The NCAA Tournament thread indicated that some stations would put only HD on their digital side. That means the SD games I'm interested in (Dallas is only SD, even though Mark Cuban has the Mavs in HD at AAC all the time) might be shown only on the analog side. I want to record the games, but I don't know whether I'll get them on the digital side.

I called KTVT, but I only got voice mail. I left a message, but no-one has returned my call. Please give them a call and let us all know if you have better luck.

Xesdeeni

Thanks for the advice, ppl!
Re-scan did fix the problem! :)

Nevermind. It must have been a bad connector on the cable. I substituted a RG6 coax to the wall outlet and digital reception is great.

We Live in Plano. We just purchased the Samsung 42" DLP TV. It has an intergrated ATSC tuner. We get lousy reception on it. Only Ch 11-1 locks. We have two other ATSC tuners in the house - the Zenith SAT520 and a MyHD 120 card in the computer. Both pull mulitple channels without much problems. I have an amplifier on both of these. The SAT520 has great reception and I rarely have dropped channels.

Could wiring be the problem? The SAT520 has satellite grade coax running to it. The MyHD card and the Sammy has regular coax running to it.

Also, I noticed something strange. We have our antenna mounted to the top of our home. When it is was first installed, the channels were as clear as cable. Overtime, reception has decreased and channel 4 has more and more ghosting. Any ideas?

Thanks,
AlrightyThen

Hey guys. I've searched through this thread and find that others are having probs with WFAA. I just bought a Terk HDTVi antenna and it receives every single Dallas HD station extremely well except one. Can you guess which one? I can get the normal channel 8, just barely, but 8.1 and 8.2 don't even register. I've raised the rabbit ears on the Terk and moved it around the room to no avail. I've even stretched it as far as I could outside onto the patio, granted I'm facing south.

I am in Plano in an apt on the third floor facing south, btw. So, do I have to buy a $100 antenna and secretly put it on the roof of the apartment one night just to watch Invasion on Wednesdays? I've never seen the show and I wanted my first time to be in HD last night, but I couldn't even get the regular 8 to come in clear enough. :( I've never seen Lost either and it seems I still will never see it? :p

I spoke with the program director at KTVT (11). It seems that he's between a rock and a hard place on carrying games, so he's doing the best he can. When games are of "local interest," he's simulcasting them on the digital side, even if that means an SD upconvert. But when there is no game of that type, the HD feed will be on the digital side. For example, this means that the Oklahoma and Texas A&M games, which are in SD, will be on both the analog and digital sides. But tomorrow, the Arkansas game (which is deemed not to be of local interest (http://www.hogfan.com/)) will only be on the analog side, while an HD game will be on the digital side. Also, for those games that are of local interest, he's requested that CBS give him a feed that would not switch away from that game. He said they don't have to give him such a feed, but he's requested them.

Xesdeeni

Xesdeeni,

Thanks. That is good info and helps to explain a situation in advance that would be very confusing otherwise.

Mabye some of you can use this as a reference to signals from Dallas OTA to possibly help you troubleshoot problems.

Situation here is:

D* H-20
Channel Master deep fringe antenna. (circa 1977)
Channel master CM-7777 AMP
40 foot tower.

I live 90 nautical miles NE of Cedar Hill

Signal levels of the major nets as of this posting are:

KDFW 4-1: 100% Solid

KXAS 5-1: 98-100% fluctuating

WFAA 8-1: 82-93 fluctuating HEAVILY!!!

KTVT 11-1: 100% Solid

KERA 13-1: 84-86% fluctuating

KTXA 21-1: 100% Solid

KDAF 33-1: 100% Solid

WFAA has been weak here lately.

Does Channel 11 have a 11-2. I did not get one in scan?

On Channel 11-1, they are showing the AFA-ILL game in SD. On Dish Network Channel 9483 which is CBS New York, they are showing the same game in HD. I don't understand why Channel 11-1 is not using the HD feed.

No 11-2............YET

So Comcast has no games whatsoever in HD on Thurs. If Verizon doesn't get their act together and get me FIOS soon, I may have to go DTV or D*. I hate Comcast. They suck worse than my high school girlfriend with braces!

Hey guys. I've searched through this thread and find that others are having probs with WFAA. I just bought a Terk HDTVi antenna and it receives every single Dallas HD station extremely well except one. Can you guess which one? I can get the normal channel 8, just barely, but 8.1 and 8.2 don't even register. I've raised the rabbit ears on the Terk and moved it around the room to no avail. I've even stretched it as far as I could outside onto the patio, granted I'm facing south.

I have the same antenna. I live about 30 miles away from the towers, around I-30 and 635, and I was not able to pick up 8.1, 8.2 or 8.3 until I moved the antenna outside. I have to bring it in every night because I am not sure it is grounded correctly, but it is worth it to finally be able to pull in WFAA.

My advice, set it up on the balcony or near a window that faces s/w and do a channel rescan. Walls really seem to interfere with VNF signals more than UHF ones.

I have the same antenna. I live about 30 miles away from the towers, around I-30 and 635, and I was not able to pick up 8.1, 8.2 or 8.3 until I moved the antenna outside. I have to bring it in every night because I am not sure it is grounded correctly, but it is worth it to finally be able to pull in WFAA.

My advice, set it up on the balcony or near a window that faces s/w and do a channel rescan. Walls really seem to interfere with VNF signals more than UHF ones.

Thanks. Yeah, I was thinking I might have to extend the cable so I can place the antenna outside. I've just begun reading about HD OTA, so I'm kinda n00b at it, but did ABC just choose to use a really low VHF signal for their HD on purpose so that most could not pick it up? I was reading that Dallas' ABC station was the first to broadcast in HD so shouldn't they be ahead of the curve? Or did all the other stations, including the spanish stations???, learn from ABC's mistake of using VHF?

Thanks. Yeah, I was thinking I might have to extend the cable so I can place the antenna outside. I've just begun reading about HD OTA, so I'm kinda n00b at it, but did ABC just choose to use a really low VHF signal for their HD on purpose so that most could not pick it up? I was reading that Dallas' ABC station was the first to broadcast in HD so shouldn't they be ahead of the curve? Or did all the other stations, including the spanish stations???, learn from ABC's mistake of using VHF?

If I remember correctly, when analog goes away and bandwidth is reallocated ABC won't be alone on VHF. You might try reading back or searching for posts by Thomas Desmond in this thread...he definitely has the scoop on this stuff. I am pretty sure he lined out what it is going to look like when we go all digital....


-Randy

KTVT/CBS has already decided to return to channel 11 for their digital signal when they turn off the analog on ch. 11.

So WFAA won't be the only station on VHF. High VHF requires much less power to achieve the same coverage area as UHF. So stations with VHF digital allocations will save some money on their electric bills.

Some say the upper VHF band (ch. 7-13) is as good or better than UHF for digital transmission.

You will need a decent VHF/UHF antenna to get both bands though.

Low band VHF stations like KDFW4 and KXAS5 get better coverage on UHF than returning to their analog frequency because the low channel numbers are extremely prone to interference for ATSC/digital transmission.

Here's a LINK (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2649A2.pdf) with a partial list of final channel elections.

I don't quite fully understand the frequency specifications and why one is preferable over the others, but from my very limited experience with the cheap-ish $40 Terk hdtvi, in my 3rd floor apartment which faces South and the only windows being on the south side, I can get every single station, HD or analog, perfectly, crystal clear. Every single channel but 8.1. I can even get 8 perfectly. So why, out of 26 or so stations here, can I not get 8.1? I can't even get my TV to see it as a station.

For instance, I have the Sony GW42" (42we655), and on the menu it will show a normal station as just say 9. But digital channels show up like -11 and to the side it has .1 and .2. Channel 8 shows up as merely a single 8 with no digital sub signal. Even poking the antenna outside a little won't help. If I set the channel to 8.1 it shows static and "no signal". I guess I'd have to run it all the way round to have a clear view of the Southwest?

KTVT/CBS has already decided to return to channel 11 for their digital signal when they turn off the analog on ch. 11.

So WFAA won't be the only station on VHF. High VHF requires much less power to achieve the same coverage area as UHF. So stations with VHF digital allocations will save some money on their electric bills.

Some say the upper VHF band (ch. 7-13) is as good or better than UHF for digital transmission.

You will need a decent VHF/UHF antenna to get both bands though.

Low band VHF stations like KDFW4 and KXAS5 get better coverage on UHF than returning to their analog frequency because the low channel numbers are extremely prone to interference for ATSC/digital transmission.

Here's a LINK (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2649A2.pdf) with a partial list of final channel elections.

From what I've read, the Terk hdtvi, is much more of a UHF antenna. The VHF portion of this combo is the rabbit ears portion, according to the manufacturer's user guide. They put more into the UHF section, because the majority of digital stations (currently) are UHF.

Try shortening and re-orienting the rabbit ears to get a better signal on WFAA. High VHF channels require shorter antenna element. The low band stations use longer dipoles.

One reason you may not be picking up WFAA... if the signal from the analog VHF stations (8 and 11) are overpowering your receiver, the digital signal won't come in. Same thing on UHF. A strong analog UHF signal can interfere with the digital channel.

This Terk you are using is not amplified. If you're close to the towers and have added an external amplifer, that could be overloading the tuner.

FYI - WFAA will be returning to channel 8 for their final digital allocation.

I'm in Plano on Ohio and Park Blvd, I assume about ~15 miles or so from the transmitters? Channel 8 DOES come in perfectly clear. The rabbit ears work wonderfully on the Terk, although that's not what I bought it for. I don't really watch network television and the only reason I bought this antenna was to see Invasion in HD. I've never seen the show so I paid $40 so I could see what I am told I am missing. Anyways, I figured if the analog channel 8 came in perfectly, why does 8.1 not come in at all? I would surmise the antenna would at least sense that there was some kind of digital sub channel for the 8 frequency and relay that to the TV and not necessarily get an image, but it doesn't pick up the .1 or .2 whatsoever.

Overpowering makes some sense to me (not completely, tho), but I'm far from the towers and I have no amplification. My TV has a built in HD tuner and all digital channels in Dallas come in crystal clear.

BTW, my girlfriend was skeptical about HDTV. She'd never seen it and said she had no idea what all these guys are so excited about. It kind of got on her nerves... until I showed her side by side picture-in-picture with some CBS crime drama. One side was HD the other the same channel from Comcast. Her jaw dropped and she knelt down in front of the TV and started laughing and pointing out the actors' pimples and marks on their teeth, little drawings on the walls in the bathroom, etc. It was too funny. :D So, this antenna works gr8.

From what I've read, the Terk hdtvi, is much more of a UHF antenna. The VHF portion of this combo is the rabbit ears portion, according to the manufacturer's user guide. They put more into the UHF section, because the majority of digital stations (currently) are UHF.

Try shortening and re-orienting the rabbit ears to get a better signal on WFAA. High VHF channels require shorter antenna element. The low band stations use longer dipoles.

One reason you may not be picking up WFAA... if the signal from the analog VHF stations (8 and 11) are overpowering your receiver, the digital signal won't come in. Same thing on UHF. A strong analog UHF signal can interfere with the digital channel.

This Terk you are using is not amplified. If you're close to the towers and have added an external amplifer, that could be overloading the tuner.

FYI - WFAA will be returning to channel 8 for their final digital allocation.

Some say the upper VHF band (ch. 7-13) is as good or better than UHF for digital transmission.


When the band conditions are favorable.

When the analog signals go away, both bands should improve. Skip makes DX viewing interesting from time to time (and that goes for both VHF and UHF).

If I remember correctly, when analog goes away and bandwidth is reallocated ABC won't be alone on VHF. You might try reading back or searching for posts by Thomas Desmond in this thread...he definitely has the scoop on this stuff. I am pretty sure he lined out what it is going to look like when we go all digital....


We'll end up with three digital VHF channels after the transition -- both WFAA and KTVT are going back to their analog channels in the end (although I believe KTVT had to work an issue involving interference with KXII/12 up in Sherman). So that means that WFAA-DT will move from channel 9 to channel 8, and KTVT-DT will move from channel 19 back to channel 11.

Interestingly, channel 9 will not be going blank when WFAA-DT goes back to 8: KFWD-DT will move to channel 9.

Everyone else will be UHF -- but having both CBS and ABC affiliates on VHF will make a VHF antenna a necessity in this area. I suspect most of us are bit more indifferent when it comes to KFWD.

I'm in Plano on Ohio and Park Blvd, I assume about ~15 miles or so from the transmitters? Channel 8 DOES come in perfectly clear.


FYI...

The Plano Pkwy and Ohio intersection is 31.8 miles from the Cedar Hill transmitters, as the crow flies.

I suspect most of us are bit more indifferent when it comes to KFWD.

Not necessarily! I'm a Tech grad, and they cover us pretty well there. If they were to resume televising Astros games, I would be a very regular viewer...

-Randy

Polymorphic...If you're 30+ miles from Cedar Hill, an amplified antenna should make a difference, especially if you're on a lower floor or have an obstructed view to the SSW.

That far north, you also might try picking up KXII out of Sherman, depending on which direction your apartment faces.

Anyone here have any inside info on when Comcast will finish upgrading dallas/richardson to a single line system from the dual line system? For those that aren't aware, the current a/b cable system prevents dallas/richardson residents from getting a dual tuner DVR. The single tuner is horrible...you cannot watch another channel or a previously recorded show when you're recording something. It's just like a VCR.

over at dslreports, they keep saying "when time warner takes over, things will be better.." ..well duh, but does anyone know a date?

If it's going to take till nov/dec, I'll have to look into other recording options.

I would not trust anything very fast on comcast changing to a single cable. I used to use Comcast (4 years ago). I have been using Dish Network since then and have been very satified. I have a dual tuner HD DVR that works very good. They have just come out with a MPEG 4 model 622. I receives HD OTA currently and will be getting HD from sat soon.

...and will be getting HD from sat soon.

Just to clarify, the ViP622 obviously already receives HD via sat. drjdan is referring to HD-LIL in the DFW DMA coming soon.

Polymorphic...If you're 30+ miles from Cedar Hill, an amplified antenna should make a difference, especially if you're on a lower floor or have an obstructed view to the SSW.In general, amplification on an antenna will amplify noise as well as the desired signal. It will almost never improve your reception. However, if you are in a particularly noisy environment, amplifying the signal (and noise) at the antenna before sending it down the coax will give it a better chance of reaching the tuner. This is especially true for outdoor antennas, where the nice focused reception of the antenna is attacked from all sides as it runs down the antenna pole.

But in general, always opt for a larger, better quality antenna over the hyped (and more expensive) "HD-ready," amplified gimics.

Xesdeeni

I have a dual tuner HD DVR that works very good. They have just come out with a MPEG 4 model 622. I receives HD OTA currently and will be getting HD from sat soon.


Yeah, I have the ViP622 and am loving it. I can't wait for DFW to be broadcast over sat in HD as often I am recording 2 shows simultaneously and would like both in HD...

liferules,

Did they install one of the new Dish 1000 dish with your VIP622?

liferules,

Did they install one of the new Dish 1000 dish with your VIP622?

Yes, I received the Dish 1000, which I really like as it has an even smaller form factor on the roof...

Overall, I'm having a good experience with the 622, no major audio problems (other than the live sound bug), and no reboot bugs either...

What is the live sound bug? Did they remove your old dish? Do you get NBC New York with the 1000?

liferules,

I mean CBS New York. I currenly get it with a separate disk on 61.5 sat.

I would not trust anything very fast on comcast changing to a single cable. I used to use Comcast (4 years ago). I have been using Dish Network since then and have been very satified. I have a dual tuner HD DVR that works very good. They have just come out with a MPEG 4 model 622. I receives HD OTA currently and will be getting HD from sat soon.
Hi...
I was just checking out the Dish site on the 622...the way I read it, you can only record one HD channel at a time...is that correct? The way they present it isn't all that clear since it is talking about the multi-TV scenario, but it states this:

• Independently watch and record programming on two TVs
o TV1: View and record high definition or standard definition programming
o TV2: View and record standard definition or down-converted high definition programming

Anyway, I am just curious since I might be looking around for another option when my killer deal with Comcast runs out. I've really been pretty happy with them overall, but it never hurts to know what is available....

Thanks!
-Randy

You can record two channels that Dish broadcast over the sat and one channel OTA local digital (you have to have antenna for this) at the same time. Since you qualify to get CBS New York on the sat, you can thus record CBS New York (which is same as channel 11 local) and then one of the other network locals (channel 4, 5 or 8) off the air. So you can be recording three channels at one time and at the same time be watching a show you had recorded earlier. You have to request CBS New York channel, but it is free.

You can record two channels that Dish broadcast over the sat and one channel OTA local digital (you have to have antenna for this) at the same time. Since you qualify to get CBS New York on the sat, you can thus record CBS New York (which is same as channel 11 local) and then one of the other network locals (channel 4, 5 or 8) off the air. So you can be recording three channels at one time and at the same time be watching a show you had recorded earlier. You have to request CBS New York channel, but it is free.

Cool...thanks for the reply. They don't do a very good job of conveying that on their website. You'd think they would be really hitting that kind of capability hard! One more question, if you don't mind...like almost all HD recorders I've seen, the HD storage capacity sounds somewhat limited...is there any method for expanding this on the 622?

Thanks again...
-Randy

OK, I have an odd situation that has seemingly worked out in my favor. I currently live in Dallas off Forest Ln/75 and I've been in a struggle getting the indoor antenna I bought to receive channels of any kind. The only thing that would come in HD was Fox. So yesterday, I finally said forget it, I'll just live without HD for a while until I buy an outdoor antenna.

I plugged the cable from the antenna back into the wall and rescanned the channels on the TV. When it was finished, I flipped around to see what all it picked up. I got up into the Channel 82 area there were the main networks, broadcasting in HD! It is coming in absolutely perfect and no antenna is required.

Now, I'm curious as to how this is possible. I had thought that you HAD to have an antenna to pick up OTA HD signals. Now I live in a townhome in a large apartment complex, so is it possible that I'm receiving the HD channels via the apartment's antenna? I found this a bit odd, but whatever, I'm getting the HD channels now so that's all that really matters. If any of you live in an apartment complex, try plugging the cable into the wall and rescanning the channels. You may not have to bother with an antenna afterall.

liferules,

I mean CBS New York. I currenly get it with a separate disk on 61.5 sat.

The sound bug: where on most receivers after the L355 upgrade cannot get sound when viewing live performances, so you have to "skip back" a few seconds and then the sound is back.

Yes, they removed my old dish, too the usable parts and left me with the metal dish part which I scrapped.

I don't know about CBS-NY. I get HD OTA CBS and am loving all the CSI in HD.

...I've been in a struggle getting the indoor antenna I bought to receive channels of any kind...I plugged the cable from the antenna back into the wall and rescanned the channels on the TV....I got up into the Channel 82 area there were the main networks, broadcasting in HD! It is coming in absolutely perfect and no antenna is required.

Now, I'm curious as to how this is possible. I had thought that you HAD to have an antenna to pick up OTA HD signals.Your complex apparently has basic cable installed. Many cable companies (including Comcast) receive the OTA digital broadcasts and pump them down the cable. Apparently your tuner can handle the QAM modulation scheme used on cable (instead of the 8VSB used OTA). And federal law requires that these stations be left in the clear (unscrambled) and in the basic tier when they are carried. The most obvious tipoff is that the channel numbers changed.

Xesdeeni

In general, amplification on an antenna will amplify noise as well as the desired signal. It will almost never improve your reception. However, if you are in a particularly noisy environment, amplifying the signal (and noise) at the antenna before sending it down the coax will give it a better chance of reaching the tuner. This is especially true for outdoor antennas, where the nice focused reception of the antenna is attacked from all sides as it runs down the antenna pole.

Xesdeeni, I could not agree with you more. I have been in the radio and wireless industries for 25 years and learned long ago that a broadband amp will just amplify the desired signal along with the noise coming from the antenna. This is particularly true with analog television stations. However with digital channels it seems that the broadband amps do help. I could not receive most of the digital channels at my Keller location (behind a hill) on my current boom antenna, particularly channel 8-1 and 27-1, for obvious reasons.

I was skeptical about the amps but tried one out of desperation. It was either that or nothing. I now get every digital OTA channel in the 80s or 90s on my D* H20 receiver. If I remove the amp I get none of them. My guess is that the new digital receivers are able to use bit error correction and DSP to solve many problems caused by amplified signal and noise that an analog receiver would be swamped by. The amplification and receiver improvements are just enough to recover an otherwise unusable digital channel.

What do you think? Maybe there is something I could learn here.

Your complex apparently has basic cable installed. Many cable companies (including Comcast) receive the OTA digital broadcasts and pump them down the cable. Apparently your tuner can handle the QAM modulation scheme used on cable (instead of the 8VSB used OTA). And federal law requires that these stations be left in the clear (unscrambled) and in the basic tier when they are carried. The most obvious tipoff is that the channel numbers changed.

Xesdeeni

Ahhh, makes sense. Thanks!

I was skeptical about the amps but tried one out of desperation. It was either that or nothing. I now get every digital OTA channel in the 80s or 90s on my D* H20 receiver. If I remove the amp I get none of them. My guess is that the new digital receivers are able to use bit error correction and DSP to solve many problems caused by amplified signal and noise that an analog receiver would be swamped by. The amplification and receiver improvements are just enough to recover an otherwise unusable digital channel.

What do you think? Maybe there is something I could learn here.You'd need to describe a bit more about your setup. Is this an externa antenna? Is it on a pole? What type of unpowered antenna did you use in lieu of a powered (amplified) one?

Xesdeeni

You'd need to describe a bit more about your setup. Is this an externa antenna? Is it on a pole? What type of unpowered antenna did you use in lieu of a powered (amplified) one?

The setup is basic. An 8' Radio Shack boom antenna, mounted in the crest of the attic, pointed at Cedar Hill. No mast, just suspended from the rafters with vinyl wire. 5' of RG6 connects the antenna to the 7777 preamp. A 50' run of RG6 connects the preamp to the 7777 power supply behind my H20 OTA receiver. 5' more of RG6 connects the power supply to the antenna input of the receiver.

That's it. Without the amp I cannot get any digital channels. For that matter, without the H20 receiver I cannot get any digital channels either. I tried a Sam TS360 and a Sylvania ATSC tuner. Neither was sensitive enough to receive more than one or two channels. With the H20 and a careful setup I can get all of them.

Cool...thanks for the reply. They don't do a very good job of conveying that on their website. You'd think they would be really hitting that kind of capability hard! One more question, if you don't mind...like almost all HD recorders I've seen, the HD storage capacity sounds somewhat limited...is there any method for expanding this on the 622?

Thanks again...
-Randy


In the furture the USB port is suppose to support an external hard drive. But until then, you are stuck with the size it is.

In the furture the USB port is suppose to support an external hard drive. But until then, you are stuck with the size it is.

Thanks again...hopefully they won't do what Comcast did and decide later on *not* to enable it....

-Randy

Cool...thanks for the reply. They don't do a very good job of conveying that on their website. You'd think they would be really hitting that kind of capability hard! One more question, if you don't mind...like almost all HD recorders I've seen, the HD storage capacity sounds somewhat limited...is there any method for expanding this on the 622?

Thanks again...
-Randy

Randy, I believe the 622 is 'quoted' for 25 hours of HD recording time. This is a 'guide' because that would be 25 hours of say HDNet or CBS 11 HD OTA, 2 of the channels that get the most bandwith. As you go down the compression side (3 channels per transponder on Sat, or Local HD with multi-cast, or finally down to 720p stations), they take up less and less space. Finally, the HD channels on Sat that are in MPEG4 are taking up even less space (I believe its about 40 min of drive space for every 1 hr show). So, 25 hrs is the fewest # of hours it has available. More likely 30-35 hrs of HD. Also, that equats to about 180 hrs of SD (which itself also has variations based on Sat compression). These are the same specs that the 942 had, except the 942 won't do the newer MPEG4 compression schemes (and therefore the DFW locals being launched in 2Q06 or any new HD channels that Dish Network puts up, such as ESPN2 and Universal HD launched on Feb 1st or Food Network HD / HGTV that have been announced as being carried when they go live).

As to the other question on what you can record, the box has 3 tuners in it, 2 SAT tuners and 1 OTA tuner, and you can record all 3 at the same time. And all 3 can be recording a different HD channel. However, until the 4,5,11 (and hopefully 8 if Belo plays nicely) launch on Sat sometime in 2Q06, only one of those can be a local HD channel. Once again, same specs for the 942 and 622.

Hope that helps.

KTVT/CBS has already decided to return to channel 11 for their digital signal when they turn off the analog on ch. 11.

So WFAA won't be the only station on VHF. High VHF requires much less power to achieve the same coverage area as UHF. So stations with VHF digital allocations will save some money on their electric bills.

Some say the upper VHF band (ch. 7-13) is as good or better than UHF for digital transmission.

You will need a decent VHF/UHF antenna to get both bands though.

Low band VHF stations like KDFW4 and KXAS5 get better coverage on UHF than returning to their analog frequency because the low channel numbers are extremely prone to interference for ATSC/digital transmission.

Here's a LINK (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2649A2.pdf) with a partial list of final channel elections.

Nice Document. I pulled out all the DFW Area channels for those having a hard time remembering all the call letters (like myself):

KDAF (WB 33): Current ATSC: 32 New ATSC: 32 (Future CW station)
KDFW (Fox 4): Current ATSC: 35 New ATSC: 35
KDFI (Ind 27): Current ATSC: 36 New ATSC: 36
KDTN (Day 2): Current ATSC: 43 new ATSC: 43
KDTX (TBN 58): Current ATSC: 45 New ATSC: 45
KERA (PBS 13): Current ATSC: 14 New ATSC: 14
KFWD (Ind 52): Current ATSC: 51 New ATSC: 9
KLDT (Ind 55): Current ATSC: 54 New ATSC: 39
KMPX (Day 29): Current ATSC: 30 New ATSC: 30
KPXD (PAX 68): Current ATSC: 42 New ATSC: 42
KSTR (Uni 49): Current ATSC: 48 New ATSC: 48
KTVT (CBS 11): Current ATSC: 19 New ATSC: 11
KTXA (UPN 21): Current ATSC: 18 New ATSC: 18
KUVN (Uni 23): Current ATSC: 24 New ATSC: 23
KXAS (NBC 5): Current ATSC: 41 New ATSC: 41
KXTX (Tel 39): Current ATSC: 40 New ATSC: 40
KXII (CBS 12): Current ATSC: 20 New ATSC: 12 (Sherman)
WFAA (ABC 8): Current ATSC: 9 New ATSC: 8

The setup is basic. An 8' Radio Shack boom antenna, mounted in the crest of the attic, pointed at Cedar Hill. No mast, just suspended from the rafters with vinyl wire. 5' of RG6 connects the antenna to the 7777 preamp. A 50' run of RG6 connects the preamp to the 7777 power supply behind my H20 OTA receiver. 5' more of RG6 connects the power supply to the antenna input of the receiver.

That's it. Without the amp I cannot get any digital channels. For that matter, without the H20 receiver I cannot get any digital channels either. I tried a Sam TS360 and a Sylvania ATSC tuner. Neither was sensitive enough to receive more than one or two channels. With the H20 and a careful setup I can get all of them.Yeah, you basically have what I was recommending above. Your amplification is occurring near the antenna, before piping it into your home. Homes can be noisy (electronically), connections lose signal (3 dB per connection), and if you are splitting the signal, it degrades. But you are amplifying both the signal and the noise. However, this ensures that any additional noise encountered as the signal makes its way to your receiver is very low in amplitude compared to the original signal and noise, so it doesn't hurt much.

The bottom line is that it isn't increasing your reception, it just ensures the signal reaches your receiver. You'd get a similar effect with a distribution amplifier placed in the attic, which is what I do. I've also tried a 7775 (brother of the 7777, but which removes one balun transformer from the circuit when connected to my antenna, keeping a bit more signal) and found it actually wasn't quite as effective as my distribution amplifier. Leaving both in the circuit overdrove the receivers, so I took the 7775 back.

But what I was mostly referring to above were the over-priced, powered antennas that people are being told they must use for (H)DTV. They are physically inferior, so they receive less signal and more noise. They then amplify both signal and noise, but they don't increase the reception itself. A bigger antenna, like you and I have will work much better. And even if you have to add an amplifier (pre-amp or distribution) as we've done, you'll still come out cheaper.

Xesdeeni

As to the other question on what you can record, the box has 3 tuners in it, 2 SAT tuners and 1 OTA tuner, and you can record all 3 at the same time. And all 3 can be recording a different HD channel. However, until the 4,5,11 (and hopefully 8 if Belo plays nicely) launch on Sat sometime in 2Q06, only one of those can be a local HD channel. Once again, same specs for the 942 and 622.

Hope that helps.


Randy, As dishbacker said you can only record one local HD currenly since they all come OTA. But if you add CBS New York to your account (no charge in Dallas area), you will have the prime time HD shows at the same time as Channel 11 local. This allows you to then record prime time CBS and one of the other networks as the same time. CBS New York requires 61.5 sat with old 942 setup. Not sure if the new Dish 1000 is has it on the sat's it has or not. I had to add a second dish.

What sat's does your Dish 1000 get?

I found a good antenna installation guy, who did the work for me (for a reasonable price). I actually had a pretty hard time finding anyone who would do this job.

I forgot to mention...for anyone who is looking to purchase and install an OTA antenna, Circuit City sells Winegard antennas and also installs them (can't remember the exact price, but somewhere less than $100 for the install part)... certainly the best price I've been quoted in the area.

Just FYI...

Randy, As dishbacker said you can only record one local HD currenly since they all come OTA. But if you add CBS New York to your account (no charge in Dallas area), you will have the prime time HD shows at the same time as Channel 11 local. This allows you to then record prime time CBS and one of the other networks as the same time. CBS New York requires 61.5 sat with old 942 setup. Not sure if the new Dish 1000 is has it on the sat's it has or not. I had to add a second dish.

What sat's does your Dish 1000 get?

The Dish 1000 gets 110, 119, and 129. All of the new HD for the Dallas area looks to be going on 129.

Randy, As dishbacker said you can only record one local HD currenly since they all come OTA. But if you add CBS New York to your account (no charge in Dallas area), you will have the prime time HD shows at the same time as Channel 11 local. This allows you to then record prime time CBS and one of the other networks as the same time. CBS New York requires 61.5 sat with old 942 setup. Not sure if the new Dish 1000 is has it on the sat's it has or not. I had to add a second dish.

What sat's does your Dish 1000 get?

If I'm not mistaken, CBS NY is only on 61.5 sat which is not picked up by the Dish 1000. Once they turn on local HD Randy will have no problem since you could acutally record 3 channels at once (2 sat and 1 OTA), but for now having CBS out of NY helps me quite a bit.

If I'm not mistaken, CBS NY is only on 61.5 sat which is not picked up by the Dish 1000. Once they turn on local HD Randy will have no problem since you could acutally record 3 channels at once (2 sat and 1 OTA), but for now having CBS out of NY helps me quite a bit.

Agreed. Currently, in order to get the CBS-HD distant feed you need a second dish either pointing at 61.5 (CBS NY HD) or 148 (CBS LA HD). The west facing dish is slightly lower on the horizon, but either one would meet your needs until the dallas locals are available on 129, which you can get with a Dish 1000. As just announced a couple of weeks ago, Dallas is listed as a 2Q06 market for dish network to supply the 4 majors in HD.

I currently have a 500 pointing to 110 and 119 and a 500 pointing to 61.5. Will they just remove one 500 and replace with 1000? I would need to keep 61.5 to continue getting CBS NY. I don't mind having two dish since they are hidden on side of house.

I currently have a 500 pointing to 110 and 119 and a 500 pointing to 61.5. Will they just remove one 500 and replace with 1000? I would need to keep 61.5 to continue getting CBS NY. I don't mind having two dish since they are hidden on side of house.

Correct. They will replace the 500 pointing at 110/119 with a 1000 that points at 110/119/129. Very similar to the phase 3 Directv dish that points at 101/110/119.

I don't know if they will let you keep CBS NY once they put up the DFW HD big 4 on 129. Also, note that all the other HD that is currently on 61.5 is also mirrored on 129 (All the Voom channels, ESPN2, Universal HD). Currently, Dish isn't letting folks get HD Distant networks for the new MPEG4 feeds like DirecTv does. They say it might be available this summer (DFW will be up by then so it shouldn't be an issue).

One other possibility would be to have your 61.5 turned to instead point at 129 by itself. That would help with rain fade / stronger signal strength / etc as I've read that with a Dish 1000 some of the 110 signal strength can be lost (could be just installers learning how to accurately align the new Dish 1000).

I currently have a 300 pointing at 148 (for CBS LA HD) that I plan to swing around to 129 when the time comes that I have an MPEG4 box and DFW locals are uplinked and available.

Hi guys,
Thanks for all the good info regarding E*. I am still trying decipher their HD packages, but this has been helpful. The SD packages are very straightforward...the HD stuff, not so much. I have to believe I'd get Fox Sports Southwest (although it doesn't appear that they have Fox Sports HD), but it doesn't appear on the SD station list.

I probably won't be needing to even consider a change until the locals are available in HD. It seems the only real drawback to E* in that regard would be that they'll only have the big 4, if I am following you guys correctly. Not a huge issue, but still a consideration.

Thanks again!
-Randy

Fox Sports Southwest is included in the AT60 or above (or Dish Bronze or above). Its listed on E* site as 'your regional sports network'.

The HD package, for new customers, is basically 15 Voom HD channels, HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD, TNT HD, Universal HD, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD for $20 a month. Also, they have an HD PPV channel that from time to time shows HD sports (including 10-15 Mavs games from HDNet just for DFW folks), HBO-HD and Showtime-HD (if you have those premium packages).

Sometime in the 2nd quarter, they are supposed to add the dallas big 4 (4, 5, 8, 11) provided Belo play's nicely for ABC (don't know if Belo has even given D* the ok to carry ABC, and D* launched the Dallas market in early December with just 4, 5 and 11). You can still pickup and record on the 622 DVR any local channel that you can receive with an OTA antenna. The 622 box has one OTA tuner in addition to 2 SAT tuners, allowing you to record 3 shows at once..

Edit: fixed a couple of typos..

Sometime in the 2nd quarter, they are supposed to add the dallas big 4 (4, 5, 8, 11) provided Belo play's nicely for ABC (don't know if Belo has even given D* the ok to carry ABC, and D* launched the Dallas market in early December with just 4, 5 and 11).

Unbelievably, Belo (WFAA ABC ch 8) has not joined the MPEG4 party on D* yet. Only the SD feed is available. I understand that the same is true of Belo in other markets as well. Arrogance coupled with cluelessness is their corporate culture.

Fox Sports Southwest is included in the AT60 or above (or Dish Bronze or above). Its listed on E* site as 'your regional sports network'.

Oddly enough, it doesn't even state the 'regional sports network' blurb when you look at the HD pricing and packages. I am sure it is included, but it isn't listed on there...kooky. :D

-Randy

Anyone know why the Belo stations are not allowing there digital feeds to the Dish and DirectTV?

Dont Get Me Started On Belo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably for the same reason they will not allow anyone in the DFW market to view the NY national ABC feed. They cleverly think that it somehow preserves their local market share and revenues from commercials. Droves of viewers might not watch thier stupid local commercials on their digital channel. In addition, it amounts to a shakedown. They want D* to pay them for broadcasting their HD LIL.

I only wish that ABC didn't have any shows that I want to watch so that I wouldn't have to put up with BELO's crap. (Not that that would solve any of our newspaper issues. )

Is there a list of comcast's channels that are available "in the clear?"

Also, I'm unfortunate enough to be in an A/B area...do both sides have HD channels on them, or is it just the one?

Is there a list of comcast's channels that are available "in the clear?"

Also, I'm unfortunate enough to be in an A/B area...do both sides have HD channels on them, or is it just the one?

I can't say where you'll find them on an A/B system, or if the channel numbers jive at all, but I just rescanned the other night and this is what I found:

80-1 CBS
80-2 TNT
80-3 UPN
81-1 PBS (KERA)
81-2 ABC
87-7 NFL
87-8 Some real estate channel
90-3 TV Guide
90-8 NBA
91 5-50 Music Channels
92-1 FOX
92-2 NBC
92-3 WFAA Weather
92-4 KXAS Weather
100-4 FIT TV
101-3 Toon Disney
101-4 Lifetime
107-3 WB
116-6 VH1 Country

Again, this is just observational and nothing 'official'. I believe there was something on 100-6, but it was either blank or I couldn't figure out what it was. And there could have been one or two that showed up that I couldn't ID quickly that I knew I had no interest in, so I didn't even write them down. Anyway, I hope this helps some. I'll post this on the other local board in case it is of interest to anybody. And I am in Frisco, by the way...

-Randy

IFLYSWA,

Thanks for the info, here and on the other forum :)

I only have the A-side, and with that plugged in and I'm picking up all locals, some multicasted preacher stuff(pax?), NFL channel, NBA League Pass promo channel, TNT-HD and a few others. I'm not getting FitTV, VH1 and the other cable stations you mentioned.

I'm happy to have TNT-HD though (currently have D* and it looks like ass). I'm curious why they aren't letting the other ones through. I wonder if I'll get anything else with the B-side..hmm.

Oh, does anyone have any experience using firewire for recording in Dallas? Is Comcast passing locals as "copy freely" or do they 5C them?

Anyone know why the Belo stations are not allowing there digital feeds to the Dish and DirectTV?
Are the Dallas HD/digital locals (except WFAA) already on Dishnet now?

Are the Dallas HD/digital locals (except WFAA) already on Dishnet now?

No. None of the DFW locals are available HD over Dish. Dish does offer locals, but all are SD. They are supposed to offer HD locals (the 4 majors only) sometime in Q2 2006.

Oddly enough, it doesn't even state the 'regional sports network' blurb when you look at the HD pricing and packages. I am sure it is included, but it isn't listed on there...kooky. :D

-Randy

Fox Regional Networks are not included in HD. MLB EI on E* will show 2-3 games a week in HD on the HD PPV channel. However, I think they block these out locally, forcing you to watch your SD feed. Same for NHL Center Ice (couple HD games a week, same blackout issues). No NBA League Pass HD games have shown up on E* this year (they finally started showing up on D* after the all-star break).

On D*, I believe they have a few HD MLB games per day from the Fox regional networks. Don't know if this is only for MLB EI folks and/or local blackouts that are involved. Someone with D* will have to comment on that.

Fox Regional Networks are not included in HD. MLB EI on E* will show 2-3 games a week in HD on the HD PPV channel. However, I think they block these out locally, forcing you to watch your SD feed. Same for NHL Center Ice (couple HD games a week, same blackout issues). No NBA League Pass HD games have shown up on E* this year (they finally started showing up on D* after the all-star break).

On D*, I believe they have a few HD MLB games per day from the Fox regional networks. Don't know if this is only for MLB EI folks and/or local blackouts that are involved. Someone with D* will have to comment on that.

That's pretty much what I was thinking...I didn't see Fox HD anywhere on the listings...the odd thing was not seeing FSN Southwest or any other reference listed under SD stations in the package. And don't get me started on local blackout issues...it is bad enough that we have them at all, but really infuriating that Dallas is considered a local market for the Houston Astros. I could even deal with that if there were an Astros local affiliate that could be losing viewers...but there's not when FSN isn't carrying them. I'm assuming that if I go to E* I'll at least get the FSN alternate feed so I can get the Astros when the Rangers are playing....so that's a good thing....

I'm getting ready to relocate to Dallas in the next couple of weeks and I'm curious as to the state of HDTV down there. I have DirecTV now and would likely keep it. The cable company up here (Charter) hasn't done anything to win me over but maybe it's different down there. We're thinking of the Denton area (Providence) as a possibility. Any info would be appreciated.

There's 1500 posts of info.

I'm getting ready to relocate to Dallas in the next couple of weeks and I'm curious as to the state of HDTV down there. I have DirecTV now and would likely keep it. The cable company up here (Charter) hasn't done anything to win me over but maybe it's different down there. We're thinking of the Denton area (Providence) as a possibility. Any info would be appreciated.

I would suggest reading the last 30 or 40 pages of this thread. They will tell you a lot. The DFW area is the 5th largest MSA and there are many options for HD and everything else, except maybe snow skiing. Many cities and suburbs have Verizon FIOS, but not all. Cable service seems to have HD in some areas and not others, on Comcast and Charter (there may be more companies). There are quite a few posts back a few pages from individuals in the Denton area who cannot get HD on Comcast Cable. All the significant DFW digital station transmit antennas (there are 17 of them) are south of Dallas and quite a long distance away from Denton. You will have trouble receiving them without a large outdoor antenna and probably a preamp.

What else would you like to know?

Here is a very interesting site. Especially if you are a fan of vertical steel and RF.

http://gallery.bostonradio.org/2002-10/dfw/

This is a photo tour of the D/FW broadcast sites

[/QUOTE]There's 1500 posts of info.

Yeah but between wrapping up my old job, prepping for the new one, prepping the house for sale and looking for a new one I am relying on some kind folks to give me the quick 411!

I would suggest reading the last 30 or 40 pages of this thread. They will tell you a lot. The DFW area is the 5th largest MSA and there are many options for HD and everything else, except maybe snow skiing. Many cities and suburbs have Verizon FIOS, but not all. Cable service seems to have HD in some areas and not others, on Comcast and Charter (there may be more companies). There are quite a few posts back a few pages from individuals in the Denton area who cannot get HD on Comcast Cable. All the significant DFW digital station transmit antennas (there are 17 of them) are south of Dallas and quite a long distance away from Denton. You will have trouble receiving them without a large outdoor antenna and probably a preamp.

What else would you like to know?
[QUOTE]

Are cable carriers in the area making HD DVR's available? I travel so my DirecTV HD-TiVo is my lifeline for 24 and the Sopranos.

Since all the antennas are south I'm curious if any residents of Denton are having any luck with OTA HD.

Did you even try searching for "Denton"?

Did you even try searching for "Denton"?


Yes I did. Thanks for your help :rolleyes:

One of the subdivisions that we are looking at uses a company called Cebridge (and yes I did a search for that too) so there's obviously multiple carriers in the area which isn't the case here. There's Charter and that's it (although AT&T is trying to change that).

Yes I did. Thanks for your help :rolleyes:

One of the subdivisions that we are looking at uses a company called Cebridge (and yes I did a search for that too) so there's obviously multiple carriers in the area which isn't the case here. There's Charter and that's it (although AT&T is trying to change that).

Cebridge just came to our small town a few months ago and disassembled our entire cable system. FYI: it wasn't worth stealing. I don't know about Cebridge in other areas, but here, it was HORRIBLE service. Example- They had a 200' tower for locals at their dist. point but chose to use a CM antenna on a 20' push-pole. I ended up with 300' of 75 ohm hardline out of the deal.:)

Yes I did. Thanks for your help :rolleyes:

One of the subdivisions that we are looking at uses a company called Cebridge (and yes I did a search for that too) so there's obviously multiple carriers in the area which isn't the case here. There's Charter and that's it (although AT&T is trying to change that).

Will your new job be on the D or FW side?

I'm getting ready to relocate to Dallas in the next couple of weeks and I'm curious as to the state of HDTV down there. I have DirecTV now and would likely keep it. The cable company up here (Charter) hasn't done anything to win me over but maybe it's different down there. We're thinking of the Denton area (Providence) as a possibility. Any info would be appreciated.

Hello -- fellow Dentonite here. I'm in Denton city proper, but if I have it right, you're looking at Providence Village, which is on the northeastern edge of the city (but still in Denton schools, I think).

You've probably already read about the state of DirecTV from the other folks here (pretty much everything but ABC is or will be HD local off the dish in MPEG4). I just did a quick check of the Cebridge site, using the Providence Village ZIP (http://www.cebridge.net/cebridge/ctl?vo=productList&zipcode=76227&franchise=1261&res=6), and it does look like they have some HD offerings (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX locals; HBO, Showtime, Discovery, ESPN, HDNet, HDNet Movies). And, based on my experience with getting Dallas OTA locals using an indoor antenna, you shouldn't have too much trouble pulling most stations in with a properly placed outdoor antenna (so you could get the stations that Cebridge doesn't offer, like PBS-HD, and WB and UPN-HD's, soon to merge into the new CW network).

The only thing I don't know is whether or not Verizon will be getting out your way with their FIOS wiring (they have committed to wiring all of the city of Denton for fiber-to-the-home), which means you might not be getting the FIOS TV offerings that some folks in the area will eventually get.

Will your new job be on the D or FW side?

It will be in Carrolton but I'll probably be traveling quite a bit so I won't be in the Carrolton office too much.

Thanks for the great replies. Looks like I'll be sticking with DirecTV which is fine since I'll still want to watch the Rams come football season.

Is Providence Village as nice a neighborhood as it appears on line?

If the job is in Carrolton, do yourself a favor and search "Coppell". A whole lot closer. Not sure of the TV situation but the homes are NICE!!

If the job is in Carrolton, do yourself a favor and search "Coppell". A whole lot closer. Not sure of the TV situation but the homes are NICE!!
I get great OTA reception here in Coppell, and have Dish Network ( 2 942's). No problems whatsoever!
Tom in TX

If the job is in Carrolton, do yourself a favor and search "Coppell". A whole lot closer. Not sure of the TV situation but the homes are NICE!!


Or Plano or Richardson or Highland Village or Flower Mound.

Providence Village is pretty nice, but there's lots of neighborhoods similar to that in the DFW area. The providence village homes are a little too small for me.

And if I worked in Carrolton, it'd be too far as well.

Dont Get Me Started On Belo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, this might set you off...when I was looking up that Cebridge lineup, I noticed something. Over on one of the other forums, there's this really vitriolic thread about cable companies encrypting HD locals (instead of sending them out in clear QAM), forcing you to pay extra (on top of basic/extended basic) to receive them. Folks were mighty peeved about those cable operators moving their HD locals to a pay tier.

Well, if I saw it right, Cebridge includes NBC, CBS and FOX HD Dallas locals in their basic package (meaning, clear QAM). But if you want ABC HD (WFAA...Belo-owned), you'd have to subscribe to their HD package (and get ESPN HD, Discovery HD Theater, etc.), and pay for either a set-top-box or a CableCard in order to decrypt the encoded QAM signal.

Based on that alignment, it's not a stretch to say that Belo forced Cebridge to pay retransmission rights for the HD signal, and Cebridge responded by putting WFAA-DT into a subscription tier. Isn't life under Belo grand?

If I understand the regulations correctly, encrypting the local channels on cable is illegal. They must also be carried on the lowest tier. I would suggest they contact the FCC.

Xesdeeni

Anybody with a Dish Network Vip622 have problems with KTVT (CBS 11): digital on 19? Maybe I just need to adjust my antenna? The signal is week (60-64) and drops out every few minutes.

Anybody with a Dish Network Vip622 have problems with KTVT (CBS 11): digital on 19? Maybe I just need to adjust my antenna? The signal is week (60-64) and drops out every few minutes.

I live a few miles north of you in Plano, and get KTVT-DT just fine via a PVR942 (similar electronics) via OTA. All of the primary HD signals are at 80 or above in signal strength. You didn't mention your antenna; I have a chimney-mounted Channel Master 4228 (UHF) antenna above my one-story home.

Does anyone know what the heck is wrong with KDAF??

They are an OWNED AND OPERATED station and they have horrible problems with their digital feed.

Every other week, they seem to have problems like jerky playback or severe glitches. Tonight, smallville and supernatural were nearly unwatchable.

Supernatural had extended periods of SD where they put t-storm warnings on the screen. What the hell? I've never seen a dallas station interrupt primetime HD programming to show a t-storm warning. Isn't this what 33-2 is for?

For the few out there that watch WB, I'd encourage you to e-mail the station's engineers -

kdaf_engineering@tribune.com

I have done so in the past and never received a reply. I think it's going to take more than one email to convince them that someone is having a problem, or even watching their digital station for that matter.

Wasn't there a KDAF engineer posting here a long time ago? or was that on the dallas home theater group forum?

We might have to pitch in and buy them a new encoder..Can't believe an O&O station is such a bush league operation.

Does anyone know what the heck is wrong with KDAF??

They are an OWNED AND OPERATED station and they have horrible problems with their digital feed.

Every other week, they seem to have problems like jerky playback or severe glitches. Tonight, smallville and supernatural were nearly unwatchable.

Supernatural had extended periods of SD where they put t-storm warnings on the screen. What the hell? I've never seen a dallas station interrupt primetime HD programming to show a t-storm warning. Isn't this what 33-2 is for?

For the few out there that watch WB, I'd encourage you to e-mail the station's engineers -

kdaf_engineering@tribune.com

I have done so in the past and never received a reply. I think it's going to take more than one email to convince them that someone is having a problem, or even watching their digital station for that matter.

Wasn't there a KDAF engineer posting here a long time ago? or was that on the dallas home theater group forum?

We might have to pitch in and buy them a new encoder..Can't believe an O&O station is such a bush league operation.

The sad part is that KDAF is the designee station in the Dallas market to become the CW Network afilliate this fall (when the WB and UPN networks merge). Even though KTXA-21 has had its problems, I'd have chosen their HD performance over that of KDAF-33's in a heartbeat, if given a vote.

On the subject of weather crawls: that's going to be a long-running point of contention as more folks get HD sets and make the DT feed their primary source. Just because the x.2 channel is available doesn't mean that someone is alerted to switch over to it, which is part of the point of the crawl in the first place.

I thought I read somewhere that several of the major network affiliates now have HD character generators, so they could potentially do crawls over the HD feed (I haven't been watching at the right time to see if this has already occured). But even if that is the case, until that trickles down to the WB/UPN/CW's of the world, stepping back to upconverted SD may be all we're going to get.

I'll send my complaint forward re. tonight's Smallville, just to add another voice. (None of my previous messages to KDAF engineering were ever answered, either, so I won't hold my breath waiting on a reply.)

Yes, 33's technical abilities are definitely suspect. They regularly have stuttering in their broadcasts. And now 33 has joined 21 in putting the gray sidebars on upconverted SD material. WTF!? I thought we worked through this issue years ago. Burn-in isn't the network's problem (except for that damn static bug). I actually have a CRT RPTV, which might benefit from the gray sides. But they are distracting and annoying, and I'd rather take my chances with burn-in.

Xesdeeni

I'm getting ready to relocate to Dallas in the next couple of weeks and I'm curious as to the state of HDTV down there. I have DirecTV now and would likely keep it. The cable company up here (Charter) hasn't done anything to win me over but maybe it's different down there. We're thinking of the Denton area (Providence) as a possibility. Any info would be appreciated.

So real quick, I live in Little Elm which is North of Carrolton, roughly 10 to 13 miles away. Cebridge is the cable company up here. I have DirecTV as you can see from my list.

Ok Mattman, here is the lowdown on a lot of your questions, hope this helps.

Cable:
Cebridge is like Comcast in this area. When I first bought a house I checked them out and they had roughly the same HD offering as Comcast. They typically have a special going at any given time, here is their link, http://www.cebridge.net/cebridge/ctl?vo=specialOffers
The biggest benefit of doing cable is that if you DO NOT HAVE the HD DVR already then to get it from DirecTV is going to cost you an arm and a leg and maybe your first born. Also, they do not have a contract and they offer high speed and phone packages if you want a combo deal with one bill. They switched to a new leasing model and I personally think that it's crap, but I digrese.

OTA:
If you live in the North part of Dallas the best way to get local HD is over the air with a outside antenna, go to http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx and put in your new zip code and it will tell you which channels you should be able to get and what type of antenna you will need. Dallas has a lot of OTA channels, so this is a very good investment IMHO.

DirecTV:
If you already have the HD DVR then stick with them and get the locals with an OTA. You can get their basic HD box for free after $100 rebate, however this will only get you CBS, FOX and NBC locals and you will still need an OTA for the rest. Also, remember that any new equipment is just leased and has to be returned if you cancel.

Dish:
Not quite as expensive as DirecTV in the upfront costs and they do offer more HD channels, however unless you plan on watching the monster channel their HD package is not that great, they got a lot of their HD channels from VOOM when they went belly up. Also, you will still need to use an OTA to get network HD channels except for CBS out of NY. They are suppose to offer local HD sometime this summer, however it will only be CBS, NBC and Fox. That's right, you will still need the OTA for most of your network HD channels, such as ABC, WB or UPN.

Verizon FIOS: Probably the best
This is being offered in the outskirts of Dallas surrounding area. If you can get it, then get it, again just my opinion. They offer similiar services like Comcast and Cebridge, in fact they use the same DVR box and offer roughly the same channels. Go here, http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios/HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp?LOBCode=C&PromoTCode=DNI01&PromoSrcCode=B&POEId=TL1HP for more info. Again the big benefit is upfront costs. Verizon is trying to get everyone they can so they have some sweet deals. They also will offer internet, phone and cable combo deals. Their high speed access is pretty phenomenal at 10mb down and 5mb up.

Remember this, whoever you decide to go with, know what the competition is offering so that you can get the best deal possible. When I first moved down from Denver I was living in Dallas. I checked with Comcast and they offered me their full digital package including HBO, Starz, HD package, high speed internet and their HD DVR box for $75 for 12 months, no contract. Phenominal deal which I used to get my DirecTV service with HBO, Showtime and the extra fees lowered to $52 a month and they gave me the HD DVR for a $100 after rebate. That was last September and from what i have been reading your not likely to get that from DirecTV anymore, but my point is HAGGLE, HAGGLE, HAGGLE.

As far as PIQ goes, OTA seems to be the best with everything else being a toss up after that. Depending on who you talk with, some will say cable or FIOS or satellite. I like my satellite and i was running both cable and DirecTV at the same time and couldn't tell the difference, however OTA does seem to be better.

As far as housing, any where in the north is usually good, however the closer to Dallas the more you will pay and it might not be new. I would suggest checking the Frisco, Little Elm and McKinney areas if you want a new house at a reasonable price. Little Elm will be the cheapest and closest to Carrolton, but hasn't gotten all the nice things like a mall and grocery stores, etc. Frisco is probably the most expensive, but has a pretty good school system along with all the fun things. I chose Little Elm because of price and future growth opportunities, basically I think it will be the next Frisco, but again just my opinion.

I think that got all of your questions, if not feel free to ask them again or if you have something specific I won't mind doing the research, just give me a day or two to answer. I know what it's like to have to move and start a new job all within a short time.

Have Fun!!!!

Kemical

I think you forgot to mention that directv's picture quality is like ass, since they downrez and bit-starve all their HD channels.

I think you forgot to mention that directv's picture quality is like ass, since they downrez and bit-starve all their HD channels.


They are no worse then Dish or Comcast in this department which is what I said toward the end of the post. Your best quality usually comes from OTA, not always, but usually. And as Dish and DirecTV switch over to MPEG4 their quality will improve since they will not be bandwidth constrained, however IMHO after comparing Comcast and DirecTV side by side using a DVI connection and a DLP TV, I found them to have the same picture quality on HD channels. I compared ESPN, Discovery, HBO and Showtime, however I could not compare the local feeds since DirecTV had not switched the Dallas market on yet.

Kemical

They are no worse then Dish or Comcast in this department which is what I said toward the end of the post. Your best quality usually comes from OTA, not always, but usually. And as Dish and DirecTV switch over to MPEG4 their quality will improve since they will not be bandwidth constrained, however IMHO after comparing Comcast and DirecTV side by side using a DVI connection and a DLP TV, I found them to have the same picture quality on HD channels. I compared ESPN, Discovery, HBO and Showtime, however I could not compare the local feeds since DirecTV had not switched the Dallas market on yet.

Kemical

Check the older programming forum thread when d* went to hd-lite. There are direct screen captures of the same frame from cable and directv..Directv looks horrendous.

If you can't tell the difference, fine..but the fact of the matter is d* is downrezzing RIGHT NOW. All their HD channels (the ones that are 1080i) are 1280 x 1080 and not 1920 x 1080. To make things worse, they dropped the bitrate by nearly 10 mbps on most of these channels to try and minimize the artifacts that comes with downrezzing.

Dallas' own steve martin, aka cheezmo has a site that monitors d* bitrates and resolutions. Take a look and see for yourself.

http://www.widemovies.com/dfwbitrate.html

Oh, and just FYI, the channels that ARE MPEG-4 right now (dallas locals) are DOWNREZZED. They are at 1280x1080, in spite of moving to mpeg-4.

So no, they are not going to be increasing their bandwidth or resolution anytime soon.

If you want full HDTV for non-OTA (for OTA, an antenna is the best way to go) stations (tnt, hdnet, hdnet movies) at full bitrate, the order will be as follows -

1. Fios and cable (no hdnet and hdnet movies on cable, so consider fios or dish if you're interested in those) ..ALL channels are uncompressed.

2. Dishnetwork (points taken off because the voom channels, which are all 1080i, in their package are downrezzed, but the others like tnt, hdnet, hdnet movies, espn 1,2 are all full res)

3. Directv (all 1080i channels are downrezzed)

Check the older programming forum thread when d* went to hd-lite. There are direct screen captures of the same frame from cable and directv..Directv looks horrendous.

If you can't tell the difference, fine..but the fact of the matter is d* is downrezzing RIGHT NOW. All their HD channels (the ones that are 1080i) are 1280 x 1080 and not 1920 x 1080. To make things worse, they dropped the bitrate by nearly 10 mbps on most of these channels to try and minimize the artifacts that comes with downrezzing.

Dallas' own steve martin, aka cheezmo has a site that monitors d* bitrates and resolutions. Take a look and see for yourself.

http://www.widemovies.com/dfwbitrate.html

Oh, and just FYI, the channels that ARE MPEG-4 right now (dallas locals) are DOWNREZZED. They are at 1280x1080, in spite of moving to mpeg-4.

So no, they are not going to be increasing their bandwidth or resolution anytime soon.

If you want full HDTV for non-OTA (for OTA, an antenna is the best way to go) stations (tnt, hdnet, hdnet movies) at full bitrate, the order will be as follows -

1. Fios and cable (no hdnet and hdnet movies on cable, so consider fios or dish if you're interested in those) ..ALL channels are uncompressed.

2. Dishnetwork (points taken off because the voom channels, which are all 1080i, in their package are downrezzed, but the others like tnt, hdnet, hdnet movies, espn 1,2 are all full res)

3. Directv (all 1080i channels are downrezzed)

So I just want to make sure I understand, where are you getting the information regarding Comcasts bitrate? Is this off of a a/b area or a single line area? Also, what about Dish network? The reason i ask is that i went to the site you listed and I saw the comparison of local OTA to DirecTV, but not anything else. I also didn't see the new MPEG4 stations listed and most of his comments at the bottom are over a year old. Maybe I am missing a page or two, but that's what I see. I mean seriously, give me something with new data and I will be more than happy to look.

Oh, and as far as the statement that DirecTV is doing HD-lite, no argument here, but do not put anyone up on a pedastal because the reality of it all is that if a company can squeeze out a few more channels at the expense of PIQ quality they will, no matter who they are. If they weren't they would be advertising it like crazy sort of like VOOM did and we all know how that went.

Look, the simple fact is that OTA is the best right now and that is still subject to the broadcaster and what they want to do with their allotted bandwidth. You can't condemn one provider without condemning them all because its just business to them and if they can get away with it they will. Perfect example is Bello, I mean c'mon, they would sell their mom to make a buck.

As always, just my opinion.

kemical

kemical-

Thanks for all the great info! You covered all of my questions and concerns thoroughly and I really appreciate the help.

Matt

So I just want to make sure I understand, where are you getting the information regarding Comcasts bitrate? Is this off of a a/b area or a single line area? Also, what about Dish network? The reason i ask is that i went to the site you listed and I saw the comparison of local OTA to DirecTV, but not anything else. I also didn't see the new MPEG4 stations listed and most of his comments at the bottom are over a year old. Maybe I am missing a page or two, but that's what I see. I mean seriously, give me something with new data and I will be more than happy to look.

Oh, and as far as the statement that DirecTV is doing HD-lite, no argument here, but do not put anyone up on a pedastal because the reality of it all is that if a company can squeeze out a few more channels at the expense of PIQ quality they will, no matter who they are. If they weren't they would be advertising it like crazy sort of like VOOM did and we all know how that went.

Look, the simple fact is that OTA is the best right now and that is still subject to the broadcaster and what they want to do with their allotted bandwidth. You can't condemn one provider without condemning them all because its just business to them and if they can get away with it they will. Perfect example is Bello, I mean c'mon, they would sell their mom to make a buck.

As always, just my opinion.

kemical

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but searching through older threads in the programming forum will tell you about comcast and dish.

Comcast insiders post on occasion in the programming forum and their company policy has been "we do not re-compress the signal"..they re-modulate it to meet cable spec, but that does not change the quality of the signal in any way. Dishnetwork's info is available at satelliteguys.us and in the programming forum.

MPEG-4 channel bitrate/res for directv is also available in the programming forum.

I'm not putting anyone up on a pedestal.. Cable/Fiber's infrastructure inherently has the ability to provide more bandwidth, and they are not messing with the signal in any way, shape or form. They are no. 1 for HD programming right now, hands down. Sure providers can squeeze channels, but cable/fiber don't do that, and directv does. That's all there is to it. Believe it or not, Voom was HD-Lite when they were providing service. I believe their channels were all 1440x1080i.

OTA IS THE BEST...FOR OTA!! I'm not arguing that. Did you read my post? I clearly said that for OTA, an antenna is the way to go..I was purely referring to NON-OTA, NON-LOCAL stations. I'm not going to condemn cable and fiber and dishnet for providing national HD stations at full resolution/bitrate, but I WILL condemn directv.

Hi all, I am in BLOOMINGTON,IN and about to buy the Radio Shack 160" Long Dual Boom, 57-Element Antenna , so I can get Indianapolis local's. Bloomington is about 48-50 miles south west of Indy.I was wondering if anyone in this form is from the Bloomington area with advise on antenna's? I guess it will cost me around $170 for the antenna & booster. My street has a small "Dip" to it and I'm at the bottom of the "dip". I am on the northan side of Bloomington Doe's any think dishing out the $$ I can get at least Indy CBS,NBC,ABC,Fox HD?
Thanks for any input.

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but searching through older threads in the programming forum will tell you about comcast and dish.

Comcast insiders post on occasion in the programming forum and their company policy has been "we do not re-compress the signal"..they re-modulate it to meet cable spec, but that does not change the quality of the signal in any way. Dishnetwork's info is available at satelliteguys.us and in the programming forum.

MPEG-4 channel bitrate/res for directv is also available in the programming forum.

I'm not putting anyone up on a pedestal.. Cable/Fiber's infrastructure inherently has the ability to provide more bandwidth, and they are not messing with the signal in any way, shape or form. They are no. 1 for HD programming right now, hands down. Sure providers can squeeze channels, but cable/fiber don't do that, and directv does. That's all there is to it. Believe it or not, Voom was HD-Lite when they were providing service. I believe their channels were all 1440x1080i.

OTA IS THE BEST...FOR OTA!! I'm not arguing that. Did you read my post? I clearly said that for OTA, an antenna is the way to go..I was purely referring to NON-OTA, NON-LOCAL stations. I'm not going to condemn cable and fiber and dishnet for providing national HD stations at full resolution/bitrate, but I WILL condemn directv.

OK, this will be my last post on this subject because I do not want to keep going around and around on this. I get it, DirecTV is bad, bad DirecTV. All I was saying is that the rest are not any better. Dish offering 25 channels of HD that they got from VOOM is nice unless the programming is worthless. I personally didn't like VOOM's channels then and I still don't now that they are with Dish. Comcast does offer more HD channels than DirecTV only because they offer all the local HD channels. Comcast has 15 (6 at least are local, so that leaves nine right?) while DirecTV has nine not including any of the network HD channels, pay per view or HD sports packages such as NFL Sunday ticket. There is no doubt that currently they are feeding us HD-lite. In the beginning when they had the bandwidth it was full HD and I believe as they move the HD channels over to their MPEG4 system they will go back to full HD, not because they want to but because they will have to in order to remain competitive. As far as Comcast and the other cable companies, I remember when they first offered high speed internet; it was great, uncapped speeds. I was getting 4mb down and 3 mb up sometimes. It was one of the reasons I didn't go to DSL. However, so that they could offer it to more customers they had to cut the access speeds to allow more bandwidth to be used. It's a simple fact of copper that it only has so much bandwidth, I didn't make it up it's just the current limitations based on physics. FIOS, being fiber, has a lot more bandwidth and so they have no problem offering all their high speed, phone and cable all on one line with out even straining. This is why I suggested to Matt if it was available jump on it.

Now as far as your numbers go, as I said before, the page you pointed me too had old data and only DirecTV. Yes, you can go back to old posts within here where someone said something and someone else said this, but just because they say it is true doesn't make it so. And guess what, things change, even if it was true then, a year ago or even a few months ago, doesn't make it true today. Before you go throwing numbers out there as pure fact with no chance of being wrong you might want to check their validity. As I say in all of my posts, my statements are based on what I have read combined with what I have experienced and it is all JUST MY OPINION. I have said it several times that while I may have gotten one result someone else may get a different result. These forums are meant to help people come to a REASONABLE conclusion on what results they should expect based on the experiences of others in the same area. There is no guarantee that while I may be able to get ABC OTA at my house that my neighbor will get it, but rather the expectation would be that he would. Just like while you may not like DirecTV because you do not feel the picture quality is up to par with Comcast or Dish or whoever, that may not be the same for someone else. Again, picture quality is subjective and while numbers on a piece of paper may or may not be correct or supportive of what the person sees it really just comes down to one's own opinion.

Thank you and good night,

Kemical

MPEG-4 channel bitrate/res for directv is also available in the programming forum.



I gave it hell in the search box but I no find it.

Got link??

Again, picture quality is subjective and while numbers on a piece of paper may or may not be correct or supportive of what the person sees it really just comes down to one's own opinion.
Kemical

Excellent points, and well stated KH. I had FIOS for 1 month and gave the equipment back and cancelled service. My Panny 42" HD plasma looks MUCH better with D* and the H20. With FIOS the HD PQ might have been similar to D*, but the SD FIOS programming was definitely inferior to SD on an H20, when viewed on my 5th generation plasma. YMMV...:)

And there is no reason to curse a company on these pages in an intelligent debate as was done above, unless of course it is BELO. ;)

Did KDFI do something to boost their signal strength? Previously I was unable to get a signal over 55% with my antenna inside. Today I am pulling in KDFI at around 85 to 90% and nothing has changed with my setup. Is anyone else noticing this?

94% signal out here on the fringe. They have a construction permit for 1 megawatt ERP. Mabye construction is complete.

94% signal out here on the fringe. They have a construction permit for 1 megawatt ERP. Mabye construction is complete.

They actually have two outstanding CPs for channel 36, one for 1000kW and one for 11.2kW. I hope you are right and they have completed the 1MW CP just in time for the Rangers opener! If so then their contour is now correct (attached).

Now if they could just broadcast something, anything, in HD!?!

My apologies..I could not find the thread pertaining to the mpeg4 HD + bitrates. If I find it, I will post a link. I remember asking the question on avsforum right when MPEG-4 was being rolled out last year.

KDFI will become Mynetworktv later this year..run by Fox.

http://www.newscorp.com/news/news_286.html

They may have some HD programming, if the network decides to go that route. You'd figure that they would use HD cameras to shoot the shows, to keep costs low. Distribution is a different matter..who knows how many of these stations are HD capable?

kemical,

comcast is moving their analog channels to digital, and that should be complete fairly soon. This will free up a *ton* of bandwidth -- Compare this to satellite, which is restricted by the birds in the sky. It takes them years to get new sats up in space. Comcast will be able to keep their channels at full res for the forseeable future (IMO) and who's to say that they won't go to something else if they get tight on space. I have had directv, comcast and time warner and I can tell the difference on a 55" screen just by watching a sporting event. I'm not understanding your analogy to internet. You seem to say that cable will eventually go down the crapper with HD, because that's what happened with internet. Why don't you enjoy what is available now at the best possible quality?

Why shouldn't I believe people posting bitrate information? They have the hardware capable of measuring these numbers and I don't. Things do change, but directv doesn't. Their national HD channels are still HD-Lite as we speak. Nothing has changed in the last 3 months, and if it has, I'd love to know.

The point of this forum is to allow people to reach a reasonable conclusion. You are aware that the average committment for directv and dish is anywhere from 18-24 months right? Cable has no committment. Try before you buy is all I can say. :)

God Bless,

Rakesh

kemical,

comcast is moving their analog channels to digital, and that should be complete fairly soon. This will free up a *ton* of bandwidth -- Compare this to satellite, which is restricted by the birds in the sky. It takes them years to get new sats up in space. Comcast will be able to keep their channels at full res for the forseeable future (IMO) and who's to say that they won't go to something else if they get tight on space.

In the near term, anyway, Comcast is going to digital simulcasts. Analog isn't going away too terribly soon. And Comcast's plans may or may not be much of a factor moving forward since Time Warner is supposed to be taking over this market. I still haven't gotten a good gauge on when (if?) that is actually going to happen....

Why shouldn't I believe people posting bitrate information? They have the hardware capable of measuring these numbers and I don't. Things do change, but directv doesn't. Their national HD channels are still HD-Lite as we speak. Nothing has changed in the last 3 months, and if it has, I'd love to know.
I think there might have been a slight misunderstanding here, too. While most, if not all, of the comments on Cheezmo's site are a little old, much of the data is recent...end of February and March, for instance. D* does broadcast HD-Lite, but whether or not it makes a big difference is a personal thing. I haven't seen any satellite programming on my setup, or FIOS, so I can't say. I know that OTA and cable look good, so I'm happy. But when my killer deal with Comcast is up, I am going to shop around some...satellite might be in my future. Or not. :D

When it is all said and done, it comes down to what you like and how it works with your equipment. What works well for one might not for another. And a difference of opinion needn't necessarily be taken personally. Again, YMMV. :)

Thank you Bill, mp3trojan and IFLYSWA for your input and clarification on a few items.

Kemical

94% signal out here on the fringe. They have a construction permit for 1 megawatt ERP. Mabye construction is complete.

I am getting 80 - 90% signal strength in the Keller/Haslett area in NW Tarrant Cty. That is up from 0 - 40% from a few weeks ago. I hope the Rangers make it worth their effort this season or there will be no reason to watch anything on 27-1.

While we are on the subject, how hard can it possibly be to broadcast a few Ranger games in HD? I am sure the Ballpark is fitted with HD cameras, why is the digital broadcast still SD? I sent the engineering department at KDFI an email asking for clarification so I can appreciate whatever the problem is and got no reply or acknowledgement at all. :(

94% signal out here on the fringe. They have a construction permit for 1 megawatt ERP. Mabye construction is complete.

Just to confirm your observation, KDFI-DT is now at full power. HD programming is scarce right now, so what you are seeing is upconverted (720p) SD. But I know they are looking at ways to have some native HD programming going forward.

Meanwhile, all signal reports are appreciated.

dtv4u

While we are on the subject, how hard can it possibly be to broadcast a few Ranger games in HD? I am sure the Ballpark is fitted with HD cameras, why is the digital broadcast still SD? I sent the engineering department at KDFI an email asking for clarification so I can appreciate whatever the problem is and got no reply or acknowledgement at all. :(I got the same response last year (see earlier in this thread) when they first went HD. I was hoping for Rangers games in HD as well. To my knowledge, they have never broadcast one second of any HD material. What a waste.

Xesdeeni

I believe the Rangers games are produced by the team and not by KDFI. You might ask the Rangers' management to think about doing some games in HD. BTW, it is not very likely the stadium is wired for HD at this point. I suspect the games are produced by means of a remote truck, rented for the game or the season. Most trucks are not yet HD, except for those used by the networks.

I'm a little removed from the programming action in Dallas, so my suppositions may be wrong (I'm an RF guy). Check with the Rangers.

dtv4u

I believe the Rangers games are produced by the team and not by KDFI. You might ask the Rangers' management to think about doing some games in HD. BTW, it is not very likely the stadium is wired for HD at this point. I suspect the games are produced by means of a remote truck, rented for the game or the season. Most trucks are not yet HD, except for those used by the networks.

I'm a little removed from the programming action in Dallas, so my suppositions may be wrong (I'm an RF guy). Check with the Rangers.

dtv4u

I think its a KDFI issue but its worth an email to the Rangers. It would be fun to be ignored by them as well. :(

IIRC last year, when local Fox 4 takes the game from KDFI the game is in HD. Of course this only happens a handful of games on weekends during the summer. This would imply that the HD cameras are actually there all the time. Whether there is an HD production truck on the premisis at all times is another question I suppose.

If KDFI could broadcast in HD why have they never put one second of HD programming on?

IIRC last year, when local Fox 4 takes the game from KDFI the game is in HD.


Sure would have been nice Monday afternoon:)

I live in Valley Ranch...basically 635 and Macarthur. I have received channel 11 without any problems until a few weeks ago. Now I can't get it at all...everything else still comes in fine. I have a Terk outdoor slim profile (square one) antenna that I have in my attic along with a set of rabbit ears. (It's amazing that adding the rabbit ears pulled in some of the channels!)

Has anyone else had trouble receiving 11 recently? I don't understand why all of a sudden it's gone. In fact, I've started receiving channel 27 which I previously could not get. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

27-1 went from 10 kilowatt to 1 megawatt last week. You should receive a much higher signal strength in Valley Ranch, obviously. However, you should have been able to receive it fine before since you are only about 12 miles from Cedar Hill.

Channel 11-1 has not changed at all, to my knowledge. I am receiving the Masters right now in glorious HD.

I think its a KDFI issue but its worth an email to the Rangers. It would be fun to be ignored by them as well. :(

IIRC last year, when local Fox 4 takes the game from KDFI the game is in HD. Of course this only happens a handful of games on weekends during the summer. This would imply that the HD cameras are actually there all the time. Whether there is an HD production truck on the premisis at all times is another question I suppose.

If KDFI could broadcast in HD why have they never put one second of HD programming on?

Your inference is not correct. Cameras go with the remote truck, generally. The stadium may have permanent camera cabling, but probably has no actual electronic infrastructure (i.e. cameras, control rooms, switchers, etc). Usually, they will have some fairly low-end SD equipment that supports the Diamond Vision or similar display, but that is not for broadcast. For TV production, especially HD, a production truck is rolled in, bringing its own cameras, switcher, audio, etc. BTW, unless the truck is hired for the entire season, it comes in a day or so in advance of the game and is gone shortly after the game.

dtv4u

27-1 went from 10 kilowatt to 1 megawatt last week. You should receive a much higher signal strength in Valley Ranch, obviously. However, you should have been able to receive it fine before since you are only about 12 miles from Cedar Hill.

I think Valley Ranch is more than 12 miles to Cedar Hill!! More like 20+!
Tom in TX

Mabye some of you can use this as a reference to signals from Dallas OTA to possibly help you troubleshoot problems.

Situation here is:

D* H-20
Channel Master deep fringe antenna. (circa 1977)
Channel master CM-7777 AMP
40 foot tower.

I live 90 nautical miles NE of Cedar Hill

Signal levels of the major nets as of this posting are:

KDFW 4-1: 100% Solid

KXAS 5-1: 98-100% fluctuating

WFAA 8-1: 82-93 fluctuating HEAVILY!!!

KTVT 11-1: 100% Solid

KERA 13-1: 84-86% fluctuating

KTXA 21-1: 100% Solid

KDAF 33-1: 100% Solid

WFAA has been weak here lately.

I gave these signal reports 3/16.

As of this post, 11-1 is between 80 and 88%. A definate difference here. AFAIK, the band is normal, no tropo. (Same equipment)

I JUST RECORDED 6 HOURS OF NOTHING. LITTLE OR NO OTA SIGNAL DURING THE MASTERS B-CAST.

I have not missed a televised MOMENT of this golf tournament in 10 YEARS....until now.

YES, there is definately a (insert expletive) problem somewhere. It's not here! Before I posted this, I made DAMN sure. Got signal now. Why not then????

Today was the day I was supposed to be free of the dancing grasses of HD Lite.

This is a dark day.
I'm done now.

I think Valley Ranch is more than 12 miles to Cedar Hill!! More like 20+!
Tom in TX

From 635 & MacArthur
to
67 & Beltline it's 23.2 nautical miles.

OK......

After an :cool: attitude adjustment :cool: and a cruise over to ESPN(s),

There will be 11 hours of HD/HD Lite coverage of "God's tournament" for Sunday.

Amen

Yep, I'm having so much problems with 11-1 now that I've redirected my ViP622 to record SD sat 11 instead of the OTA due to such frequent breakup. I can't get a decent signal, whereas it was perfect just last week.

Not sure what happened, but the signal is definitely worse. Hope it fixes itself soon.

I live in Valley Ranch...basically 635 and Macarthur. I have received channel 11 without any problems until a few weeks ago. Now I can't get it at all...everything else still comes in fine. I have a Terk outdoor slim profile (square one) antenna that I have in my attic along with a set of rabbit ears. (It's amazing that adding the rabbit ears pulled in some of the channels!)

Has anyone else had trouble receiving 11 recently? I don't understand why all of a sudden it's gone. In fact, I've started receiving channel 27 which I previously could not get. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

I had a similar problem about 3 weeks ago. I think 11 switched to a new analog channel. I am not sure what they wew on before, but they are on 19 now. A rescan should fix your problem, it fixed mine.

I tried a rescan, but it didn't fix my poor reception...

Anyone have any inside info on whether Dish Network plans to start including FSN-HD anytime soon? I think I'm a Ranger fan. I was when the year started anyway. Not so sure now.

Ok, for the past 6 months i have been dealing with this piece of crap outdoor antenna i thought was pretty good. I finally got fed up with it and returned it. I was looking at other antennas and found this cheap little philips antenna. It said it was 50db and looked half way decent for a indoor antenna. i figured anything would be better than the piece of crap i returned. Come to find out this thing works fantastic!!!!!!!!!!. It was 25 dollars and the philips model number is MANT510. every HD channel is at least 70%.... The best part about it is that i don't have to get on the roof to adjust it every week......... i got this thing at walmart. Yes i said walmart. it amazed the hell out of me to....... :) ROLLING BACK PRICES. HAHAHA

Ok, for the past 6 months i have been dealing with this piece of crap outdoor antenna i thought was pretty good. I finally got fed up with it and returned it. I was looking at other antennas and found this cheap little philips antenna. It said it was 50db and looked half way decent for a indoor antenna. i figured anything would be better than the piece of crap i returned. Come to find out this thing works fantastic!!!!!!!!!!. It was 25 dollars and the philips model number is MANT510. every HD channel is at least 70%.... The best part about it is that i don't have to get on the roof to adjust it every week......... i got this thing at walmart. Yes i said walmart. it amazed the hell out of me to....... :) ROLLING BACK PRICES. HAHAHA

That was the first one I got, too. Unfortunately, I could not get it to pull in all of the channels from my location, but it was the cheap "proof of concept" that convinced me that it was possible to recieve OTA signals indoors here in Denton (before I upgraded to my final rig: Silver Sensor + ChannelMaster 7777 preamp).

It looks like WFAA channel 8.1 has gone down, I could not get 8.1, 8.2 or 8.3 last night. I tried my trusty backup rabbit ears with no luck, all other digital channels come in strong and clear on both the Terk and RCA rabbit ears. I checked 8.1 again this morning, and still nothing. They better fix what ever ths problem is before tomorrow night, because I don't want to watch LOST in analog.

Oh yea and what's up with WFAA wasting bandwidth on 9.3 with a 480i feed of the same thing as 8.1 in 1080i??

8-1 is up out here in the country. 85% signal. Check the VHF part of your antenna.

8-1 is up out here in the country. 85% signal. Check the VHF part of your antenna.

8-1 was working fine last night as well.

8-1 is up out here in the country. 85% signal. Check the VHF part of your antenna.

I just replaced our main antenna Sunday, old one got damage in the high winds Friday. I had 8.1 with a strong signal sunday night, and my wife said she watched her afternoon soaps on 8.1 yesterday afternoon, but when I got home 8.1 would not come in, I even did a channel scan and it didn't find any wfaa broadcast. I disconnected the Terk outdoor directional HD antenna and hooked the rabbit ears up which is what we used over the weekend and had no problem pulling in WFAA, and still was not able to get any of the digital 8 channels. We live about 15 miles from Cedar Hill and the towers and have never had a problem pulling in any of the major channels. I will try something else when I get home, I have 4 different types of indoor antennas that all receive HD signals, maybe one of those will pull it back in?

Ck any of these antennas with an analog TV tuned to Ch8 and see what it looks like. A fairly good analog should produce HD 8.1

Kennedale should be a no brainer. I am NOT a fan of the TERK antennas.
JStigler

If the Terk don't want to work like it's supposed to then I will take it back to CC. Any thoughts on what to get for very good HD reception??

I am new to this HDTV, I would like to know if any one in Allen receiving HDTV from and indoor antenna?

Any thoughts on what to get for very good HD reception??

An OUTDOOR antenna properly aimed. A Channel Master CM-7777 preamp, and some GOOD RG-6 coax.

F* the CCR's. They can't stop you. FEDERAL LAW!!!

If the Terk don't want to work like it's supposed to then I will take it back to CC. Any thoughts on what to get for very good HD reception??


I switched from a Terk to a Channel Master. No problems since. Frys sells quite a few Channel Master antennas (different ranges). The Channel Master antennas are NOT in the TV section. They are over near the phone section.

If the Terk don't want to work like it's supposed to then I will take it back to CC. Any thoughts on what to get for very good HD reception??


I have installed many TERK antennas. Granted they are not as good as a CM, but I have put these antennas in attics in McKinney and they worked fine with NO preamp attached USING DIPLEXERS :eek: !!!.

Before you take the antenna back, check the assembly of the antenna. The VHF(back) and the UHF(front<) connect at the feedpoint(where the coax connects). Make sure the VHF side has not come loose.

May save you some time and money. Personally I think your problem is between the receiver and the antenna. Connectors, coax..etc. Got a cat or dog that likes to chew? Mice in the attic?

The #1 culprit is connectors. Pre assembled connectors(not reliable). Screw on connectors(not good). Take the coax loose from the receiver and the antenna, take a Volt/Ohm meter and check between the center conductor and the outside of the connector. If you show a dead short or "0" ohms with nothing connected on either side...you have found your problem!!

I have installed many TERK antennas. Granted they are not as good as a CM, but I have put these antennas in attics in McKinney and they worked fine with NO preamp attached USING DIPLEXERS :eek: !!!.

Before you take the antenna back, check the assembly of the antenna. The VHF(back) and the UHF(front<) connect at the feedpoint(where the coax connects). Make sure the VHF side has not come loose.

May save you some time and money. Personally I think your problem is between the receiver and the antenna. Connectors, coax..etc. Got a cat or dog that likes to chew? Mice in the attic?

The #1 culprit is connectors. Pre assembled connectors(not reliable). Screw on connectors(not good). Take the coax loose from the receiver and the antenna, take a Volt/Ohm meter and check between the center conductor and the outside of the connector. If you show a dead short or "0" ohms with nothing connected on either side...you have found your problem!!

I know it's not the cable, same cable that I was using before with the old antenna. My terk is mounted on the livingroom wall behind some plants next to the tv, I can take the antenna off the wall and move it around looking at the strenght meter for each channel to get the best signal, the problem is that ONLY wfaa 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 are missing NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, and UPN all come in super clean and the wfaa broadcast comes from the same location at Cedar Hill which is the direction I have my antenna pointed in. The odd thing is that my rabbit ears ALWAYS pulled in ALL the digital channels in the D/FW area, and it would not find wfaa either, even after another channel scan.

I plan on doing some more things tonight to resolved the issue and like I said if I can't get ABC back with this new antenna I will just return it for something else (Terk TV5) and if I ned to I will go with a CM and mount it in the attic so it won't be subjected to the weather elements.

Just to let you know it was the antenna that was the problem, I got home and put the $10 set of rabbit ears back on and moved it around some and BOOM I had ABC back. No matter how I moved the $149.99 Terk around wheather it was up, down, or side to side it would not pick up ABC. So I took the POS Terk back and bought the Zenith Silver Sensor and BAM I got all my HD channels with a 78 or better reading on the strenght meter. The only reason I didn't want to use the rabbit ears is they look like crap setting on the EC and we had always used the main antenna on the roof.

A quick question... is the new KDFI transmitter on the same antenna in cedar hill as KDFW Fox 4? I know they both have the same parent companies (FOX), sister stations, etc. Since KDFI went full power recently, i'm getting about 12-15 points better reception (80-82) on it vs KDFW which can drop for me a lot (65-70) on my Dish Network 942. Speaking of which, it sure made the rangers game easier to watch last night... nice and clear SD 4x3...

I know their ATSC channel numbers are right next to each other (KDFW:35 - KDFI:36), so I would think they would have very similar signal strengths. Maybe the new KDFI transmitter is stronger then the KDFW one (which would be a true waste if it is....). I did a re-scan of my KDFW on Monday and it gave me a little better reception for American Idol last night, but still had some blocking / dropped audio due to loss of signal from time to time.

I'm using a RatShack Yagi (around 7-8 ft long) up in the 2nd story attic rafters out in Flower Mound...

As for the WFAA talk, its always been my best station, right around 96-100 percent signal strength. All my other stations (NBC, CBS, UPN, WB, 52, etc... are all 75-85).

It doesn't look like they are on the same tower, per thier licenses. Here is the long and lat of the KDFI digital transmitter:

32° 32' 36.00" N Latitude
96° 57' 32.00" W Longitude (NAD 27)


Here is the long and lat of the KDFW digital transmitter:

32° 35' 6.00 " N Latitude
96° 58' 41.00" W Longitude (NAD 27)

I would think these would have to be accurate but license applications and grants get fudged and screwed up all the time.

KDFW-4 & 35 are on Hill Tower-----Same as WFAA 8 & 9

KDFI-27 & 36 are on Richland South----Same as KDAF 32 & 33, KSTR 48 & 49 etc

JStigler

Ok, I don't ask too many questions, however I have ran into an issue that has ruffled my feathers.

First, I have DirecTV with two TIVO units, the HD and SD units. I have the lovely new Dish installed for future upgrades to MPEG4. Finally, I have an OTA.

Now here is the issue, I had a basic Radio Shack OTA(believe it was a Terk), it was a $35 outdoor OTA. Worked fine down in Dallas, but now that I moved up to Little Elm I was only able to pick up ABC, yes ABC. Sometimes when the moon and the stars lined up just right I could get WB. I always found it funny that I could get ABC with a signal strength of 68, but none of the other channels. I did try adjusting it right and left, had not tried moving it up. Anyway, I had talked to DirecTV about adjusting it since they installed it, no problem they were sending someone out. I am not going to get into the issues with the installers (yes more than one came out), but we will just leave at the fact they could not get a better signal and suggested I get a bigger antenna. For a chuckle I will tell you that I had one of the installers tell me the antenna was backwards, that the arrow should point toward the towers. When I asked about all the other antennas on the roofs around me he said they were backwards too. Such fun.

So, I went out and bout a CM OTA for $60 from Lowes and swapped out the antennas. By the way it's a model 3018, supposed to be good for fringe areas. Anyway, I swapped the two units, changing nothing else and I got 0 signal strength on all channels. So I played with it moving it right to left and still nothing. Needless to say I was aggravated, plus I do not like heights, actually it's not the height that bothers me it's the fall and sudden stop that bothers me. So being frustrated I decided to raise the antenna up. I got a 5ft pole mounted the antenna and poof, I was getting 70-90 signal strength on all channels. Cool, right? Well, I pulled the ladder down and cleaned up, fixed a drink and went to enjoy my new found HD channels. Guess what, I was back to 0 signal strength. I couldn't believe it, someone upstairs was having a good chuckle. I put the ladder back and played with the antenna, no luck, nothing. So, I checked one more thing, the diplexers, yes I have diplexers. I had read that the new MPEG4 signals and OTA do not get along using a diplexer. I figured since I wasn't using a new MPEG4 receiver this wouldn't be a problem. Apparently I was wrong. I pulled one diplexer off on the inside and immediately got a signal, not great but something. So I pulled the second one off and now I have signals from 70-90 again accept for ABC and PBS, they are both in the 50's.

So now that everyone has had a good laugh, here is my questions:

1 - Does one to two degrees right or left really make that big of a difference for a directional OTA? I ask because apparently I live in a wind tunnel that moves my antenna.

2 - Any idea why my old antenna that was smaller would have picked up ABC better than the newer bigger antenna? The new one is rated farther on both UHF and VHF.

3 - Any suggestions on changes that I should make, especially since I am now sacrificing one of my Sat lines for OTA?

4 - Any chance I would have better luck with an indoor antenna?

Thank you in advance for any advice and I hope everyone found it as amusing as I did. If you can't laugh at yourself, what are you going to do?


Kemical

So now that everyone has had a good laugh, here is my questions:

1 - Does one to two degrees right or left really make that big of a difference for a directional OTA? I ask because apparently I live in a wind tunnel that moves my antenna.

Yes and No....Best advice...secure your antenna from turning.

2 - Any idea why my old antenna that was smaller would have picked up ABC better than the newer bigger antenna? The new one is rated farther on both UHF and VHF.

Everything is relative.

3 - Any suggestions on changes that I should make, especially since I am now sacrificing one of my Sat lines for OTA?

Run another SAT line.

4 - Any chance I would have better luck with an indoor antenna?

NO!!!!!

Thank you in advance for any advice and I hope everyone found it as amusing as I did. If you can't laugh at yourself, what are you going to do?

Your welcome :)

Thanks for the quick response MP. And yes, my OTA is secured even though I have thought about putting additional anchors to make it more stable in windy conditions.

Thanks again,

Kemical

I installed a new ATSC receiver today, the H20-100 from D*. During its scan it found channels that had never been reported by any of my previous 5 ATSC tuners. Does anyone know what these are? They might just be anomalies of this receiver. There is no programming on any of them that was decoded by my tuner.

KXII 12-1
UPN 12-2
Fox 12-3
29-1
30-13
30-16
30-17
30-19
30-59
58-1
58-2
58-3
58-4

I installed a new ATSC receiver today, the H20-100 from D*. During its scan it found channels that had never been reported by any of my previous 5 ATSC tuners. Does anyone know what these are? They might just be anomalies of this receiver. There is no programming on any of them that was decoded by my tuner.

KXII 12-1
UPN 12-2
Fox 12-3
29-1
30-13
30-16
30-17
30-19
30-59
58-1
58-2
58-3
58-4

I know the 58's are religious channels, I believe Pax but not positive. I got those the other day but ended up deleting them. 12, 29 and 30 I did not get and have no idea what they are. I suggest just looking at the programming, unfortunetly just because it is a digital channel doesn't mean that you will get any HD programming from it. I deleted like 7 channels (including their sub-channels, ie 58-1, 58-2 etc) because they didn't have HD programming on them.

Kemical

Possibly a re-map error. Hard reboot and rescan. Got the same receiver here.... never seen that before.

Also, Do you have a secondary local network set up? Info from your previous posts tells me that you could not possibly pull in Sherman or Tyler. Make sure that you have only D/FW as your only local channel market. If you choose Tyler for instance, as your 2nd local area, regardless of if you can receive those channels, they will appear in the guide with program data. Try to tune to the channel and you will see SFS.(searching for signal)

Hope I helped

OK, the good news...Now that KDFI's new transmitter is on-line, I can now pick up 27(36) OTA very well in south central Arlington. Now the bad news...for some reason, I'm now having trouble with KDFW 4(35) and KXAS 5(41). Lots of drop outs, especially on KXAS such that it is nearly unwatchable. These 2 stations used to come in perfectly. I've done a channel rescan on my S* T351, which often fixes these type of things, but it does not fix the problem this time. I have no problems with any of the other channels.

I guess this could be coincidence, but just when KDFI's new transmitter comes on line, KDFW and KXAS go bad. Could KDFI's new transmitter be causing these problems? Anybody else having similar problems? Frustrating to say the least...

I haven't watched KFDI in quite some time, since I couldn't pick up their HDTV OTA signal. I since have gotten a plasma TV and have had it for a few months. I can now pick up KDFI's signal, so last night I watched KDFI for the first time in quite awhile. After watching MASH and Cheers, about (1.5 hours), I changed channels. My HDTV receiver flashes a brief grey sceen while changing channels. Much to my dismay, I detected a very light "kdfi 27" logo burned into my plasma display on the gray screen. I switched to a channel with no signal to bring up the grey screen, and sure enough, there it was. Nasty!!

I've used Avia and the GetGray calibration disks, so my brightness levels should be set appropriately. I've watched other channels continuously longer than than 1.5 hours, and have never had any logos burned into my display. Fortunately, the "kdfi 27" seems to be going away. Since it's Ranger's season, just a heads up for those who might be tuned into a baseball game for a couple of hours...

OK, the good news...Now that KDFI's new transmitter is on-line, I can now pick up 27(36) OTA very well in south central Arlington. Now the bad news...for some reason, I'm now having trouble with KDFW 4(35) and KXAS 5(41). Lots of drop outs, especially on KXAS such that it is nearly unwatchable. These 2 stations used to come in perfectly. I've done a channel rescan on my S* T351, which often fixes these type of things, but it does not fix the problem this time. I have no problems with any of the other channels.

I guess this could be coincidence, but just when KDFI's new transmitter comes on line, KDFW and KXAS go bad. Could KDFI's new transmitter be causing these problems? Anybody else having similar problems? Frustrating to say the least...

South Central Arlington is so close to Cedar Hill I would think you have the opposite problem, too much signal strength. What type of antenna, length of coax run, and type of coax are you using?

South Central Arlington is so close to Cedar Hill I would think you have the opposite problem, too much signal strength. What type of antenna, length of coax run, and type of coax are you using?

I have a couple of GE "PVC pipe" antennas mounted outside on the east and west side of my fireplace chimney, with a run of about 30 ft of RG6 coax. I have the antennas connected with a coax T outside and a single run of coax into the house. The antennas come with a preamp that I have installed inside.

The T351 doesn't give any useful info about signal strength other than bars, or at least I can't find it. Maybe there is a service menu or something that can be accessed to give more useful info. When watching KXAS and KDFW, the bars will be strong, then disappear, then be strong, disappear, etc.

I have a couple of GE "PVC pipe" antennas mounted outside on the east and west side of my fireplace chimney, with a run of about 30 ft of RG6 coax. I have the antennas connected with a coax T outside and a single run of coax into the house. The antennas come with a preamp that I have installed inside.

The T351 doesn't give any useful info about signal strength other than bars, or at least I can't find it. Maybe there is a service menu or something that can be accessed to give more useful info. When watching KXAS and KDFW, the bars will be strong, then disappear, then be strong, disappear, etc.

You got me on that one. Some people might know what a PVC pipe antenna is but I have no clue. The fact that the signal keeps bouncing between very strong and nothing sounds like multipath issues caused by signals cancelling and then adding alternately causing the effect you are seeing, but I don't really know.

I do know you are VERY close to the transmit antennas. I have a friend who lives near Beach and 820, 15 - 20 miles farther away than you, that just uses rabbit ears and gets every digital channel flawlessly. Here is my suggestion, get a set of old rabbit ears, hook them up, rescan, and see what happens. Rabbit ears are not very efficient and do not much gain so in your case they might attenuate the signal a little bit. You shouldn't need anything else anyway, IMHO.

Here is my suggestion, get a set of old rabbit ears, hook them up, rescan, and see what happens. Rabbit ears are not very efficient and do not much gain so in your case they might attenuate the signal a little bit. You shouldn't need anything else anyway, IMHO.

Well, you hit the nail on the head. The old rabbit ears seem to work fine for HTDV. They don't do very well for the analog channels (which is why I put the antennas up in the first place), but I can use the external antennas should I have to record something on the VCR.

...I detected a very light "kdfi 27" logo burned into my plasma display on the gray screen. I switched to a channel with no signal to bring up the grey screen, and sure enough, there it was. Nasty!! ...

This is really more of a function of the TV than that station. While certain stations broadcast logos that are more likely to be burned in than others, whether or not there is a negative impact on your set depends on the set itself.

This topic would probably be better placed in one of the hardware forums (i.e. for your particular set, which you did not mention).

BTW, I think it's irresponsible for stations to place solid, brightly-colored logos on their channels, knowing that a large percentage of the people watching on the digital station have TV's that are susceptible to burn-in. They ultimately hurt there own viewership (when people won't watch out of fear of what will happen to their expensive TV's) as well as HDTV viewership in general (as people are reluctant to convert to HD when they hear stories like this one).

Obviously kdfi is not being very forward-thinking on this point, but then when have they ever been accused of being forward-thinking?

BTW, I think it's irresponsible for stations to place solid, brightly-colored logos on their channels, knowing that a large percentage of the people watching on the digital station have TV's that are susceptible to burn-in. They ultimately hurt there own viewership (when people won't watch out of fear of what will happen to their expensive TV's) as well as HDTV viewership in general (as people are reluctant to convert to HD when they hear stories like this one).


I sent them an email. We'll see what happens. The logo is semi-transparent in some places, but the "kdfi", "27", and the red ball are pretty solid and pretty bright. Interestingly, the logo is not shown continuously during prime time, but is displayed continuously during later night programming.

Does anyone have issues with the HD video / audio being 'jerky'? I get intermittant stutters when watching any ABC network HD broadcast (broadcasted in 1080i). My signal is strong (%85+). I live in Dallas Tx.... just wondering if anyone else has the same issue. All other stations are fine.

My set up is an HTPC using an MDP-130 capture card.

Does KDFI even have any HD programming? Or , is everyone just excited that they can pick up the digital channel now? At last check, I was not able to. It's been while but will do a rescan on my Samsung TS360 and see what I get now.

Does KDFI even have any HD programming? Or , is everyone just excited that they can pick up the digital channel now? At last check, I was not able to. It's been while but will do a rescan on my Samsung TS360 and see what I get now.

No HD programming that I have ever seen. Just excited about being able to pick up the Rangers on an OTA digital channel, rather than SD over a satellite. Otherwise thier audience would return to the 6 people who watch their normal programming. ;)

If you do a rescan this afternoon it still might not show up. The signal completly dissapeared a few hours ago for me.

I would bet they have more than six viewers. They have some fairly decent syndicated comedies they air on a daily basis. Not to mention a few Stars games.

I wasn't referring to Ranger and Stars fans who tune in for 3 1/2 hours (or less for a Ranger game, depending on who is pitching) and are gone. I was referring to a non-sports telecast night. You are correct though. I forgot about the fascinating syndicated reruns of Matlock at 7 and Cops at 8, EVERY non-sports weeknight. It must be a 2 for 1 deal with whoever owns the rights to those shows. :)

Make that 11 viewers.

I sent them an email. We'll see what happens. The logo is semi-transparent in some places, but the "kdfi", "27", and the red ball are pretty solid and pretty bright. Interestingly, the logo is not shown continuously during prime time, but is displayed continuously during later night programming.

Well, I think a lot of people would agree that their ownly real redeeming quality is the broadcast of Stars and Rangers. Well, Stars anyway. :p

Does anyone have issues with the HD video / audio being 'jerky'? I get intermittant stutters when watching any ABC network HD broadcast (broadcasted in 1080i). My signal is strong (%85+). I live in Dallas Tx.... just wondering if anyone else has the same issue. All other stations are fine.

My set up is an HTPC using an MDP-130 capture card.

I have the same issue with the HR10-250 (HD TiVo). Three or four times during last week's LOST the image and sound became completely corrupted for 3-4 seconds at a time. That's not much percentage wise, but it sure sucks when you get things like, "I went and talked to (&@# %H@*IAHFf and he said..."

I live in Rowlett and also pull in a respectable signal strength on WFAA which would lead you to believe that you would not experience significant dropouts.

I had 1 3-4 second audio drop out during my recording of desperate housewives from last Sunday night. That's much better then no audio at all for the first 5-10 min of the show like it was the previous 2 new episodes.... I have a dish network 942 HD PVR.

I have the same issue with the HR10-250 (HD TiVo). Three or four times during last week's LOST the image and sound became completely corrupted for 3-4 seconds at a time. That's not much percentage wise, but it sure sucks when you get things like, "I went and talked to (&@# %H@*IAHFf and he said..."

I live in Rowlett and also pull in a respectable signal strength on WFAA which would lead you to believe that you would not experience significant dropouts.


I live up in Little Elm and I have a signal strength in the 50's for ABC and I have the 10-250. I have not noticed any audio dropouts like the ones you are describing. I do get digital artifacts when the signal drops, but not often. What I didn't like was when I was watching the "Commander in Chief" last week, Bello decided to switch it from HD to SD right at the end. I thought I had a problem until I replayed it and saw what happened. Anyway, maybe my digital artifacts are what you guys are refering to and I am assuming its a signal strength issue with me.

Kemical

Is anyone else having trouble with 4-1. Everytime it starts to make popping noises after about 2-3 minutes of watching it. Signal strength is 74-77. This is on a Toshiba 52HM95 with CM stealth. :confused:

I am new to this HDTV, I would like to know if any one in Allen receiving HDTV from and indoor antenna?
I live an Allen and right now am using the Phillips Mant510 from Wal-Mart (as mentioned in an earlier post) for reception. I would like to upgrade to an antenna with better range in hopes to bring the HD channels in better. Right now though, I'm pretty impressed with what this little indoor antenna can do. I have it set on top of one of my entertainment center towers.

I was looking at antennas at Radio Shack. Anyone have any ideas on what's the best one to get from them. I think they have a 120 mile one they recoomend that is a Terk for 79.00. Is that a fair price?

I was looking at antennas at Radio Shack. Anyone have any ideas on what's the best one to get from them. I think they have a 120 mile one they recoomend that is a Terk for 79.00. Is that a fair price?

How much room do you have to mount it? Indoors, attic, outdoors?

Well, against the better judgement of most on here (and I've spent several days reading posts before registering), I would like to place it in my attic. My media/gameroom sits in my attic space (my house is sort of a 1 1/2 story) in the middle of my house. So access to the attic and poking the cable through the wall would be the easiest task first. I have walk-in access to my attic from my game room. I will move an antenna outside as a last resort. Obviously, if I can't beat the reception I'm getting now with the Phillips Mant150 indoor then I may settle for keeping it. Most of my TV watching is SD satellite based over Dish Network with PVR. However, I am looking forward to football season in High Def OTA, and it looks like as of now I receive those channels fine. I figure for 79.00 (with NQA return policy at Radio Shack) it's worth trying a "real" antenna.

Thanks for the quick response.

Did the signal for the Ranger game drop off after the 1st inning to what it was before the new transmitter went online for anyone one else?

Help! My signal keeps dropping out!

I've been getting good reception since Oct. with my OTA. I have had drop-outs ever once in a while but, the last two evenings have been crap..... unwatchable!The mornings and midday seem to be fine.

Can the heat/atmosphere change be causing this?

I’m only 19 miles from the Cedar Hill towers and have a Channel Master 3018 ( I think that’s the model number) in the attic.

Any ideas??

Thanks!!

Help! My signal keeps dropping out!

I've been getting good reception since Oct. with my OTA. I have had drop-outs ever once in a while but, the last two evenings have been crap..... unwatchable!The mornings and midday seem to be fine.

Can the heat/atmosphere change be causing this?

I’m only 19 miles from the Cedar Hill towers and have a Channel Master 3018 ( I think that’s the model number) in the attic.

Any ideas??

Thanks!!

Folliage on trees that wasn't there when you installed in October? Just a guess. I live out in the woods, and I try not to aim dishes or antennae until the trees are full. That way its done during a worst case scenario.

Folliage on trees that wasn't there when you installed in October? Just a guess. I live out in the woods, and I try not to aim dishes or antennae until the trees are full. That way its done during a worst case scenario.


That could be it... there are some pretty big trees a couple of houses down in the direction of the towers.

Would a pre-amp do anything for me if that is the case?

Did the signal for the Ranger game drop off after the 1st inning to what it was before the new transmitter went online for anyone one else?

I guess so. 27-1 is gone here in Keller, bouncing between 0 and 20 signal strength. It was solid at 80 to 90 the last Ranger game.

Well, against the better judgement of most on here (and I've spent several days reading posts before registering), I would like to place it in my attic. My media/gameroom sits in my attic space (my house is sort of a 1 1/2 story) in the middle of my house. So access to the attic and poking the cable through the wall would be the easiest task first. I have walk-in access to my attic from my game room. I will move an antenna outside as a last resort. Obviously, if I can't beat the reception I'm getting now with the Phillips Mant150 indoor then I may settle for keeping it. Most of my TV watching is SD satellite based over Dish Network with PVR. However, I am looking forward to football season in High Def OTA, and it looks like as of now I receive those channels fine. I figure for 79.00 (with NQA return policy at Radio Shack) it's worth trying a "real" antenna.

Thanks for the quick response.

I live in Plano, and use a ChannelMaster 4228 ($50 at Fry's). It is UHF only, but pullls in upper VHF for channel 9 where 8.1 is located. I also get all my SD via DishNetwork, so I only needed the antenna for HD (UHF and channel 9). I have it mounted to my chimney and get great signals. It ALMOST worked in the attic of my 1 story home, but didn't lock on to ALL the key digital signals from Cedar Hill. My problem is that my attic roof is lined with metal. If you don't have that, there's a real good chance that this antenna will work in your attic. Remember to use good cable, RG-6, I think, for long runs.

Good luck!
Alan

I'm in Bluff Dale, about 65-70 miles SW of Cedar Hill and I get 27 digital stations, without dropouts, out of DFW, including WFAA, and 5 stations out of Waco. The ones out of Waco are CBS and ABC, 10.1 10.2 25.1 25.2 25.3 , and that's with the antenna pointed to Cedar Hill, no rotor. That's pretty good considering Bluff Dale is down in a hole.

I have had a tower with antenna and preamp up fo about 5 years for analog. Picture quality wasn't always that great out here in the sticks so I went to DTV and hadn't used the antenna in a long while until I got the Toshiba 42HP95. What a difference with HD OTA!!

I guess so. 27-1 is gone here in Keller, bouncing between 0 and 20 signal strength. It was solid at 80 to 90 the last Ranger game.

Gone here in Arlington too. Signal keeps jumping between no bars and 2 bars (out of 9 bars). This is not exactly what I had in mind when I emailed them and asked them to do something about the 27-logo burn-in issue.

BTW, I was a regular 27 prime-time viewer when they were showing Hawaii 5-0 at 8:00 PM. Nobody beats McGarrett for pithy one-liners and shooting accuracy with a stub-nose 38...

Hey fellows. We FiOS TV subscribers here in Fairfax County were treated to a little of the HDNet-produced Mavs game last night. They finally discovered the snafu and went back to regular HDNet programming before the end of the first half. Bummer! I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on the production of the game. I was particularly interested in what the viewers on standard def UPN21 saw last night. I can only assume they got a letterboxed presentation. Or were there two separate productions? I noticed the announcers made a comment about someone sitting to someone's left, so I know they were at least looking at the 16x9 shot. Seeing productions like these makes me look forward to the day when all sports content is shot in widescreen.

HDNet signs up to do 10-15 games a year for UPN-21. In return, HDNet gets to provide the HD feeds to their HDNet customers in the DFW area. Typically, UPN-21 SD gets the center cut from the HD feed and shows that on their HD channel as well.

However, this season, about 1/2 of the games have been provided to UPN to display the HD feed on their HD channels because of some issues / snafu's with HDNet providing feeds to their providers (I think specifically DirecTV not providing many of the HD broadcasts).

All the bonus of HDNet and the Mavs being owned by the same person, mark cuban.

weather warnings right in the middle of shows on the WB causing the show to switch from HD to SD..annoying.

Flipped over to ABC at 9 pm, and they interrupted commander in chief to show the weather guy.

These stations are going downhill in a hurry.

I'm having trouble getting an HD signal for Fox and ABC from Frisco.

Anybody else have the same issues?


NBC, CBS and UPN seem to have strong signals in Frisco.

I live up in Little Elm and I have a signal strength in the 50's for ABC and I have the 10-250. I have not noticed any audio dropouts like the ones you are describing. I do get digital artifacts when the signal drops, but not often. What I didn't like was when I was watching the "Commander in Chief" last week, Bello decided to switch it from HD to SD right at the end. I thought I had a problem until I replayed it and saw what happened. Anyway, maybe my digital artifacts are what you guys are refering to and I am assuming its a signal strength issue with me.

Kemical

I don't know how shows are even watchable with reception in the 50's. If I get as low as 60 on any given channel I consider it a lost cause.

weather warnings right in the middle of shows on the WB causing the show to switch from HD to SD..annoying.

With storms in the area, I figured that would happen on KDAF-33, so I recorded Smallville on my standard-def TiVo instead of watching live in HD. Since the WB sends out some of their HD shows in letterboxed SD, when playing the recorded show back I set my TV on 'zoom', filled the screen with the actual program -- which cut off the weather crawl. :p

Is 8.4 a recent addition? I was clicking past WFAA 8.1 to get to KTVT 11.1, and I've previously hidden 8.2 (weather) and 8.3 (towercam) on my set. Now I see 8.4, which is listed as another WFAA-SD. So here's what I've got coming in as of Friday night (April 21):

8.1 -- WFAA-DT, 1080i, 16x9: main channel, HD or SD upconvert
8.2 -- WFAA-SD (XPress 8.2), 480i, 4x3: News/Weather
8.3 -- WFAA-3 (WFAA-SD, "third channel"), 480i, 4x3: Tower Camera
8.4 -- WFAA-4 (WFAA-SD), 480i, 4x3: actual SD feed (not upconverted, same as analog)

This baffles me. Why would they further steal from the 8.1 bitrate to simulcast the standard-def feed?

I just did a rescan and I also see 8.4 with the same thing. It baffles me why they would waste bandwidth on such a asinine addition. What is Belo thinking?

I just did a rescan and I also see 8.4 with the same thing. It baffles me why they would waste bandwidth on such a asinine addition. What is Belo thinking?

Maybe they are going to add another tower cam.... :mad:

See my sig.

Other than that, I will not go there tonight.

With storms in the area, I figured that would happen on KDAF-33, so I recorded Smallville on my standard-def TiVo instead of watching live in HD. Since the WB sends out some of their HD shows in letterboxed SD, when playing the recorded show back I set my TV on 'zoom', filled the screen with the actual program -- which cut off the weather crawl. :p

There was only one warning during smallville..i watched my recorded copy today.

Supernatural had two of them, right in the middle of the show.

They should run this BS during the commercials, or just wait until they get the equipment to insert it into the HD feed.

Maybe they are going to add another tower cam.... :mad:

I sure hope not. One is one too many.

I just did a rescan and I also see 8.4 with the same thing. It baffles me why they would waste bandwidth on such a asinine addition. What is Belo thinking?

I seem to recall seeing something elsewhere suggesting that 8.4 is part of a test of new equipment that Belo is installing -- but no idea of what they're actually planning to put on this subchannel over the long run. I can't say that I've noticed any sort of significant change in 8.1's HD image quality, though.

Hi,

Is there a store in the DFW area that carries the CM 7777 ?

/// Motu

I just did a rescan and I also see 8.4 with the same thing. It baffles me why they would waste bandwidth on such a asinine addition. What is Belo thinking?

For a while 8.3 was a towercam pointing toward downtown and 8.4 was an airport towercam. Now my 8.4 is the SD ABC as well. Odd.

On a sidenote, if you watch the towercam channel for any amount of time, you hear people on what sound like CB radios talking. Does anyone know who this is? Police maybe?

Hi,

Is there a store in the DFW area that carries the CM 7777 ?

/// Motu

Possible but doubtful. I ordered mine from solid signal online because I could not find it anywhere, but I only looked at Fry's, BB, CC, and RS. It showed up 2 days later.

On a sidenote, if you watch the towercam channel for any amount of time, you hear people on what sound like CB radios talking. Does anyone know who this is? Police maybe?

I have heard that on there. It sounded like aircraft communication to me.

Am I the only one who cannot receive 8-1???

Not my antenna. I swung it around to Tyler and all is OK. 8-1 and 7-1 are both VHF and they're one channel apart(RF 9 and 10).

Here is one of the things that WFAA has done . This is a post from someone at WFAA in another forum in Feb. They might be testing out their new equipment.

"Stay tuned as we have a new HD encoder for FA that will come online in a few weeks. It will have statistical multiplexing across both channels. This will do a nice job. We had it on the air as a demo about 9mo ago with 1HD & 2SD. There were no negative comments. "

And another explaining statistical multiplexing.
"ATSC has ~ 19MBPS to work with. Without stat mux, you have to decide how much bandwidth to assign to each subchannel all the time. So, the main channel (8.1) might get 15MBPS while the SD channel (8.2) would get the remaining 4MBPS. This is regardless of how many bits 8.2 really needs. With stat muxing, the bits that 8.2 doesn't need go directly to 8.1 with no other intervention. So, when a still weather radar is on 8.2, it might only need 2MBPS. When Troy is giving the 5 day forcast with motion, it might get 4MBPS. It might even get 6MBPS if 8.1 doesn't need the extra bits at the time.
Hope that is clear as mud! And I already know my numbers probably aren't correct. They are just example numbers."

Cool. But could they have picked a better time? Can these guys NOT work at night??:)

I am HDTV thankful that the NHL Playoffs are not on ABC this year. Even though OLN coverage sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before. If it wasn't for NBC:rolleyes: , D* subs would be SOL!!

I can receive WFAA (RF-9), KDFW (RF-35), and KXAS (RF-41) all with about the same signal strength (~80's on my Dish Network ViP622 HD/SD DVR) consistently via OTA. Despite complaints about Belo, the WFAA newscasts are hands down the better quality digital SD of the three (IMO).

Stay tuned as we have a new HD encoder for FA that will come online in a few weeks. It will have statistical multiplexing across both channels. This will do a nice job. We had it on the air as a demo about 9mo ago with 1HD & 2SD. There were no negative comments.

I wonder who they polled for those negative comments about HD? I have sent them a half dozen emails in the last 5 years. They have yet to respond to a single one. In fact a few of them came back with the dreaded "deleted, not read" to my email client. I wonder where it is exactly that they look for HD feedback?

If they are listening here's a tip...

Stop playing games with D* and your subscribers and just allow them to use your digital channel feeds throughout the country instead of shaking them down for money. :rolleyes:

I wonder who they polled for those negative comments about HD?


Well, let's see....

Back in the day it was "WFAA TV, Dallas Ft. Worth" The Spirit of Texas :)



Today it's "WFAA TV, North Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties" :(

Today's top story:
A new coffee bar opened in Frisco!! We now take you out live where we are joined by the Why Guy :eek: :eek: :eek:

Am I the only one who cannot receive 8-1???

Not my antenna. I swung it around to Tyler and all is OK. 8-1 and 7-1 are both VHF and they're one channel apart(RF 9 and 10).

I am still able to pick it up. I was actually watching the Suns vs. The Lakers around the time you posted that.

Weird.
Perhaps there was some interference adjacent to their frequency near me.

I was trying to watch the game too. After I turned around to Tyler 7-1 there were no more problems.

PQ was great BTW.

Are you guys watching the Mavericks game 1 in HD?

UPN is broadcasting the game in SD on their HD channel. (21-1) This sucks.

Are you guys watching the Mavericks game 1 in HD?

UPN is broadcasting the game in SD on their HD channel. (21-1) This sucks.

It's on TNT-HD

dtv4u is there any update on the new KDFI transmitter? For the past few days, the signal seems to be what it was before the upgrade.

It's on TNT-HD

Well now that is interesting. I had assumed that when games were broadcast locally and nationally that the national feed would be blacked out for us (a la HDNet). Now what I am specifically referring to is the Dallas Stars, but I wonder...

When the games are broadcast on kdfi (or FSN) and OLN, will we have our choice of broadcasts, or will the national feed be blacked out?

A secondary question: Does D* show FSN-HD games on the special even channel like they do OLN?

dtv4u is there any update on the new KDFI transmitter? For the past few days, the signal seems to be what it was before the upgrade.

I am not sure they actually upgraded. They might have been testing for a week or so but it has been back to the original sorry 10kw signal strength for the last 16 days. Emails to them just to ask for information are deleted and not read. Nice.

Dallas,

Yes, I am in Frisco and both Fox and ABC HD have both gone to hell recently.

I still receive them but they "hiccup" a lot now. They were fine over the last year but something must have changed because I cannot even watch a show without it being interrupted like 20 times now.

<sigh>

Well now that is interesting. I had assumed that when games were broadcast locally and nationally that the national feed would be blacked out for us (a la HDNet). Now what I am specifically referring to is the Dallas Stars, but I wonder...

When the games are broadcast on kdfi (or FSN) and OLN, will we have our choice of broadcasts, or will the national feed be blacked out?

A secondary question: Does D* show FSN-HD games on the special even channel like they do OLN?

The NBA rules are definitely different then other leagues. UPN 21 does local coverage in the first and second round... in addition to the national coverage on TNT/ESPN/ABC. In the past, HDNet has picked up a couple of Mavs games (last year it was games 2-5 in the first round) and provided to them to HDNet customers on special feeds. Haven't seen any announcement yet.

Here are some threads from last year doing HD comparisons...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=533087&highlight=Mavericks

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=533810&highlight=Mavericks

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=534814&highlight=Mavericks

Once we get to the conference finals, the games are only on TNT/ESPN/ABC.

Channel 27.1 was coming in about 83% earlier tonight during the Stars game. Now I'm at 0-5%.

Are they playing w/ the signal- or am I missing something here? ANyone know what's up?

OTA w/ HDTivo. Thanks.

Possible but doubtful. I ordered mine from solid signal online because I could not find it anywhere, but I only looked at Fry's, BB, CC, and RS. It showed up 2 days later.

Hi billt1111,

Thanks for the reply. I had heard that Lowes carried the 7777 but could never find it there. Looks like it will have to be solidsignal.com if the 3041dsb from Fry's does not work out.

/// Motu.

Channel 27.1 was coming in about 83% earlier tonight during the Stars game. Now I'm at 0-5%.

Are they playing w/ the signal- or am I missing something here? ANyone know what's up?

OTA w/ HDTivo. Thanks.

I turned on the stars game last night at about 10:15p, just to check the score, and I got 27.1 with about 78% via OTA on Dish Network 942 box. Figured it was fixed (and didn't have any hockey passion) so I just turned it off and went back to the news.

Guess I didn't stick around long enough.

(and didn't have any hockey passion)

Neither have the Stars in this series:(

I just switched from Dish Network to ComCast and am pretty disappointed in the SD Channel Quality. I just got a 50" Plasma this weekend and am trying to decide which service to go with. I was with Dish Network but they don't offer local HD channels this means either ComCast or DirectTV.

The pluses of ComCast so far are 1. On Demand 2. $29.99 a month for Satelittle users that switch (with HBO & Starz) 3. HD DVR rental is $10 a month. The minuses of ComCast are 1. Poor SD Quality 2. Guide looks like something out of 1990.

Anyone in the area tried both ComCast & DirectTV? What are your thoughts?

Local HD == OTA. $35 antenna at Fry's. After that, free. HD PVR? Cheap PC, big hard drive, and MyHD card < $500. After that, free.

Xesdeeni

Hi, I am about to get the HD-Tivo, and it seems I need an antenna for local channels. I'm over in Haltom City, 76117. Now, there is an old antenna on my roof that came with the house, mounted on the chimney. Do you think this will work?

If not, looking at indoor antennas, this one seems to be the best http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dQ6HcpG7Se8/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=15900&I=209HDTVI&search=vhf+uhf+antenna . Anyone have experience with it around here? Will it suite my needs?

I really appreciate any answers, I'm kinda swimming in the dark on this antenna thing, and i want to be set up ASAP. Thanks!

Hi, I am about to get the HD-Tivo, and it seems I need an antenna for local channels. I'm over in Haltom City, 76117. Now, there is an old antenna on my roof that came with the house, mounted on the chimney. Do you think this will work?

If not, looking at indoor antennas, this one seems to be the best http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dQ6HcpG7Se8/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=15900&I=209HDTVI&search=vhf+uhf+antenna . Anyone have experience with it around here? Will it suite my needs?

I really appreciate any answers, I'm kinda swimming in the dark on this antenna thing, and i want to be set up ASAP. Thanks!

Yes it should work, assuming the cable and connections are not broken or rusted through. In fact, from Haltom City you should be able to use rabbit ears but you would need to verify with a simple test.

In the 50's, my dad worked at a TV repair shop. He saw many poor folks duped by salesmen who sold them new "color" antennas to replace their old ones during the changeover from black and white. The same is true for HDTV. OTA is OTA. The frequencies are the same.

Xesdeeni

The Crutchfield Terk antenna looks like a Silver Sensor w/ VHF rabbit ears- so it should work well. I received most of the Dallas stations w/ the basic Silver Sensor (which is uhf only)- except for 8.1- which was VHF- and came in spotty.

Eventually bit the bullet and installed a 4228 on the roof- and receive everything (including 8.1, 27.1 and 33.1- which were hit and miss before) now great.

Hi all,
I took posession of a Dish 622 a few weeks ago (then had to immediately travel for three weeks, bummer) and have been <knock, knock> generally very happy with it. However, in the local channels setup I've been unable to get KERA to show up. It's the local channel I'm most interested in.

- I'm in Plano
- I have a big ol' Rodeo Shack antenna in the attic pointed at Cedar Hill
- I get great signal on all the other local OTA channels
- I tried to do a manual add of channel 13 but it can't find a signal for it and therefore won't add it (though admittedly there seems to be a bug in the manual add that doesn't show signal strength for ANY channels you select, so it might not allow any manual adds)

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I don't want to pay for local programming through Dish if I should be able to get great reception. Plus I feel like I'm already being nickel and dimed to death by a DVR fee here, a 2nd receiver charge there, etc.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

- Sean

I'm just gonna hook up the old antenna, I'm pretty sure it'll work. It's in pretty good shape with minimal rust on it. I'll have to do it this weekend, as it'll be quite a job getting into the crawlspace, that is our attic. I'll post the results.

Hi All,

I'm a new owner of a digital cable ready 42" Panasonic Plasma.

The question I have is this. I have comcast cable, and I pay the extra $5 for HD - so I"ve got a single cable box at my house. We live up in McKinney.

When I have the cable box hooked up to the new TV, I can get all of the local broadcast HD channels (starting around channel 210). When I bypass the cable box and plug directly into the TV, the PX60 finds a few of the digital stations (channel 81-2, etc), but not all of them. THe only locals I can get in HD are ABC and PBS. I have seen posts earlier in this thread that seem to indicate that Comcast sends all of the digital locals through in Clear QAM.

So it the problem here the QAM tuner in the TV? Is it not robust enough? The fact that the cable box can tune these channels (and they look great of course) leads me to think that there is sufficient bandwidth on the cabling...... Has anyone had similar issues?

btl.

However, in the local channels setup I've been unable to get KERA to show up. It's the local channel I'm most interested in.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
- Sean
I had the same problem but not with the same equipment.
I am on D* getting all HD OTA. KERA would not show up in the channel guide. I bypassed the multiswitch and diplexer and fed the antenna directly into the TV tuner, still no 13.1. I searched and found out it is really channel 14, so I tuned to 14 and the TV came up with a picture and said it was 13.1. Now it tunes in when I use the guide.
Hope that helps.

Hi all,
I took posession of a Dish 622 a few weeks ago (then had to immediately travel for three weeks, bummer) and have been <knock, knock> generally very happy with it. However, in the local channels setup I've been unable to get KERA to show up. It's the local channel I'm most interested in.

- I'm in Plano
- I have a big ol' Rodeo Shack antenna in the attic pointed at Cedar Hill
- I get great signal on all the other local OTA channels
- I tried to do a manual add of channel 13 but it can't find a signal for it and therefore won't add it (though admittedly there seems to be a bug in the manual add that doesn't show signal strength for ANY channels you select, so it might not allow any manual adds)

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I don't want to pay for local programming through Dish if I should be able to get great reception. Plus I feel like I'm already being nickel and dimed to death by a DVR fee here, a 2nd receiver charge there, etc.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

- Sean

Also in Plano, I pay Dish for the locals in SD; they are significantly cleaner than OTA. For HD, I have a CM 4228, on the roof. Everything is fantastic. I tried the 4228 in the attic, but my radiant barrier roof blocked too much signal.

Alan

FYI...

Channel 27-1 is back to 90% SS on my receiver in north Keller. I guess they turned the 1 Mw transmitter back on?

In the process of purchasing a house in Frisco.

Moving from Southern California.

In the past I've had Time Warner Digital Cable for my HD, and had a SA 8300hd DVR box that I was happy with.

I'm trying to figure out the best and easiest setup to get HD.

In the past I found myself watching mainly CBS/ABC/NBA in HD, along with TNT, ESPN and occasionally HDNet for some sports.

With the World Cup starting soon, I wouldn't mind having ESPN2 in HD, but I can live without it.

The house we're moving into already has a DirectTV dish installed (not sure what model or anything like that, or if it matters, i've never had a Sat system before).

If I go with comcast for HD and a DVR what box am I likely to end up with (as well as what software, had Passport Echo with the SA8300hd)?

If I go with DirectTV, how much is it going to cost me to get setup with an HD dish/box/dvr and will I be able to recieve local channels in HD, or will I need an OTA setup as well?

Sorry for the long post, I know most of these questions have been answered before,it's just hard digging through thousands of posts (some of which are multiple years old) trying to collate them all.

Thanks.

In the process of purchasing a house in Frisco.

Moving from Southern California.

In the past I've had Time Warner Digital Cable for my HD, and had a SA 8300hd DVR box that I was happy with.

I'm trying to figure out the best and easiest setup to get HD.

In the past I found myself watching mainly CBS/ABC/NBA in HD, along with TNT, ESPN and occasionally HDNet for some sports.

With the World Cup starting soon, I wouldn't mind having ESPN2 in HD, but I can live without it.

The house we're moving into already has a DirectTV dish installed (not sure what model or anything like that, or if it matters, i've never had a Sat system before).

If I go with comcast for HD and a DVR what box am I likely to end up with (as well as what software, had Passport Echo with the SA8300hd)?

If I go with DirectTV, how much is it going to cost me to get setup with an HD dish/box/dvr and will I be able to recieve local channels in HD, or will I need an OTA setup as well?

Sorry for the long post, I know most of these questions have been answered before,it's just hard digging through thousands of posts (some of which are multiple years old) trying to collate them all.

Thanks.

Welcome to Frisco!

While I know a little about the satellite stuff, I'll let others speak to it...I am currently a Comcast customer so that is what I know best....

If you go with Comcast, you will get a Motorola DCT 6412 with iGuide software. There are shortages from time to time, but generally that is what you would get. It is a dual-tuner box, with a 120GB HD. Quality control seems to be an issue with these boxes, but I have been lucky...I am on my first box, and have had very, very few issues with it. I always would like more capacity on the box, but in a way it works well for me...it doesn't let me get too far behind in my viewing!

Comcast doesn't have HDNet...they have INHD and INHD2. I haven't ever had HDNet, so I can't compare. Comcast also doesn't currently offer ESPN2 in HD. They do have several locals in HD, which is nice.

Overall, I have been pretty satisfied with Comcast, particularly since I have a pretty killer deal with them and have had good luck with the box. And I am an cable internet customer, as well. I may or may not explore other options when my deal is up with them, but as a new customer you can probably get a sweet deal, too, and since there is no obligation, etc., it isn't a bad place to start, at the very least....

Hope that helps and good luck! If I can provide any further detail, etc., let me know...

-Randy

The house we're moving into already has a DirectTV dish installed (not sure what model or anything like that, or if it matters, i've never had a Sat system before).

If I go with DirectTV, how much is it going to cost me to get setup with an HD dish/box/dvr and will I be able to recieve local channels in HD, or will I need an OTA setup as well?

Thanks.

Welcome. Here is my $.02 for D*.

The answer for Directv is not so simple and the actual price can be negotiated with a local agent or directly with D*. Also, I am not a salesman, just a subscriber. To complicate things D* has launched a few satellites and everything is in a state of flux for the next 2 years at least. New channels and capabilities are coming on line gradually. Generally the costs are these:

Basic package - $44.99
HD package - $9.99
First receiver recurring monthly charge - Free
Extra receivers recurring monthly charge - $4.99 each (mirroring or lease fee)
Install - free with some type of committment
MPEG2 HD Tivo DVR (H10-250) - $499 (negotiable)
MPEG4 HD DVR - not yet available (summer 06?)
H20 MPEG2 and MPEG4 receiver - $199 (negotiable)
19 OTA digital channel locals - possible with a well installed outdoor or attic boom antenna into the satellite box
Local channels in HD over satellite - possible but they are in MPEG4 format. The Tivo DVR is MPEG2 so you would need another box (the H20) for HD MPEG4 locals. That means that your HD DVR would have to have HD locals OTA only and HD locals via satellite would be on a different non-DVR box in another room.

Sorry for the wordiness. There is no way to fully describe all these options and prices completely in this space without some type of conversation, I think.

Hey guys,

I am moving to Grand Prairie next month and I am leaning towards going with Dish Network via AT&T rather than Comcast. Is there any word on when Dish will offer local HD channels in the area? Thanks in advance.

Hey guys,

I am moving to Grand Prairie next month and I am leaning towards going with Dish Network via AT&T rather than Comcast. Is there any word on when Dish will offer local HD channels in the area? Thanks in advance.

In Grand Prairie you are so close to the antennas all you would need is a paper clip in the back of the satellite receiver's OTA input. :)

Hey guys,

I am moving to Grand Prairie next month and I am leaning towards going with Dish Network via AT&T rather than Comcast. Is there any word on when Dish will offer local HD channels in the area? Thanks in advance.

Supposedly they will have HD LiL's by the end of the 2nd quarter this year... I'm personally looking forward to them as I am having occas. blackout via OTA...

These are the channels reported by the FusionHDTV5 Gold. The music channels may be a little mislabled as I didn't spend alot of time figuring out those that were in Spanish for example.

The actual RF channels are listed at the very bottom, which will be more helpful for those that just want the RF and QAM type.

To those who remember, the antenna on my house works beautifully! Haven't watched much, but Nascar was on in HD, looks excellent! Can't wait for Lost and 24!

Is KDAF transmitting PSIP data? I don't get any guide data from them.

During playback of recordings, when I fast forward through commercials, I see the weather radar instead of what is on 33-1. This is annoying, because you have to guess when to hit play.

Is KDAF transmitting PSIP data? I don't get any guide data from them.

I am out of town at the moment, so I can't check to see if they are doing it at the moment, but I am always able to receive guide data for KDFI via my OTA setup.

In the past, I've normally gotten PSIP guide information on KDAF, but I noticed that late last week that information was missing on Thursday and Friday. So apparently they have been experiencing some problems. I haven't checked to see if it is back this week.

Is anybody else experiencing issues with OTA channel lineup? All Im getting is channel 4 and the digital is showing as 27-7 Arizona??? Getting limited SD on some other channels. Or is my Mits software just acting up...

no issues pulling in 21-1 (UPN) or 11-1 (CBS) last night via Dish Network 942 box.

Could some of you DirecTV/Dish Network users confirm something for me? Do you get an alternate feed (or multiples) for Fox Sports Southwest? And if so, do you get Astros games when they are on at the same time as the Rangers via that feed (or the regular one)? I seem to remember that at one time the game that came on first was on the primary feed, and the later game showed up on the alternate. Anyway, I am thinking about adding one of these, at least for the summer, and that is one of the things I'd be looking for. I know they used to have this, but want to make sure now...

Thanks!
Randy

Yes, either the Rangers or Astros will be the main game and the other on the alternate channel. Seems to be related to which one FOX Sports Southwest wants to show to more people. However, just because the Astros game is on an available channel, it is usually blacked out in DFW. Don't know the pattern, it just varies. In the past it seemed like 1 game a week or so was not blacked out.

Also, even with the 'Fox Sports Package' of being able to receive all the Local Sports Channels for $5 or $6 per month extra, nearly all of the MLB games are blacked out... save a few a week. You have to go with the MLB EI package in order to get all the available games without them being blacked out.

This is my experience with Dish Network.

Yes, either the Rangers or Astros will be the main game and the other on the alternate channel. Seems to be related to which one FOX Sports Southwest wants to show to more people. However, just because the Astros game is on an available channel, it is usually blacked out in DFW. Don't know the pattern, it just varies. In the past it seemed like 1 game a week or so was not blacked out.

Also, even with the 'Fox Sports Package' of being able to receive all the Local Sports Channels for $5 or $6 per month extra, nearly all of the MLB games are blacked out... save a few a week. You have to go with the MLB EI package in order to get all the available games without them being blacked out.

This is my experience with Dish Network.

Thanks, Dishbacker. Back in the day, they didn't black them out when they were on Fox...I'll see if I can get some more info on why that changed. Since there are no local rights to protect when they are regionally broadcast, it makes even less sense than classifying Dallas as a home market for the 'Stros. Unfortunately, you run into the same thing with MLB EI, unless things have changed. You have to be 'out of market' to get a particular team, and since Dallas is classified as a home market for the Astros...you get the idea....ugh.

Thanks again...
Randy

Yes, either the Rangers or Astros will be the main game and the other on the alternate channel.

I'm on DTV, not DISH, but where is this "alternate" channel? Haven't run across that yet.

I had DirecTv for a few months a few years back, and the Alt channel was listed either one channel up or one channel down from the Fox Sports SW channel, I believe its labeled as RSN, or RSNA, or something like that.

I'm on DTV, not DISH, but where is this "alternate" channel? Haven't run across that yet.

The alternate FSN channel will be listed as RSNa underneath channel 643 on D*. The channel will be 644. It does not always appear as there are not always two sporting events in the southwest regional network on at the same time. You have to go look for it every night to see it.

ppctx I also got channel 4 last night as 27-7. Don't know why but had no problems watching 24. I have a Mitz also.

That is the first time that channel 4 said 27-7. I can't imagine it being the Mits software acting up. Picture quality was about the same as usual.

Dave,
24 came in great last night. Weird, its still doing it tonight, at least 8 and 11 aren,t comming in digital HD, punch in 4 and it goes to a SD feed of 4, go to 27-7 and there's Fox 4 with House. Reset the set last night, no change. At least with yours doing it also that means it not just my problem. Hard to believe that in almost 24hrs, no one else as posted of the issue.

I didn't have much trouble last night with Prison Break and 24 but had severe problems with House tonight.

My recording pretty screwed up and there were tons of dropouts. My guide couldn't give me channel information. Normally it says 4-1. Tonight it just said "program 3."

What the hell has happened to KDFW over the last few weeks?