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Cedar Rapids, IA - HDTV

606K views 5K replies 298 participants last post by  KyL416 
#1 ·
Welcome to the new thread for eastern Iowa HDTV. This thread covers KWWL-DT, KCRG-DT, KGAN-DT, KFXA-DT, KFPX-DT, KIIN-DT, KWKB-DT, and KRIN-DT. This is a split from the original Eastern Iowa/Quad Cities thread. If you have questions and are new to AVS Forum, please search that thread as your question may have been asked before. Or, feel free to ask it anyway.



Enjoy your stay and welcome to the thread.

Helpful Links:
Cedar Falls Utilities' DT Signal Quality Graphs ( http://www.cfu.net/CyberNet/HD/ )
Local Mediacom QAM mappings for cable & digital "in the clear" QAM (As seen in Cedar Rapids)

Quote:
Originally Posted by dline /forum/post/0

For those of you just joining us, here's a recap of Eastern Iowa HD/DTV issues:

KGAN (2-1, CBS):


Their job of "throwing the switch" to HD has greatly improved. Still some complaints about "stretching" 2-1 during SD upconverted programming. Also, as the Hawkeye basketball station, it often has to tape-delay network programming, but can't do it in HD. The DT station is not currently carried on many cable systems because its owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, wants payment for HD carriage.


KWWL (7-1, 2 and 3, NBC):


Recently added two subchannels, NBC Weather Plus and Raycom's music channel "The Tube," but they don't seem to get a lot of complaints about the quality of 7-1, which they've vowed to keep up. Their tower is a few miles north of most of the other stations, which occasionally causes issues with some viewers in the southern reaches of the market. For most, it comes in loud and clear.


Although it's been a great performer, Raycom recently announced plans to sell KWWL and several other stations so it can concentrate on its core geographic area, the South.


KCRG (9-1, 2 ABC):


As with KGAN, they often delay network programming for basketball games -- in their case, it's the Cyclone men and Hawkeye women -- but can't timeshift those shows in HD yet. Occasionally the stream has an issue with a few stray pixels, though not so much lately.


(Edit 8-23-06) 9-2 now displays "KCRG Local 9.2".


KIIN (12-1, Iowa Public Television):


Currently broadcasting at low power on a special temporary authority from just north of West Branch. That will change, but for now most of us use KRIN (32-1), which is broadcasting the same thing at higher power from Walker.


KWKB (20-1, The WB):


Their analog is full-power, but their digital is running on a special temporary authority and isn't required to go full power until this summer. (As a WB affiliate they're on a more generous FCC deadline.) As far as I know they're not doing HD at this time. A major issue for KWKB is that they transmit from a tower just north of West Branch in Cedar County, which is southeast of Cedar Rapids and east of Iowa city -- a completely different direction from most other stations.


There's still no official word as to whether KWKB or KWWF will become The CW when UPN and The WB cease operations this fall.


KWWF (22, UPN):


Analog only, and for most viewers outside Waterloo, it's cable-only. If it survives the loss of UPN, it will probably have to "flash-cut" to digital when the transition ends.


KFXA (28-1, Fox):


Like KWKB, their biggest issue for them is location. Their tower is in central Benton County, which is a completely different line of sight from Cedar Rapids than the others. You may have to re-orient your antenna or find a "compromise" location if you're having trouble with them.


KFXA also had some recent PSIP trouble and had been coming up on some receivers as 27-1 or even 27-3 in recent days, but as of today they seem to have fixed those problems. Check your receivers.


KRIN (32-1 and 32-2, Iowa Public Television):


32-1 is currently a full-time HD service, while 32-2 is a full-time SD upconvert of IPTV's analog service. They rarely simulcast each other. They're on the same tower as KCRG and KGAN near Walker, so if you can get any one of those stations, you should be able to get the others.


KPXR (48-1, 2, 3 and 4):


An affiliate of "i" (formerly Pax). Not carrying HD. 48-1 is a simulcast of their analog. 48-2 is like 48-1 but occasionally carries actual programming during times when 48-1 is running infomercials. 48-3 is the "Worship" network, and 48-4 is Faith Television.



_______________________



One other note: All Eastern Iowa digitals are on UHF for now. When the transition ends, hopefully in early 2009, three of our stations -- KCRG, KWWL and KIIN -- plan to switch back to their VHF channels to broadcast digital. Keep that in mind if you're selecting an antenna for the long term.




Looking for the Quad Cities thread? It's right here .

This thread includes the cities of: Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa City, and Waterloo, Iowa.
 
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#3,828 ·
Do some Googling and you'll find Mediacom doesn't even come close to being the most hated cable company. Most of the hate is just because they are a monopoly in most cities, as is the case across nearly all of the country with cable companies. It is rare for a town like Cedar Falls to actually have two cable companies to choose from. Being stuck with no alternative for any product or service sucks, it just flat out sucks.


Mediacom did just bump up broadband internet download and upload transfer rates and didn't (haven't yet) increase the cost. They are also still adding HD channels, so they aren't all that far behind CFU, except for ... the NFL Network.
That one channel alone is why if I move to Cedar Falls that I'll switch to CFU.


I don't completely blame Mediacom for the guide data issue. They could have told Zap2It and the others about it a week ago for all we know, but these guide data companies just don't seem all that concerned with how accurate their lineups are. Take the partial digital conversion debacle of Feb '09, which wasn't any cable company's fault. Some folks around the nation were waiting up to 6 weeks, before Zap2It updated their guide data to reflect changed broadcast station frequencies. The TV Guide and TitanTV web pages were also behind at the time. It is one thing to be behind on some random cable company's changes they make out of the blue, but the broadcast station changes were well documented, so there was no excuse not to have been prepared. I guess I'm just some perfectionist with unrealistic expectations, but it seems to me that if your business is to provide data to customers that reflect some knowable entity like what channel number station X is on, well, you make sure your data is accurate.
 
#3,829 ·
Has anyone noticed an issue with the audio on KGAN being rather inconsistent, mostly noticeably lower/quieter compared to the other channels? I've had quite a few people comment to me about this lately, and it's always the same story. When watching the other channels the volume on their TV can be left at a normal level, yet when they change to KGAN they have to turn the volume all the way up to hear what is going on. Then, when a commercial comes on, it's like a Saturn V rocket going off in their living room. A few of the people who have talked to me about it have converter boxes, while others have new TVs with digital tuners built-in. None of them have 5.1 audio though, just the standard speakers built into the TVs. They all get KGAN OTA.
 
#3,831 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayner3 /forum/post/17143081


Does anybody on DTV know if the Hawks vs Clones are on a station that you can pick up without paying anything extra? The Gazette said its on FOX SportsNet. Those are all pay extra stations.

You mean DirecTV? Because all digital TV is DTV ...


Anyway, as far as I know, Fox Sports Net is it, unless you have cable and your cable company is able to pull a few strings to put it on a special events channel. Mediacom and Imon are doing that. I don't know about CFU's plans.
 
#3,832 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by VintonShellsburg /forum/post/17140568


Has anyone noticed an issue with the audio on KGAN being rather inconsistent, mostly noticeably lower/quieter compared to the other channels? I've had quite a few people comment to me about this lately, and it's always the same story. When watching the other channels the volume on their TV can be left at a normal level, yet when they change to KGAN they have to turn the volume all the way up to hear what is going on. Then, when a commercial comes on, it's like a Saturn V rocket going off in their living room. A few of the people who have talked to me about it have converter boxes, while others have new TVs with digital tuners built-in. None of them have 5.1 audio though, just the standard speakers built into the TVs. They all get KGAN OTA.

It can be pretty bad/just as bad on KFXA, also. Which makes sense, given the shared facilities and all.


In any case, it used to be a pretty big problem on KWWL, but I haven't paid much attention to it lately, since Conan was on rerun, and that's almost all I ever watch on NBC anymore.
 
#3,834 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by redhawk /forum/post/17152702


The Hawk game is on Comcast Chicago 666 and 666-1 HD. For DTV users. You don not need the Fox sport package to get the Ggame.

Couple of things:


- The main CSN Chicago may very well NOT carry the game.


The Cyclones website says the Iowa @ Iowa State game will actually air on Comcast Sportsnet Plus Chicago, in addition to Fox Sports Net. While CSN Bay Area, Northeast and Washington DC will apparently carry the Cy-Hawk game, CSN Chicago is scheduled to air a Cubs game beginning at noon Saturday. Although CSN Chicago's website isn't as clear as it probably should be on this, I'm betting the Cubs game will be on their main channel, with Plus airing the Cy-Hawk game -- in other words, what cyclones.com says. Otherwise Mediacom would have no reason to put the game on Connections in Eastern Iowa.


- "DTV" is an abbreviation for ANY digital TV, even over-the-air. You need either cable or a satellite service with either Fox Sports Net or Comcast Sportsnet Plus in order to get this game. (The accepted abbreviation for DirecTV on these boards is "D*," to avoid confusion.)
 
#3,835 ·
Clarification:


CSN Chicago Plus IS DirecTV channel 666, according to today's Des Moines Register, but not every D* package has it.
 
#3,836 ·
Unfortunately, I seem to have lost WGN-HD off of QAM. Still haven't found KWKB-HD on QAM yet.


The other issue, unrelated to QAM, is that KWWL has some serious audio problems, on both QAM-HD, and analog cable. The audio has that "underwater" sound, making television almost completely un-watchable.
 
#3,839 ·
Can anyone explain the volume issue? I watch both the Des Moines and CR markets. WHO 13, KWWL 7, and sometimes KGAN 2 (all OTA), the audio is so low, that I have to crank my TV (LG 42" HD LCD), up to around 85 out of 100. All other channels are fine at around 30-40. Its VERY irritating, is anything being done? Or is this a network problem? Mike
 
#3,842 ·
KGAN has their 5.1 audio all jacked up again tonight... apparently, all 5 channels are being mixed together and being pumped into all 5 speakers.


I suppose I should count myself fortunate, though, as usually the audio screw-ups on KGAN plain eliminate the center channel and only put out the rear surrounds into the front left and right channel...


It's still quite annoying, though.
 
#3,844 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by CR_Client /forum/post/17227526


KGAN has their 5.1 audio all jacked up again tonight... apparently, all 5 channels are being mixed together and being pumped into all 5 speakers.


I suppose I should count myself fortunate, though, as usually the audio screw-ups on KGAN plain eliminate the center channel and only put out the rear surrounds into the front left and right channel...


It's still quite annoying, though.

Can now hardly wait to watch/hear my DVR'd NCIS tomorrow night.
Thanks $inclair.
 
#3,851 ·
I haven't seen the KWWL transmitter, so not sure what it's capable of at the moment, but that type of transmitter is generally pretty easy to upgrade by adding a few more modules (they slide right in) unless the cabinet is already full.
 
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