Greenville, SC - HDTV

[jerry birdwell]

WESTERN CAROLINAS HDTV VIEWERS:

THIS THREAD “RESTARTS” THE WESTERN NORTH CAROLINAS HDTV THREAD, AND INCLUDES A SUMMARY OF PERTINENT INFORMATION FROM THAT FORUM.
THIS SHOULD MAKE SCANNING FOR INFORMATION EASIER.
There are several members contributing to information seen here, but there is no one specific person “in charge.” We encourage all who visit our site to acknowledge their presence and to summarize their HDTV / DT experience. Most station information is edited from emailed responses from station personnel.
Jerry Birdwell, Contributor

[jerry birdwell]

To all:
WESTERN CAROLINAS HDTV AND DT TELEVISION STATIONS --
Greenville, Spartanburg (SC), Asheville (NC), Anderson (SC) -- (Updated Sept. 2005):
This is a newly updated thread devoted to the Western Carolinas television markets. We are fortunate to have several station's personnel contribute information. This is revised during the week that all stations are required to begin full power operation, and a posting of your experience after this happens will be appreciated.

Market overview--The western portions of the Carolinas is designated by the FCC as a “hyphenate” market, with station transmitters serving the area generally clustered in a relatively narrow line along the NC and SC border from Mt. Pisgah to Caesar’s Head to Hogback. The forum rules now result in the new "Greenville, SC" heading.

The first step for a new comer to the HDTV experience is to get accurate information regarding antenna orientation by entering your address at: http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.asp

Western Carolinas DTV and HDTV stations as of June 2005 are:

WSPA/CBS (53) - Maps to 7-1 -- This station is at full power on Hogback Mountain (along with its Channel 7). This CBS affiliate was a pioneer in DT in the area, and now has an excellent signal used in passing on its network. It is owned by Media General, who also owns WASV-DT. (7-2 is local weather).

WYFF/NBC (59) -- Maps to 4-1, with NBC/Local weather on 4-2. Transmits from Caesar's Head, SC, at slightly reduced power. The Chief Engineer expects full power “no later than mid 2005.” DT transmission has been reliable since the first quarter of 2003.

WLOS/ABC (56) -- As of this date (July 2005) this station on Mt. Pisgah has install a new full power transmitter but may be operating at slightly reduced power. A new antenna has been installed. WLOS-DT maps to 13-1 and its sister station (a WB affiliate) from Anderson, SC, is retransmitted as 13-2.

WASV-62 (45) Maps as 62-1. – UPN Affiliation. Operated by WSPA full time on Channel 45 rebroadcasting its Channel 62 NTSC signal. Station is located south of Hendersonville, NC midway between WSPA and WYFF near the SC/NC border. HDTV date unknown. Operates at 48kW. Does not present an HD signal.

WESTERN CAROLINAS PUBLIC TELEVISION--Both Greenville's Channel 9 and Asheville's Channel 25 are excellent sources for PBS HDTV programs:

WUNF-33 (UNC-TV) (25). Maps to 33-1,2,3,4,5. Prior to 8:00 p.m., the station offers four channels of SD/DT programming, reserving 33-2 as the HD channel during Prime time. This nighttime HD eliminates 33-3,4,5. Transmits from the WLOS tower on Mt. Pisgah. Transmits at full authorized power and is reliable in keeping its viewers updated regarding any changes (usually by use of this thread.)

SCETV HDTV is on Channel 9 from Parris Mt., north of Greenville. It is the only VHF DT in the area, but is subject to co-channel interference in some locations. Maps to 29-1,2,3. HDTV is on 29-3, 24 hours a day. Visually, the signal often pixelizes due to bandwidth. The station promised to test 720p as a solution but has never done this. Engineering staff is reliable in reporting changes.


WHNS-FOX. DT 57. Maps as 21-1, with weather radar on 21-2. Both SD and DT transmitters are located on a very tall tower on Rich Mountain, NC, near Caesar's Head, SC. Fox HD began in January 2005.

Date of posting--Edited Sept. 2005. Prepared by J. Birdwell - [email]jbirdwe@bellsouth.net

[jerry birdwell]

Repeating useful information from original thread:
From:
bdenman
Advanced Member

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Sumter SC
Posts: 660
Greetings,

Great to see some more Carolinians coming to visit here at AVS. If I may pass along some info.... some may be interested in the basic antenna information at www.starkelectronic.com and some may find this web site useful as well http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/kq6qv/.../comparing.html (compares a number of antenna's performance).

AVS has threads for several NC/SC areas including Charlotte and the TRIAD area in NC and Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston here in SC. Some may find the Cola and Charlotte threads of interest as many of you may be able to receive some of their signals. We are fortunate that we here at AVS have the participation of several station engineers (both Cola and Charlotte) who have been most helpful. Sharing information about reception is obviously one of the goals here and its great to now have your area's thread.

Some may be interested in visiting www.nchdtv.com which is a web site devoted to primarily to NC HDTV users but also has info on Greenville/Spartanburg and Asheville. Charles Layno runs that site and also currently manages a listserv that originally originated in Rock Hill SC (by the late Bill Taylor who created the Carolina HDTV Users List) and Charles has created a new one to keep the idea going.

Welcome to AVS and good luck!

Bruce

[enoree]

The audio problems on WSPA-DT continue, the SEC game and the NFL game today both had a constant ticking sound on the audio feed.When I switched over to WBTV-DT(Charlotte) the ticking sound was not there,so I would assume that it is a local problem.

[Fragman]

CSI wasn't in HD tonight. Is the station having problems with their equipment?? I know the audio on the game was terrible yesterday, so I figured they just decided not to flip the switch. This is the third time in the last few weeks that I've wanted to watch something and it hasn't been in HD.

[foxeng]

Originally posted by Fragman
CSI wasn't in HD tonight. Is the station having problems with their equipment?? I know the audio on the game was terrible yesterday, so I figured they just decided not to flip the switch. This is the third time in the last few weeks that I've wanted to watch something and it hasn't been in HD.

It was in HD on WFMY-DT in Greensboro.

[enoree]

I called Sunday and WSPA is having problems with their HD equipment. It was just fine last night on WBTV-DT Charlotte.Most everyone in the upstate with a decent outdoor antenna should have no problem picking up WBTV-DT because of the location of their tower.

[jerry birdwell]

All: Regarding WSPA DT, here is an answer from Ron Peeler:

"As you know we are having trouble with the audio lip-sync. Well, the CBS receiver was bad. We have the newer CBS receiver, but are having a very difficult time getting Dolby 5.1 audio to lip-sync also. Last night we upconverted all prime and are working on this problem today. Hope to be back on tonight with HD."

[sbennett]

SCETV is changing our PSIP data in regards to the major channel number designator. We will no longer virtually map our DTV services to our analog channels. All DTV channels will reflect their actual RF channel number. A rescan in your receiver may be required. This will immediately effect the following stations:

WRLK-DT to 32
WNTV-DT to 9

-Shaun

[jerry birdwell]

Re: WSPA-DT
Audio problems continued last night in CSI. There were two instances of unintelligible dialog because of strong echo lasting approximately two minutes. Hopefully their new CBS receiver will soon be debugged.

[jerry birdwell]

Re: WSPA-DT - continues
Friday nights's JAG was plagued with both audio and video problems. Part of the program ran in SD, part HD; finally audio disappeared completely. Good Luck, WSPA, in solving the problem!

[Stefan]

Is it just me, or is WSPA-DT (53) still having audio problems? I'm getting no audio at all from this station tonight. Anyone else experiencing the same?


Update: I just noticed that whenever a commercial comes on I get audio but I'm getting no audio from "CSI" and I got no audio from "Cold Case" earlier.

[enoree]

No audio on WSPA-DT when I turned on the game Sunday, ended up going over to WBTV-DT to watch it. On another note, I think that the total silence from FOX21 about HD and when or if they will ever do at least FOX widescreen puts them further down the respect ladder than Sinclair.

[jerry birdwell]

All HD Fans in Western Carolinas:
This was not a good week for HDTV in this area, especially last night:
WYFF-DT -- Law & Order was listed as HD, but was broadcast in SD.
WSPA-DT -- Audio problems continued, with no audio for the evening (two programs that I intended to watch).
WLOS-DT -- Although the GM was quoted as saying that WLOS would have HD this fall, it continues to send us SD versions of ABC HD.

This is the important fall ratings sweep month, and we HD viewers are not getting a break. Appears all attention is to SD, and analog broadcasts.
It is time for an organized push for better treatment here in Western Carolinas!

cc: Area General Managers

[enoree]

I watched the CBS NFL game on WBTV-DT and watched American Dreams on WCNC-DT, looked briefly at ABC on WOLO-DT and watched FOX widescreen on WACH-DT. we are on an island of incompetence surrounded by a sea of HD.

[Fragman]

I agree wholeheartedly. For the last week, its been frustrating knowing there are programs out there, but haven't been able to watch it. So, what the plan ??????

[jerry birdwell]

WYFF (Doug Durkee) replied to the above:
NBC broadcast two L&O shows last night, one was in HD and the other wasn't. This was the decision (evidently a last minute decision) of the network, not WYFF. You can tell when WYFF-DT is passing the network feed from our NBC HD receiver either by the fact that the show is in HD or the side panels are black. When we are upconverting local programming or NBC from the SD recevier, the side panels will be gray. So if it's a prime time show in SD and the side panels are black, it's coming from the NBC HD
receiver that way (NBC upconverts prime SD programs)."

[Stefan]

Well, tonight the audio seems to be working on WSPA-DT or at least for the time being anyway. Anyway, the reason I brought this up in the first place is I'm watching on a Fusion II HDTV tuner card in a PC. So, I wanted to confirm that the problem was in the signal coming from the station and not something wrong with my system.

[jerry birdwell]

Tonight's audio on WSPA-DT was greatly improved, and only slightly out of sync. This was true for both network programming and local content, such as the News Promos.

[enoree]

I think that HD viewers need to form some sort of coalition to help out markets with incompetent owners. We could possibly try to get people in other markets to call up and ask why no HD in markets without it and in turn people in that market call up to help out others.just maybe if the phones keep on ringing enough at these lame a** stations they will get the hint.

[jerry birdwell]

Re WSPA audio, Ron Peeler replies:

"Thanks....still working on this. We are in the middle of a server change for
all programming and are simply covered up with things to do.
Thanks for watching, we'll get better.

Ron Peeler"

[jerry birdwell]

Re WNTV Program listings:
Here is a response from Hap Griffin regarding 9-1,2,3 program listings:

"We recently added program data to 9-1 and 9-2, but 9-3 is still simply passing the HD from the PBS loop, which is not yet a scheduled service. We may have some test data in the que, but it is at this point meaningless. PBS will begin scheduling this service in December and will begin offering a richer HD scheduled service in February. Once the schedule info is made available to us, we will integrate it into the EPG for 9-3.

Hope that helps."
Hap

[mdgaffney]

Anyone,

Is WLOS-DT off the air I have been unable to receive them since yesterday?

[jerry birdwell]

To All regarding WLOS
I have just returned from the UNCTV forum on Digital Television where I was told that Sinclair had issued an order for several million dollars worth of DT/HD equipment. The implication was that WLOS would receive some of this, but station personnel have insisted for some time that they have equipment for HD on hand. I also do not see a WLOS-DT signal today and hopefully that means installation is underway.

[mdgaffney]

JB,

That is very encourging news.

Thanks

[jerry birdwell]

Re WLOS--
Sorry gang, but here is WLOS' Jim Carrier's response to being off the air:
"No new equipment installation yet. And, we would probably not be
working here if we were able to predict down-time in advance."
WLOS-DT is back on the air, but no change in power, pattern, or format.

[jerry birdwell]

Re: OTA Reception:
OTA over the past two weeks (approximately) has been seen a lot of changes for my location in the mountains. For example, my signals from Mt. Pisgah (WLOS and WUNF) have changed so that the maximum signal from the two DT transmissions from over a nearby rise are some 20 degrees apart. I cannot received the two stations from the same antenna orientation. DT Channel 9 in Greenville is very unstable and often breaks up. Signal strength for all DT transmissions has changed from day to day. At this point I have to use two different antenna locations to receive all local DT stations that for the past six months have been reliably received on one antenna.
Signals from the Charlotte area have from time to time been unusually strong.
I would appreciate comments regarding any other OTA observations.


__________________

[n4fw]

Hello Jerry.

I have noticed a steady deterioration in my OTA reception during the past month. The trees shedding their leaves may have increased multipathing at my location here in Lenoir. If it gets much worse I may have to give up OTA reception.

[Fragman]

Jerry:

Ditto on the OTA reception. Especially channel 9, which up until recently had no problems at all, now its no longer picking it up. I havent moved the attenna, because I finally found a "sweet spot" where I could get both ch 4 and 7 at the same time. (that and the fact I've seen the demo loop enough, and there's very little to watch on ch 9, but that's another thread)

As of right now though, ch 4 and 7 are the only two I can get, and if it rains or the wind blows then ch 4 goes out.

[jerry birdwell]

I don't look forward to the day when most of the DT stations in the 50s must move to another channel....and many seem to prefer the VHF band. Channel 9 has been my biggest problem in this area, first with co-channel, now probably multi-path, and perhaps adjacent channels from time to time. When the station first signed on, for weeks I received a very strong signal using a simple dipole. Occasionally there are SCETV HD programs (such as Soundstage) that I relied on, until now. SC and NC PBS have different schedules.