Cleveland, OH - HDTV - Page 79

I've had expensive splitters go bad or just plain not work, & had good luck with dollar store brands, I don't get it. (??)


Not all that bad in price, just shipping can be up there & my distrust of e-commerce. I imagine not available on the retail level.

I think WEWS has some kind of outside channel interference at times. During the NEWS it was taking some huge stacato hits that were almost violent in nature.
JJK

On the splitters almost wish they had electronic "0" loss ones.
JJK

How are your F-connectors? If they are the least bit loose you will lose signal.

Also what are you using for COAX? If it's RG59 replace it with RG6.

Radio Shack sells them.

Hi everybody:

Just wanted to invite you all to check out the new (3 weeks old) Cleveland Classic Media Messageboard;;

http://clevelandmedia.boardhost.com/index.php

Not a lot of activity as yet..This board is related to my Cleveland Classic Media Blog..I have several forums going, including General TV/Radio talk, either vintage or recent..We also talk about recent stories about media as well..

There's also forums for every full-power station in the Cleveland Market, and a place to talk about former stations..

Been wanting to do this for awhile, but more people would make it more fun..

Two things:

1. Just follow the instructions to join..To avoid spam from the outset, I will approve all new members..

2. Any technical TV questions, reception, etc..will be referred to this thread and the Time Warner Thread at avsforum.com..

Thanks..

I must be lucky in that the el-cheapo splitters have worked fine for me. Despite the 3.5dB insertion loss, the drop in signal strength is hardly noticeable.

As far as reception problems, it may be issues with propagation. My antenna was blown in a wind storm and it was pointing east, and even with it in that direction I was able to receive WJW and WOIO about half the time. I pointed back on Saturday morning towards Cleveland/Akron and I have not had any problems.

It is that time of year where VHF/UHF band openings are common, and DTV signals don't seem to like interference. I'm not sure when the Canadian analog shut off date is happening, but that also can be a factor for making things worse, especially on channel 10. Even a slight analog signal interfering with a digital signal trashes the digital signal.

Hey, thanks Tim Lones! That looks pretty interesting and I will go ahead and register!

Yes, it's been that way for a while - even back when we had Time-Warner cable, the same pixelation and freezing problem occurred during Jeopardy. I hate Jeopardy interruptions!

Ooops!

Hubby went to the game, so I was trying to see what point the game was at so I could time dinner appropriately - I just assumed the Browns were always on WOIO.......obviously, I'm not a true fan, otherwise I would have known better!

Good luck with your Yagi-Udo and hope that you will soon be enjoying both WOIO and WJW!

Almost wishing that Mangini was back with Ryan and the special teams coach.
JJK

Even the fans get confused by the NFL TV agreement. But it's really very simple, the network that carries the game is determined by the AWAY team for regular Sunday afternoon games. In football interconference games happen more often than baseball's interleague. Last Sunday's game was with an NFC team. The NFC is on FOX while the AFC is on CBS. Most of the Browns games are on CBS because we are in the AFC. So when we are on the road it's a guaranteed CBS game (unless they happen to be on Sunday night or Monday Night, but that's a different issue). It's when the Browns are at home that the network could change to FOX if the visitors are NFC.

The new smaller TV sets 22 & 24" are becoming 1080P as the norm, where larger sets 27 & up are more common in 720p (& 60hz too), doesn't this seem a lil bassakwards?

Never seen the no loss type, is there amplication involved to null out the losses?

Yes and no. But you need to further differentiate the screen sizes to see the real picture (no pun).

I'm guessing 1080 panel production costs are getting so low they can now compete in the low to mid size screen market, then take advantage of the "1080 Full HD" marketing plastered everywhere, meaningless as it is for the smaller screens. For the same reason 720 has a decent market share in the low to mid size screen market, it doesn't matter.

Where it does matter with larger screens 1080 is king. Around 40 inches is the generally accepted cut off for when 1080 makes a significant enough difference over 720 to be truly noticeable.

Just using BestBuy.com:
1080p = 298 total units/all sizes, sizes 40+ = 239
720p = 144 total units/all sizes, sizes 40+ = 12

There are rumors that 2160 will be next. That means buy everthing over again---tv, player, maybe new HDMI cables, new AVR receiver, what else? 3D? So every three years you have to allot $5,000.00 for A/V upgrades. Always wanted to be able to see an NFL game where some players knocked out tooth is laying on the field.
JJK

I think some digital cameras already offer great than 1080. I doubt there will be any need to do an all out higher resolution conversion like the mandatory DTV/HD conversion we just had for many many years, if at all in our lifetimes.

As for 3D, HD audio, HDMI networking, HDMI return audio, higher resolution beyond 1080, etc.. these will remain optional choices for the foreseeable future.

So in a nutshell, it costs less to produce the smaller screens in higher resolution, I was thinking it was to deplete parts inventory, as the newer larger sets come out, they are still 720p, 60hz, & flourcent backlighting.

I was thinking 32" (not 40) would be the cutoff point for 720P. yet I see so few 32" sets with 1080p. & (along with the) the 37" set whick I find to be the ideal size, is also 720p... & this size is becoming non existant.

For as bad as my eyes are, I also find that notice a difference in the 120 hz over 60 hz.

In this economy I'd be reluctant to plunk down $500 for a set every 15 years... I guess I'm lucky on the years I got off my sets, though with the 17 year old Sony on the way out, makes me wish I hung on to the Sylvania Console I sold a few years back for lack of space.

I'm really disappointed in the current offerings I've been looking at, & just how durable the current crop are.

My Sony LCD XBR2 is still hanging tough after almost 6 years. Had to boost the backlight some from 2 to 5 and reduce the color from 50 to about 35 in that time period. Why the color had to be reduced is a real wonderment. What I like most is the linearity distortion is almost "0" compared to the old tube models. The 2.5% overscan is also much better than the old 20% on the tube models. And I do not set it for "stretchovision".
JJK

Thanks for that explanation, Michael!

Hubby may or may not know this, but it will certainly impress him that I'm savvy to this!

Hi Tim. I've had your blog bookmarked for years. The message board will be a great addition.

I doubt a small 1080 panel is less expensive to produce than a small 720 panel. My guess guess is that the production costs of either are now pretty close so the mfrs say "why not offer a 1080?" For the average consumer 1080 will always be preferred over 720, all else being equal. The mfrs can put a "1080 Full HD" label on it and the consumer will think they are actually getting a benefit from this.

I think the available units per resolution tell the story as to when 1080 actually makes a difference, based on normal seating distances. Below 40" and there is a good mix of 720 & 1080 units to choose from, cuz it doesn't usually matter. Above 40", where it actually matters, and the 720 units are only 5% of the available units (as offered by Best Buy).

I've tried to search this thread - but no luck. I am looking for a channel listing of OTA stations for our area in Medina. I am a Armstrong cable subscriber and my Sony HD TV in our bedroom is able to pick up various channels on 100-xx, 90-x, 80-x and so on. I'm manually trying to label them but would love a little help!

Is this what you're looking for:

http://www.titantv.com/default.aspx

Or were you looking more for something like this:

http://www.rabbitears.info/market.ph...arket&mktid=24

The titantv is like an on line TV guide, while the rabbit ears site is a general listing.

Hope this helps!

What "ThriftyAmy" is looking for is the clear QAM channel numbers for Armstrong Cable.

Unfortunately it appears that the cable companies don't want their subscribers to know (and sometimes change the numbers). The cable companies make extra money by renting digital cable boxes that convert all the QAM channels into normal "3, 5 & 8" type channel numbers. They have to leave the broadcast channels clear but do encrypt the digital versions of the "cable networks" such as CNN and ESPN (the analog versions are rarely encrypted anymore, the "pay channels" such as HBO have been digital only for years).

You just have to sit down and go channel by channel making the list manually unless you are lucky enough to have a TV that converts QAM to the regular numbers automatically. I've seen it both ways, and on the TV's that do the conversion there is a potential for confusion! For example WOIO is cable channel 4 on most systems, but is virtual channel 19. I've seen WOIO show up as "19.1", next to an analog "19.0" that is not WOIO (the analog WOIO is 4.0). It is probably better for you to learn the actual QAM channel number (they look similar to an FM radio frequency like 110.2). When you do an automatic scan your TV will probably grab a bunch of useless channels that are blank to your TV because they are encrypted (i.e. not in the "clear").
There may also be several "barker" channels that advertize cable channels you could get, but only with a digital cable box. All of these will have to be manually deleted. This will leave the true "clear QAM" channels which you will have to identify by watching. They should include the subchannels such as "THIS", "Me TV", "Antenna TV" WKYC's Weather Channel, several PBS subchannels and possibly the RTV station 35/29 which is broadcast in analog but converted to digital (and ironically not carried on the analog tier by some of the cable systems).

And it isn't carried in any form by the ex-Adelphia/Cleveland system.

The only cable system I've seen provide a clear, accurate list of clear QAM channels is Toledo's Buckeye Cable.

And speaking of 35/29 when are they going digital?
JJK

Today, I noticed people on the WDLI tower when I was driving by. They were only about 25% up the tower height, but they looked really tiny.

No one knows. Both apps are still in the pending stage. 35 was kicked back into the living in late July. Nothing new since then.