Greensboro, NC - HDTV - Page 337

Hearst (parent company of WXII) and Time-Warner did not come to an agreement on carriage retrans. Until a contact is in place, Hearst requested that WXII be removed from their line up. Time-Warner complied. For NBC programming they have piped in WBRE Wilkes-Barrie, PA.

WXII is still available on all the other systems.

WGHP is still there! Come watch TV with us!

Wasn't it during a Fox dispute that TWC set up this out-of-market plan B, or am I thinking of something else? (e: by which I mean an affiliate group dispute that didn't actually involve News Corp.)

I seem recall recently a threat to lose Sinclair stations on TWC and WXLV would be replaced, but it didn't happen. It also didn't matter since there are already two ABC channels on TWC. I wonder why they'd chose Wilkes-Barre, PA instead of Raleigh or Charlotte... (Also: Isn't WXII analog channel 12 on TWC or are they different in different towns? I noticed that WRAL is ch 5 in parts of Alamance County but in Burlington it was always the lame TWC slideshow.)

My guess is none of the North Carolina stations would allow it. That or this is TWCs way to get back at WXII by putting on a station no one in the area is interested to to run people off to other stations. It is my understanding that all the east coast markets that Hearst owns that are NBC, WBRE is the station they have replaced with.

The station from Scranton? There's got to be a Michael Scott joke in there somewhere.

I just noticed the Fox 8 7pm news on TV 8-2. Is it time to re-kindle the "Let's get WGHP 8-2 on the Directv AM21" talks again?

That newscast has been on since last December. Did you notice it was in 16:9?

Looks like they could have substituted WCNC form Charlotte or the Raleigh NBC station to make more sense from a regional standpoint. Or the flagship WNBC from New York or WRC from DC if its going to be a distant station.

If I was a TWC sub and wanted NBC programming, I could care less about where the signal came from. Only die-hard WXII newscasts fans will be upset...

My next question to my DirecTV contact was going to be any help/speed that might be gained by anyone else in our market with the same concern e-mailing D* using the case ID of my report, to see if multiple squeaky wheels might be allocated any grease. Any interest?

Yes, it's related to the Hearst-Time Warner Cable dispute. But the weird thing is, why is Time Warner Cable airing WBRE from Wilkes-Barre, PA? Until TWC resolves this dispute with Hearst, it would seem more logical to air a neighboring market NBC affiliate. Why not air WCNC Charlotte for large parts of the Greensboro DMA on TIme Warner Cable? Or maybe WNCN Raleigh for the far eastern part of the Greensboro DMA or WSLS Roanoke for the VA border counties in the Greensboro DMA? The airing of the NBC affiliate out of Wilkes-Barre just seems strange.

Having said all of that, I would bet this dispute will be resolved relatively quickly. This isn't the first time there's been a dispute between cable companies or satellite providers and the local broadcast affiliates concerning retransmission fees. And it certainly won't be the last. Of course, WXLV Channel 45 (our ABC affiliate) did hold out on TWC for a long time (years ago) and would only allow TWC to air the analog version of their signal.

This is another reason to have OTA, at least as a backup. As far as I know, WXII Winston-Salem is not so difficult to pick up OTA within Greensboro market counties. WXII puts out a good signal from Sauratown Mountain. Of course, I know there are some exceptions to include areas like Montgomery County, Chatham County, parts of Alamance, or perhaps Alleghany County.

Perhaps neighboring market NBC affiliates would not allow it, as you suggested. Certainly, Triad viewers (without OTA or satellite) have other options for local news so I don't suppose people will be freaking out about it, at least if it's a short lived situation. But it would also make sense if this is TWC's way of getting back at Hearst.

Hello everyone. I was looking for some local OTA information, and it looks like I hit the jackpot here ! I really want to cut the cable, and in fact tried an attic antenna a few years ago that did not work well. I live just west of Guilford College and according to antennaweb, need a "medium directional" rooftop antenna (red/yellow coding), and perhaps an amplifier. My questions are: #1 There appeared to be some posts that you cannot receive WGHP nor CBS from the triad. Is this still true ? I do not live on a ridge, nor in a "bottom" area. I would have at least a 75' cable run. #2 If I purchased a rooftop antenna, who installs these ? My roof is fairly steep, and I would prefer a professional installer. #3 I have surround sound speakers in the walls. Would you run the antenna cable to the TV and then HDMI out from the TV to the stereo for the sound ? I am sure there are other considerations that I am not aware of, but I am new to this, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

ncwild welcome to the thread.

Sounds like you read some of the posts from the early 2000's when everyone in the market was operating at greatly reduced power levels. Since 2006, all the stations have been operating at their licensed power levels and reception is fairly easy now. From Guilford College, you will not have any problems with the local stations and depending on the kind of antenna and its location, to pick up the Roanoke stations and maybe the Raleigh stations is not out of the question either.

A practice that many people are doing is putting up two antennas. One aimed at Sauratown Mt north of Winston-Salem since that is where WXII and WUNL broadcast from and one antenna aimed due south from Greensboro to pick up the remainder of the stations that broadcast along US 220 south. Combining both antennas using a splitter into a single lead in that can be split to multiple TVs in the house has proven to be satisfactory for the local stations if set up correctly. Others are using a single antenna on a rotor and this is allowing them to pick up stations in neighboring markets. Depending on where in the Triad you live will depend on which markets you can receive. Only WGPX is to the northeast but it is possible to pick it up off the back of the southern antenna in Greensboro.

Since all the stations in the market broadcast on UHF channels, the antennas are small and easily hidden if needed. Some people have the antennas in their attics (not the best but seems to work OK for many, depending on the material the house is built from) and others have the antennas on the roof or chimney (recommended).

Here is a list of the actual channel numbers stations broadcast on even though they still continue to use their old analog channel numbers and your TV will still display the analog channel number, even though they are no longer broadcasting there.

WGPX (16) - 14
WCWG (20) - 19
WXLV (45)- 29
WXII (12) - 31
WUNL (26) - 32
WMYV (48) - 33
WGHP (8) - 35
WLXI (61/43)- 43
WFMY (2) - 51

Back a few pages is a person who has been known to install roof antennas.

Running the coax through the wall with speakers will not hurt anything. Just be sure to use good coax, RG-6 is recommended. Only use RG-59 for short jumps, 3 feet or less. Depending on how many splits you need to make will determine whether you need a preamp or not. I would recommend you do NOT use anything more than 15 db. In the city, anything much over that and it becomes susceptible to overload by cell services. Also, if you need to split to multiple sets, you do not want a big amp driving a splitter amp. It will overload it easily. Remember, unlike analog, when digital is overloaded, you get no reception as if there is no signal at all. It is a window of acceptable signal strength. It is a fairly large window, but you put in a 25 db amp on the roof and a 20 db amp at the splitter and you will be overloading like crazy. Just enough gain on the splitter amp to overcome splitter lose is all you need. You want to try and keep things unity gain once it hits the house. Level X in, level X out. Not level X, in level Y out. Rule of thumb, each 3db doubles or halves (depending on the direction you going) the signal. 2 way splitters are 3db or half's the signal. An eight way splitter drops the signal around 12 db (drops the signal down to 1/6 of what the input level is). So ganging the amps together to provide more control over the signal to the TVs is what you want but you don't want to overload them.

Hope that helps you getting an idea what you might need. I have been threatening to draw a diagram on what I am talking about. Now may be a good time to do that.

OK, thanks "foxeng". Good to know about the increased transmit power. Now if I can just find a good installer.

Hi NCWild....If you set up your antenna as FoxEng has suggested, let me know if you also receive WGSR on channel 47 from Reidsville. We're low-power, but always interested in where our signal can be received.

Good Luck!
Matt Smith - WGSR

ncwild,

I thought I would add to what foxeng said and say that I had excellent results using a power passive splitter just before the crawlspace at the grounding point. The splitter allowed a mast mounted pre-amp to be used letting the power go thru to the outdoor portion from the power supply. Then on two other outputs I could run the signal to other rooms as well. This way you don't need to put a power supply in an attic where it is so hot, or drill a lot of holes behind the main tv or in a closet somewhere. I know I am not in this market, but the same principles apply.

My setup got fried by lightning recently at the ground rod, so right now I have just a regular splitter, but the signal is very weak on most channels. I think if you start driving two and three sets, you will find the signals weak as well, but trial and error is the best way to know. I know I need to get another amp. I would look at winegard pre-amps with low gain on VHF, or just a UHF model since there are no "local" VHF band channels.

I think there is more to it. I assume WXII is not allowing any retrans of its THIS sub-channel. I use OTA, so it is not an issue to me. But, if I couldn't have my "Highway Patrol" fix in the mornings, I might get upset. There is little more amusing than seeing someone look in one direction, discharge a .38 in another, and hit target.

Does anyone know if TWC put the substitute NBC channel on QAM? We're getting it on the analog cable in the bedroom but I did a scan on the QAM TV in the living room and didn't find it.

I did notice that it was 16:9, I like it! I haven't been home much at that hour, and, even though I have 8-2 in my Directv on-screen guide, my eyes have been trained to skip over it and look at 17-2 as they are usually the same.

No they didn't.

THIS TV is also not available. It is ANY signal from WXII is affected.

Well as you can see, they aren't quite the same! Local commercials are also in 16:9.

SVTarheel posted the name of an installer (in this forum) back on 05/29/12. The installer's name is Bob Kassel and he is in Winston. Apparently, he didn't mind if his information was posted publicly. I am reposting the link (from SVTarheel's original post) below:

http://kasseltech.com/

I'm in the Jamestown area, and I'm getting it on the same channel as before - 115.3.

They are not mapping it to 12-1 as they did WXII. And 12-2 comes up as no signal.

I don't have a converter box, but I have been able to pick up NBC (be it WXII or WBRE) as an unencrypted, full HD signal on 115.3. I guess I thought that was QAM. Or I was able to pick it up. Now WBRE is saying Time-Warner is usnig their signal without pemission.

On a slightly different note, could NBC cut a deal directly with Time-Warner? I'm sure they don't want to lose a large portion of a market with the Olympics about to start, though such an arrangement would probably run a afoul of their affiliate agreement with WXII.

Cable transmits its signals via QAM, either 64QAM or 256QAM. I think TWC here uses 64QAM is what I heard.

That is what Nexstar, owner of WBRE is saying. If a court puts up an injunction, TWC will have to either put up another signal or have the channel go dark and the exodus from TWC will begin. That is the whole reason they put up another NBC is to keep people from defecting and to hurt WXII's numbers. That is their own recourse in all this. The ratings for NBC network programming hasn't really taken a hit, but WXII isn't getting the credit for the TWC viewers. I don't know if WBRE is getting that credit or not. WXII's local syndicated programming and their news has taken a HUGE hit while us and WFMY have seen our news numbers go up. Once NBC (or any Big Four Network) goes away, people will start pulling the plug. That is what happens. If NBC goes away, and people pull out of TWC, you will see WXII's numbers start to inch back up as people put up antennas and switch to other providers. Word we are hearing is Hearst is hunkering down for the long haul. Of course, no one other than the negotiators really know what is going on. In reality this thing could go for months or be over today. No one knows.

Place your bets.

I don't think NBC does, but FOX does with TWC. If we were to be taken off TWC over a retrans issue, FOX has a contract in place with TWC to provide FOX network programming (not another stations signal) directly to TWC bypassing the local station completely but that doesn't come into play until the station has been taken off the system.

TWC is 256QAM for 38.8 mb/s per QAM.

You are just a wealth of information!