There's a little store just south of 370 in St. Charles called Alltronics. I usually purchase AV hardware from them. I don't know if they have what you're looking for but they have a pretty good selection for such a small place.

Walt


It is north of 370 on third street (hwy 94) on the left. www.alltronics.net

However, I have found skywalker to have better prices/products on my comparisons.

Rich

Mo,
IIRC, FSNMW was not one of the RSN's added to the D* lineup.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7977750#post7977750

Ohhh, okay. Well that's a bummer. Today's game looked nice & pretty. I liked the announcers better too.

Ohhh, okay. Well that's a bummer. Today's game looked nice & pretty. I liked the announcers better too.

I read on SatelliteGuys that Dish would add all 21 RSN channels by spring of 07. D* is adding 19, so FSMW and one other will be missing.

Here is how to get the deals with Charter. This is exactly what I did.
I already had established service.

Call them up 636-207-7011.

Once you have them on the phone, tell them your neighbor just signed up for the Biggest package for $47.99 with a 2 yr contract commitment and you want to switch to that. I added a MoxiMate setup and the HD tier and one other family tier. My total went to around $70 with tax.

I also was able to get the 3mb for $29.95 if I committed to a year and auto withdrawl. A week later I went online and turned off the auto pay feature myself. I was told the normal rate was 34.95.

For phone service I got unlimited local and LD with caller ID, call waiting, and a couple other options for $19.95 a month for the first year. I later dropped this after about 4 months since I found I wasn't using it.

Rich

I guess with Charter you have to do Retention CSR roulette. I called today and they told me that offer was over "a while ago". They offered me the deal at $60 something a month. I'm just trying to get my mother-in-laws bill under $60. She wants the Soapnet and Kids channels in the 100's, but they won't give us any wiggle room. I didn't threaten to go to D*, maybe that would have helped.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Dug

ps I'm jonesing for HD, we are living with my M-I-L until we get a new house and I miss my Local HD, Universal HD and HDNET. I may have to take up crack or something to hold me over.

Someone from the Satelliteguys website just had one of these installed...with pic's...

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=71341

Are the two new HD channels up and running on Charter?

The two new HD channels on Charter will be activated on the 18th.

Double exposure
Monday's Cardinals-Atlanta game will be carried locally by ESPN (and ESPNHD) as well as on KPLR (Channel 11). ESPN's Diane Lamb said the network's contract with Major League Baseball allows it to compete with the local telecast in each big-league market on two Mondays during the season.
This is the first one involving the Cards that ESPN has picked this year.
Thanks for the tip, Bailorg.

Confirmed, the event IS available to record on DISH, (ESPN/ESPNHD) which means it is not blacked-out.

Does anyone know why it being a Monday game, it went to KPLR instead of FSNMW? Is it something to do with the black-out rules? The other ESPN game (9/22 @ Houston) is a lone ESPN/ESPNHD broadcast.

Also, ESPN/ESPNHD is allowed 2 Sunday night games per team, which I believe they can claim up to 2 weeks prior. Since we've only had 1, there is still a possibility we will get another.

Not sure what happened with KPLR getting the Monday night game, but I believe that sometimes in the past KPLR would get a one-off weekday game as compensation for multiple Saturday or Sunday games that were hijacked by the FOX Network on Saturday or the ESPN game on Sunday.

Last night's Cards game on FSN sure didn't look like HD to me but it was in the schedule (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7576786&&#post7576786) Doug compiled from KDG. The game looked awful last night and Thursday night. I'm a D* sub and isn't it just channel 647?
As someone else pointed out, channel 647 on D* is not HD. However, when FSN does a game in HD, D* will occaisionally show it in HD on channel 95. I'm not sure what criteria D* uses to select which game they will show in HD. Friday night they had the Nationals/Pittsburgh game on 95 instead of Dodgers/Cards.

I have HD service through E* and I accidently tuned to channel 9467 and a HD baseball game is being broadcast. The game is in Pittsburgh and the Pirates are playing the Washington Nationals. Is this a normal occurrence? Have i been missing these games all season, and if so will any Cardinal games be broadcast with E*. It appears to be Fox Sports Network game. Any insight would help.

I have HD service through E* and I accidently tuned to channel 9467 and a HD baseball game is being broadcast. The game is in Pittsburgh and the Pirates are playing the Washington Nationals. Is this a normal occurrence? Have i been missing these games all season, and if so will any Cardinal games be broadcast with E*. It appears to be Fox Sports Network game. Any insight would help.

There is a Mlb Extra Innings Free Preview now thru the 17th. Check the HDPPV channel as well as the 630's :)

bigdaddy,

The reason you are seeing these HD games is that both DISH and DirecTV provide "sneak peek" previews of the MLB Extra Innings package during the first week of the baseball season and the week immediately following the All-Star break.

You should also have access to all of the SD games in the MLB IE package. Unfortunately, the package preview ends today.

bigdaddy,

The reason you are seeing these HD games is that both DISH and DirecTV provide "sneak peek" previews of the MLB Extra Innings package during the first week of the baseball season and the week immediately following the All-Star break.

You should also have access to all of the SD games in the MLB IE package. Unfortunately, the package preview ends today.


Thank You for the explanation. Sure would have been nice to see the Cardinal game in HD today.

My moxi dvr stoped working today. I woke up this morning and it was dead, calling charter now.

Ketterman Comm just called and AGAIN rescheduled my 1000+ upgrade, claiming they only received 1 unit this past week, and have to wait to receive more this coming Wednesday.

It's not a big deal for me, locals, guide and OTA are working fine. Just letting you others know there may be potential inventory issues with the + antennas.

Ketterman Comm just called and AGAIN rescheduled my 1000+ upgrade, claiming they only received 1 unit this past week, and have to wait to receive more this coming Wednesday.

It's not a big deal for me, locals, guide and OTA are working fine. Just letting you others know there may be potential inventory issues with the + antennas.

Bummer. This whole 119K thing is stupid. Did they really have to introduce yet another satellite and LNB with so many of us already owning dishes pointed to 3 birds.

Hang in there.

Bummer. This whole 119K thing is stupid. Did they really have to introduce yet another satellite and LNB with so many of us already owning dishes pointed to 3 birds.

Hang in there.
Agree. I'm thinking with next years additions of 20+ RSN HD's, another 20+ HD local cities, and the mandate to get to a single dish solution, we may be seeing much more of this dual-band dish being upgraded nationwide.
We just got lucky and get to be the beta-guineas.
I'm still sticking with my dual dish setup and ditching 129.

Ken (and other DISH customers),

How large is the new DISH Network dish? I assume that it's still going to be less than 1 meter in diameter, as that's the maximum allowed under the FCC guidelines regarding consumer OTARD rights.

Ken (and other DISH customers),

How large is the new DISH Network dish? I assume that it's still going to be less than 1 meter in diameter, as that's the maximum allowed under the FCC guidelines regarding consumer OTARD rights.
23.8"h x 30.9"w
1 5/8" mast
Pix and some specs HERE (http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Dishnetwork/Dishes/Dish-1000-Plus-Dish1000Plus.htm)

I'm scheduled to have my 1000+ installed this Saturday 8-12. I hope they can do it then cause that's the only day I'm off till the end of Aug. If they push it back I might ask if they have a 500+ and have that installed and have a 300/500 pointed at 61.5.

Dish is supposed to carry this channel (I believe by the end of Aug.) and I found there TV Schedule. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/hdtv/0,2857,FOOD_26756,00.html) It is not the same as the SD schedule, but looks like most of the good shows are there. One show I wish they had is "Ham on the Street".

Bad news guys,

I was supposed to get my 1000+ upgrade today and the installer came out early for just a 500 upgrade. He was really nice but when he called his office they kept saying all I needed was a 500 upgrade and not a 500+ upgrade nor a 1000+ upgrade. After him arguing with her and me telling him what to say she realized that I definitely needed the + upgrade to get the HD locals. Guess what, although they were supposed to have the new dishes in on Friday they said they are out of them already...........new appointment has to be made. I hope who ever has their appointments today has better luck then I have.

Rumor Mill: DirecTV & DISH To Merge?

The following story excerpt is from today's TV Predictions newsletter:
______________________________________________________

What's the hottest rumor in television today?

Satcasters DIRECTV and EchoStar will soon announce a merger.

A deal joining the nation's top satellite TV services has been speculated about for months. However, the rumors have suddenly escalated in the last few weeks with reports coming from last week's Allen & Co. media and technology conference in Idaho.

"Also floating through the mountain air was the perpetual rumor about a buyout of EchoStar, the satellite television company owned by Charles W. Ergen, who also attended the conference," The New York Times reported.

And a Reuters news article last week quoted Wall Street analysts as saying that the upcoming presidential election in 2008 could spur a wave of mergers (including DIRECTV-EchoStar) due to concerns that a Democratic administration would be less likely to approve them.

"I think if there's any prospect for (a DIRECTV-EchoStar) deal at all ... it almost certainly has to be in a Republican administration," Craig Moffett, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., told Reuters.

DIRECTV and EchoStar also helped fuel merger speculation this month when they teamed up to bid in next month's U.S. auction of wireless airwaves. And last March, Mike Palkovic, DIRECTV's chief financial officer, told an industry conference that his company was interested in buying EchoStar.

While Palkovic noted that the acquisition would face regulatory hurdles, he said: "We'd be nuts not to look at it." He even said the merger would be "desirable" even if it wasn't "feasible."
______________________________________________________

For the full story on a rumored DISH-DirecTV merger, click here. (http://www.tvpredictions.com/satmerger071706.htm)

I am now rescheduled for 7/26 8am to 12pm for my 1000+ upgrade. While the installer was here they asked me for an am or pm appointment but then did not give me a date before the installer left. I had to call them back to get the date. I'm starting to get pissed, I took off work today for this. Luckily he came so early I'm going to go on in to work anyway. They better have it right next time.

Rumor Mill: DirecTV & DISH To Merge?...Didn't this happen already a few years ago, ending up with failure for the merger to get approved by regulators?

I was channel surfing and came across a new Showtime program, Brotherhood being shown on CBS. Looked nice on CBS and decided to watch the next episode last night on Showtime. During dark scenes the actors faces looked all blotchy and had a red cast. Did anyone else notice this?

Alright, guys, more advice needed and this time its probably more serious than last time.

I just got back from the honeymoon and DirecTV came today to install the 5-LNB dish and an HD receiver.

It didn't happen. Why? Well, my yard is covered with very nice, very old trees. The previous owner did have DirecTV and even left the old dish on the roof. I assumed I would have no problems. We all know how that goes.

To make a long (and awful) story short, I can get the 101 sat and get all the regular SD programming, but cannot get any of the other two sats that have HD programming.

I don't know what to do now. What are my options? Charter? I know that's there, but would prefer not to. DISH? Would there be any more of a chance that would work? FIOS and such are not an option for me.

To muck things up fuirther, you may recall I bought an HD-TiVo off of eBay awhile back. If I have to scrap the idea of DirecTV, that's money down the drain.

Any advice is appreciated -- short of, "Cut down the trees." The new wife isn't going to like that =]

Dean,

This is covered in the article.

Short version: The proposed merger of DISH and DirecTV was undone, in no small part, by the efforts of lobbyists from News Corp. which wanted to purchase DirecTV itself.

The thinking (right or wrong) is that DirecTV/News Corp. may have the political entree to make the case for a merger now, no doubt in part by illustrating how the competitive landscape has changed since that time, with the entry of telecos into the subscription television business as an example.

If I recall correctly, one of the key sticking points on a satellite merger then was the negative effect it could have for rural subscribers/would-be subscribers, as there was no effective competition vying for those customers other than DISH and DirecTV. Not sure that has changed since that time. Ergen was prepared to agree to certain pricing restrictions in rural areas and some variation on that mechanism would no doubt be put forward again if this merger actually gets beyond the rumor stage.

Sorry guys... Just venting here.

I got the dreaded "push back" call from Dish's local sub saying they can't do my scheduled 1000+ install tomorrow.

Apparently they don't have the 1000+ to physically install so they're pushing me out 5 days (minimum). Realistically it will be August if the rumors I hear are true. Can Dish properly handle a launch by having sufficient hardware at the time of launch? Apparently not as they always seem to have very limited supply followed by more available later.

Just ranting for the moment. Nothing to see here ;)

Sorry guys... Just venting here.

I got the dreaded "push back" call from Dish's local sub saying they can't do my scheduled 1000+ install tomorrow.

Apparently they don't have the 1000+ to physically install so they're pushing me out 5 days (minimum). Realistically it will be August if the rumors I hear are true. Can Dish properly handle a launch by having sufficient hardware at the time of launch? Apparently not as they always seem to have very limited supply followed by more available later.

Just ranting for the moment. Nothing to see here ;)

That means I'll probably get that call sometime today (or the installer will bring out a Dish 500 tomorrow). More disturbing is the merger talks. I suppose that could be a good thing, because theoretically it might mean more bandwidth for satellite (and higher quality HD for everyone). But, it might just mean HD Lite for everyone. At least Dish for the time being is doing ful 1920x1080 broadcasting for most of the HD channels. DirecTV is HD Lite up and down (except for the locals, which they just pass through).

D
This is covered in the article.

Short version: The proposed merger of DISH and DirecTV was undone, in no small part, by the efforts of lobbyists from News Corp. which wanted to purchase DirecTV itself. ...

Doug...

Thanks for the clarification. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Ketterman Comm just called and AGAIN rescheduled my 1000+ upgrade, claiming they only received 1 unit this past week, and have to wait to receive more this coming Wednesday.
It's not a big deal for me, locals, guide and OTA are working fine. Just letting you others know there may be potential inventory issues with the + antennas.
I'm in contact with E*, trying to find out exactly what the situation/issue is. Any info will be passed on here.

I'm in contact with E*, trying to find out exactly what the situation/issue is. Any info will be passed on here.

It's simple IMO. They're giving new HD installs priority over existing installs.

It's simple IMO. They're giving new HD installs priority over existing installs.

I just got the call from ADS - rescheduled for Saturday. I don't care that much, because I have plenty of ways of getting the locals in HD.

I'm still more worried about the potential meger talks. I have a vested interest in things staying the way they are for as long as possible. I'm having too much fun recording and archiving material with the R5000 mod to my Dish 211. I was hoping for several years of that. A DirecTV takeover of Dish could squash that pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, HD DVD is gaining some momentum over Blu-ray. That could change pretty quickly if Sony alters its policy of using MPEG2 as its codec. That would almost level the playing field for image quality (although HD DVD would still have a 5GB edge - Sony's still having trouble getting their double layer Blu-ray discs to work). The studios that are committed to Blu-ray only will cave pretty quickly if it looks like they'll miss out on sales. Disney is already making noise about releasing for HD DVD, and they were always firmly in the Blu-ray-only camp.

Brand new to E*, 622 install scheduled for 8/4. A couple of questions:

1. The CSR assured me that the installer will be bringing out everything required for me to receive all HD (including locals). Is that just the 1000+ dish? With the issues some are having with pushed-back appointments, I don't want the installer putting something up and then having to come back a week later.

2. My two story house faces east, and the cable drop is on the north side. I would prefer the installer put the dish over a one story addition we have on the south west corner, where it would be out of sight. It would require about a 75' cable run (assuming the cable just goes straight over the roof), and would have a perfect view to the southern sky. What's the max cable run, and what are the odds of getting the installer to put the dish where I want vs. just throwing it up there?

Thanks for the help.

Brand new to E*, 622 install scheduled for 8/4. A couple of questions:

1. The CSR assured me that the installer will be bringing out everything required for me to receive all HD (including locals). Is that just the 1000+ dish? With the issues some are having with pushed-back appointments, I don't want the installer putting something up and then having to come back a week later.

2. My two story house faces east, and the cable drop is on the north side. I would prefer the installer put the dish over a one story addition we have on the south west corner, where it would be out of sight. It would require about a 75' cable run (assuming the cable just goes straight over the roof), and would have a perfect view to the southern sky. What's the max cable run, and what are the odds of getting the installer to put the dish where I want vs. just throwing it up there?

Thanks for the help.
1. If you are going to use a single dish solution, which it sounds as though you are, the installer will need to bring a Dish1000+ antenna and a DPP44 switch. Any other smaller parts the installer would carry on his/hers service truck.

2. DISH Standard Installation includes up to 200' of RG6 cable and routing the cable through one wall penetration. There are 4 down-feeds off of the 1000+ antenna to the DPP44 Switch. Also note, a AC outlet (3-prong grounded) is required where the switch is to be located. You would then only need one feed off the DPP44 switch to your lone 622.

622 installation also includes the installer running a cable from the 622 to your SD TV2.

It's simple IMO. They're giving new HD installs priority over existing installs.
I think you're giving them way to much credit :D

EDIT: You may be dead-on John...I called two of the local retailers down here, and indeed, they have several 1000+ units in stock, arrived last week :mad:

2ND EDIT (7PM): Just received a call from DISH CS wanting to push the install back to Aug 1st, citing lack of inventory :mad:²
The CSR apologized and offered/added a $20 credit to my account for the inconvenience.

Funny thing is, there is already a $199.00 antenna upgrade credit applied to my account, I suppose waiting for the installation to offset it.

kdg:

Yep, me too.

They are well and truly f'd up and I'm escalating tomorrow. I'm too ticked off to do it tonight ;)

Both the recievers in the house are picking up a strong KDNL-DT signal, but no picture or sound. Everything seemed fine earlier in the day. I first noticed around 7pm while channel surfing (trying to avoid the train-wreck Cards game).

Am I the only one experiencing this? This is directed more toward OTA viewers on the board.

No one has any ideas on what I should do regarding my episode w/ DirecTV today?

Any advice is appreciated -- short of, "Cut down the trees." The new wife isn't going to like that =]
Any chance of moving the mounting location on the roof? I had to move mine when I went to HD so I could clear the neighbor's oak tree.

Both the recievers in the house are picking up a strong KDNL-DT signal, but no picture or sound. Everything seemed fine earlier in the day. I first noticed around 7pm while channel surfing (trying to avoid the train-wreck Cards game).

Am I the only one experiencing this? This is directed more toward OTA viewers on the board.

kj, I'm experiencing it as well as of 0046 CDT 18 JUL. How far are you from Shrewsbury? I'm only 3900 meters away from the Kenrick tower. It might be front-end overload if you are as close as I am, and they have gone to 1 MW as licensed. Previously, they had an STA for 10 KW. That's a hundred times the power...

Note to board- Front-end overload was causing my KPLR problems. Verified with second reciever and changed antenna positions. I now have four 1 MW digitals and one 838 KW digital within six miles (three of which are less than three miles away). Don't forget the half-dozen 100 KW FM's and LPTV's. My tooth fillings have FM traps on them. Intermod/splatter city. Anybody want a CM 4228 antenna and CM 7778 pre-amp? :(

Echostar Stock Up on DISH-DirecTV Merger Rumor

The following story, from today's SkyREPORT newsletter, provides some additional background and detail on a rumored move toward a DirecTV-DISH merger.
______________________________________________________

Print media's well-publicized downturn may be a sign of things to come, but a recent story from the West Coast is proving there still is power in the pen. When EchoStar Communications' DISH Network closed trading yesterday up 6.17 percent ($32.52), some credited the upswing on an article in the LA Times hinting at rumors of a takeout of DISH by rival DirecTV.

The article said EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen has been telling people at the Sun Valley Media Conference that a merger between the two satellite television companies would save DISH around $3 billion in expenses. The article also said DirecTV brass believes the regulatory environment to be more favorable for a merger than the last time the subject came up.

And with the FCC's seemingly-painless Adelphia approval, industry watchers agree that consolidation is in the air. Although it would still be difficult to get approval for the combination, Kaufman Bros.' Todd Mitchell said if a deal were coming down the pipe it would likely come sooner than later in order to get the process out of the way before the 2008 elections.

Wachovia's Jeffrey Wlodarczak added that DirecTV's CFO, Mike Palkovic has voiced the company's interest in DISH, and insiders feel their joint application for AWS spectrum being auctioned by the FCC supports the possibility of a merger. "We believe that a combined DISH and DTV entity would be worth more than the two companies as stand alones," he said.

"If a deal were to be announced, we think shares of both DTV and DISH would respond positively," Mitchell said.
______________________________________________________

For more satellite TV industry news, check out www.skyreport.com.

Verizon Sets New Broadband Speed, Price Points

A sign of things to come locally?

The following story is from today's Telco Media News newsletter:
___________________________________________________

On Monday, Verizon introduced what it said is among the fastest internet connection speeds in the nation, saying its FiOS fiber-supported service can deliver up to 50 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and 10 Mbps upstream.

The speeds complement FiOS broadband upgrades introduced in May of up to 20 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream and up to 10 Mbps downstream/2 Mbps upstream. The latest upgrade is for the telco's customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

For residential customers, an offering of 50 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream sells for $89.95 a month with a one-year agreement, or $109.95 month-to-month.

A 20 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream sells for $44.95 a month with a one-year agreement or $49.95 month-to-month, and a 10 Mbps downstream/2 Mbps upstream sells for $34.95 a month with a one-year agreement or $39.95 month-to-month.

A one-year commitment to FiOS internet service includes free installation for a primary computer, the company said.
___________________________________________________

The St. Louis HD Programming Guide has been updated to include today's additions of MTV-HD and TNT-HD to Charter.

The revised guide can be found as an attachment to the message linked below:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7979699&&#post7979699

The following thumbnail analysis of the rumored DirecTV-DISH merger was part of an article on that topic in today's TVPredictions.com newsletter:
______________________________________________________

Despite the explosion of rumors, the DIRECTV-EchoStar merger is still far from a sure thing. Not because the two companies are afraid of federal regulators, but because EchoStar CEO Ergen is loathe to give up control in any situation. (Ergen clashed with News Corp. officials in 1997 when the Murdoch-controlled company offered to merge with EchoStar; the disagreements led to the dissolution of the merger offer.)

However, times have changed and Ergen may have concluded that he can no longer operate independently.
______________________________________________________

MTV-HD......really.....so Charter felt it was wise to spend its money on a Channel that is probably only watched by people who don't have HDTV. I don't even allow MTV in my house so my 12 and 9 year old can not watch it. Now we get filth in HD!!! No wonder their stock is only worth $1.12. ABC has one of the highest rated TV shows (Grey's Anatomy) and they can not work out their issues. How about something educational....like National Geographic HD.

Doug (re: FiOS article):

It's only relevant if we actually start getting FiOS service. Otherwise; it's just wishful thinking ;)

MTV-HD......really.....so Charter felt it was wise to spend its money on a Channel that is probably only watched by people who don't have HDTV. I don't even allow MTV in my house so my 12 and 9 year old can not watch it. Now we get filth in HD!!! No wonder their stock is only worth $1.12. ABC has one of the highest rated TV shows (Grey's Anatomy) and they can not work out their issues. How about something educational....like National Geographic HD.


Yeah I personally think both MHD & TNTHD are both worthless additions to Charter's slim HD lineup. Give me Universal HD & Starz HD and I'll be happy for now. National Geographic could work as well. But MHD is just a waste of bandwdith.

-Phatty

Yeah I personally think both MHD & TNTHD are both worthless additions to Charter's slim HD lineup. Give me Universal HD & Starz HD and I'll be happy for now. National Geographic could work as well. But MHD is just a waste of bandwdith.

-Phatty
Oh, TNTHD is crap. They take SD pan&scan movies, upconvert them, and stretch them to fill a widescreen AR. It's worse than just watching on a regular SD channel.

scheerce,

It's just speculation on my part, but I think that from a "money standpoint," the addition of TNT and MTV were likely the "most efficient" additions for Charter. This is a company where cash is in severely short supply, so I can't help but view the tea leaves of Charter actions through the perspective of their financials.

At least, I think this is why ESPN2-HD isn't being added, which I'm confident would easily be the most-requested addition from customers. On the other hand, I should note that adding MTV gives Charter something that none of its competitors currently carries -- so you could reasonably make a case that it's more than being just about the money.

Also, MTV-HD has been "available" for around 6 months, and Viacom hasn't gotten a lot of traction so far. I recently read that another cable operator (Comcast?) has also cut a deal for MTV-HD, so I suspect that Viacom is trying to make this more lucrative to distributors in order to build some momentum for the HD service (rather than sending out it out into the ether, generally untouched by viewer eyeballs).

Bottom line: Charter is probably spending little or nothing to make these additions and I do think the cost of new channels is going to be the major determinant in what gets added in future. But then, I have a pretty gloomy outlook for the quantity of HD additions on Charter, regardless.

Yeah I personally think both MHD & TNTHD are both worthless additions to Charter's slim HD lineup. Give me Universal HD & Starz HD and I'll be happy for now. National Geographic could work as well. But MHD is just a waste of bandwdith.

-Phatty

Agree with MHD, but if you're a sports fan, TNTHD is a blessing.

FWIW, I agree that TNT-HD is largely worthless.

Of course, if you're an NBA fan there are a lot of HD basketball games, but apart from that it seems like more of the ongoing effort to overload viewers with Law & Order re-runs.

And TNT has -- far and away -- the most obnoxious approach to channel bugs and animated onscreen promos. Hideous in all respects...

Of course, I just found out Charter folks in St. Louis don't have ESPN2HD. I suppose I would take that ahead of TNTHD.

Doug (re: FiOS article):

It's only relevant if we actually start getting FiOS service. Otherwise; it's just wishful thinking ;)John,

I was thinking about the potential for AT&T eventually doing the same. I know that AT&T is only fiber to the local node, while I think Verizon is fiber to the curb, so maybe that limits AT&T broadband speed potential.

Item: How's the Marantz "hour count" coming?

I guess you are correct. I know people inside charter who say that if it is cheap or free, they will do it. Not a great way to run your I.T. shop. But MTV, even if it was on local free airwaves I would not watch it. Plus, are these "musicians" who are making videos recording in HD? Has anyone seen what type of content they plan on putting on MTV-HD? Maybe if some concerts would be recored in HD, that would be nice to watch (like the Cream reunion, The Eagles, jazz, clasical, something that can benefit from high quality sound and picture). But to broadcast the lastest "famous for a week" pop/rap/teeny music video would be a waste of bandwidth.

2 more months and my Charter contact is up. Can't wait to move.........DISH, here I come.....

I guess you are correct. I know people inside charter who say that if it is cheap or free, they will do it. Not a great way to run your I.T. shop. But MTV, even if it was on local free airwaves I would not watch it. Plus, are these "musicians" who are making videos recording in HD? Has anyone seen what type of content they plan on putting on MTV-HD? Maybe if some concerts would be recored in HD, that would be nice to watch (like the Cream reunion, The Eagles, jazz, clasical, something that can benefit from high quality sound and picture). But to broadcast the lastest "famous for a week" pop/rap/teeny music video would be a waste of bandwidth.

2 more months and my Charter contact is up. Can't wait to move.........DISH, here I come.....Based on early reports when MTV-HD was launched, they were doing 3-hour all music video rotations. Not sure about live (recorded) performances, though that seems logical as the channel evolves.

Not sure about music video production these days, but if it's done on film, converting to HD is relatively straightforward, assuming they shot with 16x9 AR in mind. My understanding is that all music videos on MTV-HD, are in HD.

The good thing about MTV-HD, at least in its initial form, is that it's focusing on music, rather than lifestyle.

Here's more info about MTV-HD, via Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHD_(TV_network)

I guess you are correct. I know people inside charter who say that if it is cheap or free, they will do it. Not a great way to run your I.T. shop. But MTV, even if it was on local free airwaves I would not watch it. Plus, are these "musicians" who are making videos recording in HD? Has anyone seen what type of content they plan on putting on MTV-HD? Maybe if some concerts would be recored in HD, that would be nice to watch (like the Cream reunion, The Eagles, jazz, clasical, something that can benefit from high quality sound and picture). But to broadcast the lastest "famous for a week" pop/rap/teeny music video would be a waste of bandwidth.

2 more months and my Charter contact is up. Can't wait to move.........DISH, here I come.....


DirecTV! Come on.... BTW, have you watched the 11-2 channel? That is what
MTV used to be. Actually MUSIC VIDEOS....

No one has any ideas on what I should do regarding my episode w/ DirecTV today?


Do you have the dish or did the installer take it with him? The installers
have a tendency to give up rather easily, but if you have the dish, and there
is a shot, I think you could come up with a solution.

On another topic, what does the installation look like for the newest DISH geat. Sounds like a 1000+ dish with 4 coax coming out going to a switch? From there does it go to each TV? What is the switch for?

Add a DP Plus 44 Switch: the DP Plus Twin with DP Dual (or DP Single) LNBF configuration
can support additional receivers or an additional orbital location when connected to a DP Plus
44 switch. Both DP Plus Twin output ports and one DP LNBF output port are connected to the
DP Plus 44 switch. The DP Plus Twin’s LNB IN port is not operational when the LNBF is
connected to the switch.

http://www.satelliteone.com/dish/support/DISH_1000-Quick_Facts.pdf

hey schultz, I have a PM coming your way....

Scheerce,
Some pretty good pics of the + system/switch HERE (http://members.aol.com/kdg454/Install_Notes_D500_D1000_Plus.pdf)

John,

I was thinking about the potential for AT&T eventually doing the same. I know that AT&T is only fiber to the local node, while I think Verizon is fiber to the curb, so maybe that limits AT&T broadband speed potential.

Item: How's the Marantz "hour count" coming?

About 45 the last I checked.

Best,

As someone else pointed out, channel 647 on D* is not HD. However, when FSN does a game in HD, D* will occaisionally show it in HD on channel 95. I'm not sure what criteria D* uses to select which game they will show in HD. Friday night they had the Nationals/Pittsburgh game on 95 instead of Dodgers/Cards.


This is my first year back in STL as a Cardinals fan and my first year having HD so I am new to it all. Thanks for the heads up on 647. Okay, so there is KPLR (11.1), KTVI (2.1), Fox Sports Midwest (647), ESPN and now 95? Do I have them all? T don't have the call letters/stations memorized by channel yet. That's 4 different stations and five channels? Sheesh! I missed games here and there before the All Star break because of all the different channels.

As far as TNT-HD, I do watch The Closer. Nice summer filler I added to my Season Pass.

Oh, TNTHD is crap. They take SD pan&scan movies, upconvert them, and stretch them to fill a widescreen AR. It's worse than just watching on a regular SD channel.

I agree. I can't even watch TNT HD. Between the stretched pic, logo bugs, intermittant advertising tickers, and commercials. It is the biggest waste of bandwidth on Directv. I erased it from my program guide.

Scott

I agree. I can't even watch TNT HD. Between the stretched pic, logo bugs, intermittant advertising tickers, and commercials. It is the biggest waste of bandwidth on Directv. I erased it from my program guide.

Scott

TNT-HD = NASCAR in HD.

I try to watch other things, but I get dizzy when I notice stretch-o-rama.

Anyone looking for more information or schedule on MTVHD can go to this link: http://www.mhd.tv/

This is my first year back in STL as a Cardinals fan and my first year having HD so I am new to it all. Thanks for the heads up on 647. Okay, so there is KPLR (11.1), KTVI (2.1), Fox Sports Midwest (647), ESPN and now 95? Do I have them all? T don't have the call letters/stations memorized by channel yet. That's 4 different stations and five channels? Sheesh! I missed games here and there before the All Star break because of all the different channels.

As far as TNT-HD, I do watch The Closer. Nice summer filler I added to my Season Pass.
Mo,
As a general rule, weekday games are broadcast on FSNMW (647) and weekend games on KPLR (11.1).
HERE (http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=stl) is the schedule that lists which channel will be carrying each game.
Where you see FOX listed, that is KTVI (2.1), and ESPN is ESPN.

I guess with Charter you have to do Retention CSR roulette. I called today and they told me that offer was over "a while ago". They offered me the deal at $60 something a month. I'm just trying to get my mother-in-laws bill under $60. She wants the Soapnet and Kids channels in the 100's, but they won't give us any wiggle room. I didn't threaten to go to D*, maybe that would have helped.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Dug

ps I'm jonesing for HD, we are living with my M-I-L until we get a new house and I miss my Local HD, Universal HD and HDNET. I may have to take up crack or something to hold me over.

I too am looking for leverage to lower my charter bill. I currently have HD/Pipeline/HBO and Skinamax, and pay $130/mo. Does threatening to leave actually work? What promotions or deals have others received?

thx

Mo,
As a general rule, weekday games are broadcast on FSNMW (647) and weekend games on KPLR (11.1).
HERE (http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=stl) is the schedule that lists which channel will be carrying each game.
Where you see FOX listed, that is KTVI (2.1), and ESPN is ESPN.

KDG you are my hero! Nice link. Just what I needed. :) :) :)

Thanks!

I too am looking for leverage to lower my charter bill. I currently have HD/Pipeline/HBO and Skinamax, and pay $130/mo. Does threatening to leave actually work? What promotions or deals have others received?

thx


Yes speaking to the retention department, assuming one still exists can yield some good deals assuming it has been a couple months since you were on any other promotion. Sometimes you can end up with someone who will not offer you anything so it may take a couple calls to get the package deal you are looking for. Its at least worth a phone call, just tell em' that dish is looking like a good option what can they do to compete.

-Phatty

Doug, Joe, anyone else,
Speculatively speaking, what would be the possible effects of a Dish/Direct merger, to the average consumer, say 2 years from now? Any ideas?

For those who knocked MHD, they should have looked at the schedule first. It does not look like they are only broadcasting "the lastest "famous for a week" pop/rap/teeny music video."

There is programming from all there music channels: MTV, CMT and VH1

Like VH1 Storytellers: Coldplay, Bruce Springstein, Dave Mathews band.

CMT Crossroads:Bon Jovi and Sugarland, Kenny Rogers and Lionel Ritchie

Concerts like John Fogerty The Long Road Home

and that is on the schedule for today.

Mark

kj, I'm experiencing it as well as of 0046 CDT 18 JUL. How far are you from Shrewsbury? I'm only 3900 meters away from the Kenrick tower. It might be front-end overload if you are as close as I am, and they have gone to 1 MW as licensed. Previously, they had an STA for 10 KW. That's a hundred times the power...

Note to board- Front-end overload was causing my KPLR problems. Verified with second reciever and changed antenna positions. I now have four 1 MW digitals and one 838 KW digital within six miles (three of which are less than three miles away). Don't forget the half-dozen 100 KW FM's and LPTV's. My tooth fillings have FM traps on them. Intermod/splatter city. Anybody want a CM 4228 antenna and CM 7778 pre-amp? :(

Let's see, I'm just about 2 blocks NE of the Botanical Gardens. I can see I-44 from my building.

It appears that Jim fixed whatever it was. With all this heat, I wouldn't be surprised about what caused the problems yesterday.

TNT-HD = NASCAR in HDThat's right. I knew there was another reason I hate TNT-HD. :D

The St. Louis HD Programming Guide has been updated to include today's additions of MTV-HD and TNT-HD to Charter.

The revised guide can be found as an attachment to the message linked below:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7979699&&#post7979699

Is this supposed to be on right now? I dont see them. Just wondering. MTVHD schedule looks kinda good.

Fastmans,

July 18 was the date Charter publicized for the addition of these channels. I prepared the update to the Programming Guide a week ago on that basis.

Maybe the person responsible for releasing Charter's new channels is the same person who schedules customer appointments. ;)

FWIW, I'd much rather have MHD on DirecTV than TNT.

FWIW, I'd much rather have MHD on DirecTV than TNT.I'd rather have neither & give the bandwidth back to the HD channels that matter.

I'd rather have neither & give the bandwidth back to the HD channels that matter.

This will always be an argument. This is why there are so many channels in SD now.

No one will ever be happy until all available networks are on. You don't like
TNT-HD, I don't care for MTV-HD, I don't like Fords, I like Dodge and GM, so there
will always be differences. Growth is good, eventually we will get what we
want...eventually being the key.

Do you have the dish or did the installer take it with him? The installers
have a tendency to give up rather easily, but if you have the dish, and there
is a shot, I think you could come up with a solution.

Yes. He took it with him. He had his compass and other things and basically said that due to the trees there was no way to do it other than running a very, very long line by trenching it from the extreme backyard and messing with the patio brick.

I just tried to call Charter to see if I could get any scoop on the new HD channels.
636-207-7011 is now out of service.
It refers you to 800-211-4450.
If forced me to go through the 10 minute automated self help options.
Finally, I got through to a human. It was India.
I asked my if he had any info on the HD offerings. He told me the locals were available. I asked again about the new ones. He said they werent on the website. I asked him if he was serious that he could only tell me what was on the website. He said yes.

This will always be an argument. This is why there are so many channels in SD now.

No one will ever be happy until all available networks are on. You don't like
TNT-HD, I don't care for MTV-HD, I don't like Fords, I like Dodge and GM, so there
will always be differences. Growth is good, eventually we will get what we
want...eventually being the key.It's not that I don't like TNT as it is they don't bother to do HD right, not even close. If it were a true HD channel I would enjoy watching many of the movies they show. TNT is the most feeble attempt at HD I've ever seen.

Yes. He took it with him. He had his compass and other things and basically said that due to the trees there was no way to do it other than running a very, very long line by trenching it from the extreme backyard and messing with the patio brick.

So the roof is out of the question? No chimney to mount on that would get higher
or anything?

From E* Escalations today....1000+/500+ antenna upgrades are being pushed back 14 days existing subs/21 days new customers, due to lack of inventory.

Note to John, PM'd you a copy of the email.

maybe you/we need to "reset" the moto box to make them show up in the channel guide. Can you manually input 797 or 799?

maybe you/we need to "reset" the moto box to make them show up in the channel guide. Can you manually input 797 or 799?


I can manually select them via remote, but even resetting my MOXI didn't make them show up in the guide, nor is there any program info for either channel.

From E* Escalations today....1000+/500+ antenna upgrades are being pushed back 14 days existing subs/21 days new customers, due to lack of inventory.

Note to John, PM'd you a copy of the email.


So it looks like the odds of my new install happening on 8/4 (at least with the correct dish) are somewhere between slim and none. :rolleyes:

I can manually select them via remote, but even resetting my MOXI didn't make them show up in the guide, nor is there any program info for either channel.

Did you look in the "channel listings" in settings? Maybe these two new channels need to be selected there in order to show up in the guide.

Let's see, I'm just about 2 blocks NE of the Botanical Gardens. I can see I-44 from my building.

It appears that Jim fixed whatever it was. With all this heat, I wouldn't be surprised about what caused the problems yesterday.

Yep..had a short power hit...long enough for the generator to start...but it killed the PSIP generator which I fixed this AM. Power hit was probably due to heat and Ameren switching loads. My receivers still worked, but some go stupid without PSIP data coming in.
Jim

Did you look in the "channel listings" in settings? Maybe these two new channels need to be selected there in order to show up in the guide.

They are there, both checked, both say TBA

I just tried to call Charter to see if I could get any scoop on the new HD channels.
636-207-7011 is now out of service.
It refers you to 800-211-4450.
If forced me to go through the 10 minute automated self help options.
Finally, I got through to a human. It was India.
I asked my if he had any info on the HD offerings. He told me the locals were available. I asked again about the new ones. He said they werent on the website. I asked him if he was serious that he could only tell me what was on the website. He said yes.At least the guy in India has an excuse for being clueless, as opposed to someone sitting here locally not knowing or caring.

By Charter standards, that's an improvement in customer service -- same crummy service, lower cost.

At least the guy in India has an excuse for being clueless, as opposed to someone sitting here locally not knowing or caring.

By Charter standards, that's an improvement in customer service -- same crummy service, lower cost.

India answered the cable 800 number? I thought only the phone service was outsourced. Anybody know when this happened? Charter guys...."do the needfull."

FWIW, my MHD and TNT-HD channels are up and running. And the program guides have correct scheduling information.

I'm more interested in MHD than TNT-HD, but am concerned that most of their programming won't be HD (such as Storytellers, which was originally broadcast on VH-1, so I'm sure they're not HD). Time will tell, but Charter obviously could have selected other channels that would have pleased more of their customers. But let's be realistic, I don't think their #1 priority right now is to please their customers. It's to make money (or at least stop/slow down the bleeding).

For those who knocked MHD, they should have looked at the schedule first. It does not look like they are only broadcasting "the lastest "famous for a week" pop/rap/teeny music video."

There is programming from all there music channels: MTV, CMT and VH1

Like VH1 Storytellers: Coldplay, Bruce Springstein, Dave Mathews band.

CMT Crossroads:Bon Jovi and Sugarland, Kenny Rogers and Lionel Ritchie

Concerts like John Fogerty The Long Road Home

and that is on the schedule for today.

Mark

I guess MHD is the first step toward MTV-HD and CMT-HD and VH1-HD....

FWIW, my MHD and TNT-HD channels are up and running. .

Same here. The channels were not loaded until I did a reboot of my moxi box.

Anyone have ADS's phone number? They came and installed my "1000+" system today and it's not working properly... I think they installed a 1000. It's too dark for me to tell and I was at work when they came.

Edit: Well, curiousity was getting to me so I got my flashlight and yes, they switched out my 2 dishes for a 1000 (no +). Nice to see they can read a work order... My wife will be pleased she waited around 4 hours yesterday for a no show, and 3 hours today for nothing :rolleyes:

So the roof is out of the question? No chimney to mount on that would get higher
or anything?

I honestly do not think so. I think that any sort of a mount on the chimney would have to be so high to pass over the trees to hit the HD sat that it would not be stable.

Here is something I don't understand. I have an attic in my roof. It has to pass the shingles, etc. and pass through these trees and it gets the local digital channel singals incredibly well. How can a sat dish not do that?

I just don't think I can handle getting Charter. Tomorrow I am going to look around the yard and see if I can find any sort of a way to run some RG6 in the ground and pass over the patio.

I may throw some pics on here and beg for suggestions.

Anyone have ADS's phone number? They came and installed my "1000+" system today and it's not working properly... I think they installed a 1000. It's too dark for me to tell and I was at work when they came.

Edit: Well, curiousity was getting to me so I got my flashlight and yes, they switched out my 2 dishes for a 1000 (no +). Nice to see they can read a work order... My wife will be pleased she waited around 4 hours yesterday for a no show, and 3 hours today for nothing :rolleyes:
Advanced HD Tech Support is 800-969-4388.
Not to be the bearer....but 1000+ installs are now being scheduled for 8/1 > due to lack of inventory :(

Let's see, I'm just about 2 blocks NE of the Botanical Gardens. I can see I-44 from my building.

It appears that Jim fixed whatever it was. With all this heat, I wouldn't be surprised about what caused the problems yesterday.

Yup. KDNL-DT is back up.

You're about 8 km from KDNL, twice my distance. Reduces the intermod a bit.

Yep..had a short power hit...long enough for the generator to start...but it killed the PSIP generator which I fixed this AM. Power hit was probably due to heat and Ameren switching loads. My receivers still worked, but some go stupid without PSIP data coming in.
Jim

Good work, man.

Here is something I don't understand. I have an attic in my roof. It has to pass the shingles, etc. and pass through these trees and it gets the local digital channel singals incredibly well. How can a sat dish not do that?



That satellite, very likely, only has a 10 (ten) watt transmitter that is 20 thousand plus miles out. Your dish is a very high-gain parabolic antenna. Putting any kind of non-RF transparent material between it and the sat (trees, for example) is a signal killer.

I'm surrounded by old-growth trees, plus a ridge with said trees to my immediate south, so satellite is out for me. :( I've survived Charter, and have no desire to repeat the experience.

UK's BSkyB Offers Free Broadband to 8m Customers

The following story excerpt comes from today's SkyREPORT newsletter:
______________________________________________________

With the launching of BSkyB's new broadband service, the company announced that its 8 million subscribers will receive Sky Broadband for free, setting new standards for internet access.

The company announced the news Tuesday at a special held for analysts and investors.

The Sky Broadband internet service is designed to reward the company's customers with increased quality of service and value, the company said.

Chief Executive James Murdoch told those in attendance that Sky is equipped to enter the growing markets of broadband and telephony and that offering the internet service for free is a transformational new initiative for the company. "By pushing the boundaries of the home entertainment market, we will help our customers realize the full potential from technological convergence," he said.

Other news to come from the meeting include Sky's pay-TV business being on track to achieve its 2010 targets and the company is aiming revenues from high growth opportunities in online advertising, search and content.
______________________________________________________

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

Charter Renewal: The Gripes of Madison County

The following story excerpt is from today's Belleville News Democrat online edition.

Note the hairy "gotcha" noted in the last paragraph here:
____________________________________________________

A request for comments on cable television service in most of Madison County has brought a wave of complaints about Charter Communications, local leaders said.

"I've probably received a dozen phone calls and about 15 e-mails from people telling their stories about Charter service," Madison County Administrator Joe Parente said Tuesday.

Charter spokesmen said Tuesday they are working to make service calls easier for customers to make and repair service more efficient.

"We're hoping that every day we're seeing an improvement in the process," said Neal Gilb, Charter's government relations manager.

A consortium of nine cities and Madison County are negotiating a new franchise contract with Charter. The current 10-year contract expires in December. The consortium is made up of Collinsville, Granite City, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Granite City, Highland, Troy, Maryville and Venice.

Customer complaints will be aired for the first time Aug. 1, when the consortium's lawyer takes them to a meeting with Charter lawyers.

A break with Charter is unlikely because a new company would have to install its own cables, wiring and home and business installations, Parente said. He said he does not yet know what leverage the consortium might have to guarantee good service.
____________________________________________________

For the full story, click here. (http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/local/15071276.htm)

India answered the cable 800 number? I thought only the phone service was outsourced. Anybody know when this happened? Charter guys...."do the needfull."


"Raise a ticket..."

It is north of 370 on third street (hwy 94) on the left. www.alltronics.net

However, I have found skywalker to have better prices/products on my comparisons.

Rich

I tried alltronics but they didn't have what I needed. I called skywalker and they
told me to call Butler Supply, which is a Electrical/Plumbing supply company.

There is one by where I work so I stopped by and although they didn't have
what I needed in stock, they gave me a Leviton Catolog that I could look through
and then order through them. Well, I tried to do that but I never heard anything
back on my request.

I eventually purchased all of the stuff from Lashen Electronics via the web.

Like Mr. Kotches said, I did have to change to a triple gang option due to the
fact that I stayed with Leviton, but at least I have all of the color options I wanted/needed.

I guess the reason I am following up on my post was to let everyone know about
Butler, which sounds like a great option, I just had problems with ordering
(probably because I tried to do it via a fax).

Thanks for all of the info.

I think I'm one of the few CableCard Charter subscribers on here. I recently lost my HDESPN access and they're going to have a tech come out to look at it. Has anyone else had this problem?

Also, have any of the other CC subscribers gotten their new channels?

MHD and TNTHD coming through with the standard Motorola HD box from Charter. ( not Moxi )

I got a call Sunday from the local Dish installer who was putting my 1000+ dish in Monday (the 17th) and said she wouldn't have the hardware in until Monday evening, so we rescheduled for today. Dish called me on Monday with the same issue you folks have reported - no inventory, needed to push back until August. I told them the local installer said they may have some and asked them not to cancel my appointment.

I called the local installer back yesterday, and they only received 2 of the 1000+'s, one of them with my name on it.

The installer is here now putting in my 1000+ as I type. He does indeed have a 1000+ and a DP44. I'll report my results back when he's all done.

Does anybody know if these 2 antennas are the same?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E9U4IU/ref=nosim/102-2693889-5420917?n=172282

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006FXR9/ref=sr_11_1/102-2693889-5420917?ie=UTF8

I was reading Doug's first post and looking to get a decent indoor antenna. Is this what most people run for indoor antennas?

Yes, I believe these are one and the same.

Unless something better has come along in the past couple of months, I believe the Zenith Silver Sensor is the best bet for reliable indoor reception of digital channels. Of course, there are no guarantees -- but if this doesn't work, you're unlikely to find another indoor antenna that will.

I'm currently getting all of the locals with about a 50% signal or greater except NBC. Right now I'm using a crappy uhf/vhf antenna. I'm hoping to pickup NBC and increase the signal a little bit.

Yes, I believe these are one and the same.

Unless something better has come along in the past couple of months, I believe the Zenith Silver Sensor is the best bet for reliable indoor reception of digital channels. Of course, there are no guarantees -- but if this doesn't work, you're unlikely to find another indoor antenna that will.Are these available locally? (Sorry if this was discussed and I missed it). I can get everything OK, except 9-1 and 11-1, so I'm hoping this might work better.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103058&cp

This one is available locally and has pretty good reviews, maybe I'll pick one up and try it out.

FWIW, almost everything I purchase (or try to purchase) at Radio Shack ends in disappointment, and I'd expect the same to be true of this indoor antenna.

But then, someone needs to take one for the team. Just don't misplace your receipt... :D

Item: I tried to source a Silver Sensor locally about 6 months ago and had no luck. I ended up borrowing Joe Clark's Silver Sensor and it's STILL sitting in a box on the back seat of my car waiting to be returned.

Sorry, Joe...

FWIW, almost everything I purchase (or try to purchase) at Radio Shack ends in disappointment, and I'd expect the same to be true of this indoor antenna.

But then, someone needs to take one for the team. Just don't misplace your receipt... :D

Item: I tried to source a Silver Sensor locally about 6 months ago and had no luck. I ended up borrowing Joe Clark's Silver Sensor and it's STILL sitting in a box on the back seat of my car waiting to be returned.

Sorry, Joe...

Already done that for the team. That particular RS bowtie is better than the classic rabbit ears w/loop for UHF, but only just. The twin lead feeding the antenna is subject to RFI. It can be hung from a wall or shelf, unlike rabbit ears. It works well with a 1978 Panasonic 12" BW...

Advanced HD Tech Support is 800-969-4388.
Not to be the bearer....but 1000+ installs are now being scheduled for 8/1 > due to lack of inventory :(
Yep - Got the phone call this afternoon. They are now scheduling 3 weeks out from my original install date for the 500+/1000+. So now my install is scheduled for Aug 10th instead of July 28th. And I'm a new customer (actually a former customer now returning to E*).

I just got my call today for my install for this Sat. Now it is the 28th...now I have to take a half day off....wait---that's a good thing!!! :) . They did (are) give me a $20.00 discount on my next bill. I just wish they could at least turn the SD locals back on without having to wait for the completion of the work order.

I just got my call today for my install for this Sat. Now it is the 28th...now I have to take a half day off....wait---that's a good thing!!! :) . They did (are) give me a $20.00 discount on my next bill. I just wish they could at least turn the SD locals back on without having to wait for the completion of the work order.
I don't understand the SD locals being turned off. Mine are on and have always been, except for the brief time during the phone call to build the upgrade w/o back on July 7th.
As it turns out, the 1000+ is being installed here tomorrow, Noon-5pm. So, I suppose there are some of the units in the area.

Both 4-1 and 11-1 are out -- possibly due to the storm. I believe they share a tower.

If so, hope that it's only temporary...

In the process of rescanning my E* 622 trying to bring in 4.1 & 11.1, I somehow picked up KOMU 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 out of Columbia! It comes through with a signal of 68%. I live in Florissant, that is over 100 miles!
Is their signal that strong or am I just lucky?

bigdaddy,

It may be due to the weather conditions last night. Here's some information from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropo_duct) that may be relevant:
__________________________________________________

The service area from a TV or FM radio transmitter extends to just beyond the optical horizon, at which point signals start to rapidly reduce in strength. Viewers living in such a "deep fringe" reception area will notice that during certain conditions weak signals normally masked by noise increase in signal strength to allow quality reception. Such conditions are related to the current state of the troposphere.

Tropospheric propagated signals travel in the part of the atmosphere adjacent to the surface and extending to some 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). Such signals are thus directly affected by weather conditions extending over some hundreds of miles. During very settled, warm anticyclonic weather (i.e., high pressure), usually weak, snowy TV signals from distant transmitters improve in signal strength. Another symptom during such conditions may be interference to the local transmitter resulting in co-channel interference, which may be in the form of horizontal lines or an extra floating picture. A settled high-pressure system gives the classic conditions for enhanced tropospheric propagation, in particular favouring signals which travel along the prevailing isobar pattern rather than across it. Such weather conditions can occur at any time, but generally the summer and autumn months are the best periods. In certain favourable locations, enhanced tropospheric propagation may enable reception of UHF TV signals up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km) or more.

The observable characteristics of such high-pressure systems are usually clear, cloudless days with little or no wind. At sunset the upper air cools, as does the surface temperature, but at different rates. This produces a boundary or temperature gradient, which allows an inversion level to form – a similar effect occurs at sunrise. The inversion is capable of allowing VHF and UHF signal propagation well beyond the normal radio horizon distance.

The inversion effectively reduces sky wave radiation from a transmitter – normally VHF and UHF signals travel on into space when they reach the horizon, the refractive index of the ionosphere preventing signal return. With temperature inversion, however, the signal is to a large extent refracted over the horizon rather than continuing along a direct path into outer space.

Fog also produces good tropospheric results, again due to inversion effects. Fog occurs during high-pressure weather, and if such conditions result in a large belt of fog with clear sky above, there will be heating of the upper fog level and thus an inversion. This situation often arises towards night fall, continues overnight and clears with the sunrise over a period of around 4–5 hours.
__________________________________________________

There might also be a factor in 4-1 and 11-1 being out of commission, as those signals maybe previously interfered with KOMU. But as KOMU operates as UHF channel 36, that's probably just coincidental.

Just checked this morning and 4-1 is back on the air, but 11-1 (and, of course, 11-2) are still down.

I think I'm one of the few CableCard Charter subscribers on here. I recently lost my HDESPN access and they're going to have a tech come out to look at it. Has anyone else had this problem?

Also, have any of the other CC subscribers gotten their new channels?


I am so relieved to hear another person with the same problem. My TV displays "Channel Not Available". In typical Charter CSR fashion, I was told three different times that it must be a network problem and that it would come back soon. Problem is, I'm missing two channels -- HDESPN (773) and HD Cinemax (779), and they've been gone for 3+ weeks. I also consistently have problems with sound on 782 (HDFOX). I have to enter 7-8-2 about 5-6 times in a row before I finally get sound. Not sure if that's related to the CableCard or not? I have a tech coming out tomorrow and will let you know how it goes.

As to your other question, yes, I can get the two new channels.

We Interrupt Your Normal AVS Programming...

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

In the not-so-distant past, we used to begin each month of the St. Louis discussion with an entirely new thread and usually that started with a cut/paste of basic resource information that is now buried back on the very first page of this discussion thread.

Because of its location, a lot of that general, introductory information about HDTV and OTA reception is now easily overlooked, especially with the discussion here stretching back more than 2 years and 400+ pages.

In an attempt to make this information more accessible, I'm going to post an advisory/reminder note similar to this every couple of weeks. Ideally this will make this general resource information more visible and easier to find for 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=7979699&&#post7979699)

New! Cardinals HD Schedule (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7576786&&#post7576786)

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

I am so relieved to hear another person with the same problem. My TV displays "Channel Not Available". In typical Charter CSR fashion, I was told three different times that it must be a network problem and that it would come back soon. Problem is, I'm missing two channels -- HDESPN (773) and HD Cinemax (779), and they've been gone for 3+ weeks. I also consistently have problems with sound on 782 (HDFOX). I have to enter 7-8-2 about 5-6 times in a row before I finally get sound. Not sure if that's related to the CableCard or not? I have a tech coming out tomorrow and will let you know how it goes.

As to your other question, yes, I can get the two new channels.

I have a cablecard and Charter in Illinois. I have not had any problem with getting HDESPN and also have the two new channels. My KMOVHD (CBS) was off last night but is on this am.

Last night I lost all the major networks at one time or another. 30-1 I had pic but no sound. Luckily my power did not go out, so I just watched DVD's all night. Hope no one had any major damage. Also, I finally found a use for TNT HD. The Open Championship. Go Phil Mickelson.

Scott

I'm with you Scott, the British Open is one of the few things I'll ever watch on TNT.

I lost every channel except Fox last night. I, too, was one of the lucky ones that never lost power. Good luck to those folks who don't have A/C this afternoon when the mercury tops 100. I rarely say this, but even I'd be eager to go to the mall in those conditions.

I am so relieved to hear another person with the same problem. My TV displays "Channel Not Available". In typical Charter CSR fashion, I was told three different times that it must be a network problem and that it would come back soon. Problem is, I'm missing two channels -- HDESPN (773) and HD Cinemax (779), and they've been gone for 3+ weeks. I also consistently have problems with sound on 782 (HDFOX). I have to enter 7-8-2 about 5-6 times in a row before I finally get sound. Not sure if that's related to the CableCard or not? I have a tech coming out tomorrow and will let you know how it goes.

As to your other question, yes, I can get the two new channels.


I also had the same problem with my Cablecard in my LG LCD panel. A tech came out to resolve the issue. I think he basically pulled the card and reinserted it.

I also had the same problem with my Cablecard in my LG LCD panel. A tech came out to resolve the issue. I think he basically pulled the card and reinserted it.

I tried pulling it out and reinserting it, but that didn't work. They also sent their typical reset signal over the line, but that didn't work either. Unfortunately I am not going to be home tomorrow when the tech comes, and I'm not sure how many questions I can get the wife to ask for me, no matter how nicely I ask. ;)

Dish installed my 1000+ antenna today. A couple of notes:
-All guide data is present for locals, HD, SD, & OTA.
-110/119 signals are 95+
-118/129 signals are 80+ (129 on the old 1000 was 65-70)

This thing is big! Almost twice the size of a single round Dish300.
Hopefully the rain-fade is also improved, and the wind doesn't rip it off the roof.

I tried pulling it out and reinserting it, but that didn't work. They also sent their typical reset signal over the line, but that didn't work either. Unfortunately I am not going to be home tomorrow when the tech comes, and I'm not sure how many questions I can get the wife to ask for me, no matter how nicely I ask. ;)
I finally got mine resolved yesterday, I was looking through the menu on my Samsung and saw an option to retreive new channels (or update channels or something like that) and after I did that I had my two new channels and ESPN was back.

kdg:

Thanks for the information. Hopefully I'll hear back on my escalation in a day or so.

Best,

FWIW, here is the comparison in size. Standard round 300 on left, 1000+ on right:
PIX 1 (members.aol.com/kdg454/1000plus1.jpg)
PIX 2 (members.aol.com/kdg454/1000plus2.jpg)

[QUOTE=John Kotches]kdg:

Thanks for the information. Hopefully I'll hear back on my escalation in a day or so.

Best,[/QUOTE


Apparently my installation for the 26th was changed to 8/2 without my knowledge. I called E* to make sure my appointment was still on and they told me it was set for the 2nd not the 26th.

I raised Holy Hell and told them that I had already taken the day off for the 26th and could not change that. They let me know that the earlist the installer would have the equipment was the 31st. I told her to sign me up for that time and she did.

This is ridiculous. They of course offered me the $20.00 rebate on my bill for all my problems. I hope this thing is worth the problems I've put up with. I've already had 2 missed appointments.

The installer told me today his warehouse manager has 300 units on order, mostly of the 1000+, and they have optioned overtime to the techs for August to get them all done.

I'll post my short rant about my experience with charter yesterday.

I am in the process of upgrading to a new HDTV, and I had Charter scheduled to come out today to drop off the HD box. Well, my TV has not arrived yet (monday is the new date) so i call charter to reschedule. they are super booked until aug. 3rd, and the times they gave me just don't work.

so i asked them why i needed to be here when the box was delievered--i could hook it up myself no problem. i got some huge runaround from 4 different people about how they were not allowed to do that, blah blah blah. finally, i talked to someone who said that i could just go and pick up the HD box whenever i wanted, that charter didn't need to come to a service call.

is this true? right now that's what i'm planning, but i don't trust a single thing that they say.

brian

Is anyone's Charter cable out? I live in Clayton and we got power back, but no cable. I've done two reboots of my Moxi box and no action.

I wasn't sure if this was a wider problem or just local to my building/neighborhood.

so i asked them why i needed to be here when the box was delievered--i could hook it up myself no problem. i got some huge runaround from 4 different people about how they were not allowed to do that, blah blah blah. finally, i talked to someone who said that i could just go and pick up the HD box whenever i wanted, that charter didn't need to come to a service call.

is this true? right now that's what i'm planning, but i don't trust a single thing that they say.

brian

I see no reason why you couldn't hook it up yourself. It's less complicated than hooking up a VCR. And you don't even need to set the clock (no blinking 12:00).

I was able to compare the new Dish SAT HD locals with OTA tonight. I swapped back and forth using PiP during the HD news on KSDK, and also on the HD CSI. I could not see any difference other than the elimination of the occasional reception pixelation on the OTA.
As expected, the SAT does run behind the OTA about 1.5 seconds, but the audio sync is normal.
I find it to be an exact copy of the OTA DT signal, without the occasional terrestrial reception issues.

EDIT: I did notice some issues on Leno tonight. It was on both the SAT HD and OTA. It almost looked like the lines you get across the screen while watching a word VHS tape. It was not on the SAT SD local.

I'll post my short rant about my experience with charter yesterday.

I am in the process of upgrading to a new HDTV, and I had Charter scheduled to come out today to drop off the HD box. Well, my TV has not arrived yet (monday is the new date) so i call charter to reschedule. they are super booked until aug. 3rd, and the times they gave me just don't work.

so i asked them why i needed to be here when the box was delievered--i could hook it up myself no problem. i got some huge runaround from 4 different people about how they were not allowed to do that, blah blah blah. finally, i talked to someone who said that i could just go and pick up the HD box whenever i wanted, that charter didn't need to come to a service call.

is this true? right now that's what i'm planning, but i don't trust a single thing that they say.

brian

My MOXI DVR went out on sunday and when i called them they told me to bring it in and switch it for a new one, but when i got there they said i need to make a service call because they don't keep the MOXI DVR at there office.If you are getting a HD box and not the DVR that might be different.

I was able to compare the new Dish SAT HD locals with OTA tonight. I swapped back and forth using PiP during the HD news on KSDK, and also on the HD CSI. I could not see any difference other than the elimination of the occasional reception pixelation on the OTA.
As expected, the SAT does run behind the OTA about 1.5 seconds, but the audio sync is normal.
I find it to be an exact copy of the OTA DT signal, without the occasional terrestrial reception issues.

EDIT: I did notice some issues on Leno tonight. It was on both the SAT HD and OTA. It almost looked like the lines you get across the screen while watching a word VHS tape. It was not on the SAT SD local.

KDG
Thanks for the updates. Let us know if you get to watch any live sports/high speed panning for comparrison.

Looks like I'll be getting mine in Mid-August.
Dave

I finally got mine resolved yesterday, I was looking through the menu on my Samsung and saw an option to retreive new channels (or update channels or something like that) and after I did that I had my two new channels and ESPN was back.

After seeing this post, I thought I'd try some more things myself. I didn't find any option in the menus to reset the channel mappings, but I did find out that my TV was using older firmware, and that a newer version had been released to fix a problem with not recognizing updated channel mappings from the cable provider. I installed the firmware, and all channels work now! I happily canceled my Charter service call. :) Thanks Mike, for prompting me to try once more on my own!

FWIW, here is the comparison in size. Standard round 300 on left, 1000+ on right:
PIX 1 (members.aol.com/kdg454/1000plus1.jpg)
PIX 2 (members.aol.com/kdg454/1000plus2.jpg)

Ken,

WOW! What a beast! Congratulations. Let me ask you a few questions....

1. Otheer than CBS-HD on both coasts, is there any gain to seeing the 61.5 bird and the 129 bird?
2. What type of switch was needed to add the 300 dish?
3. Do you know if the same switch would be required with a 500+?

Keep us posted on the OTA vs Sat HD comparisons. It sounds like the MPEG4 issues have been resolved.

My MOXI DVR went out on sunday and when i called them they told me to bring it in and switch it for a new one, but when i got there they said i need to make a service call because they don't keep the MOXI DVR at there office.If you are getting a HD box and not the DVR that might be different.

Now this is funny. I called Charter last week due to the fact that my DVR Channel Guide has been out for two weeks. Pretty useless box of wires without the Channel Guide! The CSR told me I could bring the box in to the local office and swap it out for a new one. I stated that I didn't think his firm would allow me to do that, since a service rep. needs to be around to make the all important call to Charter to tell a CSR the serial number off the box. He told me it was a change in policy! Luckily, when they added the new HD stations, my Channel Guide mysteriously reappeared! I am willing to bet that I would have shown up at Town & Country Commons, and the Office Sertvice Reps. would have looked at me strangely, stating that they did not have any of these "magic" boxes.

Ken,
WOW! What a beast! Congratulations. Let me ask you a few questions....
1. Other than CBS-HD on both coasts, is there any gain to seeing the 61.5 bird and the 129 bird?
2. What type of switch was needed to add the 300 dish?
3. Do you know if the same switch would be required with a 500+?
Keep us posted on the OTA vs Sat HD comparisons. It sounds like the MPEG4 issues have been resolved.
1. Only signal strength. If 129 is adequate, and 118 is present, 61.5 is a useless duplication.
2. I'm using a DPP44, but 61.5 is not online. The down-feed is hanging next to the switch, disconnected. I had him leave it in place in case 129 was a signal issue. So far, it's not.
3. If you're going to go 500+/300 you will use a DPP44 (which is not included in the 500+ upgrade), or you could stack 2 DP34's (1 is included in the 500+ upgrade). Either way you need to have 4 in-ports.
Based on what I've seen, it is probably time you ditch the Legacy stuff, get the free 1000+/DPP44 upgrade and get all 4 of your sats off one dish. If all goes well after the next few rains, I'll pull the 300 off the roof.

I'm not 100% convinced Dish is actually fully using MPEG4 compression technology, as in passing it all the way down to our receivers. Regardless of how the channels are flagged, it was my understanding, in speaking with a Dish engineer a few months back, Dish did not plan of having the MPEG4 systems in place in their distribution locations (CO/AZ) until at least August, this year.

EDIT: It is pouring here right now, torrential downpour, the kind where I can't see the neighbor's houses. The kind that would almost certainly have knocked out the signal or the regular 1000. The 1000+ is up and running fine, just as the 500 used to.

New Charter HD Channels

Have not heard anyone chime in on the new Charter Channels (MHD and TNTHD) since they were turned on, so I thought I would.

MHD--I am actually impressed with what I have seen on this channel so far. The Concerts and Crossroads show (from CMT I think) are pretty good and well produced IMO. Hopefully there is enough variety in those shows that they are not just showing the same 5 episodes over and over, but only time will tell on that.

TNTHD--I have been watching The Closer and Saved as summer fill ins, so will be nice to see them in HD. NASCAR and NBA should be good as well, I am a L&O junkie so seeing the reruns in HD instead of SD is always a good thing.

I am an admitted HD snob now so the more HD the better. Yes, I would have preferred to see ESPN2HD, but from Charter I will take what I can get.

Brad

Just checked this morning and 4-1 is back on the air, but 11-1 (and, of course, 11-2) are still down.

KMOV-DT is on RF 56. It was knocked out for about 2 hrs Wed. KPLR-DT is on RF 26. It was taken out, along with KPTN-7, K33GU, and WPXS' CH 51 repater when the Resurrection Cemetary tower lost power. That tower stayed off from 1930 Wed to early this (Friday) morning. Have not been able to rescan KPLR-DT.

Tropo was splendid late Wed and early Thursday. I copied WNWO CH 24 Toledo OH, where Larry Rice's KNLC would normally be. Almost all of Indianapolis' digital and analog signals came in for me, as well as Columbia/Jeff City's.

Another factor was the great reduction in the local noise levels with the area-wide power loss. Normally, I'm among the first to to lose power. This time, it was reversed.

New Charter HD Channels
MHD--I am actually impressed with what I have seen on this channel so far. The Concerts and Crossroads show (from CMT I think) are pretty good and well produced IMO. Hopefully there is enough variety in those shows that they are not just showing the same 5 episodes over and over, but only time will tell on that.
Brad

Brad,

I echo your initial opinion on MHD. I don't have the keenest eye, but the Storytellers with Dave Matthews looked beautiful despite the fact that I can't imagine it was filmed in HD. My only gripe is that the infrequent "commercials" (self-promotions for MHD) were really frickin' loud compared to the programming.

New Charter HD Channels

Have not heard anyone chime in on the new Charter Channels (MHD and TNTHD) since they were turned on, so I thought I would.

MHD--I am actually impressed with what I have seen on this channel so far. The Concerts and Crossroads show (from CMT I think) are pretty good and well produced IMO. Hopefully there is enough variety in those shows that they are not just showing the same 5 episodes over and over, but only time will tell on that.

TNTHD--I have been watching The Closer and Saved as summer fill ins, so will be nice to see them in HD. NASCAR and NBA should be good as well, I am a L&O junkie so seeing the reruns in HD instead of SD is always a good thing.

I am an admitted HD snob now so the more HD the better. Yes, I would have preferred to see ESPN2HD, but from Charter I will take what I can get.

Brad

I don't think the L&O reruns are the true HD copy as was shown on NBC. I think they are "TNT stratch-o-visioned". I noticed the other night that the SD TNT L&O and the HD version had the same width, but everyones head was slightly cut off on the HD.

In regards to MHD, the surround sound associated with their commercial tag is awesome!

Power has been out from 7:00PM Wednesday until this morning at 5:30AM. Watching tv on 6 inch black/white battery powered set is not as much fun as it sounds. My wife said I was doing the happy dance to get my big screen back on. :)

I realized yesterday that I wasn't getting the new TNT HD and MTV HD on charter so I called them this AM and they informaed me that becuase I had the Movie "Showtime" Tier and not the Sports Tier that I couldnt get these new HD Channels. I just dont understand what MTV and TNT has to do with any type of sports theme. SO I went ahead and changed form Movie Tier to Sports Tier so I could get the additional HD channels. Sorry if this sounded like a rant, but you'd think that Charter would want to give some more HD to its loyal customers that have been waiting for soooooo long for additional HD channels. I still think if it wasn't so expensive to get started, I would go to DirectTV instead......

I realized yesterday that I wasn't getting the new TNT HD and MTV HD on charter so I called them this AM and they informaed me that becuase I had the Movie "Showtime" Tier and not the Sports Tier that I couldnt get these new HD Channels. I just dont understand what MTV and TNT has to do with any type of sports theme. SO I went ahead and changed form Movie Tier to Sports Tier so I could get the additional HD channels. Sorry if this sounded like a rant, but you'd think that Charter would want to give some more HD to its loyal customers that have been waiting for soooooo long for additional HD channels. I still think if it wasn't so expensive to get started, I would go to DirectTV instead......



MMMM i think this could be a case of a mis informed CS rep... I do not subscribe to the sports tier but recieve the new TNT & MHD just fine. Also for that type of situation to even make since then ESPN HD should be limited to those in the sports tier as well. Yet it comes with HD Tier just like every other HD channel except for the hbo/showtime & skinamax.

I'd try calling again, unless you do not care if you have family or sports.

-Phatty

I realized yesterday that I wasn't getting the new TNT HD and MTV HD on charter so I called them this AM and they informaed me that becuase I had the Movie "Showtime" Tier and not the Sports Tier that I couldnt get these new HD Channels. I just dont understand what MTV and TNT has to do with any type of sports theme. SO I went ahead and changed form Movie Tier to Sports Tier so I could get the additional HD channels. Sorry if this sounded like a rant, but you'd think that Charter would want to give some more HD to its loyal customers that have been waiting for soooooo long for additional HD channels. I still think if it wasn't so expensive to get started, I would go to DirectTV instead......


Um, I don't have the Sports Tier and the channels showed up fine. Sounds like you got snowed.

I called Charter back just now and got a more knowledgeable CSR and he said that I should be getting the new HDs anyway and he switched me back to my showtime package. He did say however that Charter's ability to "send signals" to boxes and cable cards is currently down due to the storms. Just though that you all may like to know that if you were waiting for a "signal"

I'm moving into a new home soon. Of course, I was looking for the living room with perfect TV and surround sound placement possibilities. Well, I've come to learn they don't exist. So, I'm looking to have my 32" HDTV against a wall that has two windows - which would be behind the TV. Otherwise the room works great. Essentially any light coming in through the windows would be a back lighting effect. All light from the front I can control. Is there a problem having light (two windows) behind your TV set up. I'll have curtains, but I'm even curious if I leave the curtains open if this is a no-no for TV setups. I'm thinking light coming from in front of the TV is usually more of a concern.

Thoughts???

Doug
Did I miss it . Did you ever here from your FSMW guy about the HD channel.

OTA reception report for West Belleville

Set up a new 40" Sony LCD at my mom's house today. She lives in West Belleville Just up the hill from E.St. Louis (Zip 62223). Using her old RCA el cheapo Rabbit ear with UHF loop antenna. The tv searches for the stations. I had the uhf loop facing a little south of West for this location.

All the digital stations locked in (10 of them) The only one that didn't work to great was UPN. Their tower is way South of Arnold (I Think) I watched it for 15 minutes and it did drop out with no signal twice and a few time the picture froze for a second or so. All the other stations all worked fine. Channel surfed for 3 hours. Really impressed with the OTA stuff especially since there is no monthly fee to pay.

I'm back up and running after three days without power, air conditioning and a computer. I spent all evening cleaning out my refrigerator and getting the house back in order. What a miserable storm that was!!!

This Monday, I'm looking into a whole house electrical backup system. (Actually, I'm following up on inquiries I made earlier in the summer. I should have gotten the system back then.) I'm not going through that again.

Has anyone here had any experience with the companies that do this sort of install? I've heard ads from a company called Bates Electric, touting the Guardian system, which I saw at a Home Depot in Festus today. (I seldom find myself in Festus, but the long drive was a lot more inviting than going back to a hot, dark house.) My Godfather's nephew is a former Illinois electrical inspector, so he's looking into the Guardian and Generac systems, but if anyone has had any experience with them, I'd appreciate knowing.

Is anyone having problems with 11-1.? I get a signal strength test but no reception. All other channels are ok.

Is anyone having problems with 11-1.? I get a signal strength test but no reception. All other channels are ok.

Same thing here . Someone earlier said that station was on 26 but I could not lock onto it. I also believe that they posted that particular station's antenna was down.

Is anyone having problems with 11-1.? I get a signal strength test but no reception. All other channels are ok.
I'm having trouble also. I was wondering if they were back on the air or possibly running at reduced power. I've never had a problem picking it up before.

KPLR-DT is back on the air as of this afternoon at 2 p.m.

However, I've had a couple of other problems this afternoon with my HD TiVo (now resolved), which I'll document here in case anyone else runs into this.

When I went in this afternoon to tune to the ballgame, I went to analog 11, thinking that KPLR-DT would still be off the air. To my surprise, the analog 11 came up with a "Channel Not Available" banner, even though I watched it last night during the ballgame. So, I check 11-1 and it's still down. But perversely, when I go to 11-2 (The Tube), it is available. Yeah, I know that's ironic. I also check my other OTA digital channels, and they are all displaying "Channel Not Available." So, I check my HD satellite channels and only ESPN-HD and HDNet are available -- HBO, Discovery, TNT, UHD, and HDNet Movies are all unavailable.

From there I check my System Information page and see that the ATSC tuners are "not enabled" (even though I was receiving 11-2). Both Sat 1 and Sat 2 are listed as "enabled."

So, I call DirecTV and after going from general customer support, to technical desk (based on my mentioning my receiver is the HD TiVo), then to the HD group (because I mentioned an HD channel). Finally I get a CSR who has me re-setup my TiVo for the three-LNB dish. But about 10% thorugh that process, my HD TiVo spontaneously reboots. The tech suggests disconnecting the OTA antenna while the "Powering Up..." message appears. Once the receiver is accessible again, it comes back up on the same page where it had previously rebooted itself. At this point, I reconnect the antenna input and complete the setup process (roughly 15 minutes). At the end, everything is back to normal, but the CSR has no idea why this occurred.

Footnote 1: At the conclusion of the call, the CSR makes a point to tell me that in September DirecTV will be offering the new HD DVR that is capable of getting the local digitals without an antenna. I listen to his spiel, then tell him that I prefer to receive my OTA channels with an antenna, because I ultimately don't trust DirecTV and its heavy-handed approach to compression over the past. I also tell him I prefer the DirecTV product, based on what I've seen of the new non-HD DirecTV DVRs. He says OK, asks if there's anything else he can help with and then we're done.

Footnote 2: As I was transferred from one department to another, I was immediately informed at each stage that I'm an "A Level customer, one of DirecTV's most-valued customers." Never heard this before, though I know some friends who are long-time DirecTV customers have had this status for a year or so.

But this is the first I've been made aware that I have the same "status."

KPLR is broadcasting but the pixalation is some of the worst I have ever witnessed since the early days. The signal strength actually measures higher than a couple other locals, but they are rock steady just as KPLR was before the storm.

Footnote 1: At the conclusion of the call, the CSR makes a point to tell me that in September DirecTV will be offering the new HD DVR that is capable of getting the local digitals without an antenna. I listen to his spiel, then tell him that I prefer to receive my OTA channels with an antenna, because I ultimately don't trust DirecTV and its heavy-handed approach to compression over the past. I also tell him I prefer the DirecTV product, based on what I've seen of the new non-HD DirecTV DVRs. He says OK, asks if there's anything else he can help with and then we're done."
I suspect you meant to say you prefer the TIVO product since the new HD DVR will not be TIVO based. However, it will still allow you to receive the locals OTA. So, what will it take to make you switch from the HD TIVO to their new HD DVR? Unless you have the non DVR MPEG4 receiver, you will need the new HD DVR to get FSN HD when they make it available. I suspect any new national HD channels will also be MPEG4. For me, if the upgrade is offered at no cost, I'll probably take it and since I have two HD TIVO's, maybe I'll just upgrade one of them.

I'm back up and running after three days without power, air conditioning and a computer. I spent all evening cleaning out my refrigerator and getting the house back in order. What a miserable storm that was!!!

This Monday, I'm looking into a whole house electrical backup system. (Actually, I'm following up on inquiries I made earlier in the summer. I should have gotten the system back then.) I'm not going through that again.

Has anyone here had any experience with the companies that do this sort of install? I've heard ads from a company called Bates Electric, touting the Guardian system, which I saw at a Home Depot in Festus today. (I seldom find myself in Festus, but the long drive was a lot more inviting than going back to a hot, dark house.) My Godfather's nephew is a former Illinois electrical inspector, so he's looking into the Guardian and Generac systems, but if anyone has had any experience with them, I'd appreciate knowing.

I had a buddy who had one installed when he had a new house built. He lived in Memphis when they had a monster ice storm about a decade ago. Even though he lived in suburban Germantown (their equivalent of Chesterfield) they didn't have power for 10 days. Even worse his house was full electric: heat and hot water heater along with oven.

He went with one of the propane powered ones. Only had to use it once for 36 hours during the 5 years they lived there. However when they sold the house it was a big bonus and made it an easy sell. Sold after 48 hours even though it was during the school year during a bad market.

I want to say he went with Guardian because the name reminded me of the movie "The Forbin Project"

I had a buddy who had one installed when he had a new house built. He lived in Memphis when they had a monster ice storm about a decade ago. Even though he lived in suburban Germantown (their equivalent of Chesterfield) they didn't have power for 10 days. Even worse his house was full electric: heat and hot water heater along with oven.

He went with one of the propane powered ones. Only had to use it once for 36 hours during the 5 years they lived there. However when they sold the house it was a big bonus and made it an easy sell. Sold after 48 hours even though it was during the school year during a bad market.

I want to say he went with Guardian because the name reminded me of the movie "The Forbin Project"

Thanks for the feedback. I know the chances are I won't use it that much, but there's no way I'm going to take a chance with my godfather's health. The heat that accompanied the storm was potentially very dangerous.

Funny story - battery operated fans were no where to be found when I looked, so I ended up using two 120cm 12v computer fans and lantern batteries. The lantern batteries drove the fans for two nights and I think they would have gone several more.

I suspect you meant to say you prefer the TIVO product since the new HD DVR will not be TIVO based. However, it will still allow you to receive the locals OTA. So, what will it take to make you switch from the HD TIVO to their new HD DVR? Unless you have the non DVR MPEG4 receiver, you will need the new HD DVR to get FSN HD when they make it available. I suspect any new national HD channels will also be MPEG4. For me, if the upgrade is offered at no cost, I'll probably take it and since I have two HD TIVO's, maybe I'll just upgrade one of them.
Ditto for me. I plan to upgrade to the new MPEG4 DVR when it comes available, especially if it is at little or no cost. I want to get more national HD programming feeds and to be able to record them. I have been very happy with the performance of my HD TIVO unit.

Joe, glad you got power back.

We lost ours on Wednesday night after my new wife just fixed our first-ever homecooked meal (we just got back from the honeymoon.) The food was excellent, but she now believes her cooking is cursed.

Our 50 year old pin oak shedded a huge amount of leaves/limbs/big branches which has mostly been cleaned up by now. But, still no power, so no TV, no Internet and I'm going through withdrawal.

She convinced me to take her to a St. Louis Bread Company for the first time ever based on the fact that they offer free WiFi.

I hope everyone else is doing OK. It sounds like many of you fared better than I.

I can't wait to get back to the days when my only complaints are the reception I get from 46-1, the pixilization on 11-1 and the uselessness of 11-2.

I had a buddy who had one installed when he had a new house built. He lived in Memphis when they had a monster ice storm about a decade ago. Even though he lived in suburban Germantown (their equivalent of Chesterfield) they didn't have power for 10 days. Even worse his house was full electric: heat and hot water heater along with oven.

He went with one of the propane powered ones. Only had to use it once for 36 hours during the 5 years they lived there. However when they sold the house it was a big bonus and made it an easy sell. Sold after 48 hours even though it was during the school year during a bad market.

I want to say he went with Guardian because the name reminded me of the movie "The Forbin Project"
Guardian has a very informative web page and Home Depot (online) is an outlet for them. Home Depot has a variety of Guardian complete units (everything needed for a qualified electrician to install) in different kilowatt sizes fueled by LP or natural gas.

sandblaster,

I actually meant what I said -- I don't trust DirecTV to provide OTA digital channels via the satellite without excess compression. While that doesn't appear to be an issue initially, the track record does not bode well and I won't be scrapping my antenna at any point in future.

At the same time, I do like certain aspects of the HD TiVo functionality, though it's not perfect by any stretch (annoying interface shortcomings, slow response to commands). My bigger issues are the new HD DVR, if it follows the heritage of the SD models, will not provide 30-second skip (or any backdoor to enable it) and there's apparently no quick way to toggle between the two tuners, which seems to be just another way to make it difficult for me to avoid commercials. There's nothing TiVo-specific about these features -- DirecTV could readily deploy them, but they chose not to.

Fix those two shortcomings and I'll consider the new HD DVR sooner, but otherwise I'll hang with the HD TiVo as long as possible. In any event, I'll permanently stick with OTA receipt of the locals and consider the satellite-delivered versions only as a backup. I recommend the same to my customers with DirecTV or DISH.

It's also worth reiterating that the sat digitals locals are ONLY for the four major networks -- ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. No PBS, no KPLR.

There's nothing TiVo-specific about these features -- DirecTV could readily deploy them, but they chose not to.
Could this be a result of influence of the parent of DirecTv?
Who else runs animated advertisements across your screen, with audio over programming?

I did ok. Some siding damaged, and a small portion of fence was knocked down... I fared much better than some of my neighbors with lots of siding ripped off and garage doors seriously damaged and/or destroyed.

I lost power for about 24 hours, and internet for about 53 hours. All in all; and compared to what others have experienced I did well.

I hope everyone else is doing well in these difficult times!

Ooooopppsss... forgot this
Oh yeah, my OTA antenna got severely mispointed; so I'll have to get up on the roof to see if the mount is damaged or what.

Hey all.

I just got my electricity back earlier today (around 4pm), after being off since Wednesday around 7:45pm. Our alley power pole snapped like a twig, and killed all but phone service. Which means I would have had DSL service, if not for the lack of electricity. Right now I'm trying to get filled in on things I missed between Wednesday and today. Across the street got power on Friday evening, today us, and I don't know about how much of the rest of the neighborhood is still out. The Southwest Garden neighborhood where I work has several streets still out (unless that changed today).

Hightlights from Wedsneday:
Until my electricity died, KTVI-DT was rock solid during the "Great Gust."

After the Power Returned:
My current issue is with KPLR: KPLR-DT's signal is doing the freeze-Pixel bit. Motion, motion, motion, pixelation, freeze. I figure KPLR is aware of it, right?

DropTheRemote,

In your initial post you said "I also tell him I prefer the DirecTV product, based on what I've seen of the new non-HD DirecTV DVRs". I was only pointing out that I suspect you meant you prefered the TIVO interface because the new HD DVR will be a DirecTV product but won't be TIVO based and your last post pretty much confirmed that. I too am very happy with the TIVO interface and am not thrilled about losing either the 30 second skip or ability to switch between the two tuners. Still, if that's what I must do to get FSN HD and other national HD channels, I'd rather have the HD content than those other features.

sandblaster,

Right -- now I see what you were referring to. My oversight -- thanks.

Footnote 2: As I was transferred from one department to another,

Sounds like charter!

I'm having trouble also. I was wondering if they were back on the air or possibly running at reduced power. I've never had a problem picking it up before.

I live in the Clayton area and our power came back on yesterday evening. I'm also having trouble with 11.1 & 11.2. Before the storm they were fine. All other OTA channels are fine.

Hey all.

I just got my electricity back earlier today (around 4pm), after being off since Wednesday around 7:45pm. Our alley power pole snapped like a twig, and killed all but phone service. Which means I would have had DSL service, if not for the lack of electricity. Right now I'm trying to get filled in on things I missed between Wednesday and today. Across the street got power on Friday evening, today us, and I don't know about how much of the rest of the neighborhood is still out. The Southwest Garden neighborhood where I work has several streets still out (unless that changed today).

Hightlights from Wedsneday:
Until my electricity died, KTVI-DT was rock solid during the "Great Gust."

After the Power Returned:
My current issue is with KPLR: KPLR-DT's signal is doing the freeze-Pixel bit. Motion, motion, motion, pixelation, freeze. I figure KPLR is aware of it, right?

I'm *not* hallucinating, then. Major pixellation with both 11-1 and 11-2 (RF CH 26) throughout Sunday night. Signal stregnth off the scale, as usual.

Dish 1000+ upgrade question.

My brother has Dish and wants to upgrade to HD with DVR and HD Locals. We called
Dish and they want him to pay $199 for the upgrade and DVR, than another $50 to get
the new 1000+ installed.

Is this what everyone is paying? I'm not a Dish subscriber so I don't know how this company works.

This is a little off topic, but...

AT&T is now jacking around with me on DSL rates. They say some promotion I had was only 6 months and is expired. So they're rasing my DSL to like $35. I've decided it may now be cheaper for me to cancel ATT altogether and go with VOIP and some other internet service.

Is it possible to get cable internet from Charter and not have any cable service otherwise? I do not want to have to order Charter video, but someone told me this is required for Charter internet.

This is a little off topic, but...

AT&T is now jacking around with me on DSL rates. They say some promotion I had was only 6 months and is expired. So they're rasing my DSL to like $35. I've decided it may now be cheaper for me to cancel ATT altogether and go with VOIP and some other internet service.

Is it possible to get cable internet from Charter and not have any cable service otherwise? I do not want to have to order Charter video, but someone told me this is required for Charter internet.

To answer your question, yes you can do that with Charter.

In regards to AT&T, can you not just sign up to a new contract agreement? I sign up
for a new contract every year. I pay almost $30 less now than I did when I first
got DSL 7 years ago. $19.99 for the PRO.

Just checking in. I had quite an ordeal. I decided to go to the grocery store for a bag of coffee and when I came out of the store I saw the storm starting to blow through. On my drive home I encountered a downed tree completely blocking the street in my neighborhood. I flipped into reverse and tried driving out another direction and a huge limb crashed down completely just in front of my car blocking that exit ! At this point I was scared and thought I was stranded outside with all these trees blowing over. My neighborhood is 46 years old and the silver maples, oaks, etc are all VERY large. After I collected myself after a few seconds I realized (facing the first tree from the other direction) the downed tree I came across was laying across one side of the "T" intersection but the other side was clear to drive through. I raced through the remaining few blocks to my house. I ran across the street to my neighbor's house to take cover from my big trees and turned just in time to see a big limb crash from one of my trees onto my roof. At this point I felt like I was in the movie Twister. It landed with a big thud and covered the roof from front gutter to back gutter. A friend of the family is a roofer and I have broken plywood sheathing, some torn shingles and probably a cracked roof joist. There is a depression on the roof, but thankfully no holes. I patched the tears in the shingles and checked for leaks and I'm okay for now.

My brother-in-law works near my house and because they had no power at his work he came over and we used my battery operated saw and cut the limb into big chunks to conserve the battery power. It took both of us to get the bigger pieces off the roof. My power came on late Thursday night and I was overjoyed only to lose it again during Friday's storm. Came on again Saturday around 8PM and went down again yesterday at 4PM. It was down until 8PM.

Here's the reason I was without power last night for four hours again. The tree trimmers working with Ameren from out of Ohio downed a fair sized limb onto the lines delivering power to my house. They thought both lines were dead. Because one of their workers could have been killed an on-site investigation started and I counted 12 guys showing up. There was a lot of swearing and finger pointing and finally a utility crew from Wisconsin got the power back up.

**Turns out, the tree trimmers don't have to be clear of the lines when they drop a limb onto them. In fact, one guy rather sheepishly told me, they don't even try as that's Ameren's job.** They just drop the big limbs for Ameren and they leave them where they fall.

Bottom line was I heard an Ameren supervisor telling the trimming crew they should have checked the lines first. Well, DUUUH!! So if you have family, friends or neighbors who see a couple of tree trimmer trucks roll up be sure to listen and try to overhear if they check the lines for power first!

Edit: Forgot to mention my antenna mount was ripped out of my roof and my antenna was mangled, laying under the limb. I checked my sat signal to see if my sat dish was out of alignment and for the heck of it, I checked the OTA signal and was able to get 3 of the 4 network channels at 80% or better from under all the leaves, branches and limbs! Too funny when I think about how many times I was on the roof trying to fine tune the antenna! I was able to salvage my masts and bent the antenna back into shape but the mount, which was grounded, is useless so I decided to not reconnect the antenna and have it lay on the roof.

To answer your question, yes you can do that with Charter.

In regards to AT&T, can you not just sign up to a new contract agreement? I sign up
for a new contract every year. I pay almost $30 less now than I did when I first
got DSL 7 years ago. $19.99 for the PRO.
As a matter of fact, one CS was going to extend my 21.99 rate, and that got setup. Then I was transferred to another dept. so I could get a replacement for the old DSL modem I have (it has a bad power switch). The CS rep who did my modem order checked my account and said I am not eligible for the promotion (I only have a line line otherwise...no wireless, DISH, etc) and cancelled my rate back to 34.99.

So I cancelled the order for a new DSL modem and am now I'm looking at alternatives.

To answer your question, yes you can do that with Charter.

In regards to AT&T, can you not just sign up to a new contract agreement? I sign up
for a new contract every year. I pay almost $30 less now than I did when I first
got DSL 7 years ago. $19.99 for the PRO.

Dean, I had Charter highspeed Internet and bundled it with their phone service and I have D*. The phone is on an 8 hour battery btw. The 22 hour power outtage I had earlier in the year rendered the phone useless. So under the current circumstances I can't recommend you get their phone service unless you also have a cell phone for any emergency calls.

Dean, I had Charter highspeed Internet and bundled it with their phone service and I have D*. The phone is on an 8 hour battery btw. The 22 hour power outtage I had earlier in the year rendered the phone useless. So under the current circumstances I can't recommend you get their phone service unless you also have a cell phone for any emergency calls.I have a cell phone. I was actually considering Vonage for VOIP.
How was your Charter internet? How was the reliablity?

As a matter of fact, one CS was going to extend my 21.99 rate, and that got setup. Then I was transferred to another dept. so I could get a replacement for the old DSL modem I have (it has a bad power switch). The CS rep who did my modem order checked my account and said I am not eligible for the promotion (I only have a line line otherwise...no wireless, DISH, etc) and cancelled my rate back to 34.99.

So I cancelled the order for a new DSL modem and am now I'm looking at alternatives.

I don't have any of that either. I just had to treat them like I do DirecTV. Then they
gave me the new deal...

I'm moving into a new home soon. Of course, I was looking for the living room with perfect TV and surround sound placement possibilities. Well, I've come to learn they don't exist. So, I'm looking to have my 32" HDTV against a wall that has two windows - which would be behind the TV. Otherwise the room works great. Essentially any light coming in through the windows would be a back lighting effect. All light from the front I can control. Is there a problem having light (two windows) behind your TV set up. I'll have curtains, but I'm even curious if I leave the curtains open if this is a no-no for TV setups. I'm thinking light coming from in front of the TV is usually more of a concern.

Thoughts???

You can buy white blackout curtains. My home office faces West and I bought four panels, hung them on a rod behind my drape rod. I use them mostly for insulation. They include a magnetic strip you can insert to join them together so no light shows in between them.. They work well. I bought mine at Bed and Bath. They are $40 per panel. A bit pricey. Since then I have seen cheaper knockoffs.

I have a cell phone. I was actually considering Vonage for VOIP.
How was your Charter internet? How was the reliablity?

For me it was solid and reliable. It depends on where you live. I wouldn't want to be near a campus like the U-City loop or anywhere else there are people more prone to be online. It worked for me and I saw so slowdowns in the evening as most of my neighbors are older retired folks with no PC. My speed was always quite high despite any overhead.

I opted for DSL after my Charter promo ended and the first regular bill included a rate hike! $43 plus change is too much IMO.

Do you have a cable modem? If not, I have one I can sell you cheap. IM me if you are interested.

I have a cell phone. I was actually considering Vonage for VOIP.
How was your Charter internet? How was the reliablity?

I have Charter high speed Internet and Vonage - no other Charter services at all. I've been pretty happy with it, although it's not as robust as regular phone service, which almost never went down. There have been some outages, usually short lived, but definitely not as reliable as POTS.

Dish 1000+ upgrade question.
My brother has Dish and wants to upgrade to HD with DVR and HD Locals. We called Dish and they want him to pay $199 for the upgrade and DVR, than another $50 to get the new 1000+ installed. Is this what everyone is paying? I'm not a Dish subscriber so I don't know how this company works.
Wm,
This sounds correct for a new HD sub. You should also check what the monthly fee(s) will be. There is a $6.00/mo Leased Receiver Fee, a $5.00/mo Additional Receiver Fee (the HD DVR is a dual tuner, and "counts" as 2 receivers, as it can independently run 2 TV's), and there is a one-time HD Activation Fee. I think it is $10.00, but not certain.
Some of the monthly fees can be waived depending on the tier of programming selected.
The $50.00 1000+ fee sounds like a service call fee, which you should be able to have waived leveraging Dish vs Direct vs Charter. The actual cost of a 1000+ antenna upgrade is $199.00.

Just checking in. I had quite an ordeal. I decided to go to the grocery store for a bag of coffee and when I came out of the store I saw the storm starting to blow through. On my drive home I encountered a downed tree completely blocking the street in my neighborhood. I flipped into reverse and tried driving out another direction and a huge limb crashed down completely just in front of my car blocking that exit ! At this point I was scared and thought I was stranded outside with all these trees blowing over. My neighborhood is 46 years old and the silver maples, oaks, etc are all VERY large. After I collected myself after a few seconds I realized (facing the first tree from the other direction) the downed tree I came across was laying across one side of the "T" intersection but the other side was clear to drive through. I raced through the remaining few blocks to my house. I ran across the street to my neighbor's house to take cover from my big trees and turned just in time to see a big limb crash from one of my trees onto my roof. At this point I felt like I was in the movie Twister. It landed with a big thud and covered the roof from front gutter to back gutter. A friend of the family is a roofer and I have broken plywood sheathing, some torn shingles and probably a cracked roof joist. There is a depression on the roof, but thankfully no holes. I patched the tears in the shingles and checked for leaks and I'm okay for now.

My brother-in-law works near my house and because they had no power at his work he came over and we used my battery operated saw and cut the limb into big chunks to conserve the battery power. It took both of us to get the bigger pieces off the roof. My power came on late Thursday night and I was overjoyed only to lose it again during Friday's storm. Came on again Saturday around 8PM and went down again yesterday at 4PM. It was down until 8PM.

Here's the reason I was without power last night for four hours again. The tree trimmers working with Ameren from out of Ohio downed a fair sized limb onto the lines delivering power to my house. They thought both lines were dead. Because one of their workers could have been killed an on-site investigation started and I counted 12 guys showing up. There was a lot of swearing and finger pointing and finally a utility crew from Wisconsin got the power back up.

**Turns out, the tree trimmers don't have to be clear of the lines when they drop a limb onto them. In fact, one guy rather sheepishly told me, they don't even try as that's Ameren's job.** They just drop the big limbs for Ameren and they leave them where they fall.

Bottom line was I heard an Ameren supervisor telling the trimming crew they should have checked the lines first. Well, DUUUH!! So if you have family, friends or neighbors who see a couple of tree trimmer trucks roll up be sure to listen and try to overhear if they check the lines for power first!

Edit: Forgot to mention my antenna mount was ripped out of my roof and my antenna was mangled, laying under the limb. I checked my sat signal to see if my sat dish was out of alignment and for the heck of it, I checked the OTA signal and was able to get 3 of the 4 network channels at 80% or better from under all the leaves, branches and limbs! Too funny when I think about how many times I was on the roof trying to fine tune the antenna! I was able to salvage my masts and bent the antenna back into shape but the mount, which was grounded, is useless so I decided to not reconnect the antenna and have it lay on the roof.

Geez, Mo, that was a real adventure. I was spooked when a stop light blew down in front of me in the spring. You must have been terrified. Hope everything is settling down now. On the up side, I got power back in time for the Sunday airing of Battlestar Galactica. (I told you guys I was addicted.)

Dean, I had Charter highspeed Internet and bundled it with their phone service and I have D*. The phone is on an 8 hour battery btw. The 22 hour power outtage I had earlier in the year rendered the phone useless. So under the current circumstances I can't recommend you get their phone service unless you also have a cell phone for any emergency calls.


MoInSTL and others,

I used to work for the repair line for Charter Telephone but since quit and moved to Vegas, but still lurk in the forum. From talking to my old friends at Charter they are no longer installing batteries in the Telephony Modems for any new customer. This is to save money. However, for like 30 bucks a new customer can order their own.

Yeah I agree this is BS. However, Charter MAY and a big may be looking to provide back up power through their own lines. However, that is only a rumor.

Mark

Geez, Mo, that was a real adventure. I was spooked when a stop light blew down in front of me in the spring. You must have been terrified. Hope everything is settling down now. On the up side, I got power back in time for the Sunday airing of Battlestar Galactica. (I told you guys I was addicted.)

Joe, it was terrifying. Once I finshed racing through the gauntlet of trees and safe on my neighbor's porch I said I'd rather deal with earthqaukes in the Bay Area. I had just said that when the big limb crashed onto my house. :( Of course during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake I was not living in the Marina district either.

I asked my neighbor if I could take refuge on his porch in the future without asking and he answered of course I could. The next big lump of money I get will be tree removal. It'll be pricey since there are two and in a tight spot to remove. Watching Thursday's storm I honestly thought one was coming down.

Glad your godfather is okay.

I missed BSG. :(

Reminder....Tonight and tomorrow night's Cards games will be available in HD on FSN HD. IIRC Charter 792.

Glad your godfather is okay.

I missed BSG. :(

Thanks, Mo. You're welcome to come over and catch that episode - Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down. It had some really funny moments.

I hadn't watched much regular DVD on my Toshiba A1 HD DVD player, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it handles regular DVDs. I watched "Just Like Heaven" last night - not a great film, but the quality from the A1 was really good. If I hadn't known better, I might have believed it was in HD. It was as good as (and better than) some HD I've seen from satellite. Looking closely at fine detail, you could tell that it wasn't true HD, but I've seen similar softness on some satellite HD broadcasts. (And there was no blocking.)

I don't have any of that either. I just had to treat them like I do DirecTV. Then they
gave me the new deal...I called ATT back, and told them I'm one call away from canceling all my ATT services. I refuse to pay 34.99 for DSL when they offer it for 17.99 to new customers. So I ended up getting a new 1 yr. plan for 19.99 ($2 less than my "expired" plan) and they are sending me a new DSL modem for $12 shipping cost (actually, I also pay $50 and get that back as a rebate).

So once again I've saved myself from a charter flight to hell. ;)

Congrats Dean....

Thanks, Mo. You're welcome to come over and catch that episode - Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down. It had some really funny moments.

Thanks Joe, but I am sticking close to home. I have a large 15 feet or so branch hanging perfectly vertical over the back half of the house. It's too high to reach and it's cracked in half. I think it's hanging by a wishbone type branch. I have my ladder up so when it does fall I can inspect the roof. This one is poised to act like a spear when it falls.

I already watched the regular season and wanted to watch it all again in HD in a marathon prior to the new season in October.

Thanks, Mo. You're welcome to come over and catch that episode - Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down. It had some really funny moments.

Wow, offering to let Mo tigh up... :)

New DirecTV HD DVR Delayed Again

The story excerpt below is from today's SKYReport newsletter:
______________________________________________

For the third time now, DirecTV has opted to delay its new high-def DVR.

But as the waters of demand for HD content continue rising to new levels, more quality customers may contemplate jumping ship. This according to a report from Wall Street firm Sanford C. Bernstein.

Reports have said the new DVR was originally scheduled to launch earlier this year but now won't hit the market until sometime this fall. Forbes.com said that until recently, many customers have been willing to wait to upgrade to high-definition television until the new DVR is available.

But Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said in a report to investors yesterday that he is skeptical DirecTV will continue to get a free pass from investors. Customers who have recently dropped serious dough on expensive HDTVs may not be willing to wait around for DirecTV to step up. In fact, he said, if these customers don't see any new offerings they may find HD relief from EchoStar's DISH Network.
______________________________________________

For the full story, go to www.skyreport.com.

Wow, offering to let Mo tigh up... :)

Glad to see you Scott. Means you have power back (if you ever lost it).

I'm not going there... :p

More on the DirecTV HD DVR delay. This is from today's TV Predictions newsletter. Excerpting just the TVP commentary here:
___________________________________________________

Moffett is correct that DIRECTV's HDTV customers are getting impatient. Many cable operators now offer twice as many HD channels as DIRECTV -- and a high-def Digital Video Recorder. And EchoStar has approximately three times as many national HDTV channels, plus the HD recorder.

If DIRECTV doesn't expand its national HD lineup soon, it will lose current subs -- and it will lose future subs in the growing HDTV audience.

The HDTV delays are inexcusable and more evidence that DIRECTV's management does not truly appreciate the needs of the high-def audience. David Hill, DIRECTV's president of entertainment, once said that he didn't understand why everyone is excited about HDTV. It appears that Mr. Hill's sentiments are shared by some of his colleagues.

While DIRECTV is investing heavily in new satellites for the future, there's no sense of urgency in providing its current HDTV customers with better service.

(I will give DIRECTV credit for rolling out local HD channels in dozens of markets this year, but cable TV operators have offered local HD for a few years now. You expect DIRECTV to offer something better than cable.)

Several years ago, when U.S. stores first began selling high-def sets, DIRECTV was quick to add a few HD channels so early adopters would have something to watch.

Consequently, at the time, DIRECTV was considered the "HDTV Leader."
___________________________________________________

Full story: http://www.tvpredictions.com/directvhddvr072506.htm

Don't know if this is known, but I had a tech out last week to check my Charter internet(running slow), he noticed I had Moxi and stated that Charter is no longer using the MOXI box and that they are in the process of finding a new DVR. He stated that customers were having to many problems and the box was to large. I know mine slows down every 2 or 3 days but a reboot usually solves this, but as for other problems nothing major and I can definetly live with the minor ones, wacky program guide.

Don't know if this is known, but I had a tech out last week to check my Charter internet(running slow), he noticed I had Moxi and stated that Charter is no longer using the MOXI box and that they are in the process of finding a new DVR. He stated that customers were having to many problems and the box was to large. I know mine slows down every 2 or 3 days but a reboot usually solves this, but as for other problems nothing major and I can definetly live with the minor ones, wacky program guide.

Well I hope the tech is slightly mis-informed on this. I am on a waiting list to upgrade my moxi to the box with a larger hard drive something Charter just recently started to allow. Also he could just be confused by the fact that future DVRs probably would have not been the Motorola Moxi because of new plans to use Samsung or some other provider for the boxes. Although I believe those plans have been delayed quite a bit by Digeo. Either way around I just got my HD TV and I need the additional hard drive capacity so charter better be shopping around while still offering current customers the option of getting either size moxi box.

Speaking of which its probably about time to call charter and request an ETA and get the usual we have no ETA for the larger moxi box.

-Phatty

Well I hope the tech is slightly mis-informed on this. I am on a waiting list to upgrade my moxi to the box with a larger hard drive something Charter just recently started to allow. Also he could just be confused by the fact that future DVRs probably would have not been the Motorola Moxi because of new plans to use Samsung or some other provider for the boxes. Although I believe those plans have been delayed quite a bit by Digeo. Either way around I just got my HD TV and I need the additional hard drive capacity so charter better be shopping around while still offering current customers the option of getting either size moxi box.

Speaking of which its probably about time to call charter and request an ETA and get the usual we have no ETA for the larger moxi box.

-Phatty

I also hope they are wrong. Having to switch boxes out would be a disaster. Charter would find someway to make the whole thing as bad as possible.

Then again a user installible plug-n-play DVR would be nice. Too much drama getting the Moxis up and running. (repinging, correct address etc.)

Then again I was kinda hoping for the two way cable card and the 3rd Gen Tivo DVR combo.

FWIW, I also doubt that the Charter tech/CSR knows what he/she is talking about. Both Charter and Digeo, creator of the MOXI product, are companies owned by Paul Allen.

As a result, MOXI and Charter are likely to remain joined at the hip for at least as long as Charter's finances hold up.

Doug
Did I miss it . Did you ever here from your FSMW guy about the HD channel.duvy,

No -- you didn't miss it, because I never heard back from FSMW.

So, yesterday I sent another message and received a reply back from our contact there. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what's behind this but is going to try to find out and let me know.

If I don't hear back in a week or so, I'll try again. Otherwise, I'll update here when there's some feedback from FSMW.

I know this his probably been discussed before but I was hoping to get a quick answer without searching through 483 pages of this topic....Why does Charter not carry ABC HD? Who's fault is it? Will they ever carry it? Just wondering. Thanks.

Sinclair, the company that owns KDNL (ABC), has demanded payment from Charter in return for Charter carrying KDNL-DT. Though reports vary, Sinclair is reportedly asking around 50 cents per subscriber (HD capable or not) per month. St. Louis is not the only market where Sinclair has taken this position with stations it owns.

In the past, analog channels were carried by cable companies with no money changing hands. This was, in part, due to an FCC directive, though it's also in the interest of the broadcaster to have cable carry the stations they own -- more eyeballs add up to higher advertising rates.

But there is no mandate or directive currently applied to digital stations and local cable carriage. As a result of this, Sinclair is seeking payment, partly on the basis that cable has been able to carry its analog stations free of charge in the past. Sinclair also cites the additional cost involved in producing and transmitting a digital signal, in addition to the analog service.

Long story story: The situation with Sinclair is a standoff, though time is on Charter's side. As more viewers move to HD and digital stations, Sinclair has more at risk in lost eyeballs/lost ad revenues. As the analog shutdown approaches (spring 2009), the negotiating leverage will shift to Charter (and to other cable companies around the country that are resisting Sinclair's demands).

Note that this is not just a Charter issue -- there are many US cable companies who have shunned Sinclair digital stations because of its fee demands.

FWIW, I also doubt that the Charter tech/CSR knows what he/she is talking about. Both Charter and Digeo, creator of the MOXI product, are companies owned by Paul Allen.

As a result, MOXI and Charter are likely to remain joined at the hip for at least as long as Charter's finances hold up.

I forgot about that. I just assumed the Charter might choose to go with something cheaper.

FWIW I enjoy the Moxi setup.

I forgot about that. I just assumed the Charter might choose to go with something cheaper.

FWIW I enjoy the Moxi setup.I understand and agree. For all my history of Charter-bashing, I'm on record as saying that I like the MOXI, particularly the interface. I have minor issues with the fact that the storage is somewhat limited, but that could be easily fixed.

The biggest issue is Charter support, starting with the fact that Charter has done a poor job of training its field staff on how to install this product (I've easily seen a dozen MOXIs installed on HDTVs with the resolution set to 480i).

It's also probably a bit of a learning curve for a basic customer, but anyone who's really interested in having a DVR should be able to work through that. I do think the product documentation is pretty good, but as always it's a challenge to get a customer to read the manual.

Sinclair, the broadcast business that owns KDNL (ABC), has demanded payment from Charter in return for Charter carrying KDNL-DT. Though reports vary, Sinclair is reportedly asking around 50 cents per subscriber (HD capable or not) per month. St. Louis is not the only market where Sinclair has taken this position with stations it owns.

In the past, analog channels were carried by cable companies with no money changing hands. This was, in part, due to an FCC directive, though it's also in the interest of the broadcaster to have cable carry the stations they own -- more eyeballs add up to higher advertising rates.

But there is no mandate or directive currently applied to digital stations and local cable carriage. As a result of this, Sinclair is seeking payment, partly on the basis that cable has been able to carry its analog stations free of charge in the past. Sinclair also cites the additional cost involved in producing and transmitting a digital signal, in addition to the analog service.

Long story story: The situation with Sinclair is a standoff, though time is on Charter's side. As more viewers move to HD and digital stations, Sinclair has more to lose in lost ad revenues. As the analog shutdown approaches (spring 2009), Sinclair will probably have to back down.
Doug,
This question is asked often, and I've also found it difficult to find using search.
With no immediate resolution in sight, perhaps link your always well written explanation to your "We Interrupt" post, until it is resolved??

I had the Charter Moxi before they jacked the rate to $15 just for the DVR (origionally it was $7). The moxi has a decent GUI, but it is very slow and it runs very hot. I actually had to keep the door open so it would not over heat. I have not seen the E* GUI, but I loved the D* GUI. Lots of programable catigories, favorites, etc. Right now, I have the standard HD box from Charter and I have to shuffle through all the channels to get to the ones I sub to. There is not a way to filter them out. It sucks! I pray that Charter comes out with a new box soon. If I could build a PVR that could record the encrypted channels, I would be all over it. Screw both their boxes.

If E* would not charge so much for the "per STB" I would switch. But when you have 5 TV's, they don't compare to Charter. Especially since only 1 has the "digital package" and HD. The rest are just analog TV's with basic/expanded cable.

the other good thing about the Sat companies (at least DirectTV) is that you can buy your own receiver. With Charter, you are stuck with their POS boxes.
On a positive note, I live in the St. Charles area and did not lose power/TV/internet/phone throughout either of the storms. I did lose half of a 20yr old tree though.
The down side to that was that I had to run (and still running) a refugee camp for my wife's family.

The down side to that was that I had to run (and still running) a refugee camp for my wife's family.Now, THAT's what I'd call true hardship... ;)

Doug,
This question is asked often, and I've also found it difficult to find using search.
With no immediate resolution in sight, perhaps link your always well written explanation to your "We Interrupt" post, until it is resolved??Good point -- will do next time I update the note...

Now, THAT's what I'd call true hardship... ;)

For who? :D

the other good thing about the Sat companies (at least DirectTV) is that you can buy your own receiver. .That is no longer true. DirecTV receivers are now controlled by D*. And -- with the exception of what's left in retailer stock -- you can only "lease" receivers. I believe it's more-or-less the same for Dish.

That is no longer true. DirecTV receivers are now controlled by D*. And -- with the exception of what's left in retailer stock -- you can only "lease" receivers. I believe it's more-or-less the same for Dish.

This has never been true for Dish. You can still buy the receivers outright. I have a leased Dish 622 (took advantage of the 921 upgrade offer) and a purchased Dish 211. The 211 is the one I had modified with the Nextcom R5000 recording system, to allow me to record anything from satellite to computer (totally legit).

That is no longer true. DirecTV receivers are now controlled by D*. And -- with the exception of what's left in retailer stock -- you can only "lease" receivers. I believe it's more-or-less the same for Dish.
DISH still allows purchase. Direct from DISH @ MSRP. From the online Dish retailers, usually around 40% off MSRP.
eg: VIP622 (HD DVR) from DISH = $799.00. Online retailer = $499.00.
Lease: $299.00 + $6.00/mo.

Other than Joe's use, (totally legit) which I have to believe is somewhat rare for the mainstream consumer, there really exists no benefit to purchasing a DISH receiver. The up-front cost of leasing is significantly less, and the combined cumulative $6.00/mo lease fee would not likely equal the initial up-front cost of a purchase, prior to the unit being upgraded, 33+ months. DISH treats leased and purchased units eligible for upgrade the same.

It is believed DISH still allows purchases in an effort to better offset R&D costs.

The tech seemed to be knowledgable he mentioned he had MOXI at home, throwing out a question anyone on the waiting list get a MOXI box lately? I will ask my Sis-n-Law about this she works for Charter in Greenville SC, she is not CSR so she may know a little something :D

Glad to see you Scott. Means you have power back (if you ever lost it).

I'm not going there... :p

I'm almost afraid to admit it to you Mo, but I never lost power. I was sure sorry to hear about your trauma however. Glad you made it through in one piece. All of your hard work on the antenna and Bam! Hit by a tree. Bet you never imagined that while putting it up.

Scott

Some new info about the STL HD channels from E*. I didn't read the thread carefully, and i made the mistake of calling their normal number. The folks who answered said they were from Advanced Technical Support, but they said they currently can't order dish 1000+. I discussed with them the thread here about folks getting them, and to call the ATS at 800-969-4388. The manager stated that must be a dealer's number. I encouraged him to call; he came back said I was right, apparently it is Dish's number. By now about an hour had passed being on hold etc. Finally after another hold session, I spoke with a different agent. They did some digging and I was told that they couldn't order a 1000+ dish as their software would only do this for new customers.

I said ok, after 90 minutes on being on the phone I tried to discuss the situation but with no go. I just thought folks here should know, it's not a slam dunk.

Can anyone refure what I was told?

thanks,
CoCoKola

Some new info about the STL HD channels from E*. I didn't read the thread carefully, and i made the mistake of calling their normal number. The folks who answered said they were from Advanced Technical Support, but they said they currently can't order dish 1000+. I discussed with them the thread here about folks getting them, and to call the ATS at 800-969-4388. The manager stated that must be a dealer's number. I encouraged him to call; he came back said I was right, apparently it is Dish's number. By now about an hour had passed being on hold etc. Finally after another hold session, I spoke with a different agent. They did some digging and I was told that they couldn't order a 1000+ dish as their software would only do this for new customers.

I said ok, after 90 minutes on being on the phone I tried to discuss the situation but with no go. I just thought folks here should know, it's not a slam dunk.

Can anyone refure what I was told?

thanks,
CoCoKola

Looks like Charter is not the only company with customer service issues. Perhaps we should get together and start our own television programming providing company. We couldn't possibly do any worse than the clowns running the show now!

Minor detail for the success of my plan -> anyone have several millions of dollars to get this off the ground? If not, I guess we could go the Charter route and just tally up mad amounts of debt.

Some new info about the STL HD channels from E*. I didn't read the thread carefully, and i made the mistake of calling their normal number. The folks who answered said they were from Advanced Technical Support, but they said they currently can't order dish 1000+. I discussed with them the thread here about folks getting them, and to call the ATS at 800-969-4388. The manager stated that must be a dealer's number. I encouraged him to call; he came back said I was right, apparently it is Dish's number. By now about an hour had passed being on hold etc. Finally after another hold session, I spoke with a different agent. They did some digging and I was told that they couldn't order a 1000+ dish as their software would only do this for new customers.

I said ok, after 90 minutes on being on the phone I tried to discuss the situation but with no go. I just thought folks here should know, it's not a slam dunk.

Can anyone refure what I was told?

thanks,
CoCoKola
CoCo,
If you are an HD sub, just call ATS yourself. Clearly the orders can be placed, as myself, several other E* subs here, and in the Detroit DMA have already done so.
When calling ATS, the tech will always ask if you are having a technical problem. Your answer is always yes. In this case, your technical problem is you cannot figure out how to receive the new STL HD LiL's. The tech will take it from there.
If you still run into resistance, send an email to escalations at ceo@echostar.com. You will receive a reply in 24-48 hours.

The regular CS group is still figuring out what the + antenna system is and what its application is.

Some clarification of the ATS Group function: Dish refers to it as the HD Advanced Technical Support Group. They are comprised of LII and LIII techs, and based in Virginia. ATS receives training on new Dish HD technology before it is rolled out...novel idea! Its function is to provide technical assistance to current Dish HD customers, however, the techs at ATS have the ability to perform any and all functions the regular CS group can.

Most HD subs here exclusively call ATS directly with any issues. In fairness to Charter, Dish and Direct, most regular CSR's spend 90% of their time taking programming/equipment orders, diagnosing dead batteries in remotes, and walking customers through receiver resets. The other 10% is spent with HD issues.

The protocol at Dish CS is to transfer all HD related technical issues to ATS. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

DISH Loses Distant Network Court Appeal

Headline says it all, though I find it very difficult to believe that there's a legal basis for enforcing what basically amounts to congressionally mandated monopolies for local broadcasters. In any event, I still think the local/network broadcast business model is on life support and will begin to unwind within the next decade.

Networks don't really need local afilliates to achieve nationwide distribution, and the news coverage provided by local stations contributes little of real value to major network news operations that are increasingly marginal in terms of profit contribution.

Tick...tick...tick...

The following story is from today's SKYReport newsletter:
_____________________________________________

In a unanimous opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit decided yesterday against EchoStar's challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's "ILLR" methodology by which it is established whether an individual household can receive distant network signals.

The decision comes on the heals of its May ruling in favor of affiliate associations for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC in a copyright lawsuit filed against the satellite TV provider.

Showing its support for the decision, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) spokesman Dennis Wharton said in a statement that the organization is "pleased the court unanimously rejected EchoStar's challenge to FCC methodology for determining households that are eligible to receive distant network TV signals.

"This opinion affirms the FCC's hard work and expertise in establishing who is fairly eligible to receive such signals and strengthens broadcasting's rich tradition of localism," he said.

Attempts to reach EchoStar for a comment were unsuccessful at press time.
_____________________________________________

I'm almost afraid to admit it to you Mo, but I never lost power. I was sure sorry to hear about your trauma however. Glad you made it through in one piece. All of your hard work on the antenna and Bam! Hit by a tree. Bet you never imagined that while putting it up.

Scott

No I never magined it being crushed and mangled. :( The GOOD thing is that when it is finally put back up is I can walk the roof and find the best place for it. I used the mounting plate D* installed before a second installer decided the sat dish should be moved to another location. Good thing it was all moved or it would be crushed too.

I have a funny feeling the antenna will end up being very close to the original location which was the tallest point on the roof. Now if this giant evergreen type monstrosity next door had come down in the storm I could place the antenna inside!

Until roof repairs are done I am holding off on getting another antenna. At least the shows I record in OTA are on hiatus (except Leno & Cards games).

Anyone have a Channel Master they are not using? What about that black stuff they use under the screw heads to prevent leaks?

What about that black stuff they use under the screw heads to prevent leaks?

I just put silicon on the bottom and in the holes before I screw it down.

No I never magined it being crushed and mangled. :( The GOOD thing is that when it is finally put back up is I can walk the roof and find the best place for it. I used the mounting plate D* installed before a second installer decided the sat dish should be moved to another location. Good thing it was all moved or it would be crushed too.

I have a funny feeling the antenna will end up being very close to the original location which was the tallest point on the roof. Now if this giant evergreen type monstrosity next door had come down in the storm I could place the antenna inside!

Until roof repairs are done I am holding off on getting another antenna. At least the shows I record in OTA are on hiatus (except Leno & Cards games).

Anyone have a Channel Master they are not using? What about that black stuff they use under the screw heads to prevent leaks?


I've got a spare 3016 (VHF\UHF), and a spare 3021/4221. PM me, Mo.

According to an article in the July CPU magazine, InPhase Technologies (www.inphase-technologies.com) will bring its holographic storage technology to market by year's end. The HDS-300R disc will read and write 300GB to a 3D holographic disc at up to 20MB/sec. The discs are $120 and the drive itself $15,000, so don't expect to find it at Best Buy for a while, but the company claims the technology can use any form factor from DVD size discs to smart cards.

This technology has been talked about for a long time, but it looks as though its time may have come. If HD DVD and Blu-ray don't get their collective acts together soon, they may be handed their walking papers. I know - it takes a lot more than superior technology to make a successful product, but this new medium has enormous promise. Even at $120 per 300GB disc, it competes very effectively with hard drives for storage space per dollar even now. And if a full HD movie could fit on a smart card, the advantages seem clear. Also, Hollywood is not happy that the HD DVD/Blu-ray camps couldn't work out their differences and come up with one standard.

The product has the minor obstacle of actually shipping to overcome, but if it can deliver on its promise, HD DVD and Blu-ray may be very short lived blips on the radar screen. ("Sir, I thought I saw a blue dot, but then it just vanished." "Better go home and get some sleep, son.")

I'm still without power at home. It can back on for a short time over the weekend but has never been back.

I'm having electricity envy.

Thank goodness avsforum.com is not blocked at work.

DISH Loses Distant Network Court Appeal

In a unanimous opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit decided yesterday against EchoStar's challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's "ILLR" methodology by which it is established whether an individual household can receive distant network signals.


I guess that those subs that are recieving distant locals, whether deservedly or not (SD and HD) will soon have to kiss them bye bye.

Too bad :(

I just put silicon on the bottom and in the holes before I screw it down.

I used the belt and suspenders approach and put clear silicon over it all. I like the black sticky tape between the shingles and mount. Can't recall what it's called. Like your suggestion to fill the holes too before screwing it down.

I'm still without power at home. It can back on for a short time over the weekend but has never been back.

I'm having electricity envy.

Thank goodness avsforum.com is not blocked at work.

Aw Dweebe that sux! What part of town do you live in?

I guess that those subs that are receiving distant locals, whether deservedly or not (SD and HD) will soon have to kiss them bye bye.

Too bad :(
As of this posting, they all remain active on my system, LA, NY, CHI. I see a couple of trickle-down effects also. One, Dish enjoyed some substantial revenue from providing the distants, usually around $5.00/mo per city, and two, I'd suspect this will tighten up even more the already nearly impossible task of obtaining a waiver to receive distants.

Geeze, it's not like we're watching the commercials anyway.
Don't those FCC folks have DVR's? :rolleyes:

Aw Dweebe that sux! What part of town do you live in?

The slums of Clayton: the DeMun neighborhood by the intersection of Clayton Rd and Skinker. A friend of mine in UCity along Midland is also in the same boat.

The good part is that most of the area around me is back on, so I can get ice and food.

A coworker who lives in Jennings says that area is still bad. The Ameren website shows 11,000 out of 18,000 in the 63136 zip code still out of power.

BTW: how did the last two Cards/Colorado games look in HD?

Doug: anything new out of FSMW about D* not picking up their HD channel?

I'm in the market for a new A/V receiver and surround speaker system. I'm looking
at either the Denon 2807 or 3806, both of which are carried locally by American and
Ultimate. The only problem I have is paying retail, MSRP. As Kramer said, "Retail is for suckers".

Anyway, is there any where locally that doesn't charge MSRP or is their a "trusted" internet store?

One of the problems I have using Ebay is that most of the Dealers are not authorized dealers and therefore no warranty.

dweebe,

Hey guy, I hope your power is up and running again soon. Hard to imagine being without this long (and hope I never get to the point where I don't have to IMAGINE it). Just writing about it here wreaks vaguely of bad karma...whoa, the lights just dimmed. :)

On FSMW, our contact has been out of the office for a while, though he did reply to my note yesterday morning and said he'd dig around and try to find out more about this. FWIW, he seemed a bit surprised by the news, which in turn surprises me.

BTW: how did the last two Cards/Colorado games look in HD?


I thought the game looked really good in HD. No cutouts like we have begun to expect from KPLR. I was a little concerned at the beginning of the game that the reception was real fuzzy......that turned out to be rain in HD.

Overall very good production and sound. There was one camera they had that was not HD or not working correctly and they kept having to put the FSN-HD sidebars on it to fill the 16X9 screen when they switched to that particular camera.

Here's hoping 162 in HD next year.

Brad

I just put silicon on the bottom and in the holes before I screw it down.

Yup, RTV silicone gel works.

I'm in the market for a new A/V receiver and surround speaker system. I'm looking
at either the Denon 2807 or 3806, both of which are carried locally by American and
Ultimate. The only problem I have is paying retail, MSRP. As Kramer said, "Retail is for suckers".

Anyway, is there any where locally that doesn't charge MSRP or is their a "trusted" internet store?

One of the problems I have using Ebay is that most of the Dealers are not authorized dealers and therefore no warranty.

Sent you a pm.

Scott

Wow, power is finally back on. It's been out since last wednesday. I've been going through TV and PC withdraw....and the heat...except for the weekend, I've gotten maybe 3 hours sleep per night. Woodson Terrace, Edmundson, west part of Berkeley, St John all looks like a bomb went off. And to top it off the main water line on Woodson Rd ruptured and left me without water for 2 days. Well, at least I've not had any home or auto damage.

I've noticed that Ken got his 1000+ installed. Anyone else get there's yet? My date keeps getting pushed back, 3 times. It's now set for Aug 21. So far my last bill has two $20.00 dollar credits for this. Maybe I'll get a free month's service.

Wow, power is finally back on. It's been out since last wednesday. I've been going through TV and PC withdraw....and the heat...except for the weekend, I've gotten maybe 3 hours sleep per night. Woodson, Edmondson, west part of Berkeley, St John all looks like a bomb went off. And to top it off the main water line on Woodson Rd ruptured and left me without water for 2 days. Well, at least I've not had any home or auto damage.

I've noticed that Ken got his 1000+ installed. Anyone else get there's yet? My date keeps getting pushed back, 3 times. It's now set for Aug 21. So far my last bill has two $20.00 dollar credits for this. Maybe I'll get a free month's service.


I can identify. We didn't have power from Wednesday Night until Monday afternoon. It came on Sunday, got to watch TV, browse the internet, then it died at midnight Sunday. Then Ameren came back (contracted PAR guys), turned it back on Monday afternoon, to which it failed right in front of them (ran for about 2 minutes), and they got it back up again (we hope permanently) again around 4pm Monday. Wednesday and Thursday were no picnic trying to sleep. 4 hours sounds about right.

Ameren's done a good, if not extremely slow job. We haven't had any water mains break near me, but it did happen by the Science Center. You've had a rough few days. Welcome back. :)

I feel grateful -- lost power for only an hour during the Weds storms, and even my Charter TV and Internet worked the whole time. CWE off Pershing. I was in a lucky block, a lot of the surrounding area was out for days.

Our power was out from Wednesday until late Saturday. We did our tv viewing over a 6 inch black and white battery operated set as well as hand held casio color tv. Saw a movie and spent time with the in-laws and one of our sons. There is nothing like home and your own stuff. Had no damage and no water breaks.

Wow, power is finally back on. It's been out since last wednesday. I've been going through TV and PC withdraw....and the heat...except for the weekend, I've gotten maybe 3 hours sleep per night. Woodson, Edmondson, west part of Berkeley, St John all looks like a bomb went off. And to top it off the main water line on Woodson Rd ruptured and left me without water for 2 days. Well, at least I've not had any home or auto damage.

I've noticed that Ken got his 1000+ installed. Anyone else get there's yet? My date keeps getting pushed back, 3 times. It's now set for Aug 21. So far my last bill has two $20.00 dollar credits for this. Maybe I'll get a free month's service.

Glad you are back up Neighbor! I'm in Edmundson, not too far from Woodson and just off Edmundson Road. You are right. Our area was hit hard. I didn't lose water though. Power off until Thursday night, off again Friday Noon until Saturday late evening only to lose it again Sunday when tree trimming crew working with Ameren dropped a big limb onto a live line to my street. That was only for four more hours Sunday.

City of Edmundson started clean-up right away & opened City Hall as a cooling center until their power went down Firday. The small street department already removed the tree limb that hit my roof on Tuesday. Sometimes a tiny town can respond faster.

OK, any other Charter CableCard subscribers having problems with KPLR-DT and KETC-DT? I haven't had them since the storms.