Frogs don't have lips

hehe, sorry, I couldn't resist.

The 5.1 was phenomenal during LOST tonight, no dropouts, and in perfect sync throughout. Woo hoo! Gotta love that tree frog! Good work Jim (and company)!

KSDK at it again. Not sure if it's still going, but when the 10:30 PM news started tonight there was a "off the air" tone over the top of the regular sound. The also started showing the opening on the Tonight Show, before switching to the late-running news.

Back to my red tint issue during the news broadcast: Everything looks great today and has looked fine since my last post where I stated it was bad. I'm convinced that the "red" is something on the station's side and since apparently most of you guys don't watch KSDK news (or news at all), you aren't seeing the issues like I am. Since the HD news has started, I've only had a few days where there appeared to be a signifficant red tint to the broadcaster's faces.

I'm done rambling.

Why does the st louis have some many more post then others in this forum. i mean it is not even close.

off subject but why does the st louis section of this forum have so many more post then others. i mean st louis is double the post compared to other cities

Why does the st louis have some many more post then others in this forum. i mean it is not even close.

off subject but why does the st louis section of this forum have so many more post then others. i mean st louis is double the post compared to other cities
duplicate posts, perhaps :rolleyes:

Kurt K,

I could be wrong, but I had a brief look-in at the HD news on KDSK earlier in the week, and it looks to me that they've changed philosophy on the lighting. In the P-D curtain-raiser on KSDK's HD news broadcasts, reporter Gail Pennington cited the fact that they were using "restaurant lighting" on the set.

But based on what I saw briefly on Monday, it seems they have changed their lighting approach, or at least they appear to be experimenting. The lighting definitely seemed brighter than it was in the debut broadcast, based on the fact that there are shadows visible on the shoulders of the anchors. I'd also say that there's a bit more texture to Karen Foss's face, where before it seems somewhat featureless.

As a result of the higher lighting levels, the anchors' flesh tones seem less pasty overall, and a lot more natural.

Maybe this is what you're seeing?

off subject but why does the st louis section of this forum have so many more post then others. i mean st louis is double the post compared to other cities

This thread actually got it's start before the Local HDTV forum was opened up. We used to start a new thread each month and then put a link to the old thread in the beginning of each new month's thread. When they made a local HDTV forum with one big thread for each major city, our old monthly forums went bye bye (and are now in the archives). Anyway, when this new local section started, some cities hadn't already been actively posting about their OTA and local HDTV issues, and we had already been doing it for over a year, so our thread already had alot of interest and active posters.

Also, some cities don't have huge threads because those areas have their own dedicated website/forum and don't like to post here due to some of the moderation that goes on (when I lived in Tampa from May04-June05 I was active with the Tampa OTA guys but none of them posted here.... they couldn't post a link to their site in this forum due to AVS rules, so one of them PM'd me the address of their forum so that I could find it. I'm sure they're not the only city with their own dedicated website and forum).

Kurt K,

Maybe this is what you're seeing?

Yeah, I'm sure I'm seeing some of that. If they keep playing around I might have to break down and get a calibration, just so I absolutely know it's not my TV (which I don't think it is anyway). I'll let you know :)

The other factor in comparing the STL thread to other cities is that several of the larger cities have segmented their discussions into separate OTA and Local Cable threads, which means you really have to add together the total posts of both discussion threads to get an equivalent.

At the same time, we're pretty liberal here (but not out of control) on covering a wider range of topics than just HDTV.

All that said, this is a great place to hang out, with lots of knowledgeable and helpful folks stopping in regularly. Quantity is helpful in maintaining a sort of online momentum, but in the end, it's more about the quality of the discussion and the way people who spend time here conduct themselves.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm seeing some of that. If they keep playing around I might have to break down and get a calibration, just so I absolutely know it's not my TV (which I don't think it is anyway). I'll let you know :)


Hey Kurt,

I noticed the same thing you have been describing.
I primarily watch the 5 & 6 PM news on 5.

I'm using a 50" Maxent Plasma calibrated w/AVIA disk with Directv HD Tivo.

Last night's 5PM news didn't have the red tint I was seeing before.

So at least your not crazy alone ;)

Token

Hey Kurt,

I noticed the same thing you have been describing.
I primarily watch the 5 & 6 PM news on 5.

I'm using a 50" Maxent Plasma calibrated w/AVIA disk with Directv HD Tivo.

Last night's 5PM news didn't have the red tint I was seeing before.

So at least your not crazy alone ;)

Token

Whew, I feel better now. Currently, I'm just calibrated with the AVIA disk also. Running a 64" Pioneer Elite 720HD RPTV and D*

Doug,
I'm at another ABC station tonight...how was the lip sync?
Jim

lip sync was off buy just a little bit. Probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking for it. Other than that it was stellar.

Scott

Kurt & Token,

I'd be happy to help out either of you guys if you eventually decide you want to have your TV calibrated.

While use of AVIA (or Video Essentials) is definitely worthwhile, it's not really accurate to call it "calibration" (as an analogy, it's like writing a simple "hello, world" macro in Excel and calling it computer programming). The test discs such as AVIA can be useful for setting correct black levels (brightness), and possibly contrast, as well as getting color balance (color/tint) right, so long as you're not totally relying on the enclosed color filters.

In addition, the AVIA setup adjustments would need to be performed separately for each signal type you are sending to your television -- not just the DVD input. If you have a "scaling" DVD player and you're only using digital inputs on your set (ie. HDMI or DVI, no component or RGB) this may work if you do each source type separately. But without access to a standard white reference or color analyzer, the grayscale is very likely to remain far off the D6500 standard and color will still not be accurate.

Understand that this note isn't intended to denigrate your use of AVIA -- as stated, it's a very worthwhile process but shouldn't be confused with calibration. If what I'm saying here comes off as "elitist," it isn't meant to be.

Calibration is my livelihood, so it's important to me to get this message across.

duplicate posts, perhaps :rolleyes:

LOL :D

Yeah, I also thought the lip sync on "Lost" last night was very good. However, I currently have a demo Lumagen video scaler/processor connected to my set and it introduces a very, very slight delay as a result of the video processing (50ms, if I recall correctly).

As a result, I'm not really in a position to give an absolute assessment on lip sync, but I can say I wasn't distracted at all by what I saw and heard last night.

Thanks Scott.

A bit of an update and new wrinkle. I can dial in ABC OR NBC but not both. I turned it from a square to 45 degrees so it looks like a yield road sign and was able to pull NBC in better. Because they are just a few degrees between those channels, the "Big Gun" as Winegard refers to their antenna engineer, said to get a 3 DB attenuator and 6 DB as my signals may be too strong and are causing problems. So off Iwent to Radio Shack and all they had was the 6 DB one. Didn't help. It may have cut it too much. I went to BB, CompUSA and they didn't carry them either. The idea was to install the attenuator and then adjust the antenna. Not being able to try the 3 I have no idea if it will help. Btw, Hahn, the guy at Winegard said this antenna is simliar to a 4 bay bowtie I had a 2.

At least Lost is a repeat but it's going to get cold again.

Where can I pick up a 3 DB? Being new to the area I only know about Skywalker way out in O'Fallon thanks to Doug.

Sorry, Lost was not a repeat. Yeah, the 3db may make a difference. You may want to call Ultimate Electronics in St. Charles, and ask to talk to the install dept. They may have a attenuator to give you. Good luck.

Doug,

I agree with all the points you mentioned.
I should have put calibration in quotes :)

I would eventually like to have calibration done but I have to convince the W it's worth the $$. ;)

PM me some more info with pricing if you wouldn't mind.


Thanks,
Token

Damn! I missed Grey's Anatomy. That was part 2 that aired last night wasn't it? Oh well. Did anyone blow up?

Scott
Scott,
ABC is re-airing Part 2, tonight at 8:30.

Traditionally I've found around 10% to 15% of my customers didn't have an HD source. I was always surprised and a bit disappointed when this happened (it's pretty rare in 2006), but the usual explanation was that when the customer bought the set they needed to buy a new TV because their old had failed, and to them it didn't make sense to buy a non-HD set.


Thanks Doug,

Happy to say that as a result of the Super Bowl party we hosted, two friends that have HD sets and no HD programming are going to at least hoist up an antenna!

I ended up returning the 6DB and got one that has a dial from 0-20 and slowly turned it. Made no difference.

Heck by the time I het this sorted out (if I ever do) the HD locals will be here! :D

Sorry, Lost was not a repeat. Yeah, the 3db may make a difference. You may want to call Ultimate Electronics in St. Charles, and ask to talk to the install dept. They may have a attenuator to give you. Good luck.

I'm having a problem with Fox 2.1 OTA where the picture/audio will freeze and pixel then go back to normal. Sometime it's short <1 sec. other times it lasts 5 sec. I do not have this problem with my other OTA and signal strength is strong on all channels. Anyone else have this problem?

I have D* w/HR10-250

Slightly OT, but since the Fox station here is O & O (owned and operated by Fox), you can usually get waivers from them to get the NY Fox feed on D* channel 88. I use that for all of my Fox season passes (24, Arrested Development). Ends your OTA dropout problems.

You just need to call D* and have them send a request for waivers for you.

Since FOX is 720p, I don't think D* downrezzes, so PQ should be similar.

Scott,
ABC is re-airing Part 2, tonight at 8:30.

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up.

Scott

Slightly OT, but since the Fox station here is O & O (owned and operated by Fox), you can usually get waivers from them to get the NY Fox feed on D* channel 88. I use that for all of my Fox season passes (24, Arrested Development). Ends your OTA dropout problems.

You just need to call D* and have them send a request for waivers for you.

Since FOX is 720p, I don't think D* downrezzes, so PQ should be similar.

You don't need to ask for waivers. They are supposed to just add it. Here is the sequence of events I went through when I had D* in 05. Just start at the bottom and read up. Just go through the contact us from you account on D* webpage. As you see, I got a generic response and countered it to get what I was after. Have fun!!




Dear Rich,

Thanks for writing. As you requested, I have added the FOX HD channel to your
account as you are eligible to add the package to your account. You can view FOX HD
on channel 88/89. The changes to your account will be reflected on your next DIRECTV
bill, or you can see them immediately by signing into your DIRECTV account online at
DIRECTV.com/MyDIRECTV and clicking on "View Activity Since Your Last Bill" in the My
Account column.

Our online services give you great options to manage your account 24 hours a day.
You can pay your bill, order pay per view programming and sports subscriptions and
change your programming package to name just a few of the convenient features
available online. To sign up or to learn more, visit us at DIRECTV.com/MyDIRECTV and
follow the simple instructions.

Thanks again for writing and stay tuned to DIRECTV.com for the latest news and
information about our service.

Sincerely,

Balaji B
DIRECTV Customer Service

---------------------------------------------------------------
Original Message Follows:

01/11/2005 12:55 PM



I was not asking for waivers. My neighbor and father have had this added
with no problem. If you read the link I orignally included in my email, you
will see that since I live in a market that is owned by FOX I am eligble for
the FOX HD channel 88. If you cannot resolve this then please escallate
this issue. I know it can and is being done. Waivers ARE NOT needed.

Rich Quin

-----Original Message-----
From: Feedback [mailto:Feedback@directv.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 9:32 AM
To: rquin@


01/11/2005 07:31 AM

Dear Rich,

Thank you for writing. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. Federal law
says that we are not allowed to provide New York or Los Angeles network
affiliates to customers who live in areas where we provide local channels or
who can receive an over-the-air signal from a local TV station (according to
standards of signal reception that we are required to use).

If you have been receiving New York or Los Angeles networks and you move, we
must re-evaluate your eligibility for non-local networks based on your new
address. If you move into an area where we carry local channels, the
December 2004 Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act
(SHVERA) states DIRECTV can't continue to provide you with non-local
networks. And if you move into an area where we do not provide local
channels - even if it's the same general area that they've been living in -
we must re-submit the waiver requests before we can continue providing the
non-local networks. Please know that federal law -- not DIRECTV - sets
strict guidelines for receiving non-local broadcast channels.

Thanks again for writing and stay tuned to DIRECTV.com for the latest news
and updates about our services.

Sincerely,

Preeti W
DIRECTV Customer Service

---------------------------------------------------------------
Original Message Follows:

01/10/2005 04:26 PM

DIRECTV FEEDBACK MESSAGE

Name: Rich Quin

Status: Subscriber

[Account Number: 22xxxxxx]

E-mail Address: "Rich Quin"<>

[Topic Selected: Hdtv]


Details: I just called in about why I do not have channel 88 when I meet all
the requirements. I live in a FOX Owned and Operated market. The rep told
me this is not true. I even mentioned the below link that is off DirecTv's
website. I ended up getting disconnected once I tried explaining this. I
live in the St. Louis, MO market. I am trying to go through the webpage in
hopes of getting this resolved. The link I am referencing is
http://www.directv.com/see/landing/fox_hd.html

Slightly OT, but since the Fox station here is O & O (owned and operated by Fox), you can usually get waivers from them to get the NY Fox feed on D* channel 88. I use that for all of my Fox season passes (24, Arrested Development). Ends your OTA dropout problems.

You just need to call D* and have them send a request for waivers for you.

Since FOX is 720p, I don't think D* downrezzes, so PQ should be similar.
You do not need to obtain a waiver from anywhere to get Fox 88 on D* in the St. Louis area. If you are a HD Package subscriber you should get it automatically. If you have the HD package and don't see 88, just call D* and get them to activate it.

Edit: looks like Rich beat me to the post to say about the same thing.

I've recently tried to arrange for channel 88 to be added for a couple of my customers who have DirecTV and it's definitely a miss-and-hit proposition -- and more miss than hit.

In one case, I had to talk with two different CSRs and in the other it took three calls. In both cases, I tried a supervisor and ended up only 50/50 in the end. I think the problem may be that the some of the DirecTV computers have St. Louis listed as requiring waivers, even for FOX.

Morale of the story: Try, try, try and try again...

Here's a shout out to BB in Brentwood... Brandon and Seth went out of their way to help me return my Sammy 42HD and receive a relatively unavailable Panasonic 42HD. I'm finally happy.

Slightly OT, but since the Fox station here is O & O (owned and operated by Fox), .

Are any of our other locals O & O by their network?

Are any of our other locals O & O by their network?
No, just Fox.

I have one of the new Dish MPEG4 HD DVR's up and running. (VIP622)
If anyone is interested in information, feedback, etc., drop me note.

Congrats kdg, let us know.

Does anyone use checkhd.com or titantv? I remember hearing about checkhd before I had HD. Is there anything useful there, should I be a member? If you ask for the full guide it asks you to become a member at titantv.

Not sure what you're referring to. Most network prime-time shows are in HD, and many of the most popular non-broadcast channels (HBO, Showtime, ESPN, Discovery, MTV, TNT) are available in HD and are providing substantial content.

Yes, there is an issue of a limited supply of remote units for live HD broadcasts, such as for sporting events, but that is much less an issue than it was even a year ago. For example, ESPN and ESPN-HD recently carried six live sporting events in a single day -- a college football all-star game and five college basketball games. On the same day, CBS also carried an HD college hoops matchup.

As someone who's been watching HDTV (or trying to) since early 1999, I can tell you that we've come a very long way in 7 years.

Another issue is the fact that Hollywood is paranoid about copy protection being flaunted, but I don't know that we'd really be seeing a lot more if the situation were different (absolute broadcast flag, unassailable copy protection on packaged media, etc.). Overall, probably the biggest hindrance to more HD content is the fact that only around 10% of US households have a television capable of displaying HDTV.

But again, I might be missing the point of your question. If so, take another shot at it...


Guess I shouldn't have said "source material", as the networks indeed are putting out quite a lot of programming in HD. It seems, however, that there is a reluctance on the part of providers (like cable and the local affiliates) to embrace the changes wholeheartedly. There just seems to be some general dragging of the feet. I think more sets will be sold once it becomes easier to receive HD programming and there is more and more programming available.

I just called and got 88 added. What this means is I can take the Square Shooter down and return it. I'll put the 2-bay double bowtie back up. It had problems with CBS & Fox. So I'll have 3 out of 4! One call to D* is all it took. He went ahead and submitted waivers for all the other ones too. It's doubtful, but I may get lucky.
Thanks so very much for mentioning this here. You guys rock!

Btw, I spoke to the antenna engineer at Winegard and he is sending me an omnidiretional MS-1000 for free even though antennaweb suggests a medium directional. The problem apparently is one antenna ca oull the lower band channels well and the other pulls the higher one. That's true because of which 2 the SS pulled and the other 2 the bowtie pulled. It looks like a flying saucer on a stick. When it warms up I'll try it for the heck of it.

You do not need to obtain a waiver from anywhere to get Fox 88 on D* in the St. Louis area. If you are a HD Package subscriber you should get it automatically. If you have the HD package and don't see 88, just call D* and get them to activate it.

Edit: looks like Rich beat me to the post to say about the same thing.

AAAHHHHH HAIL!!!!!!

We just got dumped on in the Riverport area. My truck has dimples all over. That is OK, I hope my DB4 antenna didn't get damaged!!!

Talk about weird weather.... just some light rain in St. Peters......

Heads Up: Rootkit Menace Moves from CDs to DVDs

The following excerpt is from eWeek.com:
______________________________________________________

Sony BMG is not the only company to dabble in using copy-protection technology that resembles rootkits.

According to anti-virus vendor F-Secure, based in Helsinki, Finland, the German DVD release of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"—a recent movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie—contains a DRM (digital rights management) protection scheme that uses rootkit-like cloaking technology.

Rootkits are typically used to maintain a persistent and undetectable presence on a computer.

Because malicious hackers can piggyback on the technology to hide offensive files, the use of such cloaking technology is seen as a serious security risk.

In a blog post, F-Secure vice president Antti Vihavainen said the DVD ships in Germany with Settec Alpha-DISC copy protection.

"The system will hide its own process, but does not appear to hide any files or registry entries. This makes the feature a bit less dangerous, as anti-virus products will still be able to scan all files on the disk," Vihavainen said.
______________________________________________________

To read the entire eWeek.com story, click here. (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1926917,00.asp)

I have one of the new Dish MPEG4 HD DVR's up and running. (VIP622)
If anyone is interested in information, feedback, etc., drop me note.

I just got my 211 up and running yesterday. I paid for the box and will be upgrading to the 622 on April 1, when I'll take advantage of the lease upgrade offer. Any general comments you have on the 622 are welcome. I own the 921 now, but I've read the 622 is likely the best box yet for Dish, even faster than the 942.

AAAHHHHH HAIL!!!!!!

We just got dumped on in the Riverport area. My truck has dimples all over. That is OK, I hope my DB4 antenna didn't get damaged!!!

We had some serious hail at work in O'fallon, but no damage to the car that I can see thank God.

Scott

I ended up returning the 6DB and got one that has a dial from 0-20 and slowly turned it. Made no difference.

Heck by the time I het this sorted out (if I ever do) the HD locals will be here! :D


Mo you have some much knowledge by now you should go into business. :)

We had some serious hail at work in O'fallon, but no damage to the car that I can see thank God.

Scott

Yep, it hailed by me and SCHEERCE, too. It would have gotten dimpled at home, too. :(

I just got my 211 up and running yesterday. I paid for the box and will be upgrading to the 622 on April 1, when I'll take advantage of the lease upgrade offer. Any general comments you have on the 622 are welcome. I own the 921 now, but I've read the 622 is likely the best box yet for Dish, even faster than the 942.
Yes Joe, it is considerably faster. Though, I'm coming off a 921, which will undoubtedly go down as the slowest receiver in history. For comparison, I also have a 211, and find the 622 to be 10-20% faster than the 211. There is a slight pause (1 sec, or so) while in the system setup and information screens, but all other remote function responses are lightning fast. The 622 seems undaunted when several commands are "stacked-up" using the remote. My 921 would freeze, and restart itself!

It seems Dish listened well to its customer base, as many of the wish-list features are now available on the 622. Including the retention of the >30 second and <10 second skips.

The menu graphics and interface is the same as the 211. With regard to PQ, I find it about the same as the 921. I did notice an improved SD PQ from the 811 to the 211, which I also see on the 622. HD looks the same as the 921. The OTA tuner is about the same as the 211, which is a bit stronger than the 921 was.

The 622 now recognizes an external mass storage device, such as an external hard drive or digital camera. Currently the record to/from feature is not yet enabled, but the menu item for it is, so I'd expect that to be forthcoming.
It appears, by the menu, you will be able to transfer recording between the USB device and the 622 drive, then being able to view them off the 622 drive. It would be a means of retaining recordings, though you would have to transfer them back on to the 622 in order to view them.
Presently, an external hard drive, or digital camera can be connected for moving pictures to the 622 drive, and viewing them on the attached display.

Many of the recording features are new to me, however, they all may not be new from the 942. They have added a well done interface of management of recordings, which can be separated by TV1, TV2, and users.
They have added Dish Pass which is the TiVo equivalent of Season Pass, allowing timers to be set for entire seasons and/or new episodes. You can also use the much enhanced search functions, for example, to set up timers for all new shows with a particular actor/actress, etc.

Probably the two best features of all, is there is now access to 3 timers. You can now simultaneously record 2 SAT events and 1 OTA event. And second, both the component and DVI output HD simultaneously.

After about a week or so, I'll post another review once I've had some time to complete the configurations I use, see how the timers behave, etc.

I have some screenshots, lmk if you'd like to view them.

Thanks for the review. I'm glad the 30 and 10 sec. skips are still there. That's my favorite feature. I also picked up a local on the 211 that I'd never seen before.

The reviews of the 622 are starting to trickle out. Dish seems to have accelerated the rollout of the device. I read on DBSTalk about the fact that apparently you will have to transfer movies back to the 622 from external storage to watch them - disappointing.

I like the interface on the 211, too. It's a lot cleaner than the 921. So far, no blue smoke from the 211's HDMI port, so I'm on schedule to send it off for the R5000 recording mod soon.

Being able to record three sources at the same time is a real plus, and I'll definitely be able to take advantage to the ability to output component and HDMI simultaneously.

Look forward to your next review.


Yes Joe, it is considerably faster. Though, I'm coming off a 921, which will undoubtedly go down as the slowest receiver in history. For comparison, I also have a 211, and find the 622 to be 10-20% faster than the 211. There is a slight pause (1 sec, or so) while in the system setup and information screens, but all other remote function responses are lightning fast. The 622 seems undaunted when several commands are "stacked-up" using the remote. My 921 would freeze, and restart itself!

It seems Dish listened well to its customer base, as many of the wish-list features are now available on the 622. Including the retention of the >30 second and <10 second skips.

The menu graphics and interface is the same as the 211. With regard to PQ, I find it about the same as the 921. I did notice an improved SD PQ from the 811 to the 211, which I also see on the 622. HD looks the same as the 921. The OTA tuner is about the same as the 211, which is a bit stronger than the 921 was.

The 622 now recognizes an external mass storage device, such as an external hard drive or digital camera. Currently the record to/from feature is not yet enabled, but the menu item for it is, so I'd expect that to be forthcoming.
It appears, by the menu, you will be able to transfer recording between the USB device and the 622 drive, then being able to view them off the 622 drive. It would be a means of retaining recordings, though you would have to transfer them back on to the 622 in order to view them.
Presently, an external hard drive, or digital camera can be connected for moving pictures to the 622 drive, and viewing them on the attached display.

Many of the recording features are new to me, however, they all may not be new from the 942. They have added a well done interface of management of recordings, which can be separated by TV1, TV2, and users.
They have added Dish Pass which is the TiVo equivalent of Season Pass, allowing timers to be set for entire seasons and/or new episodes. You can also use the much enhanced search functions, for example, to set up timers for all new shows with a particular actor/actress, etc.

Probably the two best features of all, is there is now access to 3 timers. You can now simultaneously record 2 SAT events and 1 OTA event. And second, both the component and DVI output HD simultaneously.

After about a week or so, I'll post another review once I've had some time to complete the configurations I use, see how the timers behave, etc.

I have some screenshots, lmk if you'd like to view them.

So far, no blue smoke from the 211's HDMI port, so I'm on schedule to send it off for the R5000 recording mod soon.

You should be OK, I've had the 211 for 3 weeks now. The only issue I've had was the video dropped out once on an OTA, a few days after I had it. Soft reset resolved it, and it happened the day before the software update. Been fine since.

A question about your 942. Do you use it in duel mode with a TV2? Reason I ask is, on the 622, the default for recording is TV2. I'm wondering if you know the reasoning behind that. I haven't had enough time to "play" around with it, and my lord...heaven forbid I should mess up one of the wife's recordings :o

From my first glimpses, it appears the recording folders for TV1 and TV2 are indeed separate, but it also appears either TV can access both folders for viewing.
If that be the case, I cannot figure out which, if any, TV would serve better as the default.

You should be OK, I've had the 211 for 3 weeks now. The only issue I've had was the video dropped out once on an OTA, a few days after I had it. Soft reset resolved it, and it happened the day before the software update. Been fine since.

A question about your 942. Do you use it in duel mode with a TV2? Reason I ask is, on the 622, the default for recording is TV2. I'm wondering if you know the reasoning behind that. I haven't had enough time to "play" around with it, and my lord...heaven forbid I should mess up one of the wife's recordings :o

From my first glimpses, it appears the recording folders for TV1 and TV2 are indeed separate, but it also appears either TV can access both folders for viewing.
If that be the case, I cannot figure out which, if any, TV would serve better as the default.

I'm in the same boat as you - I'm coming from the 921, not the 942. There are a few 942 users here, though, who could probably answer that question.

I'm in the same boat as you - I'm coming from the 921, not the 942. There are a few 942 users here, though, who could probably answer that question.
My apologizes, I misread your first post.

Well then, coming off the 921 as I am, I'm sure you will be just as happy with the 622. The 921 and the 622 aren't even in the same league.
I moved the 921 into the bedroom, and turned in 2 of the 301's.

I'm even going to read some parts of the OM tomorrow, and that's just sick!

My apologizes, I misread your first post.

Well then, coming off the 921 as I am, I'm sure you will be just as happy with the 622. The 921 and the 622 aren't even in the same league.
I moved the 921 into the bedroom, and turned in 2 of the 301's.

I'm even going to read some parts of the OM tomorrow, and that's just sick!

So, you bought or leased the 622? And you kept the 921? Did you get some sort of deal by turning in two 301s?

Thanks but it's hard work. I'd rather stick to computer repair and ugrades. :) I just try to apply the same logic I do with computers. Shameless plug: www.suchageek.com

I put the 2-bay back up and exited the roof right before the tornado sirens started going off. Scared me to half to death. I lived in NorCal for 20 years and even went through the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco. I'd trade that any day over tornadoes. As soon as the lightening got close, I got the heck down. So I have to go back up to try to line up ABC better and get some tie wraps on it

Mo you have some much knowledge by now you should go into business. :)

So, you bought or leased the 622? And you kept the 921? Did you get some sort of deal by turning in two 301s?
Since the 622 is a duel tuner receiver, Dish requires you turn-in 2 receivers for the current lease upgrade fee of $299. They do not care which receivers you turn in, their goal is to eventually purge all MPEG2 equipment out of the system.
I deactivated and turned in 2 301's.

If you own the receivers, you can keep them, but if you turn them in, you receive a $25 credit for each. If you lease the receiver(s), you must turn them in, and still receive the $25 credit for each.

When the 4/1 upgrade offer begins for current MPEG2 HD DVR (921/942) users (owned or leased) the $200 rebate will require the return of the MPEG2 receiver.

I believe MPEG2 is going to be around for quite some time to come, more so than the optimistic 1-2 years Dish would like. There are currently over 25 million SD/MPEG2 Dish receivers active (mostly MPEG2), and Dish is still several months away from even their first MPEG4 transmission. IMO, Dish will still be transmitting MPEG2 in 2010.

I purchased my 921 in Nov '04 for $549.
I leased the new 622 for $299.
I turned in 2 301's for a $50 credit.
And I now have HD DVR in both the Living room and Bedroom.

Plus, it's noted in my account file that Dish owes me a Dish1000 at no additional cost, providing it is installed in the next 12 months.

Had I waited until 4/1, I would have saved the additional $200 from the rebate, but I would have to turn in the 921, and only have one HD DVR.
Instead of Dish buying back the 921 they sold me for $549, for $200, it was worth the $200 to me, to have the second HD DVR.

Since the 622 is a duel tuner receiver, Dish requires you turn-in 2 receivers for the current lease upgrade fee of $299. They do not care which receivers you turn in, their goal is to eventually purge all MPEG2 equipment out of the system.
I deactivated and turned in 2 301's.

If you own the receivers, you can keep them, but if you turn them in, you receive a $25 credit for each. If you lease the receiver(s), you must turn them in, and still receive the $25 credit for each.

When the 4/1 upgrade offer begins for current MPEG2 HD DVR (921/942) users (owned or leased) the $200 rebate will require the return of the MPEG2 receiver.

I believe MPEG2 is going to be around for quite some time to come, more so than the optimistic 1-2 years Dish would like. There are currently over 25 million SD/MPEG2 Dish receivers active (mostly MPEG2), and Dish is still several months away from even their first MPEG4 transmission. IMO, Dish will still be transmitting MPEG2 in 2010.

I purchased my 921 in Nov '04 for $549.
I leased the new 622 for $299.
I turned in 2 301's for a $50 credit.
And I now have HD DVR in both the Living room and Bedroom.

Plus, it's noted in my account file that Dish owes me a Dish1000 at no additional cost, providing it is installed in the next 12 months.

Had I waited until 4/1, I would have saved the additional $200 from the rebate, but I would have to turn in the 921, and only have one HD DVR.
Instead of Dish buying back the 921 they sold me for $549, for $200, it was worth the $200 to me, to have the second HD DVR.

Thanks. That's a good summary of the options. There is so much confusion and conjecture out there right now that I was having trouble sorting through it. The Dish CSRs have been giving customers conflicting stories. My plan still applies, which was to buy the 211 and lease the 622. I won't need to keep the 921, since I can record with the 211, too. I use MyHD to record OTA channels and play back OTA and satellite recordings. These recordings I can keep, while I'll use the 622 for material I want to watch just once.

This R5000 modification to satellite receivers really is a wonderful option for people who like to archive. It's also the only game in town right now. There is one other option - the 169Time system - but it usually comes with a full set of horror stories of how it doesn't really work very well. The R5000 mod just plain works, and if you're not afraid of hooking up a USB cable to your computer, it's an easy and painless process. It also works with some D* receivers and some cable boxes.

It will be more worth it to me if Dish activates the USB port on the 622 allowing you to archive content to external drives. This will allow you to build a nice library of HDTV content.

Otherwise, you've got very limited capacity on the internal hard drive.

You can build disk capacity in Terabyte chunks that's RAID-5 protected pretty cheaply these days.

Alternatively, it's a bit more expensive to get a 211 modified ($550), but then you do have a functioning USB port that gives you unencrypted outputs that you can edit/modify and you could then build a nice library of content to archive on a PC.

Anyway, glad to hear that the 622 is working well, now if they'd just activate the USB or the Ethernet ports for external archiving all would be well with the world.

Cheers,

thanks for the summary on the Dish options; I only have time to read up on the latest every few weeks or so.


On another note, I didn't see this link posted here that describes the production setup for the Olympics:


http://hdolympics.blogspot.com/

hmm. the insert hyperlink isn't working for IE7 beta2. I'll edit this with firefox in a moment.

-CoCoKola

I just got a letter from SBC stating that my promotional rate for DSL is over, and they are going to bump it to $35/month. Has anyone had luck getting SBC to keep their promotional rate, or do I have to call Charter?

I just got a letter from SBC stating that my promotional rate for DSL is over, and they are going to bump it to $35/month. Has anyone had luck getting SBC to keep their promotional rate, or do I have to call Charter?I haven't had to deal with this yet, but I know my time is coming. Keep us posted on any luck you have keeping your current rate.

This R5000 modification to satellite receivers really is a wonderful option for people who like to archive. It's also the only game in town right now. There is one other option - the 169Time system - but it usually comes with a full set of horror stories of how it doesn't really work very well. The R5000 mod just plain works, and if you're not afraid of hooking up a USB cable to your computer, it's an easy and painless process. It also works with some D* receivers and some cable boxes.

Hey Joe,

This part of your post REALLY caught my eye and got me looking into it. Too bad my currently unused HTL-HD isn't on the list of supported receivers. Would have been a no-brainer. So I'm thinking about buying one of their pre-modded Hughes E86 receivers... but the $700 price tag is gonna have to wait a few paychecks.

Before I go looking through the archives... anyone here able to give me some feedback on the E86 in general? Mainly picture and sound quality.... not too concerned about the user interface since I'd be using it strictly through the PC as a PVR.

Edit: Started going through the archives already and noticed the E86 is prone to overheating. Might look into the ancient RCA DTC-100 instead as that's on the supported list, too.

Thanks!

I just got a letter from SBC stating that my promotional rate for DSL is over, and they are going to bump it to $35/month. Has anyone had luck getting SBC to keep their promotional rate, or do I have to call Charter?

I call and get the lowest 'new customer' rate whenever they come out with it - they make you commit to a 6/12/18 month contract though. I've lowered my dsl bill 4 times in 2 years before the previous contract expired.

Edit: Just ask the normal CSR for a lower rate and they've always given it to me.

Hey Joe,

This part of your post REALLY caught my eye and got me looking into it. Too bad my currently unused HTL-HD isn't on the list of supported receivers. Would have been a no-brainer. So I'm thinking about buying one of their pre-modded Hughes E86 receivers... but the $700 price tag is gonna have to wait a few paychecks.

Before I go looking through the archives... anyone here able to give me some feedback on the E86 in general? Mainly picture and sound quality.... not too concerned about the user interface since I'd be using it strictly through the PC as a PVR.

Edit: Started going through the archives already and noticed the E86 is prone to overheating. Might look into the ancient RCA DTC-100 instead as that's on the supported list, too.

Thanks!

Once in a while these modded receivers end up on eBay - just read about a guy who got a D* box that way. Dish subs are sort of screwed, in that E* won't activate an old MPEG2 HD box for a different subscriber than the one who owns it. Dish HD receivers are on eBay, too, going for some pretty decent prices, but I couldn't in good conscience sell one that way to some unsuspecting buyer.

Her's Nextcom's web site for anyone who's interested:

Nextcom Home Page for R5000 Modification (http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/home.htm)

They have a complete list of supported receivers.

A question about your 942. Do you use it in duel mode with a TV2? Reason I ask is, on the 622, the default for recording is TV2. I'm wondering if you know the reasoning behind that. I haven't had enough time to "play" around with it, and my lord...heaven forbid I should mess up one of the wife's recordings :o




I use my 942 in Single mode. So I don't know about the default for recording. I do this because both component and HDMI work at the same time as mentioned. It is hooked up to my JVC HDILA in the basement as well as my NEC in the bedroom. Obviously both have to be showing the same thing, this is not a problem as it is only me and my wife. We are typically both in one place or the other (we haven't been married long enough yet to spend ALL evening in seperate rooms). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe in dual mode only one TV can show HD, that was our reason for using Single mode, but both component and HDMI.

You can build disk capacity in Terabyte chunks that's RAID-5 protected pretty cheaply these days.

Alternatively, it's a bit more expensive to get a 211 modified ($550), but then you do have a functioning USB port that gives you unencrypted outputs that you can edit/modify and you could then build a nice library of content to archive on a PC.
Cheers,

This is what I do, except I use the cheaper RAID-0 approach with multiple computer systems. It's not quite as safe, but I spread the risk out with multiple systems and DVD backups (data files) of the HD content. Each system has all the other systems' hard drives mapped as network drives with the same naming conventions, and all running through a KVM switch. So, no matter which system I'm switched to, the drives look the same. Most of the computers are in the basement, under my main video editing system in he bedroom. I have a tremendous amount of flexibility that way, and if one system goes down it's relatively easy to fix. So far, I've been lucky with RAID-0 - no failures in about 3 years of runing it this way. (That WILL change, but I do have the DVD backups.)

RAID-0 is a big risk, but it's not like you're running a mission critical operation ;)

Interesting acrticle on upscalling:
http://www.digitaltvdesignline.com/howto/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GYPHVUTK0TDEEQSNDBESKHA?article ID=180201653

a snip:

February 14, 2006

Scaling the sea of HD



By Josh Allen, DVDO iScan Engineering Product Manager

With all the hype surrounding high definition displays, 1080p and the future of television broadcasting becoming all digital, it’s surprising that more consumers don’t know the benefits of video scaling. Simply put, scaling in video means the reformatting of the picture through various algorithms, to occupy more or fewer scan lines than it did before without cropping of subject material. For digital video, scaling also refers to reformatting of the picture to occupy more or fewer pixels across each scan line, again without cropping the subject matter. All scaling in video requires converting of the video to digital form and then processing it, otherwise referred to as working in the digital domain.
Much like the line doublers and quadruplers of the 90’s that converted TV Video to computer video format for high-resolution LCD and DLP projectors, today’s video scalers have become essential home theater components for those who’ve invested in next-generation HD displays, especially 1080p. In fact, video scaling has become such an integral part of the home theater equation that many HD displays are being equipped with internal scaling engines. Despite this fact, there are still crystal-clear advantages to using an external video scaler.

....

CoCoKola,

I agree that video scalers are vastly underappreciated at the moment, but I believe that they are going to soar in popularity over the next few years. There's truly great bang-for-the-buck potential here, particularly when you consider the dollar-for-dollar results against expensive cables or power-conditioning.

But then, I've never understood the priority on pricy interconnect cables if video calibration isn't a prerequisite.

One of the problems with the article is that it suggests that scaling should be considered in light of 1080p sets. Well, there's definitely truth to that, except the fact that most of these first-generation 1080p displays are incapable of accepting a 1080p signal -- as a result, you can't use a scaler to optimize 1080p images.

While DVDO scalers do a great job on deinterlacing and scaling, they actually give short shrift to the other side of the video processing equation -- specifically in optimizing grayscale and gamma and correcting for other display flaws that should be correctable through the display (Y/C delay, color decoding, etc) but where the needed controls are often omitted by the display manufacturer.

This is why I'm a big fan of the Lumagen video processor product line -- a perfect companion for calibrators -- and why I recommend Lumagen to anyone who's really serious about getting the best possible performance from their home theater.

FWIW, the Lumagen video processor that I recommend (Vision HDP) sells for $1499, but Lumagen offers a less future-proof entry-level model at $999.

If you're interested, you can read more about Lumagen at their web site:

www.lumagen.com

For those about to have a DSL rate increase, just PM me and I will give you the info needed to get the newest 12.99 (1.5m) or 17.99(3m) rate.

A bit OT.
For Dish subs, WPXS, channel 13, Mt Vernon IL is now available on Dish channel 8600 (SD)
A dish pointed at 61.5° is required.

A bit OT.
For Dish subs, WPXS, channel 13, Mt Vernon IL is now available on Dish channel 8600 (SD)
A dish pointed at 61.5° is required.

That's the local my 211 picked up. I'll have to look into it to find out what it carries.

Since the 622 is a duel tuner receiver, Dish requires you turn-in 2 receivers for the current lease upgrade fee of $299. They do not care which receivers you turn in, their goal is to eventually purge all MPEG2 equipment out of the system.
I deactivated and turned in 2 301's.

If you own the receivers, you can keep them, but if you turn them in, you receive a $25 credit for each. If you lease the receiver(s), you must turn them in, and still receive the $25 credit for each.

When the 4/1 upgrade offer begins for current MPEG2 HD DVR (921/942) users (owned or leased) the $200 rebate will require the return of the MPEG2 receiver.

I believe MPEG2 is going to be around for quite some time to come, more so than the optimistic 1-2 years Dish would like. There are currently over 25 million SD/MPEG2 Dish receivers active (mostly MPEG2), and Dish is still several months away from even their first MPEG4 transmission. IMO, Dish will still be transmitting MPEG2 in 2010.

I purchased my 921 in Nov '04 for $549.
I leased the new 622 for $299.
I turned in 2 301's for a $50 credit.
And I now have HD DVR in both the Living room and Bedroom.

Plus, it's noted in my account file that Dish owes me a Dish1000 at no additional cost, providing it is installed in the next 12 months.

Had I waited until 4/1, I would have saved the additional $200 from the rebate, but I would have to turn in the 921, and only have one HD DVR.
Instead of Dish buying back the 921 they sold me for $549, for $200, it was worth the $200 to me, to have the second HD DVR.

Does this mean I can turn in my two DishPlayer 7200's for a 622 and sell my 921 on ebay??

Finally I have something to do with those 7200's.

Dave

A bit OT.
For Dish subs, WPXS, channel 13, Mt Vernon IL is now available on Dish channel 8600 (SD).

It's also on DirecTV now, channel 13. Fair warning, it's almost nothing but paid infomercials, except during prime time when it does old Hawaii Five-O reruns and stuff like that.

Does this mean I can turn in my two DishPlayer 7200's for a 622 and sell my 921 on ebay??

Finally I have something to do with those 7200's.

Dave

EDITED TO READ:
Yes Dave, I believe that would be correct.
However, be cautioned, I have read numerous reports, E* will not activate any newly added MPEG2 receivers.
That being the case, if you sell the 921 on ebay, the buyer may not be able to use it.

kdg:

That is not true. Dish will still activate MPEG-2 receivers. They won't be able to access MPEG-4 content is the only restriction.

Regards,

kdg:

That is not true. Dish will still activate MPEG-2 receivers. They won't be able to access MPEG-4 content is the only restriction.

Regards,

I don't know what is true, but I have read somewhere that they were not going to activate MPEG 2 receivers. As I said I don't know whtat is true, what I read may have been someone's opinion.

kdg:
That is not true. Dish will still activate MPEG-2 receivers. They won't be able to access MPEG-4 content is the only restriction.
Regards,
As Dueces mentioned, I have read numerous reports of first-hand account related to this issue.
Specifically, Dish imposed the MPEG4-content-to-MPEG2-receivers, restriction at the time the first MPEG4 receiver(s) were released. The only change to that restriction was Dish temporarily adding the UNIHD content accessible to MPEG2 receivers, during the duration of the Olympics.

With regard to activation, indeed Dish will activate a MPEG2 receiver, though it has been reported by many, only in a situation where the account holder is the original/current owner/lessee of the MPEG2 receiver, and that Dish will not activate newly added MPEG2 receivers to ones account.

As you pointed out John, in fact, Dish may still continue to activate newly acquired MPEG2 receivers. My post was based on information I'd received from others, and not directly from Dish, which perhaps your information is, and I should have worded it as such.

Respectfully, I have not myself, contacted Dish, as I have no personal reason to know. Though, based on the abundance of reports from others, I felt cautioning a colleague was prudent, as I'm sure the original poster would want to sell his/hers receiver in good faith.

I have edited my original post accordingly.

kdg,

My information comes directly from Dish.

Cheers,

kdg,

My information comes directly from Dish.

Cheers,
Great John, good to know, tyvm.

John,
This is really OT, but are you the same John Kotches that reviewed the HTD Level 3 speakers for Secrects of Home Theater and High Fidelity back in '02? The reason I ask is because that review played a big part in my choosing HTD speakers for my home theater and I just wanted to say thanks!
John

kdg,

My information comes directly from Dish.

Cheers,

From all reports I've read, Dish may activate an MPEG2 receiver for a customer who buys one used, but they will not activate any HD content on that receiver. That means, I could sell my Dish 6000 HiDef receiver or my 921, but Dish would activate the receiver only for SD channels. This is the widespread opinion on other threads and over at DBSTalk. I don't know anyone at Dish directly, nor have I specifically asked this question of a CSR, but the idea keeps getting repeated over and over at DBSTalk.

If this is not the case, it's good news for me. I can sell a 6000 on eBay for a lot more than Dish is willing to give me for it. Can you point me to where I can get it confirmed one way or another?

For those about to have a DSL rate increase, just PM me and I will give you the info needed to get the newest 12.99 (1.5m) or 17.99(3m) rate.

Oh if only you were talking about Charter or CenturyTel. :)

I'm amazed Dish has not added StarzHD yet. They have the VOOM bandwidth and VOOM was the only service to offer all the premium movie channels in HD. I would switch tomorrow if they did this since I am a BIG movie fan. Charter is better for HD movies at this time which is a dirty shame.

I'm amazed Dish has not added StarzHD yet. They have the VOOM bandwidth and VOOM was the only service to offer all the premium movie channels in HD. I would switch tomorrow if they did this since I am a BIG movie fan. Charter is better for HD movies at this time which is a dirty shame.

I think StarzHD is one of the next to be added. A promo for it actually appeared in a page on Dish's web site, but they pulled it. I believe Charlie made reference to adding Starz and Cinemax on a recent Charlie Chat, so I'd expect to see Cinemax before long, too.

Technically RAID-0 is a misnomer as there is nothing redundant about it. Running a single disk can fail too. I don't agree that I am increasing my odds of a drive failure by running two instead of one like posted at some sites. I like my Raptors to read fast and have been running RAID-0 for a few years and have never lost a drive. Best practice is to back-up often regardless of one or many drives.

RAID-0 is a big risk, but it's not like you're running a mission critical operation ;)

Technically RAID-0 is a misnomer as there is nothing redundant about it. Running a single disk can fail too. I don't agree that I am increasing my odds of a drive failure by running two instead of one like posted at some sites. I like my Raptors to read fast and have been running RAID-0 for a few years and have never lost a drive. Best practice is to back-up often regardless of one or many drives.

I've been very lucky with RAID so far. I did have a problem with audio on one of my systems because of mobo RAID. (I never figured out why, just that it was interfering with the audio on one of my MyHD systems.) Technically, it is a bigger risk than a single drive, since if either drive fails the array is hosed. And I have had single drive failures. However, the cost benefit of RAID and the speed increases make it worth the risk for me. I do back up critical files often, both to other hard drives and to DVD.

Right now, 250GB drives are the most cost effective. Typically, you can find 250GB drives for $70 or $80 on sale. That makes a terrabyte of storage feasible for about $250-$300. Compare that to the $2,300 I paid for my first 9GB SCSI video editing drive, or the $650 I spent for my first 80MB system drive.

God, I feel old.

A few weeks ago, amid a wave of complaints about local stations, someone here suggested that what St. Louis really needed was multiple network affiliates to provide some competition.

Well, don't hold your breath -- even where competition breaks out by geographic coincidence, local broadcasters will simply run for the shelter of the FCC's long skirt:

The following story is from the Flint (MI) Journal:
_____________________________________________________

Coming soon to a TV near you: another blue screen.

ABC affiliate WJRT (Channel 12) has received federal approval to block most duplicate programming from WXYZ (Channel 7), Detroit's ABC station, on the Comcast and Charter Communications cable systems in Genesee County.

The maneuver is known as a nonduplication agreement. It blocks network shows carried on WXYZ, such as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," leaving subscribers with only one option for ABC programs - WJRT.

It does not affect local shows, including newscasts, and most syndicated programming carried by the Detroit station.

WJRT General Manager Tom Bryson said his Flint station, which is owned by ABC, is simply trying to protect itself and its advertisers. Having two network affiliates in one market is unusual and confusing, he said, and drains viewers from the station.

"What we're doing is protecting ourselves from ABC out of Detroit," Bryson said.

"We have exclusive rights to the network signal (in the Flint area). ... We own that. We pay for that."
_____________________________________________________

As long as Congress is reviewing local pay TV franchising practices, it also seems logical to take a long hard look at this anti-competitive, anti-consumer practice.

For the complete story, click here. (http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-34/114027062877570.xml&coll=5)

A few weeks ago, amid a wave of complaints about local stations, someone here suggested that what St. Louis really needed was multiple network affiliates to provide some competition.

Well, don't hold your breath -- even where competition breaks out by geographic coincidence, local broadcasters will simply run for the shelter of the FCC's long skirt:

The following story is from the Flint (MI) Journal:
_____________________________________________________

Coming soon to a TV near you: another blue screen.

ABC affiliate WJRT (Channel 12) has received federal approval to block most duplicate programming from WXYZ (Channel 7), Detroit's ABC station, on the Comcast and Charter Communications cable systems in Genesee County.

The maneuver is known as a nonduplication agreement. It blocks network shows carried on WXYZ, such as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," leaving subscribers with only one option for ABC programs - WJRT.

It does not affect local shows, including newscasts, and most syndicated programming carried by the Detroit station.

WJRT General Manager Tom Bryson said his Flint station, which is owned by ABC, is simply trying to protect itself and its advertisers. Having two network affiliates in one market is unusual and confusing, he said, and drains viewers from the station.

"What we're doing is protecting ourselves from ABC out of Detroit," Bryson said.

"We have exclusive rights to the network signal (in the Flint area). ... We own that. We pay for that."
_____________________________________________________

As long as Congress is reviewing local pay TV franchising practices, it also seems logical to take a long hard look at this anti-competitive, anti-consumer practice.

For the complete story, click here. (http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-34/114027062877570.xml&coll=5)

Does this mean the end of the WB Superstations??
My wife is gonna be pissed if she can't record Charmed from LA at 11pm.

OTOH I was hoping we would see HD Superstations.

Dave

Okay. My antenna is officially pi$$ing me off! (Apologies to Mo as I know I haven't had to go to 1/8 of the trouble she has had, but it's frustrating nonetheless.) I have a Wineguard PR-4400 (link is below) and I can pick up all the stations I want except for KMOV and their tower just happens to be about 2 miles away. It does come in, but drops out pretty consistently (49% to 89 or 90%) which, I assume, is a multi path issue.

I do have my antenna outside on a mast and it's about even or maybe a little under the ridge line of my roof. Should I go with a taller mast or try a different antenna? I did have this antenna in my attic and couldn't get KSDK but got KMOV. Now that it's outside, I get KSDK, but now KMOV is a problem.

Any advice is appreciated. (And yes, I've already made the appropriate sacrifices and chanted the appropriate incantations. It's just not working! ;)

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/w4400.html

I don't think this particular development has any sort of bearing on superstations. On the other hand, the WB is merging with UPN to form a new network, and I suspect that all WB and and UPN network affiliations are going up in the air (no pun intended) for a while.

This Michigan story is more to do with a cable system that straddles two DMAs, such as Flint and Detroit. which are separated by only around 65 miles.

Obviously there must be quite a lot of OTA signal overlap between those two markets, but I guess that's not worth fighting since probably less than 20% of households in those areas are reliant on OTA for broadcast stations. But with the cable systems, where it is possible to black out the feeds to a very specific area, well that seems to be a completely different matter.

I have little doubt that there will be HD Superstations, and WTBS and WGN would both be leading candidates to carve out that niche. I'd expect to see both stations moving in that direction in short order, particularly as getting HD carriage should be easier for a while with new capacity coming online soon for both DISH and DirecTV.

OTOH I was hoping we would see HD Superstations.
Those of us with D* now have TNT-HD, which is showing some NASCAR at Daytona ATM.

I don't think this particular development has any sort of bearing on superstations. On the other hand, the WB is merging with UPN to form a new network, and I suspect that all WB and and UPN network affiliations are going up in the air (no pun intended) for a while.

It was my understanding that any Tribune-owned WB affiliates will automatically become the new major affiliates for the new network, which would protect WGN, at least locally. I also read into this that KPLR will remain in business, which is better than the alternative here in St. Louis.

EDIT: I would post the links, 'cept I'm too new here, but do a Wikipedia lookup on KPLR or on the CW Television Network and you'll find information on the Tribune station agreement.

Consumer Reports is finally catching up on HD. They came out with ratings and opinions on 1080p. Like Doug has mentioned, they agree most of us should wait since the sets cannot accept a 1080p source yet. They did like the quality of the 1080i to 1080p upconvert which is probably the only way they can currently test outside of "lab" environments. So their recommendation is that if you really really want one to buy it.

They also said Blu Ray and HD-DVD players should offer 1080p output if the source DVD provides it. Of course most of the current 1080p sets can't accept the input and will upconvert to 1080p which they thought was just fine.....hmmm...

I'm glad Consumer Reports is finally doing a decent analysis of the HD world. They have been behind for years now. Hey, if they agree with Doug they have to be on the right track.

No apologies needed. But because I have been through hell and back I can offer some advice... :D

Yes, get it above the ridge line. I moved mine to the top of the roof and so far, so good on ALL stations! Just putting it on a taller mast and moving it up onto the roof from where it was sitting fixed my problems. D* mounted it on my addition roof (on the dish) so it was barely taller than the original ridge line. It was 2-3 feet further down on the addition roof. Couple that with using the taller mast and I am guessing I increased my height by about 6 feet. Using the free cheap-o 2-bay from D*.

Since you are only 2 miles from the station pick up a 6 DB attentuator from Rad Shack. They don't carry the 3 DB. They do carry another one with a dial from 0-20 DB. Both ends are female so you need another piece of coax. Use the shortest length between the attenuator and where you plug it in. At least you can try that inside. YMMV as it did not work for me. 6 DB may have been too much and the dial thing seemed strange.

Finally, make sure you aim it correctly. Do you have a compass? You do know to add the degrees of each station up, divide it and point it in the middle right? I was on the roof earlier to add the tie-wraps and tweaked it just a hair more and my problem station, ABC jumped up another 5 points. EDIT: Or since you are so close, try aiming it away from it and more towards the other stations. I looked at your link and your antenna is the 4-bay versus my 2-bay and you are closer and have a stronger antenna. One last thing, inspect the line too.

I'm crossing my fingers that my reception problem is resolved. If my suggestions don't help, at least know that I feel your pain!

P.S. I need to return my Square Shooter but you are welcome to give it try a day or two and see if that helps if the above doesn't. Winegard said it was the equivalent of a 4-bay and is best for multipath.

Okay. My antenna is officially pi$$ing me off! (Apologies to Mo as I know I haven't had to go to 1/8 of the trouble she has had, but it's frustrating nonetheless.) I have a Wineguard PR-4400 (link is below) and I can pick up all the stations I want except for KMOV and their tower just happens to be about 2 miles away. It does come in, but drops out pretty consistently (49% to 89 or 90%) which, I assume, is a multi path issue.

I do have my antenna outside on a mast and it's about even or maybe a little under the ridge line of my roof. Should I go with a taller mast or try a different antenna? I did have this antenna in my attic and couldn't get KSDK but got KMOV. Now that it's outside, I get KSDK, but now KMOV is a problem.

Any advice is appreciated. (And yes, I've already made the appropriate sacrifices and chanted the appropriate incantations. It's just not working! ;)

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/w4400.html

Hey everybody. My 1st post. I've been lurking for a while but just decided to jump in.

I upgraded to D* HD today. They installed a 5-LNB dish and H20 receiver (and OTA antenna). It was the installer's first 5-LNB. It's a big dish. Overall, I thought he did a great job. He was here for almost 4 hours. I'm all set.

Both my TVs have built-in tuners; I had been using an indoor antenna on each to pull in HD. It was ok but frustrating at times. This new set-up seems to work much better. UPN HD does not come in (but I was somewhat expecting that). ABC (on seldom occasions) does not come in, but if I turn the channel off and back on, it comes in. Hopefully, I'm ok. But these are pretty nice pictures. Olympic hockey and all star basketball looked sweet.

One big question. On my second TV, CBS HD does not come in. This seems odd since the signal strength is good. Is there something internal to the TV blocking that channel and not the others? It's a Samsung TXP2670WHX/XAA.

I'm no expert, in fact I'm a noob. Are both antennas the same? If not, swap them. Anything metal like aluminum siding in the way? Can you aim the second one towards a window or get it higher?

It would help to know what antennas you are using.

Hey everybody. My 1st post. I've been lurking for a while but just decided to jump in.

I upgraded to D* HD today. They installed a 5-LNB dish and H20 receiver (and OTA antenna). It was the installer's first 5-LNB. It's a big dish. Overall, I thought he did a great job. He was here for almost 4 hours. I'm all set.

Both my TVs have built-in tuners; I had been using an indoor antenna on each to pull in HD. It was ok but frustrating at times. This new set-up seems to work much better. UPN HD does not come in (but I was somewhat expecting that). ABC (on seldom occasions) does not come in, but if I turn the channel off and back on, it comes in. Hopefully, I'm ok. But these are pretty nice pictures. Olympic hockey and all star basketball looked sweet.

One big question. On my second TV, CBS HD does not come in. This seems odd since the signal strength is good. Is there something internal to the TV blocking that channel and not the others? It's a Samsung TXP2670WHX/XAA.

I'm no expert, in fact I'm a noob. Are both antennas the same? If not, swap them. Anything metal like aluminum siding in the way? Can you aim the second one towards a window or get it higher?

It would help to know what antennas you are using.

Thanks for the help. With the new set-up, I am using 1 OTA on the roof for both TVs. But, even before that, I had 2 set-top antennas and noticed this 1 issue with CBS HD on the Samsung TV. Everything else is looking good (except UPN HD).

The roof-top antenna is a gridded-type antenna that the D* installer set-up.

Don't know if this added info helps any? I'm wondering if it is something in theset-up of that TV?

You have the 2-bay, double bowtie like I do. Do another scan for OTA on the one having a problem. Also, D* didn't tighten down the ends at the wall plate very well, so check all of them for tightness.

Go to antennaweb.org and make sure you put in your street address with zipcode. No need to fill out the rest of the form. After you click Submit click the radio button to display digital only and you'll see the degrees it needs to be pointed. You will also see how many miles you are from the stations. You can call and ask for someone experienced with antennas to come back out who has the correct compass. (They use a fancier one). Armed with your antennaweb info you can make your case if you are able to get on the roof with the installer. If not, you will at least look better informed and ask what degree he set it to.

It may turn out that you are too far, in a valley, have too many tall buildings or an airport like I do. Antenaweb will recommend what type antenna is suited to where you are. It is color coded. Are yours all green? Mine were all red.

Thanks for the help. With the new set-up, I am using 1 OTA on the roof for both TVs. But, even before that, I had 2 set-top antennas and noticed this 1 issue with CBS HD on the Samsung TV. Everything else is looking good (except UPN HD).

The roof-top antenna is a gridded-type antenna that the D* installer set-up.

Don't know if this added info helps any? I'm wondering if it is something in theset-up of that TV?

STLBoilerDave:

Screen name based upon nickname of college by chance?

STLBoilerDave:

Screen name based upon nickname of college by chance?

Oh yes. Purdue baby...

I need to return my Square Shooter but you are welcome to give it try a day or two and see if that helps if the above doesn't. Winegard said it was the equivalent of a 4-bay and is best for multipath.

Thanks for the advice and the offer Mo. I'll try to get the antenna up higher and see what that does. What I didn't mention earlier is that I can point it one direction and get all of the stations I want except KMOV is hit and miss. (Today it was mostly miss.) I can then move it about 30 degrees clockwise and get KMOV like a beacon, but then I lose FOX.

I'm going to get the antenna up higher. If that doesn't fix it, I'll try the attenuator and if that doesn't work, then I'll look into a different antenna.

Goos Fraba....Goos Fraba

Thanks for the advice and the offer Mo. I'll try to get the antenna up higher and see what that does. What I didn't mention earlier is that I can point it one direction and get all of the stations I want except KMOV is hit and miss. (Today it was mostly miss.) I can then move it about 30 degrees clockwise and get KMOV like a beacon, but then I lose FOX.
I'm going to get the antenna up higher. If that doesn't fix it, I'll try the attenuator and if that doesn't work, then I'll look into a different antenna.
Goos Fraba....Goos Fraba
Kugumby,

I had exactly the same issue when I did my OTA, just with 2 different stations.
30° was either KDNL or KTVI.
As Mo suggested, I added a 5' pole on to the mast, split the difference at 15°, and got them all just fine.
At 55 miles due south, one would think 5° or 10° could make a difference, but not 30°.
Terrestrial reception is a beast all its own...no rhyme, no reason, and takes no prisoners :)

Anyone have any problems with UPN 46-1? I lost it and no matter what I do I can't get it back. It was one of the few stations that didn't give me problems.

Also, KDNL 30-1 most of the time looks like stop=action animation. No blockiness or drop-outs but what I can only describe as full frames missing, or a speeing up and slowing down effect.. Anyone else see this? Or know what it is. I don't seem to have a signal strength meter on my HDTV so I can't check for peak signal strength.

I have recently lost UPN as well. It was OK on Thursday when my TiVo recorded "Everybody Hates Chris," and I didn't notice it was gone until last night.

I suspect that this is a station problem.

ArcAAA, what you are describing on ABC sounds like a reception problem. You are getting a signal strong enough to not get the macroblocking but not enough to give you a smooth picture.

What antenna are you using? Did this problem just start? Or is this a new set-up?

Can't help with UPN as I never watch it.

Welcome btw!

Anyone have any problems with UPN 46-1? I lost it and no matter what I do I can't get it back. It was one of the few stations that didn't give me problems.

Also, KDNL 30-1 most of the time looks like stop=action animation. No blockiness or drop-outs but what I can only describe as full frames missing, or a speeing up and slowing down effect.. Anyone else see this? Or know what it is. I don't seem to have a signal strength meter on my HDTV so I can't check for peak signal strength.

Hope it works for you. What was maddening for me is the two I would lose were only 3 degrees apart! Still had issues with ABC when the tornado sirens went off but it cleared up and has been fine since. Very strange and like kdg454 mentioned, no rhyme or reason.

Thanks for the advice and the offer Mo. I'll try to get the antenna up higher and see what that does. What I didn't mention earlier is that I can point it one direction and get all of the stations I want except KMOV is hit and miss. (Today it was mostly miss.) I can then move it about 30 degrees clockwise and get KMOV like a beacon, but then I lose FOX.

I'm going to get the antenna up higher. If that doesn't fix it, I'll try the attenuator and if that doesn't work, then I'll look into a different antenna.

Goos Fraba....Goos Fraba

In follow-up to KoKoCola's note on Friday about the DVDO interview and the increasing consumer interest in video processors/scalers, I wanted to point out that there's a very good roundtable discussion on this topic in the February 2006 Widescreen Review (actually the March 2006 edition of WSR is out -- I'm a bit behind in checking my mailbox these days).

Here's a link to the Widescreen Review web site listing the contents of the February issue. Unfortunately, the article requires a subscription, but in my opinion WSR is a "must read" for anyone looking to stay current on home theater and HDTV developments.

The February 2006 Issue Contents can be found here. The panel discusion summary is about halfway down the list (ninth article):

http://www.widescreenreview.com/wsr_issuedetail.php?recid=107&issuenumber=105

Participants in the roundtable discussion include William Bleha (JVC senior research scientist), Jim Burns (industry consultant and one of the ISF founders), Jed Deame (Teranex co-founder and general manager), Jim Peterson (Lumagen founder and president), Seth Schnaible (industry consultant and WSR Reference Calibrator), Gordon Shackleford (Meridian sales director and former head of Faroudja consumer sales). and Joe Kane (Joe Kane Productions and ISF founder).

To give an idea of the ground covered in the roundtable, here's a list of the questions included in the 5-page article:

* What is video processing?

* What are the differences between a line-doubler, a scaler and a processor?

* Why buy an expensive video processor if there is already a chip in the box?

* Does a display type affect the processing?

* Is calibration important in processing?

* Should an external video processor have the ability to correct the primary colors of the display?

* What tools do consumers need to tell whether or not the video processor and the display they have are good?

* How are professional processors and consumer processors different?

* How must you [video processor makers] compensate for different display technologies?

* What is the major challenge in improving video processing?

* Explain de-interlacing, 3-2 pulldown, 2-2 pulldown, etc.

* Why do display manufacturers limit their inputs to 1080i?

* Are we ready for 1080p? How can we get it?

* How is any given processor better than its competitor?

* Can video processors become easier to set up?

All in all, I think this is a great introduction and summary of the state of the art in video processing. Granted, a small part of the content has a "propeller head" element to it, but overall the key information is very accessible for anyone interested in learning more about this aspect of home video.

ArcAAA,

On KDNL, about a month ago I had similar problems with macroblocking and stop-action motion. For a couple consecutive weeks, I had to resort to watching "Lost" via SD (aargh!). Then, just as mysteriously as reception went south, it came back and has been rock-solid ever since.

My problems did coincide with KDNL's work to get 5.1 sound up and running, but I don't think my reception problem was related, even though it did clear up shortly after that was implemented.

FWIW, I also received an email over the weekend from someone reporting a problem with KETC and KDNL suddenly disappearing from his onboard OTA tuner. Don't know that his problem and yours are related, but thought it worth mentioning.

ArcAAA,

On KDNL, about a month ago I had similar problems with macroblocking and stop-action motion. For a couple consecutive weeks, I had to resort to watching "Lost" via SD (aargh!). Then, just as mysteriously as reception went south, it came back and has been rock-solid ever since.

My problems did coincide with KDNL's work to get 5.1 sound up and running, but I don't think my reception problem was related, even though it did clear up shortly after that was implemented.

FWIW, I also received an email over the weekend from someone reporting a problem with KETC and KDNL suddenly disappearing from his onboard OTA tuner. Don't know that his problem and yours are related, but thought it worth mentioning.

I believe this may be the same problem a lot of people here were having with KDNL some time ago, when Jim was getting HD up and running. I had the same problem with my HiPix card (pre-MyHD days). It was a stuttering of the image.I had it only with the HiPix tuner.

On another topic, I understand that after his gold medal win last night, Shani Davis may have been approached by Nike to be a spokesperson for their shoes. The modified slogan would be, "Just frak it."

(Thought I'd beat Letterman to the punch on that one. I've never seen such an angry response. That family must have serious issues with the US Olympic establishment.)

I haven't been able to see 46-1 in over 3 months. I gave up on it when the antenna needed to turned the opposite way for 2,4,9,11, & 30. This fall, it won't really make much sense for them to be showing 480i either.

I can only see it SD, and just barely.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "Everybody Hates Chris" is a 1080i HDTV show, right?

Has anybody seen this site yet? http://www.mediamadeeasy.net/FunctionsMC.htm

800GB HDTV setup for $2300 looks pretty good.

I am watching the Daytona 500 on channel 5 OTA HD and the sound seems muted, i have to crank up my receiver to just get a normal sound level, anyone else having this problem????

Nevermind i guess it was just the Bon Jovi performance, sound seems normal now.....at least thei 5.1 sound is up and running this year for the olympics and nascar, i hated having just stereo sound before.

...
Here's a link to the Widescreen Review web site listing the contents of the February issue. Unfortunately, the article requires a subscription, but in my opinion WSR is a "must read" for anyone looking to stay current on home theater and HDTV developments.

The February 2006 Issue Contents can be found here. The panel discusion summary is about halfway down the list (ninth article):

http://www.widescreenreview.com/wsr_issuedetail.php?recid=107&issuenumber=105

.....

I read the "teaser" page for the article but can't justify the price of a subscription. Of course HD is just a hobby for me and I don't make a living by it. It would be nice if previous issues were free especially with all the advertising.

So is Charter gonna add some channels? I was online to print out a new channel guide, and I get this message:

Your channel lineup:

No Channel Lineups available in your locality.


Due to Charter's upgrade process channel line ups may change frequently. While Charter strives to provide current information, Charter cannot guarantee that this site will accurately reflect those revised Channel line ups.


So what's the "upgrade process?"

[QUOTE=ArcAAA

Also, KDNL 30-1 most of the time looks like stop=action animation. No blockiness or drop-outs but what I can only describe as full frames missing, or a speeing up and slowing down effect.. Anyone else see this? Or know what it is. I don't seem to have a signal strength meter on my HDTV so I can't check for peak signal strength.[/QUOTE]

We're having problems with the PSIP generator again. It's was locking up and they did a rebuild while I was out of town. I got everything corrected on Friday, but the Virtual Channel Table...it's alternatley putting out two different tables...one correct and one wrong. Another digital mistery! All of our recievers lock up ok. but I guess some don't like it. Will work on it tomorrow

ArcAAA, what you are describing on ABC sounds like a reception problem. You are getting a signal strong enough to not get the macroblocking but not enough to give you a smooth picture.

What antenna are you using? Did this problem just start? Or is this a new set-up?

Can't help with UPN as I never watch it.

Welcome btw!

I just got an HDTV (w/ATSC tuner) so I don't know what is normal yet. her than the problem I mentioned, chanel 4-1 breaks up a bit, sometimes every few minutes. Sometimes it goes a long while. It acts like the PBS channels, only a little better.

My antenna is a meduim size VHF/UHF roof mount that clears my roof by 5' at least. I get all the analog channels pretty good (2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 30, 46). It almost seems that tuning in a good signal is harder now than SDTV. Strange thing is, I cant get the Carbondale PBS station as well as the St. Louis PBS station, That's with the antenna pointed correctly toward St. Louis. If I rotate my antenna 180 degrees and point it at Carbondale, I still get Carbondale PBS but not St. Louis at all. I don't understand why I can't get as strong of a signal from St. Louis even though I'm pretty close to St. Louis, though I'm in the Metro area in IL.

I've tried aiming my antenna, but it seems like it doesn't help. I have a good number of degrees I can swing my antenna without loosing a single station, but the stations that come in poor don't seem to improve by re-aiming. I have an amplifier but took it out. It didn't make any difference. Actually, when I was using it, if I would turn the gain up the picture would get worse (on some digital channels). So I just took it out all together.

Maybe a different type antenna would be better?

Would you guys recommend me trying a UHF only antenna?

We're having problems with the PSIP generator again. It's was locking up and they did a rebuild while I was out of town. I got everything corrected on Friday, but the Virtual Channel Table...it's alternatley putting out two different tables...one correct and one wrong. Another digital mistery! All of our recievers lock up ok. but I guess some don't like it. Will work on it tomorrow
Thanks for the info!

I read the "teaser" page for the article but can't justify the price of a subscription. Of course HD is just a hobby for me and I don't make a living by it. It would be nice if previous issues were free especially with all the advertising.

WSR Subscriptions are $12/year for online only access. That's hardly a huge expenditure.

Yes, I will say that our print subscriptions are more expensive than some of our print competitors. We don't have a huge stable of other magazines with which to spread ads (or ad budgets across of you're an advertiser) and we don't have a multi-person staff to get advertisers.

The higher the per issue subscription cost is relative to the newsstand price for a single issue, the more of the actual cost is borne by the readership, that seems like a pretty simple formula to follow, right? So if a magazine can afford to sell subscriptions @ $12/12 issues they have to be making up the money somewhere else. That somewhere has to be in ads.

Cheers,

Would you guys recommend me trying a UHF only antenna?
Arc,
If you don't need to receive VHF signals, and you think the antenna may be the problem, have a look here:
http://www.antennasdirect.com/

WSR Subscriptions are $12/year for online only access. That's hardly a huge expenditure.

Yes, I will say that our print subscriptions are more expensive than some of our print competitors. We don't have a huge stable of other magazines with which to spread ads (or ad budgets across of you're an advertiser) and we don't have a multi-person staff to get advertisers.

The higher the per issue subscription cost is relative to the newsstand price for a single issue, the more of the actual cost is borne by the readership, that seems like a pretty simple formula to follow, right? So if a magazine can afford to sell subscriptions @ $12/12 issues they have to be making up the money somewhere else. That somewhere has to be in ads.

Cheers,

John, sounds like some of your opinions are in-line with the publication you write for. :)

"Contributing Editor & Surround Music Reviewer Widescreen Review
Opinions are mine, not the publication I write for."

12 bucks isn't much, maybe I'll go for it.....hell I've wasted much more than that on cables. As soon as HD DVD/ BlueRay comes out I intend to spend many thousands just for the fun of it all. I might as well get opinions by experts first.

My other expensive hobby is gardening/landscaping and well....that costs even more. :p

EDIT: I just checked and the web site says it is $15 per year not $12 for online only subscription....inflation I guess.

We're having problems with the PSIP generator again. It's was locking up and they did a rebuild while I was out of town. I got everything corrected on Friday, but the Virtual Channel Table...it's alternatley putting out two different tables...one correct and one wrong. Another digital mistery! All of our recievers lock up ok. but I guess some don't like it. Will work on it tomorrow

I've got no reports on any funny business with my receiver...yet. So I hope it's a mystery that solves itself, so you can get some well earned downtime.

You've done a great job on just about every other problem that's cropped up.

Wife is watching desperate house wives on ABC OTA HD. She is complaining about lip sync being off. Anybody else seeing this?

Oh yes. Purdue baby...
What year did you leave beautiful West Lafayette? I go back usually once a year for a football game.

I just got an HDTV (w/ATSC tuner) so I don't know what is normal yet. her than the problem I mentioned, chanel 4-1 breaks up a bit, sometimes every few minutes. Sometimes it goes a long while. It acts like the PBS channels, only a little better.

My antenna is a meduim size VHF/UHF roof mount that clears my roof by 5' at least. I get all the analog channels pretty good (2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 30, 46). It almost seems that tuning in a good signal is harder now than SDTV. Strange thing is, I cant get the Carbondale PBS station as well as the St. Louis PBS station, That's with the antenna pointed correctly toward St. Louis. If I rotate my antenna 180 degrees and point it at Carbondale, I still get Carbondale PBS but not St. Louis at all. I don't understand why I can't get as strong of a signal from St. Louis even though I'm pretty close to St. Louis, though I'm in the Metro area in IL.

I've tried aiming my antenna, but it seems like it doesn't help. I have a good number of degrees I can swing my antenna without loosing a single station, but the stations that come in poor don't seem to improve by re-aiming. I have an amplifier but took it out. It didn't make any difference. Actually, when I was using it, if I would turn the gain up the picture would get worse (on some digital channels). So I just took it out all together.

Maybe a different type antenna would be better?

Would you guys recommend me trying a UHF only antenna?

Would your TV be a Visio? I ask because you are describing the exact same symptoms I have with the built in atsc tuner in my L37. (Stop Motion, etc.)
I gave up and got a set top Tuner, a DigitalStream from Circuit City. It works fine. I got no help from Visio, they told me to return the TV. But it was only $1500, so I just pretend it never came with a built in atsc tuner.

What year did you leave beautiful West Lafayette? I go back usually once a year for a football game.

1998. My wife and I are both graduates. We get season football tix and try to make as many games as possible.

What about you?

Grey's Anatomy has a bad lip sync issue also. Anybody else?

WSR Subscriptions are $12/year for online only access. That's hardly a huge expenditure.

Yes, I will say that our print subscriptions are more expensive than some of our print competitors. We don't have a huge stable of other magazines with which to spread ads (or ad budgets across of you're an advertiser) and we don't have a multi-person staff to get advertisers.

The higher the per issue subscription cost is relative to the newsstand price for a single issue, the more of the actual cost is borne by the readership, that seems like a pretty simple formula to follow, right? So if a magazine can afford to sell subscriptions @ $12/12 issues they have to be making up the money somewhere else. That somewhere has to be in ads.

Cheers,

I don't have a subscription to this magazine but I do buy single copies. The South County Borders store carries this magazine. The store is located in the South County mall. So if anyone is looking for a single copy you can purchase it there.

Grey's Anatomy has a bad lip sync issue also. Anybody else?
Perfect here...OTA.

Would your TV be a Visio? I ask because you are describing the exact same symptoms I have with the built in atsc tuner in my L37. (Stop Motion, etc.)
I gave up and got a set top Tuner, a DigitalStream from Circuit City. It works fine. I got no help from Visio, they told me to return the TV. But it was only $1500, so I just pretend it never came with a built in atsc tuner.

Yep, My HDTV is the same Vizio L37. Strange that some channels work though. Bummer, I was just about to buy a set-top-box to try and rule out this issue. Looks like it may very well be the built in tuner.

BTW, did you mount your L37 to the wall? I mounted mine to the wall and it sags a bit, like the metal plating behind the plastic is pretty thin and flimsy. Is yours that way too?

Sony Denies Reports PS3 Won't Debut Until 2007

TVPredictions.com is reporting speculation this morning that Sony may have to delay the US launch of the PlayStation 3 until next year. The following is the item posted at the TVP web site, along with a link to a more detailed story:
________________________________________________

Maybe Microsoft knew what it was doing.

Last month, some analysts (including yours truly) were speculating that Microsoft blew it because its supply of XBox 360 game consoles failed to meet demand. The software giant was hoping that the console's new HDTV graphics would dramatically boost game sales. But the shortage of XBox game components seemed to play into the hands of rival Sony, whose new PlayStation 3 console was scheduled for release later this year.

However, there's a report today saying that Sony may not launch its new console until 2007 in some markets, including the United States. In addition, the reports say that Sony's per console production cost could reach nearly $1,000.

The company denies the report, but its stock fell 3.6 percent today in Tokyo on the news.
________________________________________________

Click here (http://www.courant.com/business/sns-ap-japan-sony,0,6196207.story?coll=hc-headlines-business) to read a Hartford Courant story with additional details.

John, sounds like some of your opinions are in-line with the publication you write for. :)

12 bucks isn't much, maybe I'll go for it.....hell I've wasted much more than that on cables. As soon as HD DVD/ BlueRay comes out I intend to spend many thousands just for the fun of it all. I might as well get opinions by experts first.

The cost basis for subscriptions are directly related to ad revenues. This would be true whether I wrote for WSR or didn't. So I'm not sure why you're making this comment.


My other expensive hobby is gardening/landscaping and well....that costs even more. :p

EDIT: I just checked and the web site says it is $15 per year not $12 for online only subscription....inflation I guess.

Or I might have been quoting a trade show online price. I know that we do offer discounted subscriptions at CEDIA and CES which is what I might have been quoting.

Got my Sony 50" SXRD RPTV on Saturday and hooked up the H10-250...all I can say is, wow. I can barely watch standard def after just two days. I find myself watching random travel programming on HDNET just to enjoy the picture. Now I need to get the OTA so I can get locals other than Fox (24 on HD tonight!!!!). Anyone have experience with the DB4 antenna? I have contacted an installer called Signal Seekers, and that's what they use.

Also, as an aside question, I want to slave my TIVO to another tv downstairs where I have an excercise bike...is there a decent, low-cost remote that will go through walls and control the TIVO from downstairs?

The cost basis for subscriptions are directly related to ad revenues. This would be true whether I wrote for WSR or didn't. So I'm not sure why you're making this comment.




Or I might have been quoting a trade show online price. I know that we do offer discounted subscriptions at CEDIA and CES which is what I might have been quoting.

Doesn't matter - WSR is head and shoulders above its competition in the depth and scope of its reviews. I read them all, because of an insatiable appetite for anything HD related, but WSR is the best.

RS,
I have a DB4. I got it from antennasdirect.com. They are actually located next to Six Flags on that outter road. I am in the St. Charles area. I get ABC excellent, which is all I care about because the rest come through Charter. I have not had a drop out with ABC. I don't think a professional installer is required. It is not hard to hook one up.

How much longer is it going to be before I can watch "LOST" on ABC in HD and other ABC HD programming without having lip sync problems. Come on, this has been going on since early January.

I had lip sync problems last night with desperate house wives and Grey's Anatomy. It seemed to get better toward the end of G's A.

oldavman,

The KDNL issue is a problem with hardware and KDNL is waiting for a fix from the manufacturer. Jim, who is the chief engineer for KDNL, posts updates here frequently and I'm pretty sure that he's as much on top of this as it's possible to be when the solution is outside direct control.

FWIW, I did notice that the lip synch problem was more obvious last night during DH than it was for either "Lost" or "Invasion" on Wednesday.

Thanks sheerce...I'm sure it's not too hard to install--for a normal person. However, that is not taking into account my complete lack of ability conerning home improvement and the like. I would rather pay and get it done right from the start than have someone smirking at my amateurish job later.

You might also try an internal antenna just to see if it works. Worst that can happen is you have to return it.

Yeah, I had thought about that, but my attic is very hard to access and I would still have to go through walls with the drop...not my specialty. As I've already spent a boatload on the tv and stand and receiver, I figure another 200 bucks to get the antenna done well is not such a big deal.

I was refering to a set top internal intenna vs an attic mount. Just for testing purposes.

Charter Sells 243,000 Subscribers to Former Charter Exec

The following story is from Multichannel News:
_________________________________________________

Country roads could be leading Jerry Kent home, in a manner of speaking.

Several executives in the cable investment-banking community said the former Charter Communications Inc. CEO’s current firm, Cequel III LLC, has emerged as the winner in an auction of about 243,000 Charter subscribers in West Virginia and Virginia, including the capital city of Charleston, W. Va. An agreement could be announced this week, one person close to the process said.

The price tag was pegged at $750 million-$800 million by one person who was involved in the process. That’s a relatively pricey $3,000 and up per customer, indicating that Kent had to top rival bidders. The systems are being shopped for Charter by Daniels & Associates and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Kent -- who formed investment bank Cequel III after leaving Charter in 2001 -- already has about 400,000 subscribers in several Southwestern states through his interest in cable operator Cebridge Connections.

Making a big step up in size, Cebridge already has a pending deal to buy 940,000 subscribers in secondary markets from Cox Communications Inc. for about $2.3 billion. That deal is expected to close in April.

Should Cebridge close its deals and rise above the 1.5 million-customer mark, it would surpass in size the eighth-largest U.S. cable company, Rocco Commisso’s Mediacom Communications Corp.
_________________________________________________

To read the entire story, click here. (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6308632.html?display=Breaking+News)

Yep, My HDTV is the same Vizio L37. Strange that some channels work though. Bummer, I was just about to buy a set-top-box to try and rule out this issue. Looks like it may very well be the built in tuner.

BTW, did you mount your L37 to the wall? I mounted mine to the wall and it sags a bit, like the metal plating behind the plastic is pretty thin and flimsy. Is yours that way too?

I did not mount on the wall. I sat it on top of my existing entertainment center, it's too big for the spot where the 32 inch conventional tv sat. I am trying to get my friend to build a new center that will accomodate this new tv.

I got my (1st) L37 from Sam's Club in South County. When I realized the ATSC tuner was freezing on KDNL-DT 30, and the intermittent blocking on all the others, I assumed a defective tv. I exchanged it for another. Same problems. I was perpetually on hold with visio tech support, so I went to walmart and got a US Digital set top box for $180. That set top box did not have any problems. I was not happy with the remote, I couldn't get my dish remote to work it. I then got the digitalstream 3150 plus prom circuit city for $220. Much better menus, even better reception of weak signals. It will actually get 14 (KNLC) most of the time.
It also has the HDMI output, so the signal to the tv is digital all the way, or you can still use the analogHD.

When I finally got thru to Visio tech support, I explained all I had done, and that I concluded it is a problem with the ATSC board. They countered that in other markets in the US, they have no complaints. While I agree with them it should not be the board if the freeze frames only happen on one channel, the blocking on all the other channels makes me think it is a board problem.
Like I said before, I am keeping it, $1500 is pretty good for a HDTV, atsc built in or not.

Anyone have experience with the DB4 antenna? I have contacted an installer called Signal Seekers, and that's what they use.


I have a DB4, purchased from antennasdirect.com in my attic. I've been very happy with it. I live in St. Charles and have 85%+ signal from 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, and 30. At least that's all I watch.

Grey's Anatomy has a bad lip sync issue also. Anybody else?

I have issues everday. However, it is slight and only noticeable if I think about it or look for it. ABC is aware of the issue and is working to resolve it. I confess, I watch ABC on D* 86 where the sync is perfect.

Scott

H10-250...
Also, as an aside question, I want to slave my TIVO to another tv downstairs where I have an excercise bike...is there a decent, low-cost remote that will go through walls and control the TIVO from downstairs?

I don't think you can run two outputs at the same time from the H10-250 Someone please tell me if this is not the case because I would love to as well ;)


Token

...
.... So I'm not sure why you're making this comment.......

Yes, I will say that our print subscriptions are more expensive than some of our print competitors. We don't have a huge stable of other magazines with which to spread ads (or ad budgets across of you're an advertiser) and we don't have a multi-person staff to get advertisers.

.....

John, I meant no offense but with all the "our"s and "we"s it sounded to me like you owned the "publication I write for" and the opinions align. :)

Again, I meant no offense and can see why you are justfully proud to be a part of WSR which I will soon be a subscriber of.

Charter Sells 243,000 Subscribers to Former Charter Exec



I wish Charter would sell all the Dardenne Prairie subscribers to somebody.

token...I was going to run one HDMI output to my HDTV, and then one simple composite to the TV downstairs...will that not work?

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=273962&page=1&pp=30&highlight=output (Here) is a link about trying to use multiple outputs from the HR10-250.
It seems like it worked on some TVs depending on how it handled the HDMI connection. It's worth a try but you might want to test it before you run a cable.

Good luck, ;)

Token

token...I was going to run one HDMI output to my HDTV, and then one simple composite to the TV downstairs...will that not work?

I'm pretty sure you it cannot output HD and SD simultaneously, so if it does work, you will have to watch SD while the 2nd TV is on.

Scott

Whew...glad I asked before I ran the wire...that would have been a waste of time. I'll test it out tonight. I really only want to watch recorded standard def programs while I exercise, so no one would be able to watch live TV on the main set anyways.

Whew...glad I asked before I ran the wire...that would have been a waste of time. I'll test it out tonight. I really only want to watch recorded standard def programs while I exercise, so no one would be able to watch live TV on the main set anyways.

That would probably work then. You may be able to watch the main TV still but in SD.

Scott

If I understand correctly, HDMI video is identical to DVI plus the addition of audio output. My question is when I upgrade my Dish receiver, that I believe has HDMI output, will I be able to run just a single cable between the TV and sat Receiver? I don’t have HDMI switching through my Denon “bummer”

If I understand correctly, HDMI video is identical to DVI plus the addition of audio output. My question is when I upgrade my Dish receiver, that I believe has HDMI output, will I be able to run just a single cable between the TV and sat Receiver? I don’t have HDMI switching through my Denon “bummer”

I run HDMI on a DVD player and I have to run an optical cable to get Dolby Digital

Yes, as long as your TV has an HDMI input. You will still have to run a digital audio cable to the Denon for surround sound.

Scott

If I understand correctly, HDMI video is identical to DVI plus the addition of audio output. My question is when I upgrade my Dish receiver, that I believe has HDMI output, will I be able to run just a single cable between the TV and sat Receiver? I don’t have HDMI switching through my Denon “bummer”

Not quite. HDMI has more capabilites than DVI or in geek terms HDMI is a superset of DVI ;)

Two quick examples are support for 480i and component video (10 or 12-bit depth) which DVI does not support.

Regards,

John, I meant no offense but with all the "our"s and "we"s it sounded to me like you owned the "publication I write for" and the opinions align. :)

I wish! Nope, I make it no secret that I write for Gary and not the other way around ;)

I don't think it's much different than the way any employee would refer to their company. Have you ever said our company when you refer to your employer? I know I do when I refer to my main employer, and it's a very large one.

Part of it, I guess, is that I do give a damn, which you've noticed :D

Again, I meant no offense and can see why you are justfully proud to be a part of WSR which I will soon be a subscriber of.

Yep, we've got some of the sharpest people around on staff, and with recent contributions like the series from Ray Soneira, my biased opinion is that it sets the bar for technical content.

Cheers,

I wish! Nope, I make it no secret that I write for Gary and not the other way around ;)

I don't think it's much different than the way any employee would refer to their company. Have you ever said our company when you refer to your employer? I know I do when I refer to my main employer, and it's a very large one.

Part of it, I guess, is that I do give a damn, which you've noticed :D



Yep, we've got some of the sharpest people around on staff, and with recent contributions like the series from Ray Soneira, my biased opinion is that it sets the bar for technical content.

Cheers,

John,

I totally agree... Sometimes I give a damn what happens at my (only) employer and use the words "we" and "our". Other days it is "them" :( I'm a bit envious that you have a second employer you can be this proud of.

I just ordered two years of the WSR to be delivered to my house. This is a hobby I am sort of addicted to and want to understand more and with the slow pace of HD adoption I figure one year was not enough. :)

rs,

When the HD Tivo is outputting 480p, 720p, or 1080i, the S-video and composite video outputs will flat out not work. Your idea of the wire to another (SD) TV will work though, as long as you remember to set the Tivo's output to 480i when you're about to watch that other TV.

For the couple of folks with Vizio L37 TV's, for what it's worth we sell tons of 'em where I work and haven't had any returned for freezing picture. We don't have an antenna on site so I can't try KDNL on our display unit. :(

Today while I was at Barnes Hospital I notice a sign in the optical and hearing center. Apparently you can now get hearing aids that will allow you to hear in "HIGH DEFINITION". That must be the buzz word for anything of superior quality. :)

More OTA signal blips during 'House' and '24' tonight. Anyone else?

More OTA signal blips during 'House' and '24' tonight. Anyone else?
Yes...both shows here also.

More OTA signal blips during 'House' and '24' tonight. Anyone else?

I didn't see or hear anything during 24 this week. Last week was awful though.

Scott

oldavman,

The KDNL issue is a problem with hardware and KDNL is waiting for a fix from the manufacturer. Jim, who is the chief engineer for KDNL, posts updates here frequently and I'm pretty sure that he's as much on top of this as it's possible to be when the solution is outside direct control.

FWIW, I did notice that the lip synch problem was more obvious last night during DH than it was for either "Lost" or "Invasion" on Wednesday.

Maybe they could consider the hardware FOX is using?

Today while I was at Barnes Hospital I notice a sign in the optical and hearing center. Apparently you can now get hearing aids that will allow you to hear in "HIGH DEFINITION". That must be the buzz word for anything of superior quality. :)

We're doomed for sure. Can you imagine a hearing aid with a lip sync issue? Or one that stutters? Clearly the marketing people who come up with the descriptions don't really watch HDTV.

I didn't see or hear anything during 24 this week. Last week was awful though.

Scott

I watched last week's 24 from a recording and it looked fine. I watched it live tonight and it had a handful of breakups. Once, the hard drive on my PC started up which always causes a pause in recording. I did notice a couple of the dropouts occurred while my daughter was moving around in her room. I swear the same thing happened during the Daytonal 500 yesterday. Antenna is in the attic and her room is right below it. Don't know if I ought to believe that her moving around could cause a multi path issue?

Did you watch it on Ch 2 or Fox East?

I watched it on Fox E and had no issues.

EDIT: Wow, this is my 100th post. :D

I didn't see or hear anything during 24 this week. Last week was awful though.

Scott

DISH Adds More HD Locals...in Nashville

Based on this news, it appears that DISH is working a different sort of game plan from DirecTV, where DirecTV is adding HD locals in the largest market first and then working its way down the rankings.

It's possible that DISH is picking and choosing its HD markets, based on where the opportunity is greatest (lowest cable and/or DirecTV penetration) or where DISH has high turnover among high-paying customers.

In any event, they're obviously not strictly following DMA size criteria.

The following story is from today's SkyREPORT newsletter:

______________________________________________

On Monday, EchoStar's DISH Network satellite TV service launched local high def TV channels to customers in Nashville and surrounding counties.

Stations available through the package are ABC 2 (WKRN), CBS 5 (WTVF), NBC 4 (WSMV) and FOX 17 (WZTV).

Customers in Nashville who sign up for a DishHD package can get more than 1,700 hours of HD programming every week, including their local HD broadcasts. As an added bonus, new customers who sign up for DishHD through a local RadioShack retailer before Feb. 28 are eligible for next-day installation, the company said.

EchoStar said DISH Network will launch high def local channels this year through an effort that will reach more than 50 percent of U.S. TV households. Already, local HD service from DISH Network is available in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
______________________________________________

For more satellite TV industry news, go to www.skyreport.com

Doug,

Dish still aims to have the top 25 on air by year's end. I think that these other smaller markets are aimed at complying with the SHVERA which says that locals need to come from a single dish.

Cheers,

John,

Yeah, I'm assuming that Boston or San Francisco will get HD locals before Dubuque, Iowa, I just don't understand why Nashville, 30th in DMA ranking, rose to the top of DISH's priorities.

Is this related to East/West Coast subscribers having more difficulty in gaining line of sight to the DISH satellites?

Doug,

No, they're probably trying to close down the 121 and 105 sat locations and focusing on 129/119/110 locations with 61.5 and 61.5 for locations that can't hit the 129 bird.

Echostar X that just launched is all spotbeams for locals including HD LiL.

Cheers,

Did you watch it on Ch 2 or Fox East?

I watched it on Fox E and had no issues.

EDIT: Wow, this is my 100th post. :D

Come to think of it, I did wathch it on D*88. No wonder it was flawless. :D

Scott

I tried emailing FOX to report the OTA problems during House and 24, but the message was returned as undeliverable. So I called and was given another contact name to call after 11:00 am. If this new name pans out, I'll post it here to be included in the first page of this thread.

Doug,

You're correct, Boston was made available to subs the same day as Nashville.

Philadelphia on 61.5°, Minneapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Salt Lake City on 129° have all been uplinked, but are not yet available to subs. They should be next.

Sorry, no word on STL yet :(

kdg:

It would be nice if STL was available before I get the new house move settled ;) Gotta get this one sold real soon!

Cheers,

kdg:
It would be nice if STL was available before I get the new house move settled ;) Gotta get this one sold real soon!
Cheers,
John,
All indications point towards 129° for STL.
So far, Dish has only uplinked NY, BOS and PHL on to 61.5°, and LA, CHI, ABQ, DEN, Nashville, MIN, ATL, SLC on to 129°.

IIRC, 129° has almost a complete footprint of CONUS, and 61.5° is used in the Northeast because many areas there cannot see 129°. Is that correct?

I've also been following the HD installations, and throughout the country, there is a short supply of the Dish1000 in many markets. In such cases, Dish is either adding a second Dish300 pointed at 129°, or in the cases where a second Dish300 is already pointed at 61.5°, and 129° can been seen, Dish is spinning it over to 129°. Supporting the logic that Dish has other plans for 61.5°, and is trying to minimize its use for local DT's.

Us being in the dead-center of the country, I'd be inclined to think 129° is where we'll end up.

But then, I'm wrong 92% of the time....just ask my wife!

E-10 is spotbeams exclusively, and I expect you'll see the wing sats as the national HD sats. Keep in mind that they can easily relocate from 61.5 or 129 to 110, since 110 is a core location.

I don't know this as fact, just speculation on my part.

Yes, I know about the Dish1000 shortages.

Cheers,

Got my Sony 50" SXRD RPTV on Saturday and hooked up the H10-250...all I can say is, wow. I can barely watch standard def after just two days. I find myself watching random travel programming on HDNET just to enjoy the picture. Now I need to get the OTA so I can get locals other than Fox (24 on HD tonight!!!!). Anyone have experience with the DB4 antenna? I have contacted an installer called Signal Seekers, and that's what they use.

Also, as an aside question, I want to slave my TIVO to another tv downstairs where I have an excercise bike...is there a decent, low-cost remote that will go through walls and control the TIVO from downstairs?

"Drop the Remote" Doug: have you had a chance to work on an SXRD yet. What is your opinion of them?

E-10 is spotbeams exclusively, and I expect you'll see the wing sats as the national HD sats. Keep in mind that they can easily relocate from 61.5 or 129 to 110, since 110 is a core location.Cheers,
Ah...that's a tad beyond the current level of my technical understanding...but gives me something to read up on :)

This is definitely off topic, but....

Two and a Half Men (2.5) is one of the funniest current shows on TV IMO. Plus in my amateur opinion has great HD PQ, but I am not as good at discerning as most of you. My question is, is there anyway to know when or if it's seasons will ever be released on DVD? We didn't discover the greatness of 2.5 until this season. Thanks for any help.

kdg you have a PM

"Drop the Remote" Doug: have you had a chance to work on an SXRD yet. What is your opinion of them?Yes, I like the picture quality quite a lot and of the two I've worked on so far they seem to calibrate very nicely.

However, I'm holding off recommending the SXRDs, or any other LCoS-based TVs, until there's a track record for reliability.

Most of the tales of companies embracing LCoS (Toshiba, Philips and Intel) have ended abruptly or badly, and while the state of play so far for JVC and Sony is more encouraging, I think we're short of the point where the technology can be given a clean bill of health. There seems to me to be too many manufacturing issues in the past, and evidence that these continue to occur.

As far as anecdotal feedback, I've had both a JVC customer and a Sony prospect end up returning their set due to the "blobs" that appear on one or more of the imaging chips. I had one other customer who needed to have his JVC light engine swapped out, but I'm not sure if he followed through or bought something else.

It's interesting to me that Sony seemed to be on an out-and-out roll with SXRD a year or so ago, when they were selling just the $30,000 projector and the $13,000 RPTV. Since the XBR1s have moved them toward volume business, the problem reports are coming to the surface. Maybe the quality control was tighter with the more expensive products, or maybe this is simply a function of higher sales levels.

Here's an example of some discussion about the SXRD "blob" problems:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=636342

There are also problems associated with some SXRD sets having a "blue hue" (FWIW, I have notes from another calibrator on how to fix this issue but haven't needed to try it out) and other XBR1 owners have complained about misconvergence (to be fair, an issue with all 3-chip displays, to some degree). There's a fair bit of discussion about these issues in the RPTV section here at AVS.

I'm not saying that these problems are going to doom Sony's SXRD sets as it did for Toshiba and Philips, but there's still clearly significant kinks in this technology that need to be ironed out, and it looks like it's going to take a while longer before you can expect the sort of worry-free ownership that comes with CRT, plasma, DLP or LCD.

deuces,

I actually like 2.5 quite a lot, but I find the picture quality to be hit and miss.

I'm not sure why, but some CBS shows have a tendency to go quasi-nuclear on flesh tones, and 2.5 has been suffering this problem the past few weeks. I didn't see last night's episode, so not sure how that looked.

The worst offender in this vein is "Navy CIS," which would surely trip the geiger counter if I had one in the room when it was showing.

deuces,
The worst offender in this vein is "Navy CIS," which would surely trip the geiger counter if I had one in the room when it was showing.


See that is what I am talking about. We watch NCIS. I guess I just don't have a discerning enough eye, or know what to look for, because I don't think I have noticed what you are talking about.

But no info on DVD release of 2.5, or any idea where to look?

I haven't seen Navy CIS in a while either, but last year it was awful in terms of the ruby skin tones.

No idea on DVD releases. I'd check Amazon and see if they have pre-release info.

FWIW, apart from Seinfeld and Friends, sitcoms don't seem to do very well in after-air sales. Dramas do better, maybe because they're more like watching a movie and generally have an ongoing plot.

I have only started watching NCIS this season as well. As you know I only got HD this year. As far as 2.5 goes, because we just started watching it, I am just trying to find access to the "older" episodes. I found some on Ebay from Australia or something. Didn't know if that meant they might be coming here.

I asked a question previously here about checkhd.com and never saw any reply. What online guide is the most reliable for notating HD programming. For instance I assume tonight's Illinois game is in HD, but is there a reliable guide that can tell me for certain.

deuces,

Try TitanTV (www.titantv.com) or HDTV Magazine (www.hdtvmagazine.com).

TitanTV is free, but requires registraton. Not sure if HDTV Magazine is charging for access to its program guide, as I have a lifetime membership.

However, I can't vouch for the reliability of their HD listings. Ultimately all of these guides originate from the stations themselves, and the aggregated data is sold as a service by two info resellers (Tribune Co. is one of them, can't recall the other).

See that is what I am talking about. We watch NCIS. I guess I just don't have a discerning enough eye, or know what to look for, because I don't think I have noticed what you are talking about.deuces, I guess that could be seen as a positive thing.

But I think "ignorance is bliss" is exactly what TV manufacturers and cable/satellite providers are counting on from customers, so that they can continue to cut corners willy nilly in how they design and deliver the products they sell.

As a result, we end up with products and services that are "good enough" even though we're paying "genuinely excellent" prices.

All:

I contacted KTVI about the issues during the HD broadcasts of House and 24 using the phone number listed on the first page. I talked to Dale Stewart and he was not aware of any problems, but indicated that there were some recent equipment or software updates.

I also mentioned that the email we have ktvitech@fox2ktvi.com has been coming back the the inbox is full and the message is undeliverable. He stated that he had never heard of that address and he would look into it. Understandably he did not want to give up his personal work email address :)

Dale was concerned to hear about the problems and even took my number in case he had anymore questions.

For now, I'd say the phone number is the best way to contact the station regarding technical issues.

Kurt,

Thanks for checking and following up on this.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I get a strong sense of "deja vu" here, as this is almost word-for-word the feedback that was passed on from KTVI a couple of weeks ago. Clearly whoever at KTVI took the previous problem report, they dropped the ball (or never really held it). But hopefully this gets addressed this time around.

Also, it's odd that they would be unaware of the email address, as it was clearly set up by someone at the station. The fact that you're getting a notification that the box is full would also indicate that it's still operational.

Man, I wish I could find one of those jobs where I could ignore customer feedback and let my inbox pile up until it rejects all further communication. Must be sweet...until your position ends up in Bangalore.

Man, I wish I could find one of those jobs where I could ignore customer feedback and let my inbox pile up until it rejects all further communication.

With your gift to gab? You would break out in a sweat. :D

Toshiba is starting a tour demoing HD-DVD and St Louis is not on the list :mad: I know we are only the 22nd media market but it is a 40 stop tour. Sorry just had to rant. Thx

Am I the only person in the world NOT all that excited by HD-DVD? Beyond the cost of the machine, the $30 per disc price tag I've seen as being the target is ridiculous. I don't need to own movies all that bad.

Tried outputting TIVO signal last night to my camcorder...all I have to do is set the output format on the front of the H10-250 to 480i and it works fine. That won't be too much of a conflict most of the times.

I had some issues with Fox last night as well--while watching 24. But I have a D* dish, and was watching on Fox East (channel 88). I've been having problems with my locals on the dish prior to getting the HDTV anyways, so maybe it's just something wrong with my setup.

As regards the SXRD, I agonized and agonized between that set and the Samsung 1080P DLP. I really liked both, but the picture on the SXRD just looked better. Then, I found avsforum and there was all this talk about the "green blob". I went ahead with the SXRD and am very happy that there is absolutely no green blob that I can see. I can't see any "blue hue" either, but I must confess that I do not have the absolute best eye for such color differences. I will probably be calling Doug out in a few months to get the set calibrated (once the wife's sticker shock starts to wear off); so maybe he can comment later on what he thinks. I absolutely love it...watched the All-star game on Sunday, watched Master and Commander the other night. It just looks great as far as I'm concerned.

I did read through the blob discussions, and in some cases I have to say that it reached the point of hysteria. Plus, the discussion seems to be driven by a relatively small number of people. Is it real? Perhaps. But I just don't see it.

Am I the only person in the world NOT all that excited by HD-DVD? Beyond the cost of the machine, the $30 per disc price tag I've seen as being the target is ridiculous. I don't need to own movies all that bad.
I was excited for Blu-Ray on the PS3... now it's up in the air as to when that will be released.

With your gift to gab? You would break out in a sweat. :D

Doug, could get a job a Charter. :D

Scott

Am I the only person in the world NOT all that excited by HD-DVD? Beyond the cost of the machine, the $30 per disc price tag I've seen as being the target is ridiculous. I don't need to own movies all that bad.

I agree, especially when i am perfectly happy with the current DVD pic quality. I did originally sell most of my DVD's in anticipation of HD-DVD, but now I kinda regret it as I will probably not invest to heavily in any form of HD DVD format.

Scott

rs,

It's not a matter of the "blob" being there and some owners not being able to see it; it's something that tends to develop -- if it happens -- over time. Some customers get the blob shortly after purchase, some months or years later, and some likely will never see it.

This is not a Rainbow Effect sort of thing...and that's why I framed it in terms of LCoS not being "worry-free," in comparison to the other technologies.

When you consider the cost of an LCoS purchase, I think you really should factor in the cost of the extended warranty for at least 3 years, and ideally 5 years. But, of course, every buyer has their own threshold for risk and how much they're prepared to pay to minimize or eliminate it.

Tried outputting TIVO signal last night to my camcorder...all I have to do is set the output format on the front of the H10-250 to 480i and it works fine. That won't be too much of a conflict most of the times.

I had some issues with Fox last night as well--while watching 24. But I have a D* dish, and was watching on Fox East (channel 88). I've been having problems with my locals on the dish prior to getting the HDTV anyways, so maybe it's just something wrong with my setup.

As regards the SXRD, I agonized and agonized between that set and the Samsung 1080P DLP. I really liked both, but the picture on the SXRD just looked better. Then, I found avsforum and there was all this talk about the "green blob". I went ahead with the SXRD and am very happy that there is absolutely no green blob that I can see. I can't see any "blue hue" either, but I must confess that I do not have the absolute best eye for such color differences. I will probably be calling Doug out in a few months to get the set calibrated (once the wife's sticker shock starts to wear off); so maybe he can comment later on what he thinks. I absolutely love it...watched the All-star game on Sunday, watched Master and Commander the other night. It just looks great as far as I'm concerned.

I did read through the blob discussions, and in some cases I have to say that it reached the point of hysteria. Plus, the discussion seems to be driven by a relatively small number of people. Is it real? Perhaps. But I just don't see it.

I feel the same way about Rainbows and DLP's. I have never seen a rainbow on any DLP TV ever. Do they exist? Who cares, I don't see them. Glad to hear your SD sinal works from your Tivo box. Can you switch to SD from the remote, or do you have to do it from the front panel?

Scott

Doug, could get a job a Charter. :D Oh no, I'm melting...m-e-l-t-i-n-g... :eek:

I feel the same way about Rainbows and DLP's. I have never seen a rainbow on any DLP TV ever. Do they exist? Who cares, I don't see them. Glad to hear your SD sinal works from your Tivo box. Can you switch to SD from the remote, or do you have to do it from the front panel?

Scott

You can set the remote so that if you press the UP Arrow it will switch between
resolution settings.

Mark me down as a HD DVD and Blu-Ray nattering nabob of negativity...

While I would love to have a source for HD-quality packaged films, the fact is that between the multiple formats and the self-defeating paranoia of the Hollywood studios, both of these products deserve to fail.

I have one of the new Dish MPEG4 HD DVR's up and running. (VIP622)
If anyone is interested in information, feedback, etc., drop me note.

Hey, kdg454,

I too, recently got my 622 up and running. It's going pretty well for me as I learn to work it. I gave in and subscribed to LILs to get local guide data...something you must do in order to program the DVR correctly. But I find that the Fox 2 Guide data is completely missing, replaced with 24-hour "Digital Service". This makes it impossible to set the DVR for Fox shows in HD. Just wondering if you're seeing this too.

I'm miffed because Analog Channel 2 guide data seems perfectly intact. Smehow the analog channel 2 guide info fails to map to 02-1. Tried reinstalling locals. No change.

deuces,

BTW, the Illini-Michigan game is listed as HD on the TitanTV web site...

Mark me down as a HD DVD and Blu-Ray nattering nabob of negativity...

While I would love to have a source for HD-quality packaged films, the fact is that between the multiple formats and the self-defeating paranoia of the Hollywood studios, both of these products deserve to fail.
As a member of one of the families that opted for Beta instead of VHS, I hear ya. I'm more excited about the PS3... Blu-Ray was a bonus. I'm actually thinking about getting an OPPO, though, just to take advantage of the Grand Wega.

deuces,
....I'm not sure why, but some CBS shows have a tendency to go quasi-nuclear on flesh tones......

Thank you. I thought I was losing my mind.

Update: Guide to HD Programming Available in St. Louis

The guide has been updated to include TNT-HD on DirecTV.

As always, let me know of any errors or omissions...

We Interrupt Your Normal AVS Programming...

...for the following St. Louis housekeeping break:

A couple of years ago, we used to start off each month with a reposting of the local resource messages that are now buried on the first page of this discussion thread. I think there's some useful bits and pieces of information there -- and not JUST because I wrote most of it.

Unfortunately a lot of that information is overlooked because it's so far off the beaten path, especially now that the St. Louis discussion archive stretches back more than 2 years and 300+ pages.

To try to address this, I'm going to post an advisory/reminder note similar to this every couple of weeks. Ideally this will make this information more visible and accessible to more readers.

With HDTV sales increasing every month, we're getting more and more newcomers here, which is a great thing to see. But like most of us when we took home our first HDTV, there's a huge amount to learn beyond where to point the remote and which buttons to push.

So, here's to filling in some of those information gaps...

Tower Maps, Your Satellite/Antenna Rights & Local Station Feedback (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=2995679&&#post2995679)

Using An Antenna to Receive Local HD Stations (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=2995718&&#post2995718)

Common Questions about HDTV (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=2995791&&#post2995791)

HD Programming Available in St. Louis (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7176354&&#post7176354)

And finally, I want to remind everyone -- newcomers and old hands alike -- that you can access the St. Louis HDTV discussion here at AVS directly by using the shortcut URL that has been arranged.

The short-form URL also makes it very easy to remember and give the address to anyone you know who's just getting into HDTV.

The shortcut URL is: www.stlhdtv.info

If you get an Oppo, don't get it from Amazon. They ship out old equipment. Get it directly from oppodigital.com.

John,

Yeah, I'm assuming that Boston or San Francisco will get HD locals before Dubuque, Iowa, I just don't understand why Nashville, 30th in DMA ranking, rose to the top of DISH's priorities.

Is this related to East/West Coast subscribers having more difficulty in gaining line of sight to the DISH satellites?

Doug,

Maybe it's because Nashville doesn't have any Sinclair-owned stations demanding payment for their signals. :D

No offense intended your direction, Jim... the above was strictly for the corporate bean counters. :)

As a member of one of the families that opted for Beta instead of VHS, I hear ya. I'm more excited about the PS3... Blu-Ray was a bonus. I'm actually thinking about getting an OPPO, though, just to take advantage of the Grand Wega.

I recently got an Oppo myself, nice upconversion for the price. I bought mine direct from them - they have the BEST customer service too. Check out the Oppo thread ....

I agree about the PS3, and I'll probably buy one on Day One!

Called Premiere this morning and I talked them into coming out this afternoon to ground my antenna in the new spot on the roof. He grounded it to the grounding block on the side of the house which is grounded from the electrical mast to a 6 foot, 3/4" solid copper piece sunk flush with the walkway. Had that big ground pipe sunk when I replaced my circuit box, electrical mast and meter can. So I know I have a good ground.

I feel much better that it's grounded! They also didn't charge me and I didn't have to call D* to get it done. :)

Hey, kdg454,
I too, recently got my 622 up and running. It's going pretty well for me as I learn to work it. I gave in and subscribed to LILs to get local guide data...something you must do in order to program the DVR correctly. But I find that the Fox 2 Guide data is completely missing, replaced with 24-hour "Digital Service". This makes it impossible to set the DVR for Fox shows in HD. Just wondering if you're seeing this too.
I'm miffed because Analog Channel 2 guide data seems perfectly intact. Smehow the analog channel 2 guide info fails to map to 02-1. Tried reinstalling locals. No change.
Moman,

Yes, I have the same issue, which has been there since the installed the machine.
Last Saturday, I sent an email to Dish regarding the issue....copies:

-----Original Message-----
From: kdg454 [mailto:kdg454@earthlink.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 9:25 AM
To: CEO@dishnetwork.com
Subject: HD Tech Support VIP622

Hello,

My Dish Account Number is 825590xxxxxx1790.
I am having a technical issue with my new VIP622. I live in the St Louis DMA.
The local FOX O&O, KTVI-DT does not populate the EPG with any data other than "Digital Service."
All of my other off-air digital locals do populate data to the EPG on the VIP622.
All of my off-air digital locals, including KTVI-DT (FOX) do populate the EPG on my VIP211, 921, and 811.
I would appreciate the issue being resolved, as using all DVR timer functions, other than manual, is not possible without EPG data.

Ken Green
(573) 760-xxxx
Dish Account No: 825590xxxxxx1790

----- Original Message -----
From: Laslo, David
To: kdg454@earthlink.net
Cc: CEO@echostar.net
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 2:41 PM
Subject: FW: Ken Green, 825590xxxxxx1790-david laslo


Mr. Green,

I appreciate your email, I forward your account over to my Technical Product Support team. This team is a specialty group trained on all our new equipment, you can expect a call with in 24-48 hours. If you have any further concerns feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

David Laslo
Executive Office of DISH Network
CEO Escalations
David.laslo@echostar.com
720 514-7928

----- Original Message -----
From: Laslo, David
To: tps@echostar.net
Cc: CEO@echostar.net
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 2:31 PM
Subject: FW: HD Tech Support VIP622

TPS:

Can we have someone contact this customer regarding his 622, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
David Laslo
Executive Escalations

On Sunday morning, around 9AM, I received a call from a Dish software engineer at Technical Product Support. We discussed the issue, and he concluded it was a software coding issue, specific to the KTVI guide data and the STL DMA.
Basically he said the 622 software was not correctly coded to recognize the information being sent to it by KTVI.
He went on to say a patch order has been created, and the fix will come with the next 622 software update, now scheduled to be spooled on 2/28.

Considering the current roll-out of what is a new technology for Dish, I was pretty impressed with the speed by which the issue was addressed.

willy nilly
:D

kdg454: Wow! What a quick response from Dish. I'll be watching for the update. I have to believe the issue is NOT limited to just one station in one market. Otherwise this would not get such a high priority.

Nice job!

Doug,

Maybe it's because Nashville doesn't have any Sinclair-owned stations demanding payment for their signals. :D

No offense intended your direction, Jim... the above was strictly for the corporate bean counters. :)


Actually we DO have a station in Nashville...WZTV Fox is our station!

And yes I'm still working on the 5.1 when in town...about ready to pull 5.1 off until resolved.
Jim

And yes I'm still working on the 5.1 when in town...about ready to pull 5.1 off until resolved.
Jim

We've got our fingers crossed for ya. The 5.1 LOST last week was awesome!

kdg454: Wow! What a quick response from Dish. I'll be watching for the update. I have to believe the issue is NOT limited to just one station in one market. Otherwise this would not get such a high priority.
Nice job!
TPS told me it was the first report of the issue, but I have read a post from a sub in LA having the same issue with their local CBS DT.
I don't know quite how the EPG coding works, whether each station has its own, or each network, and the receivers software has to be able to recognize it, or what....Doug??
Either way, so far, it's the only issue I've had with the receiver. Coming off the 921, the speed of the machine is excellent. Especially being able to use the 30 second skip in rapid-fire....my 921 would freeze on the second or third command.

I asked a question previously here about checkhd.com and never saw any reply. What online guide is the most reliable for notating HD programming. For instance I assume tonight's Illinois game is in HD, but is there a reliable guide that can tell me for certain.
Deuces,
You have a PM regarding this.

All:

I contacted KTVI about the issues during the HD broadcasts of House and 24 using the phone number listed on the first page. I talked to Dale Stewart and he was not aware of any problems, but indicated that there were some recent equipment or software updates.

I also mentioned that the email we have ktvitech@fox2ktvi.com has been coming back the the inbox is full and the message is undeliverable. He stated that he had never heard of that address and he would look into it. Understandably he did not want to give up his personal work email address :)

Dale was concerned to hear about the problems and even took my number in case he had anymore questions.

For now, I'd say the phone number is the best way to contact the station regarding technical issues.

I received a followup call from Dale. He told me that the person that checks ktvitech@fox2ktvi.com has been on vacation, which is why the inbox was full. Still a bit concering because the tech manager didn't even know the email address existed.

I was also asked to remove the phone number from my post, so I have. Don't worry, I'm keeping the number handy.

I recently got an Oppo myself, nice upconversion for the price. I bought mine direct from them - they have the BEST customer service too. Check out the Oppo thread ....

I agree about the PS3, and I'll probably buy one on Day One!
Me, too... I'll pre-order, as I did with the PS2.

Toshiba is starting a tour demoing HD-DVD and St Louis is not on the list .

Have you ever tried to get a direct flight from Lambert to anywhere other than a major hub? They probably couldn't get here unless they took Amtrack!

-Hanjke

I was also asked to remove the phone number from my post, so I have. Don't worry, I'm keeping the number handy.FYI All --

The KTVI tech contact number will remain listed on the first page of the thread, which can also be accessed via the "We Interrupt Your Normal AVS Programming..." message that I repost here every 10 days or so. In fact, that note was just reposted here late Tuesday afternoon.

Anyway, I don't understand why KTVI wouldn't want to contacted when they have technical problems, especially when they're otherwise unaware of what is going on.

So, the number will remain accessible.

FWIW, the technical problems continued during last night's "American Idol." :rolleyes:

I asked a question previously here about checkhd.com and never saw any reply. What online guide is the most reliable for notating HD programming. For instance I assume tonight's Illinois game is in HD, but is there a reliable guide that can tell me for certain.

Only for sports, but hdsportsguide.com is very accurate and useful. They even have an RSS feed.

Even though they are a sports site, they still have listings for auto racing and golf. :D

I feel the same way about Rainbows and DLP's. I have never seen a rainbow on any DLP TV ever. Do they exist? Who cares, I don't see them. Glad to hear your SD sinal works from your Tivo box. Can you switch to SD from the remote, or do you have to do it from the front panel?

Scott

No, I would have to do it from the front panel unfortunately. Now I need to find a remote that will go through walls so I can control the TIVO functions. Anyone know of a relatively cheap RF remote?


As regards, the blob...everything I've read says that for most people it's an out of the box discovery. There's a mass of postings in the SXRD forum, and to tell you the truth, I have a hard time believing most of it. One guy posts a picture of his set that doesn't have a green blob and another guy calls him a liar. Even some of the people who do see "the blob" say that it goes away once the tv warms up.

Forums like this are great when people give level-headed advice that is not driven by fury or personal bias (like this St. Louis forum). There was a very funny article about this in Home Theater magazine a couple of months ago...you have to consider the source when you get on the internet.

Now, whether the SXRD has other reliability problems down the pipe remains to be seen. I took a calculated gamble (and without the extended warranty), but I'm not overly concerned. I can go back to every major home theater purchase I've made and find something on the internet that warns me not to get that particular piece. It's just the nature of the web.

Even though they are a sports site, they still have listings for auto racing and golf. :DBut what about poker? InHD and InHD2 actually carry HD poker shows. ;)

I saw some info once that stated once the "adult entertainment" goes HD, HD will become more popular. It referenced the internet and their understanding that "A.E." is what drove its popularity in the beginning. If we are seeing poker in HD, "A.E." must be right around the corner......

No, I would have to do it from the front panel unfortunately. Now I need to find a remote that will go through walls so I can control the TIVO functions. Anyone know of a relatively cheap RF remote?rs,

As someone else here pointed out, you can switch resolutions via the remote (up arrow key). The means to do this can be found in the TiVo Settings menu. That, combined with an RF remote, would allow you to make the switch without walking over to the TiVo receiver. A cheap RF option is to get an IR repeater that converts the signal to RF for transmission back to the IR repeater. These sell for from around $40 -- I use the X10 Powermid and it works great.

My concern with the blob reports is that these flaws may become permanent. This was what led to the withdrawal of Toshiba from the LCoS market. I have talked with one customer who recently returned his SXRD due to the persistence of the problem. Hopefully this isn't going to be an issue for 99% of SXRD owners.

But your fundamental points are absolutely correct, both about online hysteria and the fact that every technology or product comes with a laundry list of reasons to avoid them -- DLP (rainbows), LCD (screen door), CRT (heat/heft/burn-in), and plasma (image retention/burn-in).

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before there's a list of drawbacks to new technologies, such as SED, or new DLPs where LEDs replace the color wheel.

Nothing is perfect. Like everything in life, there are trade-offs. The key thing is to be aware of what they are, so you can make the best possible decision for your personal circumstances.

I saw some info once that stated once the "adult entertainment" goes HD, HD will become more popular. It referenced the internet and their understanding that "A.E." is what drove its popularity in the beginning. If we are seeing poker in HD, "A.E." must be right around the corner......There is one porn studio that has been shooting in HD for the past few years (Digital Playground?) to build up an HD library of titles in anticipation of a packaged HD disc format.

Also, Mark Cuban, proprietor of HDNet, seriously investigated the business of producing HD porn, but says he concluded that there are some things best unseen in HD. His point was that the vast majority of porn actresses wouldn't be very appealing when presented in HD resolution.

Doug, thanks for the remote advice....do I need any other hardware besides the X10 Powermid?

The one good thing about finicky technology is that if it really causes problems in 3-5 years, I have a built-in excuse with the wife to buy the latest and greatest! But in all seriousness, I'm not so skilled with my eye to detect small flaws...I like the overall effect of the picture...I was having serious HD envy. But I'm not going to obsess over things that I have little knowlege of nor control over.

I think the X10 Powermid is all you'd need. One thing I didn't mention is that both the transmitter and repeater need a power source.

A second TiVo remote for your workout area would be a nice convenience you might want to consider at some point.

Here's a bit more on Digital Playground's plans for HD videos:

(Note: The link below will take you to a site that focuses on adult video industry news. If you find this sort of thing offensive, or you are under the age of 18, please DO NOT click below)

http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=254658

I do not want my bandwidth taken up by the Adult Entertainment filth, but, if that is what it takes to get more HD content, and get the companies to upgrade their gear to limit compression, then send it over.

I finally got back an email from Charter responding to my questions about future content. They sent back a bunch of expected BS. So, I told them it was BS and they all must be trained in the arts of stupidity. Their responce was to thank me for my feedback and are happy to see where they need to improve. More BS, still nothing on future possible HD channels.

I can't wait until D* has the locals over the dish. I can't wait until I can throw Charter's cable box out the front door and tell them to shove it into a strategic location.

I Live in O'Fallon, MO and have the Silver Sensorr in my basement (one floor directly below my HDTV). In general it receives all of the locals. However, often it will drop ABC or Fox, usually just the audio.

For example if I'm changing channels and I go to 30.1, about 10-20% of the time it will give "No Signal". So I just flip down one channel and then back up to 30.1 and the signal is fine. A differnt example was last night I was watching American Idol (on Fox) and the signal would drop out and then come back in 2 seconds. Sometimes when I change channels I will get picture without audio. Once again usually just ABC and Fox.

According to antennaweb, from O'Fallon, ABC is within 1 degree as WB and NBC. Fox, on the other hand further away, around 5 degrees from CBS. So you would think ABC would come in as well as WB and NBC. Is their broadcast signal weaker.

So Monday I went to Skywalker and bought the Squareshooter (non-amplified) upon their recommendation. I havn't fully installed the Square Shooter but I have it up one floor and next to the window pointed towards STL (around 120 degrees). So far my results are very similar to the Silver Sensorr in the basement.

So my questions are: Will the Square Shooter get better if I mount it outside the window, still at ground level? Is there a more recommended option? Would a 4bay or 8bay yagi in the basement do better? I know higher is better, but the basement would be a very easy installation, and I only need a little better reception to perfect those last two channels.

Sorry about the long mesage. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

Joe

I do not want my bandwidth taken up by the Adult Entertainment filth...

...I can't wait until D* has the locals over the dish. I can't wait until I can throw Charter's cable box out the front door and tell them to shove it into a strategic location.I hope I'm not the only one this has occurred to, but your Charter end-game scenario does sound vaguely like an AE plotline... :eek:

Hi,

Does Charter in St. Louis provide any unencrypted HDTV signals with basic cable (probably only local, if at all)?

[I've got a Samsung TX-P2670WH ($175 Target clearance last fall) with a built-in tuner. I know there are some issues with it, but a touchy firmware upgrade is supposed to allow me to receive unencrypted HDTV on cable without a separate box. I won't bother if there's nothing to receive.]

I seem to remember reading that Charter St. Louis was resisting providing unencrypted HD on basic cable and that there was some question as to whether they were required to by the FCC - any update on the rules? It might be worth it to make their legal department squirm.

Sorry to post - I tried searching for the answer to this, but couldn't find anything recent and Charter tech is useless on this point (I got a cryptic live help message saying "by 2009").

Thanks!

A differnt example was last night I was watching American Idol (on Fox) and the signal would drop out and then come back in 2 seconds.The issue with KTVI (FOX) has been discussed quite a bit here, even as recently as this morning (please scroll back over the past couple of pages for details). It is a station issue, not a reception problem.

According to antennaweb, from O'Fallon, ABC is within 1 degree as WB and NBC. Fox, on the other hand further away, around 5 degrees from CBS. So you would think ABC would come in as well as WB and NBC. Is their broadcast signal weaker.I don't know the specifics of KDNL's (ABC) transmitter power, but I have no reason to believe that their signal is significantly weaker or stronger than any other station. AFAIK, all STL digital stations are transmitting at their full licensed power (that might not apply to PAX and UPN).

So Monday I went to Skywalker and bought the Squareshooter (non-amplified) upon their recommendation. I havn't fully installed the Square Shooter but I have it up one floor and next to the window pointed towards STL (around 120 degrees). So far my results are very similar to the Silver Sensorr in the basement.

Will the Square Shooter get better if I mount it outside the window, still at ground level? Is there a more recommended option? Would a 4bay or 8bay yagi in the basement do better? I know higher is better, but the basement would be a very easy installation, and I only need a little better reception to perfect those last two channels.I'm not all that familiar with the Square Shooter, but I believe it is designed for outdoor or (maybe) attic use. Wouldn't Skywalker be the logical place to direct this question?

I'm certain that you're going to get better results -- with any antenna -- if you can elevate it. Based on your current reception, I probably would have tried elevating the Silver Sensor before looking at other antennas, particularly if you were going to install its replacement indoors.

Hi,
Does Charter in St. Louis provide any unencrypted HDTV signals with basic cable (probably only local if at all)?

I seem to remember reading that Charter St. Louis was resisting providing unencrypted HD on basic cable and that there was some question as to whether they were required to by the FCC - any update on the rules? It might be worth it to make their legal department squirm.

Sorry to post - I tried searching for the answer to this, but couldn't find anything recent and Charter tech is useless on this point (I got a cryptic live help message saying "by 2009").Thanks!Smiley, Welcome -- I appreciate you making the effort to find the answer to your question via the search. This one is a bit tricky.

Here's some previous discussion about this. I searched for QAM, which is the modulation scheme used by most cable TV players, and what youi're looking to find is unencrypted QAM transmission of the local digitals:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7042906&&#post7042906

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6419240&&#post6419240

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5884491&&#post5884491

Hopefully those get you pointed in the right direction. You might want to do this search yourself, using the Search This Thread box at the top of each page.

I saw some info once that stated once the "adult entertainment" goes HD, HD will become more popular. It referenced the internet and their understanding that "A.E." is what drove its popularity in the beginning. If we are seeing poker in HD, "A.E." must be right around the corner......


An interesting aside to this, check out this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=647997&page=1&pp=30

Doug, thanks for the prompt reply. I am willing to spend $50 or $60 on a new antenna for the basement if it prevents me from trying to spend 2 or 3 hours trying to mount an antenna higher up into the attic and run cable downstairs. The silver sensor is an indoor antenna that I can't install on the roof (which would be a little easier than the attic in my situation).

Thanks for the info regarding the KTVI dropout. I read the previous 4 or 5 pages, but maybe I didn't see it or didn't go back far enough. I'll look a few pages back further for the info.

With regard to asking Skywalker my questions, I did ask questions before purchasing and they recommended the Square Shooter. However, the salesperson seemed pretty young (not that it necessarily means he's less experienced). I was just looking for another opinion, especially since his recommendation showed no improvement.

Thanks for your input. Joe

The issue with KTVI (FOX) has been discussed quite a bit here, even as recently as this morning (please scroll back over the past couple of pages for details). It is a station issue, not a reception problem.

I don't know the specifics of KDNL's (ABC) transmitter power, but I have no reason to believe that their signal is significantly weaker or stronger than any other station. AFAIK, all STL digital stations are transmitting at their full licensed power (that might not apply to PAX and UPN).

I'm not all that familiar with the Square Shooter, but I believe it is designed for outdoor or (maybe) attic use. Wouldn't Skywalker be the logical place to direct this question?

I'm certain that you're going to get better results -- with any antenna -- if you can elevate it. Based on your current reception, I probably would have tried elevating the Silver Sensor before looking at other antennas, particularly if you were going to install its replacement indoors.

I hope I'm not the only one this has occurred to, but your Charter end-game scenario does sound vaguely like an AE plotline... :eek:

Was that Cable Gal?

I'm very familiar with the Square Shooter so I'll jump in. I'm much closer to the towers but my degree difference is like yours, just 3 degrees. I had problems pulling ABC too and it's my weakest signal strength. I also had previous issues with Fox and the signal strength was 90. I learned that signal strength is not that much of a factor as it measures the bandwidth more. Still, it provides some idea. I called Winegard and they suggested rotating it 45 degrees to where it looks like a yield sign (my term). Skywalker said to tilt it ever so slightly 2-4 degrees up. I tried everything and posted in the forum hardware section for suggestions. You may want to look there too. I was able to pull 2 out 4 but not all network channels. They are on 2 different towers and the SS seems to work best with higher numbered channels like Ch 4 and 2. I'm returning mine, but unlike you, mine was mounted high on my roof and I'm next door to Lambert.

Have you tried using a compass? Get it up higher and then try. I found even a small adjustment made a difference. You need a lot of patience and someone watching the TV on a phone with you. They are supposed to be good antennas and according to Winegard as much strength as a DB4.

EDIT: Ask for Craig at Skywalker. I bet you talked with Bill. Craig is friendly and has tons of experience. He is hard to reach at times though.

(Winegard sent me a brand new omnidirectional, non-amplified MS-1000. Looks like a flying saucer. My DB2 is working fine now that it's mounted higher so I'll sell the MS-1000 dirt cheap for my trouble with the SS).

I Live in O'Fallon, MO and have the Silver Sensorr in my basement (one floor directly below my HDTV). In general it receives all of the locals. However, often it will drop ABC or Fox, usually just the audio.

For example if I'm changing channels and I go to 30.1, about 10-20% of the time it will give "No Signal". So I just flip down one channel and then back up to 30.1 and the signal is fine. A differnt example was last night I was watching American Idol (on Fox) and the signal would drop out and then come back in 2 seconds. Sometimes when I change channels I will get picture without audio. Once again usually just ABC and Fox.

According to antennaweb, from O'Fallon, ABC is within 1 degree as WB and NBC. Fox, on the other hand further away, around 5 degrees from CBS. So you would think ABC would come in as well as WB and NBC. Is their broadcast signal weaker.

So Monday I went to Skywalker and bought the Squareshooter (non-amplified) upon their recommendation. I havn't fully installed the Square Shooter but I have it up one floor and next to the window pointed towards STL (around 120 degrees). So far my results are very similar to the Silver Sensorr in the basement.

So my questions are: Will the Square Shooter get better if I mount it outside the window, still at ground level? Is there a more recommended option? Would a 4bay or 8bay yagi in the basement do better? I know higher is better, but the basement would be a very easy installation, and I only need a little better reception to perfect those last two channels.

Sorry about the long mesage. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

Joe

Here's a bit more on Digital Playground's plans for HD videos:

(Note: The link below will take you to a site that focuses on adult video industry news. If you find this sort of thing offensive, or you are under the age of 18, please DO NOT click below)

http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=254658


Hmmm wonder how many hits this link is going to get? :)

Doug, thanks for the prompt reply. I am willing to spend $50 or $60 on a new antenna for the basement if it prevents me from trying to spend 2 or 3 hours trying to mount an antenna higher up into the attic and run cable downstairs. The silver sensor is an indoor antenna that I can't install on the roof (which would be a little easier than the attic in my situation).

Thanks for the info regarding the KTVI dropout. I read the previous 4 or 5 pages, but maybe I didn't see it or didn't go back far enough. I'll look a few pages back further for the info.

With regard to asking Skywalker my questions, I did ask questions before purchasing and they recommended the Square Shooter. However, the salesperson seemed pretty young (not that it necessarily means he's less experienced). I was just looking for another opinion, especially since his recommendation showed no improvement.

Thanks for your input. JoeJoe, anyone who's been around here for more than a day or two knows that I a lot of opinions and that every single one is worth more or less the paper they're written on.

No paper, get it? :)

But seriously, I really couldn't recommend you spending any more money on a different antenna if you are going to put it in the basement. Is it possible that a 2-bay or 4-bay in the basement would work better than your current SS down there already or the SqSh upstairs? Yeah, I guess it is possible, but I'd be genuinely surprised if it turned out that way for you. More likely it will just add to your antenna collection, and your frustration.

Also, you're probably getting close to the point where your total investment in unreliable reception is going to be a good part of the cost of having a pro come out and install the correct antenna in an appropriate location. Of course, that won't be cheap and it's also not guaranteed, but I think it honestly stands a better chance of success than putting progressively bigger and more expensive antennas down the basement until you find one that works.

Mo, who posts here regularly, has recently found someone at Skywalker who was extremely helpful for her. Maybe she can pass that guy's name onto you. I think it was Craig, but my certainty level is only around 50%.

C'mon Doug, get with the program. The young guys I worked with call it pr0n. :rolleyes:

There is one porn studio that has been shooting in HD for the past few years (Digital Playground?) to build up an HD library of titles in anticipation of a packaged HD disc format.

Also, Mark Cuban, proprietor of HDNet, seriously investigated the business of producing HD porn, but says he concluded that there are some things best unseen in HD. His point was that the vast majority of porn actresses wouldn't be very appealing when presented in HD resolution.

Has anyone else had reception problems with KMOV-DT the last couple of nights? Just curious if it's me personally or if it's a more widespread issue.

Regards,

I just received a call from FOX to inform me that they made some programming changes to their equipment, so you guys might want to keep an eye out for problems tonight if you are going to watch American Idol. I don't usually watch, so I'm not sure if I will be able to catch any of the signal blips that I've been seeing during House, Bones and 24 the past few weeks.

I'd be happy to keep working with FOX if you guys let me know the problems.

C'mon Doug, get with the program. The young guys I worked with call it pr0n. :rolleyes:


I've seen this too. I'm 29 and would hate to think I'm already an old fuddy duddy, lol. What is the reasoning behind this. Sorry for straying off topic.

Kurt,

I'll probably be watching it via TiVo, as I have a late afternoon appointment. But I will let you know if the problems have been resolved.

Thank you for leading the charge on this.

C'mon Doug, get with the program. The young guys I worked with call it pr0n. :rolleyes:OK, I've noticed this, but I just assumed they were keyboard-unfriendly nimrods.

Why prOn? Or is it pr0n? Or pron?

And does this mean I'm going to have rework my folder/directory structure? :cool:

Edit: Never mind -- found it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr0n

Has anyone else had reception problems with KMOV-DT the last couple of nights? Just curious if it's me personally or if it's a more widespread issue.

Regards,The only thing I watched last night on KMOV was Letterman, but it came in fine for me.

The only thing I watched last night on KMOV was Letterman, but it came in fine for me.


While I was watching Letterman from last night, I wondered about the flesh tone issue you talked about Doug. I once again noticed nothing of course. Does this mean you saw no problem with that last night?

Has anyone else had reception problems with KMOV-DT the last couple of nights? Just curious if it's me personally or if it's a more widespread issue.

Regards,
I'm in Sunset Hills and I haven't had KMOV-DT for a couple of days now. Everything else has a strong signal. It does that every now and then and I don't know why.

Tom

Letterman has never been a problem.

The problems occur with the prime-time stuff, and even there it's hit and miss. I recall "Two and a Half Men" looking very good last year, but there have been a couple of weeks here recently this year that have looked poor, with skin tones that were clearly to red. I didn't watch this week's episode, because it was a repeat, but I think it's still sitting on my TiVo. I'll try to have a look at it tonight.

As noted yesterday, "Navy CIS" seemed to be the worst offender in this regard, and every time I have seen it, it looked really bad. But it's not a show that I watch regularly. Maybe if there's no conflicts I'll try to record it next time it's on and let you know what I think of the PQ.

On the other hand, I regularly watch "CSI" (only the original) and "Without A Trace," and they routinely look excellent.

We also watch CSI and Without a Trace and I just haven't noticed that much difference in PQ between those and NCIS. But as stated I have a small and recent sampling to go along with my unprofessional eye.

I just received a call from FOX to inform me that they made some programming changes to their equipment, so you guys might want to keep an eye out for problems tonight if you are going to watch American Idol. I don't usually watch, so I'm not sure if I will be able to catch any of the signal blips that I've been seeing during House, Bones and 24 the past few weeks.

I'd be happy to keep working with FOX if you guys let me know the problems.

Kurt, I can keep you posted on any problems I see over the next few days w/KTVI if you'd like. :)