Portland, ME - HDTV - Page 161

... many consumers would like to keep a basic cable TV service, particularly one that includes the local channels, but can not afford a sports/basic cable package that might cost around $60. ...

Time Warner Cable was the first to introduce the low-cost package concept, unveiling its $29.99 a month TV Essentials plan last September. Comcast later offered a $24.95 a month plan. Nether package includes ESPN.

Originally Posted by Trip in VA

Question, does WPFO have a 23-2

Originally Posted by jscudder

No, WFPO 23 is the only Portland station with no subchannels. All the others have XX.1 and XX.2 except for WCBB 10 which has 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3.

The site RabbitEars.Info gives you extensive information on any market in the US. The Portland DMA is number 72. Not only do you get a listing of channels, but also broadcast information and technical data.

Originally Posted by Trip in VA

Just checking. Heard a rumor.

Time Warner Cable said it would wrap up its digital conversion in its central Maine market early Tuesday, when the remaining analog channels on its lineup are transitioned to the all-digital format in 17 communities, including Lewiston, Auburn and Norway.

The cable company said the conversion to an all-digital lineup means that customers in the affected communities will need a palm-sized digital adapter or digital set-top box in order to continue to receive their TV programming.

“The vast majority of our customers have already secured their digital adapters and are ready for the transition to all-digital,” said Paul S. Schonewolf, area vice president for Time Warner Cable of New England. “If they haven’t already done so, customers will need to pick up and install a digital adapter so they don’t miss any of their favorite shows like American Idol, NCIS or Parenthood.”

Time Warner said once consumers who subscribe to the basic cable package get the digital adapter, they will receive up to 14 additional channels, including C-SPAN2, EWTN and PBS World. Customers who receive Time Warner Cable’s Classic/Standard cable package will receive those channels plus CMT, TruTV, Oxygen, Travel and Speed.

Residential customers can get as many digital adapters as they need at no cost through December 2013. Beginning in January 2014, digital adapters will cost only 99 cents a month, per adapter.

Digital conversion communities for January 31:

Auburn

Bethel

Buckfield

Greenwood

Greene

Lewiston

Leeds

Lisbon

Newry

Norway

Paris

Sabattus

Turner

Wales

Waterford

West Paris

Woodstock

Originally Posted by jscudder

That is interesting...any details on the rumor?

Originally Posted by MisterEEE

The two coax cables from the splitter should be reversed. The digital adapter outputs on VHF 3 or 4 and can be connected to the over the air coax input on the TV. The other cable that will allow you to tune the clear QAM should be connected to the cable tv coax input on the TV.

Originally Posted by icerabbit

I actually got around to trying this today (after the usual cable input shuffle to get something onto the big screen) and cannot the signal from the wall and that from the Digital Cable Adapter to merge gracefully onto channel 3/4.

Using two splitters, one from the wall and one from the DCA ... I tried to recreate that setup, basically dedicating one splitter to merge the signal to the big screen HDTV.

Disconnected cable coax from wall to HDTV.
Deleted the analog channels from the HDTV.
Partial rescan of analog channels on HDTV with just the DCA attached on 3.
Channel 3 shows clearly.
Nothing else works (no passthrough of the Clear QAM 70+)
Attached the cable line to the splitter that feeds to the HDTV and I get a scrambled mess on 3 (or 4) because TWC pushes that "get your signal back" banner on regular cable.

Anybody know what I could possibly do or attach inline to eliminate analog cable on that one leg? So that it would be analog from the DCA and digital from the wall?

Note that all our TVs have only one cable coax input, as far as I recall.

Originally Posted by maineiac13

In looking through this thread, the last time I noticed a mention of a problem with lip/audio sync was in 2008. Unfortunately I have a big problem with it at this time.

I live in Thomaston and have Time Warner Cable (via Augusta) including TW HD channels. When I began to notice the problem in the HD channels, I had TW come out and take a look. While the service man could easily see the problem, he did not have a solution for it. He called back to the local office (Rockland) and was told that the problem arises because of the way some of the HD channels get to TW. (I have no technical knowledge of this point but am just repeating what he told me.) He said that some of the HD channels come in a group to TW via Channel 18 and then are upconverted by TW into HD quality and that the problem is that the sync issue is due to the way TW gets the channels in the first place.

He said they are trying to work out the issues but don't know when that will happen.

Is anyone else having this issue (particularly with TW Augusta)...and perhaps more importantly are there people with TW Augusta who are NOT having the problem?

Last night's Academy Awards broadcast on ABC (Channel 708 for me) was particularly bad...the sync problem occured throughout the program as well as on commericals, both network and local.

Originally Posted by Stan54

I am on TWC Augusta and have only seen very brief and very occasional occurences of sync problems. Very rare.

From reading the Forum for years, the problem can be anywhere in the system from the set back to the source and relates to the difference in time that it takes to process video and video. Most of the problems are probably at the converter / tv set location if it is a constant issue.

Your cablebox can be instructed to send a 480i picture to the set or 480p, 720p and 1080i. New sets in the last couple of years can convert the signal received to 1080p. If the box is set to send 480 the tv set has to upconvert a long way to get to 1080p. I ASSUME (don't know, no expert), it might take an extra second to do this.

You might check the twc box to see what level signal is being sent to the tv.
"The User Settings menu can be accessed with your remote control by powering OFF the DCX3200 set top and then pressing the MENU key on the remote control within 2 seconds."

If you don't have this particular converter box, check TWC's website for your make and model. I was suspicious of this little DCX3200 because it was so much smaller than its predecessor, but it has been just fine for more than a year, now.

There are other settings available on the user settings menu and you might want to look them over. The TW installer left the wrong aspect setting on my box and I had to change it.

Originally Posted by maineiac13

Thanks for the suggestions...That was the first thing the TW guy checked on and it is at 1080i. Also, I went back and switched through the various audio options on the cable box...auto/pass through/L-PCM....but no change in results. The worst station seems to be 768 (Weather Channel HD). Another station where it is usually very noticeable is MPBN (712). CNNHD (760) will sometimes be bad and sometimes not.

Originally Posted by Stan54

Are you using the tv set's speakers or routing off into separate audio epuipment?

Originally Posted by maineiac13

I get the same results with both the internal and external speakers.

Originally Posted by Stan54

Ok. Cable direct to cablebox and HDMI direct to tv is the way to diagnose the problem.

Originally Posted by maineiac13

Not sure I understand you. Yes, my cable goes direct to my cable box and I then connect the cable box via HDMI directly to my tv.

Originally Posted by maineiac13

Not sure I understand you. Yes, my cable goes direct to my cable box and I then connect the cable box via HDMI directly to my tv.

Originally Posted by beekeeper

There are probably some channels "in the clear" like MPBN, so try a direct connection, bypassing the box, to your tv. You will need to do an automatic search. Then shift back to the box.

When you get the sync problem with the box, shift the cable to direct to the tv and see if it still there. At least you will be able to isolate the problem to either the box or the direct signal.

All this is predicated to having some non-scrambled channels, which should be there.