Consensus on that "Pro" is to ignore it. It appears to be designed to be part of rack-mounted HT systems - not for consumers or even prosumers. I guess they bumped the size of the HD to make it a selling point; but, we already have an eSATA port with folks running multiple terabyte RAID, now.

<snip>... With the OTA built into the satellite receiver I have all the locals available to watch and record using the DVR either from satellite or the OTA tuner. Which is a big plus in my book.

Amen, brother. I want the EPG, trick play and DVR timers for all my OTA stations. That's why I don't use a different ATSC tuner.

.....G

Two BT games in HD on Dish this weekend! Channel 9467.

D* started broadcasting Big 10, last week. Haven't watched it, either; but, I imagine it will stay SD till they light up D10.

Yep, Big 10 was lit up on DIRECTV last week (DISH didn't have carriage rights until Thursday or so this week, just in time for week #2 of the network).

The good thing is that DIRECTV can keep talking about BIG 10 Network in HD, while DISH will have Big 10 Network in HD - at least a game in HD from BTN.

Keep up the talk DIRECTV, DISH just shuts up and takes action!

---

bigglare: yes, the mtn. doesn't have HD yet. and, yes, DISH is kinda "racist" as they satisfied the big 10 people, but are discriminating against the MWC people that are pretty passionate about our teams. I hate to think my bill is going up next year for a channel i'm not going to have in my package starting in january.

You know Charlie will have the SEC channel when it launches since his UT is in that league. So Charlie should carry all conference channels and provide them on a regional basis like they will starting with BTN in January.

I"ll feel better about things if people in Big 10 country have more of a price increase than I do, or if the mtn. is substituted for BTN as a channel included standard in my AT100 package.

I had a larger commentary here; but, over the 24 years I've been online, I wasted precious little time on fanboys. I'm not about to start.

I guess Dish is also a "Newist" for not offering CNN-HD or Fox News-HD and discriminating against anyone who isnt a fan of the HD News channel in VOOM. Ohh and I guess they are discrimating against people who are not native to any particular place. they discriminating against a cheesehead like me by not letting me have my Milwaukee channels and only offering me albuquerque channels.

Some people like to throw titles and terms around with no real meaning to them like racist refering to a satellite company that currently offers one reginonal sports network and not another. Its not Discrimination not to carry a channel business. Maybe Dish is in cahoots with Islamo-fascist-ComCast-Fanboys? lol. not to say Comcast fan boys are anything other than dedicated.

More interesting news about Albuquerque' TV market from Broadcasting and Cable.com .

Have fun reading!!:)

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6476840.html

As for debate on Directv and Dish and even Comcast by calling it racist, it's prettly lame IMHO, and I hope that we don't get carry it away, so please stay nice to each other!:rolleyes:

Bigglare said:
They discriminating against a cheesehead like me by not letting me have my Milwaukee channels and only offering me albuquerque channels.

As for getting out of town TV market or a next door TV market then we must contact our congress critters to changes the law.

Here one proposed bill called H.R. 2821 and here's the link.....:)

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=90570

http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_HR_2821.html

Well it's like lots of work to do changes the law, so just spread the word out to everyones out there.:)

Now back to TV DXings!!:D

9-10-07

Hey it's a slow week. Those racists over at comcast havent done anything worth talking about. Directv is still talking about doing something sometime. And Im too busy watching all the new HD channels on Dish and my new Toshiba HDDVD player I got at Best Buy this weekend for $229 thanks to a Pricematch with Amazon.com.

I must say I am glad to see that I can still watch King Kong, (one of the two movies I picked out) in full 1080i hd on my 2003 Mitsubishi Diamond series HDTV that is Pre-HDMI/HDCP. I also got Flags of our Fathers, But havent opened that one yet.

As for upscaling I noticed that it wont upscale a DVD to 1080 through component unless I rip and copy the movie first. At least blanks are cheap.

As far as the new law goes that wont help me get my Milwaukee or Greenbay channels way down here in Albuquerque. Thats just so that if you live way out in northern NM and fall into the Denver market even though you live in New Mexico. The law will allow you as a new Mexico resident to get New Mexico channels via satellite even though you live in an out of state market. The key is adjacent market. New Mexico isnt adjacent to Milwaukee or Green Bay markets. So they are still discriminating against me. hee hee

Hey it's a slow week. Those racists over at comcast havent done anything worth talking about. Directv is still talking about doing something sometime. And Im too busy watching all the new HD channels on Dish and my new Toshiba HDDVD player I got at Best Buy this weekend for $229 thanks to a Pricematch with Amazon.com.

I must say I am glad to see that I can still watch King Kong, (one of the two movies I picked out) in full 1080i hd on my 2003 Mitsubishi Diamond series HDTV that is Pre-HDMI/HDCP. I also got Flags of our Fathers, But havent opened that one yet.

As for upscaling I noticed that it wont upscale a DVD to 1080 through component unless I rip and copy the movie first. At least blanks are cheap.

As far as the new law goes that wont help me get my Milwaukee or Greenbay channels way down here in Albuquerque. Thats just so that if you live way out in northern NM and fall into the Denver market even though you live in New Mexico. The law will allow you as a new Mexico resident to get New Mexico channels via satellite even though you live in an out of state market. The key is adjacent market. New Mexico isnt adjacent to Milwaukee or Green Bay markets. So they are still discriminating against me. hee hee

It was nice to see the Packers nationally televised this week though. Where in Wisconsin are you from?

Scary to admit we're from the same state. Maybe now that you have some new hdm to watch you won't have the time to be complaining as much though. :p

Milwaukee.

I dont complain. I advocate.

As far as the new law goes that wont help me get my Milwaukee or Greenbay channels way down here in Albuquerque.

I doubt there will be any law that allows you to get you choice of locals (whether it be from your residence DMA or a DMA of a place you have a tie to, such as family or a former place you loved to live in) - technical issues. Most local channels are done by spotbeam, so it makes it impossible or pretty hard to get a given DMA unless you moved to that DMA or lived in the spotbeam just outside of that DMA. If legislation was ever passed to allow you to choose a DMA of interest, your DMA choice would be very limited (our spot Albuquerque DMA or the one of the very few national beam DMA locals).

bigglare's NM story: KRQE winning late news, no surprise. As long as the CBS 9 PM lead-ins remain strong, KRQE will win the late news battle. If CBS 9pm lead-ins start tanking, KRQE's late news ratings will too. KASA with yet another morning newscast (isn't 2 enough!???) ... If anyone wants to take things up a notch in this market, launch a HD newscast. I doubt many more DMA's above us don't already have at least one HD newscast in the market.

and, finally, sorry folks. no Lobos/Wildcats contest in HD this week (at least not in the HD sports listings I looked at). Just normal FSN-AZ SD.

Being near Carlsbad makes us more adjacent to El Paso, Lubbock or Odessa / Midland which all are more regional to us down here... sorry but we don't care about the wrecks, shootings etc that are broadcast as breaking news on the Albuquerque channels...

The idea of that law is to allow instate viewers to receive in state DMA broadcasts, so Las Cruces, Clovis, etc. towns who have an out-of-state DMA can receive the Albuquerque market.

It takes some tortuous reading to allow in-state DMA's to receive signal from adjacent out-of-state DMA's.

Perhaps some judge will interpret it that way and we all will be happy.

I would love to see a newscast here in HD. San Diego's CBS has their local news in HD and it looks awesome. If any of our stations here started doing local HD news I would switch to their broadcasts.

Hey I hear Two and a half men is available in HD for syndicators. Lets get on KWBQ to get the hd episodes instead of the SD.

Hey I hear Two and a half men is available in HD for syndicators. Lets get on KWBQ to get the hd episodes instead of the SD.

we might have a better shot taking up a collection on this forum, purchasing KWBQ/KASY from Acme and running them as up-to-date television stations! :D

BTW, my bet for the first HD news in Albuquerque's DMA - KASA/KRQE. They have the cleanest looking SD video studio newscast shots and graphics package, so I have to think they are capturing the video with HD cameras in the stuido and converting down to SD and using HD-capable graphics renderers. If that's the case, they might as well do the studio part and graphics in HD and use side curtains when airing moments of 4:3 liveshots and taped packages.

For D* subscribers - save yourself scanning the "all channels" Guide as the new channels land. Here's a link to the channel listings sorted by channel number:

http://www.weaknees.com/new-directv-hd-stations.php?code=153428

For D* subscribers - save yourself scanning the "all channels" Guide as the new channels land. [/url]

I didn't realize scanning was needed. I was under the impression from following along from a distance that with the HD channels being mapped from their normal higher channel numbers to that of their SD equivalent channel number, those with HD DIRECTV receivers would have the HD version pop right in when those become live (and could select the SD version if they wanted to override the HD version being tuned in by default).

From a Hughes HIRD-E2 DIRECTV user (and HD upgrading won't matter to me as I'm done with DIRECTV after 2007 MLB season),

Robert

tonight is a weird night for terrestrial HD - is anyone monitoring the HD signals?

NBC WeatherPlus on 4.2 - the audio is all freaky like it is stuck in a loop while the video looks normal. I suppose everyone at KOB-TV is at home and not around to reboot or fix the audio issue. the audio is such that someone should incorporate it into a new age music piece or something.

KOAT-DT 7.1 - the video is freeze-framed on a scene from ET weekend (barry manilow in the video freeze-frame?) KOAT analog looks normal so it's not like the DT is mirroring the analog.

A little less than 1 1/2 years until things are all digital terrestrially - I hope some engineers can figure out these issues or have someone monitoring to fix any digital glitches in a timely manner.

So here we are in the middle of Football season again, and I still don't have CBS in HD over my Comcast setup. Tell me again why LIN TV supplies Comcast with the FOX HD feed, but not the CBS HD feed?

Also, my Comcast channel guide lists FSN-HD, but theres never anything on. What gives? Would have been nice to see the Lobo game in HD last night.

I know everything has to go digital in a year or so, but will LIN be forced to supply the HD feed to Comcast then, or will it still be able to supply a SD feed and charge for HD?

Ryan

I know everything has to go digital in a year or so, but will LIN be forced to supply the HD feed to Comcast then, or will it still be able to supply a SD feed and charge for HD?

I saw recently that the FCC granted small cable companies an extension until 2012. That is, they can keep feeding SD to their customers, I suppose until they save up enough nickels to go HD or until the deadline hits and they go out of service or they bribe their senator to get them another extension.

I do not think Comcast qualifies as a "small cable company", however, so I would expect to see everything in HD (especially since KRQE won't have a SD feed to send them).

So here we are in the middle of Football season again, and I still don't have CBS in HD over my Comcast setup. Tell me again why LIN TV supplies Comcast with the FOX HD feed, but not the CBS HD feed?

Also, my Comcast channel guide lists FSN-HD, but theres ever anything on. What gives? Would have been nice to see the Lobo game in HD last night.


Go figure there is quite a few things you can get with rabbit ears that you can't get with Commiecast here in Albuquerque! FOX HD is on Commiecast since KASA had a retrans agreement with Commiecast before LIN purchased the station.

As for FSN-HD, it's only live when there is HD programming to be aired (for FSN-AZ, usually just pro-sports like Diamondbacks home games and new for 2007-2008 all Suns FSN-AZ telecasts since the Suns will become in 2007-2008 the first NBA club to have every telecast -- both cable and off-air -- in HD). The channel may or may not also be active for FSN national HD games like for College Football Saturday or whatever they market it nowdays.

The UNM Lobo/UA Wildcat game was regionally broadcasted (not a FSN national broadcast) so no HD for the telecast and I can verify that as I watched the satellite feed from Tucson to FSN-AZ's master control in Los Angeles and it was in SD and not in HD.

Everything is not going digital in 2009, only ota. Cable and satellite are private networks that do not use the public airways, and can do whatever they like. They might turn off their analog channels if none are supplied to them, but the new law does not apply.
JR

Everything is not going digital in 2009, only ota. Cable and satellite are private networks that do not use the public airways, and can do whatever they like. They might turn off their analog channels if none are supplied to them, but the new law does not apply.
JR

Satellite (at least both major small dish services) are already all digital. Cable has been told by the FCC that they must keep at least the local channels analog until 2012. However, they can move every other analog chan to digital at their choosing. That would free up plenty of room for HD.

Actually the FCC rule requires that cable companies CARRY the locals and that they are available to all suscribers. They dont have to be analog as long as everyone has a digital box. Cable companies can make their systems 100% digital and require a cable box and still comply.

From FCC press release http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-276576A1.doc
By statute, cable operators must make local broadcasters’ primary video and program-related material viewable by all of their subscribers. The FCC’s ruling today allows cable operators to comply with the viewability requirement by choosing to either: (1) carry the digital signal in analog format, or (2) carry the signal only in digital format, provided that all subscribers have the necessary equipment to view the broadcast content.

But does digital = HD? SD can be in digital as well...

yes but digitally stations make one signal. an HD signal. Turn on an SDTV and see what you get. An HD picture letterboxed and shrunk down to SD resolution. But its not 320i analog ntsc. I dont see KRQE KASA KKOB KOAT or any others continuing to produce an analog ntsc signal to provide to commicast and CableOne. The cablecos will just have to negotiate handling of the digital broadcast.

So do you think that comcast will just hold out for 2009 to get KRQE in HD,or will they pony up before then to keep customers happy? Anything they pay will just be passed along in the form of a rate increase anyway, so why do they fight so hard to get it for free?

Ryan

If they give in and pay, then the rest of the broadcast networks will turn around and ask for the same thing in every other market. It's not just a matter of Comcast, but Time Warner, Dish, and Direct that aren't paying as well.

I beleive comcast and other providers will hold out until 2009. Unfortunately this means they will run smack dab against the must carry laws. And now that they are required now to further carry the channels until 2012, they will have no choice but to pay for carriage rights. Congress says broadcasters have full right to charge for carriage, FCC says providers must carry the channels. Thus feb 17th 2009, cable providers at least will have no choice but to pay up. At which case we will probably see other broadcasters to ask for fees.

I would have expected pressure on makers of STBs for the cable cos to include OTA tuners which would allow cable companies to treat locals like the satellite boys. OTA tuner gets local broadcasts into the same box with paid channels without the need for carriage. If broadcast networks could come in via antenna in perfectly clear HD, there would be no need to use up cable bandwidth carrying them. But now they have to.

It will definately be interesting how things go this next year. Also don't forget to spread the word about signing up for the DTV vouchers come Jan 1st.

Congress says broadcasters have full right to charge for carriage, FCC says providers must carry the channels. Thus feb 17th 2009, cable providers at least will have no choice but to pay up.

it sounds like Congress needs to come along and end the conflict in the law - with Congress saying broadcasters have a right to charge and the FCC saying providers (probably even including DISH and DirecTV) need to carry the channels, I don't see what is to stop the big local stations or even some of the smaller stations requesting $50/sub/month fees and providers having no choice than to pay it and everyone's pay-tv bill skyrockets.

Congress should establish a fair ceiling rate - allowing providers and broadcasters to negotiate a carriage fee from $0 up to whatever congress says is the maximum allowable fee per sub per month.

If you are a mom-and-pop UHF station, you may want nothing in return for carriage since you would be appreciative of having a larger audience or it is the mission of that broadcaster to provide programming at no charge to poor and rich alike. If you are one of the big network-affiliated stations, you could ask for the ceiling carriage fee since it is programming that is pretty hard to live without.

I don't see what is to stop the big local stations or even some of the smaller stations requesting $50/sub/month fees and providers having no choice than to pay it and everyone's pay-tv bill skyrockets.


Economics. The same thing that keeps ESPN and HBO and Showtime and all the other premium channels from charging obscene rates. It's not going to happen so don't worry about it. if 2 or 3 chefs can spoil a pot how bad can 500 senators and congressmen F*ck up the digital transition even more? Thats the important thing to worry about.

I guess on the bright side of your paranoia would be they wouldn't have to sell spots anymore. At $50 a subscriber, they would be making 4 times as much as HBO. And there isnt a cable operator in his right mind that wouldnt offer that one. Just imagine no more network television with commercials. 55 minute stories and tv shows uninterupted. WOOOT

I guess then the cable and satellite people will keep with their "racist" ways and burn Antennas on peoples rooftops. lol ok that was over the top. I dont care who you are, that's still funny.

Economics. The same thing that keeps ESPN and HBO and Showtime and all the other premium channels from charging obscene rates.

you can't use ESPN and HBO and Showtime for the economics example - they are optional carriage on cable systems. Local channels will be all or none at some point down the line.

I do think economics come into play - you could have cable subscriber or satellite provider packages w/local channel dropoffs if people had several hundred dollar cable bills (assuming cable picked up some of the locals at $50/month/sub). With outrageous bills, I could see people using rooftop antennas for their locals and subscribe to pay-tv channels from DISH Network or DirecTV without taking the local channels package in addition to their national channel package.

I would feel bad for those in the boonies of the Albuquerque DMA if they weren't able to get all significant locals with a rabbit ear antenna and would be forced to get the locals from cable or satellite with an outrageous tv bill.

I still think there needs to be some congressional action to clear things up - even economics probably won't allow holdouts like KRQE-DT to ask a reasonable price and cable/satellite will still be forced to pay up or pretty much drop the locals, saying they will opt for none since the providers wouldn't want to pay outrageous for some lone holdouts.

with Congress saying broadcasters have a right to charge and the FCC saying providers (probably even including DISH and DirecTV) need to carry the channels, I don't see what is to stop the big local stations or even some of the smaller stations requesting $50/sub/month fees and providers having no choice than to pay it and everyone's pay-tv bill skyrockets.



The carriage laws cover only the cable co...same as the laws regarding public access/government tv. Satellite and broadband are excluded.

Latest news on KTEL-LP and K56FB.......:)

They have just started testing channel 39 and 47 both are analog.:p

The channel 39 signal's is very strong here in the Four Hill and channel 47 is somewhat weak.

I wonder when will they ever filed CP for a digital channel?

Are they out of touch of reality, by the owner of KTEL-LP for not keeping up to date on digital?

Any ideas on this issue?

So far no signs, of any new low power digital stations on channel 28, 33 and 51 these stations has CP from FCC.

That's the news!!:D

9-23-07

KOB seems to have forgotten to "flip the HD switch"... Currently watching "Chuck" in a window-boxed HD from E*. I hope they fix this in time for "Heroes". What's the number to call to prompt someone at KOB to get this worked out?

Try the news department. They'll get word to the operators. One hopes anyway.

Watching Heroes, I see yet another network unable to resist the temptation to show promos as "captions" during the show. It keeps getting harder to enjoy a show without intrusion. I've even seen such on Showtime where customers are paying to watch the movies. At least it hasn't invaded DVDs as yet. (fingers crossed)

Dave.

Watching Heroes, I see yet another network unable to resist the temptation to show promos as "captions" during the show. It keeps getting harder to enjoy a show without intrusion. I've even seen such on Showtime where customers are paying to watch the movies. At least it hasn't invaded DVDs as yet. (fingers crossed)

Dave.

Key word... YET. They have to do something to deter people who record shows to share on internet. More crap on the screen more likely people wont like it.

I skipped chuck after the second commercial break when the HD didnt come in. I watched it OTA and from Dish. Thats one that I will happily write off my NBC schedule. Nice job with the HD delivery for Heroes and Journeyman.

Heroes, what can I say? Its awesome as usual. ******************************************** Oops spoiler sorry.

Journeyman looked great. It has a nice Quantumleap feel which I enjoy. Ive recently discovered Netflix's watch now feature that has almost all of quantum leap. Been watching all my favorite eps.

Watching Heroes, I see yet another network unable to resist the temptation to show promos as "captions" during the show. It keeps getting harder to enjoy a show without intrusion.

I think it must be written into a contract between a TV network and a producer of a show to allow the network to run promos during the show (and in some cases be annoying as possible). This would allow more sales of the show on DVD. :D

I'm about to the point with some shows that I might as well wait until they come out on DVD and rent them since it's getting hard to watch with network promo intrusions added.

DirecTV subscribers can check channel 77 for the list of HD channels that came up, last night. I haven't counted; but, looks like another 20-25 depending upon how many movie channels you also subscribe to.

Another 45-50 set for October.

Best news? Though everything depends on what the content providers are sending, e.g., full res 1080i, 720p, stretch-o-vision uprezzed - there is no HD-lite. Everything is coming through at the full resolution offered.

If you're having tech problems, by all means call the D* CSR's and get service if needed. My suggestion is to search through the dbstalk.com forum for DirecTV, first. We've been running tests for D* for a while, now, and many of the "problems" have simple fixes. From what I've seen, 90+% of everyone shouldn't even notice a hiccup.

Here's the address for troubleshooting tips:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=99528

Enjoy. It only continues to get better.

I am a happy camper, and thanks to Directv for adding more HD channels goodies!!:)

9-26-07

hey its good to hear D* finally did something. But only 21 out of 100? well its a start. Hope you get the premium channels so youre not stuck with only 13 new channels. Dish still has more though. Hopefully We will some activity from Dish soon to keep up the lead.

I'll have to check with neighbors this week to see how the new channels look.

I discovered a new channel in the guide on Dish. Altitude HD, seems like a Denver nuggets sports channel.

http://www.altitude.tv/default.aspx

I discovered a new channel in the guide on Dish. Altitude HD, seems like a Denver nuggets sports channel.


yep, nuggets and avalanche are the main HD draws. I don't think they do Rapids in HD.

It should be another part-timer RSN when HD is available (at least it's part-time on the satellite distribution from Denver to cable headends and DBS uplink facilities).

I wonder if Dish will add anything new this weekend being Oct1.

I wonder if Dish will add anything new this weekend being Oct1.

What's so special about 10/1?

new fiscal year, new month, all good times to start new contracts or in this case carriage aggreements with new networks. duh

new fiscal year, new month, all good times to start new contracts or in this case carriage aggreements with new networks. duh

most carriage agreements that I am familiar with are up on June 30 or December 31st (not usually during an odd month like October).

As for any new HD on DISH Network, 4 new channels added to the DISH Network lineup on DIRECTV's first wave day were not good enough for you? ;) I think it was cool that DISH stole a little DIRECTV HD thunder (but also cool that DIRECTV launched something instead of sitting on their hands waiting to launch 50 channels, especially if the rumored tech issues with HD channels are true. Several smaller waves are better than large waves if you are having problems with HD channel rollout).

new fiscal year, new month, all good times to start new contracts or in this case carriage aggreements with new networks. duh

Duh, I guess you expect everyone to be able to read your mind, duh. :mad:

In october Directv will add 70 more HD channels and top it off to 100 + HD channels by the years ends!!:)

But remember that's depend on what kind of packeges, that you have on number of HD channels that you might get.

Have fun watching the new HD channels!!:D

9-28-07

Hello there,

When did CW start sending its feed out as HD in the Albuquerque? (OTA)

I remember trying it a few months back and all was 480i. Last night I hooked up and tried my OTA to my tuner and low and behold CW was 1080i/p for smallvillie/reaper.

Glad to finally see CW doing HD in our area, only wish it was HD through DirecTV, so I didnt need to use the OTA feature.

Hello there,

When did CW start sending its feed out as HD in the Albuquerque? (OTA)

I remember trying it a few months back and all was 480i. Last night I hooked up and tried my OTA to my tuner and low and behold CW was 1080i/p for smallvillie/reaper.

Glad to finally see CW doing HD in our area, only wish it was HD through DirecTV, so I didnt need to use the OTA feature.

They did this last season for "Smallville/Supernatural" as well.

kwbq was 1080i as long I can recall.

DOOOH! DISH lost nbc tonight in the middle of Journeyman. Now I have to watch the episode via nbc.com. Hopefully their video is tolerable for watching.

Didn't lose it on my 622 but I don't remember if I was watching OTA or SAT version. Good epsisode BTW.

watching it from NBC.com sucks. They should offer the shows in quicktime HD like ABC is planning to do. I watch the show in HD free OTA. but in some crappy analog quality widescreen format online. Shame on NBC.

Hey if anyone is a Sean Hannity fan and hates that KKOB 770AM drops his final hour I have some good news. His full 3 hours is now available on Sirius channel 144 at the same time. Thats the end of my local broadcast radio. Now everything I listen to is on Sirius or podcast.

I watched it late last night from Dish with no problems...

Dish does Sirius music channels--I wish they did the talk channels.

Also wish I had XM so I could listen to Michael Medved in real time...

Hello,

I'm having trouble getting local channels 4.1, 13.1, 5.1, and 7.1 off my archer type external antenna. I had a HR20 installed last spring, and it seems to have started then. Is anyone else having difficulty receiving these channels? So far, no luck finding an installer who can diagnose the problems. I have diplexers installed in the system and I don't know if that could be a source of the problems.

... I'm having trouble getting local channels 4.1, 13.1, 5.1, and 7.1 off my archer type external antenna. ...
Is anyone else having difficulty receiving these channels? ... These channels, and many more, come in perfectly for me. I'm using a large roof antenna and I live in the SE between UNM and the airport.

Avio

Currently all of these are UHF and do not require a large antenna (VHF). Chan 7 is going back after the transistion period to 7 digital, bad. You need a UHF bow-tie or yagi. The Silver Sensor is a recommended one for indoors. You may need more if you are more than 30 miles from the Crest.
-Ken

Breaking news!!!

KLUZ-DT has just added a new sub channel called LATV an MTV type music videos in English and Spanish.:)

Tons of sexy latin babes!!!:):eek:

They are on Digital channel 42.2 "Remapped to 41.2" 480i format.

Have fun checking it out on this new channel.:D

10-3-07

Breaking news!!!

KLUZ-DT has just added a new sub channel called LATV an MTV type music videos in English and Spanish.:)

Tons of sexy latin babes!!!:):eek:

They are on Digital channel 42.2 "Remapped to 41.2" 480i format.

Have fun checking it out on this new channel.:D

10-3-07This was planned and announced in this thread for a while... glad to see it on-air.

I added it to my channels list.

Thanks. Avio

Again tonight Bionic Woman suffered audio sync issues via satellite feed of kob. But when I switched to the OTA channel on my 622 the audio was in sync. Anyone else have sync issues with nbc via dish?

bow-tie or yagi. The Silver Sensor is a recommended one for indoors. You may need more if you are more than 30 miles from the Crest.
-Ken

I would say the Silver Sensor doesn't work well for VHF (only UHF). I'm having a tough time with the 9.x channels with my silver sensor 5 miles from the crest. I can only imagine things will get worse when KOAT goes to VHF 7 and maybe other channels to go VHF from their current UHF perches.

I suppose in 2009 I'll be looking for a better overall indoor antenna to handle both VHF and UHF since the Silver Sensor will become partially useless.

Is an outdoor ant. out of the question? I'm having great luck with the RS VU90 on the roof. It's mounted to the RS tripod and the feet are weighted with cinder blocks. I get digital ch. 9 no problemo.
JR

Again tonight Bionic Woman suffered audio sync issues via satellite feed of kob. But when I switched to the OTA channel on my 622 the audio was in sync. Anyone else have sync issues with nbc via dish?
I watched from Dish, but was watching delayed and only caught up with programming during Life... did not notice audio sync problems, but Kob's putting up the Hot Lotto numbers during programming sure got my blood pressure up, as well as the PowerBall drawing at the end...:rolleyes:

... I'm having great luck with the RS VU90 on the roof. ... I get digital ch. 9 no problemo. ... I'm using the RS VU-120XR VHF/UHF/FM and digital ch. 9 comes in great.

Avio

Look for sun outages this weekend, particularly on FOX this Sunday during football. This will effect the HD feed for them across the entire country.


Fall Sun Transit Notification
On Sunday, October 7th, transmission on FOX Network transponders will be affected by the autumnal equinox for most areas of the US.
For NFL coverage on October 7th, your "A" Wegener receiver will be tuned to Galaxy 3C and the "B" Wegener receivers will be tuned to Galaxy 16. The outage on Galaxy 16 (the "B" receiver) will start approximately 10 minutes after the end of the outage on Galaxy 3C.

All HD splicers will lose the HD feed during the outage on the "A" receiver. Each station should be prepared to upconvert the SD feed during this time.
Sun outages will begin on the West coast at approximately 1:57p ET and sweep across the country to end on the East coast at approximately 2:17p ET.
Keith Goldberg
Executive Director, Transmission
Fox Network Engineering and Operations

Free HBO preview weekend is on DISH (Ch. 285 thru 297) right now and includes HD on Ch. 285.

Is an outdoor ant. out of the question? I'm having great luck with the RS VU90 on the roof. It's mounted to the RS tripod and the feet are weighted with cinder blocks. I get digital ch. 9 no problemo.
JR

yes, it's out of the question, since i'm in an apt. I suppose I could mount it to my railing, but the cabling would probably cause people to trip on it - unacceptable.

My good antenna that gets everything terrestrial HD is on the roof of my dad's house and I haven't found a "slingbox" way to take the antenna pickup from there and send it to my apartment to be tuned by my HDTV tuners. :D

I watched from Dish, but was watching delayed and only caught up with programming during Life... did not notice audio sync problems, but Kob's putting up the Hot Lotto numbers during programming sure got my blood pressure up, as well as the PowerBall drawing at the end...:rolleyes:

I agree that the Lotto stuff is annoying but it was a big impovement over running the whole show in SD because they were delaying it by a minute and the delay equipment didn't do HD. I suspect they make some good bucks by carrying that stuff.

TBS-HD on dish tonight!

yes, it's out of the question, since i'm in an apt.

My setup is free standing so moveable. If you set it back from the edge where it can't be seen, and run your coax down the water heater or furnace vent shaft, you might go for years and never be noticed, but you didn't hear it here.
:)
JR

Any news for upcoming Balloon Fiesta to be coverages in HD? To me that would be a eye candy IMHO.:)

As for any new low power digital stations, so far no luck and I have a feeling they may not get on the air till springtime at least but, I hoply wrong on this guessing.:D

10-6-07

I encountered a weird one last night. At first I thought my new HDTV was reporting the error from an internal problem. After carefully writing in down, I changed channels and the error occurred on just the one channel. All other OTA digital and analog broadcasts via roof antenna were still coming in perfectly. Here are the details:

Bright blue background with large white text with the jaggies reading:

Video Alarm Detected

Service Id 1

(0562)

Seen on KWBQ-HD, ch. 19-1, 1080i, 16:9.

Seen at 7 p.m. 10/5/07

I googled the phrase "Video Alarm Detected" and found others who had seen similar blue screen error messages in the same format (but none with error code 0562).

Apparently, these messages are coming from the broadcaster's source.

Can anyone here explain this further?

Thanks. Avio

Ive seen that a few times with KWBQ. Just seems to be related to problems with their equipment.

Ive seen that a few times with KWBQ. Just seems to be related to problems with their equipment.

Yeah, i'm sure it's a fault that their encoder reports by putting the error on the screen (rather than closing contacts at the encoder to send the error message by dataline to the studios, or having a transport stream analyzer signal someone at the studio when there is a
error in the digital signal).

**EDIT** After doing my own google, it appears it could be an error that there is no signal being received by the digital transmitter from the studio (missing a signal from a microwave or fiber link, whatever KWBQ uses for studio to transmitter) **EDIT**

I see on-screen errors on some of the mom-and-pop UHF stations around here when their downlinking satellite receiver has issues picking up the service those UHF stations are rebroadcasting (such as "no signal" or the satellite tuning parameters on the screen).

Any news for upcoming Balloon Fiesta to be coverages in HD? To me that would be a eye candy IMHO.:)


yeah, it would be eye candy but this is Albuquerque, not NYC, so you aren't going to see stations spend several grand to bring in a HD production truck. Heck, there isn't even a local HD newscast in this town yet.

Maybe we all need to email Mark Cuban and see if he'll get an agreement with AIBF to cover a mass ascension and roll a HDNet truck to town to do a live program for HDNet in 2008.

Yeah I hear theres this new fangled TV called High Definition thats been around in various forms since mid 90s. I hear it was in the US for the last 10 years. I wonder when we might get something like that here in the backwaters of Albuquerque. Shame on all the broadcasters who refused to step up to HD for any reason.
I guess they wonder why ratings for local news is dropping too. I like how the solution is right there but they cant see it. Apparently the future is too clear to them to see. I guess We should all get HD cameras and provide our own post event HD coverage. Can we put HD video on You tube?

FWIW, Comcast has added TBSHD.

Not sure if it will stick around or if its just for the playoffs, but I'm hoping it will be here for the Braves next season.

Our local stations shoud be ashamed of themselves, for not broadcasting balloon fiesta coverages in HD!!:(

Look at Reno TV market in Nevada and they are ranked at #110 in the country and broadcasting a Great Reno Balloon Chase in live covereges HD feed!!

Here's the link..........

http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/krnvtv-great-reno-ballon-race/

Since Albuquerque's TV market is ranked at # 44 in the country.

Maybe we should tell them to get on their program act together!!:rolleyes:

10-12-07

Our local stations shoud be ashamed of themselves, for not broadcasting balloon fiesta coverages in HD!!:(

Look at Reno TV market in Nevada and they are ranked at #110 in the country and broadcasting a Great Reno Balloon Chase in live covereges HD feed!!

Here's the link..........

http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/krnvtv-great-reno-ballon-race/

Since Albuquerque's TV market is ranked at # 44 in the country.

Maybe we should tell them to get on their program act together!!:rolleyes:

10-12-07We all totally agree with you!

If you tweaked the text of your message a tad I bet the ABQ Journal would print it in "Letters to the Editor."

Send it to the op-ed page at: opinion@abqjournal.com

Let's shame these broadcasters into action! :eek: :rolleyes: :D

Avio

Our local stations shoud be ashamed of themselves, for not broadcasting balloon fiesta coverages in HD!!:(

...

I've already talked to local stations and it all boils down to money. They say that they don't have the great deal of money it takes to upgrade the equipment to HD. The only one I know of that is currently upgrading the equipment is KRQE. It may takes years for the other stations to do likewise.

I've already talked to local stations and it all boils down to money. They say that they don't have the great deal of money it takes to upgrade the equipment to HD. The only one I know of that is currently upgrading the equipment is KRQE. It may takes years for the other stations to do likewise.

Yeah, I see KRQE is finally broadcasting in DD 5.1 as well..There's some good news for ya...

Yeah, I see KRQE is finally broadcasting in DD 5.1 as well..There's some good news for ya...

They have been doing so for months.....I posted about it when I first noticed, and pinged Frank Liley who confirmed it. That was on March 10th.

Of course, it seems like the HDTV God's giveth, and also taketh away, since KNME went back to 2CH some time ago.

Brian

Guess I missed it...

It did seem unlikely that I would be the first around here to notice such a thing.....:)

For those that may not know it there's a Free Cinemax Preview going on now through Sunday on DISH Network Ch. 285 (High Def!) thru Ch. 294. That's 3 premium channel preview weekends in a row.:)

FWIW, Comcast has added TBSHD.

Not sure if it will stick around or if its just for the playoffs, but I'm hoping it will be here for the Braves next season.

enjoy your 13 MLB games in HD on TBS next regular season (and some of the playoffs as well - all LDS and the ALCS in 2008). Due to a new national tv contract that TBS started with the 2007 postseason, TBS loses the braves in 2008 (only allowed to show the braves in no more than 5 of the 13 national games, IIRC).

Braves local telecasts stay in Atlanta on WPCH (the renamed WTBS in Atlanta off-air) with possible syndication of those games to Southeastern U.S. stations. SportSouth and FOX Sports Net South will continue to show Braves games on cable and in Extra Innings PPV package.

enjoy your 13 MLB games in HD on TBS next regular season (and some of the playoffs as well - all LDS and the ALCS in 2008). Due to a new national tv contract that TBS started with the 2007 postseason, TBS loses the braves in 2008 (only allowed to show the braves in no more than 5 of the 13 national games, IIRC).

Braves local telecasts stay in Atlanta on WPCH (the renamed WTBS in Atlanta off-air) with possible syndication of those games to Southeastern U.S. stations. SportSouth and FOX Sports Net South will continue to show Braves games on cable and in Extra Innings PPV package.

Thanks for your concern. I will.

I have extra innings as well so I'll enjoy them there also.

Hey guys anyone out there that has D* and is interested in purchasing one or both of my Directv Tivo's model HR10-250 PM me. They work flawlessly except they dont decode MPEG 4.

Anyone with an HD-Tivo lose all local OTA digital channels???? One of my buds called to say that his HR10-250 lost all his local OTA's. Sure as hell, mine are gone too.

I was able to scan most back in but not all. And even then there is no guide data for any of them. I rebooted, cleared the local channel list, and forced a daily call. Apparently some bad data got downloaded.

Wieder still, I get full signal for 27 (Kasa 2-1) but Tivo won't find it to add to the channel list. But wait it gets better....Tivo does show a 2nd 4-1 (KFOR, I think). The guide shows NBC programming, but when I tune it in, it gets Kasa! Google says that KFOR is in Oklahoma. Apparently D* had gotten NM crossed up with Oklahoma.

What a freakin' mess. My wife records tons of local programming, and right now none of it is in the To Do list.

I dread calling D*...I just know the first level droid is going to try to walk me through rebooting and all the other nonsense, and will have no clue at all what has happened.

Brian

As of this morning, it looks like it is partially sorted out. The Channel list is still not 100% correct, in that now there are two listings for each of my legit locals, but only one has actual guide data. The station listings with the -DT are bogus; those w/o the "-" are the right ones. In other words KASADT is the right listing; KASA-DT is not.

And I no longer have OKC stations in the list.

Having said that, I did force a daily call first thing, and I note that there was a service data download at 3am. Not sure which of those two things updated the channel list, since I had not checked it until after the daily call. I have had Tivo for better than 9 years, and DirecTivo for perhaps 4. This was a first for me.

It would have been hell to pay if this did not get sorted quickly.....having to manually enter recordings for all the local programming that me wife watches would have been a bear.

Brian

BG,

Do you think it has anything to do with D* plan to add new features to the older tivo's?
I remember they sent me emails a while back saying they were going to add special features such as the ability to set up season passes online and such.
Just a thought.

BG,

Do you think it has anything to do with D* plan to add new features to the older tivo's?
I remember they sent me emails a while back saying they were going to add special features such as the ability to set up season passes online and such.
Just a thought.

Probably not. That stuff is not due until next year. But, you never know with these guys!

Funny thing...I posted about this at the HD-Tivo forum, and a couple posters from Oklahoma said that they had ABQ stations in their channel list!

As far as new features, I did note that with the 6.3e update, they added a feature that will allow overlapping recordings to both still record. The higher priority will be recorded in full, and the lower is "clipped" (aka shortenned).

I had NEVER seen that in the many years I have owned a Tivo (almost 9 at this point). I posted about that too, and someone at the HD-Tivo forum said that this was something that existed in non D* Tivo's and they quietly snuck it in to our HD-Tivos.

To date, I have only seen it once since the 6.3e update.

Brian

Yup I got the same thing on my H20 reciever getting a OKC, OK station's listing.

I try to clear out this mess, and I loss my KOB-DT's weather plus anyhow I plan on hard reboot to clear this mess up.:p

It would be fun to see OKC stations look like if were fed by satellite spot beam to Albuquerque!:D

Anyhoo.... back to TV DXing!:)

10-17-07

Question for all the Dish folks. I recently upgraded my package to include the locals from Dish. Well lately I'm getting a lot of pixalation and drop outs only on the locals. I'm thinking I need to tweak my dish somewhat. I've done this before a long time ago when you only had to lock on two sats, but I really don't know how many it's reading today. Question is how do I tweak my dish to receive the best signal for all the channels; HD, Locals, and regular 100+ channels and not mess up the aim for other sats?

Thanks

Unless you have a meter I wouldn't mess with it. Its hard to hit the sweetspot without one and the chances you'll mess up 110/119 are probably pretty good. I have a seperate wing dish for 129 alone making it easy to peak all by it's lonesome.

Do you have the older Dish 1000 dish or a new 1000.2. People are having fewer problems with the 1000.2 as its slightly larger than the old 1000 model.

I would think about first calling Dish and see if they could possibly send someone out to peak it (possibly for free).

If not make sure you mark your current dish position with a sharpie so you could easily go back to the original setting before making any adjustments yourself.

Question for all the Dish folks. I recently upgraded my package to include the locals from Dish. Well lately I'm getting a lot of pixalation and drop outs only on the locals. I'm thinking I need to tweak my dish somewhat. I've done this before a long time ago when you only had to lock on two sats, but I really don't know how many it's reading today. Question is how do I tweak my dish to receive the best signal for all the channels; HD, Locals, and regular 100+ channels and not mess up the aim for other sats?

Thanks

Ibglowin,

Thanks for the response. Wow I'm not sure what 1000 system I have. It was installed around Jan 2007. Since "Dish" didn't do the install, it was a local company here did it, will they still send someone out? Not sure if the company I went with for the install is even in business still. Can't think of their name now. Will have to look for their business card. Thanks for the info though, I don't have a meter so I don't think I will mess with it.

Ibglowin,

Thanks for the response. Wow I'm not sure what 1000 system I have. It was installed around Jan 2007. Since "Dish" didn't do the install, it was a local company here did it, will they still send someone out? Not sure if the company I went with for the install is even in business still. Can't think of their name now. Will have to look for their business card. Thanks for the info though, I don't have a meter so I don't think I will mess with it.

I think the 1000.2 came out around Feb or March of 07', so depending on inventory of your installer it might have been one of the other. But there should be an additional input on the side of the LNB so you can add a wing satellite, allowing you up to four sats. I understand it's more difficult to line up, the installer used a meter, then came down. Was to one side of all three sats, only had two coming in. Then went up and made an adjustment to the west or east, and then had all three. I've never had to touch it, the installer did a great job of securing it, used the same mount I had used on the roof. But I normally had to readjust the 500 after every wind storm. Knock on wood, so far I've never had to make an adjustment myself. I know the installer would not hesitate to come out and fix it if something got out of whack. Probably the same day or maybe that evening if he was booked. Hopefully your installer was not one of those fly by night, out of business in a year types. I asked around before getting my guy, and he's outlasted all other "local" installers by several years. Still see his truck around town every once in a while. Also, make sure no tree limbs are in the way, maybe the wind is moving them into your dishes view. I calm day may be fine, but windy days like today cause them to get in the path. I had that last year. Luckily the neighbor cut them the following spring. Problem solved. Good luck.

Question for all the Dish folks. I recently upgraded my package to include the locals from Dish. Well lately I'm getting a lot of pixalation and drop outs only on the locals. I'm thinking I need to tweak my dish somewhat. I've done this before a long time ago when you only had to lock on two sats, but I really don't know how many it's reading today. Question is how do I tweak my dish to receive the best signal for all the channels; HD, Locals, and regular 100+ channels and not mess up the aim for other sats?

Thanks

Are you sure it's not a broadcast issue rather than a signal issue? I have a lot more problems with the locals via satellite than I have with OTA. My signal though is good, so I know it's not the signal.

lujan,

I didn't think so, my OTA signal is great, but who knows. I think the best thing would be to see about getting someone out to take a look at it.

Here is a link to a 1000.2

http://www.thesatelliteshop.net/hypercart/PictureFrame.asp?Sku=DISH1000&categoryID=117

Call Dish first and tell them your having drop outs and have been since you added the locals. They will run you through the playbook and it could be covered trip especially if you have the extended warranty on your stuff.

If not they may want to charge around $50 to come out and peak your dish. Then its up to you as for the is it worth it question.

Just FYI though the locals stutter every now and then even with my setup. Not anywhere near to the point of being unwatchable but it happens say every 30 min or so for a second or two then clears up.

The 129 SAT is weak and dieing and will be replaced in a year or so...

Free Starz Preview weekend is on Dish channels 285 (HD) thru 297 now through Sunday. That's 4 weekends in a row for premium previews. We now have to go buy the Seagate 750GB external HDD for our 722 at Costco to keep up with all the rainy day HD movies we've been recording.

I have been seeing some problems with OTA stuff recently, but knowing that the HD-Tivo has had some issues of its own, I thought I would ask for additional observations.

1. Periodic audio drops with KRQE. This is a problem that HD-Tivo has been known for, although it was previously a KASA-only issue. At some point, they fixed it, but a subsequent SW update seems to have brought it back. So, anyone watching KRQE OTA hearing this?

2. This one is more specific; Severe freezing and pixilation on Bionic Woman last night. This is NOT a bug that HD-Tivo is known for, but during the broadcast, the show came very close to being un-watchable.

TIA.

Brian

I have been seeing some problems with OTA stuff recently, but knowing that the HD-Tivo has had some issues of its own, I thought I would ask for additional observations.

1. Periodic audio drops with KRQE. This is a problem that HD-Tivo has been known for, although it was previously a KASAI-only issue. At some point, they fixed it, but a subsequent SW update seems to have brought it back. So, anyone watching KRQE OTA hearing this?

2. This one is more specific; Severe freezing and pixilation on Bionic Woman last night. This is NOT a bug that HD-Tivo is known for, but during the broadcast, the show came very close to being un-watchable.

TIA.

Brian

I believe KRQE has always had a problem with OTA audio dropouts. I notice about a half-second drop every 15-20 minutes or so. This is the only station I've noticed that has this problem. And I've used various tuners & receivers.

Does KASA not employ enough hamsters to run the wheel on the crest?

I haven't seen KASA-DT all day today (checking from 2pm to currently, trying to watch the MLB game in HD) and I'm wondering if KASA only has enough hamster wheels active to power just the analog transmitter in times of power outages.

Ive never noticed any problems with KRQE, OTA is the only way to watch it in HD in ABQ. I guess KASA doesnt have enough money since no carriage Fee. I guess LIN isnt splitting revenue between the two yet. Oh well. Ive had problems with Bionic Woman every episode so far with it being out of sync and pixelation. I recorded wednesday nights with my 622 via OTA which didnt seem to have problems in the past. I havent watched it yet to be sure that didnt solve problem though.

So youre not entirely alone.

I want to invite this lady to Albuquerque.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702359.html?hpid=artslot

I want to invite this lady to Albuquerque.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702359.html?hpid=artslotThat's why I do not have cable... and, speaking of Comca$t, did you also see this in today's news?



Comcast Blocks Some Internet Traffic

By PETER SVENSSON
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users...

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/COMCAST_DATA_DISCRIMINATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

:eek: :rolleyes: :eek: Avio

DISH folks waiting on E11 for expanded viewing - looks like April earliest. Current FAA launch info - 4Q07, 1Q08 - doesn't list E11.

DirecTV folks waiting on D11 - which won't affect NM folks actually till more than 100 content providers ready - should know pushback of a couple weeks on SeaLaunch - still confirms D11 in January.

That's why I do not have cable... and, speaking of Comca$t, did you also see this in today's news?

someone needs to come out with a packet header spoofer (make ********** packets look like streaming WMV packets so they can get through the commiecast network to the internet without being blocked and then revert into ********** ones once they are out on the net). ;)

this forum's censor is funny! the astericks represent legal file transfer with that b-------- system. ;)

anyway, also in commiecast land, commiecast is probably getting to raise rates again in Albuquerque - i've had a barrage of google alerts about commiecast fee increases in the eastern u.s. and Albuquerque rate increases only seem logical since it's been too long since the last one. Commiecast subs, assume the position.... :D

I want to invite this lady to Albuquerque.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702359.html?hpid=artslot

here in Albuquerque, the land of "artists", one would just need to point the friendly neighborhood tagger to the comcast office to do a mural. :D

Does KASA not employ enough hamsters to run the wheel on the crest?

as a followup, sure enough as the power seemed to come back on at the crest, KASA-DT returned to the air. KASA better not expect power outages after feb 17, 2009 or they are in trouble. :cool:

I had a new roof installed on my home and had to take down the Dish for the install. Had Dish come out to realign my Dish (for $49) and they ended up replacing my Dish with the new 1000.2 one. It is a friendlier dish to get all three satellites. The old one was to sensitive and was hard to align. Hopefully it will do a good job although my old one was OK. I just with Dish would add the CNN HD and SciFi HD channels.

Fred, what a coincidence; I just had a new roof put on too. It's a flat roof and expensive. Is yours a flat roof? We knew better than to buy a flat roof, but we did it anyway. Dang.
JR

"...I just with Dish would add the CNN HD and SciFi HD channels..."

Amen to that, Brother..At least the Sci-Fi part.--:)

Can somebody school me on DirectTV setups? My inlaws just moved to the Edgewood area, and the neighborhood association won't let Comcast run lines for Cable. They've worked around the High-Speed internet deal by getting Qwest DSL, and are looking to add DirectTV to restore their HD programming.

DirectTV sent someone out, but they said they couldn't mount a dish to the roof due to the steel roof? There is currently a Dish Network dish on the roof, so I don't understand what the big deal is. Also, how many RG-6 lines need to be run from the dish to the receiver? The installer said the existing Dish Network wiring wouldn't work. The installers suggestion was a railroad tie stood up and buried on it's end so about 2' was above ground, and then mounting the dish to that. To me that seems like a horrible idea, both in terms of looks, but functionality too.

I've never had satellite, so any info is appreciated!
Ryan

reklund,
Not sure about mounting the dish to a steel roof. As long as the existing cable runs are continuous and not split anywhere they can use them. Couplers are ok but i think E* uses splitters in some cases which wont work with D*. As far as how many lines u need thats up to your inlaws and is determined by how many box's they want hooked up. If they are going to use the DVR they will need 2 lines for each DVR. reg box's use 1 line. Those numbers are for straight sat only no OTA. The railroad tie sounds pretty crazy, I know some people have used a metal pole sorta like a flag pole but that was with smaller dish's.
Eric

My Father-In-Law will definitely want the DVR, so it looks like we'll need to run 2 RG-6 lines from the dish to the receiver. I'm going to fab up a nice steel pole with a welded flange to hard-mount the dish to, and sink that in some concrete in the ground to mount the dish if a roof mount won't work.

We're trying to avoid punching holes in their nice new house, and wanted to use the existing coax if we could. If a roof mount is out, I'll likely have to trench a line out from the house to the dish, and lay some cable in a piece of conduit.

Can anyone reccomend a good DirecTV installer in the Abq area that may be willing to come out and give us some options?

Ryan

if your going to fab the pole setup u may want to weld a couple legs on it to create a tripod type setup. Only reason i mention that is the 5lnb dish is big and could move in the wind causing dropouts.

5lnb is the DirecTV HD dish, correct? Isn't it elliptical rather than round? The tripod idea wouldn't be that much harder to setup, but I'd have to see the dish to see if it was necessary. I build rockcrawlers for fun, so fabbing a satellite mount that will hold up to the wind shouldn't be too hard I hope :D

I think the size of the dish is why the installer was hesitant to put it in place of the existing DishNetwork dish. I'm really curious how this will all turn out- I might make the switch from Comcast if it's that much better.

Ryan

I must say Bravo to KOAT last night. Their engineers performed admirably last night in the face of tremendous danger and challenge. While they couldn't quite refrain from screwing up the first 5 minutes of Carpoolers, they did manage to accomplish something. Don't ask me what though, national security requires thier accomplishment remain a secret.

Unfortunately while the KOAT engineers were out looking for WMDs in Rio Rancho no one was there to make sure the network's HD feed stay active between cavemen and carpoolers. Nor was anyone around to notice they once again frakked up the audio channels for the show.

Again I must show my support to KRQE and its insistance on carriage fees that they rightfully deserve in their unending dedication to perfect broadcasting of the various CBS shows that I watch. Good Job KRQE. Maybe you can continue to show up your pathetic competitors here in Albuquerque with the first HD newscast like most other CBS stations are doing. Until then, Im keeping my Eye open.

Patience Grasshopper! ;)

"...I just with Dish would add the CNN HD and SciFi HD channels..."

Amen to that, Brother..At least the Sci-Fi part.--:)

Unfortunately while the KOAT engineers were out looking for WMDs in Rio Rancho no one was there to make sure the network's HD feed stay active between cavemen and carpoolers. Nor was anyone around to notice they once again frakked up the audio channels for the show.

Even the network engineers shouldn't be forced to watch those shows!

Good Job KRQE.

I agree except for those intermittent audio dropouts. Why can't they find the cause?
JR

Ive never expirienced any problems with KRQE on the three nights I watch. Monday Tuesday and Thursdays. But KOAT messed up Lost and Boston Legal all too often and lastnights Carpoolers was more of their classic failures.

If youre a paid engineer for a TV station you should have someone watching 24/7. If you hate the shows work at a new station or balance your checkbook while you work. Just keep the volume up which they must not be doing. hee hee.

Looks like Dish is continuing the free preview marathon and giving us free Showtime. didn't we get this already??

I was just kidding about not watching shows, and I've noticed some lip-sync problems on KRQE; they aren't infallible. But definitely the best of the big 4.

Looks like Dish is continuing the free preview marathon and giving us free Showtime. didn't we get this already??

Yes, about 4 weeks ago; this makes 5 weekends in a row of free previews. You can get Showtime free for 3 months by calling Dish by Oct. 31st. You can also get a $40 rebate thru Dish for 3 months of Starz if you order by Dec. 31st.

jdmart,

How do you get that Starz promotion? And is it a mail in rebate, or do you get the credits right away?

jdmart,

How do you get that Starz promotion? And is it a mail in rebate, or do you get the credits right away?

Unfortunately it's a mail-in-rebate; rebate form and full details at:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/starz40/

I must say Bravo to KOAT last night.

what? you don't like watching television with music and sound effects and without the dialogue channel??? :eek:

That was one night I was THFSD (thank goodness for SD). I ended up watching SD since the dialogue channel was missing. I never tuned back awhile later to see if KOAT had fixed the issue so I finished carpoolers in SD and then quit KOAT for the rest of the night since it's big-time who cares programming after the hour of okay comedies.

I've got at problem with my Dish VIP722 reception of OTA HD sound. Silence on most channels: Fox 2.1, NBC 4.x, ABC 7.1, CBS 13.1, and religious ones in Albuqueque. My HL-T5687 sound works on some: PBS 5.x, more PBS 9.x, CW 19.1. Could some be PCM and others Dolby so that 722 is not getting one? All work directly over the air. I've never had this problem with prior HL-S5687.

Aside: 9.2 and 9.3 have audio or video exchanged, not that I watch them.
BTW, I switched to the Avical starter set and after an hour to adjust myself, I like it.

Update: This is a Dish L446 "fix".
A reboot added the channel I was on. Same with switch check and maybe another. A subsequent reboot lost the 4.1 signal it had gained but gained 4.2 subchannel. Really RANDOM.
All seem to be Dolby Digital by the TV and not PCM. I noticed that some report PBS bad others (like me) find it works.
-Ken

This is a known issue by E*. They say there will be a fix this week. For now, I've changed it so that I now have my 622 connected to my Onkyo receiver via optical audio and component cable from the 622 to the TV for video.

L446 (http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-hd-discussions/111936-i-think-l446-broke-my-ota-audio.html) is the culprit, Dbstalk also has a bug thread on this... It corrupted my 622 HDD and I had to re-initilize it to recover...

Sorry to hear that D Fergie. Yes, I just had not gotten to the SatelliteGuys.us board where I find: the fix does not look to have a definite date, subchannels may be affected differently on the same channel, rebooting may help until you go up/down through the OTAs as may going to the channel setup.

I still do not know why our local 5.x 9.x and 19.1 were untouched by this for me.
-Ken

Hi, I'm new to the forum, and relatively new to HD.

I know that KRQE doesn't provide an HD signal to Comcast/Dish/DirectTV over contract and licensing disputes. Does anyone know when they will iron out their differences?

Also, I've been told that I can get an antenna and receive the CBS HD signal over the air. What type of antenna should I buy? Also, can I run it through my comcast DVR?

Thanks for any advice or answers!

I'm in Carlsbad so can't help you on the OTA, but welcome... LIN doesn't work with very many providers all over the country... all we can hope for is a buy out one of these days... Ken the 622 is just fine now Thanks! I have ordered a HR20 to replace one of my mpeg2 Directv receivers... couldn't stand it ;)

Welcome, muju - Where are you located? Yes, you can received KRQE over the air with a UHF antenna. Even a small indoor antenna like the 'Silver Sensor' will work fine if you are not too far from the Sandia crest and you have line of sight. I'm up in Espanola, so I have to use a roof-mounted UHF antenna, but I can pull in KRQE just fine all the way up here. I dunno if the Comcast STB allows OTA signals, but if not, you can easily get a STB that does.

.....G

Hi, I'm new to the forum, and relatively new to HD.

I know that KRQE doesn't provide an HD signal to Comcast/Dish/DirectTV over contract and licensing disputes. Does anyone know when they will iron out their differences?

Also, I've been told that I can get an antenna and receive the CBS HD signal over the air. What type of antenna should I buy? Also, can I run it through my comcast DVR?

Thanks for any advice or answers!

Well you'll get a few versions of the same story about KRQE here. To make it as simple as I can and hit every key point in issue is this.... (Forgive me if I dont get all the facts right. Im home pushing a 102degree temperature so playing hooky from school)


1. Congress wayback when they passed the digital transition bills in 1996, Telecommunication Act of 1996, provided legal standing of broadcasters who were faced with millions of dollars in equipment upgrades to extract a carriage fee from cable and satellite providers.

By 1996 most people no longer had antennas on roofs and couldnt get HD since alot of manufacturers sold HD monitors, those sets without HD tuners. So early adopters turned to paid providers for HD. With Analog broadcasts these providers were legally allowed to just put an antenna on their buildings, take the broadcasts and place them on their cable system free of charge and make a profit offering local broadcasts.

2. LIN the company that owns KRQE and KASA, along with a majority of CBS affiliates both O&O and syndicated stations request carriage fees for rights to provide CBS HD. So its not a local thing really a CBS thing.

The confusion here lies with the fact that LIN is in their Legal rights in charging for carriage fees. Lin does in fact work with cable and satellite companies who are willing and want to carry CBS-HD. Cable One in Rio Rancho for example offers CBS-HD the last time I checked.

The good news is that in 477 days 12 hours 44 minutes Comcast will have no choice but to come to terms with LIN and carry CBS-HD. FCC requires that Cable operators continue to offer local analog channels until 2012. Come Feb 09 KRQE will turn off their analog broadcasts, and Comcast will have to negotiate to get their digital signal to be in compliance with the law.

Bottom line, Lin is rightfully requesting a carriage fee for anyone to carry their signal. Comcast Dish and Directv are also rightfully allowed to refuse to carry CBS-HD.

If you're a comcast subscriber do yourself a favor, start calling customer service every week. Every sunday call and ask why you cant get the NFL in HD. Call and ask why you cant get the NCAA tournement in HD, Call and ask why you are paying so much and still got getting one of the top 3 networks in HD while its available OTA with a $2 pair of rabbit ears. Demand free HBO and other premium channels to keep from switching to Dish or Directv which have over 70 hd channels each. I did this for a year and half before I got Dish in march. I never paid for HBO or Showtime during that period.

Wake up Kob switch man!

more problems with kob? I recorded everything to watch the broncos get processed into lunch meat for unsuspecting school children everywhere. hee hee.

Yeah, Switchman must have been watching also.,. Chuck was SD, woke up for Heroes though...

Welcome to the forum muju. To get around that problem, I use a Tivo 3 for hd ota and sd cable (cable cards are available for it if desired). For hd, sd and analog cable I use their SA8300 + external 250G drive. Both machines run almost all the time.
JR

jerrich: i am have the s/a 8300 and would like to expand storage. could you explain how you got the external hard drive to work? eg: what drive did you use? how did it hook up? any problems? where did you get it and how much did it cost? any other advice? i thought comcast had the sata port not operating? thanks jack

Late last night at around 2 AM analog channel 39 was broadcasting a outdoor camera, showing a TV tower on the right side of your TV screen and some car's headlight comes and goes, it's was pretty weard to see this feed.:eek:

I am wondering where this outdoor camera located?;)

In the daytime hours all they do is home shopping jewelry on channel 39.

At the same time analog channel 47 was broadcasting Home shopping Jewelry at late nighttime hours, and in daytime hours Telemundeo Spanish programings is on.

I am wondering where this outdoor camera located?;)

Make me wonder if they are going to add the Retro TV network or America One network soon, or they are just testing around their stuff?

I just wish they flash cut to digital sooner the better so they can add more sub channels to see.

Not much else going on here, other than seeing weard stuff last night!:)

10-30-07

Here's the latest news about Analog low power TV stations here's the link from ther FCC.....

K43HW channel 43:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101216582&formid=910&fac_num=32280

K65FB channel 56:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101211483&formid=347&fac_num=55056

KTEL-LP channel 53:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101211488&formid=347&fac_num=55059

Now you what's going on here...:)

10-30-07

i thought comcast had the sata port not operating? thanks jack

No, they work ok if you get a compatable drive. I suggest you go to Weaknees.com and look at their selection of sata drives and enclosures. I had no luck with two Maxtors supposedly made for the 8300. Mine is now a Seagate I think in an aluminum enclosure. Try to get one with a built in fan if yours is going into an equipment rack with little air circulation. Mine doesn't, so I had to get a little RS dc fan running at half voltage, and aimed right at the case. Not all Seagates are made for video use, such as the Pro model at Costco. There's a good thread on this over at HometheaterSpot.com in the Scientific Atlanta forum. Good luck.
JR

FWIW, Comcast has added the NFL network in HD today. In December we should be seeing the addition of USAHD, Discovery HD, and the History Channel HD.

But still no CBS-HD or Sci Fi HD? Shamefull.

Late last night at around 2 AM analog channel 39 was broadcasting a outdoor camera, showing a TV tower on the right side of your TV screen and some car's headlight comes and goes, it's was pretty weard to see this feed.:eek:

I am wondering where this outdoor camera located?;)

In the daytime hours all they do is home shopping jewelry on channel 39.

At the same time analog channel 47 was broadcasting Home shopping Jewelry at late nighttime hours, and in daytime hours Telemundeo Spanish programings is on.
7

Sounds like some of the channel 5x channels are getting out of that band to lower channel numbers.

Channel 47 sounds like the Telemundo feed from 53 and Channel 39 sounds like that shopping channel from 56 (which late at night has a cam from their studios near cuter/san mateo that shows the parking lot across the street of a big box store with oversaturated parking lot lights).

I know I have no life (actually, I get home very late from work a lot of nights) when 1) I know ch 56 has a night cam view at night, and 2) I researched where that camera was located because was curious what the view was supposed to be showing (what the parking lot was about, what the unusual building in the foreground right was about, what street the occasional car would be seen driving on, and what looked like a tower was supposed to be, etc).

FWIW, Comcast has added the NFL network in HD today.


I'm curious - on the main HD tier for everyone or just on a sports tier?

When does the fee increase come (more and more comcast subs are geting fee increases around the country, Albuquerque probably is due).

Not having Sci-Fi in HD seems like no big deal - I understand very few programs on Sci-Fi are currently broadcast in HD over Sci-Fi HD.

Their big originals Stargate Flashgordan and such are and I would presume that BSG will also. I stopped watching Scifi channel when BSG ended its 3rd season. will probably skip Razor on it unless Dish picks up scifi hd by then since razor is coming to HDDVD a week later. Also if anyone is interested Best Buy and Walmart supposedly tomorrow will be offering Toshibas A2 HDDVD for $98

Did anyone else with a Dish receiver lose the CW? I can't watch "Smallville" using the 622. I had to switch to the off-air antenna in order to watch.

I also had to switch to my TV tuner since my 622 couldnt tune to it via its ota tuner.

FWIW, Comcast has added the NFL network in HD today. In December we should be seeing the addition of USAHD, Discovery HD, and the History Channel HD.

Hello all... I am sorta new here. Well to the forums anyway. Been browsing for several months now and just got my first HDTV, a 55" Sony SXRD 55A3000. I recently upgraded my Comcast service to Premier with the HD package and Comcast gave me a brand new SA 4250HDC Cable Box. Before I start to complain I would like to say to Monger that I have had Discovery HD since when I upgraded my account last weekend so aparently there is no wait until December as you said above.

Now, I am having some issues with certain HD channels looking blury, even worse than SD channels and I am wondering if that is because they may be broadcasting SD material on a HD channel. OnDemand, and most of the other HD channels like Discovery HD are incredibly nice, including HBOHD, StarzHD, CinimaxHD and ShowtimeHD are all perfect PQ.

Also, I was wondering now that the FCC made it a law that we can have our own cable boxes, what might be the very best cable box picture quality wise? I would love to have a DVR, also wouldnt mind the TIVO option either if its coming to us Comcast customers. I was looking at the Motorola DCH6416 last night wondering if it is compatible with Comcast in Albuquerque NM? But then I came across a claim that says we might get this hardware with tivo directly from Comcast soon...

Is there any truth to these rumors? Is there a better box than the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4250HDC I have now that I can purchase myself? My only concern really is PQ with HD AND SD material and the new box must work with HD OnDEMAND.

EDIT: One last thing, my HD channels are constantly skipping, as if they are running from a scratched DVD. It will play, and then pause for several seconds and then play again and then pause again. this is occuring on channels 223 and 225 and probably several others. Any Ideas?
EDIT 2: Problem solved... Had to unplug the cable box for a while and re-plug it back up. There was a very short 1 second power outage yesterday afternoon, so maybe that did something to the box it didnt like.

Thanks
Rod

Did anyone else with a Dish receiver lose the CW? I can't watch "Smallville" using the 622. I had to switch to the off-air antenna in order to watch.

I lost the CW OTA on my Dish 722 also. My computer digital tuner can't tune 19.1 either. My 2 Sony digital tuners can pick it up fine. On the 722, I deleted 19.1, then tried to add physical channel 29 (on which CW broadcasts) back. It cannot be added back--good signal strength, but no signal lock. It also could not find the channel when I rescanned digital channels. I then set Smallville up on my Sony DVR starting next week, since it is only way I can still record it.

Heads up guys!!!

Nevada Wolfpack Vs New Mexico State Aggies will be in HD on ESPN 2 tonight at 6PM!!:)

So enjoy the game!!

11-2-07

I lost the CW OTA on my Dish 722 also. My computer digital tuner can't tune 19.1 either. My 2 Sony digital tuners can pick it up fine. On the 722, I deleted 19.1, then tried to add physical channel 29 (on which CW broadcasts) back. It cannot be added back--good signal strength, but no signal lock. It also could not find the channel when I rescanned digital channels. I then set Smallville up on my Sony DVR starting next week, since it is only way I can still record it.

I have been in contact with CW (19.1) and they indicate that we should try to add it back tomorrow morning at the latest and it should work. They are having some equipment problems.

Hello all... I am sorta new here. Well to the forums anyway. Been browsing for several months now and just got my first HDTV, a 55" Sony SXRD 55A3000. I recently upgraded my Comcast service to Premier with the HD package and Comcast gave me a brand new SA 4250HDC Cable Box. Before I start to complain I would like to say to Monger that I have had Discovery HD since when I upgraded my account last weekend so aparently there is no wait until December as you said above.

Now, I am having some issues with certain HD channels looking blury, even worse than SD channels and I am wondering if that is because they may be broadcasting SD material on a HD channel. OnDemand, and most of the other HD channels like Discovery HD are incredibly nice, including HBOHD, StarzHD, CinimaxHD and ShowtimeHD are all perfect PQ.

Also, I was wondering now that the FCC made it a law that we can have our own cable boxes, what might be the very best cable box picture quality wise? I would love to have a DVR, also wouldnt mind the TIVO option either if its coming to us Comcast customers. I was looking at the Motorola DCH6416 last night wondering if it is compatible with Comcast in Albuquerque NM? But then I came across a claim that says we might get this hardware with tivo directly from Comcast soon...

Is there any truth to these rumors? Is there a better box than the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4250HDC I have now that I can purchase myself? My only concern really is PQ with HD AND SD material and the new box must work with HD OnDEMAND.

EDIT: One last thing, my HD channels are constantly skipping, as if they are running from a scratched DVD. It will play, and then pause for several seconds and then play again and then pause again. this is occuring on channels 223 and 225 and probably several others. Any Ideas?
EDIT 2: Problem solved... Had to unplug the cable box for a while and re-plug it back up. There was a very short 1 second power outage yesterday afternoon, so maybe that did something to the box it didnt like.

Thanks
Rod

Rod, the Discovery channel that you have is discovery hd theater. The new channel will be Discovery HD which from what I understand is a mirror of the regular Discovery channel.

I'm not sure about Tivo, but the majority of Comcast uses a Motorola box versus the S.A. that we have here. I'm not holding my breath for it.

The HDC boxes use seperable security(a multistream cablecard) which allows a customer to buy a digital box and Comcast to support it. The seperable security boxes still seem to have some bugs.

I would trade the 4250 for the sa8300 dvr and see if you don't like it better. Mine works ok and you can add an external drive to it. The Tivo3 will work with Comcast digital if you rent cable cards for it. It also works great for ota (the only way to get 13-1 CBS), and analog cable.
JR

I have been in contact with CW (19.1) and they indicate that we should try to add it back tomorrow morning at the latest and it should work. They are having some equipment problems.

Just added the CW (19.1) back to the E* 622 and it's working fine so far...

EDIT (11/4/07): I still have the station working but no programming guide. I tried doing a check switch yesterday so that it would re-load the programming guide but it still shows "Digital Service" instead of programming information. I figured I'd wait until the overnight re-boot to see if the guide showed up but no, still nothing but "Digital Service" for the programming information. Any one else not getting the guide info on CW?

Just added the CW (19.1) back to the E* 622 and it's working fine so far...

EDIT (11/4/07): I still have the station working but no programming guide. I tried doing a check switch yesterday so that it would re-load the programming guide but it still shows "Digital Service" instead of programming information. I figured I'd wait until the overnight re-boot to see if the guide showed up but no, still nothing but "Digital Service" for the programming information. Any one else not getting the guide info on CW?

I assume since no one has replied that you're all getting the guide data for the CW (19.1) fine?

So lastnights broadcasts of Heroes and Journeyman went off without a hitch as I saw. Anyone have any problems with Chuck?

I assume since no one has replied that you're all getting the guide data for the CW (19.1) fine?

I can't get the guide information on my Dish 722 either. I set up a manual timer on Smallville which is the only thing I watch.

I can't get the guide information on my Dish 722 either. I set up a manual timer on Smallville which is the only thing I watch.

On the bright side you only have a few more episodes to record manually this season.

Hey folks. I'm troubleshooting an issue I'm having with KASA HD.

I'm getting nothing on the KASADT channel but I am receiving all the other stations, both SD and HD, including the KASA SD broadcast. I wanted to ask if there's an issue with the KASA HD broadcast, like maybe they don't pump that signal out if there's no actual HD content, or if it might be something else.

Some details: I've got a DirecTv DVR with OTA input. I'm using a goofy little amplified settop antenna for the time being and the DVR signal meter is indicating high 80%'s to low 90%'s for KASADT. But the screen is either showing 771 (searching for signal) or just black.

I'd go off and try to figure out signal issues if every single other station weren't coming in clear and strong. I'm going to try a different antenna as well, just in case.

So, any thoughts, comments, things to try? Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks :).

Hey folks. I'm troubleshooting an issue I'm having with KASA HD.

I'm getting nothing on the KASADT channel but I am receiving all the other stations, both SD and HD, including the KASA SD broadcast. I wanted to ask if there's an issue with the KASA HD broadcast, like maybe they don't pump that signal out if there's no actual HD content, or if it might be something else.

Some details: I've got a DirecTv DVR with OTA input. I'm using a goofy little amplified settop antenna for the time being and the DVR signal meter is indicating high 80%'s to low 90%'s for KASADT. But the screen is either showing 771 (searching for signal) or just black.

I'd go off and try to figure out signal issues if every single other station weren't coming in clear and strong. I'm going to try a different antenna as well, just in case.

So, any thoughts, comments, things to try? Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks :).

I'm watching the KASA DT 2.1 station as we speak. I'm with E* and not D* so I don't know if that might be the problem.

Yep, thanks. I bypassed the DVR and went straight into the TV. Should have done that earlier. The broadcast is fine, it's the DirecTv DVR that's not handling it right. There was a firmware update yesterday but this problem manifested some time last week. I rebooted anyway but no joy.

So I can view that channel now through the TV but I can't record it on the DVR. I really need to record tomorrow's game :P. Pheh!

Just a follow up. I got a new antenna, made sure all the signal strengths were as high as possible on the OTA channels, and then performed the OTA setup from scratch on the DVR. KASA DT is back now.

Sorry to bother y'all :).

There is a program on the Sandias that will be on KNME on Monday, Nov. 12, at 9 pm. It is not listed on KNME's digital channel's guide. Is it just on the SD channel? It was filmd in HD and it would be a shame not to see it in HD. Anyone know anything?

According to the high definition page of Ventana (p.13), it will be on 35.1 at 9:00p Monday night. Also7p 11/15, 7p 11/17, 4p 11/18, 2p 11/20, 8p 11/21, and 9p 11/22.

Saw this advertised this weekend on HGTV I think, sounds pretty interesting, think I will tune it. Would be nice to see in HD. It did say on the ad that it was filmed in HD os why not pass it along!!

i am still a little confused. i talked with a helpful lady at knme. on comcast we get ch 220 which is knmhd. this apparently a national feed of PBS not a simulcast of our local ch 5.1 or whatever. the reason i bring this up is that the sandias hd show on our local ch 5 is not on comcast so i have to watch it on OTA tuner in my tv. i know this is not a big deal but since i record everything on a comcast hd 8300 dvr it is a pain to watch this "live" when other tv is on. why does not comcast broadcast BOTH the "local" and "national" feeds of knme? jack

i am still a little confused. i talked with a helpful lady at knme. on comcast we get ch 220 which is knmhd. this apparently a national feed of PBS not a simulcast of our local ch 5.1 or whatever. the reason i bring this up is that the sandias hd show on our local ch 5 is not on comcast so i have to watch it on OTA tuner in my tv. i know this is not a big deal but since i record everything on a comcast hd 8300 dvr it is a pain to watch this "live" when other tv is on. why does not comcast broadcast BOTH the "local" and "national" feeds of knme? jack

Probably same reason they dont carry CBS-HD. Contracts Carriage fees and Apathy Oh My!

Anyone else had issues getting the new Comcast SA8300HDC boxes to work properly here in Albuquerque? The new cable card boxes seem to be nothing but trouble as far as I can tell...

Ryan

Im starting to wonder if anyone can make a descently working cable box.

According to the high definition page of Ventana (p.13), it will be on 35.1 at 9:00p Monday night. Also7p 11/15, 7p 11/17, 4p 11/18, 2p 11/20, 8p 11/21, and 9p 11/22.

Do they have programming department staff at KNME-TV that are dumber than 1st graders?

No SANDIAS in HD tonight.

We need to light up the KNME studio switchboard on Tuesday and express our displeasure and try to get a bonfire underneath them to air the program in HD. What a waste in SD!

277-1220 appears to be the programming comments line. Get on the phone on Tuesday during business hours!

why does not comcast broadcast BOTH the "local" and "national" feeds of knme? jack

There is no local KNME HD feed. KNME passes along PBS-HD from satellite right to the transmitter (other than putting the KNME bug in the corner and doing a little reworking of the signal on the fly to 720p and cutting down the bandwidth used compared to how it is on satellite).

KNME should have broken into the PBS-HD feed tonight to show SANDIAS in step with the SD KNME channel, but they didn't. They stayed with PBS-HD national feed and Antiques Roadshow that could have been seen in HD a few hours earlier on the channel.

I have a problem with closed captions on my Dish OTA reception.
Last season: VIP622 and ABC.
This season: VIP722 and NBC.
It is concentrated on one station. Although the disk records the data stream, on some tests of the same recording the SD output causes the TV to generate captions while the HD output does not get them for the DVR. Last year I would turn off CC and then on CC and it might start inserting them on the HD.
-Ken

I had a feeling that Sandias Special was NOT going to be shown on their HD channel. What a waste.

Im starting to wonder if anyone can make a descently working cable box.

Why are you guys still using cable? Is it possible to switch to satellite or are there valid reasons for using cable (apartment doesn't allow putting up a dish, etc.)?

I had a feeling that Sandias Special was NOT going to be shown on their HD channel. What a waste.

SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE!

I think they still use comcast out of masochism. They like the pain and torture of overpriced pay TV that requires you to use additional methods just to get all the big broadcast networks in HD. Until Comcast adds CBS I will never go back.

A question for the DIRECTV folks in this thread... I just upgraded my D* side to an HR20, Are the Albuquerque HD locals available on Direct? I was under the impression they were, but the Csr that activated my new dvr said they were not... Thanks!

Some are. No CBS or PBS, but you can see NBC, ABC and Fox off DTV. I am not sure about the other locals, because I don't watch them.

Thanks! I was thinking that Directv had the Alb. HD locals... I have the Dish HD locals...LIN keeps CBS from us...

If you have the 5lnb dish you will get KASA (2), KOB (4) and KOAT (7) in HD via sat on Directv. All the other ABQ locals are in SD.

Of course if you are in range, you can hook an antenna to the HR20 and pick up the others OTA. I've noticed that the OTA HD feeds look better than the sat feeds on 2, 4 and 7. It seems they use a lot of compression over the sat.

Yeah, I installed a Slimline last week, South of Carlsbad, there is no OTA...

I had a feeling that Sandias Special was NOT going to be shown on their HD channel. What a waste.

I called KNME programming today to voice my displeasure.

they told me:

"The SANDIAS will only be on the HD channel on Saturday November 17th at 7PM." All other repeats are on the SD channel only, despite what their in-house magazine VENTANA says, she confirmed to me.

sthscan: i got the same reply. i think denise (knme lady) says knme only broadcasts hd on sat nite 7-10pm but she had no reason why this is the case. i also asked what will happen after 2-09 digital drop dead date (supposedly) and she said it will be confusing even more on the hd broadcasting. it would be nice to have someone explain the hd on knme being only on sat 7-10pm??? to make it worse comcast guide has on ch 220 (knme) austin city limits sat at 7pm but denise says it really is sandias program in hd!!! i set my dvr to record it at 7pm but will see what happens. if anyone can explain the entire pbs hd and knme hd programming it would be appreciated.

sthscan: i got the same reply. i think denise (knme lady) says knme only broadcasts hd on sat nite 7-10pm but she had no reason why this is the case.

that certainly makes no sense to me (unless they only have one expert available on Saturday evenings who knows how to temporarily take away the PBS-HD feed and play KNME HD material instead on the 5-1 channel).

I wouldn't think it'd be that hard to cut into the PBS-HD feed with local material when available in HD (colores if they still do that, SANDIAS, etc). Maybe my idea of playout is more simpler and doable than it is in reality at KNME-TV.

In any case, once PBS finishes their nationwide satellite system upgrade, things should become much easier at KNME on the playout end of things. KNME can pop into their scheduler/playout application various PBS HD programs and various KNME HD programs in the order KNME desires and those will go out over the 5.1 channel as programmed into the system.


FWIW, Austin City Limits should repeat later in the evening (and maybe on other days, too). It's a national PBS-HD program that is being interrupted at the 7pm airing. Check the PBS-HD schedule at pbs.org for later airings -- you can even print out most of the PBS-HD schedule each week on one piece of paper (both sides) like I do. In that printout, you'll only be missing those rare times that KNME interrupts PBS-HD to show something locally produced in HD.

Why are you guys still using cable? Is it possible to switch to satellite or are there valid reasons for using cable (apartment doesn't allow putting up a dish, etc.)?

I stick with Comcast for the internet service, and I've recently added their phone service to avoid long distance charges. I know that there are other options for both (DSL and Vonage) but for me it's a matter of convience. One bill, and it's all done. I haven't thoroughly researched the options for satellite service enough to want to change...YET. I'm holding out hope that after the 2009 deadline for DTV transmission, Comcast will be forced to improve their service AND will finally add CBS among all the others I want in HD. I can hope, right?

Ryan

I stick with Comcast for the internet service, and I've recently added their phone service to avoid long distance charges. I know that there are other options for both (DSL and Vonage) but for me it's a matter of convience. One bill, and it's all done. I haven't thoroughly researched the options for satellite service enough to want to change...YET. I'm holding out hope that after the 2009 deadline for DTV transmission, Comcast will be forced to improve their service AND will finally add CBS among all the others I want in HD. I can hope, right?

Ryan

Ok, if you want one bill. I have comcast as well but just for their internet service. I have E* for the TV.

Thanks! I was thinking that Directv had the Alb. HD locals... I have the Dish HD locals...LIN keeps CBS from us...

Actually LIN is giving us CBS-HD for free with as little as a pair of Rabbit Ears. Directv Dish and Comcast are the ones keeping CBS-HD away from us.

Antenna does not help me. There's no signal to catch at my house... so CBS is only possible via satellite (no cable either). But, E* and LIN can't seem to come to an agreement. This only really bugs me during football season. I won't watch CBS any other time, since it's not in HD. I suppose LIN's the loser in this case. (or I am).

Actually LIN is giving us CBS-HD for free with as little as a pair of Rabbit Ears. Directv Dish and Comcast are the ones keeping CBS-HD away from us.

Semantics. LIN wants to charge for something other broadcasters do not charge for, and the providers do not want to pay LIN because then they will have to pay other providers.

Cable One in Rio Rancho pays LIN. Therefore Lin is justified as are most of the CBS affiliates who require carriage fees around the country. Refusing to pay forsomething is not the same as having it withheld from you. Old analogy, the Newspaper isn't witholding their paper from me because they lock them up in a box and make me pay 50 cents for it.

At least Dish has OTA tuner in their receivers to pick up CBS/CW/and the rest of the missing local HD channels. Comcast users are paying for TV service where you have to stop using the equipment and service youre renting in order to watch those shows. DISH isnt providing CBS HD but they at least let me record it and receive it with my DVR I pay for each month. Comcast DVRs are useless to record from an OTA source or anyother source for that matter that doesnt come from comcast. Complain to comcast for overcharging you. You might beable to get Free HBO and Showtime from them like I did.

Set your dvrs for Sandias next Sat. at 7pm on KNME. We saw it last night at the dtv user group meeting and it is beautiful; you may wish to save it. The first half was viewed on the station's $14k Panny projector (5 yrs old), and the last half on the new Infocus 1080p which was obviously superior; thank you John Ashman). At the end of the meeting, Mr. Michael Kamins stopped in and answered questions. He is the man who wrote,shot, edited, directed, and I don't know what else. Very professional piece of work by a very professional photographer. (He even knew Ansel Adams!). Even though the soundtrack is only stereo, it is very nicely done and has some original music; this could be your demo piece for a long time to come.
JR

Set your dvrs for Sandias next Sat. at 7pm on KNME. JR

Does next Saturday mean the 17th or the 24th?

It should be the 17th, but don't shoot me if they screw it up.
JR
PS. KNME is back to 1080i, but at a fairly low bit rate. It should still look better than 720p.

It should be the 17th, but don't shoot me if they screw it up.
JR
PS. KNME is back to 1080i, but at a fairly low bit rate. It should still look better than 720p.

My E* guide is showing "Austin City Limits" at 7:00pm on the 17th?

My E* guide is showing "Austin City Limits" at 7:00pm on the 17th?So is TitanTV's Quick Guide for ABQ OTA Digital Broadcasts:

Austin City Limits
Paolo Nutini; Grupo Fantasma (New) 7:00 PM, 1 hr
Sat 11/17/2007
KNMEHD 5.1 (35)
Music/Other
TVPG, English, Letterbox, 2007

Soul-tinged Scottish singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini showcases selections from his 2006 CD, "These Streets." Also: Austin Latin funk band Grupo Fantasma perform.
HDTV - presented in 1080i (Dolby Surround)

I tend to believe our local reporter in this thread though. :rolleyes:

Avio

... PS. KNME is back to 1080i, but at a fairly low bit rate. It should still look better than 720p.Basic DTV question that I've never fully understood: We have six major national affiliate network DTV channels that can be received Over-The-Air in Central NM. Four seem to broadcast in 1080i and two in 720p. Here are the channel specs:

KASADT FOX 2.1 Dolby 16:9 720p

KOBDT NBC 4.1 Dolby 16:9 1080i

KNMEHD PBS 5.1 Dolby 16:9 1080i

KOATDT ABC 7.1 Dolby 16:9 720p

KRQEDT CBS 13.1 Dolby 16:9 1080i

KWBQDT CW 19.1 Dolby 16:9 1080i

1080i looks better on my 2007 Samsung 56" LED DLP RPTV and allows me to set 1:1 pixel mapping. 720p looks worse and 1:1 pixel mapping is not available. As I surf through these six channels the source input is displayed momentarily in the upper right of my screen. All inputs (480, 720, 1080) are up-converted to 1080p by my Sammy.

Why does Fox and ABC in ABQ broadcast in 720p? Is it cheaper? Do they have older equipment?

Do all Fox and ABC affiliates throughout the country broadcast in 720p?

Might Fox and ABC change to 1080i in the future?

Thanks for your comments to clarify these points.

Avio

I think the rational was to have progressive for fast-action sports, which might blur in interlace. At the time of the decision probably 1/2 of sets were 1280x720p especially plasma and LCD (or worse 480p) while the others were 1920x1080i only CRT, if that. Both look crisp on my replacement Samsung HL-T5687, 1080p 120Hz native, with a slight resolution favor to 1080i.
-Ken

So is TitanTV's Quick Guide for ABQ OTA Digital Broadcasts:


I just check www.pbs.org and the local KNME station shows "The Sandias" on the analog station and "Austin City Limits" on the digital station? Who knows?
I guess I will record it at 7:00 and if it's not "The Sandias", I will just delete it.

I think the rational was to have progressive for fast-action sports, which might blur in interlace. At the time of the decision probably 1/2 of sets were 1280x720p especially plasma and LCD (or worse 480p) while the others were 1920x1080i only CRT, if that. Both look crisp on my replacement Samsung HL-T5687, 1080p 120Hz native, with a slight resolution favor to 1080i.
-KenKen, thanks for your reply. Your comments on the history and evolution of 720p helps me understand why it exists.

My set is the HL-T5689. Have you tried tuning one of the 1080i channels and then selecting "Just Scan" with the P.SIZE remote button. I notice a subtle crisping of the picture with this 1:1 pixel mapping mode. Unfortunely, our sets do not save this mode setting for each channel. Therefore, if I surf thru a 720p channel I must reselect "Just Scan" on the next 1080i channel.

I assume your source is OTA via antenna.

Avio

My E* guide is showing "Austin City Limits" at 7:00pm on the 17th?

It's the 17th at 7pm on 5-1 (per KNME earlier this week).

the E* guide apparently just shows the national PBS-HD schedule. You can see Austin City Limits later in the night on 5-1 to make up for the interruption at 7pm.

And don't forget to set your PC's/recorders. This is the only HD airing of SANDIAS this month (and who knows if KNME will air it in HD again in the future or if we would have to wait for national PBS-HD to maybe pick up the program and air it nationally a few times here and there like they do with the Balloon Fiesta HD half-hour program).

I guess I will record it at 7:00 and if it's not "The Sandias", I will just delete it.

That's my plan also. If you like this show, it's available now on sd dvd from the station, with a hd version in blu-ray planned for the future. It is unfortunate that their budget didn't permit 5.1 audio, but this show certainly doesn't look low budget. If your home system permits Dolby Dig. Pro Logic II, it should still sound very impressive. IMO, this show is a must have for all who love Abq. and the Sandias. It contains segments on how they set up the light show on top of the mountain; did you see it?
JR

That's my plan also. If you like this show, it's available now on sd dvd from the station, with a hd version in blu-ray planned for the future. It is unfortunate that their budget didn't permit 5.1 audio, but this show certainly doesn't look low budget. If your home system permits Dolby Dig. Pro Logic II, it should still sound very impressive. IMO, this show is a must have for all who love Abq. and the Sandias. It contains segments on how they set up the light show on top of the mountain; did you see it?
JR

Unfortunately, I didn't see the light show on top of the Sandias.

Why does Fox and ABC in ABQ broadcast in 720p? Is it cheaper? Do they have older equipment?

There is quite the debate on which one is better. Both have benefits and drawbacks. Do a Google search and you can have a full afternoon of reading on this. Here's how I understand it:

1080i has more pixels however it is interlaced. What you are seeing is two alternating 540 pixel frames, with a one pixel offset (frame 1 are the odd numbered lines, frame 2 is the even lines). This is good if there is NOT a lot of motion on the screen (as the previous 540 will still be there). When there is a large area of motion or fast motion, it can't keep up and the picture will appear smeared or blurred.

720p has fewer pixels however every frame is a complete frame. Since every frame is complete there is no smearing effect.

If you have the 5lnb dish you will get KASA (2), KOB (4) and KOAT (7) in HD via sat on Directv. All the other ABQ locals are in SD.

Of course if you are in range, you can hook an antenna to the HR20 and pick up the others OTA. I've noticed that the OTA HD feeds look better than the sat feeds on 2, 4 and 7. It seems they use a lot of compression over the sat.

Another possibility why they look softer then on antenna. I read somewhere that Dish or possibly DirecTV down-res the local into local HD channels to 720P if the station is doing 1080i. While any 720P stations are simply passed on, but all are converted into MPEG4 around 7Mb/s. MPEG4 is more efficient then MPEG2 that broadcasters are using, and most cable outlets.

However this brings me to ask. I've got a TV that will accept both 720P and 1080i, but it's native resolution is 1080i. If dish is converting everything to 720P on locals, would it be better to just set the Dish 622 to output 720P instead of 1080i and let the TV deal with the conversion? It would seem I would be doing the conversion twice, in the 622 and then again in the TV if I go with 1080i. But if I set the 622 to 720P, then everything passed to the TV will never go through any conversion until the TV does this internally. At 720P.

I always remember Dish saying they would pass on whatever they get from the program provider, like ESPN being 720P, while HBO is 1080i. Maybe this was just rumor on another forum. Thanks.

That's my plan also. If you like this show, it's available now on sd dvd from the station, with a hd version in blu-ray planned for the future. It is unfortunate that their budget didn't permit 5.1 audio, but this show certainly doesn't look low budget. If your home system permits Dolby Dig. Pro Logic II, it should still sound very impressive. IMO, this show is a must have for all who love Abq. and the Sandias. It contains segments on how they set up the light show on top of the mountain; did you see it?
JR

I missed the recording because I chose to record the James Bond movie on 19.1. It ended up being in SD so I just deleted it. Was "The Sandias" in HD at 7:00pm yesterday? I checked the knme.org digital schedule and it shows no showing of the program in HD for the whole week. Is it just being broadcast in SD?

"The Sandias" was in HD last night. I recorded it but haven't watched all of it yet.

It was in HD last night and it was impressive!

The show listed on Dish as "The Sandias" was SD..Luckily I caught it right at the beginning. The show listed as "Austin City Limits" was "The Sandias" in HD...I recorded all but the opening scenes.

Dish gives you very obtuse choices whenever there is a recording conflict, and it's always confusing as to what the options they present will actually do....

I recorded it and am playing it back now. Looks really good. I will be saving this one on my PVR.

I think the rational was to have progressive for fast-action sports, which might blur in interlace. At the time of the decision probably 1/2 of sets were 1280x720p especially plasma and LCD (or worse 480p) while the others were 1920x1080i only CRT, if that. Both look crisp on my replacement Samsung HL-T5687, 1080p 120Hz native, with a slight resolution favor to 1080i.
-Ken

On my Samsung HP-S5053, Fox NFL looks the best. I love watching football on Fox. Second best would be ABC and then CBS as far as the OTA signals go. I have messed with converting my TV, and it seems to look the best to me leaving it at 720p vs. 1080i.

On my Samsung HP-S5053, Fox NFL looks the best. I love watching football on Fox. Second best would be ABC and then CBS as far as the OTA signals go. I have messed with converting my TV, and it seems to look the best to me leaving it at 720p vs. 1080i.

Agreed, the 720p stations seem to have the best looking football, likely due to reduced motion blur because of the progressive frame. NBC Sunday Night Football in 1080i is almost unwatchable for me because of all the motion pixelation and blur, does anyone else have this issue?

NBC Sunday Night Football in 1080i is almost unwatchable for me because of all the motion pixelation and blur, does anyone else have this issue?

I wouldn't say it's unwatchable, but just not as clear and sharp as Fox

PBS Alert!!!!

Just saw these two shows posted:

First up is:
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live: Play Hard and Floor It!
9:30 PM, 1 hr 30 min
Sat 11/24/2007
KNME-DT2 5.2 (35)

Second is:
Great Performances
Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Chicago (New) 7:00 PM, 2 hrs
Wed 11/28/2007
KNME-HD 5.1 (35)

Both I think are supposed to be new. Unfortunately it looks like the SRV is not in HD, but at least Clapton is.

Weird, earlier discussions here stated that they only show HD content on Saturday evenings which is when SRV is scheduled. So who knows. Either way, two very good concerts.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - unlikely to be in HD, not necessarily because it may not have been remastered/reworked into HD, but because it appears to be a "KNME Member Favorites" program and not a regularly scheduled national PBS program this week.

Great Performances Clapton should be in HD and aired several times (I count up to six) throughout the week since it is a national PBS program this week.

NBC Sunday Night Football in 1080i is almost unwatchable for me because of all the motion pixelation and blur, does anyone else have this issue?

the only problem I have terrestrially is how the "mesh" below the NBC score line looks (it doesn't seem to encode very well, but it's only a filler in the picture and not important content.

The important part of the content looks fine enough to me, but I prefer the 35 mbit game source signal to the 15 mbit or so terrestrial game signal. :D

The build up all week long for the premier of The Incredibles in HD was.... well incredible.

Imagine what it felt like to turn it on and watch it in beautiful 4:3 SD.


That was amazing guys way to go!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

The build up all week long for the premier of The Incredibles in HD was.... well incredible.

Imagine what it felt like to turn it on and watch it in beautiful 4:3 SD.


That was amazing guys way to go!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

Looks to have been full HD in other markets.....a real missed opportunity to trumpet KOB's HD capabilities with an "A" list title. And the Macy's Parade looked so good earlier in the day......

Then again, anyone that could sit through a network broadcast commercial fest like what we got last night is a better man than I! The family watched about a 1/2 hour's worth, of which I would wager at least 20 minutes were commercials.

Putting aside the fact that it was not HD, last night's Incredibles broadcast did more to promote the need for a DVR than any Tivo commercial could ever do.

Brian

Curious to know:

Was the Thursday night NFL game available in HD on Comcast last night?

I'm going to split whatever the cost of getting NFL Network is with my dad and watch both Cowboys games that are on that channel at his place.

They claimed that was the feed they were getting from the NBC network. I asked then why were they showing full high def commercials all week long for the incredibles?

No answer..............

Looks to have been full HD in other markets.....a real missed opportunity to trumpet KOB's HD capabilities with an "A" list title. And the Macy's Parade looked so good earlier in the day......

Then again, anyone that could sit through a network broadcast commercial fest like what we got last night is a better man than I! The family watched about a 1/2 hour's worth, of which I would wager at least 20 minutes were commercials.

Putting aside the fact that it was not HD, last night's Incredibles broadcast did more to promote the need for a DVR than any Tivo commercial could ever do.

Brian

They claimed that was the feed they were getting from the NBC network. I asked then why were they showing full high def commercials all week long for the incredibles?

No answer..............

I know nothing about how KOB gets their network feeds, but unless many of the posters in this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=941519 are lying, I wish KOB could have gotten on the list to get the "good" feed!

But again, it would have looked pretty, but with commercials every 10 minutes, its not much fun to watch.

Brian

With the recent discussions about video quality on the local broadcast stations, I decided to measure the actual bitrate of the OTA transport streams using TSReader Light v2.8.46a.

Albuquerque DTV Bitrate table

Channel Resolution Bitrate Null Packet*

KASA-DT 2.1 1280 x 720p 16.38 Mbps 2.81 Mbps

KOBDT1 4.1 1920 x 1080i 16.37 Mbps .55 Mbps
KOB-WX 4.2 720 x 480i 1.76 Mbps

KNME-HD 5.1 1920 x 1080i 12.26 Mbps .19 Mbps
KNME-SD 5.2 720 x 480i 2.84 Mbps
V-me 5.3 720 x 480i 2.77 Mbps

KOAT-DT 7.1 1280 x 720p 11.99 Mbps 6.87 Mbps

KRQE-DT 13.1 1920 x 1080i 17.39 Mbps 1.52 Mbps

KWBQ-HD 19.1 1920 x 1080i 12.51 Mbps 6.25 Mbps

KASY-HD 50.1 1920 x 1080i 12.18 Mbps 6.69 Mbps

With KOB transmitting at 16.27 Mbps you would think that the picture quality would be better. KOAT, KNME, KWBQ and KASY low bitrates are disgraceful IMHO. I would like to hear from the station engineers about the rational for using such low bitrates. When KNME first started transmitting HD, picture quality was excellent. With of two additional subchannels the quality is now very disappointing.

*If no packets are available at the multiplexor (low bitrate in the program streams), it inserts null packets to retain the specified TS bitrate of 19.39Mbps. The audio and PID bitrates have not been included in the table above.

Was the Thursday night NFL game available in HD on Comcast last night?


I didn't know comcast had the NFL Network - I thought they were still holding out on adding the channel.

It's at least in HD on other platforms, tho. :D Cowboys/pack going to be a good game (and if all plays out right, could be a preview of the NFC Championship game).

The Family Man was supposed to be in HD last night. KOB gave us 4:3 SD once again.

We were tuned out watching Hairspray on Blu-Ray

The Family Man was supposed to be in HD last night. KOB gave us 4:3 SD once again.

We were tuned out watching Hairspray on Blu-Ray

I don't know what's wrong with KOB but Sean seems to be missing these opportunities. It's been numerous times now that I would have watched something on KOB had it been on HD. I also started to watch "The Family Man" and then found out it wasn't in HD, so tuned somewhere else.

With the recent discussions about video quality on the local broadcast stations, I decided to measure the actual bitrate of the OTA transport streams using TSReader Light v2.8.46a.

Albuquerque DTV Bitrate table

Channel Resolution Bitrate Null Packet*

KASA-DT 2.1 1280 x 720p 16.38 Mbps 2.81 Mbps

KOBDT1 4.1 1920 x 1080i 16.37 Mbps .55 Mbps
KOB-WX 4.2 720 x 480i 1.76 Mbps

KNME-HD 5.1 1920 x 1080i 12.26 Mbps .19 Mbps
KNME-SD 5.2 720 x 480i 2.84 Mbps
V-me 5.3 720 x 480i 2.77 Mbps

KOAT-DT 7.1 1280 x 720p 11.99 Mbps 6.87 Mbps

KRQE-DT 13.1 1920 x 1080i 17.39 Mbps 1.52 Mbps

KWBQ-HD 19.1 1920 x 1080i 12.51 Mbps 6.25 Mbps

KASY-HD 50.1 1920 x 1080i 12.18 Mbps 6.69 Mbps

With KOB transmitting at 16.27 Mbps you would think that the picture quality would be better. KOAT, KNME, KWBQ and KASY low bitrates are disgraceful IMHO. I would like to hear from the station engineers about the rational for using such low bitrates. When KNME first started transmitting HD, picture quality was excellent. With of two additional subchannels the quality is now very disappointing.

*If no packets are available at the multiplexor (low bitrate in the program streams), it inserts null packets to retain the specified TS bitrate of 19.39Mbps. The audio and PID bitrates have not been included in the table above.

Its nice to see the carriage fee's from Cable One are helping KRQE provide the best and highest bitrate of the locals. Imagine what they could do with fees from Comcast and satellite providers. Fire up those Emails.

KOAT said on TV they have a big announcement on Monday. It was leaked to a friend of mine that they will be going HD for their local news shows!!!

Just kidding, I just wish that's what the announcement will be. One can dream.

KOB gave us the rerun of The Incredibles in HD last night.

I guess the pressure of the big football game on KOAT at the same time was just too much to withstand and someone made the hard management decision to expend the extra 1.27 Gigawatts of energy and give us some high def programming finally.......

Guess we need more football games on at the same time as the movies!

:DKOB gave us the rerun of The Incredibles in HD last night.

I guess the pressure of the big football game on KOAT at the same time was just too much to withstand and someone made the hard management decision to expend the extra 1.27 Gigawatts of energy and give us some high def programming finally.......

Guess we need more football games on at the same time as the movies!I too watched this Saturday HD version of The Incredibles and it looked, well... Incredibly Good! :D

Avio

I recorded it on my EyeTV 500. Out of 150 minutes of total run time they put in 44 minutes of commercials! :eek:

I just cut out all the commercials and the movie itself was only 86 minutes. The best part (ha!) was the Powerball ad timed perfectly during the hovercraft chase sequence. The movie was put into a tiny picture in picture while the Powerball drawing was the ginormous rest of the picture. This went on for a full minute!

Oh well guess this will have to do until the Blu-Ray version comes out later in 2008. :p

KOAT said on TV they have a big announcement on Monday. It was leaked to a friend of mine that they will be going HD for their local news shows!!!

Just kidding, I just wish that's what the announcement will be. One can dream.

Ideas I have:

1) Christine Jones joins the 10pm news team, replacing doug fernandez, so I can see 2 cuties anchoring the news Su-Friday

2) Cynthia Izaguirre gets engaged (breaking my heart. ;)

3) longtime "talent" Joe Diaz leaves KOAT-TV (tho it would be a copy cat of Carla Aragon leaving KOB, which is really sad but understandable.)

4) Crybaby Nelson Martinez joining KOAT (and if he quickly doesn't get a 10pm news anchor job, he'll quit as quickly as he joins the station).

5) KOAT expanding all 10 pm newscasts to one hour (with noone caring about Leno and Letterman repeats, why not!)

6) KOAT actually re-airs complete 10pm newscasts for once (it ticks me off that I watch the 1am replays of KOAT every night and the Sunday night 1 hour replay is butchered and not re-aired in its entirety and I've written station management a few times to quit messing around with the re-air so they can show lame teenage acme infomercials after the re-air)

7) With all the KOAT promo hype about the announcement, it could be something lame (surprise! KOAT adds 5 more minutes of commercials in the 10pm newscast, for instance).

I definitely hope it's KOAT launching an HD newscast, and if not, I want #1 or #3 to come true.

I didn't know comcast had the NFL Network - I thought they were still holding out on adding the channel.

It's at least in HD on other platforms, tho. :D Cowboys/pack going to be a good game (and if all plays out right, could be a preview of the NFC Championship game).


I have always heard the same regarding Comcast and NFL Network. I understand the dispute is whether NFL network should be in the "Basic Tier" or an "optional tier". But Comcast website shows NFL Network as channel 275 included in the Digital Sports Package for $5.00 a month along with 11 other channels. I would expect it would also include NFLHD if you subscribe to the HD channels.

KOAT said on TV they have a big announcement on Monday. It was leaked to a friend of mine that they will be going HD for their local news shows!!!

Just kidding, I just wish that's what the announcement will be. One can dream.


Well, I missed it. What was the big announcement on KOAT?

Ryan

Well, I missed it. What was the big announcement on KOAT?

Ryan

Cynthia is going back to Dallas. Not really a BFD

---Kevin

Cynthia is going back to Dallas. Not really a BFD

---Kevin

makes sense considering that is where her family is (mom and siblings).

Christine Jones, Christine Jones, Christine jones (new 10pm anchor, please!!!!)

BTW, my HD local news pool money is still with KRQE/KASA as first local news on the air in HD. The way their SD pic looks, I have to think they have a lot of the infrastructure from a studio standpoint already in place since they have the best looking SD studio shots and graphics of any local news.

HA I new it was too good to be true. Oh well still no local HD news.

Cynthia is going back to Dallas. Not really a BFD

---Kevin

Geeze, KOB didn't have any kind big build up when they announced Carla was leaving. Of course we have to see weeks of best of Carla clips coming up, but at least no stupid BIG announcement run-up.

Who Cares

Hi Albuquerque folks! I will be transfering to ABQ from Austin TX in the next month or two. I am wondering how you feel about Comcast. (loaded question, huh!)

I have been a DirecTV user for years, and hate to give up my two TiVo's, but am considering Comcast for the ease of installation and packaging phone and 'net with cable.

What HD-DVR does Comcast offer in ABQ? I use two direcTivo's on my home theatre (can record 4 shows at once). Can two Comcast HD-DVR's be used in the same room, controlled by different remote signals?

I see from the info in this thread that the local CBS affiliate is not offered in HD on Comcast or satellite. Does the Comcast HD-DVR have an antenna connection, so that I can pull and record CBS-HD via antenna?

Thanks for any input you can offer. :)

Geeze, KOB didn't have any kind big build up when they announced Carla was leaving. Of course we have to see weeks of best of Carla clips coming up, but at least no stupid BIG announcement run-up.

Who Cares

You mean you don't like to see Carla in her heyday? :eek: Bad enough she can never string a sentence together. :p

makes sense considering that is where her family is (mom and siblings).

Christine Jones, Christine Jones, Christine jones (new 10pm anchor, please!!!!)

BTW, my HD local news pool money is still with KRQE/KASA as first local news on the air in HD. The way their SD pic looks, I have to think they have a lot of the infrastructure from a studio standpoint already in place since they have the best looking SD studio shots and graphics of any local news.

I'm right there with you. Went to back home to Boston to catch a couple of World Series games (Dad has season tickets from my great grandfather) and I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the major networks were broadcasting in HD. Of course I had to go home and tweak my Dads whole setup (part of the deal for the tickets) but it'd be nice if that was the case in this small market too. :rolleyes: I think I would actually watch KRQE news if that was the case. I can't watch standard anything anymore. :o

You mean you don't like to see Carla in her heyday? :eek: Bad enough she can never string a sentence together. :p



I'm right there with you. Went to back home to Boston to catch a couple of World Series games (Dad has season tickets from my great grandfather) and I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the major networks were broadcasting in HD. Of course I had to go home and tweak my Dads whole setup (part of the deal for the tickets) but it'd be nice if that was the case in this small market too. :rolleyes: I think I would actually watch KRQE news if that was the case. I can't watch standard anything anymore. :o

Me too, I would switch to KRQE if it was on HD. I disagree with the person that wants Christine Jones to replace Cynthia because she came here from no where and didn't work the trenches as a reporter in NM first before becoming an anchor.

Hi Albuquerque folks! I will be transfering to ABQ from Austin TX in the next month or two. I am wondering how you feel about Comcast. (loaded question, huh!)

I have been a DirecTV user for years, and hate to give up my two TiVo's, but am considering Comcast for the ease of installation and packaging phone and 'net with cable.

What HD-DVR does Comcast offer in ABQ? I use two direcTivo's on my home theatre (can record 4 shows at once). Can two Comcast HD-DVR's be used in the same room, controlled by different remote signals?

I see from the info in this thread that the local CBS affiliate is not offered in HD on Comcast or satellite. Does the Comcast HD-DVR have an antenna connection, so that I can pull and record CBS-HD via antenna?

Thanks for any input you can offer. :)


Comcast here just offers the SA-8000 and SA-8300 dvrs. Dont look for FUNCTIONAL 1394 ports on them. They can be used in same room but not independantly with two remotes. meaning one remote will work both. unless youre creative in covering them or putting them in a cabinet. The DVRs DO NOT offer OTA tuners to compensate for missing local channels.

If you live in the Albuquerque Proper area under comcast you will have to wait another 447 days for the end of the Digital transition before you see CBS-HD on comcast. Comcast refuses to pay CBS a carriage fee for their HD signal. CableONE http://www.cableone.net which serves Rio Rancho, the metro area directly adjacent to Albuquerque on the north side, carries CBS in HD. they carry about 15 channels in hd.

450 HBO HDTV HBO in HDTV

451 SHOWTIME HDTV Showtime HDTV

453 TMC HD The Movie Channel HD

455 ABC HD ABC Network in HD

460 CBS HD CBS in HD

465 NBC HD NBC in HD

475 FOX HD KASA FOX in HD

490 UNIVERSAL HD Universal HD

491 ESPN HD ESPN in HDTV

492 ESPN2 HD ESPN2 HD

494 HD THEATER HD THEATER

495 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD

496 A&E HD A&E HD

497 HGTV HD HGTV HD

498 FOOD NETWORK HD FOOD NETWORK HD


Personally I think you would be wise, extremely wise, to stick with your satellite provider of choice with an OTA friendly DVR. All the networks broadcast from Sandia Crest which can be seen from practically anywhere in town so you will have no problems with reception and get all your local hd channels via satellite or OTA for seamless integration. Comcast just isnt worth the material I flushed this morning if youre concerned about Network HD which they fail to provide to their paying customers.

Hope you enjoy your time here in the land of Manana, the land of not today.

Thanks for the info, bigglare. :) You have been quite helpful in assisting me with making an educated decision. It sounds like sticking with my current hardware and provider would be the best choice at this time.