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've verified that all of the new Channels are selected properly. They show up in the on-screen guide and all programs are listed properly with show descriptions. But when you tune to one of these channels it's just a black screen with no audio or video. It's been that way for months with the National Geographic Channel, the MTVHD channel and a few others. Now the new HD channels have finally been added here (SciFiHD, CNNHD, etc) and I just have a black screen.
I've rebooted the TivoHD, hoping the CableCard would check back it and correct the problem but that doesn't seem to change anything.
I'm hesitant to call Comcast Tech support since my experience in the past leads me to believe I know more about Tivo and CableCards than they do.
I'm a Arlington Comcast customer in Fairlington if anyone here is in this area.
It's pretty frustrating since I've been excited about these new channels since I first heard they were being added.

For some reason, your account is not authorized to receive those channels.

What level of digital service do you have? You won't get those channels with basic or extended basic, or whatever they are calling that now.

I would call Comcast and tell them that you are not receiving the HD cable channels. I would not even mention the CableCard or the TiVo; just get them to verify that your account is authorized to receive all the HD channels.

For some reason, your account is not authorized to receive those channels.

What level of digital service do you have? You won't get those channels with basic or extended basic, or whatever they are calling that now.

I would call Comcast and tell them that you are not receiving the HD cable channels. I would not even mention the CableCard or the TiVo; just get them to verify that your account is authorized to receive all the HD channels.

Thanks for the reply. Well I know I'm authorized to receive those channels since they all appear properly on my Comcast HD cable box I rent from them to have On-Demand service. ALL channels show up properly on that box. So that makes me think it's either an authorization issue with the CableCard or a problem with the CableCard.
I will call them after work today to re-authorize the cable card.

Thanks for the reply. Well I know I'm authorized to receive those channels since they all appear properly on my Comcast HD cable box I rent from them to have On-Demand service. ALL channels show up properly on that box. So that makes me think it's either an authorization issue with the CableCard or a problem with the CableCard.
I will call them after work today to re-authorize the cable card.

I had the same situation when I got my Tivo HD/Cablecard. A quick call to Comcast telling them that my Cablecard was not provisioned/authorized for channels I was paying for and they fixed it in under 5 minutes. The CSR I worked with was very helpful and actually fairly knowledgeable.

Not sure when this will come to the DC area, but hopefully sooner than later:

Cox to Launch TiVo in New England

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6538718.html?nid=4262

Verizon is burying their fiber cable in our neighborhood this week.

Unfortunately, while their commercials sounds great and I would love to save some money by getting a bundle pack, their HD offerings just don't justify a move from Directv - for me. Right now they have no sports packages at all which is a huge strike against them in my book and their HD offerings are average at best.

So while I am glad they are here I wont be signing up any time soon.

Not sure when this will come to the DC area, but hopefully sooner than later:

Cox to Launch TiVo in New England

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6538718.html?nid=4262

What is it about New England that Comcast was also testing there first?

Not sure when this will come to the DC area, but hopefully sooner than later:

Cox to Launch TiVo in New England

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6538718.html?nid=4262

Saw that as well in the business reports yest.
Hopefully these Comcast & Cox deals will help TiVo survive.
Cause their boxes are the best IMO.

What is it about New England that Comcast was also testing there first?

Apparently that is Comcast's most heavily concentrated area.

Saw that as well in the business reports yest.
Hopefully these Comcast & Cox deals will help TiVo survive.
Cause their boxes are the best IMO.

If you believe Fortune Magazine, deals like these will do a lot more than just help TiVo survive:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/03/technology/simons_tivowalkup.fortune/index.htm

Drew

Verizon is burying their fiber cable in our neighborhood this week.

Unfortunately, while their commercials sounds great and I would love to save some money by getting a bundle pack, their HD offerings just don't justify a move from Directv - for me. Right now they have no sports packages at all which is a huge strike against them in my book and their HD offerings are average at best. As alluded to above, this should be addressed in July in DC/VA/MD.

In July, FiOS in DC/VA/MD should have at least 60 HD cable channels -- comparable to the number on DirecTV -- plus some new sports packages, including sports packages with HD. MLB Extra Innings was the most recently announced package, and they already carry [the SD versions of] ESPN Gameplan and ESPN Full Court.

I must have missed it, but where is it stated that Verizon is getting more HD in July? I thought I had read an earlier date once upon a time.

If you believe Fortune Magazine, deals like these will do a lot more than just help TiVo survive:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/03/technology/simons_tivowalkup.fortune/index.htm

Drew

Nice.

I must have missed it, but where is it stated that Verizon is getting more HD in July? I thought I had read an earlier date once upon a time.It is much earlier -- for some markets.

Verizon is expected to add a number of new HD channels in Oregon and Pittsburgh, PA later this month. But the equipment upgrades necessary to add those channels in the DC area won't be complete until July, if reported information is correct.

It is much earlier -- for some markets.

Verizon is expected to add a number of new HD channels in Oregon and Pittsburgh, PA later this month. But the equipment upgrades necessary to add those channels in the DC area won't be complete until July, if reported information is correct.

Ahhh...thank you! I guess at the time I heard the early spring rumors it wasn't known if DC would have the equipment upgrades by then. Bummer.

Verizon is burying their fiber cable in our neighborhood this week.

Unfortunately, while their commercials sounds great and I would love to save some money by getting a bundle pack, their HD offerings just don't justify a move from Directv - for me. Right now they have no sports packages at all which is a huge strike against them in my book and their HD offerings are average at best.

So while I am glad they are here I wont be signing up any time soon.

Interesting, but Kingstowne is really in Fairfax County; no news about Verizon stringing FiOS within Alexandria City.

Incidentally, I just got my Verizon (land-line) phone bill with an insert flyer stating "It's all here with our Triple Freedom: DIRECTV service, Internet and Phone. All from Verizon. All on one bill." The flyer further states "Prepare to see more HD TV than ever before." What's that all about? Is Verizon now competing with itself for HD TV service? Not that I'm interested; just curious.

Apparently Verizon offers DirectTv to those areas where FiOS is not available. I don't think Verizon knows where Alexandria is.:confused:

On another note. I recorded USA Bourne... and saw no problems.

I was however, seeing pix/sound drops on ESPN during MLB this afternoon. 1 to 2 seconds of problem every minute or two and then 30 minutes of great picture and back to problems for 1 or 2 minutes for 10 or so minutes.

I don't think Verizon knows where Alexandria is.:confused:



...except when it's time to send a bill:p

Comcast will offer MASN HD games on MOJO-HD

March 3, 3:13 PM

Today a Comcast spokesperson from confirmed to me that MASN-HD broadcasts of 80 games - 40 Nationals and 40 O's will be seen on the MOJO-HD channel. In Baltimore City it is channel 226 HD.

But check your channel guide to make sure.

The spokesperson told me that both Comcast and MASN were working hard so that next season both MASN and CSN+ will have full time HD channels.

Here is what the Comcast spokesperson told me...

"It is in our best interest to show as much HD sports as we can on all of our systems. We are working to make that our cable customers are happy and we know they want HD baseball and also the Caps and Wizards all in HD."

"We had hoped that we could get it done this year but channel space just would not allow it so we are doing the next best thing. We are offering MASN 80 dates and we know that fans want more but this year that is best we can do. However our goal remains for 2009 for total HD for both MASN and CSN.+.

That is confirms the reports that Comcast and mASN have been working together to get games on this season in HD.

As we know CSN already has their own dedicated channel and produces more live sports in HD each "

year. They started doing HD back in 2003 when the scramble for HD channel space was not so intense.

Look I would love to see both MASN and CSN broadcast all sports in HD as is done in other areas of the country but for now we will have to be happy with all the Wiz, Caps and DC United home games in HD and 40 games each for the Nats and the O's.

More to come soon.

MOJO is the network aimed at you to middle aged men. It is a livestyles network and a fun network to watch.

http://www.examiner.com/blogs/watch_this/2008/3/3/Comcast-will-offer-MASN-HD-games-on-MOJOHD

I must have missed it, but where is it stated that Verizon is getting more HD in July? I thought I had read an earlier date once upon a time.

In the FiOS Programming thread...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13100740#post13100740

Courtesy of JD Land.

Whoa! That's me! Didn't expect to see that here. :)

(and it is *quite* a screen)

Looks liek RCN DC has added Science Hd, TLC HD and animal planet HD. Not one to complain about more HD but I would have liked to see CNN and more importantly FX HD

Alexandria, va - comcast added

Animal Planet HD
Food Network HD
USA HD
SciFi HD
History HD
HGTV HD
TLC HD

I believe thats it, i wish we had cnnhd or some other news in hd, but what a great surprise last night to see these channels.

Alexandria, va - comcast added

Animal Planet HD
Food Network HD
USA HD
SciFi HD
History HD
HGTV HD
TLC HD

I believe thats it, i wish we had cnnhd or some other news in hd, but what a great surprise last night to see these channels.

Hehe, welcome to three days ago. And Alexandria does have CNN HD now, as well as Discovery HD.

Whoa! That's me! Didn't expect to see that here. :)

(and it is *quite* a screen)

Sorry I'm so posting disabled that I couldn't paste and do links. Your JD Land site is incredible. I visit it daily and love all the photos of the ball park and neighborhood.

For those who haven't been to the site, I strongly encourage you to do so.

http://www.jdland.com/dc/stadium.cfm?tab=no3

The one thing you haven't addressed on your site is Segway parking. Where will Jim Bowdin park his new Segway? Plus I would use mine from Metro if I knew the Nationals would offer free valet parking as they are doing for people who bicycle to the park.

Sorry this got off the HD track for all of you - but there are great pictures of the HD board at the site.

Also - let Barry S. know that I'm AKA HD Nats Fan on his National Journals blog and truly appreciate him getting on MASN about the HD coverage.

I posted this to the final DTV table of allotments sticky thread about what WMAR-DT ABC 2 and WUSA-DT CBS 9 have filed for in requesting changes to their post-transition (Feb 17, 2009) digital channel power and antenna height allotments. Both of these stations will be changing their digital channel: WMAR-DT from UHF 52 to 38 and WUSA-DT from UHF 34 to VHF 9. WMAR is looking to increase their coverage, good. But WUSA-DT is looking to DESCREASE their coverage area which according to the map in their attachment may result in people losing reception in western Fauquier & Clark and parts of Rappanhannock, Culpeper, Spotsylvania, Caroline counties. May be able to make it up with a dedicated good upper VHF antenna, but that remains to be seen.

The post was:
I don't know if anyone has been following up on the 387 filings, but a number of stations have submitted form 301s for changes to the post-transition DTV allotments set in the Appendix document. If I read it correctly, a number of filings have already been granted, which means the FCC is processing these quickly. If you want to look them up, select Service: Digital TV, Form Number: 301, and enter a start date of 02/10/2008 or so at http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_sear.htm. The start date of Feb 10 gets me 100 recent form 301 applications as of today.

Two stations of interest to me in the Baltimore-Washington markets.

WMAR 2 wants to increase their appendix B power on UHF 38 to 1000 kW for increased coverage. Interesting map in their attachment that shows that even with a 1000 kW UHF 38 signal, that the projected coverage of the digital signal is less than their current analog VHF 2 signal. I suspect people can make that up with good long range UHF antennas such as the CM 4228 or AD 91-XG, but we shall see how that goes. See http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=620736.

WUSA 9 in DC wants to DECREASE their appendix B ERP on VHF 9 from 17 to 9.55 kW & the HAAT and go for a smaller coverage area. This is not going to go over well with the football fans out in the fringes who rely on WUSA-DT's signal for their CBS football in HD. See http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=623397. I should be ok, but can someone who lives in the outer band of the coverage area that now falls outside the official coverage B zone write a protest to the FCC? Or does the FCC figure that it's WUSA's decision so long as it does not create interference issues with other stations?

Looks liek RCN DC has added Science Hd, TLC HD and animal planet HD. Not one to complain about more HD but I would have liked to see CNN and more importantly FX HD

And DISCOVERY HD.

hl

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?

Still having problems, it's with WJZ too now :(. I think it is some issue with PSIP data. there is a file called ATSC.XML in vista that keeps some sort of rosetta stone of call number to physical frequency data. interestingly, both channels had incorrect data in there. the data seems to represent the Feb 17, 2009 (post-transition) datafor the channels. I edit the XML (and then add and remove a Digital channel from the add missing channels dialog to 'init' the file) and it all works great. but this data seems to have reset itself to the wrong into three times now. So, either Vista is updating the ATSC settings from bad PSID data? or Vista is Caching the bad data somewhere?

Any ideas? It's been holding strong this friday night, but I assume it will roll over again to bad data again soon enough.

WUSA 9 in DC wants to DECREASE their appendix B ERP on VHF 9 from 17 to 9.55 kW & the HAAT and go for a smaller coverage area. This is not going to go over well with the football fans out in the fringes who rely on WUSA-DT's signal for their CBS football in HD. See http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=623397.At first, I thought that this was terrible. However, it turns out that the "legal" digital service area is only slightly smaller than the analog area, by ~ 2 miles in each direction. Don't believe me? Just view the legal service areas of WUSA analog 9 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV279283.html), and WUSA proposed 9.55 kW DT9 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1232792.html).

Very few people, if any, will be affected by this. If anything, it's probably to get WUSA out of a) upping the transmitter power -- and bills, and b) as user "Trip in VA" alluded to in another post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13319295#post13319295), buying a brand new transmitting antenna -- the antenna they've filed for is the same as their analog one.

And remember that the FCC allows DT stations to broadcast at 5% over their rated power, so WUSA could technically operate at 10.0275 kW. Yippee!

Very few people, if any, will be affected by this. If anything, it's probably to get WUSA out of a) upping the transmitter power -- and bills, and b) as user "Trip in VA" alluded to in another post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13319295#post13319295), buying a brand new transmitting antenna -- the antenna they've filed for is the same as their analog one.

Oh boy, try interference protection. JLA and USA will be a lot happier in power bills next February anyway, a few kW aint gonna worry either way.

As alluded to above, this should be addressed in July in DC/VA/MD.

In July, FiOS in DC/VA/MD should have at least 60 HD cable channels -- comparable to the number on DirecTV -- plus some new sports packages, including sports packages with HD. MLB Extra Innings was the most recently announced package, and they already carry [the SD versions of] ESPN Gameplan and ESPN Full Court.

When will they come to Manassas? I just got a mailing from Verizon. Their "triple play" uses DirectTV. I am tired of the commercials too. I guess I will miss out on the free LCD TV.

G

Big transition ~ FIOS install 1 April. Want to retain Wash/Balt OTA, so I'm planning to get 3 TIVO (65216) HD DVRs with 3 TIVO (AG0100) Wireless Routers. Uncertain about TIVO service membership options and how this setup will actually work. Should need 3 M-CableCards for the 3 TIVOs and two S-CableCards for two Sharp AQUOS LCDs. Any thoughts or ideas in preparation for this transition would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom Harms ~ Ravensworth Farm

Did any D* HR20 users notice an improvement when watching "Lost" on WJLA Thursday night? I didn't notice any of the normal breakups in picture I normally get. Is this problem fixed now?

Noticed some fringe buzzing noise on 54-1 this morning (during the cartoon block).

Big transition ~ FIOS install 1 April. Want to retain Wash/Balt OTA, so I'm planning to get 3 TIVO (65216) HD DVRs with 3 TIVO (AG0100) Wireless Routers. Uncertain about TIVO service membership options and how this setup will actually work. Should need 3 M-CableCards for the 3 TIVOs and two S-CableCards for two Sharp AQUOS LCDs. Any thoughts or ideas in preparation for this transition would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom Harms ~ Ravensworth Farm

Can't argue with the decision to go with TiVo... If you have the money to spend, it's the way to go.

Regarding service options, there are a multitude, and they're all laid out pretty well on tivo.com. The best value is the three-year prepay for $299, which works out to about $8.31 per month. Once you have service on the first unit, you should qualify for the multi-service discount on the other two units. The best value is the one-year prepay for $99, which works out to $8.25 per month (only marginally better than the first unit, but you're only committed for a year instead of three).

Other notes:

- I'd imagine you've done your homework and know this already, but with CableCARDs you won't get PPV or VOD functionality.

- Just for clarification, the AG0100's are wireless adapters, not wireless routers. They will connect to the internet via a wireless router.

- If they aren't able to give you single-stream CableCARDs for your TV's, multi-stream cards should work just fine.

Drew

Hi Drew, Thanks for the info. Best Buy requires a purchase of the TIVO service at a pretty high monthly price. Looks like buying the HD DRVs separately on-line, then getting the service directly from TIVO.com is the best route. Thanks again, Tom

Just ordered the hardware and service plans from tivo.com. Thanks, Tom Harms

At first, I thought that this was terrible. However, it turns out that the "legal" digital service area is only slightly smaller than the analog area, by ~ 2 miles in each direction. Don't believe me? Just view the legal service areas of WUSA analog 9 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV279283.html), and WUSA proposed 9.55 kW DT9 (http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1232792.html).

Very few people, if any, will be affected by this.
We will find out. Yes, I should have added that WUSA wants to use their current omni-directional VHF 9 antenna and not have to purchase & install the directional antenna specified in the FCC post-transition allotment. The map in the WUSA PDF attachment to their 301 filing shows the contour being slightly smaller than their analog coverage. Talk about timing; after I posted yesterday, the FCC posted a long document to their DTV website on accepting and rejecting changes to the final post-transition plans for stations across the US - WUSA was in it in paragraph 47 and got 13.6 kW ERP. WBPH-DT in Bethlehem, PA will be on DTV 9 and presents the biggest interference issue for WUSA-DT. For those who are curious, see the M&O document at http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/. The FCC also released updates to the final DTV allotments, but more filings are coming in. The FCC needs to make their decisions quickly, because some stations can't order equipment until they know exactly what their final settings will be.

The question is how will the digital power for upper VHF translate to the current analog coverage of the four upper VHF stations in DC and Baltimore? I suspect people at the outer fringes and those using indoor antennas at the medium ranges will find they will have to upgrade their antenna setup. Here are the current analog and post-transition ERP (Effective Radiated Power) and HAAT (Height above Average Terrain) for the four upper VHF stations. Keep in mind that the ERPs for digital are lower because digital ERP is calculated differently and ATSC is more efficient. All four of the stations are broadcasting at maximum allowed power for analog upper VHF.

WJLA ABC 7: Analog 316 kW, 235 m; DT 7: 13.6 kW, 235 meters.
WUSA CBS 9: Analog 316 kW, 235 m; DT 9: 13.6 kW, 235 m.
WBAL NBC 11: Analog 316 kW, 299 m; DT 11: 6.91 kW, 312 m.
WJZ CBS 13: Analog 316 kW, 292 m; DT 13: 21.4 kW, 312 m.

WJZ will be installing a new directional antenna after Feb. 17, 2009 to be in place by April, 2009 to meet their post-transition allotment (http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=616897). The 2 stations in Baltimore are getting some additional height if the analog specs are accurate which helps coverage. WBAL 11 may be the one with the weakest signal, but they stated they are looking for changes to the post-transition allotment. Next February will be a very interesting time for testing OTA reception!

Has anyone in our area received a multi-stream Fios CableCard? Verizon Tech Support tells me that they have not be offered yet. Thanks, Tom Harms

Hi Drew, Thanks for the info. Best Buy requires a purchase of the TIVO service at a pretty high monthly price. Looks like buying the HD DRVs separately on-line, then getting the service directly from TIVO.com is the best route. Thanks again, TomBest Buy does not require activation with a TiVo. You can buy wherever you want and activate at TiVo.com.

If you want lifetime service (no monthly fees ever) on your TiVos, then you would buy the first TivoHD right here (http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-promo/show.do?pg=/buytivo/hdgift.html). You can buy additional TiVos online at $200-$250 and add lifetime service for $399.

To make lifetime service worthwhile, you would have to keep and use those TiVos for more than three years. I did not opt for lifetime because I doubt I will be satisfied with 2007 technology in 2010 or 2011, given the current pace of technology advancement. When a next-generation TiVo [or some other DVR] comes along in a year or two, I expect to upgrade.

Has anyone in our area received a multi-stream Fios CableCard? Verizon Tech Support tells me that they have not be offered yet. Thanks, Tom HarmsNo MCARDs from Verizon in DC/VA/MD yet.

Instead of the TiVo USB wireless adapters, you really should consider Motorola NIM100s from ebay instead, especially if you plan to take advantage of multi-room viewing. Wireless 802.11g with the TiVo adapter is really too slow for high-definition multi-room viewing.

A Motorola NIM100 uses the existing coax in your home to provide 100Mbps wired networking. You connect the coax to the NIM100 and then connect the coax from the NIM100 to the TiVo; you then connect an ethernet cable from the NIM100 to the TiVo. There is no configuration whatsoever.

Hi bfdtv, When you say the TiVo USB wireless adaper is too slow for high-definition multi-room viewing ~ can you describe the symptoms? Thanks, Tom

Hi bfdtv, When you say the TiVo USB wireless adaper is too slow for high-definition multi-room viewing ~ can you describe the symptoms? Thanks, Tom

From my experience: Basically when using your home wireless router, it takes usually about the same amount of time to move the program from the originating record box to your other rooms as the program length itself.

From my experience: Basically when using your home wireless router, it takes usually about the same amount of time to move the program from the originating record box to your other rooms as the program length itself.

This is not caused by your wireless network - connected to a wired network, the series 3 tivo units (3 and HD) transfer programs very slowly. Tom, you should familiarize yourself with the nice people over at Tivocommunity (http://www.tivocommunity.com) - everything you could ever want to know (or not) about all aspects of Tivo.

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. ....

Thanks, I saw this in the SA DVR manual exactly as you say but I never get an option to record only new shows. Everything else is the same and I get all the other options you mention (day, time slot, etc). I saw a note in the SA DRV manual that says the option to record new episodes is only available where supported by the cable operator. I don't see anything in the guide that tells me if a show is new or a repeat so I don't know how the DVR would be able to tell either. Everybody I know in a different county that has the Motorola DVR can record only new show.

This is not caused by your wireless network - connected to a wired network, the series 3 tivo units (3 and HD) transfer programs very slowly. Tom, you should familiarize yourself with the nice people over at Tivocommunity (http://www.tivocommunity.com) - everything you could ever want to know (or not) about all aspects of Tivo.Multi-room transfers on the TiVo Series3 are well in excess of 30Mbps (up to 44Mbps) on a wired or coax network. With the TiVo wireless adapter, all transfers are limited to ~16Mbps assuming a perfect wireless signal. With a lesser wireless signal, multi-room transfers can be 10Mbps or less.

MRV on the TivoHD is only half as fast as the Tivo Series3 with the current 9.2a software, but TiVoPony said they (TiVo) would look at the possibility of improving MRV performance on the TivoHD with a software update (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5974459#post5974459). However, if / when they do that, you'll need a wired (or coax) networking to take advantage of that improvement. Wireless 802.11g just isn't fast enough.

More information in the MRV/TTG FAQ for the HD TiVo (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=371710).

Hi bfdtv, When you say the TiVo USB wireless adaper is too slow for high-definition multi-room viewing ~ can you describe the symptoms? Thanks, TomWith 15-16Mbps MRV throughput, recordings from lower-bitrate HD channels such as ABC, FOX, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Universal HD can be watched immediately. However, with higher-bitrate (>16Mbps) channels -- such as CBS-HD, CNN-HD, Discovery Theater, ESPN-HD, Hdnet, Hdnet Movies, SciFi-HD, and USA-HD -- you are forced to wait a short while before you can begin watching. And at that rate of transfer, most high-definition recordings don't transfer fast enough to skip commercials on the fly.

In contrast, with the 30+Mbps MRV throughput on the Tivo Series3 with wired and coax networking, you can view any high-definition recording from another TiVo instantly, without delay, while skipping all commercials on the fly. Currently, this is the main benefit of Tivo Series3 over the TivoHD (and wired/coax over wireless). I do expect the TivoHD's MRV performance to improve with a software update, but that may not happen until later this year, and once again, you'll need wired or coax networking to take advantage of any such improvement.

I have Comcast analog but I have added the digital "in the clear" channels since my new TV has a QAM tuner. Generally they are quite good. There are two that I have trouble tuning in all of the time. They are WRC and WETA (4.5 and 26.1, respectively). They don't appear to be in the same frequency range according to the charts I have seen. Is there any particular reason why these two channels would be the most difficult to receive? When one is working, so is the other. And when there are both out, well, you get the idea. I am just a little perplexed. Probably just a Comcast issues but I thought I would ask. And no, Comcast is not remapping them. I already checked.

Thanks,
G

I have Comcast basic analog and I get local HD channels via QAM. I was away this week, and when I returned home I discovered that I no longer have NBC (WBAL) or ABC (WMAR) HD. I still have Fox (WBFF), though it moved to channel 0-0 for some reason, and I still have CBS (WJZ) and MPT. NBC and ABC just seem to be gone and my old ABC channel mapping now tunes to ABC2, the weather feed. Any idea what's going on here?

Multi-room transfers on the TiVo Series3 are well in excess of 30Mbps (up to 44Mbps) on a wired or coax network. With the TiVo wireless adapter, all transfers are limited to ~16Mbps assuming a perfect wireless signal. With a lesser wireless signal, multi-room transfers can be 10Mbps or less.

MRV on the TivoHD is only half as fast as the Tivo Series3 with the current 9.2a software, but TiVoPony said they (TiVo) would look at the possibility of improving MRV performance on the TivoHD with a software update (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5974459#post5974459). However, if / when they do that, you'll need a wired (or coax) networking to take advantage of that improvement. Wireless 802.11g just isn't fast enough.

More information in the MRV/TTG FAQ for the HD TiVo (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=371710).

With 15-16Mbps MRV throughput, recordings from lower-bitrate HD channels such as ABC, FOX, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Universal HD can be watched immediately. However, with higher-bitrate (>16Mbps) channels -- such as CBS-HD, CNN-HD, Discovery Theater, ESPN-HD, Hdnet, Hdnet Movies, SciFi-HD, and USA-HD -- you are forced to wait a short while before you can begin watching. And at that rate of transfer, most high-definition recordings don't transfer fast enough to skip commercials on the fly.

In contrast, with the 30+Mbps MRV throughput on the Tivo Series3 with wired and coax networking, you can view any high-definition recording from another TiVo instantly, without delay, while skipping all commercials on the fly. Currently, this is the main benefit of Tivo Series3 over the TivoHD (and wired/coax over wireless). I do expect the TivoHD's MRV performance to improve with a software update, but that may not happen until later this year, and once again, you'll need wired or coax networking to take advantage of any such improvement.

Sorry, I wasn't really thinking of MRV (I only have 1 Tivo HD), but rather my experience with TTG (Mac & PC) and how painfully slow those transfers are. You can't even watch an HD show in realtime when transferring to PC or Mac over a wired network.

In the Legal Notices in Saturday's (Annapolis) Capital newspaper, Comcast announced that they will be adding the ION Life channel on April 9 in the City of Annapolis and Southern Anne Arundel County. Also AZN TV will discontinue operations that day. The analog versions of ION, CMT and G4 will be dropped as will the duplicated west coast feeds of most premium channels. The notice states: "All this is being done to help pave the way for significant improvements in the On Demand service and a major expansion of Comcast's high definition lineup in the coming weeks."

Does anyone know if Comcast is going to open up channels for the other 3 games not being televised? I know they have done this in the past, but haven't heard if they are going to do it this year.

Sorry, I wasn't really thinking of MRV (I only have 1 Tivo HD), but rather my experience with TTG (Mac & PC) and how painfully slow those transfers are. You can't even watch an HD show in realtime when transferring to PC or Mac over a wired network.Right. TTG (downloading to PC) is only about 40-50% the 'speed' of MRV.

With MRV, the file is transferred in the original TiVo file format. With TTG, the file is remuxed into a MPG file for playback on computers; that remuxing consumes CPU and slows the transfer.

TTG (downloading to a PC) is almost twice as fast on the Tivo Series3 as the TivoHD, so presumably TiVo is working to improve that. Your guess is as good as mine as to when that will happen.

I have Comcast basic analog and I get local HD channels via QAM. I was away this week, and when I returned home I discovered that I no longer have NBC (WBAL) or ABC (WMAR) HD. I still have Fox (WBFF), though it moved to channel 0-0 for some reason, and I still have CBS (WJZ) and MPT. NBC and ABC just seem to be gone and my old ABC channel mapping now tunes to ABC2, the weather feed. Any idea what's going on here?When cable companies add new channels or install new equipment, they'll often rearrange their QAMs. This actually happens a lot less than it used to; there was a time when Comcast Arlington would rearrange some QAMs every month or so, and now it only happens a few times a year.

I would redo your channel scan and check all your QAMs, such as 87-2, 106-2, 110-1, etc.

Sorry, I wasn't really thinking of MRV (I only have 1 Tivo HD), but rather my experience with TTG (Mac & PC) and how painfully slow those transfers are. You can't even watch an HD show in realtime when transferring to PC or Mac over a wired network.

The TiVo software isn't optimized for the TiVoHD yet. With my Series 3 boxes I can transfer HD in faster than realtime while my TiVoHD boxes transfer HD in slower than realtime. There are supposed to be some update this Spring that address the speed although when the updates will be released is anyones guess.

When cable companies add new channels or install new equipment, they'll often rearrange their QAMs. This actually happens a lot less than it used to; there was a time when Comcast Arlington would rearrange some QAMs every month or so, and now it only happens a few times a year.

I would redo your channel scan and check all your QAMs, such as 87-2, 106-2, 110-1, etc.

I did this both on my HTPC as well as directly on my TV but unfortunately NBC and ABC still seem to be missing.

How come I can watch other peoples on-demand via QAM? Will cable companies eventually catch on and prevent this?

Thanks, I saw this in the SA DVR manual exactly as you say but I never get an option to record only new shows. Everything else is the same and I get all the other options you mention (day, time slot, etc). I saw a note in the SA DRV manual that says the option to record new episodes is only available where supported by the cable operator. I don't see anything in the guide that tells me if a show is new or a repeat so I don't know how the DVR would be able to tell either. Everybody I know in a different county that has the Motorola DVR can record only new show.

The "new show" flag is part of the program guide data, but it has never been implemented by Comcast in Howard County, even though many other DC/Balt Comcast systems have it. I have written to them several times to ask why. Maybe a concerted effort by Howard County subscribers will convince them. After all, many of us now have FIOS as an option...

Comcast HBO/Cinemax free preview?

I got a message a couple of weeks ago on my box (Baltimore County) about a free preview weekend coming up. My wife then deleted the message, without noting the date. I have checked the last few weeks, and have yet to see it. Does anyone recall the dates? Cheers

How come I can watch other peoples on-demand via QAM? Will cable companies eventually catch on and prevent this?Cable companies have no interest in spending the money on equipment to encrypt VOD QAM streams that 0.0001% customers will use.

This is slightly off-topic, but does anyone know how to get the attention of tvguide.com in order to get them to update the channel line-ups for different cable companies? Their listings for RCN here in D.C. haven't been updated in over a year, so there are probably a dozen channels that don't show up. I've tried sending them e-mail, but I never get a response.

Great news! Got an email back from my20, and they said they will be carrying 9 Nats games in HD this year! :)

Still no word from WJZ if they will have any HD O's games this year or not.

-John

Great news! Got an email back from my20, and they said they will be carrying 9 Nats games in HD this year! :)

Still no word from WJZ if they will have any HD O's games this year or not.

-John

If you look at the MASN schedule, you will be able to see what games will be in HD on WJZ and MY20.

http://www.masnsports.com/pdfs/2008_Orioles_on_MASN.pdf

http://www.masnsports.com/pdfs/2008_Nats_on_MASN.pdf

Does anyone know if Comcast is going to open up channels for the other 3 games not being televised? I know they have done this in the past, but haven't heard if they are going to do it this year.

They do?

As far as I know, Mega March Madness is a DirecTV exclusive.

Kudos to WBFF, which had local high school basketball (Catholic championship) on 45-2. Nicely done. I stumbled on it. No promotion that I had seen.

They do?

As far as I know, Mega March Madness is a DirecTV exclusive.

I believe Mega March Madness is slightly different. I think that allows you to watch all games at once (or the other 3 not on in your area) on one screen and not be interrupted by studio cut-ins and whatnot. I'm talking about the local CBS affiliate opening up additional channels to show the feeds for the out of area games. I found this thread discussing it. It looks like it is up to the affiliate and not like the cable provider as I originally thought.

<http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13317553>

If you look at the MASN schedule, you will be able to see what games will be in HD on WJZ and MY20.
So WJZ is going to be broadcasting them in HD as well?

Still having problems, it's with WJZ too now :(. I think it is some issue with PSIP data. there is a file called ATSC.XML in vista that keeps some sort of rosetta stone of call number to physical frequency data. interestingly, both channels had incorrect data in there. the data seems to represent the Feb 17, 2009 (post-transition) datafor the channels. I edit the XML (and then add and remove a Digital channel from the add missing channels dialog to 'init' the file) and it all works great. but this data seems to have reset itself to the wrong into three times now. So, either Vista is updating the ATSC settings from bad PSID data? or Vista is Caching the bad data somewhere?

Any ideas? It's been holding strong this friday night, but I assume it will roll over again to bad data again soon enough.

You are indeed correct that Vista will overwrite any changes you make to atscchannels.xml (I believe this happens every time MC updates the guide data). Here is an article I found that describes how to work around the problem:

http://thenears.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/troubleshooting-atsc-issues-in-mce/

The short of it is that first you delete the incorrect channel from atscchannels.xml, then you are able to add the channel manually with the correct frequency. Supposedly your custom added channel will take precedence and not be overwritten with the incorrect frequency when MC does its updates.

Still having problems, it's with WJZ too now :(. I think it is some issue with PSIP data. there is a file called ATSC.XML in vista that keeps some sort of rosetta stone of call number to physical frequency data. interestingly, both channels had incorrect data in there. the data seems to represent the Feb 17, 2009 (post-transition) datafor the channels. I edit the XML (and then add and remove a Digital channel from the add missing channels dialog to 'init' the file) and it all works great. but this data seems to have reset itself to the wrong into three times now. So, either Vista is updating the ATSC settings from bad PSID data? or Vista is Caching the bad data somewhere?

Any ideas? It's been holding strong this friday night, but I assume it will roll over again to bad data again soon enough.

I'm having the same problem with Vista WMC. 9.1 and 50.1 have the wrong channel assignments and will not hold a manual edit of the config file. I check with WUSA and they believe the PSIP stream is OK. 3 of my other ATSC tuners are just fine so I'm inclined to believe them. So where on earth is MSFT getting the incorrect (future) channel mapping data for their updates?!?

I'm having the same problem with Vista WMC. 9.1 and 50.1 have the wrong channel assignments and will not hold a manual edit of the config file. I check with WUSA and they believe the PSIP stream is OK. 3 of my other ATSC tuners are just fine so I'm inclined to believe them. So where on earth is MSFT getting the incorrect (future) channel mapping data for their updates?!?

I spent hours trying to find any easy way to recover from this same problem. I don't know what it did it, but I think Friday night, channels 9 and 50 got remapped from the correct physical channels (34 and 51) to 9 and 50.

The atscchannels.xml file is the source of the problem. To correct, I removed the incorrect entries for 9 and 50 from it. Then in MCE added 9 and 50 back in as if they were missing channels.

I just checked and MCE has put the bad entries back into that XML file again. It probably just a metter of time before things go wrong again. :mad:

Kudos to WBFF, which had local high school basketball (Catholic championship) on 45-2. Nicely done. I stumbled on it. No promotion that I had seen.

I did the camera shading for that. It was an exciting game!

I'm having the same problem with Vista WMC. 9.1 and 50.1 have the wrong channel assignments and will not hold a manual edit of the config file. I check with WUSA and they believe the PSIP stream is OK. 3 of my other ATSC tuners are just fine so I'm inclined to believe them. So where on earth is MSFT getting the incorrect (future) channel mapping data for their updates?!?

There are three places in the PSIP where the channel number is located (I found that out the hard way). Different tuners look at different places for it, so it could still be wrong even if a number of receivers say that it's OK.

If a number of people are having the same problem, especially if it's something that changes again after being manually corrected, I would suspect the PSIP that I was sending out...

Comcast HBO/Cinemax free preview?

I got a message a couple of weeks ago on my box (Baltimore County) about a free preview weekend coming up. My wife then deleted the message, without noting the date. I have checked the last few weeks, and have yet to see it. Does anyone recall the dates? Cheers

I think it's next weekend, 20-23

You are indeed correct that Vista will overwrite any changes you make to atscchannels.xml (I believe this happens every time MC updates the guide data). Here is an article I found that describes how to work around the problem:

http://thenears.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/troubleshooting-atsc-issues-in-mce/

The short of it is that first you delete the incorrect channel from atscchannels.xml, then you are able to add the channel manually with the correct frequency. Supposedly your custom added channel will take precedence and not be overwritten with the incorrect frequency when MC does its updates.

OK, trying this, thanks Mr. Smith.

I did this both on my HTPC as well as directly on my TV but unfortunately NBC and ABC still seem to be missing.

I called Comcast this morning and they said that there are problems on their end in my area. Oh well, back to OTA for a while.

New HD channels coming to E*, most by this summer:

ABC Family
AMC
BET
Biography
Bravo
Cartoon Network
CNN
CMT
Disney
ESPN News
HBO2
IFC
MGMHD
MTV
MoreMAX
Nickelodeon
Sci-Fi
Smithsonian
Starz Edge
Tennis
Toon Disney
USA Network
VH1
The Weather Channel
WGN

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1006263

WGN in HD? That would be great for all the sports they show. We'll see when Comcast picks it up.

Rich N.

I believe Mega March Madness is slightly different. I think that allows you to watch all games at once (or the other 3 not on in your area) on one screen and not be interrupted by studio cut-ins and whatnot. I'm talking about the local CBS affiliate opening up additional channels to show the feeds for the out of area games. I found this thread discussing it. It looks like it is up to the affiliate and not like the cable provider as I originally thought.

<http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13317553>

No, Mega March Madness is out of market games just like Sunday Ticket, or Extra Innings or Center Ice. There is a mix channel but it is not what defines Mega March Madness.

As far as I know, only a handful of local affiliates use subchannels for out of market games and none of them are in HD. I don't know where you are but WJZ has no subchannels at all.

New HD channels coming to E*, most by this summer:

ABC Family
AMC
BET
Biography
Bravo
Cartoon Network
CNN
CMT
Disney
ESPN News
HBO2
IFC
MGMHD
MTV
MoreMAX
Nickelodeon
Sci-Fi
Smithsonian
Starz Edge
Tennis
Toon Disney
USA Network
VH1
The Weather Channel
WGN

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1006263Wow... Most of those are way behind DirecTV and some cable ops. DirecTV's new satellite launches in 6 days. Could be ready by mid-May... Looking for the rest of the HBO/Max channels in HD to be launched then...

The just look like deals with the regular suspects. Viacom, Disney, etc... Shame that many of those are just part time HD channels. At least I'll have Cartoon Network in time for those Star Wars cartoons in the fall. Still, without Speed-HD, I will feel the lose.

For those Cox Fairfax Tivo/Cable Card users out there, I noticed last night that the newly added Cinemax HD channel (733) is a non-SDV channel. It's amazing how we keep hearing that Cox is out of space to add more non-SDV HD channels, yet for a pay channel they somehow can make/find some space (probably at the expense of the picture quality on other HD channels).

I sent an email to Rick Germano, Senior Vice President of Customer Operations.

http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/contactus/ContactUs.html (Right side of page)

I got a call from someone in the corporate office saying these channels will be added "in March." Looks like the above mailing was a bit off.:rolleyes:

Here's the LATEST date for the new Comcast channels (:rolleyes:): April 9.

CNN HD, channel 234
History HD, channel 237
TLC HD, channel 240

SD channels:
Fuse, channel 148
IFC, channel 164
ION Life, channel 285

Digital converter now required:
ION, channel 20/286
CMT, channel 52/146
G4, channel 62/162

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/9176/comcastpostcardside1ji6.jpg

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/226/comcastpostcardside2gw0.jpg

QAM just got remapped in Prince William County. To my surprise, I now have Discovery HD and ScFi HD. I wonder how long before they notice and scramble them again.

G

QAM just got remapped in Prince William County. To my surprise, I now have Discovery HD and ScFi HD. I wonder how long before they notice and scramble them again.

G

not for long if someone is reading this thread.;)

New RCN HD channels in Montgomery County: Animal Planet HD, Discovery Channel HD, Science Channel HD and TLC HD.

For those Cox Fairfax Tivo/Cable Card users out there, I noticed last night that the newly added Cinemax HD channel (733) is a non-SDV channel. It's amazing how we keep hearing that Cox is out of space to add more non-SDV HD channels, yet for a pay channel they somehow can make/find some space (probably at the expense of the picture quality on other HD channels).

could that be why it was unencrypted when it first launched??

RCN has also just announced the completion of a deal to carry The Smithsonian Channel HD. link (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6540220.html)

A first for local HD?

Watching the Wizards game last night on CSN HD (which by the way are a thing of beauty in HD) and I saw a commercial in HD for American Service Center. Yes, we've all seen commercials in HD by now, but this was a HD commercial for a local retailer broadcast on a local channel (a RSN to be exact). I guess American Service Center is selling a lot of Mercedes these days and can afford to spring for HD commercials. Anyway, this is a good thing.

Ohh my...

When did Comcast start recompressing its local channels?

Update: Recordings this past episode were the same.

I've noticed that FOX5 HD via Comcast has been looking rather crappy and grainy the past few days...guess we can chalk that up to over-compression...

I don't think I've seen such terrible PQ on FOX than when I was watching Cantebury's Law the other day...looked downright terrible.

There are three places in the PSIP where the channel number is located (I found that out the hard way). Different tuners look at different places for it, so it could still be wrong even if a number of receivers say that it's OK.

If a number of people are having the same problem, especially if it's something that changes again after being manually corrected, I would suspect the PSIP that I was sending out...

I'm having the same problem with Vista and WusaTV9 - can't tune it in with a HD Homerun ATSC tuner. All the other channels are fine.

Any ideas on how to get this resolved?

Anyone else having problems...

My MCE 2005 w/ ASTC tuner is not receiving channel 50 & 9 (DC), any one know if they are remaping the signal or moving their broadcast ?

Charlie

Hmmm..maybe the wind has moved my CM #4228...

Just asking in case the wind is not the problem...

My MCE 2005 w/ ASTC tuner is not receiving channel 50 & 9 (DC), any one know if they are remaping the signal or moving their broadcast ?
Both WUSA-DT 9 and WDCW-DT 50 are coming in fine OTA here in Sterling. They are showing their correct mapped channel for the Samsung ATSC tuner.

Both WUSA-DT 9 and WDCW-DT 50 are coming in fine OTA here in Sterling. They are showing their correct mapped channel for the Samsung ATSC tuner.

Same in MoCo, been fine all night. Although CW50 still has that annoying sound glitch every few minutes.

Same in MoCo, been fine all night. Although CW50 still has that annoying sound glitch every few minutes.

I've been noticing that too.

Testing Coupon-Eligible Converter Boxes in the DC area

I've been evaluating the Insignia CECB and recently the Zenith CECB, using digital closed captioning most of the time.

The Insignia crashed five different times within 3 weeks and seemed to do that only on channels from stations that have a glitch with their captioning for digital programs. Most crashes occured with the my 20 affiliate but also happened with WJLA.

I've also been noticing that the Insignia's captions for the 11 pm showing of Law and Order on my20 frequently get out of sync with the video and audio.

[Last night, the my20 network stopped broadcasting captions altogether midway through the 11 pm showing. As of 1:36 am, there are still no captions for the my20 programs (including "tyra") via the digital channel, 20.1, though there are captions for the analog channel.

No one else on the AVS Forum has reported a problem with the Insignia crashing; I suspect it might be an interaction between the box and improper captions being transmitted from the TV stations. It'll be interesting to see if the Zenith ever crashes.

if you didn't already know, insiginia is a house brand of best buy. given that, i seriously doubt that the company actually made the product. i will dig to see the actual supplier if anyone is interested.

Didn't see this mentioned, but DirecTV just added Ch50 in to their DC locals in HD yesterday.

...and boy is it pixelating on motion. Is the OTA signal this compressed?

Good deal. I have noted it. Thanks.

MASN has added the channel locations for MASN HD to their Web site:
http://masnstudios.com/2007/09/find-masn.html

It's not complete, but it's a start.

I've ordered two coupons for converter boxes from DTV2009.gov. My question is, how much do the boxes cost after the coupon? What stores accept the coupon?

Thanks.

if you didn't already know, insiginia is a house brand of best buy. given that, i seriously doubt that the company actually made the product. i will dig to see the actual supplier if anyone is interested.

The Insignia box is the same as the Zenith. Both were manufactured by LG.

I'm also using vista media center with a HVR-1800 and have lost the ability to tune in CBS channel 9. Anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

MASN has added the channel locations for MASN HD to their Web site:
http://masnstudios.com/2007/09/find-masn.html

It's not complete, but it's a start.
Thanks for posting the link. What I find interesting is that it shows just how many video head end systems Comcast has in the region. MASN and MASN2 are at many different channel #s across the VHEs. Meanwhile Mojo HD is at 206 or 226 in most places. Some Comcast VHEs are listed as No HD for MASN-HD. So I looked up the Comcast channel line-up for Culpepper county and they have only 10 HD channels & no Mojo? Ouch. Shows that some Comcast areas are still trailing badly in adding HD channel.s

Version Fios is listed as TBA. Will be interesting to see how they add a part-time MASN-HD feed and how long it takes. Verizon does not have a Mojo HD channel they can pre-empt, so my guess is they will put MASN-HD at channel 830, but it will be a video loop feed of a logo when MASN-HD is not active. I have little confidence that Verizon will add a MASN-HD feed in time for the first HD game.

Hello everyone:

Just thought I'd come and make a post in here, due to the interesting filings yesterday.

WBAL-DT has filed to use their analog antenna with 5 kW on channel 11.

WJZ-DT has filed to replace their analog antenna with a new digital one (along with WMAR, who wants 1000 kW on channel 38) which will be 28.8 kW directional on channel 13.

Coverage of WMAR-DT 38:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1235583.html

Coverage of WBAL-DT 11:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1237585.html

Coverage of WJZ-DT 13:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1237603.html

Both stations have to protect WWPX in Martinsburg.

Hope it helps!

- Trip

I called Comcast this morning and they said that there are problems on their end in my area. Oh well, back to OTA for a while.

I'm having a similar problem. Are you using the Howard County Comcast service? Monday night I discovered that they had remapped the unencrypted feeds. Of the ~24 feeds I was receiving, only 10 were still unencrypted, and only two of those were HD. Most of the major network HD feeds were gone.

I'm also using vista media center with a HVR-1800 and have lost the ability to tune in CBS channel 9. Anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

I finally found the solution to this from a link somewhere back in this thread. The problem is only in M$ media center software, where they have the wrong data for ATSC CBS Channel 9 in a table.

I had saved the file from that link so a short version is that you have to find the "hidden" file
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs\atscchannels.xml"
This file contains all of the channel information that was downloaded by the guide, and they recently downloaded incorrect data.

Editing this file won’t have much effect though, because it will get updated every time the guide downloads. However you do want to edit that file and delete the whole line for WUSA.

Then in the channel setup in the tasks area of Vista Media center you need to manually add channel 9.1 at frequency 34. Doing this will create a file
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs\atscprefs.xml
This file contains all of the channel information that you’ve manually added to the system, and luckily when there is conflict in information (downloaded from the Guide) this file wins. It is not updated by the guide, so this is where we want to make our tweaks. This file may not actually exist yet on your PC, it is only created by MCE when you manually add a missing channel.

If you need further info I can forward the whole word document I copied off the link that I can't find.

Ben

not for long if someone is reading this thread.;)

Gone. It was a nice two days. :)

G

is anyone else seeing the maryland game on my20 in SD on the HD feed? I am watching on cable in cox country, no HD antenna to double-check with

Yup, I was just signing in here to complain via D*. It's something wrong with 20. Did someone forget to flip a switch!?!?

-Mike

Just threw the switch on OTA to HD

jackpot.

at least the pq was good.....

I'm having a similar problem. Are you using the Howard County Comcast service? Monday night I discovered that they had remapped the unencrypted feeds. Of the ~24 feeds I was receiving, only 10 were still unencrypted, and only two of those were HD. Most of the major network HD feeds were gone.

Close, I'm in Baltimore County. All of my HD network feeds came back some time between Wednesday night and Thursday morning and I got them all remapped yesterday. No apparent changes other than, possibly, the lost of some of the random music/spanish stations in the 100s that don't come up with callsigns.

at least the pq was good.....

You were supposed to say that at least Maryland lost. :p

G

Anyone else having problems...

My MCE 2005 w/ ASTC tuner is not receiving channel 50 & 9 (DC), any one know if they are remaping the signal or moving their broadcast ?

Charlie

Hmmm..maybe the wind has moved my CM #4228...

Just asking in case the wind is not the problem...

I think you're fine, I had the same problem up here in Elkridge. It was Media Center, not the stations. Find your "atscchannels.xml" file (Vista = C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs; XPMCE will be rooted in a different location). You will see incorrect physical channels for both WUSA and WDCW. (If you get Maryland OTA, you might see a bad physical channel for WMAR as well)

Here are the correct entries:

<channel callsign="WDCW" version="0" physical="51" major="50" />
<channel callsign="WUSA" version="0" physical="34" major="9" />
<channel callsign="WMAR" version="0" physical="52" major="2" />

Yours will likely say "50", "9", and "38" respectively.

I had to make that file read-only to stop Media Center from overwriting it. The "Guide" information seems to be wrong, they're jumping the gun and using the 2009 designations for these channels.

I also had to add a temporary fake DTV channel to the guide to get it to reload this file. I added 51.1 WCDWX. It won't tune (obviously), but MCE needed something to kick start it. If I remove that fake channel, it reverts back to not tuning WUSA and WDCW again, but leaves WMAR alone.

WNVT-DT 30 is operating at reduced power. I noticed a few days ago that I was no longer getting WNVT-DT 30 OTA, but only a weak signal for the station. I'm in Sterling and my CM 4221 antenna is aimed at Baltimore to get the Baltimore and DC stations. WVNT-DT's antenna is located to south in Goldvein area; the CM 4221 picks it up in a sidelobe so it always a little tricky to get the station. Anyway, I emailed WNVT-DT's engineer yesterday and got a rather quick reply that WNVT-DT power is down 15% until parts on order from Harris come in; should be back at full power in the next week.

He also added this morning that WNVT-DT may move to carry MHz 1 to 6 at 3.1 Mbps per channel versus MHz 1 to 5 at 3.5 Mbps to carry all of the English language channels when WNVC 56/57 is shut down at the end of August to replace the antennas with a new UHF 24 antenna for post Feb 17, 2009 operation.

He also added this morning that WNVT-DT may move to carry MHz 1 to 6 at 3.1 Mbps per channel versus MHz 1 to 5 at 3.5 Mbps to carry all of the English language channels when WNVC 56/57 is shut down at the end of August to replace the antennas with a new UHF 24 antenna for post Feb 17, 2009 operation.6 streams on one channel??? Wow...

I'll be amused to see what the picture quality is on those 6 streams. It'll be interesting to see how bad it gets or how usable it stays.

- Trip

Does Comcast in Alexandria carry ESPNU?

Comcast does not carry ESPNU anywhere. It never reached agreement with ESPN since it wanted to place it in the Sports Tier and ESPN refused.

Rich N.

...WNVT-DT may move to carry MHz 1 to 6...

I'm within earshot of Goldvein and have been having some trouble with 30 during the day and evening since about early Winter. I suspect the power was originally lowered some months ago.

Incidentally, for some silly reason, they replaced MHz 2 (Russkii MIR) with MHz 6 (NHK) quite a while ago on 30-2. NHK is now on 30-2 and 57-2, yet MIR is nowhere to be found (DirecTV's electronic guide still thinks 30-2 is MIR, however).

I'll be amused to see what the picture quality is on those 6 streams. It'll be interesting to see how bad it gets or how usable it stays.

- TripThe station is cash strapped too. I can't see them having the latest-and-greatest euipment neither...

MASN has added the channel locations for MASN HD to their Web site:
http://masnstudios.com/2007/09/find-masn.html

It's not complete, but it's a start.

It is also probably incorrect for DirecTV.

MASN HD is not full time, right? If it is not, then the channels for HD on DirecTV will be 626-1 and 671-1. Only full time HDs get the same number as the SD channel.

Today is the first day that Everybody Loves Raymond was to be made available in HD for syndication. Surprisingly, WDCA-DT My 20 is showing Raymond in HD at 10 PM ET. So we have another syndicated HD weekday program for the DC stations.

Today is the first day that Everybody Loves Raymond was to be made available in HD for syndication. Surprisingly, WDCA-DT My 20 is showing Raymond in HD at 10 PM ET. So we have another syndicated HD weekday program for the DC stations.

What's the first?

Two and a half men has been in HD for a while in syndication on CW50. Plus Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy.

What's the first?

Two and a Half Men on the CW is also syndicated in HD.

I just got FiOS after a long battle for my phone number. But unfortunately, on the day of the install the installer came with no CableCARD for my TV(even though I requested it many times). So I went ahead and ordered it right after the installation, and the representative told me that I could do a self-install of a CableCARD. Is this even possible? Because I never thought Verizon, one of the best price gougers, would save money and let us do our own installs.

I just got FiOS after a long battle for my phone number. But unfortunately, on the day of the install the installer came with no CableCARD for my TV(even though I requested it many times). So I went ahead and ordered it right after the installation, and the representative told me that I could do a self-install of a CableCARD. Is this even possible? Because I never thought Verizon, one of the best price gougers, would save money and let us do our own installs.
No, all the reports I have read said that Verizon requires a service call to install the cable cards. The CSRs are not well briefed on cable cards and often confuse them with the STBs that they can mail out. Check the dedicated Fios threads in the Reception Hardware and HD Programming forums; also dslreports has a active Fios TV forum at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzfiostv.

Follow-up on WNVT-DT MHz 30. If they go to 6 SD sub-channels, it will only be temporary while WNVC-DT 56 is dark. They plan to have 5 SD sub-channels on each station next year with MHz 1 to 5 on one and MHz 6 to 10 on the other. Interesting use of the sub-channel capability to provide a LOT of niche programming.

It is also probably incorrect for DirecTV.

MASN HD is not full time, right? If it is not, then the channels for HD on DirecTV will be 626-1 and 671-1. Only full time HDs get the same number as the SD channel.

Correct, MASN HD is only turned on for games. It was mentioned in a news article somewhere that they will probably be full-time in 2009, though.

No, all the reports I have read said that Verizon requires a service call to install the cable cards. The CSRs are not well briefed on cable cards and often confuse them with the STBs that they can mail out. Check the dedicated Fios threads in the Reception Hardware and HD Programming forums; also dslreports has a active Fios TV forum at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzfiostv.

Darn, I was kinda hoping that I could do it, considering I had done the last install myself without the tech's help(he had no idea what he was doing). I guess I should be waiting for a phone call saying, "Oh we messed up, we gotta send a tech out instead and charge you $24.99, anyways."

Nope, you won't be getting a call, so don't bother waiting for it. Were they supposedly going to mail you the cablecards, or were you picking them up somewhere? One time a Verizon CSR told me I could swap out a defective DVR at a location in Falls Church. I went there, DVR in hand, and got to the locked front door. It was a Verizon corporate location, with no Customer Service presence at all.

I have an LG 50pb4d Plasma tv with built in DVR and is connected to OTA for local high definition channels in the Washington DC area. I have been TVGOS guide data with no problems for approximately 5 months when it all of a sudden gave me problems three weeks ago. Now... I can only get sporadic guide data on different days and even on different channels. I have tried reinitalizing the TV and setting it up from scratch again but still the same problem. My HD channels all come in very strong. I can tune to the HD channels just fine... but just my tv guide data giving me problems.

I have a Sony HDDVR in my family room that also uses the TVGOS for guide data and that has been working flawlessly still. Does anyone have an idea of what the problem may be? Anything I can test for or check out? Please advise. Thank you.

REgards,
Kiet

Nope, you won't be getting a call, so don't bother waiting for it. Were they supposedly going to mail you the cablecards, or were you picking them up somewhere? One time a Verizon CSR told me I could swap out a defective DVR at a location in Falls Church. I went there, DVR in hand, and got to the locked front door. It was a Verizon corporate location, with no Customer Service presence at all.

Verizon was supposedly mailing it, looks like I need to make a call myself cause I am dying without my HD goodness. :(

Verizon was supposedly mailing it, looks like I need to make a call myself cause I am dying without my HD goodness. :(
You need to call Verizon and try to get a CSR who understands what you mean when you say "cable card" and schedule a service call. You should check the Tivo forums, even if you don't have a HD Tivo, for info on exactly what steps are needed to install the cable card. Don't expect the tech to have much experience with cable cards.

Since you are putting the cable card in a TV, your TV should then be able to get the non-encrypted QAM channels while waiting for the cable card. All of the HD and SD local stations & PEGs are sent in the clear on Verizon Fios. So you should get the 8 HD local stations and all their sub-channels, but at their mapped broadcast channel: 4-1, 4-2, 5-1, 7-1, and up to 67-1 for MPT (Verizon apparently gets MPT from the Baltimore WMPB-DT 67 station) along with WNVT-DT 30, WNVC-DT 56/57 & WPXW-DT Ion 66.x. If the channels are not mapped, the digital broadcast stations can be located at QAM 71 to 75 and 82. I have not done a QAM scan recently, but I don't think this has changed. Also, Verizon is having a HBO and Cinemax free preview this weekend. If they do what they did last December for the movie package free preview, the HBO and Cinemax channels encryption will be turned off for the duration of the preview. A clear QAM tuner will get them if they do that. Of course, you should be able to get all the DC digital broadcast stations with a decent antenna if you want to get HD that way.

I think you're fine, I had the same problem up here in Elkridge. It was Media Center, not the stations. Find your "atscchannels.xml" file (Vista = C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs; XPMCE will be rooted in a different location). You will see incorrect physical channels for both WUSA and WDCW. (If you get Maryland OTA, you might see a bad physical channel for WMAR as well)

Here are the correct entries:

<channel callsign="WDCW" version="0" physical="51" major="50" />
<channel callsign="WUSA" version="0" physical="34" major="9" />
<channel callsign="WMAR" version="0" physical="52" major="2" />

Yours will likely say "50", "9", and "38" respectively.

I had to make that file read-only to stop Media Center from overwriting it. The "Guide" information seems to be wrong, they're jumping the gun and using the 2009 designations for these channels.

I also had to add a temporary fake DTV channel to the guide to get it to reload this file. I added 51.1 WCDWX. It won't tune (obviously), but MCE needed something to kick start it. If I remove that fake channel, it reverts back to not tuning WUSA and WDCW again, but leaves WMAR alone.
I wonder whether the fix in the thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=918245&
would also work similarly for these stations.

Here is that fix Mikewind pointed me in the right direction for a fix, and it worked in my Vista setup as well:

Basically the guide is wrong and has WJZ listed as 1381 when it should be listed as 1131. (FYI - First '1' is just for the digital channels, second and third number '13' are for the Original non-digital channel designation and the last number '1' signifies the first digital channel). I am not sure what happened in the guide, but it is obviously wrong.

IN order to get WJZ-DT to tune, you have to know that digital channel is actually on UHF 38 (you can get this via Antennaweb.org).

To do the fix:
1) open Media Center, go to group Tasks then select Settings > TV > Guide > Add Missing Channels
2) Select "Add Missing Channel"
3) enter 13 and 1 in the boxes (the one should show up automatically after the 13 is entered).
4) It should then ask which channel is used to tune this channel (the UHF). Enter 38 for this channel.
5) back at the Listings for add missing channels you should see the 1131 in the list. Hit the 'Done' button.
(Unfortunately, you are not yet done)
6) now you are back at the 'Guide' group. You should now select 'Add Listings to Channel'
7) You should see 1131 in the list, click on it.
8) Now move through the list until you see WJZ-DT or WJZ if you do not see WJZ-DT. Click on WJZ-DT or WJZ.
(Almost done)
9) Now you have to un-select the Wrong channel from the channel guide, so since you are still in the 'Guide' section of the settings, select 'Edit Channels'.
10) Navigate to the incorrect '1381' channel and un-select it so it will not be in the guide anymore.

Hopefully this will get you back WJZ. Let me know if the guide works for you and if there are any errors or problems with the guide.

Note that this guide should work for any channel that has a problem, just substituting whatever incorrect or missing channel for the references here to WJZ. You just have to know the "real" digital channel assignment which can be found on www.antennaweb.org

If you know who to contact to get this fixed at Microsoft, please try to get it fixed, it is annoying and has been a problem since September 2007.

Just got a post card in the mail from Comcast indicating that CNN-HD, History-HD and TLC-HD will be added to Howard County on April 9th.

Just pulled this off of the WUSA web site (sounds like the same games will be shown in HD and analog):

3/20/08 (scheduled 12:10-5pm and 7pm-12mid):

12:30pm Temple vs. Michigan St.

2:30pm Kentucky vs. Marquette

7:10pm Belmont vs. Duke

9:40pm George Mason vs. Notre Dame



3/21/08 (scheduled 12:10-5pm and 7pm-12mid):

12:15pm American University vs. Tennessee

2:45pm UMBC vs. Georgetown

7:10pm Coppin St./Mt. St. Mary's vs. North
Carolina
NOTE: Winner of Coppin St. vs. Mt. St. Mary's Tuesday game will play North Carolina.

9:40pm Villanova vs. Clemson

Awesome! Multiple blowouts we get stuck with while better games are still going on. Thank god we can get all the games online for the first 3 rounds.

*Edit* Wait, this just in......Do we get the 5:00 games on channel 274 in Howard Co, Comcast????? That would make the 5 dollar donation worthwhile!

Today is the first day that Everybody Loves Raymond was to be made available in HD for syndication. Surprisingly, WDCA-DT My 20 is showing Raymond in HD at 10 PM ET. So we have another syndicated HD weekday program for the DC stations.

Not HD tonight.

Just an FYI -

My 54-1 "WNUV-HD", is actually in SD. My HD encoder crapped out last night, and I had to put the SD encoder in until I replace it.

Anybody else notice the new iTV app on Cox Fairfax? Weather, news, access to your Cox email. Kind of cool.

Btw, I have the SA8300. Access iTV by hitting the Menu button on the remote. It took a couple minutes to download(?) the first time but now starts up right away every time.

*Edit* Wait, this just in......Do we get the 5:00 games on channel 274 in Howard Co, Comcast????? That would make the 5 dollar donation worthwhile!

According to listings on comcast's webpage, the Cornell/Stanford game is on Thursday at 4:45pm.

From DCRTV:

Murdoch To Showcase HD News On DC's 5 - 3/19 - UPDATED: DCRTV hears that media baron Rupert Murdoch plans to make a big deal of it this spring when he launches high-def local newscasts on his Fox5. DC's Channel 5/WTTG will be used as an HD showcase for Fox's local newscasts, which Murdoch plans to also unveil on his other big-market stations, we're told. DCRTV first told you in February about Fox5's plans to launch HD newscasts. Currently, only Gannett's Channel 9/ WUSA offers HD newscasts in the DC market. Also, we're told, don't look for HD newscasts any time soon on budget-strapped NBC's Channel 4/WRC. However, we do hear that Allbritton's Channel 7/WJLA is about halfway through its HD conversion. All cameras, decks, and graphics have been converted to HD, but they're being used in standard-def mode.....

Awesome! Multiple blowouts we get stuck with while better games are still going on. Thank god we can get all the games online for the first 3 rounds.

*Edit* Wait, this just in......Do we get the 5:00 games on channel 274 in Howard Co, Comcast????? That would make the 5 dollar donation worthwhile!


CSTV will also be airing the Friday night Oklahoma/St Joe's 7 pm game, so you pick up 2 games you otherwise can't get.

Just an FYI -

My 54-1 "WNUV-HD", is actually in SD. My HD encoder crapped out last night, and I had to put the SD encoder in until I replace it.

Back to HD. Yea!

Back to HD. Yea!
I was wondering if you fixed it as I saw WNUV-DT 54.1 OTA was back to 1080i mid-day. Out of curiosity, how does dropping to 480i affect the cable companies which put the 54.1 feed on their HD tier? Do their systems automatically adjust and put the 480i SD feed through? Or do the subscribers get a black screen for the WNUV CW 54 HD channel? Did anyone in the Baltimore area on Comcast or Verizon notice whether they were getting WNUV as a SD channel or blank screen for the HD channel late last night or this morning?

Anybody else notice the new iTV app on Cox Fairfax? Weather, news, access to your Cox email. Kind of cool.

Btw, I have the SA8300. Access iTV by hitting the Menu button on the remote. It took a couple minutes to download(?) the first time but now starts up right away every time.

im havin a hard time finding this?

Just an FYI -

My 54-1 "WNUV-HD", is actually in SD. My HD encoder crapped out last night, and I had to put the SD encoder in until I replace it.What time was that? I was trying to capture One Tree Hill for my daughter last night over the air. When I glanced at it a few times, at least it seemed to be a widescreen picture.

Neil

What time was that? I was trying to capture One Tree Hill for my daughter last night over the air. When I glanced at it a few times, at least it seemed to be a widescreen picture.

Neil

Actually it was this morning. I got the SD encoder working around 5 AM. We had turned the power off at the station to install a new station UPS, and it's surprising how many things that have been on 24x7 for the last several years decided that they didn't like that... The HD encoder was the last thing on the list.

Thanks for watching!

I was wondering if you fixed it as I saw WNUV-DT 54.1 OTA was back to 1080i mid-day. Out of curiosity, how does dropping to 480i affect the cable companies which put the 54.1 feed on their HD tier? Do their systems automatically adjust and put the 480i SD feed through? Or do the subscribers get a black screen for the WNUV CW 54 HD channel? Did anyone in the Baltimore area on Comcast or Verizon notice whether they were getting WNUV as a SD channel or blank screen for the HD channel late last night or this morning?

I didn't get any calls, so I don't really know how things worked out... I figured that any signal was better than no signal.

The monitors in master control show the SD feed as stretch-o-vision, but the monitor in my office shows it correctly...

Cheers

Does anyone know if there are any other channels besides ESPNU that will be covering the basketball game on Thursday between UM and Syracuse.

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.

In ad in yesterday's Gazette updated the changes. Discovery HD will still be launched on Tuesday, but Cartoon Network will remain on analog on ch 58. The new SD channels will be delayed by a month

I thought that this was interesting (from Multichannel News):
====================================================
FCC Yields To DirecTV, Dish On HD Carriage

Plan Allows Satellite Giants To Down Convert HD Signals For Years

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 3/19/2008 6:40:00 PM

Washington -- DirecTV and Dish Network have won major concessions from the Federal Communications Commission on the carriage of local TV signals in HD format following completion of broadcasters’ digital transition early next year, FCC and industry officials said Wednesday.

DirecTV and Dish Network struck a deal with the FCC that was far better than the HD carriage rules the FCC imposed on all cable operators, regardless of size, last September.

The five-member FCC did not announce the vote or release the text of the rules on Wednesday.

The National Association of Broadcasters, which did not return requests for comment, is probably going to be unhappy because the FCC plans to allow DirecTV and Dish to down convert broadcasters’ HD signals to a less pristine picture resolution for several years.

The satellite giants—which combined serve about 30 million pay-TV subscribers—convinced FCC officials that they lacked the channel capacity to provide every eligible station in HD immediately. They insisted that they needed several years to prepare for a full HD carriage requirement.

HD signals stress capacity because they take up much more bandwidth than digital signal transmitted at lower resolution.

The FCC’s HD rules for satellite were far more lenient than the ones originally proposed by FCC chairman Kevin Martin. He started off at full HD carriage in February 2009, coupled with a market-by-market waiver process.

Martin scuttled his original plan after DirecTV and Dish Network complained that it was draconian and damaging to their ability to compete with cable.

Instead, the FCC decided to give DirecTV and EchoStar until 2013 to carry all stations in HD within any market where they have elected to carry any station's signal in HD format.

The “carry one, carry all in HD” principle kicks in when a satellite company starts carrying local signals in HD. DirecTV’s decision to carry local TV signals in HD does not force Dish to do likewise in the same market.

All the FCC demanded was that DirecTV and Dish comply with its benchmarks.

For example, by Feb. 17, 2010, DirecTV and Dish Network need to provide full HD carriage in 15% of their HD markets. Dish Network has 35 HD markets today. If a 15% quota were in place today, EchoStar would have a “carry one, carry all in HD” obligation in just 5 markets.

The benchmark jumps to 30% in the second year, 60% in the third and 100% in the fourth.

Because the FCC didn’t specify the markets that had to be served, DirecTV and Dish Network are free to pursue a large-market strategy, which could keep rural consumers waiting a long time for their local TV signals in HD via satellite.

With regard to cable, the FCC imposed a much harsher regime on every cable operator without exception. The agency required cable carriage of TV signals in digital and analog formats for three years with respect to any station that demands cable carriage after Feb. 17, 2009.

The FCC also insisted that cable systems pass through HD feeds, potentially leading to triple carriage in some cases.

The FCC did exempt all-digital cable systems; but since so few are actually all-digital, the exemption was almost worthless.

In February, major cable TV programmers, including C-SPAN, Discovery Communications and The Weather Channel, sued the FCC in a federal appeals court over the digital TV station carriage mandates.

With respect to small cable systems—which made the same channel-crunch concerns as DirecTV and Dish Network—the FCC, at Martin's insistence, refused to show any flexibility. Martin would not accommodate even mom-and-pop cable companies with a blanket waiver to carry DTV “must carry” signals in analog only for a period of years.

Instead, these small cable outfits need to hire D.C. lawyers to file waivers at the FCC.

Martin explained his attitude last year when he told a House subcommittee that he thought the cable industry wanted to use the digital TV transition as an "excuse" to remove TV stations from their systems.

Cable never argued that. It said that as a legal matter, all cable operators had to do was carry DTV signals once and provide set-tops to requesting customers, just as customers needed to acquire analog TV sets to view local TV signals that the FCC forces cable to carry.

To assist with the DTV transition, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association volunteered in congressional testimony to comply with dual must carry for three years, coupled with an exemption for small cable systems.

DirecTV and Dish Network caught another big break from the FCC.

At least for the time being, if digital TV stations demand HD carriage, the satellite carriers are not require to provide a standard definition copy to customers that do not have HD set-top boxes. In others words, none of the dual must carry obligations that the FCC imposed on cable would apply to DirecTV and Dish.

The FCC will study DBS dual must carry in a further notice of proposed rulemaking, also adopted Tuesday night.

Friend just bought a condo off Ordnance Road (Anne Arundel County) and then found out he can't get DirecTV because of a building in the way. His only choice right now is Millenium (no Comcast). Any word on Verizon Fios in the area?

RCN's 'Analog Crush'

MARCH 12, 2008

Cable overbuilder RCN Corp. is pretty darn serious about migrating to an all-digital video environment. How serious? Well, it's gone so far as to assign a label to the strategy: "Project Analog Crush."

And when RCN says all-digital, it means the removal of the entire analog lineup, and giving and renting out digital boxes to all its customers. That means it won't leave a "lifeline" analog lineup of about 30 channels, as other MSOs will.

"We have decided to take the leap and do it right," proclaimed RCN CEO Pete Aquino on Tuesday during the company's fourth quarter earnings call. (See RCN Posts Q4.) "When we say all-digital, we mean it. There will be no analog channels, period."

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), by contrast, plans to offer the lifeline lineup in about 20 percent of its markets by the back half of this year. (See Comcast Spreads the Love .) That strategy could speed up if the MSO is successful in its development of a $35 digital-to-analog converter device. (See Comcast Pursuing $35 Digital Dongle.)

Of course, given RCN's relative size to Comcast and other major U.S. cable operators, coupled with a special waiver for low-end Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) DCT700s, it's in a much better position to make such drastic cutovers.

RCN's first such cutover started in Chicago in January, a move the operator expects to complete by April 18. (See RCN's All-Digital Challenge.)

There, RCN expects to reclaim about 430 MHz of analog spectrum and apply it to the addition of new hi-def and standard-def channels. Using three-to-one compression, Aquino believes RCN would have the capacity to add more than 200 linear HD channels.

"The 'Analog Crush' lineup is going to be really hard to match," he said, noting that the Chicagoland system is starting off with about 50 hi-def channels. RCN competes in the market with Comcast, where the MSO has already trimmed down its digital lineup considerably. RCN is also facing video competition from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board), which launched U-verse in the Windy City in late January.

Aquino did not set a timetable for what the company might do in areas such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. RCN's digital penetration is at about 70 percent -- enough, the company believes, to set the table for a more massive all-digital push.

But if it's relying on a set-top waiver to fuel that strategy, time is running short. Its Federal Communications Commission (FCC) waiver expires in July. But the agency has looked favorably on operators that pledge to be all-digital by February 2009, so it's possible RCN might seek an extension. (See Verizon & Others Get Their Waivers.)

Another Docsis 3.0 hint
RCN presumably will use some freed-up spectrum to support a Docsis 3.0 rollout.

This week, RCN became just the latest MSO to drop a hint that it plans to roll out the new platform, which could boost shared speeds beyond 100 Mbit/s. (See Charter Hints at Docsis 3.0 and Mediacom Plotting Docsis 3.0 Tests .)

"We too expect to reap the benefits of [Docsis] 3.0 and still maintain our speed advantage over much of the competition, given our smaller node sizes," Aquino said.

Today, RCN's high-end "MegaModem Mach 20" tier caps the downstream at 20 Mbit/s.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=148237&site=cdn&f_src=lightreading_gnews

I was wondering if you fixed it as I saw WNUV-DT 54.1 OTA was back to 1080i mid-day. Out of curiosity, how does dropping to 480i affect the cable companies which put the 54.1 feed on their HD tier? Do their systems automatically adjust and put the 480i SD feed through? Or do the subscribers get a black screen for the WNUV CW 54 HD channel? Did anyone in the Baltimore area on Comcast or Verizon notice whether they were getting WNUV as a SD channel or blank screen for the HD channel late last night or this morning?

Cable systems will pass whatever is on the OTA DT channel. Anything from 480i to 1080i. It won't upconvert it, just pass it. 480i is one of the DTV formats. Remember, HDTV is a SUBset of DTV. Not the other way around:D

Did anyone else notice that Everybody Loves Raymond was in HD on MyTV tonight at 10?

Did anyone else notice that Everybody Loves Raymond was in HD on MyTV tonight at 10?
Forgot to check. WDCA-DT 20 had Everybody Loves Raymond in HD on Monday, the debut night for the show for HD syndication, then it was SD on Tuesday. Have not checked since then. Look back a few posts. Some background on this in the HD syndication thread in the HD Programming forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13153840#post13153840.

I have been following this because I am wondering when we will get hour long series shows on weekends in HD. Will likely be a while longer.

Everybody Loves Raymond was in HD tonight on My20. On another note, why is WJZ DT so loud with their audio and WUSA seems low?

On the weekends WJLA shows Wheel and Jeopardy! in SD even though they are last year's shows originally aired in HD. Hopefully this won't be the case with MY 20 and Raymond.

Am I the only one watching CW50? The constant audio hiccups are making me crazy. Is this an OTA HD only issue?

Am I the only one watching CW50? The constant audio hiccups are making me crazy. Is this an OTA HD only issue?

I also get it with Comcast.

The only CW show I watch is Smallville, and it has been doing this for months.

CW50 is the only major DC channel I can't get OTA (using a Silver Sensor).

Hey folks, There was a subchannel of some DTV station here which used to play music videos all days long.

Anyone knows which one it was?
is it still broadcasting?

Hey folks, There was a subchannel of some DTV station here which used to play music videos all days long.

Anyone knows which one it was?
is it still broadcasting?

You're probably thinking of The Tube. It was a subchannel for WDCW (50-2) and WNUV (54-2). Sad to say it is no longer broadcasting. WJZ DT (13-1) is still 10 times louder than WUSA DT (9-1)

Thanks so much for posting this solution!!

It's March Madness time and I couldnt' be without my HDTV.



I finally found the solution to this from a link somewhere back in this thread. The problem is only in M$ media center software, where they have the wrong data for ATSC CBS Channel 9 in a table.

I had saved the file from that link so a short version is that you have to find the "hidden" file
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs\atscchannels.xml"
This file contains all of the channel information that was downloaded by the guide, and they recently downloaded incorrect data.

Editing this file won’t have much effect though, because it will get updated every time the guide downloads. However you do want to edit that file and delete the whole line for WUSA.

Then in the channel setup in the tasks area of Vista Media center you need to manually add channel 9.1 at frequency 34. Doing this will create a file
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs\atscprefs.xml
This file contains all of the channel information that you’ve manually added to the system, and luckily when there is conflict in information (downloaded from the Guide) this file wins. It is not updated by the guide, so this is where we want to make our tweaks. This file may not actually exist yet on your PC, it is only created by MCE when you manually add a missing channel.

If you need further info I can forward the whole word document I copied off the link that I can't find.

Ben

CW50 is the only major DC channel I can't get OTA (using a Silver Sensor).

I can't get CW50 or NBC4 from DC without the outdoor antenna. From Baltimore, I can't get My24 with or without the outdoor antenna.

I get HD via my QAM tuner on my Sammy through Cox basic cable.
Every channel is picked up correctly except 50-1 HD.
When I input 50-1 on my remote it will be a blank screen.
I then will manually hit the up or down channel button on the remote & only then will it lock 50-1 HD.

What could be happening?

All,
Just hooked up my Sharp Aquos LCD w/built-in ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners and thought I would share with the group the channels it found during channel setup. I'm in Carroll Country, MD and use Comcast. Is it odd that I'm receiving reception on non-published channels for the Baltimore area?

MUSIC CHOICE CHANNELS
101.3: Old School Rap
101.4: R & B Hits
101.5: Electronica
101.6: Rock
101.7: Bluegrass
101.8: Sounds of the Season
101.9: Kidz Only
101.10: Reggae
101.11: R & B Soul
101.12: Classic R & B
101.13: Hip Hop/Rap
101.14: Dance
101.15: Rap
101.16: Metal
101.17: Alternative
101.18: Adult Alternative
101.19: Classic Rock
101.20: Arena Rock
101.21: Lite Hits
101.22: Hit List
101.23: 80's
101.24: 70's
101.25: Solid Gold Oldies
101.26: Today's Country
101.27: Classic Country
101.28: Big Band & Swing
101.29: Singers & Standers
101.30: Easy Listening
101.31: Classical Masterpieces
101.32: Lite Classical
101.33: Soundscapes
101.34: Smooth Jazz
101.35: Jazz
101.36: Blues
101.37: Gospel
101.38: Contemporary Christian
101.39: Musica Urbana
101.40: Salsa
101.41: 90's
101.42: Pop Latino
101.43: Party Favorites
101.44: Showtunes
101.45: Opera
101.46: Retroactive
101.47: Rock Espanol
101.48: Mexicana
101.49: Americana
101.50: Adult Top 40

LOCAL CHANNELS
2.1: WMAR-DT (ABC)
11.2: WBAL-HD (NBC)
73.1: WJZ-DT (CBS)
73.2: WMPT (PSB)
73.3: WPTS (PBS)
73.4: WMPT (V-ME)
74.3: WMAR (Weathernet Digital)
74.4: WBALW (InstaWeather Plus)
75.1: WBFF-HD (Fox)
75.2: WNUV-D (CW)
75.3: WBFF (GOOD TV)

All,
Just hooked up my Sharp Aquos LCD w/built-in ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners and thought I would share with the group the channels it found during channel setup. I'm in Carroll Country, MD and use Comcast. Is it odd that I'm receiving reception on non-published channels for the Baltimore area?

MUSIC CHOICE CHANNELS
101.3: Old School Rap
...

LOCAL CHANNELS
2.1: WMAR-DT (ABC)
11.2: WBAL-HD (NBC)
73.1: WJZ-DT (CBS)
73.2: WMPT (PSB)
73.3: WPTS (PBS)
73.4: WMPT (V-ME)
74.3: WMAR (Weathernet Digital)
74.4: WBALW (InstaWeather Plus)
75.1: WBFF-HD (Fox)
75.2: WNUV-D (CW)
75.3: WBFF (GOOD TV)We get Comcast's music channels as well on the QAM feed in Bowie. You probably get a few other channels that you might not normally expect as detailed in previous posts - such as VS, A&E HD, TBS, and more.

Neil

All,
Just hooked up my Sharp Aquos LCD w/built-in ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners and thought I would share with the group the channels it found during channel setup. I'm in Carroll Country, MD and use Comcast. Is it odd that I'm receiving reception on non-published channels for the Baltimore area?
Take what they give you. One day they will snuff it out & charge you more to get it back :rolleyes:

My parents have the same setup in NoVa as u & they also get CNN HD, Hist HD, CSN HD & Discovery HD @ basic cost.

Just got a postcard from Comcast that Baltimore and Howard Co will get CNN, History and TLC HD on April 9. It's better late than never.

Anybody notice that Saturday Night Live is not being shown in HD on WRC-NBC4?

Anybody notice that Saturday Night Live is not being shown in HD on WRC-NBC4?

Yep. Some nitwit at WRC obviously doesn't know how to flip the switch from SD to HD.

NBC Nightly News was in SD on channel 4 last night as well.

The way they are cutting back over there, it was probably on autopilot.

RCN's 'Analog Crush'

MARCH 12, 2008

Cable overbuilder RCN Corp. is pretty darn serious about migrating to an all-digital video environment. How serious? Well, it's gone so far as to assign a label to the strategy: "Project Analog Crush."

And when RCN says all-digital, it means the removal of the entire analog lineup, and giving and renting out digital boxes to all its customers. That means it won't leave a "lifeline" analog lineup of about 30 channels, as other MSOs will.

"We have decided to take the leap and do it right," proclaimed RCN CEO Pete Aquino on Tuesday during the company's fourth quarter earnings call. (See RCN Posts Q4.) "When we say all-digital, we mean it. There will be no analog channels, period."

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), by contrast, plans to offer the lifeline lineup in about 20 percent of its markets by the back half of this year. (See Comcast Spreads the Love .) That strategy could speed up if the MSO is successful in its development of a $35 digital-to-analog converter device. (See Comcast Pursuing $35 Digital Dongle.)

Of course, given RCN's relative size to Comcast and other major U.S. cable operators, coupled with a special waiver for low-end Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) DCT700s, it's in a much better position to make such drastic cutovers.

RCN's first such cutover started in Chicago in January, a move the operator expects to complete by April 18. (See RCN's All-Digital Challenge.)

There, RCN expects to reclaim about 430 MHz of analog spectrum and apply it to the addition of new hi-def and standard-def channels. Using three-to-one compression, Aquino believes RCN would have the capacity to add more than 200 linear HD channels.

"The 'Analog Crush' lineup is going to be really hard to match," he said, noting that the Chicagoland system is starting off with about 50 hi-def channels. RCN competes in the market with Comcast, where the MSO has already trimmed down its digital lineup considerably. RCN is also facing video competition from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board), which launched U-verse in the Windy City in late January.

Aquino did not set a timetable for what the company might do in areas such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. RCN's digital penetration is at about 70 percent -- enough, the company believes, to set the table for a more massive all-digital push.

But if it's relying on a set-top waiver to fuel that strategy, time is running short. Its Federal Communications Commission (FCC) waiver expires in July. But the agency has looked favorably on operators that pledge to be all-digital by February 2009, so it's possible RCN might seek an extension. (See Verizon & Others Get Their Waivers.)

<snip>

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=148237&site=cdn&f_src=lightreading_gnews

One potentially significant drawback about going all-digital is if the digital channels aren't providing digital captions properly.

In other words, deaf and hard of hearing customers who were getting 100% captioning on analog channels may find that a lot of the digital channels are having glitches providing captioning (due to various equipment issues).

There have already been a lot of problems getting captions through a lot of cable companies for digital channels. One user of captioning who worked hard to address numerous captioning problems from her cable company and even worked with an engineer found it *still* took 6 months for some caption problems to get fixed.

The analog channels are generally fine. There needs to be serious attention paid to delivering captions intact on the digital channels, however. There have been numerous problems on that front already.

When I was visiting my transmitter in Catonsville this morning, I was surprised to find that no one was there working on installing the new WUTB transmitter. In talking with their engineer, I found out that they were pretty much ready to go on the air, after they finish some air conditioning and insulation work.

The issue that they are running into now is a delay with their full power FCC license. Apparently the lawyer that was working on it left, and the new lawyers are working on it, but need to do some catch-up. No one knows how long that is going to take...

Thanks for the update Mark. I wonder if they will have HD ready when their signal goes to full power. I can't say that I've tuned into their current digital signal in quite a while (It takes some effort on my part and only works on rare occasions), but the last time I checked their digital stuff was still in 480i only.

Thanks for the update Mark. I wonder if they will have HD ready when their signal goes to full power. I can't say that I've tuned into their current digital signal in quite a while (It takes some effort on my part and only works on rare occasions), but the last time I checked their digital stuff was still in 480i only.

Last time I checked with him, the WUTB CE told me that they were activating another fiber for the HD programming. I know that he has a new HD encoder, but I don't know if he has the feed yet...

That's easier to do than getting things thru the FCC paperwork maze, though.

I searched this thread (perhaps I am in the wrong thread) and found nothing on Comcasts ridculous pricing for CableCards. Right on their website here:

http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?ID=2651

That the cards are UP TO 1.99 regulated fee. SO how can they charge me $13.95 a month for the 2 CableCards in my TiVo??? They also say my DVR box counts as 1 CableCard. . . what BS.

Anyone else paying this or found a way NOT to pay this? I thought the federal regulations stated they HAD to offer the cards at a certain regulated price.

I think the cards must vary widely/wildly by market or region. I have Comcast & Tivo with a single M-card. They charge me NOTHING for that card. Maybe it depends on what level of cable service you have?

IThat the cards are UP TO 1.99 regulated fee. SO how can they charge me $13.95 a month for the 2 CableCards in my TiVo??? They also say my DVR box counts as 1 CableCard. . . what BS.
Call back and get a different CSR. I bet the CSR thinks you are getting cable cards to use with their DVR, so he/she is quoting the price for the DVR. From what I have read on avsforum, most CSRs don't even know what a cable card is. Their training likely does not cover them.

For some reason Comcast has MOJO on its regular channel AND where MHD shoud be.

For some reason Comcast has MOJO on its regular channel AND where MHD shoud be.
Same here in Howard Co.

Everybody Loves Raymond is syndicated in HD on WDCA my20. Why was is shown in SD Sunday night at 11:30pm on WTTG Fox 5 if they both share the same equipment?

It looks like WUSA will be multicasting the West Virginia-Xavier game on Thursday, on 9.2: link (http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=69740)

It looks like WUSA will be multicasting the West Virginia-Xavier game on Thursday, on 9.2: link (http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=69740)

Wow, that's a first for them. We'll see how this affects the quality of their HD broadcast on 9.1. Can't believe they are pre-empting that oh-so-important super doppler for NCAA basketball! What is the world coming to...

I searched this thread (perhaps I am in the wrong thread) and found nothing on Comcasts ridculous pricing for CableCards. Right on their website here:

http://www.comcast.com/customers/faq/FaqDetails.ashx?ID=2651

That the cards are UP TO 1.99 regulated fee. SO how can they charge me $13.95 a month for the 2 CableCards in my TiVo??? They also say my DVR box counts as 1 CableCard. . . what BS.

Anyone else paying this or found a way NOT to pay this? I thought the federal regulations stated they HAD to offer the cards at a certain regulated price.

I went through a very similar headache last fall. I have two cable cards: one in my TV and a second in my Sony DVR. Local Comcast suddenly started charging me for two digital services at $13.95 each. The CSRs (both on phone and in person) could not understand that I have only one outlet and can watch only one device at a time (hence only one digital service). It took a very long, detailed letter to the Customer Service Manager in Manassas to get things right.

The last price schedule I saw for Comcast/Alexandria says cable cards are no charge, unless you have a non-Comcast DVR requiring two cable cards (i.e., your Tivo). In that case they should only be charging you $1.50 (if you are in Alexandria) for the second card in your Tivo. This depends heavily on your local pricing schedule, so you need to get a copy of that and read the fine print.

PM me if you want more info.

Comcast in Sterling remapped the QAMs today. Now we're getting the crappy 3 HD channels to 1 QAM instead of the 2 per QAM that we were. USAHD, Sci-FI HD and Discovery HD are all one the same QAM now. Picture quality definitely is worse now. Bleh

Finally some great news! Cox of Northern Virginia will be adding Comcast SportsNet HD on April 24th to their HD lineup totaling to 34. This channel will be on 734 through SDV.

Hey Mapper,

Where did you happen to hear/see the addition of Comcast SportsNet HD to COX NOVA? I looked on the Cox site, and couldn't find anything. Thanks.

Hey Mapper,

Where did you happen to hear/see the addition of Comcast SportsNet HD to COX NOVA? I looked on the Cox site, and couldn't find anything. Thanks.

It came up in the news section of the latest Cox bill, which came in the mail today for me.

what a great decision to wait till the end of hockey/basketball season to add an HD channel that only shows hockey/basketball. bravo!

what a great decision to wait till the end of hockey/basketball season to add an HD channel that only shows hockey/basketball. bravo!
I had exactly the same thought when I saw that news. Adding CSN-MA HD on April 24? Would any of the Wizards or Caps post-season games be on CSN-MA if they are still playing by then? Great timing.

OTOH, doesn't CSN-MA show DC United home games in HD? I did not get CSN-MA HD until late last year on Verizon so I don't know. The studio shows are in HD, so there will be some HD on CSN-MA HD prior to the start of the next NBA and NHL seasons.

Adding CSN-MA HD on April 24? Would any of the Wizards or Caps post-season games be on CSN-MA if they are still playing by then?

Nope. But hey, at least you get hours and hours and hours of crappy Redskins coverage in widescreen SD!

Hi All -

I've gotten a couple of reports (actually 3 in the past 7 days) about audio problems on WBFF-HD on DirecTV recently. I haven't read anything here, however.

It would be helpful to me if anyone that is experiencing these problems could let me know, and if you could let me know what kind of receiver you are using, that would help, too.

Please either send me a private message, or post any problems here on the forum. Anything you can let me know will help me address the problem.

Thanks a lot!

The MASN games on MOJO are in the Comcast guide. The channel is now labled MOJO+.

MHD is still MIA.

Major problems with channel 45 in HD on D* in the last week. Particularly during American Idol last night. Lots of beeping, strange sounds, and lip sync issues.

I have a HR20-700.

This has happened before, but not for a while.

Thanks, Mark, for your help.

Scott

Hi All -

I've gotten a couple of reports (actually 3 in the past 7 days) about audio problems on WBFF-HD on DirecTV recently. I haven't read anything here, however.

It would be helpful to me if anyone that is experiencing these problems could let me know, and if you could let me know what kind of receiver you are using, that would help, too.

Please either send me a private message, or post any problems here on the forum. Anything you can let me know will help me address the problem.

Thanks a lot!

Nope. But hey, at least you get hours and hours and hours of crappy Redskins coverage in widescreen SD!


lets not forget about the mystics!!!


if carol maloney still works there its totally worth it. otherwise not so much

Hello,

I live in Washington, DC, northeastern Capitol Hill area (zip 20002). I have two digital receivers, one in a small LCD HDTV downstairs and an Insignia converter box upstairs, both of which get great reception of the standard local channels with a cheap rabbit ears/loop set-top antenna.

I looked at TVfool and saw that I "should" be getting some channels from Virginia, and could be close to getting Baltimore stations. The Insignia box has a signal meter and manual tuning to the actual transmission channel, and after fiddling a bit with antenna placement I get about 33% signal, variable and highly dependent to placement, from the Baltimore stations and no signal from the VA stations--both are about 30-35mi away. The one I'm specifically interested in is WBFF, which is digital on channel 46. The 33% strength is not enough for the box to tune in, and it gives up and says 'no signal.'

Yesterday I got a Philips MANT940 indoor/outdoor amplified antenna on my dad's recommendation. He is getting all the Washington channels with this antenna from Hagerstown, MD, a good 60 miles away and says without the amplifier nothing comes in; that seemed like a good shot. Unfortunately here it is not making much of a difference. When placing my antenna high next to the skylight on my two-story rowhouse I can receive channel 45 in analog with color and 'good enough' picture, not much interference at all, but the digital signal is only marginally stronger on the meter. The same goes for the other Baltimore stations I tried and the VA stations.

I tried mounting it outside the second story window facing northeast and again by fiddling a bit was able to get analog channels in slightly better quality but still no go digitally.

As I noted my house is two stories, but across the alley is a 3-story building. Am I just out of luck here, with this antenna or otherwise? I rent but mounting on the roof might not be completely out of the question thanks to my friendly landlord.

Thankfully it seems that with this antenna, regardless of the angle or placement I get all 16 digital stations I was getting with the cheap antenna with a strong signal.

Thanks for any help.

Hello,

I live in Washington, DC, northeastern Capitol Hill area (zip 20002). I have two digital receivers, one in a small LCD HDTV downstairs and an Insignia converter box upstairs, both of which get great reception of the standard local channels with a cheap rabbit ears/loop set-top antenna.

I looked at TVfool and saw that I "should" be getting some channels from Virginia, and could be close to getting Baltimore stations. The Insignia box has a signal meter and manual tuning to the actual transmission channel, and after fiddling a bit with antenna placement I get about 33% signal, variable and highly dependent to placement, from the Baltimore stations and no signal from the VA stations--both are about 30-35mi away. The one I'm specifically interested in is WBFF, which is digital on channel 46. The 33% strength is not enough for the box to tune in, and it gives up and says 'no signal.'

Yesterday I got a Philips MANT940 indoor/outdoor amplified antenna on my dad's recommendation. He is getting all the Washington channels with this antenna from Hagerstown, MD, a good 60 miles away and says without the amplifier nothing comes in; that seemed like a good shot. Unfortunately here it is not making much of a difference. When placing my antenna high next to the skylight on my two-story rowhouse I can receive channel 45 in analog with color and 'good enough' picture, not much interference at all, but the digital signal is only marginally stronger on the meter. The same goes for the other Baltimore stations I tried and the VA stations.

I tried mounting it outside the second story window facing northeast and again by fiddling a bit was able to get analog channels in slightly better quality but still no go digitally.

As I noted my house is two stories, but across the alley is a 3-story building. Am I just out of luck here, with this antenna or otherwise? I rent but mounting on the roof might not be completely out of the question thanks to my friendly landlord.

Thankfully it seems that with this antenna, regardless of the angle or placement I get all 16 digital stations I was getting with the cheap antenna with a strong signal.

Thanks for any help.

You need to get an antenna that is good for your distance. When you're 60 miles away, you need amplification. When you're on top of the antennas, you need something that will reduce milti-path, and need absolutely no amplification.

AntennaWeb is a good resource to help you determine your antenna. In the mean time, you could go to RadioShack and pick up their $5 directional UHF antenna, and it would probably do the job, at least so you can test if you can pick everything up and if it's all in the same direction from your house.

It looks like WUSA will be multicasting the West Virginia-Xavier game on Thursday, on 9.2: link (http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=69740)

Its good to see a digital sub-channel actually being used for something that we would expect it to be used for. I wonder if WJZ will try the same thing? They don't have much experience with sub-channels though.

On Sunday night, WUSA showed the national game while WJZ showed the Mount Saint Mary's game at the same time. Both were in HD.

You need to get an antenna that is good for your distance. When you're 60 miles away, you need amplification. When you're on top of the antennas, you need something that will reduce milti-path, and need absolutely no amplification.

AntennaWeb is a good resource to help you determine your antenna. In the mean time, you could go to RadioShack and pick up their $5 directional UHF antenna, and it would probably do the job, at least so you can test if you can pick everything up and if it's all in the same direction from your house.

An amplifier will only help with signal loss from your antenna to your receiver, ie long cable runs. An amplifier will not help you if your antenna is not receiving a strong enough signal. It sounds as though you need to increase the antenna gain, ie a better or larger antenna or else place your antenna in a better position. How long are your cable runs? Can you determine your signal strength at the antenna?

An amplifier will only help with signal loss from your antenna to your receiver, ie long cable runs. An amplifier will not help you if your antenna is not receiving a strong enough signal. It sounds as though you need to increase the antenna gain, ie a better or larger antenna or else place your antenna in a better position. How long are your cable runs? Can you determine your signal strength at the antenna?

He's on capitol hill (spitting distance from most of the broadcast antennas), the most likely issue is multi-path, exacerbated by the amplification, causing his ATSC tuners to flip out.

He's on capitol hill (spitting distance from most of the broadcast antennas), the most likely issue is multi-path, exacerbated by the amplification, causing his ATSC tuners to flip out.

From reading his original question, it was my understanding that he gets his locals (DC) fine but he wants to pull in WBFF (~24 miles) and some VA stations. I agree that if he is having problems with DC channels its probably multi-path. But if he is using the same antenna for DC (at ~300 degrees) and Baltimore (31 degrees), his signal for WBFF is probably low, especially if the antenna is pointed toward DC.

Hello,

I live in Washington, DC, northeastern Capitol Hill area (zip 20002). I have two digital receivers, one in a small LCD HDTV downstairs and an Insignia converter box upstairs, both of which get great reception of the standard local channels with a cheap rabbit ears/loop set-top antenna.

I looked at TVfool and saw that I "should" be getting some channels from Virginia, and could be close to getting Baltimore stations. The Insignia box has a signal meter and manual tuning to the actual transmission channel, and after fiddling a bit with antenna placement I get about 33% signal, variable and highly dependent to placement, from the Baltimore stations and no signal from the VA stations--both are about 30-35mi away. The one I'm specifically interested in is WBFF, which is digital on channel 46. The 33% strength is not enough for the box to tune in, and it gives up and says 'no signal.'

Yesterday I got a Philips MANT940 indoor/outdoor amplified antenna on my dad's recommendation. He is getting all the Washington channels with this antenna from Hagerstown, MD, a good 60 miles away and says without the amplifier nothing comes in; that seemed like a good shot. Unfortunately here it is not making much of a difference. When placing my antenna high next to the skylight on my two-story rowhouse I can receive channel 45 in analog with color and 'good enough' picture, not much interference at all, but the digital signal is only marginally stronger on the meter. The same goes for the other Baltimore stations I tried and the VA stations.

I tried mounting it outside the second story window facing northeast and again by fiddling a bit was able to get analog channels in slightly better quality but still no go digitally.

As I noted my house is two stories, but across the alley is a 3-story building. Am I just out of luck here, with this antenna or otherwise? I rent but mounting on the roof might not be completely out of the question thanks to my friendly landlord.

Thankfully it seems that with this antenna, regardless of the angle or placement I get all 16 digital stations I was getting with the cheap antenna with a strong signal.

Thanks for any help.


You might try orienting the antenna in other directions. You may get a stronger signal from a reflection off of another building, than you do aiming directly at the tower.

Another thing, you mention that you get a "good enough" picture on the analog channel 45. The thing that causes the most problems in digital tuners is multiple reflections - what you would see as ghosts on the analog signal. If you orient the antenna to minimize the ghosts on the analog channel 45, you should start to receive the digital channel 45. On the TV in my bedroom, the analog signal is REALLY bad, but it doesn't have ghosts, and I get the digital channel 45 fine.

Good luck!

Mark

Its good to see a digital sub-channel actually being used for something that we would expect it to be used for. I wonder if WJZ will try the same thing? They don't have much experience with sub-channels though.

On Sunday night, WUSA showed the national game while WJZ showed the Mount Saint Mary's game at the same time. Both were in HD.

WJZ is a CBS Owned and Operated station. I have read it is against CBS policy for O & O stations to use subchannels of any type.

Personally, I don't want to see it because the sub will be in SD and I can get the out of market game in HD on DirecTV. Putting it on the sub on SD will black me out of HD for that game.

Major problems with channel 45 in HD on D* in the last week. Particularly during American Idol last night. Lots of beeping, strange sounds, and lip sync issues.

I have a HR20-700.

This has happened before, but not for a while.

Thanks, Mark, for your help.

Scott

Thanks for the info!

Here's a question that's been bugging me about WUSA: Why aren't any of the 9 News Now promos done in HD or at least widescreen SD?

Thanks for the replies. I am not worried about the DC channels since I am getting them all perfectly fine. As somebody noted I am very close to the DC stations' transmitters, roughly 6 miles; most are on the northwestern fringe of DC or right outside it so the angle is very similar. The amplifier does not seem to be hurting, and looking at the analog channels I do not see any evidence of multi-path issues or anything. Signal strength is around 98-99% on the Insignia box.

My goal indeed is to get WBFF and other Baltimore stations (why? looking at their sites it looks like they have better or at least different programming than the DC stations). I have not mounted the antenna fixed but rather tried to move it around while the signal meter was on, or while tuned to analog 45. The signal I get from analog 45 at the "sweet spot" doesn't seem to have ghosting, so I am surprised that on the same spot I still do not get digital.

Though, looking at the Wikipedia entry for WBFF it says the position/angle/height of the digital transmitter (46) is different from the analog, though they are in the same tower complex from what I gather. The power is also listed at roughly half of the analog signal. I tried to get UHF 38 (WJZ DT), which looks to be transmitting from around the same area and at about twice the digital signal for WBFF. I get slightly higher signal but still not enough to get a picture.

Opinion on the MANT940 seems evenly split between "signal magnet" and "did nothing better." I'll probably return it and try something else. This may seem silly, but at another forum on a thread about the MANT940 (can't post link due to forum restriction) somebody said it did not work well but joining two antennas with a simple splitter did.

Is that complete rubbish or could that potentially work? My somewhat uneducated reasoning says that's not much different from a multi-element antenna, but then again I do not really know what I'm talking about.

Thanks for the replies. I am not worried about the DC channels since I am getting them all perfectly fine. As somebody noted I am very close to the DC stations' transmitters, roughly 6 miles; most are on the northwestern fringe of DC or right outside it so the angle is very similar. The amplifier does not seem to be hurting, and looking at the analog channels I do not see any evidence of multi-path issues or anything. Signal strength is around 98-99% on the Insignia box.

My goal indeed is to get WBFF and other Baltimore stations (why? looking at their sites it looks like they have better or at least different programming than the DC stations). I have not mounted the antenna fixed but rather tried to move it around while the signal meter was on, or while tuned to analog 45. The signal I get from analog 45 at the "sweet spot" doesn't seem to have ghosting, so I am surprised that on the same spot I still do not get digital.

Though, looking at the Wikipedia entry for WBFF it says the position/angle/height of the digital transmitter (46) is different from the analog, though they are in the same tower complex from what I gather. The power is also listed at roughly half of the analog signal. I tried to get UHF 38 (WJZ DT), which looks to be transmitting from around the same area and at about twice the digital signal for WBFF. I get slightly higher signal but still not enough to get a picture.

Opinion on the MANT940 seems evenly split between "signal magnet" and "did nothing better." I'll probably return it and try something else. This may seem silly, but at another forum on a thread about the MANT940 (can't post link due to forum restriction) somebody said it did not work well but joining two antennas with a simple splitter did.

Is that complete rubbish or could that potentially work? My somewhat uneducated reasoning says that's not much different from a multi-element antenna, but then again I do not really know what I'm talking about.

I am not an expert on antennas but I can tell you some things that I have learned while getting my HD TV projector setup. There is no such thing as an HD TV antenna. You need a UHF or VHF antenna, period. An amplifier will NOT help you pull in a signal, it will only help to eliminate signal loss due to long cable runs. Most high gain antennas are very directional, ie they need to be pointed at the source, either the tower or a reflected signal. Omnidirectional antennas will not give as much gain, thus are not good for weaker sources. If we exclude reflected signals for the moment, you might have a hard time pulling in both Balt and DC with 1 antenna, because of their placement in relation to your house, but since you are so close to DC, you might be able to point at Balt and still get DC. Otherwise you need 2 antennas. If you are at all handy, I suggest you build your own antenna, which will out perform many commercial ones. All you need is a 2x4, some coat hangers, some screws and a $3 balun from Home Depot. It isnt hard but you need to get the spacing between collectors correct. As for your idea of linking 2 antennas, yes it can work but it isnt that simple. If not done right, the signals will cancel each other and result in a worse antenna than a single. If you want to build your own, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw and watch the video. Even better is a long discussion on antennas at the www.lumenlab.com forums. Look in the mad science section. Lots of info there. Using this type of antenna from zip 21157, I am pulling in all of Balt, most of DC (> 40 miles) and a couple PA digital stations (2 antennas, 1 for Balt/DC, 1 for PA).

Yes, I was turned off by the 'HDTV antenna' marketing on the antenna I bought but as I said my dad had great luck with it so I thought I'd give it a shot. Underneath the marketing it's just a directional UHF antenna with a preamp at the antenna. My cable is not that long, but if I don't hook up the amplifier (well, the power injector on the TV end) there is indeed a difference in signal strength.

I've always been extremely confused about amplification with regards to TV reception, but again in my dad's case it made the difference between no channels and 27 channels. I don't quite get it--maybe the amplifier doesn't pass anything through when the injector is not plugged in.

In any case, I just ordered a CM4220. It's right in the 30 mile range that I need to get Baltimore stations and small enough that I can mount it outside my window, I think. If that doesn't work, I'll try building my own. From Googling it seems some have had luck beyond the 30 mile range with this model, too.

As you said I get DC signals so strong that the direction didn't matter for them, while it mattered significantly for the stations I'm trying to get.

Its good to see a digital sub-channel actually being used for something that we would expect it to be used for. I wonder if WJZ will try the same thing? They don't have much experience with sub-channels though.

On Sunday night, WUSA showed the national game while WJZ showed the Mount Saint Mary's game at the same time. Both were in HD.

According to the link, the WVU/Xavier game will be Digital SD only so no HD. Is this true?

G

I've always been extremely confused about amplification with regards to TV reception, but again in my dad's case it made the difference between no channels and 27 channels. I don't quite get it--maybe the amplifier doesn't pass anything through when the injector is not plugged in.

In any case, I just ordered a CM4220.
Yes, usually turning off the built-in amp cuts off any significant signal from the antenna. So your dad is not comparing the antenna without an amp versus using the amp by turning it off. He is comparing it to an antenna with an amp to no antenna.

The CM 4220 is a good choice for your situation. However, it is a UHF antenna and probably won't work for getting WBAL-DT 11 and WJZ-DT 13 next year when they switch their digital channels to VHF 11 & 13 on February 17, 2009. You are close enough to WJLA-DT 7 and WUSA-DT 9 that the CM 4220 has a good shot at getting those stations when they switch from UHF to VHF 7 & 9 next year. You may have to add a upper VHF antenna, rabbit ears might work for WJZ-DT 13 in DC.

I should post a summary of what the stations in our market are doing next year, but WBAL-DT 11's request to lower their digital power to 5 kW on VHF 11 using the current omni-directional VHF 11 antenna next year has been approved by the FCC (as far I can tell). This is going to make WBAL-DT a challenge to get at long ranges next year.

Mark,

Here is a thread on the issue on D*.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=123932

Scott

According to the link, the WVU/Xavier game will be Digital SD only so no HD. Is this true?

G

Yes, 9.2 is and will remain an SD channel. Gotta keep them bits as best as we can for HD :)

Mark,

Here is a thread on the issue on D*.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=123932

Scott

Thanks Scott.

Mark

The MASN games on MOJO are in the Comcast guide. The channel is now labled MOJO+.

MHD is still MIA.

MHD is back.

Perhaps this has been mentioned before but anybody else notice bad audio sync problems with digital MPT 67 OTA?

Comcast in Sterling remapped the QAMs today. Now we're getting the crappy 3 HD channels to 1 QAM instead of the 2 per QAM that we were. USAHD, Sci-FI HD and Discovery HD are all one the same QAM now. Picture quality definitely is worse now. Bleh

Thanks for the heads up. I nearly plopped out a brick when I saw the stations were gone. I agree, PQ is a little off for some stations. But it's nice to have them all in one block of stations 72-80 versus spread out all over the place like they were before. Now I just have to remember the order.

To Robert Forsyth:
Last year you mentioned you switched to FiOS and commented on the increased picture quality. Do you have any comments on this thread?

Comcast HD Quality Reduction: Details, Screenshots

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271

Hi all -

Just FYI, WNUV is now broadcasting in 720p from our new master control. Most of the shows should look better, since there's no analog transmission path or analog to digital conversion going on any place.

Cheers!

Is this 720p CW going to persist? Interesting if it does.

BTW: I haven't seen Robert Forsythe post here in a while, at least not nearly as often as he used to. I guess enough Venom was heaped his way that he was finally turned off to us here. I guess the Free Speachers won another.

Is this 720p CW going to persist? Interesting if it does.

BTW: I haven't seen Robert Forsythe post here in a while, at least not nearly as often as he used to. I guess enough Venom was heaped his way that he was finally turned off to us here. I guess the Free Speachers won another.

Yep. It's here forever. The programs are all being recorded that way, and the CW HD feed is being cross converted.

It's because all of the sources (except the CW network) are all 720p.

Cheers -

Mark

Yep. It's here forever. The programs are all being recorded that way, and the CW HD feed is being cross converted.

It's because all of the sources (except the CW network) are all 720p.

What other sources are 720p? The CW network, except for a few college sport events, are the only HD programs on WNUV-DT 54 that I can see. Unless you are planning to add syndicated HD programs soon and this is a step towards that? Or are you are planning to add sub-channels and 720p will work better with several SD sub-channels?

I just did a check and yep, WNUV-DT 54 is broadcasting 720p. Reba was on and I immediately noticed this odd stutter effect where the motion would jump. Or is judder the correct term in this case? I switched between WDCW-DT 50.1 and WNUV-DT 54.1, both of which were showing Reba. The motion looked smother on WDCW-DT. I assume you have more tweaking you can do to the 720p encoder?

Before reading this thread I had noticed that the 6pm showing of The Simpsons on WNUV looked especially bad. The 7pm showing also looks bad. Seems rather blurry compared to what it used to be. The Simpsons does generally vary wildly depending on the age of the episode, but these look significantly worse than I would expect. Commercials seem soft as well. Everything looks like it has been run through a bargain basement scaler.

Now watching Smallville there's a slight audio sync problem compared to WDCW. Not big, but a slight lag that can be seen when doing an A/B comparison. On the bright side, while some degradation of the PQ can be found, it seems minimal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mean
According to the link, the WVU/Xavier game will be Digital SD only so no HD. Is this true?

G

Yes, 9.2 is and will remain an SD channel. Gotta keep them bits as best as we can for HD

------------------------------
I was surprised to see that CBS was showing games on both 9-1 and 9-2, but one look at 9-2 told me I didn't want to watch it there. So we switched to watching the second game on DirecTV March Madness (706).

Regards, Dan

Yep. It's here forever. The programs are all being recorded that way, and the CW HD feed is being cross converted.

It's because all of the sources (except the CW network) are all 720p.

Cheers -

Mark

Why is Reaper in SD tonight?

Why is Reaper in SD tonight?
I think WNUV-DT 54 is having problems with the 720p cross-conversion, although Smallville was HD when I looked. Reaper is in HD on WDCW-DT 50.1.

BTW: I haven't seen Robert Forsythe post here in a while, at least not nearly as often as he used to. I guess enough Venom was heaped his way that he was finally turned off to us here. I guess the Free Speachers won another.

Unfortunate, since WJLA wasn't all that slow in getting the equipment necessary for Wheel and Jeopardy in HD and apparently WJLA is closer to going HD than WRC (per DCRTV.com).

This despite the fact that WRC is an O&O and NBC stated eons ago that they were all converting to HD. Good thing no one from WRC posts here, I guess. (Of course, the HD news thing would be but one of many, many criticisms that an employee of the rapidly declining WRC would face.)

I think WNUV-DT 54 is having problems with the 720p cross-conversion, although Smallville was HD when I looked. Reaper is in HD on WDCW-DT 50.1.

Reaper was HD for the first 7 minutes on WNUV.

BTW: I haven't seen Robert Forsythe post here in a while, at least not nearly as often as he used to. I guess enough Venom was heaped his way that he was finally turned off to us here. I guess the Free Speachers won another.
Many, many pages back, I recall Robert telling us he was very busy with the HD conversion over at ABC-7.

No question NBC-4 will be dead last in converting over to HD news now. Embarassing. Maybe to save more money they can buy some old black and white cameras and air the news like it was 1962.

Why is Reaper in SD tonight?

I think WNUV-DT 54 is having problems with the 720p cross-conversion, although Smallville was HD when I looked. Reaper is in HD on WDCW-DT 50.1.

Reaper was HD for the first 7 minutes on WNUV.

It was a problem with the 5.1 downmix audio that we use for WNUV analog. We had to go to the SD satellite feed so that everyone watching the analog feeds would have audio. Smallville is in stereo, so the audio was OK, but when Reaper came on, everyone watching the analog signal only had the left and right surround channels, but no center channel audio...

Kind of a funny problem.

BTW: I haven't seen Robert Forsythe post here in a while, at least not nearly as often as he used to. I guess enough Venom was heaped his way that he was finally turned off to us here. I guess the Free Speachers won another.

I am still here but have moved up/on the oversee New Media Technology for our parent company. Mark Olingy (the principle in building our facility) has returned to oversee Operations and Engineering.

Could this be the TV?

This is strange. Last nite I noticed I have audio on every channel except 9-1 WUSA9-TV-DT for my 26" Toshiba LCD. I have 5 ATSC tuners in the house and all get audio on 9-1 except one. The Toshiba and my Sony HD DVR are connected to the same indoor antenna but the Toshiba has on sound on 9-1 and the DVR does. I reprogrammed the TV and still no sound. Could this be the TV?

Could this be the TV?

This is strange. Last nite I noticed I have audio on every channel except 9-1 WUSA9-TV-DT for my 26" Toshiba LCD. I have 5 ATSC tuners in the house and all get audio on 9-1 except one. The Toshiba and my Sony HD DVR are connected to the same indoor antenna but the Toshiba has on sound on 9-1 and the DVR does. I reprogrammed the TV and still no sound. Could this be the TV?

Make sure the TV is not on SAP. There's probably a button for it on the remote.

I get calls like this all the time. I like the ones where people yell at me because the program is in spanish.

...Monday's Orioles opener...will be simulcast on WJZ/Channel 13 and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network at 3 p.m. However, the high-definition version of the Orioles vs. the Tampa Bay Rays will be available only on the MASN HD channel, not WJZ.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-sp.frager28mar28,0,1171817.column

That sounds more like a WJZ issue than a MASN issue. I wonder how WDCA-DT will do? I'm guessing since they have HD experience with Raycom, that the Nats in HD will be ok. I don't think that WJZ-DT has done any HD other than CBS, so I'm not sure of the depth of their engineering experience or hardware for carrying MASN in HDTV.

Oh, and its good to you post again Robert.

That sounds more like a WJZ issue than a MASN issue. I wonder how WDCA-DT will do? I'm guessing since they have HD experience with Raycom, that the Nats in HD will be ok. I don't think that WJZ-DT has done any HD other than CBS, so I'm not sure of the depth of their engineering experience or hardware for carrying MASN in HDTV.

WJZ showed an ESPN Monday Night Football Ravens game in HD.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8618174#post8618174

Robert,

Congrats on the move up. Please don't give up on those of us who really have appreciated your support in the past few years. Having Folk like you, and Mark, who can give us the inside poop on the issues we are all interested in, is invaluable.

Keep up the good work.

Please don't give up on those of us who really have appreciated your support in the past few years.

never. :)

Hey everybody.

I'm thinking of switching from DTV to Comcast or FIOS, but I want to wait until the Analog shutdown to see how my OTA shakes out.

My question is this: Is there any chance local Broadcast affiliates, will shutdown their analog transmitters earlier than the Feb. 2009 deadline? Or will they make the FCC pry the signals from their cold dead hands?

thanks,

paul

My question is this: Is there any chance local Broadcast affiliates, will shutdown their analog transmitters earlier than the Feb. 2009 deadline? Or will they make the FCC pry the signals from their cold dead hands?
All stations in Baltimore-DC except for WNVC 56 are planning to keep their analog on to the cold bitter end. WJLA 7 will reduce analog power by 50% around January 1, 2009 to modify their transmitter for digital transmission. WBAL 11 may reduce analog power next January as well. But most stations except for those discussed below are on their post-transition channel & ERP (Effective Radiated Power) levels. If you want to see a summary of what almost every full power station in the US is doing, follow this link http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=823166 to download the Excel file put together by Falcon_77 and to which I contributed to.

The big question next February is how will OTA digital reception will affected for WJLA-DT 7, WUSA-DT 9, WBAL-DT 11, WJZ-13, all of which are switching to upper VHF? WDCW-DT 50 is making a small move from UHF 51 to 50 with only a minimal change in power to 123 kW (from 125 kW) and same antenna height. WNVC-DT 56 will have improved DT coverage with a much stronger digital signal on UHF 24 that they have now, but likely won't get back on the air until 02/18/09 because they have to wait until WUTB 24 shuts off it's analog signal. WUTB-DT 24's waiver expires on May 18, 2008 to go full power of 200 kW on their DT 41 signal, so unless they can get another waiver, their lawyer had better file the paperwork so they can fire up. Also, WHAG-DT, WPXW-DT will be moving digital channels and to new antennas.

Anyway, I should post a summary for each station in our combined markets of their conversion plans and what is changing for next February. I will try to get to it this weekend. The conversion in our area is simple compared to the re-shuffle in San Francisco, which may be the most complicated of any major city.

Thanks. Although that doesn't help me (currently suffering major interference from WBFF) it's good to know I shouldn't get my hopes up.

D* has added 626-1 MASN HD to the channel guide

D* has added 626-1 MASN HD to the channel guide

Keep in mind only 20 Orioles and 20 Nationals games will be in HD this year.

Keep in mind only 20 Orioles and 20 Nationals games will be in HD this year.
No, the number is 44 games for the Orioles and 43 games for the Nats. These include the inter-league games between the 2 teams, so depends on how you count those. A recent summary of # of HD games for each MLB team can be found at http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news/2008/mlb-regional-schedules/, although it is not final. To get a detailed schedule for every team, go to http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1012376. Homcom is still updating the XLS files as some RSNs are still holding back on which games will be in HD later in the season.

The bottom line is that there will be a significant improvement in number of HD MLB games on RSNs across the US and nationally this year. All of the games on Fox, TBS-HD, ESPN/2-HD will be HD. However, we can rest comfortable in the knowledge that the Os and the Nats on MASN will still have the fewest HD games of the 30 MLB teams.

The big question as a Verizon Fios subscriber is when we will get info on how & when will Verizon add the MASN-HD feed.

Thanks again for the help. I got the CM4220 today and found that by placing it on the floor on the southern side of my house tilted pretty much the opposite of what you'd expect brings in WBFF with a solid digital signal. Go figure; must be a reflection off of a building, but it's working so I am not complaining.

I managed to get 11 and 13 (well, their UHF digital stations) with a single bowtie taped to the end of a broomstick holding it up against my skylight. Obviously that's not exactly a watchable position but at least I know it's possible.

Just a bit of experimentation necessary...

The MASN games on MOJO are in the Comcast guide. The channel is now labled MOJO+.

MHD is still MIA.

Marcus,
My Comcast guide calls it MOJWA, I guess means MOJO Washington? The old MASN/CSN+ analog channel is called MASN 2 now.
Rob in Frederick

Nats and O's in HD never looked so good??