Forgot that VideoRedo will crop the scroll out and let me stretch the picture back to the correct size. What an awesome program - and now their latest beta will do H.264.

I stand corrected on the HD-DVR but you don't seriously think that "FREE" meant without subscribing to the package that provides the channels. I mean, what would possibly make you think that you could get basic cable, and then just magically all these HD channels for "FREE" even though you don't pay for the package that provides them. I think it is quite obvious that they mean "FREE" for everyone who already gets those channels in SD. I mean, why stop at where you did? They should have to give those channels to everyone! They're free, right? Who cares if you don't subscribe to ImOn at all... they're "FREE"!

Once again, you defeat me with your impeccable logic. As a reward for your scintillating victory, I bestow upon you a gift card to Best Buy...

I couldn't agree more. It's simply idiotic to scroll this stuff over and over for the WHOLE evening. If I want to find out what's been canceled, I go to any network's website, click on cancellations, scroll through the list and bam I'm done. 30-60 seconds, tops. It's not even useful to do it they way they are doing it. Let's see, do I watch the show or watch the scroll? If I pay attention to the scroll I have to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait for the cancellation that concerns me. It's a waste of bandwith, screen space and time, and I may miss the cancellation anyway because I"M WATCHING THE SHOW!

Yup. That's the way all the people out in the sticks do it, too. Especially all of the seniors who have internet access and high-speed computers who might otherwise be traveling in for bible study or another function.

Not everyone has internet connections, or a reliable internet connection, and need other ways to get the information. Some have basic analog cable and can't get a sub-channel.

If you don't want to watch local crawls, don't watch local broadcast channels. That's why God gave us cable and satellite.

Huge Thanks In Advance, to KWWL. Let me be the first to congratulate the decision to continue with tonite's bb game on the sub, while the State of the Union is on 7.1.

imho, that is an excellent use of sub-channels. I wish others did it too (I would much prefer live coverage of ISU basketball, and the ability to watch it alongside of American Idol, instead of tape delayed.)

Thanks KWWL. (I know this isn't a tech problem, but since I complain here, I felt I needed to notice and give kudos where due, also.)

:D:D:D


edit: almost forgot. Kudos also to KCRG for putting ISU on their sub - what was it, last week? With a small gripe to CFU - who said it was on 409(9.1) - took me almost 10 minutes to decide to check the sub - and VIOLA - there it was.

And while I'm on a roll, the viewers DON'T need to see that pulsating "servicemaster" logo on any stations crawl. If that isn't the most distracting piece of crap on a tv screen.... :mad:

Have you noticed on KCRG that the cancellations are always about 2 to 5 characters too long to be displayed on the line properly, so they have to scroll the whole thing across the screen so you can see the last 3 letters of "Closed"? If they got rid of that service master logo they could fit the entire thing on there, it would be much smoother, and they could get through the whole list about 3x faster.

Air the cancellations at the top of the hour, at 15 past, 30 past, and 45 past. Don't keep them on there constantly. But, I suppose that is going to cut in to their cancellation advertising profit...

Yup. That's the way all the people out in the sticks do it, too. Especially all of the seniors who have internet access and high-speed computers who might otherwise be traveling in for bible study or another function.


Those people should be paying attention to the conditions and determine if they should or should not go accordingly. Even if they don't cancel your "bible study" if the roads are horrible you probably should stay home. I'm pretty sure god will understand if you miss one because the roads are bad...

sgarringer - things could be worse; you could have CFU. they've taken to breaking into EVERY show to give emergency weather advisories. not just a crawl - but they hijaack the convertor box and switch the viewer to the emergency notification channel. Last time was just Monday nite - right at the critical juncture of an HBO movie (that last time I checked, I have to pay for) they took me to a screen telling me there was a blizzard warning, and stay off the roads.

If I'm home, trying to stay safe and watching the telly, I already KNOW I should be home. and I am.

I'll take a crawl in any shape, form, or color, over having my tv taken away from me. (You can't change the channel back; you can't do a dang thing until they decide to let you. When they were getting used to the Commie system last November, they would take the channel, and not give it back for over 5 minutes - of the same warning. At least Monday was only a couple minutes.) :mad::mad:

Vote with your wallet, and switch to Mediacom, Dish or DirecTV. Heck, the DBS providers don't even have to know where you live, so there is no way they can do this. As far as my DBS provider is concerned, I live where I originally had my service installed. Maybe someday I'll call to inform them that I moved, but with billing online and everything I have no need to. I get the locals from a different market as well, of course I have an antenna for the locals from this market... not that I would ever watch the out of market locals when our fine ones do such a good job...

...

...

:D

I get the locals from a different market as well, of course I have an antenna for the locals from this market... not that I would ever watch the out of market locals when our fine ones do such a good job...


:D

C'mon - be nice. I sure have no interest in the tornado warning in Oklahoma. Or the mudslide warnings in Ca. (or even their "Rain Warnings" :eek:)

Come storm season, when there really IS a tornado, I'll be watching KWWL or KCRG for the location and storm track; at least, until the storm or rain takes down their power. At that point, I guess I'll have to stick my head out the window, or just count on my computer. ;)

Come storm season, when there really IS a tornado, I'll be watching KWWL or KCRG for the location and storm track; at least, until the storm or rain takes down their power. At that point, I guess I'll have to stick my head out the window, or just count on my computer. ;)

I used to live in Chicago. They don't break in to programming for much, and if they do then I can just switch back to the Cedar Rapids locals chances are good that there is not severe weather both places.

I'd rather get my weather info from the NWS or by listening directly on an amateur radio or even better yet, going out and spotting myself than trusting any of the local media outlets in this area to provide the data to me.

FYI: The Cyclone's game tonight is also carried live on Mediacom's connections channel. Don't know what it looks like in your area, but in Iowa City, it's like watching some old VHS tape :(

Wonder what KWWL's rating would be if they carried the UNI/Drake game on 7.1, and carried the network programming "state of the union speech" on the sub channel? I'd bet it would be a draw, with a slight lean towards the game. The 10pm news team could always give their viewers the "condensed" version of the speech in probably 90 sec, or less. :)

FYI: The Cyclone's game tonight is also carried live on Mediacom's connections channel. Don't know what it looks like in your area, but in Iowa City, it's like watching some old VHS tape :(


Can't speak for Dish, but if you have Premiere or the Sports Pack on DirecTV, MASN will be showing the ISU game from the Big 12 Network in HD. That's where I'll be watching it since KFXA is tape delaying.

Wonder what KWWL's rating would be if they carried the UNI/Drake game on 7.1, and carried the network programming "state of the union speech" on the sub channel? I'd bet it would be a draw, with a slight lean towards the game. The 10pm news team could always give their viewers the "condensed" version of the speech in probably 90 sec, or less. :)Given that the game probably isn't produced in HD and the NBC speech coverage probably is, I can understand why it is what it is. Of course, if it were different, a lot of you'd be watching the speech on 2, 9 or IPTV.

(Then again, we're talking UNI, the bright spot in Iowa's basketball universe.)

(EDIT: I guess it's just 2, 7 and 9 doing the speech in HD. IPTV is doing National Parks: America's Best Idea and putting the speech on subchannel x.3.)

FYI: The Cyclone's game tonight is also carried live on Mediacom's connections channel. Don't know what it looks like in your area, but in Iowa City, it's like watching some old VHS tape :(




for better or worse, I'm on CFU, not Mediacom, so I don't get the Mediacom feeds. I usually hate the tape delay - by the time the games are over, I'm asleep. But last night it worked out for the best - got to watch UNI in LD, Iowa in HD, and then when it was over, the tape delay of ISU.

small complaint - (and hopeless wish) - too bad we have to sit thru the halftime on a tape delay game. I know, they need the ads; but its still a waste of time, watching the talking heads killing time, waiting for the game to resume.

For what it's worth:

The Gazette's Adam Belz blogs on the possibility of using the paper's block as the site of a new public library -- which of course would force KCRG to move:

http://gazetteonline.com/blogs/linn-county-crossroads/2010/01/28/analysis-the-gazettekcrg-library-site

KCRG is already moving to a new all-digital studio in Hiawatha some time in the near future. There would be no "forced" move for them.

Wonder what KWWL's rating would be if they carried the UNI/Drake game on 7.1, and carried the network programming "state of the union speech" on the sub channel? I'd bet it would be a draw, with a slight lean towards the game.

We had the game scheduled for 7.1 well in advance of any set dates for the State of the Union gala. When they put it on the same date, we actually requested to NBC that we put the address on the subchannel, but were denied. It would have been an SD feed on the sub-channel, but it would've at least been on. No dice from NBC though. So we settled on what you saw on Wednesday.

As far as the lower third newsticker, I'm actually in agreement with all of you to an extent. I think they are on too long and have far too many questionable organizations that get on there. Do we really need to know that some fitness session or meeting with probably about 8 people needs to be conveyed to the entire viewing area? I will continue to plead my case to the news department on that one. But the crawls should air somewhat, as many can't just log into our website, since they have no internet access. You wouldn't believe how many of those people there are and still rely on us to get those messages and warnings out. That is a big part of the public service for our licensing too.

Lastly, that Servicemaster logo pulsates to avoid burn-in, since that ticker runs so often. I know that sponsorship costs a lot, but it is still a bargain with how much that thing is on the screen! Hope that clears some stuff up.
-Jarrett

I think we need to be a bit tempered in our anger over the crawls. I don;t like them any more than the anyine else does, but for weather warnings and school closings they are a necessity. The local channels have a legal obligation to provide public interest service, and they are just doing their job.

However, I see no reason why things like school board elections need to be crawled in gigantic letters. School closings and weather alerts are potential safety issues, and as such should be presented in a manner that wonl't be missed by anyone. But school board elections could very easily have a tiny print "Tune to channel 9.2 or kcrg.com for school board election results." No need to f-up popular network programming for this nonsense.

Thanks for giving us some insight Jarrett. Can you fill us in on why you have to squish the picture?????

We had the game scheduled for 7.1 well in advance of any set dates for the State of the Union gala. When they put it on the same date, we actually requested to NBC that we put the address on the subchannel, but were denied.Good to see that management made the attempt to broadcast the game and carry the speech on the sub channel. Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for giving us some insight Jarrett. Can you fill us in on why you have to squish the picture?????

We don't squish it much... just enough to get the couple lines in a safe title area, which we seem to always have to adjust for some sets. We put the crawl as low as we can, but it would still effect NBC or local news graphics if it wasn't squished a bit. If we didn't squish the programming, the closings template would cover part of the lower third graphics, which would annoy even more people. I guess it is the lesser of two evils, since they aren't going away. I'm just happy that we at least have an HD ticker. Going back to SD is brutal in those situations.

Good to see that management made the attempt to broadcast the game and carry the speech on the sub channel. Thanks for the reply.

Wow, sports is so important to preempt the POTUS? Give me a break... The news casters of yester year would be rolling in their graves.

Wow, sports is so important to preempt the POTUS? Give me a break... The news casters of yester year would be rolling in their graves.

I remember Dan Rather throwing a hissy fit because tennis ran long once. I think the point some are making is that if you wanted to hear the speech, there was more than one channel that carried it.

Wow, sports is so important to preempt the POTUS? Give me a break... The news casters of yester year would be rolling in their graves.

Not everyone cares about politics either, so to each their own.

The news casters of yester year would be rolling in their graves.

"Yester year" did not have a bizillion cable/network channels, internet, or options to carry on sub channels.

I remember Dan Rather throwing a hissy fit because tennis ran long once. I think the point some are making is that if you wanted to hear the speech, there was more than one channel that carried it.

+1. Pretty hard to miss, if you had the desire to watch. A little like the Haiti concert - all over the dial (does that show my age - dial?) including HBO!:eek:

Didn't mind it most places, but the thought of paying to watch the same thing that was on 20+ other free channels....blech.

Your crawls are fine Jarret - you had to raise them up for people like me in the first place; both my Sony and my Insignai had so much overscan, I could only see the tops of your Mk1 crawl, when it first came out. You moved it up, I went into the service menu - between the two of us, it works now. But you are absolutely right - how many people are going to even find, let alone properly adjust, their service menu? And its not like you can have a friendly tv repairman come out and tweak it for 15 bucks anymore. :)

I'd complain about KFXA being in a fully-matted (all 4 sides of the image) 16x9 with a Fox28 bug in the lower third of the matte, and the audio only being in stereo, but with KFXA Chief leaving the boards, I'd just be talking to myself.

Although it would be nice to see if others are experiencing the same thing, or if it's just a MediaCon feed issue (which, since it's still in 16x9, I doubt).

I was looking forward to watching the new series "Human Target" in HD, but, alas, that's not the case.

Hopefully the populace tangles up their phone system when Idol starts in a half an hour and it's still in SD.

The Directv Feed is the same way. I don't think it was that way last night during Idol.

About 10-15 minutes into Idol, it started flaking out, then it finally came on in HD.

I guess "Human Target" doesn't have quite the following that American Idol does (not too surprising), but glad to see they got it taken care of once more people started complaining.

For those who missed the news Thursday:

The Cedar Rapids Public Library board voted to recommend the block currently occupied by The Gazette and KCRG for a new downtown library. Management estimates it could take a year to move the two outlets, and says it's not a given that KCRG would move to Hiawatha even though they own a tower site there.

The library site still must be approved by the Cedar Rapids City Council and FEMA.

More info: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/83593412.html

Not sure if it was KGAN or a bad mix from CBS but the open of the SuperBowl when the team's came out, and the video montage before they came out was seriously bad. Couldn't hear the players and it sounded like something was missing from the audio track.

Not sure if it was KGAN or a bad mix from CBS but the open of the SuperBowl when the team's came out, and the video montage before they came out was seriously bad. Couldn't hear the players and it sounded like something was missing from the audio track.

So it wasn't just me.

Not sure if it was KGAN or a bad mix from CBS but the open of the SuperBowl when the team's came out, and the video montage before they came out was seriously bad. Couldn't hear the players and it sounded like something was missing from the audio track.

It's CBS. Reports from friends on Twitter that they are hearing the same in FL, UT, and TX.

That glitch froze my TiVo recording of the SuperBowl, so I wound up missing the first 20+ minutes or so, as I was finishing up watching a Blu-Ray first. :(

We didn't notice any problems to start the game, but there were a lot breakups in the picture and sound there towards the end of the first half through both OTA and Mediacom. In fact, it got so bad that for the last 3 or so minutes of the first half I had to switch over to the the analog version of KGAN that Mediacom still carries...*spit*
The HD feed was fine in the second half though.

I watched it on DirecTV and didn't notice anything unusual.

I'm on CFU, and we had a freeze or two thru the game; a major one at the start and another towards the end of the first half, as reported here.

Myself, I was bummed by the disappearance of signal at the end of the halftime show - missed the last verse of Won't Get Fooled. Pretty apt, eh - tie the title into the whole digital transfer thing; just hope they remember that when they try to cram 3-d down our throats in a couple of years. (saw my first "3-D Ready" projector today.)

I was at a friends house. It may have been on analog channel 2 and not HD. I don't know what his setup is.

So it wasn't just me.

Nope...same thing in Des Moines.

KCRG is already moving to a new all-digital studio in Hiawatha some time in the near future. There would be no "forced" move for them.


http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/83593412.html

Gazette Communications CEO Chuck Peters says both organizations intend to stay in Cedar Rapids, preferably downtown. Peters is still exploring potential options.

Company-owned land in Hiawatha was once an option, but Peters said moving to Hiawatha is not preferred at this time.

Back in December (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15277738#post15277738), I posted about the mysterious appearance of sub-channels 35.99 (KRIN) and 45.99 (KIIN) on IPTV, channels that were audio-only in nature and contained no content other than a continuous computer-generated tone. It was speculated by rcourtney (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15283371#post15283371) that this was possibly the rebirth of an SAP newspaper reading service for the blind.

Well, it appears that is the case. After disappearing for several months, 35.99 and 45.99 has re-appeared again today on one of our receivers (An Accurian portable TV), and it does have people reading the Des Moines Register on it. For some odd reason, the Accurian portable is the only receiver we have that can currently receive them, whereas when I first discovered them back in December almost every TV we had could receive them. Perhaps the service is still being tweaked.

Just thought I'd post this as an update to the earlier mystery.

Does anyone know what DTV receivers pick up the X.99 subchannels? Anything besides the Accurian Portable TV?

A Samsung UN40B6000 will play the audio when it is active. Like I posted back in January (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17273397#post17273397).

Watching Undercover Boss and the audio level keeps changing. Not sure if it's CBS or a local problem. Thought I'd mention it in case KGAN monitors this board, not sure if they do or not.

Lip sinc was off tonight (Sunday) watching HD via Mediacom.

Lip sinc was off tonight (Sunday) watching HD via Mediacom.

Things are right on today, and our off-air was fine I was told by another engineer that was watching the Olympics last night. Perhaps a mediacom glitch with their IP system.

There was some really bad lip sync during the opening ceremony but that was the singers faults :)

Ok, the Zap2It/TMS folks have gone off their nut. They finally fixed three mistakes in their database for Waterloo Mediacom that I've been telling them about (both directly and indirectly) for three weeks (which they introduced then, while they fixed some other errors I told them about). However, at the same time, they now screwed up channel 25 saying it is FMC and not FX. WTH. It doesn't help when Mediacom themselves don't have a definitive channel listings either in print form or on-line, because every source from Mediacom I look at has errors and not the same errors, but different errors on every one.
I feel like I'm on an alien planet where incorrect values in a database is considered normal and I'm the only one that cares. Can we have a civilization?

Perhaps a mediacom glitch with their IP system.No problems noticed on Mon & Tue evening.

Anyone else getting no audio on commercial. I only hear my sub channel on some of them.

For what it's worth:

In case you missed the news, the Cedar Rapids City Council has voted against buying the Gazette/KCRG-TV9 block for a new library, despite the library board's recommendation:

http://gazetteonline.com/breaking-news/2010/02/24/live-coverage-cedar-rapids-city-council-talks-yardys-library-site

I may have asked this before a long time ago, but anyone here from the Vinton/Shellsburg/Urbana/Center Point area with FMTCS (now known as USA Communications) cable service? The reason I ask is that I recently upgraded to their HD package. The afternoon it was installed (Monday), it was beautiful -- excellent reception on all the HD channels. But pretty much the rest of this week, it has ranged from spotty to terrible... as of last night, for example, 15 out of the 34 HD channels had so much macroblocking/pixellation as to be unwatchable. 12 had mildly to highly annoying pixellation. Only 7 of 34 were coming in properly, with no (or very minor/infrequent) pixellation. I am curious if others have had similar problems.
I am planning to call their customer support line and see if there is something they can do to improve things.

Anyone else getting no audio on commercial. I only hear my sub channel on some of them.Haven't really noticed any audio problems, but have seen several long pauses in the video between commericals the past couple of days, like 5-15 sec of just a black screen with no audio during local 6:30am newscast I think.

So last night, all the HD channels looked good. Then this morning, I started seeing some issues again (much less though, about 10 stations with some degree of annoying macroblocking, only a couple so bad as to be unwatchable).

So I'll modify my question... do folks on other cable providers see this sort of inconsistency in their HD channels?

Ok so I have a question.

For several years, I've been reliably receiving KGAN, FOX, and KCRG (cbs, fox, abc respectively) on my OTA antenna. KWWL (NBC) has always been a little iffy. This has always been ok, our household watches ABC for most of it's content, then I watch football for the majority of the remainder.

A few weeks ago (maybe 4 or 6 weeks, so probably sometime in January) my signal for NBC/KWWL improved and now I get it pretty reliably. I had read some stuff about KWWL having a low signal strength, and really the only thing I ever had desire to watch was Sunday night football, so I never really sweat the fact that KWWL was hit and miss for us.

At the same time, ABC went from 100% reliable to starting to miss on occasion, and now is basically unwatchable. The signal strength jumps around A LOT (this is on an HDTV and a convertor box showing SD) and we can occasionally catch 10 to 20 minutes of programming but generally, we no longer get the channel.

Since this performance change is reflected on 1 channel only, I believe it is unlikely that the change is due to something on my end.

So my question is, are there any other OTA viewers out there who have experienced recent issues with KCRG (ABC, 9.1 and 9.2)???

Ok so I have a question.
I had read some stuff about KWWL having a low signal strength, and really the only thing I ever had desire to watch was Sunday night football, so I never really sweat the fact that KWWL was hit and miss for us.

At the same time, ABC went from 100% reliable to starting to miss on occasion, and now is basically unwatchable. The signal strength jumps around A LOT (this is on an HDTV and a convertor box showing SD) and we can occasionally catch 10 to 20 minutes of programming but generally, we no longer get the channel.


KWWL and KCRG are the two VHF stations in the market. They are both on channel, meaning that they are actually on channels 7 and 9 respectively (unlike 2 who is actually on channel 51). I'm not sure where you read anything about a low signal strength on KWWL, since we are at 50KW, which is about the most you see for a VHF-HI station at the moment. KCRG is at 30KW, but is applying to go to 50 KW as well.

The big issues for the two VHF stations have to do with a lot of indoor antennas in the market (many of which are UHF only or not designed for any decent VHF reception because of big amplifiers), interference from household electronics located near the antennas (especially those with big amplifiers), and a lot of "digital" or "HD" outdoor antennas that were sold (no such thing) that are UHF only antennas. Add to that many with rabbit ears that still have no idea how to set them up, and you have a lot of frustration and intermittent signals.

One thing on the horizon that I know other stations in the VHF-HI band are playing with is broadcasting on two antennas instead of just one. Currently, we just have one polarity, but there are places testing out doing 65% vertical and 35% Horizontal (on another antenna), to try to eliminate guesswork and hopefully lock easier. We are watching those tests to see how they go.

Overall, I'm not sure how much of a difference the extra 20KW is making, but I suspect it does help penetrate some areas better, such as homes where people like to keep their antennas in the basement because they don't like the looks of them (an actual call I received :rolleyes: ).

such as homes where people like to keep their antennas in the basement because they don't like the looks of them (an actual call I received :rolleyes: ).

Hey, works for me! (Of course, I live pretty close to the tower, too :p )

One thing on the horizon that I know other stations in the VHF-HI band are playing with is broadcasting on two antennas instead of just one. Currently, we just have one polarity, but there are places testing out doing 65% vertical and 35% Horizontal (on another antenna), to try to eliminate guesswork and hopefully lock easier. We are watching those tests to see how they go.

I remember reading the article about WGEM doing that, and I have to admit I feel skeptical. They said it took 65% more power to do the dual polarity, and the received power level increased by 65%. Are we certain that the increase in received power isn't due to the extra power instead of the dual polarities?

- Trip

So I'll modify my question... do folks on other cable providers see this sort of inconsistency in their HD channels?

I did with Mediacom pretty badly. Not sure how much of it was signal and how much of it was their absolute piece of junk they called a DVR, but my HD was shaky. Ever since I switched to DirecTV it's been rock solid (and I get about 3-5x as many HD channels)

So last night, all the HD channels looked good. Then this morning, I started seeing some issues again (much less though, about 10 stations with some degree of annoying macroblocking, only a couple so bad as to be unwatchable).

So I'll modify my question... do folks on other cable providers see this sort of inconsistency in their HD channels?Haven't seen any glitches on the HD locals or any of the others via Mediacom for a long time. Who's your provider?

I remember reading the article about WGEM doing that, and I have to admit I feel skeptical. They said it took 65% more power to do the dual polarity, and the received power level increased by 65%. Are we certain that the increase in received power isn't due to the extra power instead of the dual polarities?

- Trip

Why not just go all out and switch to circular polarization. Yes, the antennas are going to be more complicated to get the 6MHz bandwidth but it's what we've done on the FM broadcast side for decades. We're starting to do it in the 2-way radio world as well. A circular polarized signal being received on either a horizontal or vertical antenna will only lose 3dB versus a vertical signal hitting a horizontal antenna or vice versa having up to a 20dB signal loss.

This site explains it very well: http://www.astronwireless.com/topic-archives-antennas-polarization.asp

Haven't seen any glitches on the HD locals or any of the others via Mediacom for a long time. Who's your provider?

I'm on FMTCS (I think that's Farmers Mutual Telephone CoOp System) out of Shellsburg.
I do have an update -- right after I complained about it on here, and before I even had a chance to call them up, the problems went away. So the rest of last week/this weekend, all the channels have been coming in great. Let's hope it stays that way! :)

Has anyone heard what FOX 28 is doing to "change the way we look at news" once again?

I just heard a 30 second spot on KRNA about how this summer FOX 28 is going to "change the way we look at news" and "this is not your fathers newscast"...

Probably means they're going to start going to YouTube for their video reports instead of sending out professionals with real equipment, but I find it odd they're running this after KCRG and KWWL have announced their plans to go HD this summer.

I paid close attention and there was not a single mention of HD in the entire commercial, although several mentions of how they're "changing the look". So I think it was intended to come across like they're going to be upgrading to HD. Has anyone else heard this or heard anything about this? My interest is piqued.

Has anyone heard what FOX 28 is doing to "change the way we look at news" once again?


I noticed they are doing something like a virtual set (fake graphic news set in front of their chroma key wall). Perhaps that is what they are referring too... personally, unless those are done right, I think they look very cheesy and amateurish. At least they're trying!

Just heard a promo on KCRG that this spring they will have the initial severe weather alert on their primary 9.1, but "continuous live weather coverage will be on Local 9.2. We want to give YOU the choice of how to watch."

Sounds like a great step forward!

It's a shame that the only other station in the market that is capable of doing this is KWWL, although they use their sub-channels for syndicated programming. I'm sure they could do something similar if they put their minds to it.

KGAN and KFXA, unfortunately, will continue to suffer because of their choice to only simul-cast SD on their sub-channel.

Way to go, Kirk!

Just heard a promo on KCRG that this spring they will have the initial severe weather alert on their primary 9.1, but "continuous live weather coverage will be on Local 9.2. We want to give YOU the choice of how to watch."

Sounds like a great step forward!

It's a shame that the only other station in the market that is capable of doing this is KWWL, although they use their sub-channels for syndicated programming. I'm sure they could do something similar if they put their minds to it.

KGAN and KFXA, unfortunately, will continue to suffer because of their choice to only simul-cast SD on their sub-channel.

Way to go, Kirk!

I found out about this in January, brilliant idea. I go to school in Oklahoma where everyone is always on edge in the spring (being in the heart of tornado alley). They'll cut into programming for a severe thunderstorm warning in the middle of nowhere (Oklahoma has a very high urban population, most live in OKC or Tulsa) and they'll throw a map up for just a storm, even if it's not severe.

So I hope this new idea goes very well and shapes all the markets...

(Disclosure: I am a meteorology student and love studying the weather, just not during my favorite shows!)

I noticed they are doing something like a virtual set (fake graphic news set in front of their chroma key wall). Perhaps that is what they are referring too... personally, unless those are done right, I think they look very cheesy and amateurish. At least they're trying!

I just saw the commercial on TV for this and let's just say that it is cheesier than the KRAFT factory. I was literally busting out laughing and my girlfriend came in and said "that's a joke, right?"

It is quite frankly the *worst* thing I've seen on TV. Their whole epic "not your fathers newscast" thing had tears coming from my eyes as I was laughing so hard. So this is what they fought tooth-and-nail with mediacom to get extra money for? Going to have to say PASS!

I've been getting a slight video stutter when watching Lost the last few weeks. Tonight I'm also getting crackling in the audio. Been watching OTA and just switched to watch from sat on Directv to see if it's still there.

Since Directv feeds through OTA I would think it would be there too.

Just heard a promo on KCRG that this spring they will have the initial severe weather alert on their primary 9.1, but "continuous live weather coverage will be on Local 9.2. We want to give YOU the choice of how to watch."
Sounds like a great step forward!
It's a shame that the only other station in the market that is capable of doing this is KWWL, although they use their sub-channels for syndicated programming.

Sounds like a good plan in theory, but we'll see how much they stick to their guns on these plans. My thought is how many people are actually watching the sub-channel or have access currently? If there is a tornado warning and then you tell Joe Sixpack (who just has basic cable or is a satellite subscriber without an OTA setup), to go to the subchannel, which typically is in the digital tier, they are out of luck. I think weather reports do go overboard at times, but where do you draw the line? Our viewing area covers a lot of terrian, and if there is a tornado on the ground coming at Waterloo, I certainly want the coverage, even if Iowa City doesn't care.

I don't envision KWWL changing policy at this time, because of the subchannel viewing concerns and also the fact that we actually have programming on those channels too. If we break into one, we break into all typically. We'll see how things go this summer I guess!

Sounds like a good plan in theory, but we'll see how much they stick to their guns on these plans. My thought is how many people are actually watching the sub-channel or have access currently? If there is a tornado warning and then you tell Joe Sixpack (who just has basic cable or is a satellite subscriber without an OTA setup), to go to the subchannel, which typically is in the digital tier, they are out of luck. I think weather reports do go overboard at times, but where do you draw the line? Our viewing area covers a lot of terrian, and if there is a tornado on the ground coming at Waterloo, I certainly want the coverage, even if Iowa City doesn't care.

I don't envision KWWL changing policy at this time, because of the subchannel viewing concerns and also the fact that we actually have programming on those channels too. If we break into one, we break into all typically. We'll see how things go this summer I guess!

I don't claim to understand how it would work, since I don't work for them, but I would imagine it would go something like:

-Tornado or Severe T-Storm Warning Issued
-9.1 breaks into programming, announces severe weather alert
-Brief coverage of the warning area and expectations
-Return to programming, notify of ongoing coverage on 9.2, with warning scroll continuing on lower-third
-9.2 continues to cover storm with pictures from viewers, reports from the weather van, etc.
-New warning issued
-Break in on 9.1 again
-Back to 9.2 to show viewer pictures of an ice chunk taken out of someone's freezer and reported as hail
-Lather
-Rinse
-Repeat

I don't mind breaking in for the initial alert on a warning, and for each new alert as a storm passes from county to county, or even for accurate reporting of a tornado on the ground. But the rest of the "ongoing coverage" generally consists of viewer phone calls, viewer pictures, on-camera interviews with people who were stupid enough to watch a hail storm standing on the deck, etc. That kind of stuff can be relegated to a sub-channel, as it just adds noise to the data stream, IMHO.

Again, I'm not sure what KCRG intends to do, but I'd imagine that they won't cut out IMPORTANT coverage, just squelch the noise from 9.1.

At least, I hope. But that's also why I'm not in "marketing".

Ditto to CR_Client......

NBC via KWWL tonight is lousy reception quality. Via either OTA or IMON cable. Many breakups.

NBC via KWWL tonight is lousy reception quality. Via either OTA or IMON cable. Many breakups.

NBC dishes were freaking out last night. We are still looking into things and on the backup. We'v enotified NBC to check their stuff out, but we suspect moisture is getting into something. Of course this happens just 3 days after their tech was on-site for preventive maintenance!

Sounds like a good plan in theory, but we'll see how much they stick to their guns on these plans. My thought is how many people are actually watching the sub-channel or have access currently? If there is a tornado warning and then you tell Joe Sixpack (who just has basic cable or is a satellite subscriber without an OTA setup), to go to the subchannel, which typically is in the digital tier, they are out of luck. I think weather reports do go overboard at times, but where do you draw the line? Our viewing area covers a lot of terrian, and if there is a tornado on the ground coming at Waterloo, I certainly want the coverage, even if Iowa City doesn't care.


when Kaj O'Mara was telling me about this in January, he said that they would likely use 9.1 for coverage of severe weather in the major counties (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo, etc.). the use of 9.2 is more for the warnings in open areas of low populations so as not to anger most of their viewers in the metro areas during primetime.

when Kaj O'Mara was telling me about this in January, he said that they would likely use 9.1 for coverage of severe weather in the major counties (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo, etc.). the use of 9.2 is more for the warnings in open areas of low populations so as not to anger most of their viewers in the metro areas during primetime.

I'm sure the residents of Parkersburg would be pleased as punch to hear that... :rolleyes:

Divvying up severe weather coverage (especially for tornados) based on population, rather than on the severity of the storm or issuance of new alerts, is a very BAD way of doing business, IMHO.

Then again, like I posted earlier, I'm not in a "marketing" department, so I'm allowed to use logic.

(and, yes, I know Chimera isn't in marketing, but this kind of decision, to base coverage on population and "angering the fewest amount of people" is the kind of thing a marketing department comes up with, not the kind of thing that a serious meteorologist would come up with. And he's unfortunately just a mouthpiece for the decision makers who have told the Weather team when and how they'll be covering weather.)

NBC dishes were freaking out last night.We just finished watching "Mercy" on a Mediacom DVR. Your right, that was interesting. :eek:

I noticed this morning that the three KRIN (IPTV) channels (811, 118, 119) are now missing on Mediacom cable, although they still tune in OTA.

I'm sure the residents of Parkersburg would be pleased as punch to hear that... :rolleyes:

Divvying up severe weather coverage (especially for tornados) based on population, rather than on the severity of the storm or issuance of new alerts, is a very BAD way of doing business, IMHO.

Then again, like I posted earlier, I'm not in a "marketing" department, so I'm allowed to use logic.

(and, yes, I know Chimera isn't in marketing, but this kind of decision, to base coverage on population and "angering the fewest amount of people" is the kind of thing a marketing department comes up with, not the kind of thing that a serious meteorologist would come up with. And he's unfortunately just a mouthpiece for the decision makers who have told the Weather team when and how they'll be covering weather.)

yeah, I'm sure he was just the frontman for the decision in this case, but I understand the logic behind it. would you rather send, say, 1,000 viewers away angry to another competitor for weather coverage or make 10,000 in the cities angry that they can't watch LOST (or Grey's Anatomy, etc.). I think you'd hear a lot more outcry from the 10,000 than the 1,000...

I'm not sure if he mentioned tornadoes specifically but I think he said they'd interrupt the programming in severe situations, I'd imagine a tornado would qualify. but this begs the question of where is the line? is a tornado warning enough? does it need to be confirmed on the ground? I think the percentage is something along the lines of 20-40% of tornado warnings actually produce tornadoes...

I'm sure the residents of Parkersburg would be pleased as punch to hear that... :rolleyes:


So, you're telling me that in a severe storm, people are going to have battery powered TVs and ATSC converters (because when power is out the cable is out since the power injectors for amps are down) ready to go? And on top of that, you're telling me that people want to watch the guesswork that is live storm reporting for an hour or more when they're in the storm at the time?

Live weather reporting is about 1% "fact" and 99% fluff. The 1% fact is the radar and warnings. The fluff is taking calls and photos from the internet, all the other junk they do. And no one in the studio has any idea what is going on anywhere besides downtown Cedar Rapids. They might have someone who calls in, but can you trust what that person is saying? People have sent bogus pictures in to KCRG and KGAN just to get them on the air (remember the ice cubes as hailstones incident)?

If the channel breaks in, says "Tornado warning for Boone County" and shows the radar and other pertinent info, then says "tune to 9.2 for continuing coverage" and then puts a crawl on their main programme showing the radar and warnings, that is the perfect storm coverage. Quite frankly, in a storm, I'm going to be listening to either broadcast radio or scanner traffic, not what Billy Joe Bob is calling in. "We're getting marble sized hail here Denny!"

I guess you just can't satisfy everyone, but I highly doubt this is a "marketing" decision, this is just common sense. Tying up an entire evening taking calls from untrained people after a storm goes through is a waste of everyones time. Showing photos that may or may not be real is a waste of everyones time. No one cares about that stuff. And if you do it will still be there. And it's on the radio. And it's on the internet (because let's face it, I am more likely to be able to get on the internet during a power outage then watch TV).

Hopefully stations will realize that ATSC was the perfect opportunity for them to drop all the "Stormwatch!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!111!!!1one!!!" coverage. In the old days people had battery powered TVs and stuff. Today that is borderline impossible. I guess you could have a UPS connected to your TV, but seriously, how many people plan that far ahead. Going and getting a battery powered radio is about all we can expect people to do in a storm anymore.

Totally agree with sgarringer, if people REALLY want to be informed of the weather, get a S.A.M.E. weather radio (or scanner). NOAA is probably the best source for weather , in my opinion. Mike

yeah, I'm sure he was just the frontman for the decision in this case, but I understand the logic behind it. would you rather send, say, 1,000 viewers away angry to another competitor for weather coverage or make 10,000 in the cities angry that they can't watch LOST (or Grey's Anatomy, etc.). I think you'd hear a lot more outcry from the 10,000 than the 1,000...

I'm not sure if he mentioned tornadoes specifically but I think he said they'd interrupt the programming in severe situations, I'd imagine a tornado would qualify. but this begs the question of where is the line? is a tornado warning enough? does it need to be confirmed on the ground? I think the percentage is something along the lines of 20-40% of tornado warnings actually produce tornadoes...

IMHO, a Severe Thunderstorm Warning or a Tornado Warning would qualify. Watches would, and should, not.

And, It shouldn't matter whether that warning covers 1,000 viewers of 100,000 viewers, the warning itself should be broadcasted and programming should be broken in to. What they decide to do about "ongoing coverage" is up to them, and that is what I originally posted about. I don't think that they're going to go about that in the way that I would like them to, or that I would do it if I was in charge.


So, you're telling me that in a severe storm, people are going to have battery powered TVs and ATSC converters (because when power is out the cable is out since the power injectors for amps are down) ready to go? And on top of that, you're telling me that people want to watch the guesswork that is live storm reporting for an hour or more when they're in the storm at the time?

*snip*



While I find your caustic tone amusing, you completely missed my point. In fact, you basically echoed the point I made on page 144 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=18287860#post18287860), just in your own berating way.

The point I was making here is that EVEN THE ALERTS are now allegedly going to be linked to population size. Which means, if you live in Boone County, then it sucks to be you, because your population isn't big enough for us to bother breaking in to programing to notify you about a tornado. But if you live in Cedar Rapids, then you're covered.

While I have a feeling that kevincburns may have misinterpreted what Chimera said:
the use of 9.2 is more for the warnings in open areas of low populations so as not to anger most of their viewers in the metro areas during primetime.
I'm not entirely convinced that the local management isn't just insane enough to try to pull a stunt like relegating the alerts for warnings for low-population areas to sub-channels.

While I find your caustic tone amusing, you completely missed my point. In fact, you basically echoed the point I made on page 144 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=18287860#post18287860), just in your own berating

Well I apologize you do not read the seriousness that is intended by my tone in my posts, but as a person who enjoys watching television programming after working outside during the summer, I find this a topic to be passionate about. Additionally, I find the hobby of weather spotting interesting, but I find the absolute amount of time wasted during a severe weather outbreak is the problem. If you don't have a spotter out somewhere, then what is the point of staying away from programming? They won't know any more of what is going on than what the NWS is saying. So, crawl that on the screen which would be more useful anyway.

Certainly when a tornado is on the ground, and they know about it they should break in. Additionally severe weather. But if they're just going to read the slides about "what to do in severe weather" and go back to the warnings map, and then talk about the other filler -- why break in for that? That's exactly what subchannels or for.

Heck, I would probably be willing to call it even to have them just continue to carry the "regular programming" on a subchannel.

Television stations should not be doing any live coverage at all!
they should crawl the watch/warning, then list the EBS radio stations for the coverage area. These stations carry all of the NWS alerts, watches, and warnings for the areas they cover, in depth! The radio stations have emergency power and the listener will have a battery operated portable to listen for a safe area in their homes, the TV is not always in the basement or other sheltered area.

TV Stations cover to large of an area to give specific, helpful emergency information for small towns and rural areas--- local radio stations can cover these areas, its their job, they, for the most part, have news teams to cover their listening area in depth.

Lets put the emergency weather coverage where it belongs, with local radio. Its everywhere.

Television stations should not be doing any live coverage at all!
they should crawl the watch/warning, then list the EBS radio stations for the coverage area. These stations carry all of the NWS alerts, watches, and warnings for the areas they cover, in depth! The radio stations have emergency power and the listener will have a battery operated portable to listen for a safe area in their homes, the TV is not always in the basement or other sheltered area.

TV Stations cover to large of an area to give specific, helpful emergency information for small towns and rural areas--- local radio stations can cover these areas, its their job, they, for the most part, have news teams to cover their listening area in depth.

Lets put the emergency weather coverage where it belongs, with local radio. Its everywhere.

Tell that to the marketing department and to the managers/owners of the local TV stations. As long as ratings for the 10 o'clock news are king for local news stations in sparsely populated areas, live weather coverage will remain a part of their broadcast directive from management.

Watching on a Mediacom HD-DVR last night, after 45 min in and right after a commerical break, there was 5 min of the program with no center channel, so we couldn't hear what the actors were saying. Didn't make any difference if on the tv's 2.0 stereo, or the 5.1 sound system. I've heard of this B4, but this was a first for me.

New today: FCC dismisses petition to deny KGAN license renewal

The petition, filed by a group called Iowans for Better Local Television, accuses station owner Sinclair of violating the FCC's multiple ownership, children's programming, public file and DTV conversion rules, and of lacking good character. KGAN denies the group's claims, alleging that some were based on newspaper articles and personal opinion, not on "first-hand personal knowledge."

"We find that the petitioner has failed to raise a substantial and material question of fact as to any rule violations," Media Bureau Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman wrote. "Based on a review of the record as a whole, we further conclude that IBLT’s allegations – both individually and collectively -- fail to raise a substantial and material question of fact as to whether grant of [KGAN's] license renewal application would serve the public interest."

The ruling: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-431A1.pdf

New today: FCC dismisses petition to deny KGAN license renewal

The petition, filed by a group called Iowans for Better Local Television, accuses station owner Sinclair of violating the FCC's multiple ownership, children's programming, public file and DTV conversion rules, and of lacking good character. KGAN denies the group's claims, alleging that some were based on newspaper articles and personal opinion, not on "first-hand personal knowledge."

"We find that the petitioner has failed to raise a substantial and material question of fact as to any rule violations," Media Bureau Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman wrote. "Based on a review of the record as a whole, we further conclude that IBLT’s allegations – both individually and collectively -- fail to raise a substantial and material question of fact as to whether grant of [KGAN's] license renewal application would serve the public interest."

The ruling: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-431A1.pdf

What hot-head wrote KGAN's rebuttal of the IBLT's request for denial? Someone at $inclair? KFXAChief? I mean, I can see the need to defend yourself against something as serious as a petition to deny renewal of an FCC license, but there are MUCH better ways to assert your own point than by name-calling and mud-slinging back against the petitioner.

Can't imagine WHY someone would get bent the wrong way about the "character" of KGAN, when its response to IBLT's petition includes the following characterization of said petition: "“ludicrous accusation premised on a fundamental misunderstanding or mischaracterization of the Commission’s ownership rules.”" :rolleyes:

I'm glad that the FCC ruling was based on material facts, as it should be, but the quotes provided by the FCC from KGAN's rebuttal are pretty appalling, to say the least. In my estimation, they reveal KGAN/$inclair's fundamental lack of empathy or understanding of their viewers.

Not that I thought much of IBLT's petition, either, since it didn't really focus on facts, and it was without factual merit. But, IMHO, KGAN/$inclair should hold themselves to a higher standard of professionalism than they showed.

I'm no fan of IBLT (I mean whats up with their font on their website???) but anything that could have taken Sinclair and their "The Point" republican propaganda sessions down a couple of notches would be A-OK with me. Unfortunately they slimed and oozed their way out of this one too. Hopefully someone will get something to stick against KGAN and their license will be pulled. Nothing would bring more joy to me than a FOR SALE sign on broadcast park.

Did 9.2 make some changes? I have to say, very nice. Really like the new blue overlays... And is it widescreen now?

Did 9.2 make some changes? I have to say, very nice. Really like the new blue overlays... And is it widescreen now?

Must be, says Normal instead of Stretch for me OTA HD. I kind of miss them not showing the radar as much as before, though.

Hopefully someone will get something to stick against KGAN and their license will be pulled. Nothing would bring more joy to me than a FOR SALE sign on broadcast park.

It's been downhill for those folks ever since they hired that Bill Bailey dude to do weather some 30+ years ago

Hey Jarrett - trust you're enjoying all your free time. ;) Assuming you have nothing to do over there - I'm basing this on all your on-air HD promos. How on earth did you talk Tara and the other "talent" to do all the work converting to HD? :p

Seriously, how's it going? Is anything working as planned, or is it as much of a clustermug as one would expect?

Either way, good luck. And keep cracking the whip on the talking heads.

Things are moving along here for our launch in mid-April. Starting rehearsals now, which is always fun! Talking heads haven't been to much help though, although the weather department has been pretty tolerant considering how much work has been going on around them. Those promos have been on quite a bit though... and the one with Tara always fires up my department as she tosses her mic onto the desk with a big thud. No wonder we are always having to repair things!

Looks like KWKB is off the air this morning?

Since the CFU web site re-design, the page we had been using (http://www.cfu.net/CyberNet/HD/index.php) for their OTA reception charts is gone (I've haven't scoured their site to see if they just moved it, but if it does exist, Google hasn't indexed it yet).

Also, I only found out this morning there is a free Showtime (http://www.sho.com/site/freepreview/home.do?source=acq_sports_youtube) weekend (3/25/10-3/28/10) going on.

Looks like KWKB is off the air this morning?

Since the CFU web site re-design, the page we had been using (http://www.cfu.net/CyberNet/HD/index.php) for their OTA reception charts is gone (I've haven't scoured their site to see if they just moved it, but if it does exist, Google hasn't indexed it yet).

Also, I only found out this morning there is a free Showtime (http://www.sho.com/site/freepreview/home.do?source=acq_sports_youtube) weekend (3/25/10-3/28/10) going on.

I noticed KWKB was off the air some time last night, actually. Nothing OTA or on analog cable on MediaCon (I didn't check their QAM channel on cable, though). Are they STILL off the air?

Working on Mediacom CR as of 2:20PM.

DirecTV, Citadel agree to extend cutoff deadline to 1 p.m. today (4/1)

WOI in Ames, WHBF in the Quad Cities, KLKN in Lincoln NE.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100401/BUSINESS/4010369/DirecTV-Citadel-agree-to-extend-cutoff-deadline-to-1-p.m.-today

DirecTV, Citadel agree to extend cutoff deadline to 1 p.m. today (4/1)

WOI in Ames, WHBF in the Quad Cities, KLKN in Lincoln NE.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100401/BUSINESS/4010369/DirecTV-Citadel-agree-to-extend-cutoff-deadline-to-1-p.m.-today They reached an agreement.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100401/BUSINESS/100401021/DirecTV-Citadel-reach-agreement-stations-stay-on-air

no signal dish network or antenna, 11 min mark 2nd half. anyone got the score

no signal dish network or antenna, 11 min mark 2nd half. anyone got the score3:16 remaining 55-60 Duke

59-60 duke 49 sec timeout

butler ball 33 sec left

Butler has ball and timeout under their basket with 13 sec left. 59-60 Duke.

I've been getting no signal OTA from KGAN or KWWL for the past hour. I'm located in Marion. Anybody know if the transmitters are without power? I do see both channels on Mediacom.

I suppose it could be interference from the storms, but all of my other stations are still coming in strong. Tonight was our first night of trying OTA only, as I would like to kick cable. However, my wife is currently having a WTF moment thinking she might of missed the end of the NCAA tournament. Just looking for confirmation as to whether it's my setup or not.

Can't speak for KGAN, but KWWL is without power at the moment. Waiting on R.E.C. to get things operational again.

4lids, thanks for confirming. I'm going to guess KGAN might be in the same boat.

Don't we all just love digital TV and how it works in bad weather. It's just to bad the stations just can't seem to be able to afford getting a backup generators to keep their signal up, it's not like they haven't been knocked off before.

So much for getting the severe weather warnings in a timely manner let alone the network shows.

Can't speak for KGAN, but KWWL is without power at the moment. Waiting on R.E.C. to get things operational again.

I thought you guys had backup generators. :confused:

Well, those of us who have Mediacon were able to watch the entire game in HD. Experts might quibble about the PQ of HD transmitted by cable, but the point is, we'd better not hear Tiffany and Skippy and the rest of the Siclair mafia bad-mouthing mediacon for awhile.

does that maybe depend on where you are? we didn't lose KWWL, since we're on CFU, and they have a feed. CFU doesn't have a feed for KGAN - so we didn't get to see the end of the game.

Oh well - was only the championship game. NCAA bb. No big deal, since the Hawks weren't there. (Isn't that pretty much the KGAN line, anyway?)

Pretty cheezy - now KGAN can't even deliver sports. Lucky for me, I have MLB.TV for the computer and a decent local ISP.

(edit - I'll be the first to admit - it IS a timing thing =- at least for me. I would expect a much larger outcry if the last quarter of the Super Bowl had been cut off. And otoh, Channel 2 could be shut down the entire rest of the week without affecting me in the least. Just a frkn shame not to see the culmination of a 4 month long basketball season because someone didn't have the Energizer bunny on call)

I was in the same boat as other folks last night, KGAN/KWWL not available on Dish or OTA. I thought that Dish/DirectTV/Mediacom all shared the same uplink from the locals so I was surprised to hear that mediacom customers were still getting a signal.

http://www.kgan.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_2328.shtml

A severe thunderstorm cut power to the CBS 2 tower and knocked out the over the air signal.

The CBS 2 engineering team worked to get the signal back up, but some people missed out on the end of the NCAA National Championship.

This impacted people watching CBS 2 using an antenna. Most cable and satellite customers were not impacted.

I thought you guys had backup generators. :confused:

The backup unit we have was for the older analog service, not on the new digital side (different flavor of power coming in there too). I've been trying to get one on that side for a while, but it is a big job to tie everything together. The size of the new backup unit should be smaller, but it will still cost anywhere between $100K to $250K depending on how we handle things. It's a lot of money to invest in a backup when we have a lot of primary gear at the studio that needs addressing!

I thought that Dish/DirectTV/Mediacom all shared the same uplink from the locals so I was surprised to hear that mediacom customers were still getting a signal.We Mediacom customers are paid up on the Sinclair ransom via our Mediacom bills, so we got to keep watching.
:rolleyes:

In case people were still wondering, KCRG posted an "official" story about their new severe weather coverage:

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/89955637.html

Feel free to put your comments, pro or con, on their website. I think it's pretty much played out here...

http://www.kgan.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_2328.shtml

A severe thunderstorm cut power to the CBS 2 tower and knocked out the over the air signal.

The CBS 2 engineering team worked to get the signal back up, but some people missed out on the end of the NCAA National Championship.

This impacted people watching CBS 2 using an antenna. Most cable and satellite customers were not impacted.

If they really want to be truthful about it, it is the KCRG tower that they are transmitting from. I don't recall KCRG renaming it the CBS 2 TOWER. Just another "accurate" reporting job from them.

The backup unit we have was for the older analog service, not on the new digital side (different flavor of power coming in there too). I've been trying to get one on that side for a while, but it is a big job to tie everything together. The size of the new backup unit should be smaller, but it will still cost anywhere between $100K to $250K depending on how we handle things. It's a lot of money to invest in a backup when we have a lot of primary gear at the studio that needs addressing!

It's only money. :)

First station to have a reliable signal during storms might gain a lot in loyal viewers.

If they really want to be truthful about it, it is the KCRG tower that they are transmitting from. I don't recall KCRG renaming it the CBS 2 TOWER. Just another "accurate" reporting job from them.

It's only money. :)

First station to have a reliable signal during storms might gain a lot in loyal viewers.

The KGAN story states (again, with questionable veracity) that the entire transmitter site lost power.

If that's true, then if KCRG was still on the air, I think that might qualify a little bit in terms of "reliable during storms".

Then again, I have no idea. I was watching Castle and the KCRG news last night, but watching them over cable, so I don't know if they were off-the-air or not. If they were, I don't recall them mentioning it in their newscast.

The backup unit we have was for the older analog service, not on the new digital side (different flavor of power coming in there too). I've been trying to get one on that side for a while,

Looking for 208 or 480? Send me an email or PM, I have a lead on a 480 3ph unit up in Indee that's going to be available any day.

I was watching Castle and the KCRG news last night, but watching them over cable, so I don't know if they were off-the-air or not. If they were, I don't recall them mentioning it in their newscast.

KCRG went down during the 10pm news for a minute or so. They have a nice little gas turbine generator that kicked in and brought them back online. KGAN and KRIN which are also on that tower do not have backup power.

It's only money. :)

First station to have a reliable signal during storms might gain a lot in loyal viewers.

Yeah... I never like us to be off the air. Although I do love those phone calls I get from people saying I should put up a graphic explaining that the power is out :rolleyes:

But getting to your comment about reliable power and loyal viewers, I guess one way I look at it is that if you combined all of the power outages in hours over the year (about 20-25 hours I'd guess between the studio and transmitter sites), you'd still be on the air about 99.7% of the time. Most of our outages are at the transmitter too, which still allow for our fiber connections to Mediacom and CFU, so we still have decent coverage. Don't get me wrong, we will have a new generator at some point, but the money is better served at the studio at the moment.

42,000 Ft tall thunder storm heading for the Rowley tower farm site now.

Yeah... I never like us to be off the air. Although I do love those phone calls I get from people saying I should put up a graphic explaining that the power is out :rolleyes:

But getting to your comment about reliable power and loyal viewers, I guess one way I look at it is that if you combined all of the power outages in hours over the year (about 20-25 hours I'd guess between the studio and transmitter sites), you'd still be on the air about 99.7% of the time. Most of our outages are at the transmitter too, which still allow for our fiber connections to Mediacom and CFU, so we still have decent coverage. Don't get me wrong, we will have a new generator at some point, but the money is better served at the studio at the moment.

Not to pick on or attack you Jarrett, but I think it also matters WHEN that 0.3% downtime occurs. When I was in telephony, more than .05% downtime in a year was enough to have us start to lose money on contracts, though, of course, our coverage area was the entire country, instead of having a single location and thus increased chance of failure.

In any case, if the only time that the station is down is during severe weather, that's a pretty significant issue compared to only being down during, say, sunny weather or an ice storm.

Again, not trying to attack you, just putting a different perspective on it.

Would also like to add, while I'm sitting here watching weather coverage instead of TV, that I hope KCRG goes back to a radar loop on their lower 1/3 warning feed, instead of static radar.

And also add that I appreciate the way KCRG has decided to handle their new weather coverage. All of the ongoing stuff on 9.2 with a small bug at the top telling people to go to 9.2, and only breaking in when absolutely necessary (actual tornadoes in this case).

KGAN is going to probably be all weather all night, which means missing all of the new episodes of NCIS and NCIS:LA. Yay.

They have everyone in Lindale Mall sent downstairs to avoid the Coggon area threat. Seesh! Nobody believes the boy who cries Wolf after too many times.

Not to pick on or attack you Jarrett, but I think it also matters WHEN that 0.3% downtime occurs. When I was in telephony, more than .05% downtime in a year was enough to have us start to lose money on contracts

I also came from telephony, and our goal was five nines of reliability (99.999% uptime). Coming to broadcast over a decade ago was a real wake up call. Powers out, we're off the air, nothing you can do. What?? Are we here to serve the public or not?

"But people on cable can still see us". Great. YOUR station can be the one that gives up it's spectrum in the upcoming repacking since you don't care about OTA. (this isn't directed specifically at Jarrett, or anyone here, just the industry in general)

I know.. pot, meet kettle. But I've personally been an advocate for a generator (and a UPS) at transmitter sites for as long as I've been in this line of work. It's like talking to a brick wall. But everything is about money, and if there's no money, there's no generator. Strangely, there's always money for new toys at studios while the poor transmitter gets by on duct tape and JB Weld.

But I've personally been an advocate for a generator (and a UPS) at transmitter sites for as long as I've been in this line of work. It's like talking to a brick wall. But everything is about money, and if there's no money, there's no generator. Strangely, there's always money for new toys at studios while the poor transmitter gets by on duct tape and JB Weld.

Believe me, I'm with you and I'm making the same pitches. But the toys are always easier to talk people into rather than the backup power and protection, especially when we are not talking about a lot of times throughout a year. Obviously, we'd like to be on the air 100% of the time, but for that 20 hours a year a might get action, we have a 20-30 year old switcher and audio board that gets used on air 7 hours a day. The Broadcast industry is a unique one as it has a lot more things that can go wrong and many single points of failure. It gets tough to backup everything. You just try to protect yourself the best you can and have workarounds available. It just stinks sometimes that it isn't enough.

And what makes things extra aggravating is that well over half of our power outages since I've arrived here were not severe weather related. Just the power company failing to provide service (so much for the 99.9% in that industry as well!). At least everything held on well last night despite what rolled through the Wlaker and Rowley areas.

ouch - lotta money for a generator. and since I'm on CFU (direct fiber to KWWL,) I'm all for Jarrett and Co. to go HD equipment for their news. ;) (Really wanna see Sunny and Tara up close and sharp - pretty sure the learning curve for HD makeup will be even higher than for the VHF transition last year.)

With my fiber feed, its as likely, if not more so, that CFU will somehow drop the ball before the studio in Waterloo. Tho NBC can still drop their feed.

But since I'm not a Mediacom prisoner - I need my KGAN, KFXA, and KCRG to keep up their ota signal. :o

(my way of saying I understand what a kludge this whole thing is; if everyone was fibered to every cable, you could turn off your transmitters. as UHF was suggesting.) I don't have access to even how many viewers need OTA - either directly or to feed their local CCs -- but I'm sure that also impacts the bean counters and decision makers.

as you say, at least 7 and 9 stayed on the air last night. didn't even check KGAN.

@@@@ an aside here - am I just turning into an old geezer, or was the signal more reliable back in the "good old days?" Or is it just my faulty memory?

ouch - lotta money for a generator. and since I'm on CFU (direct fiber to KWWL,) (Really wanna see Sunny and Tara up close and sharp - pretty sure the learning curve for HD makeup will be even higher than for the VHF transition last year.)

@@@@ an aside here - am I just turning into an old geezer, or was the signal more reliable back in the "good old days?" Or is it just my faulty memory?

The transfer switch and labor to install things typically costs more than the generator. That is why that number gets so big.

HD makeup is just one of the fun parts... another to watch is the fun of 16:9 and what it does to a newsdesk. Everyone needs to spread out more, otherwise you see the weather and sports anchors in the wings! Trying to keep things center cut safe and keep the wings clean is a big pain. I'm beginning to see NBC's logic when they were whining about AFD (active format descriptors) so that the letterbox stuff would stay that way and not crop things, since the cinematographers didn't want to shot things center cut safe.

Also, things were more reliable in the old days... less computers to reboot and more moving parts in today's broadcasts. But if you ever watch something like ESPN classic or some old archive newscasts, you begin to see how far things have come. I can't believe how much the graphics and technology has changed in just the past 10-15 years. Back then, in a football game broadcast, you had the score and maybe the down, distance and a preset pattern cutout for the clock, 6 or 7 cameras feeding a couple big tape machines for replays. Now you have fonts all over the place, things graphically superimposed on the field, animations, robotic cameras hanging over the field, disk based replay machines looking at every angle for highlights instantly. Granted, that means more stuff to break!

They have everyone in Lindale Mall sent downstairs to avoid the Coggon area threat. Seesh! Nobody believes the boy who cries Wolf after too many times.The weather people on KCRG (and hopefully KGAN and KWWL as well; I wasn't watching them) said several times that the warning did NOT include Cedar Rapids and that the sirens should not have been sounding here, and they were able to throw up a map using the NWS "polygon" to prove it. Unfortunately that system doesn't translate quite as well to radio (though a good host should be able to describe the area) and apparently not to the siren system Linn County uses. And if I were running a mall and heard a siren I'd have to err on the side of caution. I wouldn't want a crowd in that open space in the middle of the mall if there was an actual tornado.

The weather people on KCRG (and hopefully KGAN and KWWL as well; I wasn't watching them) said several times that the warning did NOT include Cedar Rapids and that the sirens should not have been sounding here, and they were able to throw up a map using the NWS "polygon" to prove it. Unfortunately that system doesn't translate quite as well to radio (though a good host should be able to describe the area) and apparently not to the siren system Linn County uses. And if I were running a mall and heard a siren I'd have to err on the side of caution. I wouldn't want a crowd in that open space in the middle of the mall if there was an actual tornado.

Especially considering Lindale used to be an open-air mall back in the day... the only real safe place in the mall is down in the lower level, and even if mall management wanted to go back to being open-air, I'm pretty sure they're rather do it on their own terms, with customers out of harm's way, than on Mother Nature's terms...

I watched KCRG 9.2 weather coverage for a time during the storm last night on Mediacom 109. The quality was pretty poor with lots of freeze ups, lost audio, signal drop outs, etc. Did anyone else notice this? Is this because of the weather, poor broadcast quality at KCRG or a Mediacom problem? My other Mediacom channels seemed to be OK at the time.

does anyone else have IMON cable and their HD clear QAM channels ? i just noticed that i lost 110-5 which was KCRG , strangely i still have 110-6 which is KCRG 9.2 .

i really wish there was someone i could email at imon who would know what i am talking about, i'm sure their call center people would have no idea.

does anyone else have IMON cable and their HD clear QAM channels ? i just noticed that i lost 110-5 which was KCRG , strangely i still have 110-6 which is KCRG 9.2 .

i really wish there was someone i could email at imon who would know what i am talking about, i'm sure their call center people would have no idea.

I've never called ImOn myself, since they don't cover my area, but I would actually CALL them before making statements about them not having a clue. Sometimes, you'd be pleasantly surprised at the competence shown by representatives at smaller companies such as ImOn.

Then again, I could be wrong, but cursing the dark before trying the light switch is a little bit silly, IMHO.

Has anyone heard when (or IF) ImOn service will be available in Marion?

Has anyone heard when (or IF) ImOn service will be available in Marion?

I have no way to confirm for myself, but I was told that Mediacom actually pays the city of Marion to be the sole cable provider.

I have no way to confirm for myself, but I was told that Mediacom actually pays the city of Marion to be the sole cable provider.

If you have no way to confirm it, then why even say it? A franchise fee is a franchise fee. To make it sound like a bribe is a pretty serious statement to make without any evidence to back it up.

Interesting ... Imon ran some fiber in Marion last summer and completed a hut a few blocks from my house. I also think their primary infrastructure site is at the new Involta facility in north Marion. It is unfortunate if they can't offer service to Marion residents.

Interesting ... Imon ran some fiber in Marion last summer and completed a hut a few blocks from my house. I also think their primary infrastructure site is at the new Involta facility in north Marion. It is unfortunate if they can't offer service to Marion residents.

Maybe not, I know of several people that switched back to Mediacom because of the abysmal internet speeds they got with ImOn.

I'm moving to Cedar Rapids (Marion IA to be precise).

I have one of those FreeVision antennas from Winegard which worked well at home (received true channels 8, 17, 23, et cetera). Will that be adequate to receive the local NBC station with thisTV and RetroTV?

Also I have $15 DSL at home. Any comparable low-price plans for my new location? - My phoneline was $5 plus 10 cents per call - possible to get a similar deal in Marion?

another to watch is the fun of 16:9 and what it does to a newsdesk. Everyone needs to spread out more, otherwise you see the weather and sports anchors in the wings!
My local station (WGAL-Harrisburg) solved this problem but making the weather/sports desks part of the main anchor desk. They walk-in from the left or right, and then sit down to announce what's going on. Later they walk off during commercial.

I'm moving to Cedar Rapids (Marion IA to be precise).

I have one of those FreeVision antennas from Winegard which worked well at home (received true channels 8, 17, 23, et cetera). Will that be adequate to receive the local NBC station with thisTV and RetroTV?

Also I have $15 DSL at home. Any comparable low-price plans for my new location? - My phoneline was $5 plus 10 cents per call - possible to get a similar deal in Marion?

Marion can be spotty. Parts of the town are quite elevated, but parts of the town are pretty low. The towers are quite a ways from Marion, compared to SW Cedar Rapids for instance. A better idea of the area (maybe nearest intersecting major street) would help.

And the news gets worse for your internet. There isn't any plans around here for that price, let alone that price for phone. Basic phone service from Qwest is about $20/mo, and internet I believe starts at 29.99 for 1.5 meg.

Best of luck.

And Kudos to KWWL-DT, Jarrett, and the crew. :D:D:D

Just finished watching Spartacus on the main setup (12' wide screen, DVDO scaler, and CRT - the whole nine yards.) Switched over to see the news, and what do I see? - Looks wonderful. CC is even working.

Excellent. Thank-you. As long as you're on the air, you have at least one faithful viewer here. :)

Thanks! I was wondering if anyone would notice since it's a soft launch. The first show went about as well as a newscast could. I'm sure we'll have our growing pains, but things definitely look better now. That chroma key with the HD camera and HD weather graphics is a dramatic change. Hope you all enjoy the new HD programming!
-Jarrett
... now I'm going home to go to bed!

KWWL news looked great last night. It was obvious that it took an incredible effort to put together, and the results are fantastic.

I can see where the widescreen would cause all sorts of logistical issues to keep the wings clear. I had been wondering how you guys would pull that off.

Having been in the studio a few years ago when we brought our scouts, it would be fascinating to come back and see the changes. The upgrade retrospective was nice, but the cuts were too quick to really see how the place was transformed.

Marion can be spotty. .... The towers are quite a ways from Marion, compared to SW Cedar Rapids for instance.
Sounds like I need a larger antenna, like the Channel Master 4228?

The 4228 is a UHF only antenna. I've seen instances where it seems to still do the job, but you'd be better off getting something with both UHF and VHF elements. Although the gain numbers don't look impressive on paper, the Winegard HD-1080 seems to work very well in that range, doesn't have a huge footprint, and you can find it online for just over $30 (includes shipping).

It really looks good. It's good to see the money & time & comitment KWWL management & staff took to pull this upgrade off considering the current economy.

The 4228 is a UHF only antenna. My 4228 works just fine getting channels 8 and 12 in my current home, and they are 25 and 50 miles away. (Yes those are true channels.) The HD-1080 looks nice but don't think it would fit inside an apartment? At least not as easily as the 4228 does.

Here's my tvfool report for 52302:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d9c6b73bf781958

I live in Marion, the Bowman Trails area. I have the Winegard HD7696 installed in my attic. I probably went overkill but I was worried about my reception with an attic install. Happy to say that so far it's done great. My only issue was last week when KCRG and KWWL were down, but as 4lids says, that was due to a power outage and not interference. I had a cheapie settop UHF antenna I tried in my attic first, and that worked fine as well. It's possible the HD1080 will do just fine.

The 7696 is directional though, so getting 20-1 (CW) is kinda spotty. My TiVo's tuner seems to handle it fine but I was getting lots of blocking and audio drop outs using my TV's tuner.

If you have no way to confirm it, then why even say it? A franchise fee is a franchise fee. To make it sound like a bribe is a pretty serious statement to make without any evidence to back it up.

Fair enough, I guess I said it because I was wondering if anyone could provide input on this rumor that commonly goes around my workplace. With the lack of any competition it seems plausible. I live on the edge of Marion, I can see people's houses from my backyard that are eligible for ImOn. Logistically it doesn't seem like it would be much effort on their part to support my neighborhood.

If you go to the "About" tab in the ImOn web site (www.imon.net), the first line reads "ImOn is the smart choice for cable, Internet and phone service for residents of Cedar Rapids and Marion". So it is apparently available for some Marion addresses. An ImOn representative told me a couple years ago that they were building out their network in Marion. I live in an older neighborhood and it is not available at my address.

ImOn provides service in Marion. The cable franchise fee is a fee paid to the city to provide cable service in the market. It does not give Mediacom exclusive rights, and ImOn pays it as well.

Their overbuild area is directly around the Marion/Cedar Rapids border, along 7th ave down to the Burger Furrier and then back towards Blaris Ferry Rd.

ImOn (back when it was McLeod) was forced to halt their network buildout sometime in the early 2000's due do budget concerns. I live on the SW side of Cedar Rapids, and my neighborhood, for instance, had all the underground lines buried but none of the equipment connected. It sat there, unused for the next 8 to 9 years. Finally, last year they connected everything and started providing service to our neighborhood.

When will Marion get service? I'm not sure anyone outside of those in charge at ImOn would know. But there is nothing stopping them from providing service to the city of Marion.

sgarringer, thanks for the info and clearing that up. I stand corrected!

does anyone else have IMON cable and their HD clear QAM channels ? i just noticed that i lost 110-5 which was KCRG , strangely i still have 110-6 which is KCRG 9.2 .

i really wish there was someone i could email at imon who would know what i am talking about, i'm sure their call center people would have no idea.Yes the IMON unencrypted have been reassigned lately. I just now did a channel scan. ABC (KCRG) in HD is now on 83-5

Digital QAM unencrypted channels on ImOn Cedar Rapids cable.

39-1 HGTV HD 1080i
40-11 Food HD 1080i
41-21 Speed channel HD 720p
48-1 Fox HD chan 28-1 OTA 720p
48-2 Fox SD chan 28-2 OTA 480i
48-4 EWTN (religious) 480i
49-5 National Geo HD 720p
49-6 ESPN 2 HD 720p
75-1 HD Theater 1080i
78-2 WGN HD 1080i
78-3 ESPN HD 720p
81-28 TNT HD 1080i
82-32 TBS HD 1080i
83-5 KCRG ABC HD 9-1 OTA 720p
84-1 Fox Business News 720p
89-2 NFL HD 1080i
92-1 IPTV chan 12-1 OTA 1080i
92-2 IPTV Learns 12-2 OTA 480i
92-3 HDNET 1080i
94-4 QVC HD 1080i
94-5 BigTen HD 720p
109-1 KGAN CBS HD 2-1 OTA 1080i
109-2 KGAN CBS 480i
109-3 KWWL NBC HD 7-1 OTA 1080i
109-4 RTV (from KWWL) 480i
110-6 KCRG weather 9-2 OTA 480i
110-7 HDNET Movies 1080i
122-1 Disney Channel HD 720p
122-2 History Channel HD 720p
123-3 A&E HD 720p

Bob

KCRG audio was garbled during Lost tonight for me, recorded OTA. Was that the same situation for folks watching/recording over cable or sat?

Fair enough, I guess I said it because I was wondering if anyone could provide input on this rumor that commonly goes around my workplace. With the lack of any competition it seems plausible. I live on the edge of Marion, I can see people's houses from my backyard that are eligible for ImOn. Logistically it doesn't seem like it would be much effort on their part to support my neighborhood.

just fwiw, and only partially applicable - but - a cable company always has to stop somewhere. I know, because my in-laws have been without cable forever; they live outside of a small SW Iowa town, and the cable lines stop 1/4 mile from their house. Even tho the lines were extended past the city limits, out into the unincorporated area, they still stop short.

On the upside - she has Direct TV - and after seeing their bill - shoot - they pay about the same as I do for cable. While getting a few hundred more channels, and having the option for many that can't be had on cable at any price.

Anyone here wanna talk me out of getting a dish? ;)

Anyone here wanna talk me out of getting a dish? ;)

Heck no, best purchase I've ever made. Dish network has great DVR boxes, very full featured, and their HD channels are unmatched.

Same thing for me ivory. I was watching DirecTv and noticed the same thing.

Oh thanks for that qam imon list. My media tuners dropped kcrg and cbs the other night and i scanned but couldn't find them. I have to try again. Looks like kwwl is on there finally also which is new to me.

KCRG audio was garbled during Lost tonight for me, recorded OTA. Was that the same situation for folks watching/recording over cable or sat?

Yup. In fact I called last night and a guy at the news desk turned up the audio and heard it as well. Said he was going to talk to master control, but they never went away. Also had stutters in video. I've seen stutters in video quite a bit off and on this year during Lost.

It seemed to be in all ABC programming, since I saw the last 10 minutes or so of dancing with the stars waiting for Lost to begin. I thought it was an issue with the live show until the problems continued in Lost.

It seemed to be in all ABC programming, since I saw the last 10 minutes or so of dancing with the stars waiting for Lost to begin. I thought it was an issue with the live show until the problems continued in Lost.

I just lost ALL respect for you - you watched DWTS???!!!

anyway, fwiw, you might want to make sure your talent watches their marks; also, check on your title generators. At work, at lunch today, I was watching OTA on my old 4x3 analog set, using my STB. Eileen kept stepping out of the frame, or at least, getting cut off pretty hard. I know, that's not under your control, but you might have the director talk to her.

More under your control - Sunny was talking about something (dunno - its not like I listen that much ;)) and the title behind her was more than half cut off. (you know - where you put up something like "Fire Today" or whatever, all I would have seen was "FIR") I forget what the story was - sorry.

Not complaining - just sharing what schmucks with old 4x3s are seeing, in case it helps you. For me, it just makes the noon news a bit more entertaining. :D

I didn't say I watched DWTS... I just saw it :cool: (kind of like the difference between hearing and listening!). I was like sitting through the 11 minutes of stupid commercials before a movie now.

I've already warned Eileen about this. We've marked the floor and the monitor. I was actually more concerned originally about then being out of the wings, than staying center-cut safe. Time to get some more markers on the monitors!

Most of our graphics have been good so far, but there are some that slip through that need adjustment. I'm sure the director saw it. The CG has been our biggest hurdle so far, since we are the first North American station to be using the Ross Xpression with news. Avid and Xpression haven't been playing nice so far, but Ross is sending programmers our way to sort things out.

Audio is still getting smoothed out too, as we haven't fully sweetened the new console. We have made good progress, but it still needs work.

Overall though, I can't complain too much and most comments have been positive aside from one little old lady who yelled at me about the motion in the new graphics package. She said all of the movement got her all wound up and she wants it gone! :rolleyes:

I didn't say I watched DWTS... I just saw it :cool: (kind of like the difference between hearing and listening!). I was like sitting through the 11 minutes of stupid commercials before a movie now.

I've already warned Eileen about this. We've marked the floor and the monitor. I was actually more concerned originally about then being out of the wings, than staying center-cut safe. Time to get some more markers on the monitors!

Most of our graphics have been good so far, but there are some that slip through that need adjustment. I'm sure the director saw it. The CG has been our biggest hurdle so far, since we are the first North American station to be using the Ross Xpression with news. Avid and Xpression haven't been playing nice so far, but Ross is sending programmers our way to sort things out.

Audio is still getting smoothed out too, as we haven't fully sweetened the new console. We have made good progress, but it still needs work.

Overall though, I can't complain too much and most comments have been positive aside from one little old lady who yelled at me about the motion in the new graphics package. She said all of the movement got her all wound up and she wants it gone! :rolleyes:

Just chiming in from the peanut gallery here...

I remember you mentioning recently about NBC lobbying for Active Format Description usage. Is there anything preventing you from sending your video with AFD8 or 10, instead of 15, to force letterboxing on the newscast on 4 x 3 TVs? It seems to me that it would prevent issues with center-cutting and whatnot.

It would also give you a pretty good idea of how many people in the area watch the news on a 4 x 3 television, as I'm sure it would generate a fair share of complaints. ;)

And, unrelated, just keeping score here of current local claims to fame:

KWWL: "Only HD local news in Eastern Iowa"
KCRG: "Your choice of how to stay current on severe weather"
KFXA/KGAN: *crickets*

Wait, that's unfair to KGAN. KGAN's recent promo is: "We don't air dance programs when funnel clouds are in the sky." Instead, they send vans out to chase it, and never actually record a real tornado.

Just chiming in from the peanut gallery here...

I remember you mentioning recently about NBC lobbying for Active Format Description usage. Is there anything preventing you from sending your video with AFD8 or 10, instead of 15, to force letterboxing on the newscast on 4 x 3 TVs? It seems to me that it would prevent issues with center-cutting and whatnot.

It would also give you a pretty good idea of how many people in the area watch the news on a 4 x 3 television, as I'm sure it would generate a fair share of complaints. ;)



Shush. Quiet. And a pox upon your house. ;)

I'm watching the news, as I type, on a 13" 4x3 set. Unless you care to buy me a new ASTC equipped panel, I plan to keep watching on said set. The only good thing that could possibly come from letterboxing is that the talent would never have to diet again - they'd be the size of a small action figure, and I hate to even imagine trying to decipher text on the maps.

If nothing else, such a move would force me to move exclusively to NOAA for my weather radar - I can see that quite nicely on my computer screen.

I sure love holding up progress so that people don't have to replace obsolete technology.

Just imagine if we ran the internet that way!

Digital QAM unencrypted channels on ImOn Cedar Rapids cable.

39-1 HGTV HD 1080i
...snip...
123-3 A&E HD 720p

Bob

Is this just a glitch? If they are going to offer these HD channels in ClearQAM I would spend the couple hundred bucks to build myself a home media PC.

Is there anything preventing you from sending your video with AFD8 or 10, instead of 15, to force letterboxing on the newscast on 4 x 3 TVs? It seems to me that it would prevent issues with center-cutting and whatnot.


Our harmonic encoders for our digital broadcast don't pass AFD (not compliant)... so you 4x3 people are safe until we get a new encoder!

As for slogans, KGAN does have the "built for breaking news" and "changing the way you watch news" pitches... Although I still wouldn't be bragging about that virtual set thing. Everytime I see that thing, I can't believe that someone actually looked at that and thought it would be a good idea! :eek:

Yup. In fact I called last night and a guy at the news desk turned up the audio and heard it as well. Said he was going to talk to master control, but they never went away. Also had stutters in video. I've seen stutters in video quite a bit off and on this year during Lost.

audio is still messed up during shows as of 04/15/10, but works great during commercials. I have 5.1 receiver and i hear cracking and popping anytime somebody is talking. same happens with TV speaker.

Is this just a glitch? If they are going to offer these HD channels in ClearQAM I would spend the couple hundred bucks to build myself a home media PC.Dunno. They have being doing all those sources since January. Will they keep up with providing more than the local stations in HD? It would be nice if they did. :)

Mediacom used to have a lot of QAM channels unencrypted, ahem -- adult channels :eek: -- years ago. They must have bought more hardware and got around to encrypting them. :o

Shush. Quiet. And a pox upon your house. ;)

I'm watching the news, as I type, on a 13" 4x3 set. Unless you care to buy me a new ASTC equipped panel, I plan to keep watching on said set. The only good thing that could possibly come from letterboxing is that the talent would never have to diet again - they'd be the size of a small action figure, and I hate to even imagine trying to decipher text on the maps.

If nothing else, such a move would force me to move exclusively to NOAA for my weather radar - I can see that quite nicely on my computer screen.

Had to chime in here, as our main tv is also 13" 4x3. But I'm willing to concede that at some point I'll be watching letterboxed screens or graphics that roll off the screen. Latter already happens regularly w/our local PBS station. At some point TV producers will have frame for 16x9 and ignore the limitations of 4x3. Hopefully it'll be letterboxed; that's the lesser of two evils IMO.

I sure love holding up progress so that people don't have to replace obsolete technology.

Just imagine if we ran the internet that way!

If, you're referring to my comment on active formatting, I really don't see where, why, or how I'm holding up progress.:confused: Afaik, the content is properly displayed on my HD sets. (and I am doing my part to support the economies of China, Indonesia, Taiwan, and wherever else - I currently have 5 HD-compliant displays in my house, and I'm feeding an HD signal to my ancient crt projector.) I'd just rather not have a borked 4x3 display if possible; since right now I'm getting good results with my 16x9s and my lonely lil orphan 4x3, I'm not quite sure why a change is needed on the broadcaster's part.

and you know - I have a far larger beef with TBS-HD (and TNT-HD) - all the times they stretch 4x3 content just so their idiot viewers don't have black bars on their HD sets. I have sets that can't squeeze the stretched HD content back to what it should be; I usually end up watching something else.

I agree wholeheartedly...4x3 content shouldn't be stretched by the broadcaster/cablecaster to fill 16x9 screens, or vice versa. I'll take the black bars as needed

I thought Turner got the original masters of shows and upconverted it to HD. I've only ever watch Sienfeld on TBS-HD but that doesn't look stretched. As for TNT-HD all of their shows are in HD or at least whenever I see it they're HD.

Dunno. They have being doing all those sources since January. Will they keep up with providing more than the local stations in HD? It would be nice if they did. :)

Mediacom used to have a lot of QAM channels unencrypted, ahem -- adult channels :eek: -- years ago. They must have bought more hardware and got around to encrypting them. :o

I just had ImOn install internet service to my home and asked the installer about the clear QAM. He confirmed that this is operating as intended and they plan on putting all their HD content that is not premium (Showtime, HBO, etc) in Clear QAM. He said they have been billing this as "free HD" to compete with other cable companies, but unlike them if you have a QAM tuner you don't need to rent a box.

I just had ImOn install internet service to my home and asked the installer about the clear QAM. He confirmed that this is operating as intended and they plan on putting all their HD content that is not premium (Showtime, HBO, etc) in Clear QAM. He said they have been billing this as "free HD" to compete with other cable companies, but unlike them if you have a QAM tuner you don't need to rent a box.

And people thought I was nuts suggesting that the language on their website implied that their non-premium HD programming was available on QAM for free, and that they intentionally did things that way...

Anyone else having OTA reception problems?

KGAN, KWWL, KCRG, and KRIN are all off the air as best I can tell.

I'm still getting 28 without any issues though... Anyone else having issues?

NEVERMIND: Forgot my OTA amp was unplugged!

Thanks! I was wondering if anyone would notice since it's a soft launch. The first show went about as well as a newscast could. I'm sure we'll have our growing pains, but things definitely look better now. That chroma key with the HD camera and HD weather graphics is a dramatic change. Hope you all enjoy the new HD programming!
-Jarrett
... now I'm going home to go to bed!


Jarrett,

I just returned to work after a couple weeks and just had my first opportunity to see the HD. Congrats on getting it all working! I can imagine how many extra hours went into the installation and testing of the new equipment, I know we are still working through interfacing complications between the old and new worlds ourselves. I'm excited to hear how the Ross gear is treating you, I've looked at it a couple times myself at NAB but would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Good job!

Kirk

I just had ImOn install internet service to my home and asked the installer about the clear QAM. He confirmed that this is operating as intended and they plan on putting all their HD content that is not premium (Showtime, HBO, etc) in Clear QAM. He said they have been billing this as "free HD" to compete with other cable companies, but unlike them if you have a QAM tuner you don't need to rent a box.

Good to know, hopefully they expand the extra 2 block needed to provide service to my house. So close, yet so far...

I don't like the idea of automatic ratio switching. My set; my choice how I watch it. ----- I watch my old analog set neither letterboxed nor cropped. I watch it in a "halfway" zoom (14:9?) that splits the difference between the standard 16:9 and 12:9 settings. It shows just a narrow black line on the top-and-bottom of the screen, and therefore makes both SD or HD programming look good without cutting anybody off. Anyone here wanna talk me out of getting a dish? ;) My dish only costs $20 for about 40 cable channels. Great deal.

The Talledega race just started. No idea which of these paragons of perfection should get credit, but after watching Darrell and the boys do the unending pre-race show in full 16x9 HD, now that the race is actually in progress, we are treated to 4x3.

Good to know KFXA-Chief isn't here - hoping that he is instead at work prodding the chipmunks at the transmitter into producing a genuine HD image.

The Talledega race just started. No idea which of these paragons of perfection should get credit, but after watching Darrell and the boys do the unending pre-race show in full 16x9 HD, now that the race is actually in progress, we are treated to 4x3.

Good to know KFXA-Chief isn't here - hoping that he is instead at work prodding the chipmunks at the transmitter into producing a genuine HD image.

Glorious HD on KYOU on south side!

As you probably guessed, it ain't FOX national. Of course we all know its not KFXAs fault.

HD back on 28.

This just reaffirms to me that they just don't pay any attention to what's going out.

Sorry to hurt any poor engineers feelings, but don't come trying to blow smoke up our butts about how it was beyond your control.

HD back on 28.

This just reaffirms to me that they just don't pay any attention to what's going out.

Sorry to hurt any poor engineers feelings, but don't come trying to blow smoke up our butts about how it was beyond your control.I'll second that.

Correct - came back to HD around 1pm, around the 32 lap mark. With all the Green/White/Checkered restarts, we ended up with what - 3/4 or better in HD? :rolleyes:

Well, just finished 40 minutes of House in glorious pillar-boxed, letter-boxed SD. And it appears that 24 is starting off the exact same way. (Can't stand that show). Either way, short of some extenuating circumstances I think someone must have fallen asleep at the control board. Maybe too much time eating dinner and not enough time keeping an eye on the outgoing product??

Well, just finished 40 minutes of House in glorious pillar-boxed, letter-boxed SD.

Definitely annoying, given that some might expect we should be in an all-HD era by now, but changing formats is always slow. I just read Sony finally decided to stop manufacturing 1.44" floppy disks. It's been several years since I've known anyone to actually still use that storage medium, at least for everyday file storage, so I suppose it wouldn't surprise me if these kinds of format issues will continue on our televisions out to say at least 2020.

Definitely annoying, given that some might expect we should be in an all-HD era by now, but changing formats is always slow. I just read Sony finally decided to stop manufacturing 1.44" floppy disks. It's been several years since I've known anyone to actually still use that storage medium, at least for everyday file storage, so I suppose it wouldn't surprise me if these kinds of format issues will continue on our televisions out to say at least 2020.

If the primary issue was that the content was produced in SD, I might agree with you. It still confounds me that some of the most popular "reality" TV shows are still shot in standard def, when those shows are precisely the ones that would have an audience large enough to justify the expense of HD equipment. Then again, if people keep watching them in SD, why bother to change a good thing?

The primary issue in this case, however, was a failure at the local station, either in an equipment failure, or in a breakdown of Master Control to actually "flip the HD switch". If it was still, say, 2006, I might cut KFXA some slack and blame the equipment, but they've had enough time to work out equipment problems, and have a pretty long track record of "human error" when it comes to frakking up HD content.

What I don't get is why are they still bothering with the SD feed anyway. All the cable providers monitor the HD feed and crop the sides to make it 4:3 and feed that out as the SD version of the channel. So why are they not just feeding through everything in HD with the exception of when they're inserting something local?

That being said there are lots of people that still use 1.44MB floppy disks. I just used one yesterday to load a SATA driver to install Windows XP on a computer. And I use them probably every other day to recover a hard drive with full disk encryption. But I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. The show is produced in HD. It's uplinked in HD. It's downlinked in HD. But that's where it hits the roadblock because someone didn't push, or flip, or do something to feed it through.

I also have those types of utility boot disks, so I was careful to say "everyday file storage". :)
My point was just about formats at a general level, such as 4:3 formatted video versus 16:9. I know nothing about the equipment being used, but given that there is so much 4:3 content out there that will be aired for years/decades to come, what is the solution to make this particular problem go away for good? I guess I don't understand this "flip the HD switch" business. Does all of the 4:3 content in the world have to be re-encoded?

I guess I don't understand this "flip the HD switch" business. Does all of the 4:3 content in the world have to be re-encoded?

As far as I know, and I may be COMPLETELY wrong with this, as I haven't been in a master control booth, ever, this is what it's about:

There's a National Feed, which comes down in HD, and there's a Local Feed, which, in $inclair's case, is in SD.

In order to air local commercials, local news updates, and other local syndicated programming (all of the infomercials that KFXA runs on the weekends), someone in Master Control has to switch from the National Feed to the Local Feed. In order to watch the National Feed in High Def, they need to switch back to the National Feed, otherwise, it's just the Local Feed, which is a stereo-only, 4:3 version of the National Feed.

They also have to make sure that the audio encoding equipment is functioning properly, so that they're actually sending out the full 5.1 channel audio feed, but that's a separate issue.

So, the "solution" in this case is to upgrade all of the local equipment to HD-capable equipment, so that you don't have to literally babysit the equipment all the time JUST to be able to show local commercials during the times in national programming when local commercials are allowed. Not cheap, not necessarily easy, but not exactly so expensive that half the market hasn't already done it.

Or, just do what $inclair does, and just leave it on the local feed and flip the bird to your HD-capable customers. (If KFXA-Chief was still around, I'm sure we'd hear some explanation about how unreasonable we are to expect HD all the time, and some excuse about how the toilet backed up during the NASCAR race, and there's only one engineer in the building who has to take care of the plumbing, electrical, microwave, and vending machines, and how the toilet running was more important than an HD feed for "a couple of people to watch cars drive in circles".)

Kirk and Jarret, feel free to correct me, but the whole "local feed/national feed, with a big switch to manually throw between them" has been my understanding for a while now.

I also have no background, but would add that my understanding is that there is some automation in place that's supposed to handle the switching.

As we have seen this sometimes doesn't function properly for whatever reason. I can understand this. What I can't understand is why no one at master control ever seems to notice and it takes calls from public before it's corrected.

I also have no background, but would add that my understanding is that there is some automation in place that's supposed to handle the switching.

As we have seen this sometimes doesn't function properly for whatever reason. I can understand this. What I can't understand is why no one at master control ever seems to notice and it takes calls from public before it's corrected.

As of 2 years ago, it was revealed that this is still mostly a manual process, and will likely remain so for any stations that aren't fully digital or fully HD (where the need for such would be moot).

I expect it to still be a problem at KFXA/KGAN for many years to come.

As of 2 years ago, it was revealed that this is still mostly a manual process, and will likely remain so for any stations that aren't fully digital or fully HD (where the need for such would be moot).

I expect it to still be a problem at KFXA/KGAN for many years to come.

:D:D:D (emphasis added)

and just so he doesn't feel left out, so far, so good, at KWWL-HD. Haven't seen enough bugs worth whining about. Still a few things getting cropped, but afaic, looks like you and the crew are nailing it Jarrett. Congrats on setting the bar high. (downside is, all your engineer friends are going to hate you now)

OK... I have plenty of background on master controls, so I'll try to explain what is happening back there. Most of us (aside from KCRG) have master controls that are many years old with lots of legacy NTSC (analog) 4:3 equipment. Some may have full automation, while others may have limited triggers, and others nothing at all. When the digital broadcast revolution came about, there was another broadcast chain added. You had the original analog path and the digital path. You were in fact watching two channels now instead of one. Typically, this "new" monitor was not the one that was viewed at all times, since the money all came into the analog side. You'd glance over at it, but you attention was on the primary.

With all of this new stuff, you typically had just an encoder fed by a small switcher that just handled the HD stuff (remember that the analog plant can't handle HD). The network was your only source of HD programming, so your switcher just consisted of the HD network and the upconverted local channel. How that gets switched is the tricky part. Depending on an operator to remember to switch that every position is a recipe for disaster. They will never remember every switch and you'll end up with the wrong stuff on the air.

To combat this at KWWL, we have a GPO that fires a trigger off our switcher whenever we are on a particular source. This will switch our HD switcher from upconverted to NBC HD, and now our HD production control. Additionally, we now have a backup NBC feed in HD so that when there are issues with NBC's feeds, we can stay in HD with the backup satellite feed.

Also, we have all programming all run through these "digital" path now, instead of having an analog and a digital. If you are watching analog CFU or Mediacom (or in our master control), you are actually looking at a downcoverted feed right out of our control room (center-cut with mixed down dolby 5.1 when it is provided). This allowed my operators to just watch one picture for our 7.1 feed.

THe next step of course is to upgrade the local infrastructure to HD as well in master control. You will still have upconverted sources, but it will take one more thing out of the equation (and probably add 35 more!).

I'm not sure how KFXA is handling things or how the FOX satellite stuff works, but there could also be other things complicating their cause, such as downstream graphics (only SD). Luckily, we have HD units here so that we can stay in HD programming when crawls are required. I still remember how irritating those sinclair/mediacom crawls were during football games this past winter. Hope that helps shed some light on things.
-Jarrett

OK...
<All sorts of really good information>
-Jarrett

Thank you for the explanation, Jarrett! :)

It appears that not much has changed since the post that was made 2 years ago, which also mentioned that different stations have different levels of automation. Kudos to you guys for taking advantage of triggers to help automate things as much as possible, and for taking the time and money to commit to making the end-user experience as seamless and reliable as possible (backup satellite feed, etc)!

My fear is that what happened with the NASCAR race may have even been an equipment malfunction that required a significant amount of time to repair and get HD up and running. While this would be a somewhat more acceptable reason than someone eating a tainted chalupa, if there WAS a technical malfunction, it would have been nice for some sort of crawl to have been put up (KFXA still has their good 'ol reliable SD character generator, after all) explaining that there were technical difficulties on the HD side of the house.

My problem is, $inclair's employees *seem* to care so little about things that, even IF there was a technical malfunction during a major sporting event (heaven forbid this happens during the World Series again), they STILL wouldn't put up a crawl, or even bother answering the phones.

Some day, the folks out at Broadcast Park (at least the ones in the TV part of it) might learn that a little bit of customer service goes a LONG way towards keeping people happy. All of the improperly-installed full-color LED billboards in the world can't increase ratings the way a little bit of customer service can.

This is how the HDTV switching was handled at one station circa 2004 (not in Cedar Rapids).

Thank you for the explanation, Jarrett! :)

It appears that not much has changed since the post that was made 2 years ago, which also mentioned that different stations have different levels of automation. Kudos to you guys for taking advantage of triggers to help automate things as much as possible, and for taking the time and money to commit to making the end-user experience as seamless and reliable as possible (backup satellite feed, etc)!

My fear is that what happened with the NASCAR race may have even been an equipment malfunction that required a significant amount of time to repair and get HD up and running. While this would be a somewhat more acceptable reason than someone eating a tainted chalupa, if there WAS a technical malfunction, it would have been nice for some sort of crawl to have been put up (KFXA still has their good 'ol reliable SD character generator, after all) explaining that there were technical difficulties on the HD side of the house.

My problem is, $inclair's employees *seem* to care so little about things that, even IF there was a technical malfunction during a major sporting event (heaven forbid this happens during the World Series again), they STILL wouldn't put up a crawl, or even bother answering the phones.

Some day, the folks out at Broadcast Park (at least the ones in the TV part of it) might learn that a little bit of customer service goes a LONG way towards keeping people happy. All of the improperly-installed full-color LED billboards in the world can't increase ratings the way a little bit of customer service can.

Good day folks in Cedar Rapids. I thought I would take the time to help clarify some of the questions about how KFXA operates their master control.

First of all, the switching between local and network is indeed done with triggers from station automation. There is no switch being flipped manually.
The FOX network signal is not distributed through the station like it is at ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS stations. I won't take the time to bore you with all the details, but essentially all the other networks, like in Jarrett's case, and KGAN, are switched as baseband audio and video using conventional (HD)switching and terminal equipment. The FOX signal is delivered to KFXA and "switched" as an MPEG2 ASI stream. It's never decoded to baseband except for monitoring and for a backup in case there is an HD switching problem.
On Sunday during NASCAR, and subsequently on Monday during House, there was actually an equipment failure that prevented the trigger from automation to correctly switch to HD. It had nothing to do with someone eating a tainted chalupa.
What you saw in both cases was the upconverted SD signal that I referred to earlier.
The problem has since been resolved and I'm pretty sure you haven't seen it return.
When something like this happens in anyone's master control, there is usually some level of confusion that takes place with the operators. They are typically trying to figure out what happened and are usually on the phone with someone to get the problem fixed. Sitting down in front of a character generator typing in a crawl isn't high on their list of things to do. Additionally telling all the SD viewers that there is a problem with the HD feed tends to cause a level of confusion with those viewers.
Try to keep in mind that the people working at any television station, like any other business, are just human beings. For the most part, they are doing the best they can.
As far as customer service goes, I'm sorry that your expectations haven't been met. This forum is a great place to share idea's as well as let stations know if there are problems. There is always room to learn something new.
You might actually be surprised by who follows these threads.

The problem has since been resolved and I'm pretty sure you haven't seen it return.
When something like this happens in anyone's master control, there is usually some level of confusion that takes place with the operators. They are typically trying to figure out what happened and are usually on the phone with someone to get the problem fixed.

This has happened several times in the past with KFXA so I would think the confusion level should be at a minimum by now. I still have a hard time believing that it takes an hour or more to see and resolve the outgoing non-HD problem. And even if it does, the underlying issue here is why is this a recurring problem? Simply hitting a reset or rebooting obviously isn't getting to the root of the problem, so it gets kinda old for us locals to hear over and over, sorry it was an equipment failure.

wnyfox, thanks for the explanation.

Ditto!

OK... I have plenty of background on master controls, so I'll try to explain what is happening back there. Most of us (aside from KCRG) have master controls that are many years old with lots of legacy NTSC (analog) 4:3 equipment. Some may have full automation, while others may have limited triggers, and others nothing at all. When the digital broadcast revolution came about, there was another broadcast chain added. You had the original analog path and the digital path. You were in fact watching two channels now instead of one. Typically, this "new" monitor was not the one that was viewed at all times, since the money all came into the analog side. You'd glance over at it, but you attention was on the primary.

With all of this new stuff, you typically had just an encoder fed by a small switcher that just handled the HD stuff (remember that the analog plant can't handle HD). The network was your only source of HD programming, so your switcher just consisted of the HD network and the upconverted local channel. How that gets switched is the tricky part. Depending on an operator to remember to switch that every position is a recipe for disaster. They will never remember every switch and you'll end up with the wrong stuff on the air.

To combat this at KWWL, we have a GPO that fires a trigger off our switcher whenever we are on a particular source. This will switch our HD switcher from upconverted to NBC HD, and now our HD production control. Additionally, we now have a backup NBC feed in HD so that when there are issues with NBC's feeds, we can stay in HD with the backup satellite feed.

Also, we have all programming all run through these "digital" path now, instead of having an analog and a digital. If you are watching analog CFU or Mediacom (or in our master control), you are actually looking at a downcoverted feed right out of our control room (center-cut with mixed down dolby 5.1 when it is provided). This allowed my operators to just watch one picture for our 7.1 feed.

THe next step of course is to upgrade the local infrastructure to HD as well in master control. You will still have upconverted sources, but it will take one more thing out of the equation (and probably add 35 more!).

I'm not sure how KFXA is handling things or how the FOX satellite stuff works, but there could also be other things complicating their cause, such as downstream graphics (only SD). Luckily, we have HD units here so that we can stay in HD programming when crawls are required. I still remember how irritating those sinclair/mediacom crawls were during football games this past winter. Hope that helps shed some light on things.
-Jarrett

Very good explanation Jarrett. Most of the local stations are dealing with a large mix of SD 4x3 content in analog and digital, and SD and HD 16x9 digital content. As Jarrett mentioned in the early days of digital we were able to keep these paths separate since we only had limited sources that were HD and the main signal we had was the analog. Over the last year or two the content has really ramped up on the digital side in both HD and SD and the necessity to “meld” the analog and digital worlds together in house has increased dramatically. With limited budgets to be able to build a completely new facility or even buy a large amount of conversion gear it can be a real headache to try and take all the variety of sources and make them compatible. If we could take KWWL’s HD production control room and KCRG’s HD master control and have them in the same facility, life would be easier for conversion, but since we’re still stuck in conversion hell with all the formats it is still difficult. Most new gear that has been purchased in the last couple years has been digital. Until recently we would take that digital equipment and convert it to analog and feed the analog house router. Since Master Control and Production Control were both analog, no worries it all works. In our case we still have a SD analog Production Control but have a HD Master Control. So when we get a digital source in we want to make sure we feed the HD video router the digital feed and convert to analog for the analog video router. The opposite of course happens for every analog source coming in. So it can be a real dance in order to get every source sent to the proper area to make sure they are converted, format corrected for 4x3 or 16x9, and also make sure all the timings stay correct to avoid lip sync errors with the inherent delay built into conversion equipment. I think we are all excited for the day when we have all new equipment and most content is 16x9 digital either SD or HD but that day is still not here, so we still have that crazy dance of melding the worlds together while still being fiscally responsible until we can replace all the equipment. The next couple years will hopefully move to more and more HD content at the national and local levels and move away from analog 4x3. I know I long for the day when the only 4x3 content I see on the air is legacy archival news footage from some past event but to be honest I am not sure how long that transition will take at both the national and local levels??

Kirk

First of all, the switching between local and network is indeed done with triggers from station automation.

Is (was) that done with a piece of commercial gear, or something cobbled together by the engineer and left undocumented?

Just wondering...

If we could take KWWL’s HD production control room and KCRG’s HD master control and have them in the same facility, life would be easier for conversion...

You're telling me! We went a bit backwards here, since it is typically better to start with your infrastruture (master control... router... etc.) than with the sexier arm (news production), but our needs were greater in production with the gear on its last legs and the fact that it gave us something KCRG didn't have :cool: We'll both get there sooner or later... it's just nice it is happening in this market (many markets aren't moving at all right now with the revenue streams shrinking).

Is (was) that done with a piece of commercial gear, or something cobbled together by the engineer and left undocumented?

Just wondering...

The automation system, the device (computer) that generates the trigger, is made by Sundance, a company owned by Avid. The FOX equipment is a combination of Cisco and Terayon. The piece in the middle, a locally designed device that is no longer there. It has been replaced with something commercially available.
...cobbled probably isn't a fair or accurate description.

Unfortunately, Bones this evening was in SD until about 11 minutes into the show until it flipped into HD.

Update: I hadn't watched long enough, but it went back to SD after Bones came back from commercial at about 19 minutes in and as of 8:16pm, into Fringe now, it is still in SD. :(

Except for a short blip of HD this evening on KFXA it has all been SD.

...cobbled probably isn't a fair or accurate description.

Depends on who the guy was that built the "locally designed device". :D
I may have seen some of his work. It was pretty cobbled, and not at all documented.

Thanks for the explanation, wnyfox. I can understand a funky piece of gear, and/or faulty code, being a lot harder to rectify than the switch posted earlier in this thread.

If KCRG has the upgraded infrastructure, then more kudos to 4lids for keeping a fairly steady hd stream coming out with their new HD news. I'll agree, infrastructure should be the prime concern, but we also know that sizzle sells the steak.

Here's hoping that KFXA gets whatever piece they need to have working, working, before too long. Best of luck.

I may have seen some of his work. It was pretty cobbled, and not at all documented.

All cobblers aren't created equally - I haven't seen a lot of problems on IPTV-HD, yet I have a hard time believing that their gear is state of the art. ;):D

The automation system, the device (computer) that generates the trigger, is made by Sundance, a company owned by Avid. The FOX equipment is a combination of Cisco and Terayon. The piece in the middle, a locally designed device that is no longer there. It has been replaced with something commercially available.
...cobbled probably isn't a fair or accurate description.

I used to really like the Sundance stuff, but that was before Avid bought them. Either way, the macros that fire their triggers of the device server are typically very reliable, provided someone has put them into the automation! I had that issue with ops in La Crosse that forgot to add them to the network events (since our traffic department typically forgot to list what shows were HD or not on the log). Thankfully, most stuff from the networks today is HD (or upconverted on their HD path), so everything is the same.

And I'll stick up for cobbled together stuff! Sometimes a local design is much better suited to handle tasks over some poorly designed commercial product. We like to modify things too! You just need to make sure you document it so that the next guy can figure it out too!
-Jarrett

You just need to make sure you document it so that the next guy can figure it out too!
-Jarrett

Were you in a programming course with me? :D I swear, I had profs that drove me crazy about documentation. Then, you get out in the real world and spend 3 times as long trying to figure out what, why, and how the guy ahead of you did whatever to what was (possibly) born as a decent piece of code.

Now that I'm older, I tend to agree with the prof - anyone who doesn't properly document changes to code should be forced to write code for a VAX in assembly.

Hence my comment, which was meant to support "well-cobbled" software. ;)

Looks like another evening of SD programming. So much for HD Simpsons, Cleavland Show, or American Dad. :(

I spoke too soon, looks like they got it straightened out.

KCRG DirectTv feed Sunday night was all washed out (very light).

Mediacom looked fine.

To continue the KFXA thread, there were a few minutes of SD thrown in the mix again Monday night, although definitely less total time than a week ago. However, clearly their equipment is still not working perfectly.

KCRG is having audio dropouts again on both Mediacom and Directv during the morning news/Good morning America time slots. Not sure about the other locals.

I was just in Ames, bought the metro edition of the Register, and saw the huge WHO-TV ad in the metro section (it's probably not in the state edition we get out here).

Anyway, they say that they'll soon have "EVERY camera, every live shot, ALL video in high definition" on Channel 13 News.

No date set, just "coming soon."

They are currently widescreen SD, as is their main competitor KCCI.

Unfortunately, most viewers don't notice whether it's HD or SD. They just notice whether it's widescreen or not.

Unfortunately, most viewers don't notice whether it's HD or SD.I normally watch local news on KCRG because it has more of a Cedar Rapids focus than KWWL. But after reading this forum, I decided to switch over to see what the HD was like. The HD makes a huge difference in viewing enjoyment, and I now find myself tuning to channel 7 news (807 on Mediacom) as my first preference. My hats off to the crew at KWWL for a job well done.

Audio on KGAN-HD has cut out approximately 30 seconds in to each show tonight at 7, 7:30, 8, and 8:30 PM CDT, and stayed out for around 30 seconds or so each time on MediaCon QAM (didn't check OTA). No audio dropout on KGAN-SD on MediaCon.

Sounds like more and more problems, but I suppose I should just be happy that its a) in HD, and b) actually in 5.1.

It was doing the same on Directv.

It was doing the same on Directv.

I always record our locals OTA and I only watched BBT last night, but yes there was a fairly long audio drop-out at the beginning of the episode.

I always record our locals OTA and I only watched BBT last night, but yes there was a fairly long audio drop-out at the beginning of the episode.

Happened again tonight about 15 minutes into NCIS:Los Angeles and again a few minutes into The Good Wife. Since the audio is still present on the analog cable channel, I can only conclude that this is a KGAN issue, and not a CBS Network issue.

The strange thing is how it isn't happening right after a commercial break, but a few minutes into the program. What could be the cause of such a problem, across most if not all of their prime-time shows this week?

This has been occurring off and on for a few weeks now.

Another half night of SD from KFXA also.

Way to go KGAN & KFXA! I can see why the engineers have disappeared. I would be ashamed to show up here!

I watched KWWL news for the first time in many years last night. First, I will say, I was impressed with the quality of the HD video. It certainly was nice.

Now, my thoughts. Please don't take these the wrong way.

First: Reporter in the field was broadcasting "live" through ustream.tv. It's a sad, sad day when I am watching 1-5FPS video streamed through a cellphone over the web as broadcast TV. And then half way through the report, an ad displayed on the ustream window. Does KWWL not have the equipment to do microwave based remotes anymore? I watched as a mouse pointer went across the screen and clicked the X to close the advertisement. Is a broadcast station really depending on a free service to handle their live remotes?

Secondly, there seems to be a ton of audio issues, switching off mics too early, or too late. Every cut away seemed to have some audio issue where the person talking was either cut off too early or too late.

I realize we're not a top 10 market here and so everything isn't going to be perfect, but it was pretty hard to watch. Especially the USTREAM remote. I can understand watching web-based video when we're smuggling out protest video from Iran or China. But a report from within Eastern Iowa?

This has been occurring off and on for a few weeks now.


I watch OTA and it has been happening a lot...I have started to do my DVR'ing over Channel 4 in davenport so I get all the dialogue.

Strange

Odd, because I only noticed this week. Maybe I just am able to ignore 2 or 3 second dropouts, but not 15 to 20 seconds (or longer) dropouts like on the Monday CBS shows.

I realize we're not a top 10 market here and so everything isn't going to be perfect, but it was pretty hard to watch. Especially the USTREAM remote. I can understand watching web-based video when we're smuggling out protest video from Iran or China. But a report from within Eastern Iowa?

We utilized one of our web-based kits for the Grundy Center stuff last night, since one truck was off doing another remote and the others are both in for engine repairs. Sometimes it looks almost broadcast passable and other times it doesn't. They are taking measures to avoid advertisements in our newsroom on future ones, but I don't think these will go away. So places don't allow for microwave or SNG, or those trucks are tied up, and this allows for more live coverage. Also, I'm sure the quality is going to get better and better as the technology and bandwidth availablity increase.

As far as the audio, we are still adjusting to automation and life without an audio operator. The entire newcast is being run by one person (there is a producer in the room too to assist with the show, but nothing technical). 90% of the work now is before the show with the coding, instead of the old way where 90% of the work was during the show. If someone in news codes something wrong and the director doesn't catch it right away, you will have those issues. A big issue is that we set levels before each show with mics and servers, but sometimes levels will differ once we get into a show. It will get better and better as we get more comfortable (only one month in).

We utilized one of our web-based kits for the Grundy Center stuff last night, since one truck was off doing another remote and the others are both in for engine repairs. Sometimes it looks almost broadcast passable and other times it doesn't. They are taking measures to avoid advertisements in our newsroom on future ones, but I don't think these will go away. So places don't allow for microwave or SNG, or those trucks are tied up, and this allows for more live coverage. Also, I'm sure the quality is going to get better and better as the technology and bandwidth availablity increase.

As far as the audio, we are still adjusting to automation and life without an audio operator. The entire newcast is being run by one person (there is a producer in the room too to assist with the show, but nothing technical). 90% of the work now is before the show with the coding, instead of the old way where 90% of the work was during the show. If someone in news codes something wrong and the director doesn't catch it right away, you will have those issues. A big issue is that we set levels before each show with mics and servers, but sometimes levels will differ once we get into a show. It will get better and better as we get more comfortable (only one month in).

Thanks for the followup. Wouldn't it be better to use an actual commercial product which can send video over the cellular network (there are CDMA and GSM versions) directly back to the studio?

http://www.proxicast.com/landing/3G-Cellular-Video-Router.htm
http://www.meshdynamics.com/mesh-network-video.html

Even someone locally could set up a 3G enabled laptop, and Windows Media Server back in the studio to stream video directly...

The USTREAM.tv thing isn't just your station, I see it being used all over, and I just wonder why when there are extremely inexpensive commerical solutions or completely free home-brew ones.

I've even sent HD video over a 3G link before (not great but I was about to get 720p video at 25fps) with about a 2 second delay...

Anyone notice that KWWL was completely down on directv last night? They had a blue slide up explaining that they were aware of the issue and there was no need to call.

Also, are we at three weeks in a row where at least one segment on House was in SD?

I noticed KWWL was out on Wednesday night :cool:

Power outage at Rowley thanks to some serious lightning (took out power and some microwave gear too that we are still working on). Off between 9:30 and 11:00 PM that night (aside from fiber to CFU and Mediacom)

We utilized one of our web-based kits for the Grundy Center stuff last night, since one truck was off doing another remote and the others are both in for engine repairs. Sometimes it looks almost broadcast passable and other times it doesn't.
As far as the audio, we are still adjusting to automation and life without an audio operator. The entire newcast is being run by one person (there is a producer in the room too to assist with the show, but nothing technical). 90% of the work now is before the show with the coding, instead of the old way where 90% of the work was during the show. If someone in news codes something wrong and the director doesn't catch it right away, you will have those issues. A big issue is that we set levels before each show with mics and servers, but sometimes levels will differ once we get into a show. It will get better and better as we get more comfortable (only one month in).

Hey Jarrett,

Being an IT guy as well as a meteorologist at work, may I offer a couple of suggestions for improvement?

First, ditch Ustream.tv, or use only as a last resort, and then use Skype instead. Several reasons:

1. You can get talkback to the anchors without a cell connection (hook up an earpiece to the headphone jack of the laptop)

2. Bit rate quality can be adjusted. When you have a high speed connection, you can bring it up, and then bring it down when in a low-speed area.
And frame rate is decent, 10-20 fps.

3. No pop-ups/ads.

4. Got a 16-9 camera? it will complement your widescreen view nicely. :-)

5. "Conference call" feature so everyone can hear/see each other.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2015260_thre--way-calls-with-skype.html

6. Your competition won't see where you are until you are "on air"!

I saw Skype in action with Nashville TV stations and reporters covering a mayor's news conference (the trucks were down by the river) with the recent major flooding there. I was impressed. Yes, I could easily tell it was over an Internet connection. But it wasn't distracting, and I'm a media/video junkie, so of course I could tell! WGN-TV's Tom Skilling went storm chasing and used Skype while on the road, live. He got a decent picture; it broke up some, since he was on dirt roads in the middle of eastern Oklahoma. But when it was good, it was more than passable. And your reporters could feed live tornado video back to your newsroom, and they can pop it up on air.

As for the no audio person, that's disturbing to me. Unless everyone shoots even audio levels, and talks at the same loudness each time, that doesn't sound like it's going to work very well.

I noticed KWWL was out on Wednesday night :cool:

Power outage at Rowley thanks to some serious lightning (took out power and some microwave gear too that we are still working on). Off between 9:30 and 11:00 PM that night (aside from fiber to CFU and Mediacom)

Thanks Jarrett. I was bummed to have to watch someone else's newscast. I love KWWL's HD broadcast and great coverage of Dubuque.

Look who's NOT in HD AGAIN!:mad:

Nascar in sd.

I've changed all my dvr recordings to KYOU-DT on my HR-20. I get a few glitches here and there, but it beats the hell out of KFXA.

I was getting nasty audio breakups throughout the second half of the NBA game on KCRG today. I'm getting it through DirecTV. Anyone else experience the same thing on other providers?

I'm seeing some lip sync issues on KCRG through DirecTv.

I'm seeing some lip sync issues on KCRG through DirecTv.

Terrible using OTA tonight also...........Now watching ABC from the Quad Cities with no problems.

I was getting nasty audio breakups throughout the second half of the NBA game on KCRG today. I'm getting it through DirecTV. Anyone else experience the same thing on other providers?
The same using OTA early this morning and today.

From April 29, 2010:
The problem has since been resolved and I'm pretty sure you haven't seen it return.

Well, the May 17th season finale of House was still messed up.

0-13 min was in SD. This was both before and a minute after the first commercial break.

It was then still in HD after the next 3 commercial breaks.
However, after coming back from the last commercial break at 53 min, it stayed in SD until 57 minutes in.

So, by my count, about 16 minutes of the ~44 min episode was shown in SD, or about 36% of the episode.

First, ditch Ustream.tv, or use only as a last resort, and then use Skype instead. Several reasons:
Got a 16-9 camera? it will complement your widescreen view nicely. :-)

As for the no audio person, that's disturbing to me. Unless everyone shoots even audio levels, and talks at the same loudness each time, that doesn't sound like it's going to work very well.

We've used skype before and like it, but our corporate IT despises it do to security concerns. So it is off limits and we are stuck with Oovoo or Ustream until we can afford to buy something more commericial like sgarringer suggested. For now are kits are really basic, since the technology is growing fast and we are sure they quality and bandwidths will improve in the next few years. Why make a big investiment now for something that would need to be replaced in two years... better to just go "pro-sumer" and treat them as a disposible unit.

The stuff we have can do 16x9, but I don't have a 16x9 HD scan converter at the moment. Another $6000 and it was one of the things that got cut as we were trying to make this HD stuff happen. I'm still working on it though!

As far as no audio op, the director does have full controls over the board. That is the beauty of the overdrive system and its sidecar. As things air, those controls are brought to the sidecar so that they can make on the fly adjustments. Ideally though, everything is balanced in pre-production that should in theory reduce the mistakes you see on air. Any mistake, aside from a technical failure, is something that should have been remedied before air.
-Jarrett

We've used skype before and like it, but our corporate IT despises it do to security concerns. So it is off limits and we are stuck with Oovoo or Ustream until we can afford to buy something more commericial like sgarringer suggested. For now are kits are really basic, since the technology is growing fast and we are sure they quality and bandwidths will improve in the next few years. Why make a big investiment now for something that would need to be replaced in two years... better to just go "pro-sumer" and treat them as a disposible unit.

The stuff we have can do 16x9, but I don't have a 16x9 HD scan converter at the moment. Another $6000 and it was one of the things that got cut as we were trying to make this HD stuff happen. I'm still working on it though!

As far as no audio op, the director does have full controls over the board. That is the beauty of the overdrive system and its sidecar. As things air, those controls are brought to the sidecar so that they can make on the fly adjustments. Ideally though, everything is balanced in pre-production that should in theory reduce the mistakes you see on air. Any mistake, aside from a technical failure, is something that should have been remedied before air.
-Jarrett

Ah, OK. And you bet that things will be changing in a few years. I can see 5 or 10 years down the road where no one has a "mobile truck" because it's all Internet, and can be done in a car, unless you are doing a major production.

Gotcha on the audio. Interesting. Given your description, I like the way you have it set up, given your budget. Nicely done!

I'm seeing some lip sync issues on KCRG through DirecTv.

past few days using Mediacom QAM it's been almost unwatchable during primetime.

...And once again I get to listen to my wife and kids have a fit (American Idol) because KFXA has once again forgot how to turn on the HD feed.
...and after 20 minutes, we have HD

I'm sure KFXAChief is peeking in, but just in case, i think it's time for everyone to start email complaints to their comments@kfxa.tv email address.

I think the last time I did this with KGAN, I cc'ed Sinclair and that helped.

Well, well, look what Mediacom brought to the CF/WLO area today, additional HD channels:
870 Spike HD
871 Comedy Central HD
872 MTV HD
873 VH1 HD
875 CMT HD
877 Nickelodeon HD

Mediacom must roll them out at different times by location. These HD channels showed up for me (Marion) about a month ago. The first few days, they showed on the guide as TBA.

A post over on another site said that they had planned on doing it here last week, but they had technical problems at the time. Then, yesterday that same person posted that they had rolled them out here and sure enough I got home to see the new stations were added. Of course, TMS doesn't yet have these new stations in their database for my channel lineup, so I have no guide data.

We've used skype before and like it, but our corporate IT despises it do to security concerns. So it is off limits and we are stuck with Oovoo or Ustream until we can afford to buy something more commericial like sgarringer suggested.

I need to get a job doing IT for Raycom it seems. This is the first company in the history of businesses that apparently lets their IT department run the company. Every place I've ever worked has maybe let IT recommend things, but when it comes to impacting the day to day business operations, the role of IT is to not make rules and policies but to guarantee the computers and infrastructure works for the business needs. If the business needs to use Skype, then it should be the job of IT to make sure Skype works. At least that's how I and everyone I know who works in IT thinks of their job.

I need to get a job doing IT for Raycom it seems. This is the first company in the history of businesses that apparently lets their IT department run the company. Every place I've ever worked has maybe let IT recommend things, but when it comes to impacting the day to day business operations, the role of IT is to not make rules and policies but to guarantee the computers and infrastructure works for the business needs. If the business needs to use Skype, then it should be the job of IT to make sure Skype works. At least that's how I and everyone I know who works in IT thinks of their job.

Not the way my IT dept works.