West Palm Beach, FL - HDTV - Page 16

As the only person in this forum who seems to be able to see WHDT broadcast from Port Salerno, I'd say be careful what you wish for. I'm always thrilled to see the 720p signal, but, I'm soooo tired of seeing the same shows over and over again!

On a different subject, I'm out of town right now. Has there been any progress over at WPBF? Any HD signal yet?

David,

How are things progressing?

www.titantv.com now shows :

Network CH Station Live Date

CBS 13 WPEC-DT Sep 6 2002
CTN 49 WFGC-DT FCC Extension
NBC 55 WPTV-DT Nov 1 2002
PAX 36 WPXP-DT Nov 1 2002
PBS 27 WXEL-DT May 1 2003
TBN 38 WTCE-DT May 1 2003
UPN 50 WTVX-DT Sep 1 2002

I noticed titantv.com showing channel 52 as active, and last night tuned them in. Picture quality for the few moments I watched was pretty poor and stretched to 16:9, but its cool to be able to tune another station.

Signal strength, here in Boynton Beach, was pretty low but solid reception without moving my antenna from its fixed Miami orientation.

I know that feeling. My receiver showed up the day before WPBF turned on, and later that week, WHDT-DT started broadcasting. It felt like getting a new station every day!

I believe WPBF did carry a little HDTV last night. Also they seemed to be doing a lot of testing. I think they were showing parts of 1001 Dalmatians for a while. However they are STILL stretching their 4:3 to 16:9. DISGUSTNG!! They were doing it right a few days ago. Thank God I still have WPLG in Miami for my ABC station. I wonder how the personnell in WPBF's news and weather like the 20 pounds that strectching adds to their appearance. Since they were doing it right a few days ago, hopefully they will continue after their testing.

Tony

channel 25 abc aka 16-1 was testing hd pass thru this afternoon again they were also testing dolby digital 5.1..various demo loops of hd material
preview for 101 dalmations..they are also broadcasting the flags for dd 5.1 this evening but not passing a signal for center or real channels very strange

On Wednesday night WPBF looked like they showed "My Wife and Kids" and "The Drew Carrey Show" un-stretched. It didn't look like 720p though. Closer to 480p (looked similar to "The Bernie Mack Show" on Fox).

True 16:9, not stretched 4:3.

Hi David.

I haven't actually seen a true 1080i picture on my set yet, but, WHDT-DT is supposedly 720p. WHDT-DT's picture is WAY sharper than what I saw on WPBF the other night. Could this be due to a difference in the recording of the show?

Perhaps if you run a long wire up on a balloon, you can catch the Miami PBS demo loops for an hour.

They really are worth seeing on your set at least once. Sunny outdoor shots with flowers and bugs, intricate architecture shots, and aerial shots of cliffs and water in the Italy segment...

1080i makes it all seem worth the time, money and special frustrations of being on the bleeding edge!

I can just see it now: when my house looks like the after-shot from a road-runner "brilliant idea". Explaining to the insurance adjuster how I really never heard of Benjamin Franklin, nor, keys and lightning experiments...

help in lake worth 6th ave and kirk area.....
I have a rat shack antenna on a mast 30 feet from ground with an amp preamp no rotor..I get all miami channels with the exception of abc..now I get a signal strenghth of over 30 which on my e86 is enough to get video and sound on other stations but nothing for abc miami.. I have had a signal of up to 40 yet still no picture...also on wpb abc I get a signal of 100 yet still experience frequent dropouts..ideas???

Some things to try:
1) without the preamp ...yes thats a pain for you, but you don't need it, and worse, it causes problems!

2) Of course, multi-path is a common problem which makes antenna pointing a challenge - I have to assume you have tried many different antenna orientations - but without the preamp, another spin and view must be done

3) Some RF plumbing...I had a very similar sounding situation which was only solved by building a VHF-Lo filter. It's all RadioShack stuff, (not that I'm going to tell you if it doesn't work you can take it back....), and it did a miracle for me in Boynton. HiDefDave (David McRoy) is the designer of the filter. I'm going to copy in the info here:



Dear Pogo,
]...and anyone else who is getting overload from channel 5 or any lowband VHF channel into highband VHF channels, such as 8 and 9...the DTV allocations for WSVN and WPLG:

Here is a link to a view of the band splitter that Sandy Sanchez and I have been using to solve this problem:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D1236

It's the Radio Shack Cat.# 15-1236.


Feed the antenna to the "OUT" (remember, this device is bi-directional) and feed the Hi VHF and the UHF outputs (which are labeled "IN") into a two-way combiner. Here's a splitter/combiner that's also bi-directional:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...Fid=930%2D0061

The RS Cat.# is 930-0061. The moddel number is 2512-25.

For this particular application you would feed the High VHF and the UHF "outputs" from the band splitter into the "OUT"s on the combiner/splitter. Then connect a short coax cable from the "IN" on the combiner/splitter to the antenna input of your DTV tuner.

What this does is to attenuate everything below channel 7.

To hook all this up, you can use a combination of some F-connector adapters like this:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=278%2D275

RS Cat# is 278-275.

...and a short coax cable to feed your digital tuner. (I use this: http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D1541 )

What you'll have when you're finished will look weird but it should work to keep channel 5 from overloading your DTV tuner.

In addition to all that, I have this amplifier in the signal path as the last element feeding my DTV tuner input:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D1113

This is RS Cat# 15-1113. (Mine actually says "15-1113C".)

If you live really close to the transmitters you may find that the amp does more harm than good. And it will definitely intoduce interference in your analog NTSC pictures, so this is strictly a trial-and-error option.




pogo
Pan 34" 16:9 HDTV

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Boynton Beach, FL
Posts: 62
David - Come get your Champagne

Fellow WPB threaders,

SUCCESS!! It's been a roller coaster 11 days since Robert (ZerO) listed his equipment and success in Boynton Beach, but tonight the RS VU90XR
antenna is in the attic, and the HDTV tunes all five digital channels (+1 subchannel) - including all OTA South Florida High Def.

My excitement and frustration went up and down more often than Channel 18's HD station, but tonight I celebrated the successful finish of this quest.

It was David McRoy's astute remote problem analysis and precise description of the solution that has me dancing in front of the TV.

David posted a step by step guide and parts list for building a VHF-Lo band filter from RadioShack parts to eliminate interference from the analog TV
stations just five and six miles away, and when I installed the filter - channels 8 and 9 snapped into view.

For anyone contemplating building the filter, the combiner/splitter RS Cat.# 930-0061 David listed may be an online order number only, but the store has a 15-1237 ($9.99) which exactly fits the spacing of the VHF-Hi and UHF ouputs of the three band splitter, and the 75-Ohm Coax "F"-Type Terminator needed is Cat. # 15-1144.

I don't need an amp to get all the channels, but I tested with it after the filter to see the effects.

My SIR-T150 "reception meter" readings are:

Channel .Station ...Net w/filter w/filter+30db amp
29->39.1 WBZL-DT .WB.....1.........6
9->10.1 .WPLG-DT .ABC....3.........6
22->4.1 .WFOR-DT .CBS....3.........7
18->2.x .WPBT-DT .PBS....2.........7
8->7.1 ...WSVN-DT .FOX....3.........7

There's more stations now... (8/19/02)

Alan

Last edited by pogo on 03-01-02 at 12:03 AM

Congratulations, Alan! :-)

I finally watched a network HD signal on 16-1 last night. It looks like the local WPB/ABC station is getting is finally starting to broadcast ABC HD content. Now if we can only get MNFB to start broadcasting an HD signal!

Any news on WPTV going live ?

From the Miami Herald 9/4

CBS coverage may mean missing start of UM--UF

CBS Sports president Sean McManus said Tuesday he leans toward showing Florida viewers all of Saturday's University of Miami-University of Florida football game even if its means leaving the coverage of the U.S. Open men's semifinals.

However, McManus said he has not made a final decision and couldn't rule out joining the Hurricanes-Gators game in progress.

CBS has allotted six hours for the two men's tennis matches, with the first beginning at 11 a.m. CBS is scheduled to switch to a college football pregame show at 5 p.m., with kickoff of the UM-UF game at 5:15 p.m.

McManus said he also has the option of switching one of the tennis matches to USA Network. That option would be realistic if the first match runs very long or if either match is delayed by rain.

But if McManus opts to switch only the state of Florida to the football game, the conclusion of the second semifinal would not be seen in Florida on USA Network or any other station.

McManus said he's rooting for short tennis matches to avoid a difficult decision. Any decision to switch would be made by the network, not by the local CBS stations, Channels 4 and 12.

BARRY JACKSON
© 2001 miami and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miami.com

The new Sound Advice sale brochure offers refurbished Mitsubishi SRHD400B @ $299.95.

Two of them were probably formerly mine.

I bought one of the first SRHD Mitsubishi receivers and I had to return it too. The one I have now is working fine. Make sure that it is well ventilated - sucker sure runs hot.

According to AntennaWeb WPEC should be digital next week. I can't wait to see Everybody Loves Raymond in 1080I.

Is ABC going to broadcast football in HD? Is there going to be any football in HD? Isn't football one of the main reasons that most people upgrade to 16:9 HD TV? Or is it something else?

Since I've already asked so many questions here is one more. Why do local news reporters have to be "live, on the scene" at 10:30 PM? It's dark, we can't tell where the hell your are! Why are you trying to impress me by being out there, just you and your camera person, under a flood light, with West Nile skeeters buzzing around your head? You could be in the studio parking lot for all we know.

Mr. McRoy. Is there anything I can do to help? I will climb that tower and place the antenna if that's what you need Seriously though. I will help if you need volunteers or go-for's.

Volunteers are not insured.
Good jesture!

Because of on going US TENNIS tournment, I had asked dish network
to hook me CBS-HD New York feed but they asked for a waiver from WPEC, West palm beach. Why do I need this while Dish Network is broad casting
local channels in Lake Worth area?

I also would like to know if any of you obtained the waivers from WPEC.
I just don't want to miss US Tennis Open in HD.

Regards,
Lambu