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Cleveland, OH - HDTV - Page 105

post #3121 of 3452
11/11/12 at 5:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rluyster View Post

Just as matter of general interest for those who are Directv subscribers...I read on another forum that apparently Directv has just added the HD feeds of WUAB and WMFD to their Cleveland locals lineup. I think that makes them now carrying all major Cleveland market stations in HD. I tried to verify it late tonight but both channels had gone to infomercials. However they did appear to have better picture quality than the usual bad overcompressed SD.
My neighbors have Dish, and the only local station I see that isn't in HD is WBNX. My guess is that WBNX doesn't have the equipment to transmit the HD feed to Dish. Is this true for DirectTV?

I also wonder when WBNX will chip in the money for HD equipment for their syndicated programming. That probably won't happen unless WBNX obtains the rights to a high-rated program, like what WOIO did when they obtained Wheel & Jeopardy. They really need to get some new shows on WBNX. Friends, Rayman, According to Jim and Jack Hannah are getting very stale.
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post #3122 of 3452
11/11/12 at 7:39pm
WBNX is in HD on Directv...these are in HD

WKYC
WEWS
WJW
WOIO
ION
WVIZ
WUAB
WEAO
WBNXDT
WMFD
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post #3123 of 3452
11/14/12 at 3:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

My neighbors have Dish, and the only local station I see that isn't in HD is WBNX. My guess is that WBNX doesn't have the equipment to transmit the HD feed to Dish. Is this true for DirectTV?
I also wonder when WBNX will chip in the money for HD equipment for their syndicated programming. That probably won't happen unless WBNX obtains the rights to a high-rated program, like what WOIO did when they obtained Wheel & Jeopardy. They really need to get some new shows on WBNX. Friends, Rayman, According to Jim and Jack Hannah are getting very stale.
WBNX (or any OTA station) does not need any equipment to transmit HD to DirecTV or Dish Network. Both satellite services use an "LRF" a Local Receive Facility. They pick up the OTA signal from a central location in the DMA where they get converted to fiber optic cables. The only Cleveland Market station that needs any additional equipment would be WMFD since their ch 12 signal does not reach either LRF via OTA. I'd welcome WMFD in HD (if they can send it cleanly) since their SD feed looks horrible and usually has out of sync audio.

I'm a Dish Network customer. The SD versions of the local stations are cropped from the HD signals. ION is a substitution of the national feed (mis) labeled as WVPX. If WVPX were to deviate from the national ION schedule we would miss the local substitution.
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post #3124 of 3452
11/14/12 at 4:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael P 2341 View Post

WBNX (or any OTA station) does not need any equipment to transmit HD to DirecTV or Dish Network. Both satellite services use an "LRF" a Local Receive Facility. They pick up the OTA signal from a central location in the DMA where they get converted to fiber optic cables. The only Cleveland Market station that needs any additional equipment would be WMFD since their ch 12 signal does not reach either LRF via OTA. I'd welcome WMFD in HD (if they can send it cleanly) since their SD feed looks horrible and usually has out of sync audio.I'm a Dish Network customer. The SD versions of the local stations are cropped from the HD signals. ION is a substitution of the national feed (mis) labeled as WVPX. If WVPX were to deviate from the national ION schedule we would miss the local substitution.

In response to one part of your post.....I watched WMFD's news in HD at 11 PM last night via Directv and it looked as good as any of the other HD in the Cleveland locals group. I also didn't notice any audio sync problems. Unfortunately WMFD doesn't have much in actual HD at this time but their SD is also now considerably better since Directv has been using their HD feed.
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post #3125 of 3452
11/15/12 at 2:09pm
WMFD on Dish Network sometimes looks horrible. "The Border" had a bad case of judder. Lip sync issues vary depending on which model DVR is used (the lip sync issue is more pronounced on an older model while the latest model Hopper has virtually no sync issues but still had the judder issue). I read somewhere that the fiber optic cable or some other device associated with that feedof WMFD to both system's LRF was cut, causing the station to be temporally unavailable on both Dish and Direct.
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post #3126 of 3452
11/15/12 at 7:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

My neighbors have Dish, and the only local station I see that isn't in HD is WBNX. My guess is that WBNX doesn't have the equipment to transmit the HD feed to Dish. Is this true for DirectTV?
I also wonder when WBNX will chip in the money for HD equipment for their syndicated programming. That probably won't happen unless WBNX obtains the rights to a high-rated program, like what WOIO did when they obtained Wheel & Jeopardy. They really need to get some new shows on WBNX. Friends, Rayman, According to Jim and Jack Hannah are getting very stale.

Well remember who owns WBNX. Any extra money that the station may have lying around is likely going to be pumped into Ernest Angley's worldwide trips (the company owns their own 747 jumbo jet). Notice how the church services are still broadcast in standard definition on the main channel and the EAM subchannel.
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post #3127 of 3452
11/16/12 at 5:43pm
Thread Starter 
There may be some out-of-season tropo TV DX coming through during the next few days.....See the predictions at: http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html
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post #3128 of 3452
11/19/12 at 5:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rluyster View Post

There may be some out-of-season tropo TV DX coming through during the next few days.....See the predictions at: http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html
That's right! I have been getting Detroit and Canadian stations steadily during the past few days.

By the way, I think that local channel 19's signal is very impressive since they strengthened their station's signal recently.
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post #3129 of 3452
11/20/12 at 8:50am
I remember Thanksgiving Day of 2006; the tropo was so strong that almost every channel had interference in it. WRAP was battling with Canadian station CICO in Windsor, and all I saw was a scrambled picture, even with a pair of rabbit ears! Moving the rabbit ears in the right direction allowed me to get an almost perfect reception of CICO, and after moving it again I was seeing WRAP. There were a lot of stations that day that I haven't seen before and probably will never see again.

Aside from that date, the farthest analog station I was able to pick up was KDUH from Scottsbluff Nebraska. The second farthest was KLBY from Colby Kansas and the third farthest was KDFW from Dallas Texas, all over 1,000 miles away! The farthest digital station I've been able to receive has been WXMI from Grand Rapids MI.
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post #3130 of 3452
11/20/12 at 10:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

My neighbors have Dish, and the only local station I see that isn't in HD is WBNX. My guess is that WBNX doesn't have the equipment to transmit the HD feed to Dish. Is this true for DirectTV?
I also wonder when WBNX will chip in the money for HD equipment for their syndicated programming. That probably won't happen unless WBNX obtains the rights to a high-rated program, like what WOIO did when they obtained Wheel & Jeopardy. They really need to get some new shows on WBNX. Friends, Rayman, According to Jim and Jack Hannah are getting very stale.
I have Dish, there are more local stations in SD only. Besides WBNX there is: WUAB, WQHS (although the national feed of Univision is in HD elsewhere on the Dish dial), WRLM and WMFD. The station labeled "WVPX" is an SD version of the national feed and not the actual OTA feed.

The SD only channels on Dish are SD because of bandwidth limitations. Shortly an FCC regulation will be in place to force all HD locals to be carried by satellite.

Certain Dish receivers have an OTA antenna input that brings in WUAB-HD, WRLM-HD, WVPX-HD and WBNX-HD as well as all the subchannels. If you saw any channels in yellow those were OTA. It also brings in the SD only digital OTA's from WDLI. Personally my Dish receiver also gets WKBN/WYFX from Youngstown 27.1 & 27.2.
Edited by Michael P 2341 - 11/20/12 at 4:55pm
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post #3131 of 3452
11/24/12 at 3:24pm
WIXY-1260
I just noticed all the discussion on WIXY-1260. I was an engineer there from 1965 through 1968. It was WDOK-AM & WDOK-FM until Fred Wolfe sold it. The AM station did network show and local good music DJ shows. The FM did elevator music and classical. AM switched to WIXY-1260 on December 11, 1965. The night pattern was the five tower in a row (1/4 wave) directional array. The day pattern was nasty. It used a tall tower that was split near the middle with insulators and the two south most short towers. Only a couple of the engineers knew how to tune the daytime pattern. The tall tower came down during the July 4, 1969 super storm. Then the replacement fell during construction killing some of the steeplejacks.
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post #3132 of 3452
11/25/12 at 8:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedskater View Post

WIXY-1260
I just noticed all the discussion on WIXY-1260. I was an engineer there from 1965 through 1968. It was WDOK-AM & WDOK-FM until Fred Wolfe sold it. The AM station did network show and local good music DJ shows. The FM did elevator music and classical. AM switched to WIXY-1260 on December 11, 1965. The night pattern was the five tower in a row (1/4 wave) directional array. The day pattern was nasty. It used a tall tower that was split near the middle with insulators and the two south most short towers. Only a couple of the engineers knew how to tune the daytime pattern. The tall tower came down during the July 4, 1969 super storm. Then the replacement fell during construction killing some of the steeplejacks.
Looking at the old daytime site on Google Earth, it looks like there was a tower off to the left that wasn't part of the inline array. Was that the taller tower you were talking about?

Does anyone know where the original WDOK-FM tower/antenna was? I assume it had to be on or close to channel 5's tower as 102.1 originally started off as WEWS-FM.
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post #3133 of 3452
11/26/12 at 5:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedskater View Post

WIXY-1260
I just noticed all the discussion on WIXY-1260. I was an engineer there from 1965 through 1968. It was WDOK-AM & WDOK-FM until Fred Wolfe sold it. The AM station did network show and local good music DJ shows. The FM did elevator music and classical. AM switched to WIXY-1260 on December 11, 1965. The night pattern was the five tower in a row (1/4 wave) directional array. The day pattern was nasty. It used a tall tower that was split near the middle with insulators and the two south most short towers. Only a couple of the engineers knew how to tune the daytime pattern. The tall tower came down during the July 4, 1969 super storm. Then the replacement fell during construction killing some of the steeplejacks.
I presumed the original site was on Snowville Rd. in Brecksville, or was the original site off Rockhaven in Seven Hills? I worked as a weekend board OP/"DJ" for ~3 years on 1260 WRDZ from the day it signed on in 1988. It used the Seven Hills site for the daytime pattern and the Snowville Rd. site for the nighttime pattern until the station went AM stereo. The Seven Hills site was abandoned sometime in early '89. To switch from daytime to nighttime pattern you had to literally shut off one transmitter and turn on another. One of my fellow board ops forgot to shut off the Seven Hills site at sunset but did turn on the nighttime site. It sounded like a shortwave station from my location in Euclid. (needless to say I called the station ASAP to get him to shut off the daytime transmitter). Dueling 5 kw transmitters ~10 miles apart eek.gif

BTW: There was lots of old WIXY studio equipment at the WRDZ studios. We were located in Carl Smith's building. We eventually ran a stereo STA between the studio and the 5 towers on West Snowville. Probably one of the shortest hops ever for an STA.

I remember listening to WIXY as a kid, one day there was a "special oldies program". I always wondered if that was run as a back-up at the transmitter site should the studios at 3940 Euclid have to go off line.
Edited by Michael P 2341 - 11/26/12 at 5:11pm
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post #3134 of 3452
11/27/12 at 9:08am
I wonder who owns the land where the Seven Hills WIXY transmitter used to be. It looks like its being maintained every now and then. Looking at the Google Earth images, the site looked like it was overgrown with brush around 2006-2007. In 2009, it appears that the brush on the west side of the site was removed while the rest of the brush around the inline array was removed in 2011. (Hard to tell with the low-res images). The current 2012 imagery shows no brush on the ground, except for a small patch in the SE corner. Interesting how they left the brush around the tuning boxes; they seem to have the most growth since the site was abandoned.
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post #3135 of 3452
11/27/12 at 11:42am
New sub channel on WVPX: ISHOP on 23-4. Looks like they are currently running shows from the Ion Life channel. Probably going to be a shopping channel like HSN.
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post #3136 of 3452
11/28/12 at 4:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

New sub channel on WVPX: ISHOP on 23-4. Looks like they are currently running shows from the Ion Life channel. Probably going to be a shopping channel like HSN.

Noticed that on the Detroit area's Ion station, WPXD, as well. They have added 31.4, the PSIP says "ISHOP", but the program has the same green "ion Life" bug in the LR as 31.3. However, the program on 31.4 is NOT the same program being sent out on 34.3.

The name "ISHOP" certainly implies this is going to be a shopping channel.

I don't have the gear to check it out, but I am quite sure that Ion has given up on Mobile DTV (they had dropped subchannel x.4 "Worship" when they started the mobile stream).
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post #3137 of 3452
11/30/12 at 1:02pm
First time poster in this thread...

I've been a happy WOW Cable customer for years in North Royalton, but will be moving to Parma or Parma Heights soon. It is my understanding they have COX Cable.

Do you know if COX broadcasts the major cable TV lineup in clear QAM? I don't even care if it is HD or not, just clear digital QAM. I want to know if my HDHomeRun device will be able to capture a bulk of the extended cable channels, or will I just pick up the Cleveland locals?

Thanks.
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post #3138 of 3452
12/3/12 at 11:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Valnar View Post

First time poster in this thread...
I've been a happy WOW Cable customer for years in North Royalton, but will be moving to Parma or Parma Heights soon. It is my understanding they have COX Cable.
Do you know if COX broadcasts the major cable TV lineup in clear QAM? I don't even care if it is HD or not, just clear digital QAM. I want to know if my HDHomeRun device will be able to capture a bulk of the extended cable channels, or will I just pick up the Cleveland locals?
Thanks.
Welcome to the forum!
Yes COX does have clear QAM but only the local stations, however I believe they change the channels around every once in awhile so you may have to rescan periodically. I base this on a waiting room set where it's tuned to the analog stations most of the time. I did a scan and found both HD & SD locals as well as SD subchannels and a digitized ch 35 (that is snowy). Thee are also some "barker channels" that show multiple news ans sports channels (with the audio for just one of them).

None of the "cable channels" are in the clear (i.e. USA/TBS/CNN etc.).
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post #3139 of 3452
12/3/12 at 12:03pm
Ugh. That sucks.
How is their (mandatory) DVR solution? Do they have an analog converter that would get all the encrypted extended cable channels and broadcast it via s-video to an older analog TV?

Is there another cable provider in Parma? Or is Cox the only game in town?
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post #3140 of 3452
12/3/12 at 5:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Valnar View Post

Ugh. That sucks.
How is their (mandatory) DVR solution? Do they have an analog converter that would get all the encrypted extended cable channels and broadcast it via s-video to an older analog TV?
Is there another cable provider in Parma? Or is Cox the only game in town?
If you want "Cable" COX is the only game in town, however there are a lot of satellite dishes in my neighborhood. I've had Dish Network for years. Love their DVR's! I only have COX for broadband.

BTW: There is a story as to why COX is the only game in town. Back in the mid 90's when Ameritech was building out the system that today is WOW, the 216 area code was being split. When Ameritech asked for a franchise from the city of Parma the mayor requested that the city did not get split. As it turned out Parma was split in a terrible way, with the 440/216 "boundary" cutting through the middle of the north side as well as the eastern border along Broadview Rd. Parma denied a franchise to Americast based on the area code split. Ameritech countered that an independent committee drew up the area code split. Based on where that line was drawn I'd say that many members of the committee lived in Hunting Valley. How is it that a burb so far removed form the central city stayed totally in 216 while Parma got drawn and quartered?
Edited by Michael P 2341 - 12/3/12 at 8:58pm
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post #3141 of 3452
12/4/12 at 8:21am
I thought the entire county of Cuyahoga had Time Warner.
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post #3142 of 3452
12/4/12 at 10:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

I thought the entire county of Cuyahoga had Time Warner.

Nope you lucky people have choices. Here in Geauga County where we have so many trees that Satellite reception is impossible it's Crime Warner.

Actually, it's my house. My next door neighbor has dish but he's also over a football field away from me.
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post #3143 of 3452
12/4/12 at 11:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

I thought the entire county of Cuyahoga had Time Warner.
While it may seem like that is true, there are ten west side suburbs in the COX system. The COX system was the only one not to get devoured by Crime Warner. It's probably because the parent company was financially well suited to fend off the mergers and acquisitions that happened everywhere else.

Anyone remember "Complexicable"? (not sure of the spelling) They had originally been MATV systems in high-rise apartments on the "gold coasts" (i.e. Lakewood & Euclid). They approached other cities and said that they "operated cable systems in Lakewood & Euclid" in order to get franchises. No franchise was necessary if you owned the buildings that were being served. I believe they did get a few suburbs' franchises before selling out. Then there was Continental Cablevision in Lake and Lorain counties. That system sold to Comcast who traded with Time Warner for cities in other markets. Telerama was the original name of the system that served most of the eastern suburbs. By the time it expanded to serve all of Euclid (they only reached the southern end as Telerama) the system was sold to Viacom (as "Viacom Cablevision). Then Viacom sold the system to Cablevision (by now it was ~22 cities strong). There were several other smaller operations I can't recall. Every one of these eventually got consumed by Crime Warner. Only COX survived the mass buyout.

While I'm a big satellite fan I have a respect for COX that I would not give to any other cable system.
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post #3144 of 3452
12/4/12 at 2:53pm
Well, based on what was said so far, I have more respect for WOW at the moment. Why can't cable companies just let people use their built-in QAM tuners on all but the pay-for premium channels?
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post #3145 of 3452
12/5/12 at 4:34pm
Cox doesn't promote clear QAM, probably because they have "budget" packs with just the locals (they can filter out the analog cable channels above 13). Since there is no way to block the digital versions of all the basic "cable channels" (i.e. the national commercial channels like TBS, USA, CNN etc.) without encoding, they only leave the local OTA's in the clear.

I guess WOW has a work-around?
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post #3146 of 3452
12/6/12 at 12:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael P 2341 View Post

While it may seem like that is true, there are ten west side suburbs in the COX system. The COX system was the only one not to get devoured by Crime Warner. It's probably because the parent company was financially well suited to fend off the mergers and acquisitions that happened everywhere else.
Anyone remember "Complexicable"? (not sure of the spelling) They had originally been MATV systems in high-rise apartments on the "gold coasts" (i.e. Lakewood & Euclid). They approached other cities and said that they "operated cable systems in Lakewood & Euclid" in order to get franchises. No franchise was necessary if you owned the buildings that were being served. I believe they did get a few suburbs' franchises before selling out. Then there was Continental Cablevision in Lake and Lorain counties. That system sold to Comcast who traded with Time Warner for cities in other markets. Telerama was the original name of the system that served most of the eastern suburbs. By the time it expanded to serve all of Euclid (they only reached the southern end as Telerama) the system was sold to Viacom (as "Viacom Cablevision). Then Viacom sold the system to Cablevision (by now it was ~22 cities strong). There were several other smaller operations I can't recall. Every one of these eventually got consumed by Crime Warner. Only COX survived the mass buyout.
While I'm a big satellite fan I have a respect for COX that I would not give to any other cable system.

Here in Solon, our cable history began, I think, in 1984, when Matrix Cablevision was the first provider. Though it also served Bedford Heights, Glenwillow, and Oakwood, in addition to Solon, its headquarters were at Southgate shopping center in Maple Heights (barely in Viacom territory). You had to access the office from Southgate Park Blvd., and the sign announcing the company was a felt sign on a post, with letters attached to the felt. Matrix ran into problems later on, and then they were bought out by First Carolina Cable, then came Cablevision, Adelphia, and now Time Warner.
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post #3147 of 3452
12/6/12 at 2:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Valnar View Post

Well, based on what was said so far, I have more respect for WOW at the moment. Why can't cable companies just let people use their built-in QAM tuners on all but the pay-for premium channels?

Because silly, they couldn't gouge you for the monthly fee on the box rental.
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post #3148 of 3452
12/6/12 at 2:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by basil lambri View Post

That's right! I have been getting Detroit and Canadian stations steadily during the past few days.
By the way, I think that local channel 19's signal is very impressive since they strengthened their station's signal recently.
I haven't seen ANY tropo in months now, though the winter solstice is supposeve a hot time for regional tropo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael P 2341 View Post

II remember listening to WIXY as a kid, one day there was a "special oldies program". I always wondered if that was run as a back-up at the transmitter site should the studios at 3940 Euclid have to go off line.

One of the College stations occasionally has WIXY weekends ... Saturdays.

I think my days are becoming numbered here with additional flash content & Faceboox static links has made the posts unreadable at times. frown.gif

What is the constant obsession with small electronic handheld devices? I think I'm living way past my usefulness.
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post #3149 of 3452
12/6/12 at 8:45am
I was watching this video on YouTube that was taped off of WVIZ back in 1987, and at 36:50, the GM at WOIO said something about a low power station in Beachwood on channel 31 that was suppose to air sometime that year. I did a search on this station but didn't find anything, so my guess is that the plan for that station was scrapped before it made it on the air. Does anyone know anything about this station?

Also, he also mentions Mansfield recently starting a TV station, which I believe was the short lived WCOM 68 from what I read. I believe I found the old WCOM Butler site on Google Earth. (40°33'21.83"N 82°26'40.87"W)
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post #3150 of 3452
12/6/12 at 1:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowdog 88 View Post

I was watching this video on YouTube that was taped off of WVIZ back in 1987, and at 36:50, the GM at WOIO said something about a low power station in Beachwood on channel 31 that was suppose to air sometime that year. I did a search on this station but didn't find anything, so my guess is that the plan for that station was scrapped before it made it on the air. Does anyone know anything about this station?
Also, he also mentions Mansfield recently starting a TV station, which I believe was the short lived WCOM 68 from what I read. I believe I found the old WCOM Butler site on Google Earth. (40°33'21.83"N 82°26'40.87"W)
Thanks for the link. It's unfortunate that they could not find any video from WKBF, however here are a couple of YouTube videos that have that missing footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6vlDO4CtwM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_tOLBnr_1Y
(the second link was produced by a friend of mine).
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