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Greensboro, NC - HDTV - Page 286

post #8551 of 10652
8/16/10 at 9:18am
Didn't realize the band was open. Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
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post #8552 of 10652
8/16/10 at 9:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxeng View Post

Didn't realize the band was open. Interesting. Thanks for sharing!

When I turned my antenna your direction, I was getting all the Raleigh stations including a 15kW LD station (WTNC-LD)...
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post #8553 of 10652
8/17/10 at 2:15pm
Did anybody else's Road Runner bill go up $3? I just checked my online statement and it went up $3. I wasn't that long ago that it went up $10.
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post #8554 of 10652
8/19/10 at 6:34am
I have a DB2 HDTV antenna in my attic. I use it to send OTA signals to my DISH Network receivers. Yesterday my signals dropped from 100% down to the mid 60s.

I have two signal amplifiers in the house. When I unhook them I lose signal completely which tells me they are working at least partially.

We have had some electrical storms in the last few days. Any ideas?
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post #8555 of 10652
8/19/10 at 7:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by uncrules View Post

Did anybody else's Road Runner bill go up $3? I just checked my online statement and it went up $3. I wasn't that long ago that it went up $10.

Yep. I'm now paying $67.99/mo. Insane, but then, not any other choices for me.
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post #8556 of 10652
8/19/10 at 12:11pm
I was on the Greenville NC thread and came across a couple of sites with pictures from the 1950's of the transmitter sites of WRAL and WITN, Washington, NC. I know Joe likes stuff like this and others may too. I wish we had pictures from my site back in the 60's but if there are any, they aren't at the station or are in private collections. The only known pictures we have were included in the montage of pictures when the analog signed off last year. That is why when we built the new site, we documented it with over 3000 pictures. I guess I should really open the link up to those pictures. They have been on line since the project with access restricted, but with so many pictures, and only cataloged by date, you really have to know what you are looking at to really appreciate them and I have posted many of the better ones on here when we were building it anyway.

Enjoy!

http://pages.suddenlink.net/w4ydy/witntv.html

http://pages.suddenlink.net/w4ydy/wraltv.html
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post #8557 of 10652
8/22/10 at 12:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bhlonewolf View Post

Yep. I'm now paying $67.99/mo. Insane, but then, not any other choices for me.

My wife and I live in the Winston-Salem area, just a few miles South of Hanes Mall. I recently built another amplified indoor antenna for a digital TV in our den. Our den is located on the ground floor, a concrete slab floor. So, the antenna is about six feet above the ground. Our home is made of brick and it is surrounded by four huge Willow Oak trees. These conditions are not ideal for receiving Free Over The Air HDTV broadcasts.

I documented the fabrication of the antenna for a good friend. It is a 24 page (10 Megabyte) Word Document with lots of photos. I think it might be a little too big to post to this bulletin board.

I built a similar design with a much simpler wooden supporting structure for my kitchen TV last year and posted some of the details for SVTarHeel... see "SVTarHeel - No Problem" (scroll back to page 272 - early Feb 2010).

Both antennas reliably pull in signals from most of the transmitters within a 40 mile radius of our home. Our local stations include WFMY (CBS), WGHP (FOX), WXII (NBC), WCWG (CW), WUNL (PBS), WXLV (ABC), WMYV (MYTV) and WLXI (TCT). All these stations are broadcasting on the UHF band. Our amplified indoor UHF antennas do the job very nicely.

Good Luck,
DTV Student
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post #8558 of 10652
8/22/10 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DTV Student View Post

My wife and I live in the Winston-Salem area, just a few miles South of Hanes Mall. I recently built another amplified indoor antenna for a digital TV in our den. Our den is located on the ground floor, a concrete slab floor. So, the antenna is about six feet above the ground. Our home is made of brick and it is surrounded by four huge Willow Oak trees. These conditions are not ideal for receiving Free Over The Air HDTV broadcasts.

Good Luck,
DTV Student

Thx for the info! Actually, for TV I use Direct but also have an antenna. It's great -- the bill though is just for Road Runner internet.

I wouldn't mind paying this or more if the speeds were at least capable of video conferencing.
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post #8559 of 10652
8/22/10 at 7:32pm
Folks,

This weekend I noticed that WGSR 47.1 is on TWC's open QAM channel at 87.7. Just curious if that was strictly for Rockingham County or if it is system-wide. Anyone in GSO/WS/Alamance or Randolph willing to do a rescan on the open QAM's and see if you're getting it?

Thanks,
Matt Smith
WGSR - Reidsville
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post #8560 of 10652
8/23/10 at 3:36am
Anyone have "channel not available" ? I keep getting this and it just started recently.
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post #8561 of 10652
8/24/10 at 2:47pm
OK, you folks with TWC. At work we have an Explorer 4250HDC box that we want to nail down on one channel (yes, it is a SDV channel) so it is up all the time. I talked to a guy I know at TWC and he said that with the old software, you could tell the box that you were recording to an external device and it would not shut down (a trick they had to do at News 14) and it would stay up until you hit exit twice. I tried it with our box and I never got any indication it did anything.

Have you guys figured out a way to keep a box nailed down to a single channel without dumping?
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post #8562 of 10652
8/25/10 at 6:27pm
edit: found my answer.
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post #8563 of 10652
8/26/10 at 8:31pm
Someone from the Triangle mentioned in the TWC Navigator thread that there had been some positive news about tuning adapters - more stable, new firmware, etc.

Does anyone in the Triad have any recent experience, either with an existing TA getting 'better'? or maybe a new install with a knowledgeable tech/CSR? or anything along those lines?
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post #8564 of 10652
8/27/10 at 1:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SVTarHeel View Post

Someone from the Triangle mentioned in the TWC Navigator thread that there had been some positive news about tuning adapters - more stable, new firmware, etc.

Does anyone in the Triad have any recent experience, either with an existing TA getting 'better'? or maybe a new install with a knowledgeable tech/CSR? or anything along those lines?

I have 3 TiVos with tuning adapters and I can confirm that for the past couple of months I've had no significant issues with them. Before that, I was having almost monthly problems with the TAs losing authorization and having to do reboots. I think that issue has been resolved. I also now almost never get the "this channel is unavailable" message. Sometimes if I come home and turn on the tv, the live channel will be frozen with a message saying there's a problem with the signal, but a channel up/channel down press resolves it.

Hope that helps. Brent
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post #8565 of 10652
8/27/10 at 4:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SVTarHeel View Post

Someone from the Triangle mentioned in the TWC Navigator thread that there had been some positive news about tuning adapters - more stable, new firmware, etc.

Does anyone in the Triad have any recent experience, either with an existing TA getting 'better'? or maybe a new install with a knowledgeable tech/CSR? or anything along those lines?

We recently bought 5 Tivo's at work and had to have the external tuning adapters added. It took TWC 3 weeks to get the first 4 right. They first said they didn't do tuning adapters and then said, oh yeah I guess we do if you have a TiVo. Then it took 4 trips to get them setup correctly and then working and we are still having an issue with one of them. I suspect it is a bad box and TWC is about to make that same conclusion. They REALLY don't want to deal with them and will do just anything to talk you out of them.

The fifth one we added two months later and once again got the line that TWC doesn't do tuning adapters and I shot back that just one month before they had put FOUR on four TiVo's. With no where to go, the CSR changed his tune and 3 days later the fifth TiVo was set up with a tuning adapter (one trip this time) and has been working for a month now.
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post #8566 of 10652
8/27/10 at 2:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxeng View Post

We recently bought 5 Tivo's at work and had to have the external tuning adapters added. It took TWC 3 weeks to get the first 4 right. They first said they didn't do tuning adapters and then said, oh yeah I guess we do if you have a TiVo. Then it took 4 trips to get them setup correctly and then working and we are still having an issue with one of them. I suspect it is a bad box and TWC is about to make that same conclusion. They REALLY don't want to deal with them and will do just anything to talk you out of them.

The fifth one we added two months later and once again got the line that TWC doesn't do tuning adapters and I shot back that just one month before they had put FOUR on four TiVo's. With no where to go, the CSR changed his tune and 3 days later the fifth TiVo was set up with a tuning adapter (one trip this time) and has been working for a month now.

I don't doubt that happened at all, but that hasn't been my experience. Yes, some of the front-line CSR's have no idea what a TiVo or Tuning Adapter is, but TWC does support them. And in my experience, they have bent over backwards to make sure mine were working correctly. I had the very first tuning adapter installation Greensboro and the supervisor himself came and spent several hours over two days getting it up and running correctly. Every time I've had a tuning adapter problem, the cable card support desk was able to fix it and TWC was willing to send a tech out if that failed.

I've never had anyone even hint at talking me out of my TiVos or tuning adapters. Not saying it didn't happen, just saying my experience has been very different. I was actually shocked at how much time and effort TWC out into my installation and issues alone knowing that I must be one of just a handful of TiVo/TA users. They could have easily just blown me off and not cared about losing a subscriber.
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post #8567 of 10652
8/28/10 at 3:53am
Is anyone having any trouble with fast forwarding or rewinding your recorded shows?

This is really odd, and I'm not sure if its a "bug" or my DVR.

I have the 8240HDC and it seems like if the drive is over 60% full I can't fast forward when playing back a recently recorded show. If the show was recorded before 60% full it still fast forwards fine. If I delete stuff down to 60% or lower the messed up programs will then fast forward with no problem. The DVR records and plays fine, just seems like it forgets how to fast forward/rewind sometimes. The drive sounds fine in the DVR (no clicking or anything).

To me it looks like a software issue, since the DVR will still record and play stuff back. Although I'm not really sure what's going on... I've tried rebooting the box, but it doesn't help.

Not sure how long this has been going on. I've started to save a few programs that I like, and that's when I noticed the "problem". Before I used to just delete whatever I recorded after I watched it and rarely went over 40/50% full.

EDIT: Seems to be ok this weekend. I talked to a few of my friends and one has the same problem, but it doesn't matter how full the drive is. I'm thinking its just a software bug. My friends with the Samsung DVRs have no problems.
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post #8568 of 10652
8/30/10 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DTV Student View Post


I built a similar design with a much simpler wooden supporting structure for my kitchen TV last year and posted some of the details for SVTarHeel... see "SVTarHeel - No Problem" (scroll back to page 272 - early Feb 2010).
DTV Student

DTV_Student .... check your PM inbox for a request.

Thanks

Mike
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post #8569 of 10652
8/31/10 at 4:53am
I was talking to the guy who is in charge of in taking the syndication programming yesterday and he was telling me that all three of our Early Access Time shows (6:30p-8p) will all be HD this season. Also several of our weekend strip programming will also be available in HD now. It will actually cause a little bit of a traffic jam so to speak in trying to get enough receivers and recorders to catch all this! Now THAT is a nice spot to be in! He was saying next week one of the Early Access shows goes HD (none of the programming in Early Access is in HD now), with the rest of Early Access going HD the following week. So it looks like the week of Sept 12th, our HD output will dramatically increase and that is a good thing!
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post #8570 of 10652
8/31/10 at 8:20am
Does anybody have opinions (or answers) to why this market has no HD local news yet, while around us both smaller and larger markets do... since 2007! (1998 for WRAL of course)...

when will HD local news come to the triad?
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post #8571 of 10652
8/31/10 at 9:24am
First of all, WRAL did not do local news in HD until January of 2000. Second the cost of doing local news in HD is huge and I mean appox $4M huge. At some point, one station will and the others will follow. People watched the news before HD was around and they will watch it now. Viewers watch for content, not whether its SD or HD.
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post #8572 of 10652
8/31/10 at 9:31am
At least we are all 16:9!
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post #8573 of 10652
8/31/10 at 9:42am
..and there is nothing wrong with 16x9 SD. We talked about it here but decided to go ahead and go with HD.
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post #8574 of 10652
8/31/10 at 3:14pm
i don't disagree with you foxeng and ted. i just find it unusual that all the markets around us, even roanoke, have hd local news.

of course raleigh is way ahead of the curve because of WRAL's experimenting with HD so early. and i do understand that once one makes the decision to upgrade other stations will follow.

a friend has a theory that a LOT of the audience doesn't even know the difference between 16x9 and HD, and that because of that they think everybody here is already in HD. he says that that being the case there's no reason for ANYBODY to make the jump to HD, and as long as nobody does there's a status quo. almost as if there's a gentleman's agreement to stick with 16x9 SD -- at least for the time being.

-amos
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post #8575 of 10652
8/31/10 at 3:30pm
I know a lot of people who believe that 4:3 stretched out to 16:9 is HD so you're likely right. This message board is about as far away from a valid cross-section of the population as you can get.

How many people watched ghost and static filled analog TV for years and didn't care? Think about that then think about how many people actually know what HD really is...
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post #8576 of 10652
8/31/10 at 3:47pm
I too agree that most people who have widescreens already believe the stations here are HD already. That does give all the stations a little breathing room, but not as much as you might think.

I can honestly say there is no "gentleman's agreement" to do anything when it comes to the TV stations around here. Never has. It is a dog eat dog business. Everyone is trying to get a leg up on the others. WFMY and WXII have no idea what our plans are and we have no idea what their plans are. And NO ONE IS TALKING. And that is by design. The managements don't want the others to know what is coming.

Case in point. Back in the mid 90's we announced we were starting a Saturday morning news. First in the market. The week before we were to launch, WFMY just popped up with a Saturday morning news and stole our thunder. I can tell you this place wasn't very happy about that.

I can tell you that with HD as big as it is, none of the players around here are going to tell anyone what their plans are and when they plan on rolling out HD news. That is the nature of the business.

I think had the economy not tanked, it would have been done already but with this market already in a down market before the Recession, with all the textile layoffs and such, the profit wasn't there when the Recession did hit. It took everything just to keep what we have. But like Ted said, it is BIG bucks to do it, and when the money isn't there, you don't spend like that. We all tightened our belts, and they are still kinda tight, even now.

HD will come. It has too. The industry is moving in that direction, and fairly quickly too. I would imagine it will come quicker than you think. It always does.
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post #8577 of 10652
8/31/10 at 4:36pm
I didn't realize how much the stations in the Greenville/ New Bern market hated each other until one went HD. So many new posters came out of the woodwork on this board to start finding fault with the HD station and the way they do news and weather etc. So Foxeng is right about dog eat dog! It isn't a professional way to behave but it goes on. I picked up WBTW out of Florence SC a couple of nights ago, and they do widescreen, but it is so good, it is hard to tell it really isn't HD.
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post #8578 of 10652
8/31/10 at 5:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foxeng View Post

I too agree that most people who have widescreens already believe the stations here are HD already. That does give all the stations a little breathing room, but not as much as you might think.

I can honestly say there is no "gentleman's agreement" to do anything when it comes to the TV stations around here. Never has. It is a dog eat dog business. Everyone is trying to get a leg up on the others. WFMY and WXII have no idea what our plans are and we have no idea what their plans are. And NO ONE IS TALKING. And that is by design. The managements don't want the others to know what is coming.

Case in point. Back in the mid 90's we announced we were starting a Saturday morning news. First in the market. The week before we were to launch, WFMY just popped up with a Saturday morning news and stole our thunder. I can tell you this place wasn't very happy about that.

I can tell you that with HD as big as it is, none of the players around here are going to tell anyone what their plans are and when they plan on rolling out HD news. That is the nature of the business.

I think had the economy not tanked, it would have been done already but with this market already in a down market before the Recession, with all the textile layoffs and such, the profit wasn't there when the Recession did hit. It took everything just to keep what we have. But like Ted said, it is BIG bucks to do it, and when the money isn't there, you don't spend like that. We all tightened our belts, and they are still kinda tight, even now.

HD will come. It has too. The industry is moving in that direction, and fairly quickly too. I would imagine it will come quicker than you think. It always does.

absolutely great post, foxeng! thank you!
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post #8579 of 10652
8/31/10 at 7:22pm
I may switch out my DVR for a new one before the new tv season begins (I've had a few small problems with mine, and don't want it to give out when I have a bunch of recorded programming). I was going to switch earlier but at that time posters were interested in the Cisco 8640 - and it was in low supply. If anyone knows, I'd like to know what TWC's best dvr's are at this time, and if they are readily available. I assume I'll just take mine into the local office (Burlington) and ask them to swap it out.

Thanks
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post #8580 of 10652
9/1/10 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jspENC View Post

I didn't realize how much the stations in the Greenville/ New Bern market hated each other until one went HD. So many new posters came out of the woodwork on this board to start finding fault with the HD station and the way they do news and weather etc. So Foxeng is right about dog eat dog! It isn't a professional way to behave but it goes on. I picked up WBTW out of Florence SC a couple of nights ago, and they do widescreen, but it is so good, it is hard to tell it really isn't HD.

I think you will find that in most markets but it is primarily news and sales that do the hating engineers will do whatever they can to help each other when they can. It is a very competive business.

Ken
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