Was watching WETA "HD" last night (ota signal). The right speaker was buzzing quite a bit, and nearly made the programme unwatchable. It's not associated with any other channels, so neither my TV nor my receiver seem to be at fault.

I've noticed this problem off-and-on for months on WETA. They should invest in new sound equipment, most particularly with Dolby Digitial capability.

I've noticed this problem off-and-on for months on WETA. They should invest in new sound equipment, most particularly with Dolby Digitial capability.

Don't you mean 5.1? They're using Dolby Digital 2.0.

Was watching WETA "HD" last night (ota signal). The right speaker was buzzing quite a bit, and nearly made the programme unwatchable. It's not associated with any other channels, so neither my TV nor my receiver seem to be at fault.I was watching the Nova "Astrospies" program and noticed the same thing. Quite annoying!

45-2 (Good TV) has been showing a simulcast of Fox 45 news at 5:30 and King of Queens instead of A Different World at 5:30 and 6:00. Also, I don't know if anyone else has noticed but late night during the simulcast of Malcolm in the Middle a Comcast commercial will abruptly air at 1:10pm usually before the planned commercial break. Just thought I would let markbulla know, meant to post this months ago.

I have Comcast Digital TV and Internet service here in Harford County. Two weekends ago we suddenly lost our internet service for a day. I called and they tried to say it was my modem. Long story short, that evening they were out at the neighborhood box making adjustments. We got our internet back.

But since then our TV has been mess (at least the HDTV through the SA8300HD DVR). If the cable modem is operating, the DVR refuses to tune in many channels, including:

6 - ESPN SD
7 - CSN SD
10 - ABC Family
13 - local CBS
14 - local CW
32 - TNT
75 - Washington Fox
212 - local CBS HD
220 - MPT
249 - TNT HD
251 - CSN HD

If I unplug the modem, most, but not all of the channels come back. I don't know how to look for signal strength on the DVR, but my cable modem shows pretty lousy power levels (-14 dbMv downstream, 58 dbMv upstream) (According to sources I have seen, downstream should be between -8 and +8, and upstream should be below 55).

Anyone else in the Harford County - Riverside area seeing problems?

45-2 (Good TV) has been showing a simulcast of Fox 45 news at 5:30 and King of Queens instead of A Different World at 5:30 and 6:00. Also, I don't know if anyone else has noticed but late night during the simulcast of Malcolm in the Middle a Comcast commercial will abruptly air at 1:10pm usually before the planned commercial break. Just thought I would let markbulla know, meant to post this months ago.

I just checked, and that isn't a mistake. Apparently, they changed the schedule a couple of weeks ago. The mistake is that the program guide data hasn't been updated... I'm working on that now.

Thanks for the info!

Smallville is only on the analog station. The digital CW is missing from the lineup here in Charles County. No HD, that sucks...:confused:

Are you on Comcast? Both tvguide.com and comcast.com list WDCW-DT as channel 214 in Waldorf.

If you really don't have it, you can always get a rooftop antenna and point it towards DC.

Drew

214 is missing from the lineup. It was there a week ago. For some reason 214 on Comcast is not listed right now.

I have Tivo on my bedroom tv. 214 is listed but no signal is coming through the channel. Interesting...

I found it interesting that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic aired the Lightning@Flyers game last night, in HD, even. I don't know if I've ever seen that happen before. I'm surprised that the NHL even allows that, with the money to be made on providing out-of-market games through the NHL Center Ice package.

I found it interesting that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic aired the Lightning@Flyers game last night, in HD, even. I don't know if I've ever seen that happen before. I'm surprised that the NHL even allows that, with the money to be made on providing out-of-market games through the NHL Center Ice package.
It has happened before, a few times last season that I remember. Might be the first one this season, but there may have been one or two that I watched and have since forgotten about... I have no idea what the rules are, regarding that sort of "out-of-market mirror". But they do mention all the time during the CSN Mid-Atlantic telecasts of the Washington Capitals that they want to greet all the viewers on "CSN Bay Area" I think they say.

I tried to email them a "Thank You" but the email bounced. I'll try resending it later tonight I guess, but otherwise I'm going to have to print it out and mail it. I want to make sure they know that people are watching, and that CSN-MA should continue doing more of the same!

I just checked, and that isn't a mistake. Apparently, they changed the schedule a couple of weeks ago. The mistake is that the program guide data hasn't been updated... I'm working on that now.

Thanks for the info!

According to our programming people, they sent an updated schedule to Tribune Media, who provides our program guide info back to us, and they (for whatever reason) have not updated their data.

The lady I was talking to was going to get in touch with her contact there, and "see what's up".

I found it interesting that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic aired the Lightning@Flyers game last night, in HD, even. I don't know if I've ever seen that happen before. I'm surprised that the NHL even allows that, with the money to be made on providing out-of-market games through the NHL Center Ice package.

They do it a few times through out the season. Last Saturday they aired the Flyers vs Rags game.
I don't know the legality if how they do it, but I don't care!!!
I would like to get some Blackhawk games here because I would love to watch their young players. Toews and Kane are going to be superstars just like Ovechkin here!

Oh and FSN Bay Area shows A LOT of out of market Hockey Games, but they have to be on CSN.

I think this study info was posted here, but the author of this article asks:

"If you are receiving DTV signals from more than 35 miles away,
drop me an e-mail. If possible, let me know what type of antenna you are
using and whether or not you have a clear view towards the tower sites, but
don’t worry if you don’t have time to send the details. I’m especially
interested if you are using an indoor antenna for reception over a path
greater than 35 miles. What’s the maximum distance over which you can
reliably receive DTV?"

Here's the link (the author's e-mail address is there, someplace):
http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0115/t.11319.html

Cheers -

Was watching WETA "HD" last night (ota signal). The right speaker was buzzing quite a bit, and nearly made the programme unwatchable. It's not associated with any other channels, so neither my TV nor my receiver seem to be at fault. Watched an episode of "Ballroom Dancing" that was recorded a week ago and on top of the abysmal picture due to low bit-rate, it had the buzzing sound you describe. And I thought WETA couldn't get any worse!

ABC 7 News at 5:00
4:59pm - 5:59pm
Harris, MATTHEWS, Hill, Brant.

This is the program info that showed up for the five o'clock news on channel 7

It appears as though Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic's 7:30P NHL telecast of the Washington Capitals @ Florida Panthers will be in high definition tonight, Friday 2/15/08. :D

This is somewhat noteworthy because the norm is for the away games to be standard definition. If you've not seen Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals yet this season, do yourself a favor and check it out!

EDIT: midatlantic.comcastsportsnet.com now indicates that tomorrow's game in Tampa Bay will be in HD also.

I noticed a days ago that the NEW HD channels for Alexandria that had been showing in Zap2it / Tivo disappeared. Thursday, the channels were back on Zap2it without channel numbers. I guess the 3/4 date may yet happen. Not holding my breath.:rolleyes:

It appears as though Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic's 7:30P NHL telecast of the Washington Capitals @ Florida Panthers will be in high definition tonight, Friday 2/15/08. :D

This is somewhat noteworthy because the norm is for the away games to be standard definition.

Looks great. We're seeing more and more away Caps games in HD on CSN. I spotted an unannounced HD away game against the Blues earlier in the season. It's kind of aggravating that we'll probably be seeing most Caps games in HD soon, but we haven't seen a single Nats game on MASN in HD, yet :mad:

If you've not seen Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals yet this season, do yourself a favor and check it out!


No doubt. If the Caps keep this up, this may become a real hockey town yet!

just be thankful you can see them in HD, if i don't pay for tickets I have to watch their extra low-def feed they give to cox! they're the only provider without csn-ma-hd..........

if i don't pay for tickets I have to watch their extra low-def feed they give to cox! they're the only provider without csn-ma-hd..........But, since Cox owns The Travel Channel, you get The Travel Channel HD, right? ;) :cool: :D

Can anyone in Arlington or Alexandra confirm whether Comcast in Arlington/Alexandria is now using rate shaping?

Said a different way, are there more than two HD channels on any one QAM?

I don't know about Arlington or Alexandra, but out here in Calvert County MD, COMCAST has put USA, SciFi and Discovery on the same QAM channel. Three of my favorite channels! This has resulted in significant reduction in the quality of the signal on these channels.:mad:

Pardon me if this has been discussed before, but why do the COMCAST STB's allow you to only receive HD channels for Washington or Baltimore depending on your location? Do the agreements allow them to show analog channels for both (except fox) but not the HD channels? Then why are they allowed to send it in the clear to everyone? Why can't I see the MPT channel (22), the closest transmitter to my house and get WETA channel 26 when I live in Maryland not DC? :confused: It seems they are wasting a lot of bandwidth on these channels. Why not let everyone see all the in the clear HD channels and make all of the Washington/Baltimore viewers a little bit happier? I suppose asking these questions runs the risk of them removing or encrypting the out of market channels.

I don't think it would be legal to encrypt them, but they could certainly remove them... I'd rather not rock the boat.

Drew

For the past week or so, National Geographic HD hasn't been broadcasting a Dolby Digital signal, much less a 5.1 one, at least according to my receiver. (In case you're wondering, everything is set up correctly on my end. I'm certain of that.) The indicator light on my receiver says it's a PCM signal. Thing is, the Nat Geo SD channel causes the light to come on. No problem there.

I've Googled the issue and called Cox tech support -- which resulted in the classic passing the buck response -- and gotten no plausible, much less satisfactory, response.

Thing is, I could almost tolerate the PCM signal, which my receiver would turn into PLIIX, except that it carries with it a wicked lip-sync problem.

Does anyone else (a) have this problem and/or (b) know of a solution?

Thanks in advance.

i have to wait till the end of feb. for the travel channel hd. then i can watch people go places where they can see their local teams in HD....


in regards to nat geo hd, every 5 minutes or so i hear a noise like a phone dialing 5 numbers, it makes it hard to watch all my plane crash shows!

in regards to nat geo hd, every 5 minutes or so i hear a noise like a phone dialing 5 numbers, it makes it hard to watch all my plane crash shows!

Sounds like you're hearing cue tones! You should drop a note to NG if you haven't already. If that were the case, Cox would have something set up a little wrong.

So has anyone any news on the Balt. HD's? I lost mine mysteriously a few weeks ago.

I was hoping to get some info before I go up on the roof to change the preamp head.

So has anyone any news on the Balt. HD's? I lost mine mysteriously a few weeks ago.

I was hoping to get some info before I go up on the roof to change the preamp head.

I can assure you that both WBFF Fox 45 and WNUV CW 54 are both transmitting at 100% power, and have been for a long time.

I had problems this weekend, and found my antenna had turned 30 degrees from all the high winds lately. I re-peaked this antenna, and all is good... Check for this, too.

For the past week or so, National Geographic HD hasn't been broadcasting a Dolby Digital signal, much less a 5.1 one, at least according to my receiver. (In case you're wondering, everything is set up correctly on my end. I'm certain of that.) The indicator light on my receiver says it's a PCM signal. Thing is, the Nat Geo SD channel causes the light to come on. No problem there.

I've Googled the issue and called Cox tech support -- which resulted in the classic passing the buck response -- and gotten no plausible, much less satisfactory, response.

Thing is, I could almost tolerate the PCM signal, which my receiver would turn into PLIIX, except that it carries with it a wicked lip-sync problem.

Does anyone else (a) have this problem and/or (b) know of a solution?

Thanks in advance.

I can confirm that I have the same issues with Cox's NG HD channel. I'm only getting the PCM signal with lip-sync. I don't have a solution, but I can attempt to complain to Cox as well and see if that gets us anywhere.

In addition, does anyone else with Cox have problems on some of the newer HD channels (TLC, for example) where the picture seems to be off-centered? I only notice it when there is text towards the bottom of the screen. As a result of the off-centered picture, the text at the bottom will be cut-off by about an inch or so. I've tried moving my picture through the TV settings, but there doesn't seem to be any additional picture below this cut-off area. Is it just my TV, or do other people notice this problem?

the upconverted stuff that has the tiny black bars on each side is where i notice it the most.

i have noticed a better picture on the science channel hd and the history channel hd though, i rarely watch tlc hd and discovery hd

For the past week or so, National Geographic HD hasn't been broadcasting a Dolby Digital signal, much less a 5.1 one, at least according to my receiver. (In case you're wondering, everything is set up correctly on my end. I'm certain of that.) The indicator light on my receiver says it's a PCM signal. Thing is, the Nat Geo SD channel causes the light to come on. No problem there.

I've Googled the issue and called Cox tech support -- which resulted in the classic passing the buck response -- and gotten no plausible, much less satisfactory, response.

Thing is, I could almost tolerate the PCM signal, which my receiver would turn into PLIIX, except that it carries with it a wicked lip-sync problem.

Does anyone else (a) have this problem and/or (b) know of a solution?

Thanks in advance.



Hi All -

Yes - same problem with no/broken up sound for NG (CH719) on two SA8300HD and one 8240HDC (on Sony, Phillips, and Vizio HDTVs) receivers. (I haven't checked whether separate audio receiver can process the corrupted HDTV audio signal -- the HDTVs themselves cannot.)

**This is on recorded programs and in delayed playback. This problem does not occur during live broadcasts.

Wife mad she can't watch recorded Dog Whisperrrrr. Also a problem if you pause NG and go back to play - good video but no audio except for clicking/popping noise. If you go back to "Live," sound is okay. Will call Cox tomorrow. At least I'm not alone, and can replicate problem.

Same here on 4 cue tones on NG. Almost a blast from the past. Haven't heard those for a long time.

Re: WETA (PBS) CH726 has always had some weird stuff going on with their audio from dropped R/L channels to low volume to some sort of delay (echo). It gets like that occasionally -- I don't think COX or WETA cares. I don't think COX even really MONITORs their feeds and their output.

Wish list - expanded and faster menus, easier to find programs by title, more on-demand choices, lower prices (I mean, come on.....!) better DVR operating choices, less signal dropouts, etc. And how about a better remote? I hate the new(ish) silver remotes . Using play/pause/ff/rr keys is not even close to ergonomic. The black AT8400 was better.

Sorry for the rant - glad to find the forum. Will advise what I find out.

Bye for now. Out.

Problem with WJLA subchannels.

It looks like subchannel 2 and 3 of WJLA both have the same name (WJLA-SD). This causes my (admittedly simple minded) Pinnacle HD Ultimate Stick USB Tuner to only keep one of the two subchannels in the chanel list after a scan. Unfortunately, the tuner provides no other way to add channels.

Is there any chance of getting one of the two subchannels named differently?

looks to me like WUTB 41 digital is up at least testing this morning. this is the first time I have seen any signal from them out here in Charles town, Wv. I have heavy interference from W41AO in Hampshire co. WV. which is a 2.7 kw. analog translator for WV. P.B.S sitting up about 2500 feet on top of a mountain, but can see that WUTB is putting out signal.

160soar,


its weeeeeeesperer. refer to the south park with the nannies!

Watched an episode of "Ballroom Dancing" that was recorded a week ago and on top of the abysmal picture due to low bit-rate, it had the buzzing sound you describe. And I thought WETA couldn't get any worse!

The buzzing is a transient problem, FWIW. I noticed it in the "American Experience" episode on Grand Central Station (it went away at about the 42-minute mark), and scheduled a recording for a repeat, which was fine all the way through.

Their schedule is still all sorts of fouled up, though. I was trying to record "Pride and Prejudice," only to find that the first episode was actually "Miss Austen Regrets," and the second one was "Northanger Abbey." I now confirm the schedule on their web site before scheduling any recordings, based on the previous unreliability of TitanTV data, but even that didn't help this time.

I moved my cox box two feet down and a foot over, and now the only channels i get are the promo channels and on demand. it still knows i get hbo and hd and what not, but any channel i type in i have "not authorized." I called twice and they said the numbers in the computer didnt match the box and a service call was required..... anyone else have similar problems?


he also said he had no idea if they were adding csn-hd and didn't seem to care when i told him cox was the only provider not offering it in the area....

Cox probably isn't aware that Verizon has CSNMA-HD. As for the set top box, try a hard reset by unplugging the power to the box, then plugging it back in. In most cases, the reset will fix any problems, but I don't know why the box is acting up. If the problems persist, ask for a reset through the phone. If that doesn't work, there is something wrong with the box. Is it a DVR?

Their schedule is still all sorts of fouled up, though. I was trying to record "Pride and Prejudice," only to find that the first episode was actually "Miss Austen Regrets," and the second one was "Northanger Abbey." I now confirm the schedule on their web site before scheduling any recordings, based on the previous unreliability of TitanTV data, but even that didn't help this time.

Don't count on "Pride and Prejudice" showing up on any HD channels despite what any TV guide says. I contacted WETA last week to find out why it hadn't shown up at 4 pm as scheduled, and got an email that they had problems broadcasting it on HD and replaced it with other HD material. "Pride and Prejudice" was made in the 1990s and was never HD, apparently. You'll have to watch it on analog channels, I guess. The next broadcast is at 9 pm on Thursday. (I looked for it on 26.1 this week and found the same problem.)

I made it very clear I could buy a dish or switch to verizon and watch the next home game in hd and he didn't give two shits about it. I did two hard resets myself, the first call reset it twice, second call reset it 4 times. its the SA 4250HDC, the other hd-dvr's (sa8300hd) work great. The strange thing is on demand works fine, I was able to watch pinks in HD...


which brings me to ask, how do we have speed hd on demand if we dont have speed hd? I never had problems with cox till i upgraded all the tv's and got hd service......

Anybody notice the "ABC7HD" logos throughout the 6pm newscast on WJLA today?
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/mbenz249/WJLAHD1.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/mbenz249/ABC7HD1.jpg

of the MD vs. Virginia Tech on My20 :rolleyes: - RBC Centura should be get their money back. At least the Terps are winning

The NC vs. NC State game on ESPN just now looked wonderful; why can't ALL the ACC games be so nice; come on fellas, you need to do better

I made it very clear I could buy a dish or switch to verizon and watch the next home game in hd and he didn't give two shits about it. I did two hard resets myself, the first call reset it twice, second call reset it 4 times. its the SA 4250HDC, the other hd-dvr's (sa8300hd) work great. The strange thing is on demand works fine, I was able to watch pinks in HD...


which brings me to ask, how do we have speed hd on demand if we dont have speed hd? I never had problems with cox till i upgraded all the tv's and got hd service......

I've heard that the SA 4250HDC has had some problems in general. I've had my fair share of upsets with Cox(CableCARD). Maybe Cox wants us licking our chops until we get SPEED HD..........in 2010

Anybody notice the "ABC7HD" logos throughout the 6pm newscast on WJLA today?
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/mbenz249/WJLAHD1.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/mbenz249/ABC7HD1.jpg

SO are you saying their newscast is in HD now?

wusa has a HD logo during extra-low def price is right...

Anybody notice the "ABC7HD" logos throughout the 6pm newscast on WJLA today?
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/mbenz249/WJLAHD1.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/mbenz249/ABC7HD1.jpg

Ohmigod! What a mess! If they could fit any more logos on the bottom, they would look like a car in a NASCAR race.

Gee, HD doesn't get ratings but selling Comcast sure must bring in the bucks!

So is the news in HD. Last time I remember, the only station in DC that broadcasts their local news in HD was CBS channel 9.

So is the news in HD. Last time I remember, the only station in DC that broadcasts their local news in HD was CBS channel 9.


I looked at the 11PM broadcast and it was still in SD. No logos though.

I looked at the 11PM broadcast and it was still in SD. No logos though.


You guys in DC are really not getting the good deal. In Philly, all the news stations broadcast in HD (at least 720p)

So the newscasts look like this
http://img.lineupui.silicondust.com/snapshots/snapshot_1707420.jpg
http://img.lineupui.silicondust.com/snapshots/snapshot_1681186.jpg

Per an ad in Wednesday Gazette newspapers, Comcast in Montgomery will launch Discovery Channel HD on channel 239 on March 25th. Cartoon Network moves to digital and a few other SD channels will be added on the same day.

of the MD vs. Virginia Tech on My20 :rolleyes: - RBC Centura should be get their money back. At least the Terps are winning

The NC vs. NC State game on ESPN just now looked wonderful; why can't ALL the ACC games be so nice; come on fellas, you need to do better

While the rare HD broadcast actually looks really good, all of the SD Raycom games, be it football or basketball, have always looked REALLY bad, in my opinion. Maybe even worse than baseball on MASN.

Yes... Which gives me hope that a potential MASN HD broadcast might actually look good.

Drew

of the MD vs. Virginia Tech on My20 :rolleyes: - RBC Centura should be get their money back. At least the Terps are winning

The NC vs. NC State game on ESPN just now looked wonderful; why can't ALL the ACC games be so nice; come on fellas, you need to do better

LOL... Yeah.. that was some of the worst PQ I have seen yet. I am glad I couldn't see the one VT player that puked on the court.

Rough cut summary of analog shutdown transition plans for stations in Washington-Baltimore market

All full power TV stations were required by the FCC to submit a Form 387 by Feb 18, 2008 on their transition plans for the analog shutdown on Feb. 17, 2009 and how they would get to their final digital TV (DT) channel & power level at that date (or as soon as possible thereafter). We have been picking through these 387 filings as they have been posted to the FCC web site in the "The official upcoming final DTV Table Of Allotments/channel change thread" sticky. Trip in VA and Falcon_77 have been reviewing ALL of the submissions to put together a summary list of the plans for all the full power stations in the US. A number of stations will be running at reduced power or moving to auxiliary antennas on either or both their analog & digital channels, so in some markets, people may lose digital HD OTA reception for a network for weeks or months. Except for WNVC 57 in Fairfax I don't see any stations so far that will have degraded digital coverage for any length, except possibly for WJZ-DT after 02/17/2009.

Anyway, rough info dump for the local stations below. When all the stations are in, I will post a tighter summary.

WJZ CBS 13, pre-DT 38, post-DT 13: complicated. WJZ-DT is moving from 38 to 13, WMAR ABC 2 is moving from 52 to 38, all on same tower in NW Baltimore. WJZ will file for STA DT operation on current 13 antenna starting on Feb. 17, 2009, while WMAR's old analog & digital antennas are removed, new antennas are put up for WJZ-DT and WMAR-DT, planned completion for WJZ-DT of April 22, 2009. I get WJZ and WMAR OTA, so I will be curious what WJZ STA power will be.

WETA PBS 26, WHUT PBS 32: analog off 02/17/2009.

WUSA CBS 9, pre-DT 34, post-DT 9: flash cut 02/17/2009, however will file for a waiver for mods to their current specified post-transition coverage for increased coverage area.

WDCA 20, WTTG 5 (DT 35) in DC: analog off 2/17/2009, on post-DT assignments. WTTG will file to meet the 1000 kW power specified in Appendix B and will increase power(?).

WJLA ABC 7 in DC: analog 7, pre-DTV 39, post DT 7. Reduce analog power by 50% around 01/01/2009, flash cut on 02/18/2009 (I hope they mean at midnight?), will turn off DT 39 only after DT 7 broadcast is confirmed to be stable. Cool, identical broadcasts on 2 different physical channels.

WBAL NBC 11, pre-DT 59, post-DT 11: may run analog at reduced power in early 2009 for transmitter mods, flash cut 02/17/2009, will file to increase post-transition contour coverage (with higher power I would guess).

WMAR ABC 2, pre-DT 52, post-DT 38: taking over WJZ's current DT 38 antenna 02/17/2009, analog off 02/17/2009, wants to increase post-trans power from 775 kW specifed to WJZ-DT current 1000 kW, putting up new antennas after 02/17/2009 as discussed in WJZ's filing.

WUTB My 24, pre & post-DT 41: still at STA power of 530 Watts, analog off 02/17/2009, waiting on amended application before going to full DT power? Last holdout at STA power in Balt-Wash markets except for WHAG-DT in Hagerstown.

WJAL 63, pre-DT 16, post-DT 39: antenna is located in PA some 70 miles from DC, serves Hagerstown, MD, but is in the Washington DC DMA. WJAL-DT was reported to have gone to 50 kW on DT 16 very recently. They plan to "flash cut" to DT 39 using existing facilities, but want to move community of license to Silver Spring, MD to get into the Washington DC market.

WJAL 63, pre-DT 16, post-DT 39: antenna is located in PA some 70 miles from DC, serves Hagerstown, MD, but is in the Washington DC DMA. WJAL-DT was reported to have gone to 50 kW on DT 16 very recently. They plan to "flash cut" to DT 39 using existing facilities, but want to move community of license to Silver Spring, MD to get into the Washington DC market.

Didn't they attempt something like that a few years ago, without success, in order to gain cable carriage in the D.C. area? And wouldn't they have to move their facilities a lot closer to Silver Spring in order to claim that as their COL?

I'm not sure what type of programming they carry, but I guess it might be nice to have them on cable here, at least for the syndicated WVU football and basketball games they carry that might be preempted on MASN by other programming.

You guys in DC are really not getting the good deal. In Philly, all the news stations broadcast in HD (at least 720p)

What about WCAU (NBC 10)? Last time I was up there (Dec 2007) I did not see an HD newscast. DC and Baltimore are way behind most major markets.

As for the WJLA HD/Comcast ad logo - fits the Allbritton profile. Squeeze evey last dollar of ad revenue via extra ads at the end of Jeopardy!, pre-empting ABC programming with movies/Oscar specials/local news shows, and potentially this.

The news should really be sponsored by Oprah the way they endlessly shill her show.

LOL... Yeah.. that was some of the worst PQ I have seen yet. I am glad I couldn't see the one VT player that puked on the court.
Agreed - I sent a PM over to SNF Mixer, who works for Raycom and has posted on several HD programming forums when they show games in HD.

does my20 show anything in hd other than that avril lavigne/rihanna special a few months back? they dont even show movies in widescreen on the hd feed..

A very select few ACC basketball games (including most of the ACC tournament this year)... One of the Redskins games this past season (simulcast from NFL Network). Not much else.

Drew

does my20 show anything in hd other than that avril lavigne/rihanna special a few months back? they dont even show movies in widescreen on the hd feed..
Yes, there have been a few movies in HD for the 8 PM My Network programming. I think they had at least several movies in HD just in the past several weeks, although I do not keep track nor check the My Network programming that often. The most notable in recent months was back in December when they showed White Christmas from 1954 with Bing Crosby & Danny Kaye in true HD. But there has been has no pattern to it. Some (most?) movies are SD, some are HD.

Didn't they attempt something like that a few years ago, without success, in order to gain cable carriage in the D.C. area? And wouldn't they have to move their facilities a lot closer to Silver Spring in order to claim that as their COL?

I'm not sure what type of programming they carry, but I guess it might be nice to have them on cable here, at least for the syndicated WVU football and basketball games they carry that might be preempted on MASN by other programming.
According to "Trip in VA", WJAL did try to get FCC approval to move to Silver Spring, MD a few years ago. WJAL is owned by Entravision, which has mostly Spanish language stations, so if they moved to the DC market to get must-carry rights for cable, they would probably program the TeleFutura network. Which would almost certainly kill any WVU programming. They were denied a petition to move on DT 16 because of mobile communications use of channel 17 & 18. Trip speculates that with WJLA-DT vacating ch 39, that WJAL is looking to move to DC market on that channel.

After 13 years with DirecTV I just switched to Comcast. My biggest concern was the DVR but after playing with a Motorola DCH-6416 that a friend recently got I made the switch. Well despite requesting this DVR, Comcast showed up with with a Scientific Atlantia 8300HD DVR and said that's all they have. I absolutely hate the software on the Scientific Atlanta box compared to the Motorola software (iGuide ?). Does anybody in Howard County MD have a Motorola DVR with Comcast, specifically a DCH ? I was promised this and it was written on the work order but I wanted to see if other people have the DVR in Howard County. Thanks.

According to "Trip in VA", WJAL did try to get FCC approval to move to Silver Spring, MD a few years ago. WJAL is owned by Entravision, which has mostly Spanish language stations, so if they moved to the DC market to get must-carry rights for cable, they would probably program the TeleFutura network. Which would almost certainly kill any WVU programming. They were denied a petition to move on DT 16 because of mobile communications use of channel 17 & 18. Trip speculates that with WJLA-DT vacating ch 39, that WJAL is looking to move to DC market on that channel.

Doesn't the DC area already have a Telefutura affiliate on the low power station WMDO 47?

After 13 years with DirecTV I just switched to Comcast. My biggest concern was the DVR but after playing with a Motorola DCH-6416 that a friend recently got I made the switch. Well despite requesting this DVR, Comcast showed up with with a Scientific Atlantia 8300HD DVR and said that's all they have. I absolutely hate the software on the Scientific Atlanta box compared to the Motorola software (iGuide ?). Does anybody in Howard County MD have a Motorola DVR with Comcast, specifically a DCH ? I was promised this and it was written on the work order but I wanted to see if other people have the DVR in Howard County. Thanks.

If you have the SA then you are probably sol as they usually only either SA or Moto not both.

Just curious, does anyone know if Comcast in Howard County has any plans to add DC HD locals anytime in the near future?

WDCA My 20 - the My Network movie tonight, A Low Down Dirty Shame, is in widescreen on WDCA-DT 20 tonight. Looks soft, but could be an old HD transfer. For those who get WUTB-DT My 24, are they showing the HD version or stretched SD?

Yes, there have been a few movies in HD for the 8 PM My Network programming. I think they had at least several movies in HD just in the past several weeks, although I do not keep track nor check the My Network programming that often. The most notable in recent months was back in December when they showed White Christmas from 1954 with Bing Crosby & Danny Kaye in true HD. But there has been has no pattern to it. Some (most?) movies are SD, some are HD.


I found a pattern on this thread posted by an engineer from a MyNet station.
http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7036

Any (Howard County?) FIOS owners here struggling with ABC HD, Channel 812 (I believe the DC one)? My Lost experience is ruined because I can't hear anything but static on that channel.

looks to me like WUTB 41 digital is up at least testing this morning. this is the first time I have seen any signal from them out here in Charles town, Wv. I have heavy interference from W41AO in Hampshire co. WV. which is a 2.7 kw. analog translator for WV. P.B.S sitting up about 2500 feet on top of a mountain, but can see that WUTB is putting out signal.

I spoke to the chief engineer of WUTB yesterday who told me that he wasn't transmitting at any higher power at the time you saw his channel. It must have been some sort of odd atmospheric condition that got the signal to you.

He also told me that he's planning on being at full power sometime in March.

Channel 812 is the Baltimore affiliate; WMAR. I watched it on 803 (WJLA/DC) and there were no problems with the audio. I also captured the WMAR OTA HD feed to my PC. I just skimmed thru it and didn't notice any static.

Any (Howard County?) FIOS owners here struggling with ABC HD, Channel 812 (I believe the DC one)? My Lost experience is ruined because I can't hear anything but static on that channel.

You guys in DC are really not getting the good deal. In Philly, all the news stations broadcast in HD (at least 720p)

So the newscasts look like this
[poster inserted some teasing eye candy in more ways than one here]Please don't tease us like that. ;) :( :o

(Actually, the ABC6 image seems to have too much edge enhancement and MPEG artifacting. But, the Fox 29 image, with the exception of the "FOX 29" graphic, is arguably the sharpest 720p image I've ever seen. Wow.)

http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=136818

Ugh.

Now they'll REALLY have to get new encoders. Unless Harris comes out with a two-pass HD encoder module at NAB 2008 (around Tax Day), I hope they go with Harmonic. Unfortunately, Robert has expressed interest in Harris's NetVX, probably because it can double as a DENG (high-def-capable digital ENG) microwave receiver hub.

(Hopefully I'm wrong about 7-4 coming -- maybe it'll replace Local Point 7-3 perhaps? Pretty please?)

Channel 812 is the Baltimore affiliate; WMAR. I watched it on 803 (WJLA/DC) and there were no problems with the audio. I also captured the WMAR OTA HD feed to my PC. I just skimmed thru it and didn't notice any static.

I'm not sure what was going on, but there was some problem with my channel 812 at least. The beginning of Eli Stone still had the static, sound problem going on... but midway through the show (when I checked again) it seemed to be ok.

I'll be watching last night's Lost online now. I guess it's for the better. I've been meaning to see what watching TV off my MBP looks like. I bought a HDMI to DVI cable for my MacBook Pro a while ago. I also got the TosLink cable thing for my Onkyo receiver. I just hope Lost's online HD stream on abc.com has surround sound also.

After 13 years with DirecTV I just switched to Comcast. My biggest concern was the DVR but after playing with a Motorola DCH-6416 that a friend recently got I made the switch. Well despite requesting this DVR, Comcast showed up with with a Scientific Atlantia 8300HD DVR and said that's all they have. I absolutely hate the software on the Scientific Atlanta box compared to the Motorola software (iGuide ?). Does anybody in Howard County MD have a Motorola DVR with Comcast, specifically a DCH ? I was promised this and it was written on the work order but I wanted to see if other people have the DVR in Howard County. Thanks.

The set top box you get is dependent on the head end equipment the cable company uses. Comcast in Howard County uses SA encoding and distribution equipment, so you must use an SA set top box. Motorola's aren't compatible.

Rough cut summary of analog shutdown transition plans for stations in Washington-Baltimore market

All full power TV stations were required by the FCC to submit a Form 387 by Feb 18, 2008 on their transition plans for the analog shutdown on Feb. 17, 2009

It's interesting to hear that the FCC does have some checkpoints.

Of great concern to people who use captions, including me, however, is that many TV stations are not providing both analog (EIA-608) and digital (EIA-708) captions over digital channels as required by law. In Rockville, I can't count on being able to watch "Lost" or "Ugly Betty" in HD with captions on my Sharp HDTV from WJLA; sometimes the captions are there and sometimes they're not.

The Insignia digital-to-analog converter box doesn't pick up digital captions from the WETA or WHUT SD channels (although captions show up on my Sharp HDTV). For those channels, I have to manually turn on analog captions from the Insignia to view any captions (which I'm not supposed to have to do), and most people wouldn't think of trying that. (It takes six pushes of the CC button on the Insignia's remote to turn on the analog captions.)

I also can't watch Fox's broadcast of "Stargate Atlantis" in glorious HD on Saturday afternoons because no captions come across on my Sharp HDTV. Again, there might be a problem failing to transmit both digital and analog captions.

I'm concerned the FCC may not be ensuring the provision of both types of captions over digital channels.

Can anyone with antenna-equipped HDTVs confirm whether or not they're getting captions for "Stargate Atlantis" on the HD channel (5.1) on Saturday afternoons? Or confirm the other problems I've had? I'd like to make sure one other HDTV using OTA service is also experiencing the same problem, and please let me know what type of HDTV you have and when you got it. (I'm only concerned with over-the-air transmission or problems also seen on cable, Verizon Fios, satellite, etc.)

Dana
Rockville, MD

I'm not sure what was going on, but there was some problem with my channel 812 at least.
Did you try WJLA ABC 7? or do you not get that on 803?

ALL my channels, HD and non-HD, only show a purple screen. Anyone else having this problem?

Of great concern to people who use captions, including me, however, is that many TV stations are not providing both analog (EIA-608) and digital (EIA-708) captions over digital channels as required by law. In Rockville, I can't count on being able to watch "Lost" or "Ugly Betty" in HD with captions on my Sharp HDTV from WJLA; sometimes the captions are there and sometimes they're not.

The Insignia digital-to-analog converter box doesn't pick up digital captions from the WETA or WHUT SD channels (although captions show up on my Sharp HDTV). For those channels, I have to manually turn on analog captions from the Insignia to view any captions (which I'm not supposed to have to do), and most people wouldn't think of trying that. (It takes six pushes of the CC button on the Insignia's remote to turn on the analog captions.)

Can anyone with antenna-equipped HDTVs confirm whether or not they're getting captions for "Stargate Atlantis" on the HD channel (5.1) on Saturday afternoons? Or confirm the other problems I've had?
I find that the local commercial stations are by and large quite good about sending out captioning. I have seen problem with WJLA-DT for some of the network programs, but this was for OTA only which had flaky behavior on the Sony HD-DVR. Had to switch to old format captions to get it to work.

However, I have to check WHUT-DT 32.1 because I don't know if I have seen CC on there, but I have not watched the channel beyond occasional checks because of the extra fuzzy SD it has. WETA-DT 26.1 has gotten a lot better about captioning after I complained to the station several times a year or two (don't know if my complaints had much of an effect). Checking as I write this, WETA-DT 26.2, 26.3, 26.4 OTA have captions but only if go to "basic only" mode on the Sony DVR options, which means old EIA-608 format. If the Insignia converter tuner is not displaying captions, check to see if it has different format options. The Samsung SIR-T451 does not display CC for 26.2, 26.3, 26.4.

I will record the Stargate showing on WTTG-DT 5.1 tomorrow to see if it has captions. If WTTG-DT were showing these in HD, I would be recording them, but we are still in the early days of HD syndication. BTW, Everybody Loves Raymond is the next syndicated program to be made available in HD starting in mid-March.

(Hopefully I'm wrong about 7-4 coming -- maybe it'll replace Local Point 7-3 perhaps? Pretty please?)I'd rather it replaced 7-2 -- I like Local Point. And how many weather subchannels do we need?

I find that the local commercial stations are by and large quite good about sending out captioning. I have seen problem with WJLA-DT for some of the network programs, but this was for OTA only which had flaky behavior on the Sony HD-DVR. Had to switch to old format captions to get it to work.

Thanks. I can't switch to 608 captions on my Sharp HDTV, so I frequently couldn't watch HD broadcasts from WJLA due to the lack of digital captions.


However, I have to check WHUT-DT 32.1 because I don't know if I have seen CC on there, but I have not watched the channel beyond occasional checks because of the extra fuzzy SD it has.


Their analog channel is certainly fuzzy, but their SD channel is looking okay here. It's 480i; I haven't seen anything higher from them.


WETA-DT 26.1 has gotten a lot better about captioning after I complained to the station several times a year or two (don't know if my complaints had much of an effect). Checking as I write this, WETA-DT 26.2, 26.3, 26.4 OTA have captions but only if go to "basic only" mode on the Sony DVR options, which means old EIA-608 format. If the Insignia converter tuner is not displaying captions, check to see if it has different format options.


I have to manually switch to analog captions to get the captions on the SD channels when using the Insignia. Oddly, the Sharp HDTV can pick up the captions from those channels, however. I'm getting digital captions from 26.1 (which I don't call an SD channel as it's usually always HD).


The Samsung SIR-T451 does not display CC for 26.2, 26.3, 26.4.


I believe that's because captions aren't being broadcast in both digital and analog formats, but they should be.


I will record the Stargate showing on WTTG-DT 5.1 tomorrow to see if it has captions. If WTTG-DT were showing these in HD, I would be recording them, but we are still in the early days of HD syndication. BTW, Everybody Loves Raymond is the next syndicated program to be made available in HD starting in mid-March.

I believe the Insignia did show digital captions for Stargate Atlantis but they didn't show up on the Sharp HDTV. Rarely, digital captions suddenly pop up on the Sharp, not to be seen again. That really puzzles me. Possibly something related to syndication? The chip from the Insignia is newer, so perhaps there's something more robust about detecting captions? It would be helpful to get some ideas about what's going on there.

Digital captions have generally been fine from NBC and CBS stations.

It's very helpful to get confirmation that other equipment besides mine is also experiencing problems getting captions from the same channels. Thank you!

I will record the Stargate showing on WTTG-DT 5.1 tomorrow to see if it has captions. If WTTG-DT were showing these in HD, I would be recording them, but we are still in the early days of HD syndication. BTW, Everybody Loves Raymond is the next syndicated program to be made available in HD starting in mid-March.

I had thought Stargate Atlantis *was* being broadcast in high resolution. But I guess it just looked terrific on the digital channel compared to my lousy analog reception.

Why would we want to see "Everybody Loves Raymond" in HD?!! :eek: For some shows, we may want to turn to analog!!!


Dana

ALL my channels, HD and non-HD, only show a purple screen. Anyone else having this problem?Still having that problem this morning :mad:

I'd rather it replaced 7-2 -- I like Local Point. And how many weather subchannels do we need?

All those weather guys must have naked pictures of the station managers or something. I can't fathom any other reason they would all waste bandwidth on the exact same information, with no diferentiation, and on something most of us get from the Internet at this point.

ALL my channels, HD and non-HD, only show a purple screen. Anyone else having this problem?
What is your source for the channels? Comcast, Cox, satellite, OTA? We can't help without any information. If you are on cable, start with a cold reset of the STB or DVR - turn it off, unplug it for 30 seconds, then plug it back in and turn it on. If that does not work and a check of all the co-axial connections show they are fine, then call the cable company.

EDIT: Well, I think I just DID have to reset the box. Thanks afiggatt. :)

Not having any Comcast problems in Alexandria - I would suspect the cable box.

Dana,
I checked Fox 5 at 2:05 pm, and closed caption is working.

dcrtv.com (http://www.dcrtv.com/) is reporting that Channel 5 will be doing news in HD sometime in May.

All those weather guys must have naked pictures of the station managers or something. I can't fathom any other reason they would all waste bandwidth on the exact same information, with no diferentiation, and on something most of us get from the Internet at this point.

The weather subchannels around here are different. 9-2 shows the radar, and then 7-2 and 4-2 show weather info but they are definitely not the same.

The weather subchannels around here are different. 9-2 shows the radar, and then 7-2 and 4-2 show weather info but they are definitely not the same.

They're all the WEATHER!

They're all the WEATHER!

The same can be said of regular TV networks. But each one is presented differently.

dcrtv.com (http://www.dcrtv.com/) is reporting that Channel 5 will be doing news in HD sometime in May.


Thats some good news, it's been a while since we last heard anything regarding HD newscasts from WTTG

dcrtv.com (http://www.dcrtv.com/) is reporting that Channel 5 will be doing news in HD sometime in May.

5 To Launch HD Newscasts This Spring - 2/24 - DCRTV hears that Channel 5/WTTG has installed high-def cameras at their 5151 Wisconsin Avenue studios, and is preparing for a May sweeps launch of HD newscasts. When it happens, Fox5 will join Channel 9/WUSA in offering widescreen local news broadcasts in the DC market.....

This is great news. All of the NBC O&O stations are supposed to go HD, and Robert had hinted that WJLA had HD in the works (without stating the timeline). So the days of SD news might be numbered (finally).

WUSA also went HD in May three years ago.

5 To Launch HD Newscasts This Spring - 2/24 - DCRTV hears that Channel 5/WTTG has installed high-def cameras at their 5151 Wisconsin Avenue studios, and is preparing for a May sweeps launch of HD newscasts. When it happens, Fox5 will join Channel 9/WUSA in offering widescreen local news broadcasts in the DC market.....
The May sweeps begin on April 24, so if WTTG Fox 5 is going to start up a HD newscast tied to the May sweeps, it would likely be around or not long before then.

There were news articles a month or two back that WMAR 2 (Scripts owned) and WJZ (owned by CBS) in Baltimore were close to launching HD local news in the near future. So they may be starting HD newscasts up this spring as well.

NBC announced over a year ago, maybe 18 months ago if my memory is correct, after WNBC in NYC went HD for local news, that they were upgrading all of their Owned & Operated stations, which includes WRC 4 in DC, one at a time to HD local news. WRC was reportedly near the end of the conversion list because of where it was in the equipment replacement cycle. But looking it up, KNBC in LA still has not gone HD, while WMAQ in Chicago went HD local news only last month. With the cut backs and layoffs at NBC, they may have delayed the HD conversion process. So a HD local news upgrade for WRC 4 may be a ways off.

While anything's possible with NBC's highly questionable executive leadership, I would seriously expect NBC4 to go HD at the latest to coincide with Olympics coverage.

Lots of people are going to be watching the Olympics for the first time in HD. It would be silly to not do it in time for the Olympics only to make the switch a couple months later, either for November 2008 or even February 2009.

I believe the Insignia did show digital captions for Stargate Atlantis but they didn't show up on the Sharp HDTV. Rarely, digital captions suddenly pop up on the Sharp, not to be seen again. That really puzzles me. Possibly something related to syndication? The chip from the Insignia is newer, so perhaps there's something more robust about detecting captions? It would be helpful to get some ideas about what's going on there.
I recorded the WTTG Saturday afternoon broadcasts of Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis on Verizon Fios and OTA using the Sony HD-DVR. I did not get captions shown on the Fios DVR. I could only get captions displayed on the Sony DVR if I switched to Basic mode only which shows the captions in old format with white text and blacked out background text blocks. My interpretation is that this means that WTTG is not providing valid EIA-708 format captions, but the only caption data is the old format EIA-608 which has the line 21 caption data embedded in the picture data. Mnay digital only tuners don't appear to work with the old format.

These 2 programs have proper captions when they are shown on the Sci-Fi channel, so the EIA-708 caption data should be there in the syndicated data. My thinking is that WTTG is not properly passing the EIA-708 caption data through for those 2 syndicated programs. The station engineer may not be aware of this. I see that WBFF Fox 45 in Baltimore is also showing Stargate: Atlantis at midnight tonight on 45-2 (?). If the listing is correct, I'll record it tonight on the Sony DVR to see what captions it shows.

If correct captioning is important to you, contact WTTG and complain about the lack of captions. I see an email box on the website, so I will start there myself.

I recorded the WTTG Saturday afternoon broadcasts of Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis on Verizon Fios and OTA using the Sony HD-DVR. I did not get captions shown on the Fios DVR. I could only get captions displayed on the Sony DVR if I switched to Basic mode only which shows the captions in old format with white text and blacked out background text blocks. My interpretation is that this means that WTTG is not providing valid EIA-708 format captions, but the only caption data is the old format EIA-608 which has the line 21 caption data embedded in the picture data. Mnay digital only tuners don't appear to work with the old format.

These 2 programs have proper captions when they are shown on the Sci-Fi channel, so the EIA-708 caption data should be there in the syndicated data. My thinking is that WTTG is not properly passing the EIA-708 caption data through for those 2 syndicated programs. The station engineer may not be aware of this. I see that WBFF Fox 45 in Baltimore is also showing Stargate: Atlantis at midnight tonight on 45-2 (?). If the listing is correct, I'll record it tonight on the Sony DVR to see what captions it shows.

If correct captioning is important to you, contact WTTG and complain about the lack of captions. I see an email box on the website, so I will start there myself.

Thanks! This problem definitely needs to be corrected anyway so that HDTV owners will be able to view captions for broadcast programs after the transition occurs.

It would be interesting to know if the same problem shows up tonight. My guess is that a lot of people are assuming it's okay to record or transmit only one type of caption, not realizing that will cause a big problem to end users.

My Sharp HDTV appears to be able to decode the analog captions transmitted on the SD channels from WETA, so I don't understand why it can't decode the analog captions transmitted from Fox. There seems to be something else going on. Are there different ways of transmitting the CC data? One would be in the picture data?

If correct captioning is important to you, contact WTTG and complain about the lack of captions. I see an email box on the website, so I will start there myself.

FYI, I have never received a response to anything I've submitted via the WTTG web site or the WJLA web site. I've contacted WJLA multiple times to no avail. (WETA, however, has been responsive.) I think it will be very useful to first try to figure out what's going on with these stations and then send a letter or call WTTG and WJLA....they need to fix these problems as soon as possible so that one fifth or more of the viewing audience isn't cut off from access to programs at the time of the transition. (I'm including foreign language viewers who use captioning, not just deaf and hard of hearing people.)

I wish these problems could be fixed by emailing those stations, but unfortunately, history has shown me they won't. [Not responding to emails creates a real hassle for deaf people, who communicate much better by email than via relay (which takes six times as long as a regular phone call). I guess I will call the stations through a relay service to make this point to them. If they don't respond or hang up, then I'll have to write a formal complaint to the FCC. If they would only read the email they receive....sigh.]

Dana

http://masnsports.com/2008/02/masn-adds-high-definition-mlb.html

For the second year in a row, MASN will televise every available Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles game on one network, and will begin broadcasting key match-ups in High-Definition during the 2008 season.

The 80 games in HD will be evenly split between the Nationals and Orioles and will include the first available home game for both teams. The Orioles host Tampa Bay on March 31 and the Nationals’ are at home April 7 against the Florida Marlins.

MASN’s HD schedule includes key match-ups with the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Braves, as well as the Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs, Cardinals, Marlins, and Rays. The network will provide HD telecasts for all six inter-league games between the Nationals and Orioles.

http://masnsports.com/2008/02/masn-adds-high-definition-mlb.html

For the second year in a row, MASN will televise every available Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles game on one network, and will begin broadcasting key match-ups in High-Definition during the 2008 season.

The 80 games in HD will be evenly split between the Nationals and Orioles and will include the first available home game for both teams. The Orioles host Tampa Bay on March 31 and the Nationals’ are at home April 7 against the Florida Marlins.

MASN’s HD schedule includes key match-ups with the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Braves, as well as the Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs, Cardinals, Marlins, and Rays. The network will provide HD telecasts for all six inter-league games between the Nationals and Orioles.

Well I guess 80 is a start.

[MASN] said all of its 21 cable and satellite providers will air the HD telecasts on their HD tiers.


http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2008/02/25/daily6.html

DCRTV is also reporting WJLA has made a deal to carry something called Retro Television Network on a new (wihch would make three) subchannel. How much bandwidth will that suck away from WJLA-DT?

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2008/02/25/daily6.html

Now the question is what channel will MASN use to broadcast their HD games. And hopefully the production quality is better than Peter Angelos' old 1970-esque equipment.

So any of these MASN HD games going to be available OTA?

-John

DCRTV is also reporting WJLA has made a deal to carry something called Retro Television Network on a new (wihch would make three) subchannel. How much bandwidth will that suck away from WJLA-DT?
Nice! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_Television_Network

As RTN has customized schedules for each affiliate, not all shows are usually carried in every market.

The A-Team
The Andy Griffith Show
Bonanza
The Brady Bunch
Cheers
Emergency!
Family Affair
Family Ties
The Fugitive
Get Smart
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
Happy Days
Hawaii Five-O
Hogan's Heroes
The Honeymooners
Ironside
Kojak
Knight Rider
Laverne & Shirley
Little House on the Prairie
The Lucy Show
Magnum P.I.
Matlock
Mission: Impossible
Mork & Mindy
Off Beat Cinema
Perry Mason
Petticoat Junction
Rawhide
The Rockford Files
The Streets of San Francisco
The Wild Wild West

-John

Now the question is what channel will MASN use to broadcast their HD games. And hopefully the production quality is better than Peter Angelos' old 1970-esque equipment.
yea, another confusing statement from MASN. Good news for sure, but are they starting up a:
1) full time MASN-HD channel which will be a simulcast of the MASN SD channel with the non-HD games going to MASN-2 or
2) part time HD feed which the service providers will put on one of the other HD channels, bumping the programming on that channel?

If they are starting up a MASN-HD channel, why not just clearly say so? The first HD game is March 31. Anyone want to guess how many of the 21 service providers will be ready to show the game in HD by then?

My interest is in Verizon Fios. Verizon still has not added Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic to central and SE VA as far as I know. Add MASN-HD by March 31? If not a MASN-HD channel, then which HD channel do they put it on? Verizon does not have Mojo as the part time sports channel.

Anyway, 80 games in HD is a start. Behind the curve given that at least 6 to 8, maybe more, MLB teams will have all home & away games in HD on their RSN, but it is MASN.

According to dcrtv.com (http://www.dcrtv.com), There will be no full-time MASN HD channel...
MASN To Offer 80 Baseball Games In HD, Systems To Carry On Per-Game Basis - 2/25 - UPDATED: The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network will provide 80 high-def baseball telecasts of the Orioles and Nationals this season. The HD telecasts will be equally divided between the two teams, according to an announcement at masnsports.com. And DCRTV hears that area cable providers Comcast and Cox will carry the MASN HD outings on a per-game basis on their HD tiers. For example, on some systems, Comcast will carry MASN's HD games on channel 226, pre-empting programming on the Mojo TV network. Still no word from all area cable and satellite systems. But, there won't yet be a fully-dedicated 24/7 MASN HD channel. MASN's HD schedule includes key match-ups with the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Braves, as well as the Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs, Cardinals, Marlins, and Rays. The network will provide HD telecasts for all six inter-league games between the Nationals and Orioles.....

http://masnsports.com/2008/02/masn-adds-high-definition-mlb.html

For the second year in a row, MASN will televise every available Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles game on one network, and will begin broadcasting key match-ups in High-Definition during the 2008 season.

The 80 games in HD will be evenly split between the Nationals and Orioles and will include the first available home game for both teams. The Orioles host Tampa Bay on March 31 and the Nationals’ are at home April 7 against the Florida Marlins.

MASN’s HD schedule includes key match-ups with the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Braves, as well as the Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs, Cardinals, Marlins, and Rays. The network will provide HD telecasts for all six inter-league games between the Nationals and Orioles.

I wonder if they will just be piggybacking on the opponents network to get the HD? Most of those teams, if not all, show all their games in HD.

According to dcrtv.com (http://www.dcrtv.com), There will be no full-time MASN HD channel...

Ah, well then that makes sense, as it would seem very hard for MASN to bring in a full fledged HD channel when all they have is baseball in HD, and none of the other content(i.e. Anita Marks Show and College Basketball[which has 80s graphics that look horrendous]).

To partially answer your question John, MASN could use their agreement with My20 to broadcast HD games OTA on 20-1, but there are 80 games and not all 80 could be shown on My20, as it defeats the purpose of MASN as a channel.

afiggatt, I think the only way for Verizon to air MASN games is either to, add MOJO(not a high possibility)as a new channel by March 31(somebody said there was a couple QAM channels left in the system), or pre-empting programming on CSNMA-HD or My20. But Marcus Carr did state this quote, [MASN] said all of its 21 cable and satellite providers will air the HD telecasts on their HD tiers. This provides a partial reassurance that Verizon must have some kind of plan.

Ah, well then that makes sense, as it would seem very hard for MASN to bring in a full fledged HD channel when all they have is baseball in HD, and none of the other content(i.e. Anita Marks Show and College Basketball[which has 80s graphics that look horrendous]).


And it will probably be years before ESPN Regional Television (the provider of most of that crappy quality, yet popular NCAA basketball and football programming that MASN carries) goes HD.

To partially answer your question John, MASN could use their agreement with My20 to broadcast HD games OTA on 20-1, but there are 80 games and not all 80 could be shown on My20, as it defeats the purpose of MASN as a channel.

afiggatt, I think the only way for Verizon to air MASN games is either to, add MOJO(not a high possibility)as a new channel by March 31(somebody said there was a couple QAM channels left in the system), or pre-empting programming on CSNMA-HD or My20. But Marcus Carr did state this quote, This provides a partial reassurance that Verizon must have some kind of plan.
Verizon is not going to pre-empt programing on WDCA My20 HD. They would almost certainly have agreements with the broadcast channels that would prevent that. Carriage agreements with most of the HD cable channels would likely block Verizon from interrupting that HD feed to show games. Comcast would use Mojo (then InHD) for this because Comcast is a part-owner of Mojo and must have set up the contracts to allow them to pre-empt it for local/regional sport events.

Don't know how Verizon is going to handle the part time MASN HD feed. Verizon has the bandwidth locally AFAIK so they maybe they would add a HD channel 830 which is blank except when there is a MASN HD game.

I guess I should not be surprised that MASN is not going to start up a full time HD channel. Most RSNs are providing a full time HD channel in part to stake a HD claim in the limited HD bandwidth available. At this rate, I would lay odds that MASN and MASN-2 will be among the last RSNs to provide all their baseball games in HD.

As for whether My20 would have any games in HD, I would not count on it. Maybe a few HD games, but MASN and WDCA would have to set up a HD feed. Would they bother?

Nice! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_Television_Network

As RTN has customized schedules for each affiliate, not all shows are usually carried in every market.

The A-Team
The Andy Griffith Show
Bonanza
The Brady Bunch
Cheers
Emergency!
Family Affair
Family Ties
The Fugitive
Get Smart
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
Happy Days
Hawaii Five-O
Hogan's Heroes
The Honeymooners
Ironside
Kojak
Knight Rider
Laverne & Shirley
Little House on the Prairie
The Lucy Show
Magnum P.I.
Matlock
Mission: Impossible
Mork & Mindy
Off Beat Cinema
Perry Mason
Petticoat Junction
Rawhide
The Rockford Files
The Streets of San Francisco
The Wild Wild West

-John

Isn't this TVLand? Well, I am glad to see Get Smart on that list. I put a search for it in my DVR and haven't had a hit on it yet. Heck, I almost spent $$$ on those Time Life Get Smart DVDs they adv from time to time.

In the last few weeks, I've noticed the WRC-HD signal has all of a sudden become unreliable. The OTA signal meter on my Directv HR10-250 shows a 4-1 field 25% less than 5-1, 7-1 and 9-1. Has anyone experienced this or heard anything about any technical problems at WRC? Thanks.

I would love to see RTN on WJLA. It's what TV Land used to be. Now the question is - when will DirecTV get around to adding local subchannels?

I would love to see RTN on WJLA. It's what TV Land used to be.

It's also what I thought Good TV on 45-2 was supposed to be before it gave up on most of the old programs and started showing 45-1 simulcasts and more recent reruns most of the time.

DCRTV is also reporting WJLA has made a deal to carry something called Retro Television Network on a new (wihch would make three) subchannel. How much bandwidth will that suck away from WJLA-DT?

See WETA-DT 26.1

See WETA-DT 26.1

Not exactly. Although I'm no fan of subchannels, WJLA is 720p which is much more subchannel friendly than WETA's 1080i.

In the last few weeks, I've noticed the WRC-HD signal has all of a sudden become unreliable. The OTA signal meter on my Directv HR10-250 shows a 4-1 field 25% less than 5-1, 7-1 and 9-1. Has anyone experienced this or heard anything about any technical problems at WRC? Thanks.

In the past week, I have noticed that there is no PSIP data for WRC 1 and 2

DCRTV is also reporting WJLA has made a deal to carry something called Retro Television Network on a new (wihch would make three) subchannel. How much bandwidth will that suck away from WJLA-DT?

Also, when is it supposed to launch?

Also, when is it supposed to launch?

Not until "late this year," according to the press release I read.

I live in Silver Spring and I am getting some very bad reception on my Local HD stations through Directv. I have several HR20s and the receiver does not seem to be the issue. It seems that every night when watching shows in Primetime (8-11), at some point in the program the signal will scramble and pixelate for about 30 seconds. This happens almost every night and it seems I can't get through a program without it happening. Not the best for Lost and CSI fans like myself. Does anyone else have these issues?? I have called Directv and they tell me that there isn't any widespread issue in my area. It seems everything went down hill when they launched their new satelites. Anyway, please share your experience, thanks!

I live in Silver Spring and I am getting some very bad reception on my Local HD stations through Directv. I have several HR20s and the receiver does not seem to be the issue. It seems that every night when watching shows in Primetime (8-11), at some point in the program the signal will scramble and pixelate for about 30 seconds. This happens almost every night and it seems I can't get through a program without it happening. Not the best for Lost and CSI fans like myself. Does anyone else have these issues?? I have called Directv and they tell me that there isn't any widespread issue in my area. It seems everything went down hill when they launched their new satelites. Anyway, please share your experience, thanks!

Are you doing OTA for locals, or the MPEG4-HD for locals?

I use OTA for locals, and they've been perfect (except for CW50, which has an annoying audio click every minute or so).

Are you doing OTA for locals, or the MPEG4-HD for locals?

I use OTA for locals, and they've been perfect (except for CW50, which has an annoying audio click every minute or so).

I am using the MPEG 4 feed for locals. What kind of antenna and set up are you using for your Locals? I am very interested to see how fellow DTV patrons receive their locals OTA. And if others are getting the same noise I am getting through the MPEG 4 feed. Thanks!

I would love to see RTN on WJLA. It's what TV Land used to be. Now the question is - when will DirecTV get around to adding local subchannels?

Not for a long, long time....if ever.

Not exactly. Although I'm no fan of subchannels, WJLA is 720p which is much more subchannel friendly than WETA's 1080i.

I would imagine that the weather subchannel and localpoint tv don't take a whole lot of bandwidth either.

I am using the MPEG 4 feed for locals. What kind of antenna and set up are you using for your Locals? I am very interested to see how fellow DTV patrons receive their locals OTA. And if others are getting the same noise I am getting through the MPEG 4 feed. Thanks!

I also receive the locals OTA with an outdoor antenna and a pre-amp. If all else fails, the locals are always there!

I am using the MPEG 4 feed for locals. What kind of antenna and set up are you using for your Locals? I am very interested to see how fellow DTV patrons receive their locals OTA. And if others are getting the same noise I am getting through the MPEG 4 feed. Thanks!

I'm in Germantown and use an attic mounted Channel Master 4228 with a Channel Master 7775 pre amp. The antenna is actually enough, I use the pre amp because I'm splitting the signal a few times. I'm feeding two HR20s and one HR10. OTA is flawless (after countless trips to the attic to find the right antenna location.) I haven't noticed a lot of issues with the MPEG 4 feeds (I split between OTA and MPEG 4 to keep an eye on differences). I did notice the pixilation you described several times during the Academy Awards on Sunday.

I live in Silver Spring and I am getting some very bad reception on my Local HD stations through Directv. I have several HR20s and the receiver does not seem to be the issue. It seems that every night when watching shows in Primetime (8-11), at some point in the program the signal will scramble and pixelate for about 30 seconds. This happens almost every night and it seems I can't get through a program without it happening. Not the best for Lost and CSI fans like myself. Does anyone else have these issues?? I have called Directv and they tell me that there isn't any widespread issue in my area. It seems everything went down hill when they launched their new satelites. Anyway, please share your experience, thanks!

I see the pixelation you describe on WJLA, but haven't noticed it on the other locals on the satellite. OTA is fine.

To partially answer your question John, MASN could use their agreement with My20 to broadcast HD games OTA on 20-1, but there are 80 games and not all 80 could be shown on My20, as it defeats the purpose of MASN as a channel.
Well, I was only asking if there was going to be ANY HD content on 20 this year, not all the games obviously. 20 should have the capability as they did the ESPN MNF games in HD.

BTW, anyone notice really bad sound on 4-1 last night during Poker After Dark? I DVR'd it, but it was unwachable because of the noise in the sound. Even Leno afterwards in HD was noisy.

-John

my20 didn't broadcast captions this evening for the 11 o'clock showing of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." This was an unpleasant surprise as it had been broadcasting at least analog captions previously for all of the 11 o'clock showings of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." Interestingly, the EPG did not indicate the program was captioned either, even though it should have been. The program was newer than other programs that had been captioned yesterday and the last couple of weeks.

What a disappointing step backwards. The network and/or the station should think about how unhappy the sponsors would be to learn that the program is unwatchable for 15% of the population when a decision is made not to provide captions for the program (which is also a violation of law). There's a lot less bang for the advertising bucks when captions aren't delivered.

Dana

WJLA is by far the worst of the MPEG-4 locals (via D*, H20 receiver). The picture breaks up (as described above, often times completely freezing for a few seconds) at least once during Wheel and Jeopardy! and less often during prime-time.

WJLA is by far the worst of the MPEG-4 locals (via D*, H20 receiver). The picture breaks up (as described above, often times completely freezing for a few seconds) at least once during Wheel and Jeopardy! and less often during prime-time.

I'd say that's more a problem of the aiming of your dish. I don't have any problems with WJLA breaking up on either one of my HR20s. When I had my first HR20 installed, the guy slapped the dish up there and aimed it more or less to just the 101, 110, and 119 sats. When I had the second HR20 installed, D* wouldn't let me do it myself and insisted on the install. So I had this guy re-aim the dish, and the problems went away. I've had more problems recently with OTA than the MPEG4 channels.

WJLA is by far the worst of the MPEG-4 locals (via D*, H20 receiver). The picture breaks up (as described above, often times completely freezing for a few seconds) at least once during Wheel and Jeopardy! and less often during prime-time.


Agreed. Easily the worst. It's pretty rare to not get at least a few breakups during an hour-long ABC primetime program.

I'd say that's more a problem of the aiming of your dish. I don't have any problems with WJLA breaking up on either one of my HR20s. When I had my first HR20 installed, the guy slapped the dish up there and aimed it more or less to just the 101, 110, and 119 sats. When I had the second HR20 installed, D* wouldn't let me do it myself and insisted on the install. So I had this guy re-aim the dish, and the problems went away. I've had more problems recently with OTA than the MPEG4 channels.

I get that issue too, but I'm really doubting that mine is because of the aim of my dish. It almost always seem to be the case, if a breakup/freeze happens, that it happens within the first 3 minutes or so of a show. I don't know if it's the broadcast, since I don't watch my shows until they're recorded. So it could be the recording process.

I get that issue too, but I'm really doubting that mine is because of the aim of my dish. It almost always seem to be the case, if a breakup/freeze happens, that it happens within the first 3 minutes or so of a show. I don't know if it's the broadcast, since I don't watch my shows until they're recorded. So it could be the recording process.

Maybe. My wife watches WoF & Jeopardy regularly, and I'm sure I'd hear it from her if the breakups happened regularly.

Agreed. Easily the worst. It's pretty rare to not get at least a few breakups during an hour-long ABC primetime program.

Not sure if it's ABC's network feed or WJLA's feed to DirecTV, but Lost on Thursday nights is almost painful to watch. There's at least five or six severe picture breakup/freeze/pixelation events an hour, each lasting about a minute. Each time, the audio continues unabated. Seems to happen just about every ten minutes, but seemingly never during a commercial (oddly enough).

I doubt this is a dish aiming problem since it only seems to happen on WJLA.

WJLA is perfect OTA (and from Comcast / FiOS), so it sounds like DirecTV is responsible for those issues.

If you have a HR20, you should be able to pickup the source feed with an off-air antenna. If you have a HR21, DirecTV will release their USB OTA tuner add-on soon.

I'll note for the record that up until a few months ago, I was having constant, very minor video glitches (maybe one or two per hour) with WJLA-DT via Comcast of DC. There were also a few days where the picture was completely scrambled and unwatchable. Haven't seen any problems in months, though.

Drew

I see the WJLA breakups on Dish Network too. I only seem to ever see the during ABC primetime programming (usually Desparate Housewive, or Lost). Other shows never seem to have these break ups, especially local stuff.

did anyone notice between periods of the late game on NHL network HD that the intermission reports were in SD and would flip to HD at the beginning of each period? I was watching on cox ffx..

Friday Night Smackdown is moving this fall from the WB to My Network.

So, now would be a good time for WUTB to actually power up there lowly digital signal so that we'll be able to continue to see Smackdown in HD.

I'll note for the record that up until a few months ago, I was having constant, very minor video glitches (maybe one or two per hour) with WJLA-DT via Comcast of DC. There were also a few days where the picture was completely scrambled and unwatchable. Haven't seen any problems in months, though.

Drew

I still get random breakups on WJLA HD on Comcast during Lost. It never lasts for more then a few seconds and maybe only twice per episode. But it's still annoying. The only other channel I've seen this happen on is Fox 5. But it's extremely rare and short lived on that channel (last time was during the beginning episodes of this seasons American Idol).

did anyone notice between periods of the late game on NHL network HD that the intermission reports were in SD and would flip to HD at the beginning of each period? I was watching on cox ffx..
Oddly enough I did notice that -- even though I was watching on Comcast Annapolis, who cannot be bothered to give us NHL HD. I've seen enough of the "HD flip" to know what it looks like, and it was present even on the SD channel.

Thanks for the info. The breakups occur more when WJLA is in HD if that makes any sense. None of the software updates to the H20 have made things better. I'll call D* up, but probably won't get too far with their "service reps 10000 miles away" about WJLA. I don't think it is an aiming/signal strength issue. I'll run some numbers when I get a chance and have some people here take a look.

More and more I am thinking of buying an off-air antenna and putting it in my attic before summer hits.

I just wanted to add my voice to those experiencing the annoying picture breakups on WJLA on my D* HR20. I'm too far out to get the channels OTA, so this is my only source for local HD.

It never happens on the other local channels, just WJLA. And since I only watch Lost on that channel, that's the only show I have for reference. But it happens at least 3 or 4 times every time I watch Lost. It lasts for anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds. Sometimes I have to change the channel and turn back to get my picture back. This has been going on for well over a year, since when I had the H20 receiver.

Oddly enough I did notice that -- even though I was watching on Comcast Annapolis, who cannot be bothered to give us NHL HD. I've seen enough of the "HD flip" to know what it looks like, and it was present even on the SD channel.

good to see it wasn't cox's fault. maybe there is a multinational event-only HD policy... the trade deadline coverage was in SD too at the tsn studios in toronto and i know they have hd...

Are you doing OTA for locals, or the MPEG4-HD for locals?

I use OTA for locals, and they've been perfect (except for CW50, which has an annoying audio click every minute or so).

I'm having the same problem with CW50. The audio seems to skip for a split second every minute or two. The strange thing is that I was originally also having this problem with OTA. I recently switched to comcast w/ a QAM tuner and I'm having the EXACT same problem. This really suggests that it's just an issue with their feed. Do you know if anyone has contacted them (CW50) to try and resolve it? A couple months ago everything was great....

Friday Night Smackdown is moving this fall from the WB to My Network.

So, now would be a good time for WUTB to actually power up there lowly digital signal so that we'll be able to continue to see Smackdown in HD.Where IS My Network? :confused:

has anyone had any problems with WMAR? I live in Parkville (north of Baltimore) and have not signal problems, but recently (two days ago) I stopped receiving WMAR. oddly enough, I get the DC channel WJLA no problem, as it is much farther away. I'm using Vista Media Center with a HDHomerun for tunning.

Thanks

has anyone had any problems with WMAR? I live in Parkville (north of Baltimore) and have not signal problems, but recently (two days ago) I stopped receiving WMAR.
WMAR-DT 2 is coming in fine OTA here in Sterling, VA. You should try a re-scan in case your tuner got bad PSIP data for the station. Can you manually tune to channel 52 or 52.1 and see anything on the signal strength meter?

ZIP: 20165. 5LNB, H20 receiver:
Sat 101 - mostly in 90s, all above 80 except transponders 20 (77) and 28 (52)
110 - ALL 3 fine
119 - a mix of 0 and high 90s.
99 - 48, 90, 55, 96, 0, 78(of the 6)
103(a) - all 0 (b) 90s (of applicable)

So I don't think I have an aiming problem, so to speak. Closest to afiggatt's location in Sterling, I'd guess.

RCN has finally added WDCA-HD, on channel 189.

Hello all,

I just moved to the area and am currently staying at a place with Cox expanded basic, from what I gather, no digital channels. Does anyone have the QAM listings? i get all the networks but was wondering if any other channels were coming in HD.

Also, The place I am moving, the guys say without a box they get a decent amount of HD, including ESPN, does Cox fairfax send out unencrypted QAM of ESPN and ESPN2?

Any info would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

hayes.

Hello all,

I just moved to the area and am currently staying at a place with Cox expanded basic, from what I gather, no digital channels. Does anyone have the QAM listings? i get all the networks but was wondering if any other channels were coming in HD.

Also, The place I am moving, the guys say without a box they get a decent amount of HD, including ESPN, does Cox fairfax send out unencrypted QAM of ESPN and ESPN2?

Any info would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

hayes.

They don't, I wish that they did!!

man, well unless their box was hidden, he was getting ESPN2HD, and i didn't see a cable box in sight. i didn't ask too many questions, I will when I move in. I think i might just get a Tivo HD and cable cards as it would be cheaper per month on the cable bill and id just foot the tivo bill.

man, well unless their box was hidden, he was getting ESPN2HD, and i didn't see a cable box in sight. i didn't ask too many questions, I will when I move in. I think i might just get a Tivo HD and cable cards as it would be cheaper per month on the cable bill and id just foot the tivo bill.There are only two explanations. One, it was ESPN2 not ESPN2HD. The second one is that they have a Cable Card installed and they just don't know it. I have tried numerous times, but no premium channels in HD. Just locals.

BTW, welcome to the area.

WMAR-DT 2 is coming in fine OTA here in Sterling, VA. You should try a re-scan in case your tuner got bad PSIP data for the station. Can you manually tune to channel 52 or 52.1 and see anything on the signal strength meter?

I also started having problems with WMAR in the last few days (using Vista Media Center). I have tried re-scanning and setting up a manual channel to tune to 52, but with no success. The odd part is that in all cases the signal meter shows a strong signal, but there is no picture or sound.

Does anyone on Cox know if it's going to be possible to get the UFC PPV this weekend in HD? I believe the only PPV/On-Demand HD channel we receive is channel 700, and that only has HD Movie options. Not only is the PPV obviously expensive, but it's even harder to justify the price if I can't get it in HD...

RCN has finally added WDCA-HD, on channel 189.

We had to wait for enough power.

Where IS My Network? :confused:
WUTB-24 (My 24) in Baltimore, and WDCA-20 (My 20) in Washington.

well I know for sure it was espn2HD..... I will look into this further when I move in. Thanks for the help though.

Not sure if it's ABC's network feed or WJLA's feed to DirecTV, but Lost on Thursday nights is almost painful to watch. There's at least five or six severe picture breakup/freeze/pixelation events an hour, each lasting about a minute. Each time, the audio continues unabated. Seems to happen just about every ten minutes, but seemingly never during a commercial (oddly enough).

I doubt this is a dish aiming problem since it only seems to happen on WJLA.



Last night being no exception.

WUTB-24 (My 24) in Baltimore, and WDCA-20 (My 20) in Washington.

and when is WUTB-24 going full power? I can get every other channel even WBOC-16 when conditions are right, but my signal meter doesn't even move on 41(24).

Just popping my head in the door and looking around the place to see if it has changed at all....

I hope you are all well... I'll be around

--Still believing that science can prove "Luminiferous aether"

Cox Northern Virginia adds Travel Channel HD(732) and Cinemax HD(733) today.

Last night being no exception.

There's a pretty extensive bitch-fest about this over on dbstalk.com.

The baseball telecast schedules are now posted on the MASN site, including which 80 games will be telecast in HD. Some of the games that will be simulcast OTA (WJZ or WDCA) will be in HD, although the announcement doesn't say whether the OTA station will get the HD feed. http://masnsports.com/2008/02/masn-releases-maximum-access-n.html

I also started having problems with WMAR in the last few days (using Vista Media Center). I have tried re-scanning and setting up a manual channel to tune to 52, but with no success. The odd part is that in all cases the signal meter shows a strong signal, but there is no picture or sound.

I am having the same problems, using Windows Vista media center and Avermedia Combo PCIe tuners. I would encourage you to call the station, (410) 377-2222 and let them know. Do you think this could be related to the "silverlight 1.0" update relased by microsoft in the same timeframe?

Shawn

The baseball telecast schedules are now posted on the MASN site, including which 80 games will be telecast in HD. Some of the games that will be simulcast OTA (WJZ or WDCA) will be in HD, although the announcement doesn't say whether the OTA station will get the HD feed. http://masnsports.com/2008/02/masn-releases-maximum-access-n.html

At least they're being semi-fair with respect to splitting the 80 as 40 Nats, 40 O's... Although if you want to get technical, three of the Nats' 40 are against the O's, so O's fans that don't mind listening to the Nats' announcers will get at least 43 games in HD :(.

Drew

The baseball telecast schedules are now posted on the MASN site, including which 80 games will be telecast in HD. Some of the games that will be simulcast OTA (WJZ or WDCA) will be in HD, although the announcement doesn't say whether the OTA station will get the HD feed.
Alright. So it is now officially 80 games in HD. Some are road games too. This will be a big improvement over last year for sure, although that is only an average of 40 games per team when quite a few MLB teams are all games in HD or all home games & some away for a 100+ HD games. A decent number of broadcast games as well with 30 on WDCA 20 and 25 on WJZ 13 (with a lot of CBS summer programming pre-empted). As you noted, some of the HD games do coincide with OTA broadcasts on WDCA 20 (6 by my count) and WJZ 13 (8 by my count), so the next step is to contact the station and ask if they are preparing to broadcast the game in HD.

Now we need the service providers to be ready to carry a part-time MASN HD feed by April.

Although if you want to get technical, three of the Nats' 40 are against the O's, so O's fans that don't mind listening to the Nats' announcers will get at least 43 games in HD

But then the opposite is true in that there are 43 Nats HD games as 3 of the O's HD games are vs. the Nationals.

But then opposite is true in that there are 43 Nats HD games as 3 of the O's HD games are vs. the Nationals.

Good call... I missed that the first time around. Guess I can put my Peter Angelos conspiracy theories away for a while :).

Drew

I am trying to decide if I should buy MLB EI with Comcast. I live in Alexandria, VA and was wondering if last year Comcast had EI baseball games in HD? What channels do they use for the HD games?

Matt

and when is WUTB-24 going full power? I can get every other channel even WBOC-16 when conditions are right, but my signal meter doesn't even move on 41(24).
The last post from Mark Bulla on this was WUTB-DT was working towards going full power in March. So the answer is someday real soon which has been the answer for a long time now. They have gotten a lot of STA extensions from the FCC and I think the latest 6 month extension runs out in May. They will be turning off the analog 24 signal next February 17 (if not sooner to give WNVC-DT 56 in Fairfax a break to get back on the air sooner). You would think that with the converter boxes now hitting the stores, that they would want to have the DT signal at full power so they won't lose the analog viewers who hook up the converter boxes without figuring out how to get the analog stations as well. The low power stations across the US, many of which won't be going digital next February 17, are suddenly worried about this.

I am trying to decide if I should buy MLB EI with Comcast. I live in Alexandria, VA and was wondering if last year Comcast had EI baseball games in HD? What channels do they use for the HD games?

Matt

I have ordered the package for the last two years. The first year, they would show the occasional game on the iNHD2 channel. Since then Comcast got rid of the iNHD1 and 2 channels and replaced with them with MOJO. I don't think they showed any HD telecasts on MOJO last year (or any other channel), but I could be wrong.

was anyone else able to watch cinemax hd on cox before they encrypted it? I was able to sleep through the hitcher and watch the rest of the night for free....

thanks cox!

I have ordered the package for the last two years. The first year, they would show the occasional game on the iNHD2 channel. Since then Comcast got rid of the iNHD1 and 2 channels and replaced with them with MOJO. I don't think they showed any HD telecasts on MOJO last year (or any other channel), but I could be wrong.

Could they show EI HD games on the HDPPV channel?

I have ordered the package for the last two years. The first year, they would show the occasional game on the iNHD2 channel. Since then Comcast got rid of the iNHD1 and 2 channels and replaced with them with MOJO. I don't think they showed any HD telecasts on MOJO last year (or any other channel), but I could be wrong.

The games on INHD2 had nothing to do with EI. They were games that INHD contracted for with MLB and local broadcasts. They would use local broadcasts (such as NESN, CSN, etc.) pictures and sound but their own graphics.

I did not have EI on Comcast but got the games on INHD2.

They did not show any MLB games on INHD/Mojo last year. They do use the Mojo channel for NBA TV games and others.

Starting Early...

Dammit Comcast! Where are the new HD CHannels you said would be available!!!
ARGH!

Starting Early...

Dammit Comcast! Where are the new HD CHannels you said would be available!!!
ARGH!I thought they were due next week?

I think they were pushed out to March 4th.

WUTB-24 (My 24) in Baltimore, and WDCA-20 (My 20) in Washington.Funny that. Smackdown IIRC was originally on WDCA.

I thought they were due next week?

They are due on Tuesday...Just got bored last night...

I am anxious to see what the quality is like. Both channels are distributed at about 17.1Mbps ABR with 18+Mbps peaks.

Customers have complained about the quality in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and elsewhere where Comcast is recompressing those 17Mbps feeds to 12-13Mbps. On the other hand, quality is excellent in some former Adelphia service areas like Staunton, VA, which receive the full bitrate.

Starting Early...

Dammit Comcast! Where are the new HD CHannels you said would be available!!!
ARGH!

Ditto - I wonder when 3/4 comes along if we will still be asking the same question.

I will also be watching PQ closely as they add 9 HD channels - if it really happens.:D

Has anyone noticed that the CinemaxHD feed from Cox is not broadcasting in Dolby Digital? Most of the other HD channels do broadcast a majority of the content and movies in DD 5.1.

They are due on Tuesday...Just got bored last night...

Yep, just in time for the season finale of Stargate Atlantis on SFI-FI next Friday. Like bfdtv said, it'll be interesting to see if they compress it to crap. If so, I may continue to watch the digitized analog feed; even when I zoom the aspect that looks OK on my 42" plasma.

I just had Comcast triple play installed after 13 years with DirecTV. I had a specific Motorola DVR listed on the sign up agreement as a condition of me getting Comcast but I did not receive that DVR and have since been told that Howard County Maryland only has the Scientific Atlantic DVR. The Scientific Atlantic DVR software is horrible and a good 5-10 years behind what I have been used to with DirecTV. I am probably going to cancel my Comcast service. Before I do I thought I'd try to see if a few of the many complaints I have with the Scientific Atlantic DVR are not valid. Here are 4 of about 20+ complaints I have.

Scientific Atlantic 8300HD with SARA 1.88 software

1) How can I tell the DVR to record only new episodes of a reoccurring show ? The Scientific Atlantic 8300HD manual says you can do this if the cable company supports it but the option does not show up for me. Considering how little space this DVR has for HD recording is is essential to be able to record just new show and not repeats. How can I do this ?

2) If I am in the Guide on channel 2 and I want to look at programs around channel 300, how go to go directly to channel 300 without having to scroll through 300 channels in the guide ? If I type in 300 as the channel number it changes the channel and I start watching that TV show.

3) How do I get the guide to show only the channels that I received ? It's ridiculous to have to go through all kinds of channels that I don't receive in the guide. The favorites feature on the Scientific 8300HD is worthless since it doesn't work with the guide but cycles through the channels.

4) How can I record all Maryland Basketball games ? I used to do this with several different shows. I can see how to record every "College Basketball" show, which would wipe out all DVR space, but no way to record only Maryland basketball games. I think this requires a keyword search.

I am very surprised at how primitive and awful this DVR is. I probably going to cancel and go back to DirecTV unless Comcast has something better coming very soon.

Not to be flippant, as I completely agree with what you're saying, but TivoHD is really the answer to all these problems. I have both these boxes, and unless you really need VOD, the Tivo unit is light years ahead of any of the providers' boxes. I was able to snag a lifetime sub, and the place I bought it has a 'lifetime' satisfaction guarantee. Yes, the upfront cost was fairly steep, but if it lasts 4 years, I'm saving money.

Someone earler indicated that the DVR the cable company gives you is dependent on the head-end equipment that is local to you. I'm not an expert, so I can't say that's true, but if it is, there's almost no chance you'll get the Motorola box instead of the SA.

1) Get a TiVo.

2) Get a TiVo.

3) Get a TiVo.

4) Get a TiVo.

Not trying to be a dick... Just pointing out that a TiVo would indeed handle all four, and probably a significant portion of the other complaints you have. Of course, it's probably a little more expensive.

Drew

I just had Comcast triple play installed after 13 years with DirecTV. I had a specific Motorola DVR listed on the sign up agreement as a condition of me getting Comcast but I did not receive that DVR and have since been told that Howard County Maryland only has the Scientific Atlantic DVR. The Scientific Atlantic DVR software is horrible and a good 5-10 years behind what I have been used to with DirecTV. I am probably going to cancel my Comcast service. Before I do I thought I'd try to see if a few of the many complaints I have with the Scientific Atlantic DVR are not valid. Here are 4 of about 20+ complaints I have.

The TivoHD is the new and improved version of what you had with DirecTV. The hardware is very similar to DirecTV's current HR20 DVR, except it runs the latest version of TiVo software -- much newer than what you had with DirecTV.

A TivoHD can be had for $250 with fees ($12.99/mo or $129/yr -- similar to the Comcast DVR) or $699 with no fees (http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-promo/show.do?pg=/buytivo/hdgift.html). You'll probably also want to budget for the Western Digital My DVR Expander external hard drive. That will increase capacity to 86 HD hours.

Samurai, I feel your pain. I've had the SA DVR for four years, and while I like having a DVR, it certainly is not a Tivo. The only solution I have for you is for question 1, after you make a scheduled recording and select Record All Episodes, then hit Button A. You'll then have the option to record only first run shows, record every instance of that show in that time slot, or record every time the show is run. As for your other questions, no, no and no. I would love to have only the channels that I subscribe to show up in the guide, and I would also love a search feature, but it doesn't seem like that will ever happen. The only thing to get through the program listings quickly would be to use Page down and Page up.

I had cinemax HD in dolby 3/2.1 when they had not locked it down thursday night.... maybe they botched it up when they fixed their glitch and made people pay for it....

I just had Comcast triple play installed after 13 years with DirecTV. I had a specific Motorola DVR listed on the sign up agreement as a condition of me getting Comcast but I did not receive that DVR and have since been told that Howard County Maryland only has the Scientific Atlantic DVR. The Scientific Atlantic DVR software is horrible and a good 5-10 years behind what I have been used to with DirecTV. I am probably going to cancel my Comcast service. Before I do I thought I'd try to see if a few of the many complaints I have with the Scientific Atlantic DVR are not valid. Here are 4 of about 20+ complaints I have.

Scientific Atlantic 8300HD with SARA 1.88 software

1) How can I tell the DVR to record only new episodes of a reoccurring show ? The Scientific Atlantic 8300HD manual says you can do this if the cable company supports it but the option does not show up for me. Considering how little space this DVR has for HD recording is is essential to be able to record just new show and not repeats. How can I do this ?

2) If I am in the Guide on channel 2 and I want to look at programs around channel 300, how go to go directly to channel 300 without having to scroll through 300 channels in the guide ? If I type in 300 as the channel number it changes the channel and I start watching that TV show.

3) How do I get the guide to show only the channels that I received ? It's ridiculous to have to go through all kinds of channels that I don't receive in the guide. The favorites feature on the Scientific 8300HD is worthless since it doesn't work with the guide but cycles through the channels.

4) How can I record all Maryland Basketball games ? I used to do this with several different shows. I can see how to record every "College Basketball" show, which would wipe out all DVR space, but no way to record only Maryland basketball games. I think this requires a keyword search.

I am very surprised at how primitive and awful this DVR is. I probably going to cancel and go back to DirecTV unless Comcast has something better coming very soon.

The Motorola box isn't much to brag about it. I am tired of the lockups that is causes moving around the menus and guides.

I'm having serious issues with SNR in my apartment building in Rockville...I called Comcast and they are sending out a tech next Saturday (I'm not taking off work for freaking macroblocking). The original tech who came to install the box said that the signal wasn't strong because the telecommunications box is on the other side of completely opposite side of the floor and it had to travel a long distance to my STB. It seems only HBO and TNT are currently breaking up but after checking the Diagnostic Menu on the two different tuners, they are in-between 25-32db. I'm guessing this is not good and most definitely causing my picture break-ups. Is there anything I can ask Comcast to do when they come? We also have the 16Mbit internet service and I can typically pull 10-16Mbit at night (I guess when the network isn't as congested). I'm guessing these speeds would go up during the day as well with a bump in SNR.

Anyways, thanks for any help or past experience people have had with Comcast in an apartment building...also, this is the first time living in one so I don't know exactly what they can do in terms of infrastructure.

I just had Comcast triple play installed after 13 years with DirecTV. I had a specific Motorola DVR listed on the sign up agreement as a condition of me getting Comcast but I did not receive that DVR and have since been told that Howard County Maryland only has the Scientific Atlantic DVR. The Scientific Atlantic DVR software is horrible and a good 5-10 years behind what I have been used to with DirecTV. I am probably going to cancel my Comcast service. Before I do I thought I'd try to see if a few of the many complaints I have with the Scientific Atlantic DVR are not valid. Here are 4 of about 20+ complaints I have.

Scientific Atlantic 8300HD with SARA 1.88 software

1) How can I tell the DVR to record only new episodes of a reoccurring show ? The Scientific Atlantic 8300HD manual says you can do this if the cable company supports it but the option does not show up for me. Considering how little space this DVR has for HD recording is is essential to be able to record just new show and not repeats. How can I do this ?

2) If I am in the Guide on channel 2 and I want to look at programs around channel 300, how go to go directly to channel 300 without having to scroll through 300 channels in the guide ? If I type in 300 as the channel number it changes the channel and I start watching that TV show.

3) How do I get the guide to show only the channels that I received ? It's ridiculous to have to go through all kinds of channels that I don't receive in the guide. The favorites feature on the Scientific 8300HD is worthless since it doesn't work with the guide but cycles through the channels.

4) How can I record all Maryland Basketball games ? I used to do this with several different shows. I can see how to record every "College Basketball" show, which would wipe out all DVR space, but no way to record only Maryland basketball games. I think this requires a keyword search.

I am very surprised at how primitive and awful this DVR is. I probably going to cancel and go back to DirecTV unless Comcast has something better coming very soon.

With your list, you have just got the tip of the iceberg. You will soon find that the 8300 does not remember where you were in watching a recorded program unless it was the last recorded program you watched.

You will find that you are missing 30 skip/slip and skip to tick.

You will notice that you cannot take channels you don't have out of the guide.

You will find that searching for anything is a major PITA. You have to search by day and through an alphabetical list.

And there is more.

You have the choice of going back to DirecTV or getting an HD Tivo. I have both and am much happier since the 8300 is out of my house.

I got an STB under the DTV2009 program from BestBuy and found WHUT broadcasting 33-1 as the PSIP information. I sent an email to the FCC Broadcast Enforcement Division on Sunday 2/3/08 and today I noticed it was fixed and WHUT now shows 32-1. No response from the FCC or WHUT whom I copied on my query.

Today I received a response from the FCC on my query which is...

"The PSIP information is not the legal ID, so this is not a violation of
that rule." and went on to quote FCC rule § 73.1201 Station identification.

Still no response from the email I sent to WHUT.

WHUT continues to broadcast the correct PSIP OTA of 32-1, as of today.

Regards,
Bob

Just pointing out that a TiVo would indeed handle all four, and probably a significant portion of the other complaints you have. Of course, it's probably a little more expensive.

Yep, it's more money, but it's worth it. We switched from DirecTV tivo-based units to FIOS with a TivoHD. Same user interface, no complaining from the wife (she utterly DESPISED the DirecTV and FIOS 'house brand' units).

does anyone know when comcast (montgomery county) increased the price of HD VOD movies from 3.99 to 4.99? it was only 3.99 a little while ago but this past weekend, HD movies were showing up as 4.99.

Yep, it's more money, but it's worth it. We switched from DirecTV tivo-based units to FIOS with a TivoHD. Same user interface, no complaining from the wife (she utterly DESPISED the DirecTV and FIOS 'house brand' units).

This might be a little off-subject, but has anyone tried getting a Tivo from eBay (or the like) and replacing the Tivo software from a second-party? I'm asking because someone gave me a Tivo with a bad hard drive, and I was thinking of doing that.

Other than not having to pay Tivo, I don't know the pros and cons of the idea.

Thanks -

This might be a little off-subject, but has anyone tried getting a Tivo from eBay (or the like) and replacing the Tivo software from a second-party? I'm asking because someone gave me a Tivo with a bad hard drive, and I was thinking of doing that.

Other than not having to pay Tivo, I don't know the pros and cons of the idea.

Thanks -

You can buy a new HDD and put the TivoOS back on it, and then it's a real Tivo box. However you have to pay Tivo for a subscription.

Not sure why you'd want a Tivo box that doesn't run Tivo? There's nothing that special about the hardware that makes it especially useful.

With your list, you have just got the tip of the iceberg. You will soon find that the 8300 does not remember where you were in watching a recorded program unless it was the last recorded program you watched.

You will find that you are missing 30 skip/slip and skip to tick.

You will notice that you cannot take channels you don't have out of the guide.

You will find that searching for anything is a major PITA. You have to search by day and through an alphabetical list.

And there is more.

You have the choice of going back to DirecTV or getting an HD Tivo. I have both and am much happier since the 8300 is out of my house.

I guess I'm glad I never had Tivo or D* so I don't know what I'm missing. At least the SA easily allows you to add a Sata external drive to get enough HD storage to record basically all that I would ever want (I have about 50 hours now and only 2/3 full). They did add a 4th FF speed, but not keeping where you are if you have to stop watching a recorded show can be a real pain.

Rich N.

I guess I'm glad I never had Tivo or D* so I don't know what I'm missing. At least the SA easily allows you to add a Sata external drive to get enough HD storage to record basically all that I would ever want (I have about 50 hours now and only 2/3 full). They did add a 4th FF speed, but not keeping where you are if you have to stop watching a recorded show can be a real pain.

Rich N.

I moved over to TivoHD from the SA8300. Popped in a 1TB drive and have loved every minute of it!
If you can afford the move, I would say go for it!

Woohoo! The new HD channels are finally here in Alexandria!

PQ looks good, but some channels aren't currently showing HD content.

Woohoo! The new HD channels are finally here in Alexandria!

PQ looks good, but some channels aren't currently showing HD content.

That is expected...

I'm not refering to their regular content. Most cable channels show infomercials in the mornings.

I'm having serious issues with SNR in my apartment building in Rockville...I called Comcast and they are sending out a tech next Saturday (I'm not taking off work for freaking macroblocking). The original tech who came to install the box said that the signal wasn't strong because the telecommunications box is on the other side of completely opposite side of the floor and it had to travel a long distance to my STB. It seems only HBO and TNT are currently breaking up but after checking the Diagnostic Menu on the two different tuners, they are in-between 25-32db. I'm guessing this is not good and most definitely causing my picture break-ups. Is there anything I can ask Comcast to do when they come? We also have the 16Mbit internet service and I can typically pull 10-16Mbit at night (I guess when the network isn't as congested). I'm guessing these speeds would go up during the day as well with a bump in SNR.

Anyways, thanks for any help or past experience people have had with Comcast in an apartment building...also, this is the first time living in one so I don't know exactly what they can do in terms of infrastructure.

bump, anybody have any experience with this?

Thanks in advance

Does anyone know if the channels are compressed in Arlington/Alexandria? They look pretty good to me, so if they are it isn't obvious. Food HD looks amazing.

Looks good to me also. Tivo even has the Guide information out 2 weeks. All is good.
Appears that Comcast finally got it right:eek:

Someone post a list of the new HD channels and I'll put them up on the first post.

HGTV, Food, CNN, USA, SciFi, History, Discovery, TLC, and Animal Planet.

Does anyone know if the channels are compressed in Arlington/Alexandria? They look pretty good to me, so if they are it isn't obvious. Food HD looks amazing.

Last I knew, Comcast send the signal without any changes.

Does anyone know if the channels are compressed in Arlington/Alexandria? They look pretty good to me, so if they are it isn't obvious. Food HD looks amazing.For those that want to check the compression, you might record Bourne Identity on USA-HD on Wednesday @ 8:30pm or Thursday @ 1:30pm. Are the action scenes overly pixelated?

As far as I know, Comcast is not applying extra compression to CNN or History anywhere yet. The channels with new, extra compression in many Comcast markets include SciFi, USA, Discovery, HGTV, Starz, A&E, Food, NatGeo, UHD, TLC, HBO, and Cinemax.

Last I knew, Comcast send the signal without any changes.Could you record something in high-definition on SciFiHD and USAHD and report the file size, as indicated by the TiVo?

SCIFI-HD delivered the last two episodes of Stargate Atlantis at ~7.6GB for 1:00 (as reported by the TiVo), or 17.0-17.1Mbps ABR. Monk episodes were of similar size.

In many areas, Comcast has reduced bitrate from 17.0Mbps to 12.5Mbps and I am curious whether they are doing that in our area.

This might be a little off-subject, but has anyone tried getting a Tivo from eBay (or the like) and replacing the Tivo software from a second-party? I'm asking because someone gave me a Tivo with a bad hard drive, and I was thinking of doing that.

Other than not having to pay Tivo, I don't know the pros and cons of the idea.

Thanks -

a tivo is not a pc, it only supports the tivo os/software, so the only thing you can do is replace the bad hard-drive with a good one and restore it as a tivo. there is no second party software that will run on a tivo. of course you'd have to pay tivo for the guides/service etc.

a tivo is not a pc, it only supports the tivo os/software, so the only thing you can do is replace the bad hard-drive with a good one and restore it as a tivo. there is no second party software that will run on a tivo. of course you'd have to pay tivo for the guides/service etc.Technically, TiVo is a computer. It runs Linux 2.4.20 with the TiVo software.

But you are right that TiVo wouldn't be much use as a standalone computer for other software. The TivoHD has a 300MHz MIPS CPU with 256MB DDR400 and a SATA hard drive. The TiVo's 300MHz CPU scores 300 BogoMIPS in Linux, or about the same as a PentiumII 300MHz. You can compare that to BogoMIPS scores for other processors at this link (http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/mini/BogoMips-3.html).

There's not much you can do in 300MHz with a generic software. TiVo is able to get by with such a CPU because of hardware accelerated DVR functions and software that takes advantage of these functions. In fact, this is where TiVo holds most of their intellectual property (patents) -- making DVRs possible with slower, low-cost CPUs. Anyone could build a HDTV DVR with a 2GHz processor without infringing on TiVo's patents.

Woohoo! The new HD channels are finally here in Alexandria!

PQ looks good, but some channels aren't currently showing HD content.

Second that!

BTW, for anyone with a TV or DVR that has the TV Guide On Screen EPG, the TVGOS channel listing doesn't (currently) include all these new channels. For example, it doesn't include SCI-FI HD. To get that in the listings so you can tune directly to it from within the Guide, you need to manually change the channel assignment from 51 to 236 in the TVGOS Setup menu. It'll still get the 8-day program listing from the downloaded guide data, but will tune to the HD feed. This could change in the future if Gemstar updates its channel line-up, but that's the quick fix for now.

[QUOTE=bfdtv;13290884]For those that want to check the compression, you might record Bourne Identity on USA-HD on Wednesday @ 8:30pm or Thursday @ 1:30pm. Are the action scenes overly pixelated?

As far as I know, Comcast is not applying extra compression to CNN or History anywhere yet. The channels with new, extra compression in many Comcast markets include SciFi, USA, Discovery, HGTV, Starz, A&E, Food, NatGeo, UHD, TLC, HBO, and Cinemax.

Could you record something in high-definition on SciFiHD and USAHD and report the file size, as indicated by the TiVo?

SCIFI-HD delivered the last two episodes of Stargate Atlantis at ~7.6GB for 1:00 (as reported by the TiVo), or 17.0-17.1Mbps ABR. Monk episodes were of similar size.

Thru Tivo I scheduled SGA (SciFi) and Monk (USA) both of which are indicated as HD and Letterbox on Tivo for 5PM today - we'll see what the sizes are

Quote sure worked poorly.

I'll try again.

Thru Tivo I scheduled SGA (SciFi) and Monk (USA) both of which are indicated as HD and Letterbox on Tivo for 5PM today - we'll see what the sizes are

The results are in

SGA (SciFi) Tivo says 5.85
Monk (USA) 5.88

So how does that compare to other providers?

The results are in

SGA (SciFi) Tivo says 5.85
Monk (USA) 5.88

I don't know too much about bitrate, but a simple ratio between the previous data(7.6 GB/17Mbps) to today's data(5.85GB) Using a ratio, it came out to be 13.05Mbps, seems to be low, but average for the cable company's sake.

Inform me if this is a wrong calculation or not.

In Sterling on USAHD Law and Order is coming in between 17 and 18 mbps as VLC reports it. So they definitely aren't compressing it at all on the old Adelphia network.

The results are in

SGA (SciFi) Tivo says 5.85
Monk (USA) 5.88
So how does that compare to other providers?The original size of the recordings -- before extra compression -- was about 7.6Gb, or ~17Mbps ABR with 18Mbps peaks.

Former Adelphia systems in Sterling, Staunton, and other areas are reportedly getting the full quality signal.

Bourne Identity is a good test of the compression. Record Bourne Identity on USA-HD on Wednesday @ 8:30pm or Thursday @ 1:30pm and check whether the action scenes are pixelated.

Is anyone NOT getting FoodHD? I'm getting all the new HD channels except that one. It's just a blank screen.

Is anyone NOT getting FoodHD? I'm getting all the new HD channels except that one. It's just a blank screen.

It was there earlier but now it's gone, well, it's there but no picture or sound...I wonder if they lost it when they put the NBA on Mojo? Because I watched a show at 4:30, went out to get my free wings from Austin Grille (Thanks Caps and Bruins), come home and nothing is there...

OK cool. I'm not the only one. Thanks

I'm not getting FoodHD either, but I did get it this morning. I'm noticing that both HGTV and FoodHD are showing the listings of the SD channels, while showing totally different programming.

No new channels in MoCo, MD....:(

I'm noticing that both HGTV and FoodHD are showing the listings of the SD channels, while showing totally different programming.The guide issue is Comcast's problem. Scripps so far has desired to put only HD programs on their HD channels. So, since there are still some SD-only shows on the main HGTV and Food networks.....

No new channels in MoCo, MD....:(

Once again, MoCo is behind not only the rest of the Comcast Nation, but all of the Washington area localities as well.

Once again, MoCo is behind not only the rest of the Comcast Nation, but all of the Washington area localities as well.

MoCo is getting Discovery HD on 3/25. The main reason why we lag behind other local systems is because it is a 750MHz system vs. 860MHz for most others in the region.

Montgomery County has a pretty decent amount of HD channels. TBS-HD currently is a waste since most of the programming is stretched SD material. There are one or two channels which are slightly over 750mhz and I think they are upgrading the system.

There are one or two channels which are slightly over 750mhz and I think they are upgrading the system.

You're correct. I noticed recently that the NBA package was on ch. 117 but haven't seen anything higher than that yet .

Thank you kenrowe. Two follow-ups: where is CNN-HD and if our system is worse/different, when will it be upgraded?

Montgomery County has a pretty decent amount of HD channels. TBS-HD currently is a waste since most of the programming is stretched SD material. There are one or two channels which are slightly over 750mhz and I think they are upgrading the system.

TBS has baseball which is in HD (they will have a Sunday Game of the Week this season) and I've read that they will have their original shows in HD "soon" so there's something. Granted not a lot but something.

Two follow-ups: where is CNN-HD and if our system is worse/different, when will it be upgraded?

We don't have CNN-HD in MoCo and I haven't come across official news about a system upgrade...but like others, I've noticed the extra channel of QAM. When Discovery HD comes on board on the 25th, they are making room for it by moving the Cartoon Channel to digital only (they are also adding a few SD channels like IFC, WE and Fuse).

Thank you kenrowe. I can't get an answer from Comcast but you seem to be in the know.

Is there any news regarding Weather Channel HD on Cox-Fairfax? My last bill stated that TWC-HD would show up on 734 along with Travel HD (732) and CineMax HD (733).

-SUO

Courtesy of JD Land.

Thank you kenrowe. I can't get an answer from Comcast but you seem to be in the know.

FWIW: In Montgomery County, Comcast typically announces channel changes in advertisements in the Gazette newspapers. That is how I learned about the changes on 3/25.

In the Baltimore area, we still don't have CNN-HD and HistoryHD which I thought we were getting in January.

Rich N.

In the Baltimore area, we still don't have CNN-HD and HistoryHD which I thought we were getting in January.

Rich N.

Richmond seems to follow Baltimore, channel lineup and roll-out. We were supposed to have CNN-HD & History HD by year end ('07), according to a post card sent out last October, but as of yet, do not have either.

Ivy Smith (Verizon Contractor) just buried a span of the Orange conduit and put the Fiber in the pipe behind my property in Sterling...(north york rd)

My question...How long will it take before I get contacted by Verizon to offer service to my home?

I have heard from few weeks to 9 months....

Do I get my hopes up?....

Do I go ahead and get Comcast Triple play instead?

Still FIOS deprived:confused:

Charlie

Do I get my hopes up?....

Do I go ahead and get Comcast Triple play instead?

Still FIOS deprived:confused:Verizon FiOS isn't expected to have new HD channels such as CNN-HD, USA-HD, and SciFi-HD in the DC area until July, so you might as well sign up for Comcast's current 6-month promotion ($39.95 for digital package with HBO).

In July, Verizon FiOS is expected to add 30 new HD channels (60 total) in N. VA, without the extra compression used by Comcast in most of the DC metro area.

As far as new HD channels, the following dates were posted on DSLR for the elimination of analog channels and addition of ~30 new HD channels on FiOS. It may or may not be accurate. I have no confirmation.

IN(VHO10) 4/1
VA(VHO9) 4/7
VA(VHO9a) 4/14
NY(VHO5) 4/21
MA(VHO6) 5/12
RI(VHO6a) 5/12
DE(VHO8) 6/2
PA(VHO8) 6/2
NJ(VHO8) 6/2
NJ(VHO7) 6/23
MD(VHO4) 7/21 <-- DC area
VA(VHO4) 7/21 <-- DC area
FL(VHO2) 8/18
CA(VHO3) 9/1
TX(VHO1) 9/22

Hi All.
I was very excited to see that the new HD channels on Comcast are finally activated but I don't see any of them on my TivoHD.
I also have a regular Comcast HD cable box and all the channels appear fine.
Doing a diag on the TivoHD shows the signal strength is fine but I get no audio/video on those channels.

Is this some sort of bandwidth throttling that I've read about? Or is it a CableCard issue?

Anyone else with this issue? Any thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks....

I live in Parkville and I seem to be getting a lower signal on 11.1 than other signals. All the rest coming from the transmitter are 88-95 strength and are stable. 11.1 is 71 solid. I am just wondering if it is lower power or something?

Hi All.
I was very excited to see that the new HD channels on Comcast are finally activated but I don't see any of them on my TivoHD.
I also have a regular Comcast HD cable box and all the channels appear fine.
Doing a diag on the TivoHD shows the signal strength is fine but I get no audio/video on those channels.If you are using a favorites list, you won't see the new channels until you check them under Settings -> Channels -> Channel List.

I don't know where you are, but the new channels are on TiVo with Comcast Arlington.

I live in Parkville and I seem to be getting a lower signal on 11.1 than other signals. All the rest coming from the transmitter are 88-95 strength and are stable. 11.1 is 71 solid. I am just wondering if it is lower power or something?
Of the five major digital stations in NW Baltimore, WBAL-DT 11 has the lowest power at 513 kW and the highest in frequency at UHF 59. It is the weakest signal for me of the 5 Baltimore stations. WMAR-DT 2 (52) is also weaker as I have to position the antenna carefully to get it (to get the right aim to get DC and Baltimore stations). WJZ-DT 13 (38), WBFF-DT 45 (46), WNUV-DT 54 (40) are all strong signals at 43 miles.

Next February 17, WBAL-DT will move to VHF 11. The station has stated they intend to ask for a stronger signal than the 6.91 kW they have been allocated, but it will likely still be the weakest station of the five.

WMAR-DT 2 will take over WJZ-DT's antenna location on UHF 38 and has asked to broadcast at 1000 kW, so WMAR-DT should be able to be picked up over a wide area. If WMAR-DT would get rid of the stupid 2-2 sub-channel which is a simulcast of the 2-1 sub-channel, it would be the preferred ABC station to watch if WJLA-DT 7 is going to add another SD sub-channel with the inevitable degradation in HD picture quality.