HD of course.

And finally KAMU - FM (90.9) will be moving into the HD Radio world later this Fall when we begin iBquity HD Radio broadcast in addition to the current analog broadcast.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. I am always interested in your HD reception accomplishments and problems with KAMU or other stations as well.

I have been know to show up at individuals homes with test equipment in hand!


Wayne Pecena
Assistant Director of Educational Broadcast Services
KAMU Director of Engineering
w-pecena@tamu.edu
979-845-5662

Many thanks for the reply, it's always good to know that there are "in" people who regular AVS. In regards to a question posted by jagouar about Muster being shot in HD and offered to other PBS stations nationwide. I am unsure if it currently airs in SD but this sounded like a very good suggestion to me.

BTW you are more then welcome to come over to my apt to offer any technical advice on my current setup. If you have a signal generator and also know how to properly calibrate a set that’s even better.

Something with the rain must have caused it, but I was able to get several channels out of Austin tonight (none from Waco though). All have since faded however. It was nice being able to watch that meaningless NFL game in HD on NBC. I guess we can't count on KCEN upgrading KMAY-23 until the FCC forces them to, eh? (And likewise for KXXV/KRHD)

Is anybody else able to see program/guide info for KBTX or KYLE (OTA)? I wonder if my receiver has a problem or it's the stations' fault.

BTW, are there any plans to (further) increase the power of KYLE-DT? Or is that not until the big switch date? While I can get it, it seems others are not so lucky.

At the end of the transition (currently slated by Congress as Jan 2009) KYLE-DT will move to channel 28 and increase power to 50 KW. At present our maximum allowable power by FCC ruling is 5 KW (and we had to commision and submit a study to assure that we wouldn't inrefere with the the Dallas and Lake Charles analog channel 29s when we increased from 1 KW to 5 KW. (Still the stepchild)

(The FCC interference criteria for digital to analog interference are extremely stringent)

You are correct. 1080i is 1920x1080x30 or alternately 1920x540x60. [I don't do 1080i so I goofed]

Either way it is 62,208,000 Pixels/Sec but the compression algorithm in my Tandberg 5780 Encoder still shows that 1080i compressed to 15 MBits will produce less degradation than 720p compressed to 15 MBits.

The Tandberg recommendations for fixed compression is 9 MBits for 1080i and 12 MBits for 720p minimum in multichannel operation.

I suspect that is because the 1/30th second offset between the odd and even lines of the picture in 1080i already produces so many motion artifacts that don't exist in progressive scan that the blurry images are just deleted from the output.

In any case KWBU is encoding 34.1 at 9 MBits 1080i with a Tansdberg 5780 and it looks much better than the 15 MBit CBS HD from KWTX who using Flex-Coder.



My bad.

FOX44CE, so then if a 1080i channel allocates ALL its bandwith to only one digital channel (CBS 11 Dallas/19), is there additional benefit to what we see as a viewer? Or would it be similar to two separate 9Mbit streams on a digital channel with two equal sub-channels and that encoder? CBS Dallas moved their weather sub-channel to an affiliated station's sub-channel at 240i resolution(21-2/18-2).

FOX44CE, so then if a 1080i channel allocates ALL its bandwith to only one digital channel (CBS 11 Dallas/19), is there additional benefit to what we see as a viewer? Or would it be similar to two separate 9Mbit streams on a digital channel with two equal sub-channels and that encoder? CBS Dallas moved their weather sub-channel to an affiliated station's sub-channel at 240i resolution(21-2/18-2).

If it was 240i your TV couldn't receive it. 480i is the minimum ATSC standard.

I see some flattenning of the image on the KWBU 9 MBit HD image but no pixelation at all.

I would love to try two 9 MBit 1080i signals but I don't have the encoders to test it.

Slightly off topic but they are testing out the new video display over at Kyle. I wonder if anybody for the Athletic Dept. or affiliated with their video production room gets here on AVS to brag about our A/V setup. I know the people working for the athletic dept. are qualified but it's soo much better when we they are AVS junkies and give is the low down on all the technical details (i.e. FOX44CE & wpecena).

I wonder if Wayne knows someone over there that can give us the scoop on the new screen. It looks very impressive. I've heard that the video group is being upgraded to handle HD for the new screen, but I'm not sure.

yeah i listened to the podcast over at texags with the 12th foundation guy.

whats sad though is the actual screen we are getting is only 1024x768 so it wont be a true hd screen (where the sips one will be).

yeah i listened to the podcast over at texags with the 12th foundation guy.

whats sad though is the actual screen we are getting is only 1024x768 so it wont be a true hd screen (where the sips one will be).

Yep, that sucks, but I'd take an ED screen that size for free.

true.... still i would rather we pony up the extra few million (ath dept) to get it hd.

Having witnessed the Braves HD screen at Turner field two weekend's ago (I believe the same Mitsubishi screen we have - $Bill decided on the screen we now have after watching it in action vs. the widescreens that were available because he thought it was more impressive) - I am here to tell you it is awesome. The Braves were feeding it an HD picture and the quality was something I never thought would be acheived with such a large screen.

I literally couldn't stop watching it the entire game. (Although some of that might have have had to do with the fact that I hate the Braves and the Brewers who were playing that night.) I do not think we will be disappointed.

If we're feeding it an HD feed from the upgraded production room (still a rumor?), I think it will look just fine. I was riding by it on Monday and they were testing the sound out. Let me say that there will be no problem hearing this system. It was loud and very clear. I think you might go deaf if you're ever in those south bleacher seats.

I can't wait for the football season to start!

Update on KWKT/KYLE and MyNetwork TV Debut:

KWKT/KYLE will begin broadcast of the programs "Desire" and "Fashion House" on September 5th from 9PM to 11PM Monday thru Saturday simulcast in SD and HD .

We will continue airing the WB network in SD only from 11PM to 1AM until September 17th.

The broadcast of WB "Big Sunday" will air from 9PM to 12AM simulcast in SD and HD.

BTW fox44.... I am watching the boys game delayed on kwkthd on suddenlink cable 705 (assume the same will be for ota) but they just had a promo for the dallas network saying they broadcast in HD. Wondering why fox44HD isnt picking up the game in HD.

BTW fox44.... I am watching the boys game delayed on kwkthd on suddenlink cable 705 (assume the same will be for ota) but they just had a promo for the dallas network saying they broadcast in HD. Wondering why fox44HD isnt picking up the game in HD.

The Cowboys pre-season games produced by the team are not in HD.

i saw them advertising they were... had a commercial and said produced in HD and had a sponsor.

i was suprised too because i didnt think they were but it specifically said HD.


i think the exact quote was "HD brought to you by XXX company"

i saw them advertising they were... had a commercial and said produced in HD and had a sponsor.

i was suprised too because i didnt think they were but it specifically said HD.


i think the exact quote was "HD brought to you by XXX company"

Yes, I saw that too. However, I checked it out on both my antenna and HD cable box and it was not in HD at any point during the game. I'm not sure what happened, but they didn't do HD and haven't done HD for any of the Cowboys produced games. (what's it called - "Blue Star" productions?)

i know it wasnt hd.... but the fox engineer posts here fox44ce so i was asking him if he knew anything. just because they dont do it doesnt mean its not hd (thats what i was asking if he knows anything since he has a more direct contact to the people in the know than we do)

i know it wasnt hd.... but the fox engineer posts here fox44ce so i was asking him if he knew anything. just because they dont do it doesnt mean its not hd (thats what i was asking if he knows anything since he has a more direct contact to the people in the know than we do)

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear: I was watching the game in Dallas on KTVT and it was not in HD here either. I would assume that means it wasn't in HD anywhere - despite the ads during the game!

Somewhere someone can explain what happened, but it's probably someone with the Cowboys network or KTVT.

even in dallas it might not matter.. its dependent on the station to get the hd feed. now you would think the dallas station would pick it up but they might not have the technical capability to do so (same as fox44) which is what i was asking.

BTW fox44.... I am watching the boys game delayed on kwkthd on suddenlink cable 705 (assume the same will be for ota) but they just had a promo for the dallas network saying they broadcast in HD. Wondering why fox44HD isnt picking up the game in HD.

The Silverstar Network [Cowboys preseason] is not produced in HD.

The promo you refer to must be for the regular season games on FOX.

Silverstar says that the games are not available in HD anywhere.

If they had a feed, we would have picked it up with our HD receiver either 1080i or 720p.

FOX HD football is sponsered by DirectTV

The Silverstar Network [Cowboys preseason] is not produced in HD.

The promo you refer to must be for the regular season games on FOX.

Silverstar says that the games are not available in HD anywhere.

If they had a feed, we would have picked it up with our HD receiver either 1080i or 720p.

FOX HD football is sponsered by DirectTV

I stand corrected. I just received a followup from Silverstar that the games were supplied in HD but they did not have us listed as an HD station. We could have carried the game in HD had we known in advance but we would have had to carry WB in SD only. [I believe that we would have because the Saturday shows are all re-runs]

If I had to guess, I would say the Dallas station being a FOX doesn't have an HD receiver or HD-SDI switcher because FOX supplies the receivers and switching for the FOX network.

When we complete the transition to MyNetwork I will have our HD receiver and format convertor available and I have asked my programming department to verify whether any live programming is available in HD in the future.

doh.... oh well. is the silverstar network doing any more games this season?

like i said earlier it wasnt a huge deal but when i saw the promo i was intrigued so figured i would ask you since you would be the one to know.

If I had to guess, I would say the Dallas station being a FOX doesn't have an HD receiver or HD-SDI switcher because FOX supplies the receivers and switching for the FOX network.


No, the Dallas station was the CBS O&O. KTVT and co-located KTXA have aired numerous HD shows that did not come from either CBS or UPN. Making this all the more puzzling was the fact that KTVT aired the ESPN-HD version of the Cowboys-Saints game the week before without any trouble.

Why it wasn't broadcast in HD in Dallas is anyone's guess.

The NFL network replayed it yesterday and it was not in HD on their HD channel either. Go figure.

Okay, I found out what happened to the Cowboys game.
An engineer from KTVT responded to similar questions on an HD board in Dallas.
He said the game was produced in HD. However, an equipment problem in the production truck created a highly pixilated picture. He did not think it was airable and decided to run the SD version instead.

No, the Dallas station was the CBS O&O. KTVT and co-located KTXA have aired numerous HD shows that did not come from either CBS or UPN. Making this all the more puzzling was the fact that KTVT aired the ESPN-HD version of the Cowboys-Saints game the week before without any trouble.

Why it wasn't broadcast in HD in Dallas is anyone's guess.

The NFL network replayed it yesterday and it was not in HD on their HD channel either. Go figure.

Here is the final skinny on the Silverstar Network HD feeds.

The game the week before was aired HD on the CBS network HD transponder.

Only CBS stations were able to air it in HD because it was scrambled on the bird.

The CBS transponder was not available last week so even theough the game was shot in HD it was not distributed in HD at all. Anybodys guess why NFL Network didn't air the replay in HD.

In either case we would not have been able to air it in HD because we don't have a CBS receiver.

[A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing]

Hopwfully next year they will get their act together and put it somewhere that all stations can receive it in HD. The equipment is extremely expensive for a station that only airs a few shows a year.

I was thinking today...scary thought....We need to get our contact at KAMU to somehow patch into the CCTV feed at the stadium and then do a rogue broadcast in HD on one of his sub-channels. If he can somehow broadcast it on one of the unused subchannels, only we will know it is even on. After the game...shut it off and noone will be the wiser.

Got an e-mail from D* today announcing the HR20 DVR is available now.

" The wait is over! The DIRECTV Plus HD DVR (Model HR20) — with cutting-edge MPEG-4 HD recording technology — has arrived. Through our exclusive partnership with Best Buy, you can lease the HD DVR right now at www.bestbuy.com.

Now is your chance to be among the first to experience DVR technology at its best."

Don't think I want to shell out $400 for it just to lease at this time, though.

I was thinking today...scary thought....We need to get our contact at KAMU to somehow patch into the CCTV feed at the stadium and then do a rogue broadcast in HD on one of his sub-channels. If he can somehow broadcast it on one of the unused subchannels, only we will know it is even on. After the game...shut it off and noone will be the wiser.
Nice thought, but I don't think it would work, at least not in HD. (Although even an SD broadcast of the non-televised games would be nice!) The current KAMU subchannels are:

12-1 National PBS feed (1080i HD)
12-2 Local feed (mirroing Ch. 15, 480i SD)
12-3 Research channel (480i SD)


Probably no one would mind if you knocked off the research channel, but there's not the bandwidth for another HD subchannel.

Which brings up the question-- supposedly they have an HD studio at KAMU, but their local shows are only ever broadcast in SD (on 12-2), so a fat lot of good that does. It would be nice it the Aggie football shows were in HD -- even though the old videos aren't, the current SD feed looks worse than the analog broadcast, especially in high-motion scenes. The stuff on 12-1, on the other hand, looks excellent.

KBTX's UPN channel is even worse -- the video quality of the Texans game last night was terrible; it looked like I was watching YouTube or something.

Fox44CE i've been noticing the picture has been acting up the last week.I've seen this watching on OTA and cable.I thought it was my cable connection at first but I saw the same thing in the picture when I watched it OTA across town.What's going on?

Also are you going to make the OTA signal any stronger any time soon?I still do not get a good OTA signal about 5 miles from the antenna.I am in Bryan.

I am new to the forum. Is there any reason to purchase an off-air antenna from DirecTV when they install the dish. I will have the HD Receiver. I live in Santa Monica,CA and the local channels are in HD. Indoor antenna is another option. I live in an apartment. Thanks.

Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted but I hope everyone is doing well. Labman, do you still have your HD DNS feeds even though you are receiving Houston HD LIL's? Just curious.

Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted but I hope everyone is doing well. Labman, do you still have your HD DNS feeds even though you are receiving Houston HD LIL's? Just curious.
Yup, still get NBC, ABC, and FOX from NYC. I try to watch FOX from OTA as much as possible, but it is difficult to set anything up to Tivo with no guide info on the HD subchannel, 28-2. :(

Beware of the H20 receiver... KCEN has been having a lot of problems with these beasts. It has to do with how they designate their main and secondary channel.

They've been on the phone with D* trying to get the issue resolved and D* admits it's a problem on their end. For some reason the H20 does not like the HD channel to be numbered differently than the main channel.

Since KCEN identifies their HD channels as 9-1 and 9-2 instead of 6-1 and 6-2 it's throwing the H20 for a loop.

Local KAMU productions are broadcast in HD-1080i on KAMU-DT (12-1). Most local programs are simulcast in HD 12-1 / SD on 12-2 and analog channel 15, although repeat schedules are not always the same between analog 15/SD 12-2 and HD 12-1.

-Wayne Pecena
KAMU
979-845-5662

Local KAMU productions are broadcast in HD-1080i on KAMU-DT (12-1). Most local programs are simulcast in HD 12-1 / SD on 12-2 and analog channel 15, although repeat schedules are not always the same between analog 15/SD 12-2 and HD 12-1.

-Wayne Pecena
KAMU
979-845-5662


With the athletic department now having the ability to shoot in HD, are there any possibilities that we could see Aggie Sports Connection being broadcast in HD showing HD footage of the game via KAMU?

If not I would hope this would be something that would be brought up since it seems we already have the things in place to get this sort of thing done.

I agree... Id love to see the ASC done in HD. the set would probably need to be redone as they really dont want us to see it with detail. ;)

Fox44CE i've been noticing the picture has been acting up the last week.I've seen this watching on OTA and cable.I thought it was my cable connection at first but I saw the same thing in the picture when I watched it OTA across town.What's going on?

Also are you going to make the OTA signal any stronger any time soon?I still do not get a good OTA signal about 5 miles from the antenna.I am in Bryan.

We have been experiencing both Video and Audio intermittent drop outs since FOX upgraded their HD feed to 75 MBits and I have complained to FOX about it.

They are saying that the signal strength readings on our receivers are optimal and that we don't have a problem.

As soon as the complaints from other affiliates start piling up (major markets) they might do something to fix it but in the meantime it is out of my hands.

As to upgrading the power on KYLE:

I have answered this question several times but here goes again.

The short answer is Jan 2009 or the end of analog television.

We will move from channel 29 to channel 28 at 50,000w.

Beware of the H20 receiver... KCEN has been having a lot of problems with these beasts. It has to do with how they designate their main and secondary channel.

They've been on the phone with D* trying to get the issue resolved and D* admits it's a problem on their end. For some reason the H20 does not like the HD channel to be numbered differently than the main channel.

Since KCEN identifies their HD channels as 9-1 and 9-2 instead of 6-1 and 6-2 it's throwing the H20 for a loop.

This is not a problem with the H20. The H20 compl;ies with PSIP rev 2 format.

FCC PSIP rules (Feb 2005) require that the station identify the digital tranmitter with the channle number of their analog station.

Until KCEN standardizes their PSIP the problem will continue.

Fox44 thanks for your response to my questions.

I really hope something can be done about the picture quality.Don't want to go through the Cowboys season with these problems.

what exactly am i looking for? i havent noticed anything lately on fox with the signal. my dad does ota but i have suddenlink. granted i havent watched a ton of fox lately but i have watched most of the texans game and most of the cowboys game and havent noticed anything on either game.

I'm seeing bleeding off of edges and black horizontal lines across the picture.This has happened watching via suddenlink and ota in different parts of town.

I've seen the horizontal "bleeding" of black on KYLE (analog) as long as I've lived in College Station (six years now), both OTA and with Cox, although it may have gotten slightly worse now. I haven't had cable in over a year, but ch. 7 on Cox used to be terrible, like they were picking it up with a bad analog antenna. In fact, I remember a couple times something happened and they were putting a rather snowy feed of ch. 44 into ch. 7.

It's especially noticeable with areas of sharp contrast, such as bright white on black or black on red. However when something fades out (such as credits) the bleeding goes away -- it only seems to happen at full brightness/contrast. It's noticeable on the 28-1 feed too, but not the 28-2 feed, which is perfectly clear. I've just lived with it, and luckily the HD signal doesn't have it, but if it's fixable, that would be nice.

Incidentally, the brightness issue I reported earlier (dim picture on 28 analog and 28-1) seems to have been resolved.

Glad you're here to help, FOX44CE. Maybe someone could update the first post for KYLE's future status, so you don't have to keep answering that? :) Although I have to ask, why just 50kW? Isn't ch. 28 currently 2000kW? I know digital signals reach further with less power, but I see most of the other full-power UHF stations are going to at least 250kW, if not the FCC's max of 1000kW.

Inspired by the "Low Power/Class A Companion Channels" sticky thread, I search the FCC database for the B/CS vicinity and found some mildly interesting things:

New CP: KUTW-LP (ch. 34), 150kW, College Station, which from Googling the callsign will be a Univision station. (Yay... not!). Formerly K35DL/Somerville/1.01kW, sold for $370k.
New CP: KSCM-LP (ch. 18), 50kW, Bryan. I have no idea what network it will carry, but it was recently sold (for $125k) to Centex Television, owners of KRHD/KXXV, and will be broadcasting from the same tower (halfway to Hearne) that KRHD (ABC-40) does. Formerly on ch. 12, but KAMU-DT took that channel. Interestingly, I remember seeing a color bar pattern with "KSCM-LP" broadcast on ch. 12 a couple years ago (must have been before KAMU-DT went live), but never any actual programming.
Flash cut: K47ED-LP (TBN) will be doing a flash cut to digital, becoming K47ED-LD. Probably will have the five SD subchannels most other TBN stations do.
KBTX will be increasing power on ch. 50 (KBTX-DT) from 25kW to 1000kW (maybe they already have?).
Power increase for KYLE-DT to 50kW. The FCC shows this as being for ch. 29 but I'll take FOX44CE's word that it instead applies to ch. 28 after the cutover date.

Since the first two show callsigns ending in -LP (rather than -LD), does this mean they won't be digital stations? Seems kind of futile to get an analog license so late in the game.

Also, I haven't seen any DTV-related filings for KMAY or KRHD. Shouldn't they have filed something by now? The cutoff date is getting closer, and it would suck if we still didn't have NBC and ABC in HD after the cutoff date.

i dont think the cutoff applies to "low power" stations.... and both kmay and krhd are low power stations because we are "in waco's area".

It wont matter too much in the long term imo. Both dish and directv should have the waco stations uplinked in a few years (which will likely look like crap but they will still have them) and suddenlink/cox already does.

getting abc or nbc now on analog is a major pita and it wont change for digital imo.

I know we have some logitech harmony fans here so I thought people might like to see this.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/12/logitechs-harmony-1000-advanced-universal-touchscreen-remote/

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2006/09/9.12.06---harmony-1000.jpg

This is a very interesting device from logitech.... will have to wait and see "how easy" it is to use. Ive always been a fan of hard buttons too so we will have to see how the harmony does the touchscreen because Ive taken great care with my 880 to get all the buttons I need on I LCD screen so I dont have to swap pages to access the major things.

Jag --

That thing looks sweet! Thanks for posting the link!

Inspired by the "Low Power/Class A Companion Channels" sticky thread, I search the FCC database for the B/CS vicinity and found some mildly interesting things:
New CP: KSCM-LP (ch. 18), 50kW, Bryan. I have no idea what network it will carry, but it was recently sold (for $125k) to Centex Television, owners of KRHD/KXXV, and will be broadcasting from the same tower (halfway to Hearne) that KRHD (ABC-40) does. Formerly on ch. 12, but KAMU-DT took that channel. Interestingly, I remember seeing a color bar pattern with "KSCM-LP" broadcast on ch. 12 a couple years ago (must have been before KAMU-DT went live), but never any actual programming.

Since the first two show callsigns ending in -LP (rather than -LD), does this mean they won't be digital stations? Seems kind of futile to get an analog license so late in the game.

Also, I haven't seen any DTV-related filings for KMAY or KRHD. Shouldn't they have filed something by now? The cutoff date is getting closer, and it would suck if we still didn't have NBC and ABC in HD after the cutoff date.

My guess is that KXXV and KCEN will apply for digital for their LP stations closer to the analog cut off date. I would assume that KSCM will initially offer Telemundo programming from KXXV in analog.

I've seen the horizontal "bleeding" of black on KYLE (analog) as long as I've lived in College Station (six years now), both OTA and with Cox, although it may have gotten slightly worse now. I haven't had cable in over a year, but ch. 7 on Cox used to be terrible, like they were picking it up with a bad analog antenna. In fact, I remember a couple times something happened and they were putting a rather snowy feed of ch. 44 into ch. 7.

It's especially noticeable with areas of sharp contrast, such as bright white on black or black on red. However when something fades out (such as credits) the bleeding goes away -- it only seems to happen at full brightness/contrast. It's noticeable on the 28-1 feed too, but not the 28-2 feed, which is perfectly clear. I've just lived with it, and luckily the HD signal doesn't have it, but if it's fixable, that would be nice.

Incidentally, the brightness issue I reported earlier (dim picture on 28 analog and 28-1) seems to have been resolved.

Glad you're here to help, FOX44CE. Maybe someone could update the first post for KYLE's future status, so you don't have to keep answering that? :) Although I have to ask, why just 50kW? Isn't ch. 28 currently 2000kW? I know digital signals reach further with less power, but I see most of the other full-power UHF stations are going to at least 250kW, if not the FCC's max of 1000kW.

We applied through the FOX DTV maximization program to have both KWKT-DT and KYLE-DT maximized to 1000KW when they move to their respective final digital channels. (44 and 28).

The FCC accepted maximization of KWKT-DT but rejected it for KYLE-DT because of potential interference to digital stations on 27 thru 29 in Dallas and Lake Charles.

The Grade B coverage area of a digital transmitter on the same channel in the UHF band can duplicate the analog Grade B coverage area with approximately 12% of the power.

(Analog power is measured at the peak of Synch & Digital power is measured as average)

The peak power of KYLE-TV is 2090 KW.

The average power varies from 1200KW on a black pisture to 46 KW on a white picture.

The average power of KYLE-DT is 5 KW no matter what the content. (Equivaent to 42 KW analog)

When the power is increased to 50 KW it will be the equivalent of 420 KW analog.

That's all the FCC would allow.

Inspired by the "Low Power/Class A Companion Channels" sticky thread, I search the FCC database for the B/CS vicinity and found some mildly interesting things:

New CP: KUTW-LP (ch. 34), 150kW, College Station, which from Googling the callsign will be a Univision station. (Yay... not!). Formerly K35DL/Somerville/1.01kW, sold for $370k.
New CP: KSCM-LP (ch. 18), 50kW, Bryan. I have no idea what network it will carry, but it was recently sold (for $125k) to Centex Television, owners of KRHD/KXXV, and will be broadcasting from the same tower (halfway to Hearne) that KRHD (ABC-40) does. Formerly on ch. 12, but KAMU-DT took that channel. Interestingly, I remember seeing a color bar pattern with "KSCM-LP" broadcast on ch. 12 a couple years ago (must have been before KAMU-DT went live), but never any actual programming.
Flash cut: K47ED-LP (TBN) will be doing a flash cut to digital, becoming K47ED-LD. Probably will have the five SD subchannels most other TBN stations do.
KBTX will be increasing power on ch. 50 (KBTX-DT) from 25kW to 1000kW (maybe they already have?).
Power increase for KYLE-DT to 50kW. The FCC shows this as being for ch. 29 but I'll take FOX44CE's word that it instead applies to ch. 28 after the cutover date.

Since the first two show callsigns ending in -LP (rather than -LD), does this mean they won't be digital stations? Seems kind of futile to get an analog license so late in the game.

Also, I haven't seen any DTV-related filings for KMAY or KRHD. Shouldn't they have filed something by now? The cutoff date is getting closer, and it would suck if we still didn't have NBC and ABC in HD after the cutoff date.

KMAY (KCEN) and KRHD (KXXV) are both Class A low power translators.

Class A translators cannot apply for digital channels but can "flash" over to digital at the end of the analog/digital transition.

NOTE: KSCM-LP was born as one of many subscription music video channels that went belly up. There was one in Waco on channel 12 at about the same time.

NOTE2: -LD licenses will not be issued by the FCC until the end of the transition and then some are subject to lottery.

I've seen the horizontal "bleeding" of black on KYLE (analog) as long as I've lived in College Station (six years now), both OTA and with Cox, although it may have gotten slightly worse now. I haven't had cable in over a year, but ch. 7 on Cox used to be terrible, like they were picking it up with a bad analog antenna. In fact, I remember a couple times something happened and they were putting a rather snowy feed of ch. 44 into ch. 7.

It's especially noticeable with areas of sharp contrast, such as bright white on black or black on red. However when something fades out (such as credits) the bleeding goes away -- it only seems to happen at full brightness/contrast. It's noticeable on the 28-1 feed too, but not the 28-2 feed, which is perfectly clear. I've just lived with it, and luckily the HD signal doesn't have it, but if it's fixable, that would be nice.

Incidentally, the brightness issue I reported earlier (dim picture on 28 analog and 28-1) seems to have been resolved.

Glad you're here to help, FOX44CE. Maybe someone could update the first post for KYLE's future status, so you don't have to keep answering that? :) Although I have to ask, why just 50kW? Isn't ch. 28 currently 2000kW? I know digital signals reach further with less power, but I see most of the other full-power UHF stations are going to at least 250kW, if not the FCC's max of 1000kW.

The issue with the Cox/Suddenlink reception feeding into channel 7 is that since the original construction of KYLE they have always picked up the Waco stations (and KYLE) from an antenna at 500 feet that is oriented toward Moody, not KYLE.

Their position is that since the station is full power and so close there is no need for a dedicated antenna even though a Rat Shack $19.00 special mounted on the roof would do a better job.

When the cable system was Cox, I visited the head end several times and demonstrated the problem to them but was told that their engineering design is determined in Tyler and they could not chage it.

As to the issue with black-to-white transitions that you described, I did see some of that when I was working on the feed last week and it appears to be due to the limited dynamic range and video overshoots on the microwave hops from Waco to Lott to Heare to Bryan.

I have ordered a distribution amplifier to feed the two exciters so I can move the video processor back up to Waco and control the microwave input better.

(I moved the audio processor back up here two years ago to overcome similar problems with audio overloading the microwave system)

BTW fox44... over the past few nights I have noticed a much larger difference in sound levels between the shows (5.1) and the commercials. Is there something recently you did to change this and if so can you change it back? I always have to turn down my receiver at every commercial break and its ususally too loud for the first 5 secs. It seems to be ~10 db louder between the commercials and fox programming. (this is suddenlink btw)

Interestingly, I was told by one of the guys at KBTX that officially they are not allowed to send commercials at a louder level than regular programming. HOWEVER, (and you knew there had to be one of those in there...) what generally happens is that while TV shows fluctuate from loud to soft moments (i.e. variance in sound levels for effect), some commercials come across as loud as possible for their entire run. Make sense? Perhaps our Chief Engineer could clarify.

Or perhaps they were full of crap when they told me that...

BTW fox44... over the past few nights I have noticed a much larger difference in sound levels between the shows (5.1) and the commercials. Is there something recently you did to change this and if so can you change it back? I always have to turn down my receiver at every commercial break and its ususally too loud for the first 5 secs. It seems to be ~10 db louder between the commercials and fox programming. (this is suddenlink btw)

I have queried FOX about their levels on national breaks because even though they are running the same peak level as the program they are compressing the audio to where there is only about 5 DB difference between peak and average.

Our upconvertor (which is switched in for local breaks) is set 5 DB below FOX and we use an +5/-15 DB compressor/expander to eliminate that on local spots.

The KBTX engineer is correct about the audio levels on analog but there are no rules specifying level control on digital. (Among a lot of other things like must carry)

The problem we have is that since we pass through the digital stream fo both FOX and MyNetwork, we have absolutely no control over either audio or video levels when we are on the network segments, promos, and commercials.

Quick question im getting a new HDTV next week and I am planning on upgrading my HTPC as well as my std basic to digital. I was wondering if the 1-99 channels on BCS Suddenlink are digitaly simulcast. If they are, do they overcompress them to the point where the quality is worse than analog SD?

they dont simulcast anything... its 1-70 analog and the digitals take over from there.

the sd quality is actually very good on cox though (sans channel 12) and much better than both dish and directv.

honestly if you run media center i would just get a analog card (ive had good luck with the hapuuauge wintv pvr-500mce) for recording my sd content. Reason I say that is you really dont want to invest a significant amount of $ into tuners right now with vista and cablecard right around the corner (~jan 2007)

Im using the suddenlink moto dvr for hd content (it actually does a very good job) and then vista media center for recording SD content (i have a 320 gig drive in it atm since they are sub $100 got one a few weeks ago) and it gives me 220 hours of recordable space. And the moto dvr does nothing buy HD recording (with the 120/160 drive isnt a whole lot). Thats another reason im really looking forward to vista cablecards is i can run a massive raid array. Right now my plan is a 4x320 gig array but im hoping the prices drop more between now and jan because my ultimate goal is a 2.0 tb array whihc would get me about 200 hours of HD content.

dp

well that helps my decision alot, ill just use my MCE-150 cards to tune the SD Cable, the 70+ channels done really excite me much.

yep theres not a whole lot of "good" channels above 70 until you hit the hd channels. suddenlinks sd lineup is actually quite good other than missing cstv (which sucks... id like to be able to mce record cstv)

I turned on my system this morning and noticed one of the tuners on the HD-Tivo was on the 201 "Info Channel", and all channels were showing up in "Channels You Receive". Started to get excited and checked System Info, and yup, the software was updated to the new 6.3!! :D It does seem to be quite a bit faster in changing pages/menus, and Now Playing can use folders and sort alphabetically. http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Clap-Hands.gif

So what's the deal with Suddenlink's ABC HD channel? The thing is always down.

The deal is the cable company has to get the local network feeds from somewhere. It's often over-the-air (with a big antenna on a tall tower), but it can't be in the case of ABC, since KRHD isn't broadcasting in digital. Unless they just run the Waco feed -- does the ABC HD feed on Suddenlink say ch. 25 (KXXV) or ch. 40 (KRHD)? The Waco HD broadcast could be received with a sufficiently tall antenna.

Anyway, whenever the feed goes down (I don't know why, but probably something in the link between Waco (KXXV) and their satellite channel here (KRHD)), both the (analog) air broadcast and the cable signal (both analog and digital) goes down. Apparently they've been having problems lately -- several times in the past week it's been down, just showing a black screen and staticky sound.

I got the impression from some earlier posts in this thread that station management wasn't exactly communicative; I think people contacted them and never got a response. Apologies if I'm mistaken.

Yeah I called and complained to SLink but it was working by yesterday afternoon. I've had the same problems with the black screen lately. I did notice that it said channel 40. It wasn't too bad b/c I could still watch the games on Saturday...it's just annoying when you cant get the HD channel you pay for. But, I did call and complain and they gave me a credit so we'll see what happens.

I turned on my system this morning and noticed one of the tuners on the HD-Tivo was on the 201 "Info Channel", and all channels were showing up in "Channels You Receive". Started to get excited and checked System Info, and yup, the software was updated to the new 6.3!! :D It does seem to be quite a bit faster in changing pages/menus, and Now Playing can use folders and sort alphabetically. http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Clap-Hands.gif

Hmm, I need to check that out. I don't think mine is on 6.3 yet.

Have you called D* about upgrading to the new HD-DVR? I'm pretty sure I can get them to send me the receiver, but I doubt I can get the dish without an install.

Have you called D* about upgrading to the new HD-DVR? I'm pretty sure I can get them to send me the receiver, but I doubt I can get the dish without an install.
I haven't tried asking them about it yet. Just about anything you get through D* directly must be "professionally installed" from what I have gathered on all the forums. Not the best option for our situation. How would you get them to send you the receiver??

I think I may move back to B/CS for the install and then go back to Houston. I will probably wait to do this after the Lost episodes. I'm in no huge rush to upgrade since I get the networks via OTA and DNS.

I guess you're lucky with the upgrade. It wasn't on my system. I read that they're having issues with the 72.5 sat and the upgrade, so they halted it. Hopefully they won't take too long to get this fixed.

oh man......

Tonight... The Office, wasnt in HD on channel 730 (wouldn't take up the full screen)....pissed me off!

then while my girlfriend was watching Grey's Anatomy on the HD channel 720 KRHD.....
I walk in an the sound is TERRIBLE and it is definitely SD! It sounded like 2channel audio was trying to come out of one speaker......solution was to move the TV equalizer all the way down and turn up the TV...

While I don't really care about Grey's Anatomy.....I do care a great deal about Lost starting october 4th.

Is there any other solution that you guys recommend...I'm in an apartment where we are not allowed to mount satelittes anywhere outside...

From reading the most recent posts it doesn't seem that I can pick up ABC in HD at all....is this correct?

note im using a tivo series 3 if that makes a difference......

Yeah for some reason kcen wasnt hd for the office or my name is earl but woke up for ER. This was a very rare occurance though... kcen usually is on the ball with hd.

krhd on the other hand isnt and their feed sucks to suddenlink. They have gotten better but still only about 60% reliable. From what I understand krhd cheaped out on some equipment when setting up their hd signal to suddenlink so it could be ready for the superbowl last year and its now causing problems.

In this town there isnt much you can do (esp w/o being able to mount a dish... you could theoretically "move" to houston to get locals from the sat but i think they now block all of that so you cant do it anymore)

Really your only recourse for now is to call and bitch to suddenlink to hopefully get them to put more pressure on krhd to fix their issues.

Same thing happened to us on Thursday. The only show that came through in HD was CSI on CBS. Thankyou suddenlink

who is there that we can call to try and get this resolved?

You can complain to the cable company, and they may reduce your bill, but there isn't a whole lot they can do, since the ABC problem isn't their fault, and by law they have to carry the local affiliates.

ABC over the air isn't broadcast in HD locally, and won't be any time before the Feb. 2009 switchover (same goes for NBC). With a suitably large antenna on a tall pole you can get the Waco or Houston station, but that doesn't help you if you live in an apartment (with an indoor antenna you'll get the local CBS, PBS, and FOX, but nothing else). You can get the local ABC in HD on cable, but it seems to frequently have issues, as you have noticed. Welcome to living in the #95 TV market.

Did the "must-carry" law change sometime around 2000-2001? I remember when I first moved to B/CS (in 2000) Cox had the ABC, UPN, and WB channels out of Houston. Then they switched to the WB/UPN station in Waco (KAKW IIRC) which had UPN on time delay, then that station changed to Univision and we didn't have WB or UPN for while. We got WB back when the Fox station picked it up on time delay, but there was no UPN until KBTX picked it up this year. I think they legally could have gotten the Houston WB and UPN back then, but didn't because they didn't want to pay what those stations were asking (at least that's what I heard).

Once KRHD came online Cox blacked out KTRK except for newscasts, but I remember KRHD being staticky (even on Cox ch. 9), especially before they moved from ch. 34 to 40.

----
I noticed today that KYLE/KWKT now have guide data (previously it just said "no data"). Thanks to whoever fixed that. Strangely it's different for 28-1 and 28-2 -- 28-1 had the actual games listed (including details, like the teams records, etc.), whereas 28-2 showed the "NFL Sunday" pregame show taking up the whole block from 12:00 - 6:30. Also 28-1 didn't have any details for "The Simpsons", etc. whereas 28-2 does have episode info. Still, a big improvement over "no data". :)

Also KBTX is also sending data now (as of Friday when they renamed 3-2 from UPN to CW-BCS) but it isn't that useful, just showing "DTV program" 24/7.

You can complain to the cable company, and they may reduce your bill, but there isn't a whole lot they can do, since the ABC problem isn't their fault, and by law they have to carry the local affiliates.

ABC over the air isn't broadcast in HD locally, and won't be any time before the Feb. 2009 switchover (same goes for NBC). With a suitably large antenna on a tall pole you can get the Waco or Houston station, but that doesn't help you if you live in an apartment (with an indoor antenna you'll get the local CBS, PBS, and FOX, but nothing else). You can get the local ABC in HD on cable, but it seems to frequently have issues, as you have noticed. Welcome to living in the #95 TV market.

Did the "must-carry" law change sometime around 2000-2001? I remember when I first moved to B/CS (in 2000) Cox had the ABC, UPN, and WB channels out of Houston. Then they switched to the WB/UPN station in Waco (KAKW IIRC) which had UPN on time delay, then that station changed to Univision and we didn't have WB or UPN for while. We got WB back when the Fox station picked it up on time delay, but there was no UPN until KBTX picked it up this year. I think they legally could have gotten the Houston WB and UPN back then, but didn't because they didn't want to pay what those stations were asking (at least that's what I heard).

Once KRHD came online Cox blacked out KTRK except for newscasts, but I remember KRHD being staticky (even on Cox ch. 9), especially before they moved from ch. 34 to 40.

----
I noticed today that KYLE/KWKT now have guide data (previously it just said "no data"). Thanks to whoever fixed that. Strangely it's different for 28-1 and 28-2 -- 28-1 had the actual games listed (including details, like the teams records, etc.), whereas 28-2 showed the "NFL Sunday" pregame show taking up the whole block from 12:00 - 6:30. Also 28-1 didn't have any details for "The Simpsons", etc. whereas 28-2 does have episode info. Still, a big improvement over "no data". :)

Also KBTX is also sending data now (as of Friday when they renamed 3-2 from UPN to CW-BCS) but it isn't that useful, just showing "DTV program" 24/7.

You are correct about the must-carry rules changing.

Cable carriage is now negotiated between the station and each cable company for the analog and digital channels seperatey.

Some stations request money and some request channel position.

In our case with Time Warner here in Waco we asked for a change from channel 9 to 14 for KWKT-TV (analog) in exchange for permission to carry KWKT-HD to get away from the digital interference after KCEN-DT went full power.

In Bryan we gave COX unrestricted permision to carry KYLE-TV anlog and KWKT-HD.

Under the rules a cable company cannot bring in an adjacent market station with duplicate programming under any circumstances.

For all you HD nuts out there for information only.

I noticed this when I got back from vacation that Time Warner in Waco is carrying CWHD on channel 1008.

I checked with my analyzer and found out they are simucasting CBS and CW in HD.

10.1 CBS 1080i (11 MBits)
10.2 CWHD 720p (downconverted- 7 MBits)

The bandwidths vary because they are using a new Harris Flexi-coder to share bandwidth.

I recorded both CBS and CW programs last night from Time Warner (Over the air feed)

Supprisingly, they both looked pretty good with no pixalization.

I checked with my analyzer and found out they are simucasting CBS and CW in HD.

10.1 CBS 1080i (11 MBits)
10.2 CWHD 720p (downconverted- 7 MBits)


That's great news! That means I can watch Smallville in HD! FOX44CE, do you know if KBTX here in Bryan is planning on doing the same thing? Also, I was checking this NFL coverage map (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=728840) and I couldn't tell if we would be receiving the Cowboys/Titans game Sunday. Can you confirm or deny? Thanks so much!

i would assume so since they are the same basic station.... somebody send mike wright an email to find out.

and really they can carry both stations at full bw to suddenlink if they want since they have that fiberline done. which is what they might be doing (spending that 45k or whatever it was to activate more bw on the fiberline vs getting the encoder to share bw). but then the ota people would be screwed which kbtx probably doesnt want to do. fox44.... do you know if the same signals are avaliable ota? (i assume so since you are giving the ota channel mappings vs tw channel numbers)

i for one hope they do the former because i dont even want to think about cbs at 11mbit.

all i want now is abc in hd....thats all....period.

i personally want to see fsn and espn2 added and i will be good for a while with suddenlink. hopefully abc continues to improve on suddenlink (they have been somewhat better the past few weeks but nowhere near what I would call stable like cbs,nbc,fox etc)

Well, no HD for Smallville on 3.2, but it was in HD on 10.2 out of Waco. Only DD 2.0 for audio but it was great to watch it HD! I guess I might try watching some of the other shows on the CW.

Any idea if Saturdays ABC game will be broadcast in HD? I know we were supposed to get HD equipment and a HD lab at Kyle. Maybe if the ABC HD truck dosen't make the trip to Kyle they can use our cameras and feed to send out the HD signal to ABC.

Any idea if Saturdays ABC game will be broadcast in HD? I know we were supposed to get HD equipment and a HD lab at Kyle. Maybe if the ABC HD truck dosen't make the trip to Kyle they can use our cameras and feed to send out the HD signal to ABC.
The guide info for tomorrow does not indicate the game will be in HD. :(

i would assume so since they are the same basic station.... somebody send mike wright an email to find out.

and really they can carry both stations at full bw to suddenlink if they want since they have that fiberline done. which is what they might be doing (spending that 45k or whatever it was to activate more bw on the fiberline vs getting the encoder to share bw). but then the ota people would be screwed which kbtx probably doesnt want to do. fox44.... do you know if the same signals are avaliable ota? (i assume so since you are giving the ota channel mappings vs tw channel numbers)

i for one hope they do the former because i dont even want to think about cbs at 11mbit.

Time warner is picking up all signals from Waco digital stations OTA.

So far here in Waco Time Warner has refused to provide or accept fiber HD feeds.

They carry all local HD signal from OTA and all local SD signals from fiber. Go figure!

We are finalizing negotiations for an HD fiber feed to Garnde Cable. I love competition!

I assume that is because they don't have fiber out to Bruceville/Eddy for KCEN.

I have no idea what KBTX plans to do and have no way to find out. Sorry!

Well, no HD for Smallville on 3.2, but it was in HD on 10.2 out of Waco. Only DD 2.0 for audio but it was great to watch it HD! I guess I might try watching some of the other shows on the CW.

I'm suprised that they don't have 5.1 audio on CWHD because CW delivers 5.1 embedded just like the WB did and it doesn't require and extra encoder to pass.

FOX44CE -
are y'all going to broadcast the Cowboys/Titans game on Sunday? I was looking at an NFL coverage map and I wasn't sure. Thanks!

FOX44CE -
are y'all going to broadcast the Cowboys/Titans game on Sunday? I was looking at an NFL coverage map and I wasn't sure. Thanks!

Yes we are carying the Cowboy game this Sunday.

Our program director is out sick and he didn't update the Decisionmark program guide for this Saturday and Sunday so the listing service shows "No Listing"

Is the Ohio St. vs Iowa game supposed to be in HD?

Jonnyb99, what antenna set up do you have to get the Waco stations? I can get those stations some nights but not often (depending on the night, it's randomly Waco, Houston, Austin, or nothing besides B/CS). Better quality on the CW would be nice -- the Astros game looked pretty bad. At least they won though!

I'm new to the HD scene and live in waco. I have warner cable and was wondering which I would get the better HD signal from? Warner cable or over the air.

If over the air what kind of tuner and antenna should I get as I cant get an outdoor antenna becauseI live in a duplex.

anybody?

I'm new to the HD scene and live in waco. I have warner cable and was wondering which I would get the better HD signal from? Warner cable or over the air.

If over the air what kind of tuner and antenna should I get as I cant get an outdoor antenna becauseI live in a duplex.

I am not familiar with TWC but I have heard that cable companies usually provide a good HD picture. I think everyone on this forum would agree that OTA will provide you the best picture, assuming it is not too degraded by multicasting. Living in Waco, you shouldn't have any problem receiving OTA signals for all the major networks. You could try a cheap set of rabbit ears from Radio Shack on top of your tv and see what kind of signal you get. If that doesn't work, there are several different types/brands of indoor HD antennas. Best Buy and Circuit City carry a few, and Lowe's even carry some. Are you going to connect your antenna to your cable box or are you connecting it directly to your tv? I'm just curious because I don't know if your cable box will have an OTA input. Hope I've been helpful.

Jonnyb99, what antenna set up do you have to get the Waco stations? I can get those stations some nights but not often (depending on the night, it's randomly Waco, Houston, Austin, or nothing besides B/CS). Better quality on the CW would be nice -- the Astros game looked pretty bad. At least they won though!

I use a Winegard GS-2200 (http://www.winegard.com/offair/sensar.htm). I have it mounted on my roof approximately 25 feet off the ground. I don't receive all the Waco stations because I don't have it turned directly toward Waco. I found a 'sweet spot' that allows me to receive KBTX, KAMU, KWKT (from the Bryan tower), and KWTX. I will tell you that the picture quality for Astros games (as well as any SD material) is the same on KBTX 3.2 and KWTX 10.2. I did watch Smallville Thursday night on KWTX 10.2 and the PQ was not the best I've ever seen, but it was MUCH better that the SD letter boxed version they showed on KBTX 3.2.

I'm new to the HD scene and live in waco. I have warner cable and was wondering which I would get the better HD signal from? Warner cable or over the air.

If over the air what kind of tuner and antenna should I get as I cant get an outdoor antenna becauseI live in a duplex.

Time Warner Cable picks up all local HD stations OTA and passes the digital stream through to the HD (1000+) tier unchanged.

There is no quality difference between cable and OTA that I have seen.

The analog stations are all fed by fiber directly to the cable head end and put on the system using Time Warner Modulators.

Yes we are carying the Cowboy game this Sunday.


FOX44CE -

the Cowboy game Sunday looked fantastic! Thanks so much for providing quality HD football!

Since our ABC here on Suddenlink is really sucking cox....I have decided to setup the old Zenith HD receiver (Thanks sid...it still works great).

I am trying to get creative with the HOA, and I am lazy. I set the dish up temporarily in my front yard on a pipe and into my garage to get the receiver activated on XXXXX's account. Thank god for waivers.

Anyways....Has anyone tried to get a dish to see the satellites through a window. I have a perfect window in my attic right above my garage that points due south. That means I only have to get the cable from inside my attic down to my livingroom. This will save mounting to my brick, going through the eve, and then into my living room.

Like I said, I am lazy. I can easily prop it up in my attic and get it to sit still.

Cheers!

FOX44CE -

the Cowboy game Sunday looked fantastic! Thanks so much for providing quality HD football!

Thanks! We aim to please

well what are the chances that hte hd will be offline for most everybody tonight? god damn crappy power companies in b/cs.

well what are the chances that hte hd will be offline for most everybody tonight? god damn crappy power companies in b/cs.

We lost power at the KYLE transmitter site at approximately 5:10 PM and both transmitters (analog and digital) went down.

We have internet control with UPS and as soon as the power comes back on we will get them back up.

Also my local engineer is going out there to check it out.

its a area wide problemm... interestingly enough abc never went down and kbtx did (but they are back up). never lost the fox feed.

pbs is still offline but that one doesnt really matter.

its a area wide problemm... interestingly enough abc never went down and kbtx did (but they are back up). never lost the fox feed.

pbs is still offline but that one doesnt really matter.

You must be on Suddenlink. They pick us up OTA from Moody and use KYLE-DT only as backup.

yeah... and i knew you pick up the waco feed for suddenlink. and last night was a good reason why (its one less thing that can possibly fail for the feed).

Anyone else getting a big black screen on ABC HD on SL?

No picture on suddenlink abc hd. :mad:

i am... abc sucks.

ABC HD now working on Suddenlink.

yaeh noticed it myself... guess somebody got off their ass over there.

is it HD though?

How do you guys get HD signals in B/CS area?

I hooked a indoor-antenna to my HDTV (with build-in HD tuner) and got only one HD signal (KAMU PBS). Will a better antenaa do a better job?

How about Cox cable? Do I need a HD package? I heard that even if you have only SD package, you can get some HD signals. Is this true? As for the HD packages, I compared the HD packages provided by Cox and Dish Network, it seems that the latter is much better at the same price range. Am I right?

I didn't browse the 158 pages of previous posts. So if any of my questions has been discussed, could you please give me the post #?

Thanks.

AdSCFT

most people have big antennas...



BTW ABC in HD is not even coming on for me anymore....anyone else?

The problem with Dish is that you get no locals in HD. You have to go with suddenlink in order to receive any locals in HD. With Suddenlink you get CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC (when it works, which is only about 5% of the time). I have suddenlink and for the most part it is great. I also have directv hooked up with a waiver for ABC, so I have to use that for my ABC.

If you have a monster antenna setup, you can usually pickup houston stations.

Well, that's true. But Dish provides 23 HD channels plus 60+ SD channels for $40/mon, while Suddenlink has only 10 HD channels only but costs more, right?

However, I talked with my apt. manager, and she said that the owner doesn't like any dish on the building. How disappointing ....

btw, by Suddenlink, you mean Cox, right?

The problem with Dish is that you get no locals in HD. You have to go with suddenlink in order to receive any locals in HD. With Suddenlink you get CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC (when it works, which is only about 5% of the time). I have suddenlink and for the most part it is great. I also have directv hooked up with a waiver for ABC, so I have to use that for my ABC.

If you have a monster antenna setup, you can usually pickup houston stations.

yeah but suddenlink = cox......if you go drive by that place in Bryan on 29th i believe (next to planned parenthood) you will see that its sign is now "SUDDENLINK".

so even by having a dish i couldnt get ABC in HD.....sheesh.....

yeah but suddenlink = cox......if you go drive by that place in Bryan on 29th i believe (next to planned parenthood) you will see that its sign is now "SUDDENLINK".

so even by having a dish i couldnt get ABC in HD.....sheesh.....

It sucks, I wish we were in the Houston DMA instead of Waco.

Thanks. Altough I really think that Suddenlink/Cox's digital package is ridiculous over-priced, maybe I'll get a standard package and see if my HDTV can get any HD channels.

About the antenna, how many HD channels can I get if the antenna is good enough to pick up Houston stations?

yeah but suddenlink = cox......if you go drive by that place in Bryan on 29th i believe (next to planned parenthood) you will see that its sign is now "SUDDENLINK".

so even by having a dish i couldnt get ABC in HD.....sheesh.....

you can get the local channels only with a qam tuner (if you have one on your tv).

also something else you can try but i dont know if suddenlink carried over this practice from cox but you used to be able to pay $5 and get whats called a "digital gateway" or passthrough. It allowed you to get all of the Hd channels with only having analog cable. So you would get 1-70 and then the 700 channels (the hd ones). You could also get a hd-dvr with the digital gateway but I dont know if they still offer that now that suddenlink took over from cox.


Houston has, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS, CW in HD but to get many of those channels you need a very big antenna up very high. Probably atleast 35ft in the air. NBC, ABC and CBS are the only really strong signals from houston the rest are iffy. On suddnelink the only iffy station is abc (the rest are quite good in terms of switching to HD when its time and are very reliable... even in the heaviest rain we wont lose the signal which is impressive considering fox and nbc are both coming in from waco)

My brother bought a new Sony HDTV and is picking up ABC,PBS,NBC,and FOX in HD with just analog cable package from Suddenlink.


If anybody has any updated info on the digital gateway for 5 bucks from Suddenlink please post as soon as possible.


TIA

As to the issue with black-to-white transitions that you described, I did see some of that when I was working on the feed last week and it appears to be due to the limited dynamic range and video overshoots on the microwave hops from Waco to Lott to Heare to Bryan.

I have ordered a distribution amplifier to feed the two exciters so I can move the video processor back up to Waco and control the microwave input better.

(I moved the audio processor back up here two years ago to overcome similar problems with audio overloading the microwave system)

Did you by any chance get to look at this? For some reason the baseball games look particularly bad. I took some quick caps from my VCR to computer, although they don't do the problem justice since the black "fuzz" moves around, and sometime even blocks out an entire line of text (you can see how part of Corey Lidle's name is missing).

Thanks.

ttt

It's 9:17 on Saturday night and ABC 40 just came back from the half of the Mich vs PSU game and they forgot to flip the switch again. I swear this station can't handle thier HD programming if thier life depended on it.

The HD coverage in the first half looked so nice too... ggrrrrrr I just hope that if the Ags ever get a HD televised game that it's not on ABC. [/end rant]

It's 9:17 on Saturday night and ABC 40 just came back from the half of the Mich vs PSU game and they forgot to flip the switch again. I swear this station can't handle thier HD programming if thier life depended on it.

The HD coverage in the first half looked so nice too... ggrrrrrr I just hope that if the Ags ever get a HD televised game that it's not on ABC. [/end rant]

Just curious, how are you getting HD on ABC 40?

suddenlink cable has had abc40 (and all the local channels) since the superbowl last year.... its just they cheaped out on equipment for the hd and it constantly locks up and doesnt work right.

I can only get PBS and FOX in HD with my full/basic package
My brother bought a new Sony HDTV and is picking up ABC,PBS,NBC,and FOX in HD with just analog cable package from Suddenlink.

TIA

I can only get PBS and FOX in HD with my full/basic package


What tv do you have?


My brother has the Sony 46E2000.

I have Westinghouse 32w6, get PBS HD at 12.1 and FOX HD at 44.1. but the FOX is 720p and doesn't look like a real HD. Do you know at which channels does that SONY get ABC & NBC HD?

BTW, Suddenlink still has the Digital Gateway for $4.99 + $4.95 (DVR) + $9.95 (Receiver) - $4.00 off for the first 6 months

Edit: Scanned channels again and get CBS HD and NBC HD, but the ABC SD at 3.0 gets interfered.

What tv do you have?


My brother has the Sony 46E2000.

I have Westinghouse 32w6, get PBS HD at 12.1 and FOX HD at 44.1. but the FOX is 720p and doesn't look like a real HD. Do you know at which channels does that SONY get ABC & NBC HD?

BTW, Suddenlink still has the Digital Gateway for $4.99 + $4.95 (DVR) + $9.95 (Receiver) - $4.00 off for the first 6 months

If you are receiving FOX on Suddenlink with a QUAM equipped TV, you should be receiving the full 720p 15 MBit ASI (QUAM modulated) signal because that is what they are required to pass by FCC rules. (Full pass-through with no re-encoding)

There should be no difference between the quality of your QUAM tuner and the cable digital box. (Assuming you are using HDMI or DVI video between the box and set - The bandwidth of component video is only 6 MHz - Not true HD)

You are right, the p.q. of the build-in tuner and the DVR are the same. I am new to the HD, but according to my limited experience, sometimes the HD channel is broadcasting a 4:3 picture, sometimes a 16:9 picture. Is it correct that it's HD only when the aspect ratio is 16:9?

There should be no difference between the quality of your QUAM tuner and the cable digital box. (Assuming you are using HDMI or DVI video between the box and set - The bandwidth of component video is only 6 MHz - Not true HD)

You are right, the p.q. of the build-in tuner and the DVR are the same. I am new to the HD, but according to my limited experience, sometimes the HD channel is broadcasting a 4:3 picture, sometimes a 16:9 picture. Is it correct that it's HD only when the aspect ratio is 16:9?

When the FOX Network or MyNetwork are 16:9 the signal is true HD.

When the FOX Network or MyNetwork are 4:3 the signal is being upconverted from 480i to 16:9 720p (with side bars) by the network.

KWKT-DT broadcasts all local programming and local commercials in 4:3 up-converted to 16:9 720p (with side bars)

KWKT-DT will begin broadcasting some local syndication and local commercials in 720p 16:9 HD beginning sometime in January. (Programming depends on syndication availablility at that time)

I'm running my Suddenlink cablebox to my TV via component cables. The HDMI input on my set is being used by my video card (DVI->HDMI cable) to output a 1080p signal to the screen. Does this mean that I'm getting a lower quality signal by having my set-top box hooked up to my tv via component? When I was back in Dallas I did do a comparison between the DVI & component but could not see any noticeable difference, I figured since the signals were 720p and 1080i they were going to look the same on my 1080p set no matter what the input.

I guess my real question is if you could give me a little more background on what you mean when you mention "The bandwidth of component video is only 6 Mhz - Not true HD". Isn't the 360 HD-DVD addon only going to use component cables? Any help clarifying my confusion is appreciated. :D

If you are receiving FOX on Suddenlink with a QUAM equipped TV, you should be receiving the full 720p 15 MBit ASI (QUAM modulated) signal because that is what they are required to pass by FCC rules. (Full pass-through with no re-encoding)

There should be no difference between the quality of your QUAM tuner and the cable digital box. (Assuming you are using HDMI or DVI video between the box and set - The bandwidth of component video is only 6 MHz - Not true HD)

I'm running my Suddenlink cablebox to my TV via component cables. The HDMI input on my set is being used by my video card (DVI->HDMI cable) to output a 1080p signal to the screen. Does this mean that I'm getting a lower quality signal by having my set-top box hooked up to my tv via component? When I was back in Dallas I did do a comparison between the DVI & component but could not see any noticeable difference, I figured since the signals were 720p and 1080i they were going to look the same on my 1080p set no matter what the input.

I guess my real question is if you could give me a little more background on what you mean when you mention "The bandwidth of component video is only 6 Mhz - Not true HD". Isn't the 360 HD-DVD addon only going to use component cables? Any help clarifying my confusion is appreciated. :D

Video frequencies for HD component signals:
1080i/30 (16:9) (HD) (1080V*1920H*30) = 62.208 MHz
720p/60 (16:9) (HD) (720V*1280H*60) = 55.296 Mhz

The video output from the box is upconverted from each format to 1080p.
(There is no 1080p broadcast format because there is not enough bandwidth)

The component signal is analog and tends to roll off at high detail because of the frequency response of the coax.

HDMI and DVI use a didital representation of the video (square wave) that is reclocked at the input of the TV with a zero crossover detector to produce an exact duplicate of the source with no rolloff at all and full resolution video.

You may not be able to discern the difference, but it's there.

Has anyone lost CW on KWTX 10.2 after D* pushed out their new 6.3a software for the HR10-250??

Has anyone lost CW on KWTX 10.2 after D* pushed out their new 6.3a software for the HR10-250??
It seems to be coming in for me, although the timing is messed up right now. It seems as though someone is hitting "play", then "pause" repeatedly, pretty much unwatchable.

Sorry, I should have been more specific, yes it stops and starts continously, my other two HD receivers are fine.

I get audio for a second or so when I first tune to the channel but from then on out it's muted and the pictures pauses then plays then does it over and over....

all i want now is abc in hd....thats all....period.

Yes. Finally!

hey what is your affiliation with suddenlink mujumbo? (or you just a fan)

i would really like to get an inside source at suddenlink since tom way seemed to have changed his email so that line of communication is gone.

jagouar,

I'm just a customer. I thought there was a need for a place for Suddenlink customers to help support each other since there isn't much on the Suddenlink website yet.

The forum is not an affiliated with Suddenlink. It's much like tivocommunity.com or vonage-forum.com in that they are just customers supporting other customers.

-rich

Did you by any chance get to look at this? For some reason the baseball games look particularly bad. I took some quick caps from my VCR to computer, although they don't do the problem justice since the black "fuzz" moves around, and sometime even blocks out an entire line of text (you can see how part of Corey Lidle's name is missing).

Thanks.

We moved our processing amplifier up here to Waco so we can control the levels going into the microwave better but that didn't help solve the problem.

We have been operating from our hidden secondary digital channel on the KWKT-DT transmitter for about three weeks to get around this problem (since your post).

Yesterday we fed a test signal with heavy Black-White transitions into the microwave here in Waco and went to Lott, Hearne and Bryan to try to isolate it.

We discovered that another Waco station (not to be named here) has installed a digital microwave feed into Bryan that is on the same channel as our KYLE STL link and only five degrees off our path from Hearne that is interfering with it.

Since this link was coordinated (and cleared) by an independent frequency coordinator under the new FCC auxiliary license frequency rules there is nothing we can do about it except try to find a way to eliminate the interference ourselves.

We were able to improve the situation by changing our link to a plus offset frequency for now and will be getting our consulting engineer down here with a tower crew to try to align the receive dish at the transmitter site to reduce the interfering signal into a null without sacrificing too much signal from Hearne.

In the meantime please keep us posted on whether the signal has improved.

Anybody else seeing problems on ABC40 analog?


HD ABC is ok.

Just a heads up that the A&M vs OU game has been choosen for ABC's 7:00pm kickoff. This means that the ESPN/ABC crew will be broadcasting the game from Kyle Field in HD.

Who could we contact to request they make sure the HD switch is flipped after commerical breaks and after the half? I remember from reading this thread that ABC40 somehow carries Waco's HD feed or something like that. Would we contact the ABC40 people? BTW I'm getting ABCHD in B/CS via Suddenlink.

Only one thing better than HD...

Live and In Person.