Tim,

I have no inside knowledge on this and that's why I pointed out that there are two sides to every story.

But if you put a gun to my head and said I have to pick one party or other to blame, I'd have to pick Charter -- but only because I'm staunchly opposed to violence directed against my own person. ;)

But seriously, I think it's highly doubtful that FSMW is doing "a Sinclair" and trying to hold up Charter for a big per-subscriber charge. I would think that FOX Sports recognizes that the name of the game for new HD services is exposure, not dollars, at least at this stage of the game.

On the other hand, there's a ton of evidence that when it comes to HD services, Charter doesn't assign those projects a high (or even medium) priority. Note that this all reflects my opinion, though as always it's an opinion derived from the available evidence.

And if I'm wrong about Charter and its unrequited love for HD, let them come forward and put the record straight.

I just purchased the 2nd HD set for the house. A small 30" Sony.

I called Charter to see about upgrading from the digital receiver to the HD receiver for that set. Seems that the only HD receiver is the MOXI box. As I have seen for myself how bad the analog channels are I decided to postpone my upgrade until the system is moved to digital. The CSR assured me it would be in May. After probing a little more I found out that by the middle of May the system would be all digital so that's when I would make my move.

After doing a bunch of research I have decided that Charter has until the end of summer to get their act together in terms of HD programming. My expectations are pretty simple I suppose, ABC, ESPN2 and Discovery are musts in terms of HD programming. Adding TNT would be nice, but by the end of the summer basketball will be over so I won't care so much about TNT in HD. If Charter doesn't have their act together I will be moving my system to DirecTV as soon as Direct has all their HD pieces together for their new satellite offerings.

I really have to wonder why it is that Charter struggles so much with their support and offerings. Keeping CSR's up to speed on what Charter is doing and timelines just can't be that hard. Also publishing what they're doing to the subscriber base just can't be that hard. I was hopeful the new CEO would fix this as it was his top priority (according to an interview in the Post). Seems to me that the culture of Charter, at least in St. Louis, is bad and that needs to be fixed from the top down.

My 2 cents.

Charter is saying that the only HD receiver available is MOXI?

So, if I wanted a second HD receiver, I would be forced to go with MOXI?

I guess thats a way to force the MOXI on people, and make them pay the extra fees that go along with it (along with the bugs that many people report, although many also really like it, to be fair).

Originally posted by dpharvey
I just purchased the 2nd HD set for the house. A small 30" Sony.

I called Charter to see about upgrading from the digital receiver to the HD receiver for that set. Seems that the only HD receiver is the MOXI box. As I have seen for myself how bad the analog channels are I decided to postpone my upgrade until the system is moved to digital. The CSR assured me it would be in May. After probing a little more I found out that by the middle of May the system would be all digital so that's when I would make my move.


The analog PQ is horrible on 16:9 big screens cause of no native passthrough. I have a MOXI on my 55" and see the quality issues. I also have a MOXI on my 27" Sony, there is no problem and the PQ is as good if not better than the 19" tvs the kids have.

Rich

dpharvey,

I like your thinking and the idea that Charter should meet some minimum requirements to get/keep your business. I'd like to see more Charter customers do this, because it's the only way to cause things to change.

On the other hand, if you are serious about them having ABC and ESPN2 in HD by the end of summer, I'd suggest that you "dispense with the suspense" and just make the jump to another provider.

While ESPN-2 is probably a long shot, I think ABC, because of the Sinclair fee requirements, is even longer odds.

And there's only one way to describe the prospect of Charter adding both ESPN2 and KDNL in that timeframe -- UNPRECEDENTED!

Originally posted by dpharvey
I just purchased the 2nd HD set for the house. A small 30" Sony.

I called Charter to see about upgrading from the digital receiver to the HD receiver for that set. Seems that the only HD receiver is the MOXI box.
My 2 cents.

That is absolutely wrong information. Charter still offers the Motorola 5100 HD box. In fact, 2 weeks ago I did the exact same receiver upgrade that you are wanting to do now.

Call again and ask for it by make/model number.

I checked parts of the HD broadcast of The OC last night and did not have any issues with the signal. I'm using a Sony HD-200 DirecTV receiver and view OTA. I did not check the national feed on channel 88. I never did have to reboot my system, but I have in the past for other issues and suggest you try it (just as Doug has suggested).

I'm suspecting the problems many people are having with KTVI-DT might be related to the PSIP data being sent out by the station. My HD Tivo and HTL-HD receivers are experiencing no problems with that channel... but they get their guide info from DirecTV's "Advanced Program Guide" feature, not from the station's PSIP (even the OTA locals on newer *D HD receivers get their data from the *D APG).

On another topic, while not really a "local" issue this is an HD issue. A federal appeals court has just struck down the FCC's "broadcast flag" rule that was supposed to take effect July 1.

http://news.com.com/Court+says+FCCs+broadcast+flag+is+toast/2100-1030_3-5697719.html

The court didn't say the flag is illegal in and of itself. It simply said the FCC did not have the jurisdiction to impose it without being directed by Congress to do so.

As for what happens next on that front, I predict the studios will start lobbying Congress to fix what they no doubt consider an "oversight" above.

Robert,

I agree that's a possible next step, but as someone pointed out over at the HDTV Tips List today, with the likelihood that Congress is eventually going to have to weigh in on the end of NTSC broadcasting, their appetite for restricting consumer choice in time-shifting and archiving may be even more constrained than it has been in the past.

Whether it's true or not, conventional wisdom on TV-oriented legislation is to proceed with great caution -- "opiate of the masses" and all that.

Congress would like to hide in the skirt of the FCC, but that's looking to be less and less an option on issues such as the digital transition, media concentration and stricter copyright protections.

Here's the "broadcast flag" summary that appears in today Evening Bridge market wrap-up, including official comment from both the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association:

______________________________

TOP STORY - A federal appeals court killed the so-called "broadcast flag," part of a mandate from the Federal Communications Commission that aims to protect digital content from piracy.

In response, National Association of Broadcasters CEO Eddie Fritts said, ""Without a broadcast flag, consumers may lose access to the very best programming offered on local television. This remedy is designed to protect against unauthorized indiscriminate redistribution of programming over the Internet."

Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro said, "Courts are right to be wary when government institutions seek to regulate the specific features and functions of safe, useful consumer technology."

Observers expect a Supreme Court challenge next for the anti-copying rules.
______________________________

And further predictable comment from Dan Glickman of the Motion Picture Association of America:
____________________

"This is a disappointing decision and could create a digital television divide by slowing or eliminating access to high quality digital programming for some consumers."
____________________


OK -- here's what I don't get. How can the MPAA claim with a straight face that content owners are being harmed by consumer copying (or for that matter outright piracy)?

There are no hard facts to support those claims.

For example, every existing episode of "Seinfeld" (or "Friends") has probably been shown in every local market in the country a few hundred times each. They've each likewise been time-shifted, archived, burned to DVD, and **********ed around the world several billion times more.

So, considering all that, why in the world would the company that owns the "Seinfeld" or "Friends" content even consider going to the trouble to issue DVDs of these series? Based on the MPAA's line of thinking, there's no way in the world they could sell a single copy, much less the millions that have shipped so far.

It's amazing to me that this massive disconnect between marketplace reality and MPAA propaganda goes unmentioned and unchallenged by the media and by lawmakers whenever this "the sky is falling" rhetoric is trotted out by the MPAA and NAB.

dpharvey,

Welcome to our local forum. Charter can be frustrating for folks like us who are willing to pay for better HD offerings. Their management situation is a mystery. At the current stock price (dirt) they could be a very good buy?

The risk taking investor in me says go for it, but the HD loving Charter skeptic in me says "switch to Dish" and don't buy the stock. They have the VOOM stuff and the bandwidth.

Again, welcome to the local forum.

Did anyone else hear one of the Cardinals announcers say that they would have High def broadcasts on FSN Midwest starting May 20th? Did I dream it? That would be an away game in Kansas City on a friday night. I wasn't watching through the DVR so I couldn't back it up and listen. Today I will.

PWSHER,,

I didn't hear it, but will try to confirm it with our contact at FSMW on Monday.

But by all means update everyone here if you hear again or get independent confirmation...

CBS weighs in on the court ruling that strikes down the broadcast flag:

"We are disappointed in the ruling and we intend to do everything we can to protect our content so that in the new digital era viewers can continue to enjoy the same high quality over the air broadcast programming they have today."

Note that the underlying assumption in this statement is that CBS believes that most viewers are so stupid that they will think the broadcast flag is for our protection and benefit.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Bite me, NAB.

I can't remember where I read it, but way back when the broadcast flag was an idea whose time was just about to come, CBS was saying if the broadcast flag wasn't implemented, they would cease all their HD broadcasting. Don't know if they were serious or just bluffing. Maybe now we're about to find out?

Originally posted by PWSHER
Did anyone else hear one of the Cardinals announcers say that they would have High def broadcasts on FSN Midwest starting May 20th? Did I dream it? That would be an away game in Kansas City on a friday night. I wasn't watching through the DVR so I couldn't back it up and listen. Today I will.

Nevermind...I heard the promo again today. It was saying that FOX Saturday Game of the Week would start on May21 in High def.

Here's a link to an archived story that reports the CBS threat, back in 2002:

http://ultimateavmag.com/news/11450/

FWIW, I think CBS has a tougher time making good on this threat now. For one, I think the plausibility of withdrawing from HD broadcasting becomes more difficult as the HDTV audience grows. Also, I think an HD shutdown requires a united front from broadcasters, which seems even less likely with FOX and DirecTV owned by News Corp and the WB and Time-Warner cable owned by Time-Warner.

As we saw in several of the quarterly results reports, the distribution side (cable/sat) is clearly benefitting from HD broadcasting and DVR-based products, so they have a major stake in keeping the HD programming flowing.

Is anyone still having problems with fox? I get audio and no picutre with my ati hdtv card.

Originally posted by miggystl
Is anyone still having problems with fox? I get audio and no picutre with my ati hdtv card.

I can only get vid\audio when I go to 4-1 then channel down to 2-1. I cannot got directly to 2-1 (which is useless when trying to record something).

I wish someone knew what was going on.

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
CBS weighs in on the court ruling that strikes down the broadcast flag:

Note that the underlying assumption in this statement is that CBS believes that most viewers are so stupid that they will think the broadcast flag is for our protection and benefit.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Bite me, NAB.

<rant on>
I couldn't agree more. Simply put - the broadcast flag requirement adds additional cost to each HD component, and it prevents the whole point of the advances in technology for time-shifting and mobility of content.
<rant off>

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
CBS weighs in on the court ruling that strikes down the broadcast flag:

"We are disappointed in the ruling and we intend to do everything we can to protect our content so that in the new digital era viewers can continue to enjoy the same high quality over the air broadcast programming they have today."

Note that the underlying assumption in this statement is that CBS believes that most viewers are so stupid that they will think the broadcast flag is for our protection and benefit.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Bite me, NAB.

Good point, Doug. And to add to something you said earlier, the disconnect between what consumers want and what content providers want to give them is huge. It demonstrates once again that the movie studios don't even recognize what is in THEIR own best interests, much less ours. If they had had their way, the VCR (which they argued would harm their industry) would have been illegal. As it worked out, the VCR may well have saved several movie studios from their own blunders.

The paranoid and Draconian measures taken by the movie studios over the last few years have sucked much of the joy out of this transition to digital video for me. They have preventing me from doing the simple things that I was able to do with the VCR during the last quarter century.

Right now, I'm finally able to do those things again, because of things like the R5000 modification to my Dish 6000, and MyHD for recording over the air broadcasts. But, the R5000 mod is a computer hack, and the MyHD and things like it may be outlawed by the broadcast flag. I know that the FCC has been slapped on the wrist for exceeding its authority, but that doesn't mean that the movie industry is going to give up. The battle is not over.

I watch more TV since I have the ability to record, timeshift, archive and skip through commercials. If the industry succeeds in making it so much more difficult to watch TV the way I want (and they take away once again what I have just regained), I will watch less.

In the end, they will succeed only in making viewers more unhappy and in driving them away. Just as they demonstrated with their short-sightedness over the VCR, the industry doesn't know what people want, and their lack of vision may well do to the industry what they claim file sharing and lack of copy protection will.

Go Cardinals!!!

Doug,

I'm just shaking my head on this one. Really, really clueless IMO.

Cheers,

Speaking of the Cardinals, has anyone else noticed that the last regular season game at Busch Stadium II will be on channel 11 and is not listed as being in HD?

http://wb11tv.trb.com/sports/baseball/kplr-cards-05sched.story

It is odd though that the game the day before on Saturday 10/1 is listed as High-Def. A lot of the HD showings are both games of various weekend series:

Houston 4/22 and 4/23
Pittsburgh 6/25 and 6/26
Houston 7/16 and 7/17
Houston 9/3 and 9/4


The only stand-alones were the home opener, a 7/3 game vs Colorado and the next to last game at Busch II on 10/1 vs. the Reds.

Maybe KPLR is not listing it as HD since ESPN could still take the game, change the starting time and end up showing it in HD.

As I promised, here's a report on my recent install of the DISH 942 dvr:

I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from the local installer about the 942. These guys fixed me up with Voom, and offered to switch me to DISH when Voom went under. I had read that the install would be free, and I could get a free dvr as well. However, I was told there was an upgrade fee of $200 to get the new 942 HD PVR. This was different from the $250 that I saw everywhere else on the net. I was prepared for a bit of a wait, as the units are rolled out slowly, and others here had to wait a couple of weeks or so. To my surprise, after about 6 days of waiting, I got a call saying that a 942 was available and they could come out the next day for an install. That was last Friday.

Now, it seems that I did get some bad info from the installers. The upgrade fee is in fact $250, not $200. That's just sloppy business. And they did not make it clear that I would have to pay $49 at the time of the install, and it would appear as a $49 credit on my first bill. Once again, sloppy. I expected to plop down $200, but was asked for $300 instead. I do get the HD Pak for 6 months free. I had to pry info out of them about what channels package they hooked up for me. It turned out to be the Top 120 Pak, which I wasn't asked about at any time. I'll probably wind up downgrading. The installers told me that I could just sign up for hd channels if I wanted to. That turned out to be a lie. I minimum sub. is required to get the HD Pak, and I needed to sign up for a year.

I was also confused about how they handled my 61.5 dish location from my Voom days. They knew that I would be wanting all my locals, as well as the 10 Voom channels on the 942. However, all they did was take down my Voom dish aimed at 61.5, put up a new dish aimed at the other DISH sats, and use my Voom wires to connect the new lnb. Now, I have no dish pointed at 61.5 at all. That's crazy!! What they should have done was use the 61.5 Voom dish, put up a new 61.5 dish on that same pole, or maybe just replace the lnb on the Voom dish. After that, pop up a new dish aimed at the other DISH sats. I am left without all my locals, and no way to get anything from the 61.5 location. When I asked about it, the guys simply said that I would have to call DISH and get them to come out and install a 61.5 dish, and the proper multi switch, which they did not have. I thought that my installers would put up everything I needed, but not so. Hopefully, I can get the new dish put up free, but it's going to take more calls, and more time.

The 942 is quite an elegant device, being fairly large but simple in appearance. Only one side has air vents(it runs kind of hot), but I love the fact that it's missing that huge ugly LED digital readout that the Moxi box has. That thing can light a dark room, killing your contrast. Just a few small leds indicate what mode the 942 is in, and recording status. Aside from the fairly quiet clicking of the hard drive, the unit is almost silent while operating. The Moxi's fan is much louder. I love the fact that I now have 250g of HD recording space. Wonderful. Actually, I have an additional 80g with my Moxi. Bob explained that I only have one OTA tuner in the 942, but 2 sat. tuners. This means that I can't record 2 OTA shows that are on at the same time but different channels, but I can record 2 sat channels at once. Bob's HD Tivo does have 2 OTA tuners and 2 sat tuners, which is way cool. Still, my Moxi gives me the second OTA tuner for recording.

The installers told me that I could only watch one high rez output at a time, meaning that the hdmi output shuts off when component is connected, and vice versa. I found this to be quite untrue. The 942 will put out component and hdmi at the same time. So I can feed my pj a digital signal, and run component to my second theater room at the same time, or feed component into my dvd recorder. Yes, the component output allows 480i and eveything else you might expect up to 1080i. That's cool. Strangely, there is no svideo output at all, just one set of SD audio/video outs(for tv2). Fiber optic digital out is offered, not coaxial. I was really impressed to see that I was not only provided with an hdmi to dvi adapter, but an hdmi to dvi cable as well. Now that's going over and beyond the call of duty.

Two remotes are provided, and they are identical except for the color coded numbers 1and 2 at the bottom(for tv1 or tv2). There's no backlighting, but the buttons are laid out pretty well. I might have wished for the dvr FF and RWD buttons to be closer, but that's ok. The 942 menus are clear and easy to use. Setup was a snap. I'm offered a lot more recording options than Moxi, though I'm still learning all the ins and outs. It's a simple pleasure, but Moxi doesn't allow me to know how much HD and SD recording time is left on the hard drive. The 942 shows this very nicely.

I must say that the HD picture quality has been stunning. The 942's component outputs easily surpass every hd stb I have, except maybe my Sammy T165 OTA tuner, which it equals. And I was surprised to find that the hdmi output didn't present a noticeable improvement, while I saw a marked improvement on dvi over component on every other hd stb I have. I can see a bit of red push on component, but I blame the calibration of my pj. This can be fixed. Also, the sound of the 942 is better than my other hd stbs. I'm getting a much more pronounced 5.1 soundfield, and the signal is a bit hotter, giving me louder volume at lower settings on my receiver. Watching the same material on the 942 that I've seen on other boxes yields new information in the front and rear channels. The rears are especially active now.

So, there you have it for now. I'll make other comments as I get use to the unit.

Jedi,
Thanks for the 942 review. I have the 921 and love everything about it but the SW glitches that cause Zero Second Recordings. IF you happen to get one of these little buggers... DO NOT try to watch it. Just select and delete else you take a chance of wiping out ALL your recordings. I don't know if this is just a 921 issue or if the 942 has the same problems (from what I understand they are actually different OS platforms)

You can hop over to dbstalk.com and find the 921/942 support forums. That will give some insight into problems end users are having.

Welcome to E*. Now lets get some more HD (FSMW-HD Please!!!)

Dave

Hi-Def DVD Unity Talks Leaning toward Blu-Ray

The folllowing is an excerpt from a Reuters newswire story:
___________________________

TOKYO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Talks between Japan's Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. to unify next-generation DVD formats are leaning toward a disc structure supported by Sony, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

Sony and Toshiba, heading rival groups, have waged a three-year war to have their new technology standards adopted by the industry and gain pole position in the multi-billion-dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.

But the companies said last month they were in talks to develop a common standard, in a move to avoid VHS/Betamax-like dual formats that could discourage consumers from shifting to advanced discs and stifle the industry's growth.

Sony's Blu-ray technology is backed by a group including Dell Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Philips Electronics NV and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., maker of Panasonic products.

The source said a unified format based on Blu-ray's disc structure was being discussed in the talks, held between Sony, Toshiba and Matsushita.

He added, however, it was unclear whether and when the two sides would reach a final agreement on a common format.

The Nihon Keizai newspaper said earlier that Sony and Toshiba were in final talks eyeing a new format based on Blu-ray's disc structure and Toshiba's software for efficient data transfer and copyright protection.

In Blu-ray, a layer to hold data is put on the surface of a substrate and covered by thin protective layers, while in HD DVD discs, which are supported by Toshiba, a memory layer is sandwiched between two substrates.

The two sides agree that it would be best for consumers to have a common format, but shifting to a rival standard could mean a delay in product development and the commercial launch, making unification difficult.

Toshiba, which supports HD DVD technology along with NEC Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., said in a statement nothing had been decided on the unified format.
___________________________

Full story can be found here:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=8434775

I looked at my upcoming Charter bill online and in the sections where they post news and info there is no mention of any new channels Hi-Def or otherwise, nor any mention of going all digital. Since Charter usually likes to toot their own horn I would imagine the we are still a couple of months away. On that note SBC is offering promos for complete home packages including DSL(which I have with them) Dish and phone service for less than $100 a month, my only problem with switching is losing the Moxi box, I really don't have the cash now with the second baby on the way to purchase a dish DVR that records HD. I am very addicted to the DVR right now.

Charter get it together, you are so close but yet so far away.

Charter subs like me are missing out on a tremendous amount of HD programming from Discovery, Universal, TNT, Espn (2), INHD, VOOM, Cinemax, Starz, and ABC.

And what about the new HD channels coming like from the Outdoor Channel, HGTV, Food Network, etc?

The future looks bleak, at least as Charter is concerned.

Jedi,

Welcome to Dish and thanks for the review of the 942...I'm thinking of getting one as well.

As far as a second dish to point at 61.5 - UPN is inlcuded in the local channel package. So if you would like to get the Voom channels and do not want to pay the 100 dollars to get the second dish installed, call and tell them you want the second Dish to get UPN. They will install the second dish for free. Then, after it is hooked up, call and activate the Voom channels.

- Good luck

FWIW, for anyone considering a switch to DISH it might be best to contract directly with DISH Network, rather than via SBC and their bundled service deals.

As noted in the recent DISH earnings report posted here last week, DISH is expecting SBC to "de-emphasize" DISH sales going forward. That might explain why they're not up to speed on the VOOM packages and how to add them.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5585188#post5585188

SBC's move away from DISH is probably in large part due to the fact that SBC is seriously looking to provide cable TV-type services over its own data networks soon, assuming they can reach deals with programmers and local licensing authorities. There's actually some debate if local governments would have the power to grant/withhold franchises for pay television delivered over telco networks. That should be interesting to watch.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the SBC-DISH link-up isn't much more than a year old. Why is it that telephone companies such as SBC possess an attention span that's only slightly longer than the half-life of a fruit fly?

Cable needs local competition in the worst way, and the best we can do is the telecos?

Doug...that hurt...shot right at SBC....
Yes, SBC is exploring IPTV, but it's in its early stages. We are trying to expand our fiber network so we can offer the best products developed at the most competitive price. (Sounds like a commercial...) However, if you have SBC phone service, Cingular/AT &T Wireless, DSL, and Dish (or any combination thereof,) you might as well have them through SBC to get the bundle discounts and only 1 bill. This Dish instance is the first (and hopefully last) instance where a customer cannot get the same service through SBC as they can through the parent company.

Ferl - I haven't tried to add the Voom channels as of yet for a few reasons.
- I'm not sure I want the content on those channels. (I'd prolly be more apt to add HBO or showtime. Plus I'm saving for another major purchase.)
- I' don't really want a second dish on my home.
- And yes, SBC Dish network has been slow to add the channels.

djearl81,

Sorry. I hope you understand I wasn't aiming that directly at you, but just for the record I wanted to say that there was no personal offense intended. In fact, I wasn't aware (or forgot) that you were an SBC employee.

I understand, because I wouldn't necessarily want to be judged solely on the merits of the companies whose pay cheques I've cashed in the past either. :)

But I do think Charter and SBC are fair game for comment here, both positive and negative. And in that spirit, I don't understand how the convenience of getting just one bill should outweigh the fact that SBC customers apparently aren't getting the same access to DISH services as other non-SBC DISH customers.

Is this going to be addressed?

From my understanding in talking with some SBC Employees, locally they
are not going to upgrade their fibre network to existing houses, but rather
only to new construction so for those of us that drink the SBC koolaid at
home, you will probably always need some type of satellite/cable vendor.

I was kind of disappointed because I like getting new technology like the
Fibre solution.

In our discussion, the only planned area that the person knew about
was the New Town development in St. Charles.

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
Hi-Def DVD Unity Talks Leaning toward Blu-Ray

The folllowing is an excerpt from a Reuters newswire story:
___________________________

TOKYO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Talks between Japan's Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. to unify next-generation DVD formats are leaning toward a disc structure supported by Sony, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

Sony and Toshiba, heading rival groups, have waged a three-year war to have their new technology standards adopted by the industry and gain pole position in the multi-billion-dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.

But the companies said last month they were in talks to develop a common standard, in a move to avoid VHS/Betamax-like dual formats that could discourage consumers from shifting to advanced discs and stifle the industry's growth.

Sony's Blu-ray technology is backed by a group including Dell Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Philips Electronics NV and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., maker of Panasonic products.

The source said a unified format based on Blu-ray's disc structure was being discussed in the talks, held between Sony, Toshiba and Matsushita.

He added, however, it was unclear whether and when the two sides would reach a final agreement on a common format.

The Nihon Keizai newspaper said earlier that Sony and Toshiba were in final talks eyeing a new format based on Blu-ray's disc structure and Toshiba's software for efficient data transfer and copyright protection.

In Blu-ray, a layer to hold data is put on the surface of a substrate and covered by thin protective layers, while in HD DVD discs, which are supported by Toshiba, a memory layer is sandwiched between two substrates.

The two sides agree that it would be best for consumers to have a common format, but shifting to a rival standard could mean a delay in product development and the commercial launch, making unification difficult.

Toshiba, which supports HD DVD technology along with NEC Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., said in a statement nothing had been decided on the unified format.
___________________________

Full story can be found here:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=8434775

Thank goodness. I bought my first "regular" DVD player just a few weeks after it's rollout so I'm obviously an early adopter. But if there's two formats I will not buy for a long while.

It's cool Doug. I didn't take any offense. No worries :)

I too wish my company would have handled the Voom channels and Dish partnership with more professionalism, tact, and thought for customers. I do believe that SBC dish network is just a little behind, but I'm not in a spot to say for sure.

As far as the Fiber expansion, or Project Lightspeed as SBC calls it, the goal is to update the entire network. All homes are in the 13 state service area are scheduled to have either DSL or Fiber available by 2007. It's all part of a master plan called U-verse. (Which is really really cool.)

Your phone/cell phone can be your remote control, your remote control can be your mouse... Basically, all SBC services will be interweaved and able to work in conjunction. I wish I could give you guys more details, but company policies forbid.

is it just me, or is Fox Sports showing up on your Charter HD list? On my Moxi list, Fox Sports is listed with the other channels now, but it just takes you to the analog channel 37.

I was in another room when I heard it, but I did hear Joe Buck plugging FSMW HD during tonights Cardinal's game.

Thanks for all the "welcome to DISH" messages. I will in fact call DISH this week about that second 61.5 install. It would be nice to be offered something like what I saw on an ad today. New DISH customers are being offered over 130 additional channels(above the 60 channels for 31.99/mo), plus MAX, HBO and STARZ...all free for the next 3 months. This is in addition to the free dvrs and free HD Pak for 6 months. That deal would give me HBO HD free for 3 months. I'll run it by them and see what they say. This special promotion runs til 5-31-05.

Kurt K,

In all likelihood what you heard was Joe Buck talking about the FOX Network's Saturday afternoon game of the week, which will be in HD this year.

First weekly game is set for May 21.

Do Cable/Sat Subscriber Numbers Really Add Up?

The following is from today's SkyREPORT E-News. This raises an interesting point and one that I was wondering about the last couple of weeks as all the quarterly results for cable and satellite were coming in.

As we know well locally, if some of these numbers are being exaggerated, it wouldn't be the first time a company bent the rules in how it reported subscriber gains and losses.

_______________________________________

Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research on cable and satellite TV subscriber numbers as of March 31:

"Once again, the results from cable and satellite have left us to ponder, where are all the subs coming from? The net sub growth posted by the satellite operators, less the net sub losses from the cable operators, would suggest that the multichannel market expanded by 800,000 subscribers in first quarter, for an annualized run rate of 3.6 percent growth, on a base of approximately 90 million multichannel subscribers.

That would be the most rapid market expansion in the past five years, a surprising - shocking - result given the maturity of the market."
_______________________________________

Interesting New York Times story here on the broadcast flag and some analysis of whether broadcasters will actually follow through on the threat of pulling back on HD programming.

Note that Mark Cuban of HDNet is an opponent of the broadcast flag...

Click here for NYT "Relish" Story (http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_RelishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782632642&path=!news!entertainment!television&s=1037645508994)

Jedi:

Sorry if I'm repeating this...

There are "must carry" channels on 61.5, so they have to set you up at 61.5 for free.

Cheers,

Originally posted by wmschultz
From my understanding in talking with some SBC Employees, locally they
are not going to upgrade their fibre network to existing houses, but rather
only to new construction so for those of us that drink the SBC koolaid at
home, you will probably always need some type of satellite/cable vendor.

I was kind of disappointed because I like getting new technology like the
Fibre solution.

In our discussion, the only planned area that the person knew about
was the New Town development in St. Charles.

Not sure who you were talking with, but Winghaven is a FTTx development. Fiber is all over the SBC part of Winghaven. Part of SBC's goal is to deploy FTTN (fiber to the node). FTTN will allow for the bandwidth needed to provide TV services and higher tiered DSL speeds. SBC is actively looking to deploy FTTN to the vast majority of its customers in the next year or so. FTTP (fiber to the premise) is another aspect that SBC is developing. Last I was told, it costs SBC around $250 per copper Network Interface Device (the thing that goes on your house for the copper lines to hook up to). From what I have been told by those in outside plant engineering, SBC has been able to acquire Fiber NIDs for $400 a piece. You might think why would you go with a more expensive product? Think of it this way. Copper lines are prone to more maintenence issues due to the physical environment. This costs more manpower. Fiber on the otherhand, isn't prone to the same problems that copper is. If there is a break in the copper sheath and it gets wet, this would short it out and cause an outage. You can't have a short with fiber.

To make this short, SBC will be deploying FTTx throughout its service territory and not just in affluent areas.

--edit --- Ok looks like you beat me to the punch djearl :) Don't forget to bring the DVD to work this weekend. I will be in on Fri.

Rich

Anyone else have digital blocking during American Idol last night?

-Hanjke

Just got done watching the Tonight Show for the first time in a few weeks.

I see KSDK is still pumping 2.0 sound with the 5.1 flag on (so we get nothing but left front and right front with nothing from the center and rears). But only during the program... commercials trip the 2.0 flag and sound fine.

Picture and sound dropped out a few times.... and they were late flipping the switch back to HD when coming back from SD commercials.

Maybe Fox is on to something, controlling the HD/SD switching from the network instead of letting the affiliates do it.

Has anyone heard anything on KTVI-DT 2-1? It still wont come in right...

"Maybe Fox is on to something, controlling the HD/SD switching from the network instead of letting the affiliates do it."

I can't understand why they wouldn't all do this. That way, there is one person who is controlling it all.

Charter Closes Thursday Trading Below $1.00 Level

According to prices listed in today's Evening Bridge, Charter Communications closed Thursday trading at 99 cents.

Charter's closing price was off 12 cents from Wednesday's close, representing a 10.8% decline in the value of the stock. Up until Thursday, the previous 52-week low for Charter was $1.05, and the 52-week high was $4.06.

I might be wrong, but I believe this is the first time Charter shares have traded or closed below a buck. The steep decline in Charter's stock price was partly related to an overall market drop.

However, there's also a new story on the Business Week web site that indicates that Charter's board of directors may sue chairman Paul Allen. It's not clear what impact, if any, the BW report had on Charter's stock price today.

The Dow Industrials Average closed Thursday down 111 points, roughly 1.1% down, largely due to a profit warning issued by Wal-Mart management.

The primary significance of Charter falling below the $1 level is that NASDAQ can call for the "delisting" of a company's stock from the NASDAQ exchange if the stock price remains below $1.00 for 30 consecutive days or more.

At this point, there's nothing to suggest that Charter is in imminent jeopardy of triggering a "delisting" notice, and there's every reason to think the stock price will rebound above a dollar when the overall market rises.

However, today's market close again highlights the fact that Charter's management has very limited room for maneuver in getting the company's finances and operations straightened out. If delisting were to actually happen, it would make the process of raising outside capital more expensive and more difficult.

Charter Board Considers Suit vs. Chairman Paul Allen

The following is an excerpt from a story that appears on the Business Week web site. A link appears below for access to the complete story:

__________________________________

More Knots in Paul Allen's Cable Tangle

The chairman of troubled Charter Communications may be sued by his board of directors over his stock holdings

He owns a cruise-liner-size yacht equipped with its own helicopter and mini-submarine. When he's not sailing to Alaska or the Mediterranean, he's flying his private jet to catch a game played by one of the sports teams he owns, the Portland Trail Blazers or the Seattle Seahawks. Clearly, billionaire Paul Allen enjoys his toys, but even the Microsoft (MSFT ) co-founder knows money doesn't always buy happiness -- especially when it comes to the cable-television business.

To call his $8 billion investment to create Charter Communications (CHTR ) six years ago a disaster is an understatement. That stake is now worth $423 million. Charter has been besieged by $19 billion in debt, a slew of subscriber defections to satellite, huge turnover of its senior executive ranks, and the taint of having to settle accounting issues with the Securities & Exchange Commission last summer. The 52-year-old Allen's original vision of a wired world, where couch potatoes would buy movies, shop, and pay bills with a click of their remotes, seems to be losing out to fast-moving Internet technologies.

DELAWARE BATTLE. But behind the scenes, Allen faces even further indignity. The Charter chairman, who owns 57% of the company's common shares and controls 93% of its votes, could end up getting sued in Delaware Chancery Court by his own board of directors. That's almost unheard of in Corporate America. "It would be like a child suing parents for an auto accident," says Charles Elson, a governance expert and management professor at the University of Delaware.

Allen and a three-member special committee of the board are clashing over whether Allen should be required to swap preferred shares, for which he paid nearly $700 million in 2003, for the equivalent of Charter common shares, worth roughly $28 million. An attempt at nonbinding arbitration fizzled last summer, failing to resolve the differences, reports the company in its financial filings.

The two sides have since decided to settle their fight in a Delaware court mediation, the filing adds. But if the stalemate continues, "the special committee intends to seek resolution of this dispute through judicial proceedings," according to the filing. A spokesman for Allen declined to comment. The three committee members, Larry Wangberg, David Merritt, and John Tory, didn't return phone calls.
__________________________________

The complete story can be found here (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2005/nf20050512_0129_db016.htm)

Originally posted by Robert Simandl
Just got done watching the Tonight Show for the first time in a few weeks.

I see KSDK is still pumping 2.0 sound with the 5.1 flag on (so we get nothing but left front and right front with nothing from the center and rears). But only during the program... commercials trip the 2.0 flag and sound fine.

Picture and sound dropped out a few times.... and they were late flipping the switch back to HD when coming back from SD commercials.

Maybe Fox is on to something, controlling the HD/SD switching from the network instead of letting the affiliates do it.

Is that what's going on??????? I've been driving Dish Network and myself crazy trying to identify the cause of this issue. I've been placing all the blame on their 811 DT receiver.

Let me get this right: Your Dolby Digital (DD) pilot light comes on and as soon as it does, the center channel goes DEAD and the Left and Right channels are way too loud in proportion to the music, audience, etc??? I've been experiencing this on numerous (not all) programs, mostly on Channels 4 and 5. But the last time I pinged this Forum everyone else stated they did NOT experience this problem. Not one person. The most consistent offender is the Leno show. When the DD light goes on the Center Channel goes dead....EVERY NIGHT.

Can anyone else confirm this? What Robert is stating makes all the sense in the world, but then EVEYONE else in town should be experiencing this same phenomenon. You must be decoding in DD. If you're using PCM or Dolby Prologic, the Center Channel may work fine. This is so obvious, I cannot believe others didn't notice it. That's the reason for my blaming the Dish receiver.

I look forward to hearing from the other members of this Forum.

I have the same issue with Leno. DD but no center channel. This is OTA or through Charter. Same result.

Rich

Moman,

It ain't just the center that goes dead when the DD indicator lights up, the rears go dead too. Nothing but left front and right front can be heard. For KSDK's local commercial cut-ins when the signal changes to 2.0, the center and rears come back. It's only when KSDK (tries to) broadcast DD 5.1 that the center and rears disappear. Leno is the only show where I experience this currently, but then Leno is the only show I currently watch on NBC.

But no, the problem is NOT your Dish 811 because I get this on my HD Tivo (and no doubt also on my HTL-HD in the basement but since the HTL-HD isn't hooked up to surround I can't verify that).

KMOV had a similar issue a year or two ago (and I b!tched about it constantly at the time).

I experience the same issues with DD on the Leno show. Lf & LR with no center channel and no surrounds. Like moman19 I also have the 811 receiver.

Is Leno broadcast in 5.1 or 2.0?

I don't normally watch the Tonight show, so I don't know. I'll try to check it out tonight and see what my gear says.

Cheers,

Very Interesting. Has anyone contacted KSDK? If one person writes or calls it's taken as a fluke. If two write, it may have some weight. If we all complain it may start a movement.

(Sounds like Alice's Restaurant)

Does anyone have direct Engineering contact info? The "contact us" link on their website is: dhummert@ksdk.com. I urge you to write.

Despite their repeated bumbling in "flipping the switch," I believe that KSDK has been responsive when contacted via the eMail addresses listed on the first page of this thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2995679#post2995679

If you didn't see it in the HDTV Programming section, D* is raising the price of NFL Sunday Ticket $20 for the "early bird special" - $219......plus they are charging an additional $99 for HD games! They are truly insane.

In regards to Charter selling for under a $1. I believe 2 years ago it was under a $1 for quite some time. My friend finally bought 2000 shares and
sold them when it got back up to $5 I think.

wmschultz,

Thanks for pointing that out. It looks like Charter was trading around a buck back in August 2002 through April 2003, but I've only been able to determine that via a 5-year weekly close chart, and from that I can't see if/when the price actually went below a buck and for how long.

Quote.com Chart (CHTR 5-year) (http://finance.lycos.com/qc/stocks/charts.aspx?__VIEWSTATE=dDwtMjU0NzEyNDU2Ozs%2B&chartform=form&symbols=NASDAQ%3ACHTR&compsyms=&SPR=5%3AY&SFR=W&submit1=Draw+chart&TIO1=&TIO2=&TIS1=1&TIS2=&TIO_1=&TIO_1_P1=&TIO_1_P2=&TIO_1_P3=&TIO_2=&TIO_2_P1=&TIO_2_P2=&TIO_2_P3=&TIS_1=&TIS_1_P1=&TIS_1_P2=&TIS_1_P3=&TIS_2=&TIS_2_P1=&TIS_2_P2=&TIS_2_P3=&CST_Display=1&CSZ=400%2C300&CGR=3&CST_Scale=1)

I'm guessing Charter wasn't under $1 for 30 consecutive days during that period, because NASDAQ would probably have at least filed a delist notice warning, and I haven't been able to find any evidence of that. Or maybe NASDAQ backed off the $1 requirement during the post-9/11 market slump.

As far as I know Charter isn't currently in compliance with NASDAQ's independent audit committee requirements, and could be delisted on those grounds, but it's also possible that this issue has been recently addressed.

FYI -- Charter closed at 95 cents today, down 4 cents from Thursday's close.

So Charter is supposedly coming on Sunday AM to install a Moxi. Has anyone ever had a sunday appointment before?

I experienced a very strange quirk the other night with my new DISH 942 PVR. I set up timers to record Alias and Lost off ABC OTA. The timers worked ok, even though I got lots of signal breakup during Alias. However, when I got home I fired up the pj and couldn't get ANY digital locals whatsoever!! All of them were gone, with messages saying that the signal had been lost, and the unit was trying to find them again. I hadn't powered down before I left, and certainly hadn't done a reset. I ran through the locals search several times and didn't pull up anything. I then checked my Sammy T165 OTA tuner, and it was still getting all my locals. This confirmed that the airport wasn't sending out something that was blocking all my locals(I live right next to the airport). Frustrated, I unplugged the 942 and waited for several minutes. When I turned it back on it found the main 110 and 119 sats again, and I ran the locals search again. This time, it searched slower, and found all 9 locals again. It's been a few days and the locals have held so far.

I've also noticed some strange overscan artifacts with the 942 on some channels. For instance, I might be watching a 4:3 show with pillar boxes on the sides, but I'll see a thin line of video information that goes all the way across the top of the screen, even the pillar bars. My pj has a feature that will hide the edges of the picture, but I hope that DISH addresses this with a software update or something. Also, I have seen this same kind of line going down the left side of a 4:3 image vertically, right next to the left pillar bar. Strange.

Well, it sounds like your 942 is as crazy as my 921. Try dbstalk.com to see just how quirky these things are. They are sort of like a hot rod. Not much for casual, but when they run right, they just scream!

Toshiba Negotiator Says Unifying HD DVD Formats Difficult

The following is an excerpt from a Reuters newswire report:

__________________________________

TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior official at Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said establishing a unified format for next-generation DVDs based on technology backed by Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) would be very difficult, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported on Monday.

Sony and Toshiba, heading rival groups, have waged a three-year war to have their new technology standards adopted by the industry and gain pole position in the multi-billion-dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.

"(Unifying the formats based on Sony technology) would be extremely difficult at this stage," the newspaper quoted Yoshihide Fujii, Toshiba's top negotiator, as saying about ongoing talks between the two camps.

The comment follows a weekend of negotiations between officials at Toshiba, which backs a new DVD technology called HD-DVD, and officials from Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which support a rival technology known as Blu-ray.

A Toshiba spokeswoman said the company could not immediately verify Fujii's comments. She also said Toshiba planned to continue negotiating with the rival camp for a unified format.

Blu-ray technology is backed by several other high-tech companies including Dell Inc. (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Philips Electronics NV (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research).

The negotiations have been leaning toward unifying the formats based on a disc structure supported by the Blu-ray camp, according to a source close to the matter.
__________________________________

The full story can be found here (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-05-16T083202Z_01_T215015_RTRIDST_0_TECH-TECH-JAPAN-TOSHIBA-DC.XML)

Jedi -

From what I understand, the pixelated line or 2 at the top of the screen is actually the close caption information. Most TV's overscan some of the image automatically....so you don't see the dancing grey pixels. If your watching a 4:3 standard definition program, it's close captioning info for sure. If it shows up during an HD show, I'm not sure what it is, perhaps Doug could shine a light or two.

What projector are you using? (The infocus SP4805?)
If you have the 4805 and upgraded the firmware, the line on the left side of the image is a known bug, many 4805 users have reverted back to the original firmware because of this.

- Just trying to help.

For those of you not following the DirecTV price increase for NFL ST Thread,
CPanther95 is no longer a moderator....... Sux for the locals section!

djearl81,
Well, the line I'm seeing is not the usual pixellated stuff we might see at the top. Let's say that I'm watching a 4:3 image of a green meadow or something. The line that stretches across the entire top of my widescreen is green, as if it were a line of video info that should be somewhere in my SD image. This green line isn't just a graphic either, because it has movement in it just like the picture does. And it changes color and texture when the picture changes. This line goes across the top of my pillar bars as well. Any idea what this is?

Doug,
I had quite a bit of trouble with reception on 30-1 last night. I setup my dvd burner to record Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, since I can make widescreen dvds of the 480i component signal. Before I left for work(early afternoon), I tuned my DISH 942 to 30-1, and got a picture that only gave me very brief dropouts every couple of minutes or so. Not the best, but better than what I'd been getting recently. Signal strength was changing from about 75 or 80 to zero during the dropouts. When I checked the recording, the signal had degraded to the point where you could not watch it during any of Desperate Housewives. However, at 14 minutes into Grey's Anatomy, the signal locked into a clear feed, reading at 85 or so. It remained this way for the rest of the evening. No more dropouts. Beautiful picture. Does this suggest that something changed at the station? I mean, the usual interference that I get from the airport environment would still be a factor. It wouldn't just stop at a certain time, right. I wasn't home to make any antenna changes when this happened. It's like someone flipped a switch and upped the broadcast power or something. Any guesses about what this was? Anybody else get a stronger signal from KDNL last night from 9:14pm on?

jedi,

Not sure what the explanation is for the strange line that you're seeing at the top of the image area on your projector. I think the starting place should be to determine if this is specific to the new DISH receiver, or if it also occurs with other HD receivers displaying SD images.

On KDNL's signal last night, I had no problems, so I don't have any idea if the signal strength was fluctuating or not. However, it sounds like your problem could be multipath. OK -- I know I blame a lot of these reception problems on multipath, but I think it's the likely culprit whenever you get intermittent break-ups one moment and then perfect reception later on.

For example, I'd been hoping that the OTA tuner in the HD-TiVo was going to eliminate my seasonal reception problems with KSDK-DT, but now that spring/summer is here, they're back, just as they occurred with my DTC-100 and the Hughes E-86.

Well, in fact, the problems seem to be reduced quite a lot from the older receivers, but I'm still getting breakups. Sometimes reception is perfect, sometimes it's just a few breakups every 10 minutes or so, and sometimes it's a big enough problem that it's impossible to watch the show.

FYI -- Charter closed today at 92 cents per share, down 3 cents (-2.16%) from Friday's close.

The stock also touched a new 52-week low today, when it traded at 91 cents.

MCE and Digital Channel 9

I have Media Center with an ATI HD card. I notice that the guide for MCE does not sync up with the actual HD broadcast via Channel 9's DT broadcast signal. Is there any way to correct this? Is SD for channel 9 NOT broadcast? This is annoying because I have no idea what interesting content will be broadcast on the digital channel.

carey,

KETC's 9-1 channel is actually the national PBS HD feed. There used to be an HD feed schedule on the PBS web site (www.pbs.org), but I think it may have been removed. It seems like a fair number of STBs and tuner cards assume that the primary PBS channel is going to broadcast whatever is appearing on the local PBS affilliate's SD channel, so that's probably the schedule that you're seeing.

FYI -- KETC in St. Louis broadcasts a primary HD channel (9-1) and two subchannels, one which is normally PBS Kids (9-2) and the other which is the SD broadcast (9-3).

Be aware that the KETC's HD picture quality is seriously compromised because of the two subchannels. The bits necessary for the subchannels are effectively stolen from the HD channel, resulting in soft HD images and frequent pixellation, especially when there is programming on the subchannels with lots of camera movement or non-static images.

I suppose we should be thankful that KETC is pumping out only two subchannels, because for a while last fall they were doing the HD feed plus three subchannels.

While two is better than three, it's not nearly enough to earn my thanks.

KDNL-30 has changed something in the feed, they broke the Samsung 360 again. The 360 is the hunk of junk D* sent to new HD subs last summer.

This happened before when the encoder changed. Every month or so they mess with the encoder, it works great for a while, then I get the "shutter" in the picture with the sound out-of-sync.

I wasn't going to mention it again since I have complained here before without any resolution from KDNL, but I read jedi35's post and thought I would mention my observations.

I havent had issues with 30-1, but 2-1 is still giving me problems (cant tune directly to the station, I have to go to 4-1 then channel down). This is getting really annoying.

Kinda disappointed that Hercules isn't in HD, just a 4x3 upconvert. There's no mention of this at all in the HD programming forum so I guess it was never supposed to be HD in the first place. :(

Doug,
Just following up to say that the line that sometimes appears at the top of my SD images happens only when I watch SD on my 942. All other devices show the usual white dashes or whatever, and only above the picture area, not the pillar bars. Whatever 30-1 did last night has improved my reception. I'm sorry that it killed things for others. I just checked, and I've got a solid signal with no dropouts. I'd love to see that 5.1 sound equipment get installed, since it's already inhouse.

Uh, oh... looks like KDNL might be disappearing from Dish Network at the end of the month. From this morning's SKYreport at http://www.skyreport.com


DISH, Sinclair Square Off on Retrans Deal

It appears EchoStar is in the middle of a retransmission consent negotiation that's going down to the wire, this time with Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Sinclair said an agreement with EchoStar that allows its stations to be carried by DISH Network is set to expire May 31. "Despite the good faith efforts of Sinclair to arrange for an extension of this agreement with EchoStar Communications, the owner of the DISH Network, we have been unable to reach an agreement to do so," the company said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The broadcaster added, "Although we continue to negotiate with EchoStar, there can be no assurance that these negotiations will be successful and if they are not, Sinclair stations will no longer be able to be viewed by DISH subscribers over their satellite service beginning on Wednesday, June 1."

In a statement, EchoStar said the Sinclair stations remain on DISH Network while the company continues "to negotiate in good faith a fair retransmission agreement." EchoStar would not offer further comment.

Sinclair said in its Web site statement that if DISH Network drops its stations they will still be available over-the-air and through cable as well as DirecTV. Sinclair and DirecTV recently concluded negotiations for an extension of their retransmission consent agreement.

Sinclair Broadcast Group owns and operates, programs or provides sales services for 61 television stations in 38 markets. The company said its television group reaches about 23 percent of U.S. television households and includes ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB, and UPN affiliates.

Key markets with Sinclair stations include Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Tampa, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Kansas City, Nashville, and St. Louis, among others.




The above refers to KDNL's SD feed on Dish, since neither Dish nor any other satellite/cable provider has ever carried KDNL's HD signal.

It seems like a very busy day for HD-related news. As Robert has already updated the situation with DISH and Sinclair, here's the other major items from around the TV world.

All of these stories were cited in today's TVPredictions.com newsletter and the original sources for the news stories are noted in the excerpts.

"Good Morning, America" Set for HD Switch this Fall

(New York Post) ABC's "Good Morning America" will go high- definition starting this fall — getting a jump on its competitors.

Both "GMA's" weekday and weekend editions will air in high-definition, most likely by October or thereabouts.

It will mark the first time ever that regularly scheduled commercial network news programming will air in HDTV, which produces a much sharper picture due to better resolution.

Full story can be found here. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156632,00.html)

Top Sony, Toshiba Suits to Meet On Unified HD DVD Format

(Reuters) The presidents of Japanese electronics giants Sony (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), Toshiba (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research) will meet to try to break a stalemate in talks over a unified format for next-generation DVD technology, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

Sony and Toshiba, leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their new technology standards adopted by the industry.

The winner will have pole position in the multi-billion-dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.

The high-level talks offer new hope for negotiations that appeared to have reached an impasse.

The full story can be found ]here. (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-05-17T093423Z_01_MOR714840_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-TECH-JAPAN-DVD.XML)

Cable, Satellite Providers Rank Low in Consumer Satisfaction

Survey: Cable, Satellite TV Come Dead Last in Customer Satisfaction

(Philadelphia Inquirer) - High-definition television? Cool. Pausing and rewinding live TV? Wow.

Getting that stuff to work as promised? Good luck. Paying the bill? Ouch.

Those gee-whizzy new video products offered by cable- and satellite-TV providers may be compelling, but for some customers they're also confounding.

That two-sided coin may be one reason a yearly survey to be released Tuesday by the University of Michigan shows that cable- and satellite-TV providers have the worst customer-satisfaction scores of any service-providing industry.

Wireless phone service providers, who also sell increasingly complex technology -- with complex pricing plans to boot -- were just above them in the survey.

The full story can be found here. (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11661760.htm)

Sony PlayStation 3 to Offer HD Movies

(Associated Press) LOS ANGELES - Sony Corp. unveiled three flavors of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine Monday in what is likely a new round of console wars with rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co.

The new machine, set for release in the spring of 2006, is about the same size as the current generation PlayStation 2 but has a more rounded look. Besides black, the PS3 will be available in silver and white.

Sony officials said the PS3's new processor technology "called Cell" will offer high performance for movie-like realism in games, high-definition movies and other features.

"The PS3 is truly is a system to be placed in the center of the living room," said Ken Kutaragi, creator of the original PlayStation console as well as the more recent PlayStation Portable handheld.

The full story can be found here. (http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/2005/05/16/ap/hitech/d8a4kc900.tx)

Jedi -

I wish I could say what the line is. I'm interested to know what you find out. What have you done to try and resolve the issue? Are you using overscan at all?

So if Dish drops local KDNL, will there local package charge ($5) go down? Can I get them for breach of contract?

Just wondering what my options are. I'll prolly end up splitting my antenna signal to both receivers...but I wouldn't want to pay Dish for something I'm not recieving.

Good ol' Sinclair.... ;) I would suspect something will get worked out like normal. Sinclair just wanted to put some pressure on Dish to pay an arm and leg like always. Maybe 50 cents a subscriber again? lol! If nothing else, it will probably get dropped for a few days and then an agreement will get reached.

jedi,

Do you have any way of measuring your overscan? While you might want to go for 0% overscan if you're displaying a personal computer desktop, there's no point in doing that for HD, DVD or other video sources.

If you have a way to adjust and measure where you are, I'd suggest that you aim for 2% on all edges, which is still significantly better than what you can manage with traditional consumer market CRTs (4%).

FWIW - If you're dealing with multiple sources such as a PC and traditional video, maybe you should consider getting a scaler that would allow you to tailor each of the video inputs going to your projector. I've recently made arrangements to act as a dealer for Lumagen, and if you or anyone else here buys through me the Lumagen setup and installation would be included in the retail price.

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
jedi,
FWIW - If you're dealing with multiple sources such as a PC and traditional video, maybe you should consider getting a scaler that would allow you to tailor each of the video inputs going to your projector. I've recently made arrangements to act as a dealer for Lumagen, and if you or anyone else here buys through me the Lumagen setup and installation would be included in the retail price.

Is that your first pickup as a dealer? Will you only do instals of Lumagen?

dweebe,

That's correct -- Lumagen is my first and currently only sales arrangement, and to start out I'm working through another Lumagen dealer outside St. Louis, so the actual sale would take place via credit card over the Internet rather than through my own company.

The other dealer is highly reputable and actually has been intimately involved in suggesting and beta testing many of the new features included in the new Lumagen scalers, including 5-point (soon to be 11-point) grayscale adjustments as well as multi-point gamma, color decoding adjustments among others.

Note that the Lumagen install and setup that is included in purchases made through me would cover making the physical connections to the display and sources (pre-wiring is assumed), as well as basic configuration of the required output resolutions/scan rates. In other words, the setup does not include a full calibration of either the scaler or the display it is connected to, but of course I'd do that additional work on request.

As for other scalers, I would take on installation and setup of other brands, but only in situations where I was also calibrating the display and the scaler.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Circuit City has the HDTivo for $699 -
Circuit City HDTivo link (http://www.techbargains.com/jump.cfm?id=327&arg=93509)

Mike

As fas ar overscan goes, there is a function on my H31 pj that's called edge masking. I believe it is an overscan control, and covers around 2%. It gets rid of any funny lines you might see at the top of the image without sacrificing a lot of picture real estate. I have no way of measuring exactly how much overscan my pj produces. Lately, however, I haven't seen this distortion on SD images. Now I'm beginning to think that it was a quirk that DISH fixed.

30-1 has gone back to an unsteady signal for me. Though the numbers are in the high 80s for signal strength, there are lots of breakups and dropouts. Looks like I'll be watching the Alias season finale tonight in SD. Should I feel lucky, since DISH may not be carry KDNL after June 1?

How's this for bad luck....I'm on my second Philips DVDR 985 dvd burner from UE. This one just started acting funny, and I'm a few days past the 30 day return period. The Brentwood location is liquidating and doesn't have any more, and the Fenton store doesn't want to play nice and let me exchange it. I'm now trying to buy an extended warranty for it, but that might not work either. Bummer.

Charter Communications closed Wednesday NASDAQ trading at 90 cents, down 3 cents from Tuesday's close, equivalent to a 3.23% decline in the company's market value. The stock was steady at 90 cents in off-exchange late trading.

Charter's stock established a new 52-week low at 88 cents today, but the shares also traded as high as 96 cents during Wednesday's session.

Most cable television companies were lower in Wednesday trading, due to concern about Tuesday's Federal Communications Commission announcement that it it would re-examine limits on cable television ownership.

The market overall was mixed, with the Dow Industrials gaining 134 points (+1.3%), the S&P 500 Index down 0.8 point (-0.07%) and the NASDAQ Index unchanged from Tuesday.

The Existential Guide to HD on UPN

This is what we'd see if we were actually in the forest when the tree falls down. :rolleyes:

Upcoming UPN HD Movies (all times 7 CDT):

Wed, May 25 - Swordfish

Fri, June 3 - Chill Factor

Fri, June 10 - Angel Eyes

Fri, June 17 - Driven

Fri, June 24 - 3000 Miles to Graceland

Of course, local UPN afilliate WRBU isn't broadcasting any HD, so it's a moot point here in St. Louis. Maybe with more HD coming from the UPN network, WRBU will get it in gear.

Or maybe WRBU is saving its money to fund a Charter takeover bid. ;)

Doug,

Corollary to the above:

"If a man speaks in the woods where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"

:D

Originally posted by MSloss
Circuit City has the HDTivo for $699 -
Circuit City HDTivo link (http://www.techbargains.com/jump.cfm?id=327&arg=93509)

Mike

I saw one at BB for the same with a $50 "check". I was shocked they'd dropped and I hadn't known about it... Still too much for me right now.
Dug

Is a universal price drop on the HD Tivo Direct TX box

Hay anyone seen it yet? If you did what did you think? Nothing will replace the opening scene from Episode IV: A New Hope. :)

Anyone else catch the message scroll at the bottom of the screen during Lost last night? Said something to the effect of:

"Attention Dishnetwork customers, re-trans agreement expires 5/31. We are trying to come to new agreement but can't guarantee anything. If you want to continue to get ABC, call your local cable operator or DirectTV".

Looks like Sinclair has decided to play hardball!

GlendaleHDTV,

Sinclair has ran the same message during other shows this week too. Personally, Sinclair's tactics like this irritate me to no end. You want to have ugly contract negotiations with Dish? Go ahead, but I don't want to see it scrolling across my screen while I'm trying to enjoy some television entertainment.

To me, its just one more bit of proof that shows how useless that Sinclair really is...

Charter drags feet on HD elsewhere

The link below is to a story from a newspaper in Massachusetts that details Charter's HD shortcomings there, as well as the rationale the company is providing for lagging behind nearby competitors. The main issue for Worcester, MA Charter subscribers is the absence of the local CBS station, which is network-owned.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050519/COLUMN08/505190556/1009/SPORTS

I thought the excerpts below were interesting/relevant here. Notice that the Charter executive quoted talks about a future HD paradise on Charter that's only "a year or 2 or 3" away.

He also refers to local rival Comcast as the "big boys," which is probably a side effect of watching his 401(k) shrink in a manner similar to George Costanza exiting the swimming pool on a very chilly New England day. :eek:
_______________________________________

Charter is fuzzy on HD
WBZ-4 not in the picture yet

The letters HD stand for high definition, but they could also mean high demand, because that’s what there is among Charter Communications customers to add WBZ-TV (Channel 4) in high definition.

When Don Coletti, 37, of Worcester ordered high definition service from Charter last summer, the telephone sales representative promised Channel 4 would be available in HD in time for him to watch Patriots games on his new 65-inch Mitsubishi television. The worker who installed Coletti’s HD box echoed the claim of the sales rep.

But here it is, more than 3-1/2 months after the Patriots’ third Super Bowl victory, and Channel 4 is still not included in Charter’s HD lineup. Coletti spent much of last season watching the Patriots in HD at a friend’s home in Leominster. The friend’s Comcast cable service offers WBZ-TV in HD.

...

Dennis Jerome, Charter’s director of sales and marketing for New England, preaches patience.

“I wouldn’t go buy a dish because we don’t have HD three or four months before the Patriots’ season starts,” Jerome said. “I’d give us a little more time to work it out.

“Two years ago, we had no HD channels,” he said. “Now we’re set up to have 10 in the next couple of months. That’s significant progress. I understand that better progress is hoped for by customers who have these very expensive TVs and want to use them.

“It’s in my best interests to have as robust of a lineup as possible so I can have more HD customers, but this is a business I want to be in for the long run, and I’m not going to make a decision to satisfy a short-term demand that I’ll be sorry for for a long time.”

Jerome said he’s “99 percent sure” Charter will add Channel 4 in high definition by the start of the next Patriots season — maybe much sooner. He said negotiations with Viacom, owner of CBS and other networks, have taken much longer than expected, but he remains adamant about making the best deal. If the price is too high, Charter customers will end up paying more.

...

Even without CBS in HD, Jerome thinks Charter is a better fit for football fans. Charter offers the NFL Network on demand. Satellite doesn’t.

...

“In a year or two or three,” he said, “there’s probably going to be 20 or 30 HD channels. It’s exploding beyond our expectations — beyond cable’s expectations in general.”

Charter recently added the movie channel Starz as its ninth HD station, joining ESPN, NESN, ABC, NBC, Fox, Discovery, HBO and Showtime. So movie channels outnumber sports channels, three to two.

[Charter customers expecting sports additions] won’t be happy to hear this, but Jerome said Cinemax, another movie channel, is scheduled to be added in HD by the end of June. Jerome is also considering adding PBS in high definition down the road.

...

Jerome said Comcast was able to offer FSN in HD because FSN went to Comcast first. No one from FSN has contacted Charter yet, Jerome said.

“They’re usually a few months ahead of us on these things,” Jerome said of Comcast, “because the programmers go to them first because they’re the big boys on the block.”

Jerome said he’s interested in offering FSN in high definition, but not until the next Celtics season begins, and he believes the “NBA on TNT” has limited appeal. As for WSBK-TV (Channel 38), Jerome is in no rush to add a channel to Charter’s limited-capacity HD lineup for one night a week of Sox programming.

Interesting article. Wish someone at our local newspaper would (try) to take Charter here to task, for their obviously "limited capacity HD lineup", with only 9 channels (two of which--hbo and sho you have to seperately subscribe to for close to twenty bucks).

I guess "Jerome" up there in Worscester won't add TNT HD due to "limited appeal". I guess "Jerome" just knows it all.

In the great series "Lonesome Dove", Captain Woodrow Call explained to Gus that they should "go north with the herd" to Montana, a "cattleman's paradise".

I guess "Jerome" is telling us to stand pat, as Charter will soon become (as DroptheRemote phrased it in his post), an "HD Paradise".

I won't hold my breath.

Originally posted by StLouG
Hay anyone seen it yet? If you did what did you think? Nothing will replace the opening scene from Episode IV: A New Hope. :)

I saw Star Wars this morning (12:01 am.) It's very good, but moved a little too quick through the story for my taste. It felt like the movie was crammed together to get it to fit under 2.5 hrs. I'll definitely see it again in the theatre and buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Don't have any expectations when you go in and you'll be fine.

Charter up 14 cents at Thursday's close to $1.04

Continuing this morning's "Seinfeld" metaphor, Charter's stock price has seemingly transformed itself from a pitiful state of "shrinkage" to roaring "sponge bath time" readiness, all in a span of 24 hours.

The shares of Costanza (er, Charter) Communications rebounded strongly on Thursday to close at $1.04, up 14 cents from Wednesday. The big recovery lifted Charter shares above the $1.00 level for the first time in a week and added more than 15% to the company's market value.

There wasn't any apparent Charter news or announcements that directly explain the big turnaround in the company's share price. The overall market was mostly steady, with both the Dow Industrials (+0.02%) and the S&P 500 (+0.01%) adding 2 points, and the NASDAQ Index unchanged from Wednesday's close.

Just got back from seeing it at the Galaxy. Visually stunning, incredible fights and so so dialog.

The Galaxy big screen is THE place to see a movie like that!

Oh to have that setup at the house...

Dave

I have my tickets there for Saturday night. Can't wait!

<<< audio snob

I had tickets for the 4:15 show in the THX auditorium @ St Charles 18 Cine. Guess what, they screwed me and put us in another theater and started the movie @ 4:30. Three different people said "Ya, its the TXH theater" but after the DTS trailer and a talk with the manager, <sigh> evidently they blew up the THX theater earlier and it couldn't be fixed in time.

Terrible sound quality kills the entire theatrical experience for me. :(

Set down tonight and watched the Phantom Menace and the Attack of The Clones. Had to get things fresh in my mind. I liked them better the second or is the third time around? Getting ready for Sunday. Will be going with the wife, kids and grandkids. Should be great.

Well, I suppose I'll put my thoughts in on Star Wars.

I thought it was a fantastic technical achievement. Wooden acting and dialog. It demonstrated that Lucas is best off not writing and directing.

But it was a great popcorn flick :)

Sorry, just my thoughts.

Originally posted by John Kotches
Well, I suppose I'll put my thoughts in on Star Wars.

I thought it was a fantastic technical achievement. Wooden acting and dialog. It demonstrated that Lucas is best off not writing and directing.

But it was a great popcorn flick :)

Sorry, just my thoughts.

I mostly agree. The acting wasn't as bad as the dialog and direction. I think they should ban lucas from writing screenplays or directing films. He can write basic stories, but NO DIALOG.
Also, I wasn't at all impressed by the effects. The spaceships were cool, but the character animation was fair at best.
Dug

If I owned 5000 shares of Charter stock do you think I would get better service? It might be worth it at these prices.

Originally posted by redwine
If I owned 5000 shares of Charter stock do you think I would get better service? It might be worth it at these prices.

No way. They have 19 billion dollars in debt, are almost out of cash, and have a negative book value. Of course, that doesn't mean the stock won't go up. Anything is possible, except you getting better service.

Charter is starting to roll out the 5MB internet service...

Okay gang, the relatively unthinkable has happened, and I lost a tweeter in one of my speakers recently. The replacement will be here early next week and I have literally no soldering skills.

DOes anybody have soldering skills that doesn't mind helping me out? I'm even willing to pay for the work, it's easier than carting around a 70 lb speaker, believe me :D

Best,

i am much more interested in the moxi update and the addition of hd channels (are those even gonna happen), by the way checked internet speed "1729 kbps" not only not 5mb's but not even the 3 i pay for!!!

DO I SEEM BITTER?

i am much more interested in the moxi update and the addition of hd channels (are those even gonna happen), by the way checked internet speed "1729 kbps" not only not 5mb's but not even the 3 i pay for!!!

DO I SEEM BITTER?

FYI

The 3.2 Moxi update will take place on May 31st. And Charter's all-digital simulcast is scheduled to arrive mid-June, that info according to the notes on our latest bill.

Am I the only one not all that impressed by the Galaxy?

It didn't really seem any bigger than the main screen at St. Louis Mills. And not as loud as the Mills, either.

LOVED the movie, though!

Speaking of movie theaters, has anyone heard what the specs will be on the new theater being built right at the Winghaven exit?

2-1's HD feed of Attack of the Clones has taken a dump... it's now a 4x3 upconvert with the big local bug in the upper right corner. Definitely a local issue since the national Fox feed on *D channel 88 is still HD and looking great, other than the panning and scanning to fit the 16x9 frame, that is....

KTVI-DT (FOX) also had some issues yesterday during the Cubs-White Sox game. I didn't watch all of it, but most of the middle innings were SD, with HD returning in either the seventh or eighth inning.

Based on yesterday's issues, I'd guess that there's some sort of intermittent hardware issue at KTVI.

Hope that's not the case with 24 tomorrow night.

I am still having video issues with 2.1 on my ATI HD card. I've e-mailed the station engineer and have not gotten a response. Does anyone really know what's going on with that station

Am I the only one not all that impressed by the Galaxy?

It didn't really seem any bigger than the main screen at St. Louis Mills. And not as loud as the Mills, either.

LOVED the movie, though!

Don't know anything about the Galaxy but my friend and I are going to see Revenge of the Sith there. Today I saw it with the family and I too loved it. Just got done watch Episode IV, A New Hope. I have the original VCR Trilogy. It was different from the DVD in sound and quality. I have now seen the first four movies in the past three days. Only two more to go. :)

Speaking of movie theaters, has anyone heard what the specs will be on the new theater being built right at the Winghaven exit?


abcward,

Here is a link to an article mentioning the new theater and the one that Wehrenberg is building at the Hwy N and Hwy 40 interchange. The area of N and 40 is supposed to have more retail space than Chesterfield Valley. The last estimate I heard, put over 1.2 million sq ft of retail space at the N and 40 intersection. There is supposed to be a new Super Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and many others.

Rich

Of course links would be nice...

http://cinematreasures.org/news/11797_0_1_0_C

http://cinematreasures.org/news/11832_0_1_10_M7

Am I the only one not all that impressed by the Galaxy?

It didn't really seem any bigger than the main screen at St. Louis Mills. And not as loud as the Mills, either.

LOVED the movie, though!

The MegaScreen sure seems bigger to me.

I really don't like some of the AMC screens where the default size is 1.85:1. For example they'll run previews and ads at 1:85 and then a screen drops down to mask the top when they start showing a 2.35 movie. Creve Coeur and West Olive are that way.

Here is a link to an article mentioning the new theater and the one that Wehrenberg is building at the Hwy N and Hwy 40 interchange. The area of N and 40 is supposed to have more retail space than Chesterfield Valley. The last estimate I heard, put over 1.2 million sq ft of retail space at the N and 40 intersection. There is supposed to be a new Super Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and many others.

Maybe this will be the first place in the St. Louis area to have some sort of digital projection. Then again I live in St. Louis city and it would be a 45+ minute drive out there.

Has anyone read/heard if the new AMC at Chesterfield mall might have digital projection?

BTW: would the last person living in the city of St. Louis please turn the lights off on the way out? It seems like I'm the only person in the St. Louis HDTV thread that lives in the city. A lot of posters seem to be from St. Charles county.

Anyone else experience any issues with ABC last night via Charter? I recorded Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy on the MOXI, and about five minutes into DH (the scene where they are all at the hospital for those who watched), I got some major pixelization and then briefly lost the signal all-together. After that point, the picture was fine (as 'fine' as it gets with an analog channel via Moxi), but when I fast-forwarded through the commercials, I got macro blocking (on ff only)so bad I couldn't determine when the commercials were over and the show was back. Needless to say, if I wanted to watch commercials, I wouldn't be time-shifting. I think this was only an issue on ABC since I was able to FF on Deadwood with no issues.

Not really sure if this is specific to Moxi or if others experienced the same pixelization issues I saw initially. I'm really hoping this isn't some plan to force us to watch the commercials.

I don't know if it's my moxi or what, but about everything I record, I always get pixilation in it. Since it's recorded, I never know if the feed craped out or if it has something to do with the box. How much is Charter charging for the 5mb service?

Anyone else experience any issues with ABC last night via Charter? I recorded Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy on the MOXI, and about five minutes into DH (the scene where they are all at the hospital for those who watched), I got some major pixelization and then briefly lost the signal all-together. After that point, the picture was fine (as 'fine' as it gets with an analog channel via Moxi), but when I fast-forwarded through the commercials, I got macro blocking (on ff only)so bad I couldn't determine when the commercials were over and the show was back. Needless to say, if I wanted to watch commercials, I wouldn't be time-shifting. I think this was only an issue on ABC since I was able to FF on Deadwood with no issues.

Not really sure if this is specific to Moxi or if others experienced the same pixelization issues I saw initially. I'm really hoping this isn't some plan to force us to watch the commercials.

I have Charter/Moxi too and we watched Desperate Housewives live last night...not one single issue.



** hall316, 5 meg service is $10 more than 3 megs...

this goes on to make me think it's the moxi boxes causing the pixilation.

The 5mb is going to cost $49.99. I have the 3mb now for $29.99. I don't think the extra bandwith is really worth another $20 a month for me.


***sorry abc I didn't notice you had the price in your post before I added it.

Anyone else experience any issues with ABC last night via Charter? I recorded Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy on the MOXI, and about five minutes into DH (the scene where they are all at the hospital for those who watched), I got some major pixelization and then briefly lost the signal all-together. After that point, the picture was fine (as 'fine' as it gets with an analog channel via Moxi), but when I fast-forwarded through the commercials, I got macro blocking (on ff only)so bad I couldn't determine when the commercials were over and the show was back. Needless to say, if I wanted to watch commercials, I wouldn't be time-shifting. I think this was only an issue on ABC since I was able to FF on Deadwood with no issues.

Not really sure if this is specific to Moxi or if others experienced the same pixelization issues I saw initially. I'm really hoping this isn't some plan to force us to watch the commercials.


I posted a few weeks ago on the MOXI forum where I was having issues with HEAVY pixelation. MOXIGUY wanted more info out of me. You might go post it over there. It will add to those that have this horrid issue.

Rich

Yes while watching Desperate Housewives got the you are not authorized to watch this channel call your cable provider during the hospital scene.

This was thru the Moxi, wife turned on the kitchen tv and had just static.
Stopped our MYHD from recording Star Wars since I read it wasn't being shown in HD but unconverted and watched the rest of Desperate Housewives and Greys Anatomy thru the MYHD but checked back during commercial break and it was back on.

I'm going to wait until the update later this week. I want to see if that fixes the problems or not. What is the update fixing anyway.

I'm going to wait until the update later this week. I want to see if that fixes the problems or not. What is the update fixing anyway.

Per Splinke's FAQ:http://users.adelphia.net/~ksoltmann/SPLMoxiFAQ.htm

VERSION 3.2 RELEASE NOTES



A version number of 3.2.105 has been reported in the BendBroadband system. A quick way to determine that you have received version 3.2 is that the Intro to Moxi category in the Moxi Menu will have changed to About Moxi. In addition, it will include the introductory movie plus a bunch of tips that will fill out the vertical menu.



What is New for Moxi V3.2

Full transport controls on progressive refresh channels

Skip backward or forward 15 minutes

Simplified HD settings (HD passthrough mode)

SeaChange VOD integration

Datacast

PPV support for Moxi MP-12 (Scientific-Atlanta)

Jukebox

New games: Blast It, Invasion Wave, Bijoux, and Tomato

DVD player

Moxi tips



The new version of Moxi software adds several frequently requested enhancements and addresses many performance issues. List of the most asked for enhancements:



New high definition TV (HDTV) settings. A top-requested feature for subscribers with high definition displays, the new HDTV settings can automatically change the output resolution to match the incoming signal. (This feature is known as "native-mode pass-through") With the new options, SD programs are no longer stretched or scaled to fit the HD screen. You can select the resolutions that your TV supports—if your TV can handle the incoming resolution, then Moxi will send it directly without scaling it. To accomplish this, we have a new setting, "HDTV Set-up," replacing the previous "Video Output"

Improved analog quality. Scaling eliminated.

Fast forward and rewind compensation. Now, when you fast-forward or rewind through a show and resume playing, Moxi backs up slightly to compensate for reaction time.

Improved first-run-only recording feature. The first-run-only recording option now works even when current and past-season episodes appear on the same network. Examples: recording Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi, CSI on CBS, and The Simpson's on Fox. There may still be times where no guide data exists to filter out repeat episodes, so in a few cases, you'll still get dupes.

Skip forward and backward by 15-minute interval. When watching full-screen TV, you can now use the next and back buttons to move quickly through program in 15-minute intervals. (Note: this is separate from the "skip" button)

Improved tuning performance. Faster channel changes.

Fixed HD glitch issue. Occasional minor audio or video glitches no longer occur while watching one HD channel and simultaneously recording another HD channel.

Fixed jump to On Next. When scrolling up and down the channels list, the selection focus no longer unexpectedly shifts to the On Next panel.

DVI output supported. When content protection keys are distributed, users with TVs and projectors that can accept digital video input will be able to use the DVI connector. Because DVI handshake slows tuning, in most cases, however, we recommend that subscribers with high-end TVs will have a better overall experience using the component output.

Fixed Fast Forward. In certain digital channels, FF wasn't working as expected. This problem has been corrected.

Bye-bye, Easter eggs. Tomato and credits Easter eggs have been removed. Good news for Tomato fans, though. It's been promoted to an official game, with its own listing.

Streamlined Ticker. The Ticker feature has been redesigned so that it takes up only a single line at the bottom of the screen, leaving much more room for the TV image.

Fixed Ticker weather forecast. Previously, if you had Ticker up in the evening, the forecast feature would skip a day and begin with the day after tomorrow. Now it starts with tomorrow's forecast.

Shortcut to On Demand. The remote control button labeled Guide, VOD, or On Demand (in various versions of the remote) now jumps directly to the On Demand card in the Moxi Menu.

Parental Controls. Now, when the system reboots, Parental controls will come back in the state they were in before the reboot. In other words, if they were unlocked, they will stay unlocked.



Other

There are some features in 3.2 which are optional for the cable operators to deploy (e.g., Jukebox, Photos, and Games).

MoxiGuy: "I believe that 3.2 allows more time for channel number entry. Either that, or I've gotten a lot faster."

Other new games: Blast It, Invasion Wave, and Bijoux

PPV support for Moxi MP-12 (Scientific-Atlanta)

SeaChange VOD integration

Datacast support

In addition there are many other fixes and refinements to the way the DVR works, improvements to tuning, and audio-video improvements, loss of channels from the guide, etc.



Promo Bar Preview

While watching a recorded show, Promo bar automatically promotes the recorded show's network prime time shows for that night and the next night. NOTE: Promobar is available in v.3.2 as a preview feature only. As a preview feature, it can be entitled in v.3.2, but is not be available in the subsequent v.3.3 release. It will return in post-v.3.3 releases as a regular feature. In v.3.2, we recommend entitling Promo bar only to a limited friendly audience as a preview, and ensuring that they know it will be unavailable in the v3.3 release.

this goes on to make me think it's the moxi boxes causing the pixilation.

The 5mb is going to cost $49.99. I have the 3mb now for $29.99. I don't think the extra bandwith is really worth another $20 a month for me.


***sorry abc I didn't notice you had the price in your post before I added it.

Guess this means that the $49.99 I'm being charged for 3 mb means I'm getting the shaft :mad: :mad:

I sure hope DSL can reach my house now!

Guess this means that the $49.99 I'm being charged for 3 mb means I'm getting the shaft :mad: :mad:

I sure hope DSL can reach my house now!


3meg service is $49.99 if you are a High Speed Internet only customer.
5meg service is $59.99 if you are a High Speed Internet only customer.

Subscribing to either cable tv or telephone services will get you the $10.00 multi product discount on the HSI Service.

Mark

I pay $47.47 per month (taxes included) for 6Mbits/second service for DSL, and have tested up to 5.7 Mbits/second. So if you're close enough to the CO (I'm < 1 mile) you might want to consider this option.

It's worth it for me, but I work from my home, and I download CD images for OS installs from time to time.

Cheers,

Okay now. No flaming. The answer is probably obvious and known to all but me. I had my antenna down for about six months. Now that I have put it back up. and added a preamp, I get great signals from just about everybody but KETC. I get 0 HDTV signal from any of the 3 HDTV channels. Before I took my antenna down (whish was also before I added the preamp), it was my best signal. Did they take their digital signals off the air?? What's the deal??

I was getting KETC on Monday night, but I didn't check it last night.

I'll check my set tonight and see if I get KETC.

I have not received anything from KETC in a couple of days. I believe they are down. What's the story with Fox? When I go to 2.1 my Sony stb's act as if they are having a hard time decoding the signal. After a variable time it may come in great with very high power reading, as usual, but often as not it will just sit there with a no signal flash. I have half a dozen Sony stb's and they all act this way with Fox for the past few days. Art

I have not received anything from KETC in a couple of days. I believe they are down. What's the story with Fox? When I go to 2.1 my Sony stb's act as if they are having a hard time decoding the signal. After a variable time it may come in great with very high power reading, as usual, but often as not it will just sit there with a no signal flash. I have half a dozen Sony stb's and they all act this way with Fox for the past few days. Art

For me, this has been a problem for the last 3-4 weeks. I have to go to 4-1 and channel down to get anything to show up on 2-1. I have emailed their engineering Dept twice with no replies. It is getting a little old....

Too bad the update on the moxi does not allow you to add an external hard drive. It won't be too big of an issue over the summer with all the repeats, but in the fall there are a few times I have ran out of room becuase I mostly record HD feeds.

OOPS! I meant KPLR (11.1) has come up without signal for a couple of days. Sorry, better stick with numbers. Art

OOPS! I meant KPLR (11.1) has come up without signal for a couple of days. Sorry, better stick with numbers. Art

On Sunday was getting a good signal. Monday the signal was weak and would hardly lock on and yesterday nothing at all. I am only 5 miles from the tower.

Not receiving any signal from channel 11 at this moment.

Wife will be upset if didn't record Everwood Monday night so I hope that the
signal was still working then.

Due to technical difficulties KPLR DT has been unavailable over the air since approximately 11:30 pm Monday evening. KPLR DT has been and remains available on Charter cable. We expect repairs to be complete later this evening.

Thanks for the update on KPLR-DT, STL eng (glad the Smallville finale was last week) :D

What happened to the tower map? The link in the first message in this thread no longer works.

ghansen,

I just checked on the file and couldn't access it either. So I deleted the existing file and uploaded it again, but still no luck.

I assume that this is related to the recent AVS site software update. I'll send a note to one of the moderators and see if this can be straightened out.

In the meantime, send me an eMail and I can reply with a ZIP attachment of the maps.

good to know about kplr, thought it was me. Maybe you guys can help me with a different problem I am having.

OTA works great for every channel except ABC 30-1. I seems fine during that day, signals in the 70's, but as soon as primetime starts my signal starts going crazy! It jumps up and down 100 to 30 to nothing and back again. Suffice to say I have not been able to watch any HD shows for a couple weeks or so. It seems to have progressively worse this last week. It even happens during non hd commercials.
I have tried re-scanning the channels, including deleted them all and scanning again with the same results. I was thinking maybe it was trees, but why would the signal be ok during the day and goofy during primetime only if that was the cause?
I have a Directv hdtivo and the signal on both ABC30 OTA feeds behave the same.
I was thinking of getting an attenuator, would that help?

Thanks in advance...

notmestl,

I don't think I can help you with your problem. It is strange that you're seeing the problems start up at the beginning of prime time programming. Presumably the bulk of the prime time stuff is HD. However, I'm curious -- when KDNL is not passing on an ABC HD program during prime time, do you still have the problem?

An attenuator is going to be most helpful in a situation where you're receiving too strong a signal. It's possible that it might help you witht the problem you're having, but I think it's probably a long shot. Still might be worth a try, and if it doesn't help you can return it (or use it as a "red push" attenuator if that's an issue with your display).

It is strange that you're seeing the problems start up at the beginning of prime time programming. Presumably the bulk of the prime time stuff is HD. However, I'm curious -- when KDNL is not passing on an ABC HD program during prime time, do you still have the problem?

That is a good question, I have not checked if non-hd shows during primetime are an issue or not. I do know that, for example, if I have the simpsons on at 6:30pm on 30-1 there are no issues - the picture is fine.
I will check out non-hd shows tonite during primetime and see what happens.. thanks!

Charter Stock Update

Charter Communications closed Thursday trading at $1.18, up 11 cents from Wednesday.

FWIW, anyone who had the guts to buy Charter stock at its recent low of 90 cents (May 18) could have pocketed more than a 30% profit.

I haven't seen any recent news or announcements that would explain why Charter's stock price is looking like a rocket ship. It's hard to believe this is just bargain-hunting...

I attribute Charter's upswing in stock price solely on "Doug's Daily Charter Update" show on avsforum.com.

As the saying goes: There is no such thing as bad press...

Way to go Doug!

Charter Stock Update

Charter Communications closed Thursday trading at $1.18, up 11 cents from Wednesday.

FWIW, anyone who had the guts to buy Charter stock at its recent low of 90 cents (May 18) could have pocketed more than a 30% profit.

I haven't seen any recent news or announcements that would explain why Charter's stock price is looking like a rocket ship. It's hard to believe this is just bargain-hunting...


You think Paul is slowly buying his own stock? I should have bought that 5000 shares.

Charter has a huge short interest, over 70% of its shares that trade. Therefore, when the stock starts to go up, it creates buying by those who are trying to cover their short sales. Any good news could really start a buying frenzy.

DISH, Sinclair Reach Temporary Deal

From today's SkyREPORT:
______________________________

A temporary fix was reached concerning the retransmission consent negotiations between EchoStar and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

On its Web site, Sinclair said the existing deal between the companies has been extended for an additional two months in an effort to continue contract negotiations. "Although there can be no assurance that these negotiations will be successful, it is our hope to reach a long-term agreement," the company said.

The existing carriage agreement between the companies, which allows DISH Network to carry Sinclair's TV stations, was scheduled to expire on May 31. EchoStar confirmed to CableFAX Daily that an agreement had been reached, but offered no further comment.
_______________________________

TiVo Reports Near Break-Even First Quarter

The following is an Associated Press story, cited in today's TV Predictions newsletter:

___________________________________

New subscribers, uncashed rebates help TiVo cut loss

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - TiVo Inc., whose digital video recorders allow commercial-free TV viewing, exceeded Wall Street expectations and saw its quarterly loss shrink thanks in part to thousands of new subscribers who failed to cash in their $100 rebates.

Alviso-based TiVo announced Thursday a fiscal first-quarter loss of $857,000, or 1 cent per share, compared with a loss of $9.07 million or 11 cents per share in the same period of 2004.

TiVo reported revenue for the quarter of $46.9 million, up 36 percent from $34.5 million in the year-ago period.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected Tivo to lose an average of 11 cents per share on revenue of $37 million.

The loss was dramatically smaller than expected partly because of new customers who inexplicably didn't turn in their rebates. By some estimates, as many as 50,000 people didn't turn in the coupons, saving the company around $5 million.
___________________________________

The full story can be found here (http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/technology/11751248.htm).

Charter has a huge short interest, over 70% of its shares that trade. Therefore, when the stock starts to go up, it creates buying by those who are trying to cover their short sales. Any good news could really start a buying frenzy.

Good news from Charter?!?!?! You're funny. :D

This site is listed as one of my favorites. I tried to get to the site and I got a blank page that read this site is unavailable on this server. I had to reboot my computer to get to the site. This every happen to anyone else or does anyone know what is going? :rolleyes:

What happened to the tower map? The link in the first message in this thread no longer works.

Have we lost a bunch of posts? I thought there were about 300 pages and it looks like we're in the 200 range now.

Good news from Charter?!?!?! You're funny. :D

In the stock market, less bad news is good news. All Charter has to demonstrate is that the slide in subscribers is abating.

Have we lost a bunch of posts? I thought there were about 300 pages and it looks like we're in the 200 range now.

I think they just changed the default number of messages per page. It used to be customizable, but I don't see a way to change it now.

Mike

...its almost June...and still no word on Charter getting a contract done with FSMW-HD.

I'm so glad we were teased with the possibility of FSMW in HD in April. I'm guessing we won't hear another word this entire season. Color me disappointed...

Any word of when we will get more HD channels on Charter?

Any word of when we will get more HD channels on Charter?

Charter has already shown their generosity with HD channels in 2005 with WB11-HD. So, my guess is that we might see another new HD channel added sometime in 2006. Yipee.


:cool:

A couple of days ago there was a discussion about whether any local theaters are showing the new Star Wars movie in digital format. Sorry to say, but no theater is doing that in St. Louis.

But here's a list of US cinemas currently showing "Revenge of the Sith" digitally.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/release/theater/digital_list.html

FWIW,

I don't think any posts have been lost from this thread, as the three OTA "resource" items are still available if you go to the first page.

Also, it appears that the TV Tower maps link has been reinstated. I wasn't actually able to download it, but it appears that there have been two downloads since I reloaded the file on Thursday. My computer has been a little wacky lately, and I'm currently in the process of rebuilding my OS, so the failure of my computer to retrieve the file isn't exactly definitive. If anyone else can access the file let me know; otherwise, I'll assume that AVS is working on the problem.

FWIW,

I don't think any posts have been lost from this thread, as the three OTA "resource" items are still available if you go to the first page.

Also, it appears that the TV Tower maps link has been reinstated. I wasn't actually able to download it, but it appears that there have been two downloads since I reloaded the file on Thursday. My computer has been a little wacky lately, and I'm currently in the process of rebuilding my OS, so the failure of my computer to retrieve the file isn't exactly definitive. If anyone else can access the file let me know; otherwise, I'll assume that AVS is working on the problem.

A direct click doesn't seem to work but I can download it with a right click and "save target as".

Hey Doug,

I was looking at the map and wondering if there isn't an error in the placement of KPLR-DT ?

The antennaweb headings from my house indicate that, while KMOV and KPLR NTSC transmitters are co-located, KPLR's ATSC transmitter is not co-loacted with it's NTSC and appears to be co-located with channel 18.


uhf KMOV-DT 4.1 CBS ST. LOUIS MO 164° 12.4
vhf KPLR 11 WB ST. LOUIS MO 164° 12.4
vhf KMOV 4 CBS ST. LOUIS MO 164° 12.4
uhf KPLR-DT 11.1 WB ST. LOUIS MO 168° 9.1
uhf K18BT 18 TBN ST. LOUIS MO 168° 9.1


Could KPLR-DT be on the Kenrick tower ? I knew of several FM stations on that tower bud didn't know of any TV stations on it.

Maybe Stleng can fill us in on it's actual location ?

Watching Charter for the last 2 days at my house has been unbearable. Pixilation big time. I can't even sit down and enjoy a whole movie without stoppage in it because of pixilation.

I rarely get the so-called HD feed from KPLR (WB). Its always severly pixelated. If not, I get the "this channel will be available shortly" message. I don't even call any more to complain.

I am patiently waiting to see which Satellite company comes out ahead in the HD area, and I'll switch from Charter. From research, I need to wait for "mpeg" or something like that. Right now Dish is in the lead with VOOM, but I hear Direct TV will make a come back later this summer with some announcements.

Anybody else having problems with WB11 OTA? I couldn't pull it in last night for the cardinal game. This morning I tried it and had a strong signal. Now that the cardinal game has started I turned it back and can't get it again. It's not a huge deal since the games not in HD, just wondering.

Dave,

I think you're probably correct. It's been a few years since I originally created the tower maps, but I do recall that I had the Channel 4 and Channel 11 digital towers showing as shared.

I can modify the map and repost this in a few days.

Thanks for pointing this out.

oby,

Both DISH and DirecTV are in the process of migrating toward MPEG-4 compression, instead of the MPEG-2 version that has been used by those companies for the past decade. MPEG-2 compression is also the standard for all over-the-air HD broadcasting.

As you might guess, MPEG-4 is capable of a further reduction in signal bandwidth but without necessarily further reducing picture quality. The shorthand version is that the same picture quality as MPEG-2 can be achieved with MPEG-4 but with greater compression/bandwidth savings. While that's probably true, MPEG-4, like MPEG-2, is a variable compression scheme, so it's largely up to the program distributors how they handle the picture quality-for-bandwidth reduction tradeoffs.

Unlike MPEG-2, MPEG-4 also provides for a completely lossless compression configuration, but using this would largely negate the compression gains over MPEG-2. I would expect that this "lossless" MPEG-4 option would be largely limited to production/archiving, rather than for cable, satellite or telco distribution applications.

I'm not sure about DISH's plans for MPEG-4, but it appears that DirecTV will initially limit MPEG-4 to distribution of local HD/digital stations. The idea is that if you're a current DirecTV subscriber and you're getting national HD channels via the dish and local HD channels via the DirecTV receiver's OTA digital tuner, there wouldn't be any need for an immediate upgrade. However, if you were a new subscriber, or an existing subscriber who prefers to receive local stations via the dish, you'd need to have a new MPEG-4-capable receiver. Current DirecTV hardware is not capable of handling MPEG-4 signals.

Be aware that this is based as much on the readings of tea leaves as it is anything that DirecTV has stated.

DirecTV will add HD locals in a number of phases over the next few years, beginning later this summer with the 15 largest metropolitan markets. St. Louis would most likely be included in the second phase, which I would guess would occur before the end of 2005 or early in 2006.

Whether there will be additional national HD channels added to DirecTV before the end of this year, and whether they will be MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, is still unknown.

Also still unanswered is whether those new MPEG-4 receivers will still have OTA inputs for those of us who will choose not to pay for HD locals over the dish.

Dave,

I think you're probably correct. It's been a few years since I originally created the tower maps, but I do recall that I had the Channel 4 and Channel 11 digital towers showing as shared.

I can modify the map and repost this in a few days.

Thanks for pointing this out.

I thought the KMOV tower was down in the Bayless area along the Grants hiking/biking trail.

New Tower Maps Available

I've created new St. Louis tower maps and uploaded them to the first resource message at the beginning of this discussion thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=2995679&&#post2995679

Note that there are now three ZIP files. The Missouri view ZIP provides maps with a southwest and northwest orientation from the towers, and the Illinois view ZIP contains maps with a northeast and southeast orientation. There's also a separate ZIP that provides a two-state view.

KPLR has been relocated on the new maps, based on its digital tower location as specified in the station's most recent FCC filing. The location of the other towers on the map is based on the same FCC filings by other stations.

I should probably know better than to rely on government information, but in this case it should be the authoritative source...

Robert,

Interesting point on whether the OTA tuner survives the jump to MPEG-4. I would expect it would, but it would be easy for DirecTV to justify not including them, considering how much dough they're investing on the infrastructure needed to provide the locals via sat.

What works in our favor, I think, is the fact that it will be several years before DirecTV is able to deliver HD locals in all markets, so keeping the OTA receiver seems like a de facto requirement. For example, a new customer in Wyoming shouldn't have to choose between an old MPEG-2 receiver in order to get his digital locals, and then have to upgrade to MPEG-4 later, once national channels undergo the transition to MPEG-4.

But, of course, far stranger things have happened.

Two reasons I hope the OTA remains an option on the MPEG-4 boxes: I'd rather not pay for something that is free and (fairly) easily accessible; and two, keeping the OTA option might have some (minor) benefit in keeping DirecTV honest on how hard they push the compression on the locals.

We got some cool new toys in at Ultimate Electronics (Mid-Rivers). The Sony Qualia 006 70" SXRD (LCoS) rear projection television ($12,995). This thing is beautiful, 1920x1080 (two million pixels). After looking at this thing for a few minutes, the 1280x720 display devices look less than impressive.

On Wednesday or Thursday the installers will be hooking up the $35,000 Sony Qualia 004 front projector in the Hard Rock room. Stop by and have a look. If you haven't seen a 1080P display, you haven't seen HD. ;)

That's cool, I didn't know Qualia was going to be in Ultimate. I'll probably swing out that way to see the goods.

Hey all...

I haven't posted in quite a while. I picked up a Westinghouse LCD for the bedroom and I must say the Charter analog looks very good compared to my Hitachi 50V500. I gave Charter a call to inquire about an additional Moto box and they are asking $15 a month. That's nuts... I thought I had heard they were like $5 a month for additional boxes. They also said they still have no available boxes.

So my question is... who out there is using a STB for unencrypted HD from Charter, and are you happy with it? It will sorta suck not being able to get the premium channels in the master BR but I refuse to pay another $15/mo. to Charter.

thanks guys (and gals)....

NO 3.2 in St Charles via Charter as of this AM.

Suddenly, all progamming info for Fox2.1 is missing from my Dish Network 811. Anyone else experiencing this issue? It could well be my box, which has been acting up lately. All other stations seem fine.

NO 3.2 in St Charles via Charter as of this AM.

Nor in Glendale.

moman:

Have you tried a hard reset (unplug / replug) to force a program guide download? I've seen that cure guide issues before. If that doesn't fix it, I don't know what will.

Cheers,

Maybe it's me being arrogant, but...

Since setting up my equiptment (Dish 811, HT receiver, projector, sound system, DVD player, etc..) and collaborating everything, I know that my stuff works. I was very complete in my testing. So, when problems arise, it's on the broadcasters side. Granted there is the occasional SAT receiver freeze or power outage, but I'm not very quick to change my setup when the industry is still deciding on standards.

I'm a huge fan of HD. I love the fact that channel 11 is quick to act on e-mail and states that they have issues on occasion. Fox 2 has admitted, and was quick to fix, issues with the Dish 811 PSIP. Yet I think the local broadcasters are doing a great job in bringing us major events (Auto Racing, Masters tournament, some cardinal games, Superbowl) OTA without any technical hitches. (I can hear the Leno 5.1 argument brewing again...)

Anybody else feel this way or care to comment?

DJ:

There's nothing to argue about on Leno.

The broadcast is coming down from KSDK flagged as 5.1 with content only in L/R channels (haven't checked since they made the change). Until that's fixed, it isn't a receiver problem.

Cheers,

John...

Sounds good to me... I was just looking to stimulate a little discussion. (Bored at work.)

New Tower Maps Available

I've created new St. Louis tower maps and uploaded them to the first resource message at the beginning of this discussion thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=2995679&&#post2995679

Note that there are now three ZIP files. The Missouri view ZIP provides maps with a southwest and northwest orientation from the towers, and the Illinois view ZIP contains maps with a northeast and southeast orientation. There's also a separate ZIP that provides a two-state view.

KPLR has been relocated on the new maps, based on its digital tower location as specified in the station's most recent FCC filing. The location of the other towers on the map is based on the same FCC filings by other stations.

I should probably know better than to rely on government information, but in this case it should be the authoritative source...


Thanks for your work.

Is that KPLR hiding under the KSDK-DT label? So are they sharing a tower with someone else down there in Affton.

John...

Sounds good to me... I was just looking to stimulate a little discussion. (Bored at work.)


Bored eh? Want me to give you an outage?

:)

Rich

dweebe,

KPLR, KSDK and KDNL are clustered together on the map, but there are in most views three visible flags indicating the three towers. Unfortunately the labels for the three towers overlapped, so only two are readily visible.

I used an old copy of Streets 98 for the mapping and there doesn't appear to be any option for repositioning the labels in that version of the software.

... my bad.

Looks like my only option is an antenna and STB for HD. Has there been any word lately on the all digital line-up from Charter?

Bored eh? Want me to give you an outage?

:)

Rich


No...bored is much better than an outage. If the company systems are working, I'm fine sitting here surifing the net. Hang Ten Dude!!!!!

dweebe,

KPLR, KSDK and KDNL are clustered together on the map, but there are in most views three visible flags indicating the three towers. Unfortunately the labels for the three towers overlapped, so only two are readily visible.

I used an old copy of Streets 98 for the mapping and there doesn't appear to be any option for repositioning the labels in that version of the software.

No big deal, I understand.

In the winter (without trees) I can see the Affton towers from my place so right now I'm can't look out my front door to check. I thought there were two towers down there. I can remember the KDNL tower behind Kenrick Plaza and the KSDK tower by Tower Tee. Can someone tell me if there's a third tower down there that I can't remember or does KPLR piggyback with someone else?

DJ:

There's nothing to argue about on Leno.

The broadcast is coming down from KSDK flagged as 5.1 with content only in L/R channels (haven't checked since they made the change). Until that's fixed, it isn't a receiver problem.

Cheers,

It has changed a bit lately.

Late last week (Friday maybe) they were broadcasting in 3.0. The center channel was still silent but since the rears and sub were off the sub wasn't tied up on a dead LFE channel and kicked on to cross out the fronts. Last night it was in 2.0. It may or may not stay that way since last night was a rerun.

dweebe,

Maybe this will help -- it's a zoomed in view around the KDNL, KPLR and KSDK Towers.

FWIW, the coordinates for each is:

KDNL
----
38 degrees, 34 minutes, 50 seconds
90 degrees, 19 minutes, 45 seconds

KPLR
----
38 degrees, 34 minutes, 24 seconds
90 degrees, 19 minutes, 30 seconds

KSDK
----
38 degrees, 34 minutes, 5 seconds
90 degrees, 19 minutes, 55 seconds

About the 2.0 on Leno even though it's flagged 5.1, I wrote to the KSDK email address listed in Doug's post at the beginning of this thread several weeks back. Never got an answer, though I'll admit I haven't watched Leno recently to see if it was ever fixed.

So I take it the big update didn't come out today for Moxi users.

Hey all...

I haven't posted in quite a while. I picked up a Westinghouse LCD for the bedroom and I must say the Charter analog looks very good compared to my Hitachi 50V500. I gave Charter a call to inquire about an additional Moto box and they are asking $15 a month. That's nuts... I thought I had heard they were like $5 a month for additional boxes. They also said they still have no available boxes.

So my question is... who out there is using a STB for unencrypted HD from Charter, and are you happy with it? It will sorta suck not being able to get the premium channels in the master BR but I refuse to pay another $15/mo. to Charter.

thanks guys (and gals)....

Sorry, there is NO unencrypted HD from Charter. :mad:

We got some cool new toys in at Ultimate Electronics (Mid-Rivers). The Sony Qualia 006 70" SXRD (LCoS) rear projection television ($12,995). This thing is beautiful, 1920x1080 (two million pixels). After looking at this thing for a few minutes, the 1280x720 display devices look less than impressive.

On Wednesday or Thursday the installers will be hooking up the $35,000 Sony Qualia 004 front projector in the Hard Rock room. Stop by and have a look. If you haven't seen a 1080P display, you haven't seen HD. ;)

I must admit. It is not very often I get excited when I see a new TV at any retailer. However, I was at UE Saturday and saw the Sony Quallia 70". Wow! This thing looks better than anything I've ever seen even on the HD store feed from a Sencore box. If the Front projector looks anyting like it, I will have to start saving my pennies.

Scott

I was all excited to watch U-571 last night on Universal HD until I saw that the sound was not 5.1. There ought to be a law against calling things HD when they are clearly not.

Rant over.

Scott

Scott:

Sorry to disappoint you, but ATSC standards allow for Dolby Digital from 1.0 to 5.1.

Now U571 was available with a 5.1 soundtrack so that sucks, but to say it isn't HD because a 5.1 soundtrack isn't available is somewhat errant :)

Cheers,

So I take it the big update didn't come out today for Moxi users.

no 3.2 but the cable bill I got todays reads "starting July 12, 2005 we will launch Charter All-digital Service, the most advanced digital cable service in the nation today.........at NO ADDITIONAL COST."

They are going to move a few channels around but that is the gist.

So I take it the big update didn't come out today for Moxi users.

Actually, I did receive the 3.2 update today (I live in Arnold). My wife said it came thru at about 4pm. I didn't get much time to mess around with it yet. One of the first things I did notice, though, was that all of the network logos/icons were all missing. Instead, they all now show a generic symbol.

I got my 3.2 upgrade too. From what I have been told the upgrade will be going out everyone, but not at the same immediate time.

Sorry, there is NO unencrypted HD from Charter. :mad:

.... thanks Starbug. :(

FYI - SBC is offering DSL at 14.95 per month when you sign up online.

If anyone has any issues or questions just let me, your resident SBC employee, know.

-Rich

I got my 3.2 upgrade too. From what I have been told the upgrade will be going out everyone, but not at the same immediate time.

Still waiting in Glendale...

Scott:

Sorry to disappoint you, but ATSC standards allow for Dolby Digital from 1.0 to 5.1.

Now U571 was available with a 5.1 soundtrack so that sucks, but to say it isn't HD because a 5.1 soundtrack isn't available is somewhat errant :)

Cheers,

I was under the impression that there were 18 types of ATSC signals one of which was HDTV, and that HDTV mandated Dolby Digital 5.1. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time I was wrong. Still would be nice if Universal HD gave us the best possible sound available because they do have some good programming.

Scott

FYI - SBC is offering DSL at 14.95 per month when you sign up online.

If anyone has any issues or questions just let me, your resident SBC employee, know.

-Rich

When will it be available in our area Rich?

Scott

Scott Tucker,

O'Fallon MO doesnt have SBC, right? I just moved into O'Fallon a couple months ago as was only given Charter or CenturyTel as options for telephony.

FYI - SBC is offering DSL at 14.95 per month when you sign up online.
-Rich

gotta love me being a valued customer of 2 years paying $29.99... such is life. Still cheaper than charter (albeit slower as well)

Keep in mind that Charter has package pricing. I recently signed up for the "triple play" package which includes digital cable with the movie tier, internet & local phone service. Add on the Moxi box & taxes & my bill is approx. $125 total.

I do not have a HD set yet, so this price does not include the HD tier.

Little red light on box this morning---meaning message from Charter. Would this be the long-awaited message announcing several new HD channels? Message header was interesting, "channel announcement".....but nothing about HD. Message said that VH1-Mega Hit channel will go bye-bye end of June, and Viacom's new channel, "LOGO" will replace it, but will be in the "movie tier" (which you have to subscribe to).

Did some research--"LOGO" is a channel with gay and lesbian programming.

Not that there is anything wrong with that new channel...... but still no Discovery HD, TNT Hd, Universal HD, Fox Sports HD, cinemax hd, starz hd, ABC hd, PBS hd, etc, etc.

oby,

That's correct -- nothing wrong with that.

What it probably illustrates is that the gay and lesbian community is magnitudes better organized than HD viewers. And probably larger as a group, at least currently.

Your note actually reminds me of the TiVo gag that featured in a couple episodes of the belated "Mind of the Married Man" on HBO a few seasons back. The lead male character Mike had a TiVo and because of something he'd previously recorded, his TiVo profiled him as gay and began recording/suggesting nothing but gay-oriented programs. This bugged him, so he decided to launch a "counter-programming offensive," by recording the Playboy channel, NASCAR and other macho-type programming. His wife took offense to the Playboy channel and called him on it.

He answered her by saying, "My TiVo thinks I'm gay, so I'm f---ing with it."

In a recent case of life imitating art, I had a similar HD-TiVo experience with the recently added HERE gay/lesbian channel. I like to use the Favorites channel option for channel surfing (I largely limit it to HD channels and sports networks), but one day HERE showed up in my favorites, so I removed it. A few days later, it returned, and I removed it again, and again, and again. A few months ago, it finally went away, but I wonder if anyone with an HD-TiVo noticed this.

When will it be available in our area Rich?

Scott


We are 1.5mile straight line to SBC territory. Trust me I wish I could get my freebies. I also just read that the up to 3mb service is dropping to 24.99 as part of this promo. I would really like SBC to push into O'Fallon. The closest we came to that was a few years ago when Verizon put their lines up for sale. SBC bid on them but at the last minute CenturyTel came in and blew the offer away. CenturyTel was trying to make an aggressive push from a rural telco to offering more urban areas. So the wait continues.........


Rich

Got the update this morning extra games, faster surfing thru channels, pass thru works, however all channels except HD channels are boxed on all for sides, the hdtv setup only allows me to select 1080i, 720p, or 480i, is there suppose to be a 480p selection?

do you have to have SBC's ALL Distance package to get the $14.95? I'd really like to convince my parents to get something faster. Right now they have dial-up and pay right at $10 a month. It's just such a pain driving all the way to thier house to work on the computer when if they had a faster connection, it might save me a trip to IL.

Little red light on box this morning---meaning message from Charter. Would this be the long-awaited message announcing several new HD channels? Message header was interesting, "channel announcement".....but nothing about HD. Message said that VH1-Mega Hit channel will go bye-bye end of June, and Viacom's new channel, "LOGO" will replace it, but will be in the "movie tier" (which you have to subscribe to).

Did some research--"LOGO" is a channel with gay and lesbian programming.

Not that there is anything wrong with that new channel...... but still no Discovery HD, TNT Hd, Universal HD, Fox Sports HD, cinemax hd, starz hd, ABC hd, PBS hd, etc, etc.

I got the same message.

I wonder if it got bundled with the other Viacom properties? (Spike, MTV, VH1) Or maybe it's a freebie that Viacom gives away.

BTW: just switched my phone service from SBC to AT&T CallVantage VoIP. Kept my old telephone number and the changeover wasn't a big problem. Ordered and installed the box when I got it two days later. Activated it and could start making calls out with it right away. (Could still do in/out with the phone connected to the SBC landline) On the scheduled day the switchover occured and all my service is with AT&T.

There's been a few minor glitches with the CallerID but other than that no problem. Voice quailty is fine (maybe even better then before) and tons of nice features. Some of the cool internet interface features are being able to view your call log and voice mail. For example if someone leaves a message the system will send you an email with the message as a .wav attachment that you can listen to anywhere.

Now instead of my phone bill being $50+/month it should be $21/month.

(I had a friend who went from SBC to Vonage and had numerous problems. The switchover took three months and Vonage never had SBC close the service out so he had to pay for both. For about two months of the swicthover you had to call a third number to get a hold of him. The problem is apparently Vonage and SBC are not playing nice together.)

If you have any questions, PM me.

Doug,
I know this is late, but thanks for the EPIII digital theater showings link. I'm thinking about a trip to see it in Chicago. If not, I'll catch it in Michigan this summer.

How does one know if the Moxi 3.2 update has come through or not?

Bob,
I taped the Smallville season finale for an hour only. It wasn't a 2 hour finale, was it?

How does one know if the Moxi 3.2 update has come through or not?


The easiest way is that the "Intro to Moxi" card now says "About Moxi". See other changes here: http://users.adelphia.net/~ksoltmann/SPLMoxiFAQ.htm#SoftwareUpdatesDetails

Doug,
I know this is late, but thanks for the EPIII digital theater showings link. I'm thinking about a trip to see it in Chicago. If not, I'll catch it in Michigan this summer.


I was up in Chicago 3 years ago when Ep2 was out. I wanted to catch a digital projection showing but was too busy with a wedding so there was no time to see a movie. However I remember there being 2 or 3 DLP screens downtown and one way out in Naperville. It's a humongous AMC 25 that's not far off the highway.

moman:

Have you tried a hard reset (unplug / replug) to force a program guide download? I've seen that cure guide issues before. If that doesn't fix it, I don't know what will.

Cheers,

John,

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that numerous times. A replacement 811 is on the way and due here tomorrow. That should eliminate all the variables and hopefully not introduce any new ones. If you're getting channel 2.1 program guide info on your 811, it only confirms that my box is sick.

This is odd becasue I did nothing. The guide data just decided to vanish from that one channel about a week ago. Then my Favorites Lists got corrupted and un-edit-able. Go figure........

Bye bye 811. Hello 811 (number 4 and counting!).

I went to Ultimate Electronics in St. Peters and saw the Sony Qualia. Quite Frankly..........I don't get it. Why would someone pay $13,000.00 for a television that is only marginally better then the current televisions.

I have a Toshiba 62HMX94 and feel as though the Qualia is only slightly better. I'm probably missing something or the television they had there was not calibrated correctly but, I was not impressed. For 4 times the amount of $$$$ it needs to be 4 times better. I can't wait for the other 1080p sets to come out so I can watch the price plummet on these sets in the next year.

I'm sorry if I am offending any Qualia owners but I simply can't justify the price on this set.

John,

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that numerous times. A replacement 811 is on the way and due here tomorrow. That should eliminate all the variables and hopefully not introduce any new ones. If you're getting channel 2.1 program guide info on your 811, it only confirms that my box is sick.

This is odd becasue I did nothing. The guide data just decided to vanish from that one channel about a week ago. Then my Favorites Lists got corrupted and un-edit-able. Go figure........

Bye bye 811. Hello 811 (number 4 and counting!).

I don't get 2.1 guide on my 811 either. I do get channel 43.1 with no guide info (43.1 is the digital equivalent to channel 2). Channel 2 is the only station doing this.

In a recent case of life imitating art, I had a similar HD-TiVo experience with the recently added HERE gay/lesbian channel. I like to use the Favorites channel option for channel surfing (I largely limit it to HD channels and sports networks), but one day HERE showed up in my favorites, so I removed it. A few days later, it returned, and I removed it again, and again, and again. A few months ago, it finally went away, but I wonder if anyone with an HD-TiVo noticed this.

I haven't noticed unwanted channels being added to my "Favorites" list, but I have noticed it with the "Channels I Receive" list. "Here" and a wide variety of shopping channels seem to get reloaded in the guide on a regular basis and turn up as "new" channels. As such they tend to pop up in the "Channels I Receive" list but not the "Favorites" list. I suspect Directv is trying to increase viewership of these channels. I don't know why else they'd keep re-adding them to the guide. It's not like they're part-time channels like the NFL ST or other sport package channels that are turned off and on regularly.

DJ:

There's nothing to argue about on Leno.

The broadcast is coming down from KSDK flagged as 5.1 with content only in L/R channels (haven't checked since they made the change). Until that's fixed, it isn't a receiver problem.

Cheers,

Sigh...
I guess we won't get 5.1 on the HD broadcast of the Eagles Farewell I Tour...
I'll set up my HiPix just in case. I hope they have it fixed

Dave

Smallville was 90 minutes with a 5 or 10 minute preview of New Batman Movie

According to the website the price is for 1 year, then the regular rate applies. It's still a good deal, but not a deal that stiffs the current subscribers. Just a promotion to win over customers.

Not entirely true. I have a friend that was trying to add it to go from his current 26.95 promo to the 14.95 deal. There were issues with the online ordering system and he called in and told the DSL group he was trying unsuccessfully to add the 14.95 deal but the system was down. The rep had no problem giving him the current promo. If you need help with switching your price let me know and I can help you get to the right group.

Rich

do you have to have SBC's ALL Distance package to get the $14.95? I'd really like to convince my parents to get something faster. Right now they have dial-up and pay right at $10 a month. It's just such a pain driving all the way to thier house to work on the computer when if they had a faster connection, it might save me a trip to IL.

All the information I read does not require you to have the All Distance package. However in my quest, I found that there is a new All Distance Select package for 39.99. It gives you Caller ID and InLine wire maintenance plus two other options of your choice. My aunt in KS does not have All Distance but got the promo price.

Rich

More on SBC DSL Offer

The following is from today's SkyREPORT E-News newsletter:
________________________________

SBC Communications has thrown down the competitive gauntlet when it comes to broadband.

The regional phone company on Wednesday introduced a limited-time-only price of $14.95 a month (some other charges apply, said the company) for its SBC Yahoo! DSL Express service. The offer covers a 12-month term, and it's available only to new customers. Also, to get the deal customers must sign up online through sbc.com or http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/.

Before the price cut, SBC already had the cheapest DSL rate in the market. The $14.95 rate is $5 below SBC's previous lowest rate.

The DSL price cut made waves on Wall Street.

Said Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research, "Given that SBC was already the low price player in the market, their motivations in cutting further are hard to discern. It is particularly puzzling in light of the already strained profitability of DSL at prevailing prices." He added that some may interpret the move "as an indication of greater than expected pressure from Time Warner's VoIP rollout in Texas and other western markets."

Tom Eagan of Oppenheimer and Co. said although SBC's new price of $14.99 is "below most cable operators' high-speed service rates in the $30's, most MSOs compete on higher speed, reliability and other services."
________________________________

I don't get 2.1 guide on my 811 either. I do get channel 43.1 with no guide info (43.1 is the digital equivalent to channel 2). Channel 2 is the only station doing this.

Odd. Three different 811 owners in the same market experiencing 3 different issues with the same station. I'll report back after my "new" 811 is installed. I experienced the 43.1 issue before they fixed a PSIP issue. Now it's mapped correctly as 2.1 but without the guide.

No Moxi 3.2 update as of this morning in mid-county. Are others still waiting?

I didn't check this morning, but as of about midnight last night I did not have the 3.2 update in the south city area.

Odd. Three different 811 owners in the same market experiencing 3 different issues with the same station. I'll report back after my "new" 811 is installed. I experienced the 43.1 issue before they fixed a PSIP issue. Now it's mapped correctly as 2.1 but without the guide.

I haven't checked the 811 the last several days. I've been doing a lot of work on the audio side, so I've not even powered up the projector to watch any HD or DVD.

Cheers,

No Moxi 3.2 update as of this morning in mid-county. Are others still waiting?

No 3.2 in Glendale either.

Well, to my surprise, I just checked and I do have the 3.2 update. Thanks to GlendaleHDTV, I knew what to look for. It's possible that it's been here for a day or 2, and I didn't know it. I'll give it a whirl and report back. I live in Fergusen out by the airport.

Say, is my skip button supposed to work like a 30-second skip, so that several presses will get me through a commercial break? My DISH 942 can do this, but the skip button on my Moxi remote thrusts me forward by 15 or 20 minutes. It has always done this. Is it working right? I'm not talking about the next or back buttons.

comp1040,
Did you record the Smallville season finale? According to you, my recording is short by half an hour.

I have 3.2. Was uploaded Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm in Glendale.

I checked last night and I still did not have the update. I even went in and manually tried to trigger it.

OK, the biggest problem I have with 3.2 right now is the fact that I have no dvi output at all. Before the update, I actually got flashes of a picture through dvi, it just wasn't constant. Now, there's nothing at all. Bummer. Can anyone who has the update and dvi confirm that dvi is working? Also, native resolution is working, but my widescreen image is still being filled with the SD image, so the shapes are still wrong(stretched). I have to change to the pillarbar mode on my pj for correct images. I had to do this even before the update. I was hoping that the update would allow me to make choices so that I didn't have to mess with this anymore. All my other hd stbs allow me to do this, including the Charter Motorola hd box. What gives?

SD quality does in fact appear to be better now, but it is not on the level with my other Charter hd box. It's notwhere near the SD quality of my DISH 942, but that's not a fair comparison, right? Channels do change quicker with 3.2, and the 15 minute forward or back feature works well. I'd love to have a 30-second skip feature.

Oh, the 480p choice for resolutions is completely gone in the new hdtv settings section. Why is this?

I'm going to call Charter about the dvi failure.

I spent some time with Charter tech support on the phone today(ouch!!), trying to solve this dvi issue with 3.2. It turns out that their final answer was that dvi was still in "beta testing", and that it would be activated in a couple of months with the release of the new Moxi-Mate boxes, which will have dvi ports. It was unclear as to whether or not the current Moxi boxes will have dvi activated if one doesn't go with the new boxes. All this sounds fishy to me. Isn't there a lot of documentation out there on the web that states that 3.2 does give you a working dvi port? Did Charter just screw this up for St. Louis?

Still, I was impressed to get someone who knew what the Moxi-mate was. I was able to discuss hard drive storage, and usb port activation on the Moxi-Mate for external storage. The mate will connect with the current Moxi, and provide an additional 120g hard drive, creating a total of 200g. It's still not up to the 250g of DirecTivo or the Dish 942, but it's an improvement. USB operation will not be active at release, which is set for sometime in July, but will happen in a later update.

From what I gather, the DVI ports are active, but they haven't released the "handshake" keys as of yet.

Tim

moman:

I checked this evening, and after refreshing the guide (it's been a few days) Fox had guide data.

Best,

Here's the channel lineup changes from this month's Charter bill:

Effective June 30, 2005, Viacom will discontinue transmission of VH1 Mega Hits on channel 136. Additionally, on June 30, 2005, Viacom's LOGO network will be added to the lineup on channel 630, Charter's Digital Movie Tier. These changes will not result in a modification of our current rates. If you have any questions, please contact us at: Charter Communications, 941 Charter Commons, Town and Country, MO 63107, or at 1-888-GET-CHARTER.

Charter has exciting news for our St. Louis area customers! Starting July 12, 2005, we will launch Charter All-Digital service, the most advanced digital cable system available in the nation today. For our current Charter Digital customers, every channel (Basic, Expanded Basic & Digital) will be delivered with superior digital pictures and premium quality sound at NO ADDITIONAL COST. In order to bring you Charter All-Digital, we will be moving two channels from our Expanded Basic line-up to our Digital Family & Information Tier. Hallmark Channel will move from Channel 51 to Channel 129 and SoapNet will move from Channel 67 to Channel 130. In order to continue to receive these two channels, it will be necessary to subscribe to this digital tier, which for $4.00 more per month will allow you to receive over 35 channels of exciting and informative entertainment. It's all part of our commitment to provide you with the best service and the latest technology. If you have any questions, please contact our customer care department at 1-888-GET-CHARTER.

Sigh...
I guess we won't get 5.1 on the HD broadcast of the Eagles Farewell I Tour...
I'll set up my HiPix just in case. I hope they have it fixed

Dave

KSDK was showing the Eagles in 3.0. Thanks God for D*. What an excellent show. Awesome PQ and 5.1 sound. Can't wait to get the DVD.

Scott

Scott Tucker,

O'Fallon MO doesnt have SBC, right? I just moved into O'Fallon a couple months ago as was only given Charter or CenturyTel as options for telephony.

Yeah, me too. Still no SBC in O'fallon. Welcome to the neighborhood abcward.

Scott

moman:

I checked this evening, and after refreshing the guide (it's been a few days) Fox had guide data.

Best,

Well that's just CRAZY! I installed my replacement 811 last night. No guide issues on any channel except 2.1. Even 2.0 has the guide. How can this be????? 2.1 says "LOCAL DIGITAL".

90% signal. AARRRGHHHHH!!!!

I checked last night and I still did not have the update. I even went in and manually tried to trigger it.

I triggered my update manually last night. It loaded in about 30-45 mins. Works about as I expected. Native pass-through is good.

Still, I was impressed to get someone who knew what the Moxi-mate was. I was able to discuss hard drive storage, and usb port activation on the Moxi-Mate for external storage. The mate will connect with the current Moxi, and provide an additional 120g hard drive, creating a total of 200g.

I don't think this is right. The Moxi mate doesn't have its own hard drive, and the BMC9022 (the base unit for use with the mate) has a 160g hard drive. See details here: SPL Moxi FAQ (http://users.adelphia.net/~ksoltmann/SPLMoxiFAQ.htm#HardwareBoxes)

Still, I was impressed to get someone who knew what the Moxi-mate was. I was able to discuss hard drive storage, and usb port activation on the Moxi-Mate for external storage. The mate will connect with the current Moxi, and provide an additional 120g hard drive, creating a total of 200g. It's still not up to the 250g of DirecTivo or the Dish 942, but it's an improvement. USB operation will not be active at release, which is set for sometime in July, but will happen in a later update.

That CSR may not have been as knowledgable as you think. From everything that I have seen and information I have read, the Moximate DOES NOT attach to your current 9012 Moxi. It is provided in connection with the new model 9022D. That model has a 160g harddrive. And the Mate itself does not contain any additional harddrive space, so the 200g amount you were quoted is wrong...it will only be 160g when you get a 9022D/MoxiMate.

The SKIP button was reprogrammed a while ago to be 15 minutes instead of 30s. The belief was that you could simply shuttle forward through commercials. One of the 3.2 update features is jumping back a few seconds after you stop fast forwarding. I believe TiVo has had this feature for a while. They are also supposed to be reprogramming the REPLAY button to jump back 15min instead of 8s.

Still no word on the new HD channels coming down the pipe. I'm checking...

According to the MOXI MATE DATASHEET at http://www.digeo.com/assets/datasheets/datasheet_moximate.pdf

You can pause live tv, etc. Not sure if this uses its own HDD or the one on the mothership. Also says it scales down HD content for SD viewing in another room, if desired. Mentions that it requires MOXI II box (which I was also reading will be available with up to 4 HD tuners.) Sadly, with 4 tuners you could record half of the available HD channels on the lineup :-(

-Hanjke

Thanks for all the great info guys. I think I'm up to speed on this now. Reading the Moxi FAQ was nice. It seems that the new 9022D box that the Moxi mate will connect to will have 2 tuners only in it's initial release. A later version of the box will have 4 tuners.

Yep, that Charter tech was dead wrong about my dvi port. It doesn't need anymore beta testing. It's active right now, but as stated above, Charter will have to release the handshake "keys" in order for dvi to work in another software update. This gives me hope that dvi will eventually be active on the same box I have right now. However, I'm looking forward to the 9022D, and hopefully a firewire output on it.

So I finally got the update. The one thing I notice is the Widesreen menu doesn't seem to change anything. Before, if I was watching a program on a HD channel and it wasn't really HD and not widescreen I would just go in and hit cropped mode and it would fill the screen. Now not matter if I select widescreen, cropped or letterbox nothing changes. Can someone else try this and see if it's just me or if this was messed up in the update.

Thanks

So I finally got the update. The one thing I notice is the Widesreen menu doesn't seem to change anything. Before, if I was watching a program on a HD channel and it wasn't really HD and not widescreen I would just go in and hit cropped mode and it would fill the screen. Now not matter if I select widescreen, cropped or letterbox nothing changes. Can someone else try this and see if it's just me or if this was messed up in the update.

Thanks

i have the same problem when i turned on my tv today. all sd channels (when i am in 720p or 1080i mode) are cropped and i can't seem to get them to show full screen no matter what setting i try. hd channels operate fine, but i watch more sd.

hall316 and halcali,
Can you let us know what display devices you have(native widescreen, 4:3), and what resolutions you have checked in the hdtv menu? Things are different now, in that we are asked to select all the resolutions that our display can handle, not just the output resolution that you want to see. This situation is brought about by the new native passthrough mode, only that 480p is no longer a choice. I think that's stupid. You can force one output resolution for everything by selecting just that setting and nothing else, if you'd like. I know you guys are on top of all this, but what are the aspect controls set to on your displays?

BTW, I was curious just to see if I could get my widescreen modes to show a difference last night, and they worked. However, I was only testing for 480i(nothing else was checked). I'm unhappy that I still have to go to my pj controls to get SD channels to show with pillarbars on my native widescreen pj. All my other hd stbs have controls that do this so I don't have to mess with it.

hall316 and halcali,
Can you let us know what display devices you have(native widescreen, 4:3), and what resolutions you have checked in the hdtv menu? Things are different now, in that we are asked to select all the resolutions that our display can handle, not just the output resolution that you want to see. This situation is brought about by the new native passthrough mode, only that 480p is no longer a choice. I think that's stupid. You can force one output resolution for everything by selecting just that setting and nothing else, if you'd like. I know you guys are on top of all this, but what are the aspect controls set to on your displays?

BTW, I was curious just to see if I could get my widescreen modes to show a difference last night, and they worked. However, I was only testing for 480i(nothing else was checked). I'm unhappy that I still have to go to my pj controls to get SD channels to show with pillarbars on my native widescreen pj. All my other hd stbs have controls that do this so I don't have to mess with it.

Yea, this whole "native passthrough" is a little confusing to me. My Component input will only accept 1080i, 720p, and 480p (way to go Samsung :rolleyes: ). I've checked only 1080i in the HD setup menu, and now 4:3 content is shown 4:3 and HD content is shown widescreen, all with the TV set to "wide" mode. This is exactly how I want everything to show up, but it doesn't seem to make logical sense. I figured that with 1080i (only) checked, everything would still be strectched to fill the screen.

There's someone over on the Moxi thread that I think said he checked 1080i and 480i, and the picture fills the screen for all channels. He indicated that with only 1080i checked, SD channels are pillar boxed and widescreen fills the screen. Those having trouble with the new HD setup might try that.