San Antonio, TX - HDTV - Page 2

I believe that KSAT is only broadcasting digital in the evening. Check them again this evening.

JohnR

I just sent emails to WTNZ (FOX) and WATE (ABC) which were both indicated as "going live" on June 1st acording to TitanTV. Here are the responses I received:

From WTNZ (FOX):

We will be signing on with the digital tower by the end of June. We are awaiting the delivery of a new transmitter.

Thank you for you comments,
WTNZ Programming

From WATE (ABC):

Dear Sean.....we are set to turn on the digital in June...but probably more like mid-June. Please remember that when we do turn on.....you will find our digital offerings on Channel 26. Our analog signal will continue on Channel 6. Also know that the cable systems are not carrying the digital signals yet. So............you will have to pick up Channel 26 off of your TV antenna.

I am sorry if you already knew all of that. But many people are confused by how the consumer will receive the digital programming being offered. I hope this helps.

I've been watching the men put the final touches on the new antenna for ABC, NBC, and FOX. It looks like they are almost finished. It's fascinating to watch the men climbing way up on the top of that structure and riding their little makeshift elevator. Something should be on the air pretty soon.
I have to get my cables installed quickly. It is a major pain to run these cables four stories through the center of this almost 100 year old home.
Larry

KENS briefly had PSIP on again today, testing a new software load. Although I saw no posts here, KENS did get calls about loss of signal again. So, KENS PSIP is no longer streaming. If your channels were mapped to 55-1 and -2, you'll still receive tonight's HD offerings

There continues to be a compatibility issue with a Hughes chipset in receivers/STB's of some makers.

Back to the drawing board.

I was hoping you could give me HD antenna advice. I live right in Knoxville and I currently use a standard set of rabbit ears for analog reception. I am in a basement. What would yo suggest I use to get the new HD channels in Knoxville as an antenna? The analog channels are not always clear since I'm in the basement. Any brands suggestions?

Also I assume I could get a higher powered antenna from radio shack (suggestions?) install in my attic and run a single coax down to the basement where the HT room is and use a splitter to run one coax lead to the analog input on my Sony HD100 receiver and the other coax lead to the OTA HD input? Would this affect the HD reception any?

Thanks for your input. I want to be ready when they hit the HD switch.

Please post here when you start getting a signal and also list the channel numbers?
I'm assuming living in Knoxville I would not be able to get HD channels OTA from other cities like Chattanooga, Johnson City?

Thanks again

Troy

One more time..... Is KSAT (ABC) on the air in digital in San Antonio? No dice for me and my Hughes STB / DirecTV - not on the list of available channels, and no signal from the antenna....

Anyone?

KSAT only fires up their digital transmitter part of the time. Try searching for KSAT-DT (Channel 48) during prime time when there is something in HDTV on ABC. Other than that, KSAT turns off their digital channel to save on the electric bill.

Jimbo,

Thanks. I mapped KSAT last night during the hockey game, so now I'll be able to watch KSAT whenever they switch on the power. 100% strength for all 3 stations! Now, If I could just get the tv to stop acting up....

More good news with KSAT-DT! Last night I couldn't find channel 48-1. (Hmm, I don't remember doing a channel rescan.) Looked in the local channel menu on my Dish 6000 and found "12-1 KSATD". Coolness! KSAT is using PSIP to remap from channel 48 to channel 12 and it finally works on my Dish receiver! For those of you in San Antonio with fully PSIP-compliant receivers, are any of the local stations sending program guide information over the air yet?

Jim

I get programmin info on all 3 digital networks. DirecTV and Hughes E-86 for gear (plus the BIG antenna....)

Anyone have drop-outs and such Monday night on KENS broadcast between 8 and 9 pm? Have a 100 signal strength, but several times during "Raymond" and the show that follows, the picture froze up, pixel-ated, and then continued.... Anyone? BTW, during the same time period I checked KSAT and KMOL and they looked fine....

Deltoid, I didn't get to see those shows, but KENS-DT has somewhat lower power than KMOL and KSAT. For that reason, slight sync anomalies in the network signal or the coding at KENS itself may cause brief "dropouts" of the signal. Interesting that you see 100 for a signal strength, though. Here in Oak Hills I see KSAT with a 93-97, and KENS/KMOL with an average of 88. That's on an RCA F38310. We see a measured RF level on KENS-DT here of -55 dbm, or approximately 400 microvolts. That's not a lot of signal, and slight changes in the path from transmitter to receiver can cause little disruptions. When KENS can increase its power this situation should improve a lot.

On another subject, Jimbo asked about off-air guide information appearing on PSIP-enabled receivers; as far as I know, no stations here are streaming dynamic PSIP with guide information. KENS and KMOL are static - in fact, KENS are not streaming PSIP at all until a problem with certain brands of receiver can be resolved. I notice, though, that you are getting guide info. Are you receiving this OTA, or via your DirecTV connection?

I honestly don't know if the program info I get comes from DirecTV or OTA - all I know is that the info is there in my guide when I call up 5-1, 5-2, 4-1, or 12-1. Also when I hit "Info" on my remote while watching the show, the correct information is there.

100 signal on all 3 - I love that Big Antenna!

Deltoid, that's cool! Also, I learned today that KMOL is now streaming fully dynamic PSIP with correct channel mapping to 4-1 AND guide information. I spoke to their transmitter engineer this morning, and he says they have had their PSIP up and running only since Monday. So, I was mistaken when I said,
"...as far as I know, no stations here are streaming dynamic PSIP with guide information..." KMOL is the first in town to have full service PSIP.

Now, the question remains, can everyone see them? I do, on our RCA and three Harris ARX-H200's - but those have almost always been pretty tolerant of PSIP variations.

Other comments, anyone?

I lost audio from KSAT the other day when I rescanned on my DTC-100. It is still out now. I guess I need to unplug the receiver for awhile and try again?

JohnR

Well, like i said I getall the info for all the stations.

Tonight on KENS 5-1, there was extremely low-level audio on during the HiDef broadcasts of "CSI" and "The Agency", but the audio sounded fine (normal level) on 5-2. Anyone else notice this? The audio was so low on 5-1 it was impossible to watch the show (lucky for me they were repeats). Any ideas as to why I might be experiencing this?

My new (Replaced by Bjorn's) Tosh 57-HX81 is awesome!

John, I can only guess what happened with KSAT. They're coming in okay here. Were they on air when you rescanned?

Deltoid, sorry about the KENS audio. A Dolby encoder that was supposed to automatically detect AC-3 on the incoming bitstream didn't wake up on time, ruining everyone's enjoyment of CSI and The Agency. Problem was with KENS - your gear is fine.

Just wanted to update the Knoxville area HD info.

I sent a note to both WATE and WBIR.

Here is what I have heard back from WATE:

"Bare with us cause we'll be up any day now. We are
totally ready
from our end but are waiting for our tower crew to give the go ahead. They are having a small problem with the transmission line within the tower.
So...............we are patiently waiting.
Thanks for your interest.....please feel free to stay in touch with us for the
latest."

Has anyone heard anything from the other stations in the area?

Troy

Sean was kind enough to let me know the HD signal is working for NBC. I cannot get it so I may have to move my antenna. I am gettng ABC though.

Hey guys, this sounds great!!! What kind of set top box and antenna are you using? A good box for OTA/Sat would be nice. I currently have comcast cable. Also I have heard some have better line doublers than my Mitsubishi. This my first post... thanks

I am using the Dish 6000 from Dish Network. It can accept over the air local digital channels as well, so I am just running my coax through it and it acts as my set-top-box. As for my antenna, I am just using a regular directional antenna. At the moment I seem to be having trouble finding a point to aim my antenna where I get both a good signal strength for ABC-DT and NBC-DT. If I put it in the middle where I can pick up both, I don't get a good signal strength for either and get lots of dropouts, so I've got to play with it a bit and see if I can figure out a way to get a good signal strength on both.

I just got done watching Crossing Jordan and Jay Leno in HD. Crossing Jordan looks pretty good, and Jay Leno looked great!

By the way, it looks like NBC drops their digital signal right after Jay Leno gets over. I can understand this since they don't have many digital viewers yet and I'm sure it is expensive to run the digital tower.

Sean Dudley

I just talked with NBC, and was informed that they are running at half power until the end of the year. Also, they will be operating just during prime time, or any time something is in HDTV if something is aired in HD at an unusual time.

The ABC and NBC transmitters are on the same tower. This is really strange considering that I have to point to two different areas to pick up both signals well. Haven't figured that one out yet.

Well I went to my attic and moved my rabbit ears antenna around and I'm getting 100% signal on ABC and 97% on NBC!!! WOW...

I use a Sony HD100 Directv receiver and a $12 Jensen UHF/VHF antenna from Sears...I thought I would start cheap for the antenna. Sears sells this as the antenna to use with their HD sets nationally for HD OTA. I thought, $12 I'll try it.

It works great!

At first I only had a 40% signal on NBC and moved it some with my wifes help and I now have great signal.

Jay Leno is Awesome in HD and its FREE!
Watched Spin city tonight as well.Looks great.

Hey Sean have you heard anything on CBS channel 8 having a digital signal and what channel will they have?

Troy

Hi Troy,

CBS is running a bit behind. They are shooting for a live date of October 28th. Their digital station number will be 30.

I'm glad to hear that you are getting a great signal! About how far are you from Sharps Ridge?

I think there is a tree blocking a lot of my signal, so it is rather iffy for me. My signal strength varies a bit and I get fairly often dropouts. I am going to raise my antenna about 15 feet higher to get around the problem when I get a chance. Don't want to have to wait until next year when they go full power to get a solid signal .

I'm envious of you all getting to be the first probably in Knoxville to watch digital HDTV OTA. Getting the coax installed from the attic antenna to the basement where all my equipment is rack mounted is a major pain and not well accepted by the wife. (Besides the attic is very hot right now). I guess it will have to be a while. This is sort of like the excitement that I remember from my childhood when we watched the first TV images from Huntington, W.Va and Atlanta before Knoxville had TV stations except this is actually more exciting.
Larry

KMOL-DT in San Antonio is currently off the air.

We experienced torrential rains, flooding, and storms last week in south Texas that damaged a transmitter circuit board. The good news is that parts are on order and we should be back on the air by Friday July 12.

Sorry to hear that, Greg. I've really been enjoying Leno in HD and hope you get back up soon.

JohnR

I'm glad to hear this since I upgraded the software on my MyHD card the night KMOL went out and have been unable to get it ever since. I thought the outage might have been on my end.

Thanks for posting!

Greg,

Don't forget to hype WOAI-DT when you guys make the name change. A new season of hi def programming from NBC and new (old) call letters. Seems like a pretty good opportunity to tout HDTV to Lowry Mays, Red McCombs and the 10 of us on AVS forum who can afford an HDTV!

Jim