Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - HDTV [Text View] - Page 32

mrvideo

01-13-09, 12:43 AM

I have been curious what WETA is going to once they loose there analogue channel, since they are one of the few (only?) stations that broadcasts content on analogue that isn't rebroadcast on a digital channel, so I did a little googling and found the following

Post-Transition (TBD)
WETA TV
WETA HD
WETA Kids
WETA Create

So it looks like they are dropping world and moving the current WETA to a standard def subchannel and continuing their cop out of pulling the PBS HD feed rather than program their own HD channel.

That is indeed a little interesting. PBS will no longer distribute a national program service in SD after Feb 10th. Starting on the 11th, all stations have to use the HD national feed for the HD and SD content. The only SD "channels" that will remain for stations to place on their DTV SD streams are: Create, V-me and World.

There is no reason to maintain both SD and HD main channels. Our local PBS affiliate, part of Wisconsin Public Television (except in Milwuakee), has dropped the separate SD and HD feeds. The analog channel is now a cut of the HD feed, when they go to net. WPT does do their own programming. I really haven't watched them in years.

So why WETA is doing what they are doing is beyond me. Sounds like a phone call to their general manager might be in order.

Marcus Carr

01-13-09, 06:28 AM

Also in my area. In fact although I have a Docsis 2.0 cable modem my upload and download speeds have more than doubled, and I have the standard Comcast service.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/388810891.png

Here's mine. My zip code didn't show DOCSIS 3.0 availability. Not sure how accurate this speed test is.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/389394959.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

My results from http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/:

Download Speed: 13581 kbps (1697.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 2382 kbps (297.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

markbulla

01-13-09, 08:06 AM

That's the transmitter I was referring to, but they also have authorization for a 15KW transmission as an LD.

I've been looking forward to having this transmitter come online, so that I could have a CW station that is LOS. :D I really got PO'ed when it went off the air two days before the season finallies of their programs. Wife's still PO'ed. :mad:

It has taken me 13 months to get CW back! :( Just in time to lose FOX come next month, unless Baltimore can up their transmitter (WTTG-DT is already maxed and WPMT-DT is almost maxed) or someone installs a LD. :confused:

WBFF-DT is already at full power. It's not going to get any higher power.

.

markbulla

01-13-09, 08:09 AM

It happens ... just glad to have 45.2 back on the air, you were missed in at least one household. Is there anyplace that one could find scheduling info for this channel? Even the EIT/ETT stream is telling me just "ThisTV Programming".

http://titantvguide.titantv.com/apg/basic.aspx?siteid=52545 (scroll to the bottom of the page)

Sorry about the program guide. That's another thing that I was told was going to be there yesterday...

:

aaronwt

01-13-09, 08:16 AM

Here's mine. My zip code didn't show DOCSIS 3.0 availability. Not sure how accurate this speed test is.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/389394959.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Does Comcast still have Power Boost? When I last had Comcast Internet, in Summer 2007, (before I got FIOS) I always had 30mbs download speeds on those tests because we had 30mbs Powerboost in my area.(I don't remember what the upload powerboost was)

BMoreRavens

01-13-09, 09:12 AM

I am in A.A. county and received a email the other day saying my area was upgraded but the speeds were still the same. I have been checking every day for the last few days and this morning it looks like it is finally working.

My download is a little faster but upload is much faster. Before I was about 32000 down and 2200 up.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/389467421.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

E55 KEV

01-13-09, 09:23 AM

Before anyone says it, sorry for the big, annoying, bright bug in the bottom left corner on 45.2. The equipment to turn it on and off that I was expecting today, didn't come in. Consequently, I have to have an ID up all of the time...

_

Glad to see more progamming but the PQ for 45.2 is terrible. I just can't watch it.:confused:

systems2000

01-13-09, 12:05 PM

WBFF-DT is already at full power. It's not going to get any higher power.
How about a LD for those of us West of Frederick?

drkashner

01-13-09, 04:31 PM

Mark,
Legend of the Seeker on 54.1 was in SD again this week. Is it going back to HD? I hadn't been watching the reruns, but this weeks was new, and in SD

fmsjr

01-13-09, 05:44 PM

BMoreRavens

01-13-09, 06:01 PM

Glen Burnie

afiggatt

01-13-09, 06:15 PM

How about a LD for those of us West of Frederick?
If I follow your posts correctly, I am somewhat surprised that you get WNUV-DT CW 54, but not WBFF-DT Fox 45. Yes, WNUV-DT is at 845 kW on UHF 40, but WBFF-DT is on the same tall tower in NW Baltimore at 550 kW on UHF 46 which is not that much less power in dB terms. WNUV-DT and WBFF-DT antennas are 373 meters HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain) while the nearby tower for WJZ, WMAR, WBAL antennas are 295 to 312 meters HAAT. In general, I would expect those who get WNUV-DT to be able to get WBFF-DT. WNUV-DT and WBFF-DT have always been rock solid for me, while WBAL-DT and WMAR-DT are more touchy to antenna location & aim.

Looking at stations to the NW, could you be getting any interference from WKBS-DT 47 on UHF 46 in Altoona, PA? WKBS-DT is not that powerful at 50 kW, but if you are on the outer NW fringe of WBFF-DT reception area, you start to approach the outer SE fringe of WKBS-DT's coverage. Don't know whether WBFF-TV's analog 45 signal could be causing a problem if the WBFF-DT 46 signal is marginal.

markbulla

01-13-09, 06:31 PM

Mark,
Legend of the Seeker on 54.1 was in SD again this week. Is it going back to HD? I hadn't been watching the reruns, but this weeks was new, and in SD

Yeah - they should all be in HD. I'll look into it.

:.

Marcus Carr

01-13-09, 06:54 PM

D.C. Mayor Signs Bill Approving Verizon FiOS TV

Telco Will Begin Offering FiOS TV Service Later in 2009

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 1/13/2009 3:41:00 PM

Verizon Communications is one step away from bringing FiOS TV to the nation’s capital after District of Columbia mayor Adrian M. Fenty signed legislation into law Monday night approving the telco’s 15-year cable franchise in the city.

As part of the agreement, Verizon will make FiOS TV available over the next nine years throughout D.C., where it will compete with incumbent cable provider Comcast. The first residents will be able to order FiOS TV within a year, according to Verizon.

The Washington, D.C., city council approved the franchise last month.

The final step required in the franchising process will be a 30-day congressional review.

"Verizon now will begin the upgrade of our District telecommunications network with fiber-optic connections directly to consumers' homes,” William Roberts, Verizon's regional president for Maryland and Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “We plan to begin offering the first District residents our award-winning FiOS TV service later this year. Our FiOS Internet service with ultra fast speeds also will be available to consumers."

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6629303.html

systems2000

01-13-09, 06:58 PM

Looking at stations to the NW, could you be getting any interference from WKBS-DT 47 on UHF 46 in Altoona, PA?
According to all the information I've been working with, WTAJ-DT and WATM-DT are my only real viable stations out of the Altoona area.
Don't know whether WBFF-TV's analog 45 signal could be causing a problem if the WBFF-DT 46 signal is marginal.
I'm not sure either, although there is heavy interference on WBFF-TV. I'd love to get an O-scope view of my systems reception, at several points in the system. :D

Digital Rules

01-13-09, 08:09 PM

How about a LD for those of us West of Frederick?I persoanlly think you may need a higher gain UHF antenna to pull in the distant DC/Baltimore stations reliably. I am only able to get the stations in your area when using the 91-XG, just outside DC. Nothing else will bring in WWPB from Clear Spring, MD 24/7. I just looked at the specs for the CM 3020, and the UHF average gain is listed as only 9.5 average db. I wouldn't do anything until the transition though. The intermodulation distortion from your strong local analogs that are degrading your reception will soon be history.(Hopefully):)

joblo

01-13-09, 08:15 PM

According to all the information I've been working with, WTAJ-DT and WATM-DT are my only real viable stations out of the Altoona area.

I'm not sure either, although there is heavy interference on WBFF-TV. I'd love to get an O-scope view of my systems reception, at several points in the system. :D
But what type of interference?

Please tell us where you are, and provide a complete list of channels that you DO receive, both analog and digital, so we can offer more intelligent guesses.

systems2000

01-13-09, 08:23 PM

1st group of Cell phone images, from analog reception on a 20" television in my bedroom. Photos taken during the 19:00 hour on 1/13/2009.

systems2000

01-13-09, 08:32 PM

2nd group of Cell phone images, from analog reception on a 20" television in my bedroom. Photos taken during the 19:00 hour on 1/13/2009.

While taking the images, I noticed that there is some sort of repeating interference on WUTB-TV24 (see images).

systems2000

01-13-09, 08:39 PM

Here is an image of WPMT-TV 43. The antenna was not moved and is currently pointed to ~134° Magnetic.

dewster1977

01-13-09, 10:43 PM

If I follow your posts correctly, I am somewhat surprised that you get WNUV-DT CW 54, but not WBFF-DT Fox 45. Yes, WNUV-DT is at 845 kW on UHF 40, but WBFF-DT is on the same tall tower in NW Baltimore at 550 kW on UHF 46 which is not that much less power in dB terms.

My parents are 10 miles NW of Hagerstown, the only Baltimore stations they can get are 54 and 45, sometimes 5 and 20 out of DC, All there analogs from both DC and Baltimore are good. If only Baltimore and DC stations would consider LD's or a DTS where W51CY is located.

aaronwt

01-13-09, 11:30 PM

1st group of Cell phone images, from analog reception on a 20" television in my bedroom. Photos taken during the 19:00 hour on 1/13/2009.

Why analog reception? Just because you can get the analog picture doesn't mean you will get the digital signal.

Digital Rules

01-13-09, 11:31 PM

Glad to see more progamming but the PQ for 45.2 is terrible. I just can't watch it.:confused:
The PQ is not bad on my SD set.(though probably not too hot on an HD set) The compression is reasonable for a subchannel. Looks much better than WJLA'S 7.3.:)

djp952

01-14-09, 12:27 AM

The DR (Digital Reassignment or Reallocation or something like that) is still pending due to the conflicting filing from WWPX-DT.

Here's the WETA application: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520031591

The conflicting WWPX application: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520031565

I have no further information.

- Trip

Thank you very much Trip! I looked high and low for those things for a long time, I suppose I'm not so good at navigating the FCC's site. Funny how the engineers at WETA couldn't just say this, but oh well.

I'm mixed on opinion here myself. WETA-DT (27) is rock-solid for us up here in Elkridge MD, so I'm not sure why they would need more coverage area than they already have. On the other hand, it would be nice to group them together with WRC (48) and WDCW (50 post-transition) frequency-wise. Other than 15, 27 is the oddball low UHF frequency for the D.C. metro's big stations, and as one that makes his own antennas, it's far easier when they're all close together.

I love WETA, and donate to them every year, but would personally rather see them stay put on 27. Given my druthers, I would have WRC and WDCW move down in frequency below the Baltimore channels, too, so I could just make a simple UHF combiner to have my cake and eat it too. *sigh*

systems2000

01-14-09, 12:40 AM

The posted analog images are to show the reception quality of my analog stations reception quality and the interference that two get continously.

As I've said before, I get WMAR-DT, WBAL-DT, WJZ-DT, WUTB-DT (weakest of the group), & WNUV-DT on my Sunkey SK-801ATSC's, APEX DT502's, and Insignia NS-DXA1-APT.

I get continous brealups on the Insignia with WUTB-DT and WNUV-DT, with intermittent breakups on the other stations.

My Zinwell ZAT-970A receives WJZ-DT, WUTB-DT, and WNUV-DT. It doesn't register WMAR-DT or WBAL-DT.

systems2000

01-14-09, 12:49 AM

I love WETA, and donate to them every year, but would personally rather see them stay put on 27. Given my druthers, I would have WRC and WDCW move down in frequency below the Baltimore channels, too, so I could just make a simple UHF combiner to have my cake and eat it too.
It would be much simpler to have fixed specialized antennas, with combiners, than to use a rotor/combo antenna to find narrow direction reception, which digital reception requires over analog reception.

Trip in VA

01-14-09, 01:18 AM

I love WETA, and donate to them every year, but would personally rather see them stay put on 27. Given my druthers, I would have WRC and WDCW move down in frequency below the Baltimore channels, too, so I could just make a simple UHF combiner to have my cake and eat it too. *sigh*

Glad to help. The FCC site is a pain to navigate; I learned how to do it slowly over the period of more than a year. So now I have a page (http://www.rabbitears.info/chchg.php) on my site which details channel change applications so that others don't have to dig through it themselves.

- Trip

machpost

01-14-09, 07:57 AM

joblo

01-14-09, 10:26 AM

systems2000,

In order to formulate a reasonable theory about possible causes of interference with distant stations, one needs to know about local reception, because that's often the cause of the interference.

And we need to know approximately where you are. Within say, 5 miles. What's the closest town to you that we could find on a map?

afiggatt

01-14-09, 10:34 AM

And we need to know approximately where you are. Within say, 5 miles. What's the closest town to you that we could find on a map?
systems2000, the zip code would be sufficient to look up how far you are approx from the broadcast stations. You listed which Baltimore digital stations you get. Do you get the current WHAG-DT 25 low power signal? The snapshots of your analog pictures show pictures from the wrong side of the digital cliff effect unfortunately (assuming same coverage area between analog & digital which is a coarse assumption). If you manually tune to channel 46 for WBFF-DT, what do you get on the signal meter?

systems2000

01-14-09, 11:45 AM

Leaving the antenna pointed ~134° Magnetic, the local stations I receive strongly are WJAL-DT & WWPX-DT. I do get WWPB-DT Intermittently. If I was to adjust the antenna a little bit to the North, I would get WGCB-DT solidly.

If I point the antenna South (currently I have to climb the 40' tower to do this), I would get WWPB-DT, WVPY-DT , & W08EE-D (WNPB-DT) solidly (I would loose WMAR-DT, WBAL-DT, WJZ-DT, WUTB-DT, & WNUV-DT in the process). I do not get WHAG-DT at all (although, my neighbor (who is about 100 yards North of me) does - local woods).

Marion, PA

WBFF-DT (RF 46): Signal Strength 0% - Signal Quality 0%

systems2000

01-14-09, 12:28 PM

Current reception numbers:

Station|Signal Strength|Signal Quality
WMAR-DT|58%|65%
WBAL-DT|53%|41%
WJZ-DT|80%|100%
WUTB-DT (6° off-axis)|69%|6-91% (fluctuating) - 89-91 (non-fluctuating)
WWPB-DT (103° off-axis)|84%|42%
WBFF-DT|0%|0%
WNUV-DT|75%|100%
WWPX-DT (93° off-axis)|84%|73%
WJAL-DT (154° off-axis)|87%|100%

sfm529

01-14-09, 12:32 PM

That's good news. Some folks will have three cable providers to choose from (Comcast, RCN, FiOS). I wonder if that will have any affect on cable rates.

I live in Silver Spring and have all three Cable providers (Comcast, RCN, Verizon) available and I didn't see any special rates. I had RCN and switched to Fios, RCN didn't seem to care when I was leaving them for Verizon.

systems2000

01-14-09, 01:44 PM

My RCA DTA800B1 gets WMAR-DT (with breakups), WJZ-DT, WWPB-DT, WNUV-DT, WWPX-DT, & WJAL-DT. It does not receive WBAL-DT or WUTB-DT.

Marcus Carr

01-14-09, 01:47 PM

The Nats On TV

This year, it will be a little bit easier to watch the Nationals on TV. Sometimes, you'll even be able to watch them on two channels at once. MASN has just announced a partnership with WDCW-TC (DC50) which will allow the local CW affiliate to broadcast 20 games this season.

The Nats peripatetic TV existence can sometimes be confusing -- they are sometimes on MASN... or MASN2... which is the same channel for Comcast subscribers as, um, CSPAN... or is it CSPAN2? -- so let me be clear about what this DC50 deal means.

* First of all, this year, MASN and/or MASN2 will broadcast each and every Nats game, EXCEPT for those that might be turned into national Fox broadcasts.

* At least 100 of those games will be shown in HD. (Last year, only 40 were.)

* When a game is shown on DC50 -- that will happen mostly for Sunday afternoon games -- fans can still watch the Nats on MASN or MASN2. (In other words, you get the always-enthralling choice of comparing the feeds, the color intensity of each, etc. It's like watching the State of the Union address.)

* For those 20 games, DC50 will also show MASN's pre- and post-game shows.

* If DC50 is broadcasting a MASN or MASN2 HD game, DC50 will also show the game in HD.

* Now, some background. Beginning in 2005, MASN had an over-the-air contract in place with WDCA-20, which showed anywhere from 68 to 25 games annually. This was especially helpful when the Nats first moved to the District and many of the area's biggest cable providers -- Comcast and Cox -- didn't carry MASN. However, there was also a problem with this situation. Whenever WDCA-20 carried a Nats game, MASN and/or MASN2 did not. Plus, WDCA-20 didn't carry the pre- and post-game stuff; MASN or MASN2 did. Thus, fans who wanted any Nats coverage before or after the game would be flipping channels and searching. Now, the WDCA-20 contract has expired, so MASN was able to start fresh.

* By the way, MASN spokesman Todd Webster, when I spoke with him today, wasn't yet ready to reveal the team's exact HD schedule for the year. He said an announcement on that is in the works.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/01/the_nats_on_tv.html

systems2000

01-14-09, 02:03 PM

TVFool Info:
Pre-Transition
Station|NM(dB)|Power(dBm)|Path
WWPB-DT|47.7|-43.1|LOS
W51CY|-|-|LOS
WWPX-DT|42.5|-48.3|LOS
WJAL-DT|39.6|-51.2|LOS
WHAG-DT|29.4|-61.5|LOS
W08EE-D|22.8|-68.1|LOS
WVPY-DT|9.5|-81.3|1-EDGE
WJZ-DT|-16.9|-107.8|2-EDGE
WNUV-DT|-18.8|-109.6|2-EDGE
WMAR-DT|-21.2|-112.1|2-EDGE
WBFF-DT|-21.7|-112.5|2-EDGE
WBAL-DT|-22.9|-113.7|2-EDGE
WUTB-DT|-24.4|-115.3|2-EDGE

Post Transitiuon
Station|NM(dB)|Power(dBm)|Path
WHAG-DT|59.2|-31.6|LOS
WJAL-DT|53.7|-37.1|LOS
WWPB-DT|47.7|-43.1|LOS
W51CY|43.1|-47.8|LOS
WWPX-DT|42.8|-48.0|LOS
W08EE-D|22.8|-68.1|LOS
WVPY-DT|10.4|-80.5|1-EDGE
WMAR-DT|-16.9|-107.8|2-EDGE
WNUV-DT|-17.4|-108.2|2-EDGE
WJZ-DT|-21.2|-112.0|2-EDGE
WBAL-DT|-21.4|-112.3|2-EDGE
WBFF-DT|-21.7|-112.5|2-EDGE
WUTB-DT|-24.5|-115.4|2-EDGE

mdviewer25

01-14-09, 04:09 PM

Update: I have been able to view WUTB-DT. The catch is I have to stand up holding my antenna pointed to the ceiling. Any word on why WDCA doesn't air House of Payne in HD (from my previous post)

kurbkidc

01-14-09, 04:18 PM

I have never owned/rented a DVR. Can I get some info from folks out there with a Comcast HD DVR. I am specifically interested in hearing from peeps in Prince William County (Manassas). Like how many HD hours of content will it hold? How many programs can you record at once? Etc.

Thanks everyone!

Marcus Carr

01-14-09, 04:36 PM

WBAL Launches HD Newscasts

George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 1/13/2009 12:21:00 PM

Hearst-Argyle Television’s WBAL-TV in Baltimore has launched local newscasts in high-definition.

The channel 11 NBC affiliate is the market’s second station to offer HD local news; Fox affiliate WBFF-TV launched its HD newscast in June 2008.

With the upgrade, WBAL now produces over 30 hours of news and local programming each week, according to station president and general manager Jordan Wertlieb.

“We’ve been the leader in news for a long time and we saw this as an opportunity to offer consumers a major enhancement to our newscasts,” Wertlieb said. “Besides the obvious benefits for viewers with HD sets, we have an all new set and much better weather and traffic graphics. I think we are most proud of the fact that this provides major benefits to all consumers, whether or not they currently have HD sets.”

The HD newscasts launched Saturday, Jan. 3, after the National Football League contest between the San Diego Chargers and the Indianapolis Colts but WBAL has been working on the upgrade for some time.

“As part of the renovations to our building, we moved out of our current studio last June and were working from a temporary studio while we were doing the upgrades to the studio and master control room,” Wertlieb said.

WBAL director of engineering, Jeff Halapin, noted that the station gutted the old studio, which allowed it to completely “rebuild our core infrastructure, control room and studio, while keeping our current [standard-definition] path totally intact.” The new set was designed by the FX Group under the direction of the station’s director of creative services, Steve Bamonti.

WBAL tapped integrator Communications Engineering Inc. to build the new control room and HD infrastructure. “We built our core infrastructure around an Evertz EQX routing switcher,” Halapin said. “The EQX is a great router. We also chose Evertz for all of our terminal gear, closed captioning and profanity delay facilities.”

In the new control room, they deployed the Sony 8000G production switcher, Wheatstone D-10 audio control surface and Barco for our control room displays.

“We drive all the monitoring in the control room with 2 Evertz MVP display processors and tie all the control and tally together with redundant Image Video TSI-1000 controllers,” Halapin said.

In the studio and newsroom, they use Sony HDC-1400L model cameras with Canon HJ17X76BIRSE lenses and Autoscript prompter hardware for the cameras. The Sony BVMA14F5U Master Series controls the robotics, camera shading areas and the TD confidence monitors.

For the on-air look, they deployed VizRT graphics engines and artist workstations. “We have 4 engines for the control room and one engine for the master control branding,” he said.

As part of the upgrade, the station also made significant improvements to its traffic and weather systems. “We performed a major upgrade to our weather production system by adding True-View HD weather graphics along with the new MAX product from WSI,” Halapin said. WBAL also added the HD version of Traffic Pulse for its morning traffic reports.

In terms of advice for other stations making the move to HD, Halapin recommends that they choose an integrator like CEI that is very familiar with the process and that they also set aside adequate time to do rehearsals on the news system. Prior to the launch of the newscasts, WBAL anchors and staff spent more than six weeks rehearsing and familiarizing themselves with the new setup.

“I think proper rehearsal time is the largest contributing factor to our successful launch,” he said.

The station has not yet moved to producing HD from the field. That would take until late this year or 2010, though Wertlieb said no definite timetable has been set.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6629606.html?q=wbal

Artjohn

01-14-09, 05:06 PM

I live in Silver Spring and have all three Cable providers (Comcast, RCN, Verizon) available and I didn't see any special rates. I had RCN and switched to Fios, RCN didn't seem to care when I was leaving them for Verizon.

FIOS is on the pole, and supposedly ready to be offered the end of this month (Jan 2009), but still dark in our section of Chevy Chase.

Are you satisfied with your switch from RCN to FIOS?

joblo

01-14-09, 05:06 PM

systems2000:

Bottom line first: I suspect 42/44 beat destroys digital on 46. What does analog 42 look like?

Second, get a rotor so you can easily turn your antenna off-axis to maximize D/U ratio. This is absolutely your best investment at this point.

Rotor adjustments will be easiest with a fast-responding signal meter. Avoid those that take several seconds to stabilize after you tune a channel. Don’t be fooled by numbers like “strength” and “quality”. I personally find the bar graph on Zenith/Insignia more useful than the numbers – even double numbers like you posted – on many other models like Apex, Sansonic, and so on. Your mileage may vary, of course.

On boxes that use numbers, fluctuating numbers can indicate interference or multipath.

Re your analogs:

You show 5, but not 4. Is 4 much snowier than 5? If so, suspect digital co-channel. Most likely Harrisburg, possibly Norfolk.

11 shows multipath/ghosts. You may need HAG for NBC post-transition.

Slight sparklies on 13 suggest amp overload from strong digital, probably 12. Potential problem post-transition.

60Hz hum on 20.

Is the point of posting double pix on 24/45 to show you have intermittent interference on those? If so, suspect out-of-band/mobile causing intermittent amp overload. Suggest trying to correlate that w/digital breakups.

Slight analog co-channel on 43, possibly Norfolk. Southeast VA reuses many DC-Baltimore channels, could cause outage on digitals when tropo is present. Also possible digital co-channel from 43 in northern VA.

WPMT-DT might be easier Fox digital catch than WBFF, but again, need rotor.

Of course, maybe you already know this stuff, I don’t know. Anyway, that’s what I see, right off the top of my head.

I think afiggatt overstates the matter in categorically pronouncing you on the wrong side of the cliff, but you’re in that vicinity, so getting reliable digital figures to be tricky.

Good luck.

Marcus Carr

01-14-09, 08:10 PM

Fox And NBC To Share In DC

WTTG and WRC in talks to pool video, share chopper.

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/14/2009 5:02:00 PM

On the heels of Fox and NBC O&Os sharing video in Chicago, which came on the heels of Fox and NBC O&Os sharing video in Philadelphia, Fox and NBC O&Os in Washington are in talks to share content as well.

“We have plans to do something with Fox,” says WRC Washington President/General Manager Michael Jack. “I don’t know the details, but it’s similar (to the Philadelphia share), with pooling of video and some chopper sharing.”

Jack says the partnership has not advanced to trial mode yet.

At the start of 2009, WFLD and WMAQ began sharing helicopter footage (and costs) in Chicago, and Fox Senior V.P. of News Sharri Berg said a larger video sharing agreement was likely to follow. The beginning of the year also marked the official launch of the Local News Service video share between WTXF and WCAU in Philadelphia, which began testing the partnership last spring. The plan is to join forces on static stories like news conferences, thus freeing up resources for more enterprising stories.

When the latter was announced, NBC and Fox executives said they’d look to share in markets where both own a station, while also aiming to sell video to other stations.

WRC’s Jack did not have a time frame for the Washington partnership. “It’s going to happen,” he says. “We just haven’t figured out the depth of it yet.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6629732.html

Johnnycanal

01-14-09, 09:51 PM

from Engadget HD

Washington Nationals to see at least 100 games in HD

01-14-2009

Last year, locals in and around the Metro DC area considered it a miracle that Washington Nationals games were broadcast in high-def at all. Now that MASN has had some time to get its act fully together, it's no wonder that fans are expecting more. This season, at least 100 of the club's games -- which will air on MASN or MASN2 -- will be shown in HD compared to just 40 last year, and of course, any that end up on FOX as national telecasts will also be featured in high-definition. Unfortunately, it seems that actually finding the game could be an issue for novice channel surfers, but all the details are ready for digestion in the read link below.

[Image courtesy of NationalsClub]

systems2000

01-14-09, 10:55 PM

Granted, a rotor will give me the ability to fine-tune stations. I have three rotors and I'm waiting for it to get a little warmer (and still air) to climb the 40' tower and install the mounting, dry bearing, rotor, and shaft for antenna.

When I was on Comcast, they kept saying that the local Emergency radio system was always interfering with channel 18.

Thinking about interference, I decided to take a hard look at the frequency spectrum from 41-49 and found the following stations within reception range.

Channel|Station|Notes
41|W41AO / WUTB-DT / WVIA-DT (Tropo)|Strongest first
42|W42CK / WVPY-TV / WPMT-DT|1st 2 are within 12dB spread
43|WPMT-TV / WPXW-DT / W43BP (Less than -111dB)|1st 2 are 29dB spread
44|WWPB-DT / WVIA-TV (Tropo - less than -111dB)|
45|WBFF-TV / WOLF-DT|Within a 2dB spread
46|WBFF-DT / WKBS-DT / WHTJ-DT|All within 8dB spread
47|WPMT-DT / WKBS-TV (1-edge - less than -111dB)|Possible less than 4dB spread
48|WAZW-CA / WRC-DT|
49|WGCB-TV / WHSV-DT|

afiggatt

01-15-09, 12:23 AM

Thinking about interference, I decided to take a hard look at the frequency spectrum from 41-49 and found the following stations within reception range.
I should have phrased my comment about you being on the wrong side of the digital cliff more carefully. I should have said you are on the challenging edge. Of multiple markets. :D

Your lack of a signal for WBFF-DT 45, given that you get WNUV-DT 54 solidly, is not simple to figure out although there are number of good ideas here. Hope it clears up after the analog shutdown if you have not gotten better results before then.

For the Baltimore post-transition, you should be ok for WMAR-DT 2 on UHF 38. But WJZ-DT 13 is switching to a directional VHF 13 antenna. In case you don't know, WJZ-DT has filed for a STA to operate at 9.8 kW post-transition using the current omni-directional VHF 13 antenna. They will put up a new directional VHF 13 antenna in place of the then defunct digital antennas with a target date of operation at 28.8 kW by April 22 (assuming shutdown occurs on Feb. 17). So you and others may see some changing response for WJZ-DT after the transition. WJZ-DT's 18 page STA engineering attachment if anyone is interested: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=695522.

WUTB-DT filed a post-transition maximization request to increase from 200 kW to 290 kW with the same directional pattern, but the FCC has not acted on it yet. Of the Baltimore stations, WBAL-DT 11 post-transition reception with a 5 kW VHF 11 signal is the hardest to predict. But if WHAG-DT 25 goes to full power on schedule, you can get NBC in HD from that station.

drkashner

01-15-09, 08:28 AM

Yeah - they should all be in HD. I'll look into it.

:.

Thanks Mark, and thanks for being here to complain to.

machpost

01-15-09, 11:04 AM

Fox And NBC To Share In DC

WTTG and WRC in talks to pool video, share chopper.

This should work out well, as they already share the honor of having the last two local newscasts that aren't in HD.

Marcus Carr

01-15-09, 12:08 PM

This should work out well, as they already share the honor of having the last two local newscasts that aren't in HD.

Oddly enough, the Fox and NBC stations in Baltimore are the only two with HD news.

dg28

01-15-09, 12:28 PM

Oddly enough, the Fox and NBC stations in Baltimore are the only two with HD news.

Of course the difference being the DC Fox and NBC stations are network O&Os, while the Baltimore stations are not.

Trip in VA

01-15-09, 12:51 PM

DCRTV reports that WJAL is off the air due to fire.

Is that just the analog, or are both signals off the air? I'm assuming both are off the air, but just want to be sure.

- Trip

dmulvany

01-15-09, 12:59 PM

systems2000

01-15-09, 01:11 PM

I was wondering last night why the digital was out. Just checked and both are off the air.

I know from personal face-to-face conversation, that they have been nursing really old equipment, for a couple of years now.

dmulvany

01-15-09, 01:20 PM

Hi, folks. Yesterday, I received delivery of a top-rated 1080p HDTV, a 40-inch Samsung, with 120 Hz refresh rate, that I had bought online due to reading very good reviews about this HDTV. I set up the digital, customizable captions on it using yellow text on a black background.

Unfortunately, I discovered a severe problem with WJLA's digital captions on channel 7.1.

Specifically, what I saw happen was the digital captions building up on the screen over time for two different pre-recorded prime-time programs and eventually cluttering up the entire screen. Old captions were staying at the top of the screen and moving up, while new ones were showing up on the bottom. I haven't seen this kind of captioning problem before with any other digital TV equipment.

WJLA's digital captions are also problematic for my 2006 Sharp HDTV, which can't decode them at all. Thus neither of my HDTVs are able to decode digital captions from WJLA even though they can decode digital captions from other stations. This tells me there is something unusual about how WJLA is transmitting its digital (CEA-708) captions for non-live, prime time programming on their digital channel.

(On the other hand, my Insignia converter box and my Panasonic DVD writer are both able to decode WJLA's digital captions, so there is a difference in how TV equipment from different manufacturers are processing the digital captions.)

<snip>

Dana

I've got good news and bad news to report.

Somehow, the problem with WJLA-DT's digital captions were fixed for the Samsung HDTV----but not for the Sharp HDTV.

I've finally been able to watch "Lost" in high-definition----on the Samsung HDTV!

The digital captions from WJLA-DT still don't show up on my Sharp HDTV, though, even though digital captions from most other stations show up fine on that HDTV. I suspect that Sony HDTVs have the same problem.

The other bad news is that the overlapping captions seen on the Samsung are showing up from other stations for pre-recorded syndicated programs.

I shot a 14 mb video of these problems for a movie being shown on 20.1 last Saturday. Be sure to turn on the sound, and switch to full screen, and then you can detect both a significant delay in the captions as well as the overlapping captions as time marches on.

See:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dana.mulvany/DigitalCaptioningJanuary2009#

I suspect that the problem is a problematic interaction between an Evertz caption encoder with a bridge to upconvert 608 captions to 708 captions, and the Samsung caption decoder. The stations that have problematic captions seem to use a non-HD Evertz caption encoder and I think there's something amiss with how the Evertz caption bridge is working that's causing some caption decoders a lot of trouble. For one thing, there's a significant delay and mismatch between the captions and the audio and visual on 5.1 and 20.1 for pre-recorded, syndication programs, so that may be causing particular problems for the caption decoders from Sharp and Sony DTVs.

It would be nice to know how the problem with WJLA-DT's digital captions were fixed for the Samsung HDTV----Robert Forsyth, could you share that information with us?

Dana

gmucklow

01-15-09, 01:40 PM

WJLA is up on both analog and digital.

systems2000

01-15-09, 01:41 PM

Not WJLA. WJAL.

I just got back from their main office in Marion, PA and there isn't anyone there. I'm going to assume that the problem is at the transmitting tower.

kingpong

01-15-09, 03:42 PM

Looks like an electrical fire at the WJAL transmitter site. Doesn't sound too good...

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=214495&format=html

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_11459215

Knicks_Fan

01-15-09, 03:49 PM

I work close to WJLA and would have heard the sirens. They have had some problems over the last day or so (no HD feeds of Wheel and Jeopardy again) coincidentially. I also noticed they still can't do HD when they have weather inserts/school closings, even on the local news.

systems2000

01-15-09, 04:10 PM

The fire was at WJAL, not WJLA!

GregAnnapolis

01-15-09, 04:34 PM

The fire was at WJAL, not WJLA!
Wait, I think I'm confused... where was the fire again?

(I kid, I kid! But seriously, have ye folks no reading comprehension? :))

systems2000

01-15-09, 05:44 PM

http://www.DCRTV.com/ story:

Fire Knocks WJAL Off Air - 1/15 - A "total loss" fire last night in the transmitter building for the Hagerstown area's Channel 68/WJAL has knocked the station off the air. The blaze happened on the top of a mountain in Peters Township, Pennsylvania. There were no injuries. More than 40 firefighters responded, but the icy conditions of the road created a serious obstacle, according to Hagerstown's WHAG-TV (http://your4state.com/content/fulltext/?cid=49201). Once firefighters arrived and found a running water source, it took about 20 minutes to put out the flames. The initial cause is unknown, but officials say it's related to an electrical malfunction. WJAL is off-air and there is no word on how long its signal will be down. WJAL carries a large amount of syndicated and infomercial fare. It's offered to some satellite TV subscribers in the DC area.....

afiggatt

01-15-09, 05:45 PM

The fire was at WJAL, not WJLA!
To reduce the confusion, how about we say that the fire was at WJAL 68 located north of Hagerstown, MD? (way off at the NW edge of the Washington DC DMA). WJAL 68 versus WJLA ABC 7 is easier to follow.

From the news, it appears that WJAL transmitter facility is a total loss. Question is whether all the analog, current low power digital UHF 16, and post-transition DT UHF 39 transmitter cabinets were all located in that building? If so, WJAL-DT 68 could be off the air for some time. Hope their fire insurance was paid up.

systems2000

01-15-09, 06:20 PM

My understanding is that all that equipment is. Even their downlink equipment. As soon as their engineer gets back with me, I'll know for sure.

markbulla

01-15-09, 09:18 PM

Mark, thought I'd let you know that 54.1 is doing a good job of providing synchronized captions for "Stargate Atlantis" and other syndicated programs even though other digital channels like 5.1 haven't been able to do so (their captions are delayed and intermittent on my Sharp HDTV). Could you tell us what kind of caption encoder or bridge is being used on 54.1?

The other stations like WTTG and WDCA haven't been able to figure out why they have a delay in their upconverted captions for their pre-recorded, syndicated programs, and it would be nice to know how other stations are able to do that successfully.

Sorry - I didn't get this until now (things are busy at work...). I'll get you the info in the morning.

We originally had issues with captions on recorded programs. It turned out that the video playout servers wouldn't put out the captions consistantly in HD, but they would in SD. We purchased some boxes that would allow us to add the captions from the SD output onto the HD programs. This box also does a good job of fixing problems in 'iffy' captions. I really like it - all you do is plug it in, and feed the HD programming through it, and it does it's thing automatically. Nothing to set, nothing to adjust. It just works!

I'll let you know the specifics tomorrow.

BTW, thanks for watching!

.

markbulla

01-15-09, 09:26 PM

Mark,
Legend of the Seeker on 54.1 was in SD again this week. Is it going back to HD? I hadn't been watching the reruns, but this weeks was new, and in SD

I found a couple of problems with the satellite controller schedule that I fixed today. The feed is tomorrow afternoon, so I'll make sure that it goes OK.

The SD version comes from a back-up IP-based delivery system that we use in the case of a problem with the HD feed. It turns out that there were problems for the last three weeks, but you were the only one that let me know about it... Thanks!

:

systems2000

01-15-09, 09:49 PM

markbulla, (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/member.php?u=7492951)

What's with the sound this evening? Smallville didn't seem as loud as usual and it kept varying in volume.

systems2000

01-15-09, 09:59 PM

Got a message back from WJAL engineering.

Partial:
"Back up on comcast, and working out nodes to some others. New trans coming, 83kw. Up in about 30 to 60 days."

Looks like cable users will be viewing WJAL long before OTA. :(

I feel for them.

markbulla

01-15-09, 10:32 PM

markbulla, (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/member.php?u=7492951)

What's with the sound this evening? Smallville didn't seem as loud as usual and it kept varying in volume.

You watch OTA, correct?

I watched it on WNUV-DT OTA, and I didn't experience that.

As a matter of fact, I recorded it on the DVR, and I'm watching the playback - The volume is good (a bit higher than the WBFF news that I just turned away from), and it isn't varying in level.

I'm afraid that I don't have an answer for you... Sorry.

:.

systems2000

01-15-09, 10:37 PM

Correct. I didn't think about cutting a DVD. Maybe I should do that and send it to you.

afiggatt

01-15-09, 11:25 PM

The digital captions from WJLA-DT still don't show up on my Sharp HDTV, though, even though digital captions from most other stations show up fine on that HDTV. I suspect that Sony HDTVs have the same problem.
The digital captions for the pre-recorded series ABC network programs don't show up on the Sony HD-DVR for WJLA-DT 7. What is odd is that they show up on WMAR-DT 2 for the same program. The Sony HD-DVR has digital captions for WJLA-DT for Good Morning America and other news shows so there is something different about the data path for captioning for the prime time series programs. The Sony HD-DVR shows digital captions for other network stations. The Samsung 19" HDTV and T451 ATSC tuners work fine for WJLA-DT, so this is one of those odd specific equipment/brand problems.

biker19

01-16-09, 06:28 AM

Got a message back from WJAL engineering.

Looks like cable users will be viewing WJAL long before OTA. :(

I feel for them.

Is their way to transition to DTV? I assume they won't bother putting up the analog again.:p

systems2000

01-16-09, 09:06 AM

Agreed! That's one way to go off the air. :)

markbulla

01-16-09, 11:10 AM

dmulvany

01-16-09, 01:37 PM

The captioning box that I was referring to is called a "DTV captioning legalizer", model number CB512, and is made by a company called EEG Enterprises.
.

Thanks, Mark! It's so helpful to get this specific info from you as well as your observations with the HD captions. I'm very glad that you had noticed the captioning problems and figured out a way to resolve them.

FYI, I had set up another thread on this forum for engineers to share their observations about causes of different captioning problems. It's at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1036515

If you have a chance, could you share your thoughts there about the specific problems you originally saw with the HD captions and whatever other information would be useful for other engineers to know? Stations all over the U.S. are having problems delivering the digital captions intact for some situations, and your experience might be able to help them resolve the problems much more quickly.

Thanks so much for being on this thread!

Dana

dmulvany

01-16-09, 01:51 PM

The digital captions for the pre-recorded series ABC network programs don't show up on the Sony HD-DVR for WJLA-DT 7. What is odd is that they show up on WMAR-DT 2 for the same program. The Sony HD-DVR has digital captions for WJLA-DT for Good Morning America and other news shows so there is something different about the data path for captioning for the prime time series programs. The Sony HD-DVR shows digital captions for other network stations. The Samsung 19" HDTV and T451 ATSC tuners work fine for WJLA-DT, so this is one of those odd specific equipment/brand problems.

Good observation about getting captions intact from the other local ABC station, Alan. That way, we know the problem isn't with the national broadcast of caption data but is with the equipment or settings at the *station* level, i.e., WJLA.

So, to summarize, some Sony and Sharp DTV equipment (from different owners in different locations) are consistently unable to decode digital captions from WJLA-DT because of how WJLA is sending out the advanced closed caption data for prime-time pre-recorded programs like "Lost" and "Private Practice." The same equipment does not have trouble decoding captions from another local ABC station, and the same equipment can decode live captions from WJLA-DT just fine. There appears to be a problem for certain brands of DTV equipment with how the CEA-708 caption data for pre-recorded programs are being sent out by WJLA-DT.

One solution might be for WJLA to use the other solution just mentioned by markbulla on this thread: the "DTV captioning legalizer", model number CB512, which is made by EEG Enterprises, and which cleans up captioning problems that were previously showing up on HD channels.

Dana

nottenst

01-16-09, 01:56 PM

One weird thing with captioning last night. I was watching the CW on the DC HD channel last night (Smallville) and the captions ended incomplete at the DC50 (or WB50) bug.

dmulvany

01-16-09, 02:13 PM

One weird thing with captioning last night. I was watching the CW on the DC HD channel last night (Smallville) and the captions ended incomplete at the DC50 (or WB50) bug.

I hadn't noticed that problem myself or heard about that kind of thing happening. Do let the station know about that problem; it may be a brand new one that they don't know about. Their contact information can be found at:

http://www.dc50tv.com/pages/contact_us

Dana

kurbkidc

01-16-09, 02:28 PM

nottenst

01-16-09, 02:34 PM

I hadn't noticed that problem myself or heard about that kind of thing happening. Do let the station know about that problem; it may be a brand new one that they don't know about. Their contact information can be found at:

http://www.dc50tv.com/pages/contact_us

DanaI filled out the feedback form on the site and mentioned that I was getting the signal via Comcast.

systems2000

01-16-09, 02:37 PM

I realized (this afternoon) that I had a "Mental Lapse," when I posted that the WJAL downlinks were at the transmitting location. WJAL had actually installed a new satellite dish field at their Marion, PA office this Summer. They then use a microwave LOS link to their transmitting tower (15 miles away).

JoeInNVa

01-16-09, 03:36 PM

keeper

01-16-09, 05:26 PM

dg28

01-16-09, 07:12 PM

Don't know if this just started today, but WUSADT was displaying textaul information in the HD wings during the sports segment. I believe they were showing Wizards highlights, I mean lowlights, in 4X3 SD and were displaying Wizards stats in the wings. If you have much overscan on your tv, the stats will be partailly cut off.

Digital Rules

01-16-09, 07:15 PM

afiggatt

01-16-09, 09:33 PM

Hey guys, I live in Dillsburg,Pa. Been getting all Baltimore stations with an attic antenna for the last few years. Been looking around the net and it seems that once analog goes off WJZ and WMAR will decrease their power to my area. North-West York county. In reading they both applied for a larger area to cover-the same as their analog does. Does anyone know what site I can look at to see if their applications have been approved? Thanks
Do you mean WBAL 11? Or are you asking about the analog to digital coverage areas? There are no pending requests for power increases for WMAR-DT 2 and WJZ-DT 13 post-transition because they are at or close to the maximum allowed for their bands.

WMAR-DT 2 will be taking over WJZ-DT's UHF 38 transmitter which is running at the maximum allowed 1000 kW. WMAR will have a nominal loss of coverage area because of the difference in propagation from the long wavelength of low VHF 2 compared to shorter wavelength UHF. If you get the current digital signal for WJZ-DT 13, you should be set for WMAR-DT 2 post-transition.

WJZ-DT 13 will switch from a omni-directional VHF 13 antenna to a directional antenna for VHF 13 after the new antenna goes up by late April (assuming no hold on the analog shutdown). See my earlier post for their reduced 9.8 kW STA operation right after Feb. 17. The directional antenna will cut signal strength to the west and northwest. WJZ-DT will be operating at 28.8 kW, just under the maximum 30 kW allowed for upper VHF. The antenna pattern for WJZ-DT 13 on VHF 13 (see http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=25455) show a strength of 0.699 at azimuth 350 degrees. That works out to around 20 kW signal strength in your direction which is pretty strong for digital upper VHF.

WBAL-DT 11 will stick with their current omni-directional antenna but at only 5 kW for VHF 11. The reason for the reduced power as Digital Rules posted is to keep interference down for WWPX-DT Ion 60 in Martinsburg which managed to snag a VHF 12 allotment some time back.

djp952

01-17-09, 02:22 AM

WBAL-DT 11 will stick with their current omni-directional antenna but at only 5 kW for VHF 11. The reason for the reduced power as Digital Rules posted is to keep interference down for WWPX-DT Ion 60 in Martinsburg which managed to snag a VHF 12 allotment some time back.

Yeah, it kinda stinks how WWPX managed to grab that and affect WBAL. I like what WJZ did to combat the issue by switching to a directional, and wish WBAL would have either done the same or request a new UHF frequency rather than cut their power so much. I live close to TV Hill (Elkridge), all things considered, but due to topology issues I'm very worried that I will lose a reliable WBAL post-transition, herculean efforts on the roof not withstanding.

The FCC should have never given VHF12 to WWPX, IMO. I'm all for the little guy in general, but in this case I think the major networks should have prevailed.

Digital Rules

01-17-09, 02:33 AM

You should be OK with WBAL in Elkridge. 5 kw at such close range is more than enough power. We have a digital VHF station 6 miles away in DC with "much" less power (198 watts). My neighbor even picks it up with this tiny antenna.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=HD-1080

I installed an antenna in Manassas, and was surprised to see some activity from that weak channel 8 on the signal display (Not decodable though)

keeper

01-17-09, 03:49 AM

WBAL-DT 11 will stick with their current omni-directional antenna but at only 5 kW for VHF 11. The reason for the reduced power as Digital Rules posted is to keep interference down for WWPX-DT Ion 60 in Martinsburg which managed to snag a VHF 12 allotment some time back.

Thanks for the help. I never thought that I would get worse reception after the transition but it seems that way. For the people on the fringe like myself we could lose channels that we have been able to receive for years. People are not going to be happy. I live in Pa but at my location I am unable to catch cbs and abc in Harrisburg due to a mountain just north and west. Most Baltimore channels are strong here. I'm pretty high up.
I don't understand how channel 12 can interfere with Baltimore. There is a huge mountain that divides the two. When I lived in Thurmont and now in PA I never got so much as a blip in that direction of any channels. I couldn't even receive Hagerstown channels.

sfm529

01-17-09, 09:05 AM

FIOS is on the pole, and supposedly ready to be offered the end of this month (Jan 2009), but still dark in our section of Chevy Chase.

Are you satisfied with your switch from RCN to FIOS?

Very satisfied, the internet is so much faster and the TV is very good as well. The only issue I see occasionally is that the TV guide is not always accurate with Fios. This is a known issue with Fios that I have seen on several online forums.

afiggatt

01-17-09, 11:31 AM

I don't understand how channel 12 can interfere with Baltimore. There is a huge mountain that divides the two. When I lived in Thurmont and now in PA I never got so much as a blip in that direction of any channels. I couldn't even receive Hagerstown channels.
By "huge mountain", do you mean the northern end of the Blue Ridge? The WWPX 60 tower is located on a ridge west of Martinsburg, WV which puts the antennas at a pretty good height. I get WWPX-DT 60 on VHF 12 at 23 kW ERP at 48 miles away just fine here in Sterling, even from the backend of a Winegard YA-6713 upper VHF antenna currently aimed at DC. Post-transition, I will probably have to aim the antenna at Baltimore to get the more distant WBAL-DT and WJZ-DT (43 miles) which will put WWPX-DT off at a poor angle, but that won't matter much as WPXW-DT Ion 66 will be booming out of DC at 1000 kW on UHF 34.

The interference issue is not in Baltimore itself, but with those located at either edges of the two stations overlapping coverage zones. If the signal from one digital station is so many dB stronger than one on a adjacent channel, it can interfere with reception of the weaker signal.

The original post-transition assignment for WBAL-DT 11 called for a directional antenna at, I think, 7 kW (Trip may have the numbers). CBS owned WJZ-DT 13 opted to put up a new directional antenna which would keep the interference within acceptable limits in the direction of WWPX-DT in the west and northwest, but allowed them to put out a strong signal in other directions. WJZ-DT was able to get a 28.8 kW ERP. WBAL-DT decided to stick with their current omni-directional VHF 11 antenna and accept a lower power of 5 kW in all directions. It is going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

A delay in the analog shutdown could make it even more complicated if stations can go ahead and shut down analog if they want to. Would WUTB-TV 24 go off the air to allow WNVC-DT 56 to go live on UHF 24? Would WETA-TV 26 go dark to allow WHAG-DT 25 to go live on UHF 25? I figure the big four in each city would opt to keep their analog going.

systems2000

01-17-09, 12:33 PM

Also, WJAL-DT (16) is waiting for WJLA-DT to vacate channel 39 and WPXW-DT (34) can't go full power until WUSA-DT vacates channel 34.

mdviewer25

01-17-09, 01:32 PM

Why is the Maryland/Florida State game not in HD? I thought all ACC games would be in HD this season. Does anyone have the schedule of which games would be in HD?

systems2000

01-17-09, 08:35 PM

Markbulla,

Why is the volume on "The Vanishing" (on WUTB-DT) seem to be so low? Is it something with the Network feed?

markbulla

01-17-09, 11:23 PM

Markbulla,

Why is the volume on "The Vanishing" (on WUTB-DT) seem to be so low? Is it something with the Network feed?

Heck if I know. I don't work there...

WUTB gets their signal via fiber. They don't have a local master control.

.

systems2000

01-18-09, 12:55 AM

I was thinking you did. :o

dmulvany

01-18-09, 10:52 AM

Hi all -

As of about 1:30 this afternoon, WBFF started broadcasting on 45.2 with a slate for ThisBaltimore. On Jan 12, we will be putting on ThisTV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_TV), which will have movies and shows from MGM. _

Hi, Mark. The information for 45.2 says that some of the programs are captioned, but I've checked multiplel times and the captions aren't coming through. Are there plans to pass through the captions any time soon? I and many others can't watch the programming on 45.2 without any captioning, of course.

(BTW, since some stations are discontinuing use of their non-HD caption encoders due to upgrading to HD caption encoders, maybe these could be used instead on the new digital channels that aren't HD.)

Dana

markbulla

01-18-09, 02:04 PM

Hi, Mark. The information for 45.2 says that some of the programs are captioned, but I've checked multiplel times and the captions aren't coming through. Are there plans to pass through the captions any time soon? I and many others can't watch the programming on 45.2 without any captioning, of course.

(BTW, since some stations are discontinuing use of their non-HD caption encoders due to upgrading to HD caption encoders, maybe these could be used instead on the new digital channels that aren't HD.)

Dana

I noticed that the captioning wasn't working the other day, so I e-mailed the engineer at ThisTV, and I got this reply:

"On the CC. We shut the uplink captions off as we are cleaning up the language issues in the CC stream. They will be back full force on 1/26."

Apparently they weren't taking the bad words out of the captioning, so they turned it off.

I'm sorry that there's no captioning, but I'm not getting any to send out. As soon as they are back, they will be back on the air. They were working for the first week we were on the air.

.

Marcus Carr

01-18-09, 02:17 PM

HBO is free on Comcast today because of thier inauguration special.

dmulvany

01-18-09, 02:25 PM

I noticed that the captioning wasn't working the other day, so I e-mailed the engineer at ThisTV, and I got this reply:

"On the CC. We shut the uplink captions off as we are cleaning up the language issues in the CC stream. They will be back full force on 1/26."

Apparently they weren't taking the bad words out of the captioning, so they turned it off.

I'm sorry that there's no captioning, but I'm not getting any to send out. As soon as they are back, they will be back on the air. They were working for the first week we were on the air.

.

Thanks for being on top of the captioning, Mark. I appreciate this information!

BTW, did you know that a lot of TVs and converter boxes won't automatically decode CEA-608 captions on digital channels? A brand new Samsung HDTV that I got won't show any captions for 32.1 and 66.1 when it's set to the default captioning mode, and it's a real hassle to go into the menu to force the TV to show CC1 captions for ALL channels, and then change the settings back (I don't like the analog captions from the Samsung and much prefer the 708 captions). I say this because if only CEA-608 captions are sent out on 45.2, a lot of people using advanced closed captions may not be able to see any captions at all and won't realize why.

I think the FCC did not realize this problem itself at all and that DTV equipment isn't required to decode 608 caption data automatically when no 708 caption data is being transmitted.

The very popular LG converter boxes don't automatically decode 608 caption data either. (The Insight and Zenith converter boxes are both made by LG.)

I'm hoping, therefore, that stations will go ahead and provide CEA-708 caption data on their digital channels as soon as possible. The 7.3 channel for WJLA isn't doing that; they're providing only 608 caption data for the very few programs that do come with caption data.

Dana

folksnake

01-18-09, 02:27 PM

Marcus Carr

01-18-09, 03:04 PM

AntAltMike

01-18-09, 04:47 PM

HBO is free on Comcast today because of thier inauguration special.

I'd rather not have to do a ten minute "auto-program" scan to find it. Can anyone tel me its actual channel number on Comcast in Prince George's County?

Marcus Carr

01-18-09, 06:14 PM

Heh, they shut it off right after the show was over.

That's all you get for free!

afiggatt

01-18-09, 06:46 PM

Heh, they shut it off right after the show was over.
HBO East and West HD are still in the clear on Verizon Fios, however. HBO East HD is QAM 94-612 and West HD is QAM 22-672 for the Verizon subscribers. However it is a good news / bad news thing: the good news is that HBO East HD in unscrambled so anyone with a STB or clear QAM tuner hooked can watch the repeat of the inauguration concert at 7 PM; the bad news is that HBO is currently showing the Will Ferrell movie, Blades of Glory.

Marcus Carr

01-18-09, 07:13 PM

Heh, they shut it off right after the show was over.

Back on for the repeat.

Marcus Carr

01-18-09, 10:11 PM

Legend of the Seeker is back in HD tonight on WNUV.

Knicks_Fan

01-19-09, 08:40 AM

I wonder how much "local" coverage (my D* program guide shows NBC4 airing their own parade coverage at 2:30pm) will be in HD? Both WUSA and WRC show a lot of local origin programming tomorrow.

voltore

01-19-09, 09:33 AM

I wonder how much "local" coverage (my D* program guide shows NBC4 airing their own parade coverage at 2:30pm) will be in HD? Both WUSA and WRC show a lot of local origin programming tomorrow.

WUSA has HD cameras near the White House for anchors and has HD circuits back to the station as well as some othr HD paths. Microwave will remain SD as too many sites and too little bandwidth for us :) We're anchoring remotely from now until end of tomorrow.

Marcus Carr

01-19-09, 10:26 AM

Marcus, I think its only "free" if you have their digital box...not sure about that., but that's the impression I got.

From an article I read online: "Viewers must have a subscription to Comcast’s digital service; the programs will not be available to those who do not have a set-top box."

So much for "free"!

Apparently it was available in clear QAM.

http://img.lineupui.silicondust.com/snapshots/58/snapshot_7800958.jpg

http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineupui?Cmd=LocationProgramsWeb&Country=US&Postcode=21215

systems2000

01-19-09, 01:18 PM

I saw that the "Seeker" was on, but got busy and forgot about watching it. :(

AntAltMike

01-19-09, 08:25 PM

If anyone in Washington, DC gets to use channel 51, will they have to broadcast from the same tower as channel 50? Have any other "co-located", adjacent channel transmitters been spaced two miles apart?

Trip in VA

01-19-09, 08:39 PM

If anyone in Washington, DC gets to use channle 51, will they have to broadcast from the same tower as channel 50? Have any other "co-located", adjacent channel transmitters been spaced two miles apart?

The FCC requires stations to be within 14 miles. 2 miles is common.

- Trip

Knicks_Fan

01-20-09, 08:45 AM

Been trying to watch NBC's coverage. WRC keeps popping in and out of HD, and has interuppted coverage twice in the 8am hour for commercials and a local news break. Both times they have woken up, and then stayed in SD for several minutes. The station tells me it is New York doing this. Also: The local parade coverage will in SD - big surprise.

Update: All 4 locals have gone to their own coverage, foregoing the HD network feeds for their crappy SD remotes. What a joke

dmulvany

01-20-09, 05:53 PM

Last night, I was watching "CSI Miami" on my new Samsung HDTV with digital captions and checked "True Beauty" on 7.1 (WJLA-DT) during a commercial break. Although I'd been able to watch "Lost" with problem-free digital captions last week on the Samsung, the "accumulating captions" problem showed up again with "True Beauty." Check out the video that I made showing the terrible accumulation of captions at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dana.mulvany/DigitalCaptioningJanuary2009#5293225874525815634

The captions continue to accumulate until they cover up most of the screen. Changing the channel does re-start the accumulation process, so there may be a problem with the Samsung's cache? These problems were not seen with the "CSI Miami" broadcast and seem to happen only with pre-recorded captions for *some* programs from *some* stations, not live captioning.

I was surprised to see this problem on WJLA-DT again as I thought Robert Forsyth had somehow managed to clean up how WJLA-DT was processing the digital captions. Many pre-recorded programs on WJLA-DT were fine last week. But something clearly went awry with the captions for "True Beauty." Again, my Samsung can decode captions fine for most pre-recorded programs, but some programs are giving the HDTV fits.

(There's also a problem with the WJLA-DT digital captions for some Sharp and Sony HDTVs as documented earlier on this thread. With those DTVs, the digital captions don't show up at all.)

Dana
Rockville, MD

systems2000

01-20-09, 07:47 PM

How are the DR applications for WWPX-DR and WETA-DR affect the construction permit "Flash Cut" LD that WDCW has for W51CY?

Trip in VA

01-20-09, 07:51 PM

How are the DR applications for WWPX-DR and WETA-DR affect the construction permit "Flash Cut" LD that WDCW has for W51CY?

W51CY, as an LP, has no protection. If WETA or WWPX get channel 51, and can show W51CY is causing them interference, W51CY is required to move or go off the air.

I imagine that if that happened, W51CY would move to 50 and act as an on-channel booster for WDCW.

- Trip

systems2000

01-20-09, 08:16 PM

Trip in VA

01-20-09, 08:24 PM

Being that W51CY antenna is located 680.9 Meters above mean sea level (ABSL) and planned operation of 15KW, what's the likelyhood that could happen? Wouldn't that cause interference of their primary, 1000KW, transmitter?

How would that affect W50DE's 11.94KW transmitter out of Martinsburg?

I doubt W50DE will stay on the air too long after the transition date.

They would probably go directional to cut all power to the east. Then they'd time the transmitters such that in places where the main signal makes it over the mountain, the signals either sync up or generate only enough multipath that a modern receiver can deal with it.

I haven't done enough research to know how much multipath, artificial or otherwise, modern receivers can handle. If I wasn't bogged down in Differential Equations homework, I would probably go look for it right now.

- Trip

dewster1977

01-20-09, 09:49 PM

I doubt W50DE will stay on the air too long after the transition date.

They would probably go directional to cut all power to the east. Then they'd time the transmitters such that in places where the main signal makes it over the mountain, the signals either sync up or generate only enough multipath that a modern receiver can deal with it.

I haven't done enough research to know how much multipath, artificial or otherwise, modern receivers can handle. If I wasn't bogged down in Differential Equations homework, I would probably go look for it right now.

- Trip

I really wish other stations would have follow WDCW and install translators or do a DTS:), when 51 was on analog they would come in clear with just a UHF loop. I've also noticed improvement on digital and analog both since WJAL 68/16 is off-air, I'm able to pick up several Baltimore digitals without dropouts now, and even get analog 27 and 33 from Harrisburg with a UHF loop.

systems2000

01-20-09, 10:02 PM

I wondered that myself, but didn't find any difference with my setup/location.

dewster1977

01-20-09, 10:49 PM

Well analog 67 is clear as it was many years ago now, and several Baltimore digital come is well now. What really amazed me was the reception with and indoor antenna ( I have a tv in the spare bedroom with just and amplified set-top antenna) use to only get 25, 31, 38, 60, 68. Now I also get 27, 33, 21 clear, and even 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 come in snowy. I was amazed. Maybe there is hope yet???:D

joblo

01-22-09, 12:05 PM

Currently on Cox channel 155 (Weatherscan) crawl in Fairfax County:

With the Digital Transition PBS affiliates WHUT & WMPT have elected to move to digital carriage. On Feb-17 WHUT ch.32 will move to ch.815. On Mar-31 WMPT ch.22 will move to HD ch.767. Cox will carry WMPT2 on ch.812 & V-ME on ch.813. WETA will be carried on analog & digital ch.26

jorwex

01-22-09, 01:01 PM

I've been to antennaWeb & tvfool, but I wanted to get a personal validation before I go get an antenna.

I'm in Baltimore in a 3 story rowhouse between two taller houses. Tvfool & AntennaWeb are both consistent in saying that all but PBS & MNT (meh) are 3.8 miles away, at 350 degrees.

So I'm in an urban setting with tall buildings and antennaweb says a yellow code antenna should be fine, and tvfool says an indoor one should be okay, but I feel like I may need an attenuator because I'm so close.

Do I need one meant for multipath blocking? I'm skeptical of an indoor antenna working where I am, but what do I know. I was prepared to go for a roof-mounted antenna, but I'd love to hear what others recommend.

Thanks

P.S. I'm going for OTA only in lieu of getting cable.

Digital Rules

01-22-09, 02:23 PM

Hi Jorwex,

I would try a basic VHF/UHF indoor antenna first, and return it if you do not get satisfactory results. I brought a TV to work in the heart of downtown DC last week, and was surprised at the results. Just using a simple bowtie antenna sitting on the counter brought in all the UHF stations in the city fairly well.

If this doesn't work, you may need to go outside. The smallest I would go with would be the Winegard 1080

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=HD-1080

If multipath is severe I recommend the Winegard Ghost Killer-HD7210P; even though you won't be needing VHF-LOW. I used one and was able to get all the Baltimore digital channels except 67 & 24 in my high multipath location, 40 miles away.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=ANWGHST

I wouldn't worry about overload, as long as you don't use an antenna amplifier.(Not recommended)

Hope this helps, Glen

systems2000

01-22-09, 06:27 PM

I'm glad to see that WWPX is broadcasting "Octopussy" in full widescreen. :)

systems2000

01-22-09, 08:18 PM

Has anyone else noticed better sound for "A View to a Kill" (WWPX-DT), then there is for "Smallville" (WNUV-DT)? It's almost like "Smallville" is in mono.

ceeaton

01-22-09, 09:05 PM

WLYH-DT (15) and WNUV-DT seem to be matching up pretty well on sound quality running the same thing -- they do sound muted compared to any other broadcast currently running...

systems2000

01-23-09, 12:00 AM

I noticed WUTB-DT was doing the same thing. WMAR-DT, WBAL-DT, & WJZ-DT seemed to be OK.

machpost

01-23-09, 08:50 AM

RCN has just added Tennis Channel HD, presumably for the Australian Open.

JoeInNVa

01-23-09, 01:18 PM

Comcast /Alex/arlington still have place holders for Speed HD, FX HD and Fox News HD...Been there for almost a month now or has it been over a month?

dspadoni

01-23-09, 03:21 PM

Comcast /Alex/arlington still have place holders for Speed HD, FX HD and Fox News HD...Been there for almost a month now or has it been over a month?

Since early November as I recall :mad:

DVDO+WESTY=1080p

01-23-09, 03:59 PM

Since early November as I recall :mad:

same deal with Manassas although prince william has those channels I called and told them and they said its coming soon,

Marcus Carr

01-23-09, 04:43 PM

systems2000

01-23-09, 09:35 PM

A quick scan of the channels I receive revealed the following information, gathered at the start of the 9:00pm hour.
Channel|Resolution|Frequency|Sound
2-1|1280x720p|60Hz|Dolby Digital
2-2|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
2-3|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
11-1|1920x1080i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
11-2|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
13-1|1920x1080i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
24-1|1280x720p|60Hz|Dolby Digital
31-1|1920x1080i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
31-2|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
31-3|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
42-1|1920x1080i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
42-2|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
42-3|540x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
54-1|1280x720p|60Hz|Dolby Digital
60-1|528x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
60-2|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
60-3|704x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital
60-4|528x480i|30Hz|Dolby Digital

Knicks_Fan

01-24-09, 09:46 AM

Allbritton handed out a batch of pink slips at its Channel 7/WJLA and NewsChannel 8 broadcast complex in Rosslyn this morning. We're told that at least 30 workers got cut - many in the back office, but also as many as seven on-air personalities. Including longtime reporter Andrea McCarren. Also among the cut: Weekend anchor and reporter Alisa Parenti, weekend sports anchor Greg Toland, and reporters Sarah Lee and Emily Schmidt.

Was sorry to hear this. They deserved better. While Mr. Allbritton relaxes in his expensive Georgetown home, others are out of work. Perhaps ABC 7 can run infomercials 24x7 on the weekends to raise extra dough. They are pre-empting the entire network lineup tonight (granted repeats of the "Lost" episodes from earlier this week, but it is amazing how much they pre-empt ABC shows).

aaronwt

01-24-09, 10:27 AM

Was sorry to hear this. They deserved better. While Mr. Allbritton relaxes in his expensive Georgetown home, others are out of work. Perhaps ABC 7 can run infomercials 24x7 on the weekends to raise extra dough. They are pre-empting the entire network lineup tonight (granted repeats of the "Lost" episodes from earlier this week, but it is amazing how much they pre-empt ABC shows).

Well in this economy they need to do something to keep the money flowing and stay in the black.
And if the DTV transition gets delayed that's going to cost every station alot of extra money that was not budgeted for.

In general I would expect most TV stations around the country to have layoffs this year, especially if the digital transition is delayed.

djp952

01-24-09, 12:36 PM

Well in this economy they need to do something to keep the money flowing and stay in the black.
And if the DTV transition gets delayed that's going to cost every station alot of extra money that was not budgeted for.

In general I would expect most TV stations around the country to have layoffs this year, especially if the digital transition is delayed.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned here or not, that new bill was modified so that stations could still make their switch on 2/17 if they choose to do so. The cost involved with the potential delay was cited as a main reason. I believe the new wording makes the analog cutoff more of a window between Feb and June rather than another specific date, but all full-power analog must cease and 700Mhz still be cleared by June.

Of course, with all the frequency changes that are going to take place, it's still a mess without a coordinated hard date. *sigh*

edit: I, for one, hope Balt/DC sticks it to the FCC and Congress and just does it all on 2/17 like they planned. How many people in this region are going to go dark? I can't believe it's that many, even in the more rural MD/VA locations.

dmulvany

01-24-09, 11:41 PM

Many TV stations in the Washington, DC area are NOT ready to go all digital.

Here's a status report of captioning problems on digital channels that many TV station engineers still need to address before they turn off the analog channel, for which the captioning is usually working very well. If they don't fix these problems, then people who rely on captions could be left with much worse access to the station's programming than they had before.

I set up a separate thread to collect status reports on captioning on digital channels from different geographical areas in the U.S.A. Here's the report that I provided on that thread:

I'm in the greater Washington, DC area. I use a 2006 Sharp HDTV, a 2008 Insignia converter box, and a late 2008 Samsung HDTV with rabbit ear antennas. My Sharp and Samsung HDTVs are set up to display CEA-708 captions but both HDTVs will display analog captions from analog input. (My Samsung HDTV's default captioning mode will not automatically decode analog-style, CEA-608 captions on digital channels if there are no CEA-708 captions, although my Sharp usually will.)

As required, all local TV stations transmit analog-style caption data, but not all transmit CEA-708 data (the kind that can be customized). I've indicated below which stations are transmitting 708 data by using the number 708. Usually I've only indicated whether there are known problems with the CEA-708 caption data. (I've also included some additional information I happened to learn over the past few months.)

Channel 4.1: WRC (NBC) 708

Channel 5.1: WTTG (Fox) 708 Severe delay with captions for syndicated programs, and some DTVs like my Sharp cannot decode any captions at all (neither 608 or 708) after a few minutes. (Problems also occur when the audio is no longer in sync with the video.) Uses the Evertz 8084 caption encoder (until switching to an HD encoder on January 30th).

Channel 7.1: WJLA (ABC) 708 No captions for prime-time, prerecorded programs like "Lost" show up at all on some Sony and Sharp HDTVs. Captions for other programs sometimes "accumulate" for Samsung DTV equipment, eventually obscuring the screen.

7.3 608 only; most programs not captioned (may be temporarily exempt)

Channel 9.1: WUSA (CBS) 708 Occasional disappearance and then rapid flitting of captions for prime-time, pre-recorded programs like "CSI"

Channel 11.1 WBAL (NBC) 708 (rarely watched)

Channel 14.1 WFDC 608 (Spanish program, never watched)

Channel 20.1: WDCA (MyNetworkTV) 708 Same issues with pre-recorded syndicated programs as 5.1, WTTG (uses same engineering room)

Channel 22.1: MPT (PBS) 708
22.2 708 (Captions for prime-time program did not show up on Sharp HDTV but did on Insignia CECB)

Channel 26.1: WETA (PBS) 708 (all subchannels: 26.1, 26.2, 26.3, 26.4)

Channel 32.1: WHUT 608 only

Channel 45.1: WBFF (Fox) 708

Channel 50: CW50 (CW) 708 (problems seen with delayed captions for some syndicated programs like "Two and a Half Men")

Channel 54.1 (CW) 708 Synchronized captions for pre-recorded, syndicated programs like "Stargate Atlantis;" uses DTV caption legalizer from EEG.

Channel 66.1: ION 608 only Synchronized captions for reruns of old syndicated programs like "MASH"

Summary: WJLA is the worst offender. It really needs to address the severe captioning problems experienced by users of some Sony, Sharp and Samsung DTV equipment, which experience those problems from WJLA's digital captions but not from other stations. WJLA is not ready to go all digital until it has resolved these captioning problems, which it should have done a long time ago when captioning problems were first brought to its attention. (According to afigatt, another ABC affiliate (2.1) does not cause the same captioning problem with Samsung equipment.) I have no idea if WJLA engineers are doing anything at all to try to resolve these problems.

Other stations have problems that need to be addressed as well, as indicated above. I've hesitated to give an absolutely clean bill of health to any station because I've sometimes seen intermittent caption transmission problems even with WRC (4.1) and WETA (26.1) and I'm not sure whether those problems are a result of equipment problems or could be due to some fluke in the environment.

Captioning is *so* important to deaf and hard of hearing people. It's really been wonderful. Sadly, I'm afraid the digital transition could have an extremely negative impact on people who use captions if stations don't resolve their captioning problems before they turn off the only channels that do have good captions.

Dana

SUOrangeman

01-25-09, 01:22 AM

I've updated the Google Docs chart (see my sig below) to reflect the recent additions:

Added MPT subchannels per Cox carriage announcement (and AVSForum)
Added WHUT per Cox carriage announcement (and AVSForum)
Added Comedy Central to DirecTV (per AVSForum)
Added Tennis HD to RCN (per AVSForum)

I also encourage some fine souls to start adding channel numbers for your carrier. The community thanks you in advance!

-SUO

URFloorMatt

01-25-09, 05:02 AM

edit: I, for one, hope Balt/DC sticks it to the FCC and Congress and just does it all on 2/17 like they planned. How many people in this region are going to go dark? I can't believe it's that many, even in the more rural MD/VA locations.

Anyone know what the provision is for converting to digital? I saw some headlines that suggested some markets could go ahead on 2/17, but I didn't see any articles explain under what conditions that was possible.

Is it still the same old standard--85% of OTA users equipped with digital?

afiggatt

01-25-09, 10:32 AM

Anyone know what the provision is for converting to digital? I saw some headlines that suggested some markets could go ahead on 2/17, but I didn't see any articles explain under what conditions that was possible.

Is it still the same old standard--85% of OTA users equipped with digital?
The proposed bills are still in committee and the specifics of the proposed delays to June 12 are still being hammered out. But the bill in the House committee would allow stations to shut down their analog broadcast on Feb. 17 if they want to with advance notice. There is no market dependent consideration in this. We are in a permissive analog shutdown phase already where stations can go ahead and shut down their analog if they want to. 180 stations across the US have terminated their analog broadcast already and according to Falcon_77's count, 311 stations in total have indicated that they have or will shut down analog prior to Feb. 17. The likely framework of a delay is that they will change the forced shutdown date to June 12, but allow stations on their own to decide if they want to shut down analog at any time prior to that. Call it the chaos plan. So, it is possible that with a lot of publicity Congress will postpone the February 17 date to June 12, but 30% or 40% of the full power stations across the US will have shut down their analog broadcast by February 18 anyway. But until and if Congress passes a bill and the FCC posts rulings, no one knows what the rules will be. There are only 23 days left!

Big question in the DC and Baltimore markets is which stations might shut analog down by February 18 regardless of what Congress does. A lot of PBS stations are among the stations filing to shut down early or on February 17, most likely in many cases, because they are cash strapped and it costs money to keep two broadcasts going. So would WETA-TV PBS 26 shut down anyway which would allow WHAG-DT NBC 25 to finally go full power? In many cases, I expect the decisions have not yet been made by the station and corporate bosses because they are waiting to get a read on the political terrain and see what happens in Congress.

CuseHokie

01-25-09, 07:19 PM

Comcast customers...

Is it true that ESPNHD is now part of Digital Starter?

My promotion(s) are ending in another month, so I'm planning on my next move.

I -only- watch HD... well 98% of the time I guess. :)

Premiums are overrated...

I'm happy getting up through 254...

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

aaronwt

01-26-09, 08:05 AM

Leave it to the government to make things even more confusing for the consumer.

The proposed bills are still in committee and the specifics of the proposed delays to June 12 are still being hammered out. But the bill in the House committee would allow stations to shut down their analog broadcast on Feb. 17 if they want to with advance notice. There is no market dependent consideration in this. We are in a permissive analog shutdown phase already where stations can go ahead and shut down their analog if they want to. 180 stations across the US have terminated their analog broadcast already and according to Falcon_77's count, 311 stations in total have indicated that they have or will shut down analog prior to Feb. 17. The likely framework of a delay is that they will change the forced shutdown date to June 12, but allow stations on their own to decide if they want to shut down analog at any time prior to that. Call it the chaos plan. So, it is possible that with a lot of publicity Congress will postpone the February 17 date to June 12, but 30% or 40% of the full power stations across the US will have shut down their analog broadcast by February 18 anyway. But until and if Congress passes a bill and the FCC posts rulings, no one knows what the rules will be. There are only 23 days left!

Big question in the DC and Baltimore markets is which stations might shut analog down by February 18 regardless of what Congress does. A lot of PBS stations are among the stations filing to shut down early or on February 17, most likely in many cases, because they are cash strapped and it costs money to keep two broadcasts going. So would WETA-TV PBS 26 shut down anyway which would allow WHAG-DT NBC 25 to finally go full power? In many cases, I expect the decisions have not yet been made by the station and corporate bosses because they are waiting to get a read on the political terrain and see what happens in Congress.

Voyager06

01-26-09, 11:00 AM

Leave it to the government to make things even more confusing for the consumer.
Thank the new Obama administration for throwing the monkey wrench. This is one change that did not need to be changed. The date was firm for two years and now Congress, at the urging of the Obama newbies, thinks it needs to act to overrule the FCC. Absolutely ridiculous.:mad:

Deezul

01-26-09, 12:38 PM

Voyager06

01-26-09, 01:21 PM

Right, because a McCain administration wouldn't have delayed it.
I don't want to spark a political debate here. The request for a delay came from the Obama transition team. Now the Democratic leadership in Congress is on the bandwagon. I haven't heard of any Republicans pushing for a delay. For some reason, someone in the Obama admin wants to make a political issue of this. My point was that Congress could have acted anytime over the last two years to change the DTV date. Why now?

I guess that I was wrong. Now the Senate Republicans are falling in line. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2339487,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121
"I had serious concerns about shifting the digital television transition without a sound plan to inform consumers or address the converter box coupon shortage," Sen. Hutchison, a Texas Republican and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement. "I am pleased that Chairman Rockefeller worked with me to address many of the concerns with the early proposals."

Democratic senators Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota last week announced plans for a bill that would push the switch from analog to digital TV signals from February 17 to June 12.

markbulla

01-26-09, 01:37 PM

Thanks for being on top of the captioning, Mark. I appreciate this information!

BTW, did you know that a lot of TVs and converter boxes won't automatically decode CEA-608 captions on digital channels? A brand new Samsung HDTV that I got won't show any captions for 32.1 and 66.1 when it's set to the default captioning mode, and it's a real hassle to go into the menu to force the TV to show CC1 captions for ALL channels, and then change the settings back (I don't like the analog captions from the Samsung and much prefer the 708 captions). I say this because if only CEA-608 captions are sent out on 45.2, a lot of people using advanced closed captions may not be able to see any captions at all and won't realize why.

I think the FCC did not realize this problem itself at all and that DTV equipment isn't required to decode 608 caption data automatically when no 708 caption data is being transmitted.

The very popular LG converter boxes don't automatically decode 608 caption data either. (The Insight and Zenith converter boxes are both made by LG.)

I'm hoping, therefore, that stations will go ahead and provide CEA-708 caption data on their digital channels as soon as possible. The 7.3 channel for WJLA isn't doing that; they're providing only 608 caption data for the very few programs that do come with caption data.

Dana

I noticed some closed captioning on some commercials on 45.2 today. I think they (ThisTV) may be testing something...

.

mdviewer25

01-26-09, 04:42 PM

Can someone please tell me why Comcast of Prince George's county is wasting space by broadcasting a test pattern on not only analog channel 71 but also on 104-1? Also, what happened to the Baltimore qam channels?

Marcus Carr

01-26-09, 09:29 PM

HDPPV on Comcast in Baltimore is now HDMEV (HD Movies and Events). It has UFC, Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway, TNA wrestling, and something called Test Game (which is only $.01).

BMoreRavens

01-26-09, 10:07 PM

Anyone having audio sync problems with WBFF news HD tonight via DIRECTV?

I watched 24 live before the news came on and it was fine but as soon as the news started the audio has been out of sync.

EDIT: I just switched over to OTA and having the same problem.

afiggatt

01-26-09, 11:28 PM

dmulvany

01-27-09, 12:23 AM

markbulla

01-27-09, 04:16 AM

euckersw

01-27-09, 08:30 AM

Just checked the channel lineup for Cox in Fairfax, and noticed the following HD channels will be added on 1/27:

Fox Business HD (Channel 755)
Cartoon HD (Channel 759)
WE HD (Channel 760)
IFC HD (Channel 761)
Comedy HD (Channel 762)
E! HD (Channel 764)
Biography HD (Channel 765)
MLB HD (Channel 766)

Very nice!

Just checked this morning and it's official - Cox in Fairfax is now receiving all HD channels mentioned above.

SUOrangeman

01-27-09, 10:06 AM

I've updated my Google Docs chart per today's additions on Cox (link in signature).

I also attempted to sum up the HD offerings (non-On Demand) of all the providers listed. Let's see if this makes any sense. :)

DishTV w/ OTA: 54 HD channels + 8 OTA subschannels + 8 MHz + 23 pay/premium
DirecTV w/ OTA: 66 HD + 8 subs + 8 MHz + 11 premium
Wash - Comcast: 36 HD + 4 subs + 4 premium
Wash - RCN: 52 HD + 3 subs + 8 MHz + 23 premium + 2 coming soon
VA - Cox: 50*HD + 7 subs + 11 premium + 8 MHz (as premium) + 5 coming soon (* = non-dedicated MASN)
Millennium: 14 HD + 4 premium
Balt - Comcast: 39 HD + 2 subs + 4 premium
Wash - Verizon FiOS: 66 HD + 3 subs + 43 premium

Be mindful that my numbers are strictly based on the original chart posted by CycloneGT in the first post, my own experience with Cox-Fairfax, and subsequent posts in this thread. If something is incorrect, feel free to update the chart yourself!

With that said, let the shouting match begin!

-SUO

carltonrice

01-27-09, 12:38 PM

Thank the new Obama administration for throwing the monkey wrench. This is one change that did not need to be changed. The date was firm for two years and now Congress, at the urging of the Obama newbies, thinks it needs to act to overrule the FCC. Absolutely ridiculous.:mad:

I think this would have happened with or without the Obama admin. Congress was bound to get cold feet the closer things got to 2/17.

I was wondering if stations might decide to shut down before June 12th in spite of the change given the sorry state of the economy and all the cost cutting going on. In Baltimore, because WMAR-DT is supposed to use WJZ-DT's channel assignment (38), I guess there'd be a lot of mutual agreement that needs to take place with the frequency swapping. Obviously WMAR won't be able to shut down their broadcast on the channel 2 frequency until WJZ moves their DT to 13 and turns over 38 to them. But I would guess at this point from a budgeting perspective, stations probably were planning on reducing their electric bills come 2/17, so this may really impact their budgets.

In the end, it I would imagine this will be pretty confusing for the masses. And it strikes me that some of the other problems this country is now faced with are so much more complex. If we can't do a simple switchover from analog to digital TV after 10 years of trying, it doesn't bode well for a number of other problems facing us.

machpost

01-27-09, 02:06 PM

Speaking of This TV, dcrtv.com is reporting that it will be showing up soon on 50.2.

quentenstash

01-27-09, 03:17 PM

I don't know if anybody saw this, but the one state has already gone digital: Hawaii. The transition happened on Jan. 15th.

mdviewer25

01-27-09, 03:19 PM

WUTB-DT My 24 is showing Seinfeld in HD tonight for the 11 PM broadcast. This is first day that Seinfeld was to be made available in syndication in HD, so it is nice to see a local station has it at the start. WTTG-DT Fox 5 did not have Seinfeld in HD earlier in the evening, probably will add it soon.

If they can show Morning Show with Mike & Juliet in HD, they should be able to show Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld in HD. Whenever they show Everybody Loves Raymond on Fox 5 its never in HD. Even though My20 shows it in HD (most of the time). Two and a Half Men wasn't in HD yesterday on DC50. It must have been an episode from season 1?

afiggatt

01-27-09, 05:15 PM

I don't know if anybody saw this, but the one state has already gone digital: Hawaii. The transition happened on Jan. 15th.
Yes, this was discussed in the DTV allotment and transition threads. Trip and Falcon_77 have maintaining lists of what stations are doing. See http://www.rabbitears.info/ss/ for Falcon_77's latest spreadsheet and summary. For Trip's website, try his site map http://www.rabbitears.info/sitemap.php. As of last Friday, at least 180 stations have shut off their analog broadcast.

Three of them are in our area: WNVT-DT 30 which was one of the first to go digital only back in 2003, WNVC MHz 56 (57) which shut down in September on the expectation they could start up on UHF 24 on February 18 (and may be dark for 4 more months unless WUTB-TV 24 goes dark), and WJAL 68 in the Hagerstown market which had a recent transmitter fire which destroyed their analog and pre DT 16 transmitter building. WJAL 68 could be in a bind because their post DT channel is UHF 39 which is currently in use by WJLA-DT ABC 7.

Assuming the House passes a June 12 delay bill and it looks very likely, it is going to be interesting to see what the stations in the DC and Baltimore markets do. Since this is a major market and subject to a little extra attention from Congress, most stations may opt to keep their analog for four more months. So far, I have not noticed any of the local stations in the recent rash of Silent STA filings stating they will shut down on February 17, regardless of the possible June 12 extension. However, WJZ 13 and WUSA 9 are both selling or leasing their pre-transition DT transmitters and antennas to other stations. Did the lawyers have enough foresight to add a escape clause in case Congress delayed the Feb. 17 transition? If not, the owners of WMAR and WPXW Ion 66 could make things difficult for CBS (WJZ) and Gannet (WUSA).

afiggatt

01-27-09, 05:21 PM

If they can show Morning Show with Mike & Juliet in HD, they should be able to show Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld in HD. Whenever they show Everybody Loves Raymond on Fox 5 its never in HD. Even though My20 shows it in HD (most of the time). Two and a Half Men wasn't in HD yesterday on DC50. It must have been an episode from season 1?
WTTG-DT Fox 5 has shown Raymond in HD. I've noticed it a number of times channel surfing. But I've seen it in SD sometimes as well. WTTG-DT appears to be erratic on whether they show Raymond in HD. Looking it up, Two and a Half Men started on CBS in 2003. Since it is on CBS, undoubtedly in HD from the start with that date. Might be that WDCA 20 missed the HD feed and had to fall back to the SD feed. HD syndication is still hit or miss.

systems2000

01-27-09, 05:47 PM

Looking at a Query search of the FCC database, It appears I'm not going to get WBFF-DT until the transition is over. :(

There are 16 entries within 150KM of my location for 45-47. If I was to spread that to 41-47, I get 36 entries. :eek:

phantomplebe

01-27-09, 05:50 PM

systems2000

01-27-09, 06:02 PM

Check to make sure your television isn't set for cable.

phantomplebe

01-27-09, 07:08 PM

Leave it to me to not even realize that you had to select antenna vs cable. Thanks, 45 is coming in crystal clear, and I get a variety of other channels including DC. Its time to get me some HD. :D

mdviewer25

01-27-09, 07:48 PM

Tuesday, January 27, 2009: second night Seinfeld is not in HD on WTTG-DT. WDCA 20 also airs it at 11:30pm. Wonder if they will show it in HD?

mark_e

01-27-09, 07:52 PM

I am in the early stages of setting myself up for HD OTA, and am using an analog television to test antennas before I start lugging around my big LCD. I built one of the coat hanger antennas, but do not get the channels I would expect. I am in Columbia, so I think I should be getting Baltimore and DC stations, but I am only able to get the VHF stations, plus 65, 71, and 73 in UHF. Looking at the channel listing on the first page, though, I don't see any of those analog stations listed. What am I picking up? 73 especially comes in crystal clear and has kids shows, so might be PBS. I am not picking up 45 or 54, which I thought would be easy stations to get. Any ideas?

Using a Terk amplified indoor antenna on top of a bookcase, aimed at DC, I get all the DC and Baltimore digital channels. Sometimes I'll have to aim it for break-ups, but most of the time it works fine without touching it. It comes in handy for my all too frequent Comcast outages, like the one last Saturday and Sunday!:D

cjghome

01-27-09, 08:13 PM

Just need to make sure I understand the Local HDTV broadcast signal through the Cox Cable provider.

I have to work Super Bowl sunday...The company I work for has Cox Digital Cable...

If I understand correctly, Cox is suppose to broadcast/pass thru local channels if HDTV if available...

Does anyone what channel is NBC(WRC) transmitting there Digital signal on?...

I have a 42" Vizio w/ASTC QAM tuner, I'm hoping to connect the coxial cable and auto tune and pick up the Super Bowl... I'm I correct on this...

Please advise...

Thanks..
Charlie

markbulla

01-27-09, 10:43 PM

They just said on the news that WBFF Fox 45 is still planning on turning off their analog transmitter on Feb. 17.

.

systems2000

01-27-09, 11:24 PM

If I undersatnd the announcement they just made on WHAG-TV a few min. ago, WHAG will discontinue analog broadcast on Feb 15, 2009. :)

afiggatt

01-28-09, 12:28 AM

If I undersatnd the announcement they just made on WHAG-TV a few min. ago, WHAG will discontinue analog broadcast on Feb 15, 2009. :)
If that is the case, what will WHAG do for their full power digital signal? WHAG-DT 25 cannot fire up on UHF 26 until WETA-TV 26 goes off the air. Could they have an agreement with WETA that WETA-TV 26 will go dark on February 17, regardless of what Congress does? Or was the WHAG announcement put into place before management realized that Congress is serious about this June 12 delay?

If WBFF-TV 45 goes dark on February 17 even with the June 12 delay, good for them!

Also, Ion Network announced today that they will go HD in 20 markets starting on February 16. Washington DC is on the list of 20 markets, but the press release did not say whether this applies to both WWPX-DT 60 in Martinsburg or WPXW-DT 66. WPXW-DT was scheduled to move to WUSA-DT's UHF 34 transmitter on Feb. 18 after WUSA-DT flash cut to VHF 9; no clue how a delay to June 12 would play out for WPXW-DT. Press release at http://www.ionmedia.tv/press/press.cfm?id=142.

afiggatt

01-28-09, 12:39 AM

A bunch of silent STA filings were posted to the FCC database tonight. Both WBFF-TV 45 and WNUV-TV 54 - Sinclair stations - filed to shut down on February 17, period. WNUV's filing, see exhibit down at the bottom of the form: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101291863&formid=911&fac_num=7933.

Hope Mark gets the memo soon. :D

systems2000

01-28-09, 12:51 AM

Looks like the stations are taking the transition issue into their own hands and be damned with the politicians. Good for them!

systems2000

01-28-09, 12:55 AM

I like how they are protecting themselves. :)

ALTHOUGH THE DTV TRANSITION DATE HAS NOT YET BEEN EXTENDED, THIS TERMINATION NOTIFICATION IS BEING PROVIDED OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION.

JoeInNVa

01-28-09, 07:56 AM

Comcast of Alexandria and Arlington customers!
Is anyone receiving SCI-HD, DISNEY-HD and ABC Family-HD?

I have not been able to receive them since last Friday and these 3 seem to ALWAYS go out for some reason. Anyone else experiencing this?

markbulla

01-28-09, 09:03 AM

budmaca1

01-28-09, 09:24 AM

systems2000

01-28-09, 10:36 AM

The 4-way will probably need to be replaced with a multi-switch.

I'd use a local installer (you don't loose anything). If you have any problems, you know who you'll be dealing with. When you call the National 800 number, you'll more than likely get a National installer company, who hire employees at low wages, who (most of the time) are less experienced and don't care about "Job 1."

Onazuka

01-28-09, 10:46 AM

I'm must starting to research switching from Comcast to DirecTV. I live in western Howard County, MD. Comcast provides both DC and Balt local channels, and in HD only Baltimore. DirecTV says for my zip code (21797 Woodbine), it will only provide Baltimore channels, period. I live one mile north of a zip code (20833 Brookeville) where they only provide DC channels. I need DC channels. I live 23 miles north of DC and 23 miles west of Baltimore. Can I talk DirecTV into "pretending" I'm in the adjoining zip code to get DC stations? Also, I have 4 TVs, two are HDTV. Right now the cable comes in the house to a 4-way splitter. Will this not work for HD satellite? OTA antenna? What type, from whom, recommended installer, .... Other considerations? Advice please.

I live near you. I have an OTA antenna pointed at DC (funny, I can get great DC reception but almost no Baltimore reception). I use OTA for DC HD locals and Comcast for everything else. BTW, I was a long time DirecTV customer from the time they came out in 1994 until 2008.

You won't get anywhere with DirecTV. The only way you can do this is have them install at your house and then later call them and say you "moved" your service to a DC address but still get your bills online or to you address. I "moved" to my fathers house in Tulsa OK one March for a month so that I could get local ACC basketball tournament games in HD.

Someday all the channels on Comcast will be digital and HD and you'll get those DC stations in HD.

mchief99

01-28-09, 11:08 AM

budmaca1

01-28-09, 11:08 AM

What kind of OTA do you have? Who installed? Roof mount? Attic? On dish? Cost? What prompted you to switch from DirecTV to Comcast?

I'd rather not leave Comcast; however, they are nickel and diming me to death. I'm paying $35 extra per month for one standard and two HD cable boxes. I signed up for their triple bundle (phone, TV, Internet), and at the end of the 12 month term, my cost will balloon for TV. If I switch to DirecTV, I'll save significantly on the base cost, the fees for HD and receivers, and get more HD channels.

phantomplebe

01-28-09, 11:12 AM

Now that I have my coat hanger antenna working I decided to hook it up to my HTPC (Avertv Combo tuner) and see what kind of reception I could get. Only problem is that it is in my basement, entirely below grade, but I figured I could at least try. I couldn't believe that media center actually detected pretty much all the Baltimore and DC stations and I even got great reception on a couple of them. This is with my antenna sitting on a shelf, top of the antenna about 2 feet below ground. Now I just need 100ft of coax so that I can put the antenna in the attic. I can't believe I actually got a picture from underground...

phantomplebe

01-28-09, 11:35 AM

Deezul

01-28-09, 12:21 PM

I live near you. I have an OTA antenna pointed at DC (funny, I can get great DC reception but almost no Baltimore reception). I use OTA for DC HD locals and Comcast for everything else. BTW, I was a long time DirecTV customer from the time they came out in 1994 until 2008.

You won't get anywhere with DirecTV. The only way you can do this is have them install at your house and then later call them and say you "moved" your service to a DC address but still get your bills online or to you address. I "moved" to my fathers house in Tulsa OK one March for a month so that I could get local ACC basketball tournament games in HD.

Wrong. My old HR10-250 and my current HR20s allow me to enter a secondary ZIP code. I've put in a Baltimore ZIP code, and it will download both the DC and Baltimore channel listings. Get DirecTV for the Baltimore feeds, put in a ZIP code for DC, and away you go.

markbulla

01-28-09, 01:50 PM

http://mobile.broadcastingcable.com/article/162898-DTV_Delay_Bill_Fails_To_Pass_In_House.php

:

systems2000

01-28-09, 02:23 PM

Doesn't that make you feel less stressed? :)

systems2000

01-28-09, 03:48 PM

Has WWPX-DT lost it's feed? I'm getting strong Quality and Strength, but there's no content.
UPDATE: Content is back. :)

I'm also noticing reception degredation (Signal Quality) of Baltimore stations, due to the ½" of ice on my CM3020 and Ice Fog.

mark_e

01-28-09, 04:31 PM

It is normally pretty easy to call Comcast at the end of your promotion, tell them you are going to Directv since its cheaper, and they will offer whatever the current promotion is.

That was pretty much my experience, but when my promotion ran out in Novemeber they told me it is now their policy not to back-to-back promos,even though there is a FIOS box on my lawn. They suggested I take their phone service and not even use it, but at the end of the year, no more savings. I ran it up through Comcast Cares :confused: (that's what they call their executive resolution service) and was told that consistently. They gave me an internet and tv discount for 6 months, which is enough for me to get a good FIOS promo and revise the house infrastructure. Even without a promo, and with renting 2 additional STBs, it comes out over $1000 a year cheaper than my current landline and Comcast bills.

ceeaton

01-28-09, 07:59 PM

I'm also noticing reception degredation (Signal Quality) of Baltimore stations, due to the ½" of ice on my CM3020 and Ice Fog.

I had a funny thing happen today...with 1" of ice on my antenna, when I got home around 3pm, I was getting MPT at 75-80% on my CM7000, when I usually get it at 45-50% without the ice. Was it just a coincidence??? Or can ice help in some instances? You had a degraded signal, which is what I was expecting...

StevenJB

01-28-09, 11:30 PM

For some people a possible DTV transition delay from Feb 17 until Jun 12 won't make much difference or be of much help. The following is hilarious but unfortunately a lot of it is for real in the real world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pD-M0rY4

and then there is this:

http://dd.wcsx.com/?p=642

aaronwt

01-29-09, 01:32 AM

for some people a possible dtv transition delay from feb 17 until jun 12 won't make much difference or be of much help. The following is hilarious but unfortunately a lot of it is for real in the real world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pd-m0ry4

and then there is this:

http://dd.wcsx.com/?p=642

Hilarious:D:D:D

rustycruiser

01-30-09, 12:04 AM

For those of you looking for the 3D glasses for the Super Bowl commercial and/or Chuck episode, I managed to find them locally at a CVS. (Specificallly, at the CVS in Burtonsville at the corner of 29 and 198)

Marcus Carr

01-30-09, 03:11 AM

FYI, my nearest CVS didn't have them, so it's not all locations.

rustycruiser

01-30-09, 11:29 AM

FYI, my nearest CVS didn't have them, so it's not all locations.

They weren't very visible or displayed well at all, or even in the drinks aisle in the CVS I went to. Just a blue box with the glasses in flat sheets in it. The box did have Chuck on the front of it. I walked by it once before noticing it on a second trip by.

Marcus Carr

01-30-09, 12:05 PM

I searched the store thoroughly. They are only available in select CVS stores. I'm going to try K-Mart today. According to the 800 number they should be available at Target tomorrow.

afiggatt

01-30-09, 12:16 PM

My local Bloom grocery store (in north part of Sterling VA) has a stand with the 3D glasses. The stand was off in the bakery section. So some Bloom stores may have them. But the stand is easy to overlook.

systems2000

01-30-09, 12:43 PM

Which would also be Food Lion, to those who have them.

nottenst

01-30-09, 01:05 PM

The Chuck website (http://www.nbc.com/Chuck/about/news/?nlcid=nb|StudioPass|013009|) has a list of stores Intel has produced over 125 million pairs of the 3D glasses, which are being distributed by PepsiCo through the SoBe Lifewater brand. The glasses are available at 25,000 SoBe Lifewater retail displays and are FREE to consumers. Some of the retail locations include:

Kroger
Ralph's
Frys
Safeway/Vons
Supervalu
Food Lion
A & P
Pathmark
Coburns
Fresh Brands
Hy Vee
Nash Finch
Roundy's
Winn Dixie
K-Mart
Dollar General
Hess (select stores)
CVS (select geographies)
Meijer (on 1/31)
Target (on 1/31) I'll probably be trying Safeway and Target this weekend.

markbulla

01-30-09, 05:31 PM

From Washingtonpost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012904496.html

.

aaronwt

01-30-09, 05:37 PM

From Washingtonpost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012904496.html

.

Darn it!!
I wish they knew what they were doing. If people weren't confused before the will be now that some channels will switch and some won't. And with some of the converter boxes you will have to do a rescan every time that there are changes.

At least if they switched at the same time, you could do one rescan and be done with it.

what's going to hapen in the DC area with the stations? i really don't feel like going to half a dozen houses just so I can get a picture for my family and friends when there are changes. If they all decide to switch on the delayed date, i'll only need to do it once. but if they switch on different dates I'll have to do it multiple times which will be a PITA.

nottenst

01-30-09, 05:55 PM

On the way home I stopped off at Shoppers Food Warehouse and they had a display by one of the entrances with the Chuck 3D glasses.

markbulla

01-30-09, 06:19 PM

<snip>

what's going to hapen in the DC area with the stations? <snip>

I know that both WNUV CW Baltimore and WBFF Fox 45 are both planning on shutting down on February 17, 2009 at 11:59 PM. We have announcements on both channels to that effect.

:

ACW112983

01-30-09, 07:24 PM

Anyone know when/if we in Arlington will get Spike HD?

Marcus Carr

01-30-09, 07:34 PM

No glasses at the local K-Mart.

GregAnnapolis

01-30-09, 08:30 PM

fmsjr

01-30-09, 09:02 PM

There were glasses at the Giant (grocery store) in the Festival Plaza off Riva Rd in Annapolis, near the front of the store (kinda near the registers). As rustycruiser said, "Just a blue box with the glasses in flat sheets in it." I spotted it completely by accident; this was about a week ago.

Weis in Glen Burnie/Pasadena had the display near the back... plenty of glasses. Possibly the Laurel stores, if they are still open.

URFloorMatt

01-31-09, 04:13 AM

WTTG-DT Fox 5 has shown Raymond in HD. I've noticed it a number of times channel surfing. But I've seen it in SD sometimes as well. WTTG-DT appears to be erratic on whether they show Raymond in HD. Looking it up, Two and a Half Men started on CBS in 2003. Since it is on CBS, undoubtedly in HD from the start with that date. Might be that WDCA 20 missed the HD feed and had to fall back to the SD feed. HD syndication is still hit or miss.

Some of the posts in the HDTV Programming forum have suggested that most of the HD feeds for syndication are only sent over the satellite once rather than twice, so if you screw it up (or miss it entirely) you don't get an HD feed for the day.

afiggatt

01-31-09, 10:44 AM

I know that both WNUV CW Baltimore and WBFF Fox 45 are both planning on shutting down on February 17, 2009 at 11:59 PM. We have announcements on both channels to that effect.
So far, no other stations in DC and Baltimore markets have filed to shut down on or before Feb. 17. Well, except for WNVC MHz 56 which has been dark since September and WNVT-DT MHz 30 which turned off it's analog in 2003. There are a large number of PBS stations among those who have already shut down or recently filed that they will do on Feb. 17. The reason given by most of the PBS stations or the state wide public station corporations is they did not budget for operating analog past Feb. 17 and don't have the funds on hand.

The odds are very good that Congress will enact a postponement of the final analog shutdown day to June 12, but allow stations to shut off analog before then. So far, in our markets, no word from MPT, WETA PBS 26, or WHUT PBS 32 on whether they will keep operating past Feb. 17. Wonder if MPT would keep the flag ship WMPT-TV 22 on the air, but shut down most of the other analog MPT stations. WHUT-TV 32 has a 5000 kW analog broadcast which must run up a hefty electric bill to operate. WETA-TV 26 is blocking WHAG-DT 25 from firing up a full power digital broadcast on UHF 26.

Among the commercial stations, I would think that NBC owned WRC 4 and Fox owned WTTG 5 & WDCA My 20 are almost certain to keep their analog until the end. Their analog is not blocking anyone and all they have to do is turn it off. WJLA ABC 7 and WUSA 9 are flash cutting back to their analog channel, so depends on if they want to go ahead and get it done. WUSA has the complication of turning over their UHF 34 broadcast to WPXW Ion 66 who might want to take it on Feb. 18.

In Baltimore, WBAL 11 is flash cutting to 11, but at a weak power. They may opt to keep analog going until the end. CBS owned WJZ 13 and Scripps owned WMAR 2 are doing a joint antenna and transmitter shuffle so they will have to work out together what they want to do. That leaves Fox owned WUTB 24 which is blocking WNVC-DT 56 from going on the air. Question is whether Fox would give a public station a break and shut down WUTB-TV 24 on Feb. 17 or not.