Low pwr does me no good, and even full pwr may be iffy... Me and Jamielee are at a loss...

I just realized today that when WX warnings are issued and displayed on air by a TV station that you do not get them if an HD signal is going. I think this needs to be addressed by TV stations. Your thoughts?

You should be seeing my warnings on digital even when we are hd.
Ken

This is what happened earlier to me, I had WNCT HD Y&R on and had no crawl. Just as soon as HD was cut off there was the Tornado Warn crawl. It had been going for sometime on analog apparently. So when SD is up I see them, but when HD is up I don't.
I switched to 12 and saw the warning, with B. D. but 7 had the NBC logo flashing on-screen with SD digital and analog had J. H. doing a live bit... so it appears digital viewers on 7&9 are left in the dark at times...

Well, I'm not sure how all the stations around here work, but with the big 3 in RDU, HD reverts to SD with the weather warning crawl going across the screen. I seem to recall this happening with 12 also during an evening of severe weather when Skip was actually out chasing a tornado. This had to be last summer, I think, but the crawl was there before WCTI cut into programming and went to news. I've seen the crawl on 7 and 9 too during the day, but don't recall seeing it at night when those stations are running HD programming. 9 also runs only Y&R in HD during the day and usually the storms haven't fired up yet. I was at the hospital with a family member today, so I can't say what happened with anybody but with analog since that's what's on the tv's at PCMH.

I've been to PCMH, that place is very clean and well run. I remember checking out the cable TV while I was there, and I thought the quality was outstanding! A lot better than cable around J-ville...
I will watch out for WCTI if I can the next time crawls are going during HD time, as I said, this is the first time that I have noticed this problem...

jspENC, check out my website for a funny little flub with Phillip Williams during the 6 o'clock news last night. It wasn't hillarious or anything, but pretty funny to hear him get tongue tied.

I saw that last night! really unusual

I dropped a e-mail to WITN and they are going to look into the issue of digital mirroring analog in a severe weather/news situation. Not sure at this moment why there is a discrepency right now. They do expect that, in the future, there may be continuous coverage on digital after an analog cut in ends. This wasn't clarified for me but I imagine they are speaking of their digital 24/7 weather/news product.

As just an observation, this is how WRAL utilizes the Newschannel and Weather Center Channel; after an analog cut in ends, they stay on the air most times with weather coverage on both. Actually, during severe weather all 5 of their digital channels usually run weather coverage for at least the cut in, then continuous coverage reverts to the Newschannel and Weather Center Channel. I'll let you know more once I hear about it.

WWAY yesterday had weather crawl and banner on all 3 stations at once. When warnings are issued they put a black strip at the bottom of the screen and display a flashing rotation of the counties and the current warning. This stays on with commercials going too, which it should in my opinion. Why others take the warnings down is beyond me?/ :)

Jamielee, I saw your post about FOX on dbs site, I beat you though... lol Look at page 1 of Worst TV stations...

hey jsp and jamileee, don't hold out on us... Which site is that?

www.dbstalk.com


FTA forum
WORST TV STATIONS thread

JSP
Didnt even see that when I made my post. I just added my comments.
One thing is true ENC FOX sucks!!!

*LOL* You guys don't hold any punches about Fox on that forum! Hilarious!

I was really teed off that day;)

WITN guys,

Can you adjust the sound equally? All my audio is from the left speaker. Probably too much mono passing through or something...

FYI, I have the nchdtv.com website back up.

WITM seems to be OK now, Maybe it was the golf game I was watching? I will listen tomorrow and see if the problem returns...

New information in to me this weekend suggest WNCT has no long range plans for a dedicated news/weather channel beyond 9.2's radar. Bummer! :( I for one am very disappointed...

That's a disappointment for sure... I guess just not enough coverage of the dt signal yet... ?

This is wild, today on 9 all the sound is in the Center channel speaker and the Right speaker. I wonder if 7 and 9 are on the same processor or something? Either way I wish they could get it even. 7-1 sounds natural today.

Not sure exactly why, jspENC... As I said, the info suggests that there won't be anything on 9.2 but the radar for now. But things happen, so we can always keep our fingers crossed.

ENC DTV is now located at encdtv.com... Not sure why it's not showing up in my bio line yet. I thought I changed it last night... Anyways, that's the deal. *LOL*

I like that web-site's new look eastern!

Way to explain things WNCT! Those WX crawls belong on air. People just love to find stuff like that to squawk about. IF it was in their area then they would complain if it wasn't on... I kind of agree about all the icons in a way. I could see if a Tornado, Hail, Floods are happening having all the stuff on-screen, but just for watches, it looks like they could just use a colored map in the bottom corner or something with a radar cycling back and forth.
Ken12 I like the way you guys do the icon and the counties up at the top. It doesn't junk the whole screen. Also WWAY does it good with that black strip on the bottom.

I like WCTI's at the top of the screen also, but I think any kind of on air notification system is a good thing.

Re: crawls over actual HD programming, from various information I've received, tech is not there yet for this to happen. If it is SD programming like local or syndicated, crawls can be initiated, but otherwise if in HD, crawls won't be seen.

I think what happened last week was probably isolated. As I said then, I seem to recall stations in the East switching out of HD programming to an SD version when there has been severe weather in the area. Maybe the switch wasn't made that day. Anyway, time will tell...

I'm happy to see that our former female Meteorologist in Eastern NC found a home at Clear Channel!!! Maybe one day on a national channel we will get the chance to see her on-air again... I think WNCT let a good one get away. But she won out in the end!

Anybody else getting distant stuff a lot this week? I have had stuff come in from as far as Florida! UPN 36, I have also had Fox from Charleston, CBS, and a PBS type station from South Carolina, WPDE from Florence.

I've been getting some distant stuff this week too. Glad to see some stuff coming through from other areas.

Phillip was doing some great work with the radar on 9.2 just a little while ago as a storm blew through Greenville. Awesome!

Darn! I missed that...

Talking about radar, I wish WITN would get that awful looking radar off of 7-2 and put up the Vipir! That analog radar is so wide out that you cannot see the storms very clearly.

Yes, my first instinct was to turn to 7.2 since it was on the air first... It was zoomed out so far I couldn't even see the storm in Greenville cause of the city name. I turned to 9.2 and found Phillip, I assume, in the studio tooling around the radar giving a detailed view of greenville from west to east, north to south right down to street level. It was very cool to be able to see the storm blowing into town.

Long story short, I wish VIPIR was on 7.2 also, but give them time... That's what they're apparently shooting for in August. I guess we'll know when whatever they're going to do debuts!

Het guys send me the link to thread (Worst TV station ) I want to put my 2 cents worth in it --- enc fox sucks - big time - O looked on site for thread could not find it

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=42892

Click above Griff, and give your shout out! LOL!!

anyone here have COX digital cable?

I picked up a Samsung HDTV OTA box a few months bac that had a digital cable quam decoder in it. I hooked it to my cable line and got
WRAL HD
WITN HD
WNCT HD
WCTI HD
UNC HD
UNC KID
UNC ED
UNC NC
UNC TV

The HD was sharp. I got it thinking that INHD1 / 2 and ESPNHD would come on being its free but it didnt. Also the channels were not on there assigned channel and no title data, so I returned it.

Supposedly Cox added TV One to digital and just got a post card yesterday saying they now have The NFL Network.

Just a little update. I know eastern noticed a change in the look of some of our graphics during news. What has happened is this past Saturday we replaced our production switcher. What eastern has on his website was a super that we didn't get fixed it will be corrected. As our directors learn the new switcher and associated equipment you should start seeing some different effects. Just keep watching we will have some additional changes in the next couple of months besides just the graphics.

Ken

Thanks for the update, Ken12. I like the look even if it was a mistake. Like I said, it's nice that 12 is distinguishing itself from the other broadcasters. Variety is good for the locals imo. I'll definitely be watching for some of the changes over the next few months! :)

KEN12,

Have you heard anymore on the 10 month on going signal problem on Directvs feed of UPN 48 or I should say UPN13 on Directv?

I cant believe that Directv still has not fixed the freezing and green streaks.
Does WCTI12 realize how many Directv sat viewers are turning that channel (UPN) because its unbearable to watch. You cant even watch 5 minutes of it and it just freezes and looses audio. I imagine advertising $s are going away.
I would think the local station (WCTI) would have some say about this with Directv and get the problem fixed.

Thanks for any insight you might beable to bring us.

Jamielee

We know exactly what you are talking about I am a DirecTV subscriber too. DirecTV thinks it is a problem on my end and will not look at it. I do have a slight problem with my Microwave System but it is not causing any problems with reception. But I have on order a update for my system it has been on order since March I was notified today that we should have it by mid August. Once I have that installed I will get on DirecTV again.

I get better responses from DirecTV call from home as a subscriber than I do calling from work
Ken

Directv is terrible, I called yesterday and told them about the stactic in the audio on FOX 14.
Told them the picture was fine but terrible audio. Told them that its on all my recievers and on my friends recievers and that the cable feed was good. The rep said check your cables, check the mute button. I told her one more time its not my problem as everyone is having the audio issue. Finally got switched to tech support and the rep said Ill pass this along to the engineers and get it fixed well it finally was fixed today.


KEN
how does your WCTI12 and UPN48 signal get to WNCT to the DTV local recieve equipment. Once there what and how does DIRECTV get that to them.
What kind of equipment is used there.
I mean does WITN WYDO WUNK WCTI have a antenna at ch 9 that picks up there signal or is it sent like a live shot is on the TV trucks?

Please explain.

Ken12- I get UPN 48 by an antenna and have absolutely no problem EVER with your station's VIDEO. Audio is a bit weak at times and scratchy. The Video has to be an issue of some sort with Direct. I told them about it myself, even though I cannot get locals from direct due to trees, and I really do not need them anyway, but MANY people around here use direct and complain of FOX 14 and UPN. They switch back to cable because of these issues.

I have noticed the changes in graphics at WCTI. I thought my Contrast setting had been RESET--- lol especially when the weather segment is on.

jspENC, I didn't put that on my story about TV 12 but I noticed that as well; the contrast issue. I first noticed it during the weather segment. When they are on Doppler 12000, it is like a lite square box over about 2/3 of the map.

DirecTV picks us up just like you do at home over the air. For the analog they provide all the equipment we had to provide the receiver for digital. It is a high dollar Sencore unit. that they specified. I have never seen the setup up at WNCT for DirecTV. I have seen Dish Networks at my site they use high quality equipment with redundancy and and a very sophisticated remote control and monitoringand I'm sure DirecTV does the same The bigest problem this digital stuff is pretty new and the techs just don't have enough experience trobuleshotting these kinds of problems. When I get my microvave system upgraded I will then prove to them that my signal meets ATSC specs I'll push for them to let me go up there and take a look at the problem. DirecTV and Dish both use fiber to get the signal to there uplink center where ever that is.

Ken

Maybe Ken could call Bertie and have him give a description of the set-up, or they could communicate by E-mail? I would think the management at both 9 and 12 should have no problem with this? After all there is no war right now between dopplers! LOL! That sounds really childish doesn't it! :)

Ken can you give me an idea what kind of antenna DISH uses to get WFXI? Is it HUGE lol and does it have a Pre-AMP? I have heard people complain about 8 on dish sometimes too...
\\
On another note....


There is an apartment complex here in J-ville that acts as there own cable comp and uses an antenna tower. I have no Idea how they get FOX because no antenna is pointing toward them. They may use WSFX like me, because one of there Yagi's is pointing that way.
I don't know how they get stations like 12 because the V/U antenna is pointing backwards!

Here dish is using 2 types of antennas a high band VHF antenna and a uhf antenna that is covered they have one antenna per channel and they use individual downleads of RG11 for each antenna. They then run the antenna signal through a bandpass filter for each. They also have a spare of each type mounted for backup. They have antennas mounted for my 12 and 48 as a backup but take a direct feed from me for both channels. They do not use any preamps. The really large antennas are for low VHF (2-6) which they don't need here.

Ken

Thanks Ken! I did not know you could buy antennas for VHF that were not large. I knew that RG-11 was the best transmittion line, but it can be hard to find in stores. I guess you have seen T. Warners cable Tower down here? That thing is up a good 500' or more, and you can see it on your Jack... Sky Cam! It still has the old WTVD WRAL antennas up on top.

For all the cable companys in the area we installed the antennas and gave them a receiver to put it up so we are pretty familiar with there towers. I've never understood why none of the business in the area have never carried High VHF antennas since we have no low VHF around here. I've always special ordered mine and the main reason for doing it is for the size since all the larger elements are for low VHF you just waste money buying these huge antennas. I think that stations that are picking a low VHF for digital (luckily none in our market) are making a mistake due to antenna size and more acceptable to impulse noise. In my testing I've found that the UHF antennas are doing just fine for the high VHF channels. The antennas I've bought for cable companies have been cut specifically for 48 and have used bandpass filters so the receiver only sees 48.

Ken

Ken is there any way you can post some photos of the equipment for the DBS local set up?

I'm glad noone in the area picked the low channels, I would love to do away with the big antenna forever.
Hopefully WRAL will back off and let you keep 48.

So it looks like this right now for the future selections on VHF...

WITN- 7
WFXI-8
Some say 9 might be WYDO... but 14 is asked for
WNCT-10
WTVD-11
WCTI-12 ? depends

We have elected to go back to channel 12 and WRAL will get 48 we just kept our options open on 48 incase there was a problem with 12.

I don't think dish would like it very much if I posted pictures of there equipment. If I could find out who to talk to and if they gave me permission I would be glad to do it.

If anybody wants to call me and set up a time I would be glad to give them a tour.

Ken

Witn DT is down... I thnk they took in a bolt of Lightning or something. Watching analog signal.

It looks like WITN is back up and running. I couldn't receive anything from them either for a while there.

Those storms were WICKED around the site earlier, and another nasty line is headed in from the Fayetteville area... I hope they don't hit my antenna~ Lol

Cox is adding STARZ HD on August 1st along with SD NFL NETWORK, FIT TV, AND TV ONE.

Ken,

I think I saw your Microwave trouble this morning about 7:30. I could not get anything on ABC or UPN. So I switched over to analog and saw a washed out picture that looked a lot like FOX 14. Then the signal started to get grains in it. Then I went back to digital and it started coming in again with pixelation. All this time I had a strong 25 db signal. So it wasn't the transmittion.

Yes we had a little microwave fade this morning. Usually my microwave is early morning in the spring and fall but this year we have had pretty weird weather.
On analog we just get a little noisy but it will cause digital to go out altogether.
Ken

Eastern is keeping us up to date with the PSIP problems.:) I also have had trouble with 3,7 and 9's titles. The time on 9 is about 5 minutes slow, and on 3 it is 5 minutes fast... What a range in time from Wilmington to Greenville! LOL

I have problems with WUNM 19x's not coming in too. Yet I always get 12, and as Ken has said they are higher on the tower... Can't figure that one. I worked on my grounding Saturday because it was loose, and with all the storms I wanted to be sure it was right! After that I picked up 19 right away, but it is infrequent. 6 seems to come in better at night too.

Ken let me ask you a question about the digital transition.

When analog is finally switched off and only digital is available, lets say a hurricane hits Eastern NC, alot of folks switch over to small battery operated TV due to power loss.
What are folks going to do? Will small tvs be available at a cheap price that are digital?

The old analog will not work at all. I sure hope by the end of 2008 that small digital sets will be available. How cheap who knows I doubt if they will ever be as cheap as there analog counterparts.

Ken

It's ironic working in retail and seeing these analog tvs that are flying off the shelves because they are so cheap now. It's unfortunate that the general populace really has no clue that these portable tvs like the ones just mentioned won't do squat in a couple of years. I guess that's ok considering that everything has become disposable these days. But when a hurricane, etc comes rolling along where people NEED these things, that's when they are going to feel really "screwed" by the government, retailers, etc.

Having said that, I've noticed that a lot more digital tvs are starting to sell and more are coming in on a daily basis with prices going down. It'll be interesting to see what the penetration is in a couple of years time.

Yes we had a little microwave fade this morning. Usually my microwave is early morning in the spring and fall but this year we have had pretty weird weather.
On analog we just get a little noisy but it will cause digital to go out altogether.
Ken

Yeah, I've had some problems with 12/48 today too... I've basically had to stand on my head with one arm to the left and one leg bent to the right with my antenna balanced on my chin perpindicular to the floor to pick it up! *LOL*

J/k... I've had some breakups and had to reposition my antenna but I was able to watch the Noon news today. :D

I think that every analog tv sold should have a disclaimer right on the screen saying This set will not work for over the air TV after whatever cutoff date they come up with.
Ken

My fades only lasted for a couple of minutes around 730 this am

Ken

I've got one of those 5" Tv's! I used it during the last storm. The built in antenna would barely get 12, so I hooked a rabbit ear through the auxillary antenna jack and picked up everything within 60 miles. Digital however is going to be rough, you either get it or you don't. And with the wind blowing and such it doesn't seem like it would be working too good. I always dismount my outside set-up. I hate to think it might fly through my window like a missle or something! LMAO!
Hey I just thought, at the rate FOX is going they might still have analog up in 2009! lol

Maybe we should give Fox in Eastern NC a break... Maybe they will surprise us all!

*LOL* Sorry, I can never keep a straight face when I say that... *LOL*

Like I said earlier, at this point, I'd be satisfied with just a SD picture on 14/21 WYDO...

I don't know what others are using to sink the time on their digital but mine sinks up to any time server so I sink to an internal one that is getting its time from a GPS clock and I use time.nis.gov as a backup so far as far as I know I've had no problems with my time. Even my PSIP generator has been working pretty good lately haven't had to reset it in a couple of weeks. At least with eastern noting on air problems I don't feel like the lone ranger when I do have a problem..

Ken

Ken your doing a great job. I have no beefs with your time clock! lol And you are right, I get the PSIP from 12 all the time and have not had any issues with it in a long time now.
I don't know if others are noticing the sound on WNCT is still all coming from the right speaker. It's good and clear, but unbalanced during the day.

Glad I can be of service, Ken! Now, knock on wood... Since you've mentioned no recent problems, you know you're borrowing trouble... *LOL*

I noticed jspENC mentioned earlier that 9 was about 5 minutes off; as of last night, they were on target with on screen time of several newscasts that I caught. As of now, I'm still not getting any program info from them though. I didn't get a chance to cap WRAZ, 50, but their time has been off by about 5-10 minutes also. Their PSIP equipment seems to have some recurring problems lately. 7 was corrected as of this morning. 11 is still off timing wise and still no program info on 11.2, but that's not unusual anyway. 17 is still off by about 5 minutes. 22 corrected their video/that green bar thing was really annoying.

The big winners in last night's quick check of PSIP problems were WRAL and WCTI; they seem to be the digital broadcasting leaders in our part of the state. Hmm... Coincidentally, they also share the "Coverage You Can Count On" moniker. Methinks I smell a conspiracy! *LOL* J/K!

The green bar thing sounds like UPN on direct. Wonder if it's the same kind of problem?

I didn't notice the thing on WLFL show up on prime time programming. Once they went to local programming with News at 10, that's when I first saw it. It was still there this morning. It was corrected sometime this afternoon. It wasn't there when I Love Lucy was on at 2.

My advantage is I've been on a couple years longer than the other stations in this market(I turned my digital transmitter on in Dec 99) which allowed me more time to work out my bugs. The disadvantage is that we paid a higher price for equipment and some of the new equipment is better and has more features but not enough of a difference to justify upgrading at this time. My other advantage is I have an HD TV at home which gives me more monitoring capability The last time I talked to the other engineers in this market none of them had a HD TV yet.

Well, they could monitor the ota broadcast via an stb hooked up to an analog tv. The pq of an ota digital broadcast is still vastly superior to cable and/or satellite. Believe me, I know... Still haven't been able to budget for my HDTV just yet... :(

Ken, I remember you used to have a web-site for UPN 48. Did you decide to drop it once the cable guys picked you up? I remember checking it out when you first came on air, and you described what equipment the viewer would need to get. I checked on prices and they were a bit too steep for me at that time, lol and for just 1 channel it didn't make sense. But the site taught me a lot about future TV. I also like your WCTI website, lots of history and information on past TV.

We have not been updating the UPN web site due to lack of manhours so it was taken down It will probably be back just not sure when.

Ken

Your right Eastern. The quality gets no better than what we are getting off our local digital transmitters. Seems to me that the station should give each injaneer a box to use at home or in the control center. I know DT 6 has a box and antenna in their studio to monitor.

jspENC, I'm going to try and get you some info on 26 in Wilmington. My Mom just told me yesterday that my cousin is interning there. I'm not sure if it's in news, which is produced by WECT, or if it's on the production/engineering side. I'll see if I can find out and let you know what is going on with their HD.

Thanks Eastern! Noone really seems to know anything over at ilm, other than they are builing up the facility.
This AM I am getting WGHP analog real good. Foxeng has lots of news going over there!

This AM I am getting WGHP analog real good. Foxeng has lots of news going over there!

We do 7 hours of news per day. 5AM to 9AM, Noon to 12:30, 5PM to 6:30PM and 10PM to 11PM.

If you have been around the area there for a while, you might have recognized Bob Buckley, formally of WITN. He was filling in for the vacationing male anchor, Brad Jones this morning.

Anyone know when WFXI will go full power? Or any idea when WYDO may be up digital?

Your joking right

Ken

Anyone know when WFXI will go full power? Or any idea when WYDO may be up digital?

All I was told by the people at WYDO was that they were several months from completion. From the tone of the e-mail, I suspect maybe Fall or Winter; it will be a low power standard definition signal.

Your joking right

Ken

About what?

About what?

I have all ideas it had to do with the Fox 8/14 question... *LOL*

Your joking right

Ken

Alright Ken! Nice to know you feel the same way we do! :D :eek: FOX can eat your dust... :p

anyone else in Eastern NC having power outtages from the EXTREME heat!

Power outtages here in Washington around 5pm.

No power outtages here in Gville that I know about... We've had a few brownouts over the past week or so, but no outtages.

Did anybody see a promo during WITN 7 News at 6 right before weather? It said something about August 1st... I caught the tail end of it... I'm wondering if it was about their 24/7 product.

Nothing down here either that I know of, but the A/C is working hard. Today was 98. I was out this evening, so I didn't see the promo.

I've had some microwave fade problems again this morning.

Ken

Found out that the power outtage was caused from a propane explosion yesterday down river road in Washington park.

This heat is deadly. I was outside for about a half hour earlier and felt really sick. I am surprised that on the TV somewhere I didn't see a heat warning bug on screen.

THe above suggestion about a heat warn.. bug does not apply to TV 12. I just saw a warning go across the screen. It's good for the elderly especially to be reminded just how bad it really is.

I noticed the warning on channel 12 yesterday too. WNCN in RDU has a bug with time and temp with warning on screen at all times during this. Their wx plus has an excessive heat warning bug where the ads usually are during local breaks.

I'm surprised that none of our locals thought of doing this.

Actually, so does WTVD now that I channel surf over to them.

I thought maybe WNCT might do temps on Neighborhood Doppler on 9.2 or throw up their VIPIR with the temps. Guess they aren't able to it with Neighborhood Doppler though.

Howdy!

I'm on vacation in Topsail Beach and I brought my tuner with me.

And boy am I disappointed. I must compliment the two ABC stations, WWAY and WCTI, as well as UNC and WPXU. Other than that, it's a mess! WNCT is not receivable with the Silver Sensor and WILM-LP is analog-only. WYDO and WFXI... I don't even need to comment, and the digital of WSFX is so weak that even with tropo I had only about 15% signal (need 33% on my Zenith HDV420).

NBC is somewhat better, with WITN being almost receivable much of the time, but WECT being extremely difficult to receive. When I do get it, I get just 6-1, with a blank 6-2. I thought that 'The Tube' and 'Weather Plus' were supposed to be on WECT-DT, but I haven't seen either one. Shame, too, because I wanted to check out 'The Tube.'

In addition, I've had some tropo, though not terribly impressive. Just the Raleigh stations, which I get at home anyway.

Any thoughts, particularly about WECT?

- Trip

WECT stinks digitally, at least the signal output. I also get a blank screen on 6-2. I would suggest going to ilmhd.com and post your findings there. Seems I am the only one saying anything, and it would be great if you would back me up. :D

I think WNCT is at a reduced pwr, 28kw or something, I use a pretty big antenna to get it. WFXI/WYDO reek thats all I can say about them...

WITN is pwrful, but lacks shows I like for the most part.

WWAY WPXU and WCTI are the best in this general area for reception.

ENJOY your time in the area! :D

Directv's UPN 48 feed has finally had it, its gone, just black with a flicker of digitized green streaks every once in a while.

To tell you how important our smaller market is to DTV, they dont even have a technical difficulty slide up as they do on there larger markets when they go down.

The August 1st thing on WITN is some kind of better way to shop for a car on their we-site.

Directv better be glad I don't subscribe to locals or I would be on the phone until they fixed those antennas.

Thanx for the head's up, jspENC! I was sooooo hoping it was the promo I'd been waiting for! *LOL*

No he is at Topsail Beach about 15 miles from the distance I am in Jacksonville.

I aimed my VHF antenna at WFXI tonight to see a dance shw, and that pointed my UHF toward Raleigh, as a Result WTVD dt is coning in strong! Still no WRAL or raz, but I keep playing! lol

KEN
Any news on UPN feed on Directv???

This news On WTVD is yesterdays!

Hmm... Usually, WTVD shows same days news rebroadcasts...

Ken,
Any news on Directv UPN feed? Its been down for a day now.

I missed the Vipir cast on the news, but saw it looping last night on 9-2
It's a neat tool!

Between the VIPIRcasts on 7 and 9, I think I like WNCT's a little bit better. It's more animated and not so dull as WITN's. VIPIR radar-wise, I prefer WITN's rendering to WNCT's. I'm torn between the two...

I am split down the middle a little, but what hits me is WNCT was immitated, after the product was claimed to be unreliable.

Well, in fairness to WITN, I doubt it was the mets who made that claim. I mean, I'm sure they had some input, but I think it's more likely that the marketing dept. came up with that promo, etc... Still, it does kind of leave a bit of egg on WITN's face. I dropped by some forum for Eastern NC residents just this week where someone commented that WITN got VIPIR after they went on the attack with WNCT for using it. People tend to remember things like that...

Ken12,

Bringing it up here since you mentioned no problems recently... *LOL*

Why is WCTI's volume so low? I have to turn my tv up so high to hear the audio. Then when I channel surf to other stations here and there, I have to turn my volume way down. For a while, WCTI's audio was coming in loud and clear. Now, it's very, very low.

I am still waiting for WNCT to reset their PSIP machine. I mean really, data's been off all week!

WNCT has corrected their PSIP information; all is well on the program guide front! 9.2, however, is gone!!! No more radar unless they are working on the problem...

I want 9.2 VIPIR radar! Today we really needed the most readable radar to go by. Unless they are going to put lots of maps on in sequence?

Witn weather still on for tomorrow I guess.

Remember, WITN has only said equipment installed late July for debut early August. Hopefully, it's tomorrow; TitanTV doesn't have anything listed 2 weeks into August for WITN 7.2.

I think we would have seen some experimentation like you did with WWAY; we'll see though...

Maybe we will see some change in the near future, I just cant see the radar clearly on 7-2. Too zoomed out, It should be aimed at the viewing area IMO

I agree on both counts!

Titan TV says WFXI is supposed to be wide open tomorrow! What a joke.

jspENC, looks like somebody saw your comment about Live Doppler 7; it's zoomed into the viewing area now. Glad to know they care what we think! :)

Thanks J. Arnold! Now I can tell about where I live. :D

!!!!!!!!!!WNCT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am having problems holding onto a signal! My box finds channel 10 and then just dumps it. I cannot get anything...

WNCT is working on psip again... CBS and Live VIPIR 9 are back on the air, but at 10.1 and 10.2. I'm sure engineering is working out the kinks in their system.

Thanks J. Arnold! Now I can tell about where I live. :D

!!!!!!!!!!WNCT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am having problems holding onto a signal! My box finds channel 10 and then just dumps it. I cannot get anything...

jspENC,

My box picks up 10, drops it, then picks it up... Once you tune to 10, give it about 30 seconds, then you should see the channel...

Nope, when I get 10 my box just jumps over to WWAY 3-1

I cannot view digital 9 at all.

Try a rescan on your box... I did that but manually had to had 10.1 and 10.2... Failing that, go to WNCT.com and send an e-mail to Bertie to let him know the difficulties you are having. He actually called me to help me out one day. I'm sure he's trying to get digital 9 back up and running...

OK, I will try a re-scan. If that doesn't work I will e-mail Bertie, but I will give him a bit longer just in case he is still working on things. lol

Re-scan failed too, the box says channel 10 found, but no call letters or display of anykind. I will give Bertie about a half hour then e-mail him. I wonder if he works in the studio or at the tower?

I think he works there at the station, but don't hold me to that... :)

Still nothing, the signal is on, but my box keeps rejecting it

I now have Wnct HD back on, but no radar. I sent in an e-mail about 20 minutes ago.

I don't have the radar either as of about 20 minutes ago.

WNCT 9.1 now has ID letters WNCT HD
still no 9.2 WNCT WX

Same here... They'll probably work on it again tomorrow.

Still awaiting the return of channel 9-2 and Vipir radar sweeps:(

9-2 IS ON! Now even better with a time stamp in the upper right corner! :D

Yup!

For the moment the picture quality looks better.

Jamielee,
Just curious if the UPN issue cleared up or is it still out on Direct? I bet lots of people like yourself are really boiling without that channel.

I wish you guys could hear this Dolby Digital sound on WWAY during this country music! I bet I am entertaining the neighbors! lol The injaneer at 3 sure has tweeked this sound, ~IT IS PURE~

Last night I got a return e-mail from WNCT engineer Mr. Cartwright. He said that they were updating some equipment and ran into a problem, but all should be OK now, which it is, and better than ever! He said if I had anymore trouble to let him know.

From our contact with Ken12 and my own with Bertie, it looks like we're lucky here in ENC to have engineers who are willing to help us out when we're experiencing problems. Not all markets are so fortunate. :)

UPN on Directv is back on , however as of Saturday it was still freezing and getting the green streaks

WITN 7.2 is off the air! Crossing my fingers here... :)

still off at 8am, hope new weather channel starts today!!!

I lost 7.2 last night as well. It went blank at first, then totally gone a bit later... They might be updating equipment like WNCT did?

I'll be at work, so I won't be able to check it out till my lunch break! I hope it starts today too!

Noobie question: When will WFXI (Fox 8) and WNCT (CBS 9) be available in HD on TWC?

I'm in Havelock (feed is from Newport). I emailed TWC but haven't gotten a response.

Currently, the only broadcast networks avaliable in HD are WITN (ABC 12, channel 904 in HD) and WITN (NBC 7, channel 934).

joker, welcome to the board...

Your best bet is to contact station engineering or higher. WFXI has just come on the air at low power and standard definition. I doubt WFXI will be on cable in HD for quite some while. WNCT may be a better prospect but I haven't heard time frame. Contact the station and see what kind of response you get. They are usually very receptive to questions.

Joker,
I'd just get an antenna if I were you. You are missing some great HD and are getting inferior Picture and sound from cable. I am in Jacksonville and have no problem with any channel in our area other than FOX. I do not get them digitally, But you are close enough to get them I believe.

Do you guys think we should e-mail WITN engineer? Who is he/she anyway?

I believe that they are currently taking apps for a chief engineer at WITN... There is very little contact information on the WITN website... I don't think I've ever seen a link to e-mail engineering. You might want to call.

My WITN has been down since Thursday, is everyone down.

No, I only get 7.1. I had to do a rescan of my box...

I rechecked it and now have 7.1 and 7.2 back. Didnt do a rescan, just was working.
7.2 is Doppler7.

AAAAHHHHH! I bet it was the same equipment upgrade 9 went through. :D

WECT 6.2 Wx plus is back up today! Someone must have finally fixed it.... I hope that they worked on the signal too, because this is only the 2nd time ever I have picked them up in the afternoon.
The signal is still rather weak at 17 db but at least I can view it, and its not pixelating! I have been watching a steady pic for the last half hour.
The local weather guys come on also about every 5 or 10 minutes. Also they have conditions for most of the state to the left and 7 day forcasts locally down at the bottom.
It's nice! :D

Cool, jspENC!

I wish WITN would make a move... I'm getting tired of waiting! I want my WITN 24/7 now!!!!!!! *LOL*

WITN here has been pixelating for the last couple of days about every 5 minutes. I wonder if they are on a lower power now?
I am itchy for a market 24/7 weather too! If a small market like Wilmington can do it, our stations should at least try. I don't care if it has a few bugs--- just get something rolling! :)

I agree 1,000,000,000,000,000 and so forth and so on percent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm ready! :)

ABC football in HD tonight! Looks fantastic!

Wild story...

Earlier I posted about WECT, well shortly after I lost the signal. Then I tried it again about a half hour ago and 6.1 came in-but no 6.2 --- it had vanished.

So on my box I entered in 44 to do a re-boot. When it came up it showed 6.2 but it was locked down like it was X-rated or something...
I went to my menu and entered my code to unlock it, it worked, then within a few seconds of watching, it disappeared again....
Once again I enter 44 for a re-boot and it came in OK and has worked ever since! LOL----

Cant figure that out, why would the motorola lock the channel down like that?? Digital seems to have a mind of it's own! :D

Ken,
I cannot get onto WCTI website. Is it offline?

I got a Directv HR10-250 HD DVR Monday and when Scanned in the OTA HD channels 9.2 is labled RADAR, can some one check there 9.2 and see if the 9.2 ID is now labled RADAR?

It is.

I think 9.2 should have been labeled WNCT Vipir , it's strange to me that they would label it exactly like 7.2, unless the same person labeled them both?

They won't lable it VIPIR, because it doesn't always show just the VIPIR.

According to WCTI

Ellen is airing on Sept 5th--- No time mentioned yet

WECT has also picked up Wllen and it will be on at 11AM M-F beginning I believe they said Sept 15.

Eastern, any word from your contact at WSFX on when they will begin full pwr transmittion?
WECT and WSFX are in the same studio and managed by the same Raycom.


Other shows and stations have not said much if anything that I know of on what other things we will get this fall.
Maury I hope! LOL I sure hope his new producer cuts all that paternity and tabloid type of program that he has had for the last few years....

Ken,
Can we get some inside info? Does the Skytrak wx team seriously think Irene is headed for us? If so I have to prepare things around the house before I leave for the weekend. I sure hope she turns out in time to miss us!

I just talked to Bobby the different models have it all over the place. There is a chance I'm doing some preparations today but that is just because we have the telethon this weekend and I'll be tied up with that and wont have time. I'd keep my eye on it for the next couple of days.

Jamilee congrats on HR10-250 I love mine. The channel labels on this unit don't come from our PSIP data DirecTV puts them in

Ken

Thank you Ken!

I watched Bobby and he said on air pretty much what you did. As of now things in the atmosphere have not been that easy to figure I'm sure. Last night Skip said that it was looking likely we would be dealing with this system next week around Tuesday or so. I sure hope not, but what can we do?! LOL!
Good luck on the Telethon!

ESPN2 HD's Direct Hit

ESPN launched ESPN2-HD with much fanfare last January at the Consumer Electronics Association show (CES) in Las Vegas. Much fanfare, but not many viewers. That changes on Sept. 8 when DirecTV finally delivers the channel to its 700,000 HD subscribers. The companies announced a deal months ago, but never said when the new service would launch on the nation's dominant satellite carrier. Until now, only Adelphia and Mediacom viewers have actually received ESPN2 HD.

The launch is great news for ESPN as the network has been producing ESPN2 events in HD since last January, adding to the cost of those productions, but with little return on investment. The addition of DirecTV's HD subscribers changes that.

"I think we'll have an equal number of event telecasts on ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD from Sept. 1 through the end of the year," says Bryan Burns, ESPN VP, strategic planning and business development.

The inaugural ESPN2-HD event on DirecTV on Sept. 8 is a college football game from Miami between Oklahoma State vs. Florida Atlantic. On Sept. 10 they'll be able to tune into another college game (expect ESPN and ESPN2 to air 70 college games in HD this fall) when Pittsburgh squares off against Ohio University.

Burns believes DirecTV's carriage is a tipping point both for the network and HD in general. And he says those distributors that don't feed HD owners' demand for content will put their customers at competitive risk.

"I'm not sure most in our industry understand what is about to happen in living rooms across America," he says. "I think there is going to be a dramatic increase in consumer demand for 16x9 HD this fall and 2006 is going to be the year we will look back and say, "that's when it turned the corner."

I just talked to Bobby the different models have it all over the place. There is a chance I'm doing some preparations today but that is just because we have the telethon this weekend and I'll be tied up with that and wont have time. I'd keep my eye on it for the next couple of days.

Jamilee congrats on HR10-250 I love mine. The channel labels on this unit don't come from our PSIP data DirecTV puts them in

Ken

How do we get Directv to add missing off air channels such as 7.2 9.2 and 47.2 47.3 and 47.4???
I can scan them in but it does not have PSIP.

Wow! WITN's 24/7 channel is up on 7.2... Just seen a few minutes and it is looking awesome!

Yea, its good!

I like it; it looks like they are still working on it. I think they will be adding some stuff to it. I don't think it's fully "fleshed" out just yet.

When are you going to add shots to encdt?

Probably tomorrow evening, jamilee... Working this morning.

WITN WX 24/7 is all that! :D LIve temperatures from everywhere! I like what I have seen today. Keep up the fine work WITN!

I was away for the weekend in the Raleigh market area, but some people I know are boiling mad because 8/14 refused to air panthers football!!!
This station is the worst...... FOX would not even answer the phone!!!

This does not really have anything to do with HD.

I get local channels over Dish Network. This concerns WFXI.

I already had my DVR set to record the Panthers preseason game with Washington.

The first 90 minutes were Cops and AMW. Had to tune in grainy SD WSFX 26 to watch while frequently checking WFXI.

I heard a lot about the game on WYDO last night today at work... I thought I passed by WYDO and they were showing the game though. Maybe I saw it on WTVD. But for some reason, I thought it was on both channels.

cpanther you said you were in Wallace? If so you should get WSFX clear. I am further than you are from them, and I get a fairly decent picture.
Does anyone know what the deal was with WFXI?

WFXI probably doesn't realize there was a problem...

Anyway, I can't wait to see WITN 24/7 get really cranked up! I hope it's label is changed from RADAR to WITN 24/7 or 24/7 WX or something like that. I also hope they add the station's music package or something enjoyable for some background noise. I think it has awesome potential!

I sent an e-mail last night to thank WITN for giving us 24/7!

I am being a bit patient, lol since I asked that they get 24/7 up even if it had bugs in it... I am sure they are going to play some 50 cent or something for us in time... ;)
The channel has awesome potential I agree!



Guys at 7-9-12-48-or even PAX/i , can we get the Panthers on one of your channels? FOX really blew it with Saturday's game. Doesn't the game go to whoever signs the papers? Eastern NC deserves the best signals to give us FOOTBALL! Many are disgusted right now.
I know it wasn't a FOX network game because I watched on WTVD 11

WTVD is showing a repeat airing of the Panther's preseason game on 11.2 tonight.

Cool! I bet folks around our area would like to see it. It was an awesome game!

WITN 24/7 Weather Channel just went off the air a short time ago... Back to Live Doppler 7 at the moment. I imagine engineering and the weather team are working on the channel a bit, maybe adding some new features, etc...

Came home for lunch and also see 7-2 is still Doppler 7. I wanted to see what the temp was on Western Blvd. That is where their instrument is. It feels much hotter on that side of town than where I live!

cpanther you said you were in Wallace? If so you should get WSFX clear. I am further than you are from them, and I get a fairly decent picture.
Does anyone know what the deal was with WFXI?


I have a fixed position antenna that has multi path in that direction toward all of the New Hanover Stations. I would have to put my antenna across the road in an Agricultural field to remedy that. lol

I have bad luck with WECT dt and WUNM dt--- Everything else is perfect. I have thought about going with just a UHF antenna Channel master 4221( I think) instead of these YAGI, but I am afraid if I do away with the mid sized VHF I would lose WNCT. I tried an amp, but it made no difference, so I took it back. And with 7,8,and 12 going to VHF also I might just get a special market antenna in time along with a UHF...
I hate the idea of a rotor! But how am I going to get WFXI without it? We have stations coming from all directions, pax is southeast, 3&26 is SW, 6&39 a little more west and most others North and 8 is East!
I have a rotator, but do not know if it works, and it also needs a control unit. Does anybody know if you can buy a rotator control seperatly?

WITN has decided to stay on channel 32 after the transition. It appears they had too much interference on channel 7 post transition and the FCC would not allow them to go back.

Got a email from Mike at WITN and he asked how did I like 24/7 WX. He also told me that music is coming soon, they wanted to get it on the air to test it and work out the glitches.

This morning Advanced Vipir had temperature readings stamped on it! Looked great. Keep it up WITN! I LIKE IT A LOT :D

August 23-26 ABC is going to be upgrading there newtwork distribution center in NYC and will not be passing on HD programming.

When wil ABC CBS NBC begin there Nightly news in HD.
Who's going to be 1st

Ken,
Once the update in NY is done, will you pass Dolby?

Jamielee, My bet is ABC- They are supposed to do HD in the AM this fall.

WITN 24/7 now has background music and they're doing some nifty pkg graphics for the channel! I like it a lot. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the 5 day background. I'd prefer something more like WWAY's 24/7. Or the 5 day overlayed on the wispy blue sky and clouds background. Maybe a little smaller than the current version. My roommate noticed that yesterday and that was the overwhelming thing that he doesn't like about 24/7 too.

Ok, I'm not imagining things... The sound is now gone on 24/7, but I know it was there! *LOL* It's the news or weather pkg that's used during the broadcast on 7.1.

The only thing I have issues with right now is the graphics change a bit too slow for my liking. It seems to take forever to get a radar. Also no lables on the camera image. But I am sure they will fix that in time.

True, I think we'll see some "bugs" on the cam views eventually. It's obvious that WITN is building this channel to it's full potential day by day. It's definitely "must see tv" for me right now.

If they can get the 5 day tweaked, I think it'll be perfect! :) Right now, it's stretched and in some cases barely readable; that's what my roomie criticized yesterday when he took a look at it... Also, unless WITN is going to do a third channel, they might want to give it a little more bandwith cause it's jumpy or pixilating during fast motion at least on my set up.

No I still will not be able to do dolby 5.1. ABC sends it to me now but I need a Dolby Encoder and a Dolby Decoder to be able to pass it on. Hopefully that will happen next year just couldn't get it in the budget for this year. Too many things higher on the list. I want it just as bad as you guys do.


Ken

Ken12,

Nice work with the CF Telethon! I thought it was a great broadcast and everyone did a great job bringing it to viewers!

It pixelates a bit on my set too, but so does WWAY's and WECT's. I guess they are working to keep the main channels as clear as possible, which is the best idea for true HD.
There is a WARNING Out and it is not being shown on 7-2!!!!!

Ken, once you get the decoders, you will love the sound you receive. WWAY has there's better than anyone else right now. Even WTVD

If local stations do it properly all ABC stations should sound the same The 5.1 stream from ABC should be passed along with no audible changes. I think even though receivers are saying the audio is in 5.1 in some cases the encoders at the stations are misconfigured and you are not really getting 5.1 audio. I could easily make your receivers say that I'm doing 5.1 but that would be misleading.

Ken

The blurry 5 day is caused by the way you have your resolution set, most have there boxes set to 720 or 1080i, when i switch mine back to 420 its clear. Locally my HDDVR HR10-250 has a ratio button. Switch your box to 420 and see if it clears.

Also appears they enlarged the TV box over the 5 day and enlarged the 5 day.
Music sounds clear and sharp, video quality is clear except for the witncars.com promo.

We are all pleased with the results of the telethon it was one of our smoothest yet. Not having a hurricane sure helped.

Ken

Actually someone at WITN mentioned to me that the 5 day looks that way because it is grabbed from their main forecasting computer. That's why it looks a bit distorted. They're working to resolve that.
I too thought the video window might have been enlarged a bit. The pixilation is really happening during their hurricane tracker promo. I also see that bandwith constriction with the ticker which seems to "skip" a bit.

Ken you are right, WCSC in Charleston shows they are doing DD 5.1 on my system, but it is just center and rear speakers working- WNCT sounds 1000% better and you would think that a market like Charleston would have the better sound. Bertie has his right, but CBS hardly does anything in DD that I watch. Now the golf game on Sunday blew me away! I heard the golf swings with pin point accuracy!

Jamielee I usually keep my resolution on 720p- so when on these secondary channels I have found that if I switch it down to 480 it is like you say, much clearer.

Now every night before I go to sleep I keep asking the man above to give us some kind of glimmer from a FOX station... LOL! I think at this point I would climb the tower to hook up the transmitter! And I am deafly afraid of heights!

I think some of the problems are us engineers just getting up to speed on the digital stuff. I know I'm still learning something new every day about digital. Then smaller market stations dont' have enough test and monitoring equipment yet for digital.

Ken

Do you guys see that black dotty line running from top to bottom of the screen about half way between the middle and left side of your TV on WNCT? I have been seeing this for sometime now. I figured it might be my TV ... well all of a sudden I dont see it anymore~!

I haven't seen it... Is it during local, primetime, or both?

When wil ABC CBS NBC begin there Nightly news in HD.
Who's going to be 1st

With the ratings continuing to drop, I wouldn't hold my breath. The only reason the morning shows are going is because they make MUCH more money than the 6:30 news'.

Eastern,
The line was on during Dr. Phil, but it disappeared at the end of the show. I also saw it during Montel.

Ok, I didn't notice it but I think I was watching something else.

YIKES! That previous post was a very unlucky number... *Bump*

The weather is allowing me to get at least 3 stations from Florida, WB 17 FOX 30 A channel 21 with Tampa Bay Baseball and an ABC on 25

WAWS Jacksonville's FOX 30! Isnt that where Alissa Carlson is?

I believe so.

It is, I watched the hour long newscast last night and saw a First alert Radar promo with Alissa and 3 other Meteorologists. It was nice to see a FOX channel crystal clear!

Wow! I wish you had been able to cap it, jsp... I would have put it up on my website! *LOL*

That would have been neat, but it would be too difficult to get my computer next to the TV to do it. :(
Also last night due to the conditions I was unable to view WITN. So I could not finish the show I was watching... I had WECT for about 15 minutes and they kept going out. Did anyone else pick up or not pick up stations?

I have been able to pick-up WITN-DT all the way up here in Virginia Beach this morning. Pretty good signal. I have a CM4228 in an attic of a two story house.

Gotta say, 7-2 is pretty cool, better than a simple radar sweep...

You guys are getting cheated though. The PQ on our local NBC DT (10-1/WAVY) is noticably better than WITN's 7-1. I was using this morning's Today show to compare the two stations. I was also quite surprised how well the graphics on 7-2 look. It appears that WITN is giving much more bandwidth to its subchannel than WAVY is.

How does HD look on WITN? I have a good feeling I won't be able to receive them all the time. I won't be able to compare the two...

With WITN being the exception, no other DTs can be pulled in. Just a faint signal on 36. I'm assuming that's WFPX, the i affiliate in Fayetteville...

I notice that WITN seems dim. WECT is quite a bit better for SD, but I cannot tell hardly any difference with HD.

VARTV, I think they're still working on the kinks with 7.2. A few days ago the channel was pixelating badly during fast motion so they may have added a bit too much bandwith to it at this point. Or the multiplexer they're using may not be the most "savvy."
I haven't noticed a drop in pq on 7.1. Now, if I compare 7.1 to 17.1, WNCN in Raleigh with it's sd 17.2 and wx+ on 17.3, WITN's pq is fantastic. You want to see crappy pq on a main channel, check out NBC 17. Yuck!
Tropo must have been pretty good last night... I was getting WVEC, WAVY, WTKR, etc. I guess it was North to South and South to North last evening.
Thanks for dropping by our thread!

Tropo must have been pretty good last night... I was getting WVEC, WAVY, WTKR, etc. I guess it was North to South and South to North last evening.
Thanks for dropping by our thread!Might be true... "Trip" on the Roanoke Thread was getting stuff south of him in Charlotte...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6050153&&#post6050153

Yeah, it was gone by 8:15 (I still had WFPX and WUNU from Fayetteville/Lumberton, but all my Charlotte, Myrtle Beach, and Wilmington signals were gone) though.

The only digitals I managed to decode were WBTV-DT 23, WCCB-DT 27 (right over local WFXR analog), WUNU-DT 25, and the normal Raleigh/Greensboro stuff... wish I'd remembered to get screencaps.

And if you have never seen two really strong analogs on the same channel (you should have seen what channel 15 looked like this morning), let me tell you, it's a sight to see. WBRA (local PBS) and WPDE in Myrtle Beach were coming it with the same strength when I turned the antenna toward the south, and it was a sight to see them battling it out. Elmo (Sesame Street) would show up with all kinds of lines and a rolling image of GMA on top, then they would trade so Elmo was rolling on top of GMA.

- Trip

For those that were up last night my operator forgot to flip the switch to go back to SD on our digital. I caught it at home and gave him a call. The operators are pretty busy and do a good job most of the time so I didn't give him to much hell just enough to keep him on his toes.

Ken

It's wild that I didn't see any tropo last night. Night before was incredible! Maybe the antenna has to be in just the right spot or something?
Ken, I was long gone last night, right after Ghost Hunters... LOL! You & Eastern are probably the only one who saw the goof. :D encdtv doesn't miss a beat! Keep up the great work.!

I found out what happened Saturday night with the game, if you want to know send me a PM. I can not guarantee it is accurate, but who knows...

I emailed Vickie at channel 9 about a possible change on 9.2 now that 7.2 is up with 24/7 WX and heres her response.

Idont know how long it will take us to acomplish it. The technology is going at "break neck speed" and we're just tryng to hang on! We are currently checking out all the various systems for a 24/7 WX channel, news channel. etc. as well as many other uses of the digital spectrum.
Thanks for keeping your "eye" on WNCT!
Vickie Jones

I would just like a sub channel that gives movies, sports (panthers), lol! kind of like Independent channels once did... also news both local and national, something like ABC news now, would be nice but local stuff too. I have about given up on a WB feed within 80 miles of here`LOL! They have movies on those channels quite often on the weekend I see. So many different things that could be done with the bandwidth. Pax 35 has 3 subs added to it, and they look really good. Although for the last week or so 35-1 looks like they are using an antenna feed of the analog signal and showing it as digital.
Something that give people a good reason to change over to digital air waves. :p

jspENC,

Good work getting that information about 9. I hope they do something instead of just leaving VIPIR/Neighborhood Doppler on 9.2. If we had more local stations in the area, we might have the opportunity to get a few more programming choices. Unfortunately, I think tech restraints will prevent that from happening; at least at the current time.

WITN probably won't do anything else besides 24/7 and that's fine with me cause I'd rather have less choice than crappy pq. WCTI already has UPN on 12.3. Now, if they could get a really awesome encoder, etc. like WRAL has on WRAZ, or WTVD has with 11.1-3, they could squeeze out something for 12.2. WNCT is apparently at least exploring their options. That just leaves Fox; I think they are the only one's that could do WB or, more than likely, a WNCT News/WX channel if WFXI/WYDO ever get fully built out. PAX/I isn't long for this world probably, we can't even get it digitally in Greenville. I think we're out of luck.

Eastern,
You mean good work to Jamielee!:D

*LMAO* So I do, jspENC! Sorry about that jamielee... Good work getting that info!

I hope for us to someday to be able to put up another digital on 12-2 right now I use 14m for 12-1 and 5m for 12-3(UPN) which works real good. I can not go below 14m for 12-1 so that only leaves 5m which would be good for 2 sub channels if they were news and weather channels but being one of mine is for UPN which has different programs, movies and sports any further reduction in bandwidth would be noticeable. I could soften the picture on UPN and get by with less bandwidth but I don't feel like that would be an acceptable option. We have talked here since we went on the air with the digital about something on 12-2 I already have most of the equipment needed to do that but when I said it would decrease the picture quality of UPN it was decided that was not an option at this time. But who knows what the future will bring.

WITN's 24/7 weather looks great I really like it. I think they have a little finetuning to do on their bandwidth allocation but I'm sure they will get it worked out.

I do wish for radar images for both 7 and 9 were radar loops instead of their images with a sweep. With a loop at least you can tell the direction of the storm movement and a estimate of the speed.

Ken

ITA about the looping myself! A static image is just that- static. I notice WITN is looping with their VIPIR on 7.2 now. Like you said, Ken12, a little fine tuning with the bandwith and, I think, a set rotation or wheel for the channel will make it a great alternative to TWC. It's been cool over this last week watching them put the thing on the air and flesh it out.

Thanks for clearing up how much bandwith is alloted for channels. I wondered about that with WTVD; how much it took for the main HD and 2 sub-channels that they do. I know for Fox HD, the bandwith is fixed, I think I remember reading. So any sub-channels get whatever is left over. That's why WRAZ's Wx tertiary sub-channel skips a beat when they are broadcasting HD football on the main channel plus Durham Bulls baseball on the second sub. At least, that's my assumption.

Hey Ken12, here's an idea, have WCTI spin off UPN 48 on it's on channel, then give us WB on their sub and some other stuff on the ABC 12 frequency. *LOL* :) J/k, I know that easier said than done!

Not that hard to do but would cost a few millon. Don't think that will happen anytime in the near future.

Watch the Blitz tonight I know our promotions mananger has been working hard on the graphics and they are gradually bringing in some of the new capabilities of our new switcher.

We have a few other changes coming up in the next couple of months.

Ken

Ken,

I was just watching the news broadcasts(s); I was hoping to catch a promo for the Blitz. I got one for WITN's and WNCT's. I wanted to update that on my site. I hope to catch the shows tonight. It seems like everyone has been hyping them! I'm looking forward to seeing it!

I'm gonna try and stay awake! I can't wait to see what everyone has for us tonight. ;)

Ken, I enjoy the movies and basketball you show us on UPN. Every weekend UPN gives us some good flicks! When I am home to watch them anyway. Keep it coming! One day maybe UPN will get their own facility. But right now I am just glad we got it!

I think they will be doing a 30 min Blitz on UPN not sure when it airs. I'm at home right now so can't check.

Ken

Ken12:

Am I understanding you correctly--you guys aren't doing stat-muxing?

- Trip

Ken, I can't remember if you told us before, do you use an antenna at home to get local digital/analog channels? If so do you get just our market stations, or can you pick up Wilmington or Raleigh from where you are at? I keep thinking you told us you had a UHF CM 4 Bow, but I am not sure... If that is what you use, does it receive VHF at all?

Trip you have lost me! lol --- What is Stat muxing???

Nope not doing any stat muxing It was a option at the time we bought our flexicoder and I dont think the benefits would out weigh the cost in our situation.

I've been messing with a winegusrd Square D antenna works real good for all the locals both analog and digital I have the HR10-250 HD Tivo and just have it setup for the locals So never try for out of Markets I did find when I had my antenna to high I would get more interference to the local channels so I lowered it to 15' and now I never have any breakup on the locals and I get all the analog great except fox

I live over off of Brices Creek

Ken

Stat Muxing basically allows you to dynamically share the bandwidth between multiple streams It would have a lot of benefit to somebody like PBS when they are doing multiple SD channels There is more to it than that but that is the basics.

Ken

My antennas were in place when I got digital, so I just kind of left them at the same position, 25 and 30' I just hooked in and instantly had good digital reception, all of a sudden though I started having trouble with our PBS, but not an issue really since I get the PBS from Delco in Columbus County, 55 miles out all the time perfectly. I just wonder what I am going to have to do when FOX finally goes on full pwr. WFXl is 55 miles east of my house.
Ken you will probably have an issue too with Fox, maybe between all of us brainstorming we can come up with the right antenna configuration... When the time comes. LOL If hell doesn't freeze up first! :D
Thanks for the info, I might play around a bit tomorrow, if its not too hot. I bet leaves on trees has a lot to do with the break-up too.

Eastern I emailed Jamie Arnold earlier today to thank him and WITN for the 24/7 WX channel and also invited him to chat with us from time to time, also told him to check out encdtv. He said he checks in to the forum from time to time and also said he's very familar with encdtv.com its in his favorites on his computer.

jamielee, thanks for mentioning my site to Jamie Arnold! I thought somebody from WITN was peeking in here once in a while... *LOL*

I've gotten a few e-mails from people in the biz. They've all been very supportive of encdtv.com. I think they appreciate the positive aspects of my site. You know, anyone can point out negatives; I think someone needed to point out the good things, new ideas, concepts, etc. that the stations in our market and the triangle are doing to make news more accessible to viewers.

Anyways, I'm having a ball doing the site. Hopefully, people in the biz as well as the regular folks in Eastern N.C. who are checking the site to find out what new things their station of choice is doing will continue to tell their friends and neighbors, etc. about encdtv.com! I hope it continues to flourish.

yea Jamie A. told me to pass along any ideas for the channel, so they are listening.

Thank you Jamie A. for all your hard work and effort into the 24/7 wx station. It is coming along great. I have an idea, when severe wx is occuring such as tornados and Severe storms, have live coverage on both channels at the same time. That is what WWAY and WECT did this week when a Tornado was ongoing. WECT had coverage on both WECT dt channels and WECT analog and also WSFX analog/dt. WWAY had all 3 digitals covering the storm and their analog, Both stations stayed on live until the warning ended. First time WECT has ever included FOX in the coverage! And they promoted the hell out of their digital stations and WSFX. Said they had them covered all over the dial and on dig. cable. I liked that they pushed it so hard. WWAY is really advertising its 24/7 wx station too. Everytime I watch them I see an ad for it. :)

It'll take a while, but WITN will get into the wall to wall coverage. I think they were experimenting with simulcasting 7.1 on 7.2 this week as a matter of fact.

7-2 24/7 was doing some neat things with ViPir this morning when I was watching. They had temps running from earlier on to the current time. Nice feature! We have seen similar displays on 9, but not that localized. And now the cameras are labled! Good job With!

got a email from Jamie Arnold said that he was currently working on the 5 day portion of 24/7 trying to get the squizziness look out of it, also trying to brighten it up to improve resolution. Also said he would check with some one about getting the ID changed from RADAR to another ID.

I think 24/7 must be JA's baby cause he's put a lot of effort into it. Not that the others haven't contributed, but he's been the most forthcoming about issues related to it. I think ID should be 24/7 WX unless they can squeeze WITN 24/7 into it.

J.A. seems to live at the station! Working all weekend, then filling in this AM. I wonder if he sleeps next to Advance ViPiR? LOL! :D J/K Jamie!
Wonder if Wltn is still going to hire a new Meter...?

*LOL* I just saw the first 24/7 promo during WITN's 6 o'clock news. I post a cap of it on my website in a little bit.

I was looking over application stuff this weekend, and checked on PAX/i 38. Looks like they have plans to broadcast 1 million watts of digital pwr, directionalized towards the coast! I think they are having some interference issues and are still trying to work out a definite radiation pattern. But at least they are moving! If you want to check it out I can give a link.

I hate that they're taking channel 51; no more WFMY for me when Pax/I or whatever it will be at the time signs on. I never watch anyway, but then again, since they're not on the air, that could be the reason. Doubtful though, I have Pax/I on satellite and never watch it either.

I'd much rather WYDO sign on...