Thanks everyone!

Flyingvee, I had to use a splitter and connect to my analog RF connection and use the other connection into the 'Digital In' for my QAM tuner. It works now! I am getting all sorts of channels. I think I'm getting VOD or PPV because the Chronicles of Narnia is on right now and it's not on any of the regular channels.

Thanks everyone!

I think I'm getting VOD or PPV because the Chronicles of Narnia is on right now and it's not on any of the regular channels.


yup, course then you'll just be using a box; will no longer need your qam tuner. Every now and then on the boards here at AVS, you'll read about someone who is somewhere where they get all the premiums unencrypted - just in the clear, using their QAM tuner. Never happened to me :( - but hardly happens to anyone. Just like all the folks who win big money at the casinos - the ones that win "every time" except when you go along. ;)

Glad it's working - HD is pretty cool, eh? :D

For future reference, in case we get anyone joining late:

QAM Mappings for local DT:

7.1, 7.2, 7.3 - KWWL-DT, WeatherPLUS, The TUBE
32.1 - KRIN-HD
115.2 - KCRG-DT
115.4 - KFXA-DT
115.6 - KCRG-D2

The PPV/VOD channels:

100.41-100.50
101.51-101.60
102.1-102.10
103.11-103.20
104.21-104.30
105.31-105.40

The way the PPV/VOD works, is that, as people on your terminal start their VOD, it "fills" the VOD channels backwards from the top. First it will populate in 105.40, then 104.30, etc, until it reaches 100.50, then it jumps to 105.39, 104.29, etc... The channel stays "open" for the user until they exit the VOD service. Thus, if they pause, or jump back to the VOD menu to pick a different show, the screen will go blank, but their next selection, continuation of play will stay on that same channel. Once users start dropping off, they will be back-filled per the above population scheme. Because of this, you will occasionally see people watching on 105.40, 105.38, and 105.37, but not 105.39. If the user on 105.39 exits VOD, the next user will come up in that slot.

Why is this of any concern? Because it makes for effective surfing strategies. Start on 105.40, then surf down until you don't see any more programming on the 105.xx sub-channels. Say 105.37 and .36 are blank. You can usually just skip down to 104.30 at this point. More than likely, you can surf down to 104.27, see it'll also be blank, and then jump down to 103.20. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If you have children, be VERY cautious about surfing these channels when they're around... You never know what movie might be on... anything from Lava Girl & Shark Boy all the way up through some, well, adult stuff...

The digital music channels also come in in the 89.xx range, but I haven't written them all down. I've labeled a number of the channels on my TV for the DMX channels that I was able to identify (sometimes you get audio only, just usually the video will come up shortly after), so I can check those later if anyone REALLY wants to know.

I love QAM. Without QAM, I would never have been able to enjoy KFXA from my location (my original Sammy didn't have QAM). I would never have been able to have a reliable dual-HD setup for the Superbowl, etc. It's good to have a "backup" option for those times when an antenna just isn't cutting it!

Thanks for that post CR! I've always wondered how the VOD channels populated themselves. I used to have a list of what the DMX channels were, but when they moved for me a few months back, they don't match anymore. BTW, I've linked your post in the very first post of the thread so hopefully newcomers can find it easily.

Has anyone noticed any pixelation or audio dropouts on 2-1 this morning? My signal strength shows 85-90 and I am still having troubles.

John

I would guess that is the quality of the ESPN+ feed - I'm getting lots of sparklies and noise. ESPN plus normally has a pretty poor feed - Hawks are winning anyway -just switch over and watch the Clones - I think that'll be in true HD. :D

Mediacom Waterloo, IA, QAM channel mappings:
(last updated: 4/7/07)

21.4 KGAN-DT
114.1 KWWL-DT
114.2 NBC Weather Plus
114.3 The Tube Music Network
114.4 KRIN-DT
115.2 KCRG-DT
115.4 KXFA-DT
115.6 KCRG Weather

--
For when there are the occasional free HBO weekends:

84.1 HBO (East)
84.2 HBO2 (East)
84.3 HBO Signature (East)
84.4 HBO Family (East)
84.8 HBO Latino (East)
85.6 HBO Comedy (East)
85.26 HBO Zone (East)
90.11 HBO (West)
90.12 HBO2 (West)
90.13 HBO Signature (West)
90.14 HBO Family (West)
90.18 HBO Latino (West)
108.2 HBO|HD (East)

Anyone watching the Arkansas-Alabama game on KGAN? I'm pulling HD OTA. The PQ is ok but the audio break-ups are horrendous. Interesting, on commercials the audio seems to hold together.

Others?

Just curious, I just had a 622 insalled today....KWWL DT , The Tube and KWWL Weather show 52% locked, but when I turn the channel there, it tells me signal is lost. KGAN and KCRG are 96-98%, and Pax is in the 70's and 80's. I have not peaked my OTA yet. Any ideas? THANKS!

Anyone watching the Arkansas-Alabama game on KGAN? I'm pulling HD OTA. The PQ is ok but the audio break-ups are horrendous. Interesting, on commercials the audio seems to hold together.

Others?

I didn't watch the game, but I tried to watch Smith Saturday night on KGAN-DT and the audio cut out for a second every minute or two at the beginning and so I gave up on it. It did it one or twice during the first commercial breaks, as well. My signal strength meter showed a solid 90 to 92 signal for the channel (OTA) with no discernable dropouts and the picture was solid whenever the audio dropped out.

My tuner or KGAN?

I peaked the antenna today, got 100% on KCRG, Fox isin the 80's, Pax 100%, KGAN 90's and kwwl in the 60/low 70's. Is KWWL running low in the Waterloo area?

Well, yeah, the audio drop-outs are happening again today on KGAN-DT during the NFL game on this afternoon (JAX vs IND). I actually have ruled out my tuner, because it is happening at the same exact time on TWO of my OTA tuners: Fusion HDTV5 Gold PCI card and TiVo HD Series 3.

It's actually even worse today than it was last night, I just counted 7 audio drop-outs in 1 minute.

As I was listening to the game in the other room through the other tuner, I had my PC up and was running the FusionHD signal checker and during that minute with the 7 drop-outs, my signal showed 100% from 28.3 dB to 31.0dB. When the audio drop-outs happened, the signal is usually 29.6dB or higher. Granted, I can't see the signal in milliseconds or nanoseconds, but the bottom line is that I show no evidence that I'm getting less than a (nearly) full strength signal. :(

It is pretty much unwatchable at this point. It was two weeks ago since I last watched KGAN-DT, another football game, but I do not recall any audio drop-outs then (or the week before), so it would appear to be a fairly new development.

Anyone have ideas or knowledge of anything of use?

I peaked the antenna today, got 100% on KCRG, Fox isin the 80's, Pax 100%, KGAN 90's and kwwl in the 60/low 70's. Is KWWL running low in the Waterloo area?

Located in Waterloo, I usually have my lowest signal strength for KWWL, usually around 90%, but today it is running around 97% (25.2dB to 26.3dB). KXFA is between 90 and 95%.
KGAN (except with nearly constant audio drop-outs now) and KCRG are 97% or higher.

Ya, I am getting the audio dropouts on the Ind/Jax game also. KGAN does a crappy job with their HD channel. They have problems with audio dropouts and sometimes they have lipsync issues with their shows. They need to get their act together.

OK, thanks! For some reason KWWL's are running low for me.

I sent a message to KGANs engineer, but they haven't been worth a hoot at answering for quite a while...

If it is still going on tomorrow night, then I think some calls and emails to the GM are in order.

Larry (FireBuff)-
Are you using a rotating antenna at all? If not, then yes, your signal strength will be lower on some channels than others, because the antennas aren't all located in the same place. If you want the best signal from each station, you'll need to rotate the antenna based on what you're watching.

I haven't had a chance to watch KGAN at all lately, even though CBS has some of my favorite shows on it. I'm no longer home during primetime anymore, so I can't speak to any issues on KGAN or not. It wouldn't really surprise me if they were hosed again. The way they're run, you'd think they had the same budget as KWKB, even though they're a local affiliate of the big 4 within a top 100 market. Does CBS have any QoS standards that they hold their affiliates to? I would think that, when (not if) the GM ignores you, CBS would be the next step in the complaint process.

As to today, KCRG-DT was off the air on MediaCon when I was home at 1PM today. Not a big deal, since I don't watch soaps, but just figured I'd mention it in case anyone else sees it missing later.

FWIW, here's the response from KGANs' engineer:

Over the past several days KGAN and CBS are working together to resolve a random audio out-of-sync problem. We tried several configurations that have left us with undesirable effects causing audio to dropout during the NFL game. There is nothing wrong with your turners. It is a possible internal timing issue with video and audio at KGAN.
If KGAN and CBS determine we need more equipment we will get it right away.

The Dolby 5.1 audio was the unit having issues.

Today HD Master controls use a lot of windows machines and special equipment to derive their HD signal. Windows machines have their problems where once in a while rebooting is required to fix problems. It is during this rebooting process that the HD signal over-the-air is gone and not available until the reboot is completed. These machine can be gone for up to 5-mins and if they fail during the reboot the OTA signal is gone for a longer time period.

I appreciate your e-mail and hope we find the problem soon.

It is a fixed antenna. I aimed it yesterday, and am at 100% for PBS, 97-100% for KCRG, but kwwl's are still 60's. I could not get higher than 68. This spring, I had no problems with KWWL, it was close or same in strength as KCRG, etc, same antenna, etc. Oh well, I just will have to watch something else :-)

OK.. What's up with KCRG missing from Mediacom???? They're not going down the KGAN/Sinclair path are they?

Time to send some emails....

And here's Kirks FAST and friendly reply:

"They are in the clear but the receivers Mediacom are using are having a problem with our data stream. We are working on the issue and hope to have it up ASAP. In the meantime you can pick us up off air since most consumer grade tuners are not having the issue."

Speaking of Audio Sync issues...

The audio sync on The Tube is a full 2-4 seconds behind the video. This is quite obvious in music videos, as you expect at least SOME sync between the singer's lips and the lyrics...

Anyone else seeing this? I wonder if it's a nation-wide thing, or a KWWL thing...

And here's Kirks FAST and friendly reply:

"They are in the clear but the receivers Mediacom are using are having a problem with our data stream. We are working on the issue and hope to have it up ASAP. In the meantime you can pick us up off air since most consumer grade tuners are not having the issue."

ah - that explains it (sort of) - I was having trouble getting KCRG via cfu also. Evidently big, expensive commercial gear has more problems picking up a signal than a 5 year old Samsung. ;)

Nevermind.

CR - watching tube (via qam tuner in set, not stb) and there is a touch of audio delay - maybe 50 ms.

DLP - KCRG is back; as are all other OTAs - good night for reception, even if there isn't anything I want to watch.

edit - if lipsynch bothers anyone, KGAN is STILL the worst - Letterman is a full 200+ ms out of synch. Maybe they could spring for a DVDO VP-30 - they come with lip synch. I realize that the 2k pricetag equals the annual KGAN budget for on-air personell, (:)) but still,,,,,

A couple of notes from the DT world this week:

1) KPXR (the former PAX 48) appears to have changed its subchannel lineup, going back to an E/C feed of the "i" network on 48-1 and a West feed of "i" on 48-3, pretty much eliminating any actual programming in the afternoon. 48-2 is showing nothing but a graphic saying "qubo -- Coming in early 2007," and Worship has moved to 48-4.

2) Iowa Public Television says on its website (http://www.iptv.org/iptv_news_detail.cfm?AnnouncementID=378) that it is experiencing weather-related delays in its quest to upgrade the KIIN (12) tower north of West Branch. (The tower is "across the street" from the KWKB tower.) The website "mid-October" as an estimated completion date. When they do go full power, their DT will be on channel 45, but they have filed to move back to 12 after the transition ends.

Not that these mean much to many of you -- Pax has never been HD and most of you are getting IPTV just fine from the KRIN (32) tower near Walker. This is more "for the record."

Anyone else having problems with KWWL-DT and KCRG-DT again tonight? KWWL is starting to really tick me off, the HD staion just shut off at 7PM tonight, right when the Bears game was about to start, they better get their act together.

Edit: Those stations are back up and running again through CFU.

Speaking of Audio Sync issues...

The audio sync on The Tube is a full 2-4 seconds behind the video. This is quite obvious in music videos, as you expect at least SOME sync between the singer's lips and the lyrics...

Anyone else seeing this? I wonder if it's a nation-wide thing, or a KWWL thing...
I'm seeing this also. It's really bad.

Anyone else having problems with KWWL-DT and KCRG-DT again tonight? KWWL is starting to really tick me off, the HD staion just shut off at 7PM tonight, right when the Bears game was about to start, they better get their act together.

Edit: Those stations are back up and running again through CFU.

Strange, I had KWWL-DT on through Mediacom last night starting at 6:30pm and throughout to the end of the game and I didn't notice it go offline ever, although if it was only for a couple of minutes during the pre-game yapping, it is possible I missed it.

My first post. Have been reading posts from the forum for over a year. I too am having trouble with Kwwl DT, Kcrg DT, and Kgan DT OTA. I have E for HD and get my locals OTA. I live in Waterloo by Covenent hospital. During daylight hours these 3 channels are unwatchable. By the way KRIN DT is always perfect. In the evening the 3 network channels usually come in pretty well. However, the channel strength is usually barely above 70 on my 622. The public station is always around 90. When I first got my dish all the locals were great and in the 85 to 90 range. I am using a pretty old antenna in my attic. Tomorrow I'm going to install a new antenna and see if that makes a difference. I don't know why everyone is having so much trouble receiving these stations. By the way, after watching HD for a year it is difficult watching SD

KWWL-DT and KCRG-DT are out for me again. I am using my tv's QAM tuner with CFU as my cable provider. Can't check the OTA channels for them because I don't have any antenna. Anyone else havign problems with these 2 stations with CFU and those stations?

KWWL-DT and KCRG-DT are out for me again. I am using my tv's QAM tuner with CFU as my cable provider. Can't check the OTA channels for them because I don't have any antenna. Anyone else havign problems with these 2 stations with CFU and those stations?

Hello,

It appears that KWWL had an event around the time of your posting. I don't see anything with KCRG though. Please see the attached image.

Just a reminder for those on the AVS Forum - Please contact the Help Desk at 319-268-5221 if you are a CFU subscriber and are having issues with QAM digital reception. We will work to remedy the issue as quickly as possible.

Hello,

It appears that KWWL had an event around the time of your posting. Please see the attached image.



Good lord - an "event?" That's using the term loosely. Looks like one of the hamsters got loose and pulled the plug. :p

That said, love your posting of the graphs - makes life much easier, can check there, rather than posting and wondering. Any chance of expanding CFU througout the state? - I'd move, if I could get CFU outside of CF. ;)

That "event" looks like it happened Monday afternoon. In fact, I lost KWWL-DT over-the-air completely during that time. Everyone else seemed to be broadcasting OK except KWKB-DT, which I don't get yet. I watched the debate on KCRG-DT straight through and it appeared to be OK, too.

And Leno was back in HD, by the time I turned on KWWL-DT. Didn't fire up the set before then, so didn't even know it was gone. :)

And Leno was back in HD, by the time I turned on KWWL-DT. Didn't fire up the set before then, so didn't even know it was gone. :)
Ya, the channel came back up for me when the news started.

Just a follow up.. Put up the new antenna yesterday, and KFXA DT, KCRG DT,and KRIN DT, are all showing 100% signal. KGAN is bouncing between 85 and 90%, and KWWL is in the 65 to 70% range. The antenna I put up was an inexpensive, multi-directional antenna. I happy with the results except for KWWL. This morning the picture is pixcelating. I wonder if the fact that their analog signal is off has an effect on thier digital. I notice from previous posts that others are (were) having this same problem with KWWL. Is it possible they are having the same problem that they were having a few weeks ago? Is anyone else having the same problem??

again, Leno was good. The only time I can comment of prime time programming is Thursday nite, and maybe a bit of Sunday nite football. But Leno was fine last night - no overt problems. This was over QAM - possibly the signal is a touch weaker, but the cable co's better equipment is pulling it in. Dunno. Have you checked the cfu graphs? That'll tell you if signal strength is down - if it isn't, and you are having problems, then possibly KWWL-DT is experiencing something.

Definitely LCD. :p nice handle - but I'll leave all the DLPs to you.

Anyone see this in the Des Moines Register?

As you probably know, most of us don't get KGAN-DT on cable; now, there's a chance that Mediacom may be forced to stop carrying analog channel 2 as well.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061007/NEWS01/610070348/1001/NEWS

(This also affects KDSM Fox 17 in Des Moines.)

Figures.... Sinclair are a**holes. Quite frankly, I could care less about their analog but man wouldn't that scare away some lcoal advertisers!

Well, it's not over just yet ... there's still time. That same company had a similar dispute with Dish not too long ago, I believe, but the two sides pulled off an eleventh-hour short-term extension and eventually a full deal.

Of course, as we speak there are some Husker fans in Omaha who've had to whip out the antenna to watch their team in HD because their cable company (Cox) and their ABC station's owner (Hearst-Argyle) can't get along ...

"We believe that Sinclair is holding our customers hostage in the Des Moines market ....."

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/10/06/1961781.htm

Added: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6378777.html

The only reason I watch it now is for Hawk sports. Any shows I watch are picked from available HD content on cable. KGAN has to be last in the CR market.

Definitely. they used to be the king around here -- but Sinclair operates these stations on a non existent budget and tries to wring every bit of cash out of the stations it can, without putting a dime back into facilities, staff, salaries, etc. KGAN is a laughingstock.

Definitely. they used to be the king around here -- but Sinclair operates these stations on a non existent budget and tries to wring every bit of cash out of the stations it can, without putting a dime back into facilities, staff, salaries, etc. KGAN is a laughingstock.Actually, I've heard many people out here trace 2's problems back to the retirement of the late Conrad Johnson back in 1980 and their decision on who to hire next. I'll let someone who's lived here longer get into that, but from what I understand they hired a guy with a "weather duck" to replace Conrad while letting one of his assistants, Craig Johnson (no relation to Conrad) go to Channel 7, where he would do another two decades of weather.

That decision, of course, was long before Sinclair moved in.

No argument from me. I'm old enough to remember all of that very well!

I remember those days. I can remember when there would be a dry spell, and Conrad would just "turn off his/there radar" for several days and then not show it on tv until their was a blip on it. And look at all the "radar overkill" going on between the other 2 channels. It's the only good thing left at kgan....they have few toys, so there are less interruptions on 2.

You bet - when there was a storm, we'd huddle around our funky little 14" b&w set, and watch Conrad showing his round, white radar sweep. Was a whole lot harder to make sense of it than it is today, but for sure - Channel 2 was the ONLY place to go.

Was great with Craig at KWWL - am I the only one to see history repeating itself? Now KWWL has canned a Johnson, and replaced him with a weather duck. Leaves a great oppurtunity for someone to step in and fill the vacancy. If Craig was on the late weather, instead of the morning show, I'd be watching KFXA for my nightly weather fix.

am I the only one to see history repeating itself? Now KWWL has canned a Johnson, and replaced him with a weather duck. Leaves a great oppurtunity for someone to step in and fill the vacancy. If Craig was on the late weather, instead of the morning show, I'd be watching KFXA for my nightly weather fix.

I agree. I wonder who will take over at KCRG now that Denny is going to be retiring. I think he done in early November if I recall.

I did not know that - they were the logical folks to switch to. The few storms we had, they are the ones I watched. I can tell we are in a "BLAMMO ZONE" just by looking out the window, if there are storms around.

Back ot - glad the Yankees lost - otherwise I'd be hugely disappointed by the nonexistence of KFXA-DT. While Joe's graph shows them broadcasting, I can only find the game on SD - the HD isn't coming thru tonight. Oh well...must be another of Hd's sunny days. ;)

Now KWWL has canned a Johnson, and replaced him with a weather duck.

The duck has resigned! He announced on the air tonight.

You beat me to it. :D :p :D Happy Days! :cool: :cool: :cool:

Short of winning the lottery, I can't think of many things that will make an Iowa winter palatable. We need to send a thank-you card to whatever station was silly enough to take him off our hands.

Glad you're happy Ian - we are too. :p

btw - was out last night; this morning, I discovered that my MOTHER actually called the wife to tell her the good news. So I don't know what his demographic was/is...

I don't know if they've always been there, but the other night I was watching Law & Order on KWWL-HD (iowa city mediacom via QAM) and all the dark parts of the picture had lots and lots of tiny white spots - it almost looked like it was sparkling. Now, whenever I turn on KWWL-HD I can't help notice them on everything!!! Is this something I was blissfully ignorant of prior to this or a new development? I assume it's from all the subchannels and everything, but has anyone else noticed this?

I'll be watching ER tonight and will check it out (white dots)

You beat me to it. :D :p :D Happy Days! :cool: :cool: :cool:

Short of winning the lottery, I can't think of many things that will make an Iowa winter palatable. We need to send a thank-you card to whatever station was silly enough to take him off our hands.

Glad you're happy Ian - we are too. :p
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/10/12/news/metro/57df86cf9e7fc6df862572050045daa2.txt) says it's an unidentified Top 20 market. No word on whether it was a U.S. top 20 market or a Canadian one.

In fairness, I've seen Ian do the weather and have only heard about the "weather duck" guy, and I don't think Ian was THAT bad as forecasters go. I think there'll be quite a few people who'll miss him even though he's only been there a few years.

Unfortunately the weather he's been bringing us isn't bringing us any closer to getting that tower work done so we can get KWKB and KIIN in digital. :(

Take it from me, Ian, whatever his proponents and detractors would say about him, is nowhere near the weather duck guy. That nut was in a class by himself. I'd take Ian any day over that guy.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/10/12/news/metro/57df86cf9e7fc6df862572050045daa2.txt) says it's an unidentified Top 20 market. No word on whether it was a U.S. top 20 market or a Canadian one.



Hope that is the case, for his sake. There are rumors to the contrary - but upside is that he is outta here....

Maybe they can finally make Jeff lead man. This is Iowa - I just want to see the weather, not a song and dance. Would much rather see Craig Johnson explain an occluded front, than listen to someone describe to me, just exactly WHAT a BLAMMO ZONE is. :p

OT again - Is anyone aware of any changes KFXA-DT may have made in their PSIP data? I am on my 2nd Vizio lcd (QAM tuner) :o - first one was May build date, got all qam channels via cfu just fine. But nstc tuner died - so got a new one, Sept build date. Was getting KFXA-DT fine for a few days, then BLAMMO. oops - had to do it. Anyway, I can still tune, or at least select 28-1, but there is no longer any video or audio. Over in the Vizio thread, have discovered others have the same problem, with Comcast cable. I'm CFU - should be fine. My LGs still work fine; ASTC ota on the Vizio works fine - 28-1 and 28-2 come in fine. But not over QAM.

Any ideas? Vizio is made for idiots - if there are highly advanced setup menues, I can't find them. Can't even measure signal strength. Hate to bother Joe and friends - don't know what they could do either, since my LGs, and folks Hitachi are all picking up KFXA just fine.

Up to you guys - good luck, and thanks in advance. ;)

After posting, and getting responses on the Vizio thread, it seems that Vizio owners all over (or at least those who have responded on the AVS forum ;) ) are having problems receiving FoxHD using the QAM tuners, on their Vizio sets. My old one didn't have that problem. My new one does. My LG STBs don't have any problem, tho I DID have to do a rescan last night, just to pickup KFXA-DT. It had disappeared off my channel list.

Any wild guesses, something concrete I can take to the Vizio techs when they get around to calling me back (probably middle of next week....?) I'm guessing Vizio must have changed firmware to acknowledge some kind of flag that FoxHD is sending out, but I really don't know enough to do more than guess.

fwiw, when I tune to 28-1 on my Vizio, I get the channel number, and KFXA-DT comes up on the display. But no picture or sound. And channel rescans don't even find 28-2. - which I can't tune to directly - > with the Vizio, once you enter 28 and the hyphen, the set automatically tunes to the lowest channel, and then gives the list of all subs. 28-2 isn't even in the list of subs. Wierd.

Unfortunately the weather he's been bringing us isn't bringing us any closer to getting that tower work done so we can get KWKB and KIIN in digital. :(

So, what is the current word from those who know, when will KWKB be at full strength so I can get it OTA in Waterloo? Fall of 2007, sometime in 2008, or in 2009?

I don't know if they've always been there, but the other night I was watching Law & Order on KWWL-HD (iowa city mediacom via QAM) and all the dark parts of the picture had lots and lots of tiny white spots - it almost looked like it was sparkling. Now, whenever I turn on KWWL-HD I can't help notice them on everything!!! Is this something I was blissfully ignorant of prior to this or a new development? I assume it's from all the subchannels and everything, but has anyone else noticed this?

I noticed this at least 18 months ago, maybe longer, and posted about it on the old forum thread, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about; I think it might be one of those things people tend not to notice, but once you do...
It's not a cable problem, though, the sparkling/flickering can be seen through my Samsung OTA tuner, Fusion5 PCI tuner card, or now my Series3 TiVo; so it is not a Motorola 6412 or cable/Mediacom problem. In fact, it is quite "interesting" that if you freeze the picture on a specific frame, you'll see the white pixels pattern which clearly should not be part of the video stream, and which alternate between MPEG frames thus causing the sparkling/flickering effect. Obviously, it is more pronounced on dark backgrounds. I just try not to get upset about it anymore. :(

So, what is the current word from those who know, when will KWKB be at full strength so I can get it OTA in Waterloo? Fall of 2007, sometime in 2008, or in 2009?

I thought I had heard that there was a tower crew working at KWKB. The last time I was down that way there wasn't any work going on, but that's been about three weeks now.

For what it's worth, the last time I looked at KWKB (a few days ago), their stream is all goofed up and basically unwatchable. Video/audio jumps around, etc.

I assumed that this was part of their upgrading process, but it's been that way for a few weeks.

Here's some other interesting info about KWKB I found on Wikipedia:

Since September 2006, KWKB has affiliated with both The CW as a primary network and My Network TV as a secondary network. To date, KWKB is one of two stations in the country planning to carry both The CW and My Network TV (the other is KNVA in Austin, Texas). KWKB airs MyNetworkTV programming from 9PM-11PM, immediately following CW programming.


I'll try an email and see if they will reply....

I noticed this at least 18 months ago, maybe longer, and posted about it on the old forum thread, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about; I think it might be one of those things people tend not to notice, but once you do...
It's not a cable problem, though, the sparkling/flickering can be seen through my Samsung OTA tuner, Fusion5 PCI tuner card, or now my Series3 TiVo; so it is not a Motorola 6412 or cable/Mediacom problem. In fact, it is quite "interesting" that if you freeze the picture on a specific frame, you'll see the white pixels pattern which clearly should not be part of the video stream, and which alternate between MPEG frames thus causing the sparkling/flickering effect. Obviously, it is more pronounced on dark backgrounds. I just try not to get upset about it anymore. :(


Thanks for the reply...it seems like it comes and goes, or maybe I just don't always think about it. Its sad to hear that its been around for so long though, and therefore not likely to stop any time soon.

In an unrelated issue, the past couple of weekends I have been finding free previews for Showtime HD and Universal HD showing up and I was wondering if anyone knows any way that I can find out about these free previews in advance or something instead of just having to discover them on my own?

In an unrelated issue, the past couple of weekends I have been finding free previews for Showtime HD Mediacom had a preview of Showtime Oct 6-10th. A message was sent out on the cable box back in Sept. Haven't seen any new announcements lately.

A message was sent out on the cable box back in Sept.

What does this mean, like it showed up on your screen? I don't have a cable box, so perhaps this is why I never find out about these things...

What does this mean, like it showed up on your screen? I don't have a cable box, so perhaps this is why I never find out about these things...All the boxes have a message center, and when mediacom sends one out, a red light shows on the box indicating you have a new unread message. You can save or delete them.

I usually ignore the messages b/c probably 99% of them are some sort of WCW/WWF/Ultimate Figthing/Boxing message and I could care less about that. I was a little surprised when I saw an actual message I cared about when the Showtime message showed up.

KIIN-DT should be full power in a few more weeks. They are waiting on one last part to arrive that was damaged in shipment. KIIN analog is back to full power on the new top mounted antenna.

Alright I'm sure you smart people can help me out. I'm having a bit of trouble getting a couple locals, 2, 7, and 9 (ie 51, 55, and 52). 27/28 and 35/32 come in perfect, with (IIRC) 100% strenght on every tuner I have. The others, 2, 7, and 9 are right on the threshold, being unreliable, working most of the time on some tuners and only partially on others.

The setup is a 10' V/UHF antenna from Radioshack, way back in the day (I stole it from my parrents;)). That feeds an RS amp (had laying around), amp is place within 6' of cable of the antenna. From there it feeds a splitter and then onto an Avermedia A180, MyHD MDP-130, and a Dish VIP211.

As near as I can tell, without having a compass handy, I'm aimed at 2,7,9,35, and I've moved the antenna around to maximize the signal. Just looking for suggestions. Is there any way to tell if the problem is lack of strengh vs multipath?

-edit

It would appear what I have is (roughly) a VU-120XR.

1) take the splitter out and hook up antenna lead to one of your STB's and see if that takes the errors out - your splitter cannot be helping things out so make sure things are working prefect before splitting

2) if you got a RS amp, chances are it is adding a ton of noise to the equation - you say its approximately 6 feet from the antenna...is this an amp combo where there's a sending unit indoors that sends a DC voltage up the coax to power the amp? If this is that type of amp and you don't have the sending unit, you're not amplifying a thing...take out the mast amp unit and replace (I'd recommend Channel Master VHF/UHF combo amp in your case)

3) make sure you have no unnecessary splits in the cable run - 1 shot from antenna to mast amp, one shot to indoor amp, one shot to splitter, one shot from splitter to STB

4) make sure your coax is RG6 or RG11

5) buy a compass...Walmart, $6 IIRC, make darn sure where you're pointing to, sometimes a 10 degree swing can make a world of difference

1) take the splitter out and hook up antenna lead to one of your STB's and see if that takes the errors out - your splitter cannot be helping things out so make sure things are working prefect before splitting

Pretty sure I've done that, and yeah, I know the splitter doesn't help.

2) if you got a RS amp, chances are it is adding a ton of noise to the equation

Wouldn't surprise me. Like I said, it's one I had laying around.

you say its approximately 6 feet from the antenna...is this an amp combo where there's a sending unit indoors that sends a DC voltage up the coax to power the amp?

Nope, I had an outlet conveniently located in the garage that's close to the antenna, it's plugged in there, with a short run to the antenna. 6 ft is a swag, mainly to illustrate that I had the amp before the comparatively long run into the distribution panel, and thus was amplifying the best signal available.

take out the mast amp unit and replace (I'd recommend Channel Master VHF/UHF combo amp in your case)

Is there anybody that sells CM amps locally?

3) make sure you have no unnecessary splits in the cable run - 1 shot from antenna to mast amp, one shot to indoor amp, one shot to splitter, one shot from splitter to STB

Yup, just the one splitter.

4) make sure your coax is RG6 or RG11

It's RG6, it's a new run, not something I just used.

5) buy a compass...Walmart, $6 IIRC, make darn sure where you're pointing to, sometimes a 10 degree swing can make a world of difference

But GPS's are so much cooler ;) To bad I don't have one :(

Mediacom/Sinclair dispute

DesMoinesRegister.com posted this (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061025/NEWS/61025030&lead=1) today. Don't know if the story broke today or whether they simply left it out of the small edition we get in Eastern Iowa. Whatever it is, it does not seem to bode well for KGAN -- analog or digital -- staying on cable. (Thanks to Pellakin in the Des Moines thread for posting this link.)

Anyway, according to the article, a federal judge refused to grant Mediacom's request to intervene in its dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Mediacom's right to retransmit Sinclair signals ends in December, and Mediacom has accused Sinclair of abusing its power by demanding that any deal with stations like KGAN and KDSM (Fox 17, Des Moines) be linked to payment for affiliates of lesser networks like MyNetwork and The CW.

As of this afternoon, the home page of www.kdsm.com contains a banner ad proclaiming: "Find Out Why Mediacom May Not Be Carrying FOX 17 After November 30, 2006, Or Sign Up For DirecTV." When you click on that, you'll get a statement from the station which says, among other things, that "FOX 17 WILL PAY YOU $150" in the form of 15 $10 rebates if viewers sign up with DirecTV before December 1.

(As you may recall, one of Mediacom's allegations was that Sinclair had a deal with a satellite company to send customers their way.)

"Let them [Mediacom] know that you would rather they use some of your cable fees to pay for programming you want, rather than for cable channels you likely never watch," the statement says.

As of yet, nothing similar has appeared on www.kgan.com, and nothing new has appeared on Mediacom's website or its link to investor news about it.

EDIT:

In a press release (http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_20061025_179.shtml) issued this afternoon, Sinclair tried to turn the antitrust issue Mediacom raised back on Mediacom.

"It is ironic that a near monopolist, such as Mediacom, would attempt to use the antitrust laws to gain an advantage against a single broadcaster like Sinclair," the release quotes Sinclair President and CEO David Smith as saying. Smith went on to claim that "after November 30, [Mediacom] will be virtually the only cable company not carrying our stations' signals.

The company says it remains willing to negotiate.

So would we get CBS from the QC? I'd be all for that...KGAN sucks, plus then perhaps mediacom could broadcast CBS-HD for free like they do the other major networks. I dispise both companies and they both essentially ARE monopolies, but I think I would have to side with Mediacom on this one.

The bottom line:
Mediacom and Sinclair NEED each other....plain and simple....no ifs ands or butts about it.....PERIOD. Both stations advertising money income would take a MAJOR HIT. Think about it, would you pay the same rate for YOUR ad if all the cable customers in your market area suddenly can't see your ad???? As far as I can see, Sinclair's 2 local stations have the most to loose, as other stations could be fibered in....WHBF for eastern IA, and FOX 28/40 into Des Moines.

stanger - have you tried without the amp? I'm a fair distance from the towers, and have never had an amp. nor needed one - I tried one, but it made no difference, so returned it. and definitely have to side with bagdropper's last point - 5 to 10 degrees makes all the difference in the world where I'm at. The difference between getting and not getting a picture. And the compass really helps to get you close to where you need to be.

http://www.befairsinclair.com/

stanger - have you tried without the amp?

I have, I started without the amp, I'll have to try it again when I get a chance.

and definitely have to side with bagdropper's last point - 5 to 10 degrees makes all the difference in the world where I'm at.

Oh, I understand that. I've (with a somewhat convoluded system) taken my "TV" out with me and tweaked the antenna back and forth (been through probably close to 60 degrees) to find the optimal positioning, so I'm about 99% sure I'm aimed right.

And the compass really helps to get you close to where you need to be.

Fortunately my street/house run basically north/south and it's pretty east to get close to 325 (basically directly NW), from where it's not too hard, either through telephone, or tricky SageTV/Placeshifter/Wireless network to tweak it to the optimal positioning.

Where I'm slightly puzzled is here:

I get KFXA (1000kW ERP?) about 45 degrees off axis, 100%
I get KRIN (250kW ERP) dead on, 100%

KGAN (6.6kW ERP?)
KCRG (350kW ERP)
KWWL (195kW ERP)

All are about 65-75% (depends on tuner) and are far from reliable. Intuitively, KCRG should come in better than KRIN, being more powerful and in the same direction, KWWL should be close (it's with 3dB of KRIN power wise), and well, KGAN, who knows.

The only common thing between the groups is the ones I get well are below 610MHz and the ones I don't get are above 690MHz. So that leads me to conclude something in my system is causing it to drop off somewhere above 610MHz.

So, like I said, next step is to yank the AMP and see if that helps.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/10/12/news/metro/57df86cf9e7fc6df862572050045daa2.txt) says it's an unidentified Top 20 market. No word on whether it was a U.S. top 20 market or a Canadian one.

In fairness, I've seen Ian do the weather and have only heard about the "weather duck" guy, and I don't think Ian was THAT bad as forecasters go. I think there'll be quite a few people who'll miss him even though he's only been there a few years.

Unfortunately the weather he's been bringing us isn't bringing us any closer to getting that tower work done so we can get KWKB and KIIN in digital. :(
You don't suppose he's going south........to KCRG. Think about it, theres been no announcement yet as to where he's going, and Denny has made his retirement announcement last month. Most of the time when someone goes to a different market (usually bigger) they say where there going, but I can see if he's just moving to a different station IN THE SAME MARKET........he HAS to keep his mouth shut. He's not even listed on KWWL's website anymore. http://kwwl.com/Global/category.asp?C=13154&nav=menu82_10_11

Nope, I had an outlet conveniently located in the garage that's close to the antenna, it's plugged in there, with a short run to the antenna. 6 ft is a swag, mainly to illustrate that I had the amp before the comparatively long run into the distribution panel, and thus was amplifying the best signal available.Sounds like an amp and not a pre-amp.

My understanding is that an amp should be located near your terminating point (near the tuner). It takes everything there and boosts it.

A preamp as mentioned sends a DC voltage up the lline from near the TV to the actual amp located near the antenna to do the amplifying there.

If you just have an amp and not a preamp, I would move it to the receving end of your feed. Remember, it boosts everything including noise. That is why preamps are better.

6.6 kW was KGAN's special temporary authorization. I think they've moved on to the big one at 500 kW.

iowahawkeye - I wouldn't worry too much. Not about Ian and KGAN - this based purely upon rumours, but I would be quite surprised.

If you just have an amp and not a preamp, I would move it to the receving end of your feed. Remember, it boosts everything including noise. That is why preamps are better.

All amps boost everything, including noise. All amps introduce noise. The only difference between amps is how much they boost and how much noise they add (well and the frequency response ;).

It's always best to amplify the best signal you have.

"Do you know where your TV's rabbit ears are?"

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061026/NEWS01/610260408

The only difference between amps is how much they boost and how much noise they add (well and the frequency response ;).
Perhaps you should read my post again as I try to describe the difference between an inline amp (which is what it sounds like you are using) and a pre-amp. There IS a difference. You should read the instructions that came with your amp. If it is not a PRE-AMP, then your unit is designed to be located on the receiving end of the run, not at the antenna end.

That is why pre-amps are preferred since the DC is sent up the line to the actual amp near the antenna to do the boosting before picking up the noise on the run. Perhaps putting your inline amp near the antenna accomplishes nearly the same thing, but most people don't have an outlet near their antenna.

In a nutshell, yes, all amps boost everything. But there is a difference between an amp & a pre-amp. Sorry if you mistook that.

Perhaps you should read my post again as I try to describe the difference between an inline amp (which is what it sounds like you are using) and a pre-amp. There IS a difference.

I understand the implimentation differences (ie that preamps get their power of the RG6 via a power inserter stuck inside the house), and where/why they're normally used.

You should read the instructions that came with your amp. If it is not a PRE-AMP, then your unit is designed to be located on the receiving end of the run, not at the antenna end.

Inline amps are designed to be used next to an outlet, that doesn't change the fact that there's a higher SNR at the sending end of the cable than the receiving end, and that amplifying the signal with higher SNR is better than amplifying one with lower SNR.

That is why pre-amps are preferred since the DC is sent up the line to the actual amp near the antenna to do the boosting before picking up the noise on the run. Perhaps putting your inline amp near the antenna accomplishes nearly the same thing, but most people don't have an outlet near their antenna.

Putting an inline amp near the antenna does accomplish the same thing, ie amplifying the signal where it is strongest, and where SNR is highest.

In a nutshell, yes, all amps boost everything. But there is a difference between an amp & a pre-amp. Sorry if you mistook that.

I'm not trying to say all amps are the same, nor am I trying to say that my amp is as good as a good "preamp". All I was trying to say was that the same theory that says you put a preamp (ie mastmount with power inserter) as close to the source as posible says you should put any amp as close to the source as possible, and that that is how I have mine setup.

Putting an amp right before your reciever will do almost no good because it doesn't do anything for SNR. Putting it at the source end does help because it helps maintain the high SNR all the way to the reciever.

I feel sorry for the Mediacom customers that can not have dish due to location or other restrictions. Mediacom and Sinclair are both slimeball companies and deserve each other. I know a dish is not perfect, but is way superior to cable.

What you have to do in a cse such as yours is elimnate what could be wrong with your set up.

1) if you get a lockable signal on all channels without the splitter, then you know the splitter is the issue - etc etc with the other links in the set up

2) the amp is, all things being equal, prolly not helping as much as a DC pre-amp would. The noise which the RS amp may be introducing to your cable run may be the issue with your reception. You're right, you're amping up the highest possible signal by having it at the mast, but no matter what if you got a noisy amp, no matter where you put it, it may be harming your STB's abilities to lock the signal.


Personally, if you do not need the VHF antenna, get a UHF with a CM 7775 pre-amp and you'll be in business for sure. I had a RS combo antenna similar to the one you got, and I battled signal lock issues for 18 months until I bought a UHF with the 7775, now I lock all the CR locals always and even get the QC's at night.

For those wondering about KWKB's signal, and are hoping to hear an email reply...
don't count on it. I tried emailing them about three weeks ago on this very topic, and heard nothing back. Perhaps their email guy is also their signal guy, and he's too busy wiring towers to write back.

Or perhaps not.

I guess I should just bite the bullet and routinely scan for new channels again. KWKB is the only OTA channel I really can't pull in (from north North Liberty), and I previously grew tired of scanning for a station that appears to be broadcasting its HD signal with two tin cans and a string.

Perhaps instead of sending them emails, I should instead just send them some extra tin cans.

Well, you're right. No reply to the email.

I DO get their rinky dink signal from CR when I point that way with no problems. I CAN tell you that since they supposedly started their tower work several weeks ago, there video stream is all goofed up... herky - jerky all over the place, and it's NOT because of a lousy signal, you can tell that is the equipment.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/10/12/news/metro/57df86cf9e7fc6df862572050045daa2.txt) says it's an unidentified Top 20 market. No word on whether it was a U.S. top 20 market or a Canadian one.

:(
Twin Cities. Didn't say which station.

KWWL PROBLEMS???

OK, Its friday night 8PM. I wanted to watch Vegas. No signal again. I know its been documented that KWWL has had problems with their signal, but mine has not been cleared up. Tonight signal strength for KWWL has dropped from 65(I can receive it at that strength). Other stations range from 80-95. Right now signal strength for KWWL has dropped to 25 and cannot lock on it. Other stations have not varied by more than 5, so it is not the antenna, it is not interference. It has to be and can only be KWWL reducing its power. I would like the CEO of KWWL that monitors this forum to explain the possibilities or anyone else that can offer a reasonable explanation. I am concerned that waiting for Directv to get HD locals or that mediacom might drop KWWL as in the KGAN deal might put people who cannot get a signal in a bad situation. ANybody have any thoughts???

Just saw the post and flipped on KWWL just to check -- I'm still getting 8 bars out of 10, same as I normally get from them. (Cedar Rapids east side, on the third floor of an apartment building, Silver Sensor indoor antenna, Samsung T351 receiver.) By contrast, I'm getting 9 bars from IPTV 32-1.

I've been having the same problems the last couple days myself with KWWL. Lots of pixelating here in Jesup. But I haven't really looked at my signals on the meter. I plan tonight to check out all the channels signal strengths and PQ.

OK, I did a signal strength scan on all the DASH-ONE channels I received. Mine is in percentages because that is how the TV presents them. I took the 10 readings per channel and averaged the results in whole percentage. Readings at 4am and 1pm today. I'll also indicate tower distance based on CEA's website. The antenna I'm using is based on this website's info and its ability to amplify. Also the actual UHF channel from this site as well

KFXA, KRIN and KPXR come in pretty good on analog UHF, so you almost have to assume the digital would as well. Afraid not on my end. I have also noticed on windy days the signal strengths can swing wildly. I know it's not my antenna as it sit right on the tripod on the roof and it's solid.


LOCATION: Jesup
ANTENNA: Winegard Omni - with built in Amp
TV: Panasonic 42PD60U

Channels / Power-4am / Power-1pm / Distance (miles)/ UHF channel
KGAN 2-1 / 62% / 71% / 15.1 / 51
KWWL 7-1 / 32% / 35% / 12.4 / 55
KCRG 9-1 / 54% / 62% / 15.1 / 52
KFXA 28-1 / 61% / 59% / 26.4 / 27
KRIN 32-1 / OTA / 32% / 15.1 / 35
KPXR 48-1 / 40% / 35% / 15.8 / 47

THINKING OUT LOUD:
Maybe we should come up with a real reception map instead of a computer generated one using omnis or something?

Chris

I forgot to mention the PQ of the signals during readings.

The channels that come in good on digital: KGAN (test pattern at 4am), KCRG and KFXA.

The channels that pixelate once in awhile but watchable: KPXR, KRIN

Hard too watch or bad pixelization: KWWL ( I just called home and KWWL is non-watchable)

Thanks for al those that replied to KWWL problem. Sat night same thing. Later on that night I was able to lock on KWWL. If only KWWL strength wavers so much, I still say KWWL is messing with the signal.

So would we get CBS from the QC? I'd be all for that...KGAN sucks, plus then perhaps mediacom could broadcast CBS-HD for free like they do the other major networks. I dispise both companies and they both essentially ARE monopolies, but I think I would have to side with Mediacom on this one.

Mediacom will not be able to get permission to carry out-of-DMA signals without the original stations permission. CFU customers will still have it - as well as the NFL Network live games this fall.

KGAN-DT is back to the periodic audio drops, at least today during football today, we'll see how it is Monday night during primetime. One wonders, do any of the people working at these stations actually watch TV and their own broadcasts? Perhaps it is just that they are all too poor to buy HDTV-capable displays/tuners for their own homes? It would be like Microsoft employees not actually having computers at their homes or, if they do, not actually running Windows NT on any of them.

Interesting observation: KGAN just dropped their HD NFL game to SD/stretch to run their anti-Mediacom crawl. (Of course, those watching in HD aren't watching on Mediacom, so go figure.)

At least they went back to HD sometime during the commercial break.

KGAN-DT is back to the periodic audio drops, at least today during football today, we'll see how it is Monday night during primetime. One wonders, do any of the people working at these stations actually watch TV and their own broadcasts? Perhaps it is just that they are all too poor to buy HDTV-capable displays/tuners for their own homes? It would be like Microsoft employees not actually having computers at their homes or, if they do, not actually running Windows NT on any of them.

A friend of mine works as an engineer for a TV station and the station makes manditory (and also provides) that their engineers have STV and a HDTV to monitor the signals off the air.

By the way, KWWL is still unviewable today. For a station only 12 miles away, I'm surprised. My 15 mile stations are comming in fine.

KGAN-DT is back to the periodic audio drops, at least today during football today, we'll see how it is Monday night during primetime. One wonders, do any of the people working at these stations actually watch TV and their own broadcasts? Perhaps it is just that they are all too poor to buy HDTV-capable displays/tuners for their own homes? It would be like Microsoft employees not actually having computers at their homes or, if they do, not actually running Windows NT on any of them.
They usually hire college students part-time for master control in smaller markets. The job doesn't pay that good and turnover is high, so you should expect this kind of thing.

For those with DirecTV in the Iowa City area, when will the local HD channels be available? I heard that DirecTV may be carrying them starting in December, but I wasn't sure if anyone else had heard anything.

Due to the Sinclair/Mediacom dispute, we are really considering the move to DirecTV. However, we currently get FOX, ABC, and NBC in HD through Mediacom and don't want to lose that by moving to DirecTV. We cannot pull in any OTA HD signals from our current residence.

Due to the Sinclair/Mediacom dispute, we are really considering the move to DirecTV. However, we currently get FOX, ABC, and NBC in HD through Mediacom and don't want to lose that by moving to DirecTV. We cannot pull in any OTA HD signals from our current residence. Both companys NEEED each other. With $inclair doing to arm twisting, Mediacom will have to pony up.....whoever heard of a cable tv company without the big 4 networks?

Just a shout out to all of you having trouble with KWWL-DT -- fwiw, it is coming in fine tonight, both OTA with my 4228 (finally mounted outside - what a difference :)) and via QAM - Cfu. I am getting some macroblocking during high speed sequences in the game - is that what you guys are seeing? On static scenes, or even normal motion, pic is fine. Honestly think the macroblocking could be scaling artifacts, seeing that I'm watching a 1080i signal on an admittedly cheap 720p lcd panel. (sorry - not firing up the crt/VP tonight, so can't be definitive.) But I'm really not seeing anything to bitch about, and heaven knows, I'll be right at the front of the line, if I see something I think is funky. ;)

I've been doing research tonight so I can eliminate any problems on my end that may be inducing the problems with KWWL. The problem that is stumping me is KRIN has the same signal strength tonight as KWWL, but KRIN is clean with a couple glitches here and there, but it's watchable. KWWL is broken up at this time.

I found out that the UHF antenna pattern on my omni becomes more bidirectional the higher it goes in frequency. I think I'll play around with rotating it for best overall signal after I return from the Vikings game (REAL HIDEF!!). If the signal stays above 40% on the TV, I have no problem. So that is my minimum for signal strength.

Also I ran into the HDTVoice.com website and found that my firmware for the Tuner and color sub-processing on my Panny Plasma needs upgrading. Since it uses an SD card for firmware upgrade, I ordered both a Read/Writer and a card. Already got the software needed. Can't believe they would make upgrades available to the public with the problems that can arise if not done right.

I will do a base line reading on the channels before and after the firmware upgrade and antenna alignment. I'll post the results when I get done. Probably will do the antenna first.

Both companys NEEED each other. With $inclair doing to arm twisting, Mediacom will have to pony up.....whoever heard of a cable tv company without the big 4 networks?

As you say, I would be shocked that they would take away not only one of the major networks, but (although I don't personally watch any of the half-dozen or however many CSIs they are up to now) the one with the highest overall ratings (not that I believe in the dubious sampling approach Nielsen employs). If it were say the CW, well, that might be different, probably not enough people would go ape**** over that, but CBS? Crazy talk.

One wonders if Mediacom actually pulls CBS 2 from their lineup, would there be any action the affected cities could take against them? After all, don't they get to be a monopoly by giving a wink-wink that they will provide the best service at the lowest price, but only as long as the city doesn't open up competition to other cable companies?

After reading the press brief about the court dropping Mediacom's filing against Sinclair and then Sinclair's response on how every other major cable co has reached an agreement with them, other than Mediacom, it is hard for someone like me, without any inside information, to see just how Sinclair can be at fault. From my point of view, supply and demand would dictate that if a company owns a major network broadcast station which is the only one for that network in a given market and since people count on their cable company to rebroadcast the network channels, that station owner really could charge whatever they wanted to, at least within any legal guidelines (if any exist). Sinclair's press clipping says they have asked for "more than reasonable" rates, I think it said, but even if they are lying, how could Mediacom be the only cable company in the entire country that believes so strongly Sinclair is ripping them off they would be willing to drop a major network broadcast channel over it?

In any case, since Mediacom has never carried KGAN-DT, that was part of the reason I bought a TiVo Series 3 and dumped Mediacom digital cable completely, since I'm one of the lucky ones that can actually get all four major network DT channels OTA (the primary reason being the Moto 6412 is a disgusting pile of junk, compared to a TiVo S3.)

I wonder how many people are going to take up KGAN on their "$150 rebate" offer for DirecTV ($10 per month for 15 months is the way I read it on their web site.)

ivorygate,

If the two companies are $1-2million apart that tells me that $inclair is asking for per subscriber rates similar to those that ESPN gets. They are also trying to force feed some extra channels at Mediacom.

The other thing that worries me is the trend that this could start. If $inclair is successfull, rest assured that other networks will soon follow suit.

We, the customer is who will pay for the increased programming fees.

ivorygate,

If the two companies are $1-2million apart that tells me that $inclair is asking for per subscriber rates similar to those that ESPN gets. They are also trying to force feed some extra channels at Mediacom.

The other thing that worries me is the trend that this could start. If $inclair is successfull, rest assured that other networks will soon follow suit.

We, the customer is who will pay for the increased programming fees.
These aren't really "extra" channels for us. They want Mediacom to pay for a number of stations in 15 other markets in order to get KGAN, including several CW and My affiliates, plus that St. Louis ABC station which got out of the local news business. Mediacom simply wants to pay for each station on its own merits.

Unfortunately it's no better or worse than the rest of Big Media. Of the 70-80 cable channels you get, how many do you actually watch?

If there's any good news, it appears that KGAN is no longer stretching 2-1, although they're still going back to SD to run their anti-Mediacom crawl.

The mynetworktv isn't anything Mediacom has now.

A friend of mine works as an engineer for a TV station and the station makes manditory (and also provides) that their engineers have STV and a HDTV to monitor the signals off the air.

Really? What station is this? I'm not aware of any in this market that require or provide HDTV's to their engineers.

Really? What station is this? I'm not aware of any in this market that require or provide HDTV's to their engineers.And if there are some, I'm changing stations! :p

If there's any good news, it appears that KGAN is no longer stretching 2-1, although they're still going back to SD to run their anti-Mediacom crawl.
Wow! Maybe someone realized that stretchy-vision SUCKS!

Probably just a fluke.... They're not that bright... :(

After reading the press brief about the court dropping Mediacom's filing against Sinclair and then Sinclair's response on how every other major cable co has reached an agreement with them, other than Mediacom, it is hard for someone like me, without any inside information, to see just how Sinclair can be at fault.

ivorygate,

I don't know who is most at fault here. There's probably plenty of blame to be shared. However, the press releases from Sinclair and Mediacom contain direct contradictions, suggesting that one of them is lying.

Sinclair claims that Mediacom is unwilling to pay for their signal despite being offered below-market rates that most other big cable systems have agreed to. Mediacom claims that they have offered to buy Sinclair's product at the same rates that Sinclair charges to other cable systems, but that Sinclair has not been willing to sell its product at those rates. Someone is lying! There do appear to be "package" issues that are creating the impasse, with Mediacom not wanting to buy a wider range of channels than it needs while Sinclair is selling channels only as a package deal.

It's also still not clear why Sinclair has been unwilling to sell its HD signal to Mediacom while all the other local stations have done so. It's likely that KGAN wants either more money or has attached more strings to the agreement than Mediacom wants to deal with.

What I keep wondering is why would anyone want to advertise on a station like KGAN that puts roadblocks in the way of getting its product out to consumers?

SDL

1. I switched from MediaScam to DirecTV 3 months ago. The rates keep going up and up and up and up and nothing to show for it. As soon as they get DSL out this way - their cable broadband is getting the heave-ho also (I have to have it for work). Their service sucks and their uptime is 90% at best. There was no ESPNU (They have it on the Sports Pak, now), no NFL Network, and DirecTV has a better selection of kids programming for my little ones. Sunday Ticket is the bomb and I get all of my HD OTA, so could care less about HD locals - MediaCom's HD locals were compressed to hell and were chunky and not as sharp as OTA.

2. KGAN is a joke of a station - every market has one of these. The facilities are run down, their signal is horrible. At least their news has gone from yucky to tolerable. Sinclair is a joke for a station owner and basically owns these stations to push their political agenda (think: The Point) - this is well documented. It is well documented that their HD signal is so-so at best and the only real reason I watch CBS is for football on Sundays.

3. OMG! I thought maybe hell had frozen over when I turned on KGAN and STRETCHY-VISION WAS GONE! A while back, the KFXA engineer told me that he and the KGAN engineer had been in a "discussion" over the decision to stretch the video - the KFXA engineer decided not to. Its about time - the black bars sections on both sides of my TV needed a rest.

There was no ESPNU (They have it on the Sports Pak, now),


It's on channel 178 in Iowa City, and no sports pak is required. All you need is a box to tune in 178. Discovered this last Sat, and it was still that way last night. All the other sports channels in that pak are scrambled.

ivorygate,

If the two companies are $1-2million apart that tells me that $inclair is asking for per subscriber rates similar to those that ESPN gets. They are also trying to force feed some extra channels at Mediacom.

The other thing that worries me is the trend that this could start. If $inclair is successfull, rest assured that other networks will soon follow suit.

We, the customer is who will pay for the increased programming fees.

Looks like the Mediacom/Sinclair flap is just the tip of the iceburg
There's some interesting reading here:

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=searchResults&content=all&text=sinclair&x=9&y=12
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6350823.html?display=Search+Results&text=sinclair
http://www.americancable.org/RetransLetterToHouseSenate3FINAL-030906-Web.pdf
http://www.americancable.org/news/index.htm

One wonders if Mediacom actually pulls CBS 2 from their lineup, would there be any action the affected cities could take against them? After all, don't they get to be a monopoly by giving a wink-wink that they will provide the best service at the lowest price, but only as long as the city doesn't open up competition to other cable companies?


The franchise agreement doesn't give a monopoly to the cable provider. The video franchise that cable providers enter into allows the provider access to the City ROW in exchange for franchise fees and public access channels. There can, and are, many cities that have competing cable companies. It is pretty clear that, in these markets, direct competitive pricing has helped customers rather than harmed them.

Broadcasters elect every three years if they want to apply the 'must-carry' tag on a particular cable company. If a station elects must-carry, they received $0 in reimbursements from the provider. However, if they elect to enter into a retransmission agreement, they can ask for any reasonable amount of money from the cable provider.

At CFU, we saw the trend of broadcasters electing for retransmission agreements and started negotiations more than 12 months ago. We feel that our direct approach helped us to ensure a fair agreement and ensured that the local programming remained on our system.

I doubt that localities have any recourse against the cable company for failing to offer the local programing on their system given that the programing is already accessible OTA. Also, since the broadcaster has elected retransmission, the cable company can elect to carry, or not carry, the particular channel in a market.

If you live in Cedar Falls, remember that we'll have CBS on after December 1st :)

If you live in Cedar Falls, remember that we'll have CBS on after December 1st :)

Yes, but the audio sync issues on the HD channel drives me too insane to watch it, unless it's football, where I can't see their lips moving anyhow. :)

The mynetworktv isn't anything Mediacom has now.I think you're confusing the issue (which isn't all that hard to do). They're tying KGAN carriage with carriage of other stations Sinclair owns in other cities. It's apples and oranges -- they're telling Mediacom that you have to buy the apples in order to get the oranges.

In fact, Mediacom does carry MyNetwork here; KWKB is a secondary affiliate which runs My's primetime after The CW's primetime ends.

Getting back to this ...

One wonders if Mediacom actually pulls CBS 2 from their lineup, would there be any action the affected cities could take against them? After all, don't they get to be a monopoly by giving a wink-wink that they will provide the best service at the lowest price, but only as long as the city doesn't open up competition to other cable companies?
... there are a lot of people who overestimate the power city governments have over cable systems, and that power generally doesn't extend to the cable company's programming decisions. Even if it did, there's still the question of who's at fault in a situation like this. We can't even come to agreement on this board, and a city council probably couldn't do any better. It wouldn't be fair to Mediacom if it got all the blame for something like this just because the council has even less leverage over Sinclair than it does over the cable company.

I think you're confusing the issue (which isn't all that hard to do). They're tying KGAN carriage with carriage of other stations Sinclair owns in other cities. It's apples and oranges -- they're telling Mediacom that you have to buy the apples in order to get the oranges.

In fact, Mediacom does carry MyNetwork here; KWKB is a secondary affiliate which runs My's primetime after The CW's primetime ends.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/10/26/news/breaking_news/doc454081ad9c4a8778791604.txthttp://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/10/26/news/breaking_news/doc454081ad9c4a8778791604.txt
According to an article in the Courier last week, they are wanting Mediacom to pay for 22 stations and Mediacom is only willing to pay for 13. This is where I got the force feed part. I didn't realize mynetworktv was on our system. I'll have to look.


And this referecnce in the Des Moines Register.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061007/NEWS01/610070348/1001/NEWS
Court papers say Mediacom is willing to pay for carrying 13 Sinclair-owned stations, including the two in Iowa. But Sinclair has rejected any deal that doesn't also include nine less popular channels - all affiliates of new "non-major broadcast networks" such as the CW or MyNetwork TV.

Yes, but the audio sync issues on the HD channel drives me too insane to watch it, unless it's football, where I can't see their lips moving anyhow. :)

Let me rephrase the statement - After December 1st, CFU will carry whatever KGAN is putting on the public airwaves - lip sync and all... :rolleyes:

Meanwhile, on the other topic we're burning up about, KMSP Fox 9 in Minneapolis has hired Ian Leonard, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/459/story/777279.html).

Meanwhile, on the other topic we're burning up about, KMSP Fox 9 in Minneapolis has hired Ian Leonard, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/459/story/777279.html)."Peterson left KMSP after the station didn't renew her contract." Now we know why Ian Leonard couldn't say where he was going.

Well, I came back on here after a week or two away to see if anyone else noticed that stretch-o-vision went away on KGAN's OTA HD. Glad to see others noticed as well!

I wonder if the reasoning went something like this:

Customer: "Yes, I'm calling to complain about service on your HD signal."
KGAN: "What's wrong, sir?"
C: Well, you turned off the HD signal for a national football game on your antenna-only signal to tell cable customers to switch to satellite.
K: And?
C: Well, the only way ANY of your customers can get the HD signal is over the air. There's no possible way for them to get it over cable. If someone can get the HD signal with an antenna, they probably don't care if Mediacom carries you or not, since they don't need Mediacom to watch you.
K: Oh.
C: Yup.
K: Anything else?
C: Yes, while we're at it. Not only is it annoying to have to watch you rail against MediaCom on a channel that has nothing to do with MediaCom, but you ruin the picture by stretching it to full-screen instead of leaving it in four-by-three. Are you trying to alienate ALL of your customers?

Which, of course, brings me back to a point that someone else made in passing: Anyone watching CBS-HD from KGAN is doing it over-the-air. The channel has NO affiliation with Mediacom. Someone like me, that's taken the time and money to invest in HD equipment, couldn't care less if MediaCon and KGAN part ways. It's not going to affect me one iota.

Now, that said, it's nice to see that someone "saw the light" and stopped that stretch-o-vision crap. If they could only see that, if they had HD over cable, they'd actually have MediaCom over the barrel in this market. Alas, they don't offer it, and it really makes no difference to me if they leave.

Really? What station is this? I'm not aware of any in this market that require or provide HDTV's to their engineers.

It's located in SW Colorado, he used to work at KDHL in Duluth, Mn. When I talk to him again, I'll try to remember to ask him for the station's call. I think it should be common practice, too me it makes sense.

It looks like KWWL's signal is doing the tide thing (up and down) again.

The CFU link for signal strength is kind of handy. I see that KWWL is 6 DB lower than the rest on average.

I also noticed todays signal on the chart is rising and falling, what's up with that?

I did adjust the omni antenna, but was only able to get the signal up to 38% average. Today the signal is in the 25%-30% range, but it's windy.

I got home tonight and KWWL is almost no existant. Their signal is 10db down based on CFU's website. I get 23% on the TV signal meter, but I get 65% from everyone (except KRIN, they are off).

Is there a Transmitter problem?

The franchise agreement doesn't give a monopoly to the cable provider. The video franchise that cable providers enter into allows the provider access to the City ROW in exchange for franchise fees and public access channels. There can, and are, many cities that have competing cable companies. It is pretty clear that, in these markets, direct competitive pricing has helped customers rather than harmed them.

If you live in Cedar Falls, remember that we'll have CBS on after December 1st :)

Yeah, I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV, but I guess what I meant was there is an effective monopoly in Waterloo, that doesn't exist in Cedar Falls - I'm curious why KGAN wasn't also promoting people living in CF to switch from Mediacom to CFU, instead of that $10 per month for 15 month DirectTV rebate, doesn't seem fair to you guys.

I'm not taking sides against Mediacom, but at the end of the day, I still don't see how they can take off the only CBS affiliate, especially given that here in the Waterloo/CF area, KGAN (analog) is the one station that either barely comes in at all or when it does is usually only just watchable. For those who never bothered to buy cable, they obviously never cared about watching KGAN local programming nor CBS network shows, and for those of us with ATSC tuners, we are fine too (probably, what, all 12 of us around here), but for the large percentage of people who have always only had cable as their way of watching any of the broadcast networks... um, there are going to be thousands of people in this area screaming bloody murder.

I've already talked to three people about it who barely remember what rabbit ears look like, have Mediacom cable, and they are like deer in headlights. They can't even tell me what they are going to do, they simply can't let themselves believe it is even possible that something they've always taken for granted could be 30 days away from existing. Crazy.

Since last night I have not been able to receive any of the HD channels with my tv's Qam tuner. I am using CFU for my cable provider. I was wondering if anyone else is having this problem. I have done the auto program multiple times and I can't even switch to the HD channels. It skips over them when switching through channels and won't let me manually change to those channels.

Since last night I have not been able to receive any of the HD channels with my tv's Qam tuner. I am using CFU for my cable provider. I was wondering if anyone else is having this problem. I have done the auto program multiple times and I can't even switch to the HD channels. It skips over them when switching through channels and won't let me manually change to those channels.

We have made no changes to our transmission systems for HD over QAM...

They are back up and running now, I am leaning to think there could be a problem with the Qam tuner in my tv. Might call samsung up talk to them over it since my tv is under warranty.

This morning KWWL was still non-existant. I decided to check CFU's DT signals and low and behold KWWL was up with the rest of the other stations.

Checked the TV and there it was! Clear and clean.

Hope this holds! I hate watching analog on this TV. Just doesn't seem right :D

I have a question about the time when analog TV will stop.

When analog transmissions do stop, will stations that broadcast analog on VHF move their digital too VHF or will they keep it on the UHF frequency (channel) they use?

Maybe someone (IE Engineers on here) can enlighten me to what the future holds.

I have a question about the time when analog TV will stop.

When analog transmissions do stop, will stations that broadcast analog on VHF move their digital too VHF or will they keep it on the UHF frequency (channel) they use?

Maybe someone (IE Engineers on here) can enlighten me to what the future holds.

Each broadcast will move to their current analog frequency at that time from what I have read.

Each broadcast will move to their current analog frequency at that time from what I have read.

I was hoping that was the case.

The reason I was wondering was because a while back I was reading that the FCC wanted to reclaim the VHF portion of the TV band for other public services.

I haven't kept up with all the R&Os and NPRMs from the FCC on this side, but maybe I should.

Each broadcast will move to their current analog frequency at that time from what I have read.
That is incorrect.... Stations elect whether they want to move back to their old analog assignments.

KWWL & KCRG will move to their DT to the current analog channels (7 & 9), while KGAN, KFXA, KPXR & KWKB will stay with the current UHF assignments for the present digital (51, 27, 47 & 25).

Here's the FCC Channel Assignments link. (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf)

Will the Vhf stations be harder to pull in when this happens.

KWWL & KCRG will move to their DT to the current analog channels (7 & 9), while KGAN, KFXA, KPXR & KWKB will stay with the current UHF assignments for the present digital (51, 27, 47 & 25).

KRIN will stay on 35, KIIN will go back to 12.

Will the Vhf stations be harder to pull in when this happens.
I hope not. They will be using significantly less power transmitting digital than they currently do for analog, but for technical reasons the signal should still serve the market, at least in theory.

The biggest fear is with low band channels 2-6, where electrical noise and weather issues make it much harder to get a watchable signal. (Many Mediacom analog-only homes will find this out the hard way if Sinclair pulls KGAN's signal December 1 as it has threatened). WBBM in Chicago is infamous for having a digital signal on channel 3 which is VERY hard to pick up, and they will be switching to a completely new channel when the transition is over. Thankfully, though, KGAN will NOT go back to channel 2. (The Quad Cities, though, will have a CBS on channel 4, and the Ames-Des Moines market will have an ABC on channel 5.)

In some cases you MAY be able to get 7, 9 and 12 with a UHF-only antenna, but you may have to add a VHF one if that doesn't work. If you don't already have an antenna, I'd look for a UHF/VHF one.

Sinclair-Mediacom Dispute: UPDATE

Sinclair now says on its website (http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_2006112_181.shtml) that briefs in Mediacom's appeal may not be heard until late January, based on the 8th Circuit's scheduling order.

Based on this development, a solution to the stalemate rests solely with Mediacom and Sinclair, and Mediacom can't count on the courts to intervene.

Mediacom, for its part, has run full-page ads in The Gazette at least twice this week, and has expanded its Sinclair web page (www.befairsinclair.com) to include more information about its position. Last night it was seen running an anti-Sinclair ad several times on at least a couple of cable channels, though it used an outdated KGAN logo.

[QUOTE=dline
In some cases you MAY be able to get 7, 9 and 12 with a UHF-only antenna, but you may have to add a VHF one if that doesn't work. If you don't already have an antenna, I'd look for a UHF/VHF one.[/QUOTE]

Which will suck more than just a little bit - I get far better reception with my 4228 than I do with the giant CM mounted on a mast, something like 20' higher. For all those with current reception problems, just the move from inside house to on the roof - one story, no appreciable mast or rotor - has more than doubled my signal strength. I'm even going straight thru pine trees. Dang - that 4228 is awesome. :)

Which will suck more than just a little bit - I get far better reception with my 4228 than I do with the giant CM mounted on a mast, something like 20' higher. For all those with current reception problems, just the move from inside house to on the roof - one story, no appreciable mast or rotor - has more than doubled my signal strength. I'm even going straight thru pine trees. Dang - that 4228 is awesome. :)
Well, if it works after 7 and 9 go back to 7 and 9, stick with it.

Not to get off the Sinclair/Mediacom topic, but a question to all of the actual broadcast / production type folks out there - just switched over to the SNF game, just plain old SD, on an old school SD 36" set. And OMG - the picture just jumped off the screen. The word Popped comes to mind. Colors so vivid that they border and asymtopically approach over-saturated. To the point of making my nicely calibrated set look like a Kay's Merchandise demo machine.

So - Q is, can (and do) the broadcasters, or the network, actually massage the output of their cameras, and end up sending out an overly enhanced product? I know I can do that with audio recordings - that is the business. But I guess I was so naive that I just figured that what the cameras showed was "real."

For those who are seeing a terrible picture of the football game, over KWWL-DT, I might suggets that it is the fault of your tv. Started out watching the game on my LCD set tonight - a 1368x768 unit. While it scales 720p fairly well, NBC's 1080i looks goshawful on it. Huge, gross macroblocking.

The game was good enought (and I needed to fire up the crt/VP50 combo to answer some questions over on the vp forum) so I'm now watching the game thru a very nice scaler. And a superior receiver - using an LG4200a, instead of the one built into my LCD. Verdict - picture looks wonderful - smooth, no jerkiness, or any other flaw, even on fast pans.

So while you can blame NBC for choosing 1080i, don't blame KWWL for making poor scalers look poor. (cavaet - if you're still having/seeing the problem with a set that you KNOW has great scaling, then I guess you DO have a problem. :) )

So - Q is, can (and do) the broadcasters, or the network, actually massage the output of their cameras, and end up sending out an overly enhanced product?

Yes, video can be processed in any number of ways, including the level of the entire signal, or just the chroma levels (plus all sorts of other stuff). It can (and is) done all throughout the video chain, including right before it hits the transmitter. I try to process as little as possible, but do make adjustments so that what is coming over the air from the transmitter looks just like the source being fed to me. The video goes through dozens of different pieces of equipment before it gets to the transmitter and every one of them can change the signal a bit.

As more stuff goes digital that will help since the signal will remain unchanged unless there is a reason to change it (adding bugs, etc).

1

Looks like KIIN-DT is up. (Actual channel 45, maps to 12-1 and 12-2.)

Getting 6 bars from Silver Sensor in Cedar Rapids, though I had to point it the other way to get it that well.

Looks like KIIN-DT is up. (Actual channel 45, maps to 12-1 and 12-2.)


KIIN-DT is running at 1% power from the new antenna at 1400 feet. Not sure when the high power transmitter will be connected. I believe they are waiting on parts.

KIIN-DT is running at 1% power from the new antenna at 1400 feet. Not sure when the high power transmitter will be connected. I believe they are waiting on parts.It's still reaching here, though, so it's not too bad right now. In fact, just now I got 4 out of 10 bars and I'm not even pointed their way.

When it DOES go high-power, it should be great news for southeast Iowa.

Now, for KWKB 20 ...

Now, for KWKB 20 ...
I've been told there is a tower crew on site there stacking transmission line, so work is being done on getting that one online.

UHF - Maybe your sources could pass along to the KWKB folks that their DT stream is goofed up big time. Audio & Video breakups & stutters, and yes I have a good signal. It is obvious that is the stream.

They do not seem to want to answer emails.....

I have no contacts at KWKB. My information comes from someone that has seen people working on the tower from across the street.

Who will be buying advertising on KGAN if no one can watch it?

How will I be able to watch the Point on KGAN "news"?

Does KGAN know most CBS programming is available for free over www.cbs.com?

Why doesn't mediacom just carry the quad cities station (like they do in DBQ)?

I checked at BB, yesterday, and they had an empty demo of the Samsung DTB-H260F. I plan on checking the store again on Wednesday.

So here's my question: What current receiver models have enough sensitivity to keep up with atsc's full bandwidth? (That is, when lots of stuff changes on the screen quickly.) I tried an old Zenith HDV-420 but the blocking was a problem and I'd rather get a good receiver then make up the difference with the antenna.

Any suggestions?

While watching the Chiefs-Dolphins game today (aside from my Chiefs looking like CRAP and the game NOT being broadcast in HD) - I thought: If KGAN spent as much time improving their HD signal (I.E. useful subchannels, fixing the lip sync and audio dropout issues, etc etc etc) as they do scrolling that stupid message across the bottom of the screen and putting giant ads in the Gazette, they would have much more leverage in their 'tinkle' match with MediaCom and more money in their pocket, not to mention having a great HD signal that services the entire market.

Why doesn't mediacom just carry the quad cities station (like they do in DBQ)?Again, for those just tuning in, a cable company generally can't import network stations from another market, by law. If they're carrying the Quad Cities station in Dubuque, it's probably because that's part of a limited area where the Davenport and Cedar Rapids markets overlap. Go further north -- say, Guttenberg -- and you may find some cable companies carrying La Crosse CBS for the same reason. And in Fort Madison you can watch Quincy, Quad Cities, and Kirksville-Ottumwa stations -- PLUS KCRG, for some strange reason -- on cable.

Also, I hate to disappoint you, but Sinclair has announced (http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_2006112_182.shtml) that "The Point" is going on hiatus after the end of the month, at least as a regular segment.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2274A1.pdf

As for hooking up with WHBF in the Quad Cities, I'm all for it. As far as I'm concerned, if your not "must carry", then you are "retransmission", and if you can't get together with Mediacom, then go and get a contract with another CBS affiliate. Somethings wrong here, if $inclair thinks they can have it both ways.

Hello - great discussion here! I actually live just outside of Cedar Rapids, up in Center Point. I'm in the process of finishing my basement -- once that's done, I'll be purchasing an HD television or projector (currently just have standard-def direct view sets).

My cable provider is USA Communications / FMTCS out of Shellsburg... Can anybody here comment on the quality/quantity of HD content on their digital cable service? I'll also be interested in trying for OTA reception, but I would be constrained to an indoor antenna (in my basement, no less). Is that a pretty hopeless proposition?

Thanks!

My cable provider is USA Communications / FMTCS out of Shellsburg... Can anybody here comment on the quality/quantity of HD content on their digital cable service? I'll also be interested in trying for OTA reception, but I would be constrained to an indoor antenna (in my basement, no less). Is that a pretty hopeless proposition?It is doubtful that a smaller cable provider has much if any HD content available, you need to check with them.

You are close enough to most of our stations transmitters (2,7,9,28,32) that an indoor antenna should be no problem. The basement may hurt you a little, but you are so close that I suspect most of them would be just fine. Some people seem to have troubles with KWWL though.

Glad to hear that, since it sounds like my options through cable might be limited (I'll have to dig deeper on that). Thanks!

(edited, sorry, should have read closer ...)

From Center Point, the 7 tower should be just a few miles farther away from you than the 2/9/32 tower. The direction may be a hair different but you should be able to split this tiny difference. 28 is in central Benton County west of Vinton, so it may be a little bit of a challenge unless you can find a compromise spot for your antenna. We're still waiting for 20's digital to go full power from West Branch, so you probably won't get them quite yet, but there's supposedly work going on.

Hope this helps ...

It is doubtful that a smaller cable provider has much if any HD content available, you need to check with them.

Haha! Wait a minute! We're a smaller cable provider :) We also supply HD and digital signal services to other small providers near Cedar Falls.

Haha! Wait a minute! We're a smaller cable provider :) We also supply HD and digital signal services to other small providers near Cedar Falls.

WHAT??? You mean I don't have to stay in Cedar Falls, and pay CF taxes anymore? Joe - you guys are the number one reason I'm still in town. The thought of losing your cable and internet is enough to discourage any ideas of moving.

As to small - compared to Shellsburg, you guys are like Comcast... :D

I wish CFU could expand on into Waterloo!

So, anyone watch ER on KWWL-DT in this thread (specifically the episode from 11/16/2006)? Did it look and sound good???

I wish CFU could expand on into Waterloo!

We wish that we could too... :)

The great thing about a democracy - if you don't like something - complain about it! Talk to your Cable Commision and the Waterloo Telecommunications Board. Cable providers really do listen to the complaints that are received by the Cable Commission. While the commission has no control over programming - the Waterloo Telecommunications Board does have the ability to start a competing cable system.

So, anyone watch ER on KWWL-DT in this thread (specifically the episode from 11/16/2006)? Did it look and sound good???
Don't recall any problems watching it last week.

I hope the board can endure some questions from a relative neophite. About a year ago I swapped out our 2 roof-mounted Yagi antennae for the Phillips MANT901, a VHF,UHF,FM, HDTV 51-element unit that now rests on a 10-foot tripod on my roof, about 40 feet up from the ground and secured by 4 guy wires. I supplemented that with Magnavox amp/pre-amp(M6112), and rotor on the mast. I bought this equipment at Menards. Our HDTV is a 26 inch Samsung with built-in tuner.

While we share the intermitant reception that I read about here, our chief problem is that we have never been able to catch a signal from any of the stations in the Walker area. Stations from Ottumwa and the Quad Cities are usually okay even though the distance is greater to the QC that the northern stations. Recently our amp/preamp stopped working so I am reviewing the whole setup with the goal of improving reception. I have another 10 foot mast extension which I could add if height is an issue. There is a slight hill to our north, but nothing very definitive.

Analog reception of the stations where I could not receive the digital has been worse that with the two Yagi antenae that were up there before. I'm guessing that had something to do with the directional nature of the antenna.

So I wonder if anyone could offer any suggestions. I'm open to replacing the whole setup but at mininum would like to replace the pre-amp/amp. Thanks.

Personally, I'd replace the Magnavox equipment with Channel Master...both antenna and pre-amp. I'm about 15-20 miles north of you, the CR locals have never been an issue once I went to CM equipment. In fact, you should also get the QC locals too if you had a rotor (I'd highly recomment getting one...you have the perfect set up for one). Going higher, I would try everything else before that.

Make sure your cable is RG6 or RG 11, and make sure there are no splits anywhere until after the pre-amp sending unit, and even then I still wouldn't split it. In general, make sure your connections are as best as possible.

While you'll need a VHF solution in 2009, right now you don't, so if you change out your equipment, keep that in mind, and as a general rule, VHF/UHF antennas aren't as reliable for reception as a dedicated UHF would be.

Yes, I have a rotor and can received digital signals from most of the Quad Cities Stations. Can you suggest any specific pre-amps or antennas. The Channel Master 7777 pre-amp has been suggested to me by one vendor. I believe it supports both VHF and UHF. At $61 + shipping it seemed reasonable.

I'm using RG-6 Quad Shield, but could eliminate one split from the Pre-amp to the amp at the expense of lengthening the cable in that position. Wondering why you advise against raising the antenna? Is it a safety issue?

What antenna are you using? Is there a good place in the area to procure these items? I could always shelf the VHF/UHF antenna up now for 2009 and beyond, though it was a real paid to assemble with directions fit for no man. Thanks for your input. I know it is a difficult call, even if you are at location.

Don't recall any problems watching it last week.

Do you do OTA or through cable? A friend of mine said it recorded fine on his Moto DVR through Mediacom, too, but OTA my TiVo Series 3 butchered it, only recorded a choppy 40 seconds. My OTA DTV signals are always great and so the only time I ever have problems are when the problems are in the broadcast equipment, so this was definitely a shock to go to play back ER only to find it wasn't actually recorded. :( Football was fine Sunday evening and Heroes recorded Monday evening, just fine, too, so I sure hope that was a fluke.

Reception is ok. Some artifacts around fast moving objects but I have seen much worse with other HD providers such as DirecTv.

I'm getting ESPN2 HD in on 111.1 tonight. This is probably a fluke thing because it's the first I have noticed it. But kind of nice.

Do you do OTA or through cable?
Mediacom cable, as stated in my signature.

Mediacom cable, as stated in my signature.

Ahh, didn't notice that, sorry! :o

The part that I left out was that back earlier in 2006 when I still was using a Mediacom 6412 DVR myself, ER would often record "messed up" - parts of it would just get skipped out, which I eventually saw live was that the stream was freezing, stuck on a single frame, which when recorded and played back would result in parts of the video missing (instead of the recording also showing those "stuck" frames.) I think it was March or so when it stopped doing that. Oh, it also did it on Crossing Jordan, also on KWWL-DT, but rarely on any other channel (just for a second or two at a time I guess on some KCRG-DT channels, but nowhere near as bad as on KWWL-DT).

Anyway, when I had the problem two weeks ago with ER, I thought, oh great, here we go again, but I guess now it would seem it was just a signal (or TiVo) problem at my house that one night, because it has been fine since then.

I'm getting ESPN2 HD in on 111.1 tonight. This is probably a fluke thing because it's the first I have noticed it. But kind of nice.


I've got it on 111.4...strange

I just got the LG 30fs4d with a QAM tuner. I am not getting any OTA signal. I have Mediacom digital cable. Can I just have a splitter running one cable through the cable box and into the cable input and one cable from the splitter to the air input on the tv? will this get me the HD channels? Is the pic. quality better than OTA at all?

No.... If I understand you correctly, your problem is that your input into your LGs cable input is ran thru your Meciacom box first and then to the TV. That is the INCORRECT way!

Take your MC cable from the wall and split it. Run one input to your MC digital box and the other straight to the cable input on your TV. Rescan the cable channels thru your TV and you should then find the unencrypted QAM channels. The local channels are located on channels 114 & 115 in the CR area. You will also see some other music channels and occasionally PPV & On Demand stuff.

The only way to get the "OTA" signal is by hooking up a regular antenna to the "Antenna" input on your TV and properly aligning it to receive the OTA broadcast in the area. You may especially want to do this since KGAN-2 is not available on Mediacom and it sounds like it wil be a while.

Well, Im actually in Iowa City. I tried two different amplified antennas and I did not pick up any signal at all. After checking out antennaweb I realized that I would need a medium-sized outdoor antenna. I have an apartment so thats not really an option. So I should just use composite cables from the box to the tv? Right now all I have is coax from the wall to the box and then to the cable in. Ill go out and buy a splitter today and do what you suggested. \
Thanks.

For Mediacom subscribers wondering about the NFL Network channel, here's the e-mail reply I received today:

"We proposed to add the NFL Network to our Sports Tier where it could be viewed by sports fans willing to pay for the channel as part of their digital subscriptions, but that offer was rejected by NFL Network representatives. We will not be able to add the NFL Network to our channel line-up at this time and we are sorry."
I hope you understand that we are acting in the best interest of the majority of our customers concerned about higher Basic cable TV rates.
Thank you for your email to Mediacom."

Here is a Des Moines Register article about the FCC meeting in DC, with Mediacom and Sinclair reps, apparently resulting in "nothing to report":

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061128/NEWS01/611280379/-1/SPORTS12

...... Right now all I have is coax from the wall to the box and then to the cable in. Ill go out and buy a splitter today and do what you suggested.
That is your problem. The coax needs to go from the wall staright to your cable input on your tv. Do NOT run in thru the cable box and then out to the tv.

Then you can have your tv scan for digital cable channels. Iowa City is about the same as CR as far as channels. You should receive the digital versions of KWWL, KCRG, KFXA, & KRIN in HD up around channels 114 & 115.

Again, you would need a seperate better outside antenna to connect to your "Antenna" input to receive KGAN.

Yes, I have a rotor and can received digital signals from most of the Quad Cities Stations. Can you suggest any specific pre-amps or antennas. The Channel Master 7777 pre-amp has been suggested to me by one vendor. I believe it supports both VHF and UHF. At $61 + shipping it seemed reasonable.

I'm using RG-6 Quad Shield, but could eliminate one split from the Pre-amp to the amp at the expense of lengthening the cable in that position. Wondering why you advise against raising the antenna? Is it a safety issue?

What antenna are you using? Is there a good place in the area to procure these items? I could always shelf the VHF/UHF antenna up now for 2009 and beyond, though it was a real paid to assemble with directions fit for no man. Thanks for your input. I know it is a difficult call, even if you are at location.

Warren Electronic out of East Moline (they have a web site - ye olde fashioned mom and pop store, very easy to find, just off the interstate). I use an MXU59 from Antennacraft (Burlington IA IIRC), yagi style uhf-only antenna. I use the CM 7775 for a pre-amp.

I'd recommend either my antenna or a CM 4228 UHF antenna, with the understanding that in 2009 you'll need a VHF solution for 7 and 9 IIRC. You might need a UHF/VHF antenna again and a CM 7777(?) pre-amp.

The reason I'd try everything else 1st is height may not be the issue you have, and it sounds like it isn't. Try the other suggestions before that. You can raise the antenna as long as you're guywire set up can handle it and also, most sites recommend going no higher than 10 feet above the rotor unit.

You should have one RG6 line going from the antenna to the mast unit, then one from there to the pre-amp inside. If you have to split it, split it after it meets the pre-amp inside your house. Lastly, if going higher (you should do it with an outdoor antenna regardless), make sure you got the whole set up grounded correct (lightning).

I used a combo antenna for the 1st 12 months of my HD set up, and I never could lock a consistent signal (unknown to me, the VHF elements were more or less useless and the UHF antenna on it was weak at best). I went to my current set up, and it more or less became maintenance free without any issues at all, just slight adjustments on the rotor about once a week, 2-3 degrees tops). Of course, in 2009, I got issues with 7 and 9 going back to VHF.

I believe I went through a bad tv receiver. After buying my first HDTV I had a lot of trtouble recieving FOXDT then other channels would go intermittnet. Spent a week playing with the TV and several antenna/preamp combinations and finally decided to return the TV and buy a different one. Seems to working great now.

I believe I went through a bad tv receiver. After buying my first HDTV I had a lot of trtouble recieving FOXDT then other channels would go intermittnet. Spent a week playing with the TV and several antenna/preamp combinations and finally decided to return the TV and buy a different one. Seems to working great now.

Was the replacement TV the same brand/model as the original, or did you switch completely?

It would be kinda nice, when people say "I changed my TV and everything was better," if they would include what the old and new TV were...

That's like going onto a haircare board and saying "when I changed my shampoo, my dandruff was drastically reduced," but never saying what the old and new shampoos were.

Input! Need INPUT!!!

For instance, for whatever reason, my Samsung 3082 seems to have a much better tuner than my old 2679 had in it, and the OTA tuner in the Samsung 3082 seems to be a little better at pulling digital than my Sony XBR960. The 960 has a MUCH better picture, QAM, and, well, kills the Samsung in just about everything other than the OTA tuner, which is a pretty close race.

I only need the OTA tuner on the 960 for 2-1, so my antenna is optimized for that channel, and I deal with dropouts on the Sammy by going to SD if and when they happen, as it's just a bedroom TV.

I see all these complaints about Mediacom. Why do people put up with Mediacom. Unless location is problem, a dish although not perfect is much better.

I see all these complaints about Mediacom. Why do people put up with Mediacom. Unless location is problem, a dish although not perfect is much better.

Those of us in Iowa City have no other cable company, unlike CR or Waterloo. Plus, those of us who live in apartments often are not allowed to have satellite dishes mounted to their buildings...believe me I would love to get rid of Mediacom.

And now the forecast: Chance of snow this Friday on Mediacom channel 2 ...

http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_20061129_184.shtml

(The sad truth is, there are probably a lot of good folks working for CBS 2 and Fox 17 who could really be hurt by this.)

If the law really was about doing what is good for the people, instead of doing whatever corporate lobby has the most influence in D.C. at any given time, the FCC would give Mediacom an exemption and let them carry a different CBS affiliate to CR/Waterloo, a different Fox station to Des Moines, etc. Somehow, cable companies apparently are the evil monsters that the federal government has to protect the consumers against, meanwhile somehow Sinclair is all noble... I suppose that extra million dollars they are trying to extort out of Mediacom is going to go to charity, right? Maybe their plan is to buy extra Christmas presents for all of the children in Iowa?

I agree... That's what gets me. I am all for a company trying to get a price for their product. But when they try to extort because the buyer has no other competition to choose from to drive that market, then it is total BS.

Sinclair has every right to ask as much as they want for their product, but MC should have the right to say thats a little much, let me see what QC or DSM is offering.

I'm with hdtvincr and ivorygate on this issue. Sinclair has the right to expect fair compensation for its product, but they are simply being greedy if they ask for more money from Mediacom than from other cable companies. Sinclair likes to argue for free market competition in pricing, but they feel safe in squeezing Mediacom only because the FCC regulations protect them from competition from Q-C or Des Moines. The FCC protection for local stations is fine as long as Sinclair is bargaining fairly, but the FCC should step in with some kind of waiver to allow Mediacom to look for alternative stations if Sinclair engages in unfair bargaining.

It is kind of ironic, though, that Sinclair is telling Mediacom that it has to buy a "package" from them rather than purchase single stations. Sounds a lot like what Mediacom tells me when I want to buy "just HBO" without a lot of other channels I don't want. I guess I just have to learn to love the "Scotch Tape Channel."

SDL

I'm with hdtvincr and ivorygate on this issue.
SDLSame here also. Since this fight has gone public, it's more like who's going to blink first, even though they both need each other. The FCC & congress need to get the law modified, so a cable co could shop else where, after they offered a price that's somehow compatible with what their paying other local afilliates.

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061130/NEWS01/61130006/1079

http://www.gazetteonline.com/2006/11/30/Home/mediacomsinclairdelay.htm

Yeah, we're starting to see the news show up on pretty much every local TV station website there is in central and eastern Iowa ... except KDSM's and KGAN's, oddly enough. And the D* offer's still there on those sites.

EDIT: And they just ran a commercial during Judge Judy! Perhaps they're hedging their bets a little ...

It is kind of ironic, though, that Sinclair is telling Mediacom that it has to buy a "package" from them rather than purchase single stations. Sounds a lot like what Mediacom tells me when I want to buy "just HBO" without a lot of other channels I don't want. I guess I just have to learn to love the "Scotch Tape Channel."

SDLIn a way, you could say Sinclair is merely using its economies of scale in ways Disney and Viacom have for years, but the comparison has limits.

Sinclair's attempt to tie carriage of KGAN with, say, The CW affiliate in Minneapolis doesn't give a person sitting in Cedar Rapids any benefit. It may help some of Sinclair's My and CW affils pay the bills despite having lower ratings than a KGAN, but it's not like we'll be able to watch WUCW here.

Cable bundling, at least in theory, is supposed to give us more channels to choose from while paying less per channel than we would if we were buying each channel separately -- though you could argue that the benefit we get per channel is starting to diminish as media companies and sports leagues spread their content more and more thinly.

On Mediacom's site.

http://www.mediacomcable.com/home.html

"Mediacom obtains extension. Sinclair TV Stations will not be pulled on December 1, 2006."

Can someone settle an arguement for me. If you have Mediacom digital do you meed a receiver for every set? Thanks

Yes, but I imagine that one could figure out a way to watch on another tv with a wireless video transmitter or something.

You need a receiver for every set IF you want to watch the digital channels. All non-digital channels will work just fine....

WOW. Glad I finally decided to join this site. I have used it for NUMEROUS product reviews, etc in the past. Anyhow, on to my questions! I am the person responsible for numerous people's HD setups (don't ask, I think it has to do with the fact that I'm young...), yet I am still in the dark as to the local (CFU) options. I currently have an HP Pavilion 5820n that I purchased for a song at Sam's a while back and have had a CFU set-top ever since for the HD on it. I finally decided to try out the QAM tuner on it this evening and found that I can get all the basic channels Digitals, but not HDs. Will I be able to receive NBC shows in HD through CFU cable with a QAM tuner? What channels have others been able to pick up through the cable with a QAM tuner? My parents also have a new large HD that has a QAM, but CFU is OUT of set-tops for at least a week or two; or so they told my dad... So of course I would love to at least let them watch a few shows in the meantime in HD! Basically I am looking for anyone with experience at all with CFU and utilizing a QAM tuner. Sorry for the ramblings, it's late and I'm on the way to bed... THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP/ADVICE/IDEAS! :)

I started having problems with 9.1 Friday. It is always my stongest signal, 80 per cent or more. The signal was either low or zero. I called KRRG. and the lady told me they were not havng any problems, and that it had to be on my end. About an hour later if came on at 80%. Yesterday it was off and on and during the game then went off completly. During the second half it came back at 80 % for an hour then went away completly and never came back. This is always my strongest station and I have never had problems with it before. My other stations are just as good as ever. Any ideas what my problem could be? Thanks for any help.

I am the person responsible for numerous people's HD setups (don't ask, I think it has to do with the fact that I'm young...), yet I am still in the dark as to the local (CFU) options. I currently have an HP Pavilion 5820n that I purchased for a song at Sam's a while back and have had a CFU set-top ever since for the HD on it. I finally decided to try out the QAM tuner on it this evening and found that I can get all the basic channels Digitals, but not HDs. Will I be able to receive NBC shows in HD through CFU cable with a QAM tuner? What channels have others been able to pick up through the cable with a QAM tuner?



Hi cfpanther,

You will be able to pick up the following channels through CFU cable via your QAM tuner ( in the clear ):

KGAN (both DT subchannels)
KCRG ( DT and Wx Channel)
KWWL (DT, Weather, and Tube)
KRIN (HD and SD)
KFXA (HD)

You should be able to get all 10 channels (note - not all of these are listed in our channel lineup, but we provide them over our system anyway).

If you have any questions, PM me.

Warren Electronic out of East Moline (they have a web site - ye olde fashioned mom and pop store, very easy to find, just off the interstate). I use an MXU59 from Antennacraft (Burlington IA IIRC), yagi style uhf-only antenna. I use the CM 7775 for a pre-amp.

I'd recommend either my antenna or a CM 4228 UHF antenna, with the understanding that in 2009 you'll need a VHF solution for 7 and 9 IIRC. You might need a UHF/VHF antenna again and a CM 7777(?) pre-amp.

The reason I'd try everything else 1st is height may not be the issue you have, and it sounds like it isn't. Try the other suggestions before that. You can raise the antenna as long as you're guywire set up can handle it and also, most sites recommend going no higher than 10 feet above the rotor unit.

You should have one RG6 line going from the antenna to the mast unit, then one from there to the pre-amp inside. If you have to split it, split it after it meets the pre-amp inside your house. Lastly, if going higher (you should do it with an outdoor antenna regardless), make sure you got the whole set up grounded correct (lightning).

I used a combo antenna for the 1st 12 months of my HD set up, and I never could lock a consistent signal (unknown to me, the VHF elements were more or less useless and the UHF antenna on it was weak at best). I went to my current set up, and it more or less became maintenance free without any issues at all, just slight adjustments on the rotor about once a week, 2-3 degrees tops). Of course, in 2009, I got issues with 7 and 9 going back to VHF.

Thanks for all the information. I have visited Warren's website and will give them a call. Last week I discovered while dissembling my rig that the rotor box, which had stopped working, had filled up with water. When I put the rotor up, I sealed the bottom with silicon, thinking that would help waterproof the unit. Dried the unit out and it is again working. After taking the huge Magnavox VHF/UHF/FM antenna down, I put up one of two Yagi antennae I had used prior to going digital. It is atop a 2 foot tall mast placed in the rehabilitated rotor. To my surprise I was able to pick up good digital reception of Channel 4 in Moline and the IPTV' digital broadcast from Channel 45.

Even so, I will go with the CM 4228 and CM7777 pre-amp/amp. I trust that by 2009 the vendors will come up with workable solution to the VHF problem. Thanks again, Hogar

I have a question, just out of curiosity, in case those in the know have the answers. Let's hypothetically say that the cities of Waterloo and Cedar Falls wanted to make it possible for Waterloo residents, at least those residents here in borderlands (to start with), to choose CFU for cable TV and Internet services over Mediacom. What all steps/factors/decisions/legislation/lawsuits/acts-of-nature/acts-of-supernatural would be required for that to become a possibility? Again, I know this will never happen, but what would it take, anyone know?

WTH (F)? - anyone else try to watch Victoria's Secret last nite? (go ahead and answer - your wife isn't watching ;)) - I only got SD. What a crock. At first, I figured they were just saving money, but went down a couple forums, and saw that many people got it in HD. I really wanted to see all of the effects, lights, and staging in HD; and especially Justin Timberlake. That's why I tuned in. :D

Not sure where you are at, but it was SD in Waterloo as well.

is there kgan hd via qam through media? if not anyone know how soon?

is there kgan hd via qam through media? if not anyone know how soon?That depends on when Mediacom and Sinclair can work out an agreement. Their current retrans agreement covers only analog. Sinclair wants extra $$ for digital.

Right now they're negotiating a new retrans deal (they have until Jan. 5 or their analog will be off Mediacom as well as their digital). Naturally it will be better for everyone if a DT agreement is part of whatever settlement comes from these negotiations.

I'm new to the HD scene, but in the process of upgrading my current system. Have a bunch of questions but I'm starting with this setup:

Directv standard def receiver
Local channels, 2,7,9,28,40 through directv, 2nd dish
Old 55" toshiba rpcrt

I just ordered a JVC HD61FN from the Iowa City best buy, should be in on Saturday. I also bought a Directv H20 Plus DVR from BB.(they had one in stock)

So my questions is how to get HD local channels.

The previous owners of my house had a roof antennae but when we moved in we switched to Direcv for the Sunday Ticket and local channels because they came in with a lot of static over the OTA antennae. We left the antennae up though.

Will I be able to receive the local channels over the new HD dish, and will the locals be in HD? My new JVC comes with a QAM tuner so does that mean I can use the old antennae to pickup the local HD stations?

Sorry for the elementary questions, I'm just trying to understand how this works.

Will I be able to receive the local channels over the new HD dish, and will the locals be in HD?I don't have the H20, but I would be surprised if it did NOT have an antenna input for local digitals. There are no local HDs provided by Directtv, but if the H20 is like my Directtv HD receiver, you can plug that rooftop antenna in to receive them. Of course your distance and quality of antenna will be determining factors. So.... By using your rooftop antenna, yes you should be able to receive them thru your H20, but not directly from Directtv.

My new JVC comes with a QAM tuner so does that mean I can use the old antennae to pickup the local HD stations?NO!!! A QAM tuner is for demodulating QAM, which is what cable companys use. If yo have Mediacom in Iowa City (even just the basic or an internet feed) then you can receive channels 7,9,28, & 32 from their system since they are not encrypted.

Your outside antenna will help you 0% when it comes to QAM....

NO!!! A QAM tuner is for demodulating QAM, which is what cable companys use. If yo have Mediacom in Iowa City (even just the basic or an internet feed) then you can receive channels 7,9,28, & 32 from their system since they are not encrypted.

Your outside antenna will help you 0% when it comes to QAM....

Interesting you should bring that up. I do have mediacom for my internet service. Am I understanding correctly that I could tap into this line, send it to the TV and receive 7,9,28, and 32? Would these be in SD or HD?

I live about 20 miles South of IC and the OTA reception is poor on nearly every channel.

Interesting you should bring that up. I do have mediacom for my internet service. Am I understanding correctly that I could tap into this line, send it to the TV and receive 7,9,28, and 32? Would these be in SD or HD?

I live about 20 miles South of IC and the OTA reception is poor on nearly every channel.You may be better off trying the Moline stations at your location.

Don't hold me to it, but I am almost certain that as long as the cable has not been physically disconnected from Mediacom, and obviously if you have internet it has not been, then the QAM channels are just sitting there on the line for the picking. I'm not sure about basic analog channels as they may be filtered out, but I do not think they can/do filter out the digital channels. Most of these digital channels ARE encrypted so you won't see much. But most of the local channels are there and are the digital feeds, which are in HD when HD content is available.

Anyone else notice that The Tonight Show was only broadcast in SD tonight on KWWL-DT tonight?

Did KWWL have some sort of "late night sports" program on after the news? If so, Leno and Conan will end up in SD, as they don't have the equipment to time-shift HD content.

Which is a shame, because I couldn't care any less about local high school sports than I already do. Same with Hawkeye Women's Basketball, which is used to pre-empt HD programming on other local stations. (And, based on the size of the crowds in Carver-Hawkeye, I'm not alone when it comes to this level of disinterest).

Does anyone else think that they might sell more tickets to Hawkeye basketball games if they didn't put them on TV all the time? At least with the football games, you usually can't get into the stadium, but of course, those are rarely televised...

NO!!! A QAM tuner is for demodulating QAM, which is what cable companys use. If yo have Mediacom in Iowa City (even just the basic or an internet feed) then you can receive channels 7,9,28, & 32 from their system since they are not encrypted.

Your outside antenna will help you 0% when it comes to QAM....

Well I disconnected my mediacom internet cable from my router and plugged it into the ATSC/Digital Cable coax port on the TV, auto tuned it and all I got was CNN, TBS, QVC and a couple religion channels, no locals.
So I disconnected it from the TV and reconnected it to the 75 ohm coax port and got the same stations, still no locals.

So I guess I'm back to my original question....Does anyone have the H20 Directv receiver AND local channels thru Directv and if so, are your locals in HD? I know I'll get the 7 or so HD channels from DTV once I upgrade to the H20, but since the OTA antenna doesn't get very good reception, I'm hoping that the locals will come in thru DTV in HD.

Prior to getting D*, we had a rooftop antenna, but the reception is poor. We are about 30 miles away from the Cedar Rapids, but the town I live in is in a valley and is notorious for poor tv and cell phone reception. I will reallly be perturbed if I cannot get the HD local channels when I upgrade to the H20!
Do you think it would be worth it to re-connect my old rooftop and see what I get? Another question is, since the HD TV is in the basement, running another coax feed to would be very difficult. Can I use one feed for both the HD D* and the OTA signal and split it at the TV, one going to the reciever and the OTA going to the TV?

Well I disconnected my mediacom internet cable from my router and plugged it into the ATSC/Digital Cable coax port on the TV, auto tuned it and all I got was CNN, TBS, QVC and a couple religion channels, no locals.
So I disconnected it from the TV and reconnected it to the 75 ohm coax port and got the same stations, still no locals.

So I guess I'm back to my original question....Does anyone have the H20 Directv receiver AND local channels thru Directv and if so, are your locals in HD? I know I'll get the 7 or so HD channels from DTV once I upgrade to the H20, but since the OTA antenna doesn't get very good reception, I'm hoping that the locals will come in thru DTV in HD.
I hope you checked them well, as I sure think you should see them. I am assuming of course you are on the Iowa City Mediacom. If so, the CR locals are located on channels 114 & 115, at least here in CR they are and I believe they're the same in IC. Did you check there?

As to the second part of your question..... DirectTV does NOT provide our areas local channels in HD (yet). I believe that is what you're asking. Like I mentioned before, my HD tuner (not the H20) and I believe most/all directtv HD tuners have a seperate antenna input to connect your own antenna in to receive the local OTA stations. That is the ONLY way you are going to receive them thru your Directtv equipment until such time as Directtv starts supllying our locals thru their satellite.

I recently purchased the 34 inch wide screen Sony HD tube and love it. I also installed the 80" radio shack antenna in the attic and connected directly to my TV. I am getting signal strength of 95 plus on 2.1, 9.1, and 28.1 among others. I am only getting 60-65 on 7.1. In addition it drops to 40 and unlocks the signal. I even tried to adjust the antenna while monitoring the signal strength. No luck. I am in marion so I had a friend try it from Robbins and they had the same problem.

I also noticed several posts in here about the low signal strength at KWWL.

I sent an email to the main contact and the lead engineer. I would encourage everyone to do the same so they get the message they need to fix the problem.

I searched for "KWWL contact information" and found the email address for the station and the lead engineer.

if you have encountered this problem and fixed it somehow, let me know. I would appreciate it.

I recently purchased the 34 inch wide screen Sony HD tube and love it. I also installed the 80" radio shack antenna in the attic and connected directly to my TV. I am getting signal strength of 95 plus on 2.1, 9.1, and 28.1 among others. I am only getting 60-65 on 7.1. In addition it drops to 40 and unlocks the signal. I even tried to adjust the antenna while monitoring the signal strength. No luck. I am in marion so I had a friend try it from Robbins and they had the same problem.

I also noticed several posts in here about the low signal strength at KWWL.

I sent an email to the main contact and the lead engineer. I would encourage everyone to do the same so they get the message they need to fix the problem.

I searched for "KWWL contact information" and found the email address for the station and the lead engineer.

if you have encountered this problem and fixed it somehow, let me know. I would appreciate it.

Blake,

KWWL DT is licensed for 194Kw ERP, which is lower than all the other local stations. Now this fact alone should not have too much effect on receiver levels or performance in our primary viewing area, but the addition of terrain could affect the overall signal strength to the point that the PQ is effected. Varying signal strength can come from weather conditions or multipath reflections from trees, buildings etc. Be assured that the transmitter power does not ordinarily vary.

I pay pretty close attention the folks on the AVS Forum and have not seen any outstanding problems reported with our transmissions since the exciter problems we had a couple of months ago. And of course, contrary to the accepted notion, we at KWWL, like all the other stations, do monitor our signal for quality at all times.

The decision to run essentially low ERP was made by the previous corporate engineering folks after determining that the 194kW ERP power would match our analog signal coverage.

Regards,



Dick Owens

Can anyone comment on their OTA HD reception in SE Iowa, ie: south of Iowa City?

After spending mucho dollars on an HDTV, I've come to find out that D* does not offer HD locals in my area so I'm considering re-connecting my old rooftop antennae. 6 years ago, when all I had was OTA, the reception was static on KGAN, but KWWL, KCRG, and FOX came in OK, but I'm wondering if it has improved at all.

I too, have alot of trouble with Kwwl. It will be fine for several days, and them for the next week nothing but dropouts. Signal strength never exceeds 75% wheras the other stations are always above 85 and most are close to 100%. I live near Covenent Hospital in Waterloo. For the life of me I don't understand. Dick something is wrong with your signal. From where I live it should not be a problem picking up your Hi-def signal.

Can anyone comment on their OTA HD reception in SE Iowa, ie: south of Iowa City?

After spending mucho dollars on an HDTV, I've come to find out that D* does not offer HD locals in my area so I'm considering re-connecting my old rooftop antennae. 6 years ago, when all I had was OTA, the reception was static on KGAN, but KWWL, KCRG, and FOX came in OK, but I'm wondering if it has improved at all.

SouthEast of Iowa City, you might be better off trying to pull in OTA from the Quad Cities, rather than from Cedar Rapids, as the antennas for CR stations are quite a good distance Northwest of CR to begin with.

Have you gone on Antennaweb.org to put in your address and find out how far away you are from respective antennae?

I too, have alot of trouble with Kwwl. It will be fine for several days, and them for the next week nothing but dropouts. Signal strength never exceeds 75% wheras the other stations are always above 85 and most are close to 100%. I live near Covenent Hospital in Waterloo. For the life of me I don't understand. Dick something is wrong with your signal. From where I live it should not be a problem picking up your Hi-def signal.

Does everyone forget the facts that:

a) KWWL's tower is not colocated with KGAN, KCRG, KRIN, et. al.?
b) KWWL has already stated that they are using a lower signal strength than the aforementioned stations?

If you have a directional antenna, you will either need to find a compromise position between all of the antennae you wish to pull in, or get a rotor.

I would also not-so-humbly suggest that there is no problem on KWWL's end, but on the Customer Provided Equipment, i.e. YOUR receiver/tuner. My original Samsung 26" HDTV couldn't pull in much to save its life. My Sony XBR 960 tunes channels much better, without any change in the antenna setup. And my current Samsung 30" slimfit HDTV pulls in channels even better than the Sony.

I live at the bottom of a hill, with the hill between me and the antennae, and I have my antenna in the attic of my 80 year old house. Unless the weather is exceptionally bad, I can STILL pull in KWWL, even if the signal strength only shows 60%, and not have any dropouts.

So, before pointing fingers at KWWL and blaming Dick for everything, how about checking your OWN setup first?

Of course, on the flip-side, we know that the PSIP data in KFXA's digital signal would cause freezes in certain tuners, but they eventually fixed it, so there might be some sort of 1-in-100 issue with compatibility between KWWL's signal and some tuners...

In the end, it's not like KWWL is the anti-christ or anything (that title is still reserved for Sinclair, in my book). Sure, they do their share of pre-empting national programming and time-shifting shows, losing HD, but not nearly as much or as aggregiously as KCRG or KGAN.

Cut the guy a break, would ya?

Mediacom to add QC CBS station to Iowa City...hopefully we will get the QAM HD too!
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/4901261.html

SouthEast of Iowa City, you might be better off trying to pull in OTA from the Quad Cities, rather than from Cedar Rapids, as the antennas for CR stations are quite a good distance Northwest of CR to begin with.

Have you gone on Antennaweb.org to put in your address and find out how far away you are from respective antennae?

Thanks for that website. I plugged in my address and it only came up with 3 DT stations, 2 on Fox and 1 PBS. The first post on this thread shows many more that antennaweb.org.. Can anyone confirm that there are more than 3 DT stations available in the IC area? When I went to KCRG.com, it shows 9.1 but antennaweb didn't list it.
It also shows the towers from 24 to 63 miles away.

channel network City Compass Miles from
yellow - uhf KYOU 15 FOX OTTUMWA IA 212° 24.4
* red - uhf KYOU-DT 15.1 FOX OTTUMWA IA 212° 24.4
red - uhf KWKB 20 CW IOWA CITY IA 47° 24.2
red - vhf KIIN 12 PBS IOWA CITY IA 49° 24.4
* red - uhf KIIN-DT 45.1 PBS IOWA CITY IA 49° 24.4
blue - uhf KFXA 28 FOX CEDAR RAPIDS IA 334° 45.8
blue - vhf KWWL 7 NBC WATERLOO IA 353° 63.1
blue - vhf KCRG 9 ABC CEDAR RAPIDS IA 351° 57.5
blue - uhf KRIN 32 PBS WATERLOO IA 351° 57.5
blue - vhf KGAN 2 CBS CEDAR RAPIDS IA 350° 56.2
violet - uhf KPXR 48 i CEDAR RAPIDS IA 350° 55.7
violet - vhf KTVO 3 ABC KIRKSVILLE MO 209° 76.8
* violet - uhf KFXA-DT 28.1 FOX CEDAR RAPIDS IA 334° 45.8
violet - vhf KWQC 6 NBC DAVENPORT IA 85° 63.5
violet - vhf WHBF 4 CBS ROCK ISLAND IL 85° 63.5

Is this just because antennaweb is not updated?

So, before pointing fingers at KWWL and blaming Dick for everything, how about checking your OWN setup first?

Anyone able to explain how despite the fact I get >=92% OTA signal from KWWL-DT at all times and yet two of the past three weeks ER has been goofed up (missing chunks of video and audio data, thus skipping several seconds to a minute or two of the show at a time) on my TiVo Series3 DVR.... and yet Heroes and Studio 60 on Mondays have never had that problem and neither have I had a problem watching Sunday Night Football in HD this season.

It would appear from my perspective to be a problem with broadcasting ER, specifically, and not a signal strength or (my) tuner issue, despite the fact I have friends who have CFU or Mediacom DVRs (Moto 6412) and say ER was fine for them those two weeks it was bad for me. I find it simply impossible, however, to believe my KWWL-DT signal and ATSC tuner only ever messes up at 9pm on a Thursday (and yet not on a Monday or Sunday evening).

I've had this DVR since the beginning of October and I estimate I've recorded now 80+ HD shows from the five DT broadcast networks OTA and yet only two episodes of ER have been corrupted. Simply coincidence?

Doesn't sound like coincidence to me... Sounds like a Tivo problem.

I've had not problems with recording ER via Myhd & Fusion QAM tuners thru Mediacom.

Scuba Steve-o:

AntennaWeb is updated, but it filters out any stations that don't have the broadcast strength to reach your location. KCRG's analog is barely powerful enough to reach you (thus all the static), which means their digital isn't worth trying to pull in with typical residential consumer equipment.

It'd be a crapshoot as to whether or not you'd be able to get it, depending on your setup. (some people have been able to pull stations 200-400 miles away, but with some rather monstrous setups and really favorable tropospheric conditions...)

Unfortunately, you might have to end up going with a rather sophisticated setup if you really want to be able to pull in the channels you want to pull in, based on your les-than-prime location.

Scuba Steve-o:

AntennaWeb is updated, but it filters out any stations that don't have the broadcast strength to reach your location. KCRG's analog is barely powerful enough to reach you (thus all the static), which means their digital isn't worth trying to pull in with typical residential consumer equipment.

It'd be a crapshoot as to whether or not you'd be able to get it, depending on your setup. (some people have been able to pull stations 200-400 miles away, but with some rather monstrous setups and really favorable tropospheric conditions...)

Unfortunately, you might have to end up going with a rather sophisticated setup if you really want to be able to pull in the channels you want to pull in, based on your les-than-prime location.

SHEESH!!!! thousands of dollars on an HDTV, HD-DVR, and only gonna get 7 HD channels from D*!

If you've already dropped thousands on an HDTV, etc, then what's another couple hundred to put up a nice mast, rotor, and antenna? Especially with temps in the 50s this weekend.

Unfortunately, I can't help much on what equipment you would actually need, but there are a lot of good suggestions in this thread as well as elsewhere on this site. The prevailing opinion is a ChannelMaster pre-amp, a decent rotor, and some other stuff. A lot of it is sold locally in the Quad Cities, or online, but you should be close enough to the QC to drive there for anything you need.

As I mentioned above, some rather sophisticated setups can pull stations from hundreds of miles away. I would imagine that 200-300 bucks would get you a quality antenna, mast, and rotor (the mast will depend on if you're roof-mounting, or putting a tower in the yard), and should get you a pretty decent variety of network HD programming.

Does everyone forget the facts that:

a) KWWL's tower is not colocated with KGAN, KCRG, KRIN, et. al.?
b) KWWL has already stated that they are using a lower signal strength than the aforementioned stations?

If you have a directional antenna, you will either need to find a compromise position between all of the antennae you wish to pull in, or get a rotor.

I would also not-so-humbly suggest that there is no problem on KWWL's end, but on the Customer Provided Equipment, i.e. YOUR receiver/tuner. My original Samsung 26" HDTV couldn't pull in much to save its life. My Sony XBR 960 tunes channels much better, without any change in the antenna setup. And my current Samsung 30" slimfit HDTV pulls in channels even better than the Sony.

I live at the bottom of a hill, with the hill between me and the antennae, and I have my antenna in the attic of my 80 year old house. Unless the weather is exceptionally bad, I can STILL pull in KWWL, even if the signal strength only shows 60%, and not have any dropouts.

So, before pointing fingers at KWWL and blaming Dick for everything, how about checking your OWN setup first?

Of course, on the flip-side, we know that the PSIP data in KFXA's digital signal would cause freezes in certain tuners, but they eventually fixed it, so there might be some sort of 1-in-100 issue with compatibility between KWWL's signal and some tuners...

In the end, it's not like KWWL is the anti-christ or anything (that title is still reserved for Sinclair, in my book). Sure, they do their share of pre-empting national programming and time-shifting shows, losing HD, but not nearly as much or as aggregiously as KCRG or KGAN.

Cut the guy a break, would ya?
I'm not suggesting that KWWL is the antichrist. I just don't understand why the reception is so intermitant. The other digital stations stay pretty constant, but not KWWL> As I said, one week everything works great, and then the next week the station is unwatchable due to all the breakups. And, from what I read on this forum, I'm not the only one with this problem.

If you've already dropped thousands on an HDTV, etc, then what's another couple hundred to put up a nice mast, rotor, and antenna? Especially with temps in the 50s this weekend.

Unfortunately, I can't help much on what equipment you would actually need, but there are a lot of good suggestions in this thread as well as elsewhere on this site. The prevailing opinion is a ChannelMaster pre-amp, a decent rotor, and some other stuff. A lot of it is sold locally in the Quad Cities, or online, but you should be close enough to the QC to drive there for anything you need.

As I mentioned above, some rather sophisticated setups can pull stations from hundreds of miles away. I would imagine that 200-300 bucks would get you a quality antenna, mast, and rotor (the mast will depend on if you're roof-mounting, or putting a tower in the yard), and should get you a pretty decent variety of network HD programming.

Very good point and I wouldn't mind having to spend a couple hundred more but...and here is the kicker...I just finished my basement for a nice theatre room and, unfortunately, didn't add a spare coax run thru the walls(I thought 2 feeds to the receiver would be enough. I'm sure it would be possible, but running another feed from the roof to the basement, right after we finished all the walls, just makes me sick to my stomach.

Hi Guys, I very new here and have been trying to figure out how to do a new post to just this Cedar Rapids forum. When I click on new post, it takes me to a general forum - - ANYWAY - - I'm not having much luck with the search engine either - - Is anyone in Cedar Rapids pulling in the Quad Cities stations in either analog or digital? I just put a VHF/UHF antenna up on my chimney box (30' up) today but was only able to pull in a snowy WHBF channel 4 from Bettendorf. I do have 24 year old antennas in my attic that pull in perfect digital signals from our local stations but would really like to pull the Quad Cities if it's possible. Thanks!

I got off on the wrong foot when I first got on this forum asking everyone to contact KWWL about their signal issues I encountered. I jumped the gun and apologize for this.

I do appreciate the quickness that the KWWL engineer responded to my email. I did not know he was monitoring this forum for issues. He also posted my email on this forum along with his response.

Now, I have done more research and more troubleshooting and still have an issue with the KWWL signal dropping out and loosing lock intermittently. I have installed an amplifier that got my signal strength up to around 70 or so. This would be perfectly acceptable if it was steady. The problem is the signal drops to around 40, looses lock and causes audio skips and drops video on occasion. This is very frustrating. I have read of others on this forum encountering the exact same problem. No other stations have this issue and I have tried to identify anything in my house and the neighborhood that would cause signal interference. I could understand a slight variation in the signal strength such as a few db drop occasionally, however, going from a 70 to a 40 in an instant is not normal.

So I understand KWWL signal strength is lower than the other stations and would be perfectly fine with that if the signal was steady. I would ask others to take a look at 7.1 for a while and see if there is variation in your signal strength and report your findings.

Hey guys,

I noticed tonight on Mediacom in North Liberty that WHBF (QC CBS) was on Channel 19 (a couple weeks earlier than advertised) I promptly scanned for the digital version on my QAM tuner and didn't find anything. Does anybody know if Mediacom transmits the digital WHBF over QAM in the Quad Cities? Or more importantly have any info on whether we'll be getting it here? I can get KGAN OTA, but I'm tired of the ridiculous sync problems they always have. Plus it would be great to be completely free of Sinclair....

Wondering if my best bet would be to post this in the QC discussion.

Ben

I noticed tonight on Mediacom in North Liberty that WHBF (QC CBS) was on Channel 19 (a couple weeks earlier than advertised) I promptly scanned for the digital version on my QAM tuner and didn't find anything. Does anybody know if Mediacom transmits the digital WHBF over QAM in the Quad Cities? Or more importantly have any info on whether we'll be getting it here? I can get KGAN OTA, but I'm tired of the ridiculous sync problems they always have. Plus it would be great to be completely free of Sinclair....


Iowa City, too. Haven't been able to find it in HD yet though.

Anyone know if/when a deal is reached with Mediacom and Sinclair if they will actually start carrying the KGAN HD feed through Mediacom in Waterloo? Or is Sinclair going to ask even more money which Mediacom is not willing to pay?

has anyone else lost espn2 hd on channel 111.1? it was up yesterday and then no longer today when i checked after work.

I also just noticed ESPN2 gone... Guess they finally realized their mistake. :(

Was just scanning the digital cable box here in IC/North Liberty, and Mediacom added WHBF Digital to its HD lineup!!!

It says "Will be available shortly" I just scanned 112 - 115 on my QAM tuner, and don't see anything yet, but I think it will be anytime now.

Way to go Mediacom!!!

Anyone know if/when a deal is reached with Mediacom and Sinclair if they will actually start carrying the KGAN HD feed through Mediacom in Waterloo? Or is Sinclair going to ask even more money which Mediacom is not willing to pay?
There hasn't been any talk(at least not publicly) about the HD broadcast for KGAN. It doesn't even sound like they will reach a deal for the analog channel before Jan 5.

I came up to northern Iowa to visit my parents for Christmas. I brought along with me my Fusion HDTV USB tuner to grab some data on the local stations up here. My recording location is about 3 miles SW of Clarksville, Iowa in Butler County. The included link below is to a Google Spreadsheet of the data I gathered. Included are the MPEG2 bitrates, AC3 bitrates, and the AC3 normalization values. When I get back home I'll upload the raw data that was captured. (We only have dialup here and to upload that stuff would require more patience than I own.)

Google Spreadsheet (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pGwRYmYAKs1sXI4WH3o2QHw)

You will have to click on the East IA tab to find the data I grabbed today. Also, at the bottom of the spreadsheet are notes about some of the stations. Enjoy. :cool:

Was just scanning the digital cable box here in IC/North Liberty, and Mediacom added WHBF Digital to its HD lineup!!!

It says "Will be available shortly" I just scanned 112 - 115 on my QAM tuner, and don't see anything yet, but I think it will be anytime now.

Way to go Mediacom!!!Channel 804 (WHBF) still a no-go in Iowa City at 6:30 this morning....hoping for the Mediacom "box push" to bring it up.
Analog on ch19 (WHBF) looks better than I thought it would. ota?

Found it on 113.1 on QAM in IC/North Liberty.

They are having some quality issues right now. Occassional pauses in video and audio. Hopefully resolved soon.

Ben

I have been eagerly anticipating WHBF-DT on Mediacom in Johnson County. I got home tonight and found that it was finally live; the CBS Evening News was on. Although there's a logo on the screen that says "WHBF-DT", the signal is nothing more than a stretched low-res fuzzy 4:3 feed with the DT logo in the corner. This is a big disappointment. I hope it's only temporary, and that it will eventually be HDTV. Does anyone know if the WHBF-DT signal on Mediacom in the Quad-Cities is in HD?

I want to dump KGAN, but the standard KGAN signal on Mediacom is much sharper than this and the aspect ratio isn't distorted.

Hey Antigua,

Just because they stretch their SD content, doesn't mean they won't be broadcasting their HD content correctly. In fact, OTA KGAN for me is always stretched until the HD programming comes on in Prime Time. Keep your eyes peeled. I bet at 7, you'll be happy.

btw, are you also seeing hiccups in the audio and video?

Ben

WHBF in QC DOES use stretch-o-vison..... HD content will be fine...