Charlotte, NC - TWC - Page 247

What stations in the charlotte area are being converted from analog to digital?

51 CMT
66 Golf Channel
69 VH1 Classic
70 C-SPAN
72 Lifetime Movie Network
75 TRU TV
95 OWN

I don't see how any good can come from this....

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/28/3818668/fox-tv-to-buy-2-charlotte-stations.html

I wonder what will exactly happen here. I hate to see WCCB lose FOX affiliation. I'm assuming WJZY or WMYT will have to do some upgrades to carry FOX. I seem to remember that both had a fairly weak signal before, but its been years since i've used an antenna.

Most of this breaking Fox discussion is going on over at the Charlotte - OTA thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/486246/charlotte-nc-ota

But to answer your reception question, WCCB's transmitter is in the University area - WJZY's is in Dallas, so reception can vary based upon your proximity to their tower sites. However, over the past several years, WCCB has installed some translators to fill-in areas in the western part of their viewing area where the main WCCB transmitter has a weaker signal.

Not entirely correct. Both WCCB and WJZY are full power 1000kw signals, although WCCB may be a bit stronger in areas east of Charlotte, whereas WJZY is stronger in the western Carolinas and Upstate SC. Due to tower locations. But WJZY has a much taller tower, which allows their signal to reach from Winston-Salem to Greenville-Spartanburg with a decent outdoor antenna. It is WMYT-55 that has a lower power signal, but it is on the same tall tower as WJZY in Gaston Co. So they still have a decent signal in many parts of the Clt market, but are not received in parts of Catawba Co. due to cochannel interference from WHKY-14 (RF40). So no major upgrades are needed unless they want to make modest improvements to 55's power level or top mount 46's antenna on their tower. But I receive both WJZY and WMYT with a full 10 bars regularly here in Greenville, SC, whereas I do not normally receive WCCB at all.

do you work for TWC?

I noticed the digital adapter page now shows Charlotte and surrounding areas as TBD again for the digital adapter changes.

Didn't think TWC would be able to do 2/6, still too many people waiting on adapters and some technical issues (old equipment in some neighborhoods). If they get it done this YEAR I'll be shocked.

I just received a price increase notice on my bill for March 2013. It doesn't apply to "locked" promotional rates.

Interesting that they're lowering the price of add on services, but raising the basic services:


Service From To
Broadcast Cable 16.15 17.99
Cable Programming Tier 52.34 53.50
Basic Cable 68.49 71.49
Digital Tier 6.16 10.01
Basic Cable when bundled with Standard Internet and/or Home Phone Unlimited Nationwide
67.99 70.99
Digital Cable includes Basic Cable, Digital Tier, digital equipment and Navigator interactive guide
85.49 90.49
Digital Cable when bundled with Standard Internet and/or Home Phone Unlimited Nationwide
82.49 85.49
Cable Card 2.00 2.50
Digital Equipment Primary Outlet 12.34 8.99
Navigator interactive guide 5.52 2.17

Hmm I wonder why they keep delaying it maybe need to send out new notices? I noticed that the Motorola markets are not using the Cisco DTAs instead they are using technicolor DCI401s (used to be the Thomson brand) that support HDMI as well.

Picked up a DTA at the Salibury office today. If you need specifics, I will post

I think it'll be a while before you need it, I'm hearing April now maybe

When they gave it to me they said not to install it until I got a letter from TWC, most likely April

Second week of April, hopefully Here's the maintenance list for that week, it'll takes one night to kill the analogs and go to digital, the rest is allocation and testing, such as giving us bonded upstream channels

Yellow
4/9/2013 12:00:00 AM

4/9/2013 5:59:00 AM

CHARLOTTE, NC DIVISION, CHARLOTTE, NC SYSTEM

Yellow
4/10/2013 12:00:00 AM

4/10/2013 5:59:00 AM

CHARLOTTE, NC DIVISION, CHARLOTTE, NC SYSTEM

Yellow
4/11/2013 12:00:00 AM

4/11/2013 5:59:00 AM

CHARLOTTE, NC DIVISION, CHARLOTTE, NC SYSTEM

Yellow
4/12/2013 12:00:00 AM

4/12/2013 5:59:00 AM

CHARLOTTE, NC DIVISION, CHARLOTTE, NC SYSTEM

The Bonded upstream is going to happen but don't plan on 64QAM up streams until around a thousand transmitters are replaced out in the Nodes.

It's shocking 16QAM works, I'm surprised we're not on QPSK!

I am wondering why my system in Texas has not gone to at least one pure QAM64 channel yet we have been QAM16/QAM64 mixed mode on all four channels since 2011 and have had them bonded on the upstream since october 2012.

Is TWC getting ready to deploy 4 more DOCSIS downstreams in Charlotte as well?

You have to keep 16QAM no matter what, because of the older legacy Docsis gear (1.1/2.0) Docsis 3.0 is the only on that can do channel bonding and 64QAM correctly. Some of the newer 2.0 models say they can do 64 QAM, but it looks to be in a lab environment only, once you have in a normal in environment with system noise and ARP request they shut down.

What is channel 185 on the Monroe system? It's one of those channels that's not in the guide, but if you tune to it, it's got the very descriptive name "FT", and they're showing Charlotte street use notices and (after midnight) the NASA channel. Is it a placeholder for something?

is the new transition date for Charlotte's digital changes 4/3/13?

http://www.twcbc.com/Carolinas/HelpSite/ResourceItem/digital-adapters.ashx

"Starting on or about April 3rd, designated channels will be delivered in digital format only. This will not affect any TVs you currently have connected to a digital set-top box. If you would like to view these channels on additional direct-connect analog TVs (and similar devices), you may request a Digital Tuning Adapter (DTA) free of charge for each outlet through December 2014. Beginning January 2015, each adapter will cost $0.99 a month."

I have heard the second week in April... around the 9th, but it very well could be the 3rd.

So I am guessing the letters are about to go out in about 2 weeks?

Doubtful we'll see another letter sent out before the cut off... perhaps afterwards for the rest of the folks who didn't get the converters OR didn't understand the first letter and are wondering where their channels went. They've had a few false starts, hopefully the converter stock is sufficient and all the technical problems have been overcome. What worries me is they're just going to go ahead and kill those analogs and wait for trouble calls for people who are having signal problems.

If you are going to need a DTA you can go ahead & get one now and avoid the potential rush when the channels disappear. I picked one up a few weeks ago but haven't installed it yet.

Hi-

TWC came to my house for a service call... the tech ended up swapping DVRs and gave me a Samsung SMT-H3272.

Two things that are driving me crazy:
1. The Navigator guide is stretched. It looks horrible. Is there any way to fix this?

2. The audio coding format keeps reseting from HDMI to Dolby AC-3 when we turn on the TV/DVR. There's no sound, so I have to go back to SETTINGS>DEVICES>AUDIO CODING FORMAT>HDMI.

I've searched via Google and tried to search the smt-h3272 thread... but it's become a behemoth.

Any help is appreciated!

I have the very basic cable package (think it's called broadcast) and I have the cable hooked up to an HDHomeRun dual (QAM, not cable card), so I can pick up the channels. When this change goes live, if I understand correctly, I'll need one of these converter boxes hooked up to continue getting the same channels I have now? And if so, the HDHomerun dual has two tuners, but only one cable connection...am I guess right in that I'll no longer be able to tune two separate channels?

Only 6 analog channels are being dropped & will be only available via digital, most likely scrambled. I don't watch any of the 6. I got the DTA box for the future when more channels will go only digital. The Cisco box I was given has a RF (coax) outbut that can be set for either channel 3 or 4. It will do the tuning, so the Homerun will see only 1 channel. BTW the box also has a HDMI output and comes with both a coax cable as well as a HDMI cable. The remote appears to be able to control both the DTA & the TV.

Thanks for the info. I missed the post upthread that listed the stations they're dropping from analog. I don't watch those channels either (don't even think I get them), so I should be ok for now.
Edited by Gedd - 3/1/13 at 4:49pm

Has there been an update to the multi-room dvrs lately?

How can I tell?

All three of mine have been getting random hdmi dropouts all of the sudden, probably started in the past week...

Does anyone know if the new Digital Tuning Adapter (DTA) will pass an HD signal? In other words if i connect my HDTV to the DTA via an HDMI cable will it pass HD content?