NO HD!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

Freakin' bad weather alerts and school closings means no HD here!!! Sucks!!!

well we've got a freaking blizzard here in north jersey, and i'm still enjoying the ncaa basketball tournament in hd...

talbain, where are you? I am just wondering how bad my evening commute will be(I am currently in downtown NYC)

so bad weather doesnt affect hd reception ota? true or false?

talbain, where are you? I am just wondering how bad my evening commute will be(I am currently in downtown NYC)


you might not get hit that bad. i think you're only supposed to get 3-6 inches. here in lovely sussex county they're calling for 18-24 inches lol. and right now looking out of my window, it appears they may be correct :eek:

http://headlines.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&article=3

...freaking blizzard...2 days ago i was outside mowing the lawn in a t-shirt and shorts...

i've got directv though, and i must say, reception is rock solid right now...

NO HD!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

Freakin' bad weather alerts and school closings means no HD here!!! Sucks!!!

Move. :p :p :p

can any1 answer my question...what if u are getting HD channel OTA? does bad weather affect the reception?

Well, some channels still have HD.

What I mean is that some of the other channels obviously don't have the tech to properly overlay graphics like school closings over HD broadcasts and still keep them HD.

CBS is one channel that doesn't do that here, but ABC in Boston is big on the school closings stuff.

NO HD!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

Freakin' bad weather alerts and school closings means no HD here!!! Sucks!!!

Suggestions:

1. Read a book.
2. Listen to music.
3. Watch an SD DVD. Watch a BD movie. Watch an HD DVD movie.
4. Watch a DVHS tape.
5. Have sex by the fireplace.
6. MOVE.

Great thread. Sheesh!

can any1 answer my question...what if u are getting HD channel OTA? does bad weather affect the reception?

Not any worse than the SD channels OTA.

Sunny and 85 here in L.A. We have gotten only 2.5 inches of rain since last July 1st. The lowest on record. Actually if we hadn't previously had two years of massive rain we would be in big trouble.

Rick R

can any1 answer my question...what if u are getting HD channel OTA? does bad weather affect the reception?
Of course, bad weather can affect OTA digital reception, just it can analog NTSC reception. It can also interfere with digital satellite reception, if the weather is severe enough or your signal is marginal. Rain or heavy snow will degrade the signal strength. So if you have marginal reception for a digital station, you can get have picture breakups or the station drops out entirely. The solution is to have an antenna setup which provides a strong enough signal above the threshold so it does not drop below it in bad weather or only for really severe weather. But if you have weak stations or are in a deep fringe area, you may have to live with dropouts in bad weather.

I'm in northern Virginia on the southern end of the storm that is dumping a lot of snow in PA, NJ, and further north. I noticed that several of my more distant stations are breaking up constantly, but these are marginal minor stations off in other directions that I don't care that much about. The major network stations that my antenna is aimed at in DC (~16 miles) and Baltimore (43 miles, with 1 often borderline station, WBAL-DT, in Bawlmore) are coming in fine. Dropouts for the DC stations are rare.

With digital, if you get the signal, you get a nice sharp picture. No white noise or poorer picture quality that you get with analog. IMHO, ATSC digital broadcasting works amazingly well now that we have a lot of DT stations at full power and way too few people are aware of it.

Sunny and 97 here in Phoenix. What's snow?

Sunny and 97 here in Phoenix. What's snow?

i'd lose coherency and awareness of everyday things too if i had to live in 97 degree heat in friggin march.

the lousy weather here in NYC surprisingly isn't really affecting reception.

i'd lose coherency and awareness of everyday things too if i had to live in 97 degree heat in friggin march.

Well it is abnormal, the airport got to 99 and queen creek got to 100. Broke a record from 1934 (I think) Normal for this time of year is low 80s.

Local issue.

Buy your local affiliate an HD graphics generator, or wait for some of this influx of retrans cash to make it to the engineering budget.

In Sacramento they pulled The Office because a railroad trestle caught fire.

al gore was on one of the premiums on Comcast giving his verison of "The Inconvenient Truth" lecture - DURING A BLINDING NORTHEASTER up here in Massachusetts

What I mean is that some of the other channels obviously don't have the tech to properly overlay graphics like school closings over HD broadcasts and still keep them HD.

CBS is one channel that doesn't do that here, but ABC in Boston is big on the school closings stuff.

Do your channels have subchannels? If they do there are new requirements for EAS announcments that must be present on all subchannels at the same time. This would require new keyers unless they switch to the same broadcast with EAS announcement on all subchannels. For school closings this would fall under the EAS local protocals which I assume are the same?

Yep, depends on your locals. Our NBC station has the equipment to overlay closings and alerts in HD so HD is not dropped. They are also looking to buy the equipment to allow 5.1 to continue during alerts as well (it drops to stereo right now).
Our CBS doesn't have any of this and thankfully they do not interrupt the HD signal with alerts by dropping to SD.

For me, yea, I can see it's snowing out. You don't have to friggin tell me every 5 minutes. But here it's been bright and sunny, although cold at around 35. We got our 4 feet of snow in Feb., I'm done with it. :D

Well, some channels still have HD.

What I mean is that some of the other channels obviously don't have the tech to properly overlay graphics like school closings over HD broadcasts and still keep them HD.

CBS is one channel that doesn't do that here, but ABC in Boston is big on the school closings stuff.

I was anticipating an evening of SD basketball because of this, along with the frequent interruptions to tell us that it was snowing a lot outside :rolleyes:

But it didn't happen, pleasantly surprised. Now to go dig out the car.... :D

In Sacramento they pulled The Office because a railroad trestle caught fire.

True, but the HD coverage of the fire was spectacular!

al gore was on one of the premiums on Comcast giving his verison of "The Inconvenient Truth" lecture - DURING A BLINDING NORTHEASTER up here in Massachusetts

Yes, it's true global warming will mean more intense winter storms. Is that your point?

Meanwhile, California is already on fire.

can any1 answer my question...what if u are getting HD channel OTA? does bad weather affect the reception?

This has nothing to do with reception. He is complainig because his station does not have HD graphic overlay so, when they show weather alerts it is all SD.

i wish i could trade places with you, i live in so. cal. and its 94 where i live inthe desert. i wish i had move to new england when i was young, i would love to have the 4 seasons where i live.

Right, global warming now called "climte change" is the all purpose explanation for any kind of weather anywhere in the world at any time

It explains everything

i wish i could trade places with you, i live in so. cal. and its 94 where i live inthe desert. i wish i had move to new england when i was young, i would love to have the 4 seasons where i live.
One season of having to gear up like Randy from "A Christmas Story" to spend 15 minutes scraping ice off your car windows or attempt to pump gas and you'd think differently. Of course, some of you folks in Cali might actually have the occasion to make use of the 4WD on your H2.

Winter sucks. The worst is sleet with winds so strong, it goes sideways. Any exposed skin gets sandblasted by the stuff. Then, just when you think you've reached the safety of your car, you find a shell of ice over it so thick, the doors won't budge. When you finally chip it away and the door releases, the sleet blows in and immediately coats your seat with a layer of ice pellets. If that weren't enough, you turn on the defroster, only to have it blow more ice pellets into the car, which freeze a layer of ice on the inside of the windshield.

I'm just glad I don't live in Maine. I'd go bonkers if I had to plug my car in.

Right, global warming now called "climte change" is the all purpose explanation for any kind of weather anywhere in the world at any time

It explains everything
Hey, you're the one who brought it up (OT).

Do your channels have subchannels? If they do there are new requirements for EAS announcments that must be present on all subchannels at the same time. This would require new keyers unless they switch to the same broadcast with EAS announcement on all subchannels. For school closings this would fall under the EAS local protocals which I assume are the same?As far as I know, school closings aren't usually done via EAS. Otherwise, when we had our own week of winter weather earlier this month, there'd be no time for programming -- our TV, radio and cable stations would be airing nothing but continuous EAS tones. :D In general it's a matter of the school contacting the TV and radio stations on their list for their area, and the stations air them as a service (and another reason for people to watch their morning news). EAS is usually used for situations with a shorter fuse, such as a child abduction (AMBER Alert) or a nuclear plant emergency. The weather service also sends an EAS message for certain weather warnings, which some stations use if they don't have the resources to cover the warning themselves.

Right, global warming now called "climte change" is the all purpose explanation for any kind of weather anywhere in the world at any time

It explains everything
In the late 1970s, we were told in school that we were starting a 'global freezing' period; it never happened.

I have heard on the radio from scientists that say, thousands of their colleagues don't believe in 'global warming' being caused in any degree by humans, nor being more than a slight cyclical change.

How inconvenient, that it isn't the truth. :D

Right, global warming now called "climte change" is the all purpose explanation for any kind of weather anywhere in the world at any time

It explains everything

Ah. The grasshopper from Aesop's "The Ant & the Grasshopper"

al gore was on one of the premiums on Comcast giving his verison of "The Inconvenient Truth" lecture - DURING A BLINDING NORTHEASTER up here in MassachusettsClimate change doesn't mean noticeably higher temps, the more important effect is weather instability. Century class events happening more frequently.

YMMV

In the late 1970s, we were told in school that we were starting a 'global freezing' period; it never happened.

Maybe it would have. It could be that we just over-corrected...too much hairspray in the 80's. ;)

I have heard on the radio from scientists that say, thousands of their colleagues don't believe in 'global warming' being caused in any degree by humans, nor being more than a slight cyclical change.

How inconvenient, that it isn't the truth. :D

"Thousands" of scientists taking the "non-global warming" position? Ummmm, yeah, right, sure. I'll bet I know just which type of program you heard that on, too. :rolleyes:

Let's get back to the topic.

Back to DaveFi original thread topic -- Do many of your networks go from HD to SD when putting weather/school crawls on the screeen? This is frustrating. Only ABC in my area uses a "weather bug" - if you will - and maintains HD programming.

What can we ask our local stations to do so we can correct this?

They need to upgrade equipment. I don't think any of our affiliates in Charlotte have that capability.

Even worse is the fact that some also do the same thing just to put up the in-show promos "Tonight on the 11:00pm news......Dogs that Bite"..... etc.

I stopped being very upset about these things happening. Heck, I still waiting for my NBC affiliate to broadcast in 5.1 and to stop stretching SD programming. One some occasions, we get non-stop coverage of school closings, etc. and don't even get the national programming. I'd love to have access to alternative feeds on those occasions. I guess that's what a DVR is for .... :D

YMMV

Well, some channels still have HD.

What I mean is that some of the other channels obviously don't have the tech to properly overlay graphics like school closings over HD broadcasts and still keep them HD.

CBS is one channel that doesn't do that here, but ABC in Boston is big on the school closings stuff.

Call, write, or email the station and suggest that they put up the closing information only during the commercials. Promise tham that you're more likely to watch the program when it's not squeezed back and also more likely to notice the commercials when they are squeezed back.

Call, write, or email the station and suggest that they put up the closing information only during the commercials. Promise tham that you're more likely to watch the program when it's not squeezed back and also more likely to notice the commercials when they are squeezed back.
Be sure to include a check when you write the stations so that the stations do not have to do make goods for the advertisers who had their ads covered with warnings and school closings.

Call, write, or email the station and suggest that they put up the closing information only during the commercials. Promise tham that you're more likely to watch the program when it's not squeezed back and also more likely to notice the commercials when they are squeezed back.

During commercials is the only time they don't show the crawls. When you call the stations to complain, they are not very receptive to ideas - like show it on just analog or on the subchannel. Out here is fly over country, our affiliates cover a 200 mile x 200 mile grid of customers. So if a waterline breaks 150 miles away and there is no school, we all get to see the crawl -- all night.

They obviously need to fix this before the transition in 2009

It's important to remember that, in most cases, HD is an "add-on" to an analog plant and will continue to be until master control areas are rebuilt with digital in mind.

I've heard (and if any of you master control types out there agree, please feel free to post if you're able) that the HD at some stations is wired to automatically switch to HD when the analog "network" source is selected, and since network is the only HD source at most stations right now, the HD automatically switches to upconvert when any other source is selected. (At other stations, it's a separate switch.)

The problem is that, at some stations, crawls and squeezes have to go through the news control room because they're the ones with the equipment needed to run the squeeze. So the operator has to "toss control" to them, which means switching off that network source, and since network is the only HD source there is, the HD becomes upconverted analog.

It's similar to discussions I've seen on AVS before, when people were complaining that their stations were dropping back to SD during the last few minutes of primetime. Back then, it was explained that the control room needs to take control of the ship in order to do the split-screen credit tease and the newscast, and the director simply asked for control too soon.

Here in Phoenix, only our ABC affiliate has the ability to do weather overlays in HD. Both the ABC and NBC affiliates upconvert SD network shows from the local side, but the CBS, CW, and Fox affiliates pass the network HD feed on SD shows. CBS and Fox usually wait for commercials to cut in with breaking news, NBC drops to SD for any and all breaking news, and CW still hasn't figured out switching to local for commercials so they don't interrupt at all.

My local ABC station, WMAR, runs its own news ticker during Good Morning America while it's in HD. They also have a popup ad for their news cast. (And they show Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune in HD.)