Des Moines, IA - HDTV - Page 3

Still no sound on KDSM. Anyone hear any excuses when they called? I was simply told they would pass it along to their engineering dept.

Also on a side note, Mark who is Dave Levy? Sorry for my ignorance, but the name doesn't even ring a bell. I assume he is local? Is he qualified to calibrate my Sanyo PLV60HT projector? I have attempted to set it up with Avia, and feel fairly comfortable with what I ended up with. I would kind of like to have a pro give me a look though. If the price was right of course. If you feel like it and I am not being to nosy, let me know what he charged. If you would rather do it in private, email is blackdogzoi@yahoo.com .

Thanks.

Justin

Hey everybody,

It's been a while since I've stopped by so I was quite interested to read the latest DSM HDTV news from everyone. That is too bad about the KCCI delay. They really should reconsider and sign on sooner than that.

I was just in the Mason City area and the local CBS affiliate is indeed broadcasting at decent power (60-75). They were not broadcasting HD however, only an up-convert. I hope that when KCCI does sign on, they are HD capable esp. since they now have more setup time.

I have noticed the same audio problems with KDSM. Recently, while watching the station, the sound was restored and I noticed less noise and improved audio quality (though still in mono). The video also appeared to be slightly improved with better contrast and black level. It still had the interlaced/combing artifact though, but it was at least a step in the right direction nonetheless.

Another KDSM note: This morning the power was fluctuating wildly (from 5 up to 81 or so), but no program streams were being transmitted. All I was seeing here was green screen. Maybe they are working on the video issues or FOX Widescreen! We shall see. ---No sub-channels yet, but both the video and audio is back tonight.---

Sounds like you had a great experience with the calibration Mark; I'll definitely keep Dave in mind when I make the big purchase. Thanks as always for the good info.

-Loren

Anyone know when PBS is going to go live?

KDSM-DT Does look better and I have to crank up the sound to hear it, but I think they are heading in the right direction finally (excluding only doing 480p and not Hi-Def resolutions).

That 8 bow tie channelmaster antenna is awesome, rock stable signal from both digital stations.

Later all,
Bill

No idea about PBS, although it will be my most watched channel when it arrives.

Did you get your new antenna locally or over internet? Also, did you run a new cable or split into your existing?

Did you actually see signal improvement on KDSM because of the antenna or is it simply them working through their issues?

I will probably have to get a better DT antenna eventually, because I still haven't seen any improvements on KDSM. WHO is pretty stable though. Any info on your setup would be appreciated, because I suspect we are in a similar reception area, although on different compass points obviously.

Can't wait for fall.

Justin

Hi Justin,
I got the Channel Master 4228 over the internet at Warren Electronics which are located near the Quad Cities. It only took them a day to deliver the antenna.

My antenna hookup involves the Radio Shack vbu-190 on top, and the Channel Master 4228 right below it pointing a slightly different dirrection. I am using a vhf/uhf combiner to combine the signals.

Before I received the 4228, my digital signals would fluctuate at more than 10 a time, where KDSM would be 40-70 and WHO-DT would be 65-80. When I added the 4228, the signals were close to rock stable, 69-71 for KDSM-DT, and 95-97 for WHO-DT.

I'll try to get a picture of my antenna stack, but I won't promise anything!

BTW, when I combine the signals for my antennas, it seems that I will only get UHF from the 4228 and not from the vbu-190, why is that?

Bill

Hey Mark,

My bad, the Radio Shack antenna model number is VU-190 XR. It is the 160" antenna that has both VHF and UHF components. I am thinking that the 4228 is overriding the RS antenna's UHF signal as it is the stonger signal. Not that this is a bad thing except that the WB now sounds like someone crinkling tin foil all of the time. Believe it or not I actually found a RS Double Bow tie in Cedar Rapids for $9.99. I have it hooked inside and when I want to watch the WB, I just connect the DBT antenna to the main antenna line. All my other stations go to crap, but the WB comes in fine. This doesn't bother me too much as I only watch the WB occasionally.

Well, I might be at the Taste of Des Moines tomorrow, hope you all have a good weekend!

Bill

Me and the head engineer over at KWQC (NBC) have been emailing each other back and forth and he said the location antennaweb.org provides on there site is wrong. He told me the new tower is located in Orion, IL. Also he said they hope to be broadcasting as early as the end of August.

"We plan to be on the air with our digital transmitter by November 1st. We
will be transmitting from the new tower in Orion, IL. on channel 56 (UHF).
In the future when analog television transmissions must cease we will then
transmit the digital signal on channel 6 from our current tower site in
Bettendorf. This will probably be many years in the future.

Regards,
Doug Bierman
KWQC-TV6 Engineering
"

ps. I got the later email talking about the August date but have since delted it.

Hey everyone,

Last night, I was watching the KCCI 10pm news broadcast and they had a short segment on their HDTV construction. It showed the new antenna element being lifted by crane earlier in the day. As I recall, they mentioned it was ~75 feet tall and weighs in at over 1500 lbs. They also said they are looking forward to providing the new transmission later in the summer-- I know I am really looking forward to watching it!

I like what I'm seeing. We are definitely getting much closer to CBS in HD!

-Loren

Bill Sears,

The combiner is blocking UHF from the 190XR as it's designed to do.Otherwise,you will have mutipath-type problems,combining both UHF's.

Thanks for the update Xenon, I missed the 10pm news. This link to the story is on their site.

http://www.theiowachannel.com/news/1579754/detail.html

I can't wait !!!

BTW, as Mark suggested, I have Dave Levy coming over tomorrow eve. to calibrate my Sanyo LCD projector. I will post my thoughts on the outcome if anyone is interested.

Sounds like another wild weather night, enjoy.

Justin

Mark has said such nice things, I thought I better jump in. As comfortable as I am doing any kind of CRT device, Justin gave me my first shot at an LCD projector. I have to report I'm not happy with the result.

I was able to center his controls and adjust black level, color and tint but I could not complete the grayscale calibration. I kept running out of room, especially in the red drive, to get all the way to D6500K. After 4 hours, I had to admit defeat and just remove some of the blue out of the high end to get his colors into a reasonable range. As is my policy, I did not charge Justin but he graciously offered to pay my travel expense.

I hope to be in touch with Sanyo reps at the CEDIA conference in September so I can try again with Justin's projector. I'll also be talking to other ISFers to see what I can find out.

Please get in touch with me directly if you have any questions. We may have to form an Iowa HD group one of these days to show off our setups.

Dave
www.AbbeyRoadHT.com

Dave, that would be cool if I could get more than 2 HD programs. I don't even watch Crossing Jordan or Leno

You're right, Pat. Maybe it will have to be an HT group for now.

I would be up for a HT group if anyone feels like organizing it. The addition of digital PBS will up my viewing time considerably. Perhaps an encouraging e-mail from all of us will help with the HDTV decision on their part.

I am very pleased with what Dave managed to accomplish with my unit. I would highly recommend that anyone who has not had their picture calibrated do so. After further viewing after Dave left, my picture looks better than I thought it could. My black levels are better than I thought possible out of a LCD projector. He gave it his all, but either Sanyo's controls are wildly out of whack or there is a lack of adequate description in the service literature. Many of the controls that he was familiar with did not perform as expected. One adjustment was even inverted (up was down).

I was apprehensive about purchasing a front projector, but with my application it made the most sense. I knew that it would be the minority in our market. I feel lucky to have stumbled across Dave, who obviously has the patience to work on unfamiliar equipment. Hopefully Dave can get some guidance from Sanyo and we can complete the calibration at some later date.

In short, Dave's professional adjustments did more in a short time with my unit than I accomplished in a whole day with Avia. And he was not satisfied with what he accomplished.

Happy viewing,

Justin

OK, where was PBS last night? After I looked at their site it looks more to me like the 11th. Anyone hear anything different?

Hey guys,

I'm wondering the same thing. IPTV was broadcasting this afternoon for a short time (about an hour or so) with a new demo loop on channel 50.2. There was footage of Iowa's capitol building, nature scenes, and clips from various PBS shows. My signal strength showed ~85, but I experienced frequent dropouts with interruptions in audio. It could be on my end, but they might also be having some technical problems that are causing the delay.

BTW: I am currently receiving a signal strength of 5 on channel 31! It could be some DXing, or possibly KCCI powering up the new transmitter? Let's hope for the latter!!

-Loren

Another HDTV update; IPTV-DT is back on the air as of 5:30pm this evening. A program called, "This Old Statehouse" is now showing on 50.2.

Looks great, but I am still experiencing a few dropouts. I'll be anxious to hear how others are receiving.

Have a good weekend,

-Loren

Hi Mark,

Nothing here either. Looks like their back down again. I don't know what the deal is. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

-Loren

IPTV is back up on 50.3. They were playing a sequence featuring scenes from Italy. Smart Travels came on at 6:30pm. Don't know how long this will last, but just wanted to let you guys know.

-Loren

Mark,

No problem. Sorry to hear you're not receiving the signal. WHO-DT is around 85-87 here (northwest side of DSM) and IPTV is 83-85. I am wondering if there is something wrong with the signal they are transmitting; it still breaks up quite often and occasionally freezes. I am not sure where they are broadcasting from.

One promising thing about this is that IPTV seems to be transmitting the PBS satellite feed. In addition to the travel show, there have been various 30 minute specials from affiliates around the country (including one from KY with Ashley Judd in it.) In between each show is a welcome to PBS digital sequence. This may still be streaming off of a previous recording, but there has been unique segments since around 6:30 this evening.

They don't seem to be sending any PSIP data yet. Like you, I am also using an indoor antenna: a RS bow-tie antenna on the second floor that is working well. I have it aimed north-northeast and tipped forward slightly. A couple of days ago, it was not positioned right and the signal on IPTV was 5 and other times I was just getting a green screen.

Keep doing the channel scans and try to enter 50.3 manually if possible. Good luck in trying to pull this in.

Talk to you later,

-Loren